Eye Candy

Head on over to my post on the Lick Skillet Quilt Guild if you want to see some delicious eye candy like this:




or this:




Happy New Year! We're eating unhealthy snacks (twinkies, red vines, cookies, soda, and pretzels) and watching Harry Potter until Midnight.

~ Norma

Random facts about... Me!

(and the winner of SMS giveaway day. Yeah, it's about time.)

This morning as I was browsing through the posts on my Google reader I a came across a fun post from Amy at The Idea Room. I had so much fun reading her post and feel like I got to know her just a tad bit more. So here's my attempt at bonding with all of you. Good, clean, not in a weird way bonding :)


- Don't ever try to scare me in a dark hallway. I've taken too many self defense classes and my gut reaction is to kick or punch the living daylights out of anything that jumps out at me. Mr. PD can vouch for this fact. Just ask him about the time he tried to scare me at church. His shins were not happy :)

- Hates squashing the big giant southern cockroaches. Just thinking about it makes me want to vomit. I usually have to call my kids or Mr. PD to the rescue. (Just so you know cockroaches are a fact of life in the south especially if you live on a wooded lot and are not necessarily a reflection of cleanliness, oh and those suckers can fly.)

- I studied Industrial Design in college with a double minor in Spanish and Manufacturing. What? Basically industrial design is product design. Designing the way things look not necessarily the way they work, that's for the engineers and smart people. Spanish, because I grew up speaking Spanish and I love my heritage. Manufacturing because my counselor said that an Industrial Designer who designs things that can't be made is useless.

- Sadly I left college without my degree. Someday I will return to finish up 1 more year of college and graduate!

- I got bucked off a horse once. Oh and there was another one that tried to roll over on me once... maybe I should stay away from horses.

- I have a perfect driving record. Not even a warning.

- Has been tossed out of a raft in class 4 rapids and lived to tell the tale.

- Sometimes I wish I could write blog posts anonymously because there are some funny things that happen to me but I don't want to offend people (people I actually know in real life) with my tongue in cheek thought process.

- I can read (or at east I used to be able to) ancient Mayan hieroglyphs.

- I'm a Mormon. No we're not polygamists. Yes we are Christian.

- Hates math with a passion and is envious of my human calculator husband who can whip out fabric yardage requirements and can run circles around sales people trying to con him into a "deal."

- Loves to compete in triathlons and got first place in the women's division once. Ok so there where only 3 women. It was my lucky day!

- Set new personal records this year for a 10k and a half marathon.

- Loves to do anythign remotely crafty: cooking, sewing, quilting, building furniture, painting, etc.

- Hates to do the dishes. They often pile up in both sinks.

- Loves to be active (a big plus in avoiding quilter's butt) : running, hiking, swimming, biking, scuba diving, racquetball, tennis, volleyball, horseback riding etc.

- I love to read. Anything and everything! I don't know how many books I've read but surely it must be close to a thousand by now.

- Hates living in the south because they have tornadoes (among other things.)

- Loves animals! Cats, dogs, horses, rabbits, chickens, goats, hedgehogs... maybe I should live on a farm.

- Loves to cook and eat international. Mexican, Chinese, Japanese, Thai, American, Indian. I love food! Being active also helps with this!

- Loves to dance. Mr. PD does not dance :(   Thank goodness for Zumba!


ok that's probably enough for now! I wonder how many of you are still reading. Let me know if you write your own post. I'd love to read it.

~ Norma

and the winner of the SMS giveaway day Portrait silhouette is:

#39

MJ said... 39

My favorite decoration is the brass Christmas ornament from every year, that my grandmother gave me. I'll cherish those forever!

Sugar Cookies

I recently found the awesomeness that is Sweet Sugar Belle's blog. I was so inspired by her creations that I went ahead and made my first batch of sugar cookies. Ever.

It took me a while to make these and my hands were tired by the time I was done icing 30 cookies. Not too shabby for my first batch. My kids were gone while I decorated these but I did save one for each to decorate! My kids and husband have gobbled these up, I've only had one. Honestly I prefer my sugar cookies plain. The icing on these puppies (royal icing) is sugar overload for me.

These were so fun to make and I think I'll be making them again. I learned a few tips and tricks that made these easy to make. Like rolling out your dough between wax paper and then popping in the fridge before cutting. Putting your flood icing in a restaurant squeeze bottle. Putting your icing in saran wrap for easy clean up. There are lots of helpful videos at University of a Cookie. In fact here is a video featuring Sugar Belle making the snowflake cookies.

Do you like to make sugar cookies this time of year? Do you let your kids help or are you a cookie Nazi?

~ Norma

Giveaway Day

Petit Design Co. is joining in all of the fun of Sew Mama Sew's Giveaway Day.

Make sure you hop on over to view the 3 master lists (yes 3!) of everyone joining in for the fun giveaways.

I'm giving away 1 free digital Portrait Silhouette to one lucky winner, like these here:

I can make them of kids or adults. I even do pets, but not for this giveaway. You can see my full range of silhouettes at my shop. You can use them for prints, note cards, greeting cards, birthday invitations, t-shirts, scrapbooking, or whatever your heart desires as long as it is for personal non-commercial use. What's that mean? basically it means you can't use them to sell products, or put them on products to sell, or sell prints of my images. You can however make prints for everyone in your extended family including your great aunt Sue, the mailman and your kid's bus driver {if you were so inclined.}

If you don't win you are more than welcome to purchase your own silhouettes which make great presents for Mom's and Grandparents. Just hop on over to my store over there on the left. Keep in mind that I'm only taking Christmas orders until the 17th.

So leave me a comment telling me what your favorite Christmas decoration is. Giveaway is open until Friday the 17th and is open to the whole world, even Canadians. If I get lots of entries I just might draw a second winner. That's it, only one comment per person {strictly enforced with a paddle.}

Of course I'd be thrilled if you would take a look around and if you like what you see, I invite you to follow my little blog. I love to quilt, cook, craft, hike, run, swim and bike (among other things.)

Here's my latest finish:

Isn't it cute? You can head over to my other blog Quilty Giveaways for the pattern review and a chance to win a bag pattern of your choice.

~ Norma

Swamped

Over the last few days I've been swamped with Christmas orders for my Profile Silhouettes. I gotta say I just love my job! Each silhouette I make is so unique and different, it never gets old. The best part is "filling" in the outline and seeing the silhouette come to life!

Here is an order I finished up today:

Don't you just love the little girl second form the right? I love her to pieces she just seems so happy! Sometimes I want to take my favorite silhouettes and display them around the house. {wondering if that is bordering on creepy, displaying other people's kids on my walls}

Have you heard about Sew Mama Sew's Giveaway Day? It's Monday, I may or may not be giving away a custom portrait silhouette on Monday. But I'm  not telling.

~ Norma

ps Heidi, I think that the first little girl is a grown up version of "E"

Slacker! ...and a winner

Yup, that's me. What can I say, when the weather turns cold I turn almost sloth like and wish I could stay in my warm cozy bed all day long. In my defense I did run a really, I mean REALLY good race on Saturday. At least it was good for my short 5'0" self. I know I'm not gonna set any world records with these short little legs of mine, and just thinking about 9 minute(or less) miles makes me want to hurl. I'll gladly take my 10 minute miles any day.

This was my second half marathon. After the first one, in 2008, I promised I would never, like EVER, do it again... I wonder what happened. I'll tell you what happened: CORRIE! Yup, that darn Canadian BFF of mine let me talk us into doing a half marathon. No wonder I dislike Canadians so much. Well folks we ran our little guts out and managed to set new personal records. We finished right at 2 hours and 11 minutes (and a couple of seconds) a whole whopping 27 minutes faster than my first half marathon! {Can I get a woot woot?} We were so super excited to cross that finish line and be done so that we can "never ever do that again" {...until next time I suppose.} After the race came the pain, oh the pain. 13.1 miles will do some funny things {so not funny ha ha}  to places you never even knew you had! I was finally able to climb my stairs without any problems on Tuesday morning.

So in summary:  pain + cold weather = total slacker

Without further ado the winner of the $15 Walmart Gift card is  

Lucky #23
Maralyn who said:
I would LOVE to get the apple/cinnamon one for the holidays!!!
Then I wouldn't have to make so much pie??? NOT!!!
hahahahaha
Thanks!

On the not so slacker side, I did manage to deck my house out for Christmas, get all the Christmas shopping done (I love the internet) and I even managed to sew a cute bag (pictures coming soon I pinkie swear!)

Holy Schmoly I just realized I haven't mailed out my box of scraps for the scrappy giveaway. See, total slacker. The box is at least packed up and waiting for my next trip to the post office.

~ Norma

ps blogger spell checker really needs an update "Holy Schmoly"" "woot woot" "BFF" those are all legit words!

... "ahhhhhhh" (Giveaway)

(Please note that this is a sponsored post. The Febreze Wooden Wick Candle Kit and $15 Walmart gift card were provided by Febreze through MyBlogSpark. All opinions are 100% mine) 

I was recently contacted by MyBlogSpark to see if I wanted to try out and review the new Febreze Wooden Wick Candles.

The Good:
- Love the simple elegant design and wonderful colors of the candles. They are so pretty I don't mind just setting them on the center of my dining room table.
- Love the scents (some may be a little strong.) My favorite was the Anjou Pear Spice, so perfect for fall!
- Can burn for up to 80 hours (love that!)
- 9 "flavors" to choose from: Green Tea Citrus, Pomegranate Mango, Cranberry Pear, Orange Honeycomb, Rosewood Plum and Willow Blossom; as well as seasonal scents that include Anjou Pear Spice, Gingersnap Vanilla, and Yumberry Sangria.


The Bad:
- Supposedly, the point of the wooden wick is to "bring the ambiance and sound of a crackling fire indoors." Well, it does that but on a very small scale. If you happen to be in the same room as a small child you will not hear the "crackling fire." If you happen to have it lit in a quiet room you will hear a faint crackle. I love the candles despite this and would still buy them anyway. 

The Super Good: I have a $15 Walmart gift card for one of my readers! Just leave me a comment and let me know which "flavor" you'd love to try or what you would do if you had 80 hours of "ahhhhhh." You can use your gift card to buy the candle of your choice (... I happen to know that Walmart also carries a limited supply of quilting supplies, but you didn't hear it from me *wink, wink*) This Giveaway is only open to my US readers and will be open until December 4th. I'll pick a winner after I run my half marathon (shameless plug! yes I like to toot my own horn.)

~ Norma

Scrappy Giveaway Winner

I'm super excited because I just learned how to hack blogger and number my comments!

This has to have saved me at least 5-10 minutes of insanity since I would have tried to count all the way to comment #124:

... and because I wouldn't have trusted myself the first time I would have re-counted a second and maybe even a third time! This would have been even worse if the winner had ended up being a no-reply blogger, which sooo many of you were! *gasp* I wanted to reply to so many of you because your comments were funny or you mentioned a dish that I had never heard of or I just wanted to say something nice... but alas I could not :( Jodi has a very helpful post over here about being a 'no-reply blogger' and how to fix it.

So the winner is:

Mary said... 124 My favorite for Thanksgiving is my mom's coconut cream pie which I've learned to make since she is gone.

If you're interested in numbering your comments, I used this tutorial here (but I still kept my comments as a "pop out" the numbering still appears on the post page), and bookmarked this one for when my comments exceed 200.

~ Norma

Scrappy {Hoops} Swap

On a whim I joined "The Scrappy {Hoops}" swap on Flickr. I thought it seemed like a pretty easy, low time commitment swap to sign up for. I hope my partner loves their hoop as much as I do. My BFF spotted it before it was finished and she wanted to make off with it. I'm sure it'll be on her Christmas list now that it's finished {...that list sure keeps getting longer every time she comes over!}




This little owl was made using my new found bloggy friend's, Sonja of Artisania, easy peeping owl Pattern. I really love the way the modern fabrics did all the work for me. The feathers, leaves, and tree bark were chosen from my scrap bin for their texture and pattern. My favorite is the basket weave print used on the owl (Denyse Schmidt, Katie Jump Rope.)

Well Partner I hope you "likey."
~ Norma

Yay! and Boo!

Looking for the scrappy giveaway? It's here.

First the Yay!
I'm floored by the number of followers that I have recently gained, and I didn't even have to bribe you! :) Thank you for taking the time to read my blog, I guess I do have something interesting to say! You love me, you really love me! :)

Now the Boo!
Boo to getting my first negative comment on my blog. I have no idea if this was meant as a joke or not but someone who happens to be a 'no reply blogger" left the following message'

"Sorry you don't like Canadians! I bet if I went to your Etsy Shop you would ship to Canada."

Here I thought I was doing something nice by sharing my scraps  and having the audacity to pay for the shipping out of pocket, but apparently I'm just being a big ole Scrooge. Not that I have to justify myself to anyone {it's my blog and I'll cry if I want to, whine if I want to, share if I want to, or NOT if I don't want to} but my BFF is Canadian {honest to peanuts she's 100% Canadian!} Remember my last giveaway? Where I gave away 2 highly coveted Heather Ross Fish in Bags fat quarters? Yeah, that was open to the whole wide world... and can you guess where the winner was from?

