I'm not going to lie to you.

There were some high jinx.

But alas today they are over. I'm out back on the porch recovering. More fun here, and here. And even more fun coming here.

Coffee and the Cooling Trend

Everything seems a little blurry today, I'm trying to down as much coffee before hitting the road as possible. Its another fun day with Elizabeth and Monica and I'm not getting any younger people.

Yesterday was a complete blast. We all met up at Alex's house for a morning of laughing and well, some other stuff that shall be revealed later.

I don't know what the heck was going on with this photo. The whole morning was a blur. I have a picture of Elizabeth giving me the stink eye and I have no idea what that was about. But you better believe I'm not showing it because she'll give me a lot more than the stink eye if bad pictures show up on the blog.

It's very possible we're just nuts.

But on the not-so-nutty side, it's time to announce the winner of the drawing for Alex's book. Since yesterday was our anniversary I had Bret pick a number and Cathy M , who writes "Great quilts. I don't think I could have kept that quiet for so long. Good for you." is the winner. Cathy email me with your address and I'll get my lazy butt down to the post office!!! Thank you everyone who commented!!! I'm quite thrilled to be a part of the Alex Anderson team believe me.

Alright people. No time for dawdling this morning.

Cut up

The hardest thing I've done lately is untie this little Moda twill tape and cut these strips in half. They're pretty aren't they. Little bundles of Moda goodness.

Yesterday, besides cutting into this roll, I went to see Cherry Cupcake and drop off her quilt. Babies are so tiny! It's been many years since I've held a little newborn. Yikes. But she's a sweet little baby and it was a fun afternoon.

Today I'm off to Alex's house meeting up with some people you might know! Have a good day my fine feathered friends! xo

P.S. Quick before it's too late, go sign up for the book give away here! I am going to pick a number this evening and post about it tomorrow!

Inspiration

I was going through my stash looking for the perfect binding for the baby quilt and then I saw this... And now its done.

Hopefully Cherry Cupcake will be receiving visitors later today!

A big reveal

Some of you might remember this post last year when I showed Alex looking super excited! I had carefully edited out the reason she was so glad!
This was the other photo from that day, a bunch of quilts folded up with their backs out. Not very nice of me huh? Being all coy about what I was working on. That's the life of a Celebrity Stunt Quilter my friend. Tight lips.

But today I can show off the unedited photos as the project is done! These are the quilts from her brand spanking new 3rd (I know THIRD!!) edition of Start Quilting. The book includes two projects new to this book and an appendix chock full of information on making the projects larger.


Here are all the quilts laid out the day I delivered them last year! What a project! What a bunch of fun quilts to make!


Today I'm having a give away!!! Leave a comment to win an copy of the book autographed by Alex and next week I'll pick a winner!

If you can't wait hop on over to Alex's website and order up one of your own!

So that's my big exciting finale to this week. Next week VISITORS! NEWS! EXCITEMENT! I can hardly wait. Hope you guys have a fun weekend.

Ocean Breezes

Another excellent morning around here. The weather is so nice and cool this morning, I almost got goosebumps out back. ALMOST. But all the windows are open and and sweet fresh air is filling up my house. Good thing I finished the top yesterday, I just got word Cherry Cupcake was born LAST WEEK and she doesn't have a quilt. I'll be working on this today.



Have a happy Wednesday peoples! xo

P.S. You know who else is having a happy Wednesday? BRENDA! She's showing off a big of her new line of fabric, go check it out.

Good morning everyone! How was your Monday? I had a nice day, started and ended on the back porch swing. Lovely morning and evening. Thankfully we're having a tiny cool down this week. Mostly its noticeable in the evening when the fog from the bay begins to perform its magic for us out here in the valley. Nothing eventful to report. Sewing. Staying cool. How about you? I expect more of the same today. Hope you have a good productive day!

Mornin'

Good morning my fresh faced peoples! How are you today? I had a wonderful weekend, thank you for all your wonderful birthday greetings, they totally made my day special! We got up early and drove to pick up Frankie and then went on down to San Luis Obispo for the day! It's a big ride but we like it.

It was sunny and nice early, I took this picture along the fields as you turn towards the coast. I love how those white canopies look in the sun. It looks hot already though, and it was already warm at 8am there.

Get a little closer to the coast though and pull on your sweater. LOVELY AMAZING BEAUTIFUL COOL COOL FOG. When we were coming back home you could see the fog rolling through Frankie's apartment complex like in a scary movie. No prettier site after a hot day my friends.

