~Bunny Lane Designs~

A new doll for my Bel

2011-03-03T23:04:00.000-05:00

Over a year overdue, I finally completed my daughters Mermaid Doll in the waldorf style that she had been asking for. I am in love with mermaids now!

She loves it, and that makes me happy :)

Spring 2011

2011-03-01T12:21:00.000-05:00

I can't believe how long it has been since I have posted here.... looking back, how many times have I started blog posts with that?? 2010 has been a busy, crazy and exciting year as I added another venture to my list. During my down times with the sewing business, I have been working on my photography. I have been fortunate enough to have been given the chance to photograph so many wonderful families and awesome children in the past several months, view my gallery here: Bunny Lane Photography

Back to the sewing business...2011 Spring and Summer lines are being finalized and weather permitting, I hope to capture my models in my latest creations in time for my March 7 launch, just a small sampling of the fabrics to be included this year are:

A majority of the fabrics purchased from one of my favorite online shops---Fairytale Frocks & Lollipops. Cute name and the greatest service and shipping! Their prices are awesome too!

A sneak peek into Spring 2011 collection...introducing Serenity

and Catalina....

There is plenty more that hasn't been shown and will be available for purchase through my online shop at Bunny Lane Designs or my Etsy shop.

Please visit me on Facebook & Twitter and say hi!

Day 3--Kids Clothing Week Challenge

2010-05-12T18:54:00.000-04:00

I revisited those vintage sheets that I used for the vintage wrap dress that I made earlier. I just love how bright it is and best of all it has my 2 favorite colors.....green and yellow. I was inspired by a similar version of this dress from Wooden Soldier, but couldn't handle the price tag--a whopping $70 eeek! My husband would have a heart attack if he found out that I spent that much on one dress--so I said to myself..."I can make that" and so what resulted was that dress that Isabel is wearing and modeling for her to keep for herself :o)

Oh and in case you guys were wondering what a $70 dress looks like:

Mine was pretty close...I changed it a bit and I know that I have to add more ruffles next time and closer together, but I love this dress and it was a really fast and quick project.

Kids Clothes Week Challenge

2010-05-12T12:46:00.000-04:00

I'm guilty of sewing for everyone else and trying to stock up my etsy store before I even get to create clothing my children. Raise your hand if you do the same ;o).

I tease my 3 year old daughter (un-intentionally) by asking her to try on a dress so I can photograph it and then ask her to take it off just after she asks "Can I keep it on?" Oh, bless her little heart. So what didn't come soon enough, this week marked the start of the kids clothes week challenge.

The goal is to sew at least an hour each day----CHECK---I do more than that, but the idea is to sew for your own children and have a nice little wardrobe by the end of the week...GAH!

So Day 1 came and my little guy was the first, and he got this little outfit:

I love these shorts....check out his chubby little leggies that just makes my heart melt...

Day 2: A goldfish set...for my little guy

He was taking a nap when I completed this so I wasn't able to snap a photo of him in it, but what I was able to do was create these assembly line style so that I could make some for my kids, but also have some to list in my Etsy shop as well--which I have 2 available right now :)

Day 3 is today and is currently in the works---something that I kind of concocted myself....hoping to finish it shortly so that I can snap photos while it's daylight and this time be able to say to my daughter...."Yes, you can keep it on.....it's yours :o) "

A Frock By Friday

2010-04-29T02:06:00.001-04:00

A Frock By Friday

I want to make that dress!

Love this Idea! Going to be joining this sew-along, since I love sewing clothes and love finding new patterns!!!

Stop over to Grosgrain and follow along and have a dress made in one week or sooner if you wanna cheat :o)

EEEEeeeeee!!!! It's here!

2010-04-23T14:30:00.000-04:00

Had to share.....Guess what arrived early this morning?

I have been waiting for these books to arrive for almost 2months and they came a week earlier than the expected ship date! They are just awesome and I have already marked several projects to add to my to do list.

Re-purposing

2010-04-22T22:18:00.001-04:00

I have a love for all things Vintage, especially vintage fabrics. I acquired several boxes of fabrics from auctions, ebay and thrift store lucky finds several years ago and they have just sat in the same boxes unused just waiting, and begging to be used.

I found some old vintage sheets in one of the boxes and was really happy to have found them, just look at the loveliness:

I don't know how I could have forgotten about these. Well, I started to work on one and turned one of them into this twist on a wrap dress

The pattern can be found on the special issue of Stitch Magazine

I just loved how quick and easy it was to put this together, and it really does have a simple, yet classy look, definitely plan on making more.

I tried it on my daughter and she just loved it!

Get your issue today, or if you're interested, this dress is available for sale, it fits a size 2-3, worn only for a few minutes by my daughter to take some photos :o) Contact me by email if you would like to purchase this or if you would like one custom made for you. (BunnyLaneDesigns@yahoo.com)

Alabama Style

2010-04-19T01:52:00.000-04:00

I created a truly one of a kind piece that turned out better than I could have ever imagined. My hands and fingers are sore as this piece was truly created mostly by hand--very time consuming, but so worth it.

I used an applique pattern from: Alabama Stitch Book by Natalie Chanin

If you don't have this book in your library yet, this is truly a must-have. I created my own A-line dress/jumper pattern to trace the applique onto.

Using the reverse applique technique is really easy, but when it's what felt like a million stitches, I don't know the likelihood that I will ever be recreating this dress:

My main outer layer is Linen, and then lined inside with 100% cotton...this is a pic I took during one of my many breaks

before I turned it into a dress...

Now being modeled by my daughter Bel and I even created a matching headband.

Creation Updates

2010-04-19T01:39:00.001-04:00

That's all I got....because I can't come up with a catchy or funny title at the moment :oP

If you're a fan on facebook....this may be a repeat. I share my latest creations on there as I make them and have giveaways often. I have given away 2 outfits now and will have another giveaway once 400 fans have been reached!

Visit me here:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Bunny-Lane-Designs/251709707887?ref=ts

Etsy shop will be open soon, I've been sewing like crazy in order to stock up items and will have them up beginning of May. Items will be available for purchase on my website of course as well as my storefront on Facebook and last but not least Etsy.

Lots of pics, I've been slacking on the blog post, but here are some of the latest creations:

Ruffle A-Line Dress

Ruffle Skants with Ruffle tank

Because we can't forget the boys....matching ties including Daddy

Finally getting to cut into super soft Little Folks by Anna Maria Horner

My 300th Fan Giveaway winner received this Ruffle Bubble Romper

I created this quilt designed by Vanessa Christenson of V&Co. and donated it to the March of Dimes

Altered Pillowcase dress with Ruffles---my 200 Fan giveaway winner received this :o)

So that's it for the show & tell for now....Be sure to check back and also visit my facebook page to be notified when the next giveaway will be!

Ode to my Ironing Board Cover

2010-04-08T11:37:00.000-04:00

Oh Ironing board cover you and I have been through a lot--many great fabrics have been pressed, beautiful creations have started from that first press and bursts of steam from our best friend Oliso, but I couldn't protect you from the tornadoes, you know them well A.K.A. Isabel & Gabby.

from the numerous of times you've had a taste of chocolate, been smothered with chapstick, received drops of honey and peanut butter, who knows what else.....

you've been washed, rinsed, spun and dried plenty of times your skin pilling and fibers have been separating, but we still cranked out outfits and quilts you, my beloved ironing board cover and I.

Alas, it was time for a face-lift, one that I should have done a long time ago.....

I hope you like your make-over. I surely do, makes me want to iron clothes all day on you :P

oh how it's just the little things that make me happy nowadays. I highly recommend everyone creating their own ironing board cover, it's guaranteed to motivate and inspire :o)

On Top of the World

2010-03-29T02:41:00.003-04:00

Week 13 - “Dramatic B&W” Photo Challenge!

Another I Heart Faces Photography Challenge!

I took this picture during my mom's group outing. I happened to see him standing as he is in the photo with a pouty look, after I asked him to smile, that's all that I was given. This is the original photo.

With a little editing magic, I was able to create my "Dramatic" photo:

Good luck to everyone that enters! I'll be back with more sewing projects that I have completed since this IS my sewing blog and quite possibly a tutorial :o)

I Heart Faces--Focusing on Angles

2010-03-22T22:07:00.001-04:00

A photo challenge:

I am by no means a Professional Photographer, I wish I was though :o)

I came across the site "I Heart Faces" site through several blogs and thought I would go ahead and participate. I take pics pretty much everyday whether it be on my creations, my children or just random people and things that I see during my travels.

Week 12's focus: Angles

I was lucky enough to be invited by my sister to photograph a very special moment as she proposed to her long time partner. I was shooting from below looking up at them and it made Jen (on left) look like she was flying. I was really pleased with how this and several others that I took turned out.

That's my entry, fingers are crossed---there were too many awesome pics posted there! Everybody is so talented!

Distractions.....

2010-03-11T22:02:00.000-05:00

So much for posting flower tutorials, I knew my kids wouldn't allow enough time for me to post daily on my blog, or do really much of anything except clean up after them 10x's a day!

I'm so behind on orders, I apologize if you're one of my customers reading this..... it's really tough to find a decent amount of straight sewing time to finish when you have 3 little ones running around, my 4th who helps a lot when he gets home just can't do it all and they run circles around him :) He's a big help though.

I did manage to make an outfit for my daughter using Patty Young's Julia Pattern and then created my own top and used the Jack and Jill Hat Pattern by Izzy n' Ivy--it turned out so cute and I sent a sneak peak to my customer who was thrilled--she only chose the fabrics and said "something funky". I hoped it was funky enough :)

The clothing creations:

My favorite hat

Working on my photography skills :)

Doing the "uh-oh" from Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs :)

Gabby modeling and loving the pettiskirt I made for her

***Twirling***

***Cheesin'***

More on the way as I am able to create. Just had to share. I've even got some of my own creations coming that I hope to have a tutorial for ***fingers crossed***

Day 13--Crafty Beats Green and Yellow Fabric Flower

2010-02-16T01:31:00.001-05:00

Green and Yellow Flower Pin

If you made my ornament tutorial....this is created almost the same way :)

Day 12--Maize's Frayed Flower

2010-02-16T01:24:00.000-05:00

Maize Frayed Flower Tutorial

Day 11--Frayed Flower Embellishment

2010-02-16T01:21:00.000-05:00

Another creative way to use fabric flowers---I love how she used it on this card!

You're My Favorite Fabric Rose Card

Day 10--Grace Violet's Fabric Roses

2010-02-16T01:18:00.000-05:00

Grace Violet's Embellished Rosette Tank

Super cute!!! I want to make these for my little girls NOW!

Day 9-- Julia's Origami Fabric Flower

2010-02-16T01:15:00.002-05:00

Origami Folded Fabric Flower

Day 8--Sew Ritzy's Multi-Petal Flower Tutorial

2010-02-16T01:12:00.000-05:00

Anna's Flower

Day 7--Boutique Nutmeg's Fabric Flower Tutorial

2010-02-16T01:08:00.001-05:00

Really cute and she finished them off in my favorite way :)

See the tutorial here: Fabric Flower Tutorial

Day 6: Rounded Petal Fabric Flowers

2010-02-11T00:44:00.000-05:00

Day 6: Rounded Petal Flower

Gather up your supplies--you will need scraps of fabric, needle, thread, scissors and your choice for a center.

Look to your stash--I have a tote full of 2x2 squares which will create a 2 1/2" flower, use larger squares for larger flowers.

1. Cut your pieces of fabric into 5, 2x2" squares

2. Fold each square in half to form a triangle and press with your fingers or an iron

3. Take your needle and thread it long enough to be able to sew through all triangles. Start on the right side of the triangle with the point at the top and continue to the other raw side of the triangle. Pull tight and you will create the petal. With the same needle and thread continue with the other triangles.

When you have sewn all the petals sides and pulled to form the petal, you will need to sew petals 1 and 5 together. Take a couple of extra stitches to secure.

Now turn it over and close with your center. I used a covered button on mine. Notice the different fabrics? Like a knuckle-head, I was transferring the photos to my computer and managed to only send my finished pic and deleted the rest :( So I had to start over.---Nonetheless, it was completed again :)

Again, attach to your favorite place....you all know where mine will be :)

Snowed In

2010-02-10T21:15:00.001-05:00

.....It had to be at least over 3ft of snow that fell over the weekend and continued to fall down again late Tuesday evening until Wednesday afternoon--that is a pic from my basement and that is a 4ft. fence. The house is full as my oldest did not go to elementary school since last Thursday and my 3 year old did not have pre-school as well...so not much alone time for me, more like no crafting time as my hopes of being able to do 28 flowers in 28 days have quickly left me 5 days behind :(

These cold and snowy days make me turn more towards knitting and I was able to finish a pair of socks for my husband whom I never get the chance to make many things for.

I love natural earth tone colors and really this was the only "man" looking yarn that I had in my stash :P

My finished sock......doesn't it just look warm.

I hope those that had to endure this winter storm are keeping nice and warm! I'll be back to continue my attempt at making flowers.

Day 5- Molly Chickens Fabric Flower

2010-02-08T15:12:00.000-05:00

Molly Chicken's Fabric Flower Pin

Day 4- Rounded Petal Fabric Flower

2010-02-08T15:09:00.000-05:00

The kids have allowed me zero time to make the flowers myself---so I will be attaching links to some really cute fabric flower tutorials.....starting with:

Day 4: Rounded Petal Fabric Flower by Melissa of Pink Paper Peppermints

Day 3- Ribbon peonies

2010-02-08T00:08:00.000-05:00

Bear with me :) A couple of days late, but I'm adding to it....I will be doubling up tomorrow to catch up. Sorry for the bad pics, I didn't have enough time to bust out the "good" camera--hope these will suffice.

Day 3: Ruffled Ribbon Peonies

What you need:

--2-3 yards of WIRED ribbon--that is important! ( mine is 1 1/2")

--thread and needle

--felt, and clip or your own chosen finishing

1. Pull on wire on side of the ribbon to start the ruffling. Ruffle to the end of the ribbon. Make sure to leave about 2in. of wire on both ends.

2. To begin creating your flower, take the end you started pulling from and fold the ribbon back and forth about 4 times to get a good start. Take you needle and thread and secure several times.

3. Wrap the ribbon around your base and stop at the beginning of each wrap to stitch and secure in place. Continue till you reach the end.

4. Stitch through all layers if you can, if it's too thick then add a few extra stitches to secure the layers. It will look pretty messy on the back so you will want to take your piece of felt and stitch to the back.

5. If you are going to be using this as a clip, take another piece of felt--rectangular size and stitch to the back of first piece of felt.

6. Attach and finish to your preferred method!

Day 2--Fabric Flower Corsage

2010-02-04T09:42:00.003-05:00

Mothers Day Corsage by The Object Project:

Attach with corsage pins, saftey pins or glue to headband or bag for a really cute look :)

15 Days of Flowers......Day 1

2010-02-02T14:48:00.002-05:00

Ahhh....February, the month full of love and flowers. This month, I've decided to create 15 days of flowers.

Everyday, (time permitting) I will post a tutorial on how to make different types of flowers....whether they be knitted, crocheted, and made out of various types of material...so we begin:

DAY 1: The Knitted Flower

Don't know how to knit?--no worries this is one of the best sites to learn from: Knitting Help , and of course there is always YouTube videos.

Materials: (perfect for scrap yarn!)
Yarn in your color of choice
Size 2 knitting needles
Needle & Thread
Button or your choice for center of flower

The Pattern:

Cast on 49 stitches

ROW 1: Purl

ROW 2: K1, *YO, K1, S1, K2Tog, PSSO, K1, YO, K1; Repeat from * to end of row.

Repeat Rows 1 & 2, 2 more times ending in Row 2.

Row 7: Purl

Row 8: P2Tog to the last stitch, Purl (you should have 25 stitches)

Row 9: K2Tog to the last stitch, Knit (you should have 13 stitches on your needle)

Cut yarn, thread through all the stitches on the knitting needle, pull up really tight and knot and secure.

Attach your center:

Use it however you choose! I chose to attach it to an alligator clip and then attached it to a headband:

and now admire your piece of work! Here is the final piece on my daughter :)

Easy and fast and a great way to use up scraps of yarn :)

Patchwork Twirl Dress Winner!!

2010-02-01T22:52:00.001-05:00

Pick a number from 1-47 I asked my husband......"16" Little did he know that he had just selected the winner for my Patchwork Twirl Dress.

...Totally random....the winner is:

Chrystal said...: Wow. In this trying economy, what a wonderful gesture for you to give away a free dress!! This dress is ADORABLE! I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE patchwork. I cannot sew a straight line, so I appreciate all the work put into patchwork designs. Boutique clothing is just awesome. I love when girls are able to have clothes that aren't mass produced and that give them a chance to have something that is original. I have two girls. A 10yo and a 10m old (yes, you read that right! The Lord decided our family wasn't done). I would be ecstatic to have either of my girls in this dress. My hopes are that you would choose my comment, but to be honest, your choice will be a blessing for whomever may receive it. Thank you for your kind heart. ~Chrystal
January 28, 2010 11:30 AM
What a great comment too :) Thanks Chrystal, please send me an email with your information and I will create a dress for one of your daughters---- simpelodyer@yahoo.com

It's Giveaway Time!

2010-01-28T01:01:00.001-05:00

It's been too long since I hosted a giveaway, I decided to make this a 2'fer. Good things come in 2's :)

I was approached by Leslie of Mamma Tortilla to participate in their first giveaway and create "something cute". So many things fall in my "cute" list, but the very first thing that came to my mind was to make a little doll perfect for a little girl that included a change of outfits along with a matching baby quilt. Now the doll being pictured has dark brown hair and dark brown eyes, but no worries, I've offered to create a personalized little cutie for the special little girl in your life if you are the winner---granted your little one does not have Dark Brown or Dark Brown eyes, so this is a giveaway for everyone!

