I Love Announcing the WINNER!
16 January 2012 
Thanks to everyone for their comments on the giveaway CK is sponsoring! The winner of the free copy is…
Snipsandsnails/Holly!
Congrats, Holly! Email me your address and I’ll pass that along to CK for your prize.
Scrapping For Every Season GIVEAWAY
Hey all! Hot off the presses today is Creating Keepsakes’ new book, Scraping for Every Season.
And I’m here to tell you it is FULL of neat ideas, fabulous tips, a few tips, some great tutorials. It’s definitely a cool book. The CK Blog has examples of each season, but here’s a taster.
Learning to Work by Autumn Baldwin, as seen in Scrapbooking Ideas for Every Season, page 42.
The wonderful staff over at CK have offered me a copy to giveaway to one of my lucky readers here on my blog! If you’d like to be in for a chance to win, just leave me a comment on this post. If you’d like to have a second chance, put a link here from your FB page, Pinterest, Blog, or other social media (be sure to let me know). Want a 3rd chance? Become a follower (or tell me you already are) and leave another comment.
Of course, not everyone will win, so if you want to buy your own copy, here’s the link to do that with!
Use Your Stash!
Welcome to my stop along the Blog Hop. Sorry I was a little late getting my post up. I had some technical difficulties. If you didn’t get here from Scrappin with Lisa, then jump to Heather’s Blog to start things off.
For my project, I was thinking about all those wonderful Christmas presents that I just received. Which means? I need a bunch of Thank You Cards! Now, if you’re like me, you have an absolute STACK of cute scraps that you can’t quite bear to throw away, because there’s enough to be useful. Honest! Hmmm… what to actually DO with them? Well, my card will help!
See all those cute circles? Here’s how you can use them! I used a 2″ circle punch. Really easy. Only took me about 10 minutes to make this card. But… boy does it look more complicated.
Hope you can find some other fun ways to use your scraps. If you do, be sure to share!
Now, on to your next stop along the way! Scraps to Treasures is sure to have something fun cooked up for us!
My Secret Obsession
I work primarily in 12×12. Gives me lots of room to add loads of photos and journaling, and use those awesome embellies that I’m always hording…. But this past year, I’ve had to admit to myself, I secretly love mini-albums. I think it has something to do with the affection I feel for all things tiny. It’s kind of addicting working on those tiny little pages. Not only do they go fast, but in addition, a little bang goes a long way! So you use one little embellie, and all the sudden, you’ve got this amazing page. It’s so satisfying. And, I have absolutely NO desire to work on mini-albums in Digi Format. But seriously, I did at least 5 mini albums last year! I only started really scrapping again in September, after I got home from England, and quit my PhD! (Of course, the PhD was the primary reason I hadn’t done more than 3 pages in the past year, but that’s besides the point.) So, between September and November (because I didn’t get ANYTHING done during the Holidays) I did 5 mini-albums, of at least 10 pages each. And I’ve got a stack of horded chipboard mini albums under my desk. Guess what I’m itching to work on?
Do you have a secret obsession?
Scrap Resolution
Ok, every year I start out with great intentions. I want to do loads of projects and especially layouts. But then…. Something always happens, and I don’t meet my goal. Or even come close. So this year, I’m changing my goals. I want to do 5 projects/month. That can be scrapping, sewing, knitting, house painting…. Whatever. And that includes projects like reorganizing my office our bedroom. Anything that’s not routine house work is counted.
What about you? What are your scrap/craft goals for 2012?
Happy 2012
I hope you all had a lovely New Year’s Eve, and good luck in 2012.
I’ve got some great stuff planned for 2012 here on my ScrapBlog. I can’t wait to share them with you! But, before we move into the new year, I have some thanks to make. At the end of the year WordPress sends you a bit of a review of your blog from the whole year. One of the things they give you is a list of your top 5 commenters. My top 5 were:
- 1
Jessica Fitzhenry
- 2
Laura Mooney
- 3
Vee 9
- 4
aj_318
- 5
Dana
I thought I’d do a public, as well as a private, thank you. I’ve got most of your addresses, but I know at least one of you has moved. If you’ll kindly send me your addresses (use the form below, it doesn’t publish to the blog, but instead goes straight to my inbox.) I will happily send you a Thank You Surprise!
Be sure to come back and check here soon, because the New Year is going to be full of excitement! More Blog Hops, more projects, more freebees and some fun challenges, with prizes! Can’t wait to get started!
1 Down, 3 To Go
And, here’s the finished quilt, wonky seams, wobbly top stitching, uneven binding, and all.
Finished Quilt
The binding is not perfect. I tried really hard, but somehow it never seems to come out even for me. But hey, it’s done. I didn’t do much actual quilting. Just followed the blue strips lengthwise down the quilt. That’s all that is “needed” to keep the batting in place. I asked Lois if she wanted anything more elaborate, and she said no. So I just left it simple. It does look pretty cool, though. And, it’s queen sized! I used a queen size sheet I had kicking around my house (I hate flat sheets!) and only had to trim a couple inches off to fit it. Actually, the binding itself is another old sheet! One from Lois. The blues don’t match exactly (the twin was a bit lighter than my queen), but hey… you can’t beat free!
I have learnt loads from this quilt, and the next one will be improved. It was just back luck on Lois’ part that she got stuck with my first attempt!
In the previous post, I had a comment requesting some detail shots (see, I do pay attention!) So, here you go.
Square with shirt buttons.
Square with shirt buttons and corner of pocket.
That gives you an idea of what I did to show that these were real shirts, not just pretty fabric.
Some of you have heard the story of my sewing machine. It’s an old Kenmore machine. It’s my grandmother’s machine, from around the time of her marriage, in 1949. I don’t know if it was really that early, but it’s at least 50 years old, for sure, probably closer to 60. Anyway, I had to have the electrical cord replaced the other week because the insulation was literally disintegrating in my hands. It’s a fabulous machine, and sews like a dream. I had it serviced at the time of the cord replacement, and when I got it back and started sewing again, I seriously had to check twice to be sure that it was actually stitching, because it was so smooth! I didn’t originally inherit it when my grandmother died. My sister has a couple of degrees in fashion and costume design, and does a load of sewing, so she inherited it. I was living in England at that time, anyway, so it wasn’t a conflict of interest! But this last year, since moving back to the US, Lois offered to let me have it, since she has another machine. So, I’m very grateful to my sister for sharing the wealth!
Anyway, here’s a photo of the quilt on the machine. It sits in this awesome cupboard that lets the machine drop down, and fold away. Seriously, every machine should come with that feature! It makes storing/using the machine so much more practical.
1st Quilt Top
A while back I started a project working with a bunch of old Hawaiian print shirts of my grandfather’s. When he died, my mom saved them all, and was going to make a quilt. Well, that was a couple years back, and she hadn’t done it, so in September when I drove up, I suggested that I do it, instead. I divided the quilts into 2 sets, the blues/neutrals and the brights. I decided I’d make 2 quilts, one for me and one for Lois. So, I made some inquiries (I made a quilt when I was 10, that was the only one I ever made!) and cut the shirts up (keeping as many of the interesting “shirt” bits as possible… things like pockets, seams, buttons…. to make it obvious that it was made from real shirts, not just Hawaiian print fabric.) I ended up having 16 sets of 8 piles of 8.5×8.5 squares! That meant my quilt would be 8 squares wide by 16 squares long. Ummm… ENORMOUS! And that didn’t count the framing fabric. Seriously, the thing would have been HUGE. So I started thinking about it, and what I came up with was either do 3 or 4 quilts. 1 for me, 1 for Lois both 8×12 and use the remaining 4 rows of each quilt to make an 8×8 quilt for our grandmother. Or 1 for me, 1 for Lois both 8×10 and use the remaining 6 rows to make 2 extra quilts, 8×6, 1 for mom, 1 for grandma. I talked it over with Lois, and we decided that 8×10 was going to be big enough to cuddle under on the sofa, or use for a picnic, and 8×6 would be a great size for a lap blanket while reading. So I’m making 4 quilts.
Anyway, last night, since I couldn’t sleep I finished up Lois’ quilt top! It was 8×6 when I started sewing last night, so I only had to attach 4 rows, plus the edging.
Tada!
As you can see, even 8×10 is not small! Bless! It’s 75 inches across and 95 inches long (that’s 6’3″x8′)! That means I need to make 350 inches (just shy of 10 yards) of binding! Eeeeek!
Happy Christmas
I hope everyone is enjoying the Christmas Holiday Season.
Happy Christmas 2011
My mom did the painting special for me. She’s a very talented lady!
Christmas Winner!
Miss Jessie F… this is your lucky day! Congratulations on winning! I’ve already got your address.
Thanks, everyone, for playing along. I wish I could send each of you one of these cute stockings. You all make my day so much brighter! However, since I can’t, I’d be happy to send anyone who wants to give me their address a Christmas Card. Just fill out the form below. It doesn’t post to the comments, but instead comes straight to my private inbox, so you can leave your address.
Have a Happy Christmas!
