Short Story Quilt is Done baby!

It’s Friday, yay!!! I like Fridays. That means I am about to have two days off :) On Wednesday night I completed my Short Story quilt. It’s so cute, I am happy to have a finish.
Now, I need some help… I am almost done with my Holly Jolly quilt, just have to bind it. This is the fabric I want to use to bind it, I have about 3/8 of a yard, and need another ½ yard to be able to bind this quilt, I have called every single quilt shop in my area and nobody has this fabric! I think this would be perfect to bind the quilt. So, does anyone out there have this in their stash, that they’d be willing to sell to me? Please?? :) I would be so grateful. It’s Moda fabric from the Holly Jolly line.
I went to quilt group at church last night. We’ve all been having fun making Carpenter Star quilts. Everyone has been doing such a good job. I hope to take pictures next month of everyone’s version of the quilt. I started a baby quilt for a friend while I was there. Have a nice weekend!!!

F&S for Jill

I heard from Jill last week that she received my F&S exchange! Yay :D I always get a little nervous about mailing hand-made items, the post offices are notorious for eating mail you know. But anyway, it made it. I stitched her a freebie design from Windy Willows, called Poppy. It was so summery and cute, that I could not resist! She says she likes it, so that is always good news :)

And I found some real poppies from my neighbors yard, couldn't resist a photo...

And here's Jessie hiding in some flowers I cut from my front yard. I love summer!!!!

Short Story Quilt top is done tonight :)

I was so happy tonight to finish the top of the Short Story quilt. It is just adorable! It is only 33 x 33" square. I think I'll just stitch in the ditch to finish it up, and then bind it. It was fun to make, and challenging for me, but I did it yay!!

I used Moda fabric, and two charm packs to do this.

Let's see, I placed an order for some stitchery charts by Cinderberry Stitches on Monday and I received my charts today! Great service from Thimblecreek :) I am starting this one for my mother in law. I hope I can get it done by Christmas. She loves little birdhouses, and this wallhanging is just too cute. Plus, there are 5 kids in their family and 5 little birds on the bottom panel there see? Perfect :) I just traced the pattern onto the fabric so I can start stitching it up.

I hope you all will have a good weekend. We don't have any plans as of yet. I've just been enjoying the good weather we are finally getting.

A start on Cindy’s NRR

What? Is it Monday already?

This weekend was a whirlwind for me… Saturday I got together with my friends and we made lots of strawberry jam. I bought a flat of strawberries, and 20 pounds of sugar… it produced 36 jars of jam! You can’t beat that :) It should last me two years, if I don’t give most of it away. I am tempted to make a bit more just for gifts… we’ll see. I am kind of sick of strawberries at the moment. In case you are wondering what I use, I use the Certo liquid brand of pectin, it’s a very easy recipe and goes quickly.
Saturday night we met our friends to go to a hot air balloon festival. We went for the evening, there was a carnival, band, and booths. The hot air balloons were raised so we could walk around by them and check them out. They are so neat! I just sat and stared at the most of the time. The kids thought it was great. Sunday was a great day. We had fun hanging out with dad :) I also started stitching on Cindy’s NRR on Sunday. I found a freebie chart by Barbara Ana called Small House. It will be so cute! After this NRR is done, I only have Von’s to stitch on and then… the NRR is completed. Wow!
I didn’t get a chance to bind my Christmas quilt. Maybe this week I can get to it. I told myself I can’t start basting any other quilts until I finish this one. Just one at a time, I have to keep telling myself this :) JoAnn’s is having a big sale this week, I have coupons for more batting… so I wanted to get enough for the quilt tops I have done. I really want to get these done this summer. I hope I can keep up my momentum.

Still to finish are: Blue/Yellow Log Cabin, Cowboy Carpenter Star, Pink/Green Carpenter Star, Star Lights, Block of the Month Quilt. I think I’ll do my log cabin next.

F&S from Jill

I received a great F&S package from Jill yesterday. She stitched a little quilt! It is so sweet. Everything in the package is “quilt” related, and I just love what she sent. I will use all of it in many things I am sure. Jill, you are so thoughtful, you put a lot into this nice package, thank you so much. Now… what to finish it as?? :D
So, this week I’ve been stitching the F&S exchange for Jill, almost done now :) And I’ve been tying my Holly Jolly Christmas Quilt. It is so adorable. Mark asked me why I’m working on a Christmas quilt in June… well, so we’ll have it for Christmas time of course! Men don’t understand. I just finished tying it last night, so I hope to bind it over the weekend and get it done. That will feel good. I haven’t finished a quilt off of my long WIP list for awhile now.

Tomorrow I am making strawberry freezer jam with my girlfriends. I am so excited. I only have 2 jars left in my freezer. It gets used fast around our house. And for those of you who think making jam is hard… you are totally wrong. Freezer jam is very simple and inexpensive, and it tastes 100% better than the store stuff. I was shocked at how much sugar is required to make jam, but I suppose that is why it’s so good! :) If you want to try it out, you should, it’s not hard I promise you.

Lizzie Kate: September Block

Only 2 more days of school left for my kids. In some ways it took forever, but it mostly just flew by :) I am happy to say I was able to get Curren’s teacher a gift in time! I finished it on Sunday, and Curren gave it to her yesterday.

Lizzie Kate: September Block
32 Count African Daisy Linen (one of my fave colors)
Used threads I had on hand, not the ones on the chart
I also stitched a note on the back…
I need to make more of these cute things… it was fun!

I got an email today asking for the pizza dough recipe. Honestly, I had every intention of posting it, I am so sorry I keep on spacing it :P Here you go, and it is very good, I highly recommend it!

Pizza Dough Recipe

I’m almost done with my F&S exchange stitching now, just have to do the signature block, then I can get it in the mail next week :D

Things are coming along

After our hike this weekend, I didn’t manage to get too much done. But when Monday rolled around I was able to finish the top of my other Carpenter star quilt I am working on. This is all cowboy fabric, I like the background fabric I found, it looks like dirt! It’s so cute. I also got the backing pieced, I need to get some batting for this.

Here’s a closeup.

My friend Jackie came over on Tuesday night to sew, and after we figured out her mysterious machine problem (the bobbin was in backwards) we got a lot of work done! LOL! She’s making a Carpenter star quilt as well. While she did that I worked some more on my Short Story mini quilt. I got more pieced! Here’s the stack… now on to the next step for this quilt, cutting them all into triangles.
Since school lets out next week (holy cow) I decided last minute to make Curren’s teacher a little ornament. This is Lizzie Kate’s September block, I got the chalkboard stitched last night :) Don’t ask why I do this to myself. I had every intention of stitching this months ago. Yep, that’s me, Miss Procrastination.
And here’s my slow progress on Sunflower House. I love this one, the yellows are so fun.
I finally found what I want to stitch for my F&S exchange due in a few weeks. I need to get started on that one next. Lots to do! :D

Here’s a picture of Jessie and I from a week or so ago, I got a new haircut! And yes, I look tired, because I had just woke up, and didn’t want to go to work WAH! :D I am not sure what we are doing this weekend, but it’s supposed to be chilly and rain again. So, we may just hang around here. Hiking in the rain isn’t very fun, so I’ll have to figure out something else to do.

May Review / June Goals

May review:
Work on Old McMary’s *yes*Work on Snapperville *no*Work on BBD: Sunflower House *yes*Work on Star Lights Quilt *yes, finished top*Make baby blanket for friend Jennifer *yes*Work on Carpenter Star Quilts *yes, finished 1 top*Stitch an ornament *no*Finish Dani’s NRR and mail *yes*

Also finished the 4th of July F&S, worked on LHN Plums, and worked on Short Story quilt.

June Goals:
Work on Old McMary’s Work on Snapperville Work on BBD: Sunflower House Make baby blanket for friend AndreaWork on Carpenter Star Quilts Stitch an ornament
Stitch F&S blocks mail by 6/20
Find chart for next NRR

I have been saving my fabric scraps. Only the bigger pieces, hoping I’d find a pattern I liked to use them on. I’ve always liked the idea of one, because it’d have the scraps of all the quilts I’ve made, and it would bring good memories for me :) Anyway, I have 3 grocery bags full of scraps now… that’s a lot for me! And I decided I want to do something with them. After I saw Anne Ida’s beautiful Ocean Waves quilt in blues/whites I knew that was the pattern I want to do. Then, I remembered Bonnie on Quiltville’s website. She had the instructions all written out! So, I’ve jumped off into to the deep end, to try and make this quilt. It’s going to take a long time for me to make this, but I’ve started! :D I’ve started ironing and cutting anyway :)

My F&S to Dani

I heard from Dani she received my squares and liked them Yay! I am glad she did :) I stitched Bent Creek: Celebrate Freedom. I had a fun time stitching it for her.

We went on a great hike today to Drift Creek Falls, south of Lincoln City. Oh my goodness, it was just a beautiful place. There is a very big bridge crossing a ridge that overlooks a big waterfall. Wow. I am so glad we went!

See the bridge up there??

I hope you all had a nice weekend.