Zig Zag Rainbow

After starting this quilt in September, I am finally finished.

I worked on it little bit by little bit through the fall when I didn't feel too well.

It's a bit of a bittersweet finish for me. This quilt reminds me of our wee little one who is with the Lord.

I plan to hang this in the girls' room for now to cover up a few scratches on the wall.

PS My husband and I are going on a long overdue evening out without kids on Saturday. My sister is coming at 5:00 to babysit. We are going out for dinner but what else should we do? Something fun. We need to have some fun. Yup, I'm asking you for dating advice. Maybe some of you local peeps have some ideas for us?

Red and White

When I was visiting Suzanne in January we made a little window topper for her kitchen window. We found a piece of cute red and white gingham in a box of fabric and whipped up a cute and free window topper.


I told her I'd make her some new potholders to match for her birthday.

And you know what? I made good on my word. For once.

Her birthday was on Saturday and she got them today. Only two days late. When have I ever been so on time?

Potholders are fun to make. A mini quilt with a purpose.

More pot holders to come... :-)

Edited to add a picture of them in my kitchen with my nice red gingham window topper.  Thanks again Alisa!!

 

Linking up to Fabric Tuesday. Check out what others are making!

Emmeline Apron 2

I'm usually pretty real time with my blog posting but this one is over a month ago already.



I made it for my s-i-l's birthday in February. I took photos of her wearing it but they didn't turn out well at all. Not that she looked bad, mind you, they were blurry and out of focus because I had my camera settings wrong.



Melissa does a pretty good job of modelling it but it does look better on Karen, that's for sure! :-)

Happy Birthday Suzanne!

Happy 29th Birthday! May the Lord bless you today and throughout the year.

"Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever." - Ps 118:29

I love you!

Alisa

Food Friday

This week we wanted to share with you a few of our favorite food blogs...

Tammy's Recipes has lots of good, healthy, cheap meals and a few not so healthy but yummy desserts and snacks :)  Our family loves her Taco Grande Pizza recipe!

Cooking During Stolen Moments is also a great resource with recipes geared to family eating. Alisa's family loves the chicken ranch quesadillas, ground beef strogonoff and many other meals.

I also really like Smitten Kitchen for something a little more out of the ordinary or decadent.  Great photos too!

Mennonite Girls Can Cook is a blog with many fun but basic recipes.

Our Best Bites is a one that Alisa just recently discovered. Not just recipes but also tips and tricks. Amazing food photography!

So...what are your favorite food blogs? We want to know.

It's a Top!

Have a good week everyone!



I'm linking up to

Food Friday

Of course after Suzanne and I decide to dedicate Fridays to all things food, we start Spring Break and I am either a)serving freezer meals or b)serving leftovers or c)going out for fast food (gasp!) Baking has been pretty non-existent this week too. So I'll start my turn at Food Friday with some not-so-great photos of Gord's birthday cake. To be eaten tonight.

It can hardly be called 'homemade' as it's a box cake mix.

The icing is made with whipping cream, chocolate pudding mix, icing sugar and instant coffee powder. I just wing it with the amounts.

I admit that I don't like making cakes or desserts that much. I'd much rather just eat them!

What about you... making cakes, eating cakes or both? :-)

Have a good weekend!

A girly baby gift and card

I finished up this pretty receiving blanket a couple weeks ago but didn't have any baby cards in the house so this afternoon I made one using this tutorial from Craft Apple.  Super cute and easy too!

I think I might go get some more fusible web and make a bunch of these cards :)

Stitching with the Kids

Oh what fun we had! My kids totally surprised me with their enthusiasm about quilting.

I figured on a few days to make all the blocks for a baby size quilt. But it only took today. They just didn't want to stop.

I loved it! It was one of the best days I've spent with five kids at home on a rainy day.

They worked together very well.

But, I am tired now. The kids are in bed, except for Benjamin. He still wants to sew some of the blocks together tonight. He's like me, doesn't want to quit until it's all finished.

So, how does it look so far?

31/2 Years Later...

...and I've finally made headway on my "Yellow and Blue" Bento Box quilt!

These fabrics were all bought in the Summer of 2007 when we made a cross-country trip from London, Ontario to Chilliwack, BC and back again. We travelled through the states and any time we spotted a quilt store (and there were lots of them!) we stopped and I picked up a yellow and blue fat quarter.  I kept track of where they all came from and plan on incorporating that on the back somehow.

Look what I got on Saturday!!

I'm so excited!!  I played around with it a bit already and so far my favorite features are the needle up/down and the presser foot lift.  I can set it to lift the presser foot just a but when I take my foot of the peddle!  Now imagine that when chain piecing - it works like a charm!  I can't wait to try it quilting!

Here's to hoping I get my sewing mojo back again!

What's all that mess in my sewing room?

Working on my Freebird quilt. I started it at the quilt retreat last Saturday and I've been working on it a bit every day. See all those circles? All appliqued by hand. They were fun!



Another stack of blocks. I need to make 14 more log cabin blocks and I'll have the blocks finished. I am really enjoying the process of making this quilt.



My little zig zag quilt. It's basted and waiting to be quilted.



A pile of strips. Benjamin and I have been cutting these up for a little Spring Break project with my oldest three. I got the idea from my sister-in-law who made a string quilt with her friend and all of their children this past summer. She's planning to make another one in Spring Break too.

The forecast for the coming week is rain every day so I've been thinking of ways to keep my kids happy and having a good time. I might be posting about Spring Break activities for the next two weeks. :-)

Food Friday

In trying to feed our families healthy and wholesome meals and snacks, both Alisa's and my lives revolve very much around food.  We definitely spend more time in the kitchen than our sewing rooms!  So we thought it might be fun to have one day a week where we share something food related. 

This week I made a big batch of granola again.  It had been a while since I had done this but I'm trying to avoid boxed cereals and all the processing and sugar that comes in them.  I just looked up on allrecipes.com for the best rated recipe and found Megan's granola.  It is very yummy and my whole family loves it.  I serve it with plain yogurt sweetened with a bit of honey, and sometimes add in some fresh fruit although we seem to like that on the side better.

I made a few small changes to the recipe. I cut out the brown sugar and added 1/2 - 3/4 cup of ground flax (I put a bit less of the wheat germ and bran in to balance out the wet/dry ratio).  I also used melted butter instead of oil and added a cup or so of unsweetened coconut to it for the last 10 minutes of baking.

Quilt Retreat

We had lots of fun!



Rebecca wrote a guest post for the Quilting Gallery so you can see more there.



It was good company, great fabric, and great food too!

Bullet List

• I haven't had much time to blog this week


• My friend Rebecca gifted me these 4 fat quarters. Aren't they so fun?! They are from Connecting Threads and I am impressed with the quality. And yes, I pre-washed them already.


• I've started a new quilt and it has circles on it.


I am appliqueing them by hand. By hand, people. I'm even enjoying it!


• Suzanne and I have a new nephew! This really should have been on the top of the list. He's a cute little bundle and he even lives close to me. Okay, I shouldn't rub that in.


• I made a couple of crib sheets as a baby gift. My s-i-l showed me a super duper easy and fast way to make these.


• Kind of a boring gift in a way, but these sheets are so much nicer than anything you can buy in the store. They'll get lots of use over the years.

• Tomorrow is the quilt retreat. We've been getting ready for that this week and that's taking up the spare time.

• I love my children but I am looking forward to an entire day with no kids and no household obligations.

See you next week!

Alisa

Z's PJ's or 'It's hard to take photos of an almost 2 yr old'

PJ's made to match Benjamin's. He pats his tummy and says "Ben, Ben."