Crazy Quilt Along at the Old Red Barn Co.

On Tuesday, I am starting a Crazy Quilt Along at the Old Red Barn Quilt Along site on flickr!!! Have you seen this group? Every other month or so there is a different quilt along at the site and the old tutorials stay posted so you can go back at any time and quilt along. Love it!

Gearing up to leading the 10th round of the quilt along has been an experience in if-you-ask-they-will-say-yes. When I emailed Dana, the site's founder, about doing a round about crazy quilting she immediately said yes. I didn't really think she would! They have had some big name quilt along leaders and I...well...not so big. But here I am!!!!!

The next month I saw that Allie Aller had recently wrote a book called Crazy Quilting: Modern Piecing & Embellishing Techniques for Joyful Stitching. I emailed her and asked if she would donate a copy so I could kick off the Crazy Quilt Along with a giveaway. She immediately said, "Yes!" Squeal!!!

Here are some additional pictures from her book that she sent me.

Her first full sized crazy quilt:

Crazy in the Desert by Allie Aller

And look at those beautiful flowers! She spends a whole chapter showing how to make them in her book. Amazing!

Crazy Happy Flowers by Allie Aller

Who would have thought that just asking could go so far? I sure didn't. Humm...maybe I should have asked for a copy of Allie's book for myself! :)

If you want to be entered to win a copy of the book and learn more about Allie go on over to the Old Red Barn Co.'s site and leave a comment.

I will be starting the Crazy Quilt Along on Tuesday with a post on fabrics. See you then!

Dear Barbara,

I thought of writing you this letter while piecing the last two Civil War blocks. You know I LOVE your blog and I am grateful for the work you have put into your new Civil War blog, right? Amazing stories, great blocks!

So, I hate to sound whiny and ungrateful, but why? Why Barbara, did you choose 8 inch instead of 12 inch blocks? The teeny-tiny pieces are killing me! The sometimes kooky measurements strain my eyesight and cutting skills. I know, I know...it is making me a better piecer and I will thank you later, and yes, I will eat my greens and exercise... :)

All joking aside though, I really have noticed improvement in my skills already. Take a look at the Kansas Troubles block. No really, look hard at those 1 inch finished HST!

Most of the points are perfect! Not all, but not bad considering the size.

The block size is also killing me because it makes it hard to choose fabrics. That is really my own fault though. I wanted to use my bright happy Meadowsweet fabrics for the project and the scale of the prints is really too big for the blocks. You can hardly see the flowers in the Kansas Troubles block, but I think I am getting the hang of finding prints and solids that will work in the blocks.

In my not so humble opinion, I think the color selection of the Richmond block turned out quite well. Instead of doing a four patch in the middle/outer sections I did a ... well, I don't know what it is, but not a four patch, and I rather like the pattern it makes.

So Barbara, I will probably still mumble under my breath as I make teeny tiny triangles this year, but the growth and the feelings of pride when I see the finished blocks totally make up for any frustration I feel in the process. This is going to be an amazing quilt and an amazing year.

Thanks again,

Leila

My Happy Place

I don't know whether it was the abrupt transition from relaxing in the sun and listening to the waves on the beach to cleaning and listening to whining or the fact that it has been @#$*&! COLD here, but this has not been my best week ever.


Yesterday afternoon, I took some time to cut out teeny-tiny pieces of fabric for my civil war blocks. After dinner I stole away for a few minutes to start these wavy bee blocks for Jen who wanted wavy blocks using this tutorial. It was sooo calming.

I played around with cool colors.

And warm colors.

This morning I went back downstairs. The children were playing nicely and I just sewed and cut and sewed again. It was so therapeutic just to play with beautiful colors of fabric and see what I could make.

Somehow, while I am working I am able to just focus on what I am making and ignore all of the toys and scraps of fabric strewn on the floor. I just step over it all as I move from the sewing machine to the ironing board and back again.

I realized this morning that sewing is my happy place.

Thank goodness I can sew.

And thank goodness it will be in the 40's and 50's next week.

Mexico

Every year my husband has to go on a few week long work trips to places like Chile, Mexico, Hawaii and Las Vegas. It's a rough job, eh? They really do work hard but I can't work up too much sympathy while I am stuck at home with 4 kids and a blizzard.

So this year we flew my mom up to watch the kids and I went with him for a week in Mexico. While he was out looking at corn, I lounged by the pool. I brought a bunch of hexagons with me but hardly touched them. Really it was just wonderful to be out in the sun.

In fact, I finished more flowers on the way home than I made my whole trip.

Because of a mix up, we got to the airport WAY too early. How early? Early enough for me to finish these two flowers by the time we finished our airport brunch at Carl's Jr.

The trip was so relaxing we may have to make it a tradition, but for now, back to reality!

Mexico

Brian and I got back Saturday night from our week long Mexico vacation/work trip. Brian worked and I enjoyed the beautiful weather, great food and zero responsibilities (ie children).

We stayed at the Marival all inclusive resort just outside of Peurta Vallarta. Brian would go running in the morning and then meet all the other breeders at the buffet at 7am. I slept in and would wander out to get some breakfast at, well, let's just say later in the day. The first three days were gorgeous. The only problem was that I didn't have anyone to rub sunscreen on my back. I tried to improvise by wrapping a washcloth around my flat iron, putting sunscreen on the washcloth and rubbing it on my back, but it must not have been effective because I totally burned my back and other random swatches of skin the sunscreen missed the first day.

I am not a believer in tanning salons, but I think everyone there must have gotten a base tan before they came down and I understand why. Who wants to be burned and sit in the shade all day when the sun feels soooo good?

To give my back a break and get some exercise to work off all of the great pastries they had at breakfast I would go on bike rides. They had a place at the resort you could check out bikes. The whole area along the coast where we were was packed with resorts. The first time I took out a bike I chose a direction at random and figured I would just ride and see if I could get out into the surrounding town - I never made it. Another time I went on a "bike tour" and we rode down to a mini zoo. There were some deer like animals, an alligator, tigers and leopards. The leopard was so close to the side of his cage I could have put my fingers in and petted him - if I had been so foolish.

The last few days got a bit cooler, esp with the wind blowing off the water and I took a longer bike ride into a small village north of us.

Ah, my beautiful self portrait. I rode through town and found a tourist trap market and bought and embroidered dress for Collen and Kate. They wore them on Sunday and look sooo cute. Anyway....

After Brian got home (between 4 and 6) we would go swimming/hot tubbing, shower and then meet the other breeders for dinner. Talk could get a bit, um technical at times, but he works with a great group of people and I always felt welcome.

The breeders finished up their work a bit early and took Friday off. We drove up to Peurta Vallarta with Paul (who was at BYU with Brian for awhile) and Tom.

Left to right: Paul, ?, Andrew, Brian, Tom and Megan

It was fun poking around all the tourist shops - that were almost exactly the same - walking along the river in old town, and along the new boardwalk on the coast.

In one stretch people were making and maintaining these amazing sand castles for tips. The detail was incredible.

Brian and I sat down on a bench at one point to rest and tried taking some couple self portraits which devolved into this.

Ah...this self portrait with the old church in the back ground turned out much better. I can't wait till summer comes to Iowa!