Feed Dogs Down

Wool Dying

2012-02-14T14:47:00.000-07:00

This month for my group meeting with Material Girls Idaho, we are having a wool swap in order to make a cute penny rug. Lori, from the group has posted a great tutorial for dying wool with KoolAid or Wilton Icing colors so that we can use our wool finds from thrift stores and come up with a variety of fun colors. Below are pieces of wool that Rachel, another Material Girl, dyed with her thrift store finds.

Check out the tutorial here. Thrift stores, here I come!

January group meeting

2012-01-26T17:23:00.000-07:00

Here are the show and tells from my group's meeting this month. We had a smaller than average turnout with several people out of town, but a great show and tell nonetheless.

My tree skirt

A Levi quilt

A scarf that meets in the front then buttons. The button is on the back side of the flower.

Soft baby quilt

A bandana quilt

Coasters and a coaster holder

Small purse

Ruffled baby quilt

Grey and pink baby quilt top

Pillowcases

Snap pouches made with metal measuring tapes

A skirt for a granddaughter who loves green and dots

An embroidered label

Green House quilt

Halloween table runner and pillows

Another Levi quilt

Tree Skirt

2011-12-26T12:47:00.000-07:00

Yes, I actually finished this project in the midst of all the other fun, festive activities of the season. I saw this a couple weeks ago on Sew We Quilt and knew I wanted it. I even used the same charm pack, actually my local quilt store had the Jovial layer cake, so I just cut it into 5" squares. It worked beautifully and went together fairly quickly. I had intended on putting a red binding, but my time limitation of wanting it under the tree immediately made it more efficient for me to use the backing as my binding. I didn't use any batting and machine quilted it with my feed dogs down on my home sewing machine and I love how it turned out.

Of course, as quickly as I put it under the tree, it got covered with presents and I couldn't see it again until today, the day after.

Ugly Fabric Exchange

2011-12-02T19:03:00.000-07:00

A couple months ago at one of my quilt group meetings, we decided instead of exchanging traditional presents at our Christmas meeting, we would bring a piece of "ugly" fabric to our meeting in October. You know the fabric I'm talking about-that piece that has been sitting in your stash for years and just gets passed over every time you start a new project.

Each of us put our fabric inside a brown paper bag and at the meeting we took turns picking up a brown bag to take home. The rules of the exchange were simple: Take the "ugly" fabric you get in your bag and use it to make something beautiful. Then bring it back wrapped for our Christmas meeting and give it back to its original owner. So here are the results from that exchange. I can't believe how creative everyone was and how fun it was to watch as each person opened her gift.

I personally thought the fabric I ended up with was actually very cute, so I had no problem putting it together with other fabric to create these little fabric organizers. Her "ugly" fabric was the orange with white dot. I got my idea from Pink Pinguin where she has an easy tutorial.

Here are the other projects/gifts:

With this coin purse, the ugly fabric is the lining inside.

This scarf was my gift. She turned my ugly fabric into this cute scarf making it into a double sided chenille. How creative is that!

We had so much fun with this exchange, it might become our annual tradition!

Christmas mtg

2011-12-01T20:48:00.000-07:00

Here are the pictures from my group's show and tell. They are all amazing as usual. We also brought back the "ugly" fabric we were given a couple months ago. I'll post the results of what was made from the "ugly" fabrics later. Everyone was so creative!

Baby block

eyeglass holders

Diane's daughter gets published!

Santa dolls made by Susan

Pattern for the Santas

Jeri's pizza box exchange quilt-first one completed!

Back of Jeri's quilt

We donate 9 12/" squares every month with a theme in mind. This was made with our fall color donations

Mary's friendship block quilt-it looks like an antique

Mary's t-shirt quilt for her son

Corrie's peek-a-boo pocket books

Carolanna's minky quilt

Signs of Thanksgiving

2011-11-21T22:03:00.000-07:00

There are some signs of Thanksgiving in our home...

Design boards and african fabric

2011-11-09T08:26:00.002-07:00

At my last quilt group meeting we made design boards based on Bee in My Bonnet's tutorial. I finally got mine done. (not that it takes a long time because it's actually a very quick project)

My oldest son did an internship for a company that does charity work overseas, Help International. Here's a video of his group in Lugazi Uganda and the things they accomplished in one summer. It's amazing how much good can done by such a small group of people. Of course, as a good son of a quilter, he looked for fabric to bring home for me. Here's one of the pieces. He didn't know how much to get of each fabric, so he purchased around 4 yards of each! It only cost him about $6!!! So I'm thinking of fussy cutting some squares like this. I made some quick squares (on the left) that I might place in between the african fabric. Still thinking about it. I'll make it into a nice size quilt with a warm cozy flannel on the back, something to cuddle under during the winter months. And I'll still have plenty of the African fabric leftover for another project.

Dead Man II

2011-11-01T14:00:00.000-06:00

So here's our tasty little dead man meatloaf out of the oven and stabbed with a steak knife. Everyone fights over which body part to eat.

In the end, he's provided a lot of laughs as well as nourishment before the kids head off for their candy overload. We even got a good laugh over how the pan looked after deadman was eaten. It's always a hit in our house and now it's a tradition my kids will probably carry on.
My oldest son got engaged over the weekend, so I'll have to let his fiancé in on our secret!

Dead Man Meatloaf

2011-10-31T16:21:00.000-06:00

Well, here he is this year, ready to go into the oven - Dead Man Meatloaf. It's our family tradition for Halloween dinner. The best part is when he comes out of the oven looking well tanned, then I add the ketchup/brown sugar/mustard mixture to his heart area, make it look like it's dripping down a bit, then pop it back into the oven for another 15 minutes. When he comes out the second time, we stick a small steak knife into his heart and serve him up to the table. Yum!!! We put extra ketchup sauce on the side to add if wanted.
This year he got a green tie for special effects. I'll post his after picture tomorrow. Got to go help get the costumes ready for my girls now.

Material Girls Idaho

2011-10-26T22:02:00.000-06:00

Here's the show and tell from my group Material Girls Idaho. I look forward to our meetings every month!

The Ghostlies

Hand dyed wools

Go BSU!

Luggage tags

A table runner that takes literally 20 minutes to make

PVC and dowel- handy tip for turning tubes

The project we made today-design board from Bee in my Bonnet tutorial

Door prize!

My home girls

2011-09-28T18:50:00.000-06:00

I went to my quilt group meeting this morning. Here are some of the pictures from the meeting. Not only were we sharing our show and tells, but we also showed quilts that had innovative ways to set blocks. Because we have now finished our Pizza Box Exchange, we are all looking for ways to place our blocks into a quilt.

These (top and bottom) two pictures are from a book that shows several types of block settings.

Lori's reversible apron.

Lori's Halloween advent calendar. Each number is a pocket for treats.

Lori ordered personalized labels for her quilts and handwork.

My group-August meeting

2011-09-01T11:07:00.000-06:00

I went to my fun Material Girls Idaho meeting yesterday. Here are some pics from our show and tell and also our lunch. The pink quilt is our breast cancer auction quilt. It turned out beautifully.

Finally

2011-08-30T07:57:00.000-06:00

After staring at my quilt top for about 4 months, I finally made a decision on how to quilt the sky background. I was so nervous to do it thinking that I might ruin it, and in the end it's definitely not perfect, but I love the texture that it gives it. I shouldn't have waited so long. I used invisible thread on top, aka monofilament, and a cotton thread in the bobbin, put my feed dogs down and just went for it. Next time I won't wait so long, but half my problem with machine quilting is just deciding what design to quilt. There's so many great ideas out there.

Good decision

2011-08-23T22:21:00.000-06:00

I bought these chairs this summer, put them in what we call the "piano room". It's a place to sit and listen to music, read or even just to sit barefoot in order to feel the cool shag rug under your feet. I love these chairs.

I love the colors. I discovered that a little purple in a room makes it cheery, fun and a bit unexpected. The fun 60's shag rug has become a family favorite. Even the dogs thank me regularly for this addition to the room. They also like to come into the room to listen to music, nap or roll around on it dreaming they have their very own personal alpaca.

Whenever I walk by the room, it makes me smile. I think to myself, "that was a good decision to buy those chairs."

The lucky thing was that when I put them in the room, I realized the little lamp that had been in the room all along, a lamp my husband and I loved and purchased when we were just young newlyweds, had the exact same colors in it. It was like I had purchased the chairs on purpose, like I actually knew what I was doing when it came to interior decorating (which couldn't be further from the truth). It's also now the perfect spot to sit in when I hand sew bindings on my quilts. A good decision indeed.

Back from Seattle, back to UFO's

2011-08-16T10:53:00.000-06:00

Walking through the streets of Seattle, I turn the corner and see walls and walls of these old sewing machines. The store is AllSaints Spitalfields, a rather high end clothing store. They have a lot of stores in the UK and now in the US. What I loved, of course, were the sewing machines. Even the inside of the store used the machines as art. I think each one of their stores uses these machines as decor. I can't imagine how many they must have acquired in total. If they ever decide to change their decor, I hope I'm in town and get first dibs on the machines.

We stayed in Kingston and within walking distance was a fun quilt store, The Kingston Quilt store. I picked up a pattern by Barbara Brandeburg. The quilt was hanging in the store and it was made with beautiful fabric. I'm going to have to search for that exact fabric.

In the UFO department, I've got my flickr group quilt blocks up on my design wall. I need to look at them for a while to decide how to put them together, whether to add a sashing between them and if a sashing, what material. Right now I'm leaning toward adding a sashing that is black dots on a white background. Black and white checkers may be cute too.

I've also finished the backing for this quilt top below.

My girls like the backing almost better than the top, so that will be nice to have a twin size quilt that I can use both sides of. Obviously there's plenty of quilting projects to be started, added to and finished. I love having quilts in every stage of the process for that very reason.

My group

2011-07-28T18:58:00.000-06:00

Here are some pictures of our sew and tell from my Material Girls Idaho meeting yesterday.

Rachel's quilt.

Rachel's granddaughter's outfit. Rachel made the skirt and purse.

Maurene's charity quilt that we helped piece at our last meeting.

Jeanie's gift for her little kids in her Sunday School class.

Carolanna's quilt.

Another Carolanna quilt.

Carolanna's cherry quilt.

Close-up of the cherry quilt.

Another of Carolanna's quilts. She caught up on all her unfinished quilt tops this month that needed quilting.

Mary's quilt.

Another raw edge quilt by Mary.

My blocks I received from my flickr online bee group.

Sweets and Sleeps

2011-07-28T08:53:00.002-06:00

Last night I found this cute little basket on my doorstep. The card said, "Hope your summer is going great. Here are some jams to sweeten things up. love, your secret sister."

Homemade jams!!! There's apricot, red grape, peach and blackberry. I feel so lucky. These will be treasured and enjoyed.

And look how cute this fabric is that was inside the basket. Fun summery popsicle fabric. Hmmm, a table topper idea is coming to me.

Last week we had our good friends from Argentina staying with us. They came up for a whirlwind tour of the United States. It was so fun having them here and sharing some of Idaho with them. I made this pillow case for their daughter, Mara.

Mara is 15 and is learning English, so I made this from fabric that has young women values written on it. These are the values the teenage girls in our church learn to live by. Mara immediately recognized the words and loved the pillowcase.

Free Motion Quilting Project

2011-07-11T17:00:00.004-06:00

I've been spending a few days watching Leah Day's youtube videos showing her techniques using her home sewing machine for machine quilting. She's amazing and her tutorials are detailed and easy to follow. I've particularly loved her Free Motion Quilting Project where she has 365 quilting designs. I try doodling on my own and can only come up with like 7 designs and they look vaguely similar to each other. So finding Leah Day has been exciting for me.

I love how this one looks. It's called Spaghetti and Meatballs and it's day #96/365.
Here's one that I've practiced. We have lots of bamboo in our backyard and knowing bamboo I'm sure we'll have lots more in the years to come. This one is #71/365.

The design above is called Spiral Tree and it's number 60/365. It looks fairly easy and do-able for me.
I love this one called double pebble and it's day 22/365. I've always loved the pebble look, but this double pebble gives an interesting twist.

Usually when I get ready to quilt my quilt, I get stuck trying to figure out what design to use, how to do it and where to place it. I even have a few sandwiched quilts all ready to go, but I just can't think of how to quilt them. Most of the time I just fall back on good old stippling. It's my go-to quilting design. I'm now practicing several of Leah's designs and techniques so I'll be ready for my next quilt. Have fun looking through all her videos, designs, etc. I think you'll get just as inspired as I have. Whether you use your home machine or a large quilting machine, these designs are for everyone. Thanks Leah for sharing your creativity and talent.

Pillowcase Dresses

2011-07-09T18:17:00.004-06:00

Last month while attending a humanitarian service work day, I noticed a table with a pile of cute little dresses. After asking around, I found out these were pillowcase dresses made to send to Africa. Each one was so unique and darling. Each one was actually made from a pillowcase. Many of them had an existing trim on the bottom and some even used additional fabric to add a pocket on the front.

I explained that I knew these dresses would be loved and needed because of the stories I've heard from my oldest son who is in Uganda for the summer doing a public health internship. I was asked if I would be able to get these dresses and several more over to Africa where my son could hand them out personally. Originally these dresses were going to be shipped to a business in New York where they would then be shipped off to Africa, but how fun for everyone involved if they could be personally handed out, photos taken, etc. I thought it was a great idea.

Last week I shipped them off to where several more intern students were getting ready to take off for Uganda this week. My son and others in his group are anxious to get the dresses and hand deliver them. He said he could think of so many little villages where these dresses will be a great blessing to many little girls.

All in all, there were 76 dresses sent. I can't wait to see pictures and I'll be sure to post them. I'm just the shipper of the dresses, but I'm so excited. My daughters and I want to make several more to send over and they are so easy!

Here is a great tutorial showing how to make these pillowcase dresses and here's another. This is just a small portion of the ones I shipped.

June pizza box exchange

2011-06-23T16:35:00.003-06:00

This month for our Pizza Box Exchange that we're doing in my quilt group, Material Girls Idaho, I picked Robyn's box and she's requested red and white or cream blocks. I decided to do a Card Tricks block.
Don't all the blocks look great together now. We have just 4 more months so we'll each have 19 blocks. Each box I pick up looks amazing! We only get to see our own box for a brief few minutes at the beginning of our meeting each month, so it will feel like Christmas when we finally get to take them home.

Bee Blocks

2011-06-17T11:17:00.003-06:00

Here are my bee blocks for Bee Scrappy, a flickr group. I'm a bit behind, but we only have one more month to do, so it's not bad. This block was inspired by Oh Fransson's mod mosaic floor pillow block. I used this same method for the center of a quilt here. It takes some thinking and some time, but the end result is a fun look.

Fresh and modern

2011-06-15T21:47:00.003-06:00

I finished this top today. It's fresh and modern and it looks like it belongs outside. It's from a pattern called Flower Show from the spring edition of Better Homes and Garden magazine, Perfect for Precuts. It's a twin size quilt and I'm anxious to put it on my friend's quilting machine because I could really use some practice. For years now I've been doing all my machine quilting on my home machine, you know, feed dogs down, and away I go. But I really need to give the big machines a fair chance. The first time I tried, it seems like it took forever just to put the top, batting and back onto the machine. I also just made large stippling waves all over the quilt. This time I'd like to change things up a bit and try some new designs, a few florals, leaves and even some pebbles.

I have two machine quilting idols that I follow in the quilting blog world and they both have amazing talent. The first is Natalia over at Piece N Quilt. The second is Don't Look Now who not only has beautiful quilting designs, but her applique is a one-of-a-kind. I keep thinking if I just stare at their work long enough and often enough that it will rub off on me and next time I attempt the big machine, it will then magically flow onto my quilt.

Wish me luck...

Fabric Flower Frills

2011-06-02T21:02:00.003-06:00

These are fabric flower frills. We made them this past weekend from a template put out by Clover. Here's a good video tutorial on how to make them also. I made the small one, attached it to a pin and wore it that night. I got lots of compliments. I didn't know that's all it took to get a fun compliment, just wear a fun new fabric flower.

They were very easy, my young girls didn't have any problem with them. You can see they wanted to make the large ones and of course, they can wear it and look like island beauties.

Nikki decided she wanted to put a button in the middle of hers and make it a bit different than the rest of us. It looks beautiful against her black hair.

New grommets

2011-05-26T08:59:00.003-06:00

When I first made this purse I used the traditional round grommets, but I had some trouble with a couple of them and I cut the holes a little too large. So as I used the purse, it began to pull and eventually the fabric came out from behind a couple of grommets. While I was at market last week, I saw these square grommets made by Rido Deko and thought they might be perfect for covering my extra large holes. I was right and I actually love how they look better than my original round grommets. Here's how it looked originally .

A little more from market

2011-05-17T22:19:00.006-06:00

Our booth seemed like it was constantly a buzz with people stopping by. I met so many wonderful people. I don't know how the quilt shop owners are able to weed through the vast variety of options and decide what to purchase for their stores. But we were thrilled that so many of them stopped by our booth and placed orders.

Here are a couple of our new patterns we offered. Suzy Swirl makes into a darling little skirt with a tutu underneath. The pattern also includes a pattern for leggings which is always a must for any little girl. I love the looks on the girls' faces in the pattern. So cute.

This honeycomb smocked apron, as it is now named, comes in an adult pattern as well as a child's pattern. This was probably our biggest hit of the quilt market. My sister Toni was in the booth the entire time demonstrating how to do the smocking. It's amazingly simple to do yet it looks like it took you quite a while. The directions for the smocking as well as a grid to follow are included in the patterns.

Here's another favorite. It's called Emma's Pocket Dollhouse quilt. It's a fun fusible applique with pocket options for little dolls or accessories. The great part about this quilt is all the individualizing you can do with each room in your fabric selections. I think I want my little girl bedroom to have lots of polka dots...

And occasionally we'd have the pleasure of meeting with some pretty amazing designers like Amy Butler. She always seems to have the time to stop and chat and share. She's a very talented woman with a very down to earth personality.

Back Home!

2011-05-16T16:09:00.005-06:00

International Quilt Market in Salt Lake City. How fun was that! Just got home thismorning and I'm so tired, but it's a good tired. I think I walked 10 miles each day just within the convention center alone. The convention center is huge and I tried to walk around as much as I could so I could gather in all the new ideas, touch all the newfabric coming out and chat with the fun men and women at quilt market, some of them old friends from the very first market I went to five years ago and some of them new friends from this market.

I was there to help my sister Jan's company, The Apron Lady designs. She has darling new apron patterns and a fun new applique quilt. We were busy with business almost every minute of each day. Here are some pics from the first day.

Sample Spree was our first big event to prepare for. It's a whirling frenzy of shoppers for just a 2-hour period of time. They line up outside the room sometimes up to 6 hours before the doors even open.

Then the countdown begins and the doors open. I was almost hoarse after the 2 hours was over.

Here's some shots of our booth all prepared and ready for our first customers. I'll post more pictures later.

Off to Market

2011-05-11T09:45:00.002-06:00

I'm off to the International Quilt Market tomorrow in Salt Lake City. This is quite the event for anyone involved in the quilt, fabric world. My sister who owns Apron Lady Designs always asks me to come with her (if she didn't ask me, I would virtually beg her to go any way). She has some fun new patterns this year and I'm excited to see how they do at market. I'll post pictures when I get back.

For now, my design wall will just have to stay as it is. I'm in the process of making Let Your Imagination Bloom by Natalia Bonner. I'm using Moda's Fresh Flowers line. I saw the pattern here on Moda Bakeshop.

Hope to see some of you at market!

Another scrappy top

2011-05-03T20:56:00.003-06:00

A few years ago I came home from quilt market with a large bundle of leaf print batiks. Of course I had a plan at the time to make something awesome with them, but they slowly found themselves under a pile of other pieces of fabric that were meant for something totally awesome. The other day in my spring cleaning I discovered them and decided to do something about it. So here is my latest quilt top using all scraps from my stash.

It was a really windy day, but it felt so good to be able to be outside after a long winter that I just had to take the picture outside. My daughter was hoping her green converse tennis shoes would show up for the picture. They are her prized possession and yes, they are a beautiful compliment to the quilt :).

Material Girls

2011-04-29T08:30:00.002-06:00

At my quilt group this week, Material Girls Idaho, we each made a cute little pin cushion from two circles of fabric. The bottom piece is wool. They were easy and fast, my two favorite things and my homemade pin toppers look great on it. Follow the link and check out the photos from our show and tell. The recipes from our luncheon are even included.

Pizza Box-black and white

2011-04-28T08:11:00.002-06:00

This month I had Mary's pizza box and she's doing all black and white squares. So I improvised a square this time and I think it turned out cute(sorry it's a little blurry).

Here are all the blocks in her box so far. I know she'll love making a quilt from all of these.

Dinosaur Eggs

2011-04-21T21:39:00.002-06:00

Thanks to a post and tutorial on Our Best Bites, my girls and I decided to make dinosaur eggs last night. This morning when we unveiled/peeled the eggs, it was a fun surprise with each one.

Once they are hard boiled and cracked, then they have to stay in the dye cups overnight.

In the morning we peeled all the eggs and to our surpise even the inside of the peeled shells were a piece of art.

Some of the eggs were easier to peel than others, but each one is quite unique and of course very pre-historic looking.

Scraps galore

2011-04-20T17:33:00.002-06:00

I've had a huge stash of batiks for quite a few years now. I use them for lots of things, but it never seems to make a dent in the pile. So here's yet another attempt to use several of my leaf print batiks and I actually think my pile went down quite a bit for this one. I'm still working out the details of it and some of the things are just pinned together but I'm liking what I see so far.

Neon anyone?

2011-04-18T10:41:00.002-06:00

Here's how the balloon wreath looks in neon. My daughter decided she wanted to join me in my class and she chose to do her balloon in neon and I liked hers the best out of all of them.

Balloon Wreath

2011-03-11T13:39:00.003-07:00

I was asked to teach a class at our church for a craft day called Super Saturday. At first they wanted me to teach a birthday banner class which would have been fun too, but it would have taken too much time. So I found this cute balloon wreath complete with tutorial on Our Best Bite's blog and it's much quicker from start to finish. I still need to add a few more balloons and tidy it up a bit. It takes quite a few, about 200-250, but this is the overall look and I think it will be fun to hang on special days, birthdays, etc.

Dr. Suess's birthday-again...

2011-03-02T16:23:00.002-07:00

As long as I have a child in elementary school, I will always know when it's Dr. Suess's birthday. I can't tell you how many times I've done some version of Cindy Loo Hoo's hair. Nikki was so excited about today that she had a hard time getting to sleep last night. She had everything planned out-the hair, the braid design, the dress, the tights, the shoes. She's at an after school activity right now at church and still wants to keep her hair this way. I have a feeling she'll ask me if she can sleep in it too.

Here's what's on my design wall right now. I had a charm pack that desperately needed a home. There are very few patterns out there that only require one charm pack. So I made all of them into half-square triangles, put them up on my board and starting playing with design. I landed on this one and have them sewn in rows so far. It will probably be a medallion for a quilt or else a table topper for my square kitchen table. I used every charm square except 3 of them. I'll put them on the back.

