Starting to Settle!

This is Asia, she thinks she is the best present!

Well, Christmas is all over but the clean up, but I am in no hurry to get on with that!  I am taking some time to be with my family, most of whom are sick...yep it has been one of those years!  I was supposed to be off work from the 18th of December until the 6th of January but.... a few patients were not doing well, so I made a trip in to the office for a couple days to get everyone through until January.

As I was enjoying an uninterrupted scroll through my reading list and a peek around blog land tonight I found this post which is definitely worth passing along. Home Spun Threads is offering ALL her patterns for free!!  I don't know how long this will last, but she has some really cute patterns in her shop.

Outside of all the sickies in my house I had a great Christmas!  My hubby bought me an Ipad, which wasn't even on my list but I had mentioned a while back that I would like one. (I just thought that it was entirely too expensive for us as a gift!) I am thrilled and scared all at the same time!  I am not very tech savvy so it will be a learning curve for me, but if I can figure it out it will be a great asset for work and of course a little play!  I found a great sewing app that keeps track of all your patterns and fabric yardage and projects at various stages. "Santa" was also very good to me this year!  I was asked for a list of gift ideas in early December.  I am entirely practical and don't like to have money spent on things I won't use so a list is the best idea for all of us.  My hubby is not familiar with sewing things at all and I had put on my list a pair of KAI scissors as a gift.  Well he thought scissors would be a great stocking stuffer!  He really just about choked when she said "that will be $110.00 please." Of course he was too embarrassed to say "oh sorry I must have misunderstood" or something...anything!  He explained later that the clerk had the scissors on hold for someone else and she had called the woman to ask if he could buy them as a Christmas present if she didn't need them right away!  So he felt obliged to buy them.  Poor loving man! I do admit that I am thrilled with them though.

Well I can finally post some of the gifts we made this year for presents:

Placemats with pockets and fingertip mitts for my step daughters 

These are the mitts my son made from a felted wool sweater!

Moo's painting for her Dad....it is just beautiful!! She doesn't usually look this sleepy!  

Mug Rugs for the girls in the office...my first "free motion" quilting attempt! 

 This is the sweater for Bean and night gown for Moo that I made..  Thankfully they love them!

Well there are more things to see but my monkeys need to go to bed so good night for now!

Giveaway Winner!!

What a great experience being a part of the Sew Mama Sew Giveaway!  Thank you to everyone who came by and left a comment.  It was a joy to read each of them.  I really have to figure out how to reply to posts with blogger.  If anyone knows please let me know!  I tried to reply to comments but I had to copy and paste each address into my gmail account which ended up being very time consuming so if I didn't get to every one I am very sorry, but I did read and cherish each and every comment.  As I said, my children would be picking the winner and they too spent a great deal of time reading the comments.  They were very moved by many of the replies and were very inspired by what some people do to help others.  So thank you for opening their eyes to even more giving ideas!


Now for the winner!  We put the names into our Santa hat and the little sleepy heads still in their PJ's with the help of the dog, drew the winner.

And the winner is..........

Who Said:

sweet limes said...

I love that you are connecting this to giving since that's what Christmas is all about in my eyes.

My favourite thing to do at this time of year is inviting a few people who don't have family (or family close by) for Christmas dinner and other festivities so they don't have to be alone for the holidays. So far I have a lady from my local fabric store coming, a lady and her mother down the street, and a gentleman our family has known for about a year who has no family to speak of. I do this because I have no family other than my own husband and kids, and I used to hate spending the time alone.

Charity. Love that you asked this because I love talking about the charity I do. I had a daughter who was still born at 40 weeks and the hospital gave me the most darling little gown to dress her in because it was all so unexpected and my bag with her supplies got lost in the shuffle. Turns out they have a small supply of these on hand for those sorts of situations. I make gown after gown all year round and on my daughters birthday I take them to the hospital she was born and hand them over to the nursing staff there. I want the mother's in similar situations to have something they can hold onto after their little one dies and leaves their arms empty. I know how much it meant to me and I want to offer that little bit of love and comfort to other mother's like me.

Thank you so much to everyone for all of the inspiration!  Sweet Limes, I will email you for your address and the fabric will be headed in your direction.  The kids and I have also decided to add in a few left over pieces of eyelet that Hazel made my son's baby quilt out of because we thought that it would be a nice accent to some of the fabrics for the baby gowns. 

Merry Christmas to every one!  Thanks for sharing!

Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Day

THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED FOR COMMENTS!  THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH FOR COMING! The winner will be posted Saturday morning.....after I wake UP!!


I am so glad you are here to visit!  I am really excited as this is my first giveaway ( I am pretty new to blog land!)  I am grateful to Sew Mama Sew for running this because I was struggling to find a way to do a giveaway and this is perfect.

There is a little history to this giveaway but I know you are busy so I will keep it short and sweet.

This is Hazel:

If you want to read back a bit in my blog you will find labels for Hazel.  Hazel is a dear friend of mine from British Columbia were I spent 12 years. She is almost 87 years old and a life long quilter. Well, she is no longer able to quilt and I have been blessed with her stash!!  There is so much that I am absolutely unable to use it all and it would be un"Hazel" like to keep it all to myself anyway.  She is a very giving lady and I wish to honour her by continuing this trend.  So for today's giveaway I am giving away some of her fabrics.  Many of the pieces that I was given are vintage and many are quite beautiful and unique. 

I am doing this giveaway not only to share what Hazel has given me in fabric but also in character. I would like to see Hazels generosity and spirit spread as far as possible outside of my community.

So here is the deal:

I am giving away these three pieces of fabric.  They are at least 2 meters each, one of them is three.  The colours are brilliant and the feel of the striped orange one is divine! The others are lovely too of course but there is just something about that one!

Here is the HOW to and the FINE print ;-) 

1). Leave me a comment on this post telling me what is your favourite thing to do, at this time of year, to show the spirit of giving?

2). If you do any type of crafting for charity of any sort (or would like to) and you are willing to share a little bit of what I send to you by making a little something for a charity or group in need in your area tell me about it in the same comment and I will include with the 3 pieces, a box full of assorted other fabrics.  Many that match the first three.  Some are large, some are scraps all are useful for something!  It doesn't matter to me if you make a pillow case, a doll dress, a snack bag, a hair band, a pin cushion, a mug rug,  a soft stuffed animal or if you trim a tea towel!  What ever it is you wish to donate, if you will share....I will share:  

So that is it...one comment either way, seems easy right?  Right!!  It is Christmas!!!  So take a minute and think about how you can share the love, then tell me all about it!  

Post your comment here by the 17th, winner will be chosen by my children (who are successful "givers in training"!)  Your parcel will be in the mail by the 20th... as long as you make sure I have a way to contact you!!  PLEASE.....If you are unsure if your email is linked, or you don't have a blog, leave it in the comment.

You are welcome to follow my blog if you like or if you wish to just visit for today, I am happy you dropped by.

Have a great day!

30th Post giveaway!

Well, this is my 30th post and as promised I am doing a give away!  I have been procrastinating about writing this post because I was struggling with how to do the giveaway and thank Goodness Sew Mama Sew has made it easy for me!  They are having a blog wide giveaway here and I decided to join that.  So, the details will be posted on the 13th but as you probably know I will be parting with some of my dear friend Hazel's fabrics!  She was a fabulous quilter and is a truly generous soul. You will have to tune in on the 13th for the details though cause true to my "procrastinator" ways... I am not ready yet!!!

I have been getting a lot of Christmas sewing done but most of it I can't show just yet because some people may be lurking to find out what they are getting!!!! Ha! I know who you are!!
I will show the apron that I made for my very first swap though. I am not sure it will get to my partner in time for Christmas given the very taxed postal system and I want her to be able to at least see it for Christmas!  It was mailed December 1st but that doesn't mean it will arrive for sure, so here it is

It is a Heather Bailey Pattern called Daily Spice.  I was trying to get my partners favourite colours; black white and red, but that combination was no where to be found in our little fabric stores here in the north!  The main fabric is black and red though so I hope it will do! It did turn out really cute and I added some fun tuck ins too.  So I hope it makes her Christmas a little merrier!

In other news, my little Bean has turned 12!  He is getting so big and I am not sure where the time went!  He had a little party on the weekend and it was a good thing because by Tuesday (his actual birthday) he had strep throat and was really sick! 


Well, there are lots of other things to chat about but it is late and I better get to bed or my sewing time tomorrow will be shortened by my need for sleep.....zzzzzz

Have a great one and if you are in the path of the blizzard headed our way....keep warm!!

I was VOLUN"TOLD" !!

Look what happened in our yard!!

YES WE HAVE THIS MUCH SNOW!!  AND MORE!!!

 Well, I am back to the computer at last!  I have been crazy busy with the kids school council.  I was "voluntold" to be on the playground committee for the new school that the Ministry is building for us.  Almost 800 students and NO PLAYGROUND equipment!!  YIKES.

Any way so 2.5 weeks ago I was appointed the lead on planning a craft fair and small business vendor event they wanted to have to raise money for the school.  WHY?  Because I sew.  I must know a lot of crafters....NOT!!!  However, I am good at last minute magic!  Pulled together a small committee of "go-getter" girls and we organized 23 participants, a bake sale and a silent auction!! WHEW!  I ended up being a vendor too because a few of the other Moms have some of my reusable snack bags and they thought those would sell well at the event.  So whilst I was planning the whole thing I had to put my Christmas sewing on hold and sew a bunch of things for this event.  Can you say time management issues!! Haven't been to bed before 2am for weeks!  But I did get some things sewn for the event so that was good.

