My Baby Is A Graduate!

This little guy is headed to college! He won't be attending his dad's alma mater, but will attend mine! I can't believe he is a high school graduate. That was a quick 18 years! We were very proud that he maintained a 4.0 GPA his entire senior year. He's taking the summer off to work his first job at one of our theme parks and will start college in August. It's hard to get a picture of this kid now that he's mobile. I propped him up a lot when he was a baby!

Little sis and I whipped up this decadent peanut butter cup cake to celebrate graduation. Austin didn't want a big deal made over graduating, but I don't think he minded the cake. It was delicious by the way. A sliver will do ya! They were eating it with vanilla ice cream, but my cellulite was saying "no, no, no!" Of course our cake wasn't as classy as these numbers, but we were going for taste! The entire family loves Reese's Cups.

Got a little start on some quilt blocks from this tutorial. I'm not too sure how big this quilt will get. Or how quick I'll get bored making the same block over and over! I'm using leftover strips from a honey bun. I'm hoping to get the top together during the long weekend.

Challenge Complete

I finished my portrait quilt for Bumble Beans' Portrait Challenge. The quilting is a little funky, but I had fun with it. Who knows what I'll do with it, but I enjoyed the challenge and it provided much-needed quilting practice.

Look at me writing in thread! I was too chicken to try it in a contrasting thread.

A little mini I made from tiny scraps leftover from my hexagon blocks. I'm all caught up with the quilt-a-long and look forward to see how we put these hex blocks all together.

Here are a few other things that I've got up my sleeve. Nothing like blogs to distract you in a good way! It's a fortunate thing I don't read "clever bank robber" blogs.

• Linen Napkins
• Voile Scarves
• Adorable Apron
• Red Pepper Quilts Scrap Quilt

That list should keep me out of trouble today! Hope everyone is having fun.

A Snake-Free Post

It's been a snake-free day so far. Of course, it's not even noon. The weekend was another story! Just one sighting and Fred was on the other side of the pool screen. Yay for Fred. Have fun out there big guy! I did have some sewing time this weekend.

The Blue Birdy mini is done. It's about 9" x 7.25" I'm not sure where he's headed, but I'm sure he'll find a good home.

Another batik coin quilt. I mailed it before I could measure it, but it was about 12" x 10".

New table runner for the kitchen table. Almost made me want to spring clean my kitchen, but I'm over that now. ;) I did polish the table before I put it on.

I tried appliqueing a house versus piecing it. Not quite as wonky as I wanted it, but maybe the quilting makes up for it.

I'm getting some cute quilts in for AAQI. My doll quilt swappers have met my challenge and made quilts to donate. Everyone has mentioned the size restriction being a true challenge, but you would never know that by seeing these little quilts. I'll show them to you once they've all arrived.

Happy Monday everyone!

Sunday Stash...I Lost Count

I caved. I need fabric like I need a hole in the head, but I couldn't resist these two prints. Right up my twisted alley.

This retro cocktail print is so bright and funny. It's called Kitschy Cocktails by Michael Miller.  I don't recognize most of the drink recipes but many involve gin. Ick. I don't think I like gin. I have no idea what I'll do with this fabric, but I'm enjoying looking at it! I've always been a sucker for kitschy advertising illustrations and photographs and have used a lot in my design career.

This is the fabric I really wanted! I kept seeing small bits of it in blogland and was curious to see more of it. It's called Home Sewing is Easy and is part of The Alexander Henry Fabrics Collection from 2008. I can't believe I haven't seen it before. My local quilt shop doesn't carry this sort of stuff, which is probably a good thing!

Here's more of it. Home Sewing is Easy...and helps keep the home fires burning. Keep that in mind, okay?

This is my favorite panel. My husband never says I "look tops!" And there will probably never be extra money in the budget thanks to my new sewing machine know-how! Oh well.

Blogger's Quilt Festival

Amy, the famous Park City Girl is hosting the third Blogger's Quilt Festival. Over 200 talented quilters have posted their beautiful quilts for all to enjoy. Take a minute to feast your eyes and inspire your creativity. The online quilting community has some serious talent, but you probably already knew that.

Here's my little story of my very first quilt. It's not stunning, modern or anything like I make now, but this little quilt still has a place in my heart since it got me started in this crazy hobby.

I have always loved textiles (vintage tablecloths and napkins, feedsacks, fabrics, bandannas, handkerchiefs, quilts, funky clothes, etc.). I've collected my share of these items over the years, but never thought about sewing. My mom sewed when I was younger and my dad made repairs to his sailboat sails and whipped up Barbie doll clothes for me on my mom's ancient green Singer. They were too poor to buy maternity clothes, so mom picked up a used Singer and made all her clothes when she was pregnant with me. My grandmother gave me her Brother sewing machine when I got married, but I never used it. Sure wish I had those old workhorse machines!

