My state Fair Report

Every year I enter the Utah State fair.

This is my report on how I did this year.

I only entered seven things this year into the state fair.

I say only because I have been known to enter like twenty things before.

The problem with why so few is because Lala and Baby Sister

 are close to being in the same size category.

Also I was a bit lazy this year and didn't make Easter dresses.

I entered the girls Christmas dresses and Gowyn's skirt.

They all won blue ribbons.

 Lala's baptism dress 

Won a blue ribbon.

Her Other dress however got a red ribbon or a second place.

I was not at all happy about it.

I did in fact yell at the top of my lungs upon entering the building,

and seeing this perfect dress with a red ribbon hanging from it.

"How could that dress get a second place"

Good Looking had to calm me down.

It's true.

I only entered one costume in the fair this year.

It was Lala's Belle costume.

It took a third place ribbon.

It lost to another Belle costume.

I still think mine was better.

I only entered one quilt and it was this one that I made with Grandma Kath.

It got NOTHING, not even an honorable mention.

I know that I am new to quilting and this is a tough category,

 but come on throw me a bone or something.

I have said this before and it is true.

"I never thought of myself as a competitive person until I entered the state fair."

I know that I take it way to personally, but still a second place on Lala's dress.

Are they crazy? 

Did they not get enough sleep the night before?

OK

 OK

 I will let it go.

The four blue ribbons that I got,

 did bring me up to over fifty blue ribbons.

I guess I should look at the bright side. 

Have you ever entered the fair?

What is your ribbon count?

Erin's Blessing Dress

My sister Vicki has a best friend.

We grew up across the street from her.

They were even born one day apart from each other.

First Vicki and then Erin

They have been best friends ever since.

Our parents have been friends since college.

What I am trying to say is that we go way back.

Two years ago when my sister got married Erin followed right behind her.

She was married last year.

When my sister got pregnant this year,

Erin was right behind her again.

Vicki had her baby girl on the 31st.

Erin is going to be having her baby girl next month.

I am sure that those two will be best friend also.

It has been so fun seeing the two of them sharing each step along the way.

Erin's baby shower was yesterday.

I have been thinking about what I could make for her.

I mean she is just like family.

I called her on Thursday to see if I could make her a blessing dress.

She was blown away with the offer.

She was offered a family dress but didn't really like it.

I cut out the dress on Friday,

sewed it up on Saturday, just in time for the shower.

There they are (Erin and the dress)

She always makes that face, and I am glad that I got it on camera.

Here is the dress alone.

It is a full length princess dress, it has a 34" long skirt.

The fabrics are satin and sheer.

The sheer is embroidered with this lattice pattern, 

and there are sequin flowers on the center of the points

You can see it sparkle a little more in this picture.

Erin has a very sparkly  personality, 

and so I had to use this sparkly fabric for the dress.

Erin is also very tall,

I am standing on my tippy toes just as much

 as she is squatting, and she is still taller than me.

She was so happy about the dress, 

and I was so happy I got to make it for her.

Her older sister is my same age 

and is due with her first daughter the same day as Erin.

I get to make her dress too.

 I will show you that one when it is done.

My sister Vicki's dress is going to take a little extra time. 

It is full of shadow embroidery. 

It will be fabulous when it is done.

Don't worry I won't let you miss out on that one.

I hope you had a great weekend as you can see 

I finished my weekend sewing projects.

I hope you did too.

Christmas Swap Quilt

OK we are back and ready to talk about my Christmas swap.

Are you ready? 

Let's go.

I started my Christmas swap last year because I wanted to remake my quilt as a Christmas quilt.

You can read about it here.

Last year I had to take two spots in my swap, to fill it up.

I knew I did not want to have repeats in my circles, so I wasn't sure what to do

 with my second package of swap fabrics.

I thought about making a Christmas zig-zag quilt, but decided to wait.

First things first I had to make my circles.

Now I know you have admired my Jeweled wedding ring quilt,

 and you totally want to make one your self.

This is how you start.

You need to make 525 patterned circles.

I know you can do it because I did it.

here is how I do it.

  First things first, you need a circle.

A two inch circle to be exact, 

I found this glitter container was exactly two inches.

Next get some of your thicker template plastic.

trace your circle.

I then took one of my quilts, circle templates,

centered it and traced around that.

I then drew a cross, that way I know exactly where the center is.

It helps when you are fuzzy cutting.

I now know where the center is,

and what will be showing when the seam allowances are gone.

I know, pretty brilliant. 

Now go to your fabulous stash of Christmas fabrics that you got,

 or will get from the Christmas swap.

Take one square at a time, and fussy cut away.

Note how the template lets you perfectly

 center your little Christmas packages.

                                     

Cut on your traced line...

And voila a perfect little two inch circle.

Repeat with all your fabrics.

Yes all two hundred of them.

Now last year when I was making all my circles, I was left with a quandary.

What to do with the scraps.

I thought about having a giveaway or something.

Then I thought to myself what is someone going to do with those scraps anyway.

Then I started thinking about what I would do with them, and this is what I came up with.

I think you are going to love it.

I cut them up in to two inch squares.

You may notice that those are not true square squares.

It is not going to matter.

I separated them into three baggies.

I didn't want the chance repeating a fabric, so I kept them separate.

You may be thinking

Robyn what are you going to do with a square missing a whole corner?

I am making snow balls.

Are you ready for phase two?

OK let's go.

You are going to need a solid background fabric.

I loved this white on white, I mean it even looks like snowballs.

Cut them four inches square.

Now take your two inch squares, and mark a diagonal line.

Making sure that you are keeping one side perfect, and true. 

  

See what I mean.

Line up your little squares around your big square.

Making sure that the true side is in the middle.

Take it to your sewing machine, and sew on the lines. 

Line up your ruler so that you have a 1/4" seam allowance.

Trim off all your corners.

I have wondered what to do with those triangles. 

I think I am going tot let them go.

Press and look at that cute snowball.

Like I said I had two spots in my swap, 

so from my other pile I took one of the four inch squares,

and sewed it to the side of my snowball.

Repeat

Sew them together.

Look how cute and scrappy they are.

Want to know what is even cuter?

                                       

Sewing a lot together,

because if you look closely...

there are stars.

See how stinking cute is that.

I have a lot more to go but I can't wait to see it all done and adorable.

There are still two spots available in my swap.

If you totally want to copy me you can, 

I'm not going to stop you.

Here is the link to the sign up sheet.

If you only want one spot I will let you do that too.

the deadline is August 25, so you can't think about it too long.

Until next time have a great week end.

I think when the Olympics are done, I am going to be going through withdrawals.

I am now totally in love with synchronized swimming.

It just makes me giggle with joy.

My Summer Break

This summer has been crazy.

I am sure we would all say that.

I mean really, it is August already.

One would think that I would be blogging more than I have.

I mean it is summer, and we really don't have a pressing scheduled.

This is what happened to me over summer break.

I got a job.

I worked up until the day before Baubi was born,

and she was ten days late.

After that being a mom was my job. 

it has been my full time crazy job for almost 15 years.

I was not looking for this job,

it came and found me.

I used to work for a friend who made coats.

She had a store at one of the ski resorts and her company made coats.

When Baubi was a baby I would sew her hats.

She had matching hats for her coats, 

and that is what I would sew for her while Baubi would be 

sleeping an playing in her crib. 

I did it for several years and then stopped about six years ago. 

In June I got a call from her.

I saw her name on my phone and thought...

Does she need hats?

Nope she was working for another company, and they needed a part time seamstress.

their full time one wanted to stay home with her son during summer break,

they needed someone to fill in for her three days a week.

I was honestly flabbergasted. 

I told her that I had to talk to Good Looking about it.

Now as some of you may know being a stay at home mom is not a lucrative position.

We have been trying to get out of debt and this little part time job would certainly help on that front.

I went in for the interview my first in over seventeen years.

I am sure I must have sounded like a dork.

When I heard that other people were coming in for the position,

I got competitive about it.

Now I am normally not a very competitive person.

When it comes to my sewing ability, I guess I get a little defensive about it.

I sent her an email and apologized for being a dork,

and telling her again how awesome I am.

