saying goodbye to "sweet hearts"

Sweet Hearts was my second pattern ever. It was the design that made me decide that I'd really like to be doing what I'm doing now.

It has sold very well...but it's pretty old now, and it's time for Sweet Hearts to retire. As of the end of this month, it will disappear from my website.

Pam, as usual, came up with a cool idea. She thought it would be fun to send Sweet Hearts out with a bang. So that's what's going to happen!



She came over today and we got out some fabric...LOTS of fabric, actually, and played around with the motifs from the pattern. We ended up using the medium sized heart and the small one...and a couple of stems and leaves.

And here's the result!



That bigger heart is made from one of my favorite vintage napkins...and gotta love the big pink rick rack peeking out over the ruffle.

Best of all, I've got enough of everything left over to create FIVE kits. That's it--only five. Each kit contains a Dunroven House tea towel, all the fabric needed to duplicate my towel (including a piece of that awesome vintage napkin fabric), the pink rick rack and of course the pattern, and instructions for finishing the towel.

The price of the kit is $20, and that includes shipping. If you'd like a kit, please email me at latebloomerquilts@yahoo.com. If you're one of the first five, I'll email you back with full ordering instructions. It's a super fun project and it went together pretty fast too!



I'll be hanging my towel in the kitchen any day now. I'm determined to actually use it. Well, probably.

All kits have now been sold. If I can come up with the materials for more, I'll let you know. Thanks, everyone!

wanna see some quilts?

Just click here...and you'll be amazed by the gorgeous quilts that are on display at The Quilt Show's special exhibit at Road to California.

If you keep going, you might see a quilt that's a little familiar...
I'm quite humbled to have one of my "work quilts" among such amazing pieces.

I blame quilt market

Let me start by admitting that I'm really not a cook. It's not that I'm bad--I've never made anyone sick with my cooking (to the best of my knowledge), but it's just not my thing.
In my humble opinion, cooking takes too long, makes too big a mess, and the results are never adequately appreciated.

If you were to have corn muffins at my house, they'd have come from a mix.

Until today.

When Pam and I took our trip to Houston quilt market last fall and stopped in Fredericksburg, we ended up having lunch at Rather Sweet Bakery.

The name didn't ring a bell but as soon as we went inside, I realized I had heard of the place and the cookbook, but again, I'm not a cook.

What Pam and I ate there so enchanted me that I asked for the book for Christmas. A gift my husband was glad to provide!



First up? "Rather Rich Corn Muffins". What sold me on this recipe was the amount of butter and whipping cream it called for. That's right--3 cups of whipping cream, people!*



I will admit that shredded cardboard would taste good with enough dairy goodness thrown at it, so this seemed like a good recipe to start with.

I simply cannot express how amazing these muffins are. The smell, the texture, the TASTE (and the batter--believe me I licked off that beater).

There are a couple left if you want one--but they're going fast.



*I only had a pint of whipping cream so used milk for the rest of the liquid and that sure seemed to work.

please excuse me while I show off my loot!

Thanks everyone for the birthday wishes. It was an awesome day...now that my sons are pretty much all grown up it's great to get together for dinner--it just doesn't happen that much anymore. So that's what we did--had a delightful dinner at the San Leandro Marina.

If you follow me on twitter, you'd have heard about the ever so romantic gift from my husband--a Ped Egg. Yup, that's right! He also included a box of 100 Calorie Snickers bars so I guess his heart's in the right place (?) I am a sucker for gadgety things, so I did have to try it out. And without getting too graphic, it does do a great job but eww, so creepy.

The highlight of the afternoon was when Pam came over. She is the absolute master of gift-giving. It's so hard to shop for her because it's impossible to even come close with a gift for her--it's terribly intimidating. She always knows exactly what I'll love--and manages to find things I can never find on my own.

Check out the vintage breadbox. It's perfect! The photo isn't great but I wanted you to see how it looks with the valance nearby.


And this milkglass pot in my very favorite shade of pink...with a miniature rose inside.

As a decal-obsessed person I'm always looking for vintage examples. Garden girls seem particularly tough to find. Look at this girl on the tin!


Finally, I about hit the floor when I saw this letter "E". Pam bought it from our pal Becky, who always has the very best stuff (I think I have something from Becky in almost every room of my house!)

I hope 2010 continues on in such a merry way--while I'm grateful for a friend like Pam I'm also so blessed to be able to enjoy time with my family. I don't think I'll ever get used to hearing eldest son order a margarita in a restaurant tho...how did he get old enough for that to happen???

Happy New Year!

With the beginning of a new year, I'm hoping we can all enjoy the old...

Look forward to playing with the new...


and continue to inspire each other to create new things.

As a quilter, I'm hoping the new year brings vintage roses, lots of polka dots, and happy colors. How about you?

holiday fun

I got to spend yesterday with two of my favorite people...Pam and Alex were both at my house for a visit.
Much fun was had by all but it is weird to have people aiming cameras at your stuff!

Alex had a new camera to play with and you know Pam ALWAYS has her camera with her.


