She's Done!!!!

I have finally finished my Red, Black & White quilt.  Last week I took a class on how to quilt using a longarm quilting machine.  Man, was I nervous.  Thankfully a really nice lady helped me for a little while.  When I was "on my own" I got sweety hands and thought how am I going to finished this thing.

Well I managed with little assistance.  As I got closer to the middle of the quilt I was comfortable with the machine. 

Here are a few photos of my completed quilt.  The first one is obviously the front of the quilt. The second one is of the back. 

The third photo is the finished quilt folded.  The fourth photo is a shot of the back.  The last photo shows the Daisy pantograph design I used to quilt the entire quilt.  I used black and white varigated thread. 

I have to say I really love the way my quilt came out.   

Peppermint Tini floral arrangement

I love having flowers in the house, especially for the holidays.  This year for New Year's I wanted to make something really different.  While I was looking for ideas for my Mother-In-Law's arrangement I stumbled upon a "martini" themed arrangement.  That surely was up my alley. 

I had a bugger of a time looking for an extra large martini glass, without driving all over the state to find one.  I saw these large sangria glasses at Micheal's and figured this was my only option.  I bought two.  After that hurdle was accomplished I ran into another one, finding the flowers I wanted.  No one had plain white flowers at all, without breaking the bank account.  You see I was inspired by this arrangement. 

Well good thing I had a print out of other arrangement ideas. 

What I ended up making was a Peppermint Tini arrangement. 

I will say this arrangement was not an easy one. 

Flower Cake

We usually buy my Mother-In-Law some flowers for her birthday.  I didn't want to buy one of the usual bouquets.  I wanted something different.  So I did what I also do for inspiration, surf the internet.  I looked at the regular FTD, 1800Flowers, Telefora and found something I really liked.  It was a Flower Cake. 

I found a video on You Tube and thought it was very simple to do.  It was after driving all over creation to find some flowers that I liked.  Three seperate trips to two different florist is not cost effective.  I guess next year I will call a florist in advance with what I will need..

I used roughly 3 dozen white carnations (full size), 2 dozen mini dark cranberry carnations, 6 spider mums and one purple rose.  I made some cranberry organza ribbons to decorate the sides. 

This was a very easy arrangement to make.  I got a kick out of everyone's question - Can you eat it???  Me, not sure if you can eat these flowers but I wouldn't.  lol..

Black, White & Red Quilt

As you all should know by now I love the color combo black/white & whatever color for some punch.  Last year I made a hobo bag out of black/white/red fabric, which I have been hoarding the rest of since then.  I have been looking for more fabric to match and finally found some.  Yes, I had to stop myself.

Once I was happy with the fabric selection, I found the perfect pattern for the quilt.  Man, I sure do love simple easy quilt patterns.  This quilt pattern is from AllPeopleQuilt.com called High Light.   

One thing I have to say about simple easy patterns, you can spend a couple of hours cutting out the pieces and still have time to spend with the family.  While the guys went to a hunting/fishing expo this past Saturday, I spent the time cutting out the fabric.  When they got home the hubster and I watched the NFL games.  I worked on sewing the blocks together while everyone was at work/school.  This morning I worked on the borders.  Now I am at the point to sandwich it all together and bind it. 

Here is the quilt so far. 

I will post in a couple of days when I am done with it... 

Holiday Lampscaping

This past spring my husband and I started to redecorate our livingroom.  I really wanted some glass lamps that you could fill with sand/shells/sea glass, etc.  I was not willing to pay the price of some of the ones I had looked at.  One night we were in the mall at Crate & Barrel (the store I refused to pay $250 for one lamp) and I remembered JC Penny has a lighting department.  So we ventured over there.  I found a glass cylinder style lamp and they were on clearance for $32 a piece.  I told my husband that I know I will find what I was looking for and that is not quiet what I was looking for.  Well I never did find what I was looking for. 

So a day or two later, I went back to JC Penny and bought the lamps they had.  I actually really like them now but they still need "something" to dress them up.  The shade is a plain white drum shade.   Very plain for my taste.  One day I was watching the Nate Berkus Show and they were dressing up lamp shades.  I knew exactly what I was going to do.  I bought some black velvet ribbon and glued it around the shade at the top and bottom.  I look at it this way, the shade now has mascara on.  lol

Now that it is the holidays I wanted to take the base one step further.  I wanted to put something in it but didn't want to do the whole thing full of ornaments.  After a while I realize what I wanted to do. 

Here is the finish "project."

The bottom of the lamp base needed to be plugged.  So I cut two pieces of foamcore to block anything getting out.  After the foamcore was in place I filled the bottom with a couple inches of Kosher Salt.  Yes, salt.  I searched everywhere for something different and couldn't find anything.  Good thing a box of Kosher salt is really cheap.  Anyway, I went outside to my pine trees for a couple of clippings.  The ornaments are new from Target.  The first lamp has a Christmas card in it from my parents.  The bottom one is the picture of my family that will be mailed with our holiday cards. 

I am really happy with the way the lamp bases came out.

Winter White Flower arrangement

One of my favorite hobbies is floral arranging.  I am in the midst of planning our annual New Year's Eve party and I always have fresh flowers for the tables. This year I am thinking of going all white flowers with a hint of color (not yet decided on). 

While grocery shopping last weekend I passed the flowers to take a look.  I found a bouquet of all white mums.  Then I found another bouquet with mostly white flowers and a few colored mums.  I decided those would do. 

After sorting out the colored flowers, the greens and rest of the flowers this is what I came up with. The lilies are still so fragrant.

 

Table Top Ironboard

I am still perusing the internet for some craftroom/sewing room ideas.  I came across Pleasant-Home's site showing her studio.  I saw her tabletop ironboard and realized that was exactly what I wanted for my peninsula.  I am realizing while I am working at the peninsula I have little room if the full size ironboard is behind but infront of my counter area. 

I thought it looked easy enough to make.  I remembered we had a couple pieces of MDF leftover from my shelves, so I decided to use one of those.  I gathered up some batting, fabric, MDF and off to the garage I went.  (My neighbors must think I am weird using the air compressor at 6:45am). 

I started by placing the batting down on a work surface and then laying the MDF ontop.  I pulled the batting tight and stapled to the backside of the MDF.  Then I flattened the fabric on the work surface and placed the MDF ontop.  I pulled the fabric taut and stapled in place.  Simple and easy to do. 

Here is my tabletop ironboard: