I'M BACK...AND TWO GREAT WINS!!!

The big move into our new home is done...now we are waiting for the final list of items that need to be 'tweaked' to get finished.  Love the new home and can't wait to start sewing up some fun table toppers, placemats, quilts, curtains and more for it in my new quilting/craft room!!!

While all this was happening, I was extremely lucky to win two great prizes (my apologies for taking so long to post this)....the first is an autographed book: Quilt Blocks Go Wild! by Eleanor Levie...it has 10+ fun projects and I can't wait to give some of them a try!! This was a giveaway from Darra's blog, See How We Sew where you can see pics of some of the projects from this book...thank you again Darra and Eleanor!!!

The second prize is an amazing LED light strip for my sewing machine from EcoluxLighting, LLC...and you can check out their website by clicking here.  This was a giveaway by Patti at A Yankee In Queen Liz's Court.  Patti did a great write-up on these lights....you must go and check it out...besides, her blog is lots of fun to visit!!  A big 'thank you' to Patti, along with Scott and Kim (from EcoluxLighting)!!!  I own a Janome MC6500 and this light brightens up the throat area of my machine and makes it soooooo easy to see what I'm doing. I cannot believe what a difference it makes. (Even though I use Ott-lites by my sewing machine, they don't light up this area when I'm trying to sew). The pics show my machine with just it's work light on and the other with the EcoluxLight on (I had no other lights on when I took these pics).  Now with all this great light, I'd better go get to work creating something, LOL!!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL!!!

(view from new home)

Just wanted to wish everyone a Happy, Healthy New Year!!! Looking forward to seeing all the wonderful projects to come in 2013!!!

A WIN AND A THANK YOU

During the fun Sew Mama Sew’s Giveaway Day I was the lucky winner of a free charm pack of my choice from ChristaQuilts.com.  Christa has a great web store that you should check out. She carries a wide variety of fabrics, notions, patterns and so much more...and there is 'free' shipping on All U.S. orders....wow!!! Since I love batiks I chose the Color Splash Batiks charm pack from Moda as my prize and; when I saw that cute tweezer I just had to add it to my shopping cart as well.  Thanks so much again Christa!

FUN AND EASY REVERSIBLE COASTERS

With the holidays almost here, I decided to make some fun (and extremely easy to make) coaster sets. I had leftover charm squares and yardage from previous projects and found some fun Chanukah fabric in a LQS.  I just cut the yardage I needed into 5" squares, along with some leftover scraps of batting (those pieces that were not large enough just got zig zag stitched together..so easy to do and a good way to use up that expensive batting). I placed two 5" squares right sides together on top of a batting square and sewed all the way around, leaving a small opening for turning; snipped the corners; turned them; pressed with an iron. I then sewed around 1/8" to close the opening and again 1/4" in from that stitch line just because I think it looks good like that.  I made some with just Christmas fabrics on both sides and some with Christmas fabric on one side and Chanukah fabric on the other for those who celebrate both holidays....an easy project for some quick, last minute gifts and a great way to use up leftovers.

SOFT, SAFE & EASY SNOWMEN ORNAMENTS

For Christmas 2012 I decided to make ornaments to give as gifts. I thought it would be fun to make some snowmen using a snowball block (perfect for snowmen!), some wool and eco-fi felt and twill ribbon.  To start, I cut 5" squares of white fabric and 2" squares of Christmas fabrics for the corners. Once the corners were added and trimmed, I attached each block to a 5" piece of batting by sewing in the ditch along each corner seam. For the backs I cut 5" squares of white and attached them to batting squares (I wanted each ornament to have two batting square layers inside so they'd have a softer feel and to hide any thread color through the white fabric) by using a decorative stitch for the year 2012.  I originally thought of using buttons for the eyes and mouths, however, since we are still living in the condo (and almost all my crafty goodies are in storage) that was not going to happen.  I chose to cut some wonky circles free hand from black wool felt, along with some 'carrot' noses (the orange is eco-fi felt made from recycled plastic bottles and so easy to work with...I got it from honeybegood). To hold them in place I used a Lapel Stick and then stitched the 'eyes' and 'mouths' using black thread and a decorative stitch on my Janome; and a straight stitch for the 'noses' using orange thread. To finish each one, I cut a piece of twill ribbon about 9" long, folded it and placed it between the two layers (right sides facing); sewed around leaving a couple of inches open for turning. Snip each corner before turning, press with a iron and either sew the opening closed or do what I did, and use fabric glue so no stitches show.  I think these would be great for those who have small children or pets that love to 'play' with Christmas ornaments...soft and not breakable.