6 Months!

Good Morning Lovelies!

Can you believe it's been 6 ENTIRE months since my last post? Honestly! I'm ridiculous. Karen! Why has it been so long?? I'll tell you why. When you combine a person who loves to sew, with a person who loves to give things to people, and add in a million friends, family and gift-giving recipients.... one tends to go overboard... THAT's ME! Someone send a life preserver because I'm drowning in a sea of sewing!

On second thought- don't! I like it too much down here. The sad part is that I'm not even done. I've been sewing like a maniac since the October craft show and I'm still not done. Yikes. I've officially come up for air though! I'm done until after the holidays where January will see me finishing Christmas gifts! Seriously ridiculous.

Next week I'll be posting my favorite gift from this year: My daughters Christmas Quilt. I've sewn it entirely from Kate Spain's Flurry line, and added in a border of Kona Pink on the back of it. It's to die for. Want a sneak peek? I'll show you a progress shot from when I was figuring out how to piece this thing together:

This year I'm all about bright and crisp green and white, and I wanted her to have a Christmas quilt that would age with her as she grew up so that's what she got! I indulged on the back which you will see next week with the pink. She is after all, a girly girl.

Right now however, you should all be blistering your fingers with the amazing Sew Mama Sew giveaway thats going on!! Get your entires in ladies the prizes are outstanding! Makes me wish I had got it together to participate this round but I have a precious prize for the summer edition next year that your eyes and sewing rooms will love <3

Start  your entries with the beautiful and talented Amy Dunn at her blog "Lots of Pink Here" and tell her I said Hi!! She's amazing. Look at her prize!!:

See you all next week!!

Halloween Quilt!

I am in LOVE with this pumpkin fabric!!!!

When I first relocated back to the south, I arrived with nothing but 2 suitcases and a giant smile. I had no fabric stash, no sewing machine, and no idea how much either of those would change my life/house/sanity level either!! When I finally did invest in my first sewing machine, I logged onto the Fat Quarter Shop, with a big heart and a small budget and lost myself for about 2 hours in piles of delicious fabrics.

Can you see the glitter in the spider?

I finally decided that the best first project (lol) that I could start with was going to be something Halloween and so I bought a quilt pattern, a fat quarter bundle, some extra yardage and waited with great anticipation.

Now, quite a few months later and with a gigantic pile of sewing behind me, my house is a giant fabric stash, I sew in the craft room... the dining room... the living room... my bedroom... my office... outside... I have about 12 projects on the go and am now doing craft shows. Insane!! Sadly though, I never did my Halloween Quilt!! I love the pattern, and I grew my Haloween stash to the point where I could probably make 4 more of these but I still hadn't actually MADE one... so this weekend... I DID!!!

Witches use airplanes these days don't yo know?

I started cutting on Friday while I was minding the store for Claudia! By Friday afternoon I hd the blocks cut, and the applique sections planned out. I spent Saturday afternoon and Sunday evening working on the applique sections. Sunday night into the wee hours of Monday morning I peicd it all together and I spend most of yesterday quilting the darn thing! VOILA! All done and I feel very accomplished....

Ghosts, Goblins Ghouls!

The finished quilt is 3 ft wide and hangs 5 ft long. 

Ghosts

Ghosts

 

Ghouls!

Goblins! My first time blanket stitching!

Love that pirate mouse on the stocking!

More adorable pumpkins! <3

 

I backed the quilt with a delicious Orange and Black glitter spider fabric!!

 So there you have it! I'm going to make a second one for someone special but I think I'll wait until after the craft fair which is in 26 DAYS EEEEeeEEEeEEK!

Twirling Skirts

Well, It's been awhile since I've been here, hasn't it? It's been a long few weeks. I've been battling the development of Osteoarthritis in my hands and it's made life a little difficult. So I've just been sewing to the best of my ability right now and concentrating on my over-abundance of projects. It would be easier if I had a crafty buddy to help me undertake these things on days where it hurts to use my hands but hopefully things will work out soon and I can sew with happiness instead of an advil induced coma! You don't want to hear about this though, you want to see sewing!!

I finally made Miss Emma a skirt! This is my first ever skirt! A few days ago we spent the morning watching after Claudia's fabric store for her while she did some sewing for a charity. The reward was a little fabric stash and so I let Emma choose her own fabrics for her skirt. The deal was that it had to be at least to the knees and then she said she wanted ruffles, twirling capabilities and ricrac. Here is the result:

She's only 7 but wears a size 10! Insanity!! I used this tutorial from MADE  and then altered it to suit what we needed the skirt to do! I love her vivid color choices... super cute!

 TWIRL!!

Craft Show Input

 Well, it looks like I'm doing a craft show at the end of September! I'm excited about it but apprehensive as well. They're a lot of work so I hope it pays off! I'm curious though- What do you look for at a craft show? what dollar range do you search out?

In other news: I have to show off a happy baby in his sweet baby quilt :)

 xo

Baby Chasen's Little Quilt

 It seems like just yesterday I was commenting on how I had won some flannel fabrics and had no idea what to do with them! I still haven't used them up but in the meantime one of our family members went and had a little piece of adorable and I had to pop out a baby quilt! He was just calling for something snuggly in the fall...

Riley Blake's All Star fabric I purchased from Raspberry Creek Fabrics She has some great blanket bundles!

There are a million tutorials out there for the Rag Quilt and it's really, super easy to do. This was my first one. Here are some hints for you:


1. Flannel shrinks. Consider that when choosing your square size. I used 8" squares but I wanted 6" clear within the ruffle.


2. Make sure your scissors are SHARP. I have a bruise on my had from snipping!!!

3. Flannel sheds worse then a dog in 90 degree weather. I have fabric all over my house. I shook it out before I washed it (on gentle, cold water) and then before I put it in the dryer (on low heat for 30 minutes) and again after the dryer to fluff it up a bit and it's STILL shedding threads.

In other news, now that this one is out of the way I can finish my star! Here is a picture of some finished stars from my class... beautiful!

 

Kids Quilt!

 I used to dream of all the little things my daughter and I would to together as she grew up. I think it's a secret desire of all women who have little girls that they will lovingly follow in their mother's footsteps and instantly love all the delicious and sweet traditions that we loved, too. Not so in my case.

My daughter and I are polar opposites. How things like this happen are beyond me, but she's ultra girly, speaks in an octave only heard by dogs, and loves pretty dresses and skirts. I am in essence, a tom boy. Granted, if I was the kind of seamstress that loved to sew pretty dresses and skirts, she'd be decorated from head to toe, but I like quick little projects that award a relatively fast sense of accomplishment. This makes me happy! It makes me feel like I'm getting somewhere!

So, imagine my shock when she announced that she wanted to make a quilt for her half sister Sophie! At first I was skeptical.... can a 7 yr old REALLY quilt?? Then I thought why not, the local fabric store was having a sale and I had some gems tucked away so we decided to go for it.

SIX DAYS later, in the middle of all kinds of chaos and happenings, with a visitor from Canada in our home and various goings on, I present the finished product...

 The striped fabric and the colorful blocks with the turquoise on them are Michael Miller's Happy Hills and I always buy my designer fabrics from the fabulous Amy Dunn over at Pinked Fabrics!! She's kept her prices at the $8.50 mark so it's keeping designer fabrics easier to afford these days!

I then paired them with the fabrics Emma (my daughter) wanted from my local fabric store. We are in the middle of getting her store on ETSY so you can all enjoy the same super low prices I get to, because when I bough those fabrics up there she had them on sale for 50% and I didn't pay more then $1.50 PER YARD. Over the course of the next 2 weeks I think it will be up and fully running with little tidbits!!

Anyway the entire quilt maybe set me back around the $20 mark.... maybe. It's crazy how cost effective they can be when you pair some really splashy fabrics with happy little blenders that are dirt cheap!!

We are pretty happy with the way it turned out....

 Have a funtastic 4th weekend to my American peeps, and a wonderful Canada Day to my Canadian peeps!!!

xox

Lonestar!

