Spicy Spiral Table Runner

Yesterday I took a class to make this beautiful table runner called Spicy Spiral table runner. I saw one in our local quilt shop and just loved how pretty it looked. The shop is called The Conrad General Store and the class was lead by one of the store owners, Janice. Thank you so much Janice for teaching this class.

I was totally intrigued with this beautiful table runner and my friends at the quilt shop kept saying how easy it was. (I love easy, though this is not a beginner project ) so I signed up for the class last month, purchased the pattern and fabric that day and picked up my ruler the day of the class.
Here is the ruler

which is a little pricey but like my friend Lesa says, if you can at least get 3 projects out of a ruler, then it is definitely worth the price. After spending yesterday from 8:30 am to 3 pm learning how to use it and seeing what I can do with it, I think it was well worth the price. I see more projects in my future. :)

This is what I left the class with yesterday. All that is left to do is trim the edges, put the back and batting on and quilt it.

What a beautiful table runner! Seriously though, the class really helped me to understand what the pattern was saying and how to use this ruler. Just reading the pattern was not making any sense to me, but when Janice explained how to use the ruler and then showed us, WOW, it really was easy. I just love taking classes, they really are a great way to learn new techniques and make new friends.

Here is the my new friend I made yesterday. Her name is Christine and she came with her little 2 month old guy named Leif. Boy is he a cutie and such a good baby. I loved watching her with him and just wanted to share this little thingamajig she made to carry him in.

How clever is that! He was all snuggled up to her and she was able to sew. She had her runner pieced before I did. :) It is a piece of fabric about 5 yards long, no seams, and 12.5 inches wide.
Here is a picture of the back

She said that even her husband carries the baby this way. (He is also the one to sign her up for this class. Now that is a husband). She said she found this on a website called Connected Parenting. I didn't write it down but it is something like that.

We had a great day of sharing, laughing and sewing. Here is a picture of our completed tops.

Making new friends, enjoying old friends, learning new techniques and creating beautiful things, This was definitely time well spent.

I hope you have a wonderful week.
Thanks for stopping by.

YAY!!!! It's FRIDAY!!!!

Yes it is Friday and boy am I glad it is.
I don't seem to get a lot done in my sewing room during the week.  I try to squeeze in sewing time in the morning after I get off work at 8 am but I am not always successful. Especially if I get on the computer to check emails. I can easily end up spending an hour or two looking up stuff and reading blogs.

I work 3rd shift doing security work and I actually really like my job. I am losing weight with all of the walking that I do. This has given me more energy so now I am playing volleyball at noon several times a week.

I did get the other top done for QFK, last weekend. I thought I might get them pin basted and ready to quilt sometime this week but now it is FRIDAY and I still didn't get it done. I did work on my long arm Monday and Tuesday, YAY!!

Today I am going to put the blocks I have cut out for Olivia's quilt together and then if I am still awake I am going to work on my paper piecing blocks that I have been putting off.
I am having lunch with my friend Christy today so we'll see what I get done.

Oh Yea>>>> MY hubby is coming home tomorrow. YAY!!! He has been on the road for almost 4 weeks. It did go fast but I know he is ready to come home and I am ready to see him.
I am leaving you with a picture of the tops I finished last weekend.


I hope you have a wonderful weekend.
Thanks for stopping by. 

Olivia's quilt

Hi All,
Several weeks ago my friend Lesa told me that she was going to start a quilt for a niece of hers that was graduating high school this year. As I sat and listened to her tell me what quilt she was going to make, I realized that I tooo have a niece that is going to graduate this year. Where Has the Time Gone!!

My sister's daughter Olivia will be graduating this spring, so when I mentioned that to my friend she said "Why don't we make these quilts together?"  I called Olivia to get an idea for fabric colors and promptly went and purchased the fabric. On my birthday in fact - Jan 21st.
Here is what I got:

Not a lot of pattern but certainly a lot of color. One of the first color choices she said was yellow. I LOVE YELLOW!!! (My children tease me about my yellow living room. The color was called Duck Bill.)  I found this beautiful, buttery yellow and I love it.
As I put this quilt together, I love the colors so much I can't wait to see it finished.

Here is what is on the design board right now.

The red above it is my wall not part of the quilt. I just love how the stars pop!

The pattern is from a Judy Martin book called Knockout Blocks and Sampler Quilts.
There are a lot of pieces to the block, with 12 flying geese in each block. It's coming together but slowly.
I will keep you posted.

I finally got the bindings done on both of the denim throws. Whew. My first 2 finished quilts for this year and glad to have them finally done.
I have one of the quilt tops done for Quilt for Kids and am working on the other today. I am planning on pinning and quilting them next week. We'll see.
I am off to the sewing room. I hope your have a productive sewing week.
Thanks for stopping by.
Keep warm and have a wonderful day.

Slow start to the new year

Yes, the colder the weather gets the more I want to huddle under a pile of quilts with a good book and a delicious hot cup of java. I have been out more than I have been in, my sewing room lately so I thought I would post some pictures. Finally!!

