Auction Quilt

Hello everyone! I've started a new project that I'm pretty excited about. I just signed up to make a quilt for a silent auction. The auction will benefit the grade school where I volunteer. So, I was looking at pictures of quilts online that might be easy to put together and I came across this one:

You can find and buy the pattern here:

Sparkle Plenty Pattern

I thought it was super cute, but I wanted to change it up a bit. Here's the layout I came up with:

I'm still kind of playing with where all of the colors land, but I'm going to let it rest for a bit - let it soak in - before I sew all the rows together. 

My plan is to only do straight line quilting on this one and to just echo the star shape. All done this should finish up at 60" square. 

Happy Valentine's Day!

Hello everyone, and happy Valentine's Day! I've been furiously working to finish my scrappy valentine quilt and I finished it with 2 hours to go here in Portland, Oregon. I really wanted to finish it before my husband came home from traveling tonight. It is now happily drying in the laundry and I'll be able to wrap him up in it when he gets home. 

So, here se some pics of the quilt. If I remember, I'll try to add some pictures of it after it's dry. 

My cat Leia approves of the final product, even if she did ruffle it a bit as I was taking pictures. She desperately wants to snuggle on it. 

This is the quilting that I did in all of the large white areas. I hashed each area with my walking foot and then added some free motion, free-flowing circles. I was trying not to be too anal with getting them all to be the same size and perfectly shaped. It was bugging me a bit because I really do like things to be perfect. I just wanted them to be more natural as if I was doodling on the quilt. I didn't want this quilt to be too rigid. Luckily I'm not super great at uniformity with the free motion quilting yet, so I think it worked out nicely. ;)

In the smaller white areas I did that same circle design around the edge and left the center empty. In the black and gray star pieces I did some straight quilting from the center out. In the heart I just wanted to keep it simple. It is hard to see, but I just did one large FMQ heart in the middle. 

Lastly, in the red border I did a free motion heart pattern. (Sorry for the indoor picture quality!) I debated doing this in the black border as well, but decided against it. I like it just in the red. :)

So, that's my scrappy valentine quilt! Thanks for stopping by, and I hope you all have a lovely Valentine's Day!

Valentine's Flimsy

Hello everyone! Just a quick post to show off my Valentine's quilt flimsy. I put on two borders actually, a mottled red and a black with tiny white polka dots. 

I love this quilt so much! No pun intended... 

I have some interesting ideas on how to quilt it. It will be a combo of straight line and free motion. I don't know if it will look good, but it will be good practice. :) Now I just gotta get it pinned and quilted up!

Valentine Project Update

Hello everyone! Progress is being made on my scrappy Valentine project. 

Lots and lots of squares ready to be sewn together. 

All laid out and happy. 

My fingers look pretty chubby in this photo, but rockin' a red nail for the project. :)

Six done and three more to go! I really love it. I think I'll border this whole thing out in red for 3 inches and make it 60" x 60". Believe it or not though, I don't have a piece of red fabric large enough to get me the full border, so I'll have to take a trip to the fabric store. :) 

Happy sewing everyone!

Valentine Project

Hello everyone! I finally got some time put in with my sewing machine today. I was doing some doodling last night and came up with a pattern I just couldn't wait to start. Of course this pushes back every other whip I have started. I swore I wouldn't let those stack up, but you just can't beat the fun of a new project. :) 

Here's what I came up with:

It took forever to cut out all of the pieces. Each square on the graph paper finishes at 1.5 inches so there are a lot of pieces to this 9 block quilt. 

So far I have one block put together:

I love the way it looks! I cut up a bunch of left over white-on-whites, grays, blacks and reds to use in the block. It is a great use for scraps, especially smaller pieces. It finishes at 18 inches so the main body of the quilt will be 54"x 54". 

I am looking forward to putting the other 8 blocks together this week. There's a lot of time that goes into each block, but I just love the way it looks. It feels so good to get back to some sewing!

Christmas Recap

Yes, I'm just now getting to my Christmad recap. Things have been pretty quiet here on the crafting front as of late. We've had much too nice of weather lately (and it seems like everywhere else has had a rough winter) that I've been spending a lot of time prepping our yard and garden and not any time in the sewing room. So, since I don't have anything new to show, I'll show off the stuff that I put together for Christmas presents. 

My husband and I went back to Wisconsin for two weeks for both Christmas and New Year's celebrations and my suitcase was packed to bursting. Thankfully I flew southwest and could check two bags free. I definitely needed both! My siblings and I decided to draw names for a secret Santa gift exchange this year so that cut down on some of the presents I would normally bring, but I ended up making a lot of things for my sister. I'm so happy I drew her name, because I had so many ideas for her!

