Secret Project Packages ready to go!

I finally have my secret project packages ready to go in the mail! I'm waiting for two addresses, and I plan to mail them this weekend. I think there are 12 lucky recipients of a little thank you gift. One package is filled with Jen's winnings from the Survivor competition.

Snowman Tabletopper

Today I went to the LQS to find a few more things to stick in Jen's package. I found this cute snowman border print, so I picked up a fat quarter. I used the 60 degree ruler and made this little tabletopper. It turned out really cute. A couple of the pieces are a little off since I cut that row a little different. I did the burp method and quilted it and it's all done. I know it took me less than an hour! I even have enough left for a mini one, but that will have to wait.

Friendship Quilt

I'm just getting started on the friendship quilt our group is making, but look at all the packages that have arrived.


I thought it was fun to watch them grow from just a few to so many. I was going to start tonight, but I decided to cook a big meal for supper and then just didn't have the energy. I'm so excited to get started on this project. In preparation, I made a smaller 18X36" ironing board that looks like this:

I'm planning to make lounge pants for myself out of this fabri as well. I think they will be so cute!

Wow- I'm behind!

I can't believe it's been a week since I last posted! I go through the blog ring everyday, but didn't even realize I hadn't post in such a long time. I worked at my new job at the LQS on Mon, Tues, and Thurs. Wed. night I pulled out my serger and was going to finish my secret project and was having trouble getting it even. I finally got it set right and my needle broke, so I quit. I cut out more fat quarters for my Happy Hour quilt. Thurs. night mom and our co-worker Daisy and I went to the rodeo at the Central States Fair. It was really good as a lot of the local guys were riding as well as a few of my former students were in the rodeo. Friday night I went with the same group and my dad joined us.
Sat. I worked at the LQS as we had a group coming in from MT. They were so much fun and we had a great morning. I ended up working later than usual and my MIL came in and picked out fabric for a quilt we are going to make together. I got fabric for a new Miranda bag too. I have a ton of bags made, but I want this new one too.
Does anyone else feel like they have too many bags or purses? What do you do with them? At the time I make them I love them and then I make something different and use it and the old goes in my closet and the cycle continues. I have a lot of bags and purses! I'm wondering if maybe I should start giving to my friends or as prizes on my blog. What do you think? Would you give a purse or bag to someone if you had already used it?
Paul met me and we joined my parents and Daisy Sat. night for the rodeo. I always have so much fun at the rodeos. Sunday I went to church and then we ran errands. I had a terrific headache, so I slept most of the afternoon. My little bro flew in at 10:30 PM, so Paul and I went and picked him up. It was a late night, but so good to see him get home from a fun vacation.
With starting my new job at the quilt shop, I've been exhausted at night. Thurs. afternoon I started my new job as an Assistant Registrar in our central administration building. It's going to be a challenging job, I think I will really enjoy it. We have 17 campuses and I'll be doing evaluations for them, instead of just the Distance Learning campus. So for a couple hours each week, I work over there getting acquainted with the office, until they find someone I can train for my current position. I'm really enjoying both new jobs and I think once I get more settled I'll be able to get more sewing done.
Tonight I finished up my secret project. I sewed over a zipper wrong and thought my machine was going to need to go to the shop, but I think it's still working correctly. I am so glad to be done with them. They are made with canvas and it's a pain to work with and the serger did not like stitching it together. i don't know how many times I sewed some seams. I have all the packages addressed and they are ready to go in the mail. I finished cutting all the fat quarters into three sections for my HH quilt and I'm ready to make the second cut. MIL and I are going to make her a quilt together, so I'm looking forward to that as well. I'm going to start the friendship quilt tomorrow night. I can't wait! Hopefully I'll have more to write about this week. Stay tuned for my Extreme Home Sewing Room Makeover next weekend!

