Sweet Spot Schnibble and Fit to be Geese Rulers! Wow!!

The LePetite parade for February is coming soon to A Quilting Life and Pink Pincushion. Sweet Spot, designed by Carrie Nelson, was the project of the month and it had plenty of flying geese!  Using the Fit to be Geese Ruler from Open Gate Quilts made it so much easier!  That is one amazing ruler! Check out the video with instructions for using the ruler on the Open Gate Quilts website if you are wondering how the rulers work. After watching it I was sold, and now after using it I don't think I'll make flying geese any other way.  I highly recommend it!

Schnibbles Sweet Spot

I made this Schnibble using both a Punctuation and a Fresh Flowers Charm Pack. There is a little extra black fabric that I added to the flying geese and the outer border after noticing that the borders needed a little more black fabric to pull out the black stars and add some pop. Of course it took some time to redo the borders, but I think it was worth it.  I just hope I don't regret pulling out a few pieces of black fabric from an extra Punctuation Charm Pack that I had, but I thought I should make Sweet Spot with the fabrics that I liked, rather than save the whole extra Charm Pack for some unknown project that may not even involve the black fabrics.

Lots of fun flying geese!

Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy!

After reading my last post about fun mail, Carrie left a great comment about the Fit to be Geese Ruler and her extensive pincushion collection!  Thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment Carrie!  You must be crazy busy right now! In Schnibbles news, from what I read on Carrie's blog we may get to see more Schnibbles patterns very soon! Maybe even tomorrow! You know I'll be there!    

Mail!!

I wanted to share my amazing mail week with you! Carrie was kind enough to mail the prize I won in last months LePetite parade on Sinta's blog.  Along with a fat quarter bundle of her fabric line Fresh Palette, she sent a Layer Cake of Charlevoix and an amazing pincushion! Wow!  How generous! The Fresh Palette bundle is beautiful! Look at those fresh clean colors, ready for Spring! AnnieO suggested it may be hard to cut it and she was right.....it's lovely the way it is.  But maybe when the new Schnibbles patterns come out, I might be willing to use Fresh Palette! Charlevoix is not a line I have see in my LQS.  I love all the cherries. The pincushion has really small piecing...beautiful!  Is it too embarrassing to mention that I have never had a pincushion before? This is my first! Thanks Carrie!!

Quilting treats, including Fresh Palette fabric, from The One Who Isn't Rosie

A few days later I received these two flying geese rulers I had ordered from Open Gate Quilts.  I'm working on the LePetite project Sweet Spot and Carrie suggests using one of these rulers for the flying geese units in one of the borders. Sherri blogs about the ruler in one of her recent posts too. I can't wait to give it a try!

New rulers to play with!

I just can't get the Mail Song from Blue's Clues out of my head now! It's replaced the catchy Schoolhouse Rock Preamble song that has been there all week, while my son memorizes it for Social Studies.  "We the People....," there it goes again!

Wordless Wednesday.......On Thursday

Disclaimer: Yes, I know its Thursday, and I apologize if this post has confused anyone about what day of the week it is.  I saw some great Wordless Wednesday posts yesterday, and planned on posting one of my own, but didn't get to it last night. My kids have a four day weekend this week and that will throw off the days of the week for me anyway, so I thought I may as well start the confusion early!  Stay tuned to hear about my exciting mail deliveries!! Oh, I guess this post didn't end up being wordless anyway!

Happy Valentine's Eve From The Island!

It has finally stopped raining here! We've had lots of cold rain in the last few weeks, so we've been stuck inside.  Copper has not been happy about it, but luckily today was much better! I wonder what he would think if he had to deal with snow?

"I know I'm not going for a walk when it's raining!" 

I wanted to show you some of the fun Valentine projects that are around my house.  I just love this rag quilt. Remember these? It was really fun to make, Layering the hearts then cutting them up and mixing them to make blocks.  The border is flannel, with little quilting to keep the focus on the hearts.

Heart Rag Quilt

This project was my first experience making prairie points, when I just started quilting. So much fun!  I remember not really wanting to put in the brighter red, because I didn't think it went well with the other reds, but the ladies at my LQS convinced me otherwise. I'm glad I took their advice because it would have looked pretty flat without it! I've found that many times the fabric that I think will stand out too much, really makes the quilt pop in the end!  A quilting lessons learned!

Prairie (I always spell prairie wrong!  Thank goodness for spell check!) Point Heart Quilt 

Sewing the blanket stitch by hand, is why I enjoyed making this candle mat so much. This had been one of the few times I have worked with wool. Its not easy to find in my area of Florida. Go figure.

Heart Candle Mat- Where can you find wool in Florida?? 

This guy is just fun!!

By now I'm sure you've probably heard about the Scrap Basket Sensations Blog Tour.  Be sure to check out Kim's book and some beautiful photos of the lovely quilts in it. You may even win a signed copy of the book!  Kim was kind enough to have left the first comment I ever had, on a quilt that I entered in the Schnibbles Contest last summer.  I was beside myself with happiness when I realized who had left a comment and put my quilt on her Flikr page!! Wow!!

Also, I have a few new followers that I haven't been able to email. I can't find email or blogs for some followers.  Maybe these are friends who don't have blogs?   I'm still learning about blogging so please bear with me as I learn!  I just want to say thanks so much for your interest in my quilting journey!  I'm happy to know you are following along and reading my blog. I always love to read your comments and hear about what you are working on too! Welcome! Have a happy Valentine's Day!

Blocks, Blocks, and More Blocks

In the past few days I've completed a few more Layer Cake Quilt Along blocks from Moose on the Porch Quilts.  I thought I was up to date on them, then I realized that a new one was posted yesterday! That's okay though, I feel like I'm still caught up since I have two weeks to complete it.  It's all about catching up for me lately isn't it?

This block is Starry Starry Snowball, designed by my blog friend Sherri.  I love the way you fold overlapping squares in the corners to create this wonderful block. I added half square triangles that were leftover from the block designed by Vickie, to the corners to pull in more of the orange.

Starry Starry Snowball designed by Sherri

The next block I completed was Spin Wheel, created by Celine Perkins. I love the fun look of this block!  I am thrilled, and somewhat surprised, that my points came together so well in the middle!

Spin Wheel designed by Celine Perkins

Well, my Prayer Flag Layer Cake Squares are slowly dwindling. That is obviously what happens when you use them, but I've never done a Quilt Along before, so I do wonder what my last block will look like.  Will it be a strange looking block made of the random leftover squares and scraps, or have I made the right choices about which squares to keep and which ones to save for unknown blocks in the coming weeks? If you have any suggestions or words of advice for me, please, please leave a comment.  I'm getting nervous about the end with five blocks left to go.  How do I choose my fabrics so my last blocks look as good as my first blocks?

Quilting, Cooking and Winning!

I'm catching up on some of my Layer Cake Quilt Along blocks this week. This block is called Pointing The Way and it was designed by Toby Lischko. The block has a scrappy look to it. I thought it would lend itself to some of the leftover pieces I've accumulated so far during the Quilt Along.  A cutting mistake forced me to buy some more background fabric. One wrong cut with the rotary cutter and "Whoops!" my neutral Layer Cake square was no longer usable for this block! "Yikes!" The first cut was supposed to go across the square and the second and third cut were supposed to go down the square! Oh, well! After looking at different fabrics, I decided to go with this greyish toned white that I found at my LQS. I don't like it as much as the fabric it replaced, but maybe by the time I make the rest of the quilt it will grow on me. Not knowing what blocks are coming up is a part of the challenge and a part of the fun!

Layer Cake Quilt Along Block - Pointing the Way

This cool, rainy week called for baking cookies at my house and watching some DVD's! I made Vanishing Oatmeal Cookies, replacing dried cranberries for the raisins and adding 3/4 cup of white chocolate chips.  There is a newer version of the recipe than mine on the site, because my recipe calls for 2 sticks of butter and 1 cup of brown sugar.  Maybe they were trying to lighten it up a bit! If you decide to make them, choose the version you like!

Vanishing Oatmeal Cookies -Yum!

My Mon Ami LePetite project was in the parade on Sinta's blog at the beginning of the week and I was lucky enough to win an amazing prize! I am soooo excited!! I've never won a giveaway before! Special thanks to my blog friends who told me to go over and take a look!  Carrie selected two winners to receive fat quarter bundles of her new fabric line Fresh Palette!  How exciting is that?  I'm honored to have won!!

Fresh Palette by Carrie Nelson

Are you ready for the Super Bowl?  We are having friends over to watch the game and eat that Chicago Style Pizza I've been blogging about.  Considering the kids get up before 6 am to get ready for school, I don't know how late they will stay up.  Why is the Super Bowl on a Sunday anyway?? Wouldn't Saturday be a better day?  I guess they don't consult any moms when they plan the game time! Enjoy the game and your weekend!