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!

Guess what day it is????

It's my birthday. Hoping to enjoy part of the day sewing and then spending it with the rest of my family.

I am not a big fan of birthday cake persae, so I have requested cupcakes. Oh, and there will probably be waaay more candles on mine than the one you see in the pic.

Have a blessed day!Pin It Now!

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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A NEW FEATURE.....

A while back I was trying to make the blog a bit more interesting for you all and I tried to incorporate a day where I shared recipes with you and another day where I shared papercrafts with you...specifically card making. Well, that ended up going to the wayside. I just didn't have time to make cards each week to share with you and I was quickly running out of recipes to share with you as well.

Well, I am at it again. I plan on starting a new feature. If you remember about a month or two ago I did a feature on the mason/ball jars. I have quite a few and I thought I would share them with you as well as their history.

Country Living Magazine does this in each of their issues and I always look forward to it. So, I will be doing a feature each month similiar to it. I haven't decided on what I will name the feature yet. It will either be "DID YOU KNOW?" or "HISTORY CLASSICS." If you have some suggestions for the name of the feature let me know in the comment section or drop me an email. You can find my email on the side bar.

I would also like to have some of those linky parties. Have you all seen them? Lotsa blogs have them and it's such a nice way to meet others and get to see other blogs; as well as, see all the other creativity and talent that so many folks have out there. I gotta figure out how that linky thing works first before I have a linky party though.

Oh, and here is a big one. LOL, this is supposed to be a quilting blog with other tidbits of things I like to do, but do you ever see me post about that??? Nope! Gonna try and change that. I am going to try and sew at least once or twice a week and share with you all on here. I have two quilts in progress at the moment and will be snapping some pics to share with you all. I also have a pieced top I need to get quilted and send it on to it's new owner. Oh, and I have not forgotten about the Cathedral window block tutorial. It's just a matter of time I need to snap and do each step. I want to do it correctly and have step-by-step pics so you know exactly how to do it....because if I can do it, you can too. It's really not hard at all. Just patience really.

I will be posting pics later today of the two quilt tops I am working on so check back later.

have a blessed day in whatever you do!Pin It Now!