Projects for Summer

Sugar Block of the Month, June - Home Sweet Home

Sugar Block of the Month, July - Lime Sherbet

Sugar Block of the Month, August - Camp Out

Sugar Block of the Month - The quilt squares thus far...

Block of the Month April 2012 redo - Sunny with a Chance of Hex

Block of the Month June 2012 redo - Greek Cross Block

Projects for April & May

In April, I lacked motivation to craft. It scared me for a bit - why was I not in the crafty mode?? I got a new job but still worked my old job and my new job during the month of April. I had limited time to craft. When I got home from work, all I wanted to do was veg out. Then May came and I still lacked motivation. My craft room had become the catch-up for Easter decorations that had not been put away, a box of stuff from my old office, and a layer of dust. I lacked motivation because I had to do some cleaning before crafting and who really wants to clean. Well the cleaning is now done, so here are the projects from the last two months (but really I made them all in less than a week - ha!)

I made this quote for J's office. I cut it with my Cricut machine on brown vinyl.

Block of the Month 2013 - April Block, Fan

Block of the Month 2013 - May -
Strippy Spools, bottom left 7 blocks
(pictured with the other blocks I've already made for this project) .

Sugar Block of the Month, April - Sunny Days

Sugar Block of the Month, May - Signed, Sealed Delivered

Block of the Month April 2012, redo - Hexi Stripe

Block of the Month May 2012, redo - Wonky 5-sided Log Cabin

Block of the Month May 2012 redo - Modern Log Cabin

Projects for March

• A new recipe: flourless chocolate cake, made for a friend with wheat/gluten allergies. Read more about it here. 

• Sugar Block of the Month - Forget Me Not Block

• Craftsy Block of the Month 2012 - 

String Block

Broken Spider Web

• Craftsy Block of the Month 2013 - Economy Block

Projects for February

February is a shorter month with only 28 days - I blame the lack of days on my lack of projects. :)

Chocolate ravioli became a favorite recipe during the month of February. Pie Crust + gooey chocolate center = deliciousness! I found the recipe here

 J moved into a new office at his work. We bought 2 end tables at Ikea and I added a little flair to one by creating a checkboard with vinyl pieces I cut on my Cricut. A few matching bottlecaps and we've got ourselves a gameboard. 

I'm continuing my online quilting classes:

• Sugar Block of the Month. 

This was a tougher block this month and I became best friends with my seam ripper. I didn't think paper piecing was incredibly hard until this block. It's not perfect, but a wise friend taught me the galloping horse theory. If a galloping horse can't see your mistakes, then decide not to worry about it and move on. I do have plans to remake this block before putting all the squares together and making the final quilt.

• Craftsy Block of the Month 2012

I'm continuing my efforts to make better on last year's quilting class.

Chunky Chevron Block

Balkan Puzzle Block

• Craftsy Block of the Month 2013

New February blocks on the left called Spring Blossoms, January blocks from last month on the right.

Dinner for a Friend

A couple in our Sunday School class had a baby. We signed up to take them dinner one night. There was one problem, all the recipes needed to be wheat/gluten free. I have high anxiety when there are food allergies involved - it just stresses me out. It's completely my problem! For dinner, I decided to order pizza from a great new pizza restaurant in our time - they have gluten free crust - score! I then prepared a salad with all the fixin's and all that was left was dessert. I asked a friend who is a great cook if she had any what/gluten free recipes and she didn't have a one. She told me to check Pinterest but sometimes I become so overwhelmed with all the options of Pinterest it stresses me out more than I already am! I searched the grocery store and found that Betty Crocker makes a gluten-free cake mix (warning: gluten-free cake mix is triple the cost of regular cake mix). I decided on yellow cupcakes with chocolate icing. I got home to make the cupcakes and realized that I didn't have gluten-free vanilla extract (it is about twice the cost of regular vanilla extract).

I then remembered about my Sugar Block of the Month class - every month's lesson comes with a recipe. It just "so happens" that February's lesson came with a recipe for flourless chocolate cake. I made the cake, added some gluten-free chocolate icing and dipped strawberries. It came out much better than I thought...too bad I couldn't try a bite!

Projects for January

I don't create resolutions but in January I do reflect and remember all that I hoped to accomplish. For example I took an online quilting class from Craftsy (Block of the Month - 2012) and never finished it. I did great until September when I made a major mess up on the block that month. I lost all desire to finish because it meant making that block again and I'd rather do anything else. In November, I got busy decorating for Christmas. All of our Christmas items are stored in my craft room, so there wasn't any room to craft. Then in December, several of the craft sites I visit promoted new quilting classes and I was instantly interested again. So this year, I'll start over with my class from last year (Craftsy Block of the Month - 2012) and participate in 2 more (Craftsy Block of the Month - 2013 and Sugar Block Club).

Here are my two blocks from last years class but remade for this year.

Asterick Block

Wonky Pound Sign

One of my new classes is taught by my teacher from last year, which coincidentally I went to college with her. I actually paid to take the class ($7) so I feel that I must keep up with everything lest I waste my money. With this new class, I am making my quilt exactly as she is with the exact same colors. I'm copying her quilt in hopes that it will be somewhat easier for me to follow and I will stick with it because I'll see exactly what I'm missing out on.

Snow Blossom

Here's the block for the Craftsy Block of the Month, 2013 edition for January. My teacher has given us the outline of the entire quilt we are making and for January we are not quilting the four smaller blocks together as I would have expected. According to the outline, the four smaller blocks will be used throughout the larger quilt.

Offset Log Cabin