Tuesday, June 26, 2012

what a little patchwork can do

So I couldn't just let things be! I started playing around with 2 1/2 inch squares this afternoon, and before I knew it my foxy stitching had become this....
 I had some of Cinderberry Stitches Woodland fabrics dying to be used. Amazing how the colors matched exactly (ok, maybe she did that on purpose? I'm sure she did! But it was amazing to me). I mixed in some other fabrics from my stash and it looked so cheerful. I stared at it for a bit, waiting for it to tell me whether it wanted to be a pillow or a wallhanging. In the end, pillow won out...
Doesn't it look sweet sitting on my newly painted bench? 
 Now I just need to go buy another 16 inch pillow form. I stole this one out of another pillow for the photo shoot. So nice to have a finish instead of one more work in progress, don't you think?

Monday, June 25, 2012

foxy embroidery

I've been busy hand stitching lately. You might remember a while back I won three awesome embroidery patterns from Natalie at Cinderberry Stitches. Well, I picked my favorite of the three and stitched it up during our road trip last week and a few tv shows this week....
Are those not the cutest foxes you've ever seen? And the hedgehogs! Adorable. I think I will make it into a patchwork pillow so it can sit out for everyone to see.

What have you been creating lately?

Thursday, June 21, 2012

pinterest success

As much as Pinterest sucks away my time (you know what I mean, don't you? Please tell me I am not alone!) it has been a wonderful thing in many ways. Last night my family enjoyed a new recipe that I found on Pinterest. And sewing ideas... oh heavens. I will never ever have time to do all of the projects that I have found! But some, I have. Like yesterday, when I decided to try this tutorial from Pink Penguin. 

I had bought several fat quarters of Lucy's Crab Shack from a sweet quilt shop I found on the road last weekend. Here's my first bag from the tutorial. I think it came out awesome!
 The only change i made was to add a layer of batting to the main fabric pieces, in addition to the recommended interfacing. I just like that cushy feel to my bags. This pattern is a keeper! Then last night I saw that Jennie over at Clover and Violet had done a review of this very same tutorial. Oh wow! When I saw her patchwork bag I knew exactly what I was going to do with my remaining London scraps.
I had to play with the proportions a bit to make the pieced bag work, but it was worth it!

Have you actually made/cooked/tried anything you found on Pinterest lately?

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

time flies...

Twenty-five years ago today I married my best friend & the love of my life. I had no idea then what adventures the future held for us. That God would bless us with three beautiful children. That we would move around the country and collect good friends along the way. That our love would grow and grow and that, 25 years later, we would still love spending time together. Who knew?
Today I feel so blessed.

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

swap block prayer quilt

I've been going through my stack of gray and lime green swap blocks. For several months I've been praying for a gal named Tammy who I have never met. Tammy has cancer. She is a friend of my friend Nancy, and any friend of Nancy's is a friend of mine. I have felt inspired to make Tammy a prayer quilt and decided that these bright cheerful blocks were just right for the job. I even straight line quilted it myself on my Janome. 

This morning I put the final stitches in the binding. I wanted to take some pictures of it before I take it to Nancy later. However, it's not really a pretty sunny day. You can see that I even pieced some leftover strips of gray prints for the side borders just for fun.
Hmm nice socks, Steve! Thanks for helping Mom. I pieced the back with some yardage of Denyse Schmidt fabric from Joanns that I've been hanging onto and some more swap blocks. 


 I hope it cheers her days and keeps her warm during her treatments.


Sunday, June 17, 2012

home sweet home

I am home from a fun weekend away. The four of us headed down to San Marcos to visit Texas State University. It's our first college visit for Ally & we all enjoyed it. We ate out a lot....
 While we were gone, we celebrated Hubby's birthday and Father's Day.... what a great guy! We're so lucky to have him to look after us.
 It was really REALLY hot in San Antonio when we got there! We did lots of inside stuff, or hung out down near the river where there was a breeze at least! We spent some time in the Ripleys museum. Here's Steve in the love meter chair. Just for the record, the one that is lit up says "Boring" which is just fine with Mom!
 I took my hand stitching along, the little foxes that I won from Cinderberry Stitches a while back. I actually got a lot more than this done. I'll share it with you sometime this week!
On the way home I talked the family into Sunday brunch at The Little Aussie Bakery, which is all gluten free! I had french toast for the first time in years & it was delicious! I also brought home a loaf of fresh baked gluten free bread... mmmmm!

So that's where I've been. Tomorrow it's back to the grind... laundry, grocery shopping & hopefully back to my sewing machine! Hope your weekend was as awesome as mine.

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

needlebook swap

Some days are just too windy to photograph quilts outside. You put the quilt up on the fence, and by the time you walk ten steps away and turn to focus the camera this is what you find...
 Oh well. I really can't show you that quilt anyways. Sorry!

I can show you the adorable needle books I got in the swap at The Quilt Asylum last night....
A pair! Thank you Stephanie, they are so sweet. I especially love the tiny one.... they will come in handy this weekend. I have my handwork all packed up to take on a little weekend getaway. I'm working on the lovely stitchery patterns that Natalie at Cinderberry Stitches sent to me. I'll be sure to show you what I get done on the road.

We're taking Miss Ally on her first college visit. The first one for HER I mean... she's been dragged on plenty of others in the past, forced to check out journalism schools that really didn't interest her at all. This time it's all about her and her interests. We'll be scoping out Texas State in San Marcos. They are one of the schools that offers the entire Physical Therapy program that Ally is interested in.

Ok, off I go. There is packing to do. Talk to you soon!

Saturday, June 9, 2012

lil twister ruler

Two friends of mine had both made quilts using the lil twister ruler. They were so cute! So I decided I needed to give it a try. I picked up the small ruler, for use with 5 inch squares. Pulled out some squares I already had precut, left over from my lime and gray swap blocks. Step one... sew the blocks together with 1/4 inch seams....
 Now you add a 3 inch border. I decided a black border would make it pop...
Now the cutting begins. This is the tedious part! I think if I do one again, I will clear my kitchen counter so I can walk all the way around to cut. See how you place the ruler on each intersection of four blocks?
 Here's a closer shot. The ruler has the lines drawn on it that line right up with your seam. Easy peasy!
 Twist the blocks, sew them back together... and will you look at that! Adorable.
I did add a wider black border onto the finished topper to frame it out. I'll show you once I quilt & finish it. What fun! What quilting ruler/tool is your favorite?

Thursday, June 7, 2012

double disappearing nine patch mini quilt

As if I didn't have enough distraction issues, Pinterest is going to be the death of me! I will have to live to be 200 years old to complete all of the fun projects I have discovered there. The other day I decided to try out this tutorial for a double disappearing nine patch which I first found on Pinterest. It's from a new-to-me blog called a few scraps. So I made up one block...
And when I got one block done, I saw all kinds of possible layouts for multiple blocks. So I  made three more....

Added a navy blue border and there you have it! My buddy Diann agreed to quilt it for me, then we'll put both of our names on it and submit it as a mini quilt for our guild's auction. What a fun block! And easy to do.... you should try it out.

Saturday, June 2, 2012

tick(ering) along!

I finished two more ticker tape blocks today. This olive green one (love those little elves and mushrooms! I have some fat quarters of that fabric I need to dig into!)
 And a teal blue.
 So, 22 blocks done! Two more next month but I am thinking of doing a 25th block in hot pink. Then I can put them together in a 5x5 grid for a nice sized square throw quilt. Yes, I do think that is what I'll do!
I'm so proud of myself for keeping up with this one! A whole year of ticker tape blocks and I am still enjoying the process. That's what it's all about, right? Enjoying the process? It is for me! My very favorite part of the process is hand sewing down the binding at the very end. What about you?