New stuff

The Fourth of July is over and it's time to get quilting again!  In my last post I mentioned that I had tried a few new things when made my Leap Year quilt, and now I'm back to give out some details!

A piping close up for a Joyful Quilter and anyone else who wanted to get a closer look.

For years I've been wanting to try to put some piping on my quilts and have just never given it a try......until now!  My LQS had a copy of Piping Hot Binding by Susan K. Cleveland at their Market Review in the fall and I picked one up.  It included a really cool tool and even some cording.  I had still never gotten around to giving it a try until this Leap Year Schnibble came along.  Since it didn't have any points in the border, it seemed like the perfect quilt for some piping!   

Making the piping.  The foot you chose will depend on your machine and your personal preferences.

The piping method that Susan describes in her book was easy and fun.  I've included a few pictures so you can get the idea of basic piping, but you really need to purchase Susan's book to get all of the information.  And of course the tool that she includes is amazing!!  It enables you to trim the piping so it's nice and straight and even, before you apply it to the quilt.  I think you'd have a really hard time getting the piping on the quilt with such nice results, if you didn't have this tool.  I'm sure there are other piping methods out there.  I don't know what they are, but I don't feel the need to look around at all because I don't imagine it gets much easier than Susan's method.  I was really pleased with the results and right now I'm going through my stack of quilt tops looking for another quilt that needs some piping.  It looks like that might be my Recess Schnibble!

Actually applying the piping to the quilt.
The piping has already been cut with the tool at this point.

Another new technique I tried is sewing to the tip of the quilt corner when doing a mitered corner on the binding.  I should have taken a picture of this.......I think plenty of quilters miter their corners this way, it's just not the way I learned how to do it.  I always just sewed straight off the edge of the quilt instead of turning and sewing at a 45 degree angle when I got to the corner.  In the end, you get the same results, but I found that my corners wanted to miter much easier when I tried sewing off at the 45 degree angle.  I don't know why I never did that before.  Am I the only one that was continuing to sew straight when mitering the corner?

Now it's time to put on the binding.

 Also, have you tried these Wonder Clips yet?  They are so cool!  Nice and flat on the bottom so they slide nicely under the sewing machine.....Did you notice that in the pictures?.......A perfect size to use when hand sewing the binding on too.  They have markings on them so you can clip a project at a consistent spacing if you need to.  These markings are visible on the picture below.  It's been awhile since I found a new product that I love as much as these Wonder Clips.  They seem to be available all over the place.

Wonder Clips by Clover are wonderful!!
  Notice the markings on the clip on the left.

I was planning on showing the new quilting I did on Leap Year too, but this post is getting a bit long don't you think?  I'll just have to save it for next time!

Now that our vacation is over and our guests have left, it's time for summer camp! To my son that means kayaking, canoeing, archery, duct tape crafts and all kinds of other fun things. To me that means I will have plenty of lake water soaked items to wash out each night and will I have a week to do some more quilting, blogging, and catching up on some blog visiting too! See you again soon!!

Leap Year.....Quilted and everything!

Leap Year designed by Carrie Nelson, made and quilted by me!

My Leap Year is quilted and finished!  This is a record for me!  The simple, yet fun, sixteen patch gave me a chance to try making piping to accent my binding. That's something I've been wanting to try for awhile.  I'm really pleased with the results and I'm happy that I was able to get the whole thing done for the parade.  I'll be sure to let you in on the piping process and a few other new things I was able to try on this quilt very soon.

Quilted on my frame by me!  Yahoo!

I used mostly Vintage Modern fabric that I won in a recent "A Year Of Schnibbles" Parade for Leap Year.  Thanks so much Sherri and Sinta!  Be sure to check their blogs in the next few days to view the Parade.

I need to run!  Nachos are on the menu tonight, so I've got some guacamole and some salsa to make. Company is coming for the Fourth, so there is a little cleaning to do too. I'm happy that I got this quilt finished and posted in time to share it with you.  Have a great weekend!  

Aloha!! Back from vacation in Hawaii

 We had a wonderful time in Hawaii!  We spent almost two weeks on Oahu and on the Big Island.  Swimming, snorkeling, hiking, deep sea fishing....you name it we did it!  It was just amazing!  Seeing red hot lava up close and in person was spectacular.  We even got to poke it with a stick.  Seriously!!

Lava flowing towards the ocean

 On Oahu we stayed at the brand new Disney Resort, Aulani.  Wow!! The water slides and pools were amazing. Lots of Disney fun and hospitality! In the next few weeks I'll be sure to share some of our Hawaii trip with you with a few posts and lots of pictures.

The Lazy River at Aulani

Speaking of hospitality, in Hawaii I was so excited to meet up for the first time with a great blog friend of mine and fellow Schnibbler..........Is that even a word?  It is now!......... JoAnne!  You may know her from her blog The Patriotic Quilter.  She and her husband were so kind to meet us at the Honolulu airport with a lei for each of us!  A flower lei for me, a kukui nut lei for my husband and a candy lei for each of the boys.  Candy leis?  Yes, candy leis!  The boys were thrilled.....and as you can imagine, those candy leis have now been eaten, but I did make them let me take a picture before they were allowed to start eating..........have to get pictures for the blog you know!

Aren't these just wonderful leis?

The next day we visited Hanauma Bay with JoAnne and her husband and we had a wonderful time!  It was so nice of them to show us around the bay and help us find some great places to view the fish. We had so much in common besides quilting! It was like we had all known each other for years!  They are in the process of a huge move and I do hope they are doing well. Too bad they aren't moving close to Florida.  But who knows, we may have the opportunity to get together with JoAnne and her husband again.  I sure hope so!     

We met new friends at Hanauma Bay Nature Preserve.

Well, we are getting things back to normal here after vacation. A six hour time difference and eighteen hours of travel can set you back a bit!  I still feel like I lost a day somewhere along the line! We left Hawaii last Wednesday evening and got home to Florida last Thursday afternoon and its been raining ever since.  Good grief, so much rain!  I'm glad we saw lots of sun in Hawaii because there sure isn't any in our part of Florida right now.  I hope this storm passes by soon, before we all float away.  I hope everyone is staying cool and dry. Well, I'm off to watch the Olympic trials and enjoy a snack! 

Flowers!!

I've been taking some pictures of some of the flowers around my yard to show you.  Now here they are on Flower Friday!  Sorry........ I just couldn't stop myself from using alliteration here.

The fragrant magnolia in our front yard.  Remind me of this picture when I complain about picking up all of those giant leaves.  It's definitely worth it!

This Amaryllis was one we bought at Christmas a few years ago.  When it had finished blooming, we planted it here and it has just taken off.  The bulb is unbelievably huge now and it continues to create more flowers.  Can you see some of it in the background?

My hydrangea is only a few years old.  It's on the side of the house with morning shade and afternoon sun.  I've been cutting the flowers and keeping them in the kitchen this year. 

Daylilies!

These are new red petunias mixed with some ivy that I originally planted in this pot in the fall with mums. The ivy is still going strong, so I left it in for spring.  Last year, I painted this old pot with stone texture paint, because it was looking pretty sad and chipped. This year the paint still looks good!  It really revived this old pot.  

 We always plant some marigolds!  Yellow is a favorite color in my family.

I hope you enjoyed the garden tour.  Have a great weekend!

What Is That? Wednesday

Do you know??

A Mini-Quilt And Some Momentary Mayhem

We've been really, really busy with activities around here!  Sixth grade graduation, a birthday, participating in high school graduation as a grad marshal, exams, ice cream socials, cookouts, soccer tryouts, getting ready for summer......Sheesh!  So much going on! I haven't been the best about posting or commenting lately, and I'm really sorry about that.  I don't mean to neglect my blog friends!  Anyway, give me a few weeks and things should be back to "normal", whatever that means.  Is there a "normal" with two busy teen boys?  I'd love to know!

Beautiful!!

Recently I participated in a fun mini-quilt swap organized by Kris.  Michelle from L7 Quilt Co. was my amazing swap partner.  I was sooooo excited to receive this adorable mini-quilt made with Ruby fabric from Michelle in the mail.  Love it Michelle!!  Thank you!!

Don' t you love the way she had it all wrapped up with the treats inside the quilt?

She was so sweet to send along these fun goodies to go along with it.  Including a super cool old spool! I don't know about you, but I  enjoy seeing what other swappers give and receive, so I can snag some ideas for the next swap that I do!

Yes, the chocolate was open before I took the picture.  I couldn't resist!

Give me a day or two and I'll post pictures of what I made and sent to Michelle.  I still want to show you what I sent to my friend LeAnn too! I'm getting behind on my posts.  The end of the school year is so crazy! I'll catch up!  Be on the look out for some picture filled posts in the next few weeks as I play catch up!  

Doc

A few days ago I finished my Schnibbles Doc quilt!  Did you hear that?  A few days ago!!  That's a near record time for me!  On this one, I used two Curio Charm Packs and a Moda Grunge fabric that I was really happy with for the background. I'm excited about seeing the others in the parade very soon on Sinta's blog, and on Sherri's blog too! 

I was happy to be taking this picture outside, since the rain is over!

As those of you who made the quilt know, there was a choice of trimming the squares before or waiting until after the half square triangles were pieced to trim them.....there was some chocolate in there too....I found that choosing the trimming after option and using my new Fit To Be Quarter Ruler by Open Gate Quilts made this quilt a breeze!! Except for this part, and I have no one to blame for that mistake except myself!  

In progress....

I was lucky enough to win that Fit To Be Quarter Ruler on Nicole's blog Sister's Choice Quilts recently.  Thanks so much Nicole and Monique!!  What an amazing ruler!  It really helped me get those blocks squared up correctly, making everything go together like butter.  Love it when that happens! 

Delicious! Adding a few extra ice cream scoops right before serving to place the cones on is the plan for the next time we make this......which will be soon!! 

Yesterday was my older son's birthday! During the long weekend we made him this Salted Caramel Ice Cream Cone Cake and "hid" it in the freezer. The recipe came from this month's issue of Food Network Magazine.  It is so yummy!!  The ice cream melted faster than we expected during assembly, so the next time we make it, it might be done in stages instead of all at once. Chocolate fudge sauce, caramel,  ice cream, salt and cookies were flying everywhere as we frantically put it together.  But how could that be a bad thing? We had a great time!