Challenge - Day 5

As promised my camera is back.  Yay!

Day 5 was a most productive day.  As many of you know, a few years back I purchased an inordinate amount of fabric from a woman who was closing up shop.  I bought the fabric sight unseen and even though it was very exciting receiving all of those boxes in the mail, it seems I have barely made a dent in my stash.  What the heck was I thinking??? . . .

 Day 5 included making more blocks for the scrap quilt

 

When this quilt is finished it will include a sample of most of the fabrics I purchased.

 

And since I will not be including this quilt in the giveaway, I will instead give away a generous amount of fabric.  This will be great for anyone who is making charity quilts.  Be sure to visit again in June when the giveaway is announced.  Of course, I hope you'll visit every day of this challenge, but I understand, we all get busy.  No worries.

 

And in case anyone forgot how much fabric I have, here's a little reminder.  Unfortunately this is not all of it!  Yikes!!

 



 



No Worries

I know . . . I'm late in posting Days 5 and 6, but rest assured, lots of creating took place.  Unfortunately the camera has decided that it needs a vacation and has temporarily dug its heels in and refused to cooperate in my project.  Heavy sigh! 

Tonight I will beat the camera into submission (kidding) and hopefully take and post pictures of my latest creations.  Thanks for hanging in there with me!

Challenge - Day 4

The temperature dropped a little bit yesterday and this morning I got in a 2.5 mile run in beautiful weather.  And then it was a good day for creating.  I'm still working on the pile of scraps so here is today's additions to the giveaway pile.  Yes, I think June will shape up to be a good month for giveaways.  Yay!

 

My little great niece turned one last weekend.  I decided I wanted to make her a doll so here are a couple of prototypes.  They are still works in progress.

 

I had a handmade Raggedy Ann doll growing up and I loved that doll.  Designing and making these dolls brought back sweet memories.  Maybe Baby B. will enjoy her rag doll just as much as I did.

Challenge - Day 3

I see a theme developing here.  I'm pretty sure I'll find something to make this weekend other than wristlets.  It's nice to have these quilted scraps though.  Easy peasy!

Here's to a great crafting weekend to all of you!

Challenge - Day 2

I've decided to add another dimension to this challenge.  I will only create with the materials I have on hand.  I hope to see some of my lovely scrappiness get used up.  Win-win!! 

I came home from work tonight and banged this puppy out.  It has a matching yoga bag and travel bag that I will take pictures of and post at a later date.  Let me know if you're interested in ANY or ALL of the products.  They are gorgeous in person and oh, so functional!

7" x 4" quilted wristlet

(yesterday's wristlet was 9" x 4")

 

This project was super easy and fun and I feel like I need to go back into the studio and make something else.  I think I would, but tomorrow is a work day for me.  Heavy sigh.

It's So Challenging!

I had good intentions this year to post more blog entries.  Uh, we see how well that's going, huh?!

So, I've decided to set me a challenge.  For the next 58 days I'm going to create something and then post my little ole creation.  At the end of 58 days, it'll be my birthday.  Maybe I'll wrap up all these little creations and have a big unwrap party on my birthday.  WooHoo!  Or better yet, maybe I'll wrap up all these little creations and have a big giveaway at the end.

Anyways, life may get in the way and I may miss a post or two, but there will definitely be 58 days of creating so let the FUN begin. 

Here's day 1:

 

How do you like the new logo?

 

 

 

So, there it is kids. . . Day 1 - a nice little wristlet.

New Year . . . New Accomplishments

I got my first run in on New Year's Day.  It was the Commitment Day 5k and my friend, Dona, and I like to get up early on New Year's Day and run!!  This year, the run started at 10 a.m.  What???!!!  So, we slept in a bit - not a bad thing!

I wish I could say that I was able to sleep until my next run on January 18.  But, that was not the case.  I was working 15-17 hour days and not feeling the love at all!  January is the cruelest of months for me.  And then on January 16 family started arriving.  January 17 we all trekked over to the George R. Brown Convention Center and picked up our race day packets.  January 18 we are up at 4 a.m. and out the door at 4:45 a.m.  Somehow I calculated our travel time incorrectly.  Normally we have plenty of time to park and arrive before the masses.  Not so this year.  We barely made it to the Port-A-Potties before it was time to walk to our Corrals for the start of the Houston Half Marathon.

