You will have to speak up...

What's that you say?  I'm sorry.  Can't hear you over the whir of the sewing machine.  The giggles and screams of three kids.  The washing machine and dryer.  You will have to speak up... I've been a bit busy lately.  You know, the usual.  Filling orders like these and oh, yes, 18 aprons!  (Sorry no photos on those yet - they are off getting finished with Nova, my super accomplished wonderful seamstress helper).  Just the usual ho hum chaotic noise around here.....

WAIT!  No!  Not the usual!  I have some exciting news!

SPROUTS!  Sprouts is finally here!

After a full year or so of designing pattern covers and kicking around which projects to pattern first - we have finally completed our first draft pattern from the Two Peas in a Pod Homegrown Designs pattern line aptly called, "Sprouts".  (Sticking with the whole garden theme here...the gardener actually developed this name.  He's pretty good, isn't he?)

Sprouts, Pea sized projects you can complete in 3 hours or less.

Because really, who has more time than that?  And even at that - it'll take days, right?  As I type this now...I'm listening to the baby NOT take a nap and I'm thinking, there goes my tiny 2 hour block of time to do anything.  (she's quite skilled at pushing my sewing machine foot pedal while I'm not looking).

The Hazel Hipster.  Yep.  Here she is, in all her glory.

One of my friends from my twins club served as my "model" for the cover.  (Her Dad is also my accountant - he'll find some creative write off for me on this one I'm sure!)

I love, love, love this pattern because it is the FIRST purse I ever designed.  First purse I ever made.  And it is oh, so very simple.  The pattern is chock full of real life photos so you don't have to guess what I'm talking about - you can see it for yourself.  No line drawings or anything.  And the price.  Ya can't beat it.  Affordable.  And just think of all the bags you could make just in time for Christmas!  (Oh I see you out there rubbing your hands together!)

And you know what else is cool about it?  I made up a mini version so you can have matching Mommy and me bags.  The cute factor is just too much here!

Go quick before they are gone. And if you have any questions along the way as you sew - drop me a line at twopeasinapoddesigns at gmail.com.

There are a few giveaways going on with these patterns - you'll find them scattered about in blog land.  Keep checking back here - I'll keep updating the page at the top of my blog titled "Sprouts" - you'll find a growing list of blogs to visit where you might be able to win one of these Hazel Hipster patterns.

I have more SUPER exciting (ok, well for ME it's super exciting) news to share but I'll save that for next time.  I did mention, things were starting to go wonderfully around here.  I got into my first juried show.  Cool but that's not the big news.  Kind of bigger.  You'll just have to wander on back here later to find out!  (wink! and a head nod)

See ya soon,

xoxo,

Trish

Two Peas Sewing Bee

Ok ladies...pull up a chair, warm up your machines, put your foot to the pedal!

Join in on the "Two Peas Sewing Bee"!  We've been having some fun and I wanted to share a little of what we have been stitching away in our Sewing Bee...

My dear friend and neighbor, Barb, has this awesome craft room in her house.  A separate entrance, loads of great lighting, plenty of space and tables - she typically teaches a stamp class there.  She's a Stampin Up sales rep.  I've been leasing her space from her to teach my sewing classes.  Most everyone in the class is a beginner, some a bit more advanced than others, and our first class we made a whole bevy of projects for beginners.

A tissue pack cover.  A lanyard.  Val Wells petal pouches.  And a little wallet, also by Val Wells.

Our second class, we tackled applique shirts and the twirl skirt by Chelsea Anderson of Pink Fig.

There is a designer in all of you!  I loved the fabrics that everyone choose.  So dang cute!

AND next, in November, I'll be offering an all day "Santa's Workshop" sewing bee.  We will be tackling 3 projects in one day!

We will be making an apron, like the one seen here on me (this one is a take on one of the aprons from my husbands grandmother - you can see this apron on "jane" up at Harvest Moon.  I gave it to her in honor of the awesome cinnamon rolls and bagels she whips up daily).

Project 2 will be a patchwork pillow.

And number 3, a quilted table runner.

All great projects for gifts at Christmas.  The pillows and table runners can be made with all kinds of manly fabrics for a boys room or a brother or Dad might like a nice throw pillow for their couch.  Or some frilly fancy fabrics for a sister.

Anyway, lunch will be provided as well as some of the materials.  I'll have more details later so if you are interested in one of the seats - let me know asap!

Happy Sewing all!

xoxo,

Trish

PS  Just added the class to our schedule.  Santa's Workshop Sewing Bee will be on November 14th - all day, 9am - 5pm.  $125 per person with a $20 discount for early birds who register by November 1st.  Just email me at twopeasinapoddesigns at gmail dot com

last hurrah!

It’s been on my to-do list, honest it has. I meant to update my blog. I meant to get on here and announce the July giveaway winner. Really. I did. But, well, it’s just that school starts soon. And I know, I often hint at the fact that I can not wait for that day to come because, I’m about to lose my mind BUT…I will miss them, honest.

