Last month we took a little trip to Austin. A couple of good friends were getting married and we thought it would be the perfect excuse to get out of town for a bit.

While in Austin we played tourist a little, eating at Chuy’s, visiting that state capital and the LBJ Presidential museum. Matt took over camera duties for this trip and grabbed some great shots at the museum. We stayed at a great historical hotel downtown, the Intercontientel Stephen F. Austin. The rooms were on the smaller side but I had no complaints. The iron worked, the water pressure was good and the bed was incredibly comfortable. I will say that the room comes equipped with a minibar, which means no vending machines, so that $6 bottle of water is your only alternative to tap water.

I would like to say for the record that initially I did not procrastinate on the quilt. I knew I wanted to make a quilt, but the details were causing me some trouble. What design, what fabrics, did this feel right, would it seem to old ladyish? I choose three different fabric combinations before I finally settled on the right ones. The pattern took a little hemming and hawing but I feel it’s crisp and clean without being boring.

But I forgot to take a picture… possibly because I finished it the night before we left… so you’ll have to imagine the finished product. Large rectangles with smaller ones inset in alternating fabrics. I am thinking about making something similar to this for myself, though I’m not sure I want to tackle something this large so soon!

Things learned while making this quilt:

Quilting the middle of a 55″ x 65″ quilt is a little tricky on a standard machine

It takes A LOT of thread to quilt such a large quilt

If your thread keeps breaking take the time to investigate or else you will spend FOREVER weaving the loose threads back in

Quilts are the perfect gift to travel with, folded in a big ziplock bag they can be compressed down to a fraction of their size, leaving plenty of room for that extra pair of shoes!

A more detailed post will follow, but I wanted to share my latest projects with you! I am extremely happy with they way they turned out… I’m going to have a hard time parting with them.

For more details check out my etsy store!

It’s probably evident by now but my quilting is based around easily cut and pieced shapes, mainly squares parallelograms. I am not sure when I will be brave enough to try curves and circles, but I think they are ways off yet. But in the spirit of trying new things I have made this little piece.

The idea for stripped triangles came from a quilt I saw on the brand new Amy Butler software she did in collaboration with the Electric Quilt Company. I was going to purchase it but I’m a little miffed that I would have to launch Parallels to view it as it only runs on Windows. So for the mean time I am looking at the pictures and adapting them to my skills, limited as they may be!

I think I will piece rows of these triangles. One row where they all point up, one where they all point down, etc. Maybe three or four rows? I’m not sure what the finished size will be, but certainly in the baby size. This is also a WONDERFUL way for me to use up those scraps I have been accumulating…

If you find yourself in need of a sugar coma and with a bit of motivation I suggest these…

They are the delightful creation of chockylit, who sadly no longer updates, but has kindly kept the blog live for those of us who can’t get enough of Ginger-Cream Filled Pumpkin Cupcakes with Chocolate Ganache Frosting or Ricotta Raspberry Almond Cupcakes with Citrus Meringue Frosting.

I followed the recipe found here and have only a few modifications for next time. First I ended up with TONS of peanut butter filling leftover, which while creamy and delicious has limited uses in our daily diet. I also found that I had to add an extra cup of powdered sugar to make the ganache stiff enough, though it was humid that night. It is also key that you use chocolate with the right % of cocoa otherwise you will end up with a Hersey-like chocolate flavor rather then the rich velvet chocolate you achieve with the suggested cocoa levels. And you can find the chocolate at your local grocery, no need to make a special trip to multiple stores. And as I was not up to rolling my own fondont flowers I opted to add a peanut to the top of each cupcake which also hinted at what lay within.

After I filled the platter for work I found myself with extras, which happened to fit perfectly in a box. A box that made it’s way down to Sarah’s, because it’s always a good idea to keep your enablers happy!

The only thing that would make these better would be a carton of milk, like the kind you used to get at school. Maybe I’ll add them next time.

I have finished another quilt! WOo Hoo! This one is headed to a coworkers little girl who just had a birthday. It has been awhile since I quilted and there were a few things I forgot…

1. Trust your gut on fabric choices, if you spend too much time fretting you’ll never get started

2. If you haven’t freehand quilted in awhile you should definitely practice before you take your quilt anywhere near your machine.

3. If you choose to piece your binding as I did take the extra time to measure out where your seams will be so they don’t end up at a corner. This, as you can imagine, will save you lots of headaches in the end.

4. Make sure you have a full bobbin when you start to quilt, for a baby quilt I usually have to fill the bobbin 3 times, but nothing is worse then getting started and having to change it right off the bat.

5. Check the status of your batting stash before you start. I switched to an all natural batting a couple months ago and I LOVE it. It’s so soft and inviting, unlike the scratchy polyester version. The only drawback is the price, a hefty $12/yd at my local Hancocks. So I wait for it to go 50% off and stock up, but I’ve missed that sale the last few times and am running low. I’m hoping for a sale this weekend! Keeping my fingers crossed!

The front of the quilt is a mix of fabrics coordinated off of the backing which is from the Chocolate Lollipop line by Anna Maria Horner for Free Spirit. I really like the stripe, which was a last minute substitution, I think it pulls it all together and keeps it from being too girly.

As usual I have a million projects started, including 3 quilt tops or “floppies.” I saw that term used on one of the quilting blogs I read and I can’t for the life of me remember who, but I thought it was an appropriate name for the tops to quilts that have been pieced and are waiting for batting, a back and to be quilted. None the less I think things might finally be starting to get in a rhythm around here, so hopefully the posting will become a bit more consistent!