All I want for Xmas

My hubby and son have been bugging me for a list of ideas for Xmas. Since I noticed a few other bloggers posting their lists, I thought I'd do the same.

They both know that I desperately want a wii system, preferrably with a wii fit package, so that's a given.

I need some new quilting and crafting supplies.

Fancy designer fabric (in the new colors for the bedroom).

Binding clips (yes honey, the ones that look like barrettes)

Marking pen (the blue, not purple)

Gutermann thread - cotton, not poly (in beige color for piecing, or misc colors for stash)

Omnigrid ruler 6 x 12

Juki TL98Q quilting machine

And since I do most of the cooking in our house, I have decided that I need a few new tools for the kitchen.

Oil bottle drizzler (in red of course)

Vegetable peeler

Mandoline slicer (this should be at the top of the list)

Radio/CD player (again, in red)

Silicone basting brush

That pretty much covers everything. Not so bad right?

A quick note...

Just wanted to let you all know that the craft show was AWESOME, and I'll have pictures and details coming soon.

Also, I'm really going to start focusing on more sewing and crafting posts, not just lame apologies for not being around. :)

Where I've been

Hello friends, just wanted to let you all know I'm still around.

I've been busy busy busy getting ready for a craft show next week.

I'm so excited for this one. It's a juried show and it gets LOTS of press, so I'm really feeling like maybe I don't have enough inventory, but I guess we'll hope I sell out of everything.

Hopefully I'll remember to get some pictures of my products. If this goes as well as I hope, I'll have to get working WAY SOONER for next year's show.

Keep your fingers crossed for me!

Back to the grind

Wow, it's over already.

We just spent the last 5 days on a cruise ship to Mexico, and man did we have a blast! It was SO RELAXING. So peaceful, beautiful, relaxing. Did I mention it was relaxing?

We stopped in Ensenada and Cabo San Lucas. We learned how to make some really good Mexican food, we did some sea kayaking, snorkeling, shopping. It was AMAZING.

Oh yeah, and we ate. We ate lots. I've never had so much good food in my life. With the amount of lox I ate, I should be Jewish by now. With the amount of food my husband ate, he should be a whole 'nother man - literally - by now.

We saw some of the most amazing sunsets ever.

We saw the biggest flag in Mexico.

We also saw some dolphins, whales, and we're pretty sure we saw a swordfish jumping out of the water, although we weren't quick enough with the camera to show you.

And now that we're back, I have some mad sewing to get done. I have a craft show in about 3 weeks that needs some major inventory.

Back to the grind.

October Snowstorm 2009

Holy cow people. We just got a HUGE snowstorm here in CO. You've probably heard about it on the news, but in case you were thinking "it's way too early for snow", here's the proof.

Oct. 28th on the left, and Oct 29th on the right.

Mr. Big was out of school for both days, and as a bonus, I even got a snow day!

This is Dixie. She LOVES the snow. Unfortunately, the snow loves her back in the form of snowballs sticking to her hair and packing between her toes. The other thing she loves to do is let all this snow melt all over my house. My hardwood floors DON'T love that, and frankly neither do I.

When the kid gets his hands on the camera...

My creation
Originally uploaded by quayandco

This is what happens when the 7 yr old in the house gets a hold of the camera.

This isn't even all of them (there were 32 total). Most are unusable because of lighting, focus, etc. I can tell he's been paying attention (unbeknown to me) when I take pics of my items for etsy. LOTS of different views of each item. Including the bottom. hehe

He's really excited about the Frankenstein's Bride that he made. I found the directions here, after reading about it in Family Fun magazine. Every month they have directions for at least 3 items to make with Legos.

It all took about 20 minutes for him to take 32 pictures of his latest Lego project, Frankenstein's Bride, old Lego project, the lion cub, and a couple of the cat.

Craft show #2

This past weekend, I participated in my second craft show. It was put on by the Le Leche League of Arvada, and held in a local church.

I was pretty excited, considering how BAD my first show turned out. As with my first show, I didn't want it to LOOK like it was my second show, so I took great care in setting up my table.


My awesome friend Kate and her boyfriend Chad made me an incredible frame to set up behind my table so that I was able to get some height and stand out from the other booths. I LOVE IT!!



It's made from aluminum, so it's light, and it breaks apart into 4 ft. sections so I can get it into my car. My hubby made a couple of buckets full of cement that the frame pieces just slip into to hold the whole thing up.



I decided to wrap some garland around it because it seemed a bit "industrial" alone. Plus, it is the holiday season after all, so in the future, I can use other season appropriate items to decorate it.


The show was not as good as I had hoped. We had some pretty frigid weather which I assume kept most folks home. I'm really trying not to get frustrated with this whole craft show scene, even though the weather has been my nemesis so far.

I did end up selling a few items, but it definitely wasn't as great as I had hoped. I'm trying to get into another show before Xmas, so I'll be keeping my fingers crossed until I hear from then.

More crafting, less sewing

I'm getting ready for my second craft show. I'm actually thinking of it more as my first, because frankly, my first craft show was a disaster.

So I've been crafting and having a lot of fun making new items for this show. I had most of my items left from the first show, but over the months have sold a few and needed to make up some replacements. I also wanted do make some holiday/seasonal appropriate items to try to increase sales. Here are a few examples of the items, old and new, of what I'll have on my table.

Jewelry/Sewing Pouches, Table Runners


Moleskine Books, Pincushions


Pendants, Xmas Ornaments



Patchwork Scarves


My friend Kate and her awesome boyfriend Chad made me a rad frame to place behind my table so that I can get some height and hang items like quilts and table runners. I'll have pictures of that soon, when I get the test table put together. I've been spending lots of time in thrift stores looking for display items and have found some really fun things to use too. Can't wait to start playing with all my items to come up with the best set up.

Someone's getting territorial

And he's got backup.

The Awesome People of Joanns

I need to share a little something with you all. But I'll warn you, it's deep. Like, get ready for chills down your spine and possibly tears, deep.

This is AWESOME.

I work with some of the most creative, giving, thoughtful, encouraging, empathetic, supportive people in the world. And I have to tell the world about it.

I have a super part time job at my local Joanns Fabric and Crafts store, and I love it. I love it even more because of this story.

We have a coworker, Mary C, who was just recently, very recently diagnosed with breast cancer. The big, ugly, with a capital B and C, BREAST CANCER. She's going in for a double mastectomy tomorrow. DOUBLE MASTECTOMY. And she has the best attitude. I don't even know her that well, but what I do know, is that her attitude toward this battle is a BRING IT ON. The kind of attitude you need in times like this.

Our store manager is equally awesome, and just did the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer a couple of months ago. Not because she's had Breast Cancer, or because someone in her family is going through it, but because another store manager just lost her battle with Breast Cancer. And then we found out numerous other employees have had it or know someone with it. Did I mention she's awesome? Yeah.

Well, my newest quilty friend at work, Mary B, asked our manager Merrie H if maybe we could do a quilt for Mary C. (Yes, I work with a lot of Marys - or is it Mer-i in plural?)

She immediately said YES. So a call went out for quilt squares. And boy did they come in! I would estimate that more than HALF of the employees at our store put a square together for Mary C's quilt. All that was asked is that they be in pink - obviously - and that they be a certain size. Then it was put together - in a beautiful way I might add - and quilted by the genius behind this wonderful idea, Mary B. She did a fabulous job. I just get chills thinking of all the hard work everyone put into this priceless gift.

The best part of it is that each square is unique and holds a lot of love and encouragement from it's maker. Everyone truly put their heart and soul into each square. Amazing.

This is the block I made for her. I love quotes for special gifts. I especially love this quote because, seriously, this is how it is sometimes.

This is the finished product that I just had the chance of sneak peeking at Mary B's house today.

I just have to say that this is my first *kind of close connection* to anyone that has had to endure this battle, and I am super proud to be able to include myself in this special project.

Everyone knows someone who has been affected by this......this......BREAST CANCER. So please remember to help when you can, even if it just means keeping them in your thoughts.

Now excuse me, I have to go find the tissue box.

**edited to add the names of everyone that took part in this project. In order of blocks in the quilt.

Marrie H. Cathy B. Catherine P. Velma V. Gloria S. Ruth A-S. Mary B. Morgan G. Chelsea C. Emily I. Debra C. Sue C. Susan B. Wanda T. Jim H. Samira K. Michaella W. Sheree G. Maria S. Joyce R. Joanna T. Terry R. Jennifer J. Delores A. Sue H. Linda P. Terri C. Susan S. Shelley H. Georgianne H. THANK YOU EVERYONE.

Sign of the times

Well, we've officially come to the end of summer here in the Mile High City.

This is what we saw yesterday about 2:00 in the afternoon.

But, the good thing about living in our area is that if you blink, things change.

This is what we're seeing today.

Productive

Last weekend I had a really productive day in the craft room. Along with getting my DQS7 quilt finished, I also pumped out these two blocks for my SewConnected 3 group.

John, from QuiltDad wanted quarter log cabin blocks and sent the prettiest fabric. I haven't done a whole lot of log cabins, but this one went together really fast.

Ashley, from OhThatAshley sent gorgeous fabric to do my favoritest block ever - the mavrick star.

I hope my blocks work well with both their quilts. I hate to be the one that gets left out because of an ugly design. :)

The finished product

I finished up my DQS7 quilt this morning.
I'm so pleased with it.

My partner loves rainbows, and I thought that would be a fun pallet to work with. I chose this design to show off the colors and not complicate the quilt too much with lots of squares or triangles.



The label was made by tracing the DQS7 logo onto white on white fabric with some colored Sharpies. I love using Sharpies for my labels just because they come in such an array of colors, and they don't bleed too much.

For the backing, I used a cute sheet I found at the thrift store a few months ago. It's not vintage, but it sure is fun, and it went perfectly with this quilt.



When I started the quilting, I noticed that my walking foot was not working so well. It was pushing the fabric, making the middle bar of black and white move in the direction I was quilting. So I ripped out a few lines of quilting and went to the store to get a new walking foot. I was ready to put down some money for a new foot, that is until I realized HOW EXPENSIVE THEY ARE!!! The Viking store wanted $90 for a new one! I'm sorry, but I don't even think my machine is worth that any more, so NO, I was not going to spend that on a foot.



Since I wanted to get the quilt done, I used my free-motion foot to make straight-ish lines. I actually like it better than if I had used the walking foot to get nice uniform straight stitching. This quilting just seemed more......organic.
I. love. it.

I've since bought a foot off of eBay for a really reasonable price, so any straightness that needs to be done in the future will be done correctly, and hopefully with no puckers like the last project I used it on.

I hope she loves it, because it has really grown on me during the process of making it. I've heard other swappers mention how hard it is to let their quilts go, and now I understand. I'm going to miss this beauty!

I got it!!!

My DQS7 quilt came in the mail on Friday! It's gorgeous. It's made with super good quality fabric and the quilting on it is so beautiful! I'm envious because I don't usually get as creative with my quilting. Please ignore the wrinkles, I was so excited to get a picture and get it posted, I figured you all wouldn't mind.

She's so sweet, she also included a charm pack of the same fabric in case I wanted to make something coordinating. I'm already brainstorming.

Thank you so much Kristina!!

What gymnastics class has done for me....

Mr. Big started gymnastic classes on Saturdays a few weeks ago and since I didn't have any binding to work on, I decided to start on some hexes.

I don't usually do a lot of handwork if it doesn't include bindings or pincushions, I'm not really an embroidery kind of girl, yet anyway. But I have started to enjoy the process of sewing hexagons during the hour long wait for gymnastics to end.

I first started doing them during guitar practice, but that didn't last too long with my 7 yr old, so now we've moved on to gymnastics, and even thought it's right in the middle of the day, I do find it to be a pretty good way to spend the time.

I don't really know what I'll make with these, though I've started sewing flowers together for now. Maybe instead of flowers, I'll incorporate them into my quilting like this one, or this one. Aren't they gorgeous?

It's Finished!!

I just completed my first hourglass quilt this weekend. Well actually, it's a table runner. I gave up about half way through when I realized HOW MANY half square triangles I'd have to sew to make an actual quilt.

Since I'd never made this pattern before, I didn't consider how many seams came together, and how many points there would be to match up. What a pain. I'm not sure If I'll do this pattern again, at least not with 4" squares anyway. Maybe a nice 9" wouldn't be so bad.

I backed it in a pretty vintage sheet I had in my collection.

Also during this project, I came to the conclusion that my walking foot is pretty worthless. The top feed dogs are practically smooth, which means it was still just pushing the top layer along like a regular foot would.

I visited my local Husqvarna store in the Joanns store to get a new walking foot and they wanted $90 for a new one that wasn't the generic "universal" type. Seriously???? I've since visited eBay to get a new one. Keeping my fingers crossed that I win the auction.

The new runner is up for sale in the shop as of today.