A Yo Yo Quilt for Grandma

Most of you know the story of Love Elaine, and for those of you who don't, I'll give a quick overview. Elaine is my middle name, as well as all of the women in my family - Mom, both Grandmothers and my sister. And, Love is my paternal Grandmother's maiden name. I really wanted the name to reflect family, as I've been blessed with very strong (my Dad would say "Strong, Stubborn German Women") in my life, and they've been a huge support behind getting Love Elaine off the ground.


So, keeping that in mind, I wanted to do something special for the upcoming Mother's day for my Grandma (my Mom's Mom), as I am a compulsive special gift-giver. And, if it can be handmade by me or someone else, it ranks high on my gifting list!

Each Mother's Day I host a brunch and gather all the women in the family. Men are welcome but they usually steer clear, as its lots of laughing, awes and just plain girlishness going on!  A while back my Grandma mentioned wanting a Yo Yo Quilt, and I come across a Yo Yo Along at Sew Take a Hike and got an idea.

To make a Yo Yo quilt, you need approximately 1,008 Yo Yos for a 63x81 quilt. Which sounds totally overwhelming to just one person, but between me, my Mom, Aunts and Cousins, there are 10 of us girls. Problem solved and idea hatched!

Yo Yo Making Kits for Christmas

For Christmas when I knew I would see everyone, I made up "Kits" with a Yo Yo maker, needle, and thread along with fabric from my scrap bin - so there would be no excuses for non-completetion! Notice the "big" packs in the back? Those are for me, my mom and my Aunts - since we have more sewing "experience" we figured we'd do more than the rest,150, with the less experienced making 50 each by the deadline of April 1 to give my Mom and I a month to put the quilt together. Luckily for me, everyone thought it was a great idea!

Large Yo Yo Maker - Makes making Yo Yos a breeze!

I have about 50 Yo Yos completed, and they went together super fast using the Yo Yo maker. But, one thing I realized is that I bought the "large" Yo Yo maker, and you really needed the extra large/Jumbo to make the size quilt in the Yo Yo Along. So, the quilt will end up being a bit smaller. I can't wait to see everyone's progress and I'll be sure to update here once we get all of them together, and start putting it together.

Have you pulled together family or friends to make a special gift or project? I'd love to hear about it!

My Last 3 Weeks In Photos {InstaFriday}

So, I had these photos ready to go last Friday, but I forgot. And then I was going to post earlier this week - but I got hit with the WORST stomach bug ever. Please forgive me for all of the photos, this week - as I promise to be up to date in weeks to come! 

Here is the last 3 weeks of photos (a girls gotta start somewhere, right!?)

Miss Sophia with her new Cupcake hat :) I had a blast opening presents with Sophia and her mom (and my best friend) Julie!

While home in NJ for Christmas, I was able to get quality bar time in with my brother Ronnie and sister Stephanie!

The crazy one on the left is my little brother Brandon - I call him bubs :) He hates it out loud, but secretly loves it. Don't ask me why the nickname, I can't really remember, I was 7!

My two 6 year old nieces Mia and Erica in their matching Love Elaine aprons!Aren't they just the sweetest!

My dear sweet Virginians, you have NOTHING on NJ pizza :) So glad I was able to get a slice while I was home. YUMMY!

NYE was spent with the BF in Northern Virginia - here's to hoping 2012 brings wonderful things our way!

Whipped up these amazing cheese fritters from a recipe on Pinterest. So yummy! Too bad my Hokies lost in the Sugar bowl :(

 Finished up a set of baby boy nursery letters! I'll be posting more on those later! Love the polka dots!

Sewing yoyos in bed. By the second day of sickness, I was too sick to move but bored enough to want to keep my hands moving! More on why I'm sewing yoyos next week!

Handmade Home: One Hour Table Runner

After living in our little townhouse for a year and a half now, I'm finally getting around to adding more touches of "me" around the house (aka: getting rid of all his bachelor pad items and selling them on Craigslist). When shopping with his mom recently, I bought a few new pillows at Kohls (I had a gift card from Christmas) in shades of green to update the living room a bit. The addition of the new pillows did the trick, but something was still missing - the coffee table in front of the couch looked naked and screamed to be covered up with something colorful with a lot of pattern (my signature look for all things fabric).

So, I did what I always do - I went to Fabric.com and searched for the perfect matching fabric, and I found it in the new Ty Pennington line that included white, chartreuse and grey that would make the perfect table runner.



This weekend I went to visit Mom and brought my new fabric with me - as we always have time to sew and I knew she would get me started in the right direction to getting it done and not just continuing to sit in a pile on my cutting table - which happens a lot more than I would like to admit!

When I told her what I planned to do - she looked at me curiously for a minute but then we got to cutting. We cut a single piece for the top and for the bottom 17x46, plus strips for the binding.


I found a perfectly sized batting in her closet, pinned it together and she had it quilted in no time (yes, she quilted, I cut and pinned and ironed :)


Then I ironed the binding and we decided to do something different with "quick finish" in mind - we would put the binding on backwards and top stitch the top using a decorative feather stitch (rather than hand sewing the binding to the back).




Now onto what you are really interested in - the finished product in the living room with the new pillows - TA DA! Oh, and did I mention it took only ONE HOUR from the first cut to finished and on the coffee table?! Let me know what you think!

The "Studio" Gets Organized

This weekend I was finally able to get my sewing space organized. I use the term "studio" lightly, as its really just the second bedroom in our tiny, rented townhouse. It also serves as my dressing room (as it holds my closet with all of my shoes and clothes), the laundry room (as it has the washer & dryer), our guest bedroom (as it has a single bed pull out couch), and general storage catch-all (as it currently has the box for a our new 47" TV that is waiting to be brought to the real storage unit!).

A few months ago, I put up shelves with bins (from Home Depot - the bins are Martha Stewart Living and in Love Elaine branding colors) for all of my fabric, and I bought a rod with hanging containers from Ikea (love it there!) to put on the wall to hold my scissors, rotary cutters, pens, zippers, etc. to get them off of my sewing table to leave more room for fabric as I'm mid-project. I finally put the rod up this weekend and I couldn't be happier. I also put up 2 clip-boards ($2 each from Target) - one to hold the notes about the current project I'm working on and my pattern, and the other for my current orders. I also can't forget the wall-mounted, magnetic "pin cushion" (also from Ikea). The one I was using on my sewing table previously always used to get lost under fabric scraps and projects in process, so I love that this one never gets lost and its really easy to access with only one hand as I'm holding pieces of a project together with the other.


So, there's a glimpse into my "studio." I'd love to know how you've organized your sewing or crafting space.

2010 Holiday Recap

I know, its January 26th, and I'm a bit late in providing a Holiday Recap. But, in a word, the 2010 Holiday season would be described as "ABSOLUTELY INSANE BUT I LOVED EVERY MINUTE OF IT!!!!!" Ok, so maybe I needed more than a single word to describe the roller coaster that was my handmade life from October through December 24. Yes, you read that right, things were absolutely crazy right until the day before Christmas. Why were things so crazy, you ask? Here is a quick recap of the holiday cheer that Love Elaine helped spread for Christmas 2010.

35 Christmas Trees stood proudly with new Christmas Tree Skirts
10 Very lucky women opened presents from loved ones that contained a unique, handmade bag
7 Equally lucky women now have a new apron to bake lots of homemade treats for next Christmas
6 Doors were decked with fabric wreaths that sold as quickly as I was able to make them
25 Bottles of Wine and good cheer were given inside a Love Elaine wine bag
20 Jewelry bags made their way to new homes

I know, you are thinking, well that doesn't sound like so much to keep you so busy. And, you would be right. Because, I was soo busy taking orders, calling Mom, ordering new fabric, and shipping the...

175 Christmas Stockings that were hung by the chimney with care this year. 175, its not a typo. Each stocking was custom made to order for the 100+ new customers in my Etsy shop.

Did I mention that I started a new job in October at an Advertising Agency, and that I worked full time hours + during all of this? Yeah, I don't know how I survived it either.

The good news? Sales of the popular tree skirts and the addition of customized stockings grew sales by 350% from 2009 to 2010. I'd say that is VERY good news :)

And last, but not least...

Thank you!

Thank you first to my Mom, without whom Love Elaine would not be possible :) And thank you to all of my friends, family and new customers that have supported Love Elaine and have given me the confidence to keep the momentum going.

Please stay tuned - there is lots in store (at least in my mind right now) for 2011, which is sure to be Love Elaine's best year yet!

xo,
Christen