Quilting for a Cause...

This is such a wonderful effort... if you find you've got a spare half hour of time on your hands - throw together a couple of 12.5" star blocks and contribute them to the Australian Brushfire Quilt Project!

Visit Camp Follower's Blog for all the details.
Remember that the littlest things can make the biggest difference.
Fabric scraps and a half hour out of your day could help fill someone's heart with joy :)

Baby Stella Takes a Trip...

I've been coveting and hoarding this adorable fabric for about 3 years now. It was just too sweet and too pastel for my little guy. So when my cousin recently had a little girl (whom she named after our Gram) I knew the time had come - it was time to part with it. I absolutely adore the little house fabric on the back - which was honestly the toughest piece to let go of :)

So anyhow... this is what I've been working on. The pattern is called A Trip Around the World and is shamefully easy to do. Once you've got all your cutting completed it goes together in just a few hours! Here's a great link on how to get started on your very own - Tripster. Your results will vary drastically depending on the fabrics you select. I quilted it on my Gammill Classic Long Arm - which is really my favorite part. I love the art of free motion. Binding, however, is another story - I absolutely Dread doing binding!! And then, for some fool reason I decided to to hand stitch the binding... Ugh! What was I thinking... I'm super slow at it and don't find it as relaxing as most folks do. So in the end when I had finally finished the binding I was so sick of the project that I hurriedly got it all boxed up. Today I realized I hadn't taken any photos... after it's been squished up in the box for a few days waiting for the post.

So you'll have to excuse the creases...

Here's hoping Baby Stella will get years of enjoyment out of this sweet little number!

(Click on each photo for better detail)

Super Simple Patchwork Basket Tutorial

Adorable and Handy. You just can't beat that combo! This pattern is very simple and extremely similar to one of my most favorite bag patterns. Let's talk Easy Peasy and goes together in about an hour - or less. Easy to alter and fun to embellish the hell out of. I love to use a lot of my fancy machine stitches on either side of the checkerboard seams. Also a Terrific way to use up a lot of those scraps we've all got just lying about! Take a stroll over to Pink Penguin and get going on her amazing tutorial.

But be careful... this pattern is so delightful you won't be able to stop at just ONE!

Procrastination Crossroads...

Sometimes it's just so difficult to find some free time for crafty endeavors these days. I know, I know... you've noticed. There are so many diverting things to fill up all that quickly passing time... Mister H, Blogs, My new Camera, Baking, (not so fun) House Chores, Mommy Duties, Pet Detail, Gardening... Yeah, you get the idea. Your days are probably a whole lot like mine. Doing what you can to squeeze a few more moments for yourself out of each day. If not because of your kids, then because of your job or other responsibilities.

I stayed up late the last few nights - which I love to do. I'm a total night owl and am much more creative after 10pm... it's certainly a heckuvalot harder to do with a Two year old around. Those mornings come all too soon the older I get. Anyhow, I've recently been ogling some really fun fat quarters I've had for ages now, and decided to start cutting them up. They're all woven plaids in glorious sherbet like colors. Although they're Silkies, which make them a bit more difficult to work with, I think they're worth the extra effort. I decided to work up a variation of the Purina Dog Chow logo - the block's got a name, but it eludes me at the moment. Anyhow, this is a very fun variation and goes together pretty quickly. I Managed to get all the hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of pieces cut (Seriously! It totally felt like that many) and got started on the chain stitching... then the blahs began to overwhelm me. How boring. Sigh, Big Sigh. How many more of these are there? A thousand? I really hate doing the same task over & over again. Repetition isn't such a good thing for me, I don't much enjoy it. Ugh. Shamefully, after getting about 8 blocks completed I ran out of steam altogether.

So now I'm at the all too familiar procrastination cross roads... What to do, what to do. The plan was for a lap quilt. But ghads, we have sooooo very many quilts (I *love* quilts, I make too many quilts) - so that's not proving to be much motivation. Here I sit... 8 blocks down, lots more of them in fragments. Looks like I'll be thinking on this for a bit.