Swaps, swaps, swaps

There are some more goodies in the house. Check out my new clutch sent to me from MichelleSews through the gathered clutch swap. Isn't it awesome? She did such a great job on it. I love it, thank-you Michelle.


I'm participating in two more swaps at the moment. First: the urban-home goods swap round 2. I'm hard at work on my projects for my secret partner. No sneak peaks on that yet, but it does involve lots of little squares, again. Not sure how it happens, but it seems all my swap projects involve little squares. Yeah. Here's my inspiration mosaic for my partner.

It will be fun to see what evolves.

Next up is the SavVy Seasons swap. Here's my inspiration mosaic for that Swap. Partners haven't yet been given out.

I chose Halloween for my season. I think Halloween might be my favorite holiday. Even if it is only a one day event, I love decorating the house for halloween. Before the kids were born, we used to have huge halloween parties that took me a month to plan and prep for. Nowadays, life is too busy for big parties, but we still love to decorate, plan costumes, carve pumpkins and visit the pumpkin patch.

Happy Sewing!

Stash enhancement alleviation program

A simple 8 step approach to preventing more fabric from entering your house, garage, storage shed or wherever else you hide it.

Step 1: Do not visit a fabric store

Step 2: Do not take your wallet

Step 3: Donate all your assets to charity (oh who are we kidding, you'll probably take a job at the fabric store and work for fabric).

Step 4: Throw away your sewing machine (or donate to a good cause)

Step 5: If you bypass step 1, take your hubby along. While this might not completely alleviate your acquisition of more fabric, it will likely put a damper on the quantity you take home with you. Note ~ If you happen to have a super supportive hubby who lets you buy fabric like there is no tomorrow, skip to step 6

Step 6: Waste some of your shopping time reading this - no really!

Step 7: Realize that reading step 6 only made you feel more justified in visiting a fabric shop

Step 8: If all else fails, enroll in a 12-step program.

Hexie Redux ~ Take 2

Some history ~ I've been planning a trip to visit my parents and I wanted to bring along a little something for them to have in their home. I have not seen my mother since I began quilting at the start of the year, and seeing as she lives 3000 miles away, I thought that a quilt would be appropriate. My Mom is the driving force behind my sewing skills ~ were it not for her I would not be here today to blog about my sewing adventures. She is the most amazinging sewist ever! But, she doesn't quilt, so this one's for you Mom!

I chose this fabric (Martinique from Moda) ~ primarily because the colors are perfect for my parents home and include both my Mom and Dad's favorite colors. I think it will look lovely in their living room.


Originally, hexies were not part of this quilt plan at all. I wanted to use these pretty traditional quilt fabrics in a very modern way. I had been looking at simple shapes - squares outlined simply in a narrow solid frame and quilted in a modern parallel lines approach. Then a bolt of inspiration hit me (as they sometimes do) - why not add a spray of hexies to the squares just to mix it up a bit? I like to mix things up a lot actually, in case you haven't noticed. So there you have it, the idea behind the final design. Here's my sketch-up if you are interested in quilt process.

I used hexies of various sizes to lend a feel of movement to the design. I think the redux is perfect and modern and I am very happy with the end result.

I have also been converted into the quilt label camp ~ this newest quilt is the first to feature the Trillium label which I had printed over at Spoonflower.

After being a Spoonflower member since the earliest Beta days, I'm glad to have finally taken the plunge in printing my own fabric. Thanks to Julie (jaybird quilts) for some instructional info on how to get a quilt label ready for printing. The Spoonflower FAQ was very helpful in this regard as well.

The back ~

I hope Mom and Dad like this quilt as much as I do because they will be receiving it very soon.....

And with that, I should point out and the kids and I are now on vacation. We will be visiting Toronto for a week, so I'll be off blogland for awhile. See you in another week!

Happy Sewing!

The really Big Ass Bag!

I'm wrapping up things around here, getting ready to go on vacation in a few days. We're flying, and taking my laptop and I needed a bag that both fit the laptop and a few other things and was secure, because I don't want my items rolling around on the plane floor. So this is what I came up with ~ A really Big Ass Bag, henceforth known as the Cycle Around Bag.



