If only I could clone myself...

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I would be so much happier with the amount of things I could get done!

I have been trying lately to come up with a skirt and bag pattern for an event coming up.  I didn't feel like following a pattern.  I like to decide how big, how many pockets, how it lays, etc.  I was pretty excited when I finished my bag sample and only made a few adjustments to the sample for the "final product" of my labors.  Here is the sample.  I will show the final version soon enough.

As for the skirt, I broke down and bought a pattern.  The cover example on the pattern looked simple enough, but I didn't want to take any chances and just bought it.  What a waste of $14!!  I could've gotten a Simplicity much cheaper with better results.  Overall, I do like the skirt.  It's just not the fit and flow that I was really wanting.  Now before I post the picture, I just have to say that I didn't actually "pick out" these fabrics.  They were just laying behind my cutting counter and I quickly cut them out because they were handy! Skirt sample I made last night:

Dislike.  Now I know that it needs to be pulled up higher for the waist to look right, but then it wouldn't be as long as I want it.  I wasn't even going to bother hemming it when I was done because after I tried it on I thought, "diiiiislike" but decided to just get it done and over with.
I rolled around ideas in my head for a while and decided to make another sample, only my own "design" that I had wanted to originally do anyway (before I started thinking too much about it and bought a stupid pattern!).  I pulled out more of my Amy Butler and here is skirt sample 2:

I'll give you three guesses which one I like better.  And you can't tell that I love Daisy Chain at all can you?  Unfortunately it's getting hard to find now!  :(
But now, I'm super happy because I have a success skirt to make my final version off of, a matching bag that I also made my final version off of, AND it all matches my blue shoes!  I wear my blue shoes a lot, but they never really match what I'm wearing so this just has me tickled pink!

Somebody please tell me they like it all, so I don't feel like I wasted an entire night of sewing!  (Who am I kidding?  I like it so you have to, right??!!)
Now I just need the weather to get warm.  And to actually make the final versions.  Woo!

Future Quilters of America?

Pin It Today is kind of a "blah" day for me.  I worked and worked yesterday on yet another thing I can't show you.  I was super excited about it, and still am.  There's just one problem that needs to be fixed on it.  A problem I'm not looking forward to fixing!  Anyway, It took me all afternoon/evening/night and I was thoroughly pooped by the time I finished (around midnight).  But I had a movie to watch!  So I was up until around 3:30 this morning.  Needless to say the quilting machine is most certainly not calling my name today.

Tonight I will hopefully be working on... again... a project that I cannot show you!  But fear not.  I say hopefully because before I make the version that I can't show you, I will be making a version that I can show you to make sure there aren't any bugs in the design that need to be worked out.  Do you see how anal generous I am?

So all I want to do is get home to my sewing machine and here I am at work.  I love coming to work every day.  Seriously.  Every single day.  But today I just am roaming around basically refusing to do anything.  I'm on strike until my own projects are finished!  So if you're in the neighborhood...  =]

Anyway, it was a much welcomed break this morning when a familiar face stopped by to see me.  This wonderful gal, Marie has two adorable kids.  One of them is an ornery little fella.  He has grown so much since the last time I saw him.  Anyway, they walked in the door and he somehow, some way immediately found the John Deere fabric.  No matter how many times his mama put it away, he got it right back out again, laid it out on the floor and laid on top of it!  It was so adorable!  I finally cut him off a 4 or 5 inch strip so he could walk away from this hilarious (for me) experience with a parting gift.  How could I say no to that face?!

Notice his John Deere boots he insisted upon showing me?  Such a cute little fart.

I just had to share since it seems I can't share anything else with you all lately.  SOON!!!  

But in the meantime, Buttercuppity is having a fantastical giveaway so you should definitely go check it out!

3-D Fun with Prairie Points

Pin It For whatever reason, I've been wanting to make another baby quilt lately.  It's been a while since I've made one, and I'm really hoping that one of my friends gets knocked up soon and has a girl because I love this little quilt.

I love the bright colors and it's made primarily from Riley Blake's Summer Song collection with one piece of Rainy Days and Mondays mixed in.  I still have to add the border(s?) which is basically like the kiss of death when it comes to my quilts.  If I don't get it done right after I piece the center, I sometimes procrastinate like you wouldn't believe when it comes to the borders.  It's bothering me that it isn't symmetrical so I'm really going to have to fight the urge to rip off that last row.  It was also really hard for me to just sew squares together without ever-so-strategically planning the placement of each print.  I need help.  Seriously.  My scrappy quilts?  They're never really scrappy at all.  You'd be amazed at how much time I spend planning out every little piece.  But I digress.
The funny thing is that in all of my fatigued wisdom, I actually made twice the amount of prairie points that I actually needed to make the quilt.  In my defense, I was originally only going to use two fabrics, so I would've needed two of each for each block.  I guess my brain just never switched gears.  Sigh!

My coffee mug looks gross, but I promise it's just from the froth of my latte!  Anyway, since I have all of these leftover prairie points, I could easily take another hour or so and make another of these little cuties.  Which I just might do.  Because I can.  And there are always babies that need to be wrapped in something bright and cheery.
For now, I'll just keep this one to smile at every time I look at it.
I hope everyone is having a lovely weekend, and that everyone's weather isn't as craptastic as ours!
Now I'm off to work on a new bag design because today is a perfect day for sewing!

I am the master of the universe. Again. Kinda.

Pin It The Amy Butler Anna Tunic/dress saga continues...

I finished my re-dos of this dress!  As if you (or I) need a reminder, here is the before:

The dress made me feel blobby and like I should be bathing in Miracle-Gro.  Blech.  I couldn't waste the fabric and I had already made a bag out of it.  So I decided to cut it up and make it into a shirt and skirt.

I'm not going to get too long-winded on this one because my brain becomes more and more mushy with every passing day/hour/minute and I can't even remember how much ripping out and re-doing I did on my re-dos but the important thing is that they're done.  All thanks to a little thing I like to call insomnia.  =]

I now present you with two of my favorite wardrobe items:

The skirt is still a little bit too big in the waist but when I roll the hem it works out and stays up.  The picture is pretty awful because I also had to roll up my shirt so you could see the contrast drop-waist.  The tunic makes me look even more flat-chested than I really am but I'm okay with that because I have nobody to impress anyway.  And I need a tan.  Badly.  I'm pretty sure I glow in the dark and would melt in the sun.

Job well done?  Meh.  Not the greatest but the garments will actually get worn now, and that's what is important to me!

Now I'm off to not sew and not design junk in EQ all night.  Maybe.  I'm watching a movie cuddled in bed and hopefully sleeping tonight.

HAPPY WEEKEND!!!

Tutorials, Giveaways and... (insert something else fun here), Oh, my!

Pin It There's a lot a-buzz in blog-land of late.  I'm having a hard time keeping up with all of the excitement!

I don't have much to write about...  I'm really excited about the quilt I just finished.  I was convinced when I started designing it that it was a lost cause but now that it's done, I'm actually rather pleased with it.  Unfortunately I can't share it for another month or so!

Instead, I will write about OTHER people.

First up, my friend Melissa over at Lilac Lane is having a MASSIVE giveaway for her blogiversary.  I missed blogging about the other massive giveaway she had for her birthday over the weekend because I had so much going on!  Head on over and check out what she's got going on and enter to win some awesome prizes!

Then there's Sabra at Sew A Straight Line.  This chick, like Melissa, is crazy talented  (and they read my blog?!) and can sew like nobody's business.  She is a featured blogger on We All Sew this week.  Never heard of it?  If you haven't, you don't deserve to own a sewing machine!!!!!  Just kidding.  But really, We All Sew is a great website and a wonderful resource for all things sewy/crafty.  And so is Sabra.  This week she's celebrating Earth Week by having giveaways, informational posts with tons of links and coupon codes as well as awesome tutorials for earth-friendly items such as cloth diapers and home-made cloth baby wipes.  And it's only Tuedsay!


Wait, it's only Tuesday... right?  ... Right??

Anyway, then there's Leisel at Brown Paper Packages (she happens to be putting on the SYTYCQ contest that Melissa and I are in!).  She is having a ton of giveaways and a pattern makeover party.  Melissa has already contributed with an awesome dress-from-shirt project.  If I had four heads, 16 hands and 49 hours in a day?  I'd TOTALLY make one.


So there you have it.  Those are my three links for you for the day.  It's not quantity, people.  It's quality!  :o)

Hopefully soon I'll be able to share some fun stuff with you, including a secret or two  I've been keeping!

Until then, go check out those links.  Now!  Go!

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SYTYCQ Round 2: The unVEILing

Pin It Voting is over for round two of the So You Think You Can Quilt contest.  Eve won again.  I came in second to last (!).  I love my friend Melissa's quilt.  It's so pretty!
For this month's theme of "vintage", I decided to go with something a little more personal and really didn't care how the voting turned out because I loved it regardless.  It's special to me.  AND my family.  I had never done a Crazy Quilt before and decided that there was no reason not to try!  I do know now that using batiste as a foundation fabric is a horrible idea!  I designed the quilt around a photo of my great grandmother, Laura Welton.

That photo was taken somewhere in the area of 1920.  She was born in 1902 and died in 1991, right before her first great-great-grandchild was born.
I used a bunch of different fabrics in this quilt.  Including the fabrics, laces, etc. from two family wedding dresses.  I'm the one wearing the dresses in the photos.  They fit like a perfect pair of shoes!

Cutting into those dresses was so hard to do!  I have to say that I think my favorite part of doing this project was the smells of the different fabrics when I pressed them.  There's just something about the smell of old fabrics that have been used for so many different things...  beautiful!

A family member has asked me to make her another of these quilts and include more items in it, 2 aprons of my great grandmother's, and also a nightgown that my great-great-grandmother made for her for her wedding night!!!!!  I'm so excited!  Anyway, I'll shut up now and show you the quilt.  :o)

It's days like these that make for a VERY happy Lisa!

Pin It I don't know about everyone else, but when I have days where I can't seem to get anything done it makes me pretty grumpy.  I'm one of those people where when I get something started I am a nutcase about it until it's finished.  Take Monday for example.  Monday?  I was gruuuuumpy!  All I got done was loading a quilt on the frame.  I ended up staying at work for 4 extra hours just so I could actually make some progress on it.

Yesterday morning I woke up sitting up in bed with my laptop on my lap, sketch pad to my right, notebook to my left and a pencil still in my hand!  I knew that if I woke up and immediately was able to laugh at myself that it had to be a good day.  And boy, was it!  I got my first quilt of the day quilted by 10:30.  I felt so good about it that I decided to throw one of my quilts that I made as a shop sample onto the frame to quilt up.  Remember this post?  Yeah.  I quilted the pink and brown one and also got the first set of borders put on the Riley Blake Andrea Victoria one on the bottom.

I have kind of been without my sewing machine for a while...  My buttons quit working so I had no way of locking my stitches or backstitching, which is fine for piecing.  The problem is that I had my SYTYCQ entry to work on (a LOT of decorative stitching) and I had to set my stitch width and length to zero, then go back in and put them back the way they were supposed to be to do the actual stitches!  So Tuesday I performed a couple of surgeries on my machine (warning:  If you are offended by sewing machine nudity, look no further):

That's what my sewing machine looks like naked!  I replaced the front panel of buttons for the lock stitch, reverse, thread cutter, start from beginning, needle up/down start/stop, foot up, foot down and foot pivot.  I also had a problems with my bobbin out sensor not working so played around with that for a while and it is now working too!

With my sewing machine in proper working order again, I had to use it, of course.  When I was done quilting the pink and brown quilt I decided that I needed to make another one and came up with this...  The It's-So-Easy-A-Caveman-Can-Do-It-Quilt.

I just think it would look so cute on a child's bed!  It's so bright and cheery.  Now don't confuse easy with fast because to do this quilt correctly does take time.  But I made it in an afternoon and you could too.  :o)

Now I'm throwing that one on the frame today and working on binding a customer quilt, the pink and brown quilt, my SYTYCQ quilt, this quilt and putting the last set of borders on the Riley Blake quilt!

Even just typing that sentence made me tired..................................................

Do you hear the angels singing?

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Coffee = NOM NOM NOM.
What you're looking at there is a fun new fabric that came from Moda yesterday (I'm tired of looking at my ragged cutting mat in pictures) but more importantly, a gingerbread latte in my cute new coffee mug which really isn't new at all I just forgot that I bought it.  It is one of two concoctions I make myself first thing in the morning when I get to work (the other being a caramel latte...).  Seriously.  I walk in the door, turn on all the lights, turn on the quilting machine and then head for the heavenly Senseo machine.
I wouldn't really call myself a coffee addict, though I would be afraid to see myself going a full day without it.  I just love it, plain and simple.  However lately, I really do need it.  I no longer sleep.  I know that part of that is due to hormonal changes after surgery (I refuse to use the "M" word) but lately I'm pretty sure it's mostly due to the fact that I've got so many gears grinding in m'noggin that the ever-elusive sleep just does not occur to my busy-body brain.
Most of the things I'm working on as of late I either can't, or won't (yet) talk about.  See?  I CAN keep my mouth shut about things if I have/want to!
One thing I will say is that I'm super duper crazy excited about a few possibilities for the future.  ---- side note:  Typing that gave me major deja vu.  Hmmmm?!---  There are a lot of things going on and I can't wait to see how they progress!
Until then...
This is the first quilt I finished post-surgery.  Which means that it's actually been done for...  however many weeks I've been back at work now.  And I just finally got around to hanging it up today!  I can never seem to get a good picture of this one that shows the quilting very well, but I just love this pattern and the lady that made the top so YAY!

Now.  Completely off topic but can anyone tell me why I receive and invitation to a Shop Hop in Oklahoma every year?

Thirty four and counting

Pin It We are all putting the finishing touches on the 14th week of the year 2010.  Crazy to sit back and think about, huh?
One of the reasons I started this here bloggety blog was because as I have mentioned, it's hard for me to keep track of and remember all of the projects I have completed by the end of the year.  I figured if I blog about it, I can always look back and see if I was productive or not, right?
Another thing I have started doing is keeping a list.  Every time I finish (or am nearly finished with)quilting a quilt, I add it to a list that I'm keeping.  I know that my software should be able to tell me the number of quilts I've done, but it doesn't.  Why?  Well...  sometimes when my customers know that I'm working on their quilt, they get so excited they come to pick it up before I've even called to confirm that it's finished, much less get the invoice done.  Also, obviously none of my own quilts that I gift to people go into my software because I don't get paid for them.
So looking at my "completed" list, I know that I have quilted 34 quilts so far this year.  Thirty four quilts in 14 weeks.  But not really.  Four of those weeks I was useless and didn't touch the quilting machine.  So.  Thirty four quilts in *11* weeks.  Don't ask me if this is good or bad because I honestly don't know.  It does seem like I did more last year though.
Thinking about this has got me reminiscing...  Memories of my favorite customer quilts from 2009 are flying through my head (among many, many many other things - note the time of this entry!) so I'm going to post pictures for no other reason than to have an excuse to look at them again!  :o)

Front:

Front: (I very much dislike sampler BOMs BUT...)

Back!: (This was actually my very first "heavy" custom where she wanted it semi-dense but also stitched in the ditch)

Front:

Back:

Front:

Back:

Front:

Back: (I seriously love quilting CW Irish Chains like this!)

Front: (Definitely my favorite baby quilt of 2009 and maybe just in general)

Front: (Can't see the quilting, but it was pretty)

There are others too but as you can tell, my favorites are the ones where my customers throw all caution to the wind, tell me to do whatever I want, as dense as I want, any designs I want, etc.  I'm looking forward to many more beauties in the future.  Now please help remind me to keep up with my lists!  :-/

Does it still count as a "re-fashion" or "re-purpose"??

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Do any of you remember how giddy and excited I was to make Amy Butler's Anna Tunic dress?  And how disappointed I was when it was finished?

I never did take a picture of it on because I decided it just looked totally barftastic on me.  But, we have to show the good and the bad, right?  Everything can't turn out perfect so here it is:

No, I did not do my hair today.  Anyway!  I'm convinced that it looks better on me in photos than it does to actually look in the mirror.  Because really, this photo doesn't look all that bad.  Maybe I'm just freaked out by the amount of flowers I'm adorning myself with.  I don't know.  What I do know?  It's time to overhaul this puppy.

I've been spending a lot of time lately looking at the designs of countless skirts.  Tons.  One after another.  Trying to come up with a semi-original idea for a top-secret project.  All of this skirt business got me thinking about this dress {as I look to my left at it hanging, taunting me from my closet door}.  I think I should've stuck with my original plan to just make the actual tunic out of this pattern.  Like I said, it could just be the amount of floral that is bothering me, or it could be the style and lay of the dress.  I just don't like it and feel like a blob when I put it on.  But here's what I'm thinking:

Mark the dress at my hip bone and hack into it straight across.  Re-hem it into a tunic.  Take the remaining skirt part of the pattern, rip out the hem and take out the lining, make some gathering stitches (or pleats?), attach it to a drop-waist panel and maybe even perhaps add a contrast panel across the bottom (or maybe even eyelet?) if I'm need of a little more length.  What do you think?  Think I can make it work?

Now remember, this is the first article of "real" clothing I've ever made myself.  But I know enough about sewing in general and how to measure that I think I could pull it off.  Then I'd have a shirt and a skirt out of just 2 yards of fabric and some change.  Now wouldn't that be spectacular?  =]

If anyone has any suggestions what-so-ever, I'm all ears (or eyes).  I know some of you out there are clothing experts so I'm more than willing to take the advice!!

SYTYCQ Round 2 Voting is Open!

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This contest is just WAY too much fun!

Click the link, go on over and vote for your favorite quilt.  One of them is mine but I'm guessing that nobody will figure out which one of them it is (which is a good thing because that totally defeats the purpose of the contest being anonymous to prevent biased voting!).  I did something completely different this time around than anyone would probably expect.  Regardless of the outcome of the voting (though I hope I at least get to move on to round 3!) I'm so glad that I did this challenge.  Especially this theme.  It was a learning experience on so many levels and the contest in itself gives me a chance to do something different from my regular day-to-day quilting.  I get to let my mind wander and dream and think up new ideas and to be honest, it's hard choosing just one to make for the theme!

My friend Melissa of Lilac Lane is in the contest too (she's also the wonderful soul that creates the cute photo collages and allows, even encourages us to swipe them to use them for our sites!), and she is even having a giveaway on her site to celebrate!  You should definitely clickety click and go check it out, along with the rest of her blog and even her Moda Bake Shop tutorials.  Isn't it crazy how inspired and creative some people are?!

I hope you don't have too tough of a time picking just one to vote for.  I also hope you come back to check the status of the contest as that's what keeps it going and keeps it fun for all of us that are participating.

Happy Voting!

Story time!!!!!

Pin It I used to tend bar at a sports bar in Denver.  One night I had a group of four, two guys and two gals, come in to watch a Cubs (!) game and grub it up.  The two guys had Modelo and Jack and Coke, tall with a lime.  The two gals has Michelob Ultra and Coors Light.  They drank their drinks, ate their food, watched their game and a good time was had by all.  Then they left.  The end?  Nope.   About 4 months later Modelo guy came back with another friend of his.  They walked in the door and sat down at a table in the pool room.  I walked over there, and said to Modelo man, "I'm SO SORRY about the last time you were here!"  He had no idea what I was talking about.  I said... "One of your friends (Michelob Ultra lady) ordered the Cobb salad with no bacon, no egg and no blue cheese crumbles.  I totally forgot to order hers special.  She got all the stuff on her salad she didn't want!"  He was amazed (and a little freaked out, perhaps) that I remembered all of that and we got a good laugh about it.  He also reassured me that it was fine and she didn't mind.

About 6 months months ago a customer picked up her quilt that I quilted for her and got some fabric for binding.  A week after she picked it up we got around to doing a deposit and there was a discrepancy between the amount of her check, and the total that the register gave.  I looked up the total of her quilting.  I then remembered that she had also bought the binding fabric.  To this day I remember it exactly.  She needed 13 strips to do her binding and she's sort of a beginner so she wanted to do 3" strips so she would have no problems.  She chose a gold tone on tone Kansas Troubles fabric with a muted leaf print in it.  It was 7.99 a yard and she only needed 1 1/8 yard for her 13 strips but I gave her 1 1/4 yard because she said she always slips when cutting.

I could go on and on with the stupid stuff like that where I remember every teensy weensy little detail.

Today?  I walked in circles around the shop for a good 15 minutes looking for my coffee cup only to find it in the microwave, left my cell phone on a shelf in the ribbon aisle of WalMart, and called a customer TWICE to tell her that her quilt was done because by noon I had already forgotten that I called her at 9:30.

Does quilting rot your brain?  Am I the only one?  Say it ain't so!!!

Easter Goodness, some linky linkies and of course, a few pretties. And a partridge in a pear tree.

Pin It (Have I already used that partridge in a pear tree line?  Oh well.)
I've got so much to talk about, I'm not sure where to start!
I had an excellent Easter this year.  So excellent in fact that I didn't want to come home (but was ever-so-glad once I did finally get home).  I don't get many chances to get back to Nebraska and see my family and it was wonderful getting to see everyone, catch up on what's been going on and all that jazz.  One of my main goals was to remember to take my masterpiece with me to finally give it to its "rightful" (not sure if that's the right word to use) owner.
This was not easy for me!  For the last couple of weeks ever since I finished sewing the binding on, I've had it sitting on the sofa so that when I was home I could just stare at it.  I love... love love love to just stare at it.  When you spend eight and a half months on something that pretty much becomes your entire life, it's a little hard to come to grips with giving it away.  But I did it.  I feel like I need a support group.
We were all gathered at my grandmother's house and it is too big to have spread it out in her living room (seriously, just wait...  you'll see).  I took my sister outside and gathered some help holding it up and the majority of my extremely large family followed to see what the big deal was.  haha!  This picture should finally give everyone an idea of just how big this sucker really is.  I can tell you it's 115"x133" but that doesn't really mean much when you think about it.  Here it is, the last picture of my masterpiece I will ever take:

(Upon publishing this post, I see that Blogger isn't showing the whole picture.  Humbug. Luckily you can clicky wicky to see the full sized version.)  See that handsome fella standing next to me holding it up?  That's my daddy.  He's 6'1".  It's BIG!!  Which is actually a good thing because my sister's husband is 6'7".  :o)  Anyway, I think what made giving this to her the hardest was knowing that 1) She has a sleigh bed and all that purdiful trapunto on the bottom will be covered up [Of course I didn't realize this until after it was almost finished] and 2) She's moving to southern Alabama in a couple of months.  What's she need a nice big, cozy quilt for?  {Note that in my head I was trying to justify not giving it to her}.  It's done.  It's gone.  And she will take care of it.
Now today, I got to work on a super pretty batik wall hanging quilt on the good ol' Gammill.  I had no idea how I was going to quilt it when I got it on the frame so I was pretty unsure of myself as I was working on it but now that it's off the frame, I have fallen in love with it.

I wasn't sure which photos were best so I just posted a bunch.  I hope you don't mind.  Isn't it just so pretty and bright and cheery and perfect?  I hope she's happy with it.  Woohoo!

The UPS man paid me a visit today, as well.  His name is Nate, but I prefer to refer to him as the Brown Santa.  He likes to make fun of me for how excited I get every time a shipment of fabric arrives.  Today's menu?  Summer Song by My Mind's Eye for Riley Blake.  Have I told you how much I love Riley Blake stuff?  Anyway, without any further ado:

Again, bright and cheery and perfect!  Not only does it look sweet?  It smells sweet.  Seriously.  I took each bolt out of its plastic and it literally smelled like a candy necklace or something.  Just to be sure I wasn't off my rocker I took it around to everyone in the shop at the time and had them take a whiff to confirm I'm still {almost} sane.  I love it!

