I need a giveaway

I've decided I need to do a giveaway. In honor of something.

But what?

Birthday week at my house next week? As in, three birthdays in four days? Nah, I'm already too busy!

Halloween? No, too soon!

Veteran's day? Actually, not a bad idea. My veteran is giving me the day to do some sewing. I think that would be a great day to host a giveaway. Now, for something fun to giveaway. I like winning supplies. Some people like finished things.

Share your thoughts!

To Do Tuesday

Or why I love deadlines.

Trunk-or-treat is Saturday at 5. A certain little blondy-blue must be in costume by 4:45.


I have a deadline. I have the fabric cut out. I have read the instructions. I know what I'm doing. If I didn't have to sleep, I'd get a lot more done.

Finished product pictures forthcoming. By Saturday night!

Happy Halloween sewing!

Then I can get back to "me" sewing! Until I remember my Christmas deadline....

Weekend Recap

Did I get all my homework done? You bet your sewing machine I did! When a girl's got some serious motivation, anything is possible.

I didn't work on what I'd planned. More on that later. Here's what I got done:

These adorable pinwheels - I've had this strawberry print forever. Actually, I made an apron out of it a couple years ago. I had a dozen 5" squares of it just sitting around. I got the Dream On green stripe, the Essential Dots bubblegum pink and this cute red check a couple weeks ago. Well, it just all came together. 12 blocks later, I'm in love. I'm going to add another white border to each block and then I'm going to do a scrappy bit of sashing between them.

A close up of the red pinwheel:

A close-up of the pink pinwheel:

A close-up of the green pinwheel:

Now, as to my original plan. I did get a whole six rows done on my chimneys and cornerstones. One small problem. I did not calculate correctly. I might have enough for 12 rows total, but it's not really what I envisioned. Or I could chop the six rows I have in half and make two baby quilts. What I will do with two girly baby quilts I don't know. But it's something. Thoughts? This is what the baby quilt would look like:

Finally, I was tooling around on flickr (it's a bigger problem for me than facebook these days). I found this picture and decided to figure out my own version. I'll be using the reds/pinks and greens from my Sparkle All the Way layer cake. I'm quite excited about this one. I got all the squares cut. It goes into the futures pile.

So it was a rocking productive weekend. I think a lot had to do with sending Aaron to the gun show on Saturday. Shh. He thought it was for him, but it was really for me. If I get him out of the house, I don't feel required to entertain him or find things for him to do. I always feel guilty about having projects I can do with the kids around. He gets a little stir crazy and I feel bad for him. All his hobbies (guns, motorcycles, models) are not child friendly. Not that I'd let my kids loose with the rotary cutter and we've already seen how many pins James can get inside my machine, but my hobbies aren't inherently dangerous.

So off he went to the gun show and I cranked out a stack o' quilt blocks. If I could have someone around to just iron pieces for me, I'd get so much more sewing done.

And now, I MUST get Laurel's costume done. It's all cut out. I think I'll be spending my afternoons getting it together.

Happy sewing!

Reward Time

If I'm very good and focused, and get this done:

This, being a paper on Heart of Darkness, writing a poem, analyzing another poem, and writing yet another paper on yet another poem. If I'm really good and get that all done by tomorrow afternoon (well, the paper on HOD has to be done), then I get to play with this:

My Holiday Hostess quilt top

My Chimneys and Cornerstones quilt top - of which two, count 'em, two rows are already done! Hooray. I'd like to get this one done this weekend. But there is that Halloween costume to worry about as well. Not to worry. The Siamese kitty will be ready before next Saturday at 4:45 p.m.

Watcha think? Can she stay motivated? With rewards like this, I'm pretty sure I can.

Me Time

Two blog posts in one day? Unheard of. But I'm feeling grateful, so I thought I'd share.

Tonight was about me. And it's never about me.

I got to attend an activity at church, a "service auction" where we bid on goods/services that were donated by the other women. No money - just points earned by filling out a questionnaire - things like "did you wash and fold a load of laundry today" and "2 points for every diaper you changed today" - stuff like that. Super fun.

I donated a custom apron for one lucky winner and a family donut fry for another. In the process, I made a new sewing buddy. And I get to make donuts for the young women in our ward, which will be so much fun.

So, I have a sewing buddy and I get $75 worth of flowers, my choice of color. I blew all 102 points on a bouquet of flowers and I couldn't be more excited.

Wahoo!

So life is good again. But boy am I tired. Henry had me up at 2:30 and I couldn't fall back to sleep when he finally did go back to sleep at 4. So I read for a while and then thought "Why am I not sewing?" so I whipped out the sewing machine and sewed together some triangles and then cranked out two rows of my chimneys and cornerstones quilt. Hooray for me!

But no more quilt sewing until that cat costume is done! I've got it almost all cut out (hey, it takes up the whole table - you know how often my table is completely cleared off?) and will work on it this weekend.

To Do Tuesday

Must make a decision. That's what I need to do!

I still have red/aqua fabric. Seriously. I have made the barn raising quilt, the matchbox quilt, the dutch pinwheel quilt and I have one more in the works using HSTs called chimneys and cornerstones. So, the decision is between this one, called flying kite pinwheel:


And this inspiration, which would be a departure for me, in a good way. I've been loving this Dresden plate, blogged here, for quite a while now. I'm a little nervous about applique, but I think it could be super cute and such fun.
I know it sounds like I've already made up my mind, but I haven't. I love that little pinwheel a lot too. Pinwheels make me happy. but that Dresden makes me happy too.

I just refuse to buy more red/aqua fabric. I think I've had enough!

That's all for me today. I've got the service auction at church tonight, a paper to finish, another paper to finish by 11 p.m., oh, and my awesome family to take care of.

To Do Tuesday

What with poetry writing (ugh!), essays on Joseph Conrad and food writing, there's not much time left for sewing. But then there will always be time for sewing. Especially with Halloween coming up. We bought James' costume - he'll be Dash from The Incredibles and I can't wait. William will be a shark - Aaron is taking on that one. I picked up a monkey costume for Mr. Henry. All that's left is my girl. She has to be a cat this year. Not just any kind. A Siamese to match her stuffed animal Molasses. So, we got this here pattern:


And a whole lot of fleece in tan and brown. I'll cut it out this weekend and maybe even get some of the sewing done. Finish it next weekend.

And I can cut it out, thanks to these babies arriving yesterday. You should hear that gorgeous snap they make. It's like music!
I prepped a few projects on Sunday in an attempt to wind down and not think about schoolwork. I finally cut the fabric for my Holiday Hostess quilt - see this post for a pic of the fabric. I've changed my mind on a few things, but I think it's going to be lovely and fun.

I also prepped another pinwheel project using the last of one of my favorite fabrics. I only had 12 5" squares left, so it was a challenge coming up with something. But I got it figured out and it's gonna be cute!

Happy sewing. My reward for getting my paper done early is quality time with my sewing machine. Let's see if I make it!