Two More Seconds | a lifestyle & modern sewing blog

A week left to enter Tangerine Tango!

2012-02-22T14:35:00.000-07:00

Have you checked out the Tangerine Tango group recently? There's some amazing things happening over there - all featuring in some way or another TANGERINE! Here's some of my recent favorites, but check out the group because there's lots more that are simply gorgeous.

(via findingsweetland on Flickr)

(via Bertadel on Flickr)

(via darcydivine on Flickr)

(via s.o.t.a.k handmade on Flickr)

(via jenib320 on Flickr)

Just a week and 2 days left to get your entries in - you definitely have time to make a mini quilt by then! If you need a refresher on the rules, here's the post about them!

Weekend Wrap-Up

2012-02-20T12:18:00.001-07:00

I think Monday gets a bad rap - I love the excitement of a new week & the idea of a full 5 days to get things going & see what can get accomplished.

This weekend I got a little sewing time in - have you seen the new quilt along that Dana & the Old Red Barn Co group is doing? Check out all the details here. I am just dipping my pinky toe in & doing 4 squares for a new Spring pillow. And didn't you know that your scrap bin was the best place to store your sewing-room chocolate!? ;]

This weekend was also spent running errands to Target (aren't those rainbow scarfs pretty?) & checking out the celebration in downtown Salt Lake that they had for the 10th anniversary of the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics. We lived in California when the Olympics took place here but were able to come visit for the weekend - what a fun time!

And just in case you wondered, if you want a really tasty PB & honey sandwich, Grahm's your guy. Look how proud of himself he is in that picture - I just couldn't get mad at that adorable little man.

Hope you're having a great Monday!

Happy Hearts Day - a mini quilt

2012-02-14T17:39:00.001-07:00

For awhile I've wanted to make a little mini quilt for each holiday - at least one a month so I can switch out a little wall art every few weeks in our front room. My mom always had our house decorated for all the different holidays & I loved that - so I want to do the same for my boys.

I had this idea in my brain for the way I wanted to make this heart mini quilt - with super skinny strips of red & pink fabric sewn together to make a general heart shape with the edges still squared off like in the above picture - but after sewing 50 strips of 1" fabric together my "heart" was misshapen and wonky (and not in the good way).

I almost scrapped it a few times - it just was not working out the way I had pictured it in my brain & it was frustrating me. I decided to round out the edges and make it into a true heart shape & I ended up liking that a lot better.

To assemble it, I just cut a 20x20" piece of white fabric and used my fabric glue stick to temporarily adhere the heart onto the center of it. Then I stitched really close to the edge of the heart to secure the heart enough that it wouldn't shift too much during quilting. This part was hard because of all the seams on the back of the heart - it is bulky!

Then I quilted it in vertical lines, varying their widths from each other. Bound in a cute pink and red stripe & my scrap-basket heart mini quilt was all done for Valentines Day with just a day to spare. At least I'll be ready to go for 2013. :]

---

Linking up to Canoe Ridge Creations' Sew Modern Monday.

Wonky Snowballs Mini Quilt

2012-02-08T16:51:00.000-07:00

Darci and I decided for Christmas this year we'd swap mini quilts for each other's sewing rooms. We made a fun "rule" that we both had to use both the pumpkin colored Henna Garden and the lime green Full Moon Dot since those are two of both of our favorite prints.

I choose some of her favorite prints and really wanted to feature them and not chop them up too tiny. I like snowball blocks but I thought a wonky play on the typical snowball might be fun - so on the white in the corners of each print I just cut at different angles to make them wonky.

I love how it turned out and it looks awesome up in Darci's sewing room on the pretty grey walls.

The quilt she made me is fabulously amazing as well - she used some of my favorite aqua and green fabrics & I love it. She blogged more about it here.

We Skyped so we could both open our packages at the same time, too. So fun to have a best friend that loves sewing as much as you do.

Tangerine Tango Challenge Judges

2012-01-30T16:40:00.001-07:00

The Tangerine Tango Quilt Challenge is well underway - did you see Ali posted about all the prizes you can win from our great sponsors?! There are some awesome things up for grabs.

We gathered together an amazing group of judges to give their opinions & help us narrow down the entries to determine the winners! Each of them brings something different to the table in terms of areas of sewing expertise or color knowledge, but the common thread between everyone is a great taste of color & all of them being amazing sewists!

-----

Judge 1: Jeni Baker of In Color Order. Jeni's class on Color Theory was one of the most popular last year at Sewing Summit - and for good reason! This girl knows how to put fabric together and has a great eye for complimentary colors.

Judge 2: Kate Spain of Kate Spain Designs. Kate uses orange in almost all of the fabric lines she designs, and says that orange (of any shade) is her favorite color. Perfect for this contest!

Judge 3: Amy Gunson of Badskirt. Amy has a keen eye for design & always has great comments when she dissects quilts & blocks on Flickr. She (like I did) also had reservations about Tangerine Tango being the color of the year & can't wait to see it being used in quilting.

Judge 4: Katy Dill of No Big Dill. I have long been in love with Katy's orange sewing room - I knew she would be a perfect fit for judging an all orange contest!

Judge 5: The staff of Fat Quarterly magazine. My friends at FQ are always on the cutting edge of what's contemporary & have great opinions on quilts & quilting.

-----

Have you seen the great quilts popping up in the Flickr group lately? There's already a bunch of official entries for mini quilts & even some larger quilts have started to trickle in. Remember you have until March 2nd to finish something to enter - I need to get working on mine!

Are you watching Downton Abbey yet?

