TNT Thursday gets Wet

So 2 things I tried new.  One "quilty" goodness related.  One absolutely not.

First.  Remember when I showed this pillow a few days ago.  Yup, it is the one that is part of the designer's challenge for Fat Quarterly.  Well this was the first time I had ever tried making an envelope pillowcase.  Crazy huh!!!  It was so super easy.  Now I want to start churning out pillows for every seat in the house.  (Although the WIP list is a little long so maybe I should hold off on that :)  

Second.  On Saturday I competed in a Triathlon.  Now before you go all "Wow, that is amazing" I should clarify.  It was a team triathlon and the sprint distance.  My husband has always wanted to do Triathlon's but swims like a rock.  I swam in high school (some 15 years ago, mind you :) So when he found this little "fun event" he asked if I would swim so he could be part of it.  What could I say.  

About 4 laps into it I was dead and wishing I would have said No Way!!!! (unfortunately 4 times in the pool to "practice" before the event was not anywhere near enough to getting me into shape, who would have guessed that?? :)   But about 4 hours after I was happy we were able to do it together.  My husband absolutely loved it.  And now he has hopes for us each competing our own.  He just has to learn to swim and I just have to learn to get my tush out of bed in the morning to try to get back into somewhat decent shape :)  Wish us luck :)

So what did you try new this week???  Let's see!!!!

WIP Wednesday - The Nursery Edition

Thanks to my Mother staying with me last week I actually have some works that got progressed :)  And I have to say Thank You to my mother as it was mostly her work.   The new Baby Nursery went from bare to almost completely finished in just  few days.

Here is an awful picture of the adorable curtain my Mother whipped up.  It just needs a tie back for the long curtain.  Isn't it just so adorable :)

And this is the crib bedding.  My mother put together the bumper pads and crib skirt.  They are so cute and have the added bonus of being much taller than the old set so that my wonderful 2 year old can't climb up the side and poke her sleeping sister any more.

And this is what I have been working on.  This is  fun disappearing 9 patch pattern I came up with.  There will be 2 sets of block like this to make the crib quilt.  I am hoping to get some time soon to finish it up :)  And then the nursery will be pretty much done.  It just needs a chair rail :)

So that's what I have been doing.  Now for the rundown :)

Designing Stage

• Baby Quilt for Special new Niece arriving in March 
• Baby Quilt for Special new Niece arriving in April
• Baby Quilt for Special Nephew arriving in April
• Circle Meets Square Quilt
• 4th of July Table Runner for Sister-In-Law 
• Christmas Tutorial
• Sewing Summit Projects  - Bee Bolt Block and Bag Makeover

Piecing Stage

• Stars Quilt-A-Long
• Hugs and Kisses Quilt for Grandma
• Going Places Quilt
• High Flying Quilt
• Nursery Crib Quilt
• Cottage Crossroads Baby Quilt

Quilting Stage

Completed Stage

• Nursery Curtains, Bumper Pads, and Crib Skirt.

Stashing It Up :)

I went to JoAnn's the other day to pick up some Perler Beads for the kiddo's for Christmas.  I decided to just waltz on over to check out the clearance section to see if there might be some fabric I could use to make my front room curtains.  There normally isn't that great of a selection but every once and a while you get lucky.

And this day was a lucky day. (Not for the curtains mind you, but quilting lucky :)   It just so happened that they were taking an additional 50% off of the clearance price and had just stuffed the shelves with  ton of the cotton prints that they were clearing out. (including a bunch of Fall prints, yippee skippee!!)  At $1.50 to $2.00 a yard you just can't pass up these stash builders.

So that leads me to a discussion.  What's your take on Designer Lines (Moda, Riley Blake, Westminster, ect.)  verses Fabric Stores (JoAnn's, Hobby Lobby, Hancock) ??  And this is just purely my curiosity.

My take - I love working with the Designer line fabrics.  Especially pre-cuts.  They are so much fun and you get such a great variety of prints.  And I do think the quality of the designer lines are better as well.   They are easier to work with, feel better, and hold up better after washing.  And often, I can find great sales at on-line stores that make them very reasonably priced.  So basically, I reach for the designer fabrics first.

However, with that said,  I am not above scoring some "good quality" fabrics at a killer deal. I use these fabrics for all kinds of projects and even though they are not quite as nice to work with and might not hold up as long, I still like the end results.

