Giveaway Day is coming....

If you want to participate, go here.

I've got some stuff to give away, so I'm pumped!

new sewing table!!

For years, I've been sewing on this:It's a TV stand that my sweet husband built a loooong time ago when we were in college. Quite a long time ago it ceased to hold the TV, so I took it as my sewing table. There's a couple of problems, though. There's no place for my legs. So they have to be sqoooshed to the side while I sew. Not ideal. And, the machine sits up really high. And so I desperately wanted something that was more desk-like that I could have my machine lowered so that the needle was at table-level.

We looked at the local quilting shop and discovered that the nice tables are out of our price range. So lovely, but I couldn't stomach paying over $1000 for a piece of sewing furniture.

I've been stalking craigslist for months.

Finally, my dear husband decided he'd build me something. He spoke about it with a friend at work who is a very good woodworker. And said friend mentioned that his elderly mom needed to get rid of a sewing table at her house. hmm. BUT.... The day before we went to look at it, we found out that we had to replace the gas line at our home we're selling. Among other things. Yikes! So I made up my mind to absolutely love whatever she had to sell.

She opened her garage and I saw THIS!
It's basically the same table I had been looking at... except the 1994 version.

It locks! It expands! It has a hydraulic lift so that my machine can do this when not in use:
It did have a broken hinge, but that's no big deal for hubby to fix.

Its owner was thrilled that he cabinet would be going somewhere to be used every single day. Turns out that she had really stopped sewing by machine so much; her eyesight was better suited to hand-sewing. And so she didn't need the big cabinet any more.

And while her son and my hubby loaded it up? She took me inside and showed me her quilts. TOTALLY AWESOME!! I wish I had a camera with me. Hers were all hand-quilted, and mostly hand sewn. Amazing. A real joy to see.

Help, please! (Flamingo style)

I'm working on a wall-hanging, with the directing being "flamingos". So far I've fussy-cut 12 flamingos and then log-cabined them (is that a word?) into blocks of varying sizes with the logs being bright prints. and I've also made a scrap border of sorts.....

now, nothing is trimmed up. I set it on various pieces of white fabric to give you an idea. The chunks of border are not sewed together or trimmed either. And it's not properly arranged because my younger daughter keeps flinging the blocks around every time I look away to pick up the camera!

But what do you think? I was planning on putting a white border on each block then trimming them to be all the same size. Then adding the border (top and bottom only? all 4 sides? no border?) Then adding another skinny white border (maybe not? maybe a color?), then binding in a black and white print. (no? color?)
And here's a closeup of blocks. Like I said, not trimmed. Photos aren't even focused. Things are going to the dogs around here...... :)

Thanks for your thoughts!!

a get-well quilt

{I have to ask you to forgive my vagueness in this post. Some of this information is not mine to share....}

One of my coworkers is very ill. And I've been thinking over the last year that I really should make him a quilt. I decided finally that a better option would be to get the rest of my coworkers together and we could combine forces to make him a quilt. I wrote a tutorial for a plus-sign block after seeing this quilt . I thought the block was lovely, and it would be possible for a person who had never sewed to create this block if they had good instructions.

So I sent out instructions to my coworkers and hoped for the best! Here's the final product:

Here's my favorite block. Love that batik, and the black and white is fab!

Here's the back.

And a folded shot. The blue block on the top was made by my husband, who has never touched a sewing machine. He tested the instructions for me. He's a good sport.

Here's the first 26 blocks. These were all returned to me within a week of asking! I work with fantastic folks.

Here it is on the machine, getting quilted up. I quilted it very, very heavy since I knew it would be machine washed often because of germs. There's a lot of thread in this one!

And here's my layout before sandwiching it up. For fabrics, I simply requested that the background be a green or blue solid or print and the plus sign be a black and white print. I love how it turned out!

If anyone would like the instructions, I'd be more than happy to send them to you. Maybe someone else would be able to use them for the same sort of thing!

Quilting the beast...

I started quilting this quilt with fear and trepidation! I've been putting it off because it's huge. I mean HUGE! It measures about 85" by 110" and it's by far the largest thing I've machine quilted. But I gathered up my courage and began quilting the beast....I did a spiral / cinnamon roll pattern in each square, and I've been pleased with it. I'll stipple the border and then see if it needs more thread in it.
This quilt is going to be for my husband. He requested something extra large since he's a tall person and blankets are always too short for him.

test

If you want to put a badge for Bee Improvisational on your blog, e-mail me and I'll be glad to send you the code (thanks to Meredith!! love you sis!)

Another bee.....

I started a quilting bee a month ago. And it's all organized and going for the year...... and I'm so excited about it that I thought I'd start one more!

This one is an Improvisational Quilting Bee, so all the blocks need to be improvisational. So instead of sending out a pattern or specific instructions, you'll send out something a little more vague like "do something with flying geese" or "I like squares" or "something with a fussy cut and a log cabin design" This way, the members get a chance to experiment and quilt in an improvisational way, and what is returned to you reflects not only what you asked for but the specific awesomeness of each member!

ABOUT.... A quilting bee is a group of people who sew blocks for each other. 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, your flickr screen name, and your preferred month between May 2010 and April 2011.

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!! And if you have questions, please comment or e-mail me!

update: the bee is now full.

A quilt for Grandma

My husband's grandmother turned 87 this week, and so I made her a quilt. I thoroughly enjoyed making it. It's a Tranquility charm pack plus some putty and chocolate brown solids. It went together really quickly -- I love charm packs!
The top was a little more traditional than I usually do, so I decided to try something new with the quilting.
I don't know what you'd call these. To me, they look like olives or corn kernels. I love how they turned out!
And then I stippled the putty sashing and left the brown alone. At one point I put some straight-line quilting in the brown, hated it, and ended up breaking out the seam ripper. I'm glad that I did, even though I really don't like picking out quilting!
And the back is a blue floral from my stash. Happy birthday Grandma!

Telephone Table

We're moving this week, and I've been picking up pieces to decorate my new house.

And last week I bought this beauty at a garage sale. Love it! I can't wait to refinish it.

It's an antique telephone table.

It needs some love... and probably some glue as well.

possibly some stain.

Definitely some pledge.

and lemon oil.

and some Watco.

But without a doubt it needs a new seat!

{Nice picture of my shoes, eh?}

The new kitchen is done in blue. It's VERY committed to blue, actually.

Now, I don't really do blue, but I am branching out and embracing it!

So this is the fabric for the new seat. It's going to be something in teeny half-square triangles. And the top fabric will be used for the curtains as well.

Stay tuned!

black and white blocks

Yesterday I took an hour or so to just sew creatively, without a plan or a real purpose. Sometimes I just need to do that.....

anyway, I sat down with my black and white box and 6 different colors, and here is what I came up with:
And I landed on a happy accident -- these blocks that look like a window:
They are my FAVORITE!! But now I don't know what to do. Help!
So I have 3 window blocks that I LOVE. And in total I have 13 blocks made. So should I....

1. Make more of the window ones to complete a whole window quilt?

2. Use it all together and just accept that the window ones are my favorite?

and.... should I add more colors? if so, which ones?

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!