Sunday, January 27, 2008

Girly stuff

There's nothing like having a little girl. My daughter loves everything girly, and I just had to share a photo of her and her friend from across the street taken last week. They do this every single day, and never get sick of it! My daughter is the one on the left with the pink crown. I think there's a part of me that still wants to dress up like this! I also want to steal the dress my daughter is wearing and make a quilt from it. It would be a fabulous background, don't you think?!

Saturday, January 26, 2008

Cupcake Fever

A friend emailed me and said I was 9 days behind on my blog - wow I have let time go by too quickly! My excuse is that my hubby has been on vacation and I've just been staring into his green eyes and forgetting about everything else - OK I've just been lazy :) But hubby really has been on vacation and last night we even got to go out alone. Without kids. You get the point! But we were given the best compliment we've ever had by our waiter. He asked if we were newlyweds - we laughed and said no - married for 8 years and we have 3 kids - to which he replied, "Well you were just staring at each other so lovingly and look so happy that I thought for sure you must be newlyweds"! Yes he got a nice big tip. We also had a fantastic view - a river flows right past the restaurant and though it was half frozen - we are in New Hampshire remember - it was still a lovely place to eat dinner. And the food was delicious, though I don't quite remember it because of all the 'staring' going on hehe!
I have actually had time to applique this week. I decided to jump on the cupcake bandwagon - I mean, really, who can resist cupcakes?! I drew out some cupcake shapes and settled on a pretty generic one, but have drawn out several different types of dripping frosting. It's so much fun! I have yet to quilt them but you will see the beginnings of a couple of them at least. I also am going to make some Fimo cherries to put on top and make them nice and shiny. Gotta have a cherry on top, right?!

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Best mail day EVER!


Yes you read right, today I had the best mail day EVER! A little while back, Tami from Lemon Tree Tales had a giveaway - I left a comment, and I won! I was so excited...she said the prize was for her to fill up a box with 'stuff' and sent it to the winner. Well I gotta say, if you ever want to win a giveaway, you must enter one of hers!

So my box arrived and of course I just wanted to rip it open, but I also wanted photos taken of the said moment - and I figured that though my 4 year old boy would love to take photos, it was not going to happen lol! So I waited for my 7 year old girl to get home and she did the honors. It was the longest half hour of my life!Inside were all sorts of fantastic things, from fabric (yardages, people, not little cut-offs!) to books, antique trims, pincushions, the list goes on and on! I of course took plenty of photos of the contents, so enjoy, and have a look at her blog - I sure am glad I did!


And this final photo is my 4 year old boy with the "cowboy" fabric he took an immediate liking to. I don't think I'll be getting this piece back!

Saturday, January 12, 2008

Applique Tip


I haven't made anything new this week, so I delved into the depths of my photo albums and came up with this beauty for you - it's even about quilting, and even better, about applique!

Needleturn is my applique method of choice, and I love my Roxanne's Glue Baste-It and their needles are all I use - no affiliation - they don't even know I exist!

Anyway...I like to place my applique pieces pretty freely...I don't use a plastic overlay, and am more concerned with freedom of placement than perfection. Having said that, there are still times when I want things to sit 'just so' and these pictures are an idea I came up with to aid in placement.

Basically, instead of putting your glue dots on your pieces of applique (in this case, a bias-cut stem) you use your glue like a pencil and 'draw' where you want your
applique to go. You can see that I used a simple template to help me do this, and the end result - nice even loops :)
I had taken these photos for my friend, Anna (c'mon Anna, update your blog already hehe!) as I couldn't explain the way I was doing it with just words, and it's true - a picture is worth a thousand words! I'm so glad I documented this, as now I can share it with you lovely people :)

Saturday, January 5, 2008

New year, new things

I am so excited about this year. Like everyone else I made some new year resolutions, or goals as I'd rather think of them, and one of them was to be a more faithful blogger. 5 days later here I am - oops already messed that one up! Luckily I have a whole year to make good on that goal.

So I thought I'd start my posts for the year with some goodies I have recently acquired for my quilt room...

The first thing are two tins I bought at a garage sale about 4 houses down from us. The children had put their mother into an old folks home and were selling most of her belongings. I picked up these cute tins for 50 cents each! At first I wanted them because I just love tins - probably because my Mum always stored things in tins when I was growing up - and I thought they would come in handy for quilt 'stuff'. But then I opened the small one and was met with a wonderous sight - buttons buttons and more buttons! I think 50 cents was a great deal :)

Next is a big box I bought at Homegoods on clearance for seven dollars. I have a MAJOR thing for polka dots and well, my quilt room is yellow, and the price was right, so how is a girl meant to resist? It is much bigger than it seems in the picture - about 2 feet long and a good 10 inches high.

And thirdly, we had a huge snow storm over the new year and everybody stayed home - except for me. I had my hubby home and chance to go to the store by myself without kids. Quite a big deal :) So I braved the storm and went to the Christmas Tree Shop which is just around the corner from us (my very fav discount store!) and I was literally the ONLY person shopping. Kind of eerie but in the most fantastic way! I had the entire run of the store - and remember, no kids! So I took my time, looked at every single thing I wanted to, and came home with lots of Christmas ornaments on clearance and this beauty....She is sitting on my sewing table, and her big brother, a floor lamp black version is in my living room. I can't tell you the difference these full spectrum lights make, especially for my handwork. Just wonderful!

Here's hoping there are plenty more bargains to come my way this year!