Announcing my little Etsy Shoppe - Pressed For Time Too

I finally did it!  I've been toying with the idea of opening an Etsy shop for months, and I finally decided today was the day.  Wit a little hand holding by my ever-so-patient BD#1 a/k/a A Crafty Fox a/k/a Westwood Acres, I listed my first item.  I shamelessly copied her website - except that I don't have a cool logo or anything yet - and opened my shop.  It's called Pressed For Time Too.

http://www.etsy.com/shop/pressedfortimetoo

My first (and so far, only) listing is set of these luscious fat quarter bundles by the amazing Denyse Schmidt for JoAnn Fabrics.

You may recognize some of these fabrics as a reprise of her Picnic and Fairgrounds lines that were released a year or so ago, but in *new colors*!  Some are prints I haven't seen before,  Either way, you may remember that Denyse Schmidt has been my go-to girl for just about everything this year.

I. Am. Obsessed.

I used this selection of DS Quilts fabrics for my DS Quilts Mini in the DS Quilts Mini Swap.

I gave away DS Quilts in the Sew Mama Sew Giveaway.

I made my napkins for my swap with Peggy (mydaytocraft) from DS Quilts fabric.

I even used a bunch of it for the backing for a quilt....  but I can't remember which one.

Anyway, it seems only right that these unique little bundles of yummy fabric goodness are the first things I have in my shop.

Each quadrant of the 1-yard bundle of fabric is a different print.  There are 4 different 1-yard prints, and the listing is for a full set of all 4 1-yard bundles.

I have plans for some other items to list in my shop. But meanwhile, if you are looking for these DS Quilts bundles, I'm your girl.  Right now I have 2 bundles available.

I'm pretty excited!  I hope you'll check it out.

 http://www.etsy.com/shop/pressedfortimetoo

It's Time to Cast Your Ballot!

Saturday Afternoon Brights:  Colors are: (L-R) Row 1:  Kona School Bus, Bahama Blue, Kona Canary; Row 2:  Kona Turquoise, Kona Red; Row 3:  Kona Lime, Kona Bright Pink, Kona Magenta

No, this is not a political post.  Election time in the U.S. isn't until November.  It's time to cast your ballot for the Kona Solids bundles you like best over at Fluffy Sheep Quilting.  There are some great Kona bundle combos over there - I put a couple of them together myself, see here and here. 

Sunday Morning Fresh:  Colors are: (L-R) Row 1:  Peacock, Kona Canary, Bahama Blue; Row 2:  Kona Papaya, Kona School Bus; Row 3:  Azure, Banana, Kona Turquoise

You get to vote for 3 bundles. 

I'd love it if one of them was mine. 

I'm off to vote!

I'm Swooning!

I finally finished my blocks for the 3x6 Bee.  In this bee you make 6 blocks of the same design in the colors your hive-mates choose.  I had done the test block a few weeks ago, but just now got back to making the blocks. 

I cut the pieces all at the same time and put them in little baggies to keep them straight.  I think it helped me NOT procrastinate because the pieces were all right there, ready and waiting.  One thing that threw me - the center square is not Color 1.  Let me say that again:  THE CENTER SQUARE IS NOT COLOR 1, WENDI!!!  (Can you see me thumping my head ala the old V8 commercials here?  Yup!  That's me.  And I had already made the test block and STILL didn't get it!   Why would I naturally assume that the largest block - the center block, even - would be called Color 1?  And do I actually READ directions?  Apparently not.)

As you may have guessed, I cut all the center squares from Color 1 and had to re-cut them.  ALL of them.  Oh well, 3-1/2 inch squares are pretty useful.  I'll find something to do with them.

There is nothing really difficult about the Swoon block.  Lots of tediousness though.  A ton of HSTs and flying geese and then putting all those together.  I'm ready to make some of these in their original size.  I'm wondering if they are less tedious.

The results are worth it, though.  This is a very dramatic block.  I really love the way they turned out.  This one is for Allison.

This one is Krista's.  I'm hoping to get to deliver this one in person when I go to Seattle next week.  We're going to have a meet-up.  We've been emailing, and now texting, so I can't wait to see her in person.  So fun!

This one is for Lisa.  I really like the aqua and purple together.  Who knew?

And this one is for Marian.  The aqua and gray is an interesting combination too.  I quite like the gray in this block (and we all know about my aversion to gray - but in this case, I admit that my prejudices might be too general).

 This block is for Melissa.  I didn't really care for this one at first, but it's growing on me.

This one is for Sarah.  This is such a dramatic color combination, don't you think?  I think I'll be doing more of this raspberry and mustard combination, although probably not with gray, although the gray works fine here.  Oddly, BD#2 picked raspberry and mustard for her wedding colors until DSIL#1 said it reminded him of hot dogs.  I'm now convinced that the raspberry and mustard would have been lovely, but the teal and orange was truly beautiful.

So, that's one more project completed.  They are not perfect by any means, but I'm not unhappy with the way they turned out.

SUMMERTIME - and the Livin' is Easy!

I recently participated in the 11th round of the Potholder Pass Swap.  That sounds like a lot of pot holders, except that I missed the first 5 or so.  Add to that that I've been married a really long time and that most of my pot holders were obtained when we first got married, and you will know that I really needed to get rid of the ratty, worn out ones and get some new, fun ones in my kitchen.

I like to make pot holders.  They are fun and useful little mini quilts, and don't take any time at all to make.  My sewing machine still doesn't like Insulbrite, but I've found it's a lot easier if I use one layer of Insulbrite and one layer of batting than 2 layers of Insulbrite.  I think it's the tinsel in the Insulbrite that my machine doesn't like.  Oh, well, they're still fun.

Anyway, for this round, I was lucky enough to get my original package from my partner, Laura...

which included potholders, an oven mitt, a soap bottle apron and some lovely placemats,

AND an angel package from my new friend, Peggy!

So when one of the members of the swap didn't receive her pot holders, I thought it only right that I become an angel.

The theme was summer, and what is more summery than lemonade?

And if you're going to have lemonade, you need to have glasses to drink it out of, right?

And because Nicolette had to wait SO LONG for her package, I added a little border to a kitchen towel...

And the other tote bag I made the other night ...

And sent it off to Norway with my fingers crossed.  And amazingly enough, it got there in just a week!

I sure hope her original partner's package gets there eventually.  That would be awesome!

Meanwhile, Nicolette has something to help her enjoy her summer.

Pillow Talk 8 - Finished

I've known what I wanted to do for PTS8 for awhile now, but of course I waited until almost the last minute to actually put it together.  I was really stumped by what to put in the center.   Finally, while I was digging around in my fabric stash the other night I discovered this  little bit of yummy goodness.

As soon as I saw her, I knew she was perfect for the pillow I had in mind.

The pillow is taken from the Supernova pillow in Quilting Modern.  The original blocks were 6-1/2", but I cut these to 3-1/2 so they would be 3" finished.  My partner asked for a 20" pillow, and this one actually comes in at 20-1/2 when it's bound.  I hope it works for her.

I really debated about the pom-poms.  I bound and backed it with Essex linen, and it just looked so - professional somehow.  I was going for a more fairy-tale look, so I finally decided to add the pom-poms.  Hope it wasn't a blunder.  I'm actually thinking of taking it off.  I'm open to opinions.

I'll get busy tonight and get a couple of other things together and get this in the mail tomorrow - by the deadline.  Can you believe it?

The New Look - {Not So Extreme} Makeover Edition - {Tutorial - of sorts}

 I've had a couple of people ask me how I did my blog makeover, so I thought I would post and tell how I did it, for anyone who is interested.  I'm no expert on Blogger or blogging, by any means, but I did manage to get a result I was pleased with, and I'm more than happy to share.

First - the template.  I used Blogger's design feature to select a clean and simple background and style that I liked.  Blogger has a preview feature, so I played around with it until I found one in the basic style and color I wanted.  I personally find the old Blogger interface easier to use, so I have kept that link in my favorites.  However, you should be able to change your design template from the same screen that you create and edit posts from.

The old Blogger interface has tabs at the top where you can select the settings for your blog. 

I clicked the "Design" tab, then "Template Designer" which was located right under the tabs.  There were lots of choices and I selected one I liked, then customized it.

 Once you select your template in the Blogger Template Designer, there are a number of links on the left side of the header. You can change your layout and the widths of your post box and sidebar(s).  I chose "Advanced" and selected a font and colors that coordinated with my template design.   Make whatever other choices you like to get the look you want.  Underneath the template designer box is a preview of my blog, so I could immediately see how the changes I made to the template looked on the blog by scrolling down.

