Why I Love My Mailman

Sometimes,
I walk to the mailbox and find, buried beneath the snow all around, a happy package just for me.

This arrived yesterday from Sara, my January Swap Till You Drop. This was Sara's first time participating in a quilt swap although you would never know it. The theme was Sing it, Read it or Watch it, and Sara made me a quilt based on To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee. She did a beautiful job on this and I love that she included quotes from the book.
Sara also sent a fantastic pile of treats for me including some really fun polka dot fabric. Thank you so much Sara! I really love it! :)


And, here's the final reveal on the Patsy Cline "Crazy" inspired mini I made for Sara. Some vintage lace, repro fabric, a little coffee dying courtesy of Starbuck's, pearl buttons and a vintage gold concho for a very 1950's country western, lipstick and high heels kind of quilt. Just for fun, I made Sara this scrappy little LOVE heart to make her mailbox happy too.


I hope your having a day filled with the things that make you happy too! :)

Pay it Forward

Thanks to my wonderful January swap partner Sara, I'm now in on her Pay it Forward event.
Sara has agreed to send a little handmade goodness within the next 365 days, to the first three people who signed up for this round. I of course, am one of the lucky three!

In turn, I have agreed to Pay it Forward and send a little handmade something to the first three people who sign up right here. The only catch of course, is that to be one of my three lucky ducks, you must agree to continue this lovely chain of handmade happiness to three people of your own. C'mon, I know you want to...you can fit three more handmade little gifts into the next 365 days. I know you can. :) Come out, come out wherever you are.....who will my three be?

Winter Weekend or How Snow Can Make You a Crazy Person

A recap of our still freezing cold, not a green blade of grass in sight weekend at home.

Pink Marble Marshmallows. Thank you Martha Stewart. This was Momo's idea but, of course she decided she'd rather go to the library half way through the recipe. Guess who finished making those.

Finishing up all those swaps I've signed up for. Seems I am unable to control myself with the whole swapping thing. Note new mobile swap on my sidebar. From left to right: Five birds for the Bird's of Change Exchange, a Gee's Bend inspired Mini, the January Swap Till You Drop inspired by Patsy Cline's "Crazy", and also destined to be in the mail this week, the Mini Quilt in a Bag Swap for Heather. Whew. Mini raspberry pie made by me. Totally my idea, unlike the marshmallows. I even stole the little skillet from the kids. The Monkey man spent more time pretending to cook that little thing than he did eating it.
A new do for me, oh and a little color too. That stripe down the center that I had working was not cute. This one's for you Neenee. You know how much I love having my picture taken. :0!
And to round out the weekend, a night of crafting mania by several of the kids and and adult or two. How was your weekend?

Spare Change Anyone?

Don't be nervous, I'm not asking for money. :)
This is the pieced top made with the 5inch squares I received from the Spare Change Swap. Yes those are the very orange legs over there of one of my lovely assistants. They were the only two tall enough to hold that thing up so I could get some kind of picture of it. They were of course more than happy to help out . Yep, hardly any arguing at all.

I must have drawn twenty different designs for this one to make sure it would show off all that really cool fabric I received. I finally settled on this altered disappearing nine patch. Honestly, after the top was pieced and the red border was on I was not in love. Its funny what adding just a little more to a project can do. One eight inch white border later and LOVE.

I think this one might be the perfect little back of the couch snuggle quilt for the coldest room in the house. Clyde the dog has already tested for size and seemed happy, until I found him. It is all about Clyde you know.

Giveaway Winner!!!

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

14

Timestamp: 2009-01-21 16:56:29 UTC

Drumroll......and the winner of the first ever giveaway is.........clang, bash, cymbals crashing.......Affectioknit! Congratulations,! This cute little guy will be heading your way. :)

Please email me your snail mail address and I'll send you a little happy mail!

A big thank you to everyone else who stopped by and all the kind comments. They really do make my day a bit brighter. I'll be stopping by at all your blogs to have a look around and I hope you'll come back and check in here once in a while as well.

This was really fun and I have a feeling there will be more giveaways in the future!

First Ever Giveaway!

Welcome giveaway people! This is it the first ever giveaway on Spinster Handmade! I know you want to be a part of it ....nothing like a little peer pressure in the morning. This Bird of Hope is a part of the Birds of Change Exchange hosted by Regina at Creative Kismet.

This cute little guy is handstitched by me in linen and cotton fabrics. He hangs from a wire perch adorned with fabric scraps, vintage lace and checked ribbon. Lucky bird. Oh, and just to make sure the little guy arrives in style, included will be a beautiful vintage handkerchief edged in blue. You can kind of see it in the pic up there so take a look. If you'd like to find this little guy in your mailbox, don't be shy. Leave a comment telling me what you'd like to see more of right here or just say hi, I like new people. Entries will close tomorrow morning at 10am EST. The winner will be randomly selected by some yet to be determined super fancy method and announced at high noon January 21st. Go ahead, leave a comment,talk to me, you know you want to. :) Good luck!

In the works

A couple of sneaky peeks at works in progress. The theme for Swap Till You Drop this month is "read it, sing it or watch it". Yep, sounds simple doesn't it. Right up to the part where you start obsessing over how your partner could possibly make a quilt based on oh say, To Kill a Mockingbird or any of the other titles on the bookshelf. Hmmm...that's the part where it all goes plunk.
Lucky for me, my partner had just as much trouble coming up with a working title but we both narrowed it down to three or four choices. Number 1 on Sara's list was Patsy Cline's "Crazy". I know you know it, sing it with me....Crazy...crazy for feelin' so lonelyyyyy.....woohoo,
1950's, high heels, red lipstick, twirly dresses and a little country. What else could I ask for?
I pulled out all the vintage stops for this one, some old lace, pearl buttons, Patsy Cline's lyrics, and finally thanks to Starbuck's for their excellent coffee dyeing to make that little quilt so happy.

Next in my long line of projects is the Mini Quilt in a Bag Swap for Heather. Heather sent all this beautiful Katie Jump Rope fabric for me to work with along with some fun trims. After checking out Heather's site and her Flickr its pretty clear she loves a good twirly apron. She's participated in a bunch of apron swaps and her work is great!

I didn't think Heather would mind if I went a little retro with the theme for this one, so I used a vintage pattern for inspiration and added a little more twirl. I love the way this one is coming out and could so see it hanging on my own wall....I think I'll start on a twin for myself when the project pile clears out a bit. The swap deadline for this one is coming up fast so the full reveal on this one in the very near future! :)

Parts is parts

Parts is parts, originally uploaded by spinster sister.

The beginnings of the Birds of Change Exchange. Some linen, a little embroidery, happy fabric, bits of vintage lace, a little wire and my favorite ribbon combine to make a very happy flock of birds. Five of those little guys will fly off to be part of the exchange very soon but one lucky bird could be yours! Don't forget there will be a birdy giveaway right here January 20th. Check back to enter! :)

Creative Birds of a Feather

I've just signed up for the Birds of Change Swap hosted by Creative Kismet. Each participant will make 5 birds to swap and a 6th bird to giveaway on their blog on January 20th. There are tons of examples up over there for inspiration. Lots of Flickr fun to look at. So if you have birds on the brain, like I do go check it out.

Oh, and in case you missed that last part, there will be some bird giveaways on January 20th.
That's right people, Giveaways! Regina will have the whole list of participants on her blog before the official date but, I'll let you in on a little secret. Just between us, I'll definitely be participating in that birdy giveaway fun. So take a look at the swap info, sign up, make some birds, and check back here on the 20th for some bird love.

Quilt Love

Happy 2009! Time for a little bloggy housekeeping...it seems I took a rather long break over the holiday chaos, so no time like the present to catch up.

First up is my beautiful mini from Quiltinkimmie for the December Mini Quilt Swap on Flickr.
The theme for this one was "My Favorite Things" and Kim certainly nailed it! Made with all reproduction 1930's fabrics and beautifully stitched. I love it so much, its hanging in my kitchen so that I can look at it all day. Yeah, I spend a lot of time in the kitchen.


Next we have the big Christmas gifting reveal, close your eyes and walk directly to the mirror...oh, that's the cosmetic surgery channel. Alright, back to the quilting talk. Yet another mini made for my friend and her new mini mansion. Neenee needed something to brighten up one of those many bathrooms and so we have the "Wash Day" mini. I swear it started out as neutral colors NeeNee. I don't know what happens once I get going. This little quilt took a lovely trip with the Monkeys (Stella and Irene, see post below) and from what I hear is now hanging prominently in the loo. :)
More Christmas fun! Rum balls for everyone! What could be better than balls made of rum, especially for the husband's co-workers. We all know no one gets any actual work done the day before Christmas. :)
And for those all important teachers in our lives, list takers from a pattern by JC Handmade. I'm told they are all currently in use (except maybe the one I gave my brother in-laws new girlfriend, you never can tell....). Not to mention the forty or so loaves of Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread that went off to Middle School with G. Boy, that kid has a lot of teachers.
We've spent today organizing, chore charts have been made, new House Rules posted and an ABC Gratitude list compiled. The kids it seems, thought they were in charge for a minute there.
Not to worry though, order has been restored and chances are very good that no one will be smacked in the eye with a flip flop by a rampant sibling tommorrow. We'll see how long the peace lasts. How about a round of Kumbaya?