July Schnibble

The Schnibble for July is one of Carrie’s latest designs.  It is called Joy Luck and it was a no brainer to go with Asian inspired fabrics for this.  The design looks like stacks of paper lanterns and with a name like Joy Luck (have you read the Joy Luck Club?) I knew just what fabric from my stash I was going to use. 

My grandma pointed out these fabric years ago when she was visiting me.  She thought they were very pretty.  So I surprised her with a little wall quilt made from these fabrics and she loved it.  I used all that I had left to make this quilt and I thought about my grandma, who just turned 90, while I sewed.   

As far as the pattern goes, it was tedious.  All those little corners on the sixty lanterns about did me in.  That is until after me commenting to my husband about how I wish there were two or three of me to work on this quilt.  One of me could iron, while the other could trim, and I would sit behind the sewing machine.  Next thing I know my husband is at the ironing board, my son snipping the chain pieced pieces apart, and my daughter was doing the trimming.  Before I knew it all those little lanterns had their little white corners on and I was so grateful!  My son kept saying, “this is so fun”.  I could get used to having a quilting team!!

I think we probably only have a few months left since we started A Year of Schnibbles back in October.  I have been very good about getting at least the top of the quilt done every month except one when I just couldn’t get to it.  I need to get that one finished soon.  It has been fun sewing a Schnibble every month and now I have a few of the tops in the going-to-become-a-baby-quilt pile.  I have about eight friends that are pregnant right now and all except one so far are having boys.  Just about every time I make a Schnibble now I try to keep that in mind because they end up being a great size for a baby quilt.  Make sure to go over to Sherri’s and Sinta’s for the Schnibble Parade after August 1st.  It is so fun to see the same quilt made in so many different fabric combos.

Charity Quilts for My Birthday

If you are new to my blog and thinking, what in the world is Charity Quilts for My Birthday?   You can read all about it here.  In a nutshell I am making 40 charity quilts by the time I turn 40 years old, and I have invited you to play along with me. 

 

Here are my official first two charity quilts that have been sent off in the mail to Quilts for Kids and I am not even 35 yet (give me a few more weeks and I won’t be able to say that anymore).

This one was a kit from Quilts for Kids that they sent me.  You can do this too!  Just go to there website and request a kit and they send it to you in the mail.

I made this one (New Wave quilt pattern from Oh Fransson!) to send along with the one I made up from the kit. 

Aren’t they cute!  I wish I could see the little faces that get these two bright, fun quilts. 

If you would like to participate in Charity Quilts for My Birthday just grab the button and put it on your blog.  Pick a goal that works for you.  It could be one charity quilt by your next birthday.  Whatever you want to do.  If you write a post about your goal then link to it at the end of the original charity quilt  post.  If you don’t have a blog you can still play along.  Just comment on this post about what your goal is going to be and then if you want to e-mail me picks of your finished quilts I would be happy to share them with everyone. 

Speaking of quilters out there making quilts for Charity Quilts for My Birthday, go check out this post from Em who blogs over at Em’s Scrapbag.  I love that you guys are making charity quilts along with me!!

And we have a winner…

The winner for my giveaway of a fat quarter of Flea Market Fancy is Colleen who said, “Love your quilt!  Such cheerful, summery colors :)  Love your blog and follow all the time :)”.

Congrats, Colleen!!  Please send your snail mail address to tlcstitches AT q DOT com.  Thanks everyone for entering and you can count on more giveaways, just for you my readers, in the future.  Have a nice rest of your day!

Yo-yo’s

Last year my husband took my daughter on an overnight camping trip because she didn’t think it was fair that my son always got to be the one to go with him on scouting overnighters.  (my husband was a scout leader through our church for a while)  So she and my husband hiked-in 2 miles to their campsite with everything on their backs.  She loved it!  So this summer he set up camping trips with each of our kids.  My daughter wanted a challenge and picked a place that is 5 miles to hike into.  My son picked a 2 miler for his first hike-in campout with dad. 

I love this because it warms my heart that they are getting bonding time with dad and that I get one on one time with the one that stays home.  The boys left for their campout yesterday and my daughter and I left for the movies.  We saw How to Train Your Dragon at our dollar movie theater and then went out for hamburgers.  After dinner we tried to go to the library but it was closed.  While we waited for our movie to start we had a little book club discussion about Island of the Blue Dolphins.  We both just read it and loved it.  It was so fun talking about it together.  We need to pick our next book (that’s why we were headed to the library) so if you have any suggestions, we would love some ideas! 

We ended up coming home and braving the heat (we don’t have air conditioning).  My daughter has been admiring my hexagon project so I suggested she make yo-yo’s.  I have a yo-yo maker and they are easy to do.  She was really excited so we set up a table on our back deck where it was cooler and worked on our projects.  She got the hang of it right away and we enjoyed stitching away while sipping raspberry lemonade, singing along to Taylor Swift songs, and chatting.

She got inspired by her yo-yo’s and started designing a little on graph paper.  It was so fun to see her idea put on paper so I could see her vision.  She knows exactly what she is making and who she is giving it to. 

When it got dark we moved our table inside and watched a movie while we continued to stitch.  I can’t wait to see her project come to life.  I love seeing her creativity.  I love the young woman she is turning out to be and I am so honored to be her mother.

Hexagons and a Road Trip

Sunday night my husband says to me, “want to go on an 8 hour road trip tomorrow?”   My first thought was, “What??”  My second thought was, “But I haven’t received my hexagon paper pieces in the mail yet!” 

I have seen hexagons all over blogland and wasn’t really tempted to make them myself, until I came across Texas Freckles and her Hexagon Charm Quilt Piece-Along.  It wasn’t that I wanted to join the piece along, but more about the incredible pictures she takes of all her colorful hexagons.  Plus she has great how to videos and you can even print off your own paper pieces to cut up and start making hexagons right away.  That is what I did so that I could get ready for the road trip we were taking the next day.  Another thing that I like about her method is that she uses 2 1/2” squares of fabric, which is so much easier than having to cut out hexagons.  I had a little 2 1/2” precut strip pack that my friend gave me for my birthday a year or two ago so I just cut those into squares really quick. 

After a quick stop at JoAnn Fabrics the next morning so I could pick up some needles and quilting thread, we were off.  And I got started basting hexagons right away.

 

Soon I had the cutest little stack of hexies.

I couldn’t wait to sew them together.  I also was the DVD coordinator, snack getter for the kids, and Ipod DJ for my husband and I.   

 

We finally got to our destination which was Ape Cave down by Mount St. Helens.  It is a long tunnel under ground that was formed by flowing lava.    

 

 

You climb down the stairs to get to the entrance.

 

 

We were each armed with a flashlight because it is pitch black in the tunnel.  Kinda creepy huh?  It reminded me of this little adventure we had a couple summers ago.

 

 

Most of the pictures I tried to take were too dark.  Here is a picture of where we got to the end where you can belly crawl for a while longer.  The kids went a ways in and I snapped this picture.  Most of the tunnel is big and open.  By the time we came back out we had walked about a mile and a half.  It was very cool.

 

 

The drive within the national forest was so beautiful.  We got some peeks at Mount St. Helens through the trees.  

 

 

And lots of other beautiful spots. 

 

 

I continued to baste and sew my hexgons together on the drive home.  Don’t they look pretty? 

 

The other reason for the trip besides Ape Cave was to find a Geocache that sits at the midpoint of a triangle of geocaches we have found called The Triad.  One of the caches is in Portland and is the first geocache ever, the second is called the Ape Cache (which actually has nothing to do with Ape Cave and is no where near it), and the third is the offices of Groundspeak in Seattle (which is the Geocaching headquarters).  All we had left was to find is the midpoint cache and you get a really cool geocoin.  It ended up being a wild goose chase on this crazy gravel road with big ruts.  We saw a bear which was cool.  It was quite an adventure!  My husband is going to go back sometime with a friend of ours that geocaches and has a 4 wheel drive truck.  I don’t mind not going on that crazy road again!  :)

Faux Piped Binding Tutorial

Thank you for stopping by to see my tutorial on Faux Piped Binding. You can currently find it in the September 2012 issue of American Quilter Magazine!