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.

Halloween with my small group

The weekend is over and time to catch up alittle bit.

Halloween is not an event that I participate in and haven't for many years. For our small group meeting last week some of the girls wanted to have a Halloween party. I told them that I don't party for Halloween but I would wear black and help with a wall hanging project one of the ladies wanted to make. The evening was fun and I didn't feel out of my comfort zone at all.
Here is a picture of my friends.


We had a very enjoyable sit down dinner where we shared stories and really got to know each other better. This paper piecing group just started a few months ago through our new guild. Most of us didn't know each other before the guild came together. Isn't that exciting.
We met at Linda's house and here is a picture of the dining room table where we sat.


I didn't take a lot of pictures, here is one of the fabric for the wallhanging that was going to be made. We ran out of time so we made up four kits for anyone who wanted to make it. I will snap a picture and post it at another time of any that are completed. The wallhanging is called "The Witch is in" It is appliqued not paper pieced. Some of the gals love Halloween and thought this would be a fun project, that is how it all came together.


That was our small group meeting last Thursday night. We shared a lot, laughed a lot and hopefully built and strengthen new friendships.

I hope you have a great day and thanks for stopping by.

Quilt #4

Fall is definately in the air. It is chilly here in Central Iowa today.

 Quilt top #4 went on the LA on Tuesday of this week. I am still slow getting her loaded but pretty happy with the results. Thanks Gammill for the tutorial posted on You tube, I refer to it frequently while loading my quilts on the frame.

This top was originally going to be the back to the Denim Throw. I wanted the back to be all dark blue denim, but realized I hadn't purchased enough for backing. I decided I would make 12" blocks out of the denim and use the red fabric as sashing between the blocks. Well one thing lead to another and when I  finished I thought this was too cute to use for a quilt back so I made it into a front.


In the blocks I am quilting this heart pattern. It is good practice for eye/hand coordination. It is also good practice with the laser light and setting up patterns for a specific area. I am using a matching thread so my mistakes don't show. :)


Tonite is my Paper Piecing small group meeting. I have all 6 of my blocks done. YAY!!! I need to get busy on the connecting blocks.
I am making Nutty cream cheese bars to take but first I am off to the library to pick up a book that I reserved. The book is written by Francine Rivers and it is her latest one but I can't recall the title right this moment.
Anyways, I will write more about that and tell you how I found this wonderful author at another time.
I hope you all have a wonderful day.


PS. I still haven't gotten the binding on quilts 2 and 3. It seems there is soo much to do and so little time. :)

Pink Baby Rail is off

I am moving right along. YAY!!! I took the Pink Baby Rail Fence off the LA this morning. According to the time on my machine it took about 2 hours total to quilt it. I am not quilting a straight 2 hours though, I need to get some really good floor mats and then the standing won't wear me out so fast.

Here is a picture of PBRF on the long are, and the quilting in the first border.




I also finished the border on the "Quilt for Jesus" Burgoyne Surrounded.


Finally after starting this quilt nearly 16 years ago it is done.

Just goes to show, Don't give up on those WIP'S. (Works In Progress)

Here is a picture of the quilting on the Denim Throw. Now I am putting the binding on this quilt. I am thinking that I shouldn't have cut the batting and backing until I had the binding stitched to the front of the quilt.


I am already planning the quilting for the next quilt. I have been practicing something different.

Still needs some work but I see a lot of potential here. :)

I think I will be finishing up these two quilts (DT and PBRF) before I put another one on the LA, but won't be waiting longer than a week. I am getting addicted to long arm quilting so have to stay focused on my regular sewing for awhile. It seems my unfinished projects have been put on the back burner but I am getting my pieced quilt tops quilted too soooo>>>> Quilting pieced tops/working on unfinished projects. It's a tough decision.  One I hope to have for a very long time.

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

Putting on Quilt #3.. Finishing up #2 and #1.

I finished up quilting the Denim throw yesterday and took it off the LA.  Now I have to get the binding cut and ready to sew it on. I did start sewing the binding on the Purple Burgoyne Surrounded quilt yesterday and plan to finish sewing it on today.

Early this morning I got up and I loaded the Pink Baby Rail quilt on the LA. I got the top on fine without help but had to go to tutorial to remember how to get the back and batting loaded on. Now she's all loaded and ready to go.




I want to time myself and see how long it takes to quilt this one. I think I will just do a meander on all the light pink parts and loops and hearts on the dark pink. That's the plan anyway. I'm going to practice on paper first though so I can get the hearts nice and smooth.

Better get back to my bindings and quilting. I hope you have a fun and quilty day.
Thanks for stopping by.



Ps. My daughter had a Party Light candle party last night. Her demonstator had a beautiful set-up and the party was fun. Really put me in the holiday spirit with all the beautiful holders with the twinkling candles. I hope you have a lovely and stress-free holiday season.

AQS Show in Des Moines

YES!! I went to the show yesterday with 4 of my quilty girlfriends and it was awesome!
We got to the Events Center right at 9:00am when the doors opened. There were already at least a hundred quilters ready to go in.
I saw the Farmers Dotter in line ahead of me so of course I had to say Hi.

We got through the entryway and OH MY GOODNESS.... There were vendors as far as the eye could see. It was this quilty girl's shopping dream but I was determined to stay within my budget and I didn't do too bad.(though I did go over just a little ). :) I did find a good deal on a Hoffman Batik at $8 a yard and it was the color I needed for my PP project so I snapped that up. I was looking for any super bargains and since it was the first day there weren't a lot but there sure was a lot of beautiful fabric and cool gadgets to look at.

I visited with a lot of quilters and didn't realize how many new friends I had made this past year.

 I did meet some new people at the show. There is one in particular that  I want to share about. There was a gal there that looked familiar to me but I couldn't think where I knew her from. It seemed that I kept passing her in different aisles and I kept thinking "I know her" ,then finally I and one of my traveling companions went to get coffee and here she came too. My curiosity getting the better of me I went over and said something like "Hi, I think I know you. Didn't we go to high school together?" As it turned out WE DID!!! LOL,What a small world it seems. We chatted for a bit, catching up and promised to find each other on Facebook and keep in touch.  That in itself was worth the trip.
After a full day of shopping and looking at beautiful quilts, my friends and I ended the evening with a delicious mexican dinner and headed back to M-town.


What a wonderful day with lots of sunshine, beautiful quilts and great friends. What more could this quilty girl ask for.  
Thanks for stopping by.