Day 2: Sew Merry and Bright book tour

Holiday Musical Chairs Quilt [Sew Merry and Bright by Linda Lum DeBono]

We are on day 2 of this little book tour of mine! Thank you to Carrie for a great post yesterday! You can still enter her giveaway. It's a cool one.

Today my guest is Sew, Mama, Sew!. I love their site and it is a great source of inspiration. Not only is Sew, Mama, Sew! a store but their blog is full of tutorials, giveaways and great information for quilters or sewers. The ladies at Sew, Mama, Sew! invited me to be a special guest and what does a special guest do? She brings along a special project, of course! Go and check it out. Say hello to Little A because he is featured too! Enjoy it!

On their shop site, you will find lots of great holiday fabrics. Some fabrics are too cute to cut up! What do I do? I design easy projects that have large blocks so that I can feature the fabric as much as the design itself. That's what happened when I designed the quilt above. I loved the hot pink fabric and didn't want to cut it up into little pieces so I made sure that I incorporated that into the design. The same goes for the easy placemat designs in the book. Great, easy projects that still maintain the integrity of the design of that favorite project.

Peace Place Mat

[Sew Merry and Bright by Linda Lum DeBono]

So hop over to the Sew, Mama, Sew! blog today for some fabulous fun!

xo, L

Yo-Yo's Are Everywhere!

Hi, yo-yo challenge participants!! Have you been working on your projects? It seems that yo-yos are everywhere. I took my machine in to the quilt shop for servicing the other day and visited my favorite bead shop that is in the same plaza. Artful Beads is a funky bead shop that you should visit if you are in the Pennington area. There were yo-yos everywhere! Barbara, one of the owners, was sporting this beauty. Look at her necklace! 

They sell lovely clips! Their neclaces are divine!

Yesterday I went to Manhattan and it seems that yo-yos are popular in the Japanese crafting book department too!

Yes, we are way ahead of the curve. I can't wait to see your designs! Remember to join the Flickr page.

xo, L

Distractions

When I am working on something for work, I often need to process things in my noggin. I'll usually distract myself with little projects. I originally made these little zippered pouches for my boys but I found myself using them to hold my notions. The pattern is by Connie Woo. Oh so cute. My boys will get their pouches back at some point!

Then my local quilt shop, Kindred Quilts , was offering these little kits to make Friendship Triangles. The idea is to buy some, sew them up and return them to the shop. The shop would swap the triangles around and return the same number that you submitted. I wasn't going to buy any but then Mark Lipinski just had to post about his triangles on Facebook and I saw his finished ones [and others] at the shop. Ok, so I had to get in on the sewing and swapping. It has been a fun and easy sewing exercise [especially since I am not best friends with paper piecing.]

I can't wait to show you the blocks that I received at the end of May. Have a great Monday! xo, L

Everyday

It has been an busy week filled with everyday little events. Have you been inspired to start a lot of new projects yet? I had hurt my wrist last week so I was limited to what I could sew. I finished this little card holder. I picked up this kit last fall in Houston at Quilt Market and made most of it but I had to finish up the circles. I love the colors.

Then, I dug out my wool stash. I haven't decided what I'm going to make but I think that the colors reflect a Valentine's sort of color scheme, don't you think?

Then, this week, Big A had a violin recital. How did he grow up so fast? One day, he's my little baby.

And, the next, he's all grown up and so excited to wear a tie! Great job!

Awww, so handsome! xo, L

Catching Up

How are your holiday preparations coming along? I've been busy with little bits of this and that. In the end, though, it seems to add up to a lot and I often wonder where does the time go? Have you been busy sewing gifts? I have to start soon! All of the ideas have been swirling around my head but I haven't actually done a lot of sewing. I mean, I have done some sewing but not enough for my liking. I did sew that little wallet up there with some scraps that I had around. I'd never drawn up a pattern or sewn anything with a frame before so that was an experience.

Mostly, I've been busy with some background stuff and with the kids' school activities. It is that time of year that everything seems crammed into a week or two, doesn't it? This was taken at the Holiday Table with my little one, his best buddy, Aidan and his mom, Joanne. It's a fun holiday thing that we do at school. The parents get to come in and have lunch with their kiddos and friends. My big guy had 5 boys at his table and it was madness.

Last week, Little A's teacher had a craft day so Joanne, my hubby and I volunteered to help. My station was the beaded ornament station. Well, I had as much fun and even made a couple of snowflake ornaments while I was supposed to be teaching the kids how to make them.

  

Then there was the grand gingerbread making adventure of 2009. Ok, Joanne and I are quilters, not professional gingerbread house makers. It all started off well buy after a while we needed to support the roof because it was sliding off. In the end it was all fine. The kids, of course, wanted to eat all of the gumdrops and icing.

Joanne's boys made these adorable ornaments. Hint: Last minute gift for the grandparents! Easy to make and cute!

Onto other quilt business news. These lovely scans came across my desk recently. The ladies from Henry Glass sent me scans of Michelle Blackhurst's new line, Fleur d'Paris. So pretty! Look forward to the release in the spring.

Happy sewing! xo, L

Letters Of The Day

I was cleaning the boys' room this morning and realized that there's one thing that's pretty constant with a lot of my sewing and quilting projects. I love to add words or letters. They add a lot of spunk to a design, don't you think? I made these pillows for my boys from some of my Gardenia line and I used my own font. You can use any font from your computer, the internet or even your own drawing. I have a couple of other examples on my inspiration journal. Plus, if you look through my books, you'll see a lot of word action.

So, enjoy your weekend. We're off to a birthday party and then my cutie pie nephew, Jack [above, left], should be at my doorstep by dinnertime. Hopefully the next week will be filled with fun like it was last year when we played at the local park on the tire swing. xo, L

Actual Proof

Proof that I am actually making stuff. I am making a superhero costume for Little A. They have a Letter People Day next week and he choose the letter 'S' because she is a superhero. I'll show you when the little superhero stops for a split second for a photo op.

Meanwhile, I've been obsessing with little details lately. I am loving zippers and button makers. See how simple it is to dress up a plain ol' pincusion? I had scraps of my 'Funky Flowers' fabric hanging around and decided that I needed a new pincushion. So fun and cute!

I made this little wall hanging [sorry for the bad photo. It has been awful here and getting a nice shot is near impossible.] for my Sew Sentimental book and the little ones to whom I give this hanging to love to store their little treasures in it. It is just a simple 9-patch sandwich with vinyl pockets sewn to various squares for pockets. I used scrapbooking supplies like rub-ons for the lettering and clips to attach a ribbon for hanging at the top.

Oh, I don't know if I ever announced this officially, but I do have an inspiration journal of photographs on my website. Just click My Journal on right sidebar. 

Off to sew my superhero a costume. xo, L

Quilt Market - Part Two

My first stop is always the Henry Glass booth. My favorite peeps in the whole show. Their booth was very fun as usual and the new lines were fabulous. Of course, we have my line, Inspiration.

I hope that you love this line. I designed the line that is for those who need a little lift in a difficult time. I wanted the line to say "caring, hopeful but fresh and bright".  I hope that I've captured that for you. 

Henry Glass had this cute little farm line for all of the kids in your life. 

There were lots of other fabric lines from the Henry Glass designers. You can check them out at their website. Heather Mulder Peterson is another fellow designer for Henry Glass Fabrics. So pretty!

Here's my friend, Roseann, visiting the Henry Glass aisle. You can see some designs from some of the designers in the background.

She owns a quilt shop in Minnesota and she does other interesting things within the quilting industry. We met at the American Patchwork and Quilting designer's retreat that they had a few years back. She's fun, energetic and passionate. 

My friend, Amy Butler, has a new CD by The Electric Quilt Company. It has some fun and easy projects.

I met a new designer and PBS home dec show hostest, Vicki Payne. I love her home dec line.

Lots more to come. xo, L

Back Home

I've been a bad blogger lately. I just got back from Quilt Market in Pittsburgh. I had lots of fun. I drove there and back myself so I'm a bit tired. I did get the center stitched on the dresdan plate. Do you like it? I'll get back to the excitement later. xo, L