???

i ♥ this picture!!!

and i ♥ this fabric!!!

i made the picture.

but who made the fabric???

that's the million dollar question.

do yall know what line it is???

inquiring minds want to know.

moda bake shop.

yum.
yum.
yum.

i know i've mentioned it once...maybe twice...okay three times...

but i have to say this:
run. do NOT walk. to the moda bake shop.
do NOT pass go.
do NOT collect $200.
{although that $200 would be nice to spend on some new moda fabric!!!}

yall know i already heart moda.
well the moda bake shop is like the icing on the cake!!!

remember that amazing cotton blossoms table runner i made???
i got the tutorial from the moda bake shop.

{compliments of camille.}

and 3 of my bloggy pals have made appearances as well!!!

vanessa...with her braided rag rug tutorial.

{which reminds me...i need to buy a honey bun asap.}

amanda jean...with her stacked coins baby quilt tutorial.

{i already have 2 charm packs waiting on me for this one.}
and monica...with 2 tutorials!!!

{i really like her valentine pennie pockets.}

so go over there, fall in love with a recipe, and bake something!!!

then go to the moda bake shop flickr group and show the world.

warning: you could get addicted.

i'm just sayin' is all.

tehehehe.

p.s. there are 20 links in this post.

i must really be excited.

hahaha.

pincushion baby doll pillow tutorial.

okay here's a new tutorial for yall.
and don't worry i'll explain the strikeout of the word pincushion.

promise.

take 3 charm squares from a charm pack.
any 3 you like.
{i'm using hartfield by barbara brackman.}

cut all 3 of those in half.

find your favorite arrangement of 3 strips together.
make 2 of these little guys.
{don't forget to press...we want nice pretty seams.}

with right sides together...
sew all the way around, leaving a 1" opening for turning.

cut off all 4 corners.

turn right side out.

stuff it like a thanksgiving turkey.
then hand sew the opening shut.

tada!!!
you have just made your very own pincushion.
i mean...

baby doll pillow!!!
here is sallie mae on her new pillow.

how could i say no to that???
she melts my ♥.
so baby doll pillow it is.

enjoy.
no matter what you use it for.

p.s. it measures 5 1/2 X 4 1/2

doll quilt swap 6.

oh my.

i did it.

i signed up for doll quilt swap 6.

i have no excuse!!!

wait!!! yes i do!!!

...i've been stalking the doll quilt swap flickr group for awhile...

...i have fallen in ♥ with tons o' those little doll quilts...

...and i just wanted to okay!?!

so yeah.

add another deadline to the list!!!

but i'm SO okay with it.

just go look at these amazing quilts!!!

let me know if yall join too!!!

i spied a few of my bloggy peeps over there already!!!

p.s. sorry the pic is so small.

but it's all i had to work with.

arabella, bella, & ballerinas.

aren't these fat quarters gorgeous???

i'd like everyone to meet arabella.

{pat sloan's brand new fabric line.}

i oooh'd & aaah'd over them like crazy when they got here.

i even sent pat a picture of me hugging them.

{i was hugging my new secret garden kit too.}

yeah i'm a dork...but yall ♥ me!!!

momma...

thank you SO super much for buying me the arabella motherload from pat.

this is the best st. patty's gift EVER!!!

i heart you!!!

now this...this made me cry!!!

seriously.

terri sent me this beautiful quilted angel today.

it's the sweetest thing. EVER.

her dress and wings are made from a vintage quilt.

the lady who makes them finds the quilts at estate and antique sales.

how cool is that???

i think i'll name her isabella, and call her bella.

yes my friends, like bella from twilight.

{don't laugh. i know i'm obsessed.}

and terri:

again...thank you, thank you, thank you!!!

i will cherish her forever.

promise.

now aren't these the cutest little repro fats???

{especially the ballerinas!!!}

these are from john.

we decided to have our own personal fat quarter swap.

we were supposed to only send 2 fat quarters.

of course, neither one of us followed that rule.

haha.

john...

i really, really ♥ them.

thank you, again.

so there you have it:

arabella, bella & ballerinas.

today was brought to you by the letter b.

virtual retreat recap.

this weekend was pat sloan's 'orange pile' vitural retreat.
{say that 5 times as fast as you can.}

basically a few weeks back she challenged us to find all the orange fabrics we owned.
i barely had enough to speak off.
{hence me & mandie's fabric shopping trip.}

well everything was pretty hushidy hush until friday.
and we all had a blast.
{and alot of orangeish foods. lol.}

we cheered each other on.
shared recipes.
had lots o' pic updates.
even some giveaways.

it was a great time.
i highly recommend a vitrual retreat.
seriously.

i'm not normally one to buy orange fabrics.
i mean, obviously i do in the fall, but you get my drift.

i'm SO happy that pat made me step out of the box.
because honestly this is turning out to be one of my fav quilts!!!

p.s. my bloggy pal vanessa is offically cooler than cool!!!
she made her debut appearance today at the moda bake shop!!!
go see her braided rag rug tutorial...and give her a hi-5!!!

heath ledger.

he won!!! he won!!! he won!!!

heath ledger won best actor in a supporting role!!!

yayyy!!!

rachel's skillet lasagna.

what y'all will need:
1 lb. ground beef or chuck
2-3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1 jar {26 oz.} your favorite spaghetti sauce
1 3/4 cups water
1/4 cup zesty italian dressing
1 box oven ready lasagna noodles, broken into quarters
1 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
dash of parsley or cilantro
salt & pepper to taste

brown meat in large skillet on medium heat until done; drain, return to pan.

add garlic, spaghetti sauce, water & dressing.
bring to boil.
note: you can add in 1 chopped green pepper here, if you wanna.

