Another blizzard

This was the view out my garage door at about 10 am on Tuesday morning. See the house across the street? Nope? i couldn't even see the street! This is the third big blizzard we have had in the 2 1/2 years we have lived in South Dakota. Last May was the first, last november was the second(and the worst of the 3).

Isn't this drift neat? Hubby thought the pic looked like I was in a Helicopter flying over the desert. He would know, he's been there!

Sunset Tuesday evening. I love this picture!

This is facing our house after the storm. I climbed over the drift to take pics and see how bad it was once we got away from the house.

How tall are yield signs? 8-9 feet? They completely buried that sign when they were digging out the road that Sami is standing by.

Now you would think that with all this snow i'd have spent some time sewing, right? nope! There are gaps in the basement walls caused by poor craftmanship when building this house, so we had snow and wind in the basement while the storm was raging. And by the time the storm quit we still had 40 + MPH winds so that basement was COLD!! Thanks goodness the rest of the house hold heat well. I did however cut out several scrubs tops for my mom and perhaps my SIL to wear to work at their hospitals. And I cut out some more summer dresses and sleep pants for the little people I know, like my neices and nephews and a neighbor girl.

Stash report week #12

I missed a week so here goes for the last 2 weeks:

Fabric in: 10 yds
Fabric used: 22 yds
Finishes: 3 bags

I also worked on a bunch of tops-i need to start finishing stuff again!

Year to date:
Fabric in: 67 1/2yds
Faric out: 199 1/2 yds
Net fabric used: 132 yds

Total quilty finishes YTD: 48

Easter runners and stash quilt

I was following Judy L's stash quilt instructions and got a music quilt this week. This is bigger than she wrote the instructions and I ended up with a long narrow quilt. Not quite what i wanted so i added large side borders and then an all around smaller border and it ended up 66x86. Perfect for a Twin bed even if i dotn know whose twin bed that will be!

This is the pattern from our once a month "sunday brunch" at the LQS. We get together and eat and then she hands out a runner pattern. I have not had a chance to make any of the other runners but this one seemed to need to be done before easter. This is not the colors the teacher used-she used greens and purples which was very cute but in the intrest of being a Stashbuster I used fabrics i had at home-except the dark purple which will be the binding too.

This runner was from the leftover bits from the first one-much smaller but still fun. I'll use the dark purple i used in the other runner for binding.

candy cakes

I've been a follower of "the poineer woman" http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/ for a while and i've learned a bunch from her. But now she's helped me go a little crazy. She had "bakerella"http://http://bakerella.blogspot.com/ over to visit and made what she called cakepops. Very cool! So I decided to give it a go.

Here's the shredded cake mixed with frosting and rolled into balls.

And dropped into melted white chocolate......Or Regular chocolate....These were supposed to look like pots of gold for St. Patricks day.

And these were green in honor of St Patricks day too. They are a lot of work..but a lot of fun. The kids love them and so do my co-workers. The most amazing thing is-I dont like them! And I like just about anything made with this much sugar! Very wierd.

this, that, and the other thing

I haven't blogged in much too long so I have lots to show and its easier if i just lump them all together. This Easter snoopy runner is just a top and will go in to the gift stash probably as soon as i get it finished.

Qov #1-i've got about 4 more in the works. When i've got them all lined up i'll tell the story of why i'm doing so many all of a sudden.

Judy L's quilt along-i'm behind again as usual! but i love this quilt so far!

This is for a swap. The gal i'm sending to collects vintage fashions and the fabrics have old pattern covers on it. I'm pretty sure she does not read my blog but if she does i'm busted.

And miss sami modeling the bag she made mostly by herself. And her too big pj's too!

Bags

No, not the kind under my eyes....tote bags! I went to a new monthly class at my favorite LQS on Tuesday night and made this bright bag to use in the fundrasier for Sami's dance school. Now I need to dig around to find the fabrics for next month's bag. Since I got such rave reviews of this bag at dance class, i'll probably use more dance fabrics and make more bags for the raffle. And best part of using dance fabrics? I have a TON of them!

This bag is a slight variation from one of this month's magazines. I cut the top shorter than the magazine did but this size actually worked better for me than anything bigger. If you look close you can see the binder that fits perfectly with a skein of yarn to keep in the car for a travel project.

stash report week #10

this week:
Fabric in: 9yds
fabric out: 14yds
Finishes: 5 dresses, sami's bag, and an apron

Year to date:
Fabric in: 57 1/2yds
Fabric out: 177 1/2
net fabric out: 120 yds
quilty finishes: 48 ufos and new projects combined

Stripe Runner Tutorial

Several years ago I saw a magazine that used a border stripe to make a cute table runner. I still have that magazine somewhere but 2 houses and 4 or 5 years later makes it really hard to remember which one it is and where to look for it. So, going off memory and good guesses I've been making them since last fall. I've shown lots of different ones on this blog and I still have several pieces of stripe fabric left to make more. I was asked how I made these and my written explanation with out pictures was less than helpful. This is not a "cut this size and sew this way" tutorial, this is more like a "point me in the right direction" tutorial and I hope it helps!

This is the fabric i'm using in its uncut state(Hobby Lobby Easter rack).

This is after the first cut was made. One complete repeat of the fabric. This fabric was printed with the stripe running width of fabric so it limited how large the runner could be, if the print ran the other way you could make a really big runner! I cut 3 repeats so that i had 2 for the sides and the 3rd to make the ends of the runner.

Using a 60 degree triangle or the 60 degree line on your regular ruler, cut 4 triangles for the ends and angle the long pieces to match.

This is the pieces laid out before sewing.

Here's the top half sewn together. If you sew 2 triangles to the long piece you dont have to use set in seams.

And here is the completed top! This top took me less than an hour to assemble and press. Usually when I quilt these I stitch in the ditch and then I follow any obvious lines around. In this case, I'll quilt along the edge of the green/pink line, on both sides of the yellow line and probably on the outside of the last orange stripe.

These are leftover bits cut off from the pieces i cut off to make the 60 degree angles on the big runner. This ends up being a great size for a candle mat or centerpiece. It needs a good pressing but you still get the general idea.

bears at grandma's house

Here's one of my bearpaw blocks for Judy's http://www.patchworktimes.com/ Quiltalong. I've got them all done and am waiting on further instructions. Judy calls hers "Bears in the Farmhouse" but I'm calling my version "Bears at Grandma's" because it will go wonderfully in the little bedroom my daughter uses when we visit my mom.

Waiting on Summer

These little summer dresses are for my 16 month old niece. Her mom(my sis) wanted some summer dresses but was not happy with what was in the stores-either too fancy or too expensive! Or Both! The stripe and patriotic dresses are from a pattern I used back when my 10 yr old was little. I can practically make that one in my sleep! The other 3 are a new pattern that took a little more effort but they are way cute! Now I can't wait for it to warm up so I can see her wearing them. I have another new pattern, and 3 more pieces of fabric that I may use and make her some more dresses but I need to talk to sis first and see how many dresses she's gonna want/need.

Stash report week #9

this week:
Fabric in:3yds
fabric out: 7 1/2
Finishes:12 centerpieces/candlemats new for this year!

Year to date:
Fabric in: 48 1/2yds
Fabric out: 163 1/2
net fabric out: 117 yds
finishes: 48 ufos and new projects combined

spring has sprung...

at least in the sewing room! All of these are now finished-12 of them! Two will go to new homes soon for spring/Easter swaps. Which would you pick if I were sending to you?