Bad lighting + blurry shots + weird angles =

Today I wanted to show you some awesome pictures of a project I finished up this week, but after uploading the photos I see that none of them are up to par with the standard of photography I try to keep.  Bad lighting + blurry shots + weird angles = not so good photos, so pics of the new project will have to wait.... sorry.

I've also been getting a little piecing done as well as some embroidery and some quilting, but alas, no pictures of those projects either.

I'll try to get some more pictures taken today, but until then I'll leave you with a picture I did manage to take this week of my new baby.

I got the Janome Sew Pretty Sew Perfect machine both as a travel machine and also as a beginning sewing machine for the little girls I teach to sew.  It's 3/4 size and slightly slower speed I hope will make it easier for little hands to learn on.  How cute it is is just a bonus!

And while you're here, I should take the time to mention that my fabric mosaic for Rachel of Stitched in Color's "Softly Against Black" mosaic contest has made it into the finalist round.  You should be sure to check out all the finalists and vote for your favorite mosaic while you're there!

Oh! and P.S.  This is my 95th blog post.  I'm planning something big for #100, so be sure to stick around!

September Bee Blocks

What?!?! It's not even the end of the month and I've already finished my bee blocks? Crazy!

Here is my September block for Anneliese in Stash Bee.

I used a lot of Good Fortune scraps while making this one.

And here are my BELIEVE at do. Good Stitches blocks for Vicki.

I love the grey/black/white/red/pink color scheme that she chose.

I had a lot of fun on this one getting the squiggly lines to match up.

And since we had one member of our do. Good Stitches group drop pout in September I was two blocks short for the quilt I was planning so I made two additional blocks.

I hope everyone enjoys their Sunday, I know I'm planning to!

Pattern Making

I'm excited.

I just found out that Michelle of Michelle Patterns is now selling a pdf e-book detailing all the steps that go into making a pdf sewing pattern in Apache Open Office, which is a free software you can download from the internet.

I've been wanting to venture into pattern making so I snatched up this pdf as soon as I heard about it.  It's regularly $20 but you can get it for 50% off through Sunday if you use the code patternmaking.

If you're interested in getting your own copy you can find it here.

I've already downloaded the Open Office Software and I'm so excited to get started!

Softly Against Black Mosaic + A Good Mail Day

Yesterday, it seemed as though the stars aligned and three of my favorite things came together....

Yesterday, Rachel of Stitched in Color (one of my favorite bloggers) announced that she was pairing up with Alice of Fresh Modern Fabric (my favorite shop to get fabric online) to offer a contest to make a fabric mosiac based on the phrase "softly against black" and this picture:

.....which I love and has been the desktop photo on my computer for months.

Here's the mosaic I came up with.  It was hard to narrow the fabric selections down to 12, especially since I thought at first I would get to choose 16, but I eventually got it to the right number.

.... And as for the good mail day, I had the best swap package sitting in my mailbox today.  I received my package from my secret partner Karen in the Modern Scrappy Bits Swap and she did a great job making things that were very "me".

I had told her that I loves gnomes and dachshunds, and she went snooping in my Flickr favorites and discovered on her own that I love wonky houses.  Here's what she sent me:










I love it all so much!  The package totally made my day!!! Thanks again Karen!

WIP Wednesday: 9/12/12

I don't normally post about my WIPs, but I thought I'd make an exception for the project I have going on right now.

I've had this tree skirt and tablerunners on my "to do" list for the last year and a half so I'm excited to show them off.  The pattern for the tree skirt is from the 2010 Holiday Edition of Fat Quarterly, and it relies on A LOT of applique.  The tablerunners match the tree skirt, with the starry background thinning out around the middle of the runners.

Right now I've appliqued all of the houses down using the blanket stitch on my machine.  Coincidentally this is the first time I've used my blanket stitch for applique and I'm loving the results.  I haven't decided yet whether to applique the stars or not.  I'm planning to quilt an "allover" pattern over the area with the stars, so I'm thinking that I might not need to applique them down because they'll be secured when I do the quilting.

SO here's a question: should I do a white backing or a printed one?  I have enough of this fabric to do the back, but I'm kind of afraid that you might see the pattern through the white.  Should I just do white?  Or mix it up a bit and use the print?  And what about binding?  Something red? Something red and white?

Also, I thought it might be inspiration for me to get stuff done if I made my horrendously long WIP and "to-do" list public.  So here it is:

I'm Registered!

I have to say that I was very surprised when I went to look at the registration page for Sewing Summit this morning only to find that registration for classes was already open and that classes were filling up rapidly.

I registered right away and had to go back twice to change classes that filled up before I could confirm payment.  I was lucky though because my friend Rebeckah who was registering right behind me managed to loose almost all the classes she wanted before she could confirm payment.

Here's what I got:

Even though I didn't get ALL the classes I wanted I've very thrilled with what I did get.  Only one more month!!!! EEEEEkkkkkkkk!

EDIT: So it seems as though registration was open early as a test and classes weren't really all full.  My friend Rebackah was able to go back and register and got all the classes she wanted.