English Paper Piecing

I have been working on my 6 point star quilt blocks using the English Paper Piecing method. Slow and steady as she goes. I am trying to decide if once I get a handful more blocks completed if I should start sewing them together as I go along. I love how this is looking so far. I am going to link up with the In Hand EPP Link party.

 

Remember these babies. I was a kid in the 80’s and spent a lot of time with my girlfriends  in a pair of these and went to more roller rink birthday parties than I can remember.

 

Chloe turns 5 in March and one of the things she has asked for her birthday is a pair of roller skates. She had never worn skates before. So I decided its time to bring her to the world of roller skating and found a rink in our town. Today was the second time we went and she is doing great. She falls a lot but laughs thru it and gets right back up.

 

Refueling with some nachos. I was surprised at how busy this place is.  Then after thinking about it this is a great activity to bring the kids. It cost less than going to the movies and you can stay as long as you like. It is great exercise by getting the kids and your self off the couch or your computer chair. I think this will be a regular fun activity for us to share together until she gets to old and doesn’t want her dorky  Mom embarrassing her when she is hanging with her friends. Too bad, I am going to be the Mom that is there and sure enough if they start blaring the YMCA song I will be out on the floor skating around doing the arm motions.

 

In Hand EPP Link Party

The Economy Block Quilt Wagon

I am not immune to all the economy quilt blocks that are popping up all over Flickr and instagram. They are all just so stinkin adorable. It just so happens I have procrastinated an entire year on making a baby quilt for my nephew, a year and a half if you count when my sister-n-law was pregnant. Well my nephew Trevor turns one years old at the beginning of February and these economy quilt blocks will make a perfect baby/toddler blankie.

Here is what I am using. I am using a fabric panel titled “a fun day in the jungle” along with pulled fabric from my stash. I don’t have an exact quilt design plan yet. I will make up maybe 12 of these blocks and see if I need more or not. For my economy blocks I am using a 5 inch fabric center with a 4.5 inch middle round and outside is 5.75 inch trimming as I go. I prefer to make larger triangles then necessary that way I can trim them down to square up. My block size squared up are coming out at 9 1/2 inches. If you are interested in making some economy quilt blocks you can find the tutorial at Red Pepper Quilts blog

Here is my January block for my quilting bee. I joined the Stash Bee for 2014. There are actually 12 hives this year and I am in Hive #8. Kat is our Hive Mamma and also our Queen Bee for January. She blogs over at FlutterKat. She requested a Tonganoxie 9 patch block in colors of grey & aqua. I enjoyed making this block and am looking forward to seeing all the blocks our hive members request. My month to be the queen bee is May. I have a few ideas we will see how many times I change my mind by the time May rolls around.

We just had a 3 day weekend and spent the majority of it in our pajamas. My little Minnie me insisted on trying out some hair curlers after seeing me with hot curlers in my hair. Yes I am 41 and still play with my hair. Yes for no reason at all I plugged in the old hot curlers and rolled them up in my hair just see what it would look like. I had not curled my hair with curlers in many years and yet I have a linen closet with random bags of curlers and 2 hot curler sets. I had fun rolling Chloe’s hair and telling her all about when I was a little girl and going to bed with curlers in my hair and how we would sit under a large weird object with a dome and holes that blew warm air drying your head full of curlers.

Wishing everyone a wonderful week.

October Fun

October is my favorite month of the year. It always feels like the beginning of all the happy holidays and the welcome of cooler temperatures. Here is Koda getting into the Halloween spirit. I will warn you this is a long and heavy photo post.

 

We love to go to the pumpkin patch in October. This is where Chloe picked out her pumpkin to carve this year.

 

Nothing like a hayride on a beautiful South Carolina day.

Of course we ran to the petting zoo and hung out with all the little animals. They had the coolest baby animals this year.

 

It is time for persimmons to start popping up in the produce section. Such a sweet treat.

The key is to wait until they are very ripe. Wait till they are so soft you might bruise them if you touch it. Then cut off the stem peel if you like. I slice mine up like a tomato and eat it with out the peel.

 

We went to the local Blue Crab festival and enjoyed a bucket of crabs. They had a bunch of bouncy castles for the kids and also plenty of other festival food besides crab.

 

The best part besides the crabs was walking along the property and looking out over the water.

 

I slacked a little on the Halloween decorating and just put out a few pumpkins and a pumpkin door cover. I strung a small string of ghost lights in one of our rose bushes out front.

 

Here is a Halloween wall hanging I made a few years ago using a fabric panel and sewing a few borders around it. The other side is a pumpkin motif that I usually use as a table topper thru the holidays. Chloe called dibs this year and had me hang it in her play room.

 

This was the first year I let Chloe carve her own pumpkin, with a little help of course. She loved taking the guts out.

 Here is her pumpkin. Not bad for a first time, and a little spooky.

 

Chloe was a Pirate Princess this Halloween. She did great at trick or treating this year. She remembered to say trick or treat and thank you, and even thru in a few Happy Halloweens. She is growing up so fast I can hardly stand it.

I had big plans and dreams of all the Halloween crafting I was going to do this year but sadly I only managed to whip up this Pirate Booty bag. It was the perfect bag for Halloween candy. I also dressed up as a pirate this year. I carried this bag around and when Chloe’s treat bag got to heavy and full I would dump it into this bag. She was able to continue on trick or treating or shall I say Pillaging and plundering the neighborhood.

Days of May

In May the weather has turned into a beautiful Spring and making its way to a wonderful Summer. This month we have been busy enjoying the outdoors. After cleaning up the backyard a bit I was able to set up my lovely Disney Flamingo. He is standing near one of my bird feeders. I can see him from my kitchen window. This month we were able to check out a few local parks and even had a day at the beach. This is Chloe’s last week at her preschool. I planned to keep her home for the summer. I have her signed up for a few day camps and we have a few trips planned this summer. I am hoping to make up a schedule for us including lots of outdoor time. If anyone has any ideas for fun activities for 4 year olds feel free to leave a comment with suggestions. Here are some photos of what we have been up to in May. I am looking forward to summer and all it has to offer.

Happy Valentines Day

Hope everyone had a lovely holiday. We had several crafty and yummy things going on this week. Chloe and I spent some time making valentines out of clear contact paper and bits of cut up paper, confetti and tissue paper pieces. For each of us we left one side sticky and stuck them to the window kind of like sun catchers. For the ones we made for other people we sandwiched the stuff between two pieces of clear contact paper with a cut out paper border to define the shape. Lots of fun and easy for little kids to decorate with the cut up pieces. I made little key lime pies for the hubby and made jello stacks for Chloe in her favorite colors of purple and pink. Chris brought me home some lovely roses and took me out to dinner. Overall a wonderful holiday that we were able to spend with each other.

Sullivan’s Island

We checked out a new beach close to the Charleston area of South Carolina. We normally go to the Isle of Palms which is the closest beach to our house. We thought it was time to start venturing out to some of the other beaches. So we went to Sullivan’s Island for some lunch and a walk on the beach. We ate a very tasty lunch at Poe’s Tavern. We started with some chips and queso dip. Chris had the Annabel Lee burger which is a burger with a crab cake on top. Chloe and I shared a plate of Mahi Mahi tacos. Lunch was delicious we will definitely be back. Then we walked to the beach. It is a wonderful beach absolutely gorgeous.