Geese and Roses

Today, the girls and I met my dad for lunch at Lake Miramar. We get together there about once a month and the highlight of each visit is feeding the ducks after we eat. Well this visit involved that after the girls freaked out climbing on the picnic table begging to be carried past a ferocious beast. Who? Well it was a goose.

Later we saw this whole flock of them and they screamed bloody murder in terror. So to explain why my two well-adjusted kids are terrified of geese, I need to reminisce.

Many, many months ago, before we started bringing real bird food and instead tore up chunks of bread. My dad brought with him a homemade sun-dried tomato bread. As we stood on the bank tossing it to the ducks on the water, a group of geese waddled up to us so we started feeding them too. Well they didn't like the bread and began to attack us. They bit one of the girls, my dad, and me, we literally had grab the girls, and fight our way out from them and run for it. Now the girls freak out even when we see them a long distance away. The moral of the story, if you don't like the bread, probably the geese won't either.
I thought that you might like to see the finished piecing of my "romantic roses"? "hot lips"? or whatever name it gets quilt. I should say, I have finished following the pattern for this quilt. I have always wanted to participate in a round robin style of quilt, and I think I am going to do my own round-robin style of borders to increase this to be queen sized quilt.
First thing I plan to do is set the quilt on point. Whew, that was easy! Next, I am going to fill the corners with solid black, and applique cream and red flowers onto them. Yikes, didn't I just finish a whole bunch of applique projects? And, I am working on the Bunny Hill BOM. And, I am designing 2 new applique patterns with my mom. And, I want to applique parts of Vintage Valentines for the girls. Really, do I have to sew all these little things?

Thanks, I feel better getting that off of my chest and now I am ready to run with this quilt. Besides, I love covering little pieces of freezer paper with fabric. It is so theraputic and quiet, and after a crazy day chasing the girls, sometimes it is just what I need to unwind.

I was going to post one more picture of something new I just made, but I am making a couple more for gifts, and I think I will wait to share the photos until I get the rest finished and given away. So just be on the watch for something new and creative that can be done in just a couple of hours.

Kami

Dessert

Jason's dad arrived in town today for the weekend. So tonight I planned an Italian dinner feast. Lasagna with homemade marinara sauce, garlic bread and a green salad. But, the highlight was this plate of Spaghetti and Meatballs I made for dessert. It is really frosted cupcakes for his birthday! The recipe is in this book of easy but amazing decorated cupcakes. I was given it as a gift for Mother's Day last year and use it all the time.

I am off to entertain, but I wish I could sneak back to my sewing room. Just for 5 minutes maybe??

Kami

Kites and more

Happy day after Earth Day.

Did you go outside and do something special? Here are a few pictures of the girls celebrating. Well at least doing something fun.

Okay are you ready to see my black, red, and green quilt. It really needs a name, but I haven't thought of anything yet. I think I might need to get more parts together before something will come to me. If you have any suggestions leave a comment with your idea.

Here are the pieces before assembling the first block. I get so excited just seeing those little pieces of fabric.
This is where the tiny squares go. These are on all for sides of the block and the whites will create squares when matched together.

And drum roll please......

The first finished block. The quilt top is 4 by 4 blocks I can't wait to see it finished. In fact I am liking it so much I am considering making it bigger. But that can wait until I finish all 16 of these to decide.

Finally, I thought I would post my picture of how I store my selvages. Karen at Selvage blog asked everyone to email her pictures of how their selvages are stored. Mine are in a shallow wicker basket that can slide on top of my quilting books on a shelf. It looks like I might have enough to start thinking about that project.
Have a great day and go do something creative.

Kami

The Newest Quilt

As I was reorganizing my fabric stash, this weekend, this collection of red floral fabric grabbed my attention. It called to me as I cut off the selvage to add to my collection. It kept calling as Ifolded it up again to repack. I unpacked them, stewed for a little while. Did I really want to sew? I was having fun cleaning up my stash, and searching for selvages. So I set them aside.

But they kept reappearing in my mind, so I finally cut out some squares.I added some greens and this charming black and red fabric. Yes those are lips!

And 4 hours later, I had organized piles of cut fabric and sewn pieces. But before it could put the first block together it was suddenly time for those little squares I mentioned in my last post.

384- 1 1/8" squares. Sewn to those are 248 quarter square triangles. And when chain stitched together I had 17 feet of what I always think of as "prayer flags". But it was to hot to press them open.

Inside the house it was 86° yesterday. Today was a little better, I turned on the AC when it got to be 81° in the house, outside it was 99° and although I ironed, it was too hot to do much else, so look forward more pictures when the weather cools down. It is supposed to be back in the 60°s by Saturday.

Kami

Presents

Friday afternoon I called my mom and she was on her way home from a quilt store, and she had bought a present for me. I love surprises, and this one did not disappoint. The fabrics in the picture are from Bunny Hill's new line of fabrics. The bunny is adorable. The other thing in the picture are these little tags to put in the binding of a quilt that say "P.S. I love you" Isn't that sweet.

Before I left her house, she gave me another gift. It may not look like much yet, but I have been bitten by the selvage bug. I am now collecting those little edges of the fabric that tell the manufacturing information so that some day I can make something as amazing as this. Okay, so I am not even that ambitious, but I am inspired and I often find that a good place to be. So if you want to see more selvage ideas, go to Karen's blog and look at some of the cool things being made.

Hopefully, later today I will post pictures of my newest work in project. A 54" square quilt that has hundreds of little pieces. You think I jest, but the tiny squares are cut at 1 1/8" and I need, well.... way too many of them. What was I thinking?

Kami

Flowers Everywhere

I have been lurking around the "bakeshop" from moda fabrics, looking at their cute patterns that they have posted on their site. Today I printed one out, and when my mom came over this afternoon instead of the business meeting we were going to have about our new pattern packets, we sewed these cute little door hangers.

To embellish it, the center of the yoyo is a button surrounded by clear seed beads and I found this adorable leaf button in my stash that I have been saving for years. It looks perfectly at home here.










And to continue to inspire you, here are a few pictures of the flower fields in Carlsbad. The ranunculas were in bloom and the colors beautiful. The girls had a great time wandering around the paths and seeing everything. It was even better because they were leading the way! I didn't have to drag them anywhere. They were given "passports" at the entrance, and were constantly on the look out for the flags that denoted a spot for a stamp.





















We ended our visit there with a chance to pan for precious stones. It was really a process called sluicing, and involved a bucket of sand with a few pretty stones but the girls loved it. Katelyn was so proud to have found a crystal in her box. Of course she has already lost it, but it was her most prized possession for a few hours.

Kami

Another Month Done

I finished my April block. I am so excited with the Bunny Hill BOMs, they are quick to prep and quick to applique. And just the right amount of backstitching for people like me who don't want to spend the time on extra stitching and instead play with more fabric. I am predicting that the May block will have a sheep, but since I have been surprised each time, I suppose I will have to wait a few weeks to find out for sure.

I thought I would also post a few pictures of our trip to the Wild Animal Park in Escondido, for their annual butterfly fest. We went with the girls' cousin Hannah, Ama, and Aunt Carole. It was so much more fun sharing the Park with other people. We saw lions, a 6 week old baby cheetah, and lots of other animals, but by far the highlight was the butterflies. All the girls were able to hold a butterfly on their fingers for at least few seconds before they flew off to feed again. The butterflies were beautiful and everywhere, I couldn't even count the number of varieties, but I would guess about 25. If we had let her, Katelyn would have stayed there all day racing after the butterflies trying to get them to land on her finger. We tried convincing her to slow down and let them come to her, but she kept forgetting in her excitement.

Enjoy, Kami

Our Shopping Trip

Today while Ama was here we chose to run errands, it may not sound like fun but we brought our camera for the highlight of the trip. And a few witnesses, Jason, his mom and my mom were all at the mall to see what they would come home with

The girls are picking out what they want to buy. Oh, so many choices, pink flowers, diamonds, silver balls...

Alyssa is ready to get her purchase.

Did I mention that they get to wear them home?

Yes, you guessed it the girls got their ears pierced today. Alyssa looked a little panic stricken at the end, but she didn't back out, and surprisingly she didn't cry either. Although later she kept telling me "I'm never getting my ears pierced again." Good once is enough.

Can you see Alyssa's sparkly diamonds? She looks so grown up.

Now it is Katelyn's turn she went second, mostly because Alyssa never gets to go first and really wanted to, but also so that she wouldn't be able to change her mind at the last minute.

The last look at Katelyn's ears before the piercing.

Yikes what is going through that little mind. She jumped about 3" into the air when she got pierced. A much stronger response than Alyssa, although she didn't cry either.

Katelyn always the fashion plate showing off her new look.

Yeah we did it! Both girls seem just fine now and as the mom who has to remember to clean these ears, I am really glad that they both did it at the same time. When the ear cleaning is done in 6 months it is done.

Kami

I can't believe it is done!

I first saw this pattern on Mother's Day weekend in 2005. My step dad watched my mom and I drooling over this amazing quilt displayed behind the counter and bought the 10 BOM pattern packets and the cutest little button kit of ornaments for the tree. My mom and I slowly worked together making 2 of every block, one for her quilt and one for mine. Once the borders where ready to be put on, we each worked independantly. I taught myself the method of freezer paper applique, I stitched everywhere--dance class for my eldest, gymnastics class for the youngest, waiting to pick up my daughter from school, and of course at home watching TV. But I wasn't very disciplined and the quilt hardly made any progress to finishing.

