Sister Sewing Day

I had so much fun yesterday, we picked out fabric, thay practiced on extra squares from my skirt while everything was being washed, and there were lots "this is so fun," "i think i have a new hobby" and they did really good. It was there first time at a sewing machine for both of them, poor paige had to use the old brother of my moms that i learned to sew on (cause she lives with it and can use it when she gets home too). oh that brought back the memories. that thing is a pain to use, the tensions rarely right, and the top thread like to break no matter what thread you use or tension level, and it screeches the whoole time. it really just needs a nice little trip to the sewing machine doctor, for its first check up in 25 years of use with no oiling or maintenance whatsoever. poor paige. Blythe was using my machine, cause she doesn't have one anyways so she can use my nice one.

Paige made a cute plaid flannel big bag purse, and blythe made the head of her little big planet sackboy, then had to take off. Blythe also had her first ultrasound today at the hospital i work at, and i got to go with her and see her little 1/2 inch bean with a heartbeat, 7 weeks old. So she has lots of time to finish this doll before the baby is here.

I was really lame and took zero pictures, so i will try to get some, either by email or next week when we meet to sew again!!! yay hanging out with my sisters.

In other news, my husband and I are going to Europe this summer with a group called Royal Servants International to be small group leaders for the euroquest team and get a chance to talk with churches and missionaries in Europe and the UK. we will be gone for 10 or 11 weeks, and I'm super excited because I've gone with this group in highschool to china and scotland, so this feels alot like going home for me, and my husband is coming too, yay. We are hoping to see what God has for us, since we know tim is going to end up working for the church, and we really feel like we need to move away from SoCal. All in all, this seems like a step in the right direction.

I am also working on inventory for an etsy store, and i will hopefully have a few things listed in a week or 2, along with links to my store.

happy monday

all the christmas presents i gave away

ignore the random out of order-ness. these are the cookie mix we made for everyone, the purses for my sisters and me, and the apron for my mother in law. those are not good pics of the apron but i forgot to have her pose, so thats what i have. and she was soooo excited about it.

My sisters also like the purses so much they want to learn how to sew too. super cool. paige(16 and driving) wants to copy a reversible purse blythe(21 and preggers) has. blythe wants to make sackboy from little big planet. so tomorrow we are off to my favorite fabric store, then back home for a sewing party. if anyone knows how to make a sackboy already(that isn't knitted) let me know so i can check it out and be ready for tomorrow. she want to use sock-monkey fabric, and how convenient that my fabric store sells it. i think its moda, or micheal miller that has the sock monkey line, either way i'll know for sure tomorrow.

i'm super excited about this sewing day with my sisters, my family has never cared about my crafty side til now, when i have the space to make a mess and actually finish a project, instead of never starting anything cause mom makes me clean my stuff off the dining room table. cause who wants to start a project, finally figure what your trying to do, then clean up? not me, i do better in a messy messy room. i'm pretty sure blythe is starting to think of me as her own personal baby gear sweatshop, but it'll be fun.

Merry Christmas!

Well, tonight was part 1 of 3 Christmas family gatherings, this time with the dysfunctional side of my family. 3 long hours of people who mostly don't like to be together. Well, everyone has at least 2 people from the group they don't want to spend Christmas with, so we dance around playing nice or avoiding each other. Gramma and step Gramma always create the most drama, and there are weeks of detoxing and bitter comments to wade thru afterwards. I try to avoid it as much as possible, not laughing at the mean jokes or things said under the breath.

But the worst is over, and tomorrow we are going to my great grandma's, for the best chili ever, then to my husbands parents for a big Christmas dinner. With good, normal, no drama people.

much love and happy christmas, and pictures tomorrow

blogging is addictive

Hi my name is codi, and i am a blogger. it started during the summer, when i set up my sewing room, and started looking for quilting stuff online at work, where i only get google related pages. so most of what i was looking at was blogger pages. which obviously led to me needing to make my own blogger account. while i was at work. I posted about twice, and didn't check it for a month, and got sad cause i had no posts, with so many 100, 300, 500 post give aways happening. so i needed to blog more, especially easy when you are just entering giveaways and posting links, or joining a pay it forward (btw, i still have one more spot on mine, if you can find it).

And so i blogged, which made me want to sew, which led me back to blogging. Most of my posting happens at work, i either upload pics and save it as a draft for later, or just write, like now. And then i joined sewcraftblog, and began to notice people were actually coming to my site, and commenting, and i wasn't blogging in the dark anymore. WOO HOO!!!! and the traffic from having my own fantastic giveaway, plus having it listed on agiveawayaday and sewmamasew was amazing. and addicting. i now want my post to be at the top of my sewcraft blog roll, and i want to have posts with amazing pics (which i am working on, getting to be good with my camera and editing pics). and i love seeing my name on someone's blog, whether you link back to me or i'm on a blog roll. such a confidence booster and ego trip.

sorry guys, but i do love that people that i have never met in person are interested in what i'm saying and making. cause my fam doesn't know about this blog. except for my husband, who thinks i'm funny anyways.

And so we come to the point, if this can be considered the point of it all, what with having nothing to do with the title of this post, that i feel like doing a giveaway for every 50 posts i have on my blog. because i feel like it. and giveaways are fun. That being said, I will announce the prize (be it small or large) before post 50, and post 50(or 51 if i forget:) i will announce the winner.

because i like to blog, and you like to win stuff.

3 days till Christmas?!

It snuck up on me this year, not gonna lie.
Everything was slowly going forward after thanksgiving, i bought all the stuff to make presents for all the fam, we put them all together last week, and i've gradually pulling out fabric for aprons and purses for 5 or 6 ladies who are receiving more than the cookies in a jar stuff.
So far, all the jars are filled but not decorated, and i have one apron finished. another one needs to be done tomorrow night, to be used for cooking on christmas eve and christmas, and i'd like to finish the purse for my mom, and the stocking, ipod cover, and computer case for my hubby. I also want to make something for my little sister, probably a purse. And i should make an ipod cover for my brother in law, since he's not to jazzed about cookie mix this year. oh, and get my hubby to decorate cookie jars, while i'm away at work tomorrow.
Did i mention i work 10 hour days at the hospital, and cook dinner when i get home? we'll have to eat out tonight for sure, so i can make lots of stuff. then work tomorrow.
At least i am off on wednesday, so i have until 4 ish to finish.
theres no time anymore.
2 more hours till i'm off work, lets hope i get everything done in time

OMG......

i can't believe how many people come over to my site. seriously.

i thought like 5 people looked at this, and, wow.

i've had like 140 hits today now that i finally have a counter. that's so cool.

thanks a bunch for looking at my blog, to all of you who are coming over. leave a comment or follow me, i promise i'll go see your blogs too.

wow. and thanks for making my day, all of you out there in cyberland

a reversible apron for the new mama to be in my life

whipped this up today, first attempt at free handing (by measuring and using rulers of course), the only down side is once i had it on my side fat was showing too much, so the next one will be couple inches wider, and not so pointy on the bottom. maybe tomorrow. i plan on making these for my sisters and mom, and mil. the coolest part tho is that this apron fits into a quart jar, so everyone still gets a gift in a jar this year. so fun.

How did i do that?

for anyone who wants to know how to make a patchwork circle skirt, head over to Just Tutes, thats where i got my info. She has a great tutorial for a dress with a patchwork skirt, and explains the math behind how it works out. She also has tons of other fun clothing tutorials for kids, its definitely worth looking if you want to make this or something fun for a little girl.

