one shabby chick

busy, busy

Sewing away for craft fairs.

First fair of the season was yesterday and I did ok considering there were flash flood warnings all weekend! I was seriously thinking of just showing up to get my deposit and going home.

But it ended up being a nice day (with a few bouts of rain sprinkled in). Total miracle! It poured rain the entire day at our house!

I did add some of the goodies I've been working on to the shop tonight:

My to-do list is pretty long this week too! But I'll be sure to check back in here soon!

Hey there

Well...again...it's been a while.

I do keep thinking about how I need to blog and not just book reviews or giveaways

(although I'm sure no one minds the giveaways).

First of all I have a winner for the Patchwork Please giveaway.......

Karen H (sent you an email!)

I've been sewing a lot lately - getting ready for craft fairs that are coming up.

Little bloomers (I used this pattern - just changed the legs a little bit):

some new ipad cases:

and mini ones too:

I also tried out some fun scrappy garland (don't know where to hang it though)

and these cute coasters that I think I'm going to make as Christmas gifts to go along with some other handmade goodies. (tutorial here)

I had a pop-up shop last night at Honolulu Night Market (it was super last minute, like one day notice).

I did ok - made my booth fee and a little more but I was hoping for a better night (sales-wise).

It was SUPER fun to spend the evening with my hubby though. There were all kinds of great food trucks so we sampled lots of yummy foods and checked out all the interesting people that stop by these events.

He had never been to a fair with me so it was a fun change to have him (and he did all the heavy lifting - yay!)

This morning left me in a bit of a funk as I was comparing myself to other local crafters and measuring my success in light of theirs - never a good thing.

But as I walked to the car (to head to church), I just rehearsed in my mind all my blessings - and it changed my mood rather quickly.

Hope you all had a great weekend and are looking forward to a new week. I know I am - have a few ideas I want to try out soon.

And an Etsy update (with a coupon) will be happening in the next day or so! I have lots to load up!!

a 13 year old

 

Somehow I missed the birthday post for Bela here on the blog - Instagram is just so easy and convenient lately.

She turned 13 on August 23rd so now we have two teenagers in the house!

Hubby wanted to make her birthday the BEST EVER and she really wanted to go on a hike for her birthday so we had her three best friends spend the night and went on an amazing hike.

I always try and do something crafty with the girls for her birthday and I think this was maybe the most fun yet.

We made dream catchers:

I bought a bunch of embroidery hoops and we used scraps of fabric, yarn, crocheted doilies and ribbon to make them - I love how they turned out!

The girls were thrilled too!

The next morning we set out on the hike. It's up in Kahana Valley. You have to drive past a bunch of houses and then park and walk past a few more to get to the start of the trail.

The first part is a semi-paved road and then you get to the trail. At this point you can walk about 5 minutes down a hill and get to the rope swing and river (that I will tell you about later) or you can take a path off to the right and go on a two hour hike that will end up at the river.

We wanted some adventure so we went on the two hour hike - even our littlest did it. It's fairly muddy (we were lucky it hadn't rained too much before the hike) and there are a few little creeks you have to cross - one you are probably in about knee deep. But it was fairly easy and there are even snacks (guavas and mountain apples) along the way!

There is pig-hunting in the area but we didn't see any pigs (our friend did have a run-in with one on this trail a while back though so be careful if you go on this hike!).

At the end you come down the trail to this beautiful scene. The girls had so much fun on the rope swing and just exploring the area. 

Destash (with a coupon code)

 

So...I've been feeling cluttered lately and the only way to remedy that is with some cleaning and re-arranging.

I think I've talked about this before - I'm not the only crazy one, right?

You all do this too?

So I re-arranged the living room and school area a teeny bit and took a few bags to the donation center.

Then I got to work weeding out my stash a little.

Seriously, when am I EVER going to use all this fabric?

I'm not. Bottom line. So I let a few things go and have listed them in the shop.

And lucky you, there's a coupon you can use for even bigger savings.

10% off with coupon code: notcrazy

Ha ha - thought it would be fun to do a silly code.

There are fabric bundles:

Scrap packs:

and even some selvedge packs:

Waiting on some magnetic snaps so I can finish up some more quilted totes and get them listed in the shop as well:

They have a faux leather/vinyl bottom panel and back in some nice, bright colors.

I am having so much fun with them!

Alison Glass blog tour

 

I was completely thrilled when Alison emailed me about being part of her blog tour for her amazing new line.

 

(I mean, they are GENIUS designs - serious must haves!)

I met her in Portland at Quilt Market (you may not know this about her but she is hilarious). And really down-to-earth and fun.

Of course I was thrilled when I saw she was coming out with all these amazing designs - in all different colors!

And texts - you know how I love text fabrics. And this one is SO great!

I chose to use the eggplant color and as I was looking over the poetry/story on the design, this line popped out at me.

So I had to use it in a word pillow.

I used the feather print on the back too!

The designs are just so versatile and easy to mix and match - great staples to have in your stash.

I can't wait to use the white on white text instead of a solid for a quilt!

The best part is there's a couple of chances to win some of this great fabric.

Comment here and let me know which design is your favorite and you will be entered to win a fat quarter set of a few of the fabrics and also an embroidery pattern of your choice (the three choices are in the picture below).

You can also enter to win the HUGE prize at the end of the tour on Alison's blog here - go enter! It's a great prize!!

The blog tour is going to be so fun and there are so many chances to win along the way. Check out each stop and all the wonderful ways everyone has used these fabrics.

 

Group 1 – Feathers, Text, Party Streamer

8.19.13 - Olivia Jane Handcrafted

8.21.13 - One Shabby Chick

8.23.13 - Silly Mama Quilts

8.26.13 - Threadbias

8.28.13 - KD Quilts

8.30.13 - April Rhodes

Group 2 – Feathers Quilt Pattern

9.2.13 - The ADD Crafter

9.4.13 - Sew Sweetness

9.6.13 - I’m A Ginger Monkey

9.9.13 - Ellison Lane Quilts

9.11.13 - Olivia Jane Handcrafted

9.13.13 - Imagine Gnats

Group 3 – Clover Sunshine

9.16.13 - Crafty Fox

9.18.13 - One Girl Circus

9.20.13 - Sew Sweetness

9.23.13 - There and Back

9.25.13 - J.M.B.

9.27.13 - Modern Maven

Group 4 – Corsage, Bike Path, X & +

9.30.13 - Gen X Quilters

10.2.13 - Don’t Call Me Betsy

10.4.13 - Canoe Ridge Creations

10.7.13 - Jacey Craft

10.9.13 - Bijou Lovely 

10.11.13 - Fresh Lemons Quilts

Giveaway is now closed!

 

Thirty-something

39 actually.

And this week has been pretty fun so far.

I have a hilarious contest/sing-a-long happening on Instagram if you are on there.

And I figured I'd have a fun giveaway over here to celebrate too.

My wonderful sponsors donated three amazing giveaways so three of you can win a great prize!

 

 

 

 

 

Leave a comment telling me your current favorite song.

Mine happens to be Titanium (which is part of the contest on Instagram).

Giveaway is over. Comments are now closed. I'll announce the winners soon!

3 little quilts

I've finished up some baby shower gifts this week.

The first two are for a set of twins that were born in May but I'm just now finishing them up.

I used Elizabeth's wonky nine patch tutorial.

The fabrics are a combination of Les Amis and Tula Pink - just different colorways for the two quilts.

The third quilt is for a baby shower I'm going to today.

As soon as I saw Jolene's pattern in Modern Quilts from the Blogging Universe, I knew I wanted to make it.

Our friends are having their first baby (a boy) so it seemed like the perfect fit. I love Jolene's use of different neutrals in her quilt so I did something similar.

Then I quilted it with large loops and bound it in a stripe from Patty Young's new line, Just My Type.

And with that, I'm off to the shower!

6 years

So I totally missed my 6 year blog-versary.  But it was just the other day so I'm still close.

Wow - 6 years! That's a long time to have my voice out in blogland!

As I look back at my first posts, I have definitely grown as a quilter, blogger and just as a person too.

Which I know is good!

I do have some fun goodies in store for this month (as it's my birthday month too) so I think I'll save the big giveways for then.

But I can't let this anniversary go by without some sort of giveaway right?!

So....how about a fun package filled with handmade goodies and lots of fabric?

 

(these are by Mo Bedell and remind me of Hawaii so much)

Leave me a comment telling me how long you've been blogging (or if you don't blog, how long you've been reading blogs).

I'll pick a winner next week sometime.

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)