Sally's Angelworks

{Fun Fridays - a sheep, a meal, and a global experience!}

Happy Friday, everyone!!! 

Have you had a good productive week???? I have...it's been crazy busy!!

But today, I can just relax and catch up on my house cleaning! (yep, after this week, house cleaning will be relaxing!! LOL!!!)

First of all today, I want to share a couple of tutorials I put up this week.  

You've already seen my Funky Wonky Barn Quilt for Project Quilting over at Julie's Blog. 

Today, I posted a fun new pin cushion tutorial over at Riley Blake's Cutting Corners blog! Yay!

Go check out how to make this right here!!!

Here's another version using Amanda's Sweet Divinity fabric (i'm still in LOVE with this fabric!! eeeep!!)

I am loving this pin cushion!!!! :)

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And yesterday, I posted a quick tip on how to use photoshop and clipping photo masks over at the O Blog! So fun!!!

See step by step how to create this LO!! :) fun!!

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and today, we participated in this art project...

with Art House Gallery and Studio!

Here are my pictures from our meal at 12pm EST today...

(11am in our house means breakfast = scones and coffee!)

Here's what Art House said about this project:

"Nothing makes us feel connected quite like sharing a meal together. On February 24th at 12pm Eastern Standard Time, thousands of strangers from around the world will sit down for a bite in unison and capture a shared experience at the exact same time. Take a photograph of yourself with your meal and mail it back to us. These simultaneous snapshots – self-portraits of people and their foods – will be exhibited in our storefront project space and made available online. Our aim is to inspire a feeling of community across geographic and cultural boundaries. So wherever you may be on February 24th at 12pm, keep your camera handy and something delicious nearby – and remember that thousands of strangers, both near and far, are sharing that meal with you."

So, when my kids and I sat down to eat, we talked about being hungry...I got all of the usual comments..."I'm always hungry" ... "There's never anything I like in the pantry"... "I like to eat!" and so on. I asked them what if their dad was out of work and we had to struggle to pay for food. It was really a hard concept to grasp. We are so blessed. But hopefully, it helped them to not take our food for granted. 

We also talked about when Emma went with the middle schoolers to prepare lunches for underprivileged kids at Lunches of Love. She described what she did ("I put pretzels in baggies" "I worked on an assembly line pushing lunch bags down the line" and so forth). And I explained that even children in our own area don't get regular lunches like my kids do and have to go to charities to get food. 

Sometimes we get so wrapped up in our own worlds, we forget about the whole global community. I'm excited to print out our picture of our meal and send it to Art House for its art exhibit! What a fun way to come together at one moment in time!! 

"Taste and see that the LORD is good; 
   blessed is the one who takes refuge in him." Ps 34:8

Happy Friday everyone!!! I'm off to clean up my house! yay for the mundane comforting experiences, too!! 

{funky wonky project quilting fun + crazy funky wonky life fun!!}

ohhh yeah baby!!! I love this week!!

it's filled with fun, wild, crazy living!!!

Are you living crazy like me???

Are you embracing life to the fullest that you can???

I choose to do just that...embrace all I can!!!

So to start this week, I grabbed these fat quarters that my sweet, sweet friend Julie sent me ...

and I made this...

You want to make it too...I can tell!!!

So I uploaded a complete tutorial on Julie's blog right here!!

Mr Gorgeous had to put the gnome in there...he's sooo cute (mr gorgeous...okay, the gnome is, too!!)

This is my project quilting challenge #4 quilt submission, too!!! (it's a busy week, what can I say???)

The challenge was to create a block for a Barn Quilt. A Barn Quilt is usually a big quilt (around 8'x8') that depicts one block. I chose to do my own version of a wonky log cabin block. This is my first attempt at a wonky log cabin, but I have to tell you, I was completely enamored with the marriage of modern + traditional. This whole idea of a log cabin (which was my very first quilt block ever! yipeee!!) with straight line quilting (modern) and white space (modern) along with crazy awesome modern fabrics (Dan Bennett's Cosmos from Free Spirit) with the added traditional folk hand quilting (middle block) just made me smile through the whole process. LOVE that!

