Its a giveaway! and dog boasting...

Good day folks! (okay, folk- is that the singular? I know there aren't that many people out there- but I digress...) Terri over at Sew-Fantastic is hosting an awesome giveaway...check it out!

And I don't really have anything else to say, here's one of my dogs:




This is Clancy. He is a border collie. And he is crazy. He has eaten the following random things (not all at the same time): a pound of fudge, a bottle of Vicks formula 44 (including the cap), 8 dozen chocolate chip cookies, 3 pounds of crab leg shells, a bag of bread flour, various contents of the trash can...it is amazing he is still alive. But I am so glad he is. This dog is the bright spot in my crappy days and I adore him.

Go out and hug the ones you love!

Swap loot, stash and WIP

On Friday, I left work early to pick up a mailer for my package for this sweet swap. I got home and, viola!, my package had already arrived. Awesome Dena from Tales at Wayne Manor had already sent my package. A parade of fat quarters and some sweeeeet lip balm and a little journal notebook...excellent!





So many thanks to you Dena! And I dropped your package off at the post office Saturday morning. It should be there soon. I want to post pictures of the fabric I picked but I want it to be a surprise so I will contain myself. Which I suck at. As a kid (and even now) my sister and I could never keep gifts secret. We would be so excited to see how the receiver would react that we couldn't wait (still can't) to give gifts. It makes for a lot of early Christmas and birthday gifts!

Now, for my stash. I have been building and building lately. Lots of yard and half yard cuts have been purchased in the past month. And now they are all kind of organized and safely put away, here:



And broken down, into types, cuts and whatever:

yard cuts.

half yard cuts. I especially love these. They are some of my favorite fabrics- Sugar Snap by Melissa Averinos and lots of Amy Butler...I drool just thinking about Melissa's fabric, especially the Kimono, which may be my favorite of all time. (I wanted to put a link to Free Spirit Fabric's site, but its apparently down right now...or I am just FORBIDDEN from going to it anymore...)

I know that I should store fabric in more protected boxes but I love these Orla Kiely crates from Target. And I really like to pull out a box from the shelf and see what's in it. Once again, my sense of what is pretty wins over practical and safe. Eh, what are you gonna do? Plus the Orla Kiely crates fit perfectly into my little, cheap storage cube...

And, finally, my WIP...Its for my bestest friend, Liz. She doesn't read my blog (she doesn't really use the internet much at all...) so its safe to put pictures here. I am so excited about this quilt. It is made up of wonky log cabin blocks (tutorial here) . I used fabric that Liz gave me while I was visiting her this summer and I love this quilt top. Its a little on the small side but she can use it as a lap quilt. I still have one border to sew on and then its just cutting the batting and piecing the backing...then off to the quilter. I still haven't gotten up the courage to quilt these things myself...

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I think this is one of the best pieces I've made, up to this point. Its definitely got some problems because I still can't always meet up seams like one should. But I figure that gives it its handmade quality.

Thanks for letting me share. Go out and have a lazy Sunday!

V-day and fun finds...

Let's just say straight away that my huband ROCKS. He is funny, compassionate, loving, sarcastic, brilliant, a little bit evil and adorable. Everything I could want in a partner. And his taste in flowers is brilliant. Getting flowers on Valentine's day is sweet and thoughtful, but these flowers could only come from him...he picks the best flowers for me, always.



Orange roses, hot pink gerbera daisies, little teeny fuchsia primrose-looking things??? He is seriously the best! And no sappy card, here. Just this:



Simple, straight to the point. I love him. And I thank him for being so thoughtful.

Now on to the finds. Our local Society of St. Vincent dePaul (we call it Vinnie's around these parts...) has a linen sale every year. They save up all the antique and vintage linens that get donated throughout the year and then they sell them all at once, over the weekend. Its a big deal. All the fancy-pants antiques dealers line up on the first morning, chomping at the bit to get to the damn place. And then they buy up all the linen dish towels and whatnot so they can sell them on ebay or at the antique mall or whatever. So usually by the time I get there, there's not much. But yesterday I left work a little early and got some cool stuff...







Hankies! I love them. I think I want to make something out of them, just not sure what. I am thinking maybe some little curtains or incorporate them into a quilt, somehow. They are really thin, so I would need to reinforce them somehow if I want to put them in a quilt. I guess I'll have to think on that for a while.

My other find is this sweet little sampler:



I love the sentiment and I love that its old. I am hoping that my dear sweet sister can frame it for me. I will hang it up either in my sewing room or at work. Maybe work is the place for it. I need to remember that kind words are important when I am getting frustrated by people's lack of common sense...

Thanks for letting me share. Go out and have a loverly day!

Its a swap! And, of course, some tangential rambling...

Darci over at Stitches and Scissors is hosting a fat quarter swap, so go on over and check it out!

I love fat quarters. You can get lots of different fabrics for a little money with fat quarters. I've found that they are a really great stash builder and I love to just look at them. They are usually under $3.00 each and I just feel like I get tons of variety from them. And the size is easy to mange, which I like in my limited and not-so-organized space. The first quilt I made was made with fat quarters. It was a pattern from this book , made with all batiks and I love it. I'm sitting with it on my lap right now.



One of the things I love about this quilt is the batting. I used a very thin batting that is a silk and cotton blend. So the quilt is super lightweight but SUPER warm. The lightness of the quilt is deceiving. And it is one of the few quilts in my living room that hasn't been taken over by the dogs, although they've tried. But I am a total fanatic about making sure they don't get it. I yell at others in my house if they leave it laying on the couch for the dogs to lay on. My husband thinks I'm crazy...

Don't forget to check out the swap and have a lovely day...

Superbowl...

Steelers, hands down.



And to eat? Stuffed mushrooms, wings, baked beans, chips, Mom's awesome and decadent bean dip creation, chips, crackers, fresh veggies, cheese.

That's it. (That's enough!) Oh, except beer. And probably some pepto at some point....

Have a pigskin-tastic day!