Thursday, February 25, 2010

Ebelskivers....

a great way to start the day!
 
definition:  puffy Danish pancakes
 

I got an Ebelskiver pan for my birthday last November. I found this fabulous cookbook at Williams & Sonoma to go along with it. I fell in love with the Ebelskiver when I tried them in Solvang, CA a few years ago.

Eden loves them too!

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

"Snippets"

ok, so I decided NOT to send the Winnie the Poo quilt for the auction item. I kept looking at it and just wasn't happy with the unbleached muslin that I used. Lesson learned, big time! I'll NEVER use that stuff again. After washing and drying it almost looked like there were oil, food or dirt spots all over it. I know it was the natural fibers of the muslin, but I decided i just couldn't send that one. So my daughter wanted it!



I had my "Snippets" top done for a while now and decided I'd quilt that one and send it instead. I LOVE it! It's a disappearing 9-patch pattern. It's made w/ "Snippets" by American Jane for Moda fabrics. The back is one of the fabrics in the line and the binding is probably my favorite! Even though it's busy and doesn't show up that well on the front..I still love it! It's actually a fabric from Joann's that I had bought in the remnants bin. It's small butterflys that match perfectly! I'm very happy how this one turned out. So I'll mail it off today for the auction fundraiser dinner. measures: 36" x 42"
 
  
 

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Block 1 (and 2) for Pinwheel Quilt Along

Here's my blocks for P.S. I quilt's "pinwheel quilt along".
 
I'm using "Verna" by Kate Spain. My solids are a white sheet from Ikea and a Beige sheet from Ikea.  Not too sure how I like the beige but I wanted to try something different than just the basic white.  In the Verna line there are some tanish/beige accents, so I thought this may work. It's definitely not the same color as you can see in the block on the left, but the hint of that color is in some of the printed fabrics. I think as a whole it will be fine. If not, who cares! This quilt it going to be for me!

"Winnie the Poo"

I've had this top done for a long time. It's been sitting around waiting to be quilted. I'm not super crazy about it. I had a few Winnie fat quarters and had no idea what to do with them, so I played around a bit. After I finished a few squares, I was pretty much done with these. So I ended up setting them amongst some unbleached muslin. Then pieced the back. I like the back better than the front, I think!
 
(the back looks a little crooked near the bottom but it's really not. It's the way it is hung and is draped)



Here's a couple close-ups of 2 of the blocks

This quilt is being donated to an auction fundraiser for my husband's uncle who is running for Sheriff in the town he grew up in. Hopefully they will get something for it!

Thursday, February 18, 2010

some scraps + 1 day = 1 awesome quilt!

Inspired by this and this, I made this:
I received a baby announcement a couple days ago from a fellow Navy wife that just had a baby girl. For her 1st born son,  Ryan, I crocheted a baby blanket for him. I just didn't have time to crochet one for baby Nora, so I thought about it a bit and whipped this beauty up in one day. All of it, including the binding! Today it got washed and got it's picture taken and I'll mail it off tomorrow. I LOVE this quilt and I see more in my future. My 6 year old saw it and exclaimed, "Is that for me??!! I want one!! It's so pretty!" So....she'll probably get one soon. 

One of the things I really love about this quilt it that it's entirely made from scraps and my stash. What a wonderful way to use up all those little scraps! Quilt measures: 34" x 40"
These pictures were taken as the sun was shining through our patio window. I like how it shows the texture of the quilt.
 
The backing is a simple dot fabric that I think is perfect for a little girl.

Friday, February 12, 2010

Heading to SF!

 We are leaving today to stay in San Francisco for the weekend. My eldest daughter's 6th Birthday is on Valentine's Day. Hubby and daughter don't have school or work on Monday so we are going to enjoy a long weekend there. I'm so excited! I grew up in the Bay Area, so as a child my family would go to SF probably once a month! It's been about 10-15 years since I've been back.
 
Here's where we're staying... The Omni Hotel in Union Square.
And here's a few things I hope to do while there....


Fisherman's Wharf
 
Pier 39 & the Aquarium
 
and my FAVORITE place to eat in SF...Scoma's

and of course....topping everything off with a GIANT Hot Fudge Sundae from Ghirardelli's!

Can you tell I'm excited!

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Eight Hands Around

Finished my 2nd block for Round 2 of Modify Tradition's quilt along. I had real difficulty with this one. Not that it was hard, I'm just not too bright! Apparently I didn't know how to read a ruler correctly! I've never used eighths on a ruler, so what was suppose to be 3/8", I cut as 5/8". So my center was all off. I couldn't figure out why the sides wouldn't match up. It was driving me nuts! So this morning I re-cut all the center pieces and wah-la...the light bulb went on and everything worked out fine.
I'm discovering another thing about doing this quilt along. I see the tutorials and then I grab my fabrics to decide which ones I want to use where. I think I have it how I want it, so the cutting and assembling begin. Then after wards, I always sit back and look at the block and wished I chose different fabrics for certain parts. It's so hard for me to visualize the block before it's assembled! Drives me nuts! Only a few blocks am I ever completely pleased by my fabric choices. Of course once it's all assembled,  even if I don't care for it much, the LAST thing I'm going to do is start over! So it will just have to do, and I'll take all these "not too pleased with" blocks as a learning experience and hope someday I can visualize blocks better before they are all assembled!

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Look what I finished today!

 
Normally I don't like to post pictures of quilt tops, but this was such a huge accomplishment and it was so time consuming, and frankly, I need a break from this one for a bit.  I have no idea when I'll get to actually quilting it. So, I thought I'd share this now. This is my quilt top for the Modify Tradition Quilt along. It was so much fun to make and I learned so much making all these different blocks! Don't even ask me how I pieced this top. It was completely random and I pretty much did it like a puzzle and cut pieces of white that I needed to fill in gaps. The picture isn't the greatest, but you get the idea. (My hubby is gone for 3 weeks so I don't have a helper to hold it up and it's pretty big, so I just laid it on my floor.) I'm so glad this is done! I have no idea how I'm going to baste this. I may have to sweep out the garage really good and do it in there since I need a large area to tape the back down.

Monday, February 1, 2010

Starting Round Two

 Block #1: Broken Dishes

Round Two for Modify Tradition's Quilt Along started. I never got around to ordering any new fabrics and I don't want to get behind. SO...I'm using some of what I have already. I bought around 5 yards of fabric when I went on my vacation to Oregon. I stopped in at this quilt shop and they had this one particular fabric 60 or 70% off. So I bought all they had. Then when I got home I ordered other prints of what I could find in the same line. It's called "Cho-Cho no Sanpomichi" by Kumiko Sudo for In The Beginning Fabrics. I mainly got it because I like the red color in it. That's my accent color in my family room. This isn't typically my style of fabric, but I think it will look nice.