one of my favorites!

Here's picture of one of my favorite quilts.

(I DO have a lot of favorites though).

I made this last year as a wedding gift.

There have been a lot of weddings

in my sphere of friends...

actually they're

mostly kids of friends...:)

(Don't know why this picture isn't bigger.....?)

This quilt started with a pack of

30's charm squares.

I made lots of half square triangles,

and then tried to figure out how to put them together.

I put those big outside stars together and then

I had a big opening in the middle!

The pot and leaves came

and then the vine.

It all finally fit together!

I love the way it turned out.

don't you?

Thanks Heather for taking a picture!
(I forgot to take a picture before I gave it away!)

Don't do that.

I'm OFF to quilt 24/7.

I'll be missing the family

and missing blogland!

There will be a running commentary in my head as I sew this week.

"I'll tell them this.....and this....and that....."

not about quilting...

...except to show you my progress on this.

I didn't have enough of any of that border fabric....

so I had to piece it...

Today, I'll try to think of some applique ideas!

This post is really about cooking.

On a quilting blog?

YES!

In order to quilt 24/7

You have to cook!

Next week I will be quilting NON-stop

near Monterey at a quilting camp called

Asilomar!

I'm very excited about going!

What a great birthday gift....huh?

So-o-o

I need to cook lots of good food for my family

so that NEXT time

They will be HAPPY to let me

go away for a WHOLE week to quilt!

First I'll make some meatballs and noodles.

Freeze.

They can heat it up!

Next, I'll cook some chicken.

There's lots of things to do with chicken.

easy things.

freezable things.

On the hottest day of the year in southern california

I am cooking........and freezing.

Here's some chicken and chips.

Layer:

cooked chicken

black beans

cream of chicken soup, 1/2 C sour cream, little salsa - mixed

cheese

chips

do it again.

Voila!

Freeze.

heat.

Here it is right before the freezer.

I did pop this one in the oven for 20 minutes first.

Here's the chili:

Ground turkey

onion and zucchini

kidney beans

chili powder

crushed tomatoes.

heat and serve with cornbread!

Had to add some zucchini.

When you have zucchini in the garden....

it comes out of your ears and
you put it in everything.....right?

And so EASY!

BBQ chicken sandwiches!
some of that Cooked chicken

and a bottle of BBQ sauce.

heat and serve on french rolls.

Here's what I DON'T

have to do for a

WHOLE week!

Mail Time!!!!!!

I received a little package yesterday!

These SWEET Christmas blocks!

Thanks to Susan who sent them!

And Beth for organizing a GREAT SWAP!
Beth also has some great ideas on how to

use these blocks on her blog!

Can't wait for the Mail drop today!

Maybe I'll get another little something?

50 years!!!!

I started this quilt yesterday for

some friends celebrating

50 YEARS of marriage!

If you look closely, you'll see the strips

are not sewn together yet,

and there is NO center block. :)

She's a musician (see the music fabric?)
He's a scientist....and I
TRIED to find some fun science fabric!

I saw tons of novelty fabrics....
nothing like what I wanted...
oh well...



Here it is so far.
Today: add a border and maybe...
Applique?
I haven't decided.

Have a great day.
Enjoy the end of summer!

I'm a WINNER!

I can't believe I won this beautiful fabric!

Thanks Ashley!
I will be dreaming about what I can make with it!
I've been inspired by some bloggers and
etsy finds!
We'll see!


This is why that fabric is so great!
My husband's old bug,
My daughter's bug,



My daughter's bug, again!



And MY BUS!

I bought this when I was dreaming of getting one.
This one was
affordable,
dependable,
no tax, insurance, license,
repair bills, etc.

And NOW for your Viewing pleasure.....


AN UGLY QUILT!

My daughters both told me this quilt
WAS NOT cute AT ALL!

I figure I make so many quilts
that ONE is going to turn out ugly
once in while!


These "cheesy" bears came from some of that
hand-me-down fabric.

The half-square triangles were left over from
a recent project.

They fit together SO nicely,
I just couldn't stop myself!

I promised the girls I would not
give it to anyone we know. :)

Does the sweet blue on the back

help it AT ALL?

remember this apron?

This apron started it all.

I wrote about this apron a while back.

THEN, a friend admired it.

so-o-o...

I made another and gave this away.

This weekend, my daughter mentioned she needed a gift for

a college friend who loves to cook.

I said, how about an apron?

I can whip one up today?

She chose the fabric and I did the work!
Love that pocket!

Here is the apron I made for myself when I gave that
first one away.
(Thanks to another daughter who modeled them for me.)

Then, my husband asked if I had any finished baby quilts for two co-workers.

He knows that I'm sewing ALL the time.

Yes! I did have two baby quilt tops

ready to be quilted.

This fabric is what I call hand-me-down fabric.

When people know you like to sew, they like to

give you fabric!

I rarely say NO!

These little pink and white squares came to me

ALREADY CUT!

Can't beat that!

Love the backing on this one.

Trying out a closeup of my so-so quilting. :)

some more quilting!

I also had this quilt top made from the scraps from my last

baby quilts.

I used flannel for the pieced front

and

Cotton for the back.

Can you see the nursery rhyme fabric on the back?

Too cute!

Ancient (quilt) History

I made quilts LONG before I was a member of the subculture: Quilters.

I made this picnic quilt a LONG time ago.....15 years or more?

scary!

Picnics with the kids that are now grown,

and the kids that aren't grown -up yet,

camping trips,

(It kept me warm on those camping trips that

were colder than we expected!)

Cuddling in the car...

This quilt has lived in the car long time.

I pieced it using a pattern I saw somewhere.

I remember it was an amish quilt.

These colors aren't amish.

This is the fabric I had.

Then about 6(?) years ago I saw a quilting magazine!

wow!

That magazine really inspired me.

But, I still didn't make this quilt the RIGHT way.

This quilt also used scraps that I had.

I remember, I did have to buy the backing fabric.

Both quilts use a blanket for the batting.

Are you all cringing?

I quilted them very sparingly.

In other words,

VERY little.

But I love these quilts.

They're always available in our cars,

picnicking,

camping,

cushioning whatever I'm trying to put IN the car. :)

I've learned A LOT since making these quilts,

and all the others during this time period (ancient history).

Don't you just love that binding?

Just rolled that backing around

and zig zagged the top!

finishing up

I've been investigating and have some results!

The freezer paper is still on there.

I am zig zagging the leaves on with a VERY tiny stitch.

VERY close together.

I liked having that freezer paper there because the leaf stayed put!

I tried taking the paper off first.

That worked o.k., but the glue is difficult to deal with,

and the leaf doesn't stay as stable on the quilt.

After zig zagging

I cut little slits in the BACK of the quilt

BEHIND the leaf.

Here's my water bottle.


I sprayed all the leaves with water.
When I saw this demostrated she used wet towels on the applique...
but I'm lazy and this seemed simpler.




I pulled all those leaf shapes out through
that little slit in the back.






Remember my basting stitch on the vine?
I needed to remove it. :)
The vine, of course, is already appliqued on.







WOW! This is pretty bright!
I like the leaves.
Of course, I always like leaves.

This quilt is going to get folded and wait for
a wonderful occassion.
Then I'll quilt it.
When will that be?