Quilting in the Sunshine State

First 2012 Finish

2012-01-29T09:40:00.005-05:00

I was going to "save" this binding project for next Sunday, but I went on a long walk yesterday including back and forth over one of the causeway bridges. I was physically tired when I got home, so after taking a shower and plopping down on the couch, I picked up the hand sewing of the Paisley Party binding. I watched a couple of movies, and by last night the binding was done...funny how that works, isn't it?

I had to hang it on the fence sideways. Finished size: 60" x 72"

The back

The quilting was done in a whimsical butterfly pattern by the local quilt shop's longarm machine.

This was a very quick and easy quilt to make. Once the cutting and the 90 four-patch blocks are done, the whole thing can be put together in a day...my kind of quilt :)

Here's a link to the free quilt pattern: Paisley Party

Happy quilting everyone!

Prepping for Super Bowl Sunday

2012-01-22T15:39:00.006-05:00

Making a banner?

of course not...because the colors would have to be red, white, and blue

I'm going to need something to do besides eating while watching the big game, so making binding this weekend and getting it machine sewed on seemed like good idea. I can work on the hand sewing next weekend and probably finish it during the Super Bowl :)

If you zoom in on the picture above, you can see the quilting pattern...butterflies :)

I have always steered clear of scrappy binding because the thought of all those seams gave me the willies, but this quilt begged for scrappy binding and I had a lot of fabric left over. I cut 18" long pieces and it worked out just fine. What better use for all those leftover strips of fabric, right?

Now back to watching the Patriots...and the E*Trade talking baby ads...I love them, LOL.

Happy quilting everyone.

It's coming together

2012-01-15T09:53:00.001-05:00

The Quick Trip Around the World quilt that is, and I really like it. I have to admit that when I was sewing the strips together, I was a little worried.

I thought that the lightest fabric with the white background was a little too stark and the gold jumped out as well. Since this is the first time I've made one of these, I wasn't sure it would be okay once the tubed strips were cut and set next to each other. Well, I was wrong (thank goodness!). Check out the first half of the quilt :)

Now for sewing all these strips together and tackling the other half. So far, this has been super easy...hoping that trend continues. I'll keep you posted.

2:00 p.m. update - all the piecing is done! This went so fast! I didn't even have all the strips sewn together this morning when I started at around 8:30 and the top was all pieced by 1:30.

I still have to add borders, but I haven't gotten the fabric yet, so it's as done as it's going to get for today :)

Happy quilting!

Another Sneak Peek

2012-01-13T20:50:00.002-05:00

Here's a glimpse of the other quilt top I finished during the quilting retreat last weekend.

The pattern is called Courtyard. I've made quite a few of these over the years, but it has been awhile. I have a link to other Courtyard quilts made in the past in my links to the right. It's a cute, super easy pattern and makes a nice sized quilt for a baby/toddler if borders are omitted - otherwise, it is about twin sized.

I went to the local quilt shop today and made several purchases *blushing* - one of them was the fabric for the backing which you can see in the picture. I had to snap a picture of the selvage. Check this out:

Little boots :) How cute!

While I was in the shop, I browsed through the sale section where everything is $4-$5/yard and found this fabric. I made Em's outfit for her second birthday using the version of this fabric with the white background. So, when I saw the fabric in pink for $4/yard, I bought the 3.5 yards left on the bolt. Wouldn't this make cute quilt backing for little girl quilts?

Finally, I bought fabric to make a Quick Trip Around the World quilt (Eleanor Burns' pattern) for one of my mother's friends. She said the colors in her furniture are pink/mauve and dusty blue. She wants a long lap quilt for her sofa, so this is what I came up with.

I have been chomping at the bit to make one of these quilts, so it will be an adventure and another step out of my Warm Wishes quilt habit :)

I dropped off the Paisley Party quilt while I was at the quilt shop, so I should be able to do a show and tell within a couple of weeks.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend...happy sewing!

A sneak peek

2012-01-09T08:24:00.001-05:00

I attended a great quilting retreat this weekend and wanted to share pics of one of the quilt tops I finished. This picture was taken when it was being laid out - I'll share more pics as soon as the tops are all nicely pressed. This one is made from a pattern called, "Paisley Party" it was a free pattern from Red Rooster. It can be downloaded here.

I hope you all have a wonderful week :)

Happy New Year!

2012-01-02T08:26:00.001-05:00

The first day of 2012 was a very productive day.

I'll post more about this later, moohahaha...

A few new year's resolutions:

1) Finish more than seven quilts this year

2) Make quilts using some new patterns (geez...my repertoire was pretty boring in 2011)

3) Walk/exercise at least 30 minutes 5 times a week

4) Get more fruits and veggies into my diet

A Look Back at 2011 in Pictures

2011-12-31T16:11:00.001-05:00

Here are the 2011 finishes :)

Top from upper left:
1. Whoooo, who's the monkey?
2. Hip to be Square
3. Santorini table runner
4. Two Christmas gift boxes
5. Gift box
6. Pillowcases to go with Em's Loveliness of Ladybugs quilt
7. Tunic
8. Pillowcases to go with my Mom's quilt

Middle from left:
9. Noah's Ark quilt
10. Small Seuss quilt
11. Zoology warm wishes quilt
12. Zoology warm wishes quilt
13. Large Seuss quilt (a.k.a. "Hi There Horton")

Bottom from left:
14. Scooter dress
15. Hushabye diaper bag
16. Halloween gift boxes
17. Maxine sewing machine pad, pincushion, and thread catcher
18. Pillows to go with Batik Strip Tube quilt

Happy New Year to you all!

Final Finish of 2011

2011-12-29T18:00:00.000-05:00

Okay, I was looking at all sorts of blog posts about final finshes of 2011 and thought I'd make a run to finish up just one more too. You all provide me with so much inspiration and motivation to get me off my lazy duff and finish up my projects :)

Noah's Ark Warm Wishes Baby Quilt

I snapped these pics right after the sun went down this evening, so they're a bit dark.

I'm going to try to get a collage of all the 2011 finshes put together before New Year's Day, but we'll see how that plan works out LOL.

Happy Day After Christmas

2011-12-26T12:12:00.000-05:00

Sitting on the sofa in my PJs at noon ... aaaahhhh :)

I actually managed a finish on Christmas Eve day. I would do some cooking or cleaning and then would take a break to sit and do a little of this throughout the day.

Before I knew it the binding was all sewn down and I wasn't exhausted at the end of the day.

I hope you all are enjoying a nice relaxing day too. We had a great Christmas - everyone was happy and healthy. My best friend and quilting buddy came over last night and we enjoyed a pork roast dinner with all the trimmings while sitting out on the porch. It was a very nice evening.

Happy sewing :)

Wishing You a Merry Christmas

2011-12-24T08:43:00.000-05:00

I spied this little piece of seaweed while walking along the beach and thought it looked like a cute little Christmas tree (it's as close to one as can be found in nature down here). It was 82 degrees yesterday, so it's going to be a warm Christmas for us.

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas wherever you are.

Sign of the Season

2011-12-10T22:40:00.000-05:00

While picking up a quilt at the quilt shop today, I spied this sign

very cute.

Since I was feeling a little frazzled tonight, I just made some bias binding for the quilt and put it on. I'll hand sew it down at some point when I feel like it.

Happy quilting :)

Ninety Blocks in Two Days

2011-12-07T19:11:00.001-05:00

That's what happened this past weekend. I was so excited to start a new project, sew and chat with good friends, and pair all those Kona solids with the Terrain fabrics. Here's a small glimpse.

Looking forward to finishing up the rest of the blocks and then putting everything together into [I think] a couple of full size quilts.

Did some baking for a Christmas get together tomorrow. This is how the Amaretto glaze soaks into the cake...oh yeah...this one is boozey!

Before

After

Hopefully in a few hours it will be a nice little cake and come out of the pan cleanly :)

What a Wonderful Surprise!

2011-12-05T22:20:00.003-05:00

I just got home about an hour ago and there was a package waiting for me in my mailbox :)

I participated in Allie-Oops' Christmas Through the Year last month and the random number fairy picked my number *whoop whoop*

These two beautiful zippered bags were made by someone who wished to remain anonymous, so all I can say is "Thank you Anonymous" and "Thank you Allie"

This large bag will hold all sorts of goodies

The slim bag in the foreground has a key ring too - fabulous! See the container with all the charms...oh my! I know a little four year old who will wind up with something special adorned with these.

The workmanship that went into these bags is phenomenal - check out the very cool beaded zipper pull.

The zippers on both bags are adorned with these.

What a wonderful ending to a Monday :)

On Thistle, on Peridot, on Apricot, on Mocha!

2011-11-30T20:06:00.001-05:00

On Purple, on Azure, on Holly, and Copen! Guess who got a package of Kona cottons today?

I "neeeeeeeeded" more solids to frame the Terrain by Kate Spain :)

Oh, and by the way, it is supposed to get down into the 40's tonight - whoop whoop - it actually feels a little like Christmas outside. Of course, it will be in the 70's tomorrow, but that is still fabulous for Florida since we won't have to have the house closed up and the air conditioning blasting.

Black Friday Sew Day

2011-11-25T12:55:00.001-05:00

I'm hibernating today - staying home where it is peaceful and safe :) I got up and pressed the Terrain layer cake squares and started cutting them into 5" squares. I am so thrilled with all the colors in this layer cake and the fact that there were very few duplicates (there were five which were all tone on tones - easy to use in another project). I'm always a little leery of precuts because a few times I have been really disappointed in the large number of duplicates included.

So, did I miss out on the sales frenzy? Of course not...I let my fingers do the walking and ordered more Kona solids to include in this project. Free shipping and 20% off *happy dance*

There was only one slight mishap - my June Tailor Shape Cut bit the dust. It's given me years of faithful service (and one really, really nasty rotary cut to the bone of my index finger when I wasn't paying attention and the blade wasn't in one of the grooves), but I picked it up by the edge and it snapped. I might just venture out to Joann's tonight to see if I can use a Black Friday coupon for a new one...maybe.

Happy Thanksgiving

2011-11-24T21:27:00.001-05:00

So is anyone else astonished at the advertising for Black Friday sales? A lot of stores were even starting them today. It is unbelievable. We had a wonderful day today, and hope yours was fabulous too. Trying to make sure the day and memories are captured. I am so hooked on this digital scrapbooking (almost as much as quilting) :)

First Things First

2011-11-19T18:53:00.004-05:00

First and foremost, I want to thank you all for your sincere support after we had to have our wonderful dog, Alsley, put down last week. The e-mails and virtual hugs we received helped get us through the worst of the darkness and sadness. Every day feels a little more normal and we're attempting to fill the quietness by keeping Pandora on for background noise.

Now for some quilting talk. I was hoping to start on a new project, but I didn't get the package in the mail that I was hoping for today. I will provide a sneak preview though :) Remember the post about all the Kona cotton fat quarters (if you don't, click here)? Well, check this out:

What do you think?

The Terrain fabric in the picture is the quilt backing. I'm going to pair the Kona solids with a Terrain layer cake to create a quilt inspired by this one created by Natalie and entered in the Blogger's Quilt Festival. Isn't it just fabulous and amazing? I love it!

I still need to add another light aqua blue and a few other Kona cottons into the mix, and wait for the lovely mail lady to come through with the layer cake :)

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend.

A time to cry

2011-11-12T18:00:00.000-05:00

We had to let Mr. Good Boy Alsley go with the angels this morning. He gave us so much joy over his fifteen years. He was a gentle soul and made our house a home. The sadness right now is unspeakable, but he isn't in any pain and I know he is at peace.

Do you have a "go to" pattern?

2011-11-05T12:48:00.008-04:00

I sure do, especially when I need a baby quilt in a jiffy! It's called Warm Wishes. I originally downloaded the bed sized pattern because I had seen a quilt made using this pattern hanging in one of the local quilt shops. It can be downloaded here. I had wanted to make one for my bed, but then I thought I'd try making a baby quilt first, so I looked around on the web to see if I could find one for a baby sized quilt (mainly to get the fabric requirements). I found this site here. The reason this is my "go to" pattern is that I can start cutting fabric mid-morning and have a completed cute quilt top by late afternoon. The only thing that I have found over the years is that, for most quilt shop fabric, you don't need as much fabric. I can usually get away with just cutting 5 of each sized strip unless the usable width of fabric is not around 43". I usually buy a yard of the focal print for the six inch blocks, a half yard for the two and three inch strips of the pieced blocks (you'll have some left over from the two inch strip fabrics).

Another thing I have learned is that contrast within the pieced blocks and the focal print blocks is important if you want the quilt to appear more dimensional. Compare this one where there is a lot of contrast:

with this one where there isn't

The bright blue in the pieced blocks is too close to the value of the lime green in the focal fabric, so some of the dimension is lost.

Well, my mother has a good friend who is our Church Deacon's wife and they are expecting their first grandchild in January. She asked me if I would make a biblical themed quilt that she can give to her friend, so naturally I started looking for Noah's Ark fabric. I don't know the baby's gender, so I kept the quilt gender neutral.

I found Noah's Ark fabric and then picked fabrics for the pieced blocks.

I agonized over the green fabric because I wasn't sure if I should go darker. In the end I stuck with my first green choice that matched the both lime and medium greens in the ark bodies. Now that it is done, I wish I had paid attention to my instinct to go a little darker, but it is cute and will hopefully be used a lot by a healthy little baby boy or girl :)

The other reason this is a "go to" pattern is that if I quilt it myself, the back doesn't have to be pieced. As usual, I will probably take this to be quilted, so I'll have to add some fabric to the backing width. Here is the fabric for the backing.

So do you have a "go to" pattern? If so, what is it? I'd love to know!

Fall 2011 Blogger's Quilt Festival

2011-10-30T13:41:00.001-04:00

The quilt I am entering is Hip to Be Square done in batiks. It was made for two of my friends' 38th wedding anniversary. I love batiks, but sometimes I have trouble putting them together so they have enough variety and colors, but still coordinate. I decided to use a Hoffman fat quarter bundle as my inspiration. I picked fabrics that were similar to those in the bundle and it turned out really well. The quilt is large lap size and was quilted using a dark navy thread in a swirl pattern.

I hope you're enjoying your travels through the wonderful quilts out there - thank you for stopping by :)

Link back to the 2011 Blogger's Quilt Festival

Whooooo Hooooo's the Monkey?

2011-10-30T12:18:00.001-04:00

This one is for a baby shower in a couple of weeks for the son and daughter-in-law of a friend of mine.

It's a blustery day here as you can see from the pictures :)

and back

The quilt finished at 46" x 57" and was quilted in a meander with light royal blue thread.

I hope you're all having a great weekend!

Zoology Major

2011-10-23T15:12:00.006-04:00

This is my second project using Michael Miller Zoology. The first one was done in the Lagoon colorway - pictured below and posted about here.

While ~~browsing~~ filling my cart on fabric.com, I happened to notice a newer colorway in pinks and grays. The dotted fabric on the right is Michael Miller Dumb Dot in pink and gray and I don't remember whether or not the stripe was part of the Zoology line or not, but it coordinates perfectly. I ordered Kona Bubble Gum Pink and Kona Peony for the coordinating solids.

I tried (very little) to resist, but you know how that goes *sigh*

I started the quilt Friday night and finished last night.

The backing

The weather here has been just gorgeous. No heat or humidity and there is a beautiful breeze. I'm a happy quilter :)

The Halloween Goodie Bags

2011-10-21T19:13:00.001-04:00

Two are for Em's wonderful, patient and kind teachers and one is for Miss Cheryl the school's after-care angel. The one on the right is for Em - she loved the candy corn fabric when she saw it and asked, "Grammy, will you make something for me?" :)

How could I possibly resist?

and goodies to fill them up

I'm starting a new project tonight, so stay tuned.

8 Pound Bundle of Joy :)

2011-10-19T20:09:00.004-04:00

...came in the mail today from Fabric.com - LOL

Here's a peek at some 1/2 yard Kona cotton cuts that my best friend and quilting buddy and I are going to split so both of us will have a fat quarter of each one. I'm going to pair mine with some Kona Snow. Have I ever told you about my Kona Snow ~~obsession~~ strategy? Well here goes - anytime I order fabric and need to add some yardage to get the maximum amount of fabric for the shipping charges or to get free shipping, I fill in the order with Kona Snow. I think I probably have about fifteen yards on hand right now...sick I know *blushing*

Now, feast your eyes on this:

isn't it just yummy?

Now to figure out how to use it...I'm open to suggestions, so feel free to chime in with ideas :)

There is more fabric as you may guess due to the 8 Lb. hint, but I'll share the rest with you later.

What was and what is to come (I hope)

2011-10-13T22:15:00.000-04:00

Two weekends ago I finished two more Halloween bags and incorporated the changes I mentioned here, only instead of sewing down the side seams, I used Steam-A-Seam 2 quarter inch tape to fuse the edges down...much, much easier and I think they look just as neat.

Now, for the "what is to come (I hope soon)

A Christmas gift bag for little Miss Em ( I want to do this project this weekend)

A warm wishes quilt similar to this one using these Michael Miller Urban Zoology fabrics and a couple of Kona Solids that I'm ordering tomorrow. I think I might even order a bit more and make a matching diaper bag.

What are your near-term quilting plans?

Ahhhhh....Autumn

2011-10-02T09:21:00.003-04:00

has finally arrived, even if only for a few days. It was 60 degrees when I woke up this morning, so the windows are open all around the house. I am a happy camper when I can enjoy my morning coffee al fresco :)

I made a pilgrimage to the quilt shop with a friend yesterday so she could drop off a quilt to be quilted. Since is was the first Saturday of the month, it was end of the bolt Saturday where the deal is 20% off if you finish a bolt. It's a great time to go if you need backing and they always have a ton of bolts set aside that have only a yard or two left. This shop also has a club that costs $20 to join, but it gives members 10% off all fabric, and one free fat quarter per month. I behaved myself and only bought 2 yards of fabric.

The first fabric is for binding for "Who Whooooo's the Monkey" because I don't have enough of the striped fabric used for the sashing (on the left) to do the trick. I think the fabric I bought (on the right) will do just fine. Now I just have to wait for the quilting to be finished.

The second piece of fabric I bought was a risky move, because I had two pieces of fabric at home that I thought might coordinate with this very cool paisely (on the left), I ljust oved it. Sometimes when I do this, my memory doesn't serve me well and I come home with something totally wrong...not this time :)

I think today will be spent doing a few more Halloween treat bags.

Found this at Joann's and I think this 1/4" Steam-A-Seam2 may be a better solution to keep the turned out edges flat against the bags without having to try and sew them down (which is very painstaking, especially with the small size bags).

I've Gone a Little Batty

2011-09-24T22:31:00.005-04:00

Over this selvage

The fabric is Trick or Treat by Deb Strain for Moda

I wanted to make a few Halloween gift bags, so I picked up this and another fabric today. I decided to make a few changes in cutting and constructing the bags this time.

The first change was to use my wavy rotary cutter to make the pressed open trim look a little more decorative.

The second change was to sew down the pressed open trim. I really didn't like the way it did not sit flat against the bags I have previously made. This wasn't an easy task, but I think it was totally worth it.

Here's the result

I think this looks much better

This one will be filled with candy for Em

I think these would make cute teacher gifts too :)

First Day of Autumn

2011-09-23T19:09:00.002-04:00

I love fall....in New England.

