Ceiling is Done!

Yay!!! The ceiling is finished and looks awesome. Here are a couple of pictures. I am going to borrow my daughters paint sprayer and spray paint it white some time next week.

 The next project to get done in my studio is THE FLOOR! Yes that is sticky back vinyl tile and it is time to put in something new and more durable.I have been looking at tile called Dura Ceramic  but I am not sure about it yet. I am still researching it. Any and all suggestions or comments are welcome.

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

The Summer is quickly passing.

Good Morning,
Yes, the summer is quickly passing and blogging has fallen to the wayside. I wish I could say that I have been steadily stitching away but I am afraid that hasn't been the case.
I just finished up reading a series of books by Bodie and Brock Thoene. It started with The Zion Covenant Series and ended, (I think) with the Zion Legacy series. Excellent reading that I thoroughly enjoyed. I will be going to the library tomorrow to see if there is more to this series. :)
Last week I moved most of my sewing things out of my studio. This week I am having a handyman come in and repair the ceiling in there and then I am going to take all of the wallpaper off of the walls and paint them an antique or off white color. I hope to find something for a better cutting table that is within my budget (cheap but sturdy) and a better sewing table that fits me better. Right now I am sewing on a regular dining room table and I think it is too high and causes my arms and shoulders to ache after a few hours of sewing.
Here are some before pictures

This is the ceiling that needs repair.

The side of the room that I didn't picture is a wall with 2 sliding glass door. They badly need to be replaced too.
Hopefully in the next few months I will be able to show improvements.
Thanks for stopping by.
God Bless.

Father's Day on Saturday

Good Morning Everyone,

 I was reading a book the other day that said when you have to write something but are not sure what to write, just sit down and start typing and the words will come to you. So here I am typing.
 Last weekend was Father's Day so on Saturday I went to visit my parents. We went to Muscatine, Iowa and ate lunch at the Button Factory. The food was really good and it was so interesting to read about the history of the Button Factory and how the restaurant came to be in this building.

 After our delicious lunch, Mom and I went to look in the yarn shop, which was across the street from the restaurant and the quilt shops in town. There are 2 quilt shops in Muscatine. One has over 3000 bolts of fabric and does sewing machine repair. They have been in business for 60 years and I had really wanted to talk to the owners on how they got started but that didn't seem to be an option.

 I hit pay dirt at The Little Red Hen. The owner has been in business for 15 years and was a wealth of information on starting a quilt shop. This really was a trip to research how to start up a quilt shop as I would really love to run my own shop here in M-town and have been working on a plan for over a year now.

 The LRH has a really nice selection of homespuns, civil war, 1800's  and a little 1930's too. There are lots of samples all around the shop to look at and maybe buy. :) There is also a long arm sewing machine right in the shop and one of her employees was stitching away on it. The owners name is Kathy and if you are ever in Muscatine Iowa stop in and say Hi.
I hadn't really planned on buying anything but she was soo helpful that I decided to buy a book.
The book has an adorable pin cushion pattern and since I need to get some pincushions made for our local county fair, well I just couldn't pass it up.
I should say a little about the yarn shop too though neither mom nor I knit. We do both love to crochet but it is usually afgans. There was a nice display of yarn with various knitted projects to look at.
We had a nice Father's day, (I think my dad did too :)).
 I made Dad a neck pillow. They are really nice for watching t.v., and I also got him this really neat hook that you hang on the wall. It has a deer head on it and I thought he could use it  to hang his hat or coveralls on. He seemed to enjoy his presents and I sure enjoyed my time with both of them.

I left my parents house around 5 o'clock and headed into Cedar Rapids to visit a very dear friend of mine. Her mother has cancer and she went into hospice last Thursday which was very distressing for my friend.
 Her mother was very happy to see me and we had a really nice visit.
Lots of tears were shed, prayers said and I left them around 9 o'clock to head back home.
It was quite a day. A very emotional, happy and sad day.

I am thankful to God for my parents.
I am thankful for my friend, who even though her very best friend will be leaving her soon they both know it won't be forever.
I am thankful to you out there in blogland who take the time to read my rambling posts and
I am thankful to Jesus, for everything.

Thanks for stopping by,

Pictures

Hi Everyone,

Here are a few pictures that I promised.
This is a picture of the donation quilt that I quilted for the Long Arm Quilters Guild in Des Moines.

The binding is on it and the quilt was delivered to the guild last month at the monthly meeting. A few comments on the quilting.... That was a hard one because I quilted each pieced block different. All of the plain blocks had the same pattern which I quilted using my laser light. The hard part was figuring out what I was going to do in each of the pieced blocks. It turned out great though and I was happy to participate.

This is my daughter, Kelley, and I at the quilt guilds April sew-in. We are pin basting this cute baby quilt that Kelley pieced for her nieces new baby that was born in May. Kelley was going to quilt it on her machine and did try to at the sew-in but the back is a minky fabric and was stretching and rippling on the back. I took this adorable quilt home, took the stitches out and put it on the long arm to quilt it. It turned out really nice and Kelley has it back to put the binding on it.






That is all I have for today.
Thanks for stopping by.

I'm BACK!!

 Hi Dear Friends,
Sorry for not keeping in touch. My computer has been broke down since April. The video card went out of it and I was trying to save up for a new computer but to no avail. I had decided to buy a used one today, took my lap top over to the person I was going to purchase this used computer from, he hooked my computer up to a monitor to try and transfer my documents to the used computer and realized that all I really needed was a monitor hooked to my lap top and I could still use my ole computer. YAY!!!! It only cost me $60 for a flat screen monitor and now I am back in business.
Blogging does take time and I tried the library computers but just didn't have a lot of time to spend getting pictures down loaded , checking my blogs, writing my blog, checking my email and doing my banking. Whew! You don't realize what all you use a computer for until you have to go without. Needless to say I am happy to be back in the swing of things online here at home.
Let me catch you up with what I have been up to these last three months.
March, I didn't get a lot of sewing done because I just felt lousy the whole month. We did have a new addition to the family that month. Judah Jesse was born on March 4th. He is a healthy baby boy and doing very well.
 April got a whole lot better except that I lost my computer screen. I finished up both Quilt for Kids quilts and the charity quilt for the long arm group in Des Moines.
May , I had my first customer quilt for my long arm machine. I was really pleased with the quilting and my customer was too. That was very exciting.
The Paper Piecing group that I belong too decided on a summer project that could be a table topper or a quilt, (I still have a lot left to do on my BOM quilt yet) so I started on that in June.
That kind of catches up to now. I still have my nieces quilt that is almost finished and 2 others that are on the flannel board.

This month kicked off the second year for our new quilt guild that started up last year. How exciting is that....
And the list goes on and on. I am sure there is much that I am missing but that is all I can remember for now.
I am not taking too much time to edit this because I wanted to get this posted and will work on getting some pictures up tomorrow or the next day.
I just wanted to give a quick update and let you all know that I am still here and thinking of you out there in blog land. I hope your doing well.
Drop me a line or two and say Hi. I would love to hear from you.

Thanks for stopping by.

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,