Schnibbles~Tuffets~

I've been busily sewing pincushions aka Tuffets today for the scheduled Tuffets Parade  tomorrow.  It's been quite a challenge to find any time to go into my neglected sewing room this month, what with getting ready for Christmas, shopping, and getting re-acquainted with The Dean's List Daughter *insert Mom beaming here* home from college!

I only made three raiding my scrap basket...

 

 

 

The last one is two-sided and not a Tuffet but just something improvised.  I filed it in the back of my mind when I spotted it in my travels around the blogs.   I will agree with other bloggers, they are addicting to make!  I rarely use them though as I am rather impatient with pins and usually just use a container I picked up at Joann's on clearance a  few years ago.  I like it because it heavy and stable and just the right size for portability.

This is really lazy but I consider it too much work to stick them into the pincushion and would rather throw them into the container. 

And look at this, I was a winner at The Fat Quarter Shop's Dear Santa Giveaway last week!    I'm looking forward to receiving this bundle in the mail!  I won the whole bundle!  Thank you Fat Quarter Shop, they are the greatest!  Hope you all have a festive and safe New Year's Eve.  See you next year!

Merry Christmas!

May you have the gladness of Christmas which is hope; The spirit of Christmas which is peace; The heart of Christmas which is love.
~ Ada V. Hendricks

Merry Christmas everyone!

Owl Love

I've had owls on the brain ever since I saw my first ones a few days ago, right across the street from our house. And look what I ran across this morning at Jessica Levitt's blog. I think you'll agree these are a must-make any time of the year. I think I need to order some felt.
Talk to you later.

Dear Santa

• 

Have you seen the very clever giveaway at the Jolly Jabber? Here's my letter,
Dear Santa,

I'm hoping when you make a stop at the Fat Quarter Shop you bring me something good, like...

or maybe,

I'll leave it up to you and the elves at the Fat Quarter Shop to decide. I figure you brought me some really well, duds in the gift department through the years and now it's make-it-up-time. I really don't want to embarrass you by going public with the details, but what happened to that pony back when I was eight? And what was the deal with all those pajamas? Anyway, what's past is past, when you stop at the Fat quarter shop keep me in mind, will you? You know I've been good!
Love,
Mariannne

New Winner

What gives with Blogger, I continue to have problems uploading pictures. First I cannot get the popup box and then it takes for-ev-er to do its job. Is anyone else experiencing this?
Well, I got my yellow thread and finished up quilting the fabric for the main part of the bag.

And also picked up a few fat quarters of Attitude Girls. The colors are so rich, the red so luscious. I highly recommend them! I am definitely not buying any more fabric come January!

Here's the red for the gusset part of the bag. I finished quilting that today also.

I need help with this blue. It's for the handles and I cannot decide which way is the correct way, the right-side up way. The selvedge calls it a foulard, but is there a right way to it? In other words,a fleur de lis has a right way, does this foulard? What do you think is right, this way, or...

this way?

I never heard from the winner of the SMS Giveaway so another was chosen, it's

Kelly who posted at 12/02/2009 7:53 PM

Thanks again to everyone who participated. Talk to you later.

How I Spent My Monday

I started this bag today by making the quilted fabric, or I should say starting to make the quilted fabric. Every time I make a quilted bag I say never again as the fabric seems to take forever and then I had my scrap basket (overflowing) right near my sewing machine and a scrap got caught right under the fabric I was quilting and arrgh!!! Yup, that stupid scrap got sewn right to my quilted fabric. Such an unpleasant surprise when I flipped it over! It only messed up 2 rows and they are all fixed now. Am I the only one who does goofy things like that?

The pattern shows an all-over design but I usually quilt it like the Vera Bradley bags. I have a full yard to do for the main part of the bag and one half yard for the gusset.

I'm feeling a bit trepidatious about the upcoming zipper. I've made a fair amount of bags but all the tote variety. I hope it's not too scary! I'll let you know how that goes.


The fabric is a Michael Miller from 2000 or so. I have a matching red floral and a blue. Pictures of those next time. All three are very French Provence looking.

I've got three quarters of it quilted but am going to have to buy more thread tomorrow. That should prove dangerous as Tuesdays are Fat Quarter sale days at my LQS and have you seen the new Moda line Attitude Girls? Mere pictures do not do it justice. I am going to try and be strong but my willpower is not bottomless...
Talk to you later!

Sew, Mama, Sew Giveaway Day Winner

Sorry for the delay but Blogger for some reason was misbehaving and I could not post anything! After fiddling with it for too much time I got out of Firefox and that seemed to fix things.
I want to take this opportunity to thank you all for participating in my SMS Giveaway. It was my first time! I am just blown away by the number of comments. I blog hopped, too, and it was so much fun, seeing the variety of giveaway items and the various blogs I'd never visited before.
On to the winner, I entered the numbers to the Random Number Generator and

CAlili

"I second Bea's post. Cluck, cluck, sew has a nice way of putting them together. Thank you for the giveaway."

was chosen. So, CAlili email me with your address so I can get the giveaway to you as you left no way for me to contact you! If I do not hear from you by Wednesday, Dec 9 by 5 pm I will pick another winner.
Once again, thank you all for stopping by and taking the time to leave a comment. I really appreciate it.

Lady Luck

As I mentioned in a previously, I've decided to play along with the crew at Sew, Mama, Sew and participate with their Giveaway Day!. I will take comments through December 6 EST and then using the Random Number Thingy chose one winner. I will ship internationally. Here's the deal, I participated in a disappearing 9-patch block swap and am clueless about what to do with my blocks. I have 100 blocks and they are about 6 inches square. To be eligible for the Giveaway prizes your comment must offer a suggestion/idea as to how to sew the blocks together. You can leave a link in your comments if that helps to clarify.



More pictures to give an idea of what I have to work with. A lot of red!




Here are the prizes for the lucky individual. A panel of Santa's Got the Goods, or I should say a half panel to make the quilt in the included instructions I'll send along. The colors are easy to match with other lines so I do not think that will be a problem as I know this line is not "current".



An Alex Anderson pattern.



Two charm packs of Moda's Full Moon Forest. And a small handmade trinket box that I got in Russia this July. It's just the right size for pins, buttons, or whatever.



Here's a closeup. It's a sweet little box, lid comes off to reveal a gold interior. So there's your assignment! Happy blog hopping and good luck to everyone! Remember Sew, Mama, Sew has a master list of all the Giveaway Day! participants.

Check out

Here are the pictures of my purchases at the quilt show last month in West Palm Beach. I bought more than I thought! Isn't that always the case? This is a new line by Pamela Mostek called Piccadilly made by Clothworks, purple, olives, browns, and yellow. I love it. I bought all 16 fat quarters in the line.

I realized I was in desperate need of neutrals when I decided to do the Red and White Snowball Quilt Challenge at Fat Cat Quilts. The other fabric was just so nice.

And how could I resist these? The designer, Susie Robbins, had the best booth at the Merchant's Mall. She was quite a character, complete with red and white striped frames for her glasses, reminded me of Freddy Moran, not that I've met her.

The line is called Bejeweled by P & B. They are so rich and opulent looking.

More badly needed neutrals. I think I can stop now!

I got these on the way to the show. The shop had a sample made up and because I was the first purchase of the day I received 20% off everything. That was a pleasant surprise.

And a few patterns from assorted vendors.
Thanks for visiting.

November Schnibbles

This is the pattern the Year of Schnibbles participants made during November. For some reason I just could not get enthused about this pattern. Maybe it was the coming holiday. I certainly can't blame the weather as it remains quite summery here. I did finally decide on using a vintage yellow-with-cherries fabric I bought from eBay a few years ago for one of the baskets. After that was decided, all the other fabrics just fell into place.

This is the first time I have used a pattern where you had to trim the units to a smaller size. All I can say is t-e-d-i-o-u-s.





This is the vintage fabric I mentioned earlier. I love it! Oh, and then to compound my lack of motivation, I did not notice that I pressed one seam wrong in making each basket so when I sewed the blocks together, one seam did not abut properly.

All in all, I'm pleased with the way it turned out, but then again, it has all of my favorite colors. Be sure to check out the Parade of Schnibbles tomorrow at Sherri's and Sinta's blogs. I know I will!

Giveaway Day

Hope everyone had an enjoyable Thanksgiving spent with Family and Friends. I am feeling withdrawal pains as my daughter left this morning for her flight back to St. Louis and college life. Just a quick post to let you know about Giveaway Day sponsored at Sew Mama, Sew. I had a lot of fun blog hopping during last year's event even though I didn't win a darn thing.


I thought I'd participate in the Giveaway this year so be sure to visit here beginning December 2.

Happy Thanksgiving

“Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.”
~ Melody Beattie

A friend sent me this quote which I think epitomizes the essence of the holiday so I thought I'd share it with you. I hope you, your family and friends have a happy, healthy, and safe Thanksgiving.

Part Two

Sorry for the delay in posting these. A few hours after I got home Sunday evening I started to feel like I was coming down with something, but happy to report I feel great today! I did do a bunch of shopping, stopping at a quilt shop on the way, shopping at the vendors, shopping in West Palm Beach, and finally stopping at one of the few quilt shops open on Sunday on the way back. That feels like a run-on sentence but I am going to let it go as I've got loads of stuff to do today. Pictures of my loot next time! My one complaint about the show was lighting. Good gosh, it had those sodium-vapor way high up on the ceiling lights that really didn't illuminate very well. When I used my flash, the colors would get washed out, but just looking at the quilts was a chore for my eyes. Thankfully a large number of vendors planned ahead and brought incandescent spotlights for their booths ~ did you know that incandescent light bulbs will be banned in 2014? I'm not too happy about that as what replaces them gives out less light and comes with additional problems. Anyway, on with the show, don't forget you can click on the pictures...







This was very striking and unusual! Raw edge applique for the pins.











The cucumber slice was the size of a salad plate and was three dimensional. The quilt was part of a challenge to interpret hot or cool in a quilt.


This quilt was huge and so colorful! It won Best Use of Color.





This also won a ribbon.











The red line is one of those red velvet ropes to keep you from getting too close, this was so striking in person, the colors so very brilliant, my daughter was a little annoyed when I told her a guy won Best of Show, LOL.






Thanks for stopping by!