Quilting...Extra Credit quilt!

I wrote a pattern for my mini log cabin quilt that uses one jelly roll to make a 48" x 48" play quilt (alternate sizes available)....Extra Credit is now available in my Craftsy Store!

And the quilt that I made to test it out got quilted this week!  I used a panto called One Cloudy Day and it turned out really cute, in my opinion...

I absolutely love it and found that I really enjoy working with small pieces....there are nearly 900 pieces in this little quilt!  Awesome...my hexies are coming along nicely as well.  I'm in uncharted territory so I'll post a pic of my progress thus far tomorrow.  It is the applique stage that I'm stuck on...Sharon offered to give me a lesson in applique.  Definitely!!

This is the last Friday at school and we couldn't be happier around here.  I hope all is well with you all...

Happy Quilting!

Happy Memorial Day!

We are up and at it today....after a late night at Fleetwood Mac last night!!  Rebecca got us tickets at Christmas time and the show was fantastic.  It was at the MGM in the arena and they played for 2.5 hours...non-stop!  Lindsey Buckingham is a truly gifted guitar player and and Stevie Nicks is hanging in there for being 65 years old....John McVie was great on the bass and Mick Fleetwood still rocks the drums like a teenager!  Awesome night...

Today I'm quilting Patty's friendship star quilt.  More pics later....

Here is the quilt top Rebecca made for her Dad.  I had a couple of layer cakes of Pure leftover from years ago so she used that to make a simple square in a square quilt.  I also had the backing and binding fabric so she got a free quilt basically.... ;-)  It will get quilted sometime soon, I hope...

I graciously allowed her to use my vintage Spartan machine.  Once she figured it out, it was all good.  This machine is a real beauty and the stitches couldn't be more perfect....

I'm off to do some longarming....have a great holiday and Happy Quilting!

Wow...busy month!

It has been quite a while since my last, but I've been super busy!  Lots of last minute work at school and a bit of sewing...I did a sew-in at Quiltique and made a baby quilt top in the Scrappy Trip Along style.  I like the colors, but this type of quilt just isn't my thing....too random.  It will get quilted in June....that should improve it!!  ;-)

And I'm writing a pattern for the mini log cabin quilt that uses a jelly roll (this is Ticklish) to get the scrappy look.  Here is the top, also unquilted...I call in Extra Credit because there are about 900 pieces in a 48" x 48" play quilt!  Seems like extra credit to me.... ;-)

 Then I debated between picking up crochet again...or doing some hand piecing.  I've always wanted to learn to do hexagons so now I'm all over this bad boy....I bought some 1" hexagon templates because you can cut the unfinished hexagon from a 2.5" strip and you know I'm all about the precuts.  My plan is to make a modern baby quilt with some paper pieced hexie flowers.  The quilting will make the quilt awesome (hopefully!).  Show and tell on this project will come in June as well...

I've been meaning to post about some cutie quilting-related gifts from Sharon at Sew Extreme....a post it stack with the Beach Glass quilt on the side and a little handmade zipper bag for lipsticks and such!  In Kaffe no less....Thanks, Sharon!  Sorry it took so long to post on these cuties....

And finally, Buddy likes the outdoor carpet we installed in the backyard last weekend.  I forgot about that project....check it out!  It might have a life of 2 years out there...but you can't beat the price for a mini makeover!

And there is Buddy, soaking up some Las Vegas sun in style.  Lest you think that I solved the "dirt dog" problem, I later saw him laying in the dirt, with his head on a pillow of rock rubble, one foot from the new carpet!  Nice job, dude....

Anyhow, more posts to come in the future.  I only have about 8 days left at school and then my real life can begin!!  Happy quilting!

Our Mother's Day Present...

So, for Mother's Day, Rebecca and I got ourselves a gardener to plant some plants in our backyard.  It turns out we are too out of shape to do this ourselves...and it was nearly 100 degrees outside today!  We have been working on this yard for a year and a half...

This is what it looked like when we bought the house (it was a foreclosure)....  We removed all the rock (probably 12 tons, and most of the bushes a year ago....

 The trees were not doing well without water....

A stolen spa left a weird unpainted space on the patio...and what is that extra wood fencing in the background??  No idea...

We had the house painted and we installed grass last summer...that involved re-plumbing the entire yard with soft and hard line and adding curbing...Rebecca and I also installed the sod....

This year we planted more Photinia around the perimeter of the yard...and more plants around the patio.  We had gardeners put in the plants but we did the preliminary irrigation...The back tree and bushes were there from last year.  Yes, that is a dog bed that Buddy doesn't use.  We will finish this section next year when we have a brilliant idea about it....

The covers were painted last year...perimeter plants!

Now you can see the grass we put in last summer.  More plants!

The little flowers in the back are Lantana--the most durable desert flower available.  When it is hot as hell, they grow like crazy!  Love em....and they come in lots of colors--purple, yellow, red/orange/yellow, deep red, pink/peach/yellow....I'll post pics when they are in full bloom.

Lots of Lily of the Nile flowers....since it is a shady area they should survive the summer....

We needed another Photinia but all they could fit in the empty spot along the wall was a little one due to the foundation of the wall coming nearly out to the curbing.....LOL!

Our side yard without all the nasty rock.  The trees are doing awesome!  African Sumac and a Chaste tree....the purple flowers will be on the chaste tree soon.  I'll post pics...the bench is heavy as hell and I've been dragging it from house to house for a few years.  It is made from an old Mexican door....awesome!

We are going to install outdoor carpet on the back patio...maybe next weekend??  Anyhow, this was our Mother's Day present to each other this year....fantastic!!  We have finished about 60% of the yard...yeah!  There are only a few more weeks before the wicked heat of summer makes it nearly impossible to work outside so I'm glad this is done.  Happy Mother's Day to all you Moms!

Scrappy Trip Along class...

I have been so busy at work that I haven't had much time to sew or post....Yesterday I went to an all day sew-in at Quiltique.  We brought pre-cut 2.5" x 16" strips and made Scrappy Trip blocks!  I had a great time and look forward more sew-ins...

I finished 9 blocks and have another 5 nearly done.  I used aqua, red, pink and whitish colored strips....

All of the participants were having a great time.  We did a potluck so I didn't even have to leave to buy lunch!  It ran from 9am to 9pm but I gave up at about 6pm.  Buddy needed a walk and so did I!!  I'll finish up some more blocks later this week and see what I want to do with it...keep it?  Sell it??  Who knows!

Happy Quilting!

Only 16 more days of school left here in Las Vegas!