Good Afternoon Y'all!
Things are just zipping along at that lazy hazy summer afternoon pace. So far today I just pulled 24 Confetti Cupcakes out of the oven to cool for my son, as he will be heading for Dad's house on Tuesday. And with his Grandparents taking him on that Disney Cruise; he will be spending his birthday in the middle of the Altantic Ocean. So today we made cupcakes! He is giddy with joy to have such a treat and I'm trying to keep the whole thing postitive and don't make known my true feelings on this subject.
Has anyone thought about Christmas yet? I have to admit I find myself at a point of trying to plan ahead for the Holiday Season that is creeping up on us. I know what I want to do but it's just a matter of getting everything to line up at the right times. I know what I want to do some kitchen items for my 2 DD's but I have to find a nice simple apron pattern that might have a bit of a vintage flare to it. Is there such a critter out there I wonder? Time to start hunting... lol. Then there is the Grandbabies, my son, and the other half. What to make them? Then I always end up in a couple Secret Santa Exchanges every year but I have a couple small gift ideals for those that I can start implementing fairly soon. If I start on those now, get them finished ahead of time; thus avoiding the last minute rush that I never fail to get myself into.
Speaking of "Christmas in July", There is a Blog Hop of this theme starting tomorrow; July 30th to August 5th. You can find the link on the right hand side. I'm excited and hopeful that this can lead into some more ideas for make ahead gifts. Can't wait!! I have found that I like doing the Blog Hops as a way to to learn more about what other people are doing out there. Have you done one of these yet? Did ya learn a new pattern or about a new tool?
Hummm... I know I'm forgetting something. Darn it!! Just realized that I forgot to upload pictures of somethings for the blog this week. Well IF I get the chance .... I promise to added them as quickly as I can for ya.
Well the cupcakes have cooled and it's time to add the matching frosting.
As always comments are always welcomed. And Thanks for stopping by! 'Til next time.
Toodles,
Tricia
Sunday, July 29, 2012
Friday, July 20, 2012
The Busy Bodies
It Friday 7/20 and I'm slowly starting my day with coffee.
Welcome to the sewing circle! How is everyone? Come on in, pull up a chair & sit a-spell.
It was a nice break in the weather yesterday. I don't think it made it to 70* and with the rain it pleasant enough that I needed a sleeved shirt when we went to the library for a few hours.
Well it's been interesting week with abit of chaos thrown in for good measures when my newest Grand Daughter decided she was a Houdini want-to-be with her cord and had to go through an emergency c-section almost 6 weeks early. Her & Mom are doing fine.
But anyhow for today I will be sewing together my signature blocks. I have all the prep work is done I just got to dig out the sewing machine and set her up. I actually thought about doing them by hand but decided not too.
Instead I have been hand piecing my challenge tulips and discovered that I have a tidy amount of them done. I have 55 done, ironed, & bagged and another 32 waiting to be ironed out. So if my math is right that is 87 of 168 tulips completed with just under half of them done. I'm sure I would have finished more but others things with deadlines have been added into the mix but I'm happy with the progress after taking the month off when I was working on my show stuff. I will keep plugging along on them.
This afternoon I hope to be able to sit down on Sue's baby quilt and "Lawrence of Arabia" for several uninterrupted hours. I've tryed several times this week but between doc. appt., library group for my son and the many phone calls about about the newest addition ~ I've been hard pressed to get in the half hour I've gotten in. As much as it will aggravate me; I think today will be a cartoon day for the boy child once we do some math.
I also finished my 2nd block of Japanese Sahiko so I can figure out how I'm going to put these together with my son's block. I'm thinking a thin wall hanging would be suited for the 3 blocks. But I'll give it more thought before I touch these some time next week.
At some point I need to pull out all my 2.5" scraps to make a ton of 9-patch blocks for an HT swap. Thank Goodness this a totally scrappy swap. So far the count is for 35 ~ 6.5" blocks with a final count to be given later tonight. Nice thing is these chain stitch quickly even if I'm using the little squares without causing a lot of stress.
So looks like I'm going to be fairly busy with the sewing this weekend with what seems like a variety of things. I would love to know what everyone has planned this weekend. Please feel free to leave comments, thoughts or whatever you like. I try to reply to them all.
Well I'm off to get things started.
Toodles,
Tricia
Welcome to the sewing circle! How is everyone? Come on in, pull up a chair & sit a-spell.
It was a nice break in the weather yesterday. I don't think it made it to 70* and with the rain it pleasant enough that I needed a sleeved shirt when we went to the library for a few hours.
Well it's been interesting week with abit of chaos thrown in for good measures when my newest Grand Daughter decided she was a Houdini want-to-be with her cord and had to go through an emergency c-section almost 6 weeks early. Her & Mom are doing fine.
But anyhow for today I will be sewing together my signature blocks. I have all the prep work is done I just got to dig out the sewing machine and set her up. I actually thought about doing them by hand but decided not too.
Instead I have been hand piecing my challenge tulips and discovered that I have a tidy amount of them done. I have 55 done, ironed, & bagged and another 32 waiting to be ironed out. So if my math is right that is 87 of 168 tulips completed with just under half of them done. I'm sure I would have finished more but others things with deadlines have been added into the mix but I'm happy with the progress after taking the month off when I was working on my show stuff. I will keep plugging along on them.
This afternoon I hope to be able to sit down on Sue's baby quilt and "Lawrence of Arabia" for several uninterrupted hours. I've tryed several times this week but between doc. appt., library group for my son and the many phone calls about about the newest addition ~ I've been hard pressed to get in the half hour I've gotten in. As much as it will aggravate me; I think today will be a cartoon day for the boy child once we do some math.
I also finished my 2nd block of Japanese Sahiko so I can figure out how I'm going to put these together with my son's block. I'm thinking a thin wall hanging would be suited for the 3 blocks. But I'll give it more thought before I touch these some time next week.
At some point I need to pull out all my 2.5" scraps to make a ton of 9-patch blocks for an HT swap. Thank Goodness this a totally scrappy swap. So far the count is for 35 ~ 6.5" blocks with a final count to be given later tonight. Nice thing is these chain stitch quickly even if I'm using the little squares without causing a lot of stress.
So looks like I'm going to be fairly busy with the sewing this weekend with what seems like a variety of things. I would love to know what everyone has planned this weekend. Please feel free to leave comments, thoughts or whatever you like. I try to reply to them all.
Well I'm off to get things started.
Toodles,
Tricia
Friday, July 13, 2012
Time Lines, Sashiko, Tulips, Traveling Day w/ Big Shakes, & Steaks
What is about trying to stay on a schedule that seems to make it harder to do? When I started this blog I told myself that I would blog once a week. I figured that would be the only way to develop a following. And once again here it is two weeks again since my last blog. Geeesh whiz!! But I did see that I gained another follower, Thanks Tinker! Yaw Hoooo that gives me 5 followers! So big THANK YOU to my followers!
Which struck my funny as I am currently doing Jane's R/W/B Blog Hop. Which you can find here. http://janesfabrics.blogspot.com/2012/05/redwhiteblue-blog-hop-schedule.html It started on the 1st and goes 'til the 16th. Lots of blocks of inspiration that would work for the Quilts of Valor or any other reason you want for a Patriotic/Americana quilt.
Then ... hummmm.... Oh then I was trying my hand at Japanese Sashiko when my 9 yr. old son decided that he wanted to also try his hand at it too. So I dropped everything that I was working & got him going. He did a simple plaid design on a 6.5" squares in an afternoon. It is hard to tell but there are 2 colors in his plaid. So far I am working on my second square of the same size.
I went back to also working on my Challenge tulips. Of course I never work on just one project at a time. So what else am I working on you ask? I have to start working on my 25 ~ 3" signature squares for my Quilt&Needle group, then I have my forum block on HomesteadingToday.com. We got a piece of this really pretty paisley print on white with blue, red and yellow print on it. So after a few days of stewing I made the choice for an applique block from the new "Quiltmaker's 100 blocks, volume 5" magazine. Then there is the block I'm doing for HoneyFork Fabric their newsletter. They are having a "Make Ugly Beautiful Contest" for the 2012 for the Stefanie Speilman Fund for Breast Cancer Research. They sent me an "Ugly" fq to make my block(s) from. If I have it back before Aug. 1st. I could win some great prizes.... if it goes in after the 1st they will still use the block in their projects.
So from the Yellow FQ, according to the rules; you have to use a "Recognizable" amount of the fabric and each block must be in 12.5". I had been working on my challenge tulips for my Wisconsin Friend .... which lead to inspiring for my own freehand tulips with a little fussy cutting. And then I was thinking that I wanted to try using "Tumble Blocks" as the background fabric. I wanted them to fade into background so that the tulips POP. I think I need to change out the top fabric for something of a more solid pale pink. And then again I might just go with that white background. Aaaahhhh decisions!!
I actually got away for a day, which is a rare event let me tell ya! My neighbor took my son for a couple of days and the other half & I went a couple hours North to meet a cousin & wife. We managed to get tickets to see Garrion Keilor at the Interlochen Center of the Arts. You might know know the name from the "Prairie Home Companion" radio show. It was great, and a Live Broadcast. They also used some of the students from the academy as part of the show. We got some great seats and pictures of the stage. We also got to go Don's for the BEST Shakes!!! And the price is to smile about... $5.35. I got a picture of it with my son's Flat Stanley. These things are monsterous.... like 64oz. of crazy goodness!!! I had a Cherry Shake which was sooooo right as it was Cherry Festive in Traverse City. TC is right up the road a few miles....but so crowded we stayed away. We did get to see Traverse bay. Even on a clouded gray morning it was pretty.
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| 4th Of July Mini |
This week have been a hodgepodge things going on. Ummmm I finished hand quilting my mini 4th of July quilt. Humm just realized I had a Humble block in this as uploaded. Oh well, it gives it Character. LOL. I used the "Friendship Star Pattern" from Kathy Tracy's "Prairie Children & Their Quilts" (pg 13). Mine has a slightly different look from the book. I used sashing instead of borders making this one measures nicely at a whooping 14.75'' x 21.75" I did some simple hand quilting on this one. Around the stars, I did a echo running stitch 1/4" out and then just around the blue edge I ran another running stitch.
Then ... hummmm.... Oh then I was trying my hand at Japanese Sashiko when my 9 yr. old son decided that he wanted to also try his hand at it too. So I dropped everything that I was working & got him going. He did a simple plaid design on a 6.5" squares in an afternoon. It is hard to tell but there are 2 colors in his plaid. So far I am working on my second square of the same size.
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| Son's Japanese Sashiko |
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| Son With His Japanese Sashiko |
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| Make Ugly Beautiful FQ |
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| My Freehand Tulips |
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| Testing the Background Fabrics |
I actually got away for a day, which is a rare event let me tell ya! My neighbor took my son for a couple of days and the other half & I went a couple hours North to meet a cousin & wife. We managed to get tickets to see Garrion Keilor at the Interlochen Center of the Arts. You might know know the name from the "Prairie Home Companion" radio show. It was great, and a Live Broadcast. They also used some of the students from the academy as part of the show. We got some great seats and pictures of the stage. We also got to go Don's for the BEST Shakes!!! And the price is to smile about... $5.35. I got a picture of it with my son's Flat Stanley. These things are monsterous.... like 64oz. of crazy goodness!!! I had a Cherry Shake which was sooooo right as it was Cherry Festive in Traverse City. TC is right up the road a few miles....but so crowded we stayed away. We did get to see Traverse bay. Even on a clouded gray morning it was pretty.
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| Flat Stanley @ Don's |
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| Flat Stanley with 64 oz. Cherry Shake |
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| Garrison Keilor of The Prairie Home Companion |
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Traverse Bay, Mi. |
So then we went to Boone's for dinner. OH Man ... no pictures of that but it has the BEST steaks!! Primo Prime Rib with all the fixings is what the only 3 had. I had to buck the stream and had a Filet Mignon..... YUMMMMMM. Then we headed back. It was a long but great day.
Well I should go and do some sort of stitching today. So I'll sign of for now and as always.... I welcome all your comments!
Toodles,
Tricia
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