Row by Rowing

Yes, I'm still hitting quilt shops and picking up their row by row patterns.  I have way too many patterns and kits.  

Dorothy and I went on a road trip yesterday up to Fredericksburg, Va to The Crazy Cousin.  It is such a nice shop and I try to go there when I head north on 95 to visit my kids.  Here's their duck row: 

Too cute. But, will I use it?  Who knows.  It has a lot of competition. 

Then we headed over to Quilt and Sewing Center to grab their pattern. (I also got the kit but not sure if I'll use it or maybe use batiks... or not make it...) Yikes, I just looked at the pattern...hum, I may be skipping this one -- pretty intense...but oh the great results. 

In the studio I am in the process of loading a queen quilt back.  I finished my Trip Around the World earlier this year and I want to get it done so we can put it on our bed.  The blue and yellow quilt currently on the bed just doesn't look as good with the new taupe paint.  I'm almost finished getting the back on. Unfortunately, I let the fabric get really wrinkled after I washed it.  So, as I'm loading it I spray the fabric hanging over the back of the frame with water and voilà when it is dry the wrinkles are gone.  Then I roll more on the take up roller and spray again.  It takes more time but is infinitely better than ironing a huge backing. 

When the girls were here this past weekend we celebrated their birthdays.  It was a lot of fun.  I made animal cupcakes. First the picture I used as inspiration: 

And now what I was able to come up with. (Please note, these were the rejects and they've been sitting around for almost a week.) So, self criticism -- I used smaller cupcakes.  My tins are not the humongous tins you can get now, nor are they the mini ones.  Basically I didn't have as big an area to create my animals. I didn't think to look at JoAnn's for the cute eyeballs.  I suspect they are from Wiltons.  My frosting job wasn't terrible but, here, some of it has come off.  I used Jelly Belly's for all the parts except half a mini marshmallow with 2 seeds for the pig nose. (The other nose was taken off... hum, that one might have been a smarty and someone ate it!) I was surprised the girls ate the licorice eyes.  In fact Natalie seemed to love it. 

It's time to get back to the studio and play.  I need to fluff up a batting so when the backing is totally loaded I can load it and the quilt top.  One issue -- I haven't decided on the quilting design.... Decisions, decisions. 

I'm linking up with Let's Bee Social at Sew Fresh Quilts. 

Happy Quilting All!