Time Flies When You're Having Fun!

Cotton + Steel selvage birthday coaster.

Here's the back. I'm still fussy cutting this hilarious fabric. I think I'm about out of it, but I kind of hope I have a hunk stashed somewhere.

Our guild's BOM. The economy block, or square in a square. I got carried away and made four. They're pretty fun.

This is the charity quilt made for Quiltcon 2016. Our group consisted of seven ladies throughout the US. We communicated via email and came up with this traditional sampler quilt with an improv spin. I love how it turned out. It will be donated to a firefighter's organization. Our guild made a beautiful quilt as well, so I was able to participate in two of the charity quilts.

This little ditty is vacationing in Utah this month. Actually, it's getting quilted. I sent two others too.

 The backing came from my stash.

 Cool selvages.

Finally finished this hot pad at Sew Day yesterday.

And a quickie baby top using donated embroidery squares. We're making quilts for charity.

Found a cute way to use some hexies. I think I'll use mine for a coaster, but I might have to make some hot pads too!

Sunday Fun Day!

Finally found a way to hang my temporary design wall (aka flannel backed vinyl tablecloth). I've tried painter's tape, packaging tape, duct tape, and push pins. Seems that heavy cans of tomatoes and iron toy sewing machines are the best solution. Now I have no excuse not to vacuum my studio. I usually put my blocks on my design floor.

I attended World Quilt Florida right here in Orlando a few weeks ago. There were some interesting quilts and I had a little fun with the fabric vendors. I found some deals at the Pineapple Fabrics booth. Kaffe Fassett shot cottons and woven stripes on the left and a bundle of fun retro, novelty prints.

Charm squares!

Caught these in a sale.

I made a quilted planner cover for the quilting calendars our guild ordered. This is the outside. I fell in love with this retro comic book fabric. It's from Alexander Henry and called "Home Sewing is Easy." There's a second version, too.

Here's the inside. Skull and scissors crossbones and polka dots. Of course. The orange biz card holder is too small, but my cards fit in vertically.The polka dots are pockets.

Thats a zipper there! Easy peasy. I can cram all kinds of writing instruments in there.

Here's the planner installed. Now to schedule some sewing time!

I acquired a few books over the holidays.

Just look at that paella! We went to a paella party at Rene's house. Lots of fun company! Not only was the paella delicious, but th chef made appetizers and desserts to die for. We rolled ourselves out of their house! So fun and so good!

I have a Hungarian mushroom soup planned for lunch. It's so cold here. I'm changing up the recipe and adding in some celery, carrots, and the white wine I steeped the oyster mushrooms in. I'll use white mushrooms too. I'm in a cooking mood today, so no telling what gets made. 

Finished 20 Purse Strings blocks in pinks, yellows, and oranges. I wish I had made the 15" blocks, but I chose 12". I loved My Quilt Infatuation's color scheme, so I stuck with that. It's a fun and easy block and now I have 320 half square triangles from the trimmings. And yeah, I'm sewing those together. Scrappy, crazy, goodness.

On to more projects! And food! Have a great week!

It's Halloween!

And the last day of Blogtoberfest! Yay! Thanks to everyone for sticking with me if you did. Y'all are precious. I finished a table runner on Monday. I had made the top a while back but never had the nerve to quilt it. I didn't want to mess up those beautiful Kaffe prints! I ended up doing some waves with my walking foot. Easy.

The backside works for Halloween. Since I ate the pumpkin that was my only decoration, I had to find a ghost.

This spicy tomato soup was really good. I didn't put the honey in because I hate sweet tomato soup. I used a goat milk blue cheese in it. I could only handle a small ramekin for lunch because I filled up on cheese and crackers. I was also eating a taleggio cheese from Italy. Yummy.

I watched this film yesterday. What an odd movie. Loved all the 1950s stuff. Atomic era stuff is so cool. So was the music back then. I hope everyone has a fun Halloween. If you get any banana Laffy Taffys, send them my way.

Housekeeping

I found some sewing time this week and made another portfolio cover. You can find the awesome tutorial from The Cottage Home right here. I used a tacky plastic portfolio to make it sturdy. There are plenty of pockets to store other stuff.

My Fridge Food is a neat site where you check off what you have in your cupboards and fridge and it will come up with recipes for you to whip up. Nutritional information is also provided if you're into crazy stuff like that. I like to play Survivor Island here at home and put off the grocery store as long as I can. My fridge was so bare a couple of days ago that everyone was commenting on it. I finally broke down and shopped when I took poured a glass of rotten milk and took a big swig. I will never again make fun of people who smell food before they eat it.

Speaking of crazy stuff, The Krazy Coupon Lady is a great place to find deals on food, toiletries, and a myriad of other things. I'm hooked. I saved over $25 using manufacturer coupons on my last grocery run.

I forgot to post about the soup I made from the leftover crab. It has everything but the kitchen sink in it. Crab, onion, celery, carrot, red peppers, tomatoes, garbanzo beans, brown rice, coconut milk, crab and chicken broth. I thought it needed something else. Maybe curry. Or some other type of heat. Or lime. Sometimes those kitchen sink soups work, sometimes they need some work.

I was getting ready to toss/donate this hideous green homespun, but I decided to try my hand at garment sewing. No worries, clothing manufacturers, I am not cut out for sewing clothes. And considering the time and brain effort involved, I'd be better off shopping at Neiman Marcus or Sax.

Gary Larson is one of my favorite cartoonists. I was crushed when he retired The Far Side. I love his wacky sense of humor. I'm cleaning out files and ran across a folder of comics I clipped when I worked at the newspaper in the 1980s. Sheep dip, anyone?

I Love Me Some Kaffe!

I snatched up a couple of Kaffe Fassett jelly rolls during a sale in June and finally got one roll together in this simple quilt. I haven't sewed the rows together yet, but maybe I'll have time later today. Did you know Kaffe rhymes with safe? I didn't. His fabric designs are among my very favorites. The jewel tones are so rich and the modern designs always pull me in. The pattern is from this book: