Apron-y

I promised you last week that I did some crafting over my extended blog break, so here we go. First off, I made an apron for a Christmas family gift exchange. I actually won it back, which I was quite excited about! Most of the people on that side of the family like country/farm stuff, so I used fabric from Moda's Bunkhouse line. I love the worn-looking "bandanna" prints in this line.

The pattern I used is the Four Corners apron pattern by Vanilla House Designs, which I actually mentioned here in my very first blog post! I love this pattern...I talked about why I love it in my first post. In short, it is very quick and easy, and made a perfect gift (especially since I ended up bringing it back home!).

This apron is pictured in my first blog post, but here I am wearing it at my booth at the Oklahoma City Winter Quilt Show in January. (Not my fave picture of myself...looks like it needs be stretched vertically a bit. And I've had my hair cut off shorter since then. But at least it shows what the apron looks like on an actual person).

And because just about everything is cuter in a smaller size, here's the kids version!

So cute! I especially love it in this "convenience" printed patchwork and oversized polka dot fabric by Loralie Designs. Makes me wish I had a little one to dress up in it...my niece needs to hurry up and grow into it!

I've also been trying to catch up on cutting fabric for quilts I have planned (before all my fabric is gone!). This pile is for the 2007 Kansas City Star block of the month, Borderland in Butternut and Blue. It only calls for 12 fat quarters for the blocks, but I want to have options!

I need to choose fabrics for this year's KC Star block of the month also. If you don't live in the KC area to get the newspaper (the blocks come out on the third Sunday of the month), you can buy the patterns here, or wait for the book to come out in October. Since I missed January, I think I'll wait for the book to come out...I won't get started on the quilt until then anyway!

Pajama quilting

Where does a week go? I mean, I know where mine went...I heard the flushing sound at the end of last week that cued the slow but inevitable drain of this week down the proverbial toilet. Sunday was the Superbowl, so I was at the shop in the afternoon and then watched the game that night. Monday went okay until my husband and I both came down with the stomach flu, which put me out of commission through Wednesday. Thursday.... that was just yesterday... let's see, what did I do... oh yes, scrambled to catch up from everything that doesn't get done when you're sick. Oh, and I got a mini-makeover! A quilter friend of mine sells Mary Kay, so we went to an "eyes-cream social" and ate ice cream and got eye make-up done...fun! I ordered a facial highlighting pen and a brow definer pencil. These are two items that are currently missing from my makeup repertoire (which is a very fancy word for the 4 or 5 make-up items that I actually use), but I'm very excited to get them. What a difference they make!

Sorry, that was starting to sound a lot like whining until I got to the makeover part, so let's move on to quilting. I've been using any spare moment I've had at the shop lately to longarm quilt. I'm really getting excited about longarm quilting lately. Quilting is just a fact of quilt-making that I never really considered much before. But now that I've been quilting for almost a year (eek!), I'm starting to spread my wings and experiment a bit more. I ordered Dawn Ramirez's new Pajama Quilter Reloaded DVD, and here's what I've done with it so far.


Cindy pieced this top the last time she was in the shop...before she broke her ankle. (Did I forget to mention that? Well, she did - slipped on the ice. I'm afraid I've been a bit self-absorbed lately =)
One of Dawn's basic flowers...
A flower, a ribbon, and some loops....
And more of the same. This is really just part of the basic stuff on her DVD. I really recommend this DVD if you've been wanting to learn some good freehand quilting designs. You don't need to have a longarm machine.. in fact, in the DVD she demos here designs on a whiteboard. Very easily translated to quilting on a domestic sewing machine.

I've got so much more to learn. As Dawn would say, practice and chocolate will get me there eventually. Sounds like a good plan for this evening, actually....

Changes

I feel like I've made a lot of posts apologizing for long absences, so I won't do that here. I will say that I didn't mean to go without posting for so long, but I've had lots of changes going on in my life lately, and blogging just got pushed to the back seat.

I'll start by telling you the biggest change... my husband and I have decided to move to another city (town?), out of state. As a result, I am closing the quilt shop. I will miss the shop, but I am going to continue to longarm quilt. In a way, I am looking forward to being able to focus on doing one or two things, instead of doing 5 or 6 things very quickly. The good news for all of you is that everything is the shop is priced 20% to 40% off, including books, patterns, and notions. I haven't had a chance to update the prices on the website, but I will apply the discount in the shop before I ship.

Another change that had has a more immediate impact on my life this week is that our dog, Heidi, passed away on Monday. She was only two years old, but we think she had a heart attack or something like that. My husband was there with her, so at least she wasn't alone. He came home for lunch, and he said as he was walking in the back gate, she just fell over. About a minute later, she was gone. I was pretty upset earlier in the week, but it's getting easier as time goes by. Being home is the hardest part...it's so quiet around there. I keep expecting to see her run in, jump up on the couch, and settle in for a nap. Or push the bathroom door open while I'm in the shower. Or maybe chase her tail or bring us her stinky duck toy or rope bone. She loved to go on walks, and I will always think of her when I drive by the park where we walked. She also loved to go in the car. It didn't matter where, and more than once I had to drag her out of my car in the mornings so I could go to work. These are all memories of her that I will cherish. She was good girl, a gentle yet playful soul, and she will be dearly missed.

I have been crafting a little since I posted last (and geez, what a crybaby I was being. Turns out I was pretty sick though), so will catch you all up on that stuff soon. For now, here are some pictures of my sweet little Heidi girl.

Sleep tight, little Heidi. Sleep tight.

My throat is on fire

And my sinuses feel like they are trying to find an escape route from my cheeks. Or like they've punched me in the face from the inside. Oh yeah, and it's 3 a.m. and I'm not asleep. This is very abnormal for me. Very. Abnormal. In order to explain just how abnormal, I'll tell you a little story. Skip the next paragraph if you don't care.

Here goes. In high school I was a wrestling cheerleader. This involved getting up very early on Saturday mornings and riding a school bus with a bunch of stinky wrestlers to a tournament. I think the minimum travel time was at least an hour. Like nearly towns would call the school and want to schedule a wrestling meet, and they said, "No, sorry, you're too close." So anyway, one particular Saturday, the school bus arrived at the tournament about 2 hours before the tournament began (this was typical, the wrestlers all had to be weighed and checked for ringworm). I had brought my pillow and blanket with me (wrestling is a winter sport, and school buses don't have the best heating systems), so I made a little nest for myself in the bleachers and fell asleep. So, I don't know, about 2 hours and 10 minutes later, I wake up to find the bleachers full of people. Full. Somehow I had slept through the arrival of about 1,000 wrestling fans. It was the regional tournament, afterall.

Long story short, I can usually sleep through just about anything.

Anywho, I'm going to try to go back to sleep. I've got a big day tomorrow (today?), as my goal is to make and quilt two quilts. Yes, you read that right. Two. One is already started, and the other is pretty simple, so we'll see.

Here's a blast from Christmas past. I'm guessing this picture was taken 1985-1987. I'm the third from the left. This picture is actually the inspiration for one of the quilts I plan to make today (tomorrow?). More on that later.

And one last thing, here is a quilt I hope to make in time for Christmas 2008. I think this is from Quiltmaker magazine, Dec. 2001, but I'm not sure. I just saved the pic, not the instructions.

Okay, off to bed!

Procrastination Station

That's my new nickname for my sewing room. The last few times I've been in there, I've just sort of wandered around, shuffled some papers and fabric, and walked out. Today, however, I finally got the borders on my red & white stack-n-whack quilt.

I really like how it turned out. It finished measurement is 48" x 48", so I'm thinking of using it for a Christmas wall hanging or maybe even a tree skirt for next year. There is no chance it is going to get quilted in time for this Christmas. Not that I have to use it for Christmas. I love red, so I will probably use it all year. As a matter of fact, I've been thinking of making a red & white quilt for our bedroom, so I could hang this stack-n-whack quilt in there. Hmmm.

I'm going to the Little Balkans Quilt Guild meeting in Pittsburg tonight to do a program, so come by if you're in the area. I'll be spending the rest of my afternoon getting ready for that, packing up quilts and merchandise to take with me. I'm having a quick lunch of cheese nips (the official cracker of Major League Soccer, according to the box) and Dr. Pepper, so I should be nice and carb'd up for tonight.

And just in case you need any help procrastinating, check this out. Hilarious and true. So true. I'm enrolling my husband tomorrow.

Perfect place

for the best hot chocolate ever, period.

These placemats are a Christmas gift. I need to make a couple more...maybe tonight. I got the idea and the measurements from the Bend the Rules Sewing book, but did something a little different for the top. The back is solid red Kona cotton. These went together very quickly. Quickly enough that I may make another set. Or maybe matching napkins. We'll see.

My mom, sister, nephew, & new niece are visiting this week. We went out and had a nice dinner last night (which is such a nice treat every once in a while). The baby slept until we were almost ready to leave, and my 3-year-old nephew stopped making engine noises long enough to behave like a little gentleman, so the adults were able to talk and enjoy themselves. Thank goodness for small miracles.

When we got home, my dinner had digested enough that I was ready for something sweet, so I made hot chocolate. Not just any hot chocolate...according to my husband, "the best hot chocolate I've ever had." Quite the compliment coming from this man. I'm afraid I can't take all of the credit, because this recipe was on the package. But I would like to think my special hot chocolate making technique kicks it up a notch.

The Best Hot Chocolate Ever (according to my husband):

1 pkg hot chocolate mix (or make your own if your just ambitious like that)

milk

1/4 tsp vanilla

1/4 tsp cinnamon

Pour the hot chocolate mix into a mug. Pour enough milk into the mug to just cover the hot chocolate mix. Stir until well-blended. It should be kind of thick at this point...the consistency of cake batter or melted milk chocolate. Add the vanilla (a "plop" of you're not a measurer) and the cinnamon (a sprinkling). Stir. Slowly add more milk, stirring as you go, until the mug is full. Microwave until hot. Enjoy!

Back from the dark side

Sorry about that. I had to take an unintended break from blogging to re-energize and re-group. I'm sure I'm not the first (or the last) person to experience a little drought of creativity, but there for a few weeks I just didn't have it in me. Well, I'm back, and I have the November quilt guild meeting to thank for snapping me out of it. Everyone showed their Underground Railroad quilts, and quite frankly, I was jealous. So the next day, I decided to finish my blocks.

(Sorry for the bad fluorescent lighting at the top of the picture.) Now I just have to decide how to set them together. The book shows quilts in a regular 3 x 4 block grid with sashing and cornerstones, but I'm thinking I want to do something a little different with mine. Something like this maybe? (Gotta love EQ6!)

Also, I've been wanting to learn how to do stack-n-whack properly for months. I did the blocks for this quilt, but I sort of just stumbled through it, not really knowing what I was doing. So another guild member came by the other day and helped me figure it out. Here is what I have to show for my efforts so far... a vast improvement over my previous project in terms of stack-n-whackiness.

Here's what the original fabric looked like before it was whacked:


And last but not least, a christmas gift in progress for a family member that doesn't read this blog (or at least I hope not)!

See, I have been a busy little bee! And that's not all I have to show you... more projects coming soon! So nice to be out of my crafting funk!