Thank you and is everyone OK??

I want to give a big thank you to everyone whom wished me happy birthday. Sorry I have not replied to all of your emails yet. I want to sit and drink more coffee and reply to every one of you, but I am so not ready for the retreat I am heading off to this morning - so I have to shut this fun event down and actually get ready.


I wanted to before I run out though, make sure everyone is OK?? All my USA friends?? I have been watching all the news coverage about the tornado's and I am scared and saddened by all the damage. Please let me know if you are OK. I know not all of you are in the area that the tornado's hit, but my states geography is pretty dusty in my head so please just leave me a comment will you and let me know you are OK or if you need anything?? 


I am gonna though out a little love today so yes cheers, but today as well.
Love,
Carolyn

Shhhh Don't tell anyone - but.. ...

ITS MY BIRTHDAY!! Yippee.

I turn 34 today which is fantastic because for the last two years I kept thinking and telling everyone I was 34, and now I am finally right!
Cheers,
Carolyn

Table Runner is Done!

Phew, I avoided another UFO and just in time for my quilting retreat this weekend. I am glad to have a project to bring to show and tell. I am especially excited to show this one as of course I designed it. If I have not shown the bloggy love lately, let me now express how much I love you guys. Without this blogging community, I would be forced to continue to bore my husband with this stuff.  
So, here is my table runner. I quilted the crappolla out of it - I just could not stop myself!

I am really pleased with my final product. I am really happy too with how I stitched on the binding. I have never used this stitch let alone used a fancy stitch to attach the binding and it is my favorite part on this finished project. I am now very in love with variegated thread as well. 
Have you guys finished up anything this past week? Month?
Cheers,
Carolyn

Where is Carolyn?

Tadah! I am right here! I have been a busy little bee. I finished my table runner pattern. I made up a design and sewed my block for Melinda. I made more paper pieces to add to my jars. And I - oh, that was it. Felt like more. 
Lets start with Melinda's block:

Here is my original design

 I realized as soon as I started cutting though that I did not have enough of the one fabric I intended for the outer triangle so it had to be broken down to 4 using more of the white fabric which was provided.

Here is the block with everything done except for stitching in the umbrella handles.

Here we go, all done with handles.

Melinda - you are going to lose the points on the triangles I fear as my block is over the 12 1/2" as it should have turned out. I hope my applique will make up for my boo boo.
In the mail for you today.
Its getting late - so I will post the pics of the table runner tomorrow.
Cheers,
Carolyn

A funny and list for Victoria

Lets start with the list - Dear Victoria, I wrote you a reply email, only to discover I was writing it to: Victoria <noreply-comment@blogger.com>
This made me sad as I wanted to reply to your messages. So I thought, hm, I can still do that on here! Hopefully you get this. You had asked me if I had a list of shopping sites. I do not have a list for say that I refer to, but there are a couple of sites that I have ordered from. Here they are:
Wish Upon A Quilt
Fat Quarter Shop
Fabric Shack  
Connecting Threads
Intrepid Thread
Fabric Shoppe
Beyond the Reef
My friend Anna had given me a few others, but I cannot for the life of me find that email. These sites should keep you busy though!


Now on to the funny! My friend Kathy sent this to me at work and it made me snort so it must be good =)

A Lovely Story About Me   One day, long, long ago, there lived a beautiful woman who did not whine, nag or bitch.  (That would be me...)

But that was a long time ago and it was just that one day. 

The End  


hahahaha, did you snort too?
Cheers,
Carolyn

More squishy goodness!

I got another fast shipment of fabric today! This one I got  from Beyond the Reef. She had a pack of 17 fat quarters (or eights? I cannot remember and I have not fully unwrapped) that she sold via an announcement on her blog for only 18.95 which included shipping! The first person to say they wanted it, got it. Perfect times for me as I was first!
This was only 10 days ago! Check out my awesome pack of fabric:

Thank you for my awesome package of fabric Natalie!
Cheers,
Carolyn

What to do

I got my squishy envelope for this months Let's Bee Together. Melinda is the sender of this fabric and the colors are fantastic. I love the aqua color and bright pink. Delicious! But what to do, what to do. I see on the Let's Bee Together blog she has gotten blocks already - and I just got my envelope! Yikes, I better come up with something quick. 
In the meantime, check out these lovely prints she sent me!