I also reccomend Craftster, do a search there, some other ladies have made some really cool circle skirts, i think one got her idea from justtutes as well. Seeing that another adult had tried this and survived, and that it looks really cool when finished, made it a whole lot easier to start, but a childs size should be alot faster that mine.

finally finished

i'm in love.

just a little update

umm, yeah, so if you read the previous post, you saw that i guesstimated 2 or 3 hours for pinning.

it was more like 6.

and that was just the pinning, it was really closer to 8, but i subtracted the time for dinner, and a little helping my hubby with his homework.

i wanted to die.

its still not a real skirt yet.

i now know how it could take someone 5 months to make this. its really weird and time consuming. its a very straightforward project, but tons of work.

back to work

why yes i do speak a little sewing machine

here's my baby, a brother cs 6000i. My hubby got it for me about 2 years ago for xmas, before we were poor. and yes i had go look and see what it was to tell you. Today i have learned quite a bit more of her language. for instance, if i hear every stitch loudly going into the fabric instead of its normal going fast humming, it means this is going to happen.
that's the bobbin thread. and i left it in and kept on sewing because this is the gathering zigzag, and I'll still be picking it out later, all 55 feet of it. it happens because my top thread jumps off the first spot that holds it when i sew too fast. she doesn't like to go too fast when i'm doing a zigzag. straight stitch is just fine. Anyways, i started noticing the thread jump and fixed it before it made noises, so the rest were more like this if i got too fast. not so bad there, huh.
my darling machine also wants me to delint the bobbin area very thoroughly after each bobbin change, which involves taking off like 3 or 4 pieces to do it right, or she'll start screaming because theres too much lint. she still sews just fine, but yells at me until i clean out the lint. and i seriously thought my machine was dieing the first time this happened. which once also led to me dropping the lint brush down into the machine, being unable to get it out with tweezers, and having to undo a couple little plates on the bottom, which seem to be there so you don't take off the case when you are stupid enough to drop something in. i did have to jiggle it to get it to a place i could catch it from, but i was gentle, i do not have the money to take this girl to the doctors.

This is part of the skirt btw, i have used 4 spools of thread so far, as well as 8 full bobbins, and 4 or 5 partial bobbins i finished off when i was piecing it together. My machine also prefers to have the same exact thread on top and bottom, altho sometimes i get away with different ones if i play with the tension for a while.

i have also learned to always check the tension when i change threads, since i don't want to pick it out of the skirt, i pull out some scraps to make sure all is well.

i am off to gather the last row and pin it to the others, it should take 2 or 3 hours, and i bought a new box of pins since i ran out last row, so i will take a pic so you can see how much pinning is involved. its alot since i was pretty sure i would never need more basic sewing pins. I want to get some of the flowerhead ones, since they're longer and flatter, but i thought i had enough normal ones.

off to pin stuff for a few hours

another giveaway

check out this giveaway, she i giving away a huge stocking full of fun stuff in time for Christmas. http://mommamcblog.blogspot.com/2008/12/stocking-stuffers-giveaway.html

the skirt

so here are the stacks of squares i started with, then a couple of the strips put together.

these blues and greens will be the last row. i plan to cut one strip from each, and get however many patches i can. if this isn't enough i will pull in some purples.
and this is the skirt as of now, laid out on a cal king bed, and covering the whole thing. the top row will be gathered into the waistband and lining, i'm not as fat as that hole on the middle :)

its not as heavy as you would think, just bulky

frakkin huge skirt

this skirt, when folded, takes up my entire backpak. and its heavy. and bulky. it was a joy to push row 5 thru the sewing machine to attach it to the first 4, and i haven't even cut out the squares for row 6.

there will be 120 6in squares for row 6.

thats 55 feet when its all put together.

55 feet of skirt needing to be hemmed.

which has led me to think of cutting row 6 as 6x7in pieces, so when i hem it i don't lose the length. because its pretty close to the floor, and i want to be pretty close to the floor. if i add the inch, and i fold it back up into the hem, i won't lose length?

comments are appreciated, let me know what you think i should do about the hem. pictures tomorrow. i should have taken some sooner, its quite a process.

bonus points if you know the reference for frakkin

Craft addict christmas!!!

go to confessionsofacraftaddict.com

she is having an amazing amazing giveaway of crafty things.

you want them, because i know i do.

go now!!!!

