I've Been Busy Baking

and made 18 of these poppy seed pound cakes on Saturday. They have been delivered to neighbors and friends, and one got eaten by the family. We also made Chex Mix, and dipped pretzels in chocolate. It took 3 trips to the store that morning, but we made it through!

Friday, I made these fun book marks.

I saw a tutorial here on a quilted bookmark, using fusible web and confetti pieces of fabric. However, I decided I wanted them in strips and sewed them onto a muslin foundation instead. I was very pleased with them, and the technique is also similar to the inchies.

Christmas is almost here, and I think I am ready. I will make a lovely dinner on Christmas Eve, then it is time to relax on Christmas day. I will be basting a queen size quilt tomorrow to work on next week. I have been wanting to try it on my "little machine", and I think I finally have the courage to do it. If it works, I will be very happy. If it doesn't, I'll be finding a long-arm quilter I can afford to do it. I really want this quilt to be done and on my bed. It has been almost 2 years since I bought the fabric. Much too long!

I wish all my friends and followers a very Merry Christmas. May the day be peaceful and bright for you and your family.

A little Cooking Project...

instead of quilting today. Yesterday I made these meltaway cookies and frosted them today. Don't they look yummy?!!! Actually, they were! I served these at Pack night tonight, and gave some to a friend for her birthday. Then, today I made lots of rolls for my DH to give at work, and tonight I am working on braided bread with cream cheese & cherry pie filling. Hopefully tomorrow will bring more quilting time.

I won Blockjack Again!

I am pretty amazed...

I don't win things very often...

But I won the Blockjack blocks for December.

There are 11 blocks with these beautiful trees and red cornerstones. I really enjoyed this block, as I could see a use for it right away.



I was sitting in the meeting, imagining what I would do with the blocks, if I won them, and then they called my name. I was so excited.

Then, later, reality hit and I realized I don't have enough blocks for what I was imagining. I actually need 7 more blocks. So, now I have to rethink my idea, decide if I want to make 7 more blocks, and if so, see if I can get the same red fabric. I definitely won't have time to do it before Christmas.

However, I did work on another Christmas project today.

Last month, I bought a box of sweet rolls by Moda. I actually fell in love with the pattern that came with them. They were Christmas fabrics, and make cute stockings. So, today I made them,
and now they wait for the finishing hand work. I'm still debating whether these will be a decoration at my house, or a surprise for someone else. It is so hard to make something and give it away.

However, the one(s) I would give them away to would more than appreciate the work that went into them.

Next, back to more customer work. Plus, holiday baking, baking for DH's office, church party, etc. etc. etc.

Will I get Christmas cards mailed this year? We will see!

Fun New Blog

I just found out about this great blog - she has some free embroidery designs, including some for Christmas. Check out Andrea's blog here. I don't do a lot of embroidery, but I do enjoy looking, and I have friends who love embroidery. So, check it out, let me know what you think, and be sure to leave a comment with her, too.

Here is what I have been working on...

It's my fall mini quilt for the mini quilt swap. I really hoped to get it finished and mailed before fall is over, but I don't think that is going to happen. The maple leaf blocks are 3 inches, finished. I embroidered the stems instead of piecing them. I hope to quilt it in the next couple of weeks.

I have also finished some cute hot pads for a hot pad exchange at Quilt Guild next month. I will give one away and keep the other (and possibly give it away as well - for Christmas!) Here are the two hot pads...





and here are the opposite sides...




Then, I quilted a tree skirt that is supposed to be sold for charity. I really had fun quilting the big star, using a design element I had just seen a week before.


Although I would like to get back to my other projects, I will probably not get more done until after the Thanksgiving weekend! Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

I have been working feverishly

... on several different projects. Then my camera battery needed recharging before I could get very many pictures. However, I will get them posted soon. Just as I think things are slowing down a bit, I find I have 4 or 5 new projects to work on - for others and personally. I am grateful to be kept busy, but hope to find a balance between busy and insane.

I hope you are having a great week, and that Thanksgiving will be a nice day for you!

We have a sweet cat

This is Missy, our cat. She decided to sit on my cutting table today to keep me company while working on my maple leaf mini. She didn't stay long, but did pose well for the camera. My table is quite messy - as is the rest of the room, but that is not unusual while I am in the middle of projects.

Today I have been thinking about things I am thankful for: warm autumn days (50 degrees), the time to quilt, when family times are good, a warm home, a son who still likes to be with me, good quilting friends - who do more than quilt with me, pretty flowers in the spring and summer, and even the purple mums in the fall, a good haircut, friends to eat lunch with, Sister's weekend twice a year, and good food. This is only a start, maybe I'll add more as the month goes on. What are you thankful for?

Have a great sewing day!

Another Mini Quilt Finished

This is the other mini quilt I have been working on. I am so thrilled how it turned out. The border fabric is one I picked up several times last year - I just love the color. The dark greens are left over from my Summertime quilt swap. The light green is left over from the flower applique quilt I finished yesterday. I also had the cream in my stash, and the back was from a quilt a group of us did a couple of years ago for a local hospital. That quilt hangs on the wall in the hospital, and I visit it when I am there for any reason.

I also finished a customer quilt today (nearly twin size), and I quilted it in about 4 hours. I am very pleased with the results and it is a quilt I have made as well. I need to make the back for it so I can quilt my own. I have two customer quilts left and then I can do one of my own (bigger than the minis I have been doing). I also want to set aside some time for playing with fabric and making a landscape quilt. I am just a little nervous about cutting the fabric for the landscape quilts I want to do - they are so beautiful - and what if I mess up??? (grin).

Have a great sewing day!

Summer Project Finished

I made a goal, at the beginning of the summer, to finish this project. I am pleased with the results and happy to have it finished. I don't do much applique, so it was a good challenge for me. I have another mini project to share as soon as I wash out my quilting markings. It is fun to do minis, but I find that they are as much work as full-size projects. I am working on my Fall mini quilt swap - it has been designed, and I have begun piecing. I will share it later. Happy quilting!

Great Blogs...

Are the ones I like to follow. I write here for mostly my own enjoyment, but the blogs I follow have really great things to see and do. I hope you will check them out and enjoy them, too.

Pumpkin Patch Primitives Quilt Shoppe: It's a Happy Halloween Giveaway!

Pumpkin Patch Primitives Quilt Shoppe: It's a Happy Halloween Giveaway!

This isn't something I am giving away, but it is being given away here. If I link to it from my blog, I get an entry, and if you go there from here, and post about it in your blog, I get another entry. It sounds fun. I have one of the pieces of fabric and I love it. She is giving away a bundle of fabric. If the entries reach 250, she will give away 2 bundles of fabric (to 2 different people), and if there are more than 350 entries, she will also give a $100 gift certificate away. How cool is that? So check it out!

Halloween Quilting Fun

Blockjack for this month is supposed to be Halloween related. I really hesitated doing this one, because it was quite open-ended. We received 2 pieces of fabric and then needed to make it into a 9-inch finished block, adding our own fabric to the block. I took this at the last minute. Then, within 2 days, I finished this! I really liked the candy corn, and it wasn't very difficult to do. I did a strip set with the three colors, added fusable web, and here it is! I like it, and I hope whoever wins likes it, too.


Then, I have had a widget on the side of my blog for about a month (the inchie of the day), and have wanted to try this technique as well. One of the fabrics I have for Halloween did not make the cut for the block jack block. So, I decided to make inchies out of it. I started with 12 of the inchies, but one disappeared while in the embellishment stage. I also put pin backs on them so I can give them to my friends to wear for October and Halloween. They get to choose one tomorrow at our sewing day. I have a couple of different designs. I found that embellishment is my challenge, and I hope to get better with it over time. Special thanks to Nadine Ruggles for her fabulous instructions and the "inchie of the day" as my inspiration!

Cool Quilting

I recently went to a quilt show. I saw this awesome quilting and had to take a picture of it. I can't wait to try this pattern on something. I have been seeing designs like this, where there are larger patterns made, then filled with quilting inside of them. I saw something similar on a journal cover, and I think that is where I want to try it first.

Taught a Pillowcase Class

These young women (ages 12-13) came to my house last month to learn how to make these fun pillowcases. We spent about 2 hours, and they got everything done, except the last hand stitching. One girl did finish the whole pillowcase. I was so proud of them and their hard work. We made a few mistakes along the way (with me telling them the wrong thing to do, hee hee), but seam rippers took care of that! What a sweet time it was!

Fun One to Quilt

Normally, I do not post about Customer quilts, but this one I just had to show. It is such a fun quilt design, with a lot of different elements. I loved just looking at this quilt.

After having looked at the blog of 365 Days of Free Motion Quilting, I just had to use some of what I had been learning. It truly inspired me to try new filler quilting and to fill in the rays of the sun. If you like machine quilting, and need some new design ideas, check it out. She is into it a couple of months, and I am behind in seeing all of them, but hope to catch up soon.

Finishing something at last...

I finally finished the customer quilt I was working on, and then I finished this pillow case. I am teaching a class on it on Tuesday, and had an idea to improve it, so I had to try it out. It worked great! Then, this will be a Christmas gift for a certain someone this year. (Gotta keep it a surprise!)


I also finished this jar...

as a memento of our beach trip. I sprayed some of the rocks with a clear spray to make them shiny like they were in the water. I might do it to all of them, because I really like the look of them. The beads around the top say WE HAD FUN. This is to help me remember the enjoyable time spent at the beach ... makes me want to go again!

I also hope to do a quilt later of this, but for now, it will hang out with the quilt I got from Lisa.

Now, on to the next project...another class sample.

Summertime Mini Quilt Received

Today in the mail! She sent it on the 11th, from New Zealand, and I got it today. Here it is...



I love the bright beautiful colors. There are turtles on the background batik, which are one of my favorite animals. There are beads on the wavy lines (waves of the ocean, shells on the beach), and there are beads on the sun. This beautiful quilt, bound in pink, is going to be a lovely reminder of our family trip to the Oregon coast this summer. I will hang it next to my shell and agate collection (when I get it put together) (grin).

This quilt was made by Lisa, and you can see her blog http://lydiastreasures.blogspot.com

I finished my canning, for now, on Friday, with the help of my sweetie. I am trying to get a customer quilt done, and prepare for 3 classes for the fall. Plus, of course, taking care of the family and helping with the primary elections yesterday.

Hope your time is not too busy for quilting!

The Recipient of the Mini Quilt is....

my good friend Kristi Brodrero! She and I signed up at the same time for the swap and I received her name. So, I have kept it a secret for 2 months that she would receive the quilt. She has seen it on my blog, but didn't know she would get to keep it! Today she came over to visit and I gave it to her. She seemed very happy about it. She was in the group that made the original quilt, so she gets the mini quilt to go along with her original. Yeah! I am happy for Kristi - Congratulations, friend!

My canning is done for the moment, so on to promised projects. I hope to post pictures soon of the things I am working on. Hopefully within a week I will have at least one project completed.

It's been a while...

since I have posted. Summer got very busy, and then we went on vacation to the Oregon coast. We saw beautiful sunsets there, like this one...




It was wonderful to relax for a few days. I hunted for sea shells,




sea glass



and agates and other colorful rocks,

and came home with quite a collection. I plan on using these as inspiration for a quilt about the seashore. I also might get a shadow box to put them in. Just looking at them reminds me about how relaxed we were on vacation.

I have also been bottling produce for the winter and this takes quite a bit of my time.

However, the quilting began again in earnest today. I finished my summertime mini quilt swap quilt and plan on getting it to the lucky recipient soon. Then I will post about that. I started a barn raising quilt that will be my Tuesday project, and I have about 6 quilts to piece or quilt for customers. I think it is time I get to work! However, these will wait another day as I have the busiest day I have had in months coming up tomorrow. Then, hopefully, I can keep up with my posting and get more quilts finished for me and others.

Patriotic Quilts

Two years ago, at a local retreat, we exchanged fabric to make this lovely patriotic quilt. With each person at a different skill level, this was a great way to share with each other, and have a good quality quilt. I finished mine last summer. Then, with some of the leftover fabric, I made this quilt:

It measures 20x16, and will be quilted and bound soon. I was so excited to get this done in just 2 days. I think it will be fun to hang up. The full size quilt measures approximately40X56. Have you done a mini of a full size quilt you have made?

Mystery Quilt Finished

I've been working on a few things lately, and I finally finished this mystery quilt from our local guild from 2008-2009. It had a lot of work to it - each step taking about 8 hours. However, it is now ready for the back to be made and then quilted.

I also made the backs for two other quilts, and I am hoping to baste them next week and quilt them. They are big - 84x84 and 96x96. I have not quilted anything that big, so I will see how it goes. I have done a twin-size quilt before (several actually), and I am hoping I can do these. I will post pictures when they are quilted.

Also, I finished the flower applique quilt, but it is basted and ready to quilt. I will be doing that soon, and will post a picture when it is quilted and bound.

Applique Flowers

I am not especially fond of applique. I am more likely to want to spend time doing other things. However, my friend, Ann, suggested we finish this project started about 2 years ago. This is just the applique part. Some of the piecing has been done, however, the applique slowed me down somewhat.

So, I decided at the end of May I would work on this hand project whenever I would go to the park with my boys, or have quiet sitting and waiting time. I finished it last Tuesday! We had sewing day on my front porch, and I continued for the next half hour, and finished. I actually only went to the park with my boys one time during the project. So, I will be working on getting the rest of it finished over the next month. It is nice to be done with the applique. I'll post the finished project later.

Mini Quilt Sent

I sent my mini quilt out last week, so I think it is safe to post this. You are seeing double, because I made 2 of them. I gave one away to Rachel in Ohio, and the other will be hanging in a local quilt shop soon. I wanted to have one for me because I really fell in love with it.

Here is a close up of some of the quilting. I think my favorite part is the wavy lines in the pink path.


Here is the one I kept for myself. It turned out pretty good, huh? I actually put labels on both of these, which is not something I do often enough. I think I will do it more, now that I know a good way to label a quilt. Let me know if you like it!

Mini Quilt Received

Today I received a fabulous mini quilt from Sandie. I just had to show it to you here. Aren't the colors just beautiful? I finished the quilt today that I will be sending off tomorrow. I will post a picture after that. We don't want to spoil the surprise for Rachel.

I am working on several projects right now, but mostly for customers. I hope to get them done soon, so I can work on some classes I took from an online group. We'll see how the summer develops.

Mini Quilt Fabric

I signed up for a mini quilt swap and these are the fabrics I'm working with. Aren't they pretty?!! I think the design is great as well. I got a very nice note from Sandie who is sending a quilt to me. I can't wait to see it! I also have 4 customer quilts basted and ready to go.

I taught my first Machine Quilting Class last Thursday. I had some very good comments and had a great time. I hope I have started a great journey for those who took the class. Quilting in general is such a great art, and provides many opportunities to meet new people and share. I sew weekly with a group, and we are always more creative when we share ideas than when we are home trying to figure it out on our own.

Grocery Bags

I wanted to make some reusable grocery bags. I don't like the store ones, because of the name of the store on it. If they want me to advertise for them, they can give me the bag :) Anyway, I found the fabric as remnants, and after much consideration, I made this pattern. It has a facing instead of a lining, so they will roll up nicely. I rarely use only 3 bags when I grocery shop, but these will help some. Now, to remember to take them into the store ;)

Flag Quilt

I haven't posted for a while, but that doesn't mean I haven't been sewing. I took a class to make this quilt at the end of April, and finished it within 2 weeks. Not bad, huh? It was a little tricky, because it is 3-dimensional. I really like it. It is hanging in my sewing room right now, but will hang in the front room for most of June and July.

Pretty Flowers of Spring

I took this picture of tulips in Salt Lake City at Temple Square just before Easter. They were so lovely, and I absolutely loved the colors. I hope it inspires you, too.