Last week Suzanne took a road trip and said there was no salad allowed, so I decide to give her way a try. We had a nice lunch at the Apple Farm Inn and although this burger was wonderful I'm making sure you can't enlarge this photo. It was a little too meaty graphic for the blog.

As usual the plantings around the Inn are amazing. I just want this wonderful moss all over my yard. Except you know here where it was 110 according to my car, I don't imagine it would do well without a lot of water. Sad because I have a big planting of that Campanula that it so nicely compliments.

I wish now that I'd picked up one of those glass mushrooms. They glow in the dark. Wouldn't that be spooky fun?

So for the rest of the weekend we just worked around the house. Inside though, man its scorchy out there.

So that was my nice weekend, what about yours?

TGIF

The lighting here in the hall is less than desirable but you can get where I'm going with this. Just threw them up there yesterday and will begin to move them around next. 80-4 1/2 inch bowties pulled from the stash. (cutting and piecing instructions over here at the ModaBakeShop) I'm loving the colors. Elizabeth had sent me a link to a beautiful vintage quilt for sale on etsy and it was just the inspiration I needed to get busy. Maybe the next time you see this I'll be finished? Or maybe not.

As for this...

Everything I hoped it would be. In several scrumptious bites.

Have a good weekend peoples. And come back and tell me all about it Monday! xo

As good as it gets.

I can't believe I'm spending so much time talking about the weather. Clear sign of advancing age- preoccupation with weather. Frankie is so going to disown me. Already I constantly ask her how the weather is there, and so far she's putting up with me but it can't last. It just can't. Her putting up with me that is. Hot weather. That's what lasts.

But enough about that right? It's just July. Plenty of days to complain coming up.

Yesterday I decided I had to leave the house if only to go to the market. I needed a baguette to go with dinner and maybe something different for lunches.. so I headed out to Trader Joe's. I don't go there all the time, not that it isn't good, its just well, the food has too much flavor and my family doesn't like flavor. But I like their cheese enchiladas so it was worth the trip.

One thing I rarely do is wander the dessert area. Dessert is the enemy you know, and must be held at bay. But the freezer section was positively delightful so I was looking it all over. And I found this.

I had to buy it. This is as close as I'll get to living the life of gentle beauty that Alicia lives. I saw the photos of her Blackberry Clafoutis in the morning and it was so beautiful. It's not the first time she's written about Clafoutis, she wrote about it here and here and probably more places. So now I too will have Clafoutis. Twice. And for a moment, my life will be filled with gentle beauty as well.

What a treat

It's only going to be 95 today according to the news. Yeah right, this morning I nearly caught on fire out back at 7:30am. Snapped a telephone picture of my coffee and magazine thinking I wouldn't be back out there till tomorrow. But my potted plants called out to me to water early so I got on that. The sky sure is blue though. Untouched photo. We've had a couple of spare the air days lately so I was surprised to see it so nice and clear.
I made it rain on my rain lily this morning. It sure appreciated the drink. It has 5 big fatty blooms on it right now.

Ok, more indoor stuff today peeps. I've already closed up the house, the last of the cool air blew in and it's time. It is also time to get out of this hot computer room. Keep cool peeps. xo

Complaints with a side of Sewing

We're into the complaining season so I think you can count on complaints every day its supposed to reach near 1oo degrees or above. I'll try to keep it at a minimum. I know that's kid stuff weather to some of you... and I'm talking about you MARY.. but still, its not pleasant.

Yesterday I actually accomplished something, besides complaining. I stitched up a few bow ties and did some junk around the house. Intended on leaving for the market but Bret volunteered to bring home dinner so I took him up on his offer. Today he'll be late, I'm on my own. Better get out while the getting is good, its really heating up out there.

I'm trying to get better with camera settings since some people are setting the photography bar so high. This reminds me of CSI where sometimes the whole scene is blue.

Ok, lets see, what else? Oh, yesterdays lunch with green beans in the sandwich was courtesy of Nordstroms Cafe Bistro at the Valley Fair Mall. I would think all the Cafe's have the same menu, but I could be wrong. Anyway we have a long history of lunching at Nordstrom so it was fun to go back. Thank goodness she's moved on from the All American Hot Dog lunch.

That just about does it for today peoples. Hope you're keeping cool where ever you are.

Out to Lunch.

Thursday our postponed lunch was back on again and we had a blast. Then for fun she came up Saturday to see the last episode of Harper's Island with us! Usually we all watch it 'together' texting back and forth.. weird I know, but super fun. So its been a fun few days people. What about you guys? Did you have a good weekend?

P. S. Don't forget to hop on over to Carrie's and Camille's to check out the links to the Parade of Quilts! Pretty amazing!

Parade of Quilts

Carrie and Camille are having the Parade of Quilts show going and hasn't it been fun? Everyone started so young! I have been garment sewing since fabric was 32 inches wide and I was in elementary school, but quilting for me didn't happen till I saw Kaye Wood on tv using a rotary cutter when I was home on maternity leave. Before that I thought you'd have to cut each and every stinken shape by hand and I was so not into doing that. After sewing a ton of little girl clothes a friend agreed to take a class with me at Going to Pieces and my life changed. FOREVER.

The class offered a little bit of everything, rotary cutting, template making, applique, strip piecing, triangles right down to hand quilting. Genius class really. It just didn't happen fast enough for me so after the first two weeks I had to have a project to work on between the classes. P&B Textiles had this great line of fabrics and I wanted to use all of them. And I think I did. I made it, hand quilted it and gave it away all before the class was finished.

I had fun looking back through all my photos of old projects. I can see the influence of people over the years by the fabrics and patterns. Sweet memories.

As for my most recent finished quilt, I think its the Moda Bake Shop quilt.. I have other tops complete, but this is the last finished quilt I have. Thank goodness my piecing has improved.

So peeps there you have it. Hope you all have a super duper weekend. xop

Detour

Frankie didn't feel well yesterday, so I ended up at loose ends. I needed some gardening supplies so headed over to Alden Lane in the afternoon. The weather has been so wonderful here, I'm almost afraid typing it out will jinx the whole thing.

Look at this! I did not believe it was even real when I first saw it, or maybe it was one of those weird grafted cactus type jobs you see now and then. It is real and its some kind of echeveria. Well it looked real anyway, and if I wrote the Alden Lane Blog you can believe I'd be writing about stuff like this.. because it was amazing in real life. I love that place.

I also loved this Butterfly shrub. Or something with butterfly in the name, I now don't completely remember. It didn't have any identifying information on it, so I didn't get it. I used to have a butterfly bush but man I cannot keep those suckers under control.

Quilting in the Garden is coming up, and already there's a preview..

This is an upcoming pattern from Alex. I did the blanket stitching on it last year!!! Cute huh? And perfect for summer.

I guess since I dilly dallied around yesterday, I better get cracking today. xo

Good Things..

Running into friends at the market. You maybe remember Linda from this post! Then after that I had a phone call from my friend Carol, you maybe remember her from this post! I miss seeing "my people" all the time.

Boxes from the mothership,a sure sign of things to come.
It was a good day. What about with you guys? I'm off to meet up with Frankie for lunch, so its going to be another fun day for sure. I hope you guys have a fun day too. xo

What about you?

I had this kind of afternoon yesterday, well after some yard work and laundry and errand running. The weather has been perfect here. What about where you are?

Festive 4th

So peeps, how was your holiday weekend? Have some fun, get lots done? I was invited to a pot luck brunch at my friend Pat's house and it was so much fun.

Pat told me I could take all the photos I want, and I did take a ton. Of course in my excitement they aren't all that great. I can't be trusted anymore I guess. There was so many wonderful vignettes and with the meeting and greeting and eating, well..

Now is that porch cute? I can see this would be the perfect place for coffee in the morning. The neighborhood is totally cute and there's lots to see.

Inside lots to see too. Pat is a quilter, and I met her through friends and also through quilting. Her home is simply adorable, with wonderful details at every turn. I have let you down though Pat, my photos are really crappy.

These are like some kind of soft focus pictures, I don't get that at all. But at least you can get the idea of how nice her home is. Here's the guest book station. Her guest book holds greetings from past 4th of July parties, and there are photos of the group each year. It is such a clever idea.
Little flag favors to take along to remind us of what a lovely time we had.

The back yard was wonderful. The weather could not have been better if she ordered it up special. I way overstayed my welcome and it was perfect outside the whole time.

Here's Pat on the right with Sharon.





Beverage station, of course I'm trying to capture all the wonderful pitchers and bowls there, rather unsuccessfully. Pat has a wonderful supply of vintage pieces.


No detail is left out with Pat.



My beverage station.. Pat had non-stop Peet's coffee going!

And the food.. ohmygosh.

Here's one of this years group shots! I am so happy and thrilled to have been invited to the party! Thanks Pat!