I had the pleasure of recruiting one of my favorite pets to model for me today. 

 

Ellie, my oldest daughters dog, is a perfect model (and a pretty perfect pup), and was super accommodating and adaptive today. 

Today she's modeling some new bandana prints in our reversible cotton bandannas, this time for Christmas. I sell bandanas at markets and they are quite popular, but these are the first I've listed in the Etsy shop (more to come!).

Choose from either plaid with candy canes or plaid with holly and berries.

These bandanas are self-tying, like a traditional bandana, are are fully reversible. They can be worn rolled so both sides show, or not rolled so one side is the sole focus.

 

All my bandanas are crafted from 100% cotton fabric, are super durable, and are machine washable.

 

This is not Ellie. Or my cat, Lucy (I tried, she wasn't in the mood today.). I forgot to get pictures of Ellie in the holly and berry print so had to improvise. 

Ellie is wearing a medium size bandana, stuffed dog is wearing a small bandana.

Michael Miller's Ahoy Matey sailboat prints sure make awesome ties.

Available with either coral red or green hulls, these little boat bow ties are so cool, and are available for both boys and men.


Happy sailing!

Made from some awesomely cool mod prints. It's always a treat to find good boy fabrics.


 The pattern is a simple disappearing nine patch with each cut block separated by white sashing.



The quilt is quilted with lots of white lines, some going all the way across the quilt, some stopping and turning midway. While I thought that would be a really nice and simple way to do the quilting it actually took a long time, as I had to keep adding more lines to ensure enough quilting everywhere. A fun bonus, though, is that there are random five and six point stars that show up here and there - they are a lot of fun to look for and find.


The backing is solid white with a strip of various fabrics from the front. See the little bitty piece of lime green in the bottom photo? I added that to see what my oldest son would say. It matches - the same green appears in the Amy Schimler polka dot print - but Ian likes things "just so" and adding a fabric that isn't "just so" bothers him a little bit ... not in a bad way, he just has to point it out. Which he did, and then he laughed when I told him why it was there. A lot of the quilts I make are out of his comfort zone, if it were up to him they'd all be solid colors in straight, perfectly even, logical rows (can you tell he's a computer and math guy?), but more often than not he's surprised and pleased in the end. So, anyway, that green bit is an ode to Ian.

The white I used is a super soft new sheet from Target. I am so in love with the feel of it and it was much easier to work with than many sheets I've used previously.

Available in the shop.

This lovely handcrafted quilt is a breath of fresh summer air.


 A collection of pinwheels crafted from greens, oranges, and golds, this quilt is both colorful and soothing at the same time. Each pinwheel is set off with white sashing, as is the coordinating border.



The quilt back is a mottled gold with a simple strip of fabrics from the front. The binding is American Jane orange floral from the Recess line. The quilt is quilting with a meandering free motion stitch.



Measuring approximately 42" by 50" this quilt is perfect for a wall hanging, floor mat, toddler bed cover, or travel blanket. And it's available in my shop.

I thought I'd mentioned this quilt before but I can't find anything about it, so maybe not. If so, well, here you go again.



I made the top for this quilt right before our summer vacation. I got about 1/5 of the way done with the quilting when I just ran out of time and had to leave. Now, I know I'm not the only one who'd do this (please feel free to chime in with a "me too") so I feel I can tell you ... I packed up the sewing machine and took the whole project with me ... from Florida to Wisconsin to Tennessee to the Carolinas and back to Florida.

I did not get a chance to finish the quilt at the cottage, though I did get to use the sewing machine to modify a few t-shirts for a family picture. We all had tye-dyed shirts and, using awesome elastic thread, I was able to make halters, tanks, v-necks, etc. for the girls. Perhaps someday my niece will send some pictures to me so I can post them (hint, hint).



In Hilton Head, SC, on the way home, I found some time and completed the quilting and put the binding on. And then this week, sitting through a long tedious day of meetings with attorneys, I finished hand sewing the binding.



