Sometimes You Just Need A Friendly Nudge……Schnibbles, Christmas and Star Finishes!!!

  Last week when I had the blahs, Darlene suggested I pick a project and work on it….that was very good advice!!  Then she also suggested we both work on our Schnibbles for the month, encouraging each other to finish.  More good advice!!!  This months pattern was Dimestore.  I used Monster Bash by Moda.  Such a fun easy pattern to do..Miss Rosie strikes again!  Another great pattern. Now I’m excited to see what Sinta and Sherri pick for September.  Thanks for the great advice Darlene!!!

“Two blocks a month” was Terry’s idea for the Scrappy Stars Group…August is the first month. 

Tonight I finished block one, and part of the second.  Tomorrow I will complete block two and post an update here!!!   Such a fun block to make, and I can’t believe I’m actually cutting in to my 30’s stash. UPDATE…9:45 p.m. 8/31, second block done!!  Whewwww, under the wire…YIPPPPEEE!!!

 

Month eight is a wrap for Christmas Through The Year.  At the beginning of the month I made three more Ten 

 

Minute Table Runners.  Then tonight I put the binding on a Christmas

 

quilt that I made last November….once again, why didn’t I do that last year?..hmm!  Oh well, easy peasy presents for me this month!  The  Christmas quilt will count as a finish for Sew It’s Finished.  If you are playing along with  Christmas Through The Year remember to link up over at Darlene’s.  Saturday I will pick this months giveaway winner.   OK, that’s a wrap for me…I’m tuckered out from all this catching up I did today!!!  Happy weekend everyone.

May I Introduce you To Mr. Frank…..

  ……that would be Mr. Frank N. Stein (eyes and stitches to follow after quilting)!.  The back story…..I emailed my partner in crime, Darlene, and told her I had the case of the blahs.   Her advice… pick a project that is ready to go, something fun, and get to working on it!!!!  I won this Mr. Frank N. Stein kit at camp a couple years ago and have had him all cut out.  He has gone back and forth to a couple other camps, and sadly I never worked on him.  So with Darlene’s friendly advice, I pulled him out and got the top pieced!  I would have never picked that wild shirt fabric, but I’m thinking he’s a wild kind of dude!!  Thanks and hugs Darlene for being such a good bloggy friend!

I was the very lucky winner of a giveaway at Carol’s…this sweet 2 1/2 square charm pack of Christmas Spirit.   I already have a plan for them…a couple candle mats for Christmas presents.  Carol had the most wonderful Christmas in July parade….a project every day.  Have a peek here at what she made.  Now starting this week, she is doing a week of Fall/Halloween!!!  I can’t wait to see what she has in store for us.

Now I’m excited….two Christmas quilts back from the quilters just waiting for binding!!  Couldn’t help myself, I just had to put polka dots on the back of one!

We are heading in to our last week of August and another Christmas Through The Year giveaway.  Darlene will have Mr. Linky up on the 31st and we can’t wait to see what goodies you have made this month.  Happy week everyone!!!

Tutorial Monday and Stuff

So we decided to escape the heat and camp at the beach…..with the whole family!!  My girl and her guy for a short bit, but at least we were all there together for a bit.  So fun…….. here’s The Dots having breakfast and no doubt discussing what’s ahead for the day!  We took a day and went to the San Diego Zoo.  My sister in law, niece, nephew and their boyfriend/girlfriend also joined us.  

We were lucky enough to get to feed the giraffes.  Here’s my girl with a bucket of biscuits,

and my neice with a very

hungry friend.

 

Next we were off to visit the Koalas…Big Dot can hardly believe it and Little Dot with his

 

 

mommy was so excited and really, really wanted to touch that Koala!!!!   Here’s our guys hanging out at the zoo playground….notice the wet hair…..it was SO HUMID, we were all dripping.    Even so,  the day was

so perfect and ended with a fun train ride for the boys and their mom and dad.

Sewing, nothing here…too much playing this week for me!!  I do have some wonderful tutorials to share with you.  Thanks once again to the crafters for sharing their pictures with us, and please give a shout out to them on your blog if you use any of their tutorials.

From Tam at Sew Dang Cute Crafts is this sweet tutorial for these super duper cute pot holders. 

Amy at Ameroonie Designs has a sweet tutorial for this

 

wonderful Side-Tie Pillow that was featured on Gwenny Penny.  Love those bows!

 

Melissa at Melissa Stramel has a great tutorial for a Child’s Activity Bag as featured on Moda Bake Shop.

The mother/daughter team of Lisa and Sarah from A Spoonful Of Sugar have done it again.  First a tutorial for this sweet Felt Luggage Tag…..love that star!!!  Second, a tutorial for these pretty

 

 

Lavendar Wheat Bags.  You can almost smell them through the computer!

Here we are, month 8 of Christmas Through The Year.  The group is open to everyone…no sign ups, just jump in when you can.  Make a gift and link up to Darlene at the end of the month and your name will be entered in a drawing to win a prize…this months giveaway is a hand painted summer pillow.   Now the fun part….Darlene and I are shaking our pom poms like crazy, cheering you on so you will have some gifts made and done for Christmas….I know the vision you must have in your head!!!!   Happy week everyone.

Whine Alert!!!!

It’s kind of like don’t look at the TV while we show you the Olympic results, but this involves me whinnnnnning!!!!  IT’S TOO DARN HOT….108 for a few days and no cooling down.  Kind of like a blast furnace going….ok, I’m better, thanks!!!

The Dots were here a couple days for a sleepover, always fun.  There’s was lots of playing and swimming in the pool.  Then there was some cleaning I had to do.  Ok, don’t judge me,  but I enlisted Little Dot.  He is really good at dusting the stairs and he even really, really likes doing it.  So it made a yucky job really fun.  Instead of a Dust Buster I have a Dust Buddy :-)!!!!!

Is it only me, but when it comes to getting backs and batting cut and ready for my quilts to be quilted I am a huge procrastinator!!!  Plus, both these quilts have so much white, I clipped and clipped threads from the back but it just seemed I didn’t make any progress.   They are packed up and off to be quilted.

Here we are almost mid month and it’s my turn for the giveaway.  This

 

 

months giftie is this cute summer pillow, not made by me, but a crafter at one of our local handcrafted stores.  All you need to do is make a Christmas gift and link up to Darlene’s blog on August 31st and your name will be in the drawing.  I decided today to make a few simple Ten Minute Table Runners.  I won the gingerbread fabric at quilt camp and the red fabric was 40% off at JoAnns, so three very reasonable  Christmas gifts.  You can find the tutorial here.  Here’s a close up of the gingerbread guys.  They even have a little glitter on them.  Such a fast, easy gift!!!

Wishing you all a great weekend, and thanks again for listening to me whine :-)!!!

Camp Report, Our Birthday Boy and Tutes

First off…..blogger and I aren’t getting along.  I have fought  posting these pictures all day, so sorry if they aren’t quite lined up where they should be!!!!!

Camp was fun, fun, fun …..22 quilters, and four days.  We had to have a snack table, even though we were fed three HUGE meals each day.

 

 

 

Our wonderful sewing space with great light….

 

some time for fun and games.  CLR with fat quarters  WOOHOO!!!

And some time to just be silly …..Karon and Robin dancing for us!! Lots of time to sew and share beautiful quilts .

 

 

 

 

A wonderful four day getaway for Trudy and her daughter…..

 

 

 

And my very most favorite picture.  Our sweet friend Ruth with her beautiful block of the month but the best part …..having her five months of Chemo behind her and having her at camp with us.  We love you Ruth and are so proud of you!!!!

I am happy to report a few camp finishes for me .  A Christmas ornament quilt out of Vintage Modern, and Halloween pillowcases for The Dots.   There were also lots of quilt projects the camp committee kitted up for us.  There are a group of us getting together in October to work on them.   These vinyl pouches were one of the projects…..made by our friend Lyla.

Yesterday was Big Dots birthday…can you believe it, he’s four.  Where has the time gone?!  I had bumped my camera and had it on the wrong setting, so most of the pictures didn’t come out, but here is our big boy with his mom saying a big “thank you” for his presents.  Love him to pieces for sure.

I know some of us are dealing with major heat this time of year, but even so we had 15 people making wonderful gifts for the month.   Darlene and I are so happy you are playing with us.   It sure is hard to think Christmas with 100 plus temps, but I keep reminding myself how nice it will be to be ahead of the game come December.  Hope you join us this month.   Here are some super tutes I thought you might like.

From Lorraine at ikatbag there is this super cute tutorial for a Hallway House.  OMW,  just think how you could personalize this!!

I love aprons, and Maureen at Maureen Cracknell Handmade has this super duper Four Fat Quarter Apron tutorial……I’m thinking Vintage Modern :-)!

I was lurking around one day and came across this wonderful site, The Southern Institute….WOW…so much wonderful info and so many, many wonderful projects.   Jenny has guest crafters that are featured there and Larissa from mmmcrafts shared this wonderful tutorial for the Mini Memo books.

Amanda at Material Girl Quilts has a great tutorial for a Business Card holder.  What wonderful gifts these would make.

I think coasters are another fun gift to give and Bari J. has this great tutorial for these String

 

Block quilted coasters.  Love how they are quilted.

Another great gift …. oven mitts and this one  is sweet as can be…. Cindy at Skip To My Lou has a wonderful tutorial that she is sharing with us.

A huge giant thank you to all the crafters for sharing their pictures and tutorials with us.  If you do decide to make gifts using any of these tutorials and post the project on your blog, please link back to the crafter.

Wishing you all a very happy week!!