Chips n' salsa at the Blogger's Quilt Festival

Does my entry in the Blogger's Quilt Festival make you think of Cinco De Mayo?

It's titled 'Chips 'n Salsa'.

See there's a chip!

I made it a few years back.

It was my first a Stack N' Whack quilt that I make as a part of an online class.

I had a great time with it.

I believe I've mentioned in a few posts that my family loves spicy food.

Everyone's happy here when it's Taco Night or when chicken enchiladas are on the menu!

We've already used some jalapenos from our backyard in the Jalapeno Popper Dip we had last weekend. 

This quilt is perfect for us!

 See the tomatoes and peppers that I quilted?

I did this on my Bernina 440. 

It took awhile, but I wanted to do some special quilting to emphasize the Mexican food theme.

The chips are quilted with wavy triangles and there are tomatoes and peppers everywhere else.

Plenty of hot chile sauce in this hexagon!

This was a really fun quilt to make, so it's the perfect one for me to enter in the Blogger's Quilt Festival.

I've got to go see if we have any chips and salsa left for a TV snack tonight! This quit is making me hungry!

Thanks for stopping by!  

Spooling along

Last night I made some of these spool blocks during the Friday Night Sew-In.

They're for this month's Vintage Schnibble project, which is Gentle Art designed by Carrie Nelson. 

I'm happy with how they're turning out.

Happy Go Lucky, Marmalade, Vintage Modern, and a little Ruby are the fabrics I'm using.  I like how they all look together.

It was windy when I took this picture and I had to pick a few blocks out of the bushes more than once.

  I tried to make it quick before they blew all over the neighborhood!

This weekend we've got two soccer games going on and lots of studying for exams too.

Maybe I can knock out some more of these fun spool blocks before we finish up the weekend!

Oh, I just noticed this is my 200th post!!!

WooHoo!!

Remember wren

Remember my Carolina Wren family that built their nest in my Christmas Cactus and raised their family there last spring?

Well, they came back this year!

 As soon as we put the cactus outside when warm weather arrived, they got started building their nest.

  I didn't realize it at the time, but they arrived the same week last year.

I wasn't able to take any pictures of the nest this year because it was built like a tunnel. 

I think they got tired of us looking at them, so this time they hid.

They did a pretty good job of it!

The wrens have since left their nest with their baby birds.

We enjoyed watching them come and go.

I'm planning to participate in the Friday Night Sew-In tonight.  I hope you join in too!

Today

Today you'll find me putting away some groceries, working on a few projects, and tackling that ever present laundry pile!

The weather is wonderful here and it's just an all around good day.

I'm hoping to finish up my table runner.  I just need to add the label and call it done.  

This pink striped binding really makes it pop!

On my list of things to do is decide how to quilt this small top from way back when. 

I've been having trouble deciding on quilt designs lately, but I really need want to get a few of these done so I can enjoy them.

I'm also waiting for a charm pack to arrive so I can get started on Gentle Art.

That's what's happening here today.

I hope you're having a nice day too.

I plan to be back soon with a finish!

Phone-nominal!

These are a hit at my house!

A few weeks ago Heidi blogged about making these phone pillows and I thought they were great!

I knew my teen boys would love them for their phones and ipods and I'm always looking for something to make for boys.

They would sure make a great little gift for anyone!   

After I sewed up a few, I decided I had to make one for myself too!

My Noteworthy scraps came in handy!

I just love it!

You can find the pattern and instructions HERE.

They were so quick and easy to make.

 I did have to redraw the pattern that I printed out according to the measurements that Kim provided.

  My pattern came out of the printer a bit smaller than it should have.  

Maybe I didn't have the printer set up correctly, but it was easier for me to just fix it when I made the templates than figure out what to do to the printer. 

Two of these are stuffed with walnut shells, and the third I experimented with and I stuffed the tips of the triangle with fiberfill and then I used walnut shells to stuff the rest of it.  

I liked stuffing the tips with the fiberfill because I found that this made the phone pillow hold it's shape a bit better.

You could use rice or poly-pellets that are used for stuffed animals, but I had lots of walnut shells on hand and I liked the weight the walnut shells gave to the pillow anyway. 

I did change the measurements a little bit on the one I made for myself with the Noteworthy fabric. 

I decided to make the ramp a little shorter, so the phone would be at less of an angle.  The ramp is part that the bottom of the phone stands on.

This was easy to accomplish, since I had made the pattern in two pieces and taped it together with painter's tape.

I just removed the tape and scooted the longer piece down an inch to make the ramp shorter.  If you decide to make one of these, I would suggest that you make your pattern in two pieces, so it's easily adjustable.

You can make these for your tablets too! 

I thought you might be interested in seeing these phone pillows if you haven't run across them before.

Just a fun, quick little gift that can be customized for anyone.

I certainly enjoyed making them and giving them away!

Rain, rain, a little more rain, and recipes

Well, I've been saving a few pictures for a rainy day and here it is!

And not just one rainy day, many of them.

It's been raining and raining and raining.

I think we must be up to at least 10 inches or more by now. Way too much water.

So, I do have some quilting projects to show you, but since the weather is not cooperating with photography today and probably won't be tomorrow either, we'll look at some pictures I've been saving to show you instead.

As soon as spring got stared this year I had my eye on these hot pink geraniums.

If you haven't noticed, I'm really drawn to bright cheery colors this year, especially hot pink.

Is there a particular color you're interested in this season?   

In your quilting or gardening, or both?

My amaryllis came up early his year!

Every fall I mean to buy a few more, but I end up forgetting all about them when I get distracted by all the beautiful fall mums and pumpkins.

It's hard to think about spring then!  

And for my last picture...oh my gosh its raining really hard again.......

It's Copper!  You haven't seen him in awhile, although he always does his best to get in the quilt pictures!

So, since there is a serious lack of quilt pictures in this rainy day post I thought he could have a picture of his own. 

And if you are still with me after all that I've got a few recipe suggestions to share with you.

Awhile ago, I mentioned I've been reading the blog Kevin and Amanda and she's got some wonderful recipes there!  

We've tried a few and have loved them! Since I'm always open to new recipes I thought you might be too.  

These are easy weeknight meals. My favorite!   

Spicy Sausage Pasta - this is the one we've had more than once in a week!

Cheesy Sausage Tortellini

Cheeseburger Macaroni - good and easy!

Next we're going to try

Cheese Ravioli with Five Ingredient Homemade Brown Butter Tomato Sauce.  It looks yummy!

 I've got one more to share that has become popular at my house lately.  

Bacon Cheese Pull Aparts was a hit over the holidays and we just had it last week on a breakfast for dinner night!

To make it more of a casserole I use up to seven, yes I said seven, eggs.  If you'd like it to be a bit more like a bread, just use the one egg that they suggest.

Oh, I add some ground sausage to it too!

Thanks for sticking with me during this rainy day!  I thought it would be a good time to share some pictures and recipes while I wait for the sun to come back.  

That may be a few days...... now I hear thunder!

     

Changed up Hat Trick

It's time again for the Schnibbles parade!

The first of the May will be first Vintage Schnibbles parade of the year!  WooHoo!

Sherri and Sinta have once again graciously agreed to host the parade of small quilts on their blogs at the beginning of each month.

Be sure to stop by and visit!

It's so fun to see the wonderful variety of quilts, all made with Schnibbles patterns designed by the amazing Carrie Nelson.

I hope you can join us by creating your own quilt too!

  

Speaking of variety, that's certainly the category that my Hat Trick quilt falls into this month!

Mine didn't turn out quite like I planned!

Simply Color and Cuzco were the bright, fun charm packs I mixed up to make it. 

I was going to follow the original pattern Carrie created, but I made the mistake of choosing side corner squares and background fabrics that were a bit too busy for the pattern, at least that's what it looked like to me once I got it all laid out.

  My attempt at low volume ended up being a bit too high volume for me!

  

No worries!  I'm not showing any pictures of that phase of the quilt. It wasn't pretty!  Thank goodness I don't even have any!

It just looked too blended together.

 So, it was back to the drawing board!  

I decided I could salvage the quilt and make it even better than I had originally pictured, by leaving out the nine patch blocks from the center of the X's and substituting some quieter blocks all around the quilt.

I switched from charm squares to Kona Snow for the background fabric, which helped tremendously!  

Now I love it!

I still intend to make a quilt just like the original Hat Trick pattern someday. I'm kind of disappointed that it didn't work out for me this time.  

I'd also like to make a quilt using low volume fabrics too!  This just wasn't meant to be the one.  I need to collect some true low volume fabrics to make it work.

I discovered that this is not a pattern that I could jam so many busy fabrics in and expect it to be fine.  I knew it was a bit risky to try, but it all worked out in the end.

At least I think so!

I guess there is no harm in changing plans as you go along.  I need to keep that in mind and take some quilting risks more often.  

Not knowing exactly what you might end up with adds to the fun!!