I May Have A Scrap Problem... But I'm Working On It!

Hi, all!

It's been a crazy week, and while I've been working on my Scrap Attack tub, it's been slow work in between other things that needed to be done.  But it's not been a total waste of time...

I made this table runner and the pillow below from the scraps of the Tanya Whelan line I previewed for Free Spirit Fabrics over a year ago!  These will be offered at the grand opening of a friend's new home decor shop this weekend.

And I finished the turtle quilt - not my scrappy achievement, but definitely a scrappy achievement by the original maker of this fun top!  And now it's ready to entertain several more generations of kids as it has in the past...

I also spotted, out and about, this fabulous bento box quilt....

Just a bento box, right?  But what caught my eye was her description of this quilt - a Binding Bento Box!  What a great way to use up leftover binding!!!

I had thought I'd be able to work on scraps today, but a few things interfered with that process..... like registering for QuiltCon 2019....

...and then, this afternoon this happened!

My 10-year old granddaughter Lilli stepped up to the plate (or more accurately, the belly bar) and quilted for the very first time using my long arm machine!  She did great, too - she didn't hold the handles too tightly, remembered to breathe, and had fun while she was doing it.  She was pretty good, too - her first quilt looked a lot better than mine on the machine!  Of course, she's been running the machine up and down the frame ever since she was little - it was a favorite thing for her to do ever since she was old enough to stand up and reach it - so she had a good feel for it, but I didn't expect her to feel so comfortable right from the start!

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So that's my week so far - a little bit of scrap sorting, using up some bits and bobs of an old line that's been hanging around for a while, and of course, registering for QuiltCon 2019!  

What have you been working on this week?  Anything scrappy?  Next week is time to show off June's scrap attack accomplishments - do like me and get busy on those now!!!

Hugs!

Sarah

Can I Get A Whoop Whoop? Gearing Up....

Hi, all!

Friday is here again, and as always, that means that it's time to get our whoop whoop on!!  Are you ready?  Let's get started!

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It's hard to believe it's time already, but Sunday is the beginning of the Stunning Stars Quilt-Along!  

If you're new here, you might not know about this series, so here's the skinny.  Two years ago, I started doing a series of simple quilt designs in the weeks leading up to the Hands2Help Charity Quilt Challenge.  The first year was the Sweet Sixteen Quilt-Along, with eight simple designs featuring sixteen-patch quilts.  Last year, it was the Nifty Nines Quilt-Along, sharing six different nine-patch quilts.  This week I've been working hard on the first quilts for the Stunning Stars Quilt-Along, and I've got a couple of teaser shots for you!

I'm trying really hard to make these out of my scrap bins, thereby killing two birds with one stone!

I can't wait to share the whole series with you - I hope you'll stop by and find something you love!!  The series will run from January 29th through March 5th, leading right into this year's Hands2Help Challenge, and giving you plenty of inspiration and simple quilt ideas if you want to join in and make a quilt or two!

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Also, just in case you didn't see it last week, there's a giveaway going on, and you've still got time to enter!

I'll be giving away two fat quarter bundles of this beautiful Rambling Roses fabric by Tanya Whelan for Free Spirit Fabrics - all you need to do to enter is go to this post and leave a comment (or two!)  Entries close Sunday afternoon about 5:00 PM CST and I'll announce the winners on Monday.  

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?

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

Roses, Roses Everywhere... and a Giveaway!

Hi, all!

The day has finally arrived - the big reveal day for the projects I have made with Rambling Rose, a new line of fabric by Tanya Whelan for Free Spirit Fabrics!  

When Free Spirit contacted me back before Christmas to see if I would like to help promote another line of fabric for them, of course I said YES!  It's so much fun to play with a new line of fabric and come up with fun designs - and it really stretches me out of my comfort zone sometimes.  That's a good thing!

Rambling Rose is a beautiful line of fabrics - soft pastels in white, pink, and light blue, with a few robin's egg blue and reds thrown in for spice.  Paired with Tanya Whelan's trademark roses, they have a distinctly feminine flair!  As with all Free Spirit fabrics, they have a lovely hand, and sew up beautifully.  You can read Tanya's own thoughts about her fabric line on the Free Spirit Fabrics blog by clicking here.

I knew immediately upon seeing these fabrics that I wanted to make a quilt - something sweet and feminine and yet distinctive. 

 I went through my Pinterest boards - a place where I keep all the ideas that catch my eye - and found a block that had potential.  Later I was looking through Find My Pins, which shows what people are pinning from your website, and notice that this version was pinned a lot from a Wednesday scrap blogpost.  

As cute as this block is, I was looking for something on a larger scale, so I re-designed it as a one-block quilt.  I'm really loving the way this turned out!

I chose Kona Honeydew as the background fabric.  Its springlike green was the perfect complement for these fabrics.  

I used fussy-cut bands of the Gingham Ticking fabric for the border, and Framed Rosebuds for the binding.  

The front of the quilt only used ten of the prints, though, and I wanted to show all of them - so I made a simple charm squares back for this quilt using all twenty-one prints!

Lots of swirled quilting gives it lovely texture, too!

But with two little girlies of my own, and all that beautiful feminine fabric, I couldn't stop at just a quilt!  

A pair of twirly skirts were definitely in order...

I just love the boots with them, don't you?  

Definitely twirly!

I made a pair of reversible headbands to coordinate with their skirts, too!

You can really see the back of the quilt in this picture - all those beautiful prints made for a lovely and totally reversible quilt - and a great picnic blanket!

A wonderful place for a tea party...

...even when your "tea" is roses!

Aren't little girl knees the cutest?

I also made some sweet little hexie trinket bowls...

...and a rope bowl, wrapping the clothesline with narrow strips of the fabric used on the quilt front.  See that little nosegay on the lip of the bowl?  I found the dark green leaves, made of glass and wire, tucked away in my stash of antique buttons.  I don't know where they came from, but they were certainly perfect for this project!

I had so much fun playing with this fabric - the beautiful colors and designs were certainly a welcome change from the winter weather we've been experiencing!  So if you need a little something to brighten your day, look for some Rambling Rose - it's guaranteed to do the job!

My sweet little models certainly like it!!

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And now for the fun stuff!

I have two bundles of Rambling Rose (eighteen fat quarters in each) left over from my projects.  Who wants one?  Here's how to get in the running...

1.  Leave a comment below.  Let's make it interesting - if you have a smart phone, open up a new message and tap the center autofill box five or six times.  What message did you get?  Mine was "The first thing is to make"!  If you don't have a smart phone, tell us what you do to beat the mid-winter blues.

2.  If you're a follower of my blog, leave a second comment for an additional entry in the giveaway.

That's it - easy peasy!  I'll draw two winners next Sunday and post them on Monday, January 30th.  

Thanks for joining me for the big reveal!  It's been fun, hasn't it?

Hugs!

Sarah

NOTE:  There will be a tutorial for this quilt during the Stunning Stars Quilt Along, which begins 1/29/17 and goes for six weeks, through 3/5/17.  I'm not sure which week yet, so check them all!  There will be six different quilts featured, all with a star theme.  And there are links to the tutorials for the skirts, headbands, trinket dishes, and rope bowl on this post.

Can I Get A Whoop Whoop? Some Fun Projects...

Hi, all!

Here it is, Friday again!  And you all know what that means - it's time to get our whoop whoop on!!   Something tells me that there's been a whole lot of sewing going on, courtesy of all the snow that's been falling - so let's see what everyone's been working on!  Remember, you don't have to have a finish - just something you're doing a happy dance about!

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Shortly before Christmas, I was contacted again by Free Spirit Fabrics to see if I wanted to help promote some of their new releases, and of course I said yes!  So for the last couple of weeks, I've been playing with Tanya Whelan's new line, Rambling Rose.  The big reveal is this coming Monday (1/23), but today I'm going to do a little whooping about some of the small projects I've been making this week... 

...like little trinket bowls...

...and my first fabric-covered rope bowl!

I also made headbands for the little girls...

...to match the twirly skirts I made for them!

Now I'm just praying for good weather on Saturday so I can have a successful photo shoot!  

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There are links to all of the tutorials I used for these items above.  I thought I'd better share some changes I did for my twirly skirts.  The tutorial I linked to is for a reversible skirt, but I didn't want that for these, so I made mine neatly finished on the inside.  I used french seams, and zig-zagged my gathered seams to neaten them up a bit, then topstitched them down on the skirt itself.  I also used two lines of gathering threads, about 1/8" apart, which gives a prettier gather.  It also takes F-O-R-E-V-E-R, but when I get to see those pretty girls twirling around, it will all be worth it!  Be sure to come back Monday to see the big reveal of all these pretties and more - in (hopefully) much artier photographs!

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?

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