Becca Quilts

finally done!

2008-08-11T14:16:00.000-07:00

I've been working away on Shawn's row for awhile but progress has been slow with everything else that's going on in life. Well now I can officially call it done and get it in the mail to her so she can see all her beautiful rows. Her theme was fairies and dragons and since she all ready had lots of fairies I thought what she really needed was a baby dragon-that way her quilt will never run out of dragons! Mama dragon laid a whole passel of eggs and one little dragon is well on his way out of the shell!

Row Robin flies home...

2008-08-06T12:04:00.000-07:00

I got my row by row round robin back the other day and have been dying to get pictures so I can show it off.

I intend to separate the rows and mix them up like a jigsaw puzzle so I told the other ladies in the swap that any size of block was fine and it didn't have to add up to 48 inches exactly. Then they just basted the rows together so they'd be easy to separate.

Aren't they gorgeous....drool...lol-I'm so glad they're mine!

There are my leftover scraps from the fabric I sent along and also some bits that I bought while my rows were traveling around getting all pretty. I'm planning to make some more stars to make the quilt bigger-I'd like to end up with a large lap or full sized quilt.

Broken Heart

2008-08-04T07:41:00.000-07:00

I've not been a very productive quilter the last couple weeks but finally I've got something to show you.

This Broken Heart block is for Margaret-one of the August birthday girls in the birthday block swap.

This little block just didn't want to go together for me- I ripped and sewed, ripped and sewed and finally got it right. Lol-but I don't think I'll be making another one anytime soon!

I've also been working a little on Shawn's rows for the row robin swap and hope to have them finished this week so they can go home to here-I'm sure she's anxiously awaiting them!

Salted Peanut Chews

2008-07-24T08:27:00.000-07:00

As requested here's the Peanut roll recipe-they are so good and easy. I can't take remember where I got the recipe but I can't take credit for inventing it-just enjoying it-over and over, and over...

Salted Peanut Chews

Base:

1 yellow cake mix

1/3 cup butter, room temp

1 egg

3 cups mini marshmallows

Topping:

2/3 cup corn syrup

1/4 cup butter, soft

2 tsp vanilla

1-10 oz pkg peanut butter chips

2 cups crispy rice cereal

2 cups salted peanuts

1. Heat oven to 350. In large bowl, combine cake mix, 1/3 cup butter and egg. Beat on low speed until crumbly. Press in bottom of ungreased 9x13 inch pan. Bake at 350 for 12-18 minutes or until a light golden brown.

2. Remove from oven and immediately sprinkle with marshmallows. Return to oven for an additional 1-2 minutes until marshmallows just begin to puff and melt. Let cool while preparing the topping.

3. In large sauce pan, combine all topping ingredients *except cereal and peanuts.* Heat just until chips are melted and mixture is smooth, stirring constantly. Remove from heat; stir in cereal and peanuts. Immediately spoon warm topping over marshmallows. Carefully spread to
cover. Refrigerate 1hr or until firm. Cut into bars and store in covered container.

busy, busy

2008-07-18T19:39:00.000-07:00

There hasn't been much happening on the quilting front this last week. Dd had a friend come over for a slumber party Monday and Tuesday nights. We went swimming Monday, went to the Science Center Tuesday and went swimming twice, and Wednesday we swam for a bit and then the girls played until friend's mom came to get here. Lol-do you all get the idea they like swimming? I think the pool is the one thing we'll miss most when we buy a house someday.

This weekend is the big family reunion on my dad's side. That branch of the family is pretty big and there's lots of kids in DD's age range so a good time is pretty much guaranteed. I made salted nut roll bars and cornbread salad to take for the meal and DD and I picked up a bunch of glow sticks for the kids to play with. (Just have to keep DD convinced that she can't bust into them until dark tomorrow.)

Next week they'll be some major butt busting on the quilting front so I should have updates galore for you.

Two more birthday blocks and my secret shame

2008-07-11T10:47:00.000-07:00

This blue block is for Diane-she requested vibrant blue stars to make a quilt for a friend who lost her home in Katrina. It's the Florida Star pattern from quilterscache.

This sleepy little kitty is for Nell-she requested pet blocks-won't that be a fun quilt!

Ok-now brace yourself-I'm about to show you something ugly, really, really ugly. This is what my sewing space looks like right now.

You may be asking yourself-how can anyone even sew in that disaster area? Trust me you can't. I can't find anything and every time I try to do something I end up knocking something over. As you can see it's even spilling over onto the floor.

This weekend DD is going to her Grammy's house with Grandma so I've resolved to get my quilting space tidied up. Wish me luck!

Speaking of luck send some Itty Bitty's way-we're going to try to release her back to the outdoors this afternoon.

Morning glories

2008-07-09T17:29:00.000-07:00

This is the block I made for Christine in round 2 of the birthday block swap. Her theme was "In my Garden." I absolutely love appliqué so I couldn't resist this lovely morning glory pattern.

The pattern finishes at 7 inches. I always cut my background fabric a little larger and I decided not to trim this down-Christine doesn't have any size preference so I figure that leaving it untrimmed will allow her to pick a size for it to end at and give her a little more flexibility when she puts her quilt together.

I also like to have a hand piecing project to take with me when I'm on the go-usually something fairly brainless so I don't have to do to much thinking and can just slap my patches together and sew. My new hand piecing travel project is a Thousand Pyramids quilt-I have no idea how big this will be-I'll just work on it until I'm sick of it and see what I end up with. I haven't got much done on this-I took it to my mom's house over the 4th but didn't spend a lot of time piecing.

It feels like I've cut a million triangles for this quilt but I'm sure there's going to have to be more scrap bin raiding before this is over. I've been scrounging for lights in my scrap bin- some of my lights are actually darks flipped over to the back because I'm definitely lacking in lightness.

Hopefully tomorrow I'll have another completed birthday block to show you however DD wants a quilt for her stuffed T-Rex and is rather insistent that I work on it so I may be showing you something else entirely.

Lucky me!

2008-07-03T10:05:00.000-07:00

I got my quilt from the ALQS today-I am beyond thrilled. I saw this gorgeous little tree of life quilt on Cathi's blog and knew I would be so jealous of whoever got it because it was perfect. When I opened the mailbox today and saw a package with a postmark from Ireland it was all I could do not to sit down right there and rip it open. I practically skipped back home and tore into it the second I got in the door.

Isn't it beautiful!

I couldn't get a good picture of the quilting but Kathi used a stipple in the middle for the tree lovely loose feathers in the corners that really complement the top.

She also sent me some some lovely bits of fabric and a Bailey's Irish Cream Truffle Bar. Our post man decided to flatten the chocolate bar a little bit when he stuffed it in our mailbox but you know what-squished chocolate tastes just as good-lol-I can vouch for that because I've all ready sampled the goods.

Thank you, thank you, thank you Cathi-in case I didn't mention it I'm thrilled!

I scream, you scream...

2008-07-02T18:38:00.000-07:00

....we all scream for ice cream! Doesn't this little quilt remind you of Neapolitan ice cream? Especially-dadadum (that's my drum roll) the stripy binding!

Yes-I know that's not the best bound corner-that one just didn't want to fall in line properly. I did better on the others-honest.

See-this one's not warped.

And here's the whole striped ice cream quilt.

Once my quilt from the ALQS gets here I'm going to start hanging them on my little wall of quilts-I'm so excited!

Itty Bitty update

2008-07-01T09:28:00.000-07:00

Itty Bitty made it through the night in her box. This morning we took the lid off to check her out and she caught a couple little bugs that were on the leaves in her box. She hopped up on the edge and decided to go explore my kitchen counters a little. Total Clorox moment-I assure you my counters will be getting scoured. She hopped around the sink and over to the dirty dishes on the counter.

Since she looked so frisky we offered her a little birdseed and some bread. She ate and ate so apparently a quiet night of rest got her ready for a big breakfast.

That whole chunk of bread disappeared into this tiny, tiny bird. With our luck she'll end up being too fat to fly. She did reward us with a lovely little song-either that or she was warning us to back up off her bread. Either way it was cute...

Our neighbor Kathleen is going to pick up a little bird cage for her at the store today so Itty Bitty can get out of the box but hopefully she'll heal up fast and not have to spend too much time in the box or the cage. Although if her wing doesn't heal enough to let her go I think Kathleen is rather enamored with her and can likely be talked into giving her a good home. I've all ready told Itty Bitty that Kathleen is the one she should be sucking up to.

pretty in pink and the call of the wild

2008-06-30T20:06:00.000-07:00

Something quilty-I got the quilting done on my little 9 patch quilt. This photo doesn't show the color very well but it's the best picture of the quilting. I really like hand quilting these little tops-it doesn't take more than a day or two so it provides a lot more instant gratification than...oh...say that queen sized top that I've been hand quilting for the last 500 years.

I'm hoping to get it bound tomorrow-I'm going to have to be a little creative with the binding-I used scraps for this and I don't think there's enough of the border fabric left for the binding so I'll have to play around a little. Kathi did this really cool stripey binding on her framed 4 patch quilt-she may be my binding muse for the day.

On a non quilty note meet out little (hopefully temporary!) visitor.

Today DH and DD were outside with the cats when Sorry (cat 1) comes in the house with something in her mouth. Dh hollers at me to come see what it is. It was chirping and shrieking and at first I thought it was one of the little ground squirrels that frequent our patio. I was completely freaked because I was terrified she was going to drop this ground squirrel and it would be loose in our house. I finally get Sorry to very reluctantly release her prize and I realize it's a bird.

The bird goes scooting out the door in a desperate bid for freedom only to be pounced on by Tommy (cat 2). Normally Tommy shows complete disdain for anything Sorry does but this time she decided to be a team player...fine-whatever. I get the bird away from her only to discover that one wing is completely ajar and it can't fly.

So we get it a little box with some batting (hey-maybe this is a quilty post after all) and let it rest for awhile thinking maybe once it has a chance to relax it will be ok. After an hour it's wing is looking a little better but it's still not flying. Our neighbor who has some experience with birds gives it a good look over and says the wing isn't broken but might be sprained and little birdy is going to have to rest for a couple days. She also sexes the bird for us so we now know our guest is a girl.

So Itty Bitty as we've been calling her is hanging out in her pimped out shoe box with food and water, soft batting, and some leaves and will be spending a quiet night in our bathroom-far away from the cats I assure you! Hopefully in the next couple days the wing will be back to good and she'll be ready to fly back to her family.

Crazy mini and my quilty muse

2008-06-29T18:03:00.000-07:00

I'm planning a wall hanging from the blocks I received from my crazy quilt swap. I decided on a 3x3 arrangement and since I ended up with 10 blocks I decided to make one a little mini. This block came from Randi and compared to the others I received the embellishments read a little pink so I decided to make it my mini. I spent Saturday afternoon embellishing away and finished it off in the early evening.

Close ups of the details

Yesterday I was cruising around my bloglines and happened to see this adorable mini Colene had made for her partner in the doll quilt swap on the about.com forum. I thought it was so cute I whipped out my red and blue scraps and made one of my own. (Of course mine is not quilted yet-I'm not that speedy!) This one measures about 16 inches square.

It was such a fun little quilt to make-thanks Colene for being my quilty muse!