Head over to Mamma Tortilla's blog to enter to win a doll and for more information regarding this giveaway. While you're there, check out their blog, it's so cute and full of great tutorials and ideas for you to make and make that to-do list of yours even bigger :)

~~~~~~~~~~
WAIT......THERE'S MORE!!!!
2nd giveaway details......

Spring will be here before you know it and that along with Summer are my 2 favorite seasons, why? I love getting my girls dressed up like little princesses.
To help one lucky reader of my blog get an early start for the warm season, I am offering my patchwork twirl dress handmade by me for your daughter, grand-daughter, neice, sister, cousin whomever you choose to have this dress made for plus a matching hair bow.

Enter to win this:

Cute huh?

This one's my daughters, she won't part with it, but I will happily re-create one for the winner. Look at the twirl and just imagine the wonderful photos you will have not to mention one happy little girl.

How do you enter? Leave me a comment here and tell me why you would want to win this dress. It's that easy. Spread the word and follow my blog, as there will be more giveaways and tutorials here!

A winner will be chosen and announced on Monday! Good Luck!

Yearly Fabric Splurge

2010-01-17T23:57:00.003-05:00

I've somewhat started a tradition for myself for the past two years now, kind of as a late Christmas present to myself, I splurge on fabric. I'm in fabrics anonymous ;)

I have many things planned for this new crop of fabric goodness. My most favorite is Anna Maria Horners Little Folks fabric line, it has the softest feel in the world and can't wait to create items for my babies out of this yummy fabric.

So here are pics of some of what I picked up...folksy flannels, little folks and dobby dots complete line by Anna Maria Horner as well as full line of Meadowsweet by Sandi Henderson, Sugar Snap by Melissa Averinos, Amy Butler's new Love line in Flannel, Chloe's Imaginations and Caleb's Treehouse collection by Tina Givens and one of my new favorites Dolce's entire collection by Tanya Whelan, and did I mention I also got the whole collection of Heather Bailey's Nicey Jane? Oh man, I have a true love of vintage fabrics and I can't wait to turn that line into a wonderful quilt.

I picked up yards and yards of Heather Ross's Far, Far Away and Mendocino before it went out of print.

I can't wait to cut into all of this fabric and share my creations! So that is my little show and tell for now. I will be de-stashing some fabrics to make room in my craft room soon, so be on the lookout as well for a small fabric giveaway :)

Same Blog, New look and a merge of 2 companies :)

2010-01-15T23:28:00.001-05:00

Notice any changes? It's still me :)

This page is undergoing construction.

Lots of new things coming as I merge my two shops. I even got my handwriting turned into a font! You can see the samples in my Post titles--sooo cool and it was really fun! Hope everyone is having a great year so far and still sticking to those New Years Resolutions!

I'll be back with a giveaway as well as a tutorial so come back and check out my blog soon!

Is that really me?!?!

2009-12-03T12:23:00.002-05:00

Knit Lite Giveaway

Yes, it does say....Abbie from Woodbridge, VA
Whooo hooo!!!

I won a giveaway from Jenna Lou's blog! Just for being on her emailing list, I was automatically entered in her Knit Lite giveaway! This is just the best! They will definitely be put to good use as I teeter and totter back and forth from my sewing, quilting and knitting gifts for this holiday season.

Thank you Jenna Lou!

Handmade Ornament Tutorial

2009-12-03T01:53:00.012-05:00

This is a step-by-step tutorial on how to make one of these:

First let me begin by saying that by no means am I claiming myself to be the brain or the genius behind this design. This has been done in many variations, but this is "my" way of doing it.

MATERIALS:
Scrapbook paper or Fabric but you will need heavy stabilizer for fabric
Scissors, circle template, 1 1/2" circle puncher or anything that will give you a nice circle
Glue or Tacky Glue or your own prefered method of piecing the pieces together
Ribbon or String to hang your ornament
and any embelishments (I used beads and a very tiny hint of glitter)
Optional (Glaze, I also used a glossy glaze for a glass-like effect)

Begin by either tracing your circle onto your paper or fabric, I used a template. By cutting and using 1 1/2" circle this will yeild you a 3 1/4" ornament.

Make 20 circles and cut out if you haven't already

Next, create and draw a triangle on a separate sheet of paper that will create even half spheres from your 1 1/2" circles. (What I did was trace my circle on a separate sheet of paper and drew a line from each end of the triangle and cut it out) You will need to cut out the triangle as it will be your guide on where to fold over the ends.

Take one side and fold over making sure you fold it completely over one side of the triangle

Do the same for the other side

Last, fold over the bottom

Press down with a little force on all ends to create the crease in your circle---it should look like this

Do this for all 20 circles

To create the top and bottom pieces you will need to take one of the folded triangles and apply glue to one side

Take another triangle and join together by one side and have it look like so

Repeat this using only 5 triangles

When gluing the 5th piece your pieces should bend slightly downward, line edges together and then glue.

This is what the inside looks like (make 2 sets of 5 triangles glued together)

For the remaining 10 triangles you will glue them together creating a chain. It will look as though you have one triangle pointing up and then the next pointing down

This is all 10 glued together

Now, take your chain and glue the ends together making the middle part of your ornament, again make sure that all ends match up

Take one of your sets that you created for the top and bottom and glue it to the middle part of the ornament that you just created

Repeat for the other end, and you can end here.....

I sprayed some clear gloss glaze to make my paper ornament shiny and have a glass-like appearance

Now decorate and embelish and if you want to hang it up, don't forget to add your tie, I super-glued my ribbon bow and made an extra loop so that it can be hung on the tree.

Hope you enjoy making them, just as much as I did!

---Did I leave out any parts? Any part of my tutorial hard to understand? Email me and I would be more than happy to assist you further.

Handmade Ornament

2009-12-03T01:42:00.004-05:00

This would be the first swap that I will be participating in this year. I loved swaps, but haven't had much time to complete and participate in many---one of my friends sent me the link to an ornament exchange and I decided to participate in the last minute. It had to be handmade and it had to be mailed out before Dec. 7. I'm already done :)
It's being hosted by mammatortilla a friend of a friend who has a really cute blog--stop by and check her blog out.
This was quick and easy to put together, cutting out the circles if you don't have a puncher is what will take the longest time.
I will be posting a tutorial of how to make your own spherical shindig of a ornament in the following post--I remembered to take pics this time as I went along :)
So this is my creation itching to stay in my tree.

New Home, New Tree

2009-11-30T22:36:00.004-05:00

This year had to be one of my busiest, with a move, a new baby, and new business ventures, it left little time for me to drop by here and post projects that I had completed throughout the year, and there were many!
During the move, my ornaments for my Xmas tree were ruined, smashed and crumbled to smitherines, so during my Black Friday shopping, (yes ladies I participated, from 12am-8am!) I picked up new ornaments in a new color scheme that I am loving. So, here is my tree for this year :)

A new thing that I have started to do, and I'm kicking myself for, for not doing this sooner, is taking a handprint of my children this year and turning them into ornaments, I hope to continue this and do it again the same time next year and not only will it make my tree so much more personal and meaningful, but it'll be fun to see how much the children have grown in a year.

These are their hands, still in the creating stages, I haven't quite decided which material to use and how I will be decorating them, but you should see how small the littlest one is, those belong to my 4 month old *tear*

Now, some really cool ornaments that I just had to have, and you can see my color scheme for this year.

A yummy sour laffy taffy looking tree, makes me want to eat it everyday I see it

Cute not-so-little lollipop in neon green

Same lollipop, just in red

No topper this year, couldn't decide, but it does have my favorite word this time of the year...peace

And that's my tree w/ some presents, had to stop after finishing the 3rd roll, kids are spoiled and so am I :)

Happy Holidays!

"Stocking" up for the holidays

2009-11-30T00:21:00.005-05:00

Nothing like nice and simple craft projects to ease my way back into making custom orders as well as creating handmade gifts for my friends and family this holiday season.

I have yet to make my family's stockings, but managed to complete these 2 orders for custom stockings. I was also able to put my new "toys" to use :)
During my time away I purchased a new serger and also convinced my husband to purchase my christmas present early ....hehehe....a new embroidery machine----HOW IN THE WORLD DID I LIVE W/OUT ONE BEFORE! Just the amazing things that I can now do and the personalization that all of my gifts will now have this year, I'm just giddy w/ excitement, can't you tell??!!

Here is the first of my custom stocking orders using applique, and all of my stockings were made using my serger for extra durability to last the family through many years.

Decorator fabric for the cuff and nice soft blue velvet material for the body, sooo soft in person.

Second custom order.....Embroidered stockings, my new favorite thing to make.

Thanks to Cheryll for sending me a photo of my stockings already hung in her home. I love it when a customer is really satisfied :)

Did you notice those cute little paw stockings? We couldn't leave out her little puppies! They had their own custom stockings too---find the pattern for them HERE.
They turned out so cute, it ALMOST made me want to get a dog just so I could have one of these to hang too.

Quick, simple and required less than a yard for each stocking. These would be great to place to give presents in. You can find patterns for stockings to create your own everywhere! Go make your own and share them with me!

Has it really been almost 6 months?

2009-10-25T23:04:00.003-04:00

WOW!

I've been away for so long, and for good reasons :)

Please welcome our newest addition born July 22, William Anderson

I'm so in love! He, along with my 3 other children have taken up a lot of my free time and I have not had the chance to sew or quilt, but that will soon change! I've started a Grandmother's fan quilt for a customer and have several dolls to complete, along with projects that I have completed. I will have to post the pics---COMING SOON! PROMISE

I had to post and now doing a lot of catch up reading all of my favorite blogs!

Multi-tasking

2009-05-09T13:37:00.005-04:00

Working on selective coloring--my daughter Bel wearing one of my bows and being a great model :)

Covered Button Pony Tail Holders & Snap Clips for a customer!

A stacked bow I made for my neice, Olivia

I made a woven headband for my daughter to match one of her tops

Top view of one of my rag bows

My friends daughter modeling it for me since my girls do not have enough hair :)

Quilt-a-long week 2 w/ my sashing---I'm choosing to go w/ blue, something different

So many different projects going on at the same, which is good for me in order to keep motivated and complete orders, above are some completed bows that I made for my neice and some of my friends daughter and me messing with selective coloring--I love the black and white photos and having a pop of color here and there!

I've also been keeping up w/ the quilt along--still working on my nine patch Amanda Jean!
I've decided it will not be a twin size, but rather a crib or lap--I don't think I have the strength to make a twin on top of several other quilts and crib set orders that I need to complete. Off to post the photo in my flickr group!

Quilt Along, Week one patches finished

2009-05-05T21:24:00.002-04:00

Here they are, I've completed my first 7 blocks for the quilt-a-long w/ Amanda Jean of CrazyMomQuilts. My goal is to use up a lot of my vintage scraps that I have laying around. I wish I decided to use my designer fabrics that are more current and more modern, but I need to get rid of a lot of my vintage scraps.....so here they are, not my favorites, but it's just the beginning and maybe once I add my sashing and complete several more patches, it will start to look better. HOPEFULLY.

Korkers and clippies and boutique bows, OH MY!

2009-05-01T08:03:00.003-04:00

I'm hooked! I wanted to make only a couple of clippies, but I just couldn't stop at 2. I stayed up until 3am making some really cute bows that I'm proud of and making quite a mess--who knew this little craft could be so messy, addicting, and frustrating, but so worth it at the same time?!
So I thought I would share the bows that I ended up making :)

My latest korker bow that I made to match a couple of Bel's dresses

A photo of my very first korkers...I've come a loooong way, almost to embarrasing to show these

Mini-clippies for both girls in solid colors for playdates--super no-slip!

This is my twisted, stacked boutique bow that is waaaaay to big to placed on either one of my girls hair, but I know the perfects little girl with TONS of hair to model this bow for me :)

So, that's it for now, I'll have to take photos of these bow and clips in action! Hope you liked my bows!

It's finally here!!!

2009-04-28T11:21:00.002-04:00

My Four Seasons Quilt Swap 5 finally arrived! I started to give up on it, thought it was lost somewhere between Australia and here, but it came! Better late than never! It's just beautiful! Louisa from Lululollylegs made me such a beautiful quilt and added a ton of extras in it for me. Thank you Louisa! I LOVE IT ALL!
Sorry for the dark photos, couldn't get my flash to work right and well just plain too lazy to brighten and do a fix on photoshop....so that's my quilt!

My latest addiction

2009-04-26T22:40:00.004-04:00

I had to take a short break from quilting & sewing, it seemed like almost everyday and every evening I was sewing something or quilting something....that's killer to my hands, arms & not to mention posture, I'm almost 7 months along in this pregnancy now and the swelling sucks!--I know time flies, I feel like I just announced we were having our 4th :)

A friend of mine from my mom's group introduced me to hairbow making--BIG MISTAKE, we all know how I am when I pick up a new hobby/craft--I go crazy! and that I did, a trip with a couple of my gal pals to the ribbon outlet and major purchases here and there from Joann's and Michaels has created a ribbon explosion, but the organized maniac and neat freak that I am couldn't let it sit that way for a very long time. All of my ribbon now is organized and separated into types and colors, all loose ribbon is rolled and I bought a perfect caddy to take along with me for when we all get together again for more hairbow making.

It's such the perfect side hobby right now with quick results and so very much needed with everything our family is going through. I love it, I'm just trying to perfect my techniques and make my bows look somewhat decent. Right now, I have two little girls with very little hair, happy to help their Mommy and model her finished bows!

Another one for the "Will never finish pile"

2009-04-08T21:09:00.005-04:00

WHAT WAS I THINKING?!!! All by hand?

About a little over a year ago, I attended an auction of a quilter who passed away leaving 3 rooms full to the brim of fabric and notions. I was in heaven of course, and if I had the room to hold everything, I'm pretty sure I would have bid and purchased it all. In the many boxes I won, she did not have any pieces of fabric larger than 10" everything had been cut so I was in a crunch and wondered what to make with her vintage treasures.

A scrappy log cabin quilt completely made out of hand to practice my hand-piecing & hand-quilting is what I ended up on doing. I started out w/ a bang and stayed up many nights to cut my pieces and piece my strips together in no particular color scheme other than to maintain the red square in the middle for all blocks. Eventually, it became too overwhelming and joined the other abandoned projects.

Going through it, I realized I accomplished quite a bit, I counted 62, 9" blocks and 8, 18" pieced blocks. I don't think I will ever finish this quilt, so I'm wondering is there anyone who would like to take this over? Is there a quilter's guild that would like to have this to work on? If so, leave a comment here, maybe I'll split it amongst those interested. Have a look at the photos and see for yourself. I don't expect whoever does take this from my hands to finish it completely by hand, but I would love to see it finished :)

Look at the cute Holly Hobbie fabric!!

Anyone want these? Someone with a more trained eye can tell what years these fabrics come from. If you do know, pls. tell me, I would love to know!

Getting Back into the Swing of Things

2009-04-01T14:12:00.007-04:00

Slowly but surely I'm getting back to where I was---well kind-of, I don't want the sewing like crazy to meet deadlines & the huge stash. I'm redesigning my website, re-doing my blog and eventually will be listing items back up on etsy & art fire. It's taking quite a bit of time & it would require me to sit in front of the computer for long periods at a time--I hate doing that! For some reason I feel like a lazy bum for doing it. 3 kids running around now & a growing belly keep me busy enough.

