OMG February Goal: Swoon Mini

Down to the wire but it is done and dusted.  I adore it.  This was a squirrel that distracted a few of us this past month when a random comment of loving Camille Roskelley's Swoon quilts and having them on our bucket list led to a small quilt along amongst friends.

New binding technique!!!! Over the MOON with this.  It's "Susie's Magic Binding" and can be found here on the blog and here on YouTube. Thank you Tish!

This is under the Ott lite because the sun set several hours ago...

We All Love Deals

I do especially.  I love saving money.  I love getting new fabric.  Happy dance when those three come together!  However, I am thinking it may be time to do an intervention on me...  Well, maybe after this weekend.  Craftsy is having a huge Winter Clearance Sale on their project kits and supplies.  So good, (an extra 20% off existing clearance prices!!) that I am interrupting my WIP, which I'd hoped to have finished for today but fabric shopping has put a dent in my sewing time! Drat. ;-)

Swoon Mini

This is my OMG (One Monthly Goal) if you didn't recall, so I am under the gun to get it done in time.  However.

Priorities
As my friend Pat pointed out, I am being an enabler.  As a bona fide enablee (that is a term, I am sure, lol) I feel it is my duty and my privilege to invite others to join me in my pursuit of fabric.  Bahaha.   This week in my life:
JoAnn's (no affiliation) had a 60% off coupon, which I took advantage of yesterday on Warm 'n White batting.  Happy dance!!  Fat Quarter Shop (again, no affiliation) had a terrific deal on one of their 24-Hour Flash Sales this past week.  Pink Castle Fabrics Monthly Club (my Christmas present from MacGyver, no affiliation) sent the second of my 3-month installments and I whooped for joy when I opened my bundle of Avant Garde!!!!  See? I spread my love around.  This weekend, however, my love (read moola) is headed full tilt boogie over to Craftsy.

I might have already loaded a few items into my cart.

Below you see some of the great bundles I've bought in the fairly recent past on Craftsy.  These often work out to $1-2-ish per fat quarter Canadian dollars.  I figure $7-8/yard CA is pretty awesome; $5-6US about the same.

The top two are both Windham Fabrics bundles, and the bottom is Robert Kaufman

You may recall the ten 1-yard cuts bundle I bought and made into a lap quilt using a 2.5" strip off each fabric plus some Kona Snow:

You can read more about this quilt and other Craftsy goodies here

There are excellent deals such as these and more to be had, quilt kits and totes among them.  Take a look:

Many of us quilters also do other hand work.  I knit.  Here is just one of the kits on sale:

Linea shawl

I haven't had a knitting project on the go in some time, so I'll be snagging something that's for sure.  You all know by now how much I love and have talked about Craftsy, from before I was an affiliate even.  This post does contain affiliate links, so I do get some commission on any purchases made through them. As always, thank you in advance. :-)

Once I'm done placing my order, and if I can just keep Bella off my Swoon mini,

as well as from running from one end of the house to nearly the other trailing the thread I'm using to quilt it, I may just accomplish my One Monthly Goal.  There are a few of us in on this Swoon Mini quilt along; you can check out Tish's finish here.

Linking up with Confessions of a Fabric Addict.

Squirrels Abound OMG

I went to Expert Sewing in Port Charlotte on Saturday, as I found out by a fluke that they had been running a sale for a good chunk of the week to make room for new stock, and it was ending on Saturday.  A girl's gotta help them out, right?  I scored these lovelies, in my favourite combo of blue and green, in the clearance section, where they were $1 extra off per yard, so $4.99!  The white with grey x's is by Zen Chic, Modern Background Essentials.  Regular priced fabric was 30% off.  I could see bags.

Three yards of this Northcott came home with me too, from the clearance section.  I thought it might work as the backing of my mystery quilt, which I hadn't meant to be Christmassy.  I like it.

Then my sweet friend Tish and I have been having lovely (that's the word for this post apparently) iMessage convos about all things quilty, and some things not, and anyhow, one thing that came up was that she has wanted for some time to do a Swoon as well.  I'd mentioned it in my Sunday Stash post that my first fabric club shipment would work nicely for a big one.  Thus, an idea was born, where each of us is doing a Swoon quilt (we're starting with the mini) in February.  And, we've decided that we are joining in with Red Letter Quilts' OMG: One Monthly Goal (I just love intelligent acronyms like that!) to get this done.  Somehow our private little quilt along grew two more friends, Cindy of Stitchin' At Home and Julie of Pink Doxies. Fun! Fun!

The pattern is available at thimble blossoms. The four of us would not say no if you are wanting to pick up the pattern and join in.

This is how Dayna's quilt and Brady's movie do NOT get done...

And how fabric bought with no particular pattern in mind has now become some for my mini Swoon!
Sidenote: I was listening to a podcast on the weekend on Crafty Planner, episode 34, where Tula Pink said she finds there are two camps of quilt fabric buyers: those who buy fabric for a specific pattern and those who buy fabric and then later figure out what they want to do with it. I'm in the latter camp for the most part. 

So the blue and green Michael Miller fabric I bought has now decided it is going in the Mini Swoon.  I think the stripe will be binding, not sure.  I need 8 fat eighths, so taking out the stripe means I have four here.  This morning I spent some lovely time pulling some other fabrics, fabrics that will "go" but contrast at the same time.  I liked the little hits of light blue in the navy/green fabrics, so I started there.  Thought pink as a contrast to the cooler colours here, but it felt too soft.  In my Tula Pink's City Sampler stack of fabrics, I had some leftover red from Parisville Weave, and I liked it! Here is the final combo:

The Kaufman light blue with red hits in it was yet another score at the sale, and the daisies is one of my 10 yards in the Craftsy 10-yard bundle I bought a while back.

 Something new, something old, something borrowed (the reds from Parisville Weave as well as The City Sampler), something blue!

This will be so much fun.

Speaking of fun, you may want to stay tuned to this blog, as well as to Julie's Pink Doxies, as we have come up with something pretty sweet and fun for next week leading up to Valentine's Day!  Did I mention there will be prizes?  Love stirring up the waters, creating intrigue...

Finally a "feels like Florida" Red-Letter Day yesterday!  At the halfway point of our Bradenton Riverwalk dogwalk, Rocco found a walk-in spot to the Manatee River and in he went and promptly laid down!

Unfortunately, I couldn't get my phone out fast enough to capture that hilarious moment.  He was like, "I'm done you guys; I need to cool off before we head back; the water's lovely!"  Then Brandy and Naala decided to join him but they didn't lie down.   Our private little joke when people ask, "Just what kind of dog is that?" about either Rocco or Brandy, both pibbles, aka pitties, aka Pitbulls, is, "Oh that's an Oklahoma Water Dog," which doesn't exist but helps in avoiding the prejudice these sweet dogs face all the time.  Well, Rocco, unlike Brandy, who dislikes water, definitely IS the second half of that made-up dog breed!

Linking up with Red Letter Quilts for OMG for February!