one shabby chick

Golden tickets and new fabrics

There are some great sales and a few deals happening right now.

Michelle Patterns is having their $5 Friday deal:

Their fabric swatch wallet pattern is only $5 today!

Pink Castle Fabrics is having a fun contest/giveaway.

Every order over $50 receives a Golden ticket (actually every $50 you spend you receive one, so if you order $100, you get two tickets, etc!). You can read more details on their blog here.

The grand prize winner wins an entire year of Stash Builder fat quarters!

She has a ton of new lines....go check it out!

Fabricworm has all their bundles on sale - and they just put together a ton of custom bundles!!

                                                          

 

Sew Fresh Fabrics has Collage and Briar Rose now in stock - I love those lines!!

Fresh Squeezed Fabrics is back in business and is bursting with lots of fabric - including Briar Rose - that line is SO sweet!!

OK hope everyone has a fun, fabric-filled weekend!!

Finding Your Personal Quilting Style

Finding your Personal Quilting Style: a Quilting Happiness Blog Hop

Diane Gilleland and Christina Lane are the creative minds behind the new book, Quilting Happiness.

The book will be available August 27th and is a collection of 16 quilts and 4 small projects, interspersed with creative exercises, quizzes, tools and stories to help you explore your delight in quilting.

One of the creative exercises from the book is to make a collage to help you define your quilting style.

I loved this whole process....it was so fun! It made me so happy and I am thrilled with how my collage came out.

I made myself a fizzy drink with club soda and homemade strawberry balsamic syrup, put on Pandora's Mumford and Sons station and went to work sorting through magazines.

Cutting out all my images and pasting them (I used washi tape) to my board was very easy for me. I could have filled a few boards!  The hard part was translating it into words.

I looked at my board and just jotted down some words as they popped into my mind - words I would use to describe the over-all feel of my collage.

It helped me see what I gravitate towards - what fabrics I choose and why. I love things that are sunny and bright. Happy, cheerful, full of color, bold, vibrant. I love using lots of different fabrics in my designs. I think I prefer large scale items as opposed to smaller-scale ones. The washi tape added fun pops of color all over the board which makes me pretty happy.

I also love using text in my quilts and projects. So I found some words that jumped out at me or had meaning. I'm not a big fan of templates so that saying in the left corner kinda felt like an inside joke for myself.

It may look wild and disorganzied to some but to me it looks exactly like my quilting style...this board defines me as a quilter really well.

I can't remember the last time I sat down and did a creative exercise like this and it was so much fun - really helps focus you if you are not feeling inspired or creative. It's like giving yourself a little shot of creativity :-)

And it makes you happy which is the title of the book!

You can pre-order the book on Amazon here.

And take a look at the other amazing design boards on the blog hop:

Monday – Diane of CraftyPod & Christina of SometimesCrafter
Tuesday – Jennifer of JC Handmade
Wednesday – Krista of Krista Withers Quilting
Thursday – Me :-)
Friday – Karyn of Make Something (aka The Workroom)

Absolute Paradise

There are some days where living here is just like living anywhere else (for the most part).

And then there are days where you have to pinch yourself and think.....Is this really my life?

Yesterday was one of those days:

Waimea Bay - absolutely gorgeous!

Around here

I have three quilts I'm finishing up the binding on right now! Yay!!

Two are very overdue baby shower gifts for a friend who had twins back in May - eep! I love how they turned out though so guess it was worth the wait :-)

We are counting down the days til everyone comes home...

Hubby has texted us a few pictures:

I took a few pics outside the other night of these two....

I should do it more often!

I'm having TONS of fun playing with this new app on my phone - Rhonna Designs. Have you guys seen it?! It's only for Apple products right now but hopefully she will be releasing an Android version soon!

OK we are headed off to the beach since it has been HOT here! Guess summer finally arrived!

Winner

The winner of the Zakka Handmades book is:

#14 - Andrea :-)

Congrats! I sent you an email!

We are doing fairly well on our second week of just the three of us. Planning on going to see this tonight.

I did get a bit of sewing in this weekend (finally - that to-do list was pressuring me!!).

Knife cases for some of my dad's customers (that are, I guess, now my customers too):

Custom passport wallet for a family moving to London:

and a few re-stocks for the shop.

iPad covers with typewriters:

and Camera straps:

I had told myself I wasn't going to make any more typewriter items (one reason being I didn't have anymore - lol) but then a sweet friend on IG traded some with me and I found myself dreaming up combos.