And the winner is.....

I know you are all dieing of suspense, and since i can't sleep for visions of that freaking huge project im working on, the deadly patchwork circle skirt, i thought id pick a winner.

before that tho i will vent about this skirt. i know the suspense is killing you. you can handle it.

i do not recommend this project for the faint of heart. or those who occasionally get cramps in their fingers from hours of pinning and sewing, sewing and pinning, not to mention picking out threads because the 55 feet of skirt panel you just tried to gather was sewn wrong. because you don't even know how to gather. and yeah, i said 55 freakin feet long. my car could wear this skirt twice. the math works. but its that crazy sewing math, where its right in your head, looks good on paper too, and doesn't seem to work out when you try to explain it. like when my husband saw i had a strip of fabric that is longer than the house we live in in my sewing room, and didn't think it would all work out, since my sewing math and his real math weren't communicating very well. the picture didn't work either. but once i figured out a good way to gather (extra wide zigzag stitch over yarn) and was pinning and sewing, sewing and pinning, he thinks it might work now. and it better, or i may have to burn it, cause i am not picking out any threads when its done. no way. but i will finish. i want to wear it, it looks pretty.

its really one those things that should come with a big DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME!!!!!

bleh

anyway, i know you want to see who the winner is, its coming, i promise. The winner will need to email me with the name you want on the reservation for the hotel. I will call them and change it, as well as give you the confirmation # and my cell phone number in case of problems day of. ok?

do you want to know the winner?

i picked the super scientific way by putting all the names in the hat, and picking one. except i forgot 2 names, so i added those and picked again. so it was fair. and no i will never tell what i picked first time around, so don't even think about it. it doesn't count unless everyone gets a fair shot at it.

The winner is

Miss Anne!!!!!

you win!!!

and i know you scrolled your way down here first, to see if you won, all of you. go back and read the top...its probably funny. please know i am a sarcastic person, so blame any thing weird on that.

Congratulations MissAnne!

i don't have your email but please email me via my profile

Last chance

today is the last day to enter to win a four night stay in portland dec 28 to jan 1. you have until 11:59 pm to enter, so please don't miss out. I am very excited to be giving this away. the Winner will be announced around noon on thursday (california time). go here to enter and for full details.

Good luck!

5 hours later

i spent 21.61 today, and got 13 yards of fabric. woohoo. the ruler fabric on top is throwing my average off, it was 8 bucks for the yard. boo. but that ones for the purse. plus, the store had 20% off everything today, which was super. i have also included pics of the ipod cozy/case's that i have made, the spidey one has a pocket for earbuds or the cord, but one of the legs didn't line up. boo. the top pic is my camera case, for my Nikon p80. i love that camera. and the case has a long strap so i can wear it over my shoulder. which i love, hands free.

just realised there are some onesies up there too. i appliqued those my self for my new cousin in laws baby. what do you think, are those sellable? they're pretty stinkin cute.

you can still enter to win the hotel give away (til dec3, hurry up). scroll down alot or go here.

Off to the fabric store

Very soon i will be leaving to go buy fabric(yay!) for various Xmas gifts. and my new purse. I am hoping i will find everything i want in the flat fold section. this year its aprons and hot pads to match. mainly because no one i know has a cute apron. And i like to make them.

there may also be some stash building going on. please don't tell my husband. he thinks my fabric is worth alot less than it is. ie, its all flat fold and he hasn't seen my receipts. (or the 2 bolts under the dresser). occasionally i buy full price if its fantastic. Which i will do today. for my new purse. because all my waiting has not gotten this fabric into the flat fold section where i want it to be.

Tim if you read this sorry i'm being sneaky.... i love you!

yay shopping!