                  

These are my version of crayon rolls.  I don't like ties because the kids want to do things themselves so I put a tab with an elastic and sew a button to the back of the tab and there you go! Toddler Friendly! If you click on the pictures you can see better detail.

The kids each sewed a stuffy as well.  Bean made his own pattern for a fish which he wants me to put into a tutorial, so I will try to get that together as well soon.  You can see his fish in this picture along with some of the other things we made.  The fuzzy things are dust cloths.  You can see here that we added pupils to TREY as his blue eyes look a little spooky in the picture below!!

Moo made a TREY owl from this pattern.  It is copy righted so we emailed and asked permission to donate the owl to the fundraiser silent auction table and she said YES! Moo was very happy that she contributed and the owl went for $8.00.  Two little girls had a little bidding war over him, it was cute!  All said it was a great event but it certainly put a crimp in my holiday sewing.

Fabric Give away! One on NOW....One coming up!

There is a really sweet give away over at Retro Mummy!   Beautiful fabric is the deal of the day...Quick quick!  Go See!

Bean's fish creation!

We are sewing up a storm here for the craft fair.  It is all small tedious stuff though so I don't feel like I am getting too much done.  We are making reusable snack bags, sandwich wraps, crayon rolls, stuffies that the kids are dreaming up!  Nothing has a pattern and I am just cutting and sewing and hoping that it all works out!  I would like to try a few mug rugs too, they just seem like a great teachers gift!  I can see one on each desk with a peppermint tea in a cute mug to ward of the headaches that must threaten their everyday!  You can see I am NOT teacher material!  I don't do noise!

I do do fabric though!  And the sound of the machine is sweet.  But I have a task to do, and that involves the fabric that I received from a dear friend. I have to sort it out because the snow is starting to settle in here and I have to park my car in my garage for the winter months or it will refuse to start in the morning!  My 30th post is coming up soon and I am hoping that I can do a give away.  A lot of the fabric is small pieces (Hazel was a quilter!) so I am sure there will be some scrap bags.  It is not designer fabric, but a good lot of it is certainly vintage!  Hazel is 86 (or so!).  It is all very clean and neatly folded, or it was until I tried to sort it all out! There is also a fair bit of fabric that is not quilt fabric, I think it is more clothing type fabric.  Is anyone interested in a grab bag of surprise fabric?  There are some pretty laces and a stunning silver sparkly type piece and of course florals and well really just a whole variety of things! Does anyone make quilts for the Alzheimer's Society that need multiple textures and types?  Anyone have little girls to sew costumes or play things for? There is definitely lots to share?  Anyone sew for charity?  It would really be a delight if some of the fabric that Hazel has given would go into a piece made for a good cause.

I'd love to hear from you any ideas of what you would like to see in the give away...the aspect of variety is definitely covered!

 This was my first sort of the fabric onto tarps in the garage. Some of the piles are 18" high at least. The yellow recycling bin holds a bag of tiny, tiny pieces!

 This is the pile of random craft projects and UFO'S all individually bagged. There is even a bag of smocking pieces.

This is a bin with vintage patterns and small pieces of baby printed flannel and a few others like that shiny purple one!

 Thanks for stopping by!

Another Go Give Away and the Mistletoe Make and Bake Blog Hop!!

Just wanted everyone to know that there is another GO! give away over at Simply Solids Blog.  Thanks to Lucky Duck Dreams for the heads up on that one!

There is also a very neat Blog Hop happening!  The Mistletoe Make and Bake 2010 Blog Hop Started today!  It looks like it should be a great week for Christmas treats!  Thanks to Paulette for the invitation to share in this one! This list is copied and pasted...I am not that great with making such snazzy posts just yet!  As you can see I can't get blogger to "un-highlight my first" lines!  It started typing in red and I didn't know how to fix it so I accidentally highlighted it and now, well I can't get it off!  Yep, still learnin'!

November 15th-20th, 2010

Here is the line-up~

November 15th

Sherri K. Falls of This and That Patterns 

November 16th

Heidi Kaisand of Chicks & Hen

Monique Dillard of Open Gate Blog

November 17th

Celine Perkins of Perkin's Dry Goods

Patrick Lose of The Latest News from Patrick Lose

Kelly Ann Richardson of Kelly Ann's Quilting

November 18th

Lissa Alexander of Moda Lissa

Julie Stewart of Quilts 4 Julie

November 19th

Roseann Kermes of Rosebud's Cottage

Brenda Riddle of Little Acorns

November 20th

Vickie Eapen of Spun Sugar Quilts

Melisa Morrison of Sweet Home Quilt Co.

November 21st

On the seventh day, we’ll rest. And eat cookies!

 So mark your calendar and get ready for a fun week filled with cookie bliss, wonderful projects and awesome prizes!!

Hope you all had a great Monday!