Purple Batiks and presents

Anyone who knows me, knows I LOVE the color purple. You could get me anything (well almost) that is purple and I'll be happy. Did you know there is even an online purple store? This was my first Christmas Gift - 8 of the new batiks we just got in the store - all purple! I absolutely love them and I couldn't think Lu enough for them. She also got me Moonlight path lotion and shower gel which I love too (they are also purple)!

My other purple gifts included a new winter coat, a sweatshirt, and a sweater. My husband and MIL know me well. We're celebrating with my family on Thurs. There still may be more purple gifts in my future.

Weekend Projects

This weekend I knew I needed to get busy and finish a few projects. Friday night I dedicated to getting my binding demo done. I quilted up 4 fat quarters to use as samples and then did the binding in stages. On Sat. I decided to work on this wall hanging. I've had this pattern for sometime and specifically had intended to make it for my dad, but it was more challenging that Chris' other patterns, so I kept putting it off. I finally got the applique done on Christmas Eve day and then on Sat. night I put the borders on and quilted it on my frame. It was a bit of a challenge, but I'm okay with how it turned out. I'm thinking now that I look at it that I should go back and quilt the sky where the corn stalks are. I have the binding glued on and I'm going to finish the binding at lunch. I used a light blue bottomline thread on the top and it turned out wonderful.

After work last night I made this wall hanging, start to finish with just a few minor changes. I had green grass, but it didn't go with the ground, so I changed it. My browns kind of fade together, but Paul likes it and that's what counts. I love the little hanger I got to go with it. This is a patchabilities pattern. It was very simple and didn't take a lot of work. Now maybe I can work on something fun for a change, like a new Mini Miranda purse!

Merry Christmas!

A Very Merry Christmas to everyone! I really enjoyed a very relaxing and fun holiday with our families. I was off on Christmas Eve day, so Paul and I did a few errands around town. We picked up a last minute gift for his mom, the photo Christmas cards we had ordered, and stopped by the shop to pick up fabric for a new wolf wall hanging for Paul. The Sewing Center was getting rid of their floor model chairs - Horn chairs at a very reduced rate. I picked out a white, but Paul thought it would get too dirty, so I picked a blue one out. We took it right home.
We cooked/prepared food in the afternoon and I worked on the cards until our company arrived. We had my parents, Paul's uncle and mom, and Paul and I for supper. We ate finger foods and chili and visited. Then Paul, his mom, and I exchanged gifts. Paul got me a new Colombia winter coat in purple which I really needed since my other was too small. He also got me a black Colombia fleecy to wear with my t-shirt at work so I can stay warm and a purple sweatshirt. His mom gave me a purple sweater and a pink fleecy. I'm all set to stay warm this winter. I got Paul a hoody, an ATV cover set, Burger press, several dvd's and cd's and a meat grinder cover. His grandparents gave me a wall hanging that says Families are like quilts, all pieced together or something similar. It was pretty cool.
We went with my parents to 10PM mass at the Cathedral which was candlelight and absolutely beautiful. We were home by midnight. I love midnight mass, except for I'm so tired, so this was the perfect solution.
Christmas morning we slept in, then took our time getting ready and finished up the preparations for dinner. I emailed friends to wish them a Merry Christmas. For dinner it was Paul & I, his mom, his uncle Will, my parents, and my little bro Ed. We ate about 2:30 and then the guys took naps and Uncle Will left, while we ladies did dishes and then mom, Leslie, and I played UNO Attack. By the end of the night the guys were playing with us. Paul kept winning, so about 7 we quit, had pie and then everyone left. We laughed a ton playing that game as it is so much fun.
This morning I was up early for work and have to work my normal day today. Paul is home relaxing and working on my mom's Christmas gift. We are exchanging gifts with my parents, bros and SIL on New Years Eve/Day, so he has a bit of time to finish it. He's off through the New Year, so should have plenty of time to get it done.
I'm still working on my dad's wall hanging and Paul's too. I hope to have them done by next week. I bought purple/teal/turquoise batiks for a new quilt I plan to make in the New Year, so I'm excited to start it.
Merry Christmas and Happy Quilting!

