Applique--Not!

I seem to struggle with applique, at least the kind where you turn under the edges. I'm loving the fact that we're going through a raw edge fad right now and I have used raw edge applique in many quilts now. But my attempts at the traditional applique never look quite as clean as I'd like. I find it frustrating. So after my parents took a trip to Hawaii and my mom brought me back a book on Hawaiian quilting, I felt compelled to give it a try again, BUT this time I just drew the design onto the fabric background and used fabric paint to get the desired effect. I hand quilted around the edges, purposely making the stitches larger and darker than my regular hand quilting and I loved how it turned out. No stress, no disappointment!

Cracked Wheat Cereal-Mmmmm

Here's the recipe for one of my all time favorite breakfasts. You can crack the wheat in your blender by just pulsing it a few times. Then all you have to do is remember the night before to get started on it and in the morning you'll have a sweet, warm and chewy soul satisfying bowl of cracked wheat cereal. I add a little milk to mine and warm it in the microwave. It's a great way to warm up these cool fall mornings.

Wonderful Wool and Cottages too

This was my first attempt at working with wool. It's a familiar pattern that I changed just slightly and made it for my sister in law. In fact every time I see it at her house, I secretly want it back. Is that bad?
For the frame I bought some molding from Home Depot and stained it. Wool was so wonderful to work with, it's like butter to sew through, and now that I'm better at doing the buttonhole stitch, I would love to make another piece. My only hesitation is that I would have to start purchasing all different colors and varieties of wool to add to my already overcrowded closet full of quilting fabric. Maybe I can hide it somewhere else!


I've been working all afternoon on my Christmas cottage blocks for the exchange. Here's one of the 11 I'll be sending in the mail in the next day or two.

Quilt tops and swirly skirts

It took me a while, but I finally made a decision about what fabric to use for the border and now I love it. I've made the back for it already and I used flannel for the center. I wanted flannel for the entire back, but I bought the end of the bolt and that's all they had. Luckily I had plenty of the brown print I had used on the front border. My little camera doesn't do the colors any justice though, which makes me sad. Wish you could see how the colors pop.






My sister, the Apron Lady, has a fun new pattern for a swirl skirt and lucky me, my girls get to be the guinea pigs and try out all her new stuff. Nikki loves her skirt and has worn it several days to school. She makes it look good over anything. I can tell these will be a big hit with my girls. The pattern will be available real soon. The best part is that they literally take about a half hour to sew. My kind of project!

Memories

One of the best parts of quilting is having something tangible that evokes memories. Sometimes those memories come from the fabric itself like when we use pieces of the cute little dresses our daughters wore when they were young. Sometimes I remember exactly what I was doing at that point in my life when a particular quilt was made. Other times a quilt has been some well needed therapy, a bit of sanity in a sometimes chaotic world. I made this quilt when we moved from the coast of South Carolina to our home here in Idaho. I needed something to remind me of the beautiful coastline that had been our home for many years. The shark's tooth holds a fun memory of the many hours we spent searching the sand for fossilized shark's teeth. Each time we found one, it became a personal victory and a fun family competition. Each square has meaning. I'm so happy I made this quilt. Each time I walk by it I feel a soft southern humid wind breeze by my face and a whiff of salty marsh mud fills the air.

On the road again...

The schools around here had a couple days off last weekend so we packed up and took a quick trip to visit my son at college in Rexburg. Of course, we had to stop by Amy's store The Quilt Shoppe in Ridby to see what was new. I was looking for some fabric to make borders for my snuggly quilt. Amy has such cute samples on all of her walls and tables I just had to take some pictures to show. It's fun to browse around.











My niece Mary is also at college but she works in Amy's shop part time. She likes working there so much that she's decided she'd like to open a quilt shop of her own one day. I hope she opens it in my neighborhood! Amy is on the left in the bottom picture and my niece is on the right. Now I'm off to pick up my sewing machine from the shop so I can start working on my Christmas cottage blocks for the exchange I'm doing.

