New camera/sneak peak

Here's a sneak peak at a few of the kits that will be available at the end of the month at work, this baby quilt was soooooooooo quick and I love the colors! It's 51x55 perfect size for baby/toddler.

Two quilts, a batik and a 30's and two table runners, there will be more soon!

I am still looking for my camera, so I thought as soon as I bought a new one the other would show up. So I am now the proud owner of a little pink Casio. I think I like it, it's easy to work and the pic's look fine so far.(ok I only took a few) I have been lost all week without, didn't realize how much I love to take pictures until I couldn't. Kev is upset because I replaced it but I really don't care, he replaces tools when he looses or breaks them, well that's what I did this time, my camera is a tool and I needed it to do what I do. So now I'm off to take pic's of everything I've been working on the last week and a half......oh and pic's of my puppies!

I sewed up a cute LITTLE baby quilt this morning, I'm saying little because it's half the size it's intended to be, oops I cut wrong and just couldn't figure out why I had so many extra triangles. Well anyway I will put some borders on it and finish it after I go back to work and see if I have enough fabric to remake it the right size. I cut it out late Friday afternoon, should of done it earlier when my brain was working better. I also have another one to cut out, but this time I know not to mess it up! I am trying to get samples made for Shop Hop coming up at the end of the month, it's gonna be a fun 10 days!

still lost...

My camera is still lost, I'm in mourning.....I feel like part of me is missing, ughhhhhh!
Who would of known a silly little gadget would be so important to me. Today I am cleaning the dining area in an attempt to find it, maybe the cat moved it while laying on my quilting stuff.
I have been sewing quite a bit lately, to bad I can't show it off here! I quilted a T-shirt quilt for my MIL and 3 shop samples. I love my new batik quilt, it's a kit at work to be unveiled during Shop Hop (march 31 thru April 10th) we are working on new table runner kits and I also designed a sun hat just for fun. I have made 4 of them and hope to have the pattern ready soon.
On the home front not much going on this week, Josh took first in both his speeches at the Speech meet on Tuesday! Sara will be going to Omaha on the 1st of April to compete in the state wide geography bee and Brad turned 16 this week. Oh and Kristin is in Chicago at the moment, on the first leg of her tour with the drama ensemble ministry. They are doing a 10 day tour to New York state and she is stage manager and part time van driver.
The puppies are getting ready for new homes, anyone interested?

no camera

My camera is lost.................and I'm lost without it. I took pic's Tuesday night at Brian's house(progressing nicely with paint and flooring being laid) went to use my camera Wednesday at work and it's not in my purse. I have looked everywhere I can think of, cars, studio, driveways, pockets, even called work and the library. So if someone out there has seen my camera...........

St. Pat's

I made this little wall hang a few years ago, ok, like 11 years ago...........wow..........well I finally got the pattern written up and it's ready to go! Sara helped me with the cover of the pattern last week and I took it to work for Julie, might make a few kits for the shop depending on the demand. O'Neill is the Irish capital of Nebraska so I figured we should promote St. Pat's day.

I have started sample sewing for the shop, Shop Hop is coming up soon and we want lots of new kits on display for the event. I love this time of year! (only for the sewing, the weather gets me down)

quilts

This is a little quilt I finished yesterday, binding and all! Thanks to a generous donation of fabric to the Orchard Quilters I was able to send the blocks and fabric to my Mom and she set together the quilt and mailed it back ready to quilt. I love pink girly quilts! This little quilt will have a home with a preemie baby as soon as they release her from the hospital. (born in late Dec. due in April)

The Orchard Quilters made more heart blocks, I'm thinking about setting them together with this print...........just not sure yet.

This is the second of these that I have done, sold the first sample at Christmas so I whipped up another one. There are three more kits at Quilter's Candy Shoppe.

Roseanne put me to work on a 'hurry up I need this baby quilt' and truthfully I was glad for the push! I think I'm over my quilting slump (thanks winter) and ready to kick it in gear this week. I just sent the rest of these kits to the Log Cabin quilt shop in Omaha. All we had left was the blue sample and pink kits.

Oh and a very special thank you to a knitter in Sioux City Iowa, I love my new socks! I picked them up at the Goodwill after a visit with Kristin. They are perfect to sleep in with my new jammies bought on clearance. Now I understand the craze of knitting socks!

binding fairy

Oh how I wish I had a binding fairy............this is just one pile waiting patiently for my attention. I got quite a few quilts done in January, except for binding. Maybe someday I will take pic's of the fronts and post about them.

I have also been busy with my hook, these are squares for Bridge and Beyond, if I ever get around to mailing them. I am using up yarn my mom sent me and some from Grandma's too.

Some of these hats are gifts for my little cousins, made from Grandma's yarn and some are charity. When it's cold outside I like to watch TV and knit hats on the round loom. I can do a hat in about 3 hours with a few breaks in there if anything worth watching is on.

I do know that I'm tired of winter and being inside. The last few days have been so nice that when it turns cold again I'm gonna be sad (like tomorrow!)

New babies

This is what we've been playing with this week, they are soooooooooooo cute!Hard to believe they will be a week old tomorrow. Sammy and Sadie are doing just fine as parents again. (like Sammy has a hard job!) Tonight they will be named when Sara's friend Kaylee comes to visit, Sara promised she could name one of them so we've been waiting.

Heart quilt

I spent today messing around in my studio. I know this pile of blocks don't look like much but it takes a long time to iron, cut and fuse these into place. There are 30 10.5 inch blocks with hearts fused on them and enough strips cut to border each block and binding. My quilt should end up to be 70x80 or so. I am taking it to the next Orchard Quilters meeting, hopefully someone will take it off my hands and do the sewing part. I love the planning and cutting part of a quilt but get bored before I get them done so I decided to just "plan" a quilt or two. I hope the girls like this heart quilt, I only planned on making a few blocks but I got a little carried away and ended up making blocks for the whole quilt.

My studio never really warmed up today and my sewing machine is broke so cutting and ironing took up the whole day. I did plan to quilt something but never got around to it.........sometimes I just have to play.

Doctor Who

Doctor Who is alive and well living at my house. The 1970's version, not the "new" Doctor. Kristin worked on this scarf a lot before Christmas, in fact she got so sick of it she made it somewhat shorter than the pattern called for. I think it could easily have 40 plus hours in it......wow! I shopped for the yarn a couple of years ago when my brother asked for a scarf not knowing how hard it is to find 1970's colors in all the same type of yarn. Well all Kristin's hard work paid off and Josh loved his present.

Christmas/New Year

Oh how funny my kids seem to think they are.............someday they will look back and wonder about themselves.

Don't ya just love a Christmas Eve jammies photo ?

Kristin and Sara ready for Church.

Oh and here's a pic of them opening an early present from their grandma Flicsha............don't they look thrilled to get towel and dishcloths?

My grandma Allen always made buckeyes at Christmas, now Kristin had taken up the tradition. Oh they are sooooo good!

Time flies when your having fun....least that's what they say....whew I had ALOT of fun then. I'm not sure where the month of December went, all I know is it's the 1st of January already and I'm in shock. Kristin has been home for two weeks and we have been busy cooking and making gifts. I decided about the middle of December I would not nag my children to clean house........well it's getting a bit deep here but nobody is complaining and I'm a much calmer Mom. Ok they have cleaned some, gotta have dishes to eat off of and clothes to wear. I will start getting mean and grouchy after they go back to school, until then I'm ignoring it all. Kristin has me slaving away in the studio this new year, she decided to make gifts for some friends who are graduating in the spring, I will come back with pic's as soon as they are done.

star quilts and charity quilts

This is my class sample, I made it to show the steps for the class. I will add a pink border when I get back to work. ( the bolts of fabric around the bottom and side are being auditioned for borders, I finally decided on the pink)

This is my students star. I think she did a great job and I love the colors! It will have borders left over from the star center also.

I am still working on Project Pink quilts. I gave this one to my Mother-in-law to do the binding on. She will donate it to the Indian Reservation along with the one shown below.

This string quilt was an Orchard Quilters project last year. Wanda got it set together and I did the quilting, she will finish it (it is finished) and send it off tomorrow night when she attends a program at church for the Indian Reservation.

Today I am snowed in, that's the only reason I had time to sit down and do any blogging, I am on a deadline before Christmas! I have hats to knit, scarves to crochet, quilts to quilt.
Ba-humbug!!!!!

long time.......

I made a cute little bag last week for my Sister-in-law for Christmas. It holds 8 balls of yarn and long enough to hold knitting needles too. My original plan was to have the pockets on the inside (someone sews backwards). I liked it wrong side out so I left it, sometimes I end up with good mistakes.

While Mom was here for a week we did a little sewing. This is one of two bowls we made, she added beads to the openings around the rim of the bowl after I took this pic. It's made with the selvage of satin fabric leftover from a batch of table runners I cut for a wedding. The variegated thread is Christmas colors. Mom needed a grab bag gift for her fiber arts group in Arizona.

While we were making bowls I did this little candle mat. This was my grab bag gift for FCE. (Extension Club) I think it has multiple uses......candle mat........mug rug........frisbee for the dog.......

My little brother is doing well after his accident. The truck not so well.....Kelsey was thrown out and his friend Alex took a few tumbles in this...(5 rolls they are guessing) Kelsey will have a long recovery but he's alive and still kicking.

A bright spot in the last few weeks, Josh's play. It was really cute and the kids did a good job too. I know he's relieved its over, now it's on to speech!

long week

Here's a pic of the progress on my Brother-in-law Brian's house. They have also installed the beam that goes along the roof line for the vaulted ceiling. Today they are tearing out the last of the old bathroom. I also heard talk of installing the basement windows. I know the wood stove has been set in place also, I will take more pic's later.

Quilt group gave my Mother-in law Wanda a quilt last week. It's been a long summer with all the problems my father-in-law has had and the group wanted her to know they are thinking of her. Linda did a wonderful job of setting and quilting, it really means a lot to me that they thought of Wanda, Thanks Quilt group!

Oh here's a pic of dinner today, ok I made this one a week ago and liked it so much I am making it again today. I heard the recipe on the Splendid Table on NPR. It's Pumpkin Stuffed with Everything Good. Yeah that's the name of it............how can ya go wrong with bacon, garlic and heavy cream? Oh and cheese!! It's fun to make and yummy too!

I spent the first part of the week in Omaha with my brother, he was in a car accident. He's doing fine now but it was questionalble for awhile. My Mom flew in from Arizona and she stayed in Omaha after Kelsey left with his girlfriend so I will be going to pick her up tomorrow and then swing by Orange City for Kristin. I'm glad they both had flexible schedules so I didn't have to make two trips this week. I am looking forward to seeing Kristin and having my Mom here for Turkey Day.

no pictures

This will be a very boring post......no pictures. I am having computer problems and my computer nerd is busy being general contractor on his brother's house. So until something on this thing makes him mad it will be broke, just like the plumber's wife with the broken pipes.....
Tomorrow we go see Kristin and her play she is stage manager for. Looking forward to seeing her, and the play.
I made some crochet squares for charity while watching movies with the kids, yesterday was a total waste of a day-migraine, ugh!!! So after I slept it off I sat in my chair with my fuzzy blankie and some yarn, I am really not very good at granny squares but ya know they say practice makes perfect.
Work today was interesting, I am cutting off 6 inch strips of all the sale fabric so it can be scanned and put on the Internet for sale. I didn't get as far as I would of liked because I was BUSY! Lots of sewers out and about today.....it was a good day! I really enjoy customers and helping with their projects.

sneak peak at Christmas

Here's my sneak peak at Christmas presents! I'm doing a kitchen theme this year. I know I never buy myself new towels and hot pads when I wear mine out, so I'm thinking these will make useful presents. I like to make things people can use or need, nobody needs more knickknacks.... so towels, scrubbies, hot pads, dishcloths, and food mixes in jars is my main plan.

I picked up this fabric at the Log Cabin in Omaha last time I was there, just love the quilty Santa's. I think I did pretty good making two FQ's stretch this far.

Oh and I did these with one FQ. I know I'm a bit late jumping on the cupcake bandwagon, everyone else has 'been there-done that' but my gift receivers will love them anyway.

