January Blue Scraps Sum Up

As I said in my last post, with the Dresden plate, I ended up making more blue scraps than I started with!

But that's okay... because I got a lot of use out of my blue scraps, with this and the mug rug I made.

I would take a picture of the scraps I have left, but I am back at school

:( Boo.

Next month is red, yay! That means when I'm home again, probably in two weeks, I'll be making another Dresden plate for the wedding quilt!

I'm linking up to Fabric Tuesday over at Quiltstory for the first time! I love reading their blog and know I will be linking up more as I sew more frequently in the future (aka especially spring break and the summertime!)

...I'm so ready for February :) Although, I still need to find a small Valentine's Day gift for the fiance... any suggestions? Men are so difficult to buy gifts for! I COULD make him something... hm... now I actually have an idea but I won't post it here because he might see. I'm still taking suggestions!

Scrappy Saturday!

I got to play with fabric today :) I am more than thrilled. Being at school is like torture sometimes. Even though it can be frustrating, sewing and anything related to it relaxes me.

I decided to start on our wedding quilt, for October 2012. I also definitively decided it's going to be 12 dresden plates on a white background, each one a different color (and one for each month of the year, and of the scrap challenge :)).

The sad truth is, because I'm still building my stash, I don't have many big scraps. Which means I had to cut into other FQs and the like. But, I'm really glad because it will make the quilt even prettier if I get to use some of my favorite fabrics!

I used some of my winnings from Red Pepper Quilts - Soul Blossoms:

The ironic part was that cutting out of non-scraps made more scraps. But that's okay.

And for the color "blue" this month, made this (no pressing or sewing yet):

The two guitar pieces are in there just for my fiance. I snuck them in and actually think they go really well.

I'm really excited for this quilt.

I also finally hung up my mom's scrappy wall hanging over the oven:

What did you make today?

And the WINNER of my first bloggy giveaway is...

First, I just want to thank everyone again for all of the sweet comments. And everyone who is following - an extra thank you to you! Please let me know if you have any suggestions for my blog and/or want to see something. I have a few ideas I"m working on, which I'll be sharing soon!

Also, I have five, yes, five, giveaways to share with you today.

Over at SewCalGirl, there's an Accuquilt GO! and dies up for grabs. To enter you only need to comment, but there are several other ways to win.

Canton Village Quilt Works is giving away 2 lines of fabric from Art Gallery!

Margaret at the Average Quilter is having a Groundhog's Day giveaway for $25 at Inchworm Fabrics!

Country Cabin Thoughts and Crafts is giving away a huge crafty package you don't want to miss for its first blogaversary!

And finally, last but not least, Carolyn at the Vegetarian Hunter is giving away a whole bunch of beautiful fabrics with a sewing theme!

********************

Okay, okay. So to pick the winner, we put everyone in a hat (all 132 entries, including the double entries for those who blogged!), and since I'm home, my favorite and only little sister picked the winner out of a hat...

And the winner is COLLEEN!

11

Colleen said...

I like scraps of Amy Butler and Heather Ross . Ive been using them to make scrappy blocks with fussy cuts.

Congrats! I'll be sending that envelope along tomorrow with the Origins charm pack and scraps! :)

Thanks for entering, everyone! I'll be having another giveaway in good time!

End of January Updates

Only four more days, including today, to enter my giveaway! I have a very special guest who will be picking the name randomly...

I'll be home this weekend! I'll hopefully get to my pile of blue scraps... waiting to be cut into dresdens... we shall see. I'll be home for a very short time.

Also, I'm starting a new weekly post very soon :)

And check out this great giveaway over at Jen's blog, The Quilty Home: 2 charm packs of Hoopla! Oh, how I love precuts! And Jen is so sweet, you should have seen the emails she's sent me! Go enter the giveaway now :)

Quilty Habit #2

Looking for my giveaway? CLICK HERE :) Random drawing is next Friday!

Here's something I realized I do when I'm sewing...

I'm a pack rat. Not the scary hoarding kind, but I still have trouble parting with things. One reason I am not necessarily looking towards this summer is because I have to clean out my room to get ready to move out. That should be... fun? I guess I am looking forward to finding things I have been looking for - my room is what I like to call "organized chaos."

Well, the other day, I suddenly realized that I am a sort of a pack rat with my fabric and batting, too. I save EVERYTHING and get slightly sad when scraps are just too small to use. Like this:

What am I going to do with that? Haha! This is not necessarily a negative thing, but it's kind of funny that I JUST realized that I save things like this...

Do you have a quilty habit - something positive or maybe negative that you tend to do while you're sewing or quilting? 'Fess up!

------------*Giveaways*----------

I read a lot of blogs. Sharing giveaways with my wonderful readers is the least I can do!

Karrie Lyne is giving away several different packages of Kate Spain's Fandango line to celebrate her one year blogaversary!

Over at Adventures in Dressmaking, there is a $50 Fat Quarter Shop gift certificate up for grabs. God knows we all could put that to good use!

Over at Stray Stitches, Linda (who recently so kindly blogged about my giveaway!) is celebrating 400+ followers with a TON of fabric!

