A Halloween quilt is JUST what I've been looking for!

It's boring to read about why someone hasn't blogged in ages.  I mean, just blog already, right?  So I will.  Once I've gotten back in the swing of things I'll write a little about the life changes around here in the last 3 months.  Suffice to say I have LOTS of time to quilt these days  :/

But enough of the boring...have you ever done a Halloween quilt?    Whims and Fancies is hosting a 31 day, Paper Pieced QAL.  And I have just the thing for it!!

I bought a nice fat quarter bundle of this fabric...mine has about 22 FQ's in it, but can you believe I can't find a single picture of the entire line??  It's called Matilda by Cosmo Cricket.  I got it from The Fat Quarter Shop for a song after Halloween last year.  70% off, I think.

I couldn't believe some of the blocks the host has designed, and can't wait to see the Something Wicked blocks.  Here is a  peek at one I found on her fb page:

OMG ... how does she think that stuff up??

So, want to join me in this?  I think it would be just as cute done in scraps chosen for their color and not the print, but I have been waiting for just the right idea to cut into this fabric and I'm excited. (I even bought 3 yards of that cute "Boo" fabric on the black background, above, for a backing ;)  How about you?  Wanna join me?  Check out their facebook page today, and hit Like to get notifications for the QAL!

I can't be the only one, right?

I know I'm not the only fabric addict in blogland who is checking her email at regular intervals, hoping I'll see a "Congratulations, you've won the Sew Mama Sew Giveaway!" subject line.  There have to be a lot of us.  Everyone who spent the last 5 days filling in their name and email address - and deciphering those alien passwords - is hoping for a little Summerville...some Amy B....some Lucy's Crab Shack, for pete's sake!...to make it's way into their stash, lol.

In other news, I have a new master bedroom quilt.  Well - the makings for one, anyway ;)  2 Jelly Rolls and 2 Charm Packs of Salt Air made their way to my house recently.  I'm going to use them to make this quilt, from the Moda Bakeshop.  What do you think?

I'll have to send it out to a long-arm quilter, but I'm still pretty excited.  Who knows...maybe I'll have some Lucy's Crab Shack to add to it???

Almost a month...

I won't go too deeply into why it's been almost a month since my last post.  If you read my last post, you know I've had issues with my laptop...suffice it to say said issues were not solved as I thought.  Turns out the tech who came to work on my laptop didn't actually DO anything!  He turned it on and it seemed to boot up fine, so he left it with my work partners as 'fixed'.  When it did the exact same thing (completely failed to boot) 3 days later, I brought it back in and it was at that point that they told me exactly what the tech had said.  I lost my religion and lay on the floor screaming and kicking had an itty bitty tantrum until the tech place decided I just needed a complete overhaul of my laptop.  Even then, I realize they didn't replace the non-charge holding battery.  Interesting that I heard last night that HP is having to lay off 27K workers.  Just sayin'.

Anyway, just because one machine was down doesn't mean the sewing machine was.  I'll start with my most recent, and then put up a few more posts with the things I've worked on in the last month (gifts for Chrysalis flight I'm working...more on that later...and also some teacher's gifts, a (nother) pillow for my (other) daughter, etc.)

Here, though, are some bee blocks for April.

   
First off, my Wonky Bee contribution for Leah Marie.  She sent the fabrics - aren't they a pretty color combo?  We were assigned a certain number of big or medium size blocks to make.  I was told to make 4 large blocks.  Then all of us where to use the scraps to make small blocks that I assume she is  using as a border or in the backing.  I think this is going to be a beautiful quilt when it's finished!  I took the pics on a makeshift table my kids have been using on the property, for various summer projects.  It was very clean at the time since the last project was bubbles, before the night's rain, lol.

These are for CeLynn, in Colorado, for the Stash Bee.  I'd never done those Gothic windows before.  Glue stick, on my fabric??  But I was impressed with what a clever idea it was!  I actually liked doing it a LOT more than I expected.  I suspect a colorful pin cushion is in my future.

Finally, for the Beejeebers Bee, this semi for Melissa at Happy Quilting .  She is making a Father's Day quilt and requested semi trucks, half driving right (like this) and the other half driving left.  I decided to do a car carrier.  I liked how it turned out, but felt bad when I realized she had a deadline for making it and I was late.  I hate being late.  I did put a little bribe gift in with her block, in hopes that she doesn't throw me off the bee (she is the bee mama, to boot!)  I shall just have to prove to her that my bee-ing 'out of the loop' was an abberation by being my normal prompt self for the rest of the  year and hope that she lets me play along again in the future :(

Have you all been crazy busy with the SewMamaSew Giveaway Day??  There are a million (okay, several hundred...that's a LOT, right??) giveaways going on and most are for really terrific stuff.  Here are three favorites, to get you started if you haven't already.  They were later entries, so even if you did all your entering the first day, you may want to go back for a second look!

Cindy at Spin the Bottle has some gorgeous Denise Schmidt fabric FQ's PLUS the new Lisa Lam Bag Making Bible to give away HERE

And Steph at Adventures of SavyGirl has a dozen super yummy FQ of colorful Anthology prints HERE

Finally, the Quilt Barn is giving away the whole Riley Blake Chevrons FQ Bundle HERE

See you soon.  I promise ;)

Back from vacation...

I'm back from our vacation to Panama City, FL (actually have been for over a week)....I didn't want to come back.  It was amazingly gorgeous, and the perfect temperature.  It even did the decent thing and rained on the third day - just when we were sunburned and needed a day out of the sun.  Wasn't that sweet?  :D

Anyway, the day we got back my laptop died, and since it's not technically mine (I didn't steal it - it's provided to me free of charge by my employer) I had no say in the urgency with which the repair was handled ;)

SO, I have lots and lots of catching up to do, but will pace myself.  Tonight, I want to share the fruit of my 11 year old daughter Trinity's first sewing lesson.  It went well and she was terrific!  Here she is showing off the three travel Kleenex covers she made as a gift for her teachers

She was pretty proud, lol.  I'm gonna be back tomorrow with the really cool prize I won in the Greater Atlanta Shop Hop.   Cuz'  - ohhhh yeah - I am totally a winner,

Who DOESN'T love a zombie bunny???

How cool is this?  How can you not love zombie bunnies?

I have no idea what I might do with this, lol, but I couldn't stop myself from buying a quarter yard just because :)  What would you do??? (Edit: I found this on the sale table at Red Hen Fabrics, in Marietta GA...I'm sorry I don't know the name of it, but it wasn't on the selvedge and since it was my first stop I was rushing just a teeny tiny bit)

I bought a few other things on the Atlanta shop hop this weekend.  I really enjoyed the weekend - not only getting to shop at 10 different shops, but spending 2 days shopping with my 2 daughters - it was wonderful.  We found that about half of the shops just treated it like any other day, but the other half really put time and thought into it, which made it a lot of fun.  It really seemed to affect the attitude of the staff.  The ones that worked hard at making it seem like 'a day at the country fair' got the advantage of having a fun day, lots of laughter, and very satisfied customers.  The others?  Well, I did bring home fabric from every shop, hahaha.  Here is a little more of our haul..

some pretty blues and greens

a multi my daughter liked

A little good fortune...

And 4 more Wrenly prints to add to my pile :)  I got more, but will come back tomorrow or Thursday to talk about these and the rest of the fabric, too!  See you soon....

Free stuff, anyone??

There are a few fun giveaways going on right now - tons, actually.  But here are a couple you may want to check out.

First is a Nicey Jane charm pack from Dianne over at From Blank Pages  .  One charm each of 39 of the 40 prints (she was missing one ).  If you win this, I'll beg any leftover scraps off you, lol.

Next is the cool Blog Hop Party.  Click on the link for a boatload of awesome giveaways!

I've got a few sewing things done, too...one is this

It was pressed, but the cat had designs on it overnight.  I think it was a pillow of some sort for our cat Boo Radley.  So please excuse the generally dishevelled state.  It's BOM #2 in the current Atlanta Modern Quilt Guild BOM.  I didn't catch the fabric line's name, but I'm feeling kind of meh about it.  Don't hate it, and absolutely don't love it.  Nice to sew with, though.  If you know the name, let me know.

Okay, run on over and start commenting to win those giveaways!

Oh my gosh, look what I've gone and done...

Can you tell what it is?  And - possibly more importantly - what it's made out of?  Ignore the little lights.  I draped it over a string of fairy lights to photograph it, lol. 

If you guessed that I made a 1600 jelly roll quilt of of my vary favorite, Moda Swanky Jelly Roll....well, you would be right.  If you further guessed that my 11 year old daughter Tia insisted that THIS was the only type of quilt she wanted made out of that jelly roll, then you should get some sort of special genius prize.  Some insane person who looks remarkably like me promised her that she could pick the type of quilt she wanted made with that jelly roll.  It kind of killed me to just sew that all together slap dash like that.  But it's been a couple of weeks now and I'm coming to terms with it ;)  I bought some gorgeous aqua cuddle fabric for the back (it's like you skinned kittens to use on your quilt back, but without all the hoopla and PETA complaints)

Plus, I'm going on the Greater Atlanta Shop Hop this coming weekend (Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!! more about that next week!) and I'm going to tote that quilt top around with me (yes, yes, I'll iron it first) and find some kind of fabric to use in the borders and I'm thinking hard about what to do with those borders.  I'm thinking maybe some little pinwheels and maybe some prairie points out of solids that match the colors in the quilt.  What do you think?  Oh, by the way, the white squares only look like they are all lined up in this photo...in reality they are scattered all throughout the top.

 I've been working on all kinds of fun little things lately.  One of my favorite and - curiously - most challenging, was this cute patriotic star for my Stash Bee Queen Cindy (from Spin the Bobbin).  She is making her month's quilt for Quilts Of Valor.  Have you checked it out?  If not, click the link and take a look.  It's a wonderful organization that makes quilts to send soldiers that have been 'touched by war', wounds seen and unseen.

Here is a close-up.  I realized afterwards that this has sailors in it, and there might not be many sailors in the desert, (oops!)...but I don't think they'll hold it against me :)  I'd like to make a second block for her this week before I send it off, but I'm working up to it.  For some reason, this simple little paper -pieced block caught me ripping out seams several times.  Maybe my  mind was just wandering.

I've also started a new project (like I needed to do that, lol) making asterisk blocks from a tutorial here.  It's a Scrappy Asterisk block, and I liked the idea of having a little stack of white squares sitting next to my machine, and just grabbing one when I have a little time and making up one block in one color, until little by little I'll have a rainbow quilt of asterisks.  Here is a blue block, but it's just the inner part of the block, not finished yet.  I actually forgot that there is an outer part, hahahaha...so luckily I've only done two of these so far, and can easily make the outer part of the block with some of the same scraps then move on and remember to make both parts in the future.  I don't know why this pic looks fuzzy - it's clear on my camera.

I made 2 pencil pouches with some pretty linen (I love sewing with linen) and some blue/purple scraps.  I'll get (un-fuzzy) pics for next time, promise. 

Months ago I bought 10 yards of white fabric, and have finally seen the end of it...I haven't used it all up, but I realized while cutting these blocks that it's time to buy some more since it won't last much longer.  Lucky for me...did I mention that I'm going on the Greater Atlanta Shop Hop this coming weekend ;)??  I have a little mental list for things I want to watch for:

     1. Borders for the Swanky quilt

     2. Good quality white yardage

     3. More of the Wrenly line, but Valori Wells (I have12 FQ's, but want some of the other prints)

     4. Some yardage from the Flea Market Fancy line.  I ordered a FQ bundle of ALL 21 prints, and it came YESTERDAY !!!  My breath caught while I was typing that.  I'm not even kidding.  I'm a total goofball.  But I want a few of the prints in yardage for quilt backs.  I might also swing by JoAnne's to see if they have any DS prints that would do the trick for a little less.

     5. One spool of fancy thread.  I've only used Coat's and Clark up till now, and want to try some Aurifil or Sulky.

     6. A layer cake of something I like.  I haven't used one before.  

Now, I can't afford all that, so will get some and report back with photos after the weekend.  I'll also let you know if - as planned - I win the shop hop grand prize of ten different $100 GC's.  One for each shop on the hop.  I have every intention of winning that.  Hope your weekend is as fabulous as mine - see you soon!