An itty bitty pile o' scraps. That's my loot from last night's PMQG meeting's scrap swap. I have to say I'm very pleased I came home with MUCH less than I took. Although, in the spirit of full disclosure, I did steal one of my own scraps back. What can I say? I just wasn't ready to let it go after all. For as little as they are, I've got BIG plans for these scraps. Stay tuned....

Oh...and here's a little kitty cuteness for you:

Seriously, this is typical. This cat is unbelievably cute.

Broken Pinwheels.
In the end, I opted for pinwheels, and I'm so glad I did. They're a great match for these colorful Modern Workshop prints. I also decided to forgo my typical striped sashing (like this quilt), and I especially like the 'bonus' fifth pinwheel that's created where four blocks come together.
I have to confess that I messed up stitching the individual pinwheels together and when laying them out discovered that approximately half were spinning the opposite direction! At the time there was no way I was ripping them out, so I created the center with the "correct" blocks and started adding borders to get the quilt up to size. Ultimately, I did rip them out (go figure!) to create the saw tooth for the outer border as anything else just looked too heavy.
Finished size is roughly 36" x 40". Quilted with diagonal stitching to either side of the pinwheels' center seams.

Although I could have just as easily drawn numbers from a hat, I decided to be all official and use a random number generator found online. Since this is my first-ever giveaway, and I'm not a consistent blogger to begin with, I'm not too surprised about the low turnout - and it gave all who left a comment a 33% chance of winning. Pretty good odds!
The lucky winner is VeronicaMade who said:
"I remember how my mom was always sewing matching outfits for me and my sisters when we were kids. We didn't appreciate them at the time, but now it means so much to me. My favorite designer is Denyse Schmidt."
While I don't have any Denyse Schmidt in my inventory to offer, I will find some other lovely fat quarters to include with the pattern magazine. Congrats Veronica! I'll be sending you an email soon to get your mailing address!
Thanks to all for playing!

A Mother's Day giveaway. I recently received a copy of the magazine "Perfect for Precuts; Quilts from Fat Quarters, Strips, and Squares" - filled with a variety of quilting projects. Considering that I have enough on my "to-sew" list to last a lifetime, I figured it was a bit selfish to keep this for myself. I'll even throw in a few fat quarters as well to get you started! Leave a comment noting something special about your mom and/or your favorite fabric designer or collection to be entered to win. Comments will close on Tuesday at 7 pm PST and I'll choose a name at random shortly thereafter! (PS. Visit the shop to see my current inventory for some help in choosing a favorite...hint, hint.)

Taxday2011. A little coupon code for the shop: 10% off today only, good on all fabrics, regular price and sale! If you missed this one, check back for future coupons!

Nevermind that I have about a gazillion other things to get done, I was feeling inspired to sew some blocks for the quilts for quake survivors fundraiser.  I decided to tackle my formidable stash of solids for some ultra-mod picture frame log cabin blocks.  These four are my favorites thus far, but I still have a stack of 2" strips and 3" squares, so I'm sure there will be more blocks to come.

Now, don't try this at home. Unless of course you like the adrenaline rush that comes from say walking down the stairs with a bowl of egss balanced on your head, because I'm guessing that's kinda what it was like. I laid out scraps of solids on my cutting mat in a 3x3 grid and aligning my ruler with the grid lines, cut through the whole row at once! And then oh so carefully without daring to breathe, lifted up the ruler, moved it over and did it again, and again and again, rotated the mat and repeated.  Phew.
Yes, maybe I could've stacked them together in a few individual piles, but I'm not very skilled at cutting through more than just a few layers at a time (most were double if not triple layered already).  And this was just so much more exciting!

It's taken me longer that I had hoped to get around to this post, but I suppose that's normal for me. (Except for shipping, I ship fabric out lickity split!)  If you've been at all paying attention, you've most likely noticed a new link on the side bar, and my news isn't really new anymore, but here goes:

First off, name change.  This has been in the works for awhile now, and once my business registration came up for renewal last month I made the change official.  Hopefully this one sticks.   It's simple, which is a good sign.  I'm still working on the graphics...  I guess I should probably put on a bird on it somewhere.  I do live in Portland after all, and everything looks better with a bird on it, or so I hear!

Secondly, with all this weird uncomfortable social networking stuff going on over at etsy, I felt it was time to branch out and try my hand at a stand-alone storefront.  Also a work-in-progress, but I currently have about 100 fabrics listed and will be adding more over the next month.  The big, no I mean HUGE advantage for customers is that I can offer multiple yards in half yard increments on the spot, with inventory info visible on the product page.  So cool! I'll also be able to fully customize the look and interface. (Once I learn a little html, that is. )  I'll maintain a presence on etsy for the time being - mostly with fat quarter and yard bundles - as a safety net, but I'm pretty excited.