1. San Francisco Bridge, a gift from my dad, 2. Coffee Print, one of Jason's creations, 3. Lily and toy, 4. Icicle Tree, a tree outside my apartment on Sunday morning, 5. 0800 AM Snow, outside my apartment at 8:00 Sunday morning, 6. 0500 PM Snow, same view as shown left, but at 5:00 Sunday evening, 7. Tahoe Blue, a bumper sticker on my frige, 8. Strip, my completed row for the swap, 9. Clean Desk, my clean desk.

Completed row!

It's done. My row is ready to be sent off.



It's surprisingly difficult to photograph because of it's length. I figured out how to get it though! Please disregard the grilled cheese. I was making lunch when the idea of how to photograph it came to me.

I also redid the bottom part of my hot air balloon. I'm much happier with it.

Blocks #8 & 9

It's done. I've completed all the blocks.

Block #8 - Hot Air Balloon



I have decided to leave off the text from the film. It says State Fair Omaha on the balloon when the wizard takes off. I've decided that since this is just a representation, I don't need all the fine details.

Block #9 - Ruby Slipper



This one is a mirror image of the other slipper.

This is something I did in Photoshop. I used the images of each of the blocks and lined them up to see how the strip will look.

Spring is here.

I took this photo over the weekend and wanted to share it with you. It is of a tree that has started to blossom in my parking lot. Isn't it beautiful?




I love that spring is here now.

Block #7 - Ruby Slippers

I chose the witch fabric for the background, since when Dorothy first puts on the slippers, the wicked witch first appears. The blue is to represent her blue socks. I think the sparkly red is self explanatory. I was considering adding a bow to the toe that would be three dimensional.

Blocks #4, 5, & 6

Here's a few new blocks I did for the swap over the weekend.

Block #4 - The Basket


There is a basket in the beginning of the movie when Ms. Gulch takes Toto away on the back of her bike. Dorothy also carries a basket on her journey.

Block #5 - Kansas Tornado


This is the tornado that hits the Kansas farm. It's the point in the movie that turns from black and white to color.

Block #6 - Glinda's Magic Wand


This is the wand that Glinda, the Good Witch of the North, carries. I chose the pink splotchy fabric to represent Glinda's dress.

1. Cookbook, part of the prize from All People Quilt, 2. Tree Blossoms, a tree blooming right now in my parking lot, 3. Sleeping Bag, my new sleeping bag, 4. Hank, my favorite fish, 5. Salt n Pepper Grinders, I love fresh ground pepper and sea salt, 6. Nature Sanctuary, Such a great place to hike, 7. Deer, we saw 4 deer total, this is the only one I got a good photo of, 8. Books, another part of the prize from APQ, 9. Fabric, the fabric from APQ

Part of the prizes have arrived!

The nice man in the white FedEx truck paid me a visit today. He brought me all sorts of goodies. He carried this giant box up the stairs for me to enjoy. :D



This is the nice card that was included with the package. It was the same card as the first round of prizes, so I didn't photograph the outside.



This fun shopping bag was used as a gift bag (with black tissue paper and all) for the fabrics that were sent to me.



Aren't these beautiful? I would describe them as a 60s print with a contemporary twist. I'm not sure how accurate that description is, but that's the best I can describe them.



This was the collection of books they sent. One of the magazines is a repeat from last time, but that's okay. I'm super excited to go through all these.



This little tin of magnets was in one of the bags. Aren't they cute?



This is Lily checking things out. Nothing can come into the house without her approval.

This is a photo of me all excited about my new fun stuff. I like when people give me stuff, it makes me look like this:



Thank you All People Quilt for sending me all this fun stuff!

My new sewing machine should probably be here sometime soon, or so I think.

Hoops Hysteria

As I'm sure you can probably conclude... I'm not much of a sprots follower. Jason, however, is. We filled out brackets for this years' College Basketball Championship. Here is my filled out bracket.



We'll see which one of us does better this year. Last year we played with 2 others at work and it came down to the last game. I ended up losing to another girl.

Block #3 - Toto

Block #3 down.



This is Toto. The background is ruby red slippers.

Block #2 - Kansas Farm House

Do you remember the beginning of the Wizard of Oz movie? Do you recall how it is filmed in black and white before the Technicolor kicks in?

Block #2 for the Row Robin Quilt Swap is my representation of Auntie Em & Uncle Henry's farm house in Kansas.



This image is the sketch I made prior to sewing my block.



Jason and I watched the movie over the weekend (which is an excellent movie if you haven't seen it recently) and I sketched a few more ideas during our viewing.

Here is an image I cartooned out of my strip. We'll see how close it ends up to this.



I also drew this block design. It's of the farm being hit by the tornado. I'm planning to paper piece it. We'll see how it turns out. I might decide to leave off the farm and just do the tornado. That would really simplify it.

In case you've been wondering,

which I'm sure you haven't been following this closely, but around the first of the year, I decided to open an Etsy store in March. My rough plan which I blogged about on January 2, 2009 here, stated that I was going to have between 21 and 24 items to post in my shop.

Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on how you perceive this, I haven't completed that task yet. I've been given several opportunities over about the last month and a half to promote my work.

In January, my mom and I won grand prize at the All People Quilt quarterly challenge. If anyone from APQ are reading this, we have yet to receive our new sewing machines.

In February, I got an honorable mention on a sewing machine cover I made.

From the sewing machine cover, Singer offered me the opportunity to write instructions for their website. That project took longer than anticipated, but I saw it as an opportunity I couldn't pass up.

When I joined Flickr in February for the Sewing Machine cover, I was exposed to a whole new atmosphere of crafters I had yet to discover. Lately, I've been investigating different "groups" on Flickr and learning how to gain more exposure in the crafty world.

So, while I've still been taking off most Fridays to work on growing Sewbot's Laboratory, I have changed my rough plan. My new rough plan involves continuing to build my inventory for my soon-to-be Etsy shop, but obviously, I'm not going to open it this month. Maybe it will happen in early April. We'll just have to see how things go this month.

*These were just Sewbot's Laboratory related events in the past few months. There has also been a lot of side work and a death in the family recently. These events and activities have also had an impact on the progress Sewbot's Laboratory has been making.

1. Scissors,best scissors I've ever bought; a steal at $5. 2. Jason at English Landing, Jason at the park. 3. Emerald City Block (2), my first block (second attempt) for the Row Robin Swap. 4. Wooden Buttons, a surprise gift from Jason 5. Plastic bag, another blog about this coming soon(ish). 6. Ipod, 7. Jess - Wedding Lap, the blanket I've been snuggling under lately. 8. Fabric, some of the fun fabrics for the swap 9. Pincushion I love this thing. I made it a while back.

Nerd Alert!

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Happy Pi Day to all you fellow nerds out there.

Hello everyone. I'm trying to start a new weekly blog where I'll find an item on Etsy each week to share with you. This week, my pick is from Crystal J's shop.





These really cute mousepads are available in two sizes: 7.75" x 9.25" and 4" x 4"; and four fun colors: orange, hot pink, khaki, and lime green.



I thought something "robotie" would be appropriate to choose as my first find because, I am the Sewbot. I hope you enjoyed seeing a peek at what I look at on Etsy.

If you're interested in more information about her products, visit her blog.

It's Official!

I now have a DBA (also know as a fictitious name). What that means is that I can sell things legally using a name different from my own. Yay! That means that Sewbot's Laboratory is official.

Block #1 - Emerald City

I worked on my quilt blocks for the Wizard of Oz quilt over the weekend.

My first block is nearing completion. I still need to clean it up a bit (miscellaneous threads, etc.) and decide whether or not to leave the sign, but I like it.



I think the sign might be too big and too dark. It'll be easy to remove if that's what I decide since I appliqued it on. Does anyone have any thoughts on this?

Buttons

Jason got me a fun little random present.



Buttons! They're all wooden buttons.

3" of snow to 70 degree sunshine

Isn't the weather lately amazing?

Last Saturday, this was what my parents' backyard looked like.


I had gone up to Omaha for the weekend and Jason called on Sunday morning to tell me that the main street we live closest to was a sheet of ice. This was just last weekend.

This weekend, we had beautiful weather. We've had about three 70 degree days in a row. On Thursday night it was so nice out, we slept with the windows open. We've been trying to soak up as much of he nice weather as possible.


Currently outside: cold, windy, and rainy.

Favorite Things

I want to start doing a collection of photographs once a week. From this collection, I will make a mosaic of around 12 photos of my favorite things for the week. I got this idea from Domino magazine. Each month they have someone pick 10 things they couldn't live without. It's always like lipstick, or $600 candlesticks. I thought I would give it a try and post a few things that I love.

So, without any further babble, here are my 12 favorite things for this week.

1. Lily, my cat 2. Sewing area, 3. Button jar, 4. Wedding Clock, a gift from my parents 5. Omaha snow storm, last weekend 6. Open patio door, less than a week after the snowstorm it is warm enough to have the doors and windows open 7. Slippers, 8. Seams to Be, 9. Pixie Stix, a $.29 after Valentine's Day find at Target 10. Sally, my "twin" 11. Ironing board, a $5 bargain at the local Goodwill 12. Frog a gift from my dad

A tour of my quilt collection

My dear husband, Jason has brought to my attention this oversight on my part. He mentioned after a recent trip to Nebraska that I should write a blog about his Grandma's quilts. I thought I'd take this one step further and give you a complete tour of my quilt collection.

This quilt is Jason's current favorite. It's one of three I made with the same fabrics for my 2 best friends and I several years ago. We call them the "Sisters quilts". Whenever Jason is sick, he likes to snuggle under this because it has a really soft flannel back. Well, not even just when he's sick. It's his favorite.


This is the only quilt I've made for myself to keep. All of the others have been to give a way.
I hadn't even learned how to do a binding yet. This quilt I think I did about 6 or 7 years ago. My how I've improved.



Jason's Grandma V. made this for his high school graduation. He requested a really big quilt and ended up with this.

Lily wanted to join in on the photo fun. I love how big her eyes are here.


My mom made this quilt and gave it to me at my bridal shower. It is one of the two that usually gets pulled out to snuggle under in the living room. I think it's the only one I have that she's made for me.



Grandma V. made this lap quilt a long, long time ago.



Grandma V. made this pair of quilts for us for our wedding. Mine is the pink and Jason's is the blue.



Jason's Grandma Clara made this quilt for our wedding. She asked which colors we wanted and made it off of that.

It's so rich. I love the fabrics she chose. I love the pattern she chose for the quilting. I'm not sure if she did it herself, or sent it out to someone to do.

This is the label she put on the quilt. It used to have a scanned image of our wedding invitation on the fabric, but that has worn off and you can't see much of it anymore.

This is probably at least one my favorites if not my very favorite. Jason's Grandma V. made it a long time ago. When we described it to her, she didn't even remember it. I love how it is completely random. The only structure to it is the square pattern. The colors are placed randomly and are complete contrasts to one another.

My favorite quilts aren't necessarily really fancy. They aren't necessarily things I've made myself. While I really enjoy quilting, I like to recieve the love from other people, too. There's a special feeling you get when you lay under a quilt someone has made for you. It's almost like a warm hug. Now, how could anyone want to pass something like that up?