If you want to see a few good photos, head on over to Pam's.

This is probably it for me for a few days...the house will once again be filled with extra noise and testosterone, so I've got lots to do to get ready for that.

I hope everyone has the merriest of Christmases!

thank you!

I've never been so happy to stitch a label on a quilt as I was yesterday.

I want to thank everyone for participating in the auction...even if you just left a sweet comment, because those are always appreciated too!

A special thank you goes to Liz for her generous bid. The money is already in Ireland and the quilt will be on its way to its new home this morning!

Dolly Dresses + You

So here it is! My version of the Dolly Dresses quilt. I'm so happy that Holly asked me to be a part of this fun event. I really liked the way Holly's panel did so much of the work for me, so I kept the center of the quilt very simple, using her preprinted sashing.



Some of the dresses sport rickrack, others have ribbon, but every dress has a yo yo. I've been loving scallops lately, so it was a natural for me to applique rickrack trimmed scallops onto the border.



The quilt finishes at 49" x 60" and is backed with the same snowy white dot as the border.

Darla Padilla of Wildflower Quilting did a lovely job quilting it for me.



I hope you've been enjoying all of the wonderful projects created by the other designers. Some have provided kits, some just plenty of inspiration. Mine's a little different...

If you've followed along with me for awhile, you may know of my love for Ireland. I've had two brief visits and both times wanted to stay...like maybe forever! Maybe it's a sort of racial memory, but both Ireland and Scotland somehow feel like home.

Recently there has been terrible flooding in Ireland. Epic flooding. And there are many people there who need some assistance.

Sherry, the editor of Irish Quilting Magazine, has been doing a lot to get the word out about this cause. You can click here for more information on how you can help.

Here's what I'd like to do:

The dolly dresses quilt pictured above will be auctioned off, with all proceeds going directly to help the people in Ireland.

The auction begins right now and will close at 9:00 pm, Pacific time, on Monday, December 21st.

To bid on the quilt, leave a comment with your bid amount. The winner will be the person who has left the highest bid.
The winner will be able to send the money directly to Sherry via the Irish Quilting paypal account, and I will be standing by to race to the UPS guy with your quilt the minute the money is sent.

And please, spread the word! I'm hoping this little quilt can provide even more warmth for the people who could use our help.

is this what it feels like

when you're ninety? Seriously! This month has just not been going the way I'd planned. My sinus infection has left me so tired that it feels like every day I'm moving at half-speed. So obviously some of the many things I'd planned to make will be a bit delayed. Like maybe months delayed.

But that's not the end of the world!

I've still managed to get one of my favorite Christmas quilts hung...

and bits of the upcoming holiday are showing up here...


and here...

and here...

and even in the downstairs bathroom, which I'd show you but can't figure out how to take a picture in there.

I'm trying to save my energy for finishing my Dolly Dresses quilt...my day is coming up next week and I hope you'll come back to see the quilt and hopefully participate in what is being planned for it! And if you haven't been following along, you need to see what the other designers have done with Holly's doll dress panels. There are some awfully cute projects out there.


So there's really lots more to get done around here...but all I really want to be doing is what he's doing.

sweet (and not so sweet) distractions

It was great to have the whole family home for the long Thanksgiving weekend...and the family grew by one member when Middle Son and his girlfriend adopted a 4 month old kitten. I'd like you to meet Olive!



She's such a sweetie and I love her to pieces and miss her ready purr already. When she was taken to her new home on Sunday I'm told she fell asleep on the center console of their car for most of the hour-plus ride home.



Yet ANOTHER sinus infection has made sewing difficult,(so I'm way behind where I'd hoped to be at this time) but gluing stuff onto other stuff is always manageable. I loved these little snow guys I found at Target...but a bit of seam tape and some millinery flowers makes them sweeter. I'd figured on having guy-girl couples, but the boys just seem so naked now...so they've come back upstairs to be prettied up a bit.

Got out for the first time in AGES today with Pam...she took me to a super cool antique shop and I'm pea green over the shelf she got! With SCALLOPS. Be sure to ask her to show it to you. It's amazing.

So that's it for today...now that the super sized antibiotics are kicking in, I should have more Christmas stuff to show you really soon.

Coming Soon!

I'm pretty sure Monica was the first to make the announcement, and NOBODY can top her when it comes to mad Photoshop skills. If only I could make my real washing machine look like that.
So yes, you'll definitely want to be checking in with Holly starting on Friday, Dec. 4...she'll be telling you all the details.

Suffice it to say there will be lots of sweetness and cute.

P.S. No guinea pigs were harmed in the making of this lame little banner.

family

This is of course the time of year when we officially express gratitude for all our blessings and "family" is at the top of the list.

All families are unique, and ours is no exception, being a 100% ginger family.

Did you know that only 2% of people in the US have red hair? The greatest concentration of redheads is in Scotland and Ireland, and the numbers there aren't all that big either.

I'm pretty sure we've covered the entire red-hair spectrum in our household. I am not kidding--people used to stare at us when we'd be out together as a family. It wasn't uncommon for people to approach our table at restaurants--always to ask about our hair!

