Thursday, September 30, 2010

What a Bummer

How many times have my kids dropped my digital camera and it's survived unscathed?  Too many to count, so many times that I no longer really worried about it when the kids bounced it off the floor.  Weeelllll...I guess one too many times, because the digital camera the hubby only bought a few years ago is no longer with us.  The viewing screen has a diagonal crack through it (so that all you see is black sadness) and the flash is no longer working. 
I kept thinking that I would like to take a picture of the little broken screen to put on here...but...well...I have no camera.  Silly.  Oh well, such is life.  I do have an older digital camera that I gave to my brother (but he's not using it, so he shouldn't really mind my taking it back.)  :)  But the thing I will miss is the video recording feature, I never realized how many times during the week I actually video tape the kids until the cameras not there to catch the moment.  For example...the kids were coloring last night and I noticed Matthew rapidly shaking his left arm in the air...funny...so I watched for a little bit longer.  Turns out every time the little guy uses his right arm to draw quick marks back and forth on the paper, he needs his left arm to do the same motion to give him momentum!!  :)  Little knucklehead.
So...no pictures today.  Maybe I'll find some old ones to post later....(until I get the other camera back from my brother).  :)

Tomorrow's Friday!  Hooray Hooray!

Monday, September 27, 2010

Another Fairy Down.....too many still to go!

Last year my daughter and I went to Disney on Ice together to see Tinkerbell and the other fairies.  It was an amazing outing, just us girls!  And to make it even more special I made her what turned out to be a really cute Tinkerbell outfit.  I made her some little wings and a little green 'leaf' skirt.  

 Here she is at the show!
 And here's the two of us in our seats.
And another pic of her little outfit.

So...that was almost a year ago (phwew can't believe it!!!) and now she wants ALL of the fairies' outfits (and that's not even mentioning all of the Princess dresses on backorder!).  And since the new Tinkerbell (and the Great Fairy Rescue) just came out we decided it was time to finally make another one!  She chose Silvermist next, so this is what I came up with.

I used felt because I didn't have any blue fabric that would work...but it's just for play, so I think it'll work fine.  Here's some close ups.  I used my new 'free motion' skills to add some detail to the skirt, and I really like how it came out!



So I've got one fairy skirt done, and lot's more to do....oh...and of course now she wants new matching Water Fairy slippers, just like the Tinkerbell ones I crocheted for her last time.  :)  It never ends...(but then again, I'll be sad whenever it eventually does.)  I love that she loves the silly little things I make for her.  ;)



Saturday, September 25, 2010

Nice little packages!

Last Tuesday I was one of the lucky winners of the Talkin' Tuesdays tweet-along giveaway.  And it's here already!!  Came in the mail this morning...yay! 

Thank you SO Fabrics N' Quilts for the BEAUTIFUL fabric.  I can't wait to stare at this fabric...pull it out...play with it...look at it some more...and SOME DAY get up the nerve to cut it and finally make something with it! :)

AND!!!  Yesterday I received ANOTHER package in the mail!  A while ago a won a giveaway over at  Sugar Pop Ribbons Reviews and Giveaways.  I won an adorable Whoot Whoot plush owl from BWinks store on Etsy.  I was anxiously awaiting this package...because I KNEW my daughter would love this!



And she does!  She named him Mr. Twitchy...and she's taken him EVERYWHERE with her since she got him.  She even did a little tea party with him as her main guest...it was SO cute! :)

So yay for giveaways....and especially for winning them!!! :)  And of course all of the amazing people hosting them.  Thank you SO much!

Happy weekend everyone! ;)

Thursday, September 23, 2010

Another Spotting!!!

I've spotted another GO! Giveaway over at Millie's Quilting!!!  Go enter...and good luck! :)

Patches and Pieces

Patches and Pieces is doing an amazing giveaway!  Go check her out!!!  Go...enter...win.  :)

More Catching Up

If you remember, back here I joined a Free Motion Quilt Along and I haven't even posted the rest of the pictures yet!  Lame!  So...FINALLY...FINALLY here they are.  I was so excited to get practicing I actually filled up my whole practice quilt within a day or two, which means I didn't get to practice some of the zig zag designs that came later, but I REALLY liked the curvy designs!!! 

