Awesome Blizzard!

Okay, I know some of your are ready to scream that a blizzard isn't awesome, but for me it really was today. I got to sew for a whole uninterruped day. Last night I came home in rain at 8:30 and the wind was really starting to blow hard. By this morning when I got up at 6, the snow covered the screens and I couldn't see out. I called our closure line and it said to report at 10. Paul said I don't think you're going to get out as there's a 2 foot drift behind your pickup. I went back to sleep and got up at 8 and called again. This time we were closed for the day. There was no travel advised, the interstate and several state highways were all closed. There were snowplows stuck in the ditches! My little brother is a heavy duty tow truck driver, so he has to go pull out all the trucks that are stuck. They can't do anything while it's blowing, so he was sleeping today, knowing it was going to be a long night and day tomorrow.
So I slept till 11 and then got up and started sewing. I had all my stuff packed as I had taken it last night to sew at the store, which got cancelled because it was supposed to get bad. So I had luckily hauled it all in last night! I started on the medium Miranda bag I was making for myself. I made it 20% smaller, so it's more like a purse than a bag. I also just used one front piece and one back piece instead of two smaller ones.

Then I fixed the purse I had made for my mom. The handles were too long and there wasn't a closure, so I said well give it back and I'll fix it. So I put this closer on it and some velcro as well as took the long handles off and put on 20 inch ones. It turned out really good with the new handles. I didn't like the ones I had put on it when I gave it to her, but she hadn't said anything until last week. So now it's fixed and ready to be returned to her.

Then I took a pack of 8 fat 16th I think they are called that I had been given a couple years ago and made a tablerunner. I know it's really simple, but the lady I'm giving it to works with me and she loves browns and black. I don't particularly like to use these colors, but they worked perfect for this simple impromptu tablerunner. She's graduating next week with her PHD, so I thought she would like this. I didn't think I would have time to get something made, so I planned it to be simple. Thank goodness for the snow today and time to get it done!


Then it was on to my next project of making a cover for the guest book. I found one where I liked the inside, but not the outside, so I decided to make a cover for it. Mom did the embroidery last week and brought it to me and today I made this cover. I just winged it, but it turned out pretty good. I used dark and light purples from the Fairy Frost line. I just love these elegant fabrics and they are so nice to work with. They have a glitter on them. The LQS I got to carries the entire line!

So as if that wasn't enough, I decided to start my May UFO. It was a bag for a friend who loves Wizard of Oz. I had gotten the fabric at a quilt show in March, but hadn't had time to work on it. Today was the day! I made the Miranda bag, including the middle cinch, handles, and closure in under 3 hours! Since I've made 6 Miranda bags already, I guess I just kind of know the pattern. I'm not real impressed with the quilting on it, but I didn't have a lighter thread that would work, so I guess it shows I'm still learning to FMQ.



This afternoon Paul went out with the snowblower and the 4-wheeler with plow and started working on clearing the 4 foot drifts we had behind the vehicles. He was out for 5 hours and only got two of the three out. He even had help from the neighbor who has a tractor! We have a fence by us, so it was acting as a snow fence and all the snow piled past it. Right behind our vehicles! Luckily we didn't have to go anywhere and could enjoy the time at home. I feel like I accomplished so much!
This weekend we are going home to help my brother with their new house and my godmother is throwing a wedding shower for us. It's supposed to be 50 tomorrow, so hopefully the snow will melt fast and we won't have any problems. Otherwise I have several more projects just waiting in the wings to finish up for the wedding!

Church Banner Revealed!

I've been telling about the church banner I was making for the wedding for several weeks now and it's finally time to reveal it!


I quilted all afternoon on Saturday and finally got the quilting done. I wasn't impressed with the sand on the bottom, so Sunday after church I took it all out, went to Hancock's and got basting spray and put all 4 layers together. Then I took out part of the applique, readjusted it and started over again with the quilting and it turned out fabulous. It still needs to be washed and pressed, but I'm happy with how it all turned out. I spent all evening last night hand sewing the hanger down in the back. I am not a fan of handwork! The binding is on and it's ready to go! Just one more thing off the wedding to do list. I'm hoping to make a Miranda bag tonight, so we'll see if that happens.

I got to sew this weekend!

This is probably the last weekend before the wedding where we won't be busy or at my parents house, so I was really looking forward to some sewing time.
I spent several hours quilting the church banner on Saturday afternoon. The last section was giving me fits, so I decided to leave it for a while and work on the quilters wall hanging. Jen sent it to me for my birthday and I bought fabric to border it which was done, so I just had to quilt it and bind it. I ended up getting it quilted and the first half of the binding done before supper. Paul made Manicotti and frenchbread and we had a date night at our house. It was really good. Since it was date night, I put away my sewing and we watched a movie.
Sunday morning I finished pinning the binding in place and after church sewed it down. Last night I finished the hand stitching on the hanger. It looks great and will hang in my sewing studio. Thanks again Jen! I absolutely love it and it'll give me inspiration.

Pay It Forward!

A few weeks ago I decided to participate in a Pay It Forward On Joan's Blog. Well this week while I was sick, I received my pay it forward gift from her. It's a cute little bag and fat quarters and candy. I haven't taken a picture yet, but it's so nice of her. So now it's my turn to Pay it Forward!
I'm going to presume you don't know anything about Pay It Forward. Here are the rules...I will make a gift for the first three bloggers who leave me a comment wishing to participate. They in turn will need to make the same promise on their blog. I waited to post this until I received my PIF from Joan. You could do the same (except your gift will be from ME, not Joan...just clarifying).
The first 3 people to leave a comment asking to participate will receive a handmade gift from me within 365 days (most likely much less than that). Obviously you need to have a blog to participate.
I can't wait to Pay it Forward, so leave me a comment and let me know you want to participate!

Sick of Being Sick!

I am so sick of being sick! I came down with a cold on Sunday and ended up coming home early from work on Monday, stayed home Tues, and Wed. and today I'm back at work, but still don't feel the best. Whenever my co-worker is sick I always tease her about getting a lot of quilting done while being sick, so she had to tease me! I got NOTHING done! I pin basted the church banner on Sat. and it's all ready to be quilted and I haven't had the energy to even touch my machine or go to my sewing room. Tonight is the weekly sewing at the quilt shop, but I'm going home to either veg or sew on my own. I sure hope I get to feeling better!

Bridal Shower

Thursday night was my bridal shower, put on by my two friends who are co-workers. There were 20 people there and I received many nice gifts. My aunt crocheted a piece with my new last name which was really cool and the ladies from the LQS gave me a gift certificate to the quilt shop. Here's a picture of me with the cake.

My bridesmaid from SF came all the way out here for the shower and surprised me. I couldn't believe she came. Here's a picture of Nichole, me, and my friend Becca who is one of my personal attendants.

The shower was so much fun and a nice variety of friends, co-workers, and family.

Reality is setting in!

Reality is starting to set in and it finally feels like the wedding is getting closer! No I'm not stressing out! I started stressing about a month ago one night when my mom, Paul, and his mom Leslie were all at the house. Leslie and my mom decided they would drink a beer every time I got stressed out about something for the wedding. I said you can't do that you'll both be alcholics! My mom said, well then shape up. Sooooo, so far I haven't really stressed yet, or my mom will say where's the beer and I just let it go.
I haven't really been anxious yet, but this week I had to make a few calls to ask people to help and to confirm details. I got a lot of things taken care of and I feel pretty good about what is left. The church banner top is done and we are going to baste it on Fri. I'm hoping to get it quilted this weekend. We are also planning on completing the invitations and getting them mailed out this next week. We're at 7 weeks to the wedding!
Yesterday I received our first shower gift from a friend who won't be able to make the shower as she is having surgery. It was so fun to open it! Tomorrow night is my bridal shower up here. Two of my friends who are co-workers are throwing the shower. I really had good intentions of having a signiture quilt done, but that didn't happen and it doesn't look like it's going to get done before the wedding, unless I get really bored, so everyone will have to sign the boring book. What kind of quilter doesn't have a signiture quilt for her own wedding. I seriously am considering just getting a big piece of white fabric and having everyone sign it and making a wall hanging later and using it as the back. Who knows what will happen by then.
I'll leave you with pictures of my hair done on Saturday as practice for the wedding. We went and tried on veils and it was snowing/raining/ windy, so it went flat in a hurry. I really wanted a tiara, but after trying them on, I didn't find anything I liked or was willing to pay for. I do like the length of the veil though, so I'll be working on making that too.