I took some time off to focus more on my family and work on my charity quilts for Project Linus, Warm up America & St. Judes Childrens Hospital. I have completed several and hope to make a couple more. I did participate in a couple of swaps during my hiatus just to keep the sewing juices flowing, and wanted to thank my swap partners for the wonderful items that were sent to me. If I didn't get to thank you before, I apologize. I really did mean to, but life kinda, sorta got in the way.

Here are photos of some of the charity quilts, silly me mis-placed my camera for some time & my deadline was nearing so I was not even able to take photos for my album :( It was soo hard to part with, but going to a good place.

So, those are the baby, crib quilts that I was able to photograph. I'm so in love with Rag Quilting now, I've started another fresh-cut quilt like the one above to make for my little girls. If you are interested in donating a crib quilt please let me know. I'm also participating in making pillowcases for the children's hospital with my local quilt shop---They have already donated over 200 pillowcases for the soldiers & are hoping to do the same, if not beat that amount for the children.

Well, that's it for now, it's off for some tidying around the house first & then catch up on some sewing!

What I've been up to

2009-03-20T09:07:00.008-04:00

I'm not doing a good job at all w/ keeping up w/ blogging! So much has happened since I last posted on here--there isn't enough space to fit it all in this post, but I'll mention a couple of things....

--We have found out we are having a boy! So the family will be nice & even---3 girls & 3 boys in the house! HOORAY! The fabrics have been picked out & ready to be turned into a quilt for the new baby.

--Baby charity quilts are moving along--5 have been completed & turned in to St. Judes Children's Research Hospital, I have my last couple started, but have yet to complete them & only managed to take a photo of only some of the completed baby quilts before they were delivered.

--The sewing room was completed and organized, WHEW! It's been done for some time now, but I rarely found the time to sit and blog about it & post photos & we all know how I hate to blog and not post a photo along, but to refresh everyones memory--I dramatically decreased my fabric stash about a month or so ago & it left a big explosion of a mess for me to clean & organize. Besides working on charity quilts, taking care of the kiddos & trying to find time in between to rest & relax & enjoy for once a sickless pregnancy; it is finally complete. Here is how it all looks now:

The Complete View

Downsized dramatically the magazine stash & have kept my fav.

Even the books took a big hit

My solids have taken up now 3/4 of the top shelf, instead of the whole top shelf--mixed in w/ some of my children's cotton prints & flannels

My designer wall of fabrics fitting on one side of my shelf now :)

I call this my notions wall & felt section

Hundreds of $ spent on printer ink cartridges & printer paper have gone to this: Purchased patterns from Etsy, blog tutorials all printed out and organized in order within these 9 binders, working on my 10th now!

There's plenty more fabric behind the closed drawers & cabinets, but I'm just glad I no longer have totes everywhere. I divided the fabric amongst friends, donated several bags to schools & sold what I had the patience to photograph & list.

So that's where the stash is currently at, I've made a promise & commitment to myself that I will no longer purchase fabric just to have it, but when I have a certain project, I will only buy what I need. So far so good & my sewing area is still neat & organized. So that's it for now w/ the sharing, I'll have to come back & post later on the baby quilts & swap photos!

UFO's FOUND!! Not the ET kind :)

2009-01-30T19:11:00.004-05:00

Before the fabric diet the organization was very deceiving....yes deceiving. Everything that I had, I had just thrown in bins to make room for more fabric not following the rules. "For every ONE new thing that comes in, take TWO out." I just stacked and put them away eventually forgetting what I had in what tote/bin/drawer. Back then I was able to handle 3 or 4 different projects at the same time, I can't do that so much now, but my works in progress from a year ago that I stashed promising to go back to when I had the time, only to be forgotten has now been found!

I forgot about these lap quilts. I will eventually go back and finish these, but it just brought a smile to face when I saw my quilt tops that I was so determined to do by hand. So I thought I would share them with you. There are some that I hand pieced and started to hand embroider, there is another quilt that I was quilting along as I go and quilt tops w/ teeny tiny 1" squares. Here is what I found so far.....I know I have more of these laying around somewhere. I may finish these and add these to my charity quilts!

So that's it, I'm not quite finished re-organizing and de-stashing, but it is great to find forgotten pieces of work, now I'll definitely find more things to do during this pregnancy

A Major Fabric Diet

2009-01-29T23:56:00.004-05:00

Sighhh.... it was only a couple of days ago that my stash was overflowing and taking up almost every corner in my home--much to my husbands disliking. I dramatically reduced my stash and did some major stash busting!

Remember this?......

Everything organized by color, calico, vintage solids, flannels and overflowing everywhere. Not like that any longer. Thanks to the big help of my best buddy who came over and helped take away a great amount of the fabric--(it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be) has helped me clear away my clutter.

Here is how it looks so far in all it's disorganized mess and splendor--Caution...de-stashing in progress:

Empty tops, not as full shelves....this is a good start.

These still have to make it's way somehow into my main wall unit. A big difference from before.

Look! All empty behind the doors!

An embarrassing mess, but I tend to make a big mess before it actually gets sparkly clean.

It is nowhere near finished, I still have to organize and decrease some more. There is still the books, the many unfinished quilt blocks, unfinished quilt tops, and tons and tons of pre-cut 1 1/2"-10" squares that I was saving for so long, I think it is finally time to let go. There's still the bins of scraps that I'm going to be going through now w/ a different eye, plus, I've signed up for swaps that only require me to send scraps and of course I'll add tons of extras to it so a big de-stash it is!

I'm Back

2009-01-24T13:36:00.004-05:00

Oh my, I can't believe it's been a month since I last posted on my blog. I can only apologize to my blog groups, swap partners, and friends for my unintentional absence from blog world. Many things were happening before, during and since my last post, many of which I did not blog about because it was personal information as well, but one of the reasons for my absence, we suffered a major loss in the family during Thanksgiving and were not able to bury him until right before Christmas because of a special request to be buried at Arlington Cemetery.

I've also been suffering from morning sickness, slight depression and battles w/ Graves Disease. For those who are unaware of the disease it is a thyroid condition-(Hyper) that I have been battling with since after my second pregnancy. Many many things, but I will spare you any further details because I have noticed I am pretty much close to crossing that line of TMI.

There has not been much sewing/quilting going on and I have decided to get rid of almost all of my fabrics & sewing supplies. NO..I have not stopped sewing completely, but the collection/stash was getting too far out of hand and taken over ever corner in my home causing rifts between my husband and I. Along w/ aquiring too much fabric and supplies, I also took on too much all at once and placed a lot of undue stress on myself to finish in time, for this many of my swap partners have experienced delays and for this I very much apologize. Too many orders, not enough hours in the day to finish them between my own company, etsy, and BizMarket along with swaps I was a VERY BUSY GIRL.

I'm still sewing & quilting, but I've decided to regretfully hold off on my own business and take another route. I have to say that I was very lucky to be given this opportunity to now be working closely with a sewing designer to be her pattern tester and to also create items for her to sell. I think this right now is the best for me since all material is being provided to me, I will be paid for my time along w/ that I will be receiving material to keep my own--How cool is that? I am hopeful this will work out in the long run and alleviate much of the stress that has befallen me since I decided to make quilts for work. Now I get to focus on my charity quilts which have been slowly progressing. I will post photos on my next post once I am able to take better photos of them..I promise!

So I haven't left completely. I'm slowly getting back into the groove. I'm catching up now trying to read the all the posts I've missed--SORRY! I've missed you all & thank for all the kind words during my absence :) It was great to come back to those comments!

The Cats Out of the Bag

2008-12-27T22:17:00.003-05:00

We had to wait until we told our family first before posting on here. There's nothing like having your parents and family find out your big news from reading about it on your blog. So we spilled the beans on till to let them know.................

WE'RE PREGNANT!!!!--Baby #4 is on the way.

We've known for several weeks now so that initial shock has come and gone. I have never been one to keep my pregnancies to myself for very long. I know there are some folks out there that prefer to keep the news until they have passed the first tri-mester, but knowing myself, in the event that something like that something horrible was to happen, I would definitely need the support of my family to get me through a rough time.

So now my blogging friends you all know...YAY!!! It feels so good to let that out.

Pics instead of words.....

2008-12-22T23:01:00.005-05:00

Busy, busy, busy......Happy Holidays to everyone!!

My Christmas Tree

2008-12-20T23:21:00.003-05:00

Vickie requested a larger photo of my tree...I hope you meant my real one, not the fabric because....here's photos of my Christmas tree, the first night in all it's splendor:

it doesn't seem to shine as much during the day, but I had to change sides and what a mistake:

two children under the age of 3? and I still wanted to have my "elegant-no-touch" tree? yeah right, I've learned....see what they've done?

Poor Tree.

Let Me Correct Something......

2008-12-20T20:55:00.004-05:00

I received this earlier this evening:

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Ahem(*cough*), snort, ahhhhh......:

" WOW! I was gone this past week and just looked in to see who the lucky giveaway winner was - and you didn't even follow through on your promise! What the heck? You said "The person with the most correct wins" - what happened? Just because you could barely count on one hand the persons who got more than 2 correct? I am sorry, but I just don't think that is right. I've seen alot of giveaways but never one that felt "enough" persons hadn't guessed correctly. I am disappointed. "

sam

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
--My first initial reaction after reading this was anger, but then I realized, this person does not know me, because if they knew me well enough they would not have left such a comment or thought I would cancel a giveaway because of the lack of "correct answers"? I thought I explained myself correctly, but after going back and reading what I wrote, I can see where I can be mistaken. If there were others that felt the same as "annonymous" I apologize. What I meant to say and what I should have said--and this is really what I meant to say:

When I said that I could barely count on one hand those that gave more than 2 answers, I should have said that there were only 3 that actually provided me with answers. There were about 2 or 3 that said they only knew 1, but did not give me an answer. There were several emails without answers, only well wishers and stating the fact that they do not know designers and wouldn't win.....so according to my rules that does not automatically enter into my giveaway---

When I posted "on second thought" I was saying that I wanted to have my giveaway be one that is open to everyone and not single anyone out. So, I asked for other ideas for the same package to be given away. I DID NOT CANCEL THE GIVEAWAY ENTIRELY--my buddy Kat can stand for me, I was giving some thought to someone who posted about guessing the weight of the package as a new way of having someone to enter---My main goal was to have a 'different' giveaway, not one where you leave comments, but something that added a little more--you all know Dana from Old Red Barn who gave away 3 quilts recently well she has people making videos and posting on youtube---I didn't want all that, my giveaway wasn't anything big to have that, but it does contain a substantial amount that I wanted a lot of entries and to give more people the chance to enter.

I failed miserably in putting into words what my intent was in re-scheduling the giveaway. I planned to repeat it after the holidays--I myself am busy too, so I thought this too would also allow more to enter, if I posted it after all the hustle and bustle the holidays bring. As the annonymous person stated they were disappointed, and I apologize you felt that way, but what you wrote as the reason why I ended the giveaway was not correct and not how I am, and it has saddened me. I don't want others to think of me that way. I just wanted to allow more people to enter and what would be easier than typing in a number to guess the weight of a big box? I mean, my photo wasn't a great one either, my friend pointed that out to me that there were some that were cut off or hiding, so that also wasn't fair to those who maybe would have known the answers.

So I want to start from scratch--not until January though. The new and revised De-stash, Purge Giveaway. Sorry for the misunderstanding.

and because I don't like posting without pics. I leave with this:

That should make anyone smile right? Now have I made myself clear?

Ahem(cough), snort, ahhhhh......

2008-12-17T22:05:00.004-05:00

My mailbox is 3 miles from my house one way...literally. So I'm jealous of you who have your mailbox within a few steps from your door, in your yard, and definitely even more jealous of those that have them attached to your door. Darnit.

Well it was sleeting, snowing, turning into mush and eventually freezing on the roads, so the mail had to wait. Thankfully my DH was home and he did our grocery and picked up the mail....and boy what a happy surprise awaited for me!

My slipper swap item from my partner came along with a generous gift from a fellow blogger.

What's the title all about?

----My cough came when I took a sip from the homemade hot cocoa mix from Sarah--not that it tasted bad, but it was just too gosh darn hot, I couldn't wait to take a sip.

----I literally snorted and choked on my hot cocoa when I saw what Susan Thomas sent me....have a look for yourself....

It just brought back that embarrassing, yet painful experience again, and you better believe I already gave it a whirl....Fantastic! I recommend these over those gloves anyday, but for my peace of mind, I'm using these and the gloves. Thank you Susan! What a surprise and so thoughtful and generous of you :) I tried to send you a message, but the blog address that was written on the package sent by the company mis-spelled something, I hope you are reading this. Thank you again, it was my laugh for the evening.

-----and ahhhhh....because I slipped on the cute little slippers Sarah from Sarah's Corner made for me and they just felt all nice and toasty lined with Chenille, and a very soft material on the outside, and you can't go wrong with green, my fav. color.

Funny, I was just getting on my husband's nerves just a few min. before he left for the store because I could not find my slippers, and bare feet in this cold weather along with having hardwood floors all through-out the house sucks without them. Perfect timing Sarah & well made!--Now the next part....don't get mad, I'm not at all poking fun of your sewing abilities, but there was a little discrepancy, one that worked out for the better :) Here goes another little info. about me that none of you know....one that may be considered TMI, but oh well, One foot of mine is a size 8 1/2 the other is a size 7 1/2, Sarah's slippers just happened to be off in size in one slipper and what a blessing, it fits me perfectly-- ahhh...such is the life when things just work out perfectly on their own.

Here are the slippers:

So I am one happy gal! I just love getting packages in the mail! Have a great day/evening everyone!

on second thought.......

2008-12-15T12:09:00.006-05:00

The giveaway it seems, was too hard for many--I'm sorry. I'm going to hold-off right now and hold the giveaway until I can come up with something else...plus. I also placed more items in the box. Pics to come on the new giveaway. There were very little comments under my giveaway post--You should have seen my inbox of the number of people wishing others good luck and letting me know that they do not know the designer fabrics, and I could barely count on just ONE hand the number of people that actually came up with more than 2 answers....so the number of folks that wished they knew and wanted to enter far out-weighed those that had actually entered. Sorry folks, I want to make this open to everyone. Does anyone have any ideas other than to just leave a comment?

