Ok - here I go!

Computer. Check.

Quiet evening. Check.

Great ideas. Check.

Glass of wine. Check.

Wow. Looks like I'm all set. I keep saying I'm going to start blogging - and I have posted here a couple of times. But this time, I'm going all in! After all, the list above proves I'm ready, right? Ok the list isn't totally accurate. Sure, I have a "computer". But my daughter warns me never to let anyone see it or the Smithsonian will declare it a National Treasure and take it from me. She believes it is actually the first computer made for the home!


And the evening is a little less than quiet. I gave our new dog a bath tonight (about an hour ago) and he's still running laps through the house!

The "great ideas" thing was a bald-faced lie. Uh-oh. BRB - I just heard something large being drug across the floor upstairs.

Good grief - if he's going to "retrieve" something, couldn't it be another glass of wine instead of the vacuum cleaner?!!!

Finally, the glass of wine - that part's 100% true (AND I get bonus points for walking to my computer with the glass 100% full! Classy.)

Speaking of my daughter, this post is for her. (My husband and I have 4 daughters. Jennifer, the oldest, is my partner is this business.) In October of last year, Jennifer posted about her sewing machine and her fear of it. I know Jen. She's unstoppable. Don't ever tell her she can't do something. (It's really tempting to veer off down a road that would take us right through childhood memories, but another time, perhaps.) Suffice to say, she's not one to back away from a challenge.

Which makes this sewing machine thing all the more curious. Why is she letting that machine win the stare down? Don't kid yourself - that machine is still sitting exactly where it was in October, giving her the stink-eye everytime she creeps by. I can see her charging through the house, rushing for the door to get to work. As she nears the machine, she'll get an involuntary shiver and hug the wall furthest away from it as she passes by. She may have snuck up on it once and tossed a towel over it, but that's the closest she's been!!

So I have an idea, Jennifer (hey! reference #3 above). Here's a quilt to make that'll have you and your machine humming along beautifully! It'll give you tons of practice just running your machine's straight stitch. Nothing fancy. And you'll end up with a great every-day quilt.

I started with a Batik Cascade Strip Bundle and selected 18 of the 24 (you can use more or less). Because the strips are 5-1/2 inches wide, I had to cut them down a bit and then in half to get 36 strips that measures 2-1/2" wide (2 from each color I selected). Obviously, a couple of jelly rolls would also work!

Then I arranged them in the order most pleasing to me and sewed them together. Quilt top finished!! Yay!! AND (here comes another really cool part) because the strips are the width of the fabric, you only need one width of backing . . . no piecing! How much are you lovin' me right now? So make your quilt sandwich and pin it or spray baste it (even easier).

Now to quilt it: Start in the middle and working your way out, stitch in the ditch across each row. Then go back and stitch one row down the middle of each strip, and then one more even spaced on each side of the middle (for a total of 3 in each strip plus the ditches).

Now kiss your sewing machine and then bind your quilt! Oh yeah, and post a Facebook comment about how you have the greatest mom in the world!!

Wait!! One more thing: don't worry if your stitching lines aren't straight. It'll never show when you're done. Besides, this is an every-day, throw around quilt!