Cupcakes

I'm going to set the record straight off...I can bake brownies and cupcakes, I CANNOT however decorate said cupcakes :)

I did decide that I'd take a cupcake class today after school with one of the teachers who makes terriffic baked goods.

Here are my sunflower cupcakes with oreo centers and red M&M ladybugs. Not a bad job for someone who doesn't like nor does a good job of decorating....

A UFO Finish or so I thought

I really am trying to clean up some old UFO's and not start on new projects....So, I have been putting binding on finished quilts and at night instead of doing my Snow Days embroidery, I'm tacking down binding. This quilt called Meadowsweet is a duplicate of one I made back in May. The original I gave to the social worker in school when she had a fire in her house but since I loved it so much and had some leftover fabrics I remade it and got the polka dot binding on last night. WELL, guess what ? This quilt was NOT on my UFO list! How the heck did that happen??? Oh well, it feels good to have it finished and now I can move onto a real ufo project from the list. (better put my glasses on to be sure this time LOL)

Red Pepper

This is a scrap quilt I've been working on for some time. I do a little then set it aside and do more and then I pick it up again like I did yesterday. It's on my 2011 UFO list so I need to start "finishing" not setting it aside.

I've temporarily named this monster "Red Pepper" because I kind of stole the idea from the Red Pepper blog and a quilt she did last year. I may have to keep the name and make a label with a red pepper on it :)

All of the fabric has come from my stash of scraps and lemme tell you, this girl does NOT like working with 2 inch squares. I find them too small and unlike at least a 3 or 3.5 incher, they just get wonky to me. The blocks that are the little squares take 100 2 inchers to make up, so you can figure out i'm doing a lot of "holy crapping" while I'm connecting them all :)

It will be approximately 75 x 75 without borders so I'm thinking that will be it.....no borders for this one!!!

Catching Up

Yes, I'm catching up with all my monthly commitments!!!

I did the monthly minis yesterday, and even got myself ahead of schedule, i'm catching up on my embroidery project "Snow Days" and today I pulled out booklet #1 of the "Hometown Christmas" and caught up with that. The deadline Michelle has us on has us finishing #1 by 2/28 so I'm on schedule.

Here's what we had to do........

The birds gave me a little bit of a fit but once I got them laid out they went together nice and easy and do look super cute don't they?

I'm having some computer issues today with my comma, question mark etc...I dusted underneath but they're still not working right....any ideas?

Count On It

"Count on It" is the new Art to Heart book by Nancy Halvorsen. Initially when I saw the book I didn't think it was for me so instead I signed up for the "Patchabilities, Inc." minis with my local quilt shop. Soon after that I saw that Michelle got the book and did the January snowman and I was jealous. YES, I said it, I was jealous. The snowman was so darn cute! So, I got the book and while Michelle and Robin were here last month shopping, Michelle and I scoured the shelves looking for like-fabrics to the ones in the book and got quite a few. I got my mother a hanger and started making her the mini quilts...which she loves. I've mailed February's off to her a while back but thought that since I'm flying down to see her on the 27th that I'd take her March, April & May.

I love how these look so I know she will too.....

I have hanging sleeves on the March and April, but the May block still needs the machine buttonholing and the hanging sleeve. That's my job for later today. For now, I need to go cut out my March Daffodils for "my" Patchabilities mini.

Happy Friday

Yes, it is a happy Friday here in NJ. No work, it's 63 and sunny and I finished another quilt.

I blogged about the Buckeye Blocks last week and showed a picture of them laying on the floor, but I didn't have enough blocks to finish it so I set to work this week making more blocks, laying them back out on the floor to see if I liked how they looked and then I sewed them into rows. Last night I got the rows assembled and the neutral border around the entire top. This afternoon after errands and lunch I got the red border on and pictures taken.

I am very happy with how this top came together. I didn't have to trim or fudge any blocks whatsoever. I just laid em out and sewed em up....Here's a picture of the finished top laying on my design floor :) Sure wish I had a design wall but since that's not happening anytime soon I will settle for the floor.

