moda fabrics – Mandy Cooks and Quilts

Happy New Year!!!

Wow, I have been blogging for one year! Although it has been quarterly for the latter part of the year due to the craziness that is life.

Christmas was a blast, and I celebrated a milestone birthday in the same week. I made my nieces and nephews reading pillows over the past few months. They are 18 inch pillows with a pocket on the pillowcase and handles. They can hold books or electronics and make a comfy addition to traveling. Here is a photo:

I also made this cute Penquin pillow for my kids’ bus driver. I used a multicolor thread for quilting it. The pattern is by Elizabeth Hartman. I just love all her animal patterns.

I also made some other teacher gifts. I made these cute little mug rugs that look like coffee/cocoa cups. The block was a free pattern from the Fat Quarter Shop. I bagged them with a disposable coffee cup, some coffee and hot cocoa for a special treat.

As you can see Cinnimon the mini chonk cat approves.

I took two weeks off a Christmas from quilting to clean and organize my sewing supplies and just enjoy my family. I am ashamed to say that I was this years old when I discovered the Container Store online website. I found some very decorative storage bins to store my fabric without looking to messy. They also look great on my shelves as opposed to clear plastic containers. Here are a few shots of my sewing area aka my bedroom while it was clean. Since Christmas it has gotten only slightly messy. I plan to do a bi weekly tidy to put away fabric scraps and keep things organized.

I got a great Christmas gift. I actually bought it in October on sale and saved it for Christmas. It is a quilting frame that I can use with my own machine and kind of turn it into a long arm. It is called a Grace Cutie. I tried it out yesterday and it is awesome. I can use pantographs just like a pro long warmer. I just need to practice to get my speed and technique to make the designs cleaner on the quilts. I practiced on a quilt my daughter made for her dolls.

I finished my two block of the months just before the new year. Toes in the Sand came out beautiful and I cant wait to quilt it later this year.

The A Quilting lIfe block of the month also turned out well. I am not in love with the border fabric. I was looking for a navy floral for the border from the fabric line, but since the fabric is out of print now, I was only able to locate the red. To me it feels too loud but it will be a great picnic quilt.

New Years Dinner!! Hopping John from the Instant pot!

I cook Hopping John every year for new years. Its a Black eye pea “stew” that can be served over rice. I usually cook it on the stove in a cast iron dutch oven, but it takes hours and I really didn’t want to spend all day in the kitchen. Here is a quick recipe for it:

Instant Pot Hopping John

1 lb black eyed peas (if dried soaked for 6-8 hours in water then drained)

2 bell papers one green one another color chopped

1 medium onion chopped

2 teaspoons chopped garlic

Salt and pepper

1 quart of chicken broth4

1 smoked ham hock or a few slices of bacon

1 bay leaf

Saute up the onions, and peppers (us can use the saute function on the instant pot). Add the garlic and cook for a few more minutes. Add the peas, ham hock, bay leaf, salt, and chicken stock. If there is not enoiught stock to cover the peas add a few cups of water. Place lid on instant pot and seal valve and select the beans setting with low pressure for 60 minutes.

I hope you all had a magical holiday season. Next week I will show what I will be working on for long-term projects and some new finishes.

Spring Finishes

I finally got these three completed. The Koala quilt is a family favorite. I love the spring chickens. The patriotic one is for my husband. I couldn’t find any army or West Point fabric so I used American Gatherings by Moda. His is the largest I have done to date. It is made for a queen-sized bed. I am working on two pillow shams to go with it.

My husband is moving to Maryland for work. The kids and I are staying here because if we moved with him my son would change high schools up to three times before he graduated. This would not be ideal. Plus we are so close to both sets of grandparents. It is going to be a challenge but we know it is the right thing for our family at this time.

The Koala quilt was a sew-along I did last summer. The challenge was to complete an Elizabeth Hartman pattern of your choice. I already had this pattern at the time so the sew-along prompted me to go ahead and start it. I completed a block (Koala) per week. It was a challenge and there were some mistakes. I left one mistake in the quilt. If you notice some koalas have verticle noses and some have horizontal noses. They were all supposed to have vertical noses. But I mistakenly made one horizontal at the beginning so I decided to leave it as it was and make all the second koalas of the colorway with horizontal noses. No Koala is alike anyway right?

Elizabeth Hartman’s patterns are so cute. I have a Llama one and Penguins in Sweaters patterns too. The patterns have lots of pieces but are not overly difficult. The one takeaway I have from this quilting experience is organization. I literally just cut up all the pieces and put them in a project box for this quilt. I spend longer searching for the correct pieces than actual sewing.

When I started piecing the spring chicken I forced myself to be more organized. I used my best friend Ziploc to help me keep pieces together. It really helped me and things went smoother. I plan on making another chicken quilt later this year because I still have a ton of Spring Chicken fabrics left. I will probably do a block a week to make it seem manageable like the Koala quilt.

I enjoyed making all three of these quilts. I am always happy when I finish one completely but also a little sad when it’s finally over…until I begin the next project.

A quilted coat, new finishes, and more.

Hi yall! It’s been a while since I posted. I have had some big things happening. I started a new position in the company I work for that aligns with my education in criminal justice. It is full time which has cut into my quilting time a little more than I would like. But it is a good job that piques my interest, and it gives me more money to fund my hobby (more money for fabric!).

Here is what I have been working on the past few weeks:

Toes in the Sand Block of the Month: February

I have finished my blocks for February and I love the Flamingos.

A Quilting Life Block of the Month: February

I also completed more of Pat Sloan’s Sweet DreamsSew-along blocks.

My last sew-along is A Quilting Life’s Block of the Month. I think this will be my summer picnic quilt when it is done.

I am loving the Happy Days Fabrics. These florals are soooo pretty!

Lastly, I have been working on my Free Spirit Coat Story Quilted Coat. I will have a blog post dedicated to the process of making it, information about the contest, and my inspiration for it as well as soon as it is finished which should be in two weeks if all goes as planned. Here is a preview picture of my cut pieces prior to quilting.

I have also been baking up some interesting things. I messed up on my Misfit produce order and ordered two 2 lb bags of blood oranges instead of what I thought was going to be 4 oranges. So I had to figure out how to use some up. I found a recipe in Cook’s Country Magazine for an orange upside-down cake. It was easy and so delicious. I highly recommend you check it out.

I have had 3 quilts come back from the quilters this past few weeks and I am working on the binding and getting them photographed. I will include them in my next post. One is this Koala quilt that everyone seems to love. They love it so much that they steal it from me and refuse to give it back, Here is my orange tabby laying his claim to it.

I get to snuggle it on occasion. My daughter wants to put it on her bed. I want to sleep under it a few nights first.

The other two that came back are my chicken quilt and my husband’s starstruck quilt. Photos will be coming soon as they are bound.

Well, that is all I have today. Stay tuned for a special post all about the quilted coat and a photography session of my new finishes. I will also be doing a post about getting kids involved in quilting and easy patterns.

Cold weather sewing. What I am working on for the next few weeks and the year.

This weekend was a cold one the initial forecast was snow and ice, but we were fortunate to get just a lot of cold rain. This meant lots of time to work on sewing projects and cooking yummy things.

I made 16 chicken blocks for a spring chicken quilt while thinking of the upcoming season. It’s a pattern from Cluck Cluck Sew. The fabric is Spring Chicken from Sweetwater by Moda. I have been wanting to do this quilt since I got the fabric last year, and I put it on my must-do list for the year. I grew up on a farm with cows, horses, chickens, ducks, rabbits, goats, and pigs. Now I live in a subdivided neighborhood, and I miss my barnyard creatures. The HOA here has a strict no chicken policy so these will be the only chickens I have for a while.

Here are the first nine of my chickens. I had to stop because I was making too many mistakes and having to rip out too many seams.

I also made a table topper for my kitchen table out of farmhouse-themed fabric. I made it as practice for a block of the month I am starting next weekend. It is Jaybird’s Quilts Gazebo pattern. It uses her Hex and More ruler. I have only ever used a standard quilting ruler so I wanted to “train” my brain on how to position the fabric. I also had to train my brain to piece triangle blocks where I have ever made squares and rectangles. It was a lot like putting together a jigsaw puzzle. I love puzzles.

Here is a picture of the pre-sewn version. Luckily, my cutting table surfing cats stayed off of it until I was able to sew it together Saturday morning.

I am going to be participating in several sew-alongs, block of the months and a challenge this year. The first is Toes in the Sand Block of the Month by Jaybirds Quilts using Tula Pink Daydreamer Fabrics. It is being held through my local quilt shop and is definitely going to be a challenge for me. I have only ever done quilts with squarish blocks. This one is composed of intricate triangles made of smaller triangles and hexagons. Hence why I was practicing for it using the ruler. Here is a link to the pattern and what the quilt will look like here.

I am also participating in A Quilting Life’s 2022 Block of the Month. I am using her Happy Days Fabric. I am trying to decide if I want to make all the churn dashes one color or two colors.

The January Block for A Quilting Life’s 2022 Block of the Month.

I am also participating in Pat Sloan’s Sweet Dreams Sew Along. It runs from January through May. It is one block per week. I am using Kitty Corn by Urban Chiks for Moda. I love the retro/ cartoony Halloween look. This will be my first Halloween quilt.

Here are Block one and two of Sweet Dreams Sew Along. I messed up a bit on block two but I’m going to keep it as a “creative blemish.”

I have also decided to complete the Free Spirit Coat challenge with my local quilt shop. I’m excited to try something other than a quilt.

Well, I hope all of yall are staying warm. Stay tuned for more exciting updates.