Random thought of the day....

I'm always jealous of the people that don't have to fuss with their food.

May recap continues...

Onto a non quilty post.

I just needed to mention that May brought Mother's day and although I was far from the fruit of my loins (always wanted to say that). I did get a cute little something from her...

I will say that it was yummy... and guilt free (well, we will ignore those chocolate covered fruits)

Then after I got that 'healthy' arrangement, I went and threw caution to the wind by going to have lunch at MacDaddy's.

This place specializes in Mac n Cheese combos. They serve every combination of Mac n Cheese you can think of and makes it yummy. I went traditional. Insane good stuff. I had a side of pull pork sandwich to just round out those calories to about... gazillion!

I will wrap up my summary on my Mother's day with this sweet sweet note left tacked on my door.

 

Just let's me know that someone is doing things right.

Leap Year

At this rate I will post the least amount of times this year than any year I have had my blog.
I have been a bit uninspired lately and even after returning from Quilt Market last month, I still have not felt very inclined to get going on a project or finishing anything.

I did get SOMETHING finished in May. It was a Schnibble my sister from the Pumpkin Patch asked me to make for her as a sample for a few kits she was cutting.

After a few false starts and re-evaluating the sashing print, I finally got the project off the ground. Schnibbles (designs by Miss Rosie's Quilt Co) are patterns that lead to some nice immediate gratification.

I had the blocks done in no time at all.

A bit of sashing...

And a thin border, you can call this complete.

I pulled out a stencil I ordered last year from Urban Elementz (LOVE their quilting stencils/pantos), and started marking the top for quilting.

These stencils are so nice, and easy to follow.

I was done in no time and ready to attach the binding.

I love how it turned out but after the finish, I was still feeling a bit uninspired. I think I need to finish something more substantial and the last few things I have done have all been small wallhangings or table toppers. I have sooo many projects to chose from but can't decide what to bite into. Maybe next weekend will be better.

I'll post this week about my trip to Market. Talk about inspiration!

Blogger Girls BOM update

I'm officially two blocks behind. BUT, I did make a dent on this one last month. I tackled block #3 and dwelled on the sashing a bit more.

This block finally brought into the play the companion ruler to Monique's Fit to be Quarter 6.5 ruler. I was excited to give it a try and found it super easy to use.

You start with the center of your square in a square

Trim the edges off

Then you need to attach the hst unit to the newly trimmed edge.

I centered the piece by folding the triangle in half and finger pressing the center. 

I did the same with the trimmed edge of the square and just aligned the folds.

After attaching both sides to the center square, I used the Fit to be Quarter ruler to trim the piece.

Perfect. EVERY TIME!

I added these units to the strips I made for both of my blocks.

Ended up with two new installments on this BOM. 

This is Block #3 v1

This is Block #3 v2

On that last one I really wanted to have the churn dash pop so I used lighter tones on all my other fabrics in the square. Overall, I like the way these new blocks compliment the existing ones.

April's installment is my favorite block so I have to think about the color placement to make sure I don't screw it up.
If you visit the blogger girls today you can pick up May's installment, so get out there and grab your instructions off of Monique's blog . Above all, have fun!

February in April

I've been a bit missing in action the last few weeks. Thought I'd post a little update before it's been officially a month since my last post.

Not much going on over here. I finally got my sewing machine back from the shop at the end of March. I think having her away had me a bit depressed and unmotivated. Not that I didn't have a replacement, since I was using my old machine, but I didn't want to start anything new on that machine since I kept thinking how easy it would have been on my other one. I know it makes no sense but I kept putting obstacles in the way of any creative endeavor.

Anyway, she's finally home but I was not able to really dig into anything because I had a business trip planned. When I go up north, I try to squeeze in a few days with my daughter so it was another week before I could sit in front of my machine again. I enjoy every minute I spend with my baby girl but I needed to get home to sew SOMETHING.

When I finally got a chance to sit down, I had to tackle my Blogger Girl BOM quilt.
I started this back in February and I had the next block cut and ready to roll.

This is Version # 1 

This is Version # 2 

I like the way the colors are playing well with each other but I'm a bit concerned with the sashing/finishing instructions Monique posted last month. I think if I go with the brown I had in mind, the color will overwhelm the quilt (I am using a floral brown for the outer border and red for my inner border). Yet, I'm not sure that throwing in a red will look good in the sashing.

I think I will have to do a Thelma and make a different sashing strip for each of my variations and see which one I like better. Not freaky concerned about it yet since I still have two more blocks to catch-up with the series. I cut my next block and have it ready to roll for this weekend. It will be my first adventure using Monique's Companion ruler so wish me luck.

Lil' Baskets

At the Dallas quilt show, earlier this month I picked up a couple of kits. One of them was a small quilt designed by Lori Smith. The quilt is called Grandmother's Baskets and it's about 16" x 20".

I thought it was the cutest thing and had to give it a go.

I made the 12 mini baskets from fabric to finish in about 4 hours.

This past weekend I decided to finish it. 

I wasn't crazy about the tan that came in the kit but decided to go with it and not lose sleep over it.

In no time at all, the top was finished! 

Since I had some "extra" time, I thought I'd just quilt it too. 

I'm not brave enough to do it on my own,
so I marked it with that FriXion pen everyone raves about. 

Sooo easy! 

After the main quilting was done, I thought I'd add a few "big stitches" to this small quilt.
 I loved the whole big stitch process, I just struggled with the hoop... it was definitely the right size, but for some reason I struggled with getting the stitches on the needle. I guess I need to practice more.

After all my experimenting, I finally attached the binding. It's only waiting for me to stitch the binding down but I thought I'd leave that for when I traveled in a few weeks. Gives me something to do on the plane.
BTW: The fabric in the kit is from Minick and Simpson's new line for Moda - Indigo Crossing

Fly Away Home finished.

I finished this one a couple of weeks ago but had not posted the final pics. Last time we talked about this quilt I had just finished the top and my machine had died. You can read about it here.

 I really needed to finish this quilt because it was going into the special exhibit on the Dallas Modern Guild at the Dallas Guild show earlier this month.

After piecing my backing (which I had to order twice because my first attempt at grey backing turned out to have a cream undertone), I proceeded to one of the most hated parts of quilting... Basting.

I knew I was doing a very straight forward design so I didn't have to MARK the quilt (which I always do because I'm not talented enough to wing it). I did practice a bit on the swirl design I was going to use on the geese units.

Then I started the lines on this one...

and more lines...

and every once in a while I needed to check my progress and measure how much I had left to do!

Until it was done!

Pretty darn happy with how it turned out.

Sweat equity that pays off

And after a failed attempt with the backing, I was actually loving the back too

I incorporated the label in the back.

This one should be coming home at the end of the month. I didn't get a chance to pick it up after the show so one of the organizers is holding it for me until the guild meeting. I'll be happy to see this one fly it's way home.. sorry, couldn't resist the pun.