Thrift Finds

Often I will talk about going to the "big city" about an hour away (Columbus, pop. 750,000), and compared to the nearest village about 5 miles away (Logan, pop. 7,000), it is a shopping mecca. Every now and again I need a few things I can't get nearby but I don't want to drive an hour, so I head to "town," (Lancaster, pop. 35,000). In about 15 or 20 minutes I can be at JoAnn and Lowe's, so it's not too bad.

On my last foray "to town" I decided to check out the local thrift stores. I've never been to one in Lancaster, but I keep seeing awesome thrift store scores in blogland and I wanted in on the action.


The first stop yielded a couple of wool sweaters destined to be felted, and the pink and yellow vintage necklaces in the shot above. The second stop got me the vintage navy handbag (It was $2.99 and 50% off. Charlie read the tag as $299...I had some explaining to do), as well as a dress and skirt not pictured. At the third stop (not *really* a thrift store, but a vintage shop) I found the red handbag and the chain-style necklace. Everything on the table cost less than $10 total. SCORE!

I don't think I am going to get a lot of use out of the red handbag, though, Jaxon has not put it down since it came home (as you might be able to tell from the picture). He opens it every few minutes and declares "I'm checking somping."


I don't know how I missed blogging about *this* lovely scarf I got a few weeks ago from Lauren. I blame my busy end of the quarter schedule. I sent Lauren a purse to test for me, and she sent me this scarf. Check out the hand twisted fringe! I've worn it twice already and plan to wear it this week. It looks great with a dress or my denim jacket. Thanks, Lauren!

Happy Belated Birthday, Dr. Seuss!

In recognition of National Crafting Month (March), and in celebration of the anniversary of the birth of Dr. Seuss (March 2nd -- yah Pisces!!), Diane of Bee Square Blog suggested a Dr. Seuss-themed quilting contest.


My entry is finally complete, but it has taken me all month to get to that point! I think being busy at work, and time consuming free-pieced letters and embroidery are not a good mix! But I made it in under the wire.


My favorite parts of any Dr. Seuss book are the words. Yes, his illustrations are lovely and whimsical, but there is something about the rhymes that get me every time. My favorite of all of his books is "One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish," and mostly for the line "From Near to Far, from Here to There, Funny things are EVERYWHERE!" So true, you just have to look for them.


Free pieced letters and embroidery comprise the phrase, and I quilted the whole thing using silly shapes. I spent way too much money on a Dr. Seuss pillowcase, and ripped it apart to back the wallhanging. I had to piece a bit to get it to work, so I used one improvised block as the label. If you look closely you'll see the tag from the pillowcase on the label!


I'm not quite sure how voting will work. Entries are to be uploaded to Flickr, and the contest rules state that the five quilts with the most comments will go on to the final round of voting. My quilt is number 5, so we'll see how things go.


If you like what I've made please go here and leave a comment on the image! Thanks!

Spring? Not quite.

It's still a bit chilly out to feel spring-like, but Jaxon would like to present a little spring in quilt form.


This is the quilt I made for the Four Seasons Quilt Swap Monochromatic Challenge. The recipient only specified color, not season. I had remembered this tutorial on one seam flying geese. The bright green rows of geese reminded me of the return of flocks we see in the Midwest around this time of year. I added the "swirl" of quilting to symbolize the brisk winds that sometimes precede them, and called it "Spring Migration."

Here is the back. I pieced the scraps that were left when I cut the geese, and added one white block to serve as the label.


I did cheat *a bit.* The challenge was to use only shades of one color with black or white. I went for navy, both in the binding and the quilting. There's something very "clean" to me in the combination of spring green and navy blue...I think it was worth breaking the rules.

I had a good mail call week. I won a giveaway from Diane of Bee Square Fabrics. This *adorable* charm pack found its way to my house -- all Japanese kawaii. Thanks, Diane, I already have a plan for it!


And, remember earlier in the year, I decided this would be the year I decide if I am going to like knitting? Well I haven't picked up a needle, but I had been vocally coveting these mitts. Well, it's good to have friends who love to knit. A surprise package came from Courtney that contained these...


Oh, they are so beautiful and soft -- the photo doesn't do the color justice. Thank you so much, Courtney! They look *fabulous* with my read coat, and I look forward to warmer weather when I can pair them with my denim jacket!

Palindromes

Otto.

Racecar.

Madam, I'm Adam.

33.

For 363 more days my age is a palindrome. I had a very nice birthday weekend, with lots of nice weather, good food and some sewing time. Unfortunately this is the last week of classes before final exams, so things are really busy.


I do have my blocks ready to go for Project Improv. I finished 3 orange and pink blocks, which is no where near the 40 blocks Bekhy made.

I also completed the International Women's Day Fat Quarter Swap -- all purple and green in honor of the suffragettes. My partner was Vicki (check out her blog to see what I sent). I received Vicki's package on my birthday (how apropos), and she sent some of the most delicious, deep–colored fabrics ever! It's hard to choose my favorite fabric -- I love the gradient -- but the stripe is pretty amazing as it gets darker and lighter but the contrast stays...well...high contrast. Thanks, Vicki!

Sorry the image is blurry, I had a choice of a sharp focus with untrue colors, or soft focus with true-to-life colors. I went for the colors.

I should be back later this week (fingers crossed) with my completed Four Seasons Quilt Swap quilt, and some progress on my Dr. Seuss challenge quilt. Ot I might just share all my incomplete grading with you!

Love Complete

I know you are all bored with the LOVE wallhanging, but I did finally finish it. I tried something a little different with the binding, attaching it by machine to the front as usual, but using a running stitch in Perle 8 to attach the back. I like how the red running stitch looks on the front, but it makes the binding a bit large on the back.


And finally something new...I've finally begun my log cabins for the Project Improv charity quilt(s). I selected pink and orange as my color choice thinking that I had the least amount of fabrics in this range (and would have a reason to stash build). I guess I was wrong. I dug through my scrap bin and found *plenty* of orange and pink scraps. Here's my first attempt:

This...

became this...

Yeah, you caught me. I didn't have *quite* enough laid out to make a 12.5" block, so I added a large piece of the woven pink and the orange and white polka dot. This was a lot of fun. I had planned on only making one today -- Jaxon and Charlie have both been sick and I am now behind at work -- but I started another block. I cut myself off, though, after Jaxon's nap and got back to grading.

Also I received my FSQS5 quilt from Rachel:


The "challenge" for this swap was a monochromatic quilt. I chose green. Isn't it sweet? I love the "reversal" in the corners of mostly green to mostly white.


And look at the cute backing fabric! I may have to flip it around on the wall every once in awhile. Thanks Rachel!

Swappity Swap

Courtney and I completed our second swap, this one a Valentine's Day theme. I had a sweet little vintage embroidery pattern of a Dutch boy and girl, and I wanted to pair it with windmills. I embroidered the couple and then added borders to my windmills to make the blocks the same size. As I sewed them together I realized how big this "dollquilt" was going to be. I ripped the blocks apart and decided to use fewer of them in a banner. A nice bonus: now it can be hung or used as a table runner!


And this is what Courtney sent. Our swap included a Valentine–themed dollquilt and a practical item (also Valentine-themed) for the room of the recipient's choice. Courtney chose dining room, so I painted a wood tray bright red and modge podged a piece of My Folklore fabric to the base. I forgot to take pictures. Courtney sent this whole bevy of items for my sewing room:


I had to take the quilt off the wall of honor in the bookcase to take the picture. It has embroidery, rick rack AND bright green. What's not to love? The stuff for my sewing room is amazing -- I think Courtney is psychic. I didn't have a pincushion OR a needlebook, and I have been meaning to make this cute little bag from AllPeopleQuilt.com. Thanks, Courtney!

And ironically, I went from having no pincushion to two! Susan had a giveaway in which the winner with the most embarrassing story won, and I earned third place. I got to choose from a bevy of super cute pincushions, and of course I chose the bright green! Thanks, Susan!

Happy Belated Valentine's Day!

I didn't quite reach my goal of finishing the heart wallhanging by Valentine's Day, but all I need to do is finish the binding. Here it is:

In the last post I described how I created the heart. I added a border in the same background white. I read through Tanya's instructions for free piecing letters, and decided to throw caution to the wind!

