Friday, January 17, 2014

Christmas Memories Part V: A Very Important Date

♫♪ EM EYE SEE ♪♫
See ya later.
♫♪ KAY EE WHY ♪♫
Why? Because we're going to Walt Disney World!


♫♪ EM OH YOU ESS EE ♪♫

Our goal this Christmas was to make memories instead of collecting more stuff. We did a few fun things before Christmas and one of the gifts that was under the tree for LadyBug and Grasshopper was a monogrammed Mickey Mouse silhouette luggage tag for each of them with a note saying that we are going to Walt Disney World. I only finished the tags for the Not-So-Little Bugs in time for Christmas. I finished the four others this week. I used clear tablecloth plastic to make windows on the back to put our information on and we are set to go.

The time has finally come. Reservations have been confirmed. A superfluous supply of Dramamine has been acquired. The bags are almost packed. And we are all beyond excited.

See ya real soon . . .


Today's post brought to you by:
My 2013 Finishes My 2014 Finishes

Thursday, January 16, 2014

Blog Anniversary/1000th Post/Birthday Giveaway: Winners' Roll Call

The more you praise and celebrate your life, the more there is in life to celebrate. –Oprah Winfrey

It's about time we gave away some fabric around here! I wish I had prizes for you all. Thank you to everyone who took time to enter. I really enjoyed reading all of your comments.

To choose the winners, rather than mess with drawing numbers and then counting through the comments to find the one that corresponds with the number, I printed them all out, cut them apart and threw them in a big roasting pan so there would be plenty of room for them to get nice and mixed up and not get stuck together and then I had the Not-So-Little Bugs draw for me. Grasshopper was really getting into it and drew one of the winners by picking up the slip of paper with the comment on it with his mouth. Here are the results:

• 4-Year Blog Anniversary Giveaway:
A jelly roll of Printemps by 3 Sisters, sponsored by The Fat Quarter Shop.
Winner drawn by Grasshopper


Congratulations to
:partytime: Sandra :partytime:
at Sandra's Craft Corner




whose response to my question about favorite things about blogging or reading blogs was: Bloglovin follower here. I most enjoy the ideas, tips and pictures on the blogs.


• 1000th Post Giveaway:
A fat quarter bundle in a rainbow of beautiful colors and prints.
Winner drawn by LadyBug


Congratulations to
:partytime: The4Rs :partytime:
at Recycle, Repurpose, Redo and Renew



whose response to my question about favorite things to do in your free time was: Wow, I am the first! I love to read blogs and pin ideas to Pinterest. This year my goal is to actually try some of the ideas I covet! And of course, I love to craft and sew; always looking for inspiration. Love your giveaway, I think a rainbow doll quilt for a niece would be fun to make with it!


• Birthday Giveaway:
A fat quarter bundle of Carnaby Street in the Cool Peace colorway, from Pat Bravo to me to you.
Winner drawn by Grasshopper


Congratulations to
:partytime: Alida P :partytime:
at Quilting, Paper Piecing and Crafts



who said: Happy birthday fellow AYW designer :wink: I am so happy that I found your blog!! Bookmarked :wink: Happy birthday again.

Thank you again to everyone who commented! Winners, check your e-mail to see how to claim your prize.

Wednesday, January 15, 2014

Perhaps You Will Not Find Her Common Now

Buttercup was raised on a small farm in the country of Florin. Her favorite pastimes were riding her horse and tormenting the farm boy that worked there. –The Princess Bride, book and screenplay by William Goldman

Anyone seen The Princess Bride? 1987. Robin Wright. Cary Elwes. Mandy Patinkin. André the Giant. Fencing. Fighting. Torture. Revenge. Giants. Monsters. Chases. Escapes. True Love. Ring a bell? Among my siblings, The Princess Bride is probably the number one all-time favorite movie. We can all pretty much quote the entire movie.

The designers over at Fandom in Stitches, organized by the talented Jennifer Ofenstein, are having a Princess Bride-themed quilt and stitch along. And, well, when I say the designers, I kind of mean me, too. I've tested some of the Sesame Street patterns for one of the designers and I have a handful of my own patterns over at Fandom in Stitches. But I was surprised and excited to get an invitation to design for the As You Wish Quilt and Stitch-Along.

Jennifer had the characters chosen and quilt design already laid out when block sign-ups began, but each portrait or quote block was left entirely up to the designer. I signed up for an embroidery block; Princess Buttercup's embroidery block. I had my design finished in a matter of days {it was one of the things I was doing while I was procrastinating working on P's quilt, but I couldn't tell you that because it was totally under wraps}. And then I started to dabble with a paper pieced design for Buttercup herself. No one had signed up for her and so I timidly said that if no one else wanted her, I would do it. A few weeks went by and she was still available, so I designed my first every portrait block. It is very different from houses and trees and that kind of thing.