The weather was perfect on this running day.  It was 47 degrees when we started and the temperature rose to the high 50's.  No wind.  Man, it doesn't get better than this.  The run was going smoothly and we were closing in on the finish line, .1 kilometer to go.  And then, WHAM, man down!  Wait, that "man" is me!  Ouchie wawa . . . major calf cramp on left leg and right leg numb.  Thanks to the superb medical volunteers I was uprighted immediately and told to put weight on my legs and walk it out.  They were right.  The finish line was right there and like Julie Moss (triathlete) I crumbled.  But, I was fortunate, I was able to run the final 100 yards to the finish line. 

There are many reasons why I run, but I can tell you that the main reason I run half marathons is to  acquire bling.  Yep, I'm all about the hardware.  Well, guess what??? They ran out of medals about 15 people or so in front of me.  What????!!!!  Are you kidding me?  They assure me I will receive a medal in the mail and send me on my merry way to pick up my finisher's shirt.  So, barely able to walk and about ready to pass out, I make my way to the shirt pickup line and yep, you guessed it . . . out of shirts.   Hmm . . . now that's not funny!  No medal AND no shirt! 

But, the show must go on.  The family and I had another wonderful party.  It warms my heart that my family travels from out of state to join me.  This year there was one brother, nephew, niece and B-guy that ran with me.  Well, okay, they didn't "run" with me . . . they are way faster, but they participated with me.  Afterwards more brothers, cousins, nieces, nephews joined us in celebrating.  So much fun!

It's been almost two weeks since we foolishly ran 13.1 miles and yesterday, the medal and shirt arrived in the mail.  Oh, HAPPY day!

So, here's the lesson:  Do not stop at the Port-A-Potties while waiting for the start of the race.  This stopover put us literally at the back of the line.  We crossed the start line 38 minutes after the gun went off and unfortunately we didn't pass enough people to get to the finish before the medals ran out.  I'm thinking if I hadn't crumpled at the end . . . well maybe . . . No matter, I got my medal; I'm happy. 

And once again in my quest to stop this nonsense of Half Marathon running, B-Guy and I foolishly registered the day early registration closed.  WHAT???!!! 

Sweet Things

Last month my fabric arrived.  Oh HAPPY day!

 

 And I got busy making . . . 

These dresses are reversible.  Aren't they pretty?  I made a dress in each of the 6 bolts of fabric I purchased.  They are so darn cute.  I am giving them to all the sweet little babies that were born this year that I missed seeing at Thanksgiving time because I was sick, sick, sick.  Ugh!

 

Super simple to make thanks to the pattern in "Modern Patchwork".

 This cute little cherry fabric is from DonnasLavendersNest.  Check out all of her wonderful fabric!

 

What do you guys do with scraps?  It's hard to throw away those random pieces of prettiness, am I right?!  I'm always looking for something to make out of the odds and ends that are left over from my sewing projects.  This little beauty was made from leftover quilted yoga bag scraps.  It got rave reviews from my coworkers. 

 

It's a little clutch perfect for that FUN night out when a purse is just too much! 

 

The inside has a zippered compartment along with space on either side of it.  So much fun to make. 

I also made more bears to match the little dresses shown above.  For some reason I cannot find the rest of the pictures I took of my dresses and bears, but fret not, I'll reveal them at a later date!

I hope everyone is having a very happy holiday season!  Merry Christmas!

Shavasana or Savasana??

I hate it when there are two spellings for words like this.  Since I'm relatively new to yoga, I want to use the correct verbiage, but I see both spellings and to me it sounds like people are pronouncing the "sh" sound, so for this post we'll go with Shavasana.  (Maybe I'll try to avoid using the word for the rest of this post!)

On my trip home last month, my SIL asked me to make her a quilted yoga blanket.  She gave me the measurements and she had specific colors and an order to the blanket.

So we all know that I have quite the stash of fabric, but of course none of it was right for this quilt!  So off to the store I went.  And this is how it all went down . . .

Before putting it on the longarm, I realized the length was a little short so I added another row of red.  Now I need to trim about 3" off of it.  I knew this going in so I think it'll be okay once it's a bit shorter.

 

 My SIL loves the burnt orange family so I did the back in various oranges.  I hope she likes it.  I wasn't sure if the back needed to follow the rules of the front or not.  After I finished the quilt, I "googled" yoga quilts and did not find a single one that followed the color order (or even used these colors!).   One lady is selling her yoga quilts for $895.  Whoa!  Back the truck up!  I'm curious if she's even sold any because the pictures posted were not "pretty".  But, that's just my opinion.

 

I still need to add the binding and hand sew it down.  The plan is to give the quilt to my SIL in a couple of days.  Small problem . . . B-guy is down with the flu and it's iffy if we're traveling.  So, I'm thinking I'll mail it along with a $750 invoice.  Hey, it's discounted and way prettier than the $895 lady's quilt!!  What a bargain!  I'm kidding, of course . . . I love my SIL!

Her friend has ordered one sight unseen.  Nice!  Maybe she'll pay the $750!!  I crack myself up!

In case I don't make it back before Thursday, Happy Thanksgiving to all!  Gobble! Gobble!

Hidden Stories

Sometimes all it takes is a simple Hello and suddenly you are immersed in a person's life.  Yesterday at Target I met a man who was telling me his grandpa would be turning over in his grave if he knew that a box of Kleenex costs more than a beer or two.  His accent was definitely not Texan and sounded more like Boston.  

And sure enough, he was from Cambridge.  His grandparents had a pizza parlor that was a popular hangout for both the Harvard and the MIT crowd.  Since I used to live up there, we discussed numerous local joints that we had in common. 

The conversation continued and I discovered that he had a band and a contract with Capitol Records.  He played (and partied) with Marvin Gaye and numerous other biggies in the 60's and 70's.  Although I don't remember the name of his band, I have no reason to doubt his story.  I wish I had been prepared to know I would be meeting this gentleman as I would have had a ton more questions and I would have paid better attention to the details.  But, we met discussing the price of Kleenex.  Who knew we'd take a stroll down memory lane in Massachusetts!!

These are the moments.  These are the stories that I love.  There are hidden gems in every person we meet, but we seldom take the time to dig deep enough to find them.

As I've mentioned a few times I was at both Quilt Market and Quilt Festival this year.  Last weekend, I was just walking down the aisles and I ran across a booth that was selling dress forms.  I have a love of dress forms and I really want to own one someday.  So, of course I ask the guy running the booth a few questions about the dress forms.  Next thing I know a guy comes up to me and wants to know if I need some help.  So, we chat.  Here's the thing.  This guy is the fitter for the dancers on Dancing with the Stars!! 

Meet Joe Veccherelli

 

 And he confirmed to me that the outfit Emma Slater (I think it was Emma) wore is the same outfit that Cheryl Burke wore in Season 2 when she won the Mirror Ball.  I tried to get my new best friend to get me tickets, but he said they are in hot demand and it's first come, first served.  Like I said, you never know who you're talking to.

 

But, one of the reasons I went back to Festival was to meet this person . . .

 Julie Fei-Fan Balzer!!!

 

 

Julie is remarkable!  She's a mixed media artist, but she was at the Festival demonstrating the Brother Scan-N-Cut.  Luckily I got a few minutes of her time to myself before the throngs appeared.  Super nice and knew how to work a crowd.  After listening to her podcast this week, I discovered she was sick while she was in town.  And still, she was on top of her game.  I tried to get her to come to Texas to teach classes, but she said she'd been here once and was kicked out.  Something about language and tears.  Hmm . . . sounds like a country song.  I guess I'll have to travel elsewhere to partake of her classes.  They sound super fun!!

 

So, next time you're contemplating the price, brand, style of your next Kleenex box, take time to say hello to the stranger next to you.  You never know who you'll meet!  Everyone has a story and I'm so glad I got a glimpse of a few of them this past week.