A Quilt for Bee

Just so you didn't think I had forgotten her...I started piecing Bee's quilt a couple of weeks ago. It won't be nearly as time-intensive as Belle's, but I think its going to be pretty gorgeous.

 

 

There will be 30 blocks like this one...each in a different fabric. All green, aqua, lavender, plum, and navy. Her walls are a deep saphire blue and her favorite color is purple...we're trying to mesh the two so that we don't have to paint her room. I think it's going to be spectacular...eventually:)

Clowning Around

We're just a smidge late with our Halloween post...or maybe we're really early for Halloween 2013.

Anyway...we had two silly little clowns this year, Wiggles and Giggles. So...just some eye candy, because they're cute...and they've grown a bit since you last saw them.

 

Where am I heading in 2013?

No resolutions here...but as a new year begins, I am considering where my path is headed...besides to our mountain retreat (yep - that's the actual road to our camping cabin!).

So, where am I headed? 

1. Into the scary world of free motion quilting. I trudged through my first mini-quilt today...definitely need more practice, but at least I now know how to attach the foot:) Pics coming...

2. Sewing space spruce up...it needs it. I actually share our former nursery with a trampoline...and yes, the trampoline is staying!

3. Wrap up Belle's room (before starting Bee's). Some hand-quilting, a few more accessories, and we should be good to go.

Where are you headed this year?

Well, What do you know...

My emerald mosaic is a finalist over at Stitched in Color! I really just entered because it gave me an excuse to browse fabrics and dream. But, it's kind of fun to make the short list. Pop on over and check out the beautiful fabric selections and vote for someone. And maybe get some ideas for your next stashing:)

 

Somewhere Over the Rainbow

There have been lots of little (and not quite so little) projects going on in Belle's room in the last few months. I'll try to get you caught up as best I can...

 

I made this rainbow for her using a collection of buttons that I gathered from friends, family, and various Etsy stores.

 

Yeah, it might look cute...and you might be thinking, "Oh, that would be easy." Cause in theory, it is easy. But here's the thing...each one of those bad boys is stitched on individually, to the tune of about a gazillion hours of sewing buttons. So...whatever you're thinking right now, don't do it...just don't. Trust me!

 

 

But, it is cute...and she does love it...so I guess it was worth it.

 

I'm playing along with the Emerald Mosaic Challenge at Stitched in Color this month. The goal was to create a 3x3 mosaic of 9 fabrics that represent your idea of EMERALD.  Here are my entries...and they're making me realize that I might have neglected emerald when I was stash building. I just have so much fern and lime green that the basket is too full to justify buying more greens...oh well!

 

A Very Yellow Chair

Belle is still in the process of getting a completed room...I know, years in the making. She started kindergarten this summer, so one thing that she definitely needed was a quiet space to do homework. This antique vanity was already a member of the family, but we didn't have a chair that really fit the bill.

 

I picked up this chair at a local thrift store. A coat of white primer, a couple of coats of very yellow spray paint, some new foam, and a splashy red home dec fabric and the $3 chair fits right into her rainbow of a room.

 

She looks way too grown-up when she sits at her desk though, so I'm trying to keep her from using it too much:)

 

 

Stashing

My stash has taken a serious hit after all the work on Belle's quilt. I was almost completely out of orange and yellow fabric, and my basic red prints were pretty depleted as well. And I have a couple of new projects that are just itching for some basic black prints...a fabric choice that was totally non-existent around here.

 

So January is the month of stash rebuilding around here.

 

I started with a complete set of Pearl Bracelet by Lizzy House for Andover. It's just a great basic print that now comes in lots of colors and shades. I added Notting Hill by Joel Dewberry and The Birds and the Bees by Tula Pink. I'm fairly certain that Tula Pink has taken over as my favorite designer right now...there's just something about the way she cleverly includes squirrels or people or boats in very sophisticated prints. I guess it combines my love of adorable novelties with my desire for fresh modern patterns. Anyway...the complete set is getting pretty hard to find, so I was happy to have snapped up this bundle. A half-yard bundle of Timber & Leaf in Coral and Yellow added some gravity to things. The muted palette is feeling really fresh to me right now...I guess it's backlash from the rainbow riot I've been working on for ages:) I threw in a few prints from Type...I mean, how can you resist those type-writers??? I snatched up some text prints to mix in with my black and white stash. Not pictured here...I gathered a collection of fat quarters in just about every neutral Kona is offering and a few Bella too....lots of pale grays and putty-ish colors. And finally, I grabbed some basics in black/white, red, orange, and pink.

