Welcome to our Newest Sponsor - NicoleAnne's!

*the giveaway is now closed*

Yippee!  We have a new sponsor around here folks, a lovely little fabric shop named NicoleAnne's.  And that means that we have a giveaway!!

Fabric, Fashion, and Fun.  The majority of Becky's inventory is Michael Miller and Moda, and she tends to lean toward fun, bright colorful collections.  Many of the fabrics she carries are suitable for children’s clothing in addition to quilts.  


Some of the fun fabrics you might find over there could be...

(I'm laughing at myself for picking out these particular fabrics because I don't own any of them and wish I did!)

Coming soon will be the Vintage Modern Collection by Bonnie and Camille for Moda.


Becky from NicoleAnne's is offering a quilt kit valued at $52.00.  Double Pinwheel complete with Gypsy Bandana fabrics from Michael Miller.  It includes all fabrics for the front, backing and binding.  Size is 39” square.


So that is actually double fun when you think about it because you get not only the fabric but also a pattern!  Use them together or separately!

So head on over to NicoleAnne's and check out the shop!  Come back here and leave a comment on your favorite item you found there!  

For a second chance, go ahead and sign up for her email newsletter!

That's it!  Good luck!

Project UFO - what you've been making: April's edition

Oh I can't keep up! I've been working on that tutorial I promised you all on how to write a tutorial. I've been unpacking and moderately helping my husband finish up our house (we finally have a functioning kitchen!!). And this morning my daughter decided that she needed to potty train. Um...no...not with moving boxes everywhere. Give me another month!



So, instead I give you the beautiful works of others. Over on Flickr in my Project UFO group, everyone has been faithfully working away, making far more progress than I!

Oh goodness. So much good stuff happening. And that's just a bit of the fabulous things happening.  The little part of me that loves checking off things on a list is so pleased to see so many people checking projects off of their to do lists! lol I'm just living vicariously through everyone.


Once again, if you ever want to join us or need some support to finish up that unfinished project, hop on over to Project UFO. We're all working and we'll be there for a while. Some of us have a LOT of projects to do. ;) You know who you are!

Sew Mama Sew - Fat Quarter Idol - Round 1

I don't know if you all follow the Sew Mama Sew blog...it's hard to keep up with everyone! But they have a new challenge going on called The Fat Quarter Idol. And in the spirit of many competitions these days, they are having you choose from their fabrics and put together a "collection" based on a particular theme. And then you make a pinterest board for your choices.


Each round, a new winner is chosen from popular vote after the judges have pulled a top 10 from the entries. Their collection will be sold in the Sew Mama Sew shop as a bundle and the designer is given a fat quarter bundle of their winning design.


Well this was a no brainer to play along for me because they are using two of my favorite past times...looking at fabric and playing on pinterest. So I pulled together my fabrics based off of Round 1's theme, Sweet Child of Mine. And I think because I have a little girl, I wanted to make a collection more for little boys....or at least boy friendly.


You can see my collection HERE.


And to my shock, a friend just pointed out that I made the top ten...and public voting is open. So head on over and vote. Please don't feel the need to vote for me! This is all good fun and I love playing with fabric. ;)


Oh and I believe Round 2 has just begun...so you guys should have some fun and put together a pinterest collection for that. Maybe next week I'll get to vote for one of YOU!

Trying to Keep Up

Okay guys...I'm just trying to stay on top of things here.

I had to go find my local comic book store because I needed more comic book boards for my fabric.  My story is that I'm wrapping more fabric around those than I had previously and NOT that I've acquired too much fabric.  That's definitely the story I'm telling my husband.  And he's reading this, so he knows. ;)


Headway is being made on unpacking the sewing room but I kind of want to have it all set up and pretty before I do a grand reveal.  So that may be another week.  But threads are in place and books are on shelves...and I even, or rather my husband, unpacked the new sewing machine!






And you'll probably think I'm funny but I haven't even tried to use it yet.  I just don't have the mental energy to tackle learning a new machine yet with all of the other unpacking to do.  But I'll be sure to let you all know what I think of it!



Oh and Bianca asked me to be a judge for her Patchwork Prism Quilt Along that I blogged about earlier.  Remember, you could win that lovely sewing machine!!

And she posted that lovely discount code for the Fat Quarter Shop!  You can get 20% off  just use the code: AnnaMariaQAL starting today until May 8th!



Okay, signing off for now...hopefully soon I'll be sewing again.  I've already decided that I need a new pretty ironing board cover to match my new sewing room. ;)

At Home

Life is busy, complicated, wonderful, and exhausting.


Have I mentioned we moved this week?  And that we are (still!) redoing the ENTIRE house?

No. The countertops for the kitchen are not in yet...so we don't have a functioning kitchen.

No. The roof has not been touched and needs to be entirely replaced.

