Crafty Jennifer

Happy/Merry Halloween/Thanksgiving/Chanukah/Christmas/New Years!

2011-01-12T16:03:00.000-07:00

I know, I know, I've been gone a very long time. Lots has gone on over the past 3 months (in addition to the holidays listed above) and even a few crafts! I think about all of you often but have lacked the time to write a proper post. And even this is not a proper post, but I did want to let you know that I am still here.

And that it might be quiet around here for the next couple months. This week, I started my very last (yippee!!!) semester of my second masters program. I am soooo crazy that I am taking two classes over the next eight weeks and one of them is a research class. So don't expect to see too much of me around here.

I wanted to say hi and wish all of you a very happy new year. I am hoping to have a bit of time this weekend to show you the small projects I did over the past couple months...
An adult tutu in hot pink, lime green & purple with sparkly ribbons (worn for an entire half marathon)!
A wreath made entirely of ornaments that took 10 minutes and $7 to make!
And some great blogs that some of my friends are doing...

You like my teaser? Hope to see you soon!

P.S. For those of you that remember I live in Tucson, this week has been surreal but makes me proud to be a Tucsonan. This community has really come together to support each other and grieve. I still can barely believe that it happened or happened here.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

I wanted to share this video with you because it really shows the Tucson I know and love, not the horrific tragedy. Mr. Crafty and I often refer to Tucson as a really big small town because we often get a small town feel even though we live in a community of a million people.

Please keep the vicitms & their families in your thoughts and prayers!

Crafty's in San Francisco

2010-10-15T16:33:00.001-07:00

It's the end of a very long week... a very long training season... and a very long semester.

Mr. Crafty & I are in San Fran this weekend. Our first real vacation (not a trip to visit family) in... I don't know how long. I'm running th Nike Women's Marathon on Sunday.

We've had some fun today, I'll share the pics when we get back. Mr. Crafty has been using our dslr camera for most of the pictures.

Before we left, we had a hectic week. Cute, adorable, troublemaker Trixie decided to eat the elastic string from one of her toys on Saturday morning. And she had (not cheap) surgery on Monday to remove the elastic string. We had to scramble to find someone to take care of her while we're in SF...

I found this fantatic chandelier today. Mr. Crafty doesn't agree that we need it :-( For $4500, I guess I agree...

See you when we get back to Tucson!

The Craftys

Love this!

2010-10-08T12:01:00.001-07:00

I totally forgot to tell this as part of yesterday's post. But I guess it deserves it's own post.

Last week, I got this email from my aunt:

Lindsey is Star of the Week in her class this week and today's activity is to bring in a special item and tell the class about it for Show and Tell. Lindsey brought in the crayon holder that you made her for Christmas last year!! Awww... :-)

Lindsey is my 6 year old cousin. My aunt and {former} uncle adopted her and her sister Hayley {age 8} from China. They are the cutest little girls ever. They love Mr. Crafty. He is their personal jungle gym when we see them because he flips them over and gets silly with them. {The last two times we saw them, he made the mistake of doing a tough arm workout at the gym in the morning and kept complaining to me how much his arms hurt. Hehe}

This is the crayon holder that my aunt is referring to {except that Lindsey's has an "L" on it}:

You can make your own by following the very first tutorial I ever wrote here.

And the owners of a wedding quilt I made last summer posted this on Facebook recently too. With the caption: "Thanks for the quilt, Jennifer! Molly loves it."

Just gotta love when people love the things you lovingly made for them :-)

Tomorrow, I am getting together with the Tucson Modern Quilt Guild ladies for a little sewing time. Yippee!!! We're each going to make a block or two for a Breast Cancer quilt that we'll then donate.

Still alive!

2010-10-07T10:42:00.000-07:00

I assure you I am still alive. The past couple weeks have been busy ones in the Crafty household. Unfortunately, most of that busy-ness did not involve crafty-ness. Boohoo!

But I have some fantastic news! Mr. Crafty got a new job!!! In the past two and a half weeks, he's been a much happier Mr. Crafty. Which I am a BIG fan of!

He had the world's worst boss at his old job. He was sad to leave the people (except his boss!) but his new job has some fantastic opportunities. He's an Education Specialist for Cord Blood Registry. He's currently in training and learning all about pregnancy, stem cells, and lots of other information. He'll be helping families decide whether or not to store their babies' cord blood. So exciting!

I did get one project done recently. And it really made me wish I made the trip to Joann's and bought the specialty ruler. Ah well, live and learn!

My friends and coaches for Team In Training Ashley and Ryan are expecting their first child.
Ashley and Ryan are waiting to find out the baby's sex. And let me tell you, it is more and more challenging to find gender neutral infant stuff at the store. I did find a super cute duckie sleeper with ducks on the feet and a duck face on the butt and some cute onesies with zoo animals.

I made the family a fleece blanket. My mom had given me this fabric and I thought it was perfect. I made the blanket more of a rectangle than a square too.

Ashley is due basically any day now... her "due date" is October 26th but I keep advocating for a 10/10/10 baby! {I mean, seriously, how cool would that be???}

{Sidenote: Mr. Crafty's bday is 8/8/81. Pretty cool, right? We had a "Super Golden Birthday" party for him on 8/8/08. And yes, if you did the math, I am about a year and a half older than him.}

We also got a new member of the Crafty family... a new gnome from our alma mater!!!

The blue one we got last year at Homecoming. He's also my profile picture and his name is Tobias Archibald Anthrax. There is a story behind the name... The yellow gnome with the #1 finger is our new addition to the family. {We actually got 2 of the yellow gnomes because Mr. Crafty wanted one for work because he works with a lot of University of Arizona Wildcats. Boo!}

Frustration...

2010-09-17T14:07:00.001-07:00

I actually had a whole different blog written. It was my venting about the frustrations I've had the past couple weeks, mainly since Mr. Crafty left for his business trip.

The AC died last week {and is still very much needed here, it's been over 100 all week} and last night/this morning I found out that our mailman sent all our mail back to the senders. Including my tags for my car. And the DMV is closed today. But I have my printout showing I paid and I don't plan on getting pulled over so I should be OK. Just annoyed. Earlier, I might have been a more than annoyed...

The original post went much more into all that. And I just deleted it. I am letting it go.

So there's a back story to the next part of this blog post. When Mr. Crafty and I were planning our wedding, we wrote our own vows. I wanted them to be really personal and really us. I wanted to promise to always eat the pickle from his hamburger. But he thought that people would take that the wrong way. *clears throat* I mean you, Justin & Trevor.

You see, Mr. Crafty hates pickles. And I love them. He used to order his burgers without pickles. Now he orders them with pickles and picks them off and puts them on my plate. He also loves mushrooms. And I hate them. So I pick them out and put them on his plate. So I wanted to promise to always do that...

Mr. Crafty comes home tomorrow and I am ready for him to be home. We've gone two weeks without really being able to communicate with each other. He gets no cell reception in the part of rural Nebraska where he has spent the last two weeks. He had no desk, computer or phone of his own at work so I couldn't really email him. And there was no phone in his room, weird I know. He's my best friend and I miss him.

He's spending the night in Omaha before his flight home and the girls he's been working with in rural Nebraska were telling him all the "big city" things to do in Omaha. Apparently, they started making fun of sushi. {This was told to me via IM a bit ago when he got to an area where he actually gets cell reception. Hallelujah for cell reception!}

So I told him not to eat sushi without me. {I actually have wanted to ask him all week if we can have sushi for dinner tomorrow after he gets home but haven't had a chance.} He said he would never dream of it.

Mr Crafty: "Nor would I eat the pickle on my burger, that's yours"

Awwww, come home Mr. Crafty! Come home!

Trixie is ready for Mr. Crafty to come home and cuddle too!

Happy GleeKy Tuesday

2010-09-14T14:51:00.000-07:00

{I'm going to apologize if this post appears twice. I was out of the office at a recruiting event and sent the post from my phone. Love that mobile posting via email. But the post I wrote never appeared on my page. And it's not in my gmail sent or draft folders. It's apparently lost somewhere in internet-land.}

GLEE Season 1 on DVD!!! And the special issue of people!

Happy GleeKy Tuesday!!!

I'd like to thank Target for having the DVD set on sale the day it came out {Target opened at 8am, I stopped by to get mine on my way to the recruiting event at 9:30am}.

I also may have had an irrational thought when I saw all the other cars in the parking lot of Target. I was worried they were ALL there to get their copy of Glee and they might be out. And then I realized the rest of the Target shoppers probably did not plan their morning around picking of their copy of Glee Season 1 like I did. OK, maybe a couple other shoppers... like my friend Scott who got his at 8am and was at the door waiting for Target to open.

Now I just have to explain this and the other things I got at Target to Mr. Crafty...

Happy Friday

2010-09-10T10:47:00.001-07:00

So this week has been crazy! Like crazy, crazy.

Last night was the first meeting of the Tucson Modern Quilt Guild! Yippee! The time I should have used to read the 200+ pages I have to get done this weekend, mini-paper & journal response (both due today), I spent meeting the lovely ladies of the new Tucson Modern Quilt Guild. Our kinda-sorta fearless leader is Melanie of All Above Fabric.

I have no pics to share because I left my camera and projects to share at home. What??? I know! I ran home, took a quiz for one of my classes, changed and drove over to the meeting. There was a group picture taken and I know it will be posted on either the guild website or Melanie's blog on All Above Fabric. Fantastic ladies! Definitely my type of quilters. And we all seem to have the same fabric problem. We joked that we should be the fabric-holics anonymous.

If you are in Tucson, love quilting and fresh & modern fabrics, come join us for the next meeting! We're going to meet the 2nd Thursday of each month and have some other activities planned.

But here's the real Happy Friday for me... as of yesterday afternoon, this beauty is mine. ALL MINE!

Photo from Mac website

Yes, I am now the PROUD owner of a 13-in MacBook Pro! I have always been a Mac girl but somewhere along the line, I ended up owning a PC laptop. And then a PC desktop - which really is Mr. Crafty's computer. I was tired of using the PC, especially being tethered to the computer desk. So I finally persuaded Mr. Crafty that I NEEDED this. I was stalking my laptop via FedEx tracking all week. And yesterday at 12:53pm, it arrived.

Mr. Crafty also got a 160GB iPod Classic to replace his dying 5-year old 64GB iPod. So don't go feeling bad for him. Except that his new iPod arrived on Tuesday, the day after he left for his two week business trip. So he doesn't even get to enjoy it yet :-(

Now I just have to figure out how to set up our old wireless router...

{unless one of my neighbors wants to let me "borrow" their wireless}

Some Thursday fun!

2010-09-09T09:19:00.000-07:00

My parents have lived in their house since my mom was preggers with me. So they've been there about 31 years now {no, I'm only 30, remember I said she was preggers}. The house is still nearly all original. Or is it vintage? They still have the original chocolate brown shag-ish carpet and the dark wood kitchen cabinets. The dark brown carpets were pretty handy for raising two kids and several pets!

For the past several years, my mom has been talking about the renovations she wants to do. And other than replacing the sliding door to the backyard with French doors last summer {or the summer before} not much has happened.

Until now! Mom retired from teaching the end of this past school year and now they are starting some of the renovations. They are getting new kitchen cabinets and countertops, basically a new kitchen but with the same appliances they already have.

In preparation for the new cabinets, they need to clean out 31 years worth of stuff in their old cabinets. Last night, my dad emails pics of a cordless electric ice cream maker he found. I have a sneaking suspicion that it was a gift at their wedding in 1975

And this morning he emailed this:

To which, I had the following email conversation with him:
Me: I want it!!! Can I have it????
Dad: Rescuing it from the Upward Foundation donation on the sidewalk, now! What would have happened if I hadn't taken a picture of it?!
Me: I would have been devastated. Completely crushed. That snowcone maker is awesome!

I remember making Snoopy Sno Cones in little Dixie cups with my older brother. We'd cover them in Kool-Aid.

And now it is mine. Just like our original Nintendo {I claimed that one several years ago}. My brother needs to be faster on the draw! Or maybe this is just karma coming back at him for when he used to sell me his old toys for my allowance.

In case you were wondering, the AC got fixed late Tuesday morning, thank heavens! It was a blown fuse ($200!) but the whole unit is 15-16 years old and will need to be replaced soon. Bleh!

Know what makes me smile?

2010-09-08T15:37:00.001-07:00

Do you know what makes me smile? Seriously grinning ear to ear?

When someone uses a quilt I gave them as a gift. This is a pic of my friend Dana's daughter Taylor. {Since she is not my child, I covered her face.} She is still using the quilt I gave her as a baby. Taylor is 3 {I think, her birth announcement is still on my fridge at home so you'd think I'd know that answer!} and she just moved into her big girl bed so mom posted this pic to her Facebook page.

Seriously makes me grin from ear to ear. Not because it's a perfect quilt by any means. But because it is being used and loved and not stashed somewhere in a closet {like I know my nieces' quilts are, don't get me started on that!}. My boss' daughter is 5 and still uses her quilt every night. She calls it her "cold blanket" because the cotton is cool.

This is why I quilt gifts for friends and family.

Problem = crafty solution

2010-09-07T08:03:00.000-07:00

Last week, the new semester started. And I had a problem. And it required a crafty solution!

My online class that runs from now until mid-December has an 800+ page text book (and yes, I will read basically all of it). And for some reason, the textbook manufacturer made this textbook a paperback. And I found it way too floppy and knew it would drive me nuts.

So I made my paperback book into a hard cover!

(Book cover from Target. Hurry, you might still be able to find them on clearance! It's paper and comes in a pack of three. It's meant to be colored with Sharpies but I'm also using crayons & highlighters)

I didn't take any in progress photos, mostly because I wasn't sure if it would work.

Here's what I did:
1. Found a couple sturdy boxes that I could cut up.
2. Trace around the book to get the 2 outer layer cardboard pieces.
3. Line up the 2 cut pieces to make sure they are the right sizes and trim as needed. I ended up trimming about 1/4"-1/2" off one of the long sides
4. Trace the outer cut pieces again for my inner layer cardboard pieces. These need to be cut about 1/2" smaller on the long side because they go on the inside of the cover.

(You can see why the book cover was necessary...)

5. Layer the outer layer on top and the inner layer inside the front cover and secure with rubber bands. Then tape the outer edges of the carboard (NOT the book, if you want to sell this book back). One thing I wish I had done was smooth out my rubber bands before taping. I can feel their twistedness through the book cover. Oh well, if it really bugs me, I can fix it.

6. Cover your new hardcover book with a book cover. I learned how to cover books from my junior year pre-calc teacher in HS. Never knew it would come in handy 14 years later!

I'm sure there are instructions on how to cover a book online but if you have questions, I can walk you through it.

On an unrelated note, the AC died last night. Ugh! I left at 5pm to meet some people for a run, ran to Target and Chipotle on my way home and when I got home at 8pm, the living room was 85 degrees (and got up to about 87). And the AC was blowing hot air. Of course this happened the DAY Mr. Crafty left for a 2 week long business trip. As if I wasn't going to miss him enough, he usually deals with things like this (not that I'm not capable, he just usually does them). So now, instead of going to work, I am waiting for the AC repairman to show up. Sleep last night was pretty miserable. I'm a grumpy (and sweaty) version of myself. I guess that's enough of my pity party.

Here's a couple pics of the crafty assistants "assisting" Mr. Crafty with his packing.

Rory making sure the garment bag flap did not blow away

Maggie supervising

Trixie tried to sneak a ride to Nebraska in Mr. Crafty's duffle bag. She played in that thing for like 20 minutes.

A Bee Block for Bibi

2010-08-31T06:27:00.000-07:00

For August in the Coast 2 Coast Block Party Bee, Bibi asked us to make a block for her son using some of her fantastic scraps and Oh Fransson's Map of the States tutorial. I really like how this turned out. It was a fun bee block to make, although I'm not sure that I'd like to do it for a whole quilt. It is a bit time consuming because you are basically fussy cutting each piece. But I did love being able to pick which part of the fabric I could use.

And for those Trixie fans out there {I keep joking with Mr. Crafty that I need to make her a Facebook fan page} she was "helping" me when I got out my cutting board to cut my batting down to size for my brother's quilt.

Don't worry, she was no where near the sharp sissors. She spent some time in the bathroom with her toys. She cried the entire time and made me feel bad. But she hasn't learned what is and what is not a toy. She also hasn't learned that I am not actually a jungle gym and that she should not play on me with her claws out. Trust me, I have the scratches to prove it!

This morning's amusement

2010-08-27T13:01:00.000-07:00

I don't often talk about work around here. I work for a state university in their Extended Campuses. Which means these days {not the "glory days" three years ago} there is very little money for even office supplies.

Mr. Crafty likes to joke about how I work for Northern Arizona University in southern Arizona. Yes, I work for Northern Arizona University in southern Arizona {we're a 4 hour drive from the main campus but the entire Extended Campuses divsion accounts for 1/3rd of NAU's students}. I don't know why Mr. Crafty finds this so amusing, he finished the degree he started at the main campus in Flagstaff here in Tucson and is the "poster child" for Extended Campuses. Ok, maybe not the poster child... but he really is exactly like the students we see here. But I digress...

Part of my job, and now an ever increasing part of my job, is recruiting. Remember how I said that we are a state university and we have very little money? When our higher ups announced this new recruitiment push, we asked if we could have our color laser printer back. No printer :-(

So next I asked if I could get 1 ream of each color of paper. Yes, just one ream. And I got it. I think I actually did a happy dance when my coworker told me she was ordering color paper for me and what colors did I want.

So today, I am updating my recruiting bag {which is a 5 year old scrapbooking bag bought online from Joann's for half price that is falling apart} and I pulled my reams of color paper out of their hiding place. Oh yes, I have to hide them or our faculty would have used them up by now. No joke. One of our faculty members took the brand new spindle of 100 CD's from the supply cabinet. We haven't been able to replace it yet so if I need to take a powerpoint or something with me, I have to put it on my personal thumb drive or email it to myself. So you can see why my reams of color paper were hidden. Ahhh, I digressed again...

So these are the pretty views I got while manning {or womanning} the copier.

Anyone else see a future quilt in there? I sure do! The white sheets in between the colors are my originals and they definitely look like sashing to me.

Look at those strata of pretty! Yes, that's a geology reference. It's like the layers of strata in the Grand Canyon or Sedona but in color paper.

Couple of things I've been working on

2010-08-26T20:18:00.003-07:00

Hmmm, my month of crafty-ness during my four week break from school really has not materialized. And now I have 2 classes that start on Monday. Boo!

What was I thinking doing another master's degree? Some days, I have no clue! And although I haven't had classes to worry about, August is always killer at work. Working for a university, it is usually one of our busiest times of the year.

I have done a couple projects I wanted to share with you. And I am finishing up a couple things this week too. I'll show you those when I am done.

{I also have finished 3 and a half non-school books. All of them total chick lit. I found during my first master's program that chick lit was my anti-school reading. It's easy on the brain. And usually a fast read. Perhaps that might be part of the reason I haven't completed many projects?}

A couple weeks ago, I had to travel to Phoenix {4 hours roundtrip in the car} for work twice in three days. The first trip, I didn't bring anything in the car with me since quilting is not typically very mobile. But I was insanely jealous of my co-worker/friend Emily who worked on a crocheted blanket in the car. So the second trip to & from Phoenix, I made this.

Pardon the crappy pics, I took them in the car with my cell phone. This is currently in our kitchen but it's been raining each night this week when I got home from work so I haven't gotten a better pic yet. Also, the towel was an old towle because I am still learning and didn't want to "screw up" a new one.

Oh, and Mr. Crafty's comment when I showed him: "Cool! But why'd you use the towel I wiped car grease on?" Ummm, Mr. Crafty, why are you using our kitchen towels on the cars when we have an entire supply of shop rags from Costco? {sigh, MEN!}

Both are Jenny Hart's Sublime Stitching designs. {I added the "Sweet!" to the old man lemon}

Last Saturday, Mr. Crafty & I drove to Phoenix/Mesa to celebrate my dad's birthday. He loves bowling, so we went bowling after lunch. And by some miracle, I beat BOTH Mr. Crafty {Dan} AND my dad {Steve} in both games.

{My brother, who flew in from Missouri for the weekend, beat me both games. But we won't talk about that, it'll just give him an even bigger head than he already has}

Anyway, the crafty part of the visit...

I STILL haven't finished my brother and sis-in-law's quilt that was their Christmas present. The top has been done since December 23rd but I just have not gotten it put together. I have excuses galore... but...

To make peace, I ran to Target Saturday morning on my way home from my run with the Team {still accepting donations for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. And I ain't too proud to beg} and grabbed some clearance kitchen towels. I actually was looking for some striped ones but couldn't find any but stumbled on these on one of the clearance endcaps. Oh, how I love Target! I wasn't sure how they would work since they are waffle towles but they came out OK. There is a second towel for my brother, but I only got this one finished during the ride up there so I just didn't mention the second one. These are also Jenny Hart designs, from her China Town collection.

The top symbol is double happiness and my brother and {Chinese} sis-in-law used this all over in the decorations for their wedding reception. I used backstitch and stem stitch for these.

More to come later this week... hopefully including the Raspberry Limeade Pinwheel quilt tutorial/pattern

Dream On Winner

2010-08-21T04:43:00.000-07:00

Wow, 249 comments! I originally thought I would be happy with like 50 comments.

I enjoyed reading all your comments and am trying to respond to every comment personally. I still have a few more to go. And I am not sure if the emails I sent from my phone went through, sometimes I think my phone hates me, but it's close to time to get new phones. {Don't get me wrong, for the most part the G1 has been great and I have yet to pay for an app but sometimes I email Mr. Crafty and he doesn't get it}

I selfishly asked the question about your favorite part of summer because this is the time of year where I get fed up with summer. Living in the desert Southwest, summer lasts a really long time. And it's monsoon season so now it's hot AND humid. But many of you reminded me the good parts about summer. And now I really want to try to plant a little garden here next spring. Our townhouse has less than perfect conditions for a garden, a teeny backyard that gets sun nearly all day. Oh yeah, and I have a black thumb. I once killed bamboo in my office. But I digress...

{In case you were wondering, my favorite season is spring}

And now for the winner...

Drum roll please...

And the winner is... Joy!

Joy, I'll be sending you an email in a little bit. I'm off to run 14 miles with my friends in Team In Training so it might be later today. {Yes, it's 4:30am as I am writing this}

Crafting for a cause

2010-08-09T19:12:00.000-07:00

Looking for my blog-iversary giveaway? See the next post... but please read here first! Thank you.

I have talked about this a couple other times but I am currently raising money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society as a member of Team In Training. As part of my training for the Nike Women's Marathon on October 17th, I pledged to raise $3500 for this great organization and their mission. They provide support for patients and their families, as well as research for new treatments and to find a cure for blood cancers. A cure for blood cancers could mean a cure for ALL cancers.

While this is a cause near and dear to my heart, it really hit home for me again recently. Our coordinator, who lost her husband 11 years ago to cancer, was just diagnosed with breast cancer herself. Ironically, her husband was a scientist who worked on the early stages of a cancer treatment drug that probably would have saved his life. Here is a woman who spends her days helping those and their families battle cancer, assisting people like me with their fundraising, and coordinating recruiting new participants, travel plans for our races and basically working her butt off. And her response "I'll be fine" and somewhere in there she also reminded all of us to get our yearly exams too. My 12 mile hill run {yes, I said 12 miles and hills together} on Saturday morning was dedicated to her and others that have been recently diagnosed.

Now you don't have to get up at 4am and do a 20 mile training run, I'll do that for you. There are too many children and adults out there going through their own marathons - with cancer treatment. I want to help these people but I need your help to do that.

As part of my fundraising for LLS, I am raffling off two quilts I've made, pictured above & below. Both a lap quilt-sized, with the Land & Sea (blue & green) measuring approx 46" x 52" and the Raspberry Limeade (pink & green) measuring approx 42" x 60". Every $10 donated to this cause gets you 1 raffle entry, and each $50 gets you an additional entry. Example: donate $30, get 3 entries; donate $50, get 6 entries; and donate $100, get 12 entries. Winners for each quilt will be drawn at random August 25th.

Make your tax-deductible, secure online donation here: http://pages.teamintraining.org/dm/nikesf10/jennifer

AND you get an extra TWO entries for each friend that you refer to this raffle that makes a donation. Have your friend put your name in the "additional comments" section on the donation page or email me at jennifer.wellborn@gmail.com.

Thank you for your support!

First Blog-iversary Giveaway!!!

2010-08-09T18:49:00.006-07:00

GIVEAWAY CLOSED!

A couple days ago marked one year since my first crafty blog post ever. I missed celebrating with all of you on the actual day for several reasons. The main reasons are that I finished 2 summer school classes the day before, then reported to jury duty and was trying to figure out what to do for Mr. Crafty's birthday {which was yesterday}. I am happy to report that in the past week, I have read TWO non-school books. But not much crafty to report. Oh, I did make these delicious snickerdoodle cupcakes for Mr. Crafty...

By the end of this month I hope to have a pattern/tutorial for this quilt... saying it out loud will make me do it, right?

Anyway, now to the giveaway. I thought about this over the past couple months. What did I really want to share with all of you? When I saw the Dream On line by Urban Chiks for Moda, I knew I wanted to give some Dream On away... and then I got it in my home and started thinking I might keep it. I love the vintage sheet-ish feel to it and I am a floral fan but more the 60's & 70's florals than your traditional florals.But I am not keeping it, I am giving it away to some lucky reader!

Here's what you get: Uptown Girl pattern by Carolina Patchworks and three charm packs of Dream On

GIVEAWAY CLOSED!
AND you get more than one opportunity to enter to win. Here's all the ways you can enter {please leave a separate comment for each}:
1. Tell me what you favorite part of summer is
2. Follow my blog {or tell me that you already follow}
3. Blog about this giveaway and leave a comment with a link to your blog
4. Make a donation to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society here and leave me a comment letting you know that you donated. This also enters you to win one of two quilts that are being raffled by me for this great cause.

Please make sure that I have a way to contact you :-)

A winner will be randomly drawn on August 20th at 9pm Arizona time. Happy crafting!!!

Happy birthday Mr. Crafty

2010-08-06T19:03:00.002-07:00

Sunday is Mr. Crafty's birthday but I just made these snickerdoodle cupcakes when I got home from work today. I wanted to share with you. I haven't sampled them yet {OK, maybe a bit of frosting} because Mr. Crafty is stuck at work :-(

Edited: OMG, they are soooooo delicious! I had to take some to work for fear that I would eat all of them myself.

I'll post a link to the recipe soon. Writing this post on my phone from my kitchen while I make dinner for one :-(

Edited - Here's the recipe: http://blog.craftzine.com/archive/2010/07/snickerdoodle_cake_for_cinnamo.html. I didn't use the applesauce & used an entire stick of butter for the batter. I threw in a little bit of extra cinnamon in the frosting too

First Blog-iversary Coming Soon!!!

2010-08-04T16:26:00.001-07:00

I'll be posting a fantastic first blog-iversary giveaway very soon. Make sure you check it out...

{On a somewhat related note, I am DONE with summer school and have almost 4 weeks until the start of my next classes. I think I am still rocking the 4.0GPA too! Oh, the crafty things I have planned...}

OMG, Holiday Happy giveaway!!!

2010-07-29T10:23:00.001-07:00

Kerri at Lovely Little Handmades is giving away Holiday Happy by Monica of Happy Zombie!

Just look at that fabulousness!!!

P.S. Here's my previous blog about my love for this line... You can see more photos of the line and links too.

Quick baby tutorial

2010-07-26T14:07:00.003-07:00

Haha, I guess that should read Quick Tutorial for Baby. That sounds like I am giving you a quick tutorial on how to make a baby, not make something for baby...

Hehe, that photo's title on my computer is "baby tie onesie 007". Little baby James Bond :-)

Anywhoooo, I had a baby shower to go to on Saturday {same day as my anniversary with Mr. Crafty} and I debated briefly about not going, since it was my anniversary and I purposely took a day off from homework {it's finals week for my two summer classes, ahhhhhh!} to spend with Mr. Crafty. And Mr. Crafty has been super understanding about the lack of fun I have been since January.

Except that I've known my friend that is expecting her first baby for about 25 years. We met when we were in kindergarten and her mom was our Girl Scout leader for 13 years. So how could I not go?

Jaime & her hubby Keith are expecting a boy around August 19th. Too many of my friends are having kids for me to be able to keep up with making baby quilts but I wanted to make something for Jaime's little boy. I've seen some of these on Etsy and I knew I could make my own.

Now I should mention that I got home from a 10 mile run and shopping for the shower around 10:30am, needed to shower, blow dry my hair & get ready for the shower that started at 1pm. And I managed to do all of those things, despite my fight with my sewing machine. More on that fight later.

All I used for this project is:

*Onesie (mine was 6-9 months, I didn't want to make it too small so his window to wear it would be too small)

*Scrap of fabric - I picked black with swirls but I debated about using something more kid-like. But this way he can have a "dressy" onesie, right?

*Heat N Bond Lite

*Coordinating thread

*Sewing machine

*Scissors

Step 1: Attach a small piece of Heat N Bond to scrap of fabric. Little trick here: I cut my Heat N Bond a little bigger than my scrap and iron onto a paper bag instead of my ironing board cover. That way, the Heat N Bond goes all the way to the edges and I don't have to worry about placement or accidentially getting the sticky Heat N Bond on my ironing board {which I may or may not have done before}

Step 2: Sketch out your tie and cut it out

Step 3: Peel off Heat N Bond backing and position on onesie. Iron the tie onto onesie (follow directions on Heat N Bond packaging). Now the Heat N Bond will hold the applique to the onesie on it's own but I zigzag stitched around the edges of mine to prevent fraying. But you can be done here, if you want & then this is a no-sew project.

Step 4: Place stabilizer on the inside of the onesie. I pinned mine down really well because the onesie had lots of stretch to it. Also, be careful when you are sewing that you do not accidentially sew the back of the onesie to the front. There isn't as much play in this project as there are in larger ones so just be conscious of that when sewing.
{Here is where the sewing machine & I got into a fight. My thread kept breaking and what should have taken me about 2 minutes took about 20. I wasn't in love with how my stitching came out but I got to the point where it looked OK and I was done. I mean really done}

Step 5: Remove excess stabilizer from the back. This will be up against baby's skin so you want to make sure to get as much of it off as you can. I use the tear-away stabilizer.

And you are done!

And not to be outdone, this adorableness is going on behind me. Which is good because I was convinced that someone gave Trixie (the new kitten) some crack or an entire bag of sugar or something because she was going crazy earlier. She attacked my head while I was writing a paper on the couch earlier. Just a couple days ago, Rory stopped hissing at her and running away and started playing with her. Now Trixie won't leave her alone.

Happy Anniversary Mr. Crafty

2010-07-24T10:34:00.020-07:00

6 years ago, Mr. Crafty & I got married in beautiful Flagstaff, AZ. It poured rain and hail for our outdoor ceremony {we planned it for 1pm since it normally rained later in the afternoon but no such luck} but we still had a fantastic time.

Thanks for a fabulous 6 years of wedded bliss Mr. Crafty!

Couple of weeks left...

2010-07-20T16:16:00.000-07:00

...to enter the raffle to win one of these quilts!

I am raising $3500 for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society {as a member of Team In Training}, I am raffling off two quilts I've made, pictured above. Both a lap quilt-sized, with the Land & Sea (blue & green) measuring approx 46" x 52" and the Raspberry Limeade (pink & green) measuring approx 42" x 60".

Every $10 donated to this cause gets you 1 raffle entry, and each $50 gets you an additional entry. Example: donate $30, get 3 entries; donate $50, get 6 entries; and donate $100, get 12 entries. Winners for each quilt will be drawn at random August 1st.

AND for each friend you refer that makes a donation, you get another TWO entries into the raffle! (Have your friend put your name in the "additional comments" section on the donation page or email me at jennifer.wellborn@gmail.com)

And your donation and raffle entry is 100% tax-deductible. For more information about this great cause or to make you donation and enter the raffle, please visit http://pages.teamintraining.org/dm/nikesf10/jennifer.

More information about these quilts, the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society and my fundraising, please visit my original post here. {I am too tired to put it all in this post too... hey now, I am going to go run 3 miles of hills in a few, I need my energy!}

Newest member of the crafty household...

2010-07-16T12:31:00.000-07:00

I called Mr. Crafty late in the work day yesterday because we hadn't chatted on Google Talk all day. Sometimes that happens because he is too busy and other times it happens because he forgot his phone {his company doesn't allow him to download the app to his computer like mine does - I guess that's a perk of working for the university because it's certainly not the pay!}. Anyway, Mr. Crafty mentioned that there was a summer special going on at the Humane Society and did we want to go there after work...

I said "Of course! But I forgot my phone at home so you want me to meet you there?"

And when I got there, Mr. Crafty was nowhere to be found. A couple minutes later, he came out of the cat adoption room and said "I found a really sweet kitty named Boots." So we went back together to look at "Boots" the female kitten he found. She was in the cage below the kitten he had seen online that he thought I might like but that kitten was sleeping. "Boots" was up against the bars of her cage meowing and purring. She was even kneading the bars of the cage. We walked around looking at the other cats and kittens because we always want to rescue a cat because more people come to adopt the kittens.

We also had to think about how the new kitty would fit with our current kitties {a.k.a. the crafty assistants}. But I also knew that Mr. Crafty had fallen for "Boots" - this from a man that never wanted to have a cat when we met. I grew up with cats and he grew up with dogs. Maggie was his first cat ever. And he totally loves her. And Rory too.

So Trixie came home with us last night! She's about 4 months old and was a feral cat but is a total sweetheart. She has not stopped purring and climbed all over me on the couch last night. She kept trying to "help" me with my homework while the laptop was in my lap.

Needless to say, Maggie and Rory are not too happy with us right now. They both should be fine after the adjustment period. My sweet {but punkass} Rory even bit and hissed at me this morning when I tried to pet her. But earlier, while Trixie is confined to the bathroom for part of the day so Maggie & Rory can have much of their house back for a bit, Rory followed me in the kitchen and meowed for my attention. She let me pick her up and love on her. She just isn't used to having to share attention with any other cat.

Trixie & Rory are about to meet up for about the 3rd time. This one didn't go much better than any of the others, it involved hissing but no actual fighting

Woot! Finally keeping up!

2010-07-13T10:25:00.000-07:00

After getting horribly behind in my ONE quilting bee - as in finishing my April & May blocks in late June! - that I'm involved with, I am actually caught up and alredy sent off my block for July yesterday. I seriously do not know how some women are part of several at a time!

Susan wanted us to make pinwheel blocks for her son, who's turning 15 this month. He picked out the cool Michael Miller guitar fabric. She asked us to make them using Rachel's block 2 tutorial from the Pinwheel Sampler Quilt Along.

{You know, the quilt along I started in February and only got 2 of the 8 sets of blocks made!}

She asked for 2 blocks but sent enough fabric for 3 :-)

Rearranging

2010-07-12T12:03:00.002-07:00

Mr. Crafty & I spent part of yesterday rearranging half our house. We swapped our living room and dining room areas. We discovered recently, after 5 years in our house!, that the AC blows directly onto the far wall of the dining room area. The cats knew it but we didn't.

See that green painting on the wall, that's where the AC blows.

Below is a tour of the old living room. Excuse our mess, we opted not to straighten it up because we have to find new homes for everything. I am getting my own little crafty corner (where the Vegas poster is now). Pics of the finished new room will be posted once we finish sorting it out :-)

The black leather love seat used to be under the green painting but we sold it last weekend at my yard sale fundraiser for Team In Training & the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (click the link for more info).

Our DVD's were next to my crafting bookcase. Unfortunately, this does not hold all my crafty supplies. My neglected scrapbook stuff is on a different bookcase in teh closet of our office/guest room.

Watching "Ace of Cakes" as we move. I love Duff and his staff! They crack me up. Did you see the rollercoaster cake?

See the Las Vegas poster and the medusa lamp? That's gonna be my crafty corner. All those boxes of books (left over from Crafty Momma from my yard sale) in front of the black leather couch - those are going to my favorite used bookstore this week.

Mr. Crafty was making a weird face. Say hi to Mr. Crafty! So I substituted this smiley one instead. That couch is 8 1/2 feet long and I love that I can nap on it without being in the fetal position. See my cute lamps I scored a few weeks ago on either side?

Our dining room table/my sewing table. I think we've eaten dinner there just a handful of times. We also have had a few crazy Target boxed wine and card nights with friends there. Before you clown on the Target boxed wine, you should try it. Quite tasty! And the equivalent of 4 bottles for $16.99.

And we're back around to about where we started. That's the kitchen you can see in the distance. And those are Mr. Crafty's Craftsman tools that are looking for a good new home in the revamped new room. He got a bunch from his grandpa recently and more from his parents when they moved to American Samoa last month.

Rory was "helping". This was taken mid-move. She actually stayed on the back of the black leather couch as we moved it across the room. She looked freaked but I think she was more scared to try to jump off it at that point.

I think we wore her out. Some helper she is!

Maggie spent the moving time under our bed. She was not too impressed when she came out of hiding. I think her eyes say it all...

Next month marks my 1 year blog-iversary. I've got a fun giveaway planned...

Process pledge

2010-07-06T08:55:00.000-07:00

Have you heard about the process pledge? Over 200 quilting blogger have pledged to talk more about their process of creating quilts. I signed the pledge this morning... been meaning to do it and just kept getting distracted. (Mr. Crafty says I am like a cat and I get distracted easily by bright shiny objects. Wish that was the case, I've just been buried under schoolwork).

So I will be talking more about my creative process when quilting and making other craft projects. Right now my list of projects keeps growing so I should have plenty to talk about. Once Mr. Crafty & I reanrrange our living/dining room areas. He told me that I will get my own crafty corner, which will be nice since currently my messy crtaft/dining room table is the first thing you see when you walk into the room.

What I've been working on

2010-06-28T10:01:00.001-07:00

As promised, here are some of the things I've worked on recently.

Tracy's block for the Coast 2 Coast Block Party. She wanted blocks inspired by the Story People artwork. So this is my Queen. I embroidered her eyes and mouth and the clouds. And then I set down my needle and cannot find it for the life of me... luckily my bare feet haven't found it either!

Ellen's blocks for the C2C Bee too. She wanted "inside-out" blocks. I used Little Miss Shabby's tutorial for the second block and created my own design for the first.

I learned to be careful when working on a block in progress and removing cat hair with a lint roller...

And here's the front of my mom's birthday quilt I started last summer. I've had the quilt front done since August (of last year!) but was scared to quilt it since it is the largest quilt I've ever made. Mom volunteered to take it to a long-arm quilter so I gave it to her yesterday.

Front

Back

Close-up of front

It ain't pretty but...

2010-06-28T09:43:00.001-07:00

Blogger Jandi posted a challenge yesterday: photograph your crafting space as is. Without cleaning anything up. So here it is:

The stuff shoved into the machine is the quilting bee block I am currently working on. That needs to get finished this week. And hanging over the chair is my Quilts for Kids quilt that I still need to finish! The camera bag, water bottle and black t-shirt belong to Mr. Crafty. This is our dining room table that is really my sewing table. It's the first surface that things get put on as you walk in the house so it is usually full of random stuff when I am between projects or busy working on my homework.

The other angle... all that Tula Pink Hushbye is waiting for me to make my quilt from my quilting bee. Except that I am still missing blocks from one member. From March :-(

Here's my stash, for the most part. Some is under our bed but nearly all of it is here. Fairly well organized but Mr. Crafty and I are going to rearrange the room and he keeps talking about giving me my own craft space in the corner of the room where the couch we're selling this weekend at our yard sale is currently wasting space.

That TV is getting sold at the yard sale too. Otherwise, I would be quite annoyed that it was blocking my stash.

Here's a shot of our "office"/guest bedroom (has nothing to do with my crafty space, other than cluttering my brain this week). This is the stuff for our yard sale, so far. The yard sale is to raise money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.

(The Dyson is NOT for sale, I love that vaccum. It just ended up next to all the yard sale stuff.) My parents came down yesterday to drop off stuff for the yard sale.

Woah!

2010-06-23T09:19:00.001-07:00

I'll have some updates on the limited crafty projects I have done very soon, I promise. They are sitting next to my sewing machine waiting to be photographed and mailed off to their owners.

(Perhaps I can convince Mr. Crafty to use his new (to him) camera and lenses to take some pictures for me. Mr. Crafty & I bought one of my brother's, the photojournalist, old cameras and finally found a great deal on lenses a couple weeks ago. This is Mr. Crafty's new hobby and one he loves.)

I was on the Craft Magazine blog this morning and I found myself saying "OMG, that is freaking awesome!" more than once. I don't actually talk like that but that is the equivalent of what my brain said. I felt I needed to share this awesomeness with you.

#1 Twister raincoat - yeah, it's a raincoat made out of an old Twister game. It's fully lined too!

photos courtsey of her Craftster post

#2 Miniture Quilt Cottage - and she MADE almost everything in this room!!! I would NEVER have the patience for something like this. Seriously, this woman must have the patience of a saint!

Photos coutesy of http://1inchminisbykris.blogspot.com/

I NEED this. Someone please explain to Mr. Crafty why this is a MUST-HAVE!

2010-06-22T16:42:00.003-07:00

So it's no secret that I love me some gnomes. I just can't get enough of them. Now I don't run around buying every one I see, no I am a selective gnome owner. However, Crafty Mama (a.k.a. my mom) did buy the mister and me tickets to a Diamondbacks game last month specifically because that night was Diamondbacks Gnome giveaway night. We may have gotten to the game 2 hours before it started to make sure we were one of the 5,000 that got a Dbacks gnome... just maybe that was us. And Homer sits next to our TV. I'll introduce you sometime.

Anyway, I don't know if you have seen this fabric line by Monica Solorio-Snow aka The Happy Zombie for Lecien. I saw it a couple months ago and tried to convince Mr. Crafty that I NEEDED it and that it was the perfect Christmas fabric for us. We have a less traditional Christmas aesthetic and currently sport a blue & green (I know, we had that blue/green discussion earlier today) mod-looking tree skirt (found at Big Lots but I am pretty sure it was the previous year's Target).

I mean, really Mr. Crafty, the gnome's name is Gnoma Claus. If that's not perfect for me (maybe not you! but definitely me), I don't know what is.

So if someone can please explain to Mr. Crafty why this is a necessary purchase, I will be eternally grateful!

P.S. This is me and a real live gnome I met at the Dbacks game. He was in the section next to us and they kept showing him on the jumbotron.

Have you seen this?

2010-06-22T08:50:00.001-07:00

Amy Bulter hand towel!!! (Sorry for the poor picture quality, I snapped it with my phone on my way out the door.) I love Amy Butler's designs and stumbled across this when I was looking for new towels at Bed, Bath and Beyond for me and the mister. I bought only the hand towel because I wasn't sure how he would feel about having Amy Butler towels to dry off with every morning.

His response "does everything have to be blue & green?" (Which I took to mean, no, he did not want Amy Bulter towels)

Hello, Mr. Crafty, is this thing on? We have a lot of blue & green because those are the colors we can agree on for home decor! I managed to splash a little yellow in the kitchen but all my pink/girlie stuff has been sent to my office. Which means my office by default looks super-duper girlie.

So anyway, there is an entire line of Amy Butler stuff at Bed, Bath and Beyond! Which some of you probably knew but I have been living on a tight budget for the past couple years and try to avoid temptation whenever I can, which is hard with all the fantastic lines of fabric out there and the fabric designers crossing over into other aspects of my life!

Oh, and the towels I did pick? I got these super soft towels (in Glacier) that were actually half the price of the Egyptian cotton ones I almost got. Mr. Crafty's comment this morning? They were too soft. Too bad, I like them, especially since I couldn't have the Amy Bulter ones!

Yum!

2010-06-11T13:03:00.001-07:00

While at work everyday, I check in on the Craft magazine blog. While they no longer publish Craft anymore, they are constantly updating their blog with new projects and items they find in the crafty bloggy land. Is that a realy word - bloggy land? Ah well, it is now! At least in my little world.

One of the posts this morning is a recipe for homemade peppermint patties! Oh how I love peppermint patties!

Photo courtesy of joyfulabode.com

Now I really want to make this. Problem is that my food processer doesn't want to work. I turn it on and the light comes on but nothing moves. Gotta keep my eye out for a good sale or a Bed, Bath & Beyond coupon!

Oh and my other problem is that I am on this 2 week long no-dairy, no-sugar, no-fun diet. OK, it really hasn't been that bad and my face looks skinnier (about 4-5 pounds down on the scale with 3 1/2 days left to go) but I miss milk in my coffee, cheese, yogurt with fruit (I can have the fruit, just not the yogurt), cheese, chocolate, and cheese. I haven't been craving it as bad as I thought I would but I still want to put milk in my coffee every morning before I run out the door to work. And some cheese - to snack on, on my sandwich, wherever!

Photo awesomeness

2010-06-08T13:20:00.000-07:00

I'm still alive. I think.

Several months ago, it seemed like a great idea to go back to grad school full-time and complete a second master's degree. In a year and a half. And still have time to have a life. And fundraise for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (while training for a marathon).

Somewhere in there, my craft time got reduced to about nothing. I crave it more than ever but I have made it my "reward" for getting the other things in my life done.

Soon, I will have new bee blocks to share. But they are currently in various stages of doneness on my cutting board.

In the meantime, How About Orange posted a link today that I really needed to share with you. The Victoria & Albert Museum (in the UK) has an online patchwork pattern maker. You can plug in a photo and it creates a pattern using squares and triangles so you can recreate it onto a quilt. How cool is that?

I played with it a bit earlier (shhhh, don't tell my boss!), and here are a couple things I made. I only have a few pics to chose from on my work computer and it seems to work best with close-ups of an individual image.

Fun giveaway at Jandi In Stitches!

2010-06-02T12:56:00.000-07:00

Blogger Jandi In Stitches has a fun giveaway on her blog. She is helping out a new blogger Jaymie of Sassy Pants Patterns get her start in the crafty-bloggy world. Head over and check out the giveaway.

This is my favorite of Sassy Pants Patterns' items.

New lamps

2010-05-30T17:05:00.002-07:00

Oh yes, new lamps are about all it takes to excite a homeowner. No really, this was my excitement eariler. Mr. Crafty & I hit our favorite recycled/upcycled/used bookstore to try to trade in some books, magazines and tchotchkes (had to look up that spelling!) at Bookmans. If you are ever in Tucson, Phoenix, or Flagstaff, Arizona, you have to visit a Bookmans There are 3 in Tucson, 2 in Phx & 1 in Flag.

Anyway, after a rather unsuccessful exchange and finding yet another unicorn protrait to send to Mr. Crafty's brother (3rd time we've found one there), we went to Homegoods in search of new Egyptian cotton towels.

We didn't find any towels but we did find 2 of these lamps! They totally go with our blue & green living/dining/kitchen area and our psuedo, retro 50s vibe. I know I probably could have scored different lamps at a thrift store and maybe covered the shades by myself but these were so perfect already. I couldn't pass them up. And Mr. Crafty (the banker) said OK!

Giveaway day re-draw

2010-05-24T06:16:00.000-07:00

Hello crafty world. I haven't heard from my original giveaway day winner. According to Sew, Mama, Sew, I am supposed to send out the prize to my winner today.

So I drew a new winner...

#184 is Desiree who said "Thanks for the chance to win"

Congrats Desiree!
Happy crafting!

We have a winner!

2010-05-20T21:14:00.001-07:00

Mr. Crafty needs the computer (to complete a job application for a possible promotion with his company), so this will be brief.

And the winner is...

#84 AdronsCatherine said...

I'm working on about a million different projects right now. Got everything from knitting, to hairbows, to sewing clothing, to home decor, and woodworking, too, for good measure ;o) LOL! These sure WOULD make some cute potholders, but I'm thinking I'd put them to use in a sweet little baby quilt!

Congrats!!! I am sending you an email right now.

Happy crafting to all. I'll be catching up on quilting bee blocks and my Quilt for Kids quilts this weekend.

Chance to win a quilt and donate to a great cause

2010-05-17T12:45:00.007-07:00

(Scroll down to the next blog entry for my Sew, Mama, Sew giveaway. But please read this first.)

In my other, other life (outside of work, going to school and crafting), I raise money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) as a member of Team In Training. Research funded by LLS has us *this close* to a cure for lymphoma. And a cure for blood cancers can mean that we find a cure for all cancers.

As a member of Team In Training, I pledge to raise $3500 for LLS while training for the Nike Women's Marathon on October 17th in San Francisco. I will get up at 4:30 and run 20 miles and I will run 26.2 miles on October 17th, you don't have need to do these things. All I ask is for your assistance with this great cause.

As part of my fundraising for LLS, I am raffling off two quilts I've made, pictured below. Both a lap quilt-sized, with the Land & Sea (blue & green) measuring approx 46" x 52" and the Raspberry Limeade (pink & green) measuring approx 42" x 60". Every $10 donated to this cause gets you 1 raffle entry, and each $50 gets you an additional entry. Example: donate $30, get 3 entries; donate $50, get 6 entries; and donate $100, get 12 entries. Winners for each quilt will be drawn at random August 1st.

And your donation and raffle entry is 100% tax-deductible. For more information about this great cause or to make you donation and enter the raffle, please visit http://pages.teamintraining.org/dm/nikesf10/jennifer.

(More photos of the Land & Sea quilt can be found here and another photo of the Raspberry Limeade quilt can be found here.)

I run and train in honor and in memory of all those that have fought cancer. I would love to train in honor or memory of your loved ones too. My personal honored teammate is my grandma Lorraine, who has fought multiple myeloma for the better part of the last decade. Read more about her and the other honored teammates at http://pages.teamintraining.org/dm/nikesf10/jennifer.

I blog about my training and fundraising effort both on my fundraising page at http://pages.teamintraining.org/dm/nikesf10/jennifer and at http://tntjennifer.blogspot.com/.

Thanks for reading and considering this great cause.

Giveaway Day

2010-05-16T07:50:00.002-07:00

GIVEAWAY CLOSED

Hi everyone! I am participating in Sew, Mama, Sew's Giveaway Day this year.

I am giving away this bundle of 6 fat quarters to one lucky winner (US & Canada only)!

You can enter to win up to 3 times. Please leave a comment here for each item.

Leave a comment. You can say hi, tell me waht you are currently working on, what you would make with these fat quarters (I see some cute potholders maybe), or whatever you want.
Follow this blog (leave a comment letting me know you follow).
Blog about this giveaway. (Leave a comment with a link to your blog post.)

I will draw a random winner at 9pm PST on May 20th. Please make sure I have a way to contact you. Happy crafting!!!

Ready to get my Gleek on

2010-05-15T10:42:00.000-07:00

For my 30th birthday a few weeks ago, my parents gave me tickets to see Glee Live! I get to see the cast in all their glory performing some of the songs from the show. They are only performing in 4 cities and Phoenix is one of them. I am more than willing to make the 4 hour round-trip drive. I am sooo excited and I am going to Gleek out for a minute.

I decided that I needed to rock some really awesome homemade tshirt to show my love for all things Glee. When I went to see the New Kids on the Block (omg, such an awesome show - the 11yr old-version of Crafty Jennifer screamed her lungs out!) I saw some really fantastic shirts women had made.

I debated for a long time what I should make for Glee. I finally decided to replicate their logo, except in sequins (and of course add a "k" at the end).

I finished this one this morning before my first run with Team In Training. I am back training with them again, all to raise money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society in the hopes of finding a cure for cancer. We are *this close* to finding a cure for lymphoma! I am commited to raising $3500 for this cause. You can check out more information about the cause and make a donation at http://pages.teamintraining.org/dm/nikesf10/jennifer

Learning to embroider

2010-05-07T12:33:00.002-07:00

I've been wanting to learn to embroider for awhile. I got Jenny Hart's Stitch-it Kit a bit ago but hadn't had the time to sit down with it.

We're road-tripping it as I write this to my in-law's place in Vegas. Kinda bitter-sweet trip, Mr. Crafty's parents are moving to Amercian Samoa for 2 more than years next month. Airfair is about $1600/person so the quick weekend trips (its about 7-8 hours by car from Tucson to Vegas) or the family holidays won't be happening. We are going to be holding onto their artwork for them but they are selling off most of their possessions. So if you're in the Vegas area, check Craigslist for yard sales & other good deals from them.

Anyway, I grabbed part of the Stitch-It Kit and threw it in my bag. I've taught myself most of the stitches, except the chain stitch so far in the past hour. I didn't bring any of the patterns so I'll have to create my own or just practice some stitches this trip. I did make a little something for Mr. Crafty, as you can see.

Have a great weekend. Blogging from my G1 phone is crazy!

Another chance to win EQ7!

2010-05-04T10:19:00.000-07:00

Anita at Bloomin' Workshop is another blogger that won a copy of EQ7 and is giving away one on her blog. Stop by, say hi and enter to win

Check out her cute Pea Pod quilt while you are there!

Run, don't walk! EQ7 Giveaway!!!

