5 the bright side.

I am traveling for work again, and this time I got stuck in a serious snowstorm.  I think mother nature forgot it's the middle of April!  On the bright side though, I had a little time for retail therapy today while waiting for the storm to pass!

I wasn't expecting to find the new Denise Schmidt collection at the JoAnn Fabrics store near my hotel, but they had the majority of the prints there (possibly all of them...I didn't count)!  I couldn't help but pick up a few of my favorite prints.

 I am kind of tempted to go back for more on my way home!

Sorry for the blurry pictures, iPhones + fluorescent hotel bathroom lighting do not make for quality photos!

7 birthday sewing.

My youngest sister is turning 16 next Sunday!  I think her sweet sixteen warrants a little birthday sewing and an extra special gift this year.

We've had one part of her gift built since November, and I promise to share that part as soon as she gets it, but here's a sneak peek of the second half of her gift.

It's not quite finished yet, but it will be by the time Sunday rolls around.  Considering the fact that zebra print and bright colors are two of her favorite things, I think its safe to assume she'll like it!

6 mail day.

Sorry for the silence this week, I've been out of town for work and wasn't organized enough to plan posts ahead of time.  One of the only good things about work trips (outside of being able to get sushi for dinner and getting some necessary face to face time with my coworkers) is coming home to a pile of fun mail to open!  

Inside package #1, the first of the herringbone blocks from Inspire circle member Ly+Alan for our April do. Good Stitches quilt!  I'll share more details on these blocks once the rest of them arrive, but they are being made using my herringbone quilt block tutorial.

Next up, a couple fun fabrics from the lovely Jeni of In Color Order!  It's my little sister's birthday next week and I think I can make some cute little surprises with these to go with her gift.

Last but certainly not least, I received a fabulous package from Tammy (aka Karamat) for the Make Mine Modern Swap!

As soon as I opened the box there were beautiful handmade cards right on top... I'm not sure I can bear to send them out to anyone, they are so pretty!  

They're made with Sugar Pop, which is such a cute line!  I love the colors.

Here's a closeup so you can see how perfect they are!  Just look at that stitching!

Also in the package...the latest issue of American Patchwork & Quilting.  

And the first book by the creative genius that is Anna Maria Horner, Seams to Me!  I can't wait to read through this and the magazine.

Yellow and gray fabrics including Lotus from Amy Butler!  I love this whole stack!

And the most gorgeous item of the bunch, a notebook covered in my favorite color (gray of course) and the most beautiful Innocent Crush Dresden!  It's even got grid paper in it so I can use it for sketching out quilt designs!  

Thank you so much for this wonderful package Tammy!  It is absolutely perfect and I can tell just how much thought you put into making it for me.  I love it so much!!

Hope you're all having a happy mail day and/or Friday :)

3 experimenting.

I've been experimenting with some vintage materials today...thrifted wool twill, lavender antique lace and some vintage buttons from my mother-in-law (which she got from her mother).  Perfect materials for an iPad case, don't you think?  I love a mix of old and new!

In other news...my market tote tutorial was featured on How About Orange today!  And our bathroom redo was featured on the Design Public blog last week.  Yay!

6 more market totes.

Another shop update today...this time with more market totes!

My sister even modeled for me to better illustrate the scale.

Isn't she cute?

0 weekend sewing.

I started putting together my next quilt, some striped chevrons with colors that remind me of sherbet (and not of the Pips variety...I sadly do not own any of that type, yet!).

I made a few pincushions out of the leftover strips, and they're listed in the shop!

0 happy friday.

Hope you all have a fantastic weekend!  Here's one of the things I'll be working on this weekend, along with a few items for the shop.