What I've Been Up To... (7/25/2013)

Hi hi!  When it gets hot outside, it gets hot in my sewing room - no matter that the AC is on.  Plus, when it is hot, it isn't raining so in Oregon, you don't stay in much.  I know I haven't.  I dumped my iPhone pictures and have a picture heavy post for you to catch you up on what I have been up to (mostly).  Warning: these are phone photos so they aren't the clearest.

Put in the irrigation for 9 raised beds and 4 half barrels.

Put together two Lifetime Adirondack chairs for the patio.

Molly helped.

Put together an applique I found at Marbled Arts.

Finished piecing the center for Little A's quilt - borders to come.

Made vegan samosa filling from Fat Free Vegan Kitchen.

Made beefless stew from Fat Free Vegan Kitchen.

Ran into Kat VonD at PDX on my way to visit my Mom.

Waited in line at the Cheese Board Collective in Berkeley.

That line was for this.

And this was 5 minutes later.

This was dinner from the Cheese Board - 6 hours in traffic there and back, totally worth it.

Made an apple tart.

Had some Two Towns Ciderhouse "Rhubarbarian" while watching Game of Thrones - You know nothing Jon Snow!

Had a layover in Baltimore.

On our way to here.  Emerald Isle, North Carolina.

Played in the surf with the kiddos the first night.

Ate breakfast like this every day - for a week (ignore the beer cans the boys have).

Went to bed with this every night.

Made a retirement gift - messenger bag of my own design with the pony pattern from Regina.

Went to the beach (in Oregon) with Josh and the girls - they're waaaaaay back there.

Here they come.

Almost here!

Here we come Mom!

Oh wait, the water!

Ok, cold enough.

Throw the bumper Dad!

Sat while the dogs watched us eat lunch.

Ate ice cream while O passed out in our laps.

Made Veggie Ramen.

Picked 33 pounds of blueberries at Springbank Farm here in Lebanon.

Dug up a ton of roots and bark dust.

To put down sand and lay stone.

Shamed Annie - not even ripe yet!!!

Made a blueberry pie.

Made a glass paperweight at Jennifer L Sears Glass Art Studio in Lincoln City.

And more.  Just gonna have to find the pictures.  Here's a little bit of what Molly does when I work in the yard.

You'd think I put these chairs together for her.  She did help I guess...

woof woof meow!

Put Your Stamp On It Blog Hop (6/27/2013)

Hi hi!  Welcome to my day on the Put Your Stamp On It! blog hop!!!  First off, thank you to Mdm Samm and Thearica for putting this together and being our Cheerleaders for this hop - without you always behind, gently pushing us forward, we wouldn't be half as far as we are!  Thank you thank you!!!

When I saw this blog hop pop up on Sew We Quilt, I knew I wanted to jump into it.  I've been thinking a lot about a logo for AnnieOak Designs and this blog hop was a perfect opportunity to put some ideas out there.  Most of you who follow me know that my furchildren are Annie and Oakleigh (yes, cheesy but oh so fun too!).  They are most often right there with me in my sewing room or snoring on the dog bed outside the door, so it is fitting that any designs that I eventually call my own reflect two of my true loves - Annie

and Oakleigh. 

Smash'em together and you got: AnnieOak Designs.

For my stamp I wanted to incorporate the dogs and the oak tree as well as a little bit of me.  Annie is there - the lab silhouette.  Oakleigh is represented by the tree and the leaf - she is always everywhere unless sleeping and anyone who lives near an oak tree knows that when the leaves drop, they are EVERYWHERE.  I had to add the 13 cents since my birthday is on the 13th and it is my favorite number.  I checked and the last time 13 cents was the postage rate for a first class stamp here in the US was May 1978 and the last time a postcard was 13 cents was back in February 1985.  I fall in there somewhere :o)

Thank you for hopping with us and for visiting AnnieOak Designs today, now go check out the rest of the bloggers I am sharing the day with:

Robin's Fabric Nest

In The Sewing Basket

Elizabeth Coughlin Designs

Just Quilt It

AnnieOak Designs  - woof!

Buzzing and Bumbling

krislovesfabric

CherrysPrairiePrimitives

Hanging On By A Thread
And, as usual a little pup lovin' for you.  This is what happens when I take too long to photograph Bug:

woof woof meow!

A Giveaway Winner! (9/26/2012)

Sorry this is late - I got into an accident Saturday afternoon on my motorcycle and haven't been up to typing much!  Thank you to everyone who participated in the Dots on Dots Blog Hop and for the wonderful comments and NEW followers too! First the finished runner. 

I had fun making this!  Definitely going on my table :o)

On to the Giveaway Winner:

Katherine  September 10, 2012 9:36 AM

Beautiful! Stars and dots... does it get any better than this? I don't think so! lol

Your tablerunner is going to be a stunner.

