Dreaming...

The Fat Quarter Shop is sponsoring a giveaway over at http://quokkaquilts.blogspot.com/2011/12/bloggers-choice-fat-quarter-bundle.html that had me smile. I had to try! I've always wanted to design my own "Blogger's Choice" bundle, and today I got my chance! You have to pick 12 prints and 3 solids and make a mosaic of them. I really love the retro and woodsy feel I wound up with. It makes me smile :) And maybe one day I can buy the whole bunch :)

Here's the print names :)

1-Annie's Farm Stand Pink Ring Tone Yardage-Pink

2-Ruby Cotton Lime Sundae Yardage

3-Woodland Teal Toadstool Houses Yardage

4-Butterscotch & Roses Ruby Acorn Mosaic Yardage

5-Pear Tree Cream and Orange Allover Eggs Yardage

6-Circa 52 Organic Cream Woodland Party Yardage-CREAM

7-Kona Cotton Cardinal Yardage

8-Happy Mochi Yum Yum TangerineCandy Yardage

9-Sketch Aqua Screen Texture Yardage-Aqua

10-Kona Cotton Bubble Gum Yardage

11-Far Far Away III Plum Guitars Yardage

12-Sew Cherry Green Sew Dots Yardage-GREEN

13-Sweet on NYC Grey Swirl Yardage-GREY

14-Kona Cotton Banana Yardage

15-Folk Heart Red Floral Lattice Yardage

16-FQS Logo

To You and Yours~

and a Blessed New Year!

May the Reason for the Season fill your heart with peace and joy!

I hope it's filled with smiles, hugs, and those you love.

Winter Woolies :) eppppp!

I have been itching to buy the Winter Woolies pattern from Miss Kerry over at http://www.verykerryberry.blogspot.com! She is a paper piecing hero to me! I really want to focus and learn paper piecing more this coming year, and I love following her and seeing the amazing things she come up with :). Her skier is one of my favorite pieces ever!! I saw this pattern and knew I was destined to try it! I had to make a gift, well, didn't "have" to, wanted to make a gift for an incredible teacher we know and thought this would be perfect.

I increased the pattern by 200%. The pieces were still small- I can only imagine how tiny they would be in the normal size ratio :). But I loved it- so well written and explained. I have never used freezer paper- tried foundation piecing once and did not like it much. I looked at all of Kerry's tutorials on freezer paper piecing and went for it! I must say, I loved it! So much better and easier than foundation. I'm hooked!! :) Yipee!

The finished product is 12x24 inches and could be a wall hanging or a table topper. I don't have Christmas fabric, but wanted it more for general winter use anyway, so I loved the color combo I used :). I hope this teacher smiles when she gets it :). I think she will. Here it is:

The hat section - so fun and love the added button she suggests :)

The scarf section- I love all the stitching that brings the personality into the piece :)

The mitten section- such cuteness!

I backed it with a favorite vintage sheet- just the right amount of vintage yumminess added in :)

A Thrifing Chair

I love thrifting antiques that make my home more "cozy". My mom has a chair that I have always loved, and when I saw this:

I knew it would be close enough. It is an old rocker- so old, it leans back too far when you sit in it- how would you ever rock in this?? I am nervous I'll top over :) hehe! But I love how it looks in my front room.

It was covered in a gosh-awful print, from the 80's or 90's. I started ripping off layers of fabric, hoping to find a beautiful vintage print. I did, but it was so stained and soiled that washing would have torn it up. Drat! So, I got creative. I love corduroy and have an antique velvet chair in the same room this burnt rust color. I grabbed my matching corduroy, and since there was not a piece big enough, gave it a corduroy black strip for eye appeal. I really like how it turned out. And who can beat a free chair covering :) YAY!

Some Quilty Christmas Decorations

I LOVE Christmas and decorating!! You should see my house. Every room says "Christmas". There are nativity statues and displays and there are 5 large trees- from 6-12ft. So joyous!! As I have come to learn and love quilting so much, a few of the decorations now jump out at me. Here are two quilted that I appreciate even more:

And isn't this Santa so stinkin' ca-ute!! The same talented lady made them both, and they came out of her head (as far as I know)!! WOW! They really give the handmade sense of Christmas around here, and that's just how I like it :)!! Happy season to you all!

Vintage Fabric Finds :)

As you are well aware of, I LOVE thrifting- it has become something I can only let myself do once a week, or I would drag the family everyday! And homework must get done- hehe! The past few weeks I have found some wonderful sheets that I am busy putting FQs into my shop from. I also found some sheets that were added to "my" stash that will become quilt backs, etc. This one SCREAMED out at me as I walked past! Angela (http://www.cuttopieces.blogspot.com) says her fabric talks- well, then it only seems right that vintage sheets can also communicate. And this sheet SCREAMED!! :) It also jumped right into my cart! I adored Strawberry Shortcake when I was younger, and still love the original especially. I even have all of the scented dolls from my younger years out that I can grin at and remember the "good ole days"! Anyway, here it the screamer:

Isn't it just wondermous??!! I think it's gonna make a great quilt!

Another love of my dolly days was Cabbage Patch Kids- I had 13 of them- from twins to a Preemie, to an astronaut, to several boys, to an International one, and the list goes on! So when I saw this, it talked too! (Not screaming, but talked firmly) And jumped in the cart! :)

Such fun and such great memories!

Then I found 2 pieces of fabric that really made me smile. The first is a circus theme, and while I am not a fan of the circus, I loved some of the animals on it. They will be very fun once cut up and in a project!! The bird clinched the purchase! (and it was only $1.50 or something like that- not bad for almost 2 yards!)

And the other piece was this Disney print. The alphabet mixed with the pink background and characters was too darling to pass by! And it's a thicker weight fabric too! So fun!

The style is Very ME!

So along with all the sheets, there are bits and pieces of memories and glimpses of the past that make me smile! Hope you smiled some too!

My Goody Bag

I have been so stressed about getting my Goody Bag to my partner, and it's still crossing the ocean! I hope it gets to her soon! Almost 2 weeks in process! :) But mine came from {Safieh} this week and I LOVE it!! My partner researched me very well to know what I like. It's so perfect, I don't want to use it :) I have it hanging in my sewing half-room so I can see it and smile. She also made me this precious zipper pouch- LOVE zipper pouches too!! How awesome! And lots of pink scraps came in the package too! IT was a GREAT mail day!! (Smile)!

I had a great swap and look forward to more :)

A HUGE Favor :)

Hello Everyone!! I made it into the FINALS over at Celebrate Color!! If you could take a few seconds and VOTE FOR MY CROWN BAG (in the Needlepoint Sections), I'd be pickled pink!! I'd love to learn more about needlework, and the prize is books about learning! Oh, pretty please, with cherries on top :) Thanks so much!!

Here's the link: http://www.stitchedincolor.com/

Thanks again and have a great day!

Joy

Meet Joy, as in Pride and Joy! This is the Pride and Joy of my Sewing items. I love my regular sewing machine, but this is something I've been looking for for quite a while. I found it thrifting last week- it seems to be in really good working condition. The etchings and filigree is all in excellent condition!! I could hardly believe it! It's in a cute table that is gonna be stripped and painted light aqua very soon :). I want to get it working in the future, but right now I just need to get it cleaned up and in my front room! Not too bad for $18! Someone donated something that they had no idea what it was. It's so fun to have something of the past!

A closeup of the etchings :)

Just so pretty- I can hardly wait to get it all cleaned up and beautimous!!

the Stack!

This is the stack, except for a few, that I still need to photograph for my shop :) Think I have some work to do? Uh, huh :). But it's fun work- I like it and it makes me smile to send vintage sheets all over the globe.

Friendship :)

This is my favorite Pyrex pattern; it's called Friendship! Friends are so important in life- not as important as Family though. I love these divided dishes and found this treasure thrifting the other day :) It is a brilliant orange-red color and the print is in excellent condition. For $4, it wasn't too bad. It will be good for using everyday :) I so love thrifting- it's so fun!!

Winner Winner!!

Ok, Mr.Random Number Generator picked # 3 (sorry, I couldn't figure out how to copy the silly results :))!! It's :

Longvacation said...

What a wonderful lot of goodies! Thanks so much for the chance to win.

I'm emailing you now :) Congrats!!!! Hope you enjoy your Delighted yumminess!! And thanks for entering everyone, I really wish I had enough for everyone!!

The Real Reason for Thanksgiving :)

Oh, I just LOVE this! It's Paul Harvey, who was incredible, and I could figure this out being pretty young at the time :). He has a "rest of the story" for the real reason of Thanksgiving. It's got nothing to do with Pilgrims and the Mayflower. Pretty much floored me and I really enjoyed it! Hope you do too!

GIVEAWAY ENDS TOMORROW :)

Don't forget to enter below for a bunch of *Delighted* goodies :)

Another year??!!

Today is my birthday. WOW! Really??!!?? Getting closer to that 4-0, but a few more years yet :). hehe - How could have another year have gone by that fast?! I think of all that's happened, all the wonderful memories I've made, and the wonderful things I've learned! It's a lot! Today will be filled with Thanksgiving prep business and a big to do list. But in the midst of it all, I'll be smiling inside as I think of my dear family singing the Birthday song to me! They are so sweet and do that all day long :) Makes a girl smile and get a bit teary eyed from the joy :) And if I get some wishes, one of them will be to snag a few minutes of sewing time too! Hope your day is great- maybe even with some cake (or chocolate works too :))!

Fair Warning!

Ok, here's your fair warning! DON'T GO NEAR JOANNS on a Saturday close to holiday time!

You'd think I would have learned my lesson last year on Black Friday! HA! But I figured that Thanksgiving ha not hit yet, so I should be ok. WRONG!! I just needed some interfacing for a handbag I want to try, and today was the 60% off coupon day. I was gonna buy a whole bolt :) Well, got there, took a number, and ran to the interfacing aisle. The bolt only had less than 2 yards on it- ugh! Then I stood in line for the cut counter and it took 20 minutes to go from #1 to #2- and there were FOUR people cutting!! Really! I was #35~! Uh, NO! There was no way- I will just have to wait on my interfering. I'll try during the day next week and see if I have any better luck! Here's hoping- and now you have been warned ;)

Enter Away!

Don't forget to enter the giveaway in the below post!! Yipee Skipee!! Have a marvelous Friday :)

IT'S GIVEAWAY DAY!!!! YIPEE SKIPEE!!!

In honor of my Cutting Corners Course, Riley Blake told me I could give EVERYTHING I didn't use AWAY to Y-O-U!!!! And let me tell you, I wish I could win!!! :) There's a bunch of goodies here! I could hardly believe it when I opened the box! Here's the deets:

Some darling, and I mean DARLING, crochet strawberries- I'm tempted to keep these, but I will remain strong :) And some cherry red scalloped buttons!

Then some trims- beautiful grosgrain ribbon with green flowers on them, velvety ric-rac in the perfect aqua color! And precious green pom poms- the littler ones that are just too cute in any project!

And lastly, the FAT QUARTER SET of **DELIGHTED**!!!!! There is one FQ missing that I used for the front of the blanket set, and a few 6.5" pieces I used for the back and pillow, but other than that, it's all there!

I just can't contain myself! The colors in this line are dreamy perfect and the prints are more than wonderful! It makes me smile to just see it! I hope it will really make someone's day!

To enter the giveaway, just leave a comment!!

Extra entries can be earned from:

1-following my blog (or telling me you already are a follower) and

2-getting the word out via twitter, blog, fb, what have you!

So 3 entries possible- yay!!!

Mr.Random Number Generator Man will draw us a number a week from today, on Wednesday the 23rd! Now wouldn't that be a fun Thanksgiving surprise??! Good luck and talk soon :)

Cutting Corners!!!!

I'm over at Riley Blake Cutting Corners today! I have a darling and lovely Doll Blanket and Pillow Set tutorial for you! My next post, tomorrow, will be the GIVEAWAY from the amazing Quilted Fish's Delighted fabric!! Get ready and hop on over to see the cuteness :) I LOVE it!!

My first Handmade Swap:)!!

My first handmade swap was so fun! I was soooo nervous about making something for someone else and wanting them to like it sooooo much! I don't know if she likes it yet- I'll be mailing it soon, but the experience for me was a great one. And I love the bag! I am so going to make one similar for me!

I knew the person loved bright happy colors, so I went with tangerine and aqua- I mean, really, how can you not love those colors together!?! Makes ya smile just to see it! I pieced the back with 2.5" squares and a few rectangles too in a fun pattern. Love the look!

The handle is two tone- aqua on one side and tangerine on the other. But my favorite part HAS to be the embroidery!!!!!! I am a sucker for embroidery and especially original designs. When I found out my partner likes it too, well that was all it took to figure out the perfect thing for her! I wound up going with a simple crown outline I found and then giving it my own spin to make it mine. I think we all like crowns :) At least I do :). I added some sewing "jewels" to the crown of scissors, a needle, and a spool of thread. There is even a ruler at the bottom of the crown. I really like how it turned out! Like I said, my favorite part of the bag! And I off-centered the embroidery to give the bag a wonky, more fun personality!

The inside: well, you must have a cell phone pocket or it wouldn't be good :) hehe! So there is a happy aqua pocket, right there ready for a cell phone!

And a magnetic snap- WOW! My first one ever, and now I am hooked! They are so stinkin' easy and so perfect for a bag! They will be my new go-to item of choice :). Love it!

So there ya have it- my embroidered bag, all ready to go! I am so anxious to hear how my partner likes it. I stressed over it so much and really hope it makes her smile :)

I love it so much that I am sharing this over at Celebrate Color too :) What a beautiful and functional way to celebrate :)!! Hip, hip, hurray! :)

Giveaway COMING SOON and a TREAT :)

I have a big giveaway coming next week, in conjunction with a special treat! I am going to be a Course Instructor over at the Riley Blake Cutting College this coming Tuesday, and you won't want to miss it- it is so stinkin' cute :). One of my favorite projects, for sure!

And I'll be giving away something that's just **Delightful**!

Make sure you watch for the fun!

My week of no computer...(actually 2 weeks! NOT on purpose)

I never dreamed my computer would be gone for a week. That's what today is, and it's still not back. It has been tricker ye because I was out of town for the week prior to this past week and had no computer there either. So, without my regular way of functioning, it's been a little hairy! :) I will hopefully hear by tonight if my computer is salvedgeable or if I must bite the bullet and get a new one. Crossing fingers! Here's some things I learned:

1- don't ever take your computer for granted. I have a computer to use, but it is a bare bones model that won't let me do most of my normal things, like listing in my etsy shop. My photos are on my computer, so I'm dead in the water, shop wise.

2- an iPhone is great, but makes your eyes hurt when trying to read blogs! And forget scrolling on some sites- mine won't let me.

3- uploading photos is REALLY hard when when you don't have your computer.

4- you find lots of time to get the "to do" list done when there are no blogs to follow and no flickr to see.

5- your fingers can get really fast at "texting" when you are typing email replies and blog posts from your iPhone :)

6- technology is good and bad, but I choose to see the good!

7- your imagination gets rolling when you have to rely on yourself for inspiration :)

Number 7 is my favorite!! Hope technology is going great on your end, and that your imagination is still running wild! Have a marvelous weekend, full of sunshine :)

Please Bear with ME!!

My computer decided to invite some lovely viruses over to play, without my approval! Drat! So, long story short, the past week, I have been computer less! Hopefully I should hear from Mr.RepairMan tomorrow and have some good news. OR maybe Santa will just bring me a Mac :) Ahhhh, dream! I have been thrifting to help my stress, and wait til you see the goodies I have found lately- tons of sheets and a gorgeous antique Singer Sewing Machine :) Swoon! See ya soon!

Need to Buy some Time

If you know where I can get some, I'd be thrilled to hear! Actually, you could make a grundle too! I am sure people from miles around would like some too :) I am having fun listing things in the shop, but man, does it take forever! I haven't even had a chance to sew becuse it's eating my time for lunch and dinner.
I gotta get through this, then keeping it updated won't be too bad :)
Off to list more- wish me speedy fingers :)

Up and Rolling!

Well, I am getting my FQs and pillowcases listed in Etsy, bit by bit :) The most time consuming part was editing the ba-zillion pictures. I know everybody loves doing that :). I am just not patient enough, I want it done yesterday! hehe!

The other thing that wore me out was lugging 5 stacks (well, make that 6 after my thrifting today :)) all this big or bigger up and down my stairs to the deck for the photo shoot! Gave my muscles a good work out! So that's a plus :) Almost as good as weight training, well, um, I'll count it as such :).

So the shop now has some of the many items listed. I am doing as few each day as I steal a few minutes away from the priorities of life :) There will be over 100 once I have them all up! Whew! Head on over and check out the pretties- I would love adding EACH of them to a quilt- what fun that would be!! Dreaming....

HERE'S THE SHOP LINK (www.LightningBugz.etsy.com) All things magical, ya know! And vintage is definitely magical!

By The Seat of My Pants...

The only thing I had made for the Sewing Summit was my teensy quilt name badge :). The day before the Summit, I got a wild hair that convinced me that I *needed* a ca-ute cover for my note book. I wish time were no issue, but I got crazy and stayed up late getting my fun project done!! I used a tutorial from the lovely Vanessa over at http://www.vanessachristenson.com/ as a guide while cutting the main pieces and sewing them together.

I knew I wanted some of my favorite fabrics and linen, of course! So I pulled some favorites and sewed strips, teeny little strips! Then I cut them all on an angle. That was the fun part :). I had no pattern, just a picutre in my head of what I wanted to make the cover look like. I cut linen and tried to get the meaurements to work out. They did, thankfully! It was a great lesson in improv and just working to make something how I wanted it, without knowing exactly how to do that. Such fun and ca-ute--ness!! By the seat of my pants, that's how I refer to improv! :)

After hours of working on the front, I went for a simple slant linen and fabric stripe on the back :). I still love it too though. And let me tell ya, it was much faster :) hehe! I added a yellow flower button for the embellishment that held it closed, and was completely happy with what I took notes in for the conference! It was very me, and as Amanda says, it qualifies as a mini quilt. Cool!

So I wound up with 2 things that I had made for the Sewing Summit- woohoo! HA! Love it. Just being there was enough for me :) But I do love still being able to use my cute notebook that reminds me of all I learned.

I'm entering this in Celebrate Color, 'cause that's what it is for me- a celebration of color! Go see the amazing things over there- just beautiful stuff!

Calendars

I am REALLY big on them- I like to write, not type, and I like to have it all in front of me :) You should see the calendar on my desk- it looks like a huge scribble there is so much written on it- trying to keep up with our Zoo and all :) And it stays at home- too big to carry. That can be hard to schedule things when my brain is on my desk at home! HA! But following Joy's (www.joyshope.com) recommendation, I just got an Erin Condren planner at a steal! They are normally $50- that's outta my budget, but today you can get a $50 gift certificate for $25! You also get a $5 rebate for signing up at the plum district. And then, if you use the code FABULOUS, you get another 10% off!! Seriously!! Add it all up, well, actually, subtract it, and the planner is only $17.50!! Woot! And if you don't like planners, they have awesome call me cards, address labels, ideas for dads, and all sorts of fun things! My kinda place :) So if you want to hurry over and grab your cerfiticate, I've heard these go fast... Enjoy :)

http://www.plumdistrict.com/three_for_free/da6a585264/click

Vintage Daydreams...

I wanted to make a vintage pillowcase and decided to go out of my "comfort zone" and not have ANY rules! Let me just tell you how hard that was, but it was oh so fun too :) I decided to use a rainbow of colors from the sheets I have and cut strips from each of them. Pink, orange, yellow, purple, blue, and green.
After the strips were cut, I sewed them together. Iron. Then I cut them all against the seams at varying widths, flipped some and sewed again. Iron again. Next I cut them again, but with the seams this time, again at varying widths. I sewed it together again. Iron.

Add a darling vintage sheet for the envelope back and ta-da! Here is my lovely pillow case. It was challenging to step outside of my norm, but it was very rewarding too. I am very much a "plan" person, so having no definite thought of what the finished product might be was a leap for me. I've been leaping lots lately in life, and it teaches you some good things. My vintage daydreams pillow reflects those leaps and how they always end up beautiful in the end :)

I am entering this in the Celebrate Color contest. Go check it out- there are some amazing creations over there. Mine's simple, but it's me. And vintage daydreams are always a good thing :)