This is why I quilt...to create something that makes me smile so that in turn it will inspire someone else to create or believe or have hope or just be inspired!! :) This quilt definitely inspired me to continue to create in a modern marrying traditional manner. (like that alliteration??? okay, it's been a long week so far!! LOL!!)

Thanks again, Julie and Kim for the inspiration to create!! :)

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btw, are you in the Houston area and are prone to drama like me?????

You won't want to miss this:

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wanna see some other wildness???

this morning my hair looked like this...

now it looks like this...

very blonde on top...

very red underneath...

and a little lighter...

My sweet hairdresser cut off this huge chunk of hair to send to Locks of Love...we'll see if they take it! I now have a shaved underhead! LOL!! (can you say that outloud???? LOL)

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this week isn't over yet!! eeep!!

I still have two more surprises...

Tomorrow I'm sharing a little bit of my crazy digital scrapbooking love and tips over on the OBlog...

Come on over to the OBlog Thursday afternoon to see how to create a cool digital scrapbooking page like this!!!

Better yet, head on over there right now to see all of the wild digi excitement that's happening over there right now!! :)

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had enough??? I didn't think so....

Friday, I will be revealing what I created with these fabrics...

compliments of Riley Blake Designs...this is a smattering of fabrics just released called "Fly a Kite" by October Afternoon!! Soooo fun and wonderful!! 

Can you guess what I made???? Can you guess what it might involve????

isn't the crazy wonky life a fun life???

For me, it's a life filled with HOPE and a future!!! 

Be sure and check back to see that future!! :)

{fun weekend crafting}

it's the little things in life that keep us smiling!!

my son LOVES penguins...so I found a link on Pinterest that led me to this tutorial and I followed it to make the penguins above. (Mine aren't as suave, but my son loved them!! :))

Remember this book? Happy Gloves? and this cute little guy? Well, I created one for my darling son...

Isn't he adorable??? btw, Target has these gloves on sale for $.60 for two pair!! what a deal!! I picked up a bunch so I could make these guys! LOVE!!!

 

So last week, I was battling a double ear infection...I'm still not sure it's completely cured, so I'm off to the dr tomorrow, but that's not what I was getting at...

On Valentine's Day, I wanted to do something really special for the family, but I was really low on energy! Not even my normal IV of coffee worked!! :)

So I decided to grab these fabrics and whip something up...

I'm addicted to half-square triangles! I found a fun tutorial on how to make them faster. But they are cut on the bias which makes them a little stretchy. It's a good way for me to practice my precision stitching!

Before sewing the HST together...(above)

after!

I added some 10" squares of fabric and made a table cloth. I didn't use batting, just backing and added some trim. I'll show off the finished project later, but suffice it to say, after this project was done...i was wiped out for the night!! :)

But they all liked the table cloth/picnic table cloth! :)

This weekend, I wanted to finish two custom projects I had on the books. 

The first was a purse for my niece's birthday. I showed her the pattern in this book by Kay Whitt, and then I let her pick her fabrics...she did a great job!!

And here's her purse...

Isn't it adorable??? I'm hoping to make several more! I love them! 

And then my darling friend, Colleen wanted an iPad bag just like I have. Mine was made for this tutorial here by Julie from the Intrepid Thread.  So this weekend, I finished Colleen's...she picked the fabric for hers, too...I love it when they see the fabric stack and then they see the finished project!! Makes me look like I was a miracle worker!! (we all know that a good pattern will always make us look great, right??? LOL!!)

my front closeup didn't turn out so clear...

But the back one shows off my Free Motion Quilting that I did using the leaf pattern we did for last month's challenge. :)

And what about this coming week???? Ohhhhh I have plans, big plans!!

Project Quilting Season3 challenge #4 is up and it's a great one!! I'm excited!! It goes right along with something that I'll be guest posting on a certain blog this week! Tooo exciting!! :) 

and I hope to squeeze in this fun sew-along...

