a brief absence

We are moving house and I have no idea how long it will take to hack into neighbors router get internet connections and all those other fun things set up.  Not to mention all of the packing and unpacking.  Oh, what an exciting life I lead.  I will be back soon!

I've been there

Have I mentioned lately how much I love my job?  Working around fabric all day makes it seem a bit less like work.  I love helping people pick fabrics for quilts, find the perfect pattern, or figure out where it all went wrong.  Today someone came in looking for a particular fabric for the binding of a quilt she just finished.  Good news, I knew immediately what fabric she was looking for.  Bad news, we are all out.  And so is every other store in the state.  And who has time to wait for mail order when a baby shower is right around the corner?  Oh yeah, and did I mention she only needed 3" x 8" piece?  Anyway, I got her name and number, checked my personal stash, and what do you know?  I've got a few fat quarters left of it.  So she is meeting me Saturday to get a small piece of one.  I have to help a fellow comrade!

When was the last time you ran short and what did you do?

Lost in the Mail

The majority of my life has been free of any postal mishaps.  No presents from far-flung relatives ever arrived completely smashed.  No checks disappeared.  And not once have I answered the door in my robe and given the mailman a free show.  All in all, quite uneventful.  Until these past six months.  How much can get lost?  And is it me?  A curse?  Did a black cat cross my path as I walked under a ladder, knocking over salt shakers and breaking mirrors as I went?

While there have been several mishaps the past eighteen months, here are the most notable:

Upon moving, the mailman refused to forward our mail (slippery mind, I suppose) which meant that I had to drive 20 miles to fetch our mail from our old address every few days.  This problem was finally fixed when I locked the mailbox closed at the old house which prevented him from delivering no matter how hard he tried.

Last fall was the great Siggie Block Swap.  I made 70 of those suckers,  They weren't that hard but signing them drove me nuts.  I just couldn't get the writing to look as nice as I wanted it to.  Never fear.  I got to do them all over again after the first 70 I sent failed to arrive.  I think my signatures were better the second time around.  Silver lining, eh?

In February I sent a friend in Germany a couple of jellyrolls and some cuts of fabric.  It's not what you're thinking....the package arrived in Germany safe and sound.  But she sent me out a package a week later that never arrived.  (We've determined that our packages usually take 7-10 to get to each other.)  So, she faithfully sent another package the first week of April.  This has also failed to arrive.

And last, but not least, the potholders I made for the swap are MIA.  Egad!  I've remade them now but I think I liked the first ones better.  I'm just sad that someone didn't get theirs on time.  I hope the originals don't end up in a trash bin somewhere.

Okay, this post is quite whiney.  I actually had a reason for writing about this so I will get off the pity potty now.  This arrived yesterday:

Aren't they lovely?  And guess where they are from?  My friend Melanie in Germany.  It is the package she sent out March 8th.  Which means it only took 6 short weeks to get here.  Obviously, it came by canoe.  Maybe there is hope for my siggie blocks yet.

I'm always behind

Last week was the Friday Night Sew-in and I should have posted a picture of what I had worked on that night.  Did I?  Nope, too busy driving through the wilds of Wyoming.  So here goes:

This is the beginning of a cute table topper I made.  I didn't finish it that night because I realized the stripe I picked for the borders was awful! It has been quilted and bound, but of course I forgot to take a picture.  Perhaps Monday.

We had a great time in Wyoming.  The kids loved the pool at the hotel.

And Eli was apparently enjoying something on television:

I am glad they had so much fun.  Poor kids deserved it after I dragged them to three quilt shops along the way.  Don't worry, I took plenty of pics of the shops!  I will post them this weekend!

And we have a winner (finally)

I spent the weekend in Wyoming then came home and worked on several projects (and went to work so I would remain employed).  So I have many excuses.  No good ones, but excuses just the same.  Anywho, the random number generator picked Vicki @DottyJane!  Congrats Vicki!  Please email me your shipping info and I will get that charm pack out to you!

How does that work?

I have been seeing all of these great animations that show how your sewing machine actually works.  Who knew?  Click here to see two animations.  The first one is for a chain stitch and the second animation shows the straight stitch.
Now there is one less thing I think works like this:

Friday Night Sew-in

Who's ready for the Friday Night Sew-in? I purchased a quilt kit (with my employee discount, no less) just for the occasion. I wish I hadn't forgotten about FNS until this week tho. It would have been fun to have some people over. Maybe I will be better prepared next month! Check back Friday night to see how I did.


If you haven't entered my giveaway, scroll down and get entered before it is too late!

And they call this work

I have wanted to work in a fabric store for the past year.  What could be better?  Hanging out among the fabrics and patterns, cutting, gabbing with fellow quilters.  And I don't think I will mind having an employee discount!  Anyway, I am starting here today:

So, if you're in the area, stop by, say "hi", and check out all of the amazing things that you know you "need".  

And wiser too

Today is my birthday.  My first 29th birthday.  I plan on having many more of these.  I figure when you find something that works, you should stick with it.  My husband is out of town and was worried that I wouldn't do anything for my birthday (he knows me too well).  He needn't have worried.  I went to lunch with my friend Janelle and ate this:

And then, despite it being my last day of work at my temp job, we had some of this:

Then I picked up Eli and drove to Material Girls to pick up Lorelei from her quilting guild meeting.  She made this for me:

And my sister bought me this:

and this:

We came home, ate dinner, and then my wonderful (and talented) friend and neighbor brought over this:

How cute is that?  Needless to say, I now feel like this:

But I do also feel very thankful for such wonderful family and friends.

It's a small, small world

I am always astounded by how much information, ideas, and great people I can find out in blogland.  A friend and I were discussing all of the great tutorials we find online and I have to admit that she shocked me.  She said she hates that she always finds projects that she wants to do but the blog is written by someone in German, or Japanese, or French.
Ummm.....what's the problem?  Come to find out my friend didn't know about a little tool called Google Translate.  So, I thought I would share it with all of you just incase there is someone else out there unaware of this little gem.  Simply type in the web address of the site, choose your language, choose the language the website is in, and voila!  It is completely readable, even to those of us who only remember enough high school French to ask where the bathroom or library is.
If you didn't know about it before, go try it out!  Enjoy!

BTW-

I have been swapping fabrics with bloggers I have met online who reside in Europe.  I love the surprises I find in my mailbox.  And I hope they feel the same way!  If anyone (not in the US) is looking for someone to swap fabrics or patterns with, please email me.

Free Quilt Pattern

I just stumbled upon Lynn Weathers blog, Alamosa Quilter.  She has a free pattern for two cute quilts available for download.   Best of all, you make one and then use your scraps to make a reversed pattern for the second quilt!
Head on over and get yourself some goodness and say hi to Lynn.

Why wait til May? It's time for a giveaway!

Last year I was obsessed by Basic Grey's Figgy Pudding for Moda.  I made everything out of this line.  Stockings, a tablerunner, and a quilt top (that is still waiting to be quilted).  Basic Grey came through with another gorgeous Christmas fabric called Fruitcake that will be available everywhere in May.  But who wants to wait until then?  I snatched up a few charmpacks and have decided to send one to one lucky person!

So, here's how to get up to three entries:

Entry one: leave a comment on this post
Entry two: become a follower of Jandi In Stitches and leave a comment saying "follower"
Entry three: blog about the giveaway and leave a comment saying "blogged here http://xxxx"

Please make sure that you leave three separate comments if you would like three entries.  The random number generator will be picking the winner for me so if you only leave one comment, you'll only get one entry.

Giveaway closes April 16, 2010 at midnight MST.

Good luck!

(a) brand new project(s)

Last year Just Sew did this quilt as their block of the month:

Too bad I wasn't the sewing demon I am now back in March of 2009.  I look at this quilt, and while it is not my style, I am dying to make one.  Or two.  Yup, I've decided on two.  One for me, one for a gift.  This is what I managed to get done last night:

Eli is still sick but I feel like I still managed to get quite a bit done.  It really is going quite quickly.  I should make quilts like this all of the time.  The second block takes me about 1/4 of the time as the first block.

Anyone else have an ambitious new project going?

Chocolate Bunnies and Kleenex

Easter has come and gone and yet I haven't posted any pictures.  So, here we go:

I know, bad lighting...that's what happens when you're woken up at an ungodly hour by excited children.

He insisted on eating his chocolate bunny for breakfast.  Unfortunately he was sick and only managed to eat the ears.

I made these cute shorts and Eli was happy enough to pose for me.  I wish you could see the cute pockets.  Next time I will make them out of coordinating fabric so they show up better.

What a show off.  Only those red little cheeks give away how sick he was feeling.

And then we flew kites:

I hope your Easter was fun!

When are we going to have Spring?

I just can't believe that tomorrow is Easter.  It doesn't seem quite right.  Perhaps it has something to do with all of the snow we have gotten the past few days.  Luckily I did manage to remember to buy a couple dozen eggs yesterday AND boil them.  I know, I know, you're impressed.  Today we took our eggs over to my sister's house and let the kids dye them.

Eli insisted on stirring the dye which turned out to be messy (surprise, surprise) and cracked a few eggs.

I also found these too cute tags for Peeps to give to my friends:

Get yours at Eighteen25 or find lots of other great ideas.

A new toy

After my previous post, I can't blame my husband for being a bit concerned when I called him this evening and told him I bought a new toy at my local machine dealer.  He is working out of town for the next month or so, which is allowing me ample opportunity to sneak more than a few new sewing items into the house.  Poor guy, lucky me!

My birthday is coming up later this month so I figured that I would help my husband out and get my own present.  What a thoughtful wife I am!

Anyway, I've taken my new baby out of the box and I am ready to watch the dvd once I get the last of the kiddos in bed this evening.  And now I've got all weekend to play!