Strollin' Along

Does your little one have one of these Wal-Mart $10 dolly strollers?  If so, you know that they are a huge hit with the preschool crowd.  Abby got hers for her second birthday.  The metal frame of the stroller is still going strong.

The fabric seat?  Not so much.

When I went to visit when Britton was born, Amanda asked me to make a new stroller seat to fit the frame.

That seat is still going strong - despite the abuse that has been inflicted on it over the past two years.  In fact, you will probably find the stroller the toy of choice at any given moment.  It is just so much fun to push around - whether or not there is anything on the seat.

So, I've made a few additional seat covers and they are listed for sale in my Etsy Shop.  If you have a need for a replacement cover, drop on by.

Mini Quilts

So, have you caught the "make everything tiny" bug???  No it's nothing like the bronchitis I had last month (thank goodness!)

Everyone seems to want to make everything smaller.  Including quilt blocks.

Have you seen the crazy small quilt blocks my lovely daughter has been making??  Oh my gosh, they're adorable!  (But maybe just a mite too small for me, really.)

But I did need a mini quilt for a swap recently and decided to try my hand at one of Camille's adorable little patterns.  This one is the mini Rain Check, and it's free on her blog right now.  And remarkably, I even had an April Showers charm pack sitting around. 

And being as I'm from Seattle originally, I've always been just a little crazy about umbrellas.  And teeny tiny umbrellas are even better.

You know what they say about those of us from Seattle, right?  We don't tan in the summer - we rust!  Bwahahah!  (Sorry.)

These little umbrellas are just adorable, and totally fun to make.  I did have a bit of an issue with the handles, however.  I've always said I have a love/hate relationship with fusible web, and this time was no different.  It just didn't want to bond as well as I thought it should, particularly on these super-tiny pieces.  Next time I may try embroidering the handles, instead of the fusible web.

These little umbrellas are super fun!

Which cute little mini quilt shall I do next?

A Little Light Reading

I mentioned in this post how much I was enjoying the Kindle that WH got me for Christmas, along with the cheap and free books I've gotten through Book Bub and other services.

I've traveled a bit since that last post, and I was sick a couple of times (this has been the worst winter for bronchitis ever!) and so the Kindle has come in really handy.  I've really enjoyed being able to flit from one novel to another, or immediately read a sequel without having to leave the house (especially when I was sick!)  And when I'm traveling, I've really enjoyed how lightweight the Kindle is and how it fits in my carry on without taking up much room.

And it's kind of fun to keep a record of what I've read, too, now that I think about it.

A Crazy Weekend Tale... And a Winner Too

I know I'm late posting the winner of the April Showers polka dot bundle, and I'm terribly sorry.  It has been a wild and crazy weekend around the prsd4tim2 household.

I think I mentioned that it was WH's birthday this weekend.  So, we celebrated.  I had a big plan - Friday we would go out for an early dinner, then a movie, then home for cake and presents.  Except that somehow the plans always get altered.  WH didn't feel like a 5pm dinner on Friday, so we put that off until Saturday.  (Clever boy, getting to celebrate his b-day for 2 days, rather than just one!)

So Friday night we headed off to the movie.  We saw God's Not Dead,  a Christian film which, despite the decidedly un-grammatical title, was actually very good.  I always like a good movie that leaves the sex, violence, and innuendo out, and this one was perfect.  Not to mention that the message was something I'd like to see more of.  I honestly hadn't heard of the movie before Friday, but it was very enjoyable.  Afterwards, we decided we were hungry after all (or maybe it was just that it was 9:30 pm), so we had a quick (and cheap) dinner at Steak 'n' Shake.  Then we came home for cake and presents and a FaceTime call with our youngest, who hadn't been able to reach her daddy earlier in the day.

Saturday morning was full of errands (WH didn't tell me until Friday he needs a new suit - and quick!), LDS Conference, and a headache the size of Texas.  We finally did get our fancy dinner (and the best steak in Pensacola) on Saturday evening.  If you ever visit Pensacola, McGuire's is the place to go.  (Yup, those are $1 bills on the ceiling - the tradition is to sign them and hang them anywhere and everywhere; then about once a year they count them - for tax purposes - and move them all higher.)  A bit of local color.

Sunday morning, I had WH at the airport at 5 am and had just come home to take a nap when he said he wouldn't be able to get out of Pensacola, but there were seats on the Gulfport flight.  So we drove to Gulfport.   It's about 120 miles to Gulfport and takes about 2 hours from our house.  Usually when I drive him to Gulfport, I turn around and head right home, but this time something said to hang around, so I had breakfast, and sure enough, before I was finished, he called with the bad news that the Gulfport flights had filled up too (there were more than 30 seats at 8 am!) and he was going to rent a car and drive.  But the only place that had cars was Pensacola.  So we drove home and he finally got on his way about 4 pm, roughly 12 hours after the alarm went off.

Exhausting!

And then there was the plowing through 275 emails so I could read all the bloggy comments before I wrapped up this giveaway...  So here I am on Monday afternoon picking the winner of the FQ Bundle of April Showers Dots (kindly supplied by Westwood Acres Fabrics) that I should have done on Saturday.  So sorry.

Cue the drum roll...

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

81 

Timestamp: 2014-04-07 21:43:52 UTC


Who is my good friend Jess from Australia, who said:

81  Jess @ Scrappy n HappyApril 2, 2014 at 4:31 AM

Surely I like you on FB! I will go and double check now :)

 So congrats to you, Jess!  I'm off to email you now!  