I am thinking of doing one of the cool blocks out of the book I got from The Wee Book Inn (its a used book store chain in Edmonton, each store has a cat! You can actually go onto their website and see each cats story). Here is the book:

This book is really awesome. I was thinking we could go through it together. What do you think? Want to go through it with me? Learn how to make 101 blocks from our past. Leave me a comment, if enough of you are interested we can all hang out and sew. I will even figure out how to do a flickr pool so we  can show off our blocks. I hope you will join me - but no pressure, I know we are all pretty busy. 
Cheers,
Carolyn

My order from Intrepid Thread

I placed an order with Julie over at The Intrepid Thread what seems like just yesterday. I got it already! It actually came Thursday, I am just slow to post - but she was not slow to ship! I ordered a 1/2 yard bundle of Happier Cottons from Riley Blake in Green. I just looked and it was not yesterday, but close, I ordered on April 2nd. Now my Canadian friends will understand my excitement when only 10 days after ordering I got my fabric! And look at it, oh its just lovely!

 You know I kept this ribbon right? Its my favorite color - purple.

Mr Hunter helped me choose the color as all the color lines were so great, I could not make up my mind. I love the green, but I wish I got the blue and the orange to!

 Julie has a blog too for The Intrepid Thread and right now she is doing a give away. You can check that out here.
Cheers,
Carolyn

One More Quilt is celebrating 1 year of blogging - with a give away!

I first met Frances through the blogging world because she was doing a give away - and I won! Then we did a swap package of fabric for buttons. Once again, she is doing another give away but this time it is to celebrate her  year anniversary of blogging. Please visit my friend Frances blog and enter her give away. Just click here to get there.
Good Luck,
Carolyn

Hockey jersey alteration

I have been asked by Mr. Hunter a couple of times to alter his jerseys, but kept putting it off as I was scared I would destroy them in the process of trying to fix them. I have never altered a jersey before. The other day I finally stopped avoiding, got out my seam ripper and just went to it. I thank the heavens, was successful. That means however that I have now been nominated to fix several more. Boo. 
Here it is before alterations. As you can see, the body is wide, but the arms are narrow - too narrow for Mr. Hunter when playing goal to stretch out and make all his saves in net. 

 So I cut out a 13 1/2 in square out of jersey material, then folded it in half and cut the inside v with curves to follow the jersey. Attached to seam ripped opening and sewed my little pink heart out.

 Tadah! Here it is all done. It looks ridiculous without his gear on, but he was happy with it. Too bad we did not have any of the matching blue, perhaps the white will blind his opponents? 

Cheers,
Carolyn

Another button package received

I totally forgot to show you the awesome package I got from Frances from One More Quilt.
Check out the goodies she sent me!

 I love these rose buttons!

Here is what I sent back to her. 
Cheers,
Carolyn

Friday night sew-in - did you sew last night?

I was a busy little bee last night, not only did I get more sewing done, I finally used all the packages of dye I convinced Mr. Hunter to buy me to dye my jeans back to their original dark wash. Plus I re-dyed with the remainder of the jean colors and a few boxes of red - my wedding dress. If you didn't see what I originally did to it and want to check it out, click here. 
Here are my now beautiful jeans, they look brand new:

 And here is the dress, I really want it to be a rich plum color, but alas - its Polyester so I do not know if I can make it happen. If any of you have any suggestions, please leave me a comment - I love hearing from my friends! I managed to get it a little darker - before I only had achieved a very pale pink.

 The lace work is very close to the color I want. If only the rest of the dress would take the same.

 And last but not least - I worked more on my table runner pattern. These little rubber fingers have become my finger savers. It is so dry here that the back of the needle was poking into my fingertips. With these on my pointer and middle finger, I do not have to cry any more while I hand sew.

 Here are the sections laid out. As you can tell, I have not attached them all, but it is coming along very nicely and I am very pleased with it. 

Did you guys sign up for the Friday Night Sew-In? What did you work on?
Cheers,
Carolyn

Pattern progress - trying to avoid another UFO

Out of all the UFO's I have - I figured I best not my own pattern become one of them. That said, I put my paper piecing frenzy to rest and get my butt back to the sewing machine.
I have already completed all of the hexi's for my pattern, so all that is left is to sew my dresden circles, then attach the circle centers to them, then attach them to the hexi's - ha ha. Here is where I am at:

Any one wanting to make this pattern, I still have it for sale on Etsy for only 5 dollars. Click here to check it out.

