Other Sewing

Before I remade the Nook pouch, I took time to make a birthday gift for my wonderful friend Lisa, who celebrates her birthday today (hi, Lisa!). If you want to be surprised, don't scroll down, Lisa!

............so...how 'bout that Superbowl, eh? (I didn't watch any - just making conversation).





............so, anyone here from out of town?





Okay, I think we're ready to go. Here's the iPad case I made for Lisa's newest toy:



I used this tutorial over at Fresh Lemons Quilts and it came together really nicely. If I were to make it again, I'd probably measure and place the velcro first instead of last. Trying to wrangle that case under the needle to stitch down the velcro was a pain in the patootie!

The exterior fabric is Ruby Star Rising (Viewmasters) from Melody Miller, and the interior is an Anna Maria Horner print from her earlier Chocolate Lollipop line - the colours went so nicely together!



Last look, with the zipper pocket open a bit:



Linking up with Sew {Modern} Monday at Canoe Ridge Creations, Manic Monday at SewHappyGeek and Fabric Tuesday with Quilt Story.

Friday Felicities

The thing that is making me happy today is that I can make things that are both pretty and functional.

Take, for example, my new Nook. I am really enjoying it, and one of the main things that made me so excited to get one was not that I could use it to borrow eBooks from the library (though that is fabulous). It was that I could use some precious and special fabric to make a case for it. Seriously!

Tonight, I set about doing just that. I loosely followed this helpful tutorial. I say "loosely" because I didn't use minky, and I used fusible fleece to pad both the inner and outer fabrics.

Ta daaaah!





The outer fabric is some beautiful Far Far Away II that I received as an extra in a swap. I used some Mendocino for the lining.

Cute, isn't it? TOO BAD IT'S TOO SMALL FOR MY NOOK! Not. Even. Joking. I measured the freaking thing and added an inch to the width and height to determine the size of my fabric cuts. I guess with the fluffy fleece, the zipper closure and whatnot, that wasn't enough.

Thank goodness I still have enough of both fabrics to try this again. Another time. *sob*

Have a great weekend!

Enabling

My High School BFF owns a quilt shop - cool eh?

Sew Sisters is having their annual Birthday Sale starting right now for online shoppers through to Midnight Tuesday night. 29% off all fabric (including $6.99/m clearance fabric!), all notions, all books and all kits! Flat rate shipping too - $9.99 in Canada and $12.99 to USA.

Judy stocks some Kona Solids, as well as some great colourways of Metro Living! And the Clearance Section always has some cool stuff.

So go help Judy celebrate her 29th (?) birthday! To my fabric-loving friends, I say only this: YOU'RE WELCOME!

(I'm not paid to advertise for Judy - I'm just a happy customer and a looooong time friend).

Friday Felicities #3

Hello, friends!

This week's Friday Felicities features fabric (and alliteration!):

Such a felicitous rainbow of colour! They're Moda Bella Solids from the lovely Brenda at Pink Castle Fabrics, and they're going to be turned into something fun for my secret partner in the For the Love of Solids swap on Flickr.

That Double Latte at 3:30 pm = Bad Idea Jeans

Still awake. 12:37 am. Tomorrow's going to suuuuuck.

What doesn't suck? That I have a great head start on a quilt for our bed, and that I (think) I still have a couple more blocks to come. Yay, bees!

The fabric is mostly Spa by Rosemarie Lavin, with Kona White. The blue wavy print is by Anna Griffin, but I got it on the sale table at my LQS and don't remember the name of the collection.

Been Shoppin'

I did go on a Fabric Diet for the first 8 weeks of the year.

Then I binged. All of this loveliness has been acquired in the last 6 weeks. Gulp. I'd better get sewing!



Just general stashing, and it was mostly on sale. But hey, check out that photo on the bottom left. Notice anything about the bottom two fabrics? Heather Ross, anyone? Mendocino Octopi, anyone? You may want to keep checking in during the next week to 10 days. Just saying.

Oh! And! Did you see my fancy schmancy new button over there on the right? Feel free to grab it!

Stash Augmentation + A Cautionary Tale

So....the fabric diet. Yeah, not doing so well on that. I did hold out for all of January and most of February, but the siren song of the sale area at the LQS where we had our weekend getaway was just impossible to resist.

To wit:

Would you be able to resist those hedgies? ME NEITHER! That green print above the birdies on lavender is something I like to call "the price of admission" - while I shopped, G was happily entertaining herself by filling her little shopping basket from the sale FQ bin, and that particular FQ was absolutely, positively going to be coming home with us. Considering how full her basket was, I think I got off easy!

That dark brown print is Quilter's Linen - I've been interested in giving it a try. There is also some Amy Butler, Michael Miller, Sheri Berry...and some others.

