Hard Hat Area: Hottie At Work

Welcome to the ever-evolving world of Quilting Hottie Haven! No doubt you notice a few changes since your last visit, assuming said last visit was more than 10 minutes ago (I'm not kidding, it's currently ever-evolving, and by ever, I do mean constantly). I'm not totally thrilled with some of the font sizes and colors and need to redo some of the pages to update and perfect them for 2014, but it has more of the clean look I have been craving and I'd love to hear your thoughts on how I can make it even more user-friendly for you! You know I live to do your will. Between you hotties and my children, it's amazing I accomplish anything else.

So what's with all the changes? Did I wake up one morning with a sudden urge to spend most of the day smacking my head against the wall because advanced settings on blogger might as well be written in Chinese? No, although one would wonder. Actually, I'm excited to be entering that exotic world of having a blog sponsored by online shops, and I needed a good place to put them. So just like in life, acquisition of something new forced a renovation. Thankfully this was a little more minor than the time we discovered Baby Oops was on the way and decided to put a 500 square foot addition on the house, but the general concept remains the same.

After declaring Fat Quarter Shop the newest members of Hottieland last week, this week I am welcoming  Lemon Tree Fabrics.

Is their logo not the cutest?

I was first introduced to Julie, owner of Lemon Tree Fabrics, back in October. We share a mutual friend, Larissa, who found out at a playdate that Julie, an unassuming hottie mom much like myself, had an online fabric shop, and told her about me, her unassuming hottie mom quilt designer friend. Julie handed Larissa some business cards to give to me, but not before asking that crucial question all under 55-quilters/fabric lovers ask: "Um....how old is she?"

Apparently Larissa had left off the part where I am an unassuming hottie mom. I mean, it's obvious enough in person, but worth a mention when discussing me with those who haven't met me, right?

In any case, I placed my first order that evening and the rest is history. And now we are partnering in this blog sponsorship, and there are just so many reasons this excites me:

•  I am Lemon Tree Fabrics' first blog sponsorship. Julie was more than happy to have me convince her of the benefits to both of us and signed on immediately. So tempting to insert evil laugh here.
• LTF has a fantastic selection of modern and fresh and awesome prints as well as trims and laminates and all sorts of other stuff. Really. Go look.
• "Choose Your Own Fat Quarter Bundles"  - Want two FQs? Want 10? Whatever! She'll bundle them if you tell her which ones you want! Even if they are on the bolts at the tippy top of the wall.
• LTF is three miles from my house, so even though it's an online shop, I get to pretend it isn't. So I've seen the awesomeness of the basement alcove with fabric bolts stacked to the ceiling and a to-die-for cutting table that ALMOST puts mine to shame. Almost. Note: Three miles from my house places it squarely NOT in citrus growing climes, so at some point I will remember to ask why Lemon Tree, but for now we will just enjoy the cute name.
• I absolutely love supporting a mom-cutting-fabric-in-the-basement-after-the-kids-go-to-bed small business, and hope you'll check her out too!

Welcome Julie and Lemon Tree Fabrics!

With 21 days to go before my children's heads spin around for the last time and explode with excitement, like everyone else I am madly sewing gifts in between baking, wrapping, and finding new hiding places for the damn elf.

This morning I whipped up the cutest little zip pouch out of two UFO blocks using a tutorial at noodlehead, and inspired by this one made by my friend Kelli. I used one for the body of the bag, and the other for the lining.

One side

Other side

Interior. I can see why it was called an "open wide" zip pouch by Noodlehead.

Looks slightly like our betta fish from this angle.

I'd tried to make a zip pouch a couple of weeks ago using the same tutorial, but a much smaller block. Why? Because I did not read the directions and bought a way too short zipper, and had to improvise. It did not turn out quite as well.

Moral: Read directions.

Much happier with the one I made today, and I will be giving it to my niece/hero big girl cousin to the girls and stuff it with a few awesome little gifts. With luck she will use the pouch for her dance hair accessories or something. Paige has commandeered the first attempt for that purpose, and it seems to work. Sort of. At least the pile of bobby pins at the bottom of the dance bag is slightly diminished.

A couple of days ago I went through the NQ fabrics and found several suitable for infinity scarves, and whipped up four of them in an hour using this tutorial from Sweetest Bug Bows.

Three for gifts, one for me. They are lucky it isn't the other way around.

The top one there is the one I kept, because it is very much me. It is also very much made using the back side of the fabric, as the front side was an oriental satin in an almost obnoxious shade of hot pink, which I honestly have no recollection of acquiring and am not sure why I would have as I don't like satin or oriental fabrics, but I LUVed the reverse side, with it's more muted tones and stripey look. Lesson: Always consider the backs of fabrics. You have no idea how often I have done that in quilting and sewing, and I have never regretted it.

I'm also thrilled to have finished the Breakfast with Santa raffle quilt for Baby Oops' school this weekend. I used the same technique as in Greta's Kaleidoscope, and I really like how it came out.

We also really like how the deck, which is FINALLY FINALLY DONE! came out.

Funky star formed by sashing. Love that.

 Not a bad use for a bunch of uglies I got at a block auction, huh? Plus donating it made me have no guilt at all about refusing to work at the event, which always leaves me feeling like I've been run over by a truck full of sugared-up crazy people, because I basically have.

Next up: Attempting to get a quilt done for my husband for Christmas. He's actually never received one from me, and while the one I am working on does not excite me in the least, and you will see why soon enough, he'll be all over it.

Merry merry!