WIP Wednesday - fugly edition

(linking up with Freshly Pieced for W.i.P Wednesday)

In honor of the Fugly Fabric Giveaway hosted by Charm About You (click here to find MY offerings!) I decided to whip out my fugly WIPs.

No, I don't ever intend to finish them. Don't worry.

Up first is, literally, a mishmash of all the ugliest fabrics that came in a fat quarter lot (which I got ridiculously cheap, I can't imagine why!?!?) on eBay. Note my terrible attempts at HSTs, back when I didn't realize that using an iron that was too hot would screw up fabric and before I knew what squaring up a HST was.

Keep in mind, also, that this was started about a year ago! What a long way I've come (I hope, anyway). Overall it's roughly, um...lap sized. If you have a lap that needs to be covered by something fugly.

Don't those fruits look delicious? Not. Also note my failure to follow my own made up pattern.

Then there's this. I'm not sure what it is. It's maybe a bit bigger than mini sized, and this was fabric from a lot of 3" charm squares, also from eBay. Not sure what I was thinking here, either, but I do like some of the combinations...

Like the one on the left here. The one on the right? Chunks of dalmations and cat bodies. No idea.

Just to reassure you, no,  I have no intention of finishing either of them...though I'm not sure what I will do. They're sort of quilt tops, and they definitely demonstrate my learning process! Any ideas what i should do??

Fugly Fabric Giveaway!

Welcome to my contribution to the first ever Fugly Fabric Giveaway - and, well, my first ever giveaway at all! I fell in love with the idea of the fugly fabric giveaway when I first heard about it - because who hasn't gotten fabric and thought, "My gosh. Whoever thought THAT was a good idea?" ...and then somehow found it in your stash? Whoops.

This is perhaps not exactly the best giveaway to start with, is it? "Here, take all my crap, and hopefully stay a while and read about the things I do with fabric I actually like." Hrm.

Oh well. Anyway, here you go - in all their glory, here is a 16 fat quarter bundle (give or take, anyway - after all, it's fugly, which means it's not exactly the best...right?) full of fug. Fugliness? I don't know, I like fug. They're all from lots I purchased on eBay, all cotton, and all fug all the time. Fug fug fug. I just like that.

You see some batiks in there, but mostly tone-on-tone prints that, um, just aren't me. But hopefully they're you!

Also up for grabs is this fugly book. It was a prize in a contest - not the prize I actually won, but it was the one I was sent. Seeing as I already have enough hobbies without undertaking this one, well, here it is, another fugly prize for you all. I present to you Fabric Painting with Cindy Walter.

You each have two chances to win - as if you want any chances at all, right? Hah!

Note: You must be a follower to enter and win!

Chance 1: Leave a comment - perhaps tell me about your fugliest fabric, the fugliest thing you've ever made, or maybe what you'd do with this fugly fabric.

Chance 2: Spread the word! Tag me on Twitter (@stephmabry) and tweet about it, post it on your blog, pin this, somethin'. Leave another comment with a link back to where I can find the word-spreading.

So there you have it! Fabric that's full of fug and a giveaway that's full of fun. I hope. :)

I'll be using good ol' Mr. Random to choose a winner on Monday, February 13th. That gives you all week to follow, spread the word, enter to win, and maybe give away some of your own fugly fabric. Check back at Charm About You for more linky fun!

The giveaway is now closed. Congratulations to winners Kathy and Kristi!

First Sale!

So as I posted yesterday in a fit of excitement, I sold my first quilt on Friday! Wow!

I had taken another finish (which I haven't blogged about yet) in to work on Thursday just to show off - the gals in the office know I quilt, but I hadn't taken in anything to show them in quite a while. Everyone oohed and aahed over it, and there was a teensy bit of interest from a couple people about possibly buying one, so I figured the next one I took in should be one that didn't already have a destination in mind...so that's what I did. :)

Yup, that's my silly face peeking out over the top. :) It's basically a jelly roll race quilt that actually started out as being the other half of the very first quilt I actually finished (which you can read about here). I backed it with some flannel remnants from Joann. It's child sized, probably 50 by 40.

To be completely honest, I started out not really liking this quilt top very much, which is why it sat on my WIP shelf for a few months (or seven...but who's counting). I picked the bright blue solid as binding, though, and it just seems to make the whole thing really pop. I'm SO pleased with how it turned out!

Anyway, back to the sale story, I took this quilt in on Friday to show off and hopefully sell - a coworker of mine thought I should bring in one that was girly so that I could hopefully sell it to my boss, who has a two year old granddaughter he totally adores... And yup, that's who bought it!

...for $60! Not a huge profit or anything, but it definitely paid for, um, at least most of my trip to Joann yesterday for more fabric. ;)

Have you sold anything you've made? Does my price seem reasonable? (He accepted the price, so I guess it isn't a bad offer, right? haha!)

**Also! Tomorrow is Fugly Fabric Day and I *will* be having a giveaway - make sure you're a follower so you don't miss the chance to win fugly fabric OR a fugly book!!**

Edited 3/29/12: Linking up to Quilter in the Gap for the Finish-A-Long drawing. This was part of my Q1 Goal list, found here!

Sold!

Great news! I sold a quilt!!!

Pictures to come tomorrow, but I'm super excited and had to share!

50 Follower Giveaway

So, um, I have 50 followers now. Well really I have for a week, maybe even two, but it has come to my attention (via my own imagination) that maybe I should do something for you folks. Like give some crap away, because even if it's crap, no one cares as long as it's free, right?

Right?

Anyway, with Lucy over at hosting the Fugly Fabric Party soon, I figured that would be a superb time to give some crap away.

Actual crap.

Okay not actual crap, but fabric I think is crap, like fat quarters that came in lots I bought on eBay when I was first trying to build a stash. Florals, batiks, things that just aren't me.

That being said, I'll be giving away a 16 fat quarter set for you. Again, it's not Aneela Hoey (can you imagine her stuff EVER being thought of as crap!?!??! No.) or Lizzy House or anything Moda (or maybe it is, and Moda turns out some hideous stuff once in a while?). Anyway, I have no idea the origin of it other than "eBay," which really means "anything, but probably Joann once upon a time." But I'll give it away next week, on Tuesday, February 7th.

I'll do two ways to win - follow the blog, follow me on Twitter. 

To sweeten the deal a little bit, if I somehow magically reach 100 followers by the time the drawing closes (yeah right, right? hah!) I'll have a second giveaway of a 21-square Riley Blake So Sophie charm pack, like this:

Image borrowed from Amazon

So there ya go! My first 50 followers, my first giveaway, AND my first blog bribe, all in one! Spread the word and help get that second prize unlocked! ;)

Fabric squeeeee, and @IntrepidThread love

When I first started sewing all of my fabric came from Joann, and really, most of my fabric still does - as a quilter, I'm a-okay with buying the smaller pieces of fabric that they sell as remnants, which generally come at a great price. I also dig their clearance section, especially on the "extra 50% off days." I didn't - and really, still don't - understand the people who hate on Joann and who insist upon only buying designer fabric.

I started buying charm packs a little while ago - they're a reasonably priced way to get a teensy bit of those fancy fabrics. I have Little Apples, Sherbert Pips, Circa 1934, Hometown, Reunion, Pezzy Print, and Half Moon Modern, and I've got a bunch of Moda solids to go with them.

But only recently did I start getting yardage.

My lovely aunt gave me Outfoxed for Christmas:

 That's fat quarter bundles of all three color ways, and a cut of one of the hedgehog prints (squee!). They're so lovely, wrapped up in plastic from fatquartershop.com... I haven't even opened them yet!

Then I got a bunch of "free" money back from FatWallet.com, and I decided what the hey, why not get some more pretties for myself...

So off to Intrepid Thread's etsy shop I went, and got these...

1001 Peeps half-yard bundle (1001 Peeps and Towers in Turquoise and Illuminate in Basra Blue)

 Some Outfoxed yardage - Hedgehogs in Purple and Foliage in Pink

 Then I built a custom half yard bundle, and got:

 Impressions - Taj in Navy

Echo - Ranka in Navy and Teal 

Domestic Bliss - Out of Doors in Cream

 Half Moon Modern - Leaves in Steel

Nature Elements in Ocean Breeze

Little Apples - Round Round in Pencil Gray (OMG the selvedge has little turtles on it, I definitely made some silly sounds when I saw that!!!)

When I opened the package, I was thrilled - it was wrapped up tidily in tissue paper with a cute ribbon around it, with a hand-written note, and these SUPER cute little charms as a bonus! PANDAS! I love them! I'm thinking maybe a pin cushion or something out of these? No idea, but definitely need to make them into something special.

Anyway, that's what I've been getting in the mail lately, and there's a review of Intrepid Thread for you. Julie blogs over here, and regularly hosts awesome giveaways, and just has all kinds of awesome pictures of pretty fabrics - what more do you want? ;)

((Just to be clear, I wasn't compensated in any way for this post - I just wanted to leave a great review for an awesome business who gave me super service - a refund after she combined shipping, packaging that kept my fabric dry, a hand-written thank-you and great communication - who doesn't love that!?))

Works-in-Progress - updated for WIP Wednesday

Edited for WIP Wednesday :) 

Since the weather's been so cruddy, I've been pretty lazy about housework productive on my sewing projects!

So far I've gotten this one put together and mostly quilted: - update! As of Tuesday night, it's completely quilted and squared and ready for binding! It's backed with a blue flannel that matches that brown-and-blue print right there (points) and which will be SO cozy. I love flannel backed quilts!

And these two are all the way quilted, just waiting to be squared and bound!

So many happy dinosaurs, I know that the little boy it's meant for will adore it. :)

I don't really have anything else to say about them, other than I'm happy to have three WIPs so close to being crossed off the list and into the "finished" column!

Thanks for stopping by if you're part of the linky party - I'd love to have you as a new follower! :)