APPLIQUE TODAY

365

2011-12-31T19:55:00.000-06:00

As my 94 year old grandfather used to say to me when I was a young girl, "There are as many days left in the year as there are noses on your face!"

As soon as I press "Publish Post" the little ticker on the left next to 2011 will say 365 and I will have completed one of my biggest goals ever!

I hope you have enjoyed the journey with me. I have had a love/hate relationship with it - I love it when I have something interesting to post about, but then I hate it when I don't have anything interesting to say and have had to still post! Thank you for reading, thank you for sticking in there, and thank you for all the encouraging comments - they have meant SO much to me! I tried to reply to everyone when they commented, but I know some days I missed doing that, so for that I'm sorry, but please know I read every single comment and they made me smile!

For my last post of the year I want to write about the kindness of quilters/sewing folk. (It's rather long, but hang in there!)

Back on October 2nd I entered a trivia contest on the Z&S fabrics Facebook page, and lo and behold I won! The prize was a $50 gift certificate to their store. I was so excited as I had bought from them before and knew they had the most amazing prices on quilt fabrics around. Well the certificate didn't come and didn't come, even after repeated nice friendly emails from myself. I knew the son of the business owner had taken over the business and was, shall we say nicely, a little "out there"?! His posts on Facebook were something else! Hugely entertaining though!

A couple of weeks ago a mass email went out from him saying that the business was closed. Done deal, goodbye. It wasn't really shocking - I was surprised that anyone was still buying from him - he seemed so crazy! However, I was left wondering, what about my $50?!!

He had said in his email that the other company's stores, Sauders fabrics and Zooks, both in Pennsylvania were staying open and honoring outstanding orders.

I emailed them and explained the situation. They said that yes they were honoring the obligations and if I could just send them emails exchanged proving I had won, then that would be great.

I searched and searched and found a couple of emails but neither of them specifically mentioned me winning. One was the email I sent with my answer to the trivia question, but nothing saying congratulations, you won! I still forwarded them, not expecting anything at this stage. I received an email back saying they would take my word on winning and to come to the store anytime to claim my prize! Great! Except....I live about 8 hours away and they don't have an online store!

I did however know that they carry Kona cotton solids, a staple at their stores, so I said I'd love it if they just sent me a random selection of Konas and to take the price of shipping out of the $50.

Just 2 days after I sent that email, a box arrived via Fedex, with 1 yard each of 9 colors of Kona.

Kona retails for $6.99/yard, so that was $63 worth of fabrics, plus the Fedex shipping. I can't describe how that made me feel. First that they trusted a complete stranger, and second, that they were so completely generous. Who does that now days?

If I'm ever in Pennsylvania, I'll definitely be stopping in!

Which brings me to my new goals. Following the example given by Sauders, I will be showing more trust and generosity to strangers. But that isn't my main goal - the word I want to live by in 2012 is....wait for it....

MINIMIZE!

I want to minimize my life, as in minimize the amount of 'stuff' we own. I'm going to cut it by at least half. My hubby would be happy if we each owned just 100 items. A shoe counts as 1 item. A pen counts as 1 item. Yeah not going to happen (have you seen all my fabric?!) but he is going to LOVE how much stuff disappears from this house!

I'm also going to minimize the amount of things I do outside of my family. I tend to say yes to almost everything asked of me, but it's time to minimize that! We decided to minimize the amount of TV watching in our home, and 3 days ago the cable was cut off. We have zero television going on! OK so we have a ton of DVD's, but no more cable. Which leads to the next thing...I'm going to minimize money spent. Cutting off cable is a great start!

So that's the plan!

I started off 2011 with two goals I posted about on here. One was to blog every day, and the other was to stitch something every day. I succeeded at the blogging, but failed at the stitching. I was doing really well until October when we had that freak snowstorm and lost power for 5 days! Stitching just went out the window and has been quite sporadic since, so I'm not going to make that goal again!

I am still going to blog, just not every day. Look for posts from me 2-3 times per week. I'm looking forward to not feeling the pressure to say something even if I have nothing to say! Hopefully they'll be more in depth too.

My big quilting related goal for 2012 is to finally publish some patterns I've been working on. I have the drawing software all figured out (finally!) and need to get moving on that. So watch out for that at some point, along with a new name and new blog location! But for now, things are staying the same.

Once again, thank you SOOOO much for your support this year. See you next year!

-Joanna

1 More Day...

2011-12-30T21:49:00.000-06:00

...and the drama never stops!

We went to a birthday party this afternoon at a roller skating rink. Halfway through the party, my boy Coleman fell and his ankle blew up to unnatural proportions.

After 3 hours of waiting and xrays in an urgent care, we found out he has a possible fracture, an air cast and crutches. More will be revealed next week after seeing an orthopedist, but for now it's couch city for Coleman!

In thinking about which of my favorite past posts to post tonight, I thought about my kids and how I've tried to sprinkle family posts here and there among the quilting ones. So tonight, a post from August 30th, with the obligatory first day of school pics!

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Today was a wonderful day - can you guess why? Huh huh? For the first time ever, all three of my kids are in school allllll day! No more half day kindergarten - I have a 1st grader, 3rd grader and 5th grader!

Sofia spent months planning what she would wear on the first day. It's very important to a 10 year old girl you know! She had some fancy outfit all picked out, then came out of her room this morning in her old shorts and a t-shirt! Go figure.

We also had some candid moments...

Then we finally got to school and they met up with their old friends...

It was a great day (especially for me!) and I have a feeling it's going to be a great school year!

Countdown...2 Days To Go

2011-12-29T16:07:00.001-06:00

The post I'm reposting tonight is from July 28th. We were in vacation in Utah and as I do every time we go back to Utah, I went to quilt shops with my fabulous mother-in-law! So this isn't one of my favorite posts because of the content, but because of the memories it brings.
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What quilter doesn't like new fabric?! Here are yesterday's purchases laid out for your viewing pleasure!

New Joel Dewberry and cute new BIG buttons (they are each about 2 inches across - so good for bags or cushions!)...

Clearance fat quarters, clearance yardage, and new Westminster fabrics...

I can't wait to get home and create with them!

Countdown...3 Days To Go...

2011-12-28T19:52:00.000-06:00

3 more days of daily blogging until my big goal for the year is complete! I'm posting some of my favorite posts from the year this week. Today is one from April 22nd in which I finished up a set of 6 placemats. I love the way they look all together!

Yippee! I have my set of 6 placemats finished!

Today I made a hot pink/black & white one...

However I'm not ready to stop making them. I think I definitely need at least another 2 for a set of 8. After all, we do occasionally have visitors and I can't have them go placemat-less!

Looking at them in the photo I definitely see a lack of blue and green, so that will be the theme of the next 2.

As an aside, I'm sure most of you know today was Earth Day. We celebrated it by planting a ton of seeds which will hopefully turn into seedlings that we can transplant in a few weeks.

The kids had a blast filling the little pots with soil, then making holes with the end of a pencil and planting the seeds. Roll on warm weather!

2011 Goal

2011-12-27T22:18:00.000-06:00

On January 1st this year one of my big goals for the year was to blog every day. I am pleased to say, that with just 4 days left, I have kept up with my goal! Sure, some were rushed, some were on the road from my phone, some were even late, but I have blogged every single day before I went to bed for the night.

This week I'm going to revisit some of my favorite posts and repost them here. Unless something really amazing happens!

Here we go... from January 31st, a post about pillows...

J Is For...

2011-12-26T21:02:00.000-06:00

Joanna! Yes that's me :) And A is for Anna, my wonderful amazing talented friend that I met online about 7 years ago now. We have met in real life - the kids and I went and stayed with her for a week a couple of years back...

She has taught me a TON of things about applique, and through her I have learned to be freer with my work, and no longer have the need to follow a pattern and do everything the same in a pattern down to the fabric selection!

She texted me last week asking for my address and on Saturday a package arrived in the mail. Do you know how hard it was to not open it and leave it until Christmas? It made me understand exactly how my kids feel at Christmas!

I finally got to open it yesterday and I gasped - it was just so completely perfect for me! She hand appliqued the dresden plate to the background and added my initial to the middle.

The colors and fabrics are perfect, and you better believe it will have pride of place in my living room. Or bedroom. Or quilt studio. How am I meant to decide?! Best of all, I'll be able to think of her every time I look at it, and be touched by the hours she spent making it just for me. When you're a quilter, nobody makes you things like this. They presume that you could just make it yourself, or they're scared that it wouldn't be good enough, when in reality, it touches me more than any expensive gift could. Anna is a master quilter herself, so she gets it :)

So thank you Anna! I love it, and you KNOW I love you!

Phew

2011-12-25T18:57:00.000-06:00

It's done and over...hooray! Santa came last night and even took a photo of himself in our kitchen with the bacon the kids left out for him, just to prove that he's real. Pity he's so bad at self portraits...

Kids are in bed and I'm having an early night! Christmas was lovely - very low key and relaxing. I was mean and made the kids wait until we got home from church at 1 to open presents! They were great sports about that though. I was spoiled by my hubby and friend Anna - I'll have to show you the amazing quilted pillow she made me tomorrow. LOVE her!!

Until then, I'm off to bed before 8 which never ever happens, and will leave you with some fun pics from today...

Twas The Night Before Christmas...

2011-12-24T23:54:00.000-06:00

The kids are in bed, the presents are out, the letter from Santa has been written, and my work here is almost done! This was the first year we let our oldest who is 11 help us when the boys went to bed. She wrote the letter from Santa on the computer (because the 8 year old is trying to figure out if Santa is real or not and said he's going to compare handwriting from last year to this year! Smart kid haha!) and put carrots on the driveway.

Their letters to Santa are hilarious. First, Sofia's -

what a suck up! She's a sweetie though :)

And my 8 year old Coleman's...

He's trying really hard this year to figure out if Santa is real or not. He's not getting a remote control helicopter - it's a remote control airplane, so he will still have the not quite knowing dilemma!

All of them...

They're so excited!

I've been sitting here reflecting on Christmas and why we have it, and watched a beautiful video I'd love to share. It's 9 minutes long and shows the timeline from Mary being told she would have the baby Jesus, to him being born and visited by shepherds and later the Wise Men. It makes you feel like you are there! Well worth the 9 minutes of reflection at this crazy busy time.

You can watch it HERE.

I hope you all have (or have already had!) a wonderful Christmas.

Getting Close...

2011-12-23T23:48:00.000-06:00

Not Quilting But Baking

2011-12-22T22:38:00.001-06:00

I've been taking a break from quilting today and getting some Christmas baking done. See if you can guess what's first up on the list...

Gotta have something yummy to take to my fantastic new workmates in the morning since they've been so welcoming to me!

A Finish!

2011-12-21T22:47:00.000-06:00

Woo Hoo my workshop class quilt is done. I took the last stitch in the binding tonight and was then able to complete the videograpy. I also spend a few hours making the class PDFs. I think I can now relax? I love this little quilt!

Binding

2011-12-20T21:43:00.000-06:00

Yesterday I spent 9 hours straight in front of the computer. I had made all the videos for the STITCHED project I'm involved in (go HERE to sign up!) and I was still to figure out how to edit them. I've never done any kind of video editing whatsoever so it was daunting to say the least. I had put it off for so long!

However, thanks to a couple of tutorials (gotta love Youtube!) I have now mastered Windows Movie Maker! It's actually super duper easy once you know how and I think I could edit videos in my sleep now!

After I had edited and uploaded 6 videos (oh gosh, making them is a whole other story!) I realized I needed one more, as I still had to put the binding on my project. So that's where things stand. The binding is only half done, but it's a mini quilt so I'm looking at another half hour max. But do you think I can even find that half hour?!! I've been so busy the last two weeks with the STITCHED project and work that my house had turned into a disaster zone and today I just needed to take the whole afternoon and evening to clean! It's now pretty much done and I can relax and finish up the binding. Phew! Christmas is going to seem easy after the last 2 weeks!

Beary Christmas

2011-12-19T22:06:00.000-06:00

Last year my wonderful mother-in-law who is also a quilter (told you she was wonderful!) made this advent calendar for us...

There's a bear which moves around to a different part of the house each day until he ends up at the Christmas tree on December 25th. Looks like a nice, cute quilt right? Maybe you'll have more appreciation for it when you know that the fabric panel alone, not actually made into the quilt, last Christmas was going for anywhere from $80-$140 on Ebay!

My MIL found the panel put away in her fabric stash - she said it had probably been there for 30 years, and she thought the kids might like it so she made it up into a quilt for them. She was right - they LOVE it, and even though we'd never ever sell it, it's nice to know that it's worth big bucks on the open market! But even nicer to know that Grandma made it for us :)

Crazy Cat

2011-12-19T00:11:00.000-06:00

I was sewing in my quilt studio in the basement tonight, came upstairs to get a drink, went back down, and found our cat sleeping on the chair I had been sitting in. Not so unusual, right? Well check him out...

He had been sleeping on the floor next to me, and I guess when I was throwing my threads and scraps down, they landed on him, and somehow stayed on him when he jumped onto the chair. Cats and quilts - it's a crazy but perfect combination!

Working Hard

2011-12-17T22:49:00.000-06:00

This has been a tough tough week for me - I have been so incredibly busy and have not stopped from when I get up to when I go to bed. One of the reasons is I've been getting my videos for the STITCHED project filmed and edited. They are due tomorrow night and I'm running out of time fast! One of the problems is there are certain parts of the videos I can't film until certain parts of my project are sewn, so there's a lot of going back and forth. The good part of it all is I've been able to do some actual needleturn applique, which I haven't had the chance to do for a little while.

I LOVE my project! I showed it to you all the other night in it's raw form, unstitched, but it's all appliqued now and the videos are on their way to being done.

Remember, if you want to join in the STITCHED project, have a look at THIS POST which has all the info. It starts on January 1st so you still have time to sign up!

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner!

2011-12-16T21:31:00.002-06:00

OK folk, the Sew Mama Sew giveaway week is over and after asking my hubby to give me two random numbers, the winners are....drum roll....

Jamie @Terrabyte Farm who said...
Thanks for the giveaway, those bells are lovely. I love Denyse Schmidt. I know there are so many great designers, but I love her works the most. Thanks for the chance to win!

and

kblaxall who said...
I adore Bonnie and Camille's Ruby or Bliss, but my favourite is Kate Spain's Central Park. I scoured the net for weeks trying to find a layer cake recently and managed to find one which I am holding onto like a Prized possession! Thnaks very much for the beautiful giveaway. I am new here, but have become a follower as I heart applique and you designs are so cute!

So congrats ladies, I have emailed both of you! If I don't hear from them by Monday I will draw new winners:)

Thank you to every single person who commented. I started replying to everyone, then there were just too many and my life was crazy busy this week, but please know that I read every single one and appreciate the time you took to comment.

In other news, tonight a bunch of friends and our kids got together at a friend's place to make gingerbread houses. It was so much fun! After some frosting dilemmas and a quick trip to AC Moore for meringue powder, we got on the right track, and even though most of the houses collapsed, we had a ton of fun! In the end, my girl gave up on the house and turned the pieces into some snow covered ground, and decorated sugar cones to look like Christmas trees... I think it looks fantastic!

My boys had SO much fun decorating theirs, and they did hold together for a while...

and then the roofs collapsed...

but they don't care. They just want to eat them anyway!

Big thanks to my friend Julissa who baked the house pieces herself and fed us all pizza. She's amazing!! Especially when you look at the mess we all left...

I did do the dishes though. I had to do something!!

Lost

2011-12-15T22:55:00.000-06:00

I was looking today for a Christmas quilt I usually hang in my entryway, but alas for now it is lost. That means that there is a big sad empty space where the Christmas quilt should be...

I did manage to find a nativity set I made a couple of years ago out of Sculpy...

It's a little worse for wear and one of the shepherds is missing - I think he was used for My daughter's ice age diorama project. Hey, don't laugh - the shepherd was the closest thing we had to something that resembled a caveman!

The search will go one tomorrow for the Christmas quilt, and hopefully I'll have a nicer space to show you. I also need to dig out this cute set of houses and set them up...

I got them last year at a thrift store for $1 a piece. Love thrift store bargains!

Wordless Wednesday

2011-12-14T23:28:00.000-06:00

Before and After

2011-12-13T22:59:00.002-06:00

When you share your quilt studio with your 11 year old daughter, things can get messy REALLY fast! OK I really should quit blaming my daughter! She is messy, but when I get creating, I'm terrible at keeping it in order. I mean, who has time to clean when you're creating the world's next masterpiece? Ha! I am ashamed to say that my lovely room had become depressing to go into, and here's why...(prepare yourself, it's bad!)

UGH! Told you it was bad! First thing to go was the mattress. Sure it's handy when I need to sew for an extended period of time and need to keep the kids near me so they don't destroy anything. They love lying on it and watching TV, but really, you can see why it had to go!

Thankfully, after some time spent cleaning, I have my lovely room back again...

Aaaah much better!! And don't you love the Kaffe Fassett bags as wall art?!

Giveaway Day

2011-12-12T00:02:00.001-06:00

FRIDAY NIGHT UPDATE:
OK folk, the Sew Mama Sew giveaway week is over and after asking my hubby to give me two random numbers, the winners are....drum roll....

Jamie @Terrabyte Farm who said...
Thanks for the giveaway, those bells are lovely. I love Denyse Schmidt. I know there are so many great designers, but I love her works the most. Thanks for the chance to win!

and

kblaxall who said...
I adore Bonnie and Camille's Ruby or Bliss, but my favourite is Kate Spain's Central Park. I scoured the net for weeks trying to find a layer cake recently and managed to find one which I am holding onto like a Prized possession! Thnaks very much for the beautiful giveaway. I am new here, but have become a follower as I heart applique and you designs are so cute!

So congrats ladies, I have emailed both of you! If I don't hear from them by Monday I will draw new winners:)

Thank you to every single person who commented. I started replying to everyone, then there were just too many and my life was crazy busy this week, but please know that I read every single one and appreciate the time you took to comment.

Welcome everyone! I'm guessing the majority of you visiting today are here from the Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Day, so come hang out for a while, have a look around, and enjoy. Welcome also to my old faithful readers - I appreciate you all!

I love to applique. I have tried most every kind of quilting, and there are many I enjoy, but applique, and more specifically, needleturn applique is my one true love. Other than my hubby of course!

I design most of the quilts I make, so I drew up a Christmas themed applique for Giveaway Day. Christmas bells and holly! Time is short right now - you know, with Christmas around the corner and all, so instead of needleturning a quilt with the bells and holly I raw edge machine appliqued three sets to a tea towel for my kitchen...

On offer today for you are three things.

Firstly, something for every single one of you, just for visiting my blog - a free copy of the bells and holly templates to download. Just click HERE and download away! You don't have to even use the pattern to make a tea towel with. I used it yesterday, HERE, to make some quilted Christmas ornaments...

Secondly and thirdly, I have put together 2 kits with everything you need to make your own bells and holly tea towel. This means I will have 2 winners! Yippee! I have a white tea towel kit...

...and a green tea towel kit...

There are no bells and whistles to jump through to enter. You don't need to become a follower or even tell anyone else about it! Just hang out a bit, check out some of my other posts and tutorials if you want, and leave a comment on this post you are reading to be entered to win.

Just to make it more fun, answer this question in your comment...

Who is your favorite quilt fabric designer, and/or what is your favorite quilt fabric line?

I will draw 2 winners randomly, and yes I will send internationally.

As usual, make sure I can reach you through your comment, either by having an email linked through your name, or by actually typing your email into your comment. The winner will be drawn Friday night and I will ship it out on Saturday (If you send me your address quickly!) so you will receive it in time to make it for Christmas. (It doesn't take long - 1 hour tops!)

Good luck and happy Giveaway Day! Don't forget to download your free pattern HERE!

Appliqued Ornaments

2011-12-11T21:23:00.000-06:00

I had the applique bug today so while I had it I made some raw edged machine appliqued tree ornaments. First up was a little winter evergreen...

Next up was a bell with holly from the bell pattern I drew up the other day...

Lastly was a couple pieces of holly...

I just love them! You're also not limited to hanging them on the tree. You could hang them on a door...

or a lamp - anywhere really!...

I think best of all I like them on the tree...

...and really love how the tree lights shine through them...

Don't forget to come back tomorrow for the Sew Mama Sew giveaway day!

The Good Shepherd

2011-12-10T20:29:00.000-06:00

Every year our church does 4 performances of a live nativity for the public. Tonight we had our first 2 performances. Last year the kids and I were townspeople but this year my girl was an angel...

and the boys and I were shepherds. My boys...

and I...

Wait, you've never heard of a woman shepherd?! I'm not sure what was scarier. Me in costume or out of it. See below. Those of you who followed metal bands in the 80's, what singer do you think I resemble?? Take a look at these 2 pics and tell me which is which??!

Yeah, like I said, scary. Who knew my doppelganger was an aging 80's rock star?

Appliqued Bells

2011-12-09T21:52:00.000-06:00

In case you didn't know, Christmas is coming, and as usual, is coming faster than we expect! As such, I thought a Christmas themed tea towel was in order, so tonight I did some drawing and this is what I came up with...

Christmas Bells!

If you come back on Monday, I'll be participating in the Sew Mama Sew giveaway and will have a free pattern of this for everyone to download, and also a giveaway of a kit to make your own!

Ornaments and Tutorials

2011-12-08T17:47:00.000-06:00

Today was the day! Finally the tree is up! I assembled the tree and the kids decorated it. I didn't put a single decoration. I sat on the couch and directed them, with the main direction being to balance things and not have them all clumped together. They did a great job! Now they're watching TV with all the lights turned out and just the tree lights on.

What a great time of year this is!

I have a couple of quilty type of ornaments. First are some hearts I made about 8 years ago...

They are extra special because of the buttons. Most of the buttons you see came from my great grandparents knitting factory they owned in New Zealand around 100 years ago now.

Next is a cathedral window ornament my wonderful MIL made for my oldest son's first Christmas...

This is a folded fabric ornament which I have a tutorial for HERE. Super fast and easy to make, and a great way to use up scraps!

I also have a tutorial for a candy cane holder ornament HERE. It's easier than it looks :)

Who else loves hand made ornaments?!

Christmas Tree?

2011-12-07T22:41:00.000-06:00

Please tell me that I'm not the only person in blogland who still has these type of decorations out...

...and a space like this where the Christmas tree should be...

Tasty Tuesday

2011-12-06T20:41:00.000-06:00

It's been a while since I did a Tasty Tuesday post, and tonight's as good as any, right?!

Today I made these yummy things...

Sorry I don't have a pic of them in a pretty bowl looking all fancy, but they still taste the same!

I have no idea what you'd call these in the US. My Mum and I made them all the time in NZ and she called them truffles. But here I have a feeling you'd call them rum balls, except I don't add rum!

They are great for get-togethers, or even for a special treat in the kids' lunchboxes. Plus they are so easy to make that my 8 year old helped me today.

This is how I make them...

Using a rolling pin, I crush up a box of graham crackers and put them in a large bowl. I then add 1.5 sticks of melted butter, 2 TBL of cocoa, a splash of vanilla, and half a can of condensed milk (give or take). I mix it all up (it should be quite sticky), roll teaspoonfulls into balls, then roll in coconut. Done and dusted. How easy is that?! You can also add things like mini marshmallows, raisins, choc chips etc. Sometimes instead of making the mix into balls, we would spread it into a dish and put chocolate frosting on top. That is what we called fudge, then I came to the US and found out that what is called fudge here is quite different! Whatever you call this mix of mine, it's delicious!

Diapers

2011-12-05T20:53:00.000-06:00

Today I bought diapers. NO I am NOT pregnant! Read on...I'm about to make a short story long...

Tonight a bunch of people from our church were invited to a friend's place for a pot luck dinner/get together. However this wasn't just to have dinner - the real purpose was to donate supplies for a local homeless shelter for families. There was a list provided of things they needed and we piled our presents under the Christmas tree and they will be delivered to the Anne Marie House.

(I know - bad photo - taken with my phone!)

It was a fun night with friends, and served a great purpose. Best of all it was a great learning experience for my kids. We talked at length about why we were doing it, and why the items were needed. They were so sad to realize that there are families with kids their age in such need. We had bought a big box of diapers to donate - I had a specific reason for choosing diapers.

I remember my first year in the US, I saw more homeless people on the streets of Salt Lake City than I had ever seen in my life in NZ. In fact, I believe I saw more homeless people in just one DAY than I had seen in my entire life. Sadly, I became accustomed to seeing the homeless men and women on the streets, then one night we were driving past a homeless shelter and in the line waiting to get in, I saw a young mother holding a baby. I burst into tears - I had a new baby myself, my first, and though we weren't wealthy, we were always able to afford diapers. It had never occurred to me that babies were in homeless shelters. And that is the long version as to why I bought diapers today.

Seen-It-Sunday

2011-12-04T21:13:00.000-06:00

Time for another Seen It Sunday post, where I show you things I've seen in blogland this week that struck me as particularly clever, amazing, inventive, revolutionary...you get the point!

First up, something crafty - a button bowl. How cool is this?...

You could use a balloon and white glue. We're all crafters of some sort here - most of us probably have buttons, right? Might even be fun to do with kids! Original post HERE.

Next up, something yummy...you can make it for Christmas...toffee!

I'm not a fan of hard candy - I don't like it getting stuck in your teeth and I always avoided it until a friend here in NH gave us some she had made for Christmas about 5 years ago. Hi Tami!!! Oh my goodness it was sooooo good! I have been a fan of homemade toffee ever since. THIS RECIPE looks delicious and best of all, easy!

I have one more thing to show you. My hubby has been wanting to make himself a desk from a door for a while now and I came across THIS POST. Look at this work table - is it not the coolest thing ever?!!

Craft Fair

2011-12-03T22:31:00.000-06:00

Today was the day my girl had been waiting for - her school's craft fair. She had saved up and paid for her own table and helped me make the head bands and clips for sale. She is quite the expert at making yo-yos now!

Foot traffic was quite light and she didn't make her millions, but she did make enough to cover her expenses and a few dollars more, plus with all the leftovers, she will be the best accessorized kid around!

The best part of the day for me was catching up with one of the other vendors who happens to be a quilter that I know - Belth Helfter of EvaPaige Quilt Designs. She is a quilt designer/teacher and we had a good chat. It's such a small world!

Craft Fair Goodies

2011-12-02T22:05:00.000-06:00

Tomorrow (Saturday) our school is having it's annual Holly Days Craft Fair. My girl Sofia is having a table all of her own to try and make a little money. We decided that hair accessories would be easy and fun for her to make. Of course I have done a lot of the work, but she has made some of the yo-yos, both cutting out the circles and sewing them, and she also did some of the attaching/gluing. We have a ton of headbands and sets of clips like these ones...

We both love everything we made and will actually be quite happy if there are lots left over so we can keep them - I'd even wear them!

Stitched Registration

2011-12-01T22:54:00.004-06:00

Today's the day you can officially REGISTER for the Stitched video workshops! I am in awe looking at the talent being offered and count myself very lucky to be among this group of ladies.

Have a look at the workshop projects on offer...

I will be teaching a Needleturn Applique class. See the tree with the purple polkadot background? That's what I'm teaching! Here's the little blurb I wrote about my class...

Needleturn Applique Mini Quilt
In this workshop you will learn not to only do, but how to enjoy applique! I will teach you my favorite technique, needleturn applique, and tips and tricks to make it easier than you think it is. We will make a modern shaped appliqued tree mini-quilt wall hanging. I will walk you step by step through the entire process, including choosing fabrics, transferring your pattern to your fabric, prepping your applique pieces, my needleturn applique technique, free-motion quilting, and binding. These are all things I wish I had known when I started, because had I known how fun and easy it could be, I wouldn't have been so scared to try!

When you register, you don't only get access to my class, but to ALL 20 classes, for just $89! When you think that you can pay that much for just one class at a shop, getting 20 classes is amazing. You also will have access to all the workshops from January 1st until June 1st and can choose which workshops you want to do in any order, at any time of the day or night.

All you need to do is
CLICK HERE TO REGISTER and you will be taken to the registration page. As a little added bonus, I will send the first 10 people who register using
the above link by December 15th, a little package of fabric and scraps from my stash to get you started on your project.

I'm excited!

Quilt Top Done

2011-11-30T22:20:00.000-06:00

There is no rest for the wicked around here. I went straight from working on Sofia's room to getting the 5th grade quilt I talked about back HERE sewn together.

The fabrics used to set and border the blocks aren't my usual style, but hopefully they will appeal to the masses. Last night I ironed and set the crayon drawn blocks, and cut out the alternating plaid blocks. Today I sewed the quilt top together. Tomorrow I'll baste, quilt and bind it. Oh and did I mention I start a new job tomorrow at a local school? Granted, it's only 2 1/2 hours a day, but needless to say, things are rather busy around here! We also had another birthday today - my youngest boy turned 7...yup busy busy!

Just to add to the crazy amount of things going on right now, tomorrow is the first day of registration for the Stitched Project which I talked a little about back HERE. I'll do a proper post all about it tomorrow. It's going to be so much fun!

Bedroom Makeover Revealed!

2011-11-29T20:00:00.002-06:00

Phew. The room is DONE! Sure I was up until 3.30 this morning painting, and spent all day decorating it, but it was SO worth it when Sofia came home from school and saw her new room!

To remind you, here was the inspiration from Hideaway Girl...

Here was our before...

And finally, the AFTER...

Isn't it different?! As in, barely recognizable! Tell me, is it OK to be jealous of your 11 year old, because I really, REALLY want her room!

This was also a very cheap makeover. I added everything I bought up and the grand total was $72.50! $32 for the paint, $25 for the dry sink from the Sally Army, $7.50 for the thrifted quilt hoops and fabric, $5 for the vintage sheets I turned into curtains, and $3 for two thrifted cushions. Take that, Trading Spaces!

I struck gold yesterday at the Salvation Army. I was looking for a nightstand that I could paint white to go next to her bed, when I saw this old dry sink cupboard.

It was already painted and distressed to a perfect shabby chic style, and best of all, it had these beautiful crystal door pulls...

For $25 I couldn't pass it up.

Here is Sofia when she came home and saw her room...

She has NOT stopped talking about it all night. She keeps saying over and over that she can't believe it's so beautiful. Every time I walk by it I stop dead in my tracks and stare - it's one of those times when everything just comes together and beauty is made and even though you did it,you're not quite sure how, but there it is. It is definitely a room befitting our newly 11 year old girl, and a birthday present she will remember for a long time!

Not Quite Done...

2011-11-28T22:27:00.000-06:00

I had promised you before and after pics of Sofia's bedroom makeover tonight but of course life happened and the room isn't yet done! We took the birthday girl out to breakfast at IHop this morning and my plan was to then come home and work all day while hubby took her to Boston for the day. However, during breakfast I got an unexpected phone call from a principal of a local school asking if I could come and interview for a lunch monitor position. I said sure, when, and she said asap. So within the hour I had interviewed, got the job (yippee!) and started the long paperwork process. It's just a couple of hours a day which is exactly what I want.

Anyway, that pushed back the painting a few hours, and now it's after 11 at night and it's not done. I plan to paint through the night and surprise her in the morning. As usual, the prep work took most of the day - patching and sanding holes, repainting the baseboards and trim, and now cutting in with the new paint. The actual rolling on of the paint won't take long - I always think of it as the reward for all the prep work!!

So far this is what we've got...

Before...

See all the priming/patch work that needed to be done?!!...

And now, during...

"After" pics tomorrow for sure!

In the meantime, she's moved most of her "stuff" into the living room. This is what we're living with until I get it done...

Aaarrrggghhh!

More Framed Fabric

2011-11-27T22:55:00.000-06:00

Not too much to show you tonight - just more fabric framed in thrifted quilting hoops.

