One Hot Mess

I'm not going to lie, everything here is a mess right now, including my sewing table. I get that feeling that little kids must get when they are sent to their rooms to clean up. Overwhelmed. Panic.

But then I just make a little room and get busy. I'll take the Scarlett O'Hara approach for now.

The block is done. I'll take a group photo later, when there's some sunshine. I think I'm going to need another block with some green soon. For balance. I'm telling you, it's not too late to start making these blocks. They all go together so fast. Check the flickr group, there's a lot of good inspiration there!

Ok, have a happy day!

p.s. After looking at the block in the photo I see how TOTALLY OFF that seam in the upper left hand corner is! I guess I should have turned on that extra light! It's fixed now!

Monday Morning

Good morning my fine feathered friends! How are you after the weekend? They're never long enough are they?

Bret took Friday off so it was a long weekend are here. It was a slow one though, he's had a cold and I have been feeling almost like I'm going to get a cold, so we laid low. Fortunately I think I dodged that bullet with a lot of rest and relaxation.

I can't believe it's already the end of March. Yesterday was Blogger's Block of the Month day, so today I'll get to cutting and sewing my block. Allison from Cluck Cluck Sew has created a cute block for us to sew, and I can't wait to select my fabrics! What's on your agenda this week?

Sunny

Yesterday was wonderful after several gloomy days. The sky seemed impossibly blue. The yard is green and even the lizards were out sunning themselves. They're too fast for me to get a picture of them. So far.

I finished a second oven mitt. I love this blue and green combo, it looks so fresh and crisp to me. I had better luck with this one. I think I'm over making mitts now though.

Heres the last of the new buds on my crabapple, the rain battered most of the flowers, it's not so photo ready now. Still, seeing it from a distance it's pretty.

Hope you have a super day my sew sweet friends! xo

Wednesday

Howdy-do partners! How are you? I finished my oven mitt yesterday, and after I took this photo I put it away for 'safety'.

I can guarantee you there is something lurking here waiting to mar it's oven mitty perfection. Well near perfection, it looks like it has ill fitting pants, and no matter how hard I try to correct that.. not a lot of improvement. Nothing a little tissue paper can't fix I bet.

I know, it's just an oven mitt, I need to get over it. Sorry. I get caught up and can't help myself. Ok, time to tell me, what are you caught up in this week?

More of the same

Good morning my fine feathered friends! Today I'm finishing up my Bella Oven Mitt. I've wanted to make myself one since I made one for Elizabeth.

I spent too much time choosing fabrics then even more time admiring my selections, so I didn't get it done. Maybe today.

I'm not going to lie, I thought I'd lost those scissors back behind the sewing machine. Anyway, the oven mitt, when completed, will be slipped into a ziplock bag and then put on display. For it's own protection.

Now if only someone told me how it got to be March 20th I'd appreciate it.

The one with salty language

What did you do with your weekend? It was National Quilting Day on Saturday, did you do anything quilty? I had a great day in my sewing room starting on a crafty project with Frankie, finishing up my granny squares and working on my asterisk blocks.

I also tried a little faux Union Jack block ala Nanette, which of course is a very clever idea. However both the asterisk and this faux Union Jack continue to thwart the #$&* out of me. My strips do not line up and DAMMIT (there see, I'm reduced to salty language on my blog!) you know how much that totally bugs me!!!! So, I think now that I have a pillow's worth of asterisks I'll finish that and step away from the asterisk block for a while. I think we need to take a break.

But it was super fun! I finished a lot of little tasks that needed completing and feel so happy about that! Hope you had a great weekend too!!!

Warning

Good morning my lovely friends, how are you? Did you have a good week? We've had a few rainy days here and it's been so nice and cozy inside.

It's crabapple blossom time in the yard, and you know what that means.. lots of photos of blooming trees. You know I've had my camera out back doing double duty since I saw that first blossom pop out!

I'll spare you though, I need to pace myself, I have my little cherry tree coming, and my other crabapple and it looks like it's going to be a good year for....

.. the snowball bush.

Happy weekending peeps! xo

Yummy

Have you seen these yet? Pretty awesome right? Of course this is year three of the partnership between Lilly Pulitzer and Nabisco and I'm just discovering them. No genius here! They're for a great cause, Operation Smile.

This got me thinking about how cool it would be to have your own design on the animal crackers box. You know who would have an awesome box? Minnick and Simpson. I can just see the flags and quilt blocks..and you know they love a good parade. Although now that I think of it I'm not sure why I think there's a parade involved. It just seems perfect for them.

Don't even get me started on a box that Monica might have. Holy smokes.

ANYWAY I remember carrying a box like a purse when I was little. Sweet. You know what else is sweet? St. Patrick's Day pinching. Hope you're wearing green! xo

So how stupid do I feel? IT'S NOT EVEN ST. PATRICK'S DAY. You guys are so nice not to correct me. THANKS!

Gloom

There's a lot of gloom around here, fortunately no doom though, so I'm good with it. We had a rainy day yesterday, and that makes for a nice sew day. Didn't spend much sewing, but I do have these two lovelies, in all their badly lit glory.

I really enjoy seeing all the granny squares popping up in my Pinterest feed. So many wonderful colors, and I love the different 'rules' that people are setting for the their blocks. Rules probably isn't the right word, but I think if you look at the setups people are using you'll see how different they can look just based on the way color is used in the blocks. I really love them.

I think once I have 16, I will sash them and finish this off. It's been a fun bite sized project that I've enjoyed. I wonder what will be next?

Springing Forward

The Sunday we spring forward always seems like a lost day to me. Doesn't matter that I get up an hour earlier than I normally would to get ahead of the whole time change thing. Maybe it was the gloominess of the day, I just couldn't 'feel' what time it was. Suddenly it was 4pm and I don't know how it happened.

The weekend was good though. I had a nice lunch out with Bret and I managed to make this little cover for Frankie's new phone. She has that new Samsung is-it-a-tablet-is-it-a-phone and it needs safekeeping. Kind of plain but it will do the job. I had the little handle just waiting for a project to go with it. I like the idea of this and think I will try to make a little something that will hold my phone and maybe some money. No hurry. Sometimes I just like to think on a project and see where it takes me.

Did you do anything fun?

Big cup of coffee!

Some days I just crack myself up. Found this big cup out running errands and couldn't resist. It's getting to be planting season, and I think this would make a pretty cheerful cup outside my kitchen window.

Hope you had a good week! I managed to get a lot done, nothing to show now for it yet. I even got in some Dance Central time! Man I love that. Hope you guys have a good weekend!

Morning.

So turns out Monday was a bit of a frustrating day. I just couldn't settle down, consequently, no Tuesday post. I don't like to whine and that's all I felt like doing.

Today though I'm making progress on things. Photoshop and I are back to being friends. Maybe projects that seemed like good ideas will come together after all. The coffee is delicious this morning, already Wednesday is working out.

I hope your day works out too!

March

So what were we talking about? Oh well, I don't remember either. Seemed like a long weekend here, with Bret home on Friday.

The weekends focus was on catching up, and so I got caught up with some more blocks! Is that your kind of catch up? Mine too. I'm still having fun with these, so will make a few more. But it's MARCH so it's time to start thinking more seriously about what new things we'll be making for quilt market. Ideas in my head need to start to manifest themselves on paper and even better in fabric.

Hope you had a good weekend peeps!

March Madness!

Good morning my little shamrocks! It's that time again, Aurifil Block of the Month. This month's featured artist is Victoria Findlay Wolfe from Bumble Beans!

Victoria has designed a darling shamrock for March's project. Not making the whole quilt but looking for a sweet embroidery project? Visit Victoria's blog! She's got a nice little weekend project just waiting for you. And remember, the flickr group is the place to upload your own embroidery!

