Monthly Archives: June 2012

HtbaS - Episode 85

I talk about changes for me during the summer, quilting Coin Op, little projects, and a preview of Pirate Day! I flaked on Cooking with Pinterest this week, but hope to resume it next week.

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WIP Wednesday: Brain Fart and Helper Cat Edition

WIP Wednesdays
Well, I finished that baby quilt I was working on, so mostly have been moving forward with Coin Op.  I got the flower design marked randomly all over the top with a little help:
I’ve not yet had a chance to start quilting yet due to a variety of factors, most of which are emotional and awkward and have me not able to focus on quilting (see also: motherhood).  I’ve been able to fiddle with little things, though, so I also managed to do the following things that don’t require consistent brain power:
  • Clipped all the dogears on the buffalo HSTs from Faceted Jewels, which is about 288, or maybe 576. It is a pantload, regardless of the total number. These will finish about 2″, and I’m going to use them to make pillow shams for our bed.
  • I am fairly close to getting the Faceted Jewels quilt back from my LAQ, but don’t think I’ll make the deadline to have it finished-finished by the end of the month. I did cut and get the binding prepped and ready to go.
  • I sewed together the 49 buffalo HSTs leftover from the Pinwheels and Patchwork quilt into a little panel (about 16″ total). Not quite sure what else I’ll do with them other than add a stop border and slab pieced border to make it into another baby quilt. Possibly might turn it into a little changing pad or diaper clutch or something to go with the quilt for my friend.
  • I made a couple more Scrappy Trip Around the World blocks from the Swap-Bot swap with the Quiltcast Supergroup.  One of my partners flaked, but apparently I have a Fairy Blockmaker. I’m not sure 8 blocks is enough to make a decent sized quilt so I wanted a couple more to throw in with the ones I’m getting from the swap.
WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced

Sunday Night Stash: It’s Raining Babies

Sunday Stash
A nice steady week - output only slightly larger than intake, but that’s how it goes some weeks!

  • Used this Week:  5.5 yards
    • 5 yards - Pinwheels and Patches baby quilt
    • 0.5 yards -Mini quilt for the Atlanta/Ireland MQG swap
  • Used year to Date: 211.25 yards
  • Added this Week: 4.75 yards
    • 1.5 yards for Pinwheels and Patches baby quilt border
    • 3.25 yards various repro prints to finish Grandma’s Garden Sampler Quilt
  • Added Year to Date: 165.75 yards
  • Net Used for 2012: 45.5 yards
      • YTD Used for Charity: 70.25 yards (34% of total used)

See more stash reports at Patchwork Times!

Pinwheels & Patches Baby Quilt- Finished!

Finished Projects
I found out a friend of mine is pregnant (while she’s still pregnant, so apparently my timing is getting better!), so I whipped this up for her.  She’s having a baby girl in October.
The pattern is Bonnie Hunter’s - Patches & Pinwheels, reduced in size to a 7×7 block layout for the center. I consider this my first official scrappy quilt since I pulled my leaders and enders in the right colors for the 16-patch blocks. I also culled all the pinwheel parts from the scrap boxes, although they weren’t all the right size to begin with.
I did an all over meander for the center and outer border, and I’m pleased the only fabric I needed to purchase was for the outer border (the backing came from my stash too!).
Of course it’s not a quilt unless you’ve had some helpering to make it:
I won’t be shipping this out right away since there’s a chance I’ll get to see my friend in person (she lives a couple hours away).

HtbaS - Episode 84

I talk about Saturday Sampler blocks, making a scrappy baby quilt, and give a short review of the Easy Angle Ruler (here’s a tutorial on how to use it).

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WIP Wednesday: Seekrit Project Edition

WIP Wednesdays
I’ve been working on my mini-quilt for Cindy as part of the Atlanta/Ireland Modern Quilt Guild swap, so I’m not posting pictures of it as it’s TOP SEEKRIT.  I’m just about done with it - need to figure out the quilting in the second border and then bind it so it will be done this week.  I’ll be waiting to post pictures of it until I know Cindy has received it, so you all will just be in suspense until July.

The other things I’ve been plotting have been a baby quilt for a friend of mine - I’m going Bonnie Hunter scrappy with it and using her Patches and Pinwheels tutorial.  I’ve got a swatch of the fabric my friend has picked for the nursery so I’m using scraps that fit those colors. It’s been delightful to pull my leaders and enders in the right colors to make the 16 patch sections, and some 3 1/2″ squares for the pinwheels (and larger sizes I can cut down).

I’ve also been calculating the yardage to finish the Grandma’s Garden quilt. I’m going scrappy with the cornerstones, using a yellow for the sashing, and looking for a border fabric at the quilt store on Thursday at the guild sew-in.

WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced

Sunday Night Stash: The One With Bab(i)es

Sunday Stash
Some small finished this week with the Big Sis quilt, pillowcase and a cat bed.  It feels good to ship 3 quilts to their new home even if I already counted the yardage for two of them!
  • Used this Week:  yards - sad trombone!
    • 5 yards - Big Sis Quilt
    • 1.25 yards - Pursuit of Happiness pillowcase for Sonya
    • 1 yard - Cat bed and toys for my new stepbrother kittens!
  • Used year to Date: 205.75 yards
  • Added this Week: 4 yards
    • 2 yards Pursuit of Happiness fabric
    • 2 yards minky backing for Big Sis Quilt
  • Added Year to Date: 161 yards
  • Net Used for 2012: 44.75 yards
      • YTD Used for Charity: 70.25 yards (34% of total used)

See more stash reports at Patchwork Times!

Cooking with Pinterest, Week of June 17 (part 2)

Uncategorized
Thursday, for dinner:
  • Stuffed shells - I was inspired to make this because of two pins I had on my board, but because I didn’t follow either recipe, I don’t think it’s fair to judge those recipes based on this batch.  The shells themselves were fine - the filling was standard ricotta, egg, parsley and parmesan.  In some I added in leftover Italian sausage (frozen after pizza night last week).  They tasted a bit off I think because of the parsley - it was a bit old and tasted bitter. So, people, check the expiration dates on your dried spices! And also in your freezer - I was going to sneak in spinach to some of them but discovered my frozen spinach package expired 4 years ago. Whoops. Reminds me of this story from my Pantsfreesia blog. Grade: Sad trombone.
  • Brief had leftover carnitas tacos. Still awesome!

Friday, for dinner:

  • Leftover night! We finished off the carnitas pork for tacos, and also quesadillas. I also made some Balsamic Grilled Flank Steak as an alternative for taco filling since Brief had had the pork the night before. Grade: A.

Saturday, all day:

  • We went out to Five Guys for dinner. As much as I enjoy cooking, I was tired of doing it.

Sunday, for dessert:

  • Breakfast was at the Golden Corral (fancy!) for Father’s Day, and lunch will be on the go since Bloomer and I are traveling to West Georgia for a cookout at one of my BIL’s houses (with a pool!). Since we’re grilling out, I don’t have to cook dinner either, but did make a little something to take with us:
  • Lemon Bliss Cake:  This is from the King Arthur Flour blog, and they always have tasty looking recipes. I’ve made this cake several times before and it’s always awesome. The best part is the unwritten implied instructions at the end, when you cut the first slice and do a fist pump and yell “CAKE FROM SCRATCH, BITCHES!!” and then stuff your face. Grade: A+ for Awesome.

Saturday Sampler Blocks - June 2012

General Quilting
This morning was the block pick up for the Saturday Sampler program at Tiny Stitches, and we started up a new program and ended another.

First, out with the old (relatively literally), the last block of Grandma’s Garden:

This month’s words of wisdom come from my husband’s grandmother: “Raise kids, not a yard.”
And here’s the next Memories of Provence:
And finally, here’s the newest program called “Going Coastal”.  I chose the batik version rather than the novelty version, as I suspect I always will.  I’m in love with the soothing colors in these blocks:

I look forward to getting back on the first Saturday pick-up next month, so it’ll be 2 weeks and time to do it again!
The shop has a finishing kit for Grandma’s Garden but I’m not really in love with either border fabric (there’s a busy pink floral or a busy blue floral), so I might do the same layout but with a different border fabric.  They did a 2″ blue sashing with yellow cornerstones with the blocks on point, and a plain ivory fabric for setting triangles.  I think I might like to quilt in the names of grandmothers in both mine and my husband’s family as far back as we can remember. I suspect on my MIL’s side it’ll be a bit redundant since there’s at least three generations named “Addie”.  Hmm…

Big Sis Quilt: Finished!

Finished Projects
Here it is, the Big Sis to the little Secret Garden quilts:
I basically took the scraps from Secret Gardenses and pieced those with a focus center panel, and then added the larger strips of the two fabrics I had the most leftover fabric from. I had a very pale yellow grunge that worked great with the fabrics, and then finished it off with some Kona Cocoa.
I did an overall large-ish meander, which was challenge enough with this heavy minky backed quilt!
As a refresher, here’s what the twin Secret Garden quilts look like: