UR Pricelessly Crazy!

Sometimes inspiration comes at the strangest times.

My 17-year old son and I as he’s leaving to meet his dad:

Me: Give me a kiss goodbye (I make that strange little sound when you pucker up)

A: What is that?

Me: It’s what Grandma Glynn used to do when she wanted a kiss

A: (weird look) Oooookay… (gives me kiss anyway)

Me: I loved when she did that . . .  She also told me that the safest place for your money is in your bra.

A: Not helpful to me.

Me: (as he’s walking out the door) you never know kid! You might get fat and bald and need a 'manssiere' like your dad!!!

So, with Grandma Glynn on my mind, I started to look for fabric that might make a nice UR Priceless change purse. I think she’d like my choice….

If you'd like to try your hand at making a UR Priceless change purse, 

the pattern is available through Madame Samm's Craftsy page.

Big Spanks to Madame Samm and Katherine for crafting and organizing this hop!

Thanks for visiting--check out the other UR Priceless magicians today:
Read, quilt, cook, pray...
The Learning Curve
Bacon Then Eggs
Nati's Little Things
by Mary
Feltfree på Åsly
El Patchwork de la Abuela
Amy's Crafty Shenanigans
Maryjo J
s.o.t.a.k. Handmade
Chloeandme
Janice M
throw a wench in the works
Everyone Deserves a Quilt
A Stitch in Time
Sew Me Something Good

Congratulations to #32 Sue for winning the Wicked blog hop giveaway--your charm pack is on the way!

A Ghoulish Welcome!

Thank you for joining us on the first day of the Wicked blog hop!

Once upon a time there lived wicked witch who refused to be foul on Halloween. All of her friends told her it just wasn't right! They said she should stick her tongue out at small children so their parents slap them when they stick their tongues out back at her. 

But no matter how hard she tried, she just couldn't be nasty. In fact, even though her skin was mottled green and dress was decayed black lace, she couldn't resist the desire to be girly…

“Pink! Give me pink!” she cried. Her friends merely laughed.

“How ghastly you are!” she retorted through tears.

Being a witch, she decided to cast a spell whereby all her friends would spend eternity in the cross threads of fabric, forced to endure pink on Halloween.

So, do not be alarmed by the forthcoming dreadful countenances —they are simply the ex-friends of the wicked witch. In addition, let this be a lesson to you—pink is indeed fabulous for Halloween!

First, the wicked witch made a Ghastlie kitchen island runner:

(click on photo for closer view) 

Then she took the leftovers and made a roll-up bag, starting with a 10.5 block and then added to it...

 (measuring 15 X 15 X 7)—nice!

But the island runner was very lonely so the wicked witch made a tablecloth:

(click on photo for closer view)

(click for closer view of these amazing fabrics)

(sun shadows--sorry!)

Funny story—the witch got up in the middle of the night for some brew and after she turned out the lights she realized that the bones fabric glows in the dark! Score!

In honor of non-traditional holiday colors, the wicked witch scoured her stash and would like to offer a charm pack of Christmas fabric that has (gasp!) turquoise blue. Leave a comment below to be entered in the draw!

Big SPANKS to Spookie Madame Samm and her henchwoman Wendy! 

**Click on the haunted house** to go back to Wendy’s blog!

Here's a list of the other Wicked ones presenting today (click on any blog name to link there!):

The Quilting Alleycat

Words & Stitches

Geema's Wonderings

Quilt Doodle Doodles

Bacon Then Eggs (me!)

Inga

Briarside Lane

Quilts And Smily Faces

Why Knot?

Quilt Matters

Mad Quilter's Disease

Susie's World

Sew Paint Create

Hello fellow blog hoppers!

I hope you're ready for another version of dots-gone-wild this week!

Well, I started to pull fabrics for my project when a zap of inspiration hit me squarely between the eyes. 

I had been thinking about my friend Carrie at Believemagic and how much I like her art quilts--they're amazing! 

Then I had an idea for an art quilt of my own. And yes, it looks suspiciously like hers, but as the saying goes....imitation is the greatest form of flattery.  So I reached for some red dot fabric and got to work...

feel free to click on it for a closer look, but in case your'e wondering, the text I sewed to it reads, 

 "She Fell in Love with the Words"

piques your interest, no?
-could be that I love French words
-could be that I love text prints
-could be that someone told me lies
-could be that I love words in general (think about English-26 letters form thousands of words and countless books, all different like fingerprints!)
-could be a little of all of them...

