Saturday, December 18, 2010

Coming in January...

Header graphic
By now, many of you are busy making the final push towards the holidays. But what are your crafty plans as we enter 2011? Well, clear your plate, because we have a great quilt-along planned that will begin in January!

18 quilt bloggers have collaborated to bring you the first-ever Bloggers' Block-a-palooza. We'll jump from blog to blog making 2 quilt blocks per week, wrapping up with a custom setting and layout design to help complete your quilt. I am so excited to be one of the participating bloggers.

We're calling this quilt-along "Waiting for Spring" because we'll be using the brand new Sunkissed line by Sweetwater for Moda, and the bright colors and botanical prints should help you (or at least those of you in the Northern hemisphere!) push through the cold winter months and have a fresh new quilt ready for the Spring.

More details will be available soon, but in the meantime feel free to grab our button below and spread the word.



Grab our button!

Quilt Dad




P.S. More information (i.e. fabric requirements, etc) will be posted here as it becomes available.

Monday, December 13, 2010

Each day comes bearing its own gifts. Untie the ribbons. -Ruth Ann Schabacker

Hello all! So I'm right in the middle of finishing up my final assignments (one due tomorrow, and one due next Monday) and I completely forgot to send in my email for Sew, Mama, Sew's semi-annual giveaway day! Darn, I know! I do have a giveaway for you all but I'm not going to do it in this post...I'll save it for a bit later once you're all through with entering all of the lovely giveaways from other people! I do however have some knitting and fabric loveliness to share with you all!


I just started knitting up Diorama from Berroco which is the vesty-type thing that you can see on the front of the pattern booklet (Vintage #290); here's the link to it on the Berroco site so that you can enlarge the stitch pattern. I'm actually doing it in the exact same colour as shown on the cover (Douglas Fir) because I bought the yarn without having any idea what I was going to do with it - I just really liked this colour! I ended up having to rip the whole thing off the needles when I realized that I had cast on for a girls size XL instead of a womens XS (all of the patterns in this booklet include instructions for girls sizes as well as womens), but luckily I was only on the third row at the time so it wasn't a big deal!

I finished knitting up a present for my Mum for Christmas but I can't show pictures until after because she sometimes stops by my blog to check out the pictures (hi Mum!). I will say that it is green though and very squishy and soft ;) By the way, did you know that I'm on Ravelry? If you'd like to be friends, I can be found here.


I caved and bought the entire line of Parisville by Tula Pink in fat quarters a few weeks back! I haven't had the time to start sewing anything yet, but I can't wait until I can! I bought the FQ bundle from Randi's shop Fresh Squeezed Fabrics - not only does Randi have wonderful prices to begin with and a great selection of fabric, she is also a sponsor of Fat Quarterly and had a discount code in the most recent issue (issue 3) - woot! You can also find Randi at her blog, I Have to Say...

I also received a super-awesome little box of gifties from Amanda yesterday.


I bought the 1974 jelly roll off of Amanda when she destashed but the rest are belated birthday presents! She included a Moda Bella Basics jelly roll, two colourways of Heather Ross' riding clothes, four FQs from the Dream On line by Urban Chiks, and a half yard of Anna Maria Horner voile. She also included three skeins of Cosmo embroidery floss in various shades of green but I forgot to include them in the photo! Isn't Amanda just the sweetest? I love that girl sooooo much and am so lucky to have her in my life!


And last, but not least, a photo that I took "on accident" when taking the others in this post. I took this when I accidentally hit the button while putting the camera down. I think I like it! In the front you can see my Diorama and in the background is the Christmas ornament that Alex made me at our friend's Thanksgiving dinner - our friend is American so she throws dinner each year on the (November) holiday and we have a potluck; every year she also picks a craft for us to do after dinner is over (she is very Martha-y). Unfortunately I couldn't go this year because I was pretty sick - I had a fever and actually ended up eating no dinner, just laid in bed and moaned ;) - but Alex made me this ornament (it is a plastic ball with bits of paper inside to look like snow) and he painted the little curlicues and candles on it all by himself!

Alrighty everybody, I need to get back to paper writing! Don't forget to check out all the awesome Sew, Mama, Sew giveaways - I would just love to see one (or many) of you lucky ducks win something!

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Guest Posting Today on Indie Fixx

I case y'all wanted to know I'm guest blogging over on Indie Fixx today! As part of Jen's handmade holidays I've shared my recipe for Caramel Nut Popcorn...you can find the post here!

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Swap Love!

I had a lovely mail day the other day and received both my mug rug swap and my scrappy hoop swap from my partners! Would you like to see what I got?


