Christmas Tutorials

As I was surfing the web I found quite a few wonderful tutorials or free projects.  It got me thinking that you might like to see them too.  So I am going to put up one every day for as long as I have them.  If you have a link to one that you think others would like to have too, please email it to me and I will use it.  My email is  mamaspark@gmail.com  I am looking forward to hearing from you.

Today I found the cutest little stitchery over on Gail Pan's blog.  It is only up for the month of December but it is adorable!

(Photo from Gail's blog)

I also wanted to share a cool thing I found for decorating.  I was out buying the cedar roping for my house and found an evergreen ball (not sure how else to describe it).  I took a photo of the one I bought that is hanging outside my front door.  Pretty cool huh?

I finished the first of the 3 Halloween tumbler quilts I am making, now it is off to see Liz!

Of course I couldn't have done it without my kitty helpers

I also finished my next star in the FQ Star QAL.

That's all the quilt related content that I will have now until after the new year, I think. I have some bindings to do but I had to put my sewing away so I can get out Christmas. I got everything all picked up and put away. After toting 4 56 gallon tote bins to the basement full of fabric I think I have no business buying any more until I can use some up! That's why those Halloween ones need to get done as they will use up all my Halloween flannels! I need to make a new "to do in 2012" list and work really hard to finish up some of the quilts I have bought materials for in the coming year. Right now there are 3 lines I am looking forward to getting so I really, really need to get to work!!

I will be posting new sewing/crafting tutorial links so there will still be some great things here. Come back soon!! ~XOP~

Block 3 in the FQ Star Quilt Along

I finally got around to making the third block in the FQ Star QAL.  For some reason I found this block challenging.  I had to do quite a bit of unsewing to make it work, but I am happy with the results. 

I went through and organized my sewing room. I have to get it all picked up so I can put out Christmas. My goal this week is to get it all picked up so I can get Christmas put out over the weekend. I have just a few more things to do before I can pick up the sewing room. I did take my second travel sewing machine out to see if it would work for me to use on some other projects that I might want to work on between now and January. I will try to remember to take a photo of the machine to share with you later. It's a Brother. Other than being kind of loud it worked like a charm.

Off to bed soon, I hope you all had a great holiday (if you are here in the US) otherwise a great weekend. When do you put your Christmas stuff out? ~XOP~

Block 4 of the FQ Star QAL

I have the last leg of the journey home to tell you about but I am so short on time at the moment (work is killing me!!) so I'm just going to direct you over to Moose on the Porch for my star block!!!  Yes it is finally up and I'm interested to know what you think and what you think of the directions too.  Here is what the block looks like too.

And here is the link to the tutorial or under the tutorial section of my blog too.

I promise to be back tomorrow with the tail end of our trip (lots of driving) and a few quilt shops too

= )

I plan to take some photos (if I can ever leave work) of the things I bought so I hope you will come back!!

I have that annual check up that all us girls look forward to after work so fingers crossed the light holds up for those photos!! ~XOP~

Farmer's Market and Second Star

I went to the farmer's market with my DH on Sunday.  I got the biggest cauliflower and head of cabbage I have ever seen, just one dollar each!! 

The purple and yellow ones were just amazing!

The colorful eye candy was everywhere.  I love fall in the midwest!

There was this man carving a gigantic pumpkin too, fascinating!

This market is realtively small but it was fun to get some great deals on some amazing produce!

So backing up to Saturday, I got up and went to Zumba, came home, showered and watched the MSU vs U of M game. A HUGE rivalry, which MSU won yet again!! It was a good game too. Then it was time to put up my Halloween decorations and clean up the sewing room. Done. I also managed to sew my second star from the FQ Star QAL hosted by Moose on the Porch. I'm happy with it.

I managed to sew all the lines on yet another chenille blanket, now for the cutting part! UGH that makes my hands hurt already!! 2 more to do and then done with that. I wanted to work on a top for my friend's mom but just could not get to it. Hopefully I will be able to work on it this upcoming weekend as it is one I need to have done before Thanksgiving.  I did talk with a friend and have another pattern to test for her, yeah!  Looking forward to working with her again.  So I guess that brings you up to date with what I have going on.  How was your weekend?  ~XOP~

What's In A Name?

Dawn over at Sweet as Cinnamon is having a giveaway if you tell about how your blog got it's name.  Now I have to say my blog name underwent a change from Mamaspark's World to Mama Spark's World.  Why you ask?  Because some folks kept calling me mama's park!  I AM NOT A PARK!  (Those of you that have followed for a long time already know that).

My DD1 has a nickname, it is herself in her dragon form and her dragon form's name is Sparkle. You may remember the small quilt of the purple dragon I did awhile back.  No?  Well then, meet Sparkle.

So when I was trying to come up with a name, DD1 was being called Sparkle so she suggested Mama Spark, mama of Sparkle. That's how the Camel got it's hump my blog got it's name! How did your blog get it's name? Make a post and link up to Dawn's blog. C'mon, inquiring minds want to know!

On to other news,lest you think all I did was apple canning all weekend, I did not! Besides the usual, grocery shopping, Target stop, banking, laundry etc, etc, etc, I managed to make my first block in Moose On The Porch's FQ Star QAL.

I am using Flower Sugar for my fabrics. I am really liking this block.

I also came across a dish towel with a piece of striped fabric that needed to be sewn to it to finish the towel so I did that too.

I did manage to machine sew binding on the chenille blanket and one of the Christmas Tree quilts too! So not too shabby.

Last night I got a call from my son who was out riding our Harley. The bike broke, he needed a tow truck and someone to come and get him and follow him to the dealership and pick him up. So that shot all my plans right out the window. I got back home around 11:30 and toddled right off to bed! How was your night?? ~XOP~