I've officially caught Granny Square Fever! Do you have it yet? It's taking over Pinterest, Twitter and Blogland and it's highly contagious! If you have no idea what I'm talking about check out this blog post on Blue Elephant Stitches. She made the prettiest quilt I've ever seen and she wrote a great little tutorial with pictures. You should make one too! Everybody's doing it!
I raided my stash yesterday and gathered up tons of pinks, reds, aquas, blues, purples, greens, yellows and oranges. And obviously I also had to raid the shop and gather up some new fabrics. I couldn't possibly make a quilt from only what I already have in my huge stash! New fabrics were definitely a requirement! The additions came from Ruby, Annie's Farm Stand and Pam Kitty Morning. I started cutting last night and I kept on cutting today. I even woke up in the middle of the night and had to talk myself out of getting out of bed to cut more squares! I'm obsessed!
I think we all know that I don't need another project. But I just couldn't stop myself. And I'm so in love with this quilt that I think it might be the first thing I ever finish without getting sidetracked by another project!
And one of my brilliant Facebook Fans made me realize something. She bought a Jelly Roll to make her Granny Square Quilt! The Granny Squares are all 2 1/2" x 2 1/2" so if you buy a Jelly Roll (2 1/2" wide) half of the cutting is already done for you!
Gotta run! I've got 240 white squares to cut out!
Happy Sewing,
Jenny
Another much needed 4 Day Staycation has come and gone - boo hoo! Mr. Sew Fab asked me when I plan on doing my next Staycation. I asked if this weekend would be too soon! And I'm also wondering if it would be too self-indulgent and ridiculous if I took a week long Spring Break Staycation....Hmmmm.......
As always, I spent my time eating and lounging around and sewing and getting caught up on sleep. I made yummy spicy seared tuna with sushi rice, bok choy and homemade beurre blanc sauce (it's the best sauce ever!). If this sounds familiar to some of you it's because it's the signature dish at Roy Yamaguchi's restaurant chain called Roy's.
And there was also some homemade pizza bianca being nibbled on....
And I can't let a staycation go by without making my favorite sushi - The Cowboy Roll. I think I mentioned this one before but I'll just explain it again briefly - it's Filet Mignon (cooked but still on the rare side), avocado, green onions and the magical sauce that consists of mayo and as much Srirachi as you like (I don't like a lot - I can't handle the heat!).
And if you're wondering.....yes, it's really hard to get the hang of making sushi. Over the course of several months I made about 20 rolls that fell apart before I finally "got it." Now, it's a pretty easy thing for me to do. So if you're considering trying to make sushi you should definitely do it! Just know that your first attempts will probably be hilarious disasters. But hilarious disasters still taste delicious! They just don't look pretty.
And I spent tons of time sitting in my NEW HOT TUB! I can't believe I have a hot tub!!! The hot tub was a birthday gift from Mr. Sew Fab and my Mom.....what shall we call her? Mama Sew Fab? Anyway, my birthday was back in January.....or JENuary as I like to call it but unfortunately they couldn't get all the neighborhood approval red tape and the appropriate electrical doo-ma-flochies installed in time for my birthday. Sooooo....it just arrived here last week and I'm in love!
I would sit and have a glass of wine in the hot tub every evening as my lifeguard looked on!
She kind of has a disapproving look on her face, doesn't she? I think she's saying I need to be drinking my wine out of a plastic cup not a GLASS. Oops! I already violated my no glass in the pool rule!
The hot tub was going to be a great way to relax after my long runs.....but unfortunately there's no running in my future for a little while. There's a ridiculous and annoying thing called Over-Training Syndrome that you can get from working out too much and I guess I worked out too much. Oops! Did you know you can actually work out too much? Doesn't that sound silly? But I've learned the hard way that it's true. So now the hot tub is going to be part of my over-training recovery! And if anyone out there knows anything about overtraining or has had it or knows someone who has had it please feel free to tell me about it. The insomnia (one of the many FUN symptoms) is kicking my behind! But, I'm looking on the bright side...I'll use the time I would have spent running for sewing instead!
I'm off to go work on Valentine's Day dinner. Yes, I know it's the 13th but Mr. Sew Fab is heading out of town tomorrow so we're doing our celebration tonight. I'll be making sushi again! We're having more Cowboy Rolls and some Crunchy Shrimp and we've been wondering if Scallops (cooked!) and bacon (cooked!) would be good in sushi so we're giving that a whirl tonight too! And I made Creme Brulee for the first time ever - Keeping my fingers crossed that it turned out o.k.! I'll let you know how all of the Adventures in Cooking go!
Happy Sewing,
Jenny
Hey there! Just wanted to check in for a minute and show you what I've been up to. I'm currently taking another 4 day Staycation. My Staycations involve lots of sofa sitting, t.v. watching, hot tub sitting (more on that later!), sewing, wine sipping, eating, baking and sleeping late. Basically.....all the things I love to do but never have enough time to do. For some reason I've had to force myself to take scheduled Staycation "down time" lately. I can't seem to flip the "off" switch at nights and on weekends......I always find myself working or thinking about working. Well, at least I do that when Mr. Sew Fab (a.k.a. John) is away on work trips which is.....a lot of the time! When he's home he forces me to quit working. And I mean "forces" in the nicest possible "lures me away from the computer with a glass of wine" sort of way. Anyway.....where was I? What was the point I was trying to get to?
Oh yeah.....I finally made time to sandwich and pin the quilt that I started 6 months ago! You know the one....the quilt that I wanted to have finished by October 1! And of course Bailey had to photo bomb my little photo shoot! But I think he definitely makes the picture better! And Bailey has already claimed this quilt as his own so it's only fair that he should supervise the making and photographing of it!
So now I get to start quilting it and binding it! Yay!
Before I head back out to the hot tub with a glass of wine I've got to share a few important lessons from today:
-Always make sure you have enough of the curved jumbo safety pins before you start pinning your quilt. This is the largest quilt I've ever made and I ran out of jumbo pins and I had to resort to the normal/little ones. And let me tell you something - The little pins HURT! I finished pinning over an hour ago and my finger is still throbbing!
-Think twice before using a difficult to match plaid for the backing of a large quilt. I had a heck of a time matching the plaid and I ended up hand piecing the backing because I couldn't figure out any other way to do it. And I know, I know....it's the backing...who's going to notice if the plaid isn't matched? But I'm a wee bit OCD so I couldn't let that one go! Plaids. Must. Match.
-Make sure you remember the "measure twice, cut once" rule when cutting your backing. I didn't realize I'd need so many extra inches to get the plaids to match! And now I have to add about an inch to the backing on one side because I "lost" so much length matching the plaids. Oops! And that takes us back to Plaids. Must. Match. I now have to add a sliver of fabric to the backing AND make sure the plaids match. Is anyone else out there this obsessive about small details?
Gotta run! The hot tub is calling my name (seriously....more on that later!).
Happy Sewing,
Jenny
Soooo....the economy sucks. We've all heard this a million times over. And we're all sick of hearing about it. And while the economy keeps going down, down, down the price of cotton keeps going up, up, up. The average price of fabric is now $10.50 - $11.00 per yard! Kind of annoying, huh? So we've decided to create the Retro Pricing Plan and apply it to every single fabric in the shop. Older collections. Brand new collections. Japanese imports. Everything.
What's the Retro Pricing Plan, you ask? Well, we miss the days when quilting fabric was $9 per yard or less. I know it wasn't that long ago (maybe two years) and that it's not really "Retro" but I just thought it sounded cute! And I think it will get the point across. I hope it does......
But we decided to go even a little lower than the "old fashioned" $9 per yard. Every single fabric in the shop is now $8.75 per yard or less. If you find a fabric that is more than $8.75 per yard please let me know.....It just means I missed that one when I was lowering all the prices. And if I can have a moment of radical honesty here let me tell ya something.....it was a HUGE undertaking to do this. It took just a wee bit longer than I thought it would! And by "wee bit longer" I mean that I thought I would be making this announcement in November or December!
