Pat Sloan's Blog

SeW AloNG! - Grab Bag! and Whirl INTO Winter

Oh boy!!! I heard about the 'Whirl Into Winter' blog giveaway the other day... so I emailed Debi and got in on the fun

... you know I LOVE an internet party!!!!

FIRST head over to the official 'whirl' website
http://www.whirlintowinter.blogspot.com/

Where you will find the MASTER list of bloggers joining in this FUN giveaway!

And because You are THE BEST blog readers IN THE WORLD... I'm going to EXTEND the Bag making merriment through the weekend to give everyone a chance to make a bag and get into the running to win the bag I made (see below)!

And I'm STILL collecting 100 uses for this AWESOME Bag... and for everyone who posts a way to use it I will put YOUR name in the running for a scrap bag of my NOT YET IN STORES Arabella fabric!!! 

http://patsloan.biz/arabella.aspx

Here is the OTHER bag I'm cutting out. The outside is the green and the lining is the polka dot.

I'm making this one slightly larger too.

I still want to experiment with a MUCH larger version...

I just need BIGGER pieces of fabric!

ps - the Whirl Snowflake will be on my side bar through January so you can get to all the places. I'm in the process of changing the blog so it will be there soon!

CONTEST is OVER... thank you to all who played!!

SeW AloNG! - Grab Bag!

Ok.. my day has been a BIT nutty... nothing on my schedule is getting done... but ... here are some TIPS for making the Grab Bag BIGGER!!!!

I found JUST enough of the is cupcake fabric on the shelf to do a bag... woot!  Lay the pattern on the fabric, fabric is wrong sides together or right sides together.. either way. (linining is that YUMMY paisley at the top which is actually very peachy)

Take your pen or pencil and DRAW the bigger bag. I started just below the side notch marks and made the bag about 1.5" wider from notch to notch. Taper your drawing .

Easy eh???

We are getting LOADS of ideas for how to use this bag! at 10:00 I have about 30 ideas.. off to see how many more came in!  And did anyone get a bag done this morning????

New Year's SeW AloNG!

Welcome to my New Year's SeW AloNG!!!! We are going to make some cutie pie 'Grab Bags' from American Patchwork & Quilting's website.

Start today... work on them today and tomorrow when you have time. I'll be posting some photos of what I'm doing.

And... to sweeten the pot... I'm giving away my FIRST ONE!!!! WOOT!!!! So how do you get in the running?

Just MAKE A GRAB BAG.... send me a photo, or post a link to your blog photo in the comments here. If you are on my yahoo group, you can post the photo there!  

Want to see what you can win?

I took the leftovers from my Snowman kit (see my post yesterday) and sewed all the strips together.

And put in a wider pocket.. I'll give you those tips later on today!

So what are you waiting for? Go get the pattern!

http://www.allpeoplequilt.com/quarterlychallenge/APQ_QtrlyChal3.pdf

ANDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD   give me some SUGGESTIONS on what we can use this bag for! I think we should be able to collect "100 uses for a Grab Bag"... If we make 100 uses... I'll give away scrap bag of my NEW Arabella fabric!

1...  2... 3... GO!

Start Something NEW (SSN)

When I saw this snowman and snowflake fabric I just HAD to have it for something! The snowmen are truly adorable and the snowflake fabric is so... mmm.. WINTERY...hehe!



I made up a nice easy winter project, Pat's Snowman Pinwheels!

I have a limited number of these 50" x 50" quilt kits available.

Kit includes
--Pattern in full color - this pattern will also be loaded to my free pattern page at my website in a few days... woot!
--All fabric for the quilt top
--Binding in charcoal
Click HERE for the Kit
http://patsloan.biz/snowmanpinwheelfabrickit.aspx

There is also some backing at a special price. So be sure you grab some, the link to the backings is on the kit page above.

This is printed Flannel from Maywood designed by my friend Bonnie Sullivan. Hurry ... I don't want you to miss out!

 

China - Fun and Interesting

We had some REALLY fun people on the trip to China...

You have to LOVE women who will wear a Panda hat ON TOUR

And Rhinestone glasses.. which I believe were new JUST for this trip!

And we saw some interesting things....

Like Sweet Potatoes roasting on drums... pulled by bicycles. You either thought they smelled REALLY good.... or

Really NOT good... hehe!

And I had to have my photo with the Cappuccino sign!

And a VERY important fellow... riding his bike AND texting someone... 'Honey I'm on my way home!'

one other thing I found fascinating were the little candy apples on a stick. They are the size of a donut hole.  I found a note on it at a cooking blog, seems you can find these in China town in NY! Although the author says they are PICKLED... does that sound good to YOU???
http://www.emerils.com/cooking-blog/3173/chinese-candied-apples/

ps - Want to do a New Year's SeW AloNG?  I'd like to make a bag that is a free online pattern... will start it Friday... post on New's Year too.... thinking of making several sizes! Let me know in the comments if you want to SeW AloNG!

pss - Oh you guys are JUST WIMPS!!!! There is a western potty in your hotel room, the hotel public bathrooms and at EVERY stop we went to... LOL!!!  You only need to use the other IF you can't wait... hehe!!!  Don't let that stop you... some of the guests NEVER used it the whole trip... see... no problem you are covered baby!!

psss - Do you play with Yarn? Come play with me over at YarnMashUp!

http://patsloan.typepad.com/yarnmashup/

China - what I didn't know

Ok..... let me just put this 'not known to me prior to the trip' fact out on the table... 

China has some STRANGE bathroom toilets... yep... you read that right! This is one of those things that I think was better NOT knowing until I got there! 

Because when confronted with a long line for the western toilet (imagine 30 quilt ladies in line for ONE Potty)... well... I figured I could master this! After all I've been to enough events with port-o-potties and I don't sit on THOSE!

So it DOES take some 'technique' but you certainly have the motivation to learn ... hehe! Read HERE for instructions...

JUST in case you run into one... you'll be WELL informed!  And guess what? They have these in a few places in Europe, Africa, and other Asian countries too.

... so don't think you won't EVER see one... oh lucky YOU!!! And the photo on the right is from the article above.. this is a VERY NICE ONE...

 
So the facility above had a rating sign telling us it was a 4 star Toilet.  It was in the Forbidden City and had to be THE WORST place we stopped on the ENTIRE trip. Glad it was day one as it only got better! We DID wonder how many stars was a GREAT one!

And WHO can resist washing their hands HERE... yep... at one of our evening Restaurant stops!

And an instruction note for all the men... really... do they NEED This????

"Closer, Easier'

Apparently the Panda House at the Zoo thinks the men need this!

Now aren't you GLAD you read my blog everyday? How often do you think you get to learn ALL THIS GREAT information?

mmm.... what?.... not often? .... ohhhh... NOT REALLY... hehe!!!

PS -Almost all the places we went to had at least ONE western potty... which made our group VERY happy!

So there you go .... All the news that's fit to print... right here at Sloanie Central!