Updates.

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 :) ).

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Marvel Day

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...

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I love my man-child hubby :)

I've finally ironed out all the details for my hubby's "appreciation" present! I knew that I wanted to make him some sort of pillow to use on the living room sofa when he "watches" movies (and by "watches" I mean, puts in a movie and falls asleep within 10 minutes...hehe!), but I recently changed directions. He loves the movie Wolverine and secretly wishes he were a rugged, plaid-wearing lumberjack living in a cabin in the Canadian wilderness, so I was going to make him a pieced moosehead pillow with flannel backing. However, I stumbled across this fabric when I went into my LQS last weekend...

Ray looooooves comics and has no less than 10 superhero tshirts. He's on a Thor kick right now because the movie was pretty awesome, so I was especially stoked about Thor making an appearance on the prints. Aren't they cool? Most of the licensed fabrics I see are cheap and crappy, so when I spotted this on the shelf, I was on it like a monkey on a cupcake! It's nice and thick and has a really good feel to it. I couldn't make up my mind, so I got both and plan on making two different pillowcases using this pattern. I think it'll work out better this way, because I'll be able to switch them out whenever I need to wash one, and the hubs won't have to mope around because he doesn't have one to nap on...he's very sentimental about his sleeping accessories...it's kind of adorable ;)

Whiskers was mesmerized too, as you can see. His snout was about an inch away from the fabric and he sat there staring at it for a good 2 minutes. I didn't shoo him away like usual, because I wanted to see how long he'd go, lol!

He must be wearing his curious pants tonight, because now he's staring intently at my laptop while I'm typing this. His snout is smudging up the screen and he keeps trying to attack the cursor as I move the mouse around....crazy man dog!

How are you all coming along? I'd love to see photos of your projects! You can post them here if you'd like to share...I think the group might benefit from seeing what others are doing :) In fact, I remember someone telling me they were thinking about making a quillow, and I'd love to see a pattern for that! It's been on my To Do list for over a year now *sigh*

And did you all check out the new quilted version of the event button? I made that block for Samilou in a bee, and she was kind enough to send me photos of the finished product. Love it!

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Gator Belts & Patty Melts

Sorry, that's an Outkast lyric. I couldn't get it out of my head while I was sewing these. When you see the second block, you'll understand why. These were for Christine's month in Bee (A Little Bit) Japanese. She's making a quilt for her nephew's birthday, and requested a Cheaters 8 Point Star block...

As well as a second block that represented any mode of transportation we chose...

Since I rarely get to make anything New Orleans-related, I thought this would be a fun opportunity! I decided to make a fan boat, an extremely common mode of transportation down in the bayou, and name it the "nola" (New Orleans, LA). And of course, what would a bayou fan boat block be without an alligator and sweltering hot sun? Also, her nephew lives in Australia where crocs abound, so I thought he'd enjoy having one of it's cousins appliqued on a block ;)

I had to sneak and make these Friday night after the hubby went to bed, because he enacted a sewing moratorium last week. I mentioned this before, but I have a pinched nerve in my shoulder that I'd successfully ignored for weeks...well...actually 2 months. I finally did myself in when I had a marathon rotary cutting and sewing session last weekend, because I ended up in excruciating pain Sunday night, and could barely move my arm the next day because I'd get sharp stabbing pains, and then my whole arm would go numb for minutes at a time.

I had to break the rules though, because these blocks were for May, and I was already way behind on them. They didn't arrive until the last week of May, and then it took me 3 weeks to find the time. Christine desperately needed them by the end of June so she could assemble the top, send it off to be quilted, and then mail the finished present to Australia to arrive in time for August. So you see, I had to break the rules a little bit in order to meet the deadline...

But the events of last week got me thinking. My hubby is the sweetest man alive, and truthfully my best friend. He takes such good care of me, and all last week he massaged my shoulder, brought me bags of ice, and fetched ibuprofen and glasses of water for me when I was hurting. He's so proud of my sewing and knows how much it means to me, so he did his best to help me get back on my feet again because he knew I was going stir-crazy. All of this culminated in a crazy idea...

RAY! STOP READING HERE!

Our spouses, boyfriends/girlfriends, partners, etc. put up with so much of our quilting crap. They might grumble occasionally, but for the most part they let us get away with crazed fabric sprees, giant stashes & sewing spaces that take up entire rooms, and marathon sewing sessions that take us away from our families for hours at a time. Why? Because they love us, and know that we love quilting. And while I thank my husband for his support of my crazy hobby all the time, I rarely use my skills to make anything for him. I think a lot of us are like that - we're so busy making things for everyone else, that we forget to make things for ourselves or our families.

SO. Here's my idea. Let's have an official Quilting Widow(er) Appreciation Day! I'm calling it that, because it's kinda true...lol! Our significant others are sometimes quilting widows/widowers because we guy & gal quilters spend a lot of time away from them for the "sake of our art"...hehe! Seriously! I'll be leaving poor Ray in the dust for 4 days while I jet off to Salt Lake City for the Sewing Summit in October. And God love his little heart, he's outside mowing the yard right now to kill time, because he knows I'll be holed up in my sewing room blogging for a while longer! :(

Here's what we're gonna do. I picked a random date a few months off so that we all have time to prepare and create, and we're going to make presents for our Quilting Widows/Widowers as a big fat thank you for their loving support! (Plus it's kind of a win-win, because not only do we get to do something special for them, but it will help perpetuate our hobby because they'll be less inclined to grumble if we make them uber cool things with the thousands of dollars we've sunken into supplies, LOL!) I kid. 99% of the reason we're doing this is to say thank you, and only 1% is for our selfish ulterior motives ;)

The Quilting Widow(er) Appreciation Day will officially take place on Saturday, September 24th! I picked a random, insignificant day so your loved one will be surprised! And I even made a button and added it to the sidebar for those of you that want to join me :)

SO WHO'S WITH ME?!

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