Texting Discount

How could I forget? One of the Texting While Sewing Contest sponsors, Sew Me A Song, is offering flat rate shipping for your text fabric purchases! Becca is offering flat rate shipping with no minimum purchase: $2.50 US, $6.00 Canada and $8 everywhere else. She will refund the shipping difference if you add the code "AKAText" in the notes to seller section. Happy shopping! I will be back on Monday with a list of all the prizes!

Texting While Sewing Contest!

I would like to announce a summer contest for all you lovers of text fabrics!  My contest idea was inspired by the name of a fat quarter bundle in the Sew Me A Song shop, "Texting While Sewing Encouraged."  Isn't that a clever name?  Love it.

Here's how you enter:  The goal of the contest is to use text fabric creatively in a 12" quilt block.  I am keeping it small and manageable for summer. Your block can be traditionally pieced, paper pieced, improvisationally pieced, whatever you like.  You can use your own design or a commercially produced pattern or traditional block (please just give credit where credit is due in your blog post).  What I am looking for is creative use of your text fabrics in the design.

You will enter by blogging about the contest and linking up via a Linky post on my blog which will be up August 27, 28 and 29, 2012.  I will select my top ten favorite blocks (could be more depending on the number of entries) and then I will turn them over to my fabulous guest judges, Kerry (aka verykerryberry) and Ayumi (aka pinkpenguin).  We will announce the first, second, and third prize winners no later than Sept. 3.

Here are a few examples of blocks made using text fabrics:

In this knitting basket block, Kerry has used text quite a bit but I particularly like how she used the lines of text to represent strands of yarn in the yarn ball.

This block by Ayumi incorporates text fabric in so many ways. Like Kerry, she uses the lines of text to represent strands of thread on the spool  I love how she used sewing text fabric in a sewing block to further the theme.

Similarly, I used all gardening related texts when making this paper pieced Watering Can block.

I am sharing these images for inspiration only. I want to see your creative ideas.  These blocks happen to be paper pieced but you could also choose to put a new spin on a Traditional quilt block by using text, for example.

You can use older, out of print, coveted bits of text fabric or some of the new prints that are available now like Summersville and Lucy's Crab Shack.

There are very few rules because I want to let you be creative!

If you are anxious to share your block and get feedback before the link up days, you can share them in the Texting While Sewing Flickr Group.

And yes, there are prizes!!  Actually, there are lots of prizes!  I will be back soon with another post just dedicated to the prizes for this contest.  The prizes are definitely worth it so put your thinking caps on and get sketching!

Please feel free to grab this button and link it back to this post.  If you could spread the word, I'd be grateful!

If you have any questions, please leave them in the comments section and I will reply because it is likely that others have the same question.  I'll be back soon to tell you about the prizes!

No Quiet Time

There hasn't been much quiet time this week--hence no projects to share.  Today we enjoyed a great local beach with tons of tide pools.  The kids had such a good time.  This is my favorite picture of the day.  I hope you are all enjoying your summers too!

Seam Ripper Bonanza

It's a seam ripper bonanza!  My husband has been on vacation and has been making more seam rippers!  The majority of the hand turned seam rippers are acrylic but there are a couple of dyed hardwood handles available too.

He tried out another new profile too--sort of stacked beads.  They are all beautiful and are more stunning in person.  They are available in my shop.

There has been a lot of interest in the seam ripper necklaces, seam rippers on chains, that I posted about recently.  We will be ordering more of those hardware kits soon.

New York Beauty Quilt Top

I finished the borders on my New York Beauty quilt top!  This quilt top has a lot of paper in it still which is why it isn't hanging nicely. I have a couple of hours of paper picking ahead of me before I can baste.

The first border is BasicGrey Grunge in Oynx with Lakehouse Seed Packet print in black for the cornerblocks. The outer border is paper pieced triangles/points of various heights (just like the arcs of the New York Beauty). Each border was pieced as one long section so that there are no breaks or seams.  I drew them by hand, using a straight edge, so border is different.  The cornerblocks are Drunkard's Path blocks. The binding will be black Heath. 