At 25 cents per hoop and about 50 Cents worth of fabric, each of these comes in at around 75 cents. Not bad for original art! Tomorrow is bedroom makeover day for my girl, so come back tomorrow night for before and after pics!

Framed Fabric

2011-11-26T22:55:00.000-06:00

It is our girl Sofia's 11th birthday next week and she's been dying for a room makeover ever since she saw a post from Hideaway Girl last year. This is the room Hideaway Girl did for her daughter...

I have the blue paint and have been collecting quilt hoops from thrift shops...

Tonight I pulled some fabrics and started framing them. I absolutely adore the vintage sheets used in Hideaway Girl's makeover but I don't have enough variety to do that, so I'm just using regular quilt fabrics.

These are just 3 of them but I have many more to do. I'm so excited! I also need to just glue the edges under so they don't stick out like you see here. Now you're looking harder to see the fabric sticking out, aren't you?! I would be!!

Black Friday Shopping

2011-11-25T20:03:00.000-06:00

How many of you got up early this morning and braved the crowds to nab some bargains?! My hubby and I did! Our local YMCA offered a service to members where you could drop off your kids from 5m-12 noon for free so you could go shop. You better believe we took advantage of that!

I managed to spend a whopping $25 at the mall. I know, how pathetic is that?! Hubby spent considerably more, but that was for birthday and Christmas pressies. We then went to Joann's and that's where I really had fun. When there's 60% off quilting/cutting instruments, a girl goes kinda crazy!

I bought (or rather my hubby bought, as when I went to pay, he payed instead. Love him!) a new large cutting mat, replacement rotary cutter blades, new little sharp scissors, left handed scissors for our daughter since she's a lefty, thread, a small rotating cutting mat, and a king size batting. The 80% poly/20% cotton battings are my favorite and all I use.

I must say, walking around a busy mall at 5am when it's still dark outside is a rather surreal experience! It was nice to do it with hubby this year as other years one of has stayed home with the kids. We were also to have a nice breakfast together at I-Hop. It turned out to be a wonderful date, even if it got light as the date progressed rather than getting dark like our usual night time dates!

And how did the kids do? Great! They were the only ones there for 3 hours - the other parents didn't take their kids until 8.30. Waste of valuable babysitting time if you ask me!

Did you snag any good bargains at 5am?!!

Yum Yum!

2011-11-24T18:35:00.000-06:00

Today, as most of you know, is Thanksgiving. A day where we reflect on things we are grateful for in our lives, and eat ourselves silly!

We combined with some friends which was wonderful. We each only had to half the normal cooking, and I found it very stress-free! And wow what a delicious feast we had...

Turkey, ham, cheesy mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes with a sweet pecan topping (SO good!)green beans with butter and garlic, cranberry salad, rolls, cornbread dressing, french bread stuffing, and of course, lashings of GRAVY! Also pumpkin pie, pecan pie, cake and whipped topping. Phew, I'm still full and there are masses of leftovers. So many that when you look at the leftovers photo it looks like we barely touched anything...

Combining forces is definitely the way to go! I hope you and yours had a fantastic day too.

5th Grade Quilt

2011-11-23T21:39:00.001-06:00

Somehow I've done it again - volunteered myself to do something which will take multiple hours! This time it's a fundraising quilt for my daughter's 5th grade. They are going to something called Nature's Classroom in April where they sleep in cabins for a few nights and the week is dedicated to fun learning about nature.

We had the idea to get the art teacher to have the 5th graders make nature themed quilt blocks. I am amazed at what they came up with...

That's just a sampling of the 60+ blocks I have.
This quilt is going to be fabulous! Next I have to heat set the crayon drawings, then I can get sewing. I'm excited to see how it will look. No doubt you'll be seeing a lot of this over the next week or so!

Tasty Tuesday

2011-11-22T07:22:00.000-06:00

Here in the US we have Thanksgiving coming up in two days. Our kids finish school for the week today and as I'm one of the room moms for my girl's class, I was assigned to make a Thanksgiving treat. Nothing says Thanksgiving more than turkeys, so turkey cupcakes were the treat of choice. No not cupcakes with chunks of turkey in them (bleh yuck gross!) but these...

My girl Sofia helped decorate them and each one has their own personality! They were so easy - the hardest part was finding candy corn now that Halloween's over. Thankfully the other room mom had some left over and saved the day.

Now if only real turkey tasted as good as these guys, I might actually like it!

Wooly Ideas?

2011-11-21T21:57:00.001-06:00

After posting the other day about the wool pincushion round robin I was in last year, I got the urge to make another one! I found this base I had already prepped and think I'll just use that.

Once the seams are embroidered over, and it's covered in wool appliques, this base will be transformed and barely recognizable.

So my question for you, dear readers, is what theme ideas do you have? I'm thinking of maybe a garden theme but I'm open to anything!

I can't wait to dig into all my yummy wools again...

Seen-It-Sunday

2011-11-20T20:49:00.001-06:00

It's been a few weeks since I did a Seen-It-Sunday so I thought I'd get back in the swing of things!

Today I want to show you a fantastic tutorial from Choose To Thrive on how to make skirts from fitted bed sheets. Yes, really - fitted bed sheets!

Even better, it even shows you how to decorate them with applique!

Check them out...

And look at the applique - one regular and one reversed...

I love this blog. The owner, a woman named Nike, has decided to live for a year without spending a dime on home remodeling or crafting. She's taking a "Rock-What-Ya-Got" approach and I LOVE that! She's such an inspiration, and as you can see, she has great ideas. My hubby would love it if I did that. Wouldn't yours??! While you're there, you should check out her other tutorials like "Make Your Own Tin Craft Stars From Disposable Cake Pans" or "Make Your Own Girls Tights", or something I'll be doing with my kids this season, "Puffy Snowflakes With Regular Salt and Epsom Salts" I bet you have all the stuff you need at home to make all of these projects without spending a dime!

Wool Applique

2011-11-19T22:21:00.000-06:00

This week I received a lovely little package in the mail - a prize from fellow blogger, Kerry from Kerry Stitch Designs. It was a package of 3 beautiful embroidery threads. These aren't your regular threads either. Check out that price on the red one!

I have been admiring Kerry's work - it's in the same style as Sue Spargo, who is one of my favorite quilt designers ever! In fact, I think I saw Kerry's City Bucket pattern in a store in Utah last time we visited and I remember loving it and thinking hmmm I think I follow that lady's blog! She sells it in her Etsy store - go check it out, she has beautiful designs! So a HUGE thank you goes to Kerry for the beautiful prize. I am a big fan of wool applique and will absolutely be using them.

Two summers ago some friends and I did a wool pincushion round robin. We each made a base of wool and started some applique to give it a theme, then sent it to the next person who added to it, who sent it to the next person and so on. This is Sharons, of Daisy Cottage Quilting, and was the one that I worked on last and sent back to its owner.

I did the birdhouse and word "wool". Isn't the whole thing beautiful?!

This next one is Anna's, of Bohemian Journey, and it had one more stop before it was sent back to her.

I did the watering can/flower. If this were mine I don't think I could stand to turn it into a pincushion. I'd have to frame it and hang it in a prominent place!

This is my one when I sent it away. Looks pretty empty, yes?!

It did made the rounds and is still hanging out with my friend Brenda of ">Pumpkin Patch Primitives, waiting for her to get inspired! (I need to get pics of Brenda's Fall themed one!) Luckily she lives in my town so I know where to find it hehe! She showed it to me one day when I was visiting and oh my goodness it is nearly all filled up! I don't have a photo of it but there is one on Brenda's Wool Crazy blog which you can see HERE. I think I'll tell her it would make a great Christmas gift for me this year...hint hint Brenda!!

Party Time

2011-11-18T21:30:00.000-06:00

Our girl Sofia had her birthday party today. I now remember why I haven't done this for 4 years. Between the money spent, and the cake making, house decorating not to mention a bunch of screaming 10/11 year olds running all over the house, it's exhausting! Add to that the fact that I got to bed around 3am after going to the Breaking Dawn premiere last night and it's been quite a day.

We had a Hawaiian theme...

...and the festivities included games, one of which I was shocked none of them had ever played. It's called Pass the Parcel and is a staple at every party in New Zealand.

I just presumed it was here, too, but apparently not. However, it was a huge hit!(Google it!)

We also had photo shoot and these are some of the pics we got...

And even though this isn't the best shot, it might be my favorite. The lone boy invited to the party (he's our neighbor and Sofia told him he HAD to come and watch her brothers - she's such a little stinker! But I'm so glad he came!)

He's such a cutie patootie! he's like Sofia's third brother :)

I had fun making a cake to match the theme...

Sofia was SO happy and I have had so many hugs and I love yous tonight. It was definitely worth the hard work.

Needless to say, I didn't do any quilting at all today. I know I have some new blog readers, and I want to let you know it will be back to quilty business asap on this blog!

Busy Busy

2011-11-17T21:38:00.000-06:00

I have literally not had a second to blog today and I have 5 minutes to do it right now!

This morning I had to do birthday party shopping for my daughter's party tomorrow. Then I had to cook dinner NZ style for some guests (this one is from NZ too! Yippee!)

Then it was straight to my first ever Pack meeting for my son's Cub Scout troop (SO much fun!)

And now myself along with 7 friends are off to the Breaking Dawn premiere! Can you say busy?!

Taking Photos

2011-11-16T16:29:00.001-06:00

For a couple of years now I've been wanting to make a set up to take quilt photos like on the Holly Knott website. They have a wonderful tutorial called Shoot That Quilt on how to make the stands and photograph your quilts. I bought everything to make the lamp stands 2 years ago and finally, today, made them and now have it all set up in the basement.

The impetus to get them made is our girl Sofia is having a birthday party on Friday and we're going to take photos of all her friends as part of the festivities. We're talking about 10/11 year old girls here - I think they'll have a blast posing, and then I can email the pics to their Moms.

I took some test shots after school of the kids and some boys we babysit - they didn't get all fancied up, but I think the photos are still great!

The stands are super easy to make, and cheap too! If you can use a screwdriver then you can make these stands. Screwing these brackets to the 2x4's is all it takes...

The most expensive part were the special lightbulbs at $15 each, but I think there are some much cheaper alternatives out there now since it's 2 years later.

I can't wait to see how photos of quilts turn out with this setup. Guess I'll be doing some playing tonight!

And local friends - want photos done?? Come on over and let's play!!!

Tessellation

2011-11-15T21:52:00.001-06:00

My girl Sofia came home from school today all excited because her teacher had asked her to bring in a quilt her Grandma made for her with tessellating cats on it.

They are studying tessellations in class and Sofia remembered I had told her the cats were tessellating, she told her teacher, and the teacher asked her to bring in the quilt. She has a VERY cool teacher! I also remembered a small tessellating quilt I made a few years ago which you can see I blogged about HERE, that I'll send with her too.

I don't have a lot of fall themed quilts in my home - I absolutely love the fall, but don't really work a lot with the deeper fall colors in quilts. I remember throwing a bunch of Kaffes in there to make it a little more exciting for me.

This mini quilt is usually on my bedside drawers covered in books, sewing supplies, the lamp...you name it, but I took it off the other day to give it a wash.

Now that the years of dust have been washed off it, I can actually see how bright and vibrant it really is. I had forgotten!

I just found a blurb I wrote about making it way back in October 2008 on Nancy's blog, With Thread In Hand. I wrote...

"It's a little wallhanging, 20" x 22" and I'm calling it Acorn's Fall as I have seen so many acorns so far this fall that I believe this Fall belongs to the Acorns!
I designed the quilt myself and did wool appliques on the borders. It was a little tricky to piece, as the shapes were curved, but it sure was fun! I wanted to design a pieced yet curved shape reminiscent of an acorn. Even the border fabric looks a bit like acorns! I quilted simple curves on each piece to look a little like an acorn 'cap'."

Gosh I'm so glad I wrote that - I never would have remembered the inspiration! Not to self: Start a quilting journal and write down the inspiration for each quilt I make!

Miscellaneous

2011-11-14T22:19:00.000-06:00

I didn't get anything quilty done in particular today as I've been busy getting photos taken of the project I'm doing for the Stitched project. I'll be teaching how to needleturn applique this tree...

...Oops I hope I was allowed to tell you that!!

I also had to take a pic when I saw one of our cats lying on the quilted pillow I bought at the thrift store Friday...

Cats and quilts. They just go together!

We had the most beautiful unseasonably warm day today so I took some pics of Sofia playing outside in the fallen leaves. Here she is just lying in them...

So you see, I did nothing big in particular, but a lot of little things. That's what most days are like around here!

Library Bag

2011-11-13T15:16:00.000-06:00

So when the hubby got home last night I told him about the internet not working and after fiddling around with things a bit he found the problem. What is the first question you should ask yourself when things aren't working? That's right - is it plugged in? Ahem...no it wasn't!! Oh boy was that a blonde moment for me or what?!

At least it's all working now and I get to show you the bag I was going to show you last night.

Sofia got a last minute invitation to a birthday party yesterday. This is when being able to sew comes in very handy! She chose the fabrics and I sewed up a library book bag for the birthday girl.

We topped it off with a flower safety pinned to the bag so she can remove it and pin it to anything she wants.

When I make these bags I add Craft Fuse to the lining and handles - it makes it nice and firm and sturdy. I think I need to make my boys library bags, especially since we go every week. Luckily Christmas is coming up! I feel a tutorial coming on - anyone interested?!!

Phone Blogging

2011-11-12T22:35:00.000-06:00

Oh boy here we go again! We have power but for some reason no internet. I've even tried stealing my neighbor's but to no avail (hi Lori!) which makes me think it's a Comcast problem. I even have pics of a cute appliqued bag I made today to show you! I'm sorry - I'll try again tomorrow :)

Thrifted Goodies

2011-11-11T15:01:00.002-06:00

It's Veteran's Day here in the US and every holiday, a large chain thrift store, Savers, has clothes and bedding items 50% off. I dragged the kids along and we went shopping! I thought I'd show you some of the goodies we picked up...

The bargain of the day was this piece of 100% wool fabric...

It's 2.5 yards long and at an original price of $2.99 was already a bargain. Take 50% off that and it was only $1.50! When you realize that this stuff sells for $30-$50 per yard new, you see why I nearly hyperventilated when I saw it! It's just perfect for doing wool applique on. And because there is so much, I could make entire pillows with it. I can just imagine snuggling up on the couch with one watching the snow fall outside!

Next are some items I got for my girl Sofia. It's her birthday in a couple of weeks and she's getting a complete room makeover! It's going from the current little girl pink to a more grown up teal blue. This gorgeous pillow was $3...

and this quilted pillowcase sham was $1...

These pillowcase shams were also $1 each, but I think I might just keep them for my room!

The sale's on 'till 9pm so get down there and snag some of your own bargains!

I do have a Veteran's Day story to tell. After Savers, I took the kids to Taco Bell for lunch. As we went to sit down I saw a little old man, must have been at least 80 years old, sitting in a booth. He was dressed in full uniform, a very old one, complete with medals and a hat. I stopped and asked if I could shake his hand and thanked him for all he had done. With tears in his eyes he looked at me and said, "No, thank YOU for stopping and remembering". I was so touched - here he was, a hero, worthy of praise, and he was the one doing the thanking. I hope he hadn't sat their unnoticed for long, and I hope I'm not the only one thanking him today. Made my day - oh the tales I bet he could tell.

The Toolbox

2011-11-10T21:59:00.000-06:00

My hubby took Sofia on a daddy daughter date tonight - they went to the mall and he got a haircut while she got her very first ever manicure! They came home and he had bought a present for me - he handed it to me outside in the dark and said it was a toolbox. I said oh gee thanks honey. Then we got inside and I saw that this wasn't just any old toolbox - it was a beautiful and wonderful girly PINK toolbox!!

I thought how cool is that? I can put my hammer and screwdrivers etc in here and look girly at the same time! Then I saw these...

and just KNEW that they needed to be filled with these...

Say hello to my new sewing box!! I love my hubby who keeps me on my toes with thoughtful gifts for no reason!

Great Time To Garden!

2011-11-09T20:17:00.002-06:00

So we had that horrible snowstorm almost 2 weeks ago now, that resulted in us losing power for 5 days. It was cold and miserable. We're still waiting for the city to take away the limbs that were downed during the storm. This is out front of our house - just imagine every single other house in the city with piles like this, but mostly bigger.

This week you would NEVER know it had snowed, OR that it is November. It has been glorious - today it was 68 Degrees, sunny, and beautiful blue skies. So what does one do on such a day but get their gardens ready for Spring next year! I need to fill my garden beds 'Lasagne Gardening' style so they can compost themselves over the winter and be perfect for planting in the spring. I bought big bags of peat moss and dried cow manure that I will add with layers of mowed grass and leaves, of which there is plenty in New Hampshire this time of year!

I've split open the bags of peat moss and will let it hang out all day tomorrow in the rain to get a good soaking, then put it in the garden beds this weekend.

While I prepared things, the kids played hide and seek. I love where Sofia chose to hide...

Talking of leaves, look at where our cat decided to take a nap this afternoon...

Nope, not the grass, not the driveway, not inside the neighbor's car (which he does quite often), but in a big pile of leaves. He was so happy in those leaves!

Any gardeners out there - Home Depot has all their trees/shrubs/bushes on sale right now for 75% off. I bought hydrangeas, roses, and a butterfly bush amongst others for $2-$4 each. Bargain!! Plus it's a great time to plant them so their roots are strong by spring.

And in the very last news for the day, about a month ago I sent away my papers to become a US citizen. Yesterday I got fingerprinted. The red lights and bells and whistles didn't go off so I guess they decided I can move on and take the big test...so they gave me this book...

There are 100 questions to study, of which I'll be asked 10. I think I handle the ones like, "Where is the Statue of Liberty?", or, "What is the name of the National Anthem", or, "What happened on September 11, 2001 in the United States?". It's questions like, "The House of Representatives has how many voting members?" that I need to study up on. Wish me luck!

Tea Towel #2

2011-11-08T21:56:00.000-06:00

Today I appliqued another tea towel (you can see the first one HERE) using the pear pattern from my Fruit 'n' Veg quilt.

I love all different kinds of pears, so thought I'd do all the different colors - yellow, green, and red. Yum! These are so easy to make. This one took me half and hour from beginning to end. How great would these be for Christmas presents?! I have one more, a blue tea towel to applique, then a white and gold one to do in a Christmas theme. For that one I'm going to design and share the pattern with all of you, so stay tuned!

Fun Announcement!

2011-11-07T19:12:00.000-06:00

Something exciting is going on around here and in blogland and I'd love to tell you about it! A few weeks back, a blogger, Alma Stoller, contacted me about being in a group of 20 fabric artists that make video tutorial classes. After hearing about her ideas I said yes, of course!

She has talked a little about it on her blog - you can go and read about it HERE and she introduces the instructors HERE. I think I need to send her a new photo now that I'm blonde hehe! More info will be coming up shortly and of course I'll tell you alllll about it!! I am rather excited and busy working on my project and patterns and videos. Egad!!

Happy Halloween!

2011-11-06T19:39:00.000-06:00

Yes, I know it's a week late, but we have just finished trick or treating. When our power was out last week, the city decided to postpone Halloween. For some reason they thought children roaming neighborhoods in the dark with downed trees and power lines on the roads might be dangerous. Go figure. So tonight was the designated night. May I say it was the most anticlimactic Halloween ever! The kids barely talked about it all week because of course there was nothing on TV about it. (And we didn't have power to even watch TV for half the week!) And something about Halloween in November is just wrong. However, there was an upside to it - all the shops had their candy on sale for half price! Check out what the kids got...

see how many 'real' candy bars are in there? Hardly any lollipops and junk candy - it's all good stuff! Love those half price deals!

As for costumes, the kids changed their minds at the last minute. Of course. One said he was a zombie gardener?? The other wore the same big bird costume he's worn for the last 4 years, (That thing is getting mighty short in the arms and legs - time to retire it I think!) and our girl still went with 80's girl but modified it for the cold night air!

The other good thing about it being tonight is my hubby wasn't working so he was able to take the kids trick or treating. He even got in the spirit of things and donned my 80's rocker wig. Rock on!!!

As usual our neighbors were the hit of the street...

The kids are now in a sugar coma and I profusely apologize to all teachers in our city tomorrow...

Happy fake Halloween everyone!

Quilt Show Part II

2011-11-05T21:00:00.000-05:00

Looking back on the quilt show yesterday, I can say it was actually a very good show. There was a little bit of everything for all quilters, but probably not modern quilters. There was a good mix of traditional, applique, and art/pictorial quilts. I didn't take too many photos as there wasn't a lot that spoke to me personally - there were a lot of absolutely beautiful traditional quilts as you can see here...

...but not too many that made me stop with my mouth open and think, "I HAVE to make that quilt!" Not the makers' fault - it's just my personal taste! I always look for something new, something I haven't seen before, something to inspire me, and new techniques. Here are a few I quite liked...

This first one was one of my two favorite quilts, and was a teacher's quilt by Sue Nickels and Pat Holly...

I particularly liked this triptych quilt...

I thought dividing the quilt into 3 separate pieces was an interesting technique I'd like to use.

This quilt just made me smile...

And this is the one I voted for as my viewer's choice...

