Where has August Gone!

Hello! How have you been? I'm not sure where the month of August has gone, but I can't believe it is more than half over and and I have done about no sewing!

One evening i cut out my fabric for my schnibble and the next started to sew together some pieces, and here is how they looked ....

So after messing with my machine for about an hour i gave up and went back to it later ... messed with it some more and she finally worked perfectly ... i keep telling my husband this is why i need a nice bernina or pfaff or any one of those nice big fancy machines ... i just haven't convinced him that they are worth the $$$$ ... but i'm still working on him!

So here is the fabric i am doing my August Schnibble in ... it is Zippity Doo Dah and I love this fabric ... i've had it for some time and decided Plan C is the perfect project for it!

So last week I took my youngest Nephew Michael out to lunch at Graffiti Burger and shopping for his birthday. While I was in Columbus I decided I needed to stop by Red Rooster Quilts just to browse ... no plans on buying ... but i just couldn't pass up this fabric ... how adorable is this?!?!?! I have nothing Halloween but decided this would make a cute table topper ... the yellow stars and the mouth and eyes on the bats glow in the dark! I can't wait to whip something up with this ... who knows, it may be just pinwheels, but i think it's adorable!

If you don't have this book, you definitely need to get it. I LOVE THIS BOOK! It has so many cute patterns and i can't wait to make a few larger quilts to go with all my schnibs!

And finally ... this ... i came across this pattern in the Better Homes and Garden Quilt Sampler Spring/Summer 2010 issue ... it's called Perfect Harmony and i think it will look awesome in my kitchen once i get it painted. I'm going to do the walls in a deeper tan color and paint my chair rail a deep barn red ... and i think will go perfectly! I'm going shopping in Amish country with my cousin in September so that will be the time for me to shop for fabrics....

So ... i've been up to absolutely nothing, no sewing, not much shopping, just lots of working and a bit of house cleaning ... but hopefully this week i'll be able to knock out some of my schnibble and have some pictures to post.

Until then I hope you have a wonderful week ;O)

My Poor Tree

My poor tree ... let me tell you a story ... i'll make it short.

When we moved in our house 18 years ago, there was one small shrub up against our house and my husband tied a rope to it, tied the rope to the back of his truck and removed the shrub ... so for years i kept saying i wanted a tree and i wanted shrubs ... and after enough nagging, we planted 3 shrubs, a pine tree and my flowering tree ... well i think my flowering tree is going to die...from the weight of the branches, the left side of the tree is touching the ground and there is a crack down the middle of the trunk ... hubby said he stuck his hand in the truck because there is a hole in it now :O)

So here's a picture of my pretty tree in bloom and i'm hoping she makes it ...

I planned to do so much sewing this weekend but really haven't done much ... i put a stocking quilt together, but decided i don't like how the sashing lined up, so i'm going to take that apart and try to fix it and i was going to put binding on 3 quilts/toppers and haven't done any of that ... hope you are having a better sewing weekend than I.

Joy Luck Schnibble Done

Woo Hoo ... my July schnibble is done! I wasn't planning on finishing it tonight, i had planned on working on it tonight and tomorrow night, but it went so smoothly tonight that i just finished it. I absolutely LOVE the way the border on this pattern is done .. the rails are so cute!

I did my schnibble in Blush by Moda and i love the colors ... it will look great in our living room. I think next time i go fabric shopping ... if i come across some yardage of this line i'll definitely have to purchase some for a bigger quilt ... it's so pretty!

Well now i'm off to bed and tomorrow night i'm going to work on some more stocking blocks for my stocking quilt and i want to make a few stocking runners as gifts for a few girlfriends....have a great week everyone!

Cough ... Sniffle Sniffle ... Ah-Choo!

It's been a crazy week around here! Who gets a cold in July?!?! Well I just happen to be the lucky person :O) It started last Saturday ... i hit the wall with it on Wednesday and spent the day in bed ... and today i'm feeling great ... still a bit congested, but i can handle that! So that means no sewing has been happening around here...I have my schnibble cut out and ready to get sewn, so hopefully i can work on that Monday and Tuesday when Dave is working.

It has been so hot this week ... 96 degrees with a heat index of 106 ... i could sure go for some of this right now (don't think hubby was too excited about it at that time) ....

Have a great weekend!!!

Travel Pillow Cases

Hope you are having a great week! I haven't done much sewing this week because my 'real job' has become crazy busy ... tis the season ... but i did get a chance to make 2 travel pillow cases for my SIL's niece and nephew. Jack likes fish and Kate is girly so I hope they enjoy them :O) It's hard to see but Kate's pillow case has flip-flops on it and they are bright fun colors. Have a great day!

Strawberry Jam ... YUM

It's been a few years since I've made any strawberry jam so this year i decided to make some and am so glad i did! I made a batch in early June and by the time I shared it with friends and family it's about gone! Since I'm going to see my brother and his family this weekend I decided to make another batch so i can send a bunch home with them since they have 3 boys ... and i'm sure go thru lots of PB&J sammies.

This batched turned out very yummy like my first batch, but just a tad thicker ... buy it's still soooo good!!!

SO...7 cups of sugar...

Plus my strawberries and pectin...

made this yummy stuff ..... mmmmm ....

I have enough strawberries in the freezer to make one more batch of jam and am hoping i don't have to do that until at least January.

By the way ... if you are doing the Year of Schnibbles, how is your July Schnibble coming? I haven't even started mine but i think i'm going to do it in the fabric line Blush!

Have a great Day!

Stockings

Hello There ... don't ask me why, but for some odd reason i'm in the mood to sew for Christmas! Usually it hits me about November ... but not this year. A few weeks back i bought some new Christmas fabric and this cut fabric .... has become this ...

i'm not done with the stockings though ... i'm going to cut about 8 or 12 more so that i have a throw size stocking quilt ... i'm thinking of maybe sewing 4 stockings backwards and just throwing them in the mix ... how do you think that will look?

I've purchased some gold fabric for sashing because i think the stockings need to be separated a bit ... probably do the sashing 1 1/4".

Have a great day!

Shopping ... Addicted To Fabric Part 2

Here is Part 2 of our shopping ... on day one we went to the Melting Pot for lunch ... OMG it was awesome! I forgot to take pictures of the main course (chicken, steak and shrimp) but i think in the future i'd skip dinner and just go for dessert ... it was fabulous!!!! We had s'mores chocolate dipping ... it's milk chocolate with marshmellow cream and crushed graham crackers...

here is the chocolate and marshmellow cream and then they pour something in it that ignites it so they can toast the marshmellow and then throw in the graham crackers....YUMM-O...

The chocolate all mixed up and half eaten...

And this is the plate of goodies that we dipped in the chocolate ... bananas, brownies, strawberries, pound cake, rice krispie treats and cheese cake!!!

Then it was on to more shopping ... we went to Country Fabrics in Shiloh, Ohio ... if you live in Ohio it is so worth the trip ... the price of their fabrics is out of this world! It is owned by an Amish family and her philosophy is to keep the prices down so people can afford to sew. I don't think I saw prices any higher than $6.79 a yard. We did find they had some inexpensive fabric mixed in with their Moda and other brands, so just something to watch for if you use only quilting fabric.

Here is some Fall fabric i purchased ... i plan on making a large pinwheel table topper or small pinwheel throw to go with my living room...

This is the Christmas fabric i bought to make a stocking table topper ... no, your eyes are going ... my picture is blurry ... sorry about that! Anyways ... i just love the snowmen! And...i'm going to put gold sashing between the blocks ... i've made 12 blocks already and when they are layed out, they just sorta run in to each other...also, i'm thinking of making a few stockings backwards and throwin those in ... what do you think??

Oh Yes ... Evening Mist ... i love this fabric because it is so soft ... not sure what I'm making with this but I came across more of the sage fabric so i purchased that to go with the fat quarter haystack i bought previously.

Other than that I bought about 7 or 8 yards of white on white and cream on cream for future projects ... i think i did pretty good and didn't go overboard on what I bought...I've decided that I need to stop making impulse purchases when it comes to fabric because most of the time i sit back and say ... why did i buy that?!?!?!

Hope you are having a great day!!

June Schnibble Done

Woo Hoo! My June Schnibble is done! I used the fabric scraps from my In The Pink II and made a larger table topper for m living room. I didn't trim the blocks as small as they were suppose to be because I didn't want to cut off all that fabric ... therefore, mine don't match up like the pattern shows, but i like the way they look anyways ... besides, it's going to be on an end table with pictures and remotes on top of it so i'm guessing no one will notice ... Two more schnibbles to do and then we are done! I think I'm ready for that because I haven't been making the quilts like I was before I started the Schnibble a Month so it will be nice to work on a quilt. I'm glad I did the schnibbles though because it really gave me a variety of table toppers for my house.

Hope you are having a great day!

HELP!!! FABRIC NEEDED

Hello! I hope everyone has had a great week and will have a wonderful 4th of July!!!

