Machine Makeover Madness - Giveaway!!

Pimp my stitch...

Ink my machine..

Tattoo my Juki...

I may or may not have considered taking my pimped up Juki outdoors for a photo shoot for better lighting. She is just gorgeous.It was too windy, however and my neighbours are already perplexed by my quilt hanging outdoors in odd places. So, sorry for the photos not having professional quality lighting.....

When I saw these decals at Quiltastick I knew I had to get them. I have always thought machines were a little bland looking. I mean, this is coming from ME, the bland neutral decor person. If you go to the website you can see that I had a huge variety of styles and colours to choose from. That was the most difficult for me. There are 24 custom colours available too, check it out!

The decals are very strong, stronger than a normal sticker - they are removable if you change your mind later - and there is an instructions page for that (you need a little goo gone or adhesive remover if there is residue left over) You can use a minimal amount of decals on your machine - or jazz it up with lots, like I did....

The decals are on a 12 x 12" sheet and have assorted designs on them - they are easy to remove from the sheet and easy to reapply if you make a mistake. You can cut around objects or cut the stickers to fit the space you are covering. I did that in several spaces such as where my needle up/down button is. Very easy!

I used one set on my machine. I could have used more, but I thought it may turn into one of those tattoo jobs gone wrong.... you've seen them. You know. Kind of like a car with a bumper sticker problem...

I may or may not have thought about dressing up my washer and dryer with these decals.

Isn't it fun!!??

If you go to the Quiltastick website, there is a gallery where you can see some stickers used on those industrial looking long arms:

Shipping was free and quick (even to Canada), and customer service/communication was excellent!

Giveaway:

I contacted Quiltastick if they would send me an additional sheet for a giveaway, and they kindly did.

I am giving away a 12 x 12 sticker sheet in the same pattern I have used - in orange!

Leave a comment below if you would like to win. For an additional entry - just blog about this giveaway, and leave a comment that you did.

What do you think? Is it a makeup job gone wrong? Fun and Funky? Drag queen machine?

I'll leave this giveaway open until Sunday January 29, 7pm MST and draw a name then!

Thanks....And an upcoming giveaway!

Thank you everyone for your kind thoughts about Mandy. It was a really difficult time, but we have gotten over the deep hurt and emptiness that initially set in. Life moves forward...she won't be forgotten, but we are moving on. :-)

Also, thanks for the feedback on my quilt blocks. I have pieced the top together in a random pattern, and am getting it ready for quilting....

I recently purchased something uber cool for my drab looking machine....that's one thing I think could be improved on- the looks of our machines. I mean, we pay a ton of cash for our dream machine. Shouldn't we be able to customize it somewhat? Especially those industrial looking long arms? I found something to inspire me and the look of my machine...make it more cool and funky looking. And guess what? I'll show you in my next post what it looks like! AAAANNNDDD there will be a giveaway too!

Stay tuned.....have a fantastic day!

Which one do your eyes prefer?

When I thought up these simple blocks, I was playing with positive and negative space.

Here are two arrangements, with just some of the block colours showing-

Randomly placed:

Arranged with its colour mate:

Of course, I still need to play with arrangement of colour, but which do you prefer - the positive and negative spaces arranged randomly, or matching side by side with its colour mate? I think I know what I would do, but curious what you think?

*******

Monday evening was the hardest ever. I put on my brave face and went in with Mandy. It was quiet, calm and quick, and I held her and kissed her as she passed. I don't think I've ever felt my heart really ache until that night. Mandy was my amazing dog - she was a protector, a friend, playmate, a teddy bear, and an incredibly smart smart dog. This house is so quiet and empty without her. Rest in peace, my sweet girlie girl....

Colour Therapy

I pulled a bunch of my favourite brights out of my stash and started sewing. I have been tinkering with positive/negative spaces as well as reading a lot about MCEscher and tesselations. My love of graphic simple lines always shines through. The quilt done should be done fairly quickly.

My dog is not doing well, and we've had some really hard decisions to make. There's kidney disease, tumors large and small, enlarged liver, and very low red blood cell count. We've got one last 'thing' to try but the longevity and outcome will be inevitable in our near future. With that news and the decision making, the sewing once again reminds me how tremendously therapeutic it can be. I lose myself in my thoughts while sewing, and it is almost soothing to hear the purr of the machine (or the screech of the tires when I do long races of strip sewing). It is totally a place for me to calm down, reflect, and even heal somewhat. The past few days I have paced, chewed my lips, nails and cuticles to bits, eaten many bad things, watched mindless tv, cried my eyes out....and then I sit down to sew and it all lifts away after awhile.

I don't know how to explain it.

My cat knows something is up. The dog is at the vet hospital for two days, and prior to that, he has been laying very near the dog....today the cat is meowing loudly all over the house looking for the dog. sigh.

Colours, texture, pattern

This sand art painting was behind glass....it was just stunning. I want to use these colours, pattern and movement as inspiration for a new design. I see curves in my technical future and improvisation in my creative future.

What techniques are you getting ready to try?

Millions of thoughts...

A wishing tree....at our local science centre called Telus Spark. It had hundreds of wishes hung from it. Mine is in there too, somewhere. It looked so beautiful - so grand. The simplicity of the white lights, the light branches, and the red papers hanging from the tree. I took this first picture, and then spent about 20 minutes in the tree, just reading all the wishes.

Some wishes I giggled at....
Some wishes I nodded at....
Some I sighed at....
...and some made me well up in tears....
My wishes for 2012 are for the usual health and happiness. 2011 was quite stormy with ups and downs...and the last 1/2 of 2012 it mellowed out and settled down again. (phew!)

My personal goals wish - become a runner, take better care of myself, spend more time on myself and be kinder to myself.