Big purse

2011-02-23T21:07:00.003-07:00

I finally made a big purse. It's one I've been eyeing ever since I saw a couple friend's of mine with theirs. I love the grommets-all 8 of them.
I love how large the opening is, but also how it looks like a regular purse once it's closed. With the wide mouth opening, I can easily put my notebooks, church books and iPad all in it with room to spare. The pockets are a nice size too.

Now that I've made one and worked through all the kinks of a new pattern, I'd love to make another one. It goes together quite fast and I'd love to make one as a gift.

Looking Back

2011-02-16T08:59:00.002-07:00

I was looking back over some of my photos and found pictures from my Material Girls Idaho group from several years ago. Wow! Have we been a productive group and such creativity. Here are just a sampling of a few I found. The snowman quilt was one where we all exchanged fabric at one meeting, learned how to make the quilt and then several in the group made their own version of it.

Flickr block

2011-02-10T23:13:00.002-07:00

Finally finished my January block for my Flickr group, Bee Scrappy. Somehow I got behind last month. I really enjoyed making this block, it was a new method for me. Here's the tutorial that we all used to make these liberated churn dashes:
I can see lots of possibilities using this same method for several other classic blocks.

Scraps and stash

2011-02-02T09:46:00.003-07:00

So many people including myself are looking for ways to use up our tons of stash from projects past and I've always loved this particular technique called Snippets. It's so easy to do. I've shown a few of my snippet blocks and quilts before, but I had forgotten about the method and was trying to think of some ways to use up my stash, a personal goal for this year. I whipped up this little block in about 30 minutes. There are a couple of books outlining the technique, but you basically just put Steam-a-Seam on the back of your leftover fabric pieces, free form cut them into shapes. I chose to do flower petals, leaves and a vase. Take the paper backing off and stick it down on your background fabric. The shapes are removable and you can re-position them several times until you get a look you like. Once you like it, iron and it's permanent. Make a huge bouquet and you've used quite a bit of your stash!

This next block was another Pizza Box block. I used the same design as last month because both quilters had such similar colors.

My group

2011-01-26T16:45:00.003-07:00

Got to go to my group today, always a treat. These are a just a few of the quilts we got to see from our show and tell.

I showed my carolers which I finally finished. They are now ready for Christmas 2011. I crocheted scarfs for them and added a few buttons.

Pizza Box squares

2011-01-20T21:23:00.002-07:00

I just finished the Pizza Box square for this month. Each person in our quilt group, Material Girls Idaho, should now have 7 completed squares. We're starting to get a little glimpse of what our future quilts will look like. Below is the first block that came with the pizza box that the box owner made. That gives us the idea for colors and style for the blocks we add to the box.
Here are some of the other blocks that were already in the box from the past few months. Since there are about 18 of us participating, we will probably end up going for 18 months.

From toe to head

2011-01-18T23:34:00.003-07:00

Since I'm in the middle of projects and don't have anything in the "done" phase to show, thought I'd at least show my daughter's handiwork. My brother who owns a show manufacturing plant (high end high heels) sent me all kinds of scraps of shoe fabric knowing I was somewhat of a fabricaholic.

It's very thick material, and quite the interesting color combinations, but nothing I could ever use in a conventional quilt. In fact, I would need to sew with the heavy duty needles just to get through it. But my daughter thinks the fabric is awesome, so she's been busy making herself layered flowers for her hair out of the remnants. I sense a future scrapaholic in the making :) So there must be some women out covering their toes with this material, but in my home it looks beautiful on the head.

Carolers in January?

2011-01-06T15:39:00.002-07:00

So I'm a little slow on getting Christmas projects finished. Maybe I should have just said these are for 2011 and that I planned it that way. I'm still not completely finished, a few buttons to add here and there and I plan on knitting scarves for most of them, but I wanted to see how they'd look through the camera lens. They were so fun to make and very fast. I also got better with each one and appreciated tips that were given online. I found the tutorial here.

Chargers

2011-01-02T22:50:00.002-07:00

I couldn't post a picture of these chargers that I made for my sister until after I gave them to her for Christmas. So here they are finally.

I was actually starting a hexagon tablerunner for her when she mentioned very casually that she loved the plate chargers I made for myself. So I changed directions and whipped up 6 plate chargers. She loves anything dresden plate, so this was a perfect gift. Now she's inspired to make some dresden plates on her own. She's thinking of making some small ones and putting them into a tablerunner. I hope she enjoys using these. They're a lot of fun to make and actually make for a good stash buster. I'm thinking of making a few more sets to put out on the table throughout the year-Christmas chargers, Thanksgiving chargers, Valentine chargers and summertime picnic chargers.

Winnings!

2010-12-16T22:21:00.002-07:00

In the mail today was this fun surprise package from Heather Mulder Peterson of Anka's Treasures. Look at all the new patterns and 2 new books. I'm so excited! I won these when I entered a blog hop drawing from her blog. I can't wait to sit down and look through each pattern.
Also coincidentally today my sister-in-law called because she opened her Christmas present I sent her (I knew she'd open it early, she just can't wait) and was thrilled to have her new tablerunner, which just happens to be an Anka's Treasures pattern. I posted about it just earlier this month. I'm glad she loves it and she even sent me a picture of it on her dining table.

Material Girls Idaho

2010-12-14T19:50:00.002-07:00

Here's a few sneak peaks of some of the projects that were shown at my quilt group's meeting last week. Aren't they cute!

My Material Girl buddies out did themselves this month and we had a great show and tell. Here's a link to the group's page so you can see what everyone came up with this month. http://materialgirlsidaho.blogspot.com/

Tablerunner...check

2010-12-06T08:32:00.003-07:00

Check, it's done. I'm probably going to have a hard time giving this one away because I really love it. They're colors I love and use in my home, but I actually am more excited to give it as a gift.
I finished it with some machine quilting.

I love how it turned out and it was fun using the 60 degree ruler to make these hexagons. The pattern is from Heather Mulder Peterson's book, Sizzlin'Sixties.

Gingerbread search

2010-12-02T20:18:00.002-07:00

I bought this cute little gingerbread girl and ever since I've been looking for other gingerbread people to add to her family. It's so cute and I would love to have more things with gingerbread men on them. I may just have to make a quilt, but I really do love this little knitted girl. Maybe I'll find the time to use a brown sock and beads and make my own, but I could really use a pattern. I'm better at copying something cute rather than coming up with something cute on my own.

Finally got the tree all put together last night. We always put a picture of Christ on the tree so He doesn't get lost amid all the glitter and glam of Christmas.

Decorating and gift making

2010-11-30T23:51:00.002-07:00

For some reason this year, as soon as the last mouthful of scrumptious turkey and dressing were off my plate and into my mouth I was excited to start ushering in Christmas. I asked my sons who were home from college to "go get Christmas." They knew what that meant-trips into the house with large plastic bins full of Christmas decorations. I carefully packed away Thanksgiving, turned up the Christmas music and began the joyous ritual. A ritual that has become a tradition and also becomes a trip down memory lane as items are unwrapped and almost discovered as if for the first time all over again. It's amazing how you forget what you have packed away.

My fun snippets wreath wallhanging has a new home right in the kitchen. It was fun to make and even more fun to look at each day.

In the meantime, I'm still putting together gifts for Christmas. This beginnings of a tablerunner (below) is now going on the back burner as I have come up with an even better plan for my #2 Christmas gift. My daughter likes the hexagons though and wants an entire quilt made of these, so that project will have to wait until after Christmas. So for now, I'll try to finish the 3 other gifts I have going all at the same time. #1 gift is in the machine quilting stage, so I'm nearing the end. #2 gift is now ready for the final piecing. #3 gift is an embroidery which has about 2 more hours worth of work, then it will be ready for the finishing stages. I enjoy making things when I know exactly who I'm giving them to. I only wish those whom I'm making these for could know how much I think of them while I'm working on their gifts. Handwork and quilting cause me to slow down a bit in an otherwise hurried and frenzied season. That's a gift to myself!

