Productive Weekend......

We had a pretty productive weekend at our house,

I finished my quasi-Jellystone quilt top for my niece.

And Cooper finished off the Gobble, Gobble box!!

Thanks so much for all the comments, I've read them all! (several times!!)

Good Mail Day.......

Don't you just love it when you come home to one of these on your doorstep?  Just a little box of happiness waiting to be opened.

These boxes make Cooper happy also.

"Oh, I think I smell something for me"

     

Nothing for Cooper, but something special for me!  (Sorry Cooper, maybe next time)

Gobble Gobble by Sandy Gervais for Moda.

I don't have any specific plans for this fabric.  Now I know some of you are thinking, " you mean I have to actually have a use for my fabric?", but buying fabric without a specific pattern in mind is not something I normally do.  

About a month ago I fell in love with the Morris Workshop family of fabrics by Barbara Brackman for Moda.  I wanted that fabric but held off on buying any because I didn't have a pattern.  How do you know how much to buy without a pattern?  It seemed like every on-line store knew that fabric was on my radar because for a solid week I got emails with pictures of that fabric.  I finally asked Nicole of Sister's Choice Quilts for some advice (she's one of those lovely individuals who you feel like you've known all your life when you've never even met face to face and feel you can burden with your tough questions)  "Nicole, what should I do, I like this fabric but I don't know if I should buy it, I don't have a pattern?"  Here's the excellent advice I got from Nicole, "If I see fabric I like I buy it!  Having a plan for it is definitely NOT a buying criteria.  You could pass up a great fabric collection and not come up with an idea for years and then you would never be able to find it"  So I took Nicole's advice and bought the family.  I was out of my comfort zone, but after the Morris Workshop fabric arrived, and I was able to behold its loveliness in person, I knew I had made the right decision.  

Now I've gone and done it again, but this I know for sure;

this is the back, 

and this is the binding...of something....to be determined at a later date...and that's OK.

Hanging Out With Yogi Bear......

This is the project I'm currently working on...it's quilt top #49. I'm making this quilt for my niece who recently decorated her room with a log cabin theme. It's a surprise!

The inspiration for this quilt came from this pattern....Jellystone by Miss Rosie's Quilt Company.

I say inspiration because I've made a few changes. First, I'm making it a little smaller in width. Second, Miss Rosie's bear paw blocks are the most adorable bear paw blocks I've ever seen. I made one and loved it. In the end I thought Miss Rosie's block would not be appreciated by an 8th grader who would probably redecorate her room next year, so I went with a simplified bear paw block.

I hope to have it finished this weekend.

Speaking of Miss Rosie's Quilt Company, she is also the designer of the popular Schnibbles patterns. Sinta of the Pink Pincushion and Sherri of A Quilting Life are jointly hosting "A Year of Schnibbles Club". Each month all the members will make a Schnibbles pattern selected by Sherri and Sinta. Go check it out, it sounds like alot of fun and I'm going to give it a try.

It's a Girl......

This is quilt top #48, my first baby quilt. My daughter asked me to make a quilt for a coworker. Their nursery colors are pink and brown. I was able to sew this quilt from scraps, making it a free quilt!

I'm using pink dot minkee for the backing.

I enjoyed making this quilt, I like pink plus there was just enough applique to make it interesting but not hard. I've done very little in the way of applique. It came together in just a couple of days.

I picked the pattern up while vacationing in California, it's by Artichoke Collection and called All Wrapped Up. They have some adorable patterns, take a look.... www.artichokecollection.com

It's currently at the quilters. I'll post a picture when it's quilted.

A rose is a rose.....

Yesterday I published my first post on my brand new blog.....just typing that sentence blows me away, all those new words, published, post, blog..it's hard to keep this jargon straight. I recently read there are 75,000 blogs, well now there are 75,001.

I'd been mulling over this whole notion of creating my own blog for some time, not that I have anything earth shattering to add to society, but it's almost come to the point that you need a blog to communicate with other bloggers, with all this tagging and challenging that's popular, so I bought a book, studied my favorite blogs, and here I am.

I know I'm a late comer to this method of communication, some blogs have been going strong for years. It took me forever just to finally leave my first comment.

