I Love Quilting A Test

Last month Lorna of Sew Fresh Quilts put out a call for Testers...

As you know my sis came and we had a Long Overdue vacation together!  So since she showed up early,I did not get the mini quilt all finished.  Sorry about that Lorna :(  However I was able to finish the  top by burning some midnight oil last night.

This mini was supposed to be Ombre and mine is kinda sorta Ombre...I used scraps to make this so although not totally "ombre" I love it!  The directions were very clear and there are lots of pictures/diagrams to go with the written directions.  Which as you know is very important for people like me who are visual learners.

The little bit of orange where the hand wheel is was a part of the 2 block that I made a mistake on.  Instead of tossing it in the trash I decided to cut it down and incorporate it into the hand wheel part.  It looks kind of out of place,but since it will hang in my sewing room,and I like it,it stays.

Thank you for the opportunity to be one of your testers Lorna,it was sew much fun!  Head over to Sew Fresh Quilts to check out all of the versions of the mini that all the other testers sewed up!

Grandma quilts...

So I have been counting down the days until Friday because my sis was scheduled to arrive for a long overdue vacation together!  Well she snuck in a couple days early...(I can hardly wait to clock out at lunch tomorrow)!

This is a quilt my sis made,isn't it just beautiful?  The story...our grandma sewed all her quilts by hand,and to quilt her quilts she tied them.(which is how we both learned to make our quilts and how T still finishes her quilts)  Our grandma had a thing for Hawaiian print fabrics and her all time favorite was this line,she had it in all the colors available.  The stars in the blocks were all hand sewn by grandma.

When T (my sis) moved out on her own grandma gave her all the tiny scraps left over from her quilts/stash.  T has had them for a very long time,the last couple of years she has slowly been making quilts with them.

As I said the majority of the scraps are tiny so she has had to look for patterns with very small pieces.  We would love any ideas/patterns you would be willing to share with us!  T brought all of the green and teal scraps and gifted them to me,so I will be using them in the future to make my own Grandma quilt or quilts!

Although T does sew,her true love is working with glass.  This is her first glass flower that she made!  I am now the proud owner of this gorgeous piece of art,lucky me :)

This is her most recent glass flower,she was really excited about how much she has improved!

T also has a talent for drawing and painting as well,recently she painted this picture and texted it to me. Thanks for letting me show off some of my sisters creativity with you!  Hope you all have a super week and I will be back after my vacation :)

Swap reveal and other sewy stuff

This quarter for Sew,Share,Swap (the FB swap group I am in) the theme was 4th of July,sewist choice.

Which meant we could choose any project we wanted to sew up for our partner.  I received Melissa's name this quarter!  It took me forever to finally make up my mind about what to make for her.  She likes things bright and Modern.  This little mini above was my tester for my pattern!  It will be a garden flag soon,it is 13 1/2 x 17 1/2 :)

This is the one I made for Melissa,it measured around 25 by 36.  She received it today so I can show it off to you!  I was pretty worried about her liking it,but she has assured me that she loves it :)  This pattern is a combination of two techniques that have been pinned on my(techniques to try) board on pinterest for a while now.  I am so excited with how this turned out and will be using the lightening technique again for sure.

For the batting in this project I tried out this new to me batting.  you make your sandwich and then instead of basting you press the sandwich!  I ended up pressing on both sides of my sandwich because my iron tends to scorch fabric if turned up higher than the lowest cotton setting.  It was nice to not have to baste but,I would not use this in a larger project than this for fear of getting things crooked and then having a disaster!  It is great for smaller projects though.  I purchased this at Joann's with a half off coupon.  So it was around $7.50 and it is 45 by 36.

This little table mat was just the wedges left over from a block I made for someone while I was in stash bee.  It was three wedges short of a block so I added three red and white wedges,you can just see the corner of one.  The center is also red and white.

Recently Lorna over at Sew Fresh Quilts put out a call for pattern testers,why yes I did volunteer!  This is the first part of my project.

Then this came together,although my strips somehow got out of order.  It is staying as is right or not,because I do not dislike it enough to rip it out!

Were you wondering what that word above was?  Ha ha,most of the way through the heart block it dawned on me that my U had issues!  So I ripped it apart and fixed it.  (story of my sewing life :)

A couple of spools of scrappy thread too...

Mini Wonderland bag (99.9% finished)

In my last post I talked about the mini wonderland bag in progress.

Here it is all but finished!  We had thunder storms today,so it was inside photos or none at all.  The only thing left to do is attach the lining to the exterior.  I am debating on hand sewing or glueing it in.  The reason for the debate,well the opening is pretty small,which is going to make it a little difficult to hand sew...

One of the ends all pinned and ready to be sewn to the sides of the exterior of the bag.

Sewing one of the ends to the bag in progress.  When I set out to make this smaller version the thought of the size making sewing challenging did not occur to me.  Ha!  What was I thinking?  Yes that thought did occur to me several times while making this mini bag.

Which is why I made the decision to have a pocket on one end of the exterior of the bag instead of placing them inside.

Here is the mini with my original wonderland bag.  The addition of piping would have made this a true mini version.  However it still looks pretty cute!

One last photo of the end with the pocket.  I think the little girly girl who this is going to is going to love it,at least I hope she does!

June Goal,a finish & a mini in progress

First the Goal for this month:

                                 
                           (photo source)

This is the last bag pattern in the Bag of The Month Club!  It is also my goal for ALYOF for this month.  I have not yet pulled fabrics for this but plan on doing that this weekend.

For mothers Day Jolene purchased me some fabrics from Fort Worth Fabric Studio,Thank You Sweetie !  Included in the package was an 8 piece FQ bundle with watermelon fabrics,perfect for some summer sewing projects.  Also included,3 yards of Moda Toweling,as well as another 4 piece FQ bundle and a pattern :)

You can down load a Free Tutorial on how to make these tea towels yourself from the link.  They are a quick project,the pressing takes longer than the sewing!  The pattern in my package is for a table runner so I will be making a runner to go with the tea towels soon.

Back in April I talked my friend Melissa into making the Wonderland Bag with me! (sorry Melissa,I could not find the post on your blog to add the link :(  After we had both finished she told me that her daughter thought the finished bag should be hers!  Which got me to thinking of reducing the pattern and making a smaller one so that they could have matching bags,sort of.

This is the progress so far.  the exterior is done except for the bottom of the bag.  I did make a few changes to this one.  No inside pockets,but there is one on one end(pictured above) and this one does not have the piping.  The handles are also much shorter making this a hand bag instead of a shoulder bag.  When it is finished I will post all the details.

French Toast recipe (without eggs)

Sorry for the lack of posting around here lately...but the weather has been sooo nice!  I have sewed a little bit ,but can not show you until my swap partner receives it.  Soon!

Am I the only one who does not like french toast because of the egg? The weird thing is that I actually don't mind eggs every once in a while!  Mr. P watches a lot of cooking shows and recently he saw one that had a recipe something like this.  He described it and asked me to make it for breakfast on the weekend.

Fresh berry French toast:

One baguette (the one you need to bake for a few minutes at home)
syrup of your choice (I like Sohgave,Maple flavor,because it is low GI/not super sweet)
fresh berries or fruit of your choice (1/2 cup)
powdered sugar for dusting
1 - 2 tablespoons Butter

Slice your baguette into pieces(I used 4 pieces for each of us) about 2 inches thick place on a tray or rack in oven (preferably a toaster oven since it is such a small amount).  Bake for the time recommended on package,or until it looks toasted.  Mean while,wash fruit or berries and slice them,set aside for now.

In a frying pan melt butter,remove the baguette slices from the toaster oven and place in frying pan fry for a minute or two over medium heat,just until golden on both sides.

Remove from frying pan and plate.  Top with berries and or fruit,pour syrup over the top of berries/fruit and toast,dust with powdered sugar.

All that is left to do is Enjoy!  I know we did :)