Tablerunners have been received!

I finally finished the tablerunners for my co-workers and gifted them, so I can share pictures. I made a total of 8 since that was the amount of fabric I had. There is no pattern, just my imagination and a 60* ruler. Depending on how you cut them out, they all turn out a bit different. Border prints or prints with stripes work great as this one did. The wider strip you have, the bigger the tablerunner. If you use just 60* cuts, you get a tabletopper.

I've included close ups of these 4. I gave them to the four ladies I work with in the registrar's office.

I also gave one each to my walking/break friends. We work for the same university, all in Academics, but in different department. The three of us walk every morning/afternoon break and if it's too cold, sit in the break room and have hot chocolate.

I also gave a long wide one to my secret santa at the quilt shop. She really liked it. It's fun to give quilts to quilters. They really appreciate the work that went in to it.

This long narrow one fits perfectly on our mantel.

Last night I picked up the sky batik I needed for my dad's gift. I started working on it the other night and Paul told me what I had picked out looked like fog with frost, so I picked out a new one last night. We did a couple hours worth of Christmas shopping last night. We are all done now except for the three gifts we are making and they don't have to be done until New Years Eve. I finished wrapping all the gifts after we got home. I then worked on dad's gift. It's coming along well. I just have to clean up my mess. I've got all my batiks spread out trying to do an applique piece and it's a mess. Tonight we plan to work on my little bro's gift. We want to give it to him on Christmas day, so it doesn't have to be transported to my parents. Paul is doing all the hard work, but I think it will turn out really special. I'll try to get a picture when it's done. Today is my last day of work until Fri. I'm running the office then, so have to be here, but it'll be a nice two day break! My only two days off all month. I'm hoping to get at least a bit of sewing time in. I have a new quilt calling my name!

Tablerunners and Pillows

I've been busy quilting, but all are gifts so can't be shown just yet. I made 8 tablerunners... yes that's right 60* ruler is my favorite right now and they turned out really well. I started and then couldn't stop. I put a piece of backing on the frame and quilted them all at the same time. I floated the batting and tops and they turned out wonderful. I put binding on 5 of them and need to get enough fabric to finish the binding on the other three. I did gift one to my co-worker at the shop and two to friends at work and they loved them. I still have 5 left and i'm really not sure yet where they might end up.
Last night I played beautician and gave my little bro a hair cut. Let's just say it wasn't my calling in life and yet he's not bald either. He's going to fix my pickup, so a little trade off was in order. He kept warning me that if I did a bad job, mom would have it captured in our Christmas photos.
After he left I worked on pillows that will be gifts. They are appliqued and I think they turned out awesome. I used a wool bat when I quilted, so they are puffy. I can think of two gifts I still would really like to get done for Christmas, so I'm going to work on them this weekend.
I'm working this weekend, so plan to do my Christmas shopping for my family Mon. night after work. Mom and I went shopping after our shop Secret Santa exchange Wed. night and I got most of Paul's gifts. Cabela's didn't have one thing I wanted to get him, so I ordered it online and it should be here next week. I'm done shopping for him now and just need to get my parents gifts and my SIL one too. The Secret Santa Exchange at work was lots of fun and I got a very nice gift, but I haven't had a chance to take a picture of it. I'll try to get to that this weekend.

Mom's Baby Quilts

Tonight I quilted a lot! I quilted a tablerunner for a co-worker for Christmas, then got busy on mom's quilts. I quilted Animal Crackers using a pink verigated King Tut thread. I'm finally getting my tension where I want it to be and I'm pleased with how the stippling turned out on this quilt. I'll take it to her tomorrow after work so she can put the binding on it. It'll be a sample for the store. The kits are already made for it.

Here's a close up of the borders. I love the light pink with giraffes' and the stripes.

Then I quilted a baby quilt for her granddaughter Little Miss M. for Christmas. I wasn't as happy with the loops as I thought they showed up too much. I used a Sulky 30 wt. thread that she picked out and while I didn't have any problems with the thread, I thought it was a little heavy.

Tomorrow night I have to finish the binding on the tablerunner and make a couple other gifts. I'll be busy trying to get all my gifts done, but I wanted to get these quilted for mom.

Patchwork Jungle

We didn't get the big blizzard they were predicting, but we did get the frigid cold temperatures. Yesterday it was -9 when I got up. I worked and we had a total of 3 customers all day. It was too cold to be out. Paul's pickup wouldn't even start.
I finished hand sewing the binding on the Patchwork Jungle baby quilt yesterday. The kits are already done and I'm pleased with how the sample turned out. It took me about 6 hours to maket the top on Fri. night and 1 1/2 hours to quilt on Sat. night and another hour or so to put the bias binding on and about 2 hours to hand sew it down. I'm overall pleased with how quickly it went together and the way my colors worked.


Last night after work I made 60* table runners for my co-workers. I have a few left to go and then I need to quilt them all, so I'll be busy this week. We're having a Christmas gathering to reveal secret santa's on Wed. night and then I need two gifts by Fri. and another for Mon. I quilted my crazy eights table topper last night with a fairly small stipple. I used a mettler blue verigated that had a bit of shimmer to it. It turned out really well. The finished size is about 45" I did the bias binding and got it all put on. I'll finish sewing down the binding today during lunch.

Another Blizzard!

We're in our second blizzard warning of the season. We'd heard it was supposed to be bad starting Sat. night and into Sun., so I was expecting it, but I still don't feel safe until I'm home. Thursday night I rode with the other girls out to Horse Creek Inn for our work Christmas party. It was an amazing Prime Rib supper and I haven't had better in years. We played a fat-quarter game and gave our boss gifts and she gave us gift-certificates to the store, which I'll definately be enjoying!
Friday I finally got to move into my new office with a window. I've been waiting since before Thanksgiving, so we did a three room shuffle and got everyone in place. I'm looking forward to taking my plants, quilts, and other pictures to hang in my office.
Last night we decided to stay home (we usually go out for supper on Fri. night). I wanted to work on a new baby quilt called Patchwork Jungle by Hoffman Fabrics. I layed out the quilt, cut, sewed, and put the borders on last night. It took me about 5 hours start to finish. I would have got up and quilted it this morning, but I didn't have a thread to quilt it with. I picked out a Superior Rainbows thread for the top and a gold bottom line thread while I was working today so I could quilt it tonight. I took out my camera to take a picture of a quilt at work and forgot my camera at work!
About 4 it got terribly icy and Paul came and picked me up and it was slow going, but we made it home. There have been over 50 accidents in the Rapid City area already. It's blowing, snowing, and just plain nasty out now. We're below zero and supposed to be cold and blowing snow all day tomorrow, so I'm guessing I won't be working.
I quilted the baby quilt tonight and put the binding on. I started hand sewing the binding down while we watched the last night of the National Finals Rodeo. JJ won 3rd in the world! We're very proud of our friend. I have several projects I plan to work on if we're snowed in tomorrow. I'll post a picture of the baby quilt when I get my camera back from work.

12 Days of Christmas and Ingrid Barlow Quilt

After my machine was in the shop earlier in the week, I finally got a chance to go full blast quilting tonight and get what I had planned to have done Sun, done tonight. I started with the 12 Days of Christmas wall hanging. I had been resisting it, but when I saw Jen's I fell in love with it all over. It will look great in my new office at work. I used a gold, green, maroon Rainbows thread from Superior. Let me just say I fell in love with it! It quilted beautifully!


Then I quilted moms quilt. It's definately not her normal quilt style, but when she was in Sioux Falls a couple weeks ago she found this pattern by Ingrid Barlow, a local designer. She thought it would look great in big prints, so she used some of the new Free Spirit prints and whipped this top up in 2 hours, start to finish with the cutting included for the quilt top. It's 41"x61" so not very big, but a great throw size. I quilted it using a King Tut brown/green verigated thread. I used loop which turned out really well because they kind of look like the fabric. The thread blended so well that it was hard to see where I had quilted. I'll take this to her tonight so she can put the binding on it and it'll be a store sample for a while. I think this pattern looks really cool and it works great with big prints. I'm looking forward to getting other patterns by Ingrid and trying them.

Tonight we're having a Christmas party, so I'm looking forward to celebrating with the girls. I'm finally starting to feel like I'm getting in the Christmas mood.

Carter's Baby Quilt

My friends Cory and Angie had a little boy in Nov. of 2006 and I made this baby quilt for him. I embroidered his name on it and fussy cut the blocks from a panel. Their room theme was barn yard, so when I saw the panel I immediately thought of them. I finished it in Jan. 2007.

Mom's Friendship Braid Christmas Quilt

In Feb. 2006 mom wanted to take a Friendship Braid Class from one of our favorite instructors, but she had broke her leg and couldn't take the class. I didn't want to pay for the class or buy the fabric, since it was a scrap class and I had none, so we made a deal. I would take the class and do all the sewing during the class. She would provide the scraps, help with the homework sewing, and pay for the class. We got the entire top done by the end of the class. So I told her I would quilt it if she would pin baste. So I quilted it on my 6600 and it turned the machine red!


This was the first quilt I tried using a stensil and FMQin on. It was definately a learning experience and I'm not real great at it, but I knew mom would understand. As I did more, they did get better.

I echo quilted around the braids and then did the stencil in the red.

Crazy Eight Top Done!

This weekend was crazy busy! I don't feel like I got a whole lot done. I started at 5:30 AM on Friday when I made a runaround bag for Janelle, whose last day at work was Fri. She and I have become good friends while working together and I'm going to miss her a ton. I had it whipped together in a half hour and got ready for work. Anyone who knows me, knows this was a miracle since I usually don't get up until the last minute that I need to. I'm not a morning person! Friday night I put a bunch of my Christmas CD's on my Ipod and it took a long time! I'm now set to listen to Christmas music at work all month.
Sat. was strip club, so a busy day! It was lots of fun and always so interesting to see the show and tell that everyone brings. After work I met Jenn and three of her friends and we had supper and went to the movie Four Christmases. It was a really good movie and a great Girls Night Out with new friends. I really enjoyed spending time with other young women.
Sunday I worked and Jen's wall hanging kept picking at me. I've been resisting the 12 Days of Christmas panel, but when I saw it done up I had to get one. It's so super cute. I had big plans to quilt it Sun. night, but Elaine threw a fit! Her tension is completely off, so I took her in to the shop today and hope it's nothing too major. So mom's Barlow quilt and my panel are sitting.
We rearranged the house and put the Christmas Tree in place and then I cleaned my sewing room. I pulled out Marie and started cutting out my Crazy Eights tablerunner. I had all the stratas done, just needed to piece the top. I got the first part sewn and Marie is just a little charm to have around. She sews so beautifully! Tonight I started piecing the top and didn't stop until the top was done.
Here's the finished top on my design wall. It's about 42" across. Once it's quilted I plan to use it on our round dining room table. It's also on my new list of quilts to be quilted. I know that's three... don't be too shocked!

Dad's Barn Wall Hanging

Another barn pattern I found was this paper pieced one. I made it for my dad in 2006 for Christmas. It has pictures of the barn before it was moved, and after it was put into place.

Uncle Tom and Aunt Jane's Wall Hangings

I made a wall hanging with pictures for my aunt Jane for Christmas with family pictures.

I made Uncle Tom a firefighter wall hanging because he was a fire chief.

