Word of the Day

Do you try to come up with something new to say on blog comments??

I mean, how many ways can I say, "ooohhhh super cute"...."I love it".

NOT that I mind YOU saying it!!!

Please say it more. :)

But when I was shopping for hair gel the other day, I finally met my new mantra for the day/month/year. We'll see how long it lasts before you throw tomatoes at me.

ROCKtastic!!

I'm going to see how many blog comments I can make using that in a sentance. Shouldn't be too hard. I mean y'all are totally ROCKtastic! And soon I'll be a ROCKaholic when it comes to using that word.

Who knew spray gel could bring out a whole new vocabulary??

I'm going to start hanging out in the hair aisle a whole lot more!
Let's say it together....

"That's so ROCKtastic!"

SA-weet Success~

OH, I'm so relieved!

I redid the whole thing and I'm very glad.

Grandma Jo would be proud.

Turned out better than I thought.

I used my trusty and highly coveted Warm & Natural Batting and then did a little free motion quilting.

I added binding, which I was trying to get out of doing. Shame on me. It adds a little something extra. I finished the binding off with the machine while I sewed on the Ric Rac at the same time.

I love that it's usable on either side.

I gave it to my girlfriend for her birthday today and it looks awesome on her dining table.

Whew~ that was a close one.

Materials Used:

Flag Day Farm Charm Pack

Backing, Harmony
Jumbo Olive Ric Rac

A Head Is A Wonderful Thing.......

......to keep warm. I'm pretty sure some smart doctor philosopher said that. Haven't you heard that if you keep your head warm than the rest of your body will stay warm???? or something to that affect?? Help me out here, people.

High School Baseball season has started here in Southeast Idaho. This is what I'm usually wearing on my head.

Kind of a Jedi thing. Just call me Desi-One-Kanobi. Not very trendy. So letting vanity rule the day....i started on this hat a couple of days ago

so I'd be ready to go for the first freezing cold game of the season.(i had to make my band a little longer. i wanted it to cover my ears. you know what they say about cold ears, right?)

I'm truly excited to sit in my green hat on cold steel bleachers. And now I want to make more hats. More and more hats. With buttons. In different colors and styles.

Me: Do you like my hat?

Son: It's green. Our colors are not green.

Me: It's not like I'm school spirit mom of the year, okay? It's green for the........ Celtics! (total cover up)

Son: somewhat appeased. Are you really going to wear that?

Me: YES. And I'm going to make sure everyone knows I'm YOUR mom. Now, good luck honey. Go get those tigers!!

Son: They're Trojans, Mom.

The One that Didn't Get Away -- GIVEAWAY

Update: OH, I love my numbered comments. Dang, first name I drew didn't have any contact info, so I drew again. MUDDLING THROUGH! Send Corrie your pick of magazine or pattern. I love Danita!!! Can I be her in my next life?

I got the magazine! (yesterday's post) I thought it would be just my luck if it had sold out, because then I would have to go to great lengths to get one. That's what usually happens -- I snooze & I lose.


Des, do you recognize the grass & trees? It's the fat quarter you just took home. See, this all relates to fabric somehow.

Here is a neat article & artwork about the Great Depression -- clever.

Today's Taffy Talk giveaway is the Somerset Studio Magazine -- The Art of Paper and Mixed-Media or in case, mixed media isn't your thing -- you can choose a pattern or magazine from Quilt Taffy or Taffy Jane (Des will love that, I didn't ask her).

To enter the drawing...leave a comment about something you wish you would have done or bought, but didn't!

Random drawing later tonight.

coincidence or destiny

Shopping at the fabric store Saturday with the girls, needed pins, pioneer patterns & pellon. We're standing a long time in the checkout line, so I start perusing the magazines. There's this really cool one -- Somerset Studio. I'm flipping through reading the entire thing & showing the pictures to everyone standing in line. Loving the projects of the cover artist as well as all the others. There were these darling collages, prints, doll dresses, little girl head boxes...and more.

Me: "Don't you love this?" The girls: "Yes."

Me: "I really think you guys should buy this for inspiration. Put it on your board. Look how neat these are."

Them: big pause...."No, not right now." I rolled my eyes. I really wanted to buy it for me. I have a thing for paper, fabric & little dolls. I just don't have any time. And I have plenty of magazines.

It's spring break this week. Yesterday, I had two hours to kill while the kids were at the movies. Again, I was right there by the fabric store.

Me: "I'm right by the store, do you want me to go buy that magazine?" Bella: "I really like it, I don't know." Ugh....I think I just wanted adolescent permission to buy it.

Well, last night danitashop bought a charm pack from my etsy store. Bella likes to scope everyone out. "MOTHER! Does this look familiar?"

danitashop is the cover artist for the magazine. Now I have her address, would you like it? Just joking, Danita.

Pictures from her blog (hope she doesn't mind, I need to email her):

Well, I am buying that magazine tomorrow -- if it's still there, it will be our giveaway for Thursday or you can have your pick of any other pattern or magazine.

See, now I have permission & justification.

Bummed Bummer GiveawayWinner!

How to Number your comments: Thanks Melanie for the tip and thank you Mom Nerd for the 'how-to'!!

I've drawn! Just trying to upload video. Okay it takes a while to upload the videos. So while there are more comments now....sorry, there were only 49 when I randomly drew. Thanks everyone!

Fish Food

I realize that you are not overly enthusiastic about my cooking skills.

It's okay, I can handle it.

But in an effort to toot my own horn, and believe me, my horn needs tooting when it comes to cooking.......I have to talk about my skills in the kitchen. I'm learning late in life the joys of feeding your family. I also am addicted to my freezer club like Edward's addicted to Bella. 'Nuf said.

A few years ago Mike and I celebrated our anniversary with a little trip to Olive Garden. I ordered the Parmesan Crusted Tilapia with Italian Vegetables. It was heavenly. Went home googled it and found the RECIPE!!! It did not disappoint. I've served it for a few dinner parties as well as fixed it numerous times for the freezer club.

I only had zuchinni and red onion this night, but it's so pretty with the squash and red pepper too. I also, substituted an awesome garlic basil pasta from Trader Joes. Yum!

A couple of freezer tips:

(just pretend like your eyes aren't glazed over with boredom. I know you come here for quilting, but we HAVE to eat, CJ)

~Since I'm going to be freezing the fish anyway for the club, I just buy the tilapia already frozen at Sam's Club instead of buying it fresh.
~While the fish is still frozen, add the alfredo sauce and topping. Flash freeze so they can be put in a bag together without sticking to each other.
~Thaw on a cookie sheet and then they're ready to cook for the regular time.
~You can buy a pretty good zuchinni and squash mix in the frozen vegetable section at the grocery store to put with. The fresh stuff is 10 times better, but when it isn't an option this isn't too bad.

I'm only here to feed one family at a time.

Thanks for humoring me.

Showered with Love

Mystery project unveiled.

Shower attended.

Gift gladly accepted.

There is nothing like deciding in the midnight hour that you want to make a quilt for a baby shower gift. Then you decide, hey why don't I take pictures of how I made it and quilted it. ugh. I'm so far invested now, there's no turning back.

There are plenty of ways out there to make a coin quilt. Take your pic of tutorials on the web. This isn't a tutorial on how to make the top as much as it is a simple way to machine quilt if you've never tried that before.

We're going to sew it and quilt it at the same time.

Here's the basic look.

Materials for 39" x 43"
Scraps for 'coins

1 yard of border fabric

Piece of batting: 43" x 46"
1 1/2 yard backing

1/2 yard binding

I wanted to use up a bunch of scraps in a fairly random way.

I cut them all into 5" x .....whatever. Usually they were 5" x 3", or 5" x 4" etc. Once I had all my little 'coins' cut into 5" widths, I started to sew them together into approximately 12+" sections. I did this so that didn't have to pre-plan the placement yet. Once I have 12 sections, I lay them out in 4 strips with 3 sections in each and flip them upside down and around until I'm happy with the placement of color. Sew the sections together to equal 4 long strips that should measure more than 36 1/2" .