Ok, off the airport. Bret has been gone all week and I'm happy to be picking him up this morning! Hope you guys have a great weekend!

Novelty

I was running some errands this week when I came across this sign. TOTALLY DIED over the prospect of whatever Baby Doll sheep were. Whipped a u-turn and came back to get a photo of the sign so I could search the internet when I got home. Mini-sheep? COME ON HOW GREAT IS THAT?

Just as I started to pull away something caught my eye. MINI SHEEP, in person! Pulled over, parked the car and walked up the service road to see these darlings.

Ok, sure they look like normal sheep.. until you start looking at the fence and the grapevines. Came home and found out more about Concannon's use of mini sheep to keep things tidy.

So that was fun part of the day. What's new with you?


P.S. Hey have you see this? Randi has a sew-along!

Finally

Good morning! Just enough time to torment you with some Blogger's block photos today! I am so happy with how this turned out. What a darling block from Amy.

Sorry my photoshop skills don't include making this any less awful! But you can see what a nice group of blocks this is.

You know it's not too late to join in. Sometimes it's just fun to have something you can't work on more than once a month! I encourage you to stop and smell the block of the month roses with us!

Blogger's Block of the Month

Welcome back to Monday! Those weekends just aren't ever long enough, are they? Saturday was the Blogger's Block of the Month day, did you check it out? Get yours sewn? I'm a little afraid to check the flickr pool. I'm only as far as making my half square triangles.

Amy did a nice job with this block. Did you see how cute her blocks are? Darling fabrics. I love looking at all the different combinations people have going.

Busy times now, I'm slap dab in the middle of market preparation. Posting could be compromised. But I'll be thinking about you guys, so keep me up to date! xo

So far..

Morning Glories! How are you? Things are perking along here. Of course as soon as my little block error was pointed out I jumped on fixing that. How could I have missed that yesterday? Too in love to notice it's little flaws?

Did you see Randi's cute little quilt? I'm fighting the urge to finish up with these 9, but think I'll try for at least 16. I'm not sure yet. Luckily, I don't have to decide.

Ok peeps, busy day ahead so just in case I don't check in tomorrow have a super awesome weekend!

Something Fun

Luckily last Saturday I was reading through my blogroll and found out about Nested Treasures in Livermore. It's an open one weekend a month shop, and it was open over the weekend.

Super nice people there, very warm and friendly atmosphere!

Lots of treasure to be found and I look forward to having a new place to shop. Of course I'm filled with regret about a wonderful vintage goose yard ornament I saw. Dang it. Maybe it will still be there next month.

What I don't understand is, why didn't my friend Ann R. tell me about this! Ann????

My progress so far on the granny's! Looking forward to hearing what you're up to! xo

YIKES I totally didn't notice the yellow one has two pieces turned around! Dork!

Detention

Good morning! Did you have a 3 day weekend? What did you do? No 3 days off for Bret, he was back to work yesterday, so in that spirit I tried to get some stuff done around here as well. But boy those quilt blocks are calling me, especially after seeing Nicole's cute pink and red blocks.

First things first, Michelle has found bird clips on Amazon. It's a nice assortment of colors too. Thanks Michelle.

Second up this morning, the formulas for setting triangles. For some reason this calculation isn't always included in books. I keep thinking I will write all the formulas on an index card and post it on my wall, but then I never do. Anyway, here you go!

Setting triangles: Finished block size x 1.414 + 1.25" cut your square this size and then cut diagonally twice to yield 4 setting triangles with straight of grain on the long side. (round up to the nearest 1/8th mark if necessary)

Corner square triangles: Finished block size / 1.414 + 7/8" cut your square this size and then cut diagonally once for 2 triangles with the straight of grain on the two short sides. (round up to the nearest 1/8th mark if necessary)

Ok, nobody has to stay after school today! Have a great one!