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!