Liebster Award

Awwww! Felicity Quilts gave my blog the Liebster Award!  Isn't she sweet?  The award is intended to recognize smaller blogs (fewer than 300 followers), and is a way to get the word out about blogs you may not have heard of, but are worth checking out. As part of the award I get to nominate a few other "little" blogs I think you should know about!

The first one isn't a sewing blog, I hope it still counts!  My friend Missy just started a blog called Feed the Family, and it's all about, well, feeding the family!  She has great ideas about reusing leftovers, loving your slow cooker, making meal plans and more.  This is a BRAND new blog and only has a handful of posts so far, but I've known Missy for years and I know there is great stuff to come.

My friend Sarah at Sarah Jane Sews isn't a frequent blogger but the things she makes are gorgeous!  She not only sews but knits and cooks and does all sorts of other lovely crafty things, and she's a fellow Wisconsinite.

I have known Joyce of Smudgeville since we were freshmen in college, working together at the food court.  Little did I know she was already crafty then- She knits, crochets and sews... A triple threat.  Everything she makes is gorgeous and my girls and I have been the lucky recipients of many of her creations.

Thank you Felicity!!!

Quiltalongs, Swaps, and Gifts! Oh my!

I am definitely starting the new year off with a sewing bang!   It's time for another "Put it all in one place before you forget something" list!

Doll Quilt Swap- Waiting on partner info, should have it this weekend!
Mug Rug Swap- I have a potential mug rug pieced and partly basted, if the quilting goes well I might be good to go!
Make Mine Modern- Sign-ups just closed and I'll find out later today if I got a spot!
Pixies- This is a swap among my mommy friends, some crafty, some not.  This time we're sending little gifties over a 4 month period rather than one larger package. Fun!

Plus, I'm doing the Style Stitches Monthly Bag Challenge, hosted by JemJam, I'm really intrigued by IronCraft and would love to play along with that.  I just joined the group for Don't Call Me Betsy's Sliced Coins Quilt Along.  I'm planning to make three (three!) baby boy quilts in that style for three friends who are welcoming new sons in the next few months!  I really wanted to do the Modern Quilt Guild's Project Modern Monochromatic Challenge, I even pulled fabric for it, but it's getting pushed pretty low down the priority list!

I have two more Christmas gifts to make, probably a bag and a table runner.  And a friend of mine is designing a logo for me for the Madison Modern Quilt Guild, so I am going to make something for him in exchange- Not sure what yet but I've got to keep that on the radar.  I am making two little video game totes for my friend Joyce's kiddos. In exchange she made me some AWESOME knitted stuff- There are a couple of sneak previews here.  I LOVE chunky yarn and look at those amazing colors!

I've got a couple of other one on one crafty swaps percolating, and I have an inkling of an idea for an Etsy shop that I need to get moving on...  I think I should change the name of my blog to "Absolutely NO Sleepytime!"  Whew!

I got in!!! Doll Quilt Swap 10 & Mug Rug Swap

Yay!!!  The Doll Quilt swap has gotten so popular that participants are now selected by lottery.  I applied for the first time for this round, and I got a spot!!!  I don't have my partner info yet, but I am already browsing and plotting and planning!

AND, I also got a spot in the Scrappy Mug Rug Swap for the first time.  I've already got my partner info for that one so I've been sketching and planning and pulling fabrics- I'm so excited!!!

Madison Modern Quilt Guild!

I've decided it's high time Madison, Wisconsin had it's very own branch of the Modern Quilt Guild.  So I'm going to start one!  Want to help?  Know anyone in Madison who should hear about this?

Come on over!

Terri, I'm hoping to hear from you!

My First Bee!

Sew Fresh Fabrics is hosting a Scrap Bee and I signed up!  I've never done a bee before, so I'm really excited- Nervous, but excited!  They are sending an assortment of scraps to each participant, we'll all make any block we'd like and send them back- And we get to keep any leftover scraps!  The finished quilts will be donated to Project Linus.  They got such a great response that they're going to do one boy quilt and one girl quilt- I'm in the girl group.  This round is full but follow their blog to watch for the next round.

Style Stitches Monthly Bag Challenge- January

I posted a few days ago about JemJam's Style Stitches Monthly Bag Challenge.  The January bag is the very first bag in the book- The Cosmo Bag.  I've chosen my fabrics and have everything cut out and the interfacing fused, so I'm about ready to sew!  I actually had this one on my "to do soon" list so I already had fabrics in mind from the stash.  Choosing fabrics usually takes me forever, so I was glad to have that step already taken care of!

The orange (Fresh Start in Tangerine from Amy's August Fields line) will be the main body, the grey will be the handles and bands, and the lining will be white.  There are options for short or long handles, but I was trying to conserve fabric so when I cut those pieces I ended up with medium handles- Right in the middle between the short and long measurements. 

On with the sewing!!!

My Pillow Talk Swap 4 Pillow!

I received my pillow for the Pillow Talk Swap and I LOVE it!  This was my first time participating, and I had so much fun!  This is a nice big pillow with the cutest little hand embroidered birdies in the middle.

 

My partner also sent an embellished dish towel, a pin cushion, and some pearl cotton. Aren't they sweet?

The pillow I made has reached its destination, but the recipient hasn't posted pictures yet... *biting my nails, hoping she liked it!*  I didn't get any finished product pictures, but it was based around this block.

I hope everyone had a wonderful time celebrating the New Year, even if that meant snoozing through it!  We let the girls stay up, assuming they'd crash long before midnight and they so did not- They were raring to go well past the ball drop!  They have not made up for the lost sleep, so the alarm clock signifying the return to the daily grind is going to be very unwelcome tomorrow morning!  Good night!