I've lost it

My sewing mojo.  It is gone.  I don't feel like sewing anything lately.  Ugh.  Hopefully I will find it again.  We have been slammed with snow in the last couple of weeks.  My husband is now gone, with his big machinery, to do some snow moving (i.e. BIG piles of snow) in a condo complex to make room for MORE SNOW that's headed our way mid week next week.  Hopefully he will be home sometime tomorrow.

So what did the girls do today?  Well, it's now 3:40 p.m. and Amelia is still in her pjs.  Yes, you read that right.  She refuses to get dressed.  Doesn't want to be bothered and you know what?  I'm not going to push her.  It's too late now anyway.  What's the point?

I made yummy soup today!  I have had a taste for my Mom's homemade tomato soup so I called her up earlier in the week to get the recipe.  I got all the ingredients last night and did some cooking.  Anna asked me to post the recipe and since it came out tasty, here you go!  No pictures of the soup though because well, I ate most of it!  LOL!!  I told you I was craving it!

My mom's soup has a chicken soup liquid base so I had to make a pot of her chicken soup first.  Amelia and Chris enjoyed that.

Okay, Tomato Soup.  You can make it two ways.  My mom only makes it in the summertime when fresh tomatoes are a-plenty.  She makes it in the winter only if she has prepared and frozen tomatoes but I don't have that so I did it the second way.

With FRESH tomatoes:
(20) plum tomatoes
 - chunk up the tomatoes and saute them lightly in butter to soften
- once soft, put them through a fine sieve.  Dilute with chicken stock or fresh chicken soup broth
- Bring to boil and then together for 20 minutes or so.  Lower the heat and add heavy cream. I used fat free half and half.  I added almost a whole pint of half and half.  You want a pinky red color.  If you use heavy cream, you won't have to use as much, I'm sure of it.

OR - this is the way I made it today.
(1) small can of tomato paste, lightly sauted with chicken stock (or fresh broth) to get the lumps out and add (2) 8 oz cans of PLAIN tomato sauce.  Add a bit more stock and boil that together for 10 minutes or so.  After 10 minutes, add more chicken stock for the amount of soup you want.  I think I ended up with about 6 cups of soup or so.
Simmer the pot of soup for about 20 minutes and then add your half and half or heavy cream.
Make any noodles of your choice (I made baby stars), serve and enjoy!

The tomato paste/sauce combo tasted just like my Mom's fresh tomato version.  It hit the spot!

Since posts with no pictures are boring, I'm going to show you the mountain of snow we have in our backyard right now.  Sorry for the crappy picture but I took it from the inside, through the bathroom window.

And here's a tree picture from a storm we had earlier this month.

Seriously.  I'm tired of the snow.  We will be snow covered until June.  I'm sure of it!


Enjoy your day!
Jen

Go on over and....

Wish Rachel a Happy Birthday!  Today is her special day!

Happy Birthday Rachel!!!

Enjoy your day!
Jen

Friday Night Sew-In Results

I got about 30 minutes of sewing in last night for the Friday Night Sew-in while Amelia was taking her bath.  I started sewing in the afternoon because I had a feeling I wasn't going to get much done when she got home.  I'm glad I did that.

Here's what I got done.  I started this tablerunner on Thursday evening.  It was featured on Sherri's blog during the Be Mine blog tour.  I added a few more borders to mine to make it wider.  It's a tad too big for my table but that's fine.  It's a bit of fun for Spring.  I used Dilly Dally by Me and My Sister Designs.  I love their fabric.  It's very bright, young and girly and it just appeals to me.  Plus I'm digging the orange and pink together!

Next up, I finally FINALLY started blocks for a quilt for MY bed.  WOOHOO!  I'm doing a Bliss disappearing 9 patch.  Quick and easy.  I got 4 blocks done yesterday.  I'm thinking if I make 4 blocks a week, I'm in good shape to get it done by Spring/Summer.  I'm going to use a 3" sashing in between each block and I think a double border.

Lastly, I made 3 Make Life pinwheels.  These will be made into throw pillows for my couch.  I wanted to get the whole throw pillow block done last night but Amelia wanted to do a movie night so I stopped sewing, popped some popcorn and settled down with her for the rest of the evening.

It is really cold here.  I'm hoping this afternoon Amelia will let me sew some more.  Well, my chores are calling me.  Better get back to work!

Enjoy your day!
Jen

Friday Night Sew In

It's BACK!  Are you in?  I think I'm going to try really hard to sew tomorrow night.  Even if it's just for an hour or so.

Click HERE and sign up too!


Enjoy your day!
Jen

Birdie Stitches - Block One

I finished the first block in the Birdie Stitches BOM.  I like it.  Since hand embroidery is a new-to-me skill, I need to work on my stitch lengths.  I'm a bit uneven in places.   But in the grand scheme of things, I'm happy with the results.

One thing I did different was I did a solid border around the blocks with cornerstones instead of a scrappy block border.  I like that much better.  This idea suits me.  And I like that the fabric reminds me of snowflakes... of course as I'm sitting here writing this post, I just thought of 2 fabrics in my stash that have actual snowflakes on them!  Oh well.  I like this fabric choice better.

I'm ready for February's block!

Enjoy your day!
Jen

Sew-In Sunday

I had a sew-in Sunday.  It felt good to be in my sewing room for most of the day.  I didn't get as much done as I would have liked but I got a couple projects done and out of the way so I'm satisfied.

When I was working on my Be Mine tutorial, I made a practice block out of some scraps to see how the project would all come together.  Since the scraps were from the quilt that I made for my Punk, I finished the block into a pillow for her bed.

Here's the back...

I think she will like it.  But now I have to hit Joanns for another pillow form since I stole borrowed this one from my Be My Valentine pillow.

I finished my Spring/Summer scrappy string block wallhanging.  It will be ready for quilting soon.  I had a little trouble with executing this.  Scrappy quilts are NOT ME.  I had a very hard time not making the blocks match!  So to combat this, I did not think about my string layout too much.  I just picked out of my stash, trimmed it to the width I needed and sewed them on.  Only thing I made sure of was that the blocks were kind of balanced on each side with strength of colors and such.  Now that it's done, I like it.  :)  I think I want to make a table runner.  But I think I'll make my table runner red, white and aqua.  A bit more matchy-matchy for me.

Here's a close up of the strings.

I have one more finish to show you but that will have to wait until tomorrow.  It's nice to post more than once a week.  Hopefully my sewing mojo is back for a while!

Enjoy your day!
Jen

Be Mine Blog Tour - Winners!

The Be Mine Blog Tour has come to an official end.  I had a great time with it and see that others did too.  Some great projects are being made and uploaded to the Flickr group.  A couple of the heart pillows that I featured on my blog post.  Seeing those make my day!

I'm here to announce the winners of the scissor fobs and the $50.00 Fat Quarter Shop gift certificate now.  I had a total of 505 comments (taking out some of the duplicates)- WHOA and I answered each and every one - double WHOA; at least I answered those that weren't "no reply".

First winner....

#258 ... KENNA!  Kenna wins the Valentine "LOVE" fob!  Congratulations!!

Second winner...

#58.... KARENFAE!  Karenfae wins the snowflake fob!  Congratulations!!

And now for the $50.00 Fat Quarter Shop gift certificate...

#99... TIFANNY!!  Congratulations!!  Have fun spending it!!  :)

All three winners should check their in-boxes for an email from me.

The $100.00 FQS gift certificate grand prize winner will be announced on Vickie's blog within the next couple of days.

Thanks to all of you for a successful blog tour.  I hope you all come back soon!  I have high hopes to get a couple of finishes posted in the next couple of days.  I have been under the weather for a few days and I'm finally feeling better and playing in my sewing room.

Enjoy your day!
Jen

Be Mine Blog Tour - Day 6

We're headed to the end of the blog tour.  I'm kinda sad.  I've enjoyed all the new traffic through my blog.  I hope a few of you stick around!

Today is Stefanie's day!  She made the cutest little project!

Valentine garland!

Remember, you need to comment in order to be in the giveaway!  Each blog host is giving away a $50.00 gift certificate to the Fat Quarter Shop. How cool is that!  And in order to be in the pot for the $100.00 gift certificate giveaway, you need to comment on EACH blog on the bloggers featured day.  It's okay if you haven't done so yet.  You just need to comment by Saturday.  All giveaway drawings are being done on Sunday 1/16. 

Enjoy your day!
Jen

Be Mine Blog Tour - Day 5

Hello there.  Today is day 5 of the Be Mine Blog tour and today is Carol's day!  She made the cutest heart  shaped needle case and scissor holder.  Make sure you go over and check out her project!

If you haven't already, be sure to check out my project HERE and leave a comment to be included in the giveaways I'm hosting.  Remember that you need to comment on all 7 blogs on the blogger's featured day to be eligible for the $100.00 FQS gift certificate drawing!

Enjoy your day!
Jen

I am a SUCKER for cute! And Be Mine Blog Tour Day 4

I tried very hard.  VERY hard but then I popped onto the Flickr group and OH MY.  I NEED to make this BOM.  I NEED TOOOOO!!  I almost want to abandon my layer cake BOM for this one.  Seriously.


I can't stand how cute that bird is!!!

