Are You Sure It's December?

Do ya'll remember the commercial with the old lady saying......"Where's the Beef"?  Well, I'm saying............where's Winter in Southern Texas? 

Are you sure it's December?    Here's what I saw in front of my house yesterday.

We've had such warm days in San Antonio that some of the trees are late in changing colors and dropping their leaves.

Here's a couple trees that still have lots of leaves on them....

Are you sure it's Winter? 

I was looking for some Poinsettias...........but found these instead.

I really do miss the cooler days.......crisp temperatures........and snowy days this time of year.   I'd love to build a snowman!   But, don't be too concerned.  I get over it quickly when I start to see pictures of buried cars in the snow, kids dressed like the Michelin tire guy, and snow shovels, everyone wearing stocking hats and heavy scarves around their necks..... on tv and the internet.    I'll be smiling then, as I go outside in my shorts & t-shirt.    

Sigh.............


Thanks for visiting.

Hear Ye! Hear Ye! Read All About It!

What picture comes to your mind when you think of quilters?    Do you see the big oak tree with several ladies sitting under its shade, a pitcher of lemonade on a table close by...all working on a patchwork quilt...sewing each stitch by hand...sharing all the "newsy gossip"???

This "picture" of quilters from years gone by is similar to our current quilt bees and quilt guilds of today.  Now, we  have "cyber quilt bees" on the internet.  We share everything we do; our quilts (naturally), but ........also our ideas, questions, sewing tips, our patterns, our fabrics, and our  lives, news of our families, pets, areas where we live, our joys, our sorrows......etc. 

I belong to a wonderful "cyber quilt bee" through my Etsy Shop and the team on Etsy....called Quiltsy.  (See the Quiltsy badge on my RH sidebar)  Besides sharing all the things above, we help each other with our Etsy Shops to increase our sales.    Everyday most of us visit our chat discussion on the team for our "social quilt bee" online.  We even have our own Quiltsy Team Blog. so we can share our projects, patterns, and items for sale in our Quiltsy Team Shop.    I invite you to become a follower of the Quiltsy Team Blog.

One of our Quiltsy Team members Karen Jones (aka Tessie Textile)  created an "electronic" quilting newspaper called World Of Quilts Daily.   It's sew fun to get this electronic newspaper totally devoted to quilting. 

Today's issue includes a few of my most recent quilted items, so naturally I want to share it.....  (remember....I'm a quilter...and we share!)  LOL  I hope you enjoy reading all about it!   You can subscribe to it too...upper RH corner.

http://paper.li/tessietextile/1350845054?utm_source=subscription&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=paper_sub#

What kind of quilt group do you belong to?


Thanks for visiting.

I linked up this post to Quiltsy's W.I.P. Wednesday post.
 

Snowing in San Antonio, Tx

No, it's not really snowing in San Antonio..........but I can dream, can't I?

Living here is wonderful in the wintertime, but my heart always longs for the glistening sparkling crystals on fresh snow.

So it is that I'm always  looking for Christmas prints that have snowmen on them, or snowflakes, with glitter resembling the glistening sparkles.  Here's the post where I first showed you this fabric.   
I  also found the perfect white tonal with circles on it that look like snowballs.........where?....... in my stash.....amazing!  When I make a "find" in my stash of something that is just what I need, I get so excited.  Sure does justify having a HUGE STASH, doesn't it?     Here's a  couple pictures of what I made. 

Table Runner 21" x 41"

Here's the back of it.....simple wavy lines, along with stitch in the ditch... for the quilting.

6 Mug Rugs/Candle Mats 9"x9"

And the backs........with the blue plain matching the  scarves color on the snowmen!   Another stash find......ta da!

The Table Runner and mats are available for sale in my Etsy Shop.

Thanks for visiting! 

Just Had To!

I love snowmen and always look forward to seeing the new Christmas prints in the fabric stores with fat, happy snowmen all over them.  I don't know why, but maybe growing up in Colorado and playing in the snow has something to do with it.

