PinkPetunias

Yellow brick road quilt

So I started a yellow brick road quilt for my dear friend Tammy. It was supposed to be for Christmas...LAST year. Fast forward 6 months and it is still not done. Why oh why do I procrastinate so much? I know I have a small child and I work full time but I see so many others out there with the same time limitations I have and they sew, sew, sew all the time. Is it just me being slow? Lazy? Tired?

No matter what the reason, I am putting it out here and that means I will get it done. I cannot exactly tell you am going to complete it if I am not, right? That would just not be right in blog-land, would it?

It is up to all of you to keep me on task. I have to finish this before Christmas 2009!

Moda Arcadia fabric

Does anyone love the Arcadia fabric line as much as I do? As soon as I saw it, I knew I wanted some. It turns out the hubby likes it too. I am going to make a quilt or duvet cover out of it. Any suggestions? My initial thought was to get a layer cake of ten inch squares and do a simplified version of this. It could be done as a quilt or as the top of the duvet cover. Do you think that would work or should I do something a little more complicated...like piecing the ten inch squares?

  

Peek a boo quilt

Ellie's peek a boo quilt is done. Do you like it? I know she does. I finished it up Saturday night around 10:30 pm. I just love how it turned out.

 
 
 
 

Another super simple quilt

I am on a roll and trying to finish my many WIPs. This time, I finished another super simple quilt for Ellie. It has cute little butterflies on it. I just took two butterfly themed fabrics and quilted around some of the butterflies. I cannot imagine her liking it as much as the first one but I do think she will like this one too. Since she takes blankets with her to daycare, I need to make sure we have plenty on hand and clean (key word is clean - sometimes the laundry gets a little backed up at our house).

 

Little Bits quilt is done

The little bits quilt from Last-Minute Patchwork + Quilted Gifts is done! Yes, I said D-O-N-E. I finished it a couple of weeks ago but just got around to snapping a pic.

 
Rob's wires for his grapes are a great place to hang my quilts for pics. Don't tell him!

Catching up

So Jen commented on my last post and basically asked me where I have been lately. To Jen and anyone else that keeps up with me, here is where I have been and what I have been doing.

One day last week I played hooky from work. I picked up Ellie and met the hubbie for some strawberry picking. While we knew the incredible amount of rain fall we have had pretty much killed any chance of big, gorgeous berries but we thought the act of going and picking would be fun for Ellie. We did not get a whole lot because it was really sunny and Ellie is really fair. Even with 55 SPF sunblock and a hat, she was still getting too pink for my liking.

 
 
All little girls should have a pair of strawberry pants for their first time strawberry picking.
 
After we rode in the rickety truck back to the stand, we got snowballs and sat under a pavillion and relaxed while Ellie made a complete mess of herself and her clothes. I wish I had a picture to share but nope, the camera was in the car (with the strawberries that got completely cooked and were worthless).

On our way back home from strawberry picking we hit our local library. It is only about two years old so it is really nice. We picked out some great books for Ellie and she got to play with two little kids that were there. When did libraries become so loud? What? You say they are still quite? Huh. It was pretty loud in there with the three kids playing in the play area. I guess Ellie has not learned the concept of inside voice yet. What can you expect from a 20 month old?

Over the weekend, Ellie played in her little pool with the hose and Maggie. I love little girls with ruffle butt bathing suits!

 
 
 

Let's see. What else have we done since the last post? Potty training but that is a post all by itself.

Yesterday I took Ellie to meet a friend of mine for dinner and WOW, was she impossible! Climbing on the table, screaming, asking for choc-ate (chocolate), sticking her hands in my water, hitting, throwing things and pulling all of the sugar packets out of the holder and throwing them on the floor. I had to take her outside and have a little talk with her. She was fine after that but I knew I was on borrowed time so we high-tailed it out of there within 15 mintues.

I asked a co-worker about Ellie's behavior and she said it happened to her son at around the same age. She said "welcome to the terrible twos." I thought Ellie was already in them. Apparently not. My co-worker said she only attempts to take her son out every few months to see if he has outgrown it. He turns three soon and he is still not out of it. Yikes!

In crafty news, I have almost completed attachting the binding to Ellie's peekaboo quilt. My friend Trish gave me a few charm packs before Ellie was born and I am just now finishing it up. I am a pathetic procrastinator! Anyhow, it is made with Moda's Peek A Boo line. 

  
Update: This is a sample of the fabrics used, not the actual quilt. Sorry for the confusion. :)

Anyhow, I am sorry it has been so long since I posted. Sometimes I just get wrapped up in my life.

