Are you a joiner?

I know I am... I love quilt alongs. Isn't it fun to see what everyone does with the same block or quilt? There are a ton of quilt alongs going on right now in blog and flickr land. I hesitated to start another one among the myriad that are already available, but as I have been saying to some of the people who have commented, don't worry I am not taking it away. It will still be here when you get around to it :) I have decided to simplify a bit this year. I had planned on joining quite a few of the quilt alongs that are going on right now, but I am de-committing :) I find that I am more excited about doing some things that I design myself this year. Here is quilt along that I am continuing though:

How could I not continue this one?

The January Bag

Hi Everyone,

Remember back here when I told you about my city outlawing plastic grocery bags? I promised then that I would be making one bag a month this year so that in January of 2012, when we either have to pay for paper bags or bring our own, we would be ready. I almost let January slip past but just in the nick of time...

The January bag.

My garage doorknob is doing the modeling honors LOL.  I made it this morning.. took pics to do a tutorial then figured there were plenty of tote bag tutorials out there. Next week you might see a little tutorial on how to make your sides look as good as the back and front though.

Have a great weekend!

We Have a Winner....

Hi Everyone,

Thanks so much for entering my "We Made it to 100" Giveaway.

Our winner is:

Anita said...
Oh my word, a "simple" give away! I love it and I love love your blog, happy 100!
January 25, 2011 7:14 PM


Anita I have emailed you. I had a couple requests for a review of the book so I took some pictures and I will do that in the next couple days.

Thanks again to all that entered.

Supply List for the 3C quilt...

Hi Everyone,

First please notice that we won't start sewing until Monday 2/7 now. I forgot that something special is happening next Friday that you won't want to miss :) Second, though I did fabric estimates for the 3C quilt, I did not add a lot of extra in. So add fudge room if you are like me and make cutting mistakes sometimes. The ones that say 1/4 yd or an F8, if you get the 1/4 yd you will have fudge room. The larger amounts you might want to add an extra 1/8th to if you worry about having enough. One other thing, the scale of the fabrics in my rendering are not accurate (they are the best I could do with the pictures I could get) so it will look slightly different to the picture (mostly the florals are a little larger etc). The list is of the fabrics exactly as they are shown in the drawing but I will be using scraps so I might be substituting here and there,. I will let you know if I do. You do not have to use these fabrics, of course, use what you like or what you have in your stash if you want.

Quilt is approximately 52" x 54"

Supply List:

All Fabrics "Sweet Divinity" by The Quilted Fish for Riley Blake

C6105 Cream Sweet Daisy (cream background)

1 ¾ yd

C6100- Blue Sweet Main Floral (large blue floral)
1 yd if piecing border
1 ½ yd if not piecing border

C6101 Blue Sweet Dot (blue small dot)
¼ if piecing border
¾ yd if piecing border includes binding
1 1/8 if not piecing border includes binding

C6101 Cream Sweet Flower (green background medium floral)
¼ yd or F8

C6106 Pink Sweet Dot (pink small dot)
¼ yd or F8

C6010 Blue Sweet Flower (blue background medium floral)
¼ yd or FQ

C6100 Pink Sweet Main Floral (large pink floral)
¼ yd or F8

C6103 Pink Sweet Vine (pink floral lattice)
¼ or F8

C6102 Pink Sweet Trinkets (pink small motif print)
¼ yd or F8

C6102 Blue Sweet Trinkets (blue small motif print)
1/4 yd or F8

C6105 Pink Sweet Daisy (tone on tone pink floral)
5/8 yd

C6105 Blue Sweet Daisy (tone on tone blue floral)
¼ yd or FQ

C6104 Pink Sweet Stripe (small multi color stripe)
8” x 8” piece

C6104 Blue Sweet Stripe (small multi color stripe)
8” x 8” piece

C6104 Cream Sweet Stripe (small multi color stripe)
8” x 8” piece

Backing
Approximately 2 1/2 yds

Very Light Weight Fusible Interfacing (if you want to do easy turned appliqué)
20 x 20 piece
or
Fusible Web
20 x 20 piece (if you want to do raw edge appliqué)

Buttons different sizes and shapes
approximately 40

Other embellishments of your choice (optional)

Thread to match

Fabrics are available:

Here

and

Here

Are You A Pretty Princess?

