Happy Zombie

I’m so excited to be participating in the Moda Bakeshop Progressive Dinner celebration… to ring in the new book from Stash Books called Fresh Fabric Treats!  I’m one of the “chefs” in the book - which sounds kinda funny to me since “chef” is what I’d be called if Phoenix froze over. (please don’t remind me that it snowed there this winter)

Almost exactly 2 years ago I wrote a post about this new project called “Moda Bakeshop” I was asked to be a part of… and now almost 2 years to the day I’m writing about the MBS book.  A freaking book!  I would like to think that in 2 years from now I’ll be making a post about the new adventure & theme park called Modaland.  No doubt the Moda genius/superstar/sweetheart Lissa Alexander is right on that!

If this is your first time to my blog, here’s a sampling of my projects at MBS:

I’m not supposed to talk about or show what I’ve made. Top blahblahblah secret yadayadayada. But no one said I couldn’t go all Perez’y on the back cover.

So now about you! Here’s the deal - goodies for you from Stash and Moda. And good goodies. Hot, steamy good-goodies. Fresh from the oven hot, steamy good-goodies - imaginary hand delivered to you by Fabio from Top Chef. All you have to do is enjoy the progressive dinner tour by:

[1] Leave me a comment on this post, and you’ll be entered to win a copy of Fresh Fabric Treats AND a Moda FAT QUARTER BUNDLE (it’ll be a surprise what fabric you get - something that’s not even available to the public yet!!).

[2] Visit all the chefs on the progressive dinner tour - and leave each one of them a comment on their tour post and you’ll be entered to win $200 worth of Moda pre-cut fabrics and a copy of Fresh Fabric Treats!  HOLY HONEY BUNS, how cool is that.

Progressive Dinner Tour:
January 19
Stash Books
Moda Bake Shop

January 20
Amanda Jean of Crazy Mom Quilts
Roslyn Mirrington of Bloom
Vanessa Christenson of V and Co.

January 21
John Adams of Quilt Dad
Monica Solorio-Snow of Happy Zombie (hey that’s me!)

January 22
Kimberly Walus of Bitty Bits and Pieces
Melissa Mortenson of The Polkadot Chair

January 23
Natalia Bonner of Piece N Quilt
Vickie Eapen of Spun Sugar Quilts

January 24
Rachel Griffith of P.S. I Quilt
Lissa Alexander of Moda Lissa

January 25
Julie Herman of Jaybird Quilts
Sweetwater

January 26
Angela Yosten
Jenny Garland

I’ll be drawing a name for the give-away on my blog on January 28th. Good luck and enjoy the tour!

Posted in Make Something | 1504 Comments

Click on the FQ button and see what the good peeps at Fat Quarterly are doing if you donate to the Queensland Government Flood Relief Appeal. Every $5 can make a difference.  Check out Toni’s blog and see what needs to be done… and what can be done if we all give a little.  We all can make a difference. Oi. Oi. Oi.

There’s soooo much goodness out there that you can donate via and possibly win something - you’ll find it all on Toni’s blog.  I do want to shout out to my sisterfriends Sarah and Natalie and their donations.  Sarah is donating this quilt to support the Queensland Government Flood Relief Appeal …

… and Natalie is donating this quilt to support the Queensland Government Flood Relief Appeal…
These and soooooooooo much more CAN BE YOURS!

A personal appeal to anyone reading this to spend a little. I know times are tough - my own family is a victim of this bad economy.  My husband is on unemployment and we’re dipping into my dwindling savings to just buy groceries. Not to get too personal or too sob story-ish… but I DO KNOW how tough a spare $5 or $10 can be.  I also know what it’s like to live in a disaster and have help come from far and wide.  A little over 3 years ago we had a huge storm (20+ hours of hurricane winds and rain) - we lost part of our roof and dozens of trees; no heat, water and power for a week; no roads because they were under fallen trees; no phone, radio or tv; we were cut off from the world.  My little city was a sea of blue tarp’d roofs and roadways of fallen evergreens.

By no means were we a Katrina or Queensland flooding… but it was a disaster and we needed help.  And we got it.  There is no feeling like it in the world to see people from lands far and away come and give you aid and love. Strangers who’ve left behind their families to come help yours.  Our little Oregon community was flooded with emergency crews and utility crews from all over Oregon as well as California, Montana and Idaho.  Washington was kinda busy with The Storm themselves - and yet we still had crews come from Washington.  Amazing.

