A Blogiversary Celebration

Gran is celebrating her 1 year blogiversary with a wonderful giveaway.  Please go and check it out; but not too many of you as I want to win.  LOL!!  She wrote a great post too.  I'm glad we are blogland friends!  :)

Enjoy your day!
Jen  :)

The Daily Grind

Well, I'm back to it.  Fun is over.  All done.  Back to work.  My Baltimore trip was fun.  We all had a good time.  The Pet Expo, well.... I was a bit bored but then I don't own a pet boutique like my cousin does.  Now if it was a FABRIC expo, I would still be there!  :)

Got home late last night or early this morning, I should say.  We pulled into the driveway at my cousin's house just after 10:00 p.m. but I still have an hour and 20 minute drive from there.  So I'm dragging today.  Thankfully it's a quiet day at work.

I did a little shopping and got myself some goodies.  I stopped at two shops: Seminole Sampler and Bear's Paw Fabric.  Both of their websites are very non-descript so I was taking a chance.  I liked Bear's Paw over Seminole Sampler.  They just had a much better selection of fabrics and patterns and notions.  If I am ever in Baltimore again, I would stop there.

So my loot...

And I'll break it down for you...  Carrie Nelson's new book - Schnibbles times Two.  An older edition of Quilts and More (I want to have them all).  This one is Spring 2007.  2 fun kitchen towels that I can embroider on and 2 variety packs of FQ.  Just so you know, I only bought the Schnibble book, one pattern and one FQ at Seminole Sampler.  The rest is from Bear's Paw Fabric.

Next.... a quilt kit (I'll show you a close up), some FQs.  Some for stash, some for a future project. 

Now, I'm going to digress here for a minute.  I am on the HUNT for aqua-y blue fabric.  See that blue with the white starburst pattern on it in the pic?  Yeah, like that.  It's more aqua than blue in person but you get the picture.  I need more!  Not of this particular fabric (but that would be nice) but of the color in general.  I've seen sooo much pretty aqua out in Blogland being used and I can't find any!  WAAAAAAH!  Someone needs to clue me in on what the fabric lines are so that I can shop some more.  Sharon mentions Lecien Fabrics to me.  I'll have to check them out too.

Okay, next... some yardage for stash and projects (LOVE that Bubblegum Basics!  Glad I found more of it!), tote pattern - new beach bag for this year and a bobbin saver.

The quilt kit.... French Brights by ClothWorks and I LOVE it!  There was a store sample done of it and I fell in love.  It uses the Yellow Brick Road pattern, which I've already done as my first quilt but I am going to do it again.  This one will be lap size and for my Punkie Pie since she LOVES red and she is just so cheery!  Reminds me of her.

So that is it.  My Baltimore trip in a nutshell.

Now it's back to work and back to getting some projects done!  I have a few deadlines for myself.  I'm going to miss one but that's okay! 

Enjoy your day!
Jen :)

Good Morning Baltimore!

Good morning Baltimore

Every day's like an open door

Every night is a fantasy

Every sound's like a symphony

Good morning Baltimore

And some day when i take to the floor

The world's gonna wake up and see

Baltimore and me

Know what movie these partial lyrics are from??  C'mon.  Take a guess. 
 
Give up?  Okay, I'll tell you.  The movie Hairspray.  I'm a big fan of the 1988 version with Rikki Lake as the lead role of Tracy Turnbald.  The re-make is OK.  Not my fave but I can tolerate it.
 
Anyway!  I am headed to Baltimore on Friday for a quick trip.  We will be home Sunday, late afternoon.  My cousin owns a pet boutique and we are going to a Pet Expo.  Well, SHE is.  I'm going fabric shopping!!  LOL.  The three of us (me and my two cousins) are road-tripping and I need to know if there are any fabric shops in the Baltimore area that I NEED to go to. 
 
Anyone?  Anyone?  I really don't want to drive more than an hour from the downtown Baltimore area to get to the shop though.  I decided that one of them I will go to is Bear's Paw Fabric.  I have no idea if they will have anything I am looking for but we shall see.  It's only 20 minutes from the convention center.
 
Any others out there I should check out during my short trip??
 
Enjoy your day!
Jen

Pinwheel Block for Donation

I signed up to make one pinwheel block that will go into a comfort quilt for someone in our Potholder swap group who has suffered a huge loss.  I hope this will help her when she needs a big hug.

