Tree Bird Blog Hop

There's a new blog hop in town!  I just joined the Tree Bird Blog Hop, scheduled for March 13- 23.  This is the perfect time to see all of the birdie creations my fellow bloggers will make as the "real" birds are returning for the spring weather.  I'll bet there are still openings if you'd like to join in on the fun.  Click on the Tree Bird button here or on my side bar to find out all of the details.

     

I also wanted to show you a new toy.  I picked up a Stitchopoly board game.  Basically, it's Monopoly with a stitching theme.  It's really cute....."Jail" is "Pull out Thread".... the houses and hotels are needlework studios and needlework shops.....etc. 

 

 

I'll be annoying treating my quilting friends with this at our next meeting.  Hopefully, I can find someone who will play along!

 

There is also a Quiltopoly ...same idea as Stitchopoly, but quilting themed... but it can be hard to find.  I keep an eye out and one day I'll come across one that doesn't cost an arm and a leg. :) 

Gift Certificate Winnings

 

I wanted to show you some great fabrics that I WON a few weeks ago.  Melissa from Happy Quilting has a very generous sponsored giveaway every Tuesday.  (Go there right now to see what's up today!)  Sure makes Tuesday a special day, doesn't it?!  I was the lucky winner of a gift certificate from Shabby Fabrics and here's what I chose. 

 

I went immediately to the 50% off section so that I could get more for my money... or gift certificate.  I picked up a fat quarter set of Pearl Bracelets... 15 of them... most in a tone on tone coloring.  There are also 2+ yards of the cute sewing scissors fabric and 1 yard of Christmas fabric.  And to top all of this off, SF had a 15% off of your total order.   Score!

 

Be sure to check out Melissa's blog and also visit Shabby Fabrics with the links above!

 

 

I was anxious to try my new Go Cutter and started a project for a small wall hanging.  I only used one shape, the 2 1/2" square to cut out these background squares.  Yeah.... I could have easily cut strips and sliced them off fairly quickly the "normal" way, but I wanted to see what the cutter could do.  I cut 88 of these little squares in short order.  Since you can cut 6 layers at a time, it was a bit faster.  When I rotary cut, I worry about slippage and never cut more than two layers.  The thing I like best about it is that I know these squares are just about perfect.  I always feel like I'm rotary cutting things perfectly too, but now and again, I'm off a few threads.  This adds up in the long run. 

 

So anyway, I had fun with my new gadget.  The worst thing about it is the fabric waste.  You have to have enough fabric to cover the die blades with a small border that is ultimately cut off.  This is certainly something to take into consideration when you are planning your cutting.   

 

 

Hope you are off to a great start in 2015.  We had our first "major" snow last night, which was only 3".  We were predicted to get more and I was thrilled to look out the window this morning and see that it would be manageable.  I'm tired now.... 65 minutes of aerobic shoveling is pretty rough when you are as out of shape as I am.  But.... I can't complain when I think of last year and shoveling 90+" of snow!