Do you know one? I am not one, but I play one on TV... :)

I do know a pretty princess. You think I am going to say my daughter don't you? Well, she is a girl and she is my princess but if I called her that, or especially "Pretty Princess", she would smack me (tomboy much?). No, my pretty princess is my niece Ashley... she loves all things pink. (You do still like pink right Ashley?) I designed this quilt with her in mind. It is a girl's best friend. You know the 3 Cs? No, not cut, color, and clarity. It is candy, cupcakes and cookies.


Approx. 52" x 55"



Of course I am using Sweet Divinity by The Quilted Fish. Starting in two weeks and for the next 5 weeks I am going to post a row by row tutorial for making this quilt. Would you like to quilt along with me? This will be a super easy peasy quilt along. Perfect for beginners. I will post the fabric requirements tomorrow. We will start piecing Monday after next  2/7/2011 (this was edited because something else you all will want to see is coming next Friday, trust me it is super cool!)

Blog Awards.... and my friend at Adventures of a Cross Stitch Drama Queen

Hi Everyone,

Two of my good friends/blog buddies have given me blog awards lately...

First by Anna aka "The Peaceful Piecer"

Then by Hollie aka "The Undercover Crafter"

I love these two ladies and their blogs...you will notice that a few days ago I featured Hollie... but I really was in a conundrum. The purpose of these awards is to feature blogs with less than 300 followers... to post links to three blogs that you love that are not as exposed. My problem is I have a bunch of favorite bloggers with fewer than 300 followers so how can I choose just three? So my solution to this is to do as I started a few days ago, with Hollie, and feature a blog once a week. I want to make it meaningful and actually tell you the things I love about each one of them.

Today I want to introduce you to Jana at "Adventures of a Cross Stitch Drama Queen". I am so happy to call Jana a friend. She is also on The Quilted Fish's Creative Consulting Team with me. She does a lot more than Cross Stitch too, let me tell ya. This girl is what I always wanted to be, truly witty and funny (I mean belly laugh funny)  not to mention beautiful ;) Please, just go and read a few posts, and tell me if you don't agree. While you are there why not leave her a comment and tell her how beautiful she is.... I mean who doesn't want to hear that :)

I gakked this from her blog... the scooters slay me...

The "We Made it to 100" giveaway...

Yep, we made it. So here is the giveaway:

"Sew What Bags by Leslie Barnes and 5 fat quarters of Soul Blossoms from Amy Butler.

There is only one comment necessary this time. This is a giveaway for my regular readers and followers so no need to post anywhere else. Just leave me any kind of comment on this thread and you are entered. Please only enter once. Please make sure there is a way for me to get a hold of you.

Edit: oops forgot to say when I was closing the giveaway. It is open until midnight Friday night Pacific time.

Talk soon!

And we have a winner....

My friend good old Random.org chose our winner out of the 213 qualifying entries....

Number 4 was:

Mommarock said...


 I blogged about your giveaway at http://runtomomma.blogspot.com/2011/01/sherbet-pips-giveaway.html but I hope I still win ;)


January 19, 2011 6:58 AM

 
Mommarock I have emailed you and will get your little lovelies out as soon as possible.  Thanks to everyone who entered stay tuned for more fun and a new giveaway later today.

Tonight is the night...

I pick the winners of the Sherbet Pips giveaway. Be sure to enter by midnight tonight. I will leave you with two words.

Cupcake and Swimming Pool

Okay it is three words but who's counting?

Wow... almost to 100....

Wow, everyone! Thanks for following along. I am almost to 100 followers (actually there are a few more that follow through RSS feed) but the ones that show here on Blogger are the ones I am using to count. If I get to 100 this week I will do another giveaway... I mean we have to celebrate right?

So how about this... five fat quarters of Amy Butler's Soul Blossoms and a really fun book "Sew What Bags".