 Thanks for your comments about my previous battle with the sewing machine! It's still an ongoing battle and it now has an appointment at the sewing machine doctor. Little nightmare.

So, what a better way to celebrate my 'machine is making me batty' then with a new, really hard project! Yeah! *sigh* Someone come kick me in the rear end.

My little local fabric hole-in-the-wall hosts a quilty gathering of ladies on Thursday nights. I've always wanted to get in there so I decided to partake on their journey with them... and promptly bit off more then I can chew. Meet, the Lonestar:

I forget where I stole this from but it's not MINE!!!! I stole it. It's pretty though, right?

Well, thats the Lonestar done right. It's a really pretty quilt in person and since I'm not one to do traditional quilts I thought yanno, I should probably do one for fun.

Ha.

Fun.

More like giving myself a bald patch.

Here are the colors I chose:

What does that translate to?

Where am I currently? I'll tell you where I am. I'm in the corner rocking back and forth real slow like. Things I've learned about myself:

1. 45 degree angles and me are a bad combination.
2. I think it is possible to wear out a stitch ripper.
3. I need a money tree.

This quilt is amazing when it's done and that is what I keep telling myself after day three of sewing, ripping and re-sewing. The diamonds have to be pieced together with perfection ... all the seams have to look like they flawlessly run together. Right.

Currently, I have two whole diamonds pieced and sewn. I have the other 6 sewn together in the first 3 rows only. Why? Because I discovered row 4 was cut to the wrong strip size!!! I cut my fabrics at 3" instead of 3.5" and they pieced wrong so today I have to cut, strip sew and 45degree cut row 4 again... and then sew it to the 6 remaining points so I can finish the star in this quilt.

What happens tonight at quilt class? I'm not sure. they are going to analyze my sewing and let me tell you something. The back of this quilt looks like a spiders web that was caught in a tornado. I hack sewed this puppy together like a true hack-pro.

Lesson learned: I love my squares.

Stay tuned for the anti-climatic unveiling of the Lonestar in it's wonderul mis-shapen glory. LOL.

One of THOSE Days

 Typically people comment on how patient I am when it comes to doing the things I want to do. If you know me outside of this blog, you know that the moment someone says that to me (which is a lot!) I promptly laugh for a good ten minutes. I am not a patient person. I am a busy person. Busy people are either terribly efficient, or incredibly inefficient, I'm actually not too sure what it is. Regardless, I'm just really busy. I'm a mother, teacher, entrepreneur and part time seamstress. I enjoy what I do until I run into days like THIS. Today. Day # I'm-too-hot-to-count of the heat, and behind in sewing like you would not believe.

I'm in the quilting stage for my sweet little baby quilt.

 I backed it with the sweetest buttery yellow cotton from my favorite hole-in-the-wall fabric store. (Mimi's Treasures in Rock Spring, GA if you are down here!) It was on sale for $1.50 a yard! I bought double what I needed just because I have a horrible fabric hoarding problem! Eek! Anyway, I sandwiched it with it's organic cotton batting, perfect for little sensitive bundles, and then pinned it to the backing and went to quilt it thinking I'd just do a simple little square stitch quilt job when all of a sudden.....

Urgh.

Ripped out the stitches.

I adjusted my tension, and tried it out on a scrap fabric sandwich.... all good.

Attempt #2 at quilting baby blanket, and what do you think happened? Yes, refer to the above picture.

Ripped out more stitches.

I'm feeling a little bitter at this ripping thing. This thread is Orange so it's not like it's blended in and I can just hide the stitch with a hand-over job.

Adjust the tension, sew a bit to make sure and .... all good! Just to be sure I clean out the bobbin house, check my thread, make sure my needle is sharp. Yes, all seems okay.

I'm feeling confident now because I've just tested the heck out of this tension and so in goes the baby quilt and 3/4 of the way down the quilt... SKIP.

($)*#(*$)@*$#%$

x 10.

