5 Year Blogiversary Sale and Prizes

Five years of blogging have already come and gone.  I can hardly believe it.  I so appreciate you hanging out here with me!!!  Your comments over the years have been so encouraging.  As a thank you to all my followers and visitors, I wanted to have a Blogiversary Sale!

First of all, we are going to have 25% off all books and patterns.  To receive the discount on the pattern, just enter the code patternsale (all one word).  The books are already marked down, no code is needed.

Secondly, we are offering 10% off on the Here Fishy Fishy Kits and some of the yardage. (again, no code needed).

Lastly, I have added a bunch of finished quilts for sale.  My studio is quickly running out of room  and to make room, I have almost 30 quilts listed that I would be willing to part with.  They have never been used and are listed at excellent prices.  In fact, some have already been selling before I’ve even gotten a chance to announce the sale.

I know quilters are more into making quilts than buying them (ya think?) but maybe you don’t have time to get much quilting done yourself, or maybe I have a quilt done up in a fabric line that you always wanted, or maybe several are beyond your current skill level or maybe one of these quilts goes just perfectly in your house  – all of these are good reasons to go shopping!

Click here to visit our online store.  Refer to the sidebar on the right to shop specific categories, like books, patterns, fabric, or quilts for sale.

In addition to shopping, there will be 4 nice prizes given away.  The prizes include:

A big stack of books:

Or a big stack of patterns:

And a couple starter packs of Fishy fabrics  (7 half yard cuts in each pack)

Just leave a comment for a chance to enter the giveaway.  I will announce the winners next week and the sale will run through next Friday.  Have a great holiday weekend!  Thanks again for being a part of this blog!!!

WIP – Decorating

Today I have a few before and after pictures to share with you.    Some of the before shots were obviously taken at Christmas – so ignore the Christmas tree and just look at the colors and the furniture arrangement.

These are photographs of the main living area in our house.  We had this furniture when we moved into this house 10 years ago.  I was pretty tired of the dark colors and Joel’s spot on the couch was quite worn out.  It was time to pick out something different –  but we hate furniture shopping, so we kept putting it off!

Since Carter arrived, we have also been looking for a softer coffee table.  Joel made all the mission style furniture in the living room, so I am sorry to see it go for that reason – but those corners are just too stressful to have around with a toddler!

This is the dining room before.  I loved the red for a long time, but I was ready for a change – something lighter and brighter.  (By the way the lake view is out these windows, but they get blown out when I try to make the rest of the photograph show up.  It’s so hard to photograph high contrast areas . . . the window look bright white and everthing else looks darker than it really it )

I am sure I will miss the red at Christmas time.  It was always fun to decorate a red room with Christmas things.

Here is the new paint color I chose – big surprise right?  Everything I do has some aqua blue in it.

The living room has been lightened too.  We now have two swivel chairs so you can talk to the people sitting on the couch, or turn to watch TV.  The new layout works much better.  And see the softer “coffee table”?  Now the only worry is the stone corners on the fireplace hearth, but that isn’t changed so easily.

The chairs are supposed to be a lighter version of the paint in the dining room, but the colors are so hard to photograph.  The blues look off, the greens look very yellow and the yellow looks brighter than it actually is.  Hopefully you can use your imagination.

I am still working on the TV wall.  I found the media stand at Home Goods and I am trying to decide on some sort of photo arrangement.  Any ideas?  I am not sure what else to do.

I am still on the hunt for some pillows to pull all the colors together, but in the meantime I have been finding some fun geometric prints.  I found an Ikat print to make a slip cover for the ottoman.  I plan to change it out seasonally, with different prints.  I attached it with Velcro so it’s easy to change or wash.  Does anyone else see things in Ikat prints?  I see a dog’s face in this one.  I’m not sure if that means I need a psychological evaluation or not!

I still need to make some runners and quilts for the space – again to try to help pull things together.  The furniture arrived last December but I haven’t shown this to you yet because I still haven’t decided if I am done yet.  I still think it need some “tweaking”.

But aren’t houses always a work in progress?  Or is it just me?

Stop back later this week – I realized that my 5 year blogiversary has come and gone and I missed it.  I think there should be just a little bit of a celebration!

A Few Finished Objects

Has it really been two weeks already since I blogged last?

I can’t believe how the time flies – It seems like I blink – and poof!  There goes two weeks.  I can hardly remember what I’ve all been up to – other than painting up a new fabric line and trying to keep up with Carter.  He is really into everything and wanting all the things he can’t have.  The poor little guy gets told no at every turn  . . .

I mean seriously, does that face not look like total trouble?  And he lives up to that t-shirt.  He can destroy our living area in less time than it takes me to make supper.  Somehow, before and after pictures of a destroyed living room don’t make for interesting blog pictures . . .oh well, I guess I will just show you a couple finished knits instead.

The first item is a scarf.  For some reason, I always feel I should be making more scarves (instead of spending double or triple the time on a sweater).  I can’t explain it, but for some reason, when I knit scarves, the time seems to just drag by.

This one wasn’t as bad as some – partly because I made it half the width the pattern called for, but also because every six rows or so you get to unravel the dropped stitch.  That’s what makes the open line of stitches in the scarf.

The yarn looked like this when I bought it, so it’s always interesting to see how different it looks in the finished item.

You can find the details here, on Ravelry.

The next item is not one that I am thrilled with.  In fact, I haven’t even worn it yet.   I knew half way through the project that I was going to run out of yarn, so I ordered more and it came such a different dye lot that it became something else.  I ended up having to make do with the yarn I had, so the vest turned out differently than it was supposed to.

This is what the non-matching yarn became – as you can see, the yarns look nothing alike.  Even though they came from the same store and have the same name.  That is just the reality of hand-dyed yarn, I guess.

The original pattern for the wrap was supposed to look like this –

I thought it was fun and different.  I loved the cable pattern and the collar is really pretty.  I ended up having to make the collar smaller to make up for not having enough yarn.

There are several ways you can wear it, depending on where you put the fastener.

It was really easy to make.  You can see from this picture how it’s constructed.  I think I may have to make another one – this time as the pattern is written.

You can find my Ravelry link by clicking here.

That’s all for today.  Hopefully I can come up with something more exciting to blog about soon!