I remember blogging

I think.  I never was that good at it really.
I've got a ton going on in life right now, and it doesn't look like it will be letting up anytime soon.  Baby #3 is 17 weeks underway, which means I'd like to be sewing, but haven't found the time or energy.  I still need to file the taxes too!
I really, Really, REALLY hope to have more small baby projects to post in the coming months!

Quilts for Kids

Photo from Quilts for Kids.

Have you heard of this great organization?  Quilts for Kids wants and needs your help! 

From their website:

"Quilts for Kids, Inc. transforms discontinued, unwanted and other fabrics into quilts that comfort children fighting a life battle with a serious illness such as cancer, AIDS, as well as children of abuse. Our goal is to link design centers and other fabric sources nationwide to their communities, so that children in need in those regions may be served."

I have a kit that I have been working on for WAY too long, so I am bumping it to the top of my to do list.  I want to get mine in the mail this month, so that hopefully it will make it to its recipient by Christmas.  The kit I received is for a four-patch quilt like the one pictured.

You have the option of requesting a quilt kit (where they send you fabric and a pattern), downloading a pattern and using your own fabric, or designing the whole thing yourself.  It seems the greatest need right now is for quilts for teenage boys, which should be approximately 38" x 45".  I am sure any size would be appreciated though.

Chicken Corn Chowder

I feel the need to share one more recipe, and then I promise to try and post a little about quilting.  I made this soup last night, for probably the 10th time, and it is still one of my favorites.  I got the original recipe from and online friend, and made just a couple of tweaks to it.  Here's the final version.

Chicken Corn Chowder
1 lb. diced chicken breast
2 tbsp. olive oil
2 tbsp. butter
Tony Chachere’s Creole Seasoning, to taste
1 large onion, chopped
4 stalks celery, chopped
16 oz. chicken broth
2 cans cream of potato soup
14 oz can whole kernel corn, drained
1 cup milk
2 cups cheddar cheese, grated

Drizzle chicken with olive oil, and then season liberally with Creole seasoning. Toss to coat. In a large stock pot, melt butter over medium-high heat. Brown chicken in butter in stockpot. Once brown on all sides, add onion and celery and sauté about 5 minutes. Add chicken broth (just enough to cover chicken and veggies) and bring to a boil, then reduce heat to simmer. Cover and cook for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in remaining ingredients. Cook uncovered for 10 minutes, stirring frequently.

Let me know if you decide to try it out!

What I've been making...

...and it's not quilts!

Monday night I made the most delicious chocolate sheet cake from The Pioneer Woman Cooks. I'm sure most fellow bloggers out there know about Ree Drummond and her accidental country life. I've made the sheet cake from her cookbook once before, and it was good. I used a different icing recipe the first time though. It was a buttercream recipe from her website. I've actually tried many buttercream recipes over the years, and I'm just not a very good buttercream maker. I can't get the salt/sugar ratio quite right. This time, I went ahead and made the chocolate frosting that the cookbook says to use, and it is D-I-V-I-N-E. I can feel the pounds adding up, and they are worth every one.

Photo by Ree Drummond.

Try it today, and you'll thank me, and then probably curse me.

I'm trying out a new slow cooker beef stew recipe tonight, and I'll share it later if it turns out well.

I have a cow and I sew. Now how's that for hard to relate to.

Is it too early to start talking about Christmas?? I'm ready to break out the music!

I blame TV for my early festive spirit this year. Yesterday I caught about 20 minutes of what I would call a new holiday classic, The Holiday, starring Cameron Diaz, Kate Winslet, Jude Law, and Jack Black. I just love this movie, and was sad when I had to leave to take my son to a Halloween party (while watching a Christmas movie, see my dilemma!).

Now, if you're like me, you're just now starting on the ol' Christmas list, and if there is anythingon there that needs to be handmade/sewn, like there is on mine, then it's definitely time to start thinking Christmas-y thoughts. Actually, let's admit it. I'm already behind, and I haven't even started! November is awfully late in the year to be starting gifts. But I'll just put some of my favorite Christmas movies in the DVD player, and get to work.

Home Alone is next on my list! "I can't make ornaments out of the old fish hooks, with dry worm guts stuck on them!"

It's a new month!

Well...it will be a new month tomorrow! I'm going to start blogging a lot more, hopefully, but it might not all be quilting related. I want to blog about other things, cooking, family, etc., but don't want to maintain a bunch of seperate blogs, so I'm throwing it all on here.

I also have big plans to get much better with my photos. I know this is the Midnight Quilt Mom blog, but these dark, dreary pics just aren't cutting it for me. I've got to start taking photos in the light of day!

Here's one taken this morning (on my phone, mind you), of my sweet baby boy ready for some candy!

Started

And hopefully finished this weekend. Inspired by this.

Inspired

I was reading Jennifer's blog yesterday {That Girl...That Quilt} and was really inspired by how she finds the time to quilt. It occurred to me that you have to make the time, it won't just magically appear. She said that her goal is one quilt per month. I like that. It sounds possible!

So that's going to be my 2011 goal. Even though I'm already one month behind! Although I did finish two tops last month that still need to be quilted. I want to free-motion at least one of them, but I need to practice more before I try and actual quilt. :)

So last night I made a little scrap quilt sandwich and did some free-motion learning. It wasn't bad, but still needs work. I think I'll do one of these little scraps every time I sit down to sew, and hopefully I'll get better!

Then I got started on my February project. Since I was inspired by Jennifer, I thought her Quilt Along sounded like the perfect quilt to start with. I bought the fabrics months ago, when she was actually doing the quilt along, but never even got started.

Please forgive my horrible cell phone picture, but it was the best I could get at midnight last night. ;)

I'm using a Fandango charm pack, with some Kona solids. I like to make some sample blocks before I cut all the fabrics, just in case I see something I want to change. I'm very happy with how my samples came out last night, and I can't wait to work on this one some more!

The Queen of Slackers

I'm so behind on my sewing, blogging, and pretty much everything else. Except Big Brother--you have to stay on top of that show, or you'll never catch up! So I guess you could say I've been relaxing since it's so stinking hot, and I sew under the hottest light in our house. I did work on a bee block last night for Kristin in the NYGQB, but I only got it 1/4 finished, so no pics yet.

And I bought some fabric yesterday for a new quilt for my oldest son. I still haven't finished his first one, but I want to keep that one at home. This new one will be for daycare. He is a little scared to be moving to a different room, the one for pre-schoolers, so he thinks a new cars quilt might make it a little easier on him. Who am I to deny him that? I'm thinking just a simple strip quilt with these fabrics, although I'm playing with the idea of appliquing his name on there somehow, since daycare things often turn up missing.Purchased from fabricshoppe on Etsy.

Quilt Along - Week 3

Here are all of my blocks so far for Amy's Simple Modern Sampler Quilt Along. It's a good thing I'm going to be sashing this because it's a little too busy all jumbled together like this. I just finished week three, but week four is already up, so I need to catch up a bit.

The new ones by themselves:

This one might be my favorite so far. It's so simple, but makes a strong statement to me. I think it looks like a Christmas wreath!

I'm glad to only have two bee blocks to make this month, and I'm a procrastinator, so I feel like I have a little time to work on some personal stuff until later in the month. I want to make another little travel pillow for my youngest son, to match his big brothers.

It's late and I'm off to bed now. :)

New Fabric

Fabric.com had a great sale on some Westminster fabrics last week. I got some of all the Good Folks prints they had. I have been wanting some of this fabric for quite some time, so I was thrilled to see the sale. I just fell in love with it while reading Anna Maria Horner's book Seams to Me. I already have a quilt in mind for some of it, and I even sketched it out! I've never sat down to plan anything out quite like that before, but I think it will be helpful, since I know what I really want to do with it. I'm thinking Kona Coal will be the background fabric. Do you think that would match well?

Here is pretty much all of my Katie Jump Rope fabric cut up into strips. I sent the packages out for the bee yesterday. I had totally underestimated the time it would take to cut them all, and cut the white center strips, and seperate them out for 11 people, and cut the foundation paper, and package them up. I debated sending each person larger chuncks of fabric, and letting them cut, but I wanted to make these more enjoyable for the participants, and all that cutting can get tedious, so I just cut them myself. I hope everyone got a wide variety of strip widths, and I know everyone got almost every print. There were only a couple that didn't have quite enough for everyone, but they all got over 20 prints for sure. I can't wait to see what these ladies make!

There were two people who needed a break from the bee this month, so we found some replacements for them, and I sent each of them a Scentsy Bar in Paradise Punch for helping out. I know they both have warmers already, so I hope they like this scent. I'm pretty sure they haven't smelled it before, since it just came out last week!

Starting Out

This Katie Jump Rope fabric is some of the first fabric I bought when I started quilting a little over a year ago. I recently purchased some more, but it was much harder to find now! I had no idea that it would be so popular back when I first bought it. I had a pattern in mind that I was going to use it for, but I wanted to work on my skills before cutting into it. Then life stepped in, and I was too busy for quilting for several months.

Last week I finally cut into it though, and I'm loving the look of the string blocks. You're probably thinking that I still look like a beginner, but I promise I'm much better than I was when I first started! I sort of blended tutorials from Ashley and Rachel to make these blocks.I was waiting for some more fabric to have a bigger variety in my blocks, so I only have three done so far. I love the looks of them though, so much that this is what I am sending out this month for one of my quilting bees. I still need to make several myself though, because I want this to be my biggest quilt to date.

I hope to have more to share soon!

NYGQB Block for Kendra

May was Kendra's month in the Not Your Grandma's Quilt Bee. I enjoyed the blocks she requested, but I just couldn't get one of them to line up right. I ripped it out three times, but I was scared to rip anymore for fear of damaging the fabric. Hopefully she can fix it!

Week 2 - Simple Modern Sampler

Here are my blocks for week two of Amy's Simple Modern Sampler Quilt Along. I was so excited to see this week's instructions posted this morning, since I am home from work today. Now I have a whole week to catch up on some other projects. You can still join in at any time! Click here for some more info, including a drawing of the entire project.

Simple Modern Sampler Quilt Along

Even though I already have several projects going on right now, I couldn't resist joining Amy's Simple Modern Sampler Quilt Along going on at her blog. I love quilt alongs because there is a set schedule. I'm not good at making schedules, so I like having it all laid out for me to follow along with. Hopefully I'll be able to keep up! I love that she posted a sketch so that I can see in advance which blocks will be made. This really helps in my fabric selection. I was inspired by another quilt-alonger (Melissa) to pull out some of my Christmas fabrics for this project. The fabric is Funky Christmas by Michael Miller. I like the pink mixed in with the traditional Christmas colors. I think this quilt will be a gift for my sister when it is all finished up. She loves anything pink!

I learned a great tip in the very first post! Even though I'm pretty diligent about pinning, I have always pinned perpendicular to the seam, removing the pins as I go. Amy has a picture on her post showing how she puts a pin in the middle, parallel to the seam. As long as the pin is in far enough to miss the presser foot, then it can be left in while sewing. I think this will really help me keep my fabrics lined up the whole time I am piecing. Thanks so much for that tip, Amy!

The instructions for Blocks One and Two can be found here. It's certainly not too late for you to join too!

A sweet little pillow.

I made my son a pillow for daycare a while back, but somehow the pillow and the case were lost. I secretly think someone thought it was so cute that they must have it for themself. So I made him another one, and I love it even more than the first!

I used a great tutorial that Ariel has on her blog. I think I made the top fabric a little taller, just because I love that farm animal print. I learned a few tips the first time I made it, so the second one is a little better. First, I put his name on both the case and the pillow! I sewed in a name label like I use for his clothes. I also made sure to zig-zag stitch the hem of the envelope closure, just like the tutorial says to do. I have no idea why I didn't do that the first time. Finally, I use pinking shears to trim the seam allowance after it was all sewn. The first one had lots of fraying after just a couple of washes.

Here it is!
And just for kicks - The original.

My First Bees :)

I'm in two quilting Bees right now. Both of them started in May. One is six months, and one is 12 months, so they will keep me busy for a while.

Here is my first block for the Not Your Grandma's Quilting Bee - The Bumble Bees.

Kendra asked for blocks inspired by coin quilts, and here is what I came up with.
For the other Bee that I organized on a private board, Mary wanted a specific pattern. The fabric is Martinque by 3 sisters for Moda and it was wonderful to work with. She sent honeybun strips, so some of the cutting was already done for us. Very nice! What do you think?

I should have some more to post soon, because I still have one May block to do (the fabric was lost in transit), and I need to be working on all my June blocks too!

Thanks for Reading :D

Bloggers Quilt Festival

The Bloggers Quilt Festival is set to start on Friday, and I'm frantically trying to get something finished to show. You can find more info here. You should join in too! All are welcome, no matter how new or old you are to quilting.

I am going to consider this my comeback to blogging! I have joined two bees, and I'm even running one of them. It's nice getting back into everything, it's just really hard to find the time. I know I need some "me" time though, so I'm doing what I can to make it happen.

Have a great day!

Blog Roll

I added some new blogs to my blog roll, so check them out!
(See side bar on the right.)

I should have more pics to show soon, too. Can you believe that I made a quilt and gifted it without taking pictures?!? Shameful! I do have one pic of the mom opening it, so I will try and get it up this weekend.
Edit: It seems I didn't even get a picture with her holding it up, but there it is folded up on the arm of the chair. I used two Woodland Bloom charm packs, and more Woodland Bloom for the backing and binding. The mom loves sentimental gifts, so I just hope she will actually let the baby use it, not put it up to preserve it. I promise I will make her another one if this one gets too ragged!

A baby gift and a camera strap

Here's the quilt I made for a baby named Maggie set to make her appearance later this month. Her parents like dogs, so I thought this panel was a good choice. Fabrics are all from Moda's Sleeptime.

And I finally made a camera strap cover for myself. I've been wanting to make me one for a while, and I finally just sat down and did it. Mine is the green one. The other one was made for my sister-in-law for her birthday.