April 18, 2013

Today it's raining like crazy. We had major thunderstorms last night, the thunder was so loud it was hard to get any sleep. It sounded like we had a strike very close, when it stops raining we'll have to go out in the woods & see if we had a tree hit. We're have a very chilly & wet spring, but after last summer's excessive heat I can't complain too much. Hopefully we'll have a nicer summer this year. 

 I don't usually post food, but this cannoli was so good! It's from Asiago's restaurant in Oshtemo, Michigan. 

This is mostly what I've been working on for the last few months, I'm hand quilting it, so it takes a while. That's all for now-

Build Your Best Log Cabin by Fons & Porter

I've been asked to do a review of this book, Build Your Best Log Cabin. I'm not a writer, by any means, but I'm happy to give my opinion!
The book is a free ebook from Fons & Porter that you can download here. 
If you have any interest at all in the Log Cabin quilt pattern, I think you'll love this book. One of the things I really like about it is that they cover everything from start to finish, planning to binding, including charts for different sized blocks when feasible, that's something I like because it seems I usually want to make a different size quilt from what a book offers.
Their directions are very easy to follow and they offer so many different ideas for block placement, which is the real fun of a Log Cabin quilt, there are so many ways you can move the blocks around to make some really striking quilts.
They've got some great photos of Log Cabin quilts included, too, which is something else I'm particular about when buying a quilt book. I don't want to see computer generated designs, I want to see a real quilt.
They give a lot of tips about making your quilt, and ideas for quilting designs, colors & shading.
I've made a few Log Cabin quilts, including a baby quilt for my grandson that you can see photos of a couple of posts back.
It's a great pattern for beginners because of its simplicity, and yet it's a pattern I use over and over because there are so many ways to change it up and make awesome designs, either by turning the blocks around, using colors and fabric patterns in different ways, or alternating it with other blocks.
Lastly, there's a pattern in the book for a unique quilt made by Ricky Tims. I'm sure you've heard of him, he makes amazing, unique quilts, with beautiful quilting designs. It's called Bears in Bertie's Log Cabin and he designed this quilt especially for Love Of Quilting. This one is going on my list of quilts to make.

So go check out the free download, you will be inspired!

Pie Safe

We've had this pie safe for many years, we found it at a yard sale and fell in love with it. We'd never seen one with the drawers on top like that. The first photo is the condition it was in when we bought it (except for that left drawer that I painted up to see how it would look). I'm not big on removing old paint, but it had already been stripped. and it looked like it was a yucky brown before. I wish I knew how old it was, from the wood on the back it looks pretty old. I always want to know the story behind who made things like this that we find. Some of the wood is pretty rough, it looks like someone made it from different woods that they had around.

I love the paint color, I was thinking of something different but my husband liked this color. I'm really glad I let him choose (for once)! I usually want to make all the decisions about paint colors in the house for some reason, but I need to ask his advice more often, I guess. I did a glaze over the paint to make it look antique and am really happy with how it turned out. This is where most of my quilts and quilt tops are stored, it's perfect because the screens let them have air & the cat can't get in there and sleep on them (though he did manage to climb inside about 5 times when I was painting it!)

Quilt for Zane

I see they've changed Blogger since I last posted, hopefully I'll be able to figure out how to post photos on here. I've just finished up a quilt for my grandbaby-soon-to-be. His room is decorated with owls, and I found these fabrics in Lolly's in Shipshewana, Indiana.  I went with a log cabin pattern for the blocks since I wanted to keep it simple so the owls would be visible.

The backing fabric is a Robert Kaufman print, it's a plush fabric like Minkee, but it's called Shannon Cuddle. And of course I can't find one scrap of that owl fabric that has the name of the maker on it and I can't find it online, either, which is odd. The quilt is pieced by machine and hand quilted, I used a piece of muslin for the backing and then tacked the Cuddle fabric over the muslin backing. I didn't want to try quilting through the Cuddle fabric as it would have been difficult and would have messed up the plushness of the backing.

My daughter gave me a piece of Minkee quite a while ago to make myself a lap quilt, I really need to get to work on that. On days like this, when it's rainy and cold, I'd love to have something like that to cuddle up with! We're fortunate to be far enough away from Sandy that we're not feeling too many effects from the storm. My husband works on Lake Michigan and he said they had very high winds and big waves today, but where we are (about 20 miles from the lake) it was pretty mild. We're praying for the safety of the people along the coast affected by the storm.

Colors Are Nice

 This is a new journal I just put together. I was going to put it on etsy with a couple of others I just listed, but I think it's pretty perfect for me, so I'm going to keep it.

I put it together using my new Zutter Bind-it-all it's the first thing I've tried making with it. It worked just great!

Time to get back outside, it's a beautiful day!

Junk Art Smash Journal

This is the cover to my new journal. I'm very into fairy tales, so I was excited about finding this book at the Salvation Army store. Luckily most of the inside pages were ruined with crayon art by some kid (I hate that!) so I didn't have a problem taking the book apart. I hope to do some actual art in it eventually, but so far it's just writing, gathering papers from places we go & some collage art. It's fun, though, and I've missed keeping a journal.



I'm just going to show a few pages in case anyone is interested. I loved to collage when I was younger, now I'm cutting up magazines like crazy so that I can teach my grandkids. They love anything involving making a mess, so they have the perfect Grandma for that.



I'm having fun perusing the Net looking at other people's journals. This is a great medium for me, I'm one of those people who loves to save movie tickets, vintage photos, found papers, etc. Now I know why!
It takes me a while to get my mojo going, but since I'm not worrying about winning any journaling contests anytime soon, I'm having a good time playing with markers, glue, paints & paper. And stamps. And alcohol inks.

You get the idea.

Journal

Just click on the photos to read the words on the journal pages....

This time of year makes me crazy, I want spring to be here so badly I dream about it. So glad that March is almost here, a little closer to sunshine, flowers & not having to wear big, clunky boots & a heavy coat to go outside! Hope you're enjoying your day wherever you are-