V and Co Christmas projects and mint fudge round up

 I thought I would round up a few of my past free tutorials here all in one spot. And of course add the whole awesome and easy 3 ingredient 3 minute mint fudge.

So for now here are a few past V and Co how to's

homemade hand warmers 

 fabric ornaments

3 minute 3 ingredient Mint fudge

Simple poinsettia wreath 

And then of course the awesome easy teacher gift you can make in like 5 minutes!

Simple teacher's gift 

talk to ya soon. :) 

Feeling Cheery

enter LUCKY50B for 50% off this pattern only

 Well, Hello December! I can't even believe you're already here.

 This last weekend, after our Thanksgiving coma, we brought out our stockings and christmas decor.

 I also got out my Into the Woods quilt found in my Simply Color: Green book. (and I looked festive with my hot pink and red socks as well!)

We also turned on Christmas music on, got out and assembled our fake tree, turned on the "Christmas spruce" scented wax and watched as my children continued the tradition of clumping up ornaments on 6 branches instead of evenly spacing them out…and bringing out the school ornaments as well.

As I sat and controlled my need to control the Christmas tree decorating yet again…I got all sentimental and crap…and thought…one day my tree will look just like I want it to, and that will mean that our dinner table will be empty from our children most of the year, and my house will be quiet and lonely from all of them not living under the same roof. Yes, people, I have in fact now arrived at that time in my life where my children are no longer attached at the hip, and I actually have the opportunity to miss them. And you know what? I've now become one of those annoying middle aged women who look at the young mothers and smile and say "I know it's hard now, but at some point in your life you'll look back and miss it…momentarily…and then you'll be so happy that you do in fact get a solid night's rest…but…you'll also be feeling like you are running out of time with your kids being in your home all together at once."
I'm living happy in the right nows. My kids and husband are the most important things and I am so lucky.
I did have to remind myself how sentimental and lucky I was feeling just minutes before as I watched from the sidelines the process of the tree "decorating" that was happening. We had the13 almost 14 year old standing on a chair getting the top half of the tree only to become sidetracked and egged on by two children under the tree coaxing him and then cheering as the ornaments ping pongee down the center of the tree... and then the fourth child needing reminding that chucking ornaments at the tree so they get stuck in the tree is not called decorating in this house.... I only yelled twice (and had to walk away while grumbling under my breath) so I'm gonna call that a success.
remember my grumbling Christmas pasts?
Our not so Pretty Christmas
Oh (ginormous) Christmas Tree 
man we have some great stories…and how does my husband still have patience with me? :)

ANYWHO…In my feeling cheery that I'm getting solid sleep these days and that I still get to enjoy my children messing with my tree decorating ideas…I wanted to offer a 50% off of my Lucky Stars pattern so you can control at least one thing if you aren't controlling your tree decorating like me…and you can make this adorable pillow, ahem and quilt if you have the time.

Just enter: LUCKY50B at check out and the pattern is yours for $5 :) this offer will end on DECEMBER 16, 2015 

Simply Colorful II is finally here

Pre-cuts and Yardage of Simply Colorful II should be hitting your local quilt store now!! 

 Here are a few of the things we made with it thus far:

beautiful dress made for my daughter by Snickerdoodle Stew

Catherdral windows made in linen and the purple mini charms from the Simply Colorful II line

Small wedge zipper bag in the Sewing weekend Essentials Bag pattern

Hop Skip Jump quilt pattern

Serendipity quilt pattern

butterfly kisses quilt pattern

Sewing Weekend Essentials 3 Bags pattern

 This is by far one of my favorite fabric lines. I hope to see on the flip side what you make with it!!

We'll talk soon!

V and Co InstaFriday

Welcome to Insta Friday. Where I show off some of my favorite pictures from my Instagram acct here on the blog. First we have a picture of my Color Theory Dress. I had a wonderful friend who just happens to be an amazing seamstress make me a dress that she pinned and drafted and made just for me. she followed New Look # 6223  pattern but made alterations to fit me perfectly. It's one of my most favorite dresses. (PS: my husband always asks why I have buoys hanging around my neck every time I wear this necklace…and also asks if my neck hurts when I wear it…perhaps sometimes my neck does feel a little strained...don't care still love it.) (PPS: I am very white in this picture…apparently I didn't get as much sun as most other summers…I blame it on too much work not enough play...)

Next is another Color Theory project! This one is probably one of my most favorite! Look at that adorable dog. Seriously, he's like want to eat him so cute! This was one of The Village Haberdashery's customer Chrisblanshard who made this dog bed using the All People Quilts FREE Tutorial on their site.

Also I haven't really talked lately (I've been super busy!!) about the fact that Simply Color: Green Book is out and available for purchase!!! (you can also purchase RED, ORANGE, and YELLOW.) This wonderful picture was taken by my great friend Chris the Tattooed Quilter his pictures are always just so inspiring and fun to look at.

I'm so excited to have BLUE and PURPLE show up in the coming months to complete the whole box set!!

But I have to Gush…I looooove the green book like a lot…it's sort of my favorite color (well along with blue) But this is one of my favorite quilts in the GREEN book.  It's called Green Bean and it's proudly displayed in my house. It's made up of mostly scraps of greens from all sorts of shades and tints and values, to make log cabins...I heart it a lot.
Okay...
SOOOOO…remember Wednesday?
Yeah she finished:

Isn't this AAMAZING? 340 Hexagons, ready to be quilted...If you are going to Quilt Market Nicole's Ombre Hexagons will be hanging out in my booth in the Moda section. I'm beyond excited. :)
Have a great weekend.
Happy fall.
We'll talk soon.

Insta Friday…on Wednesday

Hexagons made out of V and Co Ombre 

 Well, how about that…I totally miss and mess up my first INSTA FRIDAY back this last week. I have a good excuse. Well, not really I guess…my mom came into town and I was just getting everything ready. BUT! This just means that I'll have more pictures to show you in a couple days again. Because Instagram is a hopping with pictures! SO FUN!
Today lets highlight these pictures! Modern HandCraft is so amazing with her Modern Hexies. If you haven't seen these work of art with fabric, you need to go check it out now….so amazing!

We sent her some fabric so she could work her magic and sure enough she hasn't disappointed. Here is her FREE TUTORIAL. 

 Next up was this really pretty quilt made by Quilt Jane using our Color Theory Fabric with Moda. Please don't ask me what the quilt pattern is, I know she made it up..and perhaps there will be a pattern for it someday…but what I can tell you is that she made it for a wonderful friend of ours, Penny (who's husband just recently passed away unexpectedly).
It's a gorgeous quilt and their friendship is equally as beautiful. I pray that this quilt and their friendship will give her comfort in this trial-some time. We love you Penny.

And Last one for now are these gorgeous Butterfly Paper Pieced Quilt blocks by Sariditty. She used Lillyella's pattern and she used our Simply Colorful Green Blue Purple Fabric with Moda (WHICH SHIPS SOON!!!! YAY!!)  for the butterflies. The finished quilt is amazing!!! I'll show that off more later next week!!! :)
Okay off to keep working. Market is around the corner and I have a few things that need to get done…and FAST!
We'll talk soon, I promise I'll post some more fun Instagram pictures on Friday!!!

V and Co: How to make a little string block pincushion

One thing is for sure, you can never have enough pin cushions. Okay maybe you can and I just lied, whatever the case, you can't have enough CUTE pincushions. Am I right? Yep, thought so.

This little guy finishes at 4" x 4" and uses up any of those favorite little scraps you have left behind from a project. 

For this particular pincushion I used Amanda Jean's- Crazy Mom Quilts- new fabric line called Good Neighbors.

Materials Needed:

- scraps of material to make 1/2" strips 

- 1 white square with measurements of 5"x5"

- 1 charm square (5" x 5") for the back of the pincushion.

1. Cut the white square into 4- 2 1/2" squares. 

2. Cut scraps into strips with the width of 1/2" and with enough length to reach across diagonally from point to point of your 2 1/2" square.

 3. Place your first strip with right side facing up diagonally on your square.

4. Place a second strip directly on top of the first strip with wrong side facing up (and right sides together)

5. There's no way we can do a 1/4" seam so use 1/8" or less to sew your strips together (we want this to look scrappy and not perfect so sometimes use 1/8" seam and other times use less, this way you can achieve this not perfect look)

6. Press open with an iron.

7. Repeat on the second strip

8. Continue until you get close to the corner. Find a slightly larger piece of scrap fabric and continue to place right sides together for the last time making sure it covers all of the corner.

9. Flip the block around so you can start sewing more strips onto the other side, starting with your very first middle strip again. Repeat what you did on the first side to this new side.

10. You should end up with this mess of a thing. Don't worry we will make it pretty next.

11. Flip over your sewn block, and align your foundation block to 2 1/2" on the square ruler

 12. Trim off the excess strips

13. Flip around the block and again align and square up to the 2 1/2" mark and trim off excess strips

 14. Turn it over you now have a perfect 2 1/2" string block.

 15. Make three more to make 4 total string blocks

16. With right sides together sew the top two squares together and then repeat on the bottom two squares.
17. With right sides together sew the two top squares to the two bottom squares to create a 4 1/2" block

 18. Square down your back fabric (charm square) to 4 1/2" place right sides together and using 1/4" sew around all four sides leaving an opening on one side to be able to pull inside out and fill with filling.
**(What you put inside is up to you, you can do crushed clams, sand, seeds, and so forth. These are just a few options! I went with seeds.)
19. Hand stitch close your side opening.

Enjoy your cute pincushion!
And now:
Winner of our charm pack giveaway is:
Vicki H!
We'll talk soon!