Happy Birthday to Me!!

And Happy Day to Leah from Quilted Delights and CorgiMom! Leah will be getting the fat quarter pack and Corgimom is the happy new owner of the yarn. Contact me via kelly at 50footrobot.com and I'll get those prizes out to you. :)

Thank you all to those that entered. I feel very loved now with all the comments and followers. :)

Today I got my hair did, laid around, ate a huge meal with some good friends and drank some martinis, ate cake, and now am on my couch watching Dexter. It's a good day.

Thank you to all who are entering my give away! I'm having a great time reading new blogs. Ya'll rock. :)

Quilts!

So, last night I sewed up a quilt top. Now I understand the draw of charm packs. Seriously. Amazing fast. This is the Dream On charm pack that I won this summer in the Hex A Long. I added some Kona snow and done! I think it's a perfect crib quilt size. Now I just have to find a backing and decide what color to bind it with.

I also finally finished my Monster Quilt.

Check out those lines! I did just a simple straight line quilting along the borders, so that at the corners they make a checkerboard pattern.

So fun. Seriously. I love this.

In the center I quilted 5 free form wonky stars. I think it was just right. It doesn't take away from the monsters, but still looks great.

Overall I'm super happy with how this turned out. It's up in my shop if you're needing a quilt.

Also, don't forget about the drawing I'm having. :)

October

October has always been a favorite month for me. It's my birthday month. Fall. Sweater weather, hand knit socks. Snuggling under a blanket. Also, I started my blog in Oct. This October marks my 33rd birthday, and my blogs 5th. Wow! Holy crappers!

So, in celebration for that, I'm gong to give away some goodies. 1 for my quilting friends a kona fat quarter pack in Flying Purple People Eater. (image totally grabbed from the Kaufman page.)

I picked Flying Purple People Eater for 2 reasons, I love the name and, well, I love the name. :)

And 1 for my knitters, a skein of Merino/Nylon Sock fron the Knit Drink and be Merry sock yarn club from Yarntini in the Mint Fizz color. Check the link for the color.

To be entered? Follow my blog, and then post a comment on which you'd like. The quarters, yarn, or both! Don't want to follow me? Just post a comment as to what you'd make, and which you want. Do both and get 2 entries. Post this on your blog, and then comment and you'll get another entry! woot! It's crazy over here. :)

On my birthday (Oct 17th) I'll draw 2 names. Make sure I can get ahold of you! Leave an email with your posts.

When I'm not hiding under a blanket watching the food network I'll post pictures of the goodies. I'm just cold and lazy today. Hence the links. :)

Quilting and Knitting up a storm

But no pictures. Because I am lazy. And my son never sleeps. I've got the weekend off, so I'm thinking that I should be able to snap some pictures of my finished things for blog fodder next week.

I finished quilting my monster quilt, and I'm super happy with the way it turned out. I just have to attach the binding and wash and it's done. Yea! I think I'm going to try Red Pepper Quilts binding method. I've been trying to figure out a nice way to machine stitch the binding down, and I like the way she's done it.

On the knitting front, I finished my brother's sweater. And he promptly left the state. So, I've put off weaving in the gazillion ends for awhile. I should finish it and block it so that when he comes back he can wear it.

Other than that, not much going on. I joined ANOTHER bee. Yes. I may be crazy. This one is focusing on the string method, which I've always wanted to try. This month we're doing spiderweb blocks. I can't wait to start.

And, a little heads up for my peeps, October is a big month for me. Stay tuned. You may get some free stuff out of me. :)

Solid Bee Block. Oct

October is my month for the Solid Bee Block. And these are the fabrics I picked. Totally out of my normal range of color. Which is good! I'm asking for a wonky log cabin. I think this will be fun!

The Worlds Best Sandwich

Or, Why I May Die from a Heart Attack before I'm 35.

This sandwich was dreamed up by my husband. It is seriously the best. thing. ever.

First, fry up bacon. Lots of bacon. We use No Name Thick Cut Pepper. Then spread butter over bread and toast it. Just enough to make it crispy. I always get one of those short fat french loaves in the bakery section.

Next, tell your 2 yr old not to eat the stick of butter.

While the bread is toasting mix up the sauce. Which is equal parts Mayo and Famous Dave's Rich and Sassy (chipotle) BBQ sauce.

When Bacon is done, drain most of the grease out of the pan, but not all. Then throw 1 pound of deli turkey in the pan and heat it up. When it's good and warm, I split it into half and then throw on provolone cheese to melt. Slice up an avocado, add a little lime juice and salt. Then put it all together. turkey with melty cheese, bacon, avocados and drizzle sauce. Super yum. This makes enough for 4 people for one meal, or 2.5 people to eat twice.

Thursday

Today is my third day off in a row. Which is pretty refreshing after the pissy weekend I had. The house isn't any cleaner, there has been no sewing done, some knitting, baking and playing with play-doh. The lawn didn't get mowed. But you know what? I don't care. It's nice to just do whatever it is I've been doing these last three days.

I'm going to go back to rolling little balls of play-doh for my son. But first I thought I'd share this picture with you. I was quilting and J grabbed his notebook and color pencils and sat down to work while I was sewing. Thankfully the camera was close by.

Solid Bee Block. Sept Edition

So we were sent some pink, yellow and white fabric and told to make pin wheels. I had a ton of fun searching out a pin wheel to make. I wanted something really different. Then I found the Amish Pinwheel and I knew I found the one. I added a couple frames around the edge to get it to the right size, and because I wanted to use up as much of the fabric as I could. I still have to snip threads on this one. :)

And, because I had a wee bit of fabric left, and I love tiny little things, I added some white from my stash and made a MinPin block. :) Yes. Bad pun. I'm sorry. It's just too cute! Tiny! I luv it. :)

Quilt Top Done and some Knitting!

So I finished the quilt top for our bedroom. It's Swirly Girls Design pattern called "Equal Rights" There are eleventy billion triangles. Holy crap that was work. But I"m super happy with how it turned out. Now I just have to save up to get it quilted. I know a lady that rents her machine out and teaches you how to quilt. So, that's what I"m going to do. The backing is the light colored one with dots. I love that one. I'm not sure what I'm going to bind it in yet, but that's a ways off. I tried really hard with this one to just 'let go'. I tossed all the printed triangles in a bag, and just pulled them out and stitched them up. I would put one back if it was the same one I had just pulled out, but other than that, I just sewed. When I sewed the rows together, I tried to just do it. I wiggled a couple around, if there were too many pieces that we close, but again, I just tried to go with it.

On the knitting front, Sock Knitters Anonymous is back for a 4th year in a row! This months' challenge is hard for me. Black or white is the color of the month. Which I thought would be easy, but I can't find a patten I want to knit! WTF? So I'm going to do a patten by the chosen designer instead of the color challenge.

I think I'm going to go toss a load of laundry in, do the dishes and then skein up my yarn. I've got a sick kid at home, so it's just been a lazy day. If I have to watch Thomas one more time, I'm going to lose it. :)

Using up stash

So I've been working on some various projects to clean out my stash. This makes me happy on

several levels. Being creative and using what I've collected.

This one was inspired and made using Cluck.Cluck.Sew. tutorial. I loved the little offset boxes, so I had to make my own. I built this quilt around the dark pink bird fabric. It's hopscotch by red rooster. After I got my blocks finished I threw them up on my design wall. For like a month. I moved them around and then I moved them around some more. I finally came up with an arrangement that I was happy with. But I was just not feeling the sashing. I just thought white would be the color. But it was boring. It didn't pop. I just happened to have some brown left over from a different project, and I threw that up on the wall.

Totally different. That makes me really happy. So I went with the brown. I"m pretty sure the color is "Coffee" by Kona. I've got it all sewn together, but didn't take a picture of that. So you'll have to wait until tomorrow to see that. Now I'm just stuck on the backing. Do I piece it together? I've got the light pink and some birds left over that would work, but I'm not sold on that yet. It's hanging on my wall, so I can stare at it for a week or so. :)

1 week old

My nephew Mason!

Quilt By me. Photo and Baby by my SIL. :)

Fixing...Messing with...

Whatever you call it. Tweaking maybe? I don't know. I'm playing with my blog layout, so if you notice anything really crazy, I'm sorry. I'm working on having that fixed. My old set up was weird for posting pictures. They could only be super tiny. So I grabbed this template so I could post them a little larger. Easier on the eyes I think. Now I'm just tryign to make it my own, with my very limited html know how. :)

Cheater Cheater

I made this for a friend that had a baby on Monday. She is not a pastel kind of person. When I saw this panel, I knew I wanted to make it. Then I found out she was preggers, so I knew I had a match. I feel totally like a cheater cheater pumpkin eater because it's a panel. I still quilted it and everything. But still. She loves it and that's all that matters. I used Kona Honey Dew to bind it off. I didn't get a pick of the back, but it's a pink and burgandy print that matches the colors in the urchin.

Pictures!

This is one of the quilts I put together while my hubby was in San Diego. I had seen some on flickr like this, and decided to make up one of my own. I cut 2 1/2 inch strips and sewed them together. Then I cut those strips 7 1/2 inches. I slapped another strip on the top and bottom and done! I used some fat quarter I had laying around from a baby quilt I was going to make oh.. 5 years ago. :) The border is pieced from the leftovers. So much fun! I quilted it in white thread, just going about 1/4 an inch on either side of the seams. So it's a grid pattern. Simple, but striking I think.

What? You love it? You want it? Well, Lucky You! It's up in my etsy shop.

Also. I went and did something crazy. I started a bee. You know, a quilting bee? The theme is Solids. Just using solids. No prints. It can be a single color, or a rainbow of them. But only solids. Head on over to Solid Bee Block for more details and to join! Right now there are 2 peeps that have joined, so there is room for 10 more. Hurray! Act Today! No Delay!

Thoughts about Stash.

Since I don't have photo editing software on this thing yet, there are no pictures to share today. Sorry. Instead, I've cracked my skull a little, to let the crazy out and you guys (okay. You guy. My one faithful reader) in.

So I've been thinking about my stash, and stashing habits lately. Why I stash, what I stash. You know. Deep Thoughts. I have come to a realization that I am a collector. A hoarder if you will. My thoughts are along the lines of "I love it. I must own it all. If I use it up it will be gone forever." So, it sits. Lovely yarn or fabric just sits and waits. Which, after further thought, seems really dumb. Because if I USE it, I get to enjoy it while I'm knitting. Or put it into a quilt and then have a finished quilt that I or someone else will love and see all day. Instead of sitting in my craft room. Waiting for their full potential to be met.

While my hubby was away, I re-did my craft room and now I can see what I have. I pulled out 3 garbage bags of fabric that I no longer love, and won't use. People. That is just crazy. Now, granted I bought alot of this stuff years ago, before I had a husband, a kid and a house. But really. How long should I keep holding on to this stuff that I'm never going to use? So I was honest with myself, and got rid of a bunch. I also made it so I could see what I have, instead of hiding it away in rubbermaid tubs. If I can see it, I can use it. If I see it, I won't buy new stuff that I don't need. Well, that's the hope anyway.

A good example is fabric I'm cutting for a quilt. I bought a bunch of black and white fabric, wanting to "someday" make a black and white quilt. I bought that fabric before I starting dating my hubby. 7 years ago. I think 'someday' has come. I starting cutting into it last night. I didn't break out into a sweat. It didn't kill me. Hell, there is nothing special about that fabric. It's just fabric. I'm even throwing tiny pieces away, instead of saving them. Shocker!

When I was in college, I learned that once people went from a hunter gather society to a more settled lifestyle, they didn't need to hunt to live. But people still do. Those are the people that hunt for toys from their childhood. Baseball cards. Stripey Sock yarn. Whatever floats your boat. They hunt, they find, they collect. No reason really, except to fill some deep seated instinctual urge. Well, I'm breaking that habit. Mostly because I don't want to turn into my Grandmother, who couldn't throw anything out. She was a child of the depression, and saved everything. When she died and they cleaned out her house, she had 3 garbage bags of the waistband from men's' underwear. 3 bags. Of worn out elastic from Grandpa's skivies.

So. In my rambling way, I guess I'm saying this. I am going to start USING what I have. Knitting up that pretty sock yarn, instead of petting it and dreaming about the socks it will make. I will make those socks. I will cut that fabric. I will make a quilt. I will keep it and love it, or give it away and be happy it's making someone else happy. There will always be new yarn to love and pet. New fabric that is just the right shade of pink. Why am I saving all of the goodies? Wouldn't it suck if I died tomorrow, and my husband just sent it off to the salvation army? (Don't worry. My BFF Rose has strict instructions as to what her job is when I kick)

Use it or Get rid of it. Then get new stuff. That's my new motto. :)

Thoughts? Comments? Hints and tips?

Hello Blog World!

Okay. Let me whine a moment. I cut the heck out of the tip of my index finger yesterday fixing the ac and it hurts! A band aid doesn't want to stick and of course, it's right were I type. argh! But the ac is not leaking water any more, so that's a plus. *end whine*

While Michael was in San Diego, I finished 2 baby sized quilt tops. Of course, I left them at work when I showed them off to the girls, so I haven't gotten pictures yet. I work tonight, so I hope I'll remember them this time.

I cut out a wonky block quilt top and sewed it up yesterday. I just need sashing and it's finished.

Now. here's the funny part of the whole being productive thing. I cleaned out my craft room and it's lovely in there. But I've found if I haul my cutting mat or sewing machine upstairs and work in the kitchen during nap time, I get a ton done. I think it's because I can hear the kid when he wake ups, or I can sneak away while he's playing trains and cut a bit. So. Lovely craft room= no work. Working on the kitchen island = work done.

I think if I ever get these tops quilted, I'm going to toss them up on etsy. Maybe they'll sell. If not, I've got a stack of baby quilts ready for when all those people I know pop. Seriously. I think I know about 15 people birthing babies this year. Anyone else out there overwhelmed with babies? Not everyone I know is getting a quilt. Some are getting knit hats or flannel receiving blankets. I have a system. Blood relatives get a quilt. Good friends get a blanket and friends/coworkers get a knit hat. I have a bunch of hats to make, but they're super cute, made out of sock yarn. Hooray for using up leftovers.

ha!

I got me a laptop! It's a tiny little dell and I got it from my brother. Well, it;s sorta on loan until I pay him, or decide I want a ipad. :)

Which means, while I'm in bed with J watching toy story, I can surf the net. woo!

Another Baby Quilt!

This one is for a friends baby girl that was born last Sept. *oops* I made it before her first birthday! That should count. Right? It's my go to baby quilt pattern, Yellow Brick Road. Which I think I've made 6 like this, and am now over that pattern. It's all different shades of pink, with some Zebra print thrown in for fun. Because the Mom said "not too pink" Ha! Anyway. The light is crap as it was evening, and I just wanted to get this taken so I could mail it away.

Done!

It's finished! The quilt for my soon to be here niece or nephew

My SIL asked for green. So that's what she got. :)

The Quilt is from the Denyse Schmidt Quilts book. Flock of Triangles is the name. I used Kona Cotton White for the solid and lots of green. Some I had in stash, some I bought just for this project. I either got 1/4 yard cuts or fat quarters. I think there are about 8 different prints in there. I used the same green on the backing as I used for binding. I just quilted straight lines down the center of each triangle. Simple, yet beautiful. I hope the little one enjoys it!