Quilt Pattern Giveaway!!

Hey! Head on over to The Crafty Cupboard if you want a chance to win my new Framed Rails quilt pattern!

In other news, I get to go have a phoned-in court hearing for a speeding ticket this morning. That I got on the way to Quilt Con. Go. Me. ps- New Mexico is not my favorite place!!!!!!!!

Removing Evil Wall Anchors–A Tutorial

I am taking a short break from packing boxes, because 1. I am running out of boxes, and 2. I am dang tired and want a break!

I have been painting at the new house for what seems like FOREVER, but really has only been 2 or 3 weeks. I will definitely have some before and after shots to share, but for now, I wanted to share a quick tip.

Recognize these? EVIL WALL ANCHORS. You know how hard it is to get these out to make the wall look pretty again? (Oh, and FYI, they make AWESOME wall anchors that you screw into the wall instead of pounding in, and then can UNSCREW from the wall when you want them out. Way easier.)

So, there were about ten gazillion of these in my new family room. Not so good for the whole painting thing!

Now, I don’t know if I saw this somewhere and suddenly remembered it, or if I was just brilliant and came up with it on my own. Probably the first option. Anyways, after my stroke of brilliance, I grabbed the drill.

I put on a drill bit that was bigger than the hole in the anchor, but smaller than the outer edge of the anchor. I actually had to bump up bit sizes twice before I hit the right one. If you aren’t sure, start smaller and work up.

Now, drill into the anchor. Once your bit has a good grip on the anchor, pull! You might have to wiggle the drill around a little to loosen the anchor. I had some that came out with a small tug, and some that needed a little more elbow grease.

And TA DA! Evil wall anchor OUT of the wall! You might have to use pliers or vice grips to twist the anchor back off the drill bit. I had to do that with some of them, and then some just twisted back off using my fingers. Now you just have to fill the big gaping holes that wall anchors leave behind!

We are doing the big move (furniture and everything I haven’t taken over while painting) on Saturday. Wish me luck! And energy, cuz I am sorely lacking!

Operation Wood Hollow

It has been a busy week around here, and not a whole lot of it has been sewing!

We finally got word that my in-laws closed on the house they are buying (actually, we heard that 2 weeks ago). This is a super big deal for us, because they aren’t actually ready to MOVE to this new house, but wanted to get a good deal before the market shot up too far again. So, they want us to rent it from them for the next couple years while we are in grad school.

EEEEEE!! I get to move into a HOUSE! With room for my kids to run around!!

We don’t really MOVE move for another month, but I already have a stack of boxes packed and ready to go :) I’m a bit excited.

On to my next point. One of my greatest fears is having my house burn down(or apartment…surrounded by smokers…). So, when I linked to this post about Operation Wood Hollow, my heart just ached for all these families who have lost their homes, and all those that might still. I immediately went through a mental inventory of my quilts and decided which one was getting pulled from my shop and sent to someone in need.

I love this quilty-bloggy community that immediately reaches out to those in need. It really is an amazing thing, and I am so glad to be a part of it!

And I am sure Operation Wood Hollow would love more donations if you are interested and able! Julie also has more info in other posts, so if you click to her home page, you can see more.

What’s cookin’

I’ve been a busy bee around here! 3 quilt tops complete! (Ok, so one has been sitting for more than a year, but I finally have a plan for the back) Now, just to prep some backings!

And I had a stack of fabric that wouldn’t leave me alone, so I have 4 square in square blocks up on the wall, too.

Oh, and did I mention the two quilt patterns in progress?

Now, add that we are moving in about a month! Ummmmm…blogging may be a bit sporadic, but I will try to share some pictures of the HOUSE we are moving into!!! (Still renting, but definitely an upgrade!)

I am SO EXCITED for more sewing space!!!!!!

Help!

Hey everyone, I need  a bit of help from you moms out there! 


I need to buy a new infant car seat ASAP (read: tomorrow). We had a slight mishap at church today, and long story short, the handle on our current car seat is now broken. So, I don't have lots of time to shop around and research, so I would LOVE it if you could tell me what kind of infant car seat you have, if you like it or not, and if you drive a smaller sedan, does it fit??


Please please please!! Thank you!!!!

Really??

I am not a particularly political person; I know it’s an election year, and I might or might not recognize the names of the candidates, but I’m usually not so up to date on the current events. HOWEVER, yesterday I ran across the video of Hilary Rosen accusing Ann Romney, saying, “she’s never worked a day in her life,” because she’s a stay at home mom. If you haven’t seen it, go find it.

SERIOUSLY??

Apparently Ms. Rosen has never chased a 2 year old all day.

Now, I could go on about this at length, but I could never sum up my thoughts on the matter as well as Jenna, over at Mom, the Intern. She wrote exactly how I feel on the matter, and did a fantastic job. Read it.

I have to say that I have the the utmost respect for moms who work, since they have TWO jobs. My own amazing mother has had to work, and still did an excellent job raising me(if I do say so myself). But raising your children is beyond a doubt the hardest job a parent will ever have. And makes you more aware of everything going on, economically and otherwise.

I also found this article: Why Stay-At-Home Moms Should Earn A $115,000 Salary on Forbes yesterday, which I found to be both entertaining and SO TRUE.

Anyways, that’s my little rant. I’ll show you another newly-completed quilt on Monday, deal?

A peek at an unfinished quilt

…and a couple months’ worth of baby pictures! I am, as usual, very behind on posting; I had a couple re-upholstery/remake jobs come up that consumed my free time for the last month or so. No pics of those, since I just wanted them OUT of my house, but here’s this one a month late:

This is also the peek at one of my UFOs. I finished this quilt top for ME before I got pregnant, but things came up and I never got the backing finished. Now maybe I will get time to finish it; I haven’t made a quilt for me in a long time!!

And now another cute baby picture :)

I get to see this cute grin all the time, I love it! And somehow, I ended up with my foot in the corner of ALL the pictures I took…

Oh, and I just posted two new quilts into the shop; I need to blog about them! But if you want to see them before I get to it, check them out :)

I am working on another custom quilt right now – a pink and purple garden fence quilt that is going to be pretty awesome. Pictures as soon as I have something to take a picture of!

Until next time, have a fantastic weekend!

For you, mom!

This is totally not quilty related, just my goofy 2 year old. Though, I think this video is pretty hilarious, so feel free to watch :)

Ringing in the New Year

Well, this New Year’s Eve is pretty much the exact opposite from last year’s for us. Last year, we left the 1 year old with grandma headed out to the Tempe Block Party to see Jimmy Eat World and do the whole party atmosphere thing. This year, we are hanging out at home with the 2 year old and this little one:

Born Wednesday night :)

I am sure I will inundate the blog with more pictures of this cute little girl later, but I will leave you with just the one for today. Forgive me if I slack off even more from my normal blogginess(or lack thereof) as we all settle into a new routine around here :)

And, HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Crazy Busy

Ok, I am slacking again. And I don’t really regret it! I’m 9 months pregnant, and since I last posted, I have had 3 boutiques/craft fairs, helped my mom move, been sick at least twice, finished a bunch of quilts (all for the boutiques), finished a batch of crayon totes (that I still don’t have pictures of, so still haven’t posted in my shop, doh!), and started numerous Christmas gifts. Yeah, you could say I’ve been a little busy :)

Anyways, just a peek at Zoey’s quilt I am making her for Christmas:

I basted this one this morning (with Zoey’s “help”. I love that I don’t have to “hide” her presents yet. Probably last year for that though!) I am backing it in minkee (wish me luck on quilting! Never backed with minkee before!), because I decided since the new baby will have a nice minkee backed blankie that Zoey tried to steal even before it was MADE, it would be a good idea for her to have her own snuggly quilt, too. Added bonus, she really needs some sort of bed covering besides the little blankets she has been using (fine for summer, but now not so much), and that is this one’s destination.

So there ya have it. I also sewed a bit on the baby’s “official” quilt, and on a carseat tent. Hopefully there will be a newborn to USE these things soon, because I am SO DONE. So. Done. But it’s all good :)

Have a fantastic weekend! We are off to pick out a tree this afternoon, and decorate the house tomorrow!

Pictureless Monday

Ok, I saw that I haven’t posted in two weeks, and felt kind of silly.

I DO have some sewing going on around here, but today and tomorrow, it is all about the kid’s Halloween costume! I really want to have it done at least a day or two before it NEEDS to be done, cuz leaving it ‘til the last minute just stresses me out :) It is being interesting though, since my kid is a fairly solid size 2, and the smallest pattern I could get was a 3-4. So far it is working out ok sizing it down a little though, and then she will have some dress up clothes later since it’s still a tad big :)

Oh and I FINALLY got something sewn together for the new baby! It is the most luscious blankie out of minkee and voile. I seriously might steal it for myself :)

Ok, and I will valiantly try to get some quilt pics posted this week too!! Now off to the real job…

I am one of THOSE now…

So, I did something really dumb yesterday. I was quilting my garden fence quilt during naptime, and I was able to finish it rather quickly, and since I already had my machine all set up for free motioning, I moved on to the other lap quilt I had ready to quilt (a Christmas one, I haven’t show any sneak peeks yet, sorry!). Started quilting that one, and it was just zipping right along, way faster than I anticipated. I figured the kid would wake up before I could finish it (cuz really, TWO quilts quilted during one naptime? Miraculous!), but she was still quiet! Then I was getting really close to the end, so I was sort of hurrying…

DON’T HURRY WHEN YOU ARE FREE MOTIONING!!!

I have no idea how my finger got in the way, but next thing I know I am reflexively jerking a NEEDLE out of the top of my FINGER. Now, at first I didn’t even really realize what had happened. And then it started to hurt….and bleed….profusely…I ran in to the bathroom and threw it under cold water, and suddenly couldn’t remember if I had seen the TIP of the needle come out of my finger…in fact, I was pretty sure it hadn’t. Oh, yeah, there wasn’t an exit point, just the entry. So I start freaking out because there was still part of the needle in my finger, I had to go to Urgent Care, but I couldn’t drive cuz I felt like I was going to pass out, the kid was still in her room quiet, but she’d been asleep for 3 hours already, my husband wasn’t just down the street at work, he was at work far away yesterday afternoon. I hurriedly grabbed a rag, wrapped my bleeding finger, and called my mom; she should have been just leaving work, and has to drive right by me to get home, so I figured she could pick me up. Yeah, she didn’t answer…so I called my mother in law, who thank goodness didn’t go out of town until today, and she headed over to pick me up. Oh, and funny part of this: Zoey gets up from her nap with her diaper only half on, and as she walks put, it falls the rest of the way off. She got to hang out diaperless until grandma got here, because I apparently cannot put a diaper on one handed!

So, off to Urgent Care. They got me back pretty much as soon as I got in the door; didn’t even have me fill out paperwork or anything first, that was nice! But guess what? They couldn’t XRay me OR give me any painkillers because I’m PREGNANT. BAD TIMES! So, they had to poke and prod at me without any kind of numbing or pain relief…except tylenol. Yeah, I totally almost passed out at one point, so they stopped for a while. Anyways, very long story short, they couldn’t find any metal still in my finger, and recommended finding the needle when I got home to see if the point was still on. Why didn’t I think of that earlier? Oh yeah, because I was bleeding…lol Antibiotic prescription and I was on my way!

We found the needle(and know it’s the right one cuz the tip is still bloody!), and sure enough, it is still totally intact, so I’m not all worried anymore :) So now my finger is all bandaged up, and my husband wouldn’t let me sew any more last night, but I think I will go back in at naptime today!! That quilt is so close…

ps- Yeah, I never used to understand how people ran over their fingers with their machines…and I still don’t know how I did it, but I guess it really can happen to anyone!

Apparently I’m Famous!

How was everybody’s weekend? I had a lovely time; I basted THREE quilts, got to go on a real date with my husband, and then went up north for a couple days to get out of the heat! Oh, and while I was at my grandparents(the getaway up north!), I finally got some pictures of the quilts I haven’t posted yet! I will work on editing/sorting out all 100 of those pictures later…

But now on to what this post is REALLY about! As I was sitting eating my cereal and doing my morning blogstalking, I went to my BFF’s blog, The Crafty Cupboard. To my surprise, she has an entire post up about something I made! That is on the FRONT OF A MAGAZINE! Ok, really, I’m sure my name isn’t anywhere on/in that magazine, but my workroom and my lovely employer are!

So, go NOW and look at Melanie’s post so you can see the amazingly huge curved cornice that I sat, knelt, layed on the floor, shot myself in the side with the pneumatic stapler, dropped said stapler on my eye (I had stapler issues that week…), and all around slaved over to make! I feel all special now :)

Have a wonderful day!!

Current Projects

Just so you know I'm still part of this blog, here are a couple of pictures of my current projects.  One not so quilty or sewing related.

This bathroom has been the domain of 3 teenage boys for the last 7+ years and I was a little afraid to go in there. I'm still kicking myself for not taking any before pictures. You would think I would know better by now!  Anyway, after the youngest boy moved out last fall, I decided it was time to take down the fishy wallpaper border and make this room grow up a little!  I made my husband remove the toilet and throw it away because I refused to even touch it. Along with this little project, I also decided it was time to update all the toilets (3) in our house to more water efficient models, so I didn't need to keep the boys old, nasty toilet. (BTW, lesson learned...I used to have the attitude that as long as the boys wanted to live in dirt, it was their bathroom and I never went in there, so when they told me they had done their chores and cleaned the bathroom, I rarely verified it was actually done.  Now that they are all out and I decided to start working on this room, I have discovered that if I had been checking up on them, I wouldn't have had to spend hours scrubbing the tub to get it clean. There may be a cleaning deposit required of any children desiring to move back home, refundable upon their departure, pending inspection of their vacated living spaces!)  Anyway, I decided the 13 year old linoleum needed to be replaced, but I'm trying to do this remodel on a tight budget, so I headed to Home Depot and discovered this tile. Isn't it great?  Wanna know the best part?

It's peel and stick vinyl tile!!!  Yes, you read that right, it's VINYL!!!!  Those are real grout lines. This tile is made to be installed either with or without grout and we decided to go with.  It looks amazingly like real ceramic tile, even installed! It's thicker than other peel and sticks that I have used and cutting it was almost more difficult than ceramic tile (I've installed ceramic AND travertine!) but I'm really pleased with the results!  I was able to lay the tile and grout, all in 1 day. I probably would have been finished in 1/2 a day, but I can't ever go with the simple, straight layout. I just love the look of tile set "on point" :)

On a quiltier (I just made up that word!) note, here's what I'm working on in my sewing room (right next door to the bathroom with the beautiful  new tile).

Here is the beginning of a new quilt! Those are all rows of different shades of purple Kona cotton. They are getting matched up with some Kona charcoal and Kona ash.  I'll post more pics when I have more to show. I just thought the strip sets looked so cool all lined up in the project tub, so I sent a text pic to Kirsten and she told me to post on the blog.  Now back to more cutting and sewing!

I need a favor…

**Edited- Thank you guys so much for volunteering to help me! I have emailed my new helper, and will hopefully have this pattern out soon! I will definitely be hosting a giveaway once it is ready, so keep an eye out for it!

ps- a few of you were no-reply bloggers and didn’t leave me an email, so I could not email you this info. If you don’t know if this is you or not, please check out this awesome tutorial for fixing your blogger profile!

 

So, I am in the midst of writing my first pattern(one culprit for very sporadic posting!), and would love to find one more pattern tester. The pattern is for this quilt:

The top takes 12 fat quarters or 1/4 yard cuts. Please let me know if you are interested! Thanks!!

ps- Happy St Patrick’s Day!

So Cool!!!!

Ok, I know I said I was going to post another finished project today, but I woke up with a fever and cough and whatnot (AGAIN) and just haven’t had the energy! But, then I got a phone call from my BFF Melanie. Guess who is on UCreate today? Did you guess Mel? Or me? Well either one would have been correct!

HOW COOL IS THAT?

Cool enough that I felt better for like a whole five minutes!

So head over and check out Melanie’s super amazing shower curtain, and take a gander at the sidebar and see if you recognize a certain quilt!

And hopefully I will get that finished project up for you guys tomorrow! And hopefully the plague leaves my home sometime SOON!

EEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!

Look what I just carried in my front door!!!!!! EEEEEEE!!!!!!! It’s so fluffy I’m gonna die!!! (ok, random movie quote…)

Now to feed the kid so she will nap so I can OPEN THE BOX!!!!

Seriously?!?

So, I’m not saying anything about feeling or getting better anymore, because apparently I jinxed myself. I woke up this morning with PINK EYE! Now I can’t touch fabric ALL DAY for fear of spreading this plague!

Off to the doctor in a bit…

Those almost finished projects? Yeah, it’s going to be a bit longer…

I really have been busy…

I have been very friendly with the couch and sudafed and an entire box of kleenex for the last week, but the plague is slowly being evicted from my house, and I am once again friends with my sewing machine.

Oh, and my rotary cutter has been getting quite the workout!

Hopefully I will have a finish to show….soon.

Oh yeah…

I almost forgot, here’s my fabric loot from the show last weekend!

I kind of went on a bit of a pink/raspberry spree…I believe a new quilt will soon be designed…

Oh, and you know what those two lovely bundles are? CENTRAL PARK!!! Kate Spain is a freakin’ genius :) Unfortunately, the lovely ladies at Above All Fabrics (love them!) had already sold out of the other two colorways by the time we got there, but I will get them! I will! I actually had plans to order yardage as soon as it came in, but we made an unexpected BIG SCREEN TV purchase Friday afternoon…The joys of having a brother working at an electronics store to alert you to fantastic sales!

Anyways, back to the show. I also got a cool do-hickey to mark seam allowances for half square triangles, and an itty itty bitty screwdriver. I will have to get pictures of that soon!

By the way, I have two quilts almost ready for basting! More on those soon too!