Playing Around . . .

I’ve never been the type of person to decorate much . . . Christmas and Halloween yes, but things like Valentines, Easter, St. Patrick’s Day, etc. just aren’t my cup of tea.

And then I started seeing some of these cute little bunnies out in blogland and I thought – Why Not!

I love the ears on the tall bunny – stuck in some pipe cleaner pieces so that I can bend them around how I want them.

And then there is the little muslin rabbit . . . ehm, must be about 20 years ago that I made that little guy.   Not even sure where the pattern is for that one – haven’t tripped over it in years.  He actually sits out all year on a little shelf  in my sewing room – he is still my favorite.

Of course there is no pattern for any of these guys . . . bits of inspiration from here and there and improvising as I went.  Do you think I can plan these things ahead of time and actually order patterns?  No way – always spur of the moment for me!

Now back to my PhDs . . .

Moving forward . . .

 

I found this wonderful bread recipe over at Crazy Mom Quilts and let me just say – YUM!  I made the recipe (with a couple of changes – honey instead of sugar and added whole wheat flour instead of all white) and once the dough cycle on the bread machine was complete I opened the lid to a HUGE ball of dough.  I figured that this was just way too much for one loaf pan so ended up making two smaller loaves – this works great if you’re trying to watch what you eat – smaller slices are still so very, very satisfying.

So these little loaves of bread of seen me through many a lunch lately while we’ve been dealing with this . . .

lots, and lots of water and damages.  Many areas that are closer to the big rivers and streams are just getting ready to hit their crest starting today and running through until the 28th.

All of the damage in my municipality was caused from lots of snow and a quick melt.  After many early morning meetings and a couple of late nights, we feel that we are now in pretty good shape as far as the road repairs being done.  We’ll cross our fingers that we don’t get anymore really fast melts (there is still some snow out there) or lots of rain – both would cause our problems to start again.

We are now at the stage of watching our surrounding neighboring municipalities and towns to see how they make out with the overflowing rivers.  The next week will tell the tale.

So, now on to more fun stuff . . .

Yes, I know . . . I’m supposed to be working on PhD’s but once again I’ve been sidetracked . . . but only three times . . .

This black and white quilt is for my brother - who I have never made a quilt for -  it is made from the scraps from making my niece a graduation quilt . . .

Kayleen told me a coupe of years ago that her favorite colors were black, white and red, so ever since I’ve been picking up fat quarters of these colors from some of my many shopping excursions.  I found one with horses and horse shoes on it and I found one with ants all over it.  I figure that if you like horses you should be used to ants also – and besides . . . they are really cute ants!

I also started on another “can’t tell” project.  Wonder what all those little stacks are going to be used for?  Sure are a lot.  Love this Buggy Barn fabric – Harvest Moon – should look great with a few crows thrown in there somewhere.

I am also still working on the binding for two of the PhDs and have completed three more of the PhD quilt tops and they are now ready to baste and quilt – oh, and add in the graduation quilt and my brother’s quilt and that makes five that need to be quilted.  Just need some of these flood waters and road washouts to get fixed up – oh, and I need to reduce the number of meetings we’ve been having at work . . . very time-consuming and draining!

This is a pattern that the “Undercover Strippers” group is looking at doing as a BOM starting in the Fall.  I love that moose!  Can’t wait to start this one . . . I will find time . . . I know I will. 

Who Knew?

I was clicking through my feedjit stats and noticed that someone had connected to my blog through  this link: 

50 Best Quilting Blogs

and of course it didn’t sound at all familiar to me so I had to go and check it out.

This is what I found:

“Quilting is a time-honored tradition.  The intricate designs, precise stitches, and beautiful color work have been admired for generations.  If you love quilting, or want to learn how to make your own pieces, look no further.  We’ve scoured the web and gathered the top 50 quilting blogs for you.  We’ve stitched together blogs that offer tips, how-to posts, and showcases of quilting’s best -- everything you need to create gorgeous quilts.”

Source: http://www.guidetoartschools.com/tips-and-tools/best-quilting-blogs#ixzz1J8OKuO8q

Scanning down the list of all too familiar quilt blogs that I visit on a regular basis my heart did a little flip when I got to #38.  OMG – there was my blog listing!

I know that there are lots of voting/calculating/polling of various quilt blogs that I’m not (and never will be) listed on, but this made my Sunday.

Thank you to the powers that be that reviewed my blog and decided it was worthy of being included.  I promise I’ll try and not be MIA for two weeks anymore . . . somehow I don’t think that is an acceptable practice for being part of a review.

Off to do some more quilting . . .

Where Have I Been?!?!!?!?

That is a strange question that I don’t have an answer for.

I’ve been at home and at work – nothing fantastic like a trip around the world or even a trip to the big City – I’ve just been around.  I know . . . yawn . . . what a boring existence!

My workplace has decided to go with paperless meetings and have therefore had me researching the ins and outs of laptops versus iPads.  I made my presentation and they loved the iPad idea and I’m just in the process of getting everything that we need put on all eight of them.  Then will come the training part (some of my guys are OLD!), and then eventually the implementation in May of our first paperless meeting.  We made our decision right around the same time as the new iPad2 was ready to launch so decided to wait for eight of these brand new systems.

I love my iPad!

So what else have I been doing when I was away doing nothing?  A little quilting . . . 

These two blocks are for the 2009/2010 Peace by Piece garden theme BOM project.

I’ve added these two blocks of my own . . . just to be different!

I’ve also been working on a little binding . . .

 

these two should be done very soon and will knock off two more PhD projects from Myra’s challenge (see side bar for details).

I also made two blocks for the 2010/2011 BOM log cabin project that I’m doing with the Peace by Piece group that I belong to in Brandon (sorry girls . . . I promise to show up for a meeting someday soon!)

Oh . . . and I’ve been shopping . . . again!

Half Moon by Moda

More Sunkissed by Sweetwater

 

Fresh Flowers by Deb Strain (reminds me that Spring must be coming soon).

Stitches n' Giggles is an awesome on-line shop that I just found.  Service and pricing are both fantastic (shipping to Canada – you need to be patient).  I know there must be other on-line shops out there that sell by the individual fat quarter, but this is the first one that I found and I really like choosing exactly the prints that I want. 

Lori even does a follow-up email to make sure that you are enjoying your fabrics and that the order was successfully received.  Go take a peek!

Have a great weekend everyone,