Press the seams all in one direction.

Trim each strip to equal 36 1/2". I like to fold my strip in half, lengthwise, and press the fold. **

Now I will trim it at 18 1/4 ". (that's half of 36 1/2")

Trim all 4 strips, they should all measure 36 1/2 " when unfolded.


The following works mathematically, but you will always want to check your measurements first and adjust if needed.


With Border fabric cut:

3 ~ 5" strips ( 5" x 42" of width of fabric) INSIDE BORDER
Sub cut these 3 strips to measure 36 1/2 " (5" x 36 1/2 ")
**following the method shown above
4 ~ 4" strips (4" x 42" of width of fabric) OUTSIDE BORDER
Sub cut 2 of these strips to measure 36 1/2 " (4" x 36 1/2")
**following the method shown above

Sub cut the other 2 to measure 39" (4" x 39")
Now we're going to prepare the 'quilting part' next.


And I just want to document that I pieced my batt together, which I HATE to do, thank you very much. But someone has to be thrify around here.


Lay out your backing (wrong side UP).
Center your batting on top.
Selvedge edge is on the left.
We're working across from selvedge to selvedge.

Take a FOUR inch x 36 1/2 " strip and center it vertically (right side facing up) on the left hand edge.

You want to have approx 4-5" inches on each end. This is where your top and bottom borders will go eventually.

Lay one of your scrappy strips on top, right sides together.

Pin through all three layers, on the right side.

If you cut your border lengths as shown above at the **,

then you will have a crease mark in both your scrappy strip and border strip.

Line up those crease marks and pin. I pin a lot because it's apt to shift as you sew through all 3 layers.

Okay, the picture below doesn't show a lot of pins yet.

I learned the hard way.

Before you sew, make sure your bobbin thread will match your backing. Everything you sew will show. I backstitched at the very beginning and end of each strip. Sew a 1/4 ".

(on the back )

Once you've sewn that together, press open. Press out flat and crisp. This is the pattern you will follow with the rest of the quilt.

For the next 3 border strips, be sure to use the 5" width.

Place the 5" border strip on the scrappy strip, right sides together.

Pin and sew.

Tip: I like to fold up all of the excess fabric so it goes through the machine easier.

and on it goes, working across....

Now, you could add your top and bottom border and call it done or.......I decided to add some wonky, slanted, ziggity, zagging down the scrappy strips. Again, when you start to stitch, do a little backstitch first, and remember every stitch will show on the back.

Measure across the top and bottom. It should measure 39".

Sew a 4" x 39" strip to the top and one to the bottom in the same fashion as you did the side borders.

Now, you can be done with the quilting at this stage if you like. I almost considered it. I was going to put some cute little cotton ties, strategically placed and call it good. It would have been darling. But alas, I was lazy and wasn't sure where my needle was so I went with loopy-looing the border fabric. It was free motion quilting on my sewing machine. It was nice to do this way because I NEVER baste anything when I free motion and I usually have bloopers all over the back that I have to take out. So, this way, it was all nice and smooth on the back and I just had to mosey around the scrappy stripps.

This is my favorite girl.

I think she knows something I know.

Why else would she be winking at me.

And I LOVE pigtails.

p.s. the backing fabric is Alexander Henry 2005 "Let's Play House"

i don't believe it's in print anymore. :( but I could be wrong. :)

Bind: Cut 5 ~ 2 1/2 " strips from binding fabric.

I was a little nervous that it was a little too busy and maybe 'mom' wouldn't appreciate the 'crazy wonkiness' of it all. You know, maybe she was more into sweet and delicate baby than happy and peppy baby.

I also threw some of her wedding fabrics in there.

I think 'mom' liked it.

Label!

I made this cute little birdy rattle.

I love her.

Little bluebird girl.

And check out that tail feather!

Lots of pictures of her.

I really love her.

I'm sad she's gone.

Maybe I need one or 10.