Party Central...

It's party central at my house for my son's Grad party. What he's nicknamed his 'Rad, Grad Party'... I'm calm, cool and appear collected. But if you know me, really know me, you know that under that big smile is lists and lists of type 'A' things to do. And if you look close enough, you will see my eye twitch. (A sign that my brain is on overload.) Inside I'm freaking about all of the what if's.... what if no one comes.... what if the weather is crappy.... what if my pork recipe fails.... what if....well the list is long. A lot of the prep stuff can't be done until this Friday. I'm planning a huge trip to Costco for fruit, chips and buns... along with a few other things.... I'm also looking forward to frosting cupcakes with my sister on Friday! It'll be fun! (my kitchen will look like an episode of Cupcake Wars) 

My husband and I have been knocking ourselves out with painting and cleaning. My gardens are still a mess and I hope to get to them soon. I once had a neighbor do 'midnight' gardening under spot lights from her husband's shop. I thought she was nuts then. I'm now rethinking this... it's not such a bad idea. It might be the only way I get the gardens done! The downside is I will have to bathe myself in Off to keep the mosquitoes away.

I've spent some time making some fun stuff to set Thomas' party different from his friends... to make it special.... here's what I've been working on....

I'm making little graduation caps using a 1 1/2" square of black card stock,  a brad and some ribbon....
then I glue them onto a Reese Peanut Butter cup....

I made a whole bowl full for the party!
They are so stinkin cute! I love how they turned out...

I couldn't find cupcake toppers in Thomas' school colors (red/burgandy, black, gold) so I decided to make my own. With help from my sister, Stef.  (Her Cricut is awesome!) Some clip art from the web, I came up with my own cupcake toppers.

I used my hot glue gun and attached wooden picks from the dollar store to my toppers...

All ready for the cupcakes!

Stef helped my use her Cricut and cut out a bunch of letters...

for a banner!

I'll share photos from Thomas' Rad Grad party next week. Keep your fingers crossed that the weather is perfect!

Happy Quilting, Have a Wonderful Weekend,

I Love My Testers!

I sent 'Stars Over Cedar Creek' off to my group of testers about a month ago and they all did a fabulous job. I want to share with you their results while working on my pattern. They all had suggestions on how to improve and correct the pattern and I took everyone's input and came up with my revisions. After a few cups of coffee, a case of diet Mountain Dew, I'm pleased with the results. The pattern has been sent off to my sales reps and has been posted on my selling sites. So ladies.... Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!!  I am thrilled with their quilts! It is so much fun for me to see the quilts done in different fabrics... I hope that you enjoy the pictures as much as I have.

  Adele sent me these pictures...

I love the fabrics that Adele used on her test quilt.

Here is a close up of the fabrics and the borders.

Adele's 'Stars Over Cedar Creek'

 Margaret sent me these pictures....

Here Margaret is planning out her fabrics from her Civil War stash.

I love how she used fabric scraps to plan out her blocks. What a wonderful idea!

The blocks in process....

'Stars Over Cedar Creek'

Margaret.... thank you! (shhh... I'm in love with your beautiful quilt and home) Thank you for sharing your lovely photos. I love being able to put a face with the quilt!

Laurie sent me these pictures....

Laurie sent some wonderful detailed pictures.... here are some of them.
(Block A)

Block B

Block C

Block E

Block G

Block H

 Here are Laura's blocks, all labeled. Labeling your blocks is the key to putting this quilt together.

Laura's quilt, isn't it beautiful. Love the colors!

'Stars Over Cedar Creek'

I am in love with this new quilt and am pleased with how versatile the design can be. It uses a total of 8 fabrics (this includes two 'neutral' background' colors and does not include the borders). It can be easily adapted to several fabric lines. I used Townhouse Gardens by Paula Barnes from Marcus Brother but it would work up beautifully in any reproduction fabrics. As you can see my testers did a lovely job using fabric that they had on hand from their stashes! My new pattern is available on the Quilt Doodle Website, Etsy, Craftsy and also wholesale though Pattern Peddlers. I hope that you give this pattern a try. 

Happy Quilting,

Blueberry Cake

This is the easiest dessert recipe! So quick to throw together! It would be perfect to take to any gathering.... summer time is here and this may be my next go to recipe!

You will need one angel food cake, block of cream cheese,  cool whip,  can of  Blueberry  pie filling
and one cup of powdered sugar.

Using a mixer cream together the cream cheese and powdered sugar until smooth, fold in the whip cream.
Then toss in cubed angel food cake.

Spread in a 9x13 pan.

Top with the pie filling and refrigerate for a couple of  hours.

Yum!

Just think of the possibilities with this easy recipe.... cherry pie filling would be wonderful! Top it with fresh berries a dollop of whip cream, Yum!

Have a wonderful day!

Olive Juice.... Our Last Stop

 Here's the last stop on our quilting adventure that mom, Laura and I went on last week. I have wanted to visit Olive Juice Quilts since I saw a blog posting about the shop about a year ago. It has been on my must visit list for a while now. So when I saw it listed in mom's community ed book under the Quilt Shop Hop, I knew I had to go. Plus, it would be so much fun to spend the day with mom and Laura! I was giddy with excitement when we pulled up to this shop and it took all that I had to contain myself! I may have squealed in excitement when we pulled in the parking lot....

Love this shop!
Olive Juice Quilts
1258 County Rd PH
Onalaska, Wisconsin

Here we are entering the shop....

I just love these chairs! Laura offered to take a picture of me in  one of the chairs in the front of the shop, but I didn't want to stand out and look like a total geek.... now I wish I would have! Next time!

This is just one of the adorable samples that are on display....

Isn't this cool! This is on the wall of the sewing space Olive Juice has for classes. It is an awesome space and I'm sure it's a sheer joy to work in. I should have taken a picture to show you how wonderful the space was. The lighting was awesome.  I would drive from the Twin Cities to take a class here, it's that awesome.

Beautiful quilts can be found everywhere.... the hexie quilt was featured on the cover of Quilt Sampler Fall 2012 magazine.   Quilt kits for this can be found on their website.

The Batik wall is heavenly....

Here's a nice view of the shop... it just goes on and on, so much to see!

Quilt swag!!! I love swag!!! Thank you so much for the bag of goodies! Loved the chocolate, I have been enjoying the magazine. (Quilt Sampler Fall/Winter 2012)  Your story is wonderful! (pg 78) Directions for the Hexie quilt 'Making The Cut' can be found on page 84.

I had a ton of fun and picked up a 'few' fat quarters!

I loved this too!

Olive Juice Quilts can be found Online, they also have a facebook page too. Take some time to check it out. It is a wonderful shop, so if you can, plan a trip there. It's well worth the drive!

So I'm at the end of sharing my shop hop tour with you. Didn't it look like fun! You don't have to wait for community ed to put the tour together for you, gather up a couple of your friends and plan a shop hop of your own! You will have so much fun!

Happy Quilting,

June's Giveaway!

 

I have let the time get away from me again! I should have posted this on the 15th but I have been preoccupied with Grad party stuff. Today is clean out the office and exercise room. Oh so much fun and junk to pack up for goodwill. Then I'm off to re-organize my sewing/quilt studio. My dear hubby has piled painting supplies on the floor, so much so that I can't walk past my cutting table! Oh the sacrifices we make to get some work done in the house, lol.

Keep posting those June blocks to the Flickr Group! Seeing everyone's progress on the quilt is so much fun.  Six blocks done so far, we are halfway!  I have a wonderful giveaway for this month's block. Hoffman fabrics has sent me a box of fabric from their new lines and I'm sharing  4 ~ 1 yard cuts with one lucky winner! Remember you need to post your blocks to the flickr group for a chance to win! I will be picking a winner on July 1st! Keep posting your blocks!

You could win these!!!

Happy Quilting,

Here are some of the wonderful Grad Party blocks that have been posted so far...