So now I've ripped the threads out and I've folded up the baby quilt and I'm blogging! I hope you're all having a wonderful Friday and not wanting to throw your beloved machines out the window along with me!

xox

Winners and South Carolina

 Well, first thing is first.... how was your Memorial Day weekend? Ours at Casa Thompson was busy and relaxing at the same time which is odd, i know but children always add such a wonderful mix of surprise and chaos!

I promised I'd post some images from our recent trip to Isle of Palm in South Carolina but before I do, I guess I should spill about our SMS winner!!

I've decided that I'm always going to do my giveaways like this one- with jokes and fun things to read because I'm sure that most of you know all blog writers LOVE comments and they read as many as they can! It would honestly take me days and days to read 3 or 4 hundred like some blogs had. Crazy! Regardless, my husband loved SO many of your jokes but the one that had him on the floor was one by Wemailaddress2. I am not going to repost it because it's not the cleanest joke on the planet but it's funny!

Congratulations to you and she's been confirmed so there will be no redrawing! As a special treat for all of you though, you can have 20% off anything I sew for children so hop over to my facebook and tell me what you'd like me to sew up for you, ok?

Isle of Palm... some pretty little images of what our 5 day stay and the stunning Isle left us with...

Starfish and Hermit Crab

My little peanut on the beach <3

The view from under our beach umbrella!

My handsome mister with a baby shark! (yes we threw it back in!)

Sunrise on the morning we left.

 Have a fantastic week!!

SMS Winner!

Just wanted to let you all know we selected our winner and I've emailed them, and I'm waiting for them to confirm before I announce so LOOK IN YOUR EMAIL BOX!!

xox

Teachers!

Wow! I think my rear end is flat after spending the last two days looking at EACH and EVERY blog entered on the Sew Mama Sew giveaway. I have to. I didn't enter every contest, but I just wanted to say that I had taken the time to see what everyone had put forth in their efforts and I am BLOWN AWAY! It's so amazing to see such a wonderful world-wide collection of amazingly talented people. Bless you all. If you are looking for my giveaway- which is piling up in the corner of my sewing room right now, please click HERE. You have one more day!! I extended it to allow non-registered users to post... so GO ENTER!

I have to tell you that keeping the prize on the down-low means that I get to read every single comment without going cross eyed and we are both enjoying your jokes very much <3

In other news... look here at the new patterns I tried out! I bought these from Keyka Lou who is a very talented and wonderful sort, and I really LOVE how easy her patterns are to use. I bought them specifically for Teacher gifts! I let my daughter help me over-stitch the top flap of the Heather Bailey clutch and she did a great job didn't she? I had to go over it by hand to tie down some loops and even it out a bit but she did a great job. <3

Up next: I have a request in for an e-reader cover!

Thanks for stopping by and good luck in all the draws you've entered!!

xo

Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Time!

I'm super excited to be part of this giveaway again this time around! Last time I was lucky enough to win two prizes as well as give a lovely family some sweet little hair flowers! This time however, I know what you really want and it's not flowers! I'm giving you something really fantastic.... I'm offering up some fabric from my stash!!

Lucky winner gets a half yard of:

Yup! That's Amy Butlers Soul Blossoms Passion Lilly in Mulberry!

They will also receive a collection of other fabrics that I have stashed around in my shelves but I'd rather ask them what they like to sew before I randomly pull things! Do you like flannel? Cottons to quilt with? Let me know! HINT: You'll love what I have stashed away because I'm a Michael Miller fanatic!

Here's how to enter:

1. Fan me on Facebook
2. Follow me on this blog
3. Leave a comment below telling me you did those two things (if you are not on facebook just follow my blog!) and tell me a funny joke because my husband is going to pick the winner based on the best joke!

GOOD LUCK!

Edited to add: This closes at MIDNIGHT on THURSDAY the 26th, 2011! I'll announce the winner sometime on the 27th :)

Edited to add again...  Sorry if you could not comment! I have fixed my comment settings and it should allow you to comment now if you don't have a google/blogger account. If you are an anonymous user, make sure to include your email address so I can let you know if you've won! I'll extend my deadline by an extra date so you can still get in on the fabrics!!!