Tiny Tuesday #29

Here is #29 - Grandmothers Tulip.
This is hand appliqued and I was able to work on this a little bit throughout the week around the kids. I had to make the middle circle a tad bit bigger to fit over all the green ends... seems I was a little off in my placement of a few things. Very difficult to do this in a very windy environment while outside watching the kids. So far I am keeping up with the one Midget block a week this year. I have next week's block all done and hope to work on #31 this week before I have to convert the sewing room to a guest room for company this week.
I was looking around last night and noticed that SoScrappy changed her background to PINK.... so I checked and pink will be the color for the March Rainbow Scrap Challenge.

Starburst progress...

I did make 5 more of these star blocks over the last week and I think this will be the final layout. The last 5 I made had much lighter orange with the blacks so I tried to spread them around a bit. Now, I just need to trim all those extra HST triangles into 2 inch squares and make them into the diamonds for one of the borders. Once I get that part put together... then I'll figure out the final outer border. Right now... a toss up between finding a print that will tie it together and just calling it done..... or cutting up more of the fabric and making a scrappy colorful border. Hmmm. I think I'll wait until after the I have the top put together up to that point before I make that decision.
Excuse the dump truck and Thomas the Train in the photo.. they were both attempting to use the blocks as a road while I was setting them out on the living room floor. Did I mention I really miss Aidan taking an afternoon nap?

I really need to get this quilt done by the end of March so I can send it up north and start planning next year's graduation quilt this summer. That should give me time to finish the Jacobs Ladder green/cream quilt and find Aidan's star blocks and make his twin size quilt up for his bed. Lots to do... I'd better go start trimming those half square triangles.

Quiltville give away

Just wanted to let you know Bonnie Hunter over at Quiltville is having a give away of On Track. This is the official magazine of the International Machine Quilters Association, Inc. She has an article in the magazine and I can't wait to find a copy and look through it. Hopefully I'll win one... otherwise I'll be searching for one at my LQS. Go over and leave a comment on her blog for a chance to win a copy too!
Have a great day.

Quilt Square Along... February

I have not been in the sewing room much this week with too many other things going on. I was able to steal away a few minutes here and there yesterday and got the February Bear Paw little quilt cut out and sewn together. This finishes at 12 inches. I need to get the batting and backing all set and hope to do a little hand quilting on this little guy. Oh no! I just looked at the picture and I have two little squares in there wrong! Hopefully I'll have a finished project to show for Tuesday... but if not, I'll hook this post up to Jo at Jo's Country Junction at the end of the month. I have a feeling lots of people will be hooking up again this month for a little linky party. It is so neat to see all the different ways a block would look with just a change in color or value placement. Thanks so much Jo for hosting this little party this year.

Tiny Tuesday #28

Here is #28 - Calico Puzzle.


Lots of teeny tiny pieces in this one - 52 to be exact. Rotary cut and machine pieced. Aidan let me cut this one out quick and sew it up while he was 'resting' on the couch watching part of Toy Story 3 on Saturday afternoon. He had to go get Buzz and Woody (birthday and Christmas gifts from Grandma) so they could 'watch themselves' in the movie!

He also played with some thread (I got the pack of Guterman's thread from Joann's a while ago) and loves taking them off the spindle and lines them up by color, then lights and darks, etc. It allowed me to pick out that Birds in the air block and resew it correctly.

Hey. That's two green projects on the scrappy green Saturday!

Sunday I was able to work on #30 and have that one all done ahead for next week and #29 is all set to work on this week at night. I think I like being ahead on these guys... especially since I just printed out 31-37 and there are some difficult ones coming up.

Go over to Jill's blog and see what others are doing on this Midget Tuesday.

Scrappy Birds.....

I decided it was the time to work on the scrappy birds in the air blocks. I was up cutting through some greens Thursday night... since when I checked on the kids at 9... one was still wide awake in her bed. Good excuse to stay up a bit longer and 'play' in the sewing room. I was able to sort fabrics and cut most of the green and creams for the small squares and triangles. I pulled my six fabrics for the large triangle... which is the amount I pulled for the red but only made 10 of the 12 blocks. I may go back and make two more for that month sometime. This is what I have so far of the greens.

Notice the boo boo. This one.... I need to take him apart and redo him.


All my reds and greens together.





Since I had all those greens out - I made a point to cut at least 3 more 2 inch squares for the squares box for next year and for making more of the Jacobs ladder blocks... still undecided. I currently have 30 blocks for a 5x6 setting and the blocks are 9 inch finished. I'm thinking that is a little small for a 'lap' quilt to be donated to a fundraiser. I might add 5 more blocks for a 5x7 setting. That would give me 45x 63 and maybe a 5 inch plain green border around the outside? 55x73 should be a good snuggle size and I should be able to get it quilted and sent to VT for June. So... I need 5 more blocks. I'll try and get things cut out so I can work on those next week. Worst case..... she doesn't know I am planning on donating this to her so we'll see how the next month or two goes. Mom and Dad are coming down... so I might try and steal a little time and have them watch the kids play outside while I pin a few quilts for quilting.

I also have 25 (or 30?) 9 patch blocks that are all scrappy from last summer when I was making some blocks from VQF. I went searching and found this pic of 16 of them.

I have some green and a medium tan print that I am planning to make some hourglass blocks for the alternate blocks. I need to draw this one out and figure out how many I'll need but since it is green this month, I am going to try and get those hour glass blocks created this month.
Go on over and see what others are doing this scrappy Green month at SoScrappy's blog.

Tiny Thursday...

A little late for the Tiny Tuesday again this week but I did get #27 Orange Peel done. I attempted to do what Jill did but goofed on my math so my block is 6 inch unfinished. I may redo it at some point, but I'll remember not to make the original squares 4 inches to start... maybe 3.5 or 3 next time. I just hand drafted (guessed) the orange peel piece and the little corner. Mental note to self...... plan and get the applique ones all set to go in a Ziploc bag so I can work on them while the kids are playing outside.

Scrappy Green Saturday

I was able to do a little bit of sewing this morning and got these 2 green pinwheel blocks put together.


This is the bunch of blocks I have so far... the 2 reds from last month and the 3 that I had left over from the guild blocks I won a couple of years ago. I am thinking this may become 2 different quilts ... but I'll decide later this year on that one.

I did finish the last 4 Jacobs ladder blocks and now it looks like this with the blocks laid out on the floor. Looking at it.... I am thinking I want at least 2 more rows... maybe 3.... so back to the sewing room to cut more of these I think. I need to measure things out and rethink this one. I may just call it done at this point and add a border...... Hmmm. Something to think about today.


Next week..... I'm planning to work on the birds in the air blocks. I hope things will settle down a bit into a routine now that we officially opened our store on Monday.... my son's 4th birthday! Now that is a date we will not forget.

Go on over to SoScrappy's blog and see what everyone else is working on this green Saturday.
Happy Sewing.

Tiny Thursday

#26- Old Snowflake

This one went together pretty easily. I took advantage of both of them taking naps this afternoon... and boy did the older one really need it today. Hopefully he wakes up in a much better mood.

Scrappy Saturday in Green!

SoScrappy chose GREEN for the month of February. I just happen to have a Jacobs Ladder that is progressing in green and creams. I really hope to get this top finished this month and with the green challenge I think I can do it. I was able to do up 4 of these blocks after dinner while G took the kids outside and pushed them on the swings. I now have 3 left to do and then I can figure out the layout and sew the blocks into a top.

From this quilt... I also had a bunch of 2 inch squares left over. This is what gave me the idea to cut some 2 inch squares each month in a different color for a quilt to work on next year in the Irish chain pattern. I think I may add a few to this pile but I have a good amount in here right now. I also included the reds since I forgot to get a picture of them last month.

In the next couple of weeks I plan to work on some of the birds in the air blocks and the pinwheel block. Go on over and check out what everyone else is working on this month.

Waste not...

No quilting today but wanted to share an idea and recipe. My kids love banana's... and there is always some in the house. Unfortunately, they do go through stages and sometime they turn brown before they kids eat them. My solution.... I peel them and then pop them in a ziplock bag and place in the freezer door.... with a note of what is in there. Right now.... I have a bag with 2 banana's in there. Earlier this week I had some that were starting to attract flies so I planned to make some banana bread. Of course.... the kids decided to eat 2 of my 3 bananas. I still wanted to make them ( and so did they... did I mention they measure all my dry ingredients for me - leveling off and everything!) To the freezer I go and grabbed the 2 frozen ones. Popped them in the microwave to defrost slightly and I was good to go. This is a recipe I grew up with so I'll call it Mom's Banana Bread.

3 large banana's (mashed)
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg
4 Tablespoons melted shortening (I use canola or vegetable oil)
1 teaspoon soda
1 1/2 cups flour

Mix all ingredients. Bake in a greased 8 inch bread pan for 1 hour at 350 degrees.
Sorry no picture... it seems to have disappeared. We also add handfuls of chocolate chips and sometimes some walnuts. Chocolate chips make everything better!

Starbursts and Sugar Cookies

I think that is what I am going to call the Star Struck Graduation quilt. It reminds me of starburst candies....the bright colors and all. Since my G girl did not say which setting she preferred..... I'm going with this one cause I like it better!

This is what it looked like when the kids and I laid it out yesterday. I have to thank them... they let me finish sewing the double line on the last 20 of the yellow's and then cut and press a bunch of these blocks yesterday morning. Now.. I just need to find the time to sew them together into stars. I think I do need to make another row of them to make it just a wee bit longer and more of a twin size quilt. Probably adding a few more yellows and another each of the red and pink. I have a plan for the extra half square triangles and hopefully I can play with them a bit next week and see how my idea looks.


We also did some baking this week and made these awesome sugar cookies. I've tried a bunch of recipes and they were ... ok... but the shapes were never defined well and they just got big...know what I mean? I got this recipe from my old quilt guild newsletter back in April 2010. There is a link in my side bar - the Franklin County Quilters Guild. I finally tried them out before Christmas and we've made them a few times since then. We decided to make hearts this time since Valentines day is coming up. One change I made was to swap out the vanilla for almond extract. Yum! Give them a try. You'll thank me (and Sharon for putting them in the newsletter!) Here is a link to the cookies on my recipe page.