Show and Tell

After I last posted some of my CWLL blocks, it really put me in the mood to make some more - so that is what I spent the day with...

I didn't do a very good job cropping and editing some of these (shocking, I know!) - they are more square and even than they look here - I swear!  If you know me, you will chuckle at some of these blocks.  The little starburst in the first one is the same little starburst that I use when I make the American flag pins.  I only had a fat quarter of it, but after I started using it for my jewelry I searched the internet for it.  No one had it - panic set in.  I finally found 2 yards of it on e-bay - that should make plenty of little flags, don't you think?

On the pink and brown block - that brown is one of my all-time favorite fabrics.  I found some of it online for $3/yard - and bought 6 yards of it - so I should be set on that! 

And the yellow in the last block should bring back memories for a few friends.  I accidentally ordered 3 yards of it (YIKES).  I about passed out when I opened that package - I thought I was ordering a nice brown, and instead got this.  At the time, I thought it was terribly ugly, but it has grown on me and I actually like it now.  But, several of my friends received a fat quarter of it!  That gave me a more manageable quantity to deal with!

Have a great day!!

Easter Fun

We were lucky to have beautiful weather on Easter Day and my family all came to our house for lunch.  I think we all have our own idea of what is fun to do on Easter.   Mom likes to go to church in the morning and always has lots of pretty decorations and always a nice, festive centerpiece.  She brought one with her, because she knows that my table will be bare - I did not get the Martha Stewart gene from Mom:

I love this - the basket was my Mom's Easter basket when she was a child, then it was mine while I was growing up.  The eggs were dyed in 1995(!) with my Grandma, Mom, sister-in-law Linda and myself. 

Dad's idea of fun for Easter (and any other day) is to have a good home-cooked meal, and sit in the chair and take a snooze!  We all got a chuckle out of his snoring.  The apple doesn't fall far from the tree...my brother was also napping, but he found a quiet place in the basement and I didn't get any pictures of him.

Then my niece, Johnna, decided she needed to take a snooze with Gramps too...

(Not really - he called her over there to tell her a secret)  Johnna had fun playing with the Wii and hiding Easter eggs with Jessica for Kaden to find later.

And Kaden's idea of fun...

Look at all this loot!  Do you like his napkin tucked into his shirt?

He had 63 eggs to find!  The girls did a great job hiding them inside and outside.  Boomer got a hold of a couple of them - I think he is begging forgiveness...

The rest of us think that fun is "not having our picture taken"!

Mom and I made a trip back to Muscatine yesterday for more yarn (for her...my knitting skills have not yet required the purchase of more yarn).  That means, back to sewing today!

Have a great day!

Yes, there are still more Civil War Love Letter blocks

The last couple of days have been devoted to jewelry making - I have 12 pairs of earrings finished.  DH is not thrilled - he hates the earrings - too tiny!  I also have about a dozen new scissor fobs.  I am trying to get lots of inventory stocked up before the show in Galena.

I haven't posted any CWLL for about a week, so I thought today would be a good day to share those with you...

That's all for today!

Hope you all have a Happy Easter!

Another Fun Day

On Tuesday I had lunch with a good friend, then took a short road trip (gas prices are too high to go far!) to one of my local quilt shops, CR Quilts.  I had a couple of gift certificates from Christmas that were burning a hole in my pocket, and I wanted to be sure she had plenty of my jewelry on her display!  I actually remembered to take my camera and snap a few pictures to share with you...

Cute little Tumbler block baby quilt and 30's prints

Bigger Tumbler quilt with Civil War repros

She has a lot of yummy flannels

a few more flannels - love these purples and greens

A nice little gifty corner

batiks

As you can see...there is something for everyone.  I didn't even take a picture of my favorites - the Civil War repros.  Here are a few of my purchases for the day:

 Do you recognize the Tumbler kit from the pictures above?  I thought it would make such a cute baby quilt and love that she has kitted this with the pieces already cut.  How easy is that!  I also decided that I needed this Lil' Twister ruler.  Aunt Nancy and I had so much fun with the tiny ones, I thought it might be fun to have one that is a little larger too.

 Here are my fabric purchases for the day - nothing too much - the shirtings and the green are all for jewelry. The blue/gray I just liked!  It now lives with my Patriotic fabrics.

After the quilt shop I stopped at Adela's which is a nice gift shop.  I had never been there before - so many treasures!  I bought a few really unique gifts - but can't show you those just yet!  I also learned that there is a yarn shop in town. You would think I would know this, but I don't get out much... It took me a bit to find it, because it is called At Home Store and the front of the shop is all kitchen items.  I walked by it twice, then decided to go in and check out the kitchen stuff. Lo and behold - the yarn shop is in the back of the store!  They have a lot of really nice yarn and I love their baskets.  Since my knitting skills are still in "not yet beginner" stage - there was no need for me to buy yarn (but I sure spent some time fondling it) - I couldn't resist bringing this home with me...

I just love these baskets.  I have two big ones, but this little one was just calling my name, begging me to give it a new home!  Ignore the fabric coming out of the drawers below the basket - all of my "scraps" for my jewelry are in these drawers - it's amazing the drawers are closed (almost closed!) - usually they are all hanging open!

That is all the purchases for the day.  Even though the weather was cold and rainy it was a fun little road trip/shopping expedition!

Have a great day!

Think Spring...and Mother's Day!

Mother's Day is May 8th  - are you ready?  Have you bought a gift for Mom yet? I just posted a bunch of "Springy" jewelry on my website that would make great gifts for Mom this year.  And, I'm sure she would love a scissor fob to go along with her quilty jewelry!  Yep...posted some of those too!  Here is a peek of some of the new pieces:

You will have to ignore the glare - the pictures on the website are better.  You better jump on over there now - you want to make sure you take care of Mom.  You might want to order an extra one for yourself while you're at it!

Ok...I'm done promoting myself now (lol)!  I went on a little shopping trip yesterday - will share a few pictures of one of my local shops later.

Have a great day!

Snacks

We made this snack mix yesterday, and it is the best!  Thought I would share the recipe with you - but, beware...it is very addicting, and it makes a ton, so it's hard to stop snacking!

Whisk together:
4 envelops of Ranch Seasoning Mix
1 bottle Orville Redenbacher butter flavored oil

In a trash bag (yes...I said trash bag!) mix together:
1 box Cheddar Cheez-Its
2 bags Munchies
1 family sized bag of Bugles
2 bags Goldfish
1 bag pretzels
1 box Ritz minis with cheese
1 box Crispix cereal
1 bag of Gardetto bagel chips

Pour the oil mixture over the snack mix and rotate bag frequently to coat.   It takes about a day to absorb the oil.

Basically, you can just dump in whatever snacks you like.  This time we used less pretzels, 2 bags of Bugles and 2 boxes of the Ritz minis and we added a big jar of mixed nuts. 

Enjoy!

Sort of a Finish

A week or two ago I put all of my Civil War Tribute block-of-the-month blocks up on my design wall.  Since it was a 2010 BOM I wanted to get it all put together and finished.  (Not sure what the rush is, since I have BOMs from a few years ago that are still in pieces!).  Of course, I got all the blocks put up there and then got side tracked with some other things that had to be done first.  Now I am working on a new quilt pattern and I need my design wall!  There was no way that I was putting those blocks back in the closet.  Yesterday afternoon I was determined to get it done.  Yay me!  The center is all sewn together - I know you are all thinking, big deal...a few blocks sewn together...but I really thought I would never get it done.  Then when you have the help of a couple of fluff balls, it gets really challenging.  The quilt has 3 borders, one of them is all HST.  Unfortunately it will remain borderless for now!  All of the HST are pieced, but not made into borders yet - that will have to wait for now.  But, I'm excited that my wall now has parts of my latest pattern on it!  I will be plugging away on that this weekend.

In the meantime here are some more CWLL blocks for you to see...

Oh my!  check out those cut-off points!!  Who the heck made this block?

Have a great day!!

Winner, Winner!!

I love my mail lady - she has delivered lots of fun stuff in the last week.  Not squishy packages, but the next best thing!  A few weeks ago I signed up for a giveaway on Mary's Cottage Quilts blog and I actually won!  I never win  - but you know that this is like getting presents, right?  And I LOVE PRESENTS!!!!  The 3 winners got to choose any two of Mary's patterns.  These are the ones I chose...

 Aren't they nice?  Of course, I love basket blocks, and the sampler has lots of awesome blocks in it.  Thanks Mary!

I also received a magazine in the mail from a friend...

I have never had a chance to see Quilt Mania before - they don't seem to sell it anywhere locally.  It is really different from the usual quilt magazines. I haven't gotten all the way through it yet, but so far I really like it!  Thanks Kim!

And last, but certainly not least...

I have been patiently awaiting (NOT!) this brand new magazine.  It is wonderful - all of the designers are great - amazing projects, love the feel of it even.  It's more like a book than a magazine.  My only complaint is that it only comes out quarterly!  Wish it was monthly!!  If you have a chance to pick it up - be sure to do it.  Or, you can get a subscription here.  You won't regret it!

I posted lots of new jewelry on my website yesterday - be sure to check it out!

Have a great day!!

Primitive Muslins

I wanted to show you the latest jewelry that we've been working on.  All of the "light/background" fabrics are Primitive Muslins by Lisa Bongean of  Primitive Gatherings.  I had ordered a charm pack of them so I could see the different shades and decide which I liked the best (of course, they are all awesome!) - then if you remember, Aunt Nancy bought me yardage of some of them for my birthday.  Let me know what you think of them....

Have a great day!

Can you stand more CWLL blocks

I hope you aren't sick of these blocks yet, because I have more!

Good thing I made all of these blocks over the past couple of years, so I have something to show you!  I am still working on my new pattern - can't show you that yet.  I do have a question - what software program do you use when you design your patterns?   I'm not overly happy with mine and would love suggestions. 

Aunt Nancy has been busy selling jewelry in Minnesota, which means I better keep my fingers to the grindstone!

Have a great day!

And more CWLL blocks

I think Spring is really here.  We sure are having beautiful weather this weekend.  The cats like having the windows open - gets them one step closer to catching a bird, you know.  They get pretty excited when one comes close to the window.  I wonder if they really think they can get it?

I have been busy working on a new pattern - more of that to come later.  All you get to see today are some Civil War Love Letter blocks:

Now back to work on that pattern...

Have a great day!