Just had to buy these fabrics the other day.  Yes, I just had to!  Did I need them?  Golly no, not really.  Did I want them?  Well, sure!  Did I need more Christmas Winter type fabrics?  Definitely not!  BUT....... I just had to.........had to buy them!   Does that sound like you too?

Besides, the snowflakes blue fabric has metallic silver, and the snowmen have sparkly glitter all over them.   Just like fresh snow with the moon shining on it....all sparkly and silver!  So...'Just Had to'.......

Made a few blocks....not very big!  Don't know yet, if they'll end up as mug rugs, pot holders or in a table runner......but 'Just Had to' sew!  Just had to! 

Today I'm going to finish up a table runner I started with the snowman fabric, and hope to get a couple more Christmas things going.  I've got to start sewing on some Christmas things for my family. 

Oh..BTW..I hope you noticed the new AccuQuilt button on my RH sidebar.  Did you?  Just click on it to GO see the sale deals  from AccuQuilt....you won't want to miss this one.

Thanks for visiting!

Busy Times!

I've been a little busier than normal since Thanksgiving, and I'm sorry for not posting. 

My oldest sister had total hip replacement surgery yesterday, so was playing chauffeur for her the last week or so to all the Pre-Op appointments, errands, groceries, etc.  She is in horrendous pain, but surgery went well.m  Now comes the physical therapy for her...learning to walk with a new hip.  Medicine Miracles.....and I  told her she would now be a 'bionic Gramma'.  lol

Since I don't like posts without pictures, I'll show you a raggy embroidered Christmas jean bag I made myself a few years ago......fun project! 

Other Side

This was a "fringe" embroidery design and after the gold ribbon was stitched, then I cut the threads down the middle to it would "fringe".

I hope everyone is enjoying all the hustle, bustle, shopping, & baking stuff during this glorious season!

I haven't forgotten about doing my BIG surprise Giveaway......so make sure you stay tuned by subscribing to my posts.   (scroll down..look on the RH sidebar)

What have you been doing?

Thanks for visiting.



(I'm linking today with my Quiltsy Team Blog #38)



Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! 

Today is a day to reflect, be thankful, enjoy family and friends and eat like there's no tomorrow! 

I'm thankful for so many things.....but #1 this year......

I'm thankful to be an American and to have

our freedoms...thanks to our Military.

and #2....

I'm thankful for my hands......

I hope you are all are enjoying your day and take a minute to think about 2 things you are thankful for.  What are they?

Judy

 

Are You an Early Shopper?

I don't know if this turkey is saying "Hi" or waving goodbye........

Are You an Early Shopper??

It seems lots of stores, businesses, and online shopping places are in a hurry for your Christmas shopping dollars this year and offering early shopper sales.

Last week I started grumbling bah-hum-bug about it and then realized  ..."hey, wait a minute....I've got an online Etsy shop, I'll do the same thing".  Soooooooooooooo......

Starting today through Cyber Monday (11/26/12) at midnight, I am offering an early shopper discount for all my customers  - 12% off everything in My Etsy Shop.  Why 12% ??  well, it's 2012, isn't it?   Why not?   After you are finished shopping at SEWFUNQUILTS and ready to check out, just use ....

the Coupon Code  EARLYSHOPPER12    in the box provided.  Your order total before shipping will be adjusted to show the discount.   Be sure and tell your family and friends about my early shopper discount.....but Hurry!  It's only for one week! 


Want some more good news for early shoppers??

As most of you know, I have an AccuQuilt GO cutter and really love it!  It is so easy to use and such a time saver for me.   The jelly rolls I sell in My Etsy Shop are all cut on my GO!  with precision,  accuracy, and are straight perfect fabric strips ready for your quilt projects.



Click on the new AccuQuilt badge box on the RH sidebar of this page to see some more great early shopper deals.   You know you want an Accuquilt GO cutter and some cute applique dies, so give yourself an early Christmas present!   AND ...you can get it in time to make a few Christmas presents for friends and family! 

Now, how sweet is that?  Have fun!



Thanks for visiting!

Giveaway Winner and a Little Shopping!

Before we get to the winners of my latest Giveaway, let's talk about shopping. 

Do you like to shop?  Well.....I don't!  I'm not your typical shopper and actually don't like it at all;  it's tiring, it's time consuming, it takes me away from my sewing, and it's costly!

I stopped drinking coffee in the mornings about two years ago and switched to English Breakfast black tea.  It still gives me a little "caffeine push", but yet doesn't bother my tummy.   But, oh......the smell of fresh brewed coffee is just heavenly and once in a while I just have to have a cup.  It's a nice pick me up about 3pm in the afternoon.

Now that the days are cooler here in Texas, I'm finding I want hot coffee again; not the iced coffees I was drinking this past summer.   So, I went and bought this........

This is the small one...single cup at a time, 3 different sizes...and doesn't take up much counter space.

Of course, besides the sampler pack of coffee flavor pods that came with it, I had to buy more so I would have some of my favorites.   I bought French Vanilla Cappucino, Newman's Decaf, and naturally...my English Breakfast Black tea.

 So fast & easy......and no messy coffee filters, or stained glass decanter to clean...I love it and so glad I went shopping! 

Do you have one?  What's your fav flavor?

Okay...you've been patient enough, so time to announce our winners.  Congratulations to the winners.

The Christmas Quilt kit:  #3 Teachpany

One Christmas Fabric Squares set: #36 Shannon Muree

Another Fabric Squares set:  #8 Debbie Weishaar

Please contact me with your addresses.

If you're not a follower, I invite you to subscribe to receive my posts.....'cause there's another big giveaway in the works.  hint...hint...Have you heard about the Traveling Stash Suitcase?? 

Thanks for visiting.

Some Fun Inspiration!

This book looks like fun if you love Charm Packs.  Who doesn't?

It's called 3 Times the Charm! by Me and My Sister Designs, published by Leisure Arts Publications. 

It's all about some new quick and easy projects using charm squares.   I wonder if some of my Colorway Fabric Squares in my Etsy Shop, along with some Kona white cotton would do the trick??

If you have some bright scraps laying around....here's a good idea.

or ..another fast and easy way to sew up some of those scraps that are piling up.

or for me.....some of the many 30's Reproduction Prints I have in my stash closet.

I don't know yet what I'll end up sewing together, but it's always fun to buy another book for some quick inspiration!

Do you buy books for making specific projects or just 'cause you like the pictures?


Thanks for visiting.

Lesson Learned ....Again!

If you're a regular following of my blog, you probably saw my post here about Vesuvius Mama's Blog (Erin) and the fact that she is coordinating a block project, along with her quilt guild for the Sandy Hurricane Victims!  I shared Erin's blog post with several friends, and posted it on facebook.  

Here's the blocks I'm sending to her today:

The fabrics for these do not show good contrast, but I was in a hurry to make some, so I opened up my fabric closet and grabbed these two fabrics.   There's 6 of them.  Lesson learned here.......contrast is better!

 These bright pretty blocks were made by a friend of mine in our quilt bee.  The design of the Disappearing 4 Patch block shows up so well with her choice of fabrics.

It's still not too late to make some blocks and mail them.  Here's the info from Erin.  on the instructions, size, etc. 

If you want to keep up with how many blocks and how many quilts are being donated, check here.


P.S.  Only one more day to enter for my Giveaway...


Thanks for visiting!

A Little Saturday Fun! and a Giveaway!

My gosh...the days just whizz by for me, and it's been a busy week and just going to get busier the closer we get to Christmas.  Are you getting ready?  Well...maybe I can help you with this new giveaway today....keep reading. 

