Cotton Candy

Doesn't this fabric remind you of cotton candy? I found a quilt in the Summer 2009 issue of Fonts and Porter quilting magazine; and it inspired me to go out and grab fabric for it. I will make two quilts out of this fabric. The six coordinating fabrics are all found at Joann's (yes, believe it or not!) The stripe / ticking fabric, however, was found at a local quilt shop. The blue in the fabric from J's is more on the 'teal' side, so it was a little bit of a challenge finding the striped fabric. I plan to give one quilt away for Christmas, and keep the second for myself. Since the fabric was on sale for less than $5 per yard, I couldn't resist buying extra fabric to make two identical quilts. This is one of my summer projects, this year. While I wait to be called for job interviews, I'll need to keep myself busy until I find work again.

Underground Railroad Sampler

This is a special day for my family and my fellow Americans. Memorial Day is meant for pause to remember our servicemen and women; including those who have gone before us. We pause to remember our POW's and MIA's; and we reflect on the sacrifices they have made to ensure that the United States and its citizens continue to enjoy their freedom and liberties.
Since there is no school and no work, today, my son and I went to Barnes and Noble to relax and grab a smoothie. As some of my friends know, I am not earning an income at the moment, since I've had to resign my job due to the Air Force moving us to Florida in two weeks. I am itching to start on a new quilt project, nontheless. While at B & N, I picked up a book on Underground Railroad quilts written by Eleanor Burns and Susan Bouchard called Undeground Railroad Sampler . A few days ago, my friend Mary Rogers had shared an underground railroad quilt she had made, so when I found this book, I was so delighted and inspired to make one, also.
Did you know that there is much controversy over whether or not the quilts' purpose was to guide slaves through the Underground Railroad? Some scholars will tell you that the blocks are meaningless, while others will say that they played a fundemental role in assisting slaves in their plight to escape and move northward.
I bought the book, and in true "Civil War-era" fashion, I am going to use up my scraps for the Underground Railroad quilt I am going to make. I have tons of browns, reds, greens and tans from the "Around the Block" quilt that I just finished this week. I thought it was fitting to use up scraps just as fabric was scarce during the Civil War.
From another book about Underground Railroad quilts, I found a picture of General George Armstrong Custer, his wife, and a female slave. Yes, a slave. General Custer, a Union soldier, had slaves. The photograph was taken around the time the Confederacy surrendered and just two days before President Abraham Lincoln was assasinated. I found the photograph quite ironic. While General Custer was fighting a war to liberate slaves, he, himself, was a contradiction of the Union's ideals. You have to wonder how many Union soldiers owned slaves? Confederate General Robert E. Lee, himself, freed the slaves placed in his charge BEFORE the Emancipation Proclamation was made. It is quite ironic, isn't it?
On this Memorial Day, let's never forget where we came from, our history, and how we have arrived where we are today. Let us remember the courage of the soliders of the American Revolution, our Union Soldiers, those who served in World War II, Korea, Viet Nam, and those who continue to protect our freedom in all four corners of our world, today. Let's never take our liberties for granted. May you and yours have a blessed and safe Memorial Day!

Presenting the finished quilt top!

It's done!! Finally!! Just in the nick of time, too. This pattern is by The Rabbit Factory (a Canadian quilt pattern company). It measures a little more than 2 yards wide and 2 1/4 yards long. I have to sew the backing and the strips together for the binding, but the top is done! I'll probably bring it to the quilt shop on Sunday. I'm on their schedule to have it quilted, so I will be able to pick this baby up before we leave for Florida. Woo-hoo! I am tired, but happy.

More Progress

More sewing. More accomplished. Over the last two days, I worked on 96 rail fence blocks for my quilt-in-progress. My eyes were so blood-shot by the end of each evening, but it's all worth it. I'm making progress. All of the blocks are ready. Soon, I will piece the center together. I will add sashing, borders, the houses and churches, and then it'll be ready for quilting. I'm down to the last four days of work on this quilt top. I am so excited.

After a few hours of working on my blocks, I needed to take a much needed chocolate break.



This is how some of the rail fence and nine-patch blocks will go together. I have some plain squares that will go above this row. It's a little too confusing to explain. You'll just have to wait to see the finished quilt in a few weeks.

Sneak Peak!

I'm working on a new quilt. All in all, it involves a total of 24 houses, barns, churches, and school-houses. It took me two weeks to piece together the buildings. Now, I'm working on the fences and trees. I think it'll take me three more weeks to piece the top before it will be ready for quilting. I thought I'd give you a sneak peak on what I've been working on since the bird quilt.

Happy Mother's Day to my 'mommy' friends!! I hope you're enjoying your day!!

Signs of Spring

The robins, finches and jays are back! They actually returned before the last snow storm blanketed our ground. I think they must've felt they came back too early. During one of my last visits to a local quilt store, I fell in love with this fabric by Moda. It's so 'retro!" The fabrics are part of the "Tranquility" line. I couldn't pass up these large bird panels because they reminded me of patterned paper. I wasn't quite sure what I was going to do with it, but knew I had to put something together. This lap quilt is 53" x 66". I made a pattern of sorts on some graph paper, and just started cutting away. It took approximately eight hours to complete this quilt top, from cutting to piecing together. I plan to have the LQS take care of the quilting and binding on their long-arm machine. I already have another quilt top I want to get started; and I know that one will take me most, if not the rest, of the summer to finish.

