WIP Wednesday Week 33 8.15.12

This past week went by so quickly and I could have used a few more hours in the days, but I got done what had to be done. Thursday night I loaded my dad's quilt on the frame. I got to about the last foot and the tension was a bit off. I pulled it out, but it was after 10:30 and I was just too tired to go on. Friday I left at noon and Mikaela and I went to Sioux Falls to meet up with my college roommate Nichole. We spent the weekend with her and her family. On Sat. morning bright and early we went to the Quilts and Vines Outdoor quilt show. It was another awesome show and I took lots of pictures, but haven't uploaded them. This is a picture of the big barn where it is held. We also did some shopping and I found dresses for both Mikaela and I for the wedding.

Sunday Mikaela and I went to Mitchell where we met up with a family gathering of my mom's aunts and cousins. We had lunch and then headed home. Unfortunately I had a paper due that night, so had to work on it instead of quilt. My dad and Ann came for a visit and I had to quick throw a quilt over the frame so they wouldn't see the quilt on it. My dad was sure nosy though, asking way more questions about that quilt and what I was working on, then ever before!  I got the paper done and got a 100%, not bad for 2 hours work!
Monday night I finished ripping out the quilting during my live session class and did some hand work. Sure makes the time go faster. After class I finished the quilting and squared up the quilt.

Here's a close up of the quilting. The colors are more true in the picture above.

I had planned to have the binding done to take along with me to work on this weekend, but when I ran out of time, I instead decided I didn't have the right color thread. The middle one is my go to favorite purple Aurifil thread, the one on the right I also had, but neither of these matched. So when I was at Always Your Design in Dell Rapids (one of my favorite shops to stop at, since my mom taught the owner Deb in high school) and picked up the Aurifil thread on the left. It matches perfectly! I'm so excited to have it now. Last night I put the binding on and this morning before work I started sewing the binding down by hand. I hope to work on it tonight and be able to enter it in the quilt show at the fair tomorrow. We'll see if that happens! I also have my friendship quilt I'm working on binding on to put in the fair.

Mikaela had a good time and was a real trooper at the quilt show. She loved playing on this bridge and in the dirt, although she wasn't a real fan of the chickens.

This is one of my favorites from the weekend. She's so curious and checking everything out.


Finished this week:
Crown Royal Quilt top #3 Quilted

Ongoing projects:  (and progress this week on them)
Ditto quilt top sample - Cut out and ready to sew together
Swoon - 2 Blocks done
Cre8tive Swap w/ Jen - All the HST's are prepped and I just need to spend some time sewing.
Sign Language Diaper Clutch

Quilts Needing Hand sewing on Binding
Pink/Brown Friendship Quilts -Handwork on binding
Buggy Barn Pink/Brown Extra Blocks -Binding
Friendship Block Swap - Hand sew binding
Crown Royal Quilt 3 - Hand sewing is left!

Barn Yard Friends Quilt -quilted and binding on!

Completed tops awaiting quilting:
Blush Quilt 
Pink/Green Jungle Animal Baby Quilt
Confetti Top
Twisted Heart
Merry Go Round
New Projects:

No progress:
Mocha Meringue Wonder Blocks- Together, needs 3 borders
Ed's Crown Royal Quilt - Started sashing
Dilly Dally Baby Girl Quilt

This week's stats:
Completed projects -0
New projects -0
Currently in progress -
Finished this year - 43 , 11 Samples

I'm linking up for WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced!

Summer Time

Summer is almost gone and yet it seems to have flown by so quickly! Mikaela and I took in the Quilts and Vines Outdoor Quilt show a couple weeks ago and I got to meet my blogging friend Sara. I've got lots of pictures to share, but haven't uploaded them yet. Mikaela is 31 weeks old this week and she's on the verge of crawling, doing a lot of scooting. I entered 12 items in the quilts division and 5 in the sewing division at the Central States Fair this week. I received 8 1st's, 6 2nd's, and 3 3rd's. I also won Best of Class for original design for my English Paper Pieced table runner/ wall hanging. I entered it in the mixed technique division since it has hand pieced, hand appliqued and machine quilted.



I've finished two samples for the store as well as working on a third and I'm quilting a quilt for my Aunt Mae I hope to finish this week. Tuesday night Paul and I went to the World of Outlaws race. We had a great time and sat with our best man Jory. It was so fun to see him and watch a great race. Mikaela went camping with her favorite great aunt and had a good time as well.
I'm keeping busy and will be walking in the Relay for Life in memory of my mom this weekend. It's supposed to be hot, so we'll see how I do! I'm sure I'll get a good workout with the stroller pushing.

