Dreaming of Quilts

I've been abducted by Aliens!

2009-06-03T07:33:00.002-06:00

My kids wish I'd been abducted by Aliens instead of what's up in our home. If you're interested in what I've been up to check it out here. If not, I'll try to get some quilty stuff up soon.

We're Home. . .

2009-05-13T22:10:00.002-06:00

We really wanted to stay in San Diego, but I don't think it would have gone over well with the family in Utah. Here's the last picture I took in San Diego.

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We arrived back in Utah just in time to head off to the Jr High for a Parent's meeting Friday afternoon. I had to make the adult decision and skip the quilt show because of family/home stuff to take care of. I picked up the quilts that were entered into the show, and I was disappointed that none of them got ribbons. But I guess that's life. I was a bit apprehensive about seeing what the judges had to say, but they were all positive comments and just one negative. I'm sad I didn't get to see the show and all the quilts that were in the show because they must have been fantastic.
Here's a pic of the quilt as I was trimming it for binding. I'm sad the quilt didn't win a ribbon, but now that I have it back I realize how much I love this quilt and it doesn't matter. I'll take a picture of the quilt all bound and finished for an upcoming blog.

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Day 4 . . .

2009-05-08T19:57:00.003-06:00

We started off the day with a session at the LDS San Diego Temple. It was a great way to spend the day.

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Then we headed over and visited La Jolla Cove. It was beautiful.

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Walking back to the car I passed this tree. It's amazing what you see when you look up.

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Then we had a fabulous dinner cruise on the Bay. It was a great day!

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Day 3 in San Diego

2009-05-07T09:15:00.003-06:00

We are enjoying taking it easy and having slow get up and go days. We headed out to see the USS Midway and spent nearly 4 hours on the ship taking the self-guided headset tour. It was really amazing to see what the crew lived like the tiny quarters/bunk they have and the work they do on such ships. This ship was in service for approx. 50 years. It had several renovations and upgrades during it's service.

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That's the USS Ronald Reagan over Bob's shoulder. It's a working Nuclear Aircraft Carrier. After the tour of this retired vessel we wanted a tour of the real thing. But it's not open to tours. Bummer!

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Then we headed over to Coronado. We mainly walked the beach and ate. We were too tired to do anything else!

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Our Plan Today

2009-05-06T10:41:00.002-06:00

Today, we're off to visit the USS Midway. We tried yesterday, but it was about to close. After the Midway we're driving over to Coronado. Should be fun.

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Me and Mr. Fun!

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Sleeping in. . .

2009-05-06T09:22:00.002-06:00

Tuesday was the day Bob actually had to work. . . Well, from 8 - 2. Hard work day. I had a yummy sleep in day. Woot for black out curtains! I think I need some for home. I might not ever get out of bed though. Our hotel is on Harbor Island, which is a long skinny island that has 3 hotels on and about 5 Marinas on. I took a walk along the bike/walking path and took lots of pics. I'm in love with these trees and their red flowers. . . I won't bug you with all my pics of them.

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San Diego

2009-05-05T10:34:00.002-06:00

Did I mention. . . Several weeks ago my hubby said he had a one day business trip to San Diego and asked me if I wanted to go. It was snowing outside and the answer was. . . "Duh? YES!" Yes, I would be missing the HMQS quilt show in the SLC area, but SAN DIEGO and warm weather!!! I'll be back on Friday and am planning on checking out the show and vendors on Saturday...

So Yesterday, we visited the Gaslamp District and I've been playing with my new camera! Woot!

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Sunset from our balcony.

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Still Alive!

2009-04-27T21:57:00.002-06:00

So I think the quilting on this quilt is finally complete. I can't be sure, but I'm pretty sure. Now to get it Bound and work on the next Whimsyland Quilt.

From Drop Box

So Much Thread. . . So little Quilt

2009-04-17T14:13:00.001-06:00

Isn't this a happy sight! Love all the colors I've been working with. I don't think I've changed so many threads on a quilt before. Not loving the changing, but it's fun to work with so much color!

From Drop Box

I like Fridays Off. . .

2009-04-17T09:01:00.002-06:00

I woke up later than usual this morning and came down to the kitchen to find this. . .

From Drop Box

Mr. Clean as he is lovingly known around the house aka. My Hubby is at it again. He now has every other Friday off and I think I'm going to like it!! Since I've been trying to work every second on getting the quilting done on the quilt, now named Stellar. (We tried to come up with something better, but it wasn't happening.) So the house has been neglected and Mr. Clean noticed the fridge was getting pretty gross. Nothing growing in there, but stuff had been spilled and gotten yucky. Let's leave it at that. . . . and so he decided to clean it up. Woo Hoo! I told him I wouldn't mind if he took over the domestic chores. I'll gladly spend all my time quilting. . . and playing. . . and shopping. . .

Well, I'm off to work more on Stellar and hopefully get her done today. Wish me luck!

Snafoos. . .

2009-04-13T20:28:00.002-06:00

So I'm quilting along and the center of one of the blocks feels like there's paper in it. So I lift the top and check and nope, there's just fabric. Then I realize that it's different fabric than is on the top. So I figure that it just feels stiff because there are two layers of fabric. Nope, it still feels papery. So I lift the top again, and realize that there is a layer of paper between the 2 different fabrics!! So I have to snip the fabric on the bottom out and pull out the paper! OOOooops!!!!

From Drop Box

QUILTING!!!

2009-04-11T11:49:00.002-06:00

It's finally on the machine!!! Better get my tookus in gear and quilt my brains out!!!
Can you tell the new camera has arrived????

From Drop Box

Still Working

2009-04-09T20:55:00.001-06:00

Attaching the borders, and pressing them out.

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Catching up!

2009-04-06T15:48:00.001-06:00

So I'm working like a crazy person to get this quilt finished for HMQS. Well that is in between taking the 3 year old to the Dr's because he woke up w/monster goobers in his eyes and a fever. Running to JoAnn's for Iron cleaner because I dropped the iron on the carpet while pressing open these monster spikes and million pointed seam intersections!!! Going to the store for dress clothes for the boys so they can look nice at church on Sunday. Trying to figure out what to feed everyone on Easter Sunday. ETC ETC ETC!!!!

Here are a few pics.
I had the 14 year old run up and get the other iron. Guess what??? It's gross too!

From Drop Box

The triangular confetti from trimming all the corners where I'm trying to eliminate bulk in the intersections.

From Drop Box

The crazy points at each intersection!

From Drop Box

Another Finish

2009-04-04T21:16:00.001-06:00

So I'm really lost at where I am at keeping everyone up to date on what I'm doing. Yep, let's just say it's a bit crazy around here. My Parents were in town for about 6 days. The college boys came up for the weekend. One brought his girl friend. The married couple and g-baby were here several days this week. Friday the girls went Easter dress shopping. It's CRAZY!!

But before all that! I got Pauline's quilt finished. It's not delivered, but it is finished!

Even though my camera stinks. Here's a picture, and I know you can't see the quilting. Sorry. I can't wait for the new camera to arrive, but we ordered it and it's supposed to be shipping to the USA this month. Here's keeping the fingers crossed that it makes it soon.

From Drop Box

The Full Quilt

2009-03-31T10:11:00.004-06:00

So here it is finally. It's really been done for quite a while. I just haven't taken time out to get it on the blog. My camera is dying and is taking terrible pictures. Maybe it's because I've dropped it one to many times or the fact that the almost 4 year old thinks that it's his camera too! The other day he took it outside to take a picture of the sand pile he made in his sand box.

We're in the process of upgrading to a Canon Powershot, but of course we had to pick the newest in the line and it won't be in the US until April!!! We have the camera bag and the extra batteries, but no camera!! I WANT my camera!! It's hard to take pictures with a crummy camera when you have a new one coming soon. So bare with me!

The Sand Pile

From Drop Box

Suzanne's Quilt

From Drop Box

Sometimes it Takes Forever!

2009-03-21T10:13:00.000-06:00

I really enjoy doing custom quilting, and especially on applique quilts. I know it sounds weird and crazy and definitely takes a lot of time to do this detail quilting, but I do enjoy how my quilting adds dimension to the applique and makes the shapes come to life.

This particular quilt was on my machine for almost 6 weeks!!! Not that it took that long to quilt, but my getting to quilt on it was very sporadic. Didn't Suzanne do a loverly job on this quilt? I'll show the finished pics soon.

From Drop Box

Hi! Anyone Out there anymore??

2009-03-20T10:06:00.002-06:00

I know I've been away from blogging for a while. So sorry, if anyone out there cares. . . One never knows.

We delivered my Mother-in-law back to her home in Albuquerque the first part of March and I've spent the rest of the time catching up on things around the home front and trying to get caught up on customer quilts etc. . . . I have taken a few pictures during this time, so I'll start by posting those and getting everyone a little bit caught up.

I showed a picture a while back that my MIL was actually sewing! Guess What? She finished 24 blocks before she left. So the girls (my DDs) are going to get them put together with a border and I'll get it quilted and we're going to send it to her. When we were in ABQ, she asked me to get her sewing machine set up and running! WOW. I've got a package ready for her with some strips and foundation squares and hopefully she'll do some sewing on her own. Hopefully her machine will cooperate.

Things don't go as planned. . . .

2009-02-24T20:28:00.002-07:00

Yep, I ended up getting the dreaded sore throat! So I was down for the count for the rest of the week and beginning of the next. . . Life just gets all dis-comboobled when mom gets sick and then getting back in to the routine is another dilema.

But I finally got downstairs and back to quilting today. Woo Hoo! All the feathered borders and sashing are done, now I need to go back and quilt the applique areas. Don't be thinking it's done yet, cuz that is the most tedious part of the whole quilt, but hopefully it will be done next week. I'm sure Susan thinks I've fallen off the planet by now.

A cool thing that happened this week. I was checking up on The Quilt Show's Daily Blog yesterday, and was scrolliing down the page to see what I had missed over the weekend. And I found ME! Actually my name. A customer entered her quilt in the Road 2 California Quilt show, and pictures of it ended up on the Daily Blog. Go here and you can see it! Purty Cool! We didn't win a ribbon at the show, but this makes up for that.

Happy Quilting!

Yea! Quilting

2009-02-10T20:12:00.002-07:00

So I'm finally quilting on Susan's quilt. However, I had to take the 14 year old to the Dr to get a strep test. It was negative. Bummer No anti-biotics to solve our sore-throat problems.

This ate up some of my precious "pre-school" time for quilting. We dropped off the pre-schooler and headed to the Dr's and thankfully we didn't have to sit there forever. So it only burned up an hour of quilting time. And I've been feathering the beejeebers out of this wonderful needle-turned applique quilt. I can't wait to get it finished and delivered to Susan. She's been waiting a while for this to be done.

Don't you hate when life throws you a curve

2009-02-04T15:45:00.002-07:00

OK so it wasn't a BIG major curve, but still the same. Wednesday was going to be the day that I get going on Susan's quilt. I've got the machine all oiled and threaded and ready to go. The curves of the spine of the feather in the border all measured and ready to stitch. So what happens. Tuesday evening right after dinner? I start feeling sick and yucky. I'm up all night long with stomach pains and "stuff"! I won't go into details, it wasn't pretty. By about 2:30 AM I was finally heading to bed thinking I might get to actually sleep. The 3.5 year old has climbed in my side of the bed. I take him back to bed. He returns 15 minutes later. I take him back and get him comfy in his own bed. Now it's after 3.

Well, I spent the day lying around feeling weak and tired and No quilting got done. ARGH!

Still Waiting. . .

2009-02-02T16:41:00.002-07:00

Well, the quilt is on and the thread is here, but for some reason that poor quilt is still waiting on the machine for me to get started on it. Starting seems the hardest part. Once I get going, it doesn't take long to finish. I think it has to do with the decisions and what to do here and there, and marking the quilt and oiling the machine and all that is too much for my brain?? I don't know exactly what the reason is. I'm sure some of it has today to do with the fact that I woke up at 4:30 and my brain was pounding inside my skull every time I moved! I took some Advil and thankfully was able to get back to sleep. However, my body could tell I didn't sleep well and I felt sluggish all morning. The good news is I got all my laundry done and that means tomorrow I can focus on the quilt and getting started!!!

I got Grandma Quiltin!!

2009-01-28T21:30:00.003-07:00

So you all pretty much know that the mother-in-law is living with us, and she helped sew pajama pants so I decided to try and get her quiltin'.

She made one heartstings style block last night, but I think she's up to making more. Here's her first block ever! OK so I have lots of Thimbleberries leftovers.

From 2009-01

When you come to a stop?

2009-01-28T15:53:00.002-07:00

Yesterday, I got three quilts prepped and stitched on the zippers ready to be loaded on the machine. I'm finally getting Susan's quilt on the machine. She gave it to me in Sept/Oct and said it wasn't needed until after the first of the year. So of course, it got delayed until then. Well, now it's on the machine and the beautiful fabric that she picked for the borders doesn't work with any of the thread I have here in the studio. So... I had to order some more thread! And so now, I'm stalled until the thread arrives. What should I do? I thought about unzipping it and putting another quilt on, but that quilt probably won't be finished by the time that the thread gets here and I'll feel like I need to get Susan's quilt back on. So I decided that I get to work/piece on the Happy Ric Rac quilt that I've been working on.

What do you do when you get stopped in your tracks working on a project????

Another quilt for Niquie

2009-01-26T21:00:00.003-07:00

My Quiltin' BFF could probably keep me in business by herself with all the quilts she makes. I have a pile of her quilts waiting to be quilted.

From Drop Box

Then she'll throw another quilt my way saying, "Could you get this quilt done for my friend's daughter who is getting married next week, and I made this for her?" So I don't know if I'll ever get caught up on her pile between customers who actually expect their quilts to be finished and the emergency ones that Niquie has me quilt.

This one didn't make getting quilted before the wedding, but she presented the top to the bride at the reception, and I got it quilted 2 weeks later. That's soon enough right?

From Drop Box

The back was a solid black, so I put variegated in the bobbin and it was so fun to see what the backside looked like when I finished.

From Drop Box

Wedding Quilt Success!

2009-01-23T16:14:00.002-07:00

My friend got on the plane to Ohio today with her Gi-normous quilt neatly tucked in her luggage! Woo Hoo. I quilted it all in one day. Whew! The next morning pulled out the ping pong table to put the 102" x 106" monster on to trim. It was right next to my sewing machine, so I left it up there and got it bound too. She was major HAPPY!

From Drop Box

A Helping Hand

2009-01-23T10:36:00.000-07:00

My good friend Ronnie's hubby stopped me at church a week and half ago and told me that she could use a little bit of help getting her quilt finished for their daughter's wedding, and would I mind calling her. So I dropped by and she was putting together an Eleanor Burn's Trip Around the world. She got a couple of strips in the wrong order, so I brought that half home to unpick and put back together while she worked on the other half.

From Drop Box

Finishes. (I stole that from Mary)

2009-01-22T09:50:00.002-07:00

A lovely lady in our neighborhood is making quilts for her 7 grown children and I had the privilege of quilting the first 2 of them. Aren't they beautiful?

From Drop Box

Now back to Quilting!

2009-01-19T23:08:00.003-07:00

So I had a very special request during my Holiday break. The Lizzie Be Cre8ive gals asked me to quilt a quilt for their upcoming book!!! I was so excited, not just to quilt for some pretty terrif quilters, but my first quilt to be in a book! It did make the week between Christmas and New Year's kind of crazy and a few days after New Year's. But it was definitely worth it. I had so much fun quilting on their way cute quilt. I got permission to post a small Picture! Woo Hoo! I hope you'll check out their book and all it's cute projects when it comes out for Spring Market.

From Drop Box

Breakfast and Presents

2009-01-19T08:47:00.002-07:00

Another Tradition - Crepes for Breakfast.

From Drop Box

So after the picture on the stairs we go around the corner and see what Santa has brought and then we eat breakfast. I know I'm a mean mom and we've done this ever since the kids were small. I hate for Christmas to be over so soon, so we eat breakfast before we open the rest of the presents. Oh and did I mention? We don't get up on Christmas morning until 7? I think that's how the everyone sleeping in the same room began. So when they do get up early they have someone to talk to while they wait til 7. This year however, Dad and I woke everyone up!

Amanda, Jason, and baby Nora arrived in time to help scarf down the crepes and then we opened presents.

From Drop Box

Christmas Morning

2009-01-16T08:51:00.003-07:00

Another Christmas tradition is a Picture on the stairs before we head around the corner to see what Santa brought.

From Drop Box

I left most of my wrapping until the day before Christmas which isn't a good idea because you might run out of wrapping paper and then what do you do. Well, if you have lots of fabric like I do, you discover that you have reusable wrapping "paper"! I also discovered that a 1/2 yard of fabric is just about perfect for wrapping a shirt box!!! Unfortunately I didn't take close up pictures of my fabric wrapped boxes. (I had plans to, but I forgot after I was done) However, I did take a picture of how the 3 year old stacked those packages in front of the tree! We have a tower!

From Drop Box

Christmas Eve

2009-01-15T15:00:00.001-07:00

When the kids were younger we used to have them act out the Nativity Story and it was a bit hectic. As they got older we resorted to just reading it out of the Bible. This year I was trying to get them together to read, and they weren't cooperating. So I said, "We can read it or you can acti it." Guess What? They opted to Act it. So in less than 10 minutes they pulled together costumes and decided who would be what.
So I tried to load the video which is really quite cute. But I guess my video isn't supported by Blogger, or I just don't know what to do. So I'll keep trying. It's just frustrating because I don't have hours to figure this problem out.

Somewhere back a few years the kids created their own tradition. Everyone sleeps in one bedroom on Christmas Eve. So they moved mattresses into the biggest kid's bedroom and squished in.

From Drop Box

I've Decided To. . . .

2009-01-14T20:57:00.006-07:00

Well, after the suggestions, I'm following Mary's advise. I am using my blog as a journal of sorts, and I love how she keeps us up to date daily. Mine was unfortunately not daily, but I'm going to catch you up in a daily manner.

So Dec. 22nd.

We have had a family tradition of making Pajama pants for the family at Christmas time. Opening them on Christmas eve and wearing them on Christmas day. It ends up all day because we're too lazy to change out of our Pajama pants. Then we all have matching PJs for the rest of the year. Well, in years past I've been the primary cutter, and sewing person (I put sewer, but that looks like sewer and I'm not a sewer. :o}) This year I had a brilliant idea to involve everyone and create an assembly line. Let's just say that I think it was easier doing it all myself!!!! Enjoy the slideshow.

OK, so I did the slideshow on Rockyou and everytime I tried to copy and paste the code to my blog someone elses slideshow ended up in my blog!! FRUSTRATING. Any suggestions on how to do a slideshow? I've done the picasa YouTube one, but I don't like their linking movies from my blog that I have no control over. Suggestions????

So did I mention that we also dipped carmel chocolate pretzels this night also??? Too MUCH!

From 2008 - 12

Amanda and Jason cut out the PJs

From 2008 - 12

Nora jumpied around and did an Aunt Jemima impression

From 2008 - 12

We got Grandma Rosy in on the action! Woo Hoo look at her go!

From 2008 - 12

the Kung Fu kings and princess

From 2008 - 12

Patrik and Morgan on the sewing machines

From 2008 - 12

Ooops! Now how did that happen??????

From 2008 - 12

What to do. . . ??

2009-01-12T09:27:00.002-07:00

I know I haven't posted for almost a MONTH!! AAAHHHH! How did that happen. Well the holidays and family happened, and I guess I'm just not talented enough to keep up with the family stuff and blogging. Maybe it's the same reason I can't keep plants alive!! It's either the kids or the plants, but I'm not talented enough to keep both alive!!!

So then, everytime I turn on the computer I have Blogger dashboard as one of my start up tabs, and I've just been ignoring it because I have so much to get everyone caught up on. So what do you do? Do you try to post all the past pictures and get everyone caught up on what's been happening or do you jump in and just start in the NOW???

i really need help! someone tell me what to do. . . .

Hello! I'm Back. . . For a minute

2008-12-17T19:17:00.005-07:00

So Life has been crazy, We made the emergency trip to Albuquerque to pick up MIL because she broke her hip on Halloween. We were able to avoid the big snow storms, but there were some snowpacked roads and a few flurries. We're just glad we're home. We had the BIG Dr's appt with her new Dr up here and it was LONG. But we still have a bone density test ahead of us on Friday and blood work. She's not too excited about it all!

Quilting - Ummm I don't think I posted this picture. I took this tree skirt off just before leaving last week.

From Drop Box

And if it works here's a video of the posessed pencil sharpener I plugged in the studio. It was fine and then all of a sudden it started

Hopefully I'm back to blogging and we won't have such a lapse again. Well, I have good intentions!

WOW!

2008-12-08T22:47:00.003-07:00

It's been kind of crazy around here. We've been getting our basement apartment ready for my MIL. I might have mentioned that she broke her hip on Halloween and she's been in a Rehap facility and a Skills Center in ABQ, NM. Well, it's time to bring her to UT and take care of her. So we've rearranged and turned the toy room into Grandma's room and try to spruce it up and get it livable for a wheelchair and a walker. We think it looks pretty nice down there and I hope she'll be comfortable. Since we're talking Home Tour, I'll let you tour Rosy's new abode before she even gets here.

From New Folder

So I was too lazy to take myself downstairs to take the pictures. I sent Candis and friend to do it, and this is what I got. You can't see that in the living area there is a small kitchen area along the opposite wall from the computer.

I really should be posting the pictures of my finally painted Mudroom and 1/2 Bath. They turned out cute. I'll get to that later I guess.

Where Have I been?

2008-12-01T21:02:00.002-07:00

I haven't gone anywhere, I've been right here in my house trying to do the Thanksgiving thing! Not that I had a big crowd for Thanksgiving or anything. The boys came home from BYU and that added to the 6 that already live here made a pretty good amount of chaos. Oh, I remember now! DH stayed home from work for the whole week! Along with the fact that the 3 year old only had one day of preschool and we canceled the after school play date, and my week was shot! Funny how DH stays home and all my plans to get stuff done seem to go down the drain.

We did however get things all set up for my MIL to come and stay with us while she recovers from her broken hip. She's been in a rehab facility and a skill center, but the insurance won't pay for any more time and it's time for the family to take over. So next week DH and I will be driving to Albuquerque to pick her up and bring her to Utah. DH is an only child and his father passed away 15 years ago and so it's just he and his mom. But she doesn't want to come up here to live so we can keep any eye on her because all her friends are down there, unfortunately friends can't take care of you when you need 24 hour care. That's family is for.

I finally finished Jan's quilt that's been on the machine WAY TOO LONG. But I think it's good to go and I'll be shipping it off tomorrow! Yippee!!

I'll try and post some Thanksgiving pictures and anything else I can find tomorrow!

My Son Josh

2008-11-29T21:09:00.002-07:00

That little French lesson was from Josh. He spent 2 years in the province of Quebec, CANADA and even joined a quilt guild for a bit while he was there. So he learned quite a bit about quilting. Actually more than my daughters! LOL. I know I've been negligent about keeping up with my blog, but I hope to get back on it as soon as Thanksgiving has blown over.

francais

2008-11-27T22:09:00.002-07:00

I love quilts! I will now teach you how to say quilt in french. Courtepoint! Now how to say I love Quilting! J'aime faire du courtepoint! Now how to say I love quilting while listening to good music and sometimes friends and thinking about all of my blessings! J'aime faire du courtepoint en ecoutant de la bonne music et parfois avec mes amis. je pense a toutes mes benedictions!

I need a day like this. . . .

2008-11-21T07:25:00.001-07:00

I was just checking out Bonnie's site and decided I need a day like this! I need a week like this!!!! Hope someone out there somewhere is having a great Quilty Day!!

Mmmm Pancakes for Breakfast

2008-11-19T13:59:00.002-07:00

My family, with the exception of my husband, loves Pancakes for breakfast. That's probably because I love pancakes for breakfast. That was until I found out that I shouldn't eat carbs!! Then the pancakes kind of tanked for a while. Then I started making Whole Wheat pancakes and my kids weren't too thrilled about that. In fact, my oldest son still has to bring up how I faked him out and told him the pancakes weren't whole wheat and he ate them and thought they were good until he found out "I LIED!" and they WERE! Oh the Horror!

A while back Lara blogged about her perfect muffins and they looked so Yummy! I've known for sometime that sourdough is better for you than using yeast, but I just didn't have the time/patience to figure out how to get a starter going etc. . . . Then I mentioned I needed a starter and wouldn't you know it? Lara was in the area and brought me a start. No More excuses. I tried the Pumpkin muffins! YUMMY! My family likes them too. I've been stressing about keeping the starter alive and buggin Lara with emails etc. . . But some searching online and I found answers. YIPPEEE! Not that Lara didn't answer my questions, I just had too many and felt bad bugging her too much!

From 11-19

So to the point! We had pancakes for breakfast this morning. YUM! I found the recipe here for Rich Sourdough Pancakes. I have a whole wheat starter, but I halved the recipe and used all purpose flour. And yes, I know the pancakes would be healthier without chocolate chips, but you can't do it all at once!! They are semi-sweet! The 3 year old is sharing with you how much he likes them! Pretty appetizing!

From 11-19

Oooohhhhh Nooo!

2008-11-17T20:11:00.001-07:00

My friend Lara was blogging a while back about her new Palm Centro. She's gone paperless in her organizing and is loving it. I've been paperless for a long time. My DH is into electronic gadgets and we've had Palm Pilots for quite a few years. Then almost a year ago I went to the Sprint store with DH. I decided I would just sit in the car and wait and probably peruse a quilt magazine while he took care of business. But No! He convinced me to come in. BIG mistake! Not really it was a great thing. I started looking at phones while he did his business and I got HOOKED on a Palm Treo. Yep, BIG bucks! Well, for us. But who cares about that when it will solve all your phone carrying problems. I always have my phone with me in my back pocket, but my Palm would get left behind all the time. One looks like such a dork with both back pockets filled. So here was the answer! A phone and organizer in ONE! I LOVE it! It goes everywhere with me. I make notes, and keep my to do list, I can check my email, text message and BUG my kids. It makes a mom's life complete.

What was the big Oh No! Well, yesterday I was taking a bath. Everyone was gone except for the 3 year old. I put a DVD on for him, got him his goldfish crackers, a drink and he was set to let me have a quick bath. Everything was going great, then he decided to come in and have a conversatin with me. Totally fine. I was almost done. I put shampoo in my hair and laid back into the water to rinse out the shampoo. Well, my phone must have rung because as I was coming up out of the water, dear 3 year old was trying to hand me my phone! Yep, it slipped and fell into the tub! You know how it is when you can actually feel that everything is going to go wrong and you feel it happening before it happens. That's how it was with the phone. I knew it was going to hit the water before it did. So I was able to swoop the phone out of the water almost as it went in. I took it apart and dried it all off. No I didn't kill the kid and I didn't even yell at him. He was just trying to be a big helper. I did almost start crying because this was a brand new phone. I had just gotten my old one replaced because the "I" key wasn't working any more. (We pay the $7 a month insurance for things like this. We're not dummies we know we have a 3 year old!) So I guess it's not as big a tragedy as I was first fretting, but I really didn't want to walk into the Sprint store and say, "You know that phone I just got as a replacement, well it's dead now and I'd like a replacement for it!"

So what happened? Well, I got out and dressed and went right to my computer and searched for, "What do I do if my Palm Treo got wet?" There were quite a few answers out there. Many of them got fried and were useless. But several were able to dry out the phone and get it working again. Thankfully that's what happened to my phone too. I was able to put it in front of a blow dryer on low and let it sit for a while, placed it over the heat vent and let it get blown on that way. And voila! This morning it works! YEA! Next week it might decide to die, but today it works! Let me tell you it was VERY difficult going without a phone for 8 hours! But I survived, BARELY!

From To File

Another Quilt on!

2008-11-17T09:10:00.003-07:00

I was able to get the next quilt on the machine last week, but no quilting was accomplished. Here's crossing the fingers and toes that I get this one quilted and off by the end of the week. It's a Re-do! Well, it's like the worst episode in my quilting career so far. I used the blue water soluble pen for the first time on the original quilt. It is a toally white quilt and I thought I'd be good like all the other good quilters out there and use a light box and put on the quilt motifs with the blue water soluble pen. When the quilt was done, I spritzed it down with water to get the blue out and it came out and looked fabulous. However, by the time I shipped it to Nevada to the customer, there were brown spots on the top in several places!! I don't know if I'll ever use blue pen on anything again. So I'm Re-doing the Re-do top for the customer. Yep, she made one exactly like her original as it's a gift for her brother.

I was planning on telling the whole story, but there it is and I'm anxious to get this quilt done, and the whole episode behind me~!

From Drop Box

On November 4th I let you vote via comments for which border I should use on the doggie quilts. The Results!! If you didn't go back to the comments and count them yourself, are . . . . .

15 - for the Blue Border
14 - for the Yellow Border
1 - for the Orange Border

Since my in my quilt world I am the DICTATOR!! I'm going with the yellow, cuz I decided I liked it best. If I ever get the borders on, I will post a picture. Then a couple of years later when I finally get the quilt quilted, I might just post another picture of it! LOL!

Yea! A Quilt is done!

2008-11-12T08:53:00.000-07:00

One of my regular customers wanted me to add a bit more stitching to this quilt. I'm always amazed at how it seems like I can't decide what I'm going to do to a quilt before I get it on the machine. Thankfully most of my customers tell me to do whatever I feel like. Because I always think what I eventually end up doing looks much better than what I talk to them about doing in the beginning. I think this quilt is a perfect example.
This is what the quilt looked like.

From To File

This is what I thought I might do in the square area that she wanted a bit more quilting in.

From To File

And this is what I ended up doing.

From To File

I was also going to use black or gold to match the other stitching, but I really like the variegated black to white.

We Finished!!!

2008-11-10T21:01:00.001-07:00

Amanda and Nora came to sew last week and we finished our Aprons! Mine was a little late to wear for Halloween, but I wore if for 2 days just to break it in before I packed it away with the Halloween stuff.

Amanda wanted to learn how to crochet so she can make some cute hats for Nora and herself. So we pulled out the yarn box. It was a MESS!! She found the start of this practice hat and we decided it needs a green stem on it and Nora can wear it as a pumpkin top for next Halloween!

From New Folder

I was really upset with myself about Amanda's apron. As we stood in the store where we were purchasing the fabric and pattern, I read the pattern and it's explanation about needing more fabric for directional prints. Guess what??? At that moment in time my brain was not firing on all cylinders because I didn't put 2 and 2 together and figure out that her fabric was a directional print. Thus, I didn't purchase the extra fabric needed to have the stripes/directional print align properly on her apron. Thus the diagonal pattern on her apron. She insists that she still loves it, but every time I look at it, I'm sad I didn't figure things out sooner!! Oh Well, Live and Learn! We did center the flower on the triangle of her pocket. Isn't it cute?

From New Folder

Don't you LOVE the headless pictures? Well, we were sewing, who gets made up for sewing? Not us! So no heads, sorry! We're going with the Halloween theme a little longer!

Not Much Quilting Done this Weekend

2008-11-09T21:09:00.001-07:00

Life is crazy on the weekends and I always have dreams of accomplishing "my" quilting/piecing but it just doesn't usually materialize.

I took this beautiful picture off our deck this past week. We had snow AGAIN! But this was taken the day before the snow. I love to watch the clouds against the mountains behind our house and on a beautiful fall day like this one, they were exceptionally gorgeous!

From 119

Tiffany's Quilt is DONE!

2008-11-07T09:18:00.000-07:00

Yes, the quilt is complete! It's been on the machine for way too long. Well too long sitting on the machine doing nothing! I've been teaching a quilt class and while they were finishing up over a week ago, I decided I'd try and finish the quilting on it. Machine broke! The class came the following week and the quilt was still on the machine. The quilters made comments like, "I thought this was supposed to be done last week?" Like they didn't believe that I was telling them the truth! LOL Just kidding they were nice about it. I then had to tell them the whole story, and now they're reading it again on the blog!

It's DONE! and here are some pictures. The pattern is the same one Niquie did a bit ago. Not sure if I posted pics, but here it is again.

From 11-4

A Long Hard Day

2008-11-06T09:02:00.003-07:00

Yep, It was a rough day. Pre-school, eating lunch with the buds, and playing til their mom's came. He just couldn't stay awake any longer. Especially since going back to Standard Time has really messed up his inner clock and he's getting up at 5 AM!!!

From 11-5

The Machine is FIXED!!!

2008-11-05T11:02:00.002-07:00

Yeah!!! Jen came out Monday morning and she opened up the package that A-1 Quilting Machines had sent me and said, "I hope they're in here." I hadn't even thought of opening it up and making sure everything was there. Thankfully it WAS! My motor brushes had worn out. To say the Least! Jen was amazed that my machine was even running! They were in pieces! She had to use a rolled up piece of masking tape to get the pieces out.

From 11-4

(I was gonna take another picture that didn't have my notes in the background, but my battery is charging and I'm already late!)

Then she wrapped the motor in a plastic bag and blew canned air through the motor to clean it all out.

From 11-4

That's Jen in the background. This is the motor!

She also showed me how to change out my switches when the time comes.

From 11-4

This is where they plug in behind the control panel. Oops! Sorry I didn't dust!
I'm ready now, so it probably won't happen for another 5 years. Or at least not until I forget where I put the switches for safe keeping. Then the switch will decide to die right in the middle of a customers really important quilt that they made for their favorite niece's wedding and it's due NOW!! Then I won't be able to find them in their really safe hiding place and I'll be in a PANIC! I'll have to call A-1 have them overnight some for lots of $$$. I'll get the quilt done in the last seconds. I'm worn to a frazzle because of all the stress. . . . the next week I'll find them right where I put them at the end of the table in the blue box!!

PS I'm posting the pics and descriptions so I'll know where to find them when the time comes.

It's Time to Vote!

2008-11-04T07:28:00.000-07:00

Well, we're not going to get political here. I'm just not up to it. But you do get to vote. I've had this quilt top finished for a while and I have this cute puppy paw print fabric for the border and was getting to add it when my DD #2 told me she didn't think it went very well with the quilt. I showed it to my quilty friends and they said they thought it was cute. I decided it needs a "stop border" and then the paw prints.

So now you get to vote! Yellow, blue, or Orange? Leave a comment and let me know.

Thanks for your VOTE!!

ME Flowers

2008-11-03T10:32:00.002-07:00

Tiffany and Niquie came over to sew on Tuesday evening. I told them I was sick, but they were so looking forward to it that they risked getting sick and we had FUN! Well, between the coughing was fun. I hope they don't get sick!

So Niquie and I paper pieced the cutest little flowers for our Mary E. quilt!

From To be Filed

Tiffany worked on several things, but she got the borders on a quilt for her grand-daughter and it's so CUTE!! I forgot to take a picture, so you'll have to wait until I get it quilted for her. SOrRy!

Question on the Aprons

2008-11-03T07:45:00.002-07:00

We haven't finished the aprons! Which means my cute Halloween one won't be used til next year! Oh Well! I promise I will post the finished pics as soon as we get them done. Cross your fingers that it's this week! LOL!

Family Pics

2008-11-02T22:02:00.002-07:00

We had a Family Portrait taken by a friend in our backyard. I thought I'd share the what the major portion of my life is all about!

From Collages

Bunnies

2008-11-01T09:03:00.001-06:00

I started a Yo-yo Bunny for Nora shortly after I was finished making her quilt. Amanda and I went shopping and she picked out some really cute fabrics for Nora's baby quilt and I made up something and put it together as a quilt and quilted it. Then with the scraps I made a bunch of Yo-Yos with the Clover Yo-Yo maker. So I really really LIKE the Yo-Yo maker. I'll bet you thought I was gonna say Love again. Well, I was, but I decided to fight the impulse and not say it. It was SO much fun making the Yo-Yos but I have gotten stuck on getting them all assembled into a bunny! Then I find out I need to make 4 more. Have you ever gotten stuck on completing a project because you need to go back and finish a step?? I'm in a Yo-Yo making slump and I can't get myself out of it!!

Then, I found these other bunnies in the closet and decided, maybe I shouldn't make bunnies any more! Cuz they end up de-eared and de-armed or de-legged by my children. Yep, quite a while back I made all my kiddos a stuffed bunnies with matching flannel jama pants and nightgowns that matched my kiddos jamas. Now these bunnies are a pile of de-armed/de-legged/de-eared bunnies!! Is Nora destined to join the ranks of such bunny manglers????

Happy Halloween!!

2008-10-31T09:37:00.001-06:00

I came home from the Parent's Weekend and all that fun and was SICK!!! Yep! and we had all the kids coming over for dinner and pumpkin carving. I sucked it up (like moms do when they are sick and the show must go on!) and made dinner. Amanda made the scrumptious Pumpkin Pie Cake and we made it through the night. Here are some carving picks, Grandpa changing the poopers cuz everyone was up to their elbows in pumpkin guts, and the finished Jack-o-Lanterns!
Trick or Treat!!!

