I won a giveaway!

I entered a blog giveaway last month and won a copy of Whip Up Mini Quilts by Kathreen Ricketson!  It arrived today, and it's gorgeous :)  I've already picked out my first project ... for a very new little boy named Shawn :D

Thank you Kathreen and Chronicle Books for this giveaway and for my lovely book!!

A lovely success after a brainfart failure, LOL

I generally do a trial run of new patterns/tutorials to make sure I can do them properly, and to see if any adjustments are required.  Yesterday I Frankensteined 2 tutorials to make my own version of a book cover, and made a slight miscalculation during construction, with the following result:

Does the outside look furry?  It should - it's the batting, which of course should be on the inside, LOL!  *facepalm* :D

Here's the fabric that should be on the outside :D

I paid closer attention today :D  Here are the finished book covers - they worked out great!

 The front and back of the covers ...

and the inside - no raw edges are visible :)

Halloween pencil cases :)

Personalized pencil cases for an order :)  These measure about 10.5" x 4.5" (fabric was cut to 11x5).

 Close-up of Noah's pencil case :D

Close-up of Aubrey's pencil case :D

"Trial run" of the pencil case to check sizing etc. - I thought it would be fun to have a tab on both sides, but I'm not sure that I like it, so I went with the standard single tab when I did the kids' cases :)

Beads :)

If you look closely, you can see the beads I added to the zipper pulls :)

Today's theme was apparently red, lol

 A gift bag to hold some boy goodies for mailing ...

and the red page for a soft book of colours :)

Cupcakes :)

Well - cupcake oven mitts, lol!  Pattern is "Hot Cakes" Cupcake Oven Mitts by Susie C Shore Designs :)  I didn't get my pattern from there, but that, I believe, is the site of the pattern designer.  Lots of online places carry the pattern - your favorite shop might as well :)

There are several similar projects available for free online - try here and here :)

Finishing up some "kitted" projects ...

 2 golf zipper bags and a Halloween bag - that bright green corduroy was from a thrift store purchase - I think I paid about a buck for a metre!  It's lovely fabric - very soft :)

 Halloween bib using up some scraps of froggy Halloween fabric and more of my thrift store corduroy :)  This was the first time I used the new "soft" velcro - it feels way nicer than the old stuff!

 One more block for my next "color" soft book - I'm having a lot of fun making these pages :)  I bought grommets today @ Fabricland to try instead of making a "spine" (which gets very thick from multiple layers of fabric) :)

I found this project tucked away in a basket - all it needed was to have the drawstring pulled through - I must have put it away by mistake without realizing how close it was to being completed, lol.


Hmmmmmm blogger seems to have made some more changes to their posting process - usually I'm complaining about how hard it is to lay out the photos with the text, but with this new change it worked perfectly and easily the first time.  I'm pleased but not holding my breath ;)

OH!!!  We have a new baby in the family!!  Niece Daniela and her b/f Aaron (out in Alberta) had their little bambino on Tuesday - a bouncing (9 pound 14 ounce - OUCH!) baby boy that they've named Shaun --- congratulations to the new mom and dad - I can't wait to see pictures!  SHAUN - welcome to the world, sweetie pie - I hope you have red hair!!! ;)

This is why I like scraps so much :)

Here's a page I made tonight for another baby soft "colour" book --- I used a Carol Doak crazy block pattern to get the centre motif - I thought it was rather appropriate for a baby book!  Then I thought ... hmmmmmm ... cute to put a heart in the block, but what if ... what if ... what if I put an INITIAL in another block??!?!?!?!  I'm going to try to draft something up to see if I can get this to work - I think it's a brilliant idea, if I may be so unhumble for a moment!

Angela - here's the pink string quilt I'm working on - these are 9" (finished) blocks, and the blocks will be set 6 x 8, for a finished size of 54 x 72.  I have 24 blocks done, so I'm halfway finished.  I need to find some more pink scraps - I'm running out of prints, lol!

These types of blocks are my favorites to make - they're unplanned, random, wonky, scrap-hungry pieces of eye candy - not to all, I'm sure, but certainly to ME! ;)

*Sniff* *sniff* :)

Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!!

Strange - I'm trying to edit this post to add some photos, but blogger will only work in "Edit HTML" mode - it doesn't bring up the buttons for me to add a picture. If I click on Compose, I get a domainnotfound.ca error message. Nice, blogger - real nice - your efficiency is underwhelming!

Here boy - here boy!

A couple of stuffies for Mason's gift set - Rufus and Maxie ;)

My friend Nancy taught me how to make these little zipper pulls today - sweet!!

I made this today for a friend to give to her friend :D  Who can resist ... FRUIT ASSES??!!! ;)

Wish me luck ...

