New Blog Location

Hi all,

I am moving my blog to my own website! Exciting times!! Please go here: Cut-N-Shoot to see the new blog. I'm in the process of setting up an RSS feed for anyone wanting to follow. I hope to be able to add lots o' new stuff to the new blog as well.

See ya there!
Tammy

Christmas Present

I had an idea for a Christmas present, but I'm pushing it to the last minute! What was the idea? I can't tell you Not yet. You'll see the finished product tomorrow, if I can get it done by then.

I cut most of my strips today. First of all, I just have to say that I absolutely love my project ruler. This thing is excellent. You can cut strips in 1, 2, 3 inch increments (what ever size you prefer) without moving your ruler! The slits in the ruler allow you to cut the strips without having to reposition the ruler.

Yesterday I hemmed my mother-in-law's Snuggie for her. So, I decided to repurpose her left overs!

I took the left over snuggie and cut them into 1x7" pieces. This is what I'll use as my batting. Now, why I thought it was a good idea to have 1 inch strips...I'm not quite sure yet! This will probably make me have to get new glasses!

I used some fabric I had in my collection. They were the marble collection that I was having a hard time figuring out what to use it for. I absolutely love these colors and the dots! The picture somewhat distorts the colors of the fabric. These are somewhat dark and earthy. LOVE THEM!

I ran into one problem. I didn't have enough fabric strips to complete this little project. So, I need to cut another 30 strips. I also didn't have any black thread; therefore, I couldn't get any sewing done today. :( I found a brick red to go with the dark green, burnt orange, and brown. Hopefully tomorrow I'll have these all put together and completed! I can't wait to see how it ends up!

The Quilt and a Wallhanging

This was a fused piece that I ended up putting in a frame and hanging it in my office. I loved how the flower looked with the different fabrics. Unfortunately, I didn't pay close enough attention to know when I'd two of the same petal fabrics together, but that's alright I still like it. The bee is made out of fuzzy fabric, so I really like him too! This was a great deal of fun to do and eventually I'm going to do another version and make it part of a Spring quilt.

I came across this story as I searched the Internet and couldn't pass it up. So, I'm posting it here for others to enjoy as I have. I also have an idea for a quilt based on this. Hopefully I'll be able to pull it off. If I can, I'll post it on here!




As I faced my Maker at the last Judgement, I knelt before the Lord along with the other souls. Before each of us laid our lives, like the squares of a quilt, in many piles. An angel sat before each of us sewing our quilt squares together into a tapestry that is our life. But as my angel took each piece of cloth off the pile, I noticed how ragged and empty each of my squares was. They were filled with giant holes. Each square was labeled with a part of my life that had been difficult, the challenges and temptations I was faced with in everyday life. I saw hardships that I had endured, which were the largest holes of all.



I glanced around me. Nobody else had such squares. Other than a tiny hole here and there, the other quilts were filled with rich color and the bright hues of worldly fortune. I gazed upon my own life and was disheartened. My angel was sewing the ragged pieces of cloth together, threadbare and empty, like binding air. Finally the time came when each life was to be displayed, held up to the light, the scrutiny of truth. The others rose, each in turn, holding up their quilts. So filled their lives had been.


My angel looked at me and nodded for me to rise. My gaze dropped to the ground in shame. I hadn't had all the earthly fortunes. I had love in my life, and laughter. But there had also been trials of illness and death, and false accusations that took from me my world as I knew it. I had to start over many times. I often struggled with the temptation to quit, only to somehow muster the strength to pick up and begin again. I had spent many nights on my knees in prayer, asking for help and guidance in my life. And now, I had to face the truth. My life was what it was, and I had to accept it for what it had been.


I rose and slowly lifted the combined squares of my life to the light. An awe-filled gasp filled the air. I gazed around at the others who stared at me with eyes wide. Then I looked upon the quilt before me. Light flooded the many holes, creating an image, the face of Christ. Then our Lord stood before me, with warmth and love in His eyes. He said, "Every time you gave over your life to Me, it became My life, My hardships, and My struggles. Each point of light in your life is when you stepped aside and let Me shine through, until there was more of Me than there was of you."


May all our quilts be threadbare and worn, allowing Christ to shine through.


~ Author Unknown

Park City Girl's Scrapbox Charity Giveaway

I'm a sucker for giveaways and I'll usually post for any I like. However, I am in LOVE with this one! I'm drooling so much it's hard to type on the keyboard!

Ok, so what is it? It's a desk made for scrapbooking but can be used for any other craft as well. I'm not a scrapbooker but I could very easily make this desk at home in my sewing room!

I learned about this from Amy's Blog. The rules are there. Basically you can be entered into the drawing by posting about it on your blog, following her on twitter, tweeting about it, becoming a fan of The Original Scrapbox on Facebook. So, check it out and put your name in the hat!! Why not?! Ok, now I'm off to get a paper towel to clean up my keyboard!

Have a great day y'all!

PS...they will also be giving a desk away to the charity of your choice! How sweet is that?!

Time to Set Some Goals

Yeah, I've been gone most of the month of November. I participated in Nanowrimo where you write a novel (or 50,000 words) in a month's time. So, most of November was dedicated to working on my novel "Normal's Not So Bad". I FINISHED it!!!! I wasn't sure if I was going to make it, but I did. I read part of it again and realized, it's really a rather bad story...but, the point of it was to set a goal I thought would be out of reach and reach it!

Since I was spending most of November writing, my sewing has really fallen behind. I haven't added even one more stitch to Zoey's baby quilt. It's time to get back on the horse and get some of these projects completed.

At work several girls and I have started our weight loss journey. I've been setting short term and long term goals for that, so I figured while I'm working on goals I may as well write some quilting goals as well!

Here we go:
1) Finish Alaina/Zoey's Quilt
2) Start the Magic Mini's BOM quilt
3) Make a Grids and Grommets purse
4) Put up my design wall
5) Put Mom and Dad's going away quilt on said design wall (they've been gone for a year!)
6) Save up money to buy a better sewing machine than my "Jeans Machine"
7) Create an impromptu quilt using scraps!

Now, I don't necessarily have a solid timeline for this but I'm going say within 6 months to have all but goal 6 done. It may take me a year to complete goal 6!

Zoey's Baby Quilt Update

I started working on a baby quilt for a girl I work with, Alaina, when she had about 2 weeks left in her pregnancy. She was going to be out for 12 weeks afterward, so I had 14 weeks total to work on it. Well, Zoey has joined us and Alaina's been back at work for 2 or 3 weeks and it's still not done.

Alaina doesn't like pastel colors, so I used a dark brown background and added some appliquéd flowers sporadically over one of the corners. The flowers aren't pastel, but they aren't bright either. I believe the flowered material is called Sweet Baby Jane by Moda.

I blanket stitched around all of the flowers using some embroidery floss. I like the way most of the blanket stitching came out. Since this was my first time to blanket stitch, I thought it wasn't too bad!

Once I got that done, I took a couple of weeks off. I needed to give my eyes a bit of a rest! Once I felt like I had rested enough, I had to figure out what kind of quilting I was going to do. My quilting experience usually consists of stitching in the ditch...not gonna work here. So I thought about doing an echo quilt, but I was afraid my curves wouldn't come out very well. So, I settled on a diagonal channel stitch. It was going ok until....opps:

No, it's not an optical illusion, my line is completely and totally wavy. EEEKK....Not liking the way that looks. So, I folded up the quilt and set it asside for a while. Now, it's time for me to get back to it. I think I'm going to leave the wavy line in for now. Once I wash the quilt it is going to pucker up and maybe the waviness won't be too noticeable. However, I can always rip it out and restitch it before I wash it too.

Quilting Blogs Galore!!

I'm so excited!!  I was able to get added to two great sites that list different quilting blogs. If you're interested in finding more blogs by quilters, check out these two places:

Quilter Blogs.com: This site lists over 750 other quilting blogs as well as quilting stores. They also read the blogs on a daily basis to find out any new information to share with the world. Very cool site, check it out.

Quilting Gallery: This is another fun site that lists different quilting blogs. It also has a chatroom, blog site, and lots of other fun information and things to dig through! Again, I highly recommend checking it out. They currently have an article up about virtual quilting bees.

I just signed up for my first virtual quilting bee this week as well, so I'll be posting updates here! This has been a very exciting month so far! I just got my blocks for the Magical Mini's BOM the week before last but haven't had a chance to start on it yet. They just put month two up, so I guess I should get busy!