Celebrity Sighting!

I saw Cheryl Crow this morning in downtown Franklin, TN! I was so excited! There are so many celebs in the Nashville area and I swear I never saw any. But now I can say I did! We were at Sweet CeCe's getting frozen yogurt. They sat at the table right beside us! So I could not stare or gawk at her. I did smile at her when she walked by me and she smiled back. She was wearing no makeup and was absolutely beautiful!

Back to quilting...hopefully!

I cannot believe how busy we have been for the past few months. There seems to be a constant stream of activities, and while I know I don't need to do everything, I love to keep busy. My quilting time has suffered greatly and I need to get back on it. Hopefully I can get some done before Thanksgiving and Christmas. I will post my progress as it happens!

Giveaway!

Jaybird Quilts has a fantastic giveaway going on sponsored by Above All Fabric. Click HERE to go on over to check it out!

House Blocks from Bee Splendid

October was my month in the Bee Splendid virtual quilting bee. I chose to have everyone make two house blocks. Each member received a few scraps in a variety of colors and Kona white to set the houses in. I have been thrilled with what my fellow bee members have created! Each house is unique and shows the personality and style of each quilter. I absolutely love each and every block they have made! This isn't all of the blocks but I couldn't resist putting the ones I do have together to get an idea of how they will look. I must say that this quilt is going to be fabulous! Thank you to all of my fellow bees!

My First Attempt at Decorating a Cake

My first attempt at decorating a cake was really not all that bad. I am no Martha Stewart but I think it turned out pretty good for a novice. I think my son will like it...at least I hope he does. And there will be Publix cupcakes just in case it is not good!

Always Leaving Things to the Last Minute!

I have done it again! I have left just about everything to the last minute for my son's 4th birthday party tomorrow. Just finished the treat bags and now on to finishing the pony cake. Should be an interesting evening. Wish me luck - please!!!

4th Birthday Shirt

My son's 4th birthday party is on Saturday and we are going to a farm for pony rides. Several of his friends, and his sister, will be there to help celebrate. I can't wait! I thought it would be nice for him to have a special shirt so I looked on Etsy for the perfect one. I kept thinking I could make this shirt myself if I just took the time to try. So that's what I did! I used Barn Dandys Cowboys fabric by Robert Kaufman for the circle and a brown bandanna for the number 4, both found at Joann. This was my first attempt at applique and it was harder than I thought it would be but was a lot of fun! I hope my little cowboy likes his birthday shirt, even though it is not quite perfect. I don't think he will notice!

Special Quilt

Today I received a very special quilt. It was the last quilt my mother made before she passed away last year from pancreatic cancer. I did not know she was working on a quilt. If she had mentioned it I was probably too busy with my one year old, and being pregnant with baby number two, for it to have registered in my mind. And at the time that she was working on it I had not yet taken up quilting. From what my father tells me she had finished the top, made the sandwich and was hand quilting it on a hoop. Not long after she passed away my father gave the almost finished quilt to my aunts, my mom's sisters. They lovingly completed it for me to have and to pass down to my daughter one day. Now our tastes differ greatly, she was very traditional and I love modern patterns and fabrics. She also hand quilted which I am not sure I have the patience to do! But that aside, this quilt is very special and I may not even realize the extent of how special it is just yet. I so wish I had taken up quilting before she died so I could have asked her questions and possibly even worked on a quilt with her. I think it would have been nice for her to share her craft with me and she would have been delighted that I enjoyed it like she and her sisters did. However, it was not to be but I am very thankful that I had that time to watch her create beautiful quilts and that I have this one to share with my own daughter!

My Baby is 4 Today!

How has time gone by so quickly? One minute he is a little tiny baby who needs me for everything...


...and all of a sudden he turns into this smart, funny, independent creature who loves and laughs and makes all of our days bright!


He still does need me for a lot of things, which makes me feel not so bad, but every day he becomes a bigger boy. It is happy and sad all at the same time. Love you, Nathan!

Good Bye October, Hello November!

