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Wow, last week passed by in a blur. Just like that, it’s officially summer. I thought I’d follow Karen’s lead and list 10 things I’d like to get done this summer.  I’ve always thought of summer as June, July, and August, but officially it runs until September 22nd (which is good for me since June is almost over!).  Three months either way.  Let’s get started!

1. Get Together with the Quilty Peeps.
Ladies! We’ve got to git ‘er done! We’ve been trying, with no luck, to find a time that all of us could get together for the longest time. Who knew it would be harder to get together now than it was when we all had small children at home???

2. Organize Some Iceland Pages on My Site.
Before I forget about the trip. I spent too much time last week changing things up around here. You may have noticed the little blue polka dot background is gone. Well, it’s gone on the main pages — there are a lot of pages around here and it’s going to take a long time to convert them.  In the meantime, I’d like to start with the Iceland pages.

3. Finish the Ten Year Sweater.
It’s pitiful. I think I have all the parts of this sweater done except for the button band. Why do I do that? Because I hate sewing knitted pieces together. Arrghhh. I don’t want to start a new sweater until I’ve finished this one.

4. Start My Lopapeysa.
If I can get #3  done, I can start knitting the yarn I bought in Iceland!

5. Finish the Quilt I Started in May.
TheManoftheHouse has finished unpicking the icky quilting.  I need to re-group and get this baby quilted.

6. Clean Some Closets.
Or Drawers. I managed to clean out some drawers a few weeks ago and it felt so good. I recycled all of our old phone books for starters. Do you use phone books anymore? We don’t — google is so much faster!

7. Clean Up Sewing Room.
This is a never-ending task. I started working my way through a big pile of old cross-stitch magazines, but I never finished. It’s so hard to get rid of them, but it’s time. My fabric is feeling crowded and it needs more space. ;-D

8. Make Enough Blocks for a Quilt Top.
I started cutting out a few blocks and I really love them. They’re going to be slow-going for me, but I’m really enjoying picking out color combinations. More soon when I have a block or two to show.

9. Go on a Picnic.
It’s been years since I’ve been on a picnic. I just need to find someone to go with me!

10. Visit the World’s Greatest Aunt.
This one is a slam dunk. The reservations have already been made.

Do you have a ten things list?
Here’s hoping for a great summer!
XOXO,
Anna

 

Welcome to my day on the blog tour for A Quilting Life – Creating a Handmade Home by Sherri McConnell!  I’m so honored to have been asked to participate in Sherri’s book tour.  Sherri is a sweetheart and she’s one of the  nicest bloggers you’ll meet.  And I feel extra lucky as I’ve been able to see her several times at quilt markets.  I love the name of Sherri’s book and blog — it’s a perfect fit for her.  Sherri truly lives a quilting life and she’s one of the most prolific quilt bloggers that I know.

Sherri’s book is a treasure!  It’s full of fun and straight-forward patterns for quilts, table toppers, pillows, bags and more — all the goodies to make a cozy home.  I love the quilt below.  I recently placed a very similar version of this quilt in a selection of quilts that could be made from charm packs, so I was really excited to see that a pattern is in her book.

Unfortunately, with our recent trip, I haven’t had time to try out any of her patterns, but I’ve looked over the instructions for many of the projects and they’re clear, thorough and easy to follow. She even uses the same corner square triangle blocks in several of her projects that I’m currently making for a little quilt. I LOVE the quilt below — what a clever use of that same block.

Sherri asked us to share a little bit of how we manage to have a quilting life and maybe give an organizational tip or recipe. If you could see my sewing room now, you would realize that you’re much better off to take organizational tips from the experts. Or even just other average quilters who are actually organized.  Recipes, however, I can do. I thought about recipes that are easy and allow me more time for my quilting life. Like many of you, I work full-time outside of the home, so finding time to quilt can be a challenge.

As I thought about my easy recipes, I realized that I’ve already shared many of my favorites with you. So then, my thoughts turned from time-saving to snacking while quilting. In my case, I love a good cookie while I’m sewing. I know I should eat carrot sticks or something while I quilt, but where’s the fun in that?

When MyDadLovesMeBestSister and I were growing up, MeMum used to make a wonderful Oatmeal Raisin Cookie and I always ate more than my fair share. Oatmeal Raisin are my very favorite cookies. I’ve already shared a great Oatmeal Raisin cookie, but that one is a traditional Oatmeal Raisin cookie — crunchy on the outside, chewy on the inside. This oatmeal raisin cookie is cakey. And yum yummy!

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

1 lb. raisins — Cover with water and boil. Let cool.
1 cup vegetable shortening
2 cups sugar
1 cup milk
4 cups flour
4 cups oatmeal
4 eggs
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
3 teaspoons soda added to water and raisins
1 teaspoon vanilla
salt
1/2 – 1 cup chopped nuts

Cream shortening and sugar together. Add eggs. Sift flour, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt together. Add to mixture alternately with milk. Add oatmeal. Drain a little water off of the raisins then add soda. Add raisins with water to mixture. Add nuts and vanilla. Drop by spoonfuls onto greased cookie sheet. Bake at 375 degrees for 15 minutes.

And, just so you know, you can have more than one cookie beside your machine while you’re sewing — just throw in some extra jumping jacks on your breaks!

Here’s the schedule for Sherri’s book tour:

Monday June 3^rdNanette at Freda’s Hivehttp://fredashive.blogspot.com/
Tuesday June 4^thSinta from Pink Pincushionhttp://pinkpincushion.blogspot.com/
Wednesday June 5^th Jodi from Pleasant Homehttp://www.pleasant-home.com/
Thursday June 6^th Judi from Green Fairy Quilts http://greenfairyquilts.blogspot.com/
Friday June 7^thLissa of ModaLissa http://modalissa.blogspot.com/
Saturday June 8^th Amanda of AmandaMurphyDesign http://amandamurphydesign.blogspot.com/
Sunday June 9^th Me!
Monday June 10^th Amy Smart of Diary of a Quilter http://www.diaryofaquilter.com/
Tuesday June 11^th Kristyne of Pretty by Hand http://prettybyhand.com/
Wednesday June 12^thSherri of A Quilting Life http://www.aquiltinglife.com

Sherri and C&T publishing are generously giving away one book for each of the blog tour stops (international winners will receive an e-book) — that means, if you stop at every blog on the book tour by June 14th, you have 10 chances to win!

If you’d like a copy of Sherri’s book, leave a comment and tell me your favorite cookie to snack on while you’re quilting.

Good Luck!
XOXO,
Anna

There they are….the mad dash into Sample Spree!!!

(Photo from Integrated Fitness)

I’m a little Piggy off to market in the morning. I’ll try to post a few pictures to Instagram along the way.

Thanks for all the graduation love — you guys are fabulous. Market reports when I return.

Have a great weekend!
XOXO,
Anna

Hello Hello.  I’m popping in with five quickies — it’s shaping up to be a busy month around here.

1.  I’ve started working on a new quilt.  Blues, grays and red.  It should be fun if I can get a little more sewing time in.  (Oh, and can we please have a moment of silence for that DS gray fabric?  It was so hard for me to cut into it.  I might have to sacrifice and go find more of it.)

2.  I’m sure there must be a quicker way to make this block.  (I’ll bet Sherri knows — she makes it a lot!)  I couldn’t stand the thought of all the wasted fabric from the corner pieces, so I’m making half-square triangles at the same time.  Maybe I’ll use them on the back.  Maybe not.  I’m enjoying the process though.  And I sure do Love that sewline pencil!

3.  All the crabapple trees around here are in bloom this week.  It’s one of the prettiest weeks of the year (I love intense fall colors too.)  Here’s our pretty tree in the back.  The heavenly smell almost knocks you over when you step outside.  I love it!

4.  Here’s a picture of the same tree in 2010.  Can you tell me why there was so much more pink in 2010???  I felt like a pink tree then.  This year it feels like a white tree.  (And boy, look at the difference the light makes in a photo.  It was sprinkling and cloudy when I took this year’s picture.  The 2010 picture was taken on a sunny, early evening.  Such pretty light!)

5. I’m betting you’ve seen THIS commercial. I Loooove it. It’s easily in my top five commercials ever. I wonder if those guys who invented the camera phone even came close to imagining the impact it would have on our lives.

Have a great weekend!
XOXO,
Anna