Crafty Apple Pips

What’s Happening?

adifferentshade — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 18:50:57 +0000

While I’m trying to figure out this whole ‘new website’ thing there is STILL lots going on at my regular blogs.

Season 3 of Project QUILTING
Challenge 4 is up – Barn Quilts: http://www.kimscraftyapple.blogspot.com/2012/02/project-quilting-season-3-challenge-4.html

Look back at Challenge 3: http://www.kimscraftyapple.blogspot.com/2012/02/project-quilting-season-3-challenge-3.html

Look back at Challenge 2: http://www.kimscraftyapple.blogspot.com/2012/01/project-quilting-season-3-challenge-2.html

Look back at Challenge 1: http://www.kimscraftyapple.blogspot.com/2012/01/project-quilting-season-3-challenge-1.html

AMAZING Prizes this season: http://kimscraftyapple.blogspot.com/2012/01/project-quilting-season-3-prizes.html

Home Sweet Home Quilt Along

The Home Sweet Home Quilt Along is in full swing – the first two blocks have been posted:

My Home by Kim’s Crafty Apple

L apacek’s Orchard from Diane Lapacek

House by the Bay from PamelaQuilts

My Titled House by QuiltsbyBarb

Two Trees by TerryAskeArtQuilts

Tree of Life by Quilties

Under the Moreton Bay Fig from QuiltJane

Block 8 has been postponed… BUT I’m going to do my best to get you all a *BONUS* block this coming week – I just have to design one first!
In the meantime here are some optional bonus sashing tutorials:
-Drunken Geese
-Tall Trees
And the next two blocks will be posted onTuesday, February 28th and Thursday, March 1st!

The quilt along now has a Flickr Group: http://www.flickr.com/groups/1850682@N20/ So please post a picture of your block once you’re done! I’d love to follow along with YOUR journey as well!

AND – to make it even more fun – anyone that brings a completed ‘Home Sweet Home’ Quilt to Show and Tell at the 2012 Quilt Retreat Getaway Weekend hosted by QuiltsbyBarb will receive a $10 gift certificate to the quilt shop at the retreat in honor of the 10th anniversary.

Let’s Fly a Kite Workshop

I am teaching a class! Sign up for my ‘Let’s Go Fly a Kite!’ Class on Patchwork Posse!

For just $8

You will have exclusive access to all of the Posts ONLINE including:

1 patte4n
Private page with Instructions, Hints and Tips
Photo sharing gallery
Forum
Community of Sewers

It starts on February 15th so sign up NOW!

Website – Work In Progress

adifferentshade — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 03:22:35 +0000

Hi everyone! Some of you may have put in www.kimscraftyapple.com and been expecting a different looking page. Well…I decided to change my webhost without really knowing what I was doing so I have temporarly (*hopefully*) lost my other website. Crafty Apple Pips is eventually was what I am going to work from so in the meantime I thought I’d bring you all here.

I created Crafty Apple Pips in order to try to condense everything I share with people – my crafts, my orchard, and my kids. Here you’ll get the option of watching one of the three, two of the three, or all of the three!

Of course, I’m doing this in the midst of a bunch of other ‘projects’ so I’m guessing this website will be a WIP for awhile. Thank you for your continued patience and support!

Spoonflower – Ice in Bloom

adifferentshade — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 02:42:00 +0000

YES! This is a piece of fabric you can purchase and YES it is GORGEOUS! I can’t wait to use some of this in a project!

Stay tuned for more of my original fabrics!

If you missed my previous post no worries…

Purple Lace

Mystery Monday – Baffled in Belmont – Steps 18, 19, and 20

adifferentshade — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 02:29:00 +0000

I know… I know…it’s technically a Mystery Tuesday post but in my defense I’ve been really sick this last week and I still managed to get TONS done for the 3rd Season of Project QUILTING and organize the Home Sweet Home Quilt Along!

Enough excuses…on with the quilt!

If you’re just tuning in to the Mystery Monday from the Quilts by Barb 2011 Quilt Retreat be sure to take a look a back at

Step 18. Turn all squares so the sashing is on the bottom and lay out quilt according to diagram.

Sketch

Here’s my quilt laid out on the floor at the retreat. Man – was that a great feeling to see it there!

Starting in one corner, sew blocks together in diagonal rows. Sew rows together to complete the quilt top.

Step 19. Trim the edges of the quilt. Using a long ruler, align the 1/2” line through the points along the edge of the quilt and cut off the excess.

***side note*** I can actually see my entire cutting table which means…I’ll be trimming my edges and sending my quilt to Barb soon!

Step 20. Quilt and bind as desired.

Mine is not quite there yet…I promise I will share with you once I get to that point!
Thanks for following along! I would love to see your quilt if you decided to make one too!

Bedazzled & Caterpillar Beer

adifferentshade — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 17:19:00 +0000

Every year we do something a little different for Christmas – from Making Hats, Ugly Sweater Contests, or Boat Races. This year, in our yearly Christmas email that gave us instructions of what we need to bring to participate in the festivities this was written:

3) Each adult is requested to bring (1) one decorated beer bottle.

The bottles must be capped and full of beer.

So, the Thursday before Christmas we sent the girls to Grandma and Grandpa Lapacek’s for a sleepover and Jared and I got to work on our bottles.

Jared really wanted to use Pumpkin Teeth in his design so he started with that for his inspiration. I was inspired by some jewel cabochons that I found being stored in my breezeway. In the end Jared came up with this fantastic caterpillar. He took the stuffing out of one of the girls stuffed animals and thenMade a fantastic ‘face’ for the caterpillar with the pumpkin teeth. There is even a gold glittery one! Just imagine taking a swig out of that bottle and opening your eyes to this!

Here is a view of my bottle from all angles – I personally am super happy about how it turned out. Maybe I need to make a whole series of ‘bedazzled/bejeweled’ bottles. Both of my girls told me that ‘It was a winner in their contest’.

To see the other bottles brought to Christmas 2011 check out this LINK.

But I will show you the winners…

In 4th place:

In 3rd place:

In Second Place:And First Place:

I am excited to see what my relatives come up with for next years Christmas!

Project QUILTING – Season 3

adifferentshade — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 16:40:00 +0000

With the new year quickly approaching I’m revamping my ‘world’. My sewing room is completely torn up right now and is being expanded and reorganized to make room for my new ‘little’ long arm., my sewing machine (my baby) is in the shop for some regular cleaning and maintenance, AND I have big, grandeous (not sure how I should actually spell that…maybe it’s not a real word…) plans to redo my blogs to condense and streamline all of my interests.

One thing that is keeping me sane through all my ‘crafty world renovations’ is that I have a deadline – January 8th. January 8th is when the first challenge for Project QUILTING, Season 3 is posted and it’s when I have to be able to sew again. Which means, everything has to be reorganized, clean and operational. It also means – I have a lot of work to do.

In the middle of all this I need to get all of you super excited about the 3rd season of Project QUILTING. I don’t know about you but I am definitely excited! We took a rather long break between season 2 and 3 but in my defense…I did have a baby during that time.

Amazing quilts were created during Season 1 and Season 2 which means I have high expectations for you all (and myself) this season.

Things are going to change slightly. There will be no more judges winner or public winner – which means no more critiques on your piece, unless you post your quilt to the Flickr ‘Critique’ Site. There will still be prizes each week and at the end but this is how it’s going to work.

All prizes will be chosen by random drawing. Whoever enters a piece (following the guidelines of the challenge) will have their name written on a piece of paper and put in a hat (literally – a hat). Either Cedi or Capri, my two older daughters, will draw a name and that person will win the prize.

At the end of the season there will be grand prizes as well – each time you enter a challenge during the season your name will be put in the hat for the grand prize. Which means, the more challenges you enter, the bigger your chances are at winning the grand prize.

I already have a couple of great prizes lined up for this season.