It's still hot, sticky and 90 degrees here *sigh* Allergy season is still in full bloom as well and this has been a particularly bad one from my perspective, so I'm staying indoors in the air conditioning. I decided today to start working on some Christmas projects because I really, really look forward to Thanksgiving and Christmas. I made three projects, but can only show you two because the person for whom I made one of them checks out my blog and would know the one not shown was for her if she saw it. They start like this:

Then they look like this

and this

a little more sewing

and finally...

these little gift bags

I'm so excited that I've got something this month to enter for Allie's Christmas Through the Year.

These two are the small size gift bag and measure 5" tall with a 4.5" square bottom. Perfect for some fat quarters, candy, pretty much anything. I'm going to the quilt shop tomorrow and I think I need to pick up a little Halloween fabric to make a few goodie bags for some special folks (one is four years old). The other night we were talking about growing up, and when I asked her what she wants to be when she grows up, her perfectly serious answer was, "a ladybug" .... everyone together now.... awwwwww.

I bought her these to go with her ladybug costume

She'll go bananas!

Have a wonderful quilty weekend :)

Sneeze, Sniffle, Snort...

2011-09-18T10:50:00.004-04:00

Well, the fall allergy season has hit down here - with temperatures in the 90s - yuck. It is miserable. I am miserable. However, the bright side of having allergies is that I have to stay inside in the air conditioning, so it is the perfect opportunity to work on a new project in between naps. I decided to make one of those gift bags that I posted about here.

A long time ago, this black, white, and yellow Michael Miller fabric came out and I went nuts over it. Over time I've used some and given some away, so I don't have a lot of it left. I figured that these fabrics would make a cute 'any occasion' gift bag.

These bags are simple to make, although I will make a few changes next time. The pattern calls for cutting the Steam a Seam 1/2" smaller than the fabric pieces to be fused and then trimming 1/4" all the way around. Unfortunately, this sometimes results in the Steam a Seam not making it all the way to the fabric edge and some ravelling (the edges are not finished in this project - they are left raw). So, next time I'll cut the fabric pieces a bit larger to ensure the Steam a Seam extends beyond where the pieces will be trimmed, and I may even use the wavy/pinking rotary cutter blade to trim the pieces. I think that might look nice too. This bag is the large size and finished at 7" high with a 7" base.

I think I'll make a few of these out of Christmas fabrics and participate in Allie's Christmas Through the Year project :)

I hope you're having a great weekend!

Don't You Just Love It When....

2011-09-14T22:38:00.003-04:00

A quilt just names itself?

This morning I was ~~fixing a myriad of piecing screw ups~~ piecing the quilt backing for the Monkeying Around quilt, but I kept thinking that the owls on the back didn't go with the monkeys and other animals on the front. There are more owls than monkeys, but the monkeys are the focal point of the quilt.

Then, inspiration hit!

Who Whooooo's the Monkey?

Has a nice ring to it, doesn't it?

Finished Monkey Business Top

2011-09-11T14:26:00.001-04:00

I moved my sewing machine into the living room this morning to finish this top that had been languishing for nearly a month. I like sewing in the living room - I don't feel cooped up as I do when I am in my sewing room. It feels so good to have this top done - now I just have to make the backing, get it quilted, and add the binding. I don't know what I'm going to do with this one yet, and I think that's one of the reasons I procrastinated a lot. I do a lot better when I have a specific purpose for the finished quilt.

I questioned the inclusion of corner stones in the sashing for this quilt and with these particular fabrics, I'm not sure it added enough to the finished top to make piecing them worthwhile, but eh...it's done.

I spent a lot of the morning watching the 9-11 programming. At one point, ABC had that song "I'm already there" playing while showing the pictures of children next to pictures of their parents who were lost. It was gut-wrenching, but at the same time beautiful to see how these families have carried on with the business of living and keeping their parents' memories alive.

A Potential Stash Buster?

2011-09-10T21:39:00.000-04:00

I can dream, can't I?

I picked up this pattern because, in case it hasn't entered your consciousness yet, Christmas is just a few months away. I thought these bags were such a cute idea (love the tall bag - perfect for gifting a bottle of something or other!)

The smal and large square-ish bags are perfect for using up half yards of fabric, and I just happen to have some half yard cuts that I bought when I found Tina Givens Chloe's Imagination on sale for $3-something a yard. I fell in love with this fabric when I made this quilt

What could be more whimsical than these bees and ladybugs ? When I found them on sale, I bought fabrics in these colorways:

Of course, I had to pick up some of this fabric (the tall bag uses 5/8 yard) I picked up enough for a couple of bags :)

So, I guess I added to my stash before I had a chance to use any of it...story of my life, and probably yours too if you're a quilter :)

Happy 15th Birthday!

2011-09-09T17:22:00.001-04:00

to my Mr. Sweetie Boy

You're the best little boy ever.

The last of the Monkey Business

2011-09-05T14:46:00.000-04:00

for this weekend. Made some good progress and I think this will be another cute one for Em's school dinner auction, but I haven't decided for certain.

Looking at this top, I probably could have saved some time and effort by eliminating the cornerstones from the sashing they don't really add that much to the quilt since it is so busy - We'll see when the quilt is completed in any case.

Hope you're having a great Labor Day!

Labor Day Weekend Monkey Business

2011-09-04T16:08:00.003-04:00

Haven't gotten around to sewing since Hip to be Square was finished, but today I managed to get in a little sewing time, see?

I started work on this in mid-August and got sidetracked...big surprise - not - it happens all the time to a lot of us :)

Since this is a new pattern, it is a lot of fun to tackle. Hopefully, I'll be able to get a little more work done on it tomorrow. Tonight I'm helping out with the Newman Club back to school cook out at the local university. I'm bringing a chocolate cherry cake and will help with whatever needs doing. They do such a great job, nice thick steaks and all the trimmings...yum! This is a very nice event because now that the students are a few weeks into class, the reality of college life has set in and some of the freshmen are a little homesick. It helps bring them together for good food, fellowship and encourages the formation of new friendships along the way.

Done in the nick of time...

2011-08-26T16:06:00.000-04:00

This quilt is for two of my friends who happen to be celebrating their 38th wedding anniversary today. I just finished it and snapped a couple of quick pictures before I run off to deliver it.

It was a little breezy, but I pinned the side up so the back would show. The breeze was courtesy of hurricane Irene which thankfully passed us by with no bad effects other than some beach erosion :)

Have a great weekend!

New Day, New Plans

2011-08-20T13:36:00.001-04:00

I was sitting here this morning minding my own business and thinking about getting to work on the fabric I had cut last night when the phone rang. It was the quilt shop calling to let me know that the quilting for Hip to be Square was done and it was ready to be picked up. Now it is rainy and hot and sticky (see yesterday's post) and I waffled for a little while between venturing out and staying put. I decided to venture out and go pick it up. I am over the moon with this quilt!

Here it is laid out on the bed

and here's a close-up of the quilting

I'm glad to have resisted the urge to have it quilted in an angular pattern - the swirls contrast nicely with the geometric pattern of the blocks. I chose a dark teal thread for the quilting and am also pleased with that choice. Now I've got to trim it and get the binding on.

Have a great weekend!

Let's hear it for Fridays!!

2011-08-19T21:24:00.001-04:00

Whoop whoop! This is how I'm kicking off my weekend :)

I love working on a new pattern! I don't know about you all, but I find that I make the same patterns over and over...a lot. A few strips have been sewn together and I'll do a little more cutting before I hit the hay tonight.

That line from "Good Morning Vietnam" keeps running through my head, when Robin Williams (Roosevelt E. Roosevelt in Walter Cronkite's Voice) gives the weather report...ready?

Turn on your speakers and click the link below
http://www.moviesounds.com/vietnam/weather.wav
it pretty much sums up Florida weather in August :)

So, what are your quilting plans this weekend?

Say, "Goodbye" Horton

2011-08-14T09:04:00.003-04:00

This quilt and a matching pillowcase will be going to a dinner auction at Em's school.

The quilt pattern is called "Snapshots" from Atkinson Designs "Happy Hour" book. It was quilted in a simple meander and finished at 56" x 65"

Hopefully it will delight a little girl or boy and raise a good amount of money for the school.

BTS - 2011

2011-08-10T11:09:00.000-04:00

Just like last year....Gulp!

Pillowcases...Supersized!

2011-08-07T08:02:00.004-04:00

I've been having computer problems - sheesh! The problems started after I downloaded Photoshop, but I think everything is back to normal now. Why did I download Photoshop you ask? I'll tell you why. Last weekend I ran across Ali Edwards' website and was totally amazed at her digital scrapbooking projects. Seriously, if you have any time, go take a look at her fabulous projects. Since I have four years of digital pictures of Em, this is a really good scrapbooking option for me. It is so cool that the digital scrapbook pages can be compiled into bound hard cover books as well. I've already started, but I'm sticking with pages that are mostly put together and just need pictures dropped in and minor tweaks. These pages are called layered templates and Photoshop is needed to use them. For this one I used one of Ali Edwards' layered templates as is except for the journaling words.

Okay...since this is a quilting blog, I'll show you what I've been up to sewing-wise. Em has one of these for school

They are used for naptime, but we live in Florida where it's in the 90's - 100's through September. Even in the air conditioning, it's too hot to lay on one of these mats. Last year I made a quilted mat cover, but it was too heavy and bulky so we wound up sending crib sheets to school. I wanted to make a couple of lightweight covers that would stay on better than the crib sheets, and so yesterday I had an idea....pillowcases, really big pillowcases. I used the easy, schmeasy pillowcase construction method, so they were whipped up in a jiffy. It was great to use up a bunch of fabric too - these were fabrics that I had bought, but then couldn't figure out how to work them into a project. Problem solved!

I'm taking the little princess for her back-to-school haircut, to buy school shoes, and to her school to drop off her supplies Monday. School starts next week!!!

Have a fantastic weekend!

Playing with Fabric

2011-07-29T10:47:00.001-04:00

while I'm knocking out the laundry blob before the weekend.

My best friend and quilting buddy and I ran into the local quilt shop back in November 2009 and found all the Kaffe Fasset fabric on sale we went crazy. However, I have been pondering what to do with it. Today I laid the yellows/oranges/red out and I think I might do a Quick Trip Around the World (Eleanor Burns) since I haven't ever made one...hmmm

I'm going to think some more.