On another note ... my quilter is in search of some fabric (pictured below). She is putting the binding on a beautiful quilt but the binding is just a bit too short ... that's where you gals all come in ... does anyone have any of this fabric that she can purchase? She'll take a fatquarter, or even a yard! She thought it was Vienna Nights...

Shopping ... Addicted to Fabric Part I

Hello! Well not so long ago my cousin and I took a day off work and went quilt shopping. We went to a store not far from her house...it is called Polka Dot Pincushion ... i didn't buy much at that shop, just a pattern, but they had the most adorable quilts on the walls and so much cute fabric ... take a look ...

This is the happy little camper Ryan that spent the day shopping with us ... This is the only purchase I made on day 1 ... I'm going to use my Christmas fabric with this and make them Christmas Presents ...

loving the fall quilt in the top left of this picture ...

They had lots of red, white and blue ... all so pretty and festive ...

How pretty is the block of the month hanging with the houses ... this picture just doesn't do it justice!

The red quilt with the trees on it was adorable ... very different ...

I would LOVE to have these bird houses hanging on the wall in my house ... would anyone like to make it for me ?!?!

Hope you are having a great day!!!

Alexander Rocks!

Let me just tell you a bit about my nephew Alexander or "AD" as he is called on his baseball team. On Alexander's first birthday he was playing T-Ball with my brother (now he'll be 13 in November) ... the boy eats, sleeps and breathes baseball! He truly loves the game and is an awesome athlete! Omar Vizquel is his idol and when Omar played for the Cleveland Indians he was #13 so you will pretty much always see that Alex has the #13 on his jerseys.

Alex plays Travel Baseball for the Dublin Green Sox and they are the State Champions. This weekend they won the USSSA 12uAAA State Championship and below is a picture of their trophy! Way to go Alex, we are so proud of you! (Alex is in the front row, 2nd from the left)

Hope everyone had a great weekend! I will be back this week with a post of pictures from my shopping day and the fabrics I bought. Have a great Monday everyone!

Daisy Cottage Quilting

So...has everyone seen that Sharon has a new online store? It's called Daisy Cottage Quilting. Be sure to pop on over and sign up for her newsletter and check out the great fabrics she have and the adorable books!! OH, and did I mention she's having a giveaway ?!?!

This n That...

Hi Everyone! Can't believe tomorrow is Monday already! I wish the weeks flew as fast as the week-ends!

Not alot going on this week-end...did a bit of sewing ... my schnibble blocks are all finished and below is a picture of a few of them. I think I'm going to put some sashing between each block to make the schnibble a bit larger... Isn't this cute! My sister-in-law gave this to me. I think they use to hang their keys on it at the back door, but i'm going to paint it black and hang it in my living room so i can hang some schnibbles from it...i think that will be adorable ... thanks Bets :O)

So, i'm am definitely not a garage sale person ... however, my husband likes garage sales and flea markets...he's all about the challenge to find something at a good price...don't get me wrong, i love a good sale, but i'm not one that believes in "one man's junk is another man's treasure!" So last friday i stopped at a garage sale with hubby and on the wall in the garage they had this plate holder hanging that said $8 ... so i told dave i wanted it and he says ... "offer them $5" ... well i'm not one to bicker over a few bucks ... i just assume give them the $8 and be on my way, but since he was there i said ... will you take $5 for that plate holder and she says "SURE" ... so now i'm all happy because i'm going to paint this black also and hang it sideways in my hallway to hang some lap size quilts on ... but before that happens, the leaves on this thing are definitely going to be removed!

Hope you have a wonderful week!

In The Pink II Done

WOO HOO!!! last weekend i started a new quilt to go with the new furniture and it's finished...i can't wait to take it to the quilter's on Monday! I've had this fabric since Fall 2008 and just couldn't figure out what to make with it, but then I got new furniture and then I got Schnibbles Times Two and along came McGuffey :O)

I plan to start working on the Schnibble for June this weekend and may just have to make a table topper out of my scraps from McGuffey.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

Michael...:O(

Hello! Well I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday week-end! Mine was actually very enjoyable! I spent Saturday sewing...a new quilt to go with my new furniture...pictures to come later this week and then Sunday we rode the Harley's a good part of the day and got a bit more sun burnt than anticipated but it was so worth it! Monday it stormed most of the day so we rented a movie and relaxed!

My nephew Michael had some fun on Saturday jumping on a trampoline but ended up giving himself a sprained neck and bad head-ache so the poor guy ended up at the ER Saturday night and got to take this lovely neck brace home :O( They said he should be better in about a week. Hope your week is off to a great start!