All American Wedding Quilt

 

This lap quilt was made for one of my amazing Alpha Xi Delta sisters and her America loving husband. She married her high school sweetheart making them truly an all American couple! 

The size of this quilt is perfect for the back of a couch, it was a little tricky to come up with the perfect dimensions but it came out nicely I think. And I must admit I am thrilled to get the mountain in a pic!

Perfect Porch Chairs

My front porch is finally coming along. For as long as I can remember I have had a crush on these vintage style lawn chairs. All metal, shell backs, they kinda bounce when you sit in them. They make me feel like I should be at a family BBQ, eating a hot dog, or watching fireworks. Not really sure why, but that's the feeling they give me.

 Anyway, this crush started long before we built our home and I have always known that finding these beauties was going to cost me a pretty penny and there was a potential for them to just be old and rusty. I had spotted them for upwards of $100 each for new remade ones and for the old rusty type so imagine my surprise when I found these (likely reproductions) for just $40 each at the Funky Junk show! I bought them immediately within minutes of walking in to the show and I couldn't have been more excited about it. The pair don't match perfectly, one has flat arms, the other rounded and the seats are slightly different as well with one featuring wholes and the other just a little ditch for water to drain out.

I actually like the blue color the flat arm chair came in but the black I hated! Either way they both needed to be sanded stripped and repainted. I decided to go simple and just do white. However I strongly debated a two two with a dark red to match the front door.

This was my first time working with metal that needed to be sanded and painted with many coats. It was a little more work than I wished it was, but thanks to a perfect weather weekend I finished them in just two days. :) I spry primed and spray painted each chair with a high luster paint. The curved arms were a little tricky but in all I think they came out pretty nice.

When I bought them I wasn't sure what I would do about a little table in between and I am still not sure this is the answer, but it works for right now. Jason made this little wooden beauty in high school shop!

Here is a good side view of the chairs. I just adore the lines they have and did I mentioned that they bounce a little when u sit in them. :)

I had to break this out as a reminder of my little porch projects and progress...

This was taken in March....{Besides being bare look how tiny the plants are..}

and this was taken last weekend! So much more personality and it actually makes me excited to have visitors. (and the plants have gotten huge thanks to my husband and his fancy fertilizers}

4 Natalie & Scott

This is the quilt I made my little brother and his bride for there wedding over 2 months ago!

I used a free online tutorial I found on a blog. I loved the giant barn star from the first time I saw it and knew someone had to get this pattern.

I loved the blue and yellow mixes. Only 5 fabrics used on the top. Doing such large half square triangles was new for me. But it worked out well I think.

 For the back I did a strip of the fabrics  which added interest and kept me from having a seem down the quilt because it was wider than the fabric.

I love the yellow trim!

All wrapped up and ready to be opened!

Burger Tour Stop #1: Frisco Freeze

 

 Frisco Freeze the first stop on our burger tour of the 2012 summer! A Tacoma classic on Union Avenue located across the street from Mary Bridge Children's hospital. Frisco Freeze has been in business for over 65 years serving up these American classics to the people of the south sound.

First thing about Frisco that you need to know is there is no indoor seating so pick a sunny day to take your lunch to a park or plan on eating in your car. After-all this is a classic American drive in. No public restrooms but they do take debt though so that is a HUGE plus! However at 2.40 for a cheese burger you can probably pay with cash.

Ok Now on to the food. 

Burgers are ranked on appearance - does it look appetizing and fresh, the bun, quality, taste & type, the patty flavor and juiciness, the beef to bun ratio, and the yummy factor. The sixth rating is for whatever side item is ordered.  All items are ranked on a scale of 1 - 5 with 30 being the highest score a place can get.

What was ordered:
Erin: cheeseburger, onion rings and a small chocolate shake $8.25
Tyler: Double cheeseburger and fries $6.40
Guest Judge Leiani -  Burger, fries, Chocolate Malt   $8.59


Appearance:
Erin -  4 
Tyler -  4
Guest Judge Leiani - 4

Bun
Erin - 3  "Average, plain bun"
Tyler - 3
Guest Judge Leiani - 2 " better if toasted, got a little mushy by the end"

Patty Flavor and Juiciness
Erin -4    "thin but not overcooked, still flavorful"
Tyler - 3   "overcooked but still juicy"
Guest Judge Leiani - 3   "lost the flavor in the mayo and onion"

Beef to Bun Ratio
Erin -5  "Thin bun, this burger patty, great proportions"
Tyler - 4 "Thin meat, thin buns"
Guest Judge Leiani - 3  "I'd like more meat in my buns"

The Yummy Factor
Erin -4  "good topping mixture"

Tyler - 3 "little heavy on the mayo and lettuce, good relish"
Guest Judge Leiani - 4 

Side Item

Erin - onion rings - 3 "little dry, possibly frozen type and not fresh. No fry sauce available."

Tyler - fries - 3  "nothing special"
Guest Judge Leiani -classic malt -  4  "thick and tasty"


Overall
Erin - 23
Tyler - 20
Guest Judge Leiani - 20

E-T grading score is a 21.5  
(we are hard graders I think. It really was good and I would go back!)

Wedding Quilt for Breanna

 Breannas wedding was now 2 weeks ago!!! Times flys during a rainy June I guess.  Her colors for the special day were purple and gray. From the second she decided on this I began finding and hunting down purple fabrics to make her this quilt I had dreamed up in my head. I was excited to work with purple so excited in fact that I ended up with 10 different purples!

 There are 360 squares on the front made up of 10 different purple fabrics, solid gray and a lacey sparkle fabric. After cutting all the squares I paried each purple with a gray or a lace gray and than randomly pulled the pairings out of a brown paper bag to make the rows. I wanted the design to be as random as possble to get a scrappy effect.

I think the plan worked out well. The colors mixed throughout the pattern and the lace sparkle mixed in randomly added some interest to the non purple spaces.

 After much debate I decided to do a simple quilting design with diagnal crossing lines. I love the affect it gave the quilt almost as if dimond shapes were individual quilt blocks.

 This quilt is huge. We had to take fence pictures because it was way to big to hold up. So sorry no moutain in the background pics. :(

 I put the tag on the frong this go around.
 Think it worked nicely with this design.

For the back I did large stripes with one gray stripe down the middle with M+B=Heart on the side.

I applicaed the letters on. Which came out very nice with this light purple metalic fabric.

 Here is a look at the stripes. I really like the mix. made it a little  more fun than just one back fabric. I choose my two favorates. Bought them out of the lighter one. Had to keep some for my stash.

 And in the end 360 squares lived happily ever after!

The Local Burger Tour

There was a time when burgers were really my thing. But I have to admit the love for burgers has evolved recently thanks to five guys and it sparked an idea. This summer my co worker Tyler and I will be embarking on a 7 stop tour of locally owned Burger joints on our lunch breaks throughout the summer. Old drive-ins mostly all known for there greasy goodness.

Now my vegan friends out there are probably cringing, but to all my non vegan friends who enjoy classic American food, I will be posting our reviews of the local places, what we have, and how it tastes. Maybe even some photos of these local places. I plan on ordering a single cheeseburger, with ketchup and grilled onions (if available) at every location.& Tyler will also be ordering a similar meal at every location.

Tour Stops Include: 

Out & About  - Located in a trailer on Puyallup's South Hill

Don's Drive In - Located across from the fair grounds in Puyallup

Dairy Freeze - Located in downtown Sumner.

Pick-Quick - Located in Fife

Wally's White River Drive In - Located on hwy 410 in Buckley

Frisko Freeze - Located on Division Ave in Tacoma.

Goffy Goose - Located on 6th Ave in Tacoma.

Other locations we are considering however they are a little more of a chain so we cut them out are,  frugals, five guys and fatburger....first we need to make it through these 7 stops!

Tour kicks off next Tuesday! Stay tuned for how our first visit goes!

MY favorite quilt

This is MY quilt that I selfishly made for myself.

I adore it to pieces and stole it from the guest bed in my sewing room and have been sleeping with it. After I made it I never took the time to get some pictures of the finished product. So this morning after waking up with it I decided to finally get around to it.

I designed the pattern after I bought a stack of fabric at the closing of a great fabric store. I used the yardage and also a white jelly roll. Funny thing about this quilt is I started the concept and cutting in February 2011 and finished it in February 2012. My skills grew so much in that time period through all the other quilts and sewing projects I finished that the ending product in 2012 was much better than I envisioned in 2011.

See these stacks? This is how the quilt sat for about a year...sad but true



 Than I finally took the time to make it into my favorite quilt....

 The backing fabric of this quilt is on of the main reasons I love it. Big vintage flowery design but in more modern colors. The entire quilt is very springy and reminds of a sunny day with a sudden rain shower like we are so accustom too this time of year.

What I am most proud about with this quilt is the actual quilting I did. I did a zig-zag design through the entire quilt which you can kinda see in these pictures.

 To bind this quilt I used the simple fold over technique. I wanted something very thin so that I didn't loose much of the design.

I went slow and steady and ended up with a very nice machine finish on it. Someday I may take the time to learn to hand bind but when I get to this point in the quilt I get so excited I just want it done!

As is with any sort of new quilt or fabric I buy the poodles love it. This photo was taken just minutes after the final touches were done. I was vacuuming up the threads on the floor and lewie claimed it.



Here Lew is posing with the poodle tag....He really does think this one is his I don't have the heart to tell him its really mine.

Wine Welcome

My front door was white. As white as the trim on my blue house. Nothing special, just a factory white door. In fact, my whole porch area was really boring. Really this porch area had been driving me crazy since we moved in because the original plan was to have a red door (and that didn't happen) and a little different porch entry situation (which also didn't happen thanks to the city's weird rules) Anyway, with the sun shining one morning this spring I decided it was time for a change. With some pinot noir colored paint and some vintage windows I gave it a little pick-me-up which I think has made a ton of difference. Here are the before and after pics!

              BEFORE Pinot Noir                                  AFTER Pinot Noir

BEFORE

AFTER

And now for the vintage windows. I bought these at a little store in Sumner and painted a quick coat of white to make them look a little fresher and Jason screwed them in to hang them up. I decided on windows without old glass panels partly due to our wind and because they were a heck of a lot cheaper!

 All done! (I love before and afters they make me feel like I did so much!)

BEFORE Pinot Noir & vintage windows

AFTER!!!!

Now I just need to find the perfect bench/chairs/swing/something so I can sip iced tea on the front porch with Jason and the poodles!