Happy Zombie

Sewing machine & gear: naked

Large blue cooler: Trader Joe’s in Portland.

Helper:  comes with slobber

Helper:  seeking approval

Bam: $6.99 sewing machine travel bag

The goods + fold up hand truck: Bam, insta-butler

Me: felling pretty dang happy over my $6.99 mobile sewing-2-go travel bag!  Thank you, Trader Joe’s!

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Posted in Tips & Trix | 41 Comments

I love the holidays. LOVE them. I LOVE the hustle and bustle, the merriment and merrymaking, the making and the sewing, the gifting and the prezzies, the ornaments and decorations. Most of all I love my family and friends that go with all the holiday goodness.

I also love stopping to smell the eye candy. Rest. Resting. Respite.
Refueling my tank.

Fueling some more - tank is just about full.

The cutest Christmas tree ornament ever!  I got this gem from Magpie Ethel at her booth at the Laurelhurst Winter Bazaar yesterday.  It’s on it’s way to a new home, so I may have to hunt Magpie Ethel down at Crafty Wonderland next Sunday for some more sparkle crack! Once you go sparkle…

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Posted in So Stinkin' Cute | 14 Comments

Where Women Create + 12 Days + 48 artists + Holiday magic + prizes galore = A W E S O M E N E S S!  I’m so freaking thrilled to be included again in the WWC Twelve Days of Fabulous Holiday Giveaways. Today is DAY 2 - my day… and I’m a little speck of bell pepper on a pretty amazing pizza!  Holy schmokes - you should see who I’m sharing the day with and the rest of the line up!

My give-away is a Fat Eighth bundlette of all 29 pieces in my Happy Mochi Yum Yum collection. Go there now and leave a comment to enter (and for all the other prezzies too).  Go.  Now!

Posted in Stuff | Comments Off

Welcome to my day of Sarah Fielke’s Quilting From Little Things blog tour!  I’m so honored and excited to be included in this tour, especially since I had the privilege of making a quilt from the book long before it’s even available.  AND because I love Sarah so dang much.  Somewhere between my mailbox and the publisher’s shipping department awaits my copy of Quilting From Little Things… waiting to cradled in my arms, to be loved and to be devoured (knock, knock, delivery organization).  Like everyone else, I’ll be visiting all the blogs on the tour (list below) to peek inside Sarah’s delicious new book!

What I love so much about From Little Things is that you make little things!  Great to try new things + learn new things + instant gratification.   Sarah has a great gab about her new book with Pat Sloan on American Patchwork & Quilting Radio show.  It’s a great listen!

Since my book is still in transit and I have no book photos to post, I decided to do my own photo-shoot with the little quilt I made from the Diamond Chips pattern - and enlist the help of my Blythe doll, Melvita. She did fine… fine until I had her do some The Walking Quilted shots. She didn’t get how I didn’t want her face in the shot, and she was not happy.

Not happy at all. In fact, Melvita broke down into a tantrum. I’m pretty sure she even gave me the finger.

Turns out Melvita just can’t handle her gin & tonics.

But that’s ok, Melvita - be that way…

… because I have Photoshop.

Check out the past, be current and check out what Lissa is sayin’ today, and then step in to the future and enjoy the entire book tour!
28 Nov: Fat Quarterly
28 Nov: Amy Ellis
29 Nov: Thomas Knauer
30 Nov: Camp Follower Bags
30 Nov: Ryan Walsh
01 Dec: Happy Zombie
01 Dec: Moda Lissa
02 Dec: Mrs Schmenkman Quilts
02 Dec: True Up
03 Dec: Pink Chalk Fabrics
03 Dec: Pam Kitty Morning
04 Dec: Sew,Mama,Sew!
04 Dec: Pat Sloan

Sarah’s publisher has set up a deal for the Quilting from Little Things blog tour readers to get a discount of $5 off at MarthaPullen.com. Use promo code QUILTLITTLE to get your savings before the blog tour promotion expires (7/31/12).

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Posted in Stuff | 43 Comments

It’s like someone crawled into my head - and designed a product just for me!   I must have been sending signals out to the universe - and Panasonic must have had their aluminum foil hats on. Or it was Santa… and he came early (and misplaced his alleged Naughty List).

This is not an infomercial - this is a review and big fat thank you to Panasonic for making the Panasonic 360° Freestyle Iron Happy Zombie Cordless Dream Iron!