Stuck on a project

Have you ever been stuck on a project and just can't move on or get motivated to do anything else? I've hit a road block. I've been working on a secret project for the past few weeks. I cut everything out, was working on the applique, and I guess I was tired because I realized on the last one how bad the applique stitch I was using looked. I hate to do bad work and these were supposed to be cool gifts. So I threw them to the side and haven't been back since! That was Tues. night.
Wednesday night I was invited to the home of one of my new co-workers (at the LQS). A bunch of the girls went to her house and we visited and had a nice evening out, but it was late, so I didn't tackle the project that night. Thurs. night we had planned to sew at the store, but no one felt like it, so instead I came home and watched BB10. I had big plans of getting back to the project, but didn't feel like it. So I started cutting out my Happy Hour quilt. I think I got about 10 of the 40 fat quarters cut out before I called it quits for the night.
Friday Paul and I went to a party for his work. We had supper with his boss & wife and co-worker and wife. We had a nice time and we enjoyed visiting with them, but it was a late night. Sat morning I got up and cleaned house, sweeping, mopping, dusting, and then washing the quilts. I had sorely neglected my duties during Survivor month, so I did massive cleaning. Paul helped too and then we went to lunch and grocery shopping. I had to start my new job at the LQS at 2, so he dropped me off and finished up the shopping.
I really enjoyed my first day at the LQS. I learned a lot and got to help a lot of people. My feet were glad when it was finally 6! I had worn the wrong shoes and my feet were telling me so! Paul picked me up and wanted to do a few errands... Menards, Cabela's, and Lowes. Then we saw furniture row was open for the first time, so we stopped there too. I so could have layed down on one of the mattresses and went to sleep! I got home and literally crashed, I was exhausted!
Sunday I slept in and made it up just in time to go to work at 11. My day went much quicker and I learned more, and my feet didn't hurt nearly as bad. After work I met mom and we went to the fair to look at the quilts. I was surprised that there weren't really that many. When I got home, I watched BB10 and then I crashed! I didn't sew even an inch this weekend. I'm seriously disappointed in myself. I work tonight after my regular day job and then I'll go home and try to sew at least a little bit. If I don't finish my project, I have a feeling I'll be stuck in this rut for a while.
While I'm on the topic of my new fun part time job I'll also let you know I have a new full-time job as well. I'm moving within the university I work for, from the distance learning campus to the Registrar's office. This transition will take place over the next month or so, so I'll be learning two new jobs at once! I'm so excited for these two new adventures in my life.

Cre8tive Gifts

The Cre8tive Quilters group members are awesome... what more can I say?? Jill sent me this great little tote for keeping my sewing supplies in. I fully loaded it last night and look forward to using it when I do more hand binding. It's purple, what more could I ask for! I LOVE IT JILL!

Suzan's block arrived yesterday and in the packaged she included a beautiful pair of earrings! They are purple too!!! Yeah! Thanks so much Suzan. I'm going out to supper tonight with the girls and they will look so nice with my outfit.


I've also received some great fat quarters from some of my friends on the group, but I'm trying to patiently wait until I start putting the quilt together before I play with my new fabric. I can't believe the wonderful purple fabrics that have been sent my way! I LOVE PURPLE!! Thank you so much for your kindness.

I was telling Jen about my "Survivor" hat, so she wanted to see what I had done with it. I bought a cheap pink cap at Shopko, then I printed out a couple pages of the survivor logo on fusible fabric. I cut out one and pressed it on my cap the night before we left for our trip. It stayed well enough for the weekend, but when I got home, I pressed it good and then did an applique stitch around it. I realized the stitch I was using didn't look the greatest, but it's done. I'm using the logos for my secret project and had I not been so tired last night, they would have been done.

My "Stash"

This is my entire stash in a nut shell... I really don't have a lot of fabric extra. I buy for a project and if there is less than a 1/4 yard or fat quarter, they go into the scrap totes. I have two 1 gallon totes full of "scrap fabric" that I use for paper piecing. I have it organized so I know what everything is for. On the top shelf left are the leftover blocks from purple quilts and the fabric for coiled bowl or rug. The center is what is left of my purple quilts, only 10 1/3 or less yard cuts. On the right are my only two pieces of more than 2 yards, one purple, the other white.
The second row holds projects to finish, a bag, a wall hanging, and a tablerunner. The center are "good" fabric, from the quilt shop. The right side had fat quarters. In the center is also a piece of black fabric that is heavier and I intend to make a jacket out of it.

The bottom left has miscellaneous focus fabrics, the center are four baby quilts ready to be made, and the right are various cheap fabrics that are 1/4- 1yard.
That's the extent of my stash. I don't have a lot of fabric to just sew, I buy with the intent of making specific projects.

Quilts and Vines Wine

In this picture I had just gone to pick up the 6 pack of Quilts and Vines wine we were getting. It was pretty heavy, so as I was going toward our group, mom took this picture of me. It looks like I was swaggering and drunk, but I wasn't I had our t-shirts around my neck so we didn't have to hold them and my neck wouldn't get burnt.

As I got closer you can see my wine glass in it's holder and my quilt survivor shirt I had on. What you can't see is that my hat has the logo on it too.

Quilts & Vines Outdoor Quilt Show

For our wedding my friend Nichole gave us two bottles of wine from the Strawbale Winery in Renner. One was a bottle with a label for Quilts and Vines. We also got the card with information about the Quilts and Vines Outdoor Quilt show. When we were on our honeymoon we stopped at Heirloom Creations, the shop co-sponsoring the show. They gave us more information about it and I was hooked! I really wanted to come. So I convinced my mom that we should go and have a girls weekend trip. Then I thought we should invite her two co-workers, since we do a lot of things with them and they would enjoy it. In the end there were five of us from the shop that went. We had a great time!
Quilts and Vines is an outdoor quilt show, set in the country, with quilts hanging from the vines of grapes used for making wine, at the Strawbale Winery. It was a beautiful day, with lots of quilts, lots of great company, and so many things to do. There were 475 quilts on display and such a nice variety. There were a ton from the Happy Hour book. I took over 170 pictures, so I'll just show a few of my favorites. We each got a wine glass with our ticket and could use it to sample 5 different wines. We were able to buy wine glass holders as well, so they hung around our necks. We also had t-shirts we bought to wear to strip club next month with our PJ pants. There were 12 rows of vines with quilts hanging on them and a full section of stock panels with quilts for sale.
I took several pictures of quilts from the Happy Hour book as we all really liked to see the variety. This is the Between Friends made with Loralie fabric.

The Picture This quilt in teals and browns from HH.

Here's a picture of the people going through the rows looking at the quilts. The house in the back is where the people who own the winery live and you can barely see the big red barn on the right.

This is Between Friends again in a different color way.


Above is the great group I went with - Me, J, D, mom, and M. See how tall the corn is behind us? See my short haircut? Below is the big red barn, isn't it fantastic with all the quilts hanging. They were on all sides of the barn.

This was by far my favorite quilt. It's called optical illusion, but we referred to it as the funeral quilt as it was made for the womans FIL's funeral. It's gold and black and just absolutely stunning in Fairy frost. It's all done with the 60 degree ruler. I wanted to make one las night, but didn't have the right fabrics.

Here' a close up of it.

This is a quilt we all thought would make a great BOM. Such interesting little blocks inside a big one.

We went to SF to Heirloom Creations and I bought tons of Masterpiece thread and picked up a purple aurifil to try quilting on my new HH quilt. Then we went on to Dell Rapids to the quilt shop there and picked up some connecting threads Essentials thread, so I HATE IRONING by Mary Ellen, and a little charm square purse pattern called me and my mom.
From there we went to the Human Bodies in Motion exhibit in Watertown. It was very cool, but you couldn't take any pictures. I learned more about the human body in two hours than I have in my entire life! It was so way cool and extremely interesting. We spent the night and then came home via Pierre and picked up some fresh produce. We made it back to Rapid about 3:30 and we were all exhausted! I went home and vegged for the rest of the night. I was spent!
Last night I rearranged my fabric and reorganized it and am now ready to work on a few projects I have had on the back burner for a while. I have to thank Jill for the awesome bag she made me for my sewing supplies. I'll definately get a lot of use out of it. I'll be taking a picture of it tonight.

Runaround bags & PJ Pants

Last week I was fast and furiously working to get three runaround bags done for the girls I was going to the quilt show with. I had them all cut out and I was able to finish all 5 of them on Thurs. night while we were sewing at the LQS where we all work. The first I made for J as she loves Asian fabrics. I made a tulip one for D, but the picture didn't get loaded to my webshots album. I made a Thimbleberries one for M. They were each unique to their own personalities and the girls LOVED them and they worked perfect for holding a little bit of money, a camera, tickets, and business cards. I was so glad I had made them. Mom and I used the Loralie ones I had made for our last shop hop.


While I was making purses, the D, M, and my mom were making pants with the naked construction workers and firemen on them. When I got done I made a pair for J as I already had a pair. We surprised her Friday night with our new PJ bottoms! They were a hit and oh so much fun.

10,000 Visitor - Michelle

Congrats to Michelle who was my 10,000 visitor... with Regina right in tow~ I'll look for something fun on the shop hop to send your way.
This has been a fast and furious week. This is the annual Sturgis Motorcycle week, so we've been inundated with bikers all over the area. I love them to death, but you really have to watch yourself and them when you're driving. Monday night I worked on a project for the ladies I'm going to the quilt show with this weekend. I got five runaround bags cut out, three almost sewn and it was time to go to bed. Tuesday night I had great plans for finishing up the bags, but on the way home I got the spontanious idea to cut my hair shorter. I mean seriously so short even the guys at work are noticing. It looks really cool and is so easy to fix, so I'm loving it. We had a severe thunderstorm warning from the time I got home until bed, so no sewing for me. I just don't have my machine plugged in when it's lightning that close.
Yesterday was kind of a whirlwind at work, filling out some paperwork that wasn't normal, meetings with managers, and learning new processes. Things will all work out the way they are supposed to, but it turned out to be an interesting day. I decided to get my nails done, so was going to meet mom. She called to say the girls were going out to supper and asked me to join them, so I did. We had the soup, salad, and breadsticks at Olive Garden and they were delish! Then we went to get our nails done and do a few errands. I came home and packed my bags for sewing tonight. We're planning a PJ pants party, so we'll be busy making pants tonight. I also HAVE to finish up the runarounds for the girls. I have determination tonight and I will get them done!
Tomorrow we leave to go to the Quilts & Vines show near SF. It should be a fun trip and we'll get to see some interesting things I'm sure. I'll have to have the girls take my picture with the new do and t-shirt/cap.

Blogging Friends are AWESOME!

I just have to tell you all what great friends you have become since I started blogging. I remember meeting Jen, Cindy, Kristie, and Jill at the very beginning. What a life our little blogging community has become. Some people don't understand the need or reasons for blogging, but I've come to appreciate and value all the special friends I have made through blogging.
Not only do I quilt more, but I keep better track of what I have made, how long it takes, and when I finish. I'm also much better at remembering to take pictures of my newest creations. The motivation all of you provided for me in the July Sewing Challenge Survivor 2008 competition was phenomenal! I couldn't have done it without all of your support and especially the comraderie of Jen and Jill. I can't thank them enough for all the encouragement and fun we brought to one another throughout July!
I'm almost to my 10,000 visitor and i thought I would give a special prize to the person who emails or posts a comment to let me know they were 10,000. Can you believe Jen has 10 times as many visitors as I do?? Maybe I need to start giving away great prizes like Pioneer Woman!

Friendship Block

My blogging friends and I are making blocks for a friendship quilt I will put together at the end of the month. I made the SD star from Carol Doaks book. I was happy with how it turned out until the very last step of joining the blocks. When I couldn't get the whites to match up I finally gave up and called it my best effort. This was a little challenging as there were over 100 pieces in the final block. I hadn't done paper piecing in a while, but it all came back to me quickly.

Strip Club Saturday

The first Saturday of every month is Strip Club at The Quilt Corral Too. While it's a fun club focused on a different quilt made from strips each month, we also get to see the newest projects and patterns available in the store as well as a discount on certain lines each month. This month we got a special treat... there were two construction workers out fronth and Joan convinced them to model the naked construction worker fabric and dance with the boas! It was so cool and really put everyone in the mood for strip club.

I just happened to have my camera out and took a few pictures. In the back ground you can see the quilt my friend Darlene made and has the pattern available. Her patterns are quick and simple.

In the picture below you can see at the top a woven pillow my mom made. It takes 8 fat quarters and you weave strips of 6 of them together and you have a fat for top and bottom. It turned out way cool. My mom made two of these. There is also a halloween quilt and a quilt made from a border print on the right. In the picture below you can see Joan thanking the guys for being such good sports. Luckily the new Quilters Home had just arrived, so I was able to pick up my copy and checked out all the new articles.

Purple Rug - One Month in the Making!

Throughout the competition, I knew to stay competitive I would need something that could travel, so I bought 250 feet of clothesline and wrapped on it for many hours of the month of July. On July 31 I was still wrapping, so I spent time with Paul watching TV and continued my wrapping. As I was finally done wrapping I went to sew it together. Although it was fun and turned out great... it used a ton of thread! I had a brand new spool of Masterpiece in purple and it used all of that as well as some RA purple I had. I turned out quite well and I plan to use it for a mat for my plants at work. It will look great in the window and I still have 150 feet left! This only took 100 ft. I finished it up about midnight on the 31st!

July Sewing Accomplishments

This was such a successful month of sewing! I really feel like I made up for May and June. Although I lost to Jen by 2 hours, I feel so good about the 182 hours I did get in!

My July Accomplishments include:

~ Finished Fat Quarter Bag
~ Made Molly's baby quilt - start to finish including label
~ Tablerunner for MIL
~ Quilted a wall hanging for a customer
~ Quilted and hand binging on my dad's deer wall hanging
~ Three sleeves for Bag-E-Bottoms
~ Four Runaround bags and helped MIL with one
~ Two wonder wallets, 4 checkbook covers
~ Log Cabin Cross Wall Hanging
~ Binding Tutorial
~ Nurture Nest Pillowcase
~ Leaders
~ Yellow Brick Road top/ Between Friends Jr. back - reversible quilt, quilted on frame & hand sewn binding
~ YBR/BFJR blocks used to make baby blanket, quilted on frame, hand sewn binding
~ Gracie Bag for mom
~ Clothesline Rug
~ Secret Project...

In other news from July...
~ Mom and Dad helped me pick up my new frame in Sioux Falls
~ We went on a mini-shop hop - 6 stores in SE SD
~ Attended the Williams Family Reunion
~ Paul and I finished all the thank you's for the wedding gifts thus far
~ Paul helped me put the frame together
~ Mom helped me get the carriage together and make the leaders

I'm looking forward to making the Happy Hour quilt - Picture This in August as well as a few baby blankets, a lap quilt for me, and a wolf wall hanging for Paul.

TGIF - Thank Goodness It's Friday - August 1st!

I am SO happy today is August 1st!!! July was a very long month! I got a lot accomplished, but this week, the push was on to sew, sew, sew! I was up until after midnight every night and I'm completely exhausted... along with my competitors. Last night I was just barely able to stay awake, but Paul had supper waiting when I got home and after I ate, I was good to go.
I wrapped my clothesline while Big Brother was on. I don't know what is about that show, but I've really gotten into it this season. I only watched like the last 4 episodes of last season, but this season, I'm like a hawk. I'm ready and waiting for the next show. It also makes good sewing noise, as I can re-watch the episodes online while I'm sewing.
I was only going to stay up till midnight if it was possible for me to beat Jen, so I started sewing my clothesline together. I chatted with both Jen and Jill online and realized I couldn't win, but I wanted my purple rug done, so I sewed, sewed, and sewed until midnight. The rug turned out great. I was too tired for a picture though! I used a whole spool of masterpiece on it.