The blocks that people are turning out from the first block... I can't be left out of the fun.  I just can't!  So I'm going to do it.  Oh geez.  Just add it to my ever-growin, never-ending list.  But I have resolved that I will make mine scrappy and work out of my stash.  And another thing I going to change is I'm not going to make my block borders out of 2.5" squares.  They will be solid.  Quicker to whip up and I won't lose my interest right off the bat.  My sewing machine is in for service.  UGH!  I want to get this started.  NOW!!

On another note!  Day 4 of the Be Mine blog tour is here.  Go on over and visit Kim's blog!  You won't be disappointed.  Her table runner??  ADORABLE!

Enjoy your day!
Jen

Be Mine Blog Tour - Day 3 - MY DAY!

Giveaway is now CLOSED!  Winners will be announced soon! :)

Hooray!  Today is my day on the Be Mine blog tour.  How exciting!  First I would like to welcome all the new followers that I have.  I noticed my "Followers" numbers have been increasing a bit.  I haven't had a chance to go and visit any of their blogs (if there are any).  My day job just gets in the way but I promise in the next couple of weeks, I will check them out.  HI and welcome!

For my project I made a Be My Valentine pillow. I was going to use "valentine-y" fabrics for it but I didn't have enough in my stash and I was just too lazy to go anywhere and get some. So I went with Bliss. I had enough in my stash and it's red so it worked! It even has those dreaded half square triangles in it! I'm working through my dis-like of them. They are getting easier to do. :) I am going to give you some condensed instructions on how I made the pillow. At the end of my post, there will be a link to my whole tutorial.

To start, you will need:

6 – 3 ½” squares for heart (focus fabric)
2 – 3 ½” squares for heart (background fabric)
4 – 4” squares of focus fabric (for the HSTs) HST = half square triangles
4 – 4” squares of background fabric (for the HSTs)
4 – 1” wide strips of accent fabric
• 2 @ 12 ½ ” long
• 2 @ 14” long
4 – 3 ¼” wide outer borders. Can either be from the focus or background fabrics. I used my focus fabric for the outer borders
• 2 @ 13 ½” long
• 2 @ 19” long
2 – 19” x 11 ½” pieces for envelope back. Again, this can be either the focus or background fabric. I used my focus fabric; I didn’t have enough of my background fabric in my stash.
19” square piece of fusible fleece. You can use regular thin cotton batting. I like the fusible fleece. Gives the pillow front more stability.
18” square pillow form


First thing that you need to do is create 8 HSTs using the 4" focus and background fabrics using any method that works for you.  Trim and square down to 3 1/2" if needed

Take those 4 HST and create the top row of your heart. Refer to the picture as to the correct orientation of the HSTs.

Take 4 of the 3 1/2" focus fabric squares and sew them all in a row.  Sew this row to the HST row (HST row on the TOP) and set aside.  This will be the top of the heart.

Sew into pairs a HST and 3 1/2" square of the focus fabric.  Refer to the picture to the fabric placement.  Make 2 and sew them together to form a row

Sew into pairs a 3 1/2" background square and HST.  Again, refer to the picture for correct fabric placement.  Join both pairs to form a row.

Take both the third and last row you just created and sew them together to create the bottom half of the heart.  Now sew the top of the heart to the bottom.

Sew your accent fabric around the block and then your outer borders.

Fuse the block to the fusible fleece and do some light quilting if desired.  After I did my own quilting, I like the look of the block WITHOUT it so it's your choice.

For the pillow back:
Take (1) 19" x 11 1/2" backing piece, fold the long side (19") under 1/2".  Press and fold under again 1/2".  Press and stitch roughly 1/4" from the folded edge.  Repeat with the second backing piece.

With the ride sides together (pillow top and backing pieces), ensuring the hemmed edges of the backing overlap each other, pin and sew with a 1/2" seam.  Using a walking foot is helpful.  Clip the corners and turn right side out.  Stuff and fluff and your pillow is finished!

Here is a pdf version of the instructions.  I hope you all like it!  There is a Flickr group created for photos of any of the projects made by you during the blog tour.  I would love to see it if you make a pillow! 

And if you made it THIS far, you deserve a giveaway!  I am giving away (2) beaded scissors fobs created by me.  :)  One is "valentine-y" and the other is "winter-y".  I'm sure by the picture you can tell which is which.  I will chose 1 winner for each.  If you have a favorite, leave me your first choice in your comment.  I will do my best to get you your first choice.  And of course if you leave a comment, you are also in the pot for the $50.00 gift certificate to the Fat Quarter Shop!

