a long time coming.

ever have a stack of WiPs that haunt you every time you step foot into your sewing area? well i do! many of them are from before i even started blogging. they are stacked nicely in one corner, in their own little labeled Rubbermaid container. all at various different stages -- some are just stacks of fabric with a pattern, some have been cut out, some are smack dab in the middle of piecing, and some, well some are so close to a finish it's almost embarrassing that they remain WiPs for years.

exhibit A: this christmas quilt. i finished this entire quilt top while i was in HS working at my LQS. i've been out of HS for almost six years. SIX YEARS! that means it's just been sitting there, all ready to be quilted for far too long! but it did make for a fun and easy finish right before the holidays and it meant i was able to snuggle up under a christmas quilt on christmas.

it actually surprises me that after 6 years i still LOVE this fabric line! it's one of sandy gervais fabric lines and i can't seem to remember the name//find a salvage with the name on it. trust me, it's an oldie. as for the quilt design, i remember the pattern called for one layer cake and one jelly roll, beyond that i can't for the life of me think of what it's called. but hey, it was six years ago.

i quilted it using a wavy organic quilting, totally my go-to these days. it's fast + it looks great! but my favorite part about this quilt is most definitely the binding. this yellow stripe binding just makes the whole quilt for me. swoon!

oh, did i mention this quilt is BIG?!? coming in at around 70" x 90", this is the biggest quilt i have ever quilted on my personal machine. which is a great way to end the year, especially considering i would avoid (at all costs!) quilting my own quilts at the beginning of the year. 

quilty stats

name: the christmas quilt [a long time coming]

size: 70" x 90"

designed by: can't seem to find the pattern, i'll get back to you. :) 

quilted by: me, using wavy organic quilting

and that, my friends, is the final quilty finish of 2011. i'll see you all back here in 2012! have a happy and safe new years!

xo, megan. 

color!

my little sister, L., just wrapped up her first semester of college! eeepp! talk about hard to swallow. at 18 years old, she has a world of opportunities ahead of her and i couldn't be more proud. she has a good head on her shoulders, a great work ethic, and a wonderful personality  -- i like to think she takes after her big sister. :) any who, she asked for new sheets for her dorm room (talk about practical!) and of course santa's wife (aka our mom) couldn't say no. but there was this little issue. for whatever crazy reason, dorm mattresses aren't your typical TWIN size, they are just a tad bit longer (TWIN XL). finding sheets that fit that "XL" requirement is a bit tricky. especially in small town iowa. so mrs. claus did her best and found a nice set of white jersey extra long sheets. 

now, i should mention L. likes to go against the grain a bit. like, she loves socks! all sorts of crazy, colorful socks. but she never matches her socks -- i'm talking neon green with brown, spongebob with a hand knitted sock. it really is sort of fun! as you can imagine, white bed sheets is less than stellar when you like to stand out a bit. the solution, tie dye! 

we (mom + dad + L. + me) were completely blown out of the water with how AWESOME these sheets turned out. i'm no tie dying professional, but these look pretty cool if you ask me. :) 

i'll be back tomorrow with the final quilty finish of 2011!

xo, megan. 

sewing 2011.

phew! it's hard to believe that in just a few days 2011 will be over. and as i start to look back on the year, i realize it's really been a great one! there's lots to be thankful for -- sewing + blogging and otherwise. i've met lots and lots of new people, become more active in the online sewing community, and learned lots of great new things.  so here's a little look at what i've accomplished in 2011.

quilts. 2011. 

other sewing. 2011. 

lots and lots of sewing.
i've been a busy little bee when it comes to sewing, and even more so lately. there's been mini quilts + lap quilts + pouches! + bags (that weekender!). you can find all of my creations + links here! i can't wait to get started on projects for 2012!

set up shop!
i officially set up the canoe ridge creations shop! which has been a goal of mine for a while now. so far there's only one listing -- custom city/state mini quilt -- but i'll be adding more in 2012!

{sew} beautiful bee.
i'm so thankful to have been a part of this wonderful group of ladies. we've really come to feel like a little sewing family, from all different parts of the US. and the icing on the cake was when most of us were able to actually met in person, face-to-face, in SLC for sewing summit! talk about an exciting experience!  here's to 2012 ladies! :)

sewing summit.
way back in may (i think!) i came across a blog post advertising that sewing summit was looking for a social media and blog assistant. i was super interested in the idea and chatted with the family/BF about the idea. and from what i can remember, their reactions were a little less enthusiastic than mine. in all reality, i think they may have underestimated my abilities -- it's ok, i forgive them. :) so one sunday afternoon, i filled out the application and sent it on its way. and then i waited, impatiently. i was constantly checking my email + ss twitter + anything that could possibly give me an indication on whether or not a decision had been made. and then there was something in my inbox from erin. i still remember, the first line or two read something like this, "thank you for your interest in our position. unfortunately, we are sad to inform you that you will have clear your schedule to come to SLC in october." as you can imagine, that wasn't the direction i was expecting the e-mail to go. :) over the past year i have meet some really, really great people  because of my involvement in sewing summit. in fact had it not been for sewing summit, our little midwest sewing posse (vanessa + deedee + jeni + me) wouldn't have ever had the opportunity to meet. i'm SO looking forward to sewing summit 2012!

{sew} modern monday. 
with only a few exceptions, smm has ran without interruption for most of 2011. and that's all thanks to YOU! without your participation + inspiration it just wouldn't be possible! i look forward to continuing it in 2012!

for the love of solids swap.
somewhere at the beginning of the summer i dreamt up this crazy idea that i wanted to be a swap mama for a new flickr swap dedicated to solid fabrics! i quickly realized i couldn't manage it on my own, so i asked elizabeth if she would be interested in joining in on all of the fun, because after all two is better than one. much to my surprise, she said yes! we will be starting our second round of the for the love of solids swap soon (sign-ups Jan. 1!).


countless other flickr swaps.
i've participated in lots of flickr swaps this past year and have met some pretty cool people along the way. not to mention the fact i've scored some awesome swappy packages! that being said, i think i'm going to slow down a bit on these in 2012. on flickr swaps that is. i would really like to do some more private//one-on-one swaps this next year. anyone up for the challenge?


looking back, 2011 really has been a productive + fun year! and i can't wait to see what 2012 has in store for me! :) thank you all for coming along on this journey with me!


xo, megan. 

life happens.

sometimes things just click. the puzzle pieces fit together and everything feels just right. and for the first time in 4 years, i feel like i'm there. i've reached a point when i am happy just letting things happen. no more rushing and rushing to get things done. no more searching to find my place in life. and i couldn't be happier. 

it's so easy to get wrapped up in things -- technology, goals, media, etc. -- and lose focus of what's important. i mean really, really important -- the moment, here and now. at 24 years old, i daydream (alot!) about the future: this blog, marriage, family, career. and sometimes i get caught up in making my dreams a reality instead of really appreciating when i am at. right now. in this moment. 

i am blessed to have friends, family, a wonderful online community, opportunities around every corner, and a best friend who i look forward to spending many, many years with. <3.

i am enjoying life. 
and what ever twist or turn it throws at me.
knowing there is someone bigger and better than anything i could ever imagine, in control of it all.
because after all, life happens. 

xo, megan.

a good read.

a few weeks ago, i was chatting with my friend vanessa christenson and we got to talking about good books. after reading crossed by allyson condie together (and loving it!) i was desperate for another great read. without hesitation, vanessa suggested the hunger games series by suzanne collins. have you heard of it? if not, it is most definitely a MUST read. it's one of those, can't put it down to eat, sleep, or fold a load of laundry kind of books. you will be hooked in seconds, guaranteed. go check it out!

now i'm in need of another good read, any suggestions?

xo, megan.

a handmade christmas. 2011.

just like oyster stew on christmas eve, handmade gifts have been a family tradition for as long as i can remember. 
sewing. quilting. knitting. woodworking. beer making. baking. canning. you name it. here's a bit of what was gifted this year!

lined drawstring bag. 
made by me. using Jeni's tutorial, i made this lined drawstring bag for my sister and it's the perfect size for a knitting bag. love those little hedgehogs! :) 

more honey cowls.
made by me. i am capital "H." Hooked. on these honey cowls. this time i made two of the short ones and i secretly love them more than my original honey cowls. 

wallet. 
believe it or not, this handmade wallet was made by my dad. shocker, right?! living in a house full of women and constantly being surrounded by crafty goodness, my dad has been around the sewing block a few times. he knows sewing machines, terminology, fabric...although i'm fairly certain he would hesitate to admit it. every once in a while he will ask to get his hands dirty and help sew something. exhibit A: my new wallet. nice work, dad! :) love it!

crochet hat. 
made by my mom. i can't wait to wear this new crocheted hat this winter. it's the perfect size and toasty warm!

story people print. 
made by a local artist, brian andreas. gifted to me from brandon. this is by far my favorite gift. it's called "mr. right" and reads "he loved her for almost everything she was & she decided that was enough to let him stay for a very long time." little did he know, it's always been my favorite brian andreas print. <3.


all in all, it was a wonderful christmas. tons of family time and lots of laughing. i hope you all had a wonderful holiday, too!


xo, megan. 

<<ETA: linking up here!>>

happy holidays. the after the fact edition.

phew! the holiday whirl wind has almost come to stand still. with 3 christmas get togethers this weekend and 1 more tonight, i am officially ready to get back to "normal". or at least the crazy chaos i call normal. i love the quality family time, but sometimes i just reach a point where i need a schedule-- the staying up until 2 am and then sleeping in thing is not working for me. it's like i'm back in college, without the fun stuff. :) you know what i mean. 

any who, i hope you all had a wonderful holiday weekend! i'll be back soon to share my handmade gifts and a new christmas quilt i finished up late last week!


xo, megan. 

blogger's choice fabric bundle competition.

i'm super excited to have been asked to be a judge for a fabulous fabric bundle competition hosted by Laura at QuokkaQuilts and sponsored by Fat Quarter Shop. all the details are below! good luck!

xo, megan.

It's finally here! A very, very exciting competition dreamed up by Laura at QuokkaQuilts. 

If you have looked through the Fat Quarter Shop's FQ bundles section, you will surely have noticed the 'Blogger's Choice Bundles'.  Who wouldn't want to have their very own bundle listed in the FQS? 

Now you have the opportunity to choose and potentially WIN not your own Fat Quarter bundle of fabric, but a WHOLE HALF YARD of 15 fabrics of your choice - 12 prints and 3 solids, courtesy of the wonderful Kimberly at the Fat Quarter Shop. 

What you need to do:

1. Go to The Fat Quarter Shop website and choose 12 coordinating prints and 3 solids from their selection.  
2. Either a) create a blog entry about your set of fabrics;  or b) if you don't have a blog, upload them somewhere they can be seen in one link - eg flickr, picasa, etc. You must include pictures of your fabrics. You can 'borrow' these from the FQS site. It would be very helpful to the judges if you could do a photo collage of your various prints. Instructions below if you don't know how - new IT skills are always useful! 
3. Go to QuokkaQuilts and link in your entry by 15 January. Please link your photo collage as the thumbnail if you can! Laura is going to post hers in the next few days.

Now Laura says she is easily corruptible and open to bribery, so she had to find some independent judges, these being the following wonderful bloggers:

• Sunni from Love Affair With My Brother 
• Megan from Canoe Ridge Creations
• Cara from Cara Quilts
• Heather and Megan (two Megans are better than one) from Quilt Story

Each of these lovely ladies is going to choose ONE entry as their favourite. Then Amy of Amy's Creative Side is going to be grand high judge and choose the best final entry from the five finalists. She is well qualified as there is going to be an "Amy's Choice" bundle featured in the FQS in the new year.  

So get browsing and share your inspiration for coordinating fabrics into a quilt with us! 

The linky party will close on January 15. 

How to make a photo collage

• Picasa is one of the best free downloadable applications for working with photos. One useful tool is the collage tool. You can choose your photos and arrange and rearrange them into a collage. 
• Mosaic maker is a free online tool. You have to have your photos uploaded somewhere first (eg flickr) for it to generate the mosaic for you. 

the final countdown.

ready or not, christmas is fast approaching! eeekk! it's crazy how fast this holiday season really has crept up on me. sure i've been sewing (lots!) and the decorations have been up for a while. but this crazy iowa weather is totally throwing me off my game! just last weekend it was sunny, in the 50s, and i spent the afternoon outside washing windows. completely unheard of this time of year!

but i keep on truckin'. today i wrapped up 3 commissioned kindle covers. luckily the buyer lives just a hop, skip, and jump away from my house so i will be hand delivering these tomorrow morning. love them! 

oh, also. as i've shared before, i am the social media and blog assistant for sewing summit! we are collecting and sharing some great last minute sewing tutorials on our facebook page and twitter so be sure to check them out! if you have a tutorial you would like us to share, leave a comment on our facebook page. i'll be posting tutes right up until the holiday weekend, which is seriously making my "to-sew" list grow by the minute. there are so many great ideas!

four days!

xo, megan.

hometown love.

last week, i was in dire need of some sort of creative distraction from my holiday sewing obligations. you know, it was one of those "grass is always greener on the other side" type of situations. starting a new project seemed so much more fun than finishing up christmas gifts. so i designed this little city/state embroidery motif using kona snow as the background. super simple, super me. 

and yesterday it became a fun little mini quilt!using a kona cotton and coordinating designer cottons, i improv pieced a little border and set the block in my new favorite fabric--essex! right now i am totally drawn to neutral quilts with lots of negative space for the eye to rest. love, love, love! i went back and forth trying to decide what sort of quilting pattern would work best with this mini quilt -- meander, straight-line, etc. in the end, i settled on a simple straight-line design. the BF so nicely pointed out the quilting looks like a corn field and we have lots of those in iowa!

this is by far one of my favorite quilting finishes to date. i think it's the combination of a simple design and neutral color scheme that my overall style seems to be drawn to lately. plus, it was so fun to dabble in a bit of hand embroidery!

quilty stats

name: custom iowa mini quilt.

finished size: approx. 16" x 17"

designed by: me, custom orders available here!

quilted by: me

xo, megan

i heart handmade.

growing up in a crafty and creative family, having a handmade christmas is pretty much the norm. we sew quilts. knit up pretty things. bake yummy goodies. one year we even brewed our own beer (yummy!). and through the years, i truly believe it has made us appreciate the holiday season a whole lot more. understanding the hard work and thought that goes into a handmade gift is so much more valuable than a whole sled full of material things. i just love handmade. 

so when i found this fun little handmade bow tutorial using magazine pages i had to get my hands dirty in crafty goodness. it's the perfect icing on a handmade gift--or any gift for that matter. rather than use the magazine pages like the tutorial suggests, i just used a couple pages from an old newspaper. i love the look of the newspaper text ribbons!

do you love handmade? what types of handmade gifts will you be giving this holiday season?
xo, megan

winner, winner!

thanks to everyone who entered in my sew, mama, sew! giveaway! 

there were over 836 entries to win those yummy Joel Dewberry herringbone fabrics. 

wow, you all really like that fabric! 

the winner is...

number 261! 

congrats to Kylie!

and a special thanks to all of you who started following 

my blog, i think you will like it here. 

:)

now i have to get back to crafting.

be back next week with more details!

xo, megan

elf on the shelf + iowa.

elf on the shelf. ever heard of it? if you haven't, you can read about the tradition here! after seeing erin and john's daily pictures on instagram, i had to have one. never mind the fact i don't have any kids -- minor detail. they are sold in major retailers, you know the kind we don't have here in small town iowa. so image my surprise when i found some in my small town (population 6000!) at a hallmark! i literally squealed in excitement! but at 24 years old with no small children, you might be wondering what i could possibly do with a little elf. besides the fact i find him super cute, i think i might have to take some festive pg-13 elf pictures like these and these and these. there's nothing that says "christmas cheer" like a little elf shenanigans, right? :) 

oh, and speaking of small town iowa. the other night i was in need of a little holiday sewing distraction, and hand embroidery was the answer. i think it's destined to be a little mini quilt.

are you ready for the big day? just a little over a week away! eeeeppp!

xo, megan.

stitch story | we love french knots

who is that adorable little girl x-stitchin'?

that's me at age five!

:)

head on over to we love french knots to

see my stitch story.

xo, megan

giveaway day!

<<this giveaway is now CLOSED -- winner announced here.>>


it's sew, mama, sew! giveaway day!

which is one of my favorite things

about the online sewing community.

i love finding new blogs and entering to

win some great prizes along the way!

so, welcome to all of you sew, mama, sew! readers

and thanks for stopping by the 

Canoe Ridge Creations blog! 

if you like modern sewing, then you are in luck!

feel free to check out my modern sewing creations

and the fun new quilt along i'm co-hosting

starting next month!

here's what's up for grabs!

5 FQs of Joel Dewberry's 

Modern Meadow Herringbone! 

to enter, leave a comment telling me 

what color of thread is currently on your sewing machine.

<<international entries welcome>>

the giveaway will be open until December 16 at 7 pm CST

at which time a winner will be randomly drawn and announced!

good luck will all of the wonderful

sew, mama, sew! giveaways!

xo, megan.

announcing | sparkle quilt along.

i am SUPER excited to announce that i will be co-hosting a quilt along starting next month! jeni from in color order and i are pairing up to bring you the sparkle quilt along and we hope you will join us! this simple, modern quilt design is perfect for all sewing levels, beginner to advanced! over the course of six weeks we will be sharing instructions for four different quilt sizes (mini, baby, lap, & twin) to fit your lifestyle! 

sparkle quilt along schedule!

January 12 -- week one: choosing fabrics.

January 19 -- week two: cutting.

January 26 -- week three: assembling the blocks.

February 2 -- week four: putting the top together.

February 9 -- week five: finishing up.

February 16 -- week six: linky party.

here's my sparkle mini quilt!

quilty stats

name: sparkle mini quilt

size: 28.5" x 28.5"

designed: by me, for the sparkle quilt along

quilted: by me

so enjoy the holiday season and time with your friends & family and join us for the sparkle quilt along starting January 12th! in the mean time, feel free to join the flickr group and grab a button!

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/groups/1848868@N23/"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6yPBwHIdWtli9nM8p54OPXt_c5bYdUd151HtOeFn5zrpoXPPuobv_f53ud_7VRbGRJFDsCS2L21z_pvdloqdQsSbFQ9BxlIr9K67b4tYCaBdBJt60dbkNwOBQ0CO1mUhXuF0nAj5Z0EmT/s1600/SPARKLE150.jpg"></a>

xo, megan.

<<linking up to Sew & Tell Friday!>>