The kindness of strangers, no matter how big or small… makes a difference.

No matter how tough times are for me, and no matter how little or big I can give… I always want to be someone’s Mountain Power of Idaho and hope you can too.

Posted in Do Something | 22 Comments

I’m sure every quilter has the same kindling and thrill I do - you see a square of fabric and it begs you to transform it into something new.

So I turned 2 squares into 1 hourglass.  A magic hourglass.  One square of a print, one square of background fabric.  Any size square will work as long as two rules of thumb are followed (more on that ahead).  For my potholder (which is headed to Heather’s new red & aqua rockin’ kitchen), I made four magic hourglasses starting with 5″ squares - and each one finishes at almost it’s original size no matter what the size of square you start with.  All seams are ¼”.

1) For each print square and background square - cut in half diagonally.  Red fabric by Patty.

2) Cut each triangle in half long-wise.  Rule of thumb #1:  Find your half measurement.  It does not have to be an exact half, but do use the measurement you’ve chosen consistently on all your blocks of that size.  Aqua fabric by Mo.

3) Trim ⅝” off (and toss) one end of the trapezoid. Rule of thumb #2 - this measurement is etched in stone and is used for every size block.  Charm, Layer Cake… whatever size.

4) Join a background triangle to print trapezoid/print triangle to background trapezoid to make a triangle unit.  Press to the print. Because you’re working with the motherload of bias edges, press gently with steam.

5) Audition triangle units - another option beside a double hourglass is to make a square-in-a-square-ish block (how cool is that!).  Red fabric by Bari, aqua fabric by me.

6) Join triangle units to make magic hourglass block.

7) Trim of dog-ears, join blocks and make something.

And now I will cook something. Hahahahaha - I kill me.

Posted in Make Something | 54 Comments

I having a head spinning heart swooning love affair with my new boyfriend, George.

George Pinterest Glass.

Oh yeah, he’s hot. So hot I don’t want to climb out of bed - and just be with him day and night, night and day.

A snapshot of my kool-aid board.  No reason to explain why I can’t get out of bed and out of George Pinterest Glass’ loving arms (right arm: keyboard and left arm: trackpad).

My boards - like pretty little shoe-boxes where I hide away all my dreams, desires and delectables.  Any photo or image I see in Internetlandia - bam, one click to my “pin it” button on my toolbar - and into one of my selected pin boards it goes.  My boyfriend George is that good. And the best part… my friends (old and new) who are also on Pinterest - I get to see into their shoe-boxes AND get to socialize with them.  Gravy.

Pinterest = Lovefest.
Want your own Pinterest boyfriend or girlfriend, too? If you get one - please don’t say I didn’t warn you about Pinterest’s sexy, sexy spell.

Editing in a Q & A. I’m no expert… just passing on what I’ve learned.

Pam allegedly asked:
[Q] Do I need to know someone with an account to get an invite?
[A] No… but if you do know someone - I would offer them some chocolate for an invite. If you don’t know someone, just click on “get one” at the bottom of my post - it’ll take you to a request.

Sherri allegedly asked:
[Q] … can you request to see friends’ boards???
[A] You can see friends’ boards even if you don’t follow them or they don’t follow you. No friendship requests… just following. If you do follow them, their pins will show on your feed - exactly like your twitter feed shows tweets of those you follow. You can also unfollow boards within a user. Example: I follow Person-XYZ, but I’ll unfollow their “jewelry” board so I don’t see all their jewelry pins in my feed.

Pat allegedly asked:
[Q] Okie dokie… so am I supposed to get notified if the people i follow post something new? How about when someone comments on my photo? Or repins?
[A] Yes - you just need to set up your preferences here. I haven’t been getting all of my notifications, but I think Pinterest is working on that.

Posted in Stuff I like | 40 Comments

First order of business is announcing the winners of my Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Day and the Where Women Create 12 Days of Christmas little bundles of my Holiday Happy fabric. I received THE nicest comments and wish I could give a bundle to everyone who entered. I feel like the winner of my own giveaway!

SMS winner: is comment #977 Katie of Gnomemade!
WWC winner: Announced on WWC here.

PS - Check out what Ramona made with her recent win of one of my giveaways!  So cute I could weep!

