Cooper in Denim...And a Drink Recipe

I got a bit more done on Cooper today. Some pieces I'm not so sure about, but I can tweak them later. I still have a few more pieces to add across his forehead.

And now for a fun summer drink recipe. It was passed on from a friend of a relative.

Ciroc Tropical Punch

Ingredients

    0.5 oz. Ciroc Mango
    0.5 oz. Ciroc Pineapple
    0.5 oz. Ciroc Coconut
    3 oz. Mango Juice
    2 oz. Pineapple Juice
    Lime

Instructions

    Combine all ingredients in a glass with ice.
    Stir and top with a splash of fresh lime juice.

A Christmas Present Row

Yesterday I worked hard on this! I decided on a pattern - Christmas Presents found here.  I started by cutting all the pieces - 12 pieces per block times 8 blocks. I stacked them all up in order and sewed assembly-line style.

My morning sewing typically lasts a couple of hours, but yesterday I just kept going. And going. BOOM! I finished the row, but haven't sewn it to the quilt top yet.

I'm really happy with these little blocks - so cute! 

Now I need to decide if I need one more row. We'll worry about that next week!

More Plus Signs

Yes, I got my plus signs done yesterday. These are so fast and easy to make!

Here are last week's and today's together. I'm not sure yet how I'll arrange the blocks, but this looks pretty good to me!

Today is the day to work on my Christmas quilts - think I'll pull out my row quilt. I need to figure out what the next row will be. I'll be looking around on Pinterest this morning for ideas. 

I made a cilantro lime marinade for chicken yesterday and the chicken has been marinating overnight.  So dinner is basically done - Hubby will grill it tonight and I'll throw together a salad. Don't you love it when you wake up and know you don't have to stress over dinner?

Enjoy your day!

Back on Track!

Yesterday I was back on my schedule and made another midcentury modern home. This block went MUCH better and faster than last week's - yay! I decided to put a bicycle in the doorway.

Instead of making another house block, I spent the rest of the morning working on the next Splendid Sampler 2 block. Done! 

I had a nice supply of fresh peaches, so a peach pie was a must-make. Yum!

It was a good day! I even picked up my grocery order - so today I can stay home all day. And sew. And do laundry. And sew. 

Lack of Sewing....

We were lucky to have our daughter and SIL visiting here for a couple of day, so I didn't sew on Thursday or Friday and that's just fine!

I thought you might be interested in my lime tree. Look at those mushrooms that have popped up!

The detail is amazing! Nature produces gorgeous things, even when they're unwanted.

Yesterday I did one of my Friday activities - I made a little owl in preparation for my next Accuquilt Club meeting. Cute, huh?

Today I might work on Denim Cooper and maybe I'll work on the next Splendid Sampler 2 block. I won't be machine quilting tomorrow because we're taking a quick trip to B'ham to check on my MIL - she had a heart attack a few days ago. No worries; she's back at home and doing well now.

Enjoy your day!

Modern Plus Signs

So here is my new Wednesday project. I've had this book for a few months and have been wanting to make one of the projects.

I had this pile of lovely fat quarters that I've been dying to cut into - Edyta Sitar Blue Barn. Yummy!

I picked out this pattern from the book.

And I got to work! My quilt all be different from the pattern in that my backgrounds will vary - some will be blue and some will be cream...

...like this! I think each week I'll plan to make one big cross and two little ones. Sounds like a plan!

By the way, I found a mistake in the pattern - a mistake in the cutting directions - it happens. I'll let the author know.

Enjoy your day!

Midcentury Modern Homes

This is a Carolyn Friedlander pattern called "Outhouse." But I'm calling them Midcentury Modern Homes. I was shopping with a friend at a quilt shop in the Atlanta area. I love the pattern, but was hesitant to get it. The houses are paper pieced - ugh! The houses are TINY - ugh!

But my friend convinced me to get it. "Make the blocks bigger," she said. "Add in some plain squares with no houses on them," she said. Okay!

So first I had to blow up the pattern. It took me an hour or so to get it right.

And then I made this block. There was frustration and gnashing of teeth involved. I messed up time and time again. More paper. More fabric. I think now that I have made one it will get easier. I hope!

Each block will have different fabrics (of course!). My block finishes at about 8"x8", about twice the size as the original pattern. This quilt will be a gift for someone who doesn't read my blog. I have a few gift quilts I want to make, so I might as well get started.

I would like to aim for two blocks per week. Because of time spent sizing up the pattern and messing up several times I only made one. But two is very doable for the future.  I'm shooting for 20 blocks.

Have a good one!

Machine Quilting Day!

So far, so good...the new quilting schedule is working. Yesterday was machine quilting today. And so I made the backing for my two Christmas On Ringo Lake quilts. I used this fabric - don't you love the selvage?! I sewed a strip of red fabric down the center of this fabric for the backing of both quilts.

For those who want to know, here's the writing on the selvage so you can find some for yourself if you'd like. Click the picture to make it bigger. It says, "pattern #8170 Janelle Kent for Blank Quilting 2016 Christmas Wishes." I liked that it had a black background since I have some black on the front of the quilt.

Now these two quilts are ready for the longarm quilter.

I have another quilt already basted and ready to quilt myself on my Bernina - that will begin next Monday.

Today is the day for Midcentury Houses - tomorrow you'll see and hear more about this project.

Denim Cooper and A New Quilting Plan

Yesterday I finally began on a project that has been waiting in the wings for months - a portrait of Cooper made from old denim jeans. A nose and an eye - it's a start!

Here's my stash! A pile of varying shades of blue jeans. I hope to hang this at the lake house. Forever in blue jeans....

Okay. So here's the deal. Last year I had a very regimented quilting plan. This year I've been much more lackadaisical. (I had to do spellcheck on that word...) And it's simply not working. I have SO MANY quilts I want to make! And unless I make some changes I won't get to them in this lifetime. So it's time for a change!

I've made a new schedule and I hope to stick with it.

Quilting Schedule

Monday- Machine Quilting

Tuesday- Midcentury houses

Wednesday-Blue/cream plus quilt

Thursday- Christmas quilts

Friday- BOM, Accuquilt Club, SS2

Weekend: Cooper in Denim

                 Craftsy Class

Evenings: Handsewing (Bring Me Flowers)

A couple of the items are quilts I haven't started yet - but want to (Midcentury houses and a blue/cream plus quilt). I'll share more about them this week. I put aside one day for all my Christmas quilts. 

I haven't mentioned this, but I'm running a BOM program for my guild. Fridays will be my day to make a block (if needed), work on the Accuquilt Club I run at my local quilt shop, and catch up on Splendid Sampler 2. 

I'll save Denim Cooper for the weekend and work on Bring Me Flowers in the evenings. Do you see Craftsy Class listed? I caved and subscribed to Craftsy Unlimited. I hope to watch a class each weekend - doesn't matter if it's quilting, painting, cooking, or something entirely different. 

As always, if I'm too busy one day, I'll just skip that project and get to it the next week. 

Happy Monday!

The Missing Blocks...

There were no blocks missing after all! I had a couple of rows lined up incorrectly. So all is well! That was the good news. The not-so-good news is that I still have a lot of arcs to appliqué. The first quilt border has more four patches with arcs. But at least there are only two arcs per four patch instead of four like the others.

Yesterday I made the remaining four patches and have the appropriate arcs pinned in place. I also made the four corner units (flying geese) and pinned the appropriate arcs on them. After I complete all these arcs...there is still one more border. But it will simply be pieced and should go quickly.

So my other accomplishment of the day was thinking about the Splendid Sampler 2. I decided to go for it with my Kaffe stash. I'll be going for a rainbow setting eventually and will need 60 of the 100 blocks. So if there is a block I don't like along the way, I'll just skip it! Go to this link to see what I have in mind - I really like this setting with the nine patches. 

I pulled reds for the first block and here it is. I don't have many lights in Kaffe so I decided to use white grunge for these. I'll need more of this grunge to keep it going through out the quilt. 

So yes, I had a productive day! 

Missing Blocks?

As of last night I only had one of the arc blocks left to appliqué. So I laid out all the blocks and what did I find? Some gaps! There seem to be a few missing arc blocks. ARGHH! I know they are around here somewhere. Today's task is to find them. And I also want to layout the blocks for the perimeter and get them ready for appliqué. Wish me luck!

Last night's dinner was Chicken with Lemon Butter Caper Sauce. OH MY! SO GOOD! I did cut back on the butter in the recipe a bit. We loved it! 

Have you seen that the Splendid Sampler 2 is beginning? I had some friends make the first Splendid Sampler and I loved their quilts. Do I dare? Are you in? And then there's the fabric. If I dive into this...what fabrics do I use? My Kaffe Fassett stash? Or a color theme? Or should I pick a focus fabric and pull colors from it?  Decisions, decisions... I'll think about this today. 

Enjoy the day!

BUSY, But Not Sewing...

What started out as a simple curtain project turned into much more! I made curtains for our screened porch from two drop cloths We were simply planning to hang the rod and the curtains. And we did that. But the furniture on this porch will be going to the lake at the end of the summer. So we decided to go ahead and move it out. Then hubby hosed off the porch.

