Little Letters-B is for Block

 Did you see that the B directions for the Little Letters quilt were posted today? Here is the link http://temeculaquiltco.blogspot.com/2014/09/little-letters-b.html

 It took me a half an hour to make my country color one

 and my bright one. This bright B is orange even though it looks red in my picture. Two letters will be posted every week and it is free!

These are the completed quilts. I am going totally scrappy and using a scrappy background too.

Little Letters

 Have you seen the Little Letters Quilt over at Temecula Quilt Co.'s blog? Here is the link http://temeculaquiltco.blogspot.com/search/label/Little%20Letters Two letters will be posted each week and it is totally free! I could not decide which color way to go with, so I am making one of each. I also am only using fabric from my scrap bins including the background fabric, so mine will be very scrappy--just how I like!

Here are my A's. The quilts will measure 34 x 39 inches with 4 inch finished blocks. Sounds like the perfect size for a baby quilt! I can't wait for letter B.

 I finished this fall door hanger last night. I quilted it during football on Sunday and bound it last night during the Monday night games. I inherited it as a UFO from my sister.  The pattern is by Cottage Creek Quilts from Pam Puyleart as part of her "Backdoor Quilt Series." Here is the link http://www.cottagecreekquilts.com/patterns.html 

I have made several from this series. My hubby likes how they are narrow, so you can still see out the door. I am thinking of making door hangers for both my from and back doors because we use the back door much more. I am going to send this one off to my sister and make another one for myself. It is nice to have a finish so early in the week.

My Rainbow Orange Peel Quilt is up for a viewer's choice award over at Quilty Habit. There is some awesome eye candy, so be sure and go cast your vote for your favorite here http://quiltyhabit.blogspot.com/2014/09/viewers-choice-voting-orange-peel-qal.html

I was tagged for the Around the World Blog Hop and will make my post on Monday, 9/15. I am supposed to tag three more bloggers, but everyone I have asked so far has declined or they have already participated. If you would like to participate let me know and I will send you the questions and link my post to your blog. Thanks!

September Friday Night with Friends

I spent Friday Night with Friends virtually and a bottle of Redd's Apple Ale! I finished piecing this quilt for a 9 year old. It has Angry Birds fabric, not my favorite fabric or easy to figure out a design that would show the large print fabrics. I just cut a 3.5 inch squares for the centers and surrounded them with 3.5 inch strips making 9 inch finished square in square blocks. I plan on quilting it vertically along the seams and in the middle of the squares with a wavy stitch. Keep it simple is my motto when working with fabrics like this...Check out what everyone else accomplished here http://stitchingcubbyhole.blogspot.com.au/2014/09/today-is.html

Today I joined my mom and Lindsey for some real stitching with friends. I worked on my sewing machine cover and mat. I am going to try to machine quilt it diagonally tonight. This is a Lori Holt design from her row along book. It think it will be perfect to use for traveling with my Singer Featherweight. I pieced the hourglass blocks at the beginning of summer and just now got around to putting them all together, but I have a retreat coming in October and I want to have this ready. 

I also pinned this door hanger to hand quilt during football tomorrow for Slow Sunday Stitching. Be sure to check out what everyone else is working on here http://kathysquilts.blogspot.com My sister had started this one and I am finishing it, but I will probably make another one so we can each have one!

The Good and the Bad

The Good is tonight is the first NFL game of the season and my family is thrilled beyond belief!

Don't let the sleeping dogs fool you, we are happy dancing at my house over the start of football again!

But the Bad, we are very sad over the passing of Joan Rivers. We all adored her and watched "Fashion Police" often to hear her hilarious jokes. There are not many celebrities out there that can appeal to a 16 year old fashionista, a 42 year old quilter, and a 53 year old outdoorsman, but Joan did. We will miss your snarky and politically incorrect humor. RIP Joan! 

When I came home from work, I checked our peaches. Our tree is loaded and the peaches are the biggest we have ever had. They are not quite ready, but the wind had knocked several to the ground.

I used the fallen peaches to make a peach cobbler for dessert during the game tonight. I added extra sugar and softened up the peaches in the microwave, so I hope it tastes good.

I also made homemade pizza. This one has tomatoes and basil from our garden plus pepperoncinis and red onions for my vegetarian daughter.

 This one has bacon alfredo sauce, baked potato slices, and turkey-pepperjack sausage for my meat and potatoes hubby.

 My beverage is ready

and so is our new "Loser" hat. My family of three make our weekly picks of all the NFL games and the loser of the betting will get to wear this new ball cap my mom an dad had made for us. I don't plan on wearing it often, but it fits my hubby just right!

My sewing basket is loaded up with handwork for during tonight's game and Sunday's all day marathon of games.

 Here is my spot

and here is our giant 60 inch TV with the game. Go Seahawks! My hubby picked the Packers...

Ready for Fall

 I finished my Quilty Stitches cross stitch sampler. Thank you to Little Miss Shabby for the free pattern. Here is the link http://www.littlemissshabby.com/quilty-stitches/ I am so pleased with how this came out! I am going to frame it and put it in my sewing room. I am going to get some framing advice from one of my coworkers. Now I can move on to some other hand work projects like wool felt appliqué and quilting with perle cotton.

I know it is nearly fall because look what I found at the grocery store last night! I buy both issues every year and savor reading them.

Since our weather has been very mild here at the end of summer it is making me want to transition into fall now. Quilting, cooking, and working also help me get into the fall mode. This is one of my favorite fall/winter recipes and I always have everything on hand for it. This was a Pampered Chef recipe from years ago that I altered and made it my own. I made it this weekend and my whole family enjoyed it!

Baked Potato Chowder

Ingredients:

• 6-8 baking potatoes
• 2 tablespoons of butter
• 2 cups of milk
• 4 ounces cream cheese chunked
• salt
• pepper
• grated cheese of your choice for topping
• cooked bacon bits or diced sausage for topping
• chopped green onion for topping

Wash and bake your potatoes as you usually would. I usually do 1 hour in a 400 degree oven. Remove and allow to cool enough to handle. Scrape the potatoes out of their skin (it is ok to leave a little skin on and sometimes I save the skins for later in the week and make baked potato skins) and into a soup pot on low heat. Add butter and mash slightly. Stir in milk, cream cheese, salt, and pepper. Heat for about 10 minutes on low heat until warmed through and cream cheese has melted. Serve with desired toppings--bacon bits, cooked & diced sausage, and chopped green onion. It is also great left over!

Have a great week!

August Over!

 August is at its end and our weather has been cooler than usual with more clouds, good sewing and reading weather. Last year, I made a perpetual calendar using:

and I finally came up with an easy way to hang it up in one of my classrooms. Now, I am thinking I should make another set for my classroom at one of my other schools. I think the clothes pins will be easy to deal with changing it.

I  am nearly ready to start on my last block for Quilty Stitches. I spent a couple of hours this morning stitching on it while I waited for my teenager to wake up so I could get in my sewing room. She needs her sleep because she is battling a cold which I know I am catching. Yuck! I am starting to sneeze and sniffle. Got to love sharing germs...Speaking of sharing, check out what everyone is up to for Slow Sunday Stitching here http://kathysquilts.blogspot.com

I am also making very simple quilt blocks using Angry Birds fabric for a nine year old boy's quilt. I should be able to get that top done despite my congestion plus with tomorrow off. Stay tuned!

Back to School/Sewing

I have a finish! This is exceptional since I worked all week and feel like a zombie. I added the final borders yesterday, made the label, pinned it, machine quilted it, and bound it. I pieced this quilt in late July and early August because I wanted to make orange peels like I was seeing all over blog land. I thought it would make a good baby quilt, but really did not have a specific recipient in mind...

I attended a charity board meeting on Monday night and saw one of my fellow board members. She is expecting a baby girl in October. I asked her about the nursery and she said she had lots of natural wood, a throw rug in bright colors, and she had painted little orange accents throughout the room (Her house is also a 100+ year old Victorian). I immediately thought of my Rainbow Orange Peel flimsy.

Initially, I had bought this fabric, Soire'e by Lula Tueller of Moda, for the backing. It was a flat fold for $5 a yard, I will use it for something else eventually. Instead I decided to embrace her orange and  to use an orange with white pin dots I had bought in June from Connecting Threads for $2.50 a yard. I only had two and a half yards, so I added this blue print from my stash and was able to use every bit of the orange with white pin dot for the binding. Between the orange pin dot fabric and Wonder Under I bought to make the orange peels, I only spent $15 on this quilt. Everything else was from my scrap bins and stash.

I just quilted around the orange peels using my walking foot on my Pfaff. I considered echo stitching again on the inside, but I decided there was enough quilting.

 I made a quick label and machine bound it. I also added a hanging sleeve in case she decides to hang it. I washed it this morning and just took these pictures out in my pasture. It measures 44 x 52 inches, so it is a decent size. I plan on giving it to her at our next meeting on September 8th. She is pretty eclectic, so I think she will love the scrappiness of it! I entered it in this quilt-a-long over at Quilty Habit, so be sure and check out the others here
http://quiltyhabit.blogspot.com/2014/08/orange-peel-qal-final-linky-party.html

 I also managed to get some slow stitching in this week after work. My oatmeal sashing on my Quilty Stitches is coming along and setting off the cross stitched blocks. The pattern for the last block came out on Monday, but I have not started on it yet. It is Sunday, so I will keep working on this for Slow Sunday Stitching be sure to get inspired with what others are working on here http://www.kathysquilts.blogspot.ca

My fat quarter bundle of Miss Kate from Bonnie and Camille of Moda arrived in the mail yesterday! I ordered it at the beginning of June with some birthday money.

Recently I have been collecting Bonnie and Camille fabric without knowing what I will make with it. I just know I have to have it! I hope to keep making some progress on my quilting while getting back into the groove of work...