Spill the Beans Sunday is BAAACK!!

The topic for today's Spill the Beans is... FINISHED PROJECTS! OR projects you hope to get fininshed really soon.OR whatever you are working on right now! (I like variety)

Here are a couple of quilts I finished THIS WEEK! Yippee, two in one week is pretty major for me. Plus, my next work in progress.

This is the second quilt I'm adding to the group to be donated to a local shelter for families this fall. My local Crafty Girls Workshop meetup group has been working on these month by month. It's sort of my own design, although it's super easy to do so anyone could figure it out. A new friend that I met through the SA Modern Quilt Guild has a longarm machine and she generously offered to quilt it for me, which helped me to get it done so quickly. She even added a custom butterfly in the quilting at my request.

 Then I found an absolutely awesome explanation for doing machine binding in the book called Dare to be Square Quilting. (Here is a great feature about the author, Boo Davis) So after hunting down a bias tape maker I whipped out binding for this quilt and the second quilt that I made to give to my surrogate niece, Lily, who just turned one year old this week! Her birthday party was yesterday. Here's her quilt:

I quilted it using my stitch regulator and it went pretty quickly. I love to make the backs of quilts interesting too, so I used flannel and did an applique of her nick name which is Lily Bug.

Here is "Da Bug" with her quilt, doesn't she look ecstatic to receive it? Her mom and dad loved it and everyone ooh'd and ahh'd over it so that was nice.

And just because she's SOOO cute, here is one more awesome photo of yesterday's party.

Really, I only took about 65 pictures and three or four video clips of the day. I just couldn't put my camera down, I mean how could I with a face like that!?

Now, let me show you a little bit of my NEXT project. I had a honey bun, which is 1 1/2" strips and some backing fabric from a line called Hello Betty. I've had this for quite awhile and finally decided I wanted to do something with it. The president of the SA Modern Quilt Guild had shown off a quilt she made with the same fabric using a grey for a contrasting solid color to help the patterned fabrics POP out. So I decided that since Crafty Girls Workshop HAS some Moda Bella Solid Grey, why not use some of it in a quilt? Well, then I had to find a pattern, and the Does Not Compute pattern was pretty close to what I wanted, but without the robot (Maybe another project someday) turns out I just wanted the pattern that is called Amish Brickwork, SO that's how the idea for Amish Betty was born. Here are my supplies.

I've already made significant progress. The pattern is from Dare to Be Square also and the author gives a great explanation of using 18" strips to do strips piecing to really speed up the brickwork background part. I spent my SA Mod Quilt Guild Sew In day yesterday from about 10 am to 2 pm sewing 50 patterned strips to 50 grey strips. My next step is to press them and cut them into the brick pieces, I can't wait!!

OK, YOUR turn to SPILL THE BEANS! I want to know what you're working on right now! Please share and feel free to add a link to your blog if you've posted pictures. I'm not doing a McLinky thing, but just put the link in your comments. Thanks!!

Happy Stitches,
Anna

I'm sharing this on Something I Whipped Up at The Girl Creative

Sharing Sunday (the post formerly known as Spill the Beans Sunday)

Thanks Graphics Fairy for this great picture!

Hey everyone. It's Sunday! The last day of the weekend. I'm going to try to make the best of my Sunday, how about you? So for today's question:

What project(s) are you working on right now?

Anything exciting?

Any blog posts about it? If so, please link in your comment. 

My next major project is to get that Love You Charm Quilt actually quilted. I never got to it last Monday, what a bummer! It's ready to go I just have to put my mind to it, ya know? My non-sewing project is that today I'm heading over to Regina's how (the other Crafty Girl) and we're going to work on re-photgraphing some of the stuff in our shop. I've heard over and over that the photos you have of your products speak volumes and usually help sell the items, sooo we're going to work on that today. Actually, last time when we brought out alllllllll of our bolts and put them into coordinating groups to photograph for bundles, I had A TON of fun! Today we're going to work on the precuts. I can't wait to see what you say in reply to the question! There are always some really interesting answers.

Happy Stitches,
Anna

Spill the Beans Sunday and Thanks KIM

Kim over at 733 a Creative Blog has put up this AWESOME tutorial about how to make sure people can reply to your comments. Thanks for creating this because I really LOVE to reply to comments through e-mail so as to avoid cluttering up comment pages. Please take a few moments to do this so we can all reply to each other!

(She's also the one behind the scenes at Really Crafty Studio-----> see sidebar link)

Spill the Beans Sunday (aka SBS):

Hmm, what should we spill the beans about today? I've got one, hope you'll reply!

Do you like to shop online?
If yes, do you have an opinion about Pay Pal vs. Other Merchant sites (i.e. Google Cart)?

If NO, why the heck not!?
 Haha, just kidding. But is there some particular reason you won't shop online?

So, please spill the beans.

Oh, do I need to go first? OK, well, I do enjoy shopping online, when I have money. I actually just bought some fabric on Thursday evening, yes, I KNOW I have my own online shop but this was stuff we didn't have! *See previous SBS post about addictions* But when it comes to buying clothes or shoes I pretty much have to try it on first so I won't buy that stuff online. Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Stitches,
Anna

Happy Mother's Day to All

Happy Mother's Day!

If you have furbabies (like me) or human babies, grown up babies or grand babies, we appreciate all that you do to make our lives better.

I have 3 furbabies and even though they didn't bring me breakfast in bed, they DID let me sleep in until 10:00am!! Amazing! Yesterday they woke me up at 7:00am. 

I am very lucky because my mom and I are good friends and she really helped me get through my unemployment time by visiting and going to lunch and things. But I also get along really well with my mother in law, who as you probably know, is the other Crafty Girl and is my business partner! Yes, most people are pretty surprised by that but we really do get along superbly and compliment each other's tastes in fabric and projects.

Speaking of projects, I'm going to drag out my scrapbook paper and stamp supplies and make up some Mother's Day cards for my mom and Regina this morning. Do you remember that super bright floral wholecloth quilt I made? My mom saw it and when I mentioned that I might list it on our Etsy shop, she immediately said "I'll buy it!" Well, I couldn't really ask my mom to buy my quilt so I'm going to give it to her for Mother's Day. As for Regina, I gave her a framed picture of Lilith (a.k.a. LilyBelle), her first grandchild who is super adorable, super photogenic and only 7 months old. (I wish she was MY baby, she's so cute!) I'll see if I can get permission to post a picture of her on here, she really is just one of the cutest babies I've seen.

I'm not sure we'll have much response for Spill the Beans Sunday but I'll do a question anyway.

What do you do when you're stressed out to help you relax and feel more "centered"?

My answer to this would, of course, be sew something or at the very least visit my fabric in my sewing room, haha.

I can't wait to see what you respond. Hope you have a fabulous Mother's Day that is relaxing and full of beautiful (and good smelling) suprises.

Happy Stitches,
Anna

Spill the Beans Sunday

I'm sorry this post is rather late today. I'm suffering from a stomach bug but just felt the need to get out of bed and post this. Guess I needed my blogging fix, haha.
This week's topic:

What is your dream job? If you could do anything and get paid a "living wage" to do it, what would it be?

My dream job is to own a sewing studio where I can teach people how to sew and make cool projects. We'd also have fabrics (of course) and it would be a fun and vibrant place where people are always learning and excited about their projects. And to be honest, I'm working as hard as I can to actually make this dream a reality, we'll see if it comes true some day.

Your turn to spill the beans, I'm looking forward to learning about you.

Happy Stitches,
Anna

Spill the Beans Sunday

Source

True Confessions of a Crafty Blog-aholic

Hello, my name is Anna and I am ADDICTED to crafty blogs! So I finally figured out how to use Google Reader. Not that I didn't really know how to use it, just that I forgot it existed. Turns out ALL the blogs I've ever chosen to follow for ANY reason whatsoever have been logged on my Google Reader account! That means that when I log in to my account I can see them, ALL the Crafty Blogs I've sorted into the Crafty Blogs group are now nicely organized and I can read new post after new post after new post and go on a linky crafty world spree! So, I was working on reading all the 300+ NEW posts (seems I forgot about it again for a day or two) and in the mean time I found oh, four or five NEW blogs to add to my reader! That means that for every two or three new posts I actually read, I was adding another new blog with more NEW posts! Crazy!! Now, it's a good thing I'm doing this at the odd hours of the morning because if it was during the day I would REALLY feel like I was wasting time. But at this time of the morning, when the dogs are sleeping, hubby is sleeping, it's just me and the world of crafty blogs, hmm, I can get lost in inspiration!

But wait...There's MORE!

I have another confession:

I was organizing the shelves where I store most of my fabric and projects and I FOUND fabric I actually FORGOT I had! Is that horrible!? (Or just normal for a fabric-a-holic like me) I actually FOUND a few layer cakes from lines I REALLY love! I also found some charm packs and lots of patterns I had sort of just stuffed on the shelf for some odd reason. So, now that I've finished with folding the bigger pieces of fabric, I'm working on the declutter and actually sorting stuff in my Spring Studio Spruce Up. I hope that very soon I'll have some pictures to show you of my uber organized Spruced Up Sewing Space.

Your turn to SPILL THE BEANS!

What is YOUR addiction?

Fabric, beads, buttons, scrapbook paper, all of the above?

(Oh, don't get me started on my scrapbook paper addiction!)

Please share in the comments, you can post anonymously, don't worry, we won't tell your significant other.

Just remember: What happens on Crafty Girls Workshop Blog stays on Crafty Girls Workshop blog (unless you want us to share!)

Happy Stitches,
Anna

Spill the Beans Sunday

Happy Easter! I can say that because I'm writing this at Midnight so it's correct.
Today's question:
Do you have any Easter/Spring traditions with your family?

My Answer:
Growing up we had the usual go to church, share big meal with family and hunt for eggs tradition. Occasionally we'd find an egg with candy a few months after Easter was over. I think we switched to plastic eggs when we found a month old hardboiled egg, EWWW! (just kidding - sort of)

Please share your answer in the comments section below, then link to your blog and spread the word! I think it would be awesome if we had more links than last week. Oh and I FINALLY figured out how to leave the linky thing open longer, so it will be open all week!

Hopefully I'll have a nifty blog party button to share soon too. Anyone want to help me out with that?





Happy Stitches,
Anna

Spill the (Jelly) Beans Sunday

Well, next week is Easter! Wow, where does the time go? I spent a WONDERFUL day and a half out at Regina's on Friday and Saturday and I must say it was very productive. I finished an ENTIRE quilt top (except the borders since I need more fabric, oh darn) and most of a second top, isn't that amazing!? Have any of you ever heard of Tip Nut? It is an AWESOME website and I get daily e-mails with all sorts of links to great tips. Yesterday's was a crafty roundup of various spring, Easter, bunny, and chicky crafts! They called it Easter Extravaganza. I find that their links are a great way to find new crafty blogs (as if I need more to read). But I've also used one of their links to plans for an outside planter for a salad garden, I sent the link to my dad (who is in love with his new table saw) and he made one for me by the next weekend! Oh, and they had some suggestions for cleaning out your microwave and it actually inspired me to do it and it worked and now my microwave is CLEAN! I just printed out this template for a bunny applique which I'm planning to use on a couple of onesies. I love that it includes a flower and an egg shape. The printed shape was actually a bit smaller than I wanted to so I enlarged it by 150% on my printer. Alright, that's the weekend update, ready for Spill the (Jelly) Beans Sunday?

Just one question this week (because if I keep asking 6 questions I'll run out of ideas!):

In the comments below, please answer the following question, then add your blog to the McLinky.

Are you working on any Spring or Easter-ish crafts in your household? Please do tell!
If you aren't, please tell us what you ARE working on at the moment.




Have fun on the Bloggy Bunny Hop!

Happy Stitches,
Anna

Spill the Beans Sunday

NOTE: If you were sweet enough to comment with your opinion about the option of offering advertising on this blog a week or two ago, please e-mail me and I'll send you a FREE pattern for a quick quilt made with a jelly roll!

Now it's YOUR turn to spill the beans (and I don't mean coffee because it's past 1:00pm). Please take a moment to answer the following questions. I had SEW much fun reading about how people learned to sew and where you are from. If you answer this post with a comment, PLEASE make sure to include your e-mail and I'll send you a FREE pattern too! Last thing, I've decided to add McLinky at the bottom. SO, if you answer these questions here in a comment, link up your blog (main page is OK) and we can visit each other and make some new bloggy friends!

1) Name
2) Favorite hobby (sewing, quilting, scrapbooking, cooking, etc.)
3) What sort of patterns/designers/colors do you like? (i.e. bright and funky, soft and floral, Amy Butler, anything by 3 Sisters, Basic Grey, Sweetwater, etc.)
4) What patterns would you like to make? (i.e. tote bags, quilts, baby clothes, stuffed animals or softies, adult garments, home stuff like aprons or pillows, etc.)
5) Of the previous list, is there anything that you'd like to make more of?
6) Who do you sew/craft for most? (kids, family, friends, neighbors, customers, yourself!, etc)
7) Anything else you'd like to share?
8) Now add a link to your blog on McLinky!

OK, me first.
1) Anna
2) Sew and quilting although I think I have Crafters A.D.D. because I can't seem to focus very long on one project and have started making paper cards and even made a calendar with scrapbook paper!
3) I love bright and funky fabrics and have recently purchased 12 different fabrics with a lime green and turquoise blue color scheme for a new quilt! (Forgot I already had a set of FQs at home in that same color line!) I totally love Amy Butler, Heather Bailey, Anna Maria Horner, and I really like the Basic Grey fabrics most of the time. I know a lot of fabric designers are also designing for scrapbook paper companies and visa versa now. Basic Grey and Sweetwater are good examples of that.
4) I have plans to make lots of quilts (bought the kits for them!) but I also have lots of patterns for totes. I just saw a TON of cute patterns to make stuffed animals and I think that would be interesting but I don't know who I would give them to. I also like to make pillows, like I said, Crafter's A.D.D.
5) Pretty much more of EVERYTHING! I need to get myself OFF the computer so that I can actually SEW! In fact, I've started trying to make two things at a time since I seem to have so little time to spend sewing!
6) At the moment I'm sewing a tote bag for my mom and another one for my close friend as a gift. I also have plans to sew for our shop for samples and sale. I'm looking forward to seeing what people add to our flickr pool so I can get some more inspiration!
7) Hope this is fun and not too redundant with the previous meme (I'm calling it that because it's easier than anything else.)