************On another note, I was VERY busy sewing this weekend, completing orders and trying to catch up on the swaps I entered. I won't be entering 14 different swaps at the same time anymore....no matter how fun they are :)--(Yeah we'll see how long that lasts) Also, Amy Butler's donation for my Quilting For A Cause arrived :) Yay....Good thing there was a note in the box, otherwise my husband would have had my head if he thought I ordered more fabric..lol. Here's what she sent me: THANK YOU AMY!

Nice of her right? Another gernerous donation from wonderful fabric designers.

So, on top of sewing all day Friday and Saturday, I also attended the daily Biz Market on the mountain making sales and extra money for the holidays. We also decided to put up the tree again this year, and I also managed to find more pdf's and patterns to purchase. So let me leave you with some photos from my busy sewing weekend and a sneak peak for my swap partners into what you could be getting :)

Wrist pincushions, doll quilts, travel tissue covers, and so much more I have left to complete. I am apologizing now to my swap partners for the delay in getting your items out to you. I only hope that when you do finally receive them, it will be well worth the wait.

De-Stash & Purge Giveaway!

2008-12-11T01:35:00.005-05:00

Just a few days late from giveaway day, but well, better late than never right?

Let's start.......

How well do you know your fabric designers and their fabric line?

Why you ask? Well that's part of winning this giveaway. It's not going to be so easy this time, it's such a big jackpot I thought I would make you all work for it and use those brain cells this time. I've provided 16 different prints from 14 different designers....your job is to guess them corrrectly from left to right. The prize?

What you see is what you get....Scraps--Large scraps of what is pictured plus more. I've cleaned out a lot of my crafts, and gathered up a large box full of items, sure to please! You will find everything from Cross-stitch, embroidery, stamping, fabric--lots of fabric, and lots of yarn. --Oh and did I mention some quilting books? How large is this box full of contents? 30" x 18" x 12" to be exact.

So you want to enter now eh? Write down the names of designers you see and the name of their fabric that I have pictured, send it to me in email at simpelodyer@yahoo.com. Sounds easy enough right? I don't think I chose ones that were too hard, if you ask me, I think I made it too easy.

The person with the most correct wins--now, I leave it up to you to either email me or post a comment here--be aware that any answers left here can be seen by all and it just may be the answer they needed to top you....so send it to me in an email and leave a comment here to let me know you entered and you're good to go.

You all have until Dec. 15th to get your answers in, the winner will be announced later that day, and your item will be mailed out to you as soon as you respond. You have 48 hours to respond or else I will have to choose another winner.

Easy, Peasy! Well here's the stash, look carefully. Be sure to also stop by my etsy shop and check out my new additions!

You Know You're A Quilting & Sewing Junkie/-o-Holic When.....

2008-12-08T01:10:00.005-05:00

--You visit a fabric shop more than 2 times a week, for nothing in particular

--You visit a quilt shop more than 2 times a week, for nothing in particular

--and because of the previous reasons, every store employee knows your name

--Your 2 year old can say the names and recognizes the buildings of your favorite stores when you arrive-- "Yo'Wans"-Joann's, Kankcok-Hancocks, "Wub-fwabwics"-Webfabrics

--Every time you look through your fabric stash it's like Christmas all over again, because there's many that you forgot you had

--Not one room in your house is without "something you made", a sewing notion, fabric, crafts etc.

--Your work area spills into the Dining table and your husband has to ask you politely if he can eat at the table because he knows better than to touch and move your stuff

--Your children automatically eat in the living room because they know Mommy's important sewing things are on the table

--You have 3 copies of 1 book because you fail to check your large stash of books already

--You have 2 copies of the same magazine issue because you once again failed to check your

large stash

--You fill 6 drawers full to the brim with thread because you think you'll use them all in this lifetime

--You hunt through your local thrift store and Goodwill shops for fabric and bedsheets to use for sewing, on a daily basis

--You scour etsy & search for all the sewing & quilting patterns in PDF Format that you can buy because you can't wait for it to arrive through snail mail

--You scour the blogs for any sewing or quilting tutorials

--You purchase ink, sheet protectors and copy paper once a week because your printer is working hard printing the tutorials

--and because of those previous reasons, you've got the "index finger syndrome"--from clicking your mouse, your down arrow or your select key too many times, for a long time, searching for patterns/tutorials

--and like your fabric stash, when you look through all your patterns it's like Christmas all over again

--Last, you eat, sleep, S**T sewing & quilting 24/7

*I can't think of anymore, but I know I'm missing things....this is where you all come in. Add to the list, make it fun. Some of these may not apply to you, or some of these may apply to you, but for me, they ALL surely do apply to me. I'm slowly trying to go through this list and make sure that by New Years I can say that none of these apply to me--I've already fixed the eating at the table part. We all can eat there now!--at least for now. Is there anything you can add to the list?

--Where and why did this list come about? I was re-organizing again and looking to see if I needed to purge once more. Well I completely forgot about the fabrics I had stowed away behind the drawers and behind the doors of my wall units, so while going through them I was amazed at all of the items that I found, that I thought I didn't have or that I just went to the store and purchased because I forgot I had it. It was truly the saying "Out of Sight, Out of mind"

What did I find you ask? Well, I found, yards and yards and piles of true vintage fabrics and feedsacks--I completely forgot about that. Even more kid themed fabrics, even more fleece, and even more odd and end fabrics. I even found really old quilt blocks that I was saving to turn into a quilt. It was an early Christmas present to me! Hooray! To those that can relate...doesn't it feel good to find this stuff??!! I LOVE IT! This is why I organize often....Just to look back and find old treasures that will be new once more.

I hate posting without pics so I leave you with photos from my find. Try not to drool. J/K, but do check back here later this week. I'll be hosting another giveaway, but this time for my purged items!--There is no junk here SISTA! Be sure not to miss it-- An early Christmas present from me to you :)

There's more than that, but I wanted to save them for a certain giveaway..... ;) Ta Ta for now.

Quilting For A Cause Part II

2008-12-04T19:04:00.008-05:00

My quilt giveaway for Brenda's quilt was a wonderful success. I found many new blogs, and made many new friends because of it. Brenda's gift of sharing her bone marrow was really inspiring to me. I wanted to share her story with the world or at least to the few that read my blog. A wonderful story and a gift that I may not be able to ever give--it takes a much stronger person than myself and one less selfish to do what Brenda did. I didn't want to leave it at just the quilt giveaway, but rather continue to keep on giving to those charities that are not so much in the spotlight.

My current project? I will be creating quilts for Brain Tumor patients, along with those children suffering from Leukemia and cancer at the St. Judes Children's Hospital.

My goal: 15 quilts, 5 for each center that will be auctioned off to raise money for research for these three foundations. This of course would require a lot more fabric. An idea that would require more help. I thought to ask some of my favorite designers to perhaps donate some fabric to help in my goal. I figured if they were to send me a little bit of fabric, I could then create a quilt and return it to the designers to sign, and turn it into the foundations hoping it will generate a lot of bids--It was a long shot. I was a bit intimidated to ask but the request was received with much kindness and generosity from the designers.

I have already received fabric from Valori Wells, she provided me with a quilt kit for the Olivia Rose quilt complete with backing & binding fabric--wow! Joanna Figueroa of Fig Tree Quilts sent me over 20 yards of fabric, amazing & so far last but certainly not least Anna Maria Horner who sent me several yards of fabric from her Garden Party line. I did also ask Heather Bailey and Amy Butler of whom I have yet to receive their wonderful donation.

Of course it would be easier and I could have just donated money, but with the economy as it is and how short we are sometimes on money, I thought of another way to be able to donate. Who wouldn't want to recieve a quilt? I could also use a little help, I am asking if there maybe someone else out there that may want to help create quilts? This would of course be in addition to my personal goal of 15 so anyone with at least some quilting experience is required as these will be for auctions, deadlines for a majority of these quilts will be in March 2009 and others I have to still wait to hear from their Human Resources Dept. The quilts will be in Crib and Lap quilt sizes. If you are interested in helping and making a quilt donation, please send me an email at simpelodyer@yahoo.com. I could use any help :)

So I leave you with photos of some of the wonderful fabrics donated by Valori Wells, Joanna Figueroa, and Anna Maria Horner. Thank you to these wonderful, and generous designers.

For more information or if you would like to donate money please visit:

www.curebraintumors.org/
www.stjude.org/waystohelp
http://www.leukemia-lymphoma.org/

Quilting & Sewing Therapy

2008-12-03T00:51:00.007-05:00

There hadn't been too much sewing done for the past several days due to the rotary cutter accident with my little finger, but it actually forced me to get out my quilting frame and force myself to finish quilting by hand the quilt I made for my mother-in-law and her husband. I used the fabrics that belonged to my M.I.L.'s husbands mother that was given to me by my sister-in-law. I've always wanted to make a Wedding Ring Quilt so I found acrylic templates for a Double Wedding Ring Quilt from Joann's. You can purchase them here. I did a little altering and used muslin to create a flower bouquet effect.....it's nearly complete....the stitches aren't as small as I normally would make them and definitely not as I like, but I was able to accomplish more, nearly half of the quilt done, and I will be using a scalloped edge.

A close-up of my quilting---don't laugh--I promise....I really don't quilt that big... :)

This quilt has taken over 5 months to get to this point.....it took a backseat while I finished orders, but my goal is to have this done by Christmas. Earlier today was my chance to try something different and actually get back into sewing & using the rotary cutter again.....SCARY! But I had my gloves on--I don't know if they really work, but I really wasn't about the sit there and run the rotary cutter across the glove...no thank you, I'll leave it to someone out there stupid enough or maybe daring enough to test it out for me & let me know the result!

But here are the boots that I made out of Linen and my special ordered Grip Dot soles--a matching Linen dress will be following...I'm working on that right now and will definitely post a pic. If you want to give it a shot, you can purchase these at etsy--under username: ithinksewdotcom, she's having a sale right now and you better scoop it up at that price...I didn't get the sale price so I'm a bit upset, but it's a cute dress and a really cute UGG boot like pattern. If you decide to make it, let me know, I'd love to see how yours turns out.

So that's it as far as current projects that I can take pictures of, I've pretty much got a ton of projects half finished or that I just started cutting that I've got to get back to. I may not be around much this week as I will be busy sewing for the craft fair this Saturday--Wish me many sales! Have a great day and rest of the week!

Shopping & Fabric Therapy

2008-11-28T11:46:00.006-05:00

I'm back from shopping during this Black Friday and the goodies that I got has me saying - "Injured finger, schminger?--No way!!"

Looking at all the fabrics and all of the bright and wonderful colors really did help in making me forget the pain. HA! even though I can't really do much sewing or quilting, I was able to justify my insane shopping spree. It also helped getting 3 more quilt orders--busy, busy, busy, but a little extra mula in my pocket.

So I explained what happened to my poor lil' finger in my previous post. Now i've got photos....the projects that caused the pain, and the items I picked up to help dull the pain haha.

First I was able to get the protective gloves so there will not be anymore sliced fingers.

I picked these up at Joann's and they are priced at $24.99--really helpful... it's already helping and just knowing that I have them, they have taken out some of my fears of using the rotary cutter again.

Now.... the projects that started it all:

So I loved how they turned out, and these to me seem more apprealing than just a plain old crayon roll. The patterns can be found for purchase in etsy....the sellers names are: jcasa & auburn studios.

Now for some eye candy......--the great deals that were going on at Joann's and at my local favorite quilt shop, Webfabrics.

If you haven't noticed, the theme this time around was 'kids' anything kid friendly prints for boys and girls. I also managed to pick up several yards of Woodland Bloom fabric to use as my backing for another quilt I will be making--perhaps this time I may keep it for myself. So these fabrics will most likely turn into more art cases and also various baby items, like quilts, bibs, baby blocks and more. Of course I will share the end results when I have completed them.

So that's it for now....this is what would have been for my Show & Tell Thursday--I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving for those that celebrate it. Thank you all for the kind words and get well wishes :)

CAUTION!!--NOT FOR THE WEAK STOMACHS....

2008-11-28T01:35:00.003-05:00

I HAD A ROTARY CUTTER ACCIDENT.....

Well....where do I start? A lot of you as you all might continue to read this may start to wonder and think to yourselves..."Why in the heck is she posting about this?" Well to me, knowledge is power and I am a firm believer in learning from our mistakes as well as the mistake of others.

****I am almost embarrassed to tell what happened to me. One would think that for as long as I have been sewing, I would know better, but the pain and the throbbing of my finger and the amount of time it has taken me to write these two small paragraphs so far have surpassed and washed away any slight of embarrassment I may have felt earlier.

Let me begin here......I was sewing and trying to create a lot of little items to sell for the Dec. 6th craft fair. I just finished making a traveling art case and after feeling delighted with the end results and loving how quick it was to complete, I was on my way to starting another one.

Well-- as I was cutting my main piece of fabric and using my rotary cutter to cut the pieces out as I always do- as if it was the most natural thing for me and never really had to think much or pay too much attention when cutting---well, I applied too much pressure to my ruler and during mid-cut my finger slipped off the ruler and the blade ran across the tip and nail of my middle finger...OUCH!

I didn't realize how deep it was....to much blood was oozing out......thank goodness I had my buddy Kat to call and she calmed me down and helped me figure out what to do in order to stop the bleeding...well it took forever to stop, I was so exhausted and fell asleep and forgot about the pain......when i woke in the morning.....this is what I saw:

Be thankful the picture didn't come out too clear. My top part of my nail was almost completely off and my finger swelled up quite a bit. Time to go to urgent care...so that is where my Thanksgiving morning was spent. Thankfully, nothing that can't be fixed or healed in a couple of days....here is my lovely finger on it's way to healing:

I've always heard of how dangerous the rotary cutters are, but always tossed that notion aside. I always thought I was always careful and that it would not happen to me, but boy was i wrong. So the lesson here?-- go slow when cutting with the rotary cutter, make sure hands sit in the middle of the ruler a good distance from the cutting area, and apply even pressure.

Tomorrow is Black Friday, I will be heading out to Joann's for some great deals--and guess what I will also be adding to that list?---Fon's & Porter's Safety cutting gloves.--I am unable to sew or quilt right now , and it's been tough typing this all with one hand, so I may not be posting much of anything--I can't even knit :*(

So if you in the future may wonder why the lack of posts.....this is why. Please be careful when cutting. You don't want this to happen to you. It hurts like heck.

Show and Tell Thursday

2008-11-20T10:49:00.012-05:00

First, let's start with my photos for show & tell Thursday:

I tea-dyed some of my fabrics

I made a doodle girl doll from Chocolate Lollipop fabric line

I made a John doll to go with my doodle girl

I made a Jo doll

I made a quilt for a customer

This is my pieced backing for the quilt

I finally received my Spare Change Swap squares