How could I not love the shiny and slick sole-plate with generous steam holes and crazy shape that reminds me of Stewie Griffin’s head.  The Panasonic 360° Freestyle Stewie 360° feels awesome in my hand and has such a sweet glide in all directions.  The 10 minute auto shut-off is perfect for me, too, because color me neglectful.

The gravy on top of this iron’s boat of gravy is it’s carrying case.  I love it SO MUCH I want to hug it (full disclosure… I kinda hugged it a little).  Snap off.  Snap on.  Bam.  Easy as pie.   I’m an on-the-go sewer and am always lugging my sewing gear to friends houses, Sweet Hot Yam sewing circles, retreats and Portland Modern Quilt Guild sewing days. My thorn has always been packing my pesky iron, especially at go-home time.  Not any more!  And I love that in limited sewing spaces - I have a spot to put my iron that’s not on my mini travel ironing board.  Cue choir.

I’m so in love with this iron, that I asked some super amazing awesome people if they’d be interested in providing one of these baby’s for a give-away on my blog.  And they said yes!  Iron name change request to The Happy Zombie Cordless Dream Stewie 360°… not so much. Leave a comment and I’ll draw a name from Random.org for a winner on Thursday, Dec 1st at noon-ish (PST), and Panasonic will send the winner the iron.  If you like - share who your favorite cartoon was from childhood. Mine was Scooby Doo (and still is).  Though I do love me some Family Guy!

December 1, 2011 Edited in:
Winner, winner! The Panasonic 360° Freestyle Iron give-away has now ended. Thank you all for joining in on the give-away! Using random.org for comments 1-805, the winner of the “Happy Zombie Cordless Dream Stewie 360°” is: #36 - Mary Anne!

Posted in Stuff | 808 Comments

I made a feast for dinner last night - 22 lb. turkey, stuffing, cranny cran crans, mashed potatoes, gravy and yams.
Just the three of us.
No greens.
No veggies.
No pies.
Pretty much just the meat n potatoes (and the yams just for me).

And then it dawned on me… I basically made a huge cache of sandwich fixin’s for the week. Gawd I love being a grown-up.

Turkey pattern by my friend Vanessa and can be found here.

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Posted in Make Something | 18 Comments

Shortly before I started “crafty blogging” (my blog has a past), one of the blogs that inspired me to make the switch was WhipUp.Net. WhipUp was one of the handful of sparks that made me want to taste the crafting rainbow from my own blog. Fast-forward to 5+ years later, and my rock-star idol and inspire-er Kathreen of WhipUp.Net asks ME if I want to take part in HER Kids’ Crafternoon Felting book. Not only was I incredibly flattered and honored, but I also had a holy crap moment!   And that moment is still lingering.

So here it is, Kids’ Crafternoon Felting, published by Hardie Grant. The last of the four Kids’ Crafternoon series. WHAT an amazing book filled with great projects for kids. Great kids stuff that adults will like too. Dang cute stuff. Fun stuff for kids to make, fun stuff for adults to make for kids.  Don’t let the title fool you - it’s for all ages.  Just freaking cute projects, like the Zombie Critter Charms by Lisa Tilse:

Dachshund Moneybox by Timothy Haugen:

Who Loves Ewe by Cate Holst:

Cute’n Cup Cozy by me!

One style for sweet tastes…

… one style for savory tastes.

There’s so much more to see and read about Kids’ Crafternoon Felting, so be sure to stop by the other AMAZING blogs on the blog party tour.

14 Nov:  Lisa Tilse from The Red Thread
15 Nov:  Suzie Fry from soozs
16 Nov:  Larissa Holland from mmmcrafts
17 Nov:  Pascale Mestdagh from Between the Lines
18 Nov:  Christine Chitnis from Christine Chitnis
19 Nov:  Holly Keller from Chez Beeper Bebe
20 Nov:  Monica Solorio-Snow from Happy Zombie
21 Nov:  Cate Holst from Go Make Me
22 Nov:  Shannon Cook from Luvinthemommyhood
23 Nov:  Jennifer Casa from JCHandmade
24 Nov:  Kate from Picklebums
25 Nov:  Steph Morgan from Modern Parents Messy Kids
26 Nov:  Kara Fleck from Simple Kids
27 Nov:  Maddie from Li’l Magoolie
28 Nov:  Jackie Boucher from Oh Dee Doh
29 Nov:  Bianca from Sadie and Lance
30 Nov:  Tricia Hogbin from Little Eco Footprints
01 Dec:  Lisa Siebert guest posting at Poppytalk

Hardie Grant has kindly given me a copy of Kids’ Crafternoon Felting to give away to one lucky winner.  Leave a comment and I’ll use random.org to pick a winner on this coming Thursday noon-ish, PST.  If you have a memorable craft project you made as a kid - share it in your comment if you like.  To start things rolling, my most memorable craft is the butt fugly felt gingerbread man I made in Brownies (in the 3rd grade, I think).  My mom scoffed at me for calling him ugly, and said that one day I would love him like she did.  Today I think he (Mr. B. Fugly) is beautiful and he hangs on my design wall and I smile at him every day.  And Mr. Fugly smiles back.

November 25, 2011 Edited in:
Winner, winner! The Kids’ Crafternoon Blog Party book give-away has now ended. Thank you all for joining in on the give-away! Using random.org for comments 1-90, the winner of the Kids’ Crafternoon Felting book is smack dab in the middle (shout out to Jan Brady!): Comment #45 - Kim!

Posted in Quilty n Crafty, Make Something | 91 Comments

A few weekends ago I went with my girlfriends for a weekend of sewing (YamCamp Winter ‘11) in Manzanita, Oregon - and some how, some way… I was productive.  I keep checking my body for probe marks, for I’m certain I had been abducted and replaced with an decoy.  Only problem was that my decoy was efficient, focused and productive - a dead giveaway that it wasn’t me.

One of my projects was my Manzanita Star quilt top.  I scored some delicious Echo fat eighth fatties, and I went to town.  No real plan, I just winged it.  Fresh off my Tree Pants project, I was in the mood for some more stars.  With every star I made - I professed my love more and more for Lotta Jansdotter’s Echo line. I LOVE this fabric SO MUCH.

Echo fills my Swedish cup of love as well as my Japanese cup.  Swedinese bliss.  Come to read about Lotta - turns out she lived in Japan for a time.

Luckily I brought some yardage of Kona Coal, Pepper, Med. Gray and White - and I was able to make my top.  I love my model, Violet - she’s always so eager and helpful.   And even though Violet can’t be seen… she’s so damn cute, too.

I used what I had with me, I took no notes, no tutorial to share.  I just had the pure pleasure of sewing a quilt top for nothing other than for fun and a one-day finished quilt.  I’ve been getting request for my measurements, so I’m happy to share my measurements for my block.  Block assembly is the same as the block here.  I used a fat eighth of each Echo print - and I’m thinking I could make a companion quilt… a bigger one - double my blocks and double my quilt’s size buy using fat quarters or 1/4 yard cuts. From a small 4×5 block quilt to a 5×8 block quilt.

Echo is now available at Sew, Mama, Sew! - and there’s a 99.9% chance if you order Echo from SMS… your order will be filled from one of my girlfriends who was at YamCamp.  Meaning… one of those people could have been the one who abducted me and programed me to be productive and efficient.  And maybe it can happen to you too.   SewMamaOsmosis.  Just saying.

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Posted in Quilty n Crafty, Make Something | 16 Comments

I was so enthusiastic and excited when I started the Farmer’s Wife Quilt-a-long. I had bought the book a few years back - and it was collecting dust… until I saw that Amanda and Angela started the FWQAL.  I jumped in, and jumped from what felt like the high-dive.  I made these and these.  And then got cookin’ on these:

And then I decided I had had enough of the templates, and applied my Only Do Things That Make Me Happy rule to my block-making.  I then picked blocks that made me happy and I paid no attention to their numbers.

And then I started to slow down a little.

And then I began to make the blocks how I wanted to make them - and used the book as guide rather than an assignment. (Block 39 I made with half square triangles and flip-n-stitch corners vs using the templates).  I’ll make some more in a future post.  Easy as store-bought pie.

And then I decided I was done and wanted to make something with only the blocks that I had already made (and hopefully not write a blog post to go with it that would end up sounding like the drive-thru lady on Dude Where’s My Car).

And then a bee flew up my butt.  I grabbed some Kona White and Kona Pepper, (and put some Kona Coal aside)…

And soon realized I needed more blocks to make my quilt just right.

And then…  I Rosie Ruiz’d finished my Make Me Happy quilt!

And then I made out with my quilt.  BAM - surprise ending.

Thank you Amanda and Angela for hosting such a great quilt-a-long. And most of all, I’m thankful for all the new friends I made from participating in it! XXOO!

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Posted in Quilty n Crafty | 79 Comments

Sometimes it’s ok to play with drugs.

Posted in How I Live | 16 Comments