Ripple Effect Table Runner

One of my goals for the quilt retreat was to make a couple of runners for my long buffet in our kitchen/dining room.  The first one I worked on is a Christmas runner and it isn't quilted yet.  The second one is this:

The pattern is from Fast and Furious Family: Quilting As You Go by Gudrun Erla.  Pretty easy and you quilt onto the back and batting as you sew the strips together, so all you have to do is trim and bind it after it is pieced.  I had a little trouble keeping my pieces from warping as I went, so I ended up trimming quite a bit more off of the long sides when I was done, but all in all I am happy with the results.  And so is my buffet.  :)

(The fabric I used are pieces from a Simply Color layer cake and some gray yardage from our local
B & F that I love)

Getting ready for spring

Looks like someone is ready to help daddy with the mowing this year.

What else needs to get fixed?  :)

Quilt Guild Retreat

This weekend I spent as many daylight hours possible sewing with my quilting girlfriends.  Many things were accomplished.  Many bottles of wine and cups of slush were emptied.  :)  I'll share some of my projects over the next couple of days...

One of the highlights of the weekend:  jellyroll race!

Sonya was the fastest at 34 minutes!  (We did tease her that she basted her quilt together but it looked super cute after she added a green border and some giant red rick-rack)

Kristen and I with our matching blue quilts coming in around 50 minutes...

Kristen even left a peep hole in the middle of hers!  :)

All 15 of us with our completed projects.  I wasn't watching the clock, but I think the last one was done around the 2 hour mark.  So much accomplished in so little time!

If I only had a video

you could hear the stories that Timothy now "reads" to himself.  I love it!  I will be working on catching a video of our little reader to share.

I have been working on some more little things to keep Timothy busy, entertained, and maybe teach him a thing or two along the way.  (I'll share some of them soon!) One of these activities is a dozen plastic eggs in a carton.  (There is more to them than that, but I'll share later)  Who knew it would keep him busy for 3 days so far?

Even Tiger is getting in on the action...

Friday Evening

~ cleaning up! ~ pretty flowers ~ de-decorating for Lent ~ a sneak peek at a completed quilt top! ~

9-12

12 blocks all done!  Below are 9-12.  The one on the top left is a little different, but the rest of them are from the block of the month tutorial I have been following.  

A little blurry and dark, here are all 12:

These blocks are a little larger then called for in the tutorial, measuring in at 18" square, but I am hoping that after adding sashing and a nice 6" border around the entire top that it will be a nice fit for our guest bed.  I am guessing that there will probably be pictures up tomorrow of the finished top, because this thing is rolling!

coming along

The newest project is a half triangle square sampler quilt that may have the record as the fastest project. I started on it last week and have 9 of the 12 blocks done (I just finished #9)!  I really enjoy working with half triangle squares and this one is so much fun with the different oranges, purples, and browns.  I am hoping to finish up the rest of the squares tomorrow and then start the sashing on Friday.

I am using block of the month tutorial at In Color Order for the patterns, although I am switching out 2 of her blocks for a couple of different ones.  I watched it last year, promising myself that I could start on it after Christmas gifts were all done.  The goal is to cover my guest bed!

Linking up with Freshly Pieced!

You never know...

when you might be in the market for a bull.  :)

back on track

With all of the snow and wind, I got caught up on some of my quilting.  Remember this quilt I started way back this fall?  I haven't touched it since October!  I finished up these three blocks, ones that I had already cut all of the pieces for, to bring my total to 21.  That is halfway!

2 Ribbon Stars and 1 Two Colored Star 

According to my original schedule, I should have had this done by Thanksgiving.  I am hopeful for 4th of July.  :)

So it snowed yesterday...

And what did we do?  Watch this silly chunk of snow grow on the garage overhang.  :)

I am not quite sure how much snow we actually got...there are bare spots of lawn showing right next to drifts of 18 inches!  Kinda crazy...  (below you can see the Catholic church had service - I think they were the only ones - but only people with pickups attended)

 While we were shut-in for the day, we made corn tortillas from scratch.  Verdict:  Tasty, but we definitely want a tortilla press next time.  Our results were a little uneven.

Waiting for his tortillas!  I don't actually have pictures of our tortillas, but you'll have to trust me that we made them. :)

Beer, Round 3

Round 1 Beer: Success! (Jared is drinking it below)  This is actually the last bottle of it, so it must be tasty!

Round 2: Still to be determined.  It is currently bottled and sitting for the prescribed 2-3 weeks.  I believe that it will be done next weekend.

Round 3: Chocolate Maple Porter, brewed just today!

Yummy...

Just wanted to share a recipe with you for Turkey and Spinach Meatballs.  They were and still are very delicious (as in, the recipe makes a large amount and they freeze great!)

Quilt Retreat Bag

Awhile back, I saw this bag on pinterest and thought it would be really fun to make one day.  And then I realized three days ago that I have a quilt guild retreat coming up at the end of the month and this would be REALLY useful.  (It fits a 18" x 24" cutting mat).   A dig through the stash revealed a layer cake of simply color and a quick trip to the fabric store to get coordinating solids and I was ready.  (Okay, so it wasn't a quick trip to the store because I bought lots of fabric and talked to Harriet for awhile, but you get the idea)  

:) 

I got my fabrics cut and most of the piecing done on day one.  I went back to the store on day 2 to pick up grey thread and then finished the piecing and did the quilting.  Today, day 3, the straps were finished and the bag sewn up!

It is hard to see, but my ruler is in the front pocket.  Soon there will be a cute little hexagon flower on the grey pockets, I just need to make it first!

Look at all of that room! (the entire bag is 22" x 26")  I am thinking that I can easily fit 2 or 3 large projects in there...

 The link to the pattern for this bag is here.  (the whole website is really useful and I have several other projects from there on my to-do list)  I did make several alterations from the original pattern:

1. eliminated the little pockets on the front and from the inside (I have lots of little bags I keep my smaller stuff in anyway...I just needed a large cavernous spot to put them)

2. I didn't quilt the front 2 grey pockets...I didn't want to go overboard with the quilting.  I did add some medium-weight interfacing though and I am planning on a little embellishment yet to be added.

3. I found with the directions as they are written, when you add the lining on the front pockets and leave some of the lining on the front to make that nice top border, you end up a 1/2" short on the back.  So, my pockets are a little shorter because I had to trim them up.

4. I didn't add batting to my straps.

Looking forward to hauling all of my projects to the quilt retreat!