The starting point fabric in the quilt is the black with pink bird and flowers. The blocks are sewn log-cabin style, but are random as is my preference most of the time. There are quite a few Anna Maria Horner fabrics mixed into this. I've used the same fabric for the binding before and love the way it looks when it's complete.

The backside is a red Ikea fabric with a row of blocks.

I love the cheeriness of this quilt. It makes my heart sing to look at it.

Ok, this isn't exactly free but it comes pretty close.

This idea came to me from willy wagtail who offers a tutorial on getting the most out of free, or almost free, business cards at Vista Print.

I've ordered from them many times in the past and, honestly, have never been disappointed.

I went through MyPoints to place my order and earned 300 points for doing so. I'm saving MyPoints, Huggies, Coca Cola, and Swagbucks points to buy Christmas gifts (although the Coke Rewards site is currently down ... wonder what the story is there).

Above is the card I ordered. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy.

The shop has been updated to include the quilts below. Enjoy.

I've added the sister quilt to the give-away one to the shop.



Remember, free shipping through Monday, July 20th on all items in the shop!

Yeah, I'm the last to jump on the bandwagon ... but just in case you haven't heard of swagbucks, or just haven't wanted to bother with it ... it's not a bad deal. In fact, you earn points just for searching the web (really!), which you do anyway, and then you get to redeem those points for prizes and cool stuff.

There are other ways to earn points as well, by finding codes or making purchases, or by referring others to the site (hint, hint) .

These days I'm all about saving money and trying to get the very best deals I can on just about everything. If I can earn enough Swagbuck points to get Amazon.com gift cards before Christmas ... well, there's a gift off the list. Just for searching the web! I can handle that.




Because I'm Me is now on twitter. Why? I'm not yet sure. But I'd love to have you as a follower.

While it may have appeared that I was a complete slacker this weekend I really wasn't. Instead I was working to finish quilts, three of them. Here's the first one down, mentioned previously here.



This was quilted with random free-motion quilting with a cream thread.

The back is golden with suns on it ... a perfect complement to the front. The binding uses a variety of the fabrics from the front squares ... I couldn't decide which to use so I mixed and matched.

For this quilt I used bamboo batting. It was the first time I'd used it - it was on sale at JoAnn Fabrics for 50% off, so worth trying. I must say, it's pretty wonderful stuff. It seemed like a shame to sandwich it into a quilt because it was so soft and comfortable. I'd have been perfectly happy to sleep under just the batting ... it felt that good. Firm too, not an overabundance of give in it, which led me to believe it'd go through the wash over and over and hold up really well. And it smelled better than a lot of battings do. Will I use it again? Absolutely.

This quilt will be listed in the shop very soon.

Have you made this yogurt in your crockpot yet? It's a must, really it is. Beth sent me the link for it and I had to try it immediately ... there's no reason not to if you have a crock pot, milk, and yogurt. Less than 48 hours after dusting off the crock pot and making the first batch I had to make another. With the second batch I added unflavored gelatin ... the jury is still out on that idea as it did thicken it nicely, but there are thicker spots throughout that are kind of weird. We either eat the yogurt mixed with a little honey, blended into a smoothie, or as an alternative to sour cream. It tastes just like plain yogurt (because it is) so a little sweetening is probably necessary for kids and most grown-ups (I like it plain, but I don't think most people do). Again, you really have to make this.

Speaking of Beth ... she's days overdue so send prayers and labor thoughts her way!

Did you know Because I'm Me is on Facebook? Many thanks to my teenaged daughter, who is extremely helpful, talented, and Facebook literate (she should be, as much time as she spends on the site). Join us here or here ... one link is a group, the other is a page ... they serve different purposes and I'm not yet sure which is a better fit for me so both are up and running.


And now back to the Smashing Smock ... thank you for all your comments and input. My children randomly picked a "winner" and the recipient will be Charity of Knitting in the North, who said, "Yes, please enter me in your drawing, this is so lovely! :o)". Charity, e-mail me your address and I'll get it right out to you.