Quilting bee, anyone?

I've been wanting to join a quilting bee for quite a while. But I always seem to have my timing wrong! So I thought.... why not host one?

ABOUT.... A quilting bee is a group of people who sew blocks for each other. Each person is assigned to a month. On your month, you choose fabrics and a pattern or an idea for quilt blocks. You send out instructions and fabric to the group. And everyone else in the group sews blocks for your quilt on your month. Usually there are 12 people in a quilting bee, and the commitment lasts for a year.

RESPONSIBILITIES... Every month you would make 2 blocks for another group member and mail those blocks to that person. One month in the year you would purchase fabric and send it and instructions to all group members. Since it is a year-long commitment, please think carefully about whether or not you can make 2 blocks each month for a year.

POSTING.... I'll be creating a flickr group for this quilting bee. I'll ask each member to post their inspiration quilts, their fabrics, and their completed blocks on the flickr group.

TO SIGN UP... please send me an e-mail to wendyleep {at} gmail {dot} com with the following information: your name, your physical address, your e-mail address, and your blog address. 12 people can sign up to participate. I'll also take a couple of alternates in case someone drops out during the year.

Looking forward to a year full of fun!!

UPDATE: the bee is now full.

Super-fabulous chocolate-cherry brownie bites.

It's your lucky day.

I am hooking you up with how to make THESE:
Now, I want to be very very clear and say that this is not an original recipe, it is an adaptation of this recipe, which I would have used except the main ingredient is not available in grocery stores in my area.

So I had to improvise. I ended up with a nice little easy recipe that is fairly inexpensive to make. And I'll share that with you, friends!

So here we go.

1. Go purchase your favorite brownie recipe. I say go for the fancy one with chocolate chunks, but whatever you want will work. Make sure it calls for adding water.

2. Get 2 jars of maraschino cherries and a can of chocolate frosting. Not the whipped kind.

3. Make the brownie recipe. Except substitute cherry juice for the water called for in the brownie mix, and add some chopped up cherries. About 1/3 cup. More or less. Suit yourself.

4. Grease mini-muffin tins. Mine made 36 mini-muffins. Put the batter in the muffin tins, being careful not to overfill. Bake about 12 minutes at 350. Let them cool and then carefully remove from the pans (most definitely the most difficult part!)

5. Scoop out a dollop of the chocolate frosting, and microwave it for 30 seconds. Stir, and then dip the tops of the brownie-muffins in it. Then stick a cherry in the icing. See, easy!

Now, these did not keep well. I'd suggest making them the day you are using them. Or ice only what you can use that day and freeze the rest?

But they are fabulous! So fabulous! Happy eating, friends!

A tea party...

We had a tea party for my daughter's first birthday. I had asked for help with the invites.

I wanted to give the kids an activity when they first arrived, and many different ages of children were coming. So I drew a teacup for them to color and make copies. (There was a teapot as well, but I'm not as proud of it....).
My daughter needed a fancy outfit, so I found a onesie that said Baby's first birthday at Kohl's, and I made her a bubble skirt to match it.

Now, I don't usually sew clothing because I'm dreadful at it. But I wanted something specific, and I found the cute blue roses print at Jo-Ann's for $1.50/yard and couldn't resist.
We had a parfait bar. Everybody likes parfait, right? I think so.
I made special hair bows for my girls. The one on the left is my younger daughter's. The one on the right is my older daughter's. Her skirt was made out of the pink roses print.
Found these fabulous plates at the after-Valentine's day sales at Target. Awesome!
This was quite possibly the hit of the party. These little things are AWESOME! And easy, and quick and relatively inexpensive to make. I'll be posting a recipe in the next few days so stay tuned....
And here's the birthday girl modeling her hairbow... such a sweetie! Can't believe she's 1 year old!

another string

Still working on string quilts. I wanted to experiment with quilting on these, and I had 10 extra blocks from my big string quilt. And so I made 2 more to make this:I think it's going to be another donation quilt. I really like it, but I think it's a neat piece to donate to the silent auction. It's a good baby quilt size, and it would be lovely for a little boy or a little girl. I used straight-line quilting, which is not my favorite, but it worked well here.
I bound it in a red dot, and I used an apple-printed flannel for backing. The quilt itself is so heavy that I didn't use batting. It gives the quilt a slightly different feel, but I think it would be great as a summer baby blankie.
I really enjoyed this project!

string quilt progress!