Thanks for sharing and being a part of this hop!

Congratulations Katherine!!!  Your FQ are in the mail and you should see them soon!

Off to the sewing room - I have my next hop due on Oct 2!!!  Gonna take me a while, but I'll get it done.  Stay safe folks!!!

Dotty Stars and Giveaway (9/10/2012)

Hello fellow blog hoppers!  Today is the first day of the Dots on Dots Blog Hop hosted by Corrie of Quilt Taffy and Mdm Samm of Sew WE Quilt!.  Both are fantastic blogs and resources and I am excited to be part of this Blog Hop - I've lurked for a while and decided to jump right in, so I hope my first attempt goes well!  I know all the other particpants are awesome, make sure you check all their blogs out and give them some bloggy love too! 

Here's today's schedule:

Cat Patches

Busy Bee Quilts

Stitch by Stitch

Mary on Lake Pulaski

Just Let Me Quilt

[Amy's] Crafty Shenanigans

PolkaDotClassic

AnnieOak Designs (that's me!) 

Blueberry Moon

The full schedule can be found at Quilt Taffy here.

Now on to what I did.  I've been wanting to make a table runner for a while so I thought this would be a great opportunity.  I pulled out my trusty block book and went to work finding a star I liked.  I chose the Fifty-Four Forty or Fight block and sketched out the table runner in my notebook.  Figured out the amount of fabric and off I went.  I needed four colors to make the block work.  I am a JoAnn fan when I need something quick (a trip to a LQS would be an entire day and I am not shy about admitting that), so I wandered over and found these three coordinating dots fabrics and a navy to pull it all together.

Since the table runner called for three 12.5" unfinished blocks and some borders, I cut everything out.  Never used my Tri-Recs rulers before and turns out, they are pretty handy.  Thanks Nancy!

Then off to sewing. 

Fifty-Four Forty or Fight Block

I said I wanted a table runner right?  Well, I also wanted to try my hand at machine quilting with my Juki and I figured this would be the perfect opportunity (plus it seemed like a lot of work to get the thing on Diane's longarm for a lot of little work).  I pin basted it and being the control freak that I am, sketched the block out in my notebook and played around with the quilting designs until I liked what I had on the paper.

On with my machingers and off we went!  I started by stitching in the ditch around the stars and doing a dotty/pebbly motif in the navy areas around the stars.   

Pebbly Navy (sorry - the flash is aweful)

And this is as far as I got. 

Almost all the way!  2 out of 3 blocks done.

Ran out of thread.  This being my first attempt at machine quilting on my Juki I neglected to over-purchase my thread.  So, I am not going to the store tonight, so it lays unfinished, hanging over the bannister staring accusingly at me every time I go up and down the stairs.  I will get it done!  I has been too fun to do and I want to finish it before I start on my next project.

Now to the giveaway.  Since I am a stasher I ALWAYS buy more fabric than I need for a project.  What if I mess up a block?  What if I want to add to the pattern as I go?  Gotta have the wiggle room right?  Right.  So, I am giving away a fat quarter of each of the four fabrics I used for the table runner.

Just leave a little comment in the comments section and I'll pick a random winner at the end of the Dots on Dots Blog Hop, September 21.  For an extra entry, be a follower and leave me another comment telling me you are a follower.

Now, your next assignment is to check out the rest of the lovely blogs on the Dots on Dots Blog Hop!  Don't forget to leave bloggy love!

I JUST ... Pieced a Row Robin Row (5/16/2012)

The quilt guild I belong to, Santiam Scrappers Quilt Guild, is doing a Row Robin this year.  The concept is fun and has given me a little bit of an impetus to get cracking on my pattern designing.  Here's the lowdown on a Row Robin:

Owner creates a row for a quilt - their theme, their ideas, their wishes.  The original row is passed to another person who creates a row to go with the original using the Row Robin Theme for the month and the owner's ideas, theme, wishes, etc.  This continues month-to-month with the quilt rows being passed on to another person each month with a different Row Robin Theme.  At the end of the Row Robin time frame (for us it is six months), the owner will have 6 rows to put together into a quilt.  There will have been 6 people who contributed to the quilt which means a lot of variety and creativity.

This month is the third month and the theme is Triangles.  I have Marjorie M.'s rows and she had red, white and blue fabric and stars as her only theme ideas.  I added the yellow to match a previous row and made the pinwheels in a wavy pattern.  There are six blocks total with three pinwheels apeice.

Here is a close-up of two of the blocks.  The smaller pinwheel is floating in the background and all three pinwheels are different sizes so this wasn't an easy-peasy slap together row.  It was challenging to get them to fit, but I enjoyed myself.

The journey of the pattern will be in future posts.