a bag of chips

Yummy.

Ginger molasses cookies, fresh out of the oven. I even got to use my Kitchen Aid stand mixer to make these babies.  I used a recipe I found on this blog. If you make these, be warned. You will NOT be able to eat just one.

Scrappy Giveaway!

Head on over to www.writeclickscrapbook.com for a chance at today's giveaway!

Quilting.

I've been asked a few questions about quilting, so if it's not your thing, go here for some home decor eye candy. Or go clean out your belly button. 

First of all, I'm not a seasoned quilter. I'm a 100% amateur who has been flying by the seat of her sweat pants with the help of the internet. My quilts are not perfect and there's a pretty good reason why I don't feature close-ups of my seams, machine quilting or hand-binding. But I'm learning and making and screwing something up with each quilt I make.  But that just adds character, right?

Much like scrapbooking and photography, I'm developing my own style, discovering new preferences, trying on new things and spending WAAAAY to much of my kids' college fund buying fabric, and WAAAAAY too much time browsing through quilter's blogs and Flickr quilting groups. I'm a tad obsessed, I guess.

Second of all, I'll share with you my basic tools:

 

A good pair of scissors used only for fabric (please ignore the fuzz on the tips of my scissors), a rotary cutter, and a pack of replacement rotary cutter blades.

An Omnigrid (or similar brand) ruler or two or three, and an Omnigrid (or similar brand) self-healing cutting mat (the green thing in the background). I have several different sizes of the rulers and my cutting mat is quite large. Because bigger is better and you know it.

A sewing machine and an iron. Sure, you could sew everything by hand and press your fabric between books.  But, um, no.  My machine is a very inexpensive and basic thing that I got at Target several years back for about $80.  It has a pretty good number of stitch styles and is quite easy to use. (Before I bought it it had been since home ec class in junior high that I'd done anything on a sewing machine. Yeah, a VERY long time.)  And a basic iron to press seams and wrinkles and to steam things up a bit.

Sharp things, like needles, pins and quilter's basting pins (curved safety pins). For basting, which is the process of making the quilt "sandwich" of your quilt top, batting, and backing, there are several methods: pinning (like I do), basting spray (comes in a can - I've never tried it but many use it), and stitching. Stitch basting involves running a threaded needle through all three layers to secure the sandwich. Again, I've not tried this method. Pinning works for me for now.

And then you'll need some fabric. Pre-cut coordinating fabric and fat quarter packs are a great way of getting out of scouring fabric stores for things that coordinate, and are a great way of stashing up. Wal-Mart has fat quarters for a $1.00 and their "jelly rolls" are an inexpensive alternative to the designer pre-cuts. Jo-ann has a great selection of FQs in a full range of colors and patterns for $1.49, though I just bought a huge stack on sale for 99 cents each.  If you're just starting out, like I am, make your first few quilts with the inexpensive fabrics. In this stack, the bottom is a Moda jelly roll (about $35.00), the blues are the individual fat quarters from Jo-ann (bought on sale at 99 cents), and the girly pink/green fat quarter set is also from Jo-ann and cost about $10.00.

This weekend I put the finishing touches on one of my Christmas gift quilts (this one is for my nephew whose favorite color is.....wait for it.....green!). For this one I used primarily the Jo-ann FQs, and one or two scraps from my stash. My backing is from a sheet set I bought on clearance at Target, and the quilt is bound with a solid dark green from Jo-ann, also on sale.  In all, not including batting, this quilt cost around $20.00 to make.  (11 fat quarters at about $1.00 each, one half of a twin flat sheet (the set was $9.00 or so), and 1/2 yard of solid green for the binding at about $3.00.

This quilt went together really quickly and was super easy. What I love most about this kind of random quilt is that there are no seams to line up. I kept things really nice and random and I love this kind of look. I did some simple straight-line quilting with my machine and I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. 

Oh, and for batting I've been using Warm & Natural and I really love working with it. If you plan on doing a lot of quilting, buying a whole roll (or bolt) vs. by-the-yard is more cost-effective.

And if you want to know where I go for quilting inspiration, tutorials and virtual hand-holding, check these out:

Film in the Fridge

Red Pepper Quilts

Oh, Fransson

Crazy Mom Quilts

Missouri Star Quilt Co.

And once I found these sites, with their wealth of tutorials, quilted eye candy, and linkydinks, I felt I had enough information to venture forward. And I have not looked up from my sewing machine since.

My very first quilt was made from one Moda jelly roll. I sewed all the strips together in one night. And it sat for nearly six months before I got up the nerve to do anything else with it. Then I read up on tying quilts and binding, put "You've Got Mail" in the player, and got it done.

This quilt came together pretty easily and is my son's preferred blanket every night. It's not quite wide enough to be considered twin size, but it's close. For tying my first few quilts, I just used some yarn and did a surgeon's knot (or box knot) about every six inches or so at the seams. Is this the proper way of tying a quilt? I don't know, but it's how I did it. This quilt has now been washed about 10 times and it's holding up beautifully. I'm mostly machine quilting now, but I do love the look and simplicity of tied quilts. 

I also want to say that I don't pre-wash my fabrics before starting projects and I don't think that jelly rolls, honey buns, charm packs, turnovers, layer cakes and other pre-cuts were designed for prewashing anyway. Things like prewashing, basting method, pressing seams open or to the side, binding method and quilting preferences are 100% up to the quilter. Whatever floats your boat, baby.

