MId-week Mosaic

Friday is the first day of Summer!

I thought I would put together some pictures of things I 

like about summer!

1. the Lake 2. fresh Berries 3. a game of Croquet 4. picnic table parties

5. beach chairs 6. garden Peonies 7. the color: Melon

Book Tour Winner, BOM: Deckade and Bees Knees

I wasn't sure if I was suppose to announce the book winner from my blog

on Friday or wait until today when Sherri was going to announce all of the book 

winners...

so, now that I have kept you in suspense longer than you probably needed to be...

the lucky winner of A Quilting Life book by Sherri McConnell is...

Laurie of West Texas Threads!

Congratulations Laurie!

You are going to love Sherri's book!

Thank you to everyone who entered the giveaway.

It was such a fun one... it was fun for me to read all

the comments I got regarding the preference of 

cloth or paper napkins. Who would have known it

was such a hot topic!

Although I wasn't as domestic as I wanted to be over the weekend...

I did get a little bit of sewing done.

Yes, you know, those cute little gingerbread men for the

Fat Quarter Shop Deckade Block of the Month.

I also got the next block in the group finished...

Some fun little stars.

I am gathering up my blocks from my quilting Bees Knees Quilt Group

project right now too. My group was suppose to make two

blocks each. I have mine and 4 others that were sent back to me.

I am anxious to start working on putting it together but I have several

blocks still coming back to me.

This is the project that I am making with those blocks.

This one was made by Hyacinth Quilt Designs blog.

She has a tutorial and a link to where the block originated...

Amy Smart's blog, Diary of a Quilter.

Do you see that the circles actually are hexagons? I need to do

that part next and make a hexagon for the center also.

I get excited all over again just looking at this photo!

edit: my mistake those are octagon's... hexagon just popped into my head!

Sa-weet!

Life is sweet!

I won this bundle of fabric

last week from the Blogger's Quilt Festival!

It's Madhuri by Amanda at the Quilted Fish!

She designs for Riley Blake! They do "cute" fabric so well!

I love the colors and the influence of India in the prints!

I just want to rip it open and play with it... but I

am trying to control myself until I actually have a plan for it!

Thank you Amanda! And a big thank you to Amy at Amy's Creative Side!

Blogger's are sweet!

 

Here is a possibility- the pattern made to go with the fabric!

Right now I have a list of

projects in the queue. 

One thing that I plan on working on this weekend is my BOM from Fat Quarter Shop!

The kit didn't arrive at my home until Monday, so last weekend I was just in anticipation of

getting it! 

I have numbers 1 and 2 cut and ready to sew... and I am sure to have those done in

plenty of time for block #3 which gets published on June 24th.

This is a free Block of the Moth by the Fat Quarter Shop to celebrate

their 10th anniversary... 

aren't they so sweet?

Thanks to everyone who commented on the Blog Book Tour of A Quilting Life.

The comments are now closed and a winner will be picked and announced on Monday.

It really is a beautiful book... Sherri is so sweet and did a fantastic 

job creating projects for the home!

The book has 19 projects--2 bags, 3 table runners, 1 table topper, 

and 13 quilts ranging from wall hanging size to large lap/twin size.

The photos are gorgeous... so, if you don't make a thing but just

have it on your coffee table to look through... I promise, 

you will enjoy it!

Have a great weekend!

Sunday Flew By and Here We Are...

 Wow, how did it get to be Wednesday already?

Here is what I worked on for Scrap Basket Sunday...

unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to add my link to

Kim's Big Quilting Adventure blog, and show my 

project with everyone else.

I made 3 different blocks from the Scrap Basket Sensations

book. I am trying to decide if I am going to make a scrap  "sampler" quilt

using blocks from the different projects in Kim's book or

if this is the start of 3 different quilts!

Yesterday, my quilt circle had our monthly meet-up. 

It was my turn to host...

so I took an extended lunch and we all met up at the LQS.

I thought it would be fun to show my quilting buddies

this project.

Something BIG, fast, and furious!

So I did a little demo for them.

I saw the demo on it from Missouri Star Quilt Co.

here.

It's pretty fun. This is a 25" block. You can get yourself

a large quilt in no time with this method.

If you watch the tutorial... I would only add...

that I would press my fabric from the get-go with sizing, for 

stabilization purposes. You end up working with bias edges, but

I haven't found any issues yet... that is why I used the sizing!

I was trying to find more photos of the quilt in the video when

I stumbled upon the same quilt called Dashing Stars that 

appeared in an issue of Quickly Quilting by Fons and Porter.

3 rows across and 4 down... you have yourself a quilt 

measuring 94 x 121 with borders, BAM- in a heartbeat.

I gave a repeat performance last night too, when I went back to the LQS 

to teach a Crumbler class. It was a small class, and went quickly...

so I brought out my star... and played some more.

They ended up getting two classes in one. 

On another note...

I got attacked by a spider (I think)

I'm tempted to take a photo of my legs.. but I'm going to spare you.

I have 7 bites on one leg and 3 on the other... it's crazy! And itchy!

I'm keeping a close eye on things... I have been bit by a black widow before

and I know that those little buggers can do some damage!

Oh, one more thing about the star... you snowball the corners of the block and

when you add your sashing you get the secondary block that you see there in the photo...

pretty slick!

Thread Catchers, Pincushions, and Winners! Oh My!

I am looking forward to a nice little weekend!

I hope to have some play time in the

sewing room.

I will be finishing up my flying geese for this one. 

I have my reads picked out now for the blocks too.

But what we really want to know now, is who the winners are for my

600th post big-day-give-away!

The giveaway prizes are from Cheryl at Meadow Mist, who graciously is 

sponsoring this giveaway for me!

So here we go...

The first winner will get their choice of 

a Thread Catcher set

and the winner is:

Lisa at In the Boon Docks blog!

The second winner will get their pick of 

any custom pincushion in her store:

and the winner is

Wendy Q at It Is What It Is blog.

the third prize will be a

 

set of two pdf patterns from Cheryl's store.

and the winner is

Sandy at Crazy Bout Quilts!

Congratulations girls!

Thank you for entering the giveaway!

Please remember if you didn't get picked... there is still a 

15 percent off being offered at Meadow Mist when you

enter the special code:

pinkpincushion

Thank you for visiting my blog and for those of you who gave me links to 

favorite blog posts... thank you so much. I really enjoyed reading each and every one of them.

And a special thank you to Cheryl for sponsoring my special 600th 

post day too! Your talent amazes me!

There is still time to enter in the blog book tour

in the post below.

The winner will get a copy of Sherri's book:

A Quilting Life!

You can also enter for more chances at the links listed!

10 chances, one from each blog! 

Have a great weekend...

it's officially Summer for me! 

(I start it two weeks early)

New Projects for June

I have been reading the blog posts that you have been sharing with me on

my Big Day Give Away post. It has been so fun to read them!

There is still time to enter... the giveaway winner will be picked tomorrow!

I did think of a couple of posts that I found funny and thought 

they were worth sharing again. I actually think I shared one of them before...

but here they are.

I Even Amaze Myself and

Have You Had Your Quilters Vaccine Yet

There are a couple of new projects on my list this month:

One is the Beck-Ad the Halls Quilt.

It's the Fat Quarter Shops Anniversary!

So they came up with a great idea...

Fat Quarter Shop

10 years. 10 blocks. 10 fabrics

The patterns are free... and better yet, they are cute.
I have mine on it's way!

So hopefully my kit will arrive by tomorrow so that I can start playing

right away. I have been seeing the 3 Wise Gingerbread Men blocks

(the first month project) on Pinterest and there is a Flikr group too.  

I just had to have some Gingerbread men of my own!

You can use your own stash...
but a kit is kind of handy, so I opted

for that. 

The other project on my list for this month is...

Coastal Lily.

Have you seen Thelma's?

I have been wanting to make this one forever... so it seemed to be the perfect

time. I am still waiting for my pattern but I started on the flying geese...

The pattern calls for 180. I have 166 made so far!

Woo hoo!

A Quilting Life Book Tour

Today is the A Quilting Life blog book tour.

I am excited to be a part of Sherri's book debut! 

Her book has several fun projects... they are for beginner or
intermediate quilters.
They are projects that can be whipped up pretty quickly...
perfect for a gift. I love the table runners and pillow patterns!

My friend Donna, who is the owner of my LQS

made up one of the quilts in Sherri's book out of Glamping 

fabrics... for a summer time picnic quilt!

I wanted to share that with you today...

it's Pinwheel Picnic!

Doesn't it make the cutest picnic or camping quilt?

Sherri asked us to share a little something about ourselves on the book tour that

had to do with a quilting life. Of course!

So I wanted to share my quiche recipe with you!

My family and friends always request this for special get togethers.
I love quick because it's good for breakfast, lunch, or dinner...
indoors or outdoors! I haven't given this secret recipe out until now!
for 2 Quiche pies:
You can make the crust or buy deep dish  pie crust like
I sometimes do.

Custard:

4 eggs
3/4 cup milk
3/4 cup heavy cream
2 tsp. melted butter
1 Tb. flour
pinch of salt, nutmeg, cayenne pepper

Fillings:
grated cheese (Monterey Jack & cheddar)
1 can of sliced artichoke hearts
sliced mushrooms
sliced tomatoes
4 strips bacon
chopped yellow onions
I mix and match ingredients... and throw in asparagus or whatever else
I find in the fridge.
Bake at 375 for 45-55 minutes

Another thing, that I feel adds to my Quilting Life/home life is that I love cloth napkins.

I have a pet peeve about paper napkins... you will almost never find them at my house.

I don't really need formal napkins... but I do love cloth napkins for the table

and for picnics too!

Don't get me wrong... I'm really not a formal kind of person;

we have had plenty of good napkin fights at the end of a meal!
It helps that we have no less than 8 at our family gatherings.

Paper napkins could never work for that!

Picnics are also a good time to use cloth napkins too...

they don't blow away!

A cute napkin tutorial is from Alidiza blog. 

These would look so cute made to match a table runner from Sherri's book.

Please leave a comment and tell me, do you use paper or cloth?
to enter the drawing for a copy 

of A Quilting Life book!

(a pdf version will be sent to anyone who wins outside of the U.S.)

Be sure to go visit each blog on the tour... 
you have lots of chances to win!
Winners will be announced on 6/14!

Monday June 3^rd Nanette at Freda’s Hive http://fredashive.blogspot.com/
Tuesday June 4^th Sinta from Pink Pincushion http://pinkpincushion.blogspot.com/
Wednesday June 5^th Jodi from Pleasant Home http://www.pleasant-home.com/
Thursday June 6^th Judi from Green Fairy Quilts http://greenfairyquilts.blogspot.com/
Friday June 7^th Lissa of ModaLissa http://modalissa.blogspot.com/
Saturday June 8^th Amanda of AmandaMurphyDesignhttp://amandamurphydesign.blogspot.com/
Sunday June 9^th Anna of Thimbleanna http://thimbleanna.com/
Monday June 10^th Amy Smart of Diary of a Quilter http://www.diaryofaquilter.com/
Tuesday June 11^th Kristyne of Pretty by Hand http://prettybyhand.com/
Wednesday June 12^th Sherri of A Quilting Life http://www.aquiltinglife.com