Photo Dump!

 So May has just about come and gone, and I haven't posted. I'm sure you aren't THAT surprised. But because one of my 2012 goals was to post at least ONCE every month, I'm throwing this one in at the last minute.  These are a bunch of photos from my phone that show you some of what I've been up to and have been enjoying the past month.   Here is my new girl! She is our "BIG BABY" bloodhound. She weighs a solid 102 lbs and is 4 years old already. We adopted her in the fall and are having sooooo much fun with her.   

I went to visit my parents and utilized my mom's fabric stash to create some baby quilts for friends having babies this summer. I made two very similar, very simple little tops for these two sweet baby boys who are due in late July/early August. They are both the second boy in their family, and while I didn't make a quilt for either of their big brothers, I think sometimes it is good for the second child to get a spoiling the first child didn't get and I hope their moms like the quilts!

 I also got my hands on this pretty little charm pack of Vintage Modern by Bonnie and Camille. LOVE it!

Here I am sinking my painted toes in the sand and water on a remote tropical island. Ha! Just kidding. I snapped this photo of my feet in the pool at my parents house one day when it was already like 90 degrees in April. LOVED it!

I ordered a new phone case for my phone, because mine was not doing well at all. This is a reflection of it on the mirror of my purse. Along with my granny hand at the bottom of the reflection. It is a bright and cheery-cherry case! You can get your own from Gelaskins. 

Turtles on a log on the golf course. No one wanted to be in the water that day, so it was tight quarters on that branch.

Pretty flowers in our yard.

Another pretty.

Seeing a trend? I took that Big Baby Bloodhound for a walk one day and I forced her to stop while I took pictures of these flowers. I thought the color was so vibrant that I had to have a pic! It was quite a feat keeping her still without dropping my camera phone, but I'm happy with the result. 

While RH was home for his one-week summer vacay, we stained our planter this darker brown color for a change and to protect the wood. We love the new color!

 Hope you enjoyed these snapshots of my life! I'll be back in June!  

 

Work In Progress: Etchings Quilt

One of my newly revisited hobbies is quilting! I sewed and quilted some as a child and then spent many years away from the machine. I made Mr. RH a quilt for his college graduation the year we got engaged and married, but did not have my own machine until Christmas a few years ago. I now have a machine and a great fabric stash, thanks to my Mama, and have recently been inspired and have gotten back into the swing of things. 
I took a class at a local quilt store (LQS) in February  and signed up for another this weekend. It forced me to do some prep work and re-learn how to thread my machine and spin a bobbin before I went to class, so that was a great kick-start. I'm thinking my next class will be very inspiring, too!
But in the meantime, I've been using the skills and  fabrics I already have for a few projects! One of those is, what I hope will be, a very beautiful quilt.   The pattern is called: "dream big" and is found in Camille Roskelley's book "Simplify." 

 She is a wonderful designer and the pattern is easy to read and understand.
I used a jelly roll for the fabrics in my quilt. A jelly roll is around 40: 2 1/2" strips of different fabrics that all coordinate from a fabric line. The one I chose is called Etchings and was designed by 3 Sisters for Moda. It is beautiful: featuring greys, blues, reds and creams. It has some prints that look like tourist maps and some with words etched on. 

The pattern had me cut various size rectangles and some squares from the jelly roll strips and arrange them. I haven't sewn all the strips together, yet, but I  took a photo of the whole arrangement.  It took me a solid six or so hours to get everything laid out exactly how I wanted it.  Now the next step is to stitch all of those interlocking crosses and rows together.

I'm really excited about it. Now, off to the machine!

   P.S. I am linking this post up to The Needle and Thread Network WIP!