Liebster Award

My wonderful friend Kira was kind enough to nominate me for a Leibster Award you can read all about it on her blog here. It's a way for bloggers to recognize other bloggers and get to know them a little better. She nominated me and after answering a few questions I will get to nominate a few bloggers I like. She nominated me back in February so now that it is April I figured it's about time I answered some questions.

1. Why did you start blogging? 

Well I started blogging to keep a record. I like to make things and I don't always do so well with keeping a record of what I have done. I wanted to start keeping a record so I thought about keeping some kind of journal but then I figured if I was typing anyway might as well make it a blog post, that way someone else might be able to learn from mistakes I make or be inspired by something I create.

2. What is something this year that you are really looking forward to?
Ummmm can you say Stash Bash??? So this is my first year going but I am really looking forward to going to Stash Bash and meeting lots of new friends while catching up with some current ones. If you haven't heard of Stash Bash you can read all about it here.

3. What is your favorite thing to do to unwind?
To unwind I like to sew, quilt, create, play video games, watch a favorite show/movie and just generally be goofy.

4. Photo's say a thousand words so share a photo that means the most to you. Why is that picture important to you?
Ok time for a tough one, I'm not sure that I could ever pick one picture but this one is pretty good. It's my husband and I on our wedding day. This picture is important for several reasons, but mostly because we were getting married and we had lots of family and friends there to support us and it was just such a great day.

5. What quote inspires you the most?
Well I think I have to go with Yoda on this one
"No. Try not. Do...or do not. There is not try"
I really like this quote because it helps me have the right attitude when I am attempting something new. It reminds me to have a positive attitude and believe in myself.

6. Name a quilting tool you can’t live without & why?
Rotary Cutter, how did people survive without them?? I am fortunate enough that I grew up in a sewing world that never had to know the empty void of a life with no rotary cutter. 

7. Where is your favorite vacation spot?
Pretty much anywhere that I can relax and enjoy time with family or friends. To me vacation is more about who you are with than where you are. Although I do enjoy visiting the mountains, the beach, camping, and going to nerdy conventions.

9. What is your favorite way to work out?
Does sewing with my Singer treadle count? Otherwise I would have to say walking the dog, I don't really work out like a should.

10. Where do you like to shop?
Well that depends, what am I shopping for?
For clothes I like to shop at whichever store is having a good sale.
For fabric I try to shop local, but i do buy a good bit online, Westwood Acres, Fabric Shack, Hawthorne Threads, Fat Quarter Shop, really the list is too long.

11. What's the best advice you've ever been given?
For this I have to go with something my mother taught me very young "If you don't have something nice to say then don't say anything at all" we call it the "Thumper Rule". Like Thumper from Bambi who's mother tells him the same thing, or something similar. And while that might sound like a odd piece of advice it really taught me that there is usually something nice you can say so try a little harder to find something nice and say that instead of whatever just popped into your head. 

Ok so as far as I know the way this works is I now nominate a few up and coming bloggers who's answers I would like to read. I think I would really like to get to know my fellow Stash Bash participants a little better so I will nominate a few of them so in no particular order I will choose:

Amy from House of Bad Cats

Laurel at Drowning in Fabric

Marla at Sew Hungry

And a few other friends of mine

Melissa at Crafty Goods

Diane at Southern Meanderings

And for your questions please answer the following:
1. Why did you start blogging? 
2. What is something this year that you are really looking forward to?
3. What is your favorite thing to do to unwind?
4. Photo's say a thousand words so share a photo that means the most to you. Why is that picture important to you?
5. What quote inspires you the most?
6. Name a quilting tool you can’t live without & why?
7. Where is your favorite vacation spot?
9. If you could meet one designer who would it be and why?
10. Where do you like to shop?
11. What's the best advice you've ever been given?

Also please remember to go visit my friend Kira as well as Wendi. They have both already recieved the award but they are wonderful girls and very inspiational.

Riley Blake Challenge

The Modern Quilt Guild hosted a fabric challenge where they sent each member a selection of Riley Blake Fabrics and we all got to make something quilty of our choice. My local guild decided to make their own rule as well that you had to learn a new skill or practice a skill you aren't comfortable with. So here's what I made, it's just a little mini quilt.

