And....there went February.

The last two weeks I have done almost no sewing.

First, my Mr. was out of town with the Ballet, which left me tired at the end of the day with no energy for sewing.

Then, as soon as he returned, Muffin got sick and shared the sore-throat-achey-body-exhausted-hacking-cough with me.

Also, the weather took a random turn for the worse and we had a snow day

(we NEVER have snow days this late in February)

Have you ever tried doing anything remotely productive with a cold and cooped up children?

Temperatures are still barely over freezing.

We're just now getting over the yuckiness, although I'm still coughing.

Blargh.

We did manage to finally close on the property we're buying.

whoo hoo!

Mr Chaos left again today for a week of touring with the Ballet.

I doubt much sewing will be done this week.

I have costumes for the next show to sort through and catalog.

(we're renting the costumes and they didn't come with an inventory.)

I've been playing with my graph paper and quilty ideas, and some of them actually look nice!

But, I'm sticking to my guns and not starting any new full size projects until I finish something.

I've just got the hand sewing of the binding left on the Erik Homemade Mystery Quilt.

maybe tonight?

I'm feeling a serious lack of motivation today.

 (can you tell?)

Hopefully I'll have something original whipped up and ready share in the next month. 

More Fabric Shopping

I spent the last of my gift card at the my LQS. 

*sigh*

so sad.

I walked around for about 1/2 hour before deciding.

it was a very blissful child-free 30 minutes.

What did I buy?

A yard of green plume (40% off!) and a pattern. 

I've always admired this quilt whenever I see it, but I'm not one to spend $9 on a pattern.

But since I was supposed to buy things I normally wouldn't....

now I need to finish a quilt so I can rationalize starting a new one!

Why?

Why is it that you only seem to run into people you haven't seen in years when you're not at your best?

This weekend I was in total sleep-deprived mom-mode.

You know

we've all been there

just hopping in the car to run a quick errand.

 - no contacts, no make-up, over sized really worn sweatshirt, comfy jeans, I might have brushed my hair that morning...

I dropped of Miss Mae at Jazz class and drove around with the sick kiddos for an hour.

No point in going home, we'd just have to turn around as soon as we got home. 

I popped into my LQS to get these:

not because I needed them, but because I needed a bit of retail therapy.

I ran into an old friend I haven't seen in over 10 years.

She knew me when I looked like this

Yup, purple hair.

Not that I was trying to impress her, but man, I looked like total crud.

Oh well.

The retail therapy was definitely needed.

Twelve Pounds of Fabric

When the box arrived I weighed it.  It was just over 12 lbs with the box.

I went back and re-read the description. 

 

"12 Pound Fabric Grab Bag

Each grab bag is a 12 pound box of assorted fabric pieces"

 

Okay, so I can't get grumpy.  The description doesn't specify 12 lbs of fabric, but a 12 lb box of fabric.

 

Ready for details? 

 

 

Here are all 124 pieces of fabric. 

A total of over 27 yards. (and I was really conservative in my measuring)

Which averages out to about $ 2.45 /yd.

 

Totally worth it.

 

Details?

there were only 7 pieces that were not WOF.

the smallest of these was 5"x11"

 

There was one 2 1/2" strip, everything else was wider.

There was a good variety of widths, 4" and 13" were the most common.

The longest piece was 20".

There were 3 or 4 that had tiny flaws.

 

 

 

These are sorted by width, with the biggest pieces in the upper right corner.

Totally yummy fabrics.

 

 

These three rows are sorted by style. 

 

Row One

• Batiks - the bottom one is a gorgeous weeping tree print.
• Next are the holiday fabrics.  There was a total over just over 1 yd of 12 Days of Christmas white snowflakes.  Happiness!!!  That's enough to use with the other bits I've been hording.

 Row Two

• 1920 reproductions!  I love these and were very happy to see them.
• Civil War reproductions!  I've ALWAYS wanted to play with these...now I can!  One of the prints is 110" wide.  hmmm, what to do...

 

Row Three

• Solids - Two are 110" wide.  lovely variety of colors.
• 5 prints from The Butterfly Garden Collection.  That was the most of one fabric line I received.

And then, there were these 7 pieces.

The only non-"quilting cottons."

three holiday flannels and two others...

Favorites?

Solids!  Can't have too much of these.  Totally love the greens.

 

Sunkissed  - Words on white and yellow!

CENTRAL PARK!!! - have I mentioned how much I adore Kate Spain? 

Would I buy it next year?

Absolutely.

At under $2.50/yd it is a very cost-effective way to restock fabrics.

They are all current designer prints, nothing was uber thin or ugly.

Friday Night Sew In Results

...or lack there of.

Yup.  I did not do I single bit of sewing last night. 

I had it all planned.  It was gonna be great.

Redboxed 3 movies for the kids.

The Last Airbender, How to Train Your Dragon and Inkheart.

(Inkheart is a great family movie.

It doesn't hurt that Brendan Frazier is easy on the eyes.)

Half way through the movie, Muffin asked if she can bring her blankie out.

(She's 5, which means that her blankie needs to live on her bed, and she can have it at bedtime.)

I looked up from the dishes and saw that she was flushed.

Warning signs.

*sigh*

sick kiddo.

Yup.  no sewing.

I can't listen for her with the sewing machine running.

all my plans washed away.

But...

It wasn't a total loss.

I opened the box that had arrived earlier.

removed the paper and....

12 lbs of fabric.

I ordered this grab bag from The Fat Quarter Shop. 

It was on sale and I had a coupon code!

I hadn't ordered their grab bag before and I was totally stoked and excited to see what happiness had arrived.

The iron doesn't make any noise.

So, I touched, petted, ironed, measured and folded every bit of fabric in the box.

and yes, I am that OCD.

I measured and made a list of every bit in the box.

(I wanted to know how much yardage and my overall price per yard.)

The dryer just buzzed. 

The contents of the box will have to be in another post.

Excited Much?

Is it wrong to be jump-up-and-down, squealing, can't-contain-it excited about a box?

Of course, the twins are here, so I really shouldn't open it until they go home...

I don't think I can wait.

(and, yes.  i did actually squeal.)

Friday Night Sew In

The stars have aligned so that I can particiapte in the Friday Night Sew In!  Whoo hoo!!

Wanna join?   Sign ups are here.

The Great Sew Mama Sew Pillow Contest

I decided to enter my Pure Hex Pillow in The Great SMS pillow contest. 

I was so frustrated and DONE with hexagons by the time I actually finished this quilt.

I wanted to toss all the extras and be done with it.

My inability to throw away any usable fabric saved me from that.

Instead, I unpicked the matching 1/2 hexes and re-sewed them into 6 scrappy hexagons.

Then I sewed them into an odd shaped table topper.

I  looked at it and thought

 hmm.

I wonder if I can sew all the edges together and make a pillow.

So I did.

It was quite the challenge.

I kept having to re-check the seams I was going to sew.

I didn't turn out how I thought it would, but I totally like it.

I don't think I'll make another one though...

Well, maybe if someone asked nicely.

really nicely.

and gave me chocolate.

Pure Hexagons...Pure Craziness

Before Christmas I started building a hexagon quilt for a gift.

I used Jaybird Quilts hexagon quilt along as a guide.

I even purchased a jelly roll.  (since it was going to be a gift, I could ratioanlize the cost.)

*sigh*

I chose the Pure line by Sweetwater.

I played with the strips for hours before finally sewing and cutting them into triangles.

I got them all lined up on the floor, set out exactly how I wanted them to be.

It took hours.

I piled them neatly into little stacks, numbered and ready to be sewed.

I then managed to dump all my little stacks all over the floor.

On Christmas Eve Eve.

I'm glad the kids were sleeping because I sure didn't say "Golly, gosh darn!"

Yeah, I didn't give that one as a gift.

Last week I finally got around to re-sorting and organizing them again.

Then I PINNED them into little numbered piles.

and sewed 'em together.

Another top done!

Into the "QUILT ME" closet.

progress.

I had a few leftover hexagons and I played with them and came up with a pillow

It's a hexagon made of hexagons! 

It was a challenge.

It's done.

and I like it.

String X's

I've finished the top!

It was supposed to have more blocks, but I opted to finish what I had. 

It's a smaller quilt - but I like how its looking.  Totally scrappy. 

It's now hanging in the closet, waiting for quilting.

What Have You Been Up To?

I've been up to my ears in costumes.

Alice in Wonderland costumes.

lots of masks and unitards with tails and wings. 

Needless to say, not a lot of "fun" sewing has been done.  I have done some bee blocks, and I'm behind again with getting them to their homes.

Over the holidays my sister and a friend each got me a gift card to our local quilt shop. (Which happens to be right next to my sister's salon.)  My sister gave me express instructions to buy things that I found pretty, just to have. 

I've made two trips to the little shop.

Oh My Goodness.

Where do you even start?  The first time I went in I found these:

1 yard of Sunkissed Gray Script and a 1/2 yard of Living Elements - Pink.  The lady at the cutting table was very surprised that they went together so well. 

I told myself that it was perfectly acceptable to spend more than $10 a yard on fabric.  It was still hard to do.  I've decided I need more than a yard of the Gray Script.  I think I love it. No, I know I love it.

Today, I had more time to browse around.  As I wandered around and around the little shop, I kept finding fabrics that I had received from the Fabric Fairy.  It was like a treasure hunt!  I kept smiling to myself and feeling very lucky to know such wonderful people.

I'm still smiling.

Today, I went in for more Sunkissed Gray Script, but instead I found their scrap bin and sale fat quarters.

I got these two fqs. 

Botany!  and 12 Days of Christmas!

Both will go nicely with the first Fabric Fairy package I received.

The scrap bin was great!  I found 9 ounces of nice sized fabric bits.

Three Kona Solids, not sure which ones they are.  (Which is the only bummer thing about buying from the bin, no labels.)

A Kate Spain print, another living elements, and some Pure.

It was a nice trip and put me in a good mood. 

Happiness to you!