Thrift scores

I've been pretty lucky the last few weeks with the thrift store and a really awesome moving sale. Oh, the moving sale. I'm still dreaming about it, wishing I had bought more stuff. It was a very nice old lady who was moving from her home and I really could have just moved right in and kept all of her things. She had a sewing room filled with fabrics & notions, a kitchen full of great pots, bowls, and recipes, and a huge room filled with old kids toys & books. When I say toys, I mean awesome fisher price toys that had barely been played with. Of course, I don't have any pictures of these. Isaiah's already playing with the toys I bought and the fabrics I bought are in the wash. What I do have to show are the awesome fabrics I picked up at the thrift store last week. There were probably about 15 more pieces of fabric I could have brought home, but I'm really running out of fabric storage space around here.



Two of these pieces are screenprints on 100% linen. I'm sure this was really expensive fabric. It has the most wonderful texture.

This pink one is just fun. Maybe a bag or a skirt?

And this other fabric? Well, I have an entire bolt of it! Exciting, right?

Since this is more fabric than I need at the moment, I'll probably be putting some up for sale in my vintage etsy shop. Which is looking pretty bare, I probably should upload all the vintage items laying around my house! If you'd like me to reserve you some fabric, let me know.

I almost forgot! Thanks for all the input on the doll quilt and for your well wishes for John. I haven't decided what to do about the quilt yet.

DSQ #7

I couldn't resist signing up for Doll Quilt Swap 7. I just love making these small quilts and getting one in return. I think this is the 4th round that I've participated in. As fate would have it, I have no tests or quizzes this week, so I thought I'd get a head start on my quilt. I didn't want to get too behind. This is what I've come up with so far. My original idea was to put white circles at some of the points, but now that it's together I'm not sure if I want to. So, any opinions? The circles in the picture are just freezer paper, so if I did end up doing the circles, they'd be more uniform and they would not be see through. I look forward to hearing what you have to say! (sorry for the blurry photo!)

I also wanted to give you guys a little update on John. He had a scan last week and received really great results. There is very little sign of cancer left and we are so thrilled. Now he's dealing with a skin rash from what is called Graft versus host disease. He's really being a trooper, but I know he'd be much happier if it would just go away! So, if you want to send a little prayer his way that the doctors find the right treatment for that, I'm sure he'd be most appreciative.

catching up

Wow! I can't believe how long it's been since my last post. I just finished my class on Friday and I ended up doing really well in it. It's nice to know all my studying (and therefore lack of sewing) really paid off. I had a nice little break over the weekend before starting the 2nd half of the class yesterday. I fit in a little sewing yesterday and today before I got crazy busy with studying again. I had two blocks to make for the Pieced Together Quilting Bee. One for Stephanie who is making a spiderweb quilt. I just love the fabrics she sent and I can't wait to see her finished quilt. It is going to look amazing!

The second block is for Edith and she requested circles of some sort. I had seen this circle tutorial on dioramarama a while back and have been wanting to try it forever. It turned out to be a perfect technique for sewing circles and didn't take longer than a hour to do (which included me allowing the glue to dry for a while). I think this could get really addictive.

Anyway, what's been going on with you guys? I hope you are all having wonderful summers. It's hard to believe it already half way through July. Sorry I haven't been commenting lately on your blogs, but I have been reading. I promise to be back to commenting after this class is over, probably with a margarita in hand!

Cushions

I finally found a few hours to finish up a project for my friend Katie. I'm afraid to admit how long ago she gave me this cushions to make new covers for, but better late than never right? (At least I hope anyway!)

It was really a simple project, most of the time was really devoted to measuring and cutting. I think usually this is the longest and most boring part of a sewing project. I just traced the existing cushions and measured the rest of the covers that Katie dropped off. I love the fabric that she chose. I think she got it at Joann's and it was from the Better Homes & Gardens line. I don't think the pictures really show the true color since it is more of a lime green. Very summery and fun. All I need to do now is press and trim some threads. Hope you like them Katie!

