Sew Fun 2 blocks

July was my month in the Sew Fun 2 Bee, I sent out an assortment of purples, pinks, browns, light greens and yellow fabrics and requested quarter square wonky log cabins (although I've heard them referred to as wonky quarter bento blocks too)


This was my inspiration- 



And these were the packages I sent out



Here's the example block I made



Ready to see some of the goodies I've got en route to my mailbox??






Aren't they fantastic? At first the colors worried me a bit - greens, purples and browns aren't usually at the top of my "go-to" list but I really love the way they are playing against each other in these blocks!

Lovey Dovey quilt

I just realized I never showed a finished picture of the Lovey Dovey quilt I mentioned back in February...

we had a bright (bright!) sunshiney day so I sweet-talked Chris into being my human quilt rack while I took some pictures!

Here's a sneak peak at another that I'm working on too...

Lil' Miss Sassy

Every baby needs a cute, cozy quilt! 

And if that baby is growin inside of a fellow coworker of mine then it only makes sense for me to make them one as a gift! If you're new(er) to my blog you may have missed out on the Lil Zoo Boo and the Cindy Loo Who quilt which have gone to live with their wee little owners this past year (and apparently they are being used quite a bit judging by the amount of pictures i've seen on Facebook with these lil blankies lurkin in the background!)

This week I finished up another one, for a little girl of one of my sales reps. She was actually due this past Sunday and thank goodness she hasn't gone into labor or anything yet so I had a chance to finish it up and get it to her before her lil miss makes her grand debut.

I'm calling this one the Lil' Miss Sassy quilt... those are some intense, bold colors for a baby quilt... and I LOVE it! If this baby girl is anything like her momma, she will be one sassy chick!

I apologize for the poor quality photos. These are actually before I even finished the quilt, taken on my iPhone.  I took good ones on my camera last night but they somehow disappeared (I'm quite sad because the quilt is with a fellow coworker to be given to the preggo tomorrow because I won't see her!)

PS Thanks all for your sweet, sweet words yesterday! I spent yesterday sewing and that always helps to clear my head and cheer me up!

Double Duty Decor

Shortly after Olivia was born, my sis-in-love had mentioned getting letters to spell out her name to go over her crib. Of course, I took this as "Perfect opportunity to get crafty and surprise the new mama & papa with some decor for the little miss!"

So I took six 5"x5" canvases from JoAnn's and painted them each with a fun little pattern in colors that coordinated with her bedding. I let these little puppies dry, then took a dark brown/almost black paint (same color as the crib & other furniture in her room) and wrote her name on them, one letter per canvas.

Earlier this week they surprised me with this photo from Livy's 3month photo session. I guess my wall decor plays double duty as photo props!

All around the world

If you ever visit my blog outside of GoogleReader, you've probably noticed those little icon's on the right side of my page that relate to sewing. See the one that says Fussy Cut Bee? Well, that little icon has been getting me all kinds of excited lately!

Let me give you the one paragraph explanation of a quilting bee. Basically, there are 12 people from all over the states (sometimes out of the country) and each person gets a month. When it's your month you send out fabric to the other 11 and they will sew you a block or two and send it back. Then you can sew them into a quilt, make pillows, do whatever you want with them. Comprende? 

 Well May is my month, so the end of April I sent out a little bit of these fabrics to the other 11 people. One package even went all the way to London. This quilt I had seen online was the inspiration (created by Alissa)

 And I'm starting to get blocks back in the mail. I am in LOVE with them, and can't wait until I get enough to put it all together! Here are a few that my lovely bee members have created for me

Aren't they gorgeous!? The first two were made by Jane over at Fancy Two she has two adorable little girls that keep her busy! The other four (I know, FOUR, wow! Thank you!!) were made by Lynette, you can visit her Etsy store here. Two very talented ladies! I will be sure to share once I get my blocks from all 11!

The modern quilting community is gaining quite a presence online... it's amazing how far quilting has come since the days of our grandma's and great grandma's! I urge those of you who aren't crafty to check it out next time you're in the market for a new blanket or baby gift, there's a lot of gorgeous handmade pieces all over Etsy!

