A fairytale….

Wasn’t the wedding amazing?  I know, I know….some people will think I am crazy for getting up so early to watch, but I just had to.

The bonus was she {the wedding, actually} kept me on the treadmill an extra 30 mins.  So you see, I was also improving my over all health as well.  *snicker

What is it with our obsession with ‘Royalty’ ?  For me it is just the idea of the fairytale.  It is so fun to see the lives they lead.  I am sure that they wish sometimes to just live normally, like we all wish to be them for the day.  Wouldn’t it be great to trade?  {just for a bit}

Anyway, if you haven’t heard yet Quilt Market is happening in less than 2 weeks!  HOLY FABRIC!  I am so looking forward to being there and meeting up with all of our ‘Fabric Celebrities’!  Yes, yes Market is like the Oscars of the fabric/sewing/quilting world!!  It is so fun to see and meet the newest designers.  To see the new stuff.

I’m not gonna lie, I totally get ‘star struck’ when I am there too!!  My first time at Quilt Market I had a list of people that I idolized and couldn’t wait to meet!  Sandi Henderson, Amy Butler, Heather Bailey, Sandy Gervais, The girls from Sweetwater and Anna Maria Horner to name just a few.  They were all so, so sweet.

Funny though, now my list is bigger {as the quilting world grows} and am even more excited to go than I was the first time!!

I can’t even make a list now as it would be HUGE!

Who do you want to meet?  What would you say to them?  Is there anything about Market you are dying to know about????  I can try to get you the inside scoop, if you want.  Ask away, and I will try my darnedest to get answers!!

I hope you have a ‘fairy tale’ weekend!

~Sarah

ps. I can’t stop talking in an English accent.  I say, today we shall all speak in one. Please join me.  {see, I told you.}  I suppose now I will go clean my baaathroooom.

Show and Tell…Quilts made by YOU

Over a year ago I spoke with Carolyn on the phone.  I tried to help her make her first quilt with a few suggestions and such.  I received an email from her with pictures of the quilt she made and I couldn’t be more thrilled to share it with you!

Here is the email I received from her:

Hi Sarah,

As you can see from the date of your message to me (2/5/10), you helped me by answering some questions I had about making my first quilt!  I had bought some charm packs of California Dreamin’ from your store and wanted to make a quilt for my sister’s birthday.  You were kind enough to answer some of my questions over the phone, and then you sent me two pictures as suggestions of what I could do with the charm packs.

I am proud and excited to tell you that I finally finished the quilt!!  I really wanted to show you what I did.  (I think two of the pictures are sideways but I don’t know how to rotate them on here!)  I added a white border around the charm square and then alternated a pink or green border around that.  I also had bought material for the backing before I really knew what I was doing.  When it was time to do the back, I found out it was only 42″ wide and the quilt was 54″ wide.  So I had to make a border around the backing.

I also tried to stipple the quilt.  I had taken a class on free motion quilting, but hadn’t been practicing.  So, 30 minutes of stippling one section, ended up being 3 DAYS of ripping it out!!  I then went with the grid pattern.  I used 1″ painters tape and followed the line.  After about 5 rows of that, I thought 1″ was too small so I ripped THAT out and used the 1.5″ tape.  I used variegated quilting thread that matched the colors perfectly.  My other sister noticed that right away which made me happy!   I had no idea the quilting part would be so time consuming!

I made my own binding and followed your tutorial and that went fine.  I also made a label with my embroidery machine.  (I’m also new to that so it wasn’t the best!)

I presented it to my sister this weekend and she absolutely loved it!  It was only one year, one month and a few weeks passed her birthday!

So THANK YOU so much for all your help and guidance.  Your encouragement help give me courage to finish my very first quilt!!

Sincerely,

Carolyn

I can NOT even express how much it means to us, to hear back from you all.  The stories, successes and failures {which always turn out to be  successes too}  are what keeps us going.  We appreciate all of you.  You are the reason why we are doing what we are doing.

Have  a wonderful day.

~Sarah

A bit of a tension problem…

have you ever  been ‘there’?  Things can’t always go right, right?    Haha, well that is what happened to me when I tried to sew this weekend.

Lucky for me I have my Mom {Jenny, some of you  may be familiar} on speed dial, and she helped me ease the tension in no-time flat.  Hahaha.

Also, you may have noticed a bit of an issue we have had with our site…tension of a different sort. LOL. As we continue to grow we have little bumps along the way, and we learn from each

of them.  Thankfully, we have my genius{please, don’t tell him I said that} Brother who seems to fix those things,

even if it means re-building ‘something or other’{insert, big computer talk that I don’t understand}

Anyway, besides the obvious tension, I had a fabulous weekend spent with family and friends.  It was quite relaxing and I hope we can have more weekends like that.  {sooner, rather than later}

The weather surprised us and was beautiful!  We had a big egg hunt at Mom’s followed by the most delicious dinner.  The kids had a blast playing with their cousins while the grown-ups talked.  {i even got to hold the tiny baby for a while!}  A guitar came out and in impromptu sing along ensued.  What a blast.

Pretty much, exactly what I needed.

How about you?  How was your weekend.  I hope it was lovely.

~Sarah

Honey Bun Bonanza!

I don’t know if you noticed, but we are going crazy with our honey bun extravaganza! (or was it bonanza?)  We have been drumming up all kinds of fun projects of things to do with them too!  From mini dresdens out of the honeybun strips to log cabins, we are loving all the creative ideas you all are coming up with!  If you have something cool you want to share with us, click here to submit it to show and tell!

 

But I wanted to share with you really quick some ideas mom had that she made into quick tutorials (and we got a new camera for the filming finally too!  So fun!)  So I hope they get your creative juices flowing!!  Let us know what you think!

 

 

Quilts made by: You {of course} Show and Tell

I am excited for show and tell this week!  Teresa emailed me these pictures of quilts she made from some of our tutorials.

Look at that sweet disappearing nine patch!    Go here for a tutorial. Such a fun and easy block to make!  I just love it.  Honestly, I have NEVER seen a DP9 quilt I didn’t like.  Teresa used City Weekend charm packs and Moda Bella Solid white charm packs too!  {the white charm packs are still out of stock…but will be back soon.}

The Next quilt she made was also using City Weekend , this tutorial and these awesome tools. How great, right!!

Last but certainly NOT least is this beauty using Civil War Home front  fabric, by Barbara Brackman.  She said she used a pack of turnovers for the border and fat quarters for the center blocks.

Thank you Teresa for sharing your quilts with all of us!

I hope you all have a wonderful Wednesday.

~Sarah