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Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Marching Along

I guess I shouldn't complain about the weather, especially since I love rain. It's just hard to get good pictures. I've been sewing up a storm, but it's been so overcast, it's not worth taking pictures. Today we're under a tornado watch. I did this little tree mini from Joanna's tree tutorial. Loved using some Kaffe Fassett fat quarters I've been hoarding saving.


Yepper, it's officially snake season around these parts. Skinny girl donned her boots to try and let Mr. Snake out, but she chickened out. I had to wait until college boy got home to let him out. By then the snake was madder than, well...a snake! Poor guy. He narrowly escaped the hedge clippers over the weekend. How come he can figure a way to get in the pool enclosure, but can't figure out a way to get out? Needless to say, I was especially attentive while grilling out there last night. Did I mention I really hate snakes?

Sunday, March 27, 2011

Red & White Quilt Show



Feast your eyes on these beauties.

Friday, March 25, 2011

A Little Bit of This, A Little Bit of That

I forgot all about Sarah and Molly's Free Piecing Study. March has two blocks; an adorable wonky girl and a wonky star. My wonky girl is a little seasick. I'll work on some stars next.

 
My Dad has been bragging about his "Puddin' Pies." I think he has a major crush on Paula Deen. He's on about his fourth pie. Paula's pie is actually a buttermilk pie and has no crust. No pudding at all. I searched around and found this recipe that claims to be a better version. Any chef named "Crescent Dragonwagon" deserves to have the best pie recipe. And to be fair, Paula got her recipe from Olivia and Chef Dragonwagon credits Choo-Choo. I followed the Choo-Choo recipe and added fresh, sliced strawberries and blueberries. It was pretty good.

This gorgeous beauty came in the mail. The free motion quilting is spectacular! I love it!

Here's another cutie! Dotty, my selvage buddy and fellow quilt swapper makes me a mini for every season. Isn't that chocolate bunny the cutest? I love the 3-D selvage bow on the basket too. It's so fun to send and receive these little quilts.


Happy Friday! My "baby" turns 17 today. Sniff, sniff. She was born at 3:25 pm on 3/25. I planned it that way! ;) Time sure flies when you're having fun. I love my two "little ones" even though my 19-year-old son is 7 inches taller than me. The girl child is a petite little thing. No matter how old or tall they get, they'll always be my sweet babies. I have zillions of photos of my gorgeous girl, but not many scanned. New, digital age parents are so lucky! I found this one of her crying.

Obviously big brother decided a little Photoshop action was in order. I found this one too. What a goof. For punishment I should make him scan the 9,000 photos I've taken over the years.

Thursday, March 24, 2011

I Smell Trouble

Somebody ordered this evil subscription that feeds you zillions of movies and loads of inappropriate television. I guess college boy got tired of spending his hard earned on "hoes and blow." I wonder where he gets that warped sense of humor? I had no idea he was interested in gardening. He didn't get that from me.

This is what happens when you deprive your children of HBO. I miss the days when he would regale me with The Mary Tyler Moore Show sagas like it was new TV. Oh Nickelodeon, how you failed me.

Alrighty then, off to watch the first season of Weeds and have my daughter explain it to me. I can't believe both of my offspring are so interested in gardening. Uncanny, I tell you. I'll see you in two years or when the subscription expires. ;)

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Sewcializing




The Orlando Modern Quilt Guild held their first Sew-cial last night. There was a great turnout and I know everyone enjoyed seeing all the quilty projects. Members unveiled their projects from the Kaufman solids challenge and brought other examples of their work. As you can see, we have tons of talent in our group.

My challenge piece ran into a couple of quilting snags. I tried some wavy lines and then got brave with some free motion quilting. The stitches were irregular and downright tight. Not sure what was happening, but I spent a lovely morning in the sun "un-quilting" and then hummed the piece in the trash. Ha! Kidding.

I went with a spiral quilting inspired by this spectacular piece. I couldn't pull it off  like Alissa, but I can't tell you how thrilled I was when I saw her quilt and that light bulb went off. After my first attempt I wasn't sure what to do. And big chicken that I am, I did that spiral quilting with my trusty walking foot.

 I like this blurry shot a lot!
Now can I hum it in the trash? I'm kidding. It's growing on me and it's done!

Sunday, March 20, 2011

National Quilting Day and Sunday Stash #23

Our guild met for our monthly Sew Day on National Quilting Day. It's always fun to see what everyone is working on and spend an entire day sewing, eating, and chatting. My family forgot all about my gifts for this special holiday. I even had to make dinner!


I wanted a little basket to keep my Sew Day trash in. This gathered round basket tutorial by A Spoonful of Sugar was a little challenging for me, but it does the job.


Sale fabrics! To celebrate National Quilting Day, of course. Love those red and white pebbles by Michael Miller. I've never met a dot I didn't like.

I finally got this little mini string quilt bound. String quilts are always such fun to make. This one finished at 12.5" x 12.5". I think it will make a good hot pad for the kitchen table.


Twin Fibers was making adorable needle books/cases from this tutorial from a new-to-me blog Sew She Sews. I love finding new creative blogs. Saves me from laundry! ;) I hope you had time to goof off and/or create this weekend.

Thursday, March 17, 2011

Sláinte!

Happy St. Patrick's Day to everyone! Anyone planning corned beef and cabbage for dinner? Soda bread? Guinness chocolate cake? I'm doing the corned beef boil.

I made some of these mosaic block for our guild's monthly block. They measure 5" x 7" and are based on this super cool technique by Oh, Fransson!


Have you seen this adorable baby? Makes me laugh.

