Retro Stool Re-Do

I picked up this AWESOME stool at Bishop's Attic in Anchorage for 6 bucks! Had some left over fabric from the $1 grab bag (you may recognize it from the checkbook cover) - add some aqua spray paint and...VOILA! I love love love this so so much I could scream! This was how I spent my birthday weekend. Thrift store shopping and re-purposing my finds! YAY!

Checkbook Cover

I found this outer fabric in a grab bag at a thrift store. I used the lining fabric last year for an apron. This is for my friend, Hannah for her birthday - woah - I know a lot of September birthdays.

Cowboy Bag

I made this bucket tote bag for my friend Michelle for her birthday. She is a total horse girl! Hope she likes it :)

Little Pin Cushion

I got this pattern at my local quilt shop and made this adorable pin cushion for my friend, Liz for her birthday. I hope she isn't looking at my blog :) And I hope she doesn't hate pink.

My apple bag - full of goodies...

Our Fall Rally for TOPS was Saturday and our instructions were to bring a full lunch bag to auction off as a fundraiser. Due to time restraints it was changed to a lunch bag swap. We all drew numbers and then proceeded to the table to chose our lunch. I was thrilled and pleased when my lunch bag was chosen first - YAY! I scored too - my lunch was in an old school Tupperware container - I love old well-loved retro stuff :)

Green Fairy Quilt Charity

My blogger friend Judi, at Green Fairy Quilts (see button to the right) went to Romania in early September to visit orphanages and give the kids their own quilts. She sent a shout out in August that she was a few quilts short. I had my buggy CSQ quilt almost finished. It was planned for my high school girlfriend, Maura's new baby Alistair. So I emailed Maura to tell her the situation. So, with Maura's blessing, I shipped Alistair's quilt off to Judi in Utah who took it to Romania and gave it to a little one living in an orphanage.


You can see Judi's eloquent posting about her trip on her blog, along with the video highlight of her trip here My quilt is shown given to a little boy in this video at minute 6:01! That was exciting to see!

Thanks Maura and Alistair!

Cool Give-Away at the Room Remix

Who doesn't love shopping! Pop over to PK's blog Room Remix and enter her giveaway for $35 gift card somewhere....(she lets you choose if you win) Her giveaway is in honor of 100 followers. Lucky her :) I have 3!

Here is a little bag I made in one afternoon! It's call the Lindie Bag and it was a free pattern I got here at CraftApple. On Saturday, my TOPS group is having the fall rally...an annual fun get together. It's a Back to School theme. We are supposed to bring a school picture of ourselves from our younger days and and also bring your sack lunch. The you donate the lunch bag and everyone bids on a lunch to eat at the lunch auction. Its a pretty cool fundraiser. I made this little bag for my lunch sack. I hope it gets lots of bids - depends, I suppose on what I put in it :)

My Baby is 10 years old today!!!!

Happy Birthday Jake.

It hardly seems possible that my youngest is 10 today. This is the kid who always greets me at the door when I get home with a smile and asks me if I need help. He tells me he loves me everyday at least once and when I say I love you he tells me he loves me more. 10 years - sigh. Only 8 left :(

Mish Mash CSQ

Here is my latest CSQ! I love this method so much and am thrilled and flattered that Martguerita McManus, the co-author of the book(with her daughter Sarah Raffuse)- Crazy Shortcut Quilts - asked me to join a group of quilters she is training to teach this method in thier areas all over the country. Tomorrow night is my quilt guild's education fair....where we vote on what classes we want to feature for 2010. I will show this sample, and hope people vote so I can begin my teaching career for this awesome quilting method. I have had mixed reactions to the fabrics I chose...many traditional quilters think my eye for colors is too crazy and unconventional....can't help what I like. I tend to shy away from neutrals and traditional colors. This quilt is a mish mash of scraps I had and ended up being way smaller than most of my CSQs have been. A normal baby quilt in this method that I do is approx. 39" square. This measured in at 28.5" square - perfect for a wall hanging or bambino. The cherry, paisley, brown swirly, and pink/aqua floral, as well as the green sashing fabrics are all scraps from aprons I made last year.

Front

Back

Front vs. Back

Wish me luck on my new endeavor in the quilt teacher world.

Paperbag Photo Album

I spent last night with Tessah, her friend Brooke, and Jakob making paper bag photo albums. The previous weekend the girls and I went to the David Archuleta concert at the fair. We met my friend Sharon there with her girls and I snapped some pics. I decided I would make my album for her as a little memento of the crazy fun night we had. It was fun!!
I got the idea for these albums at http://www.scrapbook-crazy.com/ but my local scrapbook store also had them - so I don't really feel like I am presenting this idea as my own :)

Online Quilt retreat at Susan's Blog

I am trying to find the time to sew this Labor Day weekend and a blogger friend - Hi Susan - is hosting an online sewing retreat - so that gave me the perfect reason to sit down at the machine. I am working on finishing this pinky/greeny/brown tiny crazy shortcut quilt I started with scraps from my stash with no recipient in mind. I am going to make a sample for when I eventually teach this method (if I get my butt in gear) -

~ check out the other bloggers in on this retreat at http://www.susanround.com/

Tomorrow I will be sewing at the Alaska State Fair with the Valley Quilt Guild. So hopefully I finish this mini CSQ!