July 2013 | Go-Go Kim

sewing + social media + so much more

Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Over the river and through the woods to Kelly Ann's Quilting we go!

The online quilting community us FILLED with the sweetest people!  I have been blessed with having the opportunity to have them as friends online and  sometimes I get the chance to meet them in real life!  Kelly Ann, I did meet online through a facebook friend, we have seen each other at Market and keep in touch daily online.  She owns a shop, Kelly Ann's Quilting, about an hour away from where I live. I meant to go last summer but for some reason or another it never happened.  I was able to get my act together and the kids too and take the backroads up to Warrenton!!!!!



So cute!


YAAY!!!! I love Kelly Ann!!!!!


The most exciting thing happened at the shop!  Adam lost his second tooth!!!!
Look at the gorgeous summerhome by Kathy McGee for Red Rooster Fabrics behind him...YUMMY!




Kelly Ann has many rooms of fabrics and Katy was lost in the colorful Batiks.  She is smitten with Neptune by Timeless Treasures.  I have never made a quilt for her since she could never decide on fabrics.

This is a free pattern on the Timeless Treasures site.

Tonga Neptune-Beneath The Waves Quilt by Heidi Pridemore




I think with some white ( you knew that was coming Sara) it would be PERFECT for the girlie. Now to sneak back and snag a set for my special girl.

There were also these pretties!!!!


And my FAVORITE!  I need a tote made with this one :o)


Kelly has a wonderful selection of Aurifil ( she even had a new shipment in the back room and I took a sneak peek) right next to her cutting station and I am sure it is so she can glance over at all the beautiful colors whenever she likes,LOL!

I wish I had taken more photos but I was talking so much I lost track of time. I will be going back to visit again and i can get more photos of the great selection of embroidery patterns and the vintage sewing machines ( I was swooning).

Many thanks to Kelly Ann, she is such a sweetie pie!   If you are ever in the Warrenton area or even if you are not, make sure to go say howdy and look around a bit, this shop is really worth it!

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Saturday, July 27, 2013

Caution ahead...tie dying with children!

This summer I have been making an extra effort to do MORE with my children.  I have always tried to be that mom, the one that plays games and takes my kids to the beach and museums and do all the fun stuff in life.  But it does not always work like that when life happens, you know, the laundry, dishes, people wanting to eat...sometimes I think I need at least 24 more hours in my 24 hours!

I sometimes compare myself to what other people are doing.  How they HECK do they get so much done and STILL have time to sew and blog and cook those beautiful meals and I bet they do not have four ( or seven) piles of unfolded laundry on their sofa!  At this point I convince myself I SUCK!

This summer, I am putting all of those doubts behind me.  I don't suck!  My family is fed and they have clean clothes even if sometimes they may have to find them on the sofa.  I am pretty happy knowing I am raising awesome hunters and gatherers :o)  I have been sewing even if I cannot share it all.  I am doing what I am able to get done.

Ignoring the laundry, I decided we would tie dye!  What is summer without a fun tie dye session!?! What kid would not want to make this hippie fun wearable artwork!!!!???!!!!



The set up was in the basement on an old table wrapped in plastic, lots of paper towels and the mandatory gloves. and yes, my basement is a mess too ;)

The kids did shirts and I had some white fabric that I HAD TO dye!!!! I know you would too!!!!

I had to put up a line to hold all of our fabric art and I am sure my neighbors were thrilled!

The kids have already claimed the fabric I dyed and want me to make it into quilts for them!

The little man has dibs on this one

and Little Miss wants the one that Adam calls the Fireworks fabric.

The shirts I bought for Adam to use are too small  so I know we will be doing this again in the next few weeks before the children are back in school and my life goes back to it's somewhat normal schedule.

This summer is FANTASTIC!
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Friday, July 26, 2013

What a SURPRISE!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!!!!  I did it!  I made it through another year to FORTY SEVEN!!! OMG!!  I may pass out at even the mention of being that close to FIFTY,LOL!  I am not upset about getting older, other than the obvious of my body parts just ain't what they used to be and every time I get up from sitting on the floor I sound like a bowl of Rice Krispies ( SNAP! CRACKLE! POP!).  I actually like getting older, it means I have accomplished one more year of something other than nothing.  This year was filled with quite a lot and I am just GIDDY about one of the events in particular!



My birthday gift from Sara!  I have known Sara for at least five or more years, we met online when I was buying fabric from her,LOL!  She noticed I am an Oma and we started chatting.  We share a love of fabric and sewing and  well isn't that how most all really great friendships start ;o)  Over the years we have shared quite a bit, excitement over new projects, tears over events, our growing children and of course, our continued LOVE for fabric and sewing.

I am loud and Sara is NOT,  I am forward and Sara is NOT, I can be bold to the point of BRAZEN and Sara, not so much! We mesh in a certain way that really works for us and it is comfortable and lovely and well perfect!

Sara is the kindest, sweetest, most talented person I know. To top it off , she is beautiful and can eat ANYTHING and not gain an ounce and I would kinda hate her if I did not love her so much,LOL!!!!

So Sara, sneaky girl that she is, emailed the in house engineer and my children and gave them homework.  She asked that they outline their hands and send them back to her.  She emailed another friend of ours asking what fabrics I liked...very very sneaky,LOL!!!   In three days (seriously...if I did not love her...) she WHIPPED together this stunning quilt!  I am really beginning to wonder if she has a sweatshop in her basement! I received the package the day before my birthday and Sara COULD NOT WAIT for me to open it and when I did, I understood why...

There were the handprints of my family!

My oldest son and his wonderful wife and my two grandchildren that live far away so I do not get to see them much...my second son, who is in the Air Force and will be deploying to Afghanistan in November, my in house engineer that puts up with the 25,000 words I have to use every day, my daughter that is now as tall as me and growing faster than I can breathe, and the little caboose son that  wears me out and I still wake up wondering what wonderment he will bring.

To top it all off she added one more block...a block with her hand and her son and daughter. Guess who was crying...

I was speechless...and that is HARD to do!



I am so SERIOUSLY blown away by this quilt!  It will be cherished for MANY MANY YEARS!!!!




THANK YOU SARA!!!!  I am not sure what I ever did to deserve you but I LOVE YOU!!!!!

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Tuesday, July 23, 2013

100 Quilts for Kids Craftsy class giveaway!

I am totally copying and pasting but this event is one of the highlights of my year!  Katie from Swim Bike Quilt does an amazing job each and every year and has organized the BEST sponsors with  spectacular prizes to be given away! 

Go check out the giveaway from the generous peeps at Craftsy to get your creative juices flowing!!!!!


Katie...Sorry for the copy and paste, can we chalk it up to the Summer lazies? 

craftsy logo 100 Quilts for Kids + Craftsy Class Giveaways
Hurray!!!  Craftsy donated (2) online classes–winner’s choice– to help spread the word about 100 Quilts for Kids ! The giveaway is open from Monday, July 22-Friday, July 26, 2013 at 10pm ET.  Click here to enter!
You don’t have to donate a quilt to enter the giveaway, but I’d love it if you shared about 100 Quilts with friends and on various social media sites–you can easily share via Pinterest by clicking on any picture on my blog, and Facebook, StumbleUpon, Twitter, and Google +1 by clicking on the icon at the end of this post.  Use the hashtag #100quilts4kids on Instagram –my user name is swimbikequilt.
There will be 2 winners, and each winner will get to pick a class of their choice (quilting class! or otherwise). [You can use your existing Craftsy login or sign up for a Craftsy account to enter! One entry per person please.  If you have trouble seeing the giveaway page, use Firefox as your browser.]  Happy sewing!
P.S. Did you know that Craftsy sells fabric?  And has a ton of free patterns?
More of my thoughts on Craftsy here
Check out the 100 Quilts for Kids Sponsors–Fabric + Thread post for a complete list of prizes!
Grab a button for your blog here!
100quiltsbutton 2 100 Quilts for Kids + Craftsy Class Giveaways
 <div align="center"><a href="http://www.swimbikequilt.com" title="http://swimbikequilt.com/2013/07/100-quilts-for-kids-
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Monday, July 22, 2013

Block update!

After a week of the in house engineer doing his IT magic, the computer seems to be running. There was some information lost and I have not had the chance to see if any of it was mine but MOST importantly, MY PHOTOS...ALL 20,000+ of them were SAVED!!!!!!  Backing up is quickly becoming my second language!

I have been sewing up blocks for the 100 Modern Blocks. Here are my latest ones







I laid them out and here is what I have so far...


Hopefully the computer will play nice and I can share more updates this week!!!!
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Monday, July 15, 2013

BACK IT UP!!!!! A PSA


I think Lord Vader and I had the same issue this past weekend...my computer CRASHED!  It was a very sad Mac and I may not be able to recover over 20,000 photos of family and projects from the past three years.  I am a little more than sick over this happening.  The in house engineer is working hard to recover as much as he can.  That computer is my LIFE my BRAIN and I am a bit lost without it.


Make sure and back up your memories, your projects and your work NOW!!!!!

I am hoping to be back soon with some of my actual photos of things I sewed and not of a very unhappy villian.


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Monday, July 1, 2013

Vacation is now over...

Our family was fortunate enough to go on vacation this year to the Gulf Coast of Mexico!  It is a two day drive and so we drove down to Atlanta to spend the night with family and then drove the second day to the beach.  Since I had some extra time where I could not run around doing my usual crazy, I decided it would be the perfect opportunity to try some embroidery with the new Aurifil floss or Aurifloss.  Six strands of wonderful cotton that works beautifully for any hand stitching project and so many colors on the sweetest wooden spools.

I was also able to get my daughter to try some out.  She normally has no interest in my stitching projects but when she saw these patterns from Doodle Stitching by Aimee Ray she was a convert!  Katy LOVES the ocean and mermaids!  She has really taken to it and I am hoping sewing is not far behind!  I used Pellon Shape Flex SF-101 to give a little UMPH to the fabric and it may have been overkill but it really worked to help keep the fabric stable.  It is what I had in the sewing room at 5am and it WORKED!!!!!!



I worked on a special Aurifil project and I am LOVING the colors!!!!!  I am going to use this to make an Embroidery-to-Go Bag  that was designed by Sara from Sew Sweetness and Rachel from Imagine Gnats that is a free pdf pattern on Pellon Projects. The


and I was able to start a birthday project for someone that is very special to me!


It is raining back home so I am REALLY ready to go back to the beach and enjoy myself some more :o)


He actually did have a blast he just did not want his photo taken.



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