Porch Sale in the Barn - No Longer Participating

Although this is late notice, I need to make sure that you guys know that I am no longer participating in the Porch Sale in the Barn.  I have not had adequate time to devote to making the items for the sale.  I am really sorry, especially if anyone truly was looking forward to visiting me there.  I encourage you all to still check the event out.  It is in a really cool locale and will most likely be lots of fun.

PS:  Otis and Igor say hello!!

Porch Sale in the Barn

I will be participating in a fall festival type event this year.  I have never done anything like this before.  Although I am nervous about not having enough time to create everything I want to make, I am very excited to try this out and see how it goes!  I have got to get on the ball, however, as this event is taking place in just a few weeks.  Here are the details for anyone that may want to check it out:

Porch Sale in the Barn

Fall Festival

Save the date for

October 14-15, 8am-5pm (both days)

Come shop with us at our second annual sale with wonderful items created by local artisans as well as some antiques and vintage items.  Lots more!!

Location:  The Little Herb House

5800 Holland Church Road

Raleigh, NC 27603

Contact:

Sharon Stewart

(919)779-7062

Lisa Treadway

(919)772-3543

Busy, Busy, Busy

Well hello to all you wonderful people!  It has been far too long, but alas, I am here and doing well.  Since my last post, I have gotten accepted into an online Master's of Public Health program through A.T. Still University that I will be starting in September, been accepted as a vendor for the 2011 Porch Sale in the Barn, and have been sewing like crazy to prepare for the porch sale.

As promised in my last posting, here is the quilt that I made myself back in June:

This is definitely not the style that I usually work with, but I LOVE the finished product.  The homespuns (the flannel pieces) remind me of old shirts that I've had in the past and I also really like the nautical fabric.  The backing is done in a light blue denim and for the batting I used an old blanket that was no longer being used.  This quilt is very comfortable!  I cannot wait until the fall and winter to truly enjoy the comfort I'm sure it will provide me.

Moving on to the Porch Sale in the Barn (which will take place in mid October), my buddy Jennifer over at Stitchin' Thyme participated in the porch sale last year.  There were just a few friends who got together and sold handmade stuff on one of their front porches.  Well, this year's version of the sale has expanded to a barn and has grown to having many vendors offering a wide variety of items for everyone to enjoy.  The event is being coordinated by Lisa Treadway at The Little Herb House and Sharon Stewart at Liberty Rose Patterns.  Please stay tuned for further details on this event.  I would love to see some familiar faces there as this will be the first time I've ever participated in an event like this.

With that being said, I am very excited and really looking forward to the sale!  I will be honest by saying, however, that I am also freaking out right about now.  I have a million thoughts racing through my head....trying to determine what the event will be like, if my products will be things that people will want to purchase, how much of everything should I make, and how I should set up my booth.  I hope that I am overreacting and just very nervous because this is a new experience for me.  This will be a way for me to get a little exposure into the area's crafting community, so I will deal with the stress and use it to my advantage instead of letting it wear me down.

Take a look at some of the items I've made thus far for the sale, but please note I am not going into any detail about any items.  You will just have to come to check my booth out in October if you see something that you can't live without.

Okay, well that's it for me for the time being.  Right now it's back to work.  I will try very hard to be a better, more active blogger.  I should certainly have enough to blog about for the next little while.  Without further adieu, please remember to bark less and wag more.

Back To Reality

Hello folks!  I see that yet another month has crept by since my last posting.  Since then, I have celebrated a birthday (June 24), which puts me at being 29 years young.  Mama Pug and I went on a much needed vacation to Harker's Island, NC for a week (June 27-July 2).  For those of you who are unfamiliar with Harker's Island, it is part of the Southern Outer Banks (SOBX) and is about 30 minutes from Beaufort, NC.  We always choose this locale as our beach destination of choice because of how uncommercialized (jeeze, is this even a word?......sounds good to me) the area is.  It is one of the most peaceful vacation spots that we have encountered in our nearly 6 years together.

This trip was extra special because Igor and Otis accompanied us and have now became "salty dogs".

Isn't it the cutest thing how they almost blend in perfectly with the sand?  The boys rode on a boat for the first time, which they did well with.  The boat ride was a ferry over to Shackleford Banks, which is where the wild horses are.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the wild horses on Shackleford Banks click here to learn more about them.  While we out there, a group of the horses came from the inner island area to the shoreline right near where we were.  Igor and Otis didn't seem to notice them for a while, but of course Igor barked to make his presence known when he saw them grazing nearby.

Across from Shackleford Banks is one of NC's seven lighthouses.  Part of the Cape Lookout National Seashore, the Cape Lookout Lighthouse on Core Banks is black and white with a diamond pattern, as seen in this photo:

Something I have always wanted to do when we've travelled to the area in the past is climb the lighthouse.  We finally did it this time!  The view from the top is incredible!  Take a look........

I hope you guys enjoyed hearing about our vacation.  Stay tuned for another posting soon.  I made a quilt that I need to take photos of.  Once I have pics I will share them with ya'll.  Until then, remember to wag more and bark less.

My Pillow!

Hello!  I hope everyone is enjoying this gorgeous day!  As for me, I'm working all night again for the next two nights.  Unfortunately, it is quite busy at the moment, so this will have to be a brief posting.  As promised I wanted to share with you all that I received my pillow and love it!  Here it is:

My swap partner ended up being Bonnie over at Bonnie's Blurbs.  She is a seasoned quilter and prefers "scrappy" quilting over any other form.  There was a very nice and quite funny letter hidden inside the pillow.  In this letter, Bonnie told me that my pillow is the third one she created for the swap.  She didn't realize that we would be assigned a specific person and also stated that she had some difficulty working with the browns and greens that I like so much, as these are not her favorite colors to work with. 

Bonnie, if you're reading this, I just wanted to let you know that I really like the pillow you made for me!  I will admit that it isn't exactly what I expected to receive.  With everything I've seen from the few meetings I attended last year, I thought that my swap partner would end up creating something very bright and wonky.  What you made is much more toned down and that's okay.  I actually like it better.  The fact that you made something following your preferred technique is like the pillow telling a story about your love for quilting.  The piecing is done very well and the waviness in your quilting is gorgeous!  Thank you for a beautiful pillow that will be a nice addition to my sewing room!

Just to fill everyone in, the partner I made "El Pollo Loco" for absolutely loved it.  It apparently brought her to tears.  I never expected such a reaction, but I am quite touched to know that something I made impacted someone so much.  She actually told me that she has three chickens that she keeps as pets, which I had no knowledge of.  She also said that the pillow matches the new color scheme in her sewing room very well.  Jenny, I am glad that you are enjoying your pillow!

With all of the above said, I think that it's safe to say that my first swap ever went very well.  I am looking forward to participating in many more of these.  It's very special having something that someone made just for me.  I think I finally understand just how much it means to others when I give them things that I've made specifically for them.

Anyways, enough of the mushiness.  I have to get back to work.  Take care and please remember to wag more and bark less.

Triangle Modern Quilt Guild Pillow Swap

I don't know how many of you were aware that I was in a quilting guild for a few months last year.  I stopped going after I became overwhelmed with school, work, and sewing obligations for friends and the guild.  I really enjoyed the guild and felt so bad for giving it up.  It truly is a great outlet for me to meet others who share the same interests as me and is also an excellent source of inspiration for future projects.

It's been about a year now since I participated with the Triangle Modern Quilt Guild and decided to renew my membership for the year.  Today there was a pillow swap that I signed up for a few weeks ago.  When I signed up for the swap it didn't occur to me that out of all the weekends I would have to cover for a vacation at work that it would end up being the same weekend I was looking forward to begin attending guild meetings again.  Of course I decided to participate in the swap anyways and Jeremy was kind enough to take time out of his day off to attend the guild meeting long enough to drop my swap partner's pillow off and pick mine up.  It was exceptionally kind of him to do this for me, especially considering that he had to drive to Chapel Hill for the meeting.  I think I'll owe him a dinner or something extra special for helping me out.  So anyways, here's the pillow I made:

Jenny over at Craft Canary was my swap partner.  I remember her from the meetings I attended last year.  The projects that she shared with the group were always among my favorite.  She and I have similar taste because she also seems to embrace wild and crazy styles and color choices.  Her request for this swap was that she wanted something bright and funny.  She also stated that she prefers striking color differences in value and tone as opposed to subtle gradient changes.  As you can see in the above photo of what I call "El Pollo Loco", I am pretty convinced that I definitely stuck with her requests.  After finishing this pillow I honestly fell in love with it.  It is so soft and squishy!  I hope she will enjoy it for years to come!!!

For those of you who are wondering what I received, I am still in the dark about who made my pillow or how it came out.  Jeremy is having dinner with friends then stopping by my job on his way back home to bring me the pillow.  I can't wait to see it!  I will be sure to update you guys tomorrow on my pillow.

Now for all of you Halloween lovers out there, here are a few pictures of a very early Halloween wall hanging I just had to go ahead an make:

I really like the way this project is looking.  I still have a bit more quilting to do and then I can bind it.  The thread I'm using is glow-in-the dark so this quilt looks especially awesome at night!

Okay, the guys at work are being quite persistent today, which is making me busy as I try and type this.  I shall go for now.  Don't forget to wag more and bark less.

Yay!! Daddies Make Messes Too!!!!!

OMG you guys......It has been so crazy around here.  Me and my big brother Otis have had lots of fun watching our daddies destroying the house.  For some reason they decided that it would be fun to rip up the floor in the kitchen.  I'm here to tell you that it WAS fun, a lot of fun!!  It made the house smell funny and it also got really dusty after Mama Pug cut a hole in the ceiling in the living room and put a light in, which really added to the messiness.  There was stuff everywhere for me and Otis to sniff and taste, but my daddies kept telling me not to eat anything from the floor because the stuff they called glue would make me sick.  Here's a picture of me trying to offer my assistance in the kitchen.

I'm standing on the floor after the sheet vinyl was taken out.  Daddies had to scrape the left over paper and glue off the concrete before they could put tile down.

They worked really hard and didn't pet me much because they were so busy.  It was okay though because I had fun exploring the debris with Otis and my sissies the kitties. 

Take a look at what the kitchen looks like now......

Now I don't know about you, but I liked it when it was torn apart and messy.  My daddies seem to really like the new stuff though so I guess as long as they are happy I will try to like it.  Now if you'll excuse me.......since the mess is all cleaned up I have to go entertain myself by harassing my big brother and my sissies.  Maybe after that I'll go search for sticks and my new favorite snack, worms.  After I finish all that I will climb up onto the back of the couch and take a nap. 

Okay!  Bye!!

An Exciting Purchase, a Tragedy, and a Bit of Sewing

I cannot believe that it has been almost a month since my last post!  I have had every intention of posting before now, but a lot has gone on in the past few weeks to prevent me from having time to do so.  I must say that it is good to be posting again!

Before sharing my most recent project please allow me to share a few things with you that have happened recently.  Firstly, I decided that it was time to upgrade my vehicle to something newer.  About a month ago, April 29 to be exact, I bought a used 2011 Kia Soul Sport from Auction Direct in Raleigh.  Jeremy was helping me search for vehicles and found this one at one of the stores in New York.  It was a great deal and I just could not let this car slip away from me so I paid for the transfer to Raleigh and ended up with a car payment for a few years.  Take a look at it...

I love how sporty looking it is!  It is a fun car that my sales person said looked as if it is ready for a party.  Check out the interior, which is probably my favorite part.

It has leather heated seats, a sunroof, cargo net, cargo storage liner, sports pedals, and lights around the door speakers that change colors.  This car is meant to be driven at night in an urban environment.  I will enjoy it for a long time.  Just to fill you in on my pugly little friends, they have taken a few rides in it already and they seem to be much happier being able to see where we're going without any effort at all.

The night after I made this purchase I received an emergency call from my mother.  She informed me that my sister-in-law had passed away due to complications with her pregnancy.  Her name was Chante and she was approaching her 31st birthday on June 9.  She had difficulties due to fibroids on her uterus during the four months of her pregnancy.  Several weeks prior to her death she had to be given 3 units of blood due to a massive loss of blood caused by a tear in the fibroid.  She and my brother were on the couch in their home in Panama City, FL the night she passed away.  According to the autopsy report she died from a blood clot from all the bleeding out she had been enduring.

This trip wasn't the first trip I had in mind for my new car, but I ended up driving to Dublin, GA and staying with my family for about a week.  While there, I pretty much helped my mom maintain as much order as possible in her home.  It was very difficult seeing my brother, my mother, Chante's mother, and her sister so upset.  I cannot even imagine how it must feel for them.  Jeremy and I are also bothered by the loss of Chante.  She was our friend and we always enjoyed seeing her when home for the holidays.  I will miss her texting me just to say hi.  Here's the only photo I ever took of her.

Forgive me if the above news made you sad.  I simply wanted to let you all know what's been going on.  Not that we're all caught up, how about we get back to the fun stuff?!

Several weeks ago I came across a tutorial for a quilt block known as a Dresden Plate.  I thought that it looked pretty nifty and since it involved applique (the owl quilt from a while back was also appliqued) I thought it would be a fun little challenge.  I decided to make mine into a pillow and of course it had to have green in it!  Without further adieu, here's the finished product.  Let me know what you think! 

Well, I guess that's it for now.  Have a great weekend!!  And remember to wag more and bark less.

Colorful Cup of Joe

Although this posting has nothing to do with my sewing, all you coffee lovers out there should appreciate it.  So Jeremy heard about a business called Sociable Art through our buddy Lauren.  The owner, Arianne, is a painter, specifically a muralist.  Her business involves hosting a painting class, of sorts, at one of several local venues (local being within an hour or so driving distance from Raleigh).  Each class has a specific painting that will be the subject of that evening.  Last night Jeremy and I attended one of these classes at the Steele Street Coffee & Wine Bar in downtown Sanford, NC.  Our subject, a coffee cup with a beautifully colored background, was quite fitting of the awesome venue.  The photo shown here is Arianne's creation:

I love the perspective of the cup as well as the lighting and shading for the darker shadowy areas.  Now take a look at Jeremy's and then mine respectively.

As you can see, our paintings are not nearly as masterful as Arianne's.  Last night I was honestly quite disappointed to the point of being upset because I was expecting mine to come out looking similar to hers.  I don't know why I thought that mine would be the spitting image of hers.  I let myself get lost in emotion and ended up saying that I hated my painting.  I have decided after sleeping on it, however, that I should appreciate the many other talents that I do have and perhaps step back and focus on the good things about my painting instead of the bad.  For instance, I really like my background.  I feel that it turned out quite nice.  I love how Jeremy was able to master the shadow of the cup onto the saucer.  That turned out quite well in his painting!

Aside from my little tantrum we enjoyed the evening very much.  We are signed up to attend another session at a different locale in a week or so.  I'll have to check out the dates, but it will be in time for Mother's Day and the subject for that week will be the perfect gift for moms!

To Owl A Good Night

It has been almost a week since my last post.  The end of the semester has kept me busy with school work.  This past weekend's storm that blew threw Raleigh has also made things pretty interesting around here.  We have driven around town several times looking at some of the damage left behind.  I have had hardly any time to work on any sewing projects.  This, of course, means that I have not yet quilted the owl quilt, but I did decide to go ahead and post photos of it unquilted.

The piecing for the quilt top was quite easy.  It was learning how to do applique that was somewhat of a challenge.  I took a close up photo of the owl to give you guys an idea of how the applique turned out.  I don't think it turned out badly considering it was my first time.  I will say that I loved the process and am excited to work on many more appliqued projects in the future!

To give credit where credit is due, the inspiration from this quilt came from the cover of ths Spring 2011 Quilts & More cover.  My mother was in town the weekend I bought the magazine and asked me to make the quilt for my niece.  Here's a photo of the magazine cover:

My most recent project arose from a need for easy access to pins while sewing and needing a place within reach of my sewing machine to toss snipped threads quickly.  While browsing Sew, Mama, Sew! I found a tutorial for a solution to these needs that looked pretty cool.  Check out my version, which is mostly green (imagine that), then compare that to a photo from the tutorial.

I am quite pleased with the end result and can't wait to work on another project soon to break it in!

Until next time wag more, bark less, and get out and find some sticks for Igor.

Igor Says Hey!

OMG!  Hey!  My name is Bad Igor! What’s your name?! Whats your favorite treat?!  I like dust! I also like my mama-pug, he’s the one that doesn’t sew, he holds me at night when he gets home and while he is staring at the fake window with animals and people that aren’t really there.  My mama-pug & daddy think I have attention deficit disorder but I don’t…I have a bad eye so I can only pay attention to half of what a normal pug would.  What was your favorite treat again?  I’m learning tricks, I can sit and I can push Otis away from the food bowl.  OH!  I have two sisters too, they have something called ‘cats.’  I feel sorry for them because they can’t bark and they sleep way too much…they also have to poop in a box under the stairs filled with little rocks…very strange…I like pooping in grass.  One time a really long time ago I had to leave my mama-pug, daddy, sisters and stupid brother for a WHOLE DAY!   *snort & sigh* My mama-pug took me to get fixed, I’m not sure what I had broken, but he always knows where the food is, so I trust him.  Do you want to know my most favoritist thing in the world?!  STICKS!  OMG I love sticks!  They are great, you can pick them up and chew on them and they all taste different, I LOVE STICKS!  Okay, I need to find a stick now.  BYE!

