Another pie apron

I had fun stitching up my Pie-Makin' Apron, but don't you think I should have more than one?! After all, the recipe on the pocket is printed on a Quick Fuse Inkjet Fabric Sheet, and, thus, can only be hand-washed. That means my apron is really just for serving pies, not for making them! So it only makes sense to have another pie apron for doing the actual pie makin', right?

Well, here's our chance! This week's apron giveaway on The Apron Goddesses blog is a Fresh Baked Pies apron ... yummy! I can totally see myself making pie after pie in this. But don't delay ... the contest closes June 3rd. Good luck, everyone!

It's here!

My new tea time apron has arrived and I just love it! Of course, I had to wait to try it on until both the girls had their turn ... 7 yo Abby wants me to turn it into a dress for her. I think not ... it's mine, all mine LOL! Thanks so much, Annie!

I especially love the envelope-style pockets ... adorable!

Spurred on into summer

Two events have combined recently to spur me into action ... Pat Sloan's recent finish-it-up challenge and my upcoming trip to Florida to visit my mom. These two things have reminded me that I still had one more round to do on the "Altered Art Book Page Thingy", which first began in February 2008. Three other ladies, including my mom, and I set out to make pages for each other, round robin style, in each of our chosen themes. Mine was "Opposites Attract".

The second round I worked on, the theme was "Flourish", and the third round, the theme was "Matisse". Both of these rounds, I took my time, but still finished relatively quickly. But then came the final round ... this was my mom's theme, "Seasons", and the work of the first three rounds (spring, fall and winter) was amazing! I had no idea how I could come close to matching these beautiful pages with my summer pages. I hemmed, I hawed, I tossed around and rejected a few ideas. Mom said, "Don't stress about it ... take your time and when it gets done, it gets done." So it got put back in the envelope to incubate.

Now, when my mom says, "take your time," she really means, "give it another week, or even two," not "take a year off," but that's what happened! It sat and sat ... occasionally I'd spy the envelope peeking out at me and I'd think so more, but, really, it just sat. Recently, in light of the whole finish-it-up challenge, I got the bright idea (think, "duh!" with hand slap to forehead) to pull the pages out and put them up on the design wall. There I couldn't ignore them and pretend they didn't exist! And then, my mom calls and invites us down to visit ... bingo! A deadline! So I got in gear and told myself, "It's not about trying to match the others, it's about what the season means to you!" So I thought some more, searched the Internet for ideas, pulled some fabrics, broke out the fusible web, and made these.











Not so grand as the other three seasons, but I'm please with them! Here's a pic of all the pages together. Can't wait to see what my mom does with them!Ready for a kicker? When the lady before me sent me my mom's, she sent mine back, too. But I promised myself I wouldn't look at mine until my mom's were done. So last night I finally got to see what these ladies had done with my "Opposites Attract" theme ... gorgeous! I'll share them with you later this week ....

Aprons by the dozen

My mil and I go to a luncheon each month where for just $15 we get to enjoy the company of many wonderful ladies, eat a delicious meal and hear amazing speakers talk about what God is doing in their lives. A few months ago, my mil offered to help with the centerpieces for the tables. She likes to make them fit the theme of the luncheon topics ... for instance, once we had a watercolor artist speak, so she painted up some small canvases and displayed them on little easels, complete with paintbrushes with flowers tied to them. Another month, we had a musician, so she cut out musical notes, glued them to skewers and tucked them into flower arrangements. Cute, huh?!

Well, for the month of June, I'm adding to the fun! The theme is "Once Upon a Salad" and the speaker, a chef, will be giving us ideas on main dish salads. I told my mil an apron tied to the vase would be cute, and hmm, somehow I ended up promising to make said aprons LOL! So I went home, did a little searching for apron ornament patterns, and ended up coming up with my own half-apron pattern. Next, I pawed through the scraps left over from my Dancing Train quilt and came up with over a dozen combinations. Then came the fun!
I made my own bias tape to edge each apron, which caused some burned fingers, but I think the results were worth it!
Here's one tied to the vase we picked out. She plans to add some greenery and maybe a daisy or two, plus a set of four wooden spoons/forks that she got at the dollar store.Only one problem ... I won't be there to see them! I realized about halfway through the sewing that my girls and I will be in Florida visiting my mom that week (yeah, I can hear you cuing up the violins LOL!) Hope my mil gets some pictures! And we're going to offer the centerpieces for sale, so I can't wait to hear how they do! Which one's your favorite?

My Pie-Makin' Apron

Last week I posted a sneak peek of my Pie-Makin' Apron ... a pile of fabrics and a recipe card. A recipe card? Yep, a recipe card ... but not for just any ol' recipe. This is a recipe for my Great Grandma Mitchell's Butterscotch Cookies. I remember as a little girl playing Tiddly Winks in her living room while nibbling on these yummy cookies, eating around the pecan half, saving it for last. Wonderful memories!When I read about the latest Tie One On theme, I immediately knew what apron I wanted to make ... the recipe-card apron in a sweet little book called Stitched in Time by Alicia Paulson. I looked through all the old recipes my stepmom had, specifically looking for a pie recipe, but when I stumbled on this cookie recipe, I knew it was the one! So I took it home and whipped up this apron (well, it did take me several days, but still ...)I had so much fun putting this together and remembering my Great Grandma! If you'd like to go back in time with me, make up a batch of these cookies. Enjoy!

Butterscotch Cookies

1/2 lb. (2 sticks) butter
1 scant cup dark brown sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 tsp. almond or lemon extract
2 scant cups flour
Pecan halves

Cream butter and brown sugar. Add egg, vanilla and almond or lemon. Add flour and beat well 'til well blended. Refrigerate for an hour. Drop by teaspoons on buttered cookie sheet, with pecan half on top. Bake at 375 degrees for 10 minutes. Makes 4 dozen.

April's basket

I finished April's basket over the weekend.On to May's basket o' flowers ... I'm lovin' these baskets!

It has borders!

I finally bit the bullet and worked on the borders of the first Crooked Cabin quilt. It was a bit daunting to square it up, but it had to be done ... and now I'm glad it's over LOL! A bit of black and then a nice red outer border really finished it off nicely. I'm very pleased with it.As for the second Crooked Cabin quilt, I auditioned several different borders and I didn't like any of them. Nothing seemed right. Then I realized that the fabric I used to tilt the squares is so wide that it is enough of a border as is. So I'm calling it done, too.Well, these quilts are at that "top-is-done-and-just-needs-quilting" stage, which is where I wanted to be! Now I have a new goal for them ... to be quilted and bound in time for my guild's July picnic. It's tradition to invite kids and grandkids that like to sew and quilt, and show-n-tell is centered around the kids' handiwork and also any recent quilts that have been made for kids. These would fit the bill nicely, so I thought it'd make a good goal to shoot for. Thank goodness we meet toward the end of the month LOL! Cross your fingers for me ....

Did you ever own a poodle skirt?

I had a poodle skirt once and I wasn't even born until the late 60's! Every year in grade school, the different grades would each perform a song or skit to go with whatever theme they had going that year. One year (my 4th or 5th grade, I think), each class was to perform something from a specific decade, and our class did a number to the song "Splish, Splash" to celebrate the 50's. The boys wore jeans and white T-shirts with the sleeves rolled up, and the girls got to wear poodle skirts ... fun! I hadn't thought about that in ages, until I saw this week's apron giveaway at The Apron Goddesses.

Who wouldn't have fun wearing this?! If you never got to wear a poodle skirt, or you did and wish you still had it, here's your chance! But don't take long ... this giveaway ends May 26th. Good luck!

What I'm working on right now ...

Anyone remember when I started these two Crooked cabin quilts? Yep, that's correct ... three years ago! I should be a card-carrying member of Procrastinators Anonymous LOL!

Anyways, Pat Sloan is having a Finish-It-Up challenge right now, so I thought I'd try to get these done (at least to the "top-is-done-and-just-needs-quilting" stage). When I last posted about these quilts, I had half the blocks put together, waiting for borders, and the other half still sitting while I decided whether to attempt a different setting than the first (it was a doozy!)

Since joining the challenge three weeks ago, I got the second half of the blocks put together. I wanted to do this one differently than the first one, so I added red and green (but not Christmas-y) fabrics to tilt the blocks before sewing them together. Tilting them really made the blocks grow, so this one is 6" wider and 12" longer than the first one!Now I need to get borders on ... and quick, since the deadline for the challenge is this Friday! I'm thinking of doing a thin (1"-1 1/2") border of black on both quilts to contain the blocks, then the red star fabric for the first quilt and the green stripe for the second quilt. But we shall see ....

Btw, if you're interested, you can see other quilts being finished up for the challenge here.

The next redwork block

I finally finished the February block of the A Tisket, A Tasket, Twelve Months of Baskets. So far, it's my favorite!Now I'm working on April's block and have May traced and ready. I'm really loving how they are turning out ... can't wait to see what will end up in future baskets!

I've been working on these blocks while watching TV with my husband or kids, and when we're out and about, but I have also found some time to play in my sewing room recently. I've been working on my Pie-Makin' Apron and on two Crooked Cabin quilts that I started back in 2006. Below is a sneak preview of the apron, and you can see where I left off with the quilts almost three years ago here.I'll share some of the progress on both of these projects in the very near future, so stay tuned!

Happy National Wear Your Apron Day!

Yep! It's here:

I will be wearing my "No $$$ Apron" ... which apron will you wear today?

Or maybe you don't have an apron? Then why not enter to win four! This week on The Apron Goddesses blog, you have a chance to win four full aprons, one for you and three for the kids in your life ... next year you and your whole crew could be ready!

I'm going to be running a few errands today ... wonder if I'll see anyone else wearing their apron ....

Guess what?!?

I won!! I really did ... I won this apron! Don't believe me? I have proof ... Julia says so right here! I'm so excited!! I rarely win anything ... wait, I guess I can't say that anymore because I won this apron, an apron pattern a couple of weeks ago, and some earrings last year. Okay, so occasionally I win, but compared to how many things I enter, it's rare LOL! But I'm a winner today, so I'm a happy camper!

How about you? Do you want to try to win something, too? If so, check out Julia's latest contest to win this cute gardening/haying/puttering in the yard apron ... this one ends soon, so don't delay! I'm just hoping Julia doesn't have rules about how often we can win aprons ... I want them all LOL!

No $$$ Aprons

Tie One On's "No $$$ Apron" gallery is up! Lots of great aprons made for this challenge ... check 'em out! Mine is in great company.

The next challenge is a Pie Makin' Apron ... make an apron and include your favorite pie recipe. This is going to be fun! I've already got an idea for the apron ... now to find time to make it a reality LOL!

My current handwork project

At Christmastime, my Bible study group had an ornament exchange ... being me, I couldn't just buy an ornament, I had to stitch one up. So, the morning of the exchange (do you see a pattern here?), I pulled out my fabric and DMC floss, dug out the lightbox, traced a button tree pattern I've had in a binder for who knows how long and got started. By working on it throughout the day (including over an hour of uninterrupted time during dance class ... yay for dance classes!), I finished it with about an hour to spare. But did I take a picture of it during that hour? No. And I'm still kicking myself for that ... it turned out so darn cute!

So, what does that have to do with anything? Well, it reminded me how much I enjoy embroidery. So I proceeded to make ... er, start some more ornaments for myself, using some redwork designs found in said binder. However, I didn't rush these like I did the button tree, so they aren't complete ... maybe Christmas morning 2009 I'll finish 'em up (or maybe even earlier, like Christmas Eve). But I'll give you a peek:Then a couple weeks ago, I stumbled upon Bunny Hill Designs. They currently have a free BOM (Block of the Month for you non-quilters) called "A Tisket, A Tasket, Twelve Months of Baskets". I'm usually not into BOMs, but they are showing the blocks in both applique and redwork, and, you guessed it, the redwork got to me. I immediately printed out the available months (January through April) and got started. I pulled a bunch of WOW (white-on-white) fabrics, cut 12 backgrounds, traced out the four designs, drove to Hobby Lobby to get the right red (because the 5 reds I do have weren't right!), and started sewing. Okay, okay, so I didn't do all this within five minutes of printing ... I had to wait a couple days until I went to the post office because Hobby Lobby is two doors down. While I was there, I also got some lightweight fusible interfacing ... I've never tried it before, but the patterns suggested it so I thought I'd give it a go. Boy, is this stuff cool! It's so lightweight that I can barely tell it's there, but it really helps prevent puckering. Plus if there needs to be any trailing between stitch areas, it doesn't show through the front. I'm hooked!

I've done January and March (I skipped February because the fusible interfacing wasn't completely fused, so I waited until the next time I had my iron on and got it fused properly ... it's in progress now):









Anyone care to join me? It's free!

How'd you like to win ...

this apron?

If you said (screamed?!) YES!, then go to The Apron Goddesses' blog and follow the instructions to enter. But hurry ... contest ends May 6th ... don't say I didn't warn you!

Dancing Trains

At my quilt guild's quilt show last September, scraps were being sold by the bag. My girls knew this and they were armed with change, ready to buy! "Yeah, sure, Mom, the quilts are pretty ... but where's the scraps?!" We started at one end of the building and searched for the scrap tables ... the only thing slowing us down was me, trying to actually enjoy the quilts LOL! But, finally, close to the other end of the building (wouldn't ya know it?), the Promised Land ... several tables filled with bags and bags of scraps ... big paper grocery bags for $1, small lunch bags for 50 cents, and a few more small lunch bags filled with really itty bitty scraps for 25 cents. Now for the girls to choose ... "Mom, are you going to get any?" "No, dear, I don't need MORE scraps ... got plenty at home that I don't use anyway."

But, wait, what's that posted on the wall? A challenge? Ooh, I like a challenge ... what's it say? Make a 48"x60" quilt top using only scraps from up to 5 bags and bring it to the next meeting. The next meeting?! ... that's, like, only 4 weeks away ... I can't do that! Hmmm ... it is only a quilt top, doesn't need to be quilted or anything ... hmmm ....

Okay, so I caved, er, rose to the challenge ... I brought 5 bags home with me ... and no small bags for me, no sir, I bought 5 of the big ones ... I was going to give myself plenty to work with! My girls had dance class that afternoon, so I brought the scraps with me, along with some big Ziplock bags for sorting. I separated them by color and thought, "What was I thinking?!?! I'm not a scrap quilter! How am I going to make a pretty quilt out of this stuff?" Now, don't get me wrong, I love scrappy quilts, I make scrappy quilts, but there's a difference. I'm of the variety that likes to work with lots of fabrics ... if the pattern calls for a green fabric, why use one green when you can use 10 different greens. That's my kind of scrappy ... controlled. There was no control with those 5 bags ... just chaos. But I was determined not to give up ... at least not in the first 24 hours!

My next mission was to scour all my quilt magazines for just the right pattern. For the next couple of days, I skimmed through my past issues, pulling aside about a dozen or so that looked promising. I brought them with me to the next dance class and narrowed it down to one that looked easy enough to complete in less than a month ... it's called "Happy Cows" and is in the March/April '08 issue of Quiltmaker (page 46, designed by Roxann O'Hare in Nebraska). A little fiddling with the sizing of the blocks and sashing to fit the scraps I was working with, and I was good to go.

A few days later, I got an email ... several members want to participate, but during the next meeting they'll be at the Houston show. So the challenger agrees to move the challenge to the following meeting ... cool, an extra month to work on it. I just might pull this off! At each dance class, I brought scraps and cut them in strips with a pair of scissors (the pattern was great for this ... I just eyeballed for length and width). Then I'd go home and sew the strips together. Back and forth I went. The scrappy sections were coming together nicely. I found a long strip of train fabric that was the closest thing to a focus fabric that I could find in the bags to use for the center, so I went with it ... it wasn't perfect ... the trains were too big to fussy cut into the small centers, but it looked kind of cool having just small sections of train ... at least they were big enough that one could tell they were trains!Well, not only did I make the top, but because of the extra month, I was able to back, quilt and bind it, too. And, best of all, it all came from the scrap bags! I even made it a quillow using a large piece of prequilted material I found in one of the bags. The only things I added were batting and thread. I named it "Dancing Trains" because of the train fabric for the centers and because I did most of the cutting and planning during my daughters' dance classes (thank goodness that gave me 3 times per week to focus!) My 7 yo claimed it while it was still a work in progress and it now resides on her bed ... well, most of the time LOL! Not bad for $5!Wonder what I'll do with all those leftover scraps ....

Eight months?!?

Yikes!! I knew it'd been awhile since I blogged, but eight months?!? That is just way too darn long ... the sad thing is that I have no real excuse ... one thing just led to another, one day led to another, and now, here I am, wondering where the time went ... can anyone tell me?!

Oh, well, nothing I can do about it now, except to try to post more often instead of just surfing everyone else's blogs LOL! No promises on how often, but I do promise to try to post way more often than once every eight months.

So, what have I been doing for the past eight months? A little stitching, a little quilting, and a whole lot of homeschooling ... ah, now there's an excuse for not having much craftiness to post! But I did finally buckle down this weekend and make something for me ... a new apron! Thanks to Tie One On, I got a bee in my bonnet to make an apron for their latest theme, which is "No $$$" ... meaning make an apron with what you have on hand, no spending allowed. Of course, they posted the theme on March 1st, so I'm doing better on the whole time management thing, right? After all, I did finish it 4 whole days before the May 1st deadline LOL! Anyways, here it is:So, what do you think? I'm pretty happy with it, though I do wish the waist ties were just a tad longer (made a note on the pattern for next time). And, nary a nickel did I spend ... the blue leaf fabric and the green check fabric were old cotton sheets, and the chicken fabric was in my quilting stash (I think I got it at the Chicago quilt show about 3 or 4 years ago). I have no idea where I got the buttons from ... I had 6 of them, so it's possible I cut them off a thrifted shirt or dress, but it's been too long to remember. Even the pattern didn't cost me anything ... I won it recently from Woodland Quilts! Love it!!I did make a couple minor changes, such as making the neck strap longer (I'm long-waisted) and edge-stitching the pieces as I went (makes for a more finished look). I think this will be the one to wear for National Wear Your Apron Day (unless I happen to make another one between now and then ... ha!)

A plus! Because I used old linens to make the apron, I can enter it in EllynAnne Geisel's giveaway ... crossing my fingers real tight!!

Strawberry Fields Forever ... an art quilt

My quilt guild's quilt show is coming up and one of the categories is a Burpee challenge. Participants picked a number out of the hat and were then given that numbered page of the Burpee seed catalog. The challenge was to make an art quilt inspired by the something on the page ... the colors, the flowers, the names of the flowers ... whatever. I hadn't worked on a quilt in ages and I thought, "Why not?" Maybe joining the challenge would get me back to my sewing machine and jump-start my quilting again. I got page #30, which you can see here:Lots of reds and pinks, which I don't use very often. Great, now what? Well, after looking over the page, I zeroed in on this:Hmmm ... "Strawberry Fields" ... I liked it! Just had to figure out what to do with it ....

Now this was back in January, with a deadline of the August meeting (which is now only 2 days away). Plenty of time, I figured, so I put it on the back-burner for a bit ... occasionally thinking about it, but never doing more than that. But as August approached, my apprehension level rose ... and when they reminded us at the July meeting that the quilts were due at the next meeting, I was beginning to get desperate. So when my mom came to town last weekend (a surprise for my 40th birthday) and asked me what I wanted to do on "my day", I said "HELP!" Hey, my mom is an award-winning art quilter, so who better to ask, right?! So we brainstormed a bit and came up with this:Don't ya love it?! And it didn't take much time at all (well, if you don't count the 7 months it took to get started LOL!) After we came up with the idea, she showed me how to use a picture of my feet (yep, those are my tootsies) to make a template for tracing onto Wonder-Under and then gave me some tips on stitching and embellishing to finish it off. It was a lot of fun trying something new and making an art quilt in my mom's style ... and I've gotten a little bitten by the quilting bug again, so who knows? You might just see some more quilting from me in the future. Too bad it's too late to enter anything else for the upcoming show ... but I'll be ready for the next show in 2010! Thanks, Mom! I sure did enjoy having you here ... love ya!!

Here's a close-up of the beading ... sorry for the bad pic, but it's so hard for my camera to get a good close-up, even using the (supposedly) correct setting.Now to cross my fingers ... the winner of the viewer's choice in this category gets a $25 Burpee gift certificate! Plus I'm going to donate the quilt to Ami Simms' Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative ... hope someone actually buys it LOL!

Two more collage pages

Worked on two more of Nancy's Collage Play challenges. These really are challenging for me! It's not just that these are not the kind of images I usually work with, but the images Nancy puts together for each challenge are not ones I would think to use in the same layout. She's definitely got my mind working in overdrive LOL! But it's fun when the collage is done to find a quote that fits ... I {heart} good quotes!Now I'm all caught up and can work on week 4. Wonder if I'll make the deadline this time ....

A slew of art journal pages

It's been 3 weeks since I posted, but not because I haven't been journaling ... quite the opposite! Here are 8 pages that are finished, and I have 6 more spreads I'm still working on. I don't usually have that many going at once, but they're just piling up on me LOL! That's okay, though ... gives me places to jump around depending on my mood ... I can do a little collage on this page, or doodle on that page, or write a little here and a little there. They'll get done when they get done, right?

So, onto the 8 pages. The first one is quite sad. A family friend's son-in-law was killed in a car accident ... he left behind a wife and 3 young children. I did this page while we drove from the memorial service to the graveside. This is only the left side of the spread ... the right side is the same background, but is currently blank. I plan to journal my thoughts about it all, but haven't had a chance to really sit quietly and dwell on it. And once I do, I don't think I will want to share that.The next 2 spreads were done using Sarah Whitmire's soul journaling prompts. She did about 3 weeks' worth of prompts on her blog, and I've done the first 7 or 8 days, I think, but these are the only finished spreads so far. I hope to keep working on her prompts, but it'll take awhile.








This next one was a fun page to do! My stepmom wanted to take me and my girls to find this guy that makes really great hotdogs and brats and such, but we had a little trouble tracking him down. After a few wrong turns and such, we discovered he wasn't even there that day ... must've been his one day off. Oh, well, maybe next time!I have a 10 year old!?! I can't believe how fast that went by ... people always say that, but it is still shocking just how true that is. Anyways, I just had to memorialize the passing into double digits. I love you, Emily!!This spread shows our misadventure with the train ... we got up really early to catch a train to Chicago to go to the planetarium, but because we had trouble finding a place to park, by the time we did find a spot, the train was coming and there was no way to catch it before it took off again. (Say that 10 times fast ... whew!!) The next train was an hour away, so while we waited we changed our plans and went to the (free) zoo instead. Hopefully next year it'll happen!Yeah, I told you I had a slew of 'em LOL! This next one was really fun and challenging to do. Nancy started a private Flickr group where she posts a collage sheet each week and we are challenged to use at least 3 of the elements in a spread. This is from week 1. I used 8 of the 10 images given. Unfortunately, I didn't get it done until the middle of week 2! Now we're on week 3 and I have week 2 and week 3 elements cut out and waiting for inspiration ... I wonder if I'll ever make any of the weekly deadlines LOL!And, finally, here's the last one of this post ... my stepmom, sister and sil had a "girls' day out" and I used some of the brochures I picked up to journal about it. Fun!Well, that's all for now ... gotta catch up on those other 6 spreads before too many more come along ... hope you have a great day!