Here's what I'm working on ... I've never made "one" before so I hope it works out!  So far so good ... stay tuned ... ;)

1/2 hour later.  ARGH!   *insert censored cursing here* because the front and back covers are now REVERSED!  I'll finish it anyways :/

Front cover

Pages 2 & 3

Pages 4 & 5

Pages 6 & 7

Back cover

Back to the drawing board!!  *sigh* :D

Itty bitty quilt ;)

I finished this 18" square cage quilt today - I love making these little guys!  If you have spare time and or spare stash consider whipping some up for your local animal shelter - the shelter people and the 4 legged critters will love you for it!  If I were a dog person I'd make doggy quilts (and in fact I have made a few of them), but I love me some kitties so they're the ones I focus my attention on (and judging by the junk in my Zoomer's trunk, I give them LOTS of attention ... and food, LOL!) :)

Finis :)

Soft, cuddly and finished :D  Next up - stuffy (made with leftover backing) (but I can't start it until I get the pattern enlarged) and a soft book - aka a quiet book.  I was going to try to do a doggy themed one but I've never made one before so I thought I'd go with something simpler - a patchwork book of colors ;)

JARDINEIRAS.... <-- I'll have to look that up, LOL!

JARDINEIRAS....
Originally uploaded by Rô Patch

Apparently I can somehow post a blog entry right from flickr - who knew? I just spotted these bags @ Ro Patch's wonderful flickr album - her projects are just AMAZING - I'm always finding something new and fresh and fun that she's made! I love the simple embroidery and embellishment on these bags - what a creative woman!

I actually use one of her photos as my laptop desktop photo - my cat's nose is STILL out of joint about that, LOL.

BILI - because I like it ...

aka BIOS - because it's on sale :D  My recent purchases from the always delightful Sew-Sisters quilt shop in Toronto - they had a mega sale on Tuesday so I shopped :)  

Speed panels - future quilt or soft books - BILI!

Doggy paw print fabric for the backing on Mason's quilt :)

BILI - a couple of girly fabrics for future ??? projects :)  Tweet Tweet Birdies (bottom) and Spring Fling Garden Friends (top) :)

Postcards from Wilmington prints :)

Michael Miller Delectable Desserts - BILI :)

Rockets and robots outer space fabrics, by David Walker for Free Spirit - future little boy quilts :)

Heehee even Zoomer isn't photogenic ALL the time!  I should send this photo here, LOL!

I have some pirate projects in the pipeline - I got delicious fabric @ Joanns during our last Buffalo trip, and I've been saving inspirational photos from my online travels -- I got this panel on ebay, and should be able to use it for something!

This princess panel will come in handy too, for a future project I'm planning out :D  There are 33 little blocks in this piece - it's folded in half :D  Serendipitously, I found a blog post tonight from one of the blogs I watch - she posted a mighty cute picture of some panels she worked on, and I quite LOVE what she did! 

Can you tell it just occurred to me that I could put the photos to the left OR the right of the text?  It's only been staring me in the face for a year or two, but it didn't sink in until my last post, LOL!  *facepalm* :)

I wish I could remember ...

... who I was making this quilt for!!  *scratching my head* ;)

I bought Fisher Price Link-a-Doos a few weeks ago in Buffalo - exactly for this purpose - mom attaches a baby toy through the Link-a-Doo, for baby to play with :)  The wee muffin can even chomp on the link - it's baby safe!  Tres cool :)

Random fabric and stitches ... or a clue?  Only JB Fletcher knows for sure!  :)

Finished this little guy today, and received the golf ball ceramic beads (apparently made in Peru, if the ebay seller is accurate) in the mail - now I can make the zipper pulls for the golf zipper bags I've been working on!  I'll order a smaller size next time - these are a little bigger than I would like :D

Today's finishes :)

2 zipper bags (this makes 17 so far for this order) (still waiting for the golf ball beads to arrive for the zipper pulls!).

Infant sized baby bib from the leftovers from Mason's set - the backing (a minky type fabric) is peeking out - it's sooooooo soft :)

I got Mason's quilt top finished today - this measures about 35" square.  I have a metre of the darker pawprint fabric ordered from Sew Sisters - when it arrives (in about a week, I would guess) I can finish the quilt :)

 I designed this gift bag tonight - I'm making some rainbow bags using these two fabrics - I wanted the bags to look a certain way, so I drafted a pattern tonight based on other bags I've seen.  It turned out EXACTLY how I envisioned it!  It has a boxed bottom and measures 9" tall (plus the drawstring and ruffled top), 9.5" wide, and 3" deep where it's boxed.  Mine is filled with plastic bags for the photo op ;)

Productive day today for sure, lol!