A lesson in hemming...

I learned how to hem a skirt last night! I watched a couple directional videos on youtube, and then went for it. I was NERVOUS about cutting into the fabric, but gave myself some lee-way in case I needed to start over.

So far, so good...

It looks pretty...

And it's functional!

I LOVE strawberries

Last week we (my sister and I) turned this:

Into this:

Yum!

Playing with fabric...

I was inspired by a BEAUTIFUL quilt I saw in a patient's room a little while back... Chocolate and Aqua!! Not colors that I think I would have ever chosen myself, but it was a gorgeous combo. I can't wait to have some fun with these, but I must have some patience and finish my blue and yellow quilt first. (It's getting there!)

I made a few more cards as well... to try out different stiches on my machine. Now I have to figure out who to write to!! :-) Maybe someone has a birthday coming up... it would be nice to have a little box of these saved up for occasions too.

Hair Clips

My sister came for a visit this week and we decided to try our hand a making our own hair clips and barrettes. We headed to the craft store and loaded up on supplies and started in. Here are some of the results:

Her patriotic, 4th of July clip...We decided these flowers were pretty just as they are. We can use them like hair sticks and put them besides buns or french rolls.

Progress

I may have said this before, but learning to sew like this has taught me MUCH about patience and more patience. Making a quilt is a long process! (I'm sure I'm much slower at is as a newbie though). I finally had a little time (between class, work, and final exams) to cut into all that pretty fabric and get it set for sewing. I'm relieved to have all the cutting done... but can I say I'm already looking ahead to new projects!? Haha, I think this just might be addicting...

I cut TONS of half square triangles to sew into blocks. I know there are some shortcuts for this process, but I didn't have the right marking tool to mark out the quarter inch seams... so I just cut lots and lots of triangles...

So pretty all stacked together...

Since this is my first quilt, I just started in with an idea in mind. I picked out the various fabrics I liked, and cut triangles from them. I kept thinking that it was taking an awful long time to cut all that fabric, but finshed it anyway. When I was done, I looked up measurements for the various sizes of quilts I could make... and come to find out, I had cut enough fabric for two twin size, or a double and lap, or a king!! WOW!! I think I'll have some fabric leftover, and won't repeat that mistake again! Hehe

Before I got too far though, I did try out several different layout patterns to see which I liked best. My original idea was to do pinwheels... but something made me change my mind.

After playing with the above ideas, I googled "half square triangle quilts" and found some other beautiful ideas... the best was found here (made by Connie Ryan according to the website), and it's the pattern I'm going to try and make. I love it! I think it will need a blue border of some kind and I have LOTS of extra HST blocks leftover to work with too... hmmm...

April Showers Bring May Flowers (Or something like that...)

Last summer I decided that I needed to have a few flowers around... couldn't wait until we had a place of our own and a real garden, so here are the results:

This summer I found a BEAUTIFUL purple geranium.

These are also my current flower pots - it's been a challenge protecting them from the hail, late snow, and frosts!

Flowers from last summer...

I love the roses - but don't know how to keep them over the winter very well...

Purple Petunias...

Banana Chocolate Chip Suprise Muffins

Here's another good recipe we made this week for breakfast...

Ingredients:

2 c. flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
3 ripe bananas
1 c. sour cream
1/4 lb. butter, softened
1 c. sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1 c. semi-sweet chocolate morsels

Directions:

Sift the flour with the baking powder and baking soda. Set aside. Process the bananas with the sour cream until smooth. Set aside.

Beat the butter with the sugar and vanilla extract until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time and beat until well incorporated. Add the sifted dry ingredients in 3 additions, alternately with the banana mixture in two additions, beating only until blended. Fold in the chocolate morsels.

Line muffin tins with cupcake papers or used greased nonstick muffin tin. Fill each cup about 3/4 of the way with batter and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Cool for 5 minutes before removing from tins. Makes 18 muffins. (To make suprise muffins, fill cups 1/3 full with batter, then spoon one tsp of jam onto the batter, then cover with 1/3 more batter. The jam will bake into the middle of the muffin. Yum!)