Purse Palooza: the Birdie Sling

Hey y'all! So even though I am in the UK right now for work (that's right, I'm now apparently a jet-setting librarian), I just wanted to let you know that I am guest-blogging over at Sew Sweetness today as part of Sara's Purse Palooza series.

I am reviewing Amy Butler's Birdie Sling pattern. This was actually my first time making the Birdie Sling (I know, late to the party, right?) and I just love how it turned out! I used My Folklore from Lecien for the body, and golden yellow shot cotton (I can't remember if this was a Moda or Kaffe off the top of my head) for the bands and handle. The interior fabric is the dark brown Henna Garden from Sandi Henderson's Meadowsweet 2.

So, hop on over to Sara's if you want to check out my review and read my thoughts on it! I'll be back from London on Saturday and hopefully I'll have lots of fun pictures to share with you then!

Sewing Summit: Friends and Good Times!

So, I arrived back home from Sewing Summit very late on Sunday night - my journey home included a plane, a car, a bus, and then another car. Jealous yet? *wink*

Sewing Summit was flippin' amazing! I'm going to go into more detail about the classes and lectures, things I made, etc. later but right now all I really want to talk about is all of the super-awesome people I met/saw again/hung out with. I can't even express how really, really neat it was. I've had the lucky opportunity to twice attend Quilt Market, and I've met lots of great people there, but Sewing Summit was like an explosion of super-cool peeps!

This is Elena, Alexia, Katy, Laura Jane, me, and Megan at the bar in our hotel. And that coffee cup near the front of the shot? That's Thomas! At the table beside Thomas (there just wasn't enough room in our booth) were Angela, Christina, Audrie, Terri, and Sheila - woot! This is pretty much what it looked like for us every night - good times I tell you!

And this is hilarious - apparently Thomas and I are twins!! We didn't even notice until I went to walk past him and my leg brushed his; I looked down - mustard pants! Thomas looked up - plaid shirts and greyish cardigans! Oh my!

We spent a fair amount of time in the little lounge area on the second floor sewing and chatting away. Big thanks to Kelly for taking this pic so that I could be in it too!!

Angela, Anna, Sheila, and I all ended up on the same flight to Detroit; now you know why it took me so many modes of transportation to get home...because I didn't actually fly to Toronto. Sheila and I drove to Detroit and then flew to SLC. It was rather more complicated than that getting home. Because I'm a big baby and all I wanted to do on Sunday night was get home. I think I irritated the hell out of Sheila that day. But we're still like besties so it's all good.

I thought since I'm talking all about friends in this post that I should also show off the amazing gifties I received! Although Sheila and I flew in on Wednesday, we didn't actually have a room until Thursday, so we bunked with my girls Jennifer and Doe for the night (on the floor). And they both brought me birthday presents - hurray!!

Doe gave me the Heather Ross Prints book - thank you Doe!! And Jennifer made me this super-amazing Birdie Sling using Tula Pink's Birds & the Bees, as well as two cute notebooks, and a skein of Madelinetosh Sock in Thicket. Jennifer always spoils me rotten and I absolutely love her for it!

Christina gifted me with this beautiful mini quilt that she used as a sample in the curves class she taught - isn't it pretty?!

Here's a better picture of the mini and that's the bunting that Katy made using some Saffron Craig prints! I think I'm going to hang it either over our bed or over the window in the living room!

It was really and truly amazing seeing again/meeting these wonderful people! Although I loved my classes and lectures, spending time with everyone was most definitely my favourite part! Going to Sewing Summit has renewed my spirit somewhat (it really has been a rough few months) and has driven home how important it is to have a strong support system of like-minded individuals. I miss them all so much already!!

Blogger's Quilt Festival!

Well, as a lot of you know this weekend is Fall Quilt Market in Houston. I, of course, am not there (but I want to go so badly!), so I’m taking part in the Blogger’s Quilt Festival that Amy is hosting. Amy planned this event so that all of us who weren’t going to market could get up to a little fun ourselves. The idea is to show a quilt (or two) and tell their story. Many quilters’ will be showing their quilts, so head on over to Amy’s and check the Mr. Linky to read about everyone else’s quilts.

Pull up a seat, grab a mug of tea (or whatever you want, and if you choose to spike it I promise I’ll look the other way), and sit around the fire. You can even put your bunny-slippered feet up on my coffee table if you’d like, I don’t mind.

I have only made two ‘proper’ quilts in my life so far (not including the little ones I used to make for my miniature dollhouse as a child), and am currently working on my third which is a pinwheel quilt using print from Joel Dewberry’s Chestnut Hill collection and Kona cotton.

I don’t really know where the original idea came to quilt. I always thought it was something I would never be able to do – it just seemed so complicated and time-consuming. Then something weird happened: I was looking online for fabric one day and saw some, Arcadia from Moda, that I thought my friend Jenna (who was getting married a few months later) would like. All of a sudden the thought just struck me, “you should make Jenna a quilt as her wedding gift”. Before I knew it I had purchased the fabric, and then the nerves set in. I didn’t know how I was possibly going to make a quilt when I had never come close to making a ‘proper’ one before and didn’t have anyone to show me the basics. The fabric arrived and it sat for awhile, but then sometime in May inspiration struck and I began cutting. I didn’t use a pattern (probably my first mistake) and just came up with something on my own. It took longer than I’d hoped (it was only finished two days before the wedding) and I think it came out a little wonky (although other people tell me they can’t see what’s wrong with it).



I was a little sad to give away my first quilt, but it was made with a lot of love. Jenna says that she loves it and has put it on the bed in her spare room.

The second quilt I made was a baby quilt. It went so much smoother than the first one! Again, I didn’t use a pattern, but I really like the way it turned out and I love the colours. This one was made for a brand new baby girl named Lucy, whose father is one of Alex’s best friends. This mostly uses fabric from Amy Butler’s Midwest Modern collection, and the sashing is ivory/white cotton with little flowers that I picked up at Fabricland.



I was really happy with this quilt, and Tasha (Lucy’s Mum) has informed me that people really like it and keep asking her where she got it. Maybe when I actually get my Etsy shop set up (on hold right now because my sewing machine is apparently possessed), little baby quilts like this will be included.

Thank you everyone for stopping by, especially those new visitors who has found me via the Blogger’s Quilt Festival. I hope that you’ll stick around and maybe we can become friends. I’m really a very nice and interesting person (that was a joke, but really, I am nice and occasionally interesting).

Swappy Swap Swapage!

Happy Canada Day! Wow, it has been quite awhile since I last posted! My computer is broken and so I’m using Alex’s computer to do this post. I’m not going to share everything I have ready today but I really wanted to at least share what I received from Dionne in the swap.

Dionne is so sweet and I really love everything that she sent to me! I received the package last Monday (as luck would have it the same day that Dionne received mine) and this is the first chance I’ve had to post about it.

Everything was wrapped up in the piece of fabric that you can see underneath and was tied with pink ribbon. Dionne actually designed the fabric herself (oh Spoonflower, how I love you); isn’t she just so talented? I haven’t decided what I’m going to use it for yet but I have a couple of ideas. The little bag of buttons will definitely come in handy and I love the colours. The cookie cutters are super-cute; if you can’t tell from the cover off the box the cutters have a little lip in them so that when the cookies are baked they can be hooked on the edge of a mug. I almost bought a set of mini alphabet stamps a little while ago when I ordered some Heather Bailey and Amy Butler papers from Etsy, and now I’m really glad that I didn’t since the ones that Dionne sent are absolutely darling! I actually used them last week to stamp the greeting on a card that I made for my Grandparents for their 60th wedding anniversary.

This bookmark and bookplate set is absolutely my most favourite thing that Dionne sent (so sorry for the blurriness, I really need a new camera). Again the ever-talented Dionne designed and made these for me too! Each bookmark has a different picture on the front and a different quote from either Lucy Maud Montgomery or Jane Austen. This set was made especially for me, but you can check out Dionne’s Etsy shop for more of her beautiful goodies. Thanks Dionne, you are awesome!

I completely forgot to take pictures of the goodies that I sent to Dionne until after I had taped up her package, so of course I don’t have any. When Dionne posts her pictures of my swap package I’ll post a link here for everyone to follow. I’m very proud of some of the things I made especially since I couldn’t use my sewing machine and had to sew everything by hand.

I didn’t get a chance to share the last of the fabrics that I bought, so here ya go! First up is a set of five inch Heather Bailey squares from her Pop Garden collection; I absolutely adore them. I’ve never been much of a pink girl, but I absolutely love it in fabric.



This next set is another grouping from Amy Butler’s Daisy Chain collection. I showed a set a few posts ago that are larger and are only in the grey colourway. These ones are all four inches and are to go with the aforementioned larger set.



That’s it for now, but I will try to post again as soon as I can to share some other things I’ve been up to.