A Giveway for Valentine"s

It's time for a giveaway!!! I know it's not chocolate, but it ranks in the top 2! Plus, its so easy all you need to do is leave a post by Monday the 15th!! Thats it, wham, bam! I will announce the winner Tuesday eve!! So all my romantic peeps leave a comment and this little gem (L'Amour jelly roll) could be yours!!Love ya!!:)
Nadine

New, New and more New!!

Everyone needs to give the men in brown a big hug!! He has stopped at the store everyday this week with 4 or more boxes of quilting yumminess!! Its like Spring in a box everyday!! We have so many new lines in the shop its crazy!! Verna by Kate Spain, Oz by Sanae, Marabella by Kati Cupcake, Wonderland by Momo (they reprinted this), Wheels by Riley Blake, Blush by Basic Grey, and have so many more coming!! Don't forget Material Girls always orders the entire line so you can have a fat quarter of everything!! I am just bursting with all the projects I am planning, I have already finished a quilt and it is off to be quilted:)

See ya Soon!

Nadine

a free Valentines quilt!!

Oh, I really must get organized!! I tore my house apart looking for the heart quilt I finished a few years ago, its super fast, easy and is so cute. So, after spending an hour looking every where I thought it might be I still can't find it!! Here is a link for the free pattern for it though, so hopefully you will make it and remember where you put yours for next year! http://www.fatcatpatterns.com/CrossMyHeart.pdf Thanks so much Sindy for sharing your great pattern with us! Valentines fabric is on sale at the shop so hurry in before its all gone! Now to find that quilt?! hmmmm!
Nadine!

A celebrity stops by our shop!!

We had a "quilting/ pattern & fabric designer celebrity" visit the shop on Saturday, (dang! I missed it! I took Saturday off, to sew!) Bonnie from Cotton Way stopped in to Material Girls to do a little shopping, I happened to call the shop and Shelby my daughter says "Mom, I think the Cotton Way lady is in here" to which I replied "go ask her and see if it is" "Awkward Mom, no! how embarassing" Anyway to make a long story short it was her and I asked if a picture be taken of her so, here is Shelby and Bonnie. (Shelby asked me not to post this, she hated the picture of her. She never reads my blog so she will never know!) thanks for stopping by Bonnie~ Material Girls loves you!!

Nadine

Random post and a giveaway!!

I had lots to tell you! so I have been making notes all day on what I would post and yea, you guessed it, I can't find the blasted paper I wrote it on. Ugh!! I have been doing paperwork all day and really don't have much of a brain left~I hate paperwork!! So, I was surfing around and I keep meaning to post on Elle Photography (www.ellephotos.com/blog/) Lindsay Hagblom part of Elle is having a giveaway for a free sitting, so head over to their blog and check it out. Lindsay and her sisters used to babysit Shelby and Parker when they were little. Now she is all grown up with a family of her own, oh that makes me feel old!! So good luck and now I am off to look for my note!!

Nadine

Macbook welcome home!

Okay, I took the plunge tonight and bought a Macbook. I have had my current laptop just over a year and have had a nightmare experience with it. Shelby bought a Macbook about 2 weeks ago and I was smitten! So, tonight Tom and I went to the Apple store, they showed us all the bells and whistles and I did it, I am now the proud owner of a Mac!! Now you all know I am kind of~sort of technology challenged, but Apple offers classes and I signed up for them, (I feel bad for the guy who has to teach the class I will probably drive him nuts.) I have the I-phone and have actually impressed myself by what I can do with it. So wish me luck girls, cause I am going to need it!!

Nadine:)

Ice Skater Skirt

For a month now I have had a skirt on my mind, a skirt that was perfect for twirling around on the ice skating rink. The kind of skirt that would go out in a circle and flutter as you spun. The kind of skirt that makes a little girl want to twirl until they fall down in a pile of dizzy giggles.

Unfortunately, I had more vision than time. So Saturday night with little ones sleeping I sat down to work. This is essentially the skirt my grandma and I made the year I wanted to be a Fifties girl for Halloween, except without the Tupperware bowl. The trickiest part of a circle skirt is the hem, but felt doesn't fray, so you don't have to hem it. Isn't that lovely.

You need about 1 1/4 yard of felt, 1" elastic, and 2 1/4 yards of trim. (The amount of fabric you need is actually twice the length you want the skirt to be plus 12".)

First take your twirlers measurements, you need waist and length. Now, along the fold of the fabric measure the length of the skirt and make a mark at the top and
bottom measurement. My skirt is fifteen inches long (remember it will be a little longer once you count the waistband and pompom trim.)
Take the waist measurement and add 4", then divide by 4. (I started with 20" added 4 to get 24, divided by 4 and I had 6". We can call that number A.) Now from the top measurement, lay your measuring tape at a 30 degree angle from the top mark (away from the mark you made for the bottom of the skirt) and make a mark at the number you just came up with.
From this new mark run the measuring tape out at an angle to the edge of the fabric to the length of the skirt. (Does that make sense? You want to maximize the width of the skirt, so whatever angle makes the most the width of the fabric.)
You should now have four marks laying out your skirt panel. Connect the top dots with a curve (this is where Grandma used the bowl.) Stretch the tape from the curve to the bottom edge of the skirt moving along what will be the bottom hem and making dots at the skirt length (for me that would be my 15", making dots all along the bottom of the skirt. You are making your hem mark, making a nice curve along the bottom.)
Cut out your skirt piece once it looks right. Lay it on top of the fabric and cut a second skirt piece.
Now you need a waistband. Cut two rectangular pieces 3" by twice "A". (Remember that number back there, for me it was 6". So now my two waistband pieces would be 3" x 12". ) You are cutting this in the scrap along what would be the bias, except the the bias on felt doesn't act the same way as other fabrics.
Sew the waistband together along both short sides with 1/4" seam allowance.
Cut a piece of elastic the waist measurement plus 1". And sew it together...
to make a circle.
Fold the waistband in half lengthwise, wrong sides together, encasing the elastic in the fold and pin all along the edge.
Baste the waistband closed stretching the elastic as needed.
Sew side seams of skirt with 1/4" seam allowance to make one big circle skirt. (This picture shows it folded in half.)Baste along the top edge of the skirt.
Pin waistband to top of skirt, pulling basting stitch to ease fullness of skirt to waistband.
Sew waistband and skirt 3/8" from top edge.
Pin trim to bottom hem of skirt.
Zigzag, if it's pompom fringe, or straight stitch, if it's rick rack, trim to the skirt.
Press the fold out with an iron set to the wool setting. And you're done.
Bundle up, snuggle for warmth and...
let the twirling begin, ice skates optional. (Email me at rainydaywren@gmail.com if you have any questions.)