Yes I know it's not the best quilt in the show. It doesn't have the most hand work or the most applique. It didn't take hundreds of hours to make like the wholecloth hand quilted trapunto quilt that took best of show. The way I decide who will get my viewer's choice vote is to think, "Hmmm, if I could take any quilt home with me right now, which one would it be?!" This was the quilt I'd take home.
However I may be a little biased - I have made this quilt pattern before! It was because of this quilt pattern that I met one of my best friends, Anna. It is a Pat Sloan pattern and we were both in Pat's yahoo group several years ago. Anna and I had both made this quilt, but in fabrics quite different to the original. Here is mine, complete with my MIL's feet...

And here is Anna's...

I thought Anna's was beautiful so I emailed her to tell her so and we bonded over this quilt pattern and became wonderful internet friends, and then friends in real life when I took my kids and stayed with her for a week in Maryland! I owe a lot to this particular quilt, and I'd take the one in the show home with me in a heartbeat :)

Quilt Show

2011-11-04T16:05:00.000-05:00

I went to a local quilt show today called A Quilter's Gathering. It's the local show put on in our town. It's not little, but it's not huge. It does draw some good teachers though.

I don't know why I expected anything different from the last 5 years I've gone, but I do tend to live in hope! The vendors...ugh. I hate to be negative, I'm usually a positive person...but even I have to vent once in a while!

I found one, just ONE vendor with newly released fabric. It felt like everyone was either selling masses of batiks (are batiks making a comeback? They were everywhere) or their older fabric from 3, 4, and 5 years ago. Even more surprising to me, the ladies were flocking to it! It wasn't even on sale. If I'm paying $3/FQ then I'm buying brand new released fabric, which is exactly what I did! Portsmouth Fabric Company had the brand new Amy Butler Lark line so I got a couple of pieces of that. They also were selling reusable totes so I bought a Kaffe Fassett printed one. The only other things I bought were a couple of Perle cottons and my favorite needles to use for needleturn applique, John James Gold 'n' Glide.

Tomorrow I'll post pictures from the quilt show itself. And I'll try to be positive, I promise!

Back to Applique!

2011-11-03T21:54:00.000-05:00

Thank you everyone for all your kind words this week while we were without power. We finally got power back yesterday afternoon while sitting at the table eating lunch. I do believe I might have screamed with surprise and delight! It was a physically cold week, but my heart was warmed with the fun non-electronic things my family did, and also from your messages of support! The photos I posted yesterday were from around our neighborhood. We got off very lightly - one of my lilac trees snapped, and a branch from our neighbor's pine fell on our roof then the ground but we aren't aware of any damage.

ANYWAY....today I actually did some applique! I bought some tea towels (what do you call them here in the US? I grew up calling them tea towels in NZ, but I need a translation for the US - 12 years here and you'd think I would know!) and thought I'd take some patterns from my fruit and vege quilt and do some simple raw edge applique on tea towels.

Since it's Fall and pumpkin season here, I started with the squash and pumpkin block.

I have two more to do - still deciding which shapes to replicate. Stay tuned!

Wordless Wednesday

2011-11-02T21:29:00.000-05:00

And Still It Goes On...

2011-11-01T21:45:00.000-05:00

That's right, once again here I am sitting on my cold house blogging from my phone because it's now 4 freakin' nights without power! They say it should be back by Friday. Woo hoo only 3 more nights to go.

Still, we're making the most of it. We had two sets of neighbors and their kids over this morning for a yummy pancake breakfast. They were quite delicious - berries and white chocolate chips in the mix. I had frozen berries defrosting begging to be used, so why not?! We then did some cleaning, I read my Nook for a couple of hours which my lovely hubby had charged for me at work! We then went to our church building which has power to let the kids run around in the gym for a bit. 4 other families showed up! They didn't have hot water or working stoves so they showered and cooked while the children played. It was a great time!

Well my phone is blinking red now so I better post this before it dies. I hope you are all warmer than us wherever you are!

Night Three

2011-10-31T21:47:00.000-05:00

Yesiree folks, this is night 3 without any power! Can I mention again how thankful I am for a gas stove and hot water! Chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast is better than we have WITH power!

We went out for a bit today, did a little shopping, played at the park, (it was warmer outside than in), then went to the YMCA for a few hours (ok, until it closed at 10pm!) to swim, get warm, and charge up my phone and laptop. We just came home and I made hot chocolate by candlelight to warm our tummies before bed. The kids are having a blast at night. They love the power being out and using candles. It's the daytime that's a problem for them! On the agenda tomorrow, the library and maybe sledding. And I plan to get our power back on. Hey a girl can dream!

So sorry about the lack of quilting posts - not much of that is going on I'm afraid! I'll make up for it when we have power and I can actually see in my quilt studio in the basement!

Brrrr

2011-10-30T17:24:00.000-05:00

As you can tell from my post title, things are a little chilly around these parts. That's what happens when you get a foot of snow and still have no power! Yep that's right folks - still no power and it could be a week before we get it back. It's survivable though - we have gas cooking and gas hot water so we can eat and shower. All is good and it's a bog adventure. Sadly there won't be any blog posts with pictures for a while, but I think you're an understanding bunch! Trees are down over the whole neighborhood - some streets are impassable and both school and Halloween are cancelled tomorrow. Wish me luck telling the kids that one!

Power Interruption

2011-10-29T19:37:00.000-05:00

Power interruption is a nice way of saying aaaarrrrggggghhhhh the power's out!!!! We are experiencing the worst October snow storm ever on record here in New England. The most snow recorded in October has been 1.5 inches and they're predicting a foot by morning! The tree branches are nearly touching the ground with the weight of the snow and it's cold but even with all that, there is much to be thankful for. I'm glad we have full cupboards, and I'm glad I bought candles today! Most of all, I'm glad our house is full of quilts to keep us warm! Oh I'm also glad my phone was charged fully before the power when out as it is what I am posting from right now! As such, I have no pretty pictures for you, but I must say, the scene outside right now is breathtakingly beautiful. I'm off to bed. Such an early night for me! I hope you are all warm and safe wherever you are.

Sewing Can Be Boring

2011-10-28T22:50:00.000-05:00

Oh yes - yes it can. Take today for example. Not a lick of quilting happened. What did I do for my sewing for the day? Take up the hem on a pair of jeans. How boring is that?

It had to be done, I did it, and that was the extent of my sewing today. The problem with my goal of blogging every day this year is that some days I just don't have anything interesting to report. Like most of you, some days my life is fun and exciting, and some days it is not. Welcome to the monotony of life!

Fabric Fabric and More Fabric

2011-10-27T21:22:00.001-05:00

I received a call out of the blue from a friend on my street. Her mother had decided to have a big clear out of her fabric, and took it all to my friend's place. She took what she wanted, then called me to come and take anything I wanted. I had no idea what to expect, but what I didn't expect was entire bolts of quilting fabric!

None of the fabric was the new modern stuff I like (other than a piece of Joel Dewberry Modern Meadow!) but there was a lot of good basic quilting cottons. The ones on the bolts are a little more calico-y than I like, but I think they will make good quilt backings. And plus, how could I say no to entire bolts of fabric?!! That's 15 yards on each one - crazy!

So thank you Denise for thinking of me!

Wordless Wednesday - Hair Edition!

2011-10-26T12:34:00.000-05:00

I Believe Part Two

2011-10-25T20:51:00.000-05:00

Tonight I have the rest of my Christmas quilt, "I Believe", to show you. I have such great memories of working on these blocks - of my confidence growing as I realized that this whole applique thing was not only a littler easier than I expected, but totally, completely enjoyable! I fell in love with needleturn on this project, and my thanks must go to Pat Sloan for creating a pattern that inspired me enough to want to learn.

My favorite two blocks here are the cookie jar and the tree with gingerbread men.

Pat's pattern didn't have the bowl and gingerbread men, but she encouraged us to be creative, so I used her bowl and gingerbread men from another of her patterns and incorporated it into this block. It was a complete eye opener to me that you could be creative and change things. To deviate from a pattern never entered my mind before, so that was a huge thing for me to 'get', and I haven't looked back since!

Coming up tomorrow...I'm off to the hairdressers in the morning to use up some of the credit I amassed sewing all those curtains. I'm thinking of going back to blonde. Perhaps something like this...

Hmm we'll see! (I couldn't resist the wig - $1 from the thrift store!)

My First Needleturn Applique

2011-10-24T21:48:00.000-05:00

Today I was sorting through things in my quilt studio and came across something I had forgotten about - my very first needleturn applique project. How I had forgotten, I don't know, because it is so beautiful!

It is a Christmas quilt called, "I Believe" from Pat Sloan. You can find the pattern HERE. I was a member of her yahoogroup back in the day, and one year we all had a quilt-along making this particular pattern...

The fabrics are not what I would choose today. Back then, (about 2005 I think), I thought you had to stay as close to the original as possible. Boy have things changed since then! I still love the fabrics I chose, and I remember laboring for hours making my choices, auditioning fabric after fabric, but if I were to make it today, you better believe there'd be plenty of Kaffes thrown in there!

The snowflake block was my very first block.

I remember the ladies in the group saying it was the hardest, and if you could make this block then the rest would be easy. So I jumped in with both feet and went for it. Looking at it closely you can tell I was a beginner. Look how nothing in the middle of the flakes is positioned in a nice neat circle like it should be, and the points are all skewed...

I'll never undo it though - those were my first precious applique stitches, never to be repeated!

I got a little better by the next block, the sugarplum fairies, which is one of my favorites...

The circles are still not quite as round as they could be, but not too bad...

I remember buying this fabric for this particular fairy. I looked all over until I found the perfect one!

Then by the third block I was a pro! The points on the bird are so much better than the snowflakes...

I'll show you some more blocks tomorrow. I'm not putting this away again. Christmas is coming, and these blocks deserve to be made into a quilt!

Seen-It-Sunday

2011-10-23T20:44:00.000-05:00

I have a couple of crafty things to show you tonight - one for Halloween and one for Christmas. Oh please - did you know Christmas is only 9 weeks away? Don't be in denial - it's coming up FAST!!

First up, since it's ALL anyone under the age of 38 can talk about in our house, let's go for the Halloween craft...

How cool is that? Just spray paint an old frame green, get some string, and weave a web. Talk about easy! Tutorial found HERE along with other really cool Halloween decorating.

Next for the Christmas craft which is found HERE...

I buy jars of buttons whenever I see them in thrift stores. This would be a perfect project to use them on. Even the kids could do it! All you would need are some polystyrene balls, buttons, pins, and ribbons. Again, how easy is that?!

Happy Halloween, Merry Christmas, and everything in between!

Chilli and The 80's

2011-10-22T18:24:00.000-05:00

You are probably wondering what chilli and the 80's have to do with each other. The answer is nothing! Let me explain...

Today the kids' school had their annual Fall Festival. They have a chilli cook-off which I entered and much to my complete shock and amazement - WON! Woo Hoo!

I honestly don't think my chilli was the best tasting - but it was definitely the best looking!! The other contestants were all men, and well let's face it - their fancying up skills were not that great, and when I say not that great, I mean they were zip, zero, zilch. But their chilli was absolutely delicious!

You can see the bowls of chilli here, and mine would be the one with the sour cream, cheese, green onions, and a big ol' hunk of cornbread! Yum!!

That's my wonderful amazing neighbor, Wally - he was one of the judges, and he said they were all raving over the cornbread. So I think my cornbread won me the chilli cook-off. Go figure!!

Now onto the 80's part...my daughter was invited to a birthday/Halloween party tonight and we decided to channel my inner 80's teenage self and dress her like and 80's girl.

I made her a skirt this afternoon (my sewing for the day to keep me on my goal) and had a lot, and I mean, A LOT of fun doing some lovely bright blue and pink eyeshadow.

Oh and don't forget the side ponytail!

Her and I are going to be matching 80's girls for Halloween this year, though I'll be going down more the Flashdance route with the whole cut up sweatshirt thing. I'll be sure to take pics of us both!

Ironing Board

2011-10-21T22:48:00.000-05:00

Under the cover of darkness late last night I scored myself a new ironing board. Our neighbors across the street moved out of their house yesterday and instead of taking the last of their stuff, they did the great American tradition of leaving everything on the sidewalk for anyone to take. I LOVE this about America! I never saw it until I moved to this country. I grew up spending every Saturday either at garage sales or in the auction house. And some days the family activity was going to the rubbish tip (dump) and seeing what goodies awaited us there! My parents who are approaching 80, still think a trip to the recycling store at the dump is a great activity! Yep, I realize that to some it might sound a little nasty, but as a result of living frugally, my parents have never been in debt, and that includes credit cards.

But back to my story! Here is the pile of stuff across the street as it stands about 10 minutes ago when I took a photo...

Yesterday I saw an ironing board poking out of the pile, and since my current board has ceased to move up and down, I thought one that does move up and down might be a nice change!!

Well I hit the jackpot in the ironing board lottery. This one is great!

First of all, it's HUGE! It also moves up and down so smoothly (oh the luxury! ha!) It also has a rack for hanging your 'stuff' on, and a flip up mini board for things like sleeves.

Anyone want my old one? (Which I got through Freecycle!)

My Pumpkins

2011-10-20T20:59:00.000-05:00

I don't do a lot of seasonal decorating. I wish I did - it's one of the things I love about America, how everyone really gets into the different holidays and seasons and decorates accordingly. I'm a slow learner but I'm getting there! My home is decorated year round, just not for any particular season.

However, I do have this recessed space in the wall when you walk in the house and each Fall I use it to put up all my pumpkin framed quilts. It normally holds some of my milk glass collection, and instead of putting that all away, I just work it into the mix!

I made these the first year we lived in the house, 2007, and they come out every year at this time. I also made the pumpkin wall hanging which was originally made to be a table runner but every year it ends up on the wall!

Do you all decorate for the seasons?!

The Salon

2011-10-19T21:06:00.000-05:00

No quilting done today - just curtains, curtains and more curtains! I did finish them and take them to the salon, and they had all the previous ones I'd made hanging. I took a couple of photos to show you - they're from my phone, so not great quality, but you'll still be able to see how pretty they look!

It went from this...

To this...

And they even hung a second row on the back side of the opening...

Sunday night is their official grand opening party and there will be a 60 foot runway coming out of the curtains. How cool will that look??!
It's so much fun to see your work like this. But next time I should convince them to hang quilts instead of curtains!!

What Was I Thinking?!!

2011-10-18T21:25:00.001-05:00

So remember back HERE where I somehow got myself into making curtains for a local hair salon - remember it was 90 yards?

We they hung them, LOVED them, and have me making the same thing all over again for the front windows. Luckily they're pretty easy - the sewing part isn't hard, it's the handing of the 90 yards that's hard - the measuring, the cutting, the ironing...oh and did I mention that their grand opening is this weekend and I have to take them in tomorrow?!!

In other news, look what we've been feasting on... homemade rolls Texas Roadhouse style with yummy honey cinnamon butter!

The kids are in heaven and are begging to have the leftovers for breakfast. Sounds good to me!

Gotta go...have a curtain or two to make by tomorrow. Eeek!

Mean Quilters

2011-10-17T17:21:00.000-05:00

Do any of you read and love Jacquie Gering's blog as much as I do? I was following her when she was just starting this whole blogging thing and am amazed at how far she has come. She is a true leader of the modern quilting movement and I truly admire her.

This afternoon she linked to another quilter who was less than pleasant about Jacquie. I won't link to the quilter - you can visit Jacquie's blog if you want to get there. I did leave a comment. It's just so sad when we as quilters feel the need to criticize another fellow quilter. Kinda goes against the whole premise of quilting - to comfort and keep warm. I mean really, can't we all just get along?!!!

Seen-It-Sunday

2011-10-16T20:17:00.000-05:00

As soon as I saw these hearts I knew I wanted to share them with you for Seen-It-Sunday.

Aren't they just the sweetest hearts ever?! I can just imagine using pretty scraps and teaching my daughter basic embroidery stitches so she can make her own. You could use them to make garlands or mobiles, but I would love to see a whole pile of them sitting in a bowl, especially around Valentines Day!

The original post here links to a store selling the kits but the store says it's closed until November. I think they'd be easy to figure out without a kit though. If any of you make any I'd love to see them!

Halloween Quilt

2011-10-15T22:35:00.000-05:00

Things in the neighborhood have calmed down since my angry post yesterday! They made an arrest, someone from another part of the state, not from around here, which is a bit of a relief. I sure learned what a tight-knit neighborhood we live in. I love it here!

Now, back to quilting!
This time last year a box arrived at our house from my hubby's Mom. We opened it up and inside was a wonderful Halloween wall quilt. I was so impressed - my MIL is half blind, but still churns out quilts like no one I know, and most of them go to charity. Dozens and dozens per year.

I pulled it out tonight and hung it up. I decided it needed a great spot, but just couldn't find any free wall space. Then I thought, hmmm, why not just put it over an existing quilt? So I did! Before...

and after...

So it's a pretty cute quilt, right? A spooky tree with lots of Halloween themed appliques and buttons...but look closer - that's a power cord hanging out the bottom. This quilt is tech-savvy! With a flick of a switch look what happens...

and now closer...

and closer still...

Isn't that great?! There are 8 different settings for the lights - everything from a twinkle to a slow fade in and out. I love where it's hanging. This is one of my favorite spots in the house.

I love to curl up in the corner with the latest quilt magazine and get lost in its pages.

I can't wait until the kids wake up in the morning and see the quilt that I'm sure they've forgotten about in the last year!

I'm Angry

2011-10-14T15:34:00.001-05:00

*Update...an arrest has been made! Woo hoo!*

Yes you read that right - this normally happy-go-lucky Mom in the suburbs is angry, and it's all because of THIS.

Want to know how close this happened to my home? Here, have a look at this photo taken just now from my back deck...

Look right in the middle of the picture - yes that is police tape. A little too close to home, both figuratively and literally. I am angry that this wonderfully safe neighborhood we chose to live in, which multiple police officers also choose to live in because of its record of safety, has had it's innocence compromised.

Now look at this photo, taken from my kitchen window...

I took this photo from the one window that I still hadn't made new curtains for. You better believe as soon as I heard the news, I went straight to my quilt room and finished those curtains.

Isn't it interesting that we went for 2 years without window coverings and then last week out of the blue I had the feeling that it was time to make curtains. I am glad for the little promptings I receive, that seem meaningless at the time but are actually important. When you get those little ideas in your head, take notice!

A Birthday

2011-10-13T20:54:00.000-05:00

First of all, thank you everyone for your kind words on yesterday's post - I've been so busy today that I haven't had time to go through them yet, but I will! We had a little party at home for my hubby's birthday today so I spent the day getting dinner for that prepared. We had chicken linguine with a mushroom cream sauce, homemade breadsticks, and fresh apple cake with cream cheese frosting.

Simple but delicious! Hubby and the kids have all fallen asleep - maybe I'll sneak downstairs and do some quilting!

Wordless Wednesday

2011-10-12T17:08:00.000-05:00

Almost There...

2011-10-11T21:14:00.000-05:00

The saga of the fruit and vege quilt is almost over. The binding is being sewn on and tomorrow it will be hanging in my kitchen! Copper molds have been taken down, holes patched, sanding and touch up paint tomorrow, then the quilt will have a new home. Hopefully it will be a great Wordless Wednesday pic!

Green, Red, and Orange

2011-10-10T22:25:00.001-05:00

When you read the post title, green, red, and orange, did you think ugh - what a horrible color combination? Me too - and I've been living with it in my kitchen for 2 years now!

2 years ago my kitchen was orange (on purpose!)...

...and I had made some cute orange polka dot curtains which you can see in the photo above. Then I painted the kitchen celery green and it has red decorating accents. The orange curtains looked great in the orange kitchen, but in the celery green kitchen? Hmmmm not so much! So down they came, all except for the one over the door to the garage. Who wants to look at the garage?!!

I keep meaning to make new ones to match, but it's just been one of those things I never got around to doing. Until today! I have 2 sets done with one more to go.

It is SO much better already! With winter coming I really wanted to get these done. New Hampshire gets rather cold in the winter and anything you can do to keep the heat in really does help!

And just to finish off, when I took the fabric to my quilt studio to sew, look who beat me to the fabric before I could even unfold it...

Seen-It-Sunday

2011-10-09T17:52:00.000-05:00

So the favorite tutorial I found online this week has absolutely nothing to do with fabric or quilting or sewing, and everything to do with oranges. Maybe I'm the last person to have seen this, but I think it's pretty darn cool! It's how to make a candle out of a clementine without any wax.

How cool is that??! You use that long piece of pith in the middle as the wick and pour oil in. The instructions have you using a clementine but I bet you could do it with an orange too or whatever citrus you had on hand. I'm definitely going to try this!
There are a few tutorials - you can find them HERE and HERE and HERE.

The Hangi

2011-10-08T19:41:00.001-05:00

Today we ventured an hour north of our city through the most gorgeous fall scenery to the NZ Consul's home for the 11th annual Hangi. I have lived in New Hampshire for 5 years now and have never met another NZer in the state, then all of a sudden there's hundreds of them at the Hangi - and they all talk just like me! Quite bizzare!

Here is the Consul wearing his NZ rugby shorts & socks, and what else but a blazer?!!...

