Sunday, October 27, 2013

Gluten Free Expo

Yesterday Hubby and I attended the Gluten & Allergen Free Expo in Plano, TX. Yes, I know, that's 2 Expo weekends in a row for me! When it rains it pours. Anyways, I hardly took any pictures at the Expo, I was so busy stuffing my face with delicious samples from the vendors. No need for lunch after that! And, we came home with two giant bags filled with samples and coupons and info....



What a deal! Found some new foods to try, got coupons for some current favorites. The one pic I did take at the Expo was of Kyra Bussanich with her new cookbook. Maybe you saw her on Cupcake Wars last year? She won with her gluten free cupcakes! She was very sweet and we enjoyed talking to her.

Hope you've been doing something fun this weekend too!



Thursday, October 24, 2013

pumpkins

These little pumpkins are adorable just as is...
But somehow I got it in my head that they needed to be silver. So I bought a can of spray paint.....

 Look at this stem! I love it the most...

 Ah yes. Much better in silver. Don't you think?
Happy Fall Y'all.

Monday, October 21, 2013

weaving and crafting on the go

The very first day of the Original Sewing & Quilt Expo, Trae & I both bought mini looms and yarn from Purl & Loop. Of course, this meant some hotel room weaving (and it might have involved a late evening trip to Michaels for additional supplies).

 With Trae's hands in the picture you can see how tiny these looms are. Perfect for on-the-go crafting! Oh, and Trae wove some of her fabric scraps in too! LOVE!

 This size makes perfect little coasters.

I took a wool flower class and made this pretty pin...
On Saturday, Trae & I learned to make fabric bangle bracelets...


In addition, I made a make-and-take infinity scarf. I've been wanting to learn how to do these and now I know! I loved the hands on classes at the Expo! It's always fun to come away with a finished product.

Sunday, October 20, 2013

Original Sewing & Quilt Expo

I am home from the Original Sewing & Quilt Expo in Fort Worth, TX. My buddy Trae & I decided to go for the whole three days of the Expo and I'm so glad we did!

We met some really awesome folks! The very first day, Kay Whitt from Serendipity Studio had a fashion show of her designs on the main stage. I've made a couple of her patterns before & they are fabulous! Well written and adorable. After the fashion show we wandered over to the shop that was selling her patterns and she was there meeting folks. We had a nice long chat with her and purchased her brand new bag pattern. I plan to make one of the bags up in the next couple of weeks and will share it with you then. I have to say, Kay was so sweet and friendly. It was a treat to meet her.
Thursday evening Trae and I took a quilt class from Rachel Griffith (PS I Quilt). We worked on Rachel's "Impromptu Quilt" and I hope to have a completed quilt top to share with you this week (there, I said it! Challenge on). Rachel is so much fun, and I need to be completely honest here, Trae and I were the class troublemakers. Rachel accused me of being a stalker of her blog/instagram/facebook but now we are friends, right? And if anyone is a stalker, it's her (I see you reading this Rachel! I'm totally on to you).

 There were several cool quilt displays, including this challenge by the Chicago Modern Guild. My blogging friend, Sally, had this quilt on display....
I almost felt like I got to meet Sally face to face since I got to pose with her awesome quilt!

The best part of the Expo for me what all of the wonderful classes. The teachers are outstanding and I learned something new from each one of them. Here are the classes I took:

Impromptu Quilt with Rachel Griffith

Delightful Wool Flowers with Barb Callahan

Clothing Zakka Style with Linda Lee

The Creative Business Model with Barb Callahan

Your Sewing Space: Make it Work with Debra Justice

Fabric Meets Metal Bangle Bracelets with Tammie Campbell

I will share more about the things I made/learned/bought in future posts. If you get the opportunity to attend an Original Sewing and Quilt Expo, go for it. You won't be sorry!

Wednesday, October 16, 2013

hello neglected blog friends!

sorry I have been away from the blog so long. I wish I had a wonderful excuse. Like, oh I was off on a jaunt to Australia. Well I kind of was. ok, not me, really, but the lovely Maria hung a little stitchery I made her in their guild hanging! Do you see it there?

No? It's behind the purple bear! 

 It was so sweet of her to include me in their event! Now you must hop on over to her blog and read all about the Hanging! Some day I would love to go in person and enjoy it with her. Meanwhile, I am packing up my bags for a little trip....

 Ah I do love traveling handmade! Ok, confession time, the bag in the back is a Vera Bradley Weekender bag! But the rest are handmade.... the Aeroplane bag I made myself, a sweet project bag that Maria sent me a while back and my pretty pouch swap bag from Jennifer! It's almost like I'm taking everyone with me this weekend. Oh, you want to know where I'm going? Well it's just a short jaunt to Fort Worth for the Original Sewing and Quilting Expo!

I'll be there all three days, taking classes, browsing shopping in the exhibition hall & getting my mojo back so I have lots to share with you next week! I hope you get some creative time in too while I am gone!


Monday, October 7, 2013

jumping on another bandwagon

Several months ago I pinned this tutorial and vowed I would try out the Japanese X and + block. There were quite a few quilts of these popping up all over blogland and I was intrigued. Well it took me quite a while to hop on the bandwagon, but the other day I finally sat down to make one block. And this happened....

Twelve blocks! All made from my stash (except for a couple of fat quarters of gray solids I bought, so I could mix up the triangle colors). And then I decided to make one big block to mix in with the others...
 And that made me happy too.

So there you have it. Once again I have been sidetracked by things not on my "must do" list. Sigh. More of these to come....

Sunday, October 6, 2013

a new journal

I've always loved to journal. And, I love to doodle. Most of my journals, all of my life, were a combination of writing and doodling. So when I started seeing these "Walls" journals on the web, I knew I wanted to have one. 

Many people have done Walls pages that are truly works of art. This caused me to be very intimidated. Putting that first mark in a new journal has always been intimidating to me anyways! But I didn't want this one to sit empty so I jumped right in. I probably should have taken a picture of the blank page before I started (hindsight!)



I think this page is done. Or maybe not. 

Do you journal?



Thursday, October 3, 2013

October Stitchalong

Although the calendar says it's fall in this part of the world, we're still having 90+ degree days here in Texas! Nonetheless, our theme for October's bring 'n brag is fall leaves, so that's what we're stitching! My apologies to those of you in the "other" hemisphere who are heading into spring right now! Maybe you can still stitch leaves along with us this month? Or save the pattern for more appropriate weather!


You can find the pattern to stitch your own here.
Maybe since I stitched it, the cooler weather will come? Let's hope! This makes 10 little stitcheries done. Just two more and we can put them all together.

Happy fall! (or spring! depending where you are)

(well lucky you! This posted early! I thought I had scheduled it for tomorrow....enjoy!)

Wednesday, October 2, 2013

MMQG tote swap

Last night the McKinney Modern Quilt Guild had a tote or treat swap at their October meeting. Unfortunately, I have been sick all week and wasn't able to attend. I did, however have my bag ready, so I sent it with a friend.

I made it using Pink Penguin's lunchbag tutorial which I have made before and just love! The fabric is Patty Young's new line, Rendezvous, for Joann Fabric. I didn't snap a picture of the treats I put inside. I found a "lunch bag cube" reusable containers to carry your lunch & it fit perfectly inside. I also slipped in some candy corn for Halloween munching. I'm not sure who received my bag? Hopefully I will hear from them...

In exchange, I received this amazing tote made by Bettepat....

 I just love it! And check out the sweet treats she put inside...
 Those sucker sticks? They're FABRIC! Bettepat wound strips of fabric on sucker sticks and packaged them up. There are TONS of them! How fun is that?
I'm really sad I missed the meeting last night (trust me, they didn't want my germy self there!) but I must say, this bag made me feel better! Thanks Bettepat!