I'm hoping to tackle something truly tiny soon-I've been working on some teeny little 3 inch log cabin blocks that have something like 21 bars each but I've been so busy with other things that they've been set aside for awhile-maybe it's time to dig them back out.

Booty Dilemma

2008-06-26T13:06:00.000-07:00

Ok folks-can I probe your brains, delve into your psyche, and snag some opinions?

I got my partner info for the miniature booty swap and I'm debating fabric choices. I'm planning on a floral appliqué block surrounded by some kind of border. I don't usually pick borders until the center is finished-it seems to work out better if I wait and see what the top needs when the center is done.

I have my purple and green combo-there would also be a smidge of yellow in there-I forgot to put it in the photo. I don't have a focus type fabric for this one but I'm sure I can find something at the quilt store if I need to or I can do a fun pieced border with the purples and greens.

Then I have these lovely tulip FQ's and some coordinating fabrics. I adore these fabrics but I know orange and yellow don't do it for everyone.

So (this is where the probing comes in) if it was your quilt which color combo would you prefer? Purple and green? Orange and yellow? Both? Neither? (Oh please, please, please don't say neither-I don't want to dive back into my stash and look for more fabric.)

Birthday Beauties

2008-06-26T12:41:00.000-07:00

I've been pleasantly productive today. It's a rainy, dreary day here and DD has been content to play on her own and watch some movies so I've been putzing around doing little odds and ends of quilting. I attached the binding to my postage stamp quilt and have it sitting on the couch to hand sew the back. I also marked the quilting design on the tiny 9 patch and got it sandwiched and pin basted so it's ready for quilting and did some embellishing on my crazy quilt blocks.

Last year I participate in the first round of the Birthday Block swap that Kate hosted. I was in two groups-in one group my theme was Halloween-I requested stars in any size divisible by 3 with black backgrounds. Here's a pic of the blocks I received.

The second group I was in I requested a chocolate covered cherries theme-I asked for chocolate browns, burgundies, and soft pink stars on cream backgrounds and this is what I received....

I was a little worried with the cherries group because when the blocks started coming in they were all so different I wasn't sure they'd go together in the end but once they were all laid out I loved them. I'll probably make a few more to tie them together. The Halloween blocks will be a quilt for the couch-I'm pondering settings for it- I was thinking maybe staggering the rows so they aren't lined up all matchy matchy.

Land of the Littles

2008-06-22T16:30:00.000-07:00

I was so good yesterday and worked on lots of things I needed to do-really yucky stuff like cleaning the kitchen and some fun stuff like cutting out pieces for the next round of the the birthday block swap. See my little tub of cut out blocks-I actually have patterns picked, fabrics selected, and even some of my fabric cut for about half of the blocks and I even made one this weekend-not because it was the first one due but because I just had to try out the pattern. You won't have to wait too long to see it-I think it's one of my August blocks.

This morning I got up and was really in the mood to make a little quilt so I dug out my tub of 2.5 inch squares and this is the result.

It's about 16x18 inches. Since my tub of 2.5 inch squares is overflowing it was nice to use up a few of them-although 42 squares doesn't make much of a dent. I just randomly picked out a bunch of squares I liked and then played with the layout until I found one I liked. It took awhile to find a border fabric-I finally picked this one-18 of the 42 squares had some green in it so I thought the green border tied it all together nicely.

I found a piece of muslin for backing and after a short hunt through my pile of leftover batting pieces I got it sandwiched and did a little hand quilting on it. It's just the right size for hand quilting in the summer-it's far too warm to do anything that actually covers my lap.

My little postage stamp top only took an hour to make-I made it while I was watching Diagnosis Murder. (Yes, I know, it's a show for old people and it's cheesy as all get out but I can't help it I love that show.)

Since I was still in the mood to make something else I dug out my brown and pink strips and put this together while I watched a 2 hour Matlock movie. See about note for Diagnosis Murder-all I can say is my grandpa watched me a lot when I was a kid and I have the TV viewing taste of an 80 year old man.

This one is about 15 inches square-the 9 patches and solid blocks are 3 inches finished.

I'm still brainstorming ideas for my quilts for the Miniature Booty Swap-I think I've found the pattern that I want to use but I'm not off the fence yet.

churning them out

2008-06-20T17:00:00.001-07:00

Check it out folks-3 posts in one day and 2 of them are actually productive. These are Kathi's rows for her row robin that I've been promising pictures of. I think these are just so lovely and elegant.

I made the row of double shoo fly blocks on the bottom. When Kathi posted her theme I thought shoo fly blocks would be so pretty in the soft, subtle taupes. When I got to her quilt all the rows were 12 inches. I decided 4-12 inch shoo fly blocks would be too blah and 8-6 inch blocks would look out of proportion with the other rows but 16-8 inch blocks doubled up would be just right. I'm really happy with how it turned out (and really hate to send Kathi's quilt onto the next person-doesn't it look like it wants to live with me?!)

Crazy for crazy quilts!

2008-06-20T14:24:00.000-07:00

I got my blocks back from the crazy quilt swap I participated in and just had to take pictures to share-aren't they gorgeous!

Here's all my blocks together-I'm going to have so much fun playing with these.

Nell made this one...

Randi made this one...
Terri made this one...
Lisa Jo made this one...
Lou made this one...
Faye made this one...
Kathi made this one...
Linda made this one...
Lucy made this one...

I'll do some further embellishing on these and then they'll get trimmed down to about 8 1/2 inches and turned into a miniature quilt. Lol-see-I've got miniature quilts on the brain!

Look at me go!

2008-06-20T12:44:00.000-07:00

I was all set today to show you my progress on my mini quilt for the ALQS swap I'm in but in a fit of productive energy last night I finished it! Ok, ok, I still have to write on the label so 99.9% done.

Here's the top...

Close up on the quilting...

A look at the little hanging tabs on the back.

This is the first mini quilt I've ever made and I found the process to be quite enjoyable. Good thing too since I've already signed up for the next round of the Miniature Booty Swap. We should be getting out partner info for that swap soon.

I learned a couple things from this swap-one is that it's nerve wracking trying to make a quilt for someone else! I really hope my partner likes this.

I think the next one I make I'll choose a block where there's not so many seams meeting in the corners. The points where 4 star blocks come together were definitely bulky even using a smaller seam allowance and it was definitely a challenge trying to get those points to match up.

DD is going to Grandma's this weekend so that means some lovely quilting time for me so hopefully I'll be showing you pictures of my row for the Row Robin I'm in either tonight or tomorrow.

I also signed up for the Birthday Block Swap Round 2 so hopefully I can work on a couple of those blocks with weekend. Not really because I need to but just because they're so darn fun. This is one of my favorite swaps. Last year I was in two groups-one theme was Halloween stars and the other was Chocolate covered cherries. I got gorgeous blocks from each of those. This year I'm in one group but it's a big one so I'll get as many blocks as I did from the last swap where I was in 2 groups. Instead of picking a theme I picked the Brasstown Stars block done with batiks on black backgrounds. I can't wait till September when I get my blocks!

I see your true colors shining through....

2008-06-17T22:26:00.000-07:00

I finally got my quilt top together for the ALQS and took it out in the sunshine to take a picture of it. So now instead of me posting a pic and saying "it's not such a hot picture" I can officially say look-this is what it looks like!

See the shadows on the left hand side. We have this gigantic tree right in front of our apartment-it's absolutely gorgeous and even on the hottest sunniest day our patio is in the shade 95% of the day. There's about a 1 hour window where it gets full sun but even then I've got some shadowy bits. So now you know why all my pictures turn out so dark! I can't complain though-it's only on the hottest days we have to run the air with all that nice shade so that big tree saves us a bundle.

After I took the picture I sandwiched the top and started quilting it-I've got just over half of the top quilted so I'm really pleased with the progress. Originally I'd planned a pieced border to follow the purple (which was going to be thinner) but once I got the purple on it just looked right so I decided to listen to my quilter muse and stop.

something to report

2008-06-15T19:54:00.000-07:00

I've got progress, sweet, sweet progress. Today I spent a couple hours working on my quilt for Kate's ALQS. I was really buzzing right along on this and then with everything that's been going on the last month I went from way ahead of schedule to way behind. My goal is to have the top all pieced by Tuesday so I can get to work on quilting it.

I chose the Iowa Star pattern for my partner's quilt. I thought that was appropriate since it was coming all the way from Iowa. Although if I'd known that the weather was going to be like around here I might have picked Storm at Sea!

I also worked on my row for Kathi's row robin-I'd work on a couple Iowa Star blocks and then put together some blocks for her row. I promise to get a picture of her gorgeous rows tomorrow when the light is good-she is going to have an amazing quilt.

DD and I had a tea party with my friend Kathleen today. We had little chicken salad sandwiches, cheese slices, pears, tea, and angel food cake with strawberries and whipped cream. Kathleen made the chicken salad-there were figs, raisins, and a whole host of other yummies in there. It was absolutely delish. She offered me the leftovers chicken salad-one guess what I had for supper. Hehehe-there's just enough left it may be breakfast too!

wet and wild, hoping for dry and boring.

2008-06-13T11:49:00.000-07:00

Today DD has a friend over to spend the night and at the rate we're going she may end up being here for more than one night. When her Dad dropped her off he said the water was right up almost to the edge of the bridge and the Highway Patrol was out there deciding if it needed to be closed.

Iowa is right in the midst of the "Floods of 08" as the news channels are calling it. Fortunately for us we're far from the rivers and up on a hill so we're in no danger of getting washed away but lots of people around us, especially those near the Des Moines and Raccoon rivers are dealing with the flooding and the danger to their homes. We've laid in a small stash of bottled water in case Waterworks goes under but right now they're assuring us the water supply is safe so hopefully we won't need it.

Many parts of the state learned some valuable lessons during the floods of 1993 so homes, business, and lives are being saved this time around because of new safety measures and better protections that were put in place after 1993. Of course then they called it the 100 year flood and now 15 years later we're having another one-guess they may have to revise that.

If you have some spare prayers and good thoughts Iowa could surely use them-I can't even imagine what it must be like for the folks who've seen everything they own literally washed away.

Here's a picture I took out at Saylorville Lake/Dam. In 1993 Saylorville peaked at 892 feet and the other day it was at 889 so it's very, very close to the last huge flood level. See that bit of wood fencing in the middle of the picture. That's normally a little observation deck with a bench where you can sit at look out over the water. Right now you can sit there and be in the water.
Here's a picture I stole from out local news station KCCI. Those bridges crossing the river have huge arches underneath that are usually visible.

On the non flood related front I've been working on uploading some pictures to our family genealogy website. My cousin Christopher is the compute genius in the family and the mastermind behind the website-he has our genealogy on there, pictures, a blog, and part of our family cookbook. Lol-I just try not to mess it all up when I upload the photos. I've got gobs more stuff that needs to go up but hey-baby steps right.

Believe it or not there actually has been a little quilting done too-I've been working on Kathi's row for the row round robin. Hopefully tonight after DD and her partner in crime crash I can do a little more on it. Right now I'm going to take the girls swimming (in the pool-not the flood water!). Send me a couple happy thoughts while you're at it-lol-by the time we get out of the pool I may need them and a stiff drink!

2008-06-05T08:08:00.000-07:00

We're down at Grammy's house right now helping get everything set up for the garage sale. Not much quilting getting done. I did a little work on my crazy quilt blocks for the Crazy quilt swap-I've got 3 more to finish embellishing and then I'm done.

We had a tornado warning last night so we spent a fair bit of time sitting in the basement. Lol-I took my crazy quilt blocks and Kathi's rows for her row robin with me-didn't want them blowing away to Oz!

I've talked so much about the row by row round robin I'm doing on the about.com forum but I'm not sure if I've ever shown pictures of my starter row. So here it is...

My theme is red/cream stars. I asked for stars of any size and asked that the other ladies just baste their rows together because I'd like to take them apart and put them together in a puzzle fashion. I love quilts that just seem to have stars of all sizes flowing together. Lol-I'm sure when I got to put it together it won't feel like it's flowing but I think once I'm done gnashing my teeth and snarling it will be lovely.

Becca

2008-06-02T22:07:00.000-07:00

I hope you all haven't given up on me during my long quiet spell. Shortly after my Grandfather passed away DH decided to have his own little near death experience and ended up hospitalized for 5 days. We've yet to discover what exactly is wrong with him but we now know a number of things that aren't wrong with him. I spent quite a bit of time at the hospital with him as he's a teensy bit of a great big baby and wasn't to thrilled about the idea of being left alone at the hospital. I don't know what he was so worried about-he had a whole gaggle of cute nurses!

I've spent this week trying to catch up on everything that's gone by the wayside and while the to do list is still freakishly long it's no longer threatening to become a short novel.

One of the things on my to do list was to get my row done for the row robin I'm participating in. I had Gail's rows for May and her theme was China Dolls. I had a really neat idea about appliqueing Chinese words onto blocks but unfortunately with everything going on I just plain old ran out of time and went with these simpler Chinese Lantern Blocks. I got it done just a little late and it's going into the mail tomorrow.

Aren't Gail's rows gorgeous! I love them all.
A couple close ups of my lantern blocks...

one life well lived is a wonderous thing...

2008-05-20T10:04:00.000-07:00

You may have noticed that I vanished for a couple weeks. My grandpa took ill and was hospitalized. He passed away last Monday.

Grandpa suffered from emphysema fro the last 25 years and while we're sad to lose him and will miss him every day we're also glad to know that he's in a place where he no longer had to struggle for each breath.

Younger days....

In the garden with me....
reading a story to my little stinker....

I'd love to tell you all about Grandpa and everything he did-for his family, his friends, and his community but I'm still a little raw right now and I think I'd end up typing through a lot of tears so I'm going to be a little clique and just say this-he lived a good life and there's an empty place in a lot of people's hearts and lives now that he's gone.

On a quilty note-to my blogwarming winners-I promise I haven't forgotten you. In the hustle and bustle of the last few weeks I haven't had a chance to mail your packages but they are going to go in the mail tomorrow! I'm sorry about the delay and I hope you haven't been to disappointed not to find the goodies in your mailbox yet.

Grandpa

2008-05-08T19:01:00.000-07:00

Not to much quilting done the last few days-my grandpa's been ill so lots of travel time to see him. I've been working on quilting my buzzsaw table topper-it's nice and portable. I'm really liking the spiral on the black-it gives the quilt lots of motion and the variegated orange thread really pops.

Grandpa's had emphysema for a long time and he's at the point now where he really isn't able to do anything as even the slightest activity leaves him out of breath and exhausted. When Grandma called Wednesday morning they weren't sure he was going to make it but they were able to get him stabilized by the time we got there. None of us want to see him go (aren't Grandpa's supposed to live forever?) but of course it's terrible to see him suffer and lose his quality of life.

Here's a pic-handsome isn't he? No wonder Grandma fell for him. Of course this picture's just a few years old.

I started researching our family history a few years ago and last year sat down and interviewed him about his life. I got to hear so many neat stories that I'd never heard him tell before. I'm so glad now we've got that history written down.

We're going to go down this weekend to help Grandma out and spend some more time with Grandpa so you probably won't see another post from me until Monday.

And then there were four....

2008-05-05T13:16:00.000-07:00

I had such good intentions to post last night. I was going to do a little piecing during the Dallas/San Jose game and then post once the game was over. That of course was before it went to 4 overtimes. The game finally wrapped up around 1:30am with a win by Dallas. After that I went straight to bed and crashed-hence no post. Very exciting-this is the farthest Dallas has gotten in quite awhile so I'm thrilled. Fingers crossed they can keep the streak going!

The upside of 4 overtimes is that I was super productive and got way more done on my ALQS quilt than I'd expected. I've got 15 1/4 blocks done and quite a few more in progress. I need 48 quarter blocks to make the quilt so I'm cooking right along.

Anyone got the pattern figured out already?

These little sprouts are zinnias-or will be zinnias providing I don't kill them...

Dd and Grandma planted them and we're planning on taking them down to Grammy's house for Mother's day to plant in her garden. Of course we'd no sooner placed them in the windowsill after we planted them than the cat tipped them over and played in the dirt so some of our carefully cracked eggs look a little worse for the wear.

chop chop

2008-05-01T20:29:00.000-07:00

Here's my crazy quilt acquisitions for the day-some lovely gold butterfly charms and some shimmery gold thread for embellishing.

I was so tempted by this lovely little burgundy handbag but I was a good girl and restrained myself. My first love is fabric but handbags are a close runner up. I keep thinking I'm going to try out some of those great bag patterns and even bought one that looked really appealing but I haven't made a single one yet.

After we got home from shopping we had a little tea party and had our olive bread, cupcakes, and some tea. DD declared it the best tea party ever and actually ate 2 slices of olive bread! Last time she spent the night at grandma's she ate salmon, and yesterday I made shredded beef tacos and she ate those too-maybe this is a sign that she's almost over that awful picky stage where all she wants is chicken and macaroni! Ooooh-fingers crossed!

