July 2015 | Go-Go Kim

sewing + social media + so much more

Saturday, July 25, 2015

The completely UNAUTHORIZED Happy Birthday Giveaway!

How many times does a girl turn 49?  Hopefully only this once! This is it!  I am entering my last year before I turn the BIG 50!

So, since I have absolutely NO CLUE as to what is expected at this ripe old age, I decided to have a GIVEAWAY!  That is unexpected and really quite lovely for me ( I LOVE sharing great stuff) and hopefully for you too!

To make this a fun and unique opportunity, a brand NEW Aurifil collection has been created.  This is a completely UNAUTHORIZED collection of my own making from the bins in my sewing room.  I looked through all the colors and weights and decided that this collection would contain the best of all worlds!  A combination of weights ( included are 50wt, 40wt 28wt and 12wt), colors and even some  FABULOUS variegated!  This way you can try so much in one GORGEOUS thread box.  The bottom row alone is giving me chills!

Say "HELLO GORGEOUS!" to the My Go-Go Life Aurifil ( did I mention it is completely unauthorized) collection!



Look at this!!!! Makes me SO HAPPY!!!!

And as if that were not enough...I will be adding in a small spool collection of Frances Newcomb's Treasure Chest and three mini charm packs!


The grand finale, is an Aurifil color card with ALL 270 lush colors so you will be able to match up the perfect threads to every project!



That is a whole lot of AMAZING stuff you can win!!!!


I will be using Rafflecopter for the giveaway to give you a few options to make it easier for you to enter and for me to be able to contact the random winner!  This giveaway is open internationally since I LOVE all of my awesome international friends :o) I would love it if you could share it with all of your friends too ;)  Repost, retweet, relove :o) Happy Birthday to me and I am sending GOOD LUCK wishes to you!!!!





a Rafflecopter giveaway
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Thursday, July 16, 2015

Four things to hopefully make the 8 year old happy!

With everything that has been going on in the 8-yr old's room, he has been somewhat apprehensive about every single change that is being made.  This has been his only room.  He has grown up with this familiar.  The process has been unsettling and I did not see that coming at all.  Taking his feelings into consideration, the progress has been slow and involving him at every step.  I love my guy and want him to be happy.   

Here are a few of the things that will be coming into his "new" bigger kid room.  First is from my stamp collection.  I love stamps and think they are true works of art.  I grabbed some inexpensive Ikea frames ( they are the BEST) and showed him how cool some stamps on his wall would be! He smiled :o)




A typewriter!  I am convinced that every kid needs a typewriter to goof off and have some word fun old school style. There was no convincing needed!



I found this at the Salvation Army for a great night stand!  Not sure if I will paint it or just clean it up ( it needs a deep cleaning) and a seal coat. 



Would you paint it or clean and seal?

And these vintage Air Mail plane prints I found at the same shop.  If you are a frequent flyer ( see what I did there) on my blog, you may remember my in house engineer was a Navy pilot,  we met in the Navy where I was a Plane Captain working with A-4's at NAS Miramar across the hanger from THE Top Gun.  It was a forbidden love.  We both have a thing for planes.  Even if Adam did not give the thumbs up to these, they would be displayed somewhere else.



I only have the ceiling left to paint ( did all the trim yesterday) and then finally putting all the stuff back in his room.  This will make everyone in the house very happy since his room is taking up the upstairs hallway!


In my down time, I have been prepping more thrift shop shirts getting ready for another project! It is the perfect activity to do while watching Scandal!  I feel like I am getting something sewing related checked off my list.


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Tuesday, July 14, 2015

A new baby!

I would like to introduce you to my new baby, Rosebud!  I had been longing for this addition to my sewing room for quite some time.  I needed a small, reliable, manageable and cost effective 3/4 sized machine and she is all of this for me!


Rosebud is a Sears Kenmore 1040.  It is a 3/4 size and is very lightweight.  I wanted to have her so I would not be hauling around a HUGE machine.  This is only a couple pounds more than a Singer Featherweight ( I have one by the timing is off).






My lovely little girl was born in Japan :o)

I am amazed at how clean she is through and through.  I found a reliable ebay shop that I bought her from.  amazing 593  went above and beyond with packaging her up for shipping!  I was extremely impressed with how everything was handled.  Every ebay seller should take a class from this one!  Top notch!



Even her case is about the most adorable thing I have ever seen! With the roses, it reminded me of my friend Roseann Meehan Kermes who owns Rosebud's Cottage.  Roseanne is a wonderful person and a mentor to many.  It felt right to name this machine for her.  My own little Rosebud :o)



There is also a hidden storage under the flap


and all of these accessories came included!

The one thing Rosebud came without was a bobbin, so I will have to share her sewing skills on another day.  I think she is tired from her long journey so I set her up on my sewing table this evening for a rest and to get used to her new home :o)

For a full review and EVERYTHING you could ever want to know about this beauty ( and after reading the review you will want one) please visit Stitch Nerd!
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Sunday, July 12, 2015

Painting WITH kids!

 It all started with this room. It really all started with the quilt I started last week.  The quilt needed a new updated color in this room.  Seriously, this IS how my brain works...


I had been putting off this room since it had gotten to the point of not being able to walk in without injury.  I had been asking Adam to clean his room for the past week. This is how Adam cleans his room. ( read, I am the one doing ALL the cleaning and he is coming in to visit)


So, I started Saturday morning at 7am taking all the STUFF out to paint the room.  It has been six years since we moved into this house and he was only two when we moved in.  I decided it was time for a bigger boy color in his room and a SERIOUS declutter to help him keep up with what he has.  Third grade is more homework and more activities.  I want a better handle on this situation!  

The color we chose was Valspar Gravity from Lowe's .  It is a gorgeous gray with complete depth( it is stunning). It was the PERFECT color...until it was not!  In the can it was perfect, on one wall it was perfect but when the whole room was painted, it had a purple hue.  I will not say who cried but I will say I had painted the whole room. I took some deep breaths and asked Adam if he wanted to go pick out another color.  He was very sweet and said no since he knew I had done so much work.  After some reassuring that it was okay, he said he would just go to look.  

It can be very overwhelming to an adult to look at colors.  To a child, I cannot imagine how hard it would be!  We grabbed some blues and then took a break in the garden center to look at what was chosen.  Oatlands Dainty Blue was the winner!  Here are the two dried in paint sticks. They look so much lighter than on the walls.


The next coat I enlisted the help from the kids!  



Here is the room this morning after one coat of Valspar Reserve ( I love this paint).  I will be doing a second coat today and then I have to paint the trim Ultra White :o)


The color is FANTASTIC!  Adam is happy without reservation!  I will post more updates as we progress.

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Wednesday, July 8, 2015

A Miracle!

The only way this can be explained is a miracle!  I finished a quilt top in less than a week!  I started last Friday and was finished this afternoon.


It was decided sometime over the past weekend that this would become Adam's new quilt.  Now it has turned into a whole huge project with paint being chosen and purchased from Lowe's ( Gravity is the color), new sheets from Target and a fish tank!  The fish will not happen until the room is completely cleaned.  Bribery is sometimes the best choice.

Adam had a say in what the final design.  He preferred the neutrals in the center stating that he liked how it showed more detail :O)  He also chose the Kona cotton dark blue when given the choices of snow, ash or the dark blue.  He made an excellent choice!  Most important, he is very pleased with his new quilt.


Now I am hoping for another miracle in getting the quilting done! 


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Monday, July 6, 2015

Sewing by the seat of my pants!

I am not a very good planning sewer.  I am an excellent planner otherwise but I sew by the seat of my pants ( and no shoes).   I do know people that are AMAZING planning sewers and I envy their ability to see beyond.  Beyond is not where I can see.  I see now and when sewing I am there, in the moment. The projects that are shared here are in real time projects.  If there is a tutorial, it is happening as the sewing machine is whirling.  This is how it happens for me...angles singing and behold...the vision of a quilt...or how I will make whatever bag Sara has a new pattern for look like mine...or a doll diaper...and then it has to be done RIGHT NOW!  My head is a dangerous place. This project was the same, looking at the mess in the sewing room, tiding up and BAM! It had to be done! A few days later this is what it has become.




The log cabin blocks have grown tremendously over the weekend!  That design wall is 8ft tall! I wish the photos could have been better, we have been having rainy days and not great light.  What started out as an idea now has a vision and purpose!  This is the exciting part for me!  When things come together and it looks even better than what you had imagined.  Utter JOY!  I love all of the different colors and how they work together!  All of the pieces for this quilt are shirts from the Goodwill blue bins ( with the exception of one piece of fabric that I just happened to like the color).  This is mostly 100% cotton since it is so much easier to work with during cutting and sewing.  There is some linen but not much.



While I was filling a bobbin, this spool ran out!  GASP!  It was an emergency moment since the hands down best piecing thread is 2600.  I keep giving away my spools to friends (and sometimes strangers) to share the LOVE of 2600 so this was my last one.  This spool has last well over a year.  It was used almost continueslyfor the full year unless I needed a 40wt or black thread.



In a panic, I looked through all the threads I have ( there are quite a few) and found this one!  It is a wonderful new discovery and very close to the 2600 but just a tad darker, not too much but perfect for piecing!  I was overjoyed for sure.


Not sure if anyone wants or needs a tutorial for how to make this but if you want, I can whip up a tutorial as soon as I have completed this quilt :o)  I was taking notes while sewing, I guess that is the start of a plan.  Maybe I can change my ways.
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Friday, July 3, 2015

Log Cabin Love!

I have made a few log cabin style quilts and have always adored this style but never gave it a go until now.  Not sure why I decided it was time but the thrift shop shirts were calling to me to start cutting 1.5 inch strips and just have a go with this pattern.  The shorts cut in line but now that those are completed I will be focusing more on completing more.  I am excited to see where this is going!




Happy July 4th weekend! Hope you will be finding some time to SEW!
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