on second thought.......

The giveaway it seems, was too hard for many--I'm sorry. I'm going to hold-off right now and hold the giveaway until I can come up with something else...plus. I also placed more items in the box. Pics to come on the new giveaway. There were very little comments under my giveaway post--You should have seen my inbox of the number of people wishing others good luck and letting me know that they do not know the designer fabrics, and I could barely count on just ONE hand the number of people that actually came up with more than 2 answers....so the number of folks that wished they knew and wanted to enter far out-weighed those that had actually entered. Sorry folks, I want to make this open to everyone. Does anyone have any ideas other than to just leave a comment?

************On another note, I was VERY busy sewing this weekend, completing orders and trying to catch up on the swaps I entered. I won't be entering 14 different swaps at the same time anymore....no matter how fun they are :)--(Yeah we'll see how long that lasts) Also, Amy Butler's donation for my Quilting For A Cause arrived :) Yay....Good thing there was a note in the box, otherwise my husband would have had my head if he thought I ordered more fabric..lol. Here's what she sent me: THANK YOU AMY!

Nice of her right? Another gernerous donation from wonderful fabric designers.

So, on top of sewing all day Friday and Saturday, I also attended the daily Biz Market on the mountain making sales and extra money for the holidays. We also decided to put up the tree again this year, and I also managed to find more pdf's and patterns to purchase. So let me leave you with some photos from my busy sewing weekend and a sneak peak for my swap partners into what you could be getting :)

Wrist pincushions, doll quilts, travel tissue covers, and so much more I have left to complete. I am apologizing now to my swap partners for the delay in getting your items out to you. I only hope that when you do finally receive them, it will be well worth the wait.

Possibly a new quilt to giveaway?

My giveaway is still going on---it will be closing at midnight on Thursday, and I will be picking a winner Friday morning....so if you haven't signed up--Hurry!! I've already found some amazing blogs through here and everyone of you have been very sweet and kind with your comments. I really am touched by all of your 'kind words'. Thank you.

I've enjoyed having this giveaway so much so that I've been playing with the idea of another one. This is the quilt-top that I pieced together quickly with some vintage fabrics I found hiding in one of my plastic bins to be forgotten. I spent all Sunday morning piecing the soft neutral colors of fabric together and ended with a very nice soft combo. Just really soothing to look at. The picture does not give this quilt-top any justice.

You'd think after working and finishing my last quilt in record time, I would be relaxing and taking a very needed break.....WRONG. This quilt is large enough for me to possibly break into 4 crib size quilts, if not maybe 2 good sized cribs.....opening it up to the possibility of 2 winners this time. This was made completely out of old vintage fabrics that still carry that scent of 'old'--I LOVE THAT SMELL :) Keep checking back as I may turn this into a giveaway..... Let me choose my winner first from my current one and finish theirs before this one gets going. My goal would be to have that giveaway just in time for two of you to receive a special Christmas Present from me. Gotta quilt this and add batting to it eventually.

On another note, I promised several folks that I would have my pattern of my giveaway quilt ready by Friday at my etsy store. I never realized how hard it would be to put it in writing and making sure that it would be easy to understand and follow as well as Beginner and Pro friendly. I've come up with 2 different patterns for my heart quilt, and I'm really aiming to have it by Friday....here's what I've got so far. I definitely prefer working it out on graphing paper and then transferring it to computer when I'm done.

Can you see the heart in there?? :) A little optical illusion for ya.

As if that wasn't enough, I added an apron to my list earlier in the week, I kept forgetting to post about it here, but it is going to be added to my etsy shop and available for purchase. My very own design....I didn't really follow a pattern for this and although I wasn't trying to go for a holiday theme, it kinda looks like it, or Rasta colors.....yeah man. I made up a matching pot holder to go along with it. --My very first apron:

So that concludes, the projects that went on in my home this weekend. I can't wait to pick a winner and be able to tell someone they won a quilt and possibly make their day? What did you do?

Brain Fart

I love yo yo's I really do. I love making them just as much as looking at them.

I was having a brain fart when drawing up my patterns and figuring out the measurements so I took a break and decided to re-organize the stash. I found some more stuff I had forgotten about. I went to several auctions this past summer and picked up some really great things. There was one particular auction that I attended that had a gi-normous stash of vintage fabrics and you better believe I bid on that baby to death. Of course I won, but true to my nature, I put it away and forgot about it....well during my break from designing patterns as I was looking for something else to make while re-organizing, I came across this bag of pre-cut circles--all vintage fabrics....

I suddenly felt the urge to make some yo-yo's. I pulled out the X'mas looking fabrics and stopped when I got to this point.

I really could spend all day and making these, but certainly not without the help of these.... if you don't have them yet, you really should get them..... it just makes it THAT much easier. (cue the staples commercial here.)

I really did use these. I like to keep them in the plastic cause I'm pretty anal about certain things... especially about keeping things where they belong. Don't ask.

So after looking at the yo-yo's I started to have another brain fart..... really this mommy brain is killing me! I can't think of what to do, there is no way I'll make a quilt completely out of yo-yo's it just doesn't appeal to me, and I've already done a flower garden quilt out of yo-yo's and also placed them on a bag..... so what can I do with them? This is where I would be asking you all for some ideas.

Well in the mean time, the brain fart I had passed for a moment and I thought I came up with a genius idea-- I thought- "Let me turn these into hair barrettes! and make some matching dresses or x'mas outfits for my girls!"

I placed a ribbon and everything, the only thing left to do was hot glue to to the barrette piece.

Then I realized something..... There was a major flaw to my idea:

Notice anything?

Well let me tell you..... my girls hardly have any hair.... HOW THE HECK WILL THEY USE THESE BARRETTES?

So back to the drawing board and me asking you for some help. What can I do with my yo-yo's? I'll have to post back here later to show you the final product.

Brenda's Quilt, Quilting for a cause

(The names have been changed to protect their privacy)


I was approached last Tuesday by a neighbor who asked me to make a quilt for one of our neighbors. Nothing really out the ordinary, I make quilts for friends, families and also sell at craft shows so I thought oh just another order for a quilt.

Well, this one was different. It seems our neighbor Brenda was going to be admitted to the hospital that following morning (Wednesday) in order to donate some of her bone marrow--I had no idea, they are a rather private family, I probably would be do about this situation, but well to add to this, Brenda was donating to a stranger - I'm calling her Lucy.


Lucy had been battling with Leukemia for some time and apparently they had been searching for someone to donate for a really long time, all family members were tested and something always came up--but I don't know all the details as to how Brenda found out and got tested to be a donor, but long story short she was a perfect match.

Here's my simple version asked by the ladies for me to create---in addition to the quilt. :)

Sorry ahead of time if you can't read the small lettering. I worked on this on the computer and couldn't save it any other way.


caption: Meet Brenda-The Donor

Caption: Meet Lucy - The donor recepient

Caption: Brenda & Lucy head to the hospital together - Everything goes well.

Caption: The Neighborhood women came to me and asked me for something special.

Caption: So I worked hard and got to quilting.

Caption: Brenda received her quilt. Both she and Lucy are home and recuperating! What a wonderful neighborhood!

So earlier today, the quilt left my hands, but not before I got to snap a few photos for a little show and tell folks. I worked all Saturday night piecing the quilt. Quilted and stayed up late on Sunday, and added the binding and my label earlier this afternoon.

I was so touched and moved by the generosity of the women in my neighborhood for a fellow neighbor that it inspired me to also 'give'. While it isn't my bone marrow,....I enjoyed making the quilt that I've decided to make one and give it away to a fellow reader. More information on a later post. Look for it and don't forget to enter.

Sewing/Quilting Addiction

It's seems I keep alternating between my fabric & book addiction. Right now, it's all about books, all kinds of books. Mainly mystery, lots and lots of romance, fiction and of course craft books. Just this past week I added these books to my collection:

Ignore the fabric beneath those books, those are just layer cakes that I purchased about two weeks before....like I said it alternates--Last week I purchased the whole collection from Anna Maria's Chocolate Lollipop and Sandi Henderson's Farmers Market and Ginger Blossom, I also picked up several yards of Heather Baileys collections.

Anyways, I was talking about my addiction for books and then started to ramble on about fabric....you see what I mean? Not even in purchases and addictions I switch between the two, but in writing and talking, sorry for those that cannot follow my rambling. Where was I? Oh yeah, the books that I bought last weekend---I'm definitely loving them and finding lots of great patterns that I will eventually work on.

I also did purchase a few more patterns, I'll be posting them for sure on here once I have completed some.

I'm Still Alive....was just locked up in my sewing room

I had taken a very long, a very needed break from sewing & quilting. I just completed some orders from the Biz Market. I apologize again to you folks who I kept waiting for a while for these items. I certainly hope it was well worth the wait.

I finished my embroidered quilt. I don't want to let it go!!! :*( I hand embroidered flowers on each vintage solid colored diamond. I didn't want to take anything away from the design itself and the embroidery so I did a simple quilting design by machine. I'm going to miss this quilt.

Here are photos of this quilt:

The Quilt Top finished

Batting added & Ready for Quilting

Quilting is Done.

Showing off the embroidery

Close-up of one of the embroidered flowers

Gotta add my label of course!

Ready for it's new home......

Other projects completed.......

Fiona Bag, by Jenna Lou Designs

My New Bag Tags.....I LOVE THEM! THANKS ED!

My Executive tote.....I have no idea what to name this

My fabric label & bag tag.....added to everything I make.

So that's it for now......pretty good progress in one week, I've got about 3 bags to finish 7 more quilts to go----gosh, why did I take that long of a break?? Well, I will be back to post more projects as I complete them. I just remembered.....along with these orders I have to complete....I also have to make 20 log cabin blocks for a swap, darnit! gotta go.

Adding to my collection

I've been busy......Look what I got!!----

Earlier in the week I added to my library collection to my already big/full collection.....I stopped counting at 874 and about 2 shelves left, but I just added about 50 more books and magazines---whew....I'm running out of room...i don't know where to put them all. I got a great deal through the wonderful Craigslist.....and then bought a couple more books at Borders....plus, I just bought a bag of buttons and also found a nice big jar to put a lot of them in at a thrift store and added to my buttong collection....gotta love those shops!

I've already tabbed a lot of the pages that I will be working on.....my to-do list is getting too big!

I have been sewing a lot, just trying to pass the time since my DH is gone for 2 months, but he is making an extra trip up this weekend! whoo hoo! I need a break! So when I'm done with the last couple of projects I had lined up, I will post them up here....I'm currently working on my own design for a new bag.....I will put a tutorial here when I've fine tuned everything! So until next time....KEEP ON SEWING!

Taking A Break from Quilting

I have been quilting way too much these past couple of weeks that I needed to switch gears and do a different kind of sewing.....I chose two projects to do that only took me a total of 1 1/2 hours. The first project is the Wildflower Pincushion by Anna Maria Horner, You can find that tutorial here.
Mine turned out just great....I love this pattern, I will be doing lots more of these and probably tweaking it a bit to create my own kind of Wildflower.....here's mine: I also did my own pattern for a Needle Case......Girl with Bouquet. I'm hoping to have a tutorial made for this project soon, but for now here's a look at my Needle Case. So this was a great way for me to use my time while not quilting....there are days when I just want to sew & make bags of course!---that's my addiction and my kind of patterns. So that's it for now, I'm heading off to bed.....gonna turn in early for once. Check back later, hopefully I'll have my tutorial up.