We had a very fun Halloween this year! The week before was filled up with many Halloween craft play dates and parties. This was the first year the kids were interested in dressing in their costumes and Trick-or-Treating. I did not think I would enjoy it but it was the most fun I have had in a long time. It was so neat to see the kids getting the hang of going to our neighbors doors and saying "Trick-or-Treat!" They ended up with way too much candy and we are trying to think of ways to get rid of it without them noticing. Meanwhile we are eating it ourselves! Here are some pictures from our fun filled Halloween week!











October was my month in the Bee Slendid quilting bee and I chose to do house blocks. I wanted everyone to be creative and make whatever type of house or building they wanted. They could even make trees. This was definitely a stretch for me and a great learning experience. I love a pattern to go by but designing a house and piecing it in a free hand kind of way was a lot of fun and I find myself wanting to make more of these cute little blocks! The other very talented members have made some fantastic blocks and I can't wait to see them all together. Here are my blocks and you can see the other bee member's blocks on Bee Splendid.

This is my interpretation of mid-century modern :)

I thought this Riley Blake plaid looked kind of like bricks so I make an apartment building.


And finally, I was reading the blog of one of my fellow bees, Karrie from Freckled Whimsy and saw that she is challenging others to post on their blog every day in November for NaBloPoMo - National Blog Posting Month! I thought my blog could really use some attention so I am joining in on the challenge and will post every day this month. I just hope I have something interesting enough to share everyday! Click here for more information and to add your blog to the blog roll and you can get a badge for your blog here. Happy blogging!

September Bee Blocks

It has certainly been a long time since I posted anything here! It has been a very busy few weeks for our family. We spent some time in Canada with my family and when we got back my little man started pre-school! Now that we are getting into a good routine I am getting back into my quilting. I have tons of projects that I need to complete and I need to finish my blocks for Amy's Simple Sampler Quilt Along.

Tonight I finished my blocks for Carrie who has this month in the Bee Splendid virtual quilting bee. She sent some really great fabrics in turquoise, orange and lime. She sent us strings and gave us the opportunity to be creative and make any type of string block we wanted. She also send a turquoise square that we had to incorporate in the block however we wanted. I love this idea and can't wait to see this quilt when it is complete!

Here are by blocks for Carrie, I hope she likes them!

Quilt Along and Bee Blocks

I finally finished my quilt along blocks! It is Week 7 of Amy's Simple Sampler Quilt Along and there is only 1 week left! Here are the 2 blocks for this week:













The HSTs gave me a hard time but I like the way the block turned out. I'll take a picture of all the blocks next week!

This week I also worked on Mary's blocks for the Bee Splendid virtual quilting bee. Mary asked us to make Denyse Schmidt's Drunk Love inspired blocks and sent everyone beautiful fabric selections to complete the blocks. I LOVED making these! So much fun and so relaxing since there are no set rules to making them. Here are my 3 blocks:






If you are interested in making some similar blocks, check out this tutorial to get started!

Happy Quilting!
Sue

Another Great Giveaway!

jaybird quilts is giving away a fat quarter bundle of Sandi Henderson's new Meadowsweet 2 line from above all fabric. Check it out here!

Lovely Little Handmades Giveaway!

Lovely Little Handmades is having a great giveaway this week. Check out this post for more information!

Quilt Along and Chubby Stars!

It's week 6 of Amy's Simple Sampler Quilt Along so we are up to 12 blocks! This weeks blocks were fun and I learned something new on each of them. Here they are:



And here are all the blocks together:










After I finished these blocks this evening I decided to try Traceyjay's Chubby Star Tutorial that she posted today. These blocks are super cute! I definitely want to make a whole quilt with these blocks but for now I just did one block using some scrap fabric. The tutorial is great and my block turned out pretty good, but don't look to close since a couple of my points didn't line up exactly! Here is it:













I had just enough of the fabric in the center that I could fussy cut to get it centered perfectly. If you are interested in making this block go on over to Traceyjay's blog to check out the tutorial. She has some cute examples for you to see with some great fabric choices.

Also this week I took a machine quilting class! It was a really fun class held at The Quilting Squares Quilt Shop in Franklin, TN. We practiced free motion quilting with and without stencils. I am hoping that this will help me get over my fear of quilting so that I may actually finish a quilt very soon! Maybe by the end of the week. I will post it if I do!

Happy quilting, everyone!

Sue

Simple Sampler Quilt Along Week 5

It's week 5 of Amy's Simple Sampler Quilt Along. The blocks this week are so cute! And they weren't too difficult to make. The first is a 6-grid chain. If mine looks a little wonky that's because it is :)



The second block is a 4 patch variation with hour glass blocks. It might be a little wonky too.



And here are all of the blocks together.



I can't wait to finish the blocks and put this quilt together! Now that I am finished I am going to have fun looking at everyone else's blocks. I am sure they all turned out great!

Happy Quilting!

Sue

My Cool Moves

So I was sewing together a quilt top today when my 3 1/2 year old, Nathan, came downstairs from his nap. Usually I don't sew when the kids are up since they love to touch everything to figure out how it works, probably not a good idea with a sewing machine! But he was quite curious as to what I was doing so he watched me for a little while and wanted to know what I was going to do next, pin, sew or press. When I was almost done he said "Mom, you've got some cool moves with that quilting machine!" I have no idea where he picked up the phrase "cool moves" but I took it as a compliment and gave him a big hug. Such a sweet little guy! He made my day!

So I put my cool moves to good use and finally finished the main part of my daughter's quilt top. I don't know why this has taken me so long to complete but I am happy to be done with this top! Well, almost done, I still need to add a border and decide if I am going to add ric rac like the pattern suggests. But since I am so happy with my progress I had to blog it! Here it is:



The fabric is Summer Song by Riley Blake that I adore! It is so bright and cheery. We are going to redecorate Kaitlyn's room around this quilt and fabric. The solid is white from Kona. It makes the pinwheels look really crisp.

I used the Wild Thing pattern by Camille Roskelly of Thimble Blossoms. I really love her style and choice of fabrics. You probably already know she designs fabric for Moda (wow!) and that her latest line is Bliss which is absolutely beautiful! I would love to be creative enough to do what she does! I think I am going to try her Picnic Rollup quilt next using Bliss.

I hope you all have made some progress on your quilts this weekend but if you haven't maybe you have been doing something else fun and exciting!

Happy Quilting!

Sue

Simple Sampler Quilt Along Week 4

I just finished this weeks blocks for Amy's Simple Sampler Quilt Along. Unfortunately my sewing machine and my brain were not cooperating for the process. But I think my blocks turned out OK. Just don't look too closely at them :)

This first block was a log cabin. This is the first time I have tried to make a log cabin and I loved it! I really like the way it turned out.



The second block was a mosaic and was made using half square triangles. I had made a couple of HSTs before but never this many at one time. I was really surprised at how long it took! I got a little tired of doing them, especially since my machine was not cooperating, but now that I see the block completed I really like it. I can see how I could get better at making HSTs with lots of practice.



And here are all 8 blocks together:



I wish I could post about my other quilting projects but I haven't made much progress on them lately! I am taking a machine quilting class in a couple of weeks so I decided to wait until after the class to complete any of the 3 quilts I have going. I have promised myself that I won't buy any more fabric until I complete at least one of my projects - but I am getting weak! Wish me luck :)

Sue

What a Great Monday!