I have no quilting ideas yet. Suggestions?

Vintaj Zipper Pulls

I'm so excited about my post on the Sizzix blog today!  I used Vintaj altered blanks and transformed them into zipper pulls!  I love making little pouches and bags for gifts and usually add a bit of ribbon to the zipper. This opens up a whole new world for me.  I can emboss altered blanks and create zipper pulls, adding some of my favorite beads as well.

I'm also sharing an idea for embellishing your pouches...do you love the scallops???

To learn more, please click over to the Sizzix blog.

 I'd like to thank Commonwealth Felt for sending me the lovely felt I used in the pouch project. Their felt is of such high quality and comes in beautiful colors. You will be seeing more of it soon in other Sizzix projects from me.

 As always, my zips are from Zipit!

Table Talk Swap Received!

How funny.  Yesterday, I delivered my Table Talk Swap table runner and today I received mine!  This package was so needed today too because it is miserably hot out (and in) and by the end of the day I am feeling really uncomfortable and short on patience.  Finding this in my mailbox was a great pick me up!

My package was sent by "Cottilello." She did such a wonderful job incorporating things I love--linen, text prints, Granny Square blocks, neat binding, precise piecing and quilting. The runner works in really well with my dining room. My walls are beige and the trim is a soft green.

Don't you love the label she made for the back? So cool! Thank you so very much! I have it on the side table in my dining room right now.

A Surprise Visit

This morning the kids and I travelled about an hour to surprise my Table Talk Swap partner with this table runner. Since my partner lives nearby and I had visited once before, I thought I would try to make a surprise delivery instead of using the postal service.  I marked the table runner as sent well over a week ago to throw her off.  I emailed her friend, Debbie, a number of times for information about her wall colors and preferences for flowers. As a thank you for her help and for allowing me and my three kids to descend upon her pristine house, I brought Debbie this armrest pincushion (see sidebar for tutorial).

Debbie likes orange and as I remembered, her walls were a citrine/green color so I thought she might like the Arcadia line by Moda. Ages ago, I won 5" strips of the entire line from Sheree's Alchemy. I pieced the bottom of the armrest pincushion in strips just like the pocket and the pincushion. The binding is scrappy and the solid aqua fabric is Medium Aqua Essex Linen.

 I enjoyed giving Nancy her runner in person (and I think she was surprised). It was so much more fun than sending it off in the mail.

New York Beauty Start

I've been working on my variation on the New York Beauty block for awhile now but haven't shared it till now.  I wanted to sew them together first.  A pile of blocks didn't look like much.  I decided to make New York Beauty blocks with white backgrounds.  Some blocks have a black print for the outer piece or for the inside piece, but not both.  The points were hand drawn for each block so each is different.  Some points are wide, some a short, some narrow, some fat.  Each curve has one point that reaches to the outside of the arc but the rest are of varying heights.  Then I arranged the blocks randomly.

My next step is going to be to add a couple of borders.  I was feeling iffy about my blocks until I sewed them together and now they look more like I had planned.  What a difference stitching blocks together can make!

All my black and white prints are from Sew Fresh Fabrics.  The points are scraps from my stash.

And Summer Begins

Today was the last day of school!  We are ready to celebrate summer.  Here is Penny at her water table showing off her new skirt.  It's made of Elephants on Peony from Play Date by Dear Stella from Sew Me a Song, with a border along the hemline of Quilter's Linen in Lavender from Fresh Squeezed Fabrics. These fabrics coordinate so well that it really seems meant to be. I plan to applique a tee shirt with a fussy cut elephant but need to pick up a shirt first.  I would have shown you a full shot here so you could see Penny's smiling face but every full shot I took is blurry because she couldn't stop moving long enough for a picture. Three is a busy age you know.

