quilt monday

Who would have guessed that a short while after posting on Thursday, I would get sicker. And sicker. Sick enough that on Saturday, Jim took me to the ER; I was very dehydrated and suffering from my first ever migraine(for those of you that get those regularly, my heart goes out to you!)

A few bags of saline later and some IV meds(did you know that when a nurse hits a valve in your vein that you will bleed a lot. lots and lots. wanna guess how I know?). Anyways, I am very happy to report that I am feeling much better(still have minor migraine issues but nothing compared to last week).

Since I had some unexpected downtime, I got caught up on some binding and have something fun to show. I was blog hopping a few weeks ago when I came across this. How could I resist?

why yes, that is my favorite stripped binding you spot

How cute are they?

 I used a double layer of batting so the utensils would pop after quilting.

I kept the quilting simple and went with my water stitch.

And the best part? 

sorry I could not get this picture to turn

I made two.

 One of my followers is going to win this later this week. 

I'll make sure I finish the binding first ;)

today

Is mom's birthday. After I quilted my zigzag quilt, mom dropped enough hints about one for herself. I wanted to make one similar but different. Then I saw this blog post and knew I had the perfect gift for mom.

A quick raid of her batik(thanx mom!) and the result is this

I had hoped to get it quilted before today but this took me all.week.long. to piece the top. I got hit with a flu bug on Monday and have spent the last 3 days in bed. u-g-h. On top of that, Jim and I hiked a mountain on Saturday(13kms, 7 hours, I hurt. bad.) so I'm not sure if all I am feeling is overdoing it on Saturday or the flu. Should I mention I forgot to put on sunscreen? Let's add a wee bit of a sunburn into the mix too(today is the first day I can comfortably wear a bra. I had the great idea of hiking in a T-back tank lol).

Anyways, all that matters it that the quilt top is done. And it looks good if I may say so myself!

A big thank you to those on Twitter who encouraged me to go ahead and mix in some Kona with the quilt. I had an ivory batik to use as the solid but I was short 9 inches(grrr) and all I has was the Kona. I think it worked out pretty well.

Now to see if mom quilts it or if I do. 

Happy Birthday mom!

wordless wednesday

busy, busy

Summer has not slowed down the quilters in our area which means I've stayed fairly busy this month longarm quilting. As a result, I have a pretty good show and share for you today. Enjoy!

This is BoDil's first quilt; I love this quilt! It was hard to send it back to her.

quilted with Folk Heart

Marie did this fishing themed quilt for her son's birthday.

quilted with Rainbow Trout

I love how the fish look.

It looks even better now than it did. If someone was to quilt this pattern upside down, it would look funny. Not that that would ever happen ;)

Bonnie and I took a class together back in January and Bonnie brought her finished quilt in for me to custom.

I love the changes that Bonnie made. She took the sashing out between the melons and she put all the similar colored background blocks in the middle. It makes for a very striking quilt.

We kept the quilting simple,

A rose in the block background. A simple leafy feather in the melons. And in the setting triangles, I echo-quilted triangles.

Audrey made this adorable baby quilt.

quilted with Laurie

Lastly, this lovely quilt by Sherri.

quilted with Floral Meander

Next week I'll show you all the wedding quilts I've been doing.

quilt monday

Mom made this quilt a few months ago. She had quite a few leftover blocks so I brought them home with me. 

A quiet Sunday afternoon and I had this.

It's the perfect little summer quilt and it's so bright and cheery in our dining room.

I especially love the quilt pantograph; it was a perfect choice.

quilted with Luna

Sorry about the shadow but you can make out the pretty flower.

I love how it works with my zigzag quilt.

snack saturday

Easy Minty Brownies

4

squares  BAKER'S Unsweetened Chocolate

1

cup  (2 sticks) butter or margarine, divided

2

cups  sugar

4

 eggs

1

cup  flour

1

tsp.  peppermint extract

1

can  (16 oz.) ready-to-spread vanilla frosting

4

squares  BAKER'S Semi-Sweet Chocolate

1/4

cup  water

PREHEAT oven to 350°F. Line 13x9-inch baking pan with foil, with ends of foil extending over sides of pan. Grease foil. Microwave unsweetened chocolate and 3/4 cup of the butter in large microwaveable bowl on HIGH 2 min. or until butter is melted. Stir until chocolate is completely melted. Stir in sugar. Blend in eggs. Add flour; mix well. Spread into prepared pan.

BAKE 30 to 35 min. or until toothpick inserted in center comes out with fudgy crumbs. (Do not overbake.) Cool in pan.

STIR peppermint extract into frosting; spread evenly over cooled brownies. Microwave semi-sweet chocolate, remaining 1/4 cup butter and the water in medium microwaveable bowl on HIGH 1-1/2 min. or until butter is melted. Stir until chocolate is completely melted. Cool to room temperature. Spread evenly over frosting; cover. Refrigerate at least 1 hour before serving. Lift out of pan onto cutting board, using foil handles. Cut into 36 squares.

card friday

wordless wednesday

quilt monday

I posted a sneak peek of this quilt a few weeks ago. I didn't want to show a finished picture until I had the binding finished(it just maybe my favorite part!)

I pieced this quilt a year ago. And it's sat waiting for me to figure out how to quilt it.

I finally decided on something simple, a baptist fan.

It doesn't take away from the quilt at all; it was the perfect choice.

And speaking of perfect, check out the striped binding. I love it.

I think I need to make another.

thank you's

Hard to believe that school has almost been out a month already. And I still haven't shown you the teacher gifts I made this year.

June flew by so quickly I didn't realize I hadn't made our teachers anything until the last week of school. I usually make our teachers the same end of the year gift, but since the teachers we had this year were the same as last(thanx to a teacher shuffle over the summer), I couldn't do 'the usual' this year.

So I sent B and M to do some sleuthing; what was their teachers' favorite color? A few hours in my sewing room(it literally took longer to quilt these than it does to piece them) and two more of my (current) favorite table runner pattern.

For teacher #1

I love how effective the straight-line quilting is on this. 

For teacher #2

The thread blends so well with this one that you can hardly make out the quilting on it.

Next year I only have one teacher to make a gift for; I'm already looking forward to it :)

card friday

wordless wednesday

hello hello!!

Hello readers!

I had no idea I wouldn't be posting for a whole week. I actually didn't turn my computer on after Tuesday; I really did take a holiday lol. 

It was a great 10 days off. Jim and I surprised the boys with a trip to Whistler. We hadn't been up there in 15yrs, it was a little different looking. 

I spent almost no time sewing last week. I had been given a jelly roll of Birds and Berries. I wasn't overly fond of the fabric but it was something to play with.

I pulled out my favorite jelly roll book, On a Roll Again and ended up with this.

Somewhere along the way, I ended up short 3 fabric strips so I had to piece 3 blocks together so I could complete the top. I went back and double checked all my cutting and still have no idea what happened lol.

So that's it for my week off. One quilt but lots of memories. Now I need to catch up on all my blog reading from last week!

wordless wednesday

summer

source-Google

The calendar tells me it's summer, even if it doesn't seem like it outside(seriously, are we ever going to see the sun for longer than two days?)

We are on holidays this week; a somewhat staycation. And with it being summer, my posting my become sporadic here and there.

So get out there and enjoy summer 2012; I know we will be.