New Baby quilt and my Niece's wedding quilt

Hi there,

Blogging is such a challenge for me. It is something I really want to do and yet I constantly struggle with what to write about and how often should I post.  Then the big question - Will anyone REALLy be interested and read it?

So pushing on, I will fill you in on what I am currently working on. I have this baby quilt up on my design wall for a friend of mine at work who is due to have a baby in September.

The pattern came from Allison Harris's new book - Growing Up Modern. I love that book



What's on the long arm? I have my niece's quilt loaded and ready to quilt.

 This is going to be my project for the weekend. I bought a pantograph from Urban Elements.

 It looks contemporary and I find that using a pantograph makes the quilting go a lot faster.

My youngest daughter and her family moved back from Idaho this last week. Now the grand kiddos are closer to grandma. That is a good thing for sure. My daughter (Casey) will be able to participate in our little sewing/quilting group we have started up as well. Nice!!

My oldest daughter (Kelley) is in Florida this week for my niece's wedding. I was very sad to miss the wedding. I wasn't able to get the time off from work. The wedding pictures that I have seen look lovely and it looks like a good time was had by all.

I asked my daughter to bring me back some fabric from a quilt shop while she was in Florida but they were too busy with wedding stuff and family to go fabric shopping. Imagine that. :) Next time.

My Step daughter Amy started a Facebook page for our little sewing group and named it Stitched Together. We try to plan a monthly project, post what we are working on and plan sewing retreats together. Oh Yes, and we try to inspire and encourage each other in our craftiness.
We have a one day retreat planned for June and I am looking forward to that. Hopefully we will all be working on our Farm Girl Vintage blocks for the sew a long with Lori Holt at Bee in My Bonnet.

Check out her blog at http://beeinmybonnetco.blogspot.com/2015/04/im-so-excited-to-announce-my-latest.html





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

Weekend Sