;;ARE YOU TIRED OF LINEN YET?::

So, I still have some linen left.  A very little bit. 

I am not sure if I ever mentioned how I acquired it.  Long story short I had an 84 inch linen curtain panel I bought at Target on clearance.  Ended up never using it because our windows here were much longer.

So far, I have made the crochet case holder and the ruler holder that you saw in the previous post and I also made a baby blanket for a new momma at church.  Unfortunately, I wasn't able get a pic of that.  But rest assured it was lovely.  I had backed it with some baby blue chenille.  I loved the feel of the linen and the chenille together.  Hoping to make one for myself to drape over our couch.

If you haven't noticed yet, all my linen projects have been instant gratification projects.  Small projects that I can finish in about an hour.  With the last piece of linen and some scrap fabric I hope to make this.

photo:

http://bloomandblossom.blogspot.com/search/label/Australian%20Homespun%20projects

She used some lovely fabric scraps and I love the measuring tape fabric on there and the button.  But what really makes it sahweet is the word "stitch."  She actually had written this pattern and it was in Australian Homespun magazine.

Hope everyone is having a great week.

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Doing a little of this.....finally.....

I have been busy doing a little of this and am here actually posting about it. I can't remember when I actually shared with you all about some actual quilting that had been going on. You know, it's only part of the title of my blog.

I shared several months back that a friend of mine lost her mom to cancer and had saved a few of her shirts, etc. to be turned into a quilt. It took me a while to figure out how to piece it. I wanted to use the shirts with the graphics on the best I could. So without further adieu...or is it ado???? LOL, I don't know. Here is a pic of the quilt in progress. Just a sneaky sneak peek. : )

On the home front. We had the appraisers, inspectors, realtors all here a week ago. The house looked fabulous. You know the kind of fabulous only we as moms can appreciate right then and then when noone is home to mess it up cause you know good and well as soon as every comes home they WILL LIVE in every room. You ladies can relate to that, right? I should of taken pics then...but I didn't. We have a few things to fix on our inpsect list and then I will post pics .

Spring is here in Illinois finally. I know spring is here when my daffodils come up and come up they did . Not too far behind them came the hyacinths. I love the fullness and deep coloring of the hyacinths. It's still not warm enough yet thought for my hydrangeas yet. Probably won't be till summer till they bloom. I will miss it as we are hoping to be moved by then : ( Ah well, I will have a new house to plant bulbs and shrubs and that is something to look forward to.

I also wanted to take this time to thank those of you that follow my wee li'l blog and welcome and thank the newcomers as well.

Come back later this week I will be hosting "my own" giveaway! I will also be starting a new feature. It will be called Feature Friday. I plan on featuring different things that make me wonder where they came from or how they came about. So, stay tuned for that. I think you will enjoy the first one this Friday.

Well, I have quilting to get done and that crazy dryer in the laundry is beeping . So, it's time to throw in another load.

Have a great day!

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Pinwheels, soup, yarn and more....

Good morning!

How is that for a blog title? This is a little bit of everything post.

Okay, first of all, be sure to scroll down to yesterdays post. I shared a great autumn soup recipe. I am actually baking the butternut squash now. I will be sure to let you all know how it tastes. Here is a teaser pic for you.

Photo: Taste of Home

Remember over the summer I should you how sad our deck looked? Here is a before pic. Not so pretty.
and here are the after pics.


We had to replace the old storm door, but didn't want to put one on both sides of the french doors on the outside. Too expensive. We have an odd size opening and it would of had to be cutsom done. So, we opted to replace the storm door with the screen and reapaint so it would look fresh. Here is the after pic for the deck.




What do you think of the two tone look? The seating was sealed with a clear coat for decks and the part you walk on was a hunter green deck stain. We originally said we were going to do the seating white, but after seeing the seating stripped, liked the look of the natural instead and went with that. Here is a back view.

You still with me.??? Sorry for the long post.

Next up is the progress on the pinwheels. I still have eighteen more to sew up! And what is up with four of those pinwheels looking larger than the rest of them?? LOL, I know why. I started the other ones before I caught a Fons and Porter quilting episode on PBS. She was showing how to get your pinwheels to lay nice and how to sew and iron them. I plan on having a white block between each pinwheel and then white border around the whole thing and then bind it.

Here is a close up. I really love this Glace line.

Sorry for the not so great pics. I took them early this morning. Not enough natural light or anywhere to lay them out either. I layed these out on the floor to take a pic.

I am starting my slipcover project for my wing chair in my living room this week and I have two winter projects I plan to work on. Crocheting up this blanket is one of them. I love the texture of it with all all the popcorn stitches on there. It will be a nice project to work on in my fave chair with a crackling fire nearby.

The other winter project is to make roman blinds. Oh yeah! I found the absolute best tutorial and she makes it look sooo easy. Go check out Jen's tutorial. You will want to make roman blinds for your whole house. She is a sweet lady to boot. I had a question for her and she was sweet enough to reply and be so very helpful.

http://jenduncan.typepad.com/whats_new/2008/11/roman-blind-tutorial-in-20-pictures-or-less.html
Don't forget to scroll down to the next post. I posted a recipe for the corn and squash soup.

Okay all, have a blessed day in your part of the country .

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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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A new quilt..

I get so much inspiration from blogland for decorating and sewing and quilting. I stumbled on V's blog quite by accident this past year and loved her projects and posts.

You can find her here

I have to tell you all about Vanessa. She started her blog a while back as a way for her then G.I.Joe hubby to keep in touch and see what the family was up to while he was deployed. She has made me laugh, cry and yes, even spit my cereal all over my laptop screen with some of her posts. She is funny, talented and she keeps it real when she posts. She is wonderful with color and when she posted about a quilt she was working on that would eventually find a home at the end of her bed....I couldn't help myself. I had to make one too! I love the simplicity of the pinwheel block and the white squares just makes them pop.

Vanessa used Shangri-La fabrics by 3 Sister's for Moda. That's her quilt over there on the right. Isn't it beautiful? I loved the color combo and immediately headed off to ebay to see if I could find some. I found some, but was outbid. **Sigh** So, I ended picking my own fabrics. I really love the Glacee line that has come out by Moda and thought the color combo would go well for where I want my quilt to reside. I plan on laying it over the sofa in my living room.

I finally got a chace to quilt the other day. A beautiful sunny day. I love to sew on my machine by a window with natural light. I spent some time cutting(not my fave part. Thank heavens for charm packs. Hmmm, wonder if they have charm packs for the white material too??? A little sewing and piecing later and voila! I was able to get three blocks done and then, unfortunately, I realized what time it was and had to cook dinner.

Incidently, I did find some yardage of Shangr-La and some of the wovens at my local quilt shop, but they didn't have enough variety in color and print, so I picked maybe one or two of them and the rest will be the Glacee. Enough babbling, here are my fabric picks so far.

See that red one??? It's my favorite. They also have it in a light blue. I just might have to make some pillows for my couch to match.

Here is a pic of my pinwheels.

V also has a tutorial on her blog on how to make a pinwheel block. You can find it here:http://www.vanessachristenson.com/2008/09/so-its-quilt-month-over-at-mr.html

I will keep you all updated on the progress as I go along. It will be slow going as V can attest to. But the end result will be worth it.

In the meantime, hop on over to V's and tell her Cheryl sent ya. She also is a frequent guest designer over at http://www.modabakeshop.com/2009/07/fabric-strawberries.html Go check out one of her latest projects.

These strawberries are just the cutest thing

Have a blessed day!

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CHARM PACKS....WHO CAN RESIST THEM???

I certainly can't. What a nice way to be able to enjoy all the fabrics in a particular line you love without going broke. Not to mention the fact that they are already precut. I love all the precuts ...jelly rolls, layer cakes, and now I hear they have something called turnovers. LOL, the names for these things are just the cutest. Makes you want to eat you some sweet rolls or something. If you are new to quilting and you want to learn what all the terms mean. Then hop on over to Camille's blog http://camilleroskelley.typepad.com/simplify/2009/03/due-to-popular-demand-i-present.html In her post she breaks it all down for you....what each precut means and pics to go with it. While you are there check out her blog and tell her "hello."

I have a charm pack of Fig and Plum by Moda and I plan on doing a wee project for my twin nieces for Easter. They are about a year and a half old now and their mummy doesn't want to do the Easter basket with all the candy thing. I can respect that, so I am making something very girly for each of them to enjoy playing with on Easter. Stay tuned for that project too.

Well, I am off to get some sewing and quilting done.

Enjoy your day!

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CATHEDRAL WINDOW PINCUSHION...FOR REAL!

Sorry for what seemed like a tease the other day. I had every intention of posting the pincushion. I had errands to run and then it was overcast and rainy. Being busy ...added to that not a good photo op day. All that being said, here it is. You can click on it to see the handstitching up close. I just loved how it came out. I also loved the fabric I used. I bought it last year in hopes of making some pillowcases for our guest room. It just sat and sat like most of the fabric I buy and fall in love with. It found it's way to being used, but never for what it was for originally.

Here is another view of it.

I had mentioned before I was pretty intimated with this project. A majority of it is handstitching and I wasn't very confident my handstitching was good enough.

Hopefully sometime in the next couple of months I will post a tutorial for you all to use.

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CATHEDRAL WINDOW PINCUSHION

A real quick update on the class.

First of all, I have to say that I am just blessed. When I took my first quilt class I had the privilege of learning how to quilt by the sweetest lady. She was very patient and made learning all the ins and outs of quilting fun. The other night wasn't any different. While it was a different quilt shop and instructor, I was blessed again. Lucky for me and Karen (the other willing to learn student) were the only ones in the class, so it was nice to get one on one instruction as we needed it. Karen and I were a wee bit frustrated at first, but by the time the class ended we were having fun and almost done making our first cathedral window. You see, there was lots of hand sewing and precision ironing and you had to be quite meticulous about it. I think we only used the sewing machine for two seams and that was it. I am in love with making this pincushion and I can see there will be many others in the future. I was amazed by how easy it came together.

I am planning on doing a step by step tutorial sometime in the next few months to take the mystery out of it for all of those out there in blog land. There will be step by step pictures of each step with written instructions. I know I am a very visual person and I appreciate it when there is picturesof each step and how things should look. Nothing will be left out so you can make these little beauties to your hearts content.

I hope to have sometime tonight to finshing hand sewing it and post it tomorrow.

Now I am off to clean, do laundry...LOL, you all know the drill. If you are reading this, you are probably like me trying to avoid doing dished, laundry, etc.

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CATHEDRAL QUILTS

Hello all!

Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend!

Tomorrow is the big day. I signed up for a class at my local quilt shop on how to make a cathedral window pincushion. I was reveiewing the instructions on the book we had to purchase and it looks like it will be a fun class. I have adored this type of quilt block for a long time and excited about learning how to make them.

I will post a pic of my finished pin cushion tomorrow.


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Happy Tuesday!

Feeling loads better. That nasty flu bug is out of here, thank goodness. Everyone is on the mend and doing better. Thanks to everyone for their well wishes.

While I was out sick I was thinking whether it be easier and cheaper to redo the guest bedroom or spruce up the master bath? For now, I think it will be easier to spruce up the master bath. So, I am off to buy some new towels today and get some fabric to attempt to make some roman shades for our windows above the soaker tub. Then I will shop the house...or the basement rather for accessories to add in there. If those roman shades don't give me a fit, I will post pics of it all. I would love to paint our vanity black....we'll see.

I am also working on a baby quilt for a friends daughter and will show that progress too. I am using the stacked coins pattern . Amanda Jean from crazymom quilts was a guest over at Moda Bake shop and posted this pattern. It was just adoreable and do able and so I am working on that. Check out the link for the stacked coins pattern as well as other fun projects you can do.
http://www.modabakeshop.com/2009/02/stacked-coins-baby-quilt.html

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Cold weather and quilting....

I am looking to make one of these. It is a wool blanket that is made from 3 wool tweed coats. You can either recycle them from your own closet, or get some from Goodwill. This is what I plan to do. I will probably be heading out to Goodwill tomorrow and see what kind they have. I know they are relatively inexpensive. I have priced them before. $3.00 a coat. Boy, you can't beat that. I got the idea and the directions from Martha Stewarts website. You can read about it here:http://www.marthastewart.com/article/wool-tweed-patchwork-throw?backto=true

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Here is a pic of a quilt that I made with instructions from Happythings blog. She has a great tutorial for baby quilts that use chenille and teaches you step by step how to put one together and tie it.

This quilt is one for my bil and his wife. They just had twins. I only have one quilt done. It has yet to be tied. Here is a pic of the pieced front and a pic of the backing. I backed it with fleece. All i Need to do is tie it.

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