Simplify

Mmm... Swirly.

Ding! It's ready!  Fresh out of the Moda Bakeshop oven.  Head on over!

Fat Quarter Shop Friday

It's Friday, it's Friday!  Oh, I am so happy it is Friday.  However, dragging myself out of bed this morning?  I wasn't so happy about that.  It's been a loooong week.  This whole 'getting kids to school everyday' thing is hard work!

Luckily, I had a nice surprise in my inbox this morning, my Fat Quarter Shop Friday's Feature looked a little familiar, even with my blurry early morning eyes:

Look familiar?  It's my Pint Sized quilt, all kitted up in Simple Abundance!  Yum!

I was so excited about that, I almost forgot to check the Jolly Jabber.... but sure enough, today is Simple Abundance/Thimble Blossoms/Cotton Way day over there too.  (How lucky is that?)

In fact, they are having a fantastic giveaway that you just might want to check out.  Piece of cake to enter, too.   (Not actual cake.  Although that does sound delicious...  Mmmm..)  

So hurry on over, leave them some love, 

then go have a piece of cake.  It is Friday, after all.  (Hooray!)

Thanks FQS!

An afternoon with The Material Girls

I bet you didn't know that I spent the afternoon at The Material Girls Quilts up in South Jordan, Utah, did you?  

I didn't know either, but apparently, I did! 

We lunched at Cafe Rio,

and even stopped for a Route 44!  And that's just the beginning!

(Not only do they have about a zillion of my quilts on display right now, but rumor has it their Simple Abundance came today.  Wohoo!!  Go check it out!)

Seriously, when I saw this post I just about laughed my guts out!  (I was actually on the phone with my mother, who was laughing equally as hard)  Nadine, you are a nut!!!  Those crazy Material Girls, sure love 'em!  

Can't wait for my next trip!

Deck the halls

(Please excuse the frequent blog posting lately.  I'm not sure what has gotten into me!  Lots to talk about, I guess?)

It may be 100+ degrees and sunny outside, not to mention it is still the month of September... but any way you look at it, it feels like Christmas over here!

This morning I got an email asking about an ad with a peppermint pincushion.  That was all the reason I needed to hop in the car and speed over to Target.  I hurried back to the magazine section, grabbed the nearest Better Homes and Gardens Christmas Publication, flipped a few pages and...

found myself staring back at me.  Well, sorta.  The me in the magazine has her hair done, makeup, and wasn't wearing a hoodie.  I may have showed the guy at the checkout counter.  I'm pretty sure he didn't believe that it was me.  I can't blame him.  

I didn't expect this magazine to be out for another month, so I don't have the tutorial for that little pincushion quite ready, but watch for it later this week.  I'll keep you posted.

My extra large face aside, doesn't Simple Abundance look so pretty?  I was so excited to see it in such a fantastic magazine, and owe a HUGE thanks to Moda for taking such good care of me.  Love ya'll! (Texas.)  ;-)

When I got home from Target (with a giant bag of Reeses to celebrate) I found my weekly email from Fat Quarter Shop saying Simple Abundance was (finally!) in stock and ready to go.  Yardage, people!  HOORAY!  I've been waiting for this for... forever, it seems like.  Also, it should be arriving in quilt stores everywhere very very SOON.  Keep an eye out!

One more Christmas-ish tidbit- a brand new order of ric rac in green, red and aqua arrived today, and since I've lost track of how many people I'm supposed to notify when it comes in, I thought I'd give you the heads up here.  

Feel free to contact me if you need it in anything other than 3 yard increments, otherwise, you can find it over here in my etsy shop.

Oh, and to top it all off, I just saw this Christmas version of Abundance that Brittany Davis posted to thimbleblossoms.com (scroll down a little bit to the comments).  SO love it!!  Thanks Brittany!

Anything else?  

I'm off to finish up a Christmassy little pincushion, drink some hot chocolate (okay, maybe not), and crank up the Christmas music.  

Is September too early for a tree?

SWE

I'm lucky, I've mentioned this before.  Even luckier than I thought, really.  Why, you ask?  Because I spent last weekend getting to know two cousins I almost didn't even know, and I found out that I have some REALLY fantastic cousins.  Well, wives of cousins.  And cousins, since the menfolk stayed home to watch the munchkins of my really great newfound cousins.  

I'm not sure that made any sense, but that may be because I'm still recovering from the sewing weekend extravaganza, now referred to as SWE.  Too bad it isn't SEW, huh?

Cari and Nicole flew in for the weekend for the SWE, just to sew, hang out, and drink delicious Route 44's.  We most definitely did all those things.  Plus laughing until we cried, watching Dan in Real Life multiple times, and eating delicious food (thanks Jarom!)

On Saturday my pal Renee came over to join us.  Here she is working on a Jelly Filled out of Cotton Blossoms.  What can I say, the girl has exellent taste.  ;-)

Nicole spent the weekend sewing out of Figgy Pudding and making a beautiful quilt for her mom out of Aviary (which hopefully wasn't a surprise....) while entertaining the heck out of us.

I made Joanna's Jelly Girl quilt (LOVE IT, nice work Joanna!)  out of some Urban Chicks, Heather Bailey, and other random scrumptious...ness.  I also made a Birdie Sling by Amy Butler out of my leftovers.  I want to make one to match everything I wear.  Seriously.

And Cari sewed a lovely Glace table topper, her Jelly Filled blocks, a Wild Thing quilt top out of some Lila Tueller, and a darling bag.  She won the prize for being the most productive, obviously, and made sure we always had a million things to talk about. 

I could go on and on, but to sum up, it was a perfect weekend.  Thanks for coming girls, come again SOON, will ya?!! I've already got my next project figured out, and am just about caught up on my sleep...

Who's next?  :-)

Stippling up a storm

Looking for me?  I'm here, sorta.  Tonight I'm spending some quality time with my darning foot and Project Runway, and loving every minute of quilting this fun little project from last weekend's sewing weekend extravaganza.  (Hi Cari and Nicole!  Miss ya!)

While stippling my Fig Tree Jelly Girl quilt tonight, I had a few random thoughts about stippling, and thought I would try to cover a few of the questions I've gotten in emails lately. And in case you were wondering, I took these pictures earlier today when it was somewhat light out.  You know me and my flash don't get along.  

So about that stippling... 

In the past, I've quilted most of my quilts on my sewing machine, and only a few have gone to the quilter.  Why?  Because I absolutely love to quilt my quilts on my sewing machine.  Does my quilting look as pretty as it would if done by a professional long arm quilter?  Nope, not even close. But thats okay with me.  Because really, I think it is my second favorite part of quilting.  Second only to piecing.  I also love binding.  And cutting.  So pretty much every part of quilting minus putting on borders (eesh, borders...).  

So, how do you machine quilt?  I've covered this here and there in the past, but to start, check out my stippling tutorial over there on the right sidebar under tutorials.  (I'm not linking to it here, because I want you to know where to find it when you need it.)

The whole size thing... in my opinion, the bigger the quilt, the more difficult is is to stipple.  At least in my experience that has been the case.  As a rule of thumb, I personally draw the line at about 70".  Anything bigger than that goes to the quilter.  Because there is nothing better than really fantastic quilting done by a really fantastic long arm quilter.  And because I have really wimpy little muscles.  Really.

About that quilting on my latest quilts... lately, my deadlines have been so crazy that I enlisted the help of a very talented friend of mine.  The two Double Dip quilts and bibs I quilted on my machine, but Red Velvet and A La Mode were done by the amazing Andrea over at Christmas Goose.  She did an outstanding job. Did I mention she quilted them in a day so I could meet my deadlines?  Thank you Andrea!  I owe you big time!

Alrighty, so to sum up...  Stippling: TRY it.  You'll love it.  After all of your crazy, pointy, messy practice squares that is, if you are anything like me.  :-)   Long arm quilters: Find a great one, and enjoy the amazing, wonderful talent and all that goes with it.  Especially if you are a wimp like me.

Now if you'll excuse me, my sewing machine is calling my name...

The best kind of laundry....

.... is most certainly this kind of laundry:

 

The kind that is hand stamped, shiny, gorgeous laundry, and doesn't sit on your guest bed for a week month while you are trying to get around to folding it. (not that I would know anything about that...)

You'll love laundry too, just head on over here and enter "simplify10" at checkout for 10% off.  Really, do it.  You'll be glad you did.  Promise.  

Did you notice there is a onesie for the baby charm?  Seriously.

(photo stolen from lisa- sorry lisa!)

That Lisa Leonard sure is a genius.  She made me love laundry.  

And that, my friends, is nothing short of a miracle.

Random

Whew!  What a weekend!  So much to talk about, and so many hours behind on my sleep.  2 of my cousins (well, my cousin's wives... still cousins, right?) came to stay for the weekend, and we had the best time!  Well, I did.  I hope they did.  :-)  We worked away on all kinds of projects until the wee hours of the morning.  Every morning!  I'll post some pictures soon.  Promise.

There were a few things I wanted to mention today...

First off, my email was flooded over the weekend with sewing machine questions after I posted a picture of mine.  You guys are so observant!  I did upgrade machines a while back to a Bernina 430 and I love love LOVE it.  

The reason for the upgrade?  My hands just couldn't keep up with the blanket stitching I needed to do, so I finally broke down and got a machine that could do it.  And about 5 million other great things.  I would whole heartedly recommend it, and any other Bernina.  I have had nothing but great luck with mine so far.  Hope that helps you out!

Second of all, ALL the orders that have been placed for patterns new or old have shipped out.  Many of them went out on Friday, most of them on Saturday morning, and a few this morning that were waiting for a thing or two.  So watch your mailboxes, they should be there soon!

Speaking of new patterns, the third of all:  My mom's got new patterns posted on her blog, and her very first giveaway going on.  You'll have to go over to check it out, but I'll give you a hint about one part of the prize...

YES, a little red pincushion just like the one she made me.  I love mine!  Head on over! (Lovely little pins courtesy of the one who's not Miss Rosie herself.)

And lastly, (and just in the nick of time) today is Moda Lissa's 29th birthday, so if you haven't already, go over and wish her the happiest of happy birthdays.  Happy Birthday Lissa!

I think that just about covers the random for now.  Anything else I missed?  

Sometimes

Sometimes, I'm mothering, sewing, folding, shipping, cleaning, photographing, refereeing, emailing, dressed (!) and not cooking.

(this was a month ago when I got my haircut and my mom wanted to see. Also probably the last time it looked like this. I forgot to send it. What do you think, mom?)

And sometimes, I'm tired.

So tired that I wear my pj's to drop off and pick up my kindergartner.  

Today is one of those days.

And so was yesterday.  ;-)

(One more thing- thank you so much for all of the new pattern love.  You sure know how to make a girl smile.  Thank you.  Really. ) 

New, new, new, new, NEW (finally!)

Well, I've been saying it was coming for a while now, so without further ado, I present my 4 newest patterns...

A la mode

This first one is made from a Simple Abundance Layer Cake, and is one of my very favorites so far.  It is currently parked on the red polka dot chair, and couldn't be happier there.  

Double Dip

2 simple quilts, 1 Simple Abundance Layer Cake.  No templates.  Doesn't get any better than that! 

Little Bitty

4 sweet little baby bibs that are perfect for gifting, using, and of course, baby slobber.  Make some for your friends, nephews, nieces, grandkids, or your own babies!  

And in case you were wondering who that adorable little man is, it is my nephew Kai.  Could he be any cuter?  (Sorry, I've been listening to an unhealthy amount of Friends lately.)

Red Velvet

You may remember this picture of a red velvet cake I made back in... July, maybe?  It shouldn't be hard to remember, because I think it is the only thing I've ever posted on my blog that was baked/cooked/prepared in the kitchen.  

Anyway, it was the inspiration for this quilt, Red Velvet.

See any similarities?  And have I mentioned how much I just love this French General line?  Love it!  And Layer Cakes.  This is made from one too.  I have a problem. 

(The aqua is mixed in from Simple Abundance, because I know someone is going to ask.)

Alright, lets have it.  Any favorites?  Any least favorites?  (Please don't answer that).  

To celebrate all the new pattern-ness going on over here at Thimble Blossoms, for one week patterns in my etsy shop will be buy 3 get one free.  Any of 'em.  

All you have to do, leave me a comment letting me know what your favorite is, head on over and check them out at etsy, and leave a message in the 'Message to Seller' section at checkout with the name of the free pattern you want.  (Note:  Still waiting on the printing for the 4 new ones to come in, so they will ship next week.  Yes, I jumped the gun.  No, you shouldn't be surprised.)

Piece of cake.  

Layer Cake, that is.