Serenade for Matilda

I recently finished up another commissioned project - for the same coworker that got the last one! She asked for something girly with butterflies for her granddaughter, Matilda. Kate Spain's Serenade line seemed to fit the bill quite well, so I paired it with one of the gray Konas and went to town! I had a good time with this one - small and quick but very satisfying!

Before I get to photos - Fresh Squeezed Fabrics is having a contest where, if you get enough people to repin your favorite fabric bundle on Pinterest, you can WIN the bundle! I aimed low and went with a $15 bundle of Bella, so I need 15 repins - help! :) Check out my pin here, and repin to help me win! Check out the details to win your own bundle here.

On to photos!

There's my attempts at artsy quilt photography. Except that last one, where my leg got in the way. Whoops.

The pattern for the quilt is from the Moda Bake Shop - very fun/easy way to use charm packs, particularly ones with prints that you'd really like to feature. I think I might use this for a couple more charm packs I have, especially those where I have some yardage from the line too (like Little Apples or Guising, where I got matching solids).

Traveling Stash Giveaway!

So I love getting mail. Who doesn't!? I've been in a TON of swaps lately, whether in big groups for charm squares or in smaller diads (love that word) for FQ/charm pack swaps - I swapped some Heather Ross Mendocino that I knew would be more appreciated elsewhere for a charm pack of Hullabaloo, and sent a Pezzy FQ all the way to England (Hi Cheraldine!) in exchange for a different FQ (for what it's worth, when you're doing the customs form, a FQ of fabric in an envelope weighs 2.1 oz. I guessed 2 ounces, so that was pretty darn good!

When I'm not bothering my local postal workers, I HAVE been sewing, honest! I've finished up all 18 granny squares I had cut, and now they live in a nice stack that looks something like this:

Someday Instagram really needs to release an iPad version so my quick photos turn out better! Anyway...who makes 18 blocks for a quilt? What the heck, right? I'll need to find a couple more fabrics that go along with the theme so that I can get to an even 20 for a 4x5 layout. My squares started at 3.5", so the squares are huge! I'm excited to get this one finished. I think it might end up for sale someplace - probably at my office. I have a coworker with some college-aged daughters, maybe she'll buy it for them. ;)

Now, onto some bigger, potentially more-comment-generating news? I won a traveling stash! Are you familiar with that? Basically it's a medium flat rate box stuffed full of things that other quilters/sewists didn't want anymore - patterns, orphan blocks, templates, notions, and, of course, fabric!

Admittedly the fabric in this box isn't the best - it's Joann quality, including what I added. But on the plus side, there is a variety of sizes - what was in it was yardage, and I added a bunch of FQs and FQ-ish pieces - and there are a ton of patterns! This is a great box if you're into appliqued patterns, books, and the like.

Here's what was in it that I took out:

Some yardage in basic colors, a book, and a magazine. It was interesting to look through the book - of Mennonite Quilts -  and see ones that look awful familiar - there's a photo in there of a quilt that looks similar to the Made in Cherry QAL. Nothing new under the sun, I suppose! ;)

So after I took out my bits, here's what was left:

Like I said, a TON of patterns - this box is HEAVY with books! All those big pieces are pretty good sized chunks of yardage. There are also some orphan blocks, charm squares, a package of labels, and a wrist pincushion thingermabob.

 And this last one is what I added - a whole smattering of various fat quarters, a couple orphan blocks of my own, a dresden plate template (still in packaging, I think it came in a set of FQs I picked up someplace...?). I'll probably also throw in a couple MORE patterns!

Sooooo....wanna win the stash?

The rules are as follows:

RULES:
-Be an active blogger.
-Post about receiving and the giveaway on your blog in a timely manner.
-You may take anything you like from the box. Just replace every item with comparable items equal to the amount taken.
-Ship the box to the next person in a reasonable amount of time.
-Due to the amount of postage shipping is only within the USA.
-Add your name/blog address to the log so we can keep track of where it's been - and find some fun new blogs to follow in the process!

So, that's it! Leave me a comment and I'll draw a name on Friday morning. Unfortunately, this is US-only - sorry. :( If you could comment about suggestions for what to do when you don't plan a project, um, at all, and end up with a weird number of blocks (18, maybe??), that'd be even better.

Good luck, everyone! :)

Congratulations are in order!

Well that latest blog hop definitely set a record here for my little corner of the interwebs. 192 comments means 192 entries on my Pezzy Prints giveaway! Probably twice as many as I've received ever. The consensus really seemed to be that these charms would be great for placemats and table runners and pillows, or also the children's quilt that I tried to make that just didn't work out for my poor little brain.

I'm also a handful of folks over 100 followers now, so I'm really hopeful that I can continue being entertaining.

Now, what you all want to know - who won!

#38 was Cindy, who blogs at Quilt Doodle Designs! I will be e-mailing Cindy shortly and will choose a back-up winner if I don't hear from her by Monday. Cindy said she'd make a table runner and placemats, and hopefully she'll share them on her blog if she does!

Thank you again to everyone who has entered. Have a fantastic weekend!

Time to get lucky! (har har)

The giveaway is now closed. Thank you to all who entered!

Who doesn't love giveaways? I know this girl loves 'em. I've decided to link up with the Quilter's Blog Hop Party to give some stuff away - yay! In honor of my 200th post happening just the other day, and it being St. Patty's Day and all, when everyone and their uncle says they're Irish and drinks too much, well, here's a giveaway for you:

Not one, but TWO charm packs of Pezzy Print will go to ONE lucky winner! One word of warning - I *did* open them, as I had a project in mind but in the end it didn't pan out. They're all there, they're all in one piece, they're just not wrapped up fancy like a proper, fresh-from-the-cutting board (?) charm pack.

To enter to win, leave a comment below. Could be anything - your plans for the charms, how you plan to celebrate St. Patrick's Day, something about your heritage...whatever you feel like typing. :) Following is appreciated, but not required. Sorry, no international winners.

Check this here link on Saturday, the 17th, for a list of all the hoppers so that you can enter to win (and hopefully get lucky!) as many times as possible. Wink wink, nudge nudge.

Fugly winner!

Alright alright, I told myself that I'd wait until noon Pacific time to draw the winner, but, um, I'm impatient and pretty excited to find out who won and where I'm sending this stuff!

Winner of the fugly fabric:

Is lucky number 7, Kathy, who blogs at Kathy's Quilting Blog!

And winner of the Fabric Painting book is #15, Kristi, who blogs at My Ponderings, rambling, and other various thoughts!

Congratulations, ladies! I'll be emailing you for your addresses shortly. Thank you so much to everyone who entered and wow am I excited to have so many new followers! I look forward to doing another giveaway at 100! ;)

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!

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! ;)

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!))

Fat Quarter Shop Blogger's Choice Bundle Giveaway

So Quokka Quilts is hosting a super awesome giveaway that I just HAD to get in on. The Fat Quarter Shop has these great "blogger's choice" bundles, were some superstars of the blogging quilter world have chosen 12 of their favorite prints and 3 coordinating solids, and you can buy fat quarter bundles of those custom bundles from FQS.

The giveaway? You choose 12 prints, 3 solids, and get a chance to win your own blogger's choice bundles - but instead of the fat quarter size, you have a chance to win half yard cuts!

So, here's my entry - prints chosen just because they made me feel happy and girly, and because there's no way my husband would want to steal a quilt made from these! ;)

Top Left:  Dazzle Magenta Basketweave

Top Right: Echo Purple Lina

Bottom Left: Palladium Gray Chevron

Bottom Right: Power Pop Cornflower Big Star

Top Left: Bazaar Style Night Moroccan Street

Top Right: Bespoken Aqua Stitchery

Bottom Left: Calypso Swing Pink Soulful

Bottom Right: Calypso Swing Gray Rhythmic Toss

Top Left: Terrain Mist Leaves

Top Right: Cape Ann Cotton Atlantic Blue Folly Cove Dots

Bottom Left: Amelia Cotton Playful Purple Basket Weave

Bottom Right: Tuxedo Collection Gray Stripes

And for my solids:

Top Left: Bella Solids, Tranquil Aqua

Top Right: Bella Solids, Silver

Bottom Left: Bella Solids, Horizon Blue

Okie dokie! There's THIS blogger's choice for a bundle - wish me luck!

Lucky Ducky!

Wow! I've found myself on Mr. Random's good side lately or something - first I won the Sewline Trio mechanical pencil from Mauby's and Fat Quarter Shop - then I got the free jeans from Old Navy for chatting with them on Twitter.