And by the way...people ask pretty amazingly inappropriate questions when you have red hair, but I'm NOT going there!

I was having fun going thru some old photos today and here's what I found:



Me, in 3rd grade.



Here's a fairly current pic of my husband...all of his kid-pics are in black and white. You know, because he's older than me...



Eric's 2nd grade photo really showed off the strawberry blond of his hair...



Nick, here at age 2, has the REDDEST hair of the clan and used to get teased for it, but ended up winning "Best Hair" in school. Go figure.



Jeff, my youngest, has brownish-red hair...it's browner now than it was when this pic was taken back when he was 5, but still definitely "red".

"Gingers" may be mocked by some (I was appalled to read a news item recently that a kid was attacked in school because some Facebook post called for redheads to be beaten up) but my kids wear their hair proudly.

I found out about this site just today and can't wait to get a copy of the book! It'll be on our coffee table for sure.

Well, it's about time for me to check and see how well our turkey is thawing...the next few days are going to be very busy for most of us and I want to make sure I got the chance to wish you all a very happy Thanksgiving!

I'm a sucker for scallops

There sure seem to be a lot of scallopy things in my life these days:

Trying to make a lampshade for the family room...kinda-sorta following these instructions...



Then there's the cutest-ever cakestand I was thrilled to find at Target (Melvin not included).



And I'm knee-deep in sewing secret scallops...I can only show you a peek, but more real soon!

P.S. Do you see me, Jocelyn? I'm waving to you!

I did it!!

First of all I want to thank all of you for commenting about the tablecloths...I really needed some advice on this. The overwhelming verdict was to CUT THEM UP and so I did! I've still got a few that remained in one piece...a couple that really are too nice and a few that weren't the right colors.

So one night I couldn't sleep...decided to get up and DO something. Went into the studio, picked up my gramma's old scissors for confidence, grabbed an old tablecloth and CUT. It probably wasn't too smart that the very first item to be sliced was my very favorite, and after cutting I realized that I wasn't entirely sure that the piece would be the right size.



I did have to make some adjustments but no tablecloths were wasted. I had to make a total of seventeen of these...and because of the way things turned out, I ended up making 2 of them out of a piece of striped new fabric, which you'll see on the kitchen window.

I'm super happy with the way this project turned out and my granny kitchen is getting a little brighter and more colorful every day. I don't think my family is thrilled with the new look, but now that my kitchen is happier, I'm wanting to spend more time in there and they are benefitting from that. So all good! And on to new pillows, cushions, and the like.



So there you have it--the newly adorned kitchen window. I'll show the rest of the windows in a future post. For those of you who may have a similar dilemma to mine, I have to say that the first cut is the hardest!

And I'm trusting that Judy in Michigan is correct when she commented that she's "...sure there are other tablecloths circling the globe...". I think that's a delightful image--bright, well-loved tablecloths floating somewhere above just waiting for a fabric lover to find them!

It all started with this:

At Quilt Market, while visiting Holly at her booth, she pulled out a chunk of this fabric and asked offhand if I'd like to take it home with me. Well she didn't have to ask me twice!
I love love love that print--I'm sure if I wasn't so busy sewing I'd be making desserts like that all the time. Don't believe me? How 'bout just at Christmas time? Still no? You're right. But that fabric is so cool, don't you think?

I'm normally not a huge fan of pearlized fabrics, but at Christmas time I see it all differently.

And what I was seeing was some new projects for my house for Christmas!

Every year it's the same thing with Pam and me. I try to suck her into my feverish holiday decorating frenzy and I know she feels drawn in but at the same time has to fight her Inner Grinch. I'm so happy that she was asked to participate in the Cross Country Christmas blog hop because she's having to immerse herself in Christmas goodness day after day and I'm hoping that this year I'll be able to take advantage of her weakened defenses and can talk her into having the same kind of fun that I do!



So anyway, that's where it started. I already had some of that particular line of fabric (LakeHouse Teatime Florals 2) but went over to the Fat Quarter Shop to grab some other bits, since the more options the better, right?



I've added tulle, a chunk of swirly white fabric, some vintage dresden trim, cheapo ornaments from Target, and I think I'll make some more felt doves from this pattern.



I already have plenty of birds and pale colors for my living room tree--here's a pic of last year's--and I think it'll be fun to work some of these new items in.

Can't forget the Granny Kitchen and family room...I've been busy collecting items for that area as well.


Vintage fabric, a favorite stripe and some inexpensive cotton from Joann's are forming a sweet little collection!




Some of Martha's glitter, the cutest .99 felt stars from Target and some stars of my own are forming their own little pile in another part of the studio.

So far all I've done is gaze at my assortments of goodies. I've been busy making valances, after all! (More on that to come). But tomorrow I'll be getting my plans in order--I'm seeing quilted runners, pillows, pictures and who knows what all else.

And since I've gone and told you all about it, this will make me actually finish...and I'll be sharing my progress so be sure to check back! There might even be some fun things for you as well...