an announcement

My blog has clearly been in hibernation for quite awhile, and I've decided to make it permanent (at least for now).  I've never really enjoyed blogging, and I'm pretty relieved to not have the pressure to keep doing something I'm just not that into.  If you want to keep up with my crafting, you can check out my Flickr feed and add me as a contact.  I might get back into blogging someday, but for now, this is goodbye.  (Well, sort of - I'm not going to stop reading blogs.)  Happy crafting!

resolutions and goals

Awhile ago I made a list of some of my sewing goals for the new year, and I didn't post them because I wanted a chance to let them simmer in the back of my mind, to see if they were really things I wanted to commit to trying to do.  Well, I looked them over, and I think I still agree.

1. Quit being such a snob about fabric.  If it's cute (and it's quality), it shouldn't matter if it came from Wal-Mart or from the hands of Heather Ross herself.  Sure, I still prefer designer stuff, but I'm not going to look at everything else like it's somehow beneath me.
   
2. Be more creative in my fabric selections.  Specifically, quit making quilts out of fabrics that are all from the same line.  It's boring.
3. Do more with less.  With the weather being so cold, I'm often reluctant to take a trip to the store unless I really, really need to.  As a result, I've been working more and more with the supplies I have on hand, and I've been amazed to find that I can pretty much always make it work.  Plus, the less I spend on supplies, the more we can save for a house, or a trip to London, or a new camera.  Which brings me to...
4. Take more pictures.  I hate my camera, and I hate the quality of pictures it takes, and thus, I never use it.  Since the Christmas fairies missed my memo about wanting cash this year, I'm stuck with the camera I've got for the foreseeable future, and I'm determined to make the most of it.  (I've been utilzing Picnik more and more for my photo editing, and it makes a world of difference, but that's a post for another day.)

I really do feel pretty good about focusing on trying to do these things over the coming months, but I'm curious to hear your thoughts about these goals too.  Feel free to share!

incredible fabric find!

Check out this completely adorable Red Letter Day fat quarter bundle... from JoAnn's.  I kid you not!  JoAnn's!  Even better, it's not one of the bundles where they give you two designer prints and then pad the rest with junk they're just trying to unload (I'll admit to buying some Heather Ross that way this summer). This is five gorgeous fat quarters, just waiting to be made into an adorable quilt for a little boy.

Just to make matters even better, the cashier swiped a coupon for me (I didn't even have one of my own), so I got all this goodness for a whopping $5.00.  Too good to be true, except that it is!

Before you get too jealous, I'll tell you that there were two of these bundles at the ghetto-looking JoAnn's on the corner of MacKenzie and Gravois in St. Louis, and I only bought one of them.

Quilting for a Cause

If you haven't heard, Sew Fresh Fabrics (a great fabric shop on Etsy) has come up with a brilliant idea. They're putting together little bundles of scraps from their shop and sending them to 16 quilters.  Each person will make one block from the scraps and send it back to the folks at Sew Fresh, who will then assemble the blocks into quilts for charities.  That's it!  It's just a one block, one month, ultra short-term, ultra-manageable commitment.

This month there was so much enthusiasm for the project they were able to put together TWO groups to make quilts for Project Linus, and I was lucky enough to make it into the second group.  We'll be making a boy quilt, and I can't wait to get my scraps and get started!

If you're interested in joining one of the future rounds, you can just send them an e-mail to get added to the list!  Check out this post for more info.

Christmas in January

  

Jessica asked for Christmas themed blocks for her month in the KC Scrappy Bee.  (Thankfully her month was December!  I would have felt really weird making these in March!

She had the really genius idea of laying out the quilt on a 4" x 4" grid, meaning we could make blocks of all shapes and sizes (well, as long as the dimensions were divisable by 4), rather than just the standard 12" square.  Thinking about it now, I wish I had really embraced this idea and made a huge tower of presents, or a really tall skinny tree - when else will I have the chance to make a 4" x 24" quilt block?  (Actually, I might have the chance really soon, since I loved this idea and am seriously considering employing it for my month in a different bee.)

Side note: I showed these blocks to my husband, and he thought the elf was just another tree, lol.  I'm not sure where I went wrong, but you can feel free to embroider a face or add some arms, Jessica!