The Traveling Stash Giveaway!!!!

I was lucky enough to win a box of goodies from Staci (the confused quilter).  It's a box filled with random fabric, notions, books, etc called the Traveling Stash.  You can read more about it here.  I thought this was such a cute idea!  If you win the box, you can remove whatever you like and add items from your own stash before you pass it along!  Now here is where things get interesting, when I received the box, there wasn't much in it that was my style.  The box was filled with more traditional fabric and patterns so I had an idea--I'll donate almost all the items in the box to my local quilt guild and fill the box with more modern fabric and patterns from my own stash!  So here is a sample of what's in the box now:

I will probably be adding more fabric and patterns to this, but I want to keep some things a surprise!  In the box now is Amy Butler home dec, Ikea home dec, Heather Ross, Denyse Schmidt, Urban Chiks, Laurie Wisburn, vintage sheet scraps, and the hugely popular Swoon pattern just to name a few!  I will stuff a LARGE flat rate box full of goodies!  

To win, just leave one comment--maybe tell me your favorite fat quarter pattern (besides Swoon). 

FINE PRINT!  You must be:
1. an active blogger
2. a US resident
3.  You must promise to fill the box back up after you have taken out what you'd like to keep!

I will leave the giveaway open until 11pm on Friday, December 9th.  I will have the Random Number Generator choose my winner.  Good luck!

Math and Christmas

Finished up this sample quilt for Ali based on her paper pieced pattern for the equation y=1/x. 

There are a couple of firsts in this quilt for me.  It was the first time I've made an entire quilt from a paper pieced pattern.  It's the first time I've used 505 to spray baste a quilt--by the way, I think I'm in love!  It's also the first time I've used the start/stop function on my machine to free motion instead of  the foot pedal.  I've always wanted to try it, but if you pin baste, the start/stop button isn't practical.  I'm still not sure I would ever take the time to spray baste a large quilt, but it was sooooooooo much faster to FMQ this since it had been spray basted I might consider it!

I used some Habitat for the binding since it had a lot of the colors I used in the top.

The back is an AMH flannel print.  It's super soft and cozy!

I love how the quilting show up on the back!  

I'm now working on a stocking for my nephew!  I still have to add the cuff and add some details to the other side.

Stuffed and Stuff

I'm keeping it short because I'm too full of Thanksgiving food and too tired from Black Friday shopping.  Here are some things I've been working on:

My completed bag for the Goodie Bag swap.  Pattern is the Melanie bag from ithinkisew.  Good bag, poor pattern pieces and instructions.

Button detail (it's on both sides).

Inside has an open pocket that is divided into a larger and smaller side (smaller side for a cell phone).  All fabric is Echo.

Christmas pillow listed in my shop and using my Wonky Alphabet pattern, also in my shop.  

I really like how the letters come out when I shrink them!

The red fabric was a random JoAnn's find.  I never buy much fabric there, but I really liked this print.  The binding is Just Wing It by MoMo.

Yep, another Christmas pillow for my shop.

 Used a scrap of an old Laurie Wisburn fabric along with some Ruby for the front.

The back is Joel Dewberry's Modern Meadow herringbone.

And yet another binding in Just Wing It!  I really love these stripes, can you tell?

FYI, 10% off right now in my shop with the code TWEET10!

Winners And More!

I won't keep you all waiting!  Mr. RNG chose:

Winner of a free copy of my pattern is #35 Kelsey who said "Oooh the words I would quilt with that if I had the pattern....and knew how to paper piece ;) Details details :)"  


Kelsey, it looks like you're going to have to learn to paper piece!!!  ha ha!


Winner of the SEW mini is #1 Tracy (Tezzcan) who said "Yippee!!! I've been on the edge of my seat waiting for the pattern."


You can find my patter for sale in my SHOP.  Tracey was so excited for the pattern she stayed up until 2 am making THIS for her son!  I can't tell you how excited I am to see people making things with my pattern!  Colleen has already whipped up THIS festive mini for the holidays!  When I was making the patterns, I asked for a little help testing a few letters and Kaye (of the wonderful Miss Print), volunteered!  These were her samples:

I just love the fabrics she used on that "b"!!!  The "G" took me a while so I'm glad it worked!  ha ha!

In other news, Michelle, my co-mama for the Pretty Little Pouch swap, and I decided to have a mini quilt swap to celebrate the end of another successful round of our swap.  I decided to make an interlocking wonky star mini.

I chose lots of yummy fabric I thought Michelle would love.

The grey is Quilter's Linen (so it's cotton, but is printed to look like linen).  I hand-stitched around a few of the stars and machine stitched in the ditch around a few others.

The binding is Kei honeycomb dots.  The green elephant print is from my precious small scraps of Umbrella prints.

For the label I used a piece of Basic Grey notebook paper fabric!  Overall, I was so pleased with how it came out.....that is, until Michelle sent me this:

What the heck?!?!?  Way to make me feel like a loser, Michelle!  

It is absolutely the coolest thing I own!  We're moving next summer and I'm already planning on where to hang this spectacular piece of art!  It will be getting a place of honor in the main part of the house since it's too awesome to hideaway in my sewing room!

Look at the "label"!!!!!  Hands down, the best label I've ever seen!