No. I haven't finished tiling the bathroom for my little hideaway place of relaxation.



But it doesn't seem to matter.

My favorite people are with me and we are all more peaceful in the new house. Even the cat! (And you know cats don't love a move!) We have bunches to do and miles to go before we sleep... but there are moments like this...

and this...

that make everything worth while.


We had beautiful weather for the move. And the day after it was perfectly perfect outdoors. I laid outside in the grass and saw this view of many of the trees around the house.

And it didn't even dawn on me until later that this was an over cast day. Because it just was so wonderful to be AT HOME.


We have birds and groundhogs and rabbits and even a deer came through the yard! (How did she get there?!) And while that will make Mike's future garden a little tougher to keep, it has been so fun seeing all of the wild life.



And lest you think that I spent all of my time outside, there has been a BIT of unpacking on the inside. ;) I know that you are all interested mainly in the sewing area, so here's a sneak peak.

The words oasis and eden may have been uttered in the last few days. And that's saying something in the chaos of a move. Somehow we have this little slice of peace in the middle of the city. As always, God has taken care of our needs and then gone over the top with providing more than we knew we wanted.

Patchwork Prism Quilt Along - Have you heard?

Bianca, from Sweet Diesel, is hosting a Patchwork Prism Quilt Along based on the gorgeous quilt designed and made by the lovely Anna Maria Horner.    There will be beautiful quilts, fabrics and of course...fabulous (and I do mean fabulous!) prizes.





Have you seen Anna Maria's quilt yet?  It's a perfect example of one of the fabulous aspects of her design skill...the ability to combine multiple prints in a cohesive not "matchy matchy" way.

Anna Maria designed this pattern for Janome and they have been so kind as to make it available to you free of charge. You can find the download for the pattern here.




Bianca has a schedule of posts planned to go over designing, making and finishing your quilt...

• april 24: choosing your fabric {and if you need fabric, she has arranged for a 20% discount from our generous friends at The Fat Quarter Shop...dates to be announced}
• may 8: making templates and cutting your fabric
• may 22: laying out your quilt and sewing
• june 5: quilting
• june 12: wrapping it all up and then the party begins...linky party that is...
• june 26: submissions are due for the grand prizes!

Eeep!!  The Prizes...

These are some very fun prizes!! Throughout the course of the qal, participants will have the chance to win the following prizes...

westminster fibers:

• one Valori Wells fat quarter bundle of her newest line, “cocoon.”  That’s 30 fat quarters!

• one essentials charm pack

• one amy butler charm pack of  gypsy caravan

• one Anna Maria Horner tapestry kit and embroidery floss

• Aurifil thread: five chances to win 10 spools of thread  

(side note: if you are on facebook,  you should follow Alex, the fabulous Italian owner of Aurifil...he's a riot!)



At the conclusion of the quilt along there will be a linky party where you will be able to show off your lovely project. Upon submission of your completed patchwork prism quilt, you will be entered into the grand prize drawings which will be judged by the overall appearance and layout of your quilt.



The Grand Prizes:

• 3rd prize... $25 gift certificate to The Fat Quarter Shop
• 2nd prize... $50 gift certificate to  The Fat Quarter Shop
• 1st prize... $75 gift certificate to The Fat Quarter Shop

(and you're going to like this one....!)






GRAND PRIZE... Janome DC2012 sewing machine {a retail value of $699!}

Bianca has a flickr group all set up and ready to go for the quilt along, which can be found here. This will be a great place for everyone to come together and share photos of your progress and get to know each other. :)





patchwork prism button...

What's a quilt along with out a blog button?  If you’d like to let people know what fun you are up to or invite your friends to join...grab the button from Bianca's sidebar.

So join in the fun...I know personally how exciting it can be to win a sewing machine. ;)  I hope one of you gets it!!   

And watch out for me...because you'll see me again for sure at the end of the QAL!

matching pillow sham by Anna Maria Horner

Charm Packs Giveaway and Moving Day!

It's moving day!! Life is crazy...but by tonight we will be in our new house. Help comes to move everything in less than 4 hours. Eep!


Thank you so much everyone for all of your sweet comments on my Backpack tutorial. I wondered how many pages that tutorial would be...ended up at 26 for the pdf printout!



Without further ado...and because I need to keep packing!... the TWO winners of 4 California Girl charm packs, compliments of the Fat Quarter Shop, are:

  Myra Johnson

"And, I am a newbie. I am so loving your site! You make really beautiful things! Thank you for sharing your amazing talents with us!"

and

Rosa

"Congratulations on the win! and thanks for the sharing your backpack tutorial!!"

Congratulations Ladies!!  Just get in touch with me and I'll be sure to let the FQS know who to send the fabric to.


Oh and ps.  I had to laugh because Caitlin (who has won 4 giveaways on my blog I think!) was comments #20 and #22.  So close Caitlin!  lol  Random.org LOVES you on my blog!

