Starry Night?

I'm not sure that anyone will ever accuse me of being the next van Gogh, but at least I have a good start on my block for the Ithaca Modern Quilt Guild's Starry Night quilt project.  The pieces are just fused down for now.  I will finish it up once I see how well my block plays with the others at Sunday's guild meeting.

Free Quick & Easy!

This is the second charity quilt that I have made using this Free Quick & Easy Pattern from See How We Sew and I absolutely love it!  It's the perfect size quilt for kids and a great pattern for using fat quarters or just leftover fabrics, like I did with this quilt.  I even used a few extra blocks across the back to make it a little more interesting!  This quilt will soon be on it's way to our local foster care program.

Silent Sunday

Vintage Quilt at the Packwood House Museum

Not Quite A Flimsy

Here are my scrappy star blocks from the Scrappy Star Sew Along all together with sashing and scrappy cornerstones.  The top still needs another border, so it isn't quite a flimsy yet, but it's getting closer!

Spinning Round And Round

Hello, my name is Susan and I have a fiber addiction. Seriously!  For years I have been saying that I do not need to know how to spin my own yarn (as much as I wanted to learn)! Somehow the subject of spinning came up while talking with a friend and she mentioned that she had a spinning wheel,all the equipment, and the know-how if I wanted to learn. I think I said no, but I must have meant no and said yes, because I ended up with a drop spindle, wool roving and a lesson.
I honestly think I need some kind of 12 step program before I end up with a spinning wheel and a sheep!

Tumbling Along

Here is my MLQG Finish 6 Challenge quilt all finished and ready for show and tell at tonight's guild meeting!
Once again, I really don't know why I never quilted this top.  I even had a backing all pieced and ready to go with it and it really didn't take long to quilt it once I got it loaded on the frame. I think if there's a lesson to be learned from this challenge it is to follow through and finish each and every quilt whether it has a home to go to or not!  There's really no good reason at all to have a basket full of quilt tops taking up space in the sewing room! 

Silent Sunday

Vintage Quilt at the Packwood House Museum

Chocolate Lava Cake

Mmmm...chocolate lava cake!  It's the perfect Valentine's Day dessert, but do yourself a favor and line the bottom of your oven with extra foil in case the cake goes all Mt. Vesuvius on you while it's still in the oven (and even if it does erupt and makes a burned on chocolate mess, it's still worth the effort)!

Chocolate Lava Cake

1 cup flour
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoons baking cocoa
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup milk
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup baking cocoa
1 3/4 cups hottest tap water
 
Mix flour, granulated sugar, 2 tablespoons cocoa, the baking powder and salt in ungreased square pan, 9x9x2 inches. Mix in milk, oil and vanilla with fork until smooth. Spread in pan.

Sprinkle brown sugar and 1/4 cup cocoa over batter. Pour water over batter.

Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes or until top is dry.

Let stand for at least 15 minutes and spoon warm cake into dessert dishes. Top with ice cream, if desired. Spoon sauce from pan onto each serving. 

The Quilt Brought To You By The Letter M

The latest assignment for my art quilt group was to create a quilt using a letter of the alphabet as inspiration.  A couple of different ideas came to mind, but I finally settled on free piecing a letter M for each person in our immediate family.  I enlisted the help of my four granddaughters when it came to selecting the fabrics and was I ever surprised when all of the colors they chose blended together!  I honestly thought I would end up with a wild rainbow of colors to fit together in one quilt.  Another surprise came when I was trying to figure out how to space eleven M's evenly in this quilt...as it turns out there will be twelve M's in our family with the birth of our sixth grandchild in August, so I was able to add another M for the new grandbaby.  I guess you could say that this challenge quilt really was a family project!

Silent Sunday

Vintage Quilt at the Packwood House Museum

Back In Rhythm!

I put this top together during a mini retreat back in November when my heart problems first started.  Over the last three months, I've had a lot of doctor's appointments, tests and different medications. Finally the doctor has found the right drug to regulate my heartbeat and everything seems to be back in rhythm again...including my quilting!  Now to make up for lost time and get caught up! 

What Have I Gotten Myself Into?

A couple of months ago I joined the newly formed Ithaca Modern Quilt Guild.  It is such a fun group and their excitement about modern and art quilting is very contagious!  So contagious, in fact, that when I said over and over that I wasn't going to join in the Starry Night quilt project, I still came home with a block to make!  This is a group project where we all were given a section of van Gogh's Starry Night to reproduce in fabric, so somehow in the next few weeks I have to take the above photo and turn it in to a quilt block.  What have I gotten myself into?

Knitting In The Park

Silent Sunday

Cold And Nasty

It's been cold and nasty and I've had a nasty cold...the perfect combination for doing nothing more than crocheting edging on fleece blankets while watching TV.  These blankets will soon be on their way to kids going into foster care.

For more information on how to make fleece blankets like these click HERE.