Looking for pizza and cellphone fabric

Hi everyone, I have a new friend Shelly from the Wilton Creek Fabric shop who asked me to see if I could locate a fat quarter of cellphone fabric and pizza fabric. She is making a quilt and needs a fat quarter of each of these fabrics. She would be willing to swap a fat quarter with the person who has a fat quarter of either of these fabrics. She knows that they are out there, but they are not being produced anymore. If you know someone who may have some of these fabrics, send me an email and I'll put you in contact with Shelly. If anyone can help, that would be great!!!

On another note, I started a new hand pieced quilt the other day. I love to do hand stitching, so I found a quilt pattern perfect for that. It's called the Hexagon Star. I got the pattern out of the Big Book of Best-Loved Quilt Patterns. It's a scrappy quilt. So it's suit me great. Here are some pictures of the pattern.

I have to make 255 stars for this pattern. I have 19 made. I've got a long way to go. I still have to buy the white material for the pieces between the stars. But for now, I'm just using what I have and making as many stars as I can. The great thing is that I participated in the Itching2Bstitching scrap mini swap and received some wonderful material from my partner Jodie. I was able to make 2 stars out of each of the pieces of material she sent me. The stars are very small. I really love this pattern. It's going to be a wonderful quilt. Here are some of the stars I've made. These are all using the material Jodie sent me.

This is going to be a WISP (Work in slow progress), but that's okay. I needed something portable and small to piece by hand. So this is perfect. Since I've already made a the Tumbling Block quilt by hand, I know that I can handle this project. It's essentially the same thing. All the pieces are diamonds. It's the colour placement that is different. The size of the diamond is smaller for this pattern, but that's okay. It make it easier to use up my scraps. Well, I hope everyone has a great day. I have to work evening shift tonight. Oh well!

Happy Stitching!

Ariane :o)

Rocky Road to Kansas Block

I just had to do some sewing tonight. It had been too many days since I've sewn. So I wanted to do something new.... something to inspire me. So I had printed a pattern a few weeks ago called Rocky Road to Kansas. I got the pattern on the Quilter's Cache web site. This is a wonderful site full of free patterns to use for personal use. You should go check it out. I made templates for the block and took out some freezer paper to make the center scrappy triangle. The pattern said to sew long strips together then cut out the triangles. But I only have small pieces, so the freezer paper helped. I made one block. But I just love it. It's really great. I just love putting colors that wouldn't normally go together and just mix them up. It looks great in the end. I had bought the cream colored material to make an applique quilt. But I think I'm going to stick to making these blocks with it. Oh well, I'm just going to have to buy more. This really perked me up. I really am addicted to quilting. I just love being creative. I think that's what I was missing for so many years. I'm so glad I started doing this. Thanks for all the inspiration you all give me through your blogs.

Happy Stitching!

Ariane :o)

Mini Pizza's

I haven't posted anything in a few days. I've had a pretty rough week. Didn't feel very well, so I didn't do much sewing. But today I was feeling a bit better. I decided to do some baking. I made some chocolate chip cookies and some mini pizza's. I made 8 batches of 15 mini pizza's. I make mini pizza's to put in the kids lunches for school. I put 5 mini pizza's in each of the three kids lunches. They don't like sandwiches...so I had to come up with something I knew they would like and that wouldn't cost too much or be too complicated. The mini pizza's do take a lot of time to make. They are not that difficult, just time consuming. I make them from scratch.

I use the Robin Hood basic white bread dough recipe for the dough. It gives a nice thick crust. I follow the instructions exactly, except I only let it rise the second time for 10 minutes. So, once the dough has risen for 50 minutes, I punch the dough down and let it stand for 10 minutes. Then, I start rolling the dough in small batches and use a round cutter (I use a large glass) to cut the dough. Then I put some tomato sauce, Italian seasoning, mozzarella cheese and pepperoni. I put them in the oven for 15 minutes at 350 F. Let them cool and that's it. I then put them in Ziploc freezer bags in batches of 15, (because that's how many I need), then I freeze them.

In the morning before school, I just take the mini pizza's out of the freezer and put them on a cookie sheet. Bake at 350 F for 10 min. Let cool. Put them in sandwich bags and in the lunches. Sometimes I don't even bake them in the morning. I just put them in the lunches frozen. By the time it's lunch time, they are all thawed and the kids eat them like that. They are already fully cooked. The kids love these. I've made them for many different kids, picky eaters, and I have never found a child that didn't like these. I think it's because they are small. It only takes a few bites to eat each one and they can use their hands to eat. They make a good snack in the evening if you are having a bunch of kids over too.

