Huge Shop Sale & Destash!

Just to let everyone know what I've been up to the last few days.  I am having a sale in the shop starting today and have been busy getting ready. I've got fabric yardage reduced and pre-cuts and even a few quilts and kitchen decor on sale.  Stop by and take a look before it's all gone.  Sale starts today and I will be listing new items daily in the Sale/Destash section of the shop.  Be sure to read the rest of this post for Blog Only shop deals.

* Almost all the holiday themed fabric is discounted by several $$ per yard.
* Pre-cuts are on sale.  Both seasonal ones and some of the newer fabric lines also.
* Patterns on sale. 
* Some quilts & mug rugs on sale.
* I will also be listing more Scrap bundles of fabric for sale over the next week.

BLOG ONLY DEAL:

*Make a purchase of $25 or more and receive a free pattern.  Make a purchase of $50 or more and receive either a quilt book or 3 patterns free.

To be eligible for a free pattern and/or quilt book you must:

1). Be a follower of my blog (leave me a note in message to seller).
2). Leave a note in message to seller at checkout with the name of the pattern you would like free.
3). Choose any pattern in the shop, regardless of whether it's on sale or not.
4). Get a friend to become a blog follower and receive an additional pattern for you as well as one for your friend.  (Your friend will need to leave a comment on this blog post or send an email through the shop in order to qualify).

Use this coupon code at checkout to save an additional 15% off the sale prices: QWSALE15. 
(Please note: This coupon code will apply to anything in your shopping cart, regardless of whether it's on sale or regular price).

This sale will be going for an undetermined amount of time.  I am trying to reduce my stock of fabric yardage and make way for new items.  Please take advantage of these great deals while they last! This would be an awesome way to stock up on fabric for Holiday projects or just to increase your stash at a great price!

I hope to *see* you all in the shop!
Stephanie

New in the Shop

So I've been a busy little bee the last few days.  I finished the binding on this cutie this morning.  I love all the bright colors and fun prints in it.  I did a meandering loop quilting design on it with crayon brights thread.  I'm not sure that's the real name of the thread but it's King Tut.  I thought it fit perfectly with all the other bright colors in this quilt.  It would be perfect for a little boy but is also gender neutral.  It was a fun quilt to piece together and I'm so glad to have it finished! 

And here's a view with the backing fabric in it as well as (as promised in yesterdays post) the binding.  I love the backing fabric on this.  It reminds me of the early 90's muscle pants that boys were so fond of wearing.  My brother wore muscle pants all the time so there's a bit of nostalgia to this quilt for me.  :)

Does anyone else remember muscle pants? How about scrunchies and side ponytails? Lol! I hope I'm not dating myself too much. 

This super fun quilt is also for sale now in my shop. 

 I also finished this table topper this morning.  I LOVE this topper! The fabrics are out of print now and hard to find so I'm glad I had enough of the fabric lying around to finish this runner. 

 Isn't it great? You can purchase this in my shop now also.  

Okay... a few more pics just cause I love it so much!

Isn't the backing fabric great? I was so glad I still had a few yards of that left.  I love the spooky trees.  I have several more Halloween runners and mug rugs to finish binding but I ran out of solid black fabric.  Booo! (uhhh, no pun intended there.  Seriously! I did that completely unintentionally).

Maybe I'll post some pics later of the unbound runner and mug rugs... just cause I can't wait to share them!

Accomplished Day = Bindings Finished!

Well, I have managed to host my weekly sewing afternoon again successfully.  Normally my mom, mom-in-law and -now that she's finally moved to WA state- my best friend, sew once a week at my place while the boys wreak their usual havoc or torment Grampa and the dogs.  We have gotten off track with our weekly sewing ritual.  I think it was due in large part to the summer.  So much to do during the summer! Now that fall has arrived, and I'm just as busy as ever, I decided "What the hell?" and started up our weekly sewing ritual again. 

I have to say I feel very accomplished today, considering I had limited amounts of caffeine today (ie: dangerously low volumes) and little sleep last nite.  Add in 2 very energetic boys with TONS to say today (seriously... tons) and I am riding on this euphoric feeling of having accomplished so much more than I ever thought I would today.

I made 2 loaves of Pumpkin Bread (one plain and one with chocolate chips for the boys), chased the boys, watched and listened to an absolutely amazing thunder and lightning storm, and got binding picked out and mostly cut and sewn for many different projects.  The latter is the most rewarding part of my day.  Not even sipping my Almond Coffee Frappe and putting my feet up with nothing to do for a blissful 10 minutes beat that! Came pretty darn close though. 

So... tonite will be all about catching up on Sanctuary Season 3 via Netflix (I adore Netflix) and sewing on some bindings!  It's about darn time I finished up some of these projects.  It has been a ridiculously long amount of time some of them have been sitting around quilted, trimmed and waiting for binding. 

