For all the MOTHER'S out there but more importantly for my own mother "EILEEN FOX", Happy Mother's Day. I hope you have a wonderful, relaxing day!!!!!!!!!

10 days

YES....10 more sleeps until I meet up with Robin and Michelle and we take our yearly trek to Indiana where we will meet up with a dozen other internet friends for 4 full days of laughing, sewing, shopping and eating. Robin is from NY and Michelle is from Delaware so we meet in the middle at my house in NJ and we take the 13 hour drive...which is totally worth it.

I spent last week while I was on spring break from school "kitting" up some projects to take with me.

Now, you don't have to kit them up but it sure gives you a lot more time to sew if you do!

have 2 Christmas projects that I'd like to start with...This "At Home for the Holidays" by Heather Mulder Peterson and "Rectangle Reverie" which was in a Quilts and More magazine back in October.

Recently this Moda Bakeshop pattern called Chain of Faith caught Michelle's eye so one of those dreaded "lookie" emails went out to Robin and I and before you know it I had it kitted up from my stash and in a ziploc bag all ready to take to retreat too.

I have to admit that these are only 4 of the maybe 7 projects I will probably take with me and these are only the "fabric" kits. I kitted up tablerunners from stash woolfelt for the girls as well as pincushion kits and table runners.

If you've never been to a quilting retreat with a dozen or more women, you MUST try and find one and go. Angela, who organizes ours is the hostess extroadinaire.... The food's not fancy and the accomodations are not 5 star, we actually stay at a christian campground...but the friendships and memories are 5 star!!!

As the time draws closer and closer i get more and more anxious to be leaving on that never ending drive.....I wouldn't miss this adventure for the world......and this year, I am doing it in May and again in November!

Thank You Martha

I just wanted to thank Martha Stewart and my daughter Sarah for the cupcake recipe you see here. YES...hi hat cupcakes were served at my Easter Saturday dinner and some people didn't have 1 or 2...no, someone I think even had 3!!!!!!!!

That chocolate on top is hot melted Hersheys squares with the cold buttercream frosting dipped in and then immediately refridgerated. Talk about heaven!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Feel free to head on over to Martha http://www.marthastewart.com/337710/hi-hat-cupcakes and try some and you too can thank Martha for a few extra pounds :) Tell her Sarah sent you!

Peggy

Happy Easter Weekend

Happy Easter Weekend everyone!!!! What do you have planned? Dyeing easter eggs? Family over to celebrate?

We are celebrating today with my sister and her husband. Tomorrow we are driving to Maryland to my oldest daughter's house and then going to the Yankees/Orioles game :) I know that's a strange thing to do but when you live with Yankee fans you go where they are playing....and since they won't be back in Baltimore at all we're celebrating Easter there....

Hope everyone has a happy day whatever you are doing.

Peggy

FINALLY!!!

I am soooooo happy to report that I am FINALLY done with this quilt. Now, don't get me wrong, I love how it turned out and I totally enjoyed working on each and every embroidery block but seriously, I started this in July of 2009!

It was a 12 month Block of the Month that I did with a couple of online friends....it took me 21 months!!!

Below is a closeup of the first block we did....

I have the backing fabric and even made the binding already!!! I have to get a little money together so I can send it out for quilting, then I can cross it off my UFO List once and for all!!!

Peggy

Another Giveaway

Lookie Lookie..........another giveaway: http://www.littlebluebell.com/2011/04/ds-quilts-collection-giveaway.html?showComment=1303413833579#c5346835141922235949

Treasures and Tidbits

Don't go lookin at this blog http://www.jaybirdquilts.com/ . You will fall in love with the fabric and the pattern and it's mine, all mine!!!!

Julie, how about I just send you my address now?

Peggy

I have had this magazine open to this page since at least November or December. I absolutely LOVE the "Bliss" fabric line and since I have some fat quarters I decided to start looking around for the border dots and also the first border. NOW, I do have a problem with the grey separator strips as I don't think the grey "goes" so I'm thinking a pink??? I will probably make the blocks up and then decide what color to use instead of the grey. Has anyone else done this project?

Strings

This is what I did tonight because I just couldn't decide on a project to start.......

Have you been following out there in blogland the talk about the Denyse Schmidt fabric that is supposed to be in Joanns Fabrics starting tomorrow? Seems a lot of the people out there already have some. I was in a Joanns tonight after dinner looking for a template and asked the manager of the store if they were getting any and I got the "blank" stare. I thought she'd have looked in the computer but that wasn't offered. I wasn't sure I'd buy any but I wanted to see what the line looked like and how it felt.

What's the opinion of anyone that bought it? We don't have a local Joanns so I won't be rushing out to get it anytime soon, just curious.

Peggy

Saturday Goings On

Rain, Rain, Go Away!!! Does it seem like it NEVER stops raining? I am sick to death of rain!!!!

Ok, got that outta my system so now to get onto the Saturday goings on.............

Set up the new wireless printer, made a traveling ironing surface for retreat (27 days!!!), did some laundry, and cut and ironed some scraps to make string blocks.....so while I had the fabric out, I did just that, made 7 string blocks! It was fun too to walk down memory lane and point out which fabrics went with what projects I've done this year. I did notice I did a lot of polka dot and bright stuff this year but it's what I was into....

In the picture, the top 7 are today's and the others are sadly from a year ago :) I've been so bad at keeping up but the way I look at it, there will always be scraps so what's the rush to empty this bin out!

My friend Angela is participating in the Relay for Life in Indiana. She and her parents are all survivors and is looking to reach a $250 goal in donations. Please stop over to her blog http://thecountrycellar.blogspot.com/ and click and make a donation to fight this terrible disease.

I have lost friends, co-workers and my 26 year old niece to this terrible disease so anything you can do will help. If you go straight from Angela's blog she gets the credit!

Thank you in advance for anything you do....

Peggy

Conni

Hey Conni........

You came the closest of the 3 guesses with 200!

I will email you privately.

Thank you girls for your guesses....

Peggy

Guess

Guess how many pinwheels I get from that 1 gallon ziploc bag of triangulations and I'll send you a homemade woolfelt pincushion. I'm starting to assemble now (4:00 est) I will take guesses up to

8PM Monday April 11th!

Peggy

Sunday Afternoon

Do you remember this pinwheel project? It's called Chocolate and Cream but I'm trying to clean out all my older Thimbleberries fabrics and make room in my cabinets so my Chocolate and Cream is going to be Scrappy and Cream.

I need 314 assorted pinwheels!!! That's a lotta pinwheels but it will also use up a ton of my stash...gotta love using up the stash.

I worked on this project a little bit in January I think, or it could have been February but then I had other projects that needed to be done.

I stopped at 126 blocks but then this morning I decided that I needed to do some more on it because I don't have a fabric color picked out for the setting fabric. The designer used brown obviously but I'm thinking I might like red......after all, it is my favorite color!

So, here are the 126 pinwheels all lined up..... and here's today's pile of triangulations waiting to be ripped and put with the others so I can figure out how many more I need to sew up and decide what color fabric would go the best with mine. Off to rip, rip, rip.....

Pinwheel Quilts

Have you noticed that everywhere you look there are pinwheel quilts in all different fabrics, sizes and colorway? I have 2 pinwheel projects in the works right now...one I'm using Thimbleberries with a neutral and the other is leftover Hunky Dory fabrics with a variety of wow's. I can't seem to get enough of them. A little while ago I was blog hopping and looking at things on Pinterest and came across this pinwheel quilt thrown over a turquoise chair. I need a chair that color !!!!!

I wish I could remember who put the picture out there but thank you whoever you are! Your quilt is gorgeous!

Peggy

Bliss

What do you do when you have 2 jelly rolls and some yardage of Bliss???

We will blame Michelle for the "lookie see" email on this project!!!!

What was it, Wednesday of last week Michelle when you sent us the link to the Moda Bake Shop blog with this ---->http://www.modabakeshop.com/2011/03/chain-of-faith.html ?

When I saw the project I thought to myself that I knew where I had a jelly roll of "Red White and Bold" was but I knew I didn't have 2.....so I went in search of another. Well, that wasn't to be so I figured I'd look around in bins of "projects" and lo and behold I had a ziploc baggie with an American Patchwork and Quilting magazine and some yardage of Bliss with 2 jelly rolls. I was going to make the flying dutchman project that Bliss designers Camille Roskelly designed but when this Chain of Faith came along I decided I liked this project better so.......

All I had to order was yardage for the border since what I had would come up short. Well, that came today so I'm good to go on this one!!!

I will however, wait for retreat in May and work on it then with Robin and Michelle....

I don't have anything to show for this weekend except a clean garage....oh yeah, my car actually fits in now, and both sewing rooms are back in order. Can't complain about that!!!

Lookie What I Found

Yes, I did a little cleaning up and purging in my sewing room and this gorgeous fat quarter bundle was in with some kits along with a pattern and yardage! I actually still had the receipt with everything and believe it or not, I bought this fabric on 5/26/2010!!! It's almost a YEAR!!!!

Ugh......I need to stop buying and just use what I have!

The pattern is called "Around the Corner" by Heather Mulder Peterson and the fabric is also hers called "At Home for the Holidays" . I washed every single piece tonight because of all the red. I was so afraid I'd get the quilt assembled and wash it and find red everywhere.....

This quilt will be one of the projects I take with me in May when I go to Indiana for a quilt retreat.

(more about that when the time gets closer)

Another Friday Finish

I have had this mini assembled for at least a week but have had trouble staying awake at night to actually finish it. Since I was home today I did the buttonhole stitching on it and got it ready to mail to my mother. I'm doing these and mailing them monthly but with May being so busy I decided that I better finish June early and mail them together.

A Friday Finish

I got my scrappy "Red Pepper" quilt back in the mail on Wednesday so nothing else got done in the sewing room today until I got the binding on and clipped down so I could see how I like my binding choice.

This quilt already had over 1000 squares in it and I think I didn't use any fabric more than 3 times so my binding choices were endless! In the end, the black with white dot won out. I am happy that I chose that particular fabric since it really adds "something" to it.

Now, do you girls out there use these clips to hold your binding down while you sew? I'm having some trouble finding them here in NJ....I'm tempted to just go to the grocery store and buy some in the hair care department.

Shameless Plug

I can't help myself...I'm putting in a shameless plug for my daughter as she embarks on a new adventure. She's been a hairdresser for almost 7 years and recently moved to Maryland to start her career down there. She's been at a salon in Canton, Md but business wasn't so hot so she is moving to a new salon that is closer to home and also with a more "family type" atmosphere.

This is a link to her new salon: http://poshhairstudio.com/ .

This is Jen hard at work!

Feel free to call the salon and ask for Jen Aront...you won't be sorry, she is a fabulous hairstylist!

Only in New York

Only in New York do you see these huge skyscrapers next to signs with zippers and buttons................................ I did see the huge button with the needle down in the garment district but with so many of us walking and looking all different directions I didn't want to stray and end up being left behind :)

We did see a Michael Jackson lookalike singer with his backup band and singers dancing outside a bank I think it was by the HERSHEY store, but we were anxious to get to "CARMINES" for dinner (sorry, no foodie pictures) and then to Madison Square Garden to see Elton John.

The show was good...heard a bunch of the oldies but goodies but also heard some new songs from the new album with Leon Russell and also a guest appearance by Gregg Allman. Neither of the guests are favorites of mine but as they say "when in Rome"....so I sat and listened and actually enjoyed the Leon Russell stuff! Who knew? LOL

Not a great picture of Elton, but trust me, that was him :) A nice time was had by all, especially after 2 large pitchers of sangria...enough said !!!

National Quilting Day Project

Here is a picture of what I did on National Quilting Day. I am going to retreat with a bunch of friends in May and we not only bring our own projects to work on, we bring a charity quilt for a women's shelter. We typically donate a dozen or more depending on how productive we are leading up to the retreat.

This year, I took a bunch of 30's blocks from an online swap I did probably 4-5 years ago, added a red print border, used a yellow and white square backing that I pieced from my stash and then I used the leftover backing fabric for binding...did a LOTTA stash busting for this.

I've never been able to master meandering but I do like to do cross hatching on my small projects but this one was bigger than usual and I got tired of doing it so you'll notice I only went one direction....which, in person looks pretty cool!

It finished up to 41-1/2 by 56, which will make a really nice lovey for some little girl at the shelter......

Today i'm not going to be able to do to

o much sewing.....hubby got 6 Elton John tickets for Madison Square Garden so him and I, his brother from Florida (ye

s, he flew up for the concert), my youngest daughter (she drove down from Rhode Island on Friday) and my oldest daughter and her boyfriend (they drove up from Maryland) are going. We'll h

ave dinner at Carmine's in NYC first then walk over to the Garden!!!

Full report tomorrow.....

Have a wonderful Sunday!

Peggy

Are you quilting today? I am!! I'm working on a charity quilt for a retreat i'm attending in May...

What are you working on?

Peggy

Red Pepper Quilt

The Red Pepper Quilt is done and the backing is bought....just need to piece it and mail it off to the quilter. It's mighty big right now so I'm not going to add any borders to it. Just quilt and bind.

Update

This is considered Section 11 for this project. I seriously feel like I've mastered the half square triangle thing!!!

These are the blocks I have so far. Of course I can't assemble the units because they didn't have you make the blocks in order.......no, that might have been too easy. So, I have to wait till I cut the next pamphlet out. Guess it's onto the next project for now...........................

PS:: YES, for you eagle eye people, the bottom unit is upside down, but I'm not putting the blocks back out for another picture :)

I'm on a roll

I'm on a roll finishing up this month's project booklet.............Here's the house with the 2 blue pinwheels.

I have to tell you, I love how Lynette Jensen has you make the chimney and the background unit!

Hometown Christmas Update

Yes, I'm still working on this one...keeping to the schedule Michelle has us on (and I only needed 1 reminder that it was time to start the next r

ound :)

We finished Booklet 1 last month. Booklet 2 has 3 units in it too....

The color is way off on this picture! The sky is blue and the fence is tan and gold :)

Once I finish Section 3 and 11 (no, they don't have you sew in order) I will take a picture of what I have so far.....

Florida was fun last week. Spent 3 days in Naples with my family and then hubby, Sarah and I drove to Orlando for 3 days and spent an evening with his brother and a friend. That was nice too because we ate in Epcot in China and then stepped outside and got to see the awesome fireworks they put on. I tried taking pictures but they turned out awful!

It was back to work on Monday and then the onslaught of the nasty weather here in NJ. I'm thankful that we live in the southern portion of the state and far, far away from the flooding of Northern NJ.

Prayers go out for the people in Japan who have the earthquake and Tsunami to deal with.

Starry Night

The newest block of the month I'm doing is called "Starry Night". It calls for solid black and Kaffee Fassett bright fabrics. I did blocks 1 and 2 today so I'm up to date for when my newest one comes later in the week. I love the orange and blueish/purple fabric so far the best.

I've never used any of the Kaffee fabrics but I do like the combination of the black and bright so I think once I get all the blocks that I will like them.....

I'm Back

You probably haven't missed me at all but I'm back from a week in Florida!

Had a great time visiting with family, working thru some mini crisises (sp?) and then spent a couple of days in Disney visiting Epcot, Universal Studios and MGM (I know it has a new name, I just can't think right now).

Had some packies waiting for me and my Snow Days BOM kit.....

Gotta get crackin with emptying the suitcase and get the laundry started.

Hopefully will be back with some pictures this week.

Peggy~

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....