Cupcakes

Head on over to the Cupcake Blog and check out the cupcake potholders I made for Kelly as her bonus gift in the For the Love of Solids flickr swap!

Kelly also received a HST wall hanging from me featuring her favorite Kona solid, Pomegranate

and some other goodies like binding, fabric scraps, fancy pink trim, a pink gel pen, some pink variegated thread, and some leftovers from the quilt so she can make something to match.

I did some of my fanciest quilting to date on this mini because I really wanted to stretch my FMQ skills a little. The center has some circles and the rest of the quilt has wavy lines.

All photos are courtesy of Kelly as I forgot to take some before I shipped these goodies off.

Happy Quilting

Zippers

I was recently looking for some invisible zippers and could not for the life of me find exactly what I needed. This rarely happens with fabric so I was quite taken by surprise. I never imagined dark teal 20"+ invisible zippers would not be in stock at my local G-Street or JoAnn's. After all, dark teal is so on trend right now!

I knew I had seen a blog post about zippers fairly recently but couldn't locate it at my usual haunts (many had great tutorials for installing zippers but not resources for where to buy). My friend Hollie even helped me look online, no luck. I finally stumbled upon it today on Sew, Mama, Sew! when I was looking for a different tutorial. This guide to zippers was really handy, however what I really needed at that moment was a supplier of zippers. Thankfully, the guide also provides a link to a great small business resource, Zip It Zipper Supply. Unfortunately, Jennie didn't have what I needed either but she did point me to ZipperStop, a more commercial supplier, who did happen to have just what I needed.

So if you're like me and hunting for a zipper, check Jennie's shop (because we love supporting small businesses right?) and if she doesn't have what you need, check out Zipper Stop.

Do you have another great zipper resource? I love options.

Happy Quilting

Chartruese and Raspberry Spiderweb Blocks

I think it's time to get these babies out and start piecing them together with all the other blocks I've collected...

I was very excited about my mockup but for whatever reason, these blocks got pulled from my design wall and haven't made it back up yet. This picture must be before my birthday in July because that cutting mat was replaced by the one my hubby gave me this year. Maybe if I write about it here I'll actually do it!

Happy Quilting

Threaded Mess

True confession: I am an extremely. big. slob.

When it comes to sewing...

I tend to cut, piece, and trim with reckless abandon...

I dump my scraps in big cheese ball containers until they get so full that I'm forced to go through them and organize...

I toss pretty much everything in a pile...

I do keep my shelves and drawers fairly organized but once it's out of the drawer or off the shelf there's no telling where it will end up...

As messy as I am, I can usually find just about anything I'm looking for. In fact, I have a harder time finding things when I clean up because I forget where I put things for "safe keeping". I do eventually clean up when things start falling over or get in the way of whatever project I am working on.

All this is just further proof of why I consider myself a Threaded Mess...

Happy Quilting

Liz is Having Twins

My big (sorority) sister Liz and her husband Norm (aka Jum) are expecting twins!

  

To celebrate the occasion, Liz's friends and family threw her a shower and I was invited. I went down to stay with Liz the night before so I was there to help out with some of the food preparation, setup, and to take poorly lit pictures.

I was so excited to learn that they are having little girls and that their nursery will be in pinks and purples. I used the nursery color scheme as a theme for the entire gift.

I packaged Liz's gift in a pink and purple book tote from Barnes and Noble with a big pink bow:

Inside the bag were two classic tales, Peter Pan and The Secret Garden, and two little quilts for two sweet, little girls.

I know the blue throws things off a bit but I think the girls will love Wendy's adventure. Also there were no coordinating Barnes and Noble leather-bound classic books in pink that were the same size as Secret Garden. Such is life.

I decided to make the twins some patchwork car seat quilts since Liz's mom was making all the bedding for the nursery. I made one more purple and one more pink but a couple of prints appear in both quilts:

The backs are the same solid pinks and purples as you see bordering the squares on the front. I used this technique for the 2.5" squares as practice for the larger quilt I plan to make someday soon. I think Liz really liked them, but I am hoping the twins will grow to love them!

Happy Quilting