Abita the Chorkie

My sister, Carrie, just got a new puppy dog! Her name is Abita (named after a cool town near New Orleans) and she's a Chorkie... half Chihuahua half Yorkie. She's 3.5 lbs and 13 weeks old.
Now Dixie has a new friend to keep her on her toes! Adorable, no?

Cute Cute Things & Hazel

Some odds and ends from my life:
A new pink sewing chair Justin bought for me - We are rounding up a bunch of things to give to charity, and the old set of 4 wooden chairs are outta-here! One of which was my sewing chair. So boyfriend-for-life finds this fun chair at Staples and lets me choose my color. Well hello, PINK, thank you! Justin buys it one evening and the girl at the register asks him "Do you know this is a pink chair?" and husband says "Yes, she knows." Referring to wife. I was not there, but I hear this is how it went down. Said girl at register should feel dumb for asking, no?

AND... I finally have an extension table (above, behind cute Hazel) for my Janome sewing machine! A new quilting friend happened to have a Janome and she didn't need this extension table since her fancy-schmany machine came with an actual table that it fits into. So I got this for a deal, and couldn't be more happy! I've already done some stippling - and it works like a charm!
And some new fabric I acquired from Etsy at a steal of a deal.


Last but not least, my garden is growing along quite nicely. Roma and cherry tomatoes, green beans, yellow zuccini, green peppers, and parsley. Nothing extravagent, but will be oh so yummy in my salads!

How was your weekend? Do tell! We did some boating, some swimming, I went to the beach... and a wedding. Then Sunday we had a little birthday cookout for my mom. And her birthday is today! Happy b-day mom!

Stroller Quilt - Finished (plus the beach!)

I'm keeping a quilt - FINALLY! Its only about 15" square but that doesn't both me. Its mine, and if we have a daughter, its hers! My first attempt at stippling on a quilt, and I love how it turned out. 8 out of the 9 squares were actually just bonus scraps that were included in my orders by various Etsy fabric shops. They all just happened to look good together, so why not put them to good use? I think the Tweet Tweet bird cage fabric is my fav!


The backing and binding is Heather Baily's Pop Garden called Sway in Peach - I finally cut into my 3 yard stash... and added one little square to the front. I think it works well! And the stippling... excitement expressed in my last post - rock on!



Last but not least, Justin and I had a nice little trip to California last weekend! Our good friends Scott & Cami have lived out there for 5 years, in Riverside, which is about an hour East of L.A.
This photo was taken in Malibu, on one of the many beaches. Although it was a tad chilly for my taste, we enjoyed the beach, ocean, view, and conversation immensely. I've always wanted to visit California, and now that I have... I think I'm still inclined to the Midwest. Although, they do have In-N-Out Burger - which seems to have a cult following. So yummy!

And oddly enough, above mentioned friends are moving back to Michigan on Sunday. So we visited just in time. Apparently they too, are inclined to the Midwest. Cheers!

Sweet SUCCESS!

After many practice sessions of free motion quilting it finally clicked for me tonight! I had been saving this stroller size quilt for when I was good enough ... and tonight was the night! I've been reading online and studying various quilting blogs and watching two DVDs by professional quilter Patsy Thompson and I guess my brain just had to put π + √92 together. And then shazam - stippling success! It felt so good as I started out and just kept going and going. This quilt is only about 18 x 18 so nothing huge, but I couldn't be happier!

These are my practice sammiches which are positively awful, as you can see. So they'll be trashed very soon... not worth keeping in my opinion. Anyhow - just thought I'd share my "breakthrough" tonight with everyone. I'll attach the binding then finish it up on our plane ride to California this Thursday. Monday I'll have a finished QUILTED quilt - for real! I'm going to sleep a happy girl! Cheers!

a penny for your thoughts?

I'm usually a very decisive person but this baby quilt top is just not... all I think it can be. Ever feel like that? This is the first time I've not been sure about a layout. What do you think?

Option #1

Or Option #2 with sashing?

Option #3 could be sashing around just the edge. Maybe I'll just scrap the whole thing and try something else. What that else would be, I'm not sure... a penny for your thoughts?

Solid, man!

Just arrived in the mail - oh yes, it was a great day!

I picked out these 11 half yard cuts of Amy Butler solids... to supplement my love of... Amy Butler prints. I really should branch out a little. Meh, why?

And its from one of my new favorite fabric shops A Fabric Outlet.

NOW I can make a proper quilt with fun prints and solids. Oh yeah!

Hopefully I don't disappoint. I have high expectations for myself, apparently.

What do you do while watching TV?

I can't spend every waking (and non-working) minute in front of my sewing machine... can I?

Well, I could, but then all my DVR'd tv shows would go un-watched, which is no good.

Here's what has kept my fingers busy while watching House, 24, Mythbusters, and The Stagers:

Two crochet baby blankets for my gift stash, and now they get to compete with my new favorite gift - baby QUILTS!

Amy Butler Market Bag - two of three

Here's another bag I was commissioned to make for a friend of a friend... this is the second bag out of three. Chad chose some gorgeous home dec weight fabric by Amy Butler from her August Fields collection. I love the grays, and its reversible!

This bag does not have heavy interfacing like the LAST bag I made from this pattern, so its a bit less stiff but SO much easier to construct, using only the heavy fabric.

Pattern by Sandi Henderson, called the Market Bag.

New Gems for my Fabric Stash!

Fabric by Anna Griffin, "Darcey" in blue. Oh yeah... love it!
Should make a lovely coin quilt, me thinks. Each print is a half yard cut.

(Purchased from Fabric Supplies by Charlie and Lindsay on Etsy.com)

Baby Quilt for Jen & Mike

This is my favorite baby quilt so far! It was given to Jen, mom-to-be, on Saturday at her baby shower. I was not personally there, but I was sent a picture text of Jen with the quilt. I hope her and baby girl enjoy it! It was quick and pretty easy to create... as I just made up the design as I went along. My brain thrives on simplicity, apparently. Good or bad, I don't know.



I somewhat randomly chose 24 squares out of my pack of 80 Amy Butler "Daisy Chain" squares. Then I strolled down to one of my local quilt shops and picked up some coordinating backing and binding, also by Amy Butler.
I used a light gray Kona Cotton on the front sashing. Its a bit lighter than the Amy Butler gray, but seems to work well. I'm really into gray for some reason... I'm just drawn to it!


I did A LOT of straight line quilting, which took me about 3 hours. I just followed the width of my walking foot - and it turned out quite lovely! After a gentle cycle in the washing machine, it softened right up. Finished measurements are about 35" x 40"... didn't actually measure it but that's my best guess.

I think another baby quilt might be in order from the remaining squares, what do you think?