Hello June

1. Mopsy, 2. Have It All Wallet, 3. Mosaic Bag, 4. Timber Mosaic Bag, 5. Patchwork Case for Scribble & Write, 6. Pillow for Mom, 7. Lagoon Floor Pillow, 8. Bear's Floor Pillow, 9. Mouse's Floor Pillow, 10. Summer, 11. Summer Folded, 12. Office in a Pouch x3

May was full of celebrations of so many kinds, and I had a grand time making gifts for each one. In fact, as I look at the projects in this mosaic, I'm reminded of how much I enjoyed myself in the sewing room this month.

June is already shaping up to be a fun month too, full of happy sewing and family adventures as we plunge into the start of summer. Yesterday's post covers some of the blogging events that are on the calendar already. I look forward to sharing them with you in the weeks ahead!

Linking up with Fresh Sewing Day at Lily's Quilts.

What's Going On

I had planned to add a few announcements to my Fresh Sewing Day post tomorrow, but there's so much going on in the next month that I felt it deserved a post of its own. Click on the title for each event to see all the details. Here's the quick list of what's coming up...



1. Umbrella Prints Trimmings Competition: visit the Pinterest board here to see all the entries and repin the ones you like -- my Mosaic Bag is in there too. The project with the most repins wins the viewer's choice prize, and there are some insanely gorgeous projects. I'm having a ball just going through them all this morning and doing a little pinning of my own!



2. Let's Get Acquainted New Blogger Blog Hop: My friend Beth from Plum & June is bringing back last year's wildly successful blog hop for another run. So many bloggers out there give Beth credit for introducing them to a wider audience, so if you're new to the online quilting community, you'll definitely want to get in on this before all the spaces fill up. I'll be guest posting for the blog hop on June 8th here at Fabric Mutt.



3. Season By Hand Blog Hop: Jennie at Clover & Violet is hosting a blog hop all about hand sewing projects -- such a great idea for staying crafty during summer travels. I have a project I've been working on for a while that I'm hoping to finish by June 14 which is my stop on the blog hop. There are going to be some great posts and amazing bloggers involved, so be sure to check out all the details.



4. Kate Spain Blog Hop: Alyce at Blossom Heart Quilts is celebrating all things Kate Spain in the month of June, beginning and ending by interviewing the lady herself. All of the bloggers will be sharing projects we've made with Kate Spain fabrics -- I'll have mine here on June 18th -- and you'll have the chance to link up your own for some wonderful prizes. You can even submit questions for the final interview if you get them in before the month is out!

So there you have it -- June is going to be one big sewing/blogging/hopping extravaganza. Sounds like fun to me!

Summer

I considered so many different names for this quilt, but in the end I realized that the best one was simply "Summer."

The colors and prints that made their way into this piece remind me so much of the lazy summer days we spend here in Southern California on the edge of the desert. Blazing hot afternoons that fade into quiet evenings on the back patio. Long walks at local botanical gardens where my girls play hide and seek between the fruit trees. Our annual road trip to Arizona for a week with my husband's parents where we swim and hike and look for bunnies among the cactus each night before bed. These are the moments, I tell myself often, that I'm going to want to remember someday.

Fabrics by Heather Ross are the star here, but there are also a variety of other prints from my stash included. I tried not to stray far from a color palette of pale blue, orange, yellow, brown, grey, and white. The chocolate brown print by Lotta Jansdotter that I chose for the binding makes a nice frame around it all.

While I enjoy designing a quilt, I'm not always as big a fan of the quilting. Remembering how long it took me to make all those straight lines on my first Heather Ross quilt, I felt a little tired when I sat down to work on this piece. Then I decided, why not have fun with this one? So I did straight lines, wavy lines, echo quilting, free motion boxes, and even played around with several specialty stitches on my machine. Is it perfect? Nope. But I can tell you that this was by far the most enjoyable afternoon of quilting I've ever spent.

I finished the quilt this afternoon, the same day that my husband wrapped up another year of teaching and came home to start two months of summer vacation with me and the girls. And I intend to enjoy every minute of it.

Linking up with Finish It Up Friday.

Challenge

Back in March I answered a Creative Troupe Callout by C&T Publishing to make a project using Kraft-tex, a heavy duty art paper. It was quite the challenge deciding what to make, but I finally decided on a portfolio featuring the paper as the outside cover. I added a patchwork detail to the front and fabric binding along the outside edges. Sewing with paper is tricky and not nearly so forgiving as fabric. I had to rip the patchwork piece off my first attempt and try again because when I pulled out some accidental stitches, the holes were still there in the paper to remind me of my mistake. Being super careful with the second attempt had better results.

The inside has pockets for paper, utensils, cards, etc. I used some favorite fabrics for this piece, and I have to admit, it was hard to mail it off to the company knowing that it wouldn't be coming back to me. One of these days I'll have to make another to keep.

Today I'm putting the binding on my second Heather Ross quilt. This one has been in progress for a while, and I'm so happy to be wrapping it up at last. I'll have pictures for you tomorrow, so be sure to stop by!

Memorial Day

Our usual family barbecue grew by leaps and bounds this year until we ended up with a guest list of seventeen wonderful friends and family getting together for a casual Memorial Day lunch. The last twenty-four hours have been a whirlwind of cleaning, cooking, and decorating. I pulled out all my WWII memorabilia for a quick and easy theme along with a CD of period music and old wartime Disney cartoons for the kids to watch during the meal.

Target provided the great picnic utensils and food baskets.

My husband barbecued hot dogs and bratwurst, and everyone contributed side dishes.

The dessert table was by far the biggest hit of the day, featuring a make-your-own-brownie-sundae bar. My mom made her famous homemade chocolate sauce, and because I love you all, I'm sharing the recipe here with you. It's a snap to make and tastes absolutely divine.

Easy Chocolate Fudge Sauce

2 cups sugar
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1 can of evaporated milk (12 ounces)
1/2 cup butter, cut in pieces
1 teaspoon vanilla

Combine the sugar and cocoa in a saucepan. Use a whisk to stir in the milk and add the butter. Bring to boil over medium heat. The longer you cook it, the thicker it will be -- just be sure to keep stirring so it doesn't burn! Reduce the heat. Cook and stir for one more minute until the mixture is slightly thick. Remove from heat, stir in the vanilla, cool slightly, and serve. To reheat, just place the saucepan back on the stove and return the mixture to a boil again, stirring until smooth.

Happy Memorial Day to all of you!

Keeping the Peace

Bear's Pillow Front

Mothers of the world, do yourself a favor: make a floor pillow for each of your children.

Bear's Pillow Back

I love these magic cushions. All I have to do is toss them around the room and say, "Go sit on your pillow." Instantly every child makes a dive for their spot and is perfectly happy to sit there while they watch a show, eat their snack, or look at a book. And when the pillows are spread far enough apart, nobody is close enough to poke, swat, or generally annoy anybody else. I'm in heaven, I tell you. At last, keeping the peace doesn't seem to be an utterly impossible task in my family room.

Mouse's Pillow Front

After finishing Bunny's pillow earlier this week, I instantly saw the potential and worked feverishly to complete one for Bear and then one for Mouse. As I said in the first post on these, the squares are all exactly the same. I just mixed them up a little and quilted them differently.

Mouse's Pillow Back

Bear's top has wavy vertical quilting down the front, and I stitched a quarter inch away from each seam on the top of Mouse's pillow. I also left off the border on the last two pillows which made the covers fit a little more snugly, just the way I like them. Bunny prefers the loose fit of her pillow, though, so everyone's happy.

Happy indeed.

Fabric Audition: Pocket Full of Posies

This bundle reminds me of the little flower shop just over a block away from the house where I grew up here in Southern California. I absolutely loved going in there with my mom when she needed to order flowers for some reason. That greenhouse smell, the buckets of daisies, the rack full of little cards to tuck into a bouquet...

Okay, now I need to go order some flowers...