A gift for you!

So life has been crazy since I started this class. The house is a mess, I've done absolutely no sewing, and I think I've never studied this much in my life. And this is only for one class. I think this is partly due to the fact that it is a summer class and so everything is just packed into 6 short weeks. The only other thing I've been doing besides studying (well and playing a lot of baseball with Isaiah), is swapping a lot of fabric. It's kind of getting on the obsessive compulsive side! So many cute fabrics! If you look at my post about swapping, there is a link to the flickr group. It's private now, and I think you have to ask for admission into it now. I've received a lot of my favorite Flea Market Fancy fabric from this swap and it's been so exciting to look at the mail box everyday!

Speaking of fabric, Fabric.com was nice enough to offer my dear blog readers a coupon for $5 off your next purchase. It is good from June 17th to June 24th, just enter "blogseekatiesew" at checkout. You could get yourself some of my newest favorite fabric Lantern Bloom by Laura Gunn. Isn't it pretty? They also have a whole section of fabrics for under $5 a yard. I highly recommend fabric.com. I've ordered from them in the past and they ship quickly and have so many great fabrics in stock. Don't say I didn't warn you!

quilting bee blocks

Today I took an hour to sew and finally caught up on my blocks for my two quilting bees. This block is for Diane who is making a quilt for her 100+ year old house. I had something else in mind, but the triangles were giving me such a hard time that I had to modify the orginial design. This one is for Jenn. She asked for rectangles and squares. (I don't know why this is so blurry. I guess I was in a hurry!)

Finally, this is for Michelle who is making a sampler quilt.

I was originally going to make a block called Martha Washington, but realized I didn't have enough solid, so I modified that one as well. To see the other blocks being completed by the groups, you can check the respective flickr groups.

Now I'm back to studying for a little bit before Isaiah gets home. I already have a test on Friday!!

eye candy

I might be sewing much these days, but at least I'll have some new fabric waiting for me when I can find the time. Right now I'm "relearning" to learn and how best to manage my time. Hopefully it'll come back to me like riding a bike. I started school on Monday and wouldn't you know that Isaiah got a fever at school and had to come home. Then Tuesday morning, John and I were unaware of their fever policy and we got a call from the school 1/2 hr after he was dropped off saying we had to come pick him up. Talk about stress! Anyway, today he's fine and has been at school all day long. Hopefully there won't be anymore problems, this class is hard enough! Just in case you want to get your own fabric, I bought it here.

a new flickr group

Oh man, I'm really slacking on the blogging lately. The month of May just flew by, it's so hard to believe it is June already! Today I started my first day of class. I'm taking one class this summer, and probably two in the fall. I'm hoping to go back to school for nursing in the Spring, so things will probably be pretty hectic for a while. Of course, because I was totally anxious about going back to school, I decided it would be a good idea to do some reorganizing. So, I moved somethings around, one being a shelf that housed all my fabric leaving my sewing room a giant mess. I picked up a new shelf at IKEA and I'm hoping that at some point this week I'll get it back together.

In the meantime, I've been dreaming about fabric. Someone pointed me to this new group on flickr that is for swapping out of print/hard to find fabric. It's called Desinger fabric stash swappy poo. Basically you can load which fabrics you are willing to swap and state what you're looking for. I just uploaded these Flea Market Fancy prints and I'm hoping to finally get a complete collection of the prints. I'm missing a few and I'd really like to get my hands on some of the brown, aqua and gray ones, just like everyone else. Anyway, feel free to join the group. There are some gorgeous fabrics in there! Hope you're all having a great beginning to your week.

thrifting

Gosh, it seems like I am barely blogging these days. It's not really that I'm that busy, it's just that I haven't really done any creating lately. Anyway, we had a great Memorial Day weekend and I think I'm still recovering from it. We had a BBQ here on Sunday that I still have dirty dishes from. I'm hoping the magic dish fairy will come finish them for me.

On Monday, my sister and I ventured out to the thrift store because everything was 50% off. There were tons of people, but I managed to find some really great stuff. I don't know about you, but whenever I see pretty dishes I have a really hard time leaving them behind. If only I needed all of them! I did pick up quite a few, but I plan on listing them all in my vintage etsy shop. I just don't have the room to keep them around but I couldn't leave them at the thrift store! I really think there needs to be a support group for this problem.

Most of these items were designed by Ben Seibel and there were a lot more of his designs at the thrift store too. I was just imagining that someone was a huge collector of his stuff and that it was given to the thrift store. I mean there was so much of it there!

At the last minute, I also found this really cute apron which I couldn't pass up. It's reversible, the one side has lace and the other has the cutest bird print fabric with blue strawberries! It even has pockets on both sides. My sister looked at me like I was crazy when I picked it up, but I still love it! I guess she doesn't appreciate aprons as much as I do. It's a terrible photo, aprons are so hard to take pictures of!

I guess I'll go finish the dishes since it seems that fairy isn't coming today. What's on your agenda for today?

back

So we're back. Actually we got back from Milwaukee Tuesday afternoon and I have been playing catch up ever since. John went back to work on Wednesday for the first time since his transplant and he also had a PET scan today, both of which were really stressing me out! We got good news today though, so I'm feeling much better and feel like I can actually get something accomplished. I'm happy to have a long weekend coming up and my family will be in town so it will be good to just hang out and relax.

We had a great trip to Milwaukee although I never expected it to be so windy there! Thank you all for your suggestions. We visited the Public Museum, Lakefront Brewery, some great restaurants, and Isaiah and I went to the Children's Museums. All were great, especially the Brewery. They have so many delicious beers and it was very entertaining.

Anyway, I'm finally getting around to uploading the rest of the things from the craft fair. These are the remaining crayon rolls which were pretty much the only thing I sold at the fair. With any luck I'll get them up on etsy today. They'll be $12 each or 2 for $20, so if you like any, I'd be happy to reserve them for you.

Alright, that's all. I hope you all have a fabulous weekend!

Road Trip!

We're heading off to Milwaukee tomorrow for my brother in law's graduation from college. John and I decided it would be best to drive out there so that John could avoid being in an airplane with who knows how many sick people. He still have the immune system of a baby, so we need to be really cautious. Anyway, I am very excited for many reasons. One, this is the first trip that we have taken since last summer, since John's relapse. It feel so good that he is allowed to go further than an hour away. Second, I've never been to that area of the U.S. before (well actually, I went to Chicago once, but I'm not going to count it) and I really love road trips. I'm taking along several projects with the hope that I'll get some finished objects. I'll be working on some Dear Jane blocks that need to be appliqued and then this luscious yarn that has been sitting around my house since the fall. I still need to find something to make with it though. Any suggestions?

Speaking of suggestions, anyone know of anything fun to do or an absolute must see while we're in Milwaukee? We'll be there for almost a week so I'm sure we'll need something to do! We might try to stop at Indiana Dunes on the way back. Has anyone been there? Just want to know if it's worth it.

I'll be back next week, hopefully with lots of finished things to show!

spring to finish

I've decided to join the Spring to Finish 2 hosted by Jacquie. I have so many unfinished projects and I really need the motivation to finish them. I figured if I write it down I'll be more committed to finishing them up. Among them are :

a special quilt for John
a quilt from Amanda Jean's first quilt along (how long ago was that!?!)
Isaiah's quilt
Mother's Day gifts
oh, and several bags and dopp kits

I'm sure there's more, but I'm going to focus on getting through this list first. I just checked and I can't believe that quilt along was a year and a half ago! Crazy. Time to get on it!

I have done some sewing the last few days. I finished up my 16 nine patches for the three by three swap hosted by Anina. These are a lot of fun to make and you can make a lot of them pretty quickly.

I also finished up these two reusable snack bags. One with this adorable owl fabric and one with some dinosaur fabric I've had around for a while. They're both in the shop if you're interested.

Ok, that's all for now. I'm headed to the farmer's market to get some fresh donuts and it looks like the sun is finally out. whoohooo! I'm sick of rain!

May Blocks

This month for the Pieced Together Quilting Bee we are making two blocks. Colleen sent these gorgeous fabrics from the Anna Griffin Darcey line. She likes stripes, squares in squares, white spaces, so this is what I came up with. I really love this fabric. I think I might have to get some of my own.

Allison sent fabric to make this circle block using the drunkard's path pattern. I was a little nervous about sewing curves, even after making my doll quilt because it has to be a particular size. Anyway, it came out o.k. and only a few parts don't match up. Allison promises that she doesn't mind though, so it's all good.

Both of them are going to have great quilts! Check out the rest of the blocks in the flickr group.

Doll quilt finished

I managed to finish up the doll quilt by Saturday morning and even got it in the mail. Usually I'm not so motivated to get to the post office, but since I was already a day late in mailing, I figured I had to. It is such a relief now to have it done and sent off. Now I have to wait to see if my partner likes it!

Here's the details on how I did this. Pretty simple really. I cut 6" squares of 6 different fabrics and stacked them together. Then I just used my rotary cutter to them into 4 different sections using curved cuts. Then I just rearranged the stacks and sewed them together. I had to do a lot of straightening after cutting to make them into blocks, but they ended up being like 4.5" squares. I used Kona snow white and 2 extra blocks for the back because I wanted to keep it simple and I quilted it using a circular "pattern." I tried doing this free motion, but it came out really, really messy. I really need to practice free motion because I haven't quite gotten hang of it yet.

I'm still patiently waiting for my quilt from the swap to show up. I'll be sure to show it off when it arrives. Have a happy Monday!

last minute sewing

Tomorrow is the deadline for mailing for the Doll Quilt Swap. Nothing like waiting til the last minute! Truth be told, I couldn't make up my mind and actually started 2 other quilts before settling on this.

I started it last night and worked on it a little bit this afternoon. Hopefully with another hour or two to myself I'll be able to pull it off. Oh, and that messy sewing room? It's been getting a very nice cleaning. See the improvement already?

The craft fair

So the craft fair turned out to be kind of a bust. It was hot and sunny and not nearly as many people came out as they had advertised would. Luckily I split the booth (and the fee) so I did make a little bit of money, but not nearly enough to make it worth my time. Of course I forgot my camera, so I am borrowing this picture from my boothmate Katie. I'm so glad I shared a booth with her because even though the fair was slow, at least I had someone fun to hang out with! You should check out her etsy shop. She makes some of the coolest books, especially the lego books! I have lots of things to add to my etsy shop now, and this is just a sampling.

I'll probably be adding all week long, so feel free to check it out.

Today my goal is to get my sewing room cleaned up. Right now my things from the craft fair are sitting in the living room and taking up a lot of room! And since I'm cleaning out my sewing room, I'll probably be adding more to my vintage shop as well. I found a whole stack of vintage quilting magazines I forgot I had bought!

Oh, and if you haven't entered already, Katie at Philigry is giving away some great Amy Butler fabric! Plus you don't read her already, you should. She makes some great things and is an impressive and quick knitter!

And the winners are..

I just wanted to say Thank You again to all who have donated items. This was so fun to host such a big giveaway. Without further ado, the winners are :

1. Sew Create It - Jane said... Happy Birthday! What a generous bunch of people. Such wonderful things!!

2. Kelley said... Wow! Everyone is so generous. I can't wait to check out those links.

3. Meg said... Happy birthday! I will be blogging about this today!

4. Barbara said... What an awesome giveaway! Happy Birthday!!

5. Heather said... I'd be thrilled to win any of those prizes. Thanks for doing this.

6. Maggie said... Happy Birthday! Such great prizes. I'd have to say my favourites are the 5 inch squares and the package from Secretcake.Thank you for hosting this great giveaway and I'll be posting about it on my blog.

