Beach house retreat

I went to a retreat with my sister, some of her friends from Quilt Ventura, her local quilt shop and some other ladies who wanted to sew the days away. It was tough to do when this was the view outside the window!

We had a little friend stop and visit the beach in front of the house so I went down to take a picture of him. He was basking in the sunlight until I got down there and then it seemed as though he posed for me. How accommodating, huh? :o)

These quilts were just a few from show-n-tell. Melanie's scrappy pineapple...

My sister Isabel's block of the month quilt she uses on her bed. We slept under it and it was so warm and cozy.

This is what I worked on while there. The nine patches were from a swap and are done in 30's fabrics. This quilt will be put away for s-o-m-e-d-a-y when I have a grandbaby!! I hope the fabric doesn't disintegrate by then. LOL It still needs borders.

And as the sunset, it was time to go. (We actually had to check out by 1:00 p.m. but this was much more dramatic. lol)

Off to go unpack my bags.....

Living up to my name....Busy Liz

Monday night I was going through some UFO's and bags of blocks, looking for a project or two to take to my retreat this coming weekend. One thing lead to another and I had this charm pack in my hands and then up on the design wall and then under the needle of my machine. :o) How does that happen? I pulled some cream on cream fabric from my stash (it was perfect) for the setting triangles and a small border. Then I went to a drawer I don't visit often, full of old Robyn Pandolph fabrics from about five years ago and I might be able to use a couple of them for borders or backing. The big rose border seems a little off so I might not use it. It'll just be a little throw for the couch for the holidays. The charm packs were small so I had bought two of them but could've used a few more fabrics to make this a bit bigger. The line is called Fancy Hill Farm by Robyn Pandolph. We'll do some shopping at the shop that is hosting the retreat so maybe I'll find something there for the outer border. I'm loving this "use it up" from the stash!

But I can't jump to Christmas just yet. I saw these adorable little mummy Halloween cookies on this website. I HAD to make some so off to Calico Cake Shop I went after work. I got all the supplies I needed. I might've been able to get some supplies from Michael's but I knew they wouldn't have the "eyes" and the cake shop has DELICIOUS white chocolate!! :o)

While I waited for my daughter Kelley to come over after work, I used my double boiler and melted the chocolate.

Got the sucker sticks ready...

And got my cookies ready. I bought both regular and vanilla Oreo cookies. You heard me, vanilla Oreos!!!! Who knew? I could take or leave regular Oreos but these were really good, kind of like Vienna Fingers but crispier. Yum! Anyway, according to the directions, you're supposed to open the cookie, dip the stick in the white chocolate, put it between the cookie layers and let it set. Well, my chocolate Oreos kept breaking. Every single one. And there were a lot of them broken in the package. So frustrating when you're trying to do a project. Oh well, what are you going to do? While watching the little video on the website, I heard the girl say to use 'double stuff' Oreos. Roh-Rroh-Relroy!! For some reason the vanilla cookies were a little sturdier so I made more of those than the chocolate ones.

Once they were set, they got dipped in the white chocolate and got their eyes on. hehe

The cake store only had two packages of big eyes so I bought some small ones too. Kelley and I liked the smaller ones after the cookies were done. She put her eyes farther apart than I did mine and I liked the look better. Her little guys really looked like crazy little monsters. :o) We wrapped the cookies in cello bags for giving away. I'm taking mine to the retreat as a little 'favor'. Kelley used some tags I had punched out and tied them on her suckers. She's going to give one to her little sis (they work together) and will give some to co-workers. I saved a few for my middle daughter too. We did Nutter Butter cookies too. They looked like little ghosties. We didn't cut them off like they had them on the website.

The little box in the photo (above) is a free download from the HowDoesShe website so sign up. They've got some cute free printables.

They were fun and even though the ones on the website were cuter, they were fun to make and had I gotten those double stuff Oreos, it probably would've been fine so it's all good. I think I've gotten my fix for this Halloween. (If I stay off the internet!!!) lol

Finished Berry Picking top!

I finally got the borders on my Berry BOM project. I thought and thought while it was on the design wall.....whether or not to add a pieced border to it to make it big enough to fit a bed but I finally decided to just finish it as is. Actually, I did add a little green border before the pink outer one. That was an idea from my sister, Isabel. She said the pink was nice but separating it with a small border might look better. She liked the blue in the baskets but I didn't have enough of anything blue but did have enough of the green.
Here's a close-up of the borders.

Now to check the collection of backings I have and see if I've got anything I can use. If not, I'm off for a retreat this weekend and might find something when we go to the quilt shop. :o)

Pumpkin cake and adorable Frankies!!

Thursday night was TNT (Thursday Night Therapy) and it was just going to be me and Neena crafting. I whipped up a Pumpkin Bundt Cake. You can get the recipe here. Let me tell you, it was yummy with those streusel layers!!! slurp :o)

And this is what we made. Aren't they the cutest little favor boxes ever?!!! You can find the directions to make your own here. They are super easy. The 6" box takes a 12" piece of scrapbook cardstock, some wiggly eyes, glittery felt (which I had never seen before) and a couple of punches. They are so much cuter in person. I hope you can make some for your favorite little ghoul or goblin. My ghouls are grown women but they loved them just as much as a little one. :o)

I used retired Kiwi cardstock from Stampin' Up! For the eyelids, I used a 1 3/4" circle punch and cut it in half. I used my bone folder to 'curl' the eyelids. Neena said our little Frankies needed a scar so we put a few stitches on him.

After making the three big boxes for my girls, I made 4 little ones for friends. For the smaller ones, I cut my paper 9 x 9" and scored them at 3" and 6". I think these were almost cuter because I used the same wiggly eyes and they were sort of big on the little faces.

And now that I did all that playing, today I have to clean the house. :o( I should get time off for making such cuteness but the cobwebs have a different idea.

A finish, a beginning and some cards

I finished the binding on the other two table runner/wall hangings for my girls. I'm going to put a simple little label on the back just to note the date and that this gift is "from Mom". :o) That was all the sewing I got done this weekend. I was busy, busy.....


Hubby and I went to Jessica & Kevin's wedding. There was a little bit of drama because the "preacher man" was running way behind but it just so happens a member of the groom's family church used to do wedding services and stepped in. I think the wedding started about 45 minutes late but it could've been so much worse had they waited for the bishop to show up. It was a sweet ceremony (nice and short) and the bride just gleamed, she was so happy.

This was the wedding that me and my friend Neena helped make the favors for so I didn't buy a big gift. I made this card using polka dot paper from a Joann's stack, ribbon from Michael's, cardstock and stamp set from Stampin' Up! I just added a little yellow to the "brides" dress (ribbon) with a watercolor brush and the stamp pad.

And I made this recipe book for part of my gift. My sister and I have already found two recipes that have "parts" missing like no bananas listed in the ingredients for banana bread or no chicken listed in the ingredients for my mom's Chicken en Mole recipe. LOL Gotta blame the typist!!! (That would be me!) Guess I'll be sending out a 'revision' email!! My daughter Stephanie made some of these cookbooks before for a swap a while back so I was able to use the same recipes and only had to cut out new dividers and make the front and back covers. I used the Cricut cartridge "From My Kitchen" for the word "Recipe" and then cut an oval shadow shape behind it from the same cartridge. I used Stepanie's bind it machine and added a sticker and matching ribbon.

I used a post card template in Word for the recipes and made a light gray outline around the card so I would have a cut mark so all the cards were the same size. The tabs were made with a Stampin' Up! punch.

Then yesterday.....I made a card for my boss for Boss's Day which fell on Saturday but we celebrated today. For the "woman who has everything", I gave her the card and treated her to lunch at P.F. Changs. Yum! I guess that's sort of cheating to take her to lunch cuz I benefit from that yummy food also. :o)

The card I 'cased' this design from had a big hydrangea stamp on it but I've never used this stamp set yet and wanted to try it out. The flower seemed to go with the decorative paper so I think it worked. The boss like it so I guess that's all that matters, right? :o)

Yaaaarrrrrd Sale!!!!

Earlier this week my daughter sent me an email link from Craig's List that there was a yard sale happening on Friday (yesterday). They advertised a Cricut machine, scrapbooking stuff and craft items so we had to check it out....even though we have no business buying anything. :o) I asked my boss if I could go in an hour (or so) late. Thankfully she said YES because man, oh, man......what a sale!!

Do you see the Cricut machine? No? It's there. It's just buried under the motherload of stuff we got! I looked at some of the used cutting mats and they have images of the words 'school' and ABC's cut out. I think someone said the woman was a retired teacher. She was in her 80's and her kids were running the sale but they kept having to ask "Mom" for prices. I just wanted supplies but she wouldn't sell anything separate. She was asking $200 for the entire lot. I got there before my daughter, told her what the woman said and she hit the ATM before she met me there. I hadn't gotten paid yet and had $60 my hubby gave me to go. The price included the Cricut personal cutting machine, which neither me or my daughter need. She has the bigger Expression and I have a personal Cricut cutter. We'll go through everything on Sunday and figure out what we will part with and sell, probably to my sister. (We're dragging her down with us. LOL)

So here's what we got...

These are some of the cartridges. I have three of these already so the duplicates will go. :o) Stephanie said she lives close enough to share them so we don't need duplicates.

And there were these mini cartridges. There were two Home Accent cartridges, one to keep, one for sale. That one has some cool accents for vinyl wall art. Yeah!!

There was a tool kit, a brand new Alphalicious cartridge, three packages of replacement blades.....

Four new packages of replacement mats (2 in each), 5 slightly used mats, Cricut Design Studio software, a roll of vinyl covering, a paper cutter and a bag full of 12 x 12 decorative paper.

Before my daughter got to the sale, I bought this box of scrapping stuff which included two circle cutters, four paper stacks, jumbo circle punch, etc., etc. She wanted $10 for it.

I can hardly wait for Sunday to play with our new toys!!

I have no comment....

LOL.....stopped to get a hot dog for dinner tonight because my hubby was doing stuff. This was on my Wienerschnitzel bag. :o)

Had to share it. It made me laugh..... :o)

Chugging along....

Got all of the table runners and wall hangings quilted. They aren't fancy but they'll be cute enough to decorate the table or wall. Woohoo!

Wednesday night I got all the bindings on. This stripe binding fabric reminds me of the suckers they sell at See's Candies. I had to piece the last of the scraps to get enough for all four of the little quilts.

I got mine tacked down and on the table and Kelley, my oldest dd stitched hers. I'll probably have to do the other two so it's a good thing one daughter can stitch.

Okay, off to stitch some binding.....

The Million Dollar Question!

I don't know how many other quilter/paper crafters out there have been doing some thinking about the AccuQuilt Go cutter...........

and Sizzix Big Shot machine.
They are both die cutters and I have the Sizzix Big Shot for card making. Would I need an AccuQuilt Go too? Would I use it? Space is limited in my sewing room. So much so, that last year I moved my paper crafts to the spare bedroom so I'm thinkin' this is a toy I could live without but I might like having a die or two.

Blogs are buzzin' about the AccuQuilt Go and now the Go Baby. There have been giveaways left and right. Others must have pondered this very same thing because I found some info on it when I did a Yahoo search. Maybe everyone already knows this and I'm the pokey puppy just finding out.

Sizzix is no dummy (maybe their even the same company!!) and they have jumped on the fabric cutting bandwagon. Here's what they have come up with so far for the Big Shot. And if I got some dies from them, I wouldn't have to lop off 1/4" from the side like you do if you buy AccuQuilt dies (see below).

AccuQuilt Go dies are a little too wide to fit through the Sizzix machine (kind of sneaky if you ask me, trying to make them too big to use with the Big Shot. Sounds sort of like Apple and IBM, hum?) If you want to buy the AccuQuilt dies for your Big Shot, you'll have to hacksaw 1/4" off the side of the template so it fits, otherwise it won't go through the machine. Here's a little video I found on a Yahoo search at My Cricut Scrapbooking. The video is a little bit slow but she breaks down the "sandwich" you will need to use the dies with the Big Shot.

And that site references this site, Lori at A Bee in my Bonnet. She gives a lot of information on the subject and shows the trimmed die template, a step you wouldn't have to do if you bought the Sizzix dies.

I will be watching to see if there is a good sale on die templates and will have to ponder if I really need one or two or three. :o) I think with the kind of quilt projects I do, maybe just the strip cutter or a charm square would come in handy. I dunno..... I am glad to know that I won't have to spend a $399.00 on another toy when I have something that will work. YAY for multi-purpose machines!!

A swap, a little shoppin' and mark one off the list!

Tuesday I swapped out a hole lotta quilt blocks. These are called Scrappity Do Dah and I mentioned on my blog before that this is from a McCall's Quilting Magazine free pattern insert from a mailing I got. The blocks are 5" and I think the example quilt in the flyer was made with about 400 blocks!! I'll be doing this swap again early next year so we can all make some more blocks for a bigger quilt.


And yesterday my daughter sent me an email from an ad she saw on Craig's List. It was for two oversized clothes pins from Pottery Barn. The lady was about 25 minutes from me and she only wanted $20 for them. They sold for $80 in the catalog and I saw a set on ebay for $293.00!!!! I don't think I have to tell you they haven't sold on ebay yet!! But I got a steal of a deal! Don't you love when people help you spend your money? lol And my laundry room is dusty and undecorated so now this is probably going to lead to a re-do. Oh oh! I think my twenty dollar deal just got a lot more expensive. Ha!

And last night was craft night and Neena came over and we finished the rest of the wedding favors we needed for the 10/16 wedding. Now I just have to find a box to put them in to keep them safe until the wedding. Checking things off my list. Woohoo!

Stampin' for the holidays

Here are some pictures of the projects we made at my sister's Stampin' Up! party last Saturday. This little Halloween card was super easy using a strip of decorative paper (a scrap would be perfect for this), a circle punch and a bat punch. We used pop dots for the bat bodies and then used a bone folder to curl the wings a bit to add dimension. I put it in a little candy dish I got at Michael's at the dollar spot. The card would be sitting in a bunch of candy but I ate it. LOL

This little treat box was made for Thanksgiving favor using the candy die. So cute! I put the Hershey's nugget next to it so you could see the size. I guess you could compare it to a tiny popper or a giant tootsie roll. :o)

Our last item as this wonderful Christmas card. Neena finds such cute stuff for us to make at our workshops!! We used Jolly Holiday designer paper. It's so yummy with cherry cobbler and old olive. What a great combination! We had bunches of fun making these projects and it really got us thinking about the holidays. Boy, they will be here before we know it!!

Wedding Favors `R Us!

******From the comments I've gotten, I should've mentioned Jessica is my friend Sherrie's daughter. She is getting married in a couple of weeks. Now, onto to the show...........

Here is Jessica, the little bride-to-be! She picked from the wedding favor samples (you can see them here) that my friend Neena and I worked up a few weeks ago. We had a "favor making party" on Thursday night.

Jessica's colors are black and white with yellow roses. Pretty combination. This is the little sister, Dani. Dani got a few hand cramps with the Supervisor (me) pushing her to curl 750 petals. Poor overworked munchkin. But look at her, still smiling.

This is the finished favor. A label will be put on somewhere with the Bride & Grooms names and their wedding date on there. Some flowers have a rhinestone, some have pearls.

They all have chocolate. Yum. Four little Hershey's Nuggets fit inside - plain chocolate, dark chocolate, with almonds and with toffee. There were a few missing out of the package. We still can't figure that one out. ;o)

Lots of pretty little blossoms.

Tonight or tomorrow I will post pictures of the things we made at my sister's stamp party on Saturday. Ohhhh, such fun stuff. Hope you had a wonderful weekend!