Input Please!

So as I think about my new house and all of the designs and decorating I would like to do, I am struck by the fact that there are so many fabulous fabrics that I want to put around the house.  However I don't want to sew everything.  I have bunches of ideas, new or acquired, that I want to incorporate into my home that use fabric in a less "traditional" way.


Which got me thinking...while in the bathtub....all of my great ideas  come while in the bathtub.  I think that is where my brain is the clearest!  lol

Anywho, it got me thinking about what I wanted to share with you and my future projects.  Which led to me to thinking about all of the things that you must all be doing with fabric that don't involve sewing or a minimal amount of sewing.  And I want to hear about it and see it.


So I want to start a new series on my blog that focuses on ways to use fabric that involve no sewing or very little sewing.  But it makes use of all those beautiful fabrics we own or drool over.  And I want YOU to be involved.  I'd love to feature some of you with your own tutorials about these things.


Here's the deal...

• we need a cool name...and moving and being sick etc, have made me lose my creative ability in that capacity for the moment.  So let's brain storm some names.  Think "fabric minus sewing" or something like that.

• I want to hear from you about YOUR tutorials.  Your idea does not need to be original but your tutorial does.  Perhaps there is something you have pinned on pinterest that you've been dying to try or something you've seen and said "I can totally make that myself".  Well put together a project idea and talk to me about it (you can email me) and we'll see if it is the right fit for this series.

• Does a tutorial sound scary?  That's totally normal.  So I'm going to....wait for it....write a TUTORIAL on HOW to write a tutorial.  Ironic?  Yes.  Helpful?  Absolutely!



Okay!  So let's brainstorm!  We need an awesome name and then we can  have a fun blog badge.  I'll even make sure we have one of those "I've been featured on....(whatever name we decide)" because I know we all love to have those.  Teehee!  And then let me know your ideas!



I'm moving in two(!) days, so internet access may be sketchy from here to there.  But I'll try to get back to you promptly.  Tutorial on tutorials coming soon!


Oh and here's a shot of the first piece of wall paper that went up in my sewing room...just half of one wall was covered to cover some current (or shall we say "not current") wall paper. ;)  It's slowly becoming MY space!

It's a big day! Backpacks, features, and giveaways!

*the giveaway is now closed*

Well the day has come! Today you can find me in a couple of places...

First off, you can find me over at Moda Bakeshop Today with my tutorial for my Owl Tag Along Toddler Backpack. This was my winning entry for the Moda SLICED competition. And now you can all make you own!

Secondly, you can a feature of me over at Sew4Home. This is a really fun website with lots of great tips for all kinds of home decor and sewing. As part of winning the competition, I am featured over there today.

And just because I thought it would be fun, with all of this featuring going on, we are having a giveaway HERE sponsored by the Fat Quarter Shop! In the spirit of precuts and Moda, they have offered up 8 charms packs of California Girl to be split between 2 lucky winners. So that is 4 charm packs each!! (and if you win, might I suggest a lovely little quilt pattern I designed perfect for charms, Picket Fences...lol)

yum! That's pretty!



To enter the giveaway, I would love if you hopped over to the two sites and left a comment on each. You can leave a separate comment here for each comment you leave on those sites. So that is 2 possible entries!

• Moda Bakeshop

•Sew4Home

And if you are a NEW follower, go ahead and leave a third comment letting me know. (Faithful followers, you know we do this a fair amount and sometimes it's fun to mix things up a bit...so let's let the newbies have an extra chance today!)



I hope that you all enjoy the backpack tutorial! I worked very hard on it so let me know if you have any questions. I want to see bunches of toddlers running around with their very own backpacks!!


Woohoo! what a fun day!  Help me Celebrate!

XO Gigi Fabrics giveaway winner!

Goodness! We have another giveaway starting soon, so I realized that I hadn't announced the winner of the very generous XO Gigi Fabrics $50 gift certificate.


Mr Random has chosen...

Who is lucky....

Donna

"Love the Retro Rocket Rascals--Have no idea what I'd use it for, but it is too cute! Those TaDots are pretty tempting too!"



Congrats Donna! And thanks to everyone who played along. We have more giveaways coming up so stay tuned. I don't know how they all pile up like this sometimes. lol

Making Waves over at Fat Quarterly

Haha! That title sounds a lot more exciting than I meant it to.

I just wanted to let you all know that you can find me today over at the Fat Quarterly blog. I made a baby quilt using the Quick Curves Ruler and it is being shown over there today.





Feel free to hop over and give Making Waves a little love. ;)




And stay tuned for Friday! That's when I'll be over at Moda Bakeshop for my Toddler Backpack Tutorial, featured on the website Sew4Home.com and we'll be having a giveaway to celebrate!


Busy week! Off to pack some more boxes!!