Happy Zombie

May The 4th Be With You, originally uploaded by Happy Zombie.

Auditions for colors happening right now.  Madly adorable pattern by Mollie Johanson at wildolive.blogspot.com

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I’m beyond excited to be sharing more about my Sew Yummy collection with Cloud9 Fabrics. Crazy excited. Beyond belief excited. Squee all over myself excited. And my hope is that lots of people will be using it to sew and quilt some really fun stuff! Sew Yummy is just about here, getting itself ready for it’s big debut at Spring International Quilt Market in Pittsburgh.

Quilt Market is kinda like a farmer’s market - where everything is fresh and just picked, but also juicy and ripe. Because fabrics are so fresh, there’s a hurry up and wait urgency to get projects made and finished in time for market. This can mean being ready to go while waiting for the UPS truck to back up in the drive way. It’s a crazy, hectic and sleepless rush to get things done - but I wouldn’t trade that for anything in the world!

One of the projects I’ll be making that will be in the Cloud9 booth is my Yo, Stitch! pattern. It’ll be available free at Cloud9’s MAKE IT SEW PROJECTS section of their website. There will be some other projects to show, too, a little bit later on. For now, I hope everyone who’ll be attending Quilt Market will visit the Cloud9 booth (1713). Maybe hang out and browse all the beautiful delights Cloud9 has to offer.

In the coming future I’ll have more pics to share. For now, here’s a sweet little peek at the entire Sew Yummy collection.  Stay tuned!

[squeeeeeeeeee!]

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A ways back I made a little iPhone bag slash ID & badge holder for the 2011 Summer issue of Quilts & More. I’ve since revised my pattern and it’s now available in my shop.  A superfly little badge holder & wallet PDF sewing pattern for fashionable neckwear.

The BADGE HOLDER is for everyone and great for retreats, guild meetings, kids’ field trips, trade shows, work ID’s and people who like having their chest looked at. The front of the badge holder has a clear vinyl window pocket, and the back has a fabric pocket. Business in the front, party in the back. Vinyl ID window is sourced from a clear vinyl show curtain (available for under $4 USD at stores like IKEA, Target and Fred Meyer).

Big, roomy center for all kinds of little goodies like business cards, hotel key cards, transit passes, credit cards, candy, gum, keys, lipstick, stickers, coffee punch-cards, love notes, coupons, ear buds, tissues, mints, iPhone/cell charger cable, mad money, happy money, drivers license, blood donor card, “I voted” sticker, ICE - in case of emergency card, hair barrettes, rogue gummi bears, work ID card, movie tickets, etc.

Super yummy in all kinds of fabrics, especially fabrics from Cloud9 Fabrics.

My BADGE HOLDER PDF patten now available in my shop!

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Last October I brought Walt home and into my life - my little white (celery) 1964 Singer 221K Featherweight.

Since that time, I’ve been trying all kinds of storage and travel solutions for him. Plastic bins with handles. An Ikea cooler. Even a Trader Joe’s bag. Sigh, nothing was working as I wanted it to. I was like Goldilocks in search of finding Just The Right storage for old Walt. While my Featherweight fit in all those containers, there still wasn’t enough room for my tools, fabric and other accoutrements. Because just like that, I had become my grandmother (not a bad thing) with all her many totes and bags. Four, five, six bags… all for only a few hours away from the house.  No.  I need to lug ONE thing only.

Me with my shopping cart hauling ass down an aisle in Home Depot… I spotted It… Walt’s cherry new ride.  I Fred Flinstone’d my cart’s breaks, backed up, stood in front of It, and then I cried a little. A muffled whimper of glee.  I FOUND IT! By accident I discovered the Stanley-3-in-1-Rolling-Workshop. This has got to be too good to be true. For certain Walt was going to be a smidge too big to fit. I figured I could always take it back if it didn’t fit.

Not too tall, just tall enough. Two cats high, to be exact.

Nice big wheels on the side so no tipping over. Instead of a telescoping handle it’s got squeezy release action handle. LOVE that.  Best part, is when I have my handle down and the top is nice and flush/flat - I can put my pressing board right on top and I’ve got myself an awesome little pressing station.

Oh hi, happy face.

Not too many compartments, just comparmenty enough. Three perfect compartments meant for sewing.

Bottom unit for Walt, small cutting mat, rulers.

Middle unit for my tools.

Top unit for my iron, water, Flatter, fabric, etc.

Actually, my Featherweight fits in either the top or the bottom case. This is just so dreamy. All that’s left now is to decorate my mobile sewing center and make it cute. The wheels are turning. Literally.

On a side note, I devised a way to keep my thread spool from flying around while my machine is tripping the lights fantasic across the west coast - I pop the spool in a small yogurt container…

… snap on the lid that has a small hole I cut in it and then jam the spool holder thing into it.

The container kind of rests on top and pretty much stays put depending how close the lid of my storage is to it. But even should it fall, at least the spool is safe and not getting tangled on everything.  My spool cozy for traveling.

Damn I love to sew.

RESOURCES:
- Amazon.com: info

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Another round of the Traveling Quilts Bee was just at my house, not once but TWICE with both Faith’s and Jacquie’s beautiful quilt-in-progress quilts. If anyone isn’t familiar with our Traveling Quilts Bee, be sure to check out our Traveling Quilts Bee flickr group.

I started with Jacquie’s, and it took me a few days of looking at it to figure out what I was going to do. It was not unlit I looked at the quilt through my iphone that I saw the big “t” in the quilt. Again, my iphone is one of my favorite quilting tools. Thanks, Apple! I took that “t” and ran with it, and I added a row of t’s to the top. My favorite one is the “one of these t’s is not like the others” t. I think it’s the one constant in almost all my additions to everyone TQ’s - is I make one or two of block grouping in kind of reverse. A little zig amongst the zag.

On Faith’s, it was a bit more challenging, but in a good way because there was the quilt-in-progress plus a handful of block made by others. I could either do something with all the blocks or I could add to the QIP. I chose the latter because I LOVE MAKING STARS.

I made 12 little star blocks, a few that were zigged instead of zagged.

I made two rows of six blocks. Twilight colors in one row, sunrise colors for the bottom row. I heart seams.

Get ready Daniel, I’m sending Jacquie’s and Faith’s TQs off to you today!

RESOURCES:
- My Traveling Quilts Bee blog posts: tagged Bee Serious
- The Traveling Quilts Bee flickr group

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Sorry, this post has been removed. I made this very clear in my (now deleted) post, but I’ll say it again - please do as I did and consult with your vet for your dog’s specific dietary needs. The recipe I made and shared was for my dog’s specific needs and that liver was NOT a mainstay of her diet.

If you come across a repost of this recipe (that I did not authorize or agree to and consider it content theft) PLEASE know that my recipe if for all kinds of meats not just organs such as chicken livers or not meat at all. And again, PLEASE CONSULT WITH YOUR VETERINARIAN FOR YOUR DOG’S SPECIFIC NEEDS AND DIET.

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While I’m on the subject of the Olympics - also revisited is my Happy Sochi Yum Yum blog post from May 2011 (Wow, really… 2011?! That seems like a lifetime ago.)

In 2011 we first got a glimpse of the patchwork we’d be seeing in Sochi. I loved the previews and even more I love how the patchwork has become so prevalent at the Sochi Olympics. Wow. Just wow. Olympics + Sochi patchwork is pinging my two loves. I hope there’s some fabric company in talks right now with Bosco/Sochi Olympic Committee to license the patchwork design into fabric. I need to say that again… I HOPE THERE’S SOME FABRIC COMPANY IN TALKS RIGHT NOW WITH BOSCO/SOCHI OLYMPIC COMMITTEE TO LICENSE THE PATCHWORK DESIGN INTO FABRIC.

IMAGE SOURCE: Roustem Adagamov

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My family and I are huge fans of the Olympics.  HUGE fans.  Especially the Winter Olympics.   The Olympics transcend sports and competition, but through sports the world comes together.  In peace.  In awesomeness.  Global conflicts are set aside (for the most part), and people represent countries - not the politicians, or monarchies, or leaders, or dictators, or rebels, or evil doers… but people like you and me — our kids, our siblings, our parents, and our friends.  Global happy.  I get really irritated with the Internets dogging the Olympics (I’m talking to you AV Club), and I feel bad when the magnitude of the Olympics is just. not. got. Go, happy, go!

When the last Winter O’s were in Vancouver, BC, we drove up there just to be there. No events. Just to be there. My blog post about our trip Vancouver is here.   I heart Canada people. Go, Canada, Go!

One of my favorite things about the Vancouver Olympics was the Norwegian Curling team’s uniforms. Pretty much my MOST FAVORITE THING EVER, Olympics or not. And the Norwegians are at it again (and some other teams, too). My head exploded and little bubbles of joy floated out of my skull’s cracks when I eyed this on google images today:

I got all nostalgic thinking about Vancouver, and I how I want to celebrate with fabric, needle and thread again. So for now, I’m revisiting my Norwegian Curling Pants Market Bag project. I heart curling people. Go, curling, go!

In other Olympic awesomeness, this story made my heart swell - and I bet even the anti-olympicite Internets would experience some heart swelling from this, too.

RESOURCES:
– My trip to Vancouver, BC
– Make my Norwegian Curling Pants Market Bag

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My dog is a kitty bed - my cat is a doggie pillow.

A few months ago our younger Golden, Madison, passed. Both Liberty (our older Golden) and York (our cat who thinks he’s a dog) were inseparable and snugly with Madison. I think they’ve been sad and missing Madison, especially Libby. And then today Libby and York “discovered” each other (previous pic), and tonight they sealed the buddy deal.

This makes me so incredibly happy and comforted, and it’s such a beautiful thing to witness that I just had to share.  I’m convinced pets are just really, really hairy miniature people.

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Wow. I was at my friend Katy’s blog today and I noticed a button on the top right, and thankfully I clicked on it. And then I had THE MOST happy surprise ever… Katy is doing her own video series! If there was EVER a person who should be behind the camera and teaching, it’s Katy. Seriously, I don’t know why Katy doesn’t have her own show on BBC (you hear that, Great British Sewing Bee?!), or HGTV, or her own show on Bravo (you hear that Andy Cohen?!).

Prepare to be enchanted.

Seriously, Katy is amazing behind the camera.  Just as she’s amazing when there’s no camera.  I love Katy’s message and thoughts on quilting, and to top it off she’s crazy super nice and adorable.   I super-love-crush on Katy.  That is all.

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