This week I was not nearly as productive as I usually am since being sick. Today I’m finally feeling like I have more energy, now hopefully my cough will go away quickly! Let’s get right to the good stuff! First up – a sale!

Craftsy is having a flash sale for two days only to celebrate 5 million members! If you are not a member already, head over there and check out the classes. There are also a lot that they offer for free – free quilting patterns, free sewing patterns, and free mini classes to get you started. I love Craftsy, I have purchased several classes and one of the best things is that you always have access to the classes, meaning you pay once and you will get to watch it over and over again.

I mentioned Sister Diane’s new English Paper Piecing shop last week, and this week she has a video of how to baste hexies up. This is if you are using squares instead of a hexie shaped piece of fabric. This is the same technique I used for my long time coming hexies because that fabric came from a charm pack. It’s so much faster to cut squares instead of hexagon shapes. And the hexagons that I used for that project called for 2.5″ squares so I was able to get four pieces from each five inch charm square. I love being able to share a video so I hope this gives you a tip or two!

[youtube]https://youtu.be/YPlow-L4Atk[/youtube]

Do you do bento lunches? Do you even know what that means? I admit when I first hear “bento” I had to google to see what it was! My kids are not allowed to take lunches to school here, but they were allowed when we lived in Washington and California. For a time I really tried to make cute lunches, especially because we were firmly in the rut of the same two or three sandwiches and the same three or four sides. The kids never complained though, and I don’t think they ever traded anyone either. But Wendy over at Wendolonia makes amazingly cool bento lunches for her kids, you just have to see. I did get some of the stuff you use for bentos – something we still use today are the lunchboxes and the egg molds. Egg molds are just too fun, we have the rabbit, bear, fish, and car.

Here’s to a healthy week! Have you found something you have to share? Oh, and the links will all open in new windows so you don’t lose what you are looking at here.

(Disclosure: The links above may be affiliate links, this means I may profit when you take action on my recommendations!)

My daughter is a big Dr Who fan. And I’m not even sure when it started. Her best friend lives in California and I think she watched it before turning my daughter onto the show. But now she is a huge fan. We went to the Dr Who store in London (which by the way – don’t do that – it was not fun at all – and who I assume is the owner is beyond rude), she watches the show, they text each other about the show, and so I figured they both need something – a tote bag, a wall hanging, something. When I went looking for patterns I found this Dr Who Along! How great is this. My daughter picked out probably half of the patterns as one she would like and I am still debating what to make.

I am finishing up my hexie sewing machine cover and I’m not even sure how I found this, but check out the modern hexie tutorial. This is just so cool, I love the spacing and this one is Christmas fabric! I love Christmas. I am thinking this is a must make and now.

Have you ever entered the Bloggers Quilt Festival? I entered I think last spring. I submitted this quilt above. I didn’t win, and I don’t know how many voted for me, but the entire thing is just so fun to see and participate in. I encourage you to enter a quilt!

I’m sure you are familiar with Sister Diane over at Crafty Pod – so have you seen her new English paper piecing Shop!

My super smart, beautiful daughter kindly shared her head cold with me earlier this week and so my days have been tiring. Thank goodness for smart phones and naps.

I did manage to get a lot of my sewing machine cover worked on. Sewing hexies can go quick, my biggest issue with this project is keeping the hexies laid out in the pattern I want them to be in. And I have had thread twisting up and knotting and sometimes it feels like it’s only me that happens to, but of course I’m not alone. Sister Diane has some tips if this happens to you a lot as well – knotted thread.

I am planning a few quilts right now and am interested in using the Electric Quilt 7 program for these. Really I am interested in recoloring quilt blocks and this seems like a very easy way to do so. I found this tutorial that will help with that.

And this post goes along with that tutorial, in that this post talks about how to match colors to solid fabrics, in this case the Kona solids. the library that is attached to the tutorial is only the solids to July 2012, so it is old and I am looking for the newer ones now. I imported the Kona colors and recolored one quilt already! I am excited to see how well this works for me.

That’s it for this week, enjoy the rest of the weekend!

I don’t remember when I found A Lady In France but I love reading her blog. I know I do a bad job at talking about our life here, and if you are interested in that, I am sorry. She has posted her third video and this one shares tips for dining in France. I am happy to realize I know all of these things! I hope you enjoy. I am working on a new format for the blog and look forward to sharing more about our life here.

I admit that my favorite way to finish a pillow is to do the envelope method, but it’s probably time I learned to like zippers. Well, zippers on pillows anyway. There are a few ways of doing zippers, the most popular seems to be on a seam, but I like this method that puts the zipper in the middle of the back (maybe not the exact middle, but not on a seam either). And the plus is that it stays hidden with a fabric flap.

This is crazy awesome – see if you can help someone or if you have something you would like help with and submit if you do.