Catching My Breath

I'm a list maker. I always have been. The act of actually writing something down, on physical paper, seems to always help create a little bit of mental breathing space. I feel like if I can just get whatever I am worrying about/ anticipating/ needing to do into a concise bullet-point it instantly becomes manageable.

I'm a Pellon Project Artist

Did you guys happen to know that I am a Pellon Project Artist? When I first joined the team (unofficially) last year, I had the pleasure of sharing my Holiday in Paris tutorial to make relaxing gift set (tote bag, eye pillow, and homemade bath salts). You may remember that this tutorial was initially part of my Holiday How-to Series that I organized last November here on the blog. 

The gift set uses a couple of different Pellon interfacing products that really help to give it a nice, finished look. When I made this project (before I was contacted by the company), I used Pellon interfacing simply because I have always had good results with it and I like how it helps to give structure and improve the overall finish of a completed project. I of course was thrilled when I was later contacted by Pellon to put together a downloadable tutorial for their fantastic website.

I am now excited to announce that I will be contributing more tutorials to the growing project catalogue over on the Pellon site. I have now "officially" :) joined the Project Artist team and will be working on a new tutorial soon. In the meantime, feel free to hop over to the Pellon site to check out my new artist bio and the other amazing (and free!) project tutorials contributed by members of the very talented artist team. I bet you'll probably recognize some of the other names too. :)

I also wanted to let you know that my friend Jennie (of Clover and Violet) is hosting a giveaway of my Have A Hoot Vintage Inspired Embroidery and Cushion Pattern. Jennie, who is also a very talented pattern writer, was part of the editing team that helped me to put the finishing touches on this. I am very grateful for her insights and suggestions. :) So head on over to Clover and Violet to enter the giveaway!

Gnomas in the Window

Part of the 3nd Quarter FAL. My original post is here.

I've really been looking forward to today. It's finally my stop on the Winterkist blog hop and I get to share a project with you that I have thoroughly loved working on this summer. If this is your first time visiting my blog, welcome! I hope you will take a moment to look around and hopefully come back and visit often.

First of all, major thanks are in order to Lecien fabrics and Monica Solorio-Snow, aka The Happy Zombie, for generously sharing this fantastic collection with us. Sometimes I like to think Monica designed this one just for me, that's how much I adore it! ; )

A Stitchy Kind of Week and a Giveaway

Things have been moving a little slower around here lately. I finished my Winterkist project early this past week (yay!) and then promptly got sick (boo!).  I have been spending a good amount of time on the couch and in bed since then working on getting better. The bonus side of this is that I have had plenty of time to do some embroidery while catching up on some lovely English period drama (Masterpiece Classic to be precise). Here's a peek at what I have been working on:

Also speaking of embroidery, my friend Laura is having a giveaway right now on her blog, Quokka Quilts. The giveaway prize...a copy of the Have A Hoot embroidery pattern! Laura was kind enough to also write up a review of the pattern and offer her honest, unedited opinion. To find out how I did, you'll have to pop over and read for yourself. ; )

This giveaway is part of Laura's week-long celebrations for hitting the 400 follower milestone recently. You'll definitely want to stick around and see what other fun surprises she has planned. HINT: It's not to be missed!

P.S. Thanks for all of your wonderful comments lately! I am starting to get caught up on responding after being out of commission this past week. : ) 

Indian Summer Mystery Charm Swap / Fabric List

The second Mystery Charm Swap has come to a close and I am happy to report that it was another success. I have received many comments and e-mails from the participants letting me know that their charms have safely arrived, so now is probably a good time to post all of the fabric selections that went into each charm pack:

Giveaway Tips / Tech Help For Bloggers

Welcome to the last installment of the Tech Help for Bloggers Series. This series is focused on providing technical tips and advice to help you understand and get the most out of your blogging experience. Here is the schedule of posts:

• July 1       Getting Started / Intro to HTML
• July 4       Sprucing Up Your Site Part 1 / Blog and social media buttons
• July 8       Sprucing Up Your Site Part 2 / Creating pages and navigation bars
• July 15     Getting to Know the Settings in Blogger / Your blog, behind the scenes
• July 22     Layouts and Templates in Blogger / How to change your blog's look
• July 26     CSS and Web Fonts / How to use custom fonts for your blog
• July 29     Organizing Events / Creating forms, polls, and sharable documents
• Aug 1       Hosting A Linky Party / Guest Post w/ Laura of TGIFF! and Quokka Quilts
• Aug 5       Pinterest and Flickr / Features for managing image sharing
• Aug 12     Giveaways / Technical tips and tricks for hosting a successful giveaway

Today we are looking at tools to help with giveaways.

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Voile Figure-8 Scarf

A couple weeks ago I decided to whip up another figure-8 scarf, this time all in voile. Pure luxury!

July's Colorful Blocks

I made a few stand alone blocks last month that I hadn't had a chance to share with you yet. I finally had the opportunity to try out Sarah's Stained Block for Stash Bee in July. Last month's host, Kristy Lou, wanted bright colors with Medium Gray sashing which turned out beautifully. I really like how this block is so scrap friendly and how easily it came together. I used a selection of orange and aqua scraps from my stash to make the block. I also just had to add a little bit of the balloon print from Children At Play, complete with a fussy cut bunny and girl. : ) 

Update to Pin It Code

Since the last tech post, there were a few issues with getting the "Advanced" Pin It code onto it's own line rather than having it tag along on the last line of writing. Chelsea, of Pins and Bobbins, has figured out a quick and easy way to fix this issue and I have updated the code to reflect this. Thanks Chelsea for catching this and coming up with a fix! I also appreciate everyone's feedback and patience!

Pinterest & Flickr / Tech Help For Bloggers Series

Welcome to another installment of the Tech Help for Bloggers Series. This series is focused on providing technical tips and advice to help you understand and get the most out of your blogging experience. Here is the schedule of posts:

• July 1       Getting Started / Intro to HTML
• July 4       Sprucing Up Your Site Part 1 / Blog and social media buttons
• July 8       Sprucing Up Your Site Part 2 / Creating pages and navigation bars
• July 15     Getting to Know the Settings in Blogger / Your blog, behind the scenes
• July 22     Layouts and Templates in Blogger / How to change your blog's look
• July 26     CSS and Web Fonts / How to use custom fonts for your blog
• July 29     Organizing Events / Creating forms, polls, and sharable documents
• Aug 1       Hosting A Linky Party / Guest Post w/ Laura of TGIFF! and Quokka Quilts
• Aug 5       Pinterest and Flickr / Features for managing image sharing
• Aug 12     Giveaways / Technical tips and tricks for hosting a successful giveaway

Today we are looking at image sharing with Pinterest and Flickr.

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August Arrives

1. Voile Figure-8 Scarf 2. T.R.A.C. Pillow for Danny (front) 3. T.R.A.C. Pillow for Danny (back) 4. Stash Bee Stained Glass Block 5. Gnoma Applique for Winterkist Blog Hop 6. Hexi Tutorial 7. String Block with Selvedges 8. Crazy Pieced Blocks for Winterkist Blog Hop 9. Indian Summer Mystery Charm Swap Packs

To be completely honest, July was a weird month for me. I didn't have a lot of work that I could actually show here on the blog, but there was a lot of sewing going on behind the scenes. I did finish a few small things, make a couple blocks, and write a tutorial or two--particularly about techie things. Oh and there were those 56 yards of fabric that I paired down into charms! It does seem like it's been more busy around here than usual, but without the typical project finishes that feel nice and complete. I'm hoping that August (more realistically September) ; ) will return to a normal pace. 

I am really excited that I finally got my pattern shop up and running this past month (yay!). Putting the finishing touches on my Have A Hoot pattern, with the help of some awesome pattern testers, was a big checkmark on my list. I have also been brainstorming more embroidery pattern ideas lately and hoping to have a few ready for Halloween. Ah fall! I'm already looking forward to the change of season!

Linking Up Today With Lynne:

Giveaway Winners and Mystery Charm Swap Update

Let me first say that I was overwhelmed with joy by the response to the last giveaway. YOU GUYS ARE AWESOME! All of your kind comments really made my day, and since I won't be able to respond to each of them personally, I wanted to say:

Thanks for following and for your kind wishes!

The winners of the custom Indian Summer FQ packs, provided by Pink Chalk Fabrics, are:

 

 

Thanks everyone for participating and congrats to the winners! I have sent each of you an e-mail. : )

 If you didn't see your name above, never fear! Going on right now over at the &Stitches blog is a giveaway for a copy of my new pattern release, the Have a Hoot Vintage Inspired Embroidery and Cushion Pattern.

Stop by the &Stitches blog before Monday for another chance to win! 

And there will be even more giveaway fun during the next few weeks, so stay tuned for more news about that. : )

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 Finally, I wanted to add an update for the Mystery Charm Swap participants. Your packs are in the mail (posted July 30th) and making their way to you as we speak!

If you get a chance, drop me an e-mail or leave a comment here to let me know you have received your charms. Thanks! 

 

Guest Post / Hosting a Linky Party by Laura of TGIFF!

This past Sunday we chatted some about using Google Docs to help organize blog events. Today I am excited to continue talking about hosting blog events and welcome Laura of TGIFF! and Quokka Quilts as our special guest poster for the series!

Laura is the co-founder of the TGIFF! Friday linky party and has some great tips about how to successfully host your own party. Since TGIFF! is a rotating linky party, with different blog hosts each week, Laura is pretty much a pro at explaining the best way to get ready to host (P.S. You too can sign-up to to host TGIFF!).

So hop on over to TGIFF to check out Laura's great advice and to learn more about the ins and outs of Linky parties!

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The Tech Help for Blogger's Series will also continue next week with a new tech topic. Here is the schedule of posts (and links to the previous topics):

• July 1       Getting Started / Intro to HTML
• July 4       Sprucing Up Your Site Part 1 / Blog and social media buttons
• July 8       Sprucing Up Your Site Part 2 / Creating pages and navigation bars
• July 15     Getting to Know the Settings in Blogger / Your blog, behind the scenes
• July 22     Layouts and Templates in Blogger / How to change your blog's look
• July 26     CSS and Web Fonts / How to use custom fonts for your blog
• July 29     Organizing Events / Creating forms, polls, and sharable documents
• Aug 1       Hosting A Linky Party / Guest Post with Laura of TGIFF! and Quokka Quilts
• Aug 5       Pinterest and Flickr / Features for managing image sharing
• Aug 12     Giveaways / Technical tips and tricks for hosting a successful giveaway