Sunday Stash: Secret Santa

Hope you all had a nice Thanksgiving. We had a busy week with Thanksgiving preparations and taking advantage of our unseasonably mild Minnesota weather to get all our outside Christmas decorations up.

Needless to say, all I really did was LOOK at fabric this week so this seems like an appropriate post. The fabric above is Secret Santa by Lori Siebert for Benartex.

And now I have only 26 days to see if I can incorporate this into a Christmas project...

Spun Sugar Quilts Giveaway

When I discovered quilting blogs last winter, one of the very first that I started following was Vickie, the Mid Ohio Knitter/Quilter.

Vickie recently had her 400th post and is marking the occasion with a fabulous giveaway of all the prizes above. Vickie also renamed her blog to Spun Sugar Quilts, how cute is that? So go congratulate Vickie and check out her fab giveaway!

Sunday Stash: Lecien My Folklore

I recently fell in love with and purchased this Lecien My Folklore fabric in the espresso color way... I thought it went perfectly with my gnomes that you've met before. I think they will be perfect partners for a little wall quilt as soon as I can locate just a tiny tidbit of those HR mushrooms!

I might check out this store for an interesting coordinate...these fabrics make me feel like I should put on a Dale of Norway sweater or start making some krumkake?!

One Block at a Time

I've been contemplating what I'm going to make for the Fall Mini Quilt Swap that I am participating in at Quilting Gallery. After trying to envision various block sizes and layouts, sewing one was definately in order. I made a leaf block with some of my orange Katie Jump Rope fabrics and khaki kona cotton. I'm thinking of adding a yellow and red block of the same nature, putting them in a vertical layout just each rotated differently.

This block is sadly pretty representable of my sewing lately...just one block at a time. We've been on our second round of various bugs since school started, this time is was a 10 day course of stomach bugs, fever, bronchitus and the croup between the two boys that has now ended in adult sized colds for me and my husband. Accordingly, my Christmas sewing list has been edited down and what gets done, does and what doesn't, doesn't.

So if your time availability is like mine, or if you just want a few more fun projects for your WIP list, here are a few BOM or Quilt Alongs that are doing a block quarterly or monthly.

The Infamous Block Party Bee, turned book and quilt along

Modify Tradition, a new very hip blog

Two Creative Studios BOM that you may have seen here in earlier posts.

Two Creative Studios Block of the Month

I finished my October Block of the Month from Two Creative Studios. As a newbie, all the points were a bit challenging and my seam ripper definately got some use today!

I used the paper piecing directions provided to piece both the inner and outer stars. One thing I really like about this BOM is that the directions are very thorough including rotary cutting, template and paper piecing information.

For more information check out the Two Creative Studios website. Directions for Novembers' block should be posted shortly, though patterns for all months are available so you can join in at anytime.

Sunday Stash: Miniatures c. 1886

These three prints are from the Miniatures c. 1886 by Nancy Gere for Windham. I like these prints because they have the retro feel but because of their traditional colors could be incorporated in a variety of projects.

For more Sunday Stash, check out the flickr group.

Andalucia Wonder Wallet

If you are like me, your favorite bag is just a cluttered mess of loyalty & shopping cards. And since life is not always perfectly planned, who knows when you'll get to what store or restaurant and remember to bring the particular card for that store? Since it seems there are so many stores giving out loyalty cards, there are just too many to put in my wallet, so I was happy to find the Lazy Girl Wonder Wallet pattern.

At the top is my finished product out of some Andalucia scraps. I wanted to use bright fabric so I could find it in my bag... why are the insides of purses always black holes - literally? And I chose to not use a decorative button...just something to get caught on other stuff - this is a function over form project.

Below is a picture of the open wallet. I put a credit card sized card in the front so you could see the depth of the 4 pockets. (next time I would eliminate 1 or 2 since I'm not using the change pocket - this way the corners wouldn't be so bulky) Also, I used the Fabric Fusion velcro which was new to me. It worked rather well, though either it slid on me when I ironed on the top flap piece or I just plain old didn't get it centered.



The pockets are very generous... this is 8 cards with room for many more. I am confident this project will help solve my clutter dilemma and it was rather fast to make... now unfortunately, I have to clean my purse.