First Finish of the Year, plus Plans

This is a must read post!  Really please come read, I have links to Giveaways, QAL's, SAL's, blog hops, and many other fun happening things going on this year, each link will take you to a fresh page so click away!

First Finish, Shark pencil case, first time using back of fabric, 

I just finished this shark pencil case, but I am still thinking that this pattern needs some fine tuning, Renee, already worked on getting the tail more shark like, but this case also doesn't hold very many pencils, do you know how many markers and etc. my kids have, lots, they love, love to draw and spend at least 1-2 hours a day doing it.

You need one of theses to turn out that damn tail.

Giveaways:

1. Okay peeps, anytime I come across a giveaway, I like to post it on Missouri Mel's Giveaway linky page, you can link giveaway's you find and even your own giveaways, if you have one,go here! 
2. Debbie does her list all by herself on "Wow, I like that", she must read a ton of blogs, lol! 
3. I especially wanted to point you to this one, using the Meadowlark fabric line, you can enter in her giveaway and quilt challenge!  Go visit Melanie Testa and see what she is going to create next. ends January 10th. 

QAL's, SAL's and BOM's:
 so many to choose from and maybe you don't even find it till it is to late, well Terri of Childlike Fascination took the hard work and has compiled a whole list of them on her new site QuiltAlong.net , I e-mailed her a couple that she was missing.
For some reason she still hasn't added the Quilt Art Designs Ocean's BOM, and I have been seeing some pretty amazing turtles out there already.
There are a few other BOM's and SAL's but the designers are having a hard time trying to figure out how to get the designs out since the EU VAT crap, go to Penny Dog blog to vote against that. 
I don't have Instagram yet, but soon, and if I did I think I would join in this quick Scrappy Log Cabin Quilt-A-Long 2015, it's a quick one and ends Feb. 14th.


Linky Parties:  Everybody loves a good linky party, which ones are you doing this year? 

1. Le Challenge, is always fun, I can't wait to see what the new challenge will be, it will announced on January 15th and you have till February 15th to make something! 
2. FMQ'ing is on my list of things to learn this year, so maybe you would like to join me over at Quilt Shop Gal (previously known as Insights from SewCalGal) for the 2015 FMQ Challenge.
3.  I did not join this one last year, but I think I will make up a list and do it this year, the "2015 Finish Along" over at On the Windy Side. 

       4.  I found a new book linky party,   Fabric Mutt's "Sew The Library" , I already have the next 2 months covered, lol.
       5.  Or maybe you want to get some of your stash down, then you can join the "SewMyStash" linky
       6.  Getting ready for Christmas, this linky @ Celtic Thistle will help you stay on track. 

       7.  Trying something new, write about it and join the "New to me Linky" @ Celtic Thistle  

and not last or least #8.  Wanting to learn new skills (I love learning new skills,check out my new hobby cross stitch on Monday Jan. 19th), here is a "Stretch Your Skills" linky party, the first one is about Foundation Paper Piecing, to be written in February.

4 1/2" Teeny Tiny Block Swap, still need 1 more person

Swaps: 
 I love swaps!

1.  Pillow Swap Four Seasons, sign up anytime, but there will be 4 swaps in this year, the first one is already started, but you can still sign up so you know when the next one will start.
2. The Teeny Tiny Block Swap, put on by Amanda of "What the Bobbin?", we still need 1 more person for the nature theme, do you like my bee above, then come join our group!
3. Have you  wanted some handmade placemats, well Super Swaps is still open for sign ups till January 28th.

Blog Hops: this is the current blog hop I am in, it started today, be sure to follow along.
this is the first time I have tried cross-stitch and I am now getting really worried since my hardware hasn't shown up yet, I ordered it in November.  hope it comes in the next week.

Work in Progress, due January 19th.

January 9, 2015

Sew Peace To Peace

Sun Shine Quilting

How arT you?

Stitch and Quilt

January 12, 2015

Living with Purpose

Grammie Q's

Stitchin By the Lake

Ipiece2-Mary

Just Let Me Quilt

January 13, 2015

Lovelli Quilts

Quilted Delights

It Seams To Be Sew

Cheryl Wilkinson will post to Ipiece2-Mary

Just Because Quilts

Stitchen' My Life Away

January 14, 2015

Jane's Quilting

Lisa In Port Hope

Brookes Books

Leslie Schmidt will post to IPiece2-Mary

Creativity Amongst Chaos

January 15, 2015

The Quilting Queen Online

Needled Mom

Bumbleberry Cottage

Moose Stash Quilting

Amy Whitaker will post on Ipiece2-Mary

Sew Incredibly Crazy

Meadowbrook

January 16, 2015

Kwilt Krazy

Selina Quilts

Hill Valley Quilter

Lakeshore Stitches

Malini's Quilting Adventure

Julia Plunkett will post on Sewwequilt

January 19, 2015

KrisLovesFabric

Ga's House

Secretly Stitching You Are Here!

Creatin' in the Sticks

Grandmama's Stories

WHY-KNOT-KWILT

CeLynn's Sunflower Patch

January 20, 2015

Sewn-Seabees-Crafty-and-Vintage-Musin

Buzzing and Bumbling

Karamino's handmade

Quiltscapes

Quilt N Queen

Sew We Quilt

 

Would love to hear your plans, I have been trying to keep up with everyone's New Year Plans, tell me what your favorite thing was from this massive list of fun stuff.

Linking to some other awesome linky parties:
WIP: Wednesday @ Freshly Pieced
Let's Be Social @ Sew Fresh Quilts
and TGIFF, Thank goodness it is finished Friday.

Win an Iron and WIP

Hello Everyone,
Long time since I chatted, I have a few things to rant about, but I will save that for another day ;)
Did you see my post about how to win a Singer Sewing Machine?
Well you can still enter in your own block, or if you don't have enough time, you can come and VOTE for my block, I completed it 2 weeks ago, but just now entered it into the contest, lol, better a tad late than completely late (deadline to enter is August 31st) and you will be entered in for a chance to win a Singer Iron, you can even vote every day for a chance at the iron!  And just maybe I will win a Sewing Machine, deal!

See more photos and read about it here.

Oh and if you make a block, tell me and I will come vote everyday for you too, they are after all Giving Away 3 Singer 8500Q Modern Quilter quilting and sewing machine Retail Value $899.99!

My WIP for the day was a pair of shorts for my daughter and to be entered in the Shorts on the Line Challenge, but I am so bummed, I made a size 6 pattern (my daughter is 4) and they don't even go up over her thighs, she has her mamas big bumm.  Now I don't think it was a waste of my time (my husband does) but what makes me sad is that I used a beautiful FQ of Liberty Fabric as the accent color.

Erin of Sew At Home Mummy, sent me this little present!  Thanks Erin!

 My wonderful friend Erin sent me 2 FQ's of Liberty Tana Lawn and 2 Half Yards of AGF (my favorite fabric manufacturer) plus some much needed needles.  I used the purple/pink Liberty print with some equally soft Cotton Couture Peony.

I have now finished the ruffles on the pants and just need to finish the waist band.

Good news though, even though the shorts don't fit my daughter, they will be heading back to Erin for her daughter, cool right!
So the moral of the story is, send me some fabric, I will screw up and you can get it back, but all chopped up and put into a project, HA!


Some other challenges and fun stuff going on in blog land:
American Made Brand Solids has extended their "Farm to Fabric" deadline to August 31st.
The Butterfly Challenge, A paper pieced challenge.
Don't forget about the Purge, and what did I Purge this week?  I sent off a secret package, I am starting my own little Fabric Bomb, don't know what that is, well the low down is you send a small pack of sewing related items and the person creates something with what you sent, just like what I did with Erins gift, you see passing it forward, but no you don't have to send it what you get sent back, lol, that is just a very happy coincidence for me and Erin.
Linking up to WIP and The Purge.

Win a Singer Sewing Machine!

Voting is now open, go here, to vote for my block, Thank You!
Plus make sure to enter in my Giveaway here.

By making a "small" 12" square quilt block and incorporating a full circle in your design.
Oh not on my blog, but you can go here, to read the rules and to enter.  The contest dates are from July 15th to August 31st.

I think I will add a few more buttons.

I used American Made Brand Solids (from bottom to top) dark turquoise, aqua, white, and light cream for the jar.
Totally hoping that the white fabric looks like subway tiles in the background and the jar is sitting on a counter.

I didn't realize how long it takes to add buttons, but I am making sure that they are holding on tight.

I added a few more buttons.

 I sew on my Singer Simple, what do you sew on?

2 more buttons on the button tag, only the middle part of the tag is sewed down.
You can't have a jar of buttons without having a pincushion and needle.

Do you see the "SEW" word in there?

 All Finished.

I used the beautiful Aurifil thread, 2024 white, 2026, and 4670 Variegated grey for the jar lid made out of Moda Cross Weave Gray.

Linking up to Le Challenge "small" this last month.
and WIP at Freshly Pieced.
I will be participating in this Friday's Night Sew In over at Sugarlane Quilts.

Some other fun things happening in blog land:
Orange Peel QAL
Celestial Star QAL
Free Motion Quilting QAL
another monthly block QAL, at Sew Can She.
and Christmas in July with Sew Lux
I wrote about a whole bunch of swaps on Saturday

Saturday Swaps

Linking up to the fun of Drowning in Fabric, Saturday Swaps. 

Swaps that are still open:
The 8² European Fabric Swap (hosted by me) - more details can be found here on my blog, or hop on over to Flickr.

The Summer Vacation Swap - pretty colors.

The Fabric Scrap Swap - deadline to join is July 18th.

The Secret Tote Bag Swap - this round is making a Noodlehead 241 pattern, deadline to join July 19th.

Super Swaps-August Swap - swapping pouches or fabric baskets, deadline to sign up is July 30th.


I received this lovely swap package on Friday from Capi. for the English Paper Patchwork Supplies Swap.

the extra's a mini "Winter Wonderland" charm pack, handmade ribbon, 3/4" hexies

A whole stack of fabric scraps

Love these cute little postage stamp sized pieces.

Lots of lovely Christmas fabrics

She sent the tape measure to match my new bag, I love it, now I will be shopping in style.

 This tape measure is really, really nice, it has inches on one side and cm on the other, when you pull it out, it stays out, to pull it back in, you push the button down and it rolls in on itself.  I go to the haberdashery shop all the time with my big ol' tape measure that it all over the place and since my patterns are in inches I am always figuring out what size of zipper I need, this will come in so handy and be so pretty too, hope my daughter doesn't find it :)

She sells these tape measures in her shop, it is awesome!

 She was spot on, I asked for some Christmas fabric and she sent me a whole bunch.  I can't wait to do some redwork embroidery with the Winter Wonderland mini charm pack.
My partner also got her little stack of scraps.

I am now working on my Big Stitch Swap present, my partner has really different taste than from me, so it is a fun challenge in making this, I love it.  I don't want to show much, because her taste are very specific.

The embroidery here is supposed to depict air, what do you think?  to much, should I rip it out?  or add more?

I also just got my partner for the Strawberry swap, and I thought I would pick up something super sweet for her, I am in the process of buying some Liberty Tana Lawn fabric, yippee!!  I am ordering from Ali of Very Berry Handmade (sounds like a good shop to pick up some Strawberry fabric).  She has a shop on Etsy and also on Folksy.
Speaking of Liberty if you want large amounts of it, Massdrop is having a Liberty Tana Lawn drop and you can get some extras with your purchase, like 3 spools of Aurifil.

I also posted a poll for buying BOLTS of fabric, for like the background of your quilts when you need large amounts of the stuff, especially with Modern quilts, you can check out the poll here.

Calling all Europeans

Well everyone is invited and this post is a little all over the place so hang on.
Today is the last day to enter in my Big Birthday Bash Giveaway.
SWAPS:
Let's talk swaps first, I want to start a European version of the F8 Fabric Swap that started in the States, by Laurel of Drowning in Fabric.  She also just started a Weekly linky party on Saturday just for talking about Swaps.
Okay let's talk the European F8th Fabric Swap:

1. There will be 8 spots for each swap, if more people are interested we can do more than 1 group of 8.
2. Each month will have a theme, this is what I was thinking of for right now, July-Text prints, August-Low Volume, September-Halloween/Black & White, any suggestions will be helpful.
3. Purchase 1 yard each of 2 different prints for a total of 2 yards (you might even have 2 yards of 2 different prints in your stash) and cut into 8 pieces each, for a total of 16 pieces.
4. Okay more rules for later, what do you think?  Anyone interested, shipping shouldn't be to bad to send 2 yards to Greece and it cost less than 5euros for me to send it back to you, plus you will get some really cool Greek stamps!

I want to share this fabric.

 Would you like some of this pretty Adornit print, talked about it last Sunday Stash, it has a really pretty hand and great words.

These are also all 1 yard cuts, starting from the top left, Timeless Treasures Fabrics (black and white) crossword puzzle, ABC words for VIP fabrics (black and white with a splash of some rainbow), bottom left, "Back Talk" by Maria Kalinowski for Canvas (black and white), "Wordplay" by Michele D'Amore for Benartex (light green w/ brown and cream sewing words).

Any body interested in a swap!

Still speaking of Swaps, I am participating in Amy's Need a needle book swap, and last night during my Friday Night Sew In (FNSI), I put it together, just a sneaky peeky photo for now.