I was checking my email this morning and went to Sew Cal Gal's Blog and saw that I was the winner from her Friday fun giveaway!  Yay! I won a Beam and Read light. 

I have wanted one of these ever since I first saw them.  Yippee!  I can hardly wait to get it!  Thanks Sew Cal Gal and  Beam and Read!


It's time for me to do a Giveaway too!  Remember??   I promised, and I'm a gal who keeps her promises!  Christmas is a comin' whether we want it to or not, so thought it would be the perfect time  to give away one of my Christmas Bits & Pieces Quilt Kits and some Christmas Quilt Squares from My Etsy Shop.

There will be 3  lucky winners;


1 Lucky winner of the Pre-Cut Christmas Quilt Kit from my shop.




        
You can read more about this kit here.
 

and 2 Lucky Winners of Christmas Prints 5" charm sets from my shop.



This giveaway will end at midnight, November 17th....one whole week!  3 winners will be picked at random by my random generator....my sister in Wy so I have another excuse to call her.  We talk everyday, so I really don't need an excuse...but just thought I'd say that. 

1.  For one entry:  Just leave a comment here and if you do not have a blog, please leave your email address so I have a way of contacting you if you win. 

2.  For another entry:  Go to Facebook, and post about this Giveaway, (or just do a copy/paste of this blog post) then come back here and leave another comment telling me you did this.

3.  For another entry:  Go to Twitter, leave a tweet telling about this giveaway (or just do a copy/paste of this blog post) and make sure you put @sewfunquilts in it so I can verify your tweet.
Then come back here and leave a comment saying you did this. 



Good luck!

and thanks for visiting!

Did you vote today?

Lots of Flag Waving today!

Today is the BIG Presidential Election voting day and everywhere you go and everywhere you look, someone is talking about the candidates and voting in this election; with all of us anxiously waiting for the results tonight.  In the meantime, I thought it would be fun to share something lighter.

A quilting friend of mine on our Quiltsy Team on Etsy has a little newspaper called "World of Quilts Daily", and today's issue features one of my new Cosmetic Bags.......and

Vote for Santa Treasury....so cute, you gotta go see this.

http://paper.li/tessietextile/1350845054?utm_source=subscription&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=paper_sub#

If you are a Quilter on Etsy and interested in more information about our team, just click here.

It is such a privilege to be born in America and have our freedoms men and women have died for......... especially the freedom and right to vote.  I am thankful!

Did you vote?


Thanks for visiting.

Same Project...Different Day!

When I start a new project, I always think..."ok..I'll have this done by ....??" but never seem to give myself enough time.  I think I could meet those projected dates if I didn't have other things to do...like computer time, grocery shopping, cooking, cleaning a bit, laundry, errands and cat messes, etc.

No more excuses!  Here's the update on the "Zipper Bags Project". 

Have 16 bags finished with the sewing.  

Here's the 6 that are totally complete with glass beads  zipper pulls and for sale in my ETSY Shop.

And I still need to make Glass Beads Zipper pulls for these 10 that are waiting patiently.

Remember a few posts back all my talk about Free Motion Quilting and no more practicing.......just do it?

Well, I did have some fun with FMQ on some of these bags.  They all have different quilting on them even if I made two of the same fabric.  Different sizes too.

Easy quilting here on the elephants. 

FMQ around the flowers printed on the fabric.  (just don't look too closely at the oops!)

Really got "free" doing this one!

I still have some more bag fabrics cut out along with the batting, so whenever I feel like a little FMQ experimenting, I'll do a few more.  But in the meantime, I need to go make more Glass Beads zipper pulls so I can declare all 16 of them finished and ready for my shop.

In the next couple days I plan on making some Disappearing 4 Patch blocks for Quilts for Hurricane Sandy victims.....so are you making some too? 

Thanks for visiting!

Quilt Blocks for Sandy Victims

Calling all quilters to help make quilt blocks for the victims of Sandy!


So heart wrenching to see all the loss as a result of Sandy's wrath.  I have been feeling totally helpless and wanting to find someone that was coordinating making quilts for the victims.   Hurray!   I have found just that person!  Erin at Vesuvius Mama Blog. 

Go visit her blog here . 

Tell her SewFunQuilts sent you.  Then get out your fabrics and make some Disappearing Four Patch blocks to send to her.   Even though she's not asking for money for the backing fabrics, batting or thread............you might want to send her $5, $10 or whatever you want to send to help with the cost for those supplies.  Or maybe you've got some yardage you no longer want that could be used for backings.

PLEASE........help spread the word about this group effort.......and GO make some blocks.


Thanks for visiting.

More........

Happy Halloween!



I'm making More.....   No, not s'Mores! 

More zipper bags......

with the help of of one of my supervisors watching me closely....naturally.

I like for the outside fabrics for the bags to be quilted with cotton batting.   Easy, peasy simple FMQ is the way I do it.

Loopy loops on this one.

For sewing things like this I prefer production construction, so I have several different ones all quilted, ready for zippers and linings.

Here's 8 of them finished & ready for me to make the glass beaded zipper pulls.

So that's what I'm doing on this WIP Wednesday.  What are you doing?



I'm linking up to Quiltsy Team Blog for WIP Wednesday.   We are a bunch of busy quilters who like to share, so GO take a look at what others are doing today. 


Thanks for visiting.

Bloomin' All Around Me

Winter might be on it's way, but I've got flowers "Bloomin' All Around Me" in my sewing room.    I'm making zipper bags - cosmetic bags - gadget pouches; all different colors, and sizes.   These zipper bags have been selling pretty good in my ETSY shop, so I'm making more of them.

I love to pull out scraps of floral prints, find coordinating fabrics for the linings, cut some cotton batting, do some free motion quilting, add a zipper........then sit and sew for a while. 

Don't ask me what the name of this fabric is, 'cause I can't remember  I just love it, and this is all I have left of it.   I used a pink small pin dot for the lining on these two. 

Boxed bottom corners, so they can hold more stuff!

Five made so far.......and I still need to make the glass beaded zipper pulls.

These will be available in my ETSY Shop after I get the glass beaded zipper pulls made for them.  But for now.........going to go make some more!   Oh, that reminds me, wonder what I did with the silk & damask fabrics I was going to use for some of these bags???


Do you make any kind of bags?  purses?  padded covers? or pouches?


Thanks for visiting.

Do You Have One?

Since I finished all of the Farm Animals snack mats in my last post,  I've been making these......

 little Christmas fabric pillow tree ornaments....33 of them for my ETSY Shop.

I've been a Quilting "Notions Junkie" since I first started quilting.  So, I've got every little gadget, gizmo thing you can think of that helps me with my sewing and quilting.  Some of these things I've never even used but just had to buy this "new thing" at the last quilt show....(can you relate to that too?)

Well, as I was turning these little pillow ornaments inside out and getting ready to "poke" out the corners with my scissors, I remembered
My Purple Thang.  I hadn't used it in ages, and didn't even know where I put it.  I'm sure glad I found it.

It's just a simple piece of purple plastic with one end being a curved pointy and the other end looking like a little shovel.  There's a little slit in it too, so you can put a ribbon through it and tie it around your neck or around your wrist......so you don't lose it.  (I never did this......maybe that's why I couldn't remember where I put it last time I used it.)

When you're turning something inside out, it's the handiest little gadget and well worth the $3.00 I paid for it years ago.  You've heard of the Little Foot ...right? and the Big Foot for FMQ?    Well That Purple Thang was invented and made by the same company. 

This little gadget saved me a lot of time and saved the little pillows from having holes in their corners from using my scissors.  I love mine and sure glad I have one.

Do you have one?  Most quilt shops have them, so be sure to get yourself one......you'll be glad you did.

Thanks for visiting.