My other bit of progress to report-my fabric for my little swap quilt is all cut out and ready to start sewing.
I've never paper pieced anything this small-it may be an adventure. Maybe tomorrow I can actually get a block or two together and show you where I'm going with this.

the craziness continues

2008-05-01T09:34:00.000-07:00

Are you tired of seeing crazy quilt blocks? I hope not because I'm not done yet. Here's yesterday's damage...

I need to pick up some more gold embellishment pieces-nearly everyone in the cream and white group asked for gold embellishments and I'm running short.

No worries though-my friend Kathleen, DD, and I are going shopping today. She works a half day so she's going to come over after work and we're going to have some olive bread and then do a bit of shopping.

Did you click on the link for the olive bread recipe? Even if you don't like olives click on it and check out the rest of the recipes on Ree's site. She is the bestestestest cook and I love her recipes-she's never let me down. Her spicy shrimp-divine. Her Marlboro man sandwich-stick to your ribs perfection. Her apple dumplings-the reason ice cream was invented. Her pico de gallo and guacamole-makes chips beg to be eaten. Seriously-that good. Not to mention she's lol funny and takes great pics (much better than mine!)

more craziness

2008-04-29T19:30:00.001-07:00

Not to much quilting done today. We finally had a nice day and decided we should go to the zoo. It was a really nice trip-there was just a handful of people there and the animals were all very relaxed and friendly. We were lucky enough to get up close and personal with a wallaby and her baby and one of the birds in the aviary came right up to DD and decided to see if the buttons on her sweater were as tasty as they looked.

I did manage to get some embellishments done on the crazy quilt blocks. This one is for Faye who requested all colors.

This is for Lisa Jo who wanted jewel tones with gold and black accents.

And this one is for Terri who wanted white and metallic gold accents.

Sore fingers

2008-04-28T21:18:00.000-07:00

I've spent the last couple days trying to work diligently on the quilt I'm quilting for my neighbor but tonight I had to quit for awhile-my poor little poked fingers are so sore. I'm making great progress though and tomorrow there's back to back playoff games so maybe a little hockey action will take my mind of my mangled fingers and I can get more done. I'm hoping to have this quilt quilted, bound, and labeled by the end of May so I can get to work on a commission quilt for my cousin Deb.

Deb has clothes from her dad and grandma that she would like made into a quilt and lots of pictures so I think we're going to do a crazy quilt concept with pictures set into the blocks. I'm extra lucky that she's basically given me free reign to do whatever I think works so hopefully my creative genius will be up to snuff.

Pictures, pictures-these are Deb and Wendi's blocks for the HST swap. Another batch of cuties-I'm still debating on the pattern I want to make with mine-I'm thinking about either a Jewel Box or Depression Block quilt. I made the Depression block for a swap awhile back and loved how fun and happy it looked in 30's and WOW.
These are the fastest pictures ever-I had two kitties and DD all trying to "assisst" so I basically threw them on the flannel, snapped the pic, and whisked them away.

Oooh-almost forgot-I also added embellishments to 2 more crazy quilt blocks but will have to wait to get pictures tomorrow when the sun is out.

We went to see my Dad and Step mom on Saturday and DD left her beloved teddy bear Lucy behind. She was really upset about not having Lucy to sleep with so I e-mailed Dad and asked him to stick Lucy in the mail. Instead of mailing Lucy, Grandpa and Grandma drove up today after work and hand delivered her to DD. That's about 2 1/2 hours round trip. Grandma and Grandpa to the rescue! Isn't that the sweetest.

We've had a cold snap and it's expected to freeze tonight but tomorrow it's supposed to hit almost 60 and then in the 70's Wednesday and Thursday so I'm looking forward to that! Maybe this will be our last burst of winter and then it's all Spring. A girl can hope right?

Today I was productive

2008-04-27T20:45:00.000-07:00

My friend and neighbor Kathleen came over today and we had a little crafty girl day. Kathleen made jewelry, DD made collages, and I made blocks for the crazy quilt swap. I got all my blocks pieced and even got a couple embellished.

These are for the 2 ladies in my group who wanted multicolored blocks.

There are for the cream and white ladies-they don't show up very well against the white flannel-but without the flannel you'll have proof that my carpet needs vacuuming and they might take away my Martha Stewart medal. Hehe, of course they'd have to find it in the clutter first!

These two are for the 2 ladies who wanted black and white blocks and.......here's close up's of the embellishments.

The swap requirement is that we do at least two embellishments on each block. My plan is to get two done on all my blocks and then go back and add more-that way I don't get caught short on time and have to rush through. As usual my pics are not so hot-the top block actually has small beads in between the big bright ones and the bottom block has black ribbon rose appliqué and a green chain stitch with silver beads woven in. Does the picture actually look like that on either one? Sometimes I wonder how the picture I see through the lens can look so different than the picture I end up with.

We have winners!

2008-04-26T08:49:00.000-07:00

I promised DD last night that she could be the one to draw the names for the blog warming and she came tearing into the bedroom this morning ready to "get some names out of that bowl."

She drew Hilda as the winner of the plaid FQ's, Jennifer and the winner of Turning Twenty Again and the kitty FQ, and Sophie as the winner of the Christmas blocks.
Congrats ladies! (I hope the sight of my hideously ugly desk doesn't take the joy out of winning-I promise its going in the trash next year when we replace the computer!)

Thanks to everyone who commented and entered the drawing-I had such fun reading everyone's comments and visiting their blogs. Stick around-I'm turning the big 3-0 in July and we may just have to have another giveaway then!

Mardis Gras for Peggy

2008-04-24T16:52:00.000-07:00

This happy little block is for Peggy's birthday month in my birthday block swap. Her theme was Mardis Gras . I wasn't sure how the colors would all play together but I think it actually turned out nicely. One of the best things about this swap was that if really challenged me to work with different blocks and color than I normally would. I signed up just because it sounded fun but it's really broadened my horizons as a quilter.

Opinions please!

2008-04-24T16:33:00.000-07:00

I made this little buzz saw quilt with the leftover blocks from the big buzz saw quilt. It's about 24x 32-I think it's going to be a cute little table topper for Halloween. Problem is I have no idea how to quilt it-I know I don't want to do stitch in the ditch. I bought some really cute orange variegated thread so I want to do something fun but what I don't know. My best idea so far was spiraling circles in the black area that start out small and get bigger but other than that I'm just blanking.

So if anyone has some great quilting suggestions I would surely love to hear them-can't let that lovely variegated thread sit too long-it might turn into a pumpkin!

My little helper...

2008-04-23T20:10:00.000-07:00

Last year our daughter fell in love with a stray kitty when we were at Grammy and Poppa's house and we ended up bringing her home. She's turned into quite the little quilting assistant and loves to sit by the sewing machine and watch me sew or sit on my lap and "help" me hand quilt.

This is Sorry the cat (DD named her) sitting and watching me quilt. Cute, innocent, sweet as a button...

until she attacks...must protect mommy from that evil, evil thread...Fortunately this quilt is for my dear neighbor who loves cats and doesn't mind if the quilt comes with teeth marks in tow.
after a hard day of thread catching and quilt taming a kitty needs her rest.

Doesn't she look like the princess and the pea on to of her stack of quilts? That's my pile that's ready to quilt. They're on the glider in the living room because I have an out of sight out of mind issue-if they're right in front of me in the living room and I see them all the time I'll actually work on them. Plus-as you can see they make a great kitty bed.

More crazy quilt shopping

2008-04-23T19:52:00.000-07:00

As promised here's pictures of my recent crazy quilt acquisitions. This whole crazy quilting thing is disgustingly addictive-ok-well the shopping is-this is how far I've gotten on actually making the blocks-
That's progress right?I cut out my muslin squares and marked off the 8 1/2 inch square inside of them. Ok, ok, not such great progress-I'll try to have more impressive pictures to show you tomorrow.

Here's some gorgeous fabric to take your mind off my pathetically undone blocks. This picture is my fancy fabrics for the colored blocks. I've got a bright orange brocade, a shiny blue satin, and a dark plum crushed velvet fabric. I also picked up these little flower appliqués (how cute are they!) and some fun beaded trim.

These are my fabrics for the black and white blocks-I didn't have a single black and white fabric in my stash so I had to buy a bunch for these. Tragic isn't it. I've got three fancies in here-the solid black (crushed velvet), the black and white dot (silky) and the white with black swirls in the front (kind of textured linen). The rest are cotton. Then there's some pretty black ribbon with black roses on it-I thought that would make a pretty seam treatment.

Tomorrow I'm hoping to get either the black or colored blocks pieced-keep your fingers crossed folks-my sewing machine has been feeling neglected the last few days!

Mr. Postman

2008-04-21T20:00:00.000-07:00

Look what the postman brought me today....

Paula had a giveway on her blog to celebrate her 100th post and I was the first prize winner. I won this beautiful quilt which is going to go on my wall and she also sent some surprise goodies. I got a lovely card which goes so well with the theme in our bedroom I'm thinking of framing it and putting it on my dresser, some yummy chocolate sticks, needles, and 3 super cute notepads. Also in the box was some Ghiradelli coffee. That's not pictured because my neighbor was over when I opened the box and we had to open it up and have some right away so I forgot to put it in the picture.

Thank you, thank you Paula. I can't tell you how much your box brightened my day and I think it will be so neat to look on wall and see the quilt you made!

In other news-I have a thoroughly sore fingers. I'm hand quilting a queen sized quilt for my neighbor and worked on it last night during the Dallas/Anaheim game. While it was a productive way to pass the time it was pretty painful because every time the action got intense I'd end up jabbing myself in the finger. Fortunately Dallas won so I've got another round in the playoffs to look forward too. Dallas hasn't had the cup since 99-I think it's time to take it back. :-)

I also made another trip to the store and bought more fabric for my crazy quilt swap blocks. No picture tonight as I'm going to bed just as soon as I hit post but I promise to get some pics tomorrow. Shopping for crazy quilt fabric is so much fun-there's so many options out there. I've purchased all the fabric I need and I think I have enough embellishments for the jewel toned and black and white group but will need to get more for the cream and white-I think about 2/3 of the swappers (self included) picked the cream and white colorway. I can't wait to see the blocks for this swap-I think they will be incredible!

Spooky spring greeting

2008-04-20T14:35:00.000-07:00

These tessellating star blocks are from a swap I hosted on the about.com forum. I'd set them aside after the swap as I was in the middle of something else and actually forgot about them. Last week I was cleaning out our closet (which also holds all my quilting supplies) and rediscovered them. I decided it was time to get the top together so I could get it quilted before next Halloween.

That little orange stripe in the border finishes at 1/4 inch. Not hard to do but a little fiddley and I pinned the heck out of it before I sewed it on. Dh actually suggested the orange stripe. The man can't match his own clothes but for some reason when it comes to picking out borders he's an absolute genius. I think I've praised him one to many times for his border picking skills because now he offers his opinion on my borders whether I want it or not!

