im not feeling well so i am going to bed early. before i do tho, i wanted to post the gas price. i did notice this same gas station had the price up to 3.89 yesterday, so this is an improvement!
off to bed with me. hope everyone is having a good friday nite.
a trial block for my 6"-12" swap group. i think i like it. i dont know if i think its too busy or not. either way i will be making another, because someone saw it in my flickr and wants to swap for this one. i couldnt turn down krom mama and her lovely little houses!! this turned out 6". i wasnt sure if i would be able to do one that size, but it worked out perfectly.
i picked the lily of the valley from the front of the house. it is sitting on my desk so i can sniff it all i want. dont you love the smell of fresh picked fragrant flowers??
i feel the need to get on a soapbox briefly tonight. i just want to state that i am morally opposed to horse racing, dog racing, and while we're at it any type of bull/horse riding. these things are not sports. they are cruel acts inflicted on animals that have no choice in the matter. bottom line, if eight belles hadnt been racing she would still be alive. it made me sick to my stomach to hear them say they had to euthanize that beautiful animal. off box. thank you
midnite tonight was the deadline for signing up for the 6"-12" mini quilt swap, so like a good swap mama, as soon as the clock struck 12 i posted the partners! i cant wait to see what everyone does with this. i am really intriqued by the finished size of these little guys and some of the practice quilts are looking awesome. i started to play with some hexagons once i saw a great article on them in the latest quilts and more.
i think this is my favorite quilting mag. they have projects for things other than just quilts. its more of a patchwork mag.
this is my first attempt at hexagons. can i say, i love them???
i was really proud of my tiny stitches that attach them to each other, and i dont often think that my work is all that and a bag of chips....but this...this is! i am going to attach this to a backing of the orange polka dot. it turns out to be a little coaster for a cup or teapot.
martha is having another one of her contests. this time its for cookies. and its time for the recipe box swap again, i know i am two days late, but better late than never
lemon butter cookies
1 c. butter
add gradually, creaming well
1 c. brown sugar
add 2 eggs, well beaten
grated rind of 1 lemon
juice of 1/2 lemon
1 t. cinnamon
1/4 t. clove
1/4 t. salt
mix well. blend in
2 c. flour
add more flour if necessary to make the dough thick enough to roll out. chill. roll 1/8" thick, cut out and bake until delicately brown at 350, for 10 minutes. makes 60.
recipe by fannie farmer boston cooking school cookbook, tenth edition, 1959
dont forget to check out all the recipes for cookies at i have to say. randi posted the most delish looking lemon bars ever. so get over there and get chubby.
i have decided to call this gas prices friday. my family at the present only has one car. because of this i dont always notice the price of gasoline. i thought it would be interesting to keep track of the price over the summer. hey it doesnt take much to impress me, i tell ya! so for this week we are at $3.75 a gallon. does anyone know why gas is sold with the tenths of a cent thingy there??? i mean do they think we are getting a bargain because they dont charge us $3.76?? i say aw heck they are taking so much of my money anyhoo, they can have the extra 1/10th of a penny!
most fridays you can find me in a coffee shop hanging with the girls. we originally met and beaded together. now we mostly just yak. one of our favorite things to do together tho is too eat and watch scary movies(cheesy scary movies are good too). a few fridays back my one friend kelly wanted to know how to crochet, so she could make a plastic bag, out of plastic bags. per usual, she sent me the link and i checked out how to do it and told her what she needed to bring......
first pic is of what i accomplished
and what kelly made....
isnt it great?? its made entirely of target bags! it is a nice sized bag too. i cant imagine how many she used. the little circle that i made up there was i think two bags. i did make it a bit bigger but not much
her daughter has of course confiscated it, but i just love that it is a bag made from bags that might have been thrown out . i need to finish mine. i think i need to start a list of things i need to finish!!
