Thursday, July 30, 2009

Just one more day...Final Reminder

Don't forget to sign up for this month's free giveaway! There's just one day remaining until contest closes...

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Cell Phone Case

Continuing saga of the phone-chewing pups. This is the original offender, my dear Beagle. She got the antenna...




This is the 2nd offender that resulted in the need for a new phone, my lovely Australian Shephard. She cracked the screen and ate a button...




Luckily, I got some crafting out of it for my new phone. My old one was a flip, so I couldn't have worried less about scratches. The new one isn't a flip, so I had a great excuse to come up with something for it.





I love ceramic buttons and the satin lining is a coordinating lime green. I always think that lime and orange are a great combination and I use batiks whenever I can. I'm thinking of making another version of this for next month's giveaway, but we'll see.

I hope everyone's having a great week!

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Dern pups!

Have you ever had your dog chew on your cell phone? One of mine had done this about a month after I had just decided not to replace the phone, but to just replace the battery. She destroyed the antenna, scratched the screen and sent the poor phone in a downward spiral of misc keys no longer wanting to work. This was over a year ago.

Unfortunately for my carrier, but fortunately for my pocketbook, I have an aversion to signing new contracts and upgrading my phone just cuz I can. Well, my poor puppy decided for me that I needed to get a new phone cuz she got a hold of it again. This is just after having gotten home from an in-laws wedding in Mobile AL.

Friday when I got off work we left and drove 6 hours from FL to AL, blah blah blah, went to the wedding, went to the reception, drove back home to FL and got in at about 2 am Sunday. Somehow in my blind stupor of just wanting to sleep I left my phone out on the table within "puppy reach". It was when I woke up and was picking up the pieces that I started to seriously ponder whether or not I might need a new phone. As I thoroughly enjoyed a rare calm-down-and-don't-be-mad-at-the-dog-cigarette out on the porch and looked at all of the pieces spread out on the bar, I finally came to the conclusion that there was no craft or Crazy glue in the world that was going to put this Humpty Dumpty phone back together again. And while the last thing I wanted to do was drive around to see what cell store had Sunday hours, that is exactly what DH and I did, bless his heart (he was a wee bit tired of being in the truck as well).

Once the purchase was made and a new contract was signed (you know, sign the contract and you'll save $7,970.01 on the price of this phone and get it for the more realistic price of $29.99 BS) I got my new cell phone home and decided to make a case for it. As my camera is still packed in my luggage (yeah, we haven't unpacked yet, what of it?!) I don't have pics yet, but I will post them and a bonus one of the offending pooch. I also managed to finally finish making another pillow sham using the log cabin blocks I found in Shipshe for the bargain basement price of 10 for $5...and the fabric supposedly is late 1800-very early 1900's, but I'll need some opinions on the accuracy of those dates when I post the pics.

Whew, what a weekend. I'm (almost) glad to be back at work. Have a happy day, everyone!

Thursday, July 16, 2009

Congratulations!!

Congrats to the winner of our June Giveaway! Debra is now the proud owner of 6 Reproduction Print Fat Quarters.
Many thanks to everyone that signed up and we wish you the best of luck in upcoming drawings.
Enjoy them, Debra, and we'd love to see what you do with them!

July Giveaway!!

Sign up Now for a Chance to WIN Custom Made Soap!!

Fill out your contact information in the space provided at the link above to be entered to win Custom Made Soap. The winner will be contacted via email and we will make designer soap to their specifications from a choice of multiple shapes, colors, and fragrances!

Last day to register is July 31st and the drawing will be held on August 7th. Winner will be notified by email.

Thursday, July 9, 2009

Another UFO completed...

My poor father had to wait until after Father's Day to receive this as the blind stitching along the border took longer than anticipated.
Along the bottom row you will see a pic of his beloved 60-something 'vette that he never fails to remind us he had to get rid of because it did not have the ability to carry the requisite car seats once we were born. I remind my brother that since he was born first it's more his fault than mine. He loves us, but boy he misses that convertible...





This is my brother way back when and below that is him and my grandfather shortly before our grandfather passed.



My dad's fisherman at heart so I had to go with blues and fish prints along with a big, soft, denim-y border. I used verigated thread that ranged from dark navy to light sky blue.



I kind of posted out of order, but this is the 2nd FMQ I've done and I think I'm getting the hang of it. Not perfect, but I quilt by the Amish philospohy that only God is perfect and you will make at least one, even if intentional, mistake on anything you create.

My next planned quicky project is a pillow sham from some of Cheryl's butterflies. I've got it planned out and am using a Donna Dewberry rustic bark background and it should look like the butterflies are just "fluttering around the woods"...we'll see how that works out for me. I'll try to get some progress pics up later.

Hope everyone's having a great week!

Trina

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Surfboard Quilt - Completed

One down and many UFO's to go...

Ok, I threatened to do this one next and against the advise of others (you know who you are!) I decided to go with the flannel back even though I was warned that it was more difficult to FMQ. Turns out that I didn't have that much trouble with it.


For some reason I still much prefer the wide, swoopy meanderings to the tight, perfect, tiny stippling. The ones that have the tiny stippling feel so much stiffer and smooshed than the wider, fluffier alternative. But that's just me...





I had to go with the red thread, which was certainly taking a chance...every little stitch shows, but I do kind of like the below block if for no other reason than it started to look like a dog outline as I stared at it...you know, like when you stare at the clouds and shapes appear?







The red thread did also help fill in the many blanks areas, too.




















The seams really aren't as noticable as it looks in the pics, but between the new "true daylight" halogen bulbs I just replaced and the camera flash it picked up EVERYTHING in detail. It's a little wild, a little off-kilter, and of course not traditional fabric choices, but it was fun!


Texture Magic

This is a new product that I saw online called Texture Magic by Superior Threads. Has anyone seen this used?




It looks pretty cool and easy to use. Here are some pics of going through the process starting with after you have sewn the grid:








Pretty neat, huh? I can think of several projects I'd love to try this on, but I haven't found it at any of my LQS and I'm certainly on the lookout for it now. If anyone has used this, please comment as I'm interested to see if it works as easily as Moda says it does here (they made a Patriotic Pillow using this technique).

Surfboard Quilt

Here is the next one to go under the FMQ needle...








I saved that pic kinda small, so here's closeups of the fabric:










I was thinking of going with a matching red flannel backing, but now I'm not so sure...I'll have to think on that for a bit...