Monday, July 30, 2012

Quilting Buddies


 When I come home for the weekend
 my list of things to do
 seems to be endless.

But I am always glad when
I'm able to squeak in some special time
with my quilting friends.

 We have a great time together,
like I know many of you do as well,
with your quilting buddies.

Combine food,
laughter,
sharing
and 
caring
and even a bit of sewing,
and you have every quilt group ever formed.

I don't know what I would do without
these special friends in my life.
Happy Stitching,
 Quilting Buddies.

  Until Next Time-

Friday, July 27, 2012

Who Would Have Guessed

When you're waiting around for a baby to be born,
it's best to get the cupcake pans out and 
do some baking. 

Elizabeth and me, the cupcake duo,
decided we wanted to do something
easy,
summery
with lots of buttercream frosting.

The flavor that we chose was lemon.
I had lots of cake recipes  from scratch,
but shhh! 
don't tell 
we cheated and bought a lemon cake mix.

We enhanced the mix with lemon juice,
a couple of splashes of lemoncello
and lemon zest.

To add to the lemony flavor we
added lemon curd in a
hollowed out spot in the cupcake.
(Which we did make from scratch)

Now we're speaking lemon.

Adding some more lemoncello and 
lemon zest to the buttercream frosting
topped off the romantic notion
of sitting in a sunny piazza in Florence sipping lemoncello.
I'm stretching that a little.


Now the most amazing part
was that all of the co-workers thought
this was the "best" cupcake we had
ever made.

Really?
With a cake mix?
Who would have guessed.

Maybe I put in more than a splash of
lemoncello.

 Until Next Time-

Thursday, July 26, 2012

Finally, The Stork Has Arrived

It's seemed like a long wait, 
but finally the stork 
arrived at the Wolfe den 
and left a precious little bundle.


 Meet Everdeen Kate Wolfe
7 lbs. 1oz. 19.5"

Everyone is doing fine.

  Until Next Time-
 

Monday, July 23, 2012

Baby Stuff

How many times have I said,
 "I could have (should have) thought of that and
 made a million dollars."

If you haven't taken care of any babies
for awhile,
there's some nifty
products on the market that are really great. 

One is


the Bumbo Baby Chair.
It was great for learning to sit up,
Sanford uses it like a highchair when he's not home
It's comfy and fun.


Remember the yucky diaper pails,
now,at least with disposable diapers, you can
use a Diaper Genie.

You drop the diaper in the top,
when the lid closes it twists the 
plastic liner to seal the diaper in.
When you empty it, you have a diaper sausage.
No mess, no smell.

 San, the man, is learning to use a sippy cup.
They use to be more drippy than sippy.

Now they don't.
It's a miracle.

San, is also enjoying feeding himself.
How does he do this?
With one of these,
a Munchkin Fresh Food Feeder.
Pop some bananas, avocado, inside the 
mesh bag and let him gum away.
 What a treat.

Old Nana, new babies,
and lots of fun stuff.
(helpful info if you have to go 
to a baby shower any time soon.)
   Until Next Time-
 

Friday, July 20, 2012

A Furry Appearance

4 little babies came out to play
on a sunny summer's day.

( I see you down there)

One stayed high to look around,


And one came closer to the ground.



One found a place to coddle and hide,



The last one thought it was more fun to slide.


The little one turned
and looked at Ed
and as he stopped,
this is what he said.


"You don't look like me,
but are you my pop?
You've been so good to us
I hope it won't stop."

Ed shook his head sadly
and said with a sigh,
"I've been waiting so long
to finally see you guys."

"It's time for you all
to go out on your own,
to find a new den
that you can call home."

Pretty cute, huh!

 Until Next Time-

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Tomorrow's, today?

When I'm working on a project,
 I try to mentally divide it up into doable sections. 
 I never have large segments 
of time to just sew.


 So I gather small slices of time through
 out the day and
 try and get my quota done.

 A typical day is NOT
completing the planned part
 and
then moving  it forward to another time.
 
 As Scarlet says, "There's always another day".
I don't put pressure on myself.

 But sometimes I do finish what I've had planned!

 Then I'm in a quandary.
 Do I do tomorrow's, today? 
Or do enjoy a serendipity moment? 

Does that make sense?
 What I mean is, 
do I keep going forward on the project of the day 
knowing that I have more days
 when I don't get what I want accomplished 
so for a moment I would be ahead
or
 do I celebrate the fact 
that I completed my stint for the day
 and can work on something I hadn't expected to? 

What's your approach?

 To be honest, 
I usually take the first road, but
yesterday I took the path least traveled
and it was a nice thing.

  Until Next Time-
 

Monday, July 16, 2012

A Quilt Fix

I have been needing a quilting fix 
and some girl friend time.
 This weekend we arranged to attend "Quilt Colorado"
sponsored by the Colorado Quilting Council. 
 It was a wonderful show,
 a vendors mall,
 and classes and lectures.
by some fantastic teachers. 

Any time you have the opportunity to 
attend a quilt show,
it is sheer inspiration.
Just listen to the people around you,
everyone is excited,energized, and spellbound
at the creativity that is surrounding them
all made with fabric and thread.

There were many quilts that just left me awestruck,
but here are just a few that might do the same for you.
America, Let It Shine 
by Sherry Reynolds
 Best of Show


 Look at the detail.


Remembrance by Dawn Gerber
 Best Hand Quilting Award

Incredible applique details

 On the Wings of a Prayer
by Jane King



Just a flag?
Look again.

 Amazing

 Line-n-Lace
by Karen Azevedo
Best Machine (Stand-Up) Quilting


 
 Karen is phenomenal.
 I truly love her work and her talent.

It's just what I needed to feel motivated and excited.
Girl Friends,
Extraordinary Quilts,
Shopping,
Lunch and Laughter.

Thanks, Quiltie Buddies,
it was a great day.

  Until Next Time-

Friday, July 13, 2012

Just Takes Two


 I love going from this...


To this.

I've been working on the 
Just Take Two blocks.

I still have plenty to make,
but the first section is complete.

Well, almost.


I'm adding a little more redwork.
I figure if I don't do it now,
I'll never get back to it.

While I was sewing I worked
on my red half square triangle (another project)
as "Leaders and Enders."

So without any extra effort

That's a good thing.

Until Next Time-
 

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

A Red,White and Blue Celebration

Reds, whites, and blues
are the perfect color combinations for quilts,
especially for the month of July.
It's one of my favorite palettes
to work with and it 
brings my patriotic spirit right into my home.

I love all the red, white and blue
fabrics that the designers,
Laurie Simpson and Polly Minick,
create for Moda fabrics.

Last year this pattern
Stars and Bars
2011
was available on line.

When the fabrics arrived at the store
I knew I just had to make this quilt.
It was easy,
making sawtooth stars,

scrappy,
using lots of different fabrics
from the line,

and really highlighted the bunting
fabric and the large floral.

I machine quilted it myself
and practiced making large free formed
feathers meandering in the bars.

The only problem I had was that
after I washed the quilt, because my
chalk lines wouldn't disappear from the
dark blue bunting fabric,
the extra dye on the surface of that fabric
cocked and left the blue color
a little uneven.

But it's okay,
and gives it an aged appearance.

I had some fun with the back
using up the left overs of the
red floral and some red and white ticking.

The blue was something I had been saving for
something, which I have no idea what it was.
So it was good to use it up.

This second quilt is all
those wonderful ticking fabrics
I had been collecting again for that
elusive project.
I chose the patriotic color scheme
and started sewing.

 Ticking
Stars and Stripes Forever
 2008

There's nothing simpler than  a
four patch set together with an
alternating plain square.

I quilted it with perel cotton
and a big stitch.
It was fun and now it's
done.


I had a yard of this wonderful
striped ticking fabric, which wasn't enough for
the entire backing so I framed it with a red and white
striped ticking.

So rather than having these unique and fun fabrics
only seeing the inside of my closet,
it was fun to actually use them
and now enjoy them especially in July.


It's the perfect quilt to take to the fireworks
and wrap up in.

This last show and tell is a simple table runner
from Kim Schaefer's pattern,
Calendar Table Runners.
It's one of the months that I made
as a store sample.
 4th of July Table runner
2010

It's a fantastic way to use up some pieces
of patriotic fabric you have been collecting
and stashed away.



The appliques were fused and then machine stitched
around the edges.
Add some machine quilting,
and you have a sweet

holiday table runner.

Hooray for the simple red, white and blue
quilts
so that you can
show your colors proudly.

 Until Next Time-