I'm happy with them, and the quilting. I decided to do perle 8 around the heart and a few random hearts around the letters. I have a new idea for attaching the back of the binding. I'll let you know if it works out.

Jaxon woke from his nap the other day to find cookies cooling on the counter. Oh, the temptation!

And here is what my valentine got me for Valentine's: bracelet from The Berry Patch and earrings from Tina Rice.

Insert Heart Joke Here

My progress on my Project Improv project has been very satisfying thus far. I sewed the heart with an idea of the outcome but no real plan. When I got it big enough to become a heart, I had to break out the graph paper, but that's okay.

I have almost completed the rest of this wall hanging top, and I think I'll have it layered and ready to quilt on Wednesday -- but then I may be stuck. I'm afraid to quilt it. By hand with only some small embellishment in perle cotton, or by machine with wild hearts -- that I will probably mess up? Decisions, decisions!


This seemed appropriate to post today because my heart goes out to all Australians dealing with devastating bushfires. Here's how you can help.

And the winner is....

I would like to thank my dozen or so regular blog friends for stopping by, and welcome the other 145 of you. I hope you will come by again....

But for the real reason you are here...

The random number generator chose:



which corresponds to:







Please be watching for an email. Thanks to everyone for entering! And just remember: there is such a thing as good giveaway karma. I won this:

12 fat quarters from Anna Maria Horner's new line, Good Folks. Yippee!

Entries closed!

Great googly moogly! 157 comments?!? Wow, that's like 144 more comments than usual! I guess in these rough economic times we will turn to desperate measures to feed our addictions to fabric. I might have to start a "Just Say No" campaign.

Entries are now closed, and I will be drawing tomorrow morning. I just wanted to drop by and thank YOU for dropping by, and give you the good news. The first of my three tenure votes was today, and it was unanimously positive. Yah! So now my case travels to the dean. Keep those fingers crossed, please, I don't want to start a job search!

THE GREAT INTERNATIONAL STASH BUSTING GIVEAWAY

Are you ready for 4.5 yards of fabric goodness? Today is the day! I was waiting for enough natural light to take pictures of the fabric, but it is snowing here *again*.

When I started pulling possibilities for the giveaway I was seeing distinct themes, so I am giving away THREE sets of fat quarters, six fat quarters (ish) each!! That's three winners! First place winner will get his/her choice and on down the line.

Here is what you are entering to win:

The green/brown set includes Prints Charming and Alexander Henry...(amongst others)

The blue set includes lots of Anna Maria Horner...(amongst others)

The pink/yellow set includes Robert Kaufman and Every Iota...(amongst others)

Enter to win by leaving a comment on this post by Friday 5:00 pm EST (GMT -5). And if you are feeling generous leave a comment on my previous post since no one had a chance to comment before the giveaway. C'mon, you know you want to...

**Edited to add: Yes, this giveaway is open to my international friends...and PLEASE PLEASE don't be a no-reply blogger! Leave your email address so I can aontact you if you win -- and I can say "Hi!"

Big Day Tomorrow

We are now finally *completely* with power. We returned home this weekend to 50% power, dim lights and not able to use some appliances (like the microwave and the hairdryer). I called our power company and they sent someone out Monday...to turn off our power. We had a broken wire that was a big safety hazard. It was fixed today and we are back with full power.

During the almost-week we spent at my parents with power, I did get a couple of packages. These books I ordered came, as well as this book I won in a giveaway at Pink Chalk Studio. Folk quilts may seem an odd fit for a mid-century lovin' girl like me -- but there is plenty of retro style. Here is my fave:


AND an awesome package came from my fat quarter swap partner, Rachel. Look how cute!


I've already worn the flower pin, and I have a project that the cupcakes print is PERFECT for. Thanks, Rachel!

Katy of I'm a Ginger Monkey has organized the Great International Stash Busting Giveaway. Check back tomorrow morning to see what you could win, and visit Katy's blog to see who else is participating. I'll keep the giveaway open until Friday so my international friends will have plenty of time to enter!

OK, quit hogging my time, the Idol is on.

