Finished quilts

 My Mom has been waiting for me to quilt some of her quilts............a long time!!! This is a fan quilt she did 12 years ago or so, finished it while living in Florida and sent it to me to quilt. Well she finally got it last month. (ok the only reason I quilted this one first is I had something to put on the back, I'm trying to use "what I have")

 And the foot ball coach's quilt is finished and delivered! He loved it!

My friend Janie made this little quilt for a friends new baby, alot of work went into those blocks!

Jewelry

 I fixed a few more stretch bracelets last week. The top one and earrings are just fine the way they are and going in my jewelry box. The first one on the left side was a necklace that broke. The pink one was my favorite rose quartz with my initial on the heart that my mom gave me. The center is aquamarine and the stretch cord was so worn out it was splitting like hair and it was just a matter of time before it broke. The light blue one I picked up at the thrift store. I added the small glass beads and had just enough to make matching earrings.

I am on a green kick, guess it has to do with it being March and St. Patty's day and all. The brown set is another from the thrift store that had ugly plastic gold beads. I like the gold glass much better and even earrings out of it too. The silver charm bracelet is charms I bought from a trip to Santa Fe almost 17 years ago. I am thinking about making a light box to take pic's of small things, like jewelry. We'll see if I ever get it done.

Windows again

 Ok so it's not so easy to take pic's of the windows at the Shoppe from the outside. I added a few framed prints, hanging shamrocks and green candy and a few wire shamrock garlands along with my easy shamrock green throw quilt.

This window has two flannel quilts along with kits for them and a couple framed prints and a few hanging shamrocks again. O'Neill is the Irish Capital of Nebraska! 

Window

At the Shoppe we have two nice big windows. We added this quilt top the other day in hopes of selling kits. I really thought this one would be a big hit and the kits would sell out............uggggh! I really really want the kits to sell so I can bring it home. It would look fantastic in my living room all quilted up with snuggly flannel on the back. I can say the pattern was great and it went together just like it was supposed to, no mistakes. Oh and since our windows are such great display places always check out whats in them on the drive by, sometimes they change weekly.

Jewelry

I've been in the mood to create jewelry lately so I finally made a work station out in my studio. My first job was to "fix" my favorite bracelets. The peachy colored one at the top was a stretch bracelet that was tight. I added the peach glass beads and it made the pinkish stones look peachish. I sometimes make earrings to match  and since I had two stones left I added butterfly charms to make them look sweet for Spring. The bright pink earrings I made to match a necklace, not sure I'll ever wear them together but I do wear lots of pink. The blue/purple set was leftovers from another project, perfect for the colors I wear in the summer. The bottom bracelet was a string of glass beads I got on clearance sale somewhere in my travels. I spaced them with random colored glass beads. I like to wear my bracelets loose and more than one at a time so this will add some variety and color to my jewelry wardrobe. I have made more (lots more) but at this time no pic's.   I am on a mission to rid my life of stretch bracelets so I'm sure I'll be showing more later.

Newton

Newton is just a little sheep looking for mischief. I whipped up this panel in no time for kits at the Shoppe. I love stripped binding!

Puppy treats

Sammy and Josie are spoiled! I make them treats but I never make my kids any....oh I offer to let them taste these but they always decline. Hmmmmm I wonder why? I dump broken eggs (Kev leaves the cracked or damaged eggs for me from his hens) peanut butter, bacon or chicken grease and whole wheat flour in the mixer and work it till it's ready to roll out. Nope I don't measure. The only trick is not to much grease or they broil on the cookie sheet instead of bake. I bake the small treats on a sheet at 200 degree's for 20 or 25 minutes. They come out soft and I leave them set overnight to dry out a bit then pop into baggies. Only 20 or so to a bag because they need to be put in the fridge or freezer or they mold if you leave them out to long. My dogs like them and Anna's dogs LOVE them. Julie's dogs were impressed too. Now Spike not so much....but my Mom makes him shortbread cookies with real butter........talk about spoiled.

Baby quilts

These three baby quilts were part of an order from a grandmother up north. She picked the party fabric and the farm fabric, wanted them gender neutral and good sized. I left them at work and she picked out 6! Yes she bought 6 baby quilts but I have no idea which she choose because Roseanne sold them for me. So now I only have 20 or 30 left to sell..................

gifts

 I made my niece and nephew little pillows for Valentine's Day. My friend Angel gave me a bag of scrap fleece left over from Boy Scout projects. These two pillows were never finished so while waiting for my shop to warm up I tied and stuffed, oh and I sewed around them before cutting and tying, what can I say, I'm a quilter.....every project involves a sewing machine for me.

 This is another waiting project, I sew on it while waiting for  heat in my quilting room or in between rows on a quilt. (sometimes I have to walk away from something I'm quilting in order to keep my calm and not cuss and throw things)

 This quilt will be a gift for one of Sara's friends new cousin. The one below Sara made for the same family, just the older brother. She will be delivering them this weekend.

Winter Storm Q and Rocky

 Well this is Winter Storm Q last Friday, we lucked out on missing most of the heavy snow.

This is what Winter Storm Rocky brought us, fog and frost. Northeast Nebraska was very lucky with both of these storms, very little damage or destruction. I love frosty mornings, to bad they don't last all day.

Brad

This is the pic that's going in the yearbook, deadline was today. Thanks Kristin for forcing him out the door and into a pose long enough to snap a pic. We'll do more this weekend just me and him.
   I am home sick with kidney stones so I'm not leaving the house today again. Got pain pills, asparagus and coke,(the worst tasting home remedy ever!!!) and shots of apple cider vinegar so I should be on the road to recovery! Oh and lots of water!

Scarves

Needed just a little something under my new red coat. I made this B/W scarf with a pack of 2.5 strips from Quilters Candy Shoppe and backed it with polar fleece. It's about 58 inches long, I didn't want to have to wrap it around my neck and I didn't want it hanging out the bottom of my coat when I buttoned it up. My coat is just a little itchy around the neck and this sure does feel snuggly......just like wearing a cuddly quilt.

My Mom made me a Valentine's present last week. I asked for a Valentine Scarf and she whipped one out the next day. It's about 80 inches long, perfect for a loop thru look. She backed it with cotton (she's sure Spring starts the 14th and who needs a fleece scarf when it's Spring?) It sure didn't feel like Spring today........don't think it's gonna feel like Spring next week either.

Sweater

Sammy got a haircut.....yes I know it's January and it's freezing but I couldn't take the matted fur and stinky boy anymore so I got out the clippers. He is traumatized......well a shave on the bathroom counter, a bath and a new sweater......wow!!! As I write this he ditched his sweater and I can't find it, oh well, it was cute for a day.

Windmill and Stonehenge

I finished the top of the Windmill wallhang, I love it! There are still kits to make this at work. I also have this panel from Stonehenge for sale. Love these panels too, makes a hard looking quilt really easy.

I have lots of kits that really need to be sold at work so I can bring my samples home!

T-shirt quilt start

The first two rows of the quilt I'm working on. This one came with a chart....leave it up to a Math/Science teacher to chart out his quilt. I have the top done, just need to piece the back and get it in the frame for quilting.

Truck Dog

Spike is my right hand man when it comes to trucking. He has his own seat............

Supervises the employee's..........

OH LOOK!!! CAT!!! Let me out.....I promise I will catch it.........oh look, cattle, I promise I'll chase them and you will be fixing fence.......

 

No really he is very good in the truck, he stays when I tell him and he has learned to stay in his seat while I'm driving. I think he makes a great partner, now if he would learn to take the trash out of the truck and clean the windows...............

Basket Blocks

Oh I can't wait to show you what Kristin did with these 12 basket blocks, I have a very energetic daughter when it comes to sewing. She likes UFO's as much as I do......but she actually gets quilts done with them when she puts her mind to it, me I just think about it and plan for "someday". I do have this quilt in the frame and it's 3/4th quilted.

Tablerunners

I'm sure everyone has seen these tablerunners. They are very popular right now in quilt shops. I decided to try my hand at making a few(ok I have more than a few cut out). The bottom pic is the only one I have totally finished so far and everything is hanging on the board along with backings. I also put together a couple simple Grinch Christmas runners leftover from my scarf my Mom made me for Christmas. I guess I will have to have a layer, sew, turn and quilt day soon.

Baby quilts

Just a few projects going from work to home and back to work again. I have my trusty "purple bag" to carry UFO's and trust me it's always full.

UFO

I started this quilt in 2001 while doing overnight childcare. I would take my sewing, reading, crafting stuff at 9:00 p.m. and after sending the kids to bed I would stay up till 11:00 or so with my stuff. I cut alot of 5 inch blocks and this is one of 4 or 5 quilts(not sure how many I actually made). The very top fabric, the butterflies I made my Grandma Allen something, a sweatshirt maybe? The green and blue were quilt backs for baby quilts. The brown flying geese fabric is another quilt back and so is the blue check.

I still have a UFO with the black and pink floral, a row by row quilt maybe?   The angel block is leftover from something I made my Mother-in-law. The blue and rose floral was curtains? Yellow was also a back for a baby quilt.

The light blue with stars is from Christmas quilts massed produced one year for Christmas. The rust with houses is from a dress my Mom made for Kristin her kindergarten year when all she wanted to wear was dresses.....oh wait she still only wants to wear dresses............

Pulling out this UFO was great for memories but most of all I thought about Linda and her kids while I was quilting it. I am going to give this to Linda "just because" I can. Heck who doesn't need a little quilty hug once in awhile.

Ben's quilt

Well I finally finished Ben's T-shirt quilt. The pic above is the first layout we planned last summer.

I started pinning the shirts to my wall and this is what I came up with last week, the three shirts in the borders were originally a fourth row but it just didn't work out after I had the center done. I started with 3 yards of blue............had to take it to work to find something to bind it with. I'm glad this project is done and I'm sure his mother will be happy too!

UFO

I bought this little embroidery quilt at a second hand store in Pierce(sorry, can't remember the name of the place). Everything was done on it except the binding and it was even included, all I had to do was sew it on. It's all done by hand, the embroidery and the quilting. Now I can say I got a UFO done in 2013!

  On a different note, two of my children have the flu. The go to the Dr. and get med's kind of flu. So if you get a killer headache, body aches, fever, cough, upset stomach, sore throat or ear ache just blame it on Brad or Sara. So far the other two are fine and Kev is alright, I'm fighting a headache again(had one on Saturday). I called family and told them, seems a cousin had it too..........so it's Tami flu, Robitussin and Gatorade time at our house.

Rylee's Hat

Sometimes I crochet some interesting hats......................

not sure what I was thinking when I started this but it's cute on the kid anyway.



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!