Happy Halloween!

From my little witch!

Trick or Treat!
Jen and Punkie

Oh HSTs - You are going to be the death of me!

Why?  Why?  WHY can't I get these things right?!!  UGH.  I'm trying but failing.  Not so miserably but miserably enough to annoy me.  I'm working on my Secret Santa Swap quilty item and I picked a relatively easy pattern.  Okay Jen, just say it.  EASY pattern.  Kris made me a table topper for the Valentine's Day swap that I participated in a last year.  When I looked at the pattern, it would not have been one I would have chosen because the fabrics used on the pattern cover... sorry.  I found them ugly.  Goes to show - put your BEST fabrics on the pattern cover sample.  You will sell more patterns!

But I LOVE what Kris created for me and I decided to use that pattern (I did end up purchasing it) and I liked the size.  AND it used charm packs which I have plenty of.  It has HSTs in it.  I took my time.  Pressed (NOT ironed) with starch, sewed a 1/4 seam seam and they STILL came out the wrong size!!  I'm telling you.  I am so DONE with HSTs!!!!  Not really.  I need to finish my pinwheel sampler.

Well, here it is.  Half of it anyway.  It's not too bad but there are mistakes and a lot of fudged seams.  I'm thinking if I can can the center all lined up right, nobody will notice the rest.  LOL!

And here's the second half.  Just laid out for now. I hope to get some sewing time in between *ahem* work today.  :)

UPDATE:  the top is all pieced.  And it doesn't look half bad.  Even if I did fight with the HSTs.

And the pattern I'm using.  Grandma's Attic by This and That.

I also finished some Halloween pillowcases for Punkie.  Excuse the color.  That blue is NOT blue.  It's purple.  It's weird how the camera distorts colors, isn't it?  I really want a new camera.  My brother has a super fancy SLR digital camera with removeable lens and everything.  It was in my possession but he needed it back.  Bummer.  THAT camera takes beautiful pictures!

I will be back to show Punkie's Halloween costume.  It is all done but I would like her to model it for you but she's not ready.  We need black shoes.  That's on tomorrow's errand run.

Enjoy your day!
Jen :)

Giveaway winner announced!

I had 29 entries for my giveaway and a few new visitors to my blog.  Hopefully a few of them will come back and visit again.

I used random.org to pulled up the winning number and it gave me....

Number 11!  Number 11 (excluding Myra since she asked not to be included in the giveaway) is JILL!

Congratulations Jill!!  Email me your snail mail and I'll get the package out to you this weekend.

Thank you everyone for entering my giveaway!  :)

I will be posting soon on some few things I've been working on.  One of them being Punkie's Halloween costume.  :)

Enjoy your day!
Jen 

Are you ready for a giveaway?! - CLOSED! Winner announced soon!

As promised, in celebration of my 2 year blogiversary AND my birthday, I'm having a giveaway.

Here's the loot... an embroidered Halloween pillow (pillow form included), a fun Halloween zippered pouch, some Halloween anti-bac pocket pac and Creamy Pumpkin soap from Bath and Body Works (smells YUMMY!)

OOOOO! I love that pillow! Amelia does too. She wants one for her house. I guess I'll have to make another.

If you want enter the giveaway, here's what you need to do:

1. Skip through your neighborhood, dressed all in pink. If you wear a tutu, you'll get 2 chances!
2. Clap your hand 3 times, while spinning around
3. Sing "America the Beautiful" - backwards

I kid. I kid. I hate the giveaways that make you jump through hoops. Just leave me a comment. One comment. That's all I need. And I'll ship international. No problem.

You have until October 19th to enter. I will draw a winner on the 20th.

Good luck!

Jen

It's all about ME!

Happy birthday to ME!

Happy birthday to ME!

Be on the look-out for a giveaway announcement!  Happening soon.  I promise!

Enjoy your day!
The Birthday Girl

Will you help me decide?

Because I am torn!

This year Ameila only has 2 teachers for Kindergarten versus the 4 the couple of years in Preschool.  I would like to stitch her 2 teachers each a christmas towel using the same method I did for my owl towel and I'm undecided as to which design group I would like to use.

I've had this one picked out for a while:  http://www.embroidables.com/store.php?page=product&collection=157  I like the Christmas tree and snowflake in this group and I thought those would make a nice border on a towel.  But then this one came out today and I just love it.  It's a bit less sophisicated but fun and whimsical: http://www.embroidables.com/store.php?page=product&collection=162

I like the Christmas trees and snowflakes in this group as well as the snowmen and polar bear and penguin.

So tell me.  Which group do YOU like??  I'm leaning a bit more to the cutesy one since the gift will be from Amelia; even though I'll be doing the stitching.

Help me decide!  PLEASE!

Enjoy your day!
Jen

Layer Cake Quilt Along

Why not!  I'm going to join.  I enjoyed the Jelly Roll quilt along and I have a Smores layer cake that I bought when the fabric line first came out.  I've done nothing with it but I still have it.  This sounds a good time to use it.

This quilt along starts 2-Nov and goes until 3-May-2011.  What I like about this quilt along is that the designers can't use the accent fabric as much as they did with the first quilt along.  My jelly roll blocks are very white heavy.

So?  Will you be joining too?  I think you should!

Enjoy your day!
Jen

A Giveaway!

Vickie at Spun Sugar Quilts is celebrating her 600th post with a giveaway!  She giving away 6 - SIX - giveaway prizes!  Her selections are GREAT!

So go on over and throw your name in there.  You won't regret it.

Enjoy your day!
Jen

False Alarm

Phew!  My machine isn't broken.  Burns me that I lugged all 40+ pounds of it to the shop to get fixed when all I did was turn around and lug it back home but it's all good.

As soon as I walked in with my machine and embroidery attachment, the man knew what the problem was.  I explained that my attachment was bouncing its way out of my machine which in turn, loses the computer connection and stops what it is doing.  I also have to jam the attachment to get it to connect to my sewing machine which I know isn't good.

His first question to me was "what kind of table are you using?"  I told him just a folding table.  He told me that's where my problem is.  My table is bowing ever so slightly with the weight of my machine which isn't making the connection between the 2 pieces very secure.  He took my machine and embroidery attachment and it just glided and clicked into place ever so gently on a sturdy surface.  He also told me I wasn't the first person who has come in with that same issue and the shop themselves had problems like that.  They've recently got rid of the folding sewing tables that they had in the shop and went to more sturdier tables.

So, crisis averted... thankfully.  I knew I should have called before I went there with my machine but I was headed out to my ceramics class anyway so it was on the way.  Now I can get back to what I was working on yesterday... just have to work at the dining room table for now.

My husband is going to put some plywood on the top of my sewing table so that the surface is more level.  The man at the shop said that should do the trick until I can upgrade myself to a better table.

Enjoy your day!
Jen