Quilt Along Giveaway: Fat Quarter Shop!!!

Guess what!!!

If your participating in the Handmade Christmas Quilt Along, your going to want to check out this giveaway!!

One of my sponsors, The Fat Quarter Shop is giving away to a Polkadot Chair Reader one 2 yard bundle of Moda Snuggles!!

How cool is that!?!  You can enter to win the fabric for the back of your quilt!


For all the giveaway details and to enter click here!!

don't enter on this post... it won't count.

Handmade Christmas Quilt Along: Step Two, Design

Okay,

So by now you've got a pretty good idea of what fabric/colors you'd like to use in your quilt and maybe you even went and bought some.   The next thing you need to do is decide on a design for your quilt top.

There are a million ideas out there for quilt tops-  the hard part is deciding on one.   If you are a new quilter- I'd recommend a simple design- like blocks or strips.  It's PERFECTLY ok to buy a Moda charm pack or Layer cake and stitch it together in a grid pattern- that's WHY they make them, to make it easy for you! Don't feel like you need to reinvent the wheel.

If your an expiernced quilter, you probably already know what you want to make, and little old me won't offer too much help... (besides standing in awe at your creations).

If your looking for ideas I started a Simple Quilt Designs board over at Pinterest- I decided it was easier than linking each photo & you can browse it whether or not your a member of pinterest. If you know of a quilt tutorial that would be great on that board, leave it in the comments, I'll add it.

Here are a few of my favorites from that board:

Simple Strips from Cluck Cluck Sew

Beautiful simple patchwork design from Crafty Blossom

Blocks Quilt with border from Diary of a Quilter

Most of the quilts on the board have links to tutorials to help you out.  You can pick one then just follow the tutorial.

Stuff you might want to know....

Just a quick post today with some "business" stuff!

ONE:

I sewed!! I've not been sewing much the last few weeks, just not in the mood... but the mood hit last week and I made this for the Sewing Summit:

Just a quick instagram pic,  I'll share a better one when I'm done. Pattern is July Bag from my shop... (just made with fabric instead of burlap)

Decorating With Portraits

This is the copy of a post I did for the Decorating with Portraits series over at Kristen Duke Photography.

I  LOVE decorating with pictures in my home. I've tried very hard in our current house to get my photos OFF the computer and onto my walls. I've been known to buy a picture frame first, hang it on the wall then later find a picture for it... (horrible habit I know, just don't ask my Mom about the photo tree that still has the stock photos in it!)

One of my favorite photo displays in my home is this one in my basement family room...

They are just framed in the cheap glass CLIPS frames from IKEA then balanced on the ledges (also from IKEA). My plan was to change out the photos from time to time. (time to do that)

Handmade Christmas Quilt Along: Step One

I'm so excited at the great response to my Quilt Along!! Thank you! Let's get going!!

First of all let me say that the purpose of this Quilt Along is to make a quilt for someone you love as a gift this Christmas (or other winter Holiday). AND to get it done by Christmas, early enough that you're not stressing.

Handmade Christmas Quilt Along...

I'm going to be totally selfish today- I totally admit that I have an ulterior motive with the quilt along I'm going to talk about today. You can be selfish too and follow along...

Two years ago for Christmas I decided my kids were getting to many toys that ended with an ii or started with an i... and that I needed to balance out all of the electronics with some soft home made things.

tutorial for this quilt found here

So I made each of them a lap quilt.   I did it kinda on a whim, and will admit to making all 3 in about a 48 hr period (crazy I know!)...

Portrait Project

A bit of a crazy week here!! I've been busy visiting a few other blogs the last couple of weeks.  Today I'm happy to be sharing some of my ideas for Decorating with Portraits over at Kristen Duke Photography.

I'm sharing how to make these fabric covered canvases and a few other tips! Come say 'hi' over there today!

Making Spooky Plans

Digital images from Rhonna Designs

I don't usually share too many WIP's here (works in progress) but thought I'd pop in today and share with you what's really inspiring me right now.

A Crafternoon

I'm a guest crafter over at Modern Mom's Wednesday Crafternoon series...

I'm sharing how to make this Sparkly Autumn Wreath...

Go check it out!

Spooky Burlap Table Runner

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This is a repost of a project I did for Spooktacular September over at eighteen25.  

Hi there Eighteen25 readers! My name is Melissa Mortenson and I blog over at the Polkadot Chair! I'm so excited to be sharing this super simple Spooky table runner with you today!

The runner is made from burlap and goes together very quickly!

For this project you will need:

Breakin' out the Pumpkin

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The weather here never ceases to amaze me.  This time last week, my daughters field hockey game was cancelled due to excessive heat... Then within a couple of days it started raining and we've had high's in the 60's all week!  Near 100 to 60 in one week- crazy!!

With the cooler weather has come the inescapable need to bake something!! I seriously tried to resist, but that can of pumpkin in the pantry was calling my name.

So I made my families favorite Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies.  It's funny, a couple of years ago I was craving cookies and needed to use up some canned pumpkin left over from Thanksgiving. So I flipped through my cookbooks and found this recipe. I made them on a "whim" and my kids SCARFED them down in a day!  I was a bit shocked they usually don't like this type of cookie.

I made them when they were at school yesterday.  I couldn't resist, with the cool crisp wet weather it feels like fall here.  They were pretty excited when they got home. Which made me feel I need to do stuff like that more often....

Here's the recipe- now to hide the cookies, so there are some left for tomorrow!

Rhonna Designs Winner

Congrats to:

True Random Number GeneratorMin: Max: Result:4Powered by RANDOM.ORG

 diane said...

I love digital scrapbooking and always love new layout ideas, especially for travel.

You win the $25 Gift Certificate to Rhonna Designs!! 

just a note:

I know this blog has been very "paper crafts" heavy the last few weeks. I have found that my blog works best when I share with you the stuff I'm working on naturally, and not "force" projects. I've been in a bit of a paper "mood" this month... If you like my sewing projects, don't stress... I'm still sewing! Just in the middle of a couple of big projects right now that aren't ready to share!! But watch for them here soon!!

One of them may just involve some of those awesome digital images from the fab Rhonna Designs... hmmmm...

Happy Birthday Printable!

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Last week I needed some quick birthday cards for a project at work.  I came up with this card and thought I'd share the printable with you!

you can down load it here.


Just download, print and sew a gift card on to it using vellum!

Enter... enter... enter...

Field Hockey season is in full swing here!! I'm so proud of my girl, she started her first Varsity game!!

Don't forget to enter to win the $100 Gift Card to Dicks Sporting Goods...

seriously... people... go enter...

Spooktacular Sewing

Hey guys!!

I'm over at eighteen25 today sharing this burlap table runner project as part of their Spooktacular September series!

Go check it out!

Saturday Snapshots- Endless Summer?

I used to dream of an endless summer. Countless days spent by the pool, days uninterrupted by children's schedules and a general sense of all around laziness.

Summer would come to an end every year and I would dread the inevitability of it.  During the cold dark days of February I would dream of our hot, humid sunshiny days of summer.

This year as summer was progressing this quote came to my mind frequently:

I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, To put to rout all that was not life and not when I had come to die Discover that I had not lived.”

-Thoreau