Very Small Horse: Free to Good Home

Hello and welcome to And Chips.  I'm MissEnota from Minnesota.  MissEnota is a silly name I chose for online activities years ago but seems practical now as I have a rather popular first name in the sewing world.  (It's Kristin.)

I might be a little late to the party but I really want to participate in the Sew, Mama, Sew! Giveaway Day and I realized the only sure way to be involved in a winning drawing would be to hold one of my own so here goes:


I'm offering a little stick horse of your choice.  Choose Yellow, Red, Blue, or pick a custom color combo and I'll whip one up.  These are made by me with clean, new and vintage fabric, notions and new stuffing.  They each have a hanging loop and would make great Christmas tree ornaments or just little do dads to hang around and cheer on your creative endeavors.  I'll also throw in a small surprise inspired by your post or blog.

To win, (Edit: Entry period is now closed!) please comment on this post by answering the question: What advice do you have for a new sewing blogger?  Please look around and let me know what you think about &Chips, the things I've made...anything that comes to mind. Thanks for stopping by and good luck!

The fine print: Please only comment once. You must enter by May 25, 5 p.m. PST.   A random number generator will choose the winner and I will post your name here on the blog and notify you by email (please make sure you supply an email address if you are a no reply blogger.)

Edit, Saturday May 26th: 

And the winner is... comment number 16, Crafty Tokyo Mama who wrote: 

"I find people really enjoy tutorials. They also like to see the process as well as the finished project. Well, at least, I do! Love your horses. I have the feeling if I won, she (because of course, it is a mare) would turn into a Christmas present for either my daughter or my niece. My niece (age 5) really loves horses."

Congratulations!  I can't wait to send a little mare off to be enjoyed.  I want to thank everyone for participating in my first giveaway.  I really appreciate all of your comments and will be putting that advice into play here at AndChips.  I really hope you stop by again.

Happy Mother's Day

Another day, another project.  This one is for my mom, Sharon.  The bag is from a tutorial on Design Sponge and the needle book is the second one I've made from a simple pattern I found on Pinterest/ MyThreeSons blog.  The printed fabric is from mom's stash.  She gave it to me to make a lunch bag but I decided  to surprise her with this (I still have more to make all sorts of other things.)

At my urging,  we recently joined the Minneapolis Modern Quilt Guild (this is my way of making her sew more - and with me; she's terrific at it but talks and reads far more about quilting than she actually quilts.)  Also, I just want to hang out with her much of the time because she is cool and laughs easily.  Inside is a new magazine, "Quiltmaker's 100 blocks Volume 5."  I hope she will tote projects and inspiration around proudly this summer and doesn't look too critically at my stitches.

I'm looking forward to the coming months, full of new projects and spending time with my family.




 

Minnesota, Puppies, and Spring Time

Minnesota

If you haven't made the connection by my monicker, I live in Minnesota.  I was born in Montana and moved here when I was in middle school, then I married a guy from Montana...so depending on who asks, I have different answers about where I'm from.

I have nothing but LOVE for Minnesota.  While I've found every place I've ever lived or spent time or visited hospitable (which is a lot of places since I served for 9.5 years in the Army and Army National Guard), Minnesota offers a ton of things to do, all four seasons in full glory, and fishing year round.  I should offer up that I live near enough to the Twin Cities to enjoy restaurants, museums, and shows but far enough away that I can experience small town living and farm country commutes.  Even though the years whip by faster and faster, spending time looking at the sky and experiencing the weather is an incredible pleasure.

Here is yet another "Pin-spired" project (using a couple of tutorials: here and here.)  The nail art took about an hour on Thursday.  (We took a little road trip to Iowa, Missouri, Kansas and Oklahoma last Thursday through Tuesday.)   Since then, I've finished the two dachshund  puppies on the right.

Dixie and... "Moxie" or "Lee"? What do you think?

Our good friends (so good they let us get married at their house) have a miniature wiener dog named Max who is the softest, nicest, most cuddly dog in the universe.  Also, Cities 97, a local radio station that used to be "the stuff" (remember when "Alternative" music was all the rage?) issued a compilation CD in 1997--on which, my favorite song is "Dixie the Tiny Dog."  Those two things, as well as the fact that I just happened to find a McCall's 1810 vintage pattern at my local thrift shop as well as an "As is" brown velvet curtain at IKEA all came together to make this production possible.

You may have gathered, thus far, the random pattern of my process.  This is how I sew and how I do most things.

Cradle Update

Nice bias tape, you say?

Just a little progress report...a quilt!  Because I am a new and excited sewer (sewist?...sewer seems kind of gross), I see no reason to wait to brag until my quilts are more skillfully made.  The way I figure it, if I know what I did wrong I'm still learning but if I ripped everything out and started over the momentum of sewing-obsessed fun might vanish as mysteriously as it appeared...

I used a V and Co. tutorial (I am addicted to Pinterest and my sewing machine) but I changed it up a little and made it bigger.  I'm wondering what sort of doll/animal should sleep in this thing as it's 12" x 24" inside...suggestions are welcome here.