May-hem Muchness

This is Renata's quilt with my fan stencil machine quilting.  Love it! Goes so great on this quilt.  She did a great job!

At the Quilt show in NJ I ran into Jean and she had her finished churn dash quilt with her.  What fun!

Yay!

I finished my first block of the Chrome Yellow 4-block quilt project.  It matches my green/yellow arborvitae. 

 It also looks nice with my daffodils and grape hyacinth.  YES spring has arrived in CT finally!!

I love the crisp look of a freshly finished and pressed applique' block.  I steam press it from the back on a fluffy bath towel.  I use a spray bottle of plain water to create the steam as I NEVER add water to my iron anymore.

I received several comments about my rag balls.  First I will confess, they aren't balls from strips of fabric.  They are balls of batting strips that I cover with strips that I trim from my quilt backings.  

 Rag balls were made of strips of old clothing and rolled into ball to later be used to make rag rugs and weaving.  

 I have heard of modern day quilters using selvages to tie up garden plants.

 I like them as a remembrance of the quilts I've made.  The sweet pink one below is from my Mother's Garden quilt.

 There fun to look at and if I was better at juggling, they would be good for that :)

As reported on Instagram - my Jubilee quilt is home after traveling to Houston and Chicago.

 OMG - I am missing  line of quilting by my initial and just noticed it after 5 major shows, lol.  Will take care of that soon.

They sent me show books and nice patches for my quilt.  It was a great experience and I highly recommend you enter any one of there special exhibits.    click here to see what they are calling for this year.

 What a nice touch - they packed it beautifully with lots of acid free tissue and this note which included the packers name.

And finally, we golfed for the first time last weekend with our golf buddies.  Anyone else out there golf?  I love to spend the time outside with Mr. Fun and friends.

of course I mostly love to go out to eat before or after and have a cocktail :)
Can you believe the carts had GPS so we knew exactly how far the cup was?

  Oooops, too much talking and looking in the weeds for my pink golf balls.  

Happy May!  It's Derby Day on Saturday - woo hoo!! 
xo

Quilty as Charged Pt 2

Hello from almost spring Connecticut!  

 

I have daffodils in my yard but I'm finishing talking about my Christmas Quilt.

My favorite way to machine quilt a liberated quilt is what I have termed: 
Relaxed Crosshatch

 Here are the steps I use:

1. Spray baste the layers together when working on a small quilt.  
2. Using a Hera Marker I mark a good 45 degree line across the quilt.
3. Mark another line at 6"
4. Mark another line in between - at 3"
5. Eyeball the line between the 3" lines.  This way I have a little variance but it's not totally wonky - which I have also done.
6. I really like the look.  What do you think?

Rounded Corners (nice oxymoron)

I picked up this little corner tool and I have to admit I hardly ever use it. lol

 It offers 3 different sizes, but of course none of them suited me, ha ha.

 I used this giant button wall decor instead.  You can use anything round that suits your size needs.

 I used straight binding and just carefully pinned it around the corner right on the line I wanted.

 Easy Peasy.

 In case anyone is wondering, I still make a rag ball of every most quilts I finish with the batting and backing trimmed from the edges.

 Spring bird sightings.  This poor house sparrow is visiting my bird bath which is frozen because I unplugged it - waaaa

A bluebird!  These birds are so shy it is hard to get a photo.

I like this little guys style - he just moved into the window feeder and filled up.  :)

I'm off to The Quilt and Sewing Fest of New Jersey tomorrow.  If you see me, say hello!

xo

Christmas in April?

Christmas Memories of Jill 

In my last post I showed you the start of this project.  

I hope you can see my machine quilting in this shot.  I will show you my method of "relaxed crosshatch" next week.

The backing fabric has two popular Christmas Gifts:  Books and Money.

Jill loved the Christmas season and the center Santa came from her sewing room and was made by Lori of Humble Quilts as part of an online swap.  Crazy, right?

The white circles are Jill's, the red circled center was made by Lori  and the black circles are random blocks and bits I had around.

I am so happy to have another collaborative quilt with Jill.  It's been almost 4 years since she passed away.  You can see my Memorial Post here.

We've started some gardening inside this year in a sunny window.

 Obviously coco has been here.....these are not brownies!

Bird Watching Season has begun!  The Bluebirds are coming around, but I haven't caught them on camera.

 Do you know this bird?  I think it is a Juvenile Gray Jay.

Have a Happy Week
xo

Quilty as Charged!

Creative Craziness is happening in the development of a couple of new workshops.  Here is one "mood board" approach.  Stay tuned.

I pulled blocks and scraps from every corner of my sewing room.  I'll be adding 2 new workshops and a 3rd lecture in May.

This week I made a easy, healthy, low fat, veggie filled casserole that I thought you may like.

Chicken Casserole
Ingredients:
2 cups Cooked Chicken (I like to use a rotisserie chicken)
2 cups egg noodles (before cooking - I used veggie pasta)
20 oz. mixed vegetables (or peas and carrots if you prefer)
1 can cream of mushroom (I used fat free)
1 can cream of chicken (I used fat free)
1 cup milk (I used Fat Free Lactaid and added a few TBs of Ranch.
2 TBs. melted butter
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese and 1/2 cup for topping
1/2 tsp. onion powder
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1/2 tsp. Italian seasonings
salt and pepper to taste

** don't judge my pan, I've been using it for 30 years lol.

Cook pasta according to package directions.  

Mix remaining ingredients in a large bowl. 

Spread into a greased 9 x 13" pan.

Bake 30-40 minutes until hot and bubbly.

Top with 1/2 cup (or more) shredded cheese and broil for 3-5 mins - watch closely so it doesn't get too brown.

This is what I think of as "Real Food - for Real Lives".  My family is devouring the leftovers.

If you are going to Quilt Fest Chicago say hello to my Jubilee Quilt on display in the American Tradition Applique' exhibit.  It comes home after this show - yay!

Have a happy week.
xo

ps
today's blog title credit goes to Phil at Goodwin College :)

Lollipop Garden

The only garden growing here is a quilted one!  Lollipop Garden.

I presented my Scrap Quilts lecture on Monday for the Shoreline Quilters.  Thank you ladies (& gentleman) for being such an enthusiastic audience and for inviting me.   This quilt was a favorite from the talk.

 You just can't miss using 30s reproduction fabrics.  They go together so well and are always cheerful.

 It snowed 5" inches here Monday - can you believe it?? Thank goodness I was only traveling 18 miles.   Seeing this happy garden quilt was very welcome.  The piano key border frame this quilt well and uses lots of scrap strips.

 Here is a little Hollyhock flower featuring Little Bo Peep.

Oh, there's her lost sheep.   tee hee

For the backing I used 3 food fabrics that share the same color story.

 I'm a good girl and have it labeled.

 My Scrap Lecture is both informative and fun.  Email me if your group is interested in this program and trunk show.  I have some openings in late spring and fall 2018 and I'm booking 2019.

Thank you FWB block swapper, Jane, for your random act of kindness!  Quilters are so generous and thoughtful.

I love the Abe socks you sent me.  What a fun mail surprise.  I've never even seen these  - yay!

**Last Call**
 Paperpieces.com is giving away 2 packages of circles to a lucky winner through my Instagram.  Go to my feed funwithbarb to enter.  Drawing closes today at 5pm EST.

I love these circle papers!!

Have a fun week~
xo