A website?

Yes, it's true... Jason and I have registered 2 domain names for the Sewbot's Laboratory. Since it's such a long name, we've shortened it a bit.

For right now it will just link to my blog (so you won't have to type in the full address), but we are looking to expand into more of a website in the future. Not the very near future, but probably within the year (on the long end).

To get to my blog and my future website, you can now just type in:
sewbotslaboratory.com
or the even shorter version: sewbotslab.com

You will still be able to sign in by going to the current .

I now have an official new email address... it is jessica@sewbotslab.com

A wedding dress?

No, not a wedding dress, but a dress for a wedding (or two).



This is the project I'm most excited about lately, but can't start on until either:
A - I finish my to-do list or
B - after our Chicago trip.



This is the fabric I've picked up to make the dress out of. I think it's really fun and springie. I can't wait to get started on this.

A sad conclusion...

I think I've come to the conclusion that it's time to let Lucille go. With my new machine, Meredith, I just don't think I can justify keeping her.

I still thing she was a wonderful purchase and am very glad that Jason and I were in the position to get something of her quality.



So, here's a few last pictures of Lucille. (I'm sure there will be a few more when she actually is leaving me.)

1. Meredith, 2. New Studio Space, 3. Patterns, 4. Red Clogs, 5. Lover's Knot, 6. Blossom Tree, 7. Whale, 8. Paper Clips, 9. Fernando

A fun giveaway.

Yes, I said giveaway. No, it's not me hosting it.

Head on over to the Stitches and Scissors blog and enter to win!

Yippee!

Jason and I decided last night that we should go to the International Quilt Show in Chicago on April 17-19.

He worked it out with the boss this morning and talked to his sister, Elle. We can take the time off work to go and now have a place to stay (Thanks Elle & Kevin!)

So, we're going to drive up to Chicago for a few days and go the the quilt festival! I'm really excited about this. Since we're driving, we'll be able to go to IKEA.

We've got a lot to do before then, so wish us luck.

I love Chicago and I love quilts. This is going to be an awesome trip!

Studio Rearrangement

So, I have the world's best husband. Prior to Tuesday night, he had the larger desk space in our studio. I often hijacked part of it, but he definitely could veto my snatching. Tuesday after Meredith arrived, he offered to trade desks with me and rearrange the studio. This is what we ended up with:



1. From Entry towards Sewbot, 2. New bookshelf location, 3. The closet needs reorganized, again, 4. sewbot robot, 5. Ironing board space, 6. sewbot robot, 7. Green Glow's Space, 8. Towards Sewbot's Space, 9. From Sewbot space

It's here!

My Babylock BLQC2 Quilter's Choice 2 machine arrived last night! It's here and I've fallen in love.



1. Can't Wait, 2. Lily's Inspection, 3. Lily's Approval, 4. She's heavy!, 5. First Peek, 6. So Fresh, 7. Figuring it out, 8. Accessories, 9. Stitches


I've named her Meredith after the Meredith Corporation. They are the company that put on the contest that I won her from.

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.