Can I Get A Whoop Whoop? A Purpose for Some Long-Loved Fabric....

 

Hi, all!

Well, Friday has rolled around once again, and we all know what that means - - - it's time for us to get our whoop whoop on!  Let's get started....

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I have to admit, as I write this, that I'm not feeling much to whoop about right now.  I live in Tennessee, and if you've been following the news, you know that our state legislature has done some pretty reprehensible things today in the wake of the mass shooting two weeks ago in a Nashville private school.  So that's been affecting my mood today pretty badly.

But - - - as I was working in my studio today, pressing fat quarters to go into my new storage system, I came across a bundle of fat quarters I've had for almost as long as I've been quilting - about fourteen years now!   

Please excuse the spotty ironing board cover!

I bought this fabric, Far Far Away by Heather Ross, because I loved the prints and thought I'd use it for my eldest granddaughter, Lilli.  But she turned out to be more of a Dr. Seuss kind of kid, and this beautiful fabric, printed on linen, sat in my stash.  Every so often I'd pull it out and pet it, trying to think of what to use it for.  I mean, look at this Rapunzel...

.... and this Sleeping Beauty....

...and the Owl and the Pussycat!

So stinking cute - but I didn't have any project I deemed worthy to cut into it for.  But now my son-in-law's cousin, who I have known since she was knee high to a grasshopper, is having her first baby, and shared this picture of the sheets for her baby's nursery...

And I realized, as I was sorting through those fat quarters today, that they would be perfect!!!  The new mom agreed, so now I just have to come up with the perfect design to showcase these beautiful fabrics.  I bet I can use up some of the scraps of vintage Irish linen I have, too.  We shall see!

So - - - can I get a whoop whoop?

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And now it's your turn!

What's got you whooping up this week?

What's making you do a little happy dance?

Share!  We want to dance right along with you,

And it's always more fun to dance with friends!

The party will stay open until Sunday midnight.

Hope to see you there!

Hugs!

Sarah

Can I Get A Whoop Whoop? Twin Quilts for Twin Girls!

Hi, all!

It's finally Friday again, and you know what that means - it's time to get our whoop whoop on!!!  Are you ready?  Just a reminder, it doesn't have to be a finish (although finishes are good!)  It can just be something you're proud of accomplishing this week - making progress on a project, or even bringing some order to your sewing space!  So find something to whoop about and let's get started!

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This is my beautiful niece Ashley.  That baby bump she's showing off is twin girls, due sometime the last half of September!  Of course, when I found out we had twin girls coming, I went into quilt-y overdrive....

...and created a pair of twin quilts!  

I used the "Sparkle Plenty" pattern from Connecting Threads to create these two quilts.  The stars themselves are made using prints from the Tiger Lily collection by Heather Ross (don't you just love her whimsical prints?) and the backgrounds are two different Kona solids.  The binding on each matches that quilt's Kona color, with a bit of the sister quilt's background color added in for fun.  

I love the backing fabric I found at Joann's!  I originally went looking for a sweet simple baby print - something light and airy.  Couldn't find what I was looking for in the baby section, so I went over to look at some of the other quilting fabric.  When I spotted this print, I knew immediately it was perfect!  All the colors coordinated with the prints in the quilt, and it's fun but a little bit sophisticated, too.

I'm so happy I finished these before the arrival of two sweet little girls - and I can't wait to see pictures of them with their quilts!

So - - - can I get a whoop whoop??

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And now it's your turn!

What's got you whooping it up this week?

via GIPHY

What's making you dance a little happy dance?

Share!  We want to dance right along with you...

And it's always more fun to dance with friends!

The party will stay open until Sunday midnight.

Hope to see you there!

Hugs!

Sarah

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What's On The Bookshelf Wednesday - Unicorns, Frogs and Princesses, Oh My!

Hi, all!

Welcome back to What's On The Bookshelf Wednesday!!!  I have had so much fun re-discovering books I had forgotten I had - I hope you're enjoying them as much as I am!