The colors we were asked to use were blue and green and I've seen some of the blocks already out on the flickr group created.  Mine will blend in nicely.

I need to get going on my own pinwheel sampler.  I've put it aside because I lost my pinwheel mojo but I think it has found me again.  This simple block was giving me troubles and I re-did it three times.  Third times a charm, right?  I found that I'm not as careful as I really should be in my measuring.  I was really upset with myself once I got the block right and noticed my careless mistakes.  Sooooo, I will go back to my pinwheel sampler and continue on.  I have to keep telling myself that it's not a race and I wasn't going to get it done in any short amount of time since I wanted to make it bigger to fit my bed.

Just burns me that because of my silly mistakes, there are LOTS of blocks I need to re-do because they are going to bother me!  Which means I'll have to get more fabric.  Oh.  Fabric shopping! That always makes me feel better!  :)

Enjoy your day!
Jen :)

A Giveaway!

Sinta at Pink Pincushion is celebrating her one year blogiversary with a giveaway.  RUN don't walk over there and check it out!!  You know you want to! 

:)

A Little Show and Tell

I received my potholders for the second swap I joined.  Came all the way from the UK!  First time I had "international" swap items.  I love it all!  My potholders are perfect for me and I hate to use them but I will!  Celine did a wonderful job with everything.

I got a Patchwork & Quilting address book, a pencil, PINK measure tape and my potholders.

Here's a close up of the potholders:

Thank you Celine!

Next, my handy DANDY BAG!  Kris created a very easy and SUPER CUTE bag tutorial and there is a sew along going on today but I have a pretty busy day planned so I got mine done ahead of time.  I'm going to use it for my quick trip to Baltimore next weekend.  Wanna see?  Okay!  I'll show you!

I've been hoarding the Bubblegum Basics fabrics forever!  I almost gave up on my Dandy dream because I mis-read the instructions and saw that I needed a 3/4 yard for handles AND lining.  BOOOO!  I didn't have that.  BUT I did have a 1/2 yard of the Prints Charming fabric that coordinated great with all my colors so that's what I used for the lining.

I made a decision that all the little girls in my family will get this tote as a birthday gift this year and maybe I'll put a trinket or two in it.  It was very quick to put together.  Thank you Kris!  You did a great job on your tutorial!!

Tonight we're having a small birthday party for my husband.  He turned 41 yesterday!  He is an old man - well, compared to me he is!  :)  Prime rib dinner and an ice cream cake. Should be fun!

Enjoy your day!
Jen :)

Jelly Roll Sampler - Block Four

Here's my block 4.  Quick and easy.  Not too crazy about the block but took me minutes to put together.

Here are all 4 of my blocks so far.  I need to add MORE BLUE!

Enjoy your day!
Jen :)

Jaybird Quilts Giveaway!

Head on over to Julie's blog and check out her giveaway sponsored by the Fat Quarter Shop.  You'll be glad you did!

Enjoy your day!
Jen  :)

Another Pinwheel Charm Bag

If you remember, a few weeks ago, I posted a pic of one made with Verna charms for my hairdresser.  Another hairdresser there requested I make one for her to give to one of her customers who is pregnant with twin girls.  She told me to make it "girly and soft but not too babyish".  Well, I had a heck of a time deciding what to use!

After looking and looking on the Fat Quarter Shop and emails back and forth with Kris, I decided on Blush.  I had a charm pack but just needed the fabric for the lining and handles.  So off I went to my LQS because I knew they had some Blush yardage there BUT they didn't have the one I wanted.  Wandering around, trying to decide what to do, I remembered that I had a charm pack of Whisper (by Moda) at home so I found some yardage for the lining and handles that coordinated well and I was good.

I needed to get the bag done by this weekend so that I could get it to her.  I ended up changing my appointment from the day we decided I would give her the bag to a later date because I'm going to Baltimore that same weekend and forgot.  Since she is going to pay me for the cost of the fabric, I didn't want her to wait.

I can now do this bag totally by heart.  Only thing I looked at the pattern for was the placement of the pinwheel blades - not that it mattered but I double checked myself.

Here is it.

One side.

Other side.