Lila Tueller is giving away a grand prize - a fat quarter bundle of her new fabric, Isabella, and there are first prizes, too! Go check it out!

A "hello" to my new followers :)

Looking for my giveaway? CLICK HERE :)

Wow, I'm just overwhelmed by the responses I've received for the giveaway so far! Thank you for all of your sweet comments (I'm going to try to get back to as many of you as I can), and to all my new followers, thank you!! I hope I don't let you down - now, the pressure is on to be witty, creative, and interesting... *gulp* I'll try. I'll really, really try! And I hope you'll stick around even after the giveaway is over :)

Just to introduce myself to those who are new readers, I'm currently a junior undergraduate student at a New Jersey university, and I can't wait to be a middle school or high school social studies (or history) teacher (if I get a job - I'll be in the real world NEXT FALL!) That's really scary, I won't lie. But I can't wait.

I'm also engaged to my favorite person on the planet (besides my little sister!) and we are getting married in fall 2012. There's lots more I could write about this, but I don't want to bore you! =P So, this summer, I'll be starting to make some wedding things, like my veil and a big wedding quilt (still deciding on a final design, but it's probably going to be Dresden plates). I really like the "family tree" quilts I've seen, and I'm very excited about everything!

I also have some teacher quilts planned for me (making something for myself? Unthinkable!) and my friends who will also be graduating from education programs next year. The fabric is bought already!

Something you might not know about me - my historical interests are 1900-1950, the Holocaust, and other genocides. Also, you can read the things I wrote in my sidebar.

A little about my quilting and sewing interests. I started last June to make a T-shirt quilt (see this post) - I've improved a lot since then, and I'm going to try my hand at another t-shirt quilt this summer. My favorite color is purple, and I am currently hoarding my purple fabrics. It took a lot of willpower to cut into them, but I did it with the clutch at the end of this post. I LOVE dots, but I don't have a huge stash of them yet. I also spent a LOT of money on fabric last year (didn't we all? haha) and am doing the Cut to Pieces Fabric Diet, and soscrappy's Rainbow Scrap Challenge (see sidebar).

So, I come home from school about twice a month for one or two days, and most times I don't have a chance to sew because I am home for a specific reason. I don't have room in my tiny, cramped single to bring my sewing machine, let alone cut or lay out fabric, and I have yet to teach myself how to hand sew adequately! Also, with 3 classes, an independent study for my senior honors thesis, an internship in NYC, and 2 on-campus jobs, I'm pretty busy.

So, my blog for the next four months is going to be "quilty habits" (you can see the first one here) talking about past quilts I've made that I haven't posted, future plans, and giveaways. Is there anything you would like to see on my blog?

I have a quilty habit post coming up this week, so stay tuned for that.

Have a great day!

My First Bloggy Giveaway!

Edit: This giveaway is closed. Thanks to everyone who entered!

But before that...

To echo another blogger who I read regularly (I'm sorry, I don't remember who, I read a lot of blogs!) it's been like Christmas around here still. I keep receiving packages in the mail! Here's what I've received in the last couple of weeks:

2 charm packs of "Make Life" from Becky (one already opened!)

Handmade Christmas tree buttons and a gorgeous pin from Ms. Muffin.

And last night, I found out I won a FQ bundle of Soul Blossoms from Red Pepper Quilts andFresh Squeezed Fabrics! My biggest win - and there were 1,251 entries... I can't believe it.

Okay, I'm done bragging! =P

So, I feel like I need to give back to the blogging community and the followers I appreciate so much. Thank you all for your generous comments.

I'm starting off small, but I think you will still like the prize... and I plan on having another giveaway soon :)

The giveaway:

The prize is a lovely "Origins" charm pack! And I may stuff some scraps in that envelope... you never know...

TO WIN:

1) Leave a comment telling me what kind of scraps you would like if you won (color and/or design, and if I have it, I'll send it along!). That's it! Make sure if you are no-reply, you leave your email address.

2) For one extra entry, become a follower (if you already are, thank you and that's fantastic!), and leave a separate comment saying so.

3) For TWO extra entries, blog about this giveaway, leave a separate comment saying so, and leave the link to your post in the comment.

The winner will be drawn sometime next Friday, January 28 at random.

Good luck! And thanks for being a great blogging community :)

Scrappy Saturday and Finished Harry Potter Mug Rugs

I finished my blue mug rug! It's going to someone very special - hopefully they don't read this within the next two days!

I made the back with this friend more in mind than the front. I discovered I really like making a mug rugs with a different back and front. Because they are reversible, it's like discovering... a whole new mug rug!

Putting the scrappy pieces on the front together was difficult (without almost sewing my fingers), so next time I think I would make them a little bigger.

I also made a scrappy binding (using those evil little blue scraps!). I'm still getting used to attaching binding, and with a machine, at that, so it's still a little bit sloppy. With more practice, I'll get better. I'm not too worried :)

Pictures of the finished Harry Potter mug rugs, stippling, binding, and all, for an auction in the Harry Potter club at college (they went for $8 each!):

This is for a Gryffindor. You can see the quilting better on the back:

And this is for a Slytherin (that's a potion on the left). All of my own designs/ideas.

Ssssss... My favorite character is Snape. I, however, have been sorted as a Hufflepuff.

Stay tuned for my first bloggy giveaway in the next couple of days!

Giveaway Alert

Over at Lucy and Norman, Megan is giving away a TON of fabric to make a "Dream on" quilt - start crossing your fingers now! I love Dream on... you can enter here:

http://lucyandnorman.blogspot.com/2011/01/dream-on-giveaway.html

Back to the Daily Grind!

Well, not exactly - I'm not back at college yet. But I'm back from my week of internship training in NYC, which was an experience of its own - living in a hotel free of charge (for me), and almost all meals paid for! Also made some friends and learned a lot. Soon I'll be actually teaching students :) But anyway, I have a ton of things to do this week and one of them is finishing 4, yes, 4, mug rugs (including the Harry Potter mug rugs). Plus anything else I can manage to get done - the list of WIPs and planned projects goes on and on and on...

Today, my hands were FREEZING as I was cutting fabric. My sister suggested that I put on my quilting gloves (instead of using her sweatshirt as a warmer) - and even though it was a little clumsy, it worked! Why didn't I think of that?

I couldn't do a Scrappy Saturday this week, but I pulled out scraps for dresdens. Hopefully I'll get to that this weekend, before I leave on Monday. I'm going to try in between packing and all of the busy things that come with getting back into a routine...

More pictures soon (and more process explaining)! Til next time,

Scrappy Saturday and Two Finishes

In honor of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge over at soscrappy, I went through my scrap box to find scraps for this month's color: blue (how many times can you say the word "scrap" in one sentence?!")

Right now, I decided to finish a mug rug that I had just put aside a few months ago - which is super scrappy and slightly wonky.

I am quite busy today with preparations to leave for NYC for a week for internship training, so I did not get to quilt it or bind it, but I DID pin it together. I think I get an A for effort :) Haha. But in all seriousness, I plan on finishing it when I get back next week.

For all of my scraps, I'm thinking of starting a rainbow dresden quilt. When I have a chance, that is. I think I might even make it our wedding quilt (well, the front - for the guest book, our guests are going to write on pieces of fabric, which I plan to put on the back).

I think I'm going to start putting my bigger scraps aside to save for that, and make smaller projects for this challenge. I wish I could be with my sewing machine every day, but college calls - in two weeks... I'm not sure how I feel about that right now. And it's not just because I can't sew yet again =P

As I said before, I'm leaving tomorrow for a week, so before I left, I made the effort to finish these two important projects.

The first is the baby quilt, for a girl, that I've been mentioning. Updated: better pictures!

Fairies! Some Dream On charms! And my first quilt with stippling!

Back - slightly see through, but stipply and pink.

I can't wait to go over and give it to our neighbors! I had to fix the binding a couple of times, but this was only my second time binding ever, and with the machine... so I'm okay with it :) I learned to use lots and lots of pins.

Then, remember that gathered clutch I mentioned the other day? Well, I finished it, by following the very popular tutorial by Noodlehead. This project has been on my "must do" list for a while, and since I'm going to NYC, this was the perfect time to do it. So, slightly in a rush, this is what I came out with (sorry for the dark photos):

Silly me - Before I sewed the whole thing together, I realized I still had a piece of Heat n Bond laying there, so I sewed it to the back of the external layer. Later I realized that I'm pretty sure it was meant for the divider in the middle of the clutch. Oh well :) Something to fix next time.

Anyway, the tutorial was very easy to follow, except for the part about covering the zippers. It took me a little while to figure that out completely, but I got there. And I'm really fine with the front stripe being a little lopsided - oops - but I think it gives it charm :) And I don't even want to fix it.

Also, I added the little hand band (is that a word)? I measured my wrist and sewed the band there, so it won't fall off. The credit card slots also came out perfect.

Altogether, I really can't wait to make this clutch again. The possibilities for color and fabric are endless... but you know how much I love purple, right? :) So it HAD to be purple and flowery. And it was complete with some of those eggs from "It's a Hoot" - and the "hand band" is from that line too, actually.

So that's my progress for the weekend. What did you accomplish?

Three Giveaway Alerts!

Since my last post, I discovered three giveaways you may want to know about - and the goods are drool-worthy! Okay, that's kind of gross, but you know what I mean:

Over at Green Fairy Quilts, Judi is giving away a luscious jelly roll and layer cake of Dilly Dally! How can you say no to a fabric giveaway, really? Hop on over here to enter.

SewCalGirl is giving away TONS of patterns (okay more like ten, and a grand prize which includes three patterns and a really nifty-looking and useful-looking ruler here!

And finally, last but not least, the always generous Leona (who sends birthday gifts to her followers - mine is in the mail, yay!!), is giving away a pillow kit, a table topper pattern, and eleven pink fat quarters to one lucky winner! You can enter here!

And now, I need to go to bed - to start 2011 well-rested :)