Polka Dots & Stripes

Before sharing my most current projects, I just wanted you all to know that I still have not quilted the owl quilt. My goal is to have it finished this weekend. Please have patience as I get it finished and posted for you guys to see. Some of you already know this, but for those of you that don't, I work full time and go to school full time. It's really difficult to find time for sewing. I am very determined to sew for at least an hour or two a day as often as possible. It is my passion and can't get enough of it.

And now for what I've put together over the past two days....


In the photos above and below is a very cool zippy pouch that I found a pattern for on Sew, Mama, Sew!  I have a few ideas in mind to enhance the functionality of it, but I think it is very hip.  What do you guys think?

I also made an easy to sew tissue pouch out of the left over fabric.  As you see in the photo below, I added a decorative stitch to it, just to add a bit of pizazz to it.

Here's another little tissue pouch I made out of some left over fabric from another project:

A bit of the other project can be seen in the above photo.  The upper half is shown below.  I really don't know what to call this or use it for.  I was just playing around with the zipper and came up with this.  The closest use I can come up with is to hang it on a doorknob or hook on a shelf and store things in it.  *shrugs*

Okay, so this is all the time I have for now.  Until next time, enjoy the sunshine!

Shopping Extravaganza

So this past weekend I contacted my crafting buddy Jennifer and drove over to her house.  Her sewing studio is so incredibly awesome!  I am so envious of it.  Anyways, she has been cleaning the room up a bit and working on eliminating excess clutter by selling certain fabrics in her stash.  I went through some of these fabrics and want to show you guys what I ended up purchasing.  

So I apparently have a new found fascination with owls.  I am currently working on an owl quilt for one of my nieces.  Perhaps the cuteness of that project has inspired this current fad for me.

These are awesomely funky!  I love them and will hopefully draw motivation and inspiration from their awesomeness.

I really liked these as well and hope to find ways to incorporate them into future projects.

I practically begged Jennifer for these fabric squares for quite some time.  She had a hard time departing with them as they are no longer made and this was all she had left.  The pattern I have calls for this line of fabric.  I could certainly choose other fabrics on my own, but really wanted to try the pattern out as it was meant to be.  I am thrilled that she finally gave in to my inquiries!

Okay folks, it's late, I'm tired, and I'm wanting to sew a bit before bed.  Please stay tuned for upcoming photos of my finished owl quilt that I mentioned above.

Pugly Inspiration

Hello everyone!  We are Igor and Otis and we wanted to show ourselves off while our daddy wasn't looking.  He took these pictures of us the other day and told us that he wanted to show them off anyways, so he shouldn't be too mad that we have created this post.

These pictures are of my crazy, rambunctious little brother Igor:

And this handsome stud is me, Otis:

I'll give you all a moment to catch your breath after taking in all of the cuteness you just experienced.  Okay.....so now that you know how absolutely irresistable we are, you should understand when I tell you guys that our daddy lets us get away with a lot.  He does get kind of upset at us sometimes, but we give him "the look" and he forgives us pretty quickly.

We really like it when our daddy is in his sewing room because it stays closed and is a forbidden area unless he's in there.  We drag every toy we can find into the room in an effort to try and divert his attention from whatever project he's working on at that time to throwing our toys for us to fetch and fight over.  Oh, before I forget, he is working on a new quilt.  It looks like it will be really neat!  It's his first attempt at applique and it looks like it's going pretty well so far.  I will be sure to share some pictures of it when he finishes.

Igor is nipping at my paws, so it's getting kind of difficult to type.  I will be sure to follow up with you as soon as I get another opportunity.  Until then, bark less and wag more.  Woof!!

My Interest & Previous Projects

Hello all and welcome back to another exciting week!  Today I would like to fill you guys in on the types of projects I'm interested in and give you an idea of my work.  First of all, I love sewing!  I can't believe that it took me so long to discover such a wonderfully relaxing pasttime.  My favorite types of projects are quilts and handbags.  I make many more handbags than I do quilts, simply because they are quicker and much cheaper to make.  I have accumulated several sewing books throughout the past few years and also try random projects from these books.  This is a very fun and interesting way of searching for other project likes and dislikes.  I will say from experience that It is somewhat disappointing when you follow a pattern and your version turns out nothing like it's supposed to.

So now that you have an idea of what I like, here are a few pics of some past sewing projects.  I wish I had more photos, but I have a bad habit of not taking photos of my finished projects.  Perhaps blogging will help me become more inspired to take photos of my projects.  Anyways, here are the photos: