Thursday, October 24, 2013

Are you going to do Bonnie Hunter's Mystery quilt?


I know I have NO BUSINESS doing another project when I have sooooo many UFO's but with having just gone to Ireland this summer, I have to go for Bonnie Hunter's new mystery project, Celtic Solstice.  And unlike her other mysteries, I actually have quite a few of the colored fabrics needed for this one!!
 

I pulled them tonight while my laundry was going.  I'm hoping these blues will work because some of them I've had for a long time.





So, there are my colored prints.  I just have to pull the neutrals!  Looking at these photos...I think I need to pull out a few of these.  Funny how the photos look so different on the computer!

Lake Arrowhead Sew-In

Went to Lake Arrowhead this past weekend.  I had a really good weekend finishing some projects that have been sitting. 
 
The first one was my Fat Man's Squeeze top.  This is from the class I took this summer with Kathy Brown.  I took these blocks with me when I went to see Richard in Turkey in September but I forgot the ruler so I couldn't finish the blocks.  I couldn't finish the top this weekend either!!  I felt as if I needed a cream colored border before putting the bigger outer border on.  And so it sits....
 
 
All of these little lovely sherbet colored squares were for my cornerstones for the other summer class project, Lollipops by Joanna Figueroa.  While at the condo, I blind hemmed the blocks to their background blocks, cut, sewed and attached the circles to the Dresden (or lollipops) and put the sashing and borders on.  Whew, that was quite a finish! 

 
This ended up being a pretty good size quilt.  I think it will fit a twin bed nicely.  Now to hit a sale and find a backing.

 

This is my friend Susan.  I've known her since elementary school.  She made several of these little table runners with her Thangles.  She loves those things. :o)

 
It was a gorgeous weekend for the mountains in October.  It was around 70 during the day and in the 40's at night.  The lake was just beautiful.  In the photo are Sherrie, Neena, Susan and me standing.  I had to run after putting the camera on the timer.  lol

 
This is a photo of the front of the condo units.  We didn't stay in one that faced the water but that's okay with us.  We barely come out of the condo to see the light of day cuz we're so busy sewing.  hehe
 
 
This is Judy.  She decided to stay inside and sew instead of going out to the lake.  She was making adorable Christmas trees for a craft show.  She got quite a few of them done.  I guess that's what happens when you don't mess around.

 
Neena and Susan were busy sewing.  Neena hadn't worked on her blocks for a long time.  She needs to make one more block and she can stitch them together.
 

 
We don't get much of the fall colors at home but up here, there were a few trees and shrubs that were quite colorful.  Very pretty and with the cool air, it felt like fall was here. 

 
Here is Neena with her quilt blocks.  You can see she only has one more to do! 

 
I unpacked but have to 'repack' for a visit to go see my sister.  We're going to work on our Christmas cards.  So from one activity to another....off I go.  :o) 

Monday, October 7, 2013

Little Red Riding Hood Shower

I don't have a big beautiful house or a very big backyard but we do the best with what we have.  Saturday was my daughter's baby shower.  The two sisters and many former college roommates pitched in to do this happy day for Ashley, David and their new baby.
 
The theme was Little Red Riding Hood (LRRH)/Woodland in red and aqua.  The Santa Ana winds started on Friday night at 50 mph.  The shower was at 2:00 p.m. Saturday and I swear at 1:50 p.m. the winds subsided.  We hadn't hung up the pom-poms or little banners so we scrambled to get them up as guests arrived.  It was a little iffy there but we did it.
 

We used the EZ-up we use at the craft shows, three umbrellas and two canopies on the patio that are permanent fixtures.  I think we did pretty good provided shade in the 93 degree weather!


My daughter Kelley designed all the printouts.  We cut the pennants and ovals out with my Cricut and glued various LRRH designs inside.  I just love the color combination!


This is where we had Ashley sit to open her presents.  This is the glider rocker she got at Goodwill for $25.00 and I made the cushions for it.  The baby quilt is done and just needs a baby name so I can put the label on.  They want to wait to see the baby before deciding on a name.  Kelley drew the LRRH in the frame (Ikea frame painted Aqua) and leftover mushroom fabric from the quilt and bumper pads is in the background.

Ashley made the mushrooms out of Styrofoam.  We could not find any for decorations anywhere.  We cut the balls in half, Ashley painted them and put them together with skewers.  Kelley painted the dots on.

 
We had a few little candies like red vines, red hots and caramel apple suckers.  Ashley doesn't like cake so I made pumpkin pies and my co-MIL helped me make apple and peach hand pies.  
 
 
Kelley had some little brown paper bags from her craft shows so I used my zig zag rotary cutter to cut them down to a good size to hold the pies.  They were pretty tasty if I do say so myself.  :)



I found this little chalkboard at a floral supply warehouse.  Kelley wrote in the kind of pies we were serving.  She has the best penmanship for a Lefty!

 
You can see the adorable mushroom cake pops made by our friend Becca Gonzalez of Becca's Cupboard in Fullerton, CA.  She does such an amazing job.  Any cake pop she has tried, they are always spot on!  You can find her on facebook under Becca's Cupboard.  And if cute wasn't enough, they are Deeelicious!!  She made some for Ashley's wedding too!

 
It was so windy, we couldn't hang the quilt I wanted behind the table.  :(  I picked up two white chairs at the Long Beach Antique swap meet.  My son-in-law and soon-to-be daddy, Dave, painted them red for me.  All we need now is a little girl to warm them up with her bottom.  hehe  I found the ceramic mushrooms on ebay and we used the same jars from my hubby's going away party but tucked in some moss to make it 'woodland-ish'.  Now that the shower is over, I'm going to pop them in the garden.  

 
Before putting everything away, I took some pictures of the items Kelley printed up because I thought they were so cute.  Stephanie and Ashley glued the little wolf pictures to tongue depressors for fans for the heat, the other artwork was for describing the menu for the day.  The aqua frames came from the dollar store.

 

Because we expected a big group, the girls played simple games that wouldn't keep people waiting.  They played Bingo where you wrote in what you thought her gifts would be.  I love the little "free" space mushroom.  :) Stephanie wrapped the cards and added the little berries.  When I saw that, I thought these are the little touches that make things look so cute.

 
Here is my daughter Ashley in front of her gifties.  She's got one of those little basketball bellies.  She's 33 weeks now.  Yay!
 
 
This is daughter #2, Stephanie.  She hates having her picture on the internet so don't tell.  lol  I thought this was a cute picture of her (on L) and her school friend Cristalle.  Stephanie did all the mason jar favors, helped with the little details and helped me with shopping.  She also did a MOUNTAIN of dishes with the help of my friend Susan!!  
 

Other than the horrible winds and scorching heat, it was a great day.