Too Good to be True

I knew it. That deal on the Stripey Tiger fabric was too good to be true. They ran out of yardage before getting to my order. :-( I'm bummed, but I'll just have to keep my eye out for another print or the same one elsewhere for my t-shirt project.

Adding to My Stash

Fabric.com is having a great sale. Until midnight tonight they are offering an additional 30% off of any clearance items (use code CLEARANCE323 at checkout). In addition, sales over $35 ship for free. And that is $35 before the discount. I ordered 8 yards of fabric and with the free shipping the whole order was under $30!

My favorite find, Stripey Tiger Paws, is a perfect for a project I have in mind. My high school mascot is a tiger and the school colors are black and gold. I've been wanting to make a t-shirt quilt out of my old t-shirts as there are so many and I never wear them anymore. They are just sitting at my parents' house in boxes. Anyway, I'm hoping to use this as the binding fabric. It is almost too good to be true that I found it. I just have to figure out if it is okay to mix old t-shirts with quilting cotton.
I got some other cute prints too that I will share when they arrive!

Beautiful Blogger Award

Many thanks to Jean at Quiltingranny who generously passed this award along to me last week. Being so new to blogging, I never imagined I would receive anything like this. I am not only thankful, but honored that she would choose my blog. In her post, Jean not only shared the award, but some very kind words that I am equally grateful for. Thank you Jean!

What the award entails:
- Thanks and link my presenter
- Post the award on my blog
- Share 7 interesting things about myself
- Nominate 7 blogs and link to them

Interesting facts:
1) As a child, I never really liked the color pink, but it is now my favorite color and I can't get enough of it.
2) I finished one year of my bachelor's degree and one year of my master's degree in the same year.
3) My favorite food is cheese.
4) I am legally blind in one eye.
5) I don't eat red meat.
6) I love to read, but have to do it in moderation as I tend to pick up a book and read it from start to finish without stopping for much of anything including eating and sleeping.
7) I can NEVER remember the correct lyrics to a song, but love to sing along with my own made up words. It drives my family and friends crazy, but is just so enjoyable I can't quit.

Blogs that inspire me:
1) Quilt Dad - The first quilting blog I began reading. I love to see the great idea's John comes up with to make his quilts modern.
2) a quilt is nice - Like me, Nettie wishes she had more time to quilt, but it is inspiring to see all the beautiful and colorful quilts she is able to produce in the time she has.
3) Because I'm Me - Jody is a mother of 6 home schooled children and still manages to make beautiful quilts. How can that not be inspiring?
4) Film in the Fridge - I love Ashley's use of color and unique block arrangements on quilts like this and this.
5) one shabby chick - Amber seems to always have some fun projects in the works that give me ideas and motivate me to keep quilting.
6) Dawn's Quilts - A recent blog I have begun following. Dawn has some creative quilting ideas and many other fun ideas on her blog.
7) Bejeweled Quilts by Barb - Another recent addition to my blogroll, Barb's blog is full of energy and fun! She has many beautiful quilts, but also has other fun posts about fabric and other misc projects.

Thanks again to Jean for the award, but also to all the bloggers who have inspired me in my quilting journey. I look forward to continuing to follow your blogs and see what amazing new things you create!

A Month Without Sewing

Due to the end of the school year, and the final push to graduation, I am away from my sewing machine for the next few weeks. It is residing at my parents' house while I finish up my papers, requirements, and preparations for moving. I'll get a chance to use it for a couple hours Easter weekend, but then won't be seeing it again until the end of April. Its too bad the end of the year is so busy because quilting is a great way for me to de-stress and would be helpful as the assignments seem to stack up. I will just have to live vicariously through other quilters in blogland as I read about what they are working on. At least I can look forward to more time for quilting once I'm finally done (hopefully forever) with classes!

Now that I've begun quilting, I am finding many different patterns I want to try out. I want to try string blocks, rail fence blocks, disappearing nine patch blocks, as well as a quilt of all squares and numerous patterns I've drawn up myself. I've gone out and bought several different 'sets' of fabrics that I could use on any of these patterns. As enthusiastic as I am to get started, I seem to freeze when it is time to cut into the fabrics. I get worried I've chosen the 'wrong' set of fabrics for a particular design or that I'll mess up when cutting and ruin the fabric I have. I finally had to take a moment to reason with myself that (1) if I do make a bad cut who cares? I can cut another piece or change up the design a little, (2) there is no 'right' fabric for a design or design for a fabric, and (3) I'm still learning and can always make another quilt if the current one isn't to my liking and I'm sure someone will like it. Having done that, I felt much better and was able to piece together the blocks for a disappearing nine patch baby quilt.I've subsequently spent between 1-2 hours arranging and re-arranging the blocks in a pattern that is to my liking, but have finally found a good arrangement. You can see my little slip of paper on the top block indicating its place in the layout. This little pile is sitting and waiting for me to return to it when I finally have some time.

A Little Quilt for a Little Friend

A couple weeks ago, I was supposed to get to spend the day with a little two-year-old friend of mine. I hadn't seen her in awhile and thought I would surprise her with a gift that we could play with that day and she could take home with her. I used some fabrics I had in my line up to start a baby quilt as I knew I had bought a little extra of each print and the scraps of batting from my primary colors quilt. Not only did I hope my little friend would be pleased with a gift, I was anxious to get some more practice (especially with binding!) and a chance to try out grid quilting.

The front: The back:Close up of grid quilting

The gift (complete with a baby doll wearing a nightgown with

matching purple polka dots that I found at the store!):

Unfortunately, I didn't get to see my little friend that day as she spent the weekend with her aunt instead. I passed the gift to her mom and asked her to please give it to her when she got home. Her big sister reports that she loved it and showed it to anyone who stepped foot in their house. I'm glad she likes it and hope I get to see her soon.

Lucky Find

A week ago, while visiting family, I was driving down the road, running an errand, when I passed the local quilt shop. A large banner hanging on the side of the building read "Fat Quarter Sale - Fill Your Stash!" with Saturday's date underneath. I quickly decided to take their suggestion and join them on Saturday in an attempt to fill up my stash.
I got there on Saturday, but not until about thirty minutes after the store had opened. Most every sale priced FQ was already sold and there were many unhappy women milling about the store. It turns out if you were not there when the doors opened, you were out of luck. I decided to look around a little bit and see if there were any other fabrics that caught my, even if they weren't on the mega-sale. While looking, I came across a tiny stack of the sale FQ that had been looked over. There were a few trick-or-treat fabrics, one other design I didn't care for, and this...
I quickly picked up several FQs of each print, debating how many I wanted. I ended up with a yard of the castle background and 1/2 yard of the map background. I left a few FQs on the table, but now wish I would have bought every last one they had.
I'm absolutely loving this fabric - its soft, bright, and so cute - and can't wait to make a little quilt out of it!