April's Another Year of Schnibbles

This month's quilt was a choice of one of Camille Roskelley's mini quilt patterns.  I chose the mini puddle jumping pattern.  It's a tiny quilt at 12" x 12".

I just squeaked by getting the top done as being sick for two weeks this month meant I didn't get to sew much.

For this pattern, I used scraps and bits from Denise Schmidt's Flea Market Fancy and Hope Valley lines with Moda Zen Gray as the solid.  The fabrics were leftovers from when I made my "Sunnyside" quilt.

Check out the rest of the entries on Sherri and Sinta's blogs.

Bitty Block

These little blocks are the opposite of stashbusters.

Working away on this month's Another Year of Schnibbles (guest starring Camille of Thimbleblossoms).  With teeny tiny itty bitty little pieces.

Earth Day 2014

Celebrate Earth Day! We only have one Earth.  Tread wisely and be kind.

Every year on my blog, I post new Earth Day resolutions to do my part in conserving resources, reusing, recycling, reducing, buying organic and buying local.

With our new life in Santa Fe, I am happy to report that Mr. SBQ and I have significantly reduced our fossil fuel use by walking to work.  After living in car-dependent Atlanta for so long, it is wonderful that Mr. SBQ walks to work everyday and I walk when I do not have to work until the store closes (I still don't feel safe walking alone late at night even though Santa Fe is much much safer than metro-Atlanta.)

We also walk to downtown, the post office, the pharmacy, the library, out to dinner, to the farmer's market, and many other errands.  It's wonderful and good exercise and a money saver too.  Hooray for walkable cities!

Another one of my favorite things about living here is the Santa Fe Farmer's Market.  A highlight of my week is walking to the market on Saturday morning and buying the freshest seasonal produce directly from local farmers.  Trying new foods, supporting family farms, buying local, buying organic, eating seasonal foods--all of this makes me happy happy happy.

This year, like many cities and communities around the country, the city of Santa Fe enacted a plastic-bag ban.  We already use our own reusable bags for shopping, and I think I'll start make some more fold-up fabric bags for out-of-town guests to use out of my fabric stash.  Cloud 9 Fabrics has a wonderful tutorial for fabric bags with matching small zippered pouch (and a giveaway) on their blog today.  

My new goal is to learn more and do more with water conservation.  Water is a precious and scarce resource in New Mexico and I want to do my part with water conservation.  I'll report back next year and let you know what I learned and how I incorporated it into our daily life.

Under the Weather

I've been sick all week with a nasty cold so no sewing going on or much of anything else except work and sleeping.  The cats have enjoyed the extra napping time.  Hope to be better soon.

Stella is always ready for an extra nap

A Trio of Small Projects

Now that most of the unpacking is done (the sewing space still needs a lot of help), I am getting back into the swing of things quilting-wise.

This week I decided to work on some small projects.  The first one was a Divided Basket by noodlehead. This is a great PDF pattern that I saw on different blog posts.  I needed some extra storage for our bath in this house.  The main full bath is small with a pedestal sink and no room for storage except for a tiny medicine cabinet and one shelf above the door (too high for me to reach without a step stool).  There is not even room for a small cabinet or shelf or a under-the-pedestal-sink organizer (it's a rental house so we go with what's here).  Also, pedestal sink are nice and all but completely impractical.

I found a gray and blue print from the Seaside Cottage line by Heather Mulder Peterson that  would match the shower curtain, rugs, and towels we had.  I added Kona cotton in blue and an unknown dark gray solid as accent.

The pattern was easy to follow and not as difficult as the finish product looks.  I whipped this up in a couple of hours.

 
Here's another view.

I'll spare you a view of the basket in its place on the back of the commode lol!

Perfect for holding hair brushes, kleenex, face cleanser, etc.

I think I'll make a few more at some point for gifts.

One project-in-a-bag I found while unpacking was the Cash and Carry pattern by Atkinson Designs paired with zippers and fat quarters of Kate Spain's Fandango fabric line.  I think I packaged this up way back when I was in the Groovy Girls club at Sweet Home quilt store (circa 2010).  Took no time to get these finished.  The small one has a pocket on the outside (I think I'll use it to store business cards and quilt shop punch cards) and the larger one will be perfect for sunglasses when I get a pair to replace the ones I lost.








Spring has finally found it's way to Santa Fe and Mr. SBQ and I are enjoying seeing all the budding trees and flowers.  Since we moved here in fall/winter, spring and summer will be a whole new experience.

I took these photos on my walk to the farmer's market this morning.

And of course, no post is complete without a cat photo.  Remy cuddled himself up in a quilt.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!