Quilting Buddies

 When I come home for the weekend

 my list of things to do

 seems to be endless.

But I am always glad when

I'm able to squeak in some special time

with my quilting friends.

 We have a great time together,

like I know many of you do as well,

with your quilting buddies.

Combine food,

laughter,

sharing

and 

caring

and even a bit of sewing,

and you have every quilt group ever formed.

I don't know what I would do without
these special friends in my life.

Happy Stitching,
 Quilting Buddies.

  Until Next Time-

Who Would Have Guessed

When you're waiting around for a baby to be born,

it's best to get the cupcake pans out and 

do some baking. 

Elizabeth and me, the cupcake duo,

decided we wanted to do something

easy,

summery

with lots of buttercream frosting.

The flavor that we chose was lemon.

I had lots of cake recipes  from scratch,

but shhh! 

don't tell 

we cheated and bought a lemon cake mix.

We enhanced the mix with lemon juice,

a couple of splashes of lemoncello

and lemon zest.

To add to the lemony flavor we

added lemon curd in a

hollowed out spot in the cupcake.

(Which we did make from scratch)

Now we're speaking lemon.

Adding some more lemoncello and 

lemon zest to the buttercream frosting

topped off the romantic notion

of sitting in a sunny piazza in Florence sipping lemoncello.

I'm stretching that a little.

Now the most amazing part

was that all of the co-workers thought

this was the "best" cupcake we had

ever made.

Really?

With a cake mix?

Who would have guessed.

Maybe I put in more than a splash of

lemoncello.

 Until Next Time-

Finally, The Stork Has Arrived

It's seemed like a long wait, 

but finally the stork 

arrived at the Wolfe den 

and left a precious little bundle.

 Meet Everdeen Kate Wolfe

7 lbs. 1oz. 19.5"

Everyone is doing fine.

  Until Next Time-

 

Baby Stuff

How many times have I said,

 "I could have (should have) thought of that and

 made a million dollars."

If you haven't taken care of any babies

for awhile,

there's some nifty

products on the market that are really great. 

One is

the Bumbo Baby Chair.

It was great for learning to sit up,

Sanford uses it like a highchair when he's not home

It's comfy and fun.

Remember the yucky diaper pails,

now,at least with disposable diapers, you can

use a Diaper Genie.

You drop the diaper in the top,

when the lid closes it twists the 

plastic liner to seal the diaper in.

When you empty it, you have a diaper sausage.

No mess, no smell.

 San, the man, is learning to use a sippy cup.

They use to be more drippy than sippy.

Now they don't.

It's a miracle.

San, is also enjoying feeding himself.

How does he do this?

With one of these,

a Munchkin Fresh Food Feeder.

Pop some bananas, avocado, inside the 

mesh bag and let him gum away.

 What a treat.

Old Nana, new babies,

and lots of fun stuff.

(helpful info if you have to go 

to a baby shower any time soon.)

   Until Next Time-

 

A Furry Appearance

4 little babies came out to play

on a sunny summer's day.

( I see you down there)

One stayed high to look around,

And one came closer to the ground.

One found a place to coddle and hide,

The last one thought it was more fun to slide.

The little one turned
and looked at Ed
and as he stopped,
this is what he said.

"You don't look like me,
but are you my pop?
You've been so good to us
I hope it won't stop."

Ed shook his head sadly
and said with a sigh,
"I've been waiting so long
to finally see you guys."

"It's time for you all
to go out on your own,
to find a new den

that you can call home."

Pretty cute, huh!

 Until Next Time-

Tomorrow's, today?

When I'm working on a project,

 I try to mentally divide it up into doable sections. 

 I never have large segments 

of time to just sew.

 So I gather small slices of time through

 out the day and

 try and get my quota done.

 A typical day is NOT

completing the planned part

 and

then moving  it forward to another time.

 

 As Scarlet says, "There's always another day".

I don't put pressure on myself.

 But sometimes I do finish what I've had planned!

 Then I'm in a quandary.

 Do I do tomorrow's, today? 

Or do enjoy a serendipity moment? 

Does that make sense?

 What I mean is, 

do I keep going forward on the project of the day 

knowing that I have more days

 when I don't get what I want accomplished 

so for a moment I would be ahead

or

 do I celebrate the fact 

that I completed my stint for the day

 and can work on something I hadn't expected to? 

