Time for Sign Ups Again!

Thank you for the input about Alaska cruises--it's really helped Hubby and me tremendously in coming to a decision.  It looks like we'll be giving it a try.  What I didn't mention last night is that the cruise was booked for us through my office.  Since the firm first started, they've given their employees a vacation trip of some sort when the employees reach their 10-year anniversary.  In the past few years, some of the firm's employees have hit their 20-year anniversaries, and the partners decided to add a 20-year trip bonus.  I'm one of those 20-year employees and we were offered four or five different trip options.  The Alaska cruise sounded like the best idea to us and here's why:  Hubby's idea of a great vacation is to drive somewhere and enjoy the scenery from the car, stopping occasionally for food and to check out a museum or a shop.  So a cruise sounded much the same except he wouldn't need to keep his foot on the gas pedal!  When we learned, though, that there were no cabins available with views, we worried it would make a big difference to our enjoyment of the trip; it's good to know there are plenty of other public areas on board that are quiet, temperature-controlled, and have views.  Whether we're cruise people or not, I suppose we'll find out, but I guess we can't know until we try it.

Now, it's time again to sign up for Scrap Basket Sunday.  If you have a scrap project to show on your blog, please add your name and blog link to the Mister Linky list below.  Only sign up ahead of time if you know you'll be posting something on Sunday, or you can wait to sign up until you've posted your scrap project.

So Let Me Ask You This . . .

I have a question tonight I want to ask those of you with a lot of experience vacationing aboard cruise ships.  I know nothing about cruises and I'm in a bit of a quandry so I need some input.  First, though, the pattern giveaway!  The winner is . . . Brenda!  Brenda said, "Please enter me in your drawing. Looks like a great scrap pattern."  Brenda, please email me your address and I'll get it mailed out to you.

Now the cruise thing.  Here's the scenario:  Hubby and I have an opportunity to cruise to Alaska--a 7 day cruise.  Hubby is wheelchair bound.  He has circulation problems that mean he's probably not going to be able to hang around on deck for very long without getting cold, unless it's particularly warm out and I'm not sure about Alaska and being out on the ocean, even in the summer.  When he's in large rooms filled with a lot of noise--voices, clatter, etc.--his ears hurt.  We don't really gamble much or drink much.  Given all of these things, my assumption is that we'll be spending more time in our cabin than the typical cruise passengers.  I thought that would work out fine and we'd have a wonderful vacation anyway if we could get a room with a balcony or some type of view, but the closest we can get is an obscured ocean view (actually a very nice view of a lifeboat).  The idea of spending a lot of time for a week in a little room with not much to look at sounds kind of depressing, and as Hubby said tonight, the days when we'd be content playing strip backgammon for hours are long since past.

So maybe the problem is that I just don't know what there is for us to do on a cruise and I'm expecting the worst.  Or maybe my concerns are valid and we should make some other vacation plans.  What has your experience been?  Please feel free to email me rather than leave a comment if you'd prefer.  I appreciate your input--I know that putting my question out to all of you is certain to give me the feedback I need to make a decision.  Thanks!

A Patriotic Little Project

Remember the mini patriotic wallhanging I made the other day using a rejected star block?  I quilted it tonight and hung it in one of those metal table frames.

The star block was made with flying geese blocks that measured 2-1/2" x 1-1/2"; the center square was cut at 2-1/2"; and the corner squares were cut at 1-1/2"--just in case you want to make one too.  The star block then measured 4-1/2".  I cut the red and white strips 1-1/2" wide; the top four strips were cut 4-1/2" long; the bottom three strips were cut 8-1/2" long.  There you go:  a flag!

After that, I cut the yellow border pieces 1-1/4" wide, and the outside border was cut at 2" and trimmed a little after quilting.  I have a couple alternative border ideas in mind; I think I need to make a little hanging for The Wild Child, so if I try something different, I'll be sure to share.  Happy stitching!

A Scrappy Little Freebie

I was visiting Renee Nanneman's online shop, Need'l Love, sometime last week and felt I needed to place an order for a few goodies--I love her fabrics, the Threads books, and the patterns she carries.  AND she has some good bargains too!  When my order arrived, I found she was kind enough to send along a free pattern, Rose Maison, and I thought I should pass it on to one of you.  I think this would be a very good candidate for a scrappy quilt, don't you?