Then he decided the floor needed a fresh coat of sealer/stain. Meanwhile I went to Target and bought a new rug. It's a bit bigger than I planned to get, but it was what they had and I went with it. 

Then we moved the other furniture back in. The chairs are outdoor recliners we've had for years. the copper table has been in our family room. I'm planning to buy a rustic board to go across the top of those green bins to make a bar/serving table.

Hubby's car is sticking out a bit because the lake furniture is in front off his car...

I made tie backs from burlap ribbon and D-rings from Hobby Lobby.

 We'll enjoy this much more now - the morning sun on this side of the house can be brutal. We can drop the curtains and block some of the sun and heat when we need to do so.

Today I will SEW!

Catching Up

Accuquilt Club was fun on Saturday - in the photo I had set up my table before everyone arrived.

I spent most of the day yesterday organizing some things in my sewing room and hand stitching more arcs on Bring Me Flowers. I will finish these this week! I know I'll still have a few more arcs to appliqué on the border, but these blocks with four arcs are almost complete!

I'm still buying stuff for the lake house. I found these outdoor chairs to go around the table on the screened porch - from Target. I still have a list of things to procure: more mattress covers, new sheets, dishes and glassware, a TV console...to name a few. Slowly but surely.

Circles!

I spent a bit of time this week gathering my supplies for the Accuquilt Club meeting tomorrow. We should have a fun time talking about all the many things you can do with circle dies. I adore circle dies!!!!

I've been doing some appliqué this week on the Bring Me Flowers arcs - the end is near! I would love to finish this quilt top by the end of summer. It's doable.

Happy Friday!

A Simple Pillow

I made a simple little pillow yesterday. I wanted to make a sample for the next Accuquilt Club meeting, so I decided to use greens and grays to match one of the bedrooms at the lake house. Easy peasy and done!

This morning I saw this blog post about the "I Am Enough" quilt-along happening later this year. I liked the look of the quilt and I think it will be a good stash buster. Yes, I signed up! It doesn't begin until late September and who know how busy I'll be then, but it's free so why not!?

Today I need to drop off a pile of outdoor cushions for the lake house to be reupholstered. And then a trip to the grocery store. I think I'll only do hand sewing today.

Hubby and I went to Target late yesterday afternoon and bought some boring stuff for the lake place - mattress pads - yup. The price adds up when you have to buy a lot of these. But they were on clearance, so that helped. We also bought two LONG curtain rods - one for our screened porch here at the cottage and one for one side of the screened porch at the lake. I plan to make outdoor curtains from drop cloths for both porches.

UPDATE: Here's the correct link for the quilt along: http://southerncharmquilts.com/blog/2018/06/05/announcing-the-i-am-enough-quilt-along/

Enjoy your day!

New Bedford: Finished FINALLY!

Hard to believe, but this is my FIRST quilt finish for the year. If you remember, I made it last year, had it quilted last year, and even machine stitched the binding in place last year. 

A few days ago I finally decided it was time to do the hand sewing on the binding. 

We drove to the lake Saturday and I worked on it going and coming. So there wasn't much to finish yesterday. 

This quilt will live on a bed at the lake house - I figured that as fast as the house remodel is coming along that this quilt needs to be done. And now it is!

So what's happening now at the lake? Most of the interior painting is done. Bathroom tiles are in place but need grout. Exterior chimney is being covered with stacked stone - about 1/3 done. This week the chimney will be finished and the exterior painting will be done. I can't wait for the new kitchen to start going in!

Enjoy your day!

Pillow Talk

Okay. So yesterday this pillow was going to be finished. I was determined! I had to find something round to trace in order to trim the pillow top. Lamp shade to the rescue!

Next I had to pin the trim in place. Do you see something odd here? There was apparently a manufacturing issue - two navy pompoms in a row. I went with it.

And I sewed the back on and stuffed it. BOOM! DONE!

I'm glad I made it, but I'm more glad that it's done!

 Haha! I have a few more lake house pillows to make but they will be easy. I like easy.

Pillow Progress

I'm determined to finish this pillow. I'd earlier planned to use white fabric in the center, but I changed my mind. That center circle? I appliquéd it in place. The outer rim? I appliquéd it in place, too. This was one of those times where my machine wouldn't do as good a job as good old handwork.

I decided not to get it monogrammed. So I should be almost done, I hope! Today I'll trim this up and stitch it to a round back, stuff it, and call it done. I hope to show the finished product tomorrow!

We've been dog sitting one of our grand-dogs this weeks. Cooper loves him and has been happy to share his bed. 

Have a good weekend.