Bits of Everything

Ahhh Summer!

2010-06-28T05:12:00.000-07:00

Today is the start of the first official full week of being "off " for the summer.

My vision for this day:

Have my Chai tea on the deck in the cool morning air
Listen to Tim sing on the radio
Exercise
Make the kids a lovely breakfast
Sew

My reality:

too hot to have tea on the deck
kid in bed with a 100 degree fever
listened to Tim sign while taking kid's temperature
cleaned up dog pee - the dog apparently drank too much yesterday due to the heat and had an accident(the Nile) on the kitchen floor during the night
I have a splinter buried in the bottom of my foot which interferes with the whole walking and exercise thing

Thanks goodness my foot pedal foot is splinter free, the central air is A-O-K, and the sick kid isn't getting any sicker. I guess I had better just stay inside and sew.

Now that the Pillow Talk Swap pillow is safe and sound in the hands of its new owner, I can work on some of my other projects.

I really want to make a few more blocks and finish my Spider Web Quilt.

Have a Happy Monday!

The Quiltkateers Conquer Lancaster

2010-03-28T17:35:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was the AQS quilt show in Lancaster. I met up with these 3 crazy girls that I've been getting to know through on-line quilting bees and specifically through the ORBC flickr group.

Heidi, Dolores, Dena, Tracy

We had a grand time. The quilt show was inspiring, so much so that by the end of the walk through we were all chomping at the bit to go fabric shopping.

In the car Dolores surprised us each with a little hand made treasure.

I love this so much!!!!
Thanks D!! =)

Hunger takes precedence over fabric though so we first had to eat and buy
Shoo Fly Pie for my favorite man at Stolzfus Deli.

This was a whole pie less than 24 hours ago.

Then we hit Zook's, The Old Country Store and a few other lovely shops where I acquired this loot. The Old Country Store was a little dangerous for me. I found an entire section of fabric that really spoke to me.

Check out those polka dots on the left. The dreaded polka dots!!! Who would have thought it? Those were my first purchases at Zook's and the rest of the day we were all on the lookout for more. I can't wait to cut into them. I was dreaming of the layout last night.

We happened into a brand new store that Heidi found called Bitty Kinna's.
I spotted this work in progess and had to have the fabric.
After some inquring and searching, one of the owner's found Amy Hoffman who own the shop next door. This is her creation and she was about the sweetest lady ever! She actually gave me her leftover yard of fabric from this quilt to get me started.

Can't wait for next year! Thanks for a swell time girls!

4 Day weekend

2010-02-28T13:04:00.001-08:00

Thanks to another East Coast weather event, I had Thursday and Friday off with the kids.
I was able to catch up on some cleaning, laundry and sewing.
I spent some time with the kids too, of course. Now that they are getting older though, Mom isn't the main attraction. That has it's benefits as well as its downside.

String blocks, Crazy 9's and Blank
Pre-circle cutting

Finally, the main blocks are done for the Old Red Barn Quilt Along #4. I am excited to start the circle cutting. That will be next weekend's project if I have the time. I used a roll of wrapping paper to make the string blocks for this quilt. What they say about "Necessity being the Mother of Invention is so true. I had no rolled paper and wasn't about to go out in the snow, so I used old Christmas wrap and I don't think I will ever use anything else. It worked like a charm!

I also found a new project over on Don't Look Now. This is one of the yummiest things I have seen. I have been studying all of the directions and requirements. I am about to take the plunge and invest in the supplies. I have to wait until tomorrow though since this was no spending February.

Gigi is have another giveaway on her blog now. I really need to make that skirt! And through her blog found out that Lila Tueller is also doing a giveaway. This quilting-blogging world never ceases to amaze me.

Some Kaffe Fasset squares and circles that I was playing with.
I am working up an idea for a
quilt- along with this.

Time to get ready for another Monday and another snow storm Wednesday. Have a great week!

Here a project, there a project, everywhere a project

2010-02-13T05:51:00.000-08:00

While the snow flies and the kids tunnel, I sew.

So, while I have my "quilty" pleasures surrounding me in the form of a project planned or a project started, I have my guilty pleasure on my laptop. I have started watching LOST through Netflix on my laptop while I sew and work on the blocks for the 5 bees that I am in. It is a good fit since I literally lose myself in my craft while I work.

This is my own design using ...... I will be posting a tutorial and fabric requirements once I see how it all comes together. So far it is fabulous.

This pile of strips is going to be this someday soon.

This stack is going to used to make this.

The Boutique by Chez Moi layer cake on the bottom of the stack along with the cream Kona is going to be used to do this.

The Spring Fever jelly roll and charm pack and white squares are going to be this.

A new year and lots of new projects

2010-01-04T17:40:00.001-08:00

The last 3 weeks have been a whirlwind of family and friends and celebrations.
(Not to mention a lot of cooking, cleaning and laundry.)
We celebrated an 11th birthday
a 13th birthday
a 41st birthday
Christmas Eve and Christmas Day
a day at a shelter serving lunch and giving out homemade brownies
New Year's Eve and New Year's Day
a big promotion
peace and love and togetherness

I feel blessed to have been able to have so many of our family and friends to our home over the past month. Wonderful memories were created. This new house needed some.

My brother and sister-in-law flew in and stayed for a week.
I was able to get a hold of my baby nephew and love him to death.

This is the quilt that he got from his favorite auntie :) for Christmas.

The softest minkee on the back for his sweet little baby skin.

The tree is down, the decorations are packed, the cookie tins are nearly empty and my
sewing room is brimming with fabric and patterns.
So far I have 8 WIP's and it is only the 4th of January.
My goal is to get all of them done this year.

Having hit the 50% off at my local fabric shop over the weekend, that WIP number is
sure to skyrocket.

Happy New Year to all!!!

Crazy 9 Patch and First Snow

2009-12-06T15:46:00.000-08:00

It was so wonderful to wake up to the first snow of the season and the first snow in our new house this morning.

I couldn't keep the dogs inside.

Especially Bella, she is a true outdoors girl.

After I made the kids waffles, put all of the candles in my windows, exercised, ran a 20 minute errand and put dinner in the crockpot, I promised myself that I would make my crazy 9 patches for the ORB quilt along #4. Here are a couple of them. I like them, but I don't know if I love them. I should have put my math skills to work here and considered the multiples of three and been more selective with where I placed my colors, but I was not in that mode at the time.

But they are done and I learned a few things from putting them together. They are nice, the pictures don't do them justice. Dinner is also done, and the wood stack has been replenished by 2 of my very favorite men.
So it's time for a little catch up with the family around the dinner table, a fire and maybe a Christmas movie.

Fabric Love

2009-11-11T19:13:00.000-08:00

I am in trouble. I just found out about this new online fabric store, (thanks Heidi!) and started drooling and pulling out the credit card as soon as I opened it. They have an extensive list of collections and designers. I love the tiered pricing system as well. Be sure to give them a look.

Bees and Fabric and Lunch

2009-11-10T09:14:00.001-08:00

Over lunch at my desk today I ordered this Riley Blake fabric through FabFanatic. $1 from each yard sold will be donated to Alex’s Lemonade Stand. I don't have any feedback on FabFanatic. I placed an order and paid for it, but not sure when I will get the fabric it. The customer service is exceptional though and the prices can't be beat.

I will be hosting a SpiderWeb block quilting bee. If you're interested send me a message and I will add you to the list. We will start in January and do 12 months. More information to follow once we have 12 members.

Appearing soon on Etsy

Now that my craft shows are done and most of my holiday orders are filled I will be ramping up my Etsy store. Click the button in the margin to check it out. It should be complete by the weekend.

Have a great Tuesday!

Wild Circle Surprise....Here we go

2009-11-05T07:28:00.001-08:00

This is the fabric that I will be using for the ORB Quilt Along #4.

I am unexpectedly home with a sick kid today so I may start cutting away.

Lazy Sunday

2009-11-01T11:11:00.000-08:00

I haven't been able to get my quilt top any further along. I had my jewelry show yesterday so I was busy finishing some new creations and getting everything packed up. Today I am resting and surfing. Among my surfing I found this blog which is hosting a fabulous giveaway, check it out!

I did take some shots of my table runner which absolutely pulled my dining room together.

Have a great week!

Go Phillies!

Getting There

2009-10-25T04:47:00.000-07:00

I reworked the Princess and the Pea. In the last post I had strips running perpendicular to the center of the quilt top. I decided I hated that so I cut them off, cut them up and will be using them as a coin border. That will be my next post. I love this now.

Something Fun for Me

2009-10-11T12:37:00.000-07:00

I won this great little bundle of fabric from QuiltHome. I signed up for their weekly newsletter to enter the $50 weekly giveaway and was a winner the next week. I never win anything. How fun it was to shop for free!!

I ordered fabric just for me that I normally wouldn't have bought. I treated myself to the Princess and the Pea and coordinating fabrics to make myself a lap quilt that no one else will be allowed to use. :)

It is starting to take on a life of its own though as I keep adding rows and strips. I love the wonky look of this. It goes with the crooked ladder and the precariously perched mattresses.

Yesterday I found the most perfect remnant on the $5 table at Joanne's that will be perfect for the backing. More to come...

Waiting for fabric

2009-09-04T05:27:00.000-07:00

I just finished unpacking my craft room. Hooray!!!! We moved and I now have an entire room to myself to do whatever I please. In the old house I had the corner of the living room and as hard as I tried not to, I had a tendency to spill completely into the living room, kitchen and, much to my husband's dismay, the garage. Now that I can spread my creative wings once again, sewing and quilting are calling me and I have been motivated by this wonderful blog to listen. Thus, the start of this piece that my 4 kids inspired. I love this picture of them. It is the absolute essence of them at that time in their lives. Since the day I took it, I have wanted to capture it in something other than a wooden frame and in more that a scrapbook that remains closed on a shelf. Not sure where I am going with it yet, but the scrapbooker and jewelry maker in me is saying go out on a limb. However, the left brain math teacher in me is saying that it makes my right brain hurt when I do these things. Yet, I must persist and make the deeply buried artist in me happy.

I transferred the photos using my printer and cotton lawn photo fabric from The Electric Quil t Company.