Today is the last day of school and last night [yes, I am a procrastinator]

I wrapped up these little gifts for my kids' teachers.

Included in this little gift basket is some:

"Fresh Picked Strawberries" soap from Bath and Body Works,

"Fresh Picked Strawberries" hand sanitizer from the same place,

Strawberry flavored Mentos and

Orbit strawberry remix gum.

*The cute berry basket is from Zurcher's Party Supplies/Kara's Party Ideas.

I found the inspiration HERE [on the blog, eighteen 25].  Theirs is super cute.  And they give you a free download for a super cute tag as well so you might want to go check it out.  Apparently the Johnson's don't believe in color ink cartridges though.  So this is what I came up with. 

And for the kids' bus driver??? 

Chocolate.  

That lady deserves some.  THAT, I am sure.

That's gotta be one crazy job.

"You deserve chocolate" inspiration can be found HERE.

[On the blog, eighteen 25, yet again.  Geesh.  Those girls are clever.] 

Happy beginning of Summer to all of you.

[And I want to wish my husband, Ryan, a very happy birthday today. 

You are the best babe!  XOXO.]

You and me.  New York, NY.  2011.

~ Amber

Little Socks

for my laundry room.

Every sock has a match [except for the middle one].

Isn't that usually the case? 

Side note ~ I found this cute little chalkboard for $2.99 at a little bakery here so I had to pick up a couple.  I think I'll have fun playing with them.

Most of the fabrics in this quilt are from Sweetwater's

Hometown line for Moda.

I had to do a little machine blanket stitching around the toes and heals.

Gray ric rac in the binding.  I love ric rac in bindings.  So sweet. 

The whole thing is bound in this red and cream ticking stripe [except for one little patch where I was short].

Here's a little sneak peak of the backing.  It's flannel. 

Do you know that I love this little swirl design for the quilting?  I use it often.

I know this quilt is a little silly but I love the homespun feel of it.

Oh, there's the little star that my quilter hid in the quilting!  She always quilts in a little surprise for me to find.  Kinda fun.  Her name is Jen Ostler.  She is great and I love the hand guided look. 

[The sock pattern can be found HERE.]

Today

I have a date with Marmalade

[designed by Bonnie and Camille for Moda].

She'll be in stores in October.  Lucky me to be able to play around with such sweet fabrics :)  I'm a big fan of theirs and I love the addition of yellow and orange this time around.

Last night I did a little playing around with a new block idea [using 10" Layer Cake squares].  I'm super excited about what I came up with.  This block is bold, versatile and super easy and quick to put together.  I suspect I'll get this quilt done today or tomorrow.  Wish I could share more pictures...but I can't :)

Nothing like a good tease though, right?

Happy Quilting!

~ Amber

Ironing Board Cover {tutorial}

I love my new ironing board cover.

2 yards of fabric is enough to make two [count that - TWO] ironing board covers!  And at [approximately] $11.00 a yard I figure that is just about the same amount of money I would spend on a cover I would buy from Walmart[except I was able to make mine using this really cute fabric called Secret Garden by Sandi Henderson for Michael Miller.  And it totally goes with my sewing room.  Cute right?] 

It took about 10, maybe 15 minutes to make.  And it was super easy.

You can find the link to the tutorial HERE.

[My co-worker, Eva, is the author of this tutorial and the blog, Sew Much Good.  She is full of all kinds of fancy tricks and I ♥ her]. 

Two steps forward, one step back

You may know that I have been working on my Scrap Jar Stars quilt for a couple of months now.  I made it a goal to work on it several times a week and just recently started to see the light at the end of the tunnel.  Since I was home with a cold yesterday and my kids were at school for a good chunk of the day, I was able to spend about six or seven hours working on it.  I was so excited with the progress I made!  I got done what would have normally taken me a week to do ~ in one day.  I am just about finished with the top.  I only have a few more rows to sew together.  Last night, I had it all laid out on our landing floor (just outside my sewing room) and told my family not to let our new puppy upstairs because I had a quilt laid out.

Well, I guess it wasn't the dog I had to worry about.

I woke up early this morning and decided I might have time to get another row sewn on before I needed to get my kids ready for school.  Upon arrival to the landing I noticed little pink spots all over several of the blocks. 

After much thought about how that could have happened and what I should do about it (and telling myself that crying wouldn't help :) I have decided that I will just carry on.  After a little investigation I realized that it's marker and I am keeping my fingers crossed that it will come out in the wash since it was diluted and washable.  You see, my daughter has this easel set up on the landing and my quilt was on the floor between the easel and the bathroom.  I think what probably happened was that she used a wet towel to clean off red marker on her drawing board and it dripped across the entire quilt on the way back to the bathroom.  About 11 blocks are affected.  It must have been a soaking wet towel.

So I saw this on Pinterest a couple of days ago and normally pass these babies by since they are WAAAY over used but lately it seems as if I've needed this reminder plastered to my forehead or something.  LOL.  Do you ever go through phases when everything seems to be trying your patience?

