So here it is - the magazine debut I've been waiting for

It's here! The magazine I have waited 2 years for. Quilts and More Fall 2013 with my quilt in it! I found my copies at JoAnn.

"Add It Up" is a jelly roll quilt of my own design. Beautifully quilted by Nancy Troyer, long arm quilter and former Pensacola resident. I am going to have to mail my quilts to Kansas from now on!!!

The magazine chose this name, which is fine. Its part of the process. I originally wanted to call it "Tesla" because of the positive and negative images the blocks create. (I may still call it Tesla when no one is around.) There is probably some copyright issue with that name, so I didn't suggest it to them.

Have you designed a quilt? You can submit your ideas and photos to magazines, you know. You could be published too. Don't be shy! Show the world how creative you are.

I have not decided what to do with this quilt yet. I give away quite a few of my creations, but I think I am definitely hanging on to this one. Who knows? I may be a quilt teacher someday. I'd like to be able to show this one in person.

Not the greatest quilt photography here, but this is another recent creation. It is the first quilt for my new granddaughter, Lily. Most of the fabrics are from the Full Moon Lagoon line, but they blended really well with some leftover Parisville pieces, and some others in my stash. The more, the merrier.

The blocks are based on ones I've seen by Kate Spain and Carrie Nelson. Again, quilted by Nancy Troyer. Who also has a new granddaughter, Grace. I'm waiting to see what she's made for the newest member of her family.

Quilts don't have to have tiny pieces, or complex design. They can be large blocks, one block, two colors only, whatever you want. Step up to your design wall and start making something that YOU like. You never know where it might take you!

399 days

I counted. That's how many days between yesterday's post and the previous one.

In that time I had 2 birthdays. I had foot surgery, I started a part time job.

We lost my grandfather. His ashes are being interred today, as a matter of fact. In California.

My grandmother became a widow and then became a great, great grandmother for the second time. Because my daughter gave me a new grandchild (a girl!)

A corrupted file took another computer, Lyme disease took our escape artist dog. R.I.P. Junior Nincompoop.

I made lots more quilts and pillow cases, and pajama pants (for Tyler.) I forced my husband into a semi-technological life with an Android phone. Begrudgingly. Now he doesn't put it down. Falls asleep with it in his hand.

We got a pool and a new roof. I started teaching quilt making to one student, watched my favorite long-arm quilter pack up and move to Kansas, got my first quilt submission published in a magazine, and joined a church. That sums it up pretty well, I think.

Do you recognize this face? He is getting so tall. He starts preschool next week! Tyler is off the charts for height, and smarts, of course. He may be the teacher's assistant after one day! This is the happiest, nicest, most loving little boy you will ever want to meet.

He wants to learn to play every musical instrument he sees, and is getting drum lessons after church. Next is the guitar. He has amazing rhythm and learns quickly. A natural.

Most importantly, my BooBoo is now a big brother! He has a new daddy. He has his own whole family.

Life is good.

This is Miss Lilyana. Lily Bell to me. Or Princess. Healthy, beautiful. Growing like a weed. She rolled over to her back at 2 weeks old! Tyler's voice is her favorite sound (and he does love an audience!)  I think she's in a hurry to catch up to him.

I love this picture. Such intense eyes. What does she want to say already? This little one is going to redefine the term "Daddy's Girl."

So, that pretty much sums up the past year's headlines for us. Pretty normal stuff. No hurricanes, no other types of disaster. Lots of rain, though. It is Pensacola, "the second rainiest city in America." We got about 25 inches in just this past month.

We are hoping for a really cool Winter. As in jackets required. It will be a nice change.

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More than a year later...

Hello, people! It has been a long while, hasn't it? Life gets so busy. Sometimes you just have to give up things for a time. Like blogging. And reading blogs. But I have not stopped making quilts and other sewing projects. And I sure have not stopped being a Nana.

I have lots of news, but first up is the announcement that I have a quilt being published in the next issue of Quilts and More magazine!!! The Fall/Winter issue!  I am SO excited.

This is the cover, so you know what to look for at the store. And below is my quilt, "Add It Up." I used a jelly roll of the Coquette fabric line by Chez Moi, and Bella solid in white. I made the original version of this quilt more than 2 years ago. And it is one of those happy accident stories. I made some Nine Patch and Rail Fence blocks, got distracted, and then a few weeks later I got back to making them again, but without looking at the completed blocks. I had reversed the color order! I played around with the layout of the 2 sets of two blocks and this is what I designed. Do you see a positive and negative image in the arrangement? Fun, huh?

 “Used with permission from Quilts and More® magazine. ©2013 Meredith Corporation. All rights reserved.”

This design would be a great way to use up those 2 1/2" scrap strips that you have leftover. These colors are very feminine, but I could easily see this in Christmas fabrics, or manly colors - maybe with a dark solid instead. 

I hope you will check your quilt shop or book store for this issue. There are always so many fun projects in every issue of Quilts and More, you are sure to be inspired.

I'll be back soon to catch you up on my life this past year. 

My Sewing Space

Pink Chalk Fabrics blog is having a Where I Sew Month, and I thought, why not? You can see my unconventional space. Maybe you'll get some ideas, or give me some!

Once upon a time, I had an actual room with a door to sew in, but then we were blessed with a wonderful grandson (who lives with us) and I gave up my sewing room for him to have his own space. Now I sew in what you might call the front parlor. Just inside the front door to our home. It has very large door ways that lead thru to the dining room, and when I am working on a big project, I close off the access to the dining room with the design walls. The lighting is not the greatest, but I make do, and I get a lot done in here.

This giant table on the right is an old architect's desk. Technically it is an engineer's former desk, given to me by my boss when everything went electronic. I had been dreaming of an elevated surface to cut fabrics on without straining my neck, and can you believe he gave me this for free? I looked these up on Ebay and almost fainted. 1/3 of the top is butcher block - which my Janome sits on - and there are 2 huge drawers underneath. I am lucky to have it.

The gray floor mat under the chair? From Sam's Club. Super comfortable to stand on for hours. Easy to move around when you need to. I highly recommend these. We even used them for wall to wall flooring in Tyler's room. Believe me, Nana and Papa have a much easier time playing on the floor with Tyler now that these foam pads are installed!

You can see the design walls and my current project, the Great Granny Along, closing off access to the dining room. There is a great tutorial there  for this super easy and rewarding quilt along. Join in!


These design walls are easy and inexpensive to make. Insulating foam boards from your local home improvement store, spray on adhesive and some very inexpensive diaper flannel. And they weigh only ounces, so you can move them all around easily. 

There are 4 sets of white cubicle cubbies that hold my quilting magazine collection, patterns, fabrics, notebooks, printouts and some WIPs and UFOs as well. I have a homemade bulletin board behind my sewing machine for inspirations and plans and tips.

I'd like to tell you that this is all of my stash, but who are we kidding? This picture was taken over a year ago, so yes, this set of cubbies is overflowing. Packed to the gills. And not this neat. The rest of my stash still takes up one of the 2 closets in Tyler's room, 6 totes and several boxes that are crammed here and there and everywhere. Tyler recently asked me why my fabric lives in his closet? He didn't understand that his room was something else before he was here, but he accepted the explanation anyway.

If you are sewing at your dining room table, which I have done before, make it your special space. Even if it is only for an hour or two. And have fun!

July already

Summer time.

This is what we've seen almost every day since mid June. Good thing Florida soil is all sand, or we'd be boating everywhere. We had over 14 inches in one day, and 7,000 lightning strikes in less than 2 hours this past Monday.  A lot of Downtown Pensacola has flooded more than once. Florida ain't for sissies.

We have kept busy with crafts, reading the Magic Treehouse series, swimming on sunny days, and many other things so no complaints. Tyler has learned to swim with no floaties and with his face in the pool. In one day! His goal: to get a pair of flippers to wear in the pool to play scuba diver. He got over his fear of water in the ears and is even learning to swim to the bottom to retrieve toys. So proud. Our little fish.

• A friend directed me to another blog where the secret to clean grout was revealed. This may be very boring to some, but if you've lived with impossible, dirty grout for years and wanted to dynamite the floors out of frustration, you'll know what I feel when I say the grout looks NEW!

Before and After. See what I mean?

Its a miracle. Ammonia, vinegar, baking soda and water. Who knew?

Amazing Grout Cleaner Recipe: 7 c water, 1/2 c baking soda, 1/3 c ammonia, 1/4 c vinegar. Spray on, scrub, wipe off.  To be honest, I upped the amounts of everything but the water. I found that letting it sit for a few minutes meant no scrubbing. Just the scrubby part of my floor mop and it was clean! This discovery came after a day of major scrubbing and extra baking soda and lots of wiping up the pasty mess. Forget that! Up the ingredients and let them do the work!

• We haven't got much out of our pallet garden because of all the rain, but we did get one Lemon Boy tomato, one yellow squash and one cucumber. 
• We've planted 3 kinds of pumpkins out in the yard. 
• We added a Slip N Slide to our collection of water play toys. Tyler bought it with his own money.

the proud gardener

the pumpkin patch

the slip n slider

Tula and Friends quilt

You know how your fabrics can be calling you? My bundle of Parisville from Tula Pink, and several modern cuts I started collecting were talking to me. Demanding I make something with them. I love how this turned out. The pattern is called Rectangle Squared from the Film in the Fridge blog. That link will take you to her tutorial. Super easy. Lots of solid needed, and you have to figure it out based on what size quilt you're making, but this is very, very easy to put together.


What are you doing with your Summer? I hope whatever it is you are loving it!

and June is almost over

It seems like much longer since my last post. Really. I thought it had been more than a month. Close but not quite that long.

We went from dry mild weather to torrential rains (Father's Day weekend?) and now we are waiting to see what Tropical Storm Debby will do. She's just sitting there so far. Dumping rain in some places, and not a drop here yet.

I have been a busy sewist. More pajama pants for Tyler and more quilts for me. This is the one I am currently at work on . I got the tutorial from Film in the Fridge's blog. I was dying to make a modern quilt, and the fat quarter bundle of Tula Pink's Parisville was screaming for attention. When I saw the tutorial at FIF, I had to make it. And I love it! So easy, and so eye-catching!  It is called "Rectangle Squared" on her blog.

Because I have tons of stash and scraps, I have mixed in some Liberty of London, Kaffe Fassett, Just Wing It!, another Tula Pink print, and a few Art Gallery prints too. Even though the sashing is only 1 1/2" wide, I estimate that I'll be using over 3 yards of it before this top is pieced together! (There are no defined fabric amounts listed because you could make this as big as you have a mind to.) Mine will be a large lap size.

And I'm cutting the remaining pieces of the fat quarter bundle into Dresden Plate pieces. Jumbo size! Don't you love it when you get 2 quilts out of one great fabric group?

We took Tyler to his first baseball game. Our minor league Blue Wahoos. VERY hot weather. I much prefer hockey after sweltering there, but what can you do? The boy is a fanatic about baseball. He kept saying "Its my turn! They need me. I want to be the bender-down guy!" He did not know the term Catcher. Ha!

Tyler and I have played in the sprinklers, had a movie date to see Madagascar 3, gone to the pool dozens of times and pretty much enjoyed every minute of the end of Spring. The beach has not been a place to go lately because of strong surf, but we'll hopefully get back there soon. I love our beaches. And you can't boogey board in a pool.

One of these days we are going to make it downtown to visit the new Childrens' Museum and the MESS Hall for Kids (Math, Engineering, Science and Stuff.) How great does that sound? Afterward a trip to that splash pad to cool off. 3 year olds are great. They are up for any adventure, any time.

Whatever you have planned for Summer, make it fun! And stay cool!