So here's some of my pictures of my ugly practice quilt with my beginners free motion quilting...don't laugh...it's a first! :)




 Turns out you can't really see any of the dark thread on the dark fabric on the front (imagine that!)...so why make you look at more pictures of ugly quilting if you can't even really see it!  :)

So there it is...the beginning of my Free Motion Quilting!! Yeah!  I was so nervous about trying to learn on my own, and at least now I know the basics and can keep practicing.

I actually did some free motion on a little practice charity quilt back on this post.  And it actually didn't turn out too bad.

OH!!!  And I can't forget about the amazing book I won as being part of the Quilt Along.  I couldn't believe my luck...of all things to win...this is probably the most useful for me right now.  I received this book from A Few Scraps (who is hosting the Quilt Along) in the mail a couple of days ago! 

SO excited!  I've read every page already, and can't WAIT to try some of their patterns!!!!  Here is a really cute strawberry design.  (it's kind of hard to see from my crappy ummm...not so great pictures.)

And I LOVE the tree design from the cover!!  It's kind of hard to see the quilting, but there are little leaves and branches quilted around the appliques.
Thank you SO much Christina!  I love the book!

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Trying to Catch UP!!!

So I've got SO much to try and catch up on after a week of being sick!  First...I am SO excited that I won last night's Talkin Tuesdays giveaway!  I got to choose 4 FQs from Sophisticate Vintage Rose Colorway!  Here's what I chose:
Vintage Rose Dots
Vintage Rose Pink Cottage Rose
Vintage Rose Pink Damask
Vintage Rose Small Pink Floral
 I loved ALL of the fabrics, it was SO hard to choose!  You can check out all of the fabrics and more at Fabrics N' Quilts.

Thank you Fabrics N' Quilts!!! :)

And more 'catching up' to come!

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Still sick...still not accomplishing much.

I'm tired of sitting on the couch, I'm tired of snotty noses and coughing kids.  I'm sick...we're all sick...I'm ready to be over it!  Hopefully, miraculously we'll all just be better tomorrow! :)  Fingers crossed.

On a positive note, I did get to take part in Talkin Tuesdays tonight, which I love.  I learn so many great tips from other people! :)  Oh...and to top that off...I won the evenings giveaway!!!!  Hooray.

Saturday, September 18, 2010

Friday Night Sew In Results

So...my first Friday Night Sew IN!  It was nice trying to just focus on sewing and catching up, but as expected, I still had quite a few interruptions from the kiddos.  They're still little, so they just want to do whatever mom's doing, so anytime I'm in my craft area...they're in my craft area.  But I love it...Lilly loves to play with all of my scraps and line up all of my thread, and she's even asking for her own little sewing machine for her birthday.  That just makes my day!  :)

Although it's just a little one, this is my first COMPLETE quilt.  I tried out my new free motion quilting skills, and this is my very attempt at binding, it didn't turn out that great, but hey...it's a first.

Here's the Free Motion Quilting...it turned out ok.


I machine stitched the binding on...and I think it looks pretty bad.  I need help in this area.  If anyone reads this....I REALLY need to find more info on how to do this.  I mean...does everybody stitch their binding on by hand?  I don't know if I have the patience for that.  Does anyone know of a tutorial on how to put on binding by machine??  Or any tips at all???  HELP!!!  Here's some pictures...see for yourself!


And here's some pictures of the completed little lap quilt.  It's my first trial quilt for the kids at the hospital.  The one side is supposed to be like an I-Spy quilt where the kids search for animals and other pictures.  And I put two of each fabric so they can find the matches.  I think next time I'll do more squares and just stitch them all directly next to each other so there's more to look at.
And on the back I used this AWESOME Cars fabric I found which I thought would be perfect for a little kid sitting in bed to play cars on.  I loved that it had little roads! :)
So that's it!  My first complete quilt...(even if it is tiny)  :)  It might not be much...but thanks for a great Friday Night Sew In! :)

~Teresa

I'm a Blogmania Winner!!!

Wow!!!  Who would have thought!!!!  (I didn't...I wished...but I didn't think I'd actually win anything)!  So a couple of days ago was Blogmania, were if you visited different blogs they were giving away HUGE and AWESOME prizes.  It was only a 2-day giveaway period, and I only heard about it halfway through the second day.

There were SO many different blogs, I knew I wouldn't be able to enter all of the giveaways, so I just picked the ones I really liked and entered those.

And here's one of them!

Save the Date for Cupcakes

It's a cute little blog about all things sweet and cute.  It's cupcakes, cookies, and adorable ideas for decorating for parties and other get-togethers.  Oohh...and have I got a sweeeeet tooth!  (And I guess I'll share with my kids too.)  :)

You can check out this link to see all of the great prizes I won!!  I'm SO excited.  This is the first time I've ever won anything like this!  (of course it is!!  I'm still a newbie)  :)


CHECK OUT THE AMAZING STUFF I WON!!!

Thank you SO much to Save the Date for Cupcakes and all of their AMAZING sponsors!

Friday, September 17, 2010

Friday Night Sew In

So I know I've been sick, and I'm probably being overly ambitious, but....I joined the Friday Night Sew In tonight.  I've heard about it, and seen posts about it from other bloggers and wasn't really sure what it was.  Turns out you just join and sew!  I can do that!  (I think) :)  Okay, so it's a little bit more involved than that...head over to Handmade by Heidi to read all about it.

But I am excited.  I love joining other crafters, sharing my attempts at quilting, and learning from everyone else who knows what they're doing.  :)  So wish me luck on accomplishing something impressive on my first Friday Night Sew In

Have a great weekend everyone! ;)

Thursday, September 16, 2010

Progress Update

So the update is...I'm sick.  What a dork!  I spent like literally 10 minutes over at my machine and then ended up back on the couch with the kids.  So funny that I actually thought I was going to be able to get stuff done on all my quilting projects and then be able to POST about it on top of it!  (I can't even get that done on a non-sick day)!!  What was I thinking???!?  Wishful thinking I guess.

It's hard to sit here and stare at my craft area (it's in the playroom where we spend most of our day) and not be able to just go over there and do stuff.  Hmmm...funny that I can also sit here and stare at a pile of laundry or dishes and not have the same yearning....interesting.

So...we're all still sick....no sleep again last night, moved from couch to bed to other couch with the littlest one trying to figure out how to get him to stop crying.  My nephew will be here shortly and turns out he's sick too....of course. (I usually watch him everyday, but my sister stayed home yesterday so that he wouldn't get sick from us.)  So anyways...3 sick kids and a sick mama should make for a lovely day.  :)  Ah...such is life.  We all get sick.

Oh!  As a plus though, I did pick up an afghan I started crocheting a while back since it's something I CAN do while sitting on the couch.  I actually made this exact one a few years ago for my sister-in-law and LOVED it!  So when I saw the yarn on sale again, I had to snatch some up!  So I guess I really did make some progress yesterday, true it's not what I intended, and to be honest I probably only added a couple of extra rows...but progress is progress!!  AND I get to post some pictures! :)

So here it is...

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Taking a Sick Day

Bummer...kiddos are sick.  It was a long night of coughing, snotty noses, crying and lot's of tossing and turning!  Unfortunately I wasn't feeling so hot myself, so even when the kids did sleep, I was wide awake!  Making for a groggy morning this morning.  But on the bright side...it's kind of nice to have a lazy day.  It gives me an excuse to stay in my pajamas all day long and not worry about doing the dishes or trying to clean house.  But as long as I'm feeling a little better, it seems like the perfect equation for trying to get some quilting done.  I haven't even TOUCHED my machine in a couple of days and I think it's feeling a bit neglected.

Hopefully I'll be able to post some progress later today.  :)

oh...and side note...my daughter is the sweetest when she's sick.  She woke up once last night so upset mumbling about a giant hat, and I told her, 'don't worry it's just a dream there's no giant hat'.  She was persistent about it, crying...'but I don't want to see the giant hat'!  So funny...who knows what goes through those little minds!!!!  A giant hat????  Really???  :)  Kids are the best...even with snotty noses and the sneezes (a terrible combination)!! :)

It Seams to Be Sew....

Found another really cute little blog...and she's having a giveaway!!!  A honey bun of Beach House by Moda....it looks SO cute!  So head over and enter...and check out the cute quilt she made with the same stuff!  ;)

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

ANOTHER amazing Fabric Giveaway!

Wow...what luck!  Such awesome giveaways on AMAZING fabric!  This is over at JayBirdQuilts and they're giving away the adorable fabrics needed to make this adorable quilt!!!  :)

Good luck!! :)

Wow!...Another Fabric Giveaway!!

Stitched in Color is giving away a  fat quarter set from Nest by Valori Wells and your favorite 4 Kona colors!!!

