ND Baby Bag

In the past 4 months, I've bought very little fabric. I got two quilt backs, for quilts I've finished, but that's it. This week I went a little crazy and got some Valentine L'Amour fabric to finish the tablerunner I'm making. I also picked up some solids to make a baby bag. I didn't find any cotton baby boy fabrics, so I went with a green and dark blue combo with a lighter gold color on the inside. It's a baby bag for a friend who had a little boy. My friend Angie says the bag I made them was well loved, so I hope this one will be as well. I got about 3/4 done and hope to finish it up tomorrow night. It was very relaxing to sew for several hours today after working all week.
Here's a sneek peek at the baby bag.

Siggy Quilt

Monday when I went to Jenn's to sew, I needed a new project to work on, since I was kind of between quilting projects. I've been doing the quilt along with several of my retreat friends, so I pulled out my Siggy quilt blocks from the retreat and set to work on making them. I got 8 of the 12 blocks done and now I just need to make a few more blocks and put it together. I can't wait to get it together and hanging in my office for a while and then it'll move to the big wall in my studio. Each block I made, reminded me of so many of the fun times I had while at retreat and how much I'm missing not going to the retreat this year. There will be another year, so I'll just live vicariously through my chicas and wait to hear all about it. They know I'll be there is spirit!
My design wall has the blocks on it reminding me of all my amazing friends.

Regina & Jen kept giving me a hard time that the quilt isn't purple, but as Jen says Red and Blue make purple.

I still have the blocks on my design wall and I don't believe how big this quilt is turning out to be, but I know it's going to be awesome. Hopefully I'll get to work on it a bit this week, but since the Stock Show is in town, I'm not sure how much time I'll have.

Giraffe Balloon Quilt

After work I stopped by The Sewing Center and picked up the thread I needed to quilt this baby quilt. It's a panel from Pearl Louise Designs and coordinating fabrics. I quilted it with King Tut light pink/blue/yellow/purple verigated and a light green bottomline. It's 43"x56" and I quilted it in about 2 hours. I had to catch up on the bachelor, so I took a few breaks.

The thread just matched so perfectly. I was really happy with how it turned out. The back is a solid green, the same color green as on the far right in the picture. The quilt is all flannel with a thermore batting in it.

Valentine Candy Kiss Tablerunner

During lunch yesterday I finished the hand sewing on my Valentine Tablerunner. It now adorns my office desk for the next month or so. I love how it turned out and I'll definately be using this pattern again since it was so easy and quick to put together.

Jenn's Quilt, Quilted!

The last time Jenn and I got together to sew was back in mid-October. She was working on a crazy log cabin wall hanging and I was working on a sign language baby quilt. She finished hers and gave it to me to quilt a couple months ago. I still haven't finished the baby quilt, but it's not pressing since I don't know who it's for yet.
This weekend I quilted Jenn's quilt with a green/brown verigated King Tut and a cream bottomline. The quilting on it turned out really awesome.
Last night we got together again to sew. We had so much fun visiting, laughing, and catching up. I delivered her quilt and she loved it! She worked on aprons and I worked on my siggy blocks for my retreat quilt. I had two done and got 6 more done while I was at her house. I only have 4 more to go, so it shouldn't take me long to get them together. It was so relaxing and enjoyable sewing with Jenn. Hopefully we'll be able to do it more often.

More Fancy Project Bags

I was able to get a bunch more project bags cut out today. I only finished two of them, but later this week I'll get more done. I was busy quilting a quilt for Jenn and getting another one ready to quilt later this week. I have to pick up some thread to quilt the 2nd quilt.

Valentine Sewing Party

The Valentine Sewing Party has commenced! So far I have cut out the fabric and stitched together three rows. They went together pretty quickly, even for having to do some marking of diagonals.
My fabric cut out, on the backing fabric.

