Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Alexander's Quilt Completed

Hello!!! I so can not believe it has been 1 week since my last post...holy cow!

Well, i haven't done much sewing but boy did we get alot of riding in! Saturday we rode up towards Indian Lake and i forgot to put on the sunscreen ... uh yeah, i was a bit fried to say the least...but that didn't stop me Sunday and Monday, however, i did remember the sunscreen those days :O)

So this evening i started doing some sewing again and i pounded out Alexander's quilt and i must say ... it looks AWESOME! Alex did a great job picking out his fabric and he so knew what he wanted! The colors look GREAT ... Way To Go Alex!!!

So here is a picture of Alexander's Wonky Block quilt ...

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Alexander's Not-So-Wonky Quilt

Well, this evening I worked on Alexander's quilt and completed the remaining 4 blocks...i'm very happy with how the 4 I did tonight look, but the one i did the other day is driving me nuts still! So, i think i'm going to take it (the middle block) apart and straighten out the red part that i made wonky...i sorta think this quilt looks awesome with the blocks squared off because of how busy the material is. It would be wonderful if i could finish this quilt this week, but it is suppose to be beautiful and in the high 70's every day thru Sunday and then just a slight chance of rain on Monday ... so i would venture to say i will have my behind parked on my Harley a good portion of my available time...but i'll finish it soon Alex ... i promise!

Hope everyone has a great week!!

Saturday, May 16, 2009

Wonky Block Number One

Ok ... so tonight i worked on the first wonky block for Alexander's quilt ... not sure i'm diggin this one ... i seem to have a problem making cuts that are not straight! I made 2 cuts that were crooked and i just wanted to straighten them out because they just aren't suppose to be crooked!!! HELP!!!! I think i'm going to make two of the outer black strips crooked...YIKES! Tomorrow i will work on some more and hopefully they will go together easier if i just tell myself it's ok to not have everything right!

Friday, May 15, 2009

Calendar Quilt April and May Blocks

I can't believe how time is flying by! I am so not one to have unfinished projects laying around, it absolutely drives me bananas!!! So ... I have finished my blocks for this calendar challenge ... yep, all 365 strips! I will post a block each month, but hope to have it assembled and quilted by the end of the summer.

Here is my block for April... and here is my block for May...

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!!!

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Opinions Wanted...

This is a loaded question, but i would love to know your opinion...how bad does the orange binding i used on my Fresh quilt clash with the border? I am debating on taking it off and doing the binding in the same material i used for the orange border ... what do you think? Is it bad enough to remove or would you just leave it as is? It will be used as decoration during the spring months. And while we are on opinions ... what color thread do you use on your quilts? I tend to use cream on most quilts, however, i am going to be doing a darker colored quilt soon and will probably use a charcoal color rather than cream since that will match it better ... do you match your thread color to all your quilts???

Saturday, May 9, 2009

Ta Dah...Matthew's Quilt Finished

how AWESOME is this!!! Matthew's quilt is finished and all i can say is Matthew you ROCK! You did an awesome job picking out this fabric and your quilt turned out so cool!

Thursday, May 7, 2009

German Chocolate Cake...YUM

THIS..... PLUS THIS....
EQUALS THIS....
ADDED TO A GERMAN CHOCOLATE CAKE EQUALS THIS....
YUM-O! I'm not a fan of coconut, but i LOVE this german chocolate frosting. It is a home-made recipe from my MIL and it is wonderful!

German Chocolate Frosting

1 cup evaporated milk

1 cup granulated sugar

3 egg yolks

1/2 cup butter

1 teaspoon vanilla

Stir on medium heat until thickened...about 12 minutes

Add 1 1/2 to 2 cups Angel Flake Coconut

1 cup chopped pecans

Mix well and let cool for about 10 minutes and then frost cake

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Matthew's Quilt Coming Along

Good Evening Peeps! Hope everyone is having a great week! Monday and Tuesday night i spent working on Matthew's Almost Irish quilt...the blocks are all cut, the 4 patch blocks are assembled and now i'm ready to attach all the blocks together to make the rows. My plan is to get the rows assembled Friday evening and then on Saturday attach the rows to each other to complete the quilt. It sounds like a great plan, so let's just hope it happens, however, the more i think about it, i'll plan on finishing it this weekend rather than Saturday! I just realized there are 11 blocks across and 13 rows :O)

The picture below is just a layout of about 12 blocks to get a feel of what it will look like. Matthew really likes the fabric of the top left block, so i think i'm going to cut some more of that to throw in...this quilt is going to be great and it sure screams MATTHEW!

Saturday, May 2, 2009

Note to Self...

Note To Self ... NEVER NEVER NEVER buy this fabric again .... Oh my goodness...it made me dizzy just cutting it and that was with my glasses on ... maybe i should have taken the glasses off and had a few margaritas !!! Love the fabric, but had to cut it with a pair or scissors so that my checks were straight. So, the material for Matthew's Almost Irish quilt is cut out and ready for me to start sewing! YEAH!!!
Hope everyone is having a GREAT weekend!

Friday, May 1, 2009

Free Fabric -- Woo Hoo

How exciting is this! The store I purchased some of the fabric for the boys was having a sale that day and because I spent a certain amount, I got a certain amount to spend at another time...so since I was from out-of-town, i picked out the fabric and they cut it while i was there and then just mailed it to me a few days later. So...here's the fabric...isn't it pretty! This week-end is suppose to be low 60's and cloudy, so i think it's going to be a weekend of yard work and a cook-out...I'm so excited for summer and it just seems like it is never going to get here...I know...it's only May 1st!

Have a great weekend!

Sunday, April 26, 2009

3 Guys and A Quilt Shop

Hello! I hope everyone had a great weekend because here in Ohio our weather was beautiful! 85 degrees and sunny all weekend!

So...this weekend I took my 3 nephews shopping for fabric for their quilts that I am going to be making them. I sent them some different patterns to choose from several weeks ago so this was the weekend to purchase the fabric...like Rachel said..."3 guys & a quilt shop...sounds like a comedy to me" ... well, it was great, they did so good and each of them had their mind made up on what they wanted prior to us going, so it was a breeze!

This material is for Michael's quilt...he wants the Whirly Giggle pattern from Crazy Mom...you can look HERE to see the pattern ... THANKS Amandajean for a great pattern! The black will be the background and the bright colors will be the giggles ... the picture doesn't do this fabric justice because it is definitely much brighter in person!

And this....this is Matthew's material for his quilt...he has picked the pattern called Almost Irish which is pictured below his material picture. This is going to be one wild and crazy quilt and I think this material will look Awesome in this pattern! Matthew did a great job picking this out!

And here, this is Alexander's...he also picked a pattern from Crazy Mom that she just did for her boys. You can find a picture of the quilt pattern HERE ... Thanks again AmandaJean! The red will be where the orange is in Crazy Moms and the black will be where she has the grey...and the other colors ... well they will make up the wonky blocks in the middle. This will definitely be one cool quilt!

I can't wait to see all these quilts completed and hope to have them completed in May ... so I guess I better quit yapping and get to the cutting and sewing!

I hope everyone has a wonderful week and if you don't hear from me, feel free to drop me a line because I'm sure I will be busy sewing and won't have time to post....but maybe i'll try to post some updates as I go...wish me luck!

PS...my nephews are big Ohio State fans and I'm a MICHIGAN fan ... do you think it's intentional that 2 of the 3 picked OSU colors for their quilt?!?! THANKS Michael for going easy on me!!!

Friday, April 24, 2009

Nothing But Kisses Charity Quilt

Earlier this year, Victoria at Bumble Beans asked for help with some scrappy 9-patch blocks for a charity quilt her daughter wanted her to make. Victoria made the above quilt and has donated it to Love Without Boundaries which is the charity that at first provided surgeries and baby formula and has grown to now providing additional services such as foster care, medical, education and nutrition programs as well.

Victoria titled the Nothing But Kisses and it has been donated to LWB for their auction that began on April 23rd and runs thru April 28th. The link to the quilt auction can be found HERE. So be sure to check out the quilt or the other great items and bid ... bid ... bid!

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Ho Hum

Hi Everyone! Well, just wanted to let you know i haven't forgotten about you, i just haven't done ANYTHING since last week so i have nothing to post about...i've been doing some spring cleaning ... washing curtains, windows, all that fun stuff ... but tonight i plan to sit back down and work on my cotton blossom quilt...i have 2 more braids to complete and hope to finish those tonight and then tomorrow night begin putting the braids together ... that should be interesting!

Until then, hope you are having a wonderful week!

Friday, April 10, 2009

HAPPY EASTER

Save the Planet Bag

Well, i finally finished my grocery bag...actually i did it a few weeks back, but realized the directions left out the info to fold the bottom piece in half also, so the bag hung from my shoulder down to my knees ... so today i cut half the bottom portion off and closed up the bag ... now i'll do another top portion and just sew the cut-off bottom portion to that and have a 2nd bag ... hope that made sense, seemed like i was rambling. Today i also made two more toe warmers to give away and did one more braid for my Sultry quilt done in Cotton Blossom...hopefully i'll be able to do some more braids this weekend ... i have 4 done and 3 more to go ... then i can start assembling the rows.

Hope everyone has a safe and wonderful Easter!

PS...you can see NeNe's travel pillow in the background

Monday, April 6, 2009

Swanky ... Yum-O

Oh how i LOVE this fabric! it is Swanky by Moda and it is so pretty!

Below is a picture of the pattern I am going to do this in. I am using the pattern called Sparkling Gemstones in the Jelly Roll Quilts book by Pam & Nicky Lintott.

This is a picture of the pattern...where there is white all around the blocks, I am going to use the pink on pink pictured above...then the floral will be the small 2 1/2" border.

On another note...my Cotton Blossom quilt isn't coming along very smoothly ... i noticed Friday evening that i wasn't going to have enough 7" strips to make the braids i needed, so i need to get some fat quarters ... when i read the directions it said you needed additional cuts from your background and border fabrics, but it didn't say you needed 45 of them!!!! So, that will be on hold for a short time, but that's ok because it will give me a chance to see if i can do some simple quilting on my table toppers ... nothing fancy, just some diagonal lines!

Hope everyone had a great Monday and the week only get better!

Happy stitching :O)

Thursday, April 2, 2009

Cotton Blossom Started

Last night i cut up my Cotton Blossom jelly roll and started the Sultry quilt on the Moda Bake Shop. So far it is going together ok ... i'm just really concerned about these rows of 'braids' linig up when i start attaching them. At first i wasn't big on this fabric when i saw it in the jelly roll, but once it was opened and layed out it is very pretty ... now i LOVE it! This is the border, binding and backing that came in the mail the other day. I decided to do a "pieced" back using the blue and cream florals just to shake it up a little.
Won't be much sewing this evening as it is Survivor night on TV, but hopefully this weekend i will be able to get some more rows completed. Hope everyone has a super weekend!!

Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Sunday Sewing

Well Sunday turned out to be a very productive day...here are the few things I managed to get done.

This is my "tossed coin" quilt which was complete except for the border and backing...so i put the border on it and the backing is also put together and ready to go to the quilter. This is my decadent victorian table topper that i did last week i believe ... well, i removed the peeper and put a small border on and then just added a solid border...i loved it with the peeper but because of price to have it quilted i decided to go with just borders :(
This is my maypole table topper and i did the same thing to this topper but am very happy that i added the white border because it was just too much flowers before.
And this ... i just love this quilt....this one i did last year in July '08 with a Simplicity jelly roll by Moda ... it is the Jelly Maker's Cabin pattern and i just love the softness of this quilt. I wasn't planning on using it, but after i put the binding on it and washed it on Sunday, i couldn't resist!
Yesterday my material for my Cotton Blossoms quilt came in the mail so i hope to start working on that this week too. I had a jelly roll and just needed the borders, binding and backing and ordered it from Piece N Quilt in Utah. Natalia was wonderful to work with and the service was great!

On another note ... does anyone else watch The Housewives reality show on Bravo? Did you know the Count and Countess (LuAnn) are getting divorced? I was surprised!

Thursday, March 26, 2009

Yummy Chocolate Pudding Pie

Breakfast...
I know it's a little difficult to see this pie and i forgot to take a picture of it before we devoured most of it, but it is so yummy! It's an Oreo crust; a layer of cream cheese mixed w/ cool whip and powdered sugar; a layer of chocolate pudding ... the kind you cook n serve; and frosted w/ cool whip.
Yummy Chocolate Pudding Pie
1) 2 Oreo Crusts
2) 1 - 8 oz package cream cheese softened
3) 1 cup powdered sugar
4) 2 cups cool whip (i buy the large coolwhip and use every bit of it)
5) 3 1/2 cups milk
6) 1 large and 1 small box cook n serve chocolate pudding
Combine in a saucepan 1 large and 1 small box of the chocolate cook n serve pudding with 3 1/2 cups of milk. Heat until pudding thickens and it starts to bubble a bit. Pour into a bowl and refrigerate several hours until cool. **I always cover with syran wrap and i put it so the syran wrap is directly on top of the pudding so that a thick skin doesn't appear on the top as the pudding cools.
Cream together 8 oz cream cheese, 1 cup powdered sugar and 2 cups coolwhip until smooth. Spread mixture on bottom of each pie crust. (I don't use the entire mixture because it just seems like alot).
Top cream cheese mixture with chocolate pudding and frost with cool whip.
YUMMY --- enjoy!
PS... this is similar to Rachel's but hers is peanutbuttery and in a 9x13

Maypole Table Topper

Good Morning! Well, i am all about flowers and floral patterns, etc...but this table topper in Maypole is even a bit too flowery for me! I definitely think i should have thrown more of the solid tone-on-tone maypole fabrics in this topper ... oh well, maybe if it's on my end table with stuff on top of it it won't look so busy.
Hope you have a great day!

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Decadent Victorian Table Topper

Holy cow ... tonight was NOT going to be a night of sewing ... it was going to be a night of laundry, bedding, dusting, sweeping and the taxes...well, that didn't happen! Today i came across THIS table topper pattern and just had to do it ... it is ADORABLE and so quick and easy to do. The only thing I did that was different is i put a "peeper" around the edge rather than ric rac like the pattern called for. I cut 1" strips so that only 1/4" inch showed after it was folded and sewn on. It only took 1 1/2 hours. Of course it's not quilted, but still, that's not bad.
Have a wonderful night ... i think i still have some time to get some cleaning done while the President is blah ... blah ... blahing.

Monday, March 23, 2009

March Calendar Quilt Block

Hello! Hope everyone had a great weekend! No sewing was done yesterday or this evening ... i spent my evening reading a book...i should know better than to go to the library when there is sewing to be done! Anyway, here is my March calendar quilt block. I really like this block because of the orange...i'm not sure what it is about orange, but i have been itching to do a quilt w/ oranges and i'm not even big on the color...go figure! Several months ago i bought a jelly roll in Cotton Blossoms and wasn't' sure what I was going to do with it...but then i saw SULTRY on Moda Bakeshop! It is absolutely adorable and i think will be very pretty in Cotton Blossoms...here is a picture of some of the strips from the jelly roll...

Sunday, March 22, 2009

Much Better...

Well ... yesterday turned out to be a MUCH better day. I spent the afternoon assembling my quilt that was suppose to be the Coin Quilt ... my cousin suggested i call it the Tossed Coin Quilt ... and since that is so fitting, I believe that is what it will be called! I am much happier with the looks of it this way ... the only thing i would change is i don't think i would have made the sashing so wide. There is 2" of the white-on-white showing and it just seems like alot to me...instead of doing the 2" sashing all the way around the outside, i put a white "peeper" around it just to break it up from the border which I have not yet ordered. So, tomorrow I am ordering the border, backing and binding fabric. And ... here is what it looks like completed...
I also finished my March calendar block, made a pillow case for a small travel pillow and fussed around with a clover table top I have been messing with.
Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend!

Friday, March 20, 2009

Coin Quilt ... NOT

Ok...well remember this picture where I was making the Stacked Coin quilt and putting a white on white sashing between each row of coins...yeah well that didn't look right when I started putting the sashing between the rows...the coins were not lining up and it was driving me crazy that it didn't look right. When I was sewing it on Wednesday night i was so frustrated i could have throw the material away and been fine! But instead i just put everything away and layed on the couch watching TV. So then Thursday night i decided to start taking my rows apart and leaving the coins in sets of 2. I have 4 sets together to make each block and here is what i have come up with for my FRESH. The blocks are sewn and ironed, but the sashing is just layed on top so i could see what it would look like, so disregard any quirks.
I am much happier with the looks of this than those darn coins! Granted I've only been quilting a little over a year, but i don't think any other quilt has escalated my blood pressure like this one! UGH!
Hope everyone has a super Friday and a great weekend!

Sunday, March 15, 2009

Happy Happy Joy Joy ...

Well...not much sewing was done this weekend --- but it was still a GREAT weekend! I did shop on saturday and purchased some more clover fabric to make some table toppers and then i purchased some fall looking material to go with some drab fall material i already have ... it's white with fall colors in it to try and brighten it up a bit. But then I came across this and it was 40% off and i just couldn't resist. I bought one yard of it and now i wish i bought more ... but i'm going to plan a quilt around the colors in this and i think it will be beautiful! Happy Happy Joy Joy ... But i have to say the BEST part of the weekend was this:
It was 56 degrees and sunny today and off on the bikes we went! It is the first time I rode this year and I am SOOOO ready for summer! I'd much rather be on the bike when it is sunny and 85 in my tank top instead of layers and chaps!
Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend and i hope to get some sewing done this week, but it's suppose to be beautiful Monday and Tuesday ... so don't count on it!