Sunday Thoughts

Well hello there blog world. It's been awhile. Things are full steam ahead with my job, Sophie back in school, school activities and play time with the brilliant boyfriend and I just have been putting the bloggy blog on the back burner of life.

So, a quick little catch up...

I made a quilt with Jenny Eliza fabric designed by Jennifer Paganelli for JoAnn's.

Finished quilt using Quilt As You Go tutorial from Maureen Cracknell

This is mostly what it is being used for

What I made with some of the scraps - kitchen towel
The kitchen towel was made using this tutorial from Schnitzel & Boo

Quilt for my friend Mary

I used the Designer Star pattern by Lee from May Chappell

Cotton + Steel, Kaffe, and Moda fabrics

I love the back!

This quilted table runner turned out so cute! I think I will put it in my etsy store that is completely empty right now. I need to take better pics for sure...

...and the back...

My biggest quilty love is paper piecing!! I will try to focus and make a tutorial for paper piecing. I know that there are a lot out there so I wasn't going to. I have had a lot of people asking me how though.

paper pieced feathers

Last bit - There was a partial eclipse last weekend and we wanted to see it from the beach. This was my picture with my phone camera - obviously my phone camera is not the greatest.

Phone camera - no partial eclipse noticed

HOWEVER! Ernie, with his ever present camera, caught this doozy!! So amazing. I will leave you with that :-)

Lots to update!

Oh goodness where do I even begin? Life is traveling at high speed and it is so hard to keep up most days! SO, I will do a quick life in pictures to help catch up...where should I start? Oh - how about Anniversary/Mother's Day weekend.

Ernie and I celebrated our anniversary with a Blues Brothers concert at Taste of Pinellas in St. Pete. It was beautiful out!! Sunny and not too hot. I knew Ernie would have his fancy camera and spend most of the time wandering around taking lots of great pictures so I brought my paper piecing and a quilt to sit on in the grass. Perfect day for it! Although I am pretty sure I was the only one sewing while watching KC and the Sunshine Band dance their booties off.

Sophie and Ernie brought me to Starbucks for Mother's Day so Sophie could buy me a Chai Latte. I love this kid.

We went to lunch at Salty Dog and watched people across the water playing and boating. We decided we should head over to check out the park as tide would be heading out in an hour. We are so lucky to live here. There is beauty everywhere we go...

Last weekend was Sophie's Spring Concert and then her Semi-formal was the following evening. A fun night of awards, food, and friends. Plus it was an excuse to get dressed up and pretend we are fancy people.

One last thing...I tackled this intimidating Lucky Stars BOM last week. I just love this series by don't call me betsy. It is just a skill building thing for me because they certainly are not perfect! I may try these again in another color way as a gift. They are so pretty and just seem to sparkle! 

Ok there is SOOOOoo much more that I have to say but it's time to get ready for the day...stay tuned for a recap of this weekend (I am going to meet the amazing Carolyn Friedlander!!) I can hardly wait.

Are any of you out there doing the schnitzel and boo mini swap? Have you started your quilts?

Happy Friday!

Friday Night Fun

Last night was PMS (Pizza, Munchies, Sewing…what did you think it meant?) night at one of the local quilt stores, Cotton Patch. My new friend Jaden had wanted to go and invited me to sign up to join her (if you want a good read, good laugh, and to learn a new recipe or learn how to not store fish sperm - go check out her blog!). Another friend had ended up being there last night as well and all together there were about 25 of us and the shop owner who is such a great lady. We stayed until midnight - gasp! I didn't even know I could stay awake that long anymore. Only a couple of us got loopy. It was really fun to see all of the projects that were brought and a few of them finished. I couldn't decide what to bring so I loaded myself down and brought a million projects with me. There was so much gabbing and munching and laughing that I am surprised I finished anything! 

Well, I didn't really…I shorted myself 1 white square so I had to finish my Sugar Block Club BOM this morning. I love the way it turned out and it looks so pretty next to its January friend.

Jaden and I met last month at the Modern Quilt Guild meeting. Elizabeth Dackson of don't call me betsy was the guest speaker and we had a free motion quilting workshop. She has a beautiful BOM called Lucky Stars and they are all paper pieced. Both of us signed up and neither of us know how to paper piece so we both brought our projects thinking we could learn together. Laura, the amazing owner of Cotton Patch, gave us an impromptu class on paper piecing and now we are SET! I can't wait to dig into my stash and finish this! I love paper piecing! 

This little itty bitty booger was last on my list of things I started and didn't finish. Thimble Blossoms Dwell . My little house block is only 3" x 4.5". I was able to dig through my stash and find enough coordinating pieces that I would almost call it a stash buster. But at a finished size of 13" x 15", I don't think there is a lot of "busting" going on. 

All in all it was a great night! I signed up for the March one as well and maybe this time I won't bring so many projects! I just need to finish something.

Cheers!

Sunday Funday!

So sorry to see the day come to an end. It was a lovely weekend although a bit cloudy today. Ernie and I started out the day by going out to the St. Armands Art & Craft fair to see a client/friend of his. I just love our weekend time together. On our way back to the car we had a little rain shower. Nothing major just enough to make us a little damp and chilly. Then we headed back to go our separate ways for a little while. I dropped Sophie off at the mall and went to the grocery store. Then I came home to sew for a little bit. One of my machines, Little Nellie, is at the doctor's office and my old Bessie is here but sick. Well, I think I figured it out! I took out the bobbin and I noticed there is a little raised bump right on the edge where the thread comes out…I pulled out another bobbin and popped it in and sure enough, she is stitching like the old girl she used to be. I haven't tried free-motion quilting with her yet because I didn't want to push my luck. But she is piecing ok!

These beauties came in a few weeks ago and I have been trying to decide what to do with them. Then I found Amy Gibson's blog Stitchery Dickory Dock and fell in love with her new BOM - Sugar Block Club. I may do another one of these with other materials I have as a gift for someone. So fun! 

Well, I am so glad one of my machines is running. When you get an itch to sew you just have to sew! Don't get me wrong…there are other things I could be doing but none of them are quite as fun :)

What projects are you working on this week?

Cheers!

Short n' sweet...

I have to get ready for my real job but I wanted to post the progress on my modern petals table runner that I am working on for Sophie's Aunt Robyn. It's been a challenge with all of the curves but I think it is going to be pretty! I need photo tips from Ernie obviously…

So tonight I will hopefully at least have the blocks stitched together and the quilt sandwich put together. The backing I found is a perfect match and I can't wait to see it finished!