Remember, in order to be eligible for the grand prize ($100.00 FQS gift certificate), you need to comment on each bloggers featured day.  Winners for all giveaways (mine included) will be drawn on January 16th.  Good luck!

Vickie

Sherri

Me

Kim

Carol

Stephanie

Natalia

Thanks for stopping by!
Jen

Be Mine - Day 2

Sherri is featuring a beautiful tablerunner tutorial for her project and it would be awesome made with other fabrics too.  I have an idea for my own which I shouldn't even think about right now since I'm trying to stick hard to my list but I'm VERY tempted!

Be sure to visit Sherri's blog (and comment!) for your chance to win some prizes!  And don't forget to come back here tomorrow to see MY project.  I hope you all like it... I'm getting nervous!
 
Enjoy your day!
Jen

It has begun! Be Mine Blog Tour Day One

Day 1 of the Be Mine blog tour is here!  Pop on over to Vickie's blog and see the totally cute heart ornaments she made.

Here's a picture of them.

Remember that you need to post a comment on each blogger's post on their featured day in order to be eligible for the grand prize of the $100.00 gift certificate to the Fat Quarter Shop!

Enjoy your day!
Jen

Even Better!

Wow!  The Be Mine blog tour is getting even better!!  I told you that we have a special sponsor...

Well.  Here are some more GREAT details!

The Fat Quarter Shop is giving each blog host a $50.00 gift certificate to giveaway!!  HOW COOL!!  So you have seven chances to win $50.00 to spend at the FQS!  AWESOME!

Also, there will be one GRAND PRIZE winner of a $100.00 gift certificate to the FQS to someone who comments on each blog on their feature day!  Someone could potentially walk away with $150.00 to spend at the Fat Quarter Shop!  I wish I could play!

Be sure to come back on Sunday to start the fun!  Please see this post for the list of blogs participating.

Enjoy your day!
Jen

Sunday is the day!

Are you ready?  Sunday, January 9th, kicks off the Be Mine blog tour!  How exciting!  Here's the list of blogs participating, just as a reminder.

January 9th - Vickie from Spun Sugar Quilts

January 10th - Sherri from A Quilting Life

January 11th - ME

January 12th - Kim from Kim's Big Quilting Adventure

January 13th - Carol from Carol's Crafty Creations

January 14th - Stephanie from Little Lady Patchwork

January 15th - Natalia from Piece n Quilt

Each day, the featured blogger will have a Valentine's Day themed project to share.  And what's even MORE exciting is that we have a blog tour sponsor!

Giveaways will be had!!  How fun!  I will be having a giveaway here on my blog. Something cute I'm creating.  I have to get on that before I forget.

So mark your calendars and make sure you come back on Sunday for the start of the Be Mine blog tour!

Enjoy your day!
Jen

A List

Greetings!  It's been a while since a "quilty" post and it will probably be a bit longer.  I haven't had the time nor the energy to sew anything.  Probably due to the fact that I'm not sure what to work on first.  So, let's make a list!  I love lists.

This is what I would like to complete in 2011.  It's going to be a very short list because I like obtainable goals.  LOL!

- a Bliss disppearing 9 patch for my bed

- finish Amelia's Magoo. The one Mary made for her granddaughter got me thinking about Amelia's.  It's so close to being finished that I just need to do it.  Maybe I'll search for it and pull it out of hiding so that I can't ignore it anymore.

- A spring wall hanging for my living room.  Since I made one for christmas and the hardware is now on the wall, I might as well make something that will take me through Spring and possibly Summer.  I'm thinking either stash busting some string blocks or doing an extra large Maverick star.  I've always wanted to make a Maverick star.  Here's my chance, I guess.

- couch pillows made out of "Pure"

- couch pillows made out of "Make Life"

- Christmas stockings for my husband and myself

- work on my pinwheel blocks

- finish my Jelly Roll Sampler quilt top

- work on my BOMs. I am SO behind with this one.

That's it.  That's what I want to work on and FINISH in 2011.  We'll see how well I do.  LOL!

AND
Don't forget about the upcoming "Be Mine" blog tour happening next week!  Every blog on the tour is going to have a project for you to see and there will be some giveaways (I plan on having one!) and the Fat Quarter Shop is doing a giveaway too!  So come on back on the 9th to check out the start of the Be Mine blog tour!  Here's the list of the participating blogs:

January 9th - Vickie E of Spun Sugar Quilts
January 10th- Sherri of A Quilting Life

January 11th - Jen of Miss Punkie Pie (that's ME!)

January 12th - Kim of Kim’s Big Quilting Adventure
January 13th - Carol of Carol's Crafty Creations

January 14th - Stephanie Little Lady Patchwork

January 15th -Natalia of Piece n Quilt

Enjoy your day!
Jen