Here is a picture of the finished Pink Baby Rail quilt. I used a minky type fabric for the backing and I thought it turned out well. It is now snuggling our newest addition Makayla Jane.



I have been working on my New Years Resolutions.  I have 2 scriptures memorized pretty well, Jeremiah 17:7-8 and II Corinthians 10:5. This is for those of you who may want to memorize along with me.

Yesterday I received in the mail my first 2 Quilt for Kids quilt kits. They are due back Feb 28th. These will go to the local chapter in Ames. I have only looked at the pattern and it looks like the same pattern I did before. Click here to see that one.


This is the newest quilt I have on the Long Arm.

This is a quilt that I got from the la guild in DesMoines. We are quilting up quilts that another quilter in the guild donated. (I put one in the pot too) We pieced tops and didn't want to finish them so we put them in the pot and each drew out one to finish and the guild will be donating all of them to the womens shelter in DM. I didn't do an all over design which would have gone a lot faster, so mine will probably be the last one in. This quilt is beautifully pieced in batiks and is giving me a lot of practice on different free hand designs and printed patterns.

In all of the plain blocks I am doing this pattern.

And then in the blocks I am doing mostly freehand and some pattern too. It is quite a challenge for this new long armer (me) but I am pushing on.

I still have the December and January blocks to work on for my Radiant BOM quilt I am doing with my paper piecing small group. I haven't started the connecter blocks yet.

I still don't have the bindings finished on the 2 denim throws. Hhhmmm, bindings seem to get me hung up.
So there you have it, my projects and NYR  up date. I am sure I left some things out.

Next weekend is my birthday so I am going to go see my mom and dad. Hopefully my husband will be home too.

I hope your week is nice and warm. Give someone a Hug and tell someone you love how special they are to you.

Thanks for stopping by.

Up and running!

I am back on the internet at home!! Yes! And it is cable which seems faster than what we had before. I worked this morning - midnight to 8 am then stayed up for the cable guy so I am pretty tired.. I just wanted to post this before I go to bed. I will be posting some pictures soon.
I hope you have a GREAT weekend.
Thanks for stopping by,

New Years Resolutions

Happy Last day of the old year and Happy First day of the New Year!


I know You haven’t heard much from me. Let me up date you a little on what is going on. Back in November I decided to shut off my internet to save some money. I thought I could just go to the public library to do all my internet stuff. In theory that is a good idea but in practice it was a little different. Needless to say I haven’t been keeping up with my blogging or anything internet related.

Well then the local cable internet put out an offer I felt I couldn’t refuse and realizing how much I love to blog but not wanting to brave the elements at this time of the year, I am going with it. So next Friday I will be able to access the internet from the comfort of my own home. YAY!!

On my last post I told you I was having problems with my new machine. Long story short, they sent her back to the factory for a new updo. She had a loose connection and a few other problems that they fixed.
 I finally got her back yesterday and hope to have a busy and productive weekend. I am sure glad to have her back.

So that being said And this being the last day of the old year – 2010 and tomorrow being the first day of the new year – 2011 I thought I would put up my NEW YEARS RESOLUTIONS!

Don’t we all do that at the beginning of every new year? I know I start off the year with all good intentions and maybe putting them into cyberspace will make me a little more accountable. We’ll see.

New Years Resolutions are usually meant for two reasons, either we want to improve something about our lives, i.e. quit smoking, lose weight, or we want to accomplish something in the next year, i.e. learn to drive, landscape the yard etc.

My resolutions cover both areas and here they are:

1. Memorize 2 new scriptures a week or at least 6 a month.

2. Post at least one new blog a week

3. Make 6 quilts for Quilts for Kids

4. Quilt the tops I have pieced – that is 4or 5 tops right now

5. Finish Mom’s Green quilt and My brother Jims quilt

6. Finish my paper pieced quilt that my small group and I are making.

7. Buy, address and have ready Birthday cards for the whole year.

8. Start planning a super fantastic Christmas next year.

Oh yea, and lose weight. There are a lot of other things I want to accomplish too, like spending more time with my Mom and grandkids, start new projects and quilt, quilt, quilt.

So that is pretty much my resolutions. Tell me yours and maybe we can help each other really accomplish something this year. I look forward to hearing from you.

Take care and
Thanks for stopping by.


P.S. I got the binding finished on the Pink Baby Rail quilt. It looked so cute and went off to our newest grand-daughter born Dec. 14th. :)

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to all of You who are following this blog.

I can see that I need to step it up a notch here. I don't have any pictures to post at this time. (Well I do have pictures they are just not with me as I am posting this).
I have gotten Quilt #4 off of my LA and Quilt #5 loaded but I have run into some problems with the machine and I am currently working out the bugs.
I hope to have more pics up soon and an update on how my long arm sewing machine is doing.
Stay Tuned!

My New Year's Resolution is to post a blog once a week for 2011. Let's see how well I do. (Who is even making resolutions yet??)

I hope you have a very Merry Christmas.
Thanks for stopping by.