Celestial Star QAL: The End & Winners!

I want to say a HUGE thank you for everyone who participated in the Celestial Star QAL with me!! I loved your comments, kind words, seeing your blocks and projects come together and especially the finishes!! It was a blast!! {{Mwah}}!! :)


I also can't pass up giving a huge shout out to the amazing sponsors!! I hope you will continue to visit their shops and support them!! They are great! :)

 

   

 

 

I was going to push to finish my quilt, but the quilt back I made, I ended up being very unhappy with it. So I scratched it. I decided to go with a one print back and if the color is what it is on my screen, I will be so excited with it!! I'm growing to really be a pink kind of girl. Weird - for me. But I like it. :) Of course, another Anna Maria Horner print for the back:

Pretty Potent Flannel Banner Day Icing. 

I purchased this at Fabric.com, and was so happy it was even on sale! PLUS going through Ebates.com I got an extra 3% back. Not much, but it adds up. :) AND I'm so happy I wasn't at all tempted to add other things to my cart. Wahoo for shopping progress. ;)

I'm hoping to still get the quilt finished quickly. I can't wait to use it! Plus get some awesome photos of it!! :) You can see the best photos I've taken so far in this post. 

Alright, now to the part you've all been waiting for!! The winners!! Drum roll please...

For the 1 Block category, the winner of the $20 Westwood Acre gift card is Amy Morhan

For the 2-4 Block category, the winner of the $50 Fat Quarter Shop gift card is Cindy

For the 5+ Blocks Category, the winner of the $50 I Don't Do Dishes gift card and the Mochi Dots Bundle from Knotted-Thread is Kate

The winner of the Butterfly Dance bundle from Llama Fabrics is Kirsten

 

The winner of the Liberty scrap pack bundle from Queen Bee Fabrics is Lori

And the winner of the Birch charm pack from I Don't Do Dishes is Bria

Congrats everyone!! I will contact you about your prizes! :)

I hope you will keep linking up your blocks and your projects as you finish them!! I love to see all your beautiful creations! You are amazing! :) For those of you on Instagram, be sure to tag your photos with #fbpPatterns!! I'll be catching up on those spotlights and prizes soon. ;)


Thanks again everyone! It's like a bitter-sweet farewell being done with the QAL. It was such an intense part of my life for the last few months, I don't know what I'm going to do with all of this free time now. ;) lol. :)

Have a great week!!

Made It: Swappers Anonymous

A year and a half ago (early 2013) two friends and I decided to do a little private swap! I was so excited! It is always fun making things for people you know and love!  Well, we started last spring, and decided to set the deadline for May or June... Tommy was born the end of April, so it was kind of busy, but definitely doable. Well, then there were some delays for other people and we decided to push it back, and back some more. Then I was teaching at the Sewing Summit last year, and that was REALLY busy, and right after that we moved to Florida... so anyway, our deadline became a bit fleeting on my end and it became a slow project amidst everything else going on. I think it was last December or maybe January of this year (?) that I finally finished up one project. Then we moved from Florida to Idaho and there goes more delays... I finally finished the other package this summer... but I don't think I really shared much of it. Anyway... I shared one picture on Instagram yesterday, and decided I should share everything because I received some amazing gifts that I just LOVE! :)


I'll start with the goodies I received. :)

Marika made me some amazing placemats and napkins (she did make me 6 of each - some must be in the wash). As well as a cute clutch. I love these placemats! They really are the most perfect colors!! We use them all the time, and I've probably washed them a bajillion times. Which means maybe I should have ironed them before photographing them, oh well. I think they are awesome in all their crinkly goodness! ;)

Tiffany made me the best pillow ever! Again, my favorite colors! I LOVE it! It lives on our couch and is one of my favorites! I ended up making my own insert from it from some other pillows that exploded in our dryer when I washed them. oops. :) But it works perfectly!

 

She also made me some cute fabric baskets that are perfect in my cubbies by my sewing area. love!

Here is what I made.

First I made this super cute fox hoop for Tiffany! I used the Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery pattern from the Woodland Sampler, and simply enlarged it and added a few more dandelions.

I can't remember how large the hoop is, maybe 6 inches? So this is way bigger than the pattern.

A also made her this sewing machine cover. I love how it turned out. The color scheme is not one I have made much in, but I really love it! It is paper pieced, and some of those strips are super thin. It took for.ever. But I think it was definitely worth it! I love the design! I'd love to scale it up and do a quilt with this! Or it would be cute for a mini or mug rug or something. Anyway, it was really fun!

 I didn't get any really good pictures of the entire thing, but here's the best one.

 modeling over my smaller sewing machine. ;)

 Here's a shot of the back, showing off the quilting. I did really close wavy lines, but went around the x's.

I also sent some Lizzy House charms that she had mentioned earlier that she loved.

For Marika I made a Celestial Star Pillow. I really love the bold colors and the how the border pattern wraps around the pillow. This is definitely a favorite! and all of my family was SO sad when I sent it away (my son and my hubby were heart broken that it wasn't for them. lol.) :)

and how it looks on a pillow form. I like how the border wraps around.

I hand stitched the top, and I really like how subtle it is.

Here's a good shot of the border pattern.

I lucked out with the back - the pattern matches up so close on each side of the zipper!

I also made a tissue cover from some Anna Maria Horner Good Folks prints (the inside print is from the Pretty Potent collection), and included some more goodies, as well as some Erin McMorris charms and scraps.

I know I was super delayed with so much going on in life, but it was fun! I hope my gifts are loved and used as much as the gifts I received! It really is special to have some home made goodies around the house. :) Thanks Tiffany and Marika!!!


Ps. Don't forget to link up your finished Celestial Star projects on THIS POST! Winners will be picked and announced Monday morning!

General Conference

I really do try and keep all my churchy posts off of this blog, and more on my personal outdated family blog. But sometimes I do pop over here and do a little shout out! It's hard not to share something that is so personal and amazing to me, because (so cheesey but so true) I really have a great longing in my heart to share with you the amazing blessings I have found for myself in my own life. I wish I could shove the feelings of my heart right through the computer into each of your hearts so you could feel what I feel. Something better than anything this world could ever provide in a million billion years. Anyway, if you've been around my blog a while, you're probably used to my semi-annual invitations to watch General Conference. You can read some of my previous posts here and here (see all the ways to listen, and you may be surprised by who else is a mormon...).

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints holds a semi-annual conference every year (always the first weekend in April and the first weekend in October). There are 4 - 2 hour sessions, 2 on Saturday and 2 on Sunday (10 am and 2 pm mountain time, both days). They are amazing!!! And the messages are not just for members of the church. I picked a collection of quotes that I love, and which many of you might have already seen floating around IG or facebook, or where ever. :) These are just a small snippet of the uplifting and encouraging, and strengthening messages that are shared over these short weekends.

 

 

 

 

 
 

 

 

Ok, that's a lot of quotes. But they are good, and it's hard to narrow it down. :) Anyway, you can find more by searching #LDSConf. And I'm sure there will be plenty more posts going up this weekend!! I hope you'll join me, even if just for a little while. :)

Oops. How can I forget my most recent favorite quote?!

You can read about why it's my favorite here.

(as long as it worked correctly, you should be able to click on each picture and go to the source of where I got it from.)