So that's my take (and it's just my personal opinion, I don't want to open a can of worms here :)

 . . .  What's yours???

Fat Quarterly Issue 7 and I'm in It, Squeal!!!!

 A little while back I received an invite to participate in the Fat Quarterly designer's challenge.  I was so totally excited to be asked and even more so to participate in the challenge.  It was so much fun!!!!  Thanks again to Fat Quarterly for the invitation!!

The theme for Issue 7 of Fat Quarterly is Colour.  As part of the designer's challenge we were sent the following 2 pieces of fabric and asked to make any type of block using a color palate derived from either fabric.  

My 6 year old daughter was with me when I opened the little squishy envelope that contained these beautiful prints.  She instantly grabbed the second piece of fabric and said “Oh, I love the butterfly block, it is my favorite.”  Now this daughter loves to play with fabric and mix and match colors.  She often helps me when trying to make color decisions.  So I decided, in honor of all her color help in the past, to go with her favorite print to make the color palate.  These are the fabrics we (yes, my daughter helped with this as well)  pulled and we had so much fun doing it!!!

And this is the block I made from those prints!!!  I love how it turned out!!!  I was inspired by some beautiful metal art-work hanging in an office..  Don't you just love those moments.  I had been milling around for days trying to decide what I wanted to do for my block and then wham!!  There is the perfect concept just sitting right in from of me.  Love it!!! 

I turned my block into a fun little pillow.  The pattern on how to make this block and some illustrations on how it would look done in a quilt format can be found in the 7th issue of Fat Quarterly which will be available for download tomorrow.  Yippee Skippee!!!  And I have to say, after perusing the issue already, that it is amazing!!!  So many great projects. So many amazing uses of color!!   I have already added to my continually growing list of projects I want to make.

Ya, I am still just super giddy that I got to be in Fat Quarterly.  I will be perma-grin all day!!

TNT Thursday

It's Thursday so that means another round of Trying New Things Thursday!!!  Yippee Skippee!!  I am so excited for this week's TNT because I tried something that I have wanted to do for a long time.  What is it you ask???  I tried out my first Swap Experience!!!  And it was so much fun!!!!!  I can't believe I haven't done one of these already.


My first swap was the Post Sewing Summit Swap.  We could make mini's or little bags.  I opted for a mini.  My partner, SzyHomemaker, who pretty much let me know she would be happy with anything. (which I have to admit took off some of the pressure for this first timer :)  I  really wanted to use some of the fabric I got at the Sewing Summit for my mini. So I went with the Fat Eights we got at Material Girls during the Shop Hop. I really wanted a piece of  my Sewing Summit Experience to belong to my partner. So with the fabric chosen I was on to picking a design    I have wanted to make a Swoon block for some time and I  figured it would work perfect for a mini. Here's how it turned out.  

 I also tried somenew quilting with just some random straight lines.  It was hard for me to keep it random but I had fun with it once I was able to let go of my need for everything to be symmetircal.   (And I am just realizing that this is actually  3 TNT's in 1, New Swap, New Pattern, and New Quilting, Woo Hoo!! :)  I added some Flurry with the package since everyone is starting to get ready for the Holiday season and some chocolate to keep Suzy sewing late into the late night hours :)

And the coolest part of the swap is getting your own package in the mail.  This arrived from Mary Catharine the other day and boy was I excited!!!  The mini is gorgeous.  I absolutly fell in love with the purples and I love Dresden's!!!   And the extra's were a wonderful suprise.  Beautiful fat quarters and those Aero Chocolate Bars happen to be my favorite chocolate bar and you can't buy them in the States.  Whenever we visit my Mom's family in Canada I always stop at the C-Store to pick some up.  Now I don't have to wait for my next visit!!!

Look, she even bound it with a super adorable flange!!!  How cute is that!!!!

And here it is matching perfectly on my purple sewing room wall and with my purple sewing machine.  It is so fun to see it every time I sit at my machine.  Thank you a million times over Mary Catharine!!  I love it!!!  

So that's what I was Trying New this week.  Let's see what you have been up to!!!  Go ahead and link up your post of what you Tried New this week.  Remember it doesn't have to be anything big and it doesn't have to be quilting.  Let's see it all!!!

And since Amy from Amy Lou Who has posted this mini quilt challenge, I figured I would add my little mini to the bunch!!!  Thanks for having such a fun party Amy!!!