It's Wednesday already?

Where did the time go?

I finished 3 more quilt bindings on the way home from SC! I can't believe how much I accomplished on that trip.  That helps my 2009 total projects completed to reach 55 so far. I still have 27 hours to go LOL!

Today was a tough (read = busy) day at work. I have been up since 4:45am and desperately want to sleep but my kids don't.  They are living the life of Riley right now with school being on a break.

I just hope to be able to sleep in maybe 15-20 minutes tomorrow. I DO have the day off...I am sooooo hoping to get som serious sewing in...and drop off another quilt to my local machine quilter. Right now I am his only customer with quilts waiting to be quilted. Works well for me, but not for him! I am going to try to finish up some WIPs to take to him to "keep him busy"....yeah that's what I tell myself to avoid ANY sort of guilt about not quilting my own.

Another happy day....

Yes, another happy day here. Christmas was awesome. We relaxed, ate, talked, ate, and played with all the toys.  The girls loved all that Santa brought.  Since everyone was content with doing so little and the kids were playing, I had time to sew on a few more bindings.  I finished all 3 tablerunners in the picture.  The Valentine runner was a kit that I bought over a year ago.  The Halloween runner was also a kit that I bought in Iowa during a trip home. I thought I would have it done in October....that didn't happen. I look at it this way....I am 10 months ahead now! LOL

The last runner is made with Roman Holiday by 3 Sisters, that I pieced about 2 years ago.  I feel so good that I am finally finishing them and can add a few more items onto my finished list for 2009!

I hope each and everyone of you are enjoying the holdiay season with your family and friends.

Giveaway winners and a Christmas tablerunner

Merry Christmas!!!

I finished a project for me! During the drive to South Carolina I sewed the binding on this tabletopper. 

 I started it over a year ago with Sandy Gervais fabric Holly Jolly.  I thought I would have it finished LAST year but that didn't happen. I finally gave in and took it to my local machine quilter and for a moderate fee...he did an overall snowflake for me. I appreciate his talent so much and happy he had the time to quilt this one for me.  I also like to support the local area.  That being said I do have another SUPER awesome quilter in CT...(psst you know who you are) and she helps me out with my SUPER secret quilts LOL.

Anyhow, back to business....for those of you that read my post last week you know that I was giving away 2 sets of e-patterns from Youcanmakethis.com

I used a random number generator and the winners are:

Heather

&

Carol in E TN

Congratulations to the winners. I will forward your emails to Youcanmakethis.com and you will have your patterns sent via email!!

I too will have Dolly Dresses

As they say the Lord works in mysterious ways. I didn't get a chance to meet Holly Holderman at Fall Quilt .  Rachel, Julie and I walked by her several times (you too remember I am sure) and we admired her booth and set up, but I never had the chance to speak with her.  When I realized that they and several other talented quilters were doing the blog a thon I felt a bit left out. Then I sat back and thought about all the other opportunities that have come my way recently and I didn't feel so left out any more.  Being wrapped up in the holidays and deadlines for quilting plus my day job I only was able to check each blog each day briefly.  When I saw the video of Quilted Quickies...I HAD to comment.  That was so darn cute with that little doggie and the whole Calender Girl theme. 

Well as it turns out, I won..I can't believe I won! I won a "Calender Girl" quilt kit for the new Lakehouse Dolly Dresses 2 fabric and pattern designed by Quicked Quickies.... check out the video they made.  How cool is that...

Since I didn't have the opportunity to participate in the blog a thon and make my own design...the Lord has brought me the fabric in another way. I guess it was meant to be mine :) 

Can't wait til April when the fabric arrives! Thank so much  Jere'e!!

p.s. we just arrived in South Carolina...we were here for 1 hour and the power went out. Long story short, it was only our house, the power is back on and who knew that these homes were equiped with a safety feature to shut off the power at a certain voltage change. 

p.s.s. I will blog the winner of the youcanmakethis giveaway tomorrow!

New Moda Bakeshop project

A baby doll bunting

Just in time for Christmas...

All it takes is a few scraps and /or left over layer cake squares plus about 45 minutes and you have a super cute handmade gift that any little girl would love.

Of course my little one loves purple so I separated out all the purples I could find in my Moda Spring Fever layer cake.  I had some extra Swell fabric from Urban Chicks and they played well together so it became my lining.  If you make one of these let me know, I'd like to post pictures and links to your blogs if you have them!

 * Merry Christmas *

Vickie

Youcanmakethis.com Giveaway!!

With the holidays just around the corner, I thought it would be fun to showcase some quick and easy gift ideas you can give to friends, neighbors, co-workers, and oh yes…even your family! You can enter to win eBooks from http://www.youcanmakethis.com/ and learn some fun new techniques, tips, and ideas not only for the people on your list, but also creative ways to decorate your home.

As part of this showcase I am going to giveaway 2 sets of  e-pattern bundles from http://www.youcanmakethis.com/

Here are some of the bundle patterns:

You Can Make This has created a free download for some fun gift tags. Each of them coordinate with ideas found as part of the DIY Gift Giving Series videos that can be found at www.youcanmakethis.com/blog , as well as designs and patterns found at http://www.swakembroidery.com/ and http://www.youcanmakethis.com/.

You can also enter to win hundreds of dollars in gift certificates just for watching the videos that are part of the DIY Gift Giving Series and answering a question on the You Can Make This blog!

Here are the rules:

Just leave me a comment on which pattern you like from youcanmakethis.com and make sure you include an email or have a profile with access to your email so that I can contact you if you are a winner. I will draw for the winner on December 22nd!! so hurry up and comment!!!

* Merry Christmas *

Dear Santa.....

Dear Santa, I heard a rumor that the Fat Quarter Shop is helping you out this year.....

so I took it upon myself to find a few items that I just "HAVE" to have under the tree....

I totally  ♥  Nicey Jane...

Now you are probably wondering whether or not I have been naughty or nice...

Of course I am always a nice gal...but I may have been naughty during late night fabric binges and buttons on the internet in my pajamas..

then again, is that REALLY naughty?

yours trully,

Steamy Windows

This is the quilt I have been working on in between projects. I used Moda's Basic  Grey 1974 jelly roll and some border fabric. It's the pattern Steamy Windows in Gudrun's new book Strip On! It was quick and easy to piece and as it happens I have started another version of this quilt in different fabrics!

a fun picture

I have been meaning to post this...I know it's WAY post Halloween but......My office staff and I participated in a challenge. Each office was given a hat to design a Halloween costume with.  Ours was a pink Cowboy hat....and one of staff thought vests and chaps with 'molars' on them would be fun...so we were all cowgirls. It was very inventive and we won the contest! We donated our prize dinner to the local Salvation Army.

My REAL first quilt

I was searching through my Barbie Doll items from when I was a girl.  I wanted to give my almost 9 year old some of my furniture and clothes I had been saving.  What I found in the plastic bins was more than I had bargained for.  I had forgotten that my REAL first quilt was in with the Barbie stuff. I hadn't opened that container in atleast 5 years. Here it is. Yep, beautiful eh?

There are squares, rectangles and the sort. This   WAY   pre-rotary cutters and mats.  I used any scraps my mom would allow.  In fact, most of the fabrics were from pajama flannels she used for our pajamas! and there is a pink dotted swiss that I made my first skirt of.  It is a walk down memory lane.

 

Here's the back....more flannel. There is a part that is coming un-sewn...I might leave it that way because you can see that instead of batting I used fabric scraps to stuff it.

I made this 'bedding' set for my Barbie's too. It's reversible... Made of scrap flannel - Mom's scraps again.

This was made out of extra fabric from pre-printed pillow fabric. Ah can you see the quilter in me already???

And my first hand stitched doll pillow.

I found some other interesting Barbie style items that I'll share with you another day.

For now, I hope you enjoyed seeing where I came from in my sewing abilities in the last 24 years!

p.s. today is my Mom's Birthday! Happy Birthday!!! I sent her Pandora...what gal doesn't love Pandora??

the momentum

Busy busy  productive weekend here...I made 5 bindings

{notice 4 are Moda fabric lines}

I ♥ Moda

Sewed on 6 bindings by machine, pieced half of a quilt from Strip On! by G.E. Designs. Finished the blocks of another quilt in the Strip On! book...I am just really clicking with Gudrun's designs in that book. I am lovin' making her quilts.  Plus I made 80% of a new Moda Bakeshop project, started a couple more quilty projects, and finished decorating our house for Christmas.  Of course, there was the usual child being sick interjected into the weekend.  I sewed while she slept.  Somehow, we all worked together {really the kids helped with the decorating ;) }, and accomplished so much.  I just hope I can keep the momentum going this week and into the next weekend...lots to do before the end of the year. 

p.s. just found a giveaway at Abbey Lane check it out to win one of 2 layer cakes!

Winner of my 400th-ish post giveaway!

There were over 450 entries in the giveaway!! Wow thanks for all the well wishes and following my blog. Without further a do...the winners are:

10 FQ's of FreeBird by MoMo

1. Sew It Up

Fat Quarter pack of 1930's fabrics of my choice 

2. Evelyn of  Use the Loot

3. Laurie of A Yankee Quilter

Jelly Roll of MakeLifeSweet

4. Sherri of A Quilting Life

1 yard border fabric plus 2 charm packs of Summer's Basket of Flowers fabric.

5. Quilt Hollow

Please email me your mailing information so that I may get these prizes out to you!

spunsugarquilt-designs at yahoo dot com

One Pack Doll Quilt Challenge winner

There were 9 entries for the One Pack Doll Quilt Challenge.  They can be seen on flickr group One Pack Doll Quilt

1. carols one patch quilt, 2. mini hexagon doll quilt 001, 3. Mary on Lake Pulaski, 4. Mary on Lake Pulaski, 5. hexie contest, 6. Hexagons-Nov2009, 7. One Pack Doll Quilt, 8. DSCN0454, 9. 05112009(003)

I numbered each entry and used a random number generator.

The winner is

Mary on Lake Pulaski....

Mary, I will email to get your information. Thank you to all who participated. You are all winners for trying a new technique and you have your lovely quilts too!

I won a giveaway....

I was so fortunate that I won fabric during the 12 Day of Christmas Blog Hop.  Then I forgot about it, being so busy at my office.  Atleast I forgot until this arrived...

With these awesome fat quarters of Frolic by Sandy Gervais and Pieces From My Heart.  I have a bit of this from market (Sample box) and so having fat quarters is awesome to coordinate with what I have. 

 It was also fun to chat with Sandy and discuss Iowa.  I'm from Iowa....just visited my home town at Thanksgiving.  Anyhow, check out Sandy's blog...she updates it with her latest fabric fun....and we all love a sneak peak at what our favorite designers are up to.

about those sneak peaks

Before quilt market, I had shown 3 sneak peaks of quilts that I was working on. I thought that after market I would be able to show you each quilt. I still haven't shown them...

because....
It turns out that a magazine company is interested in publishing my quilt designs....so unfortunately you'll have to wait until the magazines are released to see what my designs are! Fortunately, I will be published in a quilt magazine!!! OMG! I am so thrilled with this. To be honest, I didn't know IF any of my designs would be liked. We are our own worse critic. When I can tell you about these quilts I will. When I can reveal which magazines...I will. Until then, there will be more online giveaways, exclusive projects, Moda Bakeshop projects and so much more.
Thanks for stopping by...
p.s. I will be announcing the One Pack Doll Quilt challenge winner Friday!

Gift Idea

My friend Karen has recently done a tutorial on her blog about Placemat Purses. I thought it was such a great tutorial that I decided to post the link here.  If you need a quicker Christmas gift this is your item!

I know it's Christmas time but...

I have been feeling very springy lately. I used scraps from my Verna jelly roll cut them in half so that they were 1.25 inches X 5.5 inches and tied them like Rachel's tute onto a 12 inch wreath frame. I REALLY love Verna...

****Note**** MY Estimated yardage for anyone interested...

12 inch wreath uses 300 - 1.25 inch strips X 5.5 inches {total 1 yard and 14inches}

14 inch wreath uses 360 - 1.5 inch strips X 5.5 inches {total 1 yard and 24 inches,roughly a Moda honey bun}

these are estimates since I did the 12 inch with scraps.

Now I have a goal to do one in Christmas fabrics BEFORE Christmas if that's possible. Thanks for stopping by!

p.s. TODAY is the deadline for the One Pack Doll Quilt Challenge Giveaway.  So far there are 7 entries. Don't delay...post your project on Flickr for an entry to win 2 Moda jelly rolls of your choice from the Fat Quarter Shop

Lauren and Jessi Jung

have you seen this website?

 It's Lauren and Jessi Jung's new site.  They are a mother and daughter team that has a new fabric line being released by Moda. It's called Botany. I have a bit of it from market and it's going to be a fun line to create with.  I just wanted to share their link because they have 4-5 free craft, applique and quilt patterns on their site now. Enjoy!!

Fabric Wreath

I whipped up this fun little fabric wreath during our road trip to Iowa for Thanksgiving. Rachel gave a tutorial on ModaBakeshop.  I used a Sultry honey bun and a 14 inch wreath frame.

p.s. don't forget to enter my 400th post giveaway!