Thank You Moda Ladies!

Camille and Rachel have been doing all kinds of lovely Moda magic for me - and perfect timing for my tea table decoration creations!

Some Twilight love won me an awesome pattern from Rachel! I chose her o christmas tree table runner - go check them out.

And look at this amazing pin cushion I made from Camille's Moda Bake Shop tutorial. I seriously just sat and smiled at it when it was done - it's so dang cute!

Look, her staging even went perfectly with the honey bun cake stand thing I had going.

I used parts of my Figgy Pudding pile and reversed the red and cream, since I have more red yardage. The jelly roll strip worked perfectly for her pattern - see how nicely the piece fits!

The boys were all excited, and thought I bought them a pet lizard. Nope, just filling a few pin cushions with walnut shells.

Becket helped me find some lovely, red buttons for the berries. Here's one more lovely shot. I'm done with all my crazy stars, so I'm off to start the nine mini quilts!

More

...and five through eight

I'm really loving this fabric! (good thing, since I have nine mini quilts to make once this big one is done)

Next Step

Figgy Pudding stars 1 thru 4 of 16

Figgy Double Hourglass

I unrolled one of the Figgy Pudding honey buns last night to start the center of my quilt tablecloth.

I used only a small portion of the strips, and cluck.cluck.Sew's awesome tutorial to make some double hourglass blocks. Using the 1.5" honey bun strips and her strip pieced method, I ended up with a 4.25" unfinished block after squaring them up. Each block took only 13" of a honey bun strip, and they went fast!

This finished square is about 17", I just have to decide which fabric to frame it with for the table's center.

And now go look here! She is already on day 41 and I didn't see this yet?! I may do a few of her peppermint candies to go with the Figgy Pudding.

Welcome Fall

Sweets progress

I'm making progress on my advent tea table. Thanks for all the great ideas! The quilted tablecloth is designed and I've started to mock up folded minis with the jelly roll display. The list of things to make is getting long, it's going to be so much fun!

Snippets quilt top

This week I finished my Snippets quilt top. It was going to be dutch pinwheels, but I liked how all the diamonds lined up better when I laid it out.

I used two Turnovers, plus a few more pieces that I cut from different fabric lines when I needed some more color.

I couldn't resist the stained glass window shot! And go look at more finishes this week at sew & tell.




I also broke up with my preschool this week. After three visits, I keep tallying the things that were better about the school that my older two had attended. I called the director on Wednesday and there was an opening available. His first day was Thursday afternoon! He went right to the paint easel and made a monster - they didn't have big paints available at the other school. He said he loves it.

The major difference is that he's in the afternoon class. I'm already planning on going to an early showing of New Moon at the end of November! Yes, we love his new school.

Creative Help Please!

If you're wondering where the US supply of Figgy Pudding went, I have it. At least it seems that way! During The Quilt Shoppe's birthday sale I picked up a bunch of this pretty line for a special church event in mid November.

Three Honey Buns and Four Jelly Rolls

Four fat quarter packs

They were out of the brown fat quarter pack, so some yard cuts of my favorite browns, plus some extra of those wonderful reds and aqua trees.

Now, I would love some help from all you creative, crafty women out there! I have volunteered to decorate a table for our women's tea and want to do a quilty theme. Two years ago I did one, and made lighted, glass packages. Hard to see, but each cube has mini Christmas lights inside.

You can hang things on the chair backs, too. (My mom helped me get the table all set and made some of those bows, too)

It doesn't have to be Christmas-y. Here is a friend's spa table.

And another's super cute picnic theme. There were plastic ants all around!

So, I'm thinking about making a quilted tablecloth of some kind - but I plan on keeping it all light, fresh, and modern looking. I love Moda's jelly rolls, and thought about using a few of them in the center on a cake plate a-la-Camille. I also really like how a fun quilted pillow can show off a wonky log cabin or star. The middle of the table should have just a little height and some light. I have been thinking it over but can't figure out how to work pillows into that. Or maybe not at all?!

I would love any ideas from the creative group on making a quilty table scape! I need to get going if I'm going to make a bunch of stuff. Thanks!

A Prize!

Look at what I won! Angela from Raggedy Owl was lucky enough to spend a weekend sewing in Vermont with Heather Ross and Denyse Schmidt. Heather had signed her book and then gave an autograph with a super cute snail sketch for Angela to give away. (How cool is Heather!)

And then Angela generously added charm squares of her favorite Heather Ross fabrics. I wish I had been able to sew in Vermont, but I will love this fun snail and fabrics. Thank you Angela!!

First Day

Today was the first day of preschool for Becket. He decorated the tote bag they all are given to carry, and is clutching a picture of us that I printed out for him. His teacher said there were a few tears, but the photo had helped. Becket said he had fun, but he's good with just staying home all the time. I foresee a difficult time getting him out of the van on Thursday morning!

My triangles are coming together nicely, and have resolved themselves into a nice pattern.

Picnic Whirlygiggle!

Labor Day weekend is just days away, but I finished the picnic quilt! It is a little over 70x70 and nicely crinkled with stipples. If you're wondering about my template dimensions, you'll find them back in this post.

Pretty package all tied up

The fabric on the back is all found home decor - Pottery Barn Kids and Eddie Bauer window treatments that cost me $5 in total. I thought the heavy weight would be helpful on damp ground.

The Pottery Barn treatments included these long ties. I simply attached two under my binding to make the blanket easier to carry and stash in the van.

Speaking of binding, this is a fun bandanna-type print that looked very picnic-y to me. A departure from my standard stripe! I love a crisp binding edge.

I had to point out these ants. Perfect for the picnic.

Yes, we really will use it on the ground. And even eat on it! As my friend would suggest, get a good mess on it right away, then you won't even worry about it any more. I'm sure the boys will be able to think of something.

Quilting by Twilight

...the series that is. Crazy new obsession! I put off even picking up the first book until last week. If that many tweens and teens are that crazy about it, I couldn't imagine liking it at all. I usually read old-style science fiction (Herbert, Asimov, Clarke, Tolkien)

I'm super lucky that our library is really good. They have had downloadable audio books for a while, but just added the ability to transfer them to your ipod, so I had to try it out. I almost gave up on Twilight during the first few chapters, but was plugging away on HSTs and was too lazy to switch to something else.

I got sucked in. Now I totally want my own hot vampire and Alice to be my best friend.

A most enjoyable way to spend some chain piecing hours!

And just a note about the Munki Munki jammies I had in my last post. I've had several questions and thought I would post a link for everybody here. I feel a bit like a drug pusher, luring unsuspecting innocents into a new addiction! Here's a new flicker group dedicated to the craziness!

Lucky Day!

I started with some good karma by volunteering to make a return for my husband. The store is in one of those nearby burbs that seems close but takes a frustrating 30 minutes to actually reach. I brought the garmin and thought I would just give one more try in the crazy search for PJs to cut.

Right in front of the first store, Becket found a dime. And inside I found those fun yoga girls! I did a tiny happy dance. This is the first time I actually found some of the coveted Munki Munki, in extra large no less.

Second stop (there are a crazy six of these stores within 10 miles, and 25 within about 20 miles, so it was easy to stop at a few) and I really did squeal a bit when I saw more yoga girls and two others - Martians and Ice cream trucks. Those cute ice cream trucks will look great in my pink and orange star quilt.

Speaking of the stars, I got two more of them done.

Gram is coming to visit on Sunday, so I'm off to clean up a bit. I can't wait to show her all the current works in progress!

Pretty Stars

I had time to make some more pretty stars. The center of this one is Paint Red Rhinos, with some other fun fabrics I have received in swaps.

I love the owls surrounded by all those moon dots!

Cooler than housework

While I have been scraping and recaulking the tub my brother has been in Aberdeen, Scotland eating haggis and flying in one of these....

Out to a North Sea oil rig in survival gear. He designs and builds flight simulators. I think he goes on these test flights to help gather data so that the simulator will react a close to reality as possible.

I don't know which is more frightening, the haggis or the crazy test flights! On a simpler note, here is a happy little gnome home I made.

And I have been making my way around the edge of my picnic blanket. The kids are in school but summer has not officially ended, so I won't count it late, yet!

Fun Birthday Sewing

School is back in session - already! The boys are liking their teachers and seeing friends. The 3yr old is wandering around sad with no brothers to play with all day.

And no mommy paying attention yesterday either, as I actually completed a sewing project!

A few of us moms get together for breakfast out in the first days of school, and today is also the birthday for one. So I made her Amy Butler's document duvet and photo holder.

I debated all week on what to make and in what fabrics, and finally decided on the classic linen with those cute goldfish that I had yet to use.

I love that little guy! Hopefully she does, too.