Giveaway Day

EDIT: The giveaway is now closed - thanks for entering.

It's giveaway time - as part of Sew Mama Sew! Giveaway Day! Up for grabs is a set of three fat quarters - all very bright and cherry and just in time for upcoming summer!

There's a yellow stripe, a red/green/yellow plaid and a bright and a cheery floral!




What do you need to do to win this? Well, as I'm getting married in twenty days - leave me a comment with a piece of advice about how to have a great marriage. I look forward to reading your advice. I'll have the random number generator (better known as the fiancee - who will be told "pick a number between 1 and ###) pick a winner. And this will stay open through 10 pm on Thursday, May 20th. I'm more than happy to ship internationally, too.



Thanks for stopping by!

Almost Time for...Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Day

Sew Mama Sew is hosting their giveaway day officially starting tomorrow and I'm participating! Check back a little bit later tonight to see what I'm giving away.

This is what our wedding looks like...

So, we're in full swing on the wedding front here in the Gnomemade household. And what does that mean? Well, lots and lots of craft projects of course. All my great ideas - that were such wonderful ideas 11 months ago, all need to become a reality and fast!

Here are the casualties of one such wedding craft project. It kinda looks like a ribbon factory exploded on our carpet. Needless to say, after many hours with a scissors, I then became accquainted with our dustpan and brush and vacuum.

This is the "in process" shot of our party favors. Hopefully the handmade favors will be a hit - though at this point, I'm starting to think I should have bought more and made less - but I know the day-of and afterwards I'll appreciate having made all of our crafts! Let's just hope we get to that day-of - with them all done!

What's left - well we've got our table cards and place cards - all with a gnome theme of course!

Oh My Goodness...I Won!

So, earlier in April while wandering through the blog-o-sphere, I happened across a wonderful blog run by Carolina Patchworks. She just so happened to have a giveaway going for some of her patterns. So, like a good blogger, I hopped right over to her Etsy shop and took a look at her patterns, per her instructions. She's got some absolutely adorable patterns and is really creative. And to boot, she's just a couple hours up the road from me!

She's really creative with some patterns that make really great use of pre-cuts, and then some that are based on old-school video games (which any child of the 80s can appreciate). So, anyhoo...I took a look around and left her a comment about which pattern I liked best.

Fast forward a couple of days, because naturally I had forgotten to add her blog to my reading list (whoops! I do that a lot), and I got an e-mail from her. And what did it say? I won! And I should e-mail her with my address and the pattern I'd like sent to me! I was so excited. So, off I went back to the Etsy shop and actually ended up changing my mind from my original post to pick out "Walking on Broken Glass"...

Isn't it beautiful? It arrrived in the mail not too long ago. Now, I just need to find a layer cake that I love to make it from. (Hint, hint husband-to-be...birthday is not that far away, and yes, I know I should be focusing on wedding and not sewing - but like that's going to happen!)

Anyways, I'm so excited to try out this new pattern, but that's going to have to wait until after June 5th! Only 34 days remain to the big day!!! Which really means I should stop posting and get back to all the wedding projects in front of me.

Baby-palooza!

Well, the streak of babies continues around here...this time a second baby boy arrived to a good friend of the family. I've known the mom for my entire life, as our parents met when they were in lamaze class for both the new mom and my older sister.

It's thrilling to welcome another boy into their lives. They already have one whose several years old, so their little family is expanding.

In honor of the newest addition, I put together a baby quilt that is "Pirate Mouse" themed. I came across this flannel at Joann's and couldn't resist. In typical fashion, I forgot to take a photo until after I packaged it up, but I remembered before taping up the box. So here's a glimpse - it's got a really cute striped border and binding too in lots of primary colors.
It went in the mail today along with a gift for the new big brother. Growing up, my mother always included a gift for the older siblings whenever delivering a baby gift. Her feeling was the older children often got neglected when the new baby was showered with gifts. Plus, she always picked something that would help occupy the older sibling. Now that I'm at a point of sending baby gifts, I make it a point to keep this practice alive, so into the box went a Star Wars coloring book and crayons (nicely wrapped up so big brother could open something himself). We went with a Star Wars coloring book because rumor has it the new big brother wanted to name his new little bro "Luke Skywalker."

Amazingly enough this quilt got finished only five days after the baby arrived. For once, I didn't cut it super close, but I did with the thread. I was worried throughout the quilting process I would run out of the thread I was using - a thread I picked up several years ago and have moved since purchasing and can't find by me. Well, I cut it a little close - the bobbin had even less left!

But, I made it - woo hoo. The quilt went in the mail today and hopefully will be to its new owner soon.

Well, That Was a Bit of a Break...

So, I had every intention of blogging starting in the New Year. I figured - once the holidays are over, I'll have plenty of time not only to blog, but to sew, so I have something to blog about.

How did that work out? Well, my last post was on December 15th, as Blogger liked to remind me of everytime I logged on to read everyone else's consistent and much more up-to-date blogs.

I wish I could say, I was just so busy sewing that I didn't have time to blog, but that's not the case. Rather, my world - or should I say our world - has been overtaken by the wedding! Eeep! According to our wedding website, we have 48 days to go! I can't believe it.

Both myself and the fiancee are getting really excited, but there's still so much to be done. But, we've got the big items covered - DJ, caterer, location, priest, flowers, etc. But who knew there were so many little details to handle! I just took my wedding dress in for alterations earlier this week, and the fiancee and I sat down earlier this weekend to choose a playlist for the wedding!

I'm hoping we'll get it all done in time.

In the meantime, while we've had wedding on the brain, many of our family friends have had babies on the brain. We had three born in just the past month alone, so any major sewing I've done have been for them.



This little quilt went to some friends' of the fiancee who just had a baby girl join their family. And yes, cheater fabric it is - but it's cute!

I've been working on a couple of other projects, which I'll post soon. Oh, and I uncovered some other treasures while prepping for a garage sale (more on that later - we seem to like to make our lives even busier by adding on extra things to do between now and the wedding). But, one of those treasures should be making an appearance here as a giveaway sometime soon as well!

All I Want for Christmas...

...is to finish my projects in time! I had a great plan this year. I was going to get all of my sewing holiday projects done early - with plenty of time to spare, so as not to worry about the last minute crunch. I had my ideas of what to make for everyone, and even completed shopping for supplies by Veteran's Day.

But, I think I forgot to factor in the baking, shopping, wrapping, shipping, card writing, etc. that goes along with the holiday season. I've also been helping my future M-I-L re-launch her Etsy shop with her knitted items. Because, here it is - just over a week from the big day and I'm going to be scrambling ot get it all done!

So, let's see where I'm at...

Two table runners? Check! (Ok, we can mark that complete). One's made with a "Merry & Bright" charm pack using the disappearing nine patch. The other is made using a "Crazy Eight" mini-honey bun.


Three Santas? If only 33% were a passing grade. Perhaps I can work out some joint custody arrangement between family and friends, but that might get complicated as they all live in different states! Here's one of them complete and ready to mail. However, the rest of them still have their heads (sans beards) sitting to the side on the coffee table and the clothes are just a figment of my imagination. Must get stitchin'.


I do like how this guy turned out though. I used a pattern provided by a friend that she based on a kit she bought a while ago. The htb keeps asking if we can keep him, but maybe next year I'll have time to make one for us!

Tonight will be spent on the Santas' beards, and maybe even a little bit of clothing while watching the So You Think You Can Dance finale. And then wrapping up Santa #1 to get him into the mail tomorrow!