one shabby chick

Spring Cleaning

I've spent yesterday and today cleaning up a storm..On Monday we packed up our bedding and headed up to my brother's house for a slumber party {we ended up staying two night just to make sure the house was fully aired out}.

We were tenting the house for termites (it's really common here in Hawaii - you are supposed to do it once every ten years or so).

It takes a little preparation - this past weekend was spent bagging up my pantry, medicine cabinet and fridge/freezer.

But then you get to come home and put it all back and clean {and I'm not being sarcastic...I do love a clean house}.

And I figured since I was cleaning the house, I might as well wash the screens and windows too. They get really dirty here - think it's due to the fact that they are open all year round?!

So now the house is super clean {well, for a day or so - the kids did come home with us!} and I can get back to some sewing.

I've gotten a few fun packages in the mail lately...

New Alexander Henry:

New Joel Dewberry:

Kona cottons:

I finished up the two baby quilts so just need to give them a quick wash and snap some pictures.

And I just had to share this {stole this picture from Jacquie's blog}:

I always feel like a small little person over here in my corner of blogland...don't think I have a lot of subscribers or anything, haven't written a book, ect. So it was very exciting to see my name at the bottom of that amazing list {do you see it?}....

Thanks Jacquie - you made my week!

Bibs, straps and angry birds

Didn't do any sewing this weekend but I finished up a few things on Thursday...

Camera straps (that have been sitting on my sewing table for a while):

Bibs:

I was on Flickr the other day and saw these - aren't they adorable?

Ariel is so talented!

I showed them to my kids and immediately they ran into the kitchen and got out Bela's clay.

It's a little old and stiff - we need to buy some new clay but here's what they came up with.

Baby Girl ~

Bela ~

My younger son ~

(as you can tell, we didn't have green!)

We can't wait for this to come out! Pinterest has some fun Angry Bird pins - lego version, cake version, fondant version, art version....

And then there's these tutorials!

New Plan

After I wrote that last post, I took all my cross blocks and sliced em up...

and turned them into these..

I am loving them so much now. Just have to wait for the Kona grays to get here and I can put it all together.

I even made up a couple bib tops from the leftover strips.

I have this bib pattern and love it (have some planned in a few different colorways for the craft fair)

And here's an update on Baby Mason (via his mommy's blog)...

Isn't he too cute?! Those cheeks always get me!

Can't get enough

Since I've been on a bit of a selvedge kick lately, as soon as I saw Angela's post, I was a goner!

I mean, seriously, how cute is that mug rug?

My sister and her hubby just moved to a new place and the kids and I visited on Saturday. And I discovered she is in serious need of some new coasters.

So these are mini mug rugs/large coasters.

They are about 6". I love them...really want to keep them for myself but we never really use coasters and they use them all the time.

I have plans to make a mug rug for me and one to give away too so stay tuned!

I also started on a quilt but not sure how I'm liking it.

I used this tutorial and I'm thinking about just a few (maybe 5) blocks floating on the front. I ordered some dark greys from here (she's having a Grand Opening sale right now!) for the background.

What do you all think?

I'm thinking about making one block out of all yellows and adding it to the mix.

I know I mentioned before but I'm participating in Modern Relief Japan which begins on April 4th.

A lot of us are donating quilts and there's a blog here which will have all the information soon. There are some gorgeous quilts to win!

I'm donating this one since it seemed so fitting with all the Japanese fairytale fabrics in it.

Rainy Days

Finishing up a few projects yesterday and today since it's been pretty rainy...and I just haven't felt like doing anything else.

Japan

I just keep seeing those tsunami pictures and imagining if that had happened here. All our friends and neighbors homeless...the devastation. It breaks my heart.

(Alicia Bock)

Here's a few links to various blogs and shops doing their part to help:

This and That Japan - donating 15% of their sales

Poppytalk - links to different blogs and shops

TallGrass Prairie Studio - Jacquie is auctioning off a gorgeous quilt.

Oh Fransson - Elizabeth is auctioning off her amazing Tokyo Subway quilt.

Fabricworm - donating 2% of their sales this weekend.

I will be taking part in Modern Relief: Japan. I'm donating this quilt to the auction and will let you all know more details when it's up and running.

Leave a link in the comments if you know of any other shops or auctions!

Some sewing

We are taking a little Spring Break this week and Baby Girl is under the weather so we've just been hanging out.

I also have been able to do some sewing spend the days sewing.

Made some more taggies...

ipod arm cases...

This one is for Jenny (better late than never, right Jenny?)

a little needle book for me - tutorial here:

Gonna try and make some zippered pouches out of these today:

I also sewed up a couple quilt tops:

and some of you may have seen these on Flikr already - Ringo Pie Bee blocks for Penny:

Today

Thank you again for all your concern. We were very lucky - just keep praying for the people of Japan and all their families...I cannot even imagine the horror and despair they must be facing.

I finally got caught up on sleep and did some sewing last night and this morning.

Finished up the top for this quilt...

It's pretty big - don't know when I'll get around to quilting it but I really love it.

Hubby was my "holder".

I also made up some little "taggies" today. I've signed up for a craft fair in May and figured I'd better start making things.

These are so fun - and I love all those minky fabrics!

This fabric is one of my all-time favorites - I got mine here.

I also got my gorgeous swap package for Urban Home Goods Swap the other day:

Rachel made me the cutest things - look at this mug rug....

and this pillow is on my bed right now.

I really want to stay home and sew some more but our soccer team has a scrimmage so I'm off to play...

We are fine

Wow, it's nice to feel loved! I woke up to Facebook comments, emails, Flickr mail  - all asking if we are ok.

Ye, we are totally fine. Last night my son came home from youth group and told us, "Did you hear there's a tsunami?". No, we hadn't.

So we spent the night watching the news, sleeping for an hour, watching the news again, answering phone calls from my husband's family.

There was a tsunami but the waves were not very large - mostly damaged boat harbors and a few low lying areas but we {our house} are just outside of the tsunami zone.

Lots of friends had to evacuate but most have returned home now. Hubby actually just left for work a few minutes ago.

I keep watching those images of Japan and it breaks my heart - I cannot imagine a tsunami of that size! I'm sure our quilting community will be doing something soon to help out and I'll keep you all posted.

Thanks again for all your caring thoughts!

At the moment

I'm loving......

Pinterest - it's so fun! You can find me here.

This new quilt:

This is block one {of five}.

New fabrics:

I'm going to have to make a few Munki/Heather Ross quilts soon.

Rainy days - perfect for sewing and being cozy.

And this man - he is utterly amazing and I feel so lucky to have him.