the plaid scottie

The Cripple Surprise Group

2012-02-25T22:43:00.001-06:00

I love my online quilty friends. They are about the kindest, funniest, and most fantastic group of gals I know.

Last week was about the worst week I've ever had in my adult life. Aside from the neck issues & sewing hiatus, there's just been a whole host of utter crap going on in my life (don't worry - me and the hubs are cool...we're an unstoppable team that competes against other teams...sorry, totally stole that line from an episode of The Office), and last week was the apex of it all. So after all was said and done, I put on my pj's Friday night, settled in on the sofa, and prepared to spend my 4-day Mardi Gras weekend wallowing in a fresh batch of eBooks and self-pity (Jacey was sweet enough to have sent me a hilarious Salt & Pepper themed Amazon giftcard). But come Saturday morning, there was a knock at my door and my mailman handed me what would turn out to be a complete ray of sunshine. My good friend (and ringleader) Kelly had secretly organized a "Cripple Surprise Group" for me on Flickr, and a big group of my crafty friends banded together to send a giant box of happiness.

I can't tell you how completely happy it makes me to have such an amazing group of friends in my life, and I feel blessed to know every single one of them. It gives me such a wonderful feeling of contentment to have caring friends like Angela, Jacey, Michelle, Kelly, Cherie, Elena and Kristie in my life. I'd had such a rotten week, and was so blown away by my coordinated box of crafty fun that I honestly burst into tears while I was opening it. Ray thought I was a complete lunatic because he walked in the living room and found me sitting on the sofa covered in tissue paper and crafts, crying my eyes out, and then I looked up at him and said in my snotty, puffy-faced cry voice (while gripping my new goods in my hands and gesturing wildly) "they made a cripple package Ray! my friends sent me a cripple package! they all wrote me notes and sewed things! look it's a handicapped quilter!"...therein commencing a new batch of crying...and he had that terrified husband look like oh god...i'm cornered and this could go either way....so then after a few seconds he cautiously asked me "sooooo....is that a good or a bad thing???" LOL. I'm sure it wasn't a pretty picture to behold, because I'm a hideously ugly crier...my face gets all red and blotchy and I look like Mad Madam Mim in Sword in the Stone after she catches germy Merlin.

My package contained all manner of beautiful things, and they even coordinated the colors to match my newest obsession - pink & navy. You ladies didn't miss a trick! :)

Let's take a tour of my new get-well goodies, shall we?

First there's a 20" Granny Square Pillow from Elena (which has already been claimed by Sir Whiskers - see above), and she was even sweet enough to include some money and a coupon to Joann's in my card so I could buy a pillow form. I also found a super cute sewing necklace from Forever 21 tucked in her package, which I proudly wore to our MQG meeting today :) Stylin' and profilin'...

Angela made me this adorable Scottie pincushion/voodoo doll. I'm leaning more toward voodoo doll, because Whiskers managed to snatch it out of the box and attempt to eat it within the hour *sigh*

Jacey - my movie-quoting partner in crime - made me about the darned cutest wall quilt on the planet. Her quilting is fabulous and gives it really a cool texture - wish you could feel it for yourselves because words don't do it justice :)

And Kelly - ohhhhh Kelly - she made me a coaster that nearly made me wet myself. I texted a picture of it to most of my family, and then took it in to work and showed nearly everyone in my office, lol!

And here's a picture of the rest of my haul. Jacey sent the pink & navy scraps, Kelly the nail polish, and Cherie and Michelle coordinated on embroidery items! Cherie got me a book that I absolutely love! I'd never seen it before, but it's filled with the sweetest patterns for all manner of critters, holidays, and day-to-day items. Michelle rounded out the fun by sending me tons of new needles and thread, which I desperately needed because my local store has a crappy selection of colors, plus all my needles are older than dirt and getting blunt.

And what are those other mystery items, you ask? Well my crazy other half in Canada, Kristie, put together a hilarious gag box filled with candy and irreverent humor. That journal is a scream (I censored it lest innocent eyes be offended), but I doubt Ray will let me out in public with it, because knowing me I'll make some kind of accidental scene by dropping it in church right in front of our pastor or some sweet white-haired grandma. But jealous journals aside, wanna hear something else that's hilarious? After I opened up that journal, moose pencil, and umbrella hat (which, according to Kristie, is to help shade my face from the scorching New Orleans sun), I found the pouch pictured below. After reading the note, feeling the shape of the contents, and taking into account the nature of the package (and Kristie)...hand to God...I thought she'd stuffed a bunch of condoms in there. I laughed for a good 2-3 minutes before I was even able to open the darn thing.

...only to shake out the contents and realize I was the pervy one who thought a bunch of innocent square needle holders were condoms. My bad...guess I've been living in New Orleans for too long, lol ;)

I heart you my dear, dear friends. Thank you for your thoughtfulness and friendship :) And a big friendly squeeze as well to all my lovely readers - thanks for caring, and for checking in on me each week...it means a lot and makes the crappy days easier to bear whenever they come along :)

Happy Mardi Gras!

2012-02-21T09:28:00.004-06:00

Happy Mardi Gras! Make sure you eat something rich and decadent today in celebration ;)

P.S. Check out who was King of the Baccus parade this year - Will Ferrell! How awesome is that?! Step Brothers is pretty much one of my favorite movies ever (it's soooo underrated). I love Mardi Gras.

Bundles o' Love

2012-02-11T13:09:00.001-06:00

The bundles are up! My sewing room is total disaster area now because I was yanking fabrics like a lunatic (lol!), but I seriously had a lot of fun putting these together last night! It kinda killed two birds with one stone, because I was able to get my creative juices flowing again without sewing, and it was a great way for me to pair down some of my larger cuts of fabric. Plus Ray left for a men's retreat yesterday and I was moping around the house like a lost lamb without him last night, so this served as a much-needed distration :)

I've managed to list 9 bundles so far, and I hope to get the other two cut and photographed later today. There are a few palettes of my choosing, one warm palette bundle, one cool palette bundle (the two of them look FAB together!), and several rainbow bundles because c'mon, who doesn't love a pretty rainbow of fabric?

There's a link to my Etsy shop at the top right of my blog, or you can click here. Oh - one more thing - I set international shipping higher than normal because I'm afraid mailing 2 yards might get a little pricey, but I'll refund any overages once I mail your package.

Oops - almost forgot! You can use the code PLAIDSCOTTIE10 for 10% off in my shop!

If this is something that you all find helpful in your quilting endeavors, please let me know, because I might start listing bundles on a more regular basis as part of my destashing!

P.S. This is a message for Bearpawquilter. Sorry to single you out on my blog, but I have no other way to contact you! Could you click on the "Email" button on the toolbar, and send me your email address so that I have a way to contact you in the future? You're so faithful about leaving comments, but your Google account is set up as "no reply", and I hate that I don't have a way to respond - don't want you to think I'm ignoring you! Thanks :)

Feedback

2012-02-09T19:06:00.001-06:00

So, call me crazy, but I had an idea last night. I've bought a good bit of fabric lately, and need to do some serious destashing. The thing is, I don't have very many small cuts of fabric. Usually if I like a print enough to buy it, I buy at least a yard - mostly because I sew a lot of different things, especially quilts and bags, that rarely call for less than a yard of each print (I use more yardage for quilts than normal because I've been designing a lot of my own quilts this past year, and that process uses/wastes a good bit of fabric).

So rather than pulling a bunch of random fabrics, chopping them up, and listing them individually in my Etsy shop, I thought it might be more beneficial for all parties involved if I made custom FQ bundles. I know a lot of you are new-ish quilters, and many of you have told me before in our chats that your biggest struggle is pairing fabrics.

That being said, here is my idea: I go through my stash, put together a half dozen or so Fat Quarter bundles, and list them all in my shop. I'm thinking 8 FQ's per bundle will be perfect, because very few quilt patterns call for much more than that, and it's an even 2 yards of fabric. Many of my fabrics are pre-washed, so I thought I'd list each bundle for $14 ($7/yard)...normally I list my prewashed fabric for less than that, but it's going to take me a lot of time to pair and cut all the fabric.

I was thinking about doing one or two rainbow bundles maybe like this one???

And a few random palettes of my choosing. I was in an Easter-y mood after seeing some cute new wreaths in Joann's, so I put this one together and dubbed it "Spring Fling" :)

I also thought that if any of you have specific projects or color palettes in mind, you could email me with custom requests. If you give me an idea of the colors you're looking for (or even a Design Seeds palette), I can pull some fabrics from my stash, snap a photo, and send it to you for approval.

So...whaddya think? Any interest? Circle One: Yes No Maybe

Loopholes

2012-02-05T16:08:00.001-06:00

Since I can't sew, I've been trying to find other ways to unleash my crafty energy. Loopholes, if you will, to Ray and the medical community's strict "no sewing" policy.

My solution? Ice cream dish towels.

My brother-in-law is getting married next month, and their wedding shower was yesterday. They've both been out of college and living on their for a few years, so they already have most of the household necessities. And since my future sister-in-law loves ice cream more than any human being I've ever met, I decided to give them a fun "date night" present instead. It included all the tasty fixin's you'd need for a proper ice cream soiree. Sprinkles, hot fudge, caramel, brownies, and I even filled some small glass storage cups with their favorite candies - chocolate covered peanuts, mini Reese's, mini M&M's, and mini Oreos.

And to add a little extra cuteness, I picked up a few kitchen towels (you can never have too many of those) and parfait glasses at Target, and folded them inside to mimic ice cream.

Yum O!

To round things out, I bought them a gift card to the grocery store down the street (so they can purchase lots of ice cream when the time comes), and a gift card to Best Buy so they can pick up a movie to watch while they munch on their favorite frozen treats.

Enjoy you crazy kids! (I know it will probably be eaten within the next few days, rather than after your actual wedding....and that's okay ;) )

Props

2012-02-02T22:29:00.001-06:00

So, first things first. I feel the need to disclaim that no one is paying me to say any of this, or even asked me to write about it. I just hate when I see a really talented person who's work I think is under-appreciated, plain and simple! I first learned about Mark Cesarik when his wife Cara contacted me about his first fabric line for FreeSpirit, Calypso Swing (remember this post? I also included a lovely gray print she sent me from that line in this bundle).

I've kept an eye on his work ever since, and I hate that I rarely see anything pop up on Flickr that's made with his fabric, because I seriously love the bold, graphic look of his lines, and how they're bright and fun without being super girly. It's nice having male designers out there in the quilting fabric world like Mark Cesarik and Joel Dewberry, because although their lines are produced for the predominantly female quilting world, they have a definite masculine edge to them that I love. Because as much as I obsess over fairy tales and flowers and adorable Japanese fabric, sometimes I want a print that's a bit more grown up so I can feel all cool and edgy walking into a work meeting or strolling down Magazine Street with it, ya know? I was actually talking with some friends about this the other day, and we all agreed that's one of the main reasons we love Anna Maria Horner's fabric, because it's incredibly bold and colorful, yet sophisticated at the same time.

Anywho, his newest line is Cosmic Burst (view swatches here) and it comes out in April. The mosaic I put together up top showcases some of my favorites from the line...wouldn't they make fabulous summer bags and clothing? *swoon*

Updates

2012-01-31T20:36:00.003-06:00

The last project I finished before maiming myself was this cute little cross stitch number from Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery. It's going to my beloved sister who started law school in Memphis in the Fall, because she has new digs that need decorating :)

It was already washed and dried, I just needed to cut it down to fit in the frame...which was easier said than done. I've been under the watchful eye of Ray the past two weeks, and nothing gets past him (mostly because he's a master of sneakiness himself). He was sitting across the room at the dining table, and as soon as he spotted me easing myself onto the floor near the mat, both his neck and eyebrows started craning upward, and he called out "Babe...what are you doing?...BABE! ARE YOU CUTTING SOMETHING OVER THERE!? You'd better not be!!!" Followed by my hurried oh-don't-worry-it'll-only-take-two-seconds-and-I'm-wearing-my-neck-brace-so-it's-okay response. So it's not as perfectly centered as I would like, because I had to furiously chop at it like a ninja before Ray could run over and stop me, ha ha!

And in other news, I finally got an official diagnosis today. I had my MRI at 8 am yesterday, which was awesome because they gave me an IV of some glorious drug that allowed me to sleep pain-free for 6 straight hours. Ray enjoyed it as well, because apparently I made for some entertaining conversation on the way home (I don't remember anything past laying down on the MRI slab, and then waking up at 3:30 in the afternoon). My doctor's office called at lunch today with the results, and it seems I have not one, but two herniated disks in my neck - between the C5/C6 vertebrae, and the C6/C7 vertebrae. It really sucks, but at least I finally have a diagnosis and can start on some medication/pain relievers.

There's really no official "cause", but I have a feeling it has something to do with working 8 hour days and then coming home and sewing for 4-5 hours. I'm also wondering if all the migraines I've been having the past couple months are somehow related to this....but who knows. I'm a gal that's constantly on the go, and the past two weeks have been rough because I've had to give up sewing cold turkey, relinquish control of all household duties, and wean myself off of email and Flickr to a certain degree (because it's painful to type). I find myself panicking, thinking I'm going to get behind on everything if I don't check blogs and photostreams as much as I usually do....or that everyone will stop reading my blog if I don't post projects for almost two months. But as rational or irrational those thoughts are, there's only one choice to make: slow down. If this isn't a wake up call that I've been pushing myself too far physically for months, I don't know what is. I wish I was at a point in my life when I could choose my sewing over my day job, but unfortunately, I'm not, and it seems I'm gonna have to scale back on my after-work pursuits for the next year or so. And that sucks. Really sucks. Because it's my passion and my stress-relief from Corporate America.

So after I got the news today and realized my recovery, realistically, might take a lot longer than 6 weeks, I decided I'd give myself about 5 minutes to wallow in self-pity, walk next door to the bakery and do some emotional eating in the form of Mile High Chocolate Cake, and then get over myself and move on. And truth be told, the cake was delicious, and I feel much better. I just needed to remind myself that I have a lot in my life to be thankful for, and this is nothing but a speed bump :)

Bad News Bears

2012-01-23T17:56:00.002-06:00

First off, I want to thank everyone for all the well wishes you sent my way after my last post. After a pretty crazy and sleep-deprived weekend, I was starting to feel a lot better the last day or so. I had a doctor's appointment scheduled for this afternoon, and I made a last-minute decision not to cancel just in case my issue was something other than a pinched nerve. Well, I'm seriously glad I went in, because it turns out I have a herniated disk in my neck. Which means I get to wear a stylish neck brace for a while, eat a few packs of steriods, and give up sewing for about 6 weeks. Yeah, you read that last part right. It looks like things will be pretty quiet around here for the next month or two :(

I don't mind the neck brace or the steriods, because the brace reminds me of an Ernest character called Auntie Nelda, which makes me giggle...

But the no-sewing-for-6-weeks thing is a real bummer. And Ray's instituted marshall law. I went to go get something out of my sewing room, and he'd actually locked the door on me! That varmint. I can't say I blame him though, because I'm a bit of a pistol and stubborn as a mule - after 6 years of marriage, he's sure got my number ;)

But back to the giggling, because that part is more fun. Ever since I saw this V-neck sweater in Purl Soho's latest email blast, I can't stop laughing to myself.

Why? Well, because all I could think about after I saw it was this HILARIOUS Saturday Night Live skit featuring Ben Stiller and Andy Sanberg. Seriously...you need to watch it!

Un-Adulterated Pity Party

2012-01-20T03:55:00.001-06:00

Warning: be prepared for no small amount of whining. It's 3:00 in the morning, and I'm up on the sofa ready to start crying like a small disturbed child...again (the first breakdown was at 10pm). I have a pinched nerve in my neck/back again (this happened to me previously in the fall), except that it's waaaay worse this time. I'm no pansy, but this is seriously the most pain I've ever been in. No position is comfortable, my left arm is constantly half-numb (I'm typing with one hand right now), and even worse, I don't think I'll be able to get in to see a doctor any time soon, so I'm probably going to have to ride it out with no pain meds or muscle relaxers because I refuse to go to the Emergency Room and fork over a $200 copay. We recently switched over to Ray's health insurance from mine, and since the gym he works for is owned by a hospital, we have to change primary physicians to one within the hospital network because they only pay for in-network benefits. So yeah, wish me luck trying to get an appointment as a new patient, on the very day I'm calling. Before the weekend is over, I may convince Ray to club me over the head like a caveman so I can be unconscious until this is all over, lol!

To add insult to injury, I had the flu earlier this week, so the only bright spots of my week have been some seriously awesome packages I've received from friends. Kristie sent me a lovely winter package full of my favorite things - cookies, scottie dogs, and witty crafts :)

And there's no real reason for the following picture, but I'm in a lot of pain and wanted to look at something cute. Whiskers has taken to perching on top of the sofa cushions like a cat...because apparently it's not good enough to sit on a pile of quilts on the sofa cushions like a normal person. Life is hard. And yes, that is a giant pile of clothes he's laying on. Ray likes to use the corner of our sectional as a laundry basket. And in case you were wondering, those are Iron Man pajama pants you see. After 6 years, I've learned that married life is about picking your battles, and this is one I gave up a long time ago in favor of more important things, lol ;) Besides, it was 2 against one because Whiskers voted for the clothes to stay since he likes using them as a pillow.

And now back to awesome packages....

Got these in the mail from my friend Brenda at Pink Castle Fabrics today...yesterday? Yeah, yesterday. It's 3 am.

Yum! I could eat these Ruby Sundae Stripes with a spoon!

And these are a few little ditties that tripped and fell into my Etsy shopping basket like that cruise ship captain...

Looking at these little trims makes me so happy *sigh*

And that's not all! Here in the Telschow family, we don't mess around when it comes to interfacing. I always wait to buy it until Joann puts it on sale for 50% off, because then I can get an additional 10% off with my VIP Card. I scored an entire 20 yd bolt of my favorite interfacing for $29 (including tax)...which breaks down to $1.45/yard.

So wish me luck on the shoulder this weekend (and feel free to mail me any controlled substances you have lying around, lol!) In a moment of pure weakness, I almost took some pain pills I found in the medicine cabinet leftover from Ray's wisdom tooth extraction back in 2008!!! My better judgement kicked in before I did anything rash though...

Round Two

2012-01-16T14:54:00.000-06:00

Since I made my first attempt at cross stitching last week with the Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery's dessert of the month club, I've officially become addicted! It's the perfect way for me to keep my hands busy while I'm on break at work, or when we're driving around town or crashing on the sofa at night. I've become slightly obsessed, so I might have picked up a few more patterns from their shop recently - Toast Jump (the one pictured above) and the Leaning Tower or Macaroons.

I finished the Jump Toast one last night, and it's going to my sister in Memphis. She started law school last fall and has a new apartment in Memphis, so I thought I'd make something cute for her walls. I finished the stitching last night and plan on picking up a cute frame for it sometime this week- yay!

Not gonna lie, it's really satisfying to be able to finish a project a few days after starting (rather than weeks or months later like quilts!)

Giveaway Winners

2012-01-15T17:06:00.003-06:00

I'm pretty bummed the Saints lost last night, but at least they went out with their boots on. The Telschow clan was all together and we were screaming like banshees during those last few minutes. Man! What a game! The 49ers definitely earned every bit of that win.

So, on to the good news! Here are the winners of the giveaway items...

The winner of the Amy Butler Keyka Lou clutch is Comment #105 by James-Linda

"THANKS FOR SHARING! LOVE ALL FABRIC SCRAPS ♥ "

And the winner of the mega pile of scraps is Comment #113 by Kritta22

"Please, please oh please let me win!!

That is quite the fabric area! Who do you even keep track? Do you ever just sit back and look at it?? Do you remember where you got most of it??"

I just emailed both of the winners, and if I don't hear back from them within 5 days, I'll redraw for new winners. Thanks to everyone that participated!

Playing Catch-Up

2012-01-14T13:34:00.000-06:00

Due to the massive number of Christmas presents I had to sew, I kind of unofficially took a break from blogging back in December, so there are a ton of things I never posted on here.

For starters, I received an adorable mug rug and an awesome bundle of scraps from Ulrike! She has the best fabric, and I love the charming little details she puts into everything she makes. I won a pillow in one of her blog giveaways a few years ago, and it's one of my favorite holiday items (the hubby loves it too).

And my favorite part? The hilariously accurate portrayal of me reaching for cookies, and Whiskers making off with a stocking. Both of those things happened numerous times over the holidays ;)

I honestly made out like a bandit this year, because my friend Kristy made me a lovely holiday item as well! She wanted to get her husband a special Kindle for Christmas that was only available in the U.S., so she had her purchase mailed to me and I forwarded it to Aussieland. As a thank you gift, she sent me this pillowcase and some chocolate treats. I was dumbfounded when I opened it because of all the intricate piecing and quilting - it must have taken her forever to do all that circular quilting!

And she even included one of my favorite holiday prints - the snowflake print from Happy Zombie's Holiday Happy line! I've been debating buying those prints for a while, but hadn't taken the plunge because I need more Christmas fabric like a hole in the head. But after seeing how cute they were sewn up in a project, I found some on clearance (for $5/yard) and bought 1/2 yards of the snowflake and triangle santa prints. Yay!

Since her package didn't arrive until after Christmas, I'm thinking about sneaking it onto the sofa because it's too lovely to put in storage for a whole year. I think I can get away with people not realizing it's a Christmas pillow, so long as they don't turn it over and expose the trees on the back!

Oh. And I have one more thing to show you. It's more of a confession, really. I went on a bit of a bender during the pre/post holiday sales...

But I'd like to officially blame Angela for the Safety Pin prints, because she posted about a shop that had them on clearance for $3.99/yard. I can't be held responsible for my decisions when informed about fabric that cheap.

My other splurge was in my friend Ayumi's shop. I bought those adorable laundry and baking fat quarters on the left, and because she's a sweetheart, she added all those cute scraps you see on the right! She is so, so nice and I love having email chats with her :) Isn't it wonderful when you get the chance to "meet" one of your crafting heros, and they're even nicer than you imagined?

That being said, you guys probably know what's coming next. The great post-Christmas fabric purge of 2012. I just put up a bunch of new listings in my Etsy shop including some cheap fat quarter bundles, an It's a Hoot Layer cake, and various cuts of fabric. I also put together about 5 scrap bundles because my bins are overflowing from all my recent sewing. They're organized by color, and what you see is what you get - I'm pretty generous with my scrap packs, and everything shown in the photo will be included in the bundle.

As always, you can use the code PLAIDSCOTTIE10 for 10% off anything in my shop :)

Featured Follower Friday

2012-01-13T08:17:00.001-06:00

Hey everyone! I had the pleasure of meeting Anne Marie at the Sewing Summit this past October when she helped out with the Fat Quarter Swap, and she's every bit as nice as she seems on her blog! (she's the one with the gray stripe shirt and adorable baby bump)

She asked me to answer a few questions for her Featured Follower Friday series, so skip on over Gen X Quilters to check it out :)

High Fives All Around

2012-01-12T06:00:00.000-06:00

Yesterday was a pretty awesome day.

I came home to a fun little package on my doorstep yesterday. More good things to come *wink*...

And even better, last night we found the Flight of the Concords box set on sale for $16.99 at the Best Buy down the street!!! I freaking love that show. I hear Ray walking around the house humming "Business Time" to himself all the time...."cuz you know when I'm down to my socks it's business time, that's why they're called business socks!"

I don't think I've ever confessed my other addiction (besides fabric) on here before, so here goes. My name is Kaelin, and my husband and I are movie addicts. We have over 600 DVDs/Blu-Rays (that don't all fit in this gigantic case anymore), and that number is slowly growing...eek!

We're pretty eclectic in our tastes. We have everything from Thor to Chocolat to Heavyweights to The Sound of Music, and whenever I'm not sewing, I can usually be found lounging around with Ray watching movies. We're about the most content married couple you'll ever meet. Most people would probably find us boring, but we're happiest when we get to lay on the sofa together on the weekends and have movie marathons under a pile of quilts with Whiskers (with some intermittent napping mixed in - click here for visual). One of our weekly rituals is to come home from church, put in The Fellowship of the Ring, and take a "Baptist Nap". Ray always looks over at me as the movie is starting and says, "I'm gonna try to make it to Moria this time, but I probably won't". And 10 minutes later he's passed out, snoring quietly with his mouth open. Life is good :)

Mega Scrap Giveaway!

2012-01-11T07:32:00.000-06:00

I haven't done a giveaway on here in a loooooong time, so how's 'bout we take care of that today? And to make up for it, I'm gonna do a HUGE scrap giveaway. Like Mega Shark vs. Crocosaurus big. I know, that's a whole lotta ~~shark~~ scraps.

First up, my friend Brenda from Pink Castle Fabrics is offering the lovely scraps you see pictured above. There's lots of Michael Miller and Moda prints in there (that charcoal Dumb Dot is one of my favs...it goes with just about anything), and the pack weighs 1 lb 7.4 oz, which is almost 4 yards! by weight.

AND

As if that's not enough, I'm going to toss is a giant heap o' scraps from my stash too! You see those fabric bins and plastic drawers at the top of the photo below? Yeah, all 8 of them are stuffed to the brim with various scraps assorted by color. I'm gonna yank out an indecent amount of scraps from them once we pull a winner. You can choose to have me include scraps that coordinate with the bundle above, or you can take the rainbow road and give me free reign to toss in whatever I want ;) Your call.

And because I always like to include a handmade item in every giveaway, there's a second prize up for grabs. It's a small clutch/wallet I made using Keyka Lou's Pocket Clutch pattern.

So. What must you do to enter? Good question.

1) Leave a comment.
2) For a second entry, blog about this giveaway, and leave a comment telling me so :)

The winner will be announced Sunday evening (Jan. 15). The pocket clutch is open to Internationals, but unfortunately due to the weight of the scrap package, I have to limit that one to U.S. residents only.

GOOD LUCK!!!

P.S. A good way to use your current scraps is to join Brenda's Bust Yo Stash! Quilt Along!

Lookit! I cross-stitched!

2012-01-05T23:32:00.000-06:00

I'd like to say a big thank you to the talented ladies at the Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery, because they have single-handedly made me interested in cross-stitching. Before I stumbled across their adorable designs last year, my interest in cross-stitching was zero. zilch. nada. But since I first laid eyes upon their illegally cute PB&J pattern (which never fails to make me sing the Peanut Butter Jelly Time song), I've been toying with the idea of picking up a new hobby. The final nail in the coffin was when I read Kelly's post about these adorable macaroons and their new Dessert of the Month club. Ten bucks for a year's worth of precious wee dessert patterns that smile back at me? Sold.

I had my fingers crossed they would email the new pattern before my lunch break today, and sure enough, the crafting gods were smiling upon me because it appeared in my inbox right before noon, so I was able to run to Joann's and pick up the necessary supplies. I was crazy excited to find my store had the metallic embroidery floss they mentioned on their site, because I love the sparkle it added to my little champagne truffle! It was a lot harder to work with than the regular floss, but well worth the effort. The only thing I was disappointed about is that I couldn't find dark aida, which the ladies at FPS recommended because many of the patterns will contain white. This Oatmeal one was the darkest I could find, and I was too lazy (with a splash of impatience mixed in) to attempt tea-dying, so I'll have to come to grips with the fact that my patterns might be a little muted.

I've never done any cross stitching in my life, so this was quite the adventure - full of google searches for tutorials and the making up of my own rules like, "and being ignorant, ye shall marketh a grid on the aida using a blue water soluble quilting pen. and it shall be done. and it was good. amen." I was going to take it slow and use it to pass the time in the break room at lunch tomorrow, but once I got started, I quickly became obsessed and finished it in one sitting while watching reruns of Once Upon a Time (LOVE that show!)

So yeah. Needless to say, I'm pretty excited. It probably looks like crap in a handbasket to you seasoned pros, but I'm more than a little giddy about it. I have it draped over the sofa arm next to me, and I keep pausing while I type to reach over and pet it. My precious. *nuzzles against face*

I love how the crafting revolution that's going on amongst our generation is reaching all aspects of handmade items. People like Amanda & Ashleigh are out there breathing new life into other oft-neglected arts besides sewing and quilting, and I think that's pretty freaking cool.

...and speaking of cool, there's a lady at my office with a globetrotting daughter in college, and she's always bringing me fabric from all over the world to turn into things for her dorm room. Last time it was a printed panel of a scene from the Sahara, which I turned into a wall hanging. This time it was some absolutely stunning fabric from Tanzania. It's typically used as garment fabric, but she wanted me to make it into pillows for her bed. I fussy cut the blue and black print to showcase that fab medallion, and I may have snaked a few of the smaller scraps for myself *wink* (I warned her I might the day before, just to make sure it was okay)

I forgot to take pictures at home, so they've been lovingly staged in my cubicle chair (ooh! ahh!). My friend Sherie snapped the photos with her iPhone and emailed them to me. She even knew to take one all-inclusive picture + close-ups of each pillow, without me having to say a word. That's true friendship, right there ;)

PSA

2012-01-03T08:43:00.000-06:00

Hey everyone - just a little public service announcement for you today. I've noticed in the past month or two that I've been getting a lot of comments from people that are "no reply bloggers", and I wanted to post this in case some of you weren't aware of it (I was a "no reply blogger" at one point, and didn't realize it until my friend Cherie posted about it a year or so ago).

I love reading and replying to your comments, and I don't want you to think I'm ignoring you, because it may well be that I can't reply to your comments.

So, what is a "no reply blogger"? Basically it's when you don't have an email associated with your Google account, so when you leave a comment on someone's blog, they can't reply to it because there isn't an email on file for the response to be directed to. If you don't like having an email on display for others to see, you can always set up an email specifically for blogger and/or junk email (I have an email address dedicated to promo and junk emails - any time physical or online stores ask for a email where they can send coupons, order receipts, and announcements, I always give them that address).

Jodi at Pleasant Home has instructions in this post, detailing how to make sure you aren't a no reply blogger (and fix it if you are). She also did a much better job describing what a no reply blogger is, in case you still have no idea what I'm talking about, lol!

Martini Block Pattern

2012-01-02T13:57:00.000-06:00

I designed this block specifically for the back of Amanda's Swanky Squares quilt (because what's a Mad Men themed quilt without a martini?), but I decided to go ahead and make a test block for another project I'm working on right now. The recipient of this mystery gift will probably take one look at this and know it's for her - but maybe not - so I'm still gonna attempt to keep it a secret for now :)

The finished block is 8.5" x 12.5", and I put together a little paper piecing template for you guys! There are three sections in the template (A, B & C) that you'll need to cut out. When piecing & cutting, make sure you leave room for 0.25" seam allowances on each side because the paper templates don't include seam allowances. Also, in addition to the three sections in the pdf, you'll need to cut two 3.5" x 8.5" pieces to sew to the top and bottom of the block. If you're new to paper piecing and need more detailed instructions, Christina at The Sometime's Crafter has a great tutorial with detailed photos.

And if you wanna make it extra fancy, you can quickly free motion applique a little olive & toothpick in the center with some fusible web!

Martini Block

Swanky Squares Quilt

2011-12-31T10:36:00.000-06:00

This block is one of the many new projects currently hanging out on my design wall.

This particular quilt has been a long time in the making. Remember when I posted this bundle last June? Well it's taken me 6 months to actually get started on it because of time, and also because I was having difficulty finalizing the pattern. I knew what I wanted to do...I just didn't know how I wanted to do it!

It all started when I decided to make my friend Amanda a quilt for her wedding gift, and she told me she would like a Mad Men inspired one (to go with the styling of their ubercool city loft). A few weeks after our email exchange, I was surfing through Shutterstock at work looking for images for a flyer, when I stumbled across this image. After that, I became obsessed with finding a way to not only easily piece a square with rounded corners, but with one (or more) squares nested within it.

Now that all my Christmas sewing is out of the way (if I have to sew another bag or pouch I will shoot myself!), it's time to get back to my quilting roots. I already have 3 quilts in the works right now, but this project is definitely my top priority since I'm 6 months behind....*sheepish grin*

I decided the design would look a lot cooler and bolder done in solids, so I edited my original stack down to the following, and I'll be using an additional charcoal gray solid for some background sections, plus (maybe?) this Lotta Jansdotter print for the backing...but I'm not 100% committed to it yet. I wanna wait and finish the top before I make a final decision. More to come...

A Griswold Family Christmas

2011-12-27T19:46:00.001-06:00

The holiday weekend got off to a rough start for me. After experiencing a situation eerily similar to this, the Griswold Christmas Vacation continued when I was up in the attic and accidentally put my foot through the bathroom ceiling. The whole family was over for Christmas Eve and we were short a stocking, so I went up in the attic to grab one. I didn't bother to turn on the light because I knew the location of the box I needed, and while stumbling around in the dark, my idiot self thought there was a board over one section (where there obviously wasn't, lol!) and I stomped right through the ceiling. I let out a yell, and when Ray and his brother came running, my size 11 foot and part of my calf were dangling through the bathroom ceiling. Aside from a small bruise on my knee (and ego), I was completely fine, and we all got a pretty good laugh out of it! ;)

The good news is, it's not as big a deal for us as it would be for most, because my father-in-law and brother-in-law both work at the family roofing & drywall business, so fixing it should be quick & painless :)

The hubs and I are currently laying on the sofa watching mindless reality TV (Ice Road Truckers - woot woot!), so here's a quick Telschow 2011 Christmas in review...

These are the handmade gifts I mailed to my family in Kentucky. The Echino bag & Strawberry clutch were for my sister, the houndstooth bag for my mom, the box pouch sets for my aunts, and the coffee coozies for my mom and dad.

This is a plaid yoga mat carrier I designed for my dad. It wraps around and velcros in place. I didn't know the circumference of his mat, so I made the velcro strips pretty long to allow for adjustment. The inside is flannel to keep the mat from sliding around.

Another Sidewalk Satchel for my future sister-in-law. The purple Keyka Lou clutch was also for her, and the Amy Butler one was for my cousin.

Puppy Adventures...

Human Adventures...

Zoolander.

Blue Steel.

I made homemade cinnamon buns - yum!

My mother-in-law drinking eggnog out of a gravy boat. Long story, but my husband's usual shenanigans are to blame ;)

My new cutting mat wouldn't lay flat, so naturally the logical solution was to lay on it (rather than re-rolling it in the opposite direction)

We're a crazy & colorful bunch, but we always manage to have a good time ;)

Hope you all had a Merry Christmas with your loved ones (and Santa brought you all the quilting supplies on your list!)

Holiday Baking

2011-12-20T18:40:00.004-06:00

The past few days have been very interesting...and by interesting, I mean stressful. I had two migraines within 3 days, and then on Sunday afternoon, we discovered the Bumpus hounds underneath our house. It took me a while to figure out what the heck was going on, because I could hear a wild dogfight going on somewhere nearby, but there weren't any dogs outside. I started yelling down the hall at Ray because I thought maybe he was watching another documentary on Alaska/The Iditarod at an obscene volume, but he swore up and down he wasn't. And then...I felt a bump from underneath the house and heard a clang as something hit our pipes. The pack of vicious mongrels wasn't on TV, outside my sewing room window, or in The Christmas Story where they belong. They were in the 2 ft space underneath our elevated house attacking something, and whatever that poor creature was, it wasn't going down without a fight God bless it. Ray ended up having to go outside and scream at the top of his lungs while beating the lattice work around the elevated opening with a broom for a full ten minutes, and eventually they ran out the front and he chased them off by screaming and flailing his arms wildly, lol. So that was intense. And then I was upset the rest of the day that some poor creature was dying a slow and painful death under our house. I tried to talk Ray into crawling under the house to check on it, but he was like "uhh...no...if it's still alive, it's not going to be happy to see me."

Life is never dull amongst the Telschow clan, that's for sure.

Also, I was cussed out (and flipped off for a prolonged period of time), by a 70 year old man at a stoplight today. Which, honestly, was more amusing than it was upsetting. I worked as a bank teller every summer in college, and I'm pretty well desensitized to being screamed at by members of the public. It was literally all I could do to keep a straight face the entire time, because I kept thinking, "what if his dentures fly out of his mouth while he's screaming at me?" And once that mental image was in my brain, there was no going back...it was so freaking hard not to laugh in his face, but I had to fight the urge because it probably would have resulted in him ramming my car like Tawanda.

So instead of coming home and sewing my backlogged Christmas presents, or working on the mountain of dirty clothes in our bedroom, I did an indecent amount of baking.

Sugar cookies for my coworkers (and a small plate for Ray *wink*)

and some warm Seven Grain & Seed Bread for us to munch on with salted butter. Yum.

My bread turned out looking more like a quick bread than a yeast bread this time, because my clumsy self bumped the loaf pans and degassed them right before they went in the oven. D'oh! It was still tasty though :)

The bread recipe is Nick Malgieri's Seven Grain & Seed Bread from The Modern Baker, and I don't remember where the sugar cookie one is from...I think maybe it was given to me at one of our wedding showers 6 years ago. I absolutely love the sugar cookies because they hold their shape, but are still chewy. And the flavor is very simple and buttery - almost like shortbread.

Sugar Cookies

3 1/2 cups unbleached flour
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 cup unsalted butter, at room temp
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla

In a medium bowl, combine flour, salt and baking powder.

Beat butter and sugar in mixer until fluffy. Add eggs (one at a time) and vanilla extract. Beat until combined. Gradually add flour mixture until a smooth dough forms. Divide dough in half, wrap in Saran, and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

Flour your work surface and roll out one dough ball at a time. Cut into shapes and decorate with sprinkles if desired. Place on greased cookie sheet and refrigerate for 10 minutes (this keeps the cookies from losing their shape when baked).

Bake in 350 degree oven for 10-12 minutes, until lightly browned at edges. Let cool on rack.

Savvy Seasons Swap 2011

2011-12-14T13:18:00.003-06:00

I've been working on this for quite a while, but it kept slipping my mind to take photos...so I'm just gonna jump right in with both feet and show you the finished product!

My secret partner requested a table runner that could be used throughout the winter, and not just during Christmas (which is really good, because she'd only have gotten a week's worth of use out of it!), so I went with a winter snowman theme. The snowman block is 12", the two Winter Woolies blocks are 6" x 12", and the whole shebang measures roughly 18" x 38".

I've actually had this project sketched out since the day I got my partner assignment, but I had a devil of a time deciding on fabrics. I wanted to use linen, plus a mixture of traditional Christmas colors and a splash of blue. Coordinating those four things wasn't too difficult, but what really complicated matters was the tiny piecing. I needed to find red, green and blue prints that matched, plus in a small enough scale to show up well with the paper piecing. I finally settled on the three diamond prints from Kate Spain's Flurry line for the binding and sashing, a cute blue & white dot print that resembled snow for the snowman + Winter Woolies background, and another Flurry print called Nordic Winter Stripe for the back (which I love, love, love!). The hat and scarf are from an old Caleb Gray Groove print, and the green glove print is one I picked up a while ago at Joann's from the fat quarter rack.

Don't you just love Kerry's Winter Woolies block pattern? Everything she makes is so stinkin' cute! I added a wee little button on top of each toboggan instead of appliqueing the little ball on.

Here's a closeup of all that tiny paper piecing. Kerry's pattern is very easy to follow, and I promise it's not nearly as hard as it looks...it just takes some time :)

And I'm really loving this little guy because he looks like a stack of puffy marshmallows! I made him using 2", 3", and 4" snowball blocks, then added some free motion stick arms and button eyes.

And here's a shot of that Nordic Stripe print I love so much. I bought just enough to back this, but I'm gonna have to go back and snag some more for myself now. I don't know if you all have used this line or not, but it's SO stinking soft!

And just for good measure, I threw in some kitchen towels because you can never have enough of them.

Here's my whole package ready to go out....the runner, kitchen towels, two fat quarters, various Flurry scraps, Coffee Crisp candy bar (I blame Kristie for getting me addicted to those!), and a cute notepad of two ladies eating cake that says "it's ok, it's organic!". Because as we all know, even cake is magically transformed into a health food when it's organic *wink*.

Hope you like it partner!

Strawberry Pocket Clutch

2011-12-11T09:21:00.001-06:00

It stinks because I really wanna tell you more about this pouch - like who I made it for and the thought process behind it - but I can't because I'm afraid they'll read this!

So all I can tell you is that it's a Christmas present for someone close to me, and it's not Ray (although he did think it was "cute").

I used Keyka Lou's Pocket Clutch pattern (which was incredibly easy, by the way). The most time-consuming part was cutting out the fabric, because it literally took me about 20 minutes to sew this puppy. And I liked how it turned out so much I made a duplicate for my shop! I'm slowly but surely managing to build up my inventory - a big thanks to those of you that commented / emailed me with tips the other day :)

And in case you're wondering where I got the fabric, the Navy Dot was from Joann's Premium Quilting Cottons section, and the adorable Strawberry print is from Hancock Fabrics (I don't know if they still carry it though, because I picked it up pre-incident and haven't been back since then, lol!) I know a lot of people rag on Hancock's and Joann's...yes, some of their fabric is really cheap, scratchy and/or thin, and 99% of their employees are oblivious to anything sewing related...but I actually find a lot of cute fabric there. You just have to be willing to dig a little bit! Because let's face it, they do have some nice stuff that most people would buy if they saw it sitting in their LQS - but since it's Joann's, they turn up their nose. I put on no such airs because hey, let's be honest, I come from a small town in Eastern Kentucky, plus momma didn't raise no snob. She can bargain hunt with the best of them :)

It's Beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

2011-12-09T17:02:00.001-06:00

I got off work early today because we had our big office Christmas party, and as I was stuck for 30 minutes behind a train 2 blocks from my house (grr!), I was trying to decide what I wanted to do with my extra spare time! I thought about getting started on the 7 Christmas presents I still need to make, or posting my new holiday bunting tutorial on here, or doing the pile of dishes in my sink. But ultimately, I decided to crash on the sofa and catch up on my backlogged shows on Hulu Plus. Until...

...I pulled up to my house and found my Savvy Seasons swap package on my porch, which included some delicious homemade cookies!!!! The plan was then modified to include sofa + Hulu Plus + blogging + cookies + hot chai (my friend gave me this delicious new brand at Whole Foods called Festivus - yum!)

Do you like how I skillfully kept the packaging intact, while managing to squeeze a cookie (or two) out through the tiny opening? What can I say...I was born with talent, lol!

And my favorite? The little fabric fortune cookie she attached, which had a teeny little "To & From" tag tucked inside. So creative! My partner was Nancy (who is one of my readers - yay!), and I can't believe the amount of care and detail she put into my package - it makes me want to try so much harder on all of my swap packages, because I want to make all my partners feel as special as packages like this make me feel :)

They recently extended the mailing deadline to the 14th (thank goodness!) and I haven't mailed my box yet, so I'm looking forward to spending some extra time on my swap partner. Hopefully I'm able to make things for my partner that are as cute as these...

A sweet bunting note card...

A precious wee fabric Scottie ornament.

An absolutely adorable scrappy Christmas tree skirt! I've been dying for a handmade tree skirt to replace the crappy one I bought at an after-Christmas sale a few years ago, and this one looks so lovely under our tree (it matches the rug perfectly!)

I was laughing out loud to myself while laying underneath the tree with the lights shining in my face, because I kept thinking of that line from A Christmas Story "Only one thing in the world could've dragged me away from the soft glow of electric sex gleaming in the window".....hahaha!

But that's not all! She also added some cute plaid towels to go with the Christmas/Scottie/Plaid Scottie theme. They're now being proudly displayed on my oven :)

Thanks for the beautiful and incredibly thoughtful package Nancy, and I love that I got to know you a little better through all these gorgeous handmade goodies :)

Goodie Bag Swap, Round 2

2011-12-07T19:32:00.001-06:00

I received my new bag from my partner wen_ot in the Goodie Bag Swap yesterday! I took photos as soon as I got home from work today, because I'm anxious to cram all my stuff in there and start using it! This bag is so perfectly me...I love the wool, the cute wonky yellow stitching, and especially the "secret" front pocket :)

That little hole in the front isn't just a cool design element - it's a giant pocket! I'm going to keep my phone, iPod, and a few other frequently used items in there :) My brother-in-law thought this bag was about the coolest thing since sliced bread....I think that concealed pocket in the front was transporting him back to his Hardy Boys mystery days, lol.

And he was even more impressed when I told him it was reversible. And because Wendy thinks of everything, she put a cute summery print on the inside so that I can use my new bag year round! The striped fabric is a really thin, soft cotton that's perfect for the blazing inferno summer days down here in New Orleans :)

Thanks Wendy! I absolutely love it!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What I did this weekend...

2011-12-05T18:30:00.001-06:00

Aside from the cookie swap, this is what I spent my weekend doing...

My friends, family and coworkers have been after me for the past 2 years to get the handmade side of my Etsy shop up and running, because they'd like to purchase smaller items like these for gifts and whatnot. It's something I really wanted as well (which is why I swore off swaps earlier this year), but with buying a new house, family craziness, and working full-time, finding the time has been virtually impossible!

It's taken me until now to actually sit down and crank out a batch of items, and my goal is to add a variety of pouches, bags, home goods, and new quilt patterns and over the next few weeks. I'm hoping that now that I have this first wave of items under my belt, things will be a little easier to maintain and I can just replace each item as it sells one at a time (instead of my usual marathon sewing sessions). Wish me luck!...and I readily welcome any and all advice from those of you who have experience selling your handmade goods on Etsy!

Holiday Cookie Swap

2011-12-04T21:25:00.001-06:00

So. My friend Jacey (who, by the way, is one of those incredibly sweet people that you love instantly upon meeting) and I have been trying to arrange a get-together in her hometown of Houston. The hubby and I have been working to find a weekend when we can drive over to Houston and visit her (and her new fiancee!!!), but nothing has worked out so far. We were originally supposed to go the first weekend in November to see one of my favorite bands, The Boxer Rebellion, and meet up with them, but the concert was cancelled at the last minute (boo!)

Then Jacey invited me to a cookie swap her family was having this weekend, and I was super excited because I'd heard about cookie swaps before, but had never actually been to one. It looked like we had the green light to go, but then my hubby found out he had to help set up/tear down for the member Christmas party at his work this weekend (the gym where he works has tens of thousands of members, so it's a pretty big deal), so the Houston trip flew out the window (double boo!)

I held a big pity party for myself when I realized I wasn't gonna get to see Jacey or eat holiday cookies, so I decided to eliminate half my sorrow and arrange my own cookie swap! I had everything all set up and was proudly surveying my house before everyone arrived, when I realized that I haven't posted any pictures of our house since we bought it! What better time to take photos, than when my house is squeaky clean and decorated for the holidays?

This is our living room area. The front half of the house is one big room, with the living room area on the right (where the front door is), and the dining area over to the left. (I took this picture from the dining room if that helps with perspective)

Oh, and normally that carved cherry table is next to the rocking chair, but I pulled it over by the footstool in case there was overflow from the dining table. Thankfully we all fit at the table, and no one (i.e. me) had to eat on the sofa!

You can barely see it, but the front door is just to the right of the TV. Sadly we don't have a fireplace like in our old apartment, so the stockings are dangling from the TV stand, lol! They may have to be relocated, however, because Mr. Whiskers has already made a run at them...we caught him chewing Ray's Sorcerer's Apprentice stocking under the tree *sigh*

And this is the dining area (I was leaning on the sofa when I snapped this). Please excuse the ugly brown curtain to the right of the table. It was there when we bought the house, but I can't replace it with curtains to match the AMH Drawing Room ones until I find a specific silk dupioni. The AMH curtains were in our old apartment and I sewed some lovely blue-gray dupioni to the top and bottom. Unfortunately, when I went back to buy more for the other window (months later once we'd bought our house), Joann's had sold out permanently. Yeah. Crap. I've been carrying a swatch around in my purse for months, with no luck. I hate that brown curtain with a fiery passion.

But on a positive note, I had a really good time at our cookie swap (and hopefully everyone else did too!). One of my new friends from our local MQG, Heather, brought those amazing sandwich cookies you see on the bottom tier. They tasted like chewy Oreos, and I could have eaten about 30 of them. Ray loved them too....what is it about men and homemade cookies? Heather said she was practically chasing her husband away with a stick the night before, but he still managed to snag a whole plate of them, lol! And my hubby ate the 3 I got from the swap about 10 seconds after walking in the door. He got back from setting up at the gym, opened the back door, and shouted into the house "so where are all these supposed cookies!?" The sandwich cookies and strawberry swirl ones lasted all of 5 seconds, and whatever milk was left in the fridge also went the way of the West.

It's always a dogfight for sweets in our house, but fortunately, I married a gentleman and he usually lets me win...usually ;)

Public Service Announcement

2011-11-28T14:22:00.001-06:00

I stumbled across a good sale, and thought I'd share it with you all! One of my favorite pattern-makers, Keyka Lou, has all her patterns on sale for $5/each (which, in my opinion, is a total steal!)

And scouts honor, she didn't ask me to do this - I just enjoy promoting other online crafters (especially ones that are lovely people - she readily donated patterns to various Sewing Summit events, including my Fat Quarter Swap)

If you're not familiar with the name, chances are you've seen some of her stuff floating around the web before...

Go check it out! Now's the time to pick up those patterns you've been eyeballing (cuz that's what I did)

Black Friday

2011-11-27T17:31:00.001-06:00

So how was everyone's Thanksgiving? I'm still feeling a bit sluggish from all the food I ate - is it possible to have a food hangover?

But more importantly, how was your Black Friday shopping (especially the quilting-related kind)? Are you a rabid shopper that lines up at midnight? Or a sit-back-and-watch-the-mayhem kinda person?

I'm in the latter category - I have more fun wandering around and soaking in the mayhem (by the way - did you all see this crazy story? Hope she enjoys those aggravated assault charges....people are nuts!) The hubby and I had some birthday gift cards to spend, so we woke up at a normal hour and braved the mall to pick up a few items while everything was on sale. We parked far away instead of cruising for hours for a prime spot, and wandered around the mall holding hands and people watching. Then we went home after a few hours, ate Thanksgiving leftovers, and watched Christmas movies. All in all, it was a great day :)

I knew Joann's would be insane on Friday and there was no way I was gonna stand in line at an understaffed cutting table for hours, plus the deal I really wanted didn't start until Saturday ($1.99/yard Quilter's Showcase prints), so I waited until Saturday morning. The place was a graveyard, and I was in and out within 45 minutes. I snagged some seriously good deals:

I had one of those coupons for 25% off your total purchase, so for $40 and some change I got: 2 giant spools of Gutterman thread (buy 1, get 1 free), 2 large buttons (buy 1, get 1 free), 1 24" zipper, 2 yards of gray houndstooth, 4.5 yards of Daisy Mae, and 10 yards of lightweight fusible interfacing.

The houndstooth is for my mom's Christmas present. Love of houndstooth is a genetic trait passed on from parent to child in our family. My grandmothers, mom, dad, sister, and myself all share a robust love of houndstooth.

I had a coupon for 50% off one item, so I grabbed the yardage of the Denyse Scmidt Daisy Mae to use as backing for a new quilt I'm working on....

...and in case you all are partial to Denyse's new line for Joann's, from Dec. 1-3 all Premium Quilting Cottons (including all the DS Quilts lines) will be on sale for 40% off. And if you have a VIP Card, you can get another 10% off that price. Score!

I also ordered these ribbons from Stitch Steals early last week, and they arrived on Friday. Once I figured in shipping, I ended up getting them for $0.75 a spool. Can't beat that with a stick!

So what did you all score on Black Friday? Any awesome deals from Joann's/Hancocks/Hobby Lobby/Local quilt shops you wanna share?!

And as per the fabric policy, here's my "out" pile for the shop. I've got some AMH Garden Party, Amy Butler & Denyse Schmidt Home Dec, Heather Ross, and some out of print Alexander Henry Noah's Ark. Most everything's listed at $5/yard, and as always, you can use the coupon PLAIDSCOTTIE10 for 10% off anything in my shop :)

By the way, since I've started my new in/out policy, I've been getting fewer cracks from the hubby about how, "if it were up to you, all of our money would be spent on fabric and I'd be naked in a corner somewhere" LOL! So yeah, I'm using that as my gauge for success on breaking the fabric addiction ;)

Goodie Bag Swap

2011-11-20T11:49:00.001-06:00

November is always our busiest time of year at work, because most of our clients renew their policies January 1st (which means we're working behind the scenes putting everything in place 2-3 months in advance of that). I worked roughly 8 hours of overtime last week, so it was a real rat race trying to get my swap bag finished and to the post office in time! I really need to reform my procrastinating ways - argh!

This bag is very simple in appearance, and a departure from the bright colors and busy patterns I'm drawn to, but I had a really hard time letting this go at the post office! To date, I think this was my hardest swap item to part with, mostly because I'm madly in love with how the B&W plaid and mustard yellow look together - it's got a cool, retro vibe to it. Plus I'm a sucker for a good wintery plaid, and the Moda Bella Solid I used for the outside was so buttery soft. I just wanted to rub it on my face, lol! (don't worry partner, I didn't actually do that). I love this bag so, so much and feel like it's the most "professional" looking one I've made. Hopefully my partner likes it - I'm worried it might be a little too simple.

As you can see in the photos below, I decided to alter the pattern a bit and add a zipper pocket. I don't know how the rest of you feel, but if I'm going to go to the trouble of making a fancy bag, I'm gonna make it worth the effort by adding hardware that's durable and polished looking - especially if it's for someone else!

I left in the large pocket that was called for in the pattern, and eliminated the smaller pocket that is supposed to lay over it, so now my partner will have storage on both sides of the purse - a zipper pocket on the side closest to her body, and a large pocket with two sections for her phone, keys, etc. opposite that.

I've been wanting to try this pattern for a while, and even bought the fabric used on the cover, but hadn't gotten around to it in the year+ that I've had it. I'm always at the bottom of my To Do list - but I think it's safe to say we're all like that :)

This pattern is a bit tedious with a lot of detail work, but overall I thought it was well-written and easy to follow (I've always had good luck with her patterns). I did find one error though, which I'll pass on so you all don't make the same mistake. When you get to the point where you're supposed to make two gathering seams 1/4" and 3/4" away from the top and bottom of the exterior panels, you should make the second seam only 1/2" away from the edges. The finishing seam when sewing the exterior of the bag together is only 5/8", so if you place the gathering seam 3/4" away (rather than 1/2"), it will show when you turn the bag right side out. I wondered about that while I was making the 3/4" seam (since most of the seams up until that point had been 5/8"), but instead of reading ahead to make sure, I trusted that the directions were correct, and ended up having to rip out both seams. Make a mental note on this, because picking out stitches between a million tiny gathers is not fun!

Pouchie Love

2011-11-17T06:57:00.001-06:00

I've been a little quiet on the blog front lately (which is pretty much the only area of my life where I'm ever quiet...Angela and Karen can vouch for that *wink*), because I've been frantically sewing Christmas presents for my family and numerous other secret projects that can't be revealed on here. One thing that I did forget to mention, is that I received the most gorgeous Echino pouch from Rebecca last week! She was my secret partner in the Pretty Little Pouch Swap, and she totally nailed my style!

There's a little snap closure pocket on the front (which is incredibly convenient for storing receipts).

And on the inside of my pouch, she tucked in a voile sunglasses case (since I live in the year-round sunshine of New Orleans...seriously...it was 70 degrees yesterday), a folding needle case, a Thor card for the hubs (he was SO excited), and some treats for me and Mr. Whiskers which were eaten long ago (some Reese's Cups and doggie treats...just to clarify - I ate the Reese's and Whiskers ate the dog treats).

Here's a better shot of the little origami needle case. LOVE it! It's really gonna come in handy, because I like to carry portable sewing tools with me for wardrobe emergencies at work. I can't tell you how many times I've fixed tears and missing buttons on my coworker's suits. In fact, a month after I was promoted into my new unit this summer, I ended up having to stick my hand down my boss' dress (lol!) and sew the top button back on her shirtdress because it was gaping open and exposing her bra. Did I mention we were also driving down the interstate in my coworker's minivan on our way to a lunch meeting while I was doing this? So yeah. Portable sewing kits are a must-have. And so are bosses with a good sense of humor :)

All of your handmade goodies will be much loved and used. Thanks Rebecca :)

Beautiful Beginnings

2011-11-14T18:21:00.001-06:00

Here's to weeks that start with giant packages of fabric! Happy Monday to me :)

As you can see, I got some tasty new fabric treats in the mail today - a friend sent me some yardage of these seeds prints from her LQS - yay! Before that I only had one FQ of the yellow print (which I'm now destashing)

And these are some prints I picked up from Fabric.com since they posted a 25% off coupon on their Facebook page last week - whoo hoo! I picked up my favorite Ta Dot, some more Aviary and Heirloom, and the ubercool dots from the new So Sophie line. I'd been eyeballing them online for a while, and I have to say, they're even cuter in person! I love when that happens...and I love My Mind's Eye - some of my favorite prints ever (like the Wishing Flowers) are from them :)

And per the new policy, here's what's going "out" in the Etsy shop!

I have a 1/2 yard bundle of Folksy Flannels (for super cheap!)...

...and some scrap bundles (by color), Riley Blake Wheels, Modern Meadow, Good Folks, and a handful of hard-to-find fabric like the seeds and some Heather Ross.

As always, the code is PLAIDSCOTTIE10 for 10% off

True Love

2011-11-08T17:28:00.004-06:00

True love isn't Twilight...or Pride and Prejudice...or even The Notebook, because none of those characters have to do "normal people" things like grocery shop, clean up after dogs that barf up their own poo, or scrub toilet seats (seriously? how do men make that big of a mess within a week?)

True love is when your husband walks in the house and catches you singing "And I Am Telling You" at the top of your lungs, jazz hands and all. And after laughing with you for 5 minutes and revealing he could actually hear you from the time he pulled in the driveway, sincerely tells you he thought it sounded good.

True love is when you get a surprise migraine while shopping at Target, and as you're leaned over a bag in the car dry-heaving the whole way home, your husband tries to make you laugh by quoting Bridesmaids "LOOK AWAY! I SAID LOOK AWAY!"..."Are you sure, it wasn't that gray kind of lamb?"..."I'm not sick! In fact, Helen, I'm hungry and I wish I had a snack." (side note: god bless those plastic bags from Target. Don't you just love how sturdy they are? I have a hoard of them under my kitchen sink that I re-use for everything under the sun)

True love is when your hubby agrees to climb into an attic in the middle of a sweltering New Orleans summer because you think one of your sewing accessories might be in a box up there, and upon climbing back down empty-handed and sweaty, only gives you a raised eyebrow instead of a 10 minute lecture.

And true love is most definitely when, upon coming out of the gym your husband works at after a morning workout, you find this note on the seat of your car...

(Me Me is what we sometimes call each other...it's part of a long inside joke)

How did I get so lucky? :)

A Family Affair

2011-11-06T15:23:00.002-06:00

Maybe it's the impending holiday season, the crisp Fall weather I woke up to this morning, or a combination of the two...but I'm feeling very sentimental today :)

Since I started quilting 5 years ago, I've managed to rope my mother-in-law, and more recently, my future sister-in-law into the quilting world. We love having a hobby that we can all share together, and every so often we'll get together on a Saturday afternoon and having a Telschow women sewing party.

I feel very blessed, because it's a rare and special thing to share a passion with so many people in your family. Not only because it gives you something to talk about and do together, but also because it provides you with a support group. My mom, my mother-in-law, and my future sister-in-law all sew, and it's amazing having a group of women in my life who understand the technical aspects of what I'm doing, who can critique my designs and push me to be better, and who encourage me in my creative passions when I hit a rough patch.

As the years pass, I find myself looking forward to Christmas and birthdays more and more, because it's so much more fun and meaningful to give and receive handmade gifts from one another. After years and years of my mom making me handmade Halloween costumes, Easter dresses, quilts, and lunches with PB&J sandwiches cut into the shape of a heart, it's wonderful to be able to spend time on her and send her something I made with my own two hands - especially since I'm only able to make it up to Kentucky a few times a year to see my parents :(

So. In celebration of the women in my family, I'd like to share with y'all some photos I have of their beautiful handiwork :)

This is my future sister-in-law Katie's very first quilt! Can you believe how good of a job she did?! - it looks a heckuva lot better than my first attempt, that's for sure! She bought a kit at a local quilt shop and my mother-in-law helped her put it together. I popped by her house the other day, and she was snuggled under it watching tv - so cute!

One of the local quilt shops sells a lot of New Orleans-themed fabric, so my mother-in-law Lana made this Saints quilt for her son's birthday (my brother-in-law). She can't wait to give it to him next week! There's a layer of fleece sandwiched in the middle instead of batting, so the thing is super warm. You could probably boil a kettle of water under it, lol! (which works out well, because both my hubby and his brother are polar bears and refuse to turn on the heat in the winter because they like sleeping in an ice cold house)

And this amazing quilt was my mom's wedding present to Ray and I almost 6 years ago (I can't believe it's been that long...time flies when you're having fun *wink*). She told me a while back that in order to find so many different coordinating prints, she drove over to Hancock's of Paducah and spent the better part of an afternoon there picking out fabric with an employee :)

It makes my brain hurt to think about sewing all of these curved pieces...

...and the real kicker? She did every bit of it on a 30 year old Bernina, with arthritis in both hands.

Yikes! Just look at how intricate her free motion is!!! Thanks mom :)

And bonus, look what arrived in the mail yesterday! My friend Kelly from Kelby Sews is a total sweetheart! Neither of my local Joann's carried them, so she grabbed some of the Merry Main Street and 5 more yards of the Sugar Creek Floral print for me (after I used all mine in this quilt).

And since I'm trying to be extra good heading into the holidays, here is my "out" pile. All the prints you see below are now up for grabs in my Etsy shop. Use PLAIDSCOTTIE10 for 10% off.

Pretty Little Pouch Swap

2011-11-05T14:54:00.000-05:00

I love tiny wee pouches so much, that I broke my "no swaps for a year" rule again *sheepish grin*. I signed up for Kelly and Michelle's Pretty Little Pouch Swap because it's one of my favorites!

I just finished my pouch for my partner, and I'm proud of myself because I actually finished two whole days ahead of the mailing deadline. That's gotta be some kinda record for me :)

I love playing with texture and odd techniques, and I've been wanting to try my hand at finding a way to "weave" fabric without having a bunch of raw seams. My solution was buttonholes! I made a total of 42 buttonholes on each side of the pouch so that I could weave fabric strips in and out....I kinda screwed the pooch on the placement of the buttonholes on the alternating rows, because I off-set them instead of directly lining them up with the previous row. Oh well. Things still turned out okay (I think) - hopefully my partner likes it because I saw a lot of linen and rainbow colors in her mosaic and photostream :)

12 Days of Christmas

2011-11-01T10:57:00.001-05:00

Morning everyone! Today is my designated day for the 12 Days of Christmas Sampler Quilt Along, and I designed a sweet little fireplace with festive stockings ready to be filled with goodies :)

I moved from Chicago to New Orleans a few years ago, and while I absolutely love New Orleans, I really start to miss Chicago at Christmas-time every year. I miss the cold, the lights, the ice skating at Grant Park, the Marshall Field's window displays, and eating roasted cinnamon almonds at the Christkindlmarket. I thought making a warm and toasty block would help satisfy my cold weather craving for the time being :)

The block itself is very simple, and most of the detail work is in the appliqueing. Here is a "naked" diagram of what the block looks like...

Here is a list of what you'll need to complete this block:

Fusible Web (I use Heat n' Bond)
Background fabric

(1) 5.5" x 12.5" piece
(1) 2.5" x 12.5" piece
(2) 3.5" x 4.5" pieces
(2) 1.5" x 3.5" pieces

Fireplace fabric

(1) 1.5" x 8.5" piece
(1) 2.5" x 6.5" piece
(2) 1.5" x 2.5" pieces

Fireplace interior

(1) 2.5" x 4.5" piece

Wreath

(1) 4.5" x 4.5" green solid
Red and mustard yellow scraps (for ornaments)

Stockings

(3) 2.5" x 2.5" scraps

Fire

(1) 2.5" x 3.5" mustard yellow solid

To help with placement, I labeled all the block pieces in the diagram so you'll know what goes where.

You will start by assembling pieces 1 thru 6 in numerical order. Start with piece 1, attach pieces 2 and 3 to the sides, and continue working in order until you've attached piece 6.

Grab pieces 7-9. Rather than attaching pieces 8 and 9 at the ends with a straight stitch, you will attach them to piece 7 by mitering the corners. If you need instructions on how to do this, you can find step-by-step instructions with photos on page 4 of this pattern.

Once you've finished sewing together pieces 7-9 in a long, skinny strip, attach it to the top of pieces 1-6. The bottom of your mantle will line up perfectly with the rest of the fireplace, but I stretched mine a hair to give it a little bit of overhang. I thought it would look a little more realistic that way, but it really doesn't matter either way - it's totally a preference thing.

Attach your top 5.5" x 12.5" piece, and then trim up your block on the sides (I had you cut pieces 8 and 9 a little longer than necessary to give you extra fabric to play with when mitering the corners, so once you've sewn together the first three sections, you'll probably have a bit of excess fabric hanging out at the middle section).

Before you attach the final 2.5" x 12.5" bottom piece of the block, you'll need to applique on the fire. Below is a pdf you can print out, and you'll need to cut out the three applique templates to finish the block. For this step, trace Template A onto your 2.5" x 3.5" piece of orange/yellow solid, iron onto fusible web, and then iron onto the correct spot on your block. Find some coordinating thread, and free motion around the edges of the fire to secure in place.

Christmas Block Templates

Once you're finished stitching, sew the remaining 2.5" x 12.5" block piece to the bottom.

Trace the remaining templates (B and C) onto their respective fabrics and iron to your fusible web.

To position the wreath, fold your block in half across the width and finger press the center crease along the top half of your block.

Center the wreath using the crease you just made as a guide. Iron in place, and free motion around the inside and outside edge to secure in place.

To make the ornaments, I ironed my red and mustard scraps to the fusible web, and then cut small circles of different sizes out of them with a fine pair of scissors. Once you've got your ornaments cut out, arrange them how you'd like, iron in place, and stitch to secure.

Repeat the same process to applique your three stockings. Cut, fuse, arrange on your block, iron, and stitch in place.

I plan to try my hand at using free motion to make letters on the stockings later. I didn't want to attempt it before posting this block because I was afraid I'd mess up and mangle it before I had a chance to take pictures, lol!

My goal is to write our family's initials on the three stockings ( a "K", "R", and "W") when I have some free time this weekend :)

MERRY CHRISTMAS & HAPPY SEWING!

(I'm going to see if I can talk the hubs into watching Elf tonight!)

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Happy Halloween!

2011-10-31T13:29:00.002-05:00

I love New Orleans because almost everyone dresses up for Halloween...on the street, in the workplace, and everywhere in between. We have an elaborate costume contest at work every year, and the company pays for catering so our entire office of 70+ people gets to hang out in the break room in our crazy outfits. There's an Individual and Group costume category, and they sweeten the pot with cash prizes for the winners.

My good friend Sherie and I are practically joined at the hip - our coworkers tease us because our personalities are so similar and we're always together - where you see one, you usually see the other. Last year I actually went as Sherie for Halloween - I wore a nametag with her name written on it, and told people "I'm Sherie today. I'm going to talk a lot and not get any work done." (she's actually a really hard worker - I just like to mess with her) So all things considered, we felt it was only appropriate to dress as a pair this year, and we went with Salt & Pepper because it's funny on a number of levels, lol (Sherie's always making fun of my pale legs).

I made our costumes out of some 72" wide felt and elastic (for the shoulder straps). We both wore black leggings, a tshirt to match our "shaker dress", and some chef hats I put together using this tutorial (I narrowed the band to 2") You can't really see, but I spray basted some black felt circles on the top of the hats as our shaker holes.

Oh, and the best part? We made our grand entrance before the entire office and panel of judges to the Salt & Peppa song "Push It"? Sherie might have done the hand-behind-the-head-hip-swirl move, and I may or may not have done a slow-mo sliding entrance followed up by the Running Man.

You gotta have some fun in this life, ya know?

The sweet, sweet taste of victory

2011-10-27T20:37:00.003-05:00

Me and my redheaded self are doing a merry little Irish jig in the living room right now. I finally found a copy of 318 Patchwork Patterns by Kumiko Fujita yesterday, and Ayumi was kind enough to have it shipped to her house. She's going to forward it to me in the States, and I'm beyond ecstatic.

I love Ayumi's blog and have read it for a few years now, but she doesn't know me from Adam. How incredibly nice is she to help a stranger get a book from half-way around the globe? I love quilters :)

I can't wait to get my claws on this book and get sewing! Tell you what, Ray's gonna have a time dragging me out of my quilting lair once it arrives.

Back to the Future

2011-10-25T14:38:00.000-05:00

There's a hole-in-the-wall quilt shop in Gulfport I like to visit whenever I can, because it's like hopping in a time machine. Most of their fabric is $5.99 to $6.99 a yard instead of $10 or $11. It's awesome.

Ray and I drove over on Saturday to visit his aunt and uncle while they were staying at their beachfront condo, so I made sure we left early enough for me to make it to the shop before closing time. I picked up several yards, and didn't pay over $7 for any of the prints - oh yeah! oh yeah! *does Elaine from Seinfeld dance* I even found a couple that were on sale for $3.99!

As per my new fabric-buying policy, here are my outgoing fabrics. I posted them in my Etsy shop earlier today. As always, you can use the coupon code for 10% off - PLAIDSCOTTIE10

Sweet Caroline Quilt

2011-10-24T06:00:00.000-05:00

Remember the last-minute present I was working on last week? Weeeelllll the thing is, I bit off a little more than I could chew when choosing the pattern (the Stamps version of Elizabeth Hartman's More Simple Modern Baby Quilts), so I didn't finish it until Saturday morning.

I finished basting it late Thursday night, and was fully prepared to pull an all-nighter in order to finish in time for the baby shower on Friday. But the hubby intervened and told me I was being a mad woman...and I chose to listen to the voice of reason for a change. My hubby takes such good care of me :)

I did, however, stick the basted quilt in a baby-themed gift bag and bring it to the shower. And before she "unwrapped it", I stood up and yelled across the room "it's not finished! I just didn't want you to think I didn't get you anything!" And when we were all standing around looking at it at the end of the shower, one of my coworkers said "this is an interesting way to finish it *makes face*...what's this weird flannel stuff sticking out of the ends?" Apparently I'll have to scream a little louder next time (which shouldn't be a problem, because I'm pretty much a megaphone with legs).

The binding is Nicey Jane Welcome Road in Pink, and the backing is from Denyse Schmidt's newest collection for Joann's. I'm totally in love with the back of this quilt! I'm not usually a fan of pastels, but this Sugar Creek print is pretty freaking fantastic...I had my friend Kelly run to her local Joann's and pick up 5 more yards for me because it's the perfect baby quilt fabric. I'm kind of regretting not getting the whole bolt.

Aren't the colors delicious? I named this quilt Sweet Caroline because I kept singing that song while I was making it....the colors make me think of candy and sunshine and fluffy bunnies munchin' on clovers :)

Prizes!

2011-10-19T06:55:00.003-05:00

I received the prizes I won from Celebrate Color this weekend, and I'm super stoked!!! I used my gift card from Whipstitch to pick up some fabric for Christmas presents...

Don't you just love Rashida's I Heart line?

And when I received my 4 patterns, I noticed they came directly from the Dewberry familia. How awesome is that? He's one of my favorite designers, so I'll admit I'm a little bit of a starstruck nerd, lol!

And just to admit that I do crazy things for the sake of my blog sometimes, I'll tell you a little story. You see that reddish stain by his name? Well when I got the envelope I was all like, "This is so awesome! I've gotta save this and take a picture to show my readers!". But then an hour later when I was tearing through the house on a cleaning rampage, I tossed it in the trash right on top of a glob of marinara sauce. Five seconds later I realized what I'd done, and yanked it out. So yes, I went dumpster diving and cleaned trash-can-marinara off of an envelope for the sake of my blog, LOL!

P.S. As I was flipping through that copy of Stitch you see above, I realized my good friend Michelle has been holding out on me!!! I saw this really awesome felt table runner and paused to read more details, and lo and behold - there's Michelle's friggin name right there! In Stitch! She's a rock star! (and a much better secret keeper than I am, because in my excitement I definitely would have told some of my friends on the sly at the Summit, lol!)

As much as I love Stitch (it's my favorite crafty mag), I'm always a bit hesitant about the $14.99 price tag. But I can say this issue is definitely worth it! There are some really nice patterns in here, and Ayumi submitted an insanely cute (as always) sewing machine cover.

The Queen of Last Minute Gifts

2011-10-17T21:31:00.002-05:00

Why do I constantly do this to myself? I always decide to make super-complicated presents mere days before the event. I can only conclude it's because I'm 1) insane, or 2) masochistic..(or both - LOL!)

This baby quilt has to be finished by Friday morning (so I can bring it to work with me).

This is where I'm currently at...

...wish me luck!

The Sewing Summit Post

2011-10-15T21:41:00.007-05:00

The Sewing Summit was awesome - full of friends, shopping, and most importantly, FUN!

From L to R: Me, Cherie, Angela & Karen

I got to hang out with my NOLA MQG ladies, and we were reunited with Angela for the first time since she moved in May! We roomed together, which was pretty much an awesome 3-day slumber party. And bonus, our hotel bill was really cheap once split 4 ways (read: more money for fabric). The rooms at Little America were huge and posh, so we didn't feel crammed at all. I meant to get a picture of our sweet hotel room, but there were so many fun distractions that I hardly took any pictures all weekend - oops!

Angela made these cute little felt spools with our names and alter egos on them...

...and a sweet bunting for decorating our room door/alcove.

P.S. Ray and I were laughing at how I look like an Amazon woman in that first photo, lol! I'm a full head taller than everyone else. And then I showed him the pictures below, and we were cracking up over my huge circus feet (I wear a size 11). I'm excited to have kids one day, but not the actual "squeezing the baby out" part. I'm 5'8" and Ray is 6'2" (plus my dad is 6'5" and I have those genes floating around in my pool somewhere), so I'm pretty much going to give birth to a sack of potatoes. "Congratulations ma'am! You're the proud mom of a sack of Yukon Golds"

Cara wears a 5. I wear an 11....

...her shoe fit neatly inside of mine, like Godzilla swallowing Tokyo.

There was much additional tomfoolery...

Shutterbugs Michelle and Angela

We were debating over whether my extreme nostril flare or her "dental exam" smile was worse, lol

Cara gracefully mounting a bike rack

...and attempting to "ride" it - Tour de France, here she comes!

Twins!

This face is the epitome of Cara-ness! Adorable and mischevious ;)

We wandered around like lost puppies Sunday morning looking for an open restaurant. We accidentally slept through breakfast and I was ready to chew my arm off.

Karen made a new friend there, while Cara asked for him to be substituted into her breakfast "I'll have the french toast, except instead of fresh fruit, can I have bacon?" Love it.

None of us anticipated how dry the air would be in SLC and Angela's skin was cracking, so naturally she used a tampon after none of us could find a band-aid or napkin in our purses, LOL!

We're gonna submit this photo of Kristie to Mom's Gone Wild!

(photo swiped from Cara)

And lots of shopping, of course....

Our combined haul, including quilt shop purchases, swag bag goodies, and prize winnings!

My share of the mountain.

...not to mention eating!

We ran out to Material Girls during our 2 1/2 hour lunch break on Saturday, and made a little pit stop at the Rio Grande cafe next door. It was as awesome as everyone said!

Check out those freshly made tortillas! That dude stepped right into my picture. Side note...do you ever wonder what random stranger's vacation photos you're in? Some family in Sheboygan, Wisconsin probably has a photo of me in the background picking my nose in Disneyworld in their coffee table album, lol!

I had a Mexican Coke (yum! my favorite!) and Karen and I split the pork burrito - the sauce on it was mind-blowing!

And what's a shopping trip without dessert? There was a store in the little shopping center that melted candy bar pieces over your cookie of choice - YUM!

Yes please, I'll have one of everything...

But most of all, there were strengthened friendships and new friendships. Do you ever meet people, and instantly feel like you've known them for a lifetime, even though you've just met? I love that sense of immediate comfort and ease that comes with meeting "kindred spirits" like Michelle, Kristie, Cara, Jacey, Elena, Dana, Candice, Ali, and so many others this past weekend! My only regret is that I wasn't able to spend time with more of the people there, but there are only so many hours in a day :(

Our motley crew - Michelle, Me, Karen, Angela, Cherie and Cara - plus Megan, who I met for the first time at the end of the Summit! She seemed really fun and I wish I'd gotten to hang out with her more :(

And here's me headed home :(

But at least I had an adorable new pouch from Jennifer to store my flight essentials in! It was the perfect fit for my ID, boarding pass and phone.

See you all next year!

Bag Remix

2011-10-12T23:19:00.006-05:00

(pattern here)

My friend at work kept passing by my cube and eyeing my bag, so she finally asked me to make one for her in black and gray. She liked the look of the cheater print I used for mine, so I pieced it using some Echino and Lecien prints I had on hand. The gray pin dot is from one of my favorite Etsy sellers, stefaniexu. I'm fighting the urge to order more because I used the last of what I had...gotta stay strong because I need to be better about using what I have, rather than constantly ordering more fabric! Gah!

I also reinforced the piecing with some topstitching. I wish I'd used a light gray thread instead, because I feel like the black stands out too much!

She wanted corduroy for the handles and top panel like mine, and I lined it with some gray Michael Miller Ta Dot. I do need to order more of that print though, because it's an awesome basic to have on hand.

I'm gonna try and post the rest of my photos from the retreat tomorrow...I keep getting sidetracked by sewing projects and my Hulu Plus Queue, lol!

There's a new sheriff in town.

2011-10-10T14:33:00.000-05:00

In keeping with this post (which was inspired by this story), I have a new policy when it comes to fabric purchases. Because I don't want to go back to the "bad place" where fabric is popping out of every corner of my house and hanging from the rafters like monkeys (...in the time of chimpanzees, I was a monkey...), I've decided that every time I make a new fabric purchase, something else has to go.

And since I bought some new fabric during the Sewing Summit (more to come on that later - I had such an awesome time with my gal pals!), somethin's gotta go!

Out with the old...(now in my Etsy shop)

...and in with the new! I couldn't resist the Riley Blake Halloween prints you see on the left. They were already 25% off, and then Material Girls offered all Summit participants a flat 25% off their purchase, so I ended up getting them for a little over $1/each!!! Can't beat that price with a stick.

And these are some more of my new fabrics, but they don't count because I swapped for them.

Did I tell you all about the Fat Quarter swap I helped organize at the Sewing Summit? I can't remember...

Anywho, a while back I had the idea that it would be fun for a big group of us to swap fabric in person. We've been doing it for so long online, that it only seemed right we should finally get together and swap in person :)

We had over 50 people respond, so unfortunately we had to limit it to fat quarter cuts for the sake of time and ease :( Everyone brought their fat quarters to our hotel room the night before the swap so that my lovely fabric assistants could sort them, and we handed over raffle tickets for each FQ they brought.

(picture swiped from Angela)

The next evening we laid out all the fabric according to color, and everyone showed up to shop and "purchase" fabric with their tickets.

I'd like to give a BIG thanks to my lovely swap volunteers, who really did most of the work...

...and to all the wonderful participants, who put up with my laundry list of rules and made this such a fun event :)

I wanted to thank everyone for being so awesome, so I made arrangements with some great online quilt shops for prizes! We used the ticket stubs our swappers turned in at the "checkout" to draw for some lovely fabric goodies at the end, including a 2 lb. scrap pack from Cynthia at Fabricworm, some Kona and Moda fabric bundles and charm packs from Whipstitch, a lovely custom FQ bundle put together by my friend Brenda at Pink Castle Fabrics, and a book of sewing & quilting patterns donated by some of my favorite bloggers :)

Not to mention a sweet $20 gift certificate from Kristin at Sew, Mama, Sew!, plus a FQ bundle from Hawthorne Threads of the entire Lizzie line by Anna Griffin! I was stoked when AnneMarie won the FQ bundle, because she's got a bambino on the way and the Lizzie line is so sweet and perfect for baby projects :)

More to come on the rest of our Sewing Summit shenanigans... ;)

Whoops!

2011-10-07T10:44:00.001-05:00

This post is gonna be short and sweet! In my frenzy to finish packing and get out of the house yesterday, I totally forgot to post the giveaway winners. I'm at the Sewing Summit lying in bed and typing on my iPad right now, so I can't paste the fancy number generator images in on this thing...you'll just have to take my word for it this time :) The winner of the Outfoxed charm pack is Commenter #33...Madhatcher! The winner of the "mystery prize" is Commenter #1...Jennifer! I'll try and email the winners as soon as possible to get addresses and make arrangements...or if you read this and wanna email me first, that would be pretty fantastic and make my life a heckuva lot easier!

Pumpkin Patch Table Runner

2011-10-06T09:06:00.003-05:00

Remember these blocks? Well now they've turned been into this:

I've had this idea in my brain since last Fall (linen background and all), but after I caught a glimpse of Aneela's adorable (and almost identical) runner, I almost didn't go through with it because I didn't want to seem like a big fat ripoff!

...but eventually, after a lot of debating, I decided to finish the pattern because I know I didn't copy anything, and I wanted to share a fun fall project with you guys!

Also, I designed the back so that you can reverse the runner if you so choose (always convenient when there's a food stain, lol!)

The downloadable pdf is below. You're welcome to use it for your home or for sale in SMALL quantities, but please don't mass produce this for profit. Thanks :)
Pumpkin Patch Table Runner

Puppies for Sale

2011-10-04T10:08:00.003-05:00

I had a very interesting morning...(and I wonder why I've been getting more migraines than usual lately, lol!)

So. The hubs and I have been getting up at 5:30 a.m. the past few weeks to exercise before work. Ray let the dogs out in the backyard, and I was in the house getting dressed. And then: total chaos. Both dogs got loose, and took off running (in opposite directions) in the pitch black morning hours. Ray starts yelling for me to help, but I don't even have any pants on.

By the time I get dressed and run outside to round up the hogs, Ray's walking back with each dog by the collar....and Whiskers was FILTHY....and looking 100% pleased with himself. He had run down to the disgusting drainage ditch at the end of the street, and jumped into the stagnant water - full of God knows what. ~~Scratch the morning workout.~~ I told Ray to go on to the gym because I'd have to stay and sort things out, and then I gave Whiskers the silent "business face" and finger point (the one that silently says you can wipe that smile off your face mister and drop the tail wag while you're at it!!!). I put Rimshot in the kennel while I hosed Whiskers (who was still looking mighty pleased with himself) down in the utility sink.

I finish with Whiskers, rub him down with a towel, and unleash him to do the "mad wet dog" run. Once he finally calmed down and quit trying to dry off on our sofa, I let Rimshot out. And that's when all hell broke loose. She takes 5 steps out of the kennel, and throws up the worst thing I could imagine all over the floor. I won't go into detail, but she had eaten something in the backyard that morning that should never be eaten. So I clean up that mess (dry-heaving the entire time), and toss Rimshot back in the kennel, where she proceeds to throw up MORE of the Breakfast-That-Shall-Not-Be-Named in the kennel. Grab Rimshot, throw her in bathroom, scrub out unholy mess in the kennel, grab Rimshot again, toss her back in kennel, latch it and throw away the key.

So how was your morning? Hopefully better than mine.

Is it Thursday yet?

P.S. I listed a few more fun goodies in the Etsy shop and updated the crappy photos from "Migraine Bat Cave Day", so feel free to continue helping me unload some of my fabric hoard :). Coupon code still PLAIDSCOTTIE10.

Christmas Sampler Quilt-Along

2011-10-03T22:28:00.000-05:00

I love Christmas. Almost TOO much. I'm so desperate for it to be here, that I started listening to my Nat King Cole Christmas CD earlier while I was sewing. And every year, come November 1st, I want to start watching Elf. We watch a movie before bed almost every night, so here's a little bit about how that conversation with the hubs goes every single year...

Nov 1st:
Ray - "What movie do you wanna watch?"
Me - "I wanna watch Elf."
Ray - "No babe! It's only November 1st, and we're gonna get burnt out on Christmas movies if we start this early."
Me - "Fine." *sulks*

Nov 16th:
Ray - "What movie do you wanna watch?"
Me - "It's my birthday, and I demand to watch Elf."
Ray - *Sighs and rolls eyes* "Okay...go put it in."
Me - *does victory dance all the way to the DVD player*

Sooooo...to help me pass the time this year, I'm participating in Sara's awesome 12 Days of Christmas Sampler Quilt Along! Twelve bloggers will be creating a unique 12.5" Christmas-themed block and preparing a tutorial to go along with it. The block instructions, available on each designers' blog, will be spread over a 6-week period, giving you plenty of time to join in! If you decide to quilt along with us, at the end of the 6 weeks, you will have a completed Christmas quilt top!

If you are planning on joining, the quilt top will require 12 fat quarters, or 1 layer cake. In addition to that, you will need approximately 1-1/2 yard of solid fabric for the sashing.

Here is the schedule for each of the 12 blocks; on the respective date, you will be able to find the block/tutorial on the specified blog.

Oct 25 - Julianna @ Projektownia Jednoiglec
Oct 27 - Sara @ Sew Sweetness
Nov 1 - Kaelin @ The Plaid Scottie
Nov 3 - Jennie @ Clover and Violet
Nov 8 - Elizabeth @ Don't Call Me Betsy
Nov 10 - Riel @ The Q and the U
Nov 15 - Jennifer @ Ellison Lane Quilts
Nov 17 - Lindsay @ Lindsay Sews
Nov 22 - Jessica @ SewCraftyJess
Nov 23 - Sarah @ Fairy Face Designs
Nov 29 - Heather & Megan @ Quilt Story
Dec 1 - Kim @ My Go Go Life

Giveaway!

2011-10-03T07:09:00.002-05:00

Since many of you won't be able to make it to the Sewing Summit this year, I thought I'd give away some fun consolation prizes to cheer ya'll up! To enter, leave a comment. I'll announce the winner before I leave Thursday morning.

The first prize will be a mystery item, handmade by me. I'm working on a fun new pattern and the winner will get to choose the fabric they want for it :)

The second item is a charm pack from Lizzy House's upcoming fabric line "Outfoxed". A big thanks to my friend Brenda from Pink Castle Fabrics for generously supplying this prize!

Good Luck! This giveaway IS open to Internationals, and will close at midnight this Wednesday, October 5th.

The Destash Continues

2011-10-02T22:12:00.002-05:00

Remember the first wave of the destash I posted last week? Well the second and final wave is up and running in my Etsy shop. There's some Lizzy House Castle Peeps, Erin McMorris Weekends, KJR Argyle, and assorted other prints for $5/yard (or less). I had yet another migraine today (my 4th in the same amount of months), so I apologize for the horrible photos. Our house was like the Bat Cave while I took these because I had all the lights shut off, lol!

It's a huge relief to finally have control of my stash and gain some extra storage room for a change. Hope ya'll find some things you've been looking for :)

I will refund any shipping overages, and as always, you can use the coupon PLAIDSCOTTIE10 for 10% off your purchase.

One more thing...

2011-09-30T07:28:00.003-05:00

Keep your eyes peeled, because I'm going to be posting a free pattern sometime next week to keep you busy while I'm gone to the Sewing Summit ;)

What could it be? Will there be more? All in good time....

Baby Punkin'

Big Mama Punkin'

Scottie Watch

2011-09-30T07:09:00.000-05:00

1) I found an awesome new fabric shop called Form & Fabric. They offer $2.99 shipping on all orders, and have a nice selection of out-of-print Echino and Anna Maria Horner prints.

2) I know my friend Angela will be all over this sale because she loooves Sweetwater! Quilt Home is offering 25% off all in-stock Sweetwater prints with the coupon QHSWQC.

3) This looks like a fantastic book! It's called Sewing with Oilcloth, and I keep flipping through the copy at my local Barnes & Noble, debating over whether I should order it on Amazon or not. Anyone tried her patterns yet?

4) Never done embroidery before? Want to try something simple for a project like a few embroidered words? Then you should check out the tutorial I used from Jenny the Artist when I was making my mug rug for the 1st round of that swap. It's really easy, and the choices are virtually endless when you consider all the different fonts floating around out there! It would be really easy to make handmade, personalized Christmas stockings this way :)

5) Haven't registered for the Sewing Summit yet? Well, you should! The last day for registration is this Sunday, Oct. 2 (closes at midnight). *chants* Do it! DO it! DO IT!

DWR Quilt Along: Layering, Quilting & Binding the Curved Edges

2011-09-28T18:45:00.003-05:00

This post will be short and sweet, because there's really only one part of this process that might be foreign to you (sorting out the binding at the curved corners).

To prepare the backing, you'll cut your yardage into two 1 1/2 yard pieces. Sew together down the length to make one large panel. Baste, quilt (I did free motion) and trim off the excess batting and backing.

Prepare your bias binding using your preferred method. Personally, I love these instructions from The Dread Pirate Rodgers. Her method looks a little scary at first, but her instructions are amazingly detailed, informative, and there's virtually no fabric waste, which I love.

Start pinning your binding on one of the end rings, making sure to leave a tail. It's best to start at an end because you'll have plenty of room (without any pesky corners) to attach your tail ends once you've worked your way around the quilt top.

Pin until you reach a corner. Now there may be a better way to do this, but this method is what's worked well for me in the past. Make a baby miter, finger press, and pin in place. You don't want to do a full-on miter with all the folding (like you would with a regular square corner) because it gathers up way too much fabric at the corner, and it's nearly impossible to miter the back side.

You may have to work your binding a little bit to get everything in place before you pin.

Once you've finished pinning the entire top and begin sewing your binding down, this is how you'll need to navigate the corner. I made 1/2" binding, so I sewed until I was 1/2" above the corner and pivoted to go down the next curve.

Once you've finished sewing down the top of the binding and start flipping it toward the back, here's how you'll situate the fabric at the corners. At your first corner, go ahead and clip down the binding that's on either side of the corner into it's rightful place, so there's not a bunch of excess fabric floating around. Grab the fabric bunched at the corner...

...and following the natural inclination of the fabric from the miter you made earlier, tuck the right side under the left using your finger until there's no excess and the binding wants to lay flat with no puckering. Once you have the front in place, the binding should naturally fall into place on the back as you fold it over.

If you machine sew the back of your binding (like me), you'll sew down one side and pivot at the corner, just like you did for the top.

And voila! You're finished! I immediately wash and dry my quilts after binding because it crinkles up nicely and hides most of my flaws - there's nothing like a good run through the machine to hide your quilting sins ;)

And here's a crapload of pictures. I document every last inch of my Double Wedding Ring quilts because they're so difficult to make!

Hercules! Hercules!

2011-09-28T15:30:00.002-05:00

Remember this bag? Well I stopped by Rachel's blog today, and saw that it had been chosen as a finalist in the Wearables category! I spent the next 5 minutes being giddy and doing the Nutty Professor "Hercules!" clap to myself in my cubicle.

Please go vote for me if you think my bag is worthy! And maybe do the clap....changing the chant from "Her-cu-les!" to "Vote-for-me!"...LOL!

Almost there...

2011-09-26T20:49:00.003-05:00

Quilt-Along Checklist

✓ Sandwich and baste

✓ Free-motion

✓ Make bias binding

Bind and snap photos on how to navigate the curved edges

Updates.

2011-09-25T21:03:00.004-05:00

1) How did everyone's gift presentations go for the Quilting Widow(er) Appreciation Day this past Saturday (the 24th?). My hubby loved his new quilted Marvel pillowcase...so much so that I didn't get a chance to take pretty staged pictures of it before it was in use (see below)

Aren't my sleeping boys precious? I'm gonna get an earful about this picture later. He caught me trying to take a photo once before this (I thought he was asleep, but he was still partially conscious), and I got a groggy verbal warning, LOL! I pounced again 30 minutes later once the snoring started. Snoring = definite sleep.

2) I hope to have the last post for the DWR Quilt Along ready by the end of this week. Not that I don't love you all, but we had 3 family birthdays last week, and some things are just more important than quilting :) Thanks for being so patient with me this summer. I've had a lot of unexpected speed bumps in my personal and professional life, and it's been a real challenge to keep the Quilt Along going. I have my DWR quilted, so all I need to do is bind that beast, snap a few photos, and the post will be ready!

3) I'm sick of owning too much stuff. And that means another DESTASH. Between myself, my family and my friends, we've participated in FIVE moves this summer, and there's nothing like moving to make you realize how much stuff Americans own. Ever since we moved in April, I've just been feeling sick about the amount of fabric I have. I've been destashing a few things here and there the past couple weeks, but I really needed to get control of myself and do a major overhaul. I finished the first wave tonight, and hope to do a second one this weekend. I love fabric, and there's nothing wrong with buying it, but you know there's a major problem when you can't even remember what you own. Recently, I can't tell you how many times I've bought fabric online/in a LQS/swapped on Flickr, only to find out I already have a cut of that exact print in my stash. That's bad.

It's been weighing on my conscience, and then I read this post, and it's so true - you can't take it with you, so what's the point of my ridiculous hoarding? And that's what it is - hoarding - really! I know we all joke about hoarding fabric - but I honestly do! I keep fabrics for years because I'm terrified to use it...or if I do actually cut into it, I feel this compulsion to buy more to replace it in case I ever need it again. I'm crazy, what can I say?

I already own enough fabric to last me a lifetime of quilting...so I'm killing two birds with one stone. I get rid of my guilt and clutter, and you lovely readers gain some really nice fabric for a steal. I've listed some yardage of Ann Kelle and Laurie Wisbrun prints for $6/each, and also some FQ bundles for $5 to $6 each. I will refund any shipping overages, and as always, readers can use the coupon code PLAIDSCOTTIE10 in my shop for 10% off.

(The coupon is always active, so you can use it any time you buy anything in my shop - not just when I announce new fabric/patterns/goods on here :) ).

Button, button, who's got the button?

2011-09-22T20:50:00.000-05:00

My cousin Michelle loves animated movies, and after we watched Coraline together a few weeks ago, she made me these precious polymer buttons! You should check out her Etsy shop - she has some really cute stuff in there, and I can vouch for the quality *wink*. If you'd like a custom button(s), or see something you like but want in a different color, try messaging her and I'm sure she'd be willing to work with you :)

This is angelic "Coraline" Sir Whiskers...

And this is "Sherlock" Whiskers. He's no hail-fellow-well-met, but the perfect gentleman on the street...

And check out the sweet little goodies I picked up this week! Stitch Steals was offering all 60+ of these buttons for $9.99...I was on that deal like a monkey on a cupcake. The fabric is from a quilt shop I stumbled across earlier this week while on a work trip - they had almost an entire bolt of the Aviary Lime Woodgrain, and I bought almost all of it! Woot!

German Chocolate Cake.

2011-09-21T11:45:00.002-05:00

Need I say more?

There are only two things in life I do better than most people: 1) parallel parking, and 2) making a German Chocolate Cake. Believe me when I tell you it's even more delicious than it looks. And yes, you should torte the cake because the icing soaks into all the thin layers and makes the cake extra moist and delicious. Don't chicken out and attempt to make it into a sheet cake! Torting is easy...and honestly, I don't bother with trying to make it level unless it's for a public function or charity event like a cake auction. I just cut and stack, and if it ends up a little wonky, I stick a wooden skewer (the kind you use for grilling) right through the center to keep it from sliding around until we devour it :)

Case and point...since this is for a family birthday party, you can see I didn't bother with making it straight and pretty *wink*

CAKE

1/2 c boiling water
6 oz. German baking chocolate (in the baking aisle – the kind I buy is Baker’s brand and it comes in a 4 oz. brown and green package)
2 c sugar
1 c butter, softened
4 egg yolks
1 tsp vanilla
2 1/2 c cake flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 c buttermilk (I know it can be hard to find in a regular grocery outside of the South, but usually you can find powdered buttermilk in the Baking aisle).
4 egg whites, stiffly beaten

ICING

2 c sugar
1 c butter
2 c evaporated milk
2 tsp vanilla
6 egg yolks
2 ½ c flaked coconut
2 c chopped pecans

CAKE DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease three 8-inch round pans.
Pour boiling water on chocolate, stirring until chocolate is melted; cool.
Combine sugar and butter in large mixing bowl and beat until light and fluffy. Add in eggs yolk, one at a time. Beat in chocolate and vanilla on low speed.
In a separate bowl, combine dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, and salt)
Add the flour mixture in 3 batches, alternating with the buttermilk, and beating after each addition until batter is smooth (you'll begin and end with the flour mixture). Fold in egg whites.
Divide batter among pans. Bake 35-40 minutes until cake has pulled away slightly from the sides of the pan and cake springs back to the touch. Let cool completely before assembling the cake.

ICING DIRECTIONS

While cake is baking, mix sugar, butter, milk, vanilla and egg yolks in saucepan.
Whisk together over medium heat (stirring often) until thick (about 10 minutes). Remove from heat and stir in coconut and pecans. Let cool completely before assembling the cake.

ASSEMBLY
With a long serrated knife, torte all three cakes, spreading icing in between them as you stack (you’ll have 6 layers when finished). And make sure you save a little icing to pour over the top when finished. Eat and ENJOY :)

Birthday Bag

2011-09-20T18:53:00.003-05:00

This week is a week of birthdays...my mom's, my husband's, and my cousin's...which means I've had to put together three handmade birthday presents. No easy feat, considering I'm also frantically trying to finish quilting my DWR in time for the grand finale this weekend.

This bag is for my cousin Michelle, who loves simple bags and soft florals. I used Simplicity pattern 2617 and it was easy to follow, but I'm not entirely happy with the way the bag turned out. Even though the directions clearly said "1/2 inch seams unless otherwise specified", my brain went into default quilting mode and I used 1/4" seams for the piecing on the front (which means my two side pieces got lopped off and you can barely see them). Normally I wouldn't care, but it was the print that pulled all the colors together, so now I feel like the bag has a random purple strip and a random pink strip that don't really go together *sigh*. Normally I'd redo it, but I don't have time. Hopefully she doesn't notice or care :(

The neutral is natural linen, the bag & strap lining is Modern Meadow Handpicked Daisies in Pink, and the exterior prints are Riley Blake Wishing Flowers in Fuchsia, Modern Meadow Dogwood Bloom in Pink, and Central Park Hernshead in Plaza (that's the one that got chopped off, for the most part).

NEWS FLASH: I got to thinking after I posted this yesterday, and I decided to make one more small item to make up for me screwing the pooch on the exterior of the bag. So I threw together a wee matching coin purse. Aren't they cute together? They look like a Mama Purse and Baby Pouch (yes, apparently bags can procreate...who knew? *wink*)

Shakin' and Bakin'

2011-09-19T10:11:00.000-05:00

As you can see, there's been a whole lotta shakin' going on behind the scenes. After I posted about wanting to move to my own domain and redesign my site a few weeks ago, Jennie over at Clover & Violet contacted me. Remember Jennie? She's the one that sent me the lovely Scottie themed package in the first round of the Mug Rug Swap!

Well we've been emailing back and forth the past few weeks, and she’s been kind enough to ~~help~~ do everything for me in terms of getting the code together. I know it took up a lot of her personal time to help with my site, so I just wanna say a big THANK YOU to Jennie for being so generous with her time and knowledge! And everyone should go buy one of her adorable bag patterns – she has impeccable taste because, as you can see, she is a fellow Scottie lover *wink*

As you explore the new site, you'll probably notice there are a few dead end links or wonky photos. Please bear with me as I work out the kinks....I'm learning all this stuff as I go, plus the next few weeks will be very busy for me and I don't know how much time I'll have to dedicate to fixing the site (I'm sorry!)

Oh! And one more thing! If you hadn't already noticed, I purchased my own domain a few days ago and you can now reach my blog via the address http://www.theplaidscottie.com/.

Have fun playing on the new site, and I hope you like it!

DWR Quilt Along: Assembling the Quilt Top

2011-09-16T22:48:00.003-05:00

Grab your first two rows, and flip the 2nd row over so that they're right sides together. Line up the centers of the first rings in each row and pin. Line up the outside edges (to the left of the center) and pin.

(NOTE: You might have noticed, but I wasn't paying attention and sewed melons along the bottom of the 2nd row when I wasn't supposed to. Since it won't technically hurt anything, I left them on. Just pretend they aren't there because it doesn't change anything about the assembly.)

Work your way over to the right side and pin.

Pin until you reach the end where your 2.5" x 2.5" intersection square is.

The top square should be 1/4" longer than the one on the bottom, so make sure you leave that part hanging off the end.

Once you're finished pinning, flip the rows over and start sewing your 1/4" seam. You'll start sewing from what will be the (left) outside edge of the quilt.

Stop sewing when you reach the seam at the end. You don't want to sew all the way to the end because you need those pieces hanging loose.

Pivot the fabric a little bit so that the four corners of your intersection squares meet up like this...

Once you have them lined up, start pinning the second rings together.

Once you have that end pinned, line up the centers of the second rings and pin. Now start pinning the rings together in the area in between the end and center.

When you reach the point where the intersection square is sewn to the end of the arc, make sure you fold back the tip of the center medallion so that it lines up properly (I have it pinned in one spot so that it won't move, but in the photo you can see I still need to line up the very tip of it by moving it down a little bit)

Finish pinning the rest of that section.

Remove sleeping dog from fabric, then proceed to next step...

Now pin the other half of the rings, remembering to work from the outside in (pin the outside edge and center first, then the in-between area) It should look like this when you're done pinning the 2nd rings together.

Flip the rows over, and before you start sewing, make sure the seam allowances are lying in opposite directions (to make the fabric lie as flat as possible).

When you're ready to start sewing the 2nd rings together, you want to start the seam a little bit ahead of where the 1st and 2nd rings meet. This is to make sure all four intersection squares are nice and secured together at the center.

When you're done sewing the 2nd rings together, it's a good idea to open the rows up and take a peek at the "right" side. That way you can see if everything lines up properly before you move on to the 3rd rings. Don't worry if the intersection looks a little bunched up, because the paper causes this. Once you finish the top and rip the paper off, the whole thing will lay a lot flatter.

Plus, it looks a lot better once it gets a good ironing. See?

Flip the rows back over the wrong side, and start working on the 3rd rings. Find the point where you stopped, and pivot the fabric at the intersection so you can start pinning the 3rd rings together.

You're going to pin and sew the 3rd and 4th rings together just like you did the first two.

And just in case you're wondering at this point, "is it normal for my fabric to be all twisted, bunched, and crazy while I sew?" Yes, it is normal. Embrace the madness!

When you're done sewing the rows together, you'll notice that the ends don't line up. That's okay - you should have 1/4" hanging out from two of your squares (my pink square is completely finished off and measures 2" x 2", while the blue squares are finished on only 3 sides and have 1/4" of extra fabric on the raw edge). The excess fabric will be hidden when you bind the quilt.

To finish your quilt top, you'll attach the remaining rows exactly the same way. It's easy once you get the first one under your belt, because the assembly is virtually the same for the rest. The 1st and 2nd rows correspond to the 3rd and 4th rows (1 and 3 are exactly the same, and 2 and 4 are very similar - the only difference is the melons on the bottom of row 4)

Here are some photos of my rows once they've been completely attached. ~~Sorry I don't have any pictures of the finished top - I've been working a lot this week and haven't had a chance to snap photos while it's still light outside!~~

Anywhere but here!

2011-09-15T18:06:00.001-05:00

I love fabric, but I'm starting to feel smothered by the sheer volume of it in my sewing room. It's everywhere - stacked in the storage cubes, piles on top of the cubes, piles on the floor, bins by my sewing machine, bins in my closet...ugh. And then, right after I destashed last week and was feeling good about things, I found another box in our attic FULL of fabric while I was looking for our Fall decorations.

The way I see it, it was up there for 4 months and I didn't miss it for a second, so I'm probably not ever going to miss it.

SO...here's what we're gonna do. Half of it I'm going to post on here and whoever wants to buy it can claim it. I'm too lazy to post it on Etsy and take pretty photos, because I wanna get it outta my house ASAP because I'm tired of the clutter!!! The other half, I'm just gonna give away to the first people that respond.

If you want to BUY FABRIC, email me at plaidscottie(at)gmail(dot)com with the email linked to your Paypal account, and I'll send you an invoice. Shipping will be $4.95 for a flat rate envelope.

If you want the FREE FABRIC, leave a comment on this post. First come, first serve...but I would love for the baby quilting fabric to go to someone that makes quilts for Project Linus or Quilts for Kids. Just sayin'

FOR SALE

~~8 yards of pre-washed County Fair Home Dec fabric by Denyse Schmidt (retail over $100)~~

~~$32~~ SOLD

~~4 1/2 yards unwashed Micheal Miller Ellie Stripe (retails $40)~~

~~$15~~ SOLD

About 4 1/2 yards of pre-washed Drawing Room Home Dec by Anna Maria Horner (retail $60)

(size L to R: 1/2 yd, 15" piece with a small cut out of one corner, 1 yd cut, 36" x 32" piece, 1 1/2 yds)

$20

FREE

~~2 yards miscellaneous olive green home dec (it's satiny kinda like you'd use for bed pillows)~~
CLAIMED

~~2 yards white & aqua Houndstooth apparel fabric~~
CLAIMED

~~9+ yards Alexander Henry quilting cotton~~
CLAIMED

Marvel Day

2011-09-13T18:58:00.002-05:00

Today has been declared "Marvel Day" in the Telschow household.

My hubby is my best friend, and about the cutest thing ever. He'll probably be mad at me for publicly divulging his boyish habits, but he's not here to censor me right now, and we all know what goes on when that happens *wink*. SO...he has been obsessed with the movie Thor ever since we saw it (twice) in theaters. I half expected him to buy a little tear off calendar marking the days until the Blu Ray release. There was talk of growing his hair out like Thor, internet surfing for Thor halloween costumes, and buying of the Men's Health issue with Chris Hemsworth's workout routine for the movie (the hubs is a personal trainer with a degree in Exercise Physiology, in case I never revealed that before).

And then, when he discovered X-Men first class was coming out on the same day as Thor, his brain nearly exploded. Two nights ago we were sitting on the sofa, and he was next to me surfing around on his new iPad, when all of the sudden he gripped my leg with his hand, gave me a deadly serious deer-in-headlights stare and said "BABE. Thor AND X-Men both come out on Tuesday. WHOA."

Isn't he precious?

Recognize that fabric in the photo up top? I pulled it out because I'm going to start cutting the fabric for his Quilting Widower Appreciation day present (the aforementioned Marvel pillowcases) in celebration of our new family "holiday". What have you all decided to make? I'd love to see pictures if you wouldn't mind adding them to the Flickr group. Also, I realized there was a problem with the link for the button on my sidebar a while back, and I fixed it right away, but forgot to tell you all to re-copy the new code. Oops! Sorry 'bout that *sheepish grin*

Now to go hide the bedsheets in case he gets any ideas about attempting flight...

Back-to-School series: Hand-Sewing

2011-09-13T08:59:00.000-05:00

If you're interested in learning more about hand sewing, you should check out my guest post today on Sarah's adorable blog Sew Sweetness. I'm teaching the three hand stitches that have proven to be the most useful to me over the past 5 years, and they also happen to be three of the easiest stitches out there - gotta love that, right? ;)

While you're stopping by, you should browse through the other Back-to-School posts. It's a really great series that covers basic sewing techniques. Sometimes we as bloggers lose touch with reality and assume people have a broader working knowledge that they really do, so I think it was a genius idea for her to dedicate this month to "the basics" for people who are just starting out and might not be familiar with all the jargon. (...or for people like me who are rusty on a couple techniques because I haven't used them in a looong time).

I spent some time surfing around her blog this morning, and stumbled across a fabulous post about working within your sewing budget and being more economical with your supplies here. She has some great tips and it's definitely worth a read!

9/11

2011-09-12T09:15:00.000-05:00

Photos were taken in the Arlington National Cemetery, on my birthday in 2007.

Yesterday was a hard day for me, as it was for most Americans. I spent the better part of my morning watching the Memorial Service and crying. I remember asking my grandpa one time where he was when Pearl Harbor was attacked, and I couldn't believe the level of detail he gave me even though it was 50 years later. I wish I didn't understand now, but I do. Even though it's been 10 years, I will always remember every minute detail about what I was doing when I found out about the attacks on 9/11, and from all the blog posts I read of people chronicling their experiences on that day, I can see it's the same for everyone else. It's as if time stood still for a moment and every detail was burned into your brain.

I was a Junior in High School, walking into my 1st period Accounting class with Mrs. Clark. Her Homeroom class was filing out the door as I was going in, and a kid named Dustin yelled out "the Pentagon's just been bombed!" I remember thinking to myself "yeah right, no one can bomb the Pentagon"...and just as I thought this and walked into her class, I saw the second plane crash into the World Trade Center because she'd just turned on the news. Everyone was in shock...my teacher covered her mouth and fell back into her chair. They let everyone go home an hour later, and I don't even remember driving home (or anything about the rest of the day, for that matter).

There's something about 9/11 that makes you think about all the other loss in your life. Friends, family...but especially my grandfathers, who both served their country with distinction. My dad's father served in the Air Force in World War II and received a Purple Heart, and my mom's father graduated from the Naval Academy in Annapolis, was career Navy, and served as the Commander of a Battleship (a game he was ironically, very good at!). He was the sweetest man alive, and in all my life I never once heard him raise his voice or get angry. My grandmother, on the other hand, was a tough as nails Irishwoman who raised 3 kids (2 of them being hellcat boys) on her own while grandpa was at sea. You didn't mess with grandma unless you wanted the horns, lol. She survived two heart attacks, two bouts with breast cancer, and a stroke...that should tell you all you need to know about her! But my sadness is tempered by the fact that I see parts of them in myself, and their continual influence in my life. I get my creative flair from my mom's dad, and oddly enough, my love of Japanese fabric and Asian design also come from him. I grew up surrounded by the things he brought back from his time in Asia and the South Pacific where he spent most of his career.

I mourn the lives lost on 9/11, and that so many parents lost children, children lost parents, and spouses became halves instead of wholes. But most of all, my heart aches because of the hatred that has stemmed out of that day. I spent a lot of the past week crying over stories I read from 9/11, but only one of them gave me hope, and touched me more profoundly than I could ever write in words. As important as it is to remember, forgiveness is even more important. So often we think that forgiveness is only for the benefit of the person being forgiven, and we don't want to grant it because we think the perpetrator is unworthy of it, or because we want to make them suffer. But forgiveness is also for the benefit of the victim. I've seen so many people that have let their life become consumed with hatred and anger. They cling to it so tightly that it becomes their identity and permeates every part of their being, and they end up alone because they gradually reject or alienate everyone in their life. I don't say any of this lightly, or as someone who's never had to deal with profound hurt or betrayal. There are things that have happened in my life that I never thought I could forgive, but I did. It's part of the reason why I believe in God, because knowing myself and my character, I never would have had the grace or capacity to forgive some of these things on my own.

