Monday, December 30, 2013

2013 Round-up

Once again its time to look back over the year and {hopefully} surprise myself a little.  It has been another growing year for me in many ways.  Enjoy the pictures and a little reflection and introspection ...


Saturday, December 28, 2013

Tipsy Tutorials--Random Bamboo

My Samantha re-named this tutorial as I was finalizing the posts, and I liked it, so I'm going with it ... (drum roll please) ... Random Bamboo!


Friday, December 27, 2013

Sarah & The Primary Bee (#1)

A few weeks back, my youngest, Sarah, decided she wanted to learn to sew.  About that same time, Michele announced her Primary Bee.  Seemed like a perfect fit :)  So here we are at the end of December and her first blocks are ready to go.  I'll let her introduce herself and tell about the blocks ...

Lesson Learned

Before Christmas I had two projects that I was rushing to get done.  One was for hubby and the other for one of Sarah's friends.  Both involved FMQ, and thank goodness they were pillows, because I just couldn't get the tension right.

Wednesday, December 25, 2013

Merry Christmas!


Have a very merry Christmas filled with family and friends and the true Spirit of Christ!  May we all carry this giving spirit into the new year and bless the lives of everyone we meet.

Saturday, December 14, 2013

Winner, Winner!

Thanks so much to everyone who stopped by for SMS Giveaway Day.  What a fun week of exploring new-to-me blogs and tons of inspiration!  I truly appreciate all my followers--new and old--and all who took a minute to leave comments.

Monday I promised to give away two sets of rice bag hand warmers.  I'm loving this simple project that is so useful, and I hope ... does too.  Congratulations to Allison!  She was lucky #27.


  1. candy and lip gloss!

Wednesday, December 11, 2013

A Quick Reality Check

Thanks to everyone stopping by the last couple of days for the SMS Giveaway day.  If you're looking for that post, it is here.  The giveaway closes Friday, December 13 at 5pm.

When I woke up this morning, I had a lot on my to-do list.  Mail Christmas packages, wrap the kids' gifts, finish Rhett's ...

Anyway, here is what my sewing area looks like.  I guess its time for a little housekeeping here.


1.  My Stash Bee blocks from my month (June).  All trimmed up and in the middle of adding the sashing.  You can just see those strips peeking out from under #3.  I'm excited to get this top done, but it keeps getting pushed back.

2.  The stripes here are the backing fabric for Samantha's trek quilt.  It's been basted and marked for over a year now.  I thought that rolling it up and putting it on my sewing table might motivate me to actually work on it :)

3.  There are 3 blocks here that I made for my tutorial for my next Stash Bee block.  I get to be a Hive Mama next year (yippee!) so I need to have my tutorial post ready to go for January.  Finished the sewing this morning ... just need to put the finishing touches on  the blog post.

4.  These are my charm squares from the Kate Spain Swap.  I think I know basically what I'm going to do with them now that I've been staring at them for a couple of weeks.

5.  I stopped by my LQS this week to pick up the Kona Snow I need for #4.  While there I also bought some black quilter's linen and fat quarters for my stash :)

6. This is part of my order from the Fat Quarter Shop.  I'm going to be using some variation of these solids for the Kona Solids Hop (I'll be posting my project for that on January 16!)

7.  Under the rulers are the fabrics and half-finished square that Sarah is working on for her second bee block.

8.  This is the other half of my FQS order.  It includes yardage for my Salt Air Diamonds quilt that I dream of making someday.  There is also some beautiful Bake Shop fabric that I ordered for fun.

9.  Finally is my Christmas project for hubby.  He has asked me to make a quilt for him (not necessarily for Christmas, thank goodness.)  I'm working on that (the yardage for that is just outside the picture by the surge protector.)  In the meantime, I'm making him something to hold him over until I get that done.  I have some machine applique and quilting left for that project.  Here's a link to the free pattern if anyone is interested.

Hope you are all enjoying December.  My kids certainly are--they've missed the last 4 days of school due to snow.  Well, I'm off to spend some unexpected extra time with them!

Monday, December 9, 2013

It's a Giveaway Kind of Day

Welcome visitors!  This is my first time participating in Sew Mama Sew's bi-annual Giveaway Day.  I'm so glad that you decided to stop by today and visit.