For my Kitchen Hot Pad Swap

I wanted to whip this up fast and get it to its destination - the deadline to ship is April 15th but because mine has to travel so far, I have hoped to have it completed and sent by now. It seems all this hand sewing is addicting though as even though I now have power to my sewing machine - I just cannot seem to stop hand sewing! This swap is for a 16" x 10" kitchen hot pad.
Here is my progress so far:

My swap person is very adamant about not having any thing girly, frilly or soft. She even wrote not in full capital letters. I had a good chuckle when I saw it. Here is what I put in mine:
Color preference - Very open to all colors of the rainbow - but I do quite enjoy red, limy greens, grey, black and white, please advise exchange partner if they do not have any of these, to please just use the colors they have on hand, I am sure I will love it!
I hope that a partial Dresden will not be too much like a flower? She asked for neutral/ fall colors. Do you guys think I need to change anything? I think I may be making it too soft? I don't know but I want her to love it.
I think I will do this again for myself, only drop the bottom partial row of apple cores and do an antique lace trim around the three scalloped sides over the brown fabric in the dresden - I am so girly! 
Cheers,
Carolyn

Check out this great give away!

Julie over at the blog Jaybird Quilts is having a fantastic sponsored give away. It is highlighting an Etsy fabric shop, called just that - Fabric Shoppe. I just checked out her stuff and I am really impressed.
Check out Jaybirds post here and enter to win!
You could win this:

Good Luck,
Carolyn

Dexter lives down the street from me!

Any one else addicted to this show? Well, I was walking Lucky around our neighborhood and you can imagine my horror when we got to this house. I took the picture and then we ran home.

This was Sunday and no-one came to put me in a barrel so the person did not see me - or these are just random barrels not for storing dead blond girls - but decoration?? I know, I know - Carolyn, you have a wild imagination, watch too much TV and seriously - they killed young pretty blond girls! I'm not that old - but I am not that much of a spring chicken any more either. Plus they had long blond hair and I am rocking a boy cut. Phew, I am safe!

I have been avoiding showing my new hari cut. What do you think? Gosh my nose is big!
Cheers,
Carolyn

Coffee date and fabric received!

Thursday night was such a great night! I finally got to meet up with Anna from Quiltmom's Journey. She is even lovelier in person. I had the best time and am very much looking forward to meeting up with her again. She came bearing gifts and sent me home with two magazines, one to keep and one I told her was to be a loner so we had to meet up again so I could return it.

 I get to keep the one on the left. As Anna and I got talking we told each other how we both got our orders in from Connecting Threads - on the same day! Here are my new treasures!

 I also got some new tools - this new cutter is made just for lefties like me! There tools are still on 40% off until April 4th. Anna got some cool books from there as well - I may have to "browse" the site again. ha ha

 I also got this 12 1/2" square and a 4 1/2" square rulers.

 Thank goodness I got all this awesome stuff to cheer up my weekend - this picture is what it still looks like come April 1st! I took this on my way to work yesterday morning. April fools on us - ha ha, its still winter. Boo - but I have bright fabric inside to play with!!

Cheers,
Carolyn

The class I took

I have been meaning to post about the awesome class I took out at Sewing With Class in Stony Plain but with the renos it kept getting pushed aside until now.
First let me tell you how I almost didn't make it out there!
Mr. Hunter left the house before me with the trailer in tow to get some lumber for the house reno. I enjoyed my second cup of coffee before loading my machine and supplies into the car. My goal was to stop at Tim Horton's to get another coffee (I like to jitter) and something for brunch. Then casually shop at the fabric store until my class was to start. This my friends did not happen! The trailer blew a tire and Mr Hunter ended up calling me just as I was loading the car and asked me to bring him the jack. Eyiyi, so I rushed to him as fast as the speed limit allowed and then found that I was needed to provide weight to keep the tire from spinning while he tried to undo the bolts. This is is me, sitting on the trailer. This took until 45 minutes before my class. I phoned Sewing With Class to advise that I would be there late and was I allowed to still come? Yes they assured me, come! I drove the faster route which is the Yellowhead which I normally avoid like the plague, but desperate times call for desperate measures! I made it, not only on time, but 10 minutes early! I was able to set up and be ready with the rest of the group. JOY

Dawn was our teacher and she was fabulous! She taught us how to free motion with the quilt kit I had shown you. Here it is in case you want to see it:

 She handed out this paper print out of the perfect practise for perfecting your free motion stitching. You start with the straight lines which are actually the hardest to free stitch, then end with writing. Dawn told us that if we did this every time we sat down at the machine as a quick practice/warm up, we would see a major difference in our skill level in just a weeks time. I believe it too. I started the class without any control.

 As you can see, I could not follow the serrated lines to save my life!

 My swirls are not even proper swirls!

 The biggest thing was I would not breath - can you believe that? I must have been turning color as she kept coming over and reminding me to breath. ha ha - and I would be caught every time, you are right Dawn, I was not breathing!

 But look, I started to get better, and Dawn coached us all, and told us not to stress so much about following exactly on the lines, they are guides. Fancy, you stop stressing about being on the lines and suddenly you are following them much better!

 Look how much better I got in just a couple of hours.

 Here is the back, looks pretty good huh?

As you can see, we did not do the entire quilt. Which is great as this allows us all to use the tools and information provided to continue building on our skill.
I did all this for just 45 bucks! Including the kit! I look forward to doing another one - but I will dress warmer - my only complaint was that it was chilly willy in there!!
Cheers,
Carolyn

Package in the mail!

The other day I got the best package from Tiffany from PinkSweetTreats blog. Check out all my new goodies!

 Lets take a closer look at these awesome buttons shall we!

 You can oh and ah now!

 She even sent me these wicked scrubbies!

 And a cool fat eighth

 And a zipper pull.

I was so over joyed that I did my best to put together a package = in value.
Here is what I am sending back to Tiffany:

 Since she sent me the beaded zipper pull, I was excited to be able to pull out my packed full container of beads - another passion of mine!

 I am also sending this super cute tiara that I had originally made for my flower girl - it was never used and this is its first time on a head. There  are loops on the ends to use bobby pins if you want to hook in place.
Tiffany - I know you have a boy, and a girl, so I am hoping your girl can play with this?

 I also sent some super cute bracelets. My wrist is scrawny so they will fit you or your daughter.

There are more beads in there. Hopefully she can put it all to good use. I know she did great things with the fabric she won from me.
Cheers,
Carolyn

Look at it now

Remember what my living room and kitchen looked like last week?

 Or how about, what it used to look like?

Well, Look at it now!

OK, It is still messy, but can you see how open and fabulous it is! I got Mr. Hunter to cut down my table. I really liked having the huge table, but it was so big it stuck out into the area of people coming in from the front door. I am (was just informed last night!) getting a new proper sewing table for my new room in the basement. That room is going to be the last finished because it opens into the mechanical room, but it's still exciting to think about.
Do you notice the fridge in the living room?? Its temporary and now the beer is even closer! ha ha
I waved good bye to my old appliances as the nice men from Trail Appliance took them away.
Good bye 1970's Magic Chef!! Good Bye!

 HELLO NEW APPLIANCES!!

Cheers,
Carolyn