My name is Stephanie and this is my blog. It includes music, quilting and pretty much whatever else I feel like throwing in as well. I have been quilting since September 2009, so I am fairly new to it but I love it. I hope you enjoy.
Okay this is kinda silly but appropriate because I might be going on vacation soon. So I probably won't be posting blog posts during that time but we will see.
First off here is a picture of what those little 30's printed pieces I had cut out last week are starting to become:
I've got bear paw fever! I wonder if that is like cat scratch fever? It isn't finished yet and I'll update pics when I have finished.
I NEED OPINIONS:
I need to bring a gift for my hosts on vacation, something small but nice.
Note that my hosts are 82 year old ladies.
Here are the options. First I have two snap bags with matching coasters.
Or I could make some potholders/table covers out of this piece of UFO I found in my stash:
and the other could have these two placemats:
Well there you have that. Let me know what you thinks, and I'll tell you what I've decided closer to when I leave.
This isn't exactly a music video although it has music to it, but I think the westies are super cute. I love puppies.
Today and Tommorrow are sale days in the Windsor/Essex quilt stores and so I found some pretty nice buys for cheap.
First off:
I found this at a booth outside of one of the quilt stores for$3. I think it's 1 meter of eatch print but it could be more because I haven't measured it yet. The friend I was with got this purple flower print 4 meters for $3, so this could very well be 2 meters each.
Next up:
A stained glass quilted birds pattern for $1. I've always wanted to try doing stained glass quilting but haven't had the time and thought this wasa pretty little pattern.
I love anything with big flowers on it. I have no plans for it just yet but I am sure I can find something interesting to do with it. I bought this at half price for $9 a meter, and bought one meter.
Last and my favorate.
It's a redwork sheet that I found, and it'sso pretty. I don't know when it was made but I am sure it's fairly old, although in great condition. Sorry about the picture, it was windy out, and there isn't enough light in my house.
The hands in the center say two names and birthdates. One is from 1830 and the other is 1829. I am sure the spread isn't that old, but I know it's not new either. Any ideas on age?
So I spent the day helping at the quilt shop. I am going back tommorrow too.
I haven't said anything yet about this on the blog, because I wasn't sure if I wanted to say anything or not, but on February 25th 2010 I had RNY gastric bypass surgery and in the 3 months since surgery I have lost 70lbs. Yay for me. Anyways I took a new picture on my three month surgerversury. Here it is:
Good Morning. Regardless that this song is called "sad song" it has a happy beat.
This is going to be fairly short since I have a lot of work to do today but I thought I'd put up a picture of an early project of mine. It's a miniature of my first big quilt. I had leftover fabric.
This is a band from Korea called BoA. The song is called Duvet. I've loved this song since I was 16 and it still makes me feel good when going through something rough.
I am kind of annoyed today. I went grocery shopping and picked up the Summer 2010 edition of Easy Quilts by Fon's and Porter. What a waste of money. I bought it because it had a coupon in it for a "FREE 2009 Archive CD Coupon" which meant to me that it was Free and that I'd have to go to their website, fill out a form with my address so that they could send me junk mail but I'd get a years worth of free patterns. So I bought the magazine, and took out the "coupon" only to discover how wrong I was. "Free" actually means that I can go to their website and when I buy $75 worth of overpriced fonsandporter.com stuff they'll give me the cd free. That doesn't see very free to me.
Now okay so that's kinda crappy, you say, but definantly not worth all this whining about it. Atleast you got the magazine and all the patterns with it.
Well that's what I thought too until I started looking through the magazine. I've boughten it before and didn't like it, but surely there would be something nice in it. All the patterns are trying to sell you the specific fabric to go with them, and most of them won't work without it. So it's essentially a catalogue of the kits they sell on their website.
The patterns that you could use without the specific fabric are so super simple and basic that I could find those patterns for free online or figure them out by myself.