So, the two peas, wee one and me, we’ve been hangin’ at the pool, spent a day over at our most “awesomeness” zoo and now, the two peas are doing their rounds with my family. I heard today that they went to the waterpark and an Indian mound, tomorrow a different waterpark and a trip to the putt-putt course my niece works at…sounds like a great “last hurrah” before school starts.

While they have been gone, all of 24 hours now, I have sorted their play “nook”. Our house is really tiny so they don’t have a play room, just a corner. I gathered enough garbage out of that wee little corner to fill our entire kitchen size trash can. Tomorrow, my boss was kind enough to let me take a last minute vacation day so I could maximize on their absentness and continue with the purge – moving on to their room. Feels rather nice to finally have at least a few rooms of my house, cleaned out and well, finally actually, clean. See, when it’s summer time, our house isn’t clean. Ever. Seriously, I’m working, the hubby is working, we play as much as we can and the house, well, it kind of falls apart over these few months. So, I’m looking forward to getting some order back around here in time for school to start.

We last left off here chatting about pillowcases for our troops, right? Ah yes! So, I got some great brown flannel with white polka dots and then I thought, it’s kind of hot over there. Flannel? Maybe not so much. I’ll have to see what cottons I have in my stash. Anyway, ladies, here it is. A great little pillowcase tutorial offered up by “Little Birdie Secrets”. Super simple and looks fantastic when you’re done. I mentioned an article I read about a foundation that was collecting such things. You’ll find them here at Operation Bedding. Or maybe you have a family member or friend who is serving you’d like to send your cases off to. Make ‘em up, send ‘em out and then share your photos and a shout out to who your pillowcases went to here. In the comments section, leave your comment and a link back to your blog or site to share your completed projects. I’d love to especially see who they are going to, first names or whatever so we can remember these very special folks in our prayers and ask for their protection and safe return.

More fun things to share with you! I’m going to be offering some sewing classes! Yahoo! What fun! If you are local to Columbus Ohio – we’d love to have you. The “Two Peas Sewing Bee” is a series of beginners classes. 3 classes offered September 10th, October 8th and November 5th. The first class we will be doing a bunch of easy quick projects – projects to help you get more familiar with your machine and build your confidence. They are also great projects for you to replicate again and again for Christmas gifts (you know, Christmas is coming sooner than you think!) The second class, we will be making a cute little skirt and doing an appliqué on a t-shirt. Our third class, we will be making one of my

easy peasy little hipster bags. You can sign up for one or all three classes but you have to hurry because we only have 6 seats for this class. If you’re local and interested, email me at twopeasinapoddesigns at gmail.com for registration information.

Thanks so much to my uber Mom friend Barb, who is allowing me to offer this class in her uber cool craft studio where she hosts her “Stampin’ Up” classes. Love ya Barb! You’ll love her craft studio – I could get lost in there and craft for weeks!!! So much fun stuff – if ever I need anything on a moments notice, I call her!

And here’s the best part about “The Two Peas Sewing Bee”…Quilthome.com has been kind enough to offer a 10% discount to my registered students to get your supplies. LOVE Quilthome.com. Those ladies have THE best service ever! I swear – I place an order and from Washington state to Ohio, I get my fabrics within 2-3 days. Very fast service! They are just wonderful to deal with and when you log on to their page, always check the right hand column because they always have something on sale and a coupon code posted there. Love them! (Thanks Heidi!) I have other favorites too but I’m a big fan of theirs, for sure.

I finally, finally, am nearing the point of getting ready to release a few patterns of my own. I have a product photo shoot later this week and hopefully before the end of Fall, I will have something ready to go. Local at first, and for use in my class, but I’ll probably offer them up on etsy and my dot com later on.

And last but not least. My monthly giveaway. Crystal, my dear twins mommy blogger friend – your bags WILL come, I promise. And for July, a little mini notebook cover – goes to…drum roll please and a random drawing courtesy of whatever the wee one pulls out of the hat, “vallovesherboys”. Sweet! I’ll be sending this little book ‘o’ love your way soon. For August, a stash of fabric for you, cut and ready to cut to make your own pillowcase. Free fabric – what could be better!

So, signing off to go do some more cleaning while I can! How good it feels to purge!! And did I mention? The “homegrown” of our name – well, really enjoying it at the moment. The gardener has done well this year. I picked 30 yellow and red tomatoes today and a huge bowl of cherry and grape tomatoes. To die for, seriously! Any ideas how to preserve them? I heard I should freeze them whole to use in sauces later. Any other ideas? I could hardly hold the baby back while I picked, she was eating them so fast – all that acid, not so good on her bum. I had to block her from getting into the vines and she was getting so mad :>) Just like her sisters! The two peas eat tomatoes whole, like an apple, love ‘em! Hope you’re enjoying your harvest too!

Xoxo, Trish

143 days until Christmas!