9:00 p.m. update: I ran a bunch of errands after laundry was done - picked up dog food, some Christmas presents for Em (yes, I looked at Allie's Christmas through the year latest post and figured I'd get started), and did some back to school shopping for the little Cutie Pie :)

Came home around 2:30 and made the backing for Hip to Be Square, so it's all ready to be quilted :)

Have a fabulous weekend!

8:30 a.m. Feels Like 110 Degrees

2011-07-24T09:06:00.001-04:00

According to the local television station that's the heat index about fifteen miles up the road from us. Ours is a "cool" 96 degrees. This morning when I woke up at 7:15, the windows were all steamed up because it is so humid - yuck!

Yesterday morning, my best friend and quilting buddy called me to see if I wanted to take a ride up to the big quilt store. I hurried up and made the backing for "Hi There Horton" so it could be dropped off to be quilted. We left late in the afternoon making sure we got there just one hour before closing time. We know that we can get into serious trouble if we spend too much time shopping. I picked up the fabric to back Hip to be Square, so making the backing will be my next project. I needed 6.5 yards of fabric for the backing and binding...they had 7 1/8 yards left on the bolt, so like a good citizen, I left no waste on the bolt - lol.

My plan is to drop off Hip to be Square when I pick up the Seuss quilt.

Have a nice weekend and stay cool :)

Hip to be Square Finish

2011-07-16T13:48:00.000-04:00

After spending a couple of hours fiddling around with the layout, I finally put the top together and added the borders. The top was finished about a half hour ago.

So now I have three tops that need backings. I'm not going to start any more new projects until I finish the backings for two of them because I've already got the fabric.

Have a great weekend :o)

The Ladybugs Have Landed

2011-07-15T16:25:00.001-04:00

After Em and my daughter left today, I went over to her place and made up Emily's bed with the Loveliness of Ladybugs quilt, a new eyelet dust ruffle, and new pillowcases. Then I realized that I forgot my camera, sheesh! Thank goodness for cell phone cameras.

We live in Florida and her bedroom window is on the west side, so there are insulated room darkening curtains over her window making her bedroom pretty dark. Unfortunately my cell phone camera just doesn't do a great job, but you can get the idea. I think Em will be very excited when she comes home on Sunday to find her bed made up with the new goodies :)

Tuesday Morning Started Out With a "Bang"

2011-07-12T08:37:00.003-04:00

I take Alsley out every morning for a walk so he can take care of business - because he is deaf and blind, he has to be on a leash. Well, after his walk, we came in through the garage and as I was pouring his kibble into his dish, I heard a loud boom...a seriously loud boom...scared the daylights out of me. I hesitated to open the kitchen door to the garage wondering what I would find. Well, nothing looked out of the ordinary, so I hit the garage door opener to see if there was something that hit the garage from outside. Well, the garage door opener didn't open the door...here's why:

The big spring had snapped. I just talked to the garage door people...they're headed out here this morning to replace it.

Update: The repair person is here...just as an FYI, it is a very bad idea to store your big generator in front of the back door to the garage. This poor guy is working in a hot FL garage and can't even open a door to get a breeze. It is impossible to lift the garage door without the spring because it is one of those heavy hurricane-rated doors - he said it's going to take him about an hour.

On a quilting-related note, I finished making the borders for the Hip to be Square quilt and snapped a pic this morning

Happy Tuesday :)

Hip to be Square

2011-07-09T15:01:00.003-04:00

I went to the quilt shop yesterday, returned the Bali Handpaints fat quarter bundles and looked around to see if I could find the same or similar fabrics on the bolt. I found about half of them and was able to fill in with similar batiks for the rest. The entire quilt shop emptied out to watch the final space shuttle lift off (the quilt shop is about fifteen miles from the Cape Canaveral Launch Complex). It always makes my heart pound when the space shuttle lifts off, but this time it was very sad. This final lift off signals the loss of a lot of jobs around the Space Coast and the ripple effects are going to be severe in this already stressed economy :(

I got home around 1:30, pressed the fabrics, cut out the 12.5" solid blocks and then went to pick up Miss Em. We had a fabulous evening of tea parties and makeovers using her jewelry. She is going to be four on the 18th of July and is so excited. She keeps mentioning that she's too big for a lot of her old toys and the booster seat at the dining room table because she's a big girl now. I'm going to go over and make up her bed with the Loveliness of Ladybugs quilt and pillowcases next Sunday while she's out so it will be a surprise. I picked up a pretty white eyelet dust ruffle for her bed too.

I cut and sewed blocks for the Hip to be Square quilt for a couple of hours last night, got up early this morning and continued. I finished the last of the blocks around 2:00. I've been playing with the layout for awhile now, see?

I have to say that when you're working with blocks that finish at 12.5" the top is done in a jiffy. I still have to cut a bunch of 4.5" squares for the borders, but that will have to wait for another day.

I hope you all are having a great weekend!

Buyer Beware

2011-07-06T21:25:00.003-04:00

I learned a valuable lesson. When you buy a fabric bundle, unbundle, unfold the fabrics, and take a good look at the fabric pieces before you drive away from the store's parking lot, especially if it's a long drive from home. Remember the Hoffman Bali Handpaint Fat Quarter Bundles I bought last week? Take a look at these pics - the fabrics in entire first bundle are cut so skewed that they can't be used as fat quarters. If I squared them up, I'd lose at least an inch off each side. The second bundle is slightly skewed, but I think I can make it work. What is so shocking is that the fat quarters are very skimpily cut - huge disappointment - and these bundles are expensive!

I bought a new iron and was all excited to run home tonight and get this fabric pressed so I could start cutting on Friday. Now I have to go back to the quilt shop - I'm calling them tomorrow to make sure they'll take the one bundle back in exchange for another one, but it's about a 20 mile drive each way. Grrrr.
7/7/11 Update: I talked to the shop owner and she doesn't have any more of the "Honeysuckle" bundles, so she's going to take them back...perfect! I'll head up there tomorrow to see what else I can find :)

One Fish Two Fish...

2011-07-03T20:19:00.001-04:00

*Happy Dance*

Finished the second binding today :o)

The Front...

and the back

Yippee! Tomorrow I can start pressing and cutting the Hoffman Bali Handpaints!

7/4/2011 Update: Ummm...no pressing the Hoffman Bali Handpaints this morning. My iron died yesterday

:o(

I hope you all have a wonderful and safe Independence Day.

It's a zoo!

2011-07-02T18:51:00.002-04:00

An Urban Zoo that is. This is one of the projects I picked up from the local quilt shop yesterday. I finished hand sewing the binding on today while enjoyng a wonderful visit with my Mom :o)

I wish I had one of those great cameras with the filter for bright sunlight - the colors in these pictures don't appear as vibrant as they really are in person.

A close up of the front. This was quilted in a meander pattern with chartreuse thread.

Kona Medium Grey was used for the backing with Kona Cactus accent stripes and a few Urban Zoo squares pieced in.

Close up of the back

One more binding to go before I can cut into those fabulous Hoffman Bali Handpaints!

There was a little girl who had a little curl...

2011-07-01T21:21:00.003-04:00

in the middle of her forehead
when she was good, she was very, very good,
but when she went to the quilt shop, she was horrid

Lol...okay... so substitute "little girl" with "middle aged woman"

I went to pick up a couple of projects that were quilted at a shop up the road. After I checked out and put the quilts in the car, I grabbed one of my Groupon coupons I had bought ($25 worth of fabric for $12 - how could I pass that up?) and headed back into the shop to see what I could find.

I have had the "Hip to be Square" pattern for a long time, but never found the perfect fabrics. Well, today I did.

I saw these Hoffman Bali Handpaints batik bundles and instantly fell in love. Of course, the pattern calls for half yards, so I bought two bundles. I also needed a one yard piece of focal fabric - I picked the fabric at the bottom because it incorporates the browns, rusts, beiges, and teals. I can't wait to start cutting, but I have to bind the two quilts I picked up today before I start another project.

I came home and made the binding for each quilt and machine sewed them on. I'm working on the hand sewing tonight, but wanted to take a break and share my quilty excitement :)

Sewfest June 2011!

2011-06-19T10:33:00.001-04:00

This weekend my Best Friend and Quilting Buddy hosted Sewfest again - what fun we had! Sewing, eating, talking, eating, sewing, eating - lol! It's so much fun to see all the cute projects the others are making. I was pretty productive too:

A couple more pillowcases to go with Em's Loveliness of Ladybugs quilt

A pillowcase dress for Em's birthday

Another Hushabye diaper bag

The Highs :) and the Looooowwwws :( of Quilting

2011-06-11T20:58:00.005-04:00

First...the "Highs" of quilting *happy dance* :)

I finished two pillowcases to go with Em's Loveliness of Ladybugs quilt...her birthday is next month and I can't wait to see her reaction when she opens the package with it inside. I found a cute white eyelet dust ruffle to put on her bed too. I have one more set of pillowcases to make that are a little more subdued, but will match this quilt as well.

Now for the "Lows" of quilting (a.k.a. the pits) :(

Remember my post, Two Strips Short of a Binding, where I was wondering if anyone had a strip or two of Lila Tueller Santorini fabric because I was a little more than a strip short to be able to bind the table runner? Well I had found a sold-ish purple and wound up piecing it with the strip of Santorini that I had. It turned out nicely, see?

So, why is this a "low" you ask? Let me show you *sigh*

Just a little while ago, after I was done sewing for the day, I was putting away the scraps of ladybug fabric in my stash that is in the entertainment center (one of many stashes around the house) when a pile of fabric tipped over (think avalanche) and a big strip of fabric... Santorini...landed right at my feet.