As of writing there is only one more follower to go. So if we get there by Monday when I close the Pips giveaway, I will start a giveaway for these on Tuesday :)

I am still getting tons of comments from people that are No Reply... this is the last time I will mention it. If you don't know if you are no-reply do these steps:

Log into blogger on your dashboard page, click where it says "edit profile" on the left side of the page. Then check "SHOW EMAIL ADDRESS" in the 3rd line down, and at the bottom of the page click SAVE PROFILE!

If you do not want your email attached to your comments then leave your email in spelled out form in your comment so I can get a hold of you.

Meet "The Undercover Crafter"

I have been thinking about highlighting one of my blogging friends every week and today is the perfect day to start since I entered Hollie's giveaway for some Amy Butler fabric.

Hollie is one of the Round Robin participants and she is an amazing artist. You should go check out her blog. She is so interesting. She just got back from her honeymoon to some very interesting places. Today is her one month anniversary and her one year anniversary to blogging so go give her some love. Maybe you will win some fabric :)

Just a reminder...

If you do not have an email address attached to your comment for the giveaway I can't notify you if you win. I had about 20 comments with no reply emails. So if you are a no reply commenter please mail me with your email address so that I can attach it to your name in case you win. You can email me at jewelsarmcandy at gmail dot com. If you did not receive a reply to your comment then you are one of the ones that I do not have an email for. I have replied to all of the comment as of 9:00 PM Pacific Time on Wednesday...

I just don't want you to miss out :)

Sherbet Pips Giveaway

Hi Everyone,

Like I told you a few days ago I was so lucky to get into Miss Julie's fabric shop and get some Sherbet Pips charm packs. I had a goal and that was to get some to play with and to give some to one of you to play with. I am giving away two charm packs. I have gone back and forth about whether to split them up or send them both to one person. I have decided to send them both to one person... after all you can't make much with one charm pack....

So here are the ways to enter:

1. Leave a comment.

2. Become a follower and comment that you did, or if you already follow, remind me :)

3. Blog, Twitter, or Facebook about the giveaway and come back and let me know in a seperate comment.

Make sure that there is a way for me to contact you when you comment if you are a no reply blogger. The giveaway runs until Monday 1/24 at midnight Pacific time. I will announce the winner Tuesday morning.

That's it...easy peasy lemon squeezy.

Talk Soon!

First Quilt Hope In Quilt

Hi Everyone,

A few months back... okay 6 months back LOL... I bought some charm packs to use for hexagons. I wanted to have something to do on the plane on the way to and from Rome. Here they are:

So yesterday as I was cleaning up and re-organizing my sewing room (aka the living room) I came across the left over charm squares. They were mostly boy colors so I decided to make a disappearing nine patch with them. Low and behold I had just the right amount to make four D9P blocks. I added a teal border and voila a baby boy quilt for Quilt Hope In.

I just adore these little owls.

My goal for today is to get my chores done early and get this little guy quilted.

Come back tomorrow for the Sherbet Pips giveaway.

Talk soon!

Pour Some Sugar on Meeeee....(AKA I Has Pips and I's Gonna Share)

(Yes, I was a teenager in the 80's, gotta love Def Leppard)

Woohoo! I got some sugar in the mail today!

Edit: I just realized that I didn't say why it was "Sugar" because it is "Sweet Divinity" and "Sherbet Pips" (which are a type of candy BTW besides being cute fabric)

First from my favorite Fish (The Quilted Fish) Amanda....

Holy Guacamole look at all this stuff Batman! I want to play with it so bad... can't wait until Monday when I have a minute. Dots, dots, dots I am in heaven. Just wait until you see what I make with this!

Second I was lucky enough to elbow my way to the front of the line when Miss Julie put up her new pre-cuts for sale and look what I got to share with you! Yes!!! Piiiiips! I am so excited. If you haven't seen it in person yet just wait you are gonna love it! I am giving away two (yes two) charm packs. I will post the giveaway soon... very very soon! So stay tuned.

Don't they look cute in my begonias?