The first order of business, picking a name, sounded so easy, but that was until I selected my name, "Sew Sassy" ....taken...are you kidding me, I was REALLY wanting that name. My grandmother, whom I'm named after but who never went by Thelma a day in her life, instead went by the name Sassy. OK, so I'll go with my second choice, "Sew What"...taken. I really liked that name, oh well I'll go with my third choice, "Sew Much"...taken, "Sew Special"....taken, "Sew Unique"...taken. UGH!!

OK, I'll drop the "sew" and go with something with "sassy", "Sweet and Sassy"..taken, "Shamelessly Sassy"...taken, "Sassy Southern, Sassy Pink Pepper, Sassy Radish, Sassy Bean"....taken, taken, taken taken. OK, I really wasn't looking to be the Sassy Bean, but you get the message.

Stumped I dropped "sassy" and moved to "pink"...I like pink, as Julie Roberts once said, "Pink is my signature color." "Pink Paisley was not taken but I did not want to get confused with "Pink Paislee" which was...taken. "Pink Cupcake"..taken.

So I dropped pink and worked on something with my favorite flower...gerber or is it gerbera... daisies.....Oh my, what a mishmash of hits that got....anything flower related is popular, with all those flower shops out there.

While googling and searching I stumbled across an i-stock photo of the most adorable cupcake with daisies on top. What a happy little cupcake, who wouldn't like looking at that everyday. So even though my blog will never be about gardening or baking I went with "Cupcakes 'N Daisies", it was available and it had a cute picture ready to paste.

Now you blogless readers out there thinking about creating your own blog, get your name now, because all the good names are going, going, gone.

Let's get this party started...

I have sewn for as long as I can remember, 4-H, Girl Scouts, local community college, I was always picking up a sewing class.  I never really made much, a top, peasant dress, nothing I would actually wear in public, but I thought it was fun.  After I married I didn’t do much sewing, an occasional pillow or window treatment, that was about it.  I still enjoyed the process but couldn’t find anything I wanted to sew.

When my daughter came along I was thrilled..something to sew....costumes!  Every year I would devote at least a month to making her Halloween costume.  I enjoyed it and looked forward to it.  The year my daughter wanted a store bought costume  "like everyone else” was a real heartbreaker.  

Once I was out of the costume business my sewing machine went back to the closet and collected dust, a lot of dust. 

My Mamaw was a quilter.  She made her quilt tops by hand and had them hand quilted by a friend.  I remember Mamaw sitting with threaded needles and pins stuck all over the stuffed arms of her favorite chair, piecing or appliquéing wonderful things.  Once the tops were done they would go to the quilter where we would not see the finished project for well over a year.

My Mamaw made me this beautiful pink and white dogwood quilt over 30 years ago.  I loved it and slept under it until I got married.  I have taken my dogwood quilt with me to every new apartment, house and city.  This quilt was so loved the petals starting falling off and the binding wore thin.  I retired it to the closet with the dusty sewing machine.

My Mamaw was my Dad’s wife’s Mother.  My folks divorced when I was young, at that time divorce was rare, looking back on it I’m pretty certain I was the only person in my school whose parents had divorced.  My Dad’s new wife’s folks immediately treated my brother and me like we were members of the family.  I mention this because today, with so many blended families,  I hear folks say, “they aren’t my real grandchildren”, or “ this is my first real grandchild” and I think of Mamaw and Papaw, and how I was a real grandchild to them...and really, can anyone have too many grandparents?  

Sorry, I  digress, which I’m prone to do.

In the fall of 2004 I took my overly loved dogwood quilt to a quilt shop to see if they could restore it to it’s youthful glory.  I had never been in a quilt shop and to this day I’m not sure what made me get out that old quilt and wander into that shop, but it was a life changing day for me.  Not only did the wonderful ladies in that shop ooh and ah over Mamaw’s quilt and say “YES, we can fix it” but they also convinced me to sign up for a beginning quilting class.  This is where I learned to cut, press and sew 9 patch and split rail blocks.  This is where, after at least 30 years of looking for something to sew, I finally found it....QUILTS!!  It is now my passion, my artistic outlet.   If I don’t sew at least an hour everyday I’m lost.  It soothes and comforts me, stimulates me, gives me something to think about when I can’t sleep at night.  Where would I be without my patterns, fabric, and their unlimited possibilities?

Thank You Mamaw!!!