Absolutly Insane

Suzy and I have started a little block exchange of 3" finished blocks made with crumbs. I decided to make something a little different and made this little 3" finished log cabin block. The block has 21 pieces. I love it! I will have to make more of these.

Public Exposure

Look what's hanging behind the register at Cutting Edge Quiltworks in Chandler, AZ!

A Finish

I finished a quilt! I made this Pineapple Blossom quilt for Abbie since she did not have a big quilt yet. The quilt went together pretty quickly since I used precut 2 1/2" strips from my scrap bin. I am very pleased with how this turned out and hope Abbie will love it for years to come. If you are in the Phoenix area and would like to make one of these for yourself, Iwill be teaching how to make these blocks at Cutting Edge on October 30th.

Quilt done

I got Abbie's quilt done this afternoon despite Abbie's "help" and telling me that it was done because she wanted to play with the quilt. As soon as I actually got it done and was taking a picture Abbie had to bring her pillow out and do a test drive.

I just stuck the quilt into the wash while Abbie was not looking hope she doesn't notice :)

Of the original pile of fabrics I have just a small amount left. I really had to get creative in order to make this quilt completely from stash. When I ran out of the solid cream background fabric I switched to the second choice fabric. When I didn't have enough of the multi colored polka dot fabric to make another row I made the piano key border with the leftovers. When I realized that I had cut a zillion 4" squares and had no yardage of background fabric left I pieced the inner borders. Lastly when I used the red fabric for the binding rather than the blue I would have preferred. I am very pleased with how this quilt turned out and hope that it gets much use over the next several years.

More picture from camp

Here are some more pictures from camp.

Quilt Camp

I went to quilt camp this weekend and had a blast! The weather in Prescott was great and the company was even better. I got to meet a bloggy friend Angela of The Modern Diary. I broght up several quilts in progress and was happy at the progress I made. I finished the black white and red top from a block of the month that I did when I was pregnant with Abbie. The pink and brown top is Bonnie Huner's Carolina Crossroads that I started when it was a mystery on her site. The last top is for Abbie out of 30's repros from my stash.

Killing two birds with one stone

Abbie needs a new quilt to celebrate her big girl bed. Fortunately for me her big girl bed is toddler sized so that shouldn't be too huge of an undertaking. I have decided to kill two birds with one stone with this project since I have wanted to make a quilt out of my huge 30's repro stash for quite a while. I want to make this completely out of stash since I am trying to build up my emergency fund and buying anything that is not a need has pretty much been put on hold. Here are two groups of coordinates that I have pulled. I am partial to the second grouping, since I like purple and yellow together. I think that that group needs one more color to be a really nice quilt. I like the first group too, and I like that this group has a larger color palate. What do you think? I still haven't decided what pattern I am going to use.

A quick finish

I know I have been chatty tonight but I have a lot of catching up to do. Saturday I went to a baby shower and this is the quilt that I made up for her over the last 2 weeks. Some of this fabric was given to me by my friend H when she cleaned up her stash and the rest I pulled from my scrap bins. Instead of a paper gift bag I made a cloth bag out of some fabric that my other friend S had given me. I made one improvement on this bag though, I put a pocket on the inside of it so the bag can fold into it's own pocket.

Carolina Crossroads Part 2

I have finally finished part 2 of the Carolina Crossroads mystery! There are a lot of small squares in 100 3" finished 9 patches. I am really liking the colors in this quilt. Someone suggested that it looked like Neapolitan ice cream and I think that fits so I am going to have to use that in the title somehow.

Help me decide

I have decided to do the Carolina Crossroads Mystery. It took me a bit of time to decide what colors to use. I finally decided on pink and brown since I have been really into that color combination lately. I can't decide on a white on white or a mottled cream for the background fabric. Leave me a comment and let me know which one you like.

Deciding on a new project

Tonight I finished a black and batik top that I was making as a Christmas present (I'll try to get some pictures tomorrow). I have decided to have it longarmed so other than picking up some backing fabric, it is completed for now. I have spent at least the last hour trying to decide what to work on next. I have a bunch of UFO's that need to be completed, but I am feeling compelled to work on something new. There are two projects that I am contemplating, Bonnie's mystery quilt and Crazy Mom Quilt's quilt-a-long. I think that I just came to the realization that since these both are quilts in installments there is no reason that I can't work on both at the same time. I also have in my mind a scrapbook/memory quilt for our travels using 3", 6", 9" and 12" blocks. I need to go to the copy store and reduce some patterns before I can start on that. I also need to work on the pay it forward challenge gifts that I committed to in July.

Tonight for dinner we had Lasagna Soup, a recipe from Cuisine at Home. I love to make soups for dinner in the winter and this is one of my favorite soup recipes. Bulk Italian sausage has even become a staple in my freezer so that I can make this soup whenever I get a craving.

Things have been a bit crazy here

Wow it's been quite a while since I have posted, I have been a bit busy over the last couple weeks. First my birthday was on the 5th and my husband arranged for my friend to come into town from Wyoming to visit with me. It was a nice time, we went to Benihana on Friday for dinner and then hung out a bit on Saturday morning (she and her kids spent the night here on Friday) and then we took the kids to the zoo on Monday. Saturday my other friend took me shopping at a quilt store for my birthday present. While we were out we came across the grand opening of a new thrift store. My friend got a nice skirt, top and jean jacket and I got several books that I had been wanting to read and a bag with a half completed quilting project. I think that I will cut up the fabric and make new string blocks out of it. Saturday night was my anniversary and we took the kids to my parents for the night and Joe and I spent the night at the Princess in Scottsdale (that's where he took me to propose). Sunday we went back over to my parents house to pick up the kids and we also had my birthday lunch.
In between all of this I have finished my butterfly garden quilt and made a "Party" wall hanging. I recently got a new laptop and have not gotten the photo software set up yet so I'll have to post photos at a later date.
This weekend will likely be just as crazy. Tonight is the semiannual mother's of multiples rummage sale so I will be going with my mom and sister to get some winter clothes for the kids (Alex mostly). Tomorrow is Alex's birthday party (he will be 3 on the 16th), and there are no plans for Sunday yet.
I almost forgot, we had a big milestone here yesterday, we turned Abbie's car seat forward facing. I can't believe how big my baby girl has gotten. Yesterday I took the swing, activity center and bouncy seat to the resale shop. We have had these things since Alex was born, but Abbie has outgrown them and we are not planning on having any more kids so it was time to declutter. I was a bit sad to see them go realizing that I am moving out of a phase of my life and that I will likely never have a little baby of my own to cuddle again.

Measuring time

I had a sort of funny revelation today. In the last 6 years I have changed how I measure time. I used to measure time by months and days but now I measure time from events in my life such as that happened before I was married, I have had these pj's since I was pregnant with Alex, on Alex's birthday I will have been breastfeeding continuously for 3 years. It's funny how our perspective changes. For example when I was single and childless I was nuts about my birthday but now that I am married with 2 kids it feels like just something that is stuck in there between Alex and Abbie's birthdays with an anniversary thrown in for good measure. I am not saying this so you feel sorry for me, it is just not as important anymore.
In other ways to measure time, Abbie has gotten another molar so we are up to 9 teeth total. I can't believe that she is getting to be such a big girl.
Quilt wise I should be able to tell of a UFO finish soon. I finished quilting my Butterfly Garden quilt and have the binding sewn to one side, I just need to get some thread to match the binding and then I'll finish it up (since I anticipate that this quilt will be used I will stitch the binding down by machine rather than by hand). It will feel good to have this completed I have been working on this quilt since Alex was a newborn.

Small Quilt Auction

Tomorrow night is the annual Small Quilt Auction at my quilt guild. I have donated a chicken pincushion in the past but have never made a quilt so tonight I decided to make one. I used the "waste triangles" that I double sewed when I was making Alex's big boy quilt and that I had previously trimmed to 1 3/4" and sewed into 4 patch pinwheels. Tonight I sewed the pinwheels together and put on a couple borders and bound it. I am very pleased with how it turned out.

I have also included a couple more pictures from our trip to Zion. The picture of Abbie is of her in our Ergo Baby Carrier, this is how she saw Zion and I was very pleased with how comfortable it was and she got alot of attention from people when she was in it (although she gets attention wherever we go.

My Craftiness

As promised here are some of the projects that I have been working on lately:



Here is Abbie's dress, I am so pleased with how it turned out. I even made her a pair of bloomers to go with it. I am also planning on making her a headband in the pink fabric to go with it.


Lately I have been thinking more and more about bringing my own bags to the grocery store. It's not necessarily an environmental thing with me, although that is a side effect, it's more that I don't like to waste and it feels so wasteful to use plastic bags. I have a couple of the acme bags from www.reusablebags.com, but they are rather pricey. So, when the dogs recently ripped one of my king sized fitted sheets I decided to recycle it into some cloth shopping bags. I got the pattern from www.morsbags.com and they have been pretty quick to put together.


Lastly this is a project that has been lurking in my sewing room for nearly three years now. Shortly before my son was born a friend gave this cross stitchery to me that she had found in a antique store. It was in a frame that I didn't particularly care for so I took it into my craft room to do "something" to it and it has just sat there ever since. Tonight I was inspired to make it into a quilted wall hanging. I origninally had put another outer border on it and did not like the results so I dug though my stash of 30's fabrics and found this green polka dot that I think is perfect. I don't have anything that I think will work for the binding so I think that tomorrow I'll stop by the quilt store to see what they have, I am thinking either solid green or solid cream.

Happy Birthday Suzy!

My very good friend's birthday was back on the 2nd of August and like many quilters I did not have her present finished. When I finally finished her present I ended up very sick for over a week so the present didn't get mailed until Tuesday of this week. So, Happy Birthday Suzy you should have your present by now! Here is a picture of the patriotic angel wallhanging that I made for her (her middle name is Angel and she likes the 4th of July)

And finally something quilt related

Here is the picture of my leader/ender quilt that I talked about in a previous post. In other sewing related news a friend came over today and I helped her make a couple of dresses and several pairs of shorts for her daughter, son and nieces and nephews they all turned out so cute. I think I have convinced this friend that a serger is a required piece of equipment if you are going to be doing any garment sewing.

UFO Finish

I have made it a goal of mine to get some UFO's finished before starting new projects. Tonight I finished a UFO that I started in September/October of 2004. It was a Christmas block exchange for a bee group called The Cut Up's. I organized the swap and the rules were that the blocks had to be 12" finished in the quilter's choice of pattern and the colors had to be red, green and gold. After exchanging the blocks I had a hard time deciding how to set them and I finally found the print that I used for a border and sashing. After I got the top completed it sat around for a while again waiting to be quilted then I got in on Judi's 30 quilts for $30 and she just returned it to me about a week ago and I finished binding and putting the label on it tonight. The back is pieced out of a bunch of Christmas fat quarters that I had that I wasn't really in love with, but they made a great backing.

Help me chose a layout

I have finished all of the blocks for my mystery quilt, now I need to decide if I should put it together the way the instructions say to or use another layout. So I have decided to let you vote, there is a pole on the side of my blog for you to let me know what your favorite layout is.

Layout #1

Layout #2

One Step Closer

I think that I have mentioned before that I am training to become a lactation consultant. Well part of becoming a IBCLC is to take (and pass) a 200 question test that is only offered once a year. Today and yesterday I took a review course that is designed to prepare you for the test. I think that the course was excellent, but I also have come to realize how much I DON'T know. I have some studying to do between now and July.

On a cute note here is a picture of my sweet baby girl and her 5 teeth.

I have received the final clue for my quilt guild's mystery quilt. I think that the solution is nice, but I think that I might change it a bit. Look for some pictures coming soon (one and a half more blocks to finish).