Cheers,
Carolyn

Give away over at Leedle Deedle Quilts

Sallie found this one - thank you Sallie! If you did not get the link yet from her, check out this give away over at Leedle Deedle Quilts. It is for a lot of fabulous fabric!!
Here is a peak at what is up for grabs:

Good Luck,
Carolyn

New fabric line and a give away over at a la mode

If you have not seen yet, Heather from A la mode is doing a give away of Laurie's new fabric line. If you have not been to Laurie's blog, its pretty cool. Click here to see Laurie's blog called the Scarlet Fig. Here are the collection fabrics in the two colors she offers through Robert Kaufman

Now here is the great part - both of them are giving away some of this fabric! AWESOME.

A la mode give away - click here.
Scarlet Fig's give away - click here.

Why are you still here - go check out the fabric and get your name into the draws! 
Cheers,
Carolyn

Paper piecing Frenzy!!

I have been spending this past week making paper piecing pieces from my scraps. I figured, why not! Then I thought - what if I could fill entire jars full of paper pieces, then any time I wanted some - tadah!!
Here is my progress so far:

Feels like I have made hundred already - but the piles are still pretty small. Its a start though! 
Cheers,
Carolyn

Large water dish

I have finally been able to take Lucky to his favorite hill to play ball toss now that the snow is starting to melt. This also means however that he gets nightly baths. Believe it or not, this is the first time he has drank out of the bath faucet!
I had to take his picture, check out his face on the second picture, its like he is thinking "oh, I'm busted". I usually prefill the tub before tossing him in, but he was so filthy last night he had to go straight into the tub! (sorry for the blurry pics - they are on my iPhone).

Now here he is, all clean - my Loogie.

On another note, I signed up again for Friday Night Sew In! You should to! I think if you click on the button on my side bar - it will take you there.
Cheers,
Carolyn

Its done and I love it!

I completed my Hot Pad for my exchange partner and I really love it. Hopefully she does to!
Here it is:

 Here are the stitches again after washing. Its amazing what a little trip through the washing machine can do to make everything look awesome!

Cheers,
Carolyn

Comment added ** April 12 at 12:40pm **
I said I was going to send this swap with international express post so it got to it's destination fast instead of having another partner waiting for so long (Cheryl finally got her mug rugs yeah!!) that they think I did not send anything =(  However - I just went to the post office to get said envelope and they wanted $55.00CAD for it! YIKES. Sorry swap partner, I just cannot afford this. Hopefully you get your hot pad faster then Cheryl got her mug rugs.

My garden is mutating!

Last year I planted some annuals in the front flower bed for some instant gratification. The weirdest thing is now, as the snow is melting - some of them look alive and growing off of last years dead stalks? 
I ask, How is this even possible for goodness sakes? Mr Hunter thinks that I got mutant plants. 
I mean it would make sense if these were my Alpine Perennials I planted, but not, I think these may be the inpatients? Annual Inpatients - they never ever come back. 
Weird!!

I found a tag in the ground there for Begonia as well, but it is even less likely for them to come back and I do not recall them getting those long stalks - I wonder if they are the Pansies? Anyone recognize these leaves?
Cheers,
Carolyn

Please quilting gods, dont let my swap partner be a perfectionist!

I was so happy with how my hot pad was turning out. Until I did my free motion quilting that is. If you just glance at it, it looks pretty good - just don't look too close.
I'll let the pictures tell the story with just a little bit of commentary:

I added the brown to the edges

Then I created the "brick" backing piece

And here is the nightmare - not so bad from a distance.

The back looks OK too

Hmm - maybe not so bad after all

Oh bother - here it is - the disaster

Dear lord - for me, I think its great - but if my swap partner is really good, then she will hate my wonky lines.

This is the first time I used variegated thread, I thought it would be fun - now I know that yes, it is fun, but only use once you can stitch pretty straight lines! 
My worst fear is that she will get it and then diss me which I know is not the end of the world, but it will make me sad - then she may through it away. How awful. So I hope she is like me and likes a little wonkiness? Maybe its my puffy week and I am just over sensitive? I showed it to Mr. Hunter yesterday and he said it was fine - but he also told me that even half a dresden circle is girly so I am second guessing this entire thing. 
Its too late to start over. She will just have to love it =)
Cheers,
Carolyn