I'm sure we've all got particular fabric designers that we just love - because of the colors they use, or their design aesthetic - whatever it is, most or all of the fabrics they design appeal to us.  When I first started quilting, Heather Ross was one of those designers.  Her fabrics are so cute and whimsical, they appeal to my "silly side".  But oh my goodness - they were so expensive, with people selling fat quarters of out of print fabrics and even scraps from pajamas for ridiculous prices!  So most Heather Ross fabrics were way out of my reach, budget-wise.  But wait - there's hope for us all!

This is our book for the day - "Heather Ross Prints - 50+ Designs and 20 Projects to Get You Started".  

Yes, there is a DVD jam-packed with lots of beautiful Heather Ross designs - there are even her cute mini-bus campers right on it!

Full-size pages of her prints, too, that you can tear out and photocopy for use in different projects...

And lots of great projects to make, 

like beautiful napkins for your table... 

...or personalized notepaper!

The visual index in the back shows 

the designs available on the disk...

There's also a great section on how to digitally design your own fabrics, if you've ever wanted to try your hand at it.  And once you have your own design, you can use Spoonflower.com to print it out!

The only drawback to this book, in my mind, is that there aren't any quilt-y type projects in the book, but the H.R. designs more than make up for that.  Imagine printing some of her darling motifs to use as the center of economy blocks, or in hexie flowers?  Mug rugs, coasters - - - all of these could be done using printable fabric and your inkjet printer right at home.  

And I have a cute Heather Ross story to share with you.  A couple of years ago my daughter was cleaning out her fabric stash, slowly coming to the realization that with two children and a third (adopted) on the way, she wasn't going to have time to sew much in the next decade.  She was handing me pieces of fabric to put into my stash, and setting a few aside to keep "just in case she got time to sew".  She pulled down one print and said, "I just love this print, but I have no idea what to make with it - I think I'll keep it anyway."  I looked, and lo and behold, she had two (uncut!) yards of Heather Ross's Goldfish In Bags fabric!!  

She had no idea what she had until I showed her the obscene prices that it goes for on Etsy and eBay - today I saw a piece 4.5" x 6" for $5!  She finally gave up on sewing with it (about a year later) and now it resides in my stash - where I look at it and pet it and think that I really don't know what to make with it either - but it's so pretty!!

So that's what's on my bookshelf this week.  Have you looked at yours lately?

Hugs!

Sarah

PS:  There's still time to enter my One Million Page Views giveaway - entries close Thursday 8/27 at noon CST.  Click on this link to go to the post to enter!!

Can I Get A Whoop Whoop? Time For A Giveaway!!!

Hi, all!

It’s Friday again - are you ready to get your whoop-whoop on?  I know I am!!!  And hopefully my whoop-whoop will make you want to whoop too.....  Because.....

...is such a wonderful number!!!  Last Friday night at 10:35, just as I was getting ready to shut down my computer and go to bed, the little counter on my Followers button turned over to 1000!  Woohoo and whoop whoop!!  The ladies that I was staying with in Paducah thought I was a little odd when I got up and did a little happy dance - but who cares?  It’s a silly thing to be excited about, but since I am, I thought you all should be too - so let’s have a giveaway!!

How would you like to have a chance to take this home..

A Chacco chalk fabric marker (truly a great little tool - the built in wheel makes it really easy to make lovely straight and curved lines)

and these....

two packages of fabric addict post-it notes!

and this....

A charm pack of Bear Country School!

and this....

a covered pocket grid journal!

and this...

a hexie shaped paper pieced pin cushion!

and this... 

a quilter’s pillow cover, custom made by me!

and yes, even this!

One yard of Heather Ross’s cute froggie picnic print from the Briar Patch line!

This lovely bundle of loot will go to one lucky person!  Here’s how you can get in on the fun…

1.  Leave a comment answering the question, “If you could buy any fabric in the world, past or present, which one would it be?”

2.  If you are a follower, you get another entry!  Leave another comment letting me know you’re a follower.

3.  If you link up for Whoop Whoop Friday, you get another entry!

I’ll draw a winner next Thursday night and post it in next Friday’s Whoop Whoop post - giving someone else a reason to whoop it up!

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And now, because I didn’t had a chance to do this earlier this week, here’s some photos from our trip to the AQS Show in Paducah....  I’ll let you enjoy these without commentary - just lots of pretty eye candy!

Feel inspired?  I know I sure do!!

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And now it's your turn!

What's made you dance the happy dance this week?

Share with us - we want to dance right along with you!

For those of you new to Whoop Whoop Fridays,

It doesn't have to be a finish - just something

that's made you happy!

The party will stay open longer this week - 

Until next Thursday at 6 pm CST.

I hope you'll join in the fun!

Hugs!

Sarah

Can I Get A Whoop Whoop? 2! And Giveaway Winners! And A Quilt Top!

Hi, all!

It's Friday again!  Are you ready to get your whoop whoop on?  I know I am - lots and lots to whoop about this week!  And I'm going to indulge myself a little bit and share my biggest whoop first, before announcing the giveaway winners…

Remember this little face?

Day 1...

Day 30...

Her last day of being a baby...

Now a big girl - two years old!

She and her big sister love each other so much!  It's been a day with lots of giggles, donuts for breakfast, birthday cake for supper (an enormous meal in between at Lamberts, the home of "throwed rolls", so no one was hungry enough for dinner - but there's always room for birthday cake!)  Who knew that balloons on the floor could be so much fun?

Happy Birthday, Emmy!!

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And now that I've indulged myself, let's see who the winners of the LED sewing machine lights are!! 

Little Miss Random has spoken, and she chose…..

#81

81 

Quilting Tangent said...

Following on bloglovin'.
24Tangent@gmail.com

March 28, 2014 at 9:25 AM

#156

156 

pizzaeater said...

I am a fallow your blog.

March 28, 2014 at 4:10 PM 

#193

193 

Andrea said...

Since I live in the foothills of the Sierra's I'll say the beach!!! Ocean, lake or river.

March 29, 2014 at 12:09 AM

#219

19 

Quiltingranny said...

Beach any day of the year even if it is snowing!
I am a follower!

March 30, 2014 at 9:25 AM

Congratulations, folks!  I'll be contacting you by email sometime today - but if you don't hear from me by Friday noon, you may have been a no-reply blogger.  (There were a bunch of no-reply bloggers that entered this giveaway!)  If so, contact me directly at salliesue (at) clearwire (dot) net.  

If I can't reach any of the winners, and don't hear back from them, I'll put Little Miss Random to work again to choose some new ones.  So chime in if you won!!

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And here's my other whoop whoop!

This is what I've been working on all week!  And I finally finished the top this afternoon, just in time to take a picture before the sun went down.

This quilt will be named "Nathanael's Ladder" and will be used as a fund raiser for our future grandson's adoption.  For those of you who are just hearing about this, my daughter and SIL are trying to adopt a Chinese toddler who is profoundly deaf (as is our youngest granddaughter).  We are thinking of raffling off several quilts to help raise the nearly $30,000 needed to bring Nathanael home.  Stay tuned for further details!

And now, something really really special….

The other day I was at my daughter's house, and she said, 

"Hey, take a look at this cute fabric I've had forever…"

and she brought out

two full, uncut yards of….

wait for it….

almost there…

Goldfish in Bags, from Heather Ross's

Lightning Bugs and Other Mysteries

(Long out of print!)

Oh. My. Gosh.

After I picked myself up off the floor..

And petted it for a while…

I asked her if she had any idea what it was worth.

Not. A. Clue.

So I told her.

She now thinks she might be able to live without it.

Anyone interested?  She's trying to figure out the best way to sell it - fat quarters, half yards, full yards or 

one gorgeous, glorious, two yard abundance 

of Goldfish in Bags.

Or maybe a raffle - $5 for a chance to have it for yourself?

What do you think?  Interested?

I bet this could help bring Nathanael home!!

Whoop whoop!!

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And now it's your turn!

What are you whooping about this week?

What's got you dancing the happy dance?

Share - we want to dance along with you!

Remember - it doesn't have to be a finish - 

just something that makes you happy!

The linky party will stay open until Sunday midnight - 

Hope to see you there!

Hugs!

Sarah