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!

Sunday Funday Giveaway

Greetings, and happy Labor Day weekend.  I am so grateful for an extra day off this week especially after a 12 hour day of moving into our new library!  If you're interested in seeing it you can check out pictures on our Library's Facebook page... I'll share pics of my office once I get it set up if you all are interested :p

Julie over at 627 Handworks is has been hosting a series of Sunday Funday giveaways and I decided to join in.  There are tons of other bloggers also hosting today, so hop on over and check them out!

Sunday, September 1st:
Quilt Art Designs
Quarter Incher
Factotum of Arts
Quilts of a Feather
                                                             Bead Queene
                                                             Sew Into My 20s

If you are a regular reader of my blog, you'll already know that I have a huge Denyse Schmidt problem.  So I thought it would be fitting to give some DS goodies away.  

The first lucky winner will receive a charm pack of Flea Market Fancy -- 1 charm in each print.

The second winner will receive a fat quarter bundle of 4 coordinating prints from Denyse's new line, Croquet (how adorable is this line?!).

To enter to win, just leave me a comment.  Maybe mention a project you are working on, or some of your favorite fabric/designers :)  Giveaway closes on Monday, Sept 2 at midnight.  If you are a no reply blogger, please leave an email address where I can contact you.  If I can't get ahold of you, I will have to choose an alternate winner.  Thanks for stopping by and good luck!

Also, look out later in the week for another giveaway of an awesome traveling stash box that I received last week.  I wanted to post it last weekend, but I had no internet at work all week and I was just too tired when I got home.  Hopefully I'll have it posted Monday :)

WIP Wednesday: Dogwood Petals

Greetings all!  Gosh it has been a hectic week around here.  We started moving to our new library building on Monday... I'm exhausted, and it's only Wednesday!!!  The first thing to be moved was our server... so the internet went with the server to the new building on Monday, and I have no daytime internet connection since (hence my lack of blog reading).  Despite the chaos, I have found some time to sew.

I've mentioned before that I am taking Rachel @ Stitched in Color's Penny Sampler class.  I am a little ashamed to say that I haven't even started the Penny Sampler blocks yet (yup, slacker, I know).  Our first applique practice project is the Dogwood Blossoms quilt.  Since I've had Madrona Road sitting (...languishing...) in my stash since I became interested in quilting, I decided that it would be the perfect line to use for this project

I chose 16 of the more colorful prints from the line and cut up all my 6" squares.  I decided that I wanted to do sew and turn applique (it looked like a lot less hassle than dealing with starch and pressing) so I cut up some muslin too.

Clockwise from Top: Cotton Couture Peony,  CC Apricot, CC Canary, Kona Perriwinkle, CC Denim, CC Watermelon 

To supplement the prints, I decided to fill out the rest of the blossoms with solids.  These were actually just delivered today... my stash is very low on solids so when I need some I have to order online.

Here are my completed petals.  I still have yet to sew the rest of the pinks and oranges (6 prints).  And I have to cut and sew my solids as well.  The chevron fabric is my favorite.  I had to cut the squares on the bias to get them going the proper direction.

Now I need your help deciding on a background print.  I got the spots at the expensive LQS in my area.  It's hard to see but it's more of a warm gray.  The solid on the right is Kona Iron.  I'm leaning toward the print, but if I use the print I have no idea what I will use for sashing.  If I use the Kona Iron, I can use one of the gray prints from the Madrona Road line as sashing...  What do you think?

Linking up to WIP Wednesday @ Freshly Pieced :)

WIP Wednesday: DS charms

A few months ago, I received this beautiful pile of Denyse Schmidt Charms.  Finally this weekend, I started sewing them together :)

Sorry the pic is a little blurry, I cropped it out of another picture because I forgot to take on of the charms themselves...  I really need to remember to snap pictures BEFORE I start sewing :)  Anyway, you get the idea.

 I sewed all the charms up into 9-patch blocks, trying to alternate higher volume and lower volume prints.  This was also good practice getting the hang of my 1/4" seam!

See where I'm going here?

I sewed my whole stack of charms (minus the duplicates) and now I'm just waiting for Round 2 charms to get here.  Both rounds should give me a completed lap quilt at the very least.

 Since I had all of the blocks arranged on the floor between the couch and TV I kept looking at them during commercials.  Ryan asked me why I kept staring at my fabric, lol.  I told him I had to make sure there weren't too many "like" pieces of fabric together :)

In other news, the Penny Sampler class has officially begun!  Right now Rachel has only introduced the practice projects, but I am so excited to get started!  I think I may try my hand at the dogwood blossoms quilt practice project that way I can keep busy between making my Penny Sampler blocks :)

Linking up with WIP Wednesday @ Freshly Pieced :)

Sunday Stash #4

Happy Sunday everyone!  Did you all have a good weekend?  It's pretty rainy around here today so I've been sewing instead of working outside.  For Sunday stash this week I have the ever popular line, Briar Rose by Heather Ross :)  Since I'm new to quilting, I have missed other HR lines, so I was very excited to see a new release from her.

This line is even more lovely in person, I love all the little touches of whimsy.  I pre-ordered a FQ bundle from Pink Castle fabrics back in May, and received it when it came out last month.  The plan is to make a twin sized quilt for my niece, who turned 2 in May.  She's not in a big-girl bed yet though, so I have some time to work on it :)

I've had this quilt as a favorite on Flickr for quite a while and then when I saw previews of Briar Rose I knew that was what I was going to use to make it.

Girly Star Quilt by Darci on Flickr

I plan to use fussy cuts for the center squares and solids for the backgrounds using Cluck Cluck Sew's tutorial.  Now I just need to pick the solids to use and order them.  My sister doesn't want the quilt to be too girly, so I'll probably minimize the pink solids.  After seeing Laura's post about her little girl's "soft blanket," I think I want to back it with green minky :)

I really want to get better at piecing consistently, so I think I will wait to start this quilt until after I finish the "precise piecing" portion of the Penny Sampler class.

One other stash related question -- I've been coveting Denyse Schmidt's new line, Florence, and Waterfront Park by Violet Craft...

Florence courtesy of Denyse Schmidt                                   Waterfront Park courtesy of Pink Chalk Studio

Right now there is a 10% off bundle sale at Stash Modern Fabric... ideally I'd really like to buy BOTH lines, but there's no way I can spend $150 on complete FQ bundles of both, and I really have no immediate plans for either.  But... I feel like I could use fabrics from both lines in my Penny Sampler.  Such a hard decision...  Which would you get?