Another quilt finished!

Whew! Finally finished! This is a Thimbleberries Block-of-the-Month quilt that's been sitting in my linen closet since 2002. I finally got the quilting done (it was quilted by the Country Sampler in Papillion). I think I had finished piecing it just before we did our military move to Vandenberg AFB, and I was just so exhausted that I didn't have any energy to pick it up again. I had all of the blocks finished. I just needed to add the border, get it quilted and bind it. So....Voila!! Here it is!!
If you follow it from the top left, going across, you'll see each block represents a month on the calendar:
January: Snowflake
February: Hearts
March: Four leaf clover
April: Tulips
May: Flower basket
June: Pinwheels
July: Fourth of July Americana block
August: Sunflower
September: Schoolhouse (back to school)
October: Pumpkins
November: Pine cone
December: Christmas Tree

Thank you for stopping by!

Inchies card

I made this card for my Inchies Card swap on the Stamp Shack. I used a Cuttlebug embossing folder for the birds and the Swiss Dots folder for the background, and heat embossed using a stamp by All Night Media. Sentiment is by Hero Arts.

Happy 2nd Blogversary to me!

Cupcake Nirvana! Cupcake Island in Omaha is where I decided to go to pick up a treat to celebrate my second blogversary!! I can't believe it's been two years since I first started posting on my blog. I know there are periods of time when it's been hard to post something new. Life gets in the way. But what is nice to know is that I have something I can always go back to to share what I've created with folks who appreciate the same things I do.


You can't go to Cupcake Island and just pick out one cupcake. If it were up to me, I would've bought sixteen cupcakes. We decided to pick out these six. Two for each of us. YUM! It's a mix of marble cake, devil's food cake, red velvet cake, white cake...and just tons of chocolate. I love their cupcakes because they're so flavorful and moist; and the frosting isn't too dense. Just delicious!!

Look at this delicious chocolate covered strawberry on top of this Devil's Food cupcake. It's ALL for me! LOL!

And now, it's time to announce the winners of my Blogversary "Twist and Shout" giveaway. A HUGE thank you to everyone who left me a kind and happy comment:

#9

Kim H. said...
Happy Blog anniversary! Your blog has been a true inspiration to me- thank you!

Ok these bags are gorgeous! I am screaming and shouting- PICK ME! LOL!

#2

Sue McGettigan said...
Oh my goodness Ethel, these bags are so gorgeous!! I'd be thrilled to win either one, and if I don't win, I hope you'll share the pattern?

I keep reusable bags in my car all year long so I try not to use disposable grocery bags. It works, except when I forget to take my bags in with me ... duh :)

Ladies, I will send you your bags asap! Thank you, again, for joining in the fun!

Tonight's Project: Cosmetic Bag

I made this cute little cosmetic bag, this evening. It turned out to be much bigger than I thought. It's a fun quilted project that uses up scraps. I think I might give this one to my mom. I would've photographed this in natural light, but since it's always dark by the time I get home, it's sorta too late to catch that "good light." Don't forget to enter my Blogversary Giveaway!! Thanks for stopping by!

Twist and Shout!!! Blogversary Giveaway!

In less than ten days, I will be celebrating my second Blog-versary! Woo-hoo! As some of my friends know, I love to do a wide variety of crafts, not just papercrafts. To celebrate, I made these cute "Twist bags" perfect for taking to the store, or for throwing your beach towel into, when the weather gets warmer. Quick and easy patchwork sewing went into creating these bags. I made one that is in fun, spring/summer colors, lined with pink gingham; and the other is in orange and green tones, but with a funky, retro look lined with a beautiful leaf print. They are both very large, very spacious bags. If you have it hanging on your shoulder, the bottom of the bag will hit well past your hip. How cool will you look strolling around town with one of these funky fresh bags? The straps are handmade, with lines of stitching to give them a "quilted look." I got the idea from my local quilt shop who created the pattern for these bags. If you make a "twist bag" with their pattern, and bring it in when you shop at the quilt shop, they will place your name in a monthly drawing for fun prizes at the shop. They are encouraging their customers to "go green" rather then using the store plastic bags.
If you would like a chance to win one of these "environmentally friendly" bags, please leave me a comment on this thread; and you will be entered for two drawings. Yes! I am giving away BOTH bags!! Deadline to enter is Monday, February 16th, 11:59 PM (US Central Standard Time). I will use the Random Integer Generator to give us our winner. You do not need a blog to enter. I *do* however will need your name (no "anonymous posts") and email address if you win one of these. I would LOVE to send your bag to you so you can start using it long before "Earth Day." Thanks for stopping by, and I look forward to announcing our two winners on February 17th, on my blogversary!!

Not much time left....

We received word, very recently, that we are moving within the next five months to Eglin Air Force Base, in the Florida panhandle. This means I don't have too much time left to go through EVERYTHING in the house and purge what I don't want to move with. I will likely do very little crafting between now and our big move, so I'll be on a hiatus of sorts until we're settled down in Florida. Of course, once in a while, I may need to do some crafting just to ease the stress; but since I have limited time between working, taking care of the family and purging, I will update my blog only once in a blue moon. Once we are settled in and unpacked, in Florida, I hope to keep up with my blogging far more than I have been.

This is how I spent the evening on Inauguration Day

As many Americans probably did, I watched the coverage of the Inaugural parade and the Neighborhood Ball, yesterday. I half-watched and half-listened. I was working on a quilt block that I'm going to swap with my friend, Lori; and the colors I ended up choosing seemed to have a "red, white and blue" theme about it. I don't think it was intentional. It just ended up that way. I hope Lori likes her quilt block. We're exchanging blocks, and this is just the first one. I don't know how often we'll exchange blocks, but if we do continue to do this over the course of the year, I may end up with enough blocks to make another large quilt.

Glittery birthday card

When I first looked at this stamp, I immediately thought "Valentine's" or "Love" would be the appropriate theme that it would fall under. But, then, I saw the cute little birthday hat on the little mouse. That's when I was inspired to create this Birthday card. Rather than use pink or red for the glitter hearts, I thought it was more festive to use primary colors, instead. Stickles, as a final touch, makes the "Glitter Hearts" come to life. Thanks for stopping by, today!


Stamp: House Mouse by Stampa Rosa, Riveting by Stampin Up
Ink: Memento Black, COPIC markers
Papers / Cardstock: White, Red, Green, Yellow, Blue
Accessories: Large and Small star punches by Stampin Up, Stickles

Sweet and lovely vintage

A lovely way to begin a weekend. I joined a swap on the Stamp Shack with "vintage" as the theme. Here, I used an image by Tuscan Rose; a stamp (the word "sweet") by Heidi Swapp; papers by Foofala; lace and prima flowers. For the swap, we have to create only the card front. This saves on postage costs.
We received an inch or two of snow last night, with a layer of sleet/ice beneath it. It made driving quite interesting today. We went out to a local restaurant for breakfast, ran a few other errands, and came home. It is certainly chilly, this weekend. My husband found some wonderful "chilli powder" that you add to your hot chocolate. I believe this is how many Mexican people enjoy hot chocolate. Neither my husband and I are Mexican, however, we have seen many shows on television where this spice is shown as a favorite addition to hot chocolate in Mexico. Well, we tried the chilli powder, and it is absolutely delicious!
I hope you are enjoying beautiful weather where you are! Thanks for stopping by!

Edited to add: Some folks have written to me about the "chili powder" I mentioned above. It's not regular chili powder (the red kind). It's a special chili powder called "Cocoa Chili Powder" made by McCormick's. So, please don't use regular chili powder. You have to find the kind that is designed specifically to be added to hot chocolate.

I'm back in the gym, religiously

Yes sirree! Monday through Friday (today), this week. I've been going to the gym each day, after work. Then, I come home, shower, cook supper, eat.....then if I'm lucky, I'll still be awake come 8:30 to watch TV. LOL! Then, day starts all over again when the alarm clock sounds at 0430 (it sounds more like an actual scheduled activity when I post it as military time). I have been receiving the nicest compliments from coworkers. One coworker, who hasn't seen me in three weeks, said she has seen a very noticeable difference, and she can really tell I've lost weight.

I'm down almost 20-lbs (or 9 kilos) since I started working out religiously and watching my calories. This journey began on 11-11-08, and I am proud to say, I continue to do pretty well. I didn't gain any weight over the Christmas Holidays. As a matter of fact, I dropped three pounds. I feel stronger, more energetic, and don't feel like it's so impossible to do, any more.

If you made a New Year resolution to get fit, I wish you all the best. If I can do it, you can do it!! Feel free to share what is working for you; and feel free to drop me an email and ask questions, whenever you like!

My vacation is drawing to a close

I thoroughly enjoyed my little break from work. I can't believe how quickly the days have flown by. As opposed to vacations of the past, we didn't leave our home. We stayed put. What a difference that makes! I enjoy visiting family, seeing other cities, exploring new places; but sometimes, it gets stressful and exhausting, and you don't feel rested. During this vacation, I got to sleep in my own bed, went to see a movie (Valkyrie with Tom Cruise), ate out on weeknights, and stamped, stamped, stamped. This is the most stamping that I've done in months! My husband would like to take me out to see "Australia" with Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman. We may catch the matinee later on, today. I hope to get one more card completed before going back to work on Monday. (Ooohh....I dread Monday....LOL!)
Stamps: Stampin Up "Fairies"
Cardstock: Brown, White, Red
Ink: Memento Black Ink, COPIC markers, Bayou blue ink (for the sky)
Embellishments: Lace, ribbon, gemstone stickers, Stickles (on her wings)
Tools: Nestabilities, Martha Stewart border punch, Stampin Up scalloped circle punch (to help with creating the puffy clouds), stipple brush