New Magazine

I have really been trying to not buy as many magazines as usual. I subscribe to several quilting magazines, plus Martha Stewart, Country Living, Paula Deen, and Cook's Country. It is all I can do some months to keep up with those. However, last week I saw the newest issue of Fons & Porter's Easy Quilts and I loved the quilt on the cover. I am attracted to any pattern that includes stars. I picked it up and started looking through it, then found two other quilts that I loved. The one on the cover is called Primary Stars and was made from scraps, and my new mission is to use as many of my scraps as possible. Another pattern that I really liked is called Charade and could easily be made from scraps. It also has stars on it. These were my two favorite patterns in the magazine, although there were two others that I really liked. Both of these will have to go in the "Quilt in Waiting" stack.

One plus to both of these patterns is that they are quick and easy, with fairly large pieces and simple settings.

Wildflower Festival

For the last several years my husband and I have gone to the Wildflower Festival in Gatlinburg, TN. It is the last full week in April every year. Due to our jobs however, we just go up for the weekend. I left school early on Friday and we headed up to get there in time to pick up our hike information. Our first hike was scheduled for Saturday morning at 8:30, there were three guides, each with a different speciality. We felt lucky that one of the guides was an expert on survival in the wilderness, (he is a consultant to Man vs Wild on the Discovery channel) Joe great outdoors man wanted to listen to him. It was a wonderful hike, the wildflowers were all in bloom and I now know what I can eat, and where I can find water in the woods. But with my luck I would not be lost in the spring and if the plants didn't look the same I would have no clue. Our second hike in the afternoon was also very good. It was in an area of the park that we had not previously hiked. The trillium's were in full bloom, the one above is a painted trillium. We took our time driving back yesterday, stopping to do a shop walk on our own, people watching in Cherokee, NC. Cherokee has a Bike week the same week as the Wildflower Festival every year. I enjoy the ride through Cherokee just to look at everyone.

One thing I did enjoy seeing this year was the

painted bears. The Cherokee commissioned

25 native artist to paint bears representing

their culture. This one represents sunset. They are all magnificent.

Virtual quilt show

I first read about the virtual quilt show last several days ago on the Quiltville Yahoo group. I then saw that my friends Becky and Gretchen had blogged about their favorite quilts. I wanted to include my favorite quilt but I had two problems. The first problem I couldn't decide on my favorite quilt, secondly I had camera problems and needed to take new photos of my the tow that I had narrowed it down to. The first one I thought of was my Olivia quilt, this is the quilt that I keep at school. It is made from the Olivia fabric that came out several years ago. Olivia is one of my favorite characters and I really like pigs so this was my first thought for favorite quilt. It is also the first quilt that I went all out on the label. I went online and found an image that I could use of Olivia carrying books and saying reading never wears me out; since quilting and reading are two of my passions this was perfect.

After thinking, I decided that my favorite quilt is the one below with the neutrals and the red stars. Red is my all time favorite color, and I had been collecting neutrals for a while. This is one of the first quilts that I made that wasn't a kit. I love it. I am really thinking about making it again using black fabric instead of the red for the stars. That will probably be a project for another time!
Check out all of the beautiful quilts at Park City Girl. It has been a treat to look at all of them.

April UFO finished

So far I am on track with my goal to complete one UFO each month. The ones I have completed so far, just happened to be the ones that I really didn't have that much more to do. My remaining UFO's aren't as close to being finished. The one I finished last night is the batik version of Pat Sloan's Book Club BOM from last year. I was pleased with the way it turned out. Thanks to Bad Melissa for suggesting the dark turquoise for the corner squares and the middle border, it makes the blocks stand out a little more. I was actually surprised when my husband saw it last night and said he liked it. He usually doesn't like batiks, and this isn't something I would usually do. I used leftovers for everything except the turquoise fabric. Now, to get it quilted someday.

Weekend Fun

Weekend's are so much fun, but they go by soooo quickly. My husband and I went up to our cabin in Blue Ridge over the weekend. It was so good just to get away for a couple of days. On Saturday we went over to Dahalogena for their Bear on the Square arts and crafts festival. We had a lot of fun just looking at everything. There were a lot of crafts booths, fortunately I didn't see anything that I had to have. This year there was also a lot of different music groups playing. We had a lot of fun just listening to music and watching all of the people.

We drove back over the cabin on the "back roads", the drive is beautiful but very, very curvy. The weather was beautiful on Saturday afternoon so we went on a walk to look for some wildflowers. It was really too early for most of them to be blooming. We did see a lot of yellow wood violets, these were right behind our cabin. We also saw several baby, and I do mean baby mice, they are cute to look at out in the woods, I just don't want to find them in the house.

The Mighty Hunter

My husband is a hunter, he will hunt anything. His latest trophy was a turkey. Last week he went to Virginia to join some of his cousins on a turkey hunt. He had a great time hanging out with his family. Fortunately I don't have to worry about this trophy joining the others at our house. We already have three deer mounts, and a bearskin rug. I don't mind those at all, but I don't think that turkeys are the best looking of god's creatures. He did bring home the beard and fan. I can live with that.

Oops!!

I forgot to mention the great new blog I have discovered, A Quilting Life and the give away she is having. Here is the link. http://aquiltinglife.blogspot.com/

April Showers

We are definitely having our share of April showers here in Atlanta. The last few years have been major drought years for us, so the showers are welcome. It would be nice however to see the sun sometime this week. At least all of this rainy weather gives me a chance to read on of my favorite books at school this week, Thunder Cake by Patricia Polacco. This is the story of a little girl who is afraid of thunder, but with some help from her grandmother she over comes her fear and in the process makes a Thunder Cake. The recipe is included a the back of the book. It sounds very intriguing, it has tomatoes in it. I have never tried it, even though I say I am going to every time I read the book. Here is a link to the recipe if you are interested, http://www.patriciapolacco.com/participation/kidstalk/questions_week/week_3/cake_recipe.html

All of this rainy weather makes me want to stay at home curled up with a good book, and a cup of hot chocolate while taking breaks to work on some unfinished sewing projects.

Happy Easter

I am off to church this morning, I love going to church on Easter. I am excited about my husband coming home tonight,he left before I came back from my mom's house. I have a great dinner planned for him, leg of lamb, scalloped potatoes, peas, and an out of this world bread pudding. I even have him an Easter basket, or will have shortly. I just have to get up in the attic to get it down and then arrange everything in it. I hope everyone has a great Easter!

Spring Time in Mississippi

These are some of the azaelas in my Mom's yard. She has the most beautiful yard. These are in her backyard, we had to cover all of her plants twice while I was there. I can't believe how cold it was. I definitely didn't' take enough warm clothes. We were busy the entire time I was there. I got all of her yard work done, or all that she would let me help her with. She still insists on doing as much as she can, which is good for her. I know that she gets really lonesome. I picked up sticks, moved plants, re-potted plants, brought her deck furniture out of storage, and ran lots of errands for her. I think that everything has really just hit her. This is her first spring without my dad, and with the cancer she is having a hard time. The last thing that I helped with was getting her garden ready to plant. I came back on Thursday and haven't stopped since I got back. I spent all afternoon Thursday doing our yard work, and there is still a lot more to do. Friday was spent inside doing some overdue cleaning. I did take time out to make cookies. I tried a new recipe for cut out sugar cookies, and decided that I prefer the one that I usually use. This is just a sample of the ones that I decorated. (They aren't the best ones I have ever decorated) I also made blueberry muffins for our neighbors. We have the best neighbors. Joe has been out of town since I came back into town and the neighbors treat me like their daughter making sure I'm not working too hard, or that I know there is a storm coming. It is like having two extra sets of parents.

Today was spent running errands, I had to go back to Conyers and get the foot pedal for my machine, when I picked it up a couple of weeks ago, I didn't get home with it. Of course since I was already in Conyers I had to stop at Melissa's. I was very proud of myself, I bought backing for two Christmas quilts, out of her sale room, and a background piece for another project. I am really trying to cut back, especially after I cleaned my sewing room yesterday and realized just how much fabric I have. Now I just have to get some of it made.

Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend.

Inside of a dog it's too dark to read.

In anticipation of spring break I headed to the library yesterday afternoon. I think I overdid it. I don't think there is any way I can read all of these books in one week. I started one last night, the new Jennifer Chiaverini book, The Lost Quilter. I read about 50 pages last night and it is much better than her last one, The Quilter's Kitchen. I would have read more but it was the last night for ER and I had to watch that. I have been a fan since the beginning, I can't believe that I will have to find something else to watch on Thursday nights after 15 years. Our secretary at school had recommended the Suzanne Brockman book, so I thought I would try it. The others are either authors that I like or series that I am reading. I don't know how much reading I will get done next week, I am heading to Mississippi to help my mom out. She only has one more chemo treatment we hope. So far she hasn't been too sick, she just feels rotten. She has a huge list of things for me to do around the house. I hope to be back here on Wednesday or Thursday to get things done at my house. Have a great week everyone.

Fabric Explosion

Do you ever just let your sewing space get away from you? I most definitely have. I can't find anything, I have fabric stacked up everywhere.

There are patterns and magazines covering almost every flat surface. I really have good intentions and try to keep everything put away, but I get so involved in my sewing that it just doesn't happen. I started cleaning last night, it is definitely going to be a time consuming project. My sewing room is in the basement and part of the problem is storage or should I say lack of storage. I really don't have a good system for storing my stash. Which if I could get some of my projects made my stash wouldn't need storing. How do most of you store your fabric? I look at sewing rooms in magazines and get really frustrated, I can't imagine anyone really getting a lot done in some of those rooms. They are entirely too clean. I guess I just need to try harder.