Well you already know the rest of the story because I told you.

I got the job.

I work for this company, I get to make dress ups all day long.

I get to be covered in sequins, and sparkles.

I get to make all the cute fluffy things and get paid for it.

The only bad thing is I had to sign a 

non-compete, nondisclosure.

Oh the things I could be putting on this blog, you would die 

from cuteness, and I am not even lying. 

As you can tell from my posting, 

I have not conquered the world of a working mom.

I am tired and grouchy.

I feel like the girls are losing a little bit of their innocence, and it is my fault.

I guess that is the quandary of all working moms.

How to make it all work.

I do have somethings to show,

 and I still have openings in my swap if you want to play.

I want to say that I will be back tomorrow with a new post and a tutorial.

But part of me thinks their will be a breakdown somewhere in the day,

 and that plan will be for naught.

We will see how that goes.

I am Trying

I was going to write a new post for today...

and then life happened and the camera died.

It is hard to write a tutorial with out a camera.

My camera forgot that and decided it was done before I was.

I was going to show you another project to do with your 

Christmas Swap fabrics.

It is turning out pretty cute but it will have to wait for another day.

In other news I messed up my swap.

I know you may not be surprised about it.

While copying and pasting,

 I pasted when I was suppose to copy.

In doing so I lost Virginia, and Jessisca's email addresses.

I would have told you personally, but it is hard with out an email.

If you could so kindly click back over, and reenter it I will try not to loose it again.

I still need five more people to complete my swap.

If you thought about it and were wavering,

it is still open and you can still play.

If you know someone who might want to play please, send them my way.

I will try to get my pictures all done and edited for you tomorrow.

I really think you are going to like it.

I thought you might like a little inspiration on this fine summer day.

Yes I know that they are Christmas stockings, and that the need for super cute

Christmas stockings is months away. 

I did make this very nice tutorial for you to make some of your own.

I am also currently having a Christmas fabric swap going on right now.

That way you can make these very cute stockings.

I had so much fun with this swap last year, and I know you would too.

At the present moment I have a grand total of

 three people signed up for my swap. 

I need at least twenty people to have a swap.

So that means that I need to have seventeen more people to sign up.

Here is the link to the sign up page.

Click there, put in your name, and go shopping.

I promise you will not regret it.

Have a fabulous weekend.

Christmas in July

Have you heard about this party going on?

I thought it would be so much fun to play along.

You may remember this post.

I did have my swap, and I did get my fabrics.

 They were adorable and just what I needed.

The only problem was that it was only 200 fabrics.

I know one would think that would be enough.

For a normal person that would be enough.

My quilt however requires 525 circles.

I really wanted 525 different circles.

I did finally start making my circles.

Aren't they adorable.

I made them this past week while on vacation.

They were used as the poker chips.

I hear that the red ones were worth the least, and the blue the most.

I finished the last of the circles last night.

I was at the hospital with Good Looking.

He thought it might be fun to throw out his back 10 days ago.

Since it wasn't getting any better we spent eight hours at the ER.

Good times....good times.

He has two, not one but two blown disks.

The good news is that the last of the circles are done.

They are air drying on the deck.

It shouldn't take long since it is 95 degrees outside.

I sprayed them with the homemade starch

It was faster then painting them with the starch, and worked fabulous.

One of my favorites, because with a name like Robyn...

I know you want some for yourself.

You may not have a need for 525 circles but you know you want

at least 200 4" squares.

The rules are as follows

Go to the store, or to your stash and get 10 Christmas fabrics

You will need 1/4 yard or a fat quarter of each one.

Cut them up into 20 4" squares.

I provided you with a tutorial here.

Show your love for me by sorting them into twenty separate piles.

Although I love doing these swaps, I do not love touching 2,000 separate pieces of fabric.

Place your precious cargo into a self addressed stamped envelope.

Send it to me, I will shuffle them around, 

and send you back 200 different fabrics for all of your Christmas crafting needs.

I know you want to do it.

Here is the link to the sign up page.

Click on it, leave your name and email, and I will send you more detailed info.

I am hoping that we can have more then one swap, so tell your friends and family.

I hope you have a great day.