Gettin lucky in Kentucky!

I'm prefacing this post by re-stating the fact that I am a 60yr old stuck in a 22yr olds body. Just saying. If you start reading and find yourself thinking "wow, what a geek!" feel free to exit, I promise I'll try to contain my excitement! ;) Oh! But before you go, thank you for your sweet, sweet comments on my nieces photos! I digress...

So every year around this time there's a big quilt show in Paducah, Kentucky. And when I say big I mean HUGE! Just about every store in their town has fabric vendors taking it over during this weekend, the antique stores, grocery stores and even the Harley shop had been overrun by quilters! My mom and I went a few years ago and had a blast. We bought so much cute fabric and couldn't wait to go back this year!

So at noon on Thursday I left work, met mom at home (along with her friend Gina) and headed out on our 5.5 hour drive. Girls weekend, woohoo!

We did a lot of fabric shopping. Aside from food and a few vintage pieces of jewelry (which I can't wait to share in a future post) all I bought was fabric! I came home with two huge bags and I can't wait to share photos, I hope to get a few quilts made and up for sale in the next few months!

One of my favorite reasons to go to Paducah is because of Hancocks of Paducah. Every year they have huge tables set up of precut fabric that is atleast 50% off of what you'd normally pay. It's typically a madhouse (see photo) with women surrounding all the tables going through fabric.

If you can't tell, I was by far the youngest person with the exception of children in strollers that had no choice but to come. Hah I love it though! These ladies are so sweet, and are just so impressed that someone my age is into quilting! They are always asking me questions, not to mention glaring at my bright, bold fabric choices in comparison to their muted colors!

We got back in town Sunday afternoon, and of course I was sad to be back to the real world and work today! Oh how I love days when I don't have to wake up to my alarm!! To be honest, I missed ChrisChris though, so I was atleast excited to come back and see him. I had a blast spending the weekend with my mom, too. The older I get the more I appreciate the time I get to spend with her! I love that it no longer feels like we're just mother/daughter but also that we're friends!

Adding to the stash

For Christmas, Chrischris gave me a gift card for one of my favorite LQS's. I was SO pumped to use it, but I had been doing a few commissioned quilts around that time, and had been to the store so many times, that once I had my gift card there was nothing I wanted, I was tired of looking at all of it! (I know, gasp!)

I have been showing admirable will-power the past month and a half, and haven't visited, as to ensure a great new selection when I went.

It worked! I not only got all the fabric for my Fussy Cut Quilting Bee but I also got some other goodies!

(Note: pictures from Fat Quarter Shop, although I love them I didn't get my fabric here!)

Some Verna by Kate Spain. I won't lie, I wasn't that impressed when I saw this line online, but in person I fell in love. Imagine that ;)

And some Blush. I worked at a scrapbook store while I was in high school, and Basic Grey was one of my favorite paper designers, I was really excited to learn they were designing fabric too!

I also got to see Moda's new(er) line Oz, I was uncertain about this one online, but I have to admit, it's pretty darn cute!

However, the one I fell hardest for was quite a surprise to me. Not usually my style, but it's absolutely GORGEOUS! 

Love love love loved it. They only had about half the line though, so I decided to wait.

With all of this good fabric you would think I spent the evening sewing. I didn't!

I've been bonding with this lil lady....

Oh man I love her. She has my heart wrapped around her finger! I'm off to bed now though, I hope to get some serious sewing time in tomorrow... way too many new goodies not to play with!

Stash!

Something good did come from my blah mood the other day.... I pulled a pretty fun selection of fabrics from my stash! I plan on doing all improv blocks, and almost have the first done (give me a break, I was in a blah mood! Not conducive to creativity or sewing!)





It's already been deemed the pee & poop quilt. Yes, we have the maturity of 2nd graders around here!

Fabric picked out!

We got our month assignments for the Fussy Cut Bee last week - Ive been hunting for the perfect fabric ever since! My month isn't til May, but I still was anxious to pick some out!

I didn't want to use a Heather Ross print, even though she is like the quintessential "fussy cut" fabric goddess and have been trying to find something else. I don't have a pattern picked out yet, I might just send the fabric and let people do whatever they desire. Regardless, I love love LOVE my fabric... here it is...

Ah I die. Look at that gorgeous face hidden in the flowers! And the eye in the apple in the bottom right corner. Fussy cut written all over it! I can't wait to get it in the mail and match it to some coordinating prints!  I got this "Lady in the Canyon" beaut from the ReproDepot, at $11.95/half yard it was a bit steep but, cmon, doesn't love know no bounds?!

I'm off to get ready for my Lovey Dovey day suprise with ChrisChris! Hope you all have an awesome day!

Saying ByeBye to the Friendship Stars

I have this little problem of getting myself into WAY too many things at once! I've always been this way, and I don't see it changing anytime soon! I'm not one of those people who can lay around on a couch all day, I HAVE to be doing something otherwise I get really anxious.

I finished up one of the projects for charities earlier this week -

My friendship stars for Cancer is Sew Done that I wrote about here. These lil cuties are getting sent off in the morning!

Now I'm off to finish up sewing the knickknacks on my apron for the Martini Madness Apron swap. This thing has been stressin me out for sure! I will post pictures soon. A few of the girls had added pictures of theirs to the Martini Madness blog, and let me tell you... I wouldn't be upset if I received any of those!

I better get to work now!

Finish the Bolt (and 50% off Kona Cotton!)

I wanted to write this post to tell you about something one of my LQS's does. It's called a Finish The Bolt discount. Shiisa Quilts gives you 40% off if you order 3 or more yards of select fabrics. I got some great Amy Butler Midwest Modern a few weeks ago to use as backing for a WIP that has been sitting for about a year now (terrible, I know!)
They offer very reasonable shipping to, so I totally recommend it if you want to stock up on some cheap yardage!

Another great resource I always use is a blog called Mommy Saves Big, they always have coupons you can print off and use at Joann Fabrics, this week there's a 50% off coupon and a 40% coupon (and yes, you can print off ten and send your husband and 8 kids in with you to buy others!!) I always use them on Kona yardage. While I love supporting my local quilt store's I can't justify passing up deals like this (that just means I can use that saved money towards designer fabric goodies!) The link for Joann's Printable Coupons is here.
(If you feel a lil uneasy using these, don't worry- they are the same coupons that get sent out if you are on Joann's email list). They have a ton of other coupons and online offers there too!

Circle, circle, dot, dot

I've decided it's time to branch out from squares... Hellllooooo circles!





Yep, me & AB are making our rounds (hehe sorry corny I know!)

I've been tracing an old cd & cutting with my normal rotary cutter. Aside from looking like a dog chasing my tail, it's relatively easy.

I'm using 1/4 yards of 10 different prints, and it's looking like it will become a decent-sized throw!


I am following Make It...A Wonderful Life's Simple Circle Quilt Tutorial it's very easy to follow so far and although I'm only using 10 diff quarter yards I think I shoudl be ok, because I'm holding off on the border until I see how the top turns out (her tutorial has you save strips for the border as you are cutting circles)

If anyone else wants to join in on the fun or has made a simple circle quilt before I'd love to see it! I always enjoy some good quiltin' company.... linksies please!

A Spoon-ful of yum

Have you ordered from Spoonflower before or are you one of the swooners like me who just lurks around drooling on everything (good thing it's an e-store... I'd probably be banned from a brick&mortar store due to leaving a trail of saliva!)

I'm thinkin of placing an order one of these days. I know, first I overcame my fear of ordering fabric online, now I'm talking about ordering custom created fabric. YIKES what the heck has gotten into me!? I kid, I kid, but really... $18/yard isn't the sort of party I waltz right into, it requires a little standing shyly in the corner first.

You better believe I've picked out some favorites though!

Magnolia Little Gem - Sage

Candy Coated Numbers

Birdies Galore 

 

Spoons & Flowers

Little Neighborhood - Tan

I really love the houses and the numbers, they're so dang cute!