Well, I've made some progress on my string quilt. It's been so much fun! I've really enjoyed working on it. Here's a little closer shot.
And I'm fascinated by the back. It's nearly as neat as the front!
Each block is 10" square, and it's 7 blocks by 10 blocks. And now I'm fretting about how to quilt it and how to put on borders.
You see, because of the muslin used in the construction, the blocks are thick. And I was planning on putting on 2 borders, but I am concerned that they may not hang correctly or may feel flimsy? Suggestions? Help please!

a birthday present

Here's what I'm currently working on. It's for my youngest. And I love it! It still needs 2 more borders: one in the light blue and one in the hot pink.

Thrilled with the colors.

Now if it would just quilt itself.....

And I found this at Jo-Ann's. I think I showed an admirable amount of self restrain in not purchasing the entire bolt. LOVE IT! I did buy 4 yards. I have no idea what I'm going to use it for. Probably quite a few projects!

And I have an idea that I need some help on. I want to do a quilt with flying pigs. Maybe applique? Not sure. Any ideas?

Hot air balloon is done!

Been trying to finish stuff up lately.... so here's another one!

I had started a heating pad cover for my dad back here, and it was one of those weeks where I didn't get it finished before his birthday. {hides in shame}

So I gave him a partially finished present with the promise that I'd get it finished and it would be beautiful.

Anyway, here's the front:
I am SO in love with the cloud quilting. Love it! I will be on the lookout for another project that requires clouds.
And here's the back. I like it just as well! I can imagine a whole big quilt done like this.

I made it to fit his specific heating pad, and it ties shut on the end. Happy Birthday Daddy!

pink and black finished

I finished up the pink and black donation quilt over the weekend. I really love it!

It's about 40" x 40" finished.

I have committed to trying something new on the quilting on my donation quilts this year. You know, trying to make myself learn something new. So on this one, I quilted a tight spiral from the center of the diamond out. I like the way it turned out.

And here's the backing.

A treasure hunt....

I'm cleaning out to move, which means I'm running across all sorts of treasures I had forgotten I have..... so here's today's treasure: a measuring stick holder.

It was made by my paternal grandmother. Her name was Millie, and she could sew anything. She could knit and crochet as well. She was thrifty before thrifty was cool, and my dad remembers being sent as a child to go fetch some piece of furniture out of the dumpster so she could recover it!

Anyway, she made one of these for my mom, so I always remember it sitting my mom's machine. And when Grandma passed away, I inherited hers.

It needs a little bit of repair work, but I'm up to the challenge. I like it.

I was blessed to have 2 grandmothers that were amazing seamstresses. I like to have their things around my sewing table--I'm hoping some inspiration comes from them!

Happy Valentines Day

So friends, I don't post many pictures of myself. But since today is Valentine's Day, I'm posting a wedding picture of me and Mr. WendyCity. We celebrated our 11th anniversary in January. Isn't he cute?

And here's what I made him for Valentine's Day. Here's the inspiration.

I went with a deck of UNO cards because there's more in a pack. And cause I just need to do something different.... I'm goofy that way.

And here's some of my inside pages.

I also let my daughters make some suggestions, and I put those in there with their initials.

And this one is a joke. When I was pregnant with my first daughter, he claimed he would never, ever, ever carry a pink diaper bag. Ever. And now that he has 2 little girls.... well, let's just say that he carries the pink diaper bag when necessary.

Anyway, this was a super fun project, and it would make a great gift for lots of events! I think it would make a really neat gift for a child -- fill in a card each week all year, and then give it as a gift on that child's birthday!

Have a happy valentine's day and lots of love to you!

tea party fun!

What can I say? The tea party invite is done!

Deb from New Zealand sent me this beautiful picture, which was exactly what I had in mind!

I fussed with it for a while, and then I wrote the little rhyme, and then I passed it on to my sister in law Meredith to finish up.

Because she's super-amazing with that sort of thing

(and all other sorts of things as well. She's just super-amazing in general.)

And so this is what she came up with. I LOVE it.

I've talked a little bit about what my 2nd child has been through here.

Anyway, her first birthday is a big milestone.

Wendy asks for teapot help!

Friends, I need some help.

I'm going to throw a tea party for my daughter's first birthday. I know a lot of you precious quilters also enjoy a good cup of tea.

Does anyone have a picture I can use for the invitation? a teapot, cup of tea, some lace doilies, etc? Maybe a beautifully set table with some flowers?

Or would anyone be willing to set a table and take a picture for me? I would be ever so grateful.