Scientific Research Results...and giveaway winner

Wow, thanks to everyone who took the time to tell me about your favorite ruler, whether it was the brand or the size.

Unless I missed one when reading the comments (entirely possible), eight different brands were mentioned (Omnigrid, Olipfa, Olfa, Creative Grids, June Tailor, Rulersmith, Masterpiece, Fiskars). Overwhelmingly, you people love Omnigrid rulers! And the favorite size? 6 x 24 inches, along with a variety of square rulers, mostly
12 1/2 inches square.

I'm not familiar with Rulersmith or Masterpiece, but someone mentioned the website, ihaveanotion, as a great source for rulers, and I'm anxious to check that out to see what they have.

Oh, were you wondering about the winner of the charm pack? It is MarilynW, who said:

"I have several different rulers made by different companies. I don't care for the ones with yellow writing and I haven't tried the cutting edge ones yet, though I had planned on it next time I needed one...will see if anyone in my guild has one I can try now that I've read your concerns about them being too frosty."


On this gray day in Fresno, I must leave you with some orangey goodness. A while back Jennifer Moore of Monaluna ordered a custom pincushion made from selvages of her own fabrics. Being the orange lover that I am, I chose orange and turquoise. Today she let me know that she did a little post on the pincushion. Thanks, Jennifer.

(Picture courtesy of Jennifer Moore, Monaluna Designs)
 
Happy weekend sewing. I have a new idea I can't wait to tell you about as soon as I get the details figured out. Oh, and a new designer in training--my granddaughter, Charlotte, designed and sewed her first scarf the other day, with a bit of help from me of course (pictures in a day or two). And then informed me that she is ready to sew her first quilt. By herself. She is 4.

Tuesday Talk

Do you remember when I wrote about this pyrex, hoping my family would take notice...and maybe purchase something for my birthday? Well, hello orangey goodness!

This orange pitcher is the coolest thing. It was the centerpiece on the Thanksgiving table. During the meal I was asked, "So do you like the centerpiece?" Of course! "Well, it's yours!" Same with the cool pyrex, which I believe contained our yummy stuffing. The orange pitcher is way too mid-century-modern-cool to put in the cabinet, so it's going on my sewing table for quick access to skinny rulers and such.

Along with this.

Finally, one of my own pincushions. Customized of course. You can't see it from this picture, but the selvage on the top is "dumb dot," the selvage that started my obsession collection.

These went out in the mail today. The first is to Jennifer Moore. Yes, that Jennifer Moore, designer of fabulous Monaluna fabric (Hope she likes orange. Oh wait, these selvages are from her fabric lines, so obviously she does like orange. Me too!)

And these may or may not be gifts....probably to people who don't read my blog so I think I'm safe. But names have been covered to protect the gift-giver:

I'm joining an advent calendar sew-along, starting tomorrow. Because another thing to add to each of the next 25 days seems like such a great idea. Maybe I can get my sewing elf to pitch in. You all have sewing elves, right? Yeah, me either.

Gobble Gobble Giveaway

This year my birthday is on Thursday. That's right. On Thanksgiving Day. Which guarantees that I will be spending nearly the whole day with those who are nearest and dearest to me. What a gift!

Were you a part of Blogger's Quilt Festival 2010? Did you post one of your quilts? Did you check out the other amazing festival quilts? What amazing talent out there in blogland. It's not too late. You can still spend some time getting inspired here.

Through a series of kind of weird events, I have an extra pincushion that I made specifically for Blogger's Quilt Festival 2010. Just leave a comment and let me know if you posted a quilt, if you checked out the other quilts, if you've never heard of Blogger's Quilt Festival, whatever. Time ends on Thursday, November 25, at 4:37 a.m. PDT.

I know. Weird time. But that's when I was born. Month, day and time. And that's as much info as you're getting about that topic...

I'll notify the winner on Friday. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Midweek Miscellany

Just some random things on this middle-of-the-week Wednesday in this middle-of the-month November. (Yikes, that means the holidays are getting closer and closer!)

If you are looking for a great advent calendar

or if you already own one but would like a Christian-based advent "kit" of things to add to the pockets

check out this post and then rush over to Fairytale Pumpkin. But don't wait too long--they are flying off the shelf. Including one that is coming to live at my house.

I finally got these Block Swap 2 blocks in the mail today. Brittany had us make blocks for a Halloween quilt. Fortunately she wasn't planning on having it ready to go for this year. At least I don't think she was! Ooops...

Brittany sent the fabric pieces for the left block and requested disappearing 9-patch. But because I have this funny witch's underwear fabric, I couldn't resist making an extra block.

Near the border it says" witches undies scarey screamy, have a happy halloweenie."

And I added a lovely chalkboard to my sewing room. I took an old way-too-ornate gold frame and sprayed it with this.

You see where it says "all-surface paint"? I thought it would cover the black velvety inner border of the frame a little bit better, but it just ended up being kind of a charcoal grey. No problem, since the walls in my awesome new sewing room are grey. It's all good.

Slapped some Valspar chalkboard paint on a piece of masonite, and ended up with this.

Oh, and those names on the board? Just a reminder to get their pincushions in the mail. Have a happy Wednesday.

Do you ever get discouraged?

Just curious. If you are trying to sell your handmade items on etsy, do you ever get discouraged by lack of sales? I realize you can't just list your items on etsy and expect buyers to come flocking to your virtual doorstep. I know it doesn't happen by magic, and that it takes time and marketing strategies to get people to notice you.

Giveaways on my blog? Check.
Giveaways on other blogs with a lot of traffic? Check.
Networking? Check. I've made some really good friends this way, so that's been a huge plus, sales or no sales.

Sponsorship for specific events, like Bloggers Quilt Festival? Check.

Being published in a magazine--even with a cover photo? Check.

Any sales from the last two?

Nope. Not even one.

A lot of positive and encouraging comments, but nothing that has translated into a sale. Wow. Is that humbling to confess.

I'm feeling discouraged. When you hit a slump, what do you do? How do you get your creative mojo back? Do you think of quitting, and instead just sewing for the fun of it?

Read all about it!

See these pincushions? They have been on a journey. So have I, but they actually got to do the traveling. It started back in March when I was searching for a name for my new etsy shop for items made with selvages. I posted several times about the trouble I was having with finding a name, like this  one. I got a lot of good input, and finally settled on Sewing on the Edge, with the awesome tag line of "selvaging my sanity one stitch at a time." One of the people who commented later contacted me and wondered if I would be interested in having my pincushions in a magazine. Uh, seriously? Seriously??

Turns out she is assistant editor with the Quilting Arts group of magazines. So my pincushions got shipped off to New York and I got to write instructions on how to make them.

I think they had more fun than I did. Well, you just saw the picture I took of them.

Look what happened when they were in the hands of professionals:

They made it to the cover. They are COVER GIRLS!!

A little closer:

The Table of Contents:

Wanna see the whole page? Sure you do...

See those two pictures above the pincushions? I'm sharing the page with Elizabeth Hartman of Oh Fransson! and Ashley Newcomb of Film in the Fridge! Kinda like being in the company of rock stars. Eeek!!!

So turning to page 72....a two-page spread! Sorry if I keep showing you the same picture over and over. I know for some of you, being published is kind of same old, same old, but not for me, that's for sure.

Okay. Last time. Promise.

Didn't they photograph well? They will all be going into the etsy shop this weekend.

Working with Pippa Eccles from Quilting Arts was an amazing experience. Thanks so much, Pippa!

Anyone want some free fabric? Six fat quarters from Valori Wells' line, Sole.

Anyone want a free copy of International Quilt Festival? The cover looks like this (just in case you forgot...)

They officially hit the newsstands on the 26th and I get a couple of complimentary copies. They haven't been shipped quite yet, but when they arrive on my doorstop, I'll send one of them over to the winner's doorstep.

So leave a comment and let me know if you have ever been to the International Quilt Festival in Houston or if you save selvages. I'll pick two winners on Monday, October 25, at noon PST.

Variety Show

This weekend I worked on three very different customized pincushions.

Felicity wanted a pincushion attached to a thread catcher. She sent me the link to a great tutorial and this is how it turned out:

The name of her blog is Felicity Quilts, so we're both pretty happy that Emily Taylor for Riley Blake Designs came out with some fabric called "Felicity," which included the great polka dots that I used on the outside of the thread catcher.

Lindsay and I started corresponding through Flickr because we each wanted some more variety for our hexie quilts. We're doing an exchange of 2.5" squares. She also makes the cutest pincushions that you wear on a finger, but she wanted a little 2" square pincushion she could put in her sewing kit. So along with the fabric squares, we're doing a pincushion exchange. And for the record, smaller does not mean easier...

Terri likes the square pincushions, but wondered if I had ever done a round one. So another experiment...

And she likes rock music. I have yards of this fabric for a Hard Rock Cafe t-shirt quilt that I will eventually make, but I could certainly spare a square for the back:

Someone also gave me the idea of making a wrist pincushion. So that is next up on the drawing board. Any other ideas I should think about?

Customized--the Aloha edition

I think we have firmly established my selvage obsession so we no longer need to touch on that topic and how I obsessively categorize them into "themes."

So let's move on to my new favorite thing to do with selvages, which is actually a subcategory of the whole "theme idea." Specific customization. Isn't that a fancy-schmancy term to apply to something that is basically being saved from the recycle bin.

Anyhoo....when Diane approached me about making a customized pincushion, I said, "Bring it on." She lives in Honolulu and sent me the most amazing collection of selvages, some she definitely wanted in the pincushion and the rest I could keep for future pincushions. (Yes, I see a pincushion or two named "Aloha" here before too long.)

She wanted her name, and requested "Dance with me, Henry" (kudos to Jennifer Paganelli for all the great things that go on her selvages, and of course, Alexander Henry). She also included a hot pink vintage selvage which read "the cockeyed mayor of Kuanakakai." She told me it is the main and practially only town on the little island of Molokai, and she had an uncle who used to always hula to that song. What a fun memory.

The fabric she sent for the back had me humming "Lovely Hula Hands" the whole time I was sewing. It is possible I even tried swinging my hips once or twice while at the cutting table.

Kinda made me want to order one of these from ebay.

But I stopped myself just in time, and focused on a search for my other current obsession, Flea Market Fancy grey seeds fabric. Just thought I'd throw that in. As a shameless plea. You know....in case you're reading this and have some scraps and don't know what to do with them...

Mahalo.

Customized

By now it's no secret about how much I love selvages. Besides my obsession with the clever names of fabric lines and the beautiful array of color registration dots, I have the most fun putting the different selvages together to create some kind of a theme.

Friends have been generous in donating selvages to help me out. In return, I like to make them something a little special as well, customized just for them.

Ashley credits Flea Market Fancy by Denyse Schmidt with sparking her entry into the quilting world. If you follow her blog, then you know how that has turned out for her. And if you are a FMF lover, you know how hard that fabric is to find these days. Ashley was one of the first to send me a huge bag of selvages, all neatly trimmed and tied together. I made her a pincushion as a thank you. She emailed me a few weeks ago and wondered if I could make another pincushion so she would have one on each side of her sewing room. She requested that I make it out of FMF selvages, and generously offered to throw in some scraps for me as well.

I wanted to use as many selvages and color registration dots as possible, so I made it a little larger than usual.

I think Elizabeth found me via Bloggers Quilt Festival and generously sent a bag of selvages. She had been working on a quilt using a collection of French fabrics. But she also included some selvages from fabric I had never seen in my fifteen years of quilting, and they were amazing! To thank her for inspiring some new ideas, I made her a pincushion from her French selvages.

If you take a lot of pictures (and what blogger doesn't?), then you really need to check out
Amy Priddy Creations. Amy was another generous donator to the cause and this pincushion will be on its way to her doorstep later today.

Of course I had to add her name by using an Amy Butler selvage. And the cute camera fabric by Enchino for the back:

My good friend, Katie, loves all things Amy Butler, Heather Bailey, FMF, etc. Well, you get the picture. She also has a darling son, Henry, who was born last year. So thanks to Alexander Henry, and to Heather Bailey for printing the year on her selvage, I made this pincushion for Katie:

I'm quite sure Henry will grow up to be a Free Spirit, so I couldn't go wrong with that selvage.

How about you? Do you have a favorite color, a favorite designer, special hobby? I'd love to customize something special just for you.

Heather's having a party--with lots of party favors

Heather from alamodefabric is celebrating her birthday all month. And that girl really knows how to party! One giveaway after another. Starting today, four more of us brought gifts to Heather's party and she will pick the winners Sunday night at 9 p.m.

Up for grabs from Sewing on the Edge is this pincushion:

But there are a lot of other super things up for grabs as well. So go attend Heather's party, say hi, and maybe you'll go home with a party favor of your own!

And remember my Modify Tradition quilt swap? Well, my friend Jennifer received the quilt I made for her in the mail the other day and wrote the nicest things (blush). Thanks, Jennifer! I had the best time making that quilt for you and I'm so glad you like it.

And Amy has listed some of her favorite sewing notions and included a picture of the pincushion I made her, along with the link to my etsy shop (more blushing).

(Picture from Amy's Creative Side)

*sigh* It's a good day in Blogland...

Tufted Tweets--A Pincushion Giveaway

For those of you who have been following for awhile, you know that I am a huge fan of Laurie Wisbrun of Scarlet Fig. She has been designing her fabulous fabric and now has her first line, Tufted Tweets, with major fabric manufacturer, Robert Kaufman. I have impatiently patiently waiting for the fabric to arrive in stores (yes, the sound you hear in the background is my fingers drumming on my desk....) but in the meantime, Laurie generously sent me a bag of selvages along with a few nice-sized scraps from the line.

Of course the obvious thing to do with such a treasure was to make pincushions. We are having a simultaneous chance to win a pincushion. On Laurie's blog, you can leave a comment to win this red and orange pincushion:

And by leaving a comment on my blog, you have a chance to win this really cute purple and green pincushion:

Simple as that. Leave a comment here and leave a comment on Scarlet Fig. And on June 6, we'll each be picking a random winner. And go to Sewing on the Edge for some new pincushions. If you are a Flea Market Fancy lover, you'll want to check it out.

And we have a winner

Thank you so much to everyone who participated in the Sew Mama Sew giveaway. I appreciate all the encouraging comments. The winner, picked by the random number generator, is #190, Stephanie, who said: "I like them all. Such a good idea."

Thanks, Stephanie! This will be in the mail to you on Monday.

There are still some pincushions at Sewing on the Edge, and a lot more will be added next week so feel free to head on over and do some shopping.

And y'all come back for Bloggers Quilt Festival starting tomorrow!