Saturday Solids

I'm stuck on solids at the moment. Simple sewing that soothes my soul. Happy weekend!

Linking with Made by You Monday over at Skip To My Lou.

Sunday Stash #86

So much for the fabric diet. I was near my local quilt shop, so I thought I'd show some love. This little shop doesn't have a huge selection, but I still like to support them.

Funny cats and chalkboard art.

Peppers and tomatoes.

Snoopy and Woodstock.

Sewing themes.

This Riley Black Giraffe Crossings was on sale.

Picked this one up at Wally World during a trip the Inspector dragged me on. Our Walmart started carrying fabric again. Guess removing fabric from the stores a few years ago wasn't the greatest idea in a nearly four billion dollar industry. Doh! Most of the fabric isn't of the greatest quality, but this Waverly print was nice. And their notions are very reasonably priced.

I bought another Grabbit pincushion (affiliate link). I love these magnetic pin cushions. I have one beside my machine, but I use my cutting table to pin quilt rows before I sew them, and then I forget to bring the pin cushion back to the machine. It even comes with a slew of pins.

Sunday Stash #70

Uh oh. Someone got caught up in some Internet shopping. This is what I get working in front of a computer all day long. During my work breaks, I can only goof off on Faceplace or blogs so long. Then the online fabric shops start calling my name. Check out the fancy packaging from Form and Fabric. And always $2.99 flat shipping. You can't beat it!

It was these Kaffe Fassett shot cottons I really wanted. They're so pretty. I love how the color changes subtly throughout the woven fabrics. Shot cottons are made by using two different dyed colors of warp and weft yarns woven together to create a special depth, a “shot” of color.

And I just love these Japanese novelty prints. They get me every time, especially when they're on sale.

More adorable novelty prints. Those animal heads on the orange background are really cute.

Random fabrics that caught my eye.

Black and white prints are always fun. Especially if they have numbers or words on them.

It's a small stack, but I'm thrilled with it. What shall I make?

My guild buddy, Judy made me this adorable felt house pincushion. I put it near my Fisher Price girl with her sewing machine.

Mondo Mushroom Pincushion Giveaway

I had the awesome opportunity to test drive one of La Todera's new patterns. Julie creates the cutest patterns. They're all very unique and always colorful. Julie and I both have a thing for toadstools, so I was thrilled when she asked if I would like to test the Mondo Mushroom Pincushion. Mondo, indeed!

I took the pincushion outside to try for some beauty shots. Here it is on the rocks. This baby will hold lots and lots of pins. It measures approximately 7" across. Or how about using it for threaded embroidery needles? I'd like to practice my hand embroidery skills and having the needles pre-loaded with different colored threads would be convenient. 

I used some eyelet lace I had, but the pattern shows you how to make your own sassy ruffle. La Todera patterns include lots of photographs and step-by-step instruction. Even I can't mess them up. I got to fire up the glue gun for this one. Fun!

Julie has given me a Mondo Mushroom Pincushion pattern to give away. Just leave a comment below and I'll put you in the running. It's a fun pattern, I know you'll love it.

Cruising Pinterest again. Too bad it doesn't pay. These blackberry pie bars were really good. I used frozen blackberries, but fresh would be even better. Most of the fresh berries are still pricey around these parts, but you can always find them frozen.

I tried Hollandaise sauce for the first time last week. Sheltered life, right? How did I miss out? We were eating breakfast out and they served the English muffins and poached eggs on top of fresh spinach and avocado. Then they drizzled hollandaise sauce all over the dish. Oh my. After that delicious breakfast, I came home and obsessed thought about hollandaise all week. So yesterday's brunch I whipped up a batch. Uh oh, that stuff is really good. Now I want it on asparagus and artichokes. 

Log Cabin Baby is quilted, bound, washed and then tossed in the grass for a picture. I used a hunk of starry, starry night batik to back it. I think it will make a fun outdoor baby quilt and not show dirt. I've been doing machine binding on these baby quilts so they're more durable and can be washed a couple times a week.