Well, I hope everyone is well and wish you all a great week to come.

Happy Stitching!

Ariane

I'm done my Tumbling Block Quilt

I'm finally done the Tumbling Block Quilt I've been making for my daughter. This quilt is hand pieced and hand quilted. I started working on this quilt in the first week of September 2008. So, it took me 5 months to finish it. I think that is pretty good. The piecing itself only took me six weeks. But I struggled a bit with staying on track with the hand quilting. I had many projects on the go. I'm just glad it didn't sit for a long time. I think it is a beautiful quilt. It is my favorite one to date. I just like using old patterns to make my quilts. This one really jumped out at me when I was going through a book I borrowed from the library called "Big book of best-loved quilt patterns" by Rhonda Richards. This is by far my favorite quilting book to date. I wish I had my own copy. I also got my Jacob's ladder pattern from that book. It has many patterns for antique quilts, and has many different styles of quilts. It also has great instructions and tips. It has patterns for 82 different quilts. I'm going to have to borrow it again to see what I could make next. Here's a picture of the back of the quilt. You can't see the quilting that well. But I think the back looks really good. The colour of the binding really goes well with it. I'm going to have to take pictures in the sunlight so that you can really see it well and how bright it looks. Well, I hope everyone had a great day.

Happy Stitching!

Ariane :o)

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

I hope you all have a great day today. Give your loved ones a hug and tell them you love them. My daughter made this beautiful valentine at school. I thought I would share it with you. She's got talent.

Happy Stitching!!

Ariane :o)

9 Patch Mini Tote Bag

I made a mini tote bag for my "We the People Scrap Mini Swap". I used it as a gift bag to put all my fabric scraps, chocolates and the card for my swap partner. I couldn't show it before, because she had not received it. But now she has, so I can show you my nice little tote bag. I just made 2 nine patch blocks. One with a blue color scheme and the other red. I put the dark colors on the bottom and worked my way up to the light colors. I even coordinated the handles. I did stippling all over the blocks to add texture and interest. I think it is really nice. I can now add it to my list of completed items for the "One Project a Month Challenge". This is my third item done for February. Another thing is that I'm almost done hand quilting my Tumbling Block quilt for my daughter. I'm very excited to almost be done. Well, today was a very good day for me. It was nice to have a break from work and also accomplish a lot of the things I wanted to do for myself. I hope everyone has a great day!

Happy Stitching!

Ariane :o)

Baby quilt top done

This is my fourth post today and it's only 2 pm. I'm off work today, my husbands working and the kids are at school. It's my day to do what I want. Love those days. I worked on the baby quilt top that I had started the other day. It's really cute. I had bought two fat quarters with really cute prints. I just cut them into 9 - 6 inch squares and put a border around them. It gave me 18 squares, but I only needed 16. I'm going to make a bag to go with the quilt with the left over squares and material. I think it will be a nice gift. My cousin just had her third little boy. She now has three boys age 4 and under. So, I thought I would give her a nice new quilt for the baby. I hope to be all done soon so that I can mail it to her. I hope everyone is well.

Happy Stitching!

Ariane

Sew Mama Sew Fat Quarter Swap!!

Here's another fat quarter swap. This one is a bit different because you have four partners and you send then each one fat quarter. And they send you one fat quarter. So you get four fat quarters back. The deadline to sign up is today. So hurry up and check it out. Here is the link.

We the People mini Fat Quarter Swap!

Here's another swap I joined by itching 2 b stitching. In this mini swap, you will send 3 fat quarters to your partner. You can also include small notions or anything else you might like to send to your partner, but it is not mandatory!

SIGN UPS:Deadline to Sign Up: Monday, February 16

Partners Swapped: Tuesday, February 17

Deadline to Mail Items: Friday, March 6

If you are interested go check it out. It's a lot of fun!

Finished Quilted Pillow Cover

Hi everyone, I hope you had a good day. I had such a busy day at work today, I thought I was just going to crash on the couch when I got home. But when I arrived I started to work on the pillow cover I was doing hand applique and finished all the hand stitching. I couldn't stop there. So then I decided I would do some machine quilting with my new machine. So, I tried a few different things and worked until I had the pillow cover completed. I'm really happy with the results. It is my first time doing any applique. I'm going to give the pillow to my Mom. It has a rooster on it. My parents raise chickens for eggs. So they love chickens and roosters. I hope you like it. I like doing small projects like this. It took me three days from start to finish, and that's with working all three days. I will add this to the list of One Project a Month Challenge. It feel nice to finish more than one thing. I hope everyone is well.

Happy Stitching!!

Ariane :o)

New Blocks!!

Hi! I've been working on a bunch of different projects lately. The first is the blocks I'm making for my block swap with my Mom and my sisters. I've got 8 out of 30 blocks done. Here is a picture of 4 of them.I have also been working on making some blocks for a baby quilt. I've only made a couple of those. They are just simple blocks, but I think it will be nice.

And I finally took the plunge and decided to try my hand at applique. I'm using the freezer paper method. I had to go to many different grocery stores before I finally found the freezer paper. But it's really easy to use. The pattern I'm using is from the FatCat patterns website. These patterns are free for personal use. I didn't chose the simplest pattern. But I really like it. I might use it to make a pillow or a mini quilt. The pieces in the picture are not all sewn down. I just layed them in place. I still need to get the beak and the eye done. I think it will look nice.
I hope everyone is well. I didn't have the best day today. But I'm trying to be positive. Things could always be worse. I've got it pretty good. So, I'm not going to complain. Quilting always helps me to get back to that happy place and I'm so glad I found something that I love that I get work on when I'm feeling down. So, I wish all of you a wonderful day and night. I have all those families that are suffering in Australia in my prayers.
Ariane :o)

We The People Scrap Mini-Swap Received!!!!

Wow!! I got my swap fabric today in the mail. I'm very excited. Jodie was my swap partner and she sent me not 15 but 19 beautiful fabrics. I just love them. She had them tied up with some lace. I just love the fabrics. Here are some pics.
Thank you so much Jodie. I'm going to make a nice project with them. This was so much fun. I hope Jodie likes what I have sent her. This is my first swap, and it has been a great experience. I would also like to thank Tracey for organizing the swap. It's a lot of work, just to organize something like this and I really appreciate it. This has made my day!!
Happy Stitching!
Ariane :o)

My finished Jacob's Ladder quilt

I have my first finish for the month of February. It's great that I was able to finish a quilt. It was a big project. It took me 5 months to complete this quilt. That seems like a long time, but I was working on two other quilts at the same time, plus Christmas gifts, working, I could go on and on. I'm just glad it's done. My son will be very happy to finally have a quilt that I made on his bed. He's been excited for me to finish it. I hope you all like it. It won't win any competitions. But I think it's great. It's bright and cheerful. It's unique, since it's a scrappy quilt and it was a great pattern for a boys room. It will go well with the quilt I made for my oldest son, since they both have a diamond pattern in them and the colours are similar. The two boys share a room. It's done!!! Yeah!!!!!! Well, I hope you all have a great day.

Happy stitching!!

Ariane

Preparing my pieces for sewing blocks

I've been cutting my fabric for the block swap I'm doing with my Mom and my sisters. I have to make 30 turnstile blocks for the swap. I have enough fabric cut to make 23 of those blocks. I haven't had the opportunity to do any sewing because of work, house work and the running around that needed to be done. So, none of them have been sewn. But, I think I'm doing really well. I like to be organized about how I'm going to get things accomplished with my busy schedule. So I thought that if I could do as much cutting as possible, then I could do some POWER SEWING. As in, so like crazy for one day and get them all done. I've done this before and it seems to work for me. As long as I don't make too many mistakes when I'm sewing, things should progress quickly. Well, I hope everyone is well.

Happy Stitching!

Ariane

Almost Done!!!

I worked all day Sunday on my Jacob's Ladder quilt. I finished the machine quilting. I put the binding on. All I have to do is finish hand sewing the binding to the back of the quilt. I'm so close to being done. It's very exciting. I didn't do a lot of fancy quilting on it. But I really like the way it turned out. I just have a bit of the binding done. I almost ran out of fabric to do the binding. It's a scrap quilt. So I was using scraps from other projects and almost ran out. Anyways, here's a bit of the finished binding. I hope everyone has a great day.
Happy Stitching!!
Ariane