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?

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.

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.

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!

Now he's a true Jedi!

Last weekend we had Mr. Big's 7th birthday. It was a BLAST!!

He wanted to have a Star Wars party, because lately his whole world revolves around Star Wars. He's a typical boy. With a mom who likes to do very atypical birthday parties.

Yeah, I like to do big, themed, activity filled birthday parties. The kind that tend to bring out the manic, control freak, try to do it ALL (because I don't plan well) in two days kind of birthday parties. This year was especially trying for the rest of the family because I didn't actually get my birthday planning mojo until the weekend before. Yikes.

It. was. ugly.

But we pulled it off and it was awesome!

We started the party by giving all the kids Jedi tunics because they had some training to do! I made them each from a half yard of muslin with a 3 inch strip of brown broadcloth. Easy peasy.

First, we had a Pod Race. We had borrowed a couple of wagons from friends and they raced to the cones and switched, then came back. It was fun.
After completing the Pod Race, they all received lightsabers. I made the lightsabers from pool noodles with a PVC pipe inserted and then wrapped in duct tape. Each one cost less than a dollar to make, but they were A HIT!! The kids practiced with them for a while and we let them run loose, while we got everything ready for the next game, an obstacle course.

For the obstacle course, they had to go up the playset and slide down the pole, then go across a couple of balance beams. They rounded the corner and had to jump over a bench and then crawl under another bench. To show they made it all the way around they had to hit a bell (the Deathstar) that was hanging from the playset. It was crazy, but it was fun!

The kids played with the lightsabers some more while we got the cake and ice cream ready.

The cake was a big huge 4 ft lightsaber made from 6 loaf pans of cake, and everyone really liked it. It was perfect!

Gifts were opened, and the last gift was the Jedi robe I had made him the night before. (Did I mention my lack of planning?)

All in all, it was a fabulous day. I even got a "best birthday ever" from Mr. Big. Priceless.