catching up over patchwork

Hello everybody!

I have  lots of stitchy things to catch you up on, like the quilt retreat I went on {yay!!!}  but took almost no pictures at.  I was a girl on a mission with piles and piles of fabric to sew into quilt tops.

want to see the first one I finished at quilt retreat?

I picked some Timber & Leaf up at my LQS before the retreat along with some other FQs I can't identify.  The background is a fantastic print from Indian Summer.  I knew right away I would be making a giant star with them.

the retreat was beside a beautiful lake, and I thought it would be the perfect place to take pictures, but the clouds, rain, and wind weren't cooperating...

so i tried again by the flowers and had a bit better luck  {btw, that is my mom holding up the quilt top.  thanks mom!}

I love this quilt so much!

and i have no idea how I am going to quilt it, back it, or bind it.  Any suggestions?

p.s. - I cut those flowers from my own garden :)

linking up to crazy mom quilts, Fort Worth Fabric Studio,

Fresh Sewing Day

 

Happy Saturday everyone!!  Whoo hoo for the weekend!! 

 

I thought I'd take a moment and look back at the month that was May {where did it go?!?} and link up with Lily's Quilts.  Care to join me? :)

 

PicMonkey, my laptop, and I tried to make a beautiful collage for you but we went round and round without much success and I finally had to admit that the threesome wasn't working out today.  Another time, another place and it could have been magical.  But we went our separate ways for now; I really think it was for the best.  And even though you deserve so much more, there is just a rehashing of old photos to follow :)

 

 

a pouch for my son's extra ammo :)



I took part in the Say it with Flowers Blog Hop



The Hungry Caterpillar baby quilt is nearly done {I'm sewing the binding}



I finished my Sashiko pillow - the kids have put in a request for another one like it :)



the accidental quilt has been making progress, but I haven't taken new pictures yet.

If you missed the original posts about these projects, I linked the captions so you can go check them out :)

Also in May, although unblogged as of yet, I went on a quilt retreat!  It was a fantastic, rainy time and I accomplished a lot of sewing that hasn't made it onto my blog yet but will hopefully be showing up soon.

Now it's your turn - what did you sew in the lovely flower filled month of May?

Say it with Flowers! {and cozy up with a pillow}

Hello everybody!
Welcome to my stop on the Say it with Flowers! blog hop with Mdm Samm @ Sew Quilt, with Carol of Just Let Me Quilt as cheerleader!  thank you ladies for another fun blog hop!

I made a new pillow, yay!  {the kids have been fighting over the Sashiko pillow I made.  3 kids : 1 pillow isn't a good ratio.  We are up to 3 : 2 now, getting better, *grin*} 



My project was inspired by Lucy @ Charm About You, who was inspired by a tutorial on Chasing Cottons.  Don't you just love the sharing of great ideas and beautiful work in blogland?  :)



This is my pillow back, I just made a simple envelope closure.  All the fabrics except the white background are DS for Joans.  That white has been in my stash for years.  {Years and Years and Years, people.  It is definitely time to put it to use}  :)



the flowers are all raw edge fusible appliqued on.  This red & white flower was stitched on mostly using my walking foot.  It didn't take long for me to remember how much I dislike machine applique {funny how Lucy's cute flowers made me completely forget that!} and I decided to stitch the rest of them with the FMQ foot during quilting.  The leaf on the left was FMQed, the leaf on the right walking foot stitched, just for comparison.  I definitely like the look of the walking foot leaf better, but it was driving me nuts.





In this picture you can sort of see the print on the white fabric.  Not quite flowers, not quite bubbles, but I think it works :)



I don't have a pillow form yet, so it is still looking a bit flat :) 
Here is the pillow posing next to a handsome bear to help show size.  Not one of my better ideas, since this only helps if you know how big the bear is!  Oh well, the pillow is about 10 inches square :)

Here is the rest of today's schedule, I'll be taking my coffee with me around to see all the pretty flowers! :)

May 30^th

A Quilt Lady

The House On The Side Of The Hill

Ella & Nesta’s Little Room

CLF by Nailaa

Atelier De Handwerktuin

Life, Quilts, and A Cat Too

Marjorie’s Busy Corner

Celtic Thistle

Elizabeth Coughlin Designs

Dreaming In Patchwork  < That's Me!

Around The Homestead

Salt Air & tulips in the kitchen

My Salt Air table runner has been done for awhile now, but it has taken me almost two weeks to get a decent picture of it.



I was grocery shopping when I realised what the problem was; the runner needed a vase of tulips to go with it :)

I made my table runner as part of curves class taught by Rachel of Stitched in Color.  This was my first try at improv curves, and I loved it!  I will definately be doing more of this someday!

For fabric, I used a charm pack of Salt Air by Moda that I won in a giveaway from A Girl in Paradise.  The batting I pieced together from leftover scraps.  And the backing and binding I also pulled out of my stash.  I had this marbled tan-ish fabric I bought for a specific reason, but I can't remember what it was.  Obviously, I never ended up using it for that.  The right side of the fabric was too dark so I turned it over and used the backside, which was the perfect creamy off-white.  I was so happy to be able to put this project together entirely from my stash!

I FMQed this quilt using Free-Motion Quilting with Angela Walters.  I really love this book! 
If you want to read more about the making of this table runner, and see some close-ups of the quilting, you can read {this post}.

I will be doing some linking here:
A Stitch in Time
Submarine Sunday #20
Sew Many Ways
New to Me in 2013
Quilt Story
Freemotion by the River
Better off Thread
You Flew
Made by Me
First Friday Finishes
TGIFF
Whoop Whoop Friday

What I haven't been cooking this summer...

Yesterday was Farmer's Market day in a nearby town.  Taking the boys at least once was on my summer 'to do' list  :)

My youngest son picked out this little carton of tomatoes.  With orange, purple, yellow, and green mixed in with the red, I was very proud of his adventurous selection :)   {I have some very choosy eaters}

Some blueberries came home with us, too, but they disappeared much too fast to get photographed :)  My oldest chose a Silver Queen corn on the cob, which we will be enjoying tonight.  And I couldn't resist bringing home these sunflowers!

That little platter of tomatoes is basically how our dinner table has looked this summer.  The lunch table and breakfast table too, actually :)  I've done very little cooking, and instead have just served a selection of raw fruits and veggies along with some meat.  And you know what?  The kids love it!  They are eating more veggies with far less effort on my part, plus less time in the kitchen for me.

For example, if I served a salad, they might nibble it.  If I put out a bowl of lettuce and my little platter with cucumbers, carrots, celery, etc, they devour it!  They usually pick cooked veggies out of anything I make, but if I serve it raw and all by itself, they can't get enough.  Peaches, plums, and all sorts of fruit are flying out of our fruit bowl.

I am seriously loving this no cooking thing :)
Linking up to Tuesday at the {herbal} Table!
I'd love it if you'd leave a comment sharing your adventures in summertime eating :)  {cause I'm nosey like that}
Happy Quilting everyone!

A different kind of stitching

Hey, did you notice my new button?  It's over there, on the right.  That's it :)  I'm taking the Kids Clothes Week Challenge!

I've never sewn any clothes for my kiddos, it's one of those To Do's that haven't made it off the list.  I'd like to make something for each of my boys as well as my goddaughter.

I don't have any definite plans yet, but these fabrics have been hanging around with no purpose for a long time now:

The top fabric is a paisley I-forget-what -it -is-called, the pink floral is seersucker I think, and the red on bottom is corduroy.

And from my garden:

I'm so thrilled my daffodils are blooming!!!  I'd cut some to share with you if I could, but we will just have to settle for virtual flower sharing, won't we?  These are new to my garden this spring.  My Mother-in-law shared some bulbs she divided last fall.  They were originally planted around the family farmhouse decades ago by my husband's step-grandmother.  I like having flowers blooming in my garden that have a family history.  :)

Easter sewing

Look what bloomed while I was out to Easter lunch Sunday :)

What do you cook for your in-laws, or company in general?  I have a habit of cooking something new, something I've never tried before.  Sometimes it is a total flop. But even when it isn't, an unfamiliar recipe under pressure can be stressful, you know?  I usually kick myself a dozen times over and vow not to put myself through that again.  And then I do.  I suppose the reason I search out new foods for special occasions is that our usual fare is rather dull.  I have better odds of getting dinner into the kids if it is simple food.  :)

Well, this weekend I did kind of the same thing, but in front of my sewing machine instead of the stovetop.  You see, I decided to bring a hostess gift for my Sister-in-law to Easter lunch.  Instead of flowers, I decided to sew her a little zippered pouch. 

I'd never sewn one before,  or any zipper at all.  I bought the fabric and zipper Saturday afternoon and spent Sunday morning sewing.  This is what I came up with:

It turned out fairly well I think, although I had my doubts for a little bit.  See, the directions called for a zipper foot, but somehow mine is missing.  I can't think what could have happened to it, I've never even used it.  So I made do with my walking foot, but the zipper pull knocked everything out of kilter when I had to stitch beside it.

I had a teensy bit of trouble when I didn't follow directions, and used too small a seam allowance.  Oops.

The corners on either side of the zipper are a bit odd.  There were openings on both sides of the zipper, because of the wrong seam allowance, that I had to hand stitch closed.  Oh, well, my sister-in-law liked it, and I'm planning to give it another go when I locate my zipper foot.  And I'll follow directions this time :)  If you're interested, I used a tutorial from Kelbysews.  And just to be clear, all problems I had were my own creation, the tutorial was great.

I love this picture :)
As for Easter lunch, I decided to ask the kids what they wanted me to bring - corn on the cob and ants on a log.  Nice and simple.  :) 

how to make laundry fun OR a desperation for spring flowers and warm sunshine

Hello!
My sewing machine has been pretty quiet this week, but the washer has been humming away!  These are just some of the fabrics I've been prewashing to use in another of my UFO's.

This quilt is the second I ever started, and this is as far as I got with it. There will be 23 varieties of flowers when it is done.

Here in New Hampshire, we had a tease of beautiful spring-like weather, but now we are back to this:

I'm longing for spring's flowers, but my gardens are under snowbanks, so I'm appliqueing some fabric ones until the real deal starts popping up in the backyard :)

I love my garden flowers, they bring much needed color and happiness to my days.
These are some of my favorites:

Dandelions
Daffodils
Lilacs
pink Lady's Slippers
Violets
Chinese Lanterns
Mayflowers
Johnny-Jump-Ups
Poppies
Jonquils
pink Bee Balm
Lupin
Black Eyed Susan
Snapdragons
Queen Anne's Lace
mums
Impatients
Buttercups

And you?  What are your favorite flowers?
I'm linking up to WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced today.  If you haven't been over there, you really should stop by.  If you are new to my blog, welcome, and I hope you enjoyed your visit :) 
Happy Stitches everybody!