2010-05-03T20:35:00.000-07:00

OK, but if you win this, you have to let me use it too...

Jennifer, of Modify Tradition fame, is one of 10 lucky bloggers to win a copy of EQ7 to give away on her blog (don't worry, she gets one too!) For those of you unfamiliar with EQ7 or The Electric Quilt Company, head over to their website.

So run, don't walk over to Jennifer's blog!

Seriously, I want to come over an play if you win. No really, I do.

Finally finished!!!

2010-04-29T08:34:00.002-07:00

I started this quilt back in late November or early December with the hopes of selling it at a craft show called "Art in the Garden"

I had finished the front and back of the quilt (about 36" square) but then my sewing machine died on me. I took just the front & back of this quilt and another with me and explained that my machine was in the shop but if anyone was interested to give me their email and I would email them when it was finished. It was the best I could do.

So, the sewing machine.. Literally, stopped moving. Had to have the gears replaced. And when I got her back from the doctor, I had to quickly try to finish everyone's Christmas presents since it was a 100% homemade Christmas in the Crafty home, except for the new battery for my car that was Mr. Crafty & my gift to each other. Romantic, right?

Anyway, my boss' best friend is expecting a baby any day now. Originally I was supposed to have this done in December for my boss to be able to give to her at the shower she threw for her... and that just didn't happen. Then I started school again and lost all sorts of crafting time.

Here's the back of the quilt

I used 2 cuddly quilt kits from Joann's to put the whole thing together. My mom had bought them for something and then gave them to me so I could make something to sell at the craft show. The pattern that came with the kits just had you make big blocks of fabric for the front and the yellow bubbles (the back border and binding here) was supposed to be the back. I didn't like that so I made my own pattern combining the 2 kits.

It's very soft and cuddly. Since it was a kit, I didn't prewash the fabric and I gave it to my boss without washing it. I am sure it will shrink some, especially since some of the fabrics are flannel.

A little before & after

2010-04-26T20:26:00.002-07:00

This weekend Mr. Crafty and I did a couple little things to our humble abode. Next month, we will have owned our townhouse for 5 years... which is about 2-3 years longer than we both thought we would be living in this place. Don't get me wrong, we like our little starter home but we thought we'd have moved on & up by now, at least that was the plan when we bought the place. We have definitely made it ours. We are thinking about installing bamboo floors in the kitchen, dining and living rooms sometime this year, if we can find a decent bamboo flooring in our budget.

So several weeks ago, I accidentally broke off one of the slats of our blinds in our living room. Our cats, Maggie & Rory (a.k.a. the crafty assistants) love sitting in the window and staring out at the world so the blinds get disheveled. We kept putting the slat back up, only to have it fall and then while shoving it back up, 2 more broke off. So it was time for a new window treatment.

I've been wanting to get 2" wood blinds for awhile but Mr. Crafty was resistant, I think because we didn't need them. We got these custom cut (for free) to fit our window at Home Depot. They are actually faux wood but I think they are a better option for us. This window gets to hot, afternoon desert sun and I worry that the wood blinds would dry out or something.

I am not sure how the crafty assistants feel about the new blinds. I don't think they've figured out how to get in the window yet. I caught Maggie giving them a "cat scan" this morning.

Also, I should mention that it's a tough time in the Crafty household... I'm a Suns fan and Mr. Crafty is a Blazers fan. We agree to disagree. Hey, if he wants to cheer for them he's free to, I know my Suns are gonna beat them and move onto the next round! GO SUNS!

(Crafty Momma & Crafty Daddy raised me a Suns fan. They have shared season tickets for years and when I was five, our new neighbor turned out to be a Suns forward and my mom even got to sit with the players' wives at a game. I attended the last game at the Madhouse on McDowell (1992), where they played the Blazers and we were so loud the palyers couldn't even hear the refs' whistles. I owned a pair of purple Rebok hightops that I wore with orange socks and purple or orange shorts during my preteen and early teen years. Once in high school, I wore nothing but Suns t-shirts and went over 2 weeks before I repeated one... so yeah, I'm a Suns fan. I bleed purple and orange.)

Giveway over at Quilt Dad

2010-04-23T09:47:00.000-07:00

John at Quilt Dad is having his 2 year blog birthday giveaway. He's got some great prizes, you should swing by and check his blog out.

Fat Quarter Shop giveaway at I'm Just a Guy Who Quilts

2010-04-20T08:36:00.000-07:00

Ryan at I'm just a Guy Who Quilts is hosting another giveaway this week. This time, it's a chance to win a giftcard to Fat Quarter Shop! Head over and enter to win this giveaway!

Help needed from the quilty world!

2010-04-16T19:07:00.000-07:00

I need help from the blogging & quilting worlds. My aunt called me today and her friend's mother-in-law apparently has a TON of quilting fabric, batting, quilting frames, etc. The MIL had to move in with her family and they are trying to clean out her house (apparently, it looks like an episode of Hoarders) and they need to find a home for these quilting supplies.

While I would love to bring these supplies home, I fear my home might start to look like an episode of Hoarders too. I have a bi shopping bag full of fabric that I inherited from Mom recently that still has yet to find a home in my home.

I suggested to my aunt that we try to find a charity, like Quilts for Kids, that can use these supplies to help the sick, the needy or something. Unfortunately, it sounds like the amount of fabric is pretty big and would cost a lot to ship. So we need to find a charity close to (or in) the Phoenix area or at least within a close drive to Phoenix.

Does anyone know a charity near/in Phoenix that could use these supplies???

Winner, winner! Chicken dinner!

2010-04-13T14:19:00.000-07:00

This past week was "Grand Opening Week" over at Quilting Bee Blocks and there were some great giveaways. Plus this website is a great one-stop-shop for all thing bee-related. Erin has done a fantastic job setting up this great resource for us quilters!

One of the giveaways is a fat quarter bundle of Heather Bailey's Nicey Jane from Ruth at Sew Love Fabrics. And I am now the proud owner of this great fabric! Yippeeeeeeee!

Thanks Erin & Ruth!!!

Giveaway at "I'm Just a Guy Who Quilts"

2010-04-13T09:44:00.000-07:00

Ryan over at I'm Just a Guy Who Quilts is hosting weekly giveaways all month. This week he's giving away gift certificates to Hawthorne Threads!

Thirty

2010-04-09T10:31:00.002-07:00

I am 30. And I am now OK with saying that. For awhile I wasn't... but that's a long story and not one I want to get into right now.

30, flirty and thriving!

I wish I was as awesome as these women that are the same or close to my age but I'm not. Something to aspire to!
Elizabeth at http://www.ohfransson.com/
Christina at http://sometimescrafter.blogspot.com/
Ryan at http://www.ryanwalshquilts.com/ (I know, not a woman but he does amazing things at 29!)
Rachel at http://www.psiquilt.com/ (only 27!) I am following her pinwheel sampler quilt along but I am very behind
There were a couple more that I wanted to include but my brain is telling me that it's Friday, it's been a long week and it time to stop thinking!

Anyway, there are some amazing people out in blogland. I love seeing what they create. It makes me wish that I had more time to pursue my crafty endeavors. This weekend, I am going to be sewing up a storm. I have a lighter load of homework and I have already scheduled a date with my sewing machine for the second I get home from work today! (shhhh, don't tell my boss I am blogging at work)

I wanted to share a couple of things from my birthday with you. My parents listened and got me some Heather Ross gnomes from Spoonflower!!! And tickets to see Glee in Phoenix!

This book was made by my mom for me when I was little. I asked her about the pattern and she said she created most of the pictures herself and worked on this when I was napping. I included some of my favorite pages.

The cat and the tree are corduory. I remember playing with this as a kid and Crafty Momma found this in a box somewhere recently. I noticed that part of the photos are cut off so to see the whole thing, click on the picture. Otherwise, you will be looking at the picture saying "What tree is she talking about?"

Also, I saw this article recently and thought you might like to read it too. It's about long-haul truckers that quilt (and knit) during their downtime IN their trucks!
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704896104575139990857438962.html#articleTabs%3Darticle

Fruitcake giveaway at Jandi In Stitches

2010-04-07T11:00:00.000-07:00

Jandi In Stitches is giving away a charm pack of Basic Gray for Moda's Fruitcake! Super cute holiday fabric. I'm adding this to my "want" category...which always seems to be growing!

Photo from Jandi's blog

Better than Chipotle shredded beef (according to Mr. Crafty)

2010-04-07T09:01:00.002-07:00

So yesterday I made a beef roast in my Crock Pot and Mr. Crafty proclaimed it to be "better than Chipotle's barbacoa." Now I love, love, love Chipotle and would eat pretty much every meal there if Mr. Crafty would let me, so this was a very high compliment in my book.

While I was making the roast, I didn't plan on sharing the recipe with anyone since it really was all an experiment. I had a roast that needed to be made and I needed to find something to throw in the Crock Pot with it before I left for work...

And my "Better than Chipotle shredded beef"* was born...

I didn't keep track of the exact measurements while making this, it was all an experiment. But that's kinda how I cook - I keep throwing things in and see how it turns out!

Step 1: Make Pioneer Woman's salsa (I dream of being her - she's a sassy, sarcastic redhead with an awesome website and adorable redheaded children. You should read her blog/make her recipes if you haven't) http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2010/01/restaurant-style-salsa/

I made mine over the weekend and put in 2 jalapenos instead of 1 and didn't have limes so I substituted the juice of 1 lemon. Oh, and I didn't have a 28oz can of whole tomatoes so I threw in a 14.5oz can of fire roasted tomatoes and a 14.5 oz can of regular diced tomatoes along with the other 2 cans of diced tomatoes with jalapenos (mine were Hatch brand). The salsa is now almost gone and yielded a whole lotta salsa that we ate with chips, put on our steak, etc.

Step 2: The roast. I don't remember exactly what cut of beef we had but it was a pretty lean cut. If you have a fattier cut, I would trim off some of the excess fat before putting it in the crock pot

Step 3: Crock pot ingredients:

Beef roast
1/2-3/4 cup of homemade salsa
1 can diced tomatoes (14.5oz)
1/4 large onion, roughly chopped
1 jalapeno, quartered (seeds left in)
2 cups water
Juice of 1-2 limes (mine weren't very juicy so I used 2)
optional: bay leaf or other herbs. I was in a hurry to get out the door for work so I didn't even think of this step but I am sure it would make it even better

Step 4: Throw all ingredients in the crock pot on low and spend the rest of your day doing something else - I worked an 11 hour day

Step 5: When Mr. Crafty got home from work (about 9 hours after I started the roast), he shredded the beef and added the following spices (I do not know in what quantity, sorry! Just season then taste and add more as needed):

Cumin
Tumeric
Garlic Salt
Salt

Mr. Crafty let it simmer on low for a couple more hours until I got home from work but you could eat it as soon as you shred and add the spices. I had a very hungry hubby on my hands because he had to sit there and smell it but he munched on the homemade salsa and chips :-)

*according to Mr. Crafty. I would never take on the delicious empire that is Chipotle.

Lily's color book

2010-03-18T18:08:00.000-07:00

It was a homemade Christmas at the Crafty home. And, yes, I am JUST posting about this in mid-March. Nothing wrong with that right? I started making Christmas gifts in October but my sewing machine had to make a visit to the ER in early December. That really put a crimp in the homemade Christmas plans.

And because I was desperately sewing to get projects done in time to mail or gift them (my brother and sis-in-law's quilt is still not done), I forgot to photograph most of the projects.

For my niece Alex and my cousins Hayley & Lindsey, I made crayon rolls (see tutorial here). I made Christmas ornaments for each family but I didn't take a single photo of them. And now those are packed away with Christmas decorations and won't see the light of day until after Thanksgiving.

One of the gifts I made was a fabric color book for our niece Lily. She turns 1 next month. I found the tutorial as part of Sew Mama Sew's Scrap Buster contest. It can be found on Stitch/Craft's blog here. I tweaked it a bit, adding a spread of each color instead of just an individual page. This presented a problem later since the entire book was too big to fit in my sewing machine to make the binding. But I improvised.

Last weekend, we went to southern California for my friend Asma's wedding. Asma, I miss you, come back! Anyway, we had dinner with Mr. Crafty's brother and family and I got to visit with Lily's book. Here are the photos I snapped before we headed back to our hotel for the night:

Winner, winner! Chicken dinner!

2010-03-15T10:41:00.001-07:00

Confession: I have no idea where I heard that saying but I like it.

I got an email this morning from Jen at Little Scraps of Happiness letting me know I won her "The Kitchen Linens Book" giveaway. I have been wanting to try hand embroidery and this is the kick in the pants I needed!

Also, this weekend while we were in LA for my friend Asma's wedding (beautiful bride, I'll post pics later), I got Jenny Hart's Sublime Stitching newsletter. She just got a few final copies of the Stitch-It Kit and the publisher will not be making anymore. I wanted to get this last year and the last time I tried to find it, I could only find expensive used copies on Amazon. So as Mr. Crafty slept in our oh-so-comfy (cough, cough) hotel bed, I ordered one. Shhh, I'll tell him soon. But not after spending money on gas, food & stuff in California.

Oh, and in other news, I got my sewing machine back from the doctor! Yippee! Now I just need to get my classwork done so I can sew some this week :-)

Giveaway at Sew-Fantastic!

2010-03-09T08:34:00.000-07:00

There's a great giveaway going on over at Sew-Fantastic. She's giving away 25 fat quarters of the most popular Kona cotton solids!

Head over and check it out! (photo from Sew-Fantastic blog)

Nothing crafty to report...

2010-03-08T14:49:00.001-07:00

My trusty Singer is still visiting the doc so not much crafty has gone on this past week.

Mom & Dad came to Tucson yesterday to go to the Diamondbacks Spring Training game with me & Mr. Crafty, their Christmas present from us. Storms were moving into the area from California but we were hoping they would hold.

Dad was ready to protect us from any fly balls!

I managed to score some awesome seats! Mom & Dad have a partial season ticket package so Dad emailed me a link to order tickets before they went on sale to the general public. I had to try a couple times to get tickets on the 3rd baseline but I managed to score some awesome seats!

Mom's favorite, Stephen Drew

3rd row, next to the Diamondbacks dugout!

My fav, Connor Jackson - rounding the bases after his homerun!

Unfortunately, the rain didn't stay away. We got rained on during periods of the game and it was called due to the rain after the 5th or 6th inning.

We were up 9-3 at that point and we had enjoyed ourselves so we were OK not seeing an entire game.

Rest of the photos can be found here. You can see how it got sunny for about 10-15 minutes as you flip through them

Prognosis: not great

2010-03-05T10:14:00.000-07:00

I called yesterday to see how my lil sewing machine was doing at the doctor. She needs a gear replaced. Ugh, we just replaced 2 of the 4 gears back at the beginning of December! I forgot to ask how much this repair is going to set me back. And I don't get her back until Monday at the earliest, so no weekend sewing for me :-(

I do have to give a shout-out to Mr. Crafty. He dropped my lil girl off at the repair man for me on Monday since I was busy with my stats final. <3 him!

Giveaway at Little Scraps of Happiness

2010-03-03T14:34:00.002-07:00

Little Scraps of Happiness is having a giveaway of Snippets! Make sure you check out her adorable Snippet quilt she made earlier this month while you are there.

In other news, the trusty sewing machine is still at the doctor. I guess I should use this time to clean my house?

Sick again :-(

2010-02-28T19:38:00.003-07:00

My old trusty Singer is sick again... she was humming along on our Quilts for Kids quilt and all the sudden her feed dogs just stopped moving. I oiled a couple different areas and Mr. Crafty took some stuff apart (and forgot how it went back together) but no luck. So she goes to the doctor tomorrow or Tuesday.

Stats final tomorrow, back to studying! I don't start my next class until March 11th so I actually was going to have some time to finish some UFO's.

Grrrrr......... I'm annoyed!

Heather Ross Gnomes

2010-02-25T12:39:00.003-07:00

Can I just say my 30th birthday is just 30 days away and if you are looking for something to get me for the big day - I WANT, I WANT, I WANT HEATHER ROSS GNOMES! They are available on Spoonflower as we speak. Mom, if you are reading this blog, this is what I want from you & Dad! (And I know I sound like a petulant teenager but these adorable gnomes just drive me nuts with their adorable awesomeness!)

In case you are just dying to know my plans for my birthday, which conveniently falls on a Saturday, we are having an awesome 80's-themed party! And the following afternoon, we're heading to a Diamondbacks Spring Training game - one of the last in Tucson. So sad the Dbacks are leaving Tucson, no more Spring Training in town after this year :-(

Giveaway at Jandi In Stiches

2010-02-23T09:50:00.002-07:00

Blogger Jandi In Stiches has a giveaway on her blog this week. Head over and check it out! Super duper cute fabric and her blog's playlist is pretty awesome. Just heard Popular by Nada Surf. Now that takes me back!

This month's bee blocks

2010-02-21T11:23:00.005-07:00

This month for the Coast to Coast Block Party Quilting Bee Ebony sent gorgeous pink, green and black & white fabrics and asked us to do free form log cabin blocks for her. I finally was able to work on them the end of the week since I was caught up with school for a second (more homework to get done later today).

These are the blocks I made for her. I added the solid white, the black on black swirl and the pink leaf fabric from my stash. I went a little too wonky and was running out af fabric with more width to add to the blocks!

I am also working on getting my fabric ready to mail out to the ladies. I washed and pressed it last night, now I need to cut it.

March is my month and I have something different in store for them. You'll have to come back later to find out what it is.

Rachel at P.S. I Quilt posted the first of her Pinwheel Sampler Quilt Along blocks. Soooo want to work on that. I found a layer cake of Love U by Deb Strain on sale and bought it. Shhhh, don't tell Mr. Crafty. I haven't told him about that purchase yet. And we went to Joann's yesterday so that story will have to wait another day to be told. But he did buy me a larger cutting mat for my birthday next month! They were on sale 40% off.

Introducing the crafty assistants

2010-02-19T12:32:00.006-07:00

Nothing too crafty has happened at the house lately. I decided to go back to school full-time for a second master's degree while working full-time. Am I nuts? Probably! Much of my time has been spent reading, doing stats homework and writing papers. Quilting and other crafty things are my "treat" for when I finish my homework. And I am getting grumpy because I haven't had a treat lately!*

I wanted to take a second to introduce my crafty assistants, Maggie and Rory. Actually, Maggie is my quality assurance supervisor. Everyone needs a cat supervisor to make sure there work comes out right!

Rory "assisting" me with binding a quilt

Maggie checking the quality of my work

*Actually, I worked on Ebony's blocks for a few minutes last night between dishes & laundry. But no substantial crafting time for a few weeks.

Heather Ross Gnomes!

2010-02-14T08:31:00.005-07:00

Have you heard the news? Some of Heather Ross' out of print & hard to find fabrics will soon be available through Spoonflower! I love, love, love me some gnomes! I splurged recently a bought a leg of pj's of her pink gnomes on Etsy. I just couldn't help myself, I NEEDED it. And that is what I will tell Mr. Crafty when I finally tell him. The fabric is currently stashed at work, no joke!

(Photo from Heather's blog)

Thanks for the head's up Craftyblossom!

For those of you unfamiliar with Spoonflower, you can upload your own images and they will print them on fabric for you. Or you can purchase fabric designed & uploaded by someone else. Pretty cool, huh?

Busted?

2010-02-08T21:28:00.005-07:00

I got home from class tonight - it's supposed to be from 4:30-9:30pm every Monday but we have yet to stay much past 8pm, I'm not complaining! - and was reading some of the blogs I follow to unwind. Mr. Crafty busts into the office/guest room and says "You're looking at quilt porn, aren't you?!"

I actually had just finished checking out the latest post on the Coast to Coast Block Party blog of Wendy's wonky log cabin block for Ebony when he busted into the office. I really need to check my mailbox to see if Ebony's fabric made it all the way from Maryland to Tucson...

This Saturday, I went to my friend Asma's henna party. She is getting married next month and I will lose my last work buddy since she is moving to Houston, which makes me very sad. But I am really happy for her. Asma is originally from Pakistan and henna parties are part of the pre-wedding festivities. the photo above is from just after the henna was applied to my hand and the one below is what my hand looked like the next morning. The color actually got darker after I took the picture (and was a little darker than it looks in the photo).

The women at the party all wore gorgeous brightly colored traditional silk outfits and I was definitely jealous that my sweater and dress pants just were not as cool. I took photos at the henna party but cannot show you any of Asma and her sisters. They wear scarves on their heads in public but were un-scarved at the party. The photo below is Asma's hands. I don't know if you can see the peacock or not.

And these two little girls were soooo freaking cute and well-behaved!

Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My?

2010-02-06T13:56:00.004-07:00

This morning, I finally dragged my lazy butt out of bed for a run. I headed out to Sabino Canyon to meet up with some Team In Training folks (they are training for a 1/2 marathon, I just tagged along). I LOVE running at Sabino Canyon, even though it's 7.4 miles of hills if you run all the way to the top. I do not love hills but I love Sabino Canyon. It reminds me why I love living in the desert. And today's weather reminded me why I tolerate the summer heat (but it's a dry heat!!!).
Yes, that is water running over the road we ran on! How did I cross it, you ask? I ran straight through it, splashing all the way!!! I channeled my inner child and had a huge smile on my face. (OK, if it didn't actually show on my face, I was definitely smiling in my head). The photo above is one of the bridges where the water was deepest yesterday. There are 7 or 8 bridges and all but one had water running over it. They are actually designed so that when there is a flash flood or just a decent amount of rain, like we've gotten over the past several weeks, the water that can't go under the bridge goes over the bridge.

Now you might be asking, didn't your feet get soaked? Wasn't the water cold? Yes and yes! That's part of the fun. The water in your shoes warms up within a few seconds but it is mountain runoff so it is a bit cold.

(Other people about to cross the fun way.)

Now some people get to the water and either take off their shoes & socks and gingerly make their way across or put baggies on their feet. Boo! There actually is an annual race at Sabino Canyon and the summer rains usually mean that the 500+ runners are splashing their way through.
And you might be wondering, why did she call this "Lions & Tigers & Bears, Oh My?" That would be because driving into the parking lot, the park ranger stopped all cars to warn them that there had been mountain lion sightings and give out pamphlets. My reaction to this news - Meh, I'm still going to run. Not gonna stop me. Did not see any mountain lions but I forgot to snap a photo of the warning sign for you. Do you like my bridge warning sign above? It makes me giggle and yes that sign is just before each & every bridge heading up and down the canyon.

The photo above is actually from one of my runs with Team In Training during the summer. The others were taken with my phone today. You can see the sun coming up over the Canyon but it takes awhile for the sun to reach IN the canyon so the 5am summer runs there are so enjoyable. I was really disappointed this past summer because there wasn't enough rain (major drought going on here in the desert) for the water to flow, let alone flow over the bridges. Yesterday's run was a great and challenging 6 miles for me. Time to get back into training shape...

While I was running, I thought about my college friends and my bee friends in the middle of their snow storm. And, not to make any of you mad, I was really happy I didn't have to deal with that and I could run at Sabino Canyon splashing through the water. This is why I endure the oppressive heat of late-May, June, July, August and early-September. Oh, and the Spring Training too! I didn't get Ebony's fabric in the mail this week but I DID get my tickets to the spring training game next month that we are taking my parents to as their Christmas gift. Go Dbacks! Please don't take spring training out of Tucson.

New hobby for the Mr.

2010-02-04T13:20:00.002-07:00

I have been reading The Sometimes Crafter's digital photography introduction this week. I have been wanting to get a SLR digital camera but haven't exactly had the funding. So I emailed my brother, the photojournalist, about The Sometimes Crafter's series and asked if he had any suggestions about where we could get a decent SLR camera inexpensively. He offered to let us buy one of his old cameras, a Canon EOS 10D SLR camera for dirt cheap. Call it the sister discount if you want but I'll take it. (This after he sold his old unwanted toys to me when we were kids!) It's currently his backup backup camera.

Mr. Crafty Jennifer loves photography and is very excited. He took photography in high school and loved it. He has his parents old Pentex camera and my Canon that I got when I tried to take black & white photography in college (horrible instructor, I ended up dropping it!). But he hasn't been using these film camera so he is very excited to use something other that our point & shoot Olympus camera. I asked him if he can take the pictures of my quilts and stuff so I can FINALLY get my Etsy site up and running :-)

Now, we just need to find a decent lens cheaply. My brother offered to sell us one of his but it's a little outside the budget for what we planned to spend.

Quilts for Kids kit arrived!!!

2010-02-02T13:57:00.003-07:00

Just before lunch, my co-worker tells me a package arrived for me. I wasn't expecting anything so I gave her a puzzled expression until I looked at the return address. It said "Quilts for Kids"!!!

I opened up the envelope and look at the beautiful fabric that was staring back at me. (I snapped these photos with my phone. Luckily, it's another sunny Tucson day!)

The fabric is from the Cherie by Masha D'yans line from Clothworks. I found the rest of the collection here.

I'm supposed to hit the gym and then read more in my Adult Psych book when I get home from work today... it's going to be hard to concentrate!

I also need to dig through my stash and see what fabrics I have to put together at least one more quilt to send to Quilts for Kids.

Quilting for a cause

2010-01-30T08:11:00.002-07:00

Earlier this week, I heard about Quilts for Kids. They take fabric that was destined for a landfill and make quilts for sick kids. Right now they are sending some quilts to Haiti too.

If you are a quilter, you can request a kit from them. It comes with all the fabric you need, you just supply the labor and the batting and send it back to them. I also plan on raiding my stash to see what kid-friendly fabrics I can put together to make another quilt too.

If you are not a quilter (or do not have time to make a quilt), you can make a monetary donation too.

Like my childhood, only better

2010-01-28T14:47:00.003-07:00

I stumbled across this awesome tutorial on how to make your own shrinky dinks - using recycled plastic!!! And even better (at least for me) is the type of plastic - #6 - isn't one recycled in my community so I am currently throwing it away.

http://www.poopscape.com/projects/shrinkydink/shrink.htm

I'm just a joiner...

2010-01-27T10:03:00.002-07:00

I just discovered (via Craftster) that there are Modern Quilt Guilds starting up all around the US. Sounds like my kind of thing! I checked out the Modern Quilt Guild website and found there is a guild in Phoenix (only about an hour & a half to two hours from Tucson). Perhaps someone will start up a group in Tucson...

Check out the Modern Quilt Guilds website!

Wish he had told me sooner...

2010-01-26T11:55:00.003-07:00

So this Sunday morning, I mention the Yudu to the Mr. and how awesome I think it is, especially since he keeps trying to get me to make tshirts for his group of friends. Freezer paper works, but I am not sure I want to make 10 (or more!) of the same shirt using freezer paper.