The Stash Buster Block

Hi Everyone,

I decided to try to get the center for my Good and Fun Round Robin Quilt done yesterday. I am on a mission to bust my stash this year. I  had a pile of fat quarters and half yards of Joel Dewberry's Modern Meadow so I took them out and thought I would do a film strip style block with them. My husband loves what I came up with but... I think it is the lack of Raspberry, Red or Tangerine that keeps me from adoring it... otherwise I think it is pretty okay... I put the measurements and layout below so that you can bust some stash with it too if you want...you can twist and turn the four blocks any way you want but I laid them out a lot of ways and liked them best like this.

One of the things that I like about this block is that it doesn't take much background fabric (something I am always notoriously short one) ;)




ooops you get to see my lack of ironing here LOL

 

For each block you need:

2 background rectangles 1 1/4 by 12 1/2

1 background rectangle 1 by 6 1/2

1 background rectangle 1 1/2 by 2 1/2

4 background rectangles 1 1/4 by 2 1/2

4 squares 2 1/2

2 rectangles 6 1/4 by 6 1/2

1 rectangle 3 by 12 1/2




I made a mistake and had to use green out LOL

 

Hey! I thought I lived in California!

The other morning I had to go to the dentist and I had to scrape ice off my car....

After taking the picture of the ice I stepped back onto the porch and turned around... don't I have a lovely view? I guess I won't complain about the ice :)

Why No Jewelry On Sew Jewely?

Hi Everyone,

As those of you who have been following me a little while might know I don't just sew, I also make jewelry. I started making jewelry a couple years ago because I had an itch to learn something new. So why don't you see my jewelry on the blog? The simple truth is jewelry is super hard to photograph. No picture that I seem to be able to take can truly capture it. I am determined to get better at jewelry photography this year. I am also determined to learn something about composition since I am rarely satisfied with my photos even when they are in focus and everything else...but I digress. What this post is meant to be about is jewelry. You will see more of it around here from now on... don't worry you will also see more sewing. So here is my latest attempt at jewelry photography...

Bronze, garnet, acrylic,czech glass,swarovski, charm necklace.

This necklace is a departure from my usual pieces. I normally work with precious metals, gemstones, and swarovskis (okay so there are gemstones and swarovskis in it). I don't know why but one night I just decided to make something different and this is what came out. There are deep dark faceted garnet beads that I thought really set off the lavender acrylic focal piece... I love the heart charms... then I added a little pearly white and crystal clear to lighten it up a bit. I think it is a nice piece for valentines too... I think I will put it in my etsy shop and send the money to Heartline for the Teen Mom Home I better get it there quick before it is too late for Valentine's :) EDIT: here is the link if you want to see the listing in my shop.

Speaking of jewelry... wonder what this is going to become...

Yummy Sweet Divinity

And speaking of sewing... I started out with this yesterday...

Begonia is blooming...so pretty.

And it became this:

Talk soon...

Thirteen Years Ago Today...

I was in a hospital room, looking out at Mount Rainier, or at the TV (it was a Sunday and I was watching the NFL Playoffs... Redskins vs.... I don't remember), waiting for the girl who is the light of my life to show up... she finally did at 3PM after 26 hrs of labor :)  Here are some growing up photos.... she is 4 inches taller than me now... and it is 1/11/11 what a cool number.

In need of a replacement bird....

Due to unforseeable circumstances one of the participants in the Good and Fun Round Robin had to withdraw. We are in search of one more participant. If you want to join in please let me know.

Here are the rules in case you want to know what you are getting yourself into :)


Rules for Round Robin

1. Make a center square for your quilt any size you like. It depends on what you want to get in the end. You will receive back a quilt that is 15 or more inches bigger than what you send in length and width.

2. Choose some co-coordinating fabrics 1/4 yds or 1/2 yds depending on how big your center piece is. If you are sending a 12-20 inch center then 5-10 quarter yards or equivalent. More if you are sending 20 inch or larger center.

3. Get a list of swappers. I will get this out as soon as I get everyone’s info.

4. Send your center and co-coordinating fabrics to the person in the list after you. Ideally I would like everyone to send out their centers and fabrics by the last week of January so that the other quilters have a full month to work on the quilt before it has to be passed on. The first month is the hardest sometimes.

5. Each swapper adds at least 5 inches to the height and width of the center block. This can be done in a variety of ways. Adding at least 2 1/2 inch borders, five to the top and one side, 5 to the bottom and one side, 3 on one side 2 on the other... etc... But be creative, plain strip borders would be a little boring... You can definitely add larger borders too but 5 to the length and width is the minimum.

6. Expect to use some of your stash to supplement whatever the owner sent... half the fun is seeing other people’s stash.

7. You have one month between switches (super important to be on time) then you send it to the next person in the list. The swap should happen no later than the 5th of the next month.

8. When you receive your quilt back you can either finish it and donate it to Quilt Hope In or make another item for their shop (Or you can make an item anytime the more the better) Quilt Hope In is accepting all hand made items it doesn’t have to be a quilt.

9. I created a Flickr album for us to share our progress on our center pieces and during the swap months but let’s try to keep it mostly a surprise… so say you create some blocks for a quilt you can show the blocks but maybe not how you are putting them together… or just a corner of the quilt… or something so that when the owner gets it back it is a lovely surprise.

http://www.flickr.com/groups/1603355@N23/

10. I may have forgotten something or things might not be perfectly clear so if you have questions just let me know and I will address them. These are the only rules I can think of for now but things may come up that I haven’t thought of so don’t get too frustrated if we are learning a little as we go.

Whoop...the cat is finally out of the bag....

I can finally tell you all about the reason I have been so excited lately... That's right, Tracey, no more teasing...

I am so honored and humbled to have been chosen by Amanda Herring of The Quilted Fish to be on her design team. She is calling us Creative Consultants aka. The A Team (for Amanda). The other ladies on the team are just amazing and I have no idea how I will keep up, but I will give it a valiant effort. Come see Amanda's Blog and learn about the whole team.

What did I tell you? Aren't they an amazing bunch? We get to make fun messes with Amanda's gorgeous fabrics and she is going to let us hijack her blog once a week too. Stay tuned for lot's of fun stuff!

It is all rolling along

Hi Everyone,

I am excited that the Round Robin I am organizing is coming along.

 I sent out rules today and opened a flickr group (click on the button my side bar to see) even though there is nothing in there yet. I have high hopes for us :)

For-gedd-about-it

Remember this post Crafting resolutions ... what was I thinking? Like God wouldn't say "Oh you think so do you?" So forget about it all... I have decided that I am not going to hold myself to those boring goals... the only ones I am totally committed to are the two quilts for the Girl's home in Sacramento and doing as much as I can for Quilt Hope In... the rest doesn't matter. I am only making what I want to make this year. If those UFOs stay UFOs so be it. There are way too many fun things going on to hold myself down. I am gonna do a few things that are a little beyond my comfort zone... Oh yes! I have big plans.

Here is something that I want to do:

This is a block for Birdie Stitches which is a BOM by Little Miss Shabby. See the adorable button on my side bar? I have been wanting to do something with embroidery and here it is.

Something Super Exciting Is Happening.

I will tell you about it as soon as I can. (jumping up and down)

Happy New Year

Happy New Year Everyone. Thank you for your get well wishes they mean so much to me.

I have spent a little time on my Fig and Plum bed quilt. I finally found the perfect pattern for me. Pretty but not too fussy. It will look like this:

The only thing I changed from this is that the peach diagonals are scrappy from the fat quarters instead of using yardage. The blocks are all finished I just have to do the applique center and it will be ready to put together. It only took me two days. As soon as I can be out of bed for more than a few minutes without being ill I will get soem pictures of the blocks. It will be 90 inches square.

Yuck alert...if you are squimish don't read beyond here......

If you are wondering how I burned myself... I was using the baster to get some juice from the turkey I made yesterday and squirted the 350 degree liquid all over my chest. I threw myself to the sink and washed down with cold water immediately then used ice but I have huge blisters some larger than quarters all over my chest. I am wearing an old t-shirt because it is oozy and icky but I will live. There are only two small places where it is really bad (worse than blisters). Thank heaven I didn't hit my face.

Hugs... talk soon.