From Drop Box

Tiffany's Quilt

2008-10-30T09:13:00.000-06:00

Sorry to have left you hanging as to what was happening to Tiffany's quilt, so here goes.

It's a really cute patriotic quilt and she is getting it done as a special gift for her DH who is retiring from the Army. So she wanted to get some Embroidery done on it to commemorate her hubby. Not my favorite thing to do, but I must. So I pull out the embroidery module and slap it on the machine. Get the border all lined up and in the hoop. Spell out each line (some twice cuz I screw up) and embroider 3 lines. Get everything squared up and on the machine.

Then begins the quilting! OK so this is the easy part. Well, the quilting of it is, getting to the machine so I can quilt sometimes isn't so easy. But it must be done by Thursday or at the latest early Friday morning.

It's almost done, but I have a Church Quilting Class coming over Thursday evening. I have to stop early and get set up for that, and then go back to quilting. I'm not quite finished and the ladies arrive. We have class, it's winding down and some are almost done so I go back to quilting on Tiffany's quilt. I've been noticing all afternoon that my machine is sounding a bit rattlely. I spent some time in the afternoon oiling it all down, so I know that's not the problem. However, it continues and is pretty annoying, but the stitches look good and I keep pressing forward. Then the machine comes to a complete STOP! No budging it. So I go to bed and hope that in the morning it will decide to work.

Friday about 5 AM. I get up and the machine works. Well, for a bit and then it begins stuttering and sounding like it's not sure it's going to work. Almost, like a car running out of gas. Then it STOPS and there is no getting it to move. So, I have to go get ready for Parent's Weekend and prep myself to tell Tiffany her quilt is NOT done!!

On the way to Provo, I call Jen, the A-1 Dealer in the area. I give her a description of what was going on, and she tells me it's the motor-brushes. So she says she'll order some for me. Well, we're still waiting and then she's coming to help me get them installed. Tiffany is gracious and says No Problem. When I get the machine fixed and the quilt done. I'll post a picture!

Friends are Flowers

2008-10-29T09:30:00.000-06:00

My Friend Niquie bought a Mary Engelbreit panel and was going to make me a "Friendship" wall-hanging. She actually bought 2 panels because she knew that she would want a "Friendship" wall-hanging too! That's how we are, we just can't stand for one of us to do something and not have it ourself. So we came to the conclusion that I'll make one for her and she'll make one for me! Of Course they'll be a like, but that's good cuz we'll know that every time we look at it our bestest friend has one exactly like it hanging in her home reminding her of our "Friendship"!

Here's what it looks like now, and to justify the cute ME tin that I showed earier I did buy it cuz I knew I could use the FQs in it on my friendship wall-hanging. Plus I've bought a few more! I can't wait to work on it again. It's gonna be so cute.

Your Opinion Counts!

2008-10-28T10:16:00.003-06:00

Be sure to come over and check out the New Blog and let me know what you think! All comments left on the New Blog through November 15th will be entered into a drawing for a FQ Pack! I'll post a picture soon!

BYU Parents Weekend

2008-10-28T00:41:00.001-06:00

So, I was supposed to get a quilt done for Tiffany by Thursday (10/23) evening to deliver on Saturday when we would meet them in Salt Lake City for Witchapalooza! We were heading out on Friday morning to Parent's Weekend at BYU! See below for pictures of our weekend, and see tomorrow's post for what happend to Tiffany's quilt!!!

From Collages

We had a great time. We went on a expanded golf cart thing for a campus tour. The 2 boys were so embarrassed and hoped no one they knew would see them. Then we went bowling for free at the Wilkensen Center. Most importantly we FED them every chance they could get. Then Saturday morning Bob and I hiked to the Y on the mountain (I didn't get a picture from the valley!) Let me just tell you moderately strenuous means heart-palpitatingly HARD!!! Then we went to a tail-gate party at the Alumni Center and then the Football game. We had FUN!! We left the game early so we could meet friends at the Witchapalooza at Gardner Village.

From Collages

A New Blog in Town!

2008-10-27T23:53:00.003-06:00

I can't believe I'm doing this, but I've started another blog! CRAZY! I can hardly keep my family fed and run to Provo every weekend let alone start another blog. But yes, that is what I'm doing!

The new blog is called "Basically Quilting". Why? When I already have this quilty blog already? Well, I've been teaching a beginning class on quilting and I've found that I keep forgetting to say something in this class, and another thing in that class. So I've decided to create a blog so that I can post all the helpful hints and Quilting basics that keep popping into my brain at the wrong time, mainly when class is OVER!!

So visit the new blog, leave your comments, add your tips, or ask a question and I'll try to find the answer, and links to where I find out great info and tips on quilting!

Sewing with Amanda and Nora

2008-10-27T13:48:00.001-06:00

For Christmas I gave my DD Amanda one of my sewing machines, rotary mat, rotary cutter, sewing table etc. . . . Guess what? She comes here to sew. She brings along my sweet Grand-daughter Nora, so I'm deciding it's a good thing.

Amanda and Nora came over the other day so we could start our Aprons.

Another: I Love Moment

2008-10-24T09:32:00.002-06:00

Sorry, just had to share again ;o)!

I really LIKE! I tried to not use the other L word again. I Like pre-wound bobbins. (I need to reign in my exclamation points, too. It's hard but I will try.)
I get my pre-wound bobbins from Superior Threads. Yep, you can order them online. The mongo big ones are M size bobbins and I use them in my Long Arm machine. Usually these ones are filled with Bottom Line. My favorite color is Taupe. It seems to go with so many colors and blends really well. The smaller L size I'm trying out for the first time in my Bernina Artista 170 and they are working extremely well. These bobbins have cardboard sides and you have to test them in your machine and see if they work best with or without the cardboard sides. You can peel off the sides and the thread doesn't fall off the spindle. I don't know how they do that, but they do. In my quilting machine, I leave the sides on. But in the Bernina I took the sides off because when I put the bobbin with sides on into the bobbin case and pulled on the thread tail, the thread didn't pull smoothly out of the bobbin case. (When I went to take the picture, the bobbin got stuck in the case! Classc sign that you need to take off the sides!!) So I took the sides off and VIOLA! It worked terrifically. It is SO nice to not have to wind a bobbin when one runs out! I just drop in a pre-wound and I'm off and sewing again. Especially on the quilting machine. Those bobbins are so big that it takes some time to get them wound, and I would rather spend those minutes QUILTING!!

Yeah!

2008-10-23T16:09:00.002-06:00

Two new Followers! Hi Janette and Andrea! I'm so Glad you want to join in on the fun. I just might have to come up with some sort of drawing for my Followers! Hmmm. . . . I'm going to start thinking on that. What FUN!

String Quilt

2008-10-23T10:35:00.000-06:00

Mary will be so proud of my quilt group! The Utah Quilt Guild participated in an amazing service project this year. We made and collected over 1,000 quilts this year for the Quilts4Cancer project. These quilts and blankets will go to children with cancer. It was so amazing to see tables piled with so many quilts and to know that they are going to such a wonderful cause.

I'm happy to say that our Going Pieces Group spent an afternoon putting together 2 string quilts to donate to Quilts4Cancer. Unfortunately, I can't find the pictures!! If I find them, I'll be sure and post them. Sorry no pictures today!

I forgot!

2008-10-22T12:45:00.002-06:00

I forgot to say HI and thanks to my 2 followers! It's something new that Blogger is doing and I've become a follower of several other bloggers. I thought it would be fun to see if I could get anyone to follow me! Wouldn't that be something?

So Hi! Amanda and Rachel, thanks for being part of my little following!

My Sparkly Clean Windows!

2008-10-22T11:48:00.005-06:00

My Quilt Studio is in the basement. (I had a hard time typing in Studio and sometimes I have a hard time saying it, but if we're going to think of ourselves as professionals we gotta do it!) So back to the STUDIO! It's fabulous that it's a walk out basement and I have above the ground windows at the side. However, the much less than fabulous fact is that the sprinklers hit my windows and I was noticing a couple weeks ago that they were so covered with Hard Water build-up that I could hardly see out of them. Bummer I didn't get a before picture, but trust me it was GROSS!

Thanks to Hubby, who wanted us all to come help in the yard Monday night I got my windows clean. He might not have been too happy that I had my own agenda and wasn't quite following his agenda but, I grabbed the bottle of Lime Away (YEA we had a bottle in the house) and sprayed it all over my windows. Scrubbed them a bit, and squeegeed them CLEAN!! They are so clean that I can now see how dirty the inside is. I even left the screens off for the winter so that they don't block all the glorious Sunlight.

I'm a WINNER!

2008-10-22T08:39:00.002-06:00

I WON! Well it's a consolation prize, but that's OK, I love it and am excited to make a wallhanging from this pattern. They chose 3 winners from everyone that commented on their Lizzie B Cre8tive blog and then they let the "losers" pick any pattern under $10 from their web store. So I picked this one!! Wasn't that amazingly nice of them to make everyone happy!

2008-10-21T15:27:00.002-06:00

To answer the Ric Rac Quilt question: it was designed by Karen K. Stone and you can get her book at Amazon or Electric Quilt.

And the Quilt Hangers are called "Hang-ups" and I purchased them through Keepsake Quilting. I purchased the 1 3/4" ones, and they come as a set of 4.

Fat Quarter Decorating!

2008-10-21T06:30:00.000-06:00

Lara of the Lazy Organizer blog has been asking for decorating help on her blog, and I was wondering if any other quilter's do what I do and decorate with their Fat Quarters!! LOL.
I fall for beautiful colors all stacked together in a neat tower and tied up in a ribbon! Lot's of other quilters must be suckers for them too or else we wouldn't find them at the Quilt Shops! I get them home and I don't want to break up such a cute package. Especially if it's all stuffed in a cute little Mary Engelbreit tin and tied up in cellophane!! So I usually let them decorate my Quilt Studio. At least for a couple years!
I just have to add, since I am linking this to Lara's blog. Although my three year old is not as adept as her daughter is to helping with the household chores, he did fold a pile of dishrags today for me!! He likes laundry day, but that for him usually entails playing in the bucket of laundry detergent. Today, he unloaded his brother's laundry from the dryer for me, too! No it's not folded, that's big bros job. I do love my older kids doing their own laundry; I don't like them leaving it in the washer or dryer when I decide it's time for me to get my laundry done. I've tried to make up a schedule and assign us all a day, but it just never works. So I guess I get to put up with the laundry in the dryer, but if I train the 3 YO to unload it for me it won't be so bad!!

Command Strips

2008-10-20T09:00:00.004-06:00

Tired of hearing about things I LOVE? Well, I do love these sticky little strips. They are made by 3M and called Command. You probably have seen them on TV commercials to hold hooks, but now you can get them with hook and loop tape on them, just strips alone, and a few other varieties. Right now, I use the Poster Strips in my quilting. Really! I guess they're not directly involved in my quilting. I have them holding the cutest little snake light on my sewing machine and because I have several machines I can just pull the tab and it comes UNSTUCK and I can stick it onto my other machine if I want to. I bought my cool little light from my friend Kim who was smart enough to buy several when she found a deal on them!!!
I also use these stickies on the back of my cool Quilt Hangers. Instead of pounding several holes in the wall and being stuck with them in that position "forever"! Well at least until I decide to patch the holes, which in my case would probably be forever. So we're back to where we started. I put these stickies on the back and when I want to change to a wider or narrower quilt, I just put the wooden hangers on the quilt spaced apart where I want them, then I put the stickies on the back of the hangers and stick them to the wall! Viola!

Happy Ric Rac Quilt

2008-10-18T09:15:00.002-06:00

I'm LOVIN' sewing the blocks on this Ric Rac quilt. Even though mine probably won't have any ric rac on it. I try to get at least 1 sewn each day. There are 32 blocks so it's gonna take me a bit to get it done. I hope to get it done and be able to enter it into the HMQS Quilt show in May.

Here' a block I was trimming. Then you turn it over and tape it back together. Karen suggested that we get colored "Scotch" tape to put it together because you can't see where you've taped it with the clear tape and you don't want to overlap the tape because you eventually have to sew through the tape. So I began scribbling w/a sharpie marker on the tape before I use it. I pull out about 18" of tape and scribble then roll it back up and tear off pieces as normal. Now I can see where I've put tape! Yea!

I LOVE my Iron!

2008-10-17T09:15:00.001-06:00

I was sewing at a friends house and she let us use her commercial pressurized steamer. It was fabulous. One push of the steam button and POW everything was lying flat and beautiful. That one was EXTREMELY expensive. But I was in love with it! So I began searching online and found this cute little pressurized steamer by Shark and I love it. It was a lot less than my friends, but it works great. I love that I only get steam when I want it. I can press the seams and get them pretty much how I want them. Then I hit the button! I don't burn my fingers with the steam any more.

Cute Aprons!

2008-10-16T13:35:00.003-06:00

So Amanda invited me to join her at a local quilt shop to look for flannel. How could I resist???? She's not much of a quilter and I'm trying to convert her!! My brainwashing plan worked!

We found some cute fabric to make the Four Corners Apron by Vanilla House designs. I can't wait and I better get on making mine because it's Halloween fabric! Guess which fabric is going to be the outer edge and which is going to be the inside.

Amanda's Cute fabric. Guess her outer and inner?

Aunt Neata's Quilt

2008-10-16T10:37:00.000-06:00

My Great-Aunt Neata asked me about a month ago if I would quilt this quilt for her. Of course, I said YES! She said she'd like to see it done before she dies. YIKES. Nothing like a little pressure. She is 91, but in pretty good health so I'm pretty confident she'll be sticking around for awhile, but I just couldn't take the "what-if" something happened. So I pushed it in front of a couple of customer quilts. She still crochets and sews. She gave my mom a beautiful afghan when they visited a few weeks ago. I hope I can still do my quilting when I'm 91.

I basted the quilt to the zippers just inside the edge of the prairie points and let them flop over the edge. I tried to make sure they were lying flat when I rolled them up.

I hope I trimmed this right for her. I folded the prairie points toward the quilts and went a 1/4 past the edge of the quilt, just to make sure she'll have enough to turn over on the back and stitch down.

More Football

2008-10-15T12:45:00.005-06:00

So we did go see the boys cheer at BYU! It was so FUN! I'm so glad that we were wrong when we watched Landon for his last time at Northridge HS. We thought we'd seen him cheer for his last time.

YEA! We were wrong.

The Frozen Parents!!

Silly Big Sis Amanda and her friend Nat came too!

Adds Dimension

2008-10-15T12:07:00.005-06:00

I just LOVE how the quilting adds dimension. The fabric looks so flat and then viola! The quilting makes it look so lovely.

Here's an example on a Carol's quilt. Before and After.

my favorite.

Sorry for the lighting. I need to work on how to take the picture so the quilting shows up better.

Sewin' with the Cousin!

2008-10-15T12:02:00.006-06:00

I feel like I'm so behind. I was downloading pictures last night and realized I had lots to share, but am WAY behind. So I think I'll just throw them out there and be good w/it.

Last week my cousin came over and we quilted together. Here is her cute quilt laid out on the floor. It was too big for my design wall! I need vaulted ceilings.
This is a quilt that would look cute with any style fabric. I can't wait to make one!!

Brrrr! Football

2008-10-09T21:03:00.002-06:00

So we (DH & I) are going to watch BYU football on the coldest, yuckiest day of the fall season!!! WHY? Since we aren't die hard football fans or even BYU fans?

Well, the reason started in September when my oldest son drug my next oldest son to BYU Cheerleader tryouts! Landon had been a cheerleader in his High School days and was AWESOME. Well, at the tumbling and Hip-Hop dance stuff they did. So Josh was just trying to get him to go tryout. Well, they BOTH made the BYU White Squad which is like a JV team in High School. So they cheer at Women's Basketball and Volleyball, but not at the Men's Football games. That is until Landon really took off in his tumbling and the coaches were impressed and he was invited to cheer at the BYU homecoming game this Friday!! So he'll be cheering in front of 64,000 fans and DH and I were able to snag some tickets and we're going down!

It will be worth freezing to death to see our son in his element! And the next coolest thing is that Josh will be cheering at his first EVER game that evening and we're sticking around to see it, too!

Is it October ALREADY?

2008-10-07T09:18:00.006-06:00

So what to talk about? Well, I'm sitting here in a haze trying to figure out what I was going to say. Maybe it's because the 3 YO has decided he wants to go somewhere else and has only said it like half a dozen times, and is telling me to hurry!
It's been 24 hours since I tried to start this! I wish LIFE would quit getting in the way of my quilting!!
We had our last Going To Pieces quilt group in September! It was fun but sad. I tried to get the ladies all up to date on the BOM Quilt we're doing this year. Here's a Picture of it. I designed it and Niquie got her's all finished. So here's a picture of it. We used Holly Holderman of Lake House Dry Goods collection La Belle Rose. Everyone loved the quilt. Check out Holly's cute blog through the link at the right.

A Few of our Ladies had Show-&-Tell. Tiffany had a cute quilt finished

And Karen had a Seven Sisters quilt

Marilyn brought a one block wonder!

Utah Quilt Guild

2008-09-28T20:54:00.004-06:00

My friend Niquie and I had the opportunity to take a class from Karen K. Stone at the Utah Guild's Annual Quilt Fest! We only had time in our schedules for one class and I'm so glad we ended up in the Happy Ric Rac Class with Karen. She is so talented and what amazing quilts and ideas. She was very generous and shared so much about her inspiration and how she accomplished her creativity on her quilts. Here are a few pictures. Remember that these are for my personal enjoyment and be respectful and don't "steal" them.

Me, Karen, and Niquie. Kind of blurry, but that could be a good thing! LOL

Student blocks

A few of Karen's quilts

Thanks!

NE Quilt Show!

2008-09-25T22:25:00.002-06:00

I do have some quilts that I've accomplished since last posting, but I'll have to post them later. I went to the Boston Area with DH who went on business, and YES I had to look up anything quilty in the area. I found a Quilt Museum in Lowell, Mass and while on their website I noticed that they weren't having a regular class session because of a Quilt Show. So I looked it up and the Mancuso organization was doing a show in Manchester, NH. Only an hour away!! So we had to go! Poor Hubby got drug to 2 quilting things in one week! He was a good sport and I love him for it. Here's a few pics. Please be respectfully and realize that these were taken for my own enjoyment and should not be used for commercial or other unlawful enterprises!

Thanks!!

I'm Here!

2008-09-03T16:12:00.002-06:00

So, Yes I'm still alive! I've even been quilting. The 3 year old is starting pre-school and we're trying to adjust and then I have plans to make progress and get to posting regularly AGAIN!!

So Here's Niquie's quilt that I finished. The pattern is called Portugese Tiles out of some book she has, and I just freehanded it.

On a SAD note, our LQS in Centerville is closing!! Our quilt group that has been meeting there for many years, is not going to have a home any more. We'll have to come up with some new plans.

I Should be QUILTING!

2008-08-07T15:55:00.002-06:00

So, Yes Life is CRAZY! Our daughter had her baby girl almost 3 week early! My parents were in town and got to see their Grand-baby #2 and we had the baby shower that week, and DD #2 graduated from High School.

and our summer has been pretty much this way the entire summer! So school starts on the 25th and maybe I'll get back to my QUILTING!!! I'm taking pictures and will post As soon as I settle down!!

I'm BACK!!

2008-05-21T14:41:00.004-06:00

OK so the post date is May 21st!!! Don't let it fool you! I wrote this on 5/21 and been waiting to get pictures in, then LIFE got away from me, and I just posted this 8/7/08!!!!

Where did I go??? No Where!!! What a Bummer. I've just been home dealing with family and finding absolutely no time to sit and blog. May is the busiest month of the year for families with kiddos in school and especially when one of them is graduating!

I have completed a couple customer quilts! YEAH!

This is Becky's

and this is Diane's

Lara picked up her quilt just a few days before she delivered her new baby girl!!

My Dear Daughter that is expecting in 3 weeks!, and her hubby just bought a house! It's a repo house and needs cleaning! So Niquie and I went over and scrubbed out the bathrooms yesterday. They look SO much better! I will post pictures when the house is all cute and painted etc. . . .

My parents are coming in town on Saturday for the graduation next week, so life around here will be crazy, but I will try really hard to get a few posts in during the week.

I quilted, I sewed, therefore I am

2008-04-11T11:09:00.003-06:00

So I did break down last week and I quilted the background of Lara's quilt. I really like how the McTavishing turned out. I hope she will too.

Then I had to twist my arm to get myself to sew the coat. Every time I sat down at the sewing machine the 2.75 year old comes and says "See me, mommy." What can a mommy do?, but hold the boy!!

The 21 year old is working 2 jobs and trying to make big bucks, but he's frustrated because the "new" restaurant isn't filling w/customers and the other job isn't paying commission yet for the big sales he's already making! Ahhh! What can a goal-oriented post-mission kid do???

Our soon to be HS graduate daughter is getting bogged down by tons of homework and trying to keep up when she's so ready to be done. Her leadership scholarship got doubled, which means tuition will be PAID!! Yipppeee! We're pretty excited about that.

15 and 13 yo are starting soccer and getting anxious for the weather to get warm and stay warm. Actually all of us are anxious for this!

So life is pretty much wild and crazy as always!

Ugh!

2008-04-03T07:26:00.006-06:00

So I haven't gotten to any quilting this week!!! I said I would sew a costume for an upcoming choir/play thing at our church and should be getting that done, but I don't want to and I know I need to get it done before I quilt anything. Frankly, I've been procrastinating!!! My quilting buddy came over last night so we could sew together, and I forced myself to cut out the costume. At least it was more fun to do with her here than it would have been on my own. Cutting out is always my least favorite thing to do. So at least that part is done and I can get it sewn and out of the way. She told me that she felt guilty sewing on her quilt while I had to work on the costume. She didn't really feel bad, she was just rubbing it in!!

Here's a picture of Niquie's blocks up on the design wall. We took the picture because sometimes it helps to look at a picture to see where some thing isn't working. Even on a design wall if you can't get far enough back it doesn't show up, but it usually will in a picture.
I was reading this interesting article by Jerry Johnson on LDS Living this morning and he ended his article like this. I thought it was WAY cool!

God is the quilter.

The spirit is the thread.

We are the scraps of cloth, joined into a layer of warmth, tradition, beauty and strength.

We form a "whole" much greater than the sum of our parts.

Hope you have a GREAT quilting day. I will be stuck sewing a costume, but hopefully will get back to quilting SOON!

Going To Pieces - March 2008

2008-03-31T16:18:00.004-06:00

We had a fun time at Going to Pieces Quilt Group in March! Thanks everyone for coming and sharing your cute quilt blocks. Such Progress. Becky, you've got lots to catch up on, but I'm sure school-teacher Sandy will help you get caught up on your homework. We missed our 3 newbies to the group and hope they'll be able to join us in April.

I totally confused Illene by sending her a South Weber Quilt group reminder and she thought we had moved the Going to Pieces group to my house on Thursday. Sorry about that Illene!! We'll get you caught up next week.

Be sure to show up on April 22nd for next months meeting of the minds!! Crazy Minds that is. It also looks like we're going to go to an ALL EVENING group. So the 2 morning ladies will be joining us for the evening group. The more the merrier!!!

Enjoy the slideshow.

Have a Great month of sewing, we can't wait to see your show and tell. Also, if you're confused about any assembly of the blocks, just email me or leave a comment on the blog, and I'll try to post an explanation with pictures.

Gratitude

2008-03-25T08:17:00.003-06:00

Yea! I remembered to blog about something on Tuesday, so I can be part of Lara's Talk about Tuesays!

So I had a lightbulb moment recently and thought I'd share.

All you moms out there can probably understand the dinner dilemma. It's not that I hate cooking or baking or that I can't do it either. It's just the dinner thing that I hate. I've decided, it's because it's a thankless job. My kids aren't way picky eaters, but it just seems like they never like what I happen to make for dinner unless it's a frozen pizza or tacos. You know what I mean.

Since Josh has been home, he never eats a meal without making a big deal about how good it is, and he actually seems to look forward to mealtime. I know it's because he realizes he doesn't have to shop for it, put it away, cook it, or even clean up after it. He's learned after 2 years on his own what it means to come up with a well thought out meal.

You know what affect his gratitude has had on me? Well, I find myself thinking: I need to come up w/a menu and go shopping, and in the morning what am I making for dinner, and I'll bet Josh will really like this. WOW! I don't hate thinking of dinner and what to make, I don't procrastinate the decision of what to make, and I actually plan ahead. All because someone is expressing appreciation for my efforts.

I decided, "Man, I need to point this out to the rest of the family. So they will start appreciating me more, too!" Then like a ton of bricks it hit me. Do I appreciate my family for the wonderful terrific people that they are? Do I tell my kids thanks for being straight A students? and doing it without my having to hound them. Do I tell my DH thanks for going to work everyday and holding down a steady job to provide for all of us! NOPE was the answer.

So I guess what I'm saying is, that if we'd show a little more gratitude it can change everyone's attitude and make life a whole lot sweeter! So THANKS for listening (reading) and I hope you have a Grateful day!

YEA! Taking a quilt off the machine!

2008-03-19T14:36:00.003-06:00

WOW! It seems like this quilt has been on the machine forever. Not that quilting it took forever, just that my life/family haven't let me get down here and quilt like I need to be doing. Having Josh home is great, but has add another dimension to our home life. I always said that Josh was the catalyst in our family. We are a pretty calm quiet even going family, then you throw Josh in the mix and it all speeds up. He's still the same!!!

So here's pics of the quilt I just took off. I think it turned out nicely, I really like these flowers that I quilted on it.

Now moving on to my next quilt. Lara! It's yours. If you want to know what I plan on doing to it give me a call!

Happy Quilting.

It's Raining!

2008-03-13T10:27:00.003-06:00

So there isn’t a vehicle at home and I decided to walk 2.5 yr old to play group this morning and then I’d go for a walk as my exercise today. It was a really great plan until it started sprinkling!!! Well, I decided that it wasn’t bad enough to not walk him up. Besides that I had no choice if he was going to go to play group. So we walked up. We were a bit sprinkled on, but I was rethinking the walking for exercise part. I mean I'm all for exercise, as long as it isn't too uncomfortable!

As, I head down the hill ready to go home, I decide that it feels pretty good and so I decided I’d walk down to View Dr and around like I had walked the other evening. Yep, you guessed it the rain picked up. But it wasn’t too bad and the rain was encouraging me to walk faster, so I was thinking this is a good thing. Because of the increased rain I decided not to walk down View Dr, but just turn and come back up. That’s when the uncomfortable part began! I had been walking w/the rain and breeze at my back. But on the way home, now the rain was blowing towards me. Let’s just say I was pretty soaked by the time I got home.

Still working on the quilt. Will post pictures if I get to quilt today. I have to go pick up 15 yo at the JHS that is 20 minutes away and take her to the Orthodontist today. Let's just say the whole experience will probably take 2 1/2 hours!!!

Happy Quilting!

Struggles

2008-03-11T23:21:00.003-06:00

I'm struggling with the current quilt on the machine. I found the perfect pink thread in my drawer, but it isn't playing nicely with my machine and I keep getting loopies on the back. Very inconsistently and it's driving me CRAZY!!! I really hate quilting when things like this happen. I love it when everything works nicely together.

So the dilema, take all the current stitching out and start over w/a new thread? Or keep going and fix the loopies after all is quilted?

Here's Hoping your quilting is going much smoother!

Customer Quilt DONE!

2008-03-07T07:59:00.005-07:00

I just finished a baby quilt. The daughter of a neighbor of had a baby and she called to see if I could "make" a quilt for her. Basically it was 2 pieces of fabric I quilted and put binding on for her. It actually turned out way cute and I forgot to take a picture!!! I don't know if you've seen the Olivia books? It's about a pig? Andover Fabrics has some fabric out that says Olivia all over it and these new parents are naming their new daughter Olivia. So they bought two pieces,

And I quilted them together in red thread and echoed hearts. I called the new grandma last night and she picked it up.

One more task done! Yippee! I was so excited to have another something done, I forgot pictures. I really do try to photograph every quilt I quilt. Oh Well.
Happy Quilting!

Sewing a Square in a Square!

2008-03-05T14:15:00.000-07:00

So to create a square in a square. You start w/your center square and sew Half Square Triangles (HST) to each edge. The tricky part is to make sure that it ends up as a square again. So I like to fold my square in half and pinch each edge at the mid point. I've inserted a pin to show, since the fabric is black. Then I take the triangle and pinch it in half.

Since this triangle was cut w/the NN rulers it has a blunted point, but that's OK just imagine the point is still there and make the other point match up w/the edges. As in the photo.

Then match up the pins or centers. You will have a point hanging off on one end and not the other. Your 1/4" seam should start right where the point starts to hang off the edge, and should finish right off the blunted off point on the other end. See Photo.
Do this w/each edge. Usually I do the two opposite sides, press and then do the other two.

Your finished Square in a Square should be nice and square.

Happy QuiLtInG!

A Project Finished! Amazing!

2008-03-04T16:44:00.004-07:00

Actually 2 Projects finished. I will be shipping out the "family gift quilt" and my niece's baby quilt!! YEA!!!

Sorry the gift quilt is packed and ready to go, but you saw it almost finished already any way. But here is a picture of the baby quilt. It's all quilted and bound and ready to go!

I hope they are both happy with them!

Back to Quilt Stuff!

2008-02-27T16:14:00.007-07:00

So yesterday was an all day quilt day!!! Well, at least for me it was. I went down to the LQS in Centerville and we had our 2nd Going to Pieces Quilt Club meeting. We have a morning group and an evening group. I took my "family give away quilt" because it needed to be bound and I was determined to have it done before I came back home.

Our morning group was small, but we had fun with Marilyn and Illene. We had to tweak our kit a bit because we don't have all the fabrics yet and a couple things got substituted, but all in all it went great. Check out the slideshow up top to see all the fun quilts everyone brought to show and tell. The heart runners were the project from January (I had to miss cuz of the 2.5 yr old's viral pneumonia). I was happy to see so many runners finished!

I promised the ladies that I would put a Nifty Notions ruler tutorial up here on my blog in case they can't remember when they get back to cutting etc. . . You know how it goes. Other non-important stuff just crowds out the important how do I assemble my block information. Niquie and I took a class 2 years ago from Kaye England and we're in love w/the NN rulers.

I have my 2 1/2" strips layed out, right sides together. I'm making half square triangles, 1/2 is black and 1/2 is white. The black is on the bottom. Make sure your NN 1/2 square ruler is right side up. You can read the Nifty Notions. Using the lower right corner of the ruler. Line up the squared edge of your strips w/the 2 1/2" marks. Cut along the diagonal line.

Now flip your ruler. Lift the right angle left corner. Let the diagonal edge stay on the table and lay the right angle down so it's now at the upper right. Line the green line across the lower point along the cut edge of the bottom of your strip. Line up the diagonal edge of the ruler w/the diagonal cut edge. Make your cut along the straight edge on the right.

Now to make the quarter square section of a flying geese. I have a 2 1/2" strip. And since I'm going to end up w/a pointy cut in the beginning. I just like to cut off a point w/the 1/2 square ruler. Yep it's extra, but I'm sure I'll find a place for it.

Then I put the 1/4 square ruler upside down, the 2 1/2" line along the upper edge of the strip. Cut the Right side diagonal line. Now I have to flying geese sections.

If you need more flying geese. Simple flip the ruler and cut another set. Continue flipping back and forth along the strip til you have all the flying geese you need.

If you have questions, please post a comment and I'll get back to you ASAP

Happy QuiLtInG!!

I'm Back in the Studio!!

2008-02-20T11:31:00.014-07:00

I took my MIL Rosy to the airport this morning. We had fun with her. She's such a character. She came for her winter visit, so she could see Joshua when he got home.

So maybe I'll get back to real life and get some quilting done! The return missionary and son #2 are sharing the room I cleared out of a month ago, and they cleared out all the miscellaneous leftovers and where did it all get dumped? Yep in Mom's studio! So I've got to work on organizing and clearing that stuff off my table and floor.

Niquie is coming over this afternoon and we're going to actually get sewing on the Going To Pieces quilt! YEA! It's been a process gathering the fabric for this quilt, but we're pretty sure we have all the pieces we need to get started. Then we can get the ladies in the club started on their first blocks for the quilt. We're using Holly Holderman's LakeHouse Dry Goods fabric La Belle Rose. We love it, and it's been tought getting it, but we can't wait to see the finished project. Here's what one of the blocks looks like.

Happy Quilting! Lauri

We're HOME!!

2008-02-15T06:11:00.002-07:00

Well, our trip to Canada was GREAT! Even though it was COLD! Actually most of the days weren't any colder than being in Utah. The last 2 days were FRIGID. The temperature dropped to -19 Celsius and the wind picked up which made it feel like - 30.

We had a great time living the missionary life w/Joshua and meeting other missionaries and people Joshua had worked with. We visited some great sights and participated in Winter Fest in Quebec. We learned some French and Quebecois.

It was an awesome trip.

Here are some pictures from Canada.

It's Packing Day!!!

2008-02-01T14:28:00.000-07:00

OK, Who would think I would be posting today!!! I know but I've got to let it out somewhere! We're packing! OK so I have to pack the 2 yr old to go to play w/Niquie, and pack myself and do the laundry and get the kids staying home squared away. But we're almost done!!! Thankfully DH travels and is really good at packing himself!

Don't you hate getting everything packed, but you can't pack the make-up and hair stuff cuz you still have to use it in the morning when you get up???? I hate that! I want to have everything in the suitcase and close it and be done. I guess I need a second of everything, but since I don't travel that much it doesn't make much sense.

We're taking 2 extra suitcases so that Josh can bring home stuff that he's collected for the past 2 years. DH made Platinum Medallion level w/Delta Airlines last year cuz he traveld SO MUCH. He gets certain privileges and one of them is being able to bring extra bags w/o cost. We also get to go through the shorter security lines! I guess you gotta get some benefits from being on their planes so much. He really racked up the miles flying to and from Boston almost every week for several months.

I've been debating whether I want to take any quilty project. So far I've decided to just read!! I purchased two of Jennifer Chiaverini's books (The Quilter's Apprentice and The Runaway Quilt). It has been SO long since I read a novel. I'm looking forward to reading all I want and not worrying that I should be quilting a customer's quilt or looking after the 2 yr old, or running to get a kid from school. I let you know what I think of the books when I'm back.

Now it's back to packing! I doubt I'll post (unless I figure out how to do it from DH's laptop) until we get home! Happy Quilting! Lauri

I Hope We Make It!!!

2008-01-29T09:33:00.000-07:00

Ok so things feel like they're all falling apart around here! We leave on Saturday to go to Canada and pick up our Missionary Son! Yea!

We are working on getting the 2 yr old well, and he's doing better. So what happens???? 17 yr old DD and 12 yr old DS wake up w/sore throats and don't want to get out of bed. I have to take the 14 yr old DD to an Ortho appt at 8:00 AM and I'm sitting in the Dr's office when I get a call from 19 yr old DS and he says that the 12 yr old has been bitten on the finger by our dog when he was feeding them. Come home! Well, I can't DD is back in the chair getting worked on. So 45 minutes later she's done and, we race home to find a big ugly purple gash in the son's middle finger. I get on the phone and make the Dr's appt to go have it checked. Appointment is for 10:30. I'm TIRED and it's only 9:40 AM!!!

I put Illene's quilt on the machine last week and I haven't been able to get down there and do any quilting on it yet!! I doubt any quilting will get done til we get home from Canada! Thankfully I have understanding customers! They're the BEST!

Happy Quilting! Lauri

First Quilt Group Meeting

2008-01-25T13:04:00.000-07:00

OK, so it didn't over as big as I was hoping, but the 4 of us that were there had a good time. We just talked quilting and ideas for future meetings and things to do w/the group. Which I hope will grow with time. Maybe the weather had something to do with it. It was kind of snowing and very cold. But that didn't stop 80 something year old Meryl from showing up!!! She's made lots of quilts! She's made one for each of her 23 grandkids and 18 great grandkids. That's a LOT!! But she's even made many more than that.

I came down this morning and this is what the kitchen table looked like. Remnants of last nights fun! Well, I had fun. We're going to have our next meeting on February 21st. Everyone has an assignment to bring someone new and we'll have doubled our attendance!! I brought up some of the magazines and quilt books I have downstairs for perusal. I figure why not share. I have TONS!!! One of the friends showed her Grandmother's Flower Garden she's working on, and I had to get out mine and show her how I've been doing it. I think I've converted her.

Happy QUilTinG - Lauri!