From blank pages... Linky #13

It's almost December! That means Christmas is almost here!! Have you started your Christmas sewing yet? I have, and have not... craziness! That is where my life is headed again. :) Anyway, what's on my mind this week is reorganizing my fabric! I have most of it sorted by color in big rubbermaid containers. Then I have a bin just for my favorites, plus a pile over there of more favorites, oh, and that other pile. All those extra piles are things I hardly ever dive into. I have this problem of collecting favorite fabrics and then not using them because I don't want them to be gone! I'm afraid I won't be able to find them again!!! I need counseling. ;)  Anyway, I am thinking it's time to just sort it all out! (except maybe a select few that I want to use for projects, or those super special fabrics.) Otherwise, it ALL needs to start mingling... and maybe that would help me destash more fabrics that I'm not ever going to use.

Here's an example of my blue/purple bin. :)

and here's a pile of favorites! Can you tell what they are?

ew. there are some fabrics on the top that just need to be put away. top left, not one of my favorites. lol.

Oh, and my Heather Bailey/Amy Butler/Denyse Schmidt bin. I like to call it collecting... not hoarding. ;)

Otherwise I'm working with these fabrics to finish some more activity books and an Etsy order (she requested purple. Glad I have at least some good purple prints. Definitely lacking in purple. Yay! :)

this is actually two different bundles put together. One will be blue, one aqua.

I think everyone always says this, but I can't believe that another week has gone by already!! I just went back to see what I shared last week... sadly my cowl has been put to the side. I need to get a good travel pouch to put that in so I can carry it around with me more and get it finished! Maybe it will have to wait until our long road trip to Texas for Christmas. :D So excited to visit my sister in Dallas! (Oh! That reminds me I need to get ahold of all you sewing buddies down there and see if we can meet up for lunch one day or something!!! FUN!) :)


We also have a church Christmas party/talent show on Saturday. They asked if anyone wanted to display something, they could do that too. Someone suggested I display my quilts... so that might be fun! If I ever get around to calling the gal, I think I will. :) I'm kind of nervous about it though...

What are you working on? starting? Thinking about? Do you have a big Christmas list? I'll have to complete mine and share that for next week! I'm actually rather excited about it! I'll just have to tell my sister not to read my blog for a month. :)

Be sure to grab a button and add it to your blog post, or just link back! Let others know where you're linking up to! :)

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W.i.P. Wednesday {11/28/12}

Well, I have definitely been busy lately and am loving it! My house on the other hand is not. ;) I think the most exciting thing I have in progress right now is a new pattern! I've had this one on paper since March and it's been killing me! One of those things I want to make so bad, but I'm trying to be good and get other things finished first. So to make a compromise, I've decided to let everyone else make it until I can get to it. :)

Neil named this one, Illusion, and I love it! :) Here's some mock up pictures I had on the computer to give you an idea of what it will look like:

The 12 inch block design

 Playing with color

 I think the blocks could also make cute trees if you arrange them differently. :)

As soon as I get feedback and some pictures I'll let you know what everyone thought of it and will add it to my shops! (I've decided to add all my patterns to Etsy as well. The free patterns that I have listed on Craftsy are $2 on Etsy to cover fees and my time in emailing out the patterns since they don't do automatic downloads. Anyway, just thought I'd let you know.) Though not all my patterns are free on Craftsy.


I've also got a good stack of quilts that are waiting to be basted and quilted (though I need a few backs as well still, and some need batting cut out). But they're basically ready to go! SO excited! I am GOING TO FINISH them this weekend at the latest!! I've got,

my Kaleidoscope Quilt, 

Mabel's Quilt, 

Candy Land Quilt, 

a baby quilt with Melinda's blocks she sent me, 

and a Christmas table runner, 

and that's all I'm going to think about until they're done. :)

I have finished up a few small items, though nothing new I guess. I also have a few orders to finish and send. I'll share more about those later. :)

What are you working on right now? How are your 100 Day Hussle projects coming? Do you have a lot of Christmas presents you're working on? (I need to get to those after I finish the above quilts and etsy orders... time is going to be tight as usual!) :)

I am LOVING getting back into sewing and being busy. 

I hope I can keep a good balance though... 

that's always the toughest part.

Super Sale Tuesday!

Since it took me all day to get things listed in my shop yesterday, and I still have more things to add, I figure it might be nice to continue my Cyber Monday Sale onto today! :)

Use code "CYBERMONDAY" at checkout 

and save 15% on your complete order! 

OR 

since it's Tuesday, and nothing is ever special about Tuesday, I thought I'd start 

a FREE SHIPPING TUESDAY!

I'll try and remember and put up a new code every Tuesday, if I forget, remind me before you check out and I'll add it. :)

For today only use code "FS1127"

domestic shipping only. Sorry anyone international.

(please just use one code. I don't know if it's possible to use two, but just in case. Thanks!) 

 

Cyber Monday Sale!

Happy Cyber Monday everyone! I hope you have had a wonderful holiday and/or weekend! I think we actually finished most of our online Christmas shopping already, but I thought it would be nice to give a little to those who are doing it today! :)

For all my blog readers I'm offering 15% off of everything in my shop! 

Just use code CYBERMONDAY at checkout.

Code will be active for today only.

(or until I remember to take it down) ;)

I will also be adding more items to my shop throughout the day! Like fabric destash, more bags and other smaller items (great for gifts!!), as well as a new pre-order item that will only be available today!

Wanna see what it will be? (please excuse me, these are also photos of my first one, so the final ones I will be shipping out will be perfected - just haven't taken a picture of those ones yet.) :) I brought these to church yesterday and it kept my three kiddos quiet for a long time! Wahoo!! They love them. And so do I! :)

 The Front

It's an activity book!

The Back

  There is a large pocket between the strap and the dark pink. Perfect for loose papers, or whatever else is thin. I love that it's behind the strap so that it all stays in while the book is closed.

Back Pocket

The Inside

It will come with the mini clipboard, but NOT the twisty crayons (those are from Crayola. LOVE them! I think it would drive the price up too much to include them. What do you think? Would you rather pay more to have all the supplies?)

There will be spots for 8 crayons. And the little pocket with flap - great for small scissors, stickers, whatever. :)

  I will be picking out the fabric combinations, but will let you choose the color you want, AND boy, girl, neutral style. (or I'll try and get some fabric combination pictures taken before listing these. Anyway, I'm super excited! These will be today only - I think, and I'm only making a limited number of them. Hopefully soon I'll have a pattern up as well, but don't hold your breath for that. It might not be until after the new year. :)

with goodies!
These are NOW listed in my Etsy Shop!

Visit my Etsy Shop HERE!

I hope you all have a wonderful week!!

And guess what is next week? 

Sew Mama Sew's Giveaway Day!! Wahoo! :)  

 

Travelin' Pic Stitch Blog Hop!

This post is part of the Travellin' Pic Stitch Blog Hop.  

From 1st October - 30th November we are hopping all over the world EPP-ing in some fantastic locations.  Check out the full list here and be sure to check out the other participants.

On 30th November it's over to you to link up for a chance to win these fabulous prizes!

Sponsored by Paperpieces.com, FabricwormPink Castle Fabrics ,  Marmalade Fabrics, the Fat Quarter Shop, WantItNeedItQuilt, and Aurifil.

Full details for competition entry can be found here.

**********************

 
 I think I had the hardest time picking out my picture and palette for this, even more so than making my block. ;) When I signed up for this blog hop I hadn't done any English paper piecing, so when I got into the Sewing Summit class with Katy of I'm a Ginger Monkey, I was super excited to get some awesome instruction. She is amazing! :) And now I feel like a pro. lol. not. :)


Here's my first picture. I really tried to get the red in the color palette, but no go. Oh well. I really love these colors. I think a pillow would be great!

 

 I took this picture in 2006 when I went to Germany for study abroad. I stayed with a mission companion of mine that was from Hamburg. We had a GREAT time! She showed me some awesome sights, taught me all about Curry Wurst - YUM! and overall we just had a good time. Great memories. I think we were standing on the top of a church, or some kind of tower in this photo. It really was such a BEAUTIFUL city! Oh how I love Germany.

But then when it came down to actually picking my fabric, I decided to go with this picture instead.

