Here’s what I’m working on this week:

Here’s what I’m working on this week:

A couple weeks ago I ordered some Boo To You fat quarters. They got washed as soon as they arrived cause I was so excited to work with them.

I love how cute the prints are, while still definitely being Halloweeny. It was my first time working with fat quarters, and I have to say that it was a lot of dun to have to many fabrics in one quilt.

I only have the quilt top done, I have to buy some batting as well as fabric for the backing.

It’s the Boo To You line by Riley Blake. As soon as I saw it, I knew I wanted to make something with it.

I couldn’t say no to the cute pumpkins, mummys, bats, and vampires. Not to mention the candy corns (quite possibly my favorite halloween candy ever)!

I ended up getting 15 fat quarters. This is the first time I’ve ever worked with fat quarters. I wasn’t sure if I should wash them before I started sewing, so I checked online, and the consensus was to wash them. I’m in the middle of that process right now.

I’m wondering if I should include some solids in the quilt, but I’m not sure. I think just having the prints might be a little busy.

My least favorite print is the skull and crossbones. I’m hoping it’ll grow on me though.

I’m hoping that I’ll get the quilt done in plenty of time for Halloween.

Here’s what I’m working on this week:

I got the pattern from the October/November 2010 issue of McCall’s Quick Quilts. The pattern is for a baby sized quilt, but I enlarged it to 78″x78″.

I only have the quilt top done. I’m still trying to decide of I want to put a border on it, or if I should leave it as it is.

Here’s what I’m working on this week:

I’ve had this quilt top mostly done for months now. It’s been sitting there, just waiting for me to add the last few rows. Finally it’s been done, and now it’s in the process of getting quilted. Yay!

I saw the pattern for this quilt on a blog somewhere a few months ago (if you recognize it, let me know, I’d love to give them credit). I used up most of my scraps making this quilt. It felt great to use them.

It’s very cool to see fabrics that I’ve used in other projects. Although I haven’t been sewing for very long, I didn’t realize how many things I’ve made til I looked at this quilt.

Here’s what I’m working on this week:

This is going to be a rag quilt for a friend of mine who’s having a baby. When her daughter was born I knit her a green and yellow blanket. This time around I thought I’d sew something.

I don’t know if it’s going to be a boy or a girl, so I tried to find fabric that would work either way. I first picked the purple fairy tale fabric. I thought if it was a boy the dragons would work, and for a girl the princess is there. And both would probably like the castle. Because it’s purple I decided to go with the green and the white.

My least favorite part about rag quilts is definitely cutting up the seams. It takes so long, and my hand always cramps up, but in the end it’s always worth it. Rag quilts are always so cute once they’re complete.

I decided to use them to make blueberry pound cakes. I have this amazing recipe from the Martha Stewart site that makes two pound cakes. I use it all the time. While the recipe is for lemon pound cake, with a minimal number of changes, you can add in any kind of berry, leave out the lemon, and it turns out really tasty. Plus, because it makes two cakes, you can have one to eat now and one to put in the freezer for later.

I apologize for the picture. It was almost 9 pm by the time I took them out of the oven, and I wanted to make sure I got a picture of them before people started eating. Stuff like this goes fast in my house.

On my last visit to the Thrift store I found the cutest vintage sheets! As soon as I saw them, I knew I needed them. I got two twin flat sheets, both exactly the same. One had a few small holes along one side, but they shouldn’t be hard to work around. They’re 50% cotton and 50% polyester.

The plan is to make one of them into a blanket for the dog. I don’t think I’ll be cutting them up much cause I like the print so much, so I think I might just cut it in two and quilt the pieces together. He already has a Snoopy bed and placemat for one of his water dishes, so a Peanuts blanket will patch perfectly.

There’s a gorgeous park not too far from my house that I discovered last year. My co-worker actually told me about Bowmont. Despite living so close to it for so long, I had no idea that it even existed. So for the last year I’ve really enjoying walking in it.

It’s a natural wildlife park, so there’s always lots of beautiful wildflowers blooming. Right now the Prairie Crocuses are blooming. They’re the first things to come up, so it’s pretty exciting to see them after a long cold winter.

I think what makes them to pretty to me is that everything else is still looking so dead. There’s nothing else green, there’s no buds on the trees yet, the grass is still brown, but then you come upon some crocus with their purple petals and yellow centers, you can’t help but smile.

I actually took these photos last weekend, but didn’t have a chance to post them til now. Since then the number of crocuses have doubled or tripled in Bowmont. There are a couple spots where there are hundreds and hundreds of them.

And just for fun, here are the mountains in the distance. Notice all the snow that’s still up there?

Well, I’ve finally planted my seeds. I might be a little late starting them, but they’re done now. The last frost date here is May 23rd (yeah, I know, it’s sooo late compared to most places), but I usually wait til the first week of June to plant anything, cause we ALWAYS get snow that last week of May. It seems like as soon as everyone plants outside, the snow comes.

I ended up buying a new seed starting tray, cause the ones that I’ve been using the last few years were starting to get pretty beat up. When I was checking them out last week to see if I could salvage any of them, I decided they were too far gone. And really, the new one that I bought will same me a bit of space too. Before I had three trays that held 72 cells, now I have one tray that holds 72 cells.

I’ll admit that it was tough going through my collection of seeds, trying to decide what to plant. We don’t have a very big backyard, and most of it is shady, so it really limits how much can be planted, cause most things like substantial sun. So here’s my list of what I’ve started inside:

• Tomato (2 kinds)
• Oregano
• Parsley
• Basil
• Leek
• Onion
• Zucchini
• Watermelon
• Butternut Squash
• Pepper
• Cucumber
• Celery
• Cosmo
• Marigold
• Zinnia

I have others that I also want to plant (carrots, peas, and radishes off the top of my head), but those like to be planted directly outside – I don’t think they do very well as transplants.

I planted them a couple days ago, and this morning when I checked on them, the Zinnias had already started to germinate! That has to be some kind of record, it took them less than 48 hours. That must mean that they’re happy with my set up this year. I hope the rest of the seeds do just as well.

I almost forgot! The last few years I’ve bought all my seeds from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds. In my experience I’ve gotten way better germination with them than with any other seeds that I’ve bought from my local garden centers. I love they they carry heirloom seeds, and lots of varieties of most of them, so that I can pick the ones that best suit the growing conditions (short growing season, cooler temperatures, etc.) for me here. So if you’re in the market for some seeds, definitely check out Baker Creek.