This week's giveaway....

I have to admit, I enjoyed the Sew, Mama, Sew giveaway this week.

It was fun.

I'm glad to have made new blogging friends!

I'm glad you're here.

So this week I'm giving away something else.

Do you ever buy fabric and then wonder why the heck you bought it?

That's what I did. I bought this online without checking the manufacturer's site for color accuracy. In the picture, it was pink and brown and was going to be simply gorgeous in my daughter's room. In reality it's white and olive... and it's not my colors.

But perhaps it's yours?

It's 2 fat quarters of Amy Butler's Daisy chain fabric.

I've seen some really beautiful things made with this fabric lately.

Anyhoo... to enter, just leave a comment and tell me what you'd do with it.
{Anything is better than what I've done with it--leave it in a drawer for 3 months occasionally pulling it out and deciding NOT to use it...}

I'll choose a winner on Friday June 5. Check back to see if you won!
And I'll post the winner of the watermelon quilt tomorrow.

Today's project...

Here's the quilt I was working on today. It's just the top right now, but I'm hoping to get it quilted tomorrow if my babies take naps (at the same time)! I used a charm pack of Moda's wee play line, and I love this quilt! I'll post another picture when it's completed.

I like this one so much. I'm donating it to a charity function in Michigan, but I'm hoping to do more like it to put in my etsy shop.

Some personalized coozies

Well, I'm working on some monogramming today. It's fun to me.... it feels like I have infinite possibilities at my fingertips! So here's a coozie I made for myself.

And here's 2 I made for teacher gifts. I love my little girl's teachers--they are the best!

Next up is one for the girls' grandma that says "Nana." And one for a friend that says "mine." (her kiddos often "borrow" her drinks so I thought a coozie might help!)

I think I'm going to make some more for father's day.... Don't worry, I'll use cammo for those!

Do you need one for someone? Visit my etsy store to order.

MAY GIVEAWAY!

Here's my giveaway. I'm very excited about this. It's a small quilt, about 30" square. It would be beautiful as a baby quilt or as a summer table topper.

You can enter to win until the 31st.

So here's how to enter:

1. Leave a comment on this post to enter once. Tell me about what you'd do with the watermelon quilt.

2. Sign up to follow my blog and I'll enter your name 2 more times....

3. Post on your blog directing people to my giveaway and I'll enter your name 2 more times.... If you're posting on your blog, please leave the address in your comment. You are welcome to use the picture of the quilt in your post.

4. Purchase anything from my etsy store during May 27 - 31 and I'll enter your name 2 more times!

So for example, if you post a comment and sign up as a follower you'll be entered 3 times into the drawing. And if you comment, follow, post on your blog and purchase something, you will be entered into the drawing 7 times.

I'll use a random number generator to draw a name on June 1, and I'll post the winner here!

So please check back to see if you won and claim your prize!

And if you don't win, you can always purchase the quilt kit in my etsy store.

Thanks for visiting. I hope you'll take a few minutes and look around my blog.

I'm glad you're here.

Edible Birdhouse project

My daughter and I made an edible birdhouse this week and it was so much fun! I wanted to share......

You will need:

• a wooden birdhouse. I found one that was perfect at my local Dollar Tree. You can buy larger ones at any craft store.
• peanut butter
• cornstarch
• birdseed
• nuts, dried fruit, fresh fruit, millet, or anything else birds will enjoy
• string or twine to hang your birdhouse
  

1. Start with a birdhouse. I suggest one with a ledge on the bottom so the birds can have something to stand on to eat the seeds. 2. Mix peanut butter and cornstarch to make a kind of mortar. You can use straight peanut butter, but it will be a little goopier.
3. Smear peanut butter onto the side of your birdhouse and push seed into it. This is really fun for kiddos! Small ones may need help with the smearing.

4. Repeat for all sides.

5. For the roof, we used peanuts and coconut. Raisins, cranberries or other nuts would work well too. Or more birdseed!

6. When all sides are covered, use the twine to hang your birdhouse.

This project works well for a range of ages. Gigi is 2, and she thought it was really fun. Older kids could get more creative in the design!

Also, when you are finished you can watch the birds and other wildlife enjoy your creation. And when it's empty, you can start all over again!

Ways to Annoy people...2 Year old Style

Those of us who were in college in the 90's probably remember seeing lots of lists about "How to Annoy your Roommate" and such. They were funny. And it was in the early days of the web, and we were thrilled with our ability to send funny things to each other. Here's a pretty good example.

So I'd like to present..... Ways to Annoy people...2 Year old Style
Please try these out on your friends and coworkers and report back how long it takes before they beat you about the face and head.....

1. Anytime you hear a statement, ask "WHY?" Repeat until the person leaves the room.
2. Announce anytime someone uses the bathroom. Congratulate them and do a special dance. Offer to get them candy.
3. Remove your shoes at least once an hour. Insist that other people put them back on for you.
4. Learn new words. Use them at inappropriate times. Loudly.
5. Change your mind. A lot.
6. Stand waaaayyyy too close. Preferably on people's feet.
7. Close all doors you encounter. Every single one.
8. Request food. Refuse to eat it. Request more food. Don't eat that either. Complain about how hungry you are.
9. Color on stuff in permanent marker. Legal documents, furniture, pets and clothing are the best.
10. Insist that all yellow objects are actually orange. Argue loudly about it.
11. Ignore the existence of the number 7.


Moms of 2-year-olds out there, you ROCK! Hang in there!

Watermelon Quilt Giveaway

Here's a sneak peek at my giveaway that will start tomorrow, May 27th. Stay tuned!

May Giveaway Day!

Wanted to let you know about something fabulous happening on the web this week! Sew, Mama, Sew! is hosting a Giveaway day. Starting on Wednesday, you can find a list of blogs that are giving away something... and you can sign up to win! on all of them! hooray for free stuff!
And.... um.... I'm giving away something too. A baby quilt. A cool one!

A useful project -- high chair cover

By age 2, my daughter's high chair cover looked... a little icky. Like this:

Nothing desperately wrong with it. But a little gross, no matter what products I used to launder it. So I set out on a project to replace it in a cute way.

This was an easy, quick project--my favorite kind!

I took strips of pink scraps, sewed them together to be larger than my high chair cover, then sandwiched it together and quilted it.

Then I cut out the basic shape and then checked it on the high chair. When I was happy with it, I cut out a half-circle shape to go on the back to go over the high chair. Then I made binding with the polka dot scraps, and bound the edges. The ribbons were caught in the binding and hold it to the chair nicely!

Arrrrr, maytie!

Here's a cute little project for a friend's little boy, complete with his little outfit to go home from the hospital. I made the hat and onesie to match! He was a very cute little pirate....

the quilt was SO CUTE and it went together easily. Would anyone be interested in quilt kits on this one?

Bright Spot quilt -- pattern stage!

I'm {relatively} young. My friends are {relatively} young. So it comes as a great shock when one of my friends passes away. In the past 3 years, this has happened twice.

• Kristen passed away of cancer last year. In her last few months, she sent her oldest child to kindergarten.
• Dave passed away of a heart condition unexpectedly. His son Connor was 5.

It's a shock.

Some friends have organized a golf tourney to benefit the education funds of these kiddos, and I'm donating a quilt. In my continuing effort to take on much more than I can possibly handle, I decided to design a pattern as well. Eek! Anyway, I wanted to design a pattern that honors what bright spots these precious children were to the parents that had to leave them too soon.

My babies are the brightest spots in my life--they add color and fun to every single day.

So you see my kitchen table this morning. It's early. Hoping that cup of coffee will keep the inspiration coming. Stay tuned!

A teeny quilt

I made this quilt for a friend's niece who was born very prematurely at just 1 pound, 12 ounces. It's tiny! I wanted to dress up her isolette in the NICU.

Here's the front:

and here's the back:

In an odd twist, about 10 days after I finished this quilt, my daughter was born early, and lived for 2 weeks in the NICU just a few beds down from the sweet baby this quilt was for. I guess we never know what life has in store for us...

A quilt donation

This was a special quilt. It was the first one I donated. Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of it once it was finished! This is the last picture I have--in the basted stage.


It benefitted Sharing Hope Ministries, which is an awesome cause. I so enjoyed sewing it!
And it was incredibly freeing to just buy fabric I loved without having to figure out where it would fit/match in my home. It was so fun! I LOVE the cupcake fabric. It's Michael Miller's pink cupcake. And the jelly bean fabric is awesome. Unfortunately, I don't remember the designer on that one.
{I might should mention that I had a baby (a month early) between the start and finish of this quilt. That might excuse the lack of remembering things... maybe}

A preview....

I'm planning a giveaway. It will begin May 27th and close a couple of days later......

This is the quilt top!

{giggles nervously....}

Planning to put quilt kits in my etsy store, so even if you don't win, you can always sew..

The BIG jump

Here's a big jump for me. I attempted a twin sized quilt. A real one. For my little girl's big girl bed. It was a big deal. BIG!

Her walls are chocolate brown and light blue. I bought this fabric to start out:

Now, you should know a few things about me.
1. I like things planned out.
2. I like to know where I'm going at ALL TIMES.
3. Disorder is not my thing.

I cut everything into 2 1/2 inch strips. So here's what I started with, as in a basket weave quilt.
Nice. Orderly. Boring as hell.
Then Jacquie at Tallgrass Prarie Studio posted Project Improv, encouraging quilters to try something new or different. She suggested improvisational piecing as something to try. I suppose I had taken an extra dose of crazy that morning, because I started piecing random blocks with no earthly idea where I was going. Here's an early picture:( I like how the living room rug adds a bit of nausea here....)

It's a good thing I did go for the random piecing, because I realized later how large a twin size is... and that I didn't buy enough fabric.

Here's another in-progress shot:

And here it is on her bed. I love it! I'm glad I got out of my box.

T-shirt dress

If you were actually a child of the 80's that wore a T-shirt dress, would you please give me a shout out and tell me about your T-shirt dress? Mine was turquoise with white slick paint and white buttons on it. I think there was a white bow on the oh-so-fashionable dropped waist. Boy, I'd love to find a picture of it.....
So here's my updated T-shirt dress for G. Doesn't she look fabulous! These are also available in my etsy shop.

Mom's quilt

So this was a big jump.

1. This was the first quilt I made for someone older than 3.

2. It was (comparably) large.

3. It was for someone who sews and can therefore can recognize a straight seam.

4. It was for my MOM!

I used this pattern for the basic idea.

I abolutely adore how it came out. It's really striking in person. And Mom loved it!

Here are a few can coozies I've been working on. They make me think of lounging at the pool, on the back porch, at the beach.... mainly lounging in general! They have a lot of personality. My favorite one is the one with the measuring tape. A great place to park your Dr. Pepper while you sew! You can find these in my etsy shop. They make a nice small gift or teacher gift!

Mini quilt Monday....

Well, I'm catching up on projects, trying to get to current day. So it's monday and I'm going to post some mini-quilts I created in my effort to learn to quilt!

So the monkey quilt... As I was finishing the adoption quilts, my daughter asked me when I'd make something for her. And I felt the pang of mommy-guilt. And I made her a monkey quilt for her babies. It's about 15" by 18" and her babies like it. It's not my favorite. I discovered I don't like working with flannel.

Next was the flamingo quilt. I wanted to experiment with a different backing. G's Blankie has a silky back, and I wanted to see if that kind of fabric could be quilted. This one is smaller, about 12" by 15". I love it. There are more of these for sale in my etsy shop.

After that.... some adoption quilts

Next I decided to play with some different techniques, and I had a perfect reason to. My friend was in the process of adopting 2 beautiful babies. Hmmm.... well, not babies. Kiddos. And I wanted them to have a Blankie. A special one that reflects how special they are.

So here's the one for the little girl:

And the back....I LOVE the way this one turned out. I just quilted it along each of the strips.

The one for the little boy included some recycled denim (actually legs of jeans) from other projects.

I liked how the yellow back set off the front nicely!

My first quilt.....

So I decided to try quilting because my sister-in-law M had started quilting, and I thought it sounded cool. I used this site as a reference and jumped in with both feet.

M encouraged me to start with a very small quilt to get started and see how the whole thing comes together. So I made a quilt for my daughter:

Here it is in use....

I didn't start with a pattern (or a clue, for that matter!) But for some odd reason, I decided to start with triangles.... mostly becuase I found a tutorial somewhere that showed me how to match 2 squares, draw a line on the diagonal, and then seam on either side of that line. I did quilt it myself on my vintage Bernina, which I was glad to find had a darning foot in the little box that came with it!

So anyway, it was a good starting point for me. And G loves it for her dolls!

Goals.

Goals are good.
Goals help us get places, right?

So I'm setting some goals for this site. Bear with me, I'll be brief. {This is probably a lie... I'm rarely brief.}

1. Gather some exposure for my crafty business. http://www.twirlytutus.com/
2. Write and sew. A lot. I love to write and sew. It makes me happy.
3. Increase my business to meet my first financial goal: pay for my kiddos clothing, mother's day out, and gymnastics.

I'm going to give it a shot. Sometimes I think it's hard to actually publish goals, online or verbally. It sets me up to have a witness when I don't succeed! But I'm putting it out there.

How about you? What is a goal that you have?

Wendy helps you survive your family reunion.

I'm showing off a creation for a family reunion. My cousin asked us to each bring "door prizes." hmm.. that proved to be a challenge. Of course, all I wanted was to bring the coolest door prize--you know, the one that people fought over and argued and were almost willing to inflict physical harm... all in the name of family togetherness, of course!

This is the sign on our grandfather's ranch. Since this picture was taken, it has incurred a few more bulletholes, but that's another post entirely...... ah yes, back to the story. It's kind of the icon of the ranch, you could say. So as my contribution to the door prizes, I brought.... {drum roll} tee shirts with the sign on it!!

brilliant, eh?

Here's the best part--you can use this for any event, and it's really easy! There's this wonderful stuff at Hobby Lobby near the T-shirts (get a 40% off coupon first, ok?) and you just feed it through your inkjet printer. You can design anything you want and print it off onto the magic paper, and then iron it on. Oh, imagine the amazing possibilities....

Tiara onesies

Onesies are among my favorite things to create! I guess it's just because I love babies. Here's two onesies in the same style. The front has a tiara with the baby's name. And the back has angel wings! And how can you go wrong with a fluffy bow to match?

These are also in my etsy store: http://twirlytutus.etsy.com

Tiara tee

Here's a cute tee for my cousin's niece who's turning 2. I like the way the tiara sets off the name! Hmm.... I think this would lose something on a 32-year-old!
Like it? You can order one in my etsy store! http://twirlytutus.etsy.com

First Post!

Just posted my grades for the semester, and I am following through on something I've meant to do for a while--set up my crafty blog. So we'll see how it goes. My dream is that I can use this to build a career around the things that make me the happiest--writing, crafting, sewing, and my beautiful children. AND sharing those things with wonderful people!