If you're not too challenged by all those pinwheel points and would like a chance to win this pattern, just leave me a comment telling me you want to be entered into the drawing, and I'll draw a winner Thursday evening--come back on Friday to see if your name was picked!  Wouldn't this quilt look stunning with black as the background color and lighter/brighter scraps?  Kind of Amish-ish?

Speaking of black, let me show you what I found--and purchased--over at Need'l Love.  You know I'm a sucker for all things Halloween, right?  I'm looking forward to making this one before long.  Halloween is less than six months away--can you believe it?!

I also purchased a small bundle of black fat quarters--she has some great bundles.  If you hop over there--and you can do that by clicking on the shop name in the first sentence--check out the special offer near the top of the page to the right.  This week it's the Strawberry Threads book for only $10.  I have the book and there are some fun projects--you can see photos of them right there on the website.  So many projects, so little time!

A Little Bit Scrappy

Remember the star blocks I was playing with the other day?  Well, I'm still working on a project with those, but I had a couple of "reject" star blocks that have grown into other things, and I thought I'd share these ideas.  When I made this first star, I decided the "white" background was way too busy and had too much red in it.  Then I remembered I'd soon need a summer mug mat for my desk at work, so I got to work making one:

The binding was scrap binding from another project.  I like it when projects work out this easily!  Then there was the second star block--this one was a duplicate of another block and I decided I only wanted one for my main project, so this one is well on its way to becoming a small wallhanging--about the size of those wire tabletop frames:

Of course, it still needs to be quilted and bound.

You know that saying, "Cute as a bug"?  Well, most bugs aren't all that cute, are they?  But THIS one really is!

This is an ice cream cake Hubby got from Baskin-Robbins to surprise me with for Mother's Day.  It tastes as good as it looks, too!  I hope you had an enjoyable Mother's Day and are now busy making this the beginning of a stitch-filled week!

Can She Bake a Cherry Pie, Billy Boy, Billy Boy . . .

Saturday was the monthly gathering of my stitchery friends, and I volunteered to bring dessert this month--I had purchased a nice quantity of the season's first cherries the weekend before and I had seen a cherry pie idea on the cooking show Kelsey's Essentials.  In the end, I used the fresh cherries I purchased and supplemented them with about an equal amount of frozen cherries.  These desserts turned out oh so cute!

I doubled the recipe and was able to get a dozen pies.  You can find the recipe HERE.  Shorter and wider jars which would work MUCH better, but I didn't have time to shop around, and these were the size I came up with.  I used frozen pie shells and pressed segments of the dough around the insides of the jars; I was afraid I was handling the dough too much, but they turned out very tasty!

You can see in the above photo that I also used a crumb topping for some.

Pies and desserts in jars seem to be the hot, new idea--since I saw these on Kelsey's Essentials, I've seen several other ideas online and in magazines, especially for non-baked goodies.  The nice thing about these pies, though, is that they can be frozen before baking and then given as gifts or baked as needed--they just bake in the canning jars.

Yum!

Scrappy Show and Tell

It's hard to believe another week has passed and it's time again for scrap play.  Here's a photo of the scrappy blocks I made since we last shared photos:

Marie, who doesn't have a blog, sent me a photo of a quilt she just finished, and when I asked her, she gave me permission to post a photo here.  She said the blocks were made from batik scraps, and the pinwheels were made using a folded method.  The cut-off parts are used in the border.

Nice, isn't it?!

I spent Saturday with my stitchery friends and worked on the May wool sheep blanket--it's finished!

And remember I said I felt I might need to work on a different scrappy project soon?  Well, when I came home Saturday night, I headed into the Sweat Shop to play with some patriotic star blocks.  These measure 4-1/2" unfinished and may eventually grow up to be a wallhanging or tabletopper.  Too soon to tell, though!

It's Saturday night--not quite Sunday yet, but it will be in a few minutes.  The first thing I'm planning for Mothers' Day is to sleep in!  I hope you have a wonderful day, in whatever manner you spend it--happy Mothers' Day!