May I just ask: Does anyone else just HATE binding things? It is my absolute least favorite part of quilting.  Really I don't know why.  Binding is so peaceful and calming and requires no deep thinking or mathematics... Binding should be my absolute favorite part of making a quilt.  I guess binding is like your best friends cousin that visits every summer.  You really don't like her, even though she's nice and sweet and let's you pick out everything and never complains - not even once, but you have to play with her.  Yeah, bindings kinda like that. 

(throat clears).  So anyway... How is everyone else? I hope this has been a week of accomplishment for you all as well.  I will post pics of my quilts...and bindings... over the next few days as I complete them.  And I promise to play nice and let BFF's cousin play with us for awhile.  Maybe I'll even let her pick a game tonite.

Retro Halloween table runner

Without further ado, I give you the Retro Halloween table runner! This is one of my all-time favorite table runners! The pattern was so easy to follow, the fabrics make me giddy and it was done in one afternoon.

completely. done.

This guy was made with the intention of selling it in my etsy shop but once I finished it there was no way I could part with it.  I have to say, it looks pretty darn good on my table.  :)

I absolutely love the fabrics in it! I wish I could remember 100%, but I'm pretty sure the fabrics are from RJR fabrics.  I found the charm pack early last year (or the year before) and just had to have it.  Unfortunately I couldn't find any other fabrics to go with it that I really loved or a pattern that spoke to me, so it sat in my shelves full of fabric and eventually was forgotten.  I found a pattern on the Moda Bakeshop website and instantly loved it! It's called City Windows and was so easy to piece together.  The thing I loved most about it was that I didn't need a backing fabric! All I had to do was piece the front together and then use the leftover charm squares to piece into a back. 

Here's what I loved about this pattern.

1. it's free!!! you seriously can't beat that
2. it was so easy i pieced it, quilted it and bound it in one afternoon
3. i got to use my whole charm pack and had a ridiculously small amount of fabric leftover.
4. i have made many of these runners with different fabrics and i still love making them
5. it's reversible! how cool is that?!?

Okay, so tell me everybody, do you love this fabric as much as I do? I have seriously been waiting for about 2 months to put this out on the table. 

I hope you enjoyed seeing it! I sure couldn't wait to show it to you!

Morning Randomness

Just a picture to make you smile.

Halloween Decorating

Yes, we are already decorating for Halloween around here.  It's Jake's favorite holiday and he will be leaving for work tomorrow and won't get back home until 4 days before Halloween.  So... we decided to decorate a little bit beforehand and let him get in on some of the fun.

I took a few pics with my new camera (Yay! It finally came!).  You'll have to excuse the photos as they are not top quality.  I have not yet figured out all the little buttons on my camera and have been playing around with it today.

Here's our Spooky Halloween Tree.  We all sat around the kitchen table this afternoon and colored the decorations.  Guess who got to color the whole tree-front and back? You guessed it-me!  That was tons of fun, by the way.  My fingers were cramping when I finished it.

We had a great time though.  It was a perfect project for our rainy day and easily involved all ages.  I picked this up with the boys at JoAnn Fabrics a few weeks ago.  It cost only a few bucks for the tree, stand and the decorations.  I even got it on sale.  Score! I love me a good sale.

Stay tuned for more photos as we complete craft projects and decorating.  Tomorrow I'll post some pictures of the Retro Halloween table runner I made.  I love, love, love this table runner!

Binding your Quilts

So, since I don't have my camera yet and can't take any pictures for you, I'll just tell you what I've been up to.  I managed to get at least a dozen or so table runners quilted on my mom-in-laws long-arm machine.  With all the distractions from energetic little boys, fixing dinner and TV shows (we don't have cable at my house, so this is where I get to catch up on daytime drama) that took a solid afternoon.  I am currently in the process of making bindings for all of these now. 

I did get one Christmas table runner completely finished and that went immediately into the wash.  I have to say, my absolute favorite thing to do once I finish a quilt (or anything quilt-y) is to first squeal with excitement that I actually managed to finish something and then race to the laundry room with it.  I just adore the snuggly warm feeling of a freshly laundered quilt.  They look and feel so much nicer.  And who can resist all the scrunchy, puckery goodness once it comes out of the drier? Not me!

I also finished quilting a belated Birthday present for one of my sister-in-laws.  I am hoping to get the binding on that tomorrow afternoon while the little boys nap.  It would be nice to have it in the mail to her before Christmas.  ;)

Anyway, after taking a much needed break from all the binding-making and doing this afternoon, I stumbled upon this Perfect Binding post from Julie Herman at Jaybird Quilts. 

She has a great blog and this Binding tutorial was so stinkin' helpful this afternoon! I had been trying to remember how I used to do my binding so it didn't show any seams, and this tutorial was it!  You really should check it out for yourself.  She has very easy to follow tut's.  There is also a tut on binding w/flange.  I want to try that out someday.  Has anyone else ever done a flange binding?

Well... Until I get a camera (which is hopefully only a few days from now) I don't have anything else for ya.

Hope everyone has had a great week!