DS Sweaters?



Doth mine eyes deceive me?  Is that a sweater printed with a famous Denyse Schmidt print?  Why, yes!  Yes it is!



My coworker, Rosa, wore this sweater to work last week and I immediately honed in on the print, recognizing it almost immediately as a print from Denyse Schmidt's fabric collection, Katie Jump Rope.  This sweater is factory-made out of some kind of thick jersey sweater material.  Rosa stated that she bought it at JC Penney a few years ago.

I know that Bed Bath and Beyond sold some towels with hallmark Amy Butler prints, but I didn't realize Denyse Schmidt had licensed any of her prints to be used commercially. 

Tornado Giveaway!

No, I am not giving away tornadoes.  What a terrifying concept! 

Jeanne over at The Learning Curve is hosting another tornado relief giveaway to raise money for the Red Cross of the Ozarks and provide relief for St. John's hospital in Joplin, Missouri.

The hospital endured extensive damage in the recent tornado storm, and Jeanne is challenging us to help them rebound.  You can earn entries by blogging, tweeting, following, and (most importantly) donating and making.  The hospital's newborn care unit needs receiving blankets, newborn hats, and baby gloves.  Jeanne and her group have pledged to make 100 of each item!

Each donation, item made, blog post, and tweet will earn you an entry into this generous giveaway.  The prizes available are an awesome haul-- gift certificates to fabric stores, yards of Sis Boom fabric, Tula Pink patterns, and more. 

Just like before, I urge you to donate either time, money, crafts, or supplies.  It could have been your community, you know...

Winner!

I'm happy to announce the winner of my Tornado Relief fundraiser giveaway is Jeanne.  She received the quilt today and reported great surprise and happiness.  Honestly, I was glad to send the quilt to such a kind woman; she deserved it!

Keep an eye on Jeanne's blog; she is launching another Tornado Relief giveaway pretty soon.  There will be awesome prizes, included patterns from the illustrious Tula Pink!

Aunt Millie's Update

I spent some more time today working on my third Aunt Millie's Garden block.  Surprisingly, I'm making some progress!  Pardon the lack of contrast on the photo above, but that's my block.  Since taking that pictures I have appliqued the second petal into that final quadrant.

This is what my applique looks like close up.  It looks much better from far away!  Although I have appliqued what feels like a million pieces at this point, I am still not that great at it.  My curves are not always smooth, and many times my points are still extremely bulky (and sometimes not that pointy).

This block calls for 8 petals in each flower head.  I decided to combine the petals into four groups of two in order to make things simpler on myself.  This way, I trace two petals as if they were one, and applique them in place.  Because I am using different fabrics, I still have a scrappy look.  But, because I have fewer pieces, I have less concern to perfectly line the petals together, and less worry that there will be too little or too much space around the petals.

Is that cutting corners?  Is cutting corners bad?  Honestly, I think it looks just as cute, and I can't bear the thought of appliqueing 32 pointy little pieces after all those leaves.  Not to mention all the circles I have to fuss with next...

Aunt Millie's Garden

Not much is going on around here.  We're just chugging along until we get to the wedding, which is in three weeks!

Life has been stressful (to say the least) around here, so lately I've been trying to just relax.  Today was especially relaxing; I spent a good part of the day working on the third Aunt Millie's Garden block and watching The Tudors on Netflix (see photo above).  Have you seen this show?  Every other scene shows someone in flagrante delicto, to steal a phrase from the show.  Very spicy!

I also applied some retail therapy last and this weekend.  Can you believe I was able to find almost the entire line of Punctuation by American Jane?  This is one of those lines that I always wish I'd bought but never did.  Today, I rectified that situation and bought 15 prints for my stash.  I don't usually stash, and although I was tempted to purchase every fabric available for a complete set (gotta catch 'em all!), I bought only the prints I truly loved.  Best thing?  I had a gift certificate, so it cost me considerably less than it might have.

By the way, if you're wondering about the quilt giveaway, you're going to have to keep wondering.  I'm not ready to announce yet.  But I promise you'll be the first ones to know when I do!

Announcements

The giveaway winner will be announced soon!