December Schnibble...better late than never

Well, it isn't really late. I got it done before the first and that is what counts :) I love Mill House Inn. So here are my two little Tuffets on the tree.

 The strip pieced one is also pieced a bit I thought it would be fun to add a couple scraps from the nine patch.

Merry Christmas AKA Stella's First Christmas

We have a puppy! Boy do we ever... she is 10 months old... we got her at a very young 5 wks... I know, I know but it was that or the pound for her so we just had to take her home. Anyway... a few months later here we are... she likes presents:

But who could get mad at a face like this....

She wrote a note to the boy who's present is on the left... it says:

Deer Mikull,

Yor prezent tasted gud! Nom Nom!

Luv.

Stellie

PS. Downt I rap gud?

Woo Hoo! Thank you Santa!

I won my wish from Santa (AKA the Fat Quarter Shop) I am so happy! I can't believe it! I have never won one of these blog giveaways before! I really didn't think I would be able to get this fabric... we haven't had a lot of extra money lately so it was going to have to wait... a while anyway... This is a big Merry Christmas for me!

Sorry I am so late with the winners...

I am sorry... I let everything get away from me. Here are the winners of my three giveaways:

Mary On Lake Pulasky won the Amy Butler pattern and fabric

Heather won the Book (Heather please email me your address I can't find an email for you)

Susan won the County Fair canvas

Congratulations to all!

Dear Santa

Deeer Zanta,

I haf been a very, very, good girl. Pleeze could you, Dear Zanta, bring L'Amour to moi zees Chreestmas? It has been ever so long since I have had zees amour. Amour, as you know clever man, ees oh so importement to the French. Oui, I have been waiting sooo long. Zanta, baby, sil vous plait just a little L'Amour as I have not been down to the fat quarter in some time.

Merci,
Juliette

PS... if you wonder what this is about check out The Fat Quarter Shops blog today.

Giveaway number 3... Denyse Schmidt designed canvas...

Here is number three Canvas from County Fair by Denyse Schmidt this is a full yard 54" wide... it would be great for a tote bag... nice soft canvas with a wonky log cabin print in all those patterns we all love so much...just leave a comment if you would like it.

Number Two... just for moms, grandmas (dads) of little girls...

A super fun craft book for girls... "Christmas Fairy Things To Make And Do" ... I took a picture of just a couple of the projects so you can see how fun this book is...there are many more projects including ornaments and wands ... etc... just comment if you would like it....

Tree Top Fairy

Fairy Castle Advent Calendar

Fairy Princess Crown

3 Giveaways... number one...Amy Butler pattern and fabric

In the spirit of Giveaway day at Sew Mama Sew ... and because I have been wanting to do another giveaway... I am having a three part give away... These giveaways will be open until midnight December 9th... all you have to do is make a comment on the one you would like to win. I am posting them in seperate posts to make it easier. I will be happy to send international but it will have to be the least expensive way and I will not be responsible for loss.

First:

An Amy Butler bag pattern (Brand New) and enough fabric for the exterior and handles... you supply notions and lining... The fabric is the same as in the picture on the cover but in a different color way (Nickel) I think it is a little more neutral to match more outfits :)

Tumbler update...

Here the center of the tumbler quilt or... batik quilt or... selvage quilt. I am not sure what it wants to be when it grows up :)

Schnibble for November is finished...

Well... it was going to be out of autumn fabrics but... I have to admit I am kinda tired of them. I am not a huge autumn color fan... even though I love the season. So here is the first Schnibble that I have made that is really me. Out of a line called Riviera from Connecting Threads. I love the hot juicy colors...it isn't sideways ... I am :) (as you can tell by the top of the fence)

Speaking if Schnibbles... hop on over to Sinta's blog she is giving away some neat stuff for her 100th post.

Tumbling....

I have had a wish to make a tumbler quilt for a while... and I have wanted to do a selvage project. I combined the two to come up with this...

These are the tumbler charms and I have already pinned the pieces of selvage to the muslin (the pile in the lower left corner) The tumblers I bought pre-cut from Canton Village Quilt Works... I also bought muslin ones to use as foundations for the selvages. All but a few of the selvages are Kaffe Fassett fabrics that I also bought from Jackie.

Here are all of the tumblers sewn and trimmed and layed out. The left over blocks I cut in half to make the side pieces the make the whole thing rectangular.

I am going to piece it all together today hopefully. I will show a pic when it is finished. After the center is done I am going to add a few borders and I might continue to make it bedsize.

Woohoo!

I won runner up in the Gobble Gobble challenge from Moda Bakeshop. That was so exciting.

What I made for the Gobble Gobble Challenge From MBS

Moda Bake Shop and Pat Sloan posted a challenege last month. I already had the fabric but for some reason put off getting the quilt top done. Anyway... here is what I came up with... I truly love it and I haven't said that about one of my quilts in a while...

What I do in my other life....

I thought you all might like to see my alter ego craft... wigs for fashion dolls... they are called Sybarites. I just posted 14 auctions... eep so tired.

Here are just a few ...