Since it was Sunday morning, of course I found the Yudu infomercial on. He says "That's so cool, we should get that!" Then he asks me how much they run. I sigh and say "I wish I had known you were interested in this sooner! They were HALF PRICE at Joann's the day after Thanksgiving!" And of course, I had been at Joann's (before they opened) with my mom...

*sigh

Men!

So now I am on the hunt for a great sale on the Yudu. Best I found so far is $199 - infomercial price is $279. Could have gotten it at Joann's at 6am the day after Thanksgiving for $149! (Since I was up at 4:30am and one of the first 50 people in the store...)

Holy gonga sale Batman!

2010-01-25T10:56:00.003-07:00

I've been trying to figure out what I want to do for my month (March!) in the Coast to Coast Bee and the fabric I want to use. I figured it out last week (but you'll have to wait to see what I chose and what I plan to do) and have been hunting for a bargain on the fabric. I found it on sale in an Etsy shop and was about to buy it...

I wanted to know what the size on the repeat of one of the patterns was to know if I wanted to order more for the border and back...

I did a google search for the fabric to see if I could find someone with that information and then I discovered the fabric I was about to buy for...

wait for it...

wait for it...

$4.98 a yard!!!

Normally, I like to support the small businesses but for that price I couldn't help myself. I found it for $7.99 a yard on Etsy, which was about $1 less than anywhere else. I still need to get a couple yards of one fabric from A Fabric Outlet on Etsy. Check out the sale I found on Hanckock's of Paducah website. Maybe you'll find something you've been wanting for a gonga deal too.

Bee blocks done for Pastor Katie

2010-01-24T08:26:00.004-07:00

Since I started classes a couple weeks ago, I haven't had as much time for crafting as I would like :-( But I needed to finish Katie's blocks for our bee because January is almost over. And Katie was nice enough to send everything before the holidays so we could work on them early - which I planned to do.

Friday night and yesterday morning (after I finished my homework) I was finally able to work on Katie's blocks. I made the first one nearly a month ago and had the fabric cut for the second one. Katie wanted 6.5" star blocks and sent us some ideas but really let us do whatever we wanted, as long as it was a star or a nine-patch. Thanks for the freedom Katie!

These are the blocks I made for Katie. She only asked for 2 but I was on a roll so I made 4! The first block I made was a sawtooth star but I added a pinwheel middle instead of a plain square. I made a pinwheel quilt recently and apparently am still in a pinwheel mood.
The block to the right of the sawtooth is a variation of Silly BooDilly's wonky star tutorial from Sewtakeahike called "Twinkle twinkle wonky star". It was fun to do but I want to try it again. I liked the end result but didn't love it.
The block below the sawtooth is the friendship star. This is the first block from the Block Party Quilt Along, which is how all the participants in our bee met. The last block is the pale star, which Katie provided the instructions on how to make.
All the blocks were fun and it was nice to be able to do a mini sampler of stars and not be bogged down with 20-50 of the same star over and over, like you might do making an entire quilt for yourself.

2010-01-19T11:31:00.002-07:00

Looking for a way to help those affected by the earthquake in Haiti?

You can either purchase an item (everything goes to Doctors Without Borders) or you can donate an item to be sold on Etsy. Check out the Etsy site or the Craft Hope website for more information.

Lovely little gnome houses!

2010-01-14T12:16:00.005-07:00

I've been MIA lately because I have either been chained to my desk at work or chained to my sewing machine. I was literally making Christmas gifts up until the minute I needed to mail them or drive to my parents' house. I still need to actually finish my brother & sister-in-law's quilt but I at least got the the quilt top finished and wrapped it up for them. And I started classes for my 2nd master's degree last week & this week. See, lots going on...

I have one of the two quilt blocks done for Katie this month. I have the fabric cut for the other but can't get to it this weekend since we'll be visiting the in-laws. We were supposed to go there for Christmas but Dan's wonderful boss took that week off instead of letting Dan go. Heaven forbid we would actually want to be at our niece's first Christmas with the entire family. But we're off to Vegas tonight!

I have been reading the different blogs I follow and I love what is going on with the {Bee} Imaginative group. This month's quilter asked the others to make little houses for her gnomes. The gnome fabric is the ever-elusive Heather Ross Munki Munki Garden Gnome fabric I mentioned here.

Just a couple cute photos... head over to the group's blog for more!

Trusty sewing machine is BACK!!!

2009-12-14T10:49:00.003-07:00

I got mom's sewing machine back from the shop on Friday but haven't had a chance to try it out yet. My brother was in town from Springfield, MO so I was busy with him and, oh yeah, we also both ran in yesterday's Tucson Half Marathon. Mark finished 12th overall. I had a PR (personal record) of 2:22:12 (despite the reappearance of my hip injury) and I was 900-something overall. I'm limping around today since every muscle below my waist is sore and tight.

Time for some sewing this week. Gotta finish those Christmas gifts!!!

My step-grandma Lorraine (a.k.a. Grandma Raine) was admitted to the ICU this weekend with double pneumonia :-( She's a fighter though so everyone is hopeful that she'll pull through this since she's battled cancer and lumpus for the past decade. Still a tough time for the family.

Updates...

2009-12-06T22:07:00.002-07:00

Yesterday was "Art in the Garden" and the rough economy was evident. I didn't sell any of my quilts but did sell out of all my smaller items. I also noticed that the other crafters/artists were selling their less expensive items too. Kathleen, who was selling delicious spiced pecans, did the best. I sold 3 crayon rolls and 3 ornaments and could have sold more if I'd had more time to make more. But I gave out my card and have some interest for the future. Now I need to get my Etsy site up & running (at least I have some inventory now).

Mom's machine is in the shop and 2 of her 4 gears are shot. It's not going to be a cheap repair but definitely necessary. Mom wants it fixed. So the $60 I made yeasterday will go towards the repairs and I am hoping mom & dad will pay for part of it since gears wear out voer time so this is not something I did recently. But this puts a serious crimp in my plans to make holiday gifts. I still have Lily's fabric colors book to make plus ornaments for everyone. Mark & Didi might not get their quilt for Christmas either.

Out of commission

2009-12-02T10:54:00.002-07:00

Just when I needed it most, mom's sewing machine decided to take a break. I think the timing needs to be adjusted and perhaps a few other things fixed. I tried to see if there was anything I could do it fix it but I couldn't. But I did get to see the "guts" of the machine. I called around to a couple different places today and am going to try to drop it off after work today. One place said the earliest they could get it back is December 14th, nearly 2 weeks away!

I am going to try to finish things I was working on with my sewing machine but it is not as nice as mom's machine, I am not as comfortable with it and I do not have a walking foot for it so I can't finish any quilts until I get mom's back

I might have really done it now...

2009-12-01T08:54:00.002-07:00

I think Mom's sewing machine might be official broken and in need of a trip to the repair shop :-(
A few months ago, I started having trouble with it skipping stitches on zig-zags and then it started skipping stitches on the straight stiches too. I oiled it and it started working better but not 100%. Last night as I was close to finished another quilt top for Art in the Garden this weekend, it stopped working properly :-(
The needle is hitting some part when it goes down. I tried tightening some screws and replaced the needle but no luck. I am going to try a couple more things when I get home tonight but it might be out of commission for a bit. I have my machine as back up but I am not sure how well it will do with machine quilting, espcially since I do not have a walking foot attachment for it.
I know I had put off repairing it when I shouldn't have but we needed to repair my car instead... so it really is my own fault that mom's old Singer has decided to take a nap.

I'm a winner!!!

2009-11-25T14:06:00.004-07:00

I can't believe it, I won "Quiltin' Like Crazy"'s fabric giveaway. I never win! Now I have to figure out what I want to use it for...

In other news, I am working like crazy both at work and at home. Actually, I am quilting like crazy, hehe! I am trying to get a couple more quilts and some gift items (like crayon rolls and ornaments) made in time for "Art in the Garden" on December 5th. It snuck up on me. I have 1 quilt partly quilted and another nearly quilted and I was hoping to knock out one or two more small ones over the holiday weekend.

Can I quit work to quilt & craft all the time?

2009-11-16T12:48:00.002-07:00

Having a rough day at work and was just thinking it would be so nice to quit work and make stuff all day. But I bet the bank would like me to keep making my mortgage payments so I guess crafting will just be for after work for now :-(

Awww man, I am in T-R-O-U-B-L-E

2009-11-13T15:34:00.003-07:00

One of my bee buddies posted a link to this new online fabric store and like an idiot I clicked on it. As if I needed more temptation. They have a gorgeous selection of fabric.

It's official!!!

2009-11-09T17:36:00.001-07:00

Totally unrelated to crafting but a big moment for me & the Mr. Our horrible neighbors unexpectedly moved out a couple months ago, we kind of assumed they were probably getting foreclosed upon. And today we came home to find the official notice posted on the door & their water turned off. Happy news!
So if anyone is looking for a 3 bedroom, 2 bath townhouse in Tucson, I know a place you could buy for cheap :-) But only if you'll be nice & respectful neighbors...

Joining the Bee

2009-11-03T09:49:00.002-07:00

I've been wanting to join a virtual quilting bee for awhile and I found one I want to join. Now I just need to find a group, hopefully will very soon!

The Block Party blog is hosting a quilt-along and small bees are forming from it. One block a month... let's see if I can keep up!

The Block Party gals are going to be writing a book about virtual bees and will be featuring photos of participants' work from the quilt-along. Pretty cool, right?

There's also a fabric giveaway going on so get on over to the Block Party blog!!!

Halloween costumes - Dean & Triana

2009-11-03T09:46:00.006-07:00

Freezer paper love! <3 <3 <3

2009-10-29T08:45:00.005-07:00

So I read a post on the Craft blog about freezer paper a couple months ago and thought it would be cool to pick some up sometime. Then when I decided to start making a 100% by hand Grandmother's Garden quilt for me & Dan - inspired by Craftster member breemonkey (post here) - and started searching for hexagon paper piecing tutorials, I decided I REALLY needed to get myself a roll of freezer paper. Which I found at the grocery store for like $2.99 for a roll of 75 feet. I can only imagine how long it will take me to go through 75 feet. I think I have only used 2-3 feet so far for the 2 projects.

Dan & I are going to be Dean Venture and Triana Orpheus from the Venture Bros cartoon (super late Sunday nights on Cartoon Network, rent/buy the DVD's) and I needed to make parts of our costumes.

Dan's was pretty easy - we borrowed a short-sleeve white dress shirt from Dad & he'll wear jeans & shoes he already has so I just had to make him a maroon with brown trim sweater vest. I am not good with stretchy fabrics nor do I knit so I bought some maroon flannel at Joann's. I used one of Dan's tshirts as a "pattern" and went from there. I bought some brown bias binding and trimmed the neck & arms. And his "sweater" vest was done!

For my costume, I picked up some white & black striped socks at a sock store in SF a couple weeks ago. I didn't have time to make/find a black mini skirt so I am wearing the dark denim one I have. Close enough, right? Dan trekked to 3 stores for me yesterday after work to find a black bob wig and it's more expensive than the rest of the components of our costumes!

So last night I needed to make Triana's tshirt. I picked up a kid's medium black tee at Joann's and found an image of the skull & crossbones from her exact shirt online and blew it up on the printer at work. All I had to do then was trace it onto the freezer paper and cut it out! Then I applied the freezer paper (shiny side DOWN) to the tee and started painting. A couple minute later I was done & just had to wait patiently for it to dry. The freezer paper peeled off easily and there are just a couple tiny places where I applied the paint too thick and it bled the line slightly.

I'll post the full costumes after Halloween :-) Dan says we'll look like Dean & Triana when they grew up and got fat. Speak for yourself!!! I don't look a day over 20 :-P

Venturing out of my comfort zone...

2009-10-26T16:24:00.002-07:00

I'm one of those people that am never really 100% happy with the things I make. I know every flaw and thing that went wrong. At least I can kind of let go and let things go to their new owners without being 100% happy with them. So I always am surprised when people say that I make beautiful things and that I am talented.

I went outside of my comfort zone and created the crayon roll tute for the Sew, Mama, Sew! contest. I wasn't 100% happy with my tute but ran out of time to get the pics I really wanted and just posted the tute on my blog as-is. And today I looked and here I am on the SMS blog with my contest entry! http://sewmamasew.com/blog2/?p=2130

Scrap buster/Christmas gifts

2009-10-22T09:15:00.003-07:00

A couple weeks ago, I started making Christmas gifts for my niece and young cousins. All three girls are getting cute Crayola crayon rolls for Christmas. I thought I would share a quick little tutorial on how I made their presents. I am entering this in Sew Mama Sew's scrap buster contest. This is my first tutorial so please c & c are appreciated!

Scrap Buster Crayon Roll Tutorial
I made a few crayon rolls recently for my niece & youngest cousins for Christmas. They are 4 ½, 5 and 7 years old. I’ve seen a number of different crayon rolls out there but I never saw one where each pocket was a different color from the crayon box. Maybe it is my slightly anal-retentive tendencies but I thought it would be fun to give the girls a spot for each crayon.

I made my crayon roll using a box of 24 Crayola crayons but you could make your crayon roll with the 8 or 16 boxes or with the fatter crayons as well. The pockets for the fatter crayons would need to be larger since I found the 1” pockets made for the regular crayons to be large enough for little hands but still secure enough.

Materials needed (for 24 crayons):
24 - Scraps (at least 1.5” by 5.5” or pieced together to make a 1.5” x 5.5” scrap) matching the colors in a box of crayons
2 – 5.5” x 25.5” pieces of fabric for the pocket and back (this could also be pieced)
1 – 5.5” x 25.5” piece of batting, old t-shirt or flannel
2 – 15” pieces of ribbon
Rotary cutter and mat
Thread matching the pocket/back fabric
Sewing machine
Optional: contrasting fabric for names or initials on the back of the roll plus appliqué materials

Cutting:
Start by laying our your crayons and coordinating fabric in the order you plan to sew them. Cut each fabric to 1.5” x 5.5” EXCEPT the 2 end pieces. Cut the end pieces to 2” x 5.5”. **Note: since I was making more than 1 crayon roll, I sewed 1.5” strips together and cut them into 5.5” sections after sewing all the strips together. You can do this too if you plan to make more than one at a time. (This is also why my photos look a little different than my directions)

Cut your back and pocket fabric. You need two 5.5” x 25.5” pieces.
Cut 1 piece of batting at 5.5” x 25.5”. You could also use an old t-shirt or old piece of flannel. I used a piece of batting leftover from a quilt since I always buy my batting several inches larger on each side than needed.

Sewing:
Sew your rainbow scraps together using a ¼” seam allowance. I sewed my scraps in pairs, chain stitching them one after the other. Then I sewed the pairs together (in the proper rainbow order, of course) and kept adding groups of scraps together until all 24 rainbow pieces were sewn. Press all seams to one direction or press open.

Square up your rainbow and trim any excess fabric from the edges. Or if you are sewing more than 1 crayon roll, cut your larger rainbow piece into 5.5” sections. Take your back fabric and 1 of your ribbons. Measure about 10 inches from one edge. Center the ribbon on the back with the long tail going towards the longer section of the back fabric and stitch down. I went around each edge 2-3 times since I did not want my niece/cousins’ little hands ripping the ribbon off later. *Add any additional decorations now. I added my cousin’s initials (H for Hayley and L for Lindsey) since their crayon rolls were identical and I didn’t want a fight later.

Take the other ribbon and center it on the edge closest to where you just sewed the other ribbon and pin.

Take your pocket fabric, fold in half (so you have a 2.75” x 25.5” piece) and press the fold. Pin the pocket to the right side of the rainbow scraps.

Now we’ll make the sandwich:
Layer 1 – batting
Layer 2 – back of roll RIGHT SIDE UP (with the ribbon attached to the back). I pinned my ribbon to the center of the back so I wouldn’t have to worry about accidentally sewing it into one of the sides as I sewed the sandwich J
Layer 3 – rainbow scraps with pocket pinned RIGHT SIDE DOWN. You should be looking at your seams. (I fanned out the layers so you can see how they should look but stack with all edges matched up)

Sew the sandwich together with a ¼” seam allowance. Backstitch several times over the ribbon to make it secure. Make sure to leave a 4-5” opening on 1 side to turn the sandwich. (You may want to leave a slightly larger opening than normal. I found I pulled a couple of my rainbow seams out as I turned my layers while tugged the other pieces through.)

Clip the corners at an angle and turn the sandwich right sides out.

Press the edges of the roll and topstitch with a ¼” (or less) seam allowance with a complementary thread. Now you will need to make the individual crayon pockets. I eyeballed each pocket based on the seam between each of my rainbow fabrics. But you could also use a water soluble marker and mark out each of your pockets before sewing.

Backstitch a couple times at the top and bottom of each pocket. I overlapped my stitching with the rainbow fabric by about 1/4 – 1/2" so that little hands shoving crayons wouldn’t pull out the thread and pocket. (You could use a walking foot for this step but I used my regular foot and didn’t have trouble with fabric bunching.) *Note: be sure to mark where your ribbon is attached to the back so that you do not mistakenly stitch it into one of your pockets or seams. I pulled mine up and pinned it to the edge so I could be sure it didn’t get in the way.

And you are done!!! Here are a couple ideas for variations you could do: use a button instead of ribbon, make a taller roll for colored pencils, the possibilities are only limited by your imagination.

I will have these for sale in my Etsy shop if you prefer to purchase one instead of make it. (Once I get around to setting up my Etsy shop)

****This tutorial is for personal use only. Please link back to this tutorial and do not use this design for commercial/business purposes****

M.I.A.

2009-10-21T14:39:00.005-07:00

I've been M.I.A. from my blog most of the month because it is a crazy month! I've been working on a couple things at home but I was also preparing for my marathon and October (for various reasons) is a busy month at work.

I completed my 6th marathon on Sunday and I completed it with a personal best time of 4:59:17! I blogged about it on my Team In Training blog so if you want to read all about it, head over to http://tntjennifer.blogspot.com/. (Here's a photo of me at the finish, accepting my Tiffany's necklace from a tuxedoed fire fighter)

Gotta get back to catching up on emails, student teaching applications, advising notes and much more at work. I'm out of town again this weekend to go to Northern Arizona University's homecoming with the hubs and the in-laws. Should be a great weekend, although I think I might gain about 10 pounds hitting our favorite restaurants. Mmmmm, Little Thai Kitchen, Burritos Fiesta, La Fonda's, etc...

Hope to post something soon!

My first attempt at improv

2009-10-06T09:16:00.005-07:00

No, not stand up comedy, just improv quilting. As I mentioned in a previous post, I made a quilt for an auction with the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society with the leftover fabric I have from other quilts. I didn't have enough fabric for the back, so that's where the improv comes in.

This is the front
And the back - I used some leftover strips from the front as well as extra squares from the sashing that I appliqued to the quilt back before quilting.

A shot of the back with a little bit of the front.

Now I just need to find a home for this one :-)

Things I am working on...

2009-10-02T08:16:00.008-07:00

Christmas gifts for my niece Alex (4 1/2) and cousins Hayley (7) and Lindsey (5). I just need to flip the pocket, cut batting, sew the layers together and make sew the individual pockets. A box of 24 Crayola crayons plus fabric scraps = a crayon roll! Total cost = 25 cents. Luckily for me they all like princess and mermaids. Plus Ariel is Aunt/cousin Jennifer's favorite Disney princess and hot pink is her favorite color so they get little choice :-)

I won this book Kanzashi in Bloom by Diane Gilland in a Craftzine giveaway! I NEVER win anything. Anyway, I plan on making pins and other accessories for the women in my life for Christmas. Total cost = minimal. I plan to use fabrics I have on hand but need to buy some pin bakcs and maybe a few other notions. The blue/green flower pictured about is my first attempt. This is an AWESOME book and super user friendly.

This weekend I have girl/craft time scheduled with Wendy. I haven't seen her much since the school year started (she teaches 7th grade and I work for Northern Arizona University so fall has been busy for both of us). I found some terra cotta gnomes in the dollar spot at Target a couple months ago so we're going to paint those. Not sure what other crafts we'll do but Ghost of Girlfriends Past is on it's way in the mail from Blockbuster :-)

Repairs made - time to resume sewing

2009-09-28T09:25:00.003-07:00

I've been using my mom's old Singer 774 for the past 4 years for the majority of my sewing and quilting. From the information I found on the internet, it seems mom's machine is from about 1975, which makes it about 5 years older than me. A few years ago, mom & dad bought me my very own sewing machine at Big Lots and it sews OK but it's a brand I haven't heard of and only came with a few accessories. Plus I learned to sew on mom's machine and it's what I am confortable with. Mom won't give it to me, even though she bought a newer & fancier Singer about 10-15 years ago. So I borrow it for awhile until she says she needs it back. Then I borrow it again the next time I visit :-)

Mom's machine started skipping stiches recently. It started when I was working on Piet & Kate's wedding quilt but I was zigzagging through several layers of fabric at the time. I tried everything I could think of to get the zigzag working so I could finish sewing down the binding for that quilt ( I was about halfway through when it started acting up) but I ended up having to rip out all the work I had done and stich-in-the-ditch since I wasn't happy with my hand stiching.

A couple weeks ago, I was making a quilt for a silent auction for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society and it started skipping on the straight stitch too. At times, over an inch of stiches were skipped. I texted mom and she asked if I had oiled it. That was the one thing I hadn't tried yet so I got some sewing machine oil at Joann's and now we seem to be back to normal! It is still making clicking noises on the zigzag but the stitch itself is coming out OK. More time with the oil & Qtips and hopefully all will be well. Otherwise, a trip to the doc might be in order for mom's machine.

So now it's time to start making those Christmas gifts and making things to get my Etsy shop up and running!

Organized (kind of)

2009-09-14T10:19:00.001-07:00

Yesterday, I organized my fabric, some notions and books. Gotta love back-to-school at Target, you can pick up a 3-shelf bookcase for only $20!
Dan was surprised by how much fabric I had on hand. Some of it was in a 15 gallon plastic tub by the dining room table and the rest was under our bed in a plastic storage container. I guess he didn't have an opportunity to see what I had since it wasn't in 1 spot until now. Now its in the living/dining room, next to the bookcase with all our movies.
I am almost done with the quilt for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society silent auction tomorrow. I made it with fabric leftover from previous quilts and it turned out pretty well. Hopefully it gets a decent amount at the auction!

Nearly done...

2009-09-01T09:50:00.004-07:00

I'm ALMOST done with the front of mom's quilt. It is gigantic. Or maybe it just seems that way since the largest quilt I made before this was about 48x60. This one will be about 73x85 when I am done.

The photos look extra awesome because I took them with my cell phone, which has no flash. I also apparently need to clean up the living room. The photo with Rory was taken by standing on my couch. My living/dining room almost isn't big enough to lay this quilt on the floor.

The missing section is currently with my mom. It was all I had done by her birthday last month and so she is mailing it back to me so I can finish up :-)

I wish I had taken some in-progress photos but I didn't. Next time, right?

I also need to figure out how to quilt it. I am still a "stitch in the ditch" quilter. I figure I'll go around each star but I need to figure out what else to do. Suggestions please!

Finishing momma's birthday quilt

2009-08-21T16:14:00.004-07:00

I'm nearly done with mom's birthday quilt - just the 2 red borders to sew together and add the section I mailed her for her birthday. Her birthday (also our anniversary) was July 24th so I mailed her what I had done at the time. All 120 blocks were sewn but I only managed to get 3 of the 12 rows sewn together before her bday.

I don't have a copy of the magazine with me but I am making her the "Scrappy Star" quilt from the June 2006 American Pathcwork & Quilting magazine. I did find somene's finished version of the pattern on Flickr so this will give you an idea of what the finished piece will look like: http://www.flickr.com/photos/pioneerquilter/3711455443/

Here's the cover of the issue of the magazine featuring the quilt:

I don't have any in-progress photos to share but I will share the finished product. I just need mom to mail back the section of the quilt I sent her :-)

This is the largest quilt I've sewn so far. It's a little larger than a standard twin size and is made to go on the bed in Mom's guest/craft room, which until a few years ago was MY room. Mom took a completely different decorating approach than I would have approved. It's a kind of country, red/white/blue star room. Much different than the pseudo-retro 50's vibe Dan & I have going at our house and different than the intended bedding set she showed me before I moved to Oregon for grad school. Oh well, it's not my room and the quilt will be a perfect match.

Super Mario Bros. Quilt for my man Dan

2009-08-12T10:11:00.005-07:00

Here is the start of the quilt I am making for Dan. I intended it to be a birthday gift (his b-day was Saturday) but once I got started I quickly realized there was NO WAY I was going to get close to finishing before his actual birthday. So I decided to get a start on it. Oh, and I could only work on it when he wasn't home - which ended up being evenings he went to the gym (also meaning no gym for me) and the Saturday mornings he worked after I got home from my 8, 10 or 12 mile runs.

I had hoped to get the mushroom done too but he ended up leaving work early last Thursday and going to the gym before I got home and then he didn't have to work on Saturday morning. Which was nice for him, since it was his birthday but it meant I didn't get the 1-up mushroom done. I got the 1-up part done & laid out the rest (covered by my cutting mat), so I gave him a photo of the pieces I laid out.

Each piece is 1" before I start and 1/2" once it's sewn. I got the idea here but I wanted more characters from the NES Super Mario Bros. games (1-3) so I made my Mario pieces waaaaay smaller. I plan to have different Marios (fire suit, frog, etc), Luigi, Princess Peach (as a red head, of course), goombas, koopas, etc.

Oh, Mario finished is about 8" x 8.5". I think I will add a border of some sort but I haven't decided the color or thickness.

I LOVE lawn gnomes

2009-08-06T13:36:00.006-07:00

I stumbed across a fabric (here) I think I MUST own - it's lawn gnomes!!! Now I have to find this fabric somewhere...If you find this fabric (or something similar) somewhere, I will be your best friend, make you a pie, take care of your kids...

I did a Google search and so far have found this fabric. Super cute too!

Sven, Gustov, Norm (the TV gnome) and Christian (the Christmas gnome) need a friend on fabric. Maybe a whole gnome quilt...

Like a little kid, I WANT, I WANT, I WANT!

Another blue & green wedding gift quilt

2009-08-04T15:29:00.000-07:00

This is the fourth wedding quilt I have made in the past couple years. For some reason, they have all been shades of green and blue. But this one was made...

WITH CHOCOLATE!

I didn't have enough of 1 fabric to make the back so I pieced it together and I really like how it came out since it's almost like 2 quilts in 1 now!