As I'm sure I've mentioned, my daughter Jenn is getting married this fall. Her sister, sister-in-law to be, mother-in-law to be and I are having a shower for her in July. We've set the date and the location and now just need to figure out a few games, order a cake and make some gifts for the guests. Anyone with good game ideas?

Jenn has already started on stitching up some gifts, her "famous" totes... I say famous because when she makes one friend a bag, she gets "can you make ME one? Pretty pleaseeeeee" questions.... and well, she's getting pretty good at the pattern with all the requests. Her totes and bags are pretty and very handy. Lisa also makes totes, cosmetic bags and purses so she will be helping out with the sewing. They both have very different styles so we'll have a nice variety.

I think I'll make some aprons. I found a site yesterday for a cute vintage Polka Dot Utility Apron that I just love. It's so nice of this site to offer these!

When I was at the quilt shop yesterday I bought this new fabric.. it's perfect for this project.

I love the retro kitchen tools plus the background of the fabric is light blue, the utensils are gray and black with the old-fashioned red wood handles. HOW CUTE!

Okay, so that's project one for today.

Project two is to continue working on my Happy Mochi Yum Yum Star Sampler quilt.... boy that's  a mouthful. I made a few more blocks in the last couple of days and have three two go.

This blue one turned out nice considering there are pieces from three different jelly roll strips in it.

The pink blocks are still my favorite... I want this quilt to be girly... think I might use one of the pinks for the backing and binding.

SOO, the third thing I have to do today is work on my civil war English paper pieced quilt. When I was shopping yesterday, I picked up a piece of fabric for my next border. It has a beige gray background and little dark red flowers on it. It'll go well with the gray that I have surrounding my spools. Picture coming soon on that one. It's going to be a pattern also so I have lots of details to work out.

Happy Mochi Yum Yum Star Sampler Blocks 

Worked on my Happy Mochi Yum Yum Star Sampler a little today. I finished up 2 blocks of this yellow star and two blocks in the green.This has been a fun quilt to make. It's mostly flying geese and half square triangles which I'm doing using Thangles. I started off using a special ruler for the hst but found that Thangles fit on a 2-1/2" jelly roll strip perfectly.

After that I decided to spend a little time on my Civil War Spools Quilt. The center was all English paper pieced using the spools templates. I added a few borders to the center and now I'm getting ready to add a dark green border followed by some 9-patch blocks. After that I'll probably add more of the civil war gray that is surrounding the red below.

This is the package of paper pieces I'm using.... plus some of my new civil war fabric... Sue from Hearts to Holly Quilt shop in Charlevoix just got these beauties in. I bought a little of each of the grape clusters and some of the little mini American flags. 

Star Sampler Corner Blocks

I stayed in last night and worked on the corner blocks for my Star Sampler using the Happy Mochi Yum Yum fabric. Only one was completed but now I have everything cut for the next three... hoping to finish these up tonight and tomorrow.

Beautiful Fabrics and fun projects

Today I brought my Happy Mochi Yum Yum Star Sampler project into the shop. We have a BOM starting in March. I finished up the middle, the surrounding 8" stars and then the plain white border. Now I'm making the other 7 different stars that surround these. That will take me a while, I'm sure. So this is a picture of what I hae so far and those luscious fabrics behind it are the ones I'm using... Happy Mochi Yum Yum... Yummy is right!

Another project I working on VERY SLOWLY is a summer dresden fan quilt for a baby. It has these bright little dresden plates... the blocks are 6" finished or 3" for the quarter block. I'm using this Fantastic Fan template WHICH I LOVE!! Let me tell you, it's saving me some time! It is made of metal and had a sandpaper type back so that it really holds the fabric as you cut. I get the little fans cut out SUPER fast. I'm machine stitching these to the background to make it even faster... plus it's for a baby and I want it very washable. I'm using invisible thead.

And here's another project I'm working on ... a little every month. It's my Farmer's Wife BOM class that uses Penny Haren's techniques of pieced applique. I really enjoy doing these. There are about 50 done so far... all in 30's repros. The next 50 or so are going to be made using Civil war fabrics. I want to end up with 2 twin sized quilts when I'm done.

I've been PINNED :)

I have to admit I don't know too much about Pinterest but I've heard lots of talk about it. Seems it's a place you can spend HOURS looking at pictures and getting inspiration. Since Al and I don't have internet at home (Yes, shocking, I know!), I can't spend hours upon hours looking through the web... sure would like to though. But today I was reading my dashboard and looking through blogger stats and noticed that I had a lot of visitiors checking out my cupcake potholders and the center of my civil war quilt. The traffic was coming from PINTEREST. Thank you to whoever pinned me up... it's a nice compliment! Maybe I'll have to have join... or get asked? Is that how it goes?

Well, back to breakfast. Al and I are at the Original Pancake House...THE BEST BREAKFAST around! They have wi-fi, great pancakes with REAL maple syrup, REAL butter, REAL cream for the coffee and a great water view... can't ask for more than that can you? After this, it's home and back to sewing. The small stars for my star sampler are done and stitched onto the center... now I need to add the plain inner border then start making the 12" sampler stars. I'll take a picture of it when I get a little further on.

Making more stars for my Star Sampler Quilt

Twelve small stars are needed to surround my main star on this sampler quilt so I'm a little more than halfway done with that part. These stars are more from the Happy Mochi Yum Yum line.

The other day I had LOADS of time to work on this, and that's what I planned to do, but once I got down to the sewing room I started cleaning and playing. It was just too tempting to go through some older boxes that I haven't been through in a while. AND before you know it, most of the day was gone. Don't you just love feeling fabric? Well after a few wonderful hours, I am a little more organized. There's a nice size pile to donate and a couple of bags to give to friends. Trouble is I only got part of my stars done. It's so hard to stay focused! Later today I PLAN to finish them up and cut the next border which is just plain white.. easy! Lets see if I get it done ;)

So what did I organize? Well, I dug through my old Blue Sue Quilt box. This is a quilt that I started... oh... maybe 3 or 4 years ago. It will have twelve blocks. All the sunbonnet sues are in shades of blue and each block represents a month of the year. I'm up to May. I drew up the blocks long time ago and am slowly doing the applique. Pulling this out made me want to work on it SO bad. It's turning out well but I just can't take the time on it right now. There are too many other quilts that have to come first. I was digging through this box because I knew I had lots of blue fqs and I'm trying to get enough Nature's Notebook blue and yellow FQs to do a quilt. I'm missing all the darker blues from the line plus the green mini print. There is also a geometric print in yellow...also in blue... could use either of those. Anyone have these? I'll gladly trade for what you need if I have it or can get it.

After that I dug through the fabrics for my daughters wedding quilt... just to make sure I have everything I need and YES, thanks to some of you, I do. I have it all sorted and organized so as soon as I have this sampler done, it will be time to sew her quilt. Her shower will be in June or July and wouldn't it be nice to have it done by then... here's hoping!

So now my room clean (and vacumned :) ... TIME TO MESS IT UP!

Farmer's Wife and Block Frenzy blocks

Al is working today so I get to spend some quality time with my sewing machine :) The block above is from Farmer's Wife, cups and saucers block #25. This one was foundation pieced so it was super fast and easy... AND so precise! I have two or three more blocks that I would like to complete TODAY, from that quilt.

The block below is one I made a couple of days ago for Hearts to Holly's Block Frenzy. I call it Interlocking Stars. I'm not sure what the actual name is. The gray fabric is from Lily and Will... Puttin' on the ritz. If anyone wants to join in the block frenzy, just send a 12-1/2" block (unfinished size) to Sue at Hearts to Holly (or drop it off). You need to use the current line... the yellow and grays from Lily and Will. For every block you make and bring in, your name goes into the pot once. At the end of a month and a half, she has someone pull for the winner. Winner gets all the blocks sent or brought in! This is going to make a sweet sampler quilt. I want to up my chances so I need to make at least one more block. The winner also gets to choose the next line used. :)

Making a Sampler Quilt w/ Happy Mochi Yum Yum

This is the center and the start of my new sample quilt for the shop. It's a Jelly Roll Star Sampler Quilt from the book Jelly Roll Sampler Quilts by Pam & Nicky Lintott. Next I'll be working on the stars that surround this center. My BOM class using this book starts in about a week so I've got to get going on it. I'm using the fabric Happy Mochi Yum Yum along with a nice white.