More Riley Blake bordering

Stayed up way to late last night, but you know how it is when you are on a roll and hubby is on a business trip. This is coming together nicely and I ordered backing for it this morning. Didn't think I would be ready to quilt it this soon, but it is so cute and I love seeing it grow piece by piece. Ordered a blue tone on tone backing from Fabric.com and it is 108" wide and on sale for $8.98 a yard-what a steal. I am thinking about using variegated thread for it. Have to think about that one and ask momma-to-be too. I have quite a few Etsy orders to fill today, but I am hoping to finish the top today.

Riley Blake Scoot baby Quilt in the Works

I have a very sweet friend and sister in Christ at church, who is expecting. They recently found out they are having a boy and my little fabric brain started whirling. There are so many cute baby charm packs and jellyrolls out there people. I almost bought the Mod Tod line, but really liked this Scoot line better. Totally different range of colors. I simply used the 24 + 1 square of Kona snow to make a 5X5 charm pack center. Then I sewed 2 strips of the jellyroll together in multiple combinations and I am cutting different size rectangles to do borders. It is looking pretty cute so far. Finally went to visit the local quilt shop here. She had some great deals and I could have stayed there all day, touching and gazing and drooling over all the beautiful fabrics she has there. Any baby quilts in process for you readers??
Andrea

A Nutella Newbie

I don't usually buy Nutella, but it seems to have a cult following these days. I decided to try a cookie recipe yesterday that featured the adored product. The  recipe is from Two Peas and a Pod. No eggs was the first weird thing I noticed. I may not have cooked mine quite long enough, but they seem to almost have a truffle like consistency to me. Son said-these gonna stiffen up? Daughter said-oohh I like these! I am undecided about the cookie, but know they require drinking milk to enjoy. I will probably try another recipe.

Painted Mason Jar

Tried my hand at painting a mason jar with acrylic paint and added some embellishments with a glass writing pen. Great holder for some daffodils!

A New Sweet Scarf & Free Motion Quilting Laughs

I wanted to use some more of my Alpaca silk yarn that I bought off of Etsy, so I went looking on Ravelry for a pattern. I found one and managed to get about 40 rows in before I decided it was way too bulky for this yarn and wouldn't be quite as dainty and feminine as I was looking for. I decided to just do enough rows of double crochet and then did 5 DC in each stitch on the ends. That means you have to go back to the foundation (or beginning) row and add the double crochets. It makes the little ruffle. I also put a little tab with buttons on it to give it a little more detail. I think it is pretty sweet. You could use lightweight yarn and more stitches to make a cute spring/summer scarf. Peaches and Cream cottons would be nice.

Now on to other hilarious happenings. I have been quilting quite a bit lately and loving it. I decided that learning free motion quilting on my machine is a necessary venture. It is definitely not as easy as it looks when the pros do it. It is hilarious when you use a Necchi machine that is supersonic on its lowest speed. My tension is way off in places and perfect in others. I was standing and didn't have a place properly set up to handle the quilt, but I just laughed the whole time! In the future I will be putting the darning plate on my Singer, so that I can use it instead. The Necchi allows you to drop the feed dogs with the flip of a switch and it also has an open toe darning foot which is nice. You can see what you are doing a little better when the toe is open. My Singer doesn't have a switch, so you have to remove the existing plate and put a solid plate in place in order to hide the dogs. A little more effort, but I will have much more control over the speed. Italians-fast cars and super fast sewing machines! I do know that I definitely need a class and or a lot of practice!

Glitter Mod Podge

I have used Mod Podge my fair share of times, but I did not know they had a glitter finish until I read Sew Mama Sew's post yesterday. They took tiny fabric scraps and used glitter Mod Podge to attach them to paper mache eggs for Easter. So cute and what a great way to use scraps of pretty fabric you hate to throw away. You could also use stars or ornaments for Christmas. Stars with pretty scraps of Christmas greens and reds would make a really pretty banner or you could hang them on your tree. Hearts would be ideal for Valentine's Day or for a birthday or anniversary banner. So many ideas. I also saw they have outdoor Mod Podge-that is cool! So pick some up and use up those pretty scraps.

Runner and Borders too

Well I realized too late that I had left off my borders on this super easy table runner. I picked out the first few inches of ditch quilting and sewed them on today. Now I am ready to finish the quilting. I have been semi-spring cleaning today. Washing doors and baseboards with Murphy's oil soap, cleaning the de-humidifier, washing some windows, laundry (always), mopping (not often enough), and basic clean out. I think I will now sit and quilt awhile. Son and hubby are headed home from UK and my boy has a college schedule for his first semester-WOW! Getting a little too real now. Hope you all have a marvelous Lord's day tomorrow!

**Andrea**

Christmas in March

I know it sounds weird. I bought this cool half hex ruler from Missouri Star Quilt co. and they had the coolest tutorial to make this table runner. It is super simple, but I forgot my borders-Drats! Have to take all the stitching out that I did last night and put the borders on. I machine quilted all the horizontal lines and had started on the trees when I realized the dumb mistake I had made. I also cut the backing (tan paisley) and batting for the paisley quilt. The borders are done on that one-in brown.

Craftsy BOM for March finished!

Quilting seems to be on the top of my to do list lately. I am finishing up the outside borders on the TOG quilt and then I will just have to cut the batting and backing. I didn't feel well Sunday and Monday, but I am on the mend. Yesterday the weather here was so beautiful, that Katy and I went outside to do literature and history reading. (kinda paid for it later with allergy stuff-but who cares). I did have a few Etsy orders to complete yesterday as well. I sewed the sweetest 5X7 ivory muslin bags and stamped them with a pretty pink teapot and ran pink satin ribbon through for the drawstring. They were for a 5 year old's tea party birthday. Sweet! After that I decided to work on my Craftsy blocks of the month for March. String Quilt Block and the Broken Spider Web block. Both are easy-just a little time consuming sewing all the strips. I really like them and I think soon I will just use all scraps to do a whole quilt. I also think my vintage sheets would make a lovely one. I am really enjoying quilting right now!