Introducing: The Mo-Stash Bee!

Hello to all of you beautiful modern fabric stashionistas!!  The year is winding down a bit and we KNOW you're starting to think about which bees and/or swaps you're interested in committing to for 2013.  And, ya know what would be better than signing up for any ol' bee?  Being part of a brand new bee that my uber-awesome friend, Whitney, and I started...that's what!!

Whitney (you may know her as The Peacock Tree) and I were talking about how tough it is to commit to a year-long bee.  People go MIA...people lose their mojo...people feel like doing other stuff.  So, we (well, SHE, and she was gracious enough to ask me to join) thought it'd be super-cool to get a bunch of gals together who love modern fabric and start a stash bee that lasts just 6 short months.  It's your typical stash bee...every month starting in January someone will host and choose a block...the other folks in the bee with make 2 blocks with fantabulous fabric from their stash and send them of to the host...easy peasy, right?  I present to you the Modern Stash Quilting Bee...better known as the:

Sounds peachy, right?  And when Tom Selleck is involved, you just gotta join!  Ok, so I may have embellished the Tom Selleck bit in my last post.  The bee isn't exactly about him or really have anything to do with him other than he's our mascot, but that 'stache!!  How long can you resist that 'stache?  Not long, I bet!

And better yet, we've dubbed all of you Stashionistas - how cool is that?  You covet your stash...you love modern fabric...you can't wait for the best new lines to be released...you probably even hoard some of your best stuff...you know who you are!

OK, Stashionistas...RUN over to the group and join.  We'll have an official registration form to fill out soon if you want to commit.  For now, at least join the group and follow along.  We can't wait to start!

Back By Popular Demand!

Ok, ok, that's exaggerating just a bit...well, a lot.  BUT, when I was off spending time with my tribe (as another lovely attendee, Suzy, put it) at the Sewing Summit, one of my fans (hahaha!) did ask me when/if I was ever going to post to my blog again.  So, to oblige Julie and all of my other adoring public, I have decided to blog again!!  Aren't y'all excited?

I can't promise out-of-this-world posts, or even semi-frequent ramblings, but I do hope to continue to share my sewing adventures with you...no matter how mundane or sporadic.

So what have you been up to since March?  Well, we moved to VA...that's the biggest news, I guess.  We rented out our house in New Hampshire and made our way down to the outskirts of DC in July.  It was a rough adjustment for some of us (mostly me!) but now that the boys are all settled into school and activities, all is well.  We're renting a house a couple of miles away from Paul's office, which is really nice, since he tends to work long hours.  We've committed to try to make the most of our stint here by seeing/doing as much as we can.  It's fab to be so close to "The District" (as it's called around here) - so many fun things to do in DC!  Did you know they have a Postal Museum?  Me neither, but I plan on checking that out one of these days!

Sewing-wise I've been stitching here and there, making bee blocks, doing swaps, etc.  Basically all of the stuff I was doing before and then some...just not posting about it!  How sneaky am I?  If you want to see what I've made lately, you can check out my flickr photostream HERE.  It's not everything, but it'll give you a good snapshot.

The nice thing about our new house is that I still have a dedicated sewing space...and it's NOT in the laundry room!  Our basement is actually a walk-out/daylight basement, so there are windows down there...MUCH better for sewing!  It doesn't feel like a dungeon.  I can't say much about what you can get for your money in this area (it's not much, in case you were wondering), but I am grateful for my corner of the finished basement to do my sewing.

One of my best finishes lately is a little number I put together for one of my very favorite swaps - the Little Quilt - Sew, Vote, Send Group.  Here's what I made:

 

I personally love it and I hope the gal I sent it to does, too!  The funny thing about this mini is it was the start of my very first quilting project.  Around March or April of 2011, I came across the Blogger's Pillow Party, which was hosted by the lovely Rachel of Stitched In Color.  I'm certain y'all know Rachel, but if you dont, RUN to her blog right now...she's fantastic!  So, I run across the party and was inspired by a pillow I saw there - it's excellent, right?  I thought "maybe I could do something like that"...so I chopped up nine charm squares from the gorgeous Nouveau line by Sentimental Studios for Moda. 

 

And, well, long story short, those little squares got put in a drawer so I could try other things.  I finally pulled them out when I got back from the Sewing Summit.  Instead of making a pillow, it is now a mini, but it feels good to have completed a project I started so long ago.  And, it probably looks 1,000 times better than it would have looked had I actually finished it back in 2011...I've learned a ton since then!

 

It's great to be back in the swing of things...let me know what you've been up to these last several months.  I'll be back to share some of the other projects I've completed and other things in the works.

 

PLUS, I will have a very cool announcement on Monday...right here on this little ol' blog!  If you like modern fabric, Tom Selleck, and dipping into your stash, this might be right up your alley...stay tuned!

Drumroll, Please!

I know y'all are just dying, wondering who won the fabulous Charming Travelers giveaway.  Let me first tell you that this charm pack is chock FULL of fabricy goodness.  I snagged about 20 of Diane's charms, so there is still plenty of yumminess from the giveaway creator herself (I'm talking Hope Valley goodness included, people!).  I reloaded the pack with some of my favorites...you'll just have to wait and see what the stack beholds.  So, 56 delicious, drool-worthy squares are going to....

Kim of One Krafty Kitty Mama, who said "How exciting! I would love the chance to pet these charms!!! LOL".  (as a side note: I had 33 comments, one of which was a duplicate and one was left by a quilting buddy who is out of the country, so that left us with 31 entrants).

So, Kim...I'm going to send you an email and once you send me your address, this sweet stack-o-goodies will be on their way to you!

Thank you to all of those who entered.  Check out Kim's blog soon for another chance to win.  And keep tabs on Diane's blog to follow it around the country!

The One About Moving...

Some of you may have heard...not sure if I mentioned it on here at all...that we were waiting to hear if the man of the house got a promotion.  Well, the GREAT news is that he did!  Hip-hip-hooray for my honey!  The tough part of the deal is that we have to move.  I've moved a lot over the years...I've lived on both coasts, in the mountains, in the south, in cities and suburbs, on Army posts, in apartments and in our lovely little home here in New Hampshire.  So, the idea of moving isn't so bad, especially since we've always known that this is part of the deal with Paul's job.  BUT, we've never moved with school-aged children before.  We've never moved after living somewhere for 6 years.  I think it'll be a hard but awesome experience for all of us.  We'll be moving to the Northern Virginia area - Paul will be working in McLean, which is right outside of DC.  How cool will it be to live so close to DC?  So cool!  Paul has to report in a month...the rest of us will head down after school gets out and our house sells...so, sometime this summer.  Lots will be happening around here!

One thing that I won't be doing much of in the next few months is swapping.  Oh how I will miss it so!  I just finished up a couple of good ones and have a couple of small ones left on my plate.  It has taken all of my self-control and some pleading to friends to help me NOT sign up for any right now.  There are a few great ones that I'm bummed I can't do this time around:  the Modern She Made swap, the Potholder Pass, the Tabletop Swap, and the Fab Little Pincushion Swap, just to name a few.

Luckily I've been involved in some pretty great swaps lately.  Here are a couple I finished up -

The Scrappy Mug Rug Swap.  I love making minis...they're so quick and fun!  It's great to try out new blocks and ideas and techniques on a small scale so you don't spend too much time (and fabric!) on something that may not turn out fab.  My partner for the Scrappy Mug Rug Swap was the crazy-fun Kristen of Gock's Frocks.  She likes bright and scrappy, just like me, so it wasn't hard to be inspired for her mug rug.  Do you like it?  I tried some organic, wavy quilting and I just love how it turned out!

I received an amazing mug rug, too...I'll share it with you tomorrow...once I finally take pictures of it.

I also took part in the Doll Quilt Swap.  It's one of those swaps that can be a little intimidating (at least for me) because of the amazing talent in the group.  Not that my other swaps weren't full of awesomely-talented ladies and gentlemen, but there was just something about the last round or two of the Doll Quilt Swap that made me a little nervous to join.  I just sent this puppy out this morning, so mum's the word on its recipient:

This swap comes complete with some rules...I can be a rule-follower when I want to be, so I was game!  We had to make a quilt using at least 6 blocks, one of which had to be a log cabin, flying geese, churn dash/shoofly, drunkards path, or N.Y. beauty.  PLUS, we had to use a non-white solid.  So, after taking it all in and checking out my partner's mosaic and doing some stalking, I decided to do hexagon log cabin blocks, a la Lee of Freshly Pieced.  I made a pin cushion a couple of months back using her Hexing Around block and I just wanted to do it again...they're way fun to make!  I put them in a staggered setting on a spring green background.  I wasn't sure about the color at first (I mean, hello, white goes with everything!) but now I just love it...I think with the quilting and the orange binding the whole thing just works.  I sure hope my partner loves it as much as I do!

The last thing I sent off is a secret.  As soon as the recipient gets it, I'll fill you in...it's a good one!

So, between my swaps, bee blocks, other sewing, and moving, I've got lots going on!  I'll keep you posted on everything - it's a whirlwind around here!!  Thank you to everyone who has signed up for my Charming Travelers giveaway.  If you haven't, check it out HERE.



The Charming Travelers have arrived!

People...it's here....it's HERE!!   The Charming Travelers package arrived at my door yesterday and I couldn't be more excited!  I know you guys are all thinking "you didn't mention anything about a package...what are you so excited about, Deb?"  Y'all are going to LOVE this! 

If you've been reading many blogs or been on flickr much lately, there's no doubt you've seen charm swaps popping up all over the place.  If you've been lucky enough to get a spot in one, you may even be swapping your little heart out already.  But - what if we took a charm pack, sent it around the country, let people choose the charms they wanted, had them replace the charms they chose with new charms, asked them to post about it and host a giveaway on their blog, and then have them send the new stack to the next winner?  How fun would that be?  The most fun, right?  I don't know about you, but I have a thing for charms.  When I started sewing it was probably one of the first things I fell hard for.  So many different fabrics in one 5" stack.  It's heavenly, don't you think?  I digress... 

I can't take even a smidge of credit for this.  I've mentioned it before...I'm not all that creative.  I'm always thinking "man, I wish I thought of that!"  The great thing is, I'm getting to know some of the amazing people that DO think of this stuff!!  The fabulous Diane of from blank pages came up with this fantastic idea of a traveling charm pack.  Click on the picture to get the whole lowdown -


In a nutshell, Diane had a giveaway last week (well, she had a LOT of giveaways...she was doing a lot of celebrating!) - one of them was for the traveling charm pack.  And, yours truly won it...I know, that in itself is reason to celebrate!  It's a prize with a twist.  You get the whole stack of charms, BUT  you have to make a few promises if ya want it (don't worry, these are promises you can keep!) -

• you must be an active blogger (so you can post about it and host your own giveaway!)
• you must reside in the US
• before sending the charm pack off to the next winner, you must be sure there are 56 - 5" x 5" squares of fabric in the stack - please no yucky fabrics
• to help keep the map updated, you must fill out the quick and easy form to let Diane know where you are!
• if the charm pack arrives full of unwanted charms, let Diane know and we'll clear it out and fill it back up with some more beautiful fabrics! 

So, you get the stack, pull out the ones you want, fill it up with gorgeous new charms to equal 56, post about it on your blog, have a giveaway, choose a winner, and send it on its merry way to your winner.  Then the whole thing starts all over again.  Diane's keeping track of its whereabouts and we can all follow it on her fab map - I wonder where it's going to end up next!

If this sounds like fun and YOU'D like a chance to win the charm pack, just leave me a comment...any comment will do.  One entry per person.  Mr. Random will choose a winner on Friday.  In the meantime, I'll be stacking and restacking and choosing and petting and swooning over the charms...there are some really good ones in there!  Good luck!

You Should Really Go Someday...

No big quilty news here today.  I have been sewing up some swap/bee blocks, but I haven't had a chance to take any pictures.  Six down, though, and 6 to go, so not too shabby!

Today is my wedding anniversary.  Paul and I got married on Turtle Island in Fiji 11 years ago.  It's one of those magical places that seems like it's only real in a brochure.  But, trust me, it's just as marvelous in real life.  I hope we can go back some day.  We've always said for our 20th...so, we'll see.  Here's what it was like -

Fabulous, right??  Yes, indeedy, it was!  Today my littlest guy and I had lunch with the man of the house - the food was delicious, but it was a little pricey at $11 for a club sandwich.  We're not huge "celebrators" so the rest of the day will be low-key.  I have a yumm-o dinner planned and I just baked a cheesecake for dessert.  Tomorrow night we have a sitter and we're going to a hockey game.  Can't wait for a date with my man!

Enjoy your weekend, everyone!  I'll be back to share my my sewing tidbits next week!

I May Have Pulled A Muscle...

...doing happy dances over the fantastic swap packages I received! 

The best things about swapping, I think, are meeting new quilty friends and getting to make something fabulous for someone else.  But, the bonus is that you get something in return!!  And boy did I luck out!

So I sent off two swaps recently...the For The Love of Solids swap and The Pillow Talk {Swap}.  My partners for those swaps received and loved their packages (or, at least they said they loved them, so they're super-sweet either way!). 

My FTLOS swap parter was the uber-cute Hope, of Going Sew Crazy.  She's had a lot going on lately so she wasn't able to post a lot during the swap...so that was really challenging, but I also felt like it gave me free reign (within her preferences, of course!).  I had a fabulous time making her pillow once I got going and got all of those pieces cut!  My swap package came over the weekend and I was crazy-excited to see that my secret partner was my very good bud, Whitney.  How awesome is that?  Even though we don't "know" know each other, we seem to have a ton in common, so of course she nailed it.  This is what was in my box:

So many lovely goodies!  I love the pillow cover.  I really need to run out and get a couple of pillow forms...this poor cover is sitting on my sewing table for the moment, but it can't wait to be upstairs on my couch!!  Isn't it just lovely??  Then Whitney goes and adds in some fabulous extras.  She made me penny fabric weights...I mentioned that I'd been meaning to make some but hadn't gotten around to it.  So, she did it for me!  What a great gal!  And the colored pencils?  Another great addition...I'd said that I'd been using the boys' crayons to color my sketches...that maybe I should get something for my very own.  Bam, now I have some!  She knew I wasn't going to get around to it.  She knew I was going to keep using those crayons.  Then there was a great sketch book, scraps, a cutie elephant, and Jelly Bellys!!  Paul and I toured the Jelly Belly factory years and years ago when we lived in California, so I always smile when I see them.  Anyway, all in all, a FANTASTIC package from a fab chiquita!

And then there was The Pillow Talk {Swap}.  My partner was the wicked talented FABRIC DESIGNER Mo Bedell!  Yeah, no pressure there.  I mean, this girl CREATES for a living...how the swap mamas thought I should make something for her still baffles me.  I pretty much consider myself NOT creative...maybe I should reconsider that??  Luckily Mo loved the pillow I made her so it's all good.  And, I got really lucky with my partner, Sue.  She made me an absolutely fab pillow...I love it!  Don't you?

Bright and cheery and scrappy...just my style!  Check out the free-motion quilting.  I'm so jealous of Sue's skills!  I really need to find some time to figure it out.  She also included an awesome zipper pouch and cute granny square mug rug (no way I'm setting a cup of coffee on that thing...it's hanging up on my wall with my other awesome minis).  Sue really got it right...the colors are just perfect for me and I just love everything about it.  I'll have to get a pic of the back when I get a pillow form (shame on me for not having any on hand!!)...she did an awesome job on the back, too!

So, there you have it...two fab swap packages all in a week's time.  Am I lukcy or what?  I'd say lucky for sure!!  I have two more swap wrapping up shortly - the Scrappy Mug Rug Swap and the Doll Quilt Swap.  I finished up my mug rug and I'll show that to you soon.  My doll quilt is still in my head, but it looks gorgeous in there!!  I'll be knocking that out after I work on some bee blocks this week.

I must find some stitching time today...it's so hard with a three year old who desires a constant playmate and the gorgeous weather!!