Easy Peasy Pretty Pillows

These pillows are so easy to make that I whipped up a pair in one evening. The toughest part was picking the napkins. Yes, you heard that right.

Scrappy quilt love...

Been working on my 2012 year-long project (you can see the details over on my other blog 12 Quilts) but thought I'd just post some quilt-love here today. Only in my dreams I could make quilts like these. I also have a Quilting Daydreams board on Pinterest, so head over there and take a look at some really stellar quilts!

Check out the rainbow of colors, applique and piecing on this incredible quilt! And the quilting! I wonder how many hours this labor of love took? This was posted in Picasa by Jacque. I could stare at it for hours. Brava!

Now how about this beauty? I wish I could find a close up so I could see the quilting on it. I looked and looked. Rare Google fail. :( 

Homemade Caramels

I have always shied away from homemade candy. There's the fussiness of thermometers, and trying to figure out "soft ball" and "hard ball" stages. I think we tried to make candy in Home Ec (oh, there - I've just dated myself - good job Lis) and it was a resounding disaster. So for the better part of 30 years, I've been content to buy my candy and make other things.

Well not yesterday, folks.

I know there's a lot of controversy right now about Pinterest. I'm in "wait and see mode" at this point - I'm currently keeping my boards but re-pinning very cautiously to be sure I'm pinning the original, etc. Anyway, I found two recipes I simply could not avoid trying. Today I'll tell you about the Microwave Caramels. Yeah you heard me - mic-ro-wave.

That got my attention, too.

Cornbread Surprise

Love me some cornbread! Love me some cornDOGS! Do not love the frying, grease, and picking off the coating that comes with corndogs.

So I saw a post on Pinterest where someone had made cornbread muffins with a quarter of a hot dog in it. Clever! We're lazy around here, and muffins have a way of generating more crumbs that I want to deal with. Hence the birth of Cornbread Surprise. I can't figure out yet how to turn pictures, so I'm going to be missing a few - darn it all, Blogger! Anyway, the ingredients are simple - and you absolutely need an adorable little helper to come and steal a hot dog and eat it while you work. It's just sort of a rule.

TP Roll Flowers

3 amigos proud of their creations

I think it's a requirement...when you're a Mom, you save weird stuff like TP rolls. At the risk of providing TMI, you might be interested to know that Costco TP is great for a lot of reasons, not the least of which the TP is not glued to the roll very firmly. They are excellent for crafts. But I digress... 

Coming to you straight from Buffalo!

We made it in one piece, all the way from Idaho to Buffalo, NY, to visit the grandparents. I was worried sick about all the flying, truth be told, since this was the first trip of this kind for the twins. I can't believe how well they did though - I was so proud! I always swore we would not take the kids on a trip of this magnitude until they could carry their own snacks and activities, so I'm happy to report that they did a GREAT job of managing their little Thomas the Train backpacks. We didn't even use half of the activities, which makes me happy since we'll have them to dig out on the trip home.

Now on to the next adventure - Maui for Mom & Dad. As the day gets closer, I'm getting more and more excited! I'm supposed to be focused on work today and all I can think about is sun, surf, and six days of sleeping in! LOL!

Later 'taters!
Lisa

Trying Redwork

I've lost practically all my sewing time to sleeping! How I wish I could say it is helping but sadly I still feel very tired all the time. Perhaps part of it is a serious LACK of caffeine - how I do miss my morning cuppa joe! But, baby doesn't, so baby wins.

Just found out a quilty friend is having her first grandbaby - so excited for her as it's been a rough start to 2009 for her personally. Our virtual sewing group is making small blocks and I want to participate but my attention to detail is sorely lacking just now - I'm sort of afraid I'll lop off a thumb if I try to do any rotary cutting!

So I started thinking, how I can participate with my limited time and inability to manage sharp tools without injury? Then it came to me...the dear lady who proposed this idea mentioned redwork! I can do redwork - I have FOUR months after all to get it done! I can take redwork on the PLANE when we fly all over creation the latter part of this month. Redwork doesn't require any precise measuring or large sharp tools! As for the small sharp tool (needle), let's just say, I've had my shots so it's no big deal. :)



Having heard about, but never actually done, redwork, I looked for free patterns on the internet. Thank you Google.

So here's a great post about the history of redwork, also known as penny squares, on Quiltbug. Great tips! I'm thinking of doing my squares in crayon brights - if it turns out to be rather easy, maybe I can make enough additional squares for a little quilt for my baby, too.



Holy cow there's some cute stuff out there! I'm not so much into really complex designs - for example, these patterns are great but not for me! I like the simpler type - kitties and piggies and nursery rhymes. This alphabet freebie is really really cute, but not for babies.

Here are some sweet free nursery rhymes - oh how I LOVE the Three Little Kittens!

And here is a really nice sewing machine. I might have to make this one as a test to put up as a little wall hanging in my sewing room!

The more I look at the patterns, the more charming I find them so I think I will do this as my contribution to the grandbaby quilt.

Later 'taters!
Lisa