What's up with Moda Bakeshop?

They were going so fast I couldn't keep up and now nothing for a week... I wonder if they are waiting for the first to start more stuff... Wahhh... I need my fix!

October Schnibble

It has been done for a week or more. I have been too lazy to take it's picture. It has been super windy around here. The wind is holding it up to my outside fireplace in the first picture. I have been wanting to make a "pumpkin" quilt so I changed some of the nine patches for little pumpkins.

New lovely giveaway

Canton Village Quilt Works is giving away fabulous (bought at Market) prizes... go here:  Give away


Back in a few tih a pic of my SChnibble

If you love Flea Market Fancy...

and you have any use for canvas and cotton duck (BAGS!!!!) you must see this awesome sale... it is County Fair by Denys Schmidt and ... hmmm those prints look familiar

$2.99 a yard go now!

Two winners of my Give Away....

Since I only got two entries I am making them both winners. I did run the randomizer and Mary was the winner outright so she gets the Simple Abundance strips. I will have to think of something equally fun for Carin. Mary please send me your address (email is connected to this blog) and I will send out your prize. I already have Carin's address ;)

Three in one day... wow!

Go look at Lila Tuellers blog she is giving away a set of Jelly Roll and Layer Cake of her new fabric line "Eden". http://lilatuellerdesigns.blogspot.com/ go go go ....

Tutorial: Tessellating Stars from Jelly Roll Strips and a Give Away!

If anyone has a question or finds a problem with my instructions please email me (jewelsarmcandy at Gmail dot com).

When finished with this portion you should have something that looks like this:

Fabric needed for this entire project (including the houses):

 1 1/2 yd Moda Marble in Indigo (or whatever you want for your night sky)

17 Jelly Roll Pieces (9 brights for stars, 3 green for lawns and tree. 1 brown for tree trunk, 4 for house trim, doors and windows)  I used Simple Abundance by Bonnie and Camille for Moda

8 pieces of a layer cake (4 roofs,4 main houses) I love Simple Abundance!

Important: Cut only the tiniest bit from the selvage of both your sky fabric and your Jelly Rolls you will need all of the width of the strips to get the stars out of them.

Directions:

1. Cut 10 strips from Sky fabric  2 1/2" by WOF

       Subcut 36- 2 1/2" x 6 1/2" Rectangles

                   36- 2 1/2" x 5" Rectangles

2. From each of your 9 star Jelly Roll strips

      Subcut 4- 2 1/2" x 6 1/2" Rectangles

                 4- 2 1/2" x 4" Rectangles

                

Tip: When I have certain sizes of strips to cut I mark my ruler with paper at the different lengths. This keeps me from having to check my ruler 5 times before I cut. (Yes, 5 times I am OCD)

     

1. Place a 4" piece of star fabric on top of a 5" piece of sky fabric as shown below.

(This is just to show that they are lined up along the right hand edge)

                  

2. Mark a line with a chalk pencil or erasable marker from the top left corner of the star fabric to the bottom  right corner for the sky fabric.

3. Sew on the marked line (I re-marked in blue so that it would be more visable in the picture)

4. After it is sewn place your ruler so that the 1/4" mark is on the stitched line and cut off the corner. (My red arrow shows where the stitching is. Be careful to only cut off the corner it should be a triangle you are cutting off).

5. Press (I like to press toward the star fabric but it doesn't matter which way you do it).

6. Sew a  2 1/2 x 6 1/2" rectangle to the side of the unit you just made. Make sure that you sew the shortest  part of the star fabric in the first unit to the long piece of star fabric as you see below and press.

Seventh Inning Stretch

7. Sew one of the 2 1/2" x 6 1/2" pieces of sky fabric to the opposite side of the first unit as seen below and

    press.

Yeah! That is all there is to it.

8. Do this again 35 times until you have 36 blocks like this. You should have 4 of each star fabric.

9. Rearrange and turn the blocks so that they are set like this:

10. Sew each star from these four blocks (they should total a block that is 12 1/2" square) then set them in   three rows of three so that your growing quilt looks like the one at the top.

I will give you a few days to work on this and be back after the weekend with the directions for the houses as well as a printable sheet to plan tesselating stars and make all of the stars out of seperate fabrics (without the same color for all of the sky).

Ready For The Give Away???

Just leave a comment here about what fabrics you would like to make the stars out of. The winner will receive 9- 2 1/2" strips of Simple Abundance to get their stars started (bright pretty ones... of course they are all pretty. Have a mentioned I love Simple Abundance? I thought so).  Comments must be received before midnight PST on Wednesday October 7th. You can get two entries if you blog about the tutorial or the Give Away on your blog. Just let me know that you blogged it... thanks.

Another bite of Schnibble cake...

I thought I would post a couple of less busy pics of my busiest quilt ever. Seriously it is crazy busy. Funny story, about these pics, I didn't have anything holding the quilt to the fence it stayed up there all by itself with the help of a little breeze. First tiny huge bite of tutorial will be up in a couple minutes. Take a look at my post for the tutorial even if you don't want to make the quilt... I am adding a give away!

