Craftsy Sweetens Up My Quilting Life! Day 2

Just a hop, skip, and jump to learn 

more wonderful ways Craftsy can help you 

become a better maker! 

Two talented bloggers are ready to tell why they're crushing on Craftsy today. Cindy at Stitchin At Home will give you the skinny on “Quilting With Rulers on a Home Machine" by Amy Johnson, and... 

Vicki at Vicki’s Crafts and Quilts will let you know what it's like to purchase fabric through Craftsy. See what's she found when she bought Stonehenge Strips, and a Christmas fat quarter bundle.

Craftsy helps you be creative by making it easy and convenient to learn new things. Right now every class featured in the hop is on sale for one week! If you've been thinking about a class, but were waiting for an inside scoop on whether it was a good fit for you, read the reviews here. Seasoned quilters and bloggers will let you know.

Craftsy Giveaways

Enter the Craftsy Giveaway here, and also on each site during the hop. 

Hearing firsthand about the terrific opportunities on the bloggers' sites below will surely entice you to explore Craftsy in a little more depth, and perhaps try something out of the norm to what you might usually buy...however, Craftsy is sweetening the pot even more...

• 50% discount on classes discussed in each blog post!  Suh-weet!
• giveaways on some of the individual blogger posts!
• And drum roll please! Three fabulous prizes from Craftsy! Two lucky people will win one class each, and one person will win this fabulous grand prize!

1- Boundless Solids Crown Jewels Kit  by Amy Gibson

 1 - Boundless Solids Modern Brights 6" Strips

1 - Boundless Solids Modern Brights 10" Squares

Sugar high or what, huh?!!

The Giveaway entry to Craftsy can be found both here and on each post throughout the hop. One entry per person. Enter until Sunday, February 21, 2016 at 11:59 pm MST, and all winners will be announced Feb. 22 .

Surprises!

Check back daily at mmm! quilts or here at Pink Doxies for the updated daily link to each day's featured posts, and take advantage of surprise giveaways by the daily bloggers, too!  

Come on, Doxie girls.

Let's hop!

Craftsy Sweetens Up My Quilting Life! Blog Hop: Starts Now

Hey, Sugar! Are you ready? It's finally here...

YES!

It's TIME to HOP

and Enter to WIN!

Craftsy Sweetens Up My Quilting Life! Blog Hop

QBL--Quilter Blog Land

You know what they say about great minds--synchronicity... the stars aligning... All this and more came together a few weeks ago resulting in a quilting blogger's blog hop with Craftsy co-hosted by Sandra from mmm! quilts (Musings of a Menopausal Melon), and I, Julie from Pink Doxies.

Get Ready to Show Your Love!

I feel very lucky to have my guy around, but this saying reminds me that not all of us have our love near enough to touch. I've decided this year I should give a little more effort, and let him know. Valentine's Day is just around the corner, and I know some of you have been planning the perfect day for weeks already. Most years it catches me unaware, honestly, because we don't tend to go for big celebrations. Maybe a favorite dinner at home with a glass of wine, and a movie on Netflix. 

The Devil's In the Details: Visual Inspriration in Vegas

Tiled Mosaic--Beautifully Layered Details Everywhere!

I've been out of town, lying low for a few days in a fabulous hotel. The Wynn Las Vegas is one of my favorite places for visual inspiration, and besides rain in the desert this weekend, and much warmer weather back home in Ohio, it's been a trip with some serious eye candy.

Quilted Heating Pad Cover

Turning Up the Style!

A heating pad is underrated in its ability to relieve pain. Amazing thing! It's my go-to remedy for pain, strains, and aches, and we shared a hand-me-down here for many years before it recently bit the dust. I bought the family a new one, but it had a polyester cover on it which I couldn't bear to touch. (You know what I mean if those bother you, too.) I was tired of using a vinyl heating pad. I knew I could make a better one, and pretty it up to boot!

A Solid Dyeing Experience

Left to right: Avocado, Soft Orange, Chartreuse, Clear Yellow

"Wow! I'm finally getting a grip on dyeing!"--
What I said to my family last night before dinner,
and before they all stared and laughed.

The assortment of fabric resulting from yesterday's dye session had me really excited. I finally found a reliable process to get solid colors! That is, a consistent color without the mottled effect that is so often indicative of hand dyed fabric. That may not sound like a big deal, but certainly is for me. It's one step further in controlling how and where I put color on fabric. 

January Bee Blocks

Checker Block

Last year I watched as many fellow bloggers here in QBL talked up the blocks they were making for their Hive. Hives are online quilting bees where members take turns each month as the Queen Bee, directing the others to make the block she or he has selected. As each quilter finishes the block, they are mailed off to the Queen, and she then assembles them into her quilt. You can see why these are called hives, can't you?

Soy Wax Batik & Over Dyeing Experiment

Hands down, my favorite! 
I'll show you why.

It started with a fat quarter of Kona previously immersion dyed with Procion MX Dyes. That translates as 'cold water dyed in a cup', and that's why there is a mottled color to the fabric instead of a nice, overall distribution of color. This was Lemon Yellow by Dharma Trading Co., and one of the 3 primary colors I started with. It was bright--almost neon, and perfect to experiment with over dyeing.

Uppsala Stars Goes Modern Is Quilted

 Uppsala Stars Goes Modern
in Mochi by Cotton+Steel 
from RJR Fabrics

This sweet little quilt is a modern version of Uppsala Stars that I published last month seen here. The pattern is available as a pdf download from Craftsy, and available by linking through my sidebar.