My head is full of, not only my own ideas, but also the desire the make some of the really cool modern quilts I’m seeing all over the internet. The latest thing to grab my fancy, and try to add itself to my to-do list without my consent is You Can Dance by Elizabeth Hartman. Gosh I love her style, and this quilt is no exception. Would it be as pretty in fabrics other than the dots she used? I dunno, but I’d love to find out.

What has inspired you lately? please feel free to share some blog links with me. I’d love to know which blogs you read, so I can add them to my feedly

Happy Blogging!

Drumroll…. Here is my Twilter pic for this episode, made by @EngrSandi.

Sandi is now entered in my drawing for the end of this year. The prize will be a completed quilt, made by Me. Each episode, I will choose my favourite Twilter’s picture from twitter and that person will be entered in the drawing. To become a member of the Twilter Brigade, all you have to do is follow me on twitter, and I will follow you back. You don’t have to do anything special. Just keep chatting about quilting, and sharing pics with us quilters.. You can use the hashtag #twilter when posting a pic if you want to be extra sure I catch it.

Enjoy this page about the Bad Sue quilt I talked about. Naughty, naughty Sue!!! Make sure you look at the close ups and read the descriptions of the blocks.. Hilarious stuff!

A note about blog comments : Thank you to all who take the time to comment. I love hearing from you! I seem to be having technical difficulties. Although I see your comments in my email and in my dashboard when I log in to edit and whatnot, the comments don’t seem to be appearing on the blog page itself. This happened once before and I can’t remember what I did that time to fix it. Any ideas? email me. In the meantime, please continue to comment if you can, I can still read them.

Notes From The VooDoo Lounge

Bashful British Quilter aka Carolyn!

Happy Quilting, my sweet Twilters!

Made with Jane’s Butterfly Garden in yellow, It’s a simple rectangle, stitched right sides together, with a hole left on one end for turning and filling. After turning it, I did a line of reinforced stitching 1/4 away from the edge, because a bed full of rice did not sound like any fun. I filled the bag using a funnel.. you should have seen me trying to get it out of the cupboard using bbq tongs because I could barley lift my arm.. I’m sure it was quite comical.

I stitched it shut, slapped it into the microwave for one minute, and ahhhhh bliss. I can now finally turn my neck a little.. just now.

Happy Quilting! and I hope you don’t have a pain in the neck.

I have no pics to share yet, because I’m still in the design stage. When I do have pics, I will warn you before posting them directly here, to spare any sensitive eyes.. If you think it’s as funny as I do, please join us for the exchange!Send an email or tweet to me, or Katie from Katie’s Quilting Corner (@quiltedmagnolia on twitter) and we will invite you to the effing group!

This is the inspiration for the exchange. The Inspiration

Happy Effing Quilting!

Give her a listen and some encouragement to keep going. I look forward to hearing all about her quilting adventures in the episodes to come.

happy quilting!

My brother and his lovely, and sweet bride. He was singing to her. awww

A shot of them before the ceremony

And the cake I made..

The pictures of Easy Street, the batik HSTs, and Feelin’ Froggy are in the previous blog post.

The ratatouille recipe I mentioned is here

Here is my row that I made and passed on to work its way through the ranks of the list. I won’t see it again until December! Special thanks to Susan aka HQSuz for the wonderfully funky fabrics. I decided the “theme” for this quilt will be Funky Traditional.. as in traditional blocks, made with funky fabrics.

I know there’s something else I said I would put up a link to.. or a picture of.. when I think of it, I shall edit

Happy Quilting!

I will spend some time sewing this afternoon.. after this long without a new episode I should have plenty to talk about next time I get to record!

Here’s a recipe to fill your crockpot and your tummy.

Ratatouille! It’s super simple, and can be a quick meal, served over couscous. Ratatouille has 40-50 calories per serving, and Couscous is about 100. You can enjoy a big bowl of this yummy stuff without busting your diet!

You’ll need: Eggplant, zucchini, yellow squash (not pictured), Roma tomatoes, onion, fresh garlic, bell peppers of your choice in colour. Spices: salt, pepper, thyme, sage, and parsley.

Chop it all up!

You can start cooking it on the stove and then add to the crockpot to simmer, or you can throw it all in the slowcooker.. which ever you prefer. It can be cooked all on the stove too, if you’re in a hurry.

Toss in about a teaspoon of sage, a half teaspoon of thyme, and a whole palmful of dried parsely flakes. Salt and pepper to your tastes, and simmer until it looks and smells good. About a half hour on the stove, or however long you need it to wait for you, in the crockpot. It can sit in the slowcooker on low all day if you like.

Serve over couscous. Couscous is yummy and cooks in just 5 minutes.

Keep Treadling!

I have been getting a lot of sewing done though. I made a ton of scrappy batik half square triangles.. about 345 actually. I still need to trim them up to 2.5″ and I have no idea what I’ll use them for yet, but I enjoyed making them from the baggies of scraps my quilting friends give me. You know I love my scraps! It’s the best way to get such a wide variety of colours and prints. Some of the bits are the smalls pieces that a lot of people would normally toss out as unusable. I find them more fun than a bag of candy. No calories and they don’t hurt my teeth.

Darla over at the Scientific Quilter blog and podcast is hosting her second annual “March Along” in which we all try to do at least 15 minutes of quilty activity everyday for the month of March. What Fun!! Most days I get in way more than my 15 minutes, so on the rare day that I don’t sew at all, I think it makes up for it.

So here’s what I’ve done..A whole mess of batik HSTs

Then I finally put all of my Easy Street blocks together, and when I got to the setting triangles I realized I was out of Kona Snow, so I will finish this up after I get some more of that.

I’m also working on a gift for someone who collects frogs. She was sweet enough to come and take pictures at my brother’s wedding.. and I’m pretty sure she doesn’t read my blog, so here’s that progress so far..

Feelin’ Froggy – these will be rearranged into a different setting. I’m just slapping them up onto the wall as I finish them.

Happy Treadling!

Dutch Treat!

And here’s Pumpkles,

Special thanks to Gretchen and MaryAnn who have both been helping me name my quilts lately.

Here’s a little video of me chain piecing some batik scraps, just for funzies..

Wake up, hit snooze, wake up again realizing I’m running out of time. Drag my carcass out of bed and get the kids up for school. Pack lunches, and then tell kids to hurry up. Drive them to school, while cutting up in the car, and trying not to have road rage. Get back home and try to have a healthy breakfast, thinking about all my grand plans for the day. Start cleaning or sewing something, and after 20 minutes, I decide to take a nap. Wake up with a headache, have lunch, pickup kids, clean up, make dinner, do laundry. Watch some tv, maybe sew something, then lay in bed reading instead of sleeping. Rinse and repeat.

13. Describe 5 weaknesses you have.

I am quick to anger, and I hold grudges for years. I know it only hurts me.

I have a tendency to be lazy and make excuses not to workout.

Cheesecake.

Can a weak immune system count for this? I catch everything sniffle that’s going around.

I care too much about things that cannot be helped.

 
14. Describe 5 strengths you have.

This is much harder. I guess Stubbornness can be turned into an asset in some situations.

I’m a good speller..

Gosh this is hard..

I could go back to the weaknesses and say that I apparently do not see my own worth.

15. If you were an animal, what would you be and why?

A dolphin. Because I could swim and swim, all day long.. and eat fish. Plus, dolphins are pretty cute.

16. What are your 5 greatest accomplishments?

Well, I’ve been married for 19 years and we haven’t succeeded in killing each other, yet. I suppose that is something of an accomplishment.

I have two amazing kids who are very smart, and very well behaved.

hmm.. that’s about it.

17. What is the thing you most wish you were great at?
Running. I want to be a runner. My knees do not cooperate.

18. What has been the most difficult thing you have had to forgive?
The only thing that comes to mind is something I haven’t yet forgiven. I know I should because I am only hurting myself, giving a few horrible people free rent in my head. But there it is.. See part A of #13

19. If you could live anywhere, where would it be and why?
Scotland! I fell in love with the pictures and stories from Scotland, and I’ve always wanted to go there.
Coming soon…

20. Describe 3 significant memories from your childhood.
21. If you could have one superpower, what would it be and what would you do with it first?
22. Where do you see yourself in 5 years? 10 years? 15 years?
23. List your top 5 hobbies and why you love them.
24. Describe your family dynamic of your childhood vs. your family dynamic now.
25. If you could have dinner with anyone in history, who would it be and what would you eat?
26. What popular notion do you think the world has most wrong?
27. What is your favorite part of your body and why?
28. What is your love language?
29. What do you think people misunderstand most about you?
30. List 10 things you would hope to be remembered for.