Guess What?

I got mentioned in a real quilting magazine.  My Scrappy Reusable Produce Bag tutorial (click on the tutorial tab at the top!) inspired Lisa's produce bag here.  It was kind of her and the magazine to give me credit for my original design.

Giveaway over at A Turtle's Life for Me!

I'll be honest.  I haven't done a giveaway in a loooooong time.  But this was so stinking cute, that I gave it a shot, and figured that I would share it with you all. 

Click over to A Turtle's Life for Me to see this awesome giveaway, and stay to check out the rest of Natalie's great projects!

Check me out at "A Turtle's Life for Me"!

Ok, it has been a week of duh moments, including me feeling all smug that I scheduled a post for today, to realize I scheduled it for tomorrow! 

I just wanted to send you over to visit Natalie at http://aturtleslifeforme.blogspot.com/ because she is featuring my Crayon Roll Up!

Natalie is one of those moms that make you wonder "HOW does she do it??"  She rocks at crafting, she has inspired me to do freezer meals from her awesome posts, and does kid parties like no other.  Really...check out her carnival party...I'm so jealous!!!

Quilt a long still on....

but my post is delayed a lit. 
You see, we are having some flooding.  More water than I saw with my own eyes at once flooding.  Kids not able to get home from school on buses flooding.  Restaurants we love and animals at the zoo in HersheyPark underwater type of flooding.
So...just spending time babysitting our sump pump while my husband is out helping friends clean up their destroyed basement.  I plan to get it posted real soon!

Memory Quilt-A-Long?

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The hint from my first post is about my next project....a baby clothes memory quilt!  I have three girls and plenty of clothes, though I'm sure I won't need them all.  (Or I may end up making one for my husband and I to cling to after our girls leave us someday, and one for each of them...)

I'll break it into steps that you can do as you have time.  Maybe you have enough now to do one?  Maybe you want to work on it as a project each season as you clear out your closet?  Look through the boxes and start thinking which pieces you might want to include.

If you already handed down your baby clothes, you might have that stash of t-shirts from college, a stack of shirts from all the activities your child was in that could be made into a quilt of memories for them to snuggle in as they prepare for finals in a few short months!

I'll step you through the process of stablilizing your knit fabrics so you will get nice, crisp seams, give you pointers for design, and help you finish up the project.  You can make it as simple (large squares cut from T-shirts) or as complicated (many small intricate pieces) as you want.  I will also share a way to stretch the use of your scraps so you don't waste any of your precious memories!

HOMEWORK:  Gather 30-50 pieces of clothing depending on size.  Group into "must use" and "would like to use" piles so you won't get to the end realizing that you were missing the essential outfit!  Try to consciously include some darks and lights for contrast.  Take pictures of the outfits in their whole form...(I'll explain more later, but even if you don't use them, you don't want to wish that you did it before the wrath of the sewing room scissors!)

Please comment if you would like to participate!

Meet Maggie...

Maggie is my sweet little girl. She is also known as "Maggie in the Middle" or "Marge in Charge" depending on her mood. 

Maggie's sense of style

Usually the oldest child always goes first, but Maggie's sense of humor prompted me to introduce her to you today.  This is the big year.  The year of preschool, and beginning to really enter the world as her own little person.

Maybe because she is in the middle of a sister who is seven, and one who is nearly one, but she seems to have her Dad's sense of humor paired with her Mom's looks.  We went out to a restaurant that we like tonight because it is closing next week.

Maggie:  I want more applesauce!

Mommy:  Do you want to try again with manners?

Maggie:  My manners ran out of batteries!  Hehe..hehe...hehe...

Back to...

...school?  blogging?  normal?

Whatever makes sense, fill in the blank.

I have been on a bit of a blogging hiatus.  Right as I was really getting into it with my old site, I fell into a wonderful job and just did not have enough hours in the day to maintain "mommy of 3" (including a baby) and a part-time job, almost moving (right neighborhood, wrong house...let's wait!), summer traveling to see family, while trying to hold onto my sanity.

There is something that I absolutely love about the fall.  Maybe it is just the teacher in me with the fresh feeling of beginning over.  I also am not a fan of sweating or wearing coats, so it just has an all-around good feel for me.

So I am going to start slowly and see how it goes, and if I can get a good schedule of time set aside to blog. 

Stay tuned, and I'll share my first project.  You can join me if you want...

Hint:  It will reduce boxes of clutter into something useful that you can enjoy!