Working Hard

So many fun distractions today. I saw this Squash Blossom block by Bloomin' Workshop this morning and couldn't get it out of my head. 51 pieces later I got her done. Now I want cheese stuffed squash blossoms. I've never had them, but they sound delicious.

Instead of decadent cheese and squash blossoms, I made soup for lunch. It's been chilly this week, plus I had homemade chicken broth I needed to use. I found the inspiration for this recipe in a magazine and gave it a try. Here's my version:

Kill the Limas* Soup

1 bag frozen succotash (nasty baby plastic green lima beans and corn)
1 bag frozen broccoli
spices (salt, pepper, cumin, chili powder, garlic and onion powders)
chicken or vegetable stock to cover veggies

Bring to a boil and then let simmer 15-20 minutes (kill those lima beans). Cool slightly and use an immersion blender or food processor to puree. Leave some chunks.

*I am not fond of frozen baby green lima beans. It's a texture thing. The taste is great, but the tough skin and mealy insides have never appealed to me.

My new Liberty Love book has a great pincushion pattern. Too bad I don't have many Liberty fabrics, but I do have lots of scraps. Lots and lots of scraps.

I need to find a home for this. I'm currently flush with pincushions. I may even be a pincushion hoarder collector. It's about six inches square and filled with poly-fil. If you'd like it, leave a comment below. I'll chose a random winner if it comes to that. ;)

The last of my Madrona Road fabrics. I organized my scraps early this morning and unearthed them. So I made a pouch. I guess I better get some real job work done. It's almost quitting time!

Sunday Stash #68

The SWAG (stuff/shit we all get) at QuiltCon was off the chain. We received tons of fabric, threads, batting samples, patterns, and much more. So happy someone in our group had the good sense to check an empty suitcase. This is Kathryn with the Form & Fabric portfolio that was in my SWAG bag. I traded her for a saltier version.

Yep, more me.

Free fabric! Who doesn't love free fabric?

I couldn't resist the Japanese imports from Bunny's Designs.

Or these adorable novelty print fat quarters.

This bundle might even have a purpose in quilt I'm working on. Or, I'll just pet it for a while and let it season on the shelves.

This is the pretty pincushion I received in the swap. It was beautifully handcrafted by the talented Angie from the Oklahoma Modern Quilt Guild. She blogs at Sewing with Squeak.

It still looks like QuiltCon threw up in my studio, but I think I'm making progress getting everything organized and put away. I should be finished by the next QuiltCon in 2015.

Pincushion City

I was pleasantly distracted by making another pincushion after seeing Rene's cute pincushion she made for QuiltCon. A group of us are swapping pincushions at the conference. I hopped straight over to the tutorial by Bari J. I already have a pincushion ready for QuiltCon, but I'm sure this one will find a good home. It's huge and would hold tons of pins.

I have a big collection of pincushions. Most were gifts from fellow quilters, but I made a few of them. The red magnetic version is my favorite, but I like to keep a pincushion on my cutting table and the ironing board. I also use them to store threaded needles. Plus, they're fun to make. If you're hankering to make a pincushion or seven, I just found this Pinterest board for free pincushion patterns. I'm toast.

Sunday Stash #65

Black and white, sewing machines, and olives. These are a few of my favorite things. I had four bleu cheese stuffed olives yesterday and can't wear shoes today.

More Halloween fabric, because you can never have enough. Plus it was really cute and on sale. Here lies Skully and Spooky.

The tiny red checks I found in my bag. I think it was part of some donated fabric we received at a guild meeting months ago. That orange print with the spots was designed by someone I know! Love that she made her selvage dots little mushrooms. It's called Photochrome Petals by Julie Creus for La Todera.

Always a sucker for gingham and 60 yards of sale ribbon to play with. I'll probably use it to wrap presents.

 I forgot to show the adorable sewing caddy owl Beth made for our gift exchange.

He holds sewing tools and thread. Cute, huh? And to continue my lucky streak, I won two great giveaways from Sew Mama Sew's Giveaway Day. Yeehaw!