A quilt-a-long

I decided to join Vicki's quilt-a-long. I bought some fabric (a jelly roll and some fat quarters) on black Friday that I'd been trying do figure out how I wanted to use. When I saw her Simple Squares quilt-a-long, it seemed perfect. Vicki's fabulous! She's a super talented mom of 3, who sews, quilts and knits beautifully. Oh, and we've been friends for about forever. We met in college and have stayed good friends across years and miles. If you like to sew, check out her blog, with tons of inspiration and some nice tutorials, too. Here are my fabrics (I think there are a couple missing in this photo)...

and my 1st three blocks...

A winner, and a CT ending

First off, by very scientific method of letting my son pick a paper out of a bowl, jenn33199 won my little give-away. It was fun to read about everyone's good things happening recently! Thanks for playing along. Jenn, drop me an email (dielledl AT gmail DOT com) or leave a comment with your email address and let me know which of the kits/packs you wanted and I'll send you a download link.

Now on to sadder things (but a good deal for template lovers), Sine is quitting designing. I've been on her CT for about a year and a half or more. I love her templates, they're playful and fun. And using templates makes my scrapping so much faster. Plus, being on a CT and having a monthly scrapping requirement has been really good for keeping me scrapping when I could otherwise put it on the back burner with designing and other stuff. So I'm just sad all around. But the benefit to all of you is that EVERYTHING in her shop is just $1. And she's even brought back her older, retired stuff. So check it out! Click on the graphic above to go to her shop.

So I was reading my blog...

My daughter Sage is so incredibly creative. She's always making up wonderful drawings, crocheting this or that, etc. So she decided she wanted a blog to show off to friends and family. I helped her set it all up, then she was looking through my blog to see how I've done stuff and get ideas. Watching her reading my blog, I realized I haven't posted about most of the recent scrapbook designs I've created. I think I'm just out of the habit of things, creating less than I was before Spencer was born. So here are a few things, for those who've been wondering what I was up to design-wise... (click in the previews to go to them in the store)

ETA: I'm turning this into a give-away. Leave a message telling me what's the best thing that's happened to you this week and I'll randomly pick one to get the kit/pack of their choice from this blog post.

Kickin' Around, a playful soccer (football for those not in the US) kit I created to show off my cutie Adam's soccer photos.


Here are the papers...


And the start of my Live Wire series... a fun, new series of wire bits of this and that. These are actually my most recent creations, and I have at least 3 more sets coming. The date elements are only available in Club Click right now, at Inspiration Lane. What a deal that is. For just $5, you get 10 exclusive products from 5 IL designers. It's like a giant grab bag, only you get to see what's in it. Half the things are available on the 1st of the month and the rest by the 20th. Plus you also get the current Daily Download kit, all at once. For an even better deal, you can subscribe for 3 months for just $12.


Coming in an IL storewide grab bag this weekend (sh, don't tell I told), is the set of coordinating frames. These will be for sale on their own next week. Isn't Spencer a doll in that Santa hat?


Driving down the freeway I saw a billboard that looked nothing like these Date Jumbles, but somehow it sparked the idea of them. I remember the moment, but for the life of me I can't remember the billboard.


And I think I posted about one of these sets, but I have a series of Painted Papers that I just love...

Cleaning the beast

My sewing room is so unbelievably chaotic. It's never been great, because when we first moved in I didn't have much of any decent storage. So random plastic tubs morphed into piles and spills and avalanches of fabric. Add to that having a houseful of wonderful kiddos, and I'm in and out to get projects done, and don't spend time on straightening any of it. But this last year Fred bought and put in some great wall cabinets and shelves. I love it! Still, the mess was overwhelming, and I didn't quite know where to start.

Recently, I came across an online quilt festival from last autumn. And as I've been admiring the hundreds of amazing creations, I've seriously caught the quilting bug. I'm determined to figure out machine quilting (after some serious crashing and burning with my previous tries), and I'm going to make a few bigger quilts. Trey saw a Whirlygiggle quilt over my shoulder and said how cool he thought it was. So that's up for his birthday. And I'm totally in love with strip quilts, especially this stunning kaleidascope style with the white borders through each block. I'm going to make one for my bed. I imagine that it will be quilted in straight lines with the walking foot on, because I can't quite wrap my mind around stippling something that large without a long arm.

And my carseat cover inventory is quite low, so I need to start sewing together a bunch of the ones I've got all cut out.

BUT, the disaster in my sewing room has been totally daunting. Getting anything sewn for Christmas was a major undertaking because of it. So today I dove in. Sorry, I'm not taking a before photo. I'm too embarrassed. But when it's all nice, hopefully in the next couple days, I'll post the after pic so you can oooh and aaah!

So there are my new year's resolutions. No losing weight, getting rich or other silly things. It's all about sewing for me. Though as an aside I have lost 6-7 lbs in the last 2 months by doing nothing other than switching to always eating meals from a small plate. I'd read that it was a good way to help keep from over eating. Amazingly, It's really working. I still sometimes have 2nds if it's really good or I'm super hungry, but most of the time when my plate is clean, I'm comfortably full so I quit. Hooray for me!

Quickest clothing I've ever sewn!

I bought this tiered denim skirt last year and have hardly worn it. It was just too long, dusting the tops of my toes. Back in my svelter days, that look was ok. Now, it's horrid. So last Sunday, I ran upstairs before church and serged off the bottom ruffle/tier. Then quickly folded over & sewed that serged edge and the skirt was perfect. Please ignore the fact that I'm desperately in need of a pedicure...

No, that's not what the title is about.

So yesterday, I was up there to iron shirts before my children's piano recital (Sage, Trey and Adam were all amazing, btw!!!) and saw that ruffle just lying in a heap on my tracing/cutting table. I pulled out some cute fabric and hollered for Sabrina. I held it up to her to find a decent length, snipped and tore a strip. Then I wrapped it around for a measurement (using that word very loosely, because I didn't really measure anything), snipped and tore crosswise to make a rectangle. Then I did the same for Sydney (though twins, they're vastly different sizes). Because I'd serged the ruffle off above the seam, it was still nicely gathered. I pinned to a rectangle and serged it together just above that previously sewn hem, cutting it off in the process to remove bulk. Flipped it and topstitched. Serged the top edge and side seam, folded over a casing and quickly ran elastic through. Tada! Two skirts made in less than 20 minutes. They wore them last night and again today to church.

The funny part was after getting dressed in the matching skirts and matching white tops, they were standing together admiring their new skirts. Sydney pointed down at them and said, "Look Mom, we're twins!" LOL!