Tuesday, December 9, 2014

BEEP!

A few months ago, I made a quilt out of this fabric line called On Our Way from RBD. Perfect for little boys, or the engine loving little girl. ;)  Or a VW bus/transportation/peace-love-sunshine fan of any age. It was a big hit with my son and his friends (and their moms).  




 I just hadn't had a chance to blog about it. We've had so much death in the family lately.  Blah! A few weeks after my MIL passed, my FIL's last living brother passed as well. And then a couple of weeks ago, my uncle, my dad's youngest brother passed away. :(

Anyway..trying to press on and get my mojo back.





Here it is all done.  I finally uploaded the pattern into my Craftsy shop. And someone is making it already! I can't wait to see! And she is making it for her daughter so I can't wait to see her fabric choices and how it turns out. :)


I used the large print for the cornerstones and had just enough fabric left to piece a scrappy backing. I used the leftover stripes for the binding.





RBD took this one to hang in their booth in the fall so Pat quilted it for me, and look what she did.. I feel like such a loser quilter when I see the stuff she does!  



And it always fits the theme of the quilt, too!  Little peace signs and hippie flowers, my favorite flower design!





And I don't know if you can see it, but she quilted "peace and love" into the license plate!!




 Here's a photo of my mom friends holding it up at one of their houses so I could take a pic of it. (every mom needs a mom posse-ha!) :) It was a hit with the little boys, but my son has already staked a claim on this one. He will never let me give it away!  But it is super easy to make and I will get these ladies hooked on sewing one of these days!





Happy Tuesday! :)







Thursday, November 20, 2014

Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks Giveaway & Blog Tour

Happy Friday!

Today's my day on the Quiltmaker 100 Blocks blog tour celebrating the 10th edition of Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks. If you've never been here before, hello and welcome! Nice to *meet* you. :) I hope you'll come back and visit anytime! If you're one of the faithful that have stuck around, thanks for being my blog friend all this time! (esp. Sunny, my very first blog follower ever!)

This is my block (#972) called "and so on" located on page 54:




I had no idea it even made it into the issue for the longest time b/c it turns out my email was malfunctioning and I wasn't getting their notices.  I was so excited to finally find out that it was being included, and then to eventually see it on the cover!  I still need to be pinched to believe it!!




I made it with a scrap of a Kaffe/Brandon Mably fabric called Dancing Paisley. 




I love how happy that fabric is. It's a really easy block to make, and I used my favorite Triangles on a Roll HST papers to make the HSTs b/c they're my fave. They don't even pay me to say that! :) They really are!




I am honored to be included in Quiltmaker's 10th issue of 100 blocks, and to be part of the 100 that push them up to 1000 blocks. To celebrate, there are all kinds of giveaways going on throughout the blog tour. My silly blurb even made it into their short promotional video.  I was channeling my inner Bruno from Dancing with the Stars, and why did no one tell me I looked so ridiculous?! ha!




So for my celebration here, I've created a 20% off coupon code for my Etsy shop (QM100 is the code) which will be good between now and Thanksgiving, and also an easy rafflecopter giveaway below.

You don't have to have a blog to enter, just enter your email address or sign in with FB (that way I'll be able to contact you if you win) and click away.  There are THREE prizes up for grabs between now and the day after Thanksgiving, when THREE winners will be chosen at random. You can do one or all of the entries for up to eight chances to win one of the following:

Prize #1: A copy of Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks vol. 10 from Quiltmaker.


Prize #2: A copy of Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks vol. 10 + a $25 gift certificate from Winter Creek Cloth.


Prize #3: A copy of Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks vol. 10 + a $30 gift certificate from Mad About Patchwork.
              

When you're done entering here, head over to the Quiltmaker blog for more chances to win even bigger prizes and visit many more blogs along the tour.  Thanks for stopping in!!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Happy Touring and Happy Weekend!
xx

linking up: can i get a whoop whoop, LAFF, anything goes, showoff friday, flaunt it friday, freedom friday, fabric frenzy friday, show off saturday, show and tell saturday, strut your stuff saturday, sew darn crafty, round tuit
Tuesday, November 11, 2014

Pine Valley Quilt

I can finally show you the quilt that I worked on using braids that I instagrammed a few vague photos of when I was sewing it up several months ago.  It's a quilt called Pine Valley. 




Did you guess what it was? :) Remember this vague Instagram photo?





I used various FQs of greens/blues, solids and prints. And it's on page 84 of the Nov/Dec issue of GenQ Magazine! Eep! 



