The Best Laid Plans of Mice and Moms (and we have a winner…finally!)

What a week! Ok, honestly, first let me say thank you to all the lovely people who commented on the mug rugs, I truly intended to answer every comment but life went, well, the way life often goes. On Saturday of last week, I enjoyed a true feast of wonderful company. First my dear niece stopped by on the way to California to have lunch (I made her favorite gluten-free chicken pot pie.) She only had a couple of hours to spare so I wasn’t going to miss her even though I was also hosting our Quilter’s Tea that same day. For the tea, I made scones, lemon bars, clotted cream and, of course, tea.  Thank goodness we had leftover chicken pot pie for dinner because I was done with cooking by the evening!  However, I wasn’t done with kitchen business.  I was out buying new pans when our younger daughter called to say she’d fallen off the highest pullup bar at the school and couldn’t lift her arm.  Her dad was a block away so he went to check to make sure it wasn’t dislocated.  Thankfully, it appeared in one piece.  It was still bothering her Sunday so we trotted off to Urgent Care.  They x-rayed it and told us it was fractured.  Then they told us it might not be.  They took x-rays of the other side.  She was already splinted up so they left the splint in place and sent us home with x-rays to see her regular doctor the next day.  Long story short…it was Wednesday before an orthopedic person could confirm that, “No, her arm wasn’t broken.”  We took off the splints and she danced out of there very happy!

Happy girl with two good arms!

All of which contributed to a slightly hectic week for yours truly.  Which brings me to the winner part of this post.  According to Random.org, comment number #24, Brenda,  is the winner.  I’ll be contacting her to get an address to send the fat quarters.

In the meantime, speaking of fat quarters, our tea theme was Africa and for the first time in years, we had a duplicate.  Not two but three people brought the giraffe print fabric!  It’s ok with me, though, I really loved it (and obviously so did my friends.)  Aren’t these lovely pretties?  The green one is a big panel with a lion on it and I’ve already got a quilt design swirling in my mind for these.

Well, that said, I’m off to do a bit of quilting today. If all goes anywhere near what I hope for, I may be showing you my Easy Street top by the end of the weekend.  Unfortunately, I’m regretting a little my decision not to remake my four-patches.  The whole thing looks a bit “mushy” in the colors but I still like it.  I’ll know more when I see it all together…maybe it needs some big applique on it?

Oh, and expect a slew of book reviews…did I mention I’m behind in a few things?

Happy quilting,

Beth

A Doctor Who Along!

In case you haven’t heard, Whims and Fancies just announced a new sew along! We are major, major Doctor Who fans at our house so this was big, big news! You can grab the button and get more info here.

April Showers Mug Rug Hop…Today is my day! (and a giveaway)

I have it on good authority that the Quilter General may be on the verge of issuing a warning that mug rugs are addictive but extremely good for your health! I started out to make just one of these lovelies but, well, you’ll see.

First, of course, lots of thanks to Madam Samm and Erin for putting all this fun stuff together!

I’d never made a mug rug before and, since the theme was April Showers, I decided to start with this cute, little paper-pieced umbrella from Carol Doak’s Foundation Factory.  I use an umbrella very rarely in Oregon because so much of our rain is fine mist.  As a result, I often find umbrellas that I’ve left to dry tumbling across my porch in a spring wind.  Here’s mug rug #1, Tumbling Umbrellas.

Then, I saw a wonderful Doctor Who inspired mug rug early in the hop and I was reminded of this wonderful tutorial over at Dog Under My Desk. The tutorial is actually for a purse but I thought this worked well.

One Wonky Tardis Mug Rug complete with my daughter’s Tardis mug!

Then, Jennifer at Sewhooked  published a free pattern around Valentine’s Day with this lovely little coffee cup and so I combined her paper-pieced pattern with the free-hand words from Word Play Quilts and made this

 

A bit of pretty and floral.

Now, just between you and me, the white wasn’t in my original plan.  I just put the background in the wrong place and had to roll with it so no one is allowed near this one with actual tea.  It will work just fine for a bowl of chocolates, though!

My “just one” mug rug had morphed into three and I told everyone I was done…until I saw this pattern by Jennifer on the Spring Fling Blog Hop and I couldn’t resist.  I also couldn’t finish it this afternoon so I may replace the photo tomorrow with the finished product.  I was already excited about this one and then I did something I’ve NEVER been able to do before…I made French knots!  No, seriously, don’t laugh, in nearly 37 years of sewing I’ve never made a successful French knot and now I’ve made 12!  Youtube is a wonderful thing!

Peeps Bunnies, with French knots!

Here’s a shot of my three finished mug rugs together

Now, I have a little giveaway before you hop off to my wonderful co-hoppers for the day.  I’ve got two springy fat quarters just waiting to be included in a mug rug of their own.  (I will ship internationally, by the way.)  All you need to do is leave me a comment.  Tell me a little about your favorite Spring things or what you’re working on at the moment or if you were able to stop at one mug rug (I swear they are just like potato chips without the calories!)

