Irish Circles

I fell in love with this quilt,  blogged about in March of 2012, by Barbara Brackmn. I read the article she wrote on it and found that a nice lady, in Australia, made this beauty, so I wrote and asked about joining the block a month. Since it was a bit unrealistic, to have BOM's sent from Australia, to the US, Karen drafted the patterns out and sold the set to me.

I am so fickle when it comes to my quilts. I should finish my UFOs, but they can wait...can't they?
                                                                                            

Free postage for Cyber Monday!

Take advantage, yes, it's free postage, even to Australia or Germany or anywhere else. Now is the time to stuff those envelopes ladies, and gentlemen! I have added some fun new charm packs and coated fabrics...they will be posted in the morning...lots of French General, new Grunge fabrics and some fun new little bitty charms!

I am having the free postage for cyber monday until December 1st. Thank you for supporting my little shop on etsy! Now, back to my never ending Christmas gift list~~Elaine

Christmas countdown

4 boys flannel Christmas quilts
    something special for the boys mommy who is not married to their daddy any longer. She has raised the boys into sweet decent children who kick butt playing football!

boy and girl flannel Christmas quilts
    dinner certificate for mom and dad

2 girl flannel Christmas quilts
    dinner certificate for mom and dad

queen size quilt, disappearing 4 patch using Momo fabrics for daughter and son in law, she went gaga over             Momo...good choice!

I already have a huge wee head start on most a few of the projects I listed. Wish me luck and stop laughing! I have a carrot dangling. My Christmas present just for me! Not pricey until you add the shipping! Half as much as the new Princess but what the heck. Sometimes you just gotta do what makes you happy. She makes me happy.

What kind of projects do you have going for Christmas?
                                                  

Hello, Pinterest...?

2 tea towels from Ikea, 49 cents each

                                                                                  Assorted buttons from the button tin, pennies each.

                                                                           










A neon flamingo kitchen nightlight, priceless.

Just another Pinterest moment in an unfinished remodel. I love it! Now back to my binding, just wanted to share!

The girls

The earth family came to visit over the labor day weekend. This is the original earthbaby "riding" Billy the Kid, our stud horse. She even has the proper head gear on. He has never been broke to ride so daddy and peepaw assisted her.

                                                                                                                                      

 Ok, I'm famished now, by peepaw, by Billy and daddy. I'm going to see what grams has for me.

Love watching this baby eat watermelon! I think it's a timeline for Alex, eating the melon! Next year will be both happy girls mooshing down melon!

     This our latest addition to earthfamily. Alex's little sister, Tatiana, who always looks like the happiest baby in the world.                                                                            

                                                                                  Alex and Tatiana had a great time, so did the grands! What did you do for Labor Day?

                                                                              






***update: on the last giveaway winner, Jen, who was on vacation, wrote to say she was home and was it too late, nah, never! She has sewn for 20 years but has no stash...yet. Congrats Jen, we'll hope to see some quilty pics from you soon.***

                                                                      

UFO no more!

 I straight line machine quilted this top. You may remember from several months ago, I made 2 of these tops, so one to go.

 I used Gulliver's Travels backing, 54" wide. The quilt is finishing in at 42" square.

I put a quirky binding on, French fold, originally 2.5" wide. I do most of my bindings at 2.5" wide, then toss the excess into a bin, only if it's a fair length. I like to make pieced bindings for baby quilts and  piece several lengths together. Do you ever do that with your leftovers?










I might be a wee bit more creative on the next top, who knows....take care~~have a great Labor Day.

not much going on...

...just sewing a binding down on an auction quilt for my grandsons parochial school,  and dreaming. I can't help but laugh when I am deep into the process of a quilt.

                                                      



I would pick up a vintage quilt at an antique shop or flea market and wonder what SHE was thinking while making this, I have no idea, but now I feel connected.

                                                                        



I guess we all have our dreams and secret thoughts.

I would have liked to drink a cup of tea with her.

I have liked to have traded a scrap or two so I could finish my quilt top.

In case you were wondering, this is the quilt my friend chose. She did however, wish to purchase the other quilt. They are off to the long arm lady to work her magic, can't wait to get them back. Have a great day, Elaine
                                                                                          
                                                                            
                                                                             

Jen is the 1st winner!

Jen is the layer cake winner, whooot, whooot!! Now if you other 3 sweet ladies would like a "package" in the mail, I would so like that, pop your snail mails to me via email:
echristian851@gmail.com
and I will happily pop it off to you. Thanks for reading, Elaine

Hmmm, maybe a charm pack of sew stitchy....

                                         
or maybe a sampling of Little Black Dress, aren't they gorgeous? If you do have a preference, Janet, Lizzie and BeeBee, please let me know before Monday when I send the packages out. Thanks for playing along,
have a great evening, Elaine

I messed up!

My friend at work was telling me a few months ago that she needed some "umph" in her bedroom, that maybe she needed to do "something" to make it more conducive to sleep. She works 3rd shift and needs to sleep during the day.

I volunteered to whip up a runner for her dresser. You know, 2 blocks wide, maybe 5 blocks long....










And like any good persistent quilter, it quickly went crazy on me and ended up growing into a king sized quilt top.....what was I thinking?

                                                                                            









It was a lot of fun!

                                                                                              I love making this string type of quilt, such freedom! Then it had to have a border of zebras, oh, and a lime green border on that.


It's finished. The top.

   King sized.










Now, for the backing, I thought about doing a pieced back.

                                                                                   You know where this is going, right? It grew on it's own. I took them to my long armed magician and she told me it wouldn't work, it would become wavy and I should make them into 2 quilts.

         I asked my friend which she would like, the first one or the second one.










So, here's the deal. Tell me which quilt top she chose. I'll pick a winner on Friday and pop a surprise in the mail for you. It could be a layer cake or...?  Enter more then once. Just let me know your email in your entry so I don't have to dig around for it.                                                                            

A little cooking please!

One of my favorite blogs is by a lady in Australia. I have followed her and loved reading her posts about cleaning house with non-chemicals, using natural ingredients; cooking with down home honest foods, nothing super expensive; she makes her own bread and soaps; knits dishcloths, sweaters, etc. She makes her own vinegars and ginger beer! Check it out when you have a bit of time, http://down---to---earth.blogspot.com/
One of her latest posts was about making a hearty soup. Off to the farmers market for some root veggies. I found

                                                                    












new potatoes, , onions, , then to the grocery store  for carrots, a turnip, rutabaga (called a Swede by Rhonda~~who knew?) and flat leaf Italian parsley. Mine dried up in the heat/drought we had this summer. I wanted a parsnip but It's too early in the season, it's more of a fall veggie here in the US. So is the rutabaga but I found one. Guess what? It's imported from Canada and is coated in wax! WT....? That's ok, most of the veggies I saw in Canada are imported from the US! Now I'm laughing. Ok, on to cooking.

                                                                                  I followed Rhonda's recipe as much as possible. I made the meat balls from hamburger, I also used ground pork, she didn't, and was going to use that little package of ground turkey, but popped it in the freezer instead, maybe next time.

                                                                               I have never used barley before, strange, I guess I never thought about it. I love the flavor. Rhonda rinsed hers, I just used it out of the box. Was I supposed to wash it first? I cook with Quinoa. Oh dear. The Quaker made it, it must be ready to eat, right?

I popped 1/2 cup in the soup. Yummo!




I first cooked soup bones down with salt, pepper, water and a bay leaf, removed the bones and fed the meat to the Ferrel cats who eat snakes. I love them for that.

                                                                                I cut carrots, potatoes, rutabaga, onions, turnip and fresh parsley, put them into the new stock along with the barley, and simmered for a few hours.

Then I mixed the meats together with salt, pepper, fresh parsley, onions, minced garlic, bread crumbs and 2 eggs. I also grated up a small package of parmasean cheese and a healthy pinch of dried Italian herbs. (I had picked up on close out. It goes bad? Weird, but it was 1/2 price.)  I mixed very well and made meatballs about walnut size, per Rhonda, then added some to the soup and let them simmer gently for about 1/2 hour.

  I formed 2 cookie sheets full of meatballs and popped them in the freezer. I'll separate them into several baggies in the morning and will have them on hand for different dishes.   





This is the soup. It tastes so good. This recipe is a keeper! Let me know if you try this.

Then go see Rhonda and her awesome tutorials of a simple life lived frugally.                                                              

No difference

I was a bit disappointed with the colors showing in my quilt tops, kinda muddy and dark. So I tried another pic indoors....still looks muddy, hm?

Back to the drawing board....

                                                                                 

My days off

On my days off I had decided to tackle a few UFO's. I ended up with 3 tops, watched the cooking channel and stayed indoors. It's 105 F today. My lawn is suffering because we don't water. Our drought continues on. It didn's stop Billy the Kid from rolling in the sand to cool off. Now, to get them quilted...have a great week, Elaine

66"x82" or 9 patches with 8" squares