I went to the website and sent a letter to them:
Hello,
I just bought the Summer 2010 easy quilts magazine at my local grocery store. What a waste of money. $7.99 cdn plus tax. First of all the "Free 2009 Archive CD Coupon" which enticed me to buy the magazine even though I don't like it and in the past have been disappointed with it. "Free" obviously means something different to you, because to me it means "will not cost me anything" but apparently to you it means "costs me $75" at your store which is overpriced anyways. So I bought the magazine that I don't like because you enticed me with something I can't use. Second the patterns in the magazine aren't anything new or fascinating. They are the same things that I can get online or figure out myself for free. Simple Summer Projects are boring and just showcase fabrics for different companies instead of having any creativity to them. I have other pattern magazines that use the same basic ideas as your patterns but atleast put some sort of new spin on the idea. It's obvious to me that the whole magazine is just about selling your overpriced store items. I do not like buying a magazine who's sole purpose is to be a giant advertisement. I think the only reason you make money or sell copies is because you have the Quilters Club of America as a backer, or possibly because you have Fons and Porter as "editors". They are obviously just in it for the money and don't really care about what goes into it.
I won't ever be enticed by you sneaking around the truth, and I won't buy another publication by Fons and Porter.
Have a nice day! Stephanie Atchison
Hopefully someone reads it but I kinda doubt it.
Personally my favorate mags are:
Quilts and More by Better Homes and Gardens http://www.allpeoplequilt.com/ This is a great magazine because it has all sorts of projects, not just quilts. I like their small projects because they are quick to do.
Quilters Home http://www.quiltershomemag.com/index.html I love this magazine because it isn't just quilting patterns, it's articles and reviews and all sorts of fun stuff too.
I also like the Austrailian quilt magazines but they have a bit too much hand embroidery for me and I just don't have time, but they have inspiring projects and dolls to make.
I was just looking over some internet sites on how to make bags. I have never made one, I started making one but my teacher got bored of helping me and now it's half finished sitting in my closet.
I was hoping that I'd win a new bag in the sewmamasew giveaways but since I didn't it seems like a perfect opportunity to figure out how to make one myself. YAY!
Anyways here are some bags I definantly will not be making.
The Kool-Aid Purse: http://henriettashandbags.com/koolaid-purse.html I have seen these sold in a store near me, and I've seen people with them, so if you like them then good for you. It's not my style though.
The Map Purse: http://www.sonyastyle.com/sections/wear/Map_Purse I think this one is kind of neat, but I am still not going to make it because I'd be afraid it would rip too easily, plus I tend to overload my bags.
On another note if anyone has a great (super easy) purse/tote tutorial let me know please. I need something that caters to my stash being made up primarily of fat quarters and scraps of fabric.
This is my Moose. He's having a lazy saturday today. That look is the "Do I really have to get up" look.
Oh and my floor.... well I have to put down new flooring but it hasn't happened yet.
Newest Project:
Guess what it is? The tiny little blocks and pieces took forever to cut out. The pattern called for black, but I don't have any and didn't feel like shlepping my way out to the quilt shop to get some, so I am just using..... more white!
Oh and todays music du jour is something I found last night that I kinda thought was nice.
Hope you enjoy it. It's kinda funky. It's Morticia by Combustible Edison It reminds me of 70's music.
I felt something a little different this morning, so I decided to listen to some ska. For those of you who aren't familiar with ska, it is a mixture of punk music and swing music. I hope you enjoy. Oh and "Skank" is a type of dance not something rude.
Mustard Plug - Skank by Numbers.
I went out this morning to take photos of my flowers for everyone in bloglandia to see. It's kind of overcast outside today so the photos aren't terribly bright.
This is my flowerbed. I dug up the old one, put down posts and filled it in with new soil this year to get rid of the weeds, oh and put down that black fabric weed barrier. No weeds so far! Yay. We have massive problems with creeping charlie here, and that stuff is so hard to get rid of.
This is my first rose coming out. When the others bloom I'll take more pictures of them. I have 6 roses in my front lawn but 1 of them has died and I need to get off my butt and replace it but I can't find any interesting rose colors. If anyone has a suggestion on which color I should add let me know. So far I have Peach, Red, White, Yellow, and Pink in my front yard. I want something a little wild and crazy. I saw a purply-blue one at the store the other day that I liked but it didn't look very healthy.
I actually have three of these multi-colored flowerpots full of gerber daisies and marigolds (I think they are marigolds), but the yellow one looked a little blah, so I have to prune it before I show it.
I've started a new mini quilt, which right now is just in the cutting up fabric stage so no pics yet. It's going to include 1930's prints and prairie points.
I love the sound of her voice. I could just dance around my living room to it. In fact I have, but I am not right now because I am writing this.
Sorry I didn't update yesterday. I was in Toronto at a doctors appointment but it's all good. Just a lot of driving. 4 hours there, and 6 hours back because we got stuck when a power line went down on the highway.
I spent a lot of time today filling out comment boxes on other blogs for giveaways. I have only one something once and that was in college. I won my books free for the first semester, but it wasn't much of a challenge because only 1 other person entered. That and there were 2 prizes. So wish me luck. If you wanna get in on that you can go to sewmamasew's blog at sewmamasew.com
Another great thing happened today, I got my first follower. Whoo Hoo! Hopefully the first of many.
Here is what I was working on for work. It's super simple but I don't have the pattern here, so when I go to work next I'll grab it and right it here.
Aren't they cute. They are super easy too and you use tape measures (the metal construction type) to make them super snappy.
Snappy is such a fun word.
Anyways get in on those giveaways while you can. Maybe next year (if I am not too busy with school) I'll add something. Here's hoping!
I love Ani Defranco, she is so inspiring. This song totally got me through high school. I was the chubby girl who was shy and liked to hide in the art room.
There are layers and facets to every person that you can't see on the surface and even the chubby girls have something special inside of them.
Anyways on to quilting. I was at a quilt show in Chatham, Ontario on the weekend that had lots to see. I bought a few cool things. A book of iron on quilt labels, a fat quarter the color of Tiffany blue. Yum! Also I bought a cute moda panel that I assume is from an older collection since it was fairly cheap and moda is usually expensive (atleast in Canada). Here's a picture of it.
I love the traditional sampler style without me having to applique anything. Although I've recently been doing patchabilities monthly minis through a local quilt shop in Windsor, but I'll talk about those another day.
I saw so many amazing quilts at the quilt show and I got in for free since I was helping out the shop. Lot's of inspiration, of course I forgot my camera. I also over changed a guy $4 but my boss didn't care, she said everyone makes mistakes. Oops! I guess I'd better double check everything with the calculator.
Yesterday I went out for breakfast with friends at this great place here in Windsor, Ontario called Creperie Omer. It's on Ottawa Street, and it was lovely, although really loud inside. We went for a walk afterwards and I saw the most amazing umbrellas, but they are too expensive ($35). I try to live an interesting life full of color and oddities. Maybe I'll save up for one. Unless anyone has an umbrella pattern? My grandma uses those little plastic rain caps, they look like the things you stick over your hair when getting a perm or a hair dye done and she uses that instead of an umbrella. I'd be afraid it'd make my hair all static clingy. Bah!
Good Day to everyone out there in bloglandia, everyday should be started off with a little music. Personally I like a little bit of everything but today I am in the mood for some MSI. This vid was directed by Jhonen Vasquez. He is a comic book writer behind Johnny the Homicidal Maniac and the tv show Invader Zim.
Anyways I've been working on a mini quilt that I found the pattern too in an old magazine that a lady gave me while working at the quilt shop. I usually get paid in fabric and quilting supplies which suits me fine. Anyways here is a picture of the ducks so far.
Aren't they cute? I like to do mini quilts because they don't take too long and they are easy to quilt and store. I did one a while back that had little scottie dogs on it but it got misplaced somewhere near christmas at my mom's house. Lovely eh?