 

Then, hop on over to these wonderful bloggers and see what everyone else is up to!

 

Jen @ Quilter in the Closet

Marjorie @ Marjorie’s Busy Corner

Elita @ A Pieceful Perspective

Green @ So Sew Green

Mara @ Greco Mara

Wendy @ Why Knot Kwilt?

Gmama Jane @ GrandMama’s Stories

Debby @ Debby Kratovil Quilts

Britt-Inger @ Hill Valley Quilter

Connie @ Freemotion by the River

Beth @ Words and Stitches

Kathy @ iHeartSquishy

 

 Happy quilting,

Beth

“Love in the Balance” is Historically Imbalanced

1879. Texas. Molly Lovelace has been bred to wed. Both she and her parents know that her objective is to marry a wealthy man, a man who will solve the family’s financial problems…if only her heart wasn’t so drawn to an insolvent cowboy.
If you are a stickler for historical detail…steer clear of this book. Personally, I get really tired of books that sell themselves as historical fiction but fail to accurately portray the era they purport to be set in. In three phone calls, I was able to verify one major inaccuracy in this book. If I can do that, shouldn’t the author or the editor have checked it? In addition, there is a major breakdown in understanding and portraying the social moirés of the time period. I don’t mind granting an author a little poetic license but this book strayed so far from what was likely or socially acceptable in 1879 as to border on ridiculous.
If you want a slightly predictable romance and don’t mind a little bit of stilted dialogue, then you may well enjoy it. It’s not that the plot wasn’t reasonably engaging, it’s just that historical fiction should be, in my personal opinion, historically accurate.
This book was provided to me by Bethany House for this review. The opinions, however, are entirely my own!

Easy Street…does this ever happen to you?

So my goal for the Lovely Finish project for April was Easy Street, the mystery quilt from Bonnie Hunter. I had nearly all the sub-units made and was making great progress on my blocks until I noticed this…

The way the block should look…

The way 10 of my blocks looked!

I had turned the pink squares the wrong way in 10 out of 16 blocks!  So, right now, I’m busy picking out and fixing.  Three are done and four more are “unsewn” so it wont be much longer until I’m back on track.  However, I’ve been having fun with mug rugs this week and can hardly wait to show you what I’ve been up to on the 17th!

In the meantime, I did get my block done for the Sew Along at Quiet Play.  I’m pretty impressed with myself because I had this done on the 2nd of April. Of course, I still haven’t finished February and March but you have to celebrate your successes, right?

You can get this block free on Craftsy until the end of the month.  Oh, and if you haven’t checked out Craftsy, it’s got some fun free classes and patterns you can try.  I’ve purchased two machine quilting classes with Leah Day.  I love being able to “take a class” without leaving my own sewing room because I don’t have to pack my machine up!  (It doesn’t have the same comraderie as a real class but that’s ok, I get to go to a Bonnie Hunter class in September.)

Lastly, I thought I’d share this photo with you.  Easter has come and gone but the basket is still out because Gizmo adores the paper crinkles in the bottom of the basket.  He even decided to try on the basket for size…but it was a tight fit.

I’m linking this post up to A Lovely Year of Finishes Mid-Month Linky Party.

Sunday Stash Report

I love reading the Sunday Stash Reports linked up to Finding Fifth but I often forget to report in on my own. Well, this week was a major accomplishment for me because I worked at my guild’s quilt show on Friday and I was assigned to…wait for it…Vendor Helper! That meant I spent my whole three hours cruising the vendor booth area in case someone needed a potty break or coffee or whatever. So, I am quite proud to say that I restrained myself and only purchased the three hand-painted fat quarters from a woman who had the most gorgeous yardage ever and the five fat quarters that were on sale for $1 each. (I’m pretty sure it’s a minor sin to pass on $1 fat quarters, right?)

Three

April Showers Bring Mug Rugs and More!

Today is Day 1 of the April Showers Mug Rug Hop courtesy of Madam Samm & Co. at Sew We Quilt. My Day isn’t until next week but I didn’t want you to miss out on all the cute, creative and just plain charming offerings for today! Some of these ladies really raised the bar on the photos, too. I’d better finish mine up and get cracking…it took me two photo sessions to get good shots of my Nancy Drew!

Also, the Spring Fling Blog Hop is continuing over at Whims and Fancies and there are some seriously fun paper-piecing patterns that lovely designers have made available for the hop.

As for me, well, the week has been a snuffle, snuffle, sneeze, cough kind of week but I’m finally starting to feel better so expect to see some book reviews and some progress on some projects over the next few days.  I’ve been steadily working away at my Easy Street Mystery Quilt and now have 11 of the main blocks and three of the setting blocks done…just 5 more main, 6 setting and then the pieced setting triangles.  I’m looking forward to showing you some progress soon!

Happy quilting,

Beth

 

Free Cards from Shutterfly – Today Only

Sorry this is so last minute but you can order ten photo cards for free from Shutterfly with the code SPRINGCARDS (you’ll still have to pay shipping.) Here’s a peek at the cards I made (fingers crossed for this to work!)

