Hello Friday!

Hi there, Happy Friday! I feel it in my bones my pattern will come today.  IT WILL RIGHT?  In the mean time I managed to entertain myself ok.  Nothing all the productive to show, but it was a good day!

Coffee on the swing takes place a lot earlier in the morning now that the weather has heated up.  Not complaining (too much) because we're still under 100, unlike some of  my pals in triple digit weather. Instagram keeps me feeling like I have little to complain about.. so I won't.  Do you instagram?  Anyway back to the coffee on the porch...  Minnick and Simpson's new book is excellent.  My favorite project is the 1868 quilt, that you can see in this post.  There's something so charming about it.  I'd love to hook the rug. I'm not a great rug hooker, but I really enjoy it. 

The bit of rain we had a few days ago have my rain lilies blooming away.  Way back in the  olden days when you couldn't get regional magazines and the internet was barely around, I read about them in  a Southern Living magazine that I somehow got my hands on. I can remember seeing them in a pot  on some porch steps and thinking I HAVE TO HAVE THOSE.  Of course now who knows how I got them, I know it wasn't easy.  Now you can get them at OSH for pete's sake. Anyone can get them, not just Southern Belles. 

Boy howdy I'm rambling.  Which makes me think of that wonderful Southern novel Cold Sassy Tree.  I guess I'll plan on having a cup of sweet tea this afternoon and a good read.  Happy weekending everyone! xo 

Stash Enhancement

Hi there everybody! What's up in your world?  Here in Pamkittyville I'm just impatiently waiting for my cute strawberry pattern.  Have you seen Strawberry Social from Margot? Honestly I'm just dying over it.  It's taking it's own sweet time getting here and I'm so excited to get started on it.  Luckily Margot posted the fabric requirements, I knew right away I wanted to use my cute floral but knew I didn't have enough left, so thankfully my friend Roseann had some, and she mailed it off first thing. 

In the mean time I ordered up some other LakeHouse prints.  Have you seen this cute cherry print? It's from Holly's Sweet Things collection and I love it.  The green is pearlized, which means it has the nicest little bit of shine to it!  And check out those yellow dots! You knew me and yellow on white!

 

I love the donuts... especially that one little donut with the face.  It kills me for some reason.  I think the donuts were my favorites in this group. So cheerful.

Ok, back to watching my mail box!  Hope you're having a good week! xop

Rain Rain

Hi there!  How are you? It's a cheery week here, RAIN!!!  I know it's a thumbs down kind of thing for a lot of folks who are wishing for a nice warm sunny  summer but for me, it's dreamy.  Like I just want to sit cozy in my chair  and stare out the window! But this week feels like a get things done week, so instead of staring out the window I got on with my normal stuff.

I'm headed over to Diana's today to drop off another quilt, and so I put some borders on this one  so that if at the last minute I decide to ask Diana to quilt it, I'm ready.  I like the way it turned out. I actually  even have ideas.. maybe I'll do it myself. It's not too big.  Of course big enough to not be able to get a good photo.

 

This is a crazy photo shopped version of the quilt that was in one of those wonky trapezoids even though I stood on a ladder to take the picture.  ANYWAY.

 

Today is the last day of the Fat Quarter Quickies blog hop!    The winner is Wendy B who said:

 

My collection of FQs will outlive me.......maybe I should start using them instead of just admiring them!!!! LOL Perhaps I NEED this book???? thanks for the chance!!!

sugary hugs
wendy :O)

 

So Wendy email me so you can get started using those fat quarters!!

 

 

Monday Morning

Happy Monday Morning!  How are you my sweet friends?  Did you have a nice weekend?  Seems like I've been weekending for ages, with Bret off for a whole week, but it's back to the usual schedule today. 

The weekend was filled with the usual chores that need doing and then some fun things that I just wanted to do.  I was up and out of the house early Saturday morning and hit all the local spots to buy flowers and plants.  I had a lot of fun, although I picked the hottest day of the week to work on it. Yikes. Not my best plan ever.  

 

I can keep pots on the patio watered, maybe not the whole back yard can be lush and green but the patio can be nice, right?  Lots of pretty green. I have nice big lime green umbrellas  to give it some shade. 

 

I'm happy my fig tree is loaded with figs again, pretty good for a potted tree.  Of course I say loaded I really mean a couple of dozen figs, maybe, at the most. But enough to make my mom happy. 

 

So it was a good week overall.  I will get back to sewing this week. The weather has turned cool! Hurray!  Happy week everybody! xo

p.s. It's almost time to say goodbye to Google reader.. so it's the perfect time to say hello to Bloglovin!
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R&R

Tuesday Bret and I took a quick trip down  the central California Coast to San Luis Obispo. It's a favorite trip for us and even though we only had one night to stay there it was worth it. The weather was perfect all along the way, which is unusual for this time of year. 

You pass by a lot of agricultural land traveling down 101. It's very beautiful, and you see summer crops in all stages from fresh plantings to harvest.

First stop was Paso Robles for breakfast at The Cowgirl Café, which was delicious. It's a favorite spot for us, we've been several times, and even Elizabeth and I have stopped in Paso for lunch and antiques.  New to the neighborhood since I'd been there was Two Susans Antiques.  Really cute place, super nice Susan there to chit chat with us.

Another shop that is adorable is The Cottage.  It love the vignettes they have set up there, but they have strict no photo policy. 

Another new stop for me is Birch Fabrics. What a cute location, and of course the shop is filled with great fabric. 

After our shopping we headed over to the coast through Cambria and down Hiway 1 to San Luis Obispo. It was windy and cool, we stopped along the beach front in Cayucos to take a look at Morro Rock.  When I was a kid we'd camp in Morro Bay at the State Park, we had a little canned ham style trailer. My father's Aunt Milly lived in San Luis Obispo so we'd visit her while we were there.  I always have a good feeling when I see the rock.

As usual we stayed at the Apple Farm Inn.  I love everything about the place, I'm sure long time readers know that already! This year I only grabbed a couple of photos of the pots of flowers.  You can see in those older posts there's usually a lot more blooming, but it looked like the grounds keeper was busy pruning and cleaning up while we were there.  It didn't spoil my trip one bit. 

It was a great time. I just missed Annelies by a couple of days. Wouldn't that have been fun? Now it's back to business around here.  Hope you all have a great weekend.. any plans?

Good Morning!

Just a quick post to say hi from San Luis Obispo! Heading home today. Hope you are having a good week!

Fat-Quarter Quickies Blog Tour Day 2!!

Good Morning!  Welcome to my stop along the Fat Quarter Quickie's blog tour!  You all know that Kathy and I are friends and I'm happy to have a chance to share her new book with you!  In true Teacher's Pet form, this book is filled with great patterns and easy to read and understand instructions.

 

Kathy also has a Creative Grids ruler that is a companion to the book, along with good instructions on how to use it. It's the perfect ruler to go with all those precuts you've been 'saving'.   The nice part though, you don't need the ruler to make these projects.

Kathy asked us each to pick our favorite quilt to talk about. No problem for me, hands down it's this Sail Away pattern.  I love it's a nice classic design, and look at the wonderful quilting on that! To me this quilt is timeless. 

What's the great thing about a blog hop?  The opportunity to win something!  Leave a comment for a chance to win and e-copy of Kathy's book, Fat Quarter Quickies.  Then check out all the stops on this hop to better your odds of winning! 

Monday:Tara at Sew Unique Creations
Tuesday: PamKittyMorning
Wednesday:Vickie at Spun Sugar Quilts
Thursday: Martingale
Friday:Lissa at ModaLissa
Saturday:Pat at Silver Thimble Quilt Co
Sunday:Julie at Jaybird Quilts
Monday: Rachel at PS I Quilt
Tuesday: Kathy for the Wrap!

