Spring Weed?

Even the dandelions look wonderful when first blooming

Many people in this area love to eat dandelion greens - very tasty!

Cherry Blossoms

 The delicate blooms of the Kwanzan Cherry that is in our front yard.
We planted the tree 19 years ago,  just a few days before our wedding.
So beautiful when it is in full bloom, and it always blooms near our anniversary.

The rain and high winds this weekend knocked a lot of the blooms off, so our front yard, sidewalks and porch  are now covered with  pale pink petals.
A very pretty sight

Friday Night Sew In!

 Grape Hyacinths  - the last of them for this year

Today is the regular Friday Night Sew In

I have several little projects to work on 

Have my fabric

my snacks  and my ginger ale

I'm ready to sew!

Thursday

Ornamental Weeping Cherry

'baby' Maple Leaves:)

Dogwood blooming

Dogwood blossoms just after each opened

Dogwood blossoms ready to open

Spring is taking a little break

so cold and rainy today!

Spring!

So happy I did get out with my camera on Saturday morning before the rain - it is still raining!
Just more 'pretties'...these trees and shrubs are beautiful right now

Not sure what the formal name of this one is, I call it button bush.  The flowers are tiny and look like little roses.

Ornamental Crabapple

Not so sure about this one, I think it is another variety of the Ornamental Crabapple

 

Ahhh, Spring!

Spring tulips

Saturday morning was so nice, the weather was lovely.  

The Sun had not yet burned through the morning fog.

I ventured out to take some pictures of the trees and flowers in bloom.

Aren't these gorgeous tulips?

Saturday afternoon, it rained.  Thunder and lightning and buckets of rain.

So glad I went out earlier and took a few snapshots

The ground is covered with petals from some of the more delicate blooms.

A question and a violet

Hello!

 Hope everyone had a nice weekend!

I am stuck trying to change my header here on my blog - 

can anyone give me any tips? 

I just want a nice little header 

that works for Spring/Summer:)  

With all the changes it seems blogger has made, 

I'm not getting very far with my efforts.

Thanks in advance for any help!

Magnolia

Before the storm and high winds!

Happy Spring!

Happy Birthday Brad! 

Happy Spring! 

The sun was shining today and

the moon was glowing tonight

Super Moon!

Today, March 19th, the moon will appear to be the biggest in nearly 20 years!

According to NASA

a full Moon of rare size and beauty will rise in the east at sunset

Let's just pray that no catastrophes happen that can be associated with this Super Moon-

I think it will be a beautiful sight to see!

Friday Night Sew In!

Tonight is the scheduled Friday Night Sew In!

Have you signed up for it? 

I'm going to work on a baby quilt while my family goes to the movies.

I'm hoping to get the top finished and another one started!

I have a couple of other little things I want to work on...stating it here

to keep myself honest:))

My nerves are on end, so I'm going to sew them away-

Hope to have pictures tomorrow.

Get your snack foods gathered up (I'm making a peach cobbler)

your jammies on,

and start your machines!

Let's have lots of fun this evening!

Crocus!

 

A honeybee gathering pollen from a crocus in my yard!

Can this be

a sign

of 

Spring?

Friday Night Sew In..confessions:)

Confessions of the Imperfect Piecer here....even though I had great plans for sewing Friday night, I felt too 'puny' to do much.  I did get this layered and pin-basted, and even started the machine quilting on it.  I want to make this into a quilted pillow case with buttons on the end.  We keep a pillow that size on our sofa most of the time, and a quilted pillow case would be so much nicer than just a regular case.  The back will just be muslin that I will quilt.  

Anyway, please excuse the picture...its just some heart blocks sewn together,  ( still needing the side borders sewn on in this pic).  The blocks are from the GO! tutorial I had here earlier this week, I am anxious to try quilting feathers on the muslin back.  I just love machine quilting! 
Note: the muslin is Moda muslin...does that make it okay?!?

I'm beginning to feel a bit better, so I plan on sewing on Sunday.  
Most of the time I'm raring to go with my sewing, but this weekend I just haven't felt up to doing 'power sewing'!

Friday Night Sew In!

It's Friday, time for the Friday Night Sew In!
What will you be working on?

I'm not feeling so great, but I will sew this evening:)  I have a pillow top to quilt and quilts to work on - hoping I can work up some energy and do some power sewing!

Can't wait to hear what you are working on! 

If you are interested in joining in, you can check out the details here!!

Do you see what I see?

One of those days when I really should have just stayed in bed...I did go to the laundromat and wash the duvets and comforters.  What a job!  I am so glad all the linens are clean and either back on the beds or stored away now.

See what is popping out of the ground!  The tulips never fail to surprise me each spring, no matter the weather, the little leaves push right out of the ground.  It is a beautiful and warm day - 70! - but last week the temperature was in the 20's.

The little squirrel was so happy about the weather, he was a blur running up and down the trees and sidewalks!

 

The little squirrel was so happy about the weather, he was a blur running up and down the trees and sidewalks!

Praying for those with unspoken needs and worries!

Happy Valentine's Day!

A postcard I made for someone, and wonder of wonders, it made it to its destination!

Wishing everyone a Happy Valentine's Day!

Spring must be right around the corner!

I looked out today to see so many  glorious Robins in the trees and running around on the ground!  I counted well over 100 at one time!  My pictures are pretty fuzzy,  apparently Robins don't like close-up photos taken of them:)
Can Spring be far behind?

Heart Block Tutorial using the Accuquilt GO! value die

from the sewing machine of the Imperfect Piecer (that's me!),
    a tutorial using the value or basic die that is included with your Accuquilt GO! fabric cutter

I am not usually able to piece precisely - either my seam allowance is off a bit or I've cut the square just a bit smaller or larger.   I don't have to worry about cutting the shapes properly with my GO! and I think I finally have my 1/4" seam allowance set.  (I've only had my 'new' sewing machine about 1 1/2 years:))

Today's tutorial is how to cut and sew a Heart block using the basic (value) die that came with the GO!

For reference this die cuts:

• Square-4 1/2" (4" finished)
• Square-2 1/2" (2" finished)
• Half Square-2" finished triangle (cuts four)

 Besides not being able to easily piece accurately, I'm also admitting I'm a dork.  To play around with the shapes and see what blocks I could make with the basic die, I cut several sheets of white paper.  No pink or blue or red added, just white copy paper. Duh!   It did the job, though:)

This block will be 8" unfinished, 7 1/2" unfinished.



You will need 
from main 'heart fabric'

• 8  (2 1/2") triangles
• 2  (2 1/2") squares
• 1 ( 4") square

from background fabric

• 8 (2 1/2") triangles
• 2 (2 1/2") squares

Note: I try to be thrifty when using my fabrics, so I cut about a 10" square of my main 'heart' fabric, then strips to cut the additional squares and triangles

I laid my pieces in rows, then picked up all the triangles and chain-stitched them to save both time and all those little thread ends from having to be clipped.  This is a tip I learned from visiting Bonnie Hunter's Quiltville site - a wealth of knowledge and beautiful quilts!

After stitching the triangles, I pressed the seams open to avoid bulk , for all the other seams I pressed them flat then to one side.

 In the picture above, you can see that I have stitched and pressed the triangle pairs, and stitched a 2 1/2" square to the top of a triangle pair.  Make sure you have the triangle pairs with the square attached facing the heart!

This picture (above) shows the 3 sections across.
Two pair of triangles are sewn together for the top section
The triangle square units are sewn to each side of the 4" square for the center section
A 2 1/2" background square is sewn on each side of the remaining triangle pair unit.

Next, stitch the sections together.  See how nicely the squares and triangle points fit together? 

Here is a block I made using 4 of the Heart blocks, using an Aunt Grace fabric.  
Next time I will show you the border I am making for this block using the same basic die-

I hope to make a block or two a week using the basic die.  Stay tuned!  I have 3 projects going at the same time, I didn't plan on that, but it seems I keep finding things I just have to make;)

    Please contact me if you have any questions or if you would like to see more blocks based on the value die featured here. 

Thanks for stopping by! 

Roba Dolce = Love!

Upon arriving home from husband having tests at the hospital, we see a huge box marked Perishable!
We found my new love inside:

My husband immediately picked the Lemon sorbetto to try, and he said it was absolutely delicious!

My youngest son ate the cup of mango.  He said he wasn't a critic, but it was the best he had ever had.  He said the flavor was perfect!

If your store has Roba Dolce (at Kroger, it is under the store brand) you will be doing yourself a favor by buying the best sorbetto and gelato available!   It is just plain delicious:)

Thank you so much, Karen!

Accuquilt GO! or Accuquilt Dies Giveaway!

Hurry over to SewCalGal's blog and enter for a chance to win your very own Accuquilt GO!.

She is also giving dies to 3 different people!

Enter here

This is the machine I use to cut out the tumbler quilts...the machine cuts the pieces precisely, and the pieces go together so easily and quickly!

The Sun is Shining!

Today, the sun is shining and it is 49 degrees out!  I'm excited to see the sun shine brightly enough to create the shadows:)  I even felt like going out and taking a few pictures!

Little Mr. Squirrel was in a playful mood today, and acted as if he was posing for me as he scampered through the tree branches and about the yard -

Wow, I'm astonished by how much snow some of you received!  I was griping about the 2 inches of snow we received earlier in the week, but I am not saying another word after seeing pictures of over 3 feet of snow in Connecticut.

My husband had an endoscopy Friday morning. He saw a different doctor this week who is (I hope) going to find out the cause of his intense stomach pain.  The doctor said the endoscopy was clear, I'm so thankful.  Next week he is scheduled to have an ultrasound of his gall bladder. 

I should get at least two of the dog's heads cut out and sewn down this evening for my 'Let Sleeping Dogs Lie', and will post a pic as soon as I do!

Thanks so much for all the recent comments.  If I haven't replied, please excuse me, this has been a very busy week and I will reply as soon as I can.

I can't believe that January is almost gone, even with all the snow days, it has just flown by! 

My Friday Sewing

I did have fun yesterday!
After my morning coffee, I finished quilting the blue tumbler quilt and added the binding - I even got about half of the binding sewn down!
The blue tumbler is another throw-size quilt (just right to snuggle under while laying on the couch) that I cut out with my Accuquilt GO!   These go together so quickly, it only takes a few hours to cut and piece a throw-sized top.
It is just random scraps from my blue fabric scrap box..no rhyme or reason to the layout.

I am practicing my machine quilting - again - and used nearly 800 yards of thread playing and scribbling on this one.  It should be nice and 'puckery' after its washed.

The backing and binding fabric is much richer in color "in person" and it came from the $2.50 shelf at my LQS! (local quilt shop)  What a bargain!!...I always shop that shelf first, the fabrics are first quality, but have been in the store for a while. 

Next, I cut out and pieced 2 blocks for my "Let Sleeping Dogs Lie" quilt.  The blocks took a while to cut out, and even longer to piece. It is a basic Snail's Trail block with a little adjustment for the dog's head placement.
I think these blocks will have a Schnauzer, a Lab, a Boxer and a Boston Terrier appliqued in the corners. 

 

The blocks are 16 1/2" unfinished.

It was a fun day of sewing!  Now on to make more blocks and finish sewing that binding down.

I hope I don't have to go out much today, it is only 10 degrees, even though it is bright and sunny!

I do have to run to the LQS for a little more fabric - I like the greys used in these blocks, they have a nice contrast. 

What are you doing today?  I hope you are enjoying your day!

I have linked this up with the FNSI group on flickr

Note: Yep, those are trees in the picture.  Undecorated, at least:))

This-n-that and Friday Night Sew In

At 6 pm this evening, it began to snow.  It's now 9 pm and there is 2 inches of snow on the ground with 6 inches expected before midnight.  Arghhh!!  It has been so dreary, even though it was a little warmer earlier this week, I guess it has given me a case of the blues:)   To chase them away, I've been practicing my free motion quilting.  I still have a long way to go to consider myself 'practiced', but I'm finally getting the hang of maneuvering the quilt and keeping my stitches the same length.

Thursday was my little dogs, Cletus and Earl, fifth birthday!  They are so cute, I hope to have pictures of them when or if the sun ever comes out again:)

I have my pattern and my fabric for the Friday Night Sew In.  

I'm hoping this quilt turns out as cute as the picture...it is hard to see in the picture, but there are sixteen different dogs curled up together.  The pattern is "Let Sleeping Dogs Lie", and I think I will make extra blocks to make the quilt bed-sized.  I just don't know what to do with odd sized quilts:)

.I will take pictures as I construct the quilt, I hope to get most of the blocks cut out and assembled Friday Night!  I've got my tea and chocolate ready.  I think I will bake chocolate chip cookies, too:)