[Random “Christmas in Happy Zomlandia” photo so I’m in compliance with myNo Photo, No Post rule - and all I need now are some cookies.]

I’m so excited to be participating in the first-ever Bloggers’ Block-a-palooza! So without further ramblings - here’s a message from our Chief Paloozer, John of QuiltDad!

Chief Paloozer says:
By now, many of you are busy making the final push towards the holidays. But what are your crafty plans as we enter 2011? Well, clear your plate, because we have a great quilt-along planned that will begin in January!

18 quilt bloggers have collaborated to bring you the first-ever Bloggers’ Block-a-palooza. We’ll jump from blog to blog making 2 quilt blocks per week, wrapping up with a custom setting and layout design to help complete your quilt.

We’re calling this quilt-along “Waiting for Spring” because we’ll be using the brand new Sunkissed line by Sweetwater for Moda, and the bright colors and botanical prints should help you (or at least those of you in the Northern hemisphere!) push through the cold winter months and have a fresh new quilt ready for the Spring.

More details will be available soon, but in the meantime feel free to grab our button below and spread the word.

=====================

Wanna be a Biggest Paloozer and join in the fun? Feel free to grab our button and link to us at:

http://quiltdad.com/p/bloggers-block-palooza-quilt-along.html

Posted in Stuff | 25 Comments

First there’s Black Friday.

Next comes Cyber Monday.

Now comes (in great big Oprah voice)… SEW, MAMA, SEW GIVEAWAY DAY!!!

Sew, Mama, Sew’s Giveaway Day is a huge online gift party… a 3-part master list of over 300 giveaways!

I’m participating in the Sew, Mama Sew Giveaway Day by giving away a Fat 8th bundle (25 fabrics total) of my Holiday Happy fabric to one lucky commenter.  Easy squeezey… leave a comment by 8pm PST on 12/17/2010 to enter, and I’ll have Random.org draw a name.  I will ship internationally.  Be sure to visit the other blogs participating in the Sew, Mama, Sew’s Giveaway Day!

Edited in: Giveaway is now over and winner will be announced soon.

Posted in Holiday Happy | 1215 Comments

Welcome to Day 4 of my 5 or so Days of Holiday Happy - 5 or so days of celebrating Gnoma Claus from my Holiday Happy fabric.

My last project is a no sew project - a Gnoma Claus “window appliqué”. Easy on, easy off - appliqué your windows with fabric and liquid starch. I learned this nifty little starch trick 20+ years ago on the Home Show from the 80’s craft queen Carol Duvall. Carol had on a guest who not only fabric starched her walls… but she covered stuff like her telephone - and her VW Bug!  I’ve been hooked on liquid starch ever since.

You can use any cotton fabric - it doesn’t have to be Gnoma Claus fabric. I know Gnoma’s getting hard to find - but you can always tell Lecien (in your best Oliver Twist typing accent), “More Gnoma, please“.  A list of shops (that I know of) that carry my Holiday Happy line are listed on my blog here  and via Lecien’s website here. (I’m sorry, but I don’t know their inventories). If anyone is aware of a shop that has any Gnoma panels - please don’t hesitate to mention the shop(s) name in a comment.

Trim Gnoma or make into shapes (snowflakes, snowmen, my gears spin).  The Gnoma “backs” I used to make trees and their stumps.

I used concentrated Sta-Flo brand liquid starch that contains no dyes, a foam brush and an old cutting board (that won’t have food on it again).  With some gentle strokes (to not stretch the fabric and to avoid fraying at the edges) - paint on some liquid starch.  You only need to paint one side, and either side is ok.  Fabric piece should be soaked, but not dripping.

Adhere fabric piece to the window using your fingers.   Press from the center outward.  Try not to press beyond the cut edge.

Wipe off any drips (and you will have some) with a damp cloth.

Gnoma can stay on as long as you like (just dab on some liquid starch if he needs a touch-up or some curious fingers pulled on him).  When it’s time to remove him, just peel off (and use him again next year!).  Clean the window as you normally do.  Starch residue should come off with your cleaning product of choice (even plain water and a soft rag - AKA spit and a finger at my house).

The gears are spinning with fabric window appliqués that are dancing in my head right now. My dishwasher could use some Holiday Happy’n up, too. If you make something with Holiday Happy/Gnoma, or you spot something with HH/Gnoma, or you’ve made something from 5 or so Days, or you want to see what others are making/have made (like Pam) - be sure to check out (and Join!) the Holiday Happy flickr group.

