Wednesday, May 29, 2013

wordless Wednesday

Inside and outside at ellyn's place....









Monday, May 27, 2013

happy mail


sometimes my friends get a little bit annoyed with me. I tend to win things. Often. Like, all the time! This time it is another beautiful pillow (cushion) cover from Australia.....
This was Chris's giveaway for giveaway day earlier this month. Isn't it beautiful? I love the knack Australian quilters seem to have for putting colors together in unusual combinations and making them work. She sent one of her awesome patterns in the package too! Thank you Chris.

I put it on the sofa in my sewing space, right next to the one I received from Maria earlier this year. 

I'm such a lucky girl!


Saturday, May 25, 2013

English Paper Piecing

The latest English Paper Piecing special at The Quilt Asylum is apple cores. Once again, I decided to use my own fabrics to create something I love....
A little Noteworthy by Sweetwater.... I love it! The quilt was supposed to have wavy edges with bias binding (no border) but I had to play around with it and do it my own way (as usual!) 

My Leigh Anne liked this fabric a lot, so it will be heading off to Arizona to hang in her cheery apartment. Of course I had to add a little ellyn's place label on the back...


Thursday, May 23, 2013

barn raising

Lori posted barn 7 in her barn along yesterday so I set right to work (by the way, Ally informed me that I needed to stop talking about "building barns" and say "raising barns" instead. point taken). The barn quilt block is small pinwheels this time. Here's my first attempt.
 Major fail. First of all, the background fabric is way too busy and there is no contrast! Second of all, none of my points meet. Ugh! I am not great at pinwheels but this block was a serious disaster. So I began again. Re chose my fabrics and slowed down the speed on my machine. Paid way more attention to detail, and I'll be darned! My second block was pretty darned good.....

Block #7 went together very quickly....

Love my Aussie chicken (thanks Maria!) in the window.....


These barns are so addicting!

Wednesday, May 22, 2013

almost wordless Wednesday

from our last inspiration outing. Love the lines of this....

Sunday, May 19, 2013

Rowing party

Today was the day we shared our finished Row Quilts at The Quilt Asylum. This has been a six month challenge, which I really enjoyed. We were given several (ten? I think) 1/8 yard strips of assorted gray prints which had to be included in each row. Other than that, we were pretty much given free reign. Here are the four quilts that were shared today....

Chris used lots of bright pretty solids in her quilt which I just loved!

 And sweet polka dots on the back...
 Lorna's quilt is called Ode to Joy. She shared with us, the top row actually spells out Ode to Joy in braille! The row with the spots, if they became music notes would play the tune to Ode to Joy! So so clever. We voted Lorna's quilt as the favorite and she won a TQA gift certificate! Nice job Lorna.
 The back of hers is so sweet too, with the name of the quilt in the center.
 I know you've seen mine before, but here it is one more time...
 and a spotty orange back...
 I love Joellen's quilt too, with the houses (there are birds on the roof!)
 the quilting on it is spectacular. And a very cool pieced back...
I know there are more finished row quilts that we haven't seen yet. Hopefully our friends will bring them to Bring n Brag next month and share! All in all, a very fun day.

Tuesday, May 14, 2013

obsessed with bracelets.

The other day my friend Sarah posted pictures on instagram of bracelets she was making. I had to make them. Like, drop everything, make them NOW! Has that ever happened to you? I followed her links back to this tutorial and set out to gather supplies. Turns out, this is the hardest part of this project.

Have you ever heard of ribbon crimps? hmm me either. Until now that is! Last Friday, Steve and I set out on a tour of all of the local craft stores in search of these elusive ribbon crimps. Found some at Hobby Lobby, but they were incredibly small. They say Joanns carries an assortment package. Apparently Sarah bought them all. sigh.

Etsy to the rescue! I found lots of shops with ribbon crimps on etsy and ordered an assortment pack from this shop on Friday afternoon. By dinnertime Friday I had an email saying my ribbon crimps had been shipped! And, about 2pm Monday afternoon, the mailman put them in my mailbox. Amazing! By the time I left the house at 3:30 Monday, these were on my arm....

 Snazzy huh? And by noon today I had made 7 bracelets....
 Some of them reversible....
 Wait a minute, there are only six, you say? I forgot to show you the one on my arm...
 I had fun grouping them into fun little assortments....

I don't think I'll wear all seven at once. For one thing, they are tricky to hook onto one's own arm. Yesterday, Ally came to the rescue and hooked them on for me. She suggested that if I wore one on each arm and hooked them together they would be like handcuffs. She's a silly one, that Ally. This morning, I managed to put one bracelet on myself but it took a while! I'll get better at it, I'm sure. I fully intend to wear these bracelets all the time.

I do believe you should gather your scraps, order some ribbon crimps, and make some too. Hop to it!

Sunday, May 12, 2013

eating healthy


 For a couple of months now, I have been focusing on healthy eating in an effort to lose some weight (it's working, I'm not here to brag, but progress is being made!) Anyways, during our last inspiration day outing Melissa and I took some time to photograph the colorful veggies at the local grocery store....



 I think I should print this mosaic out and put it on my fridge as a motivational tool. How can foods this pretty NOT be good for you??? Anyways, my family has been very supportive of my efforts. Today being Mother's Day they set out to cook a healthy dinner for me.....

 Well they said they were cooking. There was a lot of laughter in the kitchen....





 Ummm, Ally, that's NOT the kitchen!

 In the end, they served up a wonderful shrimp & veggie stir fry on gluten free spaghetti noodles and a big salad. I hope your families all treated you especially well today too!

Saturday, May 11, 2013

Giveaway winner

Thank you to all of you wonderful people who entered my Sew Mama Sew Giveaway!
The winner of my pillow cover is.....

Sherry! Who said:
Love the happy colors! Very spring/summer like!

congrats Sherry! I've emailed Sherry and will send her package off very soon. Thanks to all of you for playing along. Have a great weekend!

Friday, May 10, 2013

barn building and other stuff

I got around to building barn #6 today in Lori Holt's barn along. And when I went to join barns five and six together, they were different sizes. What the heck? It took me a few minutes but I finally figured it out. Here's #5...


and #6....


Do you see what I did? I forgot the white sashing on barn #5. Oops. So I got out my trusty seam ripper and did a little unsewing. And then, some resewing. And all is well on the farm.

I'll bet you're wondering who is hiding behind my barns? (ok, if you're not wondering, just play along with me for a minute.)

Steve's home!



Just for a couple of weeks but I'm sure enjoying his company!

Also, on a totally different topic, I've been admiring everyone's cool nametags on the internet. I've been thinking about making one for myself. Well, on Tuesday night I went to the first ever meeting of the new McKinney Modern Quilt Guild (YAY for a modern guild nearby!) and we were challenged to make a nametag before the next meeting. You know me, I can't resist a challenge. So I set to work and this is what I ended up with....



 What do you think?

I'll be back in the morning to announce the winner of my giveaway. Have you entered yet? You're running out of time! Hurry.... go on now!



Tuesday, May 7, 2013

crafty Tuesday and a new toy...

Looking for my giveaway? You can win this pillow here...

So, I'm very excited! I got a new toy......


It's a Nikon D3200 and I can't wait to learn how it works! Right now I'm taking photos in auto mode. I plan to learn all kinds of things with it. And, as my hubby says, because I can't leave anything alone, I made it a little strap cover this morning....


\
It's Crafty Tuesday today. I am working on another English paper piecing project. Apple cores! Fun to do and I'm learning a lot...


We had a lovely salad bar for lunch.....


What did you do to celebrate Crafty Tuesday? Because it's a thing now, you know? Because I say so.... Hope yours was a happy one!

Monday, May 6, 2013

Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Day!

The giveaway has ended! Winner will be announced tomorrow morning in a new post. Comments have been closed. Thanks for stopping by!


Happy Giveaway day my friends! If you're a regular blog follower, just popping in, I encourage you to hop on over to Sew Mama Sew when you're done here. You will find a wonderful list of giveaways to enter this week. If you're visiting ellyn's place for the first time, welcome! I hope you'll come back often.

Now, on to the giveaway! (that's why you're here, after all. Am I right?) This time around I decided to give this cheerful pillow cover to perk up your sewing space.
 The front is all English paper pieced by me and quilted by me too. On the back, you'll find some of my treasured Liberty of London fabric....
It fits on a standard 16 inch pillow form. I'm not including the pillow form, just the cover (and surely some other treats will find their way into the package!).

All you have to do is leave me a happy comment here on this post by Friday, May 10. I will close the comments and choose a random winner on Friday evening. Anyone can enter, I love my bloggy friends all around the world. So what are you waiting for? Ready... Set.... GO!

Saturday, May 4, 2013

learning to sew - the finished quilts

Today I took the girls to The Quilt Asylum to share their finished quilts at Bring n Brag.....


They did such a wonderful job and I'm so proud of them! They all had fun checking out the fabric & planning their future projects. I think they're hooked!