Giveaway Sneak Peak

See that pretty little button over in my sidebar advertising the Summer Daze giveaways happening June 6-10? I finished up my little goodies I'll be giving away and I wanted to give you a quick peek before the event goes live. My giveaway day is June 8th, but the whole shebang starts June 6th.

Here's a quick look at what I'll be giving away:

If you want full details you'll just have to come back and visit on June 8th :)

Pretty Purpley Frame Purse

Hey there lovelies! Just wanted to show a little frame purse I whipped up last night. I haven't made one of these in a long time, so I was surprised it went together so well. I ordered several of these frame at once months ago, and only realized last night that they're a bit smaller than those my pattern calls for. So I had to measure and trim and cross my fingers that I wasn't going to muck it up. I wanted it to turn out perfectly because it's for my mumsy to take to a wedding next week.

I felt quite rude making this purse--we have some family staying with us this weekend as today is our annual Memorial Day picnic. Normally I would have let this sit instead of sewing while we had company, but I really needed to see if I altered my pattern correctly because I wouldn't be able to get it out of my head otherwise. I laid my things out on the dining room (aka my sewing room) table, and started snipping. When I looked up I had an audience: an aunt, an uncle, and three cousins. They watched me construct it every step of the way - fusing the interfacings, stitching,  boxing the corners, and coaxing it into the frame (while we all got high on glue fumes :)  My sister thought it was hysterical that I had a spur-of-the-moment bag making demonstration going on (she's seen enough sewing that she's over it). My viewers enjoy watching the show "How Things Are Made" so this was a live version of that for them, lol. I'm super glad I didn't make one mistake where I had to unpick things or suffer a major purse fail. If we cut out the time spent waiting for the glue to set up, it took about an hour to make.

So anyway - here are a few quick pics of the newest little lovely:

Please try to ignore my pink shirt reflected in the frame :)

This was one of the pieces of fabric my sister gave me for my birthday. It's perfect for this little bag.

The inside is a grape shade of purple - I don't have much in the soft pinky-lilac that's on the outside. Most of my purples in my stash (and there's not much) are either very purple or more lavender-toned. But this was for the inside so a perfect match wasn't critical.

 The fabric has some soft silver detail in the print, so it really blends nicely with the silver hardware.

 I love how it looks! Nice and delicate and just fancy enough.

So that's that. I have a good amount of frames in my stash, and since I know how quickly I can now whip them up I am thinking of adding a few to my shop. And since I can only hide away from helping for just so long (marvelous daughter that I am) I must scoot and help finalize picnic details. Have a fabulous Sunday!

I'm going to link up here this week:

Sew-Along News (and a question)

I have to apologize that I am taking soooo long to get this sew-along moving - I just have a good bit of stuff going on that will be all done with soon. I've created a button for it and it's up in the right sidebar. If you want to sew along you can grab it and stick it on your blog, but it's not a must - it just helps spread the word. I'm going to kick it off June 13th. I'll give you the materials list before then, and I'll let you know what's optional (I know in some places certain little bits can be hard to come by). I'll have that posted by next week so that you'll have time to get your things together.

I'm going to show you how to make the version on the left with the center outside pocket but in the dimensions of the bag on the right. I've road-tested both versions and the multi-pocket version is a little bit of a nuisance to use--it won't fit certain phones, the pockets are a tight squeeze for some hands, and that, combined with the depth of the pockets, makes it annoying to dig for stuff. The pockets can't be made wider because then the straps are way off. Plus it adds bulk in the side seams so it doesn't lay as nicely as as it should. Hope that's ok! I just figure if we're doing this we should come out of it with the better version that's fun to use and doesn't irk you. BUT I will be giving you the pattern pieces to make either size bag.

I do have a question for you, though, as I've never done one of these before: what's your preferred frequency on posts? Should I do a section a day? Every few days? Once a week? I'm thinking every other day or two might be a good pace. It doesn't take terribly long to put the bag together once it's all cut out, so I don't want to leave people waiting for a week for the next part, but I don't want it to seem terribly fast-paced and overwhelming. If you could leave me a comment I'd appreciate it.

That's all for now! Have a marvelous holiday weekend!

I always wanted to be on TV!

Did you ever have a day that was made before it even started? I don't mean the fall off a curb, drop your keys under the car so you have to crawl around for them like a weirdo, walk around with your zipper down (in public!) kind of day that makes you wish you could go back to bed. But the kind of day that starts off so good that almost nothing could knock the silly grin off your face. Because that's the kind of day I'm having. It doesn't take much to make me happy, and one little email did it for me today.

As many of you probably know, I try to post a project each week of something I've made that I'll then link up to a bunch of link parties. Every once in a while those sites will take one of my projects and feature it with a few other people. I do love when that happens, but today was even better. I got my own little feature post over at Suzy's Artsy Craftsy Sitcom! And she said the sweetest things!!!!!!! Swing by and give it a read! And thank you Suzy! I'll take any kind of sitcom I can get on (and I didn't even have to auditon :)  Of course the pressure is now on to update my Artfire shop - which I've been meaning to do for a looooong time, anyway. I just needed the right kind of motivation :)

SMS Giveaway Winner!

161 entries!! Holy smokes!! When I was posting my make I was thinking "I hope I get at least a few entries," so I'm super excited - especially when you look at some of the other giveaways that were going on. I spent a few evenings checking them all out and entering a bunch so I have my fingers crossed that I win SOMEthing.

Anyway, on to the winner. I fed some numbers to the random number generator monster and it spit out:

That would be Michelle, the Daydream Believer :) I'll be contacting you for your info so I can get your prize out to you right away (minus the cookies - they don't last long around me, lol). Thanks to everyone for entering, and for your delightful comments! I love giveaways but I hate picking winners (I'm one of those saps who wants to give SOMEthing to EVERYone). But fear not - there's another giveaway coming up here on my blog (and a few others) in early June - check my sidebar for the button for more info. Hope to see you then!

I'll be back in a bit with some fun stuff to share (I think it's fun, anyway). Ta for now!

Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Day!

Aieeeeee!! Are you excited? Do you know how many bloggers are giving things away today over there?!? Get clickin'! And if you're coming here from there, welcome!

I don't know about all of you, but my morning does not begin until I have a hot caffeinated beverage in my hand (or, to be accurate, in my veins). And my evening doesn't wind down until I've had my nightly cup of tea. I'm sure you've heard all about the mug rug craze going on right now. I'll be honest--I didn't understand them at first. I thought "Oh. It's a coaster." But it's something else. It's a miniature quilt. It's a tiny piece of creativity. It's a way to show off some scraps that are just enough for something but not a very big something. And it's also a spot to keep your sweet treats while you're downing your cuppa. That's what made me want to crank a few out. I brought my tea into the living room one night with a few cookies, put my tea down on an ordinary coaster, and then thought "Oh! A mug rug! So my cookies can have a spot too!" Sometimes I'm a little slow on the pick-up.

So that's what I'm giving away to you today, lovelies. A sweet little mug rug in the lemon and melon colors of summer, pieced from two of my favorite pieces of fabric:

There's some Amy Butler 'Love' in the middle, and some (I believe) Timeless Treasures in 'Frosted Fondant' (also the backing), with some plain buttery yellow to tone down the busy-ness. It's finished off with some free-motion quilting, and some handmade yellow and white bias tape. She measures about 6 inches by 10 inches.

I've also got a few other little gifties to toss in the package for you if you win. I'll ship this anywhere--I love the idea that something I've made may be floating around in distant lands :) To enter, all you have to do is leave me a comment. I would love it if you left your email address, but if your profile links to your email that's fine too. I just need a way to contact you. This giveaway will stay open until 11:59 EDT on Wednesday, May 25th. I'll announce the winner the next day, and ship it out as soon as I have your address in my hot little hands. Good luck! And thanks for stopping by--hurry back now, y'hear?

I 100 Percent Stole This Idea

Because it was too awesome not to.

I honestly don't know how I happened upon this blog to find this idea but I bookmarked it because I knew I was going to copy it. I went to Joann's last week just for thread (whaaat? no really! just for thread!) and felt tremendously empty-basketed. And then I remembered this, and ran around looking for supplies. And today I made my own marble solitaire board:

(UPDATE: How to play: (the large red corner squares are for decoration--the play area is the cross-shaped grid made of the white paper). Lay out your pieces like above - one on each square, leaving the center one open. I made my center square red for contrast, but it doesn't matter as long as you leave it open at the beginning. Then, you simply "jump" the adjacent marbles like you do in checkers, removing each piece as you jump it. You can move in any direction, but not diagonally. The point of the game is to keep jumping the marbles until you only have one left. And if you're some sort of crazy-genius, you might be able to make that last one land in the center spot. I am not such a genius. The best I could do was five marbles left. I'm not going to tell you how many tries it took to get it down to even that). I hope that made sense, but if it didn't ask away!)

When I originally saw this idea I had futuristic visions of all sorts of vintagey-looking game boards and tins of little playing pieces on some small wooden book shelves in my future children's playroom. My kids (two boys) were spending a quiet afternoon happily playing while I sewed away in my craft room next door, because it was snowing outside and we were all cozy indoors. It was a very delightful day. Ahem. Back to the present. And reality.

I could have asked my dad to saw me some plywood, but have I mentioned my impatience before? So I bought my wood at Joann's--I'm not sure what it's for, but it looks like a canvas except it's entirely of wood (the back is open and everything, like a reverse frame). I painted it yellow, used some bright papers, and bought a bag of those glass gems that they sell in the floral section.

I love how it turned out. I am not, however, wonderful at marble solitaire.

Wouldn't a handmade game like this make the most unique gift ever? There HAVE to be kids left in the world who aren't addicted to video games and computers and whatnot, and would enjoy playing an old-fashioned game that exists outside of a virtual world (says the girl who spent a large part of the weekend playing Angry Birds on her new phone).

I'm linking here, even though it's not my idea--because maybe she doesn't link up, and I feel the world needs to know :)