New WIP with Pips!

Ok ok... I know I'm not supposed to be starting anything new but when I saw this on Sew Mama Sew's tutorial section, I just could not resist!

I have a layer cake of these Sherbet Pips from Moda and I'm thinking 12 of these blocks with the light grey sashing in between would make a beautiful blanket. Alternating between the scooters, swings, and puppy print for the center blocks - using all the colorways. Love it! Definitely a very "me" blanket... especially with the puppies and snails following along behind her :)

... one more WIP for the pile *sigh*

Happy Memorial Day everyone!

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Winner winner... chicken dinner? No... aardvark pal! :)

Thank you to those who followed my blog, liked my facebook page, and left comments for me. It was a small turnout but glad to know you all wanted a little aardvark pal of your very own :)

I guess as the name suggests.... this random number generator is very random! The winner of the aardvark surprisingly is....

#1 - Alexis!



Congratulations Alexis! I will email you soon to find out your aardvark preferences and will get your little buddy sewn up and on his way to his new home :)

Hoping to do another giveaway when I reach my 100th post... this marks number 70 so stay tuned my bloggy friends!

ps. To those of you who did not win, if you are interested in a little aardvark pal of your very own, let me know and we can strike up a little bargain :)

Facebook page & a GIVEAWAY :)

Hello dear crafty friends! This Crafty Fox has finally joined the realm of Facebook Pages. You can find us here.
And to celebrate this small step forward, I do believe we should have a giveaway, wouldn't you agree?

I was pondering what to post for my dear readers delight ... a zipper bag? a mug rug? But really, the heart and soul of This Crafty Fox are not the quilts, bags, and other delightful things I find to make online.... but the little creatures that come to life sometimes by accident, sometimes by pure whimsy :)

Sooo... in that spirit, I am offering you one of my Anger Management Aardvarks

These dear little creatures started as my version of a pattern in "Softies only a mother could love" and blossomed into these larger, multi-colored crazy creations. They became the mascots of our cubicle at work... good for awkward situations (ie. the Awkward Aardvark), anger management (yes, they will bite people for you), and really just for a good laugh.

So what do you think? They may not be for everyone but if you want one of these toothy little pals to come live at your house, here are 3 chances to win (leave a separate comment for each thing you do below for multiple chances to win!):

1. "Like"(aka click the button haha) "This Crafty Fox"'s page on Facebook and then post a comment here letting me know that you did
2. Become a follower of this blog - and let me know that you did (there should be a follow link at the top of the page, if not, you can follow me in google reader or in blogger and that counts - just let me know you did)
3. And for a bonus comment - answer the following survey question: Do you buy handmade online? If so, what type of things tempt you? Would love to get your feedback as I start considering a small Etsy store with some of my creations of all types.

Please make sure you have an email address attached to your profile or leave it in the comment area so that I can contact you if you win.

This giveaway will close Thursday at 9pm EST - the winner to be announced Friday morning and chosen by Mr. Random Number Generator to be fair.  I'm sorry but at this time the giveaway is only open to readers with a US address for shipping. .

Thanks for reading and good luck!

ps. You will have the choice of the following colors for your Aardvark, which will be custom made for you once the winner is chosen: Pink, yellow, green, blue, purple, brown

Come sample along with me & Sewn!

I started reading the Elm Creek Quilter's book series... dorky, I know, but they are so good! :) The first one introduces you to the group as a newbie wants to learn to quilt and her teacher has her do a sampler. I've been wanting to do a sampler quilt ever since! And what do you know, today I stumbled upon the start of a fantastic one!

Leila from Sewn is starting an online sampler where she will walk us through a couple blocks each month, adding to our skills and quilting knowledge as we go. I think this would be fantastic for new and experienced quilters, just to try something fun and different and make a lot of different blocks perhaps we have not all tried yet.

I am here and now committing to this 12 month journey and will be showcasing my blocks, successes, and frustrations (o yes, Im sure there will be some haha) as the project progresses. Anyone with me? C'mon, you can do it!

Surprise surprise my dear friends :)

Apparently Christmas comes in May at my house because I FINALLY got a little gift set together for 2 of my best friends, although I had intended them for Christmas... oops! O well, better super late than never right?? ;-)

I made this blanket for my good friend last Fall - the first quilt I ever completed! I liked the colors so much I used some of the scraps for a mug rug and zipper pouch for her:

 I made my 2nd quilt for my other good friend but I didn't have any scraps left over from that for another present. She is a very talented knitter however so I thought this fabric would be funny for her :)

I absolutely love this print - its call "Knitmare on Elm Street". The skeleton was knitting and the book by his chair says "Quick and Easy Knitting Projects" .... apparently they weren't so quick and easy, hehe.

The purse that just wouldn't end...

This non-quilt project has won the title of "newest favorite project EVER!" but also "biggest pain in the butt ever!" haha. Including cutting, I think it took me about 7-8 hours to finish this purse, start to finish. Insane, I know. Plus I was sick all weekend so I took a break for a 4 hour nap, moaning and groaning, etc. Blegh...

Enough of my whining tho, in the end it was worth all the effort and frustration because wow, I LOVE this purse :)

Front

Front velcro flap-pocket

Inside zipper pocket - my first one!

Inside open pocket - isn't the fabric lovely?

Back - my favorite view of the whole purse. I love how the flowers go around the handle!

This pattern is the bracelet bag by Keykalou Patterns and I highly recommend it. It was a great pattern and she even gives extra tips about slip stitches and other important things on her blog - which are linked to the pdf pattern - super helpful!. The pattern does warn that a bit of sewing experience is needed and I agree - those curved handles were time consuming and I would not say difficult but... challenging in the beginning. All in all a fantastic pattern and I love love love love LOVE this bag! :-D




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Meet Mr. Squid Pants!!!! :)

This might be one of the coolest thing I have ever made!

Introducing for your viewing pleasure....

.... Mr. Squid Pants!!

Interestingly enough - his pants are made from leftovers from the PJs I made with my mom last Thanksgiving. Yes, pictures of the 2 of us wearing matching outfits to follow, no worries! haha

Happy Weekend Everyone!! :)

W.I.P Wednesday - Owl go back to school

I've been so blessed while working on the Children's Charity Project for my church. People out in bloggy land who don't know me from Eve have been so generous with their fabric donations to help us out.

From a wonderful box of donated fabric I received a few weeks ago, I put together this quick and cute "Back to school" quilt.

I think the kids are going to absolutely love it when I get it completed. This is my favorite block from the whole set... I adore these cute little owls! I think the child who receives this quilt is going to love it too, I know I do already.

Thank you so much Deborah again for your generous donation of this lovely fabric!



Now all I have to do is find some time to quilt and bind it... hrmm... easier said than done with my "top secret project" taking up all of my time these days!




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A little Springtime for the couch

I've been playing with some "Sugarpop" scraps for the past few months here and there and finally finished up this cutie today:

I have named her "A window to Spring"

She isn't perfect, I noticed that I have 2 different shades of white here and there which is kind of frustrating to see aftward. 

O well... she is cute and that's good enough for me! :)

Happy Spring!!

Mother's Day Goodies :)

I've been dying to share some of my projects lately but they have all been for presents so I've had to keep a lid on it. Now that Mother's Day is upon us, I can do a little show and tell.

For my Mother-in-law in Germany I made a set of mug rugs:




Front and Back views

This fabric is from Lilac Hill and reminded me of some fabric she picked out when we were in PA last time they visited. I left the present choice up to my husband and although I would have liked to make her more, he insisted this would be a good present. What do I know, I'm just the work horse :)

Silly me tho, I was bugging him 2 weeks ago to mail them out ASAP and once they were on their way to Germany I realized DUH Mother's Day is a week later than I thought! Ugh... o well, she got them a week early, better than being late.

After torturing myself trying to decide what to make, I finally asked my mom what she would like for Mother's Day and she requested a squared zipper bag. Seriously mom, you think that's all you are getting from me? Think again! haha

So here is what I came up with:

Zipper pouch made from Moda's Bliss

A Sprocket Pillow with the last of the Bliss fabric

A squared zipper bag with cat fabric (we do call her the cat lady ;-))

... and then I threw a couple holiday charm packs in the larger bag for her to play with 

Happy Mother's Day :)

Seam ripper induced anger...

I have to say that generally I can pick up a pattern or look a tutorial online and create a nice finished product. There may at times be a few small user errors or minor adjustments needed to the pattern which the creator overlooked, but all in all my experience has been good.

Well, that certainly changed today!  (**Editing this to keep my ranting and raving to a minimum.**)
Suffice it to say the pattern testers missed A LOT before this book went to publication, the diagrams were awful and insufficient, and my finished product turned out so bad I attacked it before even taking a picture!

After some major seam ripper induced rage....

... I was able to turn it into a useable and cute-enough finished product.

The top is a little floppy because after my seam-ripper rage on the side triangles, I just attacked the top ties with scissors. Those things made me so annoyed while creating them, it was almost gratifying to attack them with the scissors after they proved unnecessary for this re-design.


I KNOW not every project will turn out perfect the first time but this was a really uncomplicated project made complicated by poor instructions and the entire process just annoyed the junk out of me. I think its time for me to leave my sewing machine alone for a while today and go iron that ginormous pile of coin-pairs waiting for me from my "top secret project."