great start to the week

While I should have been home sewing, Pam and I were presented with an opportunity we just couldn't pass up...



Here we go, across the bay...



To visit a friend who just happened to be in the area...



Pam now has her coffee, so let the hours of chatting commence!



How on earth will we decide what to have for dessert? Luckily, any choice is a good choice here...



Holly let me use the most delightful placemat for my cake...

It was a great visit (if you haven't yet taken a peek at Holly's upcoming fabric on her blog, go over there right now...and trust me...the coordinating prints are just as wonderful.

The visit had to come to an end...if we stayed much longer we'd be ordering dinner. Not like that would have been a bad thing...



Easy to get distracted on the way back to the car.



And it's back across the bay for us...always oddly comforting to see San Francisco in the distance.

Now tomorrow, it's sewing and more sewing!

moving day!

Yay!! They're finally moved and settled in...here's Nick taking a break...


and here's the quilt! Too big for them to hold it except for sideways...I am not a contemporary quilt designer so decided it would save time and effort to find someone else's pattern to use. Even better, this is a freebie!

You can't see the quilting--but Darla of Wildflower Quilting did an awesome job.

They had TEN people help move them...not sure how I managed to get a couple pics without random arms and legs!


It's probably a good thing I'm too far away to visit them frequently...because I am ITCHING to iron those slipcovers and switch the positions of those two lamps.
I know, I know...it's their apartment...

But it is cute and I'm so happy they let me in on the fun!

apartment warming

After I completed the top for Nick and Kari's quilt (more on that later!) I was faced with a rather impressive pile of leftover fabrics. Tragic, right? I didn't want to overwhelm my son and his girlfriend with mom-made stuff, but it was tough to stop.



They agreed that custom pillows might be cool, so this is what I came up with. I used the pillow pattern in this book (which I just happen to have on hand...)



Here's what the back looks like, so you can see it's basically a reversible pillow, which will allow Kari to flip Nick's over if she'd like to ignore him for awhile.
Which trust me--will happen.



I couldn't let my previous potholder experience deter me--I discovered that round ones are ever so much easier to bind.



For this very utilitarian towel, I fused a strip of the quilt's focus fabric on the front and added rick rack.



For the dish towels, I traced the bird image from the fabric, enlarged it and appliqued it to the front of a dishtowel. The circle towel coordinates well, plus it was darn easy to do.



I figured they didn't have refrigerator magnets, so I covered a couple of buttons and glued heavy duty magnets to the back.



Finally, I added this super cool tile trivet I found here on Etsy!

All of the projects were lots of fun and kept me occupied during the waiting days before the big move.

P.S. If you haven't been over to The Quilt Show yet this week, you need to go check out the Daily Blog posts--we had SO MUCH FUN! Be sure to enter Pam's contest so you can win a Star membership of your own!

from this...

I know, not very inspiring, is it...



To this...
Hey, it may have possibilities...



To this:

and finally, to this!



Which reminds me...now where did I put that quilt??!

sewing savant

It's no surprise that I love making quilts. It's actually more accurate to say that I love sewing.

Applique has never really been a problem for me--of course I have gotten better with practice.


This morning I have to admit I came across a project that completely defeated me. After ripping it apart four times, yes four times, this is the best I could do. Here it is, in all its wonky, misshapen and barely-held-together glory:




Beaten by a potholder.
Sigh.