Save the Date: Lisette Portfolio Dress Sew Along

Just a quick post to let you know that the Lisette Portfolio dress sew along will be
April 25th - 29th. Mark your calendars! I know lots of people purchased the pattern,
so now it's time to decide on fabric and get ready to sew!

Have a great weekend!

Fabric Stamping with B is for Boy

Hi! I'm Erica

from

Thank you Gwen for the opportunity guest posting over here today!
I am a mom with 2 boys, ages 2.5 years & 9 months!  Yes, I have my hands full!

B is for Boy
 is my little creative place.
I do a little of this and a little of that.
You'll find sewing & craft tutorials, recipes, and pretty much anything boy! 
Here are a few examples of my latest projects.

I am also on Etsy where I sell my Travel Bibs.  I just added some cute gift sets!

Today I am going to show you how to fabric stamp.  It's super easy but adds a really cute little touch to your project.  This is a baby gift set that I added fabric stamping to.

Let's get started!

 You will need:

Fabric Paint

stamps- the clear ones that you stick on the glass block
work really well because you can see where you're stamping

scrap fabric (to test your stamp on)

scrap felt (to make the stamp pad)

small paint brush

fabric that you want to stamp 

*I would not recommend stamping right onto your final project in case you mess up.  I stamped on a piece of fabric that I then sewed onto the final project. 

First we will make our stamp pad.  You want to double up your felt & then place it on something you don't mind getting paint on.  The paint does seep through.
Pour a small dab of paint onto the folded felt & spread it around with the paint brush.  You want the paint to absorb into the felt.  The felt acts like your stamp pad.

Now grab your stamp & firmly press it in the paint.  Position it on your fabric and press firmly.  Make sure you are doing this on a firm surface (the ironing board worked for me).

Do a couple test stamps on your scrap fabric first to see how hard/light you need to press to get the right print. 

 Once you are done cleanup is easy.  Just throw away the "ink pad" or felt with paint on it.  Then wash the stamps with warm water.  I did not have any trouble getting the paint off the rubber stamps.  Though, it was a little stubborn coming off the glass block that the stamp attaches to.

Now you have a cute little embellishment to add to whatever you want.  I am thinking about throwing this little patch onto a summer shirt for my son.

Thank you Gwen for having me today!  I had a lot of fun. 

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When I saw Erica's airplane stamped baby shower gift set, I knew I wanted to have her over to share how she did the stamping. I love the way it looks and how it allows you to personalize any project. So cute! If you missed it last week, I did a "Spotlight On..." feature on Erica and her blog. Make sure you visit B is for Boy and check out all of her fun projects. Thanks so much for sharing today, Erica!

Work in Progress: Finished Baby Quilt Top

Last week I had only gotten as far as the layout of my charm squares for the Central Park baby quilt that I am making. Thanks so much for all of the advice on fabric choices for the binding. Thursday night I was able to get the entire quilt top done within a couple of hours.

This is some of the best sewing I have ever done. I took my time, I was very careful, and my seams are nearly perfect.

I ordered my fabric for the binding and the backing, and it arrived Monday afternoon. For the binding I chose this...

For the backing I chose this...

I ordered both from Lola Pink Fabrics, and I had a great experience, so you might want to check them out. I ordered late Thursday night, and my fabric arrived Monday afternoon. I had trouble finding the binding fabric that I wanted, but I eventually discovered Lola Pink, and luckily they had some.

Next up is basting and machine quilting. I'm down to two and a half weeks to get this done before the baby shower, so hopefully I will have some progress to show you next week.