Merry Christmas.....and End of Year Sale

Merry Christmas!

End of Year sale on my etsy site.
35% almost every item
50% off clearance.....

I'm taking a work break at home for a bit..some would call it a staycation.... 

The kids are on break from school so it's even more of an incentive to stay home. 

I haven't sewn much yet...

but I plan to.

My husband and I went to IKEA again on the 23rd.

We loaded up the SUV completely with Besta.

It is on sale for Ikea members and
we knew this 2 weeks would be great for construction of our storage room. 

Originally the storage room was to be an office

but our old furniture just wasn't fitting. 

I mean it literally didn't fit the dimensions of the room.

That can be super frustrating. 

It was. 

We rearranged the stuff at least 5 times and finally gave up. 

We are giving it to my parents

We realized in all the rearranging that what we really wanted was storage.

My computer is in my sewing studio.

His computer never seems to leave the kitchen island....

so we nixed the office.

He has spent 2 days on assembly and making great progress.

Once that is complete, I get the task of putting everything away.

So once the kids find Santa's gifts, and we have breakfast...

it's back to organizing we go....

How will you spend your holidays?

Classic Vintage Bear Paw done "modern"

The fat quarter shop challenged a few bloggers to make

this classic vintage Bear Paw block

any way we'd like.

I decided to mix light value text prints and 

some country floral Japanese prints by Sunday 9am

I made 4 blocks so far and

I chose a few more Yuwa fabrics for more blocks...

Maybe use 'darker' text prints for backgrounds

 and light low volume florals for the 'paw'.

The block can be found here for free

and Kimberly has done a video to explain 

the construction of the block.....

The pattern set can be purchased here;

The fat quarter shop

Check it out...

(;

p.s.
25% off most items in my etsy shop until 12/18/14
42% off clearance

Free Motion Quilting for Beginners - A review

I've been asked to review 

Free Motion Quilting for Beginners 

This is quite a good book for building your quilting skills.

I was impressed that there were project instead just quilts.

I find myself forgetting how many small quilted projects I make in a year.

I suggest you check this out. It's a gem for sure.

Cyber Monday Sale

Yep I decided to do a Cyber Monday sale!

40% off Clearance

Including Moda Figures precuts, Irome by Kokka,

Olivia by Penny Rose Fabrics, even Sewing Studios 

35% off All Moda precuts books and patterns!

25% off Everything else

Pick up the latest low value / low volume fabrics, 

1930's and Yuwa Japanese prints from 

Suzuko Koseki and Atsuko Matsuyama for 25% off!

 

Take 5 Fat Quarters..review

Take 5 Fat Quarters is another awesome book from my friend Kathy Brown
THE Teacher's Pet.
If you haven't heard about Take 5 before,
it is as simple as picking 5 coordinating fat quarters and a background
and voila....
a quilt.

Super easy and stunning quilts.
Again, my to-do list just grew....by 3 quilts at least.

Check out Take 5 Quilts on Shop Martingale for a complete look

at all the quilts in the book.

Great value in this book.

Jolly Bar Winner

Karen of Badlands Quilts is the winner of a Jolly Bar from the Fat Quarter Shop!

Karen,

I have emailed you for your information.

Black Friday Sale Event!!

Please check out my 

Black Friday sale at my etsy shop !

50% off all clearance items

35% off all regular priced items 

No coupon needed.

Sale ends at midnight eastern standard time 11/28/14

Urban Amish Review

Oh my gosh, where do I begin?

I may be a terrible book reviewer.

What do you say about it? 

The instructions are spot on....??

They are. 99.9% of That Patchwork Place books are spot on

This book is chock full of cool patterns.

Urban Amish, that is, by Myra Harder.

Have you seen it?

I will be honest, I wasn't too keen on the cover quilt.

In fact, I wasn't even going to consider this book based on the cover.

I know, horrible, right?

Well have you ever that? judge a book by it's cover?

I'm so glad that I opened it.

Look at the quilt ideas!

My to do list just grew by 5 quilts.

I can't say which one I like best...

they are all tempting in their own ways like this

shabby vintage feel nine patch quilt.

 It's true, I don't know the names of these quilts, 

I haven't gotten past the pretty colors and awesome designs.

So yeah, I'm not that great at reviewing books.

Lucky for you, I have a whole lot of books that I have been meaning to talk about.

You've been warned (;

Jolly Bar Weekend

It's true, I sewed all weekend. 

I am so happy :))

I rarely have the chance to sit and sew an entire weekend!

When I saw the fat quarter shop had a new pre-cut fabric, 

I had to get my hands on one.

It's called the

Jolly Bar

A 5" x 10" bar of sweet fabric goodness.

I don't know about you but the name "jolly bar"

 made me think of the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory movie.

I half expected to find a golden ticket inside...

anyway,

I am a big fan of decorating through the year.

I know, I know, Thanksgiving and Christmas are coming....

but the fabric Red, White and Free by Sandy Gervais was available and I thought, 

"cool, I can make a 4th of July Patriot wall-hanging out of it".

So I set out to use the most of my Jolly Bar.

I modified the rectangles slightly by cutting a 1/2" here or there.

I used the left overs for a pieced back.

The 'center' of the back is Minnick and Simpson's Lexington Stars.

I sewed the top on Saturday, pieced the batting and the backing, and quilted it on Sunday.

Unfortunately, I didn't buy binding yet nor do I have a suitable print at this house.

At any rate, I love how it turned out.

 I have already packed it in my suitcase bound for home where it will be proudly displayed on my dining room table.

*******

There are other fabric lines featured in a Jolly Bar as well 

and each have a free quick quilt pattern sent with them.

Check the Fat Quarter Shop for more info.

Quick Note from me...

Can you believe I am posting? 

Me either BUT I have to share about 

my etsy site sale this weekend.

20% off 

most items as a Pre-Thanksgiving..thank you.

I have been continuing to organize my sewing space 

and although there is A LOT more left...

it's looking pretty sweet.

I have even been sewing, 

more on that on Monday....

Happy 1st Birthday Quilty Fun!

This week marks the one year anniversary for the book Quilty Fun 

by Lori Holt, the Fat Quarter Shop and It's Sew Emma.

In honor of the birthday book, 

Lori created this fun pieced birthday cake block.

I decided to make my block from fabric that I stock in my etsy shop.

As you know, 

I love 1930's repros, japanese fabrics and 

light backgrounds that are all scrappy.

If this cake were real, I'd eat it. 

I love it that much.

The pattern can be found here:

Birthday block pattern 

I wanted to add embroidery to the cake part to look like icing swirls...

 to make it extra special.

There was just one problem.

90% of all my sewing and crafting stuff is located in this room.

It's in our new house and in another state.

Needless to say, I couldn't find my pearl cotton or floss.

It's a serious mess because I only get to work on it on the weekends that I am home.

I spend over half my time traveling for work.

The only advantage to working away from home is quilt related.

I have all my etsy fabric and sewing machine at my other "residence".

I have my etsy shop order packing to keep me busy in the evenings too.

I can sew any night of the week.

I even brought the Quilty Fun book back with me this trip.

I'm not sure if  I will make any of the blocks but

 it's a very inspirational book.

I love to just sit and look and dream....

I hope you have the chance today to look and dream at a new quilty project.

Maybe a birthday block?