Etsy

Well I opened up an Etsy shop today. I don't know if I told everyone or not but I closed my website down. It was just way to much to pay a month. I did sell off of it, but more than that I got ALOT of custom orders. I think people just wanted a way to see what I can do, so I think Etsy will more than suit my purpose. No sooner did I upload my photos than I got 2 emails from this wonderful lady at www.karensfieldgallery@blogspot.com. She gave me some wonderful tips on how to make my photos better and how to utilize the tags. I soooo appreciate this. For some of us its all greek and any and all help is wonderful. But......not only did she do this, she also made me her Favorite Etsy shop of the day! Can you believe it? What an incredibly nice thing to do! She does some amazingly beautiful artwork so if you get the chance go check her out.....and me too!

Birthday suprise and Easter

My big boy turned 10 ( I still cant believe it) on Easter Sunday so we decided to throw him a surprise b-day on Good Friday. It worked out since the schools had off. He was SOOO surprised, I have never seen such a perfect O on someones mouth before.

I don't think he had any idea what to do......

His friends a such good kids....I love them all!

What beautiful children inside and out!

and the little man loved his Easter basket. As you can tell in this pic he wasn't to sure about it at first.

but as soon as he saw the snuggly the Easter bunny got him he was fine.

and of course the big boys loved their things too......



just look at that face......

Give-Aways and Wins!

I got my Scentsy Candle in the mail last week and I am in total love. I won this at Natalie's Blog and I cannot say enough about it.

The candles smell sooooo good and it does not get hot. Yes I stuck my finger in the melted wax to see what it felt like and it stayed cool. I love that at night I have a great little night light but that I also wake up to a house that smells AMAZING and I don't have to worry. No candle to catch on fire, no hot wax to worry about. I think I'm going to buy at least 5 more of these things and put them everywhere. One will definitely be in the boys room (why does it always stink in there...like stale sweat...or something) If you would like to check it out go here.

You can check out the catalog and see all the scents that there is. I have Citrus Punch and Home Sweet Home. I have been using mine non stop since last week and have only used up 1 little bar. There is still some left so I think it will last awhile.

AAANNDD...Cheryl at Quilting Memories for Tomorrow is having an amazing give-away. She will be doing it on April 14th and she is giving away a book on how to do the Cathedral Window pattern. She will include a gorgeous pincushion she made herself. So go check her out and enter....you know I will be!

A new room and a steal!!!

I have decided that I hate my bedroom. OK...so maybe hate is to strong a word....how 'bout ...dislike. This is what my room looks like now. Its alright but its so totally not me. I DO NOT like purple, never have never will so it is beyond me how my room turned into Barneys play house. What I want is this.

I want this bed

and I want the room painted this color

with this bedding.

Now lets talk about this bedding. I absolutely love it. I saw it online for sale for oh...about $179.99. Yes that's right $179.99. Now do you think for one moment I would pay that for a bed set (OK so maybe I would but that's not really the point) no I wouldn't. So I just sighed and thought "Oh Well" (what I really did was pout and try to con the hubby into buying it) and I forgot about it. Well last Thursday the little man and I were bored and decided to go to the mall. Something that I SERIOUSLY never do. I hate the mall, never liked it as a teenager either. So little man and I parked by the Sears entrance something that once again I never do, if I have to go to the mall I always park by the food court. Don't know why...maybe it has something to do with Auntie Ann's Pretzels. Anyway it was pouring rain and we didn't want to get wet so that's why we parked there. We got inside Sears and was making a straight beeline for the door leading into the mall when.......WHAM!......little man got whip lash (no he really didn't, but I do sometimes forget not to stop the stroller on a dime because little man does fall forward) and there it was.....right in front of me. MY BED SET!!!! The one and only one I want. It was so beautiful and oh..it just called me to look at it. And that is when I saw it, the sale sticker and look what it said............

23 FREAKIN DOLLARS AND 97 CENTS!!!!!! OH YEAH BABY!!!!.......can you say all mine!!!

Binding Tutorial

I cant believe its been almost a month since my last post. WOW! Well I finally got my quilt done and I have the tutorial for the binding. Before I begin I have to thank the wonderful lady who taught me how to do this. Her name is Aunt Marion, at least that is what we called her. She was an AMAZING quilter who had shows with the local quilt guild. She is who I credit with my love of sewing, she gave me my first sewing machine. It was one her best friend (they were both in their 70's) had used as a child. It smoked when it ran, if it did run. But the love of creating started there and for that I will always thank her. Sadly she passed away a few years ago and I often wonder what else she could have taught me. So here is her binding technique.....for when you just want to be lazy and not hand sew one on.

Take the material that you are going to use for your binding and open it up. Take one edge and line it up with the edge of your quilt and start sewing with a 3/4 seem allowance. When you get to the corners here is a neat trick for mitered looking corners. Take your material and pull it up at an angle....

then bring the material straight down

then start sewing at the top and sew all the way down the side to the next corner and repeat

when all the edges are sewn get out some good ole steam a seam. Can I tell you how magical this stuff is. I use it on almost EVERYTHING!!!!

now flip your quilt over to the back and pull the binding up and over to the back of your quilt. Iron on the steam-a-seam to the back inside of the binding and press down on the back of the quilt going over the sew line you just created.

when you get to the corners pull the material out

and fold over onto the back of the quilt. Your back corners should look like this.

with the binding firmly ironed on the the back of the quilt you can now turn it over again and sew "in the ditch" on the front of the quilt. If you go slow and stay in the ditch your stitches will be invisible.

and voila.....a bound and finished quilt. I absolutely love how mine came out. It goes perfect in my front living room.