Earlier in the year, I was so excited to get an email from Scott Hansen from GenQ Magazine inviting me to submit something.  It was one of those moments where I died, fell in the floor, got back up, read it again, and passed out again.  I couldn't believe it!

I had been toying with this idea using braids, b/c I had never tried them before, and wanted to make a tree quilt. 


Because trees are the only thing I see when I look at braids.  (Is it just me? Am I weird?)  



So I drew it up using blues and greens, colors that I hardly ever use, b/c they just looked bright and fun.  And he emailed me back and said that they had it tentatively scheduled for the Nov/Dec issue.  WHAT??!! But that I couldn't talk about it until the issue came out.

And now it's out! And I can't believe it!  All of the instructions to make it are inside. Except when I did my braids, I used Triangles on a Roll braid/flying geese paper, the 6 inch roll, I think.  Which made the braids super easy to do, and kept them from stretching and going all wonky.  (And the same roll also doubles as flying geese paper.)  Bonus. :) 




There was a mishap along the way though.  After I had gotten it back from Pat all quilted, I was sewing the binding on one day and discovered a black greasy appearing stain on the backing that had bled a little onto the white front. I kind of freaked out a little.. Hazards of having a little boy and big dog in the house maybe?  I can't figure out how it got there but went into full blown panic mode trying to get it out.  This pic is when it was nice and crisp, fresh from the quilter.



But when I used a stain wipe and some water to try to get the stain out, the greens and blues started bleeding all over the white. Triple panic mode ensued.  BUT.. with some good detergent and many many color catchers, it all came out in the wash. I was so relieved.  So that's why it has that crinkly freshly laundered look in this photo. :)



I like how the greens and blues make it look more lake-house-ish than log cabin-ish.  But I think it'd be fun made in darker colors. Or in reds/oranges/yellows for fall.

Thanks GenQ for including my quilt!! xx



linking up with: think tank thursday, show and tell, your great idea thursday, needle and thread thursday, wake up wednesday, whip it up wednesday, wow me wednesday, from dream to reality, what's it wednesday, lou lou girls' fabulous party, tgiff, show-off friday, freedom friday, I quilt Thursdays, can i get a whoop whoop, finish it up friday, anything goes,  LAFF, flaunt it friday, fabric frenzy friday, creative exchange, linky party palooza, creative collection, DIY inspired, show-off saturday, show & tell saturday, strut your stuff saturdayclever chicks, nifty thrifty sunday, sew darn crafty, sunday showcase, a round tuit, anything goes, craftastic monday, make it pretty monday, masterpiece monday, create link inspire, too cute tuesday, linky tuesday, fabric tuesday, sew cute tuesday
Friday, November 7, 2014

SCOOT!

I've been working on some quilts the last couple of months but hadn't had much of a chance to blog about them with everything going on. 






But I've been trying to get back into the swing of things, though, so now I can share with you the scooter quilt that I made. :) I had so much fun figuring it out!!




You have probably noticed by now that I like to make whole quilt-y kinds of things, rather than lots of repeating blocks.  It's like putting together a big puzzle. I love watching it slowly come together! 



I wanted it to be girly so I used this fabric line called Primrose Gardens by Carina Gardner. I love the florals and the paisleys. But I think it would be cute made in more masculine colors too.





Pat quilted it for me, I couldn't do anything but straight lines on a quilt this big if I did it myself.  I love it!




The wheels have spokes!




And she quilted the word "EXPIRED" in the parking meter window. :)



And I just finished the pattern for it. It's in my Craftsy shop.

It's nice to blog about something quilty again.  Thanks to everyone who stopped by/commented, emailed, etc. about the passing of my MIL. I appreciate it more than you'll ever know! 

Happy Friday. xx

Friday, October 31, 2014

..it's personal..

My tagline up there says, "mostly crafty, sometimes personal..never perfect." This is one of the personal posts. There are so many happy things happening to blog about lately, but I just haven't been able to bring myself to, b/c every time I sit down to blog, I just can't do it. I can't write and be happy about these things, while overlooking the most momentous loss ever to hit our little family of three. Yet, so far just the thought of writing about this loss has dissolved me into tears more than once. I just haven't been able to do it. But today is the day I will face it. And document it. Because this is my journal, and these things deserve documenting. They are part of our story.  She was, and will forever be in our hearts, and part of our story.