Mark went overboard this year with teacher's gifts!  He made hand turned acrylic pens for our daughter's kindergarten teacher and her assistant, and for our son's third grade teacher.  They deserved them though because I feel very blessed with the best of the best teachers this year. I hope we are as lucky next year.  I made little coordinating pen sleeves to protect the pens (see tutorial in my sidebar).

The pens are really gorgeous.  The one on the far left is a deep purple and looks so much prettier in person than it does in this picture.  Happy summer everyone!

New Product-Seam Ripper Necklaces!

My husband has been busy in his workshop.  Awhile ago, I promised a new seam ripper design.  Here it is!  We are now offering seam rippers on 36" chains.  This is the perfect solution for those of you who lose your seam rippers while sewing. I know I do that all that time.

The seam rippers are offered in chrome, satin chrome and 24kt gold finish.  And he is turning two different profiles for the handles.

This picture shows the seam ripper open and ready to use.

Here you can see how the seam ripper can easily detach from the necklace and reattach thanks to a super strong earth magnet.

And here is the closed position (the one I recommend while the seam ripper is not in use since we don't want anyone getting injured!).  The seam ripper blades are made of durable maganese steel.

I have just listed these seam rippers in my shop.  There are also two of the regular, non necklace variety, in stock.

Penelope

Today my youngest child, Penelope, is turning 3.  Most of my crafting time this week has been spent getting her present ready.  When my sister and I were little, we were both given wooden dollhouses for Christmas (different years).  I've blogged about mine before. I loved it. I crafted miniature things for it all through my school years and it is set up in my sewing room now.  My sister never really got into hers very much and now she has two boys.  A number of years ago, her dollhouse took up residence in my attic.  My older daughter isn't really into dolls, much like her aunt.  But I see potential in Penny and she is just the right age.  So we secreted the house out to the barn and sanded and primed and painted.

It's now a white Cape with a pink roof, perfect for the little mouse family who will be living there (they are in the packages!).  I papered the rooms with scrap booking paper and spray adhesive.  It worked pretty well but was a pain in the neck!  I can't wait to give this to her tonight.  Right now she is napping before her big party.  

While on the subject of Penelope, and this being a sewing blog and all, I have to mention this new line of fabric called Penelope!  It's by Holly Holderman for Lakehouse Dry Goods and I love it!  I can't wait to make something with it but I am not sure yet what I will make.  Any ideas?  The periwinkle print will be used to make a gift for my mom for her kitchen at some point.

If you are looking for some, Sew Fresh Fabrics has the Tea Labels in black and linen. Sew Me a Song and the Fat Quarter Shop have most all of the prints.

I think I am going to have to add a couple more prints to this stack. They are named after my daughter, after all. That's safe to say right, since she was born first right?

Grunge, a Star and a Winner

First off, I am so excited that Tammy is now stocking Grunge at Marmalade Fabrics!  She just listed it today and I have already placed an order.  I have been using Grunge in nearly all of my paper pieced garden blocks because I love the texture and depth that it has, unlike regular solids.

I made this eight pointed star with pinwheel for the Stash Trad Bee.  Kati asked for star blocks, preferably paper pieced, using yellow and grey with Kona Snow as one of the possible background fabrics. I really enjoyed making this one though those points were very tricky to match!

And finally, the lucky winner of the Beam N Read is VickiT. I'm sending you an email right now!

New Tutorial from the Fat Quarter Gang

Have you seen the latest tutorial from the Fat Quarter Gang?

Lee from Freshly Pieced shows us how to make this striking Ruffled Pouch.  Click here for the tutorial.

Crabtastic Shirred Sundress

I enjoyed whipping up this little sundress for Penny today. It was quick, satisfying, and looks oh so stinkin' cute on her!  I used about three quarters of a yard of Picnic in Aqua from Crabtastic by Maude Asbury for Blend Fabrics, purchased from Sew Fresh Fabrics.  I had the pleasure of visiting Peg in her new digs last week and saw this bolt of fabric. I didn't love it in the thumbnail image in the online shop but when I saw it in person, it screamed cute little sundress.  Wouldn't it be perfect for a cookout?  Penny loves it and thinks that the crabs on her dress were pinching Mommy as she sewed.

I started by making a casing along the upper edge of the fabric for a 1/4" elastic.  Then I shirred a few inches (using regular thread for my top thread and a hand wound bobbin of elasticized thread on the bottom).  I used some adorable gingham bias tape from JoAnns for the straps. I had just enough left over from another project--it was meant to be.

A simple, wide hem at the bottom and it was done.  My little model turns three this week.  Where did the time go?  I started this blog when I was a few months pregnant with her.

Beam N Read Giveaway

Recently, I was asked if I would like to review the Beam N Read Hands Free Light.  Initially, I thought I would decline, thinking that I didn't really have a use for it. I don't have trouble seeing while doing handwork (yet!) so I didn't feel like I needed the light and optional magnifying glass.  Sure, I might use it to read in bed but that had nothing to do with my sewing blog.  But then I thought of the perfect use!

When I have a quilt done and need to hand sew the binding, I declare it a movie night.  When we renovated our office about a year ago, my husband installed a movie screen.  He likes to watch movies with all the lights off. I always want to turn on a light so that I can see.  We compromise by turning on a light in the back half of the room so it's still dark for the movie but I can hardly see.  While sewing the binding on the runner that I just showed you, I tried the Beam N Read.  It was very lightweight and comfortable to wear around my neck.  I used the 3 LED setting rather than the 6 and had plenty of light to see by and it didn't bother my husband in the least!  As you can see, the light is very focused.

If you would like to try a Beam N Read, I have been given permission to give one away to a lucky winner.  To enter, please just leave a comment here and let me know how you plan to use the light. I will draw a winner on Tuesday, June 12th in the evening.

Rose Garden Table Runner

Right now, I am running the second round of the Table Talk Swap on Flickr. We are exchanging table toppers or table runners to our partners size specifications and including the colors they requested.  I decided to make a rose garden for my partner using Rosie's Rose paper pieced pattern by Piece by Number. Each block finishes at 6" square so I thought eight would be the minimum number I could get away with for a runner. They took longer than I expected but choosing different fabrics for each rose kept me interested.

 

The finished quilt top seemed to beg for free motion quilting so I gathered my courage and set to it.  I made a swirl from the center of each rose to the outermost petal.  Then I stitched veins inside of each leaf.

I decided to do an all over meandering vine pattern throughout the background.  I love the way it softens the lines of the paper piecing and sashing so that your eye is drawn to the roses.

This shot is a little blurry but it shows off the lovely texture!

I used the same three green prints for all the leaves but used them randomly. I used one of those prints for the binding to pull it all together.

I  hope my partner enjoys this runner.  I think it will be wonderful for spring and summer. 

Blitzen Table Topper

Blitzen, BasicGrey's holiday line, is now available in stores!  I know that you can get it at the Fat Quarter Shop right now.  In honor of the occasion, even though it is nearly summer time, I am sharing a tutorial for this Blitzen Table Topper on the Basic Grey blog today.

A few months ago, I wrote a pattern for this Christmas Cogs quilt, also using Blitzen.  Now that the fabric is available, I wanted to remind you of the link to the free tutorial.

It's never too early to start your holiday sewing!

Southern Fabric

I'd like to welcome Southern Fabrics as a new sponsor for During Quiet Time. I was recently contacted by Aubrey, the owner of this Milledgeville, GA fabric shop. We exchanged a few emails only to learn that she knows the only person I know in Milledgeville. I live in New England so I don't know many people in GA at all but I happen to know a family friend who is an anesthesiologist in Milledgeville and Aubrey knows him. What a crazy small world.

Southern Fabrics has been in business since 2004. It's an online shop that you can visit here as well as on Etsy. They stock fabrics by Moda, Freespirit, Riley Blake, and Westminster.

A couple of my favorites at the moment are Lucy's Crab Shack...

and Vintage Modern.

Welcome Southern Fabrics!