Saturday, May 31, 2014

My Favorite Thirty-One: Round-About Caddy

Today is the last day of May, the 31st, so it's time to share my Favorite Thirty-One.

The Round-About Caddy is definitely one of my new favorites available from Thirty-One (see everything they have to offer here).

It is a super versatile little caddy that is made of laminated fabric on the outside, making it water resistant. The bottom is mesh. I know that as sewists, we make lots of items like this ourselves, but summer is a busy time and sometimes it's nice to treat ourselves to something already made (VERY well made) at a reasonable price. The size is 8.5" high, 7.5" wide and 7.5" deep, and sells for $25. There is boning inside the top so it always stays open.

It holds a lot of stuff, so here are a few ideas to get you thinking.

Keep it nearby, filled with napkins, cups and plastic cutlery for those spur-of-the-moment outdoor meals.
Keep it stocked with sunscreen, insect repellent, and those other essentials so it's always ready to take to the beach, the lake, the mountains, or the pool.
Our daughter-in-law, Christa, took these two pictures--which is why they are so cute. And you can buy this cute caddy directly through her!

I have one in the sewing room. It's great as a thread catcher, but oh so handy for on-the-go sewing. Grab it the next time you go to a retreat, or keep it stocked with hexie papers, scissors and thread for the next time you want to do some hand sewing at the ballgame or on the road.
The possibilities are really endless.  I'm currently totally in love with this navy/aqua color combination, but look at this new pattern available--flip flops!
Check out the entire catalog--they always have great monthly deals. And say goodbye to May and hello to summer fun!


Disclaimer: This is not a sponsored ad and there is no monetary gain from this. All information and views are my own.

Friday, May 30, 2014

Finish it Friday

I made a few things for a 5-month-old who could currently be called the Super Soaker.

It was fun. I "upcycled" an old terrycloth bathrobe.

I'm linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts.

Thursday, May 29, 2014

Really Random Thursday, 5/29/14

The last Thursday in May?? Say it isn't so. This year seems to be zooming by so fast.

We had a fairly relaxing Memorial Day weekend. Mark has already started preparing for the football reffing season which seems to be just around the corner. He was gone part of the day on Saturday so I jumped headlong into a project I have been wanting to do for awhile--painting some of the furniture in my sewing room and then the never-ending task of organizing. I will share pictures soon--a few things I still want to do.

Okay, here is a peek at the before...
Have you discovered Libs Elliott yet? She may be my new favorite quilt designer. Seriously. Check her out here. Anyway, the other day she posted a picture on Instagram with the hashtag of "hidden reality." It was a really beautiful picture but she said the room was kind of a mess beyond the range of the camera lens. Can you relate to that? I sure can!

One of Mark's friends from work discovered this at a flea market. Since he is in the process of rebranding his fused glass business as "Double Diamond Glass," she correctly decided he definitely needed to own this. So she bought it for him! For some reason, when he sent me this picture, I thought it was small, like on a bottle or something.
Then he brought it home-- so much larger than I thought it would be. Here it is hanging in his glass shop. Can you see it there? Beneath the Sun Drop sign and the Minnesota Vikings/University of Minnesota Golden Gophers bunting...
It is hard to find anything cuter than little ballerinas in black leotards and a sea of pink tulle.
Japan has the prettiest stamps.
And now for the "random quotes" portion of this post. I have quite a few really great ones this week. These two come from LeeAnna from "Not Afraid of Color." Thanks, LeeAnna, for letting me use these.
This one is for you, Elizabeth--thought you would appreciate it after your semester...
Obviously...
Kim Klassen offers amazing classes in photoshop. I totally relate to this quote she posted on Instagram the other day.

 I used to have this taped to the side of my computer.
And then I saw this one.

Your turn.




Thursday, May 22, 2014

Blogger's Quilt Festival, Spring 2014: Lanyard


If you are here by way of Blogger's Quilt Festival, welcome! Twice a year it is such a wonderful place to find inspiration.

 Awhile back, I saw a picture of some carpeting in an ad for Flor carpet tiles.
 I knew instantly that it needed to become a quilt. I gathered a lot of my neutral/low volume scraps, some Kona cotton and some Essex linen, and started working on some blocks.

Four different, but similar, blocks.
The very fabulous Krista Withers did the machine quilting.


 After getting permission from the design group at Flor, I gathered up the courage to submit it for publication. It was in the Winter 2014 issue of Modern Patchwork.
So remember--inspiration is all around you.

Name: Lanyard
Size: 42" x 64"
Quilted by: Krista Withers
Blogger's Quilt Category: Original Design

Thanks for stopping by. Enjoy all the beautiful quilts.


Really Random Thursday, 5/22/14


Turns out, this is not true. It happened in 2005, 2008, and if you are around in 2025, it will happen again.
Yep. It's been that kind of week.

But I might be back later today with another entry to the Blogger's Quilt Festival, this time in the original design category.

Your turn.




Tuesday, May 20, 2014

Blogger's Quilt Festival, Spring 2014: Swooning with Oakshotts

If you are here from Blogger's Quilt Festival, welcome!
If you have been here before, you might be aware that I really love sewing with solids. And I'm also a huge fan of shot cottons, particularly those from Oakshott in the UK.

Every other year, I make a king-sized quilt that is donated and auctioned off with proceeds going entirely to Third World relief efforts. Swooning with Oakshotts (with a name change to Amish Stars for the auction) was my donation this year. You can read more about it here.
Have you ever made a Swoon block? Although by now I have made over 25 of them, I'm always surprised at how large it is--24 inches!

This picture gives you more of an idea of how large the finished quilt turned out to be:
It took a really large wall to get a decent picture!

It's just so very hard to photograph the absolutely gorgeous Oakshott fabrics, but trust me--they are stunning. 
It's hard to choose a favorite block but it might be this one:
I also couldn't resist turning it into a "watercolor" with the waterlogue app on my iPhone:
Name: Swooning with Oakshotts
Pattern: "Swoon" by Camille Roskelley
Size: 116" x 116"
Fabric: Oakshott shot cottons and Robert Kaufman organic black
Blogger's Quilt Festival Category: Large Quilts

Thanks for stopping by! There are so many wonderful quilts to see--enjoy the rest of the show.

Thursday, May 15, 2014

Really Random Thursday, 5/15/14: the temperature edition

I spent a couple of hours cleaning my office and adjoining sewing room. Considering we are supposed to hit 101 degrees today, somehow having the clutter and dust gone makes the rooms seem cooler.
I have started a fun new project, thanks to Rachel over at Life of Riley. She is making a "temperature" quilt. You can get all the details here. She chose 28 fabrics, assigned a range of degrees to each color, and for the next year she will make a quilt recording the highs from each day. So here in Fresno, I thought, well I would need about ten fabrics because we don't have drastic changes during the year. So first of all, I decided to record the highs and lows each day. Then still thinking it would be rather monotonous, Mark suggested I adopt another city. I chose St. Paul, Minnesota, the city where his brother lives. Then I decided to do both Fresno and St. Paul. I think it will be fun to see the contrast between the two cities when it comes to temperatures. I chose the new Grunge fabrics ordered here. They had been calling my name anyway, and beautiful range of warms and cools seemed perfect.

I added a few others from my stash, then photographed them in black and white to make sure I had them in the proper "heat/cold" order.
I added one additional fabric because Rachel's range only went to 110 degrees for a high (ONLY???). Every summer we usually have a couple of 110+ degree days but hopefully I won't be cutting much from that lower left fabric.

Our niece, Becky, lives in Chicago. She provided me with this information:
And I saw this and desperately want one of these bikes. Mark's brother, the one in St. Paul, could TOTALLY modify a bike for me. "Modifying" is his specialty.

Finally, I can't end without something to think about. Mark sent this to me. Hmmmm.
Your turn.



Thursday, May 8, 2014

Really Random Thursday, 5/8/14

Last Saturday, we did our annual "walk to remember," in memory of our first grandchild, Caleb. It helps raise funds for Angel Babies, a wonderful organization that provides grief counseling for families who have lost a child.  Next year, Caleb would have been 10, so Christa is hoping to gather 100 people to walk in his memory.
True enough. 
I needed to read this several times this week.
As the title says, now you know.
No comment.


Rules for Really Random Thursday:
1. At last one random thing in your post.
2. Please leave a link in your post back to Live a Colorful Life.

Your turn.