Craft Show

So before Christmas Sara and I did a couple craft shows. This is our two tables at Ewing. We had alot of fun but it was also alot of work setting up. Tear down is lots easier!  Not sure we made any money but it paid for the table rental, lunch, breakfast, snacks and we did a little shopping while we were there too. Sara is much better at selling than I am, she enjoys the interaction with customers. I on the other hand love to make things and would rather just hide out with my crochet hook behind the table. Not sure if the craft show thing will happen again next year, depends on if Sara is in the mood to sell!

Hand Soap

So I have a tendency to get my daughter into a few weird scenarios. Take the night I decided to make Gardeners Hand Soap(thanks pintrest!) We dumped Dawn dish soap with Olay into the bowl and started adding sugar, and adding until it was scoop able, then we put it in those cute little bowls with lids, when I ran out of bowls she started putting it back into the soap bottle. Lets just say it was interesting watching her 'techique'. Oh and every time someone washed with it they were supposed to say "oh that's soooooooooo nice". We decided the blue soap smelled like guy soap and the pink is wonderful pomegranate and so girly. We like the pink and shared the blue with the men in the family.

Christmas Quilt

Roseann finally got her Christmas Quilt  back, I know ya can't tell from the pic but I quilted it with stars! This was a class she taught awhile back (years ago) and I have 4 or 5 blocks done and living in a box somewhere......I will be the first to admit this quilt drove me crazy! Well I decided instead of thinking bad thoughts on finishing it according to the book I will just put together what I have done and call it a wallhang, or throw, or maybe even a tablerunner. (I was going to say firestarter but the blocks I do have done are nice) Well anyway it was fun to see Roseann's quilt finished and I'm sure her daughter will love it! (hmmmmmm maybe she would be interested in finishing mine......)

Walnut Iowa

I stop in Walnut Iowa on my way to Chicago to get out and stretch my legs and sight see a bit. It's the antique capital ya know'. It's about 4 hours into the trip and I'm ready for a break from driving by then. I wander around a shop or two then I check out the shop with fabric. I think it's a fun place and this tree in the middle of the intersection really caught my eye. Love the giant bows! I like how the town has really welcomed visitors to Iowa.

Happy New Year

Just want to say Happy New Year to everyone and heres to hoping 2013 is the best year yet!

 

Gifts

 I like to craft and glue and cut and sew and basically just mess with things. These were sale candles and I bought ribbon and ceramic crosses to fancy them up, the upholstery fabric was from a garage sale box and the fancy beads were once earrings.  I had to clean up some of my mess(there really is no hope) for Kristin to work in my studio this week. It got me to thinking that it's time to give some stuff away so I have more room to create in my space. So maybe that's my New Years resolution.....Give it away.......(oh and I should say also, don't add no more!)

Upcoming kits at work

 I am busy writing instructions for these quilts this week, above is Baby Tumblers. I did the sample out of flannel, oh it's a great floor quilt for a baby.

 Up next is a large baby quilt with cute animals all dressed up for the circus. I put loopy quilting on it and will bind in red.

 The Toy Quilt is a bit smaller with simple stipple quilting and green binding.

 This one and it's green twin are currently living in the front seat of my car........I'm hoping to have them both quilted before work on Wednesday. Kits are packaged up with instructions and just waiting for the samples to be finished.

This is the Twin Tumbler, I made the sample in flannel and the striped binding is so much fun!

  I thought a few new baby quilt kits at work would be kind of fun, nothing better than a quick gift quilt for a sweet baby!

Sara's project

 Sara is getting ready to redo her bedroom. We took some frames and shelves up to the building in town to spray paint. With the floor beams exposed it's easy to lay things on to paint.

 Her color scheme is grey, black, white and yellow with a splash of teal/turquoise.

Room painting will begin this week.............

Meowy Christmas

 I spent the evening trying to take cute pic's of my family, this is what I came up with. Blacky, Una and Snowball.

 Dos Gato showing off her new collar, she wanted to sit on my chest while I tried to take her pic.

 Blacky looks thrilled don't he?

 Sammy hates dressing for Christmas almost as much as Blacky does.

 Josie wore her collar with no problem until Josh told her she looked stupid and kept taking it off her cause he said he felt sorry for her.

 I tried and tried to get pic's of them with their eyes open but every time the flash went off they were quicker than the camera.

 Dos Gato thinks the middle of the tree is her favorite spot .

Laptop bags

 Kristin made laptop bags today. She knew what she wanted but had to make a prototype first. Sooooo the dog print bag is MINE! I now have a bag to carry the laptop I don't have. I'm hoping Kev remembers to bring his home from work so I can use it while I'm at the quilt shop to write up patterns on. The blue one is hers, she wanted something she could wear as a backpack or a messenger bag. The strap will hook thru the ring on the top of the bag to make over the shoulder straps.

 I did a little quilting today also, this is my Mother-in-laws quilt. The back was worn out so I just put muslin on the back and did a large stipple over the whole thing. I think this will extend the life of the quilt and make it usable a bit more.

Oh and Spike wants to say HI everyone and he hopes ya all had a Merry Christmas! (check out that fancy collar his sister made him)

quilts

 Sara and I found these pre-quilted panels at the thrift store a few months ago. She talked me into buying them to finish. (didn't talk to hard) Well I got them bound just before the craft show so we took them along, the Noah's Ark quilt sold. Now we have finished baby quilts to give away for Christmas. I think she has plans to give one to her friends cousin's new baby and the rest to charity.

 I heard on KBRX that the churches in O'Neill are taking donations for Christmas gifts this week to give away the same time as the Mobile Food Pantry on Dec. 18th. Sara and I are thinking it's a good time to donate.

Hot pads

The never ending cycle of hotpads..............teaching more sewers the trick.

Working

 This will be my view for the next few weeks, corn contract to fill. I do have my new car to sit in while the truck fills and fancy steering wheel cover to admire, courtesy of my Mom. She found a tutorial on Moda Bake Shop and tested it on me. My car is dark blue so the cover looks good, she made it reversible also. It's a little slippery so I suggest lining it with shelf liner, ya know, the grippy rubber stuff.......

I also keep some crochet work in the car, never know when I'll be sitting still for a few moments. I've been making potholders, dishcloths and scrubbies for months now.  I've made so many they don't fit in the suitcase I hauled them in to the craft show last week. Look out friends and family, gift giving is near!!!

Anna's house

 I got to spend a little time with Anna awhile back, with her being ADHD she made me help her with this little project, wow, we put two wallhangs together at the same time. I have to admit she did better at it than I did, I'm only ADD so I lost interest and didn't want to finish it......good thing she was there to keep pushing or I would of tossed it. Yeah really....right in the trash.......some of the pieces were smaller than a finger nail, not talking the whole nail, just the part ya clip off when trimming. Oh she did loose interest when I told her how to quilt it...heheheh....I think framed under glass is going to happen.

 Sorry I didn't turn these before posting.

 While watching movies I whipped up Halloween collars for Anna's dogs, Nicki got ruffles and Pokie got a scarf.

Pokey is Nicki and Sammies baby. He is the sweetest pup, when he was a few weeks old he was trying to jump onto the gate and fell, he has brain damage from the fall so they kept him. He's their special boy. He's a lap dog for sure.

Quilters Candy shoppe

 We have been getting ready for Christmas at Quilters Candy Shoppe. I love this little wallhanging, it's so sweet with the candy border fabric.

 This is a Thimbleberries quilt called Plaid. Soon as the sample is retired I'm quilting it and keeping for my living room. My family seems to like anything I put flannel on the back of to snuggle under on the couch (or the Lazy Boy).

 Just a quickie panel quilt with Blue's Clues for a sweet baby..........simple enough to finish before Christmas!

 My watermelon tablerunner needs quilting but I ran out of time........

And last but not least, the easiest tablerunner yet, applique and quilted at the same time snowflakes. Oh and there is lots of these kits.............I got carried away when cutting..........lol.
 

So I guess it looks like I've fallen off the edge of the earth..........nothing to blog about, no pic's to share.....Ok I'm going to get my camera and get moving! I've been a busy girl but no evidence of it around here. A regular reader(coworker) asked when I was going to update my blog...........well for now this is it. Maybe if I commit on here to post more I'll feel compelled to out of guilt. Oh heck it's worth a try.    Off to find my camera............

crochet edge baby blankies

Just a little something I have been working on for Quilters Candy Shoppe. The edges are great with a little fancy around the whole blankie. I just did a simple single crochet on the red/blue and a half double crochet on the light blue.

 Time flies around here in the Fall, hopefully I will remember to post on here once in awhile to let everyone know I'm still alive and trying to quilt!