First I made her an apron out of an old sugar sack she had given me a few years back. She had used it as wrapping for a wreath she made me and told me, "you'll do something fun with it." That I did! These sacks are super absorbent too! I had all of this stuff already at home so I didn't even spend any money on this part of the gift. :)

Next I made her a makeup brush holder. I knew she wanted a set of brushes so I got her some on a huge sale at Target for $10. 

Again, I already had all of the supplies for the roll so the only money spent on this was for the brushes. I wanted the inside to be make-up smudge friendly so I used some brown, yellow and light pink fabric. The outside was an orange and yellow print that was begging to be used for this. My sister really likes the color orange along with other vibrant colors. 

I also made her a journal out of a children's copy of Little Women from Goodwill. That set me back a whopping $2. Unfortunately I don't have a picture of it. 

Lastly, I made her a set of napkins and napkin rings. I had the fabric for the napkins already. For the rings. I bent forks that I bought at Target. Those were $1.68 for 4 forks, so roughly $3.00 for the whole set. I put them all into a box that I bought at Ross for about $5. So, that's how I managed to stay in our budget of $20 or less and give her so much stuff. :)

I made two other sets of these napkins and napkin rings. One went to my mother-in-law (same fabric) and the other went to her neighbor, (pictured below) the mother of one of my husband's good friends. We've stayed close and she and her husband even visited us here in Oregon. 

I also made a couple of aprons for my sister-in-law. One was a blue floral print and the other was this tiny white heart on red background print. 

For all of the aprons I made, I used one continuous strap for the waist and neck tie. So, you can put the apron on and then just tug on the waist strings to tighten it around your neck. Then you just tie it in back. It makes it so you don't have to tie the neck if it's too long, you can just adjust it each time you put it on. I love that, because the knots in apron neck ties always irritate me and my neck. 

Well, that pretty much sums up what I made for presents. I did all of that between Thanksgiving and Christmas while traveling back and forth to Wisconsin for both of those holidays. It was a busy couple of weeks! I always think that I'll start my gifts earlier, but that never happens. Maybe that should be my New Year's resolution...

Easy Peasy Enchiladas

Hi everyone! I thought I'd do a quick post on one of our favorite meals - enchiladas.

These are super easy to put together and taste fantastic. So, here's the recipe! (This makes 4 servings.)

Ingredients:

• 4 10-inch flour home style tortillas

• 1/2 pound ground beef, prepared with taco seasoning

• one bag Mexican shredded cheese

• one 8oz jar taco sauce

• one box Mexican style Rice-a-Roni

• 2 tablespoons butter

• cooking spray

Directions:

Prepare the rice according to box directions. This takes about 20-25 minutes and will use the butter. 

Spray a rectangular glass pan with the cooking spray. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. 

Layer the rice, seasoned beef and cheese in the center of each tortilla:

Roll the tortillas and place them seam side down in the glass pan. 

Drizzle the enchiladas with taco sauce. I used roughly half of the jar. 

You don't want to flood the tortillas with sauce. Drizzling them keeps some of the tortilla exposed which will make those areas nice and crispy while the saucy parts stay moist and chewy. 

Sprinkle the tops of the enchiladas with more shredded cheese. 

Put in the oven and bake for 20 minutes. Then turn on the broiler and broil until the cheese starts to turn brown and some of the enchiladas start to brown as well. 

You may have to adjust your cooking time depending on your oven. I have an electric oven. I broiled for about 2-3 minutes, but you should watch them closely at this step. 

Take them out and enjoy! I like them plain, but my husband adds extra taco sauce and salsa. I've also enjoyed them with sour cream and I'm sure some guacamole would be heavenly. I've also made them with canned corn added into the middle of the enchiladas, just layer it between the beef and cheese. These come out pretty mild, but you can add more heat by adding some hot sauce to the top or adding some green chiles or chili powder inside the enchiladas. 

I love how quick these are to make and they are pretty cheap. I buy the rice for $1/box when it goes on sale. I also buy the taco sauce on the buy-one-get-one sales. I like to serve it with a salad. I cheat on that and buy the bag mix of Mexican salad. It comes with creamy ranch cilantro dressing, tortilla strips, cheese and bacon. For $2.99 per bag I can't beat that and it's so easy to make! Some corn and refried beans on the side would also be great. 

Anyway, I made these start to finish in under an hour, so they are great when you are pressed for time. And if you have kids they can always help sprinkle the cheese and make the accompanying salad. :) Happy cooking everyone!