For the last two weeks, I have been trying to sew backings together and finish quilt tops with one plan in mind….Labor Day weekend I would attach myself to my quilting machine and quilt until I wilted.  Well…it wasn’t me that wilted first.  It was my quilting machine.  Every time a went backwards, it would skip an inch worth of stitches….UGH!  I took it in yesterday with hopes they could fix it on the spot.  NOPE….I even begged and whined a little….NOPE…it didn’t even phase them.  (I am guessing the gals that came in before me also begged and whined and they have become immune to it.)

So…it looks like my Labor Day weekend is going to involve the most dreaded thing….CLEANING!  Ugh.  Enjoy your weekend..I’ll be painting and cleaning.

P.S.  My Accuquilt Go! Cutter giveaway is still Go!ing one….Oh….something else that won’t get finished, the AWESOME project I was working on with the circles.

Follow this link to get all the details.
Follow that link, then come back, grab some coffee and browse my blog….

Over the last year, when I made all my Schnibble Quilts, I saved the left overs.  There were a few 5″ charms of this fabric line and a few of that fabric line….only six or seven of each.  I kept the little bit of binding strips and the little left over border pieces thinking that someday, once I had enough scraps, I would put it all together into one quilt.  I have looked for a pattern to entice me into using the scraps but nothing has stuck…..Then I got my Go! and my circle die.  I know what I’m going to do with them, but I’m keeping it a secret for a couple days so I can try it out and see if it’s going to work.

Now…onto our winners of the trivet kits:

Judy D
Lola
Christine
Charlene

I will send out emails to the winners so I can get your address and put your goodies in the mail.

A big giveaway will be happening right….real soon.  Keep checking back because it’s Go!ing to be a BIG giveaway.

For this month’s pattern we had our choice…Make Short Story (which I already made) or Plan C.  We could make them in the large or small version from the Schnibbles Times Two book.   I went with Plan C in the small version.

My heart wanted to do Short Story in the large version as I LOVED the small version but gardening and canning this month put a HUGE dent in my sewing time.

In my typical fashion, I added a couple extra borders to make mine a good size for a baby quilt.  After I made the quilt I added a narrow white 1.5″ border and a outside 5″ border with setting corners.  The fabric line is Freebird by MoMo.  I LOVE it.  It’s very bright and colorful.  I love how the dark browns mix with the bright colors.

I free motion quilted a bunch of swirls and flowers and if you don’t look too close it looks pretty good.  I like to try different to me free motion quilt designs on these small quilts.  It lets me “preview” a new design without committing to an entire large quilt.

The back is from my stash…it matches perfectly. I believe one can never go wrong with a polka dot.  I think the backing fabric is from American Jane’s OLD fabric line Recess.

If you want you can check out ALL of the Schnibble quilts I have made for the year by following this link.

Oh…I have a little giveaway going on too!

As with every month,  A Quilting Lifeand Pink Pinchusion are hosting a big parade of Schnibble quilts.  Head on over and see what everyone made and check out the new Year of Schnibbles.

Remember this little pile of fat quarters I bought?

When I purchased them they were all rolled up like this.  I don’t store mine rolled.  I store them folded.  I started taking the rubber bands off, folding and putting them away.  Then I stopped….Wait!  I need to cut out the next step of my “Odds and Ends” quilt….It’s just scrappy so why not use these?…

And I need to cut out circles for my trivet and GIVEAWAY

….So I started cutting as I was putting the fat quarters away.  Well my fat quarters are closer to fat eighths, my circles are cut and more of quilt blocks are cut…oh, the fat quarters are folded and put away too.

Mom would be so proud.   I used my head and saved my feet!

I hit an AWESOME going out of the fabric business sale at Alco in Spring Valley, Minnesota and purchased this HUGE stack of fabric.  46 yards worth.  I know that’s a huge stash addition BUT it was all $1.50 to $2 per yard.  It’s all quality name brand fabric…perfect for quilt backs and the like.

There is fabric there to back many of my Schnibble quilts, a couple graduation quilts I am working on, 3 quilts of valor quilts, yardage for curtains and the like.  I will be busy with this pile for a LONG time.

I hit an AWESOME fat quarter sale at  The Calico Hutch in Hayward, Minnesota and bought 24 fat quarters of my favorite fabrics, Civil War Reproductions….

AND…the best…Accuquilt sent me a Go! Cutter!…and I’m getting one to give away to one lucky blog reader in the upcoming month or so.  You can check back tomorrow and see what I’m working on.  It’s a Go! Cutter project and there will be a small giveaway to go with it.

I should probably feel a little guilty about the HUGE addition to stash, but I don’t….it’s fun to splurge once in awhile.  Plus getting fabric for such a deal makes me able to quilt and give quilts away.

So for this week….
52 yards in.
0 yards out.  BUT today is a quilting day.  This is bound to change LOTS by next Sunday.

Here’s the first recipe I tried…Amish Turtle Cake.

It’s a HUGE success!

Here’s the recipe.

1 German cake mix (or your own)
14 oz caramels
1 stick margarine
7 oz sweet condensed milk
6 oz pecans
6 oz chocolate chips

Melt you caramels, margarine and milk in double boiler or microwave.  Cool slightly.  Mix cake.  Pour 1/2 of the cake batter in the bottom of a greased 9×13 pan.  Bake 15 minutes at 350.  Take out and pour caramel mix over baked cake.  Put on the rest of the cake batter.  Sprinkle the pecans and chocolate chips over the top.  Bake at 350 for 25 minutes.

Here’s a side view…

We have matching walnut furniture in our bedroom.  Our bed and dresser both have that ornate carving along the top.  I can’t wait to get it all finished but it is on the back burner until the garage addition is finished.

Any ideas on what would be historically appropriate to use as a fabric?  Here’s a peak at the carpet I have down….I don’t know if the fabric is suppose to be like the rug or if a velvet type material is more historically appropriate.   My daughter Kayla pulled the fabric up a bit to see that there is horse hair underneath.  Let me know what you think….

This is my Between Charming Friends Quilt.   The pattern is from Darlene at Quilting Daze.

I am happy with how it turned out….of course, this quilt had it’s own drama.  You can read about back at this blog entry.

I did a simple stipple quilting pattern.  I am beginning to wonder if I need to ban stippling for a bit just to make myself try something different….but sometimes, when I don’t feel confident about a new quilting design, stippling is just easy!  Plus, it never looks bad.

This quilt is headed to school with the kiddos tomorrow.  It will be donated to the Music Boosters Fall Fundraiser.

Now, that’s one quilt off my list….does that mean I’ll start two more projects?  Nope…I am resisting temptation and am going to finish TWO more quilts before I start anything new….wish me luck on that!