Ava Claire Designs and The Riverside Trilogy

I'd like to take a moment to showcase a couple of friends of mine who are a couple sources of inspiration for me. I can appreciate the time and effort these ladies put into their work and love seeing the new things they come up with.

Ava Claire Designs is run by Teresa Apel-Heinz. She creates exquisite pieces by hand that are both stunning and conversation-worthy. Here is one of my favorites from her collection. Head on over and 'like' her page to keep updated on all of her new, beautiful and creative designs.

If you're a fan of a hot and steamy romance, check out author Brooke Cumberland's The Riverside Trilogy. If you are a Kindle owner, follow Drake and Molly's escapades from Kitchen Affairs to the newest, Kitchen Scandals to be released July 1, 2013. 'Like' her page to keep updated on fantastic giveaways and news on everything from swag to autographed copies.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00BYD1CWM

Practice makes perfect...

I haven't had the time lately to go out and buy new supplies for new projects so I'm a little at a stand-still. I have been working on some of my scrap bin, though. I started a new tote, a bit taller than the past few. It's called Anchors Away! because of the lovely anchor fabric I featured on it. I'd like a matching lining and so it will be until my next trip to the fabric store before I can finish it. 

I've also been quilting my strippy quilt...I think the reason it's taking me so long is that I'm just not in love with it. It's an old project that I didn't give the time and patience it deserves as I was still learning when I began it. I'm about 2/3 done with it and would like to see the binding on by the end of the week. 

Two of the things I've been practicing with are a feather block  from Anna Marie Horner (http://www.annamariahorner.com/Feather.Bed.Quilt.pdf) and also a couple blocks of a Winding Ways quilt to test out my template. 

Hello Kitty Herringbone and WIPs

I originally made these 2 herringbone strips to work as sides to the MHKL quilt but didn't care for the pink shades against the purple and blue. Instead, I sandwiched the two strips together and decided to do a pretty horizontally stacked border on the sides. This quilt ended up being perfect for baby's crib. It was quilted by hand and features a cozy, soft Hello Kitty backing. I even decided to go with a nice, hand-stitched binding that I'm pretty proud of the way it turned out. I had always thought that hand binding would be a very tedious project, but instead I found it to be a nice way to pass the time and found my happy place. I am very happy with how it turned out and hope that it makes a little baby very happy in the near future! Click here if you are at all interested in purchasing.

Now that this is completed, I have a few more things up my sleeve to keep me (crazy) busy. I've started cutting teeny, tiny little hexagons for a project I have yet to determine. I also dug up two quilt tops I made back when I was first learning how to do this stuff. There are some MAJOR flaws in these, but I believe I'll keep them the way they are to show character. I can always look back at them and show my growth, if there is any.

These projects are: one strip lap quilt, and one lazy log cabin queen-sized quilt. I may try my hand at machine quilting on the queen, but I'm not committed to that idea. The corners are nowhere near matchy-matchy, but it holds a special place in my heart. The strip lap quilt may end up being pet-bedding on my Etsy shop, or for our cat - Sam, the queen. Who knows? Maybe it will look nice at the end. The pictures I have aren't pressed as I had just dug them out of my storage box, so please disregard the wrinkles.

Yummy...Pancakes!

• I've finally found the perfect pancake recipe! I tweaked it a little because I always find homemade pancake recipes to be much too sweet. I cut the sugar by half and added a little lemon juice for that melt-in-your-mouth type pancake. I don't do anything fancy with the mixing. I sift the dry and add in the wet. Mix and pour batter in 1/3 cup portions onto my pan after melting butter. They were a hit with both boys and my husband! Not too sweet and a beautiful rise. If you get the pan the right temp, you'll get that crispy edge that is sooooo good with syrup poured over. And yes, we are using old BK Hercules plates that my husband had. 

• 

  • 1.5 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1.5 T sugar
  • 1.75 T baking powder
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1.5 cups milk
  • 3 T melted butter
  • 2 eggs
  • .5 tsp vanilla
  • 1 tsp lemon juice

Shop!

It's been a while that I've been thinking about starting a shop on Etsy. First, I wasn't sure about how much of my earnings would go to them and didn't take the time to do the research on that. Second, I've always considered my work to be mediocre and to be honest, in the past I tried to get as much done in as short of time possible mainly due to work or school, or both. Well, I finally put my big girl pants on and found out that a very small portion of earnings go into the company and, apart from the boys, I've got all the time in the world to sew now that summer's here and the quality of my work has drastically improved since I've been paying closer attention to the details. So, here she is: my quilt shop! I named my store Paigey-Pie Quilts, which is a nickname my friends donned upon me years ago.
As far as production goes, I'm about 2/3 finished with quilting the Hello Kitty baby quilt. I chose to do a stacked horizontal stripe for the border on either side, leaving the top and bottom with the inner white border only - to give the quilt a little extra width. I love the look of this border and will be using it again in the future. Here's a glance at what I have going on the hoop as of now.

After this one is finished, I am looking to work on some bibs and burp cloths, possibly some craft wallets, and some lovely totes with these beautiful prints I picked up from Hobby Lobby this weekend.