A year in review - and a winner

Holy smokes! I really didn't think I did Jack Squat all year. There are even a few little goodies that didn't make it in there. High five for me!

Rundown of the year for yours truly: 

- Randomly made purses for myself and others. The urge comes and goes, usually corresponds with exploded pens or spilled drinks.

- Signed up for my first bee, but sadly had to leave due to life getting crazy. That really sucked. I still feel bad about it. 

- Successfully participated in 6 swaps. Got some hella cool stuff from all around the world to boot. 

 - Made baby blankets for 2 different friends and one as a thank you to my aunt for loving my kid. 

- Managed to learn how to embroider and had a blast with it. 

- Started using zippers and quickly fell in love with them all over again 

 - Tried curved piecing and fell madly in love with it. Can't wait to do more of that. 

-FMQ an entire (baby) quilt and didn't throw it in the trash. Larger ones will not be done any time soon. 

Life away from the thread was......ok. Certainly not the best year, but very far from the worst.  Can't wait to see what 2013 brings for everyone.


Also, the winner of the giveaway is  Liz DandelionD. I'll be emailing you shortly for your info :)

Giveaway goodness!

So while browsing through the blog reader, I found this awesome linky party!! Since I'm already doing a small giveaway I thought I might as well combine them.




Having helped with the Sailor Mouth Swap via Flickr, I'll stitch up something with your favorite naughty word. It will be a complete surprise but I'm sure you'll snicker. Since not everyone has potty mouth, I'll be glad to make something with a rated G word too.

But wait! There's more! If more than 30 comments I'll even throw in a charm pack of Little Apples.





Leave a comment telling me your most interesting Christmas gift experience. Think Ralphie and his pink bunny suit. If you follow me on my blogging adventure, you get another entry.

Entries will be open until December 22nd. If you're a no reply blogger leave me an email address.

Go check out the other awesome goodies too!

WARNING! NAUGHTY WORDS! and a small giveaway :)

Before I fell off the face of the earth, I had said something about our Sailor Mouth Swap. It was a blast! After the 1st of the year round 2 should start up. I was a nervous wreck sewing for the lovely Sarah of Narcoleptic in a Cupboard. She is just awesome. Love the stuff she makes and her silly wit. I kind of want to steal her cat and love it all day. She's so fluffy! From yours truly she received a pillow cover, a hoop and bag.

 

This bag was a bit of an after thought. I went back and reread her survey and she wanted a bag! There's nothing spectacular or sweary on it. Its just kind  of spiffy. Perfect size! Fits all your junk and an Ipad.

 

Here's the hoop. It was my first hoop ever, so I hope I made it right. This was inspired by a conversation about comfort zone needed for "doing paperwork". It's even been pinned on Pinterest!! That put some pep in my step.
 

This was the pillow cover. Hehehe! I tried to make the writing look as swirly girlie as possible
.

 As per most swaps,the envelope was obnoxiously decorated. (Photo from Sarah's flickr.)

I got THE BEST goodies sent to me. Amy of [Amy's] Crafty Shenanigans sent me the coolest stuff. I'm an ass and didn't take pictures of it all perfect and pretty. Now it's all being used and loved so here are the pictures she took when everything was perfect and crisp.

Borrowed from Amy's flickr.

LOVE the fabric! One of my favorite prints. And we had just used some for a block for FWMQG. I was so confused as to the pouch though. Whale oil beef hooked? At first I thought it was saucy Jack Speak but instead you say it fast and it sounds like something else. Of course, having a twangy Texan accent so it didn't click right away. Duh!!! Once it did, I almost peed my pants laughing. There was even some heavenly British candies in the pouch. So tasty!

So, the giveaway? I'll pick one comment, assuming there is more than one, and make something from a naughty word of your choice and mail it to you. Won't tell you when or what it is but it will be a swearing surprise :) Hell, I'll even ship it out of good ol "Merica.

Well hello, we meet again.

Good lord, the last time I posted on this thing was July?? Wow. Quick recap of real life events.

- August was my last month of working for someone else. Trying to get all my ducks in a row so I could try and keep a clientele was hard. Me and the bestie share a small suite in a salon now. It's kind of like having a dorm except neither of us went off to university. It's a much happier atmosphere, I work with all my friends and the hours are more forgiving. One of my coworkers is amazing in that she used to teach quilting classes! She is a fountain of knowledge for me. I love the hell out of her. Sadly, the move means no more sit and sew with quilt guild girls.

- My son has started school. He's in the 3 yr old class even though he turned 4in November. We had to switch programs because he had a terrible teacher at his first one. This is the first week at the new school and so far he loves it. It was my first choice for school but they didn't have an opening until now. Perfect timing really. It's hard seeing him get so big. It only speeds up from here.

- I've decided that the plumpy was getting too bad and went on a bit of a diet. Cutting back a lot on carbs/sugars. The first week I was a bitch, plain and simple. My blood sugar went all crazy but now I've adjusted to it. It's nothing extreme, but definitely a necessity. Getting closer to 30 is making me more observant to my bad habits.

-Late October my dad died. He wasn't a good father by any stretch of the imagination. We hadn't spoken in 7 years. Now its a super fun legal go round with everything because there was no will and I have a lazy older brother. Blarg.

I say all of this to say, life got in the way of fun stuff for me. Other than estate stuff everything is going along swimmingly. I have been busy sewing and swapping though. I want to get back into the bloggy goodness. In the mean time, I've discovered instagram. I'm sosaysthehermit if you want to follow along.

That time I popped out 2 quilts

I FIIINALLY finished an asshole quilt. It was a pain from the get go. Nothing went right, at all. Well I finally showed that beast what's up!

 

I think it looks marvelous now! You can't really see it but I used one of DS fabrics from Joann's for the binding. 

 

The back is a vintage sheet I thrifted ages ago. Its so very soft. Extra snuggly :) 

 

 Then, in record time, I started AND finished a quilt in less than a week. Gasp and amazement! In all fairness, it was a baby quilt. 

 

It's Oh Franson's Mixtape quilt pattern. This is definitely one of my favorite patterns ever! I used Backyard Baby from Michael Miller. I bought 1/2 yard of each print and needed a fat eighth. Looks like Little Man is going to get one of these too. It's sashed in Kona Ash and the binding is Kona Orange, maybe Tangerine? The back is a light brown thrifted sheet. This one goes out tomorrow. Hope momma (and soon baby boy) like it :)

I'll be linking up with a few of you lovely linky ladies this week. Go check them all out. There is some seriously good stuff out there.

Word vomit with a few pretty pictures

I have been a busy little beaver. Allegory and I are hosting a swap over on Flickr

Look! I made this

She's definitely the get people roped in type. I'm more of an OOH! LISTS! organizational freak. Either way, I'm hella excited and people should go join pronto!

Proud nerd moment of the week? Making a banner for this silly little corner of blogville. If you are viewing this in a reader, go feed my excitement and ooh and ahh over the simple little lovelies at the top. I've been trying to make one off and on but I couldn't ever get the damn thing to look right. FINALLY! SUCCESS IS MINE! Bwaahahahaha!


One of the great things about only having one kid in a three bedroom house is that you get a whole bedroom all to your sewing self. Granted, its teeny little bedroom but damn is it perfect for sewing. I'm a bit messy when I'm working. A few weeks ago I thought, "I have no shame. I'll share with the world how bad it is"

 

Here is is before, in all its messy, cell phone picture glory. At least the main part of it. 

 

Here is the whole thing looking about as neat as its going to look.  Sometimes I just open my cabinet and stare. Maybe run my hands along. Sometimes just organizing is soothing. Weird huh? 

 

Here is my block for our Fort Worth Modern Quilt Guild Challenge. We could use up to 3 solids and were all given the same FQ. The results were amazing! There are some seriously talented women (and now 1 man) in there. For mine, I cut the FQ into stripes and used only it for my block, minus that one teeny piece of yellow. Its the first time I'd done a log cabin style block. I thought it look pretty snazzy.

 

Here are the threads I picked out for my new embroidery pattern that I designed all by myself. I was inspired by my bestie doing her hair with the ombre effect. I'd like to eventually turn it into a PDF.

 

Here's what I've got so far. I'll probably turn this one into a pillow as well. It will stay in my sewing room for the sake of the white staying white. Although my dear fluffy kitties knocked over a whole mug of coffee inches from a wall outlet, it may not be safe anywhere. 

I also finished 2 quilts this week, but that will be another day.

The one for Fran

I completely forgot to post the final results of this one.
Turned out smaller than I had wanted, but the borders went well so all is good. Finished it up crazy quick because I used the easy thread needles to hide the end threads from quilting. How did I NOT hear about these til now?! I tried them on another quilt and the thread was from Connecting Threads. Lesson learned: not strong enough to get snapped in to those needles. This one was quilted with a heavier weight thread and I had no problems. Not sure if it was the brand difference or the weight difference.