Not much quilting or sewing has been getting done this week, my kids all decided to take turns getting sick-- so sick kids mean--lots of cleaning--I'm always behind disinfecting everything-really, no sewing, no quilting--and no blog posting, but since my husband is back and he had the past 2 days off I did manage to find some time to satisfy my urge to sew/quilt. I made some adorable dolls that are addicting! If you haven't seen them check them out..... I got them from here: http://www.bitofwhimsyprims.etsy.com/ . They really are quick and easy--you can make dolls in less than an hour. I've almost just about purchased all her doll patterns--I know, call me crazy, but I'm so addicted to the softies and plush dolls. I've built up my felt stash and also picked up some chenille and minky dots to make the animals...I can't wait to see how that turns out. Do any of you know where else to get patterns? I've been on the hunt and haven't found much so either Free or to buy--I WANT THEM ALL!

For the fabric dye-ers out there-- QUESTION !?! I just started to dye my own fabric, well I only did 3 and that was just using tea. I need to know the rules out there of what kind of fabric works best. I used one material--I don't know the material, some poly blend that took the tea so quickly and acheived the color I wanted so quickly....I took pictures of what I ended up with.(SEE ABOVE) The darker of the 3 is the unknown fabric so I was just wondering if you all can tell me which material is best to use for this? I of course am gonna use this new dyed material for the rabbit doll pattern and the bear :) I know I can buy it, but making it and having the control of the shade is SO MUCH BETTER! Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.

I also finally finished a quilt order....whew! Nothing like speed quilting :) It seems as though 2 is the magic number. However this quilt went by very quickly that I could have finished in one day, but I needed to sleep. The pattern is called Lodge Pole Pine from Eleanor Burns "Quilts Through the Season" book. The customers choice....I'm glad she picked it, I would have never picked this as one to make, and I love how it turned out, I'm going to have to make another one for myself.

So that's my post for the day. I've got some pretty big projects coming up that required the help of some of my favorite fabric designers --more info. about that coming soon. So off I go, the baby's calling. Happy Crafting!

Quilt Giveaway Winner

2008-11-14T01:57:00.007-05:00

It's finally come, I've been waiting so long for this opportunity to announce the lucky winner of my Quilt Giveaway, and hopefully make someone's day. I was so touched by the number of wonderful comments many of you had left for me!

When I stopped at midnight there was a total of 424 COMMENTS!! WOW! I won't ever touch Old Red Barn Co. comments :P but this was a great number for me! THANK YOU ALL! You all really have made my week.

I was also amazed and proud of the number of people who loved my quilt.....thankfully, aside from getting my orders done, I was also busy creating the pattern for those that would be interested in purchasing it themselves and trying their hand in making a quilt out of love. You will have the opportunity to purchase the Hard Copy and have that sent to you via USPS or receive the PDF form for instant gratification! Here's a preview of the pattern:

And now, to announce the winner! I really wish I had the ability to make all those who left a comment here a quilt. I hate only picking one, but that was the rules. Although there were 424 comments, There were a couple that had duplicate comments, so those were omitted and then the tallying began. For each person that left a comment, I did visit your blog to see what you had up, either blogging about it, and or putting the pic in your sidebar. You would have earned a maximum of 4 entries. I went about it the old school way and placed your name on paper and tallied the number of entries. I tallied everyones up and came up with an actual # range to enter into Random.org, and well from 403 comments, it tallied in actuality 764 entries. Your name each had a number next to it. For example, if you were #20 in leaving a comment, and you posted about the giveaway in your blog and then added the pic, then you held comments 20-24. So this was my method used for everyone.......and...........through........random.org......... the lucky winner is:

Random Integer Generator
Here are your random numbers:87
Timestamp: 2008-11-14 06:57:23 UTC

NUMBER 87 is Jennifer of rundpinne.blogspot.com

Congratulations Jennifer ms. Knitting mom of 3, please contact me either by email so I can get your color-scheme and have an early Present out to you!

I'm sorry I couldn't pick everyone, but have no fear!---There is another quilt giveaway coming soon! If you scroll down and read my previous post you will see the picture of the quilt I will be giving away--- It was really hard for me to say only 1 person won, so that quilt-top will be split in half, quilted and batted for a generous size Crib or could easily be Lap Size--2 WINNERS this time! I can't wait for that. Please add me to your favorites or follow my blog to watch for that giveaway.

Remember, the pattern for Brenda's Quilt, I've titled "With All My Heart" is now available in my etsy shop. Visit http://www.thehandmadequilt.etsy.com/ or you can also click on the link in my sidebar. Thank you all again! I look forward to reading more of your comments and reading your blogs!!

Possibly a new quilt to giveaway?

2008-11-10T23:04:00.004-05:00

My giveaway is still going on---it will be closing at midnight on Thursday, and I will be picking a winner Friday morning....so if you haven't signed up--Hurry!! I've already found some amazing blogs through here and everyone of you have been very sweet and kind with your comments. I really am touched by all of your 'kind words'. Thank you.

I've enjoyed having this giveaway so much so that I've been playing with the idea of another one. This is the quilt-top that I pieced together quickly with some vintage fabrics I found hiding in one of my plastic bins to be forgotten. I spent all Sunday morning piecing the soft neutral colors of fabric together and ended with a very nice soft combo. Just really soothing to look at. The picture does not give this quilt-top any justice.

You'd think after working and finishing my last quilt in record time, I would be relaxing and taking a very needed break.....WRONG. This quilt is large enough for me to possibly break into 4 crib size quilts, if not maybe 2 good sized cribs.....opening it up to the possibility of 2 winners this time. This was made completely out of old vintage fabrics that still carry that scent of 'old'--I LOVE THAT SMELL :) Keep checking back as I may turn this into a giveaway..... Let me choose my winner first from my current one and finish theirs before this one gets going. My goal would be to have that giveaway just in time for two of you to receive a special Christmas Present from me. Gotta quilt this and add batting to it eventually.

On another note, I promised several folks that I would have my pattern of my giveaway quilt ready by Friday at my etsy store. I never realized how hard it would be to put it in writing and making sure that it would be easy to understand and follow as well as Beginner and Pro friendly. I've come up with 2 different patterns for my heart quilt, and I'm really aiming to have it by Friday....here's what I've got so far. I definitely prefer working it out on graphing paper and then transferring it to computer when I'm done.

Can you see the heart in there?? :) A little optical illusion for ya.

As if that wasn't enough, I added an apron to my list earlier in the week, I kept forgetting to post about it here, but it is going to be added to my etsy shop and available for purchase. My very own design....I didn't really follow a pattern for this and although I wasn't trying to go for a holiday theme, it kinda looks like it, or Rasta colors.....yeah man. I made up a matching pot holder to go along with it. --My very first apron:

So that concludes, the projects that went on in my home this weekend. I can't wait to pick a winner and be able to tell someone they won a quilt and possibly make their day? What did you do?

Brain Fart

2008-11-10T00:30:00.008-05:00

I love yo yo's I really do. I love making them just as much as looking at them.

I was having a brain fart when drawing up my patterns and figuring out the measurements so I took a break and decided to re-organize the stash. I found some more stuff I had forgotten about. I went to several auctions this past summer and picked up some really great things. There was one particular auction that I attended that had a gi-normous stash of vintage fabrics and you better believe I bid on that baby to death. Of course I won, but true to my nature, I put it away and forgot about it....well during my break from designing patterns as I was looking for something else to make while re-organizing, I came across this bag of pre-cut circles--all vintage fabrics....

I suddenly felt the urge to make some yo-yo's. I pulled out the X'mas looking fabrics and stopped when I got to this point.

I really could spend all day and making these, but certainly not without the help of these.... if you don't have them yet, you really should get them..... it just makes it THAT much easier. (cue the staples commercial here.)

I really did use these. I like to keep them in the plastic cause I'm pretty anal about certain things... especially about keeping things where they belong. Don't ask.

So after looking at the yo-yo's I started to have another brain fart..... really this mommy brain is killing me! I can't think of what to do, there is no way I'll make a quilt completely out of yo-yo's it just doesn't appeal to me, and I've already done a flower garden quilt out of yo-yo's and also placed them on a bag..... so what can I do with them? This is where I would be asking you all for some ideas.

Well in the mean time, the brain fart I had passed for a moment and I thought I came up with a genius idea-- I thought- "Let me turn these into hair barrettes! and make some matching dresses or x'mas outfits for my girls!"

I placed a ribbon and everything, the only thing left to do was hot glue to to the barrette piece.

Then I realized something..... There was a major flaw to my idea:

Notice anything?

Well let me tell you..... my girls hardly have any hair.... HOW THE HECK WILL THEY USE THESE BARRETTES?

So back to the drawing board and me asking you for some help. What can I do with my yo-yo's? I'll have to post back here later to show you the final product.

A Good Thing or Bad Thing?

2008-11-10T00:09:00.007-05:00

A new Joann's opened up closer to me the past couple of weeks. I have to say I've been over there pretty much a total of 10 times out of 14 since they opened?! Okay so maybe that was a little exaggeration there, but seriously, it seems as if I don't have a life other than being home with my children and sewing & quilting during breaks, so when I get the chance to get out, I get out and head out to my quilt shop and local fabric chain stores. Some of you said after reading my comments when I took you through a tour of my sewing/craft areas that it was a lot....to be honest..... I really don't feel like I have enough. What was the new addition over the weekend? Well here it is.....

I picked up some really girly and boyish fabrics to turn into kid projects.

These will become aprons at some point....the fabric for my holiday apron swap is in there :)

The four on the left were from a quilt shop....I am definitely loving the Art Gallery Fabrics.

The 4 on the right? Will be another apron.

I definitely had to pick up some more perle cotton floss for some more embroidery work. I'm thinking about doing another embroidery quilt....something other than flowers.

& of course.....more books!! I am definitely loving these! If you don't have them yet, definitely pick them up. For my fellow apron lovers...I'm a new apron lover....any good apron books out there? I think I grabbed every apron pattern from McCall's, & Simplicity that Joann's had....I'm wondering if there are anymore books you all might recommend? I want it..... oh yeah, and Yaya, I found my vintage apron patterns! Yeah! I'll be sending those over soon :)

So, having this new Joann's a lot closer seems to be hurting my wallet a lot more, but I've definitely got some great stuff from it--I still haven't figured out if it's a good or bad thing.

Win This Quilt (My Giveaway)

2008-11-03T17:48:00.017-05:00

Hooray for Giveaways!! --
**I WILL ANNOUNCE THE WINNER ON FRIDAY Nov. 14.*** pls. cont. to sign in till then.

As I mentioned in my last post, I was asked to make a quilt in honor of a neighbor/friend who unselfishly donated her bone marrow to a stranger. To read the story, Click Here. My neighbors wanted to pay me for making the quilt and also for completing it on such short notice, but how could I accept any money for it knowing the reason behind it all? The women and other neighbors had gone around helping to collect money for their family and to also help pay for the quilt, but I rejected the money they offered and in turn gave the quilt to 'Brenda' as a gift from myself and everyone that came up with the idea to give a quilt and for those that cared enough to stop by and wish Brenda well.

Why give it away? As I said earlier, I was so moved by their actions and also by Brenda's generosity and selfless attitude, I too wanted to do something special,plus I love to share and consider myself to be a very giving person.

In the spirit of giving, I would like to offer this quilt for a special home. It will not be the one pictured, but it will be in the same pattern and in the color scheme of your choice. The wait is finally over. I didn't post pictures in my post about Brenda's quilt, because I wanted to save it for this giveaway. Here it is.

This was Brenda's Quilt:

Sorry it was windy earlier today, and I only had a few more short moments before the quilt would be taken so I had to hurry and snap what I could.

This took me 2 long gruesome nights, and an hour this afternoon to make.....here are some progress pics I took earlier.

Just the quilt-top. I finally finished piecing this baby at 2am on Sunday morning.

Ready for quilting. I spent all Sunday night quilting until 3am...my hands still hurt from gripping the quilt-top so hard. If you see an empty space in the middle, it was on purpose, it there so the well-wishers can leave their mark.

Binding was added and now a complete quilt!

Now just a couple more photos for me as a memory.

Can't you just imagine this quilt in you favorite quiet area, sitting room? or perhaps you knit like myself and have your special corner for knitting. I place my special quilts on this rocker....

Do you want a quilt just like this? Then ENTER! The winner will receive a quilt similar to the one above, but in the color scheme of your choice. The lap quilt measures 64"x64". The winner will be chosen on November 14.

Entering is really easy. Anyone can enter even non-bloggers and from wherever in the world, just be sure to leave me a good email to contact you if you are the winner. Make sure you leave a comment in this area good for one entry. Want to add more chances? Take the picture below, copy and paste and place in your sidebar, that's good for another entry. For two more entries, post about it on your blog. I do have a method of keeping track of all of your entries :)

Make sure you provide me with the link to your blog if you decide to post about or email me so that I can read it and tally up your entries. The winner will be selected using Random.org. I DO read every comment that comes my way and make it a point to visit yours as well so, GOOD LUCK everyone! Spread the word! I wish you all the best!

Brenda's Quilt, Quilting for a cause

2008-11-03T16:27:00.004-05:00

(The names have been changed to protect their privacy)

I was approached last Tuesday by a neighbor who asked me to make a quilt for one of our neighbors. Nothing really out the ordinary, I make quilts for friends, families and also sell at craft shows so I thought oh just another order for a quilt.

Well, this one was different. It seems our neighbor Brenda was going to be admitted to the hospital that following morning (Wednesday) in order to donate some of her bone marrow--I had no idea, they are a rather private family, I probably would be do about this situation, but well to add to this, Brenda was donating to a stranger - I'm calling her Lucy.

Lucy had been battling with Leukemia for some time and apparently they had been searching for someone to donate for a really long time, all family members were tested and something always came up--but I don't know all the details as to how Brenda found out and got tested to be a donor, but long story short she was a perfect match.

Here's my simple version asked by the ladies for me to create---in addition to the quilt. :)

Sorry ahead of time if you can't read the small lettering. I worked on this on the computer and couldn't save it any other way.

caption: Meet Brenda-The Donor

Caption: Meet Lucy - The donor recepient

Caption: Brenda & Lucy head to the hospital together - Everything goes well.

Caption: The Neighborhood women came to me and asked me for something special.

Caption: So I worked hard and got to quilting.

Caption: Brenda received her quilt. Both she and Lucy are home and recuperating! What a wonderful neighborhood!

So earlier today, the quilt left my hands, but not before I got to snap a few photos for a little show and tell folks. I worked all Saturday night piecing the quilt. Quilted and stayed up late on Sunday, and added the binding and my label earlier this afternoon.

I was so touched and moved by the generosity of the women in my neighborhood for a fellow neighbor that it inspired me to also 'give'. While it isn't my bone marrow,....I enjoyed making the quilt that I've decided to make one and give it away to a fellow reader. More information on a later post. Look for it and don't forget to enter.

A Winner!

2008-11-03T09:29:00.002-05:00

Okay, so before I get carried on into the day, I need to post this before I forget all about it. Sign-ups for the Happy Scrap Swap is now closed. Kat & I will be emailing you your partners info. later this week. Along with the swap sign-ups we also had a giveaway. Kat's winner is Carrie--a first time swapper! YAY! My winner:

Random Integer Generator
Here are your random numbers:3
Timestamp: 2008-11-03 14:24:13 UTC

© 1998-2008 Mads Haahr Valid XHTML 1.0 Transitional Valid CSS Web Design by TSDA

So comment # 3 won, and that belongs to BETH! Hooray! I'm no where near completing your item for the giveaway, but it's definitely something good!--Trust me. I'll be posting later about what I did this weekend, and a chance for another giveaway.

OMG! I WON A GIVEAWAY!

2008-11-01T00:37:00.003-04:00

I'm so totally not trying to rub it in guys, but for real guys let me have another moment---I'm just totally smiling from ear to ear and wanting to sooo bad do the happy dance but instead let me turn on my favorite song and do the Cha-cha slide--YEAH. I mean, you wouldn't believe the number of contests of giveaways that I enter. I enter soo many contests and giveaways and NEVER win--proof can be found in my blog---look under my label section titled GIVEAWAYS, CONTESTS, and I didn't even post about all of the contests in my blog all the time.

I was starting to feel pretty stupid entering and started to get crazy ideas and came to the conclusion that all of the giveaways were all set up, I'm not even going to begin to write the other crazy nonsense that were popping in my head, but they were pretty ridiculous. I hadn't posted about anything in a couple of days and there are definitely projects for me to write about, but I was just sitting here thinking about what to post when I decided to look around at the blogs of designers checking to see if anyone updated to show some pics from quilt market and sure enough my faves Lila Tueller and Vintage Chic Boutique 's Blog were the first ones to post. I stalk their blogs like crazy because I just love reading their blogs. I especially love Chelsea's patterns and Lila's fabric and patterns as well.

Well the most recent post listed the winners of the Messiest Creative Space--I almost forgot about that! I didn't think I had a chance. I had just cleaned up my area totally before doing one project and coming across Chelsea's contest, then I had to take a picture of what I had. Well, then of course I went on a cleaning and purging binge and organized everything removing every evidence of that mess--but it was saved on my blog. Look through my archives to read about the contest---Well long story short........I WON! I didn't win the grand prize which was a bag -Chelsea's new pattern in Heather Bailey fabric, but what I did win....was......pattern packs from Pink Fig Patterns & Lila Tueller Designs! Heck yeah! I'll take that anyday! I'm excited and look forward to my prizes! Thank you Chelsea & thank you Lila! for keeping it REAL!

Help! Things that start with " i "

2008-10-29T16:55:00.002-04:00

So I'm in this alphabet swap and i'm to put some stuff together for my partner in Australia--why do I always get partnered with someone from Australia?! hmmm.....well I'm having brain block and I can't think of what to put on there, sewing quilting and craft related that start with an I so I'm asking you guys out there for some ideas.

Copied right from her list....this is what it has to be:

(What is an alphabet swap you say?Well - it is quite literally a swap centred on letters of the alphabet. You and your mystery partner will both get the same letter and will have to come up with a box of little things related to that letter. There is no need to get too extravagant or spend OVER $30 - but be as creative and inventive as you like; you could include craft supplies, little treasures, words, foodstuff -ANYTHING! I know, dear readers, you are all fabulously interesting and original so let there be no limit to your ideas!)

My letter is I, I prefer to make things, I am already planning on making Ice Cream in a cone out of felt, kinda like a pincushion ice cream, and after that I'm lost. I can't think of anything that may be easy to make.

So your ideas would be greatly appreciated!

The Fortune or The Cookie?

2008-10-29T00:55:00.008-04:00

So I had Chinese for lunch earlier today or since I'm a night owl and posting this super late, yesterday to some of you. It's still 'today' for me, I haven't slept yet. I had to snap these beauties. I've never had such perfect fortune cookies out of the wrapper. Mine were always smashed or already broken in half, but look at these:

So of course using my light box and a fantastic camera, I made the fortune cookies look even more scrumptious. I picked up my order and I don't know about ya'll, but I always have to make sure that they gave me my fortune cookies. Its not the fortune I care about-I could really care less about the fortune inside, I've gotten the "You'll win the lotto" several times & well I'm still broke, still waiting for that fortune to come true, but I just love how it tastes. I'll add a recipe that I've tried before and it just tastes really good fresh!

So these perfectly shaped fortune cookies made me snap to attention. I'm always looking for things to add to my items as a giveaway to my customers whenever they purchase things for example; magnets, cup cozy's, mini-wallets holding my business card, just that sort of stuff. Now I'm not chinese at all, and anyways the fortune cookie idea came from America, but I decided I wanted to make a fortune cookie out of fabric and add my label inside like the paper fortunes---DING DING DING DING!!!!

I'm sure people have already done this, but let me have my moment, and for figuring it out myself. ---By the way those participating in the swap--this is a good project for using up those scraps.

So with some messing around with fabric, I ended up with this as my first ones:

I loved it, and the fact that it's a NO-SEW project folks?! All you need is fabric, fusible, glue, and some beading wire & you're good to go. I should have taken some photos while I made the rest, but I just couldn't stop until I was done. They were just too easy to make. I'll post steps later when I make some more. For now here are the fabric fortune cookies.....ta da!

I'm still figuring out how to make the box, I'm gonna wash the chinese box and take it apart and use that for a template--once I'm done eating my leftovers of course. So I thought I would share this little project. So until next time, JOIN THE SWAP, and keep craftin'!

Ideas for Projects

2008-10-28T00:38:00.004-04:00

We just started a Scrap Swap and I can't wait to see the fabric scraps that will be coming in and the projects that come out of it. If you're new, Welcome to swapping! You will find swapping to be addicting and you won't be able to stop at just one!

There are so many projects that can be made and you can only be limited by your imagination. To help give some of you some ideas, I found these blogs that have projects in them that can definitely work for our swap.--of course these are just ideas, you do not have to do one of these--you do what you want at your own pace!

Check Them Out!

Scrap Party Garland

Fabric Covered Barrettes

Fabric Wall Art

Fabric Coasters

Tissue Holder

Handmade Fabric Cards

Fabric Tags

Fabric Pom Pom

Fabric Magnets

These are such quick and easy projects, you'll end up making some for yourself. Please join our swap. Remember to enter through the link on my sidebar & be sure to leave a comment under the swap post to be entered in the giveaway. Visit and leave a comment on Handmade-O-Holic to also enter in her giveaway.
I'll be back with more posts!

Happy Scrap Swap

2008-10-27T14:19:00.014-04:00

A new swap for you to join!

This one is being hosted by myself(Abbie)- The Handmade Quilt-er, and Kat over at Handmade-oholic.
PLEASE READ EVERYTHING......

What: A swap of scraps from your scrap pile--please use scraps no smaller than a 4" square to your group partners. Each group will have 3 people in it, so you will have 2 partners. Fill two sandwich size Zip-loc bags with as many scraps you can fit into it. Try to have the same equal amounts of scraps for your partners. Send yours scraps out along with a self-addressed stamped envelope measuring 8" x 10"with 6, 42cent stamps on it.

In turn your partners should be sending you theirs as well with a self-addressed stamped envelope for you to mail their items to. When those arrive, mix it all up and create little gifts to make for your swap partners-2 in total, 1 for each partner out of the scraps you received. You should be left with scraps yourself and create yourself a gift!

When: Sign up is now until November 3, 2008, or depending on how many will be participating we may extend the dates further. Your 1st package of scraps in the sandwich bag should be mailed out no later than November 15th. Have your 2nd package of your gift mailed out to your swap partners by December 13th.

Where: Sign up is located HERE. Click on the word "Here" to be directed to our sign-up sheet which will enter you in the swap. You will also find a link to sign-ups on my sidebar.

Who: Anyone who signs up before November 3rd regardless of whether or not you have a blog, just be sure to provide your email address.

Any questions you may contact me at The Handmade Quilt-er or you may also contact Kat through her blog at Handmade-OHolic. Both blogs have the same information, sign-ups can be placed on either blog.

Kat and I will be sending out your swap partners by the 7th of November with their information. Please be sure to write the deadline dates down as we really want to make sure everyone receives their gifts before Christmas. Please note that the dates may change depending on the number of participants we have end date of sign-ups. You will of course be notified if there are any changes to the swap. The deadlines again are:

Sign-ups Until Nov.3

Ship Scraps out by Nov. 15

Mail Created Gifts by Dec.13

Keep checking back at either blog as we will be posting several ideas to make using the scraps you receive. If you know of some, please kindly leave a comment and share with the group.

********EXTRA*******GIVEAWAY************************

Place this button on your sidebar with a link to the swap and leave a comment on my blog and you will be entered in a giveaway.

Kat and I will each be having a give away and you are certainly welcome to enter in both--WE WANT YOU TO!

Kat is giving away this bag & matching wallet: .

I will also be having a giveaway myself which will include a bag and wallet to send out along with some fabric goodies and a quilting/sewing book to the winner through my blog. So if you're interested in our swap please sign in by clicking on my sidebar button, to enter the giveaway place the button on your sidebar and leave a comment on both blogs!

This will be soo much fun and I look forward to seeing the fantastic items that come out of this! Help us by spreading the word! The more people that enter the more fun it will be! Thanks again in advance for participating in our swap!

THQ's Sewing Area- Finally Organized

2008-10-27T00:24:00.006-04:00

After organizing my ribbon, and leaving me with 3 empty drawers I had to re-organize my sewing items. WHOO-HOO!--you have to personally know me to realize how nutty I am about organizing and cleaning....everything truly has a certain place where it belongs.

It is my way of keeping sane and keeping my area from getting to crazy. You may have read in an earlier post and saw the messiness of my sewing area---and let me just tell you, that, that is a rare occasion. I love to organize, & I need to organize. What the organization is not helping me do is remember what books I have and what patterns & fabrics I already have.

There have been numerous of times I've ended up buying the same thing---and would you believe, I ended up buying 3, yes you read that right, 3 copies of one book--I guess I really liked and wanted that book, I don't know.

But here is how my area looks now after some major cleaning up and organizing:

Main Wall of Vintage Fabrics, the drawers hide my fusibles & quilt blocks

The other side where my laptop sits and printer where I print tut's from blogs or check up on your blogs, this is also where my serger sits when I'm in the mood for serging--very rare, and my back-up sewing machines.

All of my thread. Yes, that's 6 drawers filled with thread, not including the ones in the rack and my organizer full of embroidery thread behind the rack. On the top 3 containers are some of my wooly felt, all organized by color.

This is my sewing/quilting books & patterns & notions area. I don't know if you can tell, but there is a label on each box with a label of what supply is in there. The books are separated by quilting/sewing, and then by the types of projects....sick, I know.

My wall of designer fabrics from Amy Butler, Heather Bailey, Anna Maria Horner, Sandi Henderson, Valori Wells to name a few and there are soo much more....thats just scratching the surface. Some quilting squares up top along with zippers and more notions. There's my quilting hoops & some of my fat quarter stash.

A close up of such beautiful fabric....I don't even want to cut into them, it's too beautiful :(

These are all scraps, Yup all scraps organized by color in all of the bins. I ran out of shelving so this was the only thing that I could do. I'm planning on purging some of this and maybe have a giveaway with the scraps, fabric & books that I'd like to send off to a new home.

1/4 of my vintage fabric collection. I love vintage fabric!!

& of course some more fat quarters....all nice and organized. So soothing to me.

So my sewing area is done......it's now off to organize my knitting area.....I'm posting a before pic and hoping to add an after shot soon!

Everyone, meet Isabel or Bel, Beli-my 2 year old daughter. She wanted her picture taken.

I can't stand these bins. I need to come up with another way to display the yarn and my embroidery and cross-stitch supplies. HELP! Any suggestions?

My Knitting needles all in one bag.....I need to make some Needle cases for these....Another project to add to the already long list of projects I'd like to do, added to the orders I have to complete. Anyone feel like trading? Make me a Knitting Needle case and I'll throw in some yarn or scraps or books....whatever will call it even. I'M DEAD SERIOUS. EMAIL ME OR POST A COMMENT HERE.

Some more knitting & crochet books. Told ya'll I loved books.

& some yarn scraps in little baskets placed right next to my rocking chair. My relaxing spot.

So Kat & I have been discussing about arranging a swap of some kind having to do with our scraps. It's still in it's early developmental stages, but we are very close to having the final rules and will be ready to post about it. We'd like to get it started soon and have it end 2 weeks before X'mas so we all can get early presents. How many would be interested? I will also be having a giveaway soon with a lot of the stuff I purge from organizing & as well a quilt to giveaway. Check back, follow me to make sure you don't miss sign ups. Oh yeah. I was really serious about trading or bartering for some sewing/knitting/quilting stuff. I have plenty to give out or trade with in exchange for a knitting needle case/roll so if you're interested, please post a comment here or send me an email! Thanks for stopping by!

Ribbon Stash Clean-up

2008-10-26T15:22:00.008-04:00

I haven't posted anything of substance because I have been organizing & spent most of the weekend cleaning up and re-organizing my stuff. One project that I made sure to do was organize my ribbon stash. On the most recent issue of Organize, there were a bunch of great ideas to help organize each room in the home, amongst them, a craft room. This is how my ribbons were:

Hidden away in my clear organizers, with no way of me knowing what colors I had and just mixed up all together.

This is the space that I found would best fit the new storage/display area for my ribbons:

I was ready to head over to WalMart & pick some wall shelves or towel rack, and that would have easily been $15-$20 or more for each one, but then my bff Kat gave me the best idea ever.....and definitely the most cheap & very doable for everyone. Her idea was to use paper towel holders--BRILLIANT!

I still went to Walmart & found a very sturdy holder for $7.85, I used that, but I still had plenty of ribbons left to hang....so the next stop?--The Dollar Store, they were not as sturdy as the one I bought at WalMart, but definitely worked, I screwed them to the wall above my desk, I had wooden dowels and cut to the length I needed to fit between the holder and VOILA! It worked & I couldn't be more happier with the result.

Here is how it ended up looking:

It ended up looking really cool, but it left a bare spot next to it, so I went back to Wally's and picked up a Dry-erase/Cork Board Combo and found that wooden oval rack and wrote the word "scissors" on it, now not so plain. I LOVE IT! What do you guys think?

Friday's Frugal Mom Giveaway!

2008-10-24T10:38:00.004-04:00

This is my favorite this week!

The winner of today's giveaway will receive:

1. $100 Amazon Gift Certificate

2. Artsy Crafty Babe's Dotty Blossom Bag! --Bloggers know Becki & her wonderful patterns, and her "Pretty Little _" Books! If you haven't been to her site....visit her now HERE!

Visit Artsy Crafty Babe's shop, leave a comment at Frugal Moms Blog and you've just entered! Post about it on your blog, like I've done and you've earned yourself another entry! FANTASTIC! Make sure you enter by the end of today, the winner will be announced on Saturday!

Click on her logo below to be directed to her website:

Crrrrrrrrrrunch

2008-10-23T23:52:00.008-04:00

What's that sound? Why, it was the sound of myself biting into a nice crispy cold pickle. Man, I love pickles & before you give another explanation, no, I'm NOT pregnant--Don't even say that to my husband--3's enough, but before I start rambling on I wanted to share a pickle recipe. Perfect for the pickle lover, sure to satisfy & cure any hunger! I eat these like popcorn!

Seeing as this is the only blog that I do have, I know I can add another one, but I just wouldn't possibly be able to keep up with 2.--I've been blogging mainly about sewing & quilting, but did you guys know that I am a whiz in the kitchen?....well let me tell you.......

I am proud of these pickles, when I was mixing all of the ingredients in, I kept my fingers crossed and hoped that it would taste as good as I imagined it. It far exceeded my expectations! With a tweak there, adding of an ingredient here and removing of one there, I now have the final sample for you to make.

I love pickles, whole pickles that is, just no pickles in my sandwhich or hamburger-I'm weird like that. So I wanted to share this fantastic recipe for Pickle people. *WARNING: THIS ISN'T GOING TO BE A RECIPE WITH INSTANT GRATIFICATION--PATIENCE IS NEEDED, IT WILL BE READY IN 3 DAYS AND SO DEFINITELY WORTH THE WAIT!!*

Ingredients:

1 Gallon of Kosher Dill Pickles, can be bought at Walmart or Costco-You can purchase whole or sliced, just know that if you buy whole pickles you will end up slicing it. I'm all for saving time and short-cuts so purchase the sliced pickles....you'll be that much closer to your pickles.

1 Large Clove of Garlic-Chopped

2 cups of Vinegar

6-7 Cups of Sugar

1/2 lb. of Jalapeno Peppers & Sweet Little Red Peppers

INSTRUCTIONS:

Take your gallon of pickles and drain all of the juice from them. Set them aside for right now.

In the empty gallon, combine your sugar, vinegar, garlic and peppers, mix well and slowly add your sliced pickles while stirring.

Leave on your counter away from sunlight for 3 days--make sure you stir at least twice a day until then.

After the 3 days, stir and you may serve it warm or place in refridgerator to make it nice & cold and crispy the way I like it.

ENJOY!

Sewing/Quilting Addiction

2008-10-22T23:50:00.008-04:00

It's seems I keep alternating between my fabric & book addiction. Right now, it's all about books, all kinds of books. Mainly mystery, lots and lots of romance, fiction and of course craft books. Just this past week I added these books to my collection:

Ignore the fabric beneath those books, those are just layer cakes that I purchased about two weeks before....like I said it alternates--Last week I purchased the whole collection from Anna Maria's Chocolate Lollipop and Sandi Henderson's Farmers Market and Ginger Blossom, I also picked up several yards of Heather Baileys collections.

Anyways, I was talking about my addiction for books and then started to ramble on about fabric....you see what I mean? Not even in purchases and addictions I switch between the two, but in writing and talking, sorry for those that cannot follow my rambling. Where was I? Oh yeah, the books that I bought last weekend---I'm definitely loving them and finding lots of great patterns that I will eventually work on.

I also did purchase a few more patterns, I'll be posting them for sure on here once I have completed some.

Contests, Giveaways & Swaps

2008-10-22T18:36:00.006-04:00

Keep em' comin'!!
I've entered several swaps, and some contest giveaways. As you may be able to find on my sidebar the number of swaps that I have entered. I just enjoyed my Gratitude Swap hosted by Mel so much, I scoured the blogs to find more swaps currently going on that aren't due anytime too soon, I also found a great blog during my search. This one gets us placed on the blogging world map. I know that there are some of you out there that feel your blog is just sitting there in the middle of no-where---you are definitely not alone. Thankfully there is a blog that has hundreds of members there that felt the same---not any longer! Everyone supports one another by leaving comments and visiting your blogs. The blog is the "The Secret Is In The Sauce" also know as, SITS, we call ourselves SITStas!

Head on over to their blog, join if you would like and add a cool button like the one I have onto your sidebar after joining! There is currently a Photoshop Elements 7 Giveaway going on right now for the month of October. Don't miss your chance to enter & read some fantastic blogs! I'm enjoying them very much and it has definitely kept me from reading my romance novels :)

Another swap is called "We the People Swap", what it is is purchasing a charm pack of your partners choice and choosing one of the patterns on their wish list, not to exceed more that $12.99--just for the pattern of course. The sign-up is until Nov. 4th, hurry up and enter, once you post on your blog you will be entered in a chance to win another pattern from you list...so the possibility of 2 patterns-- I LOVE PATTERNS! This one is to ship out by November 24th.

Make sure you take a look at the other swaps that I am involved it----I know, I know, before you say it.....that's too many swaps to do, but well hey, I've got somewhat of some free time on my hands and I could use these to keep me busy. Some of them still have sign-ups open so get on it, go by and sign up!

I'm Still Alive....was just locked up in my sewing room

2008-10-21T22:25:00.012-04:00

I had taken a very long, a very needed break from sewing & quilting. I just completed some orders from the Biz Market. I apologize again to you folks who I kept waiting for a while for these items. I certainly hope it was well worth the wait.

I finished my embroidered quilt. I don't want to let it go!!! :*( I hand embroidered flowers on each vintage solid colored diamond. I didn't want to take anything away from the design itself and the embroidery so I did a simple quilting design by machine. I'm going to miss this quilt.

Here are photos of this quilt:

The Quilt Top finished

Batting added & Ready for Quilting

Quilting is Done.

Showing off the embroidery

Close-up of one of the embroidered flowers

Gotta add my label of course!

Ready for it's new home......

Other projects completed.......

Fiona Bag, by Jenna Lou Designs

My New Bag Tags.....I LOVE THEM! THANKS ED!

My Executive tote.....I have no idea what to name this

My fabric label & bag tag.....added to everything I make.

So that's it for now......pretty good progress in one week, I've got about 3 bags to finish 7 more quilts to go----gosh, why did I take that long of a break?? Well, I will be back to post more projects as I complete them. I just remembered.....along with these orders I have to complete....I also have to make 20 log cabin blocks for a swap, darnit! gotta go.

Spare Change Swap--Complete

2008-10-21T22:10:00.004-04:00

I'm all set and ready to mail out my 5"x5" squares for the Spare Change Swap created by Juliette-"JuJu" of ChickPea Studio. It an absolute fantastic idea and I can't wait to create a quilt from it. I've already got some ideas in mind for the pattern/design. The swap is closed now, but you can definitely track the progress and view peoples quilts from the squares by clicking 'here'

For my squares, I chose to include a bit of the "old" along with the new, old is highlighted because they are based on vintage fabrics, but aren't exactly old. I love vintage fabrics and collect them and hope to make a completely handmade quilt with it someday.

For the new squares, I added fabric from designers, Amy Butler, Tula Pink, Kaffe Fassett, Valori Wells, Erin McMorris, etc....and so on....check my spelling on the last one, I'm not sure if I spelled that correctly, I know her first name is Erin though.

So here are my squares bundled, wrapped, packaged & ready to go.....along with photos of the squares I sent out.

Vintage Chic Boutique Messiest Creative Room Contest

2008-10-20T23:03:00.014-04:00

Vintage Chic Boutique/Pink Fig Patterns Contest

What can make a room like this:

All Nice neat & organized....

With Everything in its designated spot

TURN INTO...............................

THIS??!!!!???

and this......

and last......this.

Lots of sewing & projects of course......but this particular mess was after one tote bag being made-----with thread and scraps thrown all over the floor.....(Doing it the Eleanor Burns way!-YEAH!) man, was this was killing me to leave it all on the floor. I used to have an OCD problem with being very neat & tidy, but well all that went to hell after having my 3rd child--mothers out there you all know kids can make a mess......

Without a separate sewing/craft room, in my first post as a blogger, I stated that my Kitchen/Dining area had to be turned into my working area.....sigh......the fam haven't eaten on this table for a while now.......my husband is threatening to leave a comment on my blog about my mess-----well honey(my husband).....don't worry it's going to be cleaned.....soon......just after I took some photos and enter it for Chelsea of Vintage Chic Boutique & Pink Fig Patterns Messiest Craft Room Contest.

It all started with Lila Tueller's Blog about keeping it real.......You go Lila! I was one of the very few that got the chance to read her blog before her revisions....and man....was it freakin' awesome----so you know what??......i'm following in their footsteps and "keeping it real" myself & allowing the world and my closest friends and family to see the "real" me now---not the after I've cleaned the house for so many hours because I know they are coming over and I can't let them see how messy I am "me".----So folks, this is one of many messy parts in my house.....don't even make me post a pic of my knitting area.....ay ya yay.....

Thanks Chelsea for making up a great contest and thanks to Lila Tueller for showing us how great and relieving it is to just be real.

A Gift From "Down Under"

2008-10-09T22:28:00.004-04:00

Gosh, I didn't realize it had been this long since I had posted. Been busy, and also taking a very much needed break from sewing/quilting.

I just wanted to post on here and show what I got from my swap partner from Australia. Pretty freakin' cool and I love love love my stuff! Absolutely love the fabric....it is so me & that soap smells soooo good. I wish you could all get a whiff of it.

This picture does not give these cards any justice. They were the most adorable handmade cards, I can't wait to write a note and send it to someone special.

So that's the awesome stuff I got from Dani. I also sent her a little package, so I'm crossing my fingers hoping she likes it.

Camera Happy

2008-09-18T23:11:00.012-04:00

Current projects....can't tell what it will be....it's a secret..shhhh

Some more new fabric added

Stuff around the house:

a pic from one of my thread racks

A flower from my son....from last christmas....awwww....

Close up of some knitted flowers that I love!!

Random pics of flowers and stuff from our yard

Some yarn scraps

Haven't been on here for a while....been messing with a new camera and can I just say....AMAZING! What a difference a nice camera can make....I'm Shooting with a Cannon EOS Rebel now, and the pictures are just fantastic. Just look at the pics above.

On another note----I haven't sewn much of anything this week, other than to complete a custom bag....here's what it looked like:

Lots of pockets and zippers....it was a hit! That's about it, I haven't caught up on my orders....just feeling a bit overwhelmed is all....having to keep a house clean, watch 3 kids, and get sewing orders done....it's taking a toll on me--I'll figure out a way to make it easier eventually...maybe on my next orders I can give myself more time....but this is going to be short as I have to chill....some books to read and maybe get something in as far as sewing. So enjoy the pics...I'll be back with more...and hopefully with pics of new stuff I've made! See you then!

Adding to my collection

2008-09-11T23:04:00.005-04:00

I've been busy......Look what I got!!----

Earlier in the week I added to my library collection to my already big/full collection.....I stopped counting at 874 and about 2 shelves left, but I just added about 50 more books and magazines---whew....I'm running out of room...i don't know where to put them all. I got a great deal through the wonderful Craigslist.....and then bought a couple more books at Borders....plus, I just bought a bag of buttons and also found a nice big jar to put a lot of them in at a thrift store and added to my buttong collection....gotta love those shops!

I've already tabbed a lot of the pages that I will be working on.....my to-do list is getting too big!

I have been sewing a lot, just trying to pass the time since my DH is gone for 2 months, but he is making an extra trip up this weekend! whoo hoo! I need a break! So when I'm done with the last couple of projects I had lined up, I will post them up here....I'm currently working on my own design for a new bag.....I will put a tutorial here when I've fine tuned everything! So until next time....KEEP ON SEWING!

Another Weekend Gone

2008-09-07T22:28:00.014-04:00

Well it was another Sunday at the Biz Market. It's been pretty steady as far as sales go and I can't be more pleased! With the orders coming in from my website, as well as orders from Biz, Etsy, & Ebay, I'm one pretty busy gal. Sometimes I stop and wonder what I was thinking when I started this, and it is now at the point where sewing takes up almost all of my free time, but being a stay at home mom, I need all the orders I can get and do all the sewing I can do--it is what it is....
On another note....there were some new vendors today at the Biz Market, here are some pics to give you a glimpse of the happenings at Biz Market.

A good friend of mine was thoughtful enough to pass by and visit me at the Biz Market--She is also a sewing junkie.....her new webpage.....sevidesigns can be found here: --well I have to get back to quilting, but before I go, I wanted to add......my 6 almost 7 month old girl....said her first word today.....to find out what it is......watch the video here.

Well that's it for now. Next Saturday, The Biz Market will be in Charlestown, Sunday--the usual spot at the MCC! I'm looking forward to it!

Taking A Break from Quilting

2008-09-04T01:53:00.007-04:00

I have been quilting way too much these past couple of weeks that I needed to switch gears and do a different kind of sewing.....I chose two projects to do that only took me a total of 1 1/2 hours. The first project is the Wildflower Pincushion by Anna Maria Horner, You can find that tutorial here.
Mine turned out just great....I love this pattern, I will be doing lots more of these and probably tweaking it a bit to create my own kind of Wildflower.....here's mine: I also did my own pattern for a Needle Case......Girl with Bouquet. I'm hoping to have a tutorial made for this project soon, but for now here's a look at my Needle Case. So this was a great way for me to use my time while not quilting....there are days when I just want to sew & make bags of course!---that's my addiction and my kind of patterns. So that's it for now, I'm heading off to bed.....gonna turn in early for once. Check back later, hopefully I'll have my tutorial up.

My First Swaps!

2008-09-03T11:13:00.006-04:00

Well I've just signed up for my first swaps. I didn't know if I signed up on time, but I just got emails earlier this morning confirming that I was in!---yay!! Whether or not this will be just work overload...we'll see.
My First swap is called the Scrappy Cabin Swap, You can read more info here.
This one won't be too bad, I have until January to make 20 scrap log cabin quilt blocks.....check back and see who I have as a swap partner.
My other swap is called the Gratitude swap. More info found here. I just found out my swap partner----she's all the way from AUSTRALIA--AWESOME!! Her name is Dani.....here's her blog. This one's due by the 26th of Sept. so I don't really have much time!! I hope she likes her stuff! I still have to figure out what I'm going to be sending, plus I have some quilts to finish.....so bye for now. Have a good day everyone!

What I did this weekend

2008-08-31T20:49:00.010-04:00

Me At Last Weeks Biz Market
I've been a little busy bee completing some orders from last weeks Biz Market. I've fallen behind a week in my orders---my husband working overtime and having only nights to work on the orders gets really tough. One customer order......a patchwork quilt mixed with Batiks and cottons, 2 pillowcases to match and 2 extra long oven mitts for a family member....finally done....this is what they ended up looking like:

the pictures just do not give this quilt any justice.

Each came packaged wrapped with tissue paper, with my seal and tags:

A Peek Into my Sewing Studio

2008-08-31T19:19:00.013-04:00

Yes, you read it right....my sewing area is also slash our dining/kitchen table area.

It's tough to keep my sewing area from over-flowing, but I'm so blessed to have a wonderful husband that understands my "need" to have soo much fabric! I was able to grab this wonderful wall unit from a local thrift shop at a great deal.....and you all know about those great deals...I couldn't pass it up!

On the other side is my wall of vintage fabrics and Designer fabrics....my favorites...Amy Butler, Joel Dewberry, Tula Pink, Heather Bailey....and so much more.....but I have a great collection of the modern contemporary style as they are my faves!

On another side of the wall I've got maybe 1/4 of my patterns and books on sewing & quilting. It's a crazy addiction I tell ya, I wish someone had warned me about this, but then again....I don't know that it would have helped. (What's in the plastic totes you ask?) Well, it's my scraps....all arranged and sorted by color...I know....it's almost OCD, but hey....I need the organization...DESPERATELY! I've found on numerous occassions....before I had my other wall unit I placed everything in totes and forgot I had them there....I can't tell you the thousands of dollars I've spent buying it over and over again....but I think I've solved the problem for now....

A view of the sewing area.....this is actually the cleanest it has been in a really long time. I just finished up sewing up some custom orders and took the time to clean out the area before I destroyed it again with another project....and there are plenty more coming definitely.

----soo....i really wish we could build an add on for my OWN sewing room.....I can just dream about the day when I can have all of my fabric, books and patterns all together in one room! Move or build an extension....i'll take which ever one....or we could just win the lotto and I can buy a whole house for my sewing area.....I really could start a store with my collection...but I wouldn't be able to part with my stuff....lol....completely defeats the purpose of having a store.