i'm back!

Wow, did that suck! The hard drive died on my laptop and I've been offline since then, well, mostly. I have my blackberry but couldn't for the life of me figure out how to post a blog entry from it. I now have a little netbook to tide me over until I can get a new laptop.

And in case y'all are wondering, I didn't get the quilts done for Christmas. :( I don't even have all the fabric yet. I did make it through mid-term at school so I'm ecstatic! Maybe I'll get the quilts done for Valentine's Day...

Glad to be back up and online!!!

{holiday freebie}

Every Monday I'll try and post a new freebie, this week I have wrap around mailing labels for envelopes. All you have to do is print them on some sturdy paper, cut out, and apply an adhesive strong enough to hold up to the post office. Then wrap around the envelope so the return address square is on the back. These are great for mailing anything during the holiday season!

As always, please don't share this file, link to this blog to download, do not print and sell as a finished product, and do not use as part of a collage even if it is free. Download these mailing labels HERE!

{holiday freebie}

As part of the giving spirit of the holiday season I'm going to be offering some freebies! These will all be in the form of digital downloads and I have a couple simple requests if you download these:

~these files are for personal use only! please don't download and sell as part of a collection or print these items and sell as a finished product.
~if you want to share this file with others please link them to my blog, don't send them the file.

These tags are all a very generous size, the larger tags are 3x3, the smaller ones are about the size of a business card. For best results print on photo paper or thick cardstock. Download tags HERE.

a quilty post

As some of you remember from this post I revealed the quilt tops. Well, I'm having particular difficult with the boys top:



Well, not exactly the top but the backing. I'm having a REAL hard time finding yardage for the backing, I'm not opposed to piecing it at all, in fact that was my plan all along. I've decided to use some solids and here's my question, I want to use Moda Bella Solids, does anyone know which solids match the Arcadia line? I'm particularly interested in the browns and oranges.

Thanks!

hitting home

In my time away I've been real busy with school and clinicals. This weekend I put in 24 hrs of ride time, got 8 calls which isn't bad at all considering 20 hours of 104 of ride time so far were spent holding down the recliners at the station.

This weekend was just weird. Lots of weird calls, lots of weird outcomes, just weird. There is no other way to describe it. Today we had a call that really hit home with me. I had been in her shoes a couple times before and it's like a switch was flipped. Normally I kinda keep low key with the patients and their families as the medics I ride with take over that part, I just basically start the assessments and get histories from them. I talk to them during the transport, I try to calm them down, and sometimes just lend a hand to hold. The medic in the back takes the jump seat (which is behind the patients head for the non EMS folk) and I'm usually on the bench or the CPR seat which are on the sides of the ambulance. I'm fairly inexperienced as an EMT having gone straight from EMT school to paramedic school without working in the field but today with this one patient I felt like I'd been doing this for years.

I talked to her, I told her my experiences, what to expect, how things work, how to stay safe, how to get a fresh start, and most of all how to escape. She was terrified and her vitals showed it. I sat by her side the entire way to the hospital, totally forgot there was a medic in back with us, just talked to her, hopefully helped to ease her fears of the whirlwind that is about to come in the next few days. I didn't do much for her medically other than take her vitals and give her some ice but by the time we got to the hospital her vitals fell into the normal range and she was more at ease about what's to come. Got her transferred to the ED staff and I wished her good luck and gave her a hug, I hope she follows through on everything and gets a fresh start. We're only with our patients for a short time, hardly enough to make a difference, I can only wish that my story gave her some hope. I really do wish her all the best.

waste of my time

I volunteered to be a victim for the T/Th paramedic classes PHTLS class tonite. We were to be all moulaged and made up to look like real victims. That didn't happen. There were 5 of us from my class that participated because it counted for some ER time that we were going to have to do. Plus it's a preview of what we can expect at the PHTLS when we take it.

For starters, it was fairly unorganized. No one knew where we were going or what we were doing. Only some people had assignments prior to the class but of course nothing was concrete. Secondly, I let them use my car for rapid extrication and the students ripped the shit outta my seat when they jammed a back board too far under the 'patient'. It already had a small rip (it's a 1991, the leather is dry) but they made it about 5 times larger. I knew it was a possibility of some damage to arise but that just frosts my cake that they made it significantly worse than what it was. The cars actually belong to people who drive them on a daily basis, they're not junk yard cars. Lastly, one of the proctors brought along about 10-12 of his HIGH SCHOOL EMT-B students. Some of them were fine but there were a few that were obnoxious. I happened to be in this guys group during the trauma scenarios teaching station and he said he was going to give me a scenario to play victim but never did, even after I reminded him several times. He had 3 of his students play victims and 1 person from my class.

If his excuse was that they needed cars there were plenty of people willing to have their cars used for the rapid extrication part. I find it really rude that he brought along so many students who won't take PHTLS for a good length of time to come if ever and that he gave priority of playing victims and scenarios to his students. They didn't really get in the way but it's a school nite and they lived at least 45mins to an hour away, things were just wrapping up about. They acted very clique-ish at times and a few of them thought they were tough shit because of where they were.

In the end, I wound up with a severely damaged front seat and got to do absolutely nothing that I signed up for, I would've much rather stayed home and did homework.

why I think Chicago should NOT host the Olympics

I have been against Chicago getting the games since they first tossed out the idea of putting in a bid. Why you ask? Read on.

Size, Chicago is a large city, but not large enough to host the games. I know all Olympic games have some facilities and events that are not in the immediate vicinity of the games however there is talk about staging these events as much as 90 mins away, add traffic into that and it could easily double, throw an accident on those roads into the mix, it could triple or quadruple. That brings me to my next point, traffic.

Chicago cannot handle it's rush hour traffic very well, people are still going to need to get to work during the games so mix regular traffic with event traffic and you're going nowhere fast. Let's not forget that an accident on ANY major roadway here will snarl traffic something fierce. I'll throw parking into this too, our city garages are either over priced or jam packed. I try to go downtown with the kids on a weekend and we either leave at 8am to get to the cheap garages and wait til everything opens or we're stuck going at the time we need to and paying ridiculous amounts for parking. Street parking is at a minimum as well, a lot of residents in the city rely on street parking when they're home, I predict a lot of pissed off people if their spots are taken by game goers. Plus our roads suck, they're some of the worst in the country.

Politics. Chicago and Cook County are perhaps the most crooked political places in the country. Do your research or watch the news, I don't need to go into detail here.

Lack of planning. Mayor Daley would like you to believe that he has everything all planned out and everything is sunshine and roses. He shut down a hospital that served the low income residents of our city to make way for an Olympic Village. He'll tell you otherwise but the timing of its closing is really suspect and especially how quickly it closed.

Public transit. Cabbies in this city have NO respect for pedestrians or other traffic, I can only imagine it getting worse. The CTA and Metra services are great but can barely handle the daily ridership on heavy volume days where people leave cars at home for whatever reason. Chicago doesn't have enough time to fix this if they started last year.

Finances. Tax payers will get stuck with a bill, mark.my.word. Anytime Mayor Daley or Todd Stroger promises the tax payers won't be burdened, we always are.

Does it have a potential to be profitable for the city? Possibly. Does it have an even greater potential to be a complete cluster fuck? I'm willing to put money on it.

Chicago is a great city, I love leaving my house and seeing the Sears Tower (NO, it will never be the Willis Tower, ever.) as I'm driving down the road. Our city offers so much, I think it could offer so much more if we didn't get the games.

caramel in a can

So I've heard things about turning sweetened condensed milk into caramel, while it's still in the can. I googled my little heart out and found times ranging from 2-4 hours so I did a little experiment on the rainy afternoon we had here in the Chicago area. First I went to Jewel, they were all out of their store brand and I refused to pay $2.59 a can for something that may or may not work so I headed off to Aldi and the $1.39 price tag for an experiment was easier to deal with. Yes, I'm cheap, get over it!