Coming soon to a blog near you....

I am going to be posting a tutorial here on my blog for this:

Abundant Stars and Simple Houses

It is made from a Jelly Roll and Layer Cake, in Simple Abundance, and a yard of Moda Marble. I am going to post the tutorial in bite size pieces starting with the stars on Monday Wednesday (foiled again). Hope to see you here!

WooHoo my September Schnibble is finished...

This one seriously gave me fits... right down to ironing the binding (where instead of ironing the fabric I ironed my fingers). It all went together fine but it seemed to fight me every step. It is super busy but very Christmasy out of "Figgy Pudding".

And a close up of what I did with the quilting... instead of the geese getting all of the attention I decided to make the squares the focus....

Just a titch...

This is just a bit of what I have been working on. There are a couple of things I can't show because they have to be "Revealed" :) Anyway, on the back a Christmas table runner from a Moda Bake Shop tutorial.

To the left a "Simple Abundance" layer cake and jelly roll. Speaking of "Simple Abundance" pictures do not do this line justice it is so rich and gorgeous. The red tone on tone floral is literally my favorite red piece of fabric ever (and that is saying a lot) red is my favorite color. It is amazing and I took this picture at noon, half of those bits are cut already. I can't wait until the yardage comes out.

To the right are the disappearing nine-patch blocks I made out of "Authentic" for (I can't tell) for Christmas. I am currently waiting for the yardage to be available because there is a specific print I want to use for the sashing.

A giveaway at V and Co...

I promise some pictures later today of my recent projects...but for now go check out This Blog she is giving away something really fun. I answered her question about what I wanted from "The Quilt Shoppe" to enter. Here is what I chose Happy Flowers

I have Schnibble Completeness

I made my little Schnibbly quilt for the club. It was a struggle all the way... don't you hate when one just doesn't want to go together? It is very bright and busy but much better with the borders holdng all the busy inside. I got half way through and was really worried as it was quite schizophrenic. But it all came together in the end. I will get it quilted this week and hopefully have a pic of it next Saturday.

We Remember....

On this day when we remember tragedy I just wanted to take a moment to remember our all volunteer armed forces. No matter where you stand on the political spectrum you can't deny that they put their lives on the line for their country everyday, willingly. So to our military men and women, no matter where you serve, thank you!

Salsa Recipe....

I don't have pictures sorry... it is red with green stuff in it... hehehe...

I just made Salsa for our Labor Day BBQ with our Small Group from church. So I thought if you didn't already have a tried and true recipe you might like one...watch out this doesn't taste like it came from a jar.

Ingredients:

1 large can of whole peeled tomatoes (or 3-4 fresh tomatoes blanched and peeled)
2-4 cloves of garlic (depends on how much you like garlic, I never use less than 4)
1 cup of fresh Cilantro
1 lime
2 green onions
1 Jalapeno

Directions:
It helps if you have a food procesor. If you don't you will need a sharp knife and everytime I say pulse you chop (a lot). Clean and chop green onions into large pieces (about 2 inches. Cut stem off of Jalapeno slice top to bottom remove the seeds and insides and rinse. Rinse and cut stems from Cilantro,you want one cup after this has been done(not packed). Peel garlic cloves. In food processor combine green onions, garlic, cilantro and Jalapeno (if you do not like spicy only use 1/3 to 1/2 of the pepper) pulse until all ingredients are finely chopped. Slice lime in half squeeze one half into mixture. Drain juice from tomatoes and place all into food processor. Pulse until all ingrediants are well chopped and combined. Refrigerate for a day to have all flavors combine. Yield approximately 2 cups.

I have been busy...really!

Sorry it has been so long since my last post. I have been sewing away... so much so that I haven't wanted to stop and take pictures. I have more pictures to take today but here are a few to start the morning with.

I joined John for the "Wonky Log Cabin" quilt along. Here are my first two blocks.

#1


#2


I like #2 best. I think I was too worried about where I was placing fabrics in the first one.

I also joined the Block Lotto and did these stars for the September Lotto:

Coming and Going...

The boys (husband and son) just got back from a cruise to Alaska on Monday night. Next Wednesday we say good-bye to Michael (son) until Christmas again. I hate this time of year just for that reason. We always miss him so much when he is with his other family. The Authentic fabric you saw in my giveaway is for a quilt for him. He loves to sit with a blanket wrapped around him in the mornings and watch TV or play video games. He lives on the East coast when away from us so the chances of being cold are a lot more likely there. I am going to start his quilt as soon as he leaves.

I ordered some of the "Rhythm and Blues" fabrics from Red Rooster for a quilt for my daughter, Erin, she adores teal.

I have been working on finishing up some UFOs. The first is this tote bag (from Moda Bake Shop) I have been using it as my own purse so it really has stuff in it...



This is what is on my work table (AKA dining table)right now. An advent calendar quilt. I got the pattern from Sew Mama Sew.



Here is a quilt top from some blocks I made about 8 yrs ago...I finally finished the top yesterday.



Amazing what you can get done with no internet to distract you!