Guess I just can't stay away from them!

I also got a few Belle fabrics by Amy Butler  in the mail - they just re-printed these and I love this line!

I think it might have been one of the first lines I bought. I used it in this quilt from my very first sewing bee (I still need to finish the quilt).

Fabricworm has it in stock here.

Happy 4th of July

To all my fellow Americans (and anyone else celebrating today):

Happy 4th of July!

This is where we will be spending our day :-)

This is 38 (for one more month)

I read the best post over on Jennifer's blog and then clicked on the link to the article she referenced and thought....this would be a fun post to do.

So here I am.

38 - that's a big number to me. It's that much closer to 40 and that much further away from 30. I certainly don't feel old but I know the term "young adult" has not applied to me for a while.

38 is realizing I am more like my parents than I ever thought. I hear things come out of my mouth and I think, my mother (or father) has said that exact same thing. And not that it's a bad thing (sometimes - ha ha). Just eye-opening.

38 is feeling comfortable in my own skin, for the most part. Yes, it would be nice to lose those 10-15 extra pounds that I've carried around since I had kids. But hey, my husband thinks I'm hot and what else really matters. Maybe it would be nice to have that back fat gone and fit into those jeans I keep in my closet "just in case" but really, it's not one of the more important things in life.

38 is being so happy I don't have to change diapers, chase around after toddlers or wake up for middle-of-the-night feedings. It means having great, meaningful conversations with a child that is now taller than me. Cracking up at how witty and hilarious some of their jokes are. And enjoying my kids and having fun with them without worrying about getting home for naps.

38 is being a bit more sensitive to things. A bit more wisdom (ok who am I kidding, a lot more). A bit more compassion. At 38 I've been around a while. Stuff has happened. I've grown as a human being. And that's a wonderful thing.

38 is being married for 17 years to the most wonderful man I know. I had no idea this is what we would become 17 years ago but I am so, so thankful. He is my best friend and I cannot imagine my life without him. 38 is living through some hard times and coming out on the other side wiser and stronger.

38 is enjoying my kids while they are still at home and looking forward to that time when it will just be the two of us. We have some plans :-)

38 is realizing how amazing God's grace is in our lives. How un-deserving we are. And how loving and gracious He is. Grace - it's all about grace these days. His grace for us and our grace for others.

38 is still trying to navigate my way through friendships, old and new. But boy am I loving all the new ones I've formed through this blog and on the internet. My life is so, so full. And I love it. And am looking forward to many years ahead.

Bring on 39 (I think).....

Zakka Handmades Blog Tour (and Giveaway)

 

I was thrilled when Amy (of chick chick sewing) emailed me about being a part of the blog tour for her new book, Zakka Handmades.

She makes adorable Zakka goodies and her book is filled with fun projects. Kerry kicked off the tour with a great interview with Amy here.

I had so much fun deciding which project to start with and finally decided to make the fabric bucket.

Instead of using one single fabric for the outside, I made my outside panel using the Quilt As You Go method.

I picked the medium size and it's perfect for holding scraps on my cutting table.

I LOVE how it turned out (well, with one exception)....

As I was making my quilt as you go panel, I decided to use some of my hoarded Uptown birds. And I remember thinking to myself...make sure you put the birds right side up when you sew the bottom on.

And of course I DID NOT do that - lol (and I didn't notice until I had already attached the lining).

Ha ha - guess it'll just give me a laugh whenever I see it.

I can't wait to make the bigger version - you can use them for everything and they are such a great size!

How cute would a bucket be (along with some goodies) for a baby shower present?

There are tons of cute projects in the book and guess what?

I get to give one away to one of you!

To enter, just leave a comment on this post.  One entry per person, open to US Residents only. Giveaway will end Monday, July 8th.

Here's the schedule for the blog tour and everyone is giving away a book at their stop (International peeps - look for the International stops for your chance to win a book).

6/24/13 - Kerry verykerryberry
6/26/13  Jeni In Color Order 
6/28/13  Sachiko Tea Rose Home 
7/1/13 – Amber One Shabby Chick 
7/3/13 – Kristen Feeling Stitchy 
7/5/13 – Hiromi Harujion Design 
7/8/13 – Amy nanaCompany 
7/10/13 – Lisa and Sarah A Spoonful of Sugar 
7/12/13 – Mette Erleperle 
7/15/13 – Sarah and Rachel Roxy Creations
7/17/13 - Anna Noodlehead

Good luck!!

 

** Comments are now closed - I'll announce a winner soon!