7. Snug N Luv said... Oh Ya!!! What a great idea! Enter me to win.This is a fun idea for a Friday. Happy birthday!!!!

8. diana said... how wonderful!!!

9. Aimee said... Holy moly, what a birthday celebration! Happy birthday!

10. kdkmpalmer said... Wow! What a generous giveaway! Hope you have a fantastic birthday.

11.Casey said... oh wow!! what a great list! enter me please :)

12. Colleen said... Happy Happy Birthday Miss Katie!! What a wonderful celebration you are having. I mentioned it on my blog today : )

13. Digital Misfit said... Happy Birthday!What a wonderful way to celebrate with your bloggy friends! There are so many fabulous goodies being given away.hugs,Heidi

14. Harley Dee said... Very awesome giveaway :) Thanks so much for the chance to win, and Happy Birthday!! :) I blogged about it too!

15.Frogdancer said... I so admire the friendship that you must have with so many people to be able to pull something like this together. I've included a link from my blog too, by the way. A giveaway like this deserves recognition!

16.Shannon said... What an awesome birthday giveaway! Happy birthday, I hope your day is wonderful! :)

17.tammiemarie said... Happy birthday! What a fantastic giveaway! Enter me twice, you're up on my blog craftytammie.blogspot.com. Thanks!

18.Sam said... I would love to win any of the items. Awesome prizes. Happy Birthday!

19.Amy said... Oh my goodness, those are some incredible prizes. You must have worked hard to put all that together!

20. sarabclever said... Happy Birthday!

I'll be contacting each of you individually so that you may choose your prize. Thanks to everyone who commented!

A Birthday Giveaway

GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED. THANK YOU FOR PARTICIPATING. WINNERS WILL BE CHOSEN SHORTLY.

Tomorrow is my birthday and I'm going to celebrate with you with a HUGE giveaway. You know that old saying "ask you and shall receive"? Well, there were many great people who answered and I am happy to be able to give away so many great items!

Here's how this will work. To be entered, simply leave a comment. Please make sure to leave a way to contact you. Oftentimes when people leave comments, there is no contact information from them, so if you want to win, make sure you leave me your e-mail. To gain an extra entry into the contest you can blog about it and let me know about the post in your comment. Please do not comment more than once on this post as it'll make counting very difficult for me! There will be around 20 winners, so the first winner will have their choice of prize and each subsequent winner will get to choose from the remaining list. You'll have from today (Friday) until Monday April 27th to enter.

Here are the prizes that have been generously donated. Please take the time to click through their shops and/or blogs since they were kind enough to participate in this giveaway.

1. Secretcake

About secret cake:
Buying and selling handmade, sustainable products has never been more pervasive. secret cake supports this movement by offering an eclectic mix of “rescued” textiles and notions for your unique, up-cycled creations. Please visit secret cake at www.secretcake.etsy.com and www.secretcake.blogspot.com

About the giveaway:
secret cake offers a colorful, spring-inspired grab bag of vintage fabric scraps and buttons. This grab bag includes cotton or cotton/poly blend fabric from upcycled bed linens in four different but coordinating patterns. Great for patchwork, pouches, covered buttons and other smaller projects. The grab bag also includes a half-dozen whimsical vintage buttons in pinks, yellows and greens. Enjoy!

2. Fortheloveofproducts at etsy is offering a $10 gift certificate to her store. "For The Love Of… products celebrate life's intimate moments by providing high-quality bath and body products dedicated to making even the smallest of daily activities pleasurable."

3.Mary offering bookmarks. She sells original artwork in her etsy store, which includes bookmarks, cards, and wallart.

4. Bitofwhimsy sells her original patterns for dolls and other stuffed animals. There are even cute boy dolls which makes this mama of a boy very happy! She is offering 3 PDF patterns to 3 different winners. Each winner will get their choice of pattern.



5. Mary of confessionsofacraftaddict is offering up 1 yard of this cute mermaid fabric. She tells me Joann's sold of out it 2 years ago and it is very hard to find! If you don't already read her blog, you should. Trust me. She makes the cutest things ever!

6. Rosalyn Scent is offering a body butter of your choice of scent. The mango sounds great to me! They carry a variety of bath, body, and fragrance products and there is a $10 off coupon on the home page.

7. MyHeartandSew is offering a $10 gift certificate to her etsy shop. Cassie carries the cutest fabrics and is a delight to work with. She is more than willing to set up custom listings for you, so don't be afraid to ask! She also accepts RME payments, just in case you have a little extra money sitting around in your account (wish I did!).

8. Shelly from Joyful Girl Natural is giving away a 2oz bottle of her Organic Shea Mango Lotion. She says her mom works with a lot of fibers and she loves the way it feels on her hands. She makes products when they are ordered for freshness and effectiveness. Also she can customize products to meet each customers skin care needs. She will work with her customers to assist in healing severe skin concerns, taking time to formulate a skin care regimen that will be healing for them.

9. Katie from Moonlight Bindery is giving away this very cute Moleskin with a Goccoed Snail on it. She will also be my booth-mate at the craft fair tomorrow!

10. Snugluv at etsy is offering a $10 gift certificate to her store. She stocks quilt kits, patterns, and handmade goods. She also blogs at snug-n-luv.blogspot.com.

11. Kiva from farmstandlady is offering these very chic "Little Black Dress" earrings. Visit her etsy shop for other great jewelry items.

12.Precious Patterns offer many different patterns which include but are not limited to baby items, toys, and shoes. If you need to make a gift for a baby shower, you should definitely check them out. Mary and Sara will be offering 1 PDF pattern from their store. The winner can choose the pattern of their liking. They are also having a giveaway this week. They are giving away their new Monkey Crayon Holder pattern to everyone who purchases two patterns or one combo pattern. All of their patterns are e-patterns sent to their email address within 24 hours, and they are always working on new pattern designs.



13. Gulfcoastcottagepdf is another great etsy shop. She has some of the cutest patterns for felt, everything from a robot to a doctor's kit. There is something for everyone there! Jen will be giving away 1 PDF pattern of the winner's choice. She's running a special buy any 4 patterns get a 5th one for free (just in case you can't wait to see if you're a winner).



14. Tara from tarabu is giving away a pair of surprise coffee cuddlers from this collection. Tara has many great things in her etsy shop. One of my favorites are her shawls, which I have seen in person and are fabulous!

15. Raesha is giving away a bunch of vintage sewing goodies. Raesha also writes a lovely blog, so if you're not a reader already, check her out!

16. jmilliesjustforyou In her etsy store you will find cute Japanese fabrics as well as other fabrics and patterns. She also runs a fabric co-op on yahoo which can be found by following this link. For the giveaway, Judy will be sending the lucky winner 12 strips 2 1/2" x 44. 5 of fabric by Tina Givens and one Phillip Jacobs print. This is perfect for getting started on a quilt or any patchwork project.



17. "Life in your Years" Earrings (Retail Value $14) by Sweet Tarragon

Danielle says "Celebrate life, the universe, and everything in it for Katie's
birthday or your own special day with these sterling silver earrings.
Ocean and brecciated jaspers offer depth and warmth, while tiny brown
goldstone beads offer a hint of copper shimmer. Approximately 1-1/2"
in length, including earwire. "And in the end, it's not the years in
your life that count. It's the life in your years." (Abraham Lincoln)

Your readers can enter "Birthday" in the notes to seller at checkout
for a 10% discount on their entire order through the end of the month
at sweettarragon.etsy.com."

18. And last but not least, I'm giving away a pack of 5" squares of fabrics from each of the Flea Market Fancy fabrics I own. I have more than this photo shows, but you get the idea.

So there you have it! Thanks for celebrating with me. And a big THANK YOU to all those who have donated their times. I'll be back on Monday with winner and an update about the craft fair. Have a great week!