How to do the polka?

Hey bloggy friends! Looking for a little help and inspiration today. I signed up for a polka dot charm swap from Craft Buds and just got my charms yesterday:

I already owned the whole bottom row, all but the left 3 on the middle row and 6 of the top row lol - apparently I really like polka dots.

My normal instinct is to keep them in their separate lines and not mix them (ta dots to themselves, metro circlse to themselves, etc.) - but that wasn't the point of joining this charm swap - I need to branch out and mix these babies up! SO what I am hoping to get from my lovely readers are some ideas on what to do with these. I have 4 of each of the 28 prints - so 112 5inch squares to work with. I have some other polka dots not from these lines that I could throw in if I need a few more. A quilt would be fun but I'm open to any suggestions really.

Thoughts? :)

Mendocino Pillow Love!

I finally finished my wonky Mendocino pillow to match the hexagon one I received in the Pillow Talk Swap 6 last year. Love them on my couch!!

I was going to start quilting my pillow talk swap 7 pillow today but I think it needs one more border to make it an inch bigger finished and am not sure what color. I am leaning towards coal border with orange back - what do you think?

I also had a GREAT surprise as I was browsing flikr this morning. Remember my picnic quilt collage? Well one of my Honeycomb partners already finished her 2 blocks for me even tho my month isn't until March. They are SO pretty! The mushroom one I have a feeling is going to be my favorite in this quilt!

I would love to paste them in here but flikr won't let me for some reason so here are the links:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/58064314@N07/6856356155/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/58064314@N07/6856356237/

Regardless of the awful time at the post, I was able to get some good crafting in so I feel better. Now it is time to drink my spinach smoothie and get ready for the gym... yay? haha. Happy Saturday!

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Grrr... post office worker, I loathe you.

We have a big post office about 5 min from my house. It is ALWAYS packed and there is only ever 1 person working there, even tho it is the hub and the only place you can get your passport as well. Saturday's they are only open from 9-2 so it is always crowded but I went anyway.

There is 1 man that always seems to be working there and I will just say that he is not a native English speaker and doesn't always understand what people are saying to him. That is fine, my husband is from Germany and I've lived abroad in 4 different countries... but just because YOU don't understand ME doesn't give you the right to get pissy with me or just repeat yourself over and over when it doesn't make sense.

He also ALWAYS overcharges me! I got a swap block from someone in Cali - it costs them $0.64 to send it to me. What does he charge me? $1.71 - are you freaking kidding me? And to make it worse, the person gave me the wrong zipcode the first time so I had to resend it and pay $1.71 again - yep, $3.42 for one square of fabric... ridiculous. I asked him today if that is the cheapest "yes, cheapest." I said I don't think so, I am pretty sure there is a cheaper option "no, cheapest." Great...

THEN I find out today that our post won't let us send anything that isn't flat in the "flat rate envelopes" - even tho everyone I buy from on Etsy sends up to 7 yards of fabric in one. He tried to charge me $13  - "Not flat, no flat rate!" I finally gave up and went to another post office. She explained that it is a new policy, blah blah blah. That is fine, even tho I don't agree with it since obviously it is up to the individual post office worker to decide because everyone else still uses them... but regardless, just be nice and explain, don't be an ass and yell at me like post office jerk #1. Seriously done going to that bigger post office - the small one by us is open 8am - noon on Saturdays so I will either go right after work before they close at 4 or wait for Saturday - sick of that jerk and I really just want to hurt him everytime I see him. Rawwwrrrrr.

I understand they have no money to employ more people, I understand they have to watch costs, but that doesn't give people the right to be jerks and raise their voices... espec. when their lack of English skills are causing some of the problems! Be nice, explain instead of repeating the same stupid phrase over and over, and you will piss off a lot less people you post office jerk :-p

Ok... my rant is done, my packages are mailed, I will go calm down now :-p

I am such a winner ;-)

I forgot to share this - before we went away for the holidays, my bloggy buddy Bree was having a giveaway and guess who won...

That is right, it was ME!!! :) Oddly enough, this giveaway was how I ended up in contact with Bree in the first place over a year ago. She was giving away an awesome bag and even tho I didn't win, I fell in love with her blog and we somehow ended up being email buddies too. Awesome gal, awesome crafter - thanks so much for the awesome prize Bree!!

And what did I win you may wonder? Nothing less than this awesome elephant pouch!! She did such a fantastic job on this little guy - love it so much!! :)



I highly recommend you go check out her awesome blog, it is: My Crafty Crap

New Fabric and a new WIP

I could not resist a sale at Joanns this weekend especially as they have some of the new DS Quilts prints available. Even at $9 a yard on sale it is better than paying shipping online and I was able to get some 1/3 yard and 1/4 yard cuts which is nice.

This one will be a purse I think, plaid on the outside, grey on the inside

These are to restock my orange supply, as it is a color I use quite often and can never get enough of

And I couldn't resist a quarter yard of these just because they were all so pretty :)

Other than buying fabric I don't need, I was able to get some sewing done on my Pillow Talk Swap 7 pillow. It will be 4 blocks connecting to make the image below - which is actually just my 1st block rotated as an example. I was able to get a second block completed this weekend tho so I am half way there, yay!

Last but not least, I also put together an inspriation mosaic for my new bee group. My month is in March (thank goodness because I have no time to make blocks for anyone that month!) and I decided I would like blocks for a picnic quilt. Leaving those awesome gals pretty open to be creative and make something new and fun - here were some ideas I put together for inspiration:

 Can't wait to see what lovelies will come in the mail for me in March! Both of my swaps are due the middle of March as well so it is going to be a great month for mail!!

Loulouthi FQ Pack - for sale or trade

Cleaning out my shelves again today and this time I have a FQ pack of Loulouthi by Anna Maria Horner up for grabs.

The 4 on the right are FQs, the brown one is 18 x 18 inches and the blue/green on the very left is 17 x 17.5 inches

Asking $16 including shipping (USA) or an interesting trade offer - comment or email me if you are interested! :)

Outsourcing your quilting - thoughts?

Hey crafty ladies, I have an opinion question for you that I would love to hear some feedback on.

Have any of you ever had your quilts professionally quilted on a longarm machine by someone else? Did you use someone local or send it off in the mail to someone you found online?

I have received recommendations from my local quilt shop of local longarm quilters who cost around 1-2 cents / square inch, which is very reasonable. That would save me the cost and fear of shipping off my quilts. However, regardless of the reasonable price, that would mean that most of my quilts would be $50-$75 each to get them quilted. Is it really worth so much money?

What do you think?

I would love to take a class and rent longarm space at a local shop but the only one within an hour from me is actually selling their machine and even last year were not taking new renters. Just getting a little bored with my straight line quilting options and I am really bad at FMQ and would not even attempt that on any quilt I've made so far. I definitely have plans to practice it on smaller projects and get better, but I don't know that I'd ever want to attempt FMQ on my small machine on a queen sized quilt, yikes.

Thanks for your feedback in advance, can't wait to hear about your opinions/experiences!

ps. Please let's not turn this into a debate about whether you should "do all your own work" - that is not what I am looking for and definitely do not want any contention on my blog.

New WIPs for Swaps to show you!!

I know I just wrote a post about not starting new things, but these were things I already joined so it is ok, or so I will tell myself haha. I am doing a good job of using the lovely fabric I have and only buying more for swaps when it is really necessary so hopefully that holds out haha.

So - on with the show!

Here are the 4 x 5 Bee Q 3 & 4 and 3 x 6 Bee Q 4 blocks I have received so far - waiting on 2 more. They are so pretty - love having them up on my design wall!  (speaking of which - ignore the polka dot flannel, that is my design wall down in the bottom right corner... with my only pieces of Mendocino stuck up these so I can admire them daily, hehe.)

Next is a sneak peek of my pincushions for my pincushion swap. I joined a year long bee and every other month we do a little swap, and every non-swap month is a block making month for our hive members - super fun! February is a swap month and I would love to show you the rest but my partner will know immediately that these are for her so I have to keep it a secret 2 more weeks until I can mail them out :)

... I will admit, it is kind of a small silly swap, but I wanted to do it so :-p haha.

Next is something I am super excited about - the For the Love of Solids Swap - Round 2

My partner seems to like pink and blue so here are the colors I picked out for her initially:

I got a lot of "down with the pink!" feedback - and in the end I decided to not mix the 2 groups. We have to make a big item and smaller item so I will make her smaller item pink and grey since it is her favorite color. However I decided to stick with blues for her big item because it seemed like she liked those colors on her mosaic and I really liked the way they fit into this design - by Jaybird Quilts:

I started cutting fabric for this after lunch today and just finished it up - with lots of breaks in between. So fun to get a top done start to finish like that! It was supposed to be a mini quilt but ended up 25.25 x 25.5 - a little big but beautiful if I do say so myself ;-) I really hope my partner likes it or I will gladly hang it in my own sewing room! Now I just have to figure out a fun way to quilt it, hrmmmmm...

That is all for today - hope everyone is having a lovely weekend!

UFOs and WIPs - to finish in 2012

I joined a fun flikr group to get motivated to work on my UFOs, you can find it here: http://www.flickr.com/groups/projectufo/pool/with/6770349523/

Seeing everyone else's mosaics was a good reminder to me of these 2012 crafty goals that I made only a few weeks ago but have not done anything about! http://www.thiscraftyfox.blogspot.com/2012/01/hello-2012-here-is-what-i-expect-from.html

So - in an effort to get organized and motivated, here are my UFOs and current WIPs I want to get done this year:

The top 4 are finished quilt tops that need to get quilted - trying to do one each quarter in the hopes that I will be able to do them without too much stress. First up is my pink stripey quilt in the top left corner - basted and just waiting for me to get going!

The next 2 are QALs that I started and never finished, followed by my hubby's quilt, my sherbet pips quilt, and an hourglass quilt for our bed. Lots to work on if I get sick of quilting!

A few little projects that I have started recently made their way onto this list because I need to wait to purchase more supplies but don't want to forget about them and let them become UFOs.

On top of all of this, I have 2 Christmas presents still to start/finish, 2 swaps and a year long bee I am participating in. Busy busy but maybe seeing all of these great projects will remind me to work on them and not start anything new haha.

That is another goal I am making right now too - to stop buying fabric for new projects and finish up old ones. I am not allow myself to start anything new for myself until something on this list gets finished!

Wish me luck - and good luck to you on your WIPs and UFOs, may your piles grow smaller, not larger! :)

Kumari Garden Destash! - SWAPPED

**UPDATE*** This has been swapped - thanks!

************
Lately I have been trying to clean up my sewing area and am doing a little inventory on my stash. I am finding some fabrics and lines that I like but do not love, and am ready to part with. I will be posting them now and then to see if they can find a new home.

Here is the first one - maybe more to come in the next few weeks as I do some more clean up:

Kumari Garden FQ Bundle - you will receive 27 unique fat quarters out of the 29 prints shown below -
$45 + $5 shipping - that comes to $1.72/FQ for this lovely line!

Comment or email me if you are interested or have a better offer - also willing to trade if the deal is right :)

Back to more cleaning, plotting and scheming... hoping to have more projects to show you this weekend!

Meet Titus - the manly pink elephant

I am pleased to introduce you to my new friend Titus - the manly pink elephant - isn't he so cute!! :)

Why is he male and pink? I have no idea - he just seemed like a male to me inspite of his brightness and flowery ears ;-)

This is my first dimensional (read: not flat) softie. 

I used a pattern - Simplicity #2921 which was a pain in my butt; but after a lot of yelling and shaking the fabric in anger, and help from my mom when she could stop laughing at me, he turned out pretty awesome. If I am to be completely honest, it was def. more my impatience and mistakes than the pattern being annoying - I am just used to online tutorials with more steps and pictures.

He definitely needs a snuggly friend in green - but for the safety of that elephant and my own sanity, I will wait a bit to try making one again. ;-)

Why is he named Titus? Elphant Titus... Elephantitis... hehe...

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3 x 6 Bee blocks done - woo hoo!

I was able to finish up my 3 x 6 bee blocks this weekend while crafting with my mom. So glad those are all done - between my 3 x 6 and 4 x 5 bee I made 11 of these blocks - 9 of those were made in the past 2 weeks, yikes! Def. will not overload my schedule like that again!

Mailing everything out today - the 4 x 5 bee blocks are still on time but these 3 x 6 bee blocks were due yesterday - a holiday - so I don't really care that they are 1 day late. I am sure my group will survive :)

And speaking of Bees and swaps... here is what I have going on this quarter which is new:

1. 4 x 5 Bee - Q1 of 2012 - still waiting on group assignment

2. Bee Modern - 12 month bee where we only make 2 blocks every other month and on the "off" months there is a small swap - March is my month so I will be picking a block and colors soon! Maybe will post my options on here to get some opinions :)

3. For the love of solids swap - enjoyed this so much last year, had to sign up again! Waiting for my partner assignment so I can get to plotting! We have to make 1 big item and then send another item - either store bought or hand made. Last year I sent a pillow, mug rug, and stuffed squirrel... will see what my partner wants this year.

4. And I saved the best for last.... Pillow Talk Swap Round 7!! This is seriously one of the best flikr swaps and I am SO glad that I randomly noticed yesterday morning that they were taking applications for this new round because spots filled up SO FAST! There may be a couple left but they will go soon so jump on it if you missed the announcement too!

I think #1 is due in April, # 3 middle/end of March, #4 I am not sure what the dates are, and #2 I won't have to make any blocks until May since I am Queen Bee for March so I should really be ok with this schedule. Looking forward to showing you all my new projects for these Bee's & Swaps!

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Experimenting with Melody Miller

Have you seen the Ruby Star collections from Melody Miller? They are very.... interesting and unique I would say. Not for everyone but I've found myself interested in them from the beginning. I finally broke down and bought some of the Ruby Star Rising - old collection, and the Ruby Star Shining - new collection. I was VERY modest in my purchase since it is rather expensive fabric, and this is what I've come up with so far:

Ruby Star Rising - Bee

I think I like this block better on point, but that means it will be very large once the setting triangles are added. I was thinking this will be a fun Spring pillow, but as I don't have any concrete designs for it yet, it will remain as such for a while. Let me know if you have any thoughts/suggestions - would love to hear them!

I will say that I was a bit disappointed in my 1/2 yard cut of the above fabric tho - for that much fabric and money, I only had 1 full bee and some bee wings sticking out on the bottom of my cut - plus the rest of the geometric shapes taking up the space. A little frustrating because this piece here is all I will use after spending 10$ but o well... you live and learn.  One expensive little bee :-p

Ruby Star Shining

I was REALLY pleased with the prints above - the clocks are 2 of 4 repeating patterns and the typewriter is a repeating pattern of its own on another print. I broke down and bought a 1/2 yard of each - could not resist and they look so fun together!

My Orange Essex linen went perfectly with this linen blend fabric as far as texture and color. I am thinking of doing that darker blue from the center around the outside of the 2 side pieces, and then the lighter aqua blue around the center piece and making them all the same size with those borders. I may do a final orange border around the whole thing and have a nice big rectangle pillow to snuggle. That is the plan for now anyway... it is also leaning towards being a gift pillow for a certain someone but I'll have to decide when it is finished.

I really should be working on my 3 x 6 Bee blocks but I couldn't resist playing a little this weekend :)
Hope your weekend is lovely too!

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 &

Flikr 4 x 5 Bee blocks (4th quarter - 2011)

With the deadline QUICKLY approaching (Saturday - ack!) , I finally finished my bee blocks for the Flikr 4 x 5 Bee (4th Quarter - 2011 - Group 1):

I think the purple/orange one and the grey/aqua ones are my favorites.

The 3 x 6 Flikr Bee has the same deadline and so I pulled fabric for 3 of my 6 blocks for that bee this morning. I WILL be on time - I have NEVER been late on a Bee or Swap deadline and I do not plan on starting 2012 that way :) So... get ready to see 6 more blocks popping up this week!

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Hello 2012 - here is what I expect from you :)

Hello 2012!!!!!

What is so exciting about 2012 you ask? Well... I am not yet sure but I guess I have 12 months to find out! HOWEVER, I do expect great things in the way of actually FINISHING projects this year. Shocking, I know, but I do believe it CAN and WILL be done!

I was thinking of logging all my goals for the year or breaking it down by quarters, but to be honest I have SOOOOOO many WIPs and UFOs waiting for me, it would take up a lot of time to find and log them all, and that is precious time in which I could be crafting!

So, I think I will list out some goals for the month at the beginning of each month, and see how I do:

1. Big goal - finish WIP #1 - Soiree Stripe Quilt Top:

I am not 100% sure but I do believe this quilt top may have been finished in 2010 and basted in 2011, ridiculous, I know! This was the first quilt top I made for myself, after make a few for friends and family when I started sewing Summer 2010 and I REALLY want to snuggle this lovely beast!

So... Soiree - you have a date with the sewing machine this month and you WILL be quilted by the end of the month and finished by Valentine's Day at the latest - I promise you :)

2.
3 x 6 and 4 x 5 Bees for Q4 2011 - 2 blocks down, 9 to go - must be done by Jan. 15th - yikes!

I have fabric set aside for a few others, hoping to get to at least one today. I have never missed a deadline on any of my bees or swaps yet and I refuse to let my 2012 start in the negative. I will I will I WILL get the other 9 blocks completed and all mailed on time!

3. Christmas presents for my mom! - This should probably be #1 but I am too lazy to move it haha
We spent Christmas in Germany visiting my in-laws and a week there visiting my husband's family and friends. My mom was super busy at the end of  December finishing up her Master's in Nursing (yay - she is awesome!) so we decided to have our Christmas celebration this Saturday - Jan. 7th.

We got back from Germany yesterday evening and have been doing a lot of chilling since then BUT I was able to finish 2 of my mom's Christmas presents today so I am feeling rather accomplished. There is an awesome purse I am trying to make her but I've had so many troubles finding the right interfacing, I am not sure it will get done on time. 2 out of 3 isn't bad tho and I might see if I can make a few little things to go along with the ones I already have done.

So I guess goal #3 is get that crazy dome purse for my mom finished by the end of the month - by Jan. 14th for our Mother/Daughter craft weekend if possible.

And as that is already a lot ... I will leave my January goals be and go back to sewing!

Happy January everyone, I hope you have a great start to the year!