Busy...

With a little of this. Trying to get child number one more independant so she can get her own wheels. Pray for us. She doesn't feel quite comfortable behind the wheel.



and I still am working on a little of this too. Man, I so don't like cutting out fabric squares, but love piecing. If I could only find some white charm squares, life would be so much better. Once pieced and quilted I have decided to give this to my sister for a Christmas gift this year.

I have a goal to finish four quilts before Christmas. Hopefully I can do it.

Pinwheel quilt for sister.

Beach quilt for in-laws

baby quilt for a friends daughter who I think is now about to turn four. Yikes, I know....better late than never. Lastly, one for our family. My darling son asked who the pinwheel quilt was for that I was working on and when I told him, his comment was, "Mom, you need to make one for us...for our home."

So, there you have it. I am on a mission. I'm outta here. Need to go sew!

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READING....

I love the library. Last year several books came out that I wanted to get my hot little hands on and sit in my fave chair and just read. I dropped very obvious hints to my children and hubby for these books for Mom's Day or Christmas or even my birthday, but they had ideas of their own. So, a year later and a dollar short...(haha) I am now perusing these books and am enjoying each one. Great tips and great reads.



Our library is able to have books sent to it from other libraries in the area and I was very lucky to get my hot little hands on this one. Handmade Home by Amanda Blake Soule just released so I am super excited about being able to have the opportunity to read through it and look at the projects.


I also had the opportunity to read this one as well. The French Inspired Home by Kari Meng. I love anything with toile in any color and the relaxed look of all the rooms and ideas in this book just inspired me so much.



Kari Meng also has a new book coming out and I was fortunate enough to be able to thumb through it at my quilt store! Yep, apparently Kari has a new line of fabric coming out and my quilt store was putting together all the fabric kits in sweet, lovely fabric bundles. I love the striped , red hemp fabric and all the projects in this book. She even has workshops and book signings. You can check out her website for other products that she offers at

https://www.frenchgeneral.com/
In other news, school just started. It's been a little hard this week trying to get in to a routine. Hopefully by next week things will settle down and we will be in a groove.

Looking forward to Fall. It is one of my favorite seasons next to Summer. I love apple picking and making apple butter and apple fritters and apple pies. I also like the smell of apple cider simmering on a stove with a cinnamon stick in it. Yummy!

I enjoy the days being shorter and the crisp, cool air. I have always enjoyed living in a state that has changing seasons. So, I am looking forward to pulling out the sweaters and drinking some hot chocolate and cooking up a lot of soup.

What's your favorite season? What are you reading?

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THRIFTING

Looks like Summer has officially come to a close. The kids are heading back to school and the plethera of yard sales and garage sales will slow down considerably as Fall approaches and the days get shorter and cooler.



I didn't do as much yard saling this summer as I would of liked to. But recently, I had the opportunity to catch a yard sale and an estate sale in the past of couple of weeks.




I purchased this wood tray for $1.50 at a garage sale. I liked the size of it and have plans to sand it down and paint it white and add some kind of design or something in the middle. I plan on using it in my guest room. More on that next week. I have been tweeking things in there since I last posted on it.


Last Friday I stopped at an estate sale. It was the first one I had ever been to. I gotta tell you, there was a lot of stuff. Everything from clothes to furniture. I should of stopped at this sale on Thurs. when it was advertised because there was an awesome armoire I would of love to have bought for our family room. Ah well, live and learn, right? LOL, I am still learning. The woman who passed away shared my love for anything with stitching and sewing. I purchased two rotary cutters and this magnetic circular thing for $3.50! I am not sure what this magnetic thing is called, but I plan to use it for holding my pins and keeping it by my sewing machine.


I also bought this "Merry Chrstmas" set of blocks. I plan to display them on my tiered piece in my foyer. Planning on painting it sometime next week. We've had some rain, so haven't been able to paint it.
See this???





This is the state of our sad, sad deck right now. We are in the middle of needing to restain it. Haven't had good weather or a good block of time to finish it. We plan on using this stuff to strip and clean.



We don't plan to stain it the traditional way...meaning one stain color. So stay tuned for the "after" pic of this project.


Hope you have fun canvassing the last of the yard/garage sales in your area. I know you ladies out there do some cool stuff with thrifted or garage/yard sale finds. I find so much inspiration in blogland.



Have a great weekend!Pin It Now!

Inspiration Monday

What's inspiring me today?

Quilts and pillows!

If you are like me you frequently get catalogs in the mail. I especially look forward to a few for some inspiration whether it be for decorating my home or quilting.

Recently I received an LL Bean catalog. They have two vintage inspired quilts in there and I would love to try to make. The first one is an orange peel quilt. At first glance, it resembles the cathedral window. However, in my quest to find any kind of directions or templates; I have found it is put together very differently.

While at my local quilt store this past weekend, I also found out there will be a class on how to make this block. So, looking forward to taking that class.

The other quilt is their flying geese quilt. In the picture to the right it is the quilt on the bed closest to the wicker rocker. I guess I am really enjoying using half square triangle blocks in quilts of late.

I am still piecing my pinwheel quilt and have decided to give it away rather than keep it. Christmas is coming up and I thought it would make a nice gift to keep someone warm this winter.

The last quilt that has me inspired is this one. I love how it has that moving blanket look. I can see it done in solid colors on both sides with a contrasting binding. I can also see it with a solid color on one side and a print on the other with a contrasting binding.

Something I haven't done as of yet is a whole cloth quilt. As much as I love piecing tops, I would love to try a whole cloth quilt. Sometimes I just really love a fabric so much that I want that to be the whole quilt top and nothing else. Maybe my local quilt store will do a class on that sometime.

Pillows, Pillows, who can resist them? They add softness to a room and they are easy to sew up. You can change them out often because they don't require much fabric to make them. Here are a few that are inspiring me that are from Pottery Barn. I think this pillow would be easy to make, however, I haven't been able to find that kind of fabric. I also like the sweater looking one behind it.

I also like these sea life inspired pillows that are also from Pottery Barn.

What's inspiring you today?

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GIVEAWAY!!

"Giveaway at Apron Girls sponsored by great cookware and beautiful desks!"







The lucky winner will receive these. Aren't they lovely? Loving that aqua color. Here is how to enter your name into the drawing:

1. Leave a comment at Apron Girls! That gives you one chance. Make sure to leave your email address if your name doesn't link to your blog!

2. Blog about the giveaway on your own blog! (Make sure you link back to Apron Girls!)

3. For TWO chances from one blog post, copy and paste this sentence somewhere in your post:"Giveaway at Apron Girls sponsored by great cookware and beautiful desks!"

4. Facebook or Twitter about the giveaway.5. If you're an Apron Girl, post something on the blog for an extra chance to win... a recipe, idea, or whatever!!

Mindy asks that you make a separate comment for each of the things that you do so she knows how many times to enter your name into the drawing.

The giveaway will end Sunday, August 16, 2009 MST.

Good Luck everyone!

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Linky Love and a thank you

Sharing a link to the Moda Bake Shop with you all. If you haven't been there before, there are some talented women out there that share their creativity with precuts...i.e. charm squares, turnovers, jelly rolls,etc.

Before I share the link to Moda Bakeshop, I want to thank Jodi over at
http://simplythisthatandtheother.blogspot.com/
for allowing me to use her pic of her beautifully quilted pillow as my new header. Thanks Jodi!

Now go on over and check out her project as well as all the other talented ladies at the Moda Bakeshop.

http://www.modabakeshop.com/2009_07_01_archive.htmlPin It Now!

Soft Furnishings

Have you ever seen any of Katrin Cargill's soft furnishings books? I love her style. Her spaces use beautiful fabrics and colors and they always look so inviting. I absolutely love this window covering and haven't been able to find out how to make it. I have an idea just from looking at the picture, but I would have to do a prototype to figure it out if it's right.


Photo: David Montgomery



She has written several books. She is most notably known for her soft furnishings books. She usually has about thirty or so projects in them to make. She has a book titled The Curtain Bible. I went to Amazon.com and read the reviews. Unfortunately, most folks have said the book has beauiful photographs for inspiration, but directions on how to make the curtinas step-by-step are lacking. I was so bummed to read that because I am a very visual person. I need step-by-step pictures to help me complete the project.

I have been wanting to redo my window coverings in my master bathroom. This just may be the one. Now, all I have to do is figure out how to make it.



edited:

While surfing around, it was absolutely serendipity that I came across this site.It is the exact window covering and there are step-by-step visual directions on how to put it together. The only thing lacking is good directions on how to do the cording, but that's okay. I am going to give it a try.

http://www.housetohome.co.uk/articles/Materials_121120.htmlPin It Now!

Quilting for the family

When I posted about my pinwheel quilt project the other day I said I also had another quilt in the works. This one is for my mother-in-law. I have mentioned before that they live on the Eastern Shore.

Because they live by the beach, I wanted my fabric that I picked to be beachy as well. I had searched quilt stores and even mill stores out at the beach for some very unique beach fabric. I finally came across some cotton curtains that had shells and starfish and all kinds of beachy things on it and it was in this wonderful robin's egg kinda blue that I have a bit of a fondness for lately. When it's paired up with white it just exudes beachiness to me.

The fabric has been sitting around for a couple of months because I needed to find a taupe color fabric to compliment it. I finally found a taupe fabric at Joann's and it's perfect. It looks like sand. I also finally decided on a pattern to use to put this quilt together. Have a look see at the fabric.
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BURLAP...

You all have seen all the wonderful things people have been doing with burlap, right?
Ladies have made table runners; covered stools and even framed some that have cool printing on the burlap.

My hubby played in a charity golf tournament the other day and he came back with this pretty cool bag. The even cooler thing is that he knew I would think it was cool...so, he brought it back for me. Don't you just love that? The husbands don't all the time agree with our decorating schemes, but they know what we like. You gotta love that.

So, inside the bag was one of those coir door mats that says "WELCOME." We stuck that out front to "welcome" folks and I kept the bag. Stenciled on the outside of the bag was the word LOVE. Not sure if I will make it into a pillow for the guest bedroom or frame it or what? Y'all give me some ideas. Here it is:

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Back to reality....

My wonderful husband always makes sure I don't do too much of anything on my birthday. This birthday wasn't any different. I wasn't allowed to clean the house, do laundry or cook! So, you know I was all over that. In fact, he told me to just sew all day if I wanted. Can you believe that???

Unfortunately, the kids needed me to run them a few places. Plus, I had some errands of my own. By the time we got back here I was tired and didn't feel like sewing.

My daughter made me cupcakes, the hubs sent me flowers and the kids and the hubs showered me with a few presents. What more could you ask for??? Here is a pic of the yummy cupcakes.



The bouquet of flowers were pink roses and pink lilies (not sure of the spelling there). Pink is my fave color. The lillies hadn't opened yet and the roses were just starting to open. Today they were both in full bloom, but it was an overcast day so I couldn't get a good pic. I will snap one tomorrow. In the meantime, here is a pic of one of the roses.



It was a good day and a wonderful evening celebrating with the ones I love.Pin It Now!