5×7 Folded Card

View the entire collection of cards.

Lovely Un-Finish for March, 350 Block, April’s Finish Goal and an Easter Monday Update

Well, I must admit, it pains me to say that I didn’t get my Country Threads or Lovely Finish done this month. I had great intentions but I hit a row of snags. First, I tried to find the photos on my computer and they were gone. Really gone. I spent hours going through EVERY data file on my hard drive and there was zip, nada, nothing from my oldest daughter’s graduation! Other things were missing, too. Thank goodness for the tech-savvy husband who found them still lurking on our old hard drive (Lord forgive me for ever thinking he should clear that stuff out!) With the photos restored, Sarah and I could pick out pictures.

I pulled out my Printed Treasures sheets and waited for Mr. Tech-Savvy to have time to help me put the photos on an Adobe page for printing. Well, when we finally sat down to figure it out, it was quite easy to do in Word! So, I began printing. I followed the directions but the outcome was, well, dreary. I tried playing with the intensity of the photo and it was some better, but not great. In the end, I went online with HP and discovered that the Vivera Ink is recommended to print on fabric. So I bought some. Now, I just need time with Mr. Tech to change the inks without wasting what is in there already. So, the quilt is not done, but just think of all the snags I’ve smoothed out for it!

Less than lovely looking fabric photos….sigh!

In the meantime, I managed to make a whopping 17 blocks this month and, more importantly, was able to spend a few hours helping out a friend who fell and shattered her wrist. (She’s had surgery but since I didn’t do any of the stitching, I don’t think I can count her as a UFO.)  The block I was most excited about was that I got to pattern test this fun block from Quiet Play.  The pattern is available in her Craftsy shop plus she has an adorable free block of the month going on!

As for Easter, the Easter Bunny brought an unusual gift this year…three new sinks.  I came downstairs for church and was quite disconcerted to find water dripping on me from the hallway light fixture!  The culprit turned out to be the sink on my husband’s side of the vanity.  Lucky for me, my husband is an all-around great fixer of things and he had the new sink in and the water back on 30 minutes before guests arrived for Easter dinner.  There are still two sinks to put in as we decided that if one was gone after 17 years, the others might not be far behind.  It’s a better-safe-than sorry scenario. 

Now that April has arrived, it’s time for the new finish goal and the lovely ladies at Country Threads drew my Easy Street (by Bonnie Hunter.)  Bonnie does a wonderful mystery from November to January each year and this year I finally joined in.  Now, I just have to finish it! Lots of fun sewing on my schedule.  Here’s a peek at my Easy Street with the two blocks I have finished.

My Easy Street Blocks

Well, that’s it for me, I’m off to do some sewing…no fooling!

Beth

The Quilt That Came Home

I may have mentioned once or twice that I’m a “trial and error” kind of girl. Sometimes I just don’t get it right the first time and then it’s try, try again. In the case of marriage, I only needed a second try. The first one was, well, not quite a disaster as I got my beautiful older daughter out of the deal which made it worthwhile. The overall experience was, however, less than desirable.
In the course of the back and forth that occurred in the whole unpleasant and convoluted divorce proceedings, he-who-must-not-be-named came over to our house and took a few things. Most of them made sense like his mother’s diamond earrings. Some were confusing like ½ of our silverware. The one that made the least sense to me, though, was a quilt I had made to celebrate our dog, Naughty. Now, I never protested him taking the quilt because I had, in fact, made it and wrapped it as a Christmas gift for him one year so I didn’t feel that I could question his right to it. (If it happened again today, I’d question it but hindsight is 20/20.) I did wonder though, what kind of man sleeps under a quilt made for him by the woman he professed to think was so terrible? Over time, it was just one of many things he did that left me shaking my head in disbelief.
For my older daughter, though, the quilt was a sore spot. She wanted it. After all, it was about her dog. Naughty was a rescue Lab we got when she and my oldest were about 18 months old. To say that Naughty was her best friend was an understatement. Years went by and Naughty crossed the rainbow bridge and my daughter asked her father to give her the quilt. He refused. He divorced again and remarried again and still refused to give her the quilt. (I couldn’t help but wonder if either subsequent wife would have even wanted to sleep under a quilt made by wife #1.) According to my daughter, her request for the quilt was met with, “You can have it when I’m dead.”
Well, #3 and he-who-must-not-be-named are building a new house and #3 doesn’t want any memories other than their own to sully the new house. So, my daughter got the long-awaited message on Facebook. Do you want this or should I send it to the Goodwill? Like a shot, my daughter arranged to retrieve the quilt. And so, seventeen years later, the Naughty Dog Quilt is back where my daughter believes it should be…with Naughty’s girl. As for me, well, I have mixed feelings. Now that I look at the quilt again, I realize that I would have quilted it much tighter now than I did then. Maybe it’s not just home, maybe it’s home and ready for a bit of a facelift….like I need another UFO!