How sweet is that!!!  Go...check them out...enter...win...(because if I can't...I'd at least like one of you to)  ;)

Amazing Charm Pack Giveaway!

I found a great new blog over at The Quilting Book...and they're celebrating reaching a GREAT milestone of over 100 followers (I'm at 9 now...but I'll get there...SOME DAY!)  :)  Anyways, head on over and good luck!!!  What adorable fabric! :)

Sunday, September 12, 2010

Little Golden Book wall hangings

I love books...my kids love books...which means the ones at our house get a LOT of use.  I love the Classic Little Golden Books from when my husband and I were kids, they're just so nostalgic.  So my kids have some of the books that actually used to be my husbands when he was little, they've even got his name written on the inside of the front cover.  But alas, they don't last forever, and the well loved little books eventually lost their covers.  But I couldn't bring myself to throw the covers away, so I found a way to keep them in a really cute way.  So here's what I did...

I found some cheap wood frames at the dollar store:
Took the glass and backing off of the frames:

Laid them out and used a flat white spray paint to give them a new look.  I did two coats.
And they looked like this:

I picked out two different coordinating scrapbook paper designs.  Then I used the glass from the frames as a template and cut out 2 of each for my frames.  I taped the covers to the scrapbook paper and stuck em in the frames...soooo easy!  And I have to say that I LOVE the way they turned out.  Now I've just got to get little man's room painted so I can actually put them on the walls.  : )  Here they are!~



Saturday, September 11, 2010

Under Construction

Whew!  I've spent what felt like ALL day yesterday trying to update my site.  And I STILL haven't figured it out.  I can't get the font to work correctly...oh well...I've exhausted my computer patience and will return to it when I've built up some more.  ;)  My kids are coloring at the table...with markers I might add...which means Matthew will most likely end up with it on his face (and at least a few lines on the table cloth)...guess I better go deal with that! :)  BATH TIME!!!

Friday, September 10, 2010

Thursday, September 9, 2010

Free Motion Quilt Along

So I'm finally getting up to date with my first quilt along that I'm participating in.  It's a quilt along to help all of those interested to learn how to free motion quilt...exactly what I need.  :)  At first I thought I might just watch along and maybe not actually participate, partly because I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to find a darning foot in time.  Luckily the quilt along is very slow paced, meant to be easy going and not stress anyone out...again...exactly what I need.  So I had time to figure out that I CAN use my embroidery foot from my new machine to do free motion quilting with.  (I think my new sewing/embroidery machine is slowly redeeming itself for not having the extras I wanted). : )  And I'm going to post my progress.



Anywhoo...I finally pieced my practice quilt together.  I took the instructions to use your ugliest fabrics to heart.  I picked some stuff that I've had lying around for ever and threw it together.  I even got to practice a little bit.  I've got a LONG ways to go, but it's nice to finally be trying it, and I know I can only get better.

Not real pretty right now...but it's still fun.  : )

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Little things for little ones...

What a great weekend...a bit sad it's over so soon...but isn't that always the case.  We had a little get together Sat for Allen's birthday and it went really well.  And Lillian's little friend Kendra came over and her birthday was just last week so I ended up making her a little present.  The girls had such a good time, I can't wait to get them together again soon.

So Lillian has been taking some ballet classes, so I wanted to make her a little bag that she could carry her shoes and things in.  I decided on a little drawstring bag because I thought that would be simple enough for me to start with.  Here's what I ended up with:




She was so excited about it.  It ended up a bit shorter than I wanted, but it was just my laziness, so the next one I made came out much better.  I wanted to applique a picture of some ballet shoes, but I may make a better (bigger) one and do that...so this one is plain for now.

So for Kendra's B-day I made her one and appliqued the letter "K" on the back.  And then I made her a little matching apron with the same Princess Tiana fabric, and a front pocket with a picture of all of the princesses on it, and embroidered her name on the top.  I think she really liked it.  I told Lillian I would make her one too (of course), but as soon as Kendra put hers on she wanted to wear hers too.  So in the middle of everything I took a short break to throw together another little apron for Lilly...unfortunately in my haste, I accidentally spelled her name L-j-l-l-j-a-n on the embroidery on top.  CLASSIC!  She'll never notice but the rest of us got a good laugh out of it. (hey...they were cursive and right next to each other...easy mistake.) : )

Here's Kendra's-

Overall it was a pretty great weekend.  Hope you all had a great long weekend too.  :)