Then disaster struck and my mom's quilt was shredded. I still don't know if we will ever be able to save it. Suffice to say i started feeling bad every time I worked on mine knowing that hers might never be. And I stopped working again. Then last fall I got commited to finishing this quilt. I realized that I liked applique. I liked having me time in the midst of spending time with my 2 beautiful girls, to create something. But, once again my good intentions to finish the quilt by christmas were thwarted by my disire to create a special quilt for my mom for her birthday.

In honor of a the trip of a lifetime to the Canadian Rocky Mountains, I took a class to design photo quilts and spent hours and hours outside on the patio table making applique templates for the poppies on the bottom of a quilt of Lake Louise. then came the stitching and my fingers got callused, I worked round the clock to get this done in time for her birthday and once again my christmas quilt got left in the craft room. but when she finally saw the finished result it was worth it.
But my calloused fingers needed a break, and I wasn't up to doing the quilt before Christmas. So now it is April and less than a week away from Easter and I am finally done with getting ready for Chistmas. So this Easter I wish you the holly jolliest, ho ho hos of holiday cheer.

Kami

My fabrics are chosen

Finally, I have picked my fabrics for my Bunny Hill BOM. The little sign on the baskets says friendship is sewn one stitch at a time. I like the flowers on the chocolate bunny, with the dark chocolate accents and the sweet eggs and chick. I am finally ready to baste it down and start sewing. I also made a second bunny block for my MIL. I thought as we sat in the evenings catching up, we could each stitch together these. Hers will be a little stand alone Easter "quilt" or more appropriately "potholder". But I think that they will both be cute.

I made the best dinner last night for when she arrived--if I do say so myself. I got the recipe from Cuisine at Home "Cuisine tonight Grilling" for Chicken burgers. You mix pickle relish, mayo and ground chicken meat together to make the patty. They were so moist and delicious served open face on baguette slices with a basil/honey mayo drizzled on top. Yum, I could eat them again right now. Well, I best go because they will all be back from picking up Katelyn from school and then we are off to play.

Kami

Bunny Hill BOM

Yesterday, Anne at Bunny Hill Designs posted the April basket pattern. This afternoon I started auditioning fabrics. And then changing my mind and re-auditioning fabrics and then repeating it all over again. I have never been so ambiguous picking out fabrics, but the problem is that I fell in love with a basket fabric (blue in the picture below) and unfortunately, have to pick something other than a blue basket. This basket will sit right under the Jan basket which was blue with a snowman in it, and I really didn't want another blue basket right below. I think that this might require a trip to the fabric store. Shucks, did I just say that I have to go shopping?

These are my kinda/sorta fabrics that I have chosen for the block. I love the little chick fabric, and the "chocolate" for the bunny, but I am not sure about the green for the basket. My mom donated it to my search today. It is good, but is it the best? And I couldn't let go of the blue--will it work for an egg? Let me know what you think.

On a happy note, I only have 5 petals left to applique on my Christmas quilt. I am so excited to see it finished and to send it on to the quilter later this month. I will upload the final picture in the next couple of days when it is done.

Have a happy week to all of you, my MIL arrives tomorrow for a week and I am looking forward to lots of fun the next few days and less time on the computer.

Kami

Sew Happy Today

Today is Alyssa's turn to shine. At 3 1/2 she finished her first quilt. She fell in love with this fat quarter in my stash, constantly wanting to get into my pinks bin to find this cake fabric. When she also started to ask me to quilt with her and "her" fabric, I realized I probably shouldn't hold onto my thought of what this fabric could become and encourage her. We picked another pink fabric she liked for the border and Alyssa sewed them on to her "quilt top" I did the quilting and binding for her and she is very excited. When it was finished she said "Mommy, no sticking on the wall." I guess I need to start decorating with more than quilts.

I managed to finish a table runner today also. Oh that statement is so misleading, I really didn't do much. After dropping Katelyn at school yesterday, I met my mom briefly to see her great find at a fabric store this weekend. Well in the back of her car was a whole bunch of really cool things from her craft room on their way to goodwill. This tablerunner was on it way out and I had to rescue it.

Look at how soft the floral fabric is and her perfectly pieced pinwheel blocks. How could I let it go to a complete stranger who may never appreciate the workmanship of what she had done. I took it into my craft room and found the perfect blue for the border and added a small hint of fuscia to separate the 2 blues. Now with a little quilting, I will have a nice new tablerunner for when my MIL arrives next week. How cute will this look with a couple of Easter Bunnies sitting on it! I might even go to the farmers market and get a bouquet of fresh flowers this weekend.