PIQF

Pacific International Quilt Festival that is. It's held at the Santa Clara convention center and it's in a little over 2 weeks. I'll be going with my mother-in-law and a friend. Normally my sis-in-law is there as well, but she'll just be getting back from her honeymoon. I think this is my fifth year going. wow,not that many, 4 at least. maybe 5 I cant remember.Stars,do you remember? It's sooo much fun. Great inspiration and great vendors, how can you go wrong?

Since it's coming up I thought I would post some favorite quilts from last years show.

Love the colors and use of batiks on this one

Love her hat and shoes, and just the era

again, love the colors

this one was just crazy. It was hand pieced using something like 250,000 1/4" squares and the woman who made it complete it in like 2 winters or something. I was in complete awe.

this kitchen makes me smile

I love signs

I have so many more than this and I even have more from years passed but I can only find this years so far. I need to find the hard drive the rest are on. Between Stars wedding and PIQF October is going to be a good month

Wish List Wednesday

So there's a blog hop going on right now for some new fancy shcmancy rulers that sharpen your rotary cutter while you cut, way cool. You should check it out at Jaybird quilts for all the info.

What does this have to do wishlist Wednesday you ask? well everyone that's part of the blog hop is also posting a recipe. There's some really yummy looking ones including one for some evil looking pumpkin bars, they have cream cheese frosting how can you go wrong? so all these recipes have gotten me thinking about cooking and that I need to go to the grocery store and that I've been drooling over this weeks pick for quite some time.

Now I haven't been drooling over this one specifically, but if you're going to dream mite as well dream big right? In reality I just want a 4-6 cup food processor

Kitchenaid 7 cup food processor in white. Oh how pretty you are. the hummus, pesto, salsa, sauces,pie crust and other wonderful things I would make with you.

Make sure to check later over at my sis-in-laws blog for another wish list Wednesday

Iron Cupcake

I forgot my camera, so a cruddy cellphone picture it is. so much yummy goodness

I went to this great event last night called iron cupcake. A friend told me about it last month and a group of us decided to go last night.

It's held once a month through meetup.com and its like iron chef but with cupcakes. there's a theme ingredient people signup to bake and then other people sign up and get to be judges. This months theme was tea.

There were 15 bakers this time so our group of four got try them all and judge on two categories: most creative and taste and appearance. It was so much fun, and made even more fun because one of my friends decided to be a baker and got third place for taste and appearance! Her cupcake had tea infused pears and was sooo moist and delicious!

There were cupcakes with green tea,lavender,earl grey,lemon and even one with strawberry tea. I'm pretty sure I'm going to enter for next months challenge which is spices. I've got the wheels turning and am a little scared because frosting and I don't generally get along. The only sucess I've had is cream cheese and I cant do cream cheese on everything. Either way though it was a blast.

Finito!

Done done done done!!! My table topper that is. I just need to wash and dry it so it has it's fluffy quilty goodness, but for all intents and purposes its done! In honor of this I create a new label: Complete projects

The back

The front

On my table :-)

sewing the ric rac on proved a little more difficult that I had thought it would be in my head, but I'm happy with the results so it was worth it.

Tomorrow and Monday are going to be pretty busy for me so I wanted to get this done today and I'm glad I did.

Now it's off to make chocolate oatmeal bars a.k.a crack bars because they're so dang good. I'm going to try something a little different with them this time and see how they turn out. They're for a women's luncheon tomorrow afternoon. I'll post the recipe sometime next week, they're just too good not to share.

Wish List Wednesday

Easy Circle Cutter

This weeks wish list Wednesday is something to help conquer one my my fears: circles.

Basically anything that doesn't involve strait lines scares me. I did make circles for my table topper and they turned out pretty good all things considered. If you remember however I have type A tendencies and I noticed some things that weren't just so.

I think this little tool though would help immensely. I wonder if anyone has used it? Does it make circular life as easy as it claims? I read some of the directions when I was at Joann's the other day and it sounds user friendly. I wonder if it actually is?

productivity and fall

I got a lot done today. Cleaned most of my apartment and finished some little projects to continue on my fall decor. I made this little picture using a frame that I've had for quite some time that I loved but the glass was broken. I kept meaning to find another cheap frame to snag the glass out of ,but it just never happened. It said family along the bottom so not exactly what I needed for this project,but I just covered it with some leaves I got at Joann's. I got a whole pack for .99 cents. I think I'm going to use the rest for my wreath. The pumpkin and background are wool.

I was proud of this. I strung my fall garland on some Moda ribbon that a layer cake came wrapped in. I was going to use yarn but I just love the way this looks.

and here's the finished product from this late night post. I'm happy with the end result. Fall has arrived in my apartment and it is 99.9% produced with stuff I had on hand.