Today, I had another win! I scored a bunch of Christmas photo cards from Shutterfly, sponsored by Jen at Crippled Girl - whose blog I definitely recommend following, for her humorous takes on special needs living as well as the thought-provoking guest bloggers she's been featuring lately. Thanks, Jen!The hard part to that will be getting a good picture of Jeff and I - the last pics we have together are from our wedding, two and a half years ago (here's one, just because it makes me smile):

Then (Yes, really!), I hopped on to Blogger to read everyone I follow, and saw that I won again! Quilt Dad has had a series of drawings recently, and I won this book:

Scrap Republic, by Emily Cier. I love projects that use small bits of fabric - fat quarters are my favorite! - so I'm super excited to get this book. Thanks, Quilt Dad!! :D

Wow. That's quite the lucky recap! I'm gonna have to make sure to pay it forward these next few weeks to make up for all the good karma I've been using up with Mr. Random Number Generator! ;)

Twitter - and persistence! - pay off!

So I love me some Old Navy - almost every item in my wardrobe (er...dresser and closet) is from there, including, um, everything I'm wearing today except underoos. I'm the girl who goes there and buys one-in-every-color, please.

And Twitter, I'm hit or miss with, I'll admit. I get into it for a while, then forget about it. One thing I've been pretty consistent about, though, is posting comments to Old Navy - and not always positive things. Their spring clothes this year were dreadful - lots of ruffles and fringe that look like they were swept up off the cutting room floor. And I told them so. I suggested they use bigger models so those of us who aren't size 4 will have an idea of how clothes might - or might not - fit.

Guess what? Those comments paid off! I got an email a couple weeks ago asking for my address because they wanted to reward me for my comments! Yesterday I got a coupon for FREE JEANS in the mail!!!

Of course I headed straight to ON and snagged these, the Sweetheart Boot-Cut jeans in the "Tipai" wash:

After finishing up that great shopping trip - who doesn't love a $0 receipt?! - I came home to more fun news! I won a giveaway from Mauby's for a Sewline mechanical pencil!

Photo from  Mauby's, here

How exciting! I'm always entering giveaways and looking forward to the day I see the "you've won!" line show up about me - and it finally has! I love sewing gadgets, and this will definitely be a welcome addition as I face the daunting task of starting on Sylvia's Bridal Sampler with my fancy vintage fabrics! Check out Mauby's for great tutorials and all other kinds of sewing inspiration :)

How has persistence - or Twitter! - paid off for you lately?

To - Dos

My to-do list never seems to turn into a to-done list quite like I plan. Is yours the same way? I have some definite goals for this evening, though, like getting the stuff for my side job done, and talking to hubs about moving forward with tearing down our garage.

Much more interestingly, though, would you like the chance to win this:

Don't lie - you know you would! Head over to 1 Choice 4 Quiltings' blog to find out how - and to read through other quilters' tips for beginners! :)

Wow! Hi Everyone!

Wow, the Small Blog Link-Up sure has been great - I've almost  officially doubled my followers in only a few days!

I'm thinking a giveaway at 50 followers and another at 100 - sound good to you guys? I'm sure it does!

So here's the question - what sort of fabric do YOU want to see as a prize? Scraps from my (admittedly meager) stash? Gift card someplace? Some fancy charm pack or jelly roll?

Tell me!

Another giveaway!

Check out Mauby's blog post here for the chance to win an adorable pattern for slippers, or some super cute fabric like this from Above All Fabric!

This is great timing, since I got SO much good work done on my big project while Dianna from Life's Little Lists was over to work on her quilt - her place doesn't have quite enough room for really spreading out a queen sized quilt, so she came over to borrow my living room floor and dining room table.

While she was here, our little visitor came back! Last night, an ADORABLE little kitty came to visit Molly and I at our front door. She's obviously someone's pet - she purred and meowed at the door and eagerly ate kitty crunchies when we put them out, then was verrrrry happy to be picked up today when she came back - thankfully she came back while D was here so she could meet her, too! After quite a bit of debate, we decided that since it is likely she was someone's cat, we took her over to Butte Humane Society so that (hopefully!) her owners can find her, or at the very least, she can get adopted by another loving family! I'm going to check back in the next few days to see if she's on their website, and if she is, I'll be sure to post the little girl! :)