while we were at barnes and noble tonight there was a storm and then this lovely double rainbow
you can tell i took the photo from the window inside as there is a backwards cafe sign in it!! nice photography skills, huh? in case you cant tell im being sarcastic
this is the doll quilt that i am sending my partner in the lemonade stand doll quilt swap. i had originally made it for doll quilt swap 3, but wasnt happy with how many seams it had, since i like to hand quilt. it would have been a bear to hand quilt!! but this swaps quilts are more likely to be actually used by a child, so i decided that it would be ok to use this one and machine quilt it.
here's the back. the fabric is dick and jane. thats a battery on top of the label to hide my partners name
ok, i know i have been trying to be really good and not spend money frivolously, but i hadnt gone to my favorite antique mall in ages. the lady that owns my favorite booth even said she hadnt seen me since before christmas.....so thats good, right??? what i am trying to tell you is i fell off the wagon tonight.
i wasnt too bad, i spent $30, and i was really happy with everything i got.
here is the breakdown for you folks that are keeping track. the lovely floral jug/vase(8") was $12, the adorable little pitcher(5.5") was $9, i got the little pups(a teeny 1.25") for $3.50, 10 quilt blocks for $6.50, and a small assortment of buttons for i think about $3.
i have a question for my bloggy quilting friends. i figured that i need to sew these together, but what i dont know is what do i do once they are all sewn? do i have to applique it to another fabric? it will definately be doll quilt size when done. its about 16" long by 12" wide. zoom in on those fabrics will ya?? they are gorgeous, what i wouldnt give for a pile of all these beauties!!!
i wanted to say thank you to my friend shelly. she is such a sweetie. she works at my local quilt shop(no not the one going out of business), and she quilts really big quilts (well they are big to me because i make doll quilts) on a long arm. one of the things that is great for me about that fact is that you need extra batting and fabric on your quilt to use the machine. here is where i come in to the picture. she has no need for these odd smallish bits, but they are perfect size for my doll quilts!!! every so often she gives me her bits. aint' she sweet?? i dont know if it was a booboo or not but this time there was 4 1/2 yards of some adorable tan fabric..... i need to call her to find out.....and
i have a little quilting tip for you. i wont call it a tute because it isnt that much, but it is very helpful.
it is a great tip for making perfect miters on your quilt binding.
ok, so you know how you are suppose to sew up to the edge of the quilt and then do the fold up and flip down bit??? well with my tip you dont sew to the edge like normal...
i hope this makes sense and my pic isnt confusing. if you are sewing 3/8" away from the edge sewing your binding down, then you would stop that same distance from the edge(3/8") and sew diagonally out to the edge, like in the pic above. capeesh?
you fold your binding upwards as normal, and see how it just automatically goes up into an angle?
then fold down as usual and sew starting a smidge from the top like you normally would. 
now when you flip your quilt over you can see that it just becomes the perfect miter!! voila!!
if this is muddy or if you want pix of the steps i left out, just let me know
this really does make a difference in the look and ease of your miters. try it, you might like it! mikey does.
oh ladies i am in such a good mood, i think i will do the happy dance....happy happy joy joy!! my partner received my/her quilt today! yippee, and she loves it! i think that is the whole reason i do this swap, to have a partner that loves want you send and is something that they would have picked out. i love reading their blog and surfing their flickr account (oo sounds kind of like stalking, doesnt it?). i like to make something my partner would like, not necessarily what i would like, but hey if they happen to have the same kind of taste, all the better!! altho to be honest, if they dont have the same taste i think its easier to give it away! which brings me to this little quilt
now before you say, hey, thats the same quilt as the one in the pic above....its not. this is quilt no. 2 for the quilt swap. the one above is quilt no.3, and the one i actually sent. it was taking so long to quilt this one (bad choice of stencil) that i couldnt part with it. when i was about 2/3 done quilting, i stopped and made quilt no.3. which still took awhile to quilt, but not quite as long. and i really do love how the one i sent turned out. the stencil that i used was so much easier to follow and i just like the pattern it made. the quilt that i kept i just finished the binding tonight and chucked it into the washer. it scrunched up nicely.
i hope you dont think horribly of me, but i had to drop out of the lemonade doll quilt swap. for all the reasons i mentioned earlier about these little doll quilts in general. plus with the flickr group of 6" quilties starting up may 1, i was worried about the amount of time i would be spending on making my quilt for the swap. summer is coming soon, and a trip in the beginning of june to denver to my nieces grad school graduation.....i was just getting stressed thinking about it all. so i am hoping now i will feel more peaceful and relaxed!
scratch that. it hadnt occurred to me that the lemonade swap was already a month in when i decided to drop out. i guess i was caught up in myself because i wasnt planning on starting until doll quilt swap 3 was over. but i found out my partner had already started on my quilt and it would have been terrible of me to bail, so i am still in the swap. matter of fact i finished up my quilt for it already!i will post a pic in the next day or two.
last week i went to visit family (the great nephews baptism dontcha' know) and i had time to kill in between baptism and the party(which we ended up not making it to, long story, dont ask). so of course i stopped in at my favorite local quilt shop and to my horror(yes horror, folks this is a biggie), they are closing at the end of may!!! aghhhhhhhhhhhhhh, say it isnt so. since this might be the last time i have a chance to get some goodies.... i spent some money i prolly shouldnt have, but hey, it was an emergency, right???
i just had to buy some polka dots. 
everything in the store was 20% off except the bear making supplies, which were 50% off!!!! i got two sweet patterns. these are both big guys, because i have a lot of smaller bear patterns, and i thought it would be nice to have some bigger ones for gifties for the wee ones
i had just come across a bag online that someone had made with this amy butler pattern that i thought was so sweet, so i had to have this. the quilt pattern looked too kewl to pass up, dont you think??
saw these online last week and couldnt believe my luck, that they only had one and it was the one i wanted. be on the lookout in the near future for sweet little felted flowers here!!
and lastly i got this pattern, its just a sheet of paper, for a super adorable bag. its by moda and its a "just for you" pattern. let me know if you cant find it and i will be happy to send you a copy
it doesnt say anything on it about copyright, so i just may have to make up a few of these for my etsy shop! g'nite everyone
this lovely photograph is by the talented joe wigfall, not me. he so kindly let me put it up on my little blog here. please go check out his flickr pix...you wont regret it!!
today was not a pretty day. it was rainy and cloudy most of the day. not to mention it has been awfully gusty out (notice i didnt say windy, this my friends was no wind). i even had to go get an umbrella because apparently the umbrella faerie took mine. i was afraid coming out of target that i was only going to get this one chance to use the umbrella, the wind almost turned it inside out. auntie em, auntie em!
finished up my little quilt. i added a wonky kind of stitch to the outer wheel, and some beads to the center. i dont know if i want to keep it or not.... you cant tell here but it has a lime green binding, and its just about 10" square.
this weekend looks to be a busy one. great nephews baptism is tomorrow and we have a spaghetti dinner fundraiser on sunday at daughters church. i am hoping to be able to sneak to the quilt store while i am in town tomorrow. if i do i will make sure to post pix of my goodies.
tonight mr. chickenfoot surprised daughter and me by taking us to the mall to buy us new shoes!! ok, he drove to the mall and he went his way and we went ours, but hey, he gave us the money for the shoes!!! dont you just love my new shoes?? bought them at tjmaxx for $20 and then went to shoe carnival and saw them for $35. so i saved him money, right??? its kind of hard to tell but they are flat and cloggish (meaning they have no backs). i just adore these shoes. hence the squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.
now that i have mailed off my dqs3, i can turn to some projects i have had sitting, waiting for me. this is that little circle that i made after i got the book by jan mullen. i decided since its small (about 10") that i am going to embellish it. with all those bright colors i figure it was calling out for it. i have the binding almost sewn on and have done a little bit of embroidery on it, hopefully i will have a little time to finish it tomorrow.
i was over at jills blog and saw a recipe for biscotti that looks really yummy (and i am not a biscotti girl). then i saw this recipe at cupcake project for greek birds nest cupcake toppers that looks sooooo sinful, i think i may have to make these soon. i almost died when i saw this post on bakerella for cupcakes made with the characters from garfield. when daughter use to go with me to the flea markets she collected garfieldanalia. she actually has quite the collection. but these were so sweet. go check them out! oh, one last recipe, for lemon bars over at campfollowerbags. yum!! geez i just got over my period so i dont know whats up with all the sweets???
oh yeah! i almost forgot, simplify is having a give away, of the most gorgeous quilt. you need to go over there and leave a comment. if you think of it, could you tell her i sent you? i get extra entries if you do, but if you dont want to, thats ok too....but geez why are you so petty???
i mailed off my quilt for dqs3. this is just a peek of it finished. i wanted to wait until my partner got it, to show you, because i wanted it to be somewhat of a surprise. this one turned out really nice, if i do say so myself. the block was roman stripes. i vaguely followed the directions given by mary johnson. there are a lot of nice tutes over there, you should go check it out. i will wait. while im waiting i will just tell you that i did have a couple changes to her directions. once i had my foundation block, i ironed, then sewed down 1/4" to the right of the ironed line. then i laid my strip on top of the foundation block with the right side of the strip lined up with the sewn line. clear as mud? i also cut my strips 1.25"wide and cut their length after i had sewn them down, im not sure if she says to do this or not, but i find you waste less (same with log cabins, i dont cut until after i have sewn the strip down).
i am thinking this will be my last doll quilt swap, except for maybe an occasional one on one swap. while i was quilting this quilt and the one before it, i realized how much time i was spending on this, not to mention materials. the biggest thing for me was that i was progressing with my quilting/sewing skills but you couldnt tell, because everything i was making was being sent off. tracy and i also started a flickr group for swapping 6" mini quilts. i think this will be much better for me, as it should take less time and materials and it just seems like fun! and to be frightfully honest my quilt wall is starting to get full, so i can start another small wall of little 6" quilts!
i think i am beginning to see a pattern here( ok, i really am not BEGINNING to see, i have known all along!) this week my spendy purchase was....you guessed it! a book!!! this book to be exact. i love it and i think not only will i be able to make oodles of pot holders with it, it will serve as inspiration for my 6" quilts. go, scoot, run and get yourself a copy! while i was at the bookstore spending my evening alone, i decided to pick up one of our favorite childrens books (scroll down for "in the night kitchen") for my great nephew that is getting baptised this weekend. we love any book by maurice sendak, but this was a special favorite. i would pause on certain pages and she would "read" what was on the page. ah memories! all told for the two books i spent $21. not bad....
i stopped off at a great little restaurant owned by a sweet jordanian after hanging out at barnes and noble. i felt the need for falafel. i also got some yolangee (stuffed grape leaves). these are super yummy. you know they are good when they taste just like the ones you make!! these are the first ones i have tasted in ages that actually taste like someones mother made them, not like they used a can opener!! so if youre in vernon hills, il anytime soon, stop off at the pita grill....
im ashamed to say i got these two little gifties a number of days ago and i have yet to blog about them.
arent they gorgeous? the lovely lucinda sent them to me, just because i admired her little circles of joy!! she made them especially for me. =) gotta love that! thanks again lucinda, you really are a sweetie!
women worry about their man finding another woman. meet my hubbys other woman. oh if he would treat me as good as he treats his baby!! he cleans every speck of her after every ride, but apparently picking up his dirty socks is beneath him. sad i know, but what can a girl do??
i figured you ladies had been waiting long enough for another shot of my ugly toes! so here they are, purple piggies!!! this is my first toe nail polish of the season, yeah! today it was so lovely here, weather wise that i pulled out the summer clothes. it was so much fun wearing my capris and flipflops again. yippee for warm weather.