I used this screen cap from the end of the movie and Quilt Assistant to draft the pattern. She's not perfect, but she's pretty OK. The nose was the hardest thing to get right. After I put together my test block, I made a few tweaks to the pattern, so hopefully she will go together smoothly.

The embroidered quote block for Buttercup is actually a collection of quotes. I couldn't narrow it down. After I started stitching, I realized that this was a pretty ambitious block, so I also did an intermediate and a simple version, which are both included in the Buttercup pattern.

Patterns will be released every two weeks through May 7th. I've seen them. They are going to be fabulous. I wasn't certain whether I was going to make the quilt or not, but now that I've seen the blocks and Jennifer's awesome layouts {four-patch or book pages; I'm going with the book pages} there will be blood tonight a Princess Bride quilt at my house.

Today's post brought to you by:
As You Wish Designer photo aywdesignerbadge_zps2d76c5ef.jpg

Saturday, January 11, 2014

Birthday Giveaway

If you always give, you will always have. –Chinese Proverb

Tomorrow is my birthday. I will be 21 with 20 years' experience. And I'm celebrating with a giveaway! 'Cause that's how I like to roll. The story goes like this:

Once upon a time, I won a a half-yard bundle of Carnaby Street in the Cool Peace colorway, from Pat Bravo herself. It was pretty groovy.

The cool thing about half-yard cuts is that there is plenty to share. It is a mathematical law that if you divide something by half, you always have half left. So today I'm giving away a fat quarter bundle of Carnaby Street in the Cool Peace colorway, from Pat Bravo to me to you. The fabrics have been washed, pressed and squared up so "fat quarter" is used loosely here.

The Fine Print:
• To enter this giveaway, leave a comment telling me your favorite color combination. Or just leave a comment. Whichever.
• You can enter today's giveaway only once.
• Non-blogging/non-Google users and international entrants are welcome.
• If you do not have a Google account, use the name/url {url optional} commenting option and make sure you leave your e-mail in your comment in the following format: address (at) domain name (dot) com.
• Comments with no contact information will be deleted.
• Google account users: not sure if your contact information will be attached to your comment? Click here:


• Duplicate comments will be deleted.
• Comment moderation is on, so don't panic when your comment doesn't show up. I'm notified of new comments and will approve them periodically each day, after which they'll show up on the post.
• The giveaway will close at 10:00 pm {MST} on Wednesday, January 15th. Winner will be chosen by random drawing and notified by e-mail and announced here by 8:00 pm on January 16th.

Good luck!

Friday, January 10, 2014

1000th Post Giveaway

It may take little time to get where you want to be, but if you pause and think for a moment, you will notice that you are no longer where you were. Do not stop—keep going. –Rodolfo Costa, Advice My Parents Gave Me: and Other Lessons I Learned from My Mistakes

This is my 1000th post. Yep. You read that right. One thousand posts. Some more interesting than others; some containing a little bit more of me than others, but 1000 posts. That's a lot. Want to know a secret? I kind of finagled it to coincide with my four-year blog anniversary, so we could all celebrate with giveaways!

Today's giveaway is a fat quarter bundle in a rainbow of beautiful colors and prints. The fabrics are from my stash and have been washed, pressed and squared up, which means that I use the term "fat quarter" loosely, depending on how much shrinkage there was and how far off grain the fabric was pulled. In the spirit of full disclosure, they are all between 15½" and 18" long and 22"ish inches wide. There are a couple of Robert Kaufmann Modern Living prints, a Joel Dewberry and everything is Quilt Shop quality.

The Fine Print:
• To enter this giveaway, leave a comment telling me your favorite thing to do in your free time. Or just leave a comment. Whichever.
• You can enter today's giveaway only once.
• Non-blogging/non-Google users and international entrants are welcome.
• If you do not have a Google account, use the name/url {url optional} commenting option and make sure you leave your e-mail in your comment in the following format: address (at) domain name (dot) com.
• Comments with no contact information will be deleted.
• Google account users: not sure if your contact information will be attached to your comment? Click here:


• Duplicate comments will be deleted.
• Comment moderation is on, so don't panic when your comment doesn't show up. I'm notified of new comments and will approve them periodically each day, after which they'll show up on the post.
• The giveaway will close at 10:00 pm {MST} on Wednesday, January 15th. Winner will be chosen by random drawing and notified by e-mail and announced here by 8:00 pm on January 16th.

Good luck!