update in the Wendy City...

I realized I haven't posted in a while.....

you see, the things I've been working on I can't share just yet!

But here's a sneak peek of one project..... coming soon.

Also, I've been working on a pattern to sell.  2, actually.  well... no... 3.

Anyway...

And one's almost finished, just needs some tweaking.  (it's a child's garment pattern)

one I need to photograph the cover piece.  (it's a quilt pattern)

one needs some additional research. (an adult garment pattern)

But those aren't ready for show either!

And I finished up my dot swap, thank goodness!  Can't wait to show you what I'm doing with my charm squares, and I am looking forward to seeing what everyone does with theirs as well.

And there was family reunion and family vacation and spending the summer with my sweet babies... you know, the important stuff.

Happy Summer to all!

wee folk by Ingrid

So I almost never buy fabric just for me.  To make something for myself.

But this week I bought this!

I'm so excited.  

Maybe I live under a rock, but I haven't seen much of this collection around blogland, but I think it's utterly fabulous and can't wait to start sewing on it.  

just have to finish up some other projects first.....

Some days I still sew!

Wow, summer is fun.  

So I've been spending most of my days at picnics

and at the pool

and running through bouncy houses

and occasionally I'm sewing...

but I rarely have time to write about it, it seems!

I hope you are doing well and having a lovely summer as well!

I did want to show you some blocks I finished up this week for a bee

Because I LOVED them SO MUCH!

They used this tutorial by Oh Fransson!

and it was a lot of fun.  They are on their way to Kristin today.. 

can't wait to see what she makes out of them.

A few spots left in the Dotty For Dots Swap!

I have a few spots left in the Dotty for Dots swap, and I am anxious to fill them quickly!

Details below:

You will mail in to me:

20 5” squares from each of 4 polka-dot fabrics (for a total of 80 charm squares)

          So that means you buy ½ yard of 4 polka-dot fabrics and cut 20 5” squares of each of them.

And then you will receive in the mail:

80 5” charm squares of 80 different polka dot fabrics.

The details:

·       Comment on this post to claim your place in the swap.  Make sure I have a way to contact you.  If I reply to the comment and your e-mail comes up as "no-reply" then I'll have to remove you from the list.

·        Purchase ½ yard of 4 different polka dot fabrics.  All fabrics should be 100% cotton and quilt-store quality.

·        Use a rotary cutter to carefully cut 20 5” charm squares from each fabric.  

·        Mail in your charm squares to arrive to me no later than June 20. Please put your squares into a gallon-size Ziploc bag with your name, phone number and address written on the bag.   

In the bag, include $5 for return postage via Priority Mail flat-rate envelope.

Because this is a swap with a very quick turnaround, I'm limiting the participants to people in the continental United States.  But next time I'll be sure to include International participants.

To sign up, please leave a comment on this post or send me an e-mail to wendyleep at gmail dot com.

If you leave a comment, be sure that I have a way to contact you.

Destash (Very Nearly) Giveaway!

Friends, as fabric fell on my head when I opened the closet this morning, an idea hit me (literally).
I need to get rid of the fabric I'm not going to use.

So here's the deal.  I've packed up 3 of the postal service shoeboxes today.  If you will pay for shipping, I'll send the box to you.  Easy peasy!  I need to get these out quickly, so I'm limiting to US so that I can ship from my home.

BOX 1:

Box 1 contains non cotton fabrics.  I don't know the fabric content on these.  They are NOT quilting cottons.  The plaid and bears are a seersucker texture.  This box weighs  4.75 pounds.   It will be about $14 to ship it.

BOX 2:

Box 2 contains minkee-esque fabrics.  Some are larger than others. The pink on the left has some areas where the dots are not as pronounced as others.  I think all of these were purchased at either JoAnn's or Hobby Lobby.  This box weighs 3.5 pounds.  It will be around $12.50 to ship this box.  BOX 2 IS CLAIMED!

BOX 3:

Box 3 contains more minkee.  There is quite a bit of the green on the left.  This box weighs 2.75 pounds.  It will be around $10 to ship box 3.

Leave me a comment if you want one of these and we can work out the actual shipping cost and the details.  Make sure that I have a way to contact you.  First come, first serve... so let me know quickly if you want them.

Swap Time!

I'd like to invite you all to participate in my Dotty For Dots Swap!

This is a swap I'm doing in conjunction with my local quilt store, and I'm very excited about it.

Here's the details:

You will mail in to me:

20 5” squares from each of 4 polka-dot fabrics (for a total of 80 charm squares)

          So that means you buy ½ yard of 4 polka-dot fabrics and cut 20 5” squares of each of them.

And then you will receive in the mail:

80 5” charm squares of 80 different polka dot fabrics.

The details:

·       Comment on this post to claim your place in the swap.  Make sure I have a way to contact you.  If I reply to the comment and your e-mail comes up as "no-reply" then I'll have to remove you from the list.

·        Purchase ½ yard of 4 different polka dot fabrics.  All fabrics should be 100% cotton and quilt-store quality.

·        Use a rotary cutter to carefully cut 20 5” charm squares from each fabric.  

·        Mail in your charm squares to arrive to me no later than June 6.  Please put your squares into a gallon-size Ziploc bag with your name, phone number and address written on the bag.   

In the bag, include $5 for return postage via Priority Mail flat-rate envelope.

Because this is a swap with a very quick turnaround, I'm limiting the participants to people in the continental United States.  But next time I'll be sure to include International participants.

progress this week

This weekend I have "Meet the Teacher" for the classes I'm teaching in the next few months.  

I'm very excited about it.

One of the classes is a Modern Machine Quilting class, and I've been working on my sample for it.

Here's a closeup of the quilting.

and this was the last week of school, so I've been busy working on teacher gifts.

These too for my younger daughter's teachers.

It's been a busy week!  

My new table runner (and someone let me loose with a longarm machine!)

Last week my friend Angie let me play around on her longarm.

What fun!!

And she had made this cute table runner..... 

That totally matches my kitchen... and she let me quilt it. 

Isn't that the best?  

So I played around with spirals.  This one wasn't my best, but isn't the fabric beautiful?

This one was probably better.  I bound it in yellow, and I love the way it looks on my table. 

Such fun.  

Thanks Angie!

Sew Mama Sew Giveaway!

Hi friends,

I love the Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Day!

This year I'm giving away a fun little water-resistant zippered pouch filled with 2.5 inch strips of fabric from my stash.

Yes, well right now it's empty... but it will not be when it arrives to you.....

Later on, I'm planning a tutorial on the quilted but still water-resistantness of this zippered bag, which involves one of my new favorite things, iron on vinyl!

So I have a few things coming up soon:  a quilt pattern and a children's clothing pattern.  So check back in the next few days!

To enter my giveaway:
1.  Go comment on any previous post.  I just want you to look around a bit while you're here!
2.  Come back and leave a comment on this post telling me you did.  That's all.

I'll randomly choose a winner on the 26th, and the prize will ship out by May 30th.
Thanks for stopping by!
Wendy

Look what's posting today!

Today I have a recipe up at Moda Bake Shop.  It's my second one, and I am so excited!  

Please click over and see.  

And would you leave a comment over there so that Moda knows you stopped by?  

I would so appreciate it.

I enjoyed this project so very much.  And once the quilt was finished up, it needed an accessory.

So I made this cute pillow from the scraps!

Read on for directions......

Draw a basic butterfly shape, approximately the size of your desired pillow size.

Piece together enough scraps to cover your shape.  Then cut your shape out of Heat N Bond and affix to your pieced fabric.

Cut it out and 

Iron onto your pillow front.  Mine measured 16" x 16".

Satin stitch around the edge of the butterfly.

Layer up your pillow front, then two layers of batting, then backing. 

 The backing will not show, so it's a good way to use up scraps.

I used two layers of batting so that the quilting would really show up well.

Quilt as desired.  This was a lot of fun for me because my 4-year old daughter helped me with it!

She put her hands on top of mine and we traced the echo around the butterfly together.

After I washed the front, the butterfly was a bit saggy.  So I cut into the backing and stuffed the butterfly part with fiberfill so that it's puffy.  The proper name for this is trapunto, I have since learned.

I used an envelope closure on the back of the pillow and some leftover binding from my quilt to finish it up.

Muted Nauticals finished up

Finished up a quilt this week that I was first working on here....

It's for a little boy named Maksim who's due to be born in July.

I quilted it in free-form waves with his name in there a few times for fun.  I enjoyed the quilting. 

The name didn't photograph great, but it looks neat in person.  

I did a quilt for Maksim's big sister a couple of years ago, and here's that post.

Giveaway Day is coming to town....

The May Sew, Mama, Sew! Giveaway Day is coming up soon.  

If you haven't participated before, it's lots of fun.  I want to encourage everyone to enter to do a giveaway of their own.  All the details of how to enter are posted here, and the deadline to sign up is Friday, May 20.