Anne of Green Gables book club

I hosted book club at my house way back in January.

The book we read for the month was "Anne of Green Gables".

Both of my parents are from Prince Edward Island, and their forefathers before them :)

I could say that I had been waiting my whole life to host bookclub for my friends, for Anne of Green Gables!

I sent them all personal, handwritten invitations which read:

Dearest Emily,

On the very occasion of our most beloved book club, I, Anne-with-an-E, cordially invite thee to a most exquisite evening, hosted by Cynthia at "Green Gables".

Delicious "island" food will be served.

Please attend, lest your life become 

"a perfect graveyard of buried hope."

Your kindred spirit,

Anne Shirley Cuthbert

Well, everyone attended my book club that night, lol!

I made raspberry cordial and in true "Anne" fashion, I ruined it!!!

The recipe called for 1 cup of sugar and 4 cups of water.

I measured the opposite!

The raspberry cordial was like syrup, but everyone was too polite to say anything :)

It sure looks good though, doesn't it?

I had so much fun decorating the dining room table!

I used my civil war reproduction quilt to cover the table.

I had a vintage suitcase (like Anne's) which I partially covered with a crocheted cloth.

I set my tea set on top of it, and used a lot of silk wildflowers to add color.

I have some first edition Anne books which I displayed, 

my mother's painting of a lighthouse on the shores of the red island cliffs, and some "Anne" dolls.

 I even had rosebud dishes, thanks to a sweet friend of mine who lent them to me for this special occasion.

Remember the fateful story where Anne invited her best friend Diana over for tea?

She wanted to use the rosebud tea set, but Marilla told her no, she was only allowed to use the brown one!

Then Anne served Diana wine instead of Raspberry cordial, and got Diana drunk!!!

Anyway, I was able to serve my guests raspberry cordial in rosebud tea sets, and no one got drunk :)

I gave everyone a necklace to remember their evening.

 I dressed up as Anne, red braids, freckles and all!

 I served scotch shortbread cookies, butter tarts, cherry balls, carrot sticks, cucumber sandwiches and egg salad sandwiches, and raspberries.

Lori dressed up as Anne too :)

Fun was had by all, and I fulfilled my dream of hosting an 

Anne of Green Gables book club :)

Appleicious, Quilt Fun!

I have loved this quilt since the day I saw it in Lori Holt's first book, "Quilty Fun".

I made this quilt a year and a half ago, you can see the post here.

I love the simplistic look of the crosshatch machine quilting.

I think that it's a really great modern look.

I'm going to hang this quilt up in the fall, even though I don't think there is a fall season in Arizona!

I'll just have to think back to my years growing up in Canada.

I love this quilt so much, that I have a board on Pinterest, devoted to this quilt!

I love the back!

Lori Holt's "modern minis" mason jars and at the bottom, I put of strip of her "bake sale" cookie recipe fabric.

When I see apples, I sometimes think of canning applesauce, hence the mason jars.

I also think of apple pie, hence the cookie recipe fabric :)

That's how my mind works, lol!

I didn't use a scrappy binding this time, because I thought there was enough scrappy going on.

I made one of the apple leaves aqua colored instead of green, just to add some interest :)

Scrappy Happy Summer table runner

By the time you read this post, I will have moved from California to Arizona, a huge change for us!

While I was waiting for moving dates, there was a window where I had some extra time on my hands.

I quilted this table runner that I made four years ago!

I also machine quilted the Scrappy Crossroads table topper from last week's post, and my Appleicious quilt in next week's post :)

I have other quilts that need to be quilted, so I just finished the projects that I had warm and natural batting for, as in leftovers from other projects.

What a great feeling to get these WIPs finished!

I machine quilted in the ditch again, which isn't the most creative finish, but it worked for this table runner.

Lori Holt had a "sew along" for this table runner, four years ago.

I would always follow along in real time, you can see her post here.

Do you remember that I've been on a self imposed fabric fast this year?

It's such a good feeling to use up "some" of my fabric!

Scrappy bindings look great, but it's hard to use up your stash using scraps of fabric.

This sky blue fabric that I used for the background makes me really happy!

I used Lori Holt's "Sew Cherry" line of fabric for the scrappy stars.

My finished table runner looks so fresh and happy on my table with a vase full of flowers!

You can see the original post about this table runner, here.

When you read it, you'll see that I made a second table runner from the scraps :)

Scrappy Cross Roads Table topper

I finally finished my Scrappy Cross Roads Table topper!

It's been almost 4 years since I sewed the blocks, you can see my post here.

Each block measures 16", I made 4 of them to create the table

topper.

The table topper is 32" square.

It's one of those pieces that you have to examine, to figure out how the blocks were sewn.

I used a scrappy binding and machine quilted in the ditch.

I like the look, with all of the squares to match the scrappy patches.

I love so many of these squares that were leftover from various projects!

I backed the table topper with a Riley Blake Chevron.

I'm anxious to use my new table topper!

Lori Holt's free tutorial can be found on her blog.

She's responsible for so much of my inspiration!

Deluxe Pincushion

I love this pincushion!

The pattern is in the book  "Sew Organized" by Heidi Staples.

I have two of them and absolutely love them!

I don't usually use mine as pincushions, I use them when I bind a quilt. 

I line the whole pocket and label with Clover binding clips and stuff the pocket with a spool of quilt thread and a cute little pair of embroidery scissors.

I used some favorite little squares of fabric in this one, and added a linen border.

I used one of my favorite blue Lori Holt prints for the back.

I love this pincushion so much, that I follow #deluxepincushion on Instagram!

Lots of inspiration there :)

Birthday Bags

I bought a pattern for a lined drawstring bag, which comes in many different sizes.

I can't even tell you how many bags I've made over the years.

I work with Young Women, ages 12-18 years old, in my church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints.

We give a little gift to the girls who turn 12 and join the Young Women program.

I make a bag for each one of the girls, and we fill it with an ios lip balm, and some uplifting literature.

I've taken photos of all the bags I've made in a little over 2 years.

The girls are really excited to receive them, 12 is such a sweet age:)

You can find the tutorial here.

The bags I made in these photos, is the smallest size, about 4" X6".

Sassy Squares quilt finished!

I told you the story about this baby quilt here, in February.

Well, I machine quilted it, bound it, and it's finished!

I quilted it in clamshells, it took a little bit of time :)

I took close ups so you could see the adorable teddy bears.

I also love the bumble bees and toadstools.

I love the flowered sashing too, Japanese prints are so cute!

This is the back of the quilt.

I had some cute fabric for the middle, but there wasn't quite enough.

I used a pretty Lori Holt fabric as the border around the panel.

The panel fabric is apples, strawberries, lemons, oranges and pears.

I've had this quilt hanging on my railing for quite a few months.

It's a great feeling to finish a project!