Dolores Camilla Savio Fannin was 76 when she lost her life 3 weeks ago to pancreatic cancer.  Just shy of three months after her original complaint of pain and scheduling a Dr. appt to have it looked into.  It all happened so incredibly fast.  It seems like a blur. Surreal.

Here we are at A's end of school play near the beginning of summer. With no idea of what was about to come near the end of summer.















Her dad was an Italian immigrant who married the daughter of Mexican immigrants. 



(He ran his own grocery store in the Marina district of SF as early as the 1930's.)  She used to talk about growing up in a flat in SF, and as a little girl during WWII, having to turn off the lights and hang black curtains over the windows during blackout drills.

She married her sweetheart on Feb 14, 1960.



A few years ago, A made his Nana & Papa a heart shaped cookie for their anniversary/Valentine's Day.



She was the best Nana ever.







And the best MIL ever. Hard to believe this was nine years ago. I loved her more each day/visit/year that went by.



 A couple of years ago, for Mother's Day, I gave her "the bird".  Not THAT bird.. this quilty one.. she loved it b/c she had asked me to make her a quilt, and she was an avid birdwatcher and collector of birdhouses.  She also loved crosswords, and there's a bit of all of that in this quilt, with the bird fabrics, and a little bit of crossword fabric.  She also loved to write, and volunteered at the library, so the texty print was very "her", too. She was a neat, neat lady.



It was while "estate-saling" with her that I found my little featherweight. So many of our memories and so much of who we are involve her.  It's hard to believe she's gone.



When I joined a mug rug swap that raises $$ for Ovarian Cancer Research in September, I put on my questionnaire that I might give mine to my MIL who was recently diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. My sweet mug rug partner sent me TWO.  One for me and one for my MIL. Unfortunately, it all happened so fast.  She was home on hospice before I could give it to her. :( So hers now lives with my SIL, who loves it. My partner was soo sweet to do this! I know my MIL would have loved it.



Thanks to those of you who kept her and our family in your prayers.  It was really hard dealing with all of the emotions while trying to keep some sense of routine/normalcy for A, who was having his innocence stripped away a bit at a time at only 7 (now 8) yrs old. 

The day in August that my MIL had surgery in SF, in which we were expecting them to remove the cancer, or as much of it as they could, the Dr came out early and told us it had spread everywhere and that there was nothing they could do. Devastated with the news, and waiting for her to come out of recovery, I left my hub and family at the hospital and took A back to the hotel.  He needed a break and somewhere quiet to process it. We had a mommy/son lunch date in the hotel, where A was excited to sit up at the bar to eat.  Only, he very obviously wasn't 21, so we weren't allowed to sit up at the bar after all. I snapped this pic of him with my phone b/c I never wanted to forget that sweet face. His world was about to change.



He asked me some tough questions that day. Like, "is Nana gonna die tomorrow?" At that point, the Dr had said 9 or 10 months, which seems like forever to a 7 yr old, so he was very relieved. We talked about God, and Heaven, and life and death.  

A few weeks after her surgery, she was told it could be 2 weeks to 2 mo., and she would come home on hospice, and only be with us for three more weeks.

We spent that weekend of her original surgery in SF at the hospital with her, and also trying to create some fun memories for A, to have some balance. He loved riding the cable car for the first time.




..and sitting inside Grace Cathedral, looking around in awe at its design and telling me all about how he wants to visit the Notre Dame. I sat in Grace Cathedral trying to figure out how he knew about the Notre Dame. ? It also gave us another opportunity to talk about what's going on with Nana and say a prayer for her.



She was so happy that A was getting to explore a little of the city that she grew up in.  From the hospital hallway windows, she could point out to us different buildings and schools that she or her brother went to.













She wanted to hear all about his adventures in the city.



He was so excited that we rode the city bus, the cable car, and the hotel shuttle all in the same day, and was very disappointed that we couldn't ride in a cab to make it four public transportation systems in one day.



Little did we know that day, that in the span of just a few weeks, she would be gone.

We will miss her terribly, but are so glad that she doesn't have to suffer any more than she did.  She was ready.  It progressed so brutally fast. She passed on Oct. 10th, in her sleep. The last time A saw her, she hugged him tight for a long time and told him how very much she loved him, and to always be a good speller for Nana. sniff. 

This is possibly my most favorite picture ever b/c it has all of A's grandparents together, plus one great grandparent. The two ladies he's standing in front of are no longer with us but I will be eternally grateful that he got to know them and will always have memories of them. 



You are missed, D.  We love you.
xx
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