Month: December 2010

SMS Giveaway Day – A Quilting Kit – CLOSED

| terriaw

Welcome to Giveaway Day, a semi-annual event hosted by Sew,Mama,Sew!

I thought it would be fun to give away a kit filled with quilting supplies, which fits nicely inside a handmade drawstring bag. My kit includes:

A square ruler, a jelly roll ruler, thread, batting, scissors, rotary cutter, seam ruler, straight pins, bent safety pins for basting, seam ripper, and binding clips.

Everything comes inside this pretty Drawstring Bag made from Sis Boom fabrics, measuring 11 inches wide x 12 inches tall.

If you’re interested in winning this quilting kit, leave me one comment by 9:00 pm CST on Friday, December 17. I will draw a random winner.

Note: I forgot to mention that I will ship Internationally if you live outside the U.S.

Snowed In

| terriaw

The Upper Midwest got dumped on this weekend! I’m guessing we got about 10 inches of snow so far.

Everything looks so beautiful, frosted in a thick layer of snow.

Now we have blizzard warnings because of the gusting winds and sub-zero temperatures.

The plow cleared our street and now there is a huge wall of snow at the end of our driveway. I’m sure it will take us awhile to clean off the driveway. Thanks goodness we have a snowblower! Good thing we went to the grocery store on Friday night instead of our usual Sunday morning field trip.

In the Ditch, Literally

| terriaw

We finally broke down and bought a new mattress last night. I can’t even tell you how old our current mattress is, so we are excited to have the new set delivered next week.

On the way home from the store, I was following Dave in my car since we met at the store, and he slid into the ditch! I didn’t see it happen because he was turning a corner while I was still approaching the corner. No damage and no injuries, but his car was just a tad too far into the ditch to back it out. So we came home, changed into our boots and winter clothes (ski clothes), and went back to get his car out ourselves, since he really didn’t want to pay for a tow truck. He tied a heavy duty rope to the rear axle of each car, and I slowly pulled him out with my Subaru.

While we were getting ready to do this, a Sheriff pulled up to see if we were okay. She waited to make sure we got out, or she was going to help us get a tow truck. I’m sure she was probably also checking to make sure we hadn’t been drinking.

It snowed a couple inches so the roads were slippery. It was quite nerve-wracking to me, not the sheriff part, but having to pull Dave’s car out of the ditch. I’m such a girl! Not a big deal in the end, just a little drama.

I hear we’re supposed to get another snow storm on Saturday (4 to 10 inches predicted), so I think we will be hibernating for most of the weekend. I will be finishing up some final homework projects, and if there’s time, squeeze in some sewing and baking. As you can see, I have some new fabrics calling my name, which made me feel better while telling this little story!

Cookie Day

| terriaw

Every year since I can remember, my family has gotten together to celebrate Christmas with our annual Cookie Day. UPDATE: I added the recipes to my Favorite Recipes tab above.

(Chunky Triple Chocolate Cookies)

We pick a day around Thanksgiving when we all get together, cousins, aunts and uncles, for a marathon of cookie baking. Well, okay, the guys go out for lunch and watch a lot of football. But some of them help with the baking and decorating. It has been a great tradition for all these years.

(English Toffee)

One year we made over 20 different varieties! Our recipe book has grown into a 3-ring binder. This year, I think the family made 12 different varieties.

(Peanut Butter Blossoms)

When I was a kid, my mom used to keep the cookies in the freezer so we wouldn’t eat all of them before Christmas arrived. We snuck them out of the freezer anyway! Imagine her surprise when she wanted to set out a plate of cookies for a party. (seriously, I’m sure she knew about our shenanigans all along!)

(Chocolate Mint Sandwiches – recipe pending)

I think I might have a couple left, but they are definitely not going to last until Christmas!

Personalized Patchwork

| terriaw

My good friend Vicki, also known as Dotty Jane, was sneaky and sent me a little birthday/Christmas care package which contained this gorgeous personalized mug rug!

How wonderful it was to see my name sewn in fabric with beautiful prints and fabulous quilting. Be sure to look closer at the amazing pebble quilting she did in between the letters. I know she has been practicing with the quilt-along.

She also included this adorable patchwork Santa ornament, perfectly pieced and stitched.

Thank you, Vicki, for being such a great friend and for brightening my day!

Green Grocery Bag Challenge

| terriaw

Did you see Sew,Mama,Sew’s latest promotion called the Green Grocery Bag Challenge? They started a project to encourage people to wrap their holiday gifts in reusable cloth bags.

I’m so happy to see my Simple Tote Tutorial was included in the campaign.

Stop by the The Green Grocery Bag Challenge Facebook page where Sew,Mama, Sew is continuing to offer wrapping ideas, sewing patterns and tips for reducing waste this holiday season. You can also join the GGBC Flickr group to share photos of your own bags and gifts wrapped in reusable bags.

On a related note, I wanted to mention that my reusable bags received some great feedback at my craft show last weekend. I ended up selling about five, and used one for a drawing to giveaway. So give your gifts this year in some adorable handmade bags or clever reusable wrapping!

Growing a Little Forest

| terriaw

I have been slowly working on making this Lovely Little Forest Quilt from The Purl Bee. I think they offer the most adorable projects!

The project calls for 25 tree blocks, cut to 3.5 inches wide by 4 inches tall. Then you arrange the trees with 15 plain blocks of the same size. The sample shows light green trees at the top and darker green trees at the bottom. I’m planning to do a simple, random arrangement. I ended up cutting way more pieces than I needed, so I decided to make two of these quilts at the same time, one for our house and one for a gift.

Since I’m not in a rush to finish this, I don’t know if I’ll have it done in time for Christmas, but I’m okay with that. It’s just nice to have a no-pressure Christmas project to be working on in between all the other things going on these days.

I Won the Snow Bet

| terriaw

Every year, sometime in October, we make a bet on when the first snow storm will arrive. The requirement is that the snow has to stick to the grass.

I guessed December 4. Guess what, today is December 4, and this is what we woke up to! Woo hoo! I should mention that there is no research or science to the guessing. Just close your eyes and pick a day.

There is no prize. It’s just a fun little game we play.

After we clean the snow off the driveway, I need to clean up the gardens a little. I see I forgot to put those mums in the compost pile. Then we are finally going to put up our Christmas decorations. Should be a festive day at our house! Hope you are having a festive day too.

A Preview

| terriaw

I haven’t had time to sit at my sewing machine for two weeks, yet I have been holding back on you! I finally finished adding some new one-of-a-kind bags to my shop, so now they can all be found in the New Products section.

Some are meant to be functional and practical, like these Artist Totes below. (my sister has already claimed the one with the blue lining)

Others are fun because they are impractical, like these patchwork party clutches below! (Update: I sold the one in the middle at my craft show, but I can always make another if someone has a custom request.)

Some of these new patchwork handbags could be carried for daytime running around (pink and grey version listed here and maroon and grey version listed here) or

They could complement a trendier look for a girls’ night out. (Update: I sold the middle wristlet below at my craft show, but I plan to make another since I really love that city scape print.)

I have been wanting to try a new messenger bag/laptop bag with a flap in a more modern romance look. Check out the link to that laptop bag – it has the coolest newsprint fabric inside the flap! (Note: I also made myself a funky new handbag, shown below, out of plaid suiting with lace, sequin and stud accents.)

I am happy to offer all of these styles as custom designs, in addition to what I patch and piece together based on my own inspirations. I provided more details in the descriptions in my shop, if you’re interested in more specifics.

Sorry for the bag overload today! I’m super excited about all these one-of-a-kind designs. I’m hoping to develop most of these patterns into a collection, so this is a preview of a regular series of goodies to come. Thanks for hanging out with me today!