Website Published!

Holy moly, am I tired. Below is a photo of why I am so tired. I just finished building the new website. I can not believe how long it took me to build it. I used what is supposed to be the "Idiots Guild to Web Design" and let me tell you, the IQ necessary for success using that software far exceeds what I have to work with. I used "Website Tonight" from Go Daddy, and I am going to call them to find out exactly what planets "night" they are referring to in their title. I don't believe they are referring to a "night" on earth, because that is nowhere near long enough. It seems far more likely to me that they are referring to a night on Venus. It has a 224 day "night."
Either way, I haven't been sewing. I have been computing and I can tell you this; I like sewing a whole lot better. I had to get the website done so I could add a new pattern, The Quilted Media Case, to the site. The old design, which I had built as well, wouldn't let me add a new product. I tried every which way but Tuesday to no avail, so back to the drawing board I went. Now all I have to do is change that photo up there in the top left hand corner to that of a quilt block or quilt. Heck, that should only take me three weeks to accomplish...

I'm open for any and all website design software suggestions. This is getting ridiculous! What have you used that is understandable and successful?

FYI: (from Wikipedia) The phenomenon of day and night is due to the rotation of a celestial body about its axis, creating the illusion of the sun rising and setting. Different bodies spin at very different rates, however. Some may spin much faster than Earth, while others spin extremely slowly, leading to very long days and nights. The planet Venus rotates once every 224.7 days – by far the slowest rotation period of any of the major planets. In contrast, the gas giant Jupiter's sidereal day is only 9 hours and 56 minutes.[1]

Quilting in Paradise

Occasionally there are times in our lives when we get to sit back, sigh and be truly grateful. I recently had a weekend where I got to do just that. I was invited to teach a Toddler Bib class in beautiful Key West, Florida at The Seam Shoppe on Truman. First, I get to actually work doing what I love to do most - quilt! Add to that that I got to do it in a setting like Key West? Are you kidding me? I hit the karmic jackpot on this one. Ahhhhhhh....

I had a great day and I got to meet more amazing, fun quilters. Aren't quilters just the best people to hang out with? First, let me introduce you to the wonderful lady above. That's Meg up there pinning her bias binding on the bib. She lives in Key West and came to The Seam Shoppe to take the class. She was a wiz at sewing and I loved her fabric choices. The watermelons were so cute, and she left with a darling bib ready to catch melon drips!

This lovely lady, Lynn, (above) has a grandson she is sewing for. He lives quite a distance from his Grammy so she is going to be shipping many packages overseas. After some rather frustrating sewing machine issues (we've all been there!) Lynn took right off and was stipple quilting like a pro. Lynn, I'm waiting for a photo of that finished bib......

Above is the firecracker, Betty. She has been sewing for awhile. Betty, however, tried to cut a corner or two and not stipple the entire rectangle, but I caught her. Slacker....wink wink. Either way, she did a wonderful job on her bib and if I'm not mistaken, she finished first. We won't mention that she jumped ahead by making the bias binding at home before class. Hey wait, I think Meg did that as well... there's usually only one over achiever per class. This class seemed to have two! That's not in keeping with the laid back Key West way of life, now is it?

And this photo shows the view from one of my favorite places in the Keys. A boat! This was taken while we cruised through a great section of the Channel Keys on Sunday before we headed back home.... Ahhhhh.... what a wonderful weekend it was.

Inspired by the Outlander Series by Diana Gabaldon

It's no secret that I am absolutely enamored with the Outlander book series authored by Diana Gabaldon. I suggested to my sister-in-law that she might enjoy the series and that it would make magnificent summer reading. I explained to her that the seventh and final book in the series, An Echo in the Bone, is due out on September 22 and unlike most lovers of the series she could read through all seven books uninterrupted. She started reading the books, fell in love with them, as well as Jamie Fraser, and the rest is history.... and if you know the series, it really is history.

I saw this embroidery design and immediately thought of Jamie Fraser. The design is the Celtic Tree of Life. Roughly, and very abridged, the design symbolizes the concept of the interconnectedness of life on earth. As often is the case, one thought led to another, and I knew I had to embroider the Celtic symbol onto a piece of duck cloth and make a bag for Sara to commemorate her summer with Jamie Fraser. Ahhhhhh......

Interesting side note: The final book in the series, An Echo in the Bone, hasn't been released yet and as I type this post, the book is #18 in sales on Amazon. That gives you some indication of the following these books have.....

Embroidered iPhone Case

Whew! What a busy summer we have had. Much traveling and many visitors and a few projects here and there.... My 21 year old red-headed step-daughter (yes, I am truly blessed with a red-headed step child!) came down for a visit recently and this iPhone tote is one of the projects we made while she was here. She chose the design, we embroidered it onto a scrap of canvas, and the end result is the bag you see below. The bag is just big enough for her iPhone, can hang on her tote bag, protect her phone in the bottom of her nonexistent purse, or hang from a belt loop should she choose to do so. I made two different size ties so she can use whichever one fits the task. We didn't have a pattern and just made it up as we went along... For essentially no investment we ended up with a great, usable item. And I ended up with a really good idea....

Quilted Laptop Bag - Great Scrap Buster!

My Summer Scrap Busting has continued, and here is my latest project. I was getting ready to travel up to New York to see my grandtots and naturally I need to take my laptop with me. My laptop bag had broken on our last trip and I had yet to buy a new one because I just couldn't find one I liked. Every bag I looked at weighed a ton and was soooo much bigger than I needed. That landed me back in my sewing room, looking at my fabric. Basically I made two quilted rectangles and sewed some pockets in, made a strap, attached it to the larger rectangle, folded the whole thing in half, sewed and bound the side seams and this is what I got.

I can't tell you how many compliments I got in the airports. Honest. And this didn't take me more than a couple hours. More scraps gone, and another useful item that I actually like.

Scrappy Pineapple Beach Bag!

UPDATE 3/12/2010: I have uploaded the FREE 6 Inch Paper Piecing Pineapple Block Pattern to the previous post - it can be found here:  Free 6 inch Paper Piecing Pineapple Block Pattern

So here is what I made using my "Chip Basket" of scraps. A super huge beach bag that was made entirely out of scraps. First I made 19 six inch paper pieced pineapple quilt blocks using 100% scraps - and small scraps at that! The blocks made quite a dent in my Chip Basket and the lid is now neatly back on the container that was overflowing less than two weeks ago. For absolutely no new cost I have a very functional, very cute, large tote bag that is big enough to hold a beach blanket and at least three beach towels. In the photo below it has three large towels in it with room for much more!

I had exactly one yard of the lime green fabric, and that became the backing of each section of the stipple quilted beach bag. I pieced the batting from scraps by giving each piece a clean cut, butting them together and then zig-zagging them into larger pieces. This diminished the pile of batting scraps I had stacked up. I covered some ugly olive drab cotton webbing I had with some purple strips of fabric I had left over from a previous project, and that became the handles. Even the binding used up bias binding pieces I had leftover from Quilted Toddler Bibs I have made as gifts and for pattern cover photo shots.

I took this photo to give you some idea of how large the bag is. I really love how colorful, bright and happy it turned out! Oh, and I covered the inside seams with seam binding made from the lime green fabric - still from that same yard of fabric.

Here's the bottom of the bag.

And these pouches are made from four patch blocks I never used from a block swap. I put webbing straps on the back of each bag which will allow them to be snapped onto the pole that runs up the dash of our boat. The red one is for my husband and the purple one is for me. It will keep our wallets, phones, camera, ID's, etc., handy, safe and secure while we are out on the boat... yet more scraps used up! I just had to share this project and give everyone ideas regarding their scraps. The fun part of this project for me was that I literally didn't buy a single new item to complete this. I just kept digging until I found what I needed to complete it! Dig into your scrap buckets and start sewing! What can you come up with?

UPDATE 3/12/2010: I have uploaded the FREE 6 Inch Paper Piecing Pineapple Block Pattern to my previous post.. You will find it at the end of that post.

Scrappy Pineapple Quilt Blocks

UPDATE 3/12/2010: I have uploaded the FREE 6 Inch Paper Piecing Pineapple Block Pattern to end of this post.

What you see above is my "Chip Basket." That's what I call the little container that I throw all my scrap bits of fabric and odd half square triangles, wonky strips and any other little leftover fabric pieces that accumulate as I piece together quilts. I even save those first cuts of yardage you are left with after you square the fabric up prior to rotary cutting. Either way, we all have these little scraps. As you can see by the photo my Chips had grown too large for the container I was keeping them in and this past weekend I thought I should go purchase a larger bin. "HOGWASH," I said out loud, as I quickly came to my senses! I decided right then that I would start using them up!

The Scrappy Pineapple Block to the left is what I came up with. I vowed to myself, and now to all of my online quilting buddies, that I will make one of these blocks every single day, no matter what, until I can at least put the lid back on the Chip Basket without having to sit on it to get it latched. Believe me, the bin can't stand that level of abuse...

I was given the most marvelous gift from my Quilt Guild secret pal recently and that helped me decide what direction I wanted to go. She had bought for me the June Tailor Perfect Piecing Transparent, Blank Foundation Sheets for paper piecing. This is a marvelous product, let me tell you! I stuck it in my printer, and it printed up the block lickity split. It is so easy to use, you can see right through it without having to hold it up to the light, and it tears away like butter but only when you are ready to tear it off! The photo to the right shows a block before I sewed on the scraps.

Here is the back of two blocks. See how easy it is to see through and thus to work with? It is a gift from the quilting Gods, in my humble opinion.

And here are Saturday and Sundays blocks, even sewn together. I have put the free 6 inch Paper Piecing Pineapple Block on the end of this post for everyone to use. Dig into YOUR scrap bins and make something bright, happy and useful today!

(you can scroll to the bottom of the embedded pdf file and click on "download" to print...)

Pineapple block 6 inch