Craftsy Sweetens Up My Quilting Life! Blog Hop Day 5

Uppsala Stars

A "Sew You Learn" Teaching 
Pattern on Craftsy

Happy Valentine's Day from someone with a little crush on hearts! Quilters seem to embrace the heart motif in their work, and I'm no different. I have some heart projects to share along with new bloggers posting about their own crushes with Craftsy. 

Yes, I'm still down with the flu, and the good man has been doing everything he can to help out. A true Valentine is someone who shows their love even when you haven't gotten out of your pajamas in a few days. 

Did You Know This About Craftsy Classes?

You control the video speed.

I've been spending some of my couch time watching Craftsy classes. I shared with Sandra that I really liked the ability of speeding the class up if I needed to. What? Where? At the bottom of the video screen is the play button, to the right it says '30 sec repeat', and to the right of that 'normal speed'. You have the option of going 0.25x, 0.5x, normal, 1.5x, and 2.5x. This is a huge benefit for me if I just want to speed back through, and hear it all one more time. 

Classes are closed captioned.

Lara at Buzzinbumble had this to offer, too:

"I love Craftsy classes too! I especially love how perfectly they are closed captioned. Lots of websites have videos that say they are closed captioned, but turn out to be terribly done and you just can't follow along. But Craftsy is excellent! You can even click right on the sentence you want to go back to and the video will sync right to that point. It never blocks any of the video either... like I said, it's perfect! “

Featured classses are 50% off for one week after each blog review.

Today's bloggers: Preeti at Sew Preeti Quilts will tell you how to enhance your stash at Craftsy without breaking the bank by buying a Kaffe Fassett 6" strip! And, she's got a terrific quilt she designed with that strip.

Beth at Cooking Up Quilts learned that appliqué can be done in many ways.  Read her review of Amanda Murphy's "20 Fresh Appliqué Techniques."  Save major bucks with a 50% discount on this class through Beth's website!

Please don't miss visiting Sandra either at mmm! quilts, as today's post is about S.E.X. and Education, and a Sunday Stretch. (Stash Enhancing eXperience--seriously a real term at Quiltbug.)

Over $500 of free Craftsy products up for grabs!

• Two free classes
• A Boundless Solids 6" Strip Set
• A Boundless Solids 10" squares
• A beautiful Boundless Solids Crown Jewels Quilt Kit by Amy Gibson!

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! 

Check out these posts for some fun mini projects adapted from a Jen Kingwell pattern, and see you all tomorrow.

Memorial Day 2015




Modern Heart Zip Bag

Come on, Doxie girls.
Let's go sew.

Craftsy Sweetens Up My Quilting Life Day 4

Double Cross Block - by Cindy of Stitchin At Home available here for free

Dear Reader,

I beg your forgiveness, but I'm on the DL. That, according to Sandra, is the Disabled List. I'm down for the count, a whole 24 hours into flu. To keep you up to date on the hop, Sandra has kindly written the post for today, and shared with me.

Enjoy, and I hope to be back in a day or so.

~Julie @ Pink Doxies

It doesn't take much to brighten someone's day: a word, a deed, a small gesture.  I hope to brighten the designer of this block's day by making her newest block as my random act of kindness.  More below because we have a certain hop to discuss!

It's hard to believe we are already on Day 4 of the Craftsy Sweetens Up My Quilting Life! Blog Hop. Today we have Tish and Anja weathering the snowstorms in their areas to take you into some other areas of Craftsy you may not know about.

Tish at Tish's Adventures In Wonderland is reviewing "Dot to Dot Quilting" with Angela Walters, and then takes us out of the quilting realm a bit with reviews of two photography classes: "Product Photography at Home" with Jessica Marquez and "Shoot It! A Product Photography Primer" with Caro Sheridan, great for us quilter bloggers.  Enjoy 50% off these 3 classes on Tish's site!

Anja at Anja Quilts is showing us some patterns she's picked up and made that will most assuredly warm our hearts and hands:  Postcard from Sweden, 1 Hour Basket, Star Bright, and Reusable Handwarmers.

Sweet Giveaway On Now - over $500 of free Craftsy products

Enter the Craftsy Giveaway here as well as through any of the bloggers in this hop.  The main schedule can be found here or by clicking the Heart Button on the sidebar.

Click here to enter.  That's it!  

