Weekend Workshop

I took a workshop this past weekend with Christine Fries-Ureel. She’s an amazing art quilter and teacher. Her forté is thread painting and embellishment. I learned a ton about the techniques and materials to create all sorts of dimension and shapes in fabric and thread. I started with one of her painted quilt tops and did the embellish stitching and created the cutest little hedgehog and leaves for him to live in. (See his little face down there?) It was tons of fun. Don’t miss a chance to see her work or take a class with her. Her story and journey to and through the quilting world is inspiring.

Sing it Sister

I found this blog post via Park City Amy’s blog. This Amy says it so well. I’m thinking of joining her “Moments” group. What do you think?

Pictures of Summer Whizzing By

The last two Quilt Block Exchange blocks for July. Stars and stripes boy-themed blocks…

Goodies to eat…. homemade pickles and hummus with feta and kalamata olives (yum!!!). This recipe was my starting point for the hummus but of course I’ve changed it. More garlic and lemon, some cumin and cayenne, plus, of course, the feta and olives. It’s ridiculously easy and so good that I never need to buy hummus again. Now if I could just keep the pita chips stocked.

Boys outside playing with campfires and running wild in the grass….

We’re trying desparately to keep on top of the zucchini, cucumber, beans and peaches that are coming in fast. It hasn’t been a great year for tomatoes but when they come it will be sauce galore. Hope you’re enjoying some summer yourself.

Who’s the Fairest of them all?

Me, apparently. After over two weeks of rain, I’ve managed to get TWO terrific sunburns in the short amount of sun we’ve had the last few days. Shouldn’t I know better by now? I was more worried about the boys who hardly turned pink from their exposure.

[In case you were worried that this post was merely a narcissistic blather about my sunburn, read on.]

There’s a fantastic giveaway here! The Fresh Modern Quilts Flickr group has just added it’s 1000th member and has over a dozen exceptional prizes to give away. Click on over and leave a comment.

And since I can’t stand to write a post without a picture. Here’s a block I made that is most likely destined to become a pillow cover. I love those birds.

Home Life

Happy Birthday to my boys.

Truer Words Were Never Spoken

Photo courtesy of a big boy camera spree. Sign courtesy of Mom.

After cleaning furiously for a birthday party for the boys, I was exhausted by the time the party came. What’s a little dust between friends, right?

Quick Quilt-along post for a busy weekend

I’ve decided to go with two lap quilts for the Old Red Barn Quilt-along. Here’s my first go at a layout for one. Digital cameras are great for this. I can look at the photo and see any spots that I want to change.

Busy weekend, gotta run, and yourself? Enjoy!

My 200th Post!

(Congratulations to Cynthia, winner of the FQ Giveaway!)

Doesn’t that just cry out for a giveaway? Leave a comment and I’ll enter you in a drawing for a mystery fat quarter pack… 4 FQs from my stash. Winner will be picked on Tuesday, June 9th after I get home from my quilt guild meeting.

I got a nice email from Liza at Quiltifications about my scrap quilt. She likes it so much that she’s going to make one in all black and whites. I think it will look fabulous. I’m collecting black and whites right now and haven’t decided what to do with them. This is definitely something to watch. And while I’m talking about inspirations, I should give credit to the quilt that inspired me. You can see it here.

My next scrap quilt is inspired by my friend Becca. (She’s just getting her blog, Six Wainwright, up and running so you can see it here on Flickr.) Her scrappy log cabins are made with 1″ strips. (That is not a misprint – one inch strips). It’s gorgeous the way she sashed it with white and makes everything pop. She started a scrap bag for me of 1″ strips and now I have a pile going for her whenever I’m cutting some fabric. It’s a sickness really. Neither of us can bear to part with even the smallest scraps.

And about those inspiring 1″ strips… my non-quilting sister-in-law accompanied us on our quilter’s retreat to get some getaway girl time. Somewhere around Saturday afternoon, her questions definitely went beyond polite curiosity. The clincher was the Hello Kitty sewing machine that Rhonda always has in her car. It’s made by Janome and is a great, affordable little machine. So my sister-in-law sat down with Hello Kitty and our bags of 1″ scraps and came home with a pillow cover and possibly a new addiction. She sent me this picture today of her own new Hello Kitty with the pillow cover she made over the weekend.

Isn’t that awesome?

Three Signs of Spring

Sign Number 1 – May Spring to Finish, a lap quilt I’m calling Purple Fancy. It uses some of my gorgeous Tina Givens fabrics and my first go at solids. I’ve resisted solids despite the urging of friends because they’re just not as much fun to buy as the prints. But I must admit they do something really nice and will try to temper my bias in the future. This also marks my second go at free-motion quilting. It’s a bit better than the last time but far from good. I have a tension problem either in the machine or in my motion.

The other thing I learned on this quilt is that using batiks for binding and backing makes for some tough hand sewing. The weave of the fabric is so tight that I’ve snapped two needles sewing the binding. It’s hard to find one small and sharp enough that still has an eye I can thread. Note to self: Avoid batik bindings.

Sign Number 2 – The first rose opened up. Pink and orange is a great color combination, isn’t it?

Sign Number 3 – Our sultan bantam chick is starting to sprout her feathers. How fabulous is she … pompadour, feathery feet and all?

New Additions to the Flock

As a new experiment, we tried hatching out some eggs ourselves. Out of eight eggs, we got these two fine feathered friends. The duckling was a product of one of our backyard pairs of Pekin ducks. The Sultan bantam chick was from some eggs we bought on eBay of all places. (Check out what he’s going to grow up to be. Yikes.) These guys enjoyed a week of entertaining preschoolers in the big boys’ classroom and now they’re home with us. They’re great buddies and I am wondering how this imprinting will play out in the future. They got some curious stares from the other fowl in the backyard when we had them stretch their legs out on the grass and nibble on a few worms. We’ll see in another week or two when they join the rest outside.