Showing posts sorted by relevance for query sweet celebrations. Sort by date Show all posts
Showing posts sorted by relevance for query sweet celebrations. Sort by date Show all posts

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

My First Market!!!

Can I just start with saying that I loved Quilt Market!!!  It is crazy busy, crazy fast, crazy nonstop, and a total blast!!!!  So . . here's the rundown of Market from my little corner of the world:)

I started packing about an hour before I had to leave.  Yup, major procrastination!!  I put the quilt that I was showing at Schoolhouse in my suitcase and my makeup and suddenly there wasn't much room left for anything else :)  But luckily, I only needed a few changes of clothes for the weekend so I was able to zip it up without to much difficulty.  (The way home was a little different :)  


We had some crazy major stress at the airport but managed to still arrive in Houston Thursday night.    Friday morning dawned and we picked out our classes for Schoolhouse.  For those that haven't been, Schoolhouse is crazy fun and crazy tiring!!  You pick 16 sessions to attend during the day that run about 30 minutes and you just go from one to the next to the next.

My highlights of schoolhouse including meeting Angela Walters as she promoted her new book, which I happened to win a copy of.  Squeal!!!!

I also got to hold Angela's quilts during her presentation!!  Getting to see her quilting up close was awesome!!  That gal is super talented!!


The very last schoolhouse was the Moda Sweet Celebrations one.  I was so super nervous I was shaking like a leaf.  Luckily, you can't tell so much in the picture. Here's me giving my little 2 minute speech on my project.  


And here is me relieved to be done!!  And this is probably the first shot I have shown of my other project in the Sweet Celebrations book :)  

And here are some of the amazing group of ladies that are part of the Sweet Celebrations book!!  It was so fun to get to meet them in person!!  From left  to right is Angela Yosten, April Rosenthal, Sherri McConnell, Aneela Hoey, me, Jane Davidson, and Natalia Bonner.  Yup, an amazing group of ladies!!!

That night was sample spree.  And to tell the truth, it wasn't as bad as I was anticipating.  We did go in toward the rear to avoid the pushing and shoving, but all in all, not to bad.  And I got some fun little fabric treats, which is always makes things happy!!


Saturday morning came bright and ealry and we were so eager to hit the show floor.  It was enormous!!!  Talk about inspiration at every turn!!!  Now I am sure you have already seen tons of booth pictues so I will just share some of my faves.  (At least the favorites that I remember to take a picture of the whole booth.  I realized when I got home that I have lots of quilt photos and not near as many booth ones, oops :)  

I loved this booth by Bari J for Art Gallery Fabrics.  Isn't that bedspread just divine!!  And by this point my feet hurt and I really just wanted to climb under it and take a nap!


I also loved this stunning booth by Lisa Tueller for Riley Blake.  What a great idea to design a booth around a dress, which I will add is stunning as well.   I just loved those giant flowers!!


And this last shot is a little blurry but I added it anyways because I just love the rainbow of paint sticks hanging from the Moda booth!!  The entire paint theme throughout the booth really was fun and creative!!


And although I loved wandering from booth to booth seeing all of the amazing quilting goodness, my favorite part of Saturday was the people!!!   I got to meet (in person) so many wonderful, friendly, people!!  Some I felt like I had already known forever through emails and we just introduced ourselves with a hug, others I met for the first time and quickly became fast friends.  This industry is just filled with the nicest people!!  

Emily Herrick  from Crazy Old Ladies.  And this Lady is anything but crazy, she is a sweetheart!!!


Allison from Cluck Cluck Sew.  I got to meet her husband as well, they are just the sweetest couple!!


 Kate Spain.  My Mother-in-Law (huge thanks goes out to my MIL for coming along with me, it was so fun to have her along!!) is a big time fan of Kate so we were both super excited to get to meet her!


And I was super excited to meet Joel Dewberry!!  I think he is such an amazing example of balancing family with the industry.   And he liked my bag :)


I got to meet so many other friends that I am now kicking myself for not taking pictures of.  (But this post is getting a little long, probably time to wrap it up :)  Oh, But I do want to mention that I got to meet Kimberly Jolley from Fat Quarter Shop, Leah from Burgundy Buttons, and Julie from The Intrepid Thread.  I can't begin to say how wonderful it was to get to finally meet these amazing ladies in person.  They are such a huge support of Happy Quilting and to get to just sit and chat with them in person vs over email was a great treat!!!  And of course, I was so excited to sit and chat with them I forgot to take pictures ;)  


And one last thing which was a huge highlight for me and that was the Sweet Celebrations book signing!!  We did one on Saturday and one on Sunday and I tell you what, it was so much fun!!  First, everyone is so excited to get a copy of the book and you just can't help but get excited along with them.  Second, these group of ladies are so fun to hang out with!!  Once again, It's the people!!!  Quilters are the best!!!

Stefanie Roman and Mary Brown are the new ladies in this picture from the Schoolhouse one :)

And with that, I will sign off ending this little chapter on Quilt Market.   Here's is hoping I can post another one next spring ;)  





Pin It!

Friday, October 19, 2012

Sweet Celebrations Winner Celebrate

***  Note - Looking for the Beginners Guide to Free Motion Quilting?? Giveaway is here :)
                    Looking for the Burgundy Buttons Sponsored Layer Cake??  Giveaway is here :)


Thank you all so much for your sweet comments about the Sweet Celebrations Book!!  I have been thrilled to be a part of this process and a part of this amazing group of chefs!!

Now, let's announce a winner!!  Winner of their own copy of Sweet Celebrations with the Moda Bake Shop Chefs as well as a fabulous Layer Cake is . . .


The Envelope Please . . . . .   Thanks to the help of Mr. Random.Org the winner is . . #230

Congrats to Rush!!!  I have sent you an email :)

And if you didn't win but still want to peruse the pages of this great book you can order it at Amazon here or peruse your favorite online store to see if they carry it :)

I got my copy on my doorstep the other day.  I almost didn't want to open the box it seemed so surreal.  And then of course I tore open the box and have been devouring it in every one of my spare minutes ;)  It really is a fabulous book.  The layout is lovely and so well organized.  The pictures are beautiful.  The instructions are easy to understand.  All in all, a fabulous book!!!


Pin It!

Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Sweet Celebrations!!!!

 I am just over the moon with excitement about Sweet Celebrations !!!  This book is going to be incredible :) Sweet Celebrations has over 35 projects from myself and some of my amazing Moda Bake Shop Chef buddies and is compiled by Lissa Alexander.   


It will be on shelves in October.  That is just 4 months away!!!  When I shipped off my projects last fall I knew it was going to be a long wait and I can't believe it is almost here :)


And to get to see my projects photographs of how they will look in the book . . .  totally amazing!!!  I mean, aren't those 2 little kids in the bottom left hand corner sitting over the Birthday Table Topper (that I made, squeal!!) just the cutest!!!  So excited!!!  

More fun to come in the future with this incredible book . . . I can hardly wait :)

Pin It!

Friday, September 21, 2012

October is Full of Hops

It's time to mark your calendars!!!  October is going to be full of lots of great stuff!!!  And I am so excited!!!

First up . . .  The Moda Bake Shop is doing a Celebrations Blog Hop to Celebrate the release of Sweet Celebrations!!!  (Wow, 3 celebrate in 1 sentence, impressive :)  It kicks off on October 1st and it hops over here on October 2nd.  There will be lots of chances to win copies of the book as well as awesome Moda Pre-Cuts.  You can click here for more details and the full blog hop schedule :)




Next, Natalia Bonner will be doing a Blog Tour to celebrate the release of her new book Beginner's Guide to Free Motion Quilting.  I am so excited to be a part of this tour.  I have looked over a copy of this book and it is incredible, perfect for all those dabbling in the world of free motion quilting!!  This tour starts on October 5th over at Piece N Quilt, Natalia's Blog, and will be hopping over here on October 7th :)  And yup, you will have a chance to win this incredible book!



Lastly, I get to be a part of the Glorious Autumn Block Party.  Have you been following along??  I will be posting my Autumn block tutorial on October 18th.  It's gonna be so cute :)


And then it will be off to Market!!!  And to say I am excited for Market would be a vast understatement.  I just found out that I will get to be part of a book signing at the Moda Bake Shop as part of the Sweet Celebrations book release!!  Squeal.  Totally excited!!!
Pin It!

Tuesday, October 2, 2012

A Very Sweet Celebration!! And it gets Sweeter with a Giveaway!!

We'll today's the day!!!  It's my day for the Sweet Celebrations blog hop!!!  A big hello and welcome goes out to all those stopping by for the first time.  I'm so excited to get to meet new friends.   And of course, for all of my friends who stop by daily, Yippee Skippee!!!   Do you remember when I posted about this clear back in May??  (Talk about a cliff hanger :)  

I can't tell you how excited I am to be a part of this amazing group of "Chefs".  This book has been such a journey!!  It has been a long time in the making but I am sure you will find, it was well worth the wait!!  Each of the projects in the book are for an annual celebration and each of us "chefs" were assigned one of those Celebrations for the blog hop!!


My Assigned Celebration is Birthdays.  I was all kinds of excited for this since two of my projects in the book are to celebrate Birthdays :)  Yup, see that table topper the cake is set upon in the bottom right hand corner and the cute banner in the background, my projects. Yippee Skippee!!!    (I also have a project for Fathers Day but you will have to get the book to see that one, only a few little sneak peeks today :)


So for the Blog Hop, Moda decided to do a little "Getting To Know You".  Oda May prepared us a list of questions.  The questions were totally random, which I loved as I tend to be random all the time.  So without further ado, a little more about the Happy Quilter.  Enjoy!!

Do your pets/kids/spouse help or hinder your creative process?

First off, we don't have any pets.  I am afraid of cats and dogs so that really narrows the field.  (silly I know, but true none the less.)

My husband supports me in this creative (and sometimes crazy) process fully with only the occasional grumbling when his shirts end up at the bottom of the ironing pile under a mountain of blocks.

My boys don't tend to hang out in my sewing room all that often but my girls love it!!  My 7 year old loves to play in my scraps and often inspires color combos I use in my quilts.  My 3 year old loves to help by handing me pins.  When she gets bored of waiting for me to need a pin, she simply pins my chair.  She has yet to stab me, but the day she does will be the day she no longer get's to pin my chair.  Lastly, my baby girl.  She just loves to roll around the room.  (And ya, she doesn't care what is in the way ;)



If you could patchwork bomb a spot in your town, where would you choose and why?

This is the Centurium on the campus of Southern Utah University here in Cedar City, Utah.  I attended SUU (a while back) and quickly found that one of the freshmen traditions is to snap your photo with these statues.  Sadly, I couldn't find any of my photo's of my roommates and I being super silly. (coincidence??)


But I can't help thinking how much more fun the freshmen would have taking their silly snapshots if Albert Einstein and his posse of thinkers were wearing patchwork pants!  Just makes me smile to think about it :)


If you could have a quilt shop spree, which items would you snag off the shelf??



Pre-cuts, Pre-cuts, Pre-cuts!!!   I love my Pre-cuts.   I love the amazing selection of prints, the perfectly coordinating colors, and the huge amount of time I save cutting!!  Easy Peazy, Lemon Squeezy!!


What is your favorite Birthday memory? 

I started looking through old photos trying to remember a favorite birthday memory.  I quickly realized, I don't have a lot of recent birthday memories of me, but I do have a ton of Birthday memories of my children.  I especially love the first birthday!!!  These little ones change so much in 1 year and on each of their first birthdays I take a minute to reflect on how they have grown, and what a special place they have in my heart.

I also love our first birthday tradition of the birthday cake!!  I mean who doesn't love pictures of icing covered kids with huge grins on their face as they stuff in every last crumb :)


 Jocelyn just turned 1 a few weeks ago and she, like her siblings, loved it to the last bite!


Do you prefer to celebrate with cupcakes, cake pops, or just plain old cake?

None of the above!!!  So this might be weird,  but I really don't like frosting.  Doesn't matter what kind, I just don't like it.  So here I am at my last birthday (surprised we took a photo) and in front of me you will see a nasty frosted cake.  This is a prop cake.  Its sole purpose is for the kids to be happy.  We sang, I blew out the candles, the kids had huge globs of icing with ice cream -  tradition complete!  And then I pulled my customary individual birthday cheesecake from the fridge ;)    Nothing say's Happy Birthday to Me like a Cheesecake!!!

And as part of this blog hop, each of the chefs are sharing their favorite recipe from their assigned Celebration.  So of course, I am sharing my favorite Snickers Cheesecake recipe!  It's so yummy and so incredibly easy to make!!


You can go here to print this recipe in either a 3 x 5 recipe card or a 4 x 6 card card or just click on the Printer Friendly Version below :)  Collect all of the recipes along the hop to keep with your book!!!



So that's a little about me.  Random for sure, but there you have it, little ol' me :)  So now, let's get to the part about little ol' you!!!!   The Giveaway!!!

GIVEAWAY!!!!

I am so excited to giveaway a copy of Sweet Celebrations plus a Moda Layer Cake to go along with it!!!  Simply leave me a comment below of a favorite birthday present to be entered to win. You have until October 14th to comment and the winner will be announced on October 19th :)


And for a complete list of all the hop stops just click on the banner!!!  Enjoy the Sweet Celebration!!!



Pin It!

Friday, September 25, 2015

Rah Rah Rally the Cedar High School Edition

I am so excited to share a new finish today.   This is my Rah Rah Rally Quilt from Sweet Celebrations done a la Cedar Redmen.   Our local High School is Cedar High and their mascot is the Redmen and so I made up this Rah Rah Rally quilt for a silent auction.   Cedar High's colors are Gold and Crimson and they were such fun and rich colors to work with ;)


You might recognize this design as the original I did was in the Sweet Celebrations book and I made the quilt in U of U colors for my sweetheart.    I altered from original construction this time and used strip piecing.  It really sped up the process.  I just love making this design, I can see lots more Rah Rah Rally quilts in my future ;)


When it came time to add the logo, I realized right off the bat that this would be a little bit more of a challenge that past logo's I have made.   It took me about 15 hours to make from start of cutting out to template pieces to finish of stitching it to the quilt top.  But I have to say, the time was totally worth it when it comes out looking this awesome!


My favorite part is the little satin stitch I did around the CR.  I knew right away it was way to tiny to do in applique so I thought I would give satin stitch a try and it really is the perfect finishing touch ;)  I have a full step by step tutorial  on complex layered appliques, just in case you have a particular school logo you just have to make now ;)


And when it came time to quilt, I decided to add to the geometric goodness by just doing straight-ish lines about 1/2" apart.  I love the wonderful yummy texture you add when you quilt like this, and the exercise from walking back and forth in front of the long arm is an extra bonus ;)


The quilt was a huge hit at the auction and I was so glad to be part of such a great cause to raise funds!!  And I happen to know who got the quilt and her plan is to give it to her senior for Christmas, which totally just warms my heart!!


And speaking of quilting for good causes, this weekend is Homecoming at the local university, and my Alma Mater, Southern Utah University and I just might have added this logo to my Double Take quilt to be another little fundraiser :)  I just love being able to use my passion for quilting to help the schools I love!!


I hope you have a very Happy Quilting Weekend!!!

Linking up this finished quilt to Sarah's and Amanda's ;)
Pin It!

Thursday, May 31, 2012

TNT - I am in a Book!!!!!


This is something New that I tried a long time ago and I have been dying to tell you all!!!!  I am in a book :)  Yippee Skippee, I still can't believe it is quite real :)  Enter lots of squeals and and a happy dance :)


About a year ago I was asked if I would like to contribute to a second Moda Bake Shop collaboration book.  It took all of about 2 seconds to respond with an Absolutely, I would love to!!!!  Sweet Celebrations has over 35 projects all based on holiday's and celebrations through the year.  And of course, there will be a book tour and all that fun jazz when it gets closer to the release date of October 2012.  I am just so excited that I finally get to say that I am In A Book.  Thank you to the Moda Bake Shop.  It is an honor to be part of this book with so many other amazing quilters!!!

So what have you tried new this week.  Link on up :)


Pin It!