Wranger National Finals Rodeo - It's NFR time!!!!

This is my favorite time of year! The NFR started last night in Las Vegas and after round 1, my friend JJ Elshere tied for 8th! Today is also his 29th birthday. I went to a small country school with 8-15 people K-8th grades depending on the year. I was in the same class as my friend Amy and JJ. We were the largest class all through grade school. Amy and I went to school the entire time together, JJ joined our class in 4th grade. We all went to Philip for high school and graduated together. Each year I love to watch the NFR, but especially when guys I know are in it. This year I'll be watching JJ, Jesse, Chad, Bryce, Billy, and Chet. Amy and JJ both had the same birthday - Dec. 5th, so I'll always remember it and I'm thinking of both of them tonight. I'll be watching the 2nd round at 11 tonight when it comes on to see how the guys did. One solid week of staying up late every night to watch the rodeos... I can't wait.

Paul's Pillow Case

I made something for everyone for Christmas 06. Paul wanted a pillowcase, so I got this fun cars fabric and made him one. It's for his TV pillow and Missy claims it pretty often. I love making pillowcases with the serger because they are super fast.

Coasters

For Christmas 2006 I made coasters using Carol Doak paper pieced patterns, timtex, and a satin stitch. I made about 10 co-workers each one. They were super fast and some I even fussy cut centers. I used scraps from other projects.

Tool Caddy

I made this tool caddy using the Carol Doak online instructions. It turned out super cute and it holds all my quick turn tubes. I made it in two days in Oct. 06.

Carol Doak Quilt Group Postcard Swap

In Fall of 2006, I participated in a postcard swap on the CDOQG. I made these two Halloween themed ones from her 300 paper pieced blocks book. It was a lot of fun. In 2007 Jen and I had a bad experience with a postcard swap and I haven't done one since, but luckily that's how we became friends and I'm so happy we were able to get to know each other through that ordeal.

November Quilting Accomplishments!

This month seemed to just fly by and I realized early on I wasn't getting as much quilting done as I had planned. I did finish a few quilts, so it wasn't a wasted month either.

Here's my goals list I started at the beginning of the month.
- Paul's Wolf Wall Hanging - Didn't touch it
- Finish backing for Happy Hour, Quilt and Bind - DONE!
- Pheasant Wall Hanging - Didn't touch it
- Two Deer Head Pillows - Appliques are done, ready to be quilted
- Courier Bag Class - Postponed to Jan.
- Crazy Eights Table Topper Class - Stratas done
- Aunt Eva's Quilt w/MIL - Bought backing
- Two or Three Crown Royal Quilts - Got out the bags
- Bounce Ball - Didn't make any progress
- PJ Pants for Little Bro - Made a pair for Ed, Shorts for Dad and Paul
- Mom and Me Loralie Design Quilts - Snow storm detoured plans!



We had our first Blizzard - two days off from work.
PJ day at work.
I designed, quilted, and kitted my first pattern Cafe Bistro.
Kitted my Bistro Apron pattern.
Celebrated Hunter's Widow weekend with mom and D - sewing in a hotel suite!
Took the Crazy Eights Class.
Blower motor went out with lots of smoke.
Paul bought me roses!

My December Goals are going to be scaled back...
Two Crown Royal Quilts
Two Deer Head pillows
Pheasant Wall Hanging
Java Bistro Quilt
Hunter Wall Hanging
Mini Miranda Bag

Carol Doak Quilt Group

Back in Fall 2006 I was pretty active in the Carol Doak Online Quilt Group. I really learned to paper piece and actually fell in love with it for a time. This is the 1000 member block which turned into a trivet for a relative of Paul's.

I used this beginners block to learn and then gave it away as a trivet to another relative.

I started the row by row quilt and got two rows done and quit. I wasn't interested in finishing, but it was a good learning experience.


I'm glad I learned to paper piece and I really do enjoy it, but at this time in my life it's not at the top of my priority list.