Happy Thanksgiving Week!

2010-11-22T00:09:00.003-07:00

A few more things to do before our home is filled to the brim. Grocery shopping, changing sheets, setting out clean towels and fun magazines for the guests in their rooms, dusting, vacuuming, menu planning, etc.
But one thing I never want to lose sight of is just what my embroidery says, I must always give thanks for my bountiful harvest. I see the hand of the Lord in my life and I would feel so ungrateful not to acknowledge where my blessings come from. I look forward to being with family this week, laughing together, playing games, eating, listening to each other's stories and laughing some more. I love seeing how excited my youngest girls get when they know cousins will be coming to our home. They already know at such a young age that family is what matters most.
Have a warm and wonderful Thanksgiving week!

Moving a bit closer to Thanksgiving

2010-11-18T23:32:00.002-07:00

Now the table setting is starting to take shape.
First to come into town is my oldest son who arrives this Saturday. He'll be a big help in some of the heavier work to be done for preparations. Second to arrive is second oldest son on Monday. Again, more hands to help, but also more fun around the house. We love to play games as a family, so I'm feeling a big game night coming on. I'd love to hear about everyone's favorite family games.I love Jim Shore's creations and this is one that I leave out all year. For me giving thanks is a daily action and this beautiful piece reminds me to find things I'm grateful for each and every day. That's easy because all I need to do is look around.

Getting Ready, bit by bit

2010-11-17T19:51:00.002-07:00

Mr. and Mrs. Tom Turkey salt and pepper shakers

I'm getting ready for Thanksgiving guests next week, putting a few things out each day, picking up, cleaning out, etc, etc. Bit by bit things are coming together.

UFO's

2010-11-16T23:10:00.002-07:00

While looking for something else, I opened a box with many of my UFO's-- blocks with no home, leftover blocks, and just changed-my-mind blocks.
It's actually been quite some time since I've seen the contents of this container so looking at everything brought back memories. I think they're over 10 years old now.

I pulled these 3 blocks and decided I should turn them into pillows, an easy fix for lonely one-of-a-kind blocks. This red and yellow one will actually look awesome in my family room, so it's probably the first one I'll transform. Can't wait to see how they turn out.

A few more touches

2010-11-16T10:21:00.002-07:00

All I have left on this one is to attach the flowers, sandwich, quilt and bind, then Ta da, on to the next project (actually I've already started my next project. I can never just have one thing going at a time). This was fun to make and I loved using lots of my batiks.

tis the season

2010-11-08T18:09:00.002-07:00

Pretty much every year as soon as Halloween passes by I get the wonderful season fever. It's a fever of anticipation, love, family, giving, thanking...did I say family! I'm looking forward to having a house full here for Thanksgiving. Our house has become the destination spot for Thanksgiving and I love it. Two of my brothers (I have 6 brothers so it's not really even a majority) and their families will be coming.

Last weekend I went to a holiday bazaar with my friend Tracey and my daughter Kristina. The hand made items were all so cute, but I must say that I think the women don't charge enough for their awesome crafts. I know how long they take and what talent it takes and I was so surprised at some of the prices. With that said, how could I pass up this cute tree and the 2 houses. Each piece sold for a little over $2. I should have splurged and bought one more house. Tracey bought 3 houses and I'm thinking that's what I should have done. Oh well. I love how it looks.

In the meantime, I'm busily starting to get my plans together for my handmade Christmas presents. This is a preview of what I'm working on now. It's on my design wall. I think it will be perfect for "her" (can't say who in case she pops in on this blog.) I've pinned the flowers on to see if I like them. I love them! So now I need to decide how to attach them.

The key to a less stress holiday season for me is to do only a few handmade items since they take so much time (there's always next year for other friends and family) and to make lists. The other big help for me is to play Christmas music while I'm working around the house. It always sets the tone of the day. Is it too early to play Christmas music? Not for me. My DH is a big fan of Christmas music so we have tons of CD's to choose from. Lucky me!

Swap block

2010-11-02T19:17:00.002-06:00

Here's my November block for my flickr group, Bee Scrappy. This will be a fun quilt when it's all put together. It's based on this blog from Nittany Block Party. The hardest part is matching the white strips. Took me a couple of tries.

Artist in the family

2010-11-01T20:07:00.002-06:00

I have no drawing skills at all. In fact, my stick figures are even hard to recognize at times. But my 10 yr old daughter Leah took an art class and came home with these beautiful pictures. I had to frame them and show them off. She loves drawing and is feeling that wonderful confidence that comes when we recognize a new talent. I love seeing her beam with pride at the pictures she can paint or draw. It's hard to find good art classes for young people, so when I passed a sign along the road for art lessons, I jumped on it. I'm hoping her teacher will continue to hold more and more classes. She's a great teacher and taught several different techniques.
So now I've told Leah that she's an artist on paper and I'm an artist with cloth. She gets that. I've also told her how great it feels to be creative in life. It feeds our souls and feeds the souls of those who behold it.

Binding on...

2010-11-01T09:36:00.002-06:00

I finished my mosaic quilt and showed it at my group, Material Girls Idaho. I quilted it at my friend Tracey's. She just got a new Gammill and it was fun. I didn't like putting it on the machine, that was a little confusing and time consuming, but the quilting was a breeze. It sure beats trying to wad up my quilt and fit it under my little sewing machine to quilt it. Not that I didn't make any mistakes, but it makes me want to try again. I know lots of practice will make things better each time. So now I will gather a bunch of quilt tops that never made it to the quilting stage and use them for practice.

Turkey Carving

2010-10-29T20:06:00.002-06:00

After my rotary cutting mishap, I managed to keep quilting (the next day) and finished my turkey quilt. I'm calling it Turkey Carving in honor of the sacrifice I gave to make it. It went together quickly and I even managed to find the border fabric on the sale rack at my local quilt store Quilt Expressions.
The only thing I added to my pattern by Country Threads, was the wattle on the turkey face. My girls thought it looked too much like a chicken and needed it and I agreed. It's always good to have daughters in the house to add second, third and fourth opinions (whether I ask for them or not :)

Turkey trouble

2010-10-23T12:30:00.003-06:00

I'll spare the details of my injury while working on my turkey, it wasn't a pretty site, but I now will use much more caution and even slow down while using a rotary cutter.

In fact this may convince me more into getting an Accuquilt for Christmas.

Please be safe :)

New Bee Block

2010-10-21T10:21:00.004-06:00

Just finished this month's Pizza Box Exchange block for Material Girls Idaho. The owner of this box wants squares with lime green, reds and creams.

Beautiful Batik block

2010-10-13T20:51:00.003-06:00

These are 2 blocks for my flickr group, Beautiful Batik. I'll send it out in the mail tomorrow. It's a very simple block but I think the quilt will be stunning when all the blocks get put together.

All Because 2 People Fell in Love

2010-10-07T21:01:00.006-06:00

I made this wall hanging for my parents. They'll be celebrating their 60th wedding anniversary next year. My mom suffers from severe memory loss which has been progressing slowly for the past 10 years.

She doesn't remember any of her 12 children (all of us were adopted), so I thought I'd make this wall hanging with all the kids' names and their children's names underneath so at least the names were there for her. I'm already behind on 4 more grandchildren.

The older I get, the more I realize how incredible my parents were and are. They made parenting seem fairly effortless, but oh, do I know better now. Their love and their concern for all of us came from their strong love and bond for each other. Their
prayers for all of us must have worn down their knees because we sure needed a lot of praying for.

Family values are disintegrating all around us and it makes me even more vigilant in my own efforts as a mom to help my children know who they are, how important they are in this world, where they can turn for peace and how much they are loved. It's a foundation in life that every child should have and deserves. Thank you mom and dad for giving me that knowledge.

Good to go

2010-10-05T10:21:00.002-06:00

I've decided this top is done. I had some ideas of changing a few things here and there, but I'm ready to move on and I need to just call it "good to go". It was fun doing the mosaic tile look in the center, I'll probably use that technique again on another quilt. From here I'll pick out a fabric for the back and then I'm off to my friend, Tracey's house, to quilt it. She just bought a new longarm quilting machine and I'm anxious to see how I do with it. I'm pretty sure I'll get addicted and will need to hang out at Tracey's house more often than she may want me. But she says she really wants to see her machine being used rather than just sitting there (her husband feels the same way :)

Design Wall

2010-09-30T19:44:00.003-06:00

What's on my design wall right now? Here are a few of the things I'm working on:

This is some kind of free form piecing. I love mosaics, so I thought I'd put a little grout between my pieces of fabric.

Here I'm auditioning a piano keys border to go around my mosaic tile quilt. So far the vote in the family is unanimously in favor of this border. I always make everyone come into my quilt room and vote. I have to see their reaction sometimes before I can move forward. So I'll trim it up and add it to the sides.
In the meantime, I also managed to finish another pizza box square for one of my fellow Material Girls. Wish I had paid attention to which way the stripes were going, but as I look at it now, it kind of adds interest to the card tricks square. I'll just say I did it on purpose...

Pizza Box block

2010-09-16T22:43:00.003-06:00

Just finished my next pizza box block for the Material Girls Idaho block exchange. This month I got Jeanie's box. I made one square using the disappearing 9-patch method. Hope she likes it.

Block for Bee Scrappy group

2010-09-15T07:59:00.002-06:00

Here's a block I made for my Flickr group, Bee Scrappy. This month we're making a whimsical block for one of the member's who requested trees, houses, birds, etc so she can make a quilt for her 9 year old son. I hope she likes it. I saw this block on
Flossy Blossy's blog and made some variations to it so it will fit a 12" square.

Green Room

2010-09-09T15:05:00.004-06:00

My oldest daughter (14 almost 15) has agreed to share a room with a younger sister. We made a deal with her that if she shared the room, she could pick the decor of the room. Well, here's the chosen colors. I actually love it and thought it turned out really cute. My husband had a hard time seeing the beauty of it while helping us paint, but he couldn't deny the enthusiasm and anticipation in the girls' faces.

The nice thing about this is that it's pretty minimalistic. Both girls are not leaving things out (so far) because they don't "fit into the chosen color scheme". We'll see how long that lasts. We'll even be adding some black floating shelves on the walls-probably next month, but until then, I popped my black and white quilt up on the wall for some interest. The flowers on the right are just the peel-off removable stickers.

The great thing about being a quilter and having scraps is that I usually have whatever color we need for whatever project is at hand. With my black and white scraps I covered 3 canvases. Notice who still gets number spot on the board-ZAC!!

I love all the new stick-on-the-wall art that's available now. The best part is that it peels off and can be moved so easily. This was a roll I got from Home Depot, so I just stuck it on top of the dresser to see how it looks. I think we'll keep it there. I'll also be adding black, white and green knobs on the dresser later.
When I go in their room now, it makes me smile-can't say that's what it did for me before. So this has been a fun project. After all, they're only young girls for such a short time...

Dresden plate chargers

2010-08-27T15:33:00.002-06:00

I saw this tutorial on Moda Bake Shop and instantly knew I wanted to try them. They were easy, fun and I would definitely make them again. I think they would make a great gift. The tutorial calls for wool as the background, but to save some money I used felted fleece and it worked beautifully.

Disappearing 9-patch

2010-07-21T19:18:00.004-06:00

Another disappearing 9-patch, but this time I added sashing. The bad news for me is that the fabric I want to use as a border is from the new Moda line Lily and Will and won't be out until September. I used 2 new charm packs for this top from Moda, Lily and Will and also Pure. So away it goes until September and now onto the next project in the lineup. If I can get a 22 1/2" wedge ruler, I would like to make some dresden plate placemats.

July Menu Board

2010-07-14T19:53:00.002-06:00

I've loved having my menu board this year. It helps me keep organized and the kids can easily see what's for dinner. I even find curious changes in the board once in a while when someone has secretly added their favorite meal to the week's menu. At least I can see what they're craving.
Each month I change the paper in the background and it's been a lot of fun, but when I put the paper in for July, I instantly loved it. The yellow/gold background I chose for the words and the calendar remind me of mustard, which of course is a must at any summer picnic. I like it so much that I may keep it up during August too.
I first posted about this menu board in January of this year. Here's the link to get to it quickly-Menu Board

Jello Art

2010-07-06T20:19:00.003-06:00

Little Birdie Secrets gave me this fun idea for the kids. Even my older kids thought it was pretty fun. This is Jello art. Make copies of the picture above, paint each fruit with Elmer's glue (just use your cheap paint brushes), sprinkle the corresponding Jello flavor to the fruit (we had to label our containers because so many of them look alike) (also, we couldn't find any banana flavored Jello-is there such a thing?),

shake off the excess and tada-you have a wonderfully fun smelling work of art. The bowl and leaves can just be colored or markered in. Here's how my daughters' pictures turned out.

Charm pack disappearing 9-patch

2010-07-05T17:59:00.002-06:00

I bought a couple charm packs from Moda, Pure and Lily and Will, so I decided to make another disappearing 9-patch. This time I thought I'd put sashing between the squares to make the quilt a little bigger. So I'm auditioning fabric that I have. I'd love to be able to use up some of my stash. I'm leaning toward this green as a sashing. Then I need to decide on something for an outer border and I'm looking for something with a brown as a background. Browns can really vary in shades and tones, so I'll need to take the top with me to a quilt store if I don't find anything in my own stash.

Asiatic Lillies

2010-07-03T17:49:00.001-06:00

Wouldn't these be great colors for a quilt. I love the Asiatic lillies when they bloom. Wish they lasted all summer.

Banana Split quilt

2010-06-30T16:01:00.002-06:00

I made this quilt from a pattern called Banana Split by Country Lane. You basically make a nine-patch, cut it in half horizontally and vertically, then put those together. I was lucky enough to pick up a large piece of yellow minky fabric from my sister Jan, so I put it on the back. I didn't even add any batting since it seemed heavy enough without it. I quilted it on my regular machine at home, which was pushing the limits of my abilities. This was a pretty large quilt to get under the machine and it was difficult to move around with the minky on the back, but I love how it all turned out. Because it's so soft and colorful, it has become the favorite for the family to grab while watching tv.

Star Table Topper

2010-06-24T15:11:00.002-06:00

In last month's Material Girls' Meeting, we learned how to make these table toppers. They're fast and easy and I managed to find a remnant of Christmas material to put on the back so now I have 2 table toppers for the work of one. There are lots of shapes that this flip and sew method would be good with, so I may try coming up with my own design for the next one. The hardest part was putting the binding on with those sharp points of the star. There are some good tutorials out there, but of course, I got too anxious to finish and tried plodding my way through it on my own. Got it on a table just in time for the 4th of July.

Material Girls May mtg

2010-06-09T09:05:00.004-06:00

Here are the pics from my quilt group Material Girls Idaho. Our new block exchange called the Pizza Box Exchange looks like it's going to be a hit. We each made one block of our choosing and put it in a pizza box. After each meeting, we take home a different pizza box and make a block that will go with the original block. After about 12-15 months, we'll take home our original box and will have a beautiful assortment of squares with which to make a quilt. We look like we're having a huge pizza feast each month as we bring our boxes to the meeting! Here's my original block and I've suggested that any other blocks are also made using a raw edge applique technique. Can't wait to see what my talented quilting buddies come up with.

The rest of these are pictures from our show and tell. Enjoy.

The yummy parfaits...

Material Girls Show and Tell

2010-05-14T23:07:00.002-06:00

Last week my quilt group met so I thought I'd post the pictures from our show and tell. It's the best part of our meetings-so motivating! We're starting a Pizza Box Exchange this month. Each of us made a block of our choosing with the colors we want in our quilt. We put our blocks in a pizza box, then go home from the meeting with someone else's pizza box. During the month we then make one square for the owner of the box we took home, using their colors but choosing our own pattern for the block. Can't wait to see the results.

Diane S.'s table runners

Diane S.'s exchange block
Rachel's Pizza Box exchange block
Rachel's quilt
Rachel's quilt
Rachel's block
Rachel's table topper
Another of Rachel's table toppers

Close up

Rachel's quilt
Carolanna's Pizza Box exchange block
Carolanna's quilt
Carolanna's quilt. Experimenting with rickrack
Carolanna's quilt
Carolanna's quilt
Carolanna's quilt
Susan's Pizza Box exchange block
Susan's quilt
Susan's quilt
Corrie's Pizza Box exchange block
Corrie's purse
Corrie's Vintage triangle quilt
Diane B.'s Pizza Box exchange block
Diane B.'s daughter's skirt
Mary's Pizza Box exchange block
Maurene's Pizza Box exchange block
Maurene's work in progress
Kathi's daughter's baptism quilt
Kathi's Pizza Box exchange block
Monica's Pizza Box exchange block
Robyn's Pizza Box exchange block
Robyn's quilt
Nancy C.'s Pizza Box exchange block
Lenette's Bullseye friendship quilt
Lenette's quilt

Sew and flip stars designed and made by Lori. We will be making these next month!
Lori's Pizza Box exchange block.

Felt Flower Hairpins

2010-04-21T21:12:00.004-06:00

My daughter Nikki and I (with some great help from my friend Tracey) finished making these cute felt flower hairpins this evening. Nikki's class is having a "City" day where some of the kids sell products and some of them are buyers. Nikki is a seller so we decided to make these hairpins. They're pretty easy and turned out very cute. Now my other daughters each want to make some for themselves.

Cut a piece of felt about 6 to 8" by 3-5". Fold it over and glue along the edge. Then cut 1/4" cuts up to the glued edge.Loop ribbons or yarn and sew the loops down along the glued edge.
Add another line of glue along the sewn edge.
Roll the piece allowing the glued edge to keep it rolled together. I used a low temp glue gun for this.
Glue gun or stitch a button in the center. Glue a hair clip onto the back and it's finished.

Scalloped border

2010-04-19T15:21:00.002-06:00

Thank you Diane for lending me your scallop border ruler. It sure made it easy to make this scalloped border on Nikki's baptism quilt. I marked the border with the ruler, sent the quilt to be quilted and once I had it home, I cut out around the scalloped border lines.
So far I've sewn the binding to the edge of the quilt and now I'm ready to turn it to the back and blind stitch it down.

This is one of my favorite parts of quilting. I'm not sure why-it's not particularly fast. I must just like being forced to sit quietly, sew by hand, day dream and see a new quilt come to life as it's finished. It's very satisfying.

To Quilt or Not to Quilt

2010-04-10T11:36:00.002-06:00

I can't seem to finish this wallhanging and the only reason is because I can't decide whether I should quilt the background sky behind the tree and if I do quilt it, how should I quilt it. The pattern suggests weaving back and forth in long S-formations. It looks ok, but I may not be that precise of a machine quilter. If I leave it blank, does it look like I didn't really care about it and just slapped a tree onto a background, added borders and called it good? The tree took a tremendous amount of work, cutting it out and machine quilting with my feed dogs down every branch and limb. I like how it looks now and don't want to ruin it, but if I can enhance it a bit with machine quilting, that would be even better.
In the end, I may just quilt the borders, add a binding, hang it and look at it for months. Then if I get a brilliant idea, I should still be able to take it to the machine and quilt the sky. Sounds wimpy, but I'll be the first to admit my weaknesses with machine quilting.

4-Sided Placemats

2010-03-25T23:54:00.005-06:00

While in Vegas a couple weeks ago, I of course took time to check out a local quilt store Nancy's Quilt Shop, which I highly recommend, and I saw this pattern for a 4-sided placemat. I could see one of the placemats on display, but couldn't figure out how it could be 4-sided, so one of the sales people gave me a demonstration. Very creative! I immediately knew I wanted to give it a try. After only one error on my part, I whipped through the directions and made a 4-sided placemat of my very own in only about 20 minutes. So I made a set.

The template is pretty basic, but makes it so easy to place on top of a fat quarter and cut around the shape.

Then with 2 pieces of fabric right sides together, sew around one half of the placemat.

Turn back the top piece in half (sorry, I'm photographing different placemats and different sides of the same placemat-not a serious tutorialist I guess. Hope you can still follow it), add another piece of fabric on top and stitch around one half of the placemat again. Continue with one more piece, then with the final fabric stitch all the way around leaving a small opening to turn the entire thing right side out. Press, close the small opening and enjoy.

My girls love setting the table with them and deciding which side should show and even fold back some of the sides to show 3 sides together as seen in these last two photos.

mini iron

2010-03-11T19:22:00.003-07:00

Had to search high and low with all my quilting friends, but finally found Diane who had one of these mini irons. I was just about to start ironing my tree onto the background, but with all the intricate little branches I knew using a regular size iron was a disaster waiting to happen. This mini iron did the trick and it was so easy to use. I loved it. It's now officially on my wish list for upcoming Mother's Day/Birthdays/ Valentine's Day/Christmas, etc.
This is going to be a wall hanging and so far I'm very excited about it. After attaching the final borders, quilting around each limb will be my next big task. Wish me luck...

First attempt with a purse

2010-03-05T14:29:00.002-07:00

So I finally hopped on the band wagon and found a purse pattern I really wanted to have and make. When I saw Heather Mulder Peterson's Bella Bag pattern, I knew I wanted to make it. I made the large bag from the pattern.
I used material I had purchased while I was in the Dominican Republic picking up my son from his LDS church mission. It's a fabric with embroidery already on it and I loved the colors. They didn't really have any quilting fabric, so I picked up this fabric instead. The pattern was easy to follow and would have been much easier if I had fabric that was the usual 44" wide, but this particular fabric was only about 21" wide, so I ended up having to piece the handles and make them a little bit shorter instead of having each handle cut from just one piece of fabric. I would have preferred to make the handles from the fabric used in the bottom half of the purse, but there just wasn't enough left. I used the grommets that just snap into place and I loved them. I will definitely be using them for many other projects. I used some fabric glue also in between the grommets like Heather recommended. The lining is just a blue/green plaid from my stash and I sewed 3 pockets onto it.
Can't wait to use my new purse now. I'm already looking at my stash to make another bag from this pattern.

Baptism quilt embroidery

2010-03-04T11:41:00.004-07:00

I'm off to the quilter today, Terri Hair, to get Nikki's quilt beautifully quilted. She always does an amazing job and I don't mind paying extra for quilts that are meant to be very special. Here are some close-ups of the embroidery work I did on her quilt. The only one that isn't quilted is the scripture verse. I actually printed that onto fabric.

Last baptism quilt

2010-02-12T10:01:00.002-07:00

Here I am finishing up my last baptism quilt for my kids. Nikki is our youngest, she turned 8 last year and was baptized. So as is my custom, she gets a quilt. Nikki chose the colors and I love how it's turning out. Right now I'm looking for more fabric for the border. Why don't I just get enough fabric in the first place? I tend to leave my design ideas for the border until I see the finished top, that's why. I know it's not a good habit, but...Maybe I'll learn one day.

The flowers on this are layered and are called French Roses. The center is just something I designed using a similar method as the flowers. After it's quilted I'll be adding some cute buttons to the centers of the little hearts.

Each embroidered square says something about Nikki's life and I'll post again just highlighting the embroidery squares.
So far though, Nikki's very excited about her new quilt.

Braided table runner

2010-01-28T07:57:00.003-07:00

I love my new table runner and I loved it when I first saw it in the book Livin Large by Heather Mulder Peterson. In fact, there are quite a few quilts in that book that I'm planning on making. The table runner was very easy to make and the directions were great. I'm also now a fan of Heather Mulder Peterson's blog, you ought to check it out.

The braiding is actually laid over a solid piece of fabric and is raw edge.

Watches for the girls

2010-01-15T16:28:00.004-07:00

I got together with a group of friends to make these watches. We ordered our watch faces from a fun website ewatchwholesale.com, then picked out beads to attach. I ended up making 3 watches, one for each of my daughters for Christmas. I wrapped them in cute boxes so they would know they were a little special. Sometimes there's so many little gifts laid out on Christmas that nothing looks very special. The girls loved them and they fit perfectly on each one. Even though the beads are threaded onto a stretchy cord, you have to be at least close to the right size of wrist. I chose each girl's favorite color for her watch, so they were thrilled and have worn them just about every day. They were so easy to make, I may have to put one together for myself now.

Menu planner

2010-01-07T09:03:00.003-07:00

While making watches for my daughters at a friend's house (pictures to come later), I noticed a cute menu planner on her wall in the kitchen. I took a quick picture of it with my phone and she said she'd send me a template for it. Sometimes you just see something and become driven to make it or have it. Well, that's what happened with me. I knew I wanted to make it, but I put my own twist on it.

Her dinner options attached with velcro, but I decided to make mine magnetic. Her background was fixed, but I decided I wanted to change my background each month. So here's what I came up with. I had fun picking out cute papers for my backgrounds, but my kids have loved this. They can easily see what's for dinner and what's coming up for dinner in the next few days. They also get pretty excited to help me pick the menu. I can always add new menu items, but as a family we tried to pick out the general favorites.

I made sure to add one called "new recipe night" which gives me the option of trying anything. I also added "leftovers" and "girls cook" which my daughters loved. I have the templates for the calendar and the menu items if anyone's interested.

Material Girls Christmas Luncheon 09

2009-12-03T17:35:00.000-07:00

Material Girls Idaho Oct 09

2009-10-28T22:37:00.002-06:00

Went to my quilt group today, Material Girls Idaho, and as usual it was motivating and fun. Here's a slide show of the quilts and wallhangings, etc that were shown in the "Sew and Tell". Enjoy!

8 Years

2009-08-04T19:36:00.007-06:00

This month marks 8 years since we moved to Idaho from South Carolina. We moved to be closer to family, most of them live in the West. But leaving South Carolina was hard. It's a beautiful state and I have wonderful friends there. My quilt guild on Hilton Head Island was especially hard to leave and I was part of 3 smaller quilt groups that met monthly too.

This is a quilt that one of my groups made for me as a good-bye gift. Each friend paper pieced a square and also signed one of the squares. It hangs in my family room and is such a treasure to me now. That's what quilts do for you. They become a legacy of love long after the makers have moved on.

Table topper

2009-07-03T20:42:00.004-06:00

Finally finished my table topper which I'll probably use in the fall and winter months. I think I may have to start making more table toppers and back of the couch quilts because they're so quick and I can actually machine quilt them myself. There's some wonderful series of books called Toppers by Nancy Smith Lynda Milligan which gave me the idea. She has lots of fun ideas for topper quilts.
With this topper, I was able to use scraps from my stash. Now that's a great feeling.

End of the year Teachers presents

2009-06-02T20:37:00.003-06:00

I saw these online one day and thought they'd make a cute present for my daughters' teachers. It just so happens that they each have a teacher whose name starts with "W" so I'm only showing one picture. But I think they really turned out cute. It's the one time my girls got to break crayons legally. We actually ended up putting a couple 3-D scrapbooking stickers on a couple corners just before wrapping them up also. The girls signed their names on the back. Shadow boxes have so much potential for lots of cute ideas.

Aprons for Argentina friends

2009-05-14T22:19:00.004-06:00

Before my trip to Argentina I decided I wanted to take some gifts. We picked up books, posters, candies, etc and I also made 2 aprons for ladies I had been exchanging emails with, Maria and Marcela. (My daughter Kristina is here modeling them for me so I could have a keepsake of what I'd made.) Another email friend was Susana, but I had previously sent an apron to her through the mail. I was so excited to meet them and wanted to take them something home made from me. Both of them are amazing and fun women and I thoroughly enjoyed being with them, eating with them, talking and laughing with them, shopping with them and just being in their company. Oh how I wish we lived closer! But what a blessing it is to live in a day and age with email and instant communication.

Argentina trip

2009-05-13T08:12:00.002-06:00

Just got back from a wonderful trip to Argentina to pick up our son who was serving a mission for our church for the last 2 years. We spent a little over a week with him meeting people he had taught, eating with families who loved him and seeing the sights of Cordoba Argentina. It was amazing and we made such wonderful friends there. It was very bittersweet to meet such wonderful people, love being with them, then realizing that we might never be able to see them again. When we got home we had a great reunion with family and friends. Here is a slide show of some of our pictures from the last few weeks.

Playing without a full deck...

2009-02-24T20:38:00.005-07:00

Two things we have plenty of in the house are duct tape and playing cards, but very few full decks. So my daughter and I made this fun purse from all the Uno cards we could find around the house. We got the idea from a project on craftbits.com. We were lucky to have pink duct tape too which makes a cute interior for the purse.

Here's a little peak at what's on my design wall right now. I'm using all scraps from my stash and I'm working on border ideas.

5th Baptism quilt complete

2009-02-10T10:17:00.005-07:00

Number 5 of 6 baptism quilts is now complete. And this time I actually finished it before Leah turned 10. Considering they get baptized when they're 8, I'm pretty happy about this. My youngest gets baptized later this year, so I'm hoping to get started on hers pretty quick.

My friend Terri Hair quilted it for me and she did an awesome job as usual. Leah's quilt was the first baptism quilt that I hand embroidered instead of hand quilted. I really like how it turned out and the pictures are so much easier to see because of the thicker thread. I also printed the center scripture onto fabric straight from my computer. I tested it ahead of time to see if it would wash out or bleed. I hand washed the test strips with cold water, hot water and detergent and it held fast. Even so, I will only wash these quilts with tender loving care and only if they need it badly.

Because Leah was born in Samoa, I embroidered the Samoan islands and the city she was born in.

I've also depicted the family,the temple in Boise, her baptism and confirmation and an "I am a child of God" square. Leah picked the colors and blocks for her quilt. She insisted on putting polynesian looking fabric on the back even though the colors had nothing to do with the front. At first I was hesitant, but after all it's her quilt, so I went with it. Now that it's done, I really like the back and Leah is so happy with it. She loves to show it off to anyone who comes over.

January 09 Show and Tell

2009-01-30T19:25:00.002-07:00

My quilt group, Material Girls, met this past Wednesday. What an amazing group of friends I have!! They are all so talented and it's always a treat to see their handwork each month--so inspiring. I have all kinds of ideas swimming around in my head now. Where to begin is the big question. Enjoy the slide show.

Finished tops and boggle fun

2009-01-13T08:44:00.003-07:00

We went out of town right after Christmas and look how long it's taken me to get back into the swing of things here. We've been back for over a week. Our new family game is Boggle and it gets very intense. It's also pretty hilarious to hear the words that my littlest girls come up with. Sometimes they really surprise us!

I finished 2 quilt tops over the holidays, so now comes the fun and scary part, machine quilting them. This first one I will attempt to do myself since it's not very big. Any ideas for the white space around the flowers would be appreciated. Should I echo quilt or just stipple or what? I'll post a picture of the second top later. In the meantime I need to call the quilter and get on her waiting list. I can't believe how long her list is now. She's really become popular but I know it's because she's so good and worth the wait.