Apron Lady

Next weekend I will be making my first apron with my sister and sister-in-law. It's taken me long enough to participate in this trend. I will be making the middle apron in the book Retro Aprons by Cindy Taylor Oates. This book is super popular right now.


Here's what I picked -- on sale, yeah. I found a nice Art Gallery Fabric piece and a coordinating print. So here is the "before" picture. Hopefully we will have a nice "after " picture soon.

Wish us luck!

Confession Time

Yesterday I bought Walmart fabric. Yes. I really did. I had to. See I have a little girl who is turning two today. She LOVES Scooby Doo. I just haven't seen Scooby Doo at a quilt shop. I found a super cute print. Yes it is thin, but at least it isn't see through. Can you forgive me?

I was a little worried how my quilt shop fabrics would work with my Walmart piece, but I think they are playing very nicely. Michael Miller and Fabri-Quilt accent Scooby very nicely. Sure, the borders of the quilt will last longer than the center, but I'm okay with that. This is one quilt that I wouldn't mind if my two year old wore out.

I predict it will be a favorite. Why? Not because of my superior piecing ability or the border fabric that perfectly accents the center print. Not even because of the dog bones or "scooby snacks" that I quilted on it. No, it will be a favorite because of the minkee I put on the back. The stripe wouldn't have been my first choice, but it was 40% off. At that price I love it.

So here's the picture of the quilt:

My two year old will get it at her "party" (when we sing happy birthday and give her presents) after her brother and sisters get home from school.

I made a pillowcase too. I hope these will help her sleep in her bed. I'm mostly impressed that she hasn't actually seen it yet. I can't wait to see her reaction.

Color of the Year

I never knew there was a color of the year. I visited Pantone's website today and saw the announcement -- Turquoise is the color of the year. Congratulations Turquoise!

It doesn't really surprise me considering all I have been hearing about red and turquoise in the quilt world lately.

You can click on the image above to go to the official announcement where you can learn all about the color turquoise. Did you know that turquoise represents escape? Makes sense. Also, turquoise "pairs nicely with any other color in the spectrum." That's a quote from Pantone, the king of color. I will have to think about that one. It's never been one of my favorite colors, but it is nice. Lastly, did you know that turquoise is hard to spell? That wasn't from Pantone, that was from me. I keep thinking I am going to spell it wrong.

If you have never been there, go to Pantone's website. It is a celebration of color. Everything is so luscious. Makes me want to design a new quilt!

Jinny Beyer This Weekend

I just watched an amazing video!

It is called "Perfect your Hand Piecing" with Jinny Beyer, Alex Anderson, and Ricky Tims on The Quilt Show. This video is free to watch this weekend (Friday, Saturday, and Sunday). Click here or on Jinny's picture for the link to the show:

I have always said that the only reason I got into quilting is because I can do all of it on the machine. This is true. The only hand work I do is finishing a binding, and many times I do that on a sewing machine as well.

That said, I loved the video on hand piecing. Seeing Jinny piece was amazing and inspiring. It almost makes me want to write "Making a grandmother's flower garden doll quilt" down on the 2010 quilts to make list instead of the quilts to make someday list -- almost.

She also mentioned her new book The Quilter's Album of Patchwork Patterns. This book has been on my wish list since I saw that it was being published. I need to show it to my husband. Maybe he will get it for my birthday.

The video is an hour long, and I watched several parts of it twice. Jinny's quilts don't have to be your style to be impressed by her precision hand piecing.

Who says bean bags have to be square?

As a last minute Christmas gift for some nephews I made these beanbags: a shark for a 3 year old boy and a killer whale for a 1 year old boy and an extra killer whale for my kids since I had just that much of that fabric left.


They are pretty good sized. Probably about 10" long, a fun size to play with. I make them with an extra layer of batting for padding and poly pellets. I love poly pellets because it makes bean bags that are childproof -- washable and suckable. Don't know about other people's children, but my children like to put the corners of beanbags (and other such toys) in their mouths and suck on them. You obviously don't want them eating poly pellets, but it allows the beanbags to be able to get wet without worry.

Also, they are sitting on a big tv pillow that I covered with super soft fuzzy fabric for another nephew.

Christmas Baking

First off, I am soooooo glad that quilting requires no cooking experience! I know lots of quilters are also good cooks. I am not one of those quilters. At Christmas I always feel inclined to try baking.

This year I tried:

Caramels. First batch (licorice caramels) were a little too hard, good flavor though. It gets extra points for taking out my daughters loose tooth. Second batch (the sweetened condensed milk and cream type) were -- you guessed it -- too soft. They also had good flavor so I wrapped them in parchment paper so they wouldn't stick to the wrapper. Third batch (the evaporated milk and cream type) did turn out just about right, but by now I was done wrapping (and the first batch just got cracked not wrapped) so they just got cut. Why did I keep trying? Because if the three bears could get it right on the third try, then so could I!

Rice Crispy Treats. These have become a standby because I have figured them out now. Before you laugh too much, I make them with half regular Rice Crispies, half Cocoa Pebbles, and some M&Ms so they are pretty good.

Cake Balls. My youngest sister tries to keep me up to speed on what is "cool." She told me about cake balls. In my Christmas zeal, I decided to give them a try. They turned out to be a hit. I never have a "hit" in cooking so I was very excited. I got the recipe from Bakerella. Here is a picture from her website:


Mine didn't look too much like that. Mine were mostly round, but they were edible and that's the main part. Also I could only find a lemon cake mix and since I made these at the last minute, that's what I went with. So I used a lemon cake mix, cream cheese frosting, and half were covered in white almond bark and the other half with melted Hershey's milk chocolate chips. (I only recently discovered the secret to working with dipping chocolates is using 50% power on my microwave.)

If I can make them, you can make them. AND they are really good so people actually think you can cook. Bakerella had some good tips on her website that helped a lot. I may even try them again this week because I only got to eat a couple of them, and now they sound really good. I bought a chocolate cake mix this time because it's hard to go wrong with chocolate.

Good luck! I hope your Holiday baking was as successful as mine! Merry Christmas!

Crazy Star Patch Runner Tutorial

Merry Christmas!

I wrote up this tutorial for a fun star runner table runner. Flag Day Farms by Minick and Simpson is one of my all time favorite fabric lines so I had to make my runner with it. It would make fun Christmas or Winter Stars as well.

It is similar to other off kilter stars blocks online with a couple exceptions. First I, of course, used a charm pack to make mine. Second, I make my stars just a little differently because, well, just because I'm funny like that.

I love how the narrow red border sets off the blocks. The finished size is 27" x 53-1/2." It is a 13-1/2" finished block.