Scrap Basket Sunday Sign Ups!

Since Sunday is Mother's Day, I suspect some of us may not have time to sew.  Then again, some of us may have told our families that one of the things we'd like to spend a little time doing on Mother's Day is relaxing and sewing--that's what I've told Hubby, but then the Wild Child is up north in Eureka and Soccer Son and his Lovely Wife will be dividing the day between several moms, so much of my day is free.

I don't know about you, but I'm feeling like doing something a little different with my scraps this week; I don't know what.  I have last Sunday's blocks to show this week, but maybe I'll have a different little something or other the following week.  Quilters' Attention Deficit Disorder!

So do you have something to show us this week?  If so, please add your name and link to Mister Linky below when you're ready for us to visit you!

Thanks!

Wow!  If ever I wonder in the future whether anyone is reading my blog, all I have to do is remember how many of you took the time to help me make a decision about which color rick rack to use.  There were 47 comments already, just a day later.  Yes, there were a lot of different answers, but most of you were pretty certain you didn't like the yellow.  And some of you thought it was great the way it is, without any rick rack added at all; maybe just a bright binding.  And a couple of you thought I should replace the border altogether.  You know, that's something I thought about too for awhile, but I really wasn't sure I'd ever find quite the right thing.  I had this black and white print picked out at the beginning--it was part of the line that I used heavily in the rest of the quilt--and I was as surprised as could be when I added it at the end and it fell flat.

Between the blue and the green rick rack, green had the most "votes."  And while blue is just about my favorite color, I think the blue is too calm for the result I'm looking for.  So, unless anything happens between now and the quilting part, I suspect I'll go with the green.  Now I just need to get it pin basted and quilted!

In the meantime, I thought I'd show you the next sheep blanket--it's not stitched down yet, but I was putting together the wool for my friends and getting it prepped, so I took a photo.

This is the May blanket, and I'm a little surprised at the darker colors, but it IS a primitive pattern, so I guess it's to be expected.  The bowl or vase is supposed to be terra cotta and one of the leaves is supposed to be yellow, but I didn't like those choices--at least not in the shades of wool I have.  The blue bowl is a little bit brighter than it should be, I think, but I'm happy enough.  I tried a pinkish shade and that was a disaster!  It's probably a little hard to tell, but the foundation is a medium gray.  Once the blanket stitches and embroidery are added, I think it will be great!

I fell in love with this quilt pattern I found on eBay the other day--

The listing called it Summer Picnic Quilt Pattern by Hen House Designs.  I searched the internet for Hen House Designs and didn't find anything.  Have you ever heard of them/it?  For all I know, the seller could be the designer, because he or she listed another one right after I won this one.  See?  I told you I was starting to get in a red, white, and blue mood!

Opinion, Please . . .

Last week I finished getting the sashings and border on the Country Cottages quilt, but it looked like it needed a little spark of something--the black and white outer border seemed to damp down the bright colors somehow.  After looking at it for a bit, I thought perhaps jumbo rick rack would be just what it needed.

So I did some online searches and found Strawberry Patches had jumbo rick rack in several colors.  I ordered it in a light blue, a bright apple green, and a golden orange, thinking that surely one of those colors would be what I needed.  Unfortunately, I received an email Saturday morning from Becky saying they only had about half of what I ordred in the orange.  Despite the fact that the shop was participating in a shop hop that day, Becky worked with me and checked their stock, finally running down bright yellow jumbo rick rack to replace the orange.  That's excellent customer service, isn't it?  And she got it mailed right away too.

So now I need to decide which color looks best.  Will you help?  Here's the bright yellow:

And then the light blue:

And finally the bright apple green:

I know I'm not showing you photos of the entire quilt with the rick rack, which might make it easier to decide, but what do you think from what you see?  There isn't really much of that bright yellow in the quilt, so maybe it doesn't belong; then again, maybe the quilt NEEDS something that stands out from the rest.   I can't promise I'll go with whatever the majority thinks but I'd welcome some input.  Right now, I don't think I'm leaning toward any particular color.  What would you do?