All Decked Out

I Love Staples

Saturday, June 12, 2010 2 Comments »

Or Office Max. Or any other big office supply store.

Got the large binder clips to hold my run-away fabric strips (and decorate my wall in the process). They work pretty well on sets of charm squares too.

Got the old steno pad stand thingy to hold my pattern/instructions next to the sewing machine while I sew. The instructions stand up nice and straight & don't get lost under random fabric pieces. Sorry about the glare, but I've also got sheet protectors to keep my pattern pages spiffy, clean & neat. Those sheet protectors allow me to keep the pages in a binder without having to punch holes in the them (which I always mess up & punch cock-eyed anyway)

Got the notebooks to keep those pattern pages in. This one happens to be full of basket block patterns I've downloaded from other bloggers (thank you Piecemeal!)

And the very best of all, I've got two of my favorite books spiral bound! My friend Kimberley suggested it on her blog when one of her students showed up with her book spiral bound. Makes the books so much more user friendly! They did it at my local Staples for about $3/book. Took all of 10 minutes.

And here's something that has nothing to do with an office supply store, unless you're dying of thirst from all that shopping. It's a recipe for a Nojito. Yep, you read it right, a Nojito. I love mojito's, but I can only handle so much alcohol. When I'm thirsty, I just want to chug multiple glasses of cold refreshement, so this is a great alternative. Heaven help us if I belted down 3 or 4 REAL Mojito's!!

You can find Gina's recipe (and a whole lot more) here. Enjoy!!

As Hannibal would say.....

Tuesday, June 08, 2010 1 Comment »

"I love it when a plan comes together!"

Sarah, my swap recipient likes her quilt! And she made a really nice one herself -- check out her blog here.

Really Big Flimsy

Sunday, June 06, 2010 6 Comments »

That went fast! The daughter of our best man is getting married in August, and I wanted to make a quilt. Nothing elaborate, but something that went with her brown/aqua/light blue/green color scheme. I found just the thing in my friend Kimberly Einmo's book Jelly Roll Quilts and More. The pattern is called Braided Links. The original size was 63" x 73", and uses one jelly roll, plus yardage for sashing/backing. The happy couple have a queen sized bed, so I added a few rows of blocks to each dimension, & used 2 jellies. After looking at these pictures, I wasn't fond of the proportions of the outside border, so I lopped off 3.5" on each side to make the unquilted flimsy 90" x 100". It looks a lot better.

The fabric is Cherish Nature (Deb Strain for Moda). Using the jelly roll strips made it go together very quickly. The only change I would make would be to leave out the fabric strips with the eggs -- not my fave. All I need to do now is piece the back & send her off to the long-armer.

Here's my dilema, and maybe you can help me decide what to do. I will have the quilt back in time for her shower. You all know the cost of fabric, so it's obvious I have a bit of money tied up in this gift. Do I take the quilt to the shower as a combined wedding/shower gift, or do I spend even more & buy something separate for the shower? I don't want my gift to be out-of-place large, but I don't want to spend another $40-50 on a shower gift if I can help it -- I certainly can't go empty-handed. And yes, we are already bringing the usual little "wishing well" items. Help!

What do you do when it's so stinkin' hot?

Sunday, June 06, 2010 2 Comments »

Why, you put on a stinkin' cute outfit and melt your GG's heart! Good thing there's been a bumper crop of handsome little men born this year because Miss Madeline Rose is learning really really fast how to turn on the charm!

She'll be 2 months old on Saturday -- does time fly or what?

Starz for a Star

Thursday, June 03, 2010 8 Comments »

Well, my mini quilt for the Modify Tradition Swap is finished, shipped and delivered. It went to Sarah, (a.k.a. lollybix) in Sheboygan, WI.

Sarah is a wonderful quilter, with an architectural style, so I opted to paper piece some colorful Kaffe Fassett stars on a field of pure white. I quilted the background heavily with a loop-de-loop meandering so that the stars looked as though they were hovering over a field of Wisconsin snow.