 I had another thought to make a happy wall hanging. It's not quilted yet, but you get the idea:

The best part about this project is no pattern. It's a technique by Mary Lou Weidman called Hoochy Mama piecing. (really? Does naming a technique get much better?) 

Sometimes it's wholly liberating to just start creating--this book is excellent for helping you to let go.

In the spirit of everybody-and-my-mother loves a giveaway, I'd like to offer up a copy of Mary Lou's book so you can 'get your dots on' in the comfort of your own home!

click here for more inside views (on Amazon)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Now it's on to the rest of the lineup for today. If this is your last stop then thanks for visiting!

September 18th

Sew Maybe I Can

Yayaquilter

A Stitch in Time

Ariane Quilts

Karen ~ Briarside Lane 

Joanne 9of12 

Traveling Quilter
Bacon Then Eggs (you are here)

HA! I finished one thing as part of Quilter in the Gap's Finish-Along! 

Here it is in all its blazing glory:

The Ghastlies Tablerunner. **Ta-da!** It's completely done and ready for fall...whew!

I'm happy that I set a goal and accomplished it. I rock. Actually, Rhonda rocks for putting this finish-along together. Yeah.

School's started so I'm completely booked...I hope you're enjoying the Indian Summer as much as I am! Time flies....

Hey! If you haven't heard already, Madame Samm coordinates amazing blog hops over at Sew We Quilt.

Bowls with borders just ended but Dots on Dots is going to start up on September 10th.

See you there!!

Hot Diggity!!!!

Do you live in the Chicago area?

My friend is having a massive fabric sale. You  know those cool "trays" that you see pints of strawberries on in the store? Um, yeah, she's got almost 150 of those, filled with fabric. Can't picture it? How about 1000 yards of quilt-shop quality fabric? Can you picture that?  

Now make all those yards $6, unless you buy at least 5 yards at which point everything becomes $5/yd.

Drooling yet? Great! Drop what you're doing and get to this fabric sale! Bring your checkbook, cash, or a way to send her some $ through Paypal!

Click here to see the flyer in google docs

I've been remiss in posting, but

congratulations (and thanks to random draw) are in order to

Karen who won the star-spangled roll up bag

and 

Jen B who won a "surprise" which turned out to be a small bag and tissue holder (perfect size for kid snacks and a tissue that's always in reach). Her response to my cucumber predicament was "I think I would take the cucumber from between my knees, raise both hands (with cucumbers) in the air, and said, 'Ta da! The next show will be in 20 minutes. As always, tips are appreciated!'"  

A giveaway that'll have you seeing Stars...

Hello! Welcome to the Red, White, and Blue Blog Hop!
First and foremost, a big thank you to Madame Samm for organizing this outrageousness and Jane for getting everyone up and running!

I’ll keep it short and sweet….

I found this nifty paper pieced block on Quilter’s Cache and thought it would be fun to make for you! 

I considered making more blocks, but decided that you might appreciate my (cough, cough) talents if I made this block into a reusable, washable, roll-up bag and gave it away to a blog hopper.

Sound good??

Yes, I think this might be an OPEN

and SHUT case!!

Click here to see a Pinterest Board of all the blocks!


Here's a lineup for today's blocks:

July 15th

Pink Pincushion

Quilting Nana

bacon then eggs (that's me)

living life-martha

Quiltscapes

PigTales and Quilts

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Lost it, completely.

 [this post has been edited for content]

I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking “Did I just coin the term vomitous blatherings”? The answer is maybe because you and the other person who reads this blog are probably thinking the same thing at the same time so there’s really no way to tell if you just added a new term to the lexicon or not. But go ahead, take credit anyway. I always do.

In other quilting news, I’d like to once again link up with Quilter in the Gap’s Rhonda for some 3^rd quarter finish-along fun. Really, this is becoming less “motivation” and more “she’s a bold-faced liar” list but I’ll go for it anyway. Hey, I’ve been busy! And I traveled this summer: France, Switzerland, Austria, and Germany. I’m a new woman. With meters of Dupioni silk. Oh sure, now you want to be friends.

2 Halloween goodies that I really want to see ready for action by the end of September. I know I can do it this time! I also started a reusable bag with Ghastlies fabric so I hope that gets finished also.