I think I would like more of a brighter orange, somewhere in between the two in the palette, but those 4 colors to the right are awesome! I love this photo. This photo was taken in the botanical gardens in Wurzburg, Germany when I was on my mission in 2004. They had some pretty wacky things on the grounds, but it was really beautiful too. :)

So can you tell that Germany is one of my favorite places?! It definitely is. For so many reasons. :)

So now for the EPP goodness...

 

Ok, so I haven't finished it. I still need to sew on a few orange triangles, but it's getting there. I am LOVING it! I will have to get a better picture when it's not late and dark. 

I used the Spring Carnaval pattern that we used at Sewing Summit. (You can find Katy's links to this here, just scroll down a little bit.) I really like this design. :)  

Thank you for stopping by! I've loved seeing all the beautiful blocks people are creating with their pictures. A faboulous idea! Wouldn't it be fun to do a quilt with the inspiration photo printed in the center of each block? Like a memory quilt? I don't know. It could be cool. :)  I need to decide what I want to do with my blocks now. :)

Hope you all have a very wonderful weekend!! :)

 

from blank pages... Linky and a Thanks kind of day!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

I hope you have had a wonderful month and have a beautiful day. :) I love this time of year with all these great holidays, and they always seem to come and go too fast. Too much to do, but I love it all! Today I am grateful for the general store in town that carried just enough cans of cream of mushroom soup for the green bean casserole. Lol. We are going to spend the day with friends and I am SO excited! But that doesn't change that I'm a slacker and forgot to pick up my needed ingredients when I was at the store Tuesday. So I am grateful that my small town isn't TOO small. ;) Of course I am grateful for so many things! Especially my family! I have been spending so much time with them lately, and it has been such a blessing to all of us. I love my kiddos so much! I am also grateful for my wonderful hubby! He is continually an answer to my prayers and I love him. We've had some fun and exciting changes take place in the last week, and I am excited for this new chapter in our life. :) I am grateful for the gospel and the knowledge it gives me! Especially that we have an eternal family!! A few days ago we were in a different town and I lost Jacks. I could not find him anywhere!! It scared me so bad! I finally found him running down the storm gutter next to a busy street (on the other side of the building where we were). It definitely made me reflect on how much I love all my children, and how much they mean to me. But no matter what happens in this life, I'm grateful to know we will always be together. Families are definitely the BEST. THING. EVER!!! I am also grateful for friends, food, our home, and all that good stuff in life. :)

I am also grateful that I bought some knitting needles years ago that I have never used until now! :) My sometimes-tendency to buy things I "want to some day use" definitely has paid off with moving here. :) I started working on a honey cowl! I am so excited! I have wanted to make one for a while, and finally, thanks to Angela, got the motivation to. I cheered when I found that I had a circular needle the right size in my box of yarn. :)

So this is my new beginning. :) Despite my huge pile of quilts that either just need to be basted, or get a back finished and then basted. I'm crossing my fingers for a basting party this weekend! :) Anyway, this is the 2nd knitting project I've ever done, and it is fun! I made a lot of mistakes in the first few rows, but I think I've finally got it down, and I don't think it's anything too noticeable. :) I am really slow at it. I hope I get faster so I can finish it!! and boy does it make my joints get sore. I'll have to see if I can start knitting not so close to my face. ;) heehee. Gotta see what I'm doing. :) I think if I end up liking it, and get faster at it, I want to make one of these for my kiddos too. I'm thinking they'll stay on better than scarves. Which is always good with kiddos. :)


Anyway... what are you working on? Anything fun or new?

And what are you grateful for??? :)

I want to say thank you to everyone who left a comment last week! I haven't had time to sit down and respond to them all, but I want to say thank you!! I really appreciate your feedback! It definitely made me think about things differently, and in a better light I think. All the comments helped. Thanks! :)

Oh, and I did decide to start getting sponsors for The One Stop Giveaway Shop! I am also going to be offering a free sponsor spot every month! So if you are interested in sponsoring, or just getting a free spot to share your blog or shop button, please stop by and enter! :)

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Make sure to link to a post, and not just your blog. And please link back here so others can join in the fun!! If you've got a minute, stop by others projects too and leave a comment! :)