And I should also mention that this is a semi-permanent price change. This isn't going to last for just a few days or weeks or months. I plan on keeping this around until the economy starts getting better. And then I'll slooooowwwlllly start raising prices back up. No sudden or big jumps here.
And what are all these pretty fabric photos, you ask? Well, one reason they're there is because I think a blog post with no photos is boring. But the more important reason they're there is because these are the new collections that have been pouring into the shop during the last two weeks. In order of appearance (on this blog post) they are: Fly A Kite, Breeze, Backyard Baby and Lush. And yes, they're all $8.75 per yard.
O.K. I'm going to stop talking about this now. I hate talking about businessy stuff in the blog. And I hate sounding sales-pitchy on the blog. But I just had to take a moment to let you all know the great news.
Soooo, Happy Sewing and Happy Shopping,
Jenny
We Have A Winner!
The winner is JuneBug who said "That fabric is so gorgeous, especially when you see it all together like that! I love Kate Spain.
I'm one who likes to have only one or two projects going at any given time. I used to be a strictly one project at a time girl, but that is unrealistic when working on a big project and you have to get little ones done in the mean time :)"
Congratulations JuneBug! And I'll let you know the results of the poll in my next blog post!
Just leave a comment and you'll be entered to win. I'd love to hear your answer to this question: Do you finish one project before starting another or do you have many, many projects going on at the same time? If you've read any of my previous blog posts you probably know which category I'm in - I have about 20 unfinished projects going on right now!
Be sure to leave your comment by Sunday, Feb 5 at midnight. We'll pick a winner on Monday, Feb 6.
Good Luck and Happy Sewing,
Jenny
We Have A Winner!
The winner is Sallie who said "I like it the way you have it. I'd definitely use blue. Thanks for the great giveaway!" Congratulations Sallie! Send me an e-mail and I'll send your Hooterville pattern to you!Happy January! I meant to post this Giveaway on the 1st......I really did.....but did anyone else have trouble getting back into their normal routine after the holidays??? I'm still just a little bit lost and out of sorts and can't remember what I'm supposed to be doing! But I'll figure it out eventually. Anyway, this month we're giving away a Hooterville Quilt Pattern. It's the most popular pattern we've ever had in the shop! Everyone loves those wide eyes owls!!!
And instead of having the Giveaway run for the whole month it's only going to be open for one week. I guess in the past I always wanted to give people plenty of time to enter.....but then I realized that there weren't many people entering the Giveaways after the first week. So, we'll make this one short and sweet. Just leave a comment to be entered to win. I'd love to hear what colors or fabrics you would want to use in the Hooterville quilt. And if you blog about this giveaway or tweet about it or do a Facebook post about it you can leave additional comments to receive extra chaces to win. I'll pick a winner on Friday, January 13, 2012. Last day to enter is Thursday, January 12, 2012 at midnight.
Good Luck and Happy Sewing,
Jenny
P.S. Be sure to check last months Giveaway to see if you're the big winner.
Merry Christmas from our house to yours! We hope you're having a wonderful holiday season full of health, happiness and love!
Big Hugs,
Jenny, John, Cassi, Daisy, Bailey, Emma and Sammy
It's a good thing we rarely use our dining room table because it's going to be Granny Square land for a while. Right now I'm focusing on the layout within each individual block. Once each block is sewn together I'll start playing "Musical Blocks" to figure out the final placement of each one. It's obviously too hard to move the blocks around before all those little squares are sewn together!
I love each and every single block. There's not a single one that I'm not happy with.
And I used so many of my favorite fabrics. Fabrics that I've had for years. Fabrics that I've been hoarding and protecting and just waiting for the perfect project to introduce itself to me.
I'm so glad these fabrics are all going to have a home now. They've been patient and they deserve to come out of hiding!
Have you caught Granny Square Fever yet? Tell me all about it!
