A sweet friend gave me these fabrics a while back as a b-day gift 

and I've been wondering what to do with them ever since.  

So when the generous people at Accuquilt contacted me a few weeks ago to see if I wanted to do a review on their GO! Baby Fabric Cutter, I knew that

A.) I couldn't pass up the opportunity to see what all the "GO! Baby hype" was about and

B.) I was definitely going to use these fabrics and my new GO! Baby to make a little something for our guest bed.

To be honest, I was a little nervous to agree to review the GO! Baby. I didn't think one little cutting device could ever be worth $139 dollars.  I'm a little cheap that way :)  I was worried because I am not easily sold on gadgets and tools and such so I wondered if I would be able to give it a good review???

But, boy can I tell you that it's a gift from heaven!?!  I ordered three dies, one of which was the quarter square 4" finished triangle.  I haven't done a lot with quarter square triangles, but they're great for making basic blocks such as the hour glass, bow tie and broken dishes so I knew it was a must have!

I LOVED that I was able to easily cut through 6 LAYERS of fabric at a time (with minimal waste)!  That saved me HOURS of cutting time!

The best part?  Pre-cut dog-eared corners!!!  That's right ~ the quarter square triangle die is designed so that the corners are already M.I.A. ~ so no trimming!

Another great feature about the GO! Baby is it's portability!  It was the perfect size for taking on my quilting retreat a few weeks ago.  It hardly took up any space at all in my laundry basket of stuff! 

That weekend, I was able to make about 40 of the 50 stars that were needed to make my queen size guest bed quilt!  Whew!  It's been a while since I've made a quilt that big!!!  Having the GO! Baby made this a really quick project (which is great for a girl like me).  It left me more time for more quilts (or, more time for cooking and cleaning...however you want to look at it). 

Here's just a sneak peak of the finished quilt.  You'll have to come back tomorrow to see the finished top along side the awesome deal I scored on a headboard/footboard during yesterday's Labor Day sales!

 

So, to sum it up, I am now converted to the GO! Baby.  And, if you know me at all, I don't normally spend money on these kinds of things.  But from this project alone, I think the GO! Baby is a great investment.  Especially for basic dies that you know you will use a lot.  I'm looking forward to getting more dies and playing with the three I already have.  Can't wait to share more of my GO! Baby projects with you!  Check out accuquilt.com for more details!

 

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Parfait Cookies

These are my favorite chocolate chunk cookies.

The secret ingredient?

Symphony bars and almond extract.

So yummy and so easy.

Here's what you'll need:

3/4 c. sugar

3/4 c. brown sugar

3/4 c. butter, softened

2 eggs

2 tsp. almond extract

3 cups flour, divided

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. baking soda

2 large Symphony bars (with almonds and toffee)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large bowl, cream together the two sugars and butter.

Beat in the eggs and almond extract.

(Don't I have a cute little helper?)

In a small bowl, combine 2 (of the 3) cups of flour with the salt and baking soda; add to the butter/sugar mixture and combine.

Using a wooden spoon, add the additional flour so that the dough just barely ceases to be sticky (I always end up adding the entire remaining cup).

Chop up the Symphony bars into half inch chunks.

Stir in chocolate chunks with the wooden spoon.

Drop by heaping teaspoonfuls onto a greased baking sheet.

Bake for 7-9 minutes or until done.  Do not over bake (the key is to almost under bake).  Cookies should have just a tinge of brown but mostly remain white, soft and high.

Enjoy!

This recipe makes about 3 dozen cookies.

** I always like to have a couple of Symphony bars and almond extract on hand for this recipe.  It's so quick and easy and a fun change from the usual chocolate chip cookies (which I am not a HUGE fan of). 

 ~Thanks to my friend, Brooke, for giving me this delicious recipe!

Mixing things up

Most of my quilts have polka dot fabrics in them.  

Whether I use a dot for the entire background fabric or just a little here and there, I almost always incorporate polka dots in my quilts.  It adds a bit of whimsy.  They're happy!  They're classic.  I LOVE them.  But there have been times when I have went to my stash and just didn't have the variety I needed.  It's like all I had was polka dots!  In my opinion, polka dots are always a safe choice when buying fabric, but I've realized that I needed to branch out a bit.

So, while I was on my quilting retreat two weekends ago, I splurged and bought about 3 yards of fabric.  I couldn't resist these prints.  I have no idea when I will use them!?! But they are colors that I like.  They are sweet and fun and whimsical.

Just quarter yard cuts, since I don't really have a purpose for them.  Enough to make my little heart happy though.

I also felt inclined to buy some more orange and teals for my crayon quilt.  Again, only quarter yard cuts.  As you can see on the left, I already had 5 POLKA DOTS in my fabric collection!!!  I think the ones I bought are adding a nice variety of color, prints and scale to the collection though.

And finally, I bought a few fabrics to finish off a little Fig Tree Halloween wall hanging I'm working on.  

OK, so I couldn't get away without buying a few polka dots!  So sue me! :) They're kind of a staple though.  I don't think I will ever go without them all together, but I have realized it's nice to have a variety. :)

So what's in your stash???

A work in progress

One of the projects I worked on at my quilting retreat last weekend was this:

It may be the first dark background quilt that I've done and I love it!  It really makes my brights pop!  This simple Goose Tracks block is one I have not done before.  I love the secondary designs that you can see when you stand back and look at the quilt in it's entirety. 

The block is a common one, but I used instructions from the book Around the Block with Judy Hopkins (the same book where all of my recent sampler blocks came from).  My finished block size will be 10".

I'm not sure how big this will be when I'm finished.  I think I'll keep going until I run out of my background fabric.  I bought 3 yards and only have about 2/3 of a yard left, plus 7 more blocks ready to be sewn together.  It might end up being a large throw size quilt.

First Day of School

What am I going to do with myself?

These little kiddos headed off to school today and I've got more time on my hands than I know what to do with.  Actually, I know I will stay quite busy but I am going to miss them!  It's going to be very quiet around here from the hours of 9:00 am - 3:30 pm Monday thru Friday.

I tried and tried but this was the best picture I could get of Thing 1.

Can you tell that he's not thrilled about having his picture taken?  I was trying not to become the "embarrassing mom" so I didin't push it :)  Now that I think of it though, I didn't even get a hug before he left.  We'll have to make up for that later!

 

And this little one is really excited to be going into the 1st grade!  She's my sensitive girl so I hope she does o.k. making new friends.  Oh, they're both growing up so fast.  I'm kind of bummed...

So I tried to be crafty last night and make a little gift for their teachers for the first day of school.  I found the original idea while I was playing around on Pinterest the other day.  I was inspired and "pinned" the picture and link away on my pin boards just in case.

The girls from Bee In Our Bonnet (a really cute craft blog) originally shared the idea on their blog last August.  Their survival kits were so cute!!   I just had to copy!  (Theirs are much cuter as I started shopping for the supplies for mine at about 9 o'clock last night and was making labels until 3 o'clock this morning.  There's nothing like last minute...)

This little survival kit is full of goodies a teacher might need on the first day of school. Just a little somethin' to let her know we're thankful for her!

Don't you just love Pinterest though? It's so fun and sooo addicting!

I love that all of my favorites are in one place, organized into categories

(like "my dream home", "quilt love", "sweet treats", etc.)

with little pictures and the links to each one. 

If you want to check out my pinboards, click here.

So, are you addicted yet? 

The Perfect End to Summer

I can't say that I won't miss the long, lazy days of summer, sleeping in, not having to rush my kids out the door so they won't miss the bus in the morning,

watching them become fantastic swimmers after numerous sessions of swim lessons, playing with cousins and neighborhood friends, b-b-q's, late nights, spontaneous frozen yogurt runs with the fam and all the other wonderful things that summer entails. 

But I will say that I am sooo over trying to keep my house clean after two little tornadoes make their way through every day and I am also over repeating myself 10 times to get my kids to "hear" me.

So.  This is the PERFECT way to end summer.

A quilting retreat to St. George with my friends.

3 glorious days of sewing, sewing and more sewing.

I've got my supplies all ready to go.

I'll be bringing four projects to work on: 

A scrappy Goose Tracks quilt.

A {not as} scrappy star quilt using a fun new gadget I just received (more on that later).

My 2 color "crayon" project that I've been dying to start.

And, a little Halloween wall hanging that I started the other day.  Can you see how I'm all over the place here?  I kind of lost my focus a while ago and hope to find it again one of these days. :)

My scissors and rotary cutter are "labeled" with orange ties so they won't get lost in the excitement of things.

I've got everything a quilting girl like me could anticipate needing on a weekend like this ~ pins, glue, an extension cord, my favorite seam ripper {hope I don't need that too much} and all of my favorite colors of thread.

I've got the other essentials too, like my cutting mat, ruler, iron and travel ironing mat.   I hope that's everything!!!

Just one last thing to do ~ spend some quality time with the kiddos and hubby before I leave.  [Thank goodness for a sweet husband who is so fully capable of having his wife be gone for a few days.  He's such a good man!  They'll probably party hard while mom's gone.  Let the good times roll!]