Snuggle Quilt

I love the feeling of finishing a new quilt top. Actually I haven't added my borders yet, but the end is in sight and it looks a lot better in person. I'm making this quilt for some winter snuggling. I'm going to put flannel on the back so that it's nice and soft and I'll even wash it a couple times after I quilt it. I really like how it's turned out and I've used lots of scraps from my stash which was my goal. I can't wait to use it.

Refreshing blue and yellow

I change things around every so often with my quilts and I decided to put this quilt up on the wall for now because it's so refreshing to look at. There's something about blue and yellow that just makes me feel good when I look at it. Also with this quilt I was able to use so many of my scraps, another reason to feel good. I machine pieced and also machine quilted it. This is about the largest quilt I feel comfortable machine quilting on my home machine. Anything larger than this and I have to send it out to be quilted -at least until I find the funds and the space for a longarm of my own ;)

Door Prize

Look what I won at my quilt group's Material Girls Idaho meeting yesterday. It's a great pattern especially for those of us trying to use up our mounds of scraps and some very fun Halloween fabric. I am so lucky and belong to the best quilt group around. Every month my friends never cease to amaze me with their creations. It's so motivating. The week before the meeting I'm motivated to finish something so I can take it for Show and Tell. The 2 weeks after the meeting my head is so full of fun new ideas from things I saw at our meeting and I'm cutting, designing, shopping and quilting every spare minute I have. I hope everyone has a group like this in their life.

Currently on my design wall...

I've cut out these squares and have them on my design wall so I can look at them for a couple days. It helps me decide what I'll eventually do with them. I've numbered each square-thus the little pieces of paper on each.


Also on my wall is this artistic rendering of myself by my daughter Leah. She loves drawing pictures of me. I particularly like the scarf and free flowing belt that she's added to my attire on top of what looks to be a stylish pair of culottes.

Words

I went to a friend's home party for http://uppercaseliving.com/ and I couldn't resist getting a few things. There were so many fun ideas for decorating with words and letters. This frame came with 4 separate pieces of glass and your choice of words to place onto each piece. I got a saying or word in a color of my choice that would go with each season. I hung it in my kitchen so at least some of the family would notice when it changes. You can rub the letters onto practically any surface including most wall surfaces. I've had fun with it.

Tutu time

Shhhhh...While my youngest daughter was at school yesterday, I picked up some fun tulle from Joanne's and made this tutu for her 7th birthday which is next week. She loves to dress up and to dance, so I'm sure this tutu will get lots of use. I loved how easy it was to make and especially that it was a no-sew project. Since my dog doesn't like to play dress up, I had to use the chair. It's not quite as flattering, but you can get the gist of it. I'm going to add some ribbons and bows to it also. After all, this is going to a princess!

Apron Swap

So finally, here's a picture of the apron and a close up of the fabric I sent to my Fall Apron Swap partner, Jenn. I made this Flirty Skirty apron with some chocolatey delicious Marcus Brothers fabric. Jenn posted this picture on her blog and since I forgot to take a picture of it before I mailed it to her, she's graciously sharing it with me. I'm happy she liked it.

Hot Pad

Had some free moments the other night while watching a football game with the family and I managed to finish my locker hook rug hot pad. I'm pretty happy that I used so many scraps-just cut them into 1 1/4" strips, connect them together and hook away. At first I was going for an actual design on the pad as you can see with the red stripe at the top, but then I decided I didn't want to think about it that much and just went random but with harmonious colors. I like it. I didn't quite get the tension right on every loop, but it definitely looks homey and homemade. I'm using it on the kitchen table almost like a small table runner in the middle with a candle on top. Rug Maker's Homestead is a great place to see all kinds of rugs, how to make them, etc.

Fall Apron Swap

Last week I received this fun package in the mail from my Fall Apron Swap partner Megan from Maryland that Sassy Apron Swap hosted. It's reversible too which will really come in handy. Megan said this apron is her own pattern based on a vintage apron she borrowed from her neighbor. I love the handwork she did on the pocket. I forgot to take a picture of the hot pad she made to go along with it. I've already used it several times. The recipe she sent me is called Everyday Chicken Potpie and it sounds scrumptious. For my partner Jennifer in Michigan, I made a delicious chocolate Flirty Skirty apron (which I forgot to photograph. I remembered right after I got back from the post office) and I sent her my favorite pie recipe which happens to be French Chocolate Pie. Sassyapronswap always has a fun swap going on so check it out and join in some time.

Weightless and windy

Before my oldest son took off for college, he had some fun with the younger kids having a photo shoot with them on the tramp. They love seeing themselves in these gravity defying poses.














I was also so sad to come home one day after a wind storm and find our favorite willow tree looking like this. We were all so sad. After having lived in South Carolina, Georgia and Virginia for many years, we truly miss being surrounded by trees. They are a rarity here. This was our biggest tree and the kids love climbing in it. We'll have to wait and see if it will even survive.

Produce and hooking

It looks like it's salsa time again. The tomatoes are ripe and ready and plentiful. The grapes have been just so-so this year. Some of them are so tasty and others can't seem to ripen. But they're all fun to snack on throughout the day.
It's also time to clear out what seems to be a ton of scraps from projects, so after seeing a beautiful locker hook rug that my friend Diane made, I decided I would try my hand at it. I've got my fabric cut into 1 1/4" strips, have connected them to make one long continuous fabric thread and have begun my practice piece. It's a 10"x10", so it would be a rug for baby's feet only. I'll have to think of something to do with it when I finish. These pictures are some of what I got done today. It really isn't making a dent in my scrap pile but I kind of knew that it wouldn't when I started. So far it's very fun to do and a diversion from my usual quilting.

A trip without handwork...

I was just kicking myself on our trip to Oregon because I didn't take the time to take some handwork to work on in the car. I usually get so much done on our car trips, but not this time. I did manage to slip in tons of stuff to read, but it didn't feel as productive. So when I saw this pattern at Jodi's Quilt Shop in Florence, OR, I knew I had to make it. I just love it! There's no way I'm going to wait for another car trip though to start working on it. The pattern is printed in red and white and looks darling, but I may experiment with other colors, maybe blue and white or brown and cream. The pattern is called The Quilt Shop and is part of a series by Cathy Parker and her website is quiltingbeedesigns.com.

Oregon Coast

Back to real life after a fun 10 day family vacation to the Oregon coast. We had never been there before and it was so much fun exploring. We started in Portland and worked our way down to Florence and then across the state stopping near Bend. The big hit was the wild dune buggy ride along the sand dunes near Florence. A professional driver took us on a ride that rivaled some of the best theme park rides and we'd all definitely recommend it to anyone going to Florence. There are 2 dune buggy rides-one is a site seeing tour, more sedate type ride. The other is called the wild and crazy ride which is what we opted for. Lots of laughing and screaming. I'm the screamer in our family. The coastline is gorgeous. There were lots of quilt shops along the way. While we stayed in Florence I went to Jodi's Quilt and Fabric shop and Joy of Quilting. Each quilt shop is so unique and of course I found something I couldn't live without in each. But for now, back to the laundry and school shopping. The kids start back to school next Monday and many UFO's will become FO's.

Flag Quilts

In our June meeting, my quilt group, Material Girls, Diane B. taught us how to make these cute flag wall hangings. The fabric is just torn into strips, glued onto a light background, sandwiched and then hand stitched down. Buttons are added to represent the stars, loops are added to the top (some of us made the flag so it would hang vertically and some horizontally-both look very cute). It was so easy and fast. It's hung from a stick from Diane's yard and the wire is curled by wrapping it around a dowel.
The second flag is one of those wall hangings made by pushing fabric into a styrofoam board that has a quilt design cut into it. There's a website called Quilt Graphics that sells the boards. It's fun to do and my kids have even made these. You push the fabric into the grooves with an ordinary kitchen knife. You can even use just a plastic knife. I know there are other companies that sell these too. Check into it. They make fun gifts for your non-quilting friends too.