iPad sleeve

So we're getting ready to leave for the beach in a few days, and while I should be pondering how to fit half of my house in a Nissan Rogue with a rooftop carrier, I instead headed down to my sewing  room, because my iPad needed a new travel case.  That's rational, right?  But seriously.  Anyone with the tips on how to fit my house in my car to take to the beach, would be much appreciated.  

While of course there are more pressing things I should be tackling right now, in my defense I did need a more protective carrying case for my iPad than the magnetic case that I use for every day use.  I knew I wanted something with a small pocket to store my charging cord, and something not super bulky, but padded enough that a little jostling wouldn't hurt anything.



I sketched up the design for this envelope style, and sort of blindly started cutting fabric, and by some stroke of luck, both the sewing gods and the two hour nap gods were smiling down on me at the same time, because just as I heard Nora waking up from her nap, my machine was taking its last few stitches to finish this guy up!



I'm happy my quick quilty math worked out, because this sleeve fits great even with my every day cover on my iPad, and I can store my charging cord, or a pen/pad of paper in the little envelop pocket and the top flap closes with no problems.



I'm planning on writing up a quick tutorial once we are back from vacation and time is a little more free, so be on the look out!  And if you want to say a quick prayer that the car ride and a week of pack n play sleeping go well,  that would be swell also!

Welcome Rose Room Quilts and a Giveaway!

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Happy Monday everyone!  I'd like to give a big welcome to my newest sponsor, Rose Room Quilts!  Cindy, the quilty gal behind Rose Room Quilts is actually a friend of mine I met through our local Modern Quilt Guild a few years ago.  We instantly bonded on a guild sponsored Shop Hop, what better way to become friends than over a day of fabric shopping??

Needless to say Cindy has impeccable taste in fabric, and it's no surprise she's opened up her own online quilt shop.  I have already been drooling over Rose Room Quilts' fabric selection, and couldn't decide what to purchase first!  Cindy just received and has listed Heather Ross' Far Far Away, and its available in yardage and bundles.



This was the first bundle I grabbed, I think Nora definitely needs a Far Far Away quilt in her life!

  I am also loving this Wee Wander bundle, I can't get over those little lightening bugs, how sweet!  We find out if my sister in law is having a boy or a girl this week, and if its a girl, you can bet this bundle will be in my cart.  And lets be serious, I'm likely getting this regardless!



Cindy also has tons of basics and blenders yardage, like this Michael Miller Random Pencil Check in Linen:



or Ta Dot in Sea (among other colors)!



I can't sing enough praises for Cindy and Rose Room Quilts!  And now for the best part, Cindy has generously allowed me to give away a $25 gift certificate to use in her shop, Rose Room Quilts!  To enter to win, head over to Rose Room Quilts, and tell me what you would use the gift certificate to purchase in the comments section.  For an extra chance to win, share this giveaway on your favorite form of social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram).  Be sure to log in to RaffleCopter below.  This giveaway will be open until Monday, August 18, 2014 at 12:00 AM EST.

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Quilty Flashback Friday

When I saw that Elizabeth was doing a little flashback Friday- quilt edition, I couldn't help but join in the fun!  When I sorted back through my pictures on Flickr, all the way back to the spring of 2010, it was certainly a walk down memory lane!  Those first few projects made me chuckle, and remember how I knew absolutely nothing and was completely flying by the seat of my pants!



This was my very first quilt I ever finished, and from the looks of it, it actually doesn't look all that bad, but boy did it have its issues!  I remember sewing the blocks together with a "1/4" seam allowance, or more like a 1/4ish seam allowance, because I can distinctly remember going to piece the rows together and nothing matched up!  My blocks were off by a good half of an inch. I'm pretty sure I just hacked away and had a total Tim Gunn make it work moment.



This must have been post block hacking because things seem to align pretty well!  I also remember having absolutely no idea about fabric quality.  I can remember purchasing what I now know are Jelly Rolls of fabric off of Ebay in these 3 colors along with some calico prints I picked up at Joann's.

I wish I would have taken a picture of this, but I learned a quick lesson about fabric quality, when after finishing the quilt and then washing it, after I took it out of the dryer, there was a GIANT hole in one of the fabrics!  My husband can confirm that I definitely cried.  It was the strangest thing, it was almost like I dropped bleach on it and the fabric just shredded!  Still to this day I have never had anything like that happen, and cannot figure out what went wrong, but from then on my eyes were then opened to the world of quilt shop quality fabric.



Needless to say, this quilt never saw its intended recipient, and I'm not even sure what happened to it, but it was sure fun visiting my first quilt ever in photos!

9 months with Nora

Someone needs to tell this girl to stop growing up, because she isn't listening to her mama!  I feel like every time I turn around it's time to take a weekly or monthly pic of this little lady!  She is changing every day, and it is so fun to watch her learn new things.

While Nora makes me work for these pictures every week and month now that she is on-the-go, and anything and everything is more interesting than mom's camera, I'm so glad I decided to do this little photo project because it really is fun to look back on how much she has grown and changed!  The blocks look HUGE in those 1 and 2 month pictures.



This is our latest weekly picture, I'm starting to get a little sad that there are only 13 more weekly pics to take!  Tell me I'm not the only mama that has these feelings of nostalgia and she's only 9 months old!  We're moving right along though, and starting  to plan her first birthday party, I'm thinking of a Minnie Mouse theme, anyone have any fun theme ideas?     

Mustang Fat Quarter Bundle Winner

I owe you a winner this morning!  The winner of the Mustang Fat Quarter Bundle is entry #148, Amy!  Congrats Amy!  Look for an email from me later today to get your shipping information.  In case you aren't Amy who won, don't fret!  The Fat Quarter Shop has all 5 of the Cotton and Steel lines and blenders both available in bundles and yardage that are ready to ship.  Thanks everyone for entering, and thanks Fat Quarter Shop for a great giveaway!

Cotton + Steel Mustang Giveaway

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As promised, I'm back today with a giveaway sponsored by The Fat Quarter Shop for a fat quarter bundle of Melody Miller's Mustang line for Cotton + Steel!  In case you missed my raving about this fabric yesterday when I shared my Sidekick tote there is not one thing that I don't love about this fabric line.  

If I had to pick my favorite thing, I'd have to say the fun metallic accents that are featured in a few of the prints throughout the line.  Just a fun little surprise in an already outstanding group of fabrics.  I also love that a few of the prints are border prints.  I used the Mint Sparkle flower print in my tote yesterday, and featured the floral border in the pocket, but then used the metallic polka dot for the recessed zipper.  I already am imagining a dress in this fabric for Nora, with the fun metallic dots and floral border at the bottom of the dress!  

Here are a few of my favorite prints from the line:

The other great thing about all of the C + S fabric lines is that the colors coordinate, so it makes it incredibly easy to mix lines and use the Cotton + Steel Basics with each of the separate lines or mix and match them all together!  You can bet I've already purchased yardage of a few of my favorites across all the lines!

You can find all 5 of the Cotton and Steel fabric lines as well as the Basics in stock in bundles as well as yardage at The Fat Quarter Shop.

Now for the part you've been waiting for, The Fat Quarter Shop has generously given me an entire fat quarter bundle of the Mustang line to give away to one lucky reader!  Lets all say "Thank you Fat Quarter Shop!"  For a chance to win, please enter the giveaway below! (Giveaway ends Monday, July 28, 2014 at 12:00 AM)

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Mustang Sidekick tote

If you were to ask my husband, he would be the first to tell you that I need a new bag like a need a hole in my head.  But what does he know about purses and bags anyways, because it's true, I really did need a new every day bag.  I had been on the look out for a purse/bag small enough that I could use it for every day things that a gal needs a purse for, but big enough that I could stash an extra diaper, travel wipes and spare binky for emergencies (you know, the important "keep baby from fussing" things) when Nora and I were out on a quick errand.  While I love my diaper bag, its a giant pain in the patoot to lug around.



Enter the Sidekick Tote.  I'm a big fan of Anna's patterns, the directions are easy to follow along, include lots of pictures and often include techniques that make me go "why didn't I think of that??".  I've made her Divided Basket and it gets used daily as it holds diapers and baby essentials that we use constantly.



My absolute favorite part of this bag is the pocket.  Yes I love it because it is HUGE, easily accessible and super functional for things that would get lost in the bottom of my bag, like my keys, but can we talk for a minute about the fabric??  Yes that is definitely what makes the pocket my favorite thing about this bag.

I sort of missed out on all the buzz back at fall Quilt Market when Cotton + Steel was revealed, you know with having a baby and all at the same time.  And not to trudge off topic here, but can we talk about how I missed out on fall Quilt Market in my hometown of Pittsburgh last fall??  Oh that Nora, its a good thing shes so darn cute :-)  I suppose I'll have to catch it on the next visit to the Burgh.



Now that Cotton + Steel is available for purchase, I immediately ordered a fat quarter bundle of Melody Miller's Mustang line.  Once it arrived and I was finished petting all that beautiful fabric, I decided the only way to make my Sidekick Tote even better, would be to use a few prints as accent fabrics.  I didn't even realize that alot of the Cotton + Steel prints had fun metallic accents, but that is by far my favorite part.  I used the Mint Sparkle Flower border print on the top flap and the Coral Arrows as the main pocket fabric, and made sure to get lots of that metallic goodness in each print.  (Bag main print is Essex yarn dyed linen in black).



Aside from the awesome pocket, my second favorite part of this bag is the recessed zipper.  I had never made a bag with a recessed zipper and I'm 100% a fan.  I used more of that Mint Sparkle Flower print, and just used the "sparkle" part of the yardage for a fun recessed zipper surprise.  I think the only thing I would do differently next time would add a little interfacing to that inner top band fabric for added reinforcement.



The inside is extra roomy and perfect for daily essentials plus "extras" when necessary.  I made the pocket larger than Anna called for and added a zipper pocket on the other side of the lining.  If you can't tell, I like pockets.



Another new to me feature of this bag is the adjustable strap.  I've always skipped this step on previous bags and just done a straight forward strap, but I'm definitely happy I took the extra time, as it makes it easy for use as an over the shoulder bag, or cross body, which I'm becoming a fan of because it leaves more hands for carrying baby, and all her associated "things."  Secondly I think it really adds that "this is not homemade" stamp onto the bag.



If its not evident by my gushing, I'm a huge fan of this bag, and plan on using it religiously as my go to daily bag.  Not to mention I get to look at that pretty sparkly fabric every day, which is a total plus!

Speaking of that awesome Melody Miller Mustang fabric, stop back tomorrow where I will have a fat quarter bundle of Mustang to give away to one lucky reader, sponsored by The Fat Quarter Shop!