a Dozen Quilters December Project - Bibs Part 2

I finally finished and washed the boy bib for the December a Dozen Quilters project. Both bibs will be on their way soon!

Happy Quilting!

a Dozen Quilters January Project - Comfort Pillows Part 2

Here is my finished Comfort pillow for a Dozen Quilters.

It's been washed, re-ironed to work out some of the wrinkles, and will be on its way soon!

Save the Ta Tas!

do. Good Stitches {a Charity Bee} January Blocks - Part 2

I arranged the blocks that I've received so far on my design board and wanted to share a photo with you:

I'm still waiting on blocks from 5 other people but I think it's really starting to look nice! It means so much to me that the ladies in my group were willing to help out with this special project in honor of my friend. 

Liebster Love

My friend Hollie honored me today by nominating me for a Liebster Award!  

I forget exactly how I stumbled on Hollie's blog but I was immediately captivated by her creativity and writing style. I spent a few hours that day going back and reading all of her earlier content. She infuses so much personality into every post and you can't help but feel like you're catching up with a friend you've known for years when you read them. 

There have been a few occasions when Hollie asked for advice on what to do with a project she was working on and, ever the problem solver, I tried to offer suggestions.  Sometimes they worked and sometimes they didn't. One that I will always remember was my suggestion that she use a fabric with a yellow background and white polka dots to bind this quilt:

Ruthie's Quilt

Just our luck, there wasn't a single yellow and white polka dot fabric to be found anywhere! She decided to use Kona Banana to bind the quilt and I think it works beautifully.

Another thing I love about Hollie is how she referred to her fiance. Her 'wonderful and fabulous fiance'. Sometimes she even threw an 'amazing' in there too! I say referred because Hollie recently eloped! She can now call him her 'wonderful, amazing, and fabulous HUSBAND'. Congratulations Hollie and Hubs!  

The point of the Liebster Award is to highlight the smaller blogs (with less than 300 followers) and introduce them to the blogging world. So without further ado I would like to nominate...

1) Rebecca at Drop Dead Cute. I found Rebecca's blog when she joined the NOVA Modern Quilt Guild a few months ago. Rebecca is new to the quilting world but she's been sewing for quite a long time. She sells her lovely projects in her Etsy shop DropDeadCute. There are some really cute bags and bibs available right now! Rebecca hasn't been blogging much lately because she and her husband recently welcomed a new little one to their family. I made beautiful Asa a carseat quilt a few weeks after he was born which you can read more about on her blog here or in an earlier post of mine here. And here's a picture:

I love the projects Rebecca shares. There are some kid friendly cooking recipes and projects, a room makeover, beautiful fabric stacks, sewing projects, and her first quilt. You should definitely check her out!

2) Molly at A Bit O' Shine. I started reading Molly's blog when she purchased earrings from my Etsy shop to wear with her thrift store finds she planned to re-fashion. I really wanted to see how it would turn out and I have to say that I loved it! You can read all about her re-fashion here. She is great at re-working thrifted finds and making them beautiful. I wish I had her knack for making the old or broken or empty beautiful once more. Molly loves to read and loves nature. I love looking at her mosaics and hopefully one day I will get through my book list so I can start on some of her suggestions! Molly also loves throwing parties. I highly suggest checking out her tea party posts! 

3) Nina at Pretty Little Projects. Nina and I found each other because of my Aunt Ginny. Nina wanted to start sewing and blogging and Ginny suggested we chat. To be honest, she really hasn't needed any of my help with either! I highly suggest checking out her blog to see pictures of the bags she has made and the projects she has done with/for her beautiful daughter and for her precious son. 

So ladies, I’m passing the Liebster Love on to your awesome blogs. Wear the award proudly on your own blog and be sure to pass the award on to 3 blogs you recently discovered and link back to the person who tagged you with the award!

New Craft Space - In Progress

I wanted to share some pictures of my new crafting space. It's a little messy but as the title says, it's in progress.

My design wall is resting on the couch for now but eventually it will be mounted or hung in some way so that it's functional and art...sort of. That's hubby's head there in the bottom!

This is my ironing board only you can't tell because there's so much clutter on it!

My machine and chair face out into the room so that I can watch tv and hopefully one day keep an eye on kids at play.

My cutting table is directly behind my machine. It's pretty convenient being able to just turn around and stand up to cut! The shelf above is one of my favorite items in the room. I love the compartments and that I can put stuff on top too! I plan to mount lights to the bottom to shine down on my cutting area. I have trouble taking photos of my work at the moment because I always cast a shadow no matter what I do.

My messy desk where all the blog magic happens. Yes that's about 100 assorted markers and colored pencils. I've been collecting since high school!

A view of the whole area. Total mess! It's driving me crazy so I've been working on it every night. It's actually a lot better now but I am going to wait to post more pictures until it's 'done'.

This picture was taken later the same evening after we put up my new shelves. Unfortunately IKEA doesn't make that collection of shelves in the same color as my original big one but I think they're going to look better once I have stuff on them.

That's all for now. Hopefully I can finish sorting and organizing soon so I can get back to just crafting and sewing!

Happy Quilting (or whatever you are up to these days!)

a Dozen Quilters January Project - Comfort Pillows Part 1

I wanted to give you a sneak peak of the pillow I am working on for this month's a Dozen Quilters project. I know that comfort pillows aren't specifically for breast cancer patients but it's a cause that is near and dear to my heart. I have family and friends who have been affected by breast cancer. I hope one day people smarter than I am will find a cure for breast cancer, for all cancers. Until they do, my husband and I try to volunteer our time and money towards the cause.

So, without further ado....

I drew the template for the 'bras' myself. They are appliqued on with lightweight heat and bond so they are still very soft. I machine stitched around the edges of each bra before piecing the squares together.

I plan to embroider 'Save the Ta Tas' in pink in the center but I am not sure if I will do it in this 'font'.
 
The final pillow measures 8x12.5. Most of the fabrics are from the Jennifer Paganelli Flower Power fabric collection but the back is from the Art Gallery Fabrics Sugar collection. 


I will take pictures of the final pillow once the embroidery is done.


Save the Ta Tas!

FindMyFabric.com

I just found out about a cool new tool and I thought I would share. It's a website I've been hinting at my hubby to make for a long time but someone beat him to it. Introducing....

FindMyFabric.com!

You can look for a fabric by name or submit a photo and it will search through all of the fabrics it 'knows' and gives you a search result page of fabrics that are similar or an exact match. All fabric vendors can submit their sites to be among the fabrics the search engine uses for comparison. The more fabric sites that sign up, the more accurate this tool will be!

Unfortunately the site couldn't find this fabric (yet):

Does anyone know what it is and where I can find some? Possibly in green?

Happy Quilting!

a Dozen Quilters December Project - Bibs Part 1

Thank you all for your concern! I wish I could say I was feeling better but unfortunately I am worse. I did manage to muster up enough energy to whip up this bib for a Dozen Quilters. I am extremely late in getting it done but hopefully it will still find a good home.

I made it using scraps from my bin and a variation of this tutorial by Sew She Sews. I wasn't able to use her template because the bargain ink I bought on Amazon doesn't work in my printer for some reason. I'm pretty bummed out about wasting money! Instead of printing one out, I drew one roughly the same shape and size. The reverse side is a geometric print in topaz, gold, and pink from Amy Butler's Midwest Modern Line.

I will also be making a boy version of this bib so more to come later but for now I'm off to bed again.

Hopefully to sleep away this cold.

Happy Quilting!

Portable Tea Party

I made a portable tea party bag for my niece Gracyn last night using this tutorial from PrudentBaby.com! I don't have little kiddos to take pictures of while at play but you should check out Prudent Baby to see more of this:

Photo from PrudentBaby.com

I used the same Heather Ross Far Far Away 2 fabric and a similar purple solid. The only part of the tutorial I would have changed is to cut a strip off the fabric for the napkins FIRST rather than after cutting my circle. Somehow I made my circle in the almost exact center of my fabric and ended up with scraps rather than a big strip. I had to make my napkins 6.5 inches which were a bit smaller than in the tutorial but I think they will be fine. I still need to finish up the place mats but I don't seem to have a circle template that's a good size. Unfortunately I am super sick and the only thing I am capable of at the moment is going back to bed.

Happy Quilting (tomorrow)

do. Good Stitches {A Charity Bee} January blocks - Part 2

The first new blocks created by the Hope bee have been posted on flickr. They were created by the talented Muriël. She blogs at Hopfaldera and has a wonderful Etsy shop called Doucepoints. In keeping with the theme I selected, Muriel made 2 wonky cross blocks from solid purple and blue (she could have also selected green instead). I can't wait to see how these look with the blocks I made!

Happy Quilting!

do. Good Stitches {a Charity Bee} January Blocks - Part 1

It's my month to design a quilt for the do. Good Stitches {a Charity Bee} and I've asked the group to help me with a special project.

I recently lost a friend who I met at work. Unbeknown to us, his friends and coworkers, my friend battled depression for much of his adult life. Sadly his battle ended at the beginning of December. It was shocking and devastating. I still tear up when I think about it.

In his honor and memory, I asked his family if I/we could make a quilt that could be used to raise money and awareness. His family has agreed and suggested we could make a quilt to be donated for the annual auction in the area my friend grew up to raise money for the local Mental Health Association in conjunction with Valley Hope.

We are using That Girl That Quilt's tutorial to create a wonky cross block quilt found here: www.thatgirlthatquilt.com/2010/09/cross-block-tutorial.html

My friend's favorite color was purple but he also liked green and blue. I played around with my stash and was able to make some nice looking blocks using solid purples, blues, and greens together.

Left: 1048 Brt. Peri and 1061 Candy Green
Right: 199 Cactus and 1383 Violet
Folded Left: 80 Mulberry and 1192 Lime
Folded Right: 1294 Plum and 1011 Bahama Blue

It means a lot to me that the girls in my bee were so willing to help me make a quilt in honor of my friend. Thank you ladies!

Bye-Bye For Now Etsy

I'm sad to report that new legislation has caused me to close my Etsy shop for now. Hopefully NOT forever. If I am to start selling again I will need to totally re-vamp how I purchase, create, sell, and report. I'm just not ready to do all of that just yet so for now I'm taking a break.

To all the other online vendors out there, I feel your pain and hope you adapt to the new legislation better than I could!

Happy Quilting!