When my children were younger, I decided I wanted to learn to sew. My dad (and my husband!) both bought me inexpensive Singers for Christmas. I made bathrobes for both kids and a fleece jacket for my daughter. My daughter's kindergarten friends all begged me to make them each a jacket just like hers. I could have gone into business! Garment sewing was just not for me. The patterns made my brain hurt. I packed up the machine and it sat for years.

In 2007, I decided I might want to learn to quilt. I dusted off the Singer and started with a postage stamp quilt using 1.5" squares of my vintage fabric scraps. Yeah, what was I thinking? 252 finished 1" squares!  I was so proud of my first effort, I hired a machine quilter to quilt it (I'm still afraid of the actual quilting part). I bet that longarmer burst out laughing when she received my little 19" x 23" flimsy! I didn't know enough back then to ask how or if she ever loaded it on a frame. She supplied the batting and backing and made my first quilt look good!

Fast forward to today, and I am still totally hooked on all things quilting. I have enjoyed the online quilting community, which has been a constant source of inspiration and education for me. I've made hundreds of quilts, tried numerous tutorials, bought thousands of yards of fabrics, have a virtual library of quilting books, given quilts to charity, cut my teeth on Blocks of the Month, hosted doll quilt swaps for a year, written a quilting e-book, joined a guild and basically learned everything I know about quilting from books, tutorials and my online quilting buddies. My guest/fabric room may never be the same and my graphic design studio has to share space with my quilting studio, but what a rewarding three years it has been. I'm never turning back. Thanks to all of you!

Wieners!

Thanks to all of you who entered my Sew, Mama, Sew giveaway. I thoroughly enjoyed reading the 203 comments as my blog usually gets few comments! It was so nice to meet you all and check out your blogs. You guys are a creative bunch for sure. I know I will continue to find inspiration in blogland and thanks for giving me more opportunity.

So without further ado, the winner of the Prismacolor Colored Pencils is number 128:
Jamie said...

Love the colored pencils-- I have a budding artist who would be thrilled to have them. My second choice would be the patterns-- my mom is a new quilter, and I'd love to be able to give them to her. Last I would choose the miniquilt to keep for myself. Thanks so much for the giveaway.

The quilt patterns winner is number 172:
Kelly said... Love, love, love! All your prizes are great! Thanks for the giveaway!
 
The winner of the mini quilt is number 175:
sewfunky said... Please enter me in the draw and don't forget to enter mine:

Thank you again for entering!

Getting Nothing Done!

To enter my Sew, Mama, Sew giveaway, click here or scroll down. The giveaways have been wonderful. I've spent more than enough time entering giveaways and finding inspiration in new blogs. And old blogs! I'm so easily distracted. It doesn't take much to get me to avoid work!

Thanks to everyone who came by my blog and joined in the giveaway. It's been a blast reading all the comments! I hope each and every one of you win something during the giveaway.

I finished the little string quilt mini. I did simple quilting during our OMQG Sew Day. Sew Day was a blast and I always walk away with inspiration from all the talent in the room. We sewed in a huge meeting room of the public library. It was very nice and everyone brought food and projects to work on. Sewing all day is a real treat! I didn't get anything finished, but I made a little progress on some UFO's.

I needed a quick little mini, and this cute quilt provided the needed inspiration Monday morning. I still haven't finished my Say Cheese! portrait quilt. All that is left is the scary quilting. Speaking of scary quilting...

I made this practice sandwich to try some free motion quilting for the orange section of the little birdy quilt. Yep, I still stink at it. Aus came in while I was quilting to harass tease me and dared me to quilt is name. Then he wanted a steaming pile of poop (bottom left). Teen humor. It never gets old. Needless to say, I stuck to straight line quilting for the mini. It turned out cute. I just need to tack the binding down. I'll show you when I'm done.

Another mini batik coin quilt. This one is a bit bigger than the last one. I found some cool purple polka dot batik fabric for the binding. I was in a purple binding mood today. Mostly because I hate to change thread! I'm a lazy designer!

I found an easy tutorial on making jeans into capris. I have a pair of lightweight jeans that the dryer made too short, so this worked perfectly. And the simple tutorial even worked for garment-sewing impaired me. I also cut out the pattern pieces to make Lauren's shirt and read the pattern instructions. I think I can handle it, but I need some tricot lining. More procrastination on that front!


Then I found this pretty quilt in blogland. I decided to test out the block with my jeans scraps and some red  checks. Look at me being green! ;) I'm not sure if I'll pursue this with real fabrics, but it sure is a neat quilt. I adore the fabrics she is using. Check them out here. This is a new blog to me. I may have to retire from quilting and work just to read blogs. Maybe I'll just give up laundry. Yeah, that's the ticket.

Bones wanted to go out a few minutes ago. This is the view from my front door. Notice anything?

Howza bout now? We went out through another door thank you very much. Obviously, the moth balls are not working. Maybe I should have strung them and made anklets for myself. Tell me I'm not a snake magnet.