What Have You Done for Me Lately?

(ooo ooo ooo yeah! - a little Janet-Miss-Jackson-if-you're-nasty for you there)

So, I have started back to work full-time and am at my first of four residences for the next four months. So, needless to say, not a lot of sewing going on. (Incidentally, I love the phrase "needless to say" because it's always followed by saying the thing that is so-called 'needless'! "It goes without saying" is like that, too.)

I did make this little lunch bag from Ayumi's tutorial for my mom for Christmas. I really love it. It's a very easy to follow tutorial. (I had to take night-time photos inside, so they are a bit washed out.) I used some shoelaces for the ties.

I used a piece from a vinyl, flannel-backed tablecloth for the inside (so it can be wiped out). I also added some insul-brite. I have no idea whether or not that makes a difference but I figured I might as well try it as not :)

My mom really likes it and that's all that matters!

In other quilty news, I joined a new bee: Bee a {Modern}Swapper combines a bee and a swap, so I'm guessing we'll be in hives of 6 and every other month, we will make 2 blocks for one member of the hive. On the off month there will be an optional swap of some sort. February's is a pincushion. Given my travels and travails, I decided to opt out of this first swap, but I'm loving all of the inspiration mosaics. The TwitterB members are all deciding whether to re-up for round two. We're ironing out the details, as I type.

One of my newest quilt recipients was born on Wednesday, a smidge earlier than I was expecting, so I will be working on that, picking out fabrics for February baby, and possibly picking out fabrics for:

I fell hard off of the trying-not-to-buy fabric wagon, but I think it was worth it (don't I always...? Isn't that the problem? Needless to say... It goes with out saying...). Just a note that anyone looking for Annie's Farm Stand Seed Catalog, Kit at Blije Olifantje has some. Must.Resist.Yuwa.Honeycomb.Dots. OK, just had to get that out of my system. She has mad fast shipping, too.

I've had some awesome swaps lately, too. But I can't show them until I get back to Minnesota where I've left my camera. Love the swapping. Highly recommend it!

Blogger's Choice Bundle Entry

Laura over at Quokka Quilts is having a fantastic contest. The Fat Quarter Shop offers Blogger's Choice Fat Quarter Bundles and Laura and FQS are giving one person the chance to design and win their own bundle. And even better than a fat quarter bundle - FQS is offering a half-yard bundle! That's 7.5 yards of fabric!

So, here's the lowdown, you go to the Fat Quarter Shop's website and pick out 12 prints and 3 coordinating solids, put them in a mosaic and post them somewhere they can be seen online - flickr, Picasa, your blog, etc. Then go to the Blogger's Choice post at Laura's blog (more info at that post) and link up a thumbnail of your choices. Easy peasy.

Or is it?! *sinister eyebrow raise*

It is darn hard to pick from alllllll that fabric. But it's the fun kind of challenging. Like "cake or pie?" Or "cookies or ice cream?" "Chocolate or caramel?" "Puppies or rainbows?!" OK, you get the drill.

I had planned to base my choices around Cosmo Cricket's Garbo fabric and maybe some Hometown Town Square in red. Well... you can see how I did :) Once I saw some of those blue/indigo prints (especially that first one - Heirloom Indigo Fez *drool*), I was hooked. And I knew I wanted a grey complement because I love it, so that was a no-brainer. Then I had to decide whether the two color palette was enough. This is what it looked like with just two colors:

Lovely. The blues are striking against the grey/silvers. But I thought it needed another dimension. So, I added in the orange which, after years of estrangement, I have come to embrace and love :) I think that the oranges just give everything a little more pluck without over-powering the blues. You can see clearer pictures and some of the other contenders in my flickr set or by following the links below. I don't think the greys show all that well in the mosaic.

My selections are:
Row 1: Heirloom Indigo Fez by Dear Stella * Lanikai Blue Tear Drop by Dear Stella * Kaffe Fassett's Blue Pencils by Westminster * Terrain Stream Seedpod by Moda

Row 2: Terrain Mist Footpath by Moda * Shades of Grey Ragg Tagg by Daisy Jane * Shades of Grey Pinstripe by Daisy Jane * Shades of Grey River Rock by Daisy Jane

Row 3: Tuxedo Gray Ta Dots by Riley Blake Designs * Lemon Grove Silver Starburst Light Ground by Timeless Treasures * Yard Sale Cantaloupe Basketweave by Dear Stella * Now We're Going Places Orange Dot by Timeless Treasures

Row 4 (solids): Stella Blue by Dear Stella * Deep Violet by Free Spirit Designer Solids * Stella Orange by Dear Stella

Remember how I said I was going to read fewer blogs and not enter giveaways so willy-nilly? Well, I have generally stuck to it. But this giveaway was too good to pass up! Thanks Laura and FQS for the fun exercise!

I had a few fall-off-the-wagon moments. I got lured into purchasing a few of the Snip Snip scissor prints from Momo. And, after seeing the Missouri Star Quilt Company's spiderweb tutorial, I purchased the template and one set of papers, because I already have the fabric I'd like to use for it. But, now that the holidays are mostly over (I'm celebrating Christmas on Saturday with my family), I can move on to using up some of that fabric. I'd like to get a couple baby quilts done, but I'm on the move - I'm spending 4 months in Minnesota for work, far away from my stash, and I'll be staying with four different people. So, we'll see how much sewing/blogging I actually get done!

TwitterB-November and December

Happy New Year!! It's 2012 and we aren't even riding around in flying cars, yet! I thought for sure it would be like The Jetsons by now.

I was very behind on my TwitterB blocks, but I'm happy to say that I was able to finish them up. November's block was based on Oh Fransson's Mod Mosaic Pillow. Charlene chose a print from Amy Butler's Soul Blossoms line:

I was't sure what I was going to do with it. I didn't have too many greens that were going to work. Surprisingly, some of Tula's Parisville worked pretty well. But I pulled the oranges, reds, and pinks and came up with this:

I have to say - it was pretty challenging. I got about half way through and had two chunks. I started out pressing seams to one side (away from the white), which was a mistake. I ended up taking it all apart (blerg). I think starting with larger pieces would have helped and I tried to add in some fussy-cut blocks, which made squaring up hard. Anyway, I think the quilt is going to look pretty great when it's done, but I can definitely see how this makes a good bee block - cannot imagine doing 12 of these myself :)

Linda picked the Oh Fransson's Scrappy Hedgerow block, which was the block that started off the TwitterB! This is the fabric she sent:

I used some of the same colors in this block as I did in my first hedgerow blocks.

In addition to the focus fabric, there are three aqua/turquoise solids, two blenders from Brooklyn Heights. Linda is going to use black sashing when she puts the quilt together. Great color combos!

Must go cry over Badgers' Rose Bowl loss... Ah well. There's always next year.