Central Park: A Love Story

I've come to the realization that I have a "thing"for Kate Spain's Central Park line.  I've got no less than 6 quilts (some larger, some smaller) already made, in progress, or in my head to make with Central Park.  Here's my stash:  Jelly roll, layer cake, 5 charm packs and yardage - oh my!



First up was Julie's Carnival pattern - made into a wall hanging for my Mom.  Of course that wasn't enough and I'm making the larger version for myself.

Then, at our PMQG sewing day, I saw Becky's Postage Stamp Quilt (from Rachel Griffith at P.S. I Quilt's quilt-a-along a while back), and I had to make one of my own.  I loved how Becky did hers in "stripes" and copied hers shamelessly did mine the same way!  However, I just couldn't quite wrap my brain around the method Rachel used in the quilt-a-long for a scrappy look, so had to figure out another way to get my striped look.  This quilt was a lot of fun and came together beautifully.  I got the top done in less than two weeks - I was a speed demon on this one!  

Today, I'm going to finish up this table runner that my Mom requested to go with her wallhanging.  Then I'll work on MY Carnival and one other full-size quilt I have in mind for Central Park. 

That will leave me with all of the "animal" and "tree" prints that I've been pulling out of the charm packs/layer cake.  I see a little boy's quilt from these leftovers!

After that I think my Central Park obsession should finally be over.  But that's okay because I think my Summer Love will be replaced by this in the Fall:

Quilt Classes!

I used to take quilt classes all the time.  Not so much any more.  Not that I know everything, but I've been at this for awhile.  But, still, it's fun to take a class now and then.  For the camaraderie if nothing else.  And, I find I always learn something. 

So, when I found out that Julie of Jaybird Quilts fame was teaching Dot Party at my new favorite shop, The Village Quilter, I signed up immediately! 


I already had the pattern and bought the fancy circle ruler and really teeny 18mm rotary cutter like the pattern suggests. I'm always looking for a better way to cut out a circle, so was intrigued by the ruler. As soon as I got it I thought I'd try it out. Didn't go so well. There's got to be a trick, and I know Julie's going to show us what it is! So, this class is not only going to a blast I'm sure, but I'll learn something too.

I decided the fabric that I won from Sarah's Swell Cloth shop, Kumari Garden, would be perfect for this quilt.  I'm pairing it with some light blue Robert Kaufman Quilter's Linen...

By the way, I've been haunting places that sell the Quilter's Linen and scooping it up.  It's not all that easy to find.  This is my stash so far:

If you click on the photo to make it larger, you can see the "linen look" - just adds a little something.

I'm signed up for one more class.  On my first trip to The Village Quilter last Fall, I heard they were having a class on hand quilting with Didi Salvatierra.  I've been wanting to take a hand quilting class for forever and just never got the chance.  I was bummed that the class was the next week (and I think it was full anyway), but owner Susan promised Didi would be back.  So, when she said Didi was coming back in the Fall, I couldn't wait to sign up (I may have been a bit of a pest about it too.  Every time I saw Susan I'd bug her about when sign ups would be open - LOL!)  I've done some hand quilting in the past, I just have never been very happy with my stitches.  And, not that I'm going to be hand quilting much by any stretch, but I'd love to have a hand quilting project to work on from time to time.  And, this is going to be it (and, yes, it may take
me the rest of my life, I realize that):

[of course, Lilly has to plunk her little self in the middle of every quilt I put on the floor - and sorry about the wrinkles]

This applique quilt was a block-of-the-month from the now defunct Country Quilt Shop, started in the late 90s.  I finished the quilt at the end of last year.  (No, I don't want to add up how many years that's been).  It's called Pennsylvania Folk Art and it is just beautiful.  I really think hand quilting would be worth it on this quilt. 

Blogger's Spring Quilt Festival

 

It's time for Amy's Creative Side's Blogger's Spring Quilt Festival !  This is my third festival and I was tickled to be a "featured festival blogger" on Amy's blog the other day.  You can see my feature here.

Here is my entry for the Spring Festival....

I blogged about this special quilt last year.  Very good friends of my son & daughter-in-law were getting married and we were invited (which I thought was very nice of them!).  So, of course, I had to make them a quilt.  And, of course, I had not the first clue about their decorating style, color likes or dislikes - nada!  So I asked son Bill to do some sleuthing and see what they might like.  And he says "green, they like green".    I asked him if he was very, very sure, because, they really might hate a green quilt if you are wrong!  I have nothing against green, but I realized that it probably isn't my favorite color.  I also had a feeling they weren't very traditional.  That was confirmed when I was told the bride had a penchant for wearing wild, different colored socks.

So, I pulled out every green fabric I had in my stash.  Found a great background - also stash and set out to make a square-in-a-square pattern.  But, with all those greens, it turned out absolutely stunning. 

To honor the bride, I made this label...

And the back - still green, all green!



By the time it was finished, I really liked the quilt, but I still wasn't sure about all this green!  So, I can't tell you how relieved I was to walk into their wedding venue and everything was green!  A green cake, green accessories - the bride even had a green sash on her dress - whew!

And, the thank-you note I got from them brought tears to my eyes.  They got it - totally!

So, go check out all the other great Festival entries!  Thanks again, Amy, for hosting this great on-line event!

Uh Oh!

Looks likes a little plastic surgery is in order here....

The culprit:

Bad dog, Leonard!  That's my granddog.  Good thing he's so stinkin' cute!  His mom was NOT amused!

Now for the hunt for the scraps that I know are around here somewhere.