I have been crafty, finally

I love making stuff, and i've been busy in my sewing room since monday. its so nice to have time for crafty things. I have been working on my wedding quilt, in a crumb/logcabinish kind of way. its looking good.

i've been inspired by just tutes patchwork circle skirt and a couple of ladies over on craftster, and i am done cutting out for a brown and beige version of the skirt, with the last row being colorful. I love the look of the rainbow version but i do not think i would actually wear it, and if i put the time in i plan on wearing it. i will put up pics when i find the thing for my camera.

you can still enter to win the hotel stay in portland, just go here until dec 3.

another giveaway

my give away is here, its for a hotel stay, but if you go over to coleshomecooking.blogspot.com you can win some cool measuring cups and amish cinnamon. which is obviously better than regular cinnamon because its amish. And the measuring cups are the nice metal ones. i want them... mine are crappy plastic.... and some are missing.... so go check her out. but dont win. i could use these.

Name my etsy store.....please

I am going to open an etsy store. Really. But i need a name. A good one, something catchy and cute, cause I'm not really sure i want to use death by denim for an etsy store. i plan on selling tutus and ipod cozies/carriers to start. non denim related. but super cute and fun. and fast and easy to make. probably some beanies and scarves too. I crochet.

Anyhoo....help me!

any ideas are welcome, seriously, I'm drawing a huge blank. my blog name is the first time I've named something since i was one. And that was my only baby doll, Nina, who lives on my sewing table watching my scraps. I'm not even sure i was the one who named her. I don't even name pets. I had a cat... and i named her cat.

I'm so lame.

But I'm giving away 4 nights in Portland for new years eve! go here

Hotel Give Away!!

I am giving away 4 nights at the Clarion Hotel Portland Airport (Oregon) for the dates of December 28, 2008 through January 1, 2009.

The room is 1 King size bed, nonsmoking, and comes with a refrigerator and microwave. The hotel also has an indoor heated pool and jacuzzi. Which is good cause it will be winter.

I am giving this away because my husband and I no longer have the money to actually make the trip, and we booked the hotel early on Priceline. I was super excited because we saved a TON of money, but there are no refunds, exchanges, credits toward a future stay, etc. What I can do is change the name on the reservation, and that is how you will benefit.

Don't be worried, I already called the hotel, and I can change the name on the reservation, so this is for real. You will need to figure out how to get there, this is for the hotel only.

So, who wants to win? All you need to do is leave a comment on this post, with a valid email address, so I can contact you. For an extra 3 entries, post about this give away on your blog, with a link to this post. For 5 more entries, post a link on your sidebar thingy. (that's the technical term I promise) Please let me know you will be posting a link so I can go check it out. I don't want to miss anyone.

The deadline to leave a comment is Wednesday December 3, 11:59pm.

Good Luck!

New things

So since i got my second job at the start of October i have been working like a crazy person. MTW 9-6 at the preschool, in the baby rooms, which was so not what i signed up for. Baby room= me being bored out of my mind, because i want to work with 4 year olds. Huge ginormous difference. TH/F is 9-2 preschool, 3-1:30 hospital, where i answer phones, and Sat. is 3-1:30 at the hospital. 65 hours a week with little sleep between Thurs and Fri. Sundays i have off, woo hoo.

Basically my only time to sleep and see my husband is on Sundays, and sadly, lately id rather sleep. or craft, which relaxes me so much. its very difficult because in the few hours i have off, i don't have time to do what i want or need. And it took me about 1 month to crack. Crying, miserable, don't even want to make things, just sitting in my sewing room wishing i had time to do something. See, the preschool job was supposed to be fun. I love teaching preschool, i usually want to go spend time with the kids in my class. but not here, i was with the wrong age group, spoke up about it, and stayed where i was. No helpful boss trying to put me where they said id be working in the first place.

So what did i learn here? manage to speak to some employees away from the boss during the interview. because while they are great at an interview, they just might be the worse boss you could ever have. but people still work there, even tho they hate the boss. and never get their days off on the days they want/ need them. Because the pay is GOOD, about $2 more per hour than is typical in orange county, ca.