The three rows are together. Now to finish the top and get it quilted! I'm hoping to have it quilted and the binding on by the end of the evening, so I can take it to work on Monday.
4:45PM

I sewed the three rows together, added the corners, and gave it a good pressing. I was able to get the top together, loaded, and quilted before supper. Now to square it up, get the binding on, and sew it down.
8:00PM

I attempted to do some hearts in the quilting.

I put the binding on it and started the hand sewn binding. I got over half done before calling it a night. I should be able to easily finish it tomorrow.
9:00PM


I finished the hand sewing on the binding Monday at lunch, so it now adorns my office desk for the next month. I had such a fun time at the Valentine Sewing Party and look forward to the next one.


Thanks for stopping by to check out my Valentine Sewing Party progress. Happy Sewing!

Valentine's Sewing Party

Tomorrow I'm participating in the Valentine Sewing Party. Valentine's Day is my absolute favorite holiday and since my last name used to be Harty, I love hearts. When I heard about the party I knew I'd have time to participate! I work during the day, but have the whole evening to sew. I already knew exactly what I was going to make, since I've had the kit since September when I bought it at the Hill City Quilt Show. I bought it from Quilt Designer Fabrics out of Carrington ND. It was probably my favorite vendor at the quilt show. The kit makes the Toast Points tablerunner from the Let's Do Lunch book by Terry Atkinson. The reason I loved their display so much is they had several quilt samples/kits from the same book, so you could buy the kits without the book. Since I already owned the book, the cheaper price of the kit w/o the book was really attractive to me.

Last night I cut out the tablerunner. It took me less than a half hour to completely cut out the tablerunner. I can't wait to sew it up and quilt it tomorrow night. The candy kisses are the main part of the tablerunner, the red hearts is the contrast and binding. The red with white hearts is the backing.


My weekend goals include piecing and quilting this tablerunner and quilting Jenn's quilt. If I get both done then I'll have to decide on which UFO quilt project to work on next. At this point I don't have any deadlines, so I'm thinking I'll probably work on a couple baby quilts. I know one of my friends is having her baby in February and the other is due in April, so I need to work on those quilts, but we'll see what kind of a mood I'm in when I get done with the first two projects. We're supposed to get hit this weekend with a freezing rain/snow/sleet storm, so Sunday will probably be spent staying home and sewing all day.

Fancy Project Bags

Last year when I was working at the store, I bought a kit in a really nice plastic zippered pouch. I absolutely love it for putting my UFO's in or my WIP projects so I can keep everything together. I picked up another one, but they are $3-5 a piece and they aren't readily available any more. I like them a whole lot better than my empty sheet bags which also hold projects. I like them because my book will fit in along with the project. I always seem to be shifting projects into the nicer ones. Jen gave me the idea to make my own using vinyl by the yard. I bought 2 yards last weekend and with a coupon it cost me $3 for the vinyl. I bought a couple zippers and used one I had in my stash. I thought it might be cool to applique on the bags, but I wasn't sure if they would melt. Using the low setting on my iron and my applique pressing sheet, I was able to applique the letter on using steam a seam 2. I put the zippers in using the roller foot I bought several years ago. I made all 3 in about an hour and probably for less than $2 each. I was able to cut out 4 bags from one 14" piece, so I still have over 1 1/2 yards left. I'll definately be making more, but I wanted to make a few for friends first and then I'll make some for myself. Now that I know how to make them, I might have to make a few more for my quilt along buddies. I put all of my blocks and cut out squares in the small one and it's the perfect size to keep it all together for a few months.
Yesterday I drew out what my quilt is going to look like. I still might make it bigger, but at least I have an idea started and know how many more 2.5" squares I need to cut.

I used a couple different decorative stitches to stitch the letters on.

Thanks for the great idea Jen!

Snowball Quilt Along

Since the quilt along came about I've been anxious to get started. I knew exactly what I was doing with my big snowballs. Several have already gotten their 6 blocks done, so I was really itching to work on mine and I didn't think I'd have a chance this week. Patti hit with her snowballs and Jen was right behind her today, I figured I'd better get busy with mine! I had an unexpected night off, so while I watched the Bachelor with my family, I cut out lots of 6 1/2" fussy cut squares and 2.5" squares. I'm not sure exactly what I'm doing, but I decided to outline my snowball blocks in silver rock candy fabric. I'm going to have to play around next month with the 2.5" squares to see what kind of pattern I can develop. I'm loving this quilt along and I'm so excited I was able to get mine done! Thanks for all the encouragement ladies. Your support and friendship means the world to me. Who will throw out their snowballs or 9 patches next???

Range Riders Quilt Top Done!

January used to be the slowest month when I was growing up. It was always so cold and it was dark early, so we stayed inside a lot. I always looked forward to February... Stock Show and my birthday! Now that I'm an adult, January just seems to fly by. I can't believe there are only 2 weeks left. I've been busy teaching quilting and sewing classes this month, so that's one reason it's flying by so quickly. Saturday I taught Janome Basics. It went pretty well and the ladies all seemed to learn a lot. Tonight I'm teaching Janome Memory Basics, Tues. night is Fast & Furious Baby Quilt, and Wed. night is Professional Tote, so it's going to be another busy week, but I love teaching quilting classes.
I've been working on the Range Riders quilt since the beginning of the month. I had all the applique traced and cut out and all the backgrounds cut out, but I knew it was going to take me a long time to do the applique stitching. Friday night I pieced all the flying geese. Sat. morning I got up and worked on the appliqued stars and after class I started putting the blocks together. After 7 hours on Sat. I had 5 blocks done.

I worked on more stars before church and then put the blocks together when I got home. By noon I had all 10 of the picture blocks done.

All afternoon I worked on the applique on the boots. I satin stitched the soles and heels of the boots black and then accented the tops with blue, maroon, or brown. By 3:30 I finally had all the boot blocks appliqued and I took a much needed break! I made homemade chicken noodle soup for supper and then let it simmer while I tore all the totally stable off the boots.

Sunday evening I put the quilt together. It actually went together pretty quickly and I only had a few seams I redid, just to make my points perfect. I changed the quarter inch on my machine and it made all the difference in the world with how my blocks were lining up. I'm really pleased with how it turned out. By 8PM I was done with the center and started putting the mitered borders on.

When 10PM rolled around I was just doing the final pressing on it. It's done and ready to go to the quilter today! It's a store sample and another lady is quilting it, so I don't have to, which leaves me time to finish up my last goal for the month and start working on my snowball I Spy quilt. I was really hoping to start it last night, but I made myself finish this one first, so now I can do some playing. I also got some new material for project bags I want to start working on. So many projects, so little time!
The finished quilt has mitered borders which went on surprisingly easy.

Sewing lots... with nothing to show for it!

I've been doing lots of sewing, just nothing with my machines, so I don't have much to show for it. I haven't touched my machine since last week Wednesday. I've been working on an applique quilt and there were a lot of little pieces to trace and cut out and I've been doing a lot of that. I finally have them all cut out, but don't like the heels, so I got some different fabric to do the heels and now I should be good to go. I'm hoping to make lots of progress on it this weekend.
Monday night I started working on my Valentine's Tablerunner using English paper piecing. Since Jen sent me the bag with everything I need, I'm good to go. I have about 20 done so far and each one gets easier and faster to do. I'm hoping to have it done by the big day 1 month from today, but we'll have to see. I'm hitting one of those milestone birthdays that day, so I may just be celebrating too much to finish it too.
Last night I had an awesome class of ladies for the Fast & Furious Baby quilt and they really had a good time making it. Next week I'm fully scheduled with classes, but I love it, so I can't wait.
Tonight I'm meeting mom for a party with the old QC-new FC girls so it's gonna be a fun night! I can't wait to see the girls since I was sick the last time everyone got together.

Fabric City & Care Package from Jen

Saturday I worked at The Sewing Center and we had two classes going on at the same time. The Embroidery Block of the Month was held in the new Fabric City store and the girls in the club got to see the store before it opened for it's first official day on Monday. It's going to be a very awesome fabric store with pre-cuts, accessories, fleece, flannels, as well as quilt shop quality cottons. The fabric selection is so up my ally! The area has been made over since the last shop left and it has a whole new feel to it. I can finally start spending money on fabric again!

When I got home I had an awesome care package from Jen in the mail. She sent me this wonderful pillowcase, a pattern, and a drawstring bag of cut squares and English paperpiecing papers, so I could make a tablerunner for Valentine's Day. Jen has been there for me over the past several weeks to listen, encourage, and help me and this care package is just the icing on the cake. I can't thank her enough. With all the waiting I've been doing, the paperpiecing will keep my hands busy and it's so portable I can stick it in my purse. Thanks Jen for thinking of something to keep me busy! I started basting the pieces last night and I got 15 done while I was watching the Bachelor.

The pillowcase had lots of saying about friends and this is my favorite one because it speaks so much of our friendship.

Thanks for being such an amazing friend Jen!

Crazy Eight's Table runner

This tablerunner was probably one of the quickest I have ever finished. It's from the Let's Do Lunch book by Atkinson Designs. It's made from my Crazy Eights fabric leftovers. I quilted it in under 15 min as it only took 3 passes. I put the binding on it Wed. night and then I handsewed the binding while I was waiting yesterday morning. I'm thinking I really need to do more tablerunners so I have hand work to do while I'm waiting. Although it's a Christmas tablerunner I'm happy it's finished and I'll be able to use it later this year.

Pearl Louise Designs

This morning it's freezing cold here in Rapid City. It's -9 with a wind chill of -30. While I was hoping for a snow day yesterday, I didn't get one.
I was reading the RCJournal this morning and there was a nice article about Pearl Louise Designs in the paper. I found it to be rather interesting and it's so true that hardly anyone here knows how famous she is in the quilting world. I have only made a few of her patterns, including Family Reunion, but the ones I like the best have snowmen. She also has a fabric line with Troy. I thought some of you who enjoy Pearl Louise Designs patterns and fabric would enjoy reading this article about her.
I've been quilting away this week. Hopefully will have a tablerunner to show later this week. I'm also working on a sample with lots of applique, so it's going to take me a while.
Keep Warm!

Runaround Bag

This weekend I made this Runaround Bag from the GE Designs book Fast & Furious Quilt as You Go. It was actually trickier than I expected it to be, but I was able to get it done in a short amount of time. It's kind of hanging funny, but it looks really cool. While the colors aren't me, they do go well together. I'm up to 2 finishes for 2010! I think I'm doing well.

Mom's Pink Quilt - Christmas 2009

This year I made each of our mothers a quilt for Christmas. I posted my MIL's One Block Wonder when it was done as she doesn't read my blog real often. She thought I had quit on it and put it away until after Christmas, so she was surprised when she unwrapped it. She loves it, so that makes me happy. As much as I don't enjoy Asians, she loves them, so it's not bad using them when they are for her and I know she'll like them.
My mom though, does read my blog, so I didn't want to reveal too much about it. She had seen it when I was putting it together for the book, but she hadn't seen it quilted. The background is white and the pinks are from my stash, which was really a challenge, since I don't have much stash. The finished quilt is a twin size, so a good snuggly quilt for her. The white has a ribbon print on it, so I quilted loops on it and the pink represents the pink ribbon for breast cancer awareness and my mom's favorite color.

I experimented with quilting my name into one of the bottom blocks. You have to know it's there to really notice it.


I embroidered the label at my mom's one weekend. I love doing embroidered labels since they are so personalized and contain the information nicely.

The quilt is a pattern in the new GE Designs book Strip On. I did the pattern testing for the pattern before it went to print, so I received a copy of the new book signed by her and I love it.