Last minute Santa Hat tree topper

This year Christmas is a little befuddled in our house.  I won't bore you with the details.

Anyway, we didn't have a tree.  And I was OK with that, I thought.

Yesterday afternoon the Christmas Spirit visited Mrs. Scrooge and I decided we needed a tree after all.  Where would Santa put the gifts if we didn't?

A mad rush to the nearest craft store ensued.  The good thing is about being a procrastinator is that you get REALLY good deals on trees.
The down side is that decorations are in short supply.

Since our cute new little 4 ft tree is too small for our giant tree topper, I had a problem.

I internet surfed a little looking for quick tree toppers to make but had no luck.  I really didn't want an angel made out of paper plates.

On some decorating web site  - can't remember which one - I saw a Santa hat topper. C-U-T-E!
But no time to order one, I'm afraid.

My brain sprang into action.
I know we had a couple of old hats somewhere.

Here's what I did:
1. Measured how tall I'd need the topper to be.
2. Cut the hat to size - chopped off the bottom.
3. Trimmed off the white trim and reattached it to the new smaller hat.
4. I had to reinforce the top of the tree a little, since artificial trees have really flimsy tops.  I just stuck two wooden skewers in there.
5. I also had to wrap the top bit in ribbon to allow the hat to slide down and not get stuck on the pine needles.
6. I stuffed some of the fabric remnants into the hat to help the pom-pom stay up because it was flopping over.

I'm happy!

Fabric Overload!

I took this photo of all the overflow this morning. These are mostly 30's reproduction fabric, which has grown that collection significantly.

Since then 33 more bolts of fabric have arrived and I'm expecting 24 more today.
It's like Christmas!
Ive been waiting a long time for these.
It's Hideaway by Lauren + Jessie Jung for Moda.
Won't this make a lovely, lovely Spring quilt?
So many ideas, so little time...

A Glimpse

Of something in the works

Those weather people!

The forecast

Reality

 

No complaints here.

Flying Geese Tutorial

Oops, I was going to post this tomorrow but my scheduling went a litte wrong.
So here it is...

Since the Holiday project I'm working on contains flying geese units I thought I'd put together a super quick and easy tutorial.
This took me about 15 minutes to write, so please excuse the crudeness...

First of all, to calculate the size of your fabric pieces:
"Real" flying geese units are always twice as wide as they are tall.

Let's say we're making 4" x 2" finished flying geese.
We're going to add 0.5" to the dimensions as we would when making any other quilt block.

Cut:
One rectangle 4.5" x 2.5"
Two squares 2.5" x 2.5"

Lay a square right side down on the rectangle and stitch corner to corner as below.

Trim the seam to 1/4".

Press toward the triangle.

Lay the remaining square right side down onto the flying geese unit and sew corner to corner.

Once again, trim the seam allowance to 1/4".

Press toward the triangle.

Woohoo! You have a flying geese unit for your quilt.

(The fabrics used here are: Fizz Dots - Lime and Shine - Sun.)

I've added a PDF version of this flying geese tutorial over here.

Still here

Working on something Holiday-ish.

Assembly and Decisions

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Today is assembly day for the BOM quilt top.
My biggest headache right now is choosing the right fabric for the inner border.
What do you think about this one?

Sew Scrap Along Winner

The Sew Scraps Along has sadly ended.

I did make a couple of scrap blocks.

And got a whole lot of inspiration.

Thanks to Jodi I now have my scrap projects all organized and ready to go when I'm bored or not in the mood for the project at hand.

Anyhow, with the end of the Scraps Along, I drew the winner of my box of scraps.

And the winner is.....

Deserae!

Congratulations!

BTW, it's a snow day over here.  That's Seattle for you. Two inches of snow means a snow day. When we lived in Utah you practically had to be snowed in before they would declare a snow day.

I'm not complaining though.

Lots of sewing time!

Appliqué Day!

Yes, machine appliqué. Gasp!

Notice...

...anything different?

Win-ners!!!

Before we get to the winners, a little glimpse of my BOM quilt progress.

OK, now winners.

The winners of the two "What a Hoot" fat quarters are:

Tiffaney & Quilt Monkey Kathy

The winners of the two "Picnic" fat quarters are:

Robin & my neighbor, Miss TLC Stitches, Trisha

I will email each of you for your addresses, but you're welcome to just email me too, since I'm always a day late and a dollar short these days.

On the Wall

To save my sanity, today is not Win-some Wednesday.  I have to catch up first.

I constructed a make-shift design wall yesterday.  I truly need to figure out a more permanent solution.  Ideas anyone?

Anyhow.  All the blocks are made and up on the wall.  I took this photo at 7am, so it's a little dark.

The blank spaces will be filled in by applique blocks and the teenie me's go in the border.
Like it?

Remember me?

And mini-me?

Now meet teenie-me.

(Excuse the photo quality.  It's a typical Seattle day and I don't think there will be enough light for photos again until maybe May 2011...)

BTW, I'm planning a HUGE Win-some Wednesday giveaway announcement for Thursday.

Things have been hectic and I'm trying to catch up.
You can still put your name in the hat for the latest one until midnight tonight.

Win-some Wednesday

I will announce the winners of last week's previous WW tomorrow.

I'm slowly getting back into the swing of things after Houston.

today's fabric

Picnic from American Jane's Happy Campers collection

I'm working on a 30's collection for the store in preparation for a "Retro Jane" BOM, based on Brenda Papadakis's Dear Jane pattern. Like my Baby Jane and the Rainbow Jane BOM.

(If you're interested in joining in (it'll probably start in January or February), send me an email and I'll let you know when I've got it together.)

If you just want to win a fat quarter, leave a comment.  That's it.

Win-some Wednesday

In absentia.  The wonders of pre-scheduled posting.

What a Hoot "Owl Toss"

Just leave a comment and I will draw two names next Wednesday.

(Don't forget the big Festival Frenzy sale going on right now.)

See ya later!

I'm off to Houston this morning!

I've decided not to take my laptop.

It will leave too little room for the fruits of my retail therapy.

I'll share everything when I get back.

I'm going to try to post to Facebook from my phone, so if you "like" twiddletails (see the sidebar), you may be able to get live-ish updates.

I'll announce last week's Wild Wednesday winners when I get back too.  (Only comments left before midnight PDT tonight will count.)

*****EVERYTHING in the store is an extra 20% off until Sunday.  Now is the time to build your stash!

Gotta go now.  I have two hours before the cab comes and I'm really not done packing.

What shoes should I take...

Blogger's Quilt Festival Fall 2010

I'm a little late to the party, but here's my entry.

This quilt is HARD to photograph!
I've been trying to get a cover shot for the pattern I'll be publishing but so far it's been close to impossible.
Anyhow, here she is!

The Pinwheel Party Quilt

Some detail shots...

I you'd like to see all the other lovely entries, visit Amy's blog and the post over here.

the twiddletails store is sponsoring some prizes too!

Wee Woodland loveliness!

Win-ners

The winners of the Flower Dance fat quarters are:

Nancy and Michelle.

Congratulations!

I'll be contacting you for your shipping addresses.

Remember, pink fabric is 10% off in the store until Sunday only!

(If you've been patiently waiting for me to send you anything you won in a giveaway, I apologize for being SO SLOW!

I'm planning on getting all those in the mail today.)

Win-some Wednesday

Today's fabric:

Smores Pink Ric Rac by Me & My Sister Designs for Moda

Just leave a comment and you can win one of two fat quarters.

How do you spell ric rac/rick rack/ric-rac...?


 Remember, all pink fabric is 10% off until Sunday the 31st only!
$1 will be donated to the National Breast Cancer Foundation for every yard of fabric purchased.

Me

and mini-me

one

two

three

Many more to go.

Stripping

Hah!  Got your attention, didn't I?

Working on the red blocks.

My brain doesn't want to think today, so no BOM sewing.

There are definitely more ugly than pretty fabrics in the bin.

(If you have no clue what I'm talking about, visit Jodi's blog and join the Sew Scraps Along.)

Making it work

After my initial scrap shock and distaste, I've decided that this is a challenge.

To make these scraps work.

In an attractive way.

To prove that ugly scraps can make pretty quilts.

So...

I sorted them by color.

This is red.

So far, so good.

So what do you do...

...if you hate your scraps?

More Stars (and winners)

Only three blocks to go and I'll have the 12 main stars in the star BOM quilt done.  Each month has three blocks though, so I'm not quite there yet.

I also drew the winners of last week's WW (Win-some Wednesday):

Congratulations Denise and  Jane!

You each won a fat quarter of Flirtations Stripes & Dots fabric.

I'll be contacting you for your mailing addresses.