Easter on the way

 I am having my family here for Easter and I have the spring quilt on my condo door and a few bits of Easter decorations in my kitchen.

This Easter apron is the second one I have made and neither one make my heart beat faster.  Is it the fabric?  The colors?  Do I have some sort of deep seated resentment for Bunnies?

I am not sure but it is the holiday for which I have done the least amount of sewing. 

Maybe I am not a pastel kind of girl?

Do jelly beans turn me off?

 Here is an Easter table runner I have on my kitchen island along with some little Easter doo dads.

Meh

Yawn

I think that I really liked Easter best when I wasn't around to celebrate it with my family.  No offense family, I love you all!  But it's not like Christmas or Thanksgiving when I would die if I were not with them.  I taught French for 16 years and ten of those years I led student groups to France over spring break which always fell over Easter weekend and beyond.  I was trampling around Paris, London, Normandy and Provence.  Quite frankly, that beats the bunny any day of the week.  Of course I was also leading groups of 20 to 40 teenagers.  

Hey, you know, Easter at home at its pluses as well!

On my sideboard I have one antique bowl from my Mom mixed in with Peter Cotton tail children's china that my girls received from my Mom and sister when they were babies.  It was too good to actually use but it does look good on display with some crystal and a bunny candy dish.

I will enjoy setting the table for Easter dinner, I have some tried and true linens I made years ago plus I love my Hadley dishes.


I am feeling better about Easter now, heck, I may even eat some jelly beans!

Facebook and quilting

This is the best contribution to my quilting life that I have found on Facebook.  I actually love it and shared it to my wall.

I "like" lots of different quilting pages.  This is probably my favorite page.  Quilters Club page  I read a variety of posts that come through my feed and I have entered all kinds of contests to win fabric, fabric bundles, supplies, etc.  I have won none of it.

I also like the page that AQS has. AQS facebook page  I entered my blog there and I was blog of the week which was very fun.  I find that people are using the AQS page to just advertise their own blog or product.

I always thought that I would use Social Media more in my sewing life but I really haven't. 

I like sewing/quilting and magazines about quilting and sewing.  I adore visiting shops and buying fabric, even online.  I love books and patterns.  I just haven't extended this love to digital quilting sites. 

I love quilts and I love Facebook, I just haven't joined the two.  I will let you know if I figure it out.

Until then, I will post my quilt pictures here and on Facebook when they are done.  I will connect with friends on Facebook and with fabric in my sewing room.

And of course, I will blog about it all!

Pinterest

 I joined Pinterest about a month ago.  I set up 5 boards - I like it, For the Home, Travel, Sew much fun and Quilts.
It automatically made me followers on Pinterest of people who I am friends with on Facebook.

There is a a way to just see what they have "pinned" or you can just have everything that has been "pinned" or go to an interest of yours and see what has been "pinned" about that subject.

If you like it, you repin it to your board.  The whole thing seems to be digital bulletin boards of pictures which are attached to web addresses.  Like bookmarking but with pictures and organized on boards.

I "pinned" this.

And this.

Ok, now I guess I go back and make these items?  I already have a file drawer full of patterns and magazine articles I would like to try.  I guess this is just adding to that file, but digitally.

People seem to "pin" a lot of recipes.  I try to avoid cooking so that part did not appeal to me.

I added to the feed some "pins" from my blog which people "repinned" but no new blog followers.

If you would like to see my boards, be my guest.  My pinterest home  Click here!

There are a lot of ways to investigate your interests, your friends and in general waste time online.  Except for reading this blog, that is a wise investment of your time!

I admit it, I am hooked on Facebook and Yelp.  I like Goodreads.  I use email.  I tweet every once in a while.  I have a drop box account.  Now I have a Pinterest account.  Maybe different social media and online sites appeal to different people.  I did find a knit shop whose Pins I like by the name of Merche Grossomodo.  I even found her on Facebook.  Now what?

What do you think of Pinterest?

Oh, feel free to "pin" this to one of your boards!

One more section quilted

 I got another section of the City Green quilt done.

Phew.

I wish I could say that I am loving quilting this but I cannot.

The second time through I have to literally force myself to quilt.

Even while I am doing it, I am thinking of excuses to stop quilting. 

 As a result I was quite pleased to have this section done.

Maybe I will be more motivated now that I am moving along?

I hope so because quite frankly, it has taken me way too long.

The brown just seemed to bop right along and then wham, I hit a brick wall.

I actually could have started on the next section of circles but it seems more even to turn it after a group of honeycomb, circle, circle and honeycomb. 

I did the math TWICE to make sure this will work out evenly.  I have suddenly decided it probably won't. 

At any rate, I am slowly persevering. 

Slowly.

I rolled up the quilt, one more section and then I will be half done.

At least when it is done, it will be done.  There are very few things like that in life.  Done with the laundry?  Just wait a couple of days, there will be more.  Same with a clean house or graded papers.  But an educational degree and quilting never have to be done again.  You have that degree and it's yours for life.  Same with quilting.  This quilt will go on the wall.  Once I am done with it, I will be done.

Maybe I should just go up there and finish it off.  Or, I may need to relax and have some more dark chocolate.

It will get done.  Eventually!

Hot for Chocolate BLOCKS!

 Hip hip hooray, all the individual square are done for both Hot for Chocolate quilts.  I keep the squares separate however so I will do the blocks for each quilt and not mix them up.

I roughly divided the triangle blocks, rectangles and brown squares on the chair next to my sewing machine.

I put the picture of the finished quilt right by it to keep me motivated.

These are randomly placed.  I go through and select one block's worth of squares.

I try to avoid having same fabrics next to each other or more than twice in a block.

 Once I select the squares, I line it up on the ironing board.

You can see better how all the pink or red squares have been joined into rectangles and all the triangles are joined together.

This was tedious at the beginning but it makes the blocks sew up much faster.

I am liking the fabrics again!

When I get the horizontal strips put together, I transfer the block next to my sewing machine after pressing the strips in opposite directions.  That way the block will lay flatter.

 Here is a block waiting for its last sewing.

(A side note, I like using its correctly.  On Facebook and Yelp I have noticed that people have no idea that it's = it is.  They think it is the possessive of it.  It's not a hard concept to learn and has its own reward.  Grammar rant over, thanks for indulging me.)

When I sew the horizontal strips together, I just have to press the block.

I have four all made.

Yay!

I have one lined up, one with horizontal strips done and one waiting to be pressed.  I keep a regular assembly line going.

Each quilt needs 20 blocks.

I am planning on making all 40 blocks before I piece the top.

All this fabric has made me actually hot for chocolate.  I eat dark chocolate strictly for medicinal purposes, ha!

I actually read about one study that said dark chocolate is more effective than statins for lowering cholesterol.  I don't know if that is true but I have low cholesterol and I eat dark chocolate every single day!

Hot for chocolate - in quilts and in life!

P.S.  Thanks for voting for my caption, I won!

Happy Spring

I do love spring, there is just the promise of new beginnings in the air plus the weather is getting better.  Baseball starts and as Cub fans, it can be the best time of year for us.

This quilt is on my condo door every spring and I have a rag rug in blue and yellow underneath it.  It says come in!  Let's get some ice cream, let's see the baby birds and enjoy the rain.  Let's play two!

It also says, hey, it's spring and you aren't done with your winter sewing Miss Quilt blogger!  Short blog today as I work on City Green and Hot for Chocolate.  It is spring but to have new beginnings you have to finish up the other projects. 

Happy sewing and if you see me on Facebook or out and about, tell me to get back into my sewing room and get those projects DONE!

More fun projects to make

 After teaching today I drove over to Thimbles.  Remember I told you that I had ordered an apron pattern and they had called to say it was in?  I finally went over and got it.

But, really, to drive all that way and JUST pick up a pattern.  Who would do that?
Not me, duh!  I picked up 4 fat quarters and a half yard piece of yellows and pinks plus a polka dot that went with them.  I want to make a quick spring table runner.  I just put away all the St. Patrick's day stuff and need a fresh table runner!

 Here is the pattern.

Isn't it cute?  And it takes two yards for the front and back just like my other favorite pattern, plus some trim fabric.

I spied this apron fabric as I was making my way over to the cash register.

I love it!  I had to buy some but then the quandary was, how much?  I settled on 4 yards, I figured I had the reverse fabrics and trim fabrics in my stash.  Or do I?  More shopping?

This cutie patootie pattern also caught my eye.

Not the thread catcher, which is just fine, but the lining for the mug.

I have lots of mugs around with stuff in them.

This little liner allows you to put things on the OUTSIDE of the mug as well.

Pure genius!  I sense a new gift item on the horizon!

I love the excitement of the new project, the fresh fabric, the perfect table runner.  New inspiration for my spring.

Sorry, I can't write any more, I need to go SEW!