2012-01-26T11:17:00.000-07:00

I've been up to my eyeballs in emails & Skype calls & spreadsheets this week .... I'm getting the class schedule & agenda & teaching staff ready for Sewing Summit 2012 and it's been stressful. Fun, but stressful. It's really hard to figure out how to balance a good mix of classes, panels, social time, meals, down time, etc, etc etc. Event planning is not for the faint of heart! I'm so glad to have Ali & Megan on my staff - I would really be going bonkers without them.

In between my computer & sewing time this week I've been watching Downton Abbey. Are you watching it yet? I admit, I put it off for weeks until finally so many of my friends were raving about it I knew I had to check it out.

It's a PBS show, currently airing the second season on Sunday nights in the US. The first season is all on Netflix streaming (how I watch it), free through Amazon Prime streaming, or on DVD. I watched the full first season in just a few days, although I'm starting over & rewatching it before I start on the 2nd season. The 2nd season is on Hulu or PBS.com.

I love everything about it - I love the relationship the sisters have with each other, I love Lady Grantham, I love the sassy Grandma ("What is a week end?"), I love the budding relationship between Anna and Bates. The costumes, the crazy cook, the gorgeous house & estate. It's just a good show. Are you a fan? If you're not watching it, you should be!

Sewing WIPs

2012-01-17T09:22:00.001-07:00

I've always got a lot of balls in the air and this month is no different. I have some exciting things that I want to start working on - but I'm borrowing a hint from Darci & trying not to start any new projects until I get all my WIP's done! Here's a list of (most) of the things I'm working on right now.

Swoon Quilt:

I made a few Swoon blocks last fall & then my stack of fabric just sat. This is NOT an easy block to make, you have to be pretty precise in piecing & make sure you have a consistent 1/4" or else your blocks will just not line up right. Plus the blocks are huge! But then I saw Katy had started a Swoon-along on Flickr and this seemed like the perfect opportunity to get this quilt done! I've already got all my white cut & just need to buckle down and do the remaining 7 blocks I have left to do. If you've been wanting to make a Swoon quilt, this is a great group of people to join in with & let motivate you!

Flannel Quilt:

I bought a ton of flannel when it was on sale a few months ago & want to make a nice & toasty warm quilt just for me. I'm always cold in our house (especially the basement) during winter & I need a snuggly quilt all my own. I've started cutting this pretty flannel up into big squares & am going to keep this quilt pretty simple so it can hopefully get done faster! ;]

Tangerine Tango:

I have an idea for what I want to do as my Tangerine Tango challenge quilt, I just need to sketch it out & see if I can figure out the math. If I can make it work right, I think I'm going to love the look of it! (Did you see that Ali posted about our prizes yesterday? We've got some great stuff up for grabs!)

Misc:

I recently finished a small project that's going to be included in the next edition of Fat Quarterly (you can see a little sneak peek of it in this picture) & I've got another project in the works for a book collaboration I was asked to be a part of. (the sketch in the picture)

Here's to getting some stuff done in January!

A robotic drawstring bag

2012-01-06T15:30:00.000-07:00

For Christmas this year Mason got a LeapPad and I knew immediately that I'd need to make something to hold it. Small games that were going to get lost, scratch-able screen, USB cord to keep track of - yup, definitely needed to have something to contain it all to one place. Sure, they sell (ugly, expensive) cases for them, but this was the perfect reason to make one of the cute drawstring bags that I've been seeing all over the place in the sewing community.

Jeni's tutorial is great - just as I expected. Since doing the tutorial for the size I made, she's released a pattern with lots of different sizes. I definitely think I need to invest in that pattern now that I've made one of these little guys - they're quick and super easy to make!

I made a few modifications to her tutorial to make it work a little better for me. For one, I didn't box the corners as she instructed. When I had the corners boxed & had the LeapPad inside, the LeapPad just tipped the bag over. So I ripped out the boxed corners and like it much better (for my use) as just a flat bag.

I also lined the whole outer piece with fusible fleece. I knew that this bag was going to get a lot of use and wanted to make sure the LeapPad inside was somewhat cushioned. The fleece up at the top where the drawstring is made it a little hard to open/close at first, but it's gotten better after loosening up a little.

The other thing I did was add a little zip pocket to the outside! I love how it looks with the contrasting pocket - and it's the perfect size to hold all the tiny games that go to the LeapPad.

I made the pocket independently of the bag & then just top stitched it to the outside fabric before folding the fabric in half & stitching around the sides as Jeni has you do in the tutorial.

Even though I knew Mason would never care, I was a little crazy & even lined the pocket by fusing 2 pieces of fabric wrong-sides-together (to make a 2-sided piece of fabric, basically) because I didn't want to be able to see the wrong side of the fabric inside of the pocket.

I love how it turned out & more importantly so does Mason! Most of all he loves the robot fabric - how PERFECT is this fabric for an electronic item for a 5 year old boy? I was so lucky to have Mo as my partner in the Secret Santa Twitter swap - and she sent me some of her awesome brand new fabric in my package with the specific instructions to use it to make something for my boys.

It was so fun picking out which fabrics to use where - they're all so cute. I can definitely see a fun quilt made out of this line. Thanks again, Mo! The fabric is Mechanical Genius by Mo Bedell for Timeless Treasures.

Tangerine Tango Quilt Challenge

2012-01-02T16:26:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I blogged about the Tangerine Tango Quilt Challenge that Ali and I came up with. I'm super excited to create something because orange/tangerine is not something I use very often. Marc has always loved orange so maybe I'll come up with some sort of manly quilt for him.

Today the challenge officially kicks off & we've got a few rules and guidelines:

Rules:

1. There will be 2 categories:

- Minis: Longest side under 30". Pillows, table runners, place mats, mug rugs, etc. will count as minis.
- Quilts: any size from baby to bed

2. Oranges should be as "tango-y" as possible, but all shades of orange are welcome.

3. Focus should be on Tangerine, but one other color and one neutral can be included in the quilts. For our purposes, neutrals include shades of white, cream, beige, brown, gray, and black.

4. The contest will run from January 2nd through March 2nd, 2012. The top 10 finalists in each category will be announced on March 5th and winners will be announced on March 12th.

5. You can submit one entry per category. Entries should be completed projects, including quilting & binding.

You can see the rest of the guidelines & how to enter at this Flickr thread.

I was searching through my stash and wasn't surprised to find it really lacking in the oranges/tangerines. I knew that it was a color I used a lot but I had almost NOTHING. The more I have had it on the brain I've been noticing some great fabrics that are tangerine & I think I'm going to have to add some to my stash!

We've had a few great shops put together some special bundles for us just for Tangerine Tango!

From Del Ray Fabrics: 11 FQs for $34.99

From Fat Quarter Shop: 12 FQs for $39.00

I'm excited to add some of these pretty fabrics to my stash and use them to create something cool for this challenge! I hope a lot of people will join in. If you want to sew something with orange but don't want to officially enter the challenge that's OK too. Or if you're too busy the next 2 months & just want to complete a quilt top or something - still put your pictures in our Flickr group. The main thing we want to see is how people are using Tangerine Tango in their sewing - so feel free to join in at any level!

Hello 2012.

2012-01-01T22:30:00.000-07:00

Another year is in the books & as sad as I am to see 2011 go ... I'm SO excited to see what 2012 is going to bring. With so much already in the works I can't wait to see where I am a year from now.

I've followed along with the Ali Edwards "One Little Word" project for a few years now but have never made my "word" public before. This year I decided to so I would be more accountable for focusing myself & making my word meaningful in my life.

So I'm going to BELIEVE in myself this year and BELIEVE I have the skills & knowledge to make my goals a reality and BELIEVE in my kids and BELIEVE in my husband and BELIEVE in my friends and do what I can to help their dreams come true too.

[Etsy link]

I love this definition:

be.lieve: to have confidence in the truth, the existence, or the reliability of something, although without absolute proof that one is right in doing so.

Even though I have lots of moments of self-doubt, I KNOW I can do a lot of things, just as I know my kids can & my husband can & my friends can. I think that having this word to focus me & giving me reason to stand still and make a conscious effort to believe will ground me & make me more thankful for the things I'm able to do in my life.

Again, I can't wait to see where I am a year from now. Hope you had a Happy New Year!

Treating friends to dinner thanks to Serve

2011-12-20T09:02:00.001-07:00

This post is sponsored by Serve from American Express. Sign up for Serve and receive $10 credit towards your first use. Comment below within the next 7 days for your chance to win an extra $100 credit to your account!

-----

I can't believe it's only 5 days until Christmas. I say this every December but this month has just flown by and I've been trying to do little things here and there to celebrate the season and have some fun. A few weekends ago I had the chance to go shopping with a few of my good friends and then take them out to dinner afterwards thanks to American Express Serve. We braved the mall and I exchanged some shoes and then bought a few gifts and then we went over to one of my favorite restaurants in Salt Lake City, Red Rock Brewing Company.

Serve is a new service from American Express that's a digital payment system - a way to settle up with friends/buddies instantly via email or mobile device. It's super easy to use, both online and on their mobile app. It literally took me just a few minutes to sign up for Serve on their website & hook it up to my bank account.

But back to dinner first. Serve had generously given me some fun money to treat my friends to a great dinner and so we kind of went nuts. After a round of drinks & the biggest appetizer sampler thingy on the menu, all of us ordered the biggest, juciest, steak and potato meal on the menu while just one chose a more sensible cheeseburger. Just kidding - I just REALLY like the cheeseburger at Red Rock! And I was a little jealous when I saw the delicious looking steaks come out.

Dinner with just my girlfriends is something that doesn't happen near often enough and we really took advantage of the kid-free time that night. We talked and talked and talked and then finally thought we should order our food, and then talked and talked some more. We stuffed ourselves silly and then someone thought that it would be a good idea to order cheesecake, too. So yummy.

Splitting the bill is usually the part of the evening that I don't look forward to, I do a little groan in my mind thinking of the hassle and calculations and math that's going to be involved to figure out exactly what everyone owes on the check and who has cash and who doesn't and who owes whom what. Nothing like spoiling a great night of girl talk with math and money discussions. With Serve, it was so easy I barely had to think about it.

We had the waitress just split the bill evenly between us all, everyone paid with their own credit/debit/cash whatever, and then I asked my friends what their Serve account email addresses were, and I just zapped them the money I owed them to pay them back. It was SO easy. We got a little excited at how quick the money showed up in their accounts and debited out of mine. Now that their money was in their Serve accounts, they could use it through their Serve debit card, or transfer the money to their linked bank accounts.

Serve is available as an app for both iPhone and Androids (we had some of each represented at our table!) and is so user-friendly. I'm a sucker for well-designed and pretty looking apps, and Serve's app definitely is both of those things. It even has a "split the bill" section that lets you input the # of people in your party, your bill amount and what you want to tip and it figures out exactly what you owe - AND it lets you input their Serve emails right then and there so you can request money from them. It's such a good idea for a service.

I was really excited to get to try out Serve and I completely recommend it. I love that it's by American Express because I know they stand by their products and have great customer service. If you're looking to try out a new digital payment system, I definitely think you should learn more about Serve and then sign up. If you do sign up, leave a comment on this post saying you did and you'll be entered to win A HUNDRED BUCKS from Serve. Isn't that awesome?

-----

Remember to sign up for Serve and receive $10 credit towards your first use. Comment below within the next 7 days for your chance to win an extra $100 credit to your account! Official sweepstakes rules and regulations may be found by clicking here. I was selected for this sponsorship by the Clever Girls Collective, which endorses Blog With Integrity, as I do.

Do you Tangerine Tango?

2011-12-19T08:48:00.000-07:00

I've always been interested in the colors that Pantone chooses for their colors of the year. Remember in late 2009 when they announced the shade for 2010 was the same turquoise that we had just painted Grahm's room? Last week Pantone announced the color of the year for 2012 was Tangerine Tango.

I admit I wasn't super excited because I am not a huge fan of orange. A few people on Twitter were talking about if they did or didn't like orange & I made mention that I'd be interested to see how it would be brought into sewing & quilting, if at all. There's some beautiful tangerine fabric out there but it's just not a color that you see a LOT of in quilting.

Ali saw me wondering out loud how tangerine would be used in the quilting world and she proposed an idea ... so we're excited to announce the Tangerine Tango Quilt Challenge!

Pantone has this to say about Tangerine Tango: “Sophisticated but at the same time dramatic and seductive, Tangerine Tango is an orange with a lot of depth to it,” said Leatrice Eiseman, executive director of the Pantone Color Institute®. “Reminiscent of the radiant shadings of a sunset, Tangerine Tango marries the vivaciousness and adrenaline rush of red with the friendliness and warmth of yellow, to form a high-visibility, magnetic hue that emanates heat and energy.”

Ali and I will announce more details after the holidays but in the mean time you can join our Flickr group to start chatting about if you're up for a the challenge or scope out our all-tangerine-all-the-time inspiration board on Pinterest. Who thinks they want to Tangerine Tango with us? I've already started dreaming up possible color schemes!

A caramel apple cake with homemade caramel sauce

2011-12-16T13:01:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Duncan Hines for sponsoring my writing. There's no limit to the baking possibilities, so grab your favorite Duncan Hines mix and Comstock or Wilderness fruit fillings and Bake On! www.duncanhines.com.

--

I've been baking and cooking and making candy like crazy lately. I always like to bake but something about the holidays just makes me want to do it more & make stuff for neighbor gifts & for people that come over to my house. I'm planning a girls' night in in January for a bunch of my friends from the Salt Lake Modern Quilt Guild, since a few of us weren't able to make it to our December meeting but still wanted to see each other & hang out. I think a dessert party would be fun, have everyone bring different baked goods & candy & cookies to eat. Like a cookie exchange but with all desserts.

One thing I'll make for sure for our girls' night is this apple caramel cake from Duncan Hines. It's just from a box but instead of using the just-add-water powdered caramel sauce that came with it, I substituted my own homemade caramel sauce and just added it in like the recipe called for. It is to. die. for.

Making homemade caramel is easy as long as you have a good candy thermometer and some uninterrupted time to stand by your stove to monitor the heat and everything. Or even if you have to leave the stove for a minute or five to go rescue your walls from being scribbled on by a crazy marker-wielding two year old I promise it will be ok. Just bring him back and sit him on the counter where he can't get down and give him the spoon to lick, and go back to stirring your caramel sauce & monitoring the heat.

I just ate another slice of the cake heated up a little in the microwave and it's so good! I don't want to share it - and if I make it again for our get-together I might not want to share it either. I can't wait for the girls' night!

--

Remember to check out Duncan Hines' website www.duncanhines.com to find some great recipes for your holiday get-together! I was selected for this sponsorship by the Clever Girls Collective.

It's Giveaway Day!

2011-12-11T23:54:00.001-07:00

Thanks for stopping by my website as a part of Sew, Mama, Sew Giveaway Day! One of the best days of the year, right? ;]

Just a quick intro if you've never been here before: I'm Erin, I blog about stuff like my two cute boys, the fun things we do, the pretty photographs I take, the things I sew, the pop culture I like, and the general craziness that is my wonderful life. I'm the founder of Sewing Summit, a conference for the modern sewist and blogger. We have a Giveaway Day prize over there too, if you want to enter! You can learn more about me here.

If you want to keep up with me you can like Two More Seconds on Facebook or follow my incessant ramblings on Twitter.

I'm offering 5 Robert Kaufman Kona charm packs for Giveaway Day this year! Kona is my favorite solid to sew with & this is your chance to win a charm of EVERY shade they offer. You'll win one of each of the 5 charm pack pallets: dusty, classic, pastel, dark & bright.

To enter just leave a comment telling me something happy you saw, experienced or did yesterday! Let's put some happiness out into the universe today & create a thread filled with tons of positivity & cheerfulness.

The giveaway will be open until Friday, December 16th at 6pm MST. Winner will be notified by email so make sure I can get in touch with you - leave your email address in the comment if you don't have it attached to your profile! International entries welcome.

Have a happy day!

Easiest Christmas wrapping ever

2011-12-11T16:10:00.001-07:00

My friend Amy put together a Christmas swap on Twitter a few weeks ago as a quick and easy way for some of us in the online sewing community to exchange some little thoughtful gifts with each other. I had a good time scoping out my partner & figuring out a few things I could buy for her - it was hard to stay under the $15 spending limit!

I'll show what I got for her once she's received her package - don't want to spoil the surprise! Instead I can show how I wrapped up these little things - my favorite way to wrap things - with regular brown Kraft paper & my sewing machine! I've been wrapping like this for years, it's especially helpful when you're running out the door to a party last minute & don't have any appropriate wrapping paper.

Now I don't even buy regular wrapping paper, just a big roll of the brown stuff every once in awhile. In a pinch you can even use a paper grocery bag. Who cares about the writing on the inside?

It's super easy to do - I first cut a rectangle out of the paper that when folded in half will make a little bag that's big enough to hold the gift. Sew up the 2 sides of the paper to make a bag, stuff the present inside, then sew a bunch of criss-crossing lines to seal it up. In this instance I had red thread on top & green in the bobbin, and flipped the present over for a few lines to get some green showing on the top too. So easy.

Easy, economical & it looks pretty cute, too. My favorite way to wrap presents! I can't wait to get my package from my secret partner!

Also our elf, Reginald, has returned for the season. We had him last year & Mason loved it, so of course he had to come back this year. Now Grahm gets all excited & wakes up in the morning running off to see where Reggie has landed for the day. This morning he was feeling a little snacky & was hiding in the box of donuts.

What We Do : Thanksgiving Weekend

2011-11-28T07:16:00.000-07:00

A long holiday weekend filled with great food, no one sick and/or puking, and the boys going to the movies leaving me some alone time to sew & veg out was just what I needed. I've been thinking a lot lately about this space - this weird & amazing little (and sometimes huge) online blogging community that I've been involved in for more than 13 years. (Yes, I've been blogging since 1998).

A Thanksgiving Day 5k. Jogged nice and slow and finished in 36:36. Ran past lots of turkeys & pilgrims & indians.

There's been lots of changes for me lately that are paving the way & opening the doors to some great opportunities that have been presenting themselves to me. Some things that are bigger then anything I've ever been involved in and I'm REALLY excited. And some small things too, that are super, super important. Because sometimes it's the smaller things that end up making the biggest impact.

The perfect bite. Costco is deserted on Black Friday at 7pm.

But it's forced me to really sit and think about why I blog, what I want to get out of all this, what my priorities are. One of my biggest priorities is fostering the communities I believe in. Another priority is bettering & challenging myself. Yet another huge priority is my family - supporting my amazing husband & 2 amazing boys.

A little pin assistant. Someone really likes his new coat.

I have a lot on my plate - but I feel like I'm in a really great place right now - kind of on the edge of something amazing in my life. So while this was just a weekend filled with turkey & tromping through a forest to find the perfectly un-perfect Christmas tree to chop down, I have a feeling it's also a weekend that I'm going to look back on and think, "that, that was the start of something special". I'm posed on the edge of a cliff, a vast, crystal clear ocean below me, just ready to cannon-ball in. And I can't wait to hear the splash!

Saving myself from Christmas card making

2011-11-18T06:04:00.000-07:00

I can't believe how fast this year is going. First I was spending all my time looking forward to running my first 1/2 marathon in September (which I still need to blog!). Then I was spending all my time looking forward to Sewing Summit in October. Now next week is Thanksgiving and then just a few short weeks after that it's Christmas already!

The past few years I've made our Christmas cards myself - used some fun photo or photos from the previous year and prettied it up in Photoshop, then made it into a 5x7 card to be printed. Sidenote - why are mall Santa pictures always so horrendous? The kids always look weird & uncomfortable & the picture quality is just horrible. At this point it's just something we HAVE to do because they're so funny to look back on.

Here's 2009, when Grahm was just 4 months old and Mason was 3:

And the Christmas card I made that year, with Grahm still looking bald but at least Mason's smiling better:

And then last year in 2010, when Grahm was 16 months old and Mason was 4:

And the Christmas card I made last year, I loved all the mini (mostly Hipstamatic) iPhone pictures I had taken that year, so I did this mosaic style of card so I could fit a ton of them on it:

This year, with lots of handmade gifts I'd like to sew & being the Room Mom for Mason's Kindergarten class & Sewing Summit 2012 preparations in full swing, I'm really having to prioritize what I can realistically do. Designing my own Christmas card is something that I decided I can hand off to the professionals - and Tiny Prints are definitely professionals. Their 2011 Christmas card lineup is amazing. It's going to be so hard to choose just one design to go with.

It changes every time I look at the page, but if I had to choose one favorite right now it would be this cute bubbly one:

But then I like this little Christmas tree one and this chevron one and this tri-fold one too. I think it's really going to depend on which picture(s) I decide to use.

Maybe I'll just wait and see what 2011's Mall Santa picture is going to look like & use that one. Because I know it's going to be terribly horrendous & tacky. I wouldn't want it any other way.

----------

Disclosure: I am a Clever Girl and we believe in full blogging disclosure! Tiny Prints is giving me some Christmas cards for free, but I've ordered from them before & would have ordered from them again just based on cuteness & quality alone. My opinions are my own & they always will be.

A little fall sewing & a lot of puke

2011-11-13T14:28:00.001-07:00

Fall in Salt Lake City is gorgeous & a few weeks ago I pulled some fabrics out of my stash to make a fall inspired pillow. Driving up the canyon you'll see lots of browns, oranges, with some yellow and green thrown in, like this gorgeous scene:

So my fabric choices reflected that:

I wanted to do something fun with them, a spiderweb, or maybe some paper piecing, but then our whole household got SICK. Not just sick, but SICK. I have bragged before that I have never thrown up before in my life, even when pregnant, neither had either of my kids, and my husband only occasionally. We're just not pukers.

Well this last week there was more than enough puke to make up for the past and plus the next 50 years. AND of course I had a leaky washing machine & had workmen coming in and out trying to figure out what was wrong. Not fun. (I got sick - but still haven't puked! Woo hoo - I guess?)

So the fabric stack just sat, until finally I realized it was going to be time to decorate for Christmas before I got this pillow sewn, and so I threw together a simple improv type log cabin square-y block in a few hours. I actually really like how it turned out.

I had some chocolate brown corduroy that I backed it with that turned out to be the perfect color & texture. I free motion quilted it in a loopy squiggle design and that was that!

Can I just say too that the BabyLock Grace free motioned BEAUTIFULLY? I love that it has the option to lower your feed dogs, and then the start & stop button is just genius for keeping the machine moving along at the same speed (now I just have to work on moving my hands along evenly ...)

I machine bound it in some more yellow fabrics to give it a little extra pop of color and then I called it good. Love it.

Now it's time to get holiday sewing on the brain & figure out what I want to make in the next few weeks for gifts & our home!

I'm linking up my post to Amy's Show & Tell Friday Mini Quilt Party! If you've made a mini quilt & blogged about it recently - you still have until later tonight to link up & possibly win some great prizes!

a Handmade Quilted iPad case

2011-11-09T09:59:00.003-07:00

Certain people are going to laugh like crazy at this post because I made total fun of them when they got iPads. I am hardcore in love with my iPhone but an iPad - just didn't see the point.

Honestly, I still don't totally but it sure is a fun toy to play with. It is fun to have a fast little computer that's easily accessible and quick to start up, without the teeny little screen of my iPhone.

I really feel like I'm living in the future at times with how much we can do on our smart phones - I set my DVR from the middle of the grocery store, get updates on my bank balance through text, borrow books from my public library and have them wirelessly downloaded to me in seconds, buy Breaking Dawn tickets and pick out my reserved seat from the comfort of my own bed ..... it's all pretty cool.

So of course I had to make a cute cover for it as soon as I brought it home. I knew I wanted something patchworky with some of my favorite fabrics included so I started by making this teensy tiny quilt block:

Then I just kept adding linen until it was big enough. For the back I used some more teeny tiny (finishing at 1" square) squares with the fabrics from the front. I used Amber from One Shabby Chick's tutorial as a jumping off point - she gave me the measurements I needed to make sure I was getting a snug fit for my iPad.

I did my closure a little bit differently then her, instead of sticking it in the seam so it was only visible on the front, I just sewed the whole tab thing right onto the outside of the back of the pouch so you could see it from the front and the back.

It's a perfect fit and very snug with the smart cover I have on the front of it. Also my little stylus clips onto the tab on the top and keeps it from getting lost. A stylus is a MUST for me, I find it really clunky to navigate and type on the iPad keyboard and screen. I went out and bought it after having the iPad for just a day.

I quilted it pretty densely so it would be sturdy - and it's lined with both interfacing as well as fusible fleece. It's thick! I have to say - Grace handled the thickness amazingly!

Another must have for me that I discovered is the Flipbook app! If you have an iPad you must get this free app - it's so fun. It's a way more visual way of surfing through your Pinterest, Twitter and Facebook feeds. This screen capture is from my Pinterest feed. :] I love it. You can favorite & comment on things just the same as in the regular apps - it's just so much prettier.

My friend Megan of Canoe Ridge Creations also got the very same iPad this week for her birthday and made an awesome case for it - rainbowy and gorgeous! Go check out her post too.

The Terrifyingly Awesome Quilt - Bloggers Quilt Festival

2011-10-28T09:41:00.000-06:00

One of my favorite things about being involved in the online sewing community is participating in Virtual Quilting Bees. What's a virtual quilting bee? It's the modern day Quilting Bee - little packages of fabric are mailed out to each of your fellow bee members and then weeks later finished blocks zip their way back to you so you can assemble your quilt top. When you're done you've got a quilt that's completed with blocks made by your friends from all over the world - and the results can be a pretty neat sometimes.

(Packages of fabric ready to head out)

I've been in quite a few Virtual Quilting Bees and have to say this one has been one of my favorites. The girls (and one guy!) of Bee Tweet are a GREAT group of people and I'm so excited to have this finished quilt that they all had a hand in helping me make. (Photo heavy post!)

(The first blocks mailed back to me)

When I was figuring out what I wanted to do for my month, I decided to go all out and just go crazy with a scrappy quilt. I found and fell in love with this block tutorial by my friend Aneela and told my Bee Tweeters to generally follow her guidelines but really just do what they wanted - I knew the blocks would all be so colorful and crazy that they'd all work together in the end.

(Up to 9 blocks now)

Once the blocks started coming in and I was laying them all next to each other I thought to myself that this was kind of both scary and awesome all at once. So the Terrifyingly Awesome quilt was born.

(The beginning of a quilt top)

I debated on sashing the blocks together but I decided against it. For one, these blocks are HUGE - 17.5 inches and sashing would have made the quilt top ginormous. Plus by then I had just totally embraced the terrifying awesomeness and was just running with it 100%.

(The quilt top all done)

I really had wanted to have this quilt done by Sewing Summit - because we had figured out that 8 out of the 11 members of Bee Tweet were going to be in attendance! Very rarely do you get to meet the people that actually made your blocks for you, but that's the great thing about Sewing Summit. :]

(L-R Jen, Leigh, Chris, Darci, Amy, Rachel, me, Ali)

But unfortunately I got too busy and the quilt was only about 1/2 quilted at the Summit. That didn't stop us from having a Bee Tweet photo op and getting a little silly. We even gave my quilt some love and did a classic summer camp photo pose on it as well.

(Summer camp)

Once I got home from Sewing Summit I was determined to get this quilt finished! It only took a few hours of dedicated quilting time on my new BabyLock Grace to do the straight line quilting.

(Determined to finish!)

I love the look and how easy machine sewn binding is!

(Binding going on!)

And finally - in and out of the washer and it was DONE!

(Piggies)

I can't thank my fellow Bee Tweet members enough for making me these crazy awesome huge colorful blocks. They each put in some of their own favorite scraps in addition to the fabric I sent them and it's so much fun to look over the blocks and search out all the different prints.

All the members of Bee Tweet:

Ali
John
Leigh
Rachel
Chris
Amisha
Rebecca
Darci
Jen
Amy

And if you've made it this far - I'm sure you want to see some pictures of the FINISHED quilt! ;]

(This is when I dropped it into the creek)

The back of the quilt I kept pretty simple, with a huge improvised block of all my favorite green and aqua prints, on a huge sea of Kona Grass.

On the whole quilt I did horizontal quilting, and then in just one column I did vertical quilting too, creating this grid on some of the blocks.

And the aqua binding. I knew with how crazy the front of the quilt was I wanted a solid binding, and this aqua was in almost every block so it tied everything together great.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE this quilt!

Linking up to Amy's Bloggers Quilt Festival - you should too!

My Sewing Summit post, in letter form.

2011-10-20T00:41:00.000-06:00

Dear Sewing Summit attendees:

I have been needing & wanting to blog about Sewing Summit for the past week, but every time I open a new post page I just sit and stare at the empty screen. I mean, where do I start? How do I sum up with just words and pictures how I felt about the whole weekend? I just can't.

In the mean time I've been reading through everyone else's blog posts that they've been linking up on the Sewing Summit blog post here. I love everyone's different perspectives on the weekend & what they did & their views of the classes & places they ate. So that's what I've decided to do here. You don't need a complete run down of the whole weekend, anyways, from start to finish, that's what all the other blog posts are for by the lovely friends that have written such great accounts of the weekend. All I can offer is my perspective, a kind of behind the scenes of Sewing Summit about what I loved and did and saw and felt.

(Warning: it's about to get long & picture heavy! :] )

The whole year prior to Sewing Summit Amy & I had been planning and scheming, but the week before things just got crazy. My whole front room was overtaken with boxes and supplies and swag and finally empty boxes had to start going out on the front porch so we could make it through our hallway.

Everyone in my family got in on helping me with different Sewing Summit tasks. Some were happier to help than others.

The day before I finally forced myself to go out and do a few things for myself.

When I checked into our hotel room on Thursday & saw this thank you card from the hotel staff it got really real. Loved working with Jonathan & Lois at Little America.

I looked out our window into the city that I love so much & just took a deep breath and thought, OK, this is it.

The opening reception was so fun. I kept hearing "oh! I know you!".

This group of crazies is special to me because we're all in a virtual quilting bee together - Bee Tweet. We had 8 of our 11 members there and had SO much fun together.

Every time I rode up to our floor in the elevator I thought how awesome it was that just for one weekend all my favorite sewing & blogging friends were all living just a button's push away.

I loved getting to run & grab some quick take-out Friday night with these two girls. Jen had never been to Cafe Rio before and so Darci & I hooked her up with a big pork salad.

I went and peeked into the fat quarter swap sorting room & loved all this colorfulness going on - but loved even more all the girls lounged around on the hotel beds & couches knitting & chatting & Tweeting & laughing.

On Saturday the class section kicked into high gear & since this was the part of the Summit I was more in charge of, I ran around like a crazy chicken for most of the day. Getting things in place here and making sure a laptop was connected there and making sure all the teachers had what they needed for their classes.

In between classes I tried to take a breath and loved peeking in on the different sessions going on.

I mean, can I admit that I was a little proud? To poke my head in a door and see this:

Gorgeous, amazing, creative women all in one room learning from and inspiring each other? Taking a class at a conference that started as a little dream in my mind over a year ago and now was right there in front of my eyes? It was kind of all sorts of amazing.

Or to sneak in on this room as it was being set up and knowing that in just a few short hours it was going to be buzzing with chatter & laughter from people that had gathered from all over the country, even world, to support a little crazy idea that I had nurtured and grown and worked my ass off to make happen? Blows me away.

I love this group of girls.

And this group of girls.

And all the other groups of girls that I didn't get pictures of / with. Seriously. I have no pictures of myself with anyone. Next year, please bug me to take a picture with you. Really.

And look at all these happy faces. Everyone seemed to be having so much fun! I wish I could have been everywhere & done everything that you all got to do.

I knew that Jeni was going to be giving away a Kona color card to each of her students in her color theory class & I knew I wanted to be there for that. I was in the back of the room when Jeni's presentation ended and she said ... I'd like to thank Robert Kaufman for donating a Kona card for each of you ... and I'm not kidding, I died laughing when grown women jumped up out of their seats cheering & started hugging & high fiving each other. It was so fun!

I loved the sewing room. A place that each night lots of us gathered to chat and snack and laugh, I mean, look at all this awesomeness going on in the sewing room Saturday night. (Click on the picture to see a large version). Huge, huge thanks to Gretchen and Mckenzie from BabyLock and Terry from Cotton Shops for supporting us on that idea.

I loved our office & how crazy & insane it was and how it was a huge dumping ground for all sorts of sewing supplies & fabric & food & computers & ironing boards & make up & boxes. I think that the staff at the Little America was totally confused at our conference & all the odd sewing stuff we had.

I loved my dress I had for the opening reception but wish it wasn't in the same color palate as the hotels somewhat-dated color scheme.

I really, REALLY loved this, but it's special & gets a post all it's own. :]

So what else can I say but thank you? Thank you for believing in us. Thank you for leaving your husbands and kids and families and jobs and other obligations for a weekend to be with us. Thank you for coming together with excitement and support for each other and making the idea of the Sewing Summit a reality.

Amy & I worked hard this past year to get the details & schematics in order for Sewing Summit to take place, but YOU all made it happen. With each excited tweet we saw about Sewing Summit, it made all the late nights worth it. With each notification that another ticket had been sold, it made the sacrifices our families were taking a little easier to swallow. We believe in this online sewing community, and are so humbled and happy to have provided a place to help take it to the next level - to witness the internet come alive - to help the real life connections happen - to see people we love and admire and respect and adore in real life. In the flesh. It. was. amazing.

Gah! I don't want to cheese it up. Can I just say - see you all next year!?

Love, Erin

Quilt Uber-Fest Block Tutorial

2011-10-13T10:30:00.000-06:00

UPDATE: Sorry for the problems downloading the .pdf! It's all added and linked below. Let me know if you have any other issues! :]

I'm so excited to be a part of the Quilt Uber-Fest Block-A-Day blog hop that my friend Scott from Blue Nickel Studios has organized! Scott sent 15 of us sewing bloggers some of Nel Whatmore's upcoming line Sleeping Beauty to play with, as well as some gorgeous Kaffe Fassett and asked us to create a block that included some element of either a log cabin or half square triangles. Didn't you love the pretty block Jan shared with us yesterday?

I admit, the fabric didn't speak to me at first, I'm not a butterflies and flowery leaves type girl. So I knew I wanted to keep my block construction simple so it didn't compete too much with the fabric, and I have to say, I LOVE my finished block. Do you see the little quarter log cabins in the corner? It's subtle, but the requested design element is there. :]

And I am now in LOVE with the woven stripes fabric (the bright pink stripes) from Kaffe Fassett. The color is so vibrant and the fabric so soft and easy to work with. This block is definitely beginner-friendly, so if you're needing a quick block to whip up or are making the whole Uber-Fest sampler quilt, know that my block will be a nice and easy break from all the crazy flying geese and half square triangles in the other amazing blocks.

Here's a .pdf download of the full block cutting and assembling instructions. Make sure you add a picture to the Uber-Fest Flickr group if you're sewing along!

Tomorrow's block will be shared by the talented Charlie Scott of Qubee Quilts. And if you need the full line up of stops on the blog hop, check out Scotts introductory post here.

The Sewing Summit : is this what sheer exhaustion is like?

2011-10-12T15:31:00.000-06:00

So The Sewing Summit happened. Not only did it happen, it happened well, it went FAST, and it pretty much went off without a hitch - at least on our end. Amy & I both got about 3 hours of sleep on Thursday, Friday & Saturday nights each and so I came home on Sunday afternoon & pretty much CRASHED. I've been watching movies with the boys and taking Mason to Kindergarten & Grahm to the Dr's (he has a little cold) but other then that - not much. :]

(thanks Susan for letting me snag your Instagram pic)

It was the weekend of a lifetime for me - I was running around like crazy most of the time to make sure things happened when they were supposed to & things got moved and situated and little issues resolved - but I tried, TRIED to remember to step back a few times and take in all the laughs, smiles, hugs, tears & conversations that were happening all around me, because of me. It was a very surreal feeling, and I can't explain in words how happy it made me feel. But more about that later on. :]

I'll be back tomorrow with a fun tutorial for a block as part of the Quilt Uberfest that Scott is hosting, and then all next week I'll do some Sewing Summit recap and behind the scenes posts.

Mug Rug Madness - Darci from Stitches & Scissors

2011-09-18T12:18:00.001-06:00

When Darci told me she was thinking of doing a Mug Rug tutorial based off the super cute tree pillow she made a few years ago I was SO excited, I love that pillow and it's on my list of things I want to make this year for Christmas decorations! Her Mug Rug turned out SO cute and it's definitely an easy project - if you're a beginner sewist that's been waiting for the right Mug Rug tutorial to come by so you can join in on the fun - this one is definitely it!

Visit Darci at Stitches and Scissors here to get the full tutorial and see the finished Mug Rug - and make sure to remember to leave her some comment love!

----------

Have you joined in the Flickr Group fun yet? If you've made a Mug Rug based off any of these tutorials or have a post on your own blog - make sure to link up in the Flickr group here or leave a comment in the discussions. I will be featuring some of your Mug Rug posts this week!

Make sure you to comment on this giveaway post for a chance to win one of the great Mug Rugs featured in the Mug Rug Madness holiday edition tutorials or a charm pack prize pack from Fat Quarter Shop!

----------

Mug Rug Madness - Sara from SewSara

2011-09-16T15:40:00.000-06:00

Really quickly I wanted to shout out to two different blogs that have interviewed me recently - I am so flattered! Yesterday Angie from Stitching by Starlight included me in her fun 10 for 10 series she's doing with different bloggers - I was so excited when she asked me to participate! Read my interview with Angie here, and there's even a giveaway involved so make sure you enter :]

Then today Generation Q magazine posted a joint interview they did with Amy and I about The Sewing Summit (with some other fun stuff thrown in there too). I love what Generation Q is doing for the online sewing blogging community and I was again so flattered (and a little nervous) to talk to them & have my quotes out there for everyone to read. If you've ever wondered why we spell Grahm's name the way we do, and for some other information on Sewing Summit, read the interview here. :]

----------

Now on to some Mug Rug goodness! We have a double whammy today - for some reason yesterday Blogger didn't want to accept my post about Sara's awesome Mug Rug - so today we get 2!!

First up, Sara from SewSara. I am so glad I found Sara's blog a few months ago and then have had the chance to have met her in person a few times now too! She is so fun and the Mug Rug she created for the tutorial is her first Mug Rug ever - can you believe it? I love how she went outside the "rectangular" box and created a fun hexagonial shaped Mug Rug for us!

Visit SewSara to get the full Mug Rug holiday edition tutorial here and see what the finished Mug Rug looks like! Make sure to leave her lots of comment love!

I'll be back in a few hours with the 2nd tutorial of the day!

----------

Make sure you to comment on this giveaway post for a chance to win one of the great Mug Rugs featured in the Mug Rug Madness holiday edition tutorials or a charm pack prize pack from Fat Quarter Shop!

----------