Love is still in the air!

Happy post-Valentine's Day!

Am I lucky girl or what?! Am I running away from home, you ask? no! I got a vintage valise, all packed full of vintage sewing goodies!! Does my honey know me or what?! The sweet little case has a fading, but still visible image on the front of a woman holding a parasol. So cute! It's a cute case, about 10x6", just perfect for little trips--like the one I'm taking this weekend to see my mom on the East Coast (and to go to NYC!).

And it was chock-full of sewing goodies!! Great vintage fabric, an adorable iron-on girl in a heart, needles. . . . and some not-so-vintage (thankf

ully!) candy message hearts! After all, what's Valentine's Day without the candy message hearts!!I've been sticking fairly faithfully to the no-grains, no processed food (not counting my diet coke!), very little dairy

diet, and I've been loving it (down 12 pounds without really trying!), but every once in a while, a splurge like candy message hearts is a real yum-yum!!

So just take a look at this fabulous vintage fabric! I just wish there were some info on the selvedges, but no such luck. Anyone recognize this fabric or know how to identify vintage fabric??

Are these fabulous, or what?! And there's a ton of the cityscape fabric. [Sorry, by the way, that all the pictures are all gi-normous. Blogger is not cooperating in my photo editing this morning. Harrumph!!]

Now, hooking up with Lee's WIP Wednesday over at Freshly Pieced, where all things wonderful happen, here's what's been happening at Shortcookie recently . . . . It's been kind of slow sewing-wise (I actually HATE when "wise" gets glued onto words like that, so I'm not sure why I'm doing it myself, but there you go, it's that kind of day!). I've mostly just been meandering along with some older projects. I am still tryin

g to finish up a Valentine's pillow featuring Zoey and Sophie (Zoey, our border collie/lab is still clearly in process here!):

It's not ironed, so the heart looks a bit wonkier than it actually is. Zoey, being part border collie, has all sorts of feathery hairs coming off her, so that's what's going on in front. I still have to add some white fabric to her front as well, so she won't look quite so Rasta braid there!!

I've also been working on a sewing machine cover. I've decided to finally make the commitment and pull out some of my favorite, most hoarded fabric for this project. The front will have three panels: Moda scissors on the left and right panels in some sort of paper pieced abstract design, and then an appliquéd scissor in the middle panel. The back will also have three panels: I have two different Heather Ross spool fabric (one a macaroni love story spools and another a munki munki sewing notions)-- those will be used for the left and right panels, and then I will have a paper pieced section in the middle featuring three spools of thread made from selvedges. I've started on the spools, with my Echino bicycle fabric as the base of the spool. I think this will just be a practice one, because the "thread" is just not quite lined up with the "spool". Back to the drawing board!:

I love paper piecing and have really just taught myself. I've been struggling with figuring out how to create my own patterns. There are a lot of great tutorials all over the web teaching how to DO paper piecing, but I can't find any resources for how to DESIGN your own patterns. Any recommendations anyone??

Okay, now I better get cracking and get on with my Mouthy Stitches zippy pouch! I have a design and some good feedback . . . just not from my partner!! Not to give too much away, but for all the fabulous comments from the hundred or so participants, my partner has made all of 4 or so comments in total in the whole swap--and most have been about her proposed design. So frustrating!! I'll just have to go with my instinct and take the feedback of the other vocal participants!! I'm a bit cowed by how talented the other participants are--so amazing!! I would be lucky to receive any of the zippy pouches! I'm sure my partner must think I'm totally eclectic in my taste, because every time I see a pouch I say I love it--I keep discovering new and wonderful things! Although all that yummy Heather Ross out there. . . . !!!!!