Seeing spots

Soon after my post on Wednesday we lost power to the house. The temperature inside began dropping quickly so we packed up the car and headed to my parents' house about an hour away. We've been here since. Our power is back on, and Charlie went home to get the heat started and check on things (our trees lost more limbs, but everything else is fine). I've had more than my usual craft time because there are people around to amuse Jaxon, and I've taken advantage.

I've finished one swap quilt and started the second, but I had to take a break when inspiration struck: a new laptop cover for the new laptop!

The iPhone felt left out...
Pattern: None, I've fully embraced Project Improv and just went with it.

Supplies: Charlie and I ran home Thursday to get essentials, so of course I grabbed my sewing machine and a stash of fabrics, including some sheets of craft felt. I cut circles from the craft felt, and bought just over a yard of 70% wool felt in charcoal for the body.


New Skills Employed: I used the blanket stitch on my machine for the first time. I also needed the practice sewing around circles.


What I Learned: I need to be more confident about my sewing. The blanket stitch was not looking great at first (you can compare some of my first circles to later circles above). I thought it was just my inexperience, and then maybe that I hadn't brought a heavy needle (what was I thinking, not bringing every kind of needle I own?!?). It turned out to be a bad bobbin. Once I refilled the bobbin I had no problem. Lesson learned -- always blame the machine!

Evolution*

Yes, this is my first blog entry on my new MacBook Pro. Hooray! The above pic includes all the laptops (minus one) that I have had from work over the past 6 years. So far this one has been super cool!**

And it's a good thing I have this new toy to keep me occupied, because we've been home from school the past two days with snowy, icy weather.

This is what we woke up to this morning:

We had a few inches of snow that was covered in a fresh sheet of ice -- the trees looked amazing -- and then we got about another inch of snow on top of the ice.
I thought it looked very pretty, and then Charlie went out to inspect some downed limbs and found this:

Not so pretty.
Looks like we will be cutting down the pine tree this spring (maybe more than one, there's one on the side of the house that is growing dangerously close to our power lines).

Good thing I have my Mac to keep me warm! The other thing I am enjoying during our mini break from school is our new built–in bookcase in the living room. When we first looked at the house six years ago, there was a floor to ceiling nook in the living room with one lone shelf:


We pulled down the old shelf (well, it fell down, really) and I painted the one wall umm....fuchsia?....raspberry?....well, see for yourself. This was done way before Jaxon was born.

This is right after he started walking.
And now, thanks to my handy husband, the nook looks like this:


Woo hoo! A built-in bookcase! I've moved most of our books out of my sewing room (once the office) and into the living room, with the art books and old Hollywood on either side of the fireplace (shelves also built by Charlie) and the rest (minus health and sewing) you see here.

I've been culling my book collection over the past year, keeping only books that I re-read regularly (or semi-regularly). I still would like to remove more -- I want the shelves to look less cluttered. So, dear readers, if any of you are interested in any books by Rita Mae Brown, Carolyn Hart, or
Lillian Jackson Braun (those have already been moved to the garage), please let me know!

The completion of the bookcase means the beginning of the sewing room reno! I don't expect it to be done before summer, but Charlie and I took the bookshelves down to his office, and I started boxing up things for a future garage sale. This will be a big job, with new electrical, lighting, window, and I will be pulling up the carpet to reveal pristine hardwoods (think positively). I'll keep you posted!

*This alternate title for this post was "My Husband Rocks" but the Mac won out. Sorry, Charlie.

**No, I don't usually have 4 laptops laying around the house. One has a broken screen, another is a loaner until this new one came in, and the other doesn't run the software I use for work anymore.

Bunnies and Burns

I've made some progress on my improv challenge, and on a swap quilt, neither of which I will be sharing with you today...

But I can share with you this sweet little bunny that went to live with our friends' daughter on her third birthday. This is from the pattern Big Footed Bunny.


Of course, she had to play with Jaxon's bunny before she left. And she reversed her dress to impress Mr. Bunny.


Oh, and a small bit of advice. Say you splurge on some linen for a special project. And your ironing diligently while your baby boy plays in the sewing room. When said baby boy loses his balance and pulls a heavy wood chair over on himself, don't leave the iron sitting plate down.


Jaxon suffered his first split lip but bounced back quickly. Today he gave us all nicknames. He's Fire, Charlie is Rain, and I'm Snowflake. Element powers unite!