Sunday Sewing

Sunday we did errands and I scored a new pair of jeans and a t-shirt from Cabela's on clearance for $20. I was so excited. I just love awesome deals, since the jeans are normally $50 and the shirt $20. When we got home I was exhausted and ended up taking a nap. When I got up, Mikaela had some grandma/daddy time and I loaded Jenn's quilt on the frame. I'd been waiting for a weekend to do it since I knew it would take a while. It quilted up beautifully!

I used a cream King Tut and Cream Bottomline, since there were so many colors and they are such a different shade of colors. I wasn't finding a verigated King Tut to match. I love how the cream looks on it. It let's the fabrics shine.

The stippling went well and everything laid flat.

The flowered Hunky Dory was the backing as well. I just love the colors in it. She also pieced part of the back.


I was able to quilt the entire quilt in about 4 hours. I'm just so impressed with it and hope she likes it as well. It was 77x90 and she used a white warm and white batting.

Saturday Sewing

Saturday we stayed home the entire day, well almost. I cleaned out the crawl space and got rid of 2 suitcases, 3 large totes, and 2 big bags of clothes. I figure I'll never be in that size I was before, so it's time to move the stuff on! I made room to put all of mom's batting and most of her UFO's that I'm not currently working on in the crawl space until I need them. My closet was a little too overwhelming and I needed to move it around. I worked from 9-4 and really made a lot of progress. Then I read my facebook.... Jodi had been to Hancock's and gotten a small OTT lite for $10. I was intrigued, I'm the notions girl... so I quick got ready and ran to town to get one.  Jodi, you're such a bad influence!  Paul kept Mikaela at home so I got to do a bit of shopping for Mikaela too. She needed pants as none of her outfits had pants. I also found her the FP pink pig piggy bank. It'll be her Christmas present. I was so excited since she loved playing with it at Jon and Nich's.
Paul fixed supper too, so I got to spend the evening sewing to my hearts content!
I made this block for Patti for our September Friendship block swap. This block turned out awesome. Everything just seemed to match so perfectly without me trying.

I put the binding on this mug rug for a co-worker who is going to get the ATTA girl award at work on Thurs.

And finally I trimmed up this quilt mom made last year at the Wall Quilt retreat. She had me quilt it, had the binding with it, but never put it on. I figured since it was Fall I should finish it. I might just put it in my office for awhile.


Sat. was so productive that I thought  I 'd exhausted all the time I would get to sew... but I was wrong!

September Groovy Girls

Friday night was our first Groovy Girls of the new year. We had lots of new faces as well as a lot of returning members.
Darlene and Michelle, the two in center front, are the girls I worked with at the shop before. It was so good to see them and catch up. Shonna in the white and Jenn hidden in the green were also there. They stayed to sew as did Pam and Sue. It was so good to catch up with everyone after the summer break. Sherry and Emily were able to be there as well. I always enjoy my evening out with the girls.

Tammy does the program and this month was on the Kindle cover. She's showing the one I made out of the Maxine fabric. I have a co-worker who will be getting it for Christmas.

She also showed the CD/DVD holder I made out of the new pattern by Gudrun using her new Super fabric line.

I was so productive in the sewing department that night. I finished sewing all the Blush 60* blocks and finished sewing all the blocks for my Mocha Merigue Wonder Blocks quilt. That's been an old UFO that I know I will like, but just didn't care for piecing the blocks. Once I got started though, they were easy to finish. I also pulled the fabric to make Jacque's block for the swap. I was able to use my stash and have 14 different fabrics in it without cutting into my jewel toned batik fat quarters I had been buying, so I think I may just have to make another quilt with those since I love them so much. I got in about 5 hours of sewing which felt so good!

Mikaela is 34 Weeks Old!

Mikaela turned 34 Weeks old yesterday. She was all full of smiles when I got home. She'd had a good day at Cressa's Daycare and enjoyed some fun playing with Daddy. He was letting her bounce on his neck.

Until she started holding on by the hair and pulling!

She wanted to eat the camera instead of pose for it.

She just didn't want to sit while mommy took pictures.

She was all for playing with Daddy after her bath. She even got two books read to her by daddy.

But then she was intent on watching the season finale of Big Brother with us. She just knew Rachel would win!

Daddy gave her a horsey ride and then it was off to bed.

Friendship Blocks

My Friendship Swap blocks have been coming in like hot cakes! I've so enjoyed seeing what everyone uses for the different purple batiks, since I know there are lots to choose from!
Jenn Boerger made this one for me.

Linda Stitchnoch made this one for me.

Cindy Gardiner made this one for me. I just LOVE the daisy fabric. It's one of my favorites.

Sara Fridley made this one for me. She's not in the swap, but a blogging buddy who offered to make one for me. Thanks so much Sara! It was so great to meet you at Quilts and Vines.

Regina Smith and Patti July made these next two for me. I'm not sure who made which one, but love them both.



In the package from Regina was this spool of Grape thread. I just love the vibrant purple color. Can't wait to use it! Thanks Girls for the blocks and thread!!

I still have two blocks to get, then I'll figure out what I'm going to do with them. If anyone would like to make a block, just leave me a comment and I'll give you the specifics. Thanks!

September Sewing

I haven't done much quilting during the month of September, but I did make this Diaper Clutch for my cousin Molly and her husband Tyler who we stayed with in MN a couple weekends ago. I just love the owl fabric and thought it would work well since they had a boy.

I also made this sample of the Quilt as you go quilt from Gudrun Erla's new line Super. It's really bright and cheerful. I wasn't so sure about the prairie points, but they turned out well.

I also made this Simple Pillowcase. It's also a sample. I thought it was for GG's this month, but it's for next month, so I'm ahead of the game!

I did some fun quilting in the middle of the big flowers.

It's super simple and would be a great way to practice FMQ.

I also made this rick rack pillow. It turned out really neat and I think the colors are great.

This is the back. It's a simple to make pillow with a binding.

This month's GG is Friday and I'm so looking forward to spending time with my friends and having a girls night out. I made this name badge holder that turned out so cute with my leftover selvages. Where the binding is, there is a clear vinyl place for the name tag.

It has two zippered pockets and two regular pockets.


I think I'd like to use the pattern and some different fabrics to make this up for my work badge, but without the selvage edges.
I've also done some sewing on the Blush 60* quilt. I'm hoping to get lots of sewing done tomorrow night and maybe some quilting this weekend.

Mikaela's New Crib

This weekend we picked up Mikaela's new crib. Daddy was off on Monday, so he put it together for her. It's a lot bigger than her pack and play, but oh so much fun. It has slots so she can pull herself up! She definitely likes to pull herself up and bounce.

She's all full of smiles.



Her mobile from Trish looks awesome on the side and she loves to listen to it at night.

Her 2 front teeth are so cute!

She loves the crib and is sleeping a wee bit better, still not through the night, but it will come.

MN State Fair

Over Labor Day weekend Paul, Mikaela and I headed to MN to visit my mom's cousin Sue and family. We're really close to them and they had come out to see us in June, so it was fun to get together again. Her daughter Molly had just had a little boy Cash, 3 weeks before our visit, so we got to meet him too. We left Fri. at noon and spent the night with my college roommate Nichole, her hubby Jon, and son Mason. We had such a great visit and caught up again. It was so good to see them. Sat. morning we traveled to MN and spent the day with the family. I got to go to the quilt shop in Rosemount as it is right next door to Molly's Salon. We had a big family meal and spent time trying to get Mikaela to crawl.
Sunday morning we headed out early to the MN State Fair. It was our first time and we had a blast!
I just loved the Coliseum, so much to look at!

I definitely had to pick up some Sweet Martha's cookies.

I had to eat the bucket down too, with a little help!

Paul had some Walleye on a stick.

It seemed there were a lot of things on a stick, including lottery tickets. I bought $15 worth and won $122 dollars! It was definitely my lucky day.
It was a bit chilly when we left, but we bundled up good and had some warm food like cheese curds, pickle dogs, roasted corn, and punto dogs to fill us up!

Mikaela was having fun and everyone loved her hat!

We had to go to the Dairy building to see the butter heads. They were pretty cool, pun intended.



We had an awesome time visiting our family, attending the fair, going to the Twins game, and shopping at IKEA and Fleet Farm, stores we don't have out here. We spent more money at Fleet Farm than the entire trip it seemed. Boy it's a good thing we don't have one of those stores!