What’s Going On . . .

I began the new year by cleaning out my sewing room.  It was an archeological dig!  Or time travel.  Or a horror show . . . (once I started stacking all those projects in process). Or, here’s a happier perspective, a treasure box – look at all the pretty things!

I set aside one of those projects and am once again steadily making progress (in my clean sewing room!) on a quilt project I started years ago. This one is destined for the bed and I’d like to finish it this winter.  That is probably too ambitious and delusional to boot, but it’s good to have a goal, right?

Here’s a bunch of little blocks I made up:

Those will finish up at 4 inches square.  Love the pretty colors.

The pattern is Echoes of the Past. I bought the pattern years ago at Quilt-a-Fair but here’s an online store showing the full quilt. The little blocks I’m showing above are actually meant to be part of an additional border I’m adding to make the quilt fit our bed.

Here’s the design wall showing some of those center blocks in process:

The bear on the lower right is actually not in the pattern. There were a couple blocks in the original I didn’t care for as much and I have a thing for bears, so I definitely needed a bear in my Southwest quilt.

And because I still need my little projects – a little zip purse using the tutorial I’ve got listed over on the side of the blog here.

Pretty French General. What’s not to like?

So, hey, what’s going on in your sewing room?

Happy New Year and a Giveaway

Well, it’s the first day of the new year. I’ve decided a little giveaway is in order. So, without any ado, here it is: a set of bookmarks I made using Rebecca McMeen’s completely darling Persnickety Triplets.  Some of you will recognize I did these once before, but hey, it’s not like we’ve tossed out the old (which is good, because I’m not, as my father would have said, still a Spring chicken).

I took the photo after they were laminated, so there’s some glare and the color is a little off (the color is always off on my photos – nothing new there).
Those faces are so cute.  Here’s a couple close-ups:


So sweet. I just love them.
All you need to do to enter the giveaway is leave a comment on this blog entry. I will ask Mr. Random Number Generator to pick a number sometime Sunday evening.
Here’s wishing everyone a great start to the New Year! 

Edit to Add: Mr. Random Number Generator decreed that Rilene won the book marks.

Focus, That’s What I’ve Got!

I did sew up some blocks for quilt buddy swaps (just to say it isn’t all pen stuff here) and then forgot to take pictures of them.  Other than those two blocks though, it’s still all fountain pen play here. 

This time I decided that what I wanted was a two pen sleeve that would be really fast to open and that I could slip into a purse or book bag.  It took several tries on ones that just didn’t quite fit what I wanted before I finally got it right.  Now, this version I’m really happy with.

Sleeve open:

Sleeve closed:

From the back, snapped shut:

And because summer break ain’t over yet:

You know, I just can’t justify buying every cool pen I see.  (And I see a lot of them).  But I figure any dollars that come from selling pen wraps is totally fair game – which is why these are in my Etsy shop . . .

And why a new (old) Parker 51 has come to live with me.  Love.