Usually Mondays are slow to start and are spent remembering all of the fun of the weekend. But today was a different kind of Monday for me. First of all, my husband was off of work so that is wonderful in itself! Then I took the kids to my MOMS Club meeting, where they totally behaved for the entire meeting, and after that we all went to Subway for lunch. This afternoon I finally used the spa gift certificate I got for my birthday and had an amazing 1 hour Swedish massage. It was SO relaxing! Everyone needs to get one of those every once in a while. After my massage I knew the kids would be napping, and probably my husband as well, so I decided to take advantage of my kid free time and I went to a quilt shop that I have never been to before. I visited The Quilting Squares Quilt Shop in Franklin, Tennessee. I was in heaven! They had lots of designer fabrics that I have only seen online, lots of books, patterns and notions as well. I decided to sign up for a class there in a few weeks and I am really excited about it! I am sure I will be spending lots of time in this cute little shop in the future! After the quilt shop I did a little more shopping and got a great deal on a Hanna Anderson dress for my daughter at a consignment shop. It was brand new with the tag that said it was regular $40 and I got it for $8.50. Score! Now all of this probably sounds so boring and unexciting to most of you but it was an unusual day for me to have so much freedom to do what I wanted to do in peace. It probably won't happen again any time soon so I certainly enjoyed it while I could. I did miss my little ones though and was happy to see their sweet little smiling faces when I got home :)

Another reason today was good is that it is Week 3 of the Simple Sampler Quilt Along on Amy's Creative Side! This weeks blocks are super cute and build on the skills demonstrated in the first 4 blocks. I have to say that I am getting better with my accuracy each week. I also love the little tips that Amy includes in the instructions. The are very helpful for a beginner like myself. Can't wait for next weeks blocks! Here are some pictures from this week:

Block 5:


Block 6:


All 6 blocks together:


I hope everyone had a great 4th of July and a Happy Canada Day! Have a great week!

Sue

Simple Sampler Quilt Along Week 2

I have been enjoying this quilt along so much! It's not only fun to make the blocks but it is really fun to look at the other participant's blocks and the different fabrics they are using. I can't wait to see how the different quilts will turn out! This is week 2 and I just finished my blocks so here they are!

Block 3:



Block 4:


And the first 4 blocks together:


There is still time to join the quilt along! You can go to this page on Amy's Creative Side to get started!

I have made a commitment to myself, and now to all of you in blog land, that I WILL finish a quilt this week! I have been so good at making quilt tops but I have been scared to make a quilt sandwich and bind it. But I am going to go for it! Hopefully I will have a finished quilt to share by Sunday!

Hope everyone is having a great week!

Sue

Bee Splendid June Blocks

As I mentioned in my first post, I joined my very first virtual quilting bee called Bee Splendid. This month we have the pleasure of making blocks for Sarah of Confessions of a Fabric Addict Fabric. She just happens to live about an hour away from me and it only took one day for me to receive her fabric and instructions for the block! I was so excited when I got my package yesterday and I started on the blocks as soon as the kids went to bed. The pattern for the blocks is called Scrap Magic and it is in the latest edition of Quilt magazine. Sarah sent a variety of fabrics from her stash and I added a bit of my own stash in each of the two blocks. They were fun to make and I can't wait to see the other blocks and the completed quilt one day as well! Here they are:







Sarah, I hope you like them! I had fun making them!

Sue

My First Quilt Along!

Well now I have another first...my first quilt along! I came across a great blog recently called Amy's Creative Side. I am sure many of you quilters are very familiar with Amy's blog! She hosts the Blogger's Quilt Festival that is so much fun to look at. I was lucky enough to catch her latest quilt along before it started and with enough time to buy some fabric! This quilt along is a simple sampler that has a lot of basic blocks and a few that are more challenging. I am really looking forward to learning from Amy and the other quilters who are participating. Here are the first two blocks I completed tonight!

My First Post!

Hello! I have finally entered the blogging world! In my life before kids I was an IT professional and the computer was my life. I kept up to date on all the latest technology and Internet crazes. But after the first baby I fell way out of the loop. WAY out of it! I heard the term blog on the TV, radio and from friends but figured I didn't have time for it between feedings, changing diapers and cat naps. And I was right! So now that the kids are getting a little older (almost 2 and 4) and don't need me every second of the day, I am having fun exploring the blogging world and all it has to offer. It is fun and so very addictive! I decided to start blogging after joining a Virtual Quilting Bee (more on that later). Most of the other 15 members had a blog and I wanted to get in on the fun too. So hear I am! I hope to share my sewing and quilting projects on here as well as tidbits from my crazy and fun life as a stay-at-home-mama. Hope you enjoy!