February's project is an ironing board cover...and these are the fabrics I picked out...

Can't wait to finish it! yay!!! :)

What are you up to this week???

{i choose joy}

Happy Day after Valentine's Day!!

Ours is being celebrated today for many reasons...

I just wanted to take a sec to say that my computer is on the blink and it's going to the doctor's today. I have access to other computers, but it's just not the same...*sigh*

Pray that it comes out healthier than ever!!!

If you don't hear from me, I'm still recovering from my really bad bout with a double ear infection. Otherwise, I'm in my craft studio creating wild things like the picnic blanket above!!

blessings beyond all blessings!!

{fun monday!! appropriate for me!!}

Did you wake up this morning rejoicing???? I did!! It's Monday! A fresh start! yipeeeee!!

and I promised you a video...

...and despite the wicked weekend I had (filled with fever and ear infections and biggest loser reruns), I got it up and streaming on YouTube today. 

Yep, I love Mondays!!

So, without further ado, here's that video I promised...

I know you want to see the finished table with all of my black and white projects!

btw, there might be an ad or two that pops up...just click the x to get rid of it. It's because of that fabulous recording of music that is playing in the background! Worth it! :)

So here are some closeups of the table:

This was my place setting...

Here's mom placing the roses on the bowl...so pretty!! (yep, mom & the roses!)

closeup of the roses and glasses

And here is the table with all of the gorgeous guests!! (minus one sister-in-law who was home sick with sick twins!!)

and our finished table!! teeheeee...it's closure! LOL!!

Thanks for letting me share a fun BIG project with you!! Be sure and stick around this week for more fun new project finishes!!! yay!!

blessings to you this gorgeous Monday!!

{fun friday WINNER! + some black and white fun!!}

YAY!! It's friday!! And we have a winner of the giveaway!!

just to remind you of what was won...

and our winner is SANDYB!! 

Watch that email box, Sandy!!

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So for fun Fridays today, I wanted to show you a video of this very cool table setting that my mom and I are creating, but we aren't creating it until this afternoon!! So, I'm going to post it on Monday...

but I am going to give you a few sneaky peeks of what we are using to create a Valentine's Black and White Elegant Brunch Table!!

Remember this pic from Monday? Well, all week, I've been busy creating with them:

I can't remember where I saw this block!! (too much blog hopping, I guess!) But I loved it, so I checked my little cheater quilt book that explains how to size quarter-square triangles and half-square triangles and went to town!!

This block happened as an oops, but a good oops!! :) (sewing fast = not really matching up seams...no quilt police comments, please! LOL!!)

This was another oops block, but it's very cool, too, i think!! Serendipity is my friend this week!

and I put them together with some other blocks and got this...

I love large meandering (stippling) for the quilting!

Doesn't this block look great quilted?? This, my friends, is why i love quilting!! The finished product!! ♥

So I also made these little dumpling bags for everyone's place setting. I personalized them (with a big shot alpha die! yay!!!) and added some red in there to match our plates...you are going to love seeing the whole table, I know you are!!

I got the FREE tutorial for this bag HERE at Keyka Lou's blog! Thanks, Keyka Lou!!

Mom is going to fill with them with a sweet surprise!! Soooo fun!!!

The last thing I sewed for the table was ruffles on the napkins! 

Nothing better than a ruffler foot that makes work take a second!!

Be sure and check back here on Monday to see the whole table put together. It's going to be very pretty!! You just can't go wrong with black and white with a pop of red!! 

I also will be posting my Project Quilting challenge#3 quilt on Sunday...that will be exciting!! you will be very inspired by it, i'm sure!! ♥

happy crafting this weekend...and get inspired today!!

 

 

{happy monday! + fun finishes}

{to find the giveaway from last week, go HERE!! still a chance to win!! yipeeeee!!!}

Happy Monday, everyone!! Are you inspired today to create??? I sure am! 

This week my mom and I are getting ready for her Ladies' Friendship Brunch her church puts on every year. Ladies from her church can "host" a table and invite their friends to come, eat brunch, hear an inspirational speaker, and fellowship. And these ladies do not hold back in their table decorating!!

For the past several years, Mom and I have teamed up to create fun tables! See this post HERE to see our SHEEPISH table from last year! (scroll down to the bottom of the tutorial to see the table pics.) It featured Amanda's Sweet Divinity fabrics. I LOVED it!! 

This year, it was hard to tear myself away from sheep. But looking at the picture above, I think we've settled on a good theme this year...black and white. And there will be a little pop of RED in there, too!! 

So, my projects this week will be geared for the table! Soooo fun!!! I'll keep you posted...

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What else have I been doing in this fun craft studio, you ask?

well, remember my FMQ (free motion quilting) I did in January?

well, with a little help from my ruffler foot, which I believe I've conquered - lol, I made it into a pillow. So yummmmy!!

Penny wanted to be in the picture, too (and that's where the best lighting was, of course!)...

This is using Honey Child by Jennifer Paganelli of Sis Boom. Gorgeous, isn't it????

I added the little crocheted flower and antique button just for a little vintage whimsy. LOVE!!

and for the back, I used Jennifer's West Indies fabric!! (yummmmy!)

Here are some other closeups of the pillow:

 

Love!!!!

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So this past week, I've been seeing a bunch of wonky stars all over the quilty blogosphere, so I thought Saturday, I'd try my hand at one!!! I've also been loving all of the quilts on Pinterest with this color combo. Yes, I am a Pinterest lover...it's a tool, people!! :) (email me if you want an invite...it's super cool!!)

Anyway, I used this very fun tutorial for "Maverick Stars" over at Quiltville.com and I love it. I wasn't sure it was going to turn out, but once I "wonked" the whole thing, I fell in love with it!!

And you know me...I cannot do anything without embroidering on it! it says "Love hopes ALL things!" I love this quote from 1 Cor 13...basically for me, this says when I love, hope grows! It's just as easy as that! :)

...there will definitely be a lot more of these in my future!!

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So i got a box of fun from Amazon last week!! EEEEP!! SOooooo cute!! (Thanks, Mom for the Christmas gift card!!! :))

A friend, Amy, from our Houston Modern Quilt Guild shared the book on the left, Happy Gloves, with us at the January meeting. As soon as I saw this pic (below), I knew I had to have it!

{my son collects penguins...just sayin'}

And while looking for it on Amazon, I came across the book on the right, Sock and Glove by the same author. When I saw that there was a sheep in it, it was immediately in my shopping cart!!

Can anything be more adorable???? nah, I didn't think so either!!

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So I promised on Friday that I'd show you the shirt (blouse) that I made last week and wore on Sunday....here ya go...

Those elephants are the greatest!!!

(had to show you the boots with the outfit...I'm in Texas, you know!!)

It held up well...this pic was taken after church after I'd been wearing it for about 6 hours! Love that fabric!! (Pernilla's Journey by Tina Givens bought from Julie at the Intrepid Thread)

And the best compliment was from my darling friend who came over for our superbowl party and stayed after to watch Captain America in 3D (LOVE!). I was showing her my blog on my iPad and she saw the pic from Friday of the material being cut with the pattern on it and she yelled, "Wait!! You made that shirt?????" Thanks, Syd!! It made my day!!!!!

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{glass 'crazy bowl' from 2 Goose Studio - LOVE!!!}

Have a wonderful blessed week!!!! And stay tuned for SHOP updates!! I'm a finisher this year, for sure!!! yay!!!! 

{fun fridays - let me introduce you to the Big Shot Pro + a giveaway!}

Ohhhh it's Friday, people!!! Yay!!! Are you wearing your party hat? Have you made your party hat? (spoken like a true crafter, huh?)

(btw, make sure you read all the way to the end...there is a GIVEAWAY on here!! with multiple chances to win!!)

The above photo is a sneaky peek of a Valentine that I'm making for a swap...Thanks to my darling friend, Brooke, who blessed me with a fantastic package last week that included a few of these products!! :) (love that girlie!)

What do you think of the elephants??? you are going to love this shirt I made Wednesday!! (I'm waiting until Sunday for the big reveal...it's a little bit dressy! :)) I adore the way it came out. It actually encouraged me to sew more for myself!!! :) How fun is that?

How is your Tangerine Tango Challenge coming?? Mine is awesome...I love these blocks!! (yes, I am a HUGE orange fan! wtg, Pantone!) Next for me? 9-patch blocks...Sigh...i love quilting!

 

Are you ready for the Fun Friday Video??? Before I share it with you, I want to show you how I debunked one of the issues of the Big Shot Pro...and that is the space it takes up!!!

When we got new floors put in, I rearranged my whole craft studio...I'm still moving things around, but one thing that I found was this space under my big crafting table. Because it's wood laminate flooring, everything that is put on it has to have little felties on the bottom of it. So, I just happened to have a little side table that no one wanted for themselves, and it just happened to fit the Big Shot Pro exactly!!! And it also just happened to fit into this little wonderful space under my craft table!

(ignore the fact that the back of the table is open...actually, it makes it super easy to access all of my wrapping supplies for sending my products! :) Love!!) Isn't it cool how it fits perfectly in there?

And you can pull it out so easily!

and check this out...

I have this awesome curtain that covers up all of the mess (organized mess, thank you very much!!) under the table!!

So here is my video introduction to the Big Shot...make sure your volume isn't too loud! The music I use in all of my videos is all original music from my band, Brazos River Turnaround!! yay!

Now that you've seen the Big Shot Pro in action (thank you, Emma!!), let me share a couple of things that you may be wondering!!

Here's another closeup before quilting...

These are Bigz Dies...

This is what Sizzlets look like...thin and for paper! :) and so fun! (I'd show you ones from my craft studio, but I gave them all to my mom!! teeheee!!)

The birdie/bird cage die I used was the same that I used for the Heat therapy pillow I made for the Art Gallery Project 2012!

These next two pics show why I bought the Sizzix Big Shot Pro. I had the regular Big Shot, but I wanted to be able to use the extra big dies...like these...

The big circle die...I put the scissors in there so you could see how big it was!! :)

I love this die!!! It's a 2.5" strip die...and I've used it to make my own jelly rolls. LOVE!!

And look what Sizzix has come up with for quilters...

Two fun dies that I can't wait to use!! :) You will see these patterns showing up in my quilts soon!!

And this sweet little quilt before binding, but after quilting!!

btw, I have to tell you that when I ordered this particular pack of fabric from Julie over at the Intrepid Thread, she put those two little charm squares of Sugar Hill by Tanya Whelan into my package!! Now, I may have to go buy this fabulous pack because she has hooked me and because it's on super sale!! (yep, my darling friend Julie is truly my dealer!!)

I FMQed using a heart pattern...I'm still practicing, and boy, is it fun!!

AND DID I MENTION A GIVEAWAY???? Yep!!

Check out what I have for you!! 

2 Templates from The Crafters Workshop, 8 hexie templates, and a 2.5" charm pack of Aneela Hoey's A Walk in the Woods!! Yay!!

Here's what you can do to enter - you can have a total of three entries! Please comment separately for each entry:

1. Comment here...with anything...tell me anything!! Maybe how you loved my Emma in the video or you noticed my new eye shadow in the video, or how you are running out to buy a Big Shot Pro!

2. "Like" my Facebook page!!

3. Retweet this giveaway and make sure you mention @sallykeller814 so I see it and can count it!! :)

This giveaway is open until next Thursday, Feb 9th at Midnight CST!! :) Can't wait to hear from you!

I'm praying that your weekend is super blessed and full of fun and excitement!! For me, I'm writing a pattern, going to a graduation orientation (what??? I'm not old enough to have a child graduating from high school!! eeeek!!), welcoming Mr Gorgeous back into Texas (he's been in Illinois all week teaching and training), and putting on a SUPERBOWL PARTY!!! You'll see some football crafting next week on the blog...life is good here at the Kellers!!  ♥