Inside.  I used a cute fabric from the Love Is In the Air line.  I really like how it coordinates with Whisper.

Enjoy your day!
Jen  :)

Some Easter Fun

Did everybody have a nice Easter?  We did.  It was a great but long day.  We left our house at 9:30 a.m. and drove back in the driveway at 8:30 p.m.  We're not sure if Amelia is catching a cold or has a touch of allergies but she wasn't feel too hot.  She wasn't bad but she had her moments.  :)

Punkie made out like a BANDIT!  I didn't take a picture of all her loot and goodies but let's just say it was like a mini-Christmas.  Family is just way too generous.  She did get some much needed Spring/Summer clothes from my mom and a Razor scooter from her godmother.  Plus lots and lots of candy and various other goodies.

Thought I would share some photos from our day.

The Easter Bunny visit at home:

Punkie dressed in her Easter finery.

Punkie with her cousin Abbey.  They are 2 years apart.

And some shots of the Easter egg hunt that we did at my aunt and uncle's house.

She had such a GOOD time with the Easter egg hunt.  This was the first year she took off in pursuit.  Only thing I had to do was carry her basket after a while because it was getting very full and heavy for her.


Enjoy your day!
Jen  :)

My Secret Easter Project

My secret Easter project revealed!  I made Easter baskets for the various young ones in my family.  One has not been received yet but I couldn't wait to show them.

Ready??

I really like how that came out.  My machine embroidery needs to be worked on.  Amelia's name goes up hill on her basket and Kaleigh's name is spaced out funny.  But overall, I really like them.  I found the pattern for them here... only thing I omitted was the big ribbon bow on them.  Doing 5 of them was a little much but I started over a month ago and my husband and daughter were very understanding!  I really wanted to get them done and over with so I wasn't racing at the end, 2 days before Easter.

The girls' baskets are done with Verna and little Josh's is soccer themed.  His Daddy is a soccer coach so it's very fitting.

Here's a picture of the baskets close up so that you can see the embroidery.

So, will I make these again?  Maybe.  For a gift basket.  Would make a nice bridal shower or baby shower gift basket.  Will I do 5 at the same time?  No.  :)

Enjoy your day!
Jen :)

Happy Easter!

I hope you all have a wonderful Easter spent with your family and friends!

Happy Easter!
Jen :)

My Bella Bag

My Frolic Bella bag.  When I saw the pattern on Heather Mulder Peterson's website, I needed to have it.

Then I had to decide on fabric.  I went back and forth with it but decided on Frolic.

Here's my bag...

And the inside....

I like it.  I need to make the handles longer.  They are too short for my liking.  And I did the handles a bit differently.   If you look at the patten, the handle has a pointed end.  Mine, well, came out looking terrible.  So I cut of those ends and just turned them in and made them straight.

All and all, Heather's first bag/tote was very easy to follow and it didn't take me long to make at all.  My mom liked it so much, she requested that I make 2 more for my cousins in Poland (mother and daughter).  One is going to be Frolic and the other is going to be Blush.  I have to get going on those.  My mom is leaving for Poland in early May for a couple of weeks.

Enjoy your day!
Jen :)

Pinwheel Sampler - Block 5

Here are my two blocks for the pinwheel sampler.  I don't like them.  The pink/green one, I had cut during my medication stupor a couple of weeks ago and nothing matched up when I pieced the block together a week later.  The yellow/blue one, I cut when I was feeling much better but it still didn't come out right.  I don't know why.

I finally finished the yellow/blue one a few days ago because it was just staring at me on my cutting table.  So, I'll throw them into my sampler top but I won't be making any more of this style for it.  I'll need about 4 or 5 of each pinwheel block to make my top big enough.  These will be the only two of this style.

Enjoy your day!
Jen :)

I've become a Swap-Aholic!

I've joined the third potholder swap today.  I told myself - "Self.  You don't need to do the 3rd one.  Take a break and wait for the pin cushion swap to start this summer."

THEN I read that the third potholder swap isn't going to start until MAY (I thought it was April and I'm pretty busy in April).  Soooo I talked myself into joining this morning (which really isn't hard to do!  HA!).

It's not bad at all.  Pretty quick and easy to do.  Just need to come up with a clever potholder design.  Some of the ones in the Flickr group are just so pretty!

Enjoy your day!
Jen