I also worked on my feather last night and I hope to finish today and show you tomorrow. It was a great time at my FNSI, I drank a whole pitcher of "sweet tea" (insert Texas accent), and also watched my favorite show "Person of Interest".  My partner who is sending to me, the lovely Sheri of Sunshine in the Attic, has finished my needlebook also, in fact she did 2 and gave me a choice of which one, go check them out, she even put zippers on the inside, really beautiful work on both, it was a hard decision, can't wait till it comes in the mail.
FRIDAY FINISH:
I had a Friday finish also, (photo heavy), it was for the Chris W Designs Photographic Contest.
Tell me what photo you like:

This is the one I sent in!

 But there were so many others, I really need to get into shape again, my upper arms, grrr...I used to be a massage therapist and had great upper arms.

 My husband directed and took these photos of me,the bag and the Vespa!

 My daughter took the photos of use at the coffee shop, theses 2 are the same photo, just different PicMonkey effects.

I really liked this one, that she took.

And would have loved to send in this one that I took of her.

So which one do you like?
Chris wanted a person in the photos to show the scale of the bag.  Here are some close-ups of just the bag.

 Her patterns are excellent with lots of photos, but the best part is that she also has a section with just the Text Only Instructions for Printing, it is in black and white so it doesn't use up all of the colors on my printer and is only a few pages, versus the over 60 some in the PDF.

Inside fabric, "Spa" by Deb Strain

 I originally wanted to make an interior zipper pocket, but my yellow fabric that I used for the piping was a scrap piece and I ended up not having enough for the bottom piping of the bag, so I had to use the fabric that I was going to use for the pocket for the bottom exterior piping.

 I omitted the 2 exterior slip pockets for the back, I like the big design on the fabric.

 This is an Emmaline "handmade" metal bag label, makes the bag look so professional, along with the metal rings and I also added purse feet.

I used the Lovely Aurifil thread, Yellow Varigated 4658 50wt, and a China blue that perfectly matched the blue Dear Stella fabrics, 2725 40wt.
This pattern was pretty tough with the piping, but would be a lot easier if I had a machine that I could move the needle, it was pretty hard to get close to the edge of the piping, but I love it and I think it will look great for dressing up or for just going about town.  What is really awesome is that my dear friend Shirley of Simple Sew got this for me, and I had pinned it on Pinterest over 50 weeks ago, I loved the look of the bag and couldn't believe that you could sew it up and look at that over a year later, I sewed myself a Sugar and Spice bag, from Chris W. Designs.

I feel like I wanted to talk about something else but I can't remember, linking up to all of these fantastic linky parties.
TGIFF
Saturday Swap
SewJo Saturday
Show Off Saturday
Sunday Stash
Have a great weekend.
Tell me if you are interested in the Fabric Swap.

Some New Things

I ran across 2 new linky parties, they sound so fun, 1 is new and the other one, I hadn't heard of, maybe you have.
Saturday Swap - Is a great place to share a swap you are working on or maybe have received, plus you can talk about swaps that are coming up or that maybe you are even hosting.
I love swaps, in fact I am working on my Needle book swap, so far the front is looking like this.

flower smocking with fresh water pearls.

I finally started to figure out the whole flower smocking part, by my 10 flower, so that's why the top row looks so good.  I am hoping overall it will look cute, but now to figure out if I want to do pink or red inside.

Ohh and look I just found this new swap, sounds so pretty and fun.

The second linky party I found was Friday Night Sew In (FNSI the rules), so sometime during the week you write a post about your Friday night plans (sewing wise, if you have a hot date, well a tad envious here, haven't had a date with my husband in 7 plus years) Then Friday night you do some sewing and on Saturday you write another post about how your work went.  Link up for this week is here, and then that means on Saturday I can link up there and also on SewJo Saturday.

Now if you are really into linky parties then you should check out Nesta's full page of them, she has like all of them listed, it is a great resource for feeling likable linked.  Go over to Ella & Nesta's Little Room.
The other thing I am working on is

My feather, almost done, just have the tip to finish.
But I got a little side tracked because I'm making a new bag, the Sugar & Spice bag from Chris W. Designs, hoping to get it done by Friday for her photography challenge.

Going with my new color love, blue and yellow.
Have you seen the way I like to do my zippers, I cut off the end, you can see it a little in this photo, where I am "auditioning" the zippers.

I have decided to go with the middle blue (zipit color Bright Blue), since I have a smaller zipper in that color for the inside pocket.

colors look much better as real ones and not on paper.

Some really great news, I have been in contact with Candice over at American Made Brands Solids and the Farm to Fabric Challenge can be opened to International guest as long as you have an American address to send the quilt to if it gets picked for the Challenge.  Sweet!
Okay that's it for me today, linking to WIP at Freshly Pieced.