Giveaway

Jaybird Quilts is having another sponsored (by Pink Chalk Fabrics) giveaway!!! :)

Click here to go to her site and get the details and enter!

Good luck!

Super Bowl Sunday

Today is a sacred day in the state of Wisconsin. Our Green Bay Packers are playing in the Super Bowl. Tomorrow over 7 million people will call in sick to work. There will be more cheese consumed today in this state than in any other state in the United States.

It's time to bring home the Lombardi trophy.

Needless to say, there won't be much quilting going on today! :)

Usually if the Packers aren't in the Super Bowl I just wait around and watch the commercials.

Do you have any special Super Bowl traditions? Comment and let me know! Who are you hoping wins today? If you pick the Steelers, you have to put your reason in the comment! ;)


This is Scott and I at Lambeau a couple years ago at a pre-season game!

Neptune hoarder.

I'm a little bit proud and ashamed of myself. I am in LOVE with Neptune by Tula Pink. It's harder than heck to come across and is basically extinct. Just an FYI, this is NOT for sale, but if you had some of your favorite fabric, whatever it may be, what would you do with it? I was thinking of making the Diamond Chain quilt in Kimberly Einmo's book Jelly Roll Quilts & More. I loved the colors a year ago when I started becoming a "serious" quilter and I had no idea how hard this fabric would be to find a year later. I think all quilters are serious, who would undertake such a project without being serious about it?!?! Thank goodness for fabric stashing!!! What are you stashing away for the perfect project?



Sorry about the photo. The pages are glossy and my camera's flash doesn't want to cooperate!

A small clutch and more wall deco

I've been busy today. Milwaukee is in a blizzard warning and today I was able to stay home today (and still be paid! Bonus!) So right away after breakfast I finished quilting my wall hanging that I bought fabric for yesterday. I worked as a park ranger from 2007 to 2008 while I was in college, and it was one of the best jobs a person could ask for! Especially in college! I talked to people all day! It was excellent!!! This is my way of reminding myself of that time!

Last night (before the worst of the blizzard hit and our internet went out) I purchased a purse pattern from Pink Chalk fabrics! I love purchasing patterns from them. A, they have a TON of them! B, they offer free shipping 365 days a year on patterns to anywhere in the U.S.! What could be better? And some of their patterns are even PDF downloads that are sent to you within seconds of your purchase!

This is the Keyka Lou Zip Clutch pattern that I used, and then I adjusted it slightly and added a "D" ring on the side and created a clip on handle. There are three sizes that you can make, this is the largest of the three. This will hold my camera, my small wallett and my car keys perfectly!


I can also take the handle off and just use it as a clutch! I love this little thing!


I love the batiks I found for this little guy! The lining is the same purple that I used to make the sash on the outside. And the outside fabric is a bit more golden-orange than the photos show.

Engagement announcement

The other day my mom picked up a couple of local newspapers from my hometown and mailed them to me...and on the top of page 6, there we are! :)

Clean....er

Tonight I didn't get much done in the area of quilting, except for a bright owl pillowcase and a couple of bright coasters for my sewing desk and my office desk. And I also basted my moose applique to get ready for quilting. But I did get my studio cleaned up quite a bit! Before I was lucky if I could get the door open all the way, and then I had to hop, skip, and jump over piles of fabric and my rotary mats and random half created "things" to get to my sewing machine! It was time. Maybe tomorrow I'll take some photos of what I've been up to and post! :P TTFN!

Two more projects off my list!

I finally trimmed and bound my weird piece to put on my studio wall. What should I call it though? I have no idea. Do you have any ideas?

I love the backing fabric. I saw it in my quilt shop and knew I had to use it as the backing! :)




I've been working on this table runner for a while now. I made it a little bit larger than the pattern called for (I really like the fabric and wanted to cut it at strategic places!) and so I ran out of the white blocks in the border. I thought it'd be no problem matching the marble to it, but it ended up being more difficult than I thought! I eventually had to use the WRONG side of a fabric! But I can't even tell where one ends and the other begins it matches so well! That'll teach me to think there are "rules" with using fabric! Anything goes!

What does this remind you of?

Here's what I've been working on the last two days. What does it remind you of? I just wanted something to brighten up the wall in my quilting studio, everything in there is mostly dark and natural colors.

I left some negative space towards the bottom. I didn't want it to be too busy, and I think I'm going to use the same color thread as the background and make some more "leaf" shapes. I don't have the purple or teal matching thread, so I think there should be a trip to the quilt shop today! :)

Green with fabric envy...

Last night while I was working at the quilt shop a lady came in and purchased some solids that went fabulously together! I've been waiting for a while to get some solids because I've had an idea in mind that I'd like to do for a small wallhanging eventually. Well last night I found the perfect fabric for what I wanted to do and I couldn't decide if I should commit or just wait for a while. I'm going to jump in, feet first on this project! I just need a couple more solids and then I should be good to go! Wish me luck and I'll post photos later! :)

I love viewfinders!

The other day I was blog surfing and found a blog that had this viewfinder fabric on it! I knew I eventually had to find some of it, whether it was in a shop or (most likely) online somewhere. Everywhere I looked online the colorway (natural) I liked was out of stock, so I put that picture in the back of my mind for another day.

Well that afternoon, I went to a sewing shop that's a block from the quilt shop I work at and saw some Kokka fabric! The same manufacturer that makes the viewfinder fabric! So I asked if they had any of the Melody Miller Ruby Star Rising fabrics....they looked at me like I was a duck asking for a tub of water. Then I asked if they had any viewfinder fabric. OOHHHH! Why sure! And a yard and a half later I owned some! :) It's a thicker canvas, and at $19.00 a yard I could only buy about that much! But now I have no idea what I'm going to do with it. If you had a yard and a half of some fabric that you HAD TO HAVE, what would you do with it?

New beginnings!

2011 is THE year.

I AM going to use more fabric than I buy.

I AM going to finish more projects than I start.

I AM going to be more organized in my quilt studio....hopefully.

Those are my three big changes for this year. Will they happen...I'll find out in December!

On the other hand I did get a few projects finished! The jungle baby quilt was quilted, bound, and appliqued at 2 am on Monday/Sunday morning! :)


I made myself another (as if I needed it) lunch bag. I think I'll use this as my lunch bag, and one of my other lunch bags I'll probably use to store 1/8 yards or something.

Another thrifty thing I made was the rice bags for microwaving and using as heating pads! I also made a small one to put in the refrigerator or freezer that you can put over your eyes after a long day! :) These first two went to the momma to be of the jungle baby quilt....I have a feeling that she may need them eventually!

I'd eventually like to make some skinnier ones and use them as the padding on the base of your keyboards and mouse pads! Why not. It's worth a try!

Giveaway!

Who likes free stuff? Everyone should have their hand up.

You can have a chance to win a fat quarter bundle of Dilly Dally by Me and My Sister of Moda! To enter you must submit at least one (but up to five) entries on one of my favorite sites....Jaybird Quilts! Good luck everyone!

Everybody needs at least one....

I usually wear my hair down, or put it up in a ponytail. Something easy. To be a little bit more of a girl I've decided to dress up my hair ties. I've been wanting to try the fabric button makers for a while now, and I decided today was the day. So I bought a kit and immediately made one when I got home! The hardest part of the whole thing was trying to get the hair tie through the hole on the back of the button, but after using a pair of tweezers it made it through!

I love blueberries, and they were the perfect size to try and make my first button!




And I also stopped at my quilt shop and bought a couple more zippers....

I know. My friend asked if I wanted to share a table with her at a craft fair, and I thought the zipper flower would be a cute little knick knack to sell.

Flowers in January

Hi there! I have something a little bit outside of my "comfort" area. I'm just going to throw this out there, but I'm not a huge flower-y person. I love flowers, the real ones, but on clothing I usually get the seam ripper and get them off of there ASAP. However, the other day while I was cruising some blogs online I came across a zipper flower photo! Carla's Feathered Fibers has a blog about recycling fibers, zippers, scrap fabrics, and even tin cans into jewelry! It's pretty amazing stuff! Even if you're not going to make anything from her blog, you should at least look at it and get your creative juices going!

Well after seeing this post I went right out to my quilt shop where we have a great color selection of zippers and bought a couple! :) I tried to get a good idea of how I was going to make the petals by just holding them in the center, but then they just kept sliding around on me. Well....screw it. I'm going straight to stitching the sucker. I even left the zipper on the one side, just for kicks. I'm really happy with how it turned out!

These photos are of how the first flower turned out. One is with the flash, the other is without.

Wild Girl....yes please!

Have I mentioned that I love the Bigfork Bay Cotton Company applique kits? Well, I do! And as luck would have it, I ran into their booth when I was at the International Quilt Festival in Chicago last year. And among their new patterns was Wild Girl! Three days ago I felt restless and I needed something to do while Scott was watching TV, and I wanted to just sit on the couch with him, so I pulled out my Wild Girl kit and started tracing, ironing, cutting and ironing some more and this is what I came up with. Now to quilt it....

I still haven't quilted my moose Summer Serenity applique. I've been waiting to get an extension table for my sewing machine so that the quilt is supported while quilting, and I received it for Christmas, now it's just getting enough space to walk around to everything in my studio! :)

Sister's birthday present....check!

