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! :) 

Fugly Fabric

Everyone has it - the fabric you just don't like anymore, that you got in a sack of scraps that you never liked in the first place. I know I've got some, and I haven't been sewing all that long, so I'm sure you've got some, too.

I'm talking about fugly fabric.

Lucy at Charm About You had the great idea to host a Fugly Fabric Party - a link party in which you post a lot of fabric that you're just not that into, and make it available to one of your followers - maybe just a giveaway, maybe a FQ-for-FQ swap, who knows. It's up to you! She's proposed February 7th as the date for this. I'm pretty excited about it, as I've got some FQs to put up for grabs, as well as a big piece of backing fabric...so spread the word!

((It'll also be my first giveaway - hooray!))

Comment laziness

So I've gotten pretty lazy, my fellow readers.

Not about quilting - I've been moving right along with several of the projects I posted about in my Finish-a-Long post - the first project on the list is now completely quilting, waiting for string trimming, squaring, binding and washing. The third project, my extra baby-girl quilt top, is completely quilted, and even squared, so it just needs binding and washing, too. The jelly roll race quilt, project six, is now a quilt top, even!

I've managed to set myself up with a pretty good sewing schedule - my husband goes to jiu jitsu practice a couple of times a week, plus he gets out of the house every day for his thesis project. Since I'm at work all day, I only get to take advantage of that empty house time on Saturdays and Sundays - but I've gotten good about using those as my sewing times!

And I've also not gotten lazy about going to the gym - I've been going every odd-numbered day, and am working my way through the Couch-to-5K running program. So far so good there, too!

No no, readers, the part I've gotten lazy about is commenting on blogs! I used to just use the Blogger interface to read everything, which got a bit overwhelming as I started adding more and more blogs. Since getting my Kindle Fire for Christmas, though, I've been using the greader app for that - which is super convenient, but isn't always the easiest for commenting. Oops! There's so much great stuff going on - the finish along, the Swoon-along, and so forth - it's all so great, but I just haven't been commenting as much as I want to. Oops. :(

Final Christmas Project

Mid-January and I'm finally posting my last Christmas project - a baby-sized (Okay, maybe toddler sized? I dunno, smaller than all the others) quilt for a friend's littlest girl.

It was supposed to be chevrons, but, uh, it didn't come out quite right...so there are a couple rows of chevrons, and the rest diamonds. I'm still learning! The fabrics are a mix of quilting cottons and flannels.

Tiny sheep! Bitty dinosaurs! Gah! Quilted in a wavy pattern, up and down the diagonal seams.

Backed with pale yellow flannel and this other cute flannel remnant from Joann's. Bound with white.

And that's it! My final Christmas project, all blogged! I can't speak for the recipient, as she's less than six months old and can't even speak for herself, but baby's momma was very happy to receive the quilt! :)

Now...if only I were done sewing Christmas present. (Hint? I'm not. Definitely not).

Snippets

No photos today, sorry. Just snippets of my brain!

-I cheated on my fabric diet yesterday...but it doesn't count because it was just Kona White, it was less than two yards, it was 40% off with my Joann coupon. Solids don't count because I need them for projects.

Right?

-I have two dudes I want to make quilts for. One says he likes gray. The other will take anything I give him, I'm sure. Have any dude friendly pattern suggestions?

-I've been doing really good at the gym! I'm going every odd day and working my way through the Couch-to-5K running program. I'm up to 90 seconds running, two minutes walking intervals. Interval running is much better than just attempting to run, but let's face it, treadmills are boring.

-My head is full of acronyms. From work ones (PDI, UVI, RKE, LOF, ADP, CRM, and so forth) and now quilting ones, like HST and FQ! Sometimes I look at patterns and have no idea what they're talking about because of all the acronyms. The Swoon pattern's like that, so before I attempt to start it, I'm probably going to have to translate it into actual words!

Yeah, that's about it for today. What's rattling around your brain today?!

Christmas quilt #4!

Linking up to Manic Monday!

I need to pick up my pace so that I can finally get all my Christmas projects blogged, huh? I'll do my best, readers!

Here's quilt number 4, for my niece. She was underwhelmed by it (what 10 year old is really excited by blankets??) but her mom and grandma (my sister-in-law and mother-in-law) were pretty darn impressed. This one was huge - definitely queen or even king sized! I got a bit carried away, but I love all the fabrics I chose and know it will last her a good long time!

Straight-line quilted, alternating between stitch-in-the-ditch and halfway down a strip. 

Backed mostly with purple flannel, but with a strip of regular white cotton down the middle to make it big enough. Machine bound with white cotton.

---

This weekend I managed to get back into the swing of sewing, too, which is great! I made progress on two of the projects that I discussed in my post for the Finish-a-Long. I finished the top for item number 6 - I promise to take pictures and post them soon! After finishing that, though, I realized that I can't baste it because ALL my basting safety pins are tied up with project number 1, so I did a bunch of the quilting on that, and will have to keep doing so in order to work on anything else! Oops!!

Christmas quilt #3

I keep having to go back and check on which Christmas quilts I've blogged about - oops! Here's quilt number 3, which I finished for my mother-in-law. She loves bright colors, particularly yellow. My husband assured me that this is why he and his sister dress almost exclusively in black - to offset all her brightness!

 

Perhaps a little lazy to do all jelly roll race quilts, but I really consider myself to still be learning the craft, and these are a super way to practice some of the basics - you don't have to worry about matching up seams, yet you get something that looks great!

Most of the fabrics for this one came from clearance-rack half-jelly rolls I picked up at Joann, with other fabrics added from my stash. 

I quilted it with a wavy stitch that runs perpendicular to the seams on the quilt. The lines are nowhere near straight, but, A, MIL won't care, and B, it was good practice...right? ;) 

 Since Jeff said she loves yellow, I backed it with a marbled yellow flannel. The binding is a light/bright green, and the quilting was done with white. It's roughly twin sized, but I'm guessing it's best for a lap/couch quilt. :)

There we go! Two more Christmas quilts to blog about...and hopefully by the time those are posted about, I'll have made progress on something on my to-do list!

Quilter in the Gap 2012 Finish-a-long: Quarter 1

Quilter in the Gap is hosting a "finish-a-long" all year in 2012. This is a great idea for me, since I've apparently turned into a chronic "project starter and abandoner" since I've started sewing.

Oops.

That being said, here's my pre-first-quarter goal list! 

1: T's ticker-tape quilt: This one was supposed to be finished for Christmas, but I got a bit burned out. I'm about 1/3 of the way through attaching the ticker tapes, so I'm pledging to finish those, square it, bind it, and wash it! Finished and gifted - read about it here!

2. K's hexagon quilt: One of the first quilts I started, but definitely not the first one I finished. Oops. Also something that was supposed to be done for Christmas. I'm also about 1/3 of the way finished quilting this one (stitch-in-the-ditch around the hexies), so I will finish quilting it, square it, bind it, and wash it!

3. This extra quilt top: This one was initially the other half of this quilt top. I made it from scraps rather than a proper jelly roll, so I had no idea how many strips to use. I ended up cutting the top in half, and have had this top sitting around since last July. I've got some cutesy pink flannel to pack it wish, so this quarter I'll baste it, quilt it, square it, bind it, and wash it.- FINISHED! Read about the finished project here.

4. Kindle Fire cover: My super duper amazing hubby gave me a Kindle Fire for Christmas (!!!!!), and I found a cute tutorial for making a cover for it. This quarter I'll make it, I promise! I've got this fabric for it - I've had it in the stash for a while (a remnant from Joann), and I think this will be a great project for it. The same coworker who received the other half of UFO 3 told me he wants to see it when I'm done - sounds like I might have a customer? ;) ((This one isn't started yet, so it technically isn't a UFO, but I plan to do it anyway!))

5. Drawstring bag for D: When I was at Joann on black Friday stocking up on flannel for this year, I found this weenie dog flannel with a bright green background. My boss LOVES these critters (she's got three!) so I bought half a yard and am planning to make a drawstring bag for her, since she refuses to carry a purse. Her birthday's in February, so it's a priority!(Another that isn't yet started, so it won't count, but it's still a to-do). (Yeah this ended horribly, and by that I mean in the trash. Bleck.)

6. Another jelly roll race style quilt, because they're quick and easy and I like them! The mother of T and K, who will be receiving UFO 1 and 2, deserves a quilt of her own. I've had these fabrics picked out and cut into strips for a while, so this quarter I'll sew 'em all together, finish the top, find something to back it, baste it, quilt it, square it, bind it, AND wash it!

Alrighty, there ya go! I've got a TON of other things in my head (and on my desk, and in my fabric closet, and on my fabric shelves...), but these are the ones I WILL finish by the end of March!

Christmas Quilt #2

Hi everyone! It's been a few weeks since I've linked up with the Small Blog Meet over at Lily's Quilts - I just baaaaarely qualify for it anymore, since as of this writing I'm at 48! Hopefully we can push it over the top this week, huh?

Well I haven't made one of those fancy collages everyone's making, since I'm still doing recaps of everything I made for Christmas. I managed to gift FIVE quilts for Christmas this year, which I think is pretty darn good considering I only started sewing in November 2010.

This jelly roll race-style quilt went to my father-in-law and his wife. My husband assured me they would like the colors, and indeed they did. :)

I really love some of the prints - the little birds, the dots... the large dot print in the top right? Some of the red dots are actually lady bugs. :)

I backed it with brown flannel - I love how snuggly it makes quilts.

I zig-zagged the quilting, stitch-in-the-ditch. The actual quilting part is my least favorite of any quilt project, I must admit.

All wrapped up and ready for gifting. I'm not sure the kitty cat, Wrench, was particularly impressed with this one. She does have a habit of sleeping on my unfinished quilts, though. :)

You can see another quilt I made for Christmas here, some placemats I made here, and look forward to reading about the other three over the course of the week!