Sooo, wanna see what I got for Christmas???…and What I'm Working on Now!

Hi peeps!

Each year, when we gather together for American Thanksgiving, it is a family tradition that we stick everyone's Christmas lists on my MIL's fridge. So, my Hubs suggested that I choose my own Christmas gifts(from him and the Kid) this year. To be fair, my Hubs was having a pretty busy time at work.

Woo-Hoo! Super-bonus points for him!!! Hee Hee Hee…

This was when all the great Black Friday sales were going on, so I clicked on over to Connecting Threads(a favourite on-line shop of mine) and went to town! 

I love how they label each piece with fabric name and your yardage cut

They had their books at 40% off and deep discounts on selected fabrics, patterns and notions. The purple print is called "Fronds".

The pretty drawstring bag and thread snips were from my Dad

I also got the Morroccan Tiles pattern that has been on my CT wish list for ages. I am thinking of pairing solids with small amounts of 'modern' fabrics for that one. 

That teal tool on the far right is a half square triangle ruler. I've had a 6"-long one for years, and needed the longer one to finish that Jumbo Prism Pillow I was working on in this post.

It was sure hard to not open that box when it arrived a week later!

I had been saving up so that I could take advantage of Craftsy's big after-Christmas sale. These table runner kits were bargain priced(about $6 each!), so I picked up 4(shown above). The kit contains 40 5" charm squares of Batik fabrics in the Punch colour line, plus a free pattern. I have been meaning to make a new runner for our coffee table and thought these bright citrusy prints would brighten the place up.

I opened up one package and started thinking about which squares to pair together, as I would like some contrast in each pair. I will be using two packages as our coffee table is quite large.

I surfed my stash and found the perfect fabric for binding. It is a cross-weave of two slightly different colours and will be perfect binding. The photo doesn't do it justice, it is more shimmery in person. Is shimmery a word? If not, it should be! hee hee hee

This is a half-yard piece, so if I cut my binding strips straight of grain instead of on the bias, I will have enough for the large table runner, as well as for one of the extra kits.

I started marking my sewing and cutting lines on the lighter squares, using my new half-square ruler and a black Frixion pen. It doesn't show up very well here I'm afraid, but is dark enough for me to see it while sewing. 

I am having a problem with my Frixion pens not working all that well…does anyone know what might be the problem and how I can fix it?

Click here to go directly to Craftsy!

Affiliate post:

Did you know that Craftsy is have a huge Winter Wonderland sale? They are offering up to 65% off fabrics/kits/notions and classes. The classes never expire and you own them for life, so you can go back a watch them as many times as you like! I have several! It is completely FREE to Join Craftsy.

Sale ends at midnight February 2, 2015 MST, so don't delay!

QUESTION OF THE DAY:

Tommorrow is Groundhog Day…will he see his shadow?

Comment below!

PS: I'd like to thank each and every one of you who emailed me to see if I was doing okay. I was having a difficult time health-wise, and lost my bloggie voice for several months.

Thanks for reading and have a great day!

Quilty Huggs,

Jacqueline

Happy Mail, an awesome sale and Work-in-Progress Wednesday

Hi peeps!

As you all know, I am a Craftsy Affiliate. I wanted to show you some of the great things they have on sale at the moment. 

This class has been on my wish list for a little while and is on sale for only $19.99(C$)! But not for long…sales change quickly on Craftsy.

FYI: all prices listed here are in Canadian Dollars. Prices will be even cheaper in the USA!

The Barcodes quilt kit is on Clearance for only $33.29 and comes in two colour ways. I bought the Boysenberry kit, as you can see below. 

This one is the Twisted Irish Chain-Granny Squares Kit, for only $41.62, which is  a great deal considering you get 15 fat quarters of designer fabric, Kona cotton in grey for the 'chain' pieces and a half yard for your binding.

Here is my happy mail!!! As you can see, the Barcodes kit in Boysenberry is rich and dark. A super-easy pattern, you could get it done in a day or less!

The Twisted Irish chain kit has some very modern colours that are a bit out of the box for me, but I am game to get it together. The pattern, by the wonderful Amy Smart, is sent to your patterns library in Craftsy, so that you can access/print it as many times as you like!

I got some pre-cut yardage of Kona cotton in Rich Red, White and Black. They are on sale for up to 35% off! They come nicely packaged in reusable zip bags.

Here are the pre-cuts I scored, at super prices! The Kona-white charm packs are $7.28 right now! Riley Blake small chevrons charm packs are only $5.20. I am keeping them to add a little bit of chevron to my scrappy hexie projects. 

The Bali Batiks are all sold out(see, things go very fast here), and the Riley Blake small dots and 1/4" gingham mini layer cakes are $10.20 and $6.84 respectively. I wanted to have a little bit of polka dots and gingham prints to add to various projects. I just love Riley Blake fabrics!

They have the super-popular Olfa Splash rotary cutter on for 20% off, now only $14.96.

Remember, it is fast, easy and FREE to join Craftsy. There are lots of FREE classes and independent patterns to try as well as a large Clearance section and 19 quilting classes on sale(at the moment).

Here's the link to join or sign in: Craftsy 

Website owners and bloggers: Join Craftsy’s Affiliate Program Today

So I got going on the Giant Hexie Flower Quilt I told you about last post. I thought I would save time and use fabric glue when I fold over the seam allowances, instead of having to baste all those seams to the thick poster board. I wanted to save my hands…and my needles!

I was going pretty good on the first seam, but when I had sewed the second petal on and had to switch direction to sew that petal to the centre(white) hexie, the glued seam allowance of the white hexie started to pop off. Grrr..

I managed, with the help of my handy Clover Clips. I used them to keep the seam allowances folded over and attached to the poster board. 

There were a few minor curses though.

This is the fabric glue I used, I am sure you can find it at most large fabric/craft stores. I would go ahead and use the fabric glue to hold the seam allowances to the Giant Hexie petals, but for the centre piece I would definately baste them down.

It only took me an evening of watching Luther on Netflix to get the entire Giant Hexie Flower done. Now, I am going to go a step further and hand appliqué the hexie flower to a 60", or similar, square of fabric. 

I am not sure I have enough of that orange mini bias stripe I showed you last post. We will see how it goes. I have three more of these cut out and ready to go, once I have appliquéd and removed the poster papers from the first one. If the appliqué doesn't work out, I will have 4 baby/lap quilts to give away or sell.

I want to thank you so much for supporting my sponsors! With my small commissions, I can purchase items/supplies for my self-sponsored giveaways. And we all want more of those, don't we!!! hee hee hee

Thanks for reading and have a great day!

Jacqueline

Showcase Saturday-Layer Cake Lemonade!

Hi peeps!

Today's post is brought to you by the generous folks at Fat Quarter Shop. They sent me this layer cake so I could do up a little demo of their Layer Cake Lemonade pattern. 

The link for the pdf pattern is here. 

They also have a great video on Youtube, which you can find here.

I chose the Mixed Bag layer cake as I thought the colours looked fresh and summery.

I did as the pattern suggests and separated my squares into two piles, one dark and one light.

 It turns out that you will have a few extra if you have a 42-piece layer cake, so if you were wanting to purchase a bali 40-piece one, you would still have enough squares to make the pattern.

I just tossed my completed rows on the floor as I was piecing them. I think they look like a happy mess!

I laid my finished rows on the floor(no room for a design wall), and played around with them a bit. I do admit that I took one of the skinny rows apart, and changed things up a bit. But that I just me being a Virgo!!!

These are my leftovers. I will use some of them to make cornerstones on my added border.

Here are the fabrics I will use for the borders(this is something I am adding, and not in the pattern). The orange will be a narrow 1/4" flange, then Kona-snow. The binding is a Caryl Bryant print from my 'old' stash!

This is the backing fabric I have chosen. The green binding will show nicely on this print.

Here is the completed quilt top, per the pattern. I will talk in greater length about adding a flange border in a later post.

I was on such a roll that I even got the binding pieced and pressed! I had to cut it a 2 3/8" as I only had about 5/8ths of a yard. As you can see by the little strip left, I had barely enough! Now I have another strip for my string quilt bag!

Thanks for reading and have a great day!

Jacqueline

Happy Mail and Some Sponsor News!

Hi peeps!

A few weeks ago, Craftsy had a free-shipping sale, and I was all over that, as shipping to Canada is surprisingly costly. So I got these two Fossil Fern 100-piece charm packs as I am planning to cut them up for hexies and make a large quilted tote bag. I have been checking out my books and cruising the internet, looking for that 'perfect' tote pattern! Does anyone have any ideas?

On payday, I headed on over to the Connecting Threads website, as I always have an open cart going! I had been hearing all about Amy Smart's book, Fabulously Fast Quilts all over blog-land, and since it was on sale, I bought it as well as two more copies of Katy Jones' 25 Quilt Blocks…to giveaway sometime soon!

I got 7 yards of this white-on-white print for my Impromptu quilt. I actually only need 6.5 yards, but as it was on sale for $3.56 a yard, I got extra. There is always a need for w-o-w prints here. Darn, as I think of it, I probably should have ordered more! I mean, how often do you see a w-o-w on sale?

Do you remember all the  4.5" squares I had started cutting with my Go Baby, for a paper bag quilt? I sort of stalled on it as I was kind of meh on having to cut a bunch of Kona-snow squares(I mean, how boring is that, anyway?). Then I got the Amy Smart book! The second pattern is this one(Fast Four Patch) and uses the same size squares, along with red and white strips, both of which I have on hand! Serendipity at it's best!

Lastly, I loaded up on the CT Essentials thread, which was on sale for $1.95 a spool. I use this for everyday sewing, machine piecing and English Paper Piecing. I never use my Aurifil thread for EPP shapes, as eventually, all the thread gets removed and thrown away.

As promised, here is a part picture of the purple Batik sheet I bought Saturday at the Caribbean Festival. You can see the Celtic cable border and hand-knotted fringe.

A close-up of the stencilled red turtles. I think they look happy!

My last bit of Happy Mail is from my sponsor, Paper Pieces. They sent me a small pack of hexagons and a small pack of tall triangles, as well as 2 mini charm packs, to be given away soon.  You can click the logo on my upper left border to go straight to their online store. Don't forget to use the savings code!

I have more happy sponsor news, but you will have to wait till next post to find out!

Thanks for reading and have a great day!

Jacqueline

A WIP, a Win, and the Caribbean Festival!

Hi Peeps!

It has been a long time..I KNOW…but the excessive heat we have been getting laid me low with an awful 5-day migraine…NOT fun! I did manage to get started on the HST's for the Jumbo Prism Pillow(link on the Cute Tute page), though.

Aren't those trimmings colourful?

These are the smaller HST's, all trimmed and ready for pressing. I have to finish up trimming the large triangles. They are a bit tricky, as I only have a long ruler that is wide enough. I better check on Massdrop to see if they have any there on sale!

I won this cute Yoko Saito pattern from a giveaway at see how we sew blog. You should check them out. If you go to the pattern page and scroll down, they have some free patterns too!

The Hubs and I went to the Caribbean Festival in Maple Ridge this past Saturday. It is an annual event, and we do try to go every year. We didn't have the teenager with us(out sunning on the beach with his friends), so were able to catch some shade in the beer garden while eating our (expensive) Jamaican Jerk chicken. It was really good, a treat I look forward to every year! It was smoking' hot and by the time we headed home, we were done. 

I did buy a large Batik sheet(purple, of course, with stencilled red turtles all over it). We will use it as a top sheet during the summer months. Show-and-tell next post!

I finally figured out how to rotate and crop my pics! YAY! The Hubs took this picture of a brave couple dancing in the street on a hot summer day. The young lady looked very warm in that pretty costume.

I have some Happy Mail to show next post and I received a surprise package from one of my sponsors…I think a giveaway is coming soon!

Thanks for reading and have a great day!

Jacqueline

A finish and some extra special Happy Mail!

Hi peeps!

I finally managed to finish the table runner I was making for my Dad's birthday. We are having him over for supper on Sunday, though his birthday is actually today. Link to the tutorial is on my Cute Tute Links page.

Here's a close-up of the quilting. I did 'in the ditch' for the side pieces and a continuous decreasing square in the center. 

I just love those cavorting chicks and chickens! Aren't they cute???

I backed it with an piece of Debbie Mumm fabric. I have been hoarding this scrap piece for ages, I think it was from one of her first lines! 

I had JUST enough, with a strip left over for my 'string' box…will make a string quilt one of these days...

Got some Happy Mail from Connecting Threads. They had a rare pattern sale, so I stocked up, and the 2 books were Clearance. 

I really need to make that Sit & Stitch pincushion. The arms of my easy chair are getting a real beating from all the pins and needles I stick into it!

More from Connecting Threads…I rarely buy kits as they tend to sit around and get lost in my sewing room. I really wanted this pattern(Wedges), and of course, the blue-green batiks were a must! The thread was on sale for $1.95 a spool, so I stocked up on some favourite colours. The lime and orange are being discontinued!

Spoiler alert: I wrote their customer service to complain about the many thread colours that sold out too fast for me to purchase…they got back to me to tell me they will give out a special coupon code(on this coming Monday) to all their customers who lost out, and the code will make the thread @$1.95 again. Not sure if they will give this code to everyone as I only got notification for it because I complained.

Now for the extra special Happy Mail!!! Soon after I started this blog, I contacted Mr. Alex Veronelli of Aurifil threads to see if I could get some samples to try and some to give away as well. The man is a sweetie and did not disappoint! Look at what he sent me!!! Those colour cards are a $30 value!!! The local UPS guy was impressed that we got something from far-away Italy!

I received 12 spools and I have chosen the spools I'd like to keep. I have 8 spools to give away! I will be having a giveaway soon…for 4 different people! Each person will receive a large spool, a small spool(curtosy of Aurifil of Italy) and a package of John James needles(curtosy of little old me!).

I am giving you a heads up, so you can get organized!!! I will have 2 conditions for this giveaway; you must follow me by email(that includes my Google+ and Bloglovin people!), and; you must comment and let me know what kinds of tutorials you would like me to show you. But not yet!!!

I will let you know when the giveaway is to start(hint: Maple Leaf) and you will have a few days in which to register. I am giving you time to put on your thinking caps, let your creative thoughts flow and think up tutorials...

I did do a tutorial recently, but am having a hard time attaching it to this blog! grrr…

Thanks for reading and have a great day!

Jacqueline