To say that my sister loves horses is a giant understatement. She. LOVES. horses. And a while ago my mom gave me a horse applique pattern that I started right away. Needless to say, that applique took a day to trace, about 5 minutes to iron on, and about six months to cut out! :) One night I was tired of shifting the blue horse part around my quilting room and I sat down, cut the rest out, ironed it on to the background, quilted it, bound it, and then put the hanging sleeve on. To top it off I used a batik on the back that has horses printed on it! To cut out some of it I cheated and used a 18mm rotary cutter for the mostly straight parts.


The spool is just to show the general size. She can either use it for a table topper or hang it up on the wall!


Hopefully she likes it. She lives out in Wyoming and has a couple horses, so I thought this would be neat to put on her wall.

Home-made retreat

How many of you would go to every quilting retreat you could....except you can't afford them? I'm one of you. I'd LOVE to go to every quilting retreat I could find, except my pocketbook would absolutely hate me. It'd probably pack up and leave me high and dry. So, with that foot being put down, I decided to call one of my friends from college (whom I tought to quilt), my mom, and my great aunt and see if they wanted to join in and have a retreat on our own! It finally happened last weekend, December 10th to the 12th!!!

My mom and aunt both had Pinafore purses cut out, and they had a blast getting motivation from each other through their "ordeal". From the time they began sewing, it probably took them a good 10-12 hours...but there was TONS of laughing involved! :)


I was able to begin a quilt for my friend that's having a baby. It matches the burp clothes I made her!


This is my quilting friend from college, Kristi. A few years ago we went into a quilt shop near where we went to college and she bought this batik kit! And the top is finally finished!


When I was in a quilt guild last year I joined in a block exchange and these blocks I made into a wall hanging for my quilting room. The binding is finally on!

Three people sewed at the table, and then my mom had the island and we put the cutting mat next to her.

This of course was the very same weekend it decided to snow two feet in Eau Claire, Wisconsin! My friend and I loved it though!!! Except for getting up by 5:00 am to go out and shovel the sidewalk all the way to our cars. This is Kristi, I'm shoveling in the background. We had 1 shovel between 3 people....so we took shifts! :)


When it finally stopped snowing, this is what the driveway looked like....there are two Buicks under there somewhere! :) I LOVE THAT MUCH SNOW!!! And here in Milwaukee it rained over an inch when it snowed over two feet in Eau Claire! I'm not sure what I like more, quilting, or playing in this much snow!

Turtle Batik Quilt

Well here I am once again, with another finished product and the voracious appetite to keep quilting. But since I'm half way through my next project, I figured I'd better post my last quilt before it becomes lost in my quilting room and files of quilting photos on my computer! :)



It's a pattern idea I made up off of one of the Moda Bake Shop patterns. If you want to see the one I based this quilt off of, click here. This one is approximately 62x65 inches, so it's perfect for a large lap quilt! And the friend that I'm giving this to really doesn't like pastels, so I tried to use all bright colors, and for my second all-batik quilt, I think it turned out rather well! It was quick, easy, and I like the look of it and it gave me a chance to show off all the turtles in the fabric!!!

I've been a pillow case making machine lately. Why? I have no idea. But it's a good way to use up some of my stash! I made Scott a pirate one and I have the Wicked Witch! :)

My Grandpa's Quilt

Well, I finally have it completed. After over a year of buying fabric, cutting, and sewing blocks and such, I finally have it finished! Sunday I picked it up from the quilt shop and slapped the binding on it! The finished size is 66" x 80". My Grandpa is a tall man! :)


I have to say I'm a fan of the tilted nine patches. I wasn't sure how I felt about them when I first made them, but I really would like to make something with them again! Maybe this next time I'll put them together without sashing. For those of you who don't know me all that well, don't hold your breath. When I say I'm going to do a project, it means in my lifetime, not in the next month or so! :)

I had fish quilted on it to match one of the creme prints. And my Grandpa used to love to fly fish, and still loves to go fishing every chance he gets, even up to Lake of the Woods in Canada!

The flannel on the back makes it super comfy!!! I hope he likes it!


Who else is swamped making crafty/quilty things for Christmas? Are you going to do it again next year? Last year I said "never again".....well.....sure enough, I'm back at it. :)

It's just around the corner!

Well, hunting season is just around the corner. Yesterday my dad, Scott and I put up our stands for next weekend. The woods is REALLY wet! I had my tall hunting boots on, my wool pants and my coat and we were soaked by the time we were finished! Although it didn't help that it rained the entire time. When we were walking out we saw a bunch of wolf tracks. There were at least 5 different sets. Great.....

This morning the snow was falling lightly and it covered the trees and was beautiful!!! Although I'm sure when the wind picks up it'll blow off. I sure miss living up North!