Twitter Party Tonight!

Niki over at Stitchin Heaven is at it again! She's organzied a twitter party for tonight and there are going to be all sorts of great prizes! You really want to join in if you can! The party is from 9-11pm CST, which is 10-12pm EST, and 7-9pm PST. Oh and those in MST time zone it is 8-10pm. And for my Australian friends it will be an hour later then the #talknt start time, so around 12 if you're in the middle of the country, and hour each way for east or west.
I'm giving away sets of my patterns and I know there will be lots and lots of other prizes!
You can check out all the sponsors along with more info on the Stitchin Heaven blog.
To join in the party just add the #SHPARTY hasthag to your tweets. I find TweetChat helpful for following along for parties, and a lot of people use it for Talkin Tuesday's chat as well. Just enter the hashtag in the box on the top of the page and it will take you to the chat and add it to you tweets for you!

New Moda Bake Shop Project!

I know it's been a long while but I have a new Moda Bake Shop Project for you all! Paradise Batik Wave is a quilt I designed with my younger sister in mind. It can use any fabric line, and as little as 9 FQs from one, and a solid.

 I have to say I think it's one of my favorites and while not necessarily the quickest, you do have to make a lot of four patches, it is easy, and utilizes strip piecing etc.

Let me know what you think!

Fat Quarterly Designer Challenge

I was asked to do the Fat Quarterly Design Scrap Challenge using Daisy Janie's Shades of Grey, which is an absolutely gorgeous feeling fabric, and totally organic to boot!
If you have been wondering about organic fabric I 100% recommend getting a hold of Jan's fabric. It is beautiful to work with, has a silky feel and the colour is deep.
You can see the post about it here.

I am so honoured and excited to have been included!!

Coming in October!
You can read more about it here at Blue Nickel Studios! Scott is the one taking on the huge process of organizing this great Quilt Along. I am super excited to have been asked to design a block, just look at all those other fabulous people contributing!
And in the end the finished quilt, made from our blocks, will be given to charity!

Guesting

I've done a guest blog post over on Craizee Corner for Sha's Sweetwater feature! I really do love Sweetwater, their fabric lines are all in my favorites, and I've used each line several times, and admit to having a good deal stashed away. Check it out!


And don't forget about tonight's Talkin Tuesday over on twitter! 

Still creating

  It may not seem like it but I have been in my sewing room a lot lately. I finished up this sample for the Stitchin Heaven Perse-Anality club. Using Oasis charm packs to create a large carry all bag. I may add a zipper to this one, but I love it's size for going to the park, groceries, or as an overnight bag- for multiple people lol.

 I've also been working on quilts for patterns and trying to figure out exactly where I'm going. I'm starting to have a bit of an identity crisis, at least an online one. Who is CaraQuilts and where does she fit in exactly in this online quilting world? Where the heck do I want to wind up and is it really possible?

I have a chronic illness, and for the last while far worse then the pain is the exhaustion. An exhaustion so deep and overwhelming the idea of getting up, moving, even thinking is sometimes too much. Going to the grocery store is makes me feel like I've been up for 36 hours.
I'm barely able to keep up with the basics of being a mom and wife. Trying to make something of myself in the quilting world takes an immense amount of energy and I just don't know if I have that in me. The desire is there, and I've even come to accept I probably have the talent, but I don't know if I have the energy. I sure don't have the money. Like almost every start up, you need money to make money, and I just don't have it.
And let's face it, the quilting world, especially pattern design, is a crowded field. It's hard to get noticed enough to make any kind of living.

But you don't really need to hear about everything going on in my head. You want to hear about creating! Which is what I love to. I have so many ideas floating in my head.
With Little Bit starting back school tomorrow I'm hoping a routine will be developed that lets me get some of them out of my head, or off the computer and into fabric.

 Here's a sneak peek at two of the patterns coming out soon. The top one is also coming out in a yardage version, this one having been made with precuts.

I'm having to bit the bullet and wash them without Colour Catchers. I can't find them anywhere. I've heard from a lot of people they can't find the in Ontario so maybe it was a fluke I found them last year when I did.

Wildlife Adventures

Ok that may be overstating it more then a bit but Little Bit and her little friends probably don't think so.

A little after dinner we get a frantic child running in looking for a box. There is a bird. After a little wrangling we come to understand this is a real bird. And it's alive. But injured.
If you've ever tried to get a story out of a 7 year old you know this can be difficult, when that 7 year old has serious language delays, cognitive delay and autism, it is just plain ridiculous.

Shane went out to help the girls once he saw they had no idea what they were doing and got it into their little shoe box filled with an old nest, grass and some seed.



I was sent in to do the internet thing to discover what we needed to do.
Luckily I have a wonderful friend on twitter, SewShine, who is a vet in her real life, as well as being an excellent machine embroiderer. We were able to back and forth and discover that if the wing was broken it needed to go to a wildlife sanctuary, which for us is about 45 minute drive.
So I go back out to tell everyone and I find the bird if now perched itself in Shane's hand!

I go to touch it's wings to see if it actually is broken, or if we're dealing with a bird who just hasn't learned to fly yet. Shane has the brilliant idea to get a picture of the girls with the bird first, this bird has been taking being photographed very well, so quickly get the girls in a line, he bends over to put it in front and WOOSH! Away goes birdie to the top of our roof! Only picture is of the faces as they see it fly! I didn't have permission from the parents so can't share it yet. But trust me. It's hilarious.

After again consulting SewShine I was able to comfort the kids that the bird will be fine if he was able to fly to our roof he'll be able to survive fine on his own now.

So happy ending to all! And after about an hour search I think I've figured out that birdie is a Cedar Waxwing. Being a baby he hasn't fully expressed all his features but the yellow tips on his tail feathers and the mask around his eyes are what I'm going on.

 Having seen all the pictures the girls where drawing of birdie, as that's what they called him, I was not surprisingly asked why I didn't have a quilt for or with a bird on it. I was told I should make one.
This has some how been added to the never ending list of overcommitment that I currently have going. Any patterns or ideas?