Visit with Cousins

Saturday evening we went to my dad and Ann's house to see the cousins, pick up firewood, and a little quilting time for me. We tried to get a few pictures of the kids. Ann, Cooper, Payton, Mikaela, & Mathew.

The kids with Grandpa Hugh & Grandma Ann




Mikaela finally warmed up to Payton and then she didn't want to let him go. She really enjoyed holding the new baby.




A picture with Aunt Moneik & Payton


I loved seeing my nephews and getting to hold Payton for the first time. I miss babies, but not that much. It's so nice to give him back to his daddy.

Successful Sewing Week

Last week was super busy, but I carved out time to work on two newish projects. The first is a set of Bargello place-mats. I made each one different. The first one had the dark teal through the center, the second had the light teal/light purple. The other two are the reverse arches. I think they turned out pretty awesome and were so much fun to make. The one on the right is a wee bit bigger because I used Mikaela's machine to piece it and since the Janome 1/4" foot is not a true quarter and it can't be moved on her machine, the sets were a bit off. Luckily it's not real noticeable and they won't be right beside each other often.


I also finished up the 4th granny square block and finished the top of the quilt. This will be a sample for a class I am teaching in the fall. I'm really looking forward to teaching it, now that I know how to easily make the blocks. I was going to quilt it Sat. but realized my backing was cut wrong and needs to be pieced. Hopefully I'll get that rectified one day soon and be able to quilt it.

The 3rd placemat got finished Friday night and I was able to piece the 4th one Saturday morning before breakfast and after lunch. Luckily we didn't go to my dad's until late afternoon, so plenty of time to get it made, so I could quilt them.

I'm feeling great about my samples for next quarter. I have all but one done and a few others that are just icing on the cake if they get done. I'm super excited to work on a bargello heart in these same colors, but I have to find one more purple!

June A Year of Lovely Finishes Goal

June is really flying by! I can't believe how fast this year is going. One of my May goals was to quilt my Amish Rubic Star. I anticipated quilting it with big stitch quilting, but a dear friend suggested that wasn't my style and it would look better with my traditional quilting. So it sat and sat and sat... for several months! In fact it's been done since January. I didn't get out to my dad's, so I didn't think I was going to meet my goal. Saturday afternoon we headed out there to pick up firewood and I got a chance to quilt! I was able to meet my May goal.  I know I could let this set for a while, so I've decided to make it my June goal to finish the binding and put the hanging sleeve on the quilt.

This picture shows the quilting better, but the color is pretty distorted.

This picture shows the whole quilt, 40"x40" approximately. It's far closer to the actual colors. I used a teal/blue/purple/green King Tut thread on top and a dark teal Bottomline in the bobbin. I used a wool batting, so it will be light weight.

With the anticipation of a possible new opportunity, I want to have this quilt ready for hanging soon. Hopefully putting it as my June goal will give me the incentive I need to finish it.

Graduation 2014

I graduated!  While I've been done since March, on May 17th National American University held commencement at the civic center. Family & friends were able to celebrate with me as I walked across the stage & received my hood. 

Dr. Kerr performed the hooding.

The hood is a symbol of the degree & has the school colors, blue & white,  as well as the degree color, a light tan.

Later in the evening we had a party at the house to celebrate.  It was so much fun!

A Year of Lovely Finishes May Goal Finished

May has completely caught me off guard. I've been doing a gazillion projects that were not on my goals list.  My AYLF goal  for May was to finish my scrappy swoon. Since I'm not really a fan of this quilt I just wanted it done!
Last week I squared it up, put the binding on by machine and did a decorative stitch around the star. I still can't see the star, so I may have to add something to it, but for now it is as done as it is getting.

I used a dark purple Aurifil thread on it,  but ran out, so now I need a road trip to get more. I looked online,  but couldn't tell for sure which one it is. I used a light purple variegated Aurifil thread to do the accent stitching around the star.

I'm so excited that I have been able to finish 5 projects on my UFO list, simply by participating in AYLF and making myself work on them. Here's hoping I get to do some fun projects in June as well.

HIT THE ROAD WITH AMERICAN MADE BRAND

Welcome to the AMB Blog Tour! Designed to take you on an inspired trip across the USA, this blog tour visits all 50 states over 25 days starting May 19th, with no gas required! I am excited and amazed to be part of such an extraordinary group of designers creating a block for this blog tour. I am currently in the process of designing the South Dakota block and look forward to creating a license plate block representing the many faucets of life in this great state. My block will be posted on June 13th.

