Last chance!

My website's host was having problems today so Plum Pear Apple was only available intermittently. Because of this I'm extending the giveaway to be open through tomorrow night. (Open through June 1st). Go leave a comment for a chance to win a cape!

Sunday Stash: LQS Edition

Went to one of my local quilt stores this week and they happened to be having something going on when we were there --- a bunch of demonstrations, sales, giveaways ... it was great. I got a few charm packs from a 30's line that I can't remember the name of ... the 2 charm packs are the same line, but they're shop-made so they didn't have the name of the line printed on them. But it's fabric that I've wanted to buy ... and since they had a demonstration of an easy charm pack quilt along with free quilt instructions - seemed like the perfect time to buy it. I also got a ton of that turquoise and orange fabric because it was on sale for 3.00 a yard. The turquoise charger came from a different store but it was also on sale and I wanted it for my sewing room.

New Capes + Giveaway Day!

I haven't posted anything about capes in awhile ... yup ... still doing that. It's going great still. It's almost been a year since I officially opened Plum Pear Apple -- who would have thought I'd still be doing it a year later and have made almost 500 capes?! It's insane!



Go visit my Superhero Capes shop at Plum Pear Apple for your chance to win! Or read more about Giveaway Day below.

One of my favorite sewing websites is the shop and blog Sew, Mama, Sew. They had an International Giveaway Day in the fall a few months ago where they invited people to do a giveaway on their different sites and then Sew, Mama, Sew compiled a giant central list that you could surf through and enter different giveaways while discovering tons of new great blogs. It was fun and a huge success, so they decided to do another one. I joined in this round and am taking the opportunity to giveaway a cape (of course!) as well as debut my new product - Ready-to-Ship capes.

Most of my buisness will still be custom capes, but I'm going to try out these premade capes to see if anyone is interested in buying something that can be shipped to them right away, instead of having to wait for a custom cape that can take over 2 weeks depending on my production time right then. These premade capes are great for me, too, because I can make a whole boatload of them when orders are slow to have in inventory, and then just sell them as I go.

A few sneak peeks of what the Ready-to-Ship capes will be:





They're still made by me with the same high level of workmanship, but they don't come with an initial on them & you don't get to customize the different fabrics and colors.

Go visit my blog at Plum Pear Apple for your chance to win one of these capes, and then go visit the Sew, Mama, Sew blog for a list of hundreds of other giveaways!

Fabric found.

So happy I finally found some of this today at IKEA:

So I can make something incredibly cool like this:

Or this:

Love them! And so easy to make! I've got tons of friends that are pregnant or just had kids - so this may be my go-to baby gift for the next few months. Apologies if you're one of my pregnant/just had kids friends for spoiling the surprise. They're just so dang cute!

Oh It Is Only A Novel - the return!

Did you know that my best friend Darci and I have an online book club? If you're new to my blog than you probably didn't, since after the crazy holiday season and then both of us getting pregnant we kind of fell out of our usual 2-book-a-month pick and review routine. But this month we're back with a joint book pick - a book that looks to be really, really good (better than Twilight? Some are saying .... )

Come join us over at Oh, It Is Only A Novel and see what we picked, read it with us this month, and then come back to discuss it!

Doll Quilt Swap

On Flickr there are tons of swaps that happen each and every month ... crafty swaps, fabric swaps, quilting swaps .... I've been watching the Doll Quilt Swap off and on for a few months now and finally decided to join in this round (Round 6!).

Basically you sign up and are assigned a random partner. The best part is that you keep your partner secret so no one knows who is making a quilt for them! You are able to specify a few of your quilting likes & dislikes so your partner has something to go on. It's so fun to watch the group pool once the pictures start rolling in to try to guess which quilt is being made for you!

I was really lucky for my first time participating in that I received an AWESOME quilt from Kerri at MayaEliseBoutique. She did an AMAZING job putting it together and ended up making something that I just love. I actually had seen it in the group pool and even commented on it how much I loved it. Little did I know that it was going to be coming home to me. I literally squealed when I opened up the mail a few weeks ago to find it in an envelope with a return address I didn't recognize!

Isn't it so pretty? It's now hanging up in my sewing room so I can look at it and enjoy it every day.

She made the cutest label for it ... she printed on material through her home printer a little label she had made in Photoshop! It's so cute!

This is the quilt that I made for my partner. They have yet to receive it in the mail so I can't spoil who it is yet! I had been seeing and loving those darling fabric buntings everywhere so that's what I was inspired by. I really like the way it turned out and I hope she does too.

I used cute cute fabric from the line Bubblegum Basics. It's very bright and springy - I think! Here is what the back looked like:

I had such a fun time with this swap and can't wait to participate in another one!

Happy May Day!

Who knew May 1st - aka May Day - would be such a fun day? First I got a text this morning saying to peek out on my front porch -- so Mason opened the door to find this darling little potted pansy sitting on our stoop - from his cute friend Addy. Then I just went out to get the mail to practically trip over this darling tin filled with surprises for Mason and yummy treats for me - some of which have already made themselves to my belly (I'm looking at you, peanut m&m's!) All from sweetheart Aubrey. Thanks you guys!

I can totally get on board celebrating this holiday - May is really the beginning of spring in my mind and then it's summer! I have a feeling it's going to be a great one this year! :)