Le Petite and Pillow Talk

It's the last day of the month and I almost forgot to post my Le Petite project.  This is the first time I've been able to participate in Le Petite.  Since I had the charm packs and the pattern already, when I read on Sinta and Sherri's blogs that April's Le Petite was Brocante, I was in!  I had hoped to get it quilted by the end of April, but at least the top is done...

 It was pretty easy to put together, except for having to do the flying geese around the border the "old fashioned" way.  Ugh.  I really, really like my Quilt-in-a-Day flying geese rulers and I wish they worked for every size.  But these geese were a really weird size, plus I was using charm packs, so it just wasn't going to happen.

Our Philly Modern Quilt Guild challenge for April was a pillow swap.  I found a photo of a great pillow design somewhere on the internet and decided to recreate it.  This was my offering:

 [thanks for the photo Andrew!]

At the meeting we had a show and tell of the pillows (see them all here).  Honestly, they were all fabulous, some with zippers and fancy piping and ruffles - I would have loved to have "won" any one of them (and I felt very "amateur" after seeing them - LOL!).  I won this beauty from Candi (the photo does not do it justice):

 Our next swap (for June) is pincushions - and I've already got something in mind!

Another recipe - we had this for dinner last night and it was so good I just have to share.  I wanted to keep the British theme going through dinner and since we had steak the night before I didn't want to do red meat.  So I hunted around for some British chicken recipes and came across this Chicken with Tarragon Mayonnaise.  I didn't have high hopes when I started out - the recipe it looked like it was going to basically be boiled chicken.  I was skeptical, but I was very pleasantly surprised.  I think they might have meant it to be served cold, but I didn't.  I just took the chicken from the saute pan when it was done, reduced the marinade and mixed it into the mayo mixture and poured it all over the chicken.  I served it with buttered rice and brussels sprouts.  I'll be making this again soon!


Recipe courtesy of All British Food website

Chicken With Tarragon Mayonnaise

It is important to use fresh tarragon in this dish: dried tarragon is a poor substitute.

SERVES 6

6 chicken breast fillets, skinned

2 celery sticks, trimmed and sliced

200 ml (7 fl oz) dry white wine

30 ml (2 tbsp) chopped fresh tarragon

salt and pepper

300 ml (1/2 pint) lemon mayonnaise

fresh tarragon sprigs, to garnish

1. Put the chicken breasts in a large frying pan. Add the celery, wine, tarragon, salt and pepper. Cover and simmer for 20 - 30 minutes until tender. Leave to cool.

2. When cool, strain the juices into a pan and boil rapidly until reduced to 90 ml (6 tbsp) . Leave to cool.

3. Arrange the chicken on a serving plate. Stir the reduced marinade into the mayonnaise and spoon over the chicken.

4. Serve, garnished with tarragon.

A Royal Sewing Day

Is someone getting married today?????

I'll admit to being an Anglophile from an early age (hey, I even married a Brit - no, that's not why I married him but it didn't hurt - LOL!)  So of course, I was front and center (in front of my TV that is) this morning for the Royal Wedding.  What fun!  Although I did timeshift my viewing with my DVR by a couple of hours!

I've watched all the royals weddings televised during my lifetime, I sadly watched Princess Diana's funeral and we happened to be in London for the Queen Mother's funeral.  It was so nice to see such a happy occasion for a few hours this morning.


I spent last night preparing....

Of course, I needed some tea sandwiches - cucumber and egg salad...

And my favorite scones....

Of course, I'm using this day off to sew while I watch....
I'm working on this, but it's still kind of a secret so this is all I'll show for now...

And if I don't start on this it won't be ready for Mother's Day....

So, this has been a lovely day off so far...

[yes, I have a tiara - long story]

Long life and happiness to the Newlyweds!  Maybe I should have made them a quilt?!

-----------------------
My very favorite and very easy scone recipe:
2 cups flour
1 tbls baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup dried fruit or chocolate chips (optional)
1-1/4 cup heavy cream

Glaze - melted butter, 2 tbsp sugar

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Use ungreased baking sheet.  Combined first four ingredients and stir until mixed well.  Stir in dried fruit or chips if using.  Stir in heavy cream and mix until dough holds together in a rough mass.  Transfer dough to a lightly floured surface.  Knead 8-9 times (or do it in a stand mixer on slow speed).  Pat into 10" circle - cut into wedges or roll dough and cut into circle.  Brush melted butter on top of scones and sprinkle with some sugar.  Bake 12-15 minutes until brown.  Yummy!

PMQG Sew Day

On Saturday, I was able to attend my first Sew Day hosted by the Philly Modern Quilt Guild.  I had such a good time and got a lot done to boot!  Those girls and guys are a lot of fun.  There was a lot of laughter, inspiration and fabric and quilt envy (on my part - LOL).  I am so inspired when I see what these folks are doing and I'm so very glad I joined the guild.

I know I have a list a mile long of things I "have to get done", but I wanted something semi-mindless to sew. I knew I would probably be doing more chatting than sewing, but I managed to get all of my blocks for my Max & Whiskers quilt finished.  They are all ready to put together, but I have to get back on the ball and finished the deadline quilts.  

This line is so cute - the puppies just make me smile.

Today has been pretty productive too.  I started and finished quilting my daughter-in-law's wallhanging (I want to give it to her at Easter).  You can't see the quilting too well in this photos, I just did some free-hand flowers and loops in the borders, straight line Vs in the small border and framed each "photo" with straight lines and stippled in the white area.  It looks pretty good.  I know Raqhel will enjoy hanging it in her office.  

I added something else to the "must do" list.   Since this month's Le Petite project is the Brocante Schnibbles and I had the pattern and my charm packs all ready to go I thought I'd join in.  All the blocks are done and it's starting to come together. 

Wish I had some more weekend, but at least it's only a four-day work week!