Andy's Wedding Quilt

My mom and I made this really awesome quilt for my cousin Andy and his wife Tara who got married last Saturday. We each made half the blocks and we both love it.

My 100th post and first giveaway!

100 posts! it only took me three years :)
Since I am greedy and want my darling friend Kate to make me something lovely, I am going to pass on the favor to y'all. Please read below for official contest rules.

The first five (5) people to respond to this post will get something made by me.

1. I make no guarantees that you will like what I make. You get what you get.
2. What I create will be just for you - if you have a blog I can mine for ideas, it might be based on what I think you'll like - or it may be random.
3. It'll be done this year (2009).
4. I will not give you any clue what it's going to be. It will be something made in the real world and not something digital. It may be weird or beautiful. It may be baked goods.
5. I reserve the right to do something strange, if inspired to do so.
6. In return, all you need to do is post this text into a note of your own - or a blog post - and make something for the first 5 people to respond to your note.
7. Send me your mailing address if you don't live close to me!

IMPORTANT: You DO have to pay it forward.

If you want to participate, leave a comment with a link where I can find your post. Email with your address and I'll get around to it sometime in 2009.

Paying it forward from Kate's blog and my participation therein.

some smaller quilts

First, a baby quilt I made out of leftovers from another quilt that looks pretty much exactly like this. I think it's so cute!

Next, the final result of one I posted a while ago; it ended up about 52" square, a perfect lap size. Tiff bought it for her mom for Mother's Day.

Finally, the last of the pink square-in-a-square bits I had left, made into a sweet baby girl quilt. I'll be posting this on Etsy soon. I can't believe I almost made a queen size of all 4" square-in-a-square blocks!!! I was insane.

bogus dreams 1

(I have been having a lot of really really weird dreams recently.)

I dreamt I was sent on an emergency business trip to Scotland. I was to fly there Tuesday to arrive Wednesday and be refreshed for the meeting Thursday, and then fly back immediately Thursday afternoon. No problem, say I, except that THIS IS TUESDAY MORNING RIGHT NOW. So I get on the plane and realize I don't have any of the essentials - those being extra underwear, appropriate trousers for a meeting, iphone charger, and book to read on the long-ass flight. So the pilot somehow learns of my plight and drives the half-empty plane to my house, because he knew my dad. Except that he drove it to my PARENTS' house. (I moved out 5 years ago and everyone thinks I still live there. This is true and frustrating even in real life) I ask to borrow an iphone charger from my dad, ask him to get one from my house when he goes up to feed my cat, and then we spend what seems like hours taking care of five minutes' worth of stuff and I start worrying about holding up the entire plane. It is still in the driveway.

(then my phone rings and wakes me up)

jet setting

I'm off to London today! I'm on vacation for two solid weeks, including a weekend in Scotland and another weekend in Morocco! SO COOL.
I'm leaving in two hours and haven't packed yet. :)

suzy homemaker weekend!

Hi guys!
I have been hanging out at home this weekend, being super productive (in between wasting time on facebook and napping on the couch with kitty) so here are a few snaps of what I'm doing:

Some blocks from a pinwheel quilt I've been working on for some time - mostly very pale blues with a few very pale greens (upper right) and that one mostly white print with big pink flowers on it (bottom center). I've got 64 - 8" blocks finished, I was considering making it a queen size but lost steam when I realized that not only would I have to sew 36 more blocks, but also that a 64" square quilt is really quite a lovely size. I'll lay out the blocks once I get this one off the quilt wall:

this is an incredibly crappy snapshot, but you get the idea. The strips are 6" wide - they are the leftovers from the squares I cut for Mikey's Christmas quilt (below). I had a giant stack of strips left and decided to sew them together. The horizontal asphalt grey strips are 1" and the vertical ones are 1.5". It's 41"x44" right now, if I remember correctly, and I think I'll just sew 4" grey borders on and piece a multicoloured sashing from more of the Asian prints - though I may give in and put a double border on it (grey, print strips, grey) to make it more of a lap size. Your input is welcome!

Here is a sweet little vignette of my sewing table - I did some improvisational piecing from bits I had left over from a homespun quilt I made - that one did turn out to be queen sized - and I'm quite pleased with the results. It's 22"x25", a large doll quilt size. I made one about that size for my cat since I just had a few squares left from a quilt I made for Monica a few years ago, and I loved them together, so I just made a mini quilt. The cat thinks it is the best thing ever. She hides toys under it and then dives under to attack them, or just fights with it. It's cute.

This is the quilt we made Mikey for Christmas - I started it YEARS ago (we won't attempt to count) and Mom basically finished it for me (last bit of the sashing, borders, sandwiching, quilting, machine stitching the binding) so I could take it up to Whistler to give to Mike. It turned out HUGE - Anna is standing on a chair, on tiptoes, holding it up as tall as possible, on the left side of the photo there, and it's still puddling on the floor a tiny bit. HUGE.

Also I am knitting a hat, and made a pie (check it out at the hot buns bakery) and got a lot of sleep. Excellent weekend.

Love,
Abby

a lovely little story

I had seen this a while ago but my brother found it on youtube and I want to share it, so please without further ado, spend the next 10 minutes watching this little gem of 1960s graphics and dry wit.

The Dot and the Line: A Romance in Lower Mathematics

Happy New Year!

Hey guys!

I had a pretty fun new year - big roses & rosemary party (for which I provided baked goods and oceans of cheese) and then up to Whistler for the weekend with a couple of friends to visit my brother (did I tell you he's living there for the winter? bastard). I left my car at my parents' house for the weekend while I was up there and when I came back there had been a fire... inside the car. yep. This is the second time in 4 years that I have had a fire in my car. I have bad fire/car karma apparently.

My hopes for the new year are high but not unreasonable:
-do not buy lunch at work unless I have a lunch date and am going out. this involves cooking the night before or keeping pb&j in the fridge. this relates to:
-cook more. it's cheaper and healthier and funner. yes i said funner.
-travel more. this should be doable with all the money i'll save from cooking - and maybe even from not getting another car if i can hold out long enough.
-be more active. yeah, this includes going to the gym, but also bike more, hike more, play outside more. again, funner.
-finish more quilts. i'm hoping for 1 a month. also i'd like to blog about them, with pictures. and finish UFOs. and make lots of stash quilts because my stash is ooc.

so in summary, i want what i always want - be healthier and live my life to the fullest.

Here's hoping your new year brings you everything you wish for too-
love,
Abby

tasty treats

Hi guys!
Jenn's mom's birthday was Saturday and she requested a German Chocolate cake:

I made extra frosting and it was damned good.

I also made biscotti last week. It was pretty plain but I flavored it with orange zest, vanilla, and almond extract and it was AWESOME. I will make more for Christmas goodies.

I have also volunteered to provide food & decor for the Roses and Rosemary New Years Eve party (www.rosesandrosemary.org/NewYears) so I spent the weekend pricing cheese and testing appetizers - I wanted to make fancy nuts for nibbles and loosely based my recipe on the absurdly fantastic spanish peanuts they have at El Camino (please go there immediately).

Abby's Awesome Spiced Peanuts (or mixed nuts, do whatever you want)

3 cups peanuts (i used roasted + lightly salted and they worked fine)

1t cumin

1t cayenne

1/2 t savory seasoning blend (optional - i used the no-salt garlicky one in a grinder from costco)

1T honey

1/2 lime

2t sea salt

Put cumin and cayenne in a dry pan and toast for a minute, then add a tablespoon or two of water, get all the spices wet, and add the nuts and toss to coat. Cook the nuts, tossing frequently, for a couple of minutes. Stir in the honey and make sure that's mixed well, then spread on a cookie sheet lined with foil. Bake at 350 for about 10 minutes, then let cool. Squeeze in some lime juice and sea salt, toss again, put the rest of the lime in some Coronas, and try not to eat them all in one go.

Love,

Abby

happy thanksgiving!

what's up, y'all?

It's been two months and I have been busy, but I just wanted to tell you hello and I'm still around and doing great and having fun, but don't feel interesting enough to blog when I have time, and don't have time when I feel interesting.

That being said, today was an absolutely lovely Thanksgiving with a delicious mishmash of friends and family, and I'm thankful for all the wonderful people in my life. And food. Good lord, I'm thankful for the food. And for you, reading this.

And now it's time for Christmas, which is pretty much my favorite thing ever.
Love,
Abby

game on.

So Monica and Kate and I signed up for a holiday craft fair up in the islands. Having two months to make enough quilts to justify a booth really makes life interesting - we're aiming for a dozen actual quilts (all lap size) + various and sundry holiday craft items, mostly potholders & table runner style stuff. I have three baby quilts ready to go but they're a bit summery, I'll bring them along anyway and see what happens. I've had lots of ideas recently about stuff I'd like to make but the deadline helps get my ass in gear. Also the fact that we're making lap size quilts makes it way less daunting than making bed sized ones.

I am trying to do a lot of this out of my stash, which is obscene, but have found myself at the fabric store a couple of times on accident. WHOOPS! This beige one was all stash, I can't really remember why I bought a bunch of beige solids but I am LOVING it. I have wanted to make a bento box for a long time, and there was an article in a Martha mag with a yellow and white bento box folded up on the back of a chair and it was so comfortable that I just wanted it right away. This one is going to be awesome.

Monica's boyfriend's mom let me borrow her quilting frame but I don't have a suitable machine - here's hoping the birthday bunny comes through with a Juki mid-arm. I am secretly hoping (and not-so-secretly hinting) that my friends might make donations to the birthday juki fund? It's a little expensive, especially since I am trying to go to Australia in the spring, but think of how quickly I could whip out quilts! I have a dozen tops ready to go, it's just such a hassle wrestling them through my wee (and thoroughly beloved) Pfaff.

other current (new) projects/ideas:

-a floral irish chain I bought way too much fabric for when I worked at the quilt shop and now have no idea why I loved it so much, I guess my style has changed!

-an amish roman stripe on charcoal, bordered in silver and then plum, SO EXCITED

-something like the Happy Hour pattern in non-christmasy reds and greens

-trying to find a pattern to use all the horrid pinks I collected during my pink phase and now make me sort of sick to my stomach, without making it so... pink. I think maybe bordering it with A LOT of white, but then it's not much of a stashbuster, is it?

-playing around with text on a quilt, making one with my name on it or maybe just a giant monogram to test it out

-a blue and white snowball/churn dash that goes over the edges of the quilt - will bind it in bright green or bright red

-seeing what happens when I take a traditional pattern and make it "float" by chopping off the edges in a non-traditional place

-an irish chain or nine-patch in 30s prints with an apple green background

whew! some of these I've started, some I haven't, and I'm sure I'll get lots more ideas in the next couple of months. Look for more posts soon I hope!

Love, Abby

two baby quilts up on etsy

more quilts.

A wedding quilt (them're lady cowboys - scantily clad I might add) for an undisclosed recipient... please excuse my trashy see through wifebeater. It was hot! Note my prized roll of quilt batting in the background (and assorted quilt tops too!). I'm such a quilt nerd.

A baby quilt to be sold on Etsy - I collected dozens of pink and white prints back in my pink phase in my early twenties, cut out an entire queen sized quilt's worth of 4" finished square-in-a-square blocks, and promptly put them away in a bin and ignored them. that's a heckuva lot of triangles. I sewed some of them together and alternated the blocks with a solid pale pink. I'm going to quilt it on the diagonal, I think it is going to be really cute. My mom offered to sew the rest of the blocks together if I wanted to make it bigger, but I am so over the idea of having an all pink quilt on MY bed, and did I mention that's a crapload of triangles? I'll save the blocks for future baby quilts instead.

This is the quilt I made based on Thomas' pictures from Cinque Terre, which I blogged about ages ago. It's finally all together, and I went to my parents' house last night to sandwich it and my dad FLIPPED OUT and immediately started calling it his and bought it on the spot - he even made me do the binding HIS way "to preserve the artistic integrity". Whatever, Dad. It's pretty awesome though. I really love the way it turned out. Plus it's pretty cool because even though my dad always likes to see the quilts I make, he seems kind of bored by them because they have been pretty traditional and he's such an expansive artist he wants to see more art quilts. So here ya go, Dad.

This is a wholecloth quilt that I was going to make for my mom for Mother's Day because I have this red quilt on my couch that she keeps hinting about and I'm afraid she's going to steal it one day. I saw these fabrics in the spring and really liked them together - I had a couple of other fabrics picked out but kept coming back to these, even though they're really weird colors. The inner border (and the future binding too) is a really cool purple stripe, and the outer border is butterscotch flowers on a tan background with purple leaves. I picked up a butterscotch solid for the backing when I didn't have this with me and it turned out to be perfect when I brought it home. I was going to keep it a secret from my mom but she got all excited about it when I laid it out so I had to tell her. Also I am bad at keeping minor secrets. Anyway, I meant to have it done for her for Mother's day but there was the Roses & Rosemary auction and a bunch of other stuff, so I didn't get it done. She knows I love her anyway.

sewing blitz

So this weekend I cancelled all my engagements and holed up and sewed my little heart out. Here's some of what I did.

hey y'all

July! What? How did that happen?

