I love it...With a little help from the blogosphere

I am a copycat. Let's just get that out there, right up front. I saw this post over at Crazy Mom Quilts (one of my favorite blogs), which led me to this post, which just inspired the hell out of me. It looks like a few people are loving this pattern right now. I guess I'm just not very original, but I don't really care. Amandajean from Crazy Mom Quilts is always such an inspiration to me! So I set to measuring and cutting and sewing and ironing...and came up with this:



which eventually became this:



and turned into this:



After repeating the cutting, sewing, ironing, sewing, ironing, sewing, trimming 36 times, I ended up with this:



And I am psyched. I managed to sew straight lines and iron well and be patient. And it turned out the way I imagined. YAY! It took me a while to figure out how to lay the squares so that they may the right pattern. I don't know what it is about my brain, but it can really screw me up sometimes when I am looking at things. Which is funny because I always think of myself as a visual learner. I think that things go one way, I do them and they are wrong, wrong, wrong. Case in point:



Notice the one on the left is backwards- the wide parts of the square are all in the center, instead of on the edges. And it seriously took me like 5 minutes to figure out what the hell I did wrong. Niiiiice.

Some of the details:
I used a charm pack of Mary Englebright Recipe for Friendship and 36 white on white 5 inch squares for the squares. I made a template using the internet (I can't for the life of me remember where I got the instructions or I'd link it here...but Amandajean over at Crazy Mom Quilts has some good info here ). I used the cardboard backing from a charm pack, drew a line down the middle then measured 1/4" inch above and 1/4" below that line. I drew a line from 1/4" mark to 1/4" mark and cut the thing in half. I then had 2 templates, one for the bottom and one for the top. I cut all those damn squares in half with the templates and ended up with 8 bajillion little wonky rectangles, which I sewed into the foundation squares. I just sewed them all at once, in a continuous chain thing (see the first picture). It was loooooong... I then matched them up with each other (same colors together) to make the windmills/whirlygigs. They definitely needed some trimming. By the time I trimmed them all up, I had squares that were about 8 inches. Some were smaller, some were bigger, but most were around 8 inches (I'm just not a perfectionist about this stuff...sorry). I pressed most of the seams open so that there wouldn't be a lot of bulk.

Anyway, now I want to quilt it, myself. I've recently secured a bolt of batting (sidenote: its fricking HUGE, 40 yards of batting is B.I.G.- I don't recommend this if you don't have the storage space. I had a brilliant idea to store it in a large plastic storage container- ahhh, NO...way too big) and I am planning on trying to machine quilt this one myself. I won't be doing any stippling or fancy stuff, just some straight lines. I am nervous because I love this top so much but I have to try sometime! I don't know when I will be brave enough to do this, but I'm sure gonna try...I'll make sure to post the results- disastrous or not!

Enjoy this lovely Sunday with someone you love!

Take a little action...just a click or two away

Greetings all...after a looooong absence that involved a trip to see mom and a Phil Lesch/Bob Weir show in SF, a family crisis and even more cold damn weather, I am back. Just wanted to drop in briefly and alert folks to some kind of disturbing info I just discovered...Thanks to Amy over at Angry Chicken, I learned about the following:

Check out the Handmade Toy Alliance website.

In a nutshell- the Consumer Product Saftey Improvement Act (CPSIA) was enacted in August of 2008 in response to the dangerous products that were discovered coming out of China and other countries and being sold here. High levels of lead and other hazardous materials were found in many products and an alarm was sounded. Unfortunately, the CPSIA will also impact small, home made products that folks make and sell to earn extra money. It is not possible for most crafters to afford the testing that the CPSIA will require for their handmade toys.

Let's remember that the most important thing that parents can do to ensure that they are protecting their children is to be INVOLVED in their lives. Common sense shouldn't need to be legislated.

And, finally, just some pictures of my dogs, cause I love them and they make me smile...


Go out and have a sparkly day!

OMG Its CoLd!

Its cold. Not like cold that my mom is experiencing in Northern California (ohhh...46 degrees, not that!). When I told my mom how cold it was here yesterday (12 below) her response was "Farenheit????" No, mom, KELVIN! Of course farenheit! Its unbearable...Its stay-in-the-house, hide-under-a-pile-of-blankets, cold. Its dry, bite-you-in-the-face cold. This morning, I looked at the thermometer on our porch and it looked like this:

I am from New England. I am used to cold. But not this cold. Its ridiculous. I've lived in Wisconsin for about 15 years and it DOESN'T GET EASIER! I am done with Wisconsin. I am done with this kind of cold. Done. It seems that every year, I get bummed out by the cold earlier and earlier.

And it keeps snowing! Damn weather pattern, mother nature, whatever. We have snow coming out of our ears...


Its only December. Yesterday was the first day of Winter. What is going on here?

Stay warm and go on out to enjoy the day!

I got an award..whoohoo!

That means that someone, at least one someone, has actually read my blog. That's encouraging in and of itself. The lovely and hysterically funny Megan from the Bitchy Stitcher (such a great blog name!) has tagged me as a kreativ blogger and now I am to tag 5 folks. Thanks for the encouragement Megan! I am trying to stay in the blogging game (and the sewing one, for that matter).

So, who to tag? I follow A LOT of blogs. I love to read about other folks' projects and struggles and joys and...okay, basically I am a virtual voyeur. Sick but true.

The first person I choose is Ms. Melissa over at YummyGoods. She is such an inspiration to me and I covet her fabric designs and her store. So, here's to you Melissa!

Secondly, but hardly second, is AmandaJean over at Crazy Mom Quilts. Her blog is funny and colorful and I am amazed at her prolific sewing skills. So, Yay! AmandaJean.

Then there's Dorothy the Vermont Quilter. I stumbled across the blog looking for stuff about quilting but stayed because of her outspoken and excellently thought out entry about Christmas. Now I check it daily for some kindred spirit.

Two more, huh? Its hard to choose...

Oh, oh, oh! There's John over at Quilt Dad. Another prolific sewer. Where do these folks find the time? And his stuff is great! I am jealous of his ability to line up his squares and to sew a straight line ( I really struggle with the damn straight lines...) Cheers John!

And finally, there is Rachel over at Diary of a Mad, Mad Housewife. She is crazy. Good crazy. Great crazy. Laugh-out-loud-at-my-desk-when-I-should-be-working-crazy. And can that girl KNIT! I have tried to knit many, many times and am so profoundly bad at it. But I love knitted things, and my best-best-best friend owns a yarn shop... Its heart breaking. So here's to you, Rachel.

So there are my picks for the kreativ bloggers...Now go out into the world and tag 5 others. That reminds me of the commercial for some shampoo that was on when I was a kid..."and she'll tell 2 friends, and they'll tell 2 friends, and so on, and so on, and so on..."

Go out there and have a day!

Wordless Wednesday...

**Homemade Holiday**

I am a novice sewer/quilter. I love to create quilts but haven't yet achieved the level of sewing excellence that I would like to have...My nine patches are still a little wonky and my triangle squares are just a little off. But I still decided to make some gifts this year. First up, a small quilt that is about 16" x 16" to use as a table topper. I used a Mary Engelbright charm pack to create the squares and I bound it like a regular quilt. I really like the results...I think it turned out okay:

This is the front.


This is the back.
So, I don't think its too bad. And my co-worker seemed to really like it.

The other thing I tried was to just trim out some flour sack towels. I used a Moda Merry & Bright charm pack to do this. Then I made a couple of little trivets to match. I love the Moda Merry & Bright fabric...its just so cheerful. I am pretty proud of these items. And my other co-worker seemed to like them, too!





So, slowly but surely, I am moving toward my goal of becoming a more-than-competent seamstress.

Frustrated...But there's a link somewhere in here!

I have been trying to post a link to a sweet giveaway over at Sheri Howard Designs and i can't get the link right...AAAAARRRRGGGHHH! Anyway, I will figure it out. But until then- check it out by copying and pasting:
http://sherimhoward.blogspot.com/. Sorry about the old school (non-tech) info...but check out her blog, its a decent read.
Okay, let's try again- Sheri Howard Design

OMG!!! I think it worked...check it out. The giveaway ends Decemeber 20th.