I had a conversation last week with Katie of Possibility Springs Forth about using what you have and not feeling like you always have to go out at buy something. It inspired me for my home. I didn't think I had anything around that I could decorate with. However once I thought outside the box, went to google for inspiration,dug around, and broke out the glue gun I came up with something to make my home a little more homey. It makes my heart happy :-)

morning coffee ramblings

another favorite mug, it says love,hope and faith.

I've been a tad sick the last couple of days. I was basically useless most of yesterday and slept. That combined with my wonderful ability to start multiple projects at once and not finish a single one in one sitting = my apartment is on the verge of exploding.

well also the fact that my husband and I you know live in our apartment and cook in the postage sized kitchen and have 0 counter space=kitchen is basically exploded.

so all of this means I've told myself I cant do anything fun (i.e. crafty) until my apartment is mostly presentable again. all of which I hope to get done before my husband gets back from school because I have laundry to hang up and don't want to be in the bedroom when he's trying to sleep.

all of this is very boring, but if you couldn't tell I'm procrastinating the actual doing part of this plan.

ok time turn on pandora and get moving

fall is arriving

So I love Thanksgiving, love! it. I've mentioned before I'm a little obsessive about planning for it. Well I was googling ideas for place cards for this years table (I heart google) and came across inspiration for a fall garland.

So I had to start on it right now. right now being 9:30 pm, it is now 10:42 and I have less than half the amount that I need. I hate cutting things by hand. I do heart felted wool though. felted wool makes the world a better place

Here's a sneak peak at my progress. I'll be so excited when this is done, hopefully sometime tomorrow afternoon when I get home from church. Now I should go to bed, 6:30 comes very quickly

Afternoon tea

I have a migraine. it hit half way through an interview,not fun. Now there's all kinds of maintenance commotion going on in my building and all i want to do is curl up under the covers and sleep, just not in the cards.

So I made myself a cup of tea, in a pretty tea cup because that always makes things better. I found this tea cup at good will a few months ago. I was looking for tea cups for the ladies in a small group I was leading and found this one for myself. I wish I had a whole set of them. it's just happy.

I was planning on tackling my fear of quilting today. that sounds funny, i'm a quilter with a fear of quilting. My issue is I've only done it 2 or 3 times and it's been a really long time since I've done it. I basted my table topper and in theory its ready to go. I need to go to Joann's to get some thread though , I don't have the right color thread.

I also had a moment of indecision on how I even wanted to quilt it. Do i go quilt based off the front or the back? I ended up taking a 6 inch square ruler I have and just randomly did the front. I just need to go at it, and practice will make perfect.right? right.

I was tagged

I was tagged by the lovely Sadie of So many veggies, So little time and so now I fulfill my end of the deal

In order to post this on my blog I have to answer ten questions and then have six of you do the same. Then you have to answer the questions...tag...etc...etc....

Here I go

1.If you blog anonymously, are you happy doing it that way; if you are not anonymous do you wish you had started out anonymously so you could be anonymous now?

well I don't blog anonymously but neither am I really known or anything. I blog I leave comments,and people come. I do wish people left more comments, I heart comments.

2. Describe one incident that shows your inner stubborn side.

I have to go with Sadie, inner stubborn side? I'm usually very vocal about being stubborn

3. What do you see when you really look at yourself in the mirror?

an adult version of me, and it always strikes as wait when did I get to be 20 something?

4. What is your favorite summer cold drink?

This summer it has been Good Earth Sweet and spicy (iced) tea. I make it in my grandmothers depression era pitcher that has turned lavender in the sunlight. It doesn't need anything in it, yum!

5. When you take time for yourself, what do you do?

I like to quilt or other such craftiness or read.

6. Is there something you still want to accomplish in your life? What is it?

I want to have children and be a stay at home mom with a little crafty business I can do from home

7. When you attended school, were you the class clown, the class overachiever, the class shy person, or always ditching school?

Mostly I was the shy person, for a good chunk of high school i was also always ditching school.

8. If you close your eyes and want to visualize a very poignant moment in your life, what do you see?

a montage of a few things that have happened over the last year and half-2 years. It all adds up to God's grace and Him always being there for me even when I was floundering.

9. Is it easy for you to share your true self in your blog or are you more comfortable writing posts about other people or events?

it's definitely easier for me to talk about general things than my utmost inner self. I'm honest in what I write and I'm always willing to answer questions, but its a tad scary putting yourself out there. which I know is kinda ridiculous because it is on the Internet.