Every Blogger has been specially selected as a representative of the state they call home. At each stop on the tour, explore how each designer re-interprets their 12″ x 6″ state license plate in a finished quilt block of the same size and sign-up for giveaways of American Made Brand fabric. You’ll find all types of blocks – truly something for everyone! You are going to want to collect them all.

The American Made Brand fabric is truly unique in the quilting industry. It is 100% made in the USA and is so reasonably priced. I can't wait to get my hands on more of it.

So check back every day starting May 19th and explore this great country with AMB; no gas required! The listing of all those participating is located on the AMB blog tour site, with more information about the tour.

Fabulous Sewing Week

This week has been awesome in the sewing studio. We had a few cold days that we stayed inside during break, so I finished up 4 rows of the Sewing Hexie table runner. I think I have only 5 more sections to make into rows and then I can start assembling them. This project has been ongoing for 3 years now, so it's time to get it moving a little faster. My goal for the month is to get 4 rows pieced and I've met that goal.

This week I've been crazy busy creating samples for a Triangle Frenzy Swirl table runner and the Hexagon Table Topper. I got them pieced earlier in the week and last night I burped and quilted the swirl runner. I didn't have the pattern for this one, so I winged it.

I used leftover fabric for the backing. I just did a bit of echo quilting and some hexie's in the center.

I had time to quilt the bigger hexie table topper so I did. This one is also quilted with echo, but I also added hexie's to the centers of the cream. This one I put binding on in black and am working on hand stitching it down. I am loving my new Samsung Galaxy S5 for the picture quality. It is AMAZING compared to my old Windows phone which I HATED!

A close up of the quilting on the topper.

Then because I am crazy and I just wanted to try, I made this miniature. It uses 2.25" triangles and 1/8" seams. It's not perfect, but is pretty cute. I used the leftovers of my strip. Finished size is 8"x 9.5"If I'd had more than 1/4" of the red I think it would have turned out better. Still it was fun to try. I used the #HexNMore Ruler by Jaybird Quilts to make all of these. It is the most universal ruler I have seen for a "specialty" ruler. Mind you, I do have at least 8 60* rulers, but I really like this one because of its versatility.


Linking up for Finish it Up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts &

Finish it Up Friday

This week has been very productive! I feel confident I can meet my deadlines after this week. I was able to complete two different quilts. I appliqued the stars on this Americana quilt, created a back, basted, and quilted it this week. It is a table topper that will be used as a sample for the Quilt Show in June.

I hadn't appliqued in a long time, but with Totally stable on the back, using the Bernina 1329 stitch, it went together very quickly.

I pulled this large piece of material from mom's stash for the back, but I was just a wee bit short. I pulled this excess piece of the front off and sewed it into the corner.

I'm really intrigued with the new mini quilts on the market. I used some scraps to make this mini Northern Lights quilt. I quilted on the opposite sides of every other color, using thread that matched the unquilted section. It turned out really well and went very quickly. I put the binding on Wed. night and was able hand sew the binding down during breaks yesterday.

My cutting table had become a piling spot for a lot of stuff in the room, including unstarted projects. I was getting frustrated, so I spent some time this week cleaning off my sewing area. I have only the projects I am working on in the box to the left. These include some Candy Dish pillows, Trip Around the World Blocks, and the AMB blog hop block. On my cutting table are a bunch of 60* triangles for a Triangle Frenzy table runner I am making for a class sample. My finished TATW blocks are in my box on the right.

This week I also made Mikaela a little Dora dress. My aunt got the fabric for her, but didn't know about size, so she gave it to me to make. Mikaela's excited for her new dress. She's playing with my new duster. It works so slick to get rid of all the dust around my sewing area.

This week we've done a lot of finger painting. It's been so fun to see her playing with color.


Linking up with Amanda Jean at CrazyMomQuilts for Finish it Up Friday.

Mathew is 17 Months old

Some days it just works out to play outside and take pictures of the kids. Last night on Mathew's 17th month day we got to do a lot of playing. The kids with their Beep Beeps

Mikaela picking up rocks.

Mikaela picking flowers for mommy.

Mathew playing with his beep beep.

Mikaela running. She's constantly on the go.

Mathew showing how well he can walk, even on rocks. He's taken off since he started walking a little over a month ago.

He loves the slide daddy put on the swing set last week.

He went down the slide a lot.


The kids are growing so quickly! He's officially part of the time out club. He knows what is going on and how to get a reaction out of us. He's super cute though, so he gets lots of hugs and kisses.