I have made messenger bags before, but this one is really huge. Doesn't help that my laptop is a wide screen, hence the larger sized bag. But this also needs to hold a book or two, passports, tickets, snacks, a sweater, DVDs for the kids, etc etc etc. So there you have it.



And a few accessory pouches for random other things.


The bicycle fabric in this bag is an Echino print. I thought the bikes were perfect for a messenger bag, plus I love biking anyway. The lining is Park Slope fabric which coordinates pretty well. The bag also has a divider pocket to keep the laptop in place. Test run coming up in a few days!

Just so you know, Hubby is staying home, he has to work, poor guy and take care of the pup.


In the meantime, happy sewing!

Quilting outside the box

This quilt is for my son - he's an outside the box kind of kid. He loves to build things. He'll build anything, out of any material. I'm not really sure if his brain ever stops building even when he's sleeping. If all he has is dirt and sticks, he'll build with that. Give him some legos and he'll build the most amazing creations. Lately he's been building transformers out of legos. Creations that fully transform from one visible entity to another - it's amazing to me that his young brain can even dream up these things, let alone bring them to life. He's an awesome kid.



He rarely benefits from my sewing skills, there just aren't a lot of things a fabric lovin' mom can make for an 11 year old boy. But when I started quilting, he added his name to the waiting list. Well wait no more kid, here is your outside the box quilt.

This quilt follows the pattern from Modern Quilt Workshop.


I used an assortment of guy-ish fabrics in his favorite color, blue. I'm pretty happy with the result and so is he!

The back ~


The dog likes it to!


and this guy,


Can you spot the mistake in this quilt? I set all the blocks in sideways in the long view. Ooops, oh well, it's a lap quilt and we'll just call that part, charm.

Now on to finish the other 2 quilts I have on my sewing table.

Happy Sewing!

IKEA score

Yesterday we trekked up to Portland to take my daughter to OMSI camp for the week. The lucky girl gets to canoe off the San Juan's and spot Orca's. Yes it's a tough life when you are 8. Meanwhile, the rest of her family, that's us, decided to make a trip to IKEA. I convinced hubby we needed barstools (we do) and I figured we should head on over there and check out the fabric offerings, well, among other things, that may have been my modis operandi.

I managed to score some really awesome large scale prints in grey tones which will be perfect as new tablecloths for the kitchen. These prints are right up my alley - really modern, which I LOVE. These are REALLY large scale, those top flowers are about 24" across. These prints will be great for the kitchen table.



And did you know, that you can get really cheap down/feather pillow inserts at IKEA? Well, I didn't but I was sure glad to find that out since I have a multitude of pillow outsides here that need stuffing. So as a result, I managed to finish and stuff my fade to blue pillow, which was originally slated for PTS3 until I decided it wasn't up to snuff enough for that swap.



So now we have another new pillow in our living room. Still have a few to make, but this is a nice start. Also the new pillow inserts should solve the pillow lumpies - you know when your family members leave the pillow wedged between the sofa and the sofa cushion and this, somehow over time, results in a lumpy pillow indeed? At least the feather ones are re-fluffable.



And lastly, my trip to Portland would not be complete without a visit to Bolt. It was my first trip to the 'famed' fabric shop in Portland's Art district. I did enjoy seeing the organic and japanese fabrics in person. However, I came away empty handed, which has to be a first for me, and I'm not sure but it might be because hubby was along. He thinks we have enough fabric in our house - silly!

Happy Sewing!

And the winner is....

Ms Ritz Young, of Glitsie Ritsie boutique! You have won your own copy of the Fat Quarterly, Issue 2. Please contact me directly at cascadeskids at gmail dot com so I can get you set up with your free issue. Congrats Ritz! And big thank-yous to everyone who participated in the giveaway.

Now for a little peek at the pouch I made for my hexie swap partner



I hope you like it partner! It's off in the mail tomorrow along with a stack of hexies.

Happy Sewing Everyone!