Fun Friday

Okay, a little while back I posted a new template called Lil Twister. It is a fun and easy way to use up all those charm packs we have all been hoarding. Yes, I said it hoarding !!!

Since I am being honest, I started hoarding Layer Cakes too, here is the quickest quilt I ever made using the larger Twister Template, seriously, it went so fast !!!!

You simply take 36, 10" squares and sew a 6 1/4" border and then cut using the Twister template. Once all your squares are cut, you simply sew them back together.

The great part is, the border is done when you are done with the quilt.

Now you can always add more borders, depending how big you want your quilt.

On this quilt I simply grabbed a 10" square and started sewing, I think I will pay more attention to placement on the next quilt.

Definitely a quilt that can be made in a day !!!

Back to school dress!

So I decided to make a few cute dresses for my daughter Amanda for the start of this school year.

I let her pick the fabric and of course I had to pick one too!!! (some say I am a control freak??)

Since my main sewing skills are quilting I decided to find one of those patterns that claims Quick and Easy on the cover. How hard can it be right? After all I can quilt.

Without going into to too much detail, there was lots of unsewing, some cuss words and lets just say the first dress is now a skirt.

I made a few adjustments on the second dress and it turned out much better.

This is the fabric Amanda picked. Very cute pinks, reds and turquoise, by Micheal Miller.

She was going to wear it the first day of school but than we found out she has PE so it will have to wait until the second day. I will post pictures with her wearing her dress the second day of school.



Okay, I have been called out !!!

Okay, one of my girlfriends called me out yesterday, she said, Wow, it's been quite some time since you posted anything on your blog.

I could give you a bunch of excuses why, you know like end of summer, getting kids ready for school,  busy working on some projects....etc...yada yada yada.

So instead of doing that, how about a great summer recipe.

Who doesn't like Caprese salad???

Well here is a fun, easy appetizer.

Ingredients are simply, Cherry tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, basil and balsamic dressing.

Oh and don't forget the toothpicks.

This is a great opportunity for the kids to help out and a health snack too.

As my Mom always said " Manga"

Summer time, summer time !!!

Yesterday while out running errands we stopped in downtown Chandler at a cute Tea shop called Urban Tea House. We had the best tasting Ice Tea, a mild black tea with a hint of Vanilla. So of course when I got home I just had to duplicate that taste.

Since it was so hot yesterday it took less than an hour to steep my Sun Tea. 

I used 4 bags of Luzianne Tea, One tablespoon of Vanilla extract and one tablespoon of Blue Agave.

Now depending on how sweet you like it, you can add more or less of the Blue Agave.

Let me also add that I added the Vanilla and Blue Agave after I removed the Tea from the Sun.

A great glass of Sun Tea with a hint of Vanilla.

New Toy

My partner in crime, Diane and I hit a few quilt stores this weekend and

we came across a new toy.

Yeah I know, do I really need a new template or pattern? 

It is called Lil' Twister, it is a template with endless possibilities.

What intrigued me most is that I can use all my charm pack and layer cakes that are collecting Social Security in my stash.

I hope to use it this week, I will post my progress.

Fun Friday

Here's and idea for all those left over scraps.

I don't know why I keep scraps of fabric after I am done with a project.

However, I do know I am not the only one....LOL

Great idea for keeping fabric and pattern nice and neat.

Well, I am trying to hold true to the promise I made at the beginning of the year. I was going to shop my own stash.
Over the years I have bought many books, patterns and fabric with the idea that I was going to actually use them. So, this year I decided I bought them for a reason and that I really did love them at the time so I am going to concentrate on using them and getting them completed this year.
  I found a beautiful pattern several years ago at a quilt show, so after my search for months for just the right fabric  I put them all in one bag so I was sure to keep them together and not accidently use them for something else.
Jump forward a few years later to last Friday. I took those fabrics and pattern out of the bag and decided it was time. Of course they were all folded up nice in that bag and now I needed to iron all those lovely folds out.
I knew I wasn't going to have time to cut them up over the holiday weekend so I needed a way to keep them nice and neat until I could cut them. This is what I came up with.

I took a pants hanger and used it to keep my fabric and pattern together and keep it from getting wrinkled.

Yes sometimes I surprise myself!