What now? i will not be working at the preschool any more as of Friday the21. One more week! my husband is almost done with the semester, and will be able to find a job that goes along with his career choice for post college, as he will now have some decent availability, and a much lighter load next semester. So we will be back to 1 income for a couple weeks, and i think we can survive it. I am also getting a much better time slot at the hospital, 40 hrs a week, m-th, 10am-8-30pm. its the same thing i do now, only better and more hours. and if it is designated full time i will not have to pay for my ohsoinexpensive health insurance. which is like getting a raise. pray for the free health insurance!!!

Eventually i would like to go back to being a preschool teacher. its what i love and i still collect ideas for stuff to do with kids even tho i don't have a class. This was just the wrong place for me right now. And really, i did not want to be working for that boss long term. no way.

Since my new schedule wont start till dec 8. and i took thanksgiving weekend off, i have like 10 days off after this week. And i have alot of stuff planned.

Like this:
quilt or crochet a baby blanket for cousins new baby, born like 2 days ago (yay!)
dress up some plain onesies for same baby
finish my camera case i started last weekend
take pictures of projects and post them
finish quilting the crayon box quilt, which i didn't even reroll after pics, its just folded on the couch.
work on wedding quilt

I might do this (after that of course)
cut out binding for "my first quilt" in purple.
trim the edges of said quilt and begin binding
start working on the Josephine apron, which is in a pile already cut on my sewing table
buy more safety pins, the smaller ones
iron the fabric that was washed, dried and left on the back of my chair
practice my free motion quilting on the sampler quilt.
buy brown thread for wedding quilt quilting

Sew Craft Blog!!!

I have joined sew craft blog group 2. Yay! check it out here

pictures!!!!!

sneak peek, its my wedding quilt. i'm in love with it,
top of crayon box quilt, pattern is from bonnie at quiltville.com. I will probably name/label it as "my first quilt"
And the back of the same quilt, pieced from my stash

Win this quilt!

Isn't this gorgeous! I want one. You can try to win it too. just go to http://sewingwithabbie.blogspot.com/2008/11/win-this-quilt-my-giveaway.html

Be sure to read the story behind it too.

pay it forward

So here are the rules (since i joined on kadotje.blogspot.com)

I will send the first three people to leave a comment on this post a handmade gift within the next 365 days.

I am willing to post anywhere in the world

The catch is that you have to have a blog and be willing to do the same thing....

So if you'd like to participate, then leave me a comment and make sure to leave me a valid email address so that I can contact you for your address, etc.

So if you're game then go ahead and comment!

So I'll send to the first three persons with a valid e-mail address leaving a comment and posting this "post it forward" on their blog too

I'm interested to see when/if anyone comments here in my lonely corner of blogland :)

Wedding gift!

So this morning while not working at the preschool (i called out so i could get some sleep, much much needed) I finished off an apron that's been sitting in my sewing room keeping the dust off my sewing machine case for the past month. Reversible and so so cute. I made the same one for myself, but this one looks nicer since mine was the trial run and had to piece some things together. But its finished! I also "made" some matching kitchen towels, and i desperately want to make some for myself. The best part is that the apron serves as the cutest wrapping ever, with a huge perfect bow on top. Hopefully its their colors since its not returnable :) Sadly, no pictures since I'm posting this from work, but maybe i"ll put some up tomorrow before the wedding, if i manage to get out of bed so early.

I've been a bad blogger

I feel so bad, I haven't put anything up here in over a month! And i've been making things! Not to mention trying to kill myself by working a second job. Anyhoo, i work 65 hours a week and try to do quilty things.