10. If you had the choice to sit and read or talk on the phone, which would you do and why?

C) sit and talk. I'm awkward on the phone and don't really like it. I'm bad at transitions. I'm very much a call and get to the point and then get off the phone kinda person. But I love to sit in a coffee shop, or in my living room and talk with those near and dear to my heart

Ok time to tag people. I may have a duplicate or two from Miss Sadie, but only because I heart those people.

A little of this, a little of that

New Vegginings

Possibility Springs Forth

Just another day in paradise

Purpleheart Ori'jenn'als

The tinkers Muse

Fall Decor

everyone is starting to break out there fall decor. I have virtually no fall decor.

For most of my married life I was mostly missing the I want to decorate my house gene. further more I was I completely missing the my home needs to be decorated for the seasons gene. Sure, I hung pictures and generally tried to make things look nice. But I was always pretty lost when it came to arranging knick knacks. Also, I loved other peoples homes that were decorated for the season. Namely my mother-in-laws mantle. It always looks amazing.

I decorated for Christmas, of course. It's Christmas after all, how can you not?

Then last year hit, and I don't know if it was an innate change in me, a great influence of The Home Experience, my friends or all three. All of sudden last fall, I wanted to make my apartment fall-y.

I was working in Longs drug stores helping converting them to CVS. They had all their fall/Halloween stuff out and I was just having too much

fun. almost every break I would go over and look to see what I had missed and imagine what I would want in my home. Granted they didn't have a whole lot as it is a drug store but all of a sudden it just clicked and I needed something autumn for my home

I ended up with these little votive holders and some pumpkin spice tea light candles to go with them. Another thing I've never really been is a candle person, so this was a big deal on a couple of levels.

So this year I broke out my candles, I shall soon be working on my fall quilt, but its just not enough. I have an empty wreath form I picked up at the dollar store that I want to decorate, but I am a loss of what to do.

Since I'm not a huge autumn person I don't have a lot of fabric in that color scheme to draw from

Here's a few I found online that I like

I love the initials on this (of course!)

Ok dear readers, how do you, if anything decorate for fall? or any season? I need ideas!

Confuzled

So I thought I had the backs pieced for both of my ottoman quilts as they'll now be referred to. Fortunately the one I'm wanting to work on now is ready to go. The problem is the Christmas quilt.

I have pieces cut, and somewhere I vaguely remember having a piece of scratch paper with measurements. I went to a quilt retreat with my mother and sister in-law January of last year. My mother-in-law was kind enough, as always to help me figure out measurements and how I wanted to do it. she jotted it all on a piece of paper. Now I have no idea what the plan was. I need to remeasure everything and try to figure out the puzzle. Also I need to look for that paper.

I need a better system for my UFO's and WIP's, this jotting down on whatever piece of paper I happened to have on hand obviously isn't working. There's just got to be a better system.

Inspiration

I had a spurt of inspiration while I was trying to sleep the other night. I have 2 ufo's (well more, but for what I'm thinking) that are pretty similar in size. one is a fall quilt and another is a Christmas quilt. Both have their backs pieced and are ready to be basted and I've stopped there. Well while trying to sleep I was thinking the size would be just perfect to cover my ottoman.

My ottoman came from craigslist. it's a great size, I actually use it as a coffee table. but it has some pretty major spots, so I always have a quilt folded on it to cover them. I think these two quilts will be just the right size to just drape over.

here's the culprit. great size for curling up, but not so pretty to look at. Eventually I would like to find a brown and pink plaid fabric to sew a cover for it, maybe some sort of tweed type of fabric.

Since fall is here, I think I may break out the fall quilt and finish it up. I got the fabric and pattern at PIQF last year. If I could actually get it done before this years PIQF it would be quite the accomplishment for me

Here's the back. I try to back all my quilts in flannel. I found this particular squirrel fabric at Joann's. I also like what some quilters do for the back. Piecing some of the fabric from the front on the back in case there's ever a damaged spot you can use some from the back to fix the front. So I combined the two.

This guy is my favorite,mmm pumpkin pie

And here's the front. Success, it fits quite nicely on the ottoman

Simple Pleasures

as I mentioned yesterday my husband is on a men's retreat. Thursday I was struggling with how quiet the apartment is with only one person.

yesterday I embraced it. It dawned on me with him gone, I can make something for dinner that he doesn't necessarily like. and here it is. Pasta with tomatoes,garlic,olive oil,a little parmesan cheese and the Pièce de résistance: Basil! It was scrumdiddlyumptious . Today I will attempt pesto with the remaining basil.

and this is just adorable. a little rabbit jar that was my grandmothers with the remaining basil.

and this whole blogger not doing what i'm telling it to is really starting to irk me

Progress

I'm making progress on my table topper. My husband is currently on a Men's retreat with our church and being unemployed I have plenty of time on my hands. That and my apartment is clean, a good equation for quilting. Maybe I'll have it done by the time he gets back. maybe.

Oh and adding to the time on my hands is a pact I made last night with a good friend and neighbor. No facebook or online TV watching for a week. It's such a time suck for both of us we decided to do something radical. I always say I don't have time for x,y and z but the reality is with the amount of time I spend on facebook and other online endeavors,I probably do.

So here's some other pictures of the table topper. I'm happy with the way its turning out. I need to fix the top section, I had it on but didn't notice the tension was wonky till the end and had to rip it. I was trying to get the corners to look like the intersecting fabrics are woven. It's not quite the way I saw it in my head, but I do think it looks nice.

I want it reversible. The back is inspired by the my simple kitchen table topper pattern that Camille of Simplify was nice enough to send me. I have it sketched out I just haven't figured out measurements yet.

Blogger is currently hating me and I cant get the colors or font to change.when I'm composing it, it looks right but when I publish it comes out grey and boring. Another instance of I wish I knew how to edit html

Wish List Wednesday

I'm currently obsessed with personalized stationary. well I shouldn't say currently as much as its I'm always obsessed. I love all things paper, all things monogrammed and pens. among other things.

I hesitate to get anything monogrammed as I think it could be a very quickly sliding slope, which may or may not end with me hunched over a pair of jeans with a be-dazzler.ok, maybe not but the image makes me giggle.

My new found obsession was started when I found the most adorable note cards while in Boston. They're from B Designs Letterpress . Here's the ones I picked

They're just so perfectly me, and they're named lilac.That makes me smile as well. They're a set of 10 flat cards 3.25 x 5.25. They're just so darn cute! They have over 50 designs to choose from I want almost all of them. I'm glad there were lilacs or it would have been really hard. Ooh the cupcake or geraniums or just the letters. ok I must stop. They also have single intials and folded cards.

here's a few more pictures of things I'm drooling over

So so pretty. They're just so timeless and girly. Ok must call it done or I could easily put all of the pictures up here. Go drool over them yourself.

B Designs Letterpress

I dream...

Of red geraniums planted in coffee tins in my window. Something like this

where did it all come from? (part II)

Boy oh boy do I have a lot of quilting related stuff. I know its just a drop in the bucket compared to some people but when you're in a one bedroom apartment every little bit adds up.

Remember this?

I finally tackled this afternoon. Part one was dumping all the fabric in name of finding that specific one I needed. The catalyst for part two was finding a package of note cards I bought in Boston that I just knew I had put on top of one of the set of drawers and couldn't find them. actually the whole thing had gotten worse since the before picture

Here's the after:

Oh and see the empty wall space above my carts? that gets to be a design wall! I'm so excited. I don't know what kind of design wall or when its going to happen,but I have open space for it and that to me is the hardest part. Since all the carts are on wheels they'll be really easy to move out of the way when I need access to the design area.I"ll probably end up using white flannel. I shall see.

Fabric adventures

I found this fabric at a cute little fabric shop I found in the Richmond district of San Francisco. I just fell in love with the colors. the store (Satin Moon Fabrics) doesn't have a huge selection of quilting cottons but what they do have is alot different then what you find in most quilt shops.

I've struggled since I moved to the bay area to find a good quilt shop. Living in the area I did, I took for granted the vast array of fabric shops, mostly catering to quilters I had at my disposable. If I think about it there was at least 8 shops within an hours driving distance.

I had finally found one, Black Cat Quilts in the sunset but they closed over a year ago. boo! So basically now I'm down to Joann's and Britex. I call Joann's the Ross of crafts stores. They have everything but sometimes its just overwhelming. And Britex, well Britex caters to fashion designers/ students, is expensive and has a very small selection of quilting cottons.

oh well, better than nothing. and really I have a stash, do I really need to be buying more fabric?

But now I don't know what to do with the fabric. I love them, here they are along side some fabrics I pulled from my stash. I think I like the green on green dot,the blue dragonfly's and the orange at the top. What I need is some more aqua to go along there.There's starting to be way too much orange and though I love these fabrics orange, is very rarely the first color I go to.

I'm thinking maybe a snowball or circle around pattern from Jaybird Quilts. Not sold on anything yet though, so I'll need to keep pondering.

elephant

It was my sister-in-laws Birthday on Sunday and as always I'm in need of a belated birthday card. She loves elephants and since apparently I'm on an appliqué note card roll an elephant card it was.

The fabric is from a charm pack of Za Za by Erin Michael for Moda that I have.