Prizes (so Far)

First, from Marcia’s Crafty Sewing and Quilting

1. Easy to Sew Table Runners, 2. First Morning Glory Bloom Quilt, 3. Quilts for a Cause 2011 Created with fd’s Flickr Toys

For each challenge, I would like to offer a Gift Certificate of $30.00 off Quilting on a Baby size or larger. The Gift Certificate will be good for 60 days from the date of issue. The gift certificate is transferable so you can share it with a friend if you’d like.

I was browsing through Marcia’s Blog to find some examples of her fabulous quilting – there are so many! One that really caught my eye is shown above with her Triple Meandering Technique. I think it looks truly fabulous!

Next we have two prizes from FabricFascination:

One week the random drawing winner will be able to choose from either color of these:

Batik 5" Charms: 40 Tonga Treat Mini Squares in BlueBerry OR

Batik 5" Charms: 40 Tonga Treat Mini Squares in Pomegranate

Another week the random drawing winner will receive this:

Fabric Bundle: 6 Fat Quarters from Kathy Davis Happiness Collection for Free Spirit in Indigo – 1 1/2 YDs (ps. I have this collection in another color – SPECTACULAR! (and Spectacular happened to be today’s ‘Word on the Street’ on Sesame Street in case you were wondering))

Kym from FabricFascination would also like to offer you all 10% off all fabrics in her etsy shop using the coupon code: KIMSCRAFTY

I’m still looking for sponsors so email me at: lapaceksorchard {at} gmail {dot} com if you’re interested in being one. There are some ‘perks’ including a button on my blog and being mentioned in blog posts and via my newsletter.

Also – I need your help to make this season a success! Please help me spread the word about the start of Season 3 – on your blog, facebook, twitter, guilds, to friends/family that quilt. Anyone, everyone you know! Project QUILTING is not just for experienced quilters. It’s a fantastic way to challenge yourself, create something you never imagined before AND complete a project in just one week! In fact, our second place winner of last season was a fairly new quilter – it was amazing to see how her work progressed as the challenges continued. She even went on to be featured on Generation Q (a fabulous new quilting emagazine) because of a project Project QUILTING inspired.

If you have any ideas for me on how to spread the word about this challenge please let me know! I’d also be happy to answer any questions for you if you wanted to do an ‘interview’ post on your blog or wherever.

Thanks in advance for helping me make Season 3 another quilting success!

Schedule for Season 3

(each challenge is posted at NOON and is due by NOON the following Sunday):

Challenge 1: January 8th
Challenge 2: January 22nd
Challenge 3: February 5th
Challenge 4: February 19th
Challenge 5: March 4th
Challenge 6: March 18th

Mystery Monday – Baffled in Belmont – Steps 16 & 17

adifferentshade — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 00:56:00 +0000

Welcome back to another nail biting edition of the Mystery Quilt!

If you’re just tuning in to the Mystery Monday from the Quilts by Barb 2011 Quilt Retreat be sure to take a look a back at

I don’t have pictures of these steps on my quilt so I drew some diagrams up in Paintbrush…

Step 15. Using triangles from Step 5, make:

Step 17. Using triangles from Step 6, make 2: After next Monday’s instructions you’ll start to be able to see what your quilt is going to look like! Almost there…

We Wish You a Merry Christmas

adifferentshade — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 02:35:00 +0000

I wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas before I shut my computer down for the next few days. My littles are tucked into bed with instructions that Santa won’t come unless they are sleeping. After the last few days of celebrating they’ve had I can’t believe that they will be up long.I’m sitting here enjoying a nice hot cup of Friendship Tea as I blog. I have probably shared this in the past but if you don’t remember – here’s the simple recipe. (also can make a beautiful last minute gift – just put it in a mason jar with a ribbon tied around the lid…)

Friendship Tea

1 cup Instant Tea
2 cups Tang
2 pkgs of presweetened lemonade (if unsweetened add 1 cup of sugar…pink lemonade makes it look even prettier…)
1 tsp cloves
1 tsp cinnamon

Mix together and store in covered jar.

