NO, THANK YOU!

I received this:

in the mail today!  Hooray!  It's my catch-up for the Fat Quarter Shop's Designer Mystery Block-of-the-Month club!  I joined a little late.  Anyway, I really liked the little envelope my invoice came in.  Very polite and professional and kinda cute!  It looks like a present and says, "Thank you!"  And I say, "No, thank you," for such a fun first block.  After I get my house clean this weekend, I know what I'll be doing!

FAT QUARTER SHOP ROCKS

So, you know I follow the Moda Bake Shop. I also poke around at the Fat Quarter Shop quite a bit, and I've been eying one of their Block of the Month Clubs for a while. I decided yesterday that I would join it, since it's actually pretty affordable. Only $10 a month for a block pattern and all the fabric to make it. It'll take a year to complete, but it's using one of my favorite new Moda lines: 12 Days of Christmas by Kate Spain. I love her designs! Here's a sneak peek, and if you click on the picture, it will take you to the info page:


You can order a finishing kit and a backing kit (kinda wish they came together). That's the expensive part. But it creates a rather large quilt! Yay! I'll keep you updated!

PROJECTS FOR MY MOMMA

I finally bought fabric for Mom's projects! She wants placemats, which I decided I'd make for her birthday, which is in September. I'm thinking I might make them reversible or something like that. Something funky. Anyway, I also bought enough to make a small table runner for her as well. Same fabric collection -- Blessings for Moda Fabrics. It's an older collection, and it took a bit to find some yardage at the quilt shop I visit. Oh well, we got it done! I bought two charm packs of the collection, and I might go back and buy all the rest I can find. It's not my style, that's for sure; but it is very definitely my mom's.

Here's a pic of one of the large-scale focal fabrics from the collection:

I picked this for the back of the runner. That way, she can turned it over and use the pretty backing as a runner, too!

BUNGLE IN THE JUNGLE

I had a baby shower to go to today, and the theme was "jungle." The parents, M and T, decided not to find out what the sex is. Therefore, green, yellow, and brown were the colors of the day. My god-daughter and her mom helped me pick out fabrics last night. We found eight REALLY cute fat quarters. I used a pattern I saw on the Moda Bake Shop -- Ribbon Blanket and Block. Very cute. The pattern called for using Minkee, which I've never sewed before. It wasn't fun -- lots of fuzzy stuff all over my sewing room. But the color was fun -- the Minkee we found is a cheetah pattern with a green background.

The front of the blankie has two each of the eight prints. The block has my six favorite. I picked out nine ribbons. I tried to vary them enough around the blankie.

I enjoyed making this little set. I don't have any ribbon other than this stuff, but I definitely want to make more of these. Too cute!

QUILT DUDES

Okay, so I follow the Moda Bake Shop rather religiously, and one of the regular contributors is a gentleman -- yes, I wrote "gentleman" -- named John. He blogs under the name Quilt Dad, and he also has a friend named Ryan who is a quilter as well. They are both married fathers, and I have to say, I love seeing guys who are into this art. It is a very technical art, something that I think appeals to men, especially ones with engineering backgrounds and the like. There is a retired engineer who sells his quilts on Etsy, and they are some of the most unique pieces of fabric artistry I've ever seen. He does mosaic quilts from single pieces of fabric. They are breathtaking. Thanks, guys, for sharing your art with us girls!

John's blog: http://www.quiltdad.com
Ryan's blog: http://www.ryanwalshquilts.com

Enjoy!

MY PREROGATIVE, RIGHT?

So, I'm exercising my prerogative to change my mind, and I'm going to do a different pattern for my biggest Christmas presents. It's an adorable little tablerunner. I think it would look really cute on an entry table, but just a nice on the dining table. It is, of course, my receivers' prerogatives to place it where they please.

CHRISTMAS PLANNING

I am starting to plan my four major Christmas gifts for this year. I'm going to make it a little easier on myself than I have before, and I'm NOT tackling anything as fancy as the skirts from last year. I found an awesome pattern on ModaBakeShop. It's an ironing board cover! And I can make it from jelly rolls, so I don't have to do much fabric picking, as it were. And it calls for ribbons, but I think it would be kinda fun to make my own out of the leftover strips from the jelly rolls! Cool, eh?

SO EXCITED!

After nearly a year (I'm a terrible sister), the tree skirts are being finished! A friend I met on the bus has a newer sewing machine with a longer arm that can automatically quilt. She's going to stipple the tree skirts for me so they're actually nice! Now I just have to figure out how the hell to trim them in the round! EeekkK!!!!

WEDGIES -- IN A GOOD WAY

----------------
Now playing: 8½ Souvenirs - Minor Swing
via FoxyTunes
If there is such a thing. Anyway, I got a few questions about the tree skirts -- like how did I make the strips in the wedge shape. Answer: I cheated.

I used a wedge-shaped ruler I purchased at my local Craft Warehouse (my favorite craft store, by the way, which my family has dubbed "Crap Warehouse" even though it doesn't really sell crap). It's a 10-degree wedge ruler. And the ruler comes with a pattern. I tweaked my pattern, however, to use more of the fabric, since I cut my large strips without buying the ruler first (didn't have the extra $$ at the time). So I flipped the ruler over and did opposing strips.

I actually find I like that better. It's a little more intriguing to look at (or if you're my coworker Stretch, trippy). I really like it a lot, and I plan to make many more. I just have to remember to buy double-sided tape. Having tape really makes all the difference -- tape down that wedgie, or you're screwed!

TREE SKIRTS

I am so sorry that I haven't posted for two months! I was distracted by NaNoWriMo for November, and then I've been sewing, sewing, sewing, but without the time to post. So here are four pictures of the tree skirts I made for my sisters for Christmas. Enjoy!

The above two pictures are of Mary's tree skirt. She owns a very retro-decorated house, and she really loves Christmas. She's quite sentimental, like I am.

And these two are of Ginna's tree skirt. She has an old house, but it's pretty modernly-painted and decorated, and she's not as sentimental as Mary and I, so I picked something not so Christmasy. She loves it!