President's Weekend

Yes folks, when that bell rang at 3:00 I was out the door today and won't have to go back till Tuesday morning at 7am....Let President's Weekend begin!!! Thank you Abe and George and all the president's that followed you!!!

Blog Winner

I won, I won!!! Back on February 4th I entered a blog contest and won 2 spools of Essentials Thread. I got to pick my colors so I picked "Hyacinth and Lime" 2 of my favorite colors!

I want to thank LOFT CREATIONS for hosting the contest and Connecting Threads for supplying the beautiful thread colors...

I would also like to thank my friend Angela for finding the little chairs I was looking for in the last post. I swear I googled every word combination I could and did not come across them. Bloggers are just the BEST!!!!!!!

Peggy

A pincushion and 2 Lookies

Have you seen this pincushion on "Bee in my Bonnet" blog? I think everyone who saw this fell in love with it. I wrote to Bee and asked her where she found the little chairs and she told me but she also warned me that she's gone in search of them again too and couldn't find any more :(

I've been searching since probably November for them thinking that this time of year the Michaels stores and other craft supply places would have them....but no, none to be found.

If anyone out there in blogland sees these cute little chairs, would you email me? Thanks.....

I have a list...........Actually, I have a lot of lists. I make a list the first of every month of "The Top 3" items that I'd like to work on. I have a list of "2011 Quilting Goals", I have a "UFO Challenge List" and I even, if you can believe it, have a list of all kits, bag o blocks, ufo's, BOM's etc...yes, everything I buy and store away I list. I love lists! List making however, only works in my sewing room...I don't make lists for anything else.

So...The first few days of the month I'm all about what I

have to do and I'm pretty much focused....then I get an email or a

text "LOOKIE". I groan just a little bit and wonder to myself "what is Robin or Michelle sending me now". This week was no exception, and it was only 6 days into the month!!! Michelle had gone looking thru her UFO list and found she had some Buckeye Beauty blocks on her list and laid hers out and sent a picture of how nice they looked laid out on her design floor. I said to myself "Self..you have those blocks too!" and the search was on. I did find my bag o blocks and laid mine out on my design floor and then I proceeded to pull together all the parts that were in the bag with the already made up blocks

so now i'm on a roll and assembling my Buckeyes too.

THEN Michelle got invited to a mini retreat about

an hour from home and was told to bring some 1-1/2 inch scraps with her. And today, not 4 days after the other LOOKIE email what do I get today? another email with a picture of what she did this afternoon with herscraps and some fancy

schmancy pineapple ruler. And to add to it, she is buying Robin and I a ruler and told us about a book we HAVE to get to go with it... AYE CARUMBA!!! These "sisters" of mine are supposed to be helping me finish up what I already have started NOT get me involved in new projects...

I guess I will just have to quit my day job and stay home and sew, that's all a sister can do when challenged with new and very interesting projects.

I'll get back to you on what hubby has to say about that tidbit :)

Peggy

Hunky Dory

Everything here is just Hunky Dory and I'm happy about that :)

I had a request back before the holidays from a teacher in school for a quilt for her daughter's high school graduation. I've known Kathy's daughter for at least 6 years and was thrilled to be asked to make such a special quilt. I gave her some pattern and fabric options and she picked " Square City" which was designed by Julie Herman. The pattern was in the May/June 2010 Mc Calls Quilting Magazine and she made hers in Hunky Dory by Chez Moi, so you know I had to do Kathy's in the exact colorway. I collected everything up and it's been sitting waiting for the perfect time...and today was the day.

I worked on the block assembly this afternoon and then after dinner I decided I had to get the rows assembled before I went to bed. Well, that happened but I just couldn't bear to go to bed with the rows laying over the ironing board so I got them all connected and ironed flat....NOW I can go to bed. I absolutely love how it came out and I'm hoping Kathy's daughter will too.

Now to get the backing done and off to the quilter this week.