This little wall hang was a quilt group project, well it's finally finished! It's been laying on top of a pile for quite awhile now, and started a few years ago......all I had to do was machine quilt it. I probably will give it away for Christmas too. I seem to have gift giving on the mind since Halloween is over. I know there is another holiday between the two but I really don't care much for it so this year I'm ignoring it. Oh don't get me wrong, I'm excited that Kristin will be home for it, but that's about it.........Kev told me he's roasting a hog this year, I told him to have fun planning and cooking the rest of it too. Ha Ha Ha! So if I get a bit grumpy between now and then ya all know why.

sneak peak

Yes I'm channeling my 1980's dusty rose loving self...........This will be a Double Irish Chain for my king size bed. I had the medium rose print in my stash and when I took it to class Roseanne picked the dark print to go with it. I really like pink and now I'm excited to be making something for me! Yeah I know I'm behind on my decorating colors but in my bedroom I tend to go for the romantic girly look, tan, cream, pink, rose, burgundy......a little lace and lots of girly stuff on my dresser. (now if I could figure out how to make the huge tv a bit more feminine.......

I got the Christmas quilt done for work, there are two kits, yeah only two, one like this shown and another with the floral as the border. I'm happy with it and I hope the kits go fast so I can bring it home before Christmas. there was enough scraps to trim a couple pillowcases too.

I got this out of a book called Mostly Christmas, it has some cool tree skirts in it too.

My puppies

This is Samantha and Patches, they are 5 months old now and ready for new homes. Shih-tzu dogs are pretty calm and loving.

Patches is a tri-colored female.

Samantha is a black with white female

They loved to be held, and they love to be outside during the day. I have taken them both for a pick-up ride and they just sit on the seat, no jumping or trying to escape.

Samantha will be like her daddy, hard to get a good picture of because of her color.......their fur is just long enough now to put a bow in (should of done that for the pic!) they love cats and other dogs. Shots are current and vet said no problems with the nose and sinus. They don't bark much and they sleep in the kitchen. They don't shed like a regular dog, it's more like they lose hair like a person so they do need to be groomed twice a year or so. I give baths about every three weeks. I do brush them and they don't seem to mind except for trying to eat the brush.

work and play

I would like to thank Trish from my Heartstrings group for this little quilt, if you look close you can see Raggedy Ann and Andy. I am going to send this off to a reservation to keep a little one warm this winter.

Here's a couple more heading off this week also, just as soon as I find the "blanket lady" Barb here in town. I took these pic's in my Mom's building, don't ya just love the carpet?

While my Mom was here in October we made matching baby quilts that are now on display at Quilters Candy Shoppe. Hers is the blue and mine is the red. She has a baby to give hers too in December, mine don't have an intended home as of yet..........2 kits of each left at the store.

Last but not least is my favorite, well favorite this week anyway. I had the fabric line and pattern name memorized but my Swiss cheese brain has lost the information........well anyway it's at the shop and soon (when the kits sell) I will bring it home to live in my living room or on the end of my bed or most of the time on the laundry room floor!

I have a Christmas quilt started for the store, it should be done this week or next. I also started a Double Irish Chain in pink and white for my bed. Roseanne is teaching a class and I'm sure the only way I would ever get one done is to be held accountable to her and my fellow classmates. Besides its time for a new quilt in my room AND I'm using stash fabric. ok.... so it will look like a 80's/90's throwback.........yes its almost dusty rose..........but I like it and that's what matters in my little quilty world.

my kids

Josh, Brad, Kristin and Sara (Patches, Sammy, Samantha and Sadie) oh and Patches and Samantha need a new home if anyone out there is interested.

And this pic is to prove that my boys do occasionally smile..........

halloween

ok, so I like Halloween...........Brad helped me with my costume this year, I started it for Sara but she ended up wearing Grandma Allen's vintage cocktail dress (sorry no pic's) I had Brad standing in the kitchen with his arms out so I could hotglue this mess together. As you can tell my husband is not real impressed with my craftiness.............

We had a good time but I think I'm getting to old to wear costumes..........