stir in noodles; reduce heat to medium-low. cover.

cook, stirring occasionally, about 20 minutes. or until noodles are tender.
remove from heat.
sprinkle with cheese. cover.
let stand about 5 minutes. or until cheese is melted.

serve with crescent rolls and a side salad to complete the meal.

i add a dollop of sour cream on top of mine.
cause that's how i roll.

this is the perfect meal to make if you've been quilting ALL day.
trust me.

hope y'all enjoy.

xo, rachel

mail call.

what a day.

i. am. exhausted.

my day included a trip to the post office.

it's SO funny to walk in there, because i kinda feel like norm from cheers.

they just know me. and they know to assume to write fabric on my customs forms.

yeah...my own mail clerks know i'm addicted to swaps.

so today was a big mailing day for the griffith house.

seriously...look at all this!!!

1 package to ireland. {to sherry.}

it was more like a letter, but still.

1 package to australia. {to tia.}

my brushfire block.

1 package to south carolina. {to my momma.}

just because.

1 package to north carolina. {to john.}

we had a personal fat quarter swap.

cause that's how we roll.

1 package to louisiana. {to salinda.}

st. patrick's mini mini swap.

oh yeah. yall know i couldn't pass this one up.

i'll post a pic after she gets it.

2 packages to oklahoma. {to jen & to cheryl.}

this covers my spring block swap AND wishing it was spring fat quarter swap.

1 package to ???. {4 seasons quilt swap.}

and lastly:

1 package to illinois. {to terri.}

well because she won my fat quarter giveaway!!!

luckily i had her address on hand so i can't wait till she reads this and gets all surprised.

{that or she'll totally miss it and get a big surprise in her mailbox.}

wanna know what the cool part is???

it only cost me $17.13

yeah. i'm SO cool.

p.s. the fats in the pic are just random fats.

SO not the ones i mailed to anyone today.

mountain baby blankets. {2nd post for today.}

so here i was just jumping around blogland.

and i popped over to nettie's blog.

nettie was saying that she couldn't bear the thought of blanket less babies.

and that's all it took.

i was a crying mess in about 2.5 seconds.

i followed the link to rachel's blog.

and rachel went into detail about these babies.

{for more story details go here.}

well basically rachel is taking action!!!

she's has personally started a project to help provide these babies with blankets.

mountain baby blankets.

they don't even have to be quilts per say.

please go to rachel's blog for details if you wanna help out.

i know i HAVE to do something.

the thought of babies being cold, and blanket less is too much to bear.

it's heartbreaking.

i know this is post #2 for today...but i just wanna spread the word.

i know that quilters give back more than anyone.

especially when children are involved.

i'm a guest blogger.

today's post will be found HERE.

i was lucky enough to be chosen by michele to be a guest blogger on quilting gallery!!!

{thanks michele.}

if yall have never been over to the quilting gallery, go now!!!
it's like the mother load of all quilting blogs complied together.
you can have your blog added to the list.
you can even search for quilt shops.

so hop on over for my 15 minutes of fame!!!
and if you leave a comment over there...
come back over here and tell me on this post.
i'll do a little giveaway.

that's right a little giveaway.
a few fat quarters free to a good home!!!
i'll draw a winner tomorrow.

p.s. see yesterday's post...the bee inspired group was announced.

and the winners are...

{yall can click to enlarge.}

yayyy to the winners!!!

please shoot me an email at:

ssg3369{at}hotmail{dot}com

{with 'bee inspired' in the subject line please}

i need yall's mailing addresses asap.

along with your blog link and your flickr link.

please & thank you!!!

for all the other people that were interested...

see sarah and join her quilting bee.

she would ♥ to have yall!!!

and thanks so much for signing up!!!

everyone is more than welcome to follow along via our flickr group.

and in case anyone is wondering...

quilters were picked via the old 'name in a hat' method.

and i'm sorry that this post is SO late.
{i wanted to post this around 8ish.}

but my daughter melanie is running a high grade fever tonight.

:O(

brushfire quilt project.

remember how i told yall i wanted to help out australia???

well today i did it!!!

i made a brushfire quilt block.

this was my 1st experience with the maverick stars block.
{as yall can probably tell.}
but my heart was in the right place.
promise.
:D

this was made with pat sloan's nikki fabric.
{with the exception of the blue fabrics, those are from my stash.}

overall i'm pleased with the outcome.
this will be in the mail to tia by the weekend.

to learn more about the brishfire quilt project click here.
{or the button on my sidebar.}

p.s. bee inspired group members will be revealed tomorrow!!!
yayyy!!!

200th post!!!

yayyy!!!

today is my 200th post!!!

what better way to celebrate then to have a giveaway!!!
but not just ANY giveaway...

a giveaway to myself!!!

i am ALWAYS making things for other people.

so in celebration of my 200th post, i decided to do something for moi.

the past fews days i've been putting together this cotton blossoms runner.

{remember how i told yall i played in some cotton blossoms fabric the other day???}

this is what i was doing.

it was SUPER easy and it's SUPER cute.
yall can find the tutorial HERE.

{thanks camille.}

friday & saturday i played with the squares.

{moved them around more than i care to admit.}

yesterday i pieced it together.

today came the binding, labeling, the washing & drying, and photo shoot.

and guess what!!!
i finally took the plunge and tried my hand at stippling.

{my 1st time!!!}

i can stitch in the ditch and outline quilt perfectly, but this, not so much.

i'm signed up take a machine quilting class soon.

it's full of flaws character but i ♥ it!!!

p.s. tomorrow is last call on sign ups for bee inspired.