What's your approach?

 To be honest, 

I usually take the first road, but

yesterday I took the path least traveled

and it was a nice thing.

  Until Next Time-
 

A Quilt Fix

I have been needing a quilting fix 

and some girl friend time.

 This weekend we arranged to attend "Quilt Colorado"

sponsored by the Colorado Quilting Council. 

 It was a wonderful show,

 a vendors mall,

 and classes and lectures.

by some fantastic teachers. 

Any time you have the opportunity to 

attend a quilt show,

it is sheer inspiration.

Just listen to the people around you,

everyone is excited,energized, and spellbound

at the creativity that is surrounding them

all made with fabric and thread.

There were many quilts that just left me awestruck,
but here are just a few that might do the same for you.

America, Let It Shine 

by Sherry Reynolds

 Best of Show

 Look at the detail.

Remembrance by Dawn Gerber

 Best Hand Quilting Award

Incredible applique details

 On the Wings of a Prayer

by Jane King

Just a flag?

Look again.

 Amazing

 Line-n-Lace

by Karen Azevedo

Best Machine (Stand-Up) Quilting

 

 Karen is phenomenal.

 I truly love her work and her talent.

It's just what I needed to feel motivated and excited.

Girl Friends,

Extraordinary Quilts,

Shopping,

Lunch and Laughter.

Thanks, Quiltie Buddies,

it was a great day.

  Until Next Time-

Just Takes Two

 I love going from this...

To this.

I've been working on the 

Just Take Two blocks.

I still have plenty to make,

but the first section is complete.

Well, almost.

I'm adding a little more redwork.
I figure if I don't do it now,
I'll never get back to it.

While I was sewing I worked
on my red half square triangle (another project)
as "Leaders and Enders."

So without any extra effort

That's a good thing.

Until Next Time-
 

A Red,White and Blue Celebration

Reds, whites, and blues

are the perfect color combinations for quilts,

especially for the month of July.
It's one of my favorite palettes
to work with and it 
brings my patriotic spirit right into my home.

I love all the red, white and blue
fabrics that the designers,
Laurie Simpson and Polly Minick,
create for Moda fabrics.

Last year this pattern

Stars and Bars
2011
was available on line.

When the fabrics arrived at the store
I knew I just had to make this quilt.
It was easy,

making sawtooth stars,

scrappy,

using lots of different fabrics
from the line,

and really highlighted the bunting
fabric and the large floral.

I machine quilted it myself
and practiced making large free formed
feathers meandering in the bars.

The only problem I had was that

after I washed the quilt, because my

chalk lines wouldn't disappear from the

dark blue bunting fabric,

the extra dye on the surface of that fabric

cocked and left the blue color
a little uneven.

But it's okay,
and gives it an aged appearance.

I had some fun with the back
using up the left overs of the
red floral and some red and white ticking.

The blue was something I had been saving for
something, which I have no idea what it was.
So it was good to use it up.

This second quilt is all
those wonderful ticking fabrics
I had been collecting again for that
elusive project.
I chose the patriotic color scheme
and started sewing.

 Ticking
Stars and Stripes Forever

 2008

There's nothing simpler than  a

four patch set together with an
alternating plain square.

I quilted it with perel cotton
and a big stitch.
It was fun and now it's
done.

I had a yard of this wonderful
striped ticking fabric, which wasn't enough for
the entire backing so I framed it with a red and white
striped ticking.

So rather than having these unique and fun fabrics
only seeing the inside of my closet,
it was fun to actually use them
and now enjoy them especially in July.

It's the perfect quilt to take to the fireworks
and wrap up in.

This last show and tell is a simple table runner
from Kim Schaefer's pattern,
Calendar Table Runners.
It's one of the months that I made
as a store sample.

 4th of July Table runner

2010

It's a fantastic way to use up some pieces
of patriotic fabric you have been collecting
and stashed away.

The appliques were fused and then machine stitched
around the edges.
Add some machine quilting,
and you have a sweet

holiday table runner.

Hooray for the simple red, white and blue
quilts
so that you can
show your colors proudly.

 Until Next Time-