 

 

The stash is now fully rehabbed and I'm pretty sure it's time for a diet! Nothing like the holidays to make your jeans and your fabric stash a little fuller than before:)

Pinwheel, Pinwheel...

With all the Block of the Month work going on around I here, I was really itching to tackle something that could actually be completed in... oh, less than a year maybe. When the mailman delivered this Lark by Amy Butler design roll, it lasted about an hour before it went under the needle.

 

The top measures 36" square, so perfect for a baby quilt, wall hanging, doll quilt etc. I used a combo of strip and paper piecing to put her together. It's funny how a very new skill can quickly become part of your every day bag of tricks.



 

I had planned to list this in the shop when it was finished, but my sewing space has very bare, yellow walls that are sort of calling to the larks...so, we'll see.

Oddly, I am completely out of quilt batting, so I'll need to make a run to get some in the morning. Then it's on to quilting. I think I've worked out a machine quilting design and am now contemplating what hand stitching fun I might add to the riot. Hmmm....

Oh where, oh where...

have I been????

 

Let's just say that a laid-back, long-napping, easy-going, baby bee grew into an active, inquistive MISCHIEVIOUS toddler bee. All those long hours of editing photos with a snuggly baby in the crook of my arm or peacefully sleeping upstairs have flown right out the window! The good news is...I'm back! Kinda, sorta... Bee started preschool this fall and after a couple months of catching up on life, I'm finding myself with tiny bits of time to actually weed through a year's worth of photos, and maybe, just maybe, share a few here.

 

But as I mentioned in the last long ago post...the crafting hasn't stopped. Just the photo-editing and posting. So, I'll try to catch you up on some of the highlights over the next couple of months.

 

So for now...what's on my table today?

 

I'm feeling the quilting bug, so lots and lots of fabric, blocks, quilts in progress, patterns etc.

 

First...Craftsy Block of the Month 2013. I have absolutely no idea where this quilt is going...wandering aimlessly through my stash, I suppose. This BOM class is FREE from Craftsy and I highly recommend it if you are looking to broaden your quilting horizons. Y-seams, applique etc. And video tutorials that are AWESOME! I joined this BOM for two reasons...1. to sharpen my quilting skills and get some extra practice with things that I don't do very often. 2. to use up that stash. I wanted several new lines of fabric, but the fabric bins were pretty full. I'm hoping to clear some space with this quilt.

 

Here is my January "block" or in this case set of blocks. An offset log cabin block. The video tutorial teaches you about chain piecing and shows you a nifty little way to standardize your scant 1/4" seam allowance. I have no idea what I never thought of that before!



 

 

 

Next up, the Lucky Stars BOM with Don't Call Me Betsy. I tried and tried and tried to resist this one. I did...really! And I was doing great until everyone started posting the pics of their first blocks. As long as I couldn't SEE the blocks then I could tell them, "NO!" As soon as those blocks started popping up on Flickr, though, I was done for. You can get this one on Craftsy too, but it's $10. Which I think is crazy reasonable for this pattern or set of patterns. Each month features a different star and a paper-pieced pattern. So why did I join this one? You mean, besides the fact that those block pictures were calling to me in my sleep? 1. I've never paper-pieced anything...see that down there...it's my very first paper pieced block. (I didn't take a pic of the unit whose seam allowances got sliced off:) So, I really wanted to give paper-piecing a shot. 2. That stash again...it really is out of control! Again...no plan for this one. Each month, I'm just gonna raid the stash and hope by the end it all works together. And if not, I'll use the blocks in pillows, bags, etc.

 

The pattern set actually comes with a practice block and a paper-piecing survival guide. This is my practice block. I haven't gotten around to the January block yet, but I'm hoping to get it done this weekend.

 



And, who could resist a BOM of the month that comes with a dessert recipe??? Sugar Block 2013 with StitcheryDickoryDock! Now this BOM has a plan! I signed up for this one pretty far in advance and spent quite some time picking just the right combination of fabrics. I ordered a collection of Kona solids from various Etsy shops with the hope of making a quilt for our camping cabin in the mountains (it has an official name now - The Roost, after the flock of turkeys with whom we share the land). We just built queen-size bunk beds up there, and now I need to come up with two quilts that will work with the all white palette we've settled on for the furnishings. I wanted to pop some color into the place:) And believe it or not, I had finished the first block before I went to bed on January 1...just hours after receiving the pattern!

So far, so good...I love the color combo. This block features tomato, eggplant, corn yellow, white, and medium gray. I didn't even realize the vegetable theme until people starting commenting on it via Flickr:)

I'm planning a wonky plus sign quilt using a white layer cake and the remnants of the solids from this quilt for the other bed...now to order that layer cake!

And last, but definitely not least, Belle's quilt! Remember eons ago, when I posted the first blocks of this bad boy??? Well, "bad boy" is quite the understatement! I was seriously insane when I decided this was a good idea! But 64 blocks later, I'm in the quilting stage...FINALLY! And just to add insult to injury...I'm hand-quilting this puppy! Yep...NUTS! I'm doing a pretty simple design of concentric squares (can you say, "concentric" when talking about squares???). But, then I'm adding some faux mending stitches just to give it some character. What's a faux mending stitch? Well...I might have made that term up. There's probably a real term for it out there. Picture a really old quilt in a log cabin some where. Now picture all the little stitches that grandma made over the years to patch up rips, tears, holes, etc. CHARACTER! So, I'm adding little rows of lines or asterisks or other things in tiny places on the quilt. You don't notice them at all until you actually lie down on the quilt and start to see the intricacies. Oh...and quilting with perle cotton as always. It's my new thing:) I might have ordered 50 spools of size 5 from Paraguay...that shipping label got a few funny looks around here!

 

There are lots of other things going on around here too...more quilts, decorating projects, clothes, doll clothes, etc. I'll be back soon!

Happy Birthday, Belle!

It's been so long since I've posted here that I almost forgot my password! Have no fear, I've been just as crafty as ever. And more busy than normal. Hence, the FIVE SD cards full of pics that haven't been dealt with. Combine that with a laptop that is on its last legs, and well...lots of crafts, just not much evidence!

Somewhere along the way in all the madness of this spring and summer, my little Belle turned 5! And we just met her new kindergarten teacher this afternoon. She's on a year round calendar, so she'll start kindergarten on MONDAY! I just can't seem to wrap my brain around the fact that the 19" baby I brought home from the hospital is now in elementary school. YIKES!

And thanks to a friend and former colleague of mine, we actually have pictures of her birthday party! Hop on over to Furnished Photography and check out Katherine's amazing work...you might have seen her around here before:) She's been taking pics of my babies since Bee was born and for good reason...she's AWESOME!

So...about the party.

We had a Tea Party just for the girls. I forgot to pull out an invitation when Katherine was taking pics so I can't show you one, but I found a cute little saying and printed it on an image of a vintage hanky. Then I mounted the invite on cardstock and wrapped it in a paper doily and tied it with a ribbon...super cute I assure you:)

I spent six months scouring thrift stores, flea markets, and craft fairs to find enough vintage tea cups, saucers, table linens and hankies for everyone. And I scored a load of vintage tea pots, serving trays, doilies, and additional linens during a last minute trip to my husband's grandfather's house. All the doilies except the really brightly colored ones (a Michaels dollar bin find) were made by Belle's great-grandmother who passed away long before she was born. I think Grandma Ollie would more than approve!

My MIL gets the credit for the amazing party tent...she found it in a Big Lots advertisement a couple of weeks before the big day. It's a monster, but so perfect for a family of little girls!

Fabric buntings made from the stash, giant tissue paper flowers, and balloons made it festive.

Play tea sets provided some party entertainment.

An old high school friend of my husband's was my baker...strawberry cupcakes with strawberry icing and strawberries on top, made exactly to the birthday girl's order, were so delicious.

I made Belle's dress and let me tell you...it was quite an ordeal! There are FOUR full yards of fabric on that tiny little child! I wish I could share the pattern link with you, but I originally found it on pinterest and now can't locate where I pinned it...somehow it has disappeared or I've gone crazy. And I've searched and searched the internet to relocate it and can't find it that way either. I don't have access to the paper pattern at the moment, but I will track it down eventually and share it with you. The pattern was actually really easy to follow considering how complicated the final product appears. But, I HATE ruffles. I mean really HATE them and if you can't tell there are 5 of them on that bad boy. UGH! But Belle was positively in love with her dress, so it was all worth it. Kind of like a wedding huh? It's all about the dress:)

Smaller versions of the vintage hanky images made place cards.

Tea pots and cups held flowers from our garden...it was a bit of slim pickings because many of the flowers that matched our color scheme were fading, but our hydrangeas were in full bloom so we were able to make it work without having to buy any flowers...yay!

And a totally strawberry menu...lemonade with fresh strawberry puree, fake strawberry macarons (two Nilla wafers sandwiched with strawberry icing), strawberry cream cheese tea sandwiches, freshly picked strawberries...and I couldn't help throwing in a bowl of blueberries just for variety. They were NOT part of the approved menu, but Belle let it slide:)

She was having too much fun to see a rebel berry in the bunch!

And somehow we managed to make it through the entire party without a single broken cup!

It wasn't very dainty, but even Bee was able to handle her china:)

Belle, of course, rocked the tea pinky!

Colored pencils and some printable paper dolls entertained the girls as the party was winding down.

Tea cups, saucers, and hankies were wiped and tucked into bags and sent home with all our guests.

The memories of Belle's tea party will definitely be treasured for years to come. It was truly unforgettable!

Now let's hope it was enough to get me off the hook for big fancy parties for a few years:) I love you, Belle-a-boo!

What has...

36 legs and flies???

Wrap It Up in 2012!

This is me asking you to cut me some slack...kay????

I dreamed up this great idea, but unfortunately it didn't hit mybrain until late in February. So...I'm getting a bit of a late start.

Anyway...introducing Wrap It Up in 2012!


My grand plan is try to put the finishing touches on some projects that are lingering in the stash and have been all but forgotten.



It all started when, one evening, I went looking for something to embroider. Did I have a project in mind? Nope! Did I need an embroidery project? Nope! Did I have a plan for what I might do with said embroidery project? Nope! All I had was a desire to do some hand-stitching.

As I began the process of pulling out supplies, I just happened to glance down and see this quilt top lying there...completely neglected. As it had been for months.

It wasn't embroidery, but it was hand-stitching. And I could use my giant quilting hoop, so it would feel like embroidery. And I do have a lovely collection of variegated perle cottons that would be sure to have some complimentary colors. And it would be nice to actually finish something for once.

So...I bundled it up, dug through my stuff to find the thimble (I'm picky about my thimbles and only use the leather coin kind that cost a fortune...it was imperative that I find it because I didn't want to have to pay for another), and scampered to the playroom closet to collect the quilting hoop.

A few hours later, I was happily ensconced in my hand-quilting when the idea of Wrap It Up in 2012 came to me. Why not try to finish up one project every month? It was already late February...and I did pick a MONSTER of a project to begin with, but it was doable. Right????

Ok, so I'm not 100% convinced that I will actually be able to tackle 12 projects this year, but I figure if I don't decided to hand-quilt every one of them then I might stand a chance....maybe!

So, keep your eyes peeled and you might just spot 12 completed projects this year, all pulled from my stash of WIPs. And you might also catch sight of a little Bee who isn't always the most helpful, but is most definitely always cute:)

And PS - this quilt originated from a charm pack that I won in a giveaway (Central Park by Kate Spain) and had no intended recipient, so it's listed in the shop if you're interested.

Dr. Seuss a la Eric Carle

In honor of one of the world's most famous children's book authors, we started our day off on the right foot with green eggs and ham. I wasn't as creative as many of the others moms and teachers out there who actually took the time to make deviled eggs with green filling or fancy little candies that look like green eggs and ham...and definitely not those intricately iced cookies that are simply too gorgeous to eat...nope, I just dropped several drops of green food coloring into our scrambled eggs:) But the girls were thrilled...though Bee did give me several suspicious stares before she actually took a bite!


But then the fun really began! I'm not sure how it ever occured to me to combine the collage style of Eric Carle with the funky landscapes of Dr. Seuss, but alas it did and I had to suffer the consequences:)



An hour of painting patterns on paper...

A floor covered in wet paint all through the middle of the day...try keeping little fingers out of that!

A foray into the scenes of various Seuss books for ideas for horizon lines, trees, grass clumps, etc.

And then a pain-staking session of helping little hands to cut out all the fancy little shapes she had designed...

But, I think the results were worth it...

Don't you???

This "Seuss inspired landscape," as Belle describes it, is bound for the girls' bathroom wall. It was pointed out to me that there are no "decorations" in that room. And that, my friends, is completely unacceptable in Belle's world:)

I hope you have had a chance to celebrate the contributions of Dr. Seuss at some point in your day! Where would the world be without , in the words of Bee, "the Hat Cat?"

Mmmmm...Meatballs!

I have been very consciously trying to get back to my menu planning, grocery list keeping days. You know, the ones before you had two crazy kids under foot all day long. Remember those???

It also helps to justify my obsession with tearing recipes out of magazines and leaving them strewn throughout the house, wherever I happened to be reading at the time. It would probably justify this practice even more if I ever actually followed a recipe....but I don't....EVER!

It's not that those recipes don't get to put use...they just don't get followed. They are more of an inspiration. Like my real life pinterest board...all over my house:)

So, to get back to the point, I carried my carefully plotted grocery list into the store today and began to cross things off one by one. [Believe it or not, there was once a time in my life when I was able to organize that grocery list by the departments in the store...produce, cold cases, etc. But that day has passed...oh well!]

Included in that list were all of the ingredients necessary to make meatballs "using" a new recipe I found in the March 2012 issue of Cooking Light. Which in this case, simply meant that I was going to add ricotta cheese to my meatball mixture because the magazine said it would make the meatballs mouth-wateringly moist.

And that's when I saw it...a sale! On lean ground pork! $1.00 a pound! Seriously...a whole pound of ground pork for just a buck! Oh, this meatball making adventure just turned into a expedition! Why make a batch of meatballs for dinner, when I could make 6 batches and freeze them for later use???

And let me tell you...I've made meatballs before. Pork, turkey, lamb, beef, combos, you name it. But these meatballs are so seriously delicious that the 6 batches may not make it to the freezer. YUM!

And, I think you probably saw the homemade marinara mess that Belle and I made this summer. That's some seriously delicious marinara, but it was all in the freezer. So, I bought a jar of Mid's Meatless sauce. I'm not much of a fan of jarred pasta sauces. Typically, I use big cans of tomato sauce and crushed tomatoes and make my own. (You have to save the homemade stuff for really special occassions, 'cause it's a pain to make!) But I had read, in Cooking Light again, that there are some decent brands out there, so I thought I would give it a shot. If I was going to spend half the day making 6 bazillion meatballs then I didn't want to be slow simmering a sauce all day too. And you know what? This sauce is pretty darn good. It's Sicilian style (I won't pretend to know what that means), and relatively thick for a meatless sauce. And it was perfect with these meatballs.

So, recipe...

Inspired by the Italian Meatball Sliders recipe in Cooking Light, March 2012: I've changed the quantities to make enough to freeze for future meals. The directions for tonight's dinner are pretty much straight from the magazine. There is also a great spinach salad recipe with this in the magazine...we had it as well, and it was delish.

Many, Many Meatballs

Makes approximately 50 2-inch meatballs.

Ingredients:

6 shallots - diced

8 cloves garlic - minced

15 oz. container of part skim ricotta

2 cups Panko bread crumbs

1 cup parsley - chopped

2 lbs. lean ground pork

1 lb. ground turkey breast

5 links sweet Italian turkey sausage - casings removed

1/2 tsp. freshly ground pepper

1 tsp. kosher salt

4 eggs

Saute the shallots and garlic until softened. Then combine all ingredients and mix well. Form two inch balls. * See Special Note below* Heat large stainless steel skillet (I'm sure other types of pans would work here, that's just what I used) over medium low heat. Use an oil mister to spray pan. Reserve enough meatballs for dinner tonight. Then, working in batches, brown remaining meatballs on all sides and place on baking sheet. Heat oven to 350 degrees and bake until cooked through, approximately 40 min. Cool completely. Freeze on a clean baking tray, then transfer to freezer containers and return to freezer.

For tonight's dinner - Slightly flatten reserved meatballs. Add to warm pan and cook 3 minutes on each side. Add 1 1/2 cups marinara to pan and cover. Simmer 10 minutes or until cooked through. Serve on warmed slider buns (I used soft wheat dinner rolls from our grocery store bakery). You could top with a slice of fresh mozzarella and some fresh basil leaves too.

Special Note: A friend of mine shared that he always makes his meatballs in the oven. He skips the browning and bakes them on parchment paper. He swears they are crispy and delicious. And I trust him...he's a super cook and baker, so I'd highly recommend you give that method a shot...I know I will be! It will save you tons of time standing at the stove, browning batches of meatballs. You will still want to cook the ones for tonight on the stovetop though so they can simmer in the sauce.