So today, I was calm.  There were no tears, no angry words to my daughter, no giving up on my quilt.  Just dealing with it.  I'm putting on my big girl pants and continuing to sew.  But if you have any advice for me about laundering this quilt I would love to hear it.  I'm not the best at getting stains out so all I'm planning on doing is putting in a few of my Shout Color Catchers and washing it in cold water.  Do you know of any good products to use to get the marker spots out?

Thanks in advance for any advice you can give me :)

Happy Quilting!

Amber

County Fair Kid Winner {and a really cool random thought}

Thank you to those of you who commented about County Fair Kid.

You guys are super sweet.

Mamabug left this comment,

"Very cute and well done to boot. I too am a country kid and love the name!! Thanks for the chance of winning."

Aaand I picked her name.

Aaand she won.

Aaand I have no way to get in contact with her.

So mamabug, shoot me an email and I'll get this little prize package right out to you, K?  Thanks again to everyone for playing!

So it might be one of those stay-in-my-pajamas-and-sew-days, for me.  My allergies are killing me and I feel like I might have strep on top of that.  It's time for mama to have a "rest day".   I think I could probably squeeze in some good sewing time too, though.  

Oh, so here's a really random thought -

There should be a National Stay-In-Your-P.J.'s-And-Sew-All-Day-Long-Day.

Where you're not allowed to cook or clean or run kids to and fro or work in your yard or work at your work or be on the computer or walk the dog. 

Or shower.  You just sew and that's all.

Doesn't that sound nice?

I might have to head that up... 

Would you join me if I did?

What if we all just did that?  And just sewed all day long?  Think of all the UFO's we could tackle!  It would be awesome!!!

OK.  I'll stop. 

But a girl can dream can't she?

County Fair Kid {a new pattern and giveaway}

Happy Monday everyone!

Today I'd like to introduce you to my newest pattern,

County Fair Kid.

This is my favorite of my three new patterns.

Maybe it's because of the sweet colors? 

Or maybe it's because of the fun "ribbons" 

that make up the simple strip piecing?

The ruffles and ric rac don't hurt either...

You can monogram your childs initial on here to make them feel extra special!

A complete alphabet set is included.

This quilt finishes up at 44" x 54". 

It's perfect for a crib or throw for your little one. 

I'd love to hear what you think of County Fair Kid. 

Leave me a comment below and you will be entered in to win your very own copy, plus 1-1/8 yards of the white clip dot background fabric (by Michael Miller) and 1-1/2 yards of my favorite color of ric rac right now - this lovely sea foam green.  And, I couldn't resist this cute little piggy I came across the other day at a local candy factory.  There's lots of sweet stuff going on in here!

If you need to get your hands on County Fair Kid right now, click on over HERE to purchase your own.  Otherwise this giveaway will end Wednesday night at midnight.

Happy Quilting!

Amber

[Motivation]

Since it's been a little quiet on the blog front lately (yet busy behind the scenes) I thought I'd take a quick sewing break to fill you in on what I've been up to...

I've been trying to work on my Scrap Jar Stars quilt everyday.  I'm making some headway for sure, but it will probably be another couple of weeks before I'm finished with the top (there are 42 blocks total!)  I can't wait.  I think I'm going to love it and I'm motivated by the warm weather coming. 

We will be using this quilt this summer :)

[My sewing area at the moment.]

But yesterday I got a little distracted when I felt some motivation to finish up a few hand applique projects like:

my sock quilt (for my laundry room).

And my little fall-ish birdie quilt.

{I got some Heather Bailey felt packs a while ago to do the beaks and feet.  Now that I think about it, it says the wool-blend felt is dry-cleanable.  Guess I better do a test run in the washing machine to see how it washes up since it's going on to a quilt...  Has anyone used these felts before?  Can they go in a quilt???}

 Anyways, the motivation to finish these projects came from a little purchase I made the other day.  I bought these 6-point diamond paper pieces from my friend, Jodi's {Pleasant Home} etsy shop:

The other day she shared this project she's working on

[i stole this photo off Jodi's blog!]

I knew I just had to make one of my own the minute I spied it.

I've been spying several of these lately and I ♥ them.

Especially this yellow and white one I came across on Pinterest:

And this one from Red Pepper Quilts.

Aren't they gorgeous?!?

I ♥ them.

And I've pinned them.

And I just love my pins.

Strike Out Winner

Thanks for all the nice comments about Strike Out. 

KatieQ, who said,

"This quilt is so much fun. It really did put a smile on my face. I haven't bowled in years, but you don't have to be a bowler to love it. Your friend did a fabulous job on the quilting. I love the quilting on the pin and the ball, it really makes them stand out from the rest of the quilt."

won a free copy of Strike Out.
Katie, please send me your snail mail address. 

You can reach me at adctd2qultng@gmail.com.

If you'd like to get your own copy of Strike Out [or another pattern, or some fabric or a quilt top] you can head on over to my Etsy shop.  I just listed a bunch of new stuff in there today.

Happy Quilting!

Amber