Fabric SWOON!

Wendy Slotboom has a new line of fabric out, it's called "Frolic" and I'm dying for it! Go check it out. It's so cute.

There are 9 different fabrics in 3 colorways- pink, blue and green... OMG. Chippies (you might THINK they're squirrels, but I want them to be chipmunks and so that's what I'm calling 'em!, there's a reason for this!) possums, raccoons, pileated woodpeckers, owls, birds, there are even yard-art flamingos in the treasure map, this fabric is sooooo me! I'm leaning towards the pink colorway, but may have to mix it up! My only wish is that it was less pastel and a little brighter, bolder, but I'll make do!

2nd Place Winner in Giveaway!

I'm a complete idiot, I had totally forgotten that I had decided to give one of these littler caddies away as a 2nd place prize. I must have thought it up during the night and then forgotten all about it, because all week I was pushing myself to make you a little 2nd place something and I HAD these all along! The photo is just a sample one, there are 4 languishing in the shop and the 2nd place winner can choose whichever one she wants. I gotta tell you, I have one of these next to my sewing machine, in a big chunky goblet and I just love it, I use it all the time and it saves me a lot of time and scrounging up of bits because they're all organized in my wild colored one.

So- since the little white random number generator is outside playing in the damp cold, I had to resort to a normal one. And our winner is.....

NUMBER 22- LynneS of Oz! I am sure we also know her as Natiel3, right???

Congrats, Lynne! Pop into my shop, linked above, and tell me which one of the 4 coffee mug organizers you would like. (I apologize for sending you to the shop, but I don't have these photos saved anymore and I tried to cop 'em back and it's giving me fits! I give up!)

Sorry I'm such a doofus, people! I meant to do this yesterday, sort of. lol

Wow, what a giveaway!

Penny, at sewtakeahike, is having a wonderful giveway for some Flea Market Fancy fabric and a book and all kinds of great stuff! See the little photo just over there >>>>>>>, to the right!

Get on over there and sign up for YOUR chance to win. But if you do win and I'm the one who told you about it? Don't tell me, 'K? lol

We have a winner!

Nosey Parker has picked a winner. I helped her put a number for each entry on the end of a cork and then we went out into the dreariest, darkest late afternoon light to see just which entrant would be the winner. I apologize in advance for all the bright, cheerful colors that didn't make it into any of these photos!

The pile must have been a little intimidating as she felt the need to watch it from the safety of her toy box.

After she worked up her nerve, she decided to come over and check them all out.

She began to get interested and bapped a few of them around.

Then it hit her! She had a JOB to do! A couple of somersaults, a back-flip and a whole lot of fast action took her and her new favorite toy, the cork, to the very edge of the drive, in about 2.3 seconds!

She had to have a little lie-down to recuperate after all the whirling-dervishing.

I don't know if you can see it, but the lucky cork belongs to comment #14, who is DENA! Congrats, Dena! Send me your address so I can mail this off to you!

Your prize. I hope you like it.

Thank you everyone, for playing and trying to win this, I had fun reading all your comment and I wish I had one for everyone, but since I've been working all week on only 7 of them, I don't think that's going to happen. EVER. lol I had great intentions of making a 2nd place prize, but I never found a spare hour or two to do that, I'm sorry!

Round 4 of the Old Red Barn Company Quilt-Along....

A GIVEAWAY, MOM?

COOL!

ORBC Round 4 Giveaway- The Sewing Caddy

Round 4 brings us another giveaway for one of our lucky quilt-along-ers! This time it's for a sewing caddy/organizer/travel thingy that was designed and sewn by me. There is also a tutorial posted here on my blog that will show you step-by-step how to make your own, if you should choose to do so.

The needle/pin holder flips up to keep sharp pointy things under cover.

Removable trash bag and gathered pocket on this side.

To help you with your hand sewing, here's your chance to win a sewing caddy that folds up and keeps little hands (or paws) out of it when you're not using it. I made this out of Fresh fabric, the little hummingbirds and butterflies are sooo sweet! On the outside of the caddy, I enhanced a few strategic places with hot-fix Swarovski crystals, like on the ruby throats and some flower centers, a little glitz never hurt anybody, right?! Right!

Leave a comment here for a chance to win this sewing organizer/caddy. The drawing will be on next Friday, the 20th, in the AM. To follow tradition, my own little white random generator will draw a name or pick a number or something. :)

If you've been taking part in the Old Red Barn Company's quilt along at Flickr, then you know about the newest round we're doing- the Circles, Curves and More quilt, blogged about here at Pottery and Everything Else, created, taught and led by the fabulous Heidi Elliot or as we like to call her, Hats! This week we're learning how to piece the crazy 9 patch. I'm excited to get started.

Happy Quilting and good luck, people!

Simple project, big payoff!

The heating pad cozy.

I saw a tutorial on Sew, Mama, Sew last week by TeresaDownUnder at Patchwork and other sewing projects that struck a chord with me, it was for a hot-water bottle cover. I don't own a hot water bottle and don't really want one, as I don't think it would stay hot long enough to do the job for me, as I'm so cold-blooded. (Which is not to be confused with blood-thirsty! lol) but, I do use a heating pad quite often to warm me up when I first go to bed.

As you can see, the cover that came with it was pilling and getting pretty sad looking and needed to be replaced and when I saw Teresa's tute, it was all I needed to get me going! I adapted her instructions and came up with this-

Before-

After

I love this heating pad- it's one of the older ones that DOESN'T shut off every single hour, my friend Jennifer gave it to me when I was whining about how much I hated the new, safer ones. So what if I have 2 scars on my back from where I fell asleep and got burned? That's MY problem, right? lol

I left a small opening on one end for the control doo-hickey to fit through...

...and a big enough opening for the heating pad to be rolled up slightly and stuffed through on the other end. By keeping the opening small, it prevents the pad from slipping out of the cozy.

To make this, I layered a piece of Warm and Natural between 2 nice cotton fabrics and did a free-motion stipple all over. Then I just folded it RST, marked where the openings would be, turned under those areas and stitched them down, and then I stitched the rest of the seams on all 3 sides. Before I turned it right side out, I did a multiple zigzag stitch on the seams to overlock them. (I didn't feel like dragging out the serger for this little project.) Then turned, put the cord through the big opening, out the little opening and rolled and stuffed the pad into the cozy. Voila! I think this took about an hour from start to finish and I just love it! It's so much prettier than the old cover and it feels good under my neck/back/kidney area. And it's washable, of course.

Thanks to Teresa for her tutorial for the hot water bottle that gave me the push to do this for the heating pad!

Oh, and since I can't blog without a photo of the little "white weasel" as her Daddy calls her, here she is reading me out for not letting her go outside, when it's dark out. My, what sharp teeth you have, Nosey Parker!

This kitten has quite the little fan club. I catch flak from friends if I don't show her off enough. lol

Sew, Mama, Sew has honored me...

...by featuring my sewing caddy/organizer tutorial in this year's Handmade Holidays- a month long blog extravaganza of wonderful tutorials of projects created by an incredible number of talented crafters. (Could I possibly use any more adjectives in one sentence? I didn't think so!)

I'm pretty excited, I've always been a big fan of the Sew, Mama, Sew blog and shop and their Flickr site, which has nearly 5000 members, and to be noticed, to me, is HUGE! I was totally honored when someone from there contacted me and asked me for permission to link to my blog. I didn't hesitate for a single second, I was that thrilled. So forgive me for bragging, but WOO HOO! Yay, me! lol

And of course, if anyone needs an organizer and doesn't want to sew one, I have a few in my Etsy shop! How convenient, right? Great little Christmas gift for you or your Mom or best friend, whomever!

OK, I'm done, thanks for putting up with me again!

Editing to say- I removed the tutorial as I now have the pattern for sale in my shop and didn't think it was fair to sell it to some people and give it away to others. Sorry for the inconvenience, hope you understand.

I finally finished the "baby's" quilt....

It's kind of embarrassing, as small as it is, that I have been sitting on this since late June or early July. The old cat blankie that we've been using is practically threadbare and I thought the baby would like a new one. It's made with leftover strips of fabric from the original ORBC quilt along, I thought great- a good way to use some of them up. So I made the top and there it sat, blocking my view outside by hanging on the railing upstairs between me and the balcony, glaring at me, making me feel guilty for not finishing it.

I decided yesterday afternoon to put myself out of my misery and in just a few short hours, it was done. I cheated this time and stitched the binding down with the machine. I just couldn't bear hand stitching another binding so close on the heels of the Hooters! quilt.

Nosey Parker thinks it's a great place to hide while hunting wiggling leaves!

The backing is some Free Spirit yellow ribbon flowers fabric by Denyse Schmidt that I found for a whopping $2.50 a yard, that was a shopping coup! The binding is a coffee cup stripe fabric by Barbara Tourtillotte that I bought ages ago and didn't really care for as a big piece of fabric. Cut into 3" strips, though- it made a great binding for a colorful little quilt.

It's washed and dried and wrinkled up nicely, I think the cats will be fighting over it. Wait. They fight already. Well, this will just give them a good excuse to go at it. :)

Wow, what an honor!

Pardon me while I blow my own horn! Toot! Toot!

My Hooters! quilt won Quilt of the Week at Fabric, Patchwork and Quilting, a Flickr group.

I'm shocked, there was some really stiff competition, one of which was my friend Dena's quilt, it's a stunner. The fabrics she used, the borders, the colors, I like everything about her quilt. Oh, and the quilting, too! I really expected her to win.

Anyhoo, I'm flattered and excited, especially since I'm really new to this whole quilting gig. This quilt was #5 for me. I had fun making it and I love all the colors and fabrics in it, so I know it'll make me happy to have it around. And I learned a lot while making it, too, thanks to John, Quilt Dad, who taught us all how to make wonky log cabins!

The Nosey Parker Seal of Approval....

And you can thank me now for NOT posting the photographic evidence of the dead mouse found UNDER a rug in the laundry room.
"What's that lump?"
"I don't know."
"Hmmm, it seems to have a tail attached."
"Oh."
"Ew."
lolol Flat as a fritter, too.
Wonder how long he'd been stashed under there? lol

Anyway, the kid was having fun last night, playing on the new quilt. It really fired up her rockets, I don't know, maybe it's the busy-ness of it? She was having fun though, rolling around and showing off all her little bits and pieces. Shameless hussy!

Hooters!

Introducing- the Hooters! quilt. So christened by Lynz, due to all the owls in the centers of the blocks.

This was a lot of fun to make, making wonky blocks is pretty stress-free, no measuring to speak of, just add strips and whack off the excess! Big thanks to QuiltDad, John, for all his great instructions and leadership!

Do you like it? Think it could stand a bit more color? rofl It's pretty big, about 70 x 84". I did that swoopy quilting and it was HARD to do on this big of a quilt, shoving 95% of the quilt thru the throat of the machine just stunk, it was murder on my neck and shoulders and hands, even with my grippy gloves on. So, quilters- save the swoopy quilting for smaller quilts, like my zigzag quilts, which were 40 x 48" or something like that.

Owls? Are you KIDDING me???

OWLS? I HATE OWLS!!!!!

Yer killin' me, Mom. Seereusly.

Ded. That's me. Ded.