I know I come across as a goofy, happy go-lucky person (which I am for the most part), so it may seem odd hearing this stuff come out of me. But strangely enough, my joy comes out of my past suffering. Until I met my husband, I was a bitter, angry person, and I spent far too many years that way. I'm joyful because I realize it's a choice - a daily choice. I never have to spend another day like that because I can choose not to...because I choose to find joy in my life from friends, family, Sir Whiskers, New Orleans, and you - my online quilting friends :)

So there's my self-help spiel for the year. And no, I'm not singing Kumbaya right now (nor will I ever). I actually didn't sit down intending to write anything as heavy as this, but it just started pouring out of me before I could stop myself. I hope you all have a beautiful week, celebrating the life and love you have :)

Final Wave of Destash

2011-09-10T17:34:00.001-05:00

It's been a whirlwind week so far, but I finally found time this afternoon to do one last weed-through of my scraps and fabric. The sickening part is that my scrap bins are still 3/4 of the way full...but at least now I don't have to arm wrestle my storage unit to get them into their slots. And I added some KJR, FMF and Neptune prints, and also some Momo Wonderland pre-cuts that I've been hanging onto for way too long. I keep hoarding these fabrics for years and years, and what's the point? If I'm not going to use them, might as well pass them on to someone that will. I have 2/3 of it already up on Etsy, but I hope to have the rest by tonight. Taking photos, editing them, and getting everything posted always takes way longer than I anticipate.

Oh, and the coupon code PLAIDSCOTTIE10 is still good on anything in my shop.

Let me make it up to you with a good story...

2011-09-09T17:16:00.002-05:00

So…the bad news. Due to a combination of factors (a massive amount of family birthday presents to make, forgetfulness, water damage and tree limbs to clean up after a 3-day Tropical Storm, a Star Trek: Next Generation marathon *sheepish grin*)…I don’t have the next portion of the DWR Quilt Along ready for you today. I will, however, have it up sometime next week *scouts honor* and we will finish the Quilt Along on time Friday the 23rd *double scouts honor* (no take-backs)

The good news is that I have a funny story for you, in the hopes that you’ll be slightly less pissed at me, lol. The event in question actually happened 2, maybe 3 weeks ago. I can’t really remember, because the date doesn’t really have anything to do with the story, plus I have so many random things on my mind at any given time (I wonder if Ray will tolerate me putting Sir Whiskers in a monocle and plaid vest for our Christmas card this year? What kind of rating did Red Riding Hood get on IMDb?…because frankly, I liked it even though it’s a little bit “teen emo”. Do I really need to eat another pack of Fun Size M&M’s?…I don’t really see what’s so “fun” about a pack of only 15 M&M’s anyway…) that I can’t be bothered with details like dates. I probably shouldn’t even be telling you this story, but my husband isn’t around to censor me right now, so I’m running wild and free (which is rather a dangerous thing…because I kind of need to have a human filter most of the time, lol). Sorry – I’m rambling. It’s hard to be serious whenever I think about “the event”, haha!

So a couple weeks ago, I needed to run over to Hancock Fabrics during my lunch break to pick up a zipper for a bag I was making. I didn’t have anything else to do, and I hate sitting in the break room at work where people try to make polite small talk about the weather or the Saints (I hate small talk…especially polite small talk), so I decided to kill some time while I was in there and browse through the fabric. You know how those low shelves are that hold all the fabric bolts in Joann’s or Hancocks, right? They hold two sections of stacked bolts and come up about mid-torso, and you can kinda see the head & shoulders of people browsing in the rows around you. So I was in one row with a little old gray-haired lady in a motorized scooter, and there was a 30-something guy a few feet away in the row facing me. So I’m browsing around, texting, and generally not paying attention to anything, when the little old lady scoots around the corner into the row with the 30-year old guy. All of the sudden she starts YELLING at the top of her lungs “Oh my Gawd! Somebody call the police! Ahhh!!” and the dude takes off amid her cries of “grab that man!!!”, and scoots out the door. He then hops in his truck and zooms away before anyone gets remotely close enough to the door to write down his plate. I’m still standing in the back of the store, mid-text, thinking “WTH just happened???” Weh-hellll kids…turns out that man had his naughty bits out and was pleasuring himself into a Coke bottle while feeling up the quilting fabric…and, God bless her, that sweet old quilter caught an eye-level glimpse of it from her scooter as soon as she rounded the corner. I’m just thankful she wasn’t scarred for life, because as I was leaving and everyone was standing in the front phoning the police, I heard her laughing with one of the workers and saying “what kinda person gets their kicks from doing that in a quilting store?” I’m also really glad it wasn’t me that discovered him, because I would have had to take a ½ day at work and go home - there’s just no way you can focus on emails and insurance marketing after seeing something like that.

What did I do next? Well naturally, I decided it was best to leave the zipper behind, and proceeded to walk out and call everyone I knew, hoping it wouldn’t be one of those times when no one picked up their phone. I think my head might have exploded if I hadn’t been able to immediately share that hilariousness with someone. My hubby was the first person I called, and after about 5 minutes of me trying to spit out the story through fits of maniacal laughter, I finally gave him the whole story and he was rolling. Our convo went a little something like this:

Ray: “Well, think about where you were”

Me: “Wha???? What do you mean think about where I was? It’s a fabric store, not HBO. I was at Hancoc---….oh! OH!!! EWW! HAHAHAHAHAHA!!”

Ray: “Yeah….guess he was taking the name a little too literally”

So there you have it kids. No place is safe from random perverts any more, not even chain quilt stores.

Color Burst Quilt Pattern

2011-09-07T11:02:00.000-05:00

The pattern is up in my Etsy shop!

Celebrate Color

2011-09-07T06:00:00.000-05:00

I love big bags. And I've been itching to make a new fall bag to go with a wallet I bought the other day using a sweet Groupon deal I stumbled across. So after Michelle bought a copy of my Wristlet pattern the other day, I went snooping around in her Etsy shop and found this pattern. It was love at first sight. Big slouchy bag meets big slouchy redhead. And to give me an extra push, I saw Rachel's post about the Celebrate Color project - FUN!

It didn't take me long to find the gloriously Fall-colored Echino Story print for the exterior, and I decided to pair it with some seasonally appropriate chocolate corduroy I picked up at Joann's. I love corduroy. It makes me think of my grandpa because he always called corduroy pants "whistle pants" :)

So here's to my favorite season of the year...to having a new home with a porch where I can set carved pumpkins and hand out candy to sticky little fingers...to holiday baking and apple cider...to crisp breezes and crunchy leaves under bike tires.

Apple Core Apron Tutorial

2011-09-06T10:35:00.001-05:00

I've always loved the Apple Core pattern, but am entirely too lazy to ever cut out all those individual curved pieces by hand. So when I was choosing my dies for the GO! Baby and saw they had an Apple Core one, I was on it like a monkey on a cupcake.

When I was thinking about what kind of tutorial I wanted to make using this die, I thought it would be cute to do something kitchen related considering the name. What could be cuter than baking whilst wearing an Apple Core apron made with vintage-inspired fabrics? I was also thinking about the upcoming holiday season and how much I'm looking forward to Fall baking, so I thought some of you might like a new apron :)

This apron has a layer of flannel quilted to the front to give it a little weight and added texture, but you can skip this step if you'd prefer a lighter, more flouncy apron.

MATERIALS

Twenty-four 7 1/16" x 5 3/8" Apple Cores
17.5" x 26.5" piece of backing fabric
19" x 28" piece of flannel
One 21" x 4.5" piece (for the waist band)
Two 32" x 4.5" pieces (for the ties)

Ready? Let's go! You will need to arrange your 24 pieces into 4 rows of 6. Once you have your pieces arranged how you'd like them, grab your first two pieces and line them up at the center. If you're using pieces you cut by hand (obviously they won't have the handy little notches), then you'll need to fold your pieces in half and finger press the seam to create a center marker.

Next you'll need to line up the outside edges and pin.

Once you have the center and ends pin, ease the remaining fabric around the curve of the bottom fabric and pin. When working with curves, the fabric has a mind of it's own, and it helps to pin as close to the edge as possible to keep it from shifting.

Sew together using a 1/4" seam. Clip small notches along the seam to create some "give" to the fabric.

Fold the pieces back and press.

Grab your next piece, line up the centers, and piece as you did the first two.

Repeat this process until you've assembled all 4 rows.

Next we'll attach the rows together. The first step is to line up all six of the center notches (or seams - depending on whether you're using GO! Baby pieces or not). Once I had row 2 lying face-down on top of row 1, I started by lining up the centers of vertical pieces first, and then pulling down the horizontal pieces to line up. Once you have all of the centers lined up an pinned, start working the remaining edges into place.

Here's what my two rows looked line once I had the centers pinned in place...

And here are the rather squirrely-looking rows once I finished pinning everything together...

Sew the rows together using 1/4" seam, easing your way around the curves. Once finished, clip notches along your seams, fold open and press.

Here's what the first two rows look like once attached...

And here's what your finished front panel should look like...

Once the front panel is finished, you'll need to square up the sides. Line up your ruler with the inside curves and trim the excess.

Repeat for the other three sides and square up the entire panel. It should be about 26.5" x 17.5" when finished.

Spray an adhesive like 505 onto the flannel piece, and smooth the front piece on top of it.

Quilt the layers together however you like (I used Free Motion, but Straight Line our Outline quilting will work). When you're finished, trim the excess flannel from the sides.

You can do this next part on your machine, but I prefer to do it by hand. There's no right or wrong method - just a matter of preference. At the top of both the front piece and back piece, make a running stitch all the way across about 1/8" down from the edge.

Grab the loose ends of your thread, and start pushing your fabric evenly toward the center so that it gathers and creates little pleats. You want to gather your fabric until the top measures about 20" wide across the top.

Sew an 1/8" seam across the top to set the seats in place. You may need to help hold your fabric in place so that the foot doesn't push the fabric flat as it sews over it.

Once you've finished gathering the tops of both pieces, place your front and back fabric together, right sides facing. Pin in place and sew 1/2" seam around the sides and bottom - leave the top completely open.

Trim the corners to reduce bulk, and flip right side out through the opening at the top.

Edge stitch along the three finished sides to secure.

Grab your 21" x 4.5" piece (for the waist band) and fold in half, wrong sides together. Press to set.

Fold the long edges in by 1/4" and press to set.

Your waist band piece should look something like this when you're finished...

Now grab your two 32" x 4.5" pieces (for the ties). Fold in half right sides together and press to set.

Sew one of the short ends closed using a 1/4" seam, pivot the foot, and continue sewing down the long open edge. When you get to the end, stop sewing and leave the remaining short end open.

Trim the corner down to reduce bulk, and turn right side out through the opening. Repeat for the other tie.

Press the ties in place and edge stitch along the long side with the seam.

Grab your waist band piece, and fold one of the short edges in by 1/2".

Place one of your ties on top of the waist band so that they overlap by 1/2", and fold the waist band down so that the tie is sandwiched between it. Make sure the end snuggled inside the waist band is the raw end of the tie.

Pin in place and sew together. I sewed 1/8" from the edge, moved the needle to the left, and sewed another seam 1/8" from the first one. (since there will be a lot of tugging on the waist and ties, I made two seams to make sure it's nice and secure). Repeat on the other end of the waist band with the remaining tie.

At this point, the apron is finished except for closing off the raw top edge of the apron, and the raw bottom edge of the waist band. Tuck the top of the apron into the waist band by 1/4" and pin in place. Make sure the raw edges of the waist band remain tucked up inside.

Sew the waist band and apron together using an 1/8" seam.

Go back, and sew a second seam 1/8" above the first seam.

Here's what the front and back will look like when you're finished...

You now have a lovely finished apron :)

And the best part is, since it's fully lined on the back, it's technically reversible! Huzzah for choices :)

Scrap Destash

2011-09-05T10:27:00.002-05:00

Thanks err'body! All the scrap packs have sold. I'm going Spartan in my sewing room and cleaning out all the excess, so I hope to list some more fabric cuts by this weekend.

Taking a cue from my friend Angela, I decided to pare down some of my scraps. My bins were stuffed so full that I could barely shove them back in their slots! I put together ~~yellow, green, blue, purple, pink~~ and brown packs, and each is listed for $10 in my shop. And I apologize for the blurry photos, but I couldn't find the good camera and had to settle for the old crappy one :(

They may not look like much in the photos, but most of the pieces are folded down into small squares so I could fit everything in the picture. If you buy a pack and there's a certain print your looking for that's not included, let me know and if I have it, I'll slip in a few scraps of it as well :)

You can use the code PLAIDSCOTTIE10 for 10% off in my shop.

Yikes.

2011-09-03T07:20:00.001-05:00

This is what New Orleans looks like right now. It's a real party, lemme tell ya. Ray woke me up at 6:30 this morning because we had 6 inches of rain in the side yard and we needed to haul all our stuff out of the attached laundry room. The house is elevated about a foot off the ground, so as long at the big drainage ditch across the street doesn't overflow, we should be okay. The rain has tapered off a little, but we're supposed to get slammed again with more heavy rains tomorrow. Keep us in your thoughts and prayers!

On a funnier note, walking the dogs this morning was interesting. I had to carry them out one at a time to a small hump of grass in the yard that was sticking out above the water. I've dubbed it "puppy pee island". Fortunately, my dogs were clever enough to go as soon as I set them on their island, rather than doing their usual "inspiration sniffs" for 10 minutes. None of us wanted to stay out in that mess for long! (but we did have to endure the crazed wet dog "run 'n' roll around the house to get dry" for the next 10 minutes *wink*)

Scottie Watch

2011-09-02T04:00:00.000-05:00

I know you've been missing that cheesy, bearded mug up there! (Ray shakes his head and gives me that "you're completely ridiculous" look whenever he catches a glimpse of that photo) The DWR Quilt Along has been occupying most of my Fridays lately, so it's been a while since Sir Whiskers has made an appearance with his sleuthy internet finds ;)

Let's see what he's managed to rustle up this week...

1. Are you all familiar with Stitch Steals? Each day they email you with a new "deal of the day"...usually anywhere between 30% and 50% off the retail price. They've had some particularly adorable fabric up for grabs this week (the Riley Blake "Farm Fresh" bundles have been calling my name...) Their deals include practically anything sewing related...including thread, notions, books, fabric, and so on. You can sign up for email alerts if you click on the button along the right-hand edge of the site.

2. I've stumbled across an unusual number of adorable free tutorials lately:

Pleated Fabric Flowers
Awesomely detailed purse frame tutorial
An iPad case. Too bad the iPad I just bought is my husband's birthday present...which means I can't swipe it from him ;)
Reversible hobo bag
Scrappy wallets here and here

3. Cathy over at Wondrous Woven Fabrics has some really good deals going on in her Sale section. We're talking $4.99/yard for all Parisville, Greenfield Hill, Sherbet Pips and Soul Blossoms prints, and $7.98/yard for Loulouthi.

4. If you're looking to teach sewing lessons, or to learn a new skill besides quilting (like garment making), you can go to Betterfly.com. It's a pretty cool site - you search by interest, then by location, and it will populate a list of crafters in your area that teach lessons (and their pricing). You can also post your own services on the website for free - go get 'em tiger!

Revisions & Reminders

2011-09-01T04:30:00.000-05:00

Remember the Apple Core Apron tutorial I posted about the other day? Well I agreed with your comments that the one print was too dark, so I removed it and reworked things a bit. As much as I love the peacocky blue with the prints, I felt it was a little much and overwhelmed the prints. So after working with my "design consultant" (aka my hubby) last night for about an hour, I finally came up with this. Ray's the one that suggested the linen....he likes when I pair linen with things - how cute is that? I think maybe this quilt is what won him over *wink*

And speaking of linen, don't forget to pop by Kristie's blog today! My tutorial for the Quilted Hexie Pouch went up this morning!