May | 2007 | I knew that!

I’m finally working on a dedicated craftspace

May 31, 2007 at 6:01 pm | Posted in Sewing/Crafts, WIP | 8 Comments

for myself. I’m about halfway done, and it’s already worth it. Here are a couple of sneak peeks.

I bought some expandable bamboo trellis for a song at Hobby Lobby. When I expanded it fully at home, I found that it was 15 feet long. Oops! Where’s that hacksaw?

I decorated 2 dozen clothespins so I can use the trellis as an inspiration wall. I love Sally’s idea to put the fabric on buttons and then attach them to the pins, but I was so impatient to be done, I decided to eliminate the middleman and decoupaged the fabric directly onto the pins.

I also made a few swatch portraits using the instructions over at the Purl Bee blog. The watermelon-lovin’ child (oh, who DOESN’T love watermelon THAT MUCH?) is from a dish towel by folk artist Nancy Thompson.

New Doll Quilt

May 22, 2007 at 9:40 am | Posted in Doll Quilt Swap, Quilting, Sewing/Crafts | 10 Comments

*There’s an update on the Doll Quilt Swap at the new site!

I made this quilt a week or two ago after having seen the lovely happythings’ scrap strips squares quilt tutorial based on Nancie Voegele’s Linus Connection Strippy Quilt. I used 1-1/2″ strips and finished size is about 18-1/4″ x 21-1/2″.

What a fun and addictive technique! The piecing goes surprisingly quickly and it’s really gotten me into stashbusting mode. I often agonize over fabric choice and placement in “random” or scrap quilts. Using this method eliminates all the angst. I’ve made another strip top in citrus-y colors and am on to making a strippy quilted sewing machine cover.

Here are two of a dozen quilted coasters I’m sewing for a friend’s birthday. I’d made some as a hostess gift for her in the team colors for a Super Bowl party last winter, and she loved ’em. These are a little more presentable for non-game days.

Those Super Bowl coasters? I made them that morning. So on the topic of Last-Minute Lisa, I made another Plain Spoken quilt (in about a day) as a baby shower gift, but this time I was so rushed that I wasn’t able to get photos. Seriously, I think when she opened the gift, the quilt was still warm from the dryer! I GOTTA work on that whole procrastination thing. I’ll see if I can wrangle some pics of the quilt and the matching pennant banner (party decoration and nursery decor!) from her soon. I am still in love that Plain Spoken pattern, though. Even in my desperation it was an easy and pleasing quilt to piece.

I might be blogging and crafting a lot in the near future. The 17-year cicadas are hatching today and it promises to be a red-eyed-bug-filled next few weeks. Bleah. I’m stayin’ inside.

And the party pig goes to…

May 21, 2007 at 3:01 pm | Posted in Blog, contests, plush, Quilting, Sewing/Crafts | 6 Comments

100th-Post Party Pig and I have really enjoyed reading each of your 46 comments! Thank you for all the nice things you’ve written about the blog, my crafts, and the doll quilt swap :0) And you were all so complimentary about Party Pig that he’d probably be blushing, were he not already pink!

Are you ready for the drawing? No peeking!

What’s taking so long? Are you picking a good one?

We have a winner!

Congratulations, Heather! I’ll be e-mailing you for your shipping address.

100th post party!

May 16, 2007 at 10:09 am | Posted in Blog, games, plush, Sewing/Crafts | 48 Comments

Woo hoo!

Now, I know some of you wonderful bloggers out there hit this landmark post after just a few months, but me? Well, let’s just say I’ve been stopping to smell the roses a bit, so it’s taken me just a week or two shy of a year! I think it’s been about a year and a half since I happened upon my first crafter’s blog (www.loosetooth.com – Brandy’s a fellow Chicagoan), but it seems like so much longer! I can’t imagine what I’d do without y’all :o) I’ve been known to say that I treat this, along with my flickr photostream, as the World’s Biggest Refrigerator Door, a place to post my craft for everyone to see, just like a grade schooler’s wonky art projects. Thank you for visiting my blog and commenting on what you have read and seen.

Faithful readers may recall a promise or two for a crafty book post, but, well, my camera batteries were about out of juice, and I had to make a choice between the books, and…

A GIVEAWAY!!!!

I hope you’re not too disappointed, but I just HAD to upload this smiley little guy. I know it’s a pink pig, flowered even, but I always think of all my softies as boys for some reason? Anyway, I’d have liked to give the pig away to the hundredth person who comments on this post, but I think it would take another YEAR for that many comments to accumulate here and that would make me cry!

So, friends and lurkers, leave a comment below and I will choose a RANDOM commenter on Monday to give this piggy to. And as a bonus, if by some chance we do reach 100 comments by Monday, I’ll send #100 a little something fun, too! That’s two chances to win, people! One comment per person, please! I’ll remove any multiple comments before drawing a name.

Gotta run – I have a quilt to start….er, finish for a shower this weekend. Typical. Come back Monday for the results of the giveaway(s). I’ll also post a Doll Quilt Swap One update on the new swap page: http://dollquiltswap.wordpress.com. Round two is coming in June!

Oh, and speaking of little quilts, did you notice that the Whiplash theme for May is miniature quilts? They even linked to our flickr photo pool. Hooray!

And they’re off!

May 6, 2007 at 2:59 am | Posted in Doll Quilt Swap, Quilting, swaps | 8 Comments

I know I said this post was going to be about craft books, but there’s been so much activity in Doll Quilt Swapland, I feel I must give an update:

Susan M. received one of the pretty patchworks from Maritza, who’s holding a giveaway on her site for one of the other doll quilts she pieced!
Sarah D. received her package Marisa. I’d posted a sneak peek, but the whole quilt (even the tag!) is gorgeous.
Doh! I just realized I forgot to add the tag to mine before sending it
Lynn received a beautiful quilt from Beth. Wonderful colors, and its design reminds me of the quilts of Gee’s Bend. Beth, in turn received the pretty repro quilt from Bonnie.
Sarah G.was the lucky recipient of Kim’s collage quilt, and she’s posted some beautiful photos of both in her flickr photostream.

If you’re playing the “following the updates closely to try to suss out who your sender is” game, maybe one of THESE is your quilt:

Susan S.‘ appliqued and hand-quilted beauty. And I’m sorry, but that dung beetle with his ball of poop at the top of her post is hilarious.
This charming log cabin from Liz. Those colors are so nice, aren’t they? I always love a log cabin.
Take a look at the lovely floral fabric Sarah L. included in her quilt.
Monica’s bright and pretty repro quilt.

I’ve heard from almost everyone that they have sent or will shortly be sending their quilts, so I’m very pleased with that! We all know how our schedules and sewing machines can sometimes conspire against us around deadline time :o) And don’t forget, US swappers, some of the packages are traveling from the UK or Australia, so don’t fret if you are still waiting on yours.

Next post: craft books, I swear. AND a 100th post giveaway! Yay! *blows party horn*