Monday

Hi there, how was your weekend?  We had a great weekend, perfect perfect weather!  I spent some time on the back porch.  My potted hydrangeas are suddenly blooming up a storm.  SO HOT PINK. All of them started out as blue but of course they turn pink, no matter that I feed them with the "turn blue" food. Oh well, they're all still pretty to me.

 

When I'm out in my pj's taking a million pictures of my coffee cup the neighbors must think I'm nuts. We have some new neighbors kitty corner behind us that have a 2 story.. they get an eyeful! I figure it gives them something to talk about, "you're not going to believe our crazy neighbor..."

 

I need the practice.  I always think about the beautiful pictures I see with the  different focal points.  Very interesting to me.  And people with beautiful gardens and homes.... I love to see those.  Pinterest keeps me day dreaming.

 

Ok, what else? Did you see my blocks? Early birds caught a glimpse of the finished quilt! I didn't follow my instructions and posted the whole quilt for an hour or so!  WHOOPS! Be sure and check out Kimberly and Debbie's blocks over on the Jolly Jabber.

 

Bret has the week off so it will probably be slim pickings around here.  I hope you all have a wonderful week ahead!!! xo

 

 

School's out for the summer.... almost!

Hi there Happy Saturday and Happy Last day of school before finals!! I've had a blast sewing through Barbara's book Civil War Sampler with my friends Kimberly and Debbie and of course all the people who played along at home! The flickr group is full of great  blocks, you should take a look.  I love how the blocks can look completely different based on fabric selection, placement of lights and darks etc.  And sewing, isn't it just plain old fun?

 

So here's my last row of blocks.  Here's Twin Sister

 

Union Square

 

 

Rail Road Crossing

 

Grapes of Wrath

 

Court House Square

 

And here they all are.

 

I don't have a big enough spot to lay this out and get a photograph of the whole thing.  I'm only so daring when it comes to the ladder, so the footstool has to do!

Thanks to Fat Quarter Shop for hosting this fun sew along each month, I had a blast. Did you sew along with us?  I hope you'll put your photos up in our flickr group!  Hope on over to the Jolly Jabber and see the last row for Kimberly and Debbie. Then come back next month to see the finished quilt. 

P. S.  The early birds reading saw the whole thing....shhhh ! My mistake!

Thursday

Hi there!  It's Thursday already, can you believe it? I had another good sewing day yesterday, getting all the sashing on my quilt done.  Next up borders!

Many of you wondered if this would be a pattern and you're in luck, it's the free pattern to go with Pam Kitty Picnic!  It will be available for download later this summer.  Here's the cute Tic Tac Tulip page from our  sales booklet, Holly is showing three versions here to show you some different looks.  

 

Suzanne asked if those kitty tulips were cut by machine or by hand, and they're all cut by hand, but oh gosh, wouldn't a die cut be great?  I am totally in love with that tulip shape.  This quilt is inspired by a vintage childrens book illustration of a quilt. Anyway, thanks for all your nice comments!

 

I'm taking tomorrow off but I'll be back on Saturday with my final homework on the Back to School with Pam Kitty quilt.   See you then!

Dreamy

Good morning!  I've been enjoying my backyard paradise a lot since I finished up that canopy. Seriously, why oh why do I put stuff off?  There's just nothing better than sitting out there  seeing the birds and reading a magazine, checking instagram on my phone. You know, the usual.

 

Here's a surprise, I've been working on my little project, you know this applique I've shown many times, always in this state!  Somehow I managed to get it all fused to the background and blanket stitched down and sewn into rows!

 

Proof..

 

I know! I'm a shocked as you are!  I hope to get the sashing sewn up today and then finish it up.  I think it's turning out so cheerful!  It's a happy project to work on.

 

So what are you up to? 

Monday

Good Monday Morning my fine friends! How are you and how was the weekend?  We're still weekending here today, Bret has the day off and we're probably going to be a bit lazy.

