What I've been up to

Cross-stitching!  Yes, just what I need... another hobby, amirite?

Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery -- Halloween Spooky Sampler

But moving a library is seriously hard work, I'm talking pretty intense physical labor putting 215,000 books on the shelves and shifting them several times so they all fit... especially for people who generally work desk jobs.  So instead of sewing when I'm exhausted, which usually ends with picking out stitches over and over and a lot of cussing at my machine, I decided I needed something to do while I'm just sitting and relaxing.

It's seriously impossible to resist the Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery's samplers -- they are too damn cute.  I'm almost done with the Halloween Spooky Sampler, and in between weeks, I've been working on the Woodland Sampler... Yup I'm totally hooked!

Gah!  Those hedgehogs :)

Linking up with Thursday Threads @ 627 Handworks!

Giveaway: Travelling Stash

Greetings all!  About a month ago, I had the good fortune to win a Travelling Stash box.  Apologies for taking so long to get the giveaway posted but (as my regular readers know) life has been insane lately with our Library move.


The travelling stash came in a Medium Flat Rate box, stuffed full with goodies :)

Lots of fabric including a few yards of an AMH voile, about 10 patterns, an instructional video, a few notion items, some small Aida cloth and several large charm packs.

I grabbed 6 fat quarters (ack blurry pic!).  I had my eye on one of the patterns, but right now I have too much on my sewing table as it is, I have no idea when I would get around to actually sewing it.

I'll be adding 2 FQ's and a Quilter;'s Quarters from Denyse Schmidt to the box.  I haven't picked the FQ's yet though, so that will be a surprise for the lucky winner :)

If you'd like to get in on the Travelling Stash fun, please leave me a comment and I will draw a winner on Wednesday (September 18).  Due to insane international mailing rates on a Medium Flat Rate Box... I'm going to have to limit this giveaway to US only.  If you are a no-reply blogger, please leave an email where I can contact you if you win :)

WIP Wednesday & giveaway winners

Greetings folks!  Its a beautiful day here :)  I am finally caught up on my backlog of things that I couldn't do last week because I didn't have internet, and my desk is slowly being unpacked and organized :)

Unfortunately I haven't done much sewing since I've been so busy at work, but I did finally get started on my Penny Sampler.  The first month's lessons are applique blocks.  I had the impression that applique was going to be difficult, but it's super easy :)  Roxanne's glue baste really does make the job easier.

Rachel introduced us to two applique methods -- stitch and turn (which I am using for my Dogwood Blossoms), and freezer paper.  These blocks were made with the freezer paper method.  It was much easier than I anticipated.  I even made my own liquid starch to use instead of paying $12 for Best Press at my Local Quilt shop.

heart quartet block, sketch stitch applique

 I really love my heart quartet block.  I think there is going to be quite a bit of DS fabrics sneaking their way into my quilt :)

sketch stitch close-up

It took me several tries to get the hang of the sketch stitch.  And my machine did not like the iron on stabilizer even though I was using a brand new needle.  So I opted to skip the stabilizer and just take it slow around the curves.  I didn't really like it at first, but I think it's growing on me now.

Single heart block, sketch stitch applique

 I opted for a little bolder of a look for the single heart since it's all by it's lonesome in the bottom of the finished quilt.  I actually did this block after the heart quartet, so the sketch stitch turned out better.

Mitten Block, blanket stitch applique

I opted for a blanket stitch for the mitten after seeing Laura's adorable block :)  You can see my mistake in tracing the template around the thumb where I almost cut the block out backwards... This is why you measure (read) twice, cut once right...

And here are the blocks in the quilt so far.  I saw people doing a grid for Tula Pink's city sampler, so I decided to try it for this too :)

I'm going to try to catch up with the rest of the blocks this week.  I'm a week and a half (7 blocks) behind right now, and the little village promises to be time consuming.



And now for the my Sunday Funday Giveaway winners:

Congratulations to
Amy @ Amy's Crafty Snenanigans who gets the FMF charm pack, and Jody Polen who gets the Croquet FQ bundle :)

Thank you all for stopping by and commenting!