How cool is that…I’m one comment away from 1000 comments! Awesome. During my brief blogging haitus due to moving from CA to TX, lots of people have been finding my free hex templates and my hand sewn hex tutorial. I love link backs (hint hint) - seeing new hex projects is super fun.

Look at this little bit of awesomeness - if Betty Draper Francis could sew, she’d be a member: http://midmodbee.blogspot.com/

My sewing machine, tv and tivo are all in storage. Sad, sad, sad. The upside to our extended wait for our house is that I haven’t bought any new fabric or craft books for almost 3 months! Personal record, my friends. I’m still watching a considerable amount of tv online - thank goodness for hulu.

I do have my eye on a few new books though - namely The Practical Guide to Patchwork by Elizabeth Hartman (a.k.a. Oh Fransson!) and Dare to be Square Quilting by Boo Davis. Super original designs. Very, very cool.

Also, my new addiction is my nook. I’ve been blowing through all of Karen Marie Moning’s books - both the Fae and Highlander series are muy excellente!

Fun time at the Long Beach International Quilt Show today. So much treasure seen, just a little purchased. There were some truly awesome quilts on display, but sadly, I forgot my camera. Well, I didn’t forget so much as I forgot to charge the battery beforehand. Anyway, I did take one blurry picture of my most favorite quilt of the day, Red Owls by Karin Pierce.

And here’s an even blurrier picture of the whole quilt.

I’m not sure where my love of owls comes from. It may stem from my lifelong need for glasses. Or my total acceptance of my own nerdiness. HOO knows :)

I also finished a sweet little baby quilt for some good friends of ours. They had the most kick-ass baby shower this weekend. There must have been 100 people there - and that was only the wife’s family. They’re having another shower with the husband’s family in a few weeks. I can’t imagine that they need ANYTHING else for that baby. I’m so happy for them that they got so much loot.

So here was my contribution. A little quilty, based on these by Ashley over at Filminthefridge.com.

Here’s the back:

I also made a couple “everything” cloths - cloth diapers with cute dino fabric down the middle…

And wrapped it all up in cute drawstring bag.

I was pretty happy with how it all came out. But I always feel wierd giving my cornball homemade gifts. Doesn’t make the making part any less fun, though.

I haven’t paid much attention to all the talk of the famed Houston trade-show, the International Quilt Market, I’m just patiently waiting for all the great new fabrics and patterns to be available for purchase from my favorite shops. One such shop though, Fat Quarters (awesome selection, reasonable prices, lightening fast shipping), had a ton of great pictures on their Jolly Jabber blog, and I can’t help but wish I was there.

I’m particularly intrigued by Sandy Henderson and Jay McCarroll. Sandy Henderson has some gorgeous fabrics and some fun tutorials on her blog - including one for shirring! Hooray. The picture of her booth on the Jolly Jabber really grabbed my eye - I LOVE those big fabric flowers around the top of the booth.

You may remember Jay McCarroll from Project Runway…well, in the picture on Jolly Jabber, he’s surrounded by really cool applique quilts. Are they his? He’s also wearing a cool 1970′s string-pieced vest. Is he a quilter? Nothing about quilting or quilts on his site, but you never know…I’m going to research it a little more. Looks like there is a line of fabric on the way…from none other than Free Spirit, my fav. These swatches are from the two lines - one line is called Woodland Wonderland, the other is Garden Friends. I love those trippy little deer and bugs.

Anyway, lots of eye-candy out there. I better start saving my pennies :)

So there I was, all proud of my own mini quilt, and then I get this in the mail. How lucky am I? I get the super cute chickens in August, and then get this precious Owl having a party for September. I love my mini quilt swap group on Flickr!

She also sent me some fun owly halloween socks!

A special thank you to JMBMommy…the fabulous creator of my quilty. I LOVE it!

Look at my bounty! And the quilt top I’ve been working on. It’s a Snake Charmer quilt, from Denyse Schmidt’s book Quilts. I’m using white muslin and the Peas & Carrots fabric by Moda. I think I’m going to use solid red on the back. I think curves are much easier to piece unpinned. This took some trial and error to figure out.

Some new and excellent web finds for the crafty:

• Feeling Stitchy - embroidery galore
• Redwork in Germany - check out that log cabin quilt!
• Doggedknits’ quilts on Flickr - beautifully crafted AND photographed. I aspire to this.

This month’s Real Simple had these cute little cocktail napkins that had fortunes on them. I went to the website, and it turns out it was an Etsy shop - Avril Loreti! How awesome is that. A national magazine - great press for all Etsy sellers because even though only one product was highlighted, how could a shopper turn away from all the rest of that handmade goodness?

By the way, her ideas on coctail napkins and heat transfers are super creative and wonderful. I will be copying them (for personal use, of course) very soon.

If you’re not shopping on Etsy yet, you’re missing out.

Here’s a baby blanket I made for my step-bother’s new baby coming in June. I used minkie red on the back and a cute baby print fleece on the front. Then I appliqued red and white minkie and blue fleece circles for decoration. The pattern is from Bend the Rules Sewing, which I love. Minkie is a little unruly for scallops - it came out a little messier than I hoped, but I still like it.

My husband and I receive the Christian Science Monitor at home. I find it to be an excellent news source for both national and international news. But more than that, there is always a funny or heart-warming or otherwise endearing story near the end of the issue. Recently, my husband tore out a page and left it for me - it was this story about quilts by Joan Donaldson. I love it, and I know all you quilters out there will love it too.

There was also this funny one by Joe Lavin about being a failure on Facebook - to which I can wholeheartedly relate.

Here’s my little birds. Just to recap, my father-in-law is a bird-watcher, and this is a house warming gift for him. Overall, I’m happy. On the first bird I did (yellow border), I kind of cut off his neck because I hadn’t figured out the importance of lining up the lines on the paper when joining two pieces of a block. He’s okay, though. The other birds came out much better. I particularly like the humming bird.

The pattern came from abcpatterns.com, and there are a bunch of different birds in packet.

The border was just all my scraps sewn together haphazardly. I like how it came out - it probably could have benefited from more quilting, but I’m out of time. I’m attaching two little loops to the back for hanging - I hope that works out okay.

That’s it! Thanks for checking out my crafts :)

My quilt picture showed up on Explore on Flickr. This is very exciting for me. I told my husband and he was like, “great honey, what’s that?” I told my friend Stephanie and she was like, “what!? that’s awesome!”

Stephanie always knows just what to say.

We’re headed to visit my father-in-law tomorrow. Should be a fun trip. They’ve recently purchased a new home near South Padre. My husband is especially excited because it’s on a golf course that has gps-enabled golf carts. Big whoop, right? Well, my in-laws don’t even play golf. I’m just happy that my son gets to spend some good time with his grandparents.

I finished the bird wall-hanging, it’s in the dryer. I’ll post a pic when it’s pressed.

My kid is doing this new high-pitched whine when he’s mad. A-NOY-ING. He’s totally playing me. He knows it gets my attention, so he does it for everything. Here’s my plan: ignore it. It’s proving difficult. Even when we’re playing and he has my full attention, he does it when somethings wrong (booger in his nose, can’t get the trains to link up, train tracks came apart…life’s tragedies.)

Anyway, I better get packing. We’ve got an early flight tomorrow. I want to make sure I have all the bustiers. Just kidding. I meant diapers. Good thing we’ve got nice new luggage!