Back view is wonderful too!

It's a tad on the large side (that's my two year old holding it), but I wouldn't change a thing! Thank you sooooooooooooooo much Michelle!  I'm never going to be able to top this one!

I also made these wallet/organizers last night.  I used the tutorial found here.

The tutorial was great!  The hardest part is topstiching at the end since there are so many layers in certain spots.

The inside is big enough for a little notebook, come credit cards, and a little something else!

Fun Sunday night sewing!

A Pattern, A Freebie, and A Giveaway!

Ok kids, today's the day!!!!  I finally have my ENTIRE paper pieced alphabet ready!  You can find it in my shop here.  It will be on *sale* until the giveaway closes, then the price goes up!  Here's a little peek:

Neato, right?!?!?  Ali is the PDF goddess behind all my beautiful color images!  Please note, there are no instructions on HOW to paper piece in general with my pattern.  I'm assuming you guys know what to do and can follow the numbers on the pattern.

Now, on to the freebie!  While you can purchase the entire alphabet pattern in my etsy shop, I'm giving you guys these four letters for free!  Numbers followed by a "(b)" indicate where you should use background fabric.  If anyone has issues with the Scrib PDF, let me know, I'm newbie at including PDFs in my blog!  You should just be able to click on "Download" below to get the free letters.  If you're having problems downloading the letters, you can also get them on Sew Mama Sew's webistie HERE along with a paper piecing tutorial.

Love

So you can make your own one of these:

Each letter fits on an 8.5"x11" piece of paper, but you can shrink or enlarge it to whatever size you want!  Just to show you a comparison, below are letters printed at 100% and at 50%

Now, are you ready for the fun part?  I'm going to give away one copy of my new pattern AND this little mini I made last night, entirely from Flea Market Fancy!  

I shrunk the letters down 50% for this little guy who measures 6.5"x18".   Think of how cute something like this would be for a kiddo's room or a nursery with the letters of their name!  

To win you can do one or all of the following:

1.  Leave a comment--funny ones are always appreciated

2.  Buy my pattern and leave a comment saying you did: if you win the free copy, I'll refund your money

3.  Blog, Tweet, or Facebook, etc about my new pattern and leave a comment saying you did

So up to three comments per person.  All non-reply blogger comments will be deleted unless you leave your email address in the comment!  I will leave the giveaway open until 11pm (CST) Sunday, November 20th.  I will announce the two winners on Monday, November 21st with the help of Mr. RNG.

One Good Turn

My friend Ali has been helping me tremendously with getting the LOVE letters, along with the rest of the paper pieced alphabet I drew, ready for you guys.  In return, I made a sample of a paper-pieced pattern she created based on the math equation y = 1 / x  She a math teacher, so she's allowed to be nerdy like that. :)  

I was originally going to recreate the picture she had on her blog, but I didn't have enough of the right colors, so my color selection was based solely on which colors I had enough of!  I used Kona Ash for the background and the rest is a mix of Kona (the yellows), Bella (aquas), and Free Spirit (coral) solids.  I will say that Free Spirit is my favorite line for solids--much softer feel and more saturated colors.  

This quilt measure 36" square.  There are 36, 6" blocks entirely paper pieced.  I did this in a day so it wasn't so bad as far as paper piecing goes!  If anyone wants my cutting info:  

1.25 yards of background fabric (39" to be exact)

• subcut into (6) 6.5"xWOF strips
• from each strip, cut (6) 6.5" squares

.25 yards of 6 different solids

• sub-cut each of the 6 colors into (4) 2.25"xWOF strips. 

• from the strips cut (12) 7"x2.25" pieces and (18) 4"x2.25" pieces

This little charm is going to Ali as part of my "thank you" for helping me sooooooooo much!  You're the best girl!  Oh, just so you guys believe me when I say the pattern is coming, I'll give you a little sneak peak of the graphics Ali created for me!

Crossing my fingers that the next time I blog I'll have everything ready to share!!!!

Eye Candy and Such

I haven't been quite as motivated recently to finish some projects, but I'm getting there!  In the mean time, I'll show you some eye candy (new fabric) and such (in progress projects)

I ordered some AMH home dec, Just Wing It stripes, and some Kona from Form and Fabric's sale recently.

I also got this lovely bundle of premade AMH bias binding from fabric.com's 25% off sale--seriously people, you need to get on Facebook and "like" fabric.com because you don't want to miss out on those big % off coupons!

I also got some solids with my fabric.com order and I'm playing around a bit with them.  I'm thinking of making a triangle quilt with these.

I also pulled some fabrics to make a sample for Ali's pattern.  Ali is the goddess of all things PDF and is helping me (uh, doing everything) to make my paper pieced alphabet!  My only contribution is drawing the patterns, she takes my scanned images and works miracles.  We're almost done, just a little tweaking on two letters and I'll be able to post about it!

I finished sewing together some striped vintage sheets I bought here.  The blocks will finish at 12".  I'm thinking of making a lap sized quilt with the addition of lots of white, but I'm not 100% sure yet.

I am DYING to show you guys this, but I have to wait until Michelle receives it.  We usually send each other fabric at the end of the Pretty Little Pouch Swap, but this time we made each other mini-quilts!  I should be able to share this on Thursday!