Spring Cleaning for the ol' Blog

Out with the old and in with the new, right? I got a bee in my bonnet to overhaul the blog and over the last few days I have taken to doing a little spring cleaning of the Wishful Stitches blog and doesn't it feel good!

Since I'm on a roll, you'll see lots of changes coming soon, including a new website and I'm happy to say I will now be putting out a monthly newsletter. Notice the spiffy sign-up in the right hand column?

What's in the newsletter?
Well, of course I'll be announcing new patterns, book updates and upcoming classes. Better than that though is I plan to offer a free mini-pattern every month for those of you who choose to sign-up. It could be anything from a simple pillow, a cute applique block or a small quilt project - really anything that strikes my fancy. I'm the impulsive sort... ;)

Sign-up now and get the first newsletter which
features a sweet treat of a Valentines project.

Playing in the fabric playground

One of my favorite parts of the quilting process is playing with all the fabric. Choosing the colors, making choices and finding the one piece of fabric that's just the right color - the whole kit and caboodle! Here are the finalists for my next pattern called "Honey Bee" - a take on an old favorite the Honey Bee block. I'm really excited to start it, but I have a strict policy that I've put into place after one to many false starts -Sleep on it! I let my fabric sit there and come back to it the next day to see if I still like it. So far, these are keepers! It's a very scrappy quilt and I just love the play of lights and darks here. We'll see how it goes... ;)

I would like to take a second to thank Jan for finding that lost piece of fabric for me. I searched high and low on the internet and came up with zippo - and here she just whipped up a link to TenneseeQuilts.com that has the fabric. Which I promptly ordered. Like blazing fast because of course once you find the fabric you're looking for paranoia sets in and it feels like everyone on the planet is going to be trying to buy that same exact piece of fabric and then it will be gone forever!

Now I can't wait to get it so I can embark on another favorite in the quilting process. Finishing the dang top!

Sometimes scraps just won't do!

One quarter yard short. Twenty 2 1/2" squares short... At first I hopefully looked at my scraps and thought maybe I could be wiley and piece them together in some sort of crafty way to make do, but alas I am stranded.

Just a few days ago I posted about my One Jelly Roll Wonder pattern and talked about the border I might put into action for it. Well, with a finished top in my sights, I forged ahead with my glorious ONE FULL YARD of a yellow gingham print and got that border going. Somewhere along the way I made a design change and *poof* there goes my original calculations for yardage out the window!

Since this is a pretty common print I'm hoping to find something pretty simliar today as I being my fabric hunt! I am teaching a class today on beginning needlturn applique at Quiltworks Northwest today and luckily this particular quilt shop is my destination for fabric when I just need something special... Keep your fingers crossed for me! This lovely pale yellow and white gingham print is discontinued from RJR - their "Farmhouse" collection - and it seems even they can conjure up a scrap of it... ;)

Otis - The incredible growing dog!

It's been a while since I showed you all a picture of our puppy Otis. He's growing like a weed - well actually, like a Great Dane! This big boy is not even four months old yet and can basically pull anything off our dining room table he pleases. Needless to say just about every item in our household has become one big game of keepaway. He loves keepaway and we have given him the nickname of "Otis de Bandit".

{ Otis wanting to play with the landscapers outside our office window }

Ladybugs to the rescue!

Sometimes I just love sewing on quilt binding - call me crazy - but sometimes when a deadline is fast approaching or I'm just plain behind it's just a "speed it the hell up!" sort of task. Well, in this case I found this ladybuy hair clips at Target and they make the smile the stitches away!

Of course it doesn't hurt that they are pink... *ahem*... I heart pink. :) I can be a pretty girly sort of girl when I want to be. It must be my inner princess rearing it's head out of my sweatshirt and jean wearing self.

One Jelly Roll Wonder

For my next couple of new patterns - that I hope to have available come February - I have challenged myself to use a single Jelly Roll to create something fun a fast as well as just darn cute - well hopefully! This pattern idea has been floating around in my head during those first few semi-incoherent dreamy moments in the morning and finally put it into action, diving into this wonderful Moda 3 Sisters collection called "Simplicity".

{Now what to do for the border?}

You can see the Jelly carnage in the background there! There are enough strips left to do a pieced border... so hmm... what to do!? I believe I have decided on a sawtooth border and have latched onto a full yard of yellow gingham in my stash. By nature, I am a 1/2 yard buyer so to have a yard just handing out in my stash must be a sign, eh? In all fairness, I am a yellow and red junkie and it's not quite that uncommon to see me hoarding lovely fabrics in these colors.

SNAFU!

So, we have been having a ton of problem with the people hosting our websites. Problems that involve hackers, email trickery and generally snafus all around. This means we have said "enough is enough" and are switching our hosting providers.

What in the heck does that have to do with blogging? Well, it means my site is down until the domains transfer and all my current bloggy news from the studio is getting musty and stale as I type this post!

So I will just have to air out my news once I get better access to my site and pretend that it's just the most current news in the world. Play along won't ya?

On a side note, weight lost to date on ye olde new years resolution... 4.5! Don't the powers that be say that 5lbs = one dress size (or something silly like that?) All I know is that my tummy is grumbling and as of this afternoon I don't give a darn because I like that my jeans fit just a tad better! HAH!

Is is time to eat yet?

Okay, so I'm one of those gagillion people who decided it was time to get my ever growing behind off the couch and lose some weight. Oh my lord... dieting is hard, especially after the gluttony of the holidays. A person can get used to eating a cookie every five minutes if you let yourself - and I did. So, now I'm on the Weight Watchers wagon for the second time in my life and I'm hoping it will serve me just as well this time - last time I lost 45 pounds! I'm setting my sights on 20 at the moment... root for me wontcha?

On the quilting front I have been a busy beaver. A deadline for Quilts and More is looming, next week in fact and I'm on the binding. Shwew! That's a close one eh? But it's almost done and then off to the post office for a speedy delivery.

Also, keep a look out for this month's issue of Fon's and Porter - I have TWO quilts featured in it this month and it's pretty darn exciting. One of them "Sweet Hearts" is already sold out of kits on their store which just feels like a big giant hug from the readers. Birds of a Feather is missing from their site, so maybe it's sold out too? Hmmm... a giant BEAR hug then!

{ Sweet Hearts }

Photo courtesy of Fons and Porter

Off to work I go and I'm making an effort to post more. Oh, and did I mention I'm famished?