Next topic:  In my last entry I was waaah waaaah waaaah-ing about having run out of people to give my crap to.  I found a new cause for some of my baby/kid quilts.  Check this out.  Give a Kid a Quilt?  Don't mind if I do?  I don't know how people handle coordinating efforts like this but I will say that I am happy that I can contribute.

One more thing and then I promise I'm done, maybe.  Chelsea over at Vintage Chic Boutique is starting to take pre-orders for her Hippy Chick skirt pattern!  I'm far from a teen and most definitely not a tween but I have to have that pattern.  And I think you should too.  :o)

I have other things I want to talk about that I'm super duper insanely excited about but I'm not going to because they're secret!  (Seriously, would you believe that this is what I'm like after an awful day?  Keeping secrets?  I'm just not nice)

I hope everyone had a great Easter weekend!

I make stuff (duh). Way... too much... stuff.

Pin It A couple of months ago, at the beginning of the new year, my mother and I went out to dinner and were sort of reflecting on the last year, work-wise.  We started talking about all of the things that I did last year, this quilt, that bag, etc.  It became more of a tally to figure out just how many quilts I made in 2009 (my first year of real sewing/quilting, yay!), how many bags, so on, so forth.  I think we came up with 19 quilts that I designed and/or pieced, quilted and bound last years.  As far as handbags?  I stopped counting at 27 because I really just didn't even want to know.
This presents a small problem that some people would probably love to have:  I'VE RUN OUT OF PEOPLE TO GIVE MY CRAP* TO.
Let's take a look, shall we?  (I will admit the first two I made in 2008 but it was very very very VERY late in 2008 [I was binding them on Christmas eve!]). 

I made that and gave it to my sissy for Christmas.

I made that and gave it to my other sissy for Christmas.

I made that and sent it off to Newborns In Need.  Then I made another one totally identical to it.  Which I still have.  Because I have no one to give it to.

I made that and gave it to one of my friends that had a baby girl in February.  Then I made another (almost) identical to it.  And gave that one to a local church to donate to a family in need.

I made that and sent it off for Project Linus. Then made another one identical to it which is still hanging in the shop.  It needs a home.

I made that and months later decided I'd give it to my Grandmammy for Christmas.  Except I still have it so I guess I'll give it to her for Easter?

Most everyone knows I made that for my sissy for Christmas, but have yet to give it to her (Easter!).  I got the binding done while I was home after surgery.  So, I made this one for the one sissy, and ended up making another quilt for my other sissy for Christmas.  Unfortunately the only photo I can find of the other one is in my WebShots albums.

I made that for a friend's daughter for Christmas.  (It looks puffy because it is.  Give me a break, it was my first time quilting a Minkie back!)

I made this laptop envelope and ended up sending it to a friend in Chicago.

I made that and will be sending it to a friend in North Carolina.

Speaking of friends in North Carolina...

I made that and sent it to another friend in North Carolina.  Here is the picture he sent me when he received it! (I think he liked it)

I made that for my nephew.  And then I decided to make this crayon holder to match:

And then I made 2 more sets to give to each of the younger kids for Christmas.

I made that and am giving it to one of my sissies. (And also two more for my other sissy, one for my mother, one for a girl I went to high school with, one for my nail lady... on and on)

I made these and used them for about a week before I made this:

Are you getting the idea?  Because I'm tired of posting pictures now and I'm sure you're tired of looking at them!
The thing is, I will never stop making crap.  So I'm just going to have piles and piles of crap, basically.  If I had more readers I'd do fun giveaways like all of the other fun bloggers.  But the fun bloggers have 394857394853409852309458340598 people that read their blog and participate.  I don't so basically I'd be giving away to the same 4 or 5 people every time!  haha!
As it is right now, I have 10-12 quilts that I need to find homes for.  YEEP!  See?  Piles of crap.  So... yeah.  Anyone have any suggestions as to what to do with my piles of crap?!

*I use the term "crap" in an ever-so-loving way.  :o)