So you may be wondering what new skill I was practicing well I did all the piecing in my new to me Singer treadle! I will talk more about that in a later post.  I also was practicing my free motion quilting skills with some petal or orange peel quilting which you can see better from the back.

I really enjoyed the challenge and would like to say a big thanks to The Modern Quilt Guild and Riley Blake for putting this all together for us!! Until next time here's a couple more pics :)

Hello again

Ok so a lot has happened since I last posted because we found out we were moving and I didn't really have time to post! The move came with a new sewing room, like an entire room just for sewing!!!! So since I now have a whole room for sewing I have added a bit to my sewing arsenal. I have added a couple things but for today I will just show you my new table.
I bought a desk at a local thrift shop earlier today and modified it to hold my sewing machine. This is the desk with my sewing machine sitting on top.

And here it is all modified and ready to use.

Yay! So I now have a custom sewing table for a total cost of about $50 and some hard work!

This couldn't have happened at a better time either because I just joined my first online quilting bee! There will be more to come on that and other things going on in my new sewing room!!

Broken Rainbow

I recently took this quilt for the show and tell portion of our guild meeting and I thought I would post it here, this one is kinda long but I wanted to get down the whole story of this quilt. I am still working on photography skills so y'all will have to forgive me for any awkward photos!

Inspiration for this quilt struck one day and I just had to make it. I did not use a pattern for this I just made it up as I went along (isn't that the way you are supposed to do things?) When I took it to the meeting it didn't have a name but since then I have decided to call it Broken Rainbow because to me it kinda looks like someone broke it and tried to put it back together again. I had the unique joy of quilting this on a long arm machine that belongs to a friend of mine, thanks Marcy! I had so much fun quilting it and I am so happy with the way it turned out! I had not used a long arm before and I am so grateful to have such a kind and patient friend!

Here's the back to where you can see the quilting better it is by no means perfect but I love it.

What no quilt label!!!! I know, I had not decided on a name for it yet when I took the picture so there was no label, now that I have a name I will put a label on it.

So what on earth could inspire such a quilt? Gosh I'm so glad you asked! A few months ago I was looking at the sad state of my fabric stash. I was scary really, unorganized, cluttered, and it made it hard to find fabric that I knew I had and it took up tons of space. These are all bad things so I decided to be an adult and do something about it. Here is the space where I used to store my fabric

To me it kinda looks like a fabric monster that I was trying to stuff into little wire cubes, and it wasn't working out so well.

Oh yeah and my "cutting table" wasn't much better, it had been taken over by a slightly smaller fabric monster.

So here it all is cleaned and organized

Yay! Happy fabric stash no more scary monster! I was looking at the fabrics and how pretty they were and I got inspired to make a quilt using a little of each of several of my favorite fabrics with some gray in there to break it up. So I took down a bunch of fabric, cut it up, sewed it back together, and that's how I got my quilt! Now I can wrap myself in all that lovely fabric any time I want because I put it into a quilt. After all what is the point in all this if I don't sew stuff?

I just realized this is my second post and it's about the second big quilt I have made, funny how things work out sometimes!

My name is Leslie and I have a problem...

Hello, my name is Leslie and I have a problem, I am addicted to crafting. Sewing, quilting, cooking and making things in general, I love it all! I have decided to start a blog to record my adventures and I hope you will join me for a trip on the crazy train!

Since this is my first post I thought I would tell you a little about myself. I have been married to my best friend for 3 wonderful years and we have four furry babies, our dog Leia, our cats Arwen and Eowyn, and our guinea pig Cloud.

 I am an engineer by day and a crafter by night. I am also a nerd, I have been all my life, any time I can mix my nerdiness with my crafting I do! I have been sewing since I was a little girl but I recently started quilting (about 2 years ago) when I discovered The Modern Quilt Guild and more specifically The Emerald Coast Modern Quilt Guild. The first large quilt I made was for the Modern Quilt Guild Madrona Road Challenge.

This is my blog where I plan to post about the things I make, stick around and it should be a fun ride!