... yup CANADA!

gee I really must hate Canadians.

Oh and another thing, yeah my Etsy store is just that, a store. I must be evil for trying to charge shipping. Just because I'm a small retailer doesn't mean I have to give my stuff away. It is a business and I run it as such. A business pretty much has one purpose and that is to make profit. Otherwise it wouldn't be called a business.

The End.

~ Norma

PS. This post was written {mostly} in jest, just because I can.

Scrappy Giveaway Time

{Giveaway now closed 1:20pm EST 11/15}

I decided to jump on the giveaway bandwagon that is so contagious :)

One of the first blogs I started to follow was Jodi's blog (before it was Pleasant Home.) Well she had a brilliant idea to host a scrappy quilt along... Yeah, like I need another UFO but hey, life's too short to not have UFO's! So head on over to Jodi's if you want to join in the Scrap Along goodness:





Leave me a comment on this post. Make it interesting for my benefit :) Tell me what your favorite Thanksgiving dish is. Is it the deep fried turkey? The pecan pie? The stuffing? Do tell and you will be entered to win an a large envelope or box (depends on which I have at home!) stuffed with scraps from my scrappy stash! Sorry but this one is for Continental US residents only. I'll pick a winner 11/15 sometime noon-ish

oooh what do you see?

I keep my scraps in 8 different canvas bins ($2 on clearance at Walmart) sorted by "like colors." Just earlier today I ran off to Target to buy one of these cube organizers. I asked Mr. PD to build me one of these and he thought the cost would be about the same soooo... since I wanted it NOW! I ran off to Target with his blessing! :)

...and since you're here make sure you go and check out my other blog:




for all things Quilty Giveaway-ish. Don't forget to click the "follow" button over there!

~ Norma

Inspiration

If you want to see lots of quilty inspiration goodness then head on over to my post on my LQG (local quilt guild) blog. You'll see lots of amazing work over there like this:

I can't stress enough what fun it is to join your LQG, if you haven't visited yet go this month! You can go to this website and see a directory of Guilds (worldwide.)

~ Norma

Blogger's Quilt Festival 2010

Welcome all Festival Attendees!

I'm thrilled that you have taken a minute to visit my little blog. I'm Norma and I love to quilt, sew, cook, take pictures, exercise and blog. Right now I'm running 3 blogs! This one, my Quilt Guild blog, and the new Quilty Giveaways blog. Throw a husband, 2 kids and 2 dogs into the mix and I stay pretty busy. Somehow I manage to squeeze in a few quilts here and there. Grab a cup of hot cocoa and stay a while!

This year has seemed pretty busy and so my completed quilts have all been on a much smaller scale. I have plenty of large quilts in several stages of completion, but my finishes have all been small quilts for swaps. I'm glad I've found online flickr swaps, particularly the Doll Quilt Swap, because these small projects give me a sense of accomplishment.

Here is my favorite quilt of the year:

"Garden in Paradise"

Size: 19"x19"

Style: Trapunto Whole Cloth Quilt

Colors: Golden Yellow, Teal, Yellow Green

Fabrics: Kona Cotton, and Flutterby (binding)

Now before you ask, I'll answer a few questions.


- I have a tutorial on color tinting fabric here.
- This particular design is by Irena Bluhm, but I discovered color tinting before I knew who she was.
- The process pretty much goes like this: 1) Transfer design to quilt top. 2) Do a faux trapunto (somehow I managed to do more work than I had to for this step.)  3) Quilt completely. 4) Soak quilt top and let dry. 5) Add color. 6) Bind and add label.

Here are a few more pictures for you:

Thanks for stopping by!

~ Norma

Click on over to Amy's for more Festival Fun.

What's for dinner? Kabobs

It's been a while since I have done of these posts and I actually have several pictures that I never blogged about so if you've been in a dinner slump try some of these super yummy kabobs. I'll let you in on a little secret, I made these on my George Foreman Grill. I love my George, if I could marry it I would, but I'm already taken. Those grill marks would fool anyone!

You can find the recipe here. I added some pineapple to my bobs because nothing says kabobs like pineapple. I also added some onion because I love grilled onion.

... and just because I love fresh veggies, and because I'm sick right now and I don't feel like cooking, I'll just drool over a healthy meal I cooked a few months ago!

~ Norma

MTQB August and September

I finally finished up my September blocks, only a month late. I really don't know what has happened to my time lately. Well here are September's blocks, a modern take on the churn dash block. (Instructions here)

I also realized I never posted pictures of my August MTQB blocks, a Quatrefoil block. (Instructions here)

I'm loving those Luna moths, especially after seeing a real live Luna moth on my rafting trip back in August.

~ Norma

These are for the Modern Tradition Quilt Bee group (Flickr)

Georgia Quilt Show

A week and a half ago I was lucky enough to impose myself upon my BFF from high school. I had a super fun time catching up with my long time friend of 18 years. My lucky friend happens to live in Atlanta, a mere 1.5 hours from me. We ate {I stuffed myself}, we shopped, and we hit the Georgia Quilt Show where we saw some amazing quilts:

 

These were just a few of my favorites. Other highlights included the vendor mall. I may have gone a little crazy since I've been deprived of quilt quality stuff since our LQS closed it's doors last April. I got to meet the infamous Scissors Man, who in real life is quite charming and I think looks like Anderson Cooper {I"m not the only one who thinks so.} He talked me into these scissors for cutting out applique and for cutting away batting for trapunto. In fact he rounded out the edge for me on the spot so it would be less pointy. Hopefully this will minimize the chances of me poking or cutting the quilt top during trapunto!

I also picked up the Sew Line ceramic pencil with regular and yellow lead. Now that I think about it I should just have bought the refills and found my own .9 mm pencil to use with them. The lady that sold these to me said there is nothing special about the erasers on these things.

I finally got my hands on these:

I've already popped them in and they work just like they're supposed to. I feel like the "drag" that I used to feel is gone when I'm free motion quilting especially when I would change directions. I wanted to order these for a long time but the $3-$4 shipping charge kept holding me back, especially when these could ship for a regular stamp.

I found this Recess fabric bundle for $30. Those are 1yd cuts!

Oh, and I bought some tea towels to have on hand as easy gifts.

The one item that I really wanted was bought out right from under my nose. But that's ok because I found it online for $12

Have you gone to any shows lately? Are you lucky enough to go to Houston? I'm so excited because my in laws have just moved to Houston and I have already warned them that I will be visiting next year!

~ Norma

One {Wo}Man's Trash...

I spent the better part of 2 mornings this week raking up pine straw off my lawn. Now if you don't live in the south then you are not familiar with the natural phenomenon of pine straw. You see the south has really tall skinny pine trees. No, not at all like the pretty pines of the west, you know the real pretty fluffy ones that look like Christmas trees. No ours look like scraggly toothpicks. Well once autumn rolls around they drop their needles like crazy! They fall already dried out and brown and this my friends is what we southerners refer to as "pine straw."

this pile was at least 25 feet in length and 2.5 feet tall, and that's only form 2/3 of my front lawn

Like I said I spent the better part of two mornings raking it all up into piles, then loading those piles into the wheel barrow and dumping it at the curb. That's what you do in my neck of the woods, you pile your yard debris and large trash items on your front lawn. I've been known to pull over and grab rescue picture frames, chairs, etc. from the curb. Eventually, about once a week, a big dump truck will drive by and take it all away to the dump. Don't worry this is all in addition to regular trash pick up day. We're not barbarians down here, we do have trash cans!

Some "crazy" people, like me {probably all transplants/non-natives} can't stand the sight of pine straw. Then there are other "crazy" people {everyone but me! LOL} who pay for this stuff by the bale {just like straw} and use it in their landscaping just like mulch.

Yesterday I came home to find a nice man raking up all my pine straw into the back of his pick up truck. "I hope you don't mind," he yelled at me as I got out of the car. I told him that I didn't mind, but in my head I was thinking "why in the world would I mind? But I would mind it a whole lot less if you would come and do the raking next time!"

~ Norma

Heather Ross Winner - take 2

Can you believe it? The first winner did not come forth and claim her prize. That means it's time for a second drawing! Who could the lucky person be?

Tong!

tong said...

wow, that's a lot of milestones to celebrate! i love autumn, mostly for the beautiful colours the season brings. my friend and i just drove out into the country side last week and see the leaves. thanks for the giveaway!

You really need to go check out Tong's blog and see the amazing Zelda quilt she's working on!

~ Norma

I've turned into...

The other day I realized I had turned into...

a soccer mom. Next thing you know I'll be driving a swagger wagon. {where my kids at?}

This would explain my lack of posts in the last few weeks. Between games, practices, and other commitments I've been pretty busy. It's been fun to see both of my children progress over time. Sadly it will all be over this Saturday. I really have enjoyed watching the games, snacking on the picnic blanket, cheering, giving pep talks and yelling {encouragement, give me some credit, I'm not one of "those" parents!} I can't wait for spring soccer!

Are your kiddos into sports? How do you manage your schedule and get it all accomplished, especially the homework?

~Norma

Heather Ross Winner

 

 Lucky #84 (mchambers) who said:

Anonymous said...

I LOVE those little fish! :)

I will contact the winner by email but if I don't hear back I will draw a second winner. Thank you for playing along! 

Stay tuned because there just might be another giveaway next week!

~Norma

Awesome New Site

I've been absent here because I have been working hard the last 2 weeks to bring you an awesome new site.

... of course I'm going to say it's awesome, I created it!

Go check out my new Quilty Giveaways site. You won't regret it! While you're there make sure you follow or bookmark the site because you'll want to visit often. Grab a button and help us grow to be the best directory of free quilt stuff on the web.

The site is almost 2 weeks old so feedback, suggestions, etc would be highly appreciated.

~Norma

Etsy Love Wednesday

Click on the picture to see these items

I love avocados! I could eat them plain.

~Norma

Fabric Artichoke Pinecone Thingy

I promised I would show you what to make with all those little 2.5" squares and I'm making good on that promise even if I have to go to bed at midnight! I forgot I was going to be mighty busy today and just now (8:36 pm) have a moment to sit and write.

I'm going to teach you how to make this lovely fabric decorator ball that can double as an artichoke or pine cone depending on how you look at it.

A bunch of these in a bowl or large vase will give you a beautiful home decor piece. Plus you can make them in all sorts of colors depending on the season/occasion/holiday and add a punch of texture to your decor.

You will need:
- a styrofoam ball (I used a green 3" floral ball, they're cheaper than the white styrofoam)
- flat head pins
- 48 2.5" fabric squares in your choice of color (you can use more if you like)
- a thimble is very handy for pushing in those pins

 

I'm going to start by showing you 3 different ways to fold your fabric. Take your pick as to which you want to use.  Feel free to experiment with each method to see which ball you like better. Making one of each will add variety to your bowl/vase but will still feel coherent because they are similar but different.

These are the 3 ways you can fold your fabric:

(I used method B)

Method A:

 

1) Lay your fabric square right side down.  2) Fold corner "1" over to corner "3."  3) Fold corner "2" over to corner "4"

 Method B:

1) Lay your fabric square right side down.  2) Fold side "2" down to side "1."  3) Fold side "a" over to side "b."

Method 3:

 1)  Lay your fabric square right side down.  2) Fold side "1" down to side "2."  3) Fold corner "a" down to the half way point.  4) Fold corner "b" down to the half way point to meet corner "a."

How to Make the Ball:

1) Start by placing one fabric square on the top of the ball. Place a pin at each corner.

2) Place another fabric square directly opposite the first square on the bottom of the ball. This will be the bottom of the ball. (Note: this second square is not in any of my pictures because I did it after the fact.)

3) Take one of your folded fabric pieces and pin it to the ball towards the top of the ball. Pin it on the left hand corner only. You want to make sure you have the folded edges towards the top and not the cut edges. The cut edges will be covered by subsequent layers. (Note: I fold as I go as I did not want to have to iron these ahead of time, I just finger press)

 

4) Now take your next folded piece of fabric and pin it to the folded piece of fabric you just pinned down. This time place the pin so that you tack down the unpinned right hand corner of your first fabric while at the same time (with the same pin) pinning down the left hand corner of your current piece of fabric. Clear as mud? Continue on in this manner until you form a ring of fabric all the way around the ball.

It doesn't really matter how many pieces of fabric you use. I used 7 in the picture to go all the way around.

5) Start the next row in the same manner but a little bit lower on the ball. This time stagger the "points" of your folded fabrics so that there is a "point" in between each of the points from the previous row. Continue adding folded fabrics until you finish the row.

 

6) Continue on adding rows until you get close to the bottom of the ball. I ended up making 6 rows. Once you reach the bottom of the ball you can use any remaining squares to cover up any gaps as best you can.

 

If any of your pieces are being unruly and sticking up all over the place you can tuck a pin into the folds to help keep them in place. Like so:

and Voila!

 Have fun making these. You can even string em up and hang them on your Christmas tree this year.

~Norma

PS if you make any of these I'd love to see them. You can add them to the Petit Design Co. Flickr pool