We had a sweet-ass barbecue at my parents' house again for the 4th. This year was the best yet I think - lots of people I like and pretty much no people I don't like. Plus pie. Only bummer was, all the fellas I invited brought girlfriends. Pfft.

Here's a quilt I'm working on:

I llooooooovvvve it. It's a color study for a quilt I'm making that was inspired by Orla Kiely's stem print (and Joanie), and it's a perfect cheery summery baby quilt. I'm hand quilting it in Xs across the white (well, slightly creamy) squares. It's awesome. It's 40" square and I think I'll list it for $175. Reasonable, yes? The only bummer - which I didn't notice until I had started quilting it and you can't even really tell in this photo - is that all six of the tangerine colored squares are squished over on the right side. So much for random placement.

ANYway. Hope you all are well. Enjoy the summer, it's finally nice!

Love, mcnabbs.

the red quilt finished

Ta-daaa! It raised $120 for the orphans!

(back detail)

"how are you so prolific?"

So I decided to put borders on the red quilt, and I'm glad I did. I was hanging out with my mom on Mother's Day, pinning quilts on her hardwood floor (yep, still have the shitty carpet - but I'm pretty sure I convinced my dad to let me lay marmoleum tile! SCORE), and she paused and said "how are you so PROLIFIC with your quilts? I mean, how do you make so MANY?"

...uh. total blank stare. See, I always think to myself "man, I wish I had time to start THIS one or THAT one, I like THAT, wouldn't THAT one be fun?" and here is my mom, the woman who made 15 quilts one year (yeah she had 9 months off, but she spent a whole heck of a lot of time in the garden too), kind of in awe at the fact that I'm at her house for the second time in 2008 pinning three quilts at once.

awesome.

feeling quilty

so today's biggest project is a charity quilt for the roses and rosemary spring cocktail event auction! i am taking a wee break to consider whether to put borders on it or just leave it at a nice cuddly 50"x60" throw size (totally big enough and less sewing - but it just seems kind of unfinished right now). i think i need some borders to hold the whole thing together. lord knows i have enough extra fabric. what posessed me to get eight plus yards of assorted prints for a throw size? sheesh. at least i have plenty for the back :)

pinwheels!

I finished the pinwheel quilt! FINALLY! It only took me like six, seven years. And before I even put the last stitch in it, it was sold. Thanks Tiff, enjoy!

sigh

confession: i am bad at the internet.

ok, i'm good at finding things on the internet. i'm good at ordering things from the internet. i'm great at wasting time on the internet. but i am really, really bad at updating things on the internet. i know the last thing this world needs is one more blogger/crafter/baker/joker posting their wares, and not like anyone reads this anyway, but i am still doing a lot of projects, and when people ask me what i'm up to i have to say 'here's my blog but there isn't much new stuff on it'. what's up with that? i have a digital camera, i have a flickr page, i have an etsy site, facebook, everything, but i can't update it to save my life. i am currently internally whining about the prospect of revamping my flickr page. 4000 pictures on there and i think i'm going to have to just delete them all and start over again. le sigh.

in other news: i made a key lime cheesecake with mango topping for my friend's birthday. it's glorious.

so i'll allow myself a mini-rant about quilting: i'm so annoyed with how deified denyse schmidt is. yeah, she's great, she does cool things, but why does every beginning quilter have to make their first quilt out of either denyse schmidt quilts or the modern quilt workshop? also, why does so much ADORABLE and/or GORGEOUS stuff come out of Japan? it seems everything is perfectly pieced, perfectly coordinated, perfectly sized, and freakin' awesome. plus it's all hand-pieced and hand-quilted! where do all these ladies get the TIME? anyway, kudos to japanese crafters, because you guys make me jealous in a good way.

ok, i am off to the quilt shop for a solid red (only) to use as the background for a charity quilt for the roses and rosemary auction. i got a bunch of different red prints and actually have been dreaming (literally) about a red-prints-on-red-background quilt for a few months now so i'm excited to have an excuse to make it :)