March - In like a lion, out like a lamb.

It was a loooonggg month of March at my house. I had two kids with strep throat, and ended up sick myself. Sicker than I can remember being for an awfully long time. The germs have passed, along with the ending of Daylight Savings Time, and I am really ready for spring to kick in.

I did quite a bit of sewing at the beginning of the month, and just finally finished the top to a baby quilt for some friends on Sunday. It's another "thanks to Twitter" project. The pattern designer, Rachel Griffith, tweeted about her new pattern, "Flipside" being available at Fat Quarter Shop. When I saw it, I knew I had to make it for someone. Anyone. So I ordered the pattern right away. Just so happened, that I also saw a tweet (or a newsletter) from Above All Fabric saying that Kate Spain's Central Park was available. Just what the pattern called for! Much internet shopping ensued.

I didn't read the pattern carefully enough, and I just started cutting as soon as the fabric came. I ended up making the larger size (not the crib size) of the quilt, which was 4 blocks by 4 blocks. I decided to keep it that size, I'd always rather have a quilt a little big than too small. Don't you think??

Here is the finished top. Which I LOVE. Funny though, when I finished my blocks, I was so proud...they all measured around 12 1/4" and I thought "look at me! I'm finally not making those wide seam allowances anymore. I can just trim them all to the perfect 12" size, isn't this GREAT". So trim away I did. Then I re-read the directions to find that the blocks were supposed to be 12 1/2"!! So, I had to trim my sashing and center squares to fit. But everything is nice and square now!!



After my "adjustments", I'm very pleased with how my sashing lined up.



On a more personal note the best part of March, by far, was my first "vacation" with my husband since our honeymoon almost 3 years ago. We went to Vail, Colorado to ski for 3 days. I had only ever skied in the "east" and was absolutely blown away by the breathtaking Rocky Mountains. My husband is a photographer AND a skier, so he was in his glory for this trip...


This was the first year I would actually call myself a legitimate skier. I'd been skiing before, a handful of times, but I went around 20 times this year with all of the record breaking snow that we got, and my skiing improved dramatically. I was actually able to ski this...which is part of the China Bowl on the back side of the mountain at Vail. It was SO much fun and I was really proud of myself.



We had an absolutely fantastic trip. Best of all, I'm actually looking FORWARD to next winter, which I never imagined I would say. The weather was perfect, and we came home to happy kids. You can't ask for anything more than that!



Hopefully, I can hop back on the blogging bandwagon. Up next, I'm going to start on a raincoat for my daughter with Amy Butler's Little Splashes pattern.

Dream Come True...Sewing Room Clean Up

So the pictures were tough to take, because, well, because it's a tiny hole of a room in my basement that had a single bulb to light it. These are the before pictures of my sewing room. It's emptied out for our super-de-duper general contractor to come and spruce it up. Note the HORRIBLE brown ceiling tiles. YUCK!





I had originally intended on going with lots of color and a full on "studio" re-do. However, while I was waiting for the contractor to be available, we decided to finish our attic into a master bedroom. So....that means that I'll have a real upstairs room to sew in sometime this year, and I wanted to keep the cost of this room to a minimum. The reason I decided to go ahead and finish it at all is because we live in a 1929 Tudor, and are VERY short on storage. People just didn't have big closets then. So when I move upstairs later this year, this will become a legitimate storage area/closet. It was so dusty and dirty before...pretty much unusable for anything not in boxes or plastic bins.

But now...

Note the super bright white walls. There's even crown moulding! I hung one thing, it's a piece of art my dear friend Kari gave me for Christmas (she is an amazing cupcake maker, see Sweet Emotions). You can also see my stack of blocks for my Flipside Quilt. One piece left and I can sew them into rows.




I can now press where I sew, which means awesome time savings. I cannot wait to fill up the shelves with my fabric in an organized way...they had literally just been stacked and thrown in before.





Now I will grant you, this is super basic, but it is the Taj Mahal compared to how it used to be. The light alone makes me want to go down and sew. Like right now!

Winner!!

Hi everyone! I let my kids choose the number for the winning comment, and they chose lucky number 7. Congratulations Aubrey! i will get your Bari J treat package out this week!

Thank you all for your comments, and here's to reaching 100 followers!

The Little Things Make Me Happy

It’s hard for me to believe that the time has passed by so quickly, but in the middle of January, my blog turned two years old. The first year, blogging was very intermittent for me. As my sewing skills improved that year, I cared MUCH more about sewing than blogging about my sewing. Then last year when I got my new machine, and I attended BOTH Quiltmarkets, I worked on trying to be more consistent blogging.

This year, as part of my plan to move my business and craft to the next level, I drafted an actual PLAN. A calendar. With short term goals and long term goals. And targets. You name it, I planned for it. So far, it has been a smashing success! I have blogged at least once a week and I have watching my subscribers slowly tick up.
I told myself that if I hit 50 followers I would have a giveaway. Just because it would be a cool thing to celebrate.

So here’s the rules for entries in the giveaway…you can

1. Follow my blog
2. Leave a comment if you’re already a follower about your favorite post I’ve done
3. Leave a link to one of your other favorite blogs (if you’re already a follower), or
4. Leave a comment about what you’d like to see more of (if you’re already a follower).

One entry per person please! ** BE SURE TO LEAVE ME AN EMAIL OR WAY TO GET IN TOUCH WITH YOU **

Here’s the fun part…the giveaway!

Because I have been blessed with such amazing fabric friends, I have some gorgeous fabrics used to work on samples for them. I have 5 fat eighths of gorgeous FULL BLOOM fabric by the amazing and awesome Bari J. Her book “Inspired to Sew” can be found on Amazon, and at your local Barnes & Noble, or even on her website. She has an AMAZING new line coming out this spring called "Paris Apartment" that she sneak peeked on her blog HERE, so grab this great bundle from her first line before it all disappears forever. Her fabrics are so much fun to work with!





So help me celebrate, spread the word, and enter to win a great little package of fabric. Drawing will be open through Monday (February 28), and I’ll post a winner on Tuesday of next week (March 1)!

Learning to Wonk

I tweeted some time ago (how long? it all blends together, but I think about 4 weeks ago) that I was interested in trying to make some wonky blocks this year. I got lots of great comments back, and suggestions, but without a doubt, the most common response I got was "Go to Quilt Dad's tutorial...it's the BEST". So I went right there, printed it out, and it sat on my cutting table. And sat, and sat.

Another new time sucker upper I've been fooling around with is Pinterest. It is the most amazing site for inspiration. Every day people add gorgeous new photos they find all over the net. And you can make your own "boards" of any topic you like. Fun, fun, fun. Without question, every few days, I'd see a new wonky block, and my inspiration would grow. My NEED to make a wonky block just became too much to handle. So I dove in.

Now, I didn't do all that formal "planning" and "prepping" Quilt Dad talked about. I just DOVE in. I started digging through my scraps to find fabric and had at it. This is what I ended up with.



One of the things I love the most about wonky blocks is that they look different from different sides. So if you turn the block, it looks like a whole new block. Again, FUN.



I was able to make it an actual trued up square, so I was very happy with that. I really enjoyed the spontaneous nature of making it, too. I'm sure this is the first of many.

Just for a little eye candy...here's some of the photos that inspired me. These photos are all courtesy of Pinterest, where they have the original source built into the link of the photo. Go look for yourself!







Aren't they delicious?

Starry Night progress and how to enjoy a snowy winter

It's hard to believe, but February is the 8th month of my Starry Night BOM. With each of these that I do, I can really see improvement in my piecing. I really like the colors on this block too. I'll for sure be making one of the filler blocks with these colors.



Switching gears...as you may well know, it has been the snowiest winter in VERY long time around here. The result is that my sweetie has gotten full on back into skiing and has pulled me along with him. Last weekend we drove up to Stratton Mountain in Vermont on Friday so we could ski for the day Saturday.

Here's WBR (that's World's Best Rob) at the top of the mountain...look how low to the ground those trees are and how caked they are with snow!



I'd never been to a "big" Vermont mountain, so I really enjoyed the view from the top. It was challenging skiing for me for sure, but there were loads of trails to try, and many lifts, so we got a full day of skiing in. I went down my first "glades" trail (where they don't take out the trees and you have to ski through the woods) and only fell down four times!



Just so you all can see what a goober I can be...this is a picture I took of myself (with my new iPhone, my old one got dropped in a bathtub and died the night before). You can see how giddy I am, both to be at the top of the mountain, but also to be enjoying my new toy.



We had so much fun on our day away, that when we came home, we decided to take the kids to a smaller local mountain in Massachusetts called Butternut on Sunday to see how THEY liked skiing. These pictures were taken BEFORE any skiing was actually done. Note the happy faces.



And here's Ally, making sure her big brother is actually smiling for the camera (which he wasn't).



For better or worse, they both did ok, but neither of them seems to be clamoring to go back. So for now, it looks like skiing will by my thing to do with Rob. Which is ok by me.

What do you do with your family outdoors in the winter? I'd love to hear about it.

Next up, an update on my argyle quilt for my little (big) man, and my first wonky block!

New York Sewing Weekend Workshop with Heather Ross!

I don't have any pictures...just a teeny, tiny note from Heather that I got in...

http://heatherross.squarespace.com/journal/

On Veteran's Day weekend, I'll be off to NYC to soak up as much knowledge and inspiration as I can from...are you READY???

Heather Ross
Jay McCarroll
Liesl Gibson
Gretchen Hirsch

Yowza! The description is brief, but full of promise...

"Workshop Fees include accommodations (tentatively The Ace Hotel) Friday and Saturday nights, most meals, a sewing machine and workspace in our sewing studio, all instruction and participation in sewing labs and demonstrations, plus guest-teacher-led shopping (with a little culture thrown in) trips to New York City’s best sewing, craft, and design shops. We can also promise loads of inspiration, laughs, and some excellent pastries."

Pastries?? Does Heather Ross know me already??

I cannot wait to share.