Fabric, goodies, and swap blocks

2008-04-19T16:00:00.000-07:00

Look what the mailman brought today-these are Lucy's blocks for the HST swap. Hmmm...I'm sensing a purple and yellow theme amongst our swappers. Wouldn't purple and yellow make a pretty quilt? Might make a good swap-but what block to use?
I also did a bit of shopping today. I'm taking part in Kate's Another Little Quilt Swap. I decided on a pattern the other day and went to the quilt store to pick out fabric today. I hunted around and grabbed a few different bolts of multicolored focus fabric and decided I liked this orange dot best. Then I picked out the gold and dark plum to accent it and the creamy tan for the background. It's not the best picture of the fabric-it's a cloudy day here so not much light but I love the fabrics. I can't wait to get started on it. I'm planning on doubling up and making 2-one to keep and one for my buddy. Someone posted that they did that in a doll quilt swap they were in and I thought it was a neat idea-that way I won't be so sad to see my little quilt take off for it's new home.

I also went to Hancock's to pick up some fabric for a border on my Halloween quilt (which I hope to have done before Halloween this year!) and found some goodies for the crazy quilt swap I'm taking part in. I wasn't actually planning on shopping for the swap so I didn't have my list of swappers preferences with me so I stuck with neutrals that would work with most everyone's stuff.

For embellishments I got some seed pearls, gold dragonfly charms, 3 yards of ribbons, some silver key charms, some cream colored flowers, and some little silver charms that say "Believe" on them.

For fabrics I got some cream colors satin, some peachy/cream silky stuff-I can't remember off hand what it is, and some creamy paisley brocade. The 2 FQ's are cream colored jacquard I picked up while I was at the LQS. I still have more shopping to do for this swap but that will have to wait until next week.

My LQS is in the middle of the city but the parking lot butts up next to a little wooded area. It's not uncommon to see deer there and today when we pulled up there were 3 deer, a mallard duck in a big puddle, and some little creature we couldn't identify. We watched it for a long time trying to figure out what it was but it was far enough away and the weeds were high enough that we couldn't ID it. I don't think it was a possum or raccoon. It walked like a badger but I don't know how likely it would be to see a badger walking around by the LQS. It has that sort of elongated body though like a badger or weasel shape. So that's the days mystery-the Quilt Ness creature.

You're invited to a blogwarming!

2008-04-18T20:59:00.000-07:00

I recently won a little quilt on Paula's blog in celebration of her 100th post and am eagerly anticipating it's arrival-lol-I've never been so diligent about checking the mailbox. Her contest was such fun and it was so neat to win that I thought that to celebrate the kick starting of my new blog (and give myself a nice incentive to keep updating regularly) we'd have a little blogwarming party and give some stuff away.

The first is this set of 4 super soft plaid FQ's. Wouldn't these look great in Bonnie's Smokey Mountain Stars quilt?

#2 is the Turning Twenty...Again pattern and a gorgeous Laurel Burch kitty FQ. I made a Turning Twenty Again for my first quilt. My LQS owner gently ( and wisely) talked me out of the much more ambitious sampler project I'd picked out. My Turning Twenty Again is on the back of my couch and I thought it would be fun to let someone else have a crack at this pattern. It's perfect for a beginner-and believe my I was a rank beginner but still fun for an experienced quilter. The FQ is actually a gorgeous chocolate brown-I just take terrible pictures.
#3 is 40 12 inch Christmas themed 9 patches. I know, I know, it's not a finished quilt (you're going to have to wait for a few more posts for that) but it's enough blocks to make 1 or more quilts depending on what you do with them. These are from a swap I participated in and I've actually used a bunch of these blocks in a quilt. Let's just say I got carried away swapping and now it's time for someone else to have some fun with them.

If you'd like to be in the draw for the giveaway just leave a comment before next Friday-the 25th. I'll draw names and announce the winners on Saturday. If you don't have an e-mail linked to your blogger profile make sure you leave me a way to contact you if you win.

Becca

Look what came in the mail!

2008-04-17T18:41:00.000-07:00

These are Wanda's HST's she sent in for the 30's and WOW HST swap I'm hostessing on the about.com forum. Aren't they gorgeous! I especially like the purple and yellow stripe. Wanda is the early bird-these aren't due until May 15th. I wish I were so efficient.

Here's my big exciting fabric find. I went to Wal-mart the other day and had to check out the $1 fabric section while I was there. I saw this lovely black and white print and pulled it out to take a closer look. It's Robert Kaufman from the Color Beat line. Really nice hand and so cute. I'm taking part in a crazy quilt block swap and I think this will probably make it into some of the black and white blocks.

Here I am...

2008-04-16T13:37:00.000-07:00

Hello! Welcome to my blog. I love reading everyone else’s blog and decided I just have to get in on the action. I keep trying to come up with something exciting for my first post but I’m afraid if we keep waiting for excitement this blog may never get off the ground!

So in lieu of excitement I’ll show you what I’ve been working on lately:

These are 3 blocks I made for a birthday block swap I'm participating in. These are for our hostess Kate who asked for Amish inspired blocks-black or black on black backgrounds with TOT fabrics. she didn't put any restrictions on size or pattern so I had a lot of fun picking out some fun blocks for her.

This one is Squire Smith's Choice from quilterscache.com

This is 12 Triangles-also from quilterscache.com

This one Amish Shoofly. I love shoofly blocks and think they're perfect for an Amish style quilt but I didn't want to just make a shoo fly block for Kate-she's done so much work on this swap I wanted something a little fancier. So I made her 4 and put them together. I think they turned out quite nicely.

Here's two I made for Jeanne-she wanted blocks to make a village. I'd never done building blocks before so this was fun-I had a blast picking out the perfect fabrics for my structures. These two are from quilterscache too-guess you can tell I love Marcia's patterns. Jeanne wanted 9 inch blocks and these finish at 10 but they're paper pieced so I scaled them down when I printed them out.