Sunday Sewing!

Although I needed to work on the church banner and applique the star on, I just didn't feel like sewing for the wedding yesterday, so I decided to make this wallhanging for Paul. He helped me pick out the fabric and I have enough to probably make two more just like it. I used steam a seam 2 and traced the pattern, put it on the fish fabric, cut it all out and appliqued it to the blue background. It actually turned out really well and I even did a small stipple on the fish. Paul helped me pick a King Tut thread that matched perfectly and I was really pleased with the results of my first attempt at small stippling. I kind of wanted to do the blue, but didn't have the right color thread, so left it and did the green border with Bottomline thread which worked well too. It's supposed to resemble a Rainbow Trout and then the small inner border is kind of like a rainbow.
Christine Bump of Quilts and Stithes, who makes these patterns is local and she has several out already. I have the deer head which I am making for my dad and possibly my bros and Paul and the fish. She also has a moose, elk, buffalo, horse, mountain cougar, and maybe others. She's working on a Pheasant.

Leslie's Miranda Bag

Friday was Paul's mom's birthday, so with all the events of last week I wasn't home enough to finish up her Miranda bag for her birthday, so Sunday I finished it up. It' kind of a dark coral, pink/orange color that she picked out and I mixed it with a blue/purple batik that looks pretty cool together. I even put in the cinch which works great. She loved it! I put 40" handles on it as that's what she wanted and though the picture color isn't very good, you can still see what it looks like.

Paul's PJ Pants

In December I made Paul PJ pants for Christmas, but since then I haven't gotten a picture of him in them. I was updating my quilt journal this weekend, so while he had them on I snapped a picture. They are of construction tools, since he's a custom home builder, they are perfectly fitted to him. Yesterday he spent the whole afternoon in the garage making frames for presents for our family for the wedding. He does such an awesome job! He also put up shelves in the laundry room and made a door for the crawl space.

The Prize Patrol Stopped at My House!

It wasn't quite Ed McMann, but just about as close as I ever expect to get. The fourth package on Friday was from Regina A. of the Queen Bee's Buzz. I had won her 100th post giveaway a while ago and she sent the most incredible notecards, card holder, and a bag to hold them all. Thanks so much for the gift Regina! Now I need to get around and send the one for my 200th post. I've had it sitting around, just need to get it in the mail to the lucky winner.

Books, Books, and More Books

Last week I had a little too much fun on Amazon.com and ended up ordering some new books. I went to order Emilie Richards The Wedding Ring, and ended up with the Quilt Along book for it, as well as Endless Chain, and Lover's Knot.


There are a few more books in the series along with the Quilt Along Books, but I decided to get these to start with. I need to finish reading the Elm Creek series books before I start these, but I'm getting close to the end of those, so I thought I would be prepared. These are the first three boxes I received on Friday!

Last Week

Last week went from bad to worse, so this weeks gotta be better. Since I've been gone all week I'll have several posts with pictures. Tuesday my mom's cousin died. She was 24, so we had gone to school together. I spent Wednesday and Thursday coming to work early and staying late trying to make up the hours so I could be gone on Friday for the funeral. We also were in the midst of a blizzard warning, so we knew weather could change plans too. Thurs. after work mom and I left and went back to Philip (1 1/2 hours away) for the prayer service and then went to my parents for the night. I designed labels on my mom's embroidery software, so she can sew them out when I'm not there. Fri. morning we went back to town for the funeral, burial, and lunch with the family. Both my brothers where there as well as Jim's wife and my parents. After lunch my little bro Ed and I headed back to Rapid so I could work the remainder of the afternoon. After work Paul picked me up and we took his mom to Hill City (30 miles) to the Alpine Inn. We had their famous Filet Mignon and desserts. It was so scrumptious. They only serve one menu at night, Filet Mignon - small or large, a baked potato, and a 1/4 head of lettuce with ranch dressing. It's outstanding and reasonably priced at 8.95 for the small or 10.95 for the large. We took the scenic route back and had a nice time. I got home to several packages to open which was fun!

Two Months till the BIG DAY!

Today marks two months until our big wedding day! Jen really thinks I should be freaking by now, but I'm not, yet. Last night we put the final touches on the guest list, wrote out the engagement announcement, and discussed what the invitation would say. We still have to tweak the invitation saying a little more, but it's coming along. Yesterday I finished the applique work on the church banner. It still needs a star, but that will come on Thurs. night, then I plan to baste it and start quilting yet this week. Tonight we meet with our sponsor couple from church and we'll have our third week of dance lessons tomorrow night. We're half done and getting better each week.
Mom is working on the groom's vest, bridesmaids dresses, and ringbearer pillow. She's also working on shortening my dress. I'm having my hair practiced on Sat. and trying on veils. We priced food for the reception Fri. night and know what we're having and how much it will cost. The showers are planned and I'm working on the cover for the guest book.
I really feel pretty confident that everything will come together. Jen'll be telling me I told you so in another month probably, but that's to be expected!
We helped my little brother move this weekend and had supper with my parents, brothers, and their signifcant others this weekend which was nice. I also helped my future MIL pick out her dress and shoes, so she's pretty much set as well.

Happy Blogoversary to me!

I can't believe it's my blogoversary today! It's been 3 years since I started blogging. When I started I was teaching high school English and I was trying to encourage my seniors to express themselves, so I started my blog. Then I started one on quilt blog just for writing about my quilts and then moved back over here last year when that site was having so much trouble. I find this a lot easier to use. Thanks for reading my blog, commenting, and encouraging me. The next two months are going to get hairy, so bear with me.

Fat Quarter Wall Hanging

Last night I met up with my friend Becca after work for supper. We had a nice visit and I also met her friend she is staying with until she leaves next month. I got home about 7, so had plenty of time to sew, but no energy to start something new. I finally decided to work on the wall hanging Jen gave me for my birthday. I put on two borders and now it's ready to be basted and quilted. I'm going to have to finish later, but at least I got the borders on, so the top is done.
Tonight I am going to sew with some friends and hopefully get the applique work done on the church banner so it can be quilted. It would be such a good feeling to have it done. We'll see how much I get accomplished while I'm visiting and having fun.

March Accomplishments

I made a few quilting accomplishments this month!
~ I finished the tabletopper UFO I started at the 2007 Wall Quilt retreat
~ Made my Miranda bag and ended up making two mini ones too
~ I attended the Wall Quilt Guild trunk show and helped with it since it's my guild
~ I attended the Joan Davis Quilt trunk show at the Wall Quilt weekend
~ Paul and I took engagement pictures
~ I put the binding on two YBR quilts that Jen quilted so awesomely for me!
~ I made a 4'x7' design wall with foam board and flannel.
~ I received some beautiful Wales gifts from my blogging buddy Gina in Wales.
~ I got my Janome Table for my 6600!
~ I finished the quilting on the YBR for my flowergirl and put the binding on.
~ I made a musical tablerunner for my pianist.
~ I made one churn dash block using the crown royal bags as the sides.
~ I worked on the church banner and have all the landscape pieces steam a seamed to the background.
~ I made the muslin for the flowergirl and two more muslins for one of my bridesmaids. We have the sizes right, so we're ready to begin making the dresses.

Mini Quilt

This weekend I also finished the quilting on another mini YBR quilt. It turned out pretty well after my machine and I quit fighting. I think the tension is off when the feed dogs are down. Once I put them up it was smooth sailing! I guess she'll have to go visit Tracy to see what the problem is. Chalk another one off my list of things to complete before the wedding!

Musical Churn Dash Table Runner

This weekend I was on a mission to make a tablerunner for the pianist for our wedding. I had the black and white music fabrics, but wanted something to go with them, so I stopped at QCII and the ladies helped me find the border fabric. I made this tablerunner for her. It's 9" churn dash blocks, a 3/4" white border and 3" outer border. I quilted it in gold and it turned out awesome.

thanks to the gals at the Quilt Corral Too who helped me pick out the fabrics, it turned out awesome. I bought the book The Quilter's Workbook and it has a bunch of blocks you can make and all the directions to cut out either 6", 9" or 12" finished blocks. It rocks! I finally found the name of the book and a link to it online.

Crown Royal Quilt Block

I finally got a picture last night of the Crown Royal block I made last week. It's a churn dash pattern and uses 2 bags per block. Crown Royal is an alcohol that the bottle comes in a purple bag and has the name embroidered across the front. I made the block 12 1/2" and I figure using a 7x9 layout I will need 63 blocks for a total of 126 bags. I probably have that many since my dad has a friend who works in a bar and sent a whole bunch to him so I could make the quilt. This is my test block since I wanted to know if the black would be okay and how much fabric I could get out of the bag.

Church Banner

Last night I met up with some ladies and we sewed for several hours. It was so much fun to laugh and visit with them. They were making purses. Mom helped me and we worked on the church banner. We got all the landscape pieces attached to the background. Now I just have to sew them down, baste the quilt and quilt it. I'm hoping to be done by mid April, but we'll see how that goes.
The flower girl tried the muslin on for her dress and it was too big, so this weekend I'm going to make another one and see if it fits better. The wedding is fast approaching!
We got a little more snow last night and lots of slick roads the last two days, but I made it home okay.

May/June Quilter's Home

Last week Mark Lipinski posted on his blog that the new Quilter's Home would be arriving on newstands anyday. I asked if they had it at the quilt shop and they get their magazine deliveries on Wed., so last night I went to pick up my copy. I'm glad I got there when I did as there were only 2 left! They had sold a bunch yesterday. I think my favorite article so far is what to pack in the Quilter's Tool Kit.
Since I am going sewing tonight I checked to see if I had everything he recommended. While I do have a seperate travel sewing kit, I don't have quilte all the rulers he recommended as a second set. I do have them in my normal sewing room though. I keep my extra 6X12" and 6 1/2" square and a 1X6" rulers in my travel set.
Does everyone else have a second set of their most prized sewing gadgets specifically set aside for traveling to classes? Or, do you have to rummage around your sewing room, hoping to remember everything you need? I think my $50 investment (50% off notions at Hancock's) has been the best money I ever spent. I have almost everything I need for sewing away from home in one neat, square, 2"X12" bag. If you sew away from home once a month or more, I highly recommend a travel set of supplies. You'll be glad it's all set and ready to go when you are!

Crown Royal Quilt

Several years ago I saw a quilt made out of Crown Royal bags. It was a 9 patch and really poorly done, but looked really cool. I thought I would start saving the bags to "someday" make a quilt out of them. My brothers found out and started saving them for me as did my dad and other friends. I was slowly gaining, I only had about 20. Last Oct. my dad, brother & sister in law went on their annual opening weekend of pheasant hunting season trip to a friends house. They met up with other hunters there as well. One of the couples was from WI and the lady worked at a bar. My dad was telling her about the Crown Royal quilt I want to make, so she offered to send him some. I thinks she sent around 125 bags! I was in the midst of planning my wedding, so put them in the closet until I could figure out what pattern and fabric I was going to use. I made a churn dash block for another project and really liked how easy the pattern was and didn't take much fabric. I kind of put it in the back of my mind to see if i could use the CR bags to make the block.
Last night I was completely exhausted after work, but I really wanted to sew. I figured I was just making a test block anyway, so if I screwed it up not a big deal. I used 2 CR bags and a fat quarter of black fabric. The block turned out pretty nicely and was really easy to make. I'll have to remember to take a picture of it. I think I have enough of the fat quarter left to make a couple more blocks and make a wall hanging to send to the friends who sent all the bags. I have enough for one quilt and I'm still collecting to make at least a couple more quilts. If anyone has any they would like to send my way, I'd sure love to have them. This will probably be an after the wedding project, but I may make blocks as I go if I don't want to do wedding related sewing.

Happy New Year!

I am not a morning person, but Paul and I went to church with my parents at 8 on Easter morning. The priest started the sermon with Happy New Year! I may be a little tired, but I knew I heard him right. Well our church year starts on Easter and that's what he was referring to, but it sure got my attention. After church we came home and finished decorating the house and getting the folding table and chairs up. We had put a duck in the oven and two hams in the roaster before church, so they were cooking nicely. We fixed the other food and my parents came just before noon. My little bro Ed brought his new girlfriend Stephanie to meet us and Paul's uncle Will came over as well. His mom was feeling well enough to eat with us too. It was a little after noon by the time we ate, but it was all good and we really enjoyed some good laughs. After lunch most everyone left, except my parents. Paul went to take a nap. Mom, dad, and I played Rummy and my dad won. I got out the game UNO Attack and taught my parents to play. We all laughed so hard! It took almost 2 hours and I finally won. My dad is a fierce card player. I told him if he won again we were going to play cribbage. I don't like to loose at cards either. At my grandparents we always would have a noon meal, do dishes, grandma would take a nap, and when she got up we played cards till supper. She loved to play cards, but never had anyone to play with except on holidays. So my family plays cards a lot. My parents left about 4:30 to go home, and I was completely exhausted. I didn't sleep in or take any naps the whole weekend, so I was ready to crash. Paul and I layed on the couch and watched the movie Game Plan he got me for Easter. It was really good. Then we ended up watching Big Brother and the Newlyweds. I slept really hard and am still tired today. I have good intentions of making some quilt blocks tonight! It's been far too long since I have been at my sewing machine.

Good Friday day off!

I can't believe I've neglected my blog for this long. I guess that's what happens when you have company.
Thursday night I met up my mom and two of her co-workers and we went to supper together. We had a lot of good laughs! They are so much fun to be around. Then we went to The Sewing Center for Sew & Sews Club. I won a door prize of some green thread. I also saw they had the Janome Sewing Table in stock and the Bendable Bright light. They had the BBL on special so I picked one up that night.
Friday I was off work! So I started the day at the Sewing Center and picked up the Janome Sewing Table. I picked up my dad and we were on our way to a day of looking. We went to several home improvement stores and just did some looking and dad gave me ideas of for his birthday. This is only the 2nd time he has been up here this year, so we did any looking he wanted to do. We put on over 50 miles and didn't really go that far! About 4PM he was tuckered out, so I went home and Paul helped me put my table together, set it up and put my BBL on it. Then we met my parents for supper after mom got off work.
Sat. morning I got up and cleaned the house from top to bottom and did laundry. Paul put in hardwood flooring on our landing by the bedrooms which looks really awesome! My dad came out and spent the morning at our house. When I was finished cleaning dad and I went to a couple stores that we missed on Friday. Then we picked up mom when she got off work and went to the mall and Sams Club so my parents could look. We had supper and then they took me home. I know my dad was completely exhausted again from all the walking we did! I didn't get any sewing in, but I'm so excited to have my new table and light ready to use tonight when I get home.

I'm a Winner!

This week I received another squishy in the mail! It was from Gina in Wales for winning her blog drawing. I was so excited I had to take a picture of what she sent. She sent a tea towl with the country flowers of Wales, which I plan to use as a wall hanging, a book on Welsh Lovespoons, a chocolate spoon, and a coaster. They were all wrapped up nice and neat in a gift bag too. Thank you so much Gina for the wonderful gifts! It's great to have blogger friends.

Landscape Church Banner

Mom came out tonight and we worked on the church banner. We had the cross partially on there. We added the pieces of the landscape. I think the right side needs some more hills cut into it and there needs to be a mountain behind the cross. I'm going to have to go shopping for another fabric to put there and possibly another fabric for the left side. We'll just have to see what we can find. There wasn't anything in my limited stash that would work. I'm pleased with how far along we got tonight.