Travellin' Pic-Stitch Bloghop

As many of you might know, my friends Laura and Katy are meeting me in SLC for SS. What you may not know is that they are amazingly creative and have decided to host a bloghop while traveling across the American Southwest on a post-SS road trip!

Here are the deets if you want to join in.

Don't try saying that three times fast!

As you know, Katy and I are going on our own crazy post-Sewing Summit road trip.
We thought we'd sew in some odd places, take photos, play with fabric colours fitting the landscape and see what we can come up with. But we thought "why should we have all the fun?" and "but there will be an awful lot of red rocks and some colour variety would be nice". Soo...

• got an exotic location? or a location that might not be exotic to you but bloggers overseas might find fascinating? (see the boring old Kangaroo I spotted on my dog walk 5 minutes from home? YAWN)
• Got a love of English paper piecing?
• Got a blog or flickr account?

Then join us!
The bloghop will run from October 1 to November 30. You can join in with a blogpost of your own (grab the Travellin' Pic-Stitch button from the sidebar), sew along using your own inspiration, follow the bloggers who will be joining us, or do all of the above!

Katy of ImAGingerMonkey will kick it off on October 1 with her rocking paper piecing skills. On 6 October, Jess of LifeUnderQuilts and creator of the most watched "how to paper piece with a small ginger child on your lap" on the web will be offering some expert pointers that will be of use even to those without a small ginger chilld... (It's a video well worth watching). And some other web-lebrities are joining in too!

Paperpieces.com is providing a discount code for any hoppers and there will be a linky party with some AMAZING prizes on November 30... Read on for more juicy details..

What do you have to do?
I'm glad you asked!
1) Take a photo to start with. Somewhere great.
2) Create a palette from the colours in the photo. You can do this by eye or you can use something like Degrave's Color Palette Generator or Adobe Ideas for Ipad to do something like this: 

Aww, nice kanga.

3) Pick a selection of fabrics which match the photo palette and name it if you like.

(I'm calling this collection Peek-a-Roo...)

4) Choose an English paper pieced block (such as Katy's Spring Carnival or Rachel's starblossom) and sew it in those fabrics. We'll give you a rundown on some popular blocks and what you need shortly.

5) Write a post or flickr post it including a link back to the main page either at QuokkaQuilts or LittlestThistle.

6) Link up on November 30th!

There you are! If you're not inspired already, check out the sponsors and prizes!

Paperpieces.com are offering you a code to help you sew along with the bloghop. Enter PAPER20 in the voucher code box and then hit ok you will receive a 20% off discount.

Fabricworm are offering a fat quarter bundle of the beautiful, organic Scamper.

Pink Castle Fabrics are offering up a warm and a cool Fat Eight Bundle as a prize and a code for bloghoppers.

Tammy at Marmalade Fabrics  is offering up a1/2 yard bundle of Kona Modern Quilts (Pacific color-way)!

Image borrowed from Stitched In Color - Rachel is bloghopping too!

Fat Quarter Shop are offering a bundle of the oh-so-beautiful Indie.

Aurifil are offering THREE drool-worthy sets of BEAUTIFUL threads.... Take a look.

The first giveaway will be from Jane at WantItNeedItQuilt, so keep an eye out for that one!

We'll give you some links to resources and ideas SOON. And some of our first blog-stops will be how-tos and helpful hints, so don't be scared if you haven't EPP'd before! If you need some Pinspiration, check this out.

There are a few places left if you'd like to be a pitstop on the bloghop so let us know and we'll send you the deets. If you don't have a blog and just want to sew along and join up on November 30th, please do! It's going to be heaps of fun!

Most awesome thing I've seen in a long time

Holy shiz-nit.

So, I have this friend named Alissa. We met at the PHXMQG. She's pretty awesome. And then she shared this today:





And now I think she's even more cool.

I mean seriously, do you SEE this quilt?!

Too much

I'm feeling crafty right now. Seriously crafty. Like, I can feel creation trying to rip its way through my fingertips, crafty. But I'm holding it back. There's just too much to do and too little time to do it in.

Know what I mean?

Classes the ASS Gurus would like to see at SS next year

 First of all, I [Laura] need to apologise profusely for spreading evil, untrue rumours that Sara at SewSweetness was presenting her Advanced Bag Making class as a stand-up comedy routine. It was bad of me and I apologise to all who believed me. She’s actually doing it as a musical, complete with singing and dancing. Go along. It will be a class to remember.

Secondly, you may have noticed there was no ASS guru post last week. Or you may not. Comments have been dwindling and as two ASS gurus had had a shitty week and weren’t feeling funny, we decided we were only amusing ourselves. This week, the sewdorphins have kicked in and we have decided we don’t CARE if we are only amusing ourselves. That’s the whole point of the exercise. You can go sew for all we care. We had a giggle coming up with this. So there. [ASS gurus stick tongue out at screen and Katy raises finger]

Now we’ve cleared that up, on to other matters. The excitement of the week has been that the long-awaited Sewing Summit class schedule came out.  As you would expect, the three of us found some classes that were “OOOOH!” and some that were “meh”. Never the same ones though. Of course there were some lines on the timetable that were all ‘meh’ and some that were all ‘OOOH!’ (which lead to a lot of ‘Oooh - dammit!’s and difficult choices). Obviously, being egomaniacs, we thought we could do better.

So here are our suggestions for NEXT year’s Alternate Sewing Summit.

Classes 2013 

$ indicates that a small class fee will be charged. BYOF = Bring your own fabric. ! = no liability for injury assumed.

Get Celtic Knotted! – Katy of LittlestThistleCraftShop

Who wants to learn the intricacies of celtic knot applique with Katy when you can tell someone to get knotted in Celtic?! Katy will take you through the intricacies of swearing in Scottish AND Irish. This class will also include a little Celtic applique to enable students to practise their Celtic and Gaelic curse words in an authentic context. Class will be videoed for presentation at Gala dinner.

 

FUI – Laura of QuokkaQuilts

FUI stands for Free-motioning under the influence. Laura will take you through the basics of free-motion quilting and the benefits of alcohol on your technique. Participants will be videoed free-motioning in three stages: 1) sober; 2) after one glass of wine/beer; 3) after 6 tequila shooters. See how much you improve and pinpoint your personal peak. Along with their personal video, participants will receive a hand-made plastic Yack-Sack. - $! (Not for Mormons)

  

Design your own sewing tattoo - Katy of Imagingermonkey

Practice designing tattoo art and learn how to tattoo yourself at home using only a blunt machine needle and some Dylon. (It is recommended that participants also enrol in Sewing first aid subsequent to this course). - $!

 

Sewing First aid – Danny of Mommy for Reals

Ever sliced yourself with a rotary cutter, stabbed yourself with a needle, or burnt yourself ironing bias?   You'll have a chance to do all three in this class!  Danny will show you all sorts of tricks, especially how to keep the blood off your fabric. $! 

Burlesque costume making - Sara of SewSweetness.

Make your own burlesque costume with Sara. Learn tassle-making, bodice boning, and how to most strategically place your lace! Wear your creation to the Gala dinner and impress other seminar participants with your bump and grind skills.

PARALLEL SESSIONS – DESIGN YOUR OWN FABRIC

1)    Design your own fabric – it’s Child’s play! –Danny of MommyforReals

Danny opens your eyes to the world of designing your own fabric with an under 5 on hand. Use an array of materials including Spaghetti-Ohs, Baked Beans, and Ribena, your very own Under 5 and a can of MommyForReals StainStabiliser™ (available at class for the low cost of $59.95) to create original and inspiring fabric designs. Bonus instructions on how to photograph your under 5 looking like a facist dictator.

Under 5s will not be provided. Participants are advised to BYO.

2)    Design your own fabric – for Adults only! – Laura of QuokkaQuilts

Enjoy an Italian feast as Laura shows you how to use MommyForReals StainStabiliser™, red wine, bolognaise sauce and squid ink to create enticing designs on fabric.

BYO natural or PFD white linen or homespun, tablecloth size. Plastic garbage bags to wear during food fight will be provided.

Are you going to Sewing Summit?

If you are, you should join us on Thursday for dinner! The ASS Gurus are going out to eat somewhere yummy and we would love you to join us!

Sign up on the Extra Sewing Summit Goodness Spreadsheet!

Stash Bee Openings

The openings have been filled.

Some of you may already know, but I am the new Bee Mama of Stash Bee. As I transition into this role, I am trying to fill in gaps and get caught up on what's going on.

We currently have two openings in Stash Bee Hive 1. One of the openings will be to replace Sunni, our former Bee Mama. She has already had her turn as Queen Bee, although I'm sure my other bee mates would be more than happy to tack the person who takes this opening onto the end to give them a chance to have blocks made for them.

The two positions are for August 2013 and September 2013. Please let me know if you would like to fill one of these openings.

Giveaway winners and a very personal plea

Hey guys. This has been a long time coming.

Winner of the Father's Day Little Treetops shop credit is number 12, MamaMunky!

And the winner of the Blogiversary pouch and stuffed envelope of scraps is number 28, Audrey!

Congrats ladies! Sorry about no Random.org screen shot. I can't remember how to do it and the hubs is asleep... You'll just have to trust me. :)

Now on to the personal stuff.

I've been tormenting myself with whether or not I should share this next bit with the world. I'm not really sure why I'm having such a difficult time with it, maybe because it involves my baby and I'm scared.

Clara has high hormones. The kind that come from ovaries. The kind that should only be present in pubescent teens. We've been to a few doctor visits, a few blood draws. I vowed not to Google her symptoms so I didn't psych myself out prematurely, but when the pediatrician called after having spoken to the specialist, she mentioned some things that more than psyched me out. I freaked, internally, of course. I have to be strong until I know for sure, but the words she said still ring in my ears every time I hear her laugh, every time I hear her cry, every time I sit down to watch some meaningless TV show and she crawls over to me with those big, brown eyes, pleading with me to play with her: "brain tumor".

The pediatrician told me the specialist sounded hopeful but that we need to have more tests run before they can give me a definitive answer. I'm praying this is just a fluke that will sort itself out in the end, but I have to be prepared for the worst. We have an appointment to have a bone age scan done next week. We should know more after the results of that test come in.

As of right now, we do not know what Clara's diagnosis is or whether or not she has a brain tumor. All I know is that my baby has something wrong with her and I am taking as much time to spend with her as possible. I have so much to tell you all. So much to show you, I just haven't taken the time to blog it. I'm sure you understand.

So please, think about my little Maze often. Send her your prayers and happy thoughts. I'll keep you all posted on the medical front.