August Quilting Accomplishments

It seems like I didn't get much done on my August quilting goals, but I do feel like I accomplished several small projects and did a lot of prep work on my projects.

My August Goals & what I got done:
Jungle Baby Wall Hanging - Applique almost done
RWB Siggy Quilt with Rosie - Cut out, 2 blocks done
Barnyard Friends Baby Quilt - Baby Hannah born 8/21!, Jen sent panel
Quilt As You Go Runaround Bag - Cut out
Zoo Friends Baby Quilt - Cut Out
Halloween Wall Hanging - DONE!

I worked on all my goals, but I only finished the Halloween Wall Hanging. I feel comfortable with how much I accomplished on each goal. I'm happy that I worked on all the projects, even if I only finished one.

I did finish a few things that weren't on the list:
Wonder Wallet & Checkbook Covers - 2 sets
Runaround Bag - Gift for my Pay It Forward Friend Michele and gave it to her in person!
Stitchin Chix Bag
Quilted Mom's Halloween Wall Hanging
Two Sweatshirt Jackets for mom and I
Halloween Wall Hanging for me
Objects of Desire Tablerunner
Winding Ways Book Cover and Book Mark

In August I also:
Presented two quilting demos at the county fair with mom
Quilted with quilting friend Jenn
Went fishing with my family
Helped my bro & SIL butcher chickens
Taught Bag Ladies with mom
Went to Quilts & Vines with mom and had a sewing retreat of our own
Met Michele from Maryland when she stopped at the shop!
Sent Congrats to my friends Angie & Cory on the birth of Hannah
Went to the Central States Fair concerts with the girls from work
Shop Hopped around the Southern Hills Quilt Shops

My September goals:

Jungle Baby Wall Hanging - Quilt & Bind
Barnyard Friends Baby Quilt - Embroidery, Quilt, & Bind
Zoo Friends Baby Quilt - Cut Out
Car Quilted Mat - Quilt & Bind

Girls Weekend Quilts & Vines 2009

Last weekend Mom and I had a Girls weekend and traveled to Sioux Falls. We took off around noon on Friday. We stopped at The Quilt Shop in Chamberlain. They have tons of samples and we found some great quilting related fabrics. We checked in at the hotel, had "Driving Miss Daisy" our GPS find a great Mexican restaurant, and stopped at Joann's. Then we were back to the hotel to set up our machines and start sewing. We enjoyed the hot tub and met some bikers headed back to MN from Sturgis.
Saturday morning we got up early and went to the Quilts & Vines Outdoor Quilt Show. It's located at a vineyard/winery north of Sioux Falls, near Renner, SD. It was a great show and we saw some amazing quilts. My favorites included this deer quilt, similar to the one I made Paul.

A Winding Ways Quilt which I would really like to make. I love the colors in it.

A bargello which I really would like to make as well.

A great Halloween wall hanging.

A bargello flag, similar to the kit I have to make one.

An awesome applique wall hanging. This one is a bit different one than the ones we have in the shop.

The grapes on the vines. All the quilts are displayed on the vines of the vineyard/winery.

Two Stepping Stones Quilts made with a variety of prints. I have the pattern and have been wanting to make it, but the one on the front of the pattern is solid colored. I loved these made out of a variety of prints.


Mom and I left the quilt show when it got so humid we could hardly stand it. We went to Always My Design, a great quilt shop in Dell Rapids. Then we went in to SF to Heirloom Creations. I found the panel I had been looking for and several other coordinates. We had lunch at Panera Breads and then went to Luverne MN to The Sewing Basket. Neither mom nor I had been there before, so they had lots of fabrics unique to us. We got a couple fabric books. Then it was back to SD to Brandon where we stopped at Quilted Memories. Then in to SF to Dutch Rose quilt shop. We had a great time touring all the quilt shops in the area, with stops at other shops we don't have in Rapid City. We had a great supper at Spezia before heading back to the hotel. I worked on the blocks for my signature quilt. I got a few done, but I have more to do. Sun. morning mom and I met my college friends Nich and Jon and their son Mason for lunch at Camille's. It was a great little sidewalk cafe and I really enjoyed it. We made a few more stops before heading home. We arrived home by 7:30, so it was a great fun weekend with mom.

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.