They told me something would be coming in a week or two...

But, I had forgotten and was a bit confused when a package sat on the counter for me the other day.  But when I saw the sender's address, I knew it was going to be special...

Isn't it beautiful?!?

I LOVE it.  And it's perfect for a girl like me. 

Thank you (and I miss you girls!!!)

And, although the "big day" has come and gone, I wanted to offer a discount in my Etsy shop for you ~ my wonderful bloggy friends.  Thanks for all of your kind words and support.  I love hearing from you!  Thank you for indulging me while I share my projects (not for praise, but to hopefully inspire, like so many of you have inspired me!)  Free shipping on all patterns for a week. 

Enter "THIRTYTHREE" at checkout.

A Trunk Show

AND YOU'RE INVITED!!!

Tuesday, June 28th at 8 p.m.
165 N 100 E
Alpine, Utah, 84004
(Red Brick Church)

It's my first.

I'm nervous.

And intimidated.

Honored. 

And scared.

I'm bringing Gigi.

She's going to show quilts too.

I'm happy about that :)

Here's some of my stack:

 

 

 
And, I may or may not bring some of these:


Chocolate Mint Brownies


Quilts and chocolate.  It should be fun. 
I'd love for you to come.
Be sure to say "hi" if you do.



Count Your Blessings

Some of you may remember when I started this little project last September.  Well, I am excited to say that it's done!!! 

I have been focusing on finishing up all of the embroidery over the last couple of weeks.  It's amazing what you can accomplish if you actually FOCUS.  Something I don't do very often...

Pattern is "Count Your Blessings" by Lori Holt.

Frame: $3 from Deseret Industries (with a quick paint job by me :)

The Huntress Winner

Thanks to all of you for giving Cassie some love on her new Etsy Shop, The Huntress.  The $15 store credit goes to...

819545a0-663d-11e0-88c0-000bcdcb5194, who said...

Without a doubt, the green apothecary jars! Good luck to your sister with her new shop - I wish her well! And thank her for the chance to win.

Congratulations.  I will send you an email to let you know the details!  For the rest of you, you can enter "prettythings" at checkout for a 10% discount (now until Sunday).

Have a happy weekend!

Amber

Snowballs

I think there is bird poop on my snowballs.

That's what I get for finishing this scrappy Christmas quilt [two years later]

in the middle of June.

All of the snowballs were made with fabric from my stash.  Not too many Christmas fabrics are in this one ~ I've got 30's, traditional, flannel ~ anything went in as long as it fit into my red, green, beige, brown, white [even a few blacks] color scheme.   

Being that it's a Christmas quilt, I wanted to make it extra warm and snugly.  So, I used green dot minky for my backing.  Besides being everyone's new favorite quilt to snuggle with, another bonus is that the 60" wide minky meant I didn't need to piece my back.  Perfect.

If you've ever wondered how minky washes up ~ it washes up great, as you can see from the photo below.  There are different qualities of minky [so I hear] but if you get it from a quilting store, you should feel confident that it will wash up and wear great. 

Isn't it amazing how well the quilting shows through the plush fibers of the minky?  And, that's red thread on there, which you can't really see through the green minky...a nice feature, I think.

I have always loved the feel of minky, but I haven't actually used it in a quilt before.  I guess I thought it was kind of "trendy".  My family is now in love with it though so I may have to make a few more "cuddle quilts" with it.  This quilt is not super big (53" x 69") but it's heavy and soft.  Perfect for a winter wonderland kind of day. 

***

P.S.  Check out the post below for a chance to win a $15 credit to my sister's new Etsy shop, The Huntress.  Giveaway ends Wednesday night.  Also, there is a 10% off  discount code that is good until Sunday (just enter "prettythings" at checkout).

 

A Fun Giveaway

You know my little sis ~ the writer, the beautiful bookmark maker and the "little things" advocate?  Well she's now the Huntress.  She has a new shop on Etsy where she's selling lots of little artifacts and pretty things that she finds along the way.  Today is the GRAND OPENING of her shop,

THE HUNTRESS. 

Cassie is doing not one, not two, but three giveaways for 3 different $15 credits to her new shop, where you might find fun treasures such as these:

[LOVE this green.  Might need to get these...]  

[Very unique forks.]



[And, I love the colors on this tin.  So pretty!]

So.  There are 4 ways to enter giveaway #1:

1.) Follow Cassie's blog, A Serenade for Solitude.  Leave me a comment saying that you do.

2.) 'Like' The Huntress on Facebook via Etsy and leave me a comment saying that you have.

3.) Share with me your favorite item from the shop in a comment.

4.) Re-blog this giveaway to share the love--don't forget to tell me that you have in a comment! And feel free to use the giveaway button.

 

For giveaways #2 and #3, head on over to Cassie's blog or the Baby Night Night Boutique blog to enter to win!  All winners will be announced on Thursday.

 

And for good measure, I just have to share this one last picture.  Cassie just listed these in her shop:

 

They make me laugh.  But I'm kind of lovin' rainbows right now. 

They're just happy :)

{NOT} Flying by the Seat of My Pants

I don't normally do this, but since I'm making this scrappy sampler I thought I needed to have a plan.  Are you proud?  This is a project I am doing with my quilting group and I'm using up leftovers.  So I'm killing two birds with one stone - yay!

I couldn't "wing" this one because I want certain blocks and certain colors in certain places.  The ones that have big stars in them need to be spread apart and the ones that are simple need to be spread apart, as well.  I thought I better make a plan before I get in too deep and end up with one block that really should have been somewhere else.

So, after making another set of copies and doing a quick cut and paste job, I now have my master plan.  I'll figure out the exact colors/fabrics block-by-block (you know I'm not that much of a planner).

As you can see I'm missing one block.  It was suppose to be a basket block, but our group decided it kind of looked out of place, so it's up to me to come up with another block for that space.  I might put the basket on the back of the quilt (for added interest).

[these are out of order but they give you the idea...]

After a little bit of sashing and some simple applique, I should have myself a dreamy little sampler. 

All fabrics are from my stash.  Red and white dot is "Polka Party Petite" by Holly Holderman for Lakehouse Dry Goods.  Yellow chicken scratches are "Sweet Broderie" by Rosalie Quinlan Designs for Lecien.  All other fabrics are Daydream by Stitch Studios for Riley Blake Designs.

Evolution {of a quilt}

Are you a planner?

I guess I'm a "fly by the seat of my pants" kind of gal. 

I have seen this trait manifest itself in my quilting, especially.  With my pattern designing, I usually get some inspiration, think on it for a bit, draw it out and then go for it.  But with my personal projects, I often just dive right in.  Either way, I usually have to adjust things along the way.  Sometimes you just have to see it, you know?  Let me show you what I mean...

Some of you may remember when I started this quilt:

Well, these dresden plates have been sitting in a box for about a year while I've been figuring out what kind of layout to do with them.  Originally, I wanted to put the blocks on-point with some Irish chain blocks in-between.  Kind of like this.  But, I couldn't seem to find the right fabric for the other blocks and so the project just sat and sat.  It would have been striking, for sure, but since I've made a resolve to finish up old projects, I recently decided to change gears so I could get this baby done. 

First (here I go, flying by the seat of my pants),

I decided that there needed to be something to break up this area where the blocks meet in the corners (partly to fill the void and partly so the dots would avoid hitting each other in a weird way).

So I decided that making them into a "snowball" might be a fun

(and quick) solution.

But then I thought those black squares were looking too big and kind of overpowering.  [See the lack of planning here?  I just kind of picked a size and went with it.]  So I decided that I should break-up all of the black by putting another square (of a different color) inside them.

But, then, I felt like all of those different colored squares between the dresdens were taking away some of the focus of the dresdens. 

At this point, I was starting to get a little worried.  I felt like I may have possibly ruined my quilt.  Maybe I shouldn't have made my blocks into snowballs in the first place!?!   But, it was too late now, so I decided to push ahead and "just go with it".

So I unpicked those corners that I had already sewed and went back to the all black.  But, I realized that my dots were still "touching" (which I wasn't a fan of) so I decided I needed some sashing between the blocks, as well.  This was going to  dramatically change the look of this quilt, but it had to be done.  I couldn't see any other choice.

So that is the look I went with. 

It's much crisper, if you ask me [which, I think works well with the modern feel of my fabrics].  It keeps the focus on my dresdens, but still adds some interest to the overall design of the quilt.

So, maybe I've learned my lesson ~ to think things through a bit more before just diving in head first.  I was a little scared there for a while and I don't know that I want to take that chance again.  But, on the other hand, maybe being spontaneous can lead to good, unexpected things...

What do you think?