I received some new fabrics in the mail today! These are all from Sew Fresh Fabrics on Etsy. I already have some of the Metro Living Circles in other colors…I just love them, a great basic to have in your stash.

From left to right, Metro Living Circles in Marigold, Doll Baby Dots in Pink, Sanctuary Orchid Feng Shui in Sherbert, Sanctuary Glass Tiles in Sherbert, Ta Dots in Fuchsia, Ta Dots in Lime, Metro Living Circles in Chartreuse and Dan Bennett’s Eggs in Lime.

Over the weekend we traveled to Cincinnati to celebrate my daughter’s 4th birthday with her cousins. FOUR! I can’t believe it, where does the time go? She is growing into such a sweet little girl, I’m very proud of her. And I know this isn’t a personal blog, but I plan on working in some birthday weekend photos into this post.

This was the second trip back home that I was able to squeeze in a visit to the Fabric Shack. I just love that place. This time I brought my husband because I knew the kids wouldn’t last for even half the amount of time I planned looking around. My son actually never even went in to look and my daughter lasted about 50% of the time before getting sent out to daddy.

Every time we visit I just can’t get over how nice everyone is that works there and how well run the store must be to have THAT much fabric, have THAT many customers inside, AND run a very successful web front as well.

When we arrived I met Amanda who I had emailed earlier in the week about if they would be getting AMH’s new line, Innocent Crush. (no luck ) But she came back and gave my daughter the sweetest little 1″ charm pack of Moda’s Hoot line. How sweet is that?! Really, I think that’s the nicest thing to ever happen to me in a fabric store!

My mom bought me the fabrics and Fig Tree pattern in the photo up top for my upcoming birthday. The bottom pattern and fabric are for a dress for my daughter. You can’t tell, but the coral solid has a really nice pintuck to it. The bottom print is from Erin McMorris’s Weekends collection.

The top fabric is Michael Miller’s Hedgehog Heaven and the blue/gray fabric is a basic that I just love and had been running low on in my stash at home.

Even though the little town seemed quite empty, the store was packed. Lots of people buying fabric, a family looking for something special for a graduation quilt. Afterwards we went to lunch at the Hammel House (along with everyone else from the store I think!) Overall a great trip. Can’t wait to go back – in the meantime, I’ll keep ordering online!

I was itching for some instant gratification today, so I decided to make a little patchwork mini quilt. Well, just the top was finished before the kids woke up from their naps. The star of the show is an adorable Japanese fabric I’ve been stashing for quite a long time. I added some of my favorite coordinating prints and I just think it really pops.

Anyone else enjoy the smaller projects? I love making larger quilts, but sometimes these minis are just so fun and make me feel like I’m not taking f-o-r-e-v-e-r to finish everything.

I finished the advent calendar over the weekend – just in time! I am loving how it turned out, although I must say it took a LOT longer than I had anticipated. More on that later. (First, can I give a shout out to my 3 year old holding the quilt for me in the above photo? I think my husband’s job as photo assistant may be in jeopardy! LOL)

I followed the tutorial on Sew Mama Sew by Elizabeth of Oh Fransson. I had actually been looking at this tutorial back in the summer and thought “why would I make this now? I’ll wait until closer to Christmas!” HA There’s something stressful about having a deadline like December 1, when you are rushing to get ready for the holidays.

So…why it took me so long. Mainly, it was those pesky numbers. I’m not good at freehand sewing around things, especially 1.5″ numbers. Lots of tight curves and it’s very obvious if it doesn’t look perfect. I thought this would be a perfect time to use my new embroidery module on the Bernina to do appliques! Well, it was….but it was not a quick task. Lots of hooping of fabric and stabilizer. Lots of trimming fabric. And I failed to consider that most numbers on the calendar are really TWO numbers (24 = 2 and 4). So that part took about 5 times longer than I thought.

Forming the pockets took a bit of time but after that it was smooth sailing.

You can’t really tell, but on the front, the white is a Michael Miller fabric with snowflakes. I thought that was a cute variation.

The back view shows the quilting. I did free motion in the borders, a bit challenging not to hit the pockets and sew them shut accidentally.

I’m going to fill these with candy and hopefully start a fun tradition at our house for years to come!