This is my scrappy hoop that I received from Safieh! Isn't it pretty? I love the Hope Valley fabrics and the stitching is just beautiful! I have a spot already picked out for it on the wall. Oh, and didn't I say that I'd show you my finished hoop when I received mine in the mail? Well, here ya go!


This is the completed hoop that I made for Krista; she received it a little while ago and really seemed to like it.


And this is the mug rug that I received from Kelly. Isn't it pretty? She dug into her Anna Maria Horner stash and came up with this little beauty. I also love the fabric that she sent along and I can't wait to try out the recipes! You can see the mug rug that I sent to my partner in this post.

I'm slowly but surely working through all of the stuff I need to get done by the end of the semester and thank goodness it will all be over soon! And guess what? Alex gave me tickets to The Nutcracker as my gift for Hanukkah and I can't wait to go!

Sunday, November 28, 2010

Coming Up for Air...

I am soooo sick right now, but I didn't want you all to think that I'd forgotten about you! The past few weeks have been a flurry of paper writing and presentations; I'll be done this semester in about two weeks and I could not be happier about it! Unfortunately, right now was the worst time for me to get sick and I'm trying my best just to stay afloat!

How about a picture of what I made for my most recent swap?


I'm taking part in the Scrappy Mug Rug Swap on Flickr and this is the one that I made for my partner. What's a mug rug, you ask? A mug rug is basically a large coaster - it has enough room for both your mug and a little treat like a scone or cookie. I made mine using a combination of linen, Nicey Jane, Dolce, and four prints from three Heather Ross collections - West Hill, Mendocino, and Far Far Away 2. The back is a print from Joel Dewberry's Modern Meadow and the binding is from Kate Spain`s Verna collection. I also made my partner a coffee cozy and included some fun fabrics that I hope she'll like. I haven`t received my mug rug yet but I`ll show pics as soon as I do!

Okay I'm off, I think I may need to go to bed super-early again tonight (I fell asleep at 8:45 last night). I'm going to try my best to blog at least a few times before the end of the semester, but if you don't hear from me you'll know that I've been buried alive under a mountain of papers and notes - please come and save me!

Sunday, November 14, 2010

Some Stitchy Goodness...

There's been a little bit of stitching going on here lately - not as much as I'd like mind you since I'm getting near the end of this semester, but still, a teeny bit is better than nothing!

Here's what I've made lately...


This little mini was made for Amanda of msmcporkchopquilts fame. I embraced the blue and orange craze and used a little Flea Market Fancy and Nicey Jane paired with linen to create this paper-pieced starburst pattern.


The back is one piece of Kelp Forest in Blush from Heather Ross' Mendocino line. I can't remember what the solid is (I think it might be Marcus) but I absolutely love the buttery yellow colour!


Here's an in-progress pic of the hoop for my partner in the Scrappy {Hoops} Swap on Flickr. I decided to go "sketchy" with my hoop, and made it interactive so that the little owl peeks out when you open the door. Since this picture was taken I've added a little smoke coming out of the chimney and a little green around the base of the house. Once this is sent out and I receive my hoop in return, I'll show pictures of this one all finished!

I'm still working on my next Moda Bake Shop project so that's taking up most of my free stitching time, and I've been knitting up a storm too! I really need to figure out a good way of taking pictures of my knitted goods once they're done and, trust me, once I do there will be a whole lotta stuff to show you guys! Hope you're all having a lovely weekend; I need to get back to working on a paper, ack!

Friday, November 5, 2010

Header Revamped and the Giveaway Winners!

Thanks for everyone's comments on the changes I've made here on ye olde blog! There were quite a few comments from people saying that they didn't like the quilt in the new header I put up yesterday, and while I did feel a little sad that people didn't like the quilt (it's my favourite that I've designed), my original intention was to not have the quilt in there and to just have the wall extend out. Unfortunately my graphics skills were just not up to par for splicing in some more wall (the corner of the wall is where the original photo ends), and had thought the quilt would look nice and would give me a chance to display one of my favourites. Here's the header that was up yesterday:

The lovely Norma of Petit Design Co. stepped up though and offered to help me out with that little problem. I sent her the unedited image of the chair and quilts and Norma spliced and diced to create more wall for me to work with. Thanks Norma - you rock! So what do y'all think of the new header (look up, look waayyy up, and I'll call Rusty - hehe, you might need to be Canadian to get that one)? Better?

So I bet everyone wants to know who won the Happy Sew Lucky giveaway right? Well, let me remind you what the prizes were.


The winner of the babushka kit is: Jeni of In Color Order

And the winner of the Sweet Angel kit is: Sonia of Third Street Handcrafters

Okay ladies, send me an email and I'll mail off your winnings! Thanks again to Berene of Happy Sew Lucky for donating these awesome little kits! I'll be back soon with some new books I've received and a little craftiness; I hope you all have a lovely weekend!