 

I did get around to some sewing this weekend, how about you? I have a nice old swing on my patio, it has a fabric canopy that was a little worse for wear. The California sun can be pretty hard on fabric, and it was disintegrating  so I finally had to do something.  I'd been thinking about it for ages, and had even picked up the canvas I planned on using, but never wanted to get started on it.  I just find tasks like that to be a pain. But in a matter of a couple of hours I had made the canopy, washed and shrunk it to the perfect size (which was a lucky break). Pretty it's not, canvas gets awfully  wrinkly when wet and since I put it on the swing wet to dry and shrink up around the frame it's s little funky.  But I consider it all done and somewhat a miracle. 

 

Unspoken here is.. if it was so easy why did it take me months to actually do it?  Well that's my brand of insanity right there people.  Saturday was a scorcher but Sunday was positively blissful and I plunked myself out there with  a coffee and a magazine and enjoyed the cool morning.  Looks like we have some nice weather coming up, so I will put that canopy to good use!

 

Have a good day out there people!!! xo

Thursday

So what have you been up to?  I've been in the backyard working on cutting back my roses. It doesn't take many days of hot weather for all the blooms to come and go and leave the plants looking a little worse for wear.  So it's pruning season.  I've got a fresh sharp pair of clippers thanks to a practical Mother's Day gift, and I put them too good use. 

One last flower back there.  Always sad to see the yard get crispy and a little burnt looking. It's been ingrained in me too long to conserve water, having spent many years in drought conditions, so I water enough to keep things alive, but my yard will never be the lush green oasis that I'd love.

 

I do treat myself to a few pots of pretty flowers for my friends the hummingbirds.  I haven't seen much of them back there, occasionally one will fly in for a drink.  I'm always so grateful to see them.

 

 Bret has the day off tomorrow so I  will wish you a happy weekend now.  See you next week, come by and tell me what you were up to. xop

Tuesday

It's almost time to show off our last row in the Back to School with Pam Kitty. I can't believe we're coming to an end of this project.  I thought I'd bring you up to date on my sashing and border choices and necessary yardage requirements.

 

For the posts, I went with the red mini dot.  Originally I had intended to use all the different reds and while I still think that's a great idea, I'm not sure it's great with the multi color dot sashing I chose.  If you chose a white on white I think it's a great idea to use your leftover fabric.  Plus, I'm not going to lie, it was just much easier to cut it all at once.  I might have been influence by that!  My inner border is the pink stripe and the outer border the red floral.  One note before I get started, LakeHouse stripes run from selvedge to selvedge and my yardage reflects that.   I went pretty basic and my yardages are as follows:

 

Outer Border    2 yards

Inner border     1 yard (that gives you good long lengths to piece)

Sashing            1 yard

Posts                1/8th yard

Of course I have to tell you I saw Debbie's sashing on Facebook and it's adorable and I totally wanted to copy her, but that seemed rude.  Kimberly's sashing is still a mystery! I can't wait to see what everyone has chosen.

Ok, that's it for today. 

Monday

Monday has rolled around again bringing with it some slightly cooler weather. What did you do over the weekend?  The weekend here seemed short, Saturday I picked up Bret from the San Francisco airport, home after a trip to Atlanta and Virginia for work. Happy he's home!

 

Here's proof positive the tea cozy is done! There's even a teapot under there, and it's English! I'm super happy about how cute it turned out and Lynn couldn't have written a nicer tutorial for us all!

 

I felt restless this weekend.  Do you ever get that way? You  have tons of stuff to work on  but nothing suits your fancy. So I made a tiny tulip block. (4 inch square)  I am in love with this shape, you'll be seeing more of it come this fall, it's the tulip in my free pattern for Pam Kitty Picnic.  I'll show you that another day. In the mean time, did you see the link on the right for the swatch pages?  Just click and away you'll go to see the collection!

 

Ok, now seriously, I need to get busy.  Have a good day everyone! xo

p.s. I was inspired by Lori's cute little tulip pillows when I added this pot to my tulip shape today! Have you seen them? Totally adorable! I'm glad I have those thimble rulers !