Oh, sweet internet, how I love thee. How did we ever live without you? So far I've taught myself to knit and to quilt online. For free. Pretty freakin' cool, right? Pretty freakin' cool.

If you've ever wondered what...

...is outside my window: men working on the house behind mine - work that started with a cement truck outside said window at 6:45 this morning. Before my alarm clock went off. Resisted temptation to hurl alarm clock through the window at said cement truck. Opted for a shower instead. I even shaved my legs.

...I am thinking:  that it's time to seriously purge my scrap crap.  I saw what Susan Weinroth did and I'm totally inspired and motivated to do the same. Maybe this weekend. I'm also thinking that I need to watch the Netflix DVD that's been on my desk now for well over a month. 

...I am thankful for:  way more than I can possibly list. But for right now, it would have to be my husband and the awesome chocolate chocolate chip cookies he baked last night (I swear I've only eaten one. Nadia ate all the rest.). A man who bakes nummy things and has a cute tooshie and a sexy accent - yeah, I'm a lucky girl.

...I'm making for dinner:  a phone call to Mountain Mike's pizza.  One medium cheese, one large half pepperoni, half veggie. 

...I'm wearing: a smile. With jeans and a purple shirt. And, for the first time in a while, just a little bit of make-up.

...I had for lunch:  a turkey sandwich with red onion, lettuce and tomato, mustard and mayo, and a bag of Fritos that I shared with Nadia.  She had a parfait of raspberries, vanilla yo and granola before bogarting my chips.  (You know, I can't talk about parfait without hearing Donkey in my head. And you'll only understand what the hell that means if you've watched Shrek 284 times like I have.)

...I'm creating:  a really simple quilt for a Christmas gift, just after I finish this post. 

...I'm reading:  the latest issue of Real Simple and "Housekeeping" by Marilynne Robinson (just finished "Shanghai Girls" by Lisa See and "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society" by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows. Loved them both!)

...I'm hoping for:  a new sewing machine, a flat-screen TV for my bedroom, a snot-free house, comfortable panties and an iced coffee. And world peace.

...I'm hearing:  the dryer beeping at me. SHUT UP already!

...is happening around my house: not a darn thing. Nadia is sleeping and The Bigs are in school. Niiiiiice.

...is one of my favorite things:  a sushi dinner date with my husband

...are my plans for the weekend:  a sushi dinner date with my husband tonight (mom is babysitting), a mini photo session with a previous photography client, photo editing, family movie night under quilts and with lots of popcorn tomorrow night, church Sunday followed by a visit with Nadia's birthfamily, scrap crap purge.

...Nadia looks like when she's pretending to cry:

 

(Today's post format was inspired by Ali's post today. Thanks as always, Ali, for all the inspiration!)

Have a lovely weekend!

I'm still here.

It's been a busy month or so, and stupid TypePad just ate the post I spent an hour working on. (Enter expletive of your choice here: ______.  I've already said them all, though. Yep, every last one.)

So I'll just spare us both the regurgitation of that post since a) it's late and I'm cranky now and 2) I can't remember a damn thing I said in that last post.

Hmpf.

Instead, here are some pretty pictures:

This sweet baby is three now. And potty trained. She loves to call me daddy and loves it even more when I lower my voice and imitate my husband's accent to talk to her. She and her big sister are no longer sharing a room and we're all much happier for it. Aussie Bites (from Costco) and cereal are her favorite foods. She still prefers everyone else's shoes to her own.

Makena, my toothless girl, is loving kindergarten and already has like six new best friends.  She's a good student and loves learning new things. But she still doesn't like chocolate and that's okay. More for the rest of us. We're managing her asthma with daily inhalers and so far this sick season, so good. She also loves to color and draw and has close to a thousand crayons that seem to multiply daily.

And this big little dude is doing much better after scaring the crap out of us with pneumonia last week. Our boy is rarely sick and we were all so upset over just how sick he was. The only lasting side effect is his princely expectation that we still be at his beck and call and that every waking moment not spent at school is spent as a couch potato under a quilt watching endless episodes of Hannah Montanausea and The Suite Life of Cheesy and Predictable.  He's enjoying first grade and LOVES to read. Woohoo!

I've also been doing some quilting in the diminishing number of spare moments I've had lately.  Like this one I made for Aly Dosdall's sweet new baby, Faith. Faith is the first baby born to a Write. Click. Scrapbook. designer since we launched, though she won't be the last. Mary MacAskill, Elisha Snow and Rebecca Cooper are also expecting!

(For this quilt, I used a Moda Layer Cake (their Sweet Line) and followed these instructions for the pattern. I machine-quilted the triangles. It's not perfect, but I am happy with how it turned out.)

And if you haven't checked it out yet, we have a new gallery, "Eye On Design", at www.writeclickscrapbook.com. Here is one of my submissions - you'll have to click on over to see the rest of the amazing gallery!

And then, struggling to find my waning scrappy mojo, I created this yesterday:

(Letter stickers by American Crafts, birdie die by Stampin' Up!, labels by Avery, patterned paper is KI Memories)

There's lots more to share and say about the past month, but not today. Hopefully I'll get time for another post here over the weekend.

See you soon!