I just looked at the new Blogger interface too, and the choices are the same, except they are on the left sidebar.

Once you have a look you like, be sure to hit "Apply to Blog" in the upper right hand corner.  I didn't do that the first time, and had to start over.  =(

Next, the header photo:  Blogger lets you post only one photo in the header.  So how did I get five pictures up there?

Easy.  I used Big Huge Labs and made a mosaic.  I use mosaics a lot on Flickr, either to show a group of my favorites when I do a swap, or sometimes to show more than one image of something I have made or received.

If you've never used Big Huge Labs, go to www.bighugelabs.com/mosaic.php and follow the instructions on the screen.  You have lots of options...  You can create a mosaic of up to 36 photos set up as square tiles, like this one I did for the zakka needlebook swap...

or you can choose to have a large center photo surrounded by smaller images, like this one I did for the swap package Laura sent me.

For my blog header photo, I wanted a straight line of photos and I wanted them to fit nicely at the top of my blog, so I chose 1 row and 5 columns. 

From there, you can choose your photos from your Flickr photostream, from your Flickr faves, or upload photos directly from your computer.

Hit "Create" at the bottom and it will make your mosaic (sometimes this process takes a minute).

When you get to the next screen, you will see your mosaic, and there are options at the top to let you go back and edit your photos, save the mosaic to your computer, or save it directly to Flickr or Facebook or wherever.

Note that Big Huge Labs always names your photo "My Creation".  You can change this before you save or share.

Now you can go to that same Blogger Template Design page you were at before and upload your photo.

Click on "Edit" on the header tab.  Go to "Image" and it will allow you to upload your new photo.

It gives you some placement choices.  I chose "Behind text" so that my blog title would be on top of the photo, and not hidden by it.

Be sure to hit "Save" or all your hard work will go to waste.

Finally, you can arrange the various items on your sidebar, like your "About Me" box, your archives, or your blog list and get them just the way you want.  You can drag and click these in any order you like.

Once you have everything the way you want it, be sure to hit "Save" so all your hard work doesn't go to waste.  I know I keep saying this, but that's because I've had to re-do all these changes more than once because I forgot to save my changes.

Oh, yeah, one more thing...  Someone specifically asked how to turn off comment verification.  On the same screen where you enter your posts, there's a tab entitled "Settings" and underneath that, a link titled "Comments".

Scroll down until you see ""Show word verification for comments" and click "No."  That's all there is to it.  

 

And if you want the little robot icon in your sidebar, click on the one on my sidebar, go to Lucy's post, and grab the HTML code, go to your "Manage Posts" screen and add it as a gadget.  

If you have any questions or something isn't clear or doesn't make sense, leave a comment or message me and I'll try to help.  As I said, I'm not an expert, but I'll help if I can.  And if this helps you do your own blog makeover, I'd love to hear about it.

Good luck!

Hooray for the Red, White and Blue!

I recently participated in a 4th of July mug rug swap.  It was one of those swaps where you and your partner exchange mug rugs, so you can't show much before your partner receives her item. 

It all started with these four tiny HSTs.  They were just laying there in a little pile, so when I picked them up and started playing around with them, they reminded me of stars.  These little goodies were left over from my Swoon block makeover.  I love it when I can use things I once would have thrown away.  It makes me feel so good.  Like I just won a bizillion dollars or something.  It's that whole something-for-nothing thing. 

Once I had the stars, the stripes were a no-brainer.  I had the gold "freedom" fabric left over from my something.  I can't remember now what it was.  I thought it was a Quilts of Valor project, but my Just One Star blocks didn't use this fabric.  Hmmm..  Anyway, it was in the scrap basket too.

And I added the red, white and blue tote I made last week.

I really love red, white and blue!

You're a grand old flag!
You're a high-flying flag!
And forever in peace may you wave.
You're an emblem of the land I love -
The home of the free and the brave!
Every heart beats true 'neath the red, white and blue
Where there's never a boast or brag,
But should auld acquaintance be forgot,
Keep your eye on the grand old flag!

That chorus from George M. Cohan has been rolling around in my head all morning, so it just had to come out!  And most of it from memory too (although I did check the words before I hit "publish".)


So Happy Birthday, America!  And grateful thanks to all those who have served and are serving our country to help keep our liberties (including you, WH!)