Sally's Ponderings

{fun fridays - just a little photo fun)

{Meet the Gang from the Intrepid Thread - basket from an antique store!}

So, I've been having a blast hanging out with my sister this week. That's the great news...

And the even better news is that we did a little antiquing yesterday, so I have a little bit of fodder for the blog today!! 

I love these antique spools. I purposefully looked for them for baker's twine storage! (I got the baker's twine from my sweet friend, Bev, who is just finishing up her Stampin' Up! business. We gave it one last hurrah with a fun order of gnome stamps and this baker's twine! I, of course, had to have it in every color!!)

I also sneaked in a little quilting this afternoon while my sister and mom are at my brother's house to enjoy dinner with him and his sweet little family! (yes, I believe in sharing...even siblings!!)

I cut my fabrics for my Tangerine Tango quilt! yay! It's gonna be sooo beautiful!! 

and here is a WIP that I will hopefully finish tomorrow night!

It will be a fun Valentine's quilt!! :) 

Isn't this fun??? Just the start of something very cool...

Tomorrow, we go to the zoo!! So fun! I went to the zoo with my kids and my sil and her little girlies two weeks ago...

Stay tuned for new pics this weekend!! :)

{project quilting + a little heat therapy in tangerine tango!!}

Happy Wednesday! I have a couple of projects to share with you today!

First of all, isn't this lamby funny??? My darling friend, Amanda, sent back the little dish soap dress I made for her ezine (find that right here!! yipeee!!) highlighting her Delighted fabric! So I could replace the dish dress I had on my dish soap which left this prototype dress was in need of somewhere to be!

the Delighted Dish Soap dress

Gertie, the sheep with her dress on!! :) Love!!!

_________________________

This week was a Project Quilting week. I got mine done early, early!! and here it is...

and here's the story behind it:

This quilt is for Project Quilting Season 3 challenge #2. The challenge was to pick song lyrics to inspire your quilt. I actually asked Mr Gorgeous what song he thought I should pick. He suggested the new song we just sang in church on Sunday, Overcome by Jon Egan.

The bridge lyrics say this: "We will overcome by the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony. Everyone overcome."

When I read these lyrics and when I sing them, I think about all of the mountains in front of us that stop us from reaching the potential that God wants us to reach; the dreams that He has buried deep in our souls...

...and that lead me to think about the verse that is embroidered here on this mountain - Mark 11:23"I assure you that whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be lifted up and thrown into the sea’—and doesn’t waver but believes that what is said will really happen—it will happen." (Common English Translation)

How awesome is that????

So I added the flowers and birdie on the right hand side of the mountain to remind myself that the beauty is reachable...the dream is there, once that mountain is cast into the sea. All I have to do is ask and believe!! 

I used raw edge applique and "mountainous" quilting on the mountain. Then I did swirly meandering on the background. I used Sweetwater fabrics from their line Hometown. The little bird on the flower is from Anthropologie. (so fun!!). I framed the quilt by securing it to foam core board and putting in a glass-less frame.  This quilt is 16"x20"!

And it will be in the shop this weekend!! Yay!!

_____________________

One other project that I've finished this week is my January Project Challenge 2012 at Art Gallery Fabrics!

The challenge was to make a heat therapy pillow with raw edged applique on it using only Art Gallery Fabrics. First of all, the hand on these fabrics is GORGEOUS!! They are just lovely to work with!!

 I used Papaya Orange fom Pat Bravo's Oval Elements and her Ocean Breeze from her Nature Elements all procured from The Intrepid Thread! (theintrepidthread.etsy.com)

I raw edge appliqued the bird and bird cage. They are from a Sizzix die by Tim Holtz. I free motion "wrote" the words "free as a bird" and added batting and appliqued it onto the other sides of the heat therapy pillow. I filled it full of rice.

I'm super excited about this, because my feet get soooooo cold during winter when I go to bed. They won't be any more!! (Actually, Mr Gorgeous will be the most excited about this!! teeheee)

_____________________

I still have a bunch of other projects to work on this week, but my crafting time will be put on hold for a while this week while my darling sister is here visiting from the Pacific Northwest!!

(this is me and my sister in Alaska - August 2009 - teeheee!!)

I will be sneaking in a little bit of crafting with her!! She is a crafting genius, so be on the lookout for genuis later this week!!

_______________________

and while we are on the subject of family...

Here are two of my very favorite faces at church last Sunday...

*sigh*

I love my life!!!

Happy day...hope yours is as wild and joyous as mine!! ♥♥♥

{fabric inspiration on a lazy sunday afternoon}

{my Silly Bandz mini art quilt for sale at Etsy!}

Do you ever just love to sit and stare at fabric? or sheep? or fabric with sheep on it??

Okay, maybe that's just me...

Last week, I took my youngest to the dentist for some preventative dentistry, and I just had to stop at the quilt store which is just a few houses down from the dentist office.

I told Lillian that we weren't buying anything...

...and I did pretty well, until I got to the table that said "buy any bundle, get a class for free!"

Actually, I didn't buy a bundle.

I didn't get a free class.

But, the sheep fabric that was in the bundle screamed out to me, "BUY ME, SALLY!!! RIGHT NOW!!!" And of course, I always listen to screaming fabric, don't you?? I went and found the bolts the bundle was cut from...*sigh* ...i love sheep!

wanna see???

This is Deb Strain's Coming Home fabrics which was out in stores in Sept of last year. I got the two fabrics and the panel. Check out that selvage! What??? Sheep???!!!!

For some reason, I love panels...I dunno why!! I just do!

Here's a close up of several of the sheep-laden panels:

 

 

see why I'm in heaven????

...and yes, Lillian did say, "Mom!! I thought you said we weren't buying anything!" Kids! LOL!

And so then that was Wednesday...

on Thursday, in my mailbox was this FABULOUS package from Julie from the Intrepid Thread!

I had to get the bundle she was selling for the Tangerine Tango challenge!! There were a couple of fun little inserts to play with, too!! Here's how I divided my package up for my projects!

This is for the January 2012 Art Gallery Blog challenge!! yipeee!!

These are for my Tangerine Tango Challenge Quilt!

And these are going to become a mini birdie quilt with hearts for the shop for Valentine's Day! Oooop, better get on that one quick!! :)

I'm handquilting a Valentine's Day little wall hanging for the shop tonight! But before I get to that, I have a couple more pics from our Houston Modern Quilt Guild meeting yesterday! It was super super fun!!! I just took a few pics before I got distracted and started handquilting again...(I love that everyone does handwork during the meeting. It's soooo liberating and such a great use of time for me!! heehee!!)

Here's Liz with a finished quilt of hers! Awesome!!!

And Deirdre's Row Robin quilt!! Everyone did awesome-ly! It's called Mom's Garden of Flowers!

and Becca's fun Pezzy Baby Quilt! Love!!!

If you are in the Houston area and want to totally be inspired, come to our Houston Modern Quilt Guild meetings!! Pure Awesomeness!!

_______________

btw, the project quilting challenge #2 is up...and I've picked my song!! have you???

See you here Tuesday morning! Tomorrow, I'm going to redecorate my house since all of the Christmas stuff is put away...well, almost all of it!!!

Blessings!!!!

{hexies + petal pushers + a table = a fun friday tutorial!!}

Ohhhhh it's fun Friday here!!! yay!!! 

And today, instead of making you suffer through a video of me explaining something, I've got a tutorial to share right here!!! 

So, before I start all of my rambling, let's get to it!!

Here's what we are making:

Petal Pusher Hexie Table Topper

By Sally’s Angelworks

 

Here’s a fun quick project you can whip up in an afternoon!! Thanks to my sweet, sweet friend and fabric dealer (seriously!! she is totally my dealer!!!), Julie from the Intrepid Thread for the Petal Pushers fabric! You can get some here!

Download the printable PDF right here!! 

Supplies:

6 fat eighths (different prints)

1 fat quarter (white or neutral)

1 fat quarter for binding

Backing fabric (I used bleached muslin)

Hexagon templates

(I am offering a kit for this in my store!!! yipeeeee!!!)

Cutting instructions:

Cut 2  3.5”x5” rectangles out of each of the 6 prints.

With the leftover material, cut a 3.5” square out of each print. You will use this for the hexies!

 

The instructions for this table topper are really easy! (LOVE that!!) Here we go…

 

Lay out your rectangles longways to see how you want to put them together. I sewed mine in the same order, but flipped the order on the opposite side of the topper. 

 

Sew your rectangles together in two strips of 6 each.

 

 

Trim your shorter side of your neutral fat quarter piece down to 18.5”. This should be the length of your strips of rectangles.

 

TIP: I don’t have anything larger than a 15” large cutting ruler, so I added a 3.5” ruler right next to my 15” one. Perfect!!! Make sure they are both straight!

 

 

 

Sew your rectangle strips to either side of your fat quarter (on the short sides).

 

 

Here’s kind of a fun pic showing off one side…

 

Gather your supplies for your hexies. I just googled hexie tutorials to make sure I was doing it correctly. I’m still in search of the perfect one…maybe that will make it onto a Fun Friday video…but just know that as long as you tack the corners, you’re good!!

 

 

After you finished your hexies, iron them (with the paper still inside).

 

 

Take the paper out and iron again.

 

Lay them out how you think you’d like them to look!

 

 

Sew the edges where the hexies meet together right sides together with a whipstitch.

 

 

I got kind of carried away and didn’t sew the same edges together that I had originally put together, but I still liked this design, too!!

 

 

 

Before you sew your hexies down, let’s quilt this sucker…pin baste all three layers together.

 

 

I’m always inspired by my darling friend, Brooke’s table runner quilting, so I decided to do those same wavy quilting lines horizontally on my topper!!

 

 

After quilting, pin your hexie group down right where you want them.

 

 

  Sew in the inside of each hexie about ¼”.

Go back and sew around the very edge of the outline of the group. So cool!!

{cupcakes not included!} 

Bind and Voila!! You are done and you have a gorgeous table topper!!

 

Just a note about the kit! 

I will include everything needed for this project including the printed PDF EXCEPT batting and backing! :) 

Everything for 19$ with FREE SHIPPING!!! yipeee! What a deal!! :) and there are a limited quantity so get yours RIGHT HERE!! :)

 ____________________

A quick shout out to the NEW in the store this week!!

PomPom Walk in the Woods quilt

Petal Pushers Hexie Table Topper

{sorry...this guy isn't for sale!!}

Happy sewing this weekend!! I'll popping in and out...tomorrow is the January meeting of the Houston Modern Quilt Guild, so I'm super excited about that!!!

Blessings!!!

{a little...just a little navel gazing...with an artistic bent...}

so I've been thinking...

it's time to step it up a bit...

time to grab that clean slate that God gives me everyday and do something extraordinary with it!!

I'm really feeling the Before and After scenario here...

Before (above)

After (above!)

My art journaling yesterday takes it another step...

I am given a seed...a seed of talents...

What am I going to do with that seed?

I certainly do not have the personality to hide it in a little bag and trade it for a cow...(Jack in the Beanstock reference there...LOL!!!)

Before I figure out the actual HOW, let's look at the After...

I love this analogy!! 

And here's what I believe: (remember, BELIEVE is my word for the year!)

As long as I am moving forward nurturing that seed, my God will steer me in the right direction! You may think that is naive or a crutch or a cop out, but after 42 (yes, 42...you can call me middle-aged, if you want. I know the truth!) years, I have realized we all have to relinquish control some time...Who you choose to relinquish control to is, of course, your decision...

But for me, I choose God, and my God sent his Son to die for me so that I won't ever be apart from Him. That's the eternal part of the equation...(probably the most important part) But what about the here and now?

It's like these new thingies I just bought a few days ago. They are miraculous!!!

I have been doing a HUGE amount of hand binding and embroidery and other needle work (like hexies!! yay!!), and my poor middle finger has received the brunt of all of the pain!

I tried traditional thimbles...no maneuverability...

I tried those cool leather thimbles...again, hard to manage and even harder to fit!!

So I tried these...(I even have one on right now as I type! I'm about to hand quilt a quilt in a minute!!)

AMAZING!!

What the little plastic sticker thingie (technical term!) does is it allows my finger to do what it is supposed to do, and yet, it protects the fingertip from harm. It absorbs all of the sticking of the needle so the finger doesn't pay in pain!!

This is what Jesus does for me every day. He carries my load...He takes on my burdens...and he directs my path!

Pretty cool!!

Just a quick note for you, my darling blog readers...

I don't often preach here...but I do hope to inspire you, to give you a hope! 

Personally, my hope comes from my God, and so you'll read that a lot here...

not in a preachy manner, but an inspirational one...

{pic by my darling beautiful daughter, Cora!}

BTW, you don't have to make the seed actually grow!! That's His job! You just have to plant it and nurture it...He makes the miracle happen!!

_________________________

Just a quick note about Fun Fridays this week...

Mr Gorgeous is out of town with his fancy iPad that I use for my videos, so I'm actually going to have a fun new tutorial up for you here! With a PDF to print! Yay!!!

Here are some sneaky peeks! So you won't want to miss it!!!

inspirational thought for the day:

²⁸ “Come to me, all you who are struggling hard and carrying heavy loads, and I will give you rest.

Common English Bible Translation - Matt 11:28

{project quilting + what's coming for sally's angelworks}

Happy Monday!!!!

What excitement here in the studio!! 

First of all, I finished two complete quilts last week!! Yay!!! They will be in the store this Friday!! double yay! 

Here they are...

First of all, Julie over at the Intrepid Thread sent me some awesome fabric...Domestic Bliss! You need this for all of your Valentine's Day projects!!

And hopefully, you are signed up for Julie's newsletter, because she just sent her January one out! In it was a link to the tutorial to make my Heart Tumbler Quilt! yay!!

Isn't it fun?? Here are some close-ups...

love the felt hearts!

fun wild heart-y quilting!

love the tumbler block!

This was a fun project for me. I learned a lot creating it, and I know it will be the perfect Valentine's gift when it sells in the store! Watch for it to be listed on Friday!

________________________

Did you see? Did you see?? Project Quilting Season 3 has started up again! yipeeee!!

This season, I'm a participant again, AND I'm a sponsor!! Love that!

So, the first challenge has been posted and finished...

and here's mine....

The challenge was to be inspired by something having to do with Architectural Design. 

I created a Pinterest board with some really great architectural pics.

Then I picked one that really inspired me:

I love the left side of this picture! The sky spoke "white space" to me!! LOVE!!

I didn't post this other picture on the flickr site, but I was also a bit inspired by this picture:

I couldn't get away from that pink! So fun!!! 

So I went with Aneela Hoey's  Walk in the Woods and a lot of white space!

Isnt' it fun??? A perfect baby quilt, for sure! look for it to be in the store this Friday!!

__________________________

so what plans do I have this week?

....lots and lots of Valentine's Day sewing!!

...lots and lots of gnome-y fun!!

...and lots and lots of wool fun!!

are you ready for this week????

He is!!!! :)

-------------------------------------

a little inspiration for you today:

²³ I assure you that whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be lifted up and thrown into the sea’—and doesn’t waver but believes that what is said will really happen—it will happen. ²⁴ Therefore I say to you, whatever you pray and ask for, believe that you will receive it, and it will be so for you.

Mark 11:23-24 

Are you ready for some football????

I just wanted to let you know that I'm at home watching FOOTBALL this weekend!!

GO TEXANS!!! :)

See you Monday!! ♥

{Fun Fridays - how to make a mini memory quilt + OLW + WIPs!!}

Welcome to Fun Fridays here at Sally's Angelworks! I love Fridays...almost as much as Mondays!! :) And today, I have a lot to share with you!! Most of it on a video...teeheee...

First of all, are you familiar with Ali Edward's One Little Word (OLW) class over at Big Picture Classes? She encourages everyone to pick a word and meditate on that word throughout the year, and she teaches you how to capture it through art. I know there are skeptics out there, but let me quickly share my experience last year with my One Little Word. 

Last year my word was HOPE. It really picked me... it was a concept that permeated my soul! It has actually gotten to the point that I can't go a day without thinking/meditating on the concept of Hope!! 

So this year, I am not "abandoning" hope...I'm adding the word "Believe" to it. How can I ascribe my word to my life on a daily basis? This is the journey I'm on! And I love it!!!

Here's the funny thing...I actually painted this gnome before I chose the word...then I was thinking about my One Little Word and this word came to mind. THEN I picked up the gnome and remembered that I had painted it on there!! Wild!!

When you pick a word, you can create reminders all around you! And today, I'm going to show you how to make one...a Mini Memory OLW Quilt!

Here is today's Fun Friday Video!!

How to create a mini memory quilt by sally's angelworks:

Isn't that fun??? Another tip that I didn't say in the video...you may think you can just start with all three layers, the top, batting and backing, but your stamping will not come out as good if you are stamping on all three layers. So make sure you stamp your word or year before you layer your quilt together!! :)

If you want that exact quilt, it's in the shop HERE!!

If you want your own OLW mini quilt, and you don't want to make it yourself, you can buy a custom one right here in my shop!! Yay!!! I'm looking forward to make a bunch of these little cuties!!

________________________

Besides recording videos and creating cute little memory quilts, I've been FINISHING (another word for me this year!! It's okay for me to have two, right????? Okay, i BELIEVE i will be doing more finishing this year than ever!!! LOL!) some other projects that I'm joining in with!! :)

For example, I'm doing the Sew. Happy. Quilt. QAL. Just when I can...no stress!! (I promise, mom!!) I'm actually going to combine my blocks with other blocks I did for the Bloggers Blockapalooza last year~ It's going to be a gorgeous quilt when it's all done!! :)

Here are my first week's blocks from the Sew. Happy. Quilt. QAL:

I'm using a fat quarter pack that I got three Quilt Markets ago...Buttercup by Fig Tree and Co. This may actually end up on my bed...we'll see. That's one of my goals for 2012...get my bedroom all redesigned, quilt and all!! :)

I also pin-basted three projects that needed to be done by this Saturday! Here are some sneaky peeks of them....

There's a fun story behind this quilt...I'll tell it later when I have more time!! :)

Be sure and sign up for Julie's newsletter before this Saturday!! :)

And guess what started up again this week????

Project Quilting Season 3!! I"m super excited to be participating again! And I am a sponsor, too!! yay!! So if you are a quilter...get involved! You have a great chance to win a LOT of prizes! Kim's done a fab job putting this together again!! yay!! 

(this quilt is actually bigger than anything I've done for project quilting before, so I'm really really excited about it!!! You'll see it on Saturday, too!!)

Two out of three are completely quilted, so I'm doing pretty well! I may pull a late nighter binding tonight, but that's okay...I can sleep in on Saturday!! yipeeeee!!

Let me know what you think about all of this craziness!! I always love comments!! ♥ and Believe you can do whatever you are supposed to do!! I know I can! yay!!

 

{hybrid digital scrapbooking fun}

Ohhhhh I know you want to learn how to do this!!!! eeeeep!! 

I'm sooo excited about my guest post over at the Oscraps blog!!

Check it out here:

Hybrid Fun at Oscraps

and check out these really fun projects:

Check all of this out here at the Oscraps BLOG! yipeeeeeee!!

and don't forget...Friday, you can learn how to make one of these for yourself!! Video tutorial coming Friday!! yay!!

{weekend fabric love}

What a productive weekend!! I have had a wonderful time watching the Playoff games (football FANatic here!!! eeeeek!! more about that in a later post this week!) and doing some handwork (see above hexies!! yay!!). I've been cleaning up all of the Christmas stuff today and getting ready for the week. 

And through it all, I have been thinking, dreaming, swooning over a couple of packages of fabric that I got this week!! yipeeeeee!!! 

let me share some pics with ya...

Aren't these gorgeous???? I haven't decided what to make out of them, but it will probably be something very girlie!! ♥ or Valentine's-y!!

You want these, don't you???

Go over to Julie's store and grab them right now!!!

Don't you love this fabric, Domestic Bliss, from Moda? It is my finishing fabric for a special project that you will know about soon!! 

what do you get when you put these two together???

Girls World by Jennifer Paganelli

and 

Bella BLVD's Sunny Happy Skies

Hopefully it will end up being something fantastically wonderful for my darling littlest girlie!!

Here's another stack of fabric that will end up being something adorable that you will want to make, too!! :) Fly a Kite by October Afternoon 

Aren't these secretive fabric posts fun???? They keep me accountable! And I'm always in need of accountability! 

btw, I went to download these pictures and found some other pictures on my card. Apparently, my darling daughters got a hold of my camera...and here are a couple of sweet shots that I found...

First bangs for my sweet girlie, Lil...cut and photographed by my sweet girlie, Cora!! 

(I used PTM's Tillie's Attic actions on these pics! Love those!!)

Be sure and join me this week for a week full of projects, finishing, football, new store products, my One Little Word, and a new video on Friday!! It'll be fun!! ♥