My wishing tree wish? It was quilt related and more the far fetched type wish - totally attainable, but still, a wish.

Have you ever seen a wishing tree? It really moved me.

What would your Quilting Wishing Tree have on it?

Let's Get Real.

You're getting all excited to see the photos of all my projects now, right?

I procrastinate in every way possible when it comes to Christmas readiness. Actually, yesterday I came to the realization that my parents are to blame. Yes you read that right. I'm blaming them.

I'm forced into a society where Christmas begins in late November. This is impossible. You see, growing up, it was unthinkable to get the decorations up before December 15... We didn't get a tree up till usually around the 15-20th. Therefore, Christmas spirit has been indoctrinated to not appear until past mid December.

I was getting worried people, very worried. Every time I heard Bing in the shops, the tears would well up. Where did my spirit go? I think it's arriving, finally, albeit late according to society. I realized this yesterday, when I finally had some kind of wee bit of spirit developing inside - I even wrote Christmas cards.

So here is my list from last post, December 6. I'm keeping it real -

pillows - finished one, see below...other one needs a back. I still have 7 days.

ipad pouches - found them at Winners (like TJMaxx) for 5.99! Keeping it real folks.

zipper pouches - do I really need them? nah. I still have 7 days.

kleenex pouches - kleenex already comes in sanitary plastic pouches. Why waste fabric? I still have 7 days.

coasters - cut out , but on a recent dollarama trip, found some great croco ones for $1.50 - good for now, why stress to get them done for Christmas? I still have 7 days.

pyjamas - Walmart had all pj's on for $9. Really? Do I need to explain?

quilts - ideas ready. backing ready. I still have 7 days. backup gift already sent.

zipper coin pouch - ready to sew. Still have 7 days.

table runner - I still have 7 days left, right?

tree skirt - presents are under the tree right now. Nobody will see the skirt?!

couching experiment - Ideas ready, however, need scraps of cool yarn. May delete this project until I collect cool yarn scraps.

Hopeless.

What have I done with myself for the last 11 days you ask? Well, normal tasks aside...there have been field trips to help with, stomach flu, crafts at school, winter concerts, a birthday party to plan and execute, drapes and hardware to shop for, purchase, mount and steam/iron. Blinds to shop for and mount.

And in between my lady of leisure life, I catch up on Days of Our Lives. ;-)

Pillow - Red is an accent colour throughout my house - I wanted to make red for sure. I almost bought a set of red cushions at the big W - for cheaper than making them. But I didn't want to totally cop out of my list.

I also found this gorgeous wool blend that had clear sequins attached throughout in a very random pattern. The fabric just glistened, without being gittery. I knew this was the accent I wanted for my pillow. After seeing THIS cushion at Urban Barn I was inspired. My other pillow will follow a slightly different design...same concept though.

Super easy to make - I cut out 2.5" squares of fabric, folded them on the diagonal, and sewed them in a straight line down the background fabric.

I took a few photos to try and show the sparkle that the triangles have - but it doesn't show up as nice as in person. One day, I'll be a great photographer!

Making my list....

Things I want to accomplish in the next 19 days.

pillows

ipad pouches

zipper pouches

kleenex pouches

coasters

pyjamas

quilts

zipper coin pouch

table runner

tree skirt

couching experiment

Doable right?

Etchings - a Moda Bake Shop Project

The day is here to finally share my new Moda Bake Shop project. Please go and check out my new tutorial on Moda Bake Shop. It's the Etchings Quilt. The fabric, Etchings by 3 Sisters, is just SO lovely! Please go over and leave a comment - or leave a comment here. I'd love to hear what you think!

I am away on a ship right now, talk about timing. Anyone like me that just adores receiving comments - and here I am, away at sea and not able to check if anyone commented! ;-)

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask.

Lily's Quilt

This quilt is way overdue. I belong to a lovely group of friends called the BCBabes. We met online while planning our weddings 10 years ago. You know, when all that revolved in our lives was eating out, growing our careers, wedding dresses, favours, honeymoons...

We formed some great friendships and often get together once a month for potlucks or babefests, as we call them. A while ago a dear friend and fellow BCBabe had found out she had breast cancer. This was just an awful and silencing time for me. The thoughts that I had when we first formed our group were starting to come true - when we were planning our weddings I often thought about the future of the babes - our future children, our future success and failures and as we got older, our health issues....and it was starting to happen. How could so many years be passing us by already?

We all wanted to do something special for her. Lily has an obsesssion passion for tea...and the teacup theme came about. We came up with the idea of collaborating on a quilt and the 'craftier' people would sew up the quilt, while each person in the group would hand stitch/make a teacup block representing Lily's interests or symbolizing themselves on the quilt. This process took the longest - just rounding up everyone and keeping tabs on who was finished, who needed help, who needed a little fire under their butts to get going and complete things. Fast forward to today, when the presentation was made to dear Lily.

An idea of some of the teacups...

Closeup of the quilting and lovely crinkling...

My dear friends presented the quilt to her in person - I linked up through facetime on the Ipad and was able to watch everything from LA, as I awaited my boarding time onto the cruise ship.

The technology collaborating this was awesome - we belong to a bulletin board forum strictly for our group - and we were able to start a private discussion. We have members that are in Calgary, Iowa, Australia and northern BC.

The quilt started in Australia, where a great babe started the process of the center medallian and all of those wicked looking pinwheels. It later got shipped to me in Calgary. All of the tea cup blocks were sent from BC, Alberta, Iowa, and Australia to me, and then I compiled and completed the layout of the quilt. I pieced it together, machine quilted it and sewed on the binding....it was then sent to BC for the binding to be hand stitched by some other lovely babes, and finally to be packaged and presented.

It's just another way that quilting has brought together a group of women, and hopefully brought a hug to someone who needs to know we love her.