Getting Ready for July 4th...

I was planning on making a wreath to decorate my front door for July 4th. Then I saw the Missouri Star Quilt Co. tutorial for a tumbler flag quilt. Too cute! So I shifted gears since I knew I had some red, white and blue fabrics I'd put aside for some projects I never actually made.

I haven't actually added the border yet but it's very cute so far! Jenny at MSQ used a navy blue so I'm still debating the blue I have. I just have it pinned to the blue in the picture to test it out. I think it will be fine (it will also mean I don't have to buy more!). I'm trying to decide whether to add a tiny white border before the blue just to help it pop. Hmmm....

Since I made this for my front door, I needed it to be a bit smaller than what they made it. The tutorial calls for a tumbler to be used on charm squares (5" at the widest) but I didn't have one so I used this to make one.

I picked it up for $1.49 at Tuesday Morning a while back. You do have to be careful because you can accidentally cut through it with a rotary cutter, but I didn't have any trouble with mine. I originally cut a 5" block. Then I marked 1" in from each side at the top, drew a line from the mark down to the edge of each side, and trimmed. Voila, a tumbler!

So after cutting out my blues and trying them out, I figured out something. A 5" tumbler was going to make it too big for my door. So I did some configuring and decided to use a 3.5" tumbler instead. Back to the drawing board and ....... here ya go!

I made it 3.5 across the bottom and came in .75 of an inch on either side at the top. One inch was too much so I dropped back a bit. I think it turned out perfect!

What I ended up up with so far is 24" wide and 17" tall. I will be adding the border, then quilting it up and hanging it on my door! More pictures when I'm done!

Just Guilding Along!!!

I finally made it to a quilt guild meeting Monday night! I've missed so many this year since my lovely daughter's dance class was that night. During ways and means (we purchase tickets for prizes), I won a neat new pair of scissors I'll have to let you know about.

It advertises that you can cut through up to 8 layers of fabric. Not that I need to cut through that much, but I'll let you know!

We had a wonderful speaker named Teddy Pruett who is a quilt appraiser.  I love speakers who can keep your attention, with almost a bit of 'entertainer' quality to them, and she was definitely the ticket. She was a hoot with her stories and I absolutely loved her art quilts. They are quite my speed! Let me just tell you about some of them.

• A "Cook is a Four Letter Word" quilted (with a Dresden plate, of course) depiction of a harried housewife complete with stove dial eyes and every four letter cooking word you can think of: sift, pour, dice, bake stew, etc.
• A "Fractured Wedding Ring-The Divorce Attorney's Quilt" which depicts a large heart. The center of the heart depicts the perfect marriage, while each side shows the way things can go wrong.
• To Hell with Housework which depicts exactly what you think it does!
• The Church Ladies is a celebration of Southern Gospel choirs. The choir robes are actually made from Crown Royal bags!

I loved her stories as well; she mentioned purchasing an old apple core top which one of her peers referred to as "the old panty crotch quilt". Oh my gosh! I can never see apple cores when I look at those quilts again. I kind of always thought the shape looked like panty liners, but I wasn't going to say it!! 

A "Pinterest" Type Site...For Food!

Have you heard of TasteSpotting? I was looking for granola bar recipes and came across it on Pinterest. Where have I been? It supposedly has been around since 2007 but I am just coming across it... and it's wonderful! Billed as a "virtual potluck" for it's visitors, it works sort of like Pinterest in that pictured links are posted to the website which carry you to directly the recipe on various websites. I do think you have to submit your recipes to be placed on the site, but right now I just plan on reaping the benefits of having other people come up with the recipes and I just have to cook them and try them out! I did have good luck with one granola bar and bad luck with another, but the kids LOVE the one that was good so I have a plus in my cooking arsenal!

***Update: I decided to add a list of my recipe trials on my sidebar to let you know of any TasteSpotting recipes that are REALLY good. So far the Peanut Butter Rice Krispie Treats (not what the recipe author refers to them as) are a huge hit at my house with me and my kids!

Oh, and the top AND back of my Falling Charms quilt are done so it is off to the quilter this week!!

All I will have left to do is binding when it comes back! Yay!!

I Like it When Things Come Together!

I was debating making another Falling Charms out my Simply Color charm packs because I kind of didn't want to have to purchase a lot more of the fabric for the borders. However, I was sitting in my sewing room and just happened to glance at my shelves and happened not notice something. Surely it wouldn't match...it did! Surely there wouldn't be enough of it...3 yards so yes!!!

There are plenty more colors in the line but I thought it blended well with this print! I still need to pick up one more charm pack and some solid. Or I may try to reconfigure it with just three and have a second inside border using the solid. This was a quilt that came together fairly quickly and I like how it looks on my bed! The other one is going to the long arm quilter next week so I've got to get the backing together tomorrow.

Oldest Designer for Robert Kaufman!!!

I thought this article was so cool. NEVER think it's too late to do something with a talent!!!

Salem woman achieves dream of working in fashion 72 years later

Charms are Falling!

Finally finished the top of my Falling Charms quilt Tuesday night, but only just got a picture of it last night. It took my MIL and hubby to hold it over the deck since it's a queen. That's the largest I've ever made! Still got to put the back together but at least the top is finished!

I know it looks a little wrinkly. I actually did iron it the night before but you take what you can get when you have help holding something up for you! This was in Kate Spain Good Fortune. I will post more when I get it quilted. Definitely going to have to get this one done by a long armer but I still have to get the back done.

Win, Win, Sit and Spin!

No, I have no idea what that means but I didn't want to do the chicken dinner thing, so...
The winner of my fabric giveaway is number ....

who is Alli! Just for the heck of it I checked out her blog...she makes some very cute stuff so I am definitely going to be adding her to my favorites list!!! Congratulations and thanks to everyone who came by to see the Tammy bags from our blog hop!

Stay tuned cause I finished the top of my Falling Charms quilt last night so I will be posting pics soon!

More Tammy Bags to Check Out!

My Tammy bag and giveaway can be found here. Today's selection in the Tammy Blog Hop includes:

July 17, Monday

Rosemary

Pauline

Kris

Karen

Pauline

Roxanne

Vickie

Martina

Jane 

Marga

Day 3 of the Tammy Bag

Be sure to check out my Tammy bags here. Today's selection of Tammy bags from the blog hop can be seen at the following sites.

Friday June 14th

Bente

Jane

Wendy

Geta

Julia

Jan

Loralynn

Selina

Joan

Mara

Jan

And don't forget Father's Day on Sunday! 

Progress and More Tammy Bags

I am finished with the Falling Charms portion of that particular quilt...now I just need to add borders to make it big enough. I put it on my bed to see how it looks.

I really like how this quilt is coming together.

Oh, and don't forget to check out Day 2 of the Tammy Blog Hop! You can see my Tammy bags and enter my giveaway HERE!

Thursday, June 13th

Les

Marlene

Lisa

Anjeanette

Kristen

Marica

Lynn

Gingini

Linda J

Nicole

Judith

Tammy Blog Hop Begins!!! and a Giveaway!

I have done a blog hop with Madame Samm in the past and it worked out so well that I decided to jump on board with this one when I saw what a cute product I would end up with! Her Tammy bag is just the ticket for small projects or even a makeup bag! Here are my pretties made from her pattern.

So let's take a look at bag number 1.

I chose some Dragonflies by Michael Miller and a green Pear Tree print from Thomas Knauer to pair together. I love how it turned out! I chose not to do the frilly part in the pockets, but looking at it I kept thinking it just needed something extra so I came up with this.

I found a cute little bow pattern (sort of a bowtie noodle, if you will) here that I hand stitched just under the top of the pockets on both sides. I love the dragonflies. What does it look like on the inside? Well,...

There are two inside pockets (kind of hard to see in the picture). And what might I put inside it? Hmmmm, well....

Maybe a few skeins of yarn to crochet.
Then there's the second bag I made from laminate. This was some fabric I picked up from Hobby Lobby so no real name brands, but I wanted to make one for travel.

I love the Paris fabric with passport stamps.

Plenty of room for, well, for what really?

Why makeup, of course! And perfect for cleanup since it's laminated. Since the fabric was laminated, I chose not to do a bow for it, but I may go back and add straps to both since my frames had places for them.
Here's a last look at the two together.

GIVEAWAY!!!!!
Now, we have been doing VBS all week and I am totally exhausted so I almost decided not to do a giveaway, but I decided against myself!! I decided to offer up the fabric that you would need to make one of these little bags. It does not include the frame or anything else. Just the fabric. What fabric? Well, 1/2 yard each of the green Thomas Knauer Pear Tree and the Michael Miller dragonflies. The dragonflies went over really well on my last giveaway, and I still have some left so I thought I'd be nice and offer that up again.

What do you have to do to win? Just leave one comment. I'm too tired for hoops to jump through and we're only halfway through VBS!!

This giveaway will go until midnight on Tuesday, 6/18/13 which is the last day of the Tammy Blog Hop.  Open to US only. Sorry guys. Also, MAKE SURE YOU ARE NOT A NO-REPLY BLOGGER. I am always amazed at the number of people who have no idea. If you never seem to get responses to your comments, you might want to check. I will draw a winner Wednesday morning and email the winner!

Make sure you go check on all my fellow blog hop bag makers (I know I can't wait to see what everyone else did!). Here is today's schedule.

Wednesday, June 12th

Melinda (me!)

Tina

Mary

Frederika

Thearica

Liz

Grethe

Daryl

Patty

Inga

You can find the full schedule here at Madame Samm's, and because I know some of you will really want to pick up this pattern, you can do that at Craftsy.

Tammy Bag Blog Hop Starts Tomorrow!

Make sure to check back tomorrow for the Tammy Blog Hop hosted by Madame Samm over at SewWeQuilt! I am participating and my day is day one: tomorrow!! There will be some beautiful bags (can't wait to see how different people did theirs) and possibly some giveaways so be sure to check back in for the fun.

Pies and Projects

I made another Cool Whip pie for my neighbors the other day; this time it was blueberry with the fruit on the bottom yogurt. I had some fresh blueberries I put on top for looks.
We also finished the final end of the year activity; modern dance recital. They did a great job and I am so proud of my beautiful daughter!

I also made a little trip to Hobby Lobby cause I needed a new wreath for my front door. I was inspired by this wreath over at All Things Thrifty, but then I saw this one which would more easily help me get rid of some scraps. I started out using scraps of everything, but I quickly decided that I would rather stick with a color scheme.  I quickly got drawn in by the colors in this ribbon.

So that became my jumping off point. I'm not quite done yet...it takes a lot more fabric and ribbon than you would think to fill it. I also wish I'd cut the pieces a little longer, but c'est la vie! I will know better next time.

I think it's good to take pictures so you can stand back and figure what's needed where.
I also painted a C for the middle.

I will take some better pictures on teh door when I get it finished. Now, back to Falling Charms!!!

She's Alive! She's Alive! ...and Making Pie!

Yes, I really am alive and kicking! And sewing too! I just haven't been blogging much this week. We are currently in the throws of the very last year end activity we have to do; my daughter's dance recital.  It's at 6:00 tonight but she has to be there at 5:00 which means I have to have her fed, dressed, and "made up" by no later than 4:40 to get her there on time and ready. We have my parents coming in, my MIL meeting us at the venue, as well as FIL's wife meeting us there as well. He is not going to be able to come because he was on the Power Tour car trip with my hubby. He chose to stay with my BIL, and hubby came back this afternoon for the recital. I decided the quickest way to feed everyone at different intervals was picnic style so I just grabbed one of those fried chicken with sides meal deals at Publix. I also decided to make a pie. A Cool Whip pie. Of course, it's not really Cool Whip, just the store brand so I guess it's Publix pie! These are so fabulous for summer. So light and fresh, and you decide how 'decadent' you want it to be since they have light and fat free versions of whipped cream and yogurt. They even had a reduced fat graham cracker crust!
So what is a Cool Whip Pie, you might ask? Here's my (mom's!) version.

Cool Whip Pie
Ingredients
2-3 individual servings of yogurt (whatever flavor you want...I chose Key Lime Pie)
8 oz. container of cool whip
1 graham cracker pie shell

Put the yogurt and whipped cream into a bowl and mix until well blended. Before emptying the cool whip into the bowl, make sure it is not frozen in the center. I dumped mine in straight from the store and it was still frozen on the inside. This makes it harder to stir and you have to wait until it softens to get it well blended.
Once blended, pour into your pie shell.

Now, take your yummy pie and place it in your already overstuffed freezer until firm.

This really does make a great little desert. And it's so cool that you can take your favorite yogurt flavor and turn it into pie. I haven't tried it with the newer Greek yogurts, but I'm eager to see what changes it makes to the texture. I'll try to remember to post a picture of it all firmed up out of the freezer, but it may get eaten up before that!

Whole Lotta Sewing Going on!

I decided for a little in between project while working on my Good Fortune Falling Charms and my READ mini wall hanging. I decided I needed to replace our coasters since the new pup has eaten at least two of the ones I had crocheted. Sigh....life with a dog! Anyway, I was all keyed up to do some string coasters with my tons of scraps when I came across some leftover Georgia fabric on which I had already attached iron on fleece floating around in my scraps tub. Can't beat it when a step is already done for you!

 So I salvaged enough to make 5 coasters. I cut my fabric to 4.5" squares and sewed around three sides and a little in on each corner of the fourth side.

 Not all tutorials will tell you to do this before turning but it helps immensely to me. It creates your corner so you can go ahead and poke out all the corners at one and they are more uniform. I also snip off each corner close to me seam to make sure the corners don't pucker.

 Here I have turned my coaster out and poked out my corners. Now I just folded the opening in about .25" and ironed. I did a stitch all around for closure close to the edge on all 5 coasters. I had an idea for doing some hand quilting to make a meandering stitch throughout (sort of like a road visiting all the sites) but I never thought it looked right. I love hand quilting on everyone else's work but it never looks right to me when I do it! So I just ended up doing some minor quilting on each one. I did something different on each: concentric boxes, improv, a grid, an X, and some outlining.

I thought they turned out pretty cute! Maybe the dog won't eat these! And I still have muslin and batting I cut out to do some string coasters, so I'll probably go ahead and make those too.

I finally pinned Falling Charms to the wall so I could get an idea what it's going to look like. I also placed it on my bed and it really looks nice. Six more rows before adding borders!!!