As a grand finally goodie - I’ll give a Gnoma Claus panel and a little charm pack of Holiday Happy to one lucky commenter who answers the question of the day (or just leave a comment).

Q: If you could have anyone famous person(s) (dead or alive) join you for your holiday dinner… who would it be?   Mine would be Princess Diana, Queen Liliuokalani and Oprah.

I’ll let the comments marinate until Monday, December 13, 2010 10:00am PST and I’ll have random.org pick a winner’s name. (I’ll edit in the winner’s name here on this post).

EDITED IN 12/13/10:
Winner picked for this day has now been picked (by random.org), and is… comment #25 Sarah of Byneedleandthread! Congratulations, Sarah!!!

[Day 1] ❄ [Day 2] ❄ [Day 3] ❄ [Day 4] ❄ [Day 5] ❄ [Day 6]

[See what others have made @ HH flickr group]
[Shop] ❆ [Lecien]

Posted in Holiday Happy | 247 Comments

I’m celebrating a day of Christmas over at Where Women Create! I’m actually on Day Four of WWC’s The Twelve days of Christmas! Do go and read all 4 days (and the days still to come) - not only are there holiday traditions and goodness being shared - but there’s also give-aways!

I’m giving away a Fat 8th’lette bundle of my Holiday Happy fabric!  To enter the giveaway, hop on over to the 4th day at WWC’s Twelve days of Christmas and leave a comment there.  Happy Fourth of WWC12DaysOfChristmas-uly!

Posted in Holiday Happy | Comments Off

Welcome to Day 5 of my 5 or so Days of Holiday Happy - 5 or so days of celebrating Gnoma Claus from my Holiday Happy fabric.

Today is kind of a mish-mash of holiday fun stuff. My Gnoma Claus goodie today is a Firefox persona featuring Gnoma.  If you don’t have Firefox, you can download it here.

If you’re running your Firefox browser and you want to dress it up with my Gnoma Claus persona - all you have to do is mouse-over the Gnoma graphic on my persona page and click “Wear It”.  How easy is that!  Here is Firefox’s FAQ if you have any questions/need help.

Some holiday sewy-quilty goodness… the 2010 Fat Quarterly Special Holiday Edition. I was honored to be asked to do a little review in it, and FQ so kindly sent me the issue. I was BLOWN AWAY by the content and the style. Mad crushing love for all things Fat Quarterly and the people behind it. The issues are PACKED full of goodness and the style is so crisp, clean, modern and fun.   I’m going to subscribe to all of their issues. Genius.

I’m being featured right now on the Fat Quarterly Blog, and aside from being so giddy about that - in the post I mention my “Project Runway” inspiration quilt that’s in the 2010 Winter issue of Quilts & More…

My inspiration - Project Runway’s Season 7’s wall in their apartment.  As soon as I saw the wooden wall adornment… I knew I had to make it into a quilt.  (Yay Seth Aaron!)

Quilts & More Winter 2010 named my quilt/project “Rectangle Reverie”, but I call it Project Rectangle.  Kits for Rectangle Reverie with my Holiday Happy fabric are available at The Material Girls Quilts, (one of my favorite quilt shops!).  I just have to add… I still can’t believe Mondo didn’t win Season 8.

My dear friend Sarah of Anyone Can Quilt machine quilted it… AND she did so on her home sewing machine! Amazing. Sarah also took this beautiful photo. The girl can quilt AND take photos.  And she can cook.  If I didn’t love her so much I’d hate her (and I’d gnarl at her).

SuperDad aka QuiltDad John has ALREADY made my pattern and used Melissa’s gorgeous new Swoon to make it in.  Sooo yummy!  John’s beautiful photo of his beautiful quilt:

I love seeing what inspires people, and loved seeing (and was so wow’d by) Heather’s and John’s recent inspriation quilts… and of course I always love seeing what the Grande Dame of Inspiration makes!

I’ll give a little charm pack of Holiday Happy to one lucky commenter who answers the question of the day (or just leave a comment).

Q: What inspires you/has inspired you?  Fabric?  An object? A person?  A place?  An event?

EDITED IN 12/8/10:
Winner picked for this day has now been picked (by random.org), and is… comment #80 AnnieO of Annie’s Quilt Orts! Congratulations, Annie!

[Day 1] ❄ [Day 2] ❄ [Day 3] ❄ [Day 4] ❄ [Day 5] ❄ [Day 6]

[See what others have made @ HH flickr group]
[Shop] ❆ [Contact Lecien]

PS…
For more holiday fun, check out Where Women Create 12 Days of Christmas, Quiltmaker’s Countdown to Christmas and the Awkward Family Photo “awkward yourself“, (that’s me in my “The New Jan Brady” phase - I’m imagining what my imaginary boyfriend George… George Glass… is going to surprise me with for Christmas).

Posted in Holiday Happy | 149 Comments

Welcome to Day 4 of my 5 or so Days of Holiday Happy - 5 or so days of celebrating Gnoma Claus from my Holiday Happy fabric.

Ever since Spring Market - where I had my little Gnoma Bags on display (in the Lecien booth)… I’ve been asked if I’d sell the pattern.  Since I suck at selling stuff… I always  figured I’d just give it away (does that make me a craft slut?).  But in all honesty, I want support all the wonderful shops who are selling my fabric. (Ok, so I’m a tiny bit craft slutty - but a grateful one!)

Making the little bags is very similar to my Poochie Bags - so if you’ve made that pattern - this one is a piece of cake.

One Gnoma Claus panel, some bits and pieces of Holiday Happy, and 1⅓ yard of solid snow/white (for the liner and backs of Gnoma) - you will yield 5 Gnoma Bags in nested sizes.

Here’s the cutting chart for all the different sizes. Cut your Gnoma’s out of the panel with ample room around Gnoma’s edges.   It doesn’t have to be pretty - it’ll get trimmed off later.  All measurements are in inches.

For the tutorial, I’ll be making the extra small bag. Use the XS cutting & measurement chart above.

1.  Fold and press each 3×10″ handle strap in half lengthwise - with wrong side inside. Open and press long edges to center. Refold in half and press. Repeat for both handle straps. Edge-stitch on outer edges to finish handle straps.  Stitch as close to the edge as possible… this will give your straps a polished look and feel.

2. Find the center along the width of your printed bag piece.  On 2¼” from each side of the center is where you will pin your strap (to the right side of fabric).

3.  Layer edge of solid to unit.  Pin and sew a ¼” seam along the top. Press one unit to the solid, and press the other unit to the print. This will make for a nice seam nesting when you assemble the bag.

4.  Make your Gnoma pockets by layering (right sides together) your Gnoma front fabric to the solid fabric, and your Gnoma back fabric to a piece of solid fabric.  Pin and sew along Gnoma’s edges.  Leave an opening at the bottom for turning (a least 3″).

5.  Turn units inside out, press and pin to printed piece of bag unit.  Note:  You don’t have to stitch Gnoma’s opening closed.  Position the flattest part of Gnoma’s bottom to the bottom of the unit, and on center.

6.  Edge-stitch all the way up to where Gnoma’s hat line and beard meet.  Pivot and sew your way back to the bottom.  Repeat on other side of Gnoma to form a pocket.

7.  Layer bag units, right sides together.

8.  Pin, and stitch a ¼” seam around entire unit, leaving a 3″ opening on center on the bags liner unit for turning.

9.  Trim off Gnoma’s excess junk in the trunk.

10.  Make your Poochie (gusset) by pinching a corner so that the front and back seams are aligned vertically - creating a triangle. Stitch horizontally across triangle (at ⅞” from the triangle tip), and back-stitch ends of stitching to “lock”. Trim off triangle tip ¼” from the seam to reduce bulk. Repeat on all corners.

11.Turn bag inside out. Close turning opening by top-stitching it closed. Tuck liner inside bag. Done!

12.  Optional - add a button, snap or Velcro® at Gnoma’s hat tips to keep pockets closed.

I’ll give a little charm pack of Holiday Happy to one lucky commenter who answers the question of the day (or just leave a comment).

EDITED IN 12/3/10:
Winner picked for this day has now been picked (by random.org), and is… comment #109 Stephanie of Queen of the Unfinished Projects…! Congratulations, Stephanie!

[Day 1] ❄ [Day 2] ❄ [Day 3] ❄ [Day 4] ❄ [Day 5] ❄ [Day 6]

[See what others have made @ HH flickr group]
[Shop] ❆ [Contact Lecien]

Posted in Holiday Happy | 183 Comments