Wonderful weekend, lots to share

Ellie decided it was fun to ask her momma "doin'?" over and over and over and over. We were making peanut butter cookies and while I was scooping the dough out onto the cookie sheets she kept asking "doin'?" each time I dropped dough on the sheet. That is twelve times per sheet and we did three sheets of cookies! As annoying as I make it sound, it really was quite cute and when you turned the question around and asked "What are you doing, Ellie?" she looked perplexed, said "ummm" while looking around. She was thinking very hard. A few times she would answer but most times she just asked "doin'?"

In more Ellie news, my little bug did not wet a single diaper on Saturday and only one on Sunday! Yippy for Ellie.

I did get some sewing time in this weekend. I managed to make and attach the binding strip for a peek-a-boo quilt I started before Ellie was born. While watching movies, I was able to get a quarter of the back of the binding sewn. It looks very cute. I will post pics as soon as I finish later this week.

I also made Ellie another every day little blanket with butterfly fabric. I still need to complete the quilting around the big butterflies but I hope to have that done this week too.

I also got to spend time watching a few movies this weekend. Friday, Rob and I watched Frost Nixon and Saturday my friend Tammy came over for steaks on the grill and we watched Taken. Sunday Rob, Ellie and I barbequed some chicken and after she went to bed, we watched Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Can I tell you I cried for the last 30 minutes? Good thing Rob fell asleep because I was really crying. Not your little tear down the cheek but a half-of-a-box-of-tissues kind of crying. If I was not a mom, I would have just thought "good movie, good premise" but since I was a mom, it was sad to see all that Benjamin had to give up. Good movie. If you have not seen it, do. You get a fair amount of Brad looking Bradly but that is not the reason to see this one.

Little Pillow and Doll Quilt

Sorry for the delay in posting but this past weekend I was in St. Louis visiting family. I will post a few pictures on that later. Anyhow, with all the planning and packing last week and travel this weekend, it was a little too hectic for me to try and post anything.

Now I am finally starting to catch up with things.

Here is the little pillow and pillow case I made for Ellie about 2 weeks ago. I used some scrap flannel and scrap stuffing to make the pillow and took a fat quarter to make the pillow case. 

I also made a little doll quilt for her baby. I followed the same instructions that I used to make her super simple quilt with two changes. One, I used two fat quarters instead of two yards and two, I quilted with a few horizontal lines instead of sewing around random things in the print. It turned out really cute and she just loves it.

 

These took no time at all. Both of these were made when Ellie and I stayed home because she was sick. I was able to make both within an hour with her sitting on my lap. She was so happy sitting there and watching me make things for her. I wish someone could have been there to snap a photo. It was a fun day.

Petunia Patch Quilt Pattern and Updated Blackbean Soup Recipe

 

I see this pattern in my future.

Blackbean Soup with Sausage Recipe UPDATED

Ingredients

2  tsp. olive oil
1  onion, diced 
4  cloves garlic, minced
1 bag of dried black beans
1  (16 oz.) jar salsa (I used an organic bell pepper mix)
49 oz can of chicken broth
1 lb. hot Italian sausage links
1/2  cup  chopped cilantro
Sour cream
Salt and pepper

Directions
(first night)

Soak beans in water.

Warm oil in a medium skillet over medium heat. Add onion and garlic and cook, stirring frequently, until onion is soft and translucent, about 5 minutes.

Place sausage in a medium sized skillet and add enough water to cover the sausage half way. Allow water to boil down and then brown the sausage. Cut into bite sized pieces and refrigerate until tomorrow.

Combine onion mixture, salsa and chicken broth in a slow cooker. Stir well and set aside for tomorrow morning.

(next morning)

Drain beans, rinse well and add to the slow cooker mixture. Cook on low for the day.

(evening)

Place approximately 4 cups of the bean soup mixture into a blender or food processor to puree. Add back to the slow cooker.

Remove sausage from the refrigerator and add it to the slow cooker. Cook for 30 minutes longer to warm the sausage (you could nuke 'em and toss them in). Season with salt and pepper to desired taste.

Serve soup in bowls, with a dollop of sour cream and chopped cilantro on top.

Notes: This turned out really well. I had to add more broth when I got home last night since the beans absorbed a lot of the water. The texture was really good. The only thing I will change for the next go around is to use chorizo or a cuban-style andouille sausage. The hot italian sausage was good but the flavor of the other two would be even better.

Scrap quilt along?

A couple of weeks ago, I was reading a blog and she was asking for people to join her in a scrap quilt along. I thought that was a good idea so I said to count me in. The problem? I cannot find the blog I was reading. I completely forgot to bookmark the site to go back and check in! Google is giving me way too many results for my search. I think I am just going to have to miss out on all the fun. That is unless one you reading this is hosting the quilt along. Could I be that lucky?