Monday, February 28, 2011

Bluebird Day


About a month or so ago, I joined in on the Single Girl support group (quilt-along). I've always loved Denyse's single girl quilt style and wanted to sew along. I haven't had much of a chance to blog about it up until now so I give you the finished product.

The Bluebird Day Single Girl Quilt.

Bluebird day Single Girl
In skiing or snowboarding, a Bluebird Day is a perfect day, gorgeous sunlight and clear blue skies. If this happens right after a snowfall, it's a bluebird day! That's where this Single Girl Quilt got it's name.

Imagine the blue color of a deep fresh snowbank or the clear glint of the sunlight sparkling through an icicle, that's what I wanted the colors of the quilt to evoke. A perfect day, lots of snow, the hush of the snow between the trees and a little bit of silver sparkle. I used Kona Ash as my background.
Bluebird day Single Girl

After much debate and even a trial run of hand-quilting, I decided to machine quilt it. Hand-quilting was just taking too long and it wasn't really looking the way I wanted it to. So after hand-quilting a few rings, I decided to pull out those stitches and head to the machine. I transferred the quilting lines using a series of plastic templates that I made tracing along the quilting lines from the pattern. It's not perfect, but it'll do.
Bluebird day Single Girl

The Back utilized one of my most fav fabrics ever - this blue chair print from Laurie Wisbrun. Her chair fabrics were the inspirational jumping off point for this quilt. I knew I had to use this print somehow... it has that perfect blue bird shade...
Bluebird day Single Girl back
Isn't this chair fabric perfect?! I love it!

Unlike this quilts namesake, today's weather has been far from perfect. It's been raining buckets and I don't anticipate a break anytime soon. Witness my back patio, that's a lot of water for us when the pond overflows - even in Oregon.
If you're interested, this quilt along is still going on. Katy, Megan and Nova have put together step by step blogposts which are very helpful if you need guidance. They are sweet gals too so go check out their blogs even if you aren't doing the quilt-along.

I've been a bit of a keener on this one and finished up early which is amazing considering how little sewing time I've had in the past month. The Single Girl goes together very quickly and is really super fun once you get going.

Meanwhile, the shoppe destash is still underway. Thanks to many of you, together we've raised over $100 for the American Cancer society. Way to go! I plan to keep the destash up and running until most of it is gone. In the next few weeks I'll be listing lots of knit fabrics for those of you who are interested in sewing with knits, this is your chance! Please keep checking back.

Happy Sewing!

Thursday, February 24, 2011

Fabric Anyone?


Things have come to a head around here. There is no more room in my house and so I simply must get rid of some of my fabric. I'm running a Major, and I mean MAJOR shoppe destash at the moment. It's taken me most of a week just to list everything I need to purge. Please help me out! Go visit my etsy shoppe and see if there is anything that you need/want. I have listed lots of out-of-print and hard-to-find items, so grab yourself some deals and score some goodies.

Click here to go directly to the shoppe or use the etsy link in my sidebar.

As a bonus, I'm donating 25% of all the proceeds to the American Cancer Society. Why not help out a good cause and feed your fabric stash at the same time?

Happy Sewing!



Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Urban Groceries




Whew! Well it’s been a while hasn’t it? February has just flown by for me and I haven’t even had a chance to post about any of it! So let me catch you up a little bit.

I’ve been working on a few different things. A nice long President’s day at home alone meant I finally got to sandwich a couple of quilts – one of which has been waiting since July for that task. I have to take over the entire kitchen floor when I do that, so it’s best to wait until the house is empty of potentially hungry mouths to feed.

That done, I moved onto the Single Girl Quilt along aka Single Girl Support Group which I joined at the start of the month. But more on that later…

I also finished up my grocery tote for the Urban Home Goods Swap round 3 (I think).

My partner was a little harder to get a handle on this time, so I hope they like this item. My motto ~ Just because you are carrying groceries doesn’t mean you can’t do it in style, right?!

I present to you the Urban Grocery tote.


It has all the capacity of this ugly little number that lives in the trunk of my car


Attractive? Not so much. The new tote has way more style and function. I’ve added a little zip pouch on the side for a cell phone or a wallet.

The scarf around the top also serves to cinch in the tote in the event that you might want to use it to tote around something more precious than just your groceries or you need a little less capacity.

It’s made of natural and brown linen and appliquéd with leaves/petals following loosely on Elizabeth Hartman’s Little Leaves pattern from A Practical Guide to Patchwork.

I hope my partner is pleased with it. It needs to leave my house soon because my other grocery bags are starting to develop an inferiority complex. Ha!


Happy Sewing!

Monday, February 7, 2011

...and the lucky winner's are...

True Random Number Generator Result: 86
Blogger Nellie put the kettle on said...

congrats on 3 years of blogging and to think I only started this January! Anyhow, just lovin it!

February 5, 2011 5:52 PM


True Random Number Generator Result: 13
Heather A said...

Congratulations on three years to sharing your talent and enthusiasm with the world! I, for one among many, are grateful. Thanks!


True Random Number Generator Result: 8

Creative Mom said...

Congratulations! I've loved reading your blog!


Congratulations ladies! I will be emailing you shortly.

Thanks to everyone for participating in the giveaway and helping me celebrate the blogiversary. I really enjoyed reading all your comments!

Happy Sewing!

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Here's to three!


It’s party time!!

I’ve been promising you a little blog-celebration and the time is now!! As of January, this blog turned 3 years old! Hard to believe! I have been blogging about sewing and such for that long! And even harder to believe, you guys have been reading for that long! Hmm maybe I do have something useful to say after all. But this would not be without my faithful readers who steadily continue to grow in numbers!! So go ahead and give yourself a round of applause.!! Wooohoo!! To all of you I say thank-you!

Ok so now it’s time to par-tay!!! What better way than with a little free stuff!!

I’m giving away a few little goodies from my stash to some lucky winners.

I have on hand and just in time for Valentines Day, these beautiful fabrics.

First up we have some hugs and kisses from Deb Strain and a few matching hearts all pretty in pink!

Then a little more love from Patty Young's Andalucia line which happens to be an all-time favorite of mine. Here's a little set of Fat quarters of almost the whole line in the fire colorway.

Finally the some more fat quarters from Patty Young's Mezzanine line!


How cool is that? Lots of fabric love! Just comment here to win.

Three winners will be picked at random and announced on February 7th. Contest is open to anyone and everyone no matter what country you chose to call home!! Good luck!

Thank-you for reading and Happy Sewing to each and every one of you!!