quilting sightings and stuff

since enjoying the success of this green pitcher as a thread catcher, i've acquired a bit more inexpensive pottery bits at marshall's to dress up and organize my sewing area: the other pot i am using for spools, the top-most yellow bowl is pieces for my machine, the leaf plate has my binding pincushion (i've been using it for a pincushion since i haven't made one yet) and various pins, there's a small flower bowl for floss, and the yellow bowl at the bottom is for any bits i need for whatever project i have on the machine at the time. form and function here, folks.

since it's summer, i've dug out my headbands and worn them a bit. i really wanted to wear one to dress up my striped tee the other day. somehow i convinced myself that the yellow and pink headband coordinated with the neon orange tee! can you believe it. not even close, is it? really, in my half-dark bathroom it looked similar. but with my hair covering most of the band, only that completely unmatching pink rose showed. i am strange on occasion, it's true. my kids would be right to challenge my fashion sense here.

quilt sightings:

 d#1 taking a sunday nap with the abbey lane diamond quilt.

d#2 curled up with "out on a limb" for a judy blume read. cozy!

those family room quilts are starting to see a lot of real use. hurray! the kids finally seem to realize they're there and for their use.

looky what i finally did

anyone recognize these? i finally got down to work on my giveaway headbands. my college roommate and bestest old friend (as in "a long time" not she's old) was coming into town and i owed her a headband, so i decided to lay the quilts aside and get down to business. on the original headbands i made, i just used the one i bought and sorta traced around it for a pattern. it worked fine. but when i saw sandi henderson's cute headband and pattern in the spring quilts and more magazine, i felt it might be better to have a real pattern. it was easily adjusted by the addition of the tie tails. however, these worked out a bit thinner than my originals. i think i'll widen the pattern by 1/4" on each side.

i experimented with some new flower styles: a twisted rose and the swirly ruffle. the ruffle needs a button in the middle or something like that. and i'm not digging the yellow bit in the teal flower. overall, though, i like it. jen and i did some boutiquing and i got a few more ideas for new flower styles to try out.

while the quality of these are better than my originals, they definitely still have a bohemian, hand-crafted feel to them, complete with individual quirky charms (mistakes), but i was pleased with how quickly they came together: twenty minutes flat per headband! of course, i then realized i'd forgotten the leaves. that will add another five to ten minutes each. i completed seven on tuesday evening, so only three more to knock out. now i just need everyones addresses so i can mail them. in fact, i think i have enough of each fabric that you could actually request which one you'd like.

followers who qualified for the headbands include:

am12pm
heidi t (come on over and get it, girl!)
susan @ tickled paisley
janiel deboer (jen has yours!)
jessabells
martha alcantar
becky
jromney

in case you forgot, i offered a free headband to each new follower, numbers 6 - 10. there is actually still one more left because 1 person has signed in under two accounts and i had to follow my own blog in order to be able to contact the followers.

alas, the surprise packages for the first five followers (shannon, jen, mel, bran, and amy s.) are still not complete. oh, i promise i'll get there. maybe if someone can get my husband to leave the house with the kids for an entire day?

headbands

hope everyone had a happy, lucky st. patty's day & weekend. we had a lovely breakfast out. did you wear your green? i did, completely by accident! i wasn't paying attention to the calendar at all, i just wanted to wear my flower ring and coordinating headband.  when i saw this picture from that morning of myself in a headband, it reminded me to tell y'all that i've got the fabric for my giveaway headbands and the other surprise gifts, and will be working on them soon. promise. thanks to all for being patient, even if it is free. one night recently, while falling asleep, i had a brainstorm of two new flower styles to try out. i never thought i'd ever be designing anything even as simple as a headband, but maybe i have it in me to branch out a bit on my own after all.