12 Days of Christmas Giveaway!

How is it already December? When I thought of this giveaway idea, I felt like I had so much time to prepare for it, and then I didn't have it done for the 1st of the month. Oops!

Here's the deal. I have too much fabric. Blasphemy, I know, but it's true.

It's gotten a little bit out of control lately (as in "can't see the carpet on my studio floor"). So I decided I needed to purge a bit, and I'm looking for blog friends who would be willing to provide a good home to some fabric, hence the giveaway.

I have 12 different "color" bins full of fabric, and I sorted a decent-sized pile of fabric out of each one. The sizes of pieces vary; there are 2-1/2" wide strips, 5" squares, fat quarters, and even slightly larger yardage. It's very random, but definitely not tiny pieces. Almost all of it is quilt shop quality fabric. If you're trying to build a stash, working on a specific color project, or just want some new scraps to play with, I think you'll love it.

For 12 straight days, I will be holding a giveaway each day. To enter, simply leave me a comment answering whatever random question I ask that day. **If you are a no-reply blogger, leave an email so I can contact you.**
I'll randomly pick a winner and announce the winner the next day. I won't send any fabric out until the giveaway is over, both to avoid daily trips to the post office (I still have those stockings to make, you know!), and in case there are duplicate winners that I could consolidate into one package.

The schedule:
December 2nd: pink
December 3rd: red
December 4th: orange
December 5th: yellow
December 6th: lighter green
December 7th: darker green
December 8th: lighter blue
December 9th: darker blue
December 10th: purple
December 11th: brown
December 12th: cream/beige
December 13th: black/white/multicolor

I'm going to photograph the fabric bundles when it's light out tomorrow and then post the pink bundle and the first question to answer.

Enjoy! (I hope?) And good luck!

Scrappy Mosaic Pillow

When I first started this blog, I made a list of all the ideas I had of projects to sew and showcase. One of the first things I put on that list was the Mod Mosaic Floor Pillow tutorial by Elizabeth Hartman. I'm a huge fan of her blog and her work.

When I saw this post by Danny at Mommy for Reals, asking for 20" square pillowcases for an outreach program for teens, in need, I knew I had my chance.

Last night, I took these scraps, plus white solid:

And made my own version of the Mod Mosaic pillow:

I had so much fun sewing this; I definitely will make one again.

Here are some close-ups:

The original tutorial calls for quilting the pillow top before adding the backing, but I skipped that step because I didn't have time. Still cute, though, and a great way to use up leftovers!

Check out Elizabeth's tutorial, and if you have time, consider making a pillowcase (any pillowcase, not just that one) for Danny's endeavor.

Linking up with Quilt Story and Confessions of a Fabric Addict "Can I get a whoop whoop!" to show off my fun new pillow!

Permission to Play

Most of the quilting I've done has always been purpose-driven. It's either a gift for someone or yet another quilt for my own house, so I pick a pattern, buy fabric, and make the quilt, following the pattern. I've made a couple quilts without patterns, sort of making up the design as I go, but they were still made for a purpose.

Recently I've decided to spend some time just playing for the fun of it. I'm using fabrics from my stash and experimenting with some different types of blocks. Sure, I'd like to use the blocks to make a quilt rather than adding them to my UFO list, but there's no set purpose (and more importantly) no hard and fast timeline for finishing.

Last week my husband was working late, the kids were in bed, and I had some time. I pulled out my batik scraps (my favorites...I could write a whole blog entry about batiks, but I'll save that for another day), some Kona white, and started playing. I knew I wanted to try some wonky blocks. After reading through some quilting blogs, I found this from the Quilt Dad. Perfect!

I sorted my batiks to pull out "my" colors (delicious blues and turquoises and lime greens!) to go with the white solid:

It needed something, though, so I grabbed these to add a "pop" to the center of each block:

And six blocks into my playtime, here's what it looks like:

I love how they turned out, and it's so much fun--just freeform and liberating to grab strips and sew. My left-brained self decided to time how long it took for each block: 20 minutes. I'm planning to sash 3 sides in white and the last side in the orange again and then lay them out, but first I want to make some more blocks. Here are close-ups of all 6 blocks: