Black and White

Here is Ilona's Black and White birthday quilt...finished just in time to mail out before the big day!

I made a half-square, quarter-square triangle quilt for Ilona.

Black, white and red are her favorite colors.  I thought this pattern would look cool with the more modern prints that I chose.

I love the back of this quilt!  The red really pops!

I ended up with a lot of scrap fabric from this and I plan to use it!!

Since I used more modern fabrics,

I thought I would quilt a more modern pattern. 

I quilted single and then double diagonal lines.

I think this is my favorite quilting pattern so far!

I will go through the process of creating this quilt in my next post.

Have a great Sunday!

Back From Colorado

Well I am back from my trip to Colorado. I had a lot of fun on my spring vacation with my family.  The weather was absolutely beautiful. Warm and sunny...I have a bad sunburn to proove it!

I got to take a tour of the Air Force Academy and watch my brother's lacrosse game. (We even won!!) My mom and I enjoyed visiting the different churches located on campus.  I took lots of pics of each we visited.  They were all so beautiful...wait until you see the pictures! 

One day we went to the zoo with the girls. It is so cool how you walk up a mountain so see all of the animals. By far the best part was feeding the giraffes crackers.  (I think my mom spent like $15 on food to feed the giraffes. Crazy!)  Although, the girls squealed everytime their tongues touched them! (Yuck!) It was also pretty cool to walk under a glass wall and have a huge mountain lion looking down on you! (Now I know why my brother jogs with a rock in his hand on the trails. Scary!)

It was fun to see Olivia and Abby's schools and meet their teachers. Abby took us on a tour of her school and did a great job as our "tour guide".  Olivia was so proud to have a special visior at school and gymnastics class.  She is a great little gymnast.  I was very impressed! It was too bad our school vacations were not the same week this year. I even got to watch Ilona at the high school coaching her tennis team. Everyone had their own "special event" for me to go watch.

We went to a cool place for dinner called "My Big Fat Greek Restaurant". (Just like the movie!) The food was awesome and all of us ladies had a wine tasting line-up of all the different wines they had on the menu. (Of course, Billy had to drive after dinner! ha! ha!) I guess they have dancing and singing on the weekends...they even break plates! We will have to go back on a Saturday night next time I visit. I can't wait!

Needless to say, I was very busy. I don't know how my mom keeps up this pace all the time! I guess happy hour each afternoon and LMN movies after dinner do help a person relax after a long day! Thanks everybody for a fantastic visit! I had a great time and miss everyone so much! I love you!

Here are some pictures...enjoy!

Aren't the flowers just beautiful in Colorado Springs?

 Hope you enjoyed the pictures! 

Have a great week!

April Fools

Happy first day of April!  This is always an exciting time of the year for us teachers.  We know that right after spring break next week (and the state testing that follows) it is all downhill toward summer vacation. Yippee!!  Although, the fact that I teach summer school every year kind of puts a damper on the whole summer break thing.  But, it is nice to have the beautiful weather and be able to spend so much time outside.

Well, I've decided I would like to make a strip quilt for my Hands 2 Help Quilt.  I wanted to try something more modern looking with straight line quilting at the end.  I found two great examples/tutorials here at Twin Fibers and Film in the Fridge.  Not sure if I want to add the ric-rac to the strips...but it might look cute in pink on plain white strips of fabric.  We'll see!

On another note, I have the fabric picked out for Ilona's birthday quilt.  I know she loves black, white and red.  I found a cute black and white fabric collection and bought the fat quarter bundle at The Joyful Quilter.  I also found a beautiful fabric for the back.  It has a red background with black and white flowers.  I think she is going to really like it!  I took a picture of the pattern I'm going to make.  It's hard to tell what it will look like in black and white...sometimes I start to think it would look better as a log cabin quilt with the dark/light contrast in fabric colors.

Here is a peek at the fabric:

This is my favorite dark fabric print.

And now for the lights!

This is my favorite light fabric.

Here is the fabric for the back. 

I LOVE THIS! 

I would like to make a quilted bag of this for myself!

So cute!

Sunny can hardly keep his head up and eyes open!

He is waiting so patiently for me to finish so I will play ball with him.

Skye, she doesn't care about what I'm doing.  Not when Mike is in the kitchen with food out!

We call her "Hoover" now.

Have a great first day of April! 

(and no playing tricks on Nana kids!)