The basic instructions are that you boil the can in a water bath for a specified amount of time then allow to cool and when you open it radiates sunshine and does that little, "oahhhhh" sound like you've struck gold.

I first came across the link on 2 peas and decided my ass couldn't be left out of the widening party which is what sparked my little experiment.

The results? OMGWTFBBQ?! This is like the holy grail of all that is right with the world!

The 2 hour was the best one for pouring, this one is the perfect consistency for drizzling over ice cream, dipping, or even to pour in some coffee. Lighter in color.

The 3 hour is what I call the "all-purpose" version. It's still got a nice drizzle to it but it's a little thicker so you can decorate a plate with it, drizzle it on top of a dessert, use as a filling for chocolate candies, or dipping. Typical caramel color.

The 4 hour one is the one I'm on the fence about. I didn't care for it, it tasted a little burned however after adding some vanilla it was better, needs a little more vanilla than the other two to get rid of the burned taste. This one is a lot thicker than the 2 hour one and would be great for pies or cake fillings. Not for drizzling. Color is darker.

I tried each one with and without vanilla. I preferred them all with the vanilla added however the 2 hour one had the best 'naked' taste to it.

So, from L-R we have the 2 hour, 3 hour, and 4 hour.



**PLEASE TAKE NOTE** When you are boiling these you MUST keep a watchful eye on the water level, take a peek every 30-45 mins, it evaporates quicker than you think. If the water drops below the level of the top of the can it could explode. And no, I'm not responsible if you blow up cans caramel in your kitchen. Mines messy enough without having to clean yours! :p


Wanna freebie? Here are download links to the instructions and some labels:

Instructions
Labels

comparative anatomy of brains

Click to enlarge :)


*chuckle*

forever in our hearts

I remember 9/11/01 like it was yesterday. I was a senior in high school and was in my 3rd period class which ironically enough was Current Events. My high school had something called the musical minute which is where a minute of music from the radio plays during the last minute of passing period telling you to haul ass to class. My 2nd period class was gym so there was no hurry to get to the locker room and as I was listening to the musical minute the DJ on the radio said very casually there have been reports of a plane hitting one of the WTC towers in NYC. My thoughts were wow, that sucks, thinking it was a small plane with engine trouble.

Our classes were 45 minutes long, by the time I made it to my 3rd period class it was just in time to see the 2nd plane strike the other tower. The rest of the day all the TVs in the school were on and regular lesson plans were put aside. Classmates that had family members who were pilots were hysterical, those with family living and working in NYC were panicked, but everyone remained in a state of shock. The juniors and seniors were allowed to leave for lunch each day but not many did, myself included.

Later that day I had to work. I was a waitress at Steak n Shake. I was the only waitress, of the 4 that were scheduled to work, that came in. It turned out to be a good money day, nice and steady, the mood was very somber and for a full restaurant it was eerily quiet. My manager that nite gave all the employees a free meal and when it was quiet the 5 of us that were working that nite all sat down and ate dinner.

When I got home I fell straight to sleep and waking up the next day was very odd. It seemed so surreal, like waking up from a dream but in reality it was anything but. We had no clue what this meant for our country, we were still reeling from the events the day before. After school and tennis the day after 9/11 me a few friends all went out found a spot in the grass to lay and we talked about how we felt. There were no planes in the sky and that's when it really started sinking in the magnitude of the prior days events. We were close to 2 large airports and 2 smaller airports as well as a little municipal airport, so eerily quiet without the hum of a planes engine.

I will never forget. Thank you is simply not enough to all the men and women who have died for our freedom. I have nothing but respect for the military men and women who serve and protect our country. My sisters boyfriend is in Iraq now and we all want him to come home safe.




I'd like to dedicate this post to Marine Lance Cpl. Jonathan W. Collins. He was a year younger than me in high school and was always the life of the party. I didn't know him too well but other friends did, he gave his life in the fight for our country. Photo from this article.

wahoo! all my blocks came in

I joined the modernjax Christmas block swap and I got the last 4 blocks today! YEAH! I'm so excited, tomorrow I'll have to slap it all together :p They turned out beautifully and I can't wait to use them. I'm going to add white borders on all the blocks to make them all the same size, some are slightly smaller, some slightly larger. Maybe shoot for 18 inch blocks? We'll see, I have all day tomorrow to think about it!

I have NO clue what happened last nite

I know where I was at and for what purpose but can I tell you that I learned anything? Nope. Quite possibly one of the driest and worst classes to date. We're not at a college, in fact our classes are held at an elementary school the academy rents space from. The paramedic class room is 2 classrooms with the wall between them removed and it's quite a large space. If you're a person who doesn't know how to project your voice then those that are NOT in the first 2 rows will have a very hard time hearing you.

Yesterday's lecture was shock. All about shock. Cardiogenic, neurogenic, hypovolemic, anaphylactic, and septic. Let's throw in some acid/base balance and how pH is controlled and maintained. Now, I've had A&P, chemistry, and microbiology before, how the hell this person managed to make my head spin I'll never know. First she didn't know how to break down bicarbonate into it's proper form. She kept adding an extra particle and it was never consistent which really irritated me. Normal pH of the human body is 7.35-7.45 if you're curious.

I did learn *some* things, like when you start an IV using a crystalloid solution you replace at a ratio of 1cc of fluid lost:3cc of fluid replaced, if using just a colloid you only do a 1:1. NS is a crystalloid and blood is an example of a colloid. Another thing in a patient who's in cardiogenic shock, you only run fluids at a TKO (to keep open, not total knock out ;) ) rate because they're already experiencing some stage of pulmonary edema and you don't want to make it worse.

I'm still not fully understanding the buffer system as presented in our books but I do know that acidosis or alkalosis can happen quickly when the body's pH gets either above or below the its normal pH. Sounds like a good question for my science nerd sister.

On to other things, CLINICALS have begun!! We have to do a precepted rotation in the ER before we're set loose to start doing rotations on the 'bolance, dispatch, or ER so I get to do that on Thursday night and then I can start riding, SCORE!! I pass the station I'll be riding at when I do clinicals on my way home from school and I saw them rolling out totally green I wasn't on the rig :(

is this seriously August?!

Granted, it's the last day of the month but the last few days have been CHILLY! Like highs in the 60s. I'm wearing a heavy sweatshirt for crying out loud!

a great giveaway!

Heather Mulder Peterson at Trends and Traditions is having an awesome giveaway!! One winner will receive a QUILT (!) made by Heather, another winner will receive a small sized (looks perfect sized to be a doll quilt), and yet ANOTHER winner will receive a stack of charm packs and a few patterns!!

Head over to enter!!

bright sunny sunflowers

My daughter planted these sunflowers around mother's day. It was a roll out garden type thing and I'm amazed at how awesome they look. She is incredibly proud of these and some of the stalks are 7 feet tall easily.

why quilty adventures may be delayed

As you know I'm a paramedic student. I was one of about 40 selected out of 140+ who applied and it's a very well respected program and obviously a very popular choice. Anyways, here is the reason I very well could be posting sparsely:

- dispatch 4 hours
- ED 148
- 6 successful intubations in the OR with anesthesia
- respiratory 4 hours
- L&D 3 vaginal deliveries
- Various Peds 44 hours
- MICU/CCU 8 hours
- Tele 4 hours
- Surgical Intensive care & Neuro Intensive Care 4 hours
- trauma svc 8 hours
- psych & detox 4 hrs each
- nursing home 8 hours
- cardiac diagnostics 4 hours
- phlebotomy 4 hours
- MINIMUM 200 hours on the ambulance

For my EMT-B license I only had to do the following:
- ED 24 hours
- Private ambulance 8 hours
- Fire dept ambulance 8 hours
- L&D 3 deliveries OR 8 hours
- Dispatch 4 hours

Obviously some of the clinicals for paramedic could be longer than 8 hours, and the ambulance clinicals could be longer because I need specific calls and if I don't get them it means more rides.

So if I go missing don't worry, I'm either at a hospital or an ambulance somewhere.

new quilty stuff

This is a Christmas table topper I did. It's approx 28x28 inches. The backing is what you see in the post below this one. I had a really hard time finding a suitable binding. I didn't really want to drag my happy tail to the quilt store I got the top fabric at so I went to Joann's. I have to say their fabric selection is rather underwhelming. They used to have a HUGE selection of calico and it's just shrinking each and every time I go in there. Anyways, the binding fabric was terrible to work with, it was such a flimsy, poor quality fabric and the design was off grain. But here is the finished project, stippled per my usual.



This is my bag for the friendship swap. Got the fabrics in a FQ bundle from Joann's. Their fats seem to be better quality than their yardage as of late. These are so cute!!! Even if you're not part of the swap go check out the tutorial at p.s. i quilt and make one for yourself, they make an excellent purse for little girls! I'm having a hard time keeping this away from mine!

princess lasertron rocks!!!

And so does Andrea at The Creative Junkie. I got my Princess Lasertron felt flower bouquet kit today and I'm LOVING it!!! She even included 36 extra felt squares and some vintage button cards!! I have this very naked candle sconce on my wall so I'm thinking I'm going to put the completed flowers in there. Look at the goodies!!!










I cannot wait to get started playing with all this!!! And you get a sneak peek of the back of my latest quilt!!

if i go missing, send help

This is the stack of books I came home with last nite:


Yep, and there are more to come. See, we have to take 4 prehospital advanced life support courses, ACLS, PHTLS, PEPP, & PALS, and we haven't gotten those books yet. I'm very excite to get this started an underway but I'm also very overwhelmed at all the stuff there is to do. I thought that of being an EMT but that's NOTHING compared to paramedic training.

holy, freakin, cow!!!

I enter blog giveaways all the time and never won, until today that is! I won quite possibly one of the best non-quilty giveaways there could've ever been. I won a felt flower bouquet kit hosted by The Creative Junkie put together by the one and only Princess Lasertron. Holy freakin' Moses am I excited! I can't wait for the mailman to bring me that awesomeness of Princess Lasertron!

3 more days

Coin Quilt
Originally uploaded by Red Pepper Quilts

Until I'm back in school. My kids have been on my nerves the last few days and I'm so ready to have a valid reason to get out of the house for at least two nites a week, I've been "forgetting" things at the store so I have an excuse to go back. Every Monday and Wednesday from 6-10pm. I. Can't. Wait. Paramedic school, here I come!

While I love being a mom it's definitely not something I was cut out to do full time. My mom and I talked about this once and we're both in the camp that we feel we appreciate our kids more when we're not with them 24/7. Do I feel horrible for that? No. I know my limits, I wish I could be that mom that has it pulled together but the truth is I'm exhausted, barely make it out of my pajamas every day, and I'm lucky to get dinner on the table most days. I need time to myself to be the person I am and the person I want to be.

I also deal with a husband who doesn't think he should lift a finger. He fully thinks that I'm supposed to do everything by myself and he can sit around after he gets home from work and do nothing so that just adds to the stress.

Whew, so with that out, the photo you see is of a quilt I want to make next. If I could get my hands on some Wonderland by Momo for Moda I want to make a stacked coin quilt. Or a Jelly Roll of Figgy Pudding plus some yardage for the sashings. I would like to make a nice sized Christmas quilt this year but with all the other stuff I've got going on it might just have to wait. I have 2 tops waiting for the quilt fairy to come for them (er, wait, that would be ME!) so I'm just taking it one project at a time right now.

swap updates

Whew! I finished one swap, now I just have to make something for one more and I'm done with my swap commitments :) These blocks are for the Scrappy Christmas Block Swap over at modernjax. There are 12 of these puppies and I can't wait to see how the rest of the swap turns out!

awesome!

The floor is finally done, I can get on to my other projects now!!! after I put everything back where it was that is. I'm so happy to have it done and over with, and you can bet we made sure the water line was snug before we moved the fridge back. The best part, I did the entire thing by myself. My husband cut a hand full of pieces so I'm even more proud of myself!

looks like i'll be busy with other things

UGH! This is my last week before I go back to school and this is what my kitchen looks like:



Why you ask?? The water line to my fridge decided it wasn't going to play nice and LEAKED all underneath the linoleum we had in our kitchen. Now, of course it was Congoleum brand and OF COURSE it had to be one full sheet. Couldn't have been just a few tiles, no now I have to rip up every inch of that linoleum and put down something else. My plans were to finish painting my daughter's room, paint my son's room and then paint the hall and the hall bath, yea that's not going to happen.

Our kitchen was a mess to begin with after because of our various projects lined up but now the fridge is in the middle of the kitchen, I have a small dresser and desk that are SUPPOSED to be in my daughters room right now in my living room, and I have the counters stacked with crap that's waiting to find it's way back to it's proper home.

I'm seriously going to start crying at any moment, and the worst part? It's only Monday!

friendship bag swap

I joined the Friendship Bag Swap on Quilting Gallery. Sign ups go to August 20th with a mailing date of October 6th. Rachel at p.s. i quilt has posted a quick (&easy!!) tutorial on how to make this cute little bag!

my first quilt is officially done!!

I've made small projects before but this is a first, a full finished quilt!! Approx. 37x46 it's perfect for a lap quilt. Fabrics in the top are Andalucia by Patty Young for Michael Miller, Michael Miller, Erin Morris, and Delhi by Valori Wells for Free Spirit. Backing is Apples and Pears by Alexander Henry and the binding is Juicy also by Alexander Henry.



I'm no longer afraid of stippling! I practiced a few times and this is far from perfect but I don't care, I have my first finished quilt!


Love that apples & pears fabric!


Close up. Don't you just love all that crinkly goodness??


Batting is Warm & White and thread is 100% mercernized cotton. 4 bobbins, done on my singer 1120 non electronic, unfancy, Walmart special!

it's done

The pink/orange top is done! Thankfully it's of a manageable size approx 37x46, hopefully this will get me motivated enough to finish the Christmas quilts done.

love pink and orange?

If you remember the post a few spots down about all that gorgeous pink and orange fabric I bought well, this is what it's becoming!!



It's a free pattern from Christa Quilts. There are 3 patterns for download at the top of the page, the one I used is City Blocks by Kitty Yoshida. I used 4 half yard cuts and 3 fat quarters. Just a word to the wise, if you're using only 6 different prints like I did, the sashings are cut 2 1/2 inches x WOF, cut the sashings first, other wise you'll end up just a smidge short on a few.

This pattern also lends itself well to jelly rolls and charm packs. The original pattern calls for 5 1/2 inch squares but it's very easy to adapt. It's also a good way to use up scraps too!

wanna win a $50 gift certificate??

To FAT QUARTER SHOP!!!

Rachel at p.s. i quilt is giving one away!!



Now, you can get up to 3 entries!! Just click the link above the picture and get to entering!

check the sidebar!

If I'm not crazy enough I've decided to join a Christmas block swap at modernjax. Using a tutorial posted at Oh, Fransson! I agreed to commit to 12 blocks. Shouldn't be that difficult. Really looking forward to it, I'm getting bored with what I'm "working" on right now.

next quilt

Ok, yes, I've officially lost my mind. Not sure I exactly had one to begin with but I digress. My favorite color is pink, hands down LOVE me some pink. If it were appropriate for a grown woman to have a screamin' pink bedroom I'd be all over it. If I ever get my own sewing room it's for sure going to be pink. (Wow, that was quite a tangent)

Now on to the fabric, that's what y'all are here for right? I got these from Home Grown Pillows on Etsy. There are a couple Valori Wells and the others are Michael Miller prints. Not sure what the purple one is that's laying horizontal in the front, it doesn't have any identifying information on the selvage.



I've played with some options in photoshop but not loving them. I'll figure something out.

need help finding a pattern

While doing the July Fab Shop Hop I found a pattern but was in such a hurry to click the darn button that I kicked myself when after a quick glance I closed the tab. I *think* the name was tic tac toe. But it wasn't a tic tac toe quilt with x's and o's. I remember it was mostly white, had strips of fabrics with pink and possibly orange, almost like a rail fence with an odd number of strips per block and the middle strip being the patterned fabric. Wish I remember where I saw it because it was REALLY cute!! If anyone can help I'd be more than appreciative!

found a giveaway!!

**UPDATE**It seems the post has been removed, sorry about that!

I found I'm in good company being addicted to moda pre-cuts. Vickie over at Mid-Ohio Quilter and a frequent poster over at Moda Bakeshop is giving away a Neptune Charm Pack!! She recently posted a Windmilll table topper on her blog using a Neptune Charm Pack, you have to check it out, it's absolutely adorable!! Head over to her Blog to enter!!

(We all love a free charm pack, don't we?!)

are you ready for this post?!?!?!

You really sure, I really don't want you passing out at the fact I've completed TWO(!) yes, TWO quilt tops in a matter of just a few weeks. I'm the queen of procrastination, that's just how I roll, so doing BOTH of these while I still have a quilt sandwich sitting as a UFO in my shed, is not something to balk about.

This is my son's quilt, it's made using a variation of the disappearing 9 patch. I used 4 Arcadia charm packs, I actually still have most of the 4th left and an unused fifth one, and about 2 1/2 yards of 36" wide natural muslin. I'm going to batt it using warm 'n natural so this way it doesn't show through the muslin. *please ignore my husbands shoes, in 7 years I've yet to sway the man from black gym shoes*


Now this is the girls quilt. It's made using a rail fence style but as you can see NOTHING matches up to be a rail fence :p And I'm ok with that! I had some seaming issues at the bottom so there are little button adornments to try and hide it, this is the misadventures of a beginner quilter after all! As you saw in the previous post I used rick rack and cotton lace to embellish it. My daughter did see it and loves it but she doesn't yet know it's for her. Made using 2 Soiree honey buns.


Very few left over pieces, maybe 5 or 6 squares, it wasn't enough for a full row. I did score a Soiree charm pack for $5.21(!) on ebay so I'm going to piece the back with those and possibly some white muslin. Maybe large pinwheels??

So is it everything y'all hoped for and more?!

tutorials

any tutorials i publish can be found here!
obviously, it's barren at the moment

hold up!!

What's this?! This can't be another quilt! Just how psychotic can I get by attempting to work on 3(!) quilts at once?! Well, I only have one thing to say, My name is Audrey and I'm addicted to Moda pre-cuts. My latest purchase as you can see is an Oh Cherry Oh charm pack by Me & My Sister Designs for Moda. And don't worry, I've already ordered a 2nd charm pack to be sure I have enough.



Yes, crappy photo but oh well. I don't know if you can tell what exactly I'm doing but I'm going to attempt a pinwheel quilt! Not sure if it's going to be all pinwheels or if I'm going to do a solid square in between each pinwheel block. We'll see. My 2nd fabric is just a bleached white muslin.

What are the lines you ask? See that little 'ruler' thingy in the photo? Made by Omnigrid for Fons & Porter, it's a quarter inch seam marker. It's 1/2 inch wide, has a line down the center, and each end is cut at a 45 degree angle. You line up that angle with the corner of your square, line it up diagonally with the opposite corner and draw lines on either side of the ruler. You then stitch on these two lines and cut down the middle and you have two triangles! Saves time from cutting each square of fabric separately into triangles.

There's no rush to get this quilt done so it might not appear as frequently as the other two. Each Oh Cherry Oh charm pack contains 33 squares, I have 2 so I'll have 66 squares or 132 triangles, we shall see what comes of it!!

i've got pictures!!!

Calm down!! I realize it's been a bit since I've had photos but don't panic, I've got some now. I've started putting the girls quilt together:



See those cute little butterfly pins? Joann's was having a 50% off quilting notions sale for the 4th so I bought them. They're longer and a little finer than my regular pins and they make a HUGE difference. Only problem, they're expensive, $3.99 for 40 of the butterflies. The flowers were $4.49 for 40.

And look at the little surprises! A little rick rack peeking through:


Some dainty pink cotton lace (on clearance so even more awesome!):


So far I've only had a couple seams not match up. Thinking of raiding my button stash for even more embellishment! It is for a little girl after all. I realize I didn't show you the second honey bun all stitched up, but I went for the quick route, I stitched together fabrics all in the same colorway. Boring yes, but so far it's looking like it was an awesome decision, really makes the quilt.

And the backing you ask?? I'm definitely going to piece it, going to see if I can score a layer cake for relatively cheap, if not I'll settle on a couple charm packs, border out the top and use the rest to piece the back. So, the majority of the back I'm thinking this:


And the binding I'm thinking this:


Oh and the boys' quilt top is finished :p No, you're not going to see it until I reveal the girls top! One BIG reveal post!! Haha! If I did that I'd be spoiling you all, I can't do that this early in the game, I need to keep you coming back somehow!

in my absence

I have been working on the girl's quilt! I got that second honey bun in and went to town. I got them all cut up into squares yesterday and have about 1/2 the rows assembled! I even threw in a little surprise on this quilt that wasn't planned. I'm hoping to get the rest of the rows assembled today and maybe, just maybe I'll sew all the rows together. Pics to come!

so it's been a bit

I've finished making the 9 patch blocks for my son's quilt. I've cut them all into 4s and even got the 'sashings' done for it. Heck I've even stitched the first row together!!! I'm way impressed with myself. The 2nd honey bun came for the girls quilt so I'm going to be pressing those strips and get to stitching on those. I have to be careful when I sew hers because she'll catch on, my little guy is oblivious :p

Here is the quilt top all laid out on my kitchen floor (minus 'sashings'). Not sure which way is the right way, I don't really think there is a right way LOL!


Semi close up:

one honey bun down

I've stitched up one honey bun! I sewed them together into groups of 6 just randomly picking out fabric as I went along and I'm really pleased with the results. I have 4 strips left over so now I just have to wait for my other honey bun to finish it. I'm cutting these strips into 6 1/2 inch blocks and when the quilt is done the blocks will be 6 inches each.

Look at those gorgeous colors!


I just can't get enough!


Just dripping with scrappy goodness, seriously, how can you resist this?!

THE BIG REVEAL!!!!

Alrighty, here's the fabric! Now, there is one honey bun missing but I couldn't wait any longer to reveal the good stuff! There was a mix up with my order and I got some Joel Dewberry swatches that are very pretty and I just may have to buy for another quilt. I've already sewn 3 lengths of 6 strips from the honey bun and might not need that 2nd one but we'll see, I might just make some shams with them.

For the girls quilt I'm using Soire'e honey buns by Lila Tueller for Moda. This has got to be the sweetest fabric for any little girl! I'm doing a rail fence type quilt for this one as the strips are perfectly cut for it.





And for the boys quilt I'm using Arcadia by Sanae for Moda. I've chosen charm packs for this quilt and am doing a disappearing 9 patch. The solid squares are just unbleached muslin.





I'm SO excited to get these quilts underway and finished! My 1/4" foot came in today as well and I'm in love! I think my next purchase will be a darning/free motion foot, I'm getting an itch to stipple them myself.