THREE prizes:

• 2 free classes to 2 different people
• 1- Boundless Solids Crown Jewels by Amy Gibson Quilt Kit  
• AND two packs of precuts: a 6" strip set and a 10" squares pack, both of Boundless Solids Modern Brights

  

One entry per person.  Enter until Sunday, February 21, 2016, at 11:59 pm MST.  The winners will be announced Feb. 22 here and at mmm! quilts.

Did you know that RAK Week, Random Acts of Kindness Week, is February 14-20 this year?  Be kind.  It really is easy, and like FMQ, the more you practice, the better you get, and the easier it comes.  Random Acts of Kindness has a great site.  I love all 10 items on this list.  Number 6, "Give compliments" is one that has always come naturally to me.  I think one of the best compliments one can give in QBL is making another quilter's design.  I hope you like my rendition of your design, Cindy, and I hope it makes your Saturday!  It was a fun block to make, and Cindy's directions are clear.  Does anyone else see the star there too?!  My favourite block is a star, so I tend to see them everywhere.

There is also a great RAK FaceBook page here.  When I was teaching, we always celebrated this week in various ways.  My class would pick a charity and we'd sell baked goods at school lunches and then donate our proceeds to that charity; the Crimestoppers group I ran for a few years would do a locker check, reminding students to fully lock their locks with a "AHA! Protect your stuff! Lock your lock!" sign we'd tape inside after locking back up the locker.

Got a new app today... possibilities for Cindy's block!

"Imagine" by John Lennon comes to mind today as I write this.  Can you imagine if we could all, starting with ourselves, simply be kind.

Be kind.  It costs nothing to smile.  To hug.  To tell someone how great they look.  Notice their outfit or their pretty hair.  Tell them you love them.  Write a thoughtful comment on a blog post rather than simply "Great quilt!"

Julie: Sandra's post reminds me of a card hanging on my wall, given to me any years ago by a friend.

Now pop on over to Tish and to Anja for some not-so-random information about Craftsy!

Until tomorrow...

Be well and sew.

Craftsy Sweetens Up My Quilting Life! Blog Hop and Slow Stitching

Pin basted, and ready to quilt! Finally.

We're still hoppin' and showing our love, but flu has hit this household. It means a minor change in plans for me, and a good reason to find something portable to stitch while playing nurse. Check it out below. But first, let's 'talk hop'.

Are you registered for the Giveaways?
 Over $500 of Craftsy products!

Two more talented ladies are ready to show their discoveries on Craftsy.

Zenia at A Quilted Passion is enamored with FMQ and her review of three classes, "Start FMQ" with Elizabeth Dackson, "Secrets of FMQ" with Christina Cameli, and "Help! How Do I Quilt It?" with Angela Walters will open your eyes to the benefits.  Buy any of those classes through Zenia, and get 50% off for the next week! 

Jayne at Twiggy and Opal has a sweet heart deal from Craftsy to show you: her pressing/cutting mat and mini iron.  We quilters adore our tools!  Let Jayne point you in the direction of some pretty terrific finds!

Sweet Giveaway Details

Enter the Craftsy Giveaway here or through any bloggers in the hop. The main schedule can be found here or by the button in the sidebar.

Over $500 of free Craftsy products up for grabs

• Two free classes
• A Boundless Solids 6" Strip Set
• A Boundless Solids 10" squares
• A beautiful Boundless Solids Crown Jewels Quilt Kit by Amy Gibson!

One entry per person.  Enter until Sunday, February 21, 2016, at 11:59 pm MST.  The winners will be announced Feb. 22 here and at mmm! quilts.

This project is based on Jen Kingwell's block 'Mrs. Bannister's Stars', but beyond the center has been add-as-you-go. It's been waiting for the perfect moment to finish. You may remember it starting here, the next post here, and adding borders here. Then I got sucked into the Moda Building Blocks quilt, and this beauty sat on a shelf.

No need to go into details when the fabrics are so varied, and so dear. There are pieces from Depression feed sacks...

...recycled dresses from the 1940's, and every decade to the present. The fabrics range from contemporary to traditional to modern. The initial goal of this quilt was to blend all of them without fussing. Would it work? I think it has. All that's left is the quilting.

Enjoy the guest bloggers, and stay healthy. 
I'll be keeping the chicken soup warm.

Come on, Doxie girls.
Let's sit and stitch.

Linking up with~
A Quilted Passion
Crazy Mom Quilts
Off the Wall Friday
Fort Worth Fabric Frenzy
Confession's of a Fabric Addict
A Quilting Reader's Garden
My Quilt Infatuation

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.