Use 1 heaping tsp or more to 1 cup boiling water

Friendship Tea has become a ‘comfort’ drink for me. It reminds me of childhood – being warm and snuggly, under a blanket and enjoying a good book.

We still have a few Christmas celebrations left but so far things are going nice and smoothly (knock on wood).

We’ve had too many Christmas’s that the girls have laid on my lap and let me open their presents from Santa for them because they were just too sick. Really, really hoping and praying that they wake up super excited tomorrow morning! They are at such a wonderful age for all the Christmas magic of the season…except Pip – but she really does enjoy eating the wrapping paper!

The other day I got really nostalgic about some of the movies I used to watch at Christmas time when I was a kid. They included The Muppet Christmas Carol, One Magic Christmas, and The Night They Saved Christmas. I decided to order them so that I could have my kids have the same memories of them as me. (I have now added Elf and Bad Santa to those favorites…but don’t worry, I won’t let the girls watch Bad Santa for a long while).

I never expected the movies to arrive before Christmas since I asked for the ‘Free Shipping’ method. But, much to my surprise – two of the movies arrived today! It was a Christmas Miracle Jared and I are watching the Muppets tonight and I’m sure I’ll be watching it again with the girls tomorrow night while Papa is at the Packer Game with Uncle Brian.

Pip still only has her one tooth…but she’s been such a happy adorable baby. Also – so tolerant of the crazy schedule and rocked to sleep naps in the car seat. We are so blessed to have these wonderful babes. I won’t leave you in suspense too long – I’ll be blogging more about this next week. I’ll leave you with yes – that’s a bedazzled beer bottle full of High Life AND a caterpillar/pumpkin teeth beer bottle full of High Life. AND yes – it is for one of our Christmas celebrations…

And with that – Merry Christmas to everyone! I’m signing off the computer for a day or so and just taking the time to enjoy my family and this wonderful holiday!

See how to make your very own felt stockings HERE!

What’s Your Style: African

adifferentshade — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 19:24:00 +0000

Moving down the list of ‘style’ options in an alphabetical fashion – next up is African.

(paraphrased/summarized from wikipedia African Art article)

There is a lot of diversity in African style but a few common themes in the total visual culture of the African continent.

Thematic Elements

Emphasis on Human Figure

African Style Mixed Media 3d Sculpture from naamaza
Visual Abstraction

African Fabric Fascinator from abrefi

Emphasis on Sculpture

Werkstatte Hagenauer Wien Style Bronze Wood African Natives in Canoe Art Deco from AustriaBrass

Nonlinear Scaling

Edition Collectible Mug ( af… javieravalos $27.00	Triangular Pine Needle Giraf… bazketmakr $110.00
Julia Cairns Joyful Days Pan… SheSellsFabric $8.00	Gourd Shekere Rattle Musical… midnightcoiler $35.00
Jewelry Paper- Origami Brace… Manufactapaper $12.00	Hair Pins Yellow Green Gunme… lindesigns $16.50
Zentangle OOAK Dazzle Doodle… IntoTheLight $26.00	Vintage Zebra Print Wild Wom… SunshineintheC… $8.00
African style handmade rag d… ESZTERDArte $28.00	Purple Floral Lampwork Earri… GlassRiverJewe… $31.00
Fine Art Print Reproduction … GwenMeyerson $18.00	Rust Amber Black Silver Afri… CharleneSevier $18.00
African style picture naamaza $20.00	Colorful african style paint… realmlistic $6.70
Beautiful Original "Ai… JennsFineDesig… $145.00	11 ELEPHANT HAIR Styled brac… stribal $52.80

Treasury tool by Red Row Studio.

Past Styles:

Abstract

Block-A-Palooza – Runner #1 COMPLETE!

adifferentshade — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 21:20:00 +0000

Yeah! Another one is compete! Runner #1: Block 6, Block 13, Block 11 Block 6 – You are Here Block 13 Block 11

Runner #1: Block 6, Block 13, Block 11

It feels so good to get some WIP’s finished before the new year. I have the last three all quilt and machine bound – now just for the hand-stitch portion…

Stay Tuned!