I have been augmenting my stash in a different way as well - fabric swaps! Just look at this lovely swap package that arrived today:

Modern Meadow, Kaffe Fassett and that awesome woodgrain print that all the cool kids are using.

Here's the cautionary tale part of this post. Kids, when you send anything involving fabric, ALWAYS enclose it in a zip-lock or other sealed bag in case this happens:

YIKES, right? Imagine if the fabric had been loose in there - major disaster potential! Thankfully, my swapping partner Jennifer used a ziplock and everything was fine. I always put my item in a zip lock and put the destination name and address inside the bag in case it gets separated from the envelope.

Does the concept of fabric swapping intrigue you but you don't know where to start or what to do? Have no fear! I'll be doing a post that's a quick how-to on swapping. Stay tuned, dear readers!

My First Time...

...as a guest blogger! Come over and visit me at Stash Manicure, where I'm guest blogging today.

See you there....

It's My Blogiversary!

On January 4th, this blog turned one year old. I can't believe how quickly the year went.

When I started blogging, it was just a means to journal my 2010 resolution to quilt at least 20 minutes a day. Little did I know how it would change my life, and not just from a quilting perspective.

I've already gushed about meeting new friends, discovering new fabrics and an entirely new (to me) global community of quilters, so I won't do it again (even though I said I would).

What I will do, however, is invite you to celebrate with me by hosting a giveaway. One lucky person will win a Fat* Quarter of each of these lovely fabrics. Our home is pet- and smoke-free.



*the purple fabric has those stripes printed on the bias and it would make a terrific binding. I could make it a regular quarter-metre cut for you.

How would a person go about entering to win the giveaway? A comment on this post is all that's needed - one per person. You can just say hi! Or if you're feeling chatty, you can make a suggestion for what block to choose for the bed quilt I'm planning to ask my Bee members to help me make. The fabric is Spa by Rosemarie Lavin, with a little bit of Hope Valley Foursquare in Pine thrown in for good measure.


The giveaway is open until Sunday, January 9th at 9pm Pacific Time. I'll choose a winning comment randomly, and please make sure I can contact you if your name is chosen. Comments closed!

Good luck and thank you for making my first year of blogging such a wonderful experience. Here's to many more!

While Bernie's Away...

...the rotary cutter will play. Or something. My sewing machine, Bernie (because she's a Bernina - I'm so creative with the names), is away getting her yearly checkup so I'm without her until early next week (!!!!).

While I've got plans to use my awesome serger, the fabric in question for that particular project is still being laundered. So I decided to get rolling on the New Wave Quilt I've been planning for a grouping of Flights of Fancy fabric (Paula Prass for Michael Miller) that's been aging ("curing"?) in my stash for a while now. I added in some Amy Butler and Kaffe Fassett, and I think it's going to be delightful.

Off to play with my layout, now.

Let It Bee

Ha ha I'm so punny. A post about a Bee block and I called it Let It Bee. I crack myself up.

A nice simple block for Tracy this month.

I wonder if she's trying to tell me something after I asked everyone to do a complicated foundation paper-pieced one? (Just kidding!)

Isn't that chair fabric wonderful? I adore it. It's a Michael Miller print, but I don't know when it came out. I won that fabric in a giveaway earlier this year.

Happy Birthday To Me (2 Weeks Early But Who's Counting)

I am SO grateful that I have my friend Janet's blog on my Google Reader. She posted about a quilt show this weekend, and I managed to make some time today to go.

And boy howdy am I ever glad that I did! Besides the many inspiring quilts - and there were many - I did fairly well in the fabric-acquisition department. Stashbusting? What stashbusting?

Check out these lovelies, all purchased at SUPER great prices. (Surely I'm not the only one who doesn't pay full price for anything at a quilt show?)

The two FQ bundles on the left will be for a quilt for ME ME ME - our bedroom is painted that blue, and there are cream and brown accents. It's Spa by Rosemary Lavin. Right off the top of my head, I'm thinking something like Ashley's Unfurnished/Stacked Seating pattern. Then there's the Kaffe bundle (LOVE HIM), and all those FQs in the front are just for stash except the Flights of Fancy which is destined for a New Wave quilt that I'll be starting shortly. 

The above bundle of deliciousness is a lot of Amy Butler plus a few other things. Love it - here they are all spread out:

Yummy! I consider it an early birthday present to myself.

New Fabric

Look at the gorgeous new fabric I bought this week:

Err...do you think it means I have a "problem" if the fabric is currently in the form of pajama pants, and I bought them in the largest size possible in order to maximize the amount of fabric I ended up with? No? I agree!

The colour in my photos is off - the pair on the left has a pale aqua background.

$10 a pop, and there is probably a good 1.5 metres in each!