I wanted to cry :(

but then I looked at the table runner again

and I really like it the way it is :)

Another Finish

2011-06-03T18:23:00.002-04:00

I spent almost the entire day today making the borders for the Gold Rush quilt and putting them on - it was quite a pain, but I'm so pleased with the result. The borders are pieced so that diagonal light lines from the four-patch blocks extend out into them. The only part that made me nervous was that since I had to match so many seams and couldn't just measure out equal border lengths to ensure the quilt was square I feared that I might wind up with a wonky quilt, but it all worked out okay.

Alsley checked it out and seems to approve

Then Mr. Sweetie Boy went back to dreamland :)

So now I have four finished tops - I just have to hit the lottery so I can afford to get some quilting done. This Gold Rush quilt finished 102" x 102" so it will be an "investment" - LOL

Have a great weekend!

Fabric Wrastlin'

2011-06-01T22:06:00.001-04:00

Every time I make a big (huge) quilt and I get to the point where the rows are getting sewn together, I ask myself why I chose to make such a big, heavy, unweildy quilt. There's so much fabric to deal with that I feel like I've been fabric wrastlin' - pinning, sewing, and pressing are all a wrestling match...but today I triumphed! I did some sewing with my best friend and quilting buddy today. She got six pillowcases made and I finally sewed the rows together for the Gold Rush quilt. It is supposed to have borders added on, but when I auditioned it on my very high queen-sized bed, the quilt is huge already! See?

I'm breaking out in a cold sweat thinking about what it's going to cost to get this sucker quilted - yikes!

2 Strips Short of a Binding

2011-05-31T09:50:00.003-04:00

I don't know about you all, but I save my leftover binding strips. I figure that I can make a scrappy binding by sewing them together, or perhaps use them to bind another small-ish project. Well, I was going to finish my second "leftovers" project trying to use up fabrics from previous finishes. I had some stacked coin strips left over from the Stacked Drachmae project and enough of the Kona Sunflower to make a small table runner. I finished the table runner top and quilted it, but when I went through my leftover binding, there's only enough of this Lila Tueller Santorini for half the table runner :(

Do any of you have a 2.5" strip of this or one of the other Santorini coordinates that you would be willing to part with? I need a total of 60" to get around the other two sides. I'd be happy to send you a nice fat quarter of something else in return :)

Throw Pillow Covers

2011-05-28T21:49:00.001-04:00

Remember last year when I made the batik strip tube quilt? I had some leftover strips from the piano key borders, some of the marbled purple batik, and some leftover purple print batik that was used for the quilt backing. These strips and pieces had been laying around my sewing room since last July while I decided what to do with them. I initially thought I would make a table runner, but just wasn't inspired until I saw some pillow forms on sale at Joann's. Since I didn't know off hand how much fabric I had at home, I bought one rectangular and one square pillow form. Then, this happened today...

I was happily surprised that there was enough fabric to make three of them.

There is another "leftovers" project that's been hanging around for a loooong time in my sewing room that may pop up finished before the weekend is over :)

1800's Blended Fabrics Giveaway Winner

2011-05-21T18:27:00.001-04:00

The True Random Number Generator has been used and the winner is:

The twelfth comment was left by Eileen of Ladybug Lovelies. Congratulations Eileen!

Who wants some free fabric?

2011-05-15T10:13:00.000-04:00

This fabric will not be on everybody's "must have" list, but fans of Victorian/1800's will probably want to throw their names in the hat for it. Please note that I will only ship this fabric to an address within the continental United States. The fabrics are Antique 1800's Blends by Sharon Yenter from In the Beginning Fabrics. There are a few fat quarters, larger pieces, and a lot of smaller pieces left over from this Antique 1800's Blended quilt that I made last year.

Here are the fabrics

Just leave a comment - I'll pick the winner next Saturday 5/21/2011.

Spring 2011 Blogger's Quilt Festival Entry

2011-05-13T21:29:00.007-04:00

I've wrestled with picking a quilt for a few of the Blogger's Quilt Festivals in the past, but this time it was an easy decision.

This quilt, which I have named, "A Loveliness of Ladybugs," was my first ever applique project. The pattern was purchased at Underground Quilts at Pike Place Market in Seattle while on vacation with some of my quilting buddies back in 2007 - the pattern is Ladybugs on Parade. If you want to read about one of our madcap quilt shop adventures during the trip, click here.

I collected about fifteen different green batiks for the nine-patch background blocks and this blue fabric with ladybugs for the nine-patch centers

The ladybug bodies were pieced and then the heads were applique'd - here's a collage pictures of the blocks in progress

If you would like to read more about this quilt, related posts are linked under "Applique" on the sidebar to the right.

Once the quilt top and backing were finished, they were sent off to the awesome Angela of QuiltingIsMyTherapy.com who did an amazing job of quilting it. See? There are more close-up pictures of Angela's quilting on her blog - just follow the previous link.

She quilted Grammy "hearts" Emily and Emily's name into the quilt in several places (you might have to click on the picture to see it more clearly)

This quilt will be a present for my sweet granddaughter, Emily, for her fourth birthday in July.

Thank you for stopping by and enjoy the rest of your "site"seeing :)

Click here to return to the Blogger's Quilt Festival

Urban Zoo Quilt Backing

2011-05-09T22:25:00.000-04:00

Just a quick post and pic of a finished backing for the Michael Miller Urban Zoo quilt.

I used Kona Medium Gray for the backing and decided it was awfully blah. It definitely needed something to add a little interest. Two strips of Kona Zucchini and three left over squares of Urban Zoo did the trick :)

Has it really been that long?

2011-05-07T19:08:00.002-04:00

I logged into Blogger to post a couple of pictures and my last post was April 17th. I'm shocked that it's been so long. Not much sewing has been going on, but this morning I decided to get the borders on the 2 Dr. Seuss quilt tops that have been sitting on my dining room table for a month (along with that Michael Miller Urban Zoo quilt top).

First, I got the borders on the baby quilt which will be about 46" x 56" when it is finished. Since there were no blocks using the yellow border fabric around the edge of the quilt, it didn't need an inner border. This is a nice size for a baby quilt - plenty big enough for tummy time without being too big to be portable.

Next, I tackled the larger quilt which will be a good size for a young child as a snuggly quilt for the couch or bed (58" x 67"). This one had blocks made up of the border fabric along the edge. I had auditioned the colorful coordinate stripe in my earlier post, but I wasn't thrilled with it and the feedback wasn't encouraging. Since I didn't really want to make the quilt a "boy quilt" or "girl quilt," I hesitated about the inner border. This morning as I was plowing through my stripe stash, I found a half yard of wonky black and white stripe fabric that looks like a coordinate stripe, but since there was nothing on the selvage I'm not sure. What I do know is that it worked nicely as a break between the blocks and the border, see?

As always, Alsley was "guarding" the quilt from his bed :)

I enjoyed a wonderful dinner with my Mom tonight (an early Mother's Day celebration). We sat on the restaurant's covered patio and watched the boats go by on the intracoastal waterway. Even though it was a warm day, we sat in the shade and there was a nice cool breeze coming off the water. It was the perfect way to celebrate how blessed we are to have each other. To all you Mom's out there - have a fabulous Mother's Day!

A few tops

2011-04-17T13:40:00.004-04:00

I finally took this top outdoors to get a picture of it in natural light so the colors are true

I put these two tops together this weekend. I still need to make and add the borders. The one on the left will be a baby/toddler quilt, and the one on the right a perfect size for a young elementary school aged child to cuddle up on the couch with.

I bought two yards of the yellow "tossed" Seuss character fabric pictured below, but I'm going to have to figure something out for an inner border for the quilt on the right to separate the outer border from the blocks along the edge that contain the same fabric. I have a coordinate stripe, but I think the quilt is awfully busy as it is and adding more pattern would detract from it. I auditioned the striped fabric while the blocks were laid out on my bed, and I'm not thrilled with it. See?

Okay, I have a question for you. How many of you have slept on the couch or in another bed because your blocks were all laid out on your bed? I have two other beds in the house, but opted for the couch last night. One bed has about twelve quilts and a couple of quilt projects in-work on top of it (it's in my sewing room). The other bed is in a room that has too much light coming in through the blinds at night. It was late and I wasn't sure the layout was final. I was too tired to make a decision and thought it best to take a look at it in the morning with a fresh set of eyes.

I did go ahead and press the yellow border fabric, so at least I'll be ready once I decide what to do about the inner border.

It's a beautiful Sunday here on Florida's coast - finally a "cold" front came through and its only about 80 degrees. Thankfully, the oppresive humidity is gone for the time being.

I hope you're having a fabulous weekend :)

Hi There Horton!

2011-04-10T15:27:00.002-04:00

The start of a new project :)

...fabric taking over the entertainment center

...and the kitchen island

The block making process goes like this...

Hope you're having a fabulous weekend :)

A Finished Top

2011-04-09T22:01:00.004-04:00

This picture was taken under incandescent lighting, so the colors are a little off, but you'll get the idea :)

Thanks to all of you who provided your opinions as to the best color grouping - you were right, see? By the way, the green in Grouping One was the Kona lime. The color that was rejected was the olive that I had ordered thinking it would be a closer match. Silly me *sigh*

Opinions? (Part Deux)

2011-04-08T09:13:00.002-04:00

Saturday Morning Update: Grouping one is the unanimous favorite, so if my shoulder holds up, you should see a finished quilt top sometime this evening...stay tuned...

These are the correct two groupings this time. Let me know which grouping you prefer. You can click on the pictures to make them bigger if you want to get a closer look :)

Grouping One

Grouping Two

Have a wonderful Friday!

So Embarassing blushing

2011-03-31T19:12:00.001-04:00

Do you see the post below? As it turns out, one of the comments (posted by SueWis - thank you) asked the question, "Isn't there another choice between these two shades?" Well...since these are Kona cottons, the answer is, "Of course!"

Please take note of the colors that I had to strike out (in red) because I was wrong.

Here's my very embarassing story. The night I was going to place my order for the two green fabrics, I was waffling back and forth between lime and olive for the the two darker/brighter green fabrics. I was also waffling between cactus and zucchini for the lighter greens. I kept holding the large print up to my Kona color card and comparing the greens in the print to the swatches on the color card. I decided to wait until the next day and check it out in the daylight rather than under incandescent light. When I compared the colors the next day, the olive was a perfect match as was the zucchini. I ordered the zucchini, but guess what other color I ordered....lime *blushing* I just rechecked my order because I couldn't believe the "olive" didn't match exactly. Well, it sure doesn't when it's actually lime green. So, I'm ordering the olive tonight.

Thank you all so much for weighing in. When the fabric comes in, I'll post pics of the fabrics again.

Opinions?

2011-03-31T11:59:00.001-04:00

Modern Warm Wishes Baby Quilt

The group above has Kona ~~Olive~~ Lime as the green solid

This group includes Kona ~~Cactus~~ Zucchini as the green solid

Which one do you prefer?

Bloom!

2011-03-28T17:38:00.001-04:00

This morning I woke up to thunder, lightning and pounding rain - my first thought was, "Oh no! This weather better not knock that bloom off the cattleya orchid!" Since I left for work in the dark this morning, I didn't know what I would find when I went out to the back yard this evening. The bloom is a little battered, but here it is :)

And...since Blogger was giving me fits with the pictures I tried to post yesterday, here's a picture of the finished tunic.

Physical Therapy

2011-03-25T18:17:00.004-04:00

I've been faithfully doing my physical therapy exercises to keep my shoulder moving and finger bending, but have really, really missed working on any projects. Unfortunately, I don't have a lot of strength in the right shoulder yet, so I couldn't tackle anything big or heavy. Soooo....I've been wanting to make a couple of pillowcases to match the quilt I made for my Mom's birthday a few years ago...the one pictured below which was made using April Cornell's Nature's Chorus by Moda

For awhile now, I've been keeping my eyes out for some of these fabrics, and found some when I went to one of the local quilt shop's anniversary sale (buy 4 yards and get 2 free). It's funny because I rarely go to this particular shop as they don't turn their inventory over very quickly and they stock a huge selection of batiks, but very little other fabric that I'm wild about. Happily, I spied two bolts of Nature's Chorus that were just perfect for a couple of pillowcases. That's the good thing about this shop not turning their inventory over quickly - this line came out 3 years ago. I honestly wonder how the shop stays in business - they were still charging $9.50/yard for it, but I got it as part of my "free" yardage. So I did my PT today by ironing, cutting and sewing these two pillowcases. It felt so good to finally do a little sewing.

I think I'll save them for Mom's 84th birthday in June. I think she'll like them :)

Spring Morning...Ahhhh :)

2011-03-20T08:53:00.002-04:00

I had my coffee out on the porch this morning and was entertained by the cardinals, doves, blue jays, squirrels and an assortment of woodpeckers who were visiting my bird feeder.

One of my friends brought me these daffodils before my surgery and they are just gorgeous almost a week later. I'm still recovering - the shoulder is doing well (except after physical therapy - ouch!), and my finger is still splinted so I can't really do anything. I'll see the surgeon this week to have the stitches in my shoulder removed, but I think the stitches in the finger will probably be in for another week since they are in the knuckle.

I hope you're having a fabulous weekend!

Snap before you sew

2011-03-11T11:08:00.008-05:00

It is a GORGEOUS day here on Florida's East Coast - a perfect day to move the living room furniture out of the way and lay out the Gold Rush quilt. I've given the advice to lay out all your blocks and then take pictures from all angles before starting to sew them together. Case in point...

I snapped a picture and rearranged a few blocks

Took more pictures when I thought I was done...Notice anything wrong?

as much as I examined the layout of the blocks and some of the other pictures, if I hadn't taken this picture from this angle, I might have missed the fourth block up and to the left from the closest corner from this perspective...it is sideways. It would have been totally apparent once the borders were on and it was all quilted, that's for sure. So, I fixed the orientation of that block and when I was done, took a picture from every possible angle just to ensure all the blocks were oriented in the correct directions.

Alsley "guarding" the quilt

Okay from this vantage point too

Yep - still fine with the orientation of the lights

and the darks

Ready to sew!

I'm sewing with a heightened sense of urgency because I'm having surgery next week on my right shoulder and that pesky right middle finger that has developed so much scar tissue that I can't bend it. It's a quick outpatient procedure, but I'm not going to be doing much sewing for awhile :(

Have a fabulous day!

6:15 pm Update...Got all the blocks sewn into 13 rows and snapped a picture just as the sun was getting low in the sky. I'll press them tomorrow.

I'm praying for all the poor people affected by the earthquake and tsunami waves. I had the television on while I was arranging and sewing. It is so horrific to see the footage. Makes me happy to live in Florida - I'll deal with a hurricane any day - at least there's a window of opportunity to get out of its way before it hits.

Have a nice evening!

Chain, Chain, Chain...

2011-03-06T23:16:00.001-05:00

I've got that song running through my brain tonight - see why?

These are Gold Rush Blocks...96 of them in case you're interested.

Once all were pressed and added to the ones already made, I've got168 blocks ready to be trimmed and made into a king sized quilt. That's going to have to wait for another weekend though.

Hope you had a great weekend!

I really have been sewing...

2011-03-05T08:47:00.003-05:00

I'm still working on putting those Gold Rush blocks together and I'm hoping to get them done by the end of the weekend. I did finish 135 4" four patch blocks and am now putting them together with the light and dark squares.

As you can see, I still haven't changed the ironing board cover. Yikes! It does look icky, doesn't it?

I was up bright and early with the birds this morning to put together some Emeril's Classic New Orleans Bread Pudding. I don't use the spiced cream recipe shown in this recipe, rather I prefer his recipe for Kentucky Bourbon Sauce with this bread pudding.

Bringing it to a Mardi Gras dinner tonight (after it is cooked of course) - yum!

Hot out of the oven...mmmmm :)

Shocked and more than a little pissed off

2011-03-04T22:57:00.001-05:00

Remember my last post when said I mailed my seven month old Canon camera in for warranty repair service? I received a package today and was thrilled that it was fixed so quickly. Well, when I opened the package there was a note attached to a box inside the package.

Check out the label on the box containing the camera...REFURBISHED?!!!!

Here's my annotated version of the "note"

Dear Valued Customer: [yeah right...like I believe that]

Thank you for giving us the opportunity to be of service. [hmm... you call this service?]

Since repairs are not performed on the camera model you sent for repair, [wth? the warranty card didn't mention that] we have shipped a new or factory-refurbished product to you in exchange for your originial unit. [ummm...the camera was only 7 months old and I paid good money for it, plus $20 to ship it to Canon Factory Service with insurance...a refurbished camera is not a fair exchange in my opinion].

I am so disappointed! This is customer service at it's worst! You can bet they're going to hear from me about the "exchange" they made for the camera I sent in. Talk about a company not standing behind their product! Grrrrr!

The camera is a Canon PowerShot A3100IS...word to the wise...keep this experience in mind if you're thinking about buying one.

Sewing, Pressing, Cutting

2011-02-26T22:28:00.002-05:00

Made some progress on more Gold Rush blocks today. Unfortunately, the camera I purchased less than a year ago stopped working, so the best I can do is provide pictures taken with my phone :( I mailed the camera off to the Canon service center yesterday, so it should be repaired under warranty (it's only 7 months old).

Here are the beginnings of 72 Gold Rush blocks stacked up on my well-used ironing board...I think it's time for a new cover.

These are stacks of pairs that will be sewn into little four-patch blocks like these

Have a fabulous weekend!

Celebration!

2011-02-19T18:24:00.002-05:00

Time to celebrate the arrival of gorgeous weather in Florida! As you can see from the picture below, even the oak trees are celebrating (or maybe the neighbors' maples)! Doesn't this look like confetti on my walkway? They're some sort of whirly seed pods.

Got up early and took a nice long walk around the neighborhood - it was a perfect way to fit a little exercise into the day. Came home and vacuumed the house, stripped the bed and threw in some laundry, cleaned everything in the screened in porch, including the floor, and cleaned the gutters. After finishing up the chores, I took a shower and ran to the grocery store. This evening, I made a nice salad, some fresh fettucine with garlic, oil and shaved parmesan and enjoyed a nice glass of wine. Working on a second glass right now while sitting on the porch enjoying the twilight sounds of chirping, some neighborhood kids playing, the neighbor's parrot who is having a blast, and the leaves rustling on the trees - aaaaahhhhh...

I hope you all have a great weekend!

Field Trip!

2011-02-13T14:55:00.003-05:00

Have any of you ever taken your quilts on a field trip?

Today, we visited the park...

and the beach

it was a very good day :)

Just realized that my picture watermark still shows "2010"...guess since it's mid-February, it's time to update it *sigh*

Binding A Loveliness of Ladybugs

2011-02-11T21:39:00.003-05:00

Last night I finally made the binding for Emily's Ladybug quilt and sewed it on. I sewed one end down this evening and clipped a side to maybe work on tomorrow.

I also happened to find another Grammy "hearts" Emily hidden in the quilting that was done by Angela (click on the picture below to see it better) Her quilting is amazing!

I have put off doing the binding mainly because my shoulder has been hurting a lot, and remember the surgery I had on my finger to remove this last summer?

Well, the knuckle is all swollen and sore again :( So, between the shoulder and the finger (both on my right), I can't do a whole lot of hand sewing. I'm seeing the orthopedic surgeon on the 21st, so I suspect that I'll be having some work done on the shoulder in the near future. On the bright side, if something is going on with the finger again, he can take care of that at the same time.

Well, I'll leave you with a picture of my little old boyfriend all snuggled up in his bed - the Stacked Drachmae quilt has become his during this cold winter...yes, it has been cold even in Florida for the second year in a row.

Have a wonderful weekend!

blushing

2011-02-06T08:17:00.001-05:00

So...here it is...February, and which of my projects have I finished so far this year? Not one *sigh*

I went to a quilting retreat in January, sewed for two days straight, and managed to get about 76 blocks made for the Gold Rush quilt, so I'm about halfway done. Here's a picture of several blocks all laid out.

...and one of my coworkers asked me if I would make several pillows and two black out curtains for his new house, so I did finish those. The fabric draped over the back of the sofa was what was used for the curtains. As you may have surmised...the entire house must be a "man cave."

I hope you have a great Super Bowl Sunday!

Great Giveaway!

2011-01-23T07:41:00.004-05:00

Hop on over to Lila Tueller's blog before this coming Friday and get your entry in! She's giving away a fat quarter bundle, two layer cakes, and two charm packs of her Isabella by Riley Blake!

http://lilatuellerdesigns.blogspot.com/2011/01/its-giveaway-time-again.html

Can you picture a couple of slideshow quilts with the fat quarter bundle or a couple of filmstrip quilts with the layer cake and charm pack?

I said I wouldn't do it...

2011-01-15T10:07:00.004-05:00

Make a ridiculous list of projects to accomplish this year. So I'm not. I do want to set a few projects as goals however, because I know how I am. I tend to do a lot of drifting from project to project and then wind up with a mess of half-done projects in which I tend to lose interest. So here's my list - it is short, but pretty sweet :)

Bind Em's Ladybugs on Parade quilt

Finish the Hushabye Diaper Bag that is 3/4-done

Finish the Gold Rush Quilt with Moda Autumn Breeze fabrics

Make Em a lunchbag for next year

Make Em a pillowcase dress with Monaco by Monaluna

Make Em a modkid isabel birthday dress with Anna Maria Horner and Valorie Wells voile

As you can see, It's pretty much all about Em (as it should be - LOL)

First Project of 2011

2011-01-05T20:10:00.002-05:00

I was shocked when I put together the picture collage of last year's projects and counted 16 quilts. I have no such expectations for this year because, frankly, that was too much sewing and toward the end of the year quilting began to feel like another job. So... I have set no sewing goals for this year other than to enjoy what I work on :)

The first project for this year is going to be a Gold Rush quilt using Autumn Breeze fat quarters that I bought a couple of years ago and a variety of light neutral fat quarters from my stash.

I'm going to have to pick up some more netural light fat quarters at some point, but I think I've got enough to get a good head start on this project. After finishing up the fat quarter pressing and cutting, I decided to make four blocks just so I could see how they'd look when laid out, see?

I think I'm going to like this quilt.

2010 Sewing Projects

2010-12-31T09:25:00.000-05:00

Top Row:
Six Jelly Bean Pillowcases, Two Odyssea Filmstrip Quilts, Two Dr. Seuss Pillowcases, Two Slideshow Quilts, A Loveliness of Ladybugs

Second Row:
Snapshots Quilt, Alexander Henry Lawn Tunic, Taxi Bag, Hawaiian Print Pillowcase Dresses, Owl and Snail Pillowcase Dress

Third Row:
Cinderella Costume; Raggy Flannel Quilt made with Receiving Blankets; Panache Stacked Coin Quilt; Santorini Stacked Drachmae Quilt; Hushabye Bag

Fourth Row:
Pink Hushabye Filmstrip Quilt; Aqua Hushabye Filmstrip Quilt, Cour de Chateau (Courtyard) Quilt, Anna Maria Horner Voile Tunic, Two Short Sets

Fifth Row:
Paris Cats Nap Mat Cover, Kiwiberry Bali Pop Strip Tube Quilt, Spring Meadow Stacked Coin Quilt, Batik Mini Miranda Bag, Bug Warm Wishes Quilt

Almost Forgot:

1800's Blended Quilt

Bali Moons Table Runner

I wish you all a happy, healthy and prosperous 2011!

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-25T19:26:00.000-05:00

...a wonderful day

Bali Moons

2010-12-17T20:51:00.000-05:00

Headed to the quilt shop this morning to hunt for binding fabric for kitchen island runner. I really hoped to find a batik to match the inner border and cornerstones, but no luck. Instead, I auditioned several others until I found "the one." Once home, I made the binding and sewed it on...Voila'

This will probably be my last finish for this year and I'm good with that.

I've noticed several people have done collages of their 2010 finishes....hmmm....might be a good project for me to work on :)

Well I never...ever....

2010-12-08T19:56:00.003-05:00

ever, ever, ever....

could have imagined what an amazing quilting job ANGELA did on the Ladybugs on Parade quilt. Check these pictures out - click on the images to get a really good look at the quilting!

Center

Closed Ladybug

Flying Ladybug

and the best part of all ... look very closely at the quilting :)

I always write Grammy Loves (heart) Emily on Em's quilts, but this time it is quilted in - I love this so much :)

Angela, I can't thank you enough!

A Long Time Coming

2010-11-26T14:52:00.004-05:00

First off...A belated Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. I didn't realize that I hadn't posted since the beginning of the month. It's been a very busy one, and to be honest, a stressful one. Things at work are crazy, and I'm exhausted.

We had a very nice Thanksgiving, but I'm always stunned at the time and effort that goes into Thanksgiving dinner and before you know it, everyone has eaten and left. It's amazing. I finished the last of the clean up this morning and then decided I was going to do some sewing.

So today is "black Friday" - the beginning of the hellish commercialized frenzy that is the "Holiday Season." I believe in celebrating the Christmas Season, and I'm having no part of this holiday madness. The television is off, the CD player is on and I finished putting the Bali Moons table runner top together. I'm really glad that I made it a little shorter - it is plenty big enough as it is. Here is a picture of it on the kitchen island.

I think I may quilt this with wavy horizontal lines because it would be easy to do and similar to the whispy clouds that sometimes partially obscure the full moon :)

Something Sweet...Is Complete

2010-11-07T13:50:00.002-05:00

Six pillowcases to help with some sweet dreams :)

The two green ones are for Em and the others for her half sister and three step sisters (they range from about twelve to four years old). Whenever her father brings them over to my daughter's house to pick Em up for the weekend, the girls comment about Em's pillowcase collection. I think she will enjoy giving these as Christmas presents.

I hope you all are having a wonderful weekend! I am for sure. The weather has been perfect - lows in the 40's and highs in the 60's. I'm sipping my third cup of coffee and smelling the pumpkin bread baking in the oven - mmmmm.

Something Sweet - It's a Treat

2010-11-05T10:43:00.000-04:00

Guess what I'm up to?

I love this Robert Kaufman Sweet Treats fabric - makes me hungry...

There's a Wocket in my Pocket

2010-10-31T14:48:00.002-04:00

Green eggs and ham for breakfast this morning, and I hope the Grinch doesn't steal Christmas this year (only 54 more days - yikes!). I didn't get a lot of sewing done this weekend, but did manage to make these this morning.

Have a happy halloween and a great week.

Blogger's Quilt Festival

2010-10-30T08:16:00.004-04:00

Since this festival is falling over the Halloween weekend, here is a table topper that I made for my daughter and granddaughter a couple of years ago when Em was a baby. I had purchased the pattern and fabrics as a kit, but when the package arrived, several of the fabrics (including the border) had been substituted with others. Needless to say, I was very aggravated, but I did a lot of searching online and managed to find and purchase all of the original fabrics. I was very pleased once the table topper was finished. We joke that it is a $150 45" x 45" table topper, but Em is enjoying it and hopefully it will be used by generations of family to come.

This was the first time I had used prairie points along the edge of a quilt project and, in this case they really make the quilt. It is quilted in a halloween pattern that includes pumpkins, witches, etc.

Off to go trick or treating (all treats - no tricks) at all the other quilt blogger's places linked over at the Blogger's Quilt Festival. Thank you for stopping by :)

Thrown for a Curve

2010-10-24T15:40:00.005-04:00

I ordered a table runner kit from Keepsake Quilting right after the kitchen was remodeled in 2007. The kit was called "Bali Moons" and because the granite I chose was called Black Galaxy, I thought the table runner would create a moon and stars thing on the kitchen island.

Well, I started working on this project two years ago, made about eight blocks, and decided that sewing the curves was just not worth it. Because batiks don't have as much give as normal woven fabrics, I was beyond frustrated when trying to sew all these curves, so I quit working on this project. Over the past few months, my best friend and quilting buddy and I have been discussing how depressing it has become to look at all the half finished projects laying around, so I decided to knuckle down and finish the blocks for this project over this weekend or pitch it. It was not fun, but I pushed through it and finished the blocks. I cut down the size of the table runner by three blocks though - is that cheating? Seriously, the finished size as designed is 60.5" x 20" and since I had ruined a couple of the blocks, I decided that 55.5" x 20" is plenty big enough.

I'll work on sewing the blocks together next weekend.

I hope you all have had a great weekend :)

Oh What a Beautiful Mornin'!

2010-10-16T08:21:00.000-04:00

Yes, the song from Oklahoma! is running through my mind. It's in the mid-50's sunny, gorgeous, and best of all, it's Saturday! Every window and door in the house is open - woo hoo!

This is just a quick post to do a send-off for the second Filmstrip Quilt made with a Momo Odyssea layer cake. It is headed to Em's school for a Dinner Auction being held as a fund raiser, so hopefully it will fetch a nice price.

It is backed with Bistro by Deb Strain (love this fabric - I bought all that the LQS had because it was on sale). The colors in this fabric coordinated beautifully with those in the Odyssea prints, see? In this picture you can also see the quilting pattern - water ripples with litle fish - could it be any better?

Have a fabulous weekend!

Latest sewing project

2010-10-11T18:05:00.000-04:00

I haven't done any quilting lately. Instead, I have been busy working on Em's Cinderella dress.

I still have to hem it once Em tries it on and then sew a hook and eye above the zipper. I'm pleased with the costume, but boy was this fabric a pain to work with - slippery and frayed like crazy, plus the sewing machine balked at the sparkly dots on the fabric.

Tackling the elephant

2010-10-03T09:45:00.002-04:00

In the entertainment center...

under the bed in the sewing room...

in the sewing room closet (hanging backing fabrics since they are 4-10 yard pieces)..

in the closet drawers (note to self: clean out closet - what a mess!)...

hiding in the keyboard drawer of the old computer desk which is now a fabric holding desk...

I spent part of yesterday going through some of my scraps, cutting them into 2.5" squares and 2.5" strips. I can use the scrap strips to make more scrappy trip blocks for the quilt top I started last summer.

This is probably about four hours of pressing fabric and cutting - seems like an awful lot of time for a small amount of progress, but it is progress.

I hope you all are having a fabulous weekend.

Putting things in perspective

2010-09-26T22:55:00.004-04:00

I spent most of this weekend seething, crying, and generally feeling sorry for my poor self. I posted about the hassle with the car last Thursday. Friday the saga continued as I dropped the car off at the auto body shop and picked up a rental car. It was raining. It was hot. I'm so tired of hot and humid.

Friday night I was on the computer and all of a sudden I get a "Microsoft Security Essentials Alert" pop up telling me I have a Unknown Win32 trojan virus. I couldn't do anything. No internet. No Task Manager. I was livid - seething - so mad all I could do is cry. I stayed up until after midnight fussing with the computer to no avail.

Saturday morning I machine sewed the binding on the second Slide Show quilt and headed over to my best friend and quilting buddy's house and spent most of the day over there doing the hand sewing. We had a nice time, but I was weepy while I was over there and when my mother called I was short and snappy (in a bad way).

This morning I was wondering if I needed some medication for depression. I finished hand sewing the binding on the quilt, but couldn't get the computer virus taken care of, so I was still weepy and angry. Finally, I turned off the stereo because it was irritating me, sat down on the couch, and took a couple of deep breaths. Then it dawned on me - I got perspective.

First of all, the car and the computer are not essential for survival - in reality, they are necessary to maintain my lifestyle, but not for my survival. My pity party and anger just dissipated when I realized that my well fed duff is parked on a comfy sofa in an air conditioned house, I have a kitchen with refrigerated food, clean water, and I have a healthy family. If I were a mother in Pakistan in 118 degree heat in a refugee camp watching my children fall ill or worse, then I would have something to be angry and cry about. Good grief - I am so blessed to have the kinds of inconveniences (not problems) that I have. So, the pity party came to a quick halt and I quickly said a prayer of thanksgiving for this perspective.

...and obviously, the whole computer issue is fixed. Tonight I simply downloaded the files I needed onto the
Blackberry, plugged it into the computer and transferred the fix to my desktop. That's how the virus got cleared up. Going to bed tonight with a happy heart and knowing that I am truly blessed :)

A Loveliness of Ladybugs on the Wing

2010-09-24T11:35:00.007-04:00

Today started out much better than yesterday :) This morning I sent the ladybug quilt top, backing and batting off to Angela and so I thought I would look up the term used for a group of ladybugs - so now you know...it's a loveliness of ladybugs :)

Yesterday was a bummer - started out with a real "bang." I was headed to Em's school for a Grandparent's day celebration and was all excited to see the little pumpkin in action. I was driving along one of the major roads around here and when I stopped in traffic, the car behind me did not. If that wasn't bad enough, some of the people driving past the accident were so busy gawking instead of driving that another much worse accident happened right next to ours. There is a very high concentration of morons on the roads around here. So my pristine, beautiful vehicle that didn't even have a scratch (and with less than 15,000 miles on it) looked like this

Of course, the driver who rear-ended me was faulted, but when I got to work later and called the insurance company listed on the police report, I found out there's some issue with their insurance. Again, this is FL, so there is a high likelihood that the insurance card they provided was nothing more than a worthless piece of paper. So - I'm going to vent here.

I do the responsible things, maintain insurance, maintain proper distance from the vehicles around me, keep my vehicle in proper working order, don't yak on the cell phone while driving, etc. Why is it then that I'll likely wind up penalized for being responsible? After speaking with my insurance company - a well known nationwide insurer, I found out that even though I have uninsured motorist coverage, that this coverage doesn't pay my deductible if it turns out in fact that these people had no insurance. It only covers medical-related expenses. Furthermore, the driver appears to be a real dirtbag who doesn't have two nickels to rub together. So, I'm probaby going to wind up paying out the money for my deductible for a crash I didn't cause.

I dropped the car off this morning at the auto body shop, and the owner of the shop told me that about 50% of the accident repairs he performs involve a driver hit by someone with no insurance *sigh*

At least I had my Blackberry with me so I could capture the whole experience for posterity.

Sunday Already?

2010-09-19T14:08:00.003-04:00

Time sure flies when you're having fun, so the saying goes. This has been a fun-filled weekend for sure. I had my little Em for awhile Saturday afternoon and we had such a nice time - she is a little dynamo and loves to make up all sorts of stories. It is hilarious!

The binding for one of the Slideshow quilts has been sewn on. This one is going to a young Mom with three boys ranging from six-years old to two or three. She is expecting a little girl in early October, and is so excited (Can you blame her? Three boys? That's what I call perseverance!)

The binding for the second Slideshow quilt has been made, but I didn't feel like doing anymore hand sewing this weekend, so that will have to wait. The ladybug quilt backing has been finished, so the top, backing, and some batting will be making it's way to Missouri so Angela can work her magic on it.

I also starting making another hushabye tote/diaper bag with some left over charm squares, but I'm done sewing for this weekend.

I hope you all have a great week!

Getting my sticky dot thimble thingies out

2010-09-15T07:08:00.005-04:00

I can't remember exactly what they are called, but my best friend and quilting buddy gave me these sticky dots that are made of moleskin-like material. They can be used in lieu of a thimble, you just stick them on your finger (they can be used over and over too) and get going on the hand sewing. They are one of the best inventions ever. Unfortunately, I don't have the package so I can't tell you who makes them.

The reason I need the sticky dots is because...look what came home from the quilter last night

The two slideshow quilts :) and yes, I'm using the red Christmas Cheery Circles fabric that's laying on the table for the binding. By the way, this is the third cut of this fabric I have bought. Wondering why? Read the story here.

There's a new project swirling around in my head that I may want to make for the mother of one of my daughters' friends. Both of my daughters have been friends with this girl since kindergarten. Her Mom is giving Emily a full size mattress set that has been in her guest bedroom and has been used only a couple of times. What a fabulous thing! Since she won't accept money for the mattress set, I'm going to make her a quilt. Here are some candidate fabrics.

I have to find out what colors she likes though - the colors and patterns in these fabrics are very bold and may not work in her house. I purchased them quite some time ago, and if they are right, I'll need to get a yard of the olive-ish green fabric to mix in. I checked the Kona Cotton color card and the peridot green is also a perfect match in case I can't find the coordinate I'm looking for. My daughter is going to scope out the colors in her home when she goes to pick up the mattress set.

Finally - and most importantly - Angela from Quiltingismytherapy has agreed to quilt the ladybug quilt. I am so excited because I wanted the green/blue nine-patch blocks quilted with green thread and the ladybugs quilted with matching/blending threads. The local quilt shop does a great job quilting as long as they can set the computer and just let it go, but that's not what I wanted for this quilt. Can you imagine green quilting all over the ladybug blocks? Since Angela does such fabulous quilting and knows just how use quilting to turn a quilt into a work of art, I couldn't imagine handing this quilt over to anyone else. I want Emily, her children, her grandchildren, her great-grandchildren...to enjoy this quilt so the quilting has to be just right.

Have a great day :)

Quilting in the Sunshine State

First 2012 Finish

Prepping for Super Bowl Sunday

It's coming together

Another Sneak Peek

A sneak peek

Happy New Year!

A Look Back at 2011 in Pictures

Final Finish of 2011

Happy Day After Christmas

Wishing You a Merry Christmas

Sign of the Season

Ninety Blocks in Two Days

What a Wonderful Surprise!

On Thistle, on Peridot, on Apricot, on Mocha!

Black Friday Sew Day

Happy Thanksgiving

First Things First

A time to cry

Do you have a "go to" pattern?

Fall 2011 Blogger's Quilt Festival

Whooooo Hooooo's the Monkey?

Zoology Major

The Halloween Goodie Bags

8 Pound Bundle of Joy :)

What was and what is to come (I hope)

Ahhhhh....Autumn

I've Gone a Little Batty

First Day of Autumn

Sneeze, Sniffle, Snort...

Don't You Just Love It When....

Finished Monkey Business Top

A Potential Stash Buster?

Happy 15th Birthday!

The last of the Monkey Business

Labor Day Weekend Monkey Business

Done in the nick of time...

New Day, New Plans

Let's hear it for Fridays!!

Say, "Goodbye" Horton

BTS - 2011

Pillowcases...Supersized!

Playing with Fabric

8:30 a.m. Feels Like 110 Degrees

Hip to be Square Finish

The Ladybugs Have Landed

Tuesday Morning Started Out With a "Bang"

Hip to be Square

Buyer Beware

One Fish Two Fish...

It's a zoo!

There was a little girl who had a little curl...

Sewfest June 2011!

The Highs :) and the Looooowwwws :( of Quilting

Another Finish

Fabric Wrastlin'

2 Strips Short of a Binding

Throw Pillow Covers

1800's Blended Fabrics Giveaway Winner

Who wants some free fabric?

Spring 2011 Blogger's Quilt Festival Entry

Urban Zoo Quilt Backing

Has it really been that long?

A few tops

Hi There Horton!

A Finished Top

Opinions? (Part Deux)

So Embarassing *blushing*

Opinions?

Bloom!

Physical Therapy

Spring Morning...Ahhhh :)

Snap before you sew

Chain, Chain, Chain...

I really have been sewing...

Shocked and more than a little pissed off

Sewing, Pressing, Cutting

Celebration!

Field Trip!

Binding A Loveliness of Ladybugs

So Embarassing blushing

blushing