What We Do : Thanksgiving Weekend

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

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.

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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

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

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.