The weather was absolutely perfect, the food was delicious and cooked perfectly, and we had good friends go with us which made it even more fun. A Hangi is a traditional New Zealand feast cooked in the ground with hot rocks, covered with sacks, then dirt. It cooks for a few hours, then is taken out and *hopefully* is cooked through. Last year it wasn't, but this year it was!

Here you can see it being dug out and served up...

This is lamb on the right, beef on the left, all from NZ!

It may look ugly but I know all you Kiwis reading this know how yummy it is!

They had some kids games and races...

...and during the welcoming ceremony they announced a boy and girl winner for sportsmanship. My Coleman won! They said it was because when he was running his shoe came off and he kept on going! (You can see my 2 boys running in the photo above, and you can also see that Coleman, at the back, only has one shoe on!) He won a ceremonial shovel (for digging the hangi out with) and a huge 1 kilo bag of lollies (candy) all the way from NZ!!!

Not only did he win, but my daughter's friend who came with us also won!

We were quite popular with our 2 kilos of lollies and a few hundred homesick Kiwis!

Of course there were desserts coming out our ears including pavlova...

What a great day! Better than yesterday I might add :)

Nothing

2011-10-07T22:21:00.000-05:00

So the day has finally come when I've got nothing! It's late, I'm tired, and so instead of coming up with something witty to say, how about I just crawl into bed and catch up on some sleep?! See...I knew you wouldn't mind! Back refreshed tomorrow!

Stuffed Fabric Pumpkin Tutorial

2011-10-06T21:35:00.001-05:00

Due to popular demand, here is the the promised tutorial for the cute little pumpkins!

First of all, you need a circle of fabric. The bigger your circle, the bigger your pumpkin. These three circles are a dinner plate size, a small plate size, and a really little plate size!

For this tutorial I used the largest one, dinner plate size. The finished pumpkin will be about 5 inches across. Don't be too fussy with making it a perfect circle - you can see mine aren't! A little wonkiness will make your pumpkin unique!

Next, you make a big yo-yo. I used a single strand of perle cotton, but you can use regular thread if you want. Just make sure to double it so it doesn't break when you pull to gather.

Knot one end, then take big stitches, being sure to turn under the edge a little. My stitches are about a half inch long.

Stitch all the way around to where you started, then gather it a little...

Then stuff your pumpkin! The more you stuff it the fuller it will be.

Now pull your gathers as tight as you can. There will be a gap in the middle, which is a good thing! You need somewhere to put the stem!

Go over a couple of the gathers a few times to secure your thread, then cut it off. You could also leave a bit hanging and stuff it inside the pumpkin if you want.

Now get yourself a stem. I just went outside and cut some small branches from our maple trees. Then cut a piece of that to the size you want. Your pumpkin might have a short stem or a really long one. It's up to you!

Push the stem down in the pumpkin as far as you can.

Cut a long piece of perle cotton and double it. Mine was the length of my arm span times two.

Now you are going to create the bumps in your pumpkin by wrapping it like a present! Start on the top, placing the middle of the length of cotton in the middle of the pumpkin.

Take it to the bottom of the pumpkin as so, and pulling quite firmly, create quarters...

then eighths...

Then still pulling it firmly, tie it off.

You will probably have extra thread still attached...

You can either cut it off now and call it done, or you can do like I did, and wrap it around the stem before cutting it off. It's entirely up to you!

Now go forth and create your own colorful pumpkin patch!

Wordless Wednesday

2011-10-05T22:23:00.000-05:00

Fabric Pumpkins

2011-10-04T20:42:00.001-05:00

Usually once a month the ladies at our church get together in an organization called Relief Society and have an activity. Each month it's different - sometimes it involves cooking, sometimes crafts, sometimes learning about different cultures, doing compassionate service work, or even just sharing stories with each other over yummy food! Tonight it was all about Fall. Fall chocolate treats...

...decorating pumpkins with vinyl cutouts, and fabric pumpkins. I was asked yesterday to fill in for someone - my only instructions were to do something that involved fabric, pumpkins, and make it easy!

So this is what I came up with...(to give you an idea on the sizes, the middle one is about the size of a closed fist)

Aren't they cute??! If you can make a fabric yo-yo then you can make these. Super easy, and very decorative. I would like to make a ton of the little ones and have them all in a bowl on a table. If anyone is interested, I'll do up a tutorial for them. The ladies had great success making them and so can you!

Green Binding, Pink Paint

2011-10-03T22:47:00.000-05:00

Remember back HERE when I bought hese cool scissors way back in August? Remember back HERE when they broke and I glued them back together then gave them a white base coat? Finally, today is the day they became pink! One more coat tomorrow then up on the wall in my quilt studio they will go.

In quilty news, I managed to get all the threads sewn into my fruit and vege quilt, and make the binding.

It still isn't sewn onto the quilt, but it's a step in the right direction!

Seen-It-Sunday

2011-10-02T20:30:00.000-05:00

My Seen-It-Sunday posts have become the posts which take me the longest to do, and since it seems that Sunday is my busiest day of the week, I thought that instead of posting multiple things I've 'seen' this week, I'm going to try posting just one and see how that goes!

I love love LOVE tutorials - I have made a few myself, so I appreciate the time that goes into them.

Having said that, have a look at this rather cool bookmark...

There's a tutorial for it! What a great gift this would be - quick and easy, yet could be personalized in so many ways.

Tutorial found HERE.

Threads, Threads, and More Threads

2011-10-01T22:38:00.000-05:00

Today I spent some time quilting the fruit and vege quilt again, and I now have all the background finished and have started on the actual fruits and veges...

The quilting is the fun part, but wanna know the worst part? See all these threads...

When all the quilting is done I get to thread each one of those hundreds of threads onto a needle and bury them in the quilt. Oh how I hate that part! A good long movie should help help the process go a little easier. Kind of like folding laundry!

Quilts in the Neighborhood

2011-09-30T14:21:00.000-05:00

A mom from school had a birthday party for her 7 year old and we were invited. I knew that this mom was a quilter, but still, there's nothing like walking into someone's home and the first thing you see is this...

Best of all, she lives on the same street as me! Imagine that - two quilters on one street!

Day at the Fair

2011-09-29T17:20:00.001-05:00

Today I was a chaperone for my son's 3rd grade to a local country fair. It was a dreary rainy day, but talk about a fun time!

There were a ton of animals to pet...

Fair food to eat...

Junk to buy...

A circus with tightrope bicycle riding clown...

And yes, even quilts! I didn't really find any of "my" type of quilts, they were more traditional, but it was still lovely to see them in a country fair setting.

One I did like was very traditional, but the intricacy of it was amazing. Each individual square was tiny - just a half inch square...

I think I was more attracted today to the wool rugs - they were just beautiful...

The rugs were almost enough to make me a country prim fanatic. *Almost!

Wordless Wednesday

2011-09-28T18:03:00.002-05:00

Bears are Done!

2011-09-27T21:07:00.000-05:00

Yes, I know, it's the announcement of the century - I have finished the bears I was commissioned to do! I have have a ton of fun making them but I am all mohaired out! Time to start back on my own stuff.

Since I've just been working all day on finishing up the bears, I have nothing fun an exciting quilting related to show you. BUT I am going to point you in the direction of a giveaway...oh yes, the magic word, GIVEAWAY!!

My friend (in real life even!) Laurie made a Birdie Sling bag and is giving it away.

I don't even get extra entries for blogging about this - I just really needed something to blog about today, and well, I really like Laurie (she came and quilted a quilt at my place back HERE).

I know it's lessening my chances of winning, but oh well - have at it!

You can go enter her giveaway at her blog HERE.

Quilting

2011-09-26T21:30:00.002-05:00

Finally, after way waaaay too long, I am getting the fruit and vege quilt quilted. It's amazing how much you can get done with 10 minutes here and 5 minutes there!

Seen-It-Sunday

2011-09-25T16:24:00.000-05:00

I have some fun fabric things to share today that I've seen through the week.

First up is a trio of repurposed frames my dear friend Shannon thrifted, painted, and put to use...

She is so creative and talented! She is new to quilting, but she designed and made that appliqued birdcage in the middle frame. She is also a frequent blogger, and organization expert! You can check her out HERE.

Next up is the most adorable wreath...

I am on such a wreath kick lately, especially now that I have a nice new front door instead of the old ugly falling apart one! Can't you just see rummaging through your fabric scraps and making a bunch of rosettes and putting them on a wreath? So lovely! You could even color co-ordinate them for different holidays. And we all know holiday season will be upon us before we know it! Original post HERE. If any of you are in the NC area, there are classes at Karen Gray's quilt shop of making these! I'd be there in a heartbeat if I lived close!

Lastly, check out these cute headbands...

Amy of Vintage Fern had her daughters make a bunch of things to sell at the shows she is a vendor at, and the headbands were one of the things her girls came up with. What a great Mom! You can see these and the other cute things her girls came up with HERE.

Dinner and Such...

2011-09-24T21:08:00.002-05:00

Not a lot of sewing has gone on in my house today. I have a friend staying for a couple of days from Utah so of course sewing has gone out the window! Who needs to sew when you can sit and laugh and catch up with a good friend?!

I did manage to sew a nose on a teddy bear, so my sewing every day this year goal is still intact.

Maybe you'd like to see the yummy dinner we had instead of stitching? I baked a ham on the bone...

We also made a nice big salad, and pretzel breadsticks a la Auntie Anne's pretzels you see at almost every mall in America. Both the original kind and the cinnamon sugar variety.

I stood there one day for half an hour watching how they make them, went home and recreated them. Delicious!! However, don't ask me the secret to making them taste the same - it's so completely decadent that I'm afraid you couldn't handle it!! OK I'll give you a clue...you can watch their official video HERE on how to make them from their kit, and at the 7.05 min mark you'll see. Except in the stores they don't daintily brush it on - it gets completely dunked!

Also, since this is a quilting blog, see the placemats? Yes they are the quilted ones I made a few months back. See, even when I blog about a ham dinner and pretzels, I still manage to fit something quilting related in!

Teddy Time

2011-09-23T22:14:00.000-05:00

Along with the quilts I was commissioned to make recently, I am also making teddy bears to go with them. These aren't you regular teddy bears made with fake fur from a local craft store - these are made with super duper expensive mohair. If you're not familiar with mohair, it runs from around $100-$200 per yard. Do you have any idea how scary it is cutting into stuff that expensive? Yikes! But cut I did, and I'm almost done with the bears. All I can show you right now are bits and pieces, but I do have a headless bear, and the head of another you can see.

No face is on the blonde bear yet, but I'll be working on that as soon as I post this. That's the fun part - it's when the bear comes to life. The placement of just one stitch can change the entire expression.

These bears will be all finished this weekend, and then I plan to get my fruit and vege quilt all quilted and bound. Start thinking of a name for it - "fruit and vege" quilt is just not working for me!