Sunday, February 24, 2013

Happy Anniversary Judie!

When I saw Temecula Quilt Company was doing an Anniversary quilt for Judi Rothermel's 25th Anniversary...I knew I had to do it...Judie's fabrics have been some of my very favorites over all the years I've been quilting...her wonderful Aunt Grace fabrics have been in many baby quilts over the years and her Civil War repros are second to none...her fabrics also hold a very special place in my heart...when I opened my shop on Dec. 1, 1999 the first whole collection I had was a group of Judie's...it was a huge hit and I think I had every collection of Judie's in the shop until I closed in Aug. 2007.

We're having a grey, misty day today so  Mr. Quilt Holder had to do his job inside...well, my timing wasn't very good, he was watching the Daytona 500, but I assured him we'd be quick...not that quick dear...
now you'll have to hold it for just another second.

Thank you Judie for these wonderful fabrics...thank you Temecula Quilt Company for a wonderful design...I loved every minute of making this quilt!

Saturday, February 23, 2013

FUN! FUN! FUN!

I have had a really fun week...well except for the dryer dying last week and waiting until Tuesday for the repair man...that part was OK, no laundry was done...but  the repair man was coming Tuesday, so my plan was to get all the laundry done.  Well, he was in my laundry room forever, that's never a good sign, and I wasn't hearing the dryer starting.  Finally he came out and said, "The news isn't good"...oh boy...well long story short, the computer board is shot and they don't have one...has to be ordered...he'll be back on Tuesday.  WHAT!  So what started out kind of fun, I now had about 4 loads of laundry and if I had to wait until Tuesday again, I probably would run out of underwear...not to mention I'd have to chain myself to the laundry room for 2 days to get it all done.  So my wonderful neighbor said not to even give it a thought, she was going to be gone all day and I should just bring my laundry over and put it in her dryer...so that's what I did...washed at my house...carried it across the street
and dried it at her house.  Thank goodness for wonderful neighbors!

Do you read BOM Quilter?  Yvette is an amazing quilter...she does beautiful work and is very prolific...Last Monday she had the BEST post...I was very inspired.  She put her 3 rows of the Fat Quarter Shop BOM together...well, I had 2 rows together, but hadn't done any of the flying geese blocks for the 3rd row...I got myself busy and got it all together...

I want to be ready for the new BOM to start in June (I think it is) and I've made a pact with myself that I will not start the new one until this one is done (top pieced and on it's way to my machine quilter).  Thanks for the inspiration Yvette!

Then she had 12 rows of Kathie Holland's Charming Addition quilt from the December 2012 American Patchwork & Quilting, and I flipped...I kept going back to look at it.  I fell in love with that quilt when the magazine arrived.  I tore out the pattern and put it in a sheet protector...I was going to do it.  Then I'd look at it again and just couldn't figure out how to tackle it.  I don't have a design wall...I have a design floor and we all know with my helper Howie there wouldn't be a chance of the pieces staying where they are supposed to be...so I forgot about it for a while.  Then there it was...I was in love all over again.  I e-mailed Yvette and she gave me a great strategy to get going on this wonderful quilt...I'm doing 3 rows at a time...got the first 3 together today
and I'm loving it...I'm cutting 5- 2 1/2" squares of lots of fabrics and then laying it out...I'll be repeating some of the fabrics but I'm OK with that...I had fun.  My plan is to do a unit like this each week and I'll have a quilt in a few months...it's a process.

Hoping for some sewing time tomorrow...I'd really like to get my Temecula Quilt Along Quilt done...got the 5th and last row done today (my helper decided to take a break just as I clicked the camera)...

...and have it all laid out...so with some luck, I'll have a picture to share tomorrow.

So as I said the other day, I get by with a little help from my friends...it couldn't be more true than it was this week...tons of inspiration from Yvette that motivated me to get busy...and my sweet neighbor letting me use her dryer for several loads of clothes...Thank you friends...Life is GOOD!

Monday, February 18, 2013

Just a Wee Bit...

...of sewing to share today.  I truly don't know what happens...where does the day go?  Maybe I need to do a study...find out just exactly what I do with the hours and minutes in the day.  I know we all have the same number, but some of you get way more done in a day than I do...and I'm not working anymore...hmmm.  I need to get on this!  If you have a suggestion, please share...

I did another little quilt for the Simply Charming Sew Along and had so much fun doing it...
I used red, brown and cream scraps from my Cotton Club quilt and then added some from my stash.  I'm loving these little quilts...almost instant gratification.
And just because...here's a picture of Prince Howie as his dad calls him...
he was staring at Andy, trying to intimidate him into a walk.  I swear this dog tells time.  We usually go out for a walk around 3 in the afternoon...he can be sound asleep and at about 2:58 up pops his head...and this is what he does.  If we don't pay attention pretty quickly he starts to make little noises (well as little as an 80 pound dog can make)...we usually get the message before he has to get too noisy.  Oh our fur kids...they add so much to our lives.

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

A Little Help From My Friends...

We all know the first line
...and it couldn't be any more true...Melanie left me a comment on my Cotton Club post saying just that and it got me thinking...I do get by with a little help from my friends...and some days with a lot of help. But then I thought about the next line in the song...
Mmm, gonna try with a little help from my friends
There were days this past year that I just wasn't sure I even wanted to try, but there were wonderful friends that just wouldn't let that happen.  Up and at 'em...they'd give me a day or so and then it was time for me to give it a try...I will be forever grateful.   

A huge thank you to all of you who have stuck with me through this past year...thank you for being a friend to me...thank you for your comments, and e-mails...thank you for checking on me...I hope that I can be as good a friend to you as you have been to me.  You all are wonderful!






Monday, February 11, 2013

I'm Grinning From Ear to Ear

And for very good reason...I got a wonderful package in the mail on Friday...let me explain....I finished my Cotton Club blocks months ago, had a row put together and then I put it away.  I got an e-mail from a friend asking me about the project and I told her where I was and that I had put it away...I was dreading doing those big mitered borders...now I know how to do them, taught how to do them when I had my shop...just don't like to do them...not even a little bit.  I have this fear that I'm going to have a wonderful quilt with an awful border because I don't get it right...well, you'll never believe the response I got from my friend.  She said "When you finish putting the quilt together, you can send it to me and I'll do the border for you. I love to do mitered borders, they're lots of fun."  I couldn't believe it...I was just thrilled...so I got it finished, boxed it up and sent it off to her...in no time at all  it was back at my house...so here it is...it's a big one...too big for Mr. Quilt Holder to hold it up, so I put it on the floor in the foyer and went upstairs and took the picture over the railing...please ignore the wrinkles...Howie needed to check it out as I was heading up the stairs...walked all over it...but by the time I got to the top to take the picture he was no where to be seen.  I'm as happy as I can be...and so grateful to my friend...Thank you!  Thank you!  Yes, I'm still grinning!

My sewing for today was to get caught up on the Temecula Quilt Co. Sew Along...Here are rows 2 and 3...
This is going to be a great quilt!  Thanks Temecula!

Oh I wanted to let you know that the Lemon Almond bread, that I mentioned in my last blogpost, was out of this world.  Our friends loved it and so did we!  It's a keeper! 

Sunday, February 03, 2013

This Post Should Probably Come with a Warning...

Be WARNED...this post is going to be all over the place...I'll bet when you finish reading you'll be thinking...hmmm, that Carol....(you can fill in the blank)

First, since this is really a quilting blog I'll start out with a bit of sewing...now understand there won't be anything finished here...these are all pieces and parts...3 quilt alongs and the beginning of a quilt...it's a good thing I like to work on more than one thing at a time...LOL!
First off, the moment I saw this quilt along on Temecula Quilt Company's blog I knew I had to join in...here's the first row
...I had so much fun doing this row earlier in the week...Then Country Threads is putting a 12" and a 6" block on their blog the 1st of each month...they started in January...
their little gift to celebrate their 30 years in business...being a retired quilt shop owner, I'm here to tell you, 30 in the quilt shop business is AMAZING!  All these blocks are going to come together in a really wonderful quilt...And here's my first row of Terry's Wiggly Whimsy quilt along...
...yes, these fabrics are totally different...I'm using Posy by Aneela Hoey and MODA...when I saw this picture it just looked like a row full of Easter eggs...made me smile.  Then I started playing with some spools...
I've had this Sew Mama Sew fabric since it first came out and just could settle on a pattern...then Darlene did the Fig Tree pattern Spools A Plenty and I knew that was what it had to be.  I love the spools, I love the fabric...it's going to be a great quilt in my sewing room.  So yes, there are several parts of my sewing personality...and I'm enjoying each one of them.

We have some good friends coming to spend a few days with us...so I went to my Pinterest recipe board and found this Lemon Almond Bread
that I had pinned months ago.  I haven't tasted it yet, but I can tell you when it was in the oven, the whole house smelled amazing! A morning treat with our coffee...I'll let you know.

And my helpful household (money saving) tip...if you have hard water like we do, and you get the dishwasher cleaner that they sell for anywhere from $2.98 to $4.38 (in my local Publix grocery store) I have a new product to share with you...yes, lemonade (has to be lemonade) Kool-Aid...
found it on Pinterest...just did a search for dishwasher cleaner... and when I first read it my first thought was "We'll see"...well, I got a package, a 25 cent investment, and gave it a whirl.  I'm here to tell you...it worked every bit as well as the expensive dishwasher cleaner...the hard water spots were gone, it smelled wonderful.  I've always run the dishwasher cleaner through every other month..so I'll be saving a good bit of money by the end of the year...hmmmm, money for the fabric budget!

Well, if you've stuck with me to the end here...I wish you all a wonderful evening, if you're watching the game this evening ENJOY!
Have a great week!  Find something to CELEBRATE!!!