Finished projects:
reversible apron i made up myself
crayon box quilt top, scrappy (from bonnie at quiltville)
backing for quilt top (pieced from my stash)

Ongoing Projects:
quilt crayon box quilt "in the ditch"
reversible apron for me (Josephine from A is for apron) already cut out
organise stash
spend way too much money on fabric
make onesies with little applique cuteness
gaze longingly at the behemoth of a denim quilt on my wall, and hope it will finish itself soon

Since i have no time i have been doing so well at growing my stash, since shopping is easier and less time consuming than the actual quilting. I feel like it is actually worthy to be called a stash, instead of "those 3 pieces of cotton i own." The only reason it has been growing at all is because of a wonderful store where i can buy a yard for 1.69. Its flat fold, but most of the stuff on top is also out on the floor, they just have too much. So now i have so much yummy fabric. I have only brought home 2 pieces from the flat fold that felt like polyester after i washed them. which was weird because i then went and found them on the bolt and they are 100% cotton. So i don't know why its like that. But if you are ever in Huntington beach/fountain valley California, go to jenny's fabrics. the flat fold alone is worth it, plus they have all the new new pretty stuff for about a dollar a yard less than the fancy quilt shop not so far away. But i try not to look at that because i can buy so much in the flat fold. there is a lot of it.

I got my fabric from the swap with quiltpixie, its so cute, thank you so much, yours will be in the mail before thanks giving at least, if i don't get there sooner. its all ready to go, its just making the trip to the post office, or having my husband do that.

i have definitely been reading blogs, i just spend all my time at work on the weekends looking at blogspot sites (the work computer will only show me google related sites) so if you don't do blogspot, sorry, i haven't seen your page. But i want to! when i have a few minutes of not work time for lazing around with the computer.

OOH!!! i am also going to go the the Ontario California quilt show in January, road to California. I will not be taking classes, as i don't have the money, but i do plan on going to meet quilters and see all the beautiful stuff. Lucky for me i can drive there, or else i wouldn't be going.

My new goal is to blog weekly, and add pictures, its so much more fun with pictures.

Codi

yay apron

So heres what i've been up to lately. Got a new job as a preschool teacher, i'm super excited to start that one, i really miss working with kids, and this place is everything ive ever wanted in a preschool, so thats really cool. I'm not dropping the job i have now, so ill be working about 60 hours a week, and trying to find time for my new quilting passion. I have kind of been working on the star block, and free motion quilting my sampler, and i can tell i'm getting better, and i've been playing with the walking foot and made some hot pads.

ive also been looking at apron patterns, and this was so much fun to make. with old jeans.

New Years Eve challenge

So the other day i joined the new years eve challenge on finn's blog, and my goal is to finish my sampler(quilted and bound) finish my denim quilt top with everything joined and embroidered, and have my star blocks at least to a flimsy, hopefully finished. i can do it!

Presents!

My husband's parents, who we are living with right now, just got back from a cruise to Alaska. And it was alot of fun to have the house to ourselves for two weeks. But look what I got!!! An Alaskan Sampler by debbie caffrey, and 2 fat quarters, one of which is soo cute it needed its own picture. Why? Because its a fq of an alaskan quilt shop. I wish i had been there.
I so was not expecting this, but I'm super excited. Maybe a little too excited because i had run right upstairs and show you. I was not expecting presents so this is super fun, i'm a bit giddy right now. I'll just be drooling over these for a bit,
Codi

I'm still here

Well, here's what I've been doing lately. I've been working on these star blocks, and I'm having a lot of fun with it. Although seeing the red/brown on the computer is making me rethink that block, its too dark. I have about 12 blocks pieced, and i picked up some more star fabric at a new shop I've been checking out. they have a flat fold section for 1.69 a yard and about half the shop is new bolt for around 3 a yard. I bought 12 yards for under 30 bucks and it was so fun. I can buy so much more fabric!!





I am almost finished with this crazy block, but I'm so close to edge with the french knots, and i think i have 3 layers of denim under them, that its such a huge pain, and i feel like I'm yanking the thread through, so its slow going. But i love the hearts i did, they're so cute.

I also made a couple of messenger bags, one for me with shoe fabric (so cute/funky) and for my husband with some sock monkeys outside and bananas inside, that was a lot of fun.

How Cute is my Husband

So last night when I got home this lovely little sheet of paper was waiting for me. My husband, Tim, has drawn me some quilt patterns off the top of his head. I was surprised that he came up with some traditional patterns (he's seen me cutting and knows what angles I can do). But I LOVE the chain links, I've never seen it before. Wouldn't it be cute on a white/light background with each chain a different color? Or it could be pieced for a border if he'll draw it for me with corners.

So fun,

Codi

Look Away!

Try to scroll past really fast so you don't get hurt. Here are the blocks...
and here it is with borders before I attached the backing. The fabric on the border is really cute, but doesn't help since its busy too.

GAAHHH!!!! Its Hideous!!!

It might be too bad for pictures, I don't know yet, although it didn't break my camera so there is hope. It looks so bad, the colors are terrible, and there's no flow, nothing nice, unless you only look really close at one or two fabrics at a time, then it might be ok. You don't want to see it. Trust me, it might contain a virus and break your computer. I am practicing hand quilting in a hoop on this thing, and man that is hard when you're trying not to look, but its seriously UGLY. It might need to be put out of its misery, or locked away in a tower, never to be seen again. I'm not quite sure yet, but I know that my crappy quilting will perfectly match this horrible top.

And the backing fabric! I do have to post the backing, which was $2 a yard on clearance, and looked ok in the store ($2 a yard and I'm trying to get a stash together, it sounded perfect and I bought a yard) but once it made it home, and I saw it natural light, I realised, of all the fabric on clearance, this one was supposed to be there. It was also asking to be a part of the sampler. It wanted to. Knowing it would be put in a corner, not even getting the selvage cut off or the sides evened up, it wanted to have some friends. So I used it, and although it knows it will eventually be put away from human eyes, at least it won't be lonely. Plus, I didn't have to use something nice for the backing. Actually, if this little bit hadn't talked me into it, I'd have stopped once the top was pieced. Maybe I should thank it for giving me the practice. I'm not sure tho.

Pictures to come! If I work up the courage.......

Codi

Funky sampler blocks

These are not all the same size, and I had too many for one post so I'm missing a star and a tree, but here are my sampler blocks. I finished this boat this morning.


This one (above) is the very first block, I didn't have to take anything apart and I was very happy about that. And I love the color combo for the 9 patch, it pops so nicely even tho I wasn't trying.
I am pretty sure this will look rather funky when I get it together, I might do the last block tomorrow before work if I get up I time, and then I will post a pic of the whole thing. I am actually using a pretty fabric for the borders, because it was what I had when I started and I already cut it. I will probably use some muslin for the backing that I have in a drawer, so I don't use up something pretty. And I need to buy some batting.

This week's progress

Yesterday I went to the fabric store and raided the clearance section, so I had to make room for more fabric, and I found some really cute stuff, so I had to reclaim 2 of these shelves for my fabric.
And here is my pressing/ironing/cutting station, which also hold my denim scraps in one of the drawers, and some more fabric in another, but its canvas and stretchy stuff so it can stay in the drawer for now.
Obviously this is my sewing table.
And I put some more blocks up on the wall, I really love seeing it all together, it makes me want to finish. I think I'll have to play around with the lights and darks so its not lopsided. I think I will take this to work this weekend, while I'm sitting in my office answering phones.

I have also been working on my bad color choices sampler, although sometimes I actually end up with pieces next to each other that look pretty. But the over all blocks are kinda crazy. I only have one more to do then I will add the borders and binding, then i will figure out how to quilt it. I'm still stuck on that one.

I've been thinking about not using batting on the crazy quilt, since its denim, and heavy already. I would probably just do a cotton or flannel backing, then quilt it. I live in So Cal so it stays pretty warm here and I'd like to use this quilt not box it for being too hot.