Last but certainly not least, I’m linking up with Wendy at The Crafter’sApprentice. She made a fabulous mat for under her coffee pot and gave me this swell idea—a mat for my dishes. I grabbed an old towel headed for the rag pile, some toaster fabric, and wha-la! made this lovely for my counter. If you can think of something to make with a used item thereby giving it new life, link up to her Something Old, Something New Competition! I'm going to try to come up with something else, but for now, I'm gurgling over this counter gemstone. I adore it; it’s the perfect size. 

So tell me what you would’ve done with the cucumber and I’ll draw a random commenter to win a prize :O) And no, the prize will not be perishable, sorry. 

A new bag for moi!

Have you heard about the over at Sew Sweetness?  There are pattern reviews and giveaways every day!

I’ve been itching to make this pattern, the Go Anywhere Bag from Anna of Noodlehead, for quite some time.

The one thing that threw me was that there was no “finished size” measurement anywhere on the pattern, so I was just hopeful that it would fit all my baggage. OH wait, there’s not a bag big enough for that…..but at (flat) 16 X 13 (at shortest point) and about 12" strap drop, it holds a bunch of everyday items.

This is the first time I’ve tried one of her patterns and I really liked it—the directions were clear and concise. The longest part is fusing all the interfacing (urgh). I used Pellon 101 which is a fusible woven (essentially it’s a piece of thin fabric with glue on one side) and wow, I’ll be using it from now on—it gives the fabric nice shape without being stiff (wait for the sale at Joann’s and stock up!).

The front has three pockets and the back has one pocket (full width). I even made piping for the first time. I wasn't really sure how to do that so I just guessed--I threw some fabric around... 

That's right, twine. Hey, it worked. Nicely.

This is the inside--three more pockets. I made them from a strip of leftover fabric and just sewed the edges into the side seam--easy!

Fabrics:

Outer pockets & straps: Florine in Dusted Plum, Echo line by Lotta Jansdotter

Main body of bag & inside pockets: Illusion in Pink, 1001 Peeps line by Lizzy House

Lining & piping: purple iridescent pindots, Lakehouse Drygoods by Holly Holderman (this is from stash--I doubt there's any more to be found) 

Quilt Festival

Wahoo! It's time again for the Bloggers' Quilt Festival from Amy's Creative Side



I'm entering this little quilt that brings me such great joy!

I really like this quilt because I allowed myself to be more imaginative and artistic than I've been in the past; it feels really good to let go and BE creative. No hands on this bike--not this time! 

It started out as a Swoon quilt but then I wanted to give it a more modern, less rigid feeling so I added random strips of coordinating colors.

After adding a grey border, it seemed static so I decided to encourage movement by giving the eye a few corner squares to follow: The grey keeps your eye moving around the quilt while the green pulls the center star out to the edges (and there's a few more giraffes to love!)

The quilting is a big X, then lines radiate out from the heart of the design.

The back is a simple wonky star in the lower left quadrant so that the quilting becomes the real focal point.

Fabrics:

Giraffe Love in Lagoon by Michael Miller

Kona grey and teal solids

Yellow dots by Michele D'Amore, Bold and Beautiful line

Apple pindots by Micheal Miller, Garden Pindot line 

Play stripe in Lagoon by Michael Miller

As I've said before, I'm thrilled that this quilt will be going to a family who really appreciates a handmade gift--I hope it brings them as much happiness as their appreciation brings me!

I'd better get it in the mail--my cousin's wife is at the hospital today!   

**Update: It's a girl! 9 lbs, 12 oz, 22 inches long. Wahoo!

Click HERE to return to the Bloggers' Quilt Festival!

Cutting Charm Squares

I happen to like charm swaps and have figured out a way to produce 56 charm squares (5 X5) by making 10 cuts without moving the fabric. 

The only catch here is that you have to have a mat that is at least 20 X 20 and be cognizant of fabric movement to ensure accuracy. 

Here goes:

I've folded 1 yard of fabric onto itself so that overlaps at least 15 inches with a slight overhang on the left hand side (just to the left of 0).

Now I'm moving the fabric so it's easier for me to work with, but I will line up my fabric the same way, with the overhang about 1/8" on the left and bottom. I'll move my body to the side of the fabric and make the first 5 cuts:

I cut in this order so I am able to save the selvage

Then I go back to my original position and make the next 5 cuts

Totals for each pile of fabric; your 4 x 4 grid =56 charms

As you can tell, I am working on the left-hand side of my cutting mat. If you are right-handed/able to, put your fabric on the right-hand side of the cutting mat--move your body to the right side of the mat and cut from left to right. Go back to your original position and cut left to right again to complete the grid.