Hear Ye! Hear Ye! A Proclaimation!

I have declared it The Year of Quiltsmart! Seriously, I have so much interfacing that I have purchased or been gifted from the owner, Mattie, over the past 2 years or so and I have a list of projects I have been wanting to do. 

Mattie and my Mom, who owns Bear Thread Designs, have worked together for years, friends almost from the start. As we all do, we help our mom's friends nearly as much as our own moms, so sometimes when I help Mattie she will pass along printed interfacing that was pulled from stock because it was printed wrong, or too light, or other minor imperfections. I guess she thinks I'm too old to reward with ice cream (I'm not Mattie!!)

Anyway, last weekend as I was looking for a particular fabric I decided this year (meaning school year) was going to be Quiltsmart Project Year!! I'm a little excited! 

Wednesday night I was watching reruns with my husband of our favorite show and decided to multi-task and organize some of my craft room stuff, which ended up being organizing and sorting my Quiltsmart printed interfacing ... 

Thursday night, I was able to finish sewing the pieces of the Princess Feather Medallion to their fabric and all except 3 pieces were flipped and ironed. Hope to finish that this weekend so I can get the medallion sewn down and be ready when the Round Robin meets in September.

 

 

Last night, I worked on the design and plan for a floral quilt, using Quiltsmart ZigZapps. I even started sewing because  this quilt is one that I am very excited about. It's one that I have wanted to mimic from a quilt my mother has from a class. Since it was applique, I didn't even attempt it, but I found a way to recreate it with Quiltsmart! 

 

 

So, um, yeah. Now you know I am a project-hopper. I usually work on about 3 projects at a time, rotating to whatever project hits me when I walk into the room. I actually get projects done.

I'll keep you posted as the projects progress.

Until our next cup of tea ...

 

Picking Back Up On These Patriotic Projects

This past weekend, life finally slowed down long enough for me to pull my chair up to the sewing machine for a little stress-relieving sewing. First I did a little organizing, my craft stuff is in a pile since we added a third workspace to our office/craft room once I started working from home for the magazine ... but the craft shelf was put on hold when our little guy had one too many tantrums about picking up his toys and Daddy boxed everything up and put it in the office. It didn't affect him at all. It's been three months and he hasn't missed the toys at all. {sigh}

So for now, everything craft-related is still in boxes until we can sort through and get rid of the toys and he earns the rest back with helping us around the house, but more on that later.

While I was looking through the boxes, trying to find something to work on (trust me there were quite a few half-finished to choose from). I found a small group of triangles made from strips. So I started sewing them together.

The stripes were going in various directions and I ended up with three different blocks in the end.

I made two of these ...

... Six of these ...

... And two of these ...





The way I cut them was random and not by any pattern, rather a passing thought that was apparently interesting enough for me to make a bunch of strips and sewed them together, then cut. Unfortunately, I cannot find the notes I'd made to allow me to make more, so that's why I was left with triangles in a pile. But not to waste them, I decided to sew them together and see what inspiration I would find. After staring at this random group of blocks, I think I've got an idea of what I'd like to with them now.

This small flag was made around the same time as the strips. I used a star from Quiltsmart, and I think I may make some more of these for a small table topper or something ...

Well, I'll keep you posted on the progress of these projects and more ...

Until our next cup of tea ...

The Accidental Chef: "Not So Stuffed" Cabbage

Mmm ... Cabbage. O.k., so I am aware that not everyone shares my enthusiasm, but who am I to judge.

One of my favorite fast and healthy recipes is Stuffed Cabbage though my patience for a 12-step program when it comes to making dinner is not usually something I am willing to undertalke when I am in the mood for a favorite dish. So sometimes, I make a shortcut, and that is how "Not So Stuffed Cabbage" came to be.

So this is what I did ...

Ingredients:

• 1 lb. ground beef or turkey (or 12-15 meatballs)
• 1 head of cabbage
• 1 medium onion
• 1 Tbsp chopped garlic
• 1 (10 oz can) tomatoes
• 2 (15 oz cans) tomato sauce 

Directions:

1. Brown ground beef/turkey. Add onion and chopped garlic and cook together, then set aside.

2. Cut cabbage into 1-inch squares and saute (or steam) until desired softness. 

3. Add the meat mixture to the cabbage. The add tomatoes and tomato sauce.

*** Note: You can also add 2 cups of cooked rice, though we only eat rice occasionally.

4. Simmer for 10 minutes. Enjoy!!

Until our next cup of tea ...

A Beau-TEA-ful Treat!!

So yesterday, I showed you the Round Robin tea-themed quilt that was completed over the last year by my fellow quilt team members. At the conclusion I eluded that there was another tea-related surprise that I got this weekend and here it is ...

We had quite the active weekend, playing at the park, swimming, an Astros Baseball game, and more. While out and about my husband asked if I wanted to stop at a local consignment store, Consign-It, to see if they had any cabinets or hutches because we'd been trying to find something to display my tea cup collection since we first got married, 10 years ago. (Serious, nothing seemed like it would survive Army movers!)

When we got there we found two beautiful cabinets and after some discussions and comparisons, we decided to go with this one ...

After the baseball game, I spent a few hours unpacking my tea cup collections and tea sets and arranging them. 

Between my collection, the glass pieces and china we inherited from George's grandmother and my great-grandmother, the cabinet was filled in no time. About 2/3 of the pieces fit, so we'll have to come up with some other display methods.

Until our next cup of tea ...

 

Waiting with Anticipation ...

Editor's Note: I had wanted to post this yesterday, but had to wait for my mom to return from the Quilt Retreat where they revealed the Round Robin quilts to the owners. I was unable to make it and since she didn't return until nearly 10 p.m., this post is going out today instead.

This week I finished my first Quilting Round Robin. Last November my Mom and a group of quilting friends needed another person to fill out their Round Robin, which was part of 3 other groups of 6. Since we started a meeting behind and one person short, we needed to attend our first meeting, their second meeting, with our medallion block and one border.

This was my medallion, is Sweet Tea Cottage Block of the Sweetheart Cottages in the Follow Your Heart Pattern by The Quilt Company. It was the first pieced quilt block like this. It was not as hard as I thought it would be and look forward to trying other patterns in the future.

 

Then I added a checker board style border and solid to bring out more of the green accents in the medallion.

 

 

The Shabby Chic look and soft pinks and greens are something that I have always loved though it was not the dream George had in mind for a home when we got married, so I never really decorated the home in that theme. But when I saw the Sweet Tea Cottage Block, I know it had to be the centerpoint of my quilt.

 

As far as my first Round Robin experience, I would have to say it was very intimidating. I am a novice quilter, at best, mostly making large repeating blocks. I have been exploring with Quiltsmart's printed interfacing, but I have very little confidence in my own skills. It was a big hindrance because despite the support and encouragement of the other quilts in my team and the others in the group, I still felt like I would be the person to mess up these beautiful quilts for everyone else and it soon prevented me from having fun. I learned a lot from the other participants and really enjoyed the experience, but after some thought I decided to continue in the Round Robin ... but solo. That just means each meeting I will work on a quilt and add a border, it will just be one quilt - mine. That way if I ruin it, or waste fabric trying to do something new, or any of the other worries I had, it will be at a cost to me, not another quilter. In fact, it will be the one I wrote about in my last post.

 

But regardless, last night was amazing. My mom arrived, as I said, pretty late. We had just come back from an Astros (MLB) baseball game and was trying to get the 4-year-old to settle down after copious amounts of junk food and sugary treats.

 

She arrived, ready to reveal my quilt and this is what greeted me ...

 

 

 

A few close ups of the various borders ...

 



 

Absolutely beautiful! I just keep opening it up and looking at it ... only to find something new to fall in love with. {sigh}

I will probably add another border or two to finish it off, and then hopefully get it quilted. But this wasn't the only tea-themed surprise this weekend. Come back later to learn what else I got to feed my obsession!

Until our next cup of tea ...

 

Quilting with Quiltsmart

So I just finished the last of the quilts from the Round Robin I participated in this past year (post on that coming tomorrow). But during that time I have been wanting to just saddle up the the sewing machine and get creative with some of the Quiltsmart interfacing I've got in my QS box in my sewing room. It sits there staring at me, begging to be inspiring but with so much on my plate lately and the commitments that I'd made didn't allow me to just be creative at the sewing machine. In fact, sometimes I was stressed trying to get to the projects on my list!

But, the Round Robin quilt that I finished on Tuesday was the final project to be complete! So excited!! Even though I am in the final frenzied weeks of the Fall Quilt Issue at TEAinTEXAS, I did spend my lunch hour "playing". 

I had previously started working on a Princess Feather pattern. The first border is not necessarily a border as much as turning the medallion on point. Something that I am scared to do because of the math involved and the potiental to waste fabric getting it right. But turning it on point using the grid interfacing and 2-in squares. Previously I had cut the squares and ironed them to the interfacing hoping for time to sew them ... but then my sewing machine broke.

But my dear sweet husband surprised me with a Husquvarna Viking Opal 670 in May and now I am in heaven!! So today, I finally had the time to get some stitching done, so off I went, getting started on my waiting Quiltsmart project!

Oh, did I mention it's Christmas themed!?! I have never made a quilt with the holiday theme or colors. I have always been hesitant because it was a little intimidating to make a quilt that was Christmas-y without being childish or "country", I wasn't sure if I could make one that was elegant and holiday-insired. But I am up for the challenge!! 

So let's see where this journey takes us!!

I am also in the early stages of working on a secret Quiltsmart project, something that I'd been thinking of and making notes on for about a year now. I'll post some sneak peeks of it, but am hoping that I can have the full vision complete by Christmas for a big reveal. Fingers crossed! 

Until our next cup of tea ...

 

Batter Up! Time to Rally Around the Home Team!!

Well our little Monkey has just finished his first season of Little League Baseball and it was an experience for us all! He was one of only 3 4 year olds, all who barely made the cutoff age by a month or so. The other 8 kids had played both Sping and Fall of last year in Instructional T-Ball and are moving to T-Ball.

Oh, was fun it was to watch him play, though most of the time he was dancing, practicing to be a Ninja Turtle or Superhero or picking clovers. The three of us moms were assured that all of the others did the same thing at this age, so hopefully next year will be more actual playing.

He was great at hitting and fielding, but once he was bored, other interests took over.

He did swim for about a year (you'll see that in previous posts from 2011) and even spent six weeks in soccer (the coach spent all her time on her phone and we had a lot of "breaks" where the kids sat around.) I decided that I should probably start a scrap book for him with photos and stuff because if I wait too long, it'll just be overwhelming. So I spent a few hours pulling out scrapbook paper I'd collected, sorting through digital photos and ordering prints and gathering notes of what I wanted to do. Finally I was ready to start!! Let the fun begin!!

Here is the first page for baseball. I wanted to get all his team info on there because I'll never remember. I can't even remember kids from his preschool class last year, much less any of his teammates years from now.

Well, I'm off to get some more pages done while he is running errands with Daddy. Ah, the life of a crafty mom!!

Until our next cup of tea ...

 

A Little Bit of Christmas for St. Paddy's Day ...

Hello Crafty Friends!! Its been  a while since I last posted on here, but I have been super busy with my new job, life as a baseball mom and working on some designs for a friend who has a quilting company .... but more on that later.

I've always found it easier to work on quilts when the weather is cold ... and even here in South Texas, we've had plenty of cold weather. Going with that theme, I want to share a project I had posted on another blog for a Christmas ornament in 2012 (blog has since been on hiatus.) I've had several friends ask me about it in the past few months and recently there were two questions on Pinterest about it as well. So here is the original post ... 

This Week's Project for the Great Mickey Mouse Tree of 2012

I'm going to try to do a set of ornaments a week between Thanksgiving and Christmas ... At least that is the goal. For the most part I know what I want to do, it's just finding that extra hour or two to do them.

Here is this week's project:

There are actually 4 but I am hoping to do more. This past weekend Mom and I went to JoAnn's and the Christmas stuff was on sale 50%-70% off, but they only had 4 of these ornaments in the large size, so as I get extra coupons I'll try to get a few more.

Now this isn't the plan I had at first. Here was the first try ...

But I wasn't happy with the ribbons. There were kind of "blah". Monkey and I went to see my aunt one night and we got to talking about the corkscrew ribbon for bows she was making and it led to the finished ones above. Much better ... I'll try to do a post on the step-by-step instructions to making the corkscrew bows, but if you Google it, you can find a variety of tutorials.

Inside the ornament, I cut out Mickey (or Minnie) shapes out of glittery scrapbook paper with this handy-dandy Disney paper cutter. I think I will add more and fill them almost to the top, but I can add later as I get more cut. It's easy, but so time consuming.

Well here's hoping I get time to do some more projects between now and next Thursday ...

Until our next cup of tea ...

Grandmother's Inspiration

Every day I look for inspiration. You never know when or where it will find you. With that said ...

In January I started keeping my small fabric scraps with the hope of finding something to do with them. It seemed like a waste to throw them away and I kept forgetting to bring them to friends who have the patience for miniature quilts. So while I was perusing the Quiltsmart website making a wishlist for my birthday (2 week or so ago), I realized she had 1-inch Grid Interfacing (I have been doing projects with the 2 and 2 1/2 inch grid). I thought to myself, who would be crazy to cut pieces so small!?! Well fast forward to last weekend and you'll see who is just that crazy!

I was looking for an afghan while watching a movie and the first one I found was a scrap afghan my great grandmother made me years ago when I was in high school. She made it using all the leftovers and scrap pieces of yarn she kept and did the borders in purple. As I was watching the movie I suddenly thought why can't I do this with scraps ... in a quilt!

So the next day I set out to collect all the little piles of scraps from projects and got to work cutting them into 1-inch squares. I'll order some grid panels soon and get started, but I am so excited!! I know I want to keep the scraps together, rather than scatter them in a random collage, but I may do that in a later quilt.

So here is what I need from you ... Do you think I should ...

• Line all of the squares up in a row OR start in a corner and do more like clusters of the fabric?

• Should I keep all the panels in the 1-inch grid OR alternate between the 2-inch and 2 1/2 inch grids for larger pieces of scraps?

 Hopefully, I can remember to do a monthly update so we can all see how it is going!

Whatcha Doing Wednesday: Busy Start to New Year

Well, I can honestly say, I am exhausted!! I wish I could say it was because of some cool reason, like spending a week hiking in some exotic place, but alas, its just every day life.

Aside from weathering some icy winds the likes this Southern Girl is not accustomed to, I've taken on some new projects, I am working with a company that I absolutely love to create some upcoming new projects, but its still pretty super secret at this point. On top of two jobs and a hubby doing law school full time and an internship with the DA's office, we decided to sign the little guy up for Little League ... you know, because had some empty spots on our calendar. He was also promoted to a new class and he is progressing RAPIDLY so there are lots of programs and things we are doing with him to keep him challenged.

I am working on a lot of projects in the "creative" part of life as well. A friend's baby show is coming up, so there are things for that, I launched a new blog called, The Traveling Teacups and its a creative community for military families. We post projects, ideas and stuff that helps military families maintain a creative aspect in daily life whether its education or play. So we have creative posts about projects, reading, staying active and more. Just overall, a way to keep daily life well ... creative!

At my day job, this week I've been working on Helene Knott's Garden Patch Cats, as well as her Bloomin' Dogs. It has been quite an adventure. I'm not sure where I stand on the whole series, but there are some I like and some, well, they scare me. But they are a huge hit among our quilters, so we are working on completing more samples to show them off! What do you think?

I have also be working on some personal projects that are on my wishlist and completing some of the things on my Works in Progress List. Quiltsmart projects are at the top of my list right now, there are so many things to do. I'll show off some shortly but here is one that I did for the Traveling Teacups blog, and the start of something new ... Hmm, wonder what it could be?

I have finished a few things over the past few weeks, and will show them shortly. But, I'm off to work on anther project ...

Until our next cup of tea ...