"Thank You for the Music"

I'm one of those people that always has a song stuck in my head. As I'm typing this post, I'm singing "Thank You for the Music" to myself. Fitting, considering that I now have TONS of new recommendations to check out!


Some were old favorites. Believe me, Mary on Lake Pulaski...I've got the Boss covered! Bylulu...I LOVE country, and before my cable stopped airing GAC and CMT I listened to a lot of Zack Brown Band.

I've already found a few new favs: Sandyandcosmo, that White Stripes cover of Jolene is soooooo good. I love it! And Jeanne, just like you promised, Buckwheat Zydeco is pretty amazing. I envision playing a lot of their music while quilting! It will take me a while to check out all the suggestions, but that's a good thing! It will keep me busy for a while!

Anyways, thanks again, and on to the winners...

The winner of the first bundle (bag plus fabric) is A Joyful Chaos! She wrote:

Hi, I'm Maryann my favorite band right now is The Smith Band If you are more into bluegrass type thing you might want to check out the Downing Family
I have contact info on my blogger profile. Love the bag! Here's hoping I win.

I love bluegrass, I will have to check them out!

The second winner (just fabric is BKelly. She wrote:

I LOVE the fabric. The strip bag looks great to me.
the only newer music I have been listening to is Ocean the Legend. My cousin is in the band, they are pretty good.

CONGRATS TO THE WINNERS!

A Different Kind of Giveaway

If you're here for the Sew Mama Sew Giveaway, you're not too late! You still have until 11:59 PM on Sunday the 31st the enter here!!

On another note, however, in the midst of all this staggering Giveaway Day generosity, I wanted to take a moment to highlight another type of giving. I'm sure many of you have already heard about the Mountain Baby Blankets Project that provides donated blankets and quilts to babies and children living in extreme poverty in Appalachia.


I wanted to join in. Monday morning, this quilt will be in the mail on its way to someone who needs it much more than I do. I loved making it but I love knowing that it will be useful and treasured even more.


I should donate more quilts. There are only so many that I need, and it always seems wasteful to me to have so many sitting around in boxes and drawers. I know that there are several domestic violence shelters in my area. In a time of such fear and stress, a quilt could make a big difference to a child whose entire life has been thrown into upheaval. Maybe next time...


I've also discovered that my photography isn't as wretched as I thought. It finally stopped raining here, so I packed up my quilt and headed over to the gardens to take pictures. Lush grass and stunning flowers apparently serve as a better background than industrial carpet. Beautiful surroundings make for beautiful pictures...huh! Who would have imagined that?

May Giveaway Day

I just couldn't resist joining in the fun...


Here's what you get:

1. A prototype of my Strip Tease Bag. Disclaimer...its not perfect, I had to work out a few kinks, but I still think its really cute.
2. A half yard of this Alexander Henry semi-naked man fabric.

A second winner will receive a half yard of the Alexander Henry fabric as well.

Here's what you have to do:

1. Leave one and only one comment by MAY 31. Leaving two messes up the way I plan to generate the random winner.
2. Include in your comment the name of a musician or band that you would recommend. I'm on the prowl for new music and this seemed like a great opportunity to pick people's brains!
   
3. Make sure I have a way to contact you.
4. Finally, you have to live in the US. Sorry international friends, but this will be heavy enough that I really don't want to ship internationally.
   

Here's my sample entry...

Hi, I'm Kat. I would recommend The Derek Trucks Band. They're an amazing band with a fusion of styles including rock, blues, and Indian music. I have a blogger profile with contact info listed, so you can find me there!

Thanks for stopping by, and thanks in advance for the recommendations!

Etta Says it Best

AT LAST!

This tutorial for the Strip Tease Bag has been in the works for so long. It is a relief to finally get it finished and published!

This is definitely my favorite bag to date. I used a round bottom of vinyl which not only looks cute, but is durable and water resistant. The new handle style is also a big plus. They are much stronger than my other designs.

Durable and darn cute...a pretty good combination in my opinion! Get the tutorial pdf here, and let me know what you think!

EDITED TO ADD: I have been told that some people are having trouble opening the file. It works for me, so I'm not really sure why that is happening. I'll try to figure it out, but in the meantime, if you can't open the download, email me at smithie09@gmail.com and I will send you the file.

Pinch Me...

...because I can't quite believe it's real.

First I got this...



Then I got this...



Sometimes, I really love my life.


BTW, despite my crappy and sporadic posting lately, this is post #50. Yay me!

WIP-ing Myself into Shape

I have a LOT of WIPs that I need to finish right now. I'm not an official member of Jacqui's "Spring to Finish" but its probably a good idea for me to work on a few of them!

• First, my item for the 6 O'Clock Stitch's spring 8 by 10 swap. This is priority numero uno...I was already supposed to have sent it off to its new home. Oops...mea culpa.
• Second item on the list is my Strip Tease Bag tutorial. I started a long time ago, but I just haven't had time to work on it recently.
• I started making Oh Fransson's Simple Modern Baby Quilt using Heather Bailey's Freshcut fabrics, and finished the top, but the applique has been waiting for attention since March! I wanted to use a bunny instead of one of the designs she provided, so I've been trying to sketch one up. So far, no luck with that.
  
• Fixing my Belle quilt. The boarders are all crappy. I have NO motivation to do this.
• I knew this was going to be a long term project when I started it, but the rate I've been working on my spiderweb quilt is pretty ridiculous. So far I have made ONE complete block. That's it! I should start trying to make a few more so I can get rid of these dang scraps!

I so want to start new projects, but I can't allow it! I think its fair to start one new thing if I finish three off the list. That's more than half.

Ok...good plan.

May Quilting Bee Blocks

May was Mary's block for Another Quilting Bee 2. She sent out a bunch of prints from Moda's Bistro line. I've been using a lot of under-saturated fabrics lately, so the richness of these prints was a pleasant departure from my norm.

Luckily, I've been spending a lot of time in coffee shops studying for finals and writing papers, so I came up with a design pretty quickly. I started by making modified crazy nine patch blocks. I only used five fabrics instead of the normal nine (due to fabric constraints) and I didn't bother to match up my corners. I thought the more haphazard style looked like coffee shop decor, and I liked that it looked more like a mosaic rather than a quilt block. I then sashed four of the blocks in a cream solid and put a big border around the entire thing. I LOVE it!


I had one crazy nine patch and quite a bit of excess fabric left over, so I started making a simple second block. I didn't have quite enough to finish, so hopefully Mary has a bit left over so she can complete it. I'm a fan of this one too.


I hope these will work for you Mary! I had fun making them.

Fabric Friday

I've missed doing these fabric posts! I always looked forward to spending a little time on Thursday evenings scouring the web for my latest heart's desire! Speaking of which...I saw this collection the other day and just about lost my mind. When it comes out, I HAVE to have it.

It's call Eva by Basic Grey, and its due out sometime in September. Interestingly enough, it was originally a line of scrapbooking paper.

P.S. I handed in all my finals and papers yesterday. I am officially DONE with college (a day early too I might add).

Virtual Quilting Bee Update

WOW. I cannot believe the response that I got for Live Piecefully! There is definately a market for virtual quilting bees out there!
Right now, the initial group is full. I'm not opposed to having Live Piecefully 2, however, if there is enough interest. Follow the sign up rules in the proceeding post if you're interested, and I'll let you know if that group gets underway as well!

Live Piecefully Quilting Bee

I seem to be remarkably unlucky when it comes to signing up for quilting bees. I ALWAYS miss the cut off, or its already full by the time I find out about them...you get the picture. The solution, I have decided, is to start my own.

Anyone interested? 12 people, a block a month...you know the drill. I would imagine that this would be a suitable group for all skill levels, and I'm hoping for a lot of diversity. It will make the group even more inspiring and interesting!

Comment here or email me at smithie09@gmail.com if you want to join or just are interested in more info. Or check out my spectacularly underdeveloped flicker site.

***UPDATE***

I've had a lot of questions about the nuts and bolts of this bee. Sorry about the confusion folks! I'll try to lay it out a bit more clearly.

Live Piecefully is a twelve member group (one for each month of the year). Each member will be assigned a month to have his or her quilt worked on by the group at large. Lets say I assign myself June. I will decide on my fabrics and some general guidelines and mail out packets to the other eleven members of the group by the fifth of the month (in this hypothetical case, June). Each packet should have enough fabric to make at least one block, and any guidelines that I have. Each of the other members will them make me a 12.5 " square block from the fabrics that I picked out, and mail it back to me by the fifth of the following month (in this case July). I will then sew all the blocks together (and add some more of my own if necessary) and display my finished project with pride!

We will keep in touch via flickr (the group page is here). Its a good place to have discussion threads, and post pictures of the completed blocks so everyone in the group can enjoy them!

The best way to get an idea of what virtual quilting bees are like is to go look at some of the sites. I'm involved in this one, but you can also find links to a bunch of them here!

I hope this clarifies things a bit. If you are still interested in joining, please email me at smithie09@gmail.com with your name, mailing address, blog (if you have one) and month that you would prefer to be assigned (give me a couple options sil vous plait). If I have more than 12 interested people, will work it out, but for now lets stick with this method...