More mosaic playing. This one is going to be a tree top, I think.

I'll close with this Irish GPS blessing:

May you have the hindsight to know where you've been
the foresight to know where you're going
and the insight to know when you're going too far.

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner

It's me! I won something! Check out all these fun blocks made from stripes, plaids and polka dots! There are even cute little houses! And I won them!
V from Bumble Beans and 15 Minutes Play challenged us to make blocks using only stripes, plaids and dots. Isn't it great what everyone came up with? V regularly inspires us to play with fabric and take creative license anywhere and everywhere we can. I'm hoping to have some creative play with these blocks and make them into a quilt for V's Bumble Beans Basics quilt gather.

I finished my red and white mini quilt. It's headed to Maine. I want to go to Maine. I could handle a day or two on the ski slopes. I shot the quilt on a bush outside and I do believe there was a small snake under said bush. Might have been a lizard, but it sounded more like a snake. Yep, snake season has begun.

Same bush last year. Does Maine have snakes or do I need to move to Ireland?

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

My Culinary Inspiration

It sometimes surprises me how popular food has become in the last 20 years. My family has always had an interest in food and dining. Our idea of a good time was getting together with friends and family and preparing and eating food. From beef bourguignon at the neighbor's house and steamed blue crabs for my birthday to bushels of oysters kept cold in the snow to my grandmother's Easter cake, food has always been a fun part of my life. Now it seems everyone is talking about food. There are gazillions of cooking shows, competitions, festivals, and commentary.

Did I mention hot chefs? Check out that line up. Yummy.

This little guy's pretty cute too!



Giveaway alert! Jaybird Quilts is having a Treasures & Tidbits giveaway. This new collection by Piece O' Cake Designs is so bright and cheery. It won't be in the stores until July, but you can win some now. I'll keep my fingers crossed for you!

Monday, March 14, 2011

Those Bloggers Made Me Do It

After spending most of my sewing time un-sewing some awful quilting, I relaxed with a couple of fun projects. Beth got me thinking about these teeny stars. I've always loved Gwen Marston's liberated stars, but for some reason, I had a hard time getting the concept. Beth inspired me to get back on the horse. Some of the star points above illustrate my confusion. Leave it to me to make something rather simple more complicated.

The talented Joanna was working on a gorgeous quilt that featured a colorful bird in a tree. She has a fun tree tutorial so we can all get in on the action. I had a hunk o' linen laying about so I gave it a shot. For the polka dot leaves, I tried a new-to-me freezer paper applique technique that was pretty successful. I may have to try more applique which usually I shy away from.

I made a little needle book for a gal who sent me a great bag of selvages. Look at the flowers and leaves on the Moda fabrics. I think the fabric manufacturers are learning that some of us quilters like collecting and working with selvages.

Happy Monday everyone! I'm flax flaked up and ready to roll. I guess I'll go try to find that blueberry that rolled under my fridge. Probably going to involve some sort of cleaning. Crud. :(

Sunday, March 13, 2011

What a Mess.

My own quilting mess this weekend seems so insignificant compared to the mess and devastation in Japan. Such horrifying images and news. Hang in there Japan, we're thinking of you.

To donate to our friends, the American Red Cross has a donation site right here. Or to make it really easy, text REDCROSS to 90999. You'll receive a confirmation message and a $10 donation will appear on your phone bill. More ways to help here.

Thursday, March 10, 2011

It's Raining!

I whipped up some potholders using this tutorial from Sew Happy Geek. My walking foot was not very happy with all those layers. I did learn something about Insul-Bright batting from this tutorial. The shiny (reflective) side should face the hot pan. Makes total sense. And yes, it says so on the wrapper, but who reads all that fine print?

I made chicken pot pie last night. Now I know why it was hot. Look at all that black pepper! I'm hooked on Penzeys Spices and their black pepper is fresh and sturdy! To make it pot pie, I cut out heart-shaped biscuits and baked them right on top. I have at least three biscuit cutters, but I can never find them, so I used a cookie cutter. It was delicious and of course I forgot to take a picture before we dug in.

The challenge flimsy is finished! Yay! Kind of Gee's Bend-ey, huh? I love those quilts. Now the scary part, quilting. I need to figure out some backing fabric too. To the stash cave, Batman.

Look at this adorable house block someone sent me. Love the hand embroidered vine and the tree! There are some talented folks out there.

I still haven't tried my new knitting hobby, but Make It and Love It is having a knitting series from the talented Rebecca Danger, author of Knitted MonstersThe Cast On is up first, so I'm going to give it a try. And yep, it's raining today. Wash all that oak pollen away please. I'm dying here.

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

It Really is a Challenge.

I finally hacked into the Kona Solids charm pack our guild is using for a challenge. I had direction at one time, but decided to abandon that idea. At this point I had no idea where I was going. Just hacking and sewing. That's what we quilters do, right?

Well, I guess things are coming together. If I can get a little wonkier, I think I'll like this piece more.
Do I get points for using most of the charm pack? This is all that is leftover.

I'm really looking forward to see what my fellow guild members come up with! Rene' has a sneak peak of her creation right here. Kathryn used her new long arm toy on hers.

Look! Red got an accessory! I saw this on the Quiltville site. One of Bonnie's students used a Command hook to hang her snips for easy access. It's taking time to get used to my snips in this position, but it beats having them on my desk or dropping to the floor near my bare feet. Those babies are sharp and pointy!

I'm off to listen for sonic booms. Space shuttle Discovery returns from its final mission today. Even though I've reminded myself the booms are coming, I bet I still jump when they happen. BOOM! BOOM!
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