Thanks to everyone who helped me celebrate my Blogiversary!!   I really enjoyed reading everyone's comments about their Easter traditions! 

Magnetic Snaps - A Mini-Tutorial

If you are looking for the Blogiversary Giveaway, go here.

I've been making these cute little quilted tool caddies for awhile now for little gifts and swaps, and every once in awhile, someone says, "Oh, I love that but I could never do those magnetic snaps."  Well, I have to admit that I was a bit intimidated by magnetic snaps too - until I tried them.

They're super easy!

Here's a 7-photo tutorial of everything you need to know about adding magnetic snaps to purses, totes, or even this little quilted tool caddy.

STEP 1:  Figure out where you want your snap to go, and make a dot in the center.  In this example, the center of the tool caddy is at 4" and I want it 1" above the edge.  Can you see the dot?

By the way, this won't show, so use whatever you have at hand.  Here I used a plain old ordinary pencil.

STEP 2:  Open the package and find one of the metal templates.  Center the hole over the dot you made in STEP 1, make sure your template is straight with the bottom edge (this one is slightly crooked - sorry) and make a line in the slot on each side.

STEP 3:  With a sharp pair of embroidery scissors, cut open the fabric on the lines that you drew in STEP 2 above.  (If your fabric is thin or you are worried about it tearing loose, iron a piece of interfacing on the back or use another small piece of fabric behind it to give it strength.)

STEP 4:  From the package, remove the male or female magnetic snap and poke the legs through the holes you made so that the open legs end up on the back of your item.

STEP 5:  Place the slots in the template over the legs of the snap...

STEP 6:  Fold the legs down over the template.

STEP 7:  Turn your project over and admire your handiwork.

NOTE:  This process is the same for both the male magnetic snap (shown) and the female magnetic snap (not shown).

See?  Easy Peasy!

14 in 2014 - March Finish and April Goal

If you are looking for the Blogiversary Giveaway, go here.

Even though March was as crazy as it initially promised to be, I am proud to report that I have finished a quilt.  And not just any quilt, either, but the very first quilt I started when I came back to quilting after a many-year hiatus!  This one has been lying around in the WIP basket so long I honestly can't believe it's done.

In the spring of 2010, I bought two charm packs, visited Moda Bake Shop for the first time, and started sewing.

Some of the blocks actually got to this point...  (Sorry for the blurry photo - it's the only one there is!)  Others weren't much more than two rectangles sewn together.

And then I stuffed it in a zip lock bag, where it sat for - oh - more than 3 years.

So I'm more than a little bit happy to say, "IT"S FINISHED!!!"

Amanda had given me a bit of yardage to help it along.  And I added some Kona Red and the leftover squares.  There was no real plan to this back except to use what I had get 'er done.  (Yes, it DID require digging through boxes and bins, thank you for asking!)

I quilted it in a meandering square pattern, something I hadn't really tried before.  It was ok, but I kept finding myself in a corner with no way to get out.  Live and learn, I guess.

I'm not sure that you can see the quilting any better from the back.  Oh well.

So that's another one off the 14 in 2014 list, which, as you must know, makes me very happy.  I'm pretty sure that makes 4 this year so far; 10 more to go.

So, that means it's time to set my April goal.  This one hasn't been sitting around nearly as long, but I've had it sitting there already basted and waiting since last October, so April is going to be the month I finish this baby!  (Keep your fingers crossed for me, ok?)

Also in April, I hope to quilt my faux string quilt.  It's been sitting there ready to quilt since, um...  I honestly don't know.  But It needs to be finished.  Soon.

And, ever the optimist, I'm going to Stash Bash at the end of the month, so my fervent hope is that I will make SIGNIFICANT progress on this little baby, that's been sitting all wrapped up in a plastic bag since about May of 2011.  Oh, yes!  If I could make progress on this one, I would totally swoon!

So, there are my goals for April.  We'll see how far I get.

Wish me luck.

It's my Blogiversary!

It's my 4th Blogiversary!!!  This little blog has come a long way since that very first post.  In fact, the very first post didn't even include a photo.  The photo above is actually from my second post about the Most Dangerous Cake in the World.  And if you were to go back and look at that first post, you would see that I really never - ever - had any intention of becoming a blogger.

But here we are some 4 years and more than 485 posts later.  I find that blogging is a great way to chronicle my crafty achievements, as well as document some family events.  And I've made some great friends through my blog, which is perhaps the highlight of it all.  You have all been so wonderful and supportive.  It warms my heart to know that I am not alone in this crazy quilty life.

To celebrate, let's have a little giveaway, shall we?    The prize will be a fat quarter bundle of Bonnie and Camille's April Showers dots from my favorite little fabric shop.  I've just opened up my first charm pack of April Showers, and I have to say, these dots are so fun!  I hope you'll love them too.

To enter:

1.  Leave a comment below and tell me your family's favorite Easter tradition.  If you don't celebrate Easter, how about a fun spring tradition your family enjoys. 

2.  If you're a follower of my blog (or become a follower) you get a second entry.  Just leave a second comment.

3.  For a third chance to win, head over to my Facebook page and "Like" it and leave a comment there, then come back and leave another comment (sorry - I'm not tech savvy enough to manage comments in two places).

WH's birthday is Friday, so we'll close the giveaway Friday, April 4, 2014 at midnight, and I'll choose a winner sometime Saturday.

Please be sure you are not a no-reply blogger.  You can leave your email in the comments if you're not sure (wendi dot mihalik at gmail, for example.)

Thanks again for visiting my blog and celebrating 4 bloggy years with me!