New Projects

As usual I've got all kinds of projects piling up - in my head and everywhere else!

I found out that my brother and his wife are pregnant with their first, a little boy and I'm so excited to start making all kinds of fun things for them.

First, I'm going to use my leftover scraps from my favorite Riley & Blake All Stars fabric for a simple triangle quilt like the one I saw at Cluck Cluck Sew.

 I also need to finish quilting my Meandering Path quilt. I finished the stippling part, but I am now trying to quilt the straight lines and it's a bit harder than I thought. Because I want the lines to be exactly 1/2" apart, I can't use my pressure foot as a guide. I'm still trying to figure that one out.

I'm also working on another fun quilt that I've designed myself. I love coin quilts, but I wanted to do a twist on it. I'm calling it Crooked Coins. Here is a little sneek peek. I'm using wonderful Verna fabric from Kate Spain.

And good 'ole WalMart had an incredible special on strawberries this week. A one pound crate for $.75! I couldn't pass up the chance to do some jamming. So first thing tomorrow I will make some strawberry jam- yum!

Dahlia Crochet Edge Pillowcases

Been wanting to make a couple more pillowcases from this great tutorial at You Go Girl! 

I've been saving this Sandi Henderson Flower Market fabric and thought they'd be gorgeous pillowcases. I think I was right!

 I decided to put them in my Etsy shoppe. Hopefully they'll go to a good home :).

Basting and Contemplating

I finally picked out my backing fabric for my Meandering Path quilt. I chose the Wildlife pattern! 

I thought it's kind of a crazy, meandering pattern and fit the name and feel of my quilt. Plus it will hide a plethora of quilting mistakes! : ) I ordered it, received it, pieced it together and now I am in the process of basting.

While basting away I've been contemplating our future. My wonderful hubby was offered a job back in our old home of Southern California. Though we are so grateful to have work, especially in this economy, we have mixed feelings. We left SoCal a year ago thinking we wouldn't be back. Actually it's a pretty long story that involves Abu Dhabi, U.A.E. but I won't get into that. : )

We're just honestly not sure we want to go back. Oh there's not much NOT to love about SoCal, but it's very expensive, crowded, and they just had another earthquake as I write! So we are weighing the pros and cons...the biggest pro being a job of course! I'll keep you posted, for now quilting is keeping me sane. 

I've Been a Travelin'

Just got home late Tuesday night from a 9 day vacation! It was SO wonderful. My husband has been on an out of town project since December so it was so nice to have him with us for more than a couple of days.

We went on our annual trip to Sedona, AZ with my husband's family. Every day we take a great hike, swim, have good food and hang out. My husband is the oldest of five kids who are all married and there are a total of 14 little cousins running around. It's a great time for us all to get together and we look forward to it every year.

One of the things we do each year is take a family picture. It took us two tries this year, but we got a good one. We are the green family on the bottom left.

After Sedona, we headed down to Phoenix for the weekend, Scottsdale to be exact. We like the Phoenix area and have thought about moving there more than once. We cruise around and look at possible places to live.

(Maggie looking beautiful with some beautiful fish)
We celebrated my hubby's birthday while we were there too. He took my son to a water park and I took the girls to the new Sea Life Aquarium at the Arizona Mills outlet mall.

(Sophie checking out one serious Manta Ray)
 We did some shopping for dad while we were there too. Then we partied at Texas Roadhouse for dinner.

(Chris, the birthday boy and Charlotte my little monkey)
That day Chris had gotten a call about a job interview in SoCal. So we left right after dinner and headed to Orange County, CA (our home for 12 years!)

I'd like to say that we got to go here (above photo), but we just hung out, had the interview, ran some errands, and then left before rush hour. Everything went well so we'll wait and see!

Another Great Giveaway!

Had to share this awesome giveaway! It's on one of my favorite blogs Cluck Cluck Sew. A fat quarter bundle from The Quilt Shoppe!

I actually won my first giveaway a couple of days ago and it is so fun! So go enter, I strongly recommend winning, it's awesome : )!

Cool Giveaway

Amy at Amy's Creative Side has an awesome giveaway this week! It's for an AccuQuilt Go! Cutter! Get your booty over there and enter today! (or maybe don't so I have a better chance of winning myself :)

Happiness

Need I say more?

 

Okay, I will...my husband finally took my hints gave me a quilt shop gift card for Mother's Day! When you actually have one in your hand, it's SO hard to use it! I knew I had to have some Hunky Dory and then I saw Verna and I have a fun project planned for that one to use with the white Moda Bella solid. Man, I can't wait! So I spent a bit more than my gift card but you won't tell, right?