AHHH!  Ok, so 143 days SOUNDS like it's far off but it's really not!  Especially when your days are scheduled tight already from here until then!  I have a few more trunk shows to get through and a weekend at the mall at a kiosk I'm sharing with my Bows and Blossoms friend in September and THEN a vacation, oh yes, finally!!  AND THEN, I'm done with custom orders as of October 31st.  I want to be sure to have your orders back to you by Thanksgiving and then I want to

relax with my family over the holidays and start working on my book.  (OHH, too many things going on around here - still tweaking my fabric designs - still chatting with textile company reps and hoping to pitch a book idea I've been kicking around for awhile).  Oh, did I mention?  I'm hoping to teach a class too at a new sewing studio opening in town.  More on that later...

So the jist is...that is you want a custom order, now is the time to start thinking about that and place your order soon!  I've been working on some great little skirts lately so if you're thinking "back to school"  - you gotta check out these patchwork skirts and add a cute little peace sign tee shirt to go with it.  Love it!

Later this week I'll post that pillowcase tutorial, but just sayin...check out new stuff over in my etsy shop and bookmark my new dot com because pretty soon, it will be fully loaded and ready to go.  I'll be putting less stuff in my etsy store towards October and more, ready to go items over there in the dot com store.

Catch ya later!

xoxo,

Trish

Heavens to Murgatroyd!

OK, so I'm hanging out with the wee one getting ready to put her to bed and I say to her, "Heaven's to mergatroid child!". Seriously?! Where did THAT come from? Heavens to mergatroid?! So, that got me curious, and as I do typically each night, lock myself in the bath and step into a steaming tub and catch up on blogs on my iphone (that's right, don't act like you don't do it too,risky, yes but I'm very careful not to drop it in the water : )

So I'm googling, Heavens to Murgatroyd. Turns out this is a take on Heavens to Betsy - no one is quite sure who Besty was but the pink mountain lion, Snagglepuss, on Yogi Bear coined this twist on the original phrase. Then I keep reading and it says, of all things, that the pink mountain lion on Yogi Bear was gay. What?! Gay?! I didn't know that, did you? Of course, at the age I was watching Yogi Bear I suppose I didn't even know what it meant to be gay but I was shocked. "Not that there's anything wrong with that " (remember THAT Seinfeld episode) I just didn't know. I mean, he's pink and all but he could have just been all metro sexual kind of thing but, whatever.  He's a cartoon character.   So, now ya know and when you are playing trivial pursuit or something, you'll have that little odd fact about this phrase to tuck away into your memory banks. What that has to do with anything I'm not sure...

Moving on...been super busy catching up on party orders! I do home parties,

Trunk Shows I call them. You host a party at your house and then I bring all of my purse samples, and loads of fabric swatches and you get to build your own bag, or quilt, or bib, or dress, or skirt, or whatever...I make loads of

stuff. Anyway, its a blast (and you can host an online party too if you aren't local - hey, just email me twopeasinapoddesigns at gmail dot com).

One of the ladies ordered a patchwork skirt. Well, I was dying to try out this pattern I found here by Chelsea Anderson of Pink Fig. I love her stuff because it is SO easy and the results are amazing. So, here's my first try at this skirt from the mag. LOVE IT!  Want one?  They'll be loaded on my website soon.  (ohh!  Launching my dot com soon - you'll love).  Here's one more quickie photo from the iphone of an order from Julia's party...

And on top of all the sewing I've been doing...whew! we had swim team practice, practice, practice and then

championships and then banquet followed by a super fun

pool party. Really, that was so much fun to swim after dark with the kids! One of the Dad's DJ'd and it was such fun.

And check this out!  THIS is India from our office.  First of all, isn't she beautiful?!  Well, one of our student workers, Allison, has been teaching herself how to sew.

She took a tunic from her Mothers closet, laid it out and cut a pattern and made this shirt.  Huh?!  That's a girl with a great sewing future!  Don't you love this!  Now, the seams were a bit rough inside but  at the time she didn't have a serger.  Problem resolved, I sold her my old one at the end of the school year.  I can NOT wait to see what she creates next!  I think she did such a fabulous job!

Ok, breathe, breathe...is this like too much information for one post?!  I'll stop now, mostly because the gardener is at home with three kids and I'm sure tapping his foot waiting for my arrival home.  (no internet at home - have to schmooze it elsewhere to post - blah!)

So, next post - get ready!  I have a fun little service project for us!  I was reading this story in People magazine about a soldier who had asked for bedding from home to be sent because their linens over there stink.  I thought, all of us sewing goddesses that we are, lets sew up some pillowcases to send over!  Sound good?  Next post will be a pillowcase tutorial and my giveaway for August will be some fabric so you can make one more and send off.  I'll post their contact info and all so you can mail off your little bundle of soft love for a wonderful soldier to bury their tired head into at night.

Be good everyone!  School is back in session in 28 days!  Yippee!  (oops!  That came out like a shout of joy, didn't it?  That was sorrow - I will MISS the little ones terribly and wait at the window just watching for their return each day from school - after I do my happy dance!!  Just kidding - a little.  I just want to catch up on laundry - we've been playing and working a lot - not much house cleaning going on).

Ok seriously, I'm signing off - I'm writing like I'm on crack or something - get ready for pillowcase construction, ok!  Go getcha some fabrics!

xoxox,

Trish