I love March Madness!

Before I got married, I didn't really get into the whole March Madness thing.  In fact, I'm not even sure when I realized that March Madness was all about college basketball.  WELL.  I've been married for 4 1/2 years now and I've been pretty thoroughly immersed in the world of college sports.  The hubby and I both went to BYU and we are HUGE fans.  This year, I am even more excited for March Madness than ever.  BYU has Jimmer Fredette and Jackson Emery this year and they are DOMINATING!  We beat San Diego State last night and now we have a good chance at a number one seed in the tournament.  I'm lovin it.

But that's not what this post is about.  I just found out that John at Fat Quarterly is hosting a Modern Fabric March Madness!  How cool is that?  They have chosen 64 fabric lines and will be putting them up against each other for us to vote.   I've already filled out my bracket (What?  I have a lot of free time on Sunday mornings!)  I still can't wait to watch BYU play in the tournament, but I really don't know a whole lot about the other teams - with the exception of a select handful.  But fabric?  That's something I know a little bit about.  And if I don't, well, I can just google it.  I'm curious to see which fabric is the best one out there.  Here are a few of my favorites:

Castle Peeps!

What!?  "Pure" didn't make the cut?  Such a shame.

Another of my absolute favorites that did not make the list...  Maybe someday I will have a little girl to use this fabric on - or maybe I should just make something for myself!

And there you have it.  Go check it out right now!
And GO COUGARS!!!!!

For the Love!

VALENTINES DAY IS ON MONDAY!! Kinda sneaked up on me this year.  But that's okay.  The hubby and I don't really get that into Valentines Day.  We have a tradition... we buy ourselves a new movie on Valentines Day and watch it at home on the couch.  And sometimes I get chocolate, but that's not really a once a year thing for me...  Flowers?  Nah - I can't really keep ANYTHING alive for longer than a day.  Although I wouldn't complain if the hubby was thoughtful enough to get me some every once in a while.
However, this year I did decide I needed to make something to remind us what month it is...
It took a little while to get to it, because I wouldn't let myself work on it until I finished making these:

Whew!
Then I made this (don't worry, I finished it last week so I'm not TOO far behind):

AND I tried binding BY HAND this time around!  I think it looks better - hopefully I did it right.  I washed this little thing because I also tried raw edge applique and I wanted the edge of the heart to fray a little, so it looks a little bumpy.  But it was really quick to make.
Now.  What should I do for March?

On a side note, I guess I did get an early Valentines Day gift this year.  Wanna see it?  Well, okay.  But only because I love it so much:

 Isn't it pretty!  And it's ALL MINE!!  YAY!

Wordless Wednesday: Risk

I finally won a giveaway!

Ever since I discovered the world of quilt blogs and the concept of "giveaway," I have been entering them like crazy.  :)  My stash seems so meager right now and I hate asking the hubby to let me buy more and more fabric, so I try to get it any other way I can.  Well, the people in the quilt blog world are SO GENEROUS!!!  It is amazing.  Some day, I will have to give back to the community.  Maybe I will host a giveaway of my own sometime.
Anyway, I finally won a giveaway - my first one!  And it was a good one!  Diane at Quilty Pleasures had a giveaway on their blog a week or so ago.  She was giving away part of her 9,000 pound stash!  I can't even imagine how much fabric that would be!  I guess it is not that uncommon though (I have a long way to go...).    Anyway, she picked 5 winners to send some of her fabric to and I won!  I was so excited.
WELL.  The package came yesterday and I couldn't believe it!  There was a lot more fabric than I was expecting and ALL of the pieces are at least a fat quarter!  THANK YOU DIANE!  I'm pretty sure you just doubled my fabric stash.  Literally.  The hubby and I had to go to Walmart to buy me another set of drawers (and he didn't even complain about it - probably because we didn't have to buy the fabric to go in them).  I spent the night sorting through the fabric and reorganizing my little drawers.  It was great fun.
I must admit, lots of these fabrics I wouldn't necessarily have picked for myself (I tend to go for the bold, bright colors), but I think that is a good thing because it gives me a lot more variety.  And I love that there are so many browns!  I think the more I look at them, the more I like them.  Yep.  I can't wait to figure out which ones to use first!

So.  Here is my stash BEFORE (I got the first set of drawers for Christmas, by the way.  They are SO nice).

And this is what I found in the box when I came home from work yesterday.  GASP!  That pile is so tall!

I proceeded to organize everything by color and lay it out on my table:

48 pieces!

Here is a closer look:

Pinks:

And my personal favorite:

Whites, Oranges, and Yellows:

The hubby's personal favorite.  He loves ties that look like this.  I think he's kinda weird. ;)

Greens and Blues.  I like the green flowers and the little cupcakes on blue.

And browns.  My other favorite is the one on the far right.

Here is my stash with all the old stuff mixed in with the new!  That's a lot of fabric - at least for me!

The solids wouldn't fit on the table.  It is so hard to get a good picture when I am never home while the sun is up!!!

And there you go!  Now I have TWO sets of drawers (plus the little one for my tiny pieces, charm packs, and thread).  I guess I better go make somethin!

Let it Snow!

So I have this friend - her house is always so cute and decorated.  She has a little Welcome sign on her door and she hangs different trinkets from it each month.  All of her cutesy stuff is wooden or painted, and I'm sure she didn't do most of it herself, but I'm a little sad that my house isn't that cute looking.  SO I figured since I don't know how to do wood crafts, I might as well decorate with something I CAN do. 
So I made this little wall hanging.  I plan to make one for each month.  I figure it will be a good chance for me to practice some of my quilting skills (particularly BINDING.  Turns out I'm not very good at that).
Anyway,  I designed this and made it myself (although I was inspired by THIS quilt I saw over at Gen X Quilters).  It was fun quilting the word "snow" onto it!

(WHAT?!  I've never noticed that there is paint on that doorknob.  I guess I should have picked another doorknob to hang this from.  Ah well...)

Squint a little and you won't even notice the funny corners! ;)

The quilting doesn't really show on the front - I'm a little scared to quilt something in a color that doesn't blend in with the top...  But I wanted you to see how I quilted little snowflakes throughout the whole thing.  Oh, and don't you love my makeshift hanging idea?

Wordless Wednesday

Okay, so it's not Wednesday.  And it's not wordless.  I'll be more on the ball next time.  But I've been seein' a lot of people do this lately and I thought it might be a good motivator for me.  I might feel like I have nothing to blog about, but I can sure take a picture of something every once in awhile and stick it on here, right?  I might as well show a little bit of the process, rather than just the product.  What with school and everything (Parent Teacher Conferences are NEXT WEEK!!! GAH!!), I don't get a lot of sewing done, but I am ALWAYS in the middle of somethin'.  Can you guess what this is gonna be????

Blog Make-Over

I was reading THIS post today and I realized I haven't publicly thanked Madame Samm for the super nice thing she did for someone she has never even met before!  She gave my blog a makeover!  Isn't that nice?
I wasn't even planning on making my blog public for a little while longer, but she emailed me after I commented on one of her posts, telling me that she couldn't access my blog and wanted to see it.  That was the nudge I needed to put myself out there.  When she DID see my blog, she decided it needed a few changes.  So she offered to fix it up for me.  How generous, right?  I figured she would just move things around and add a new gadget or change the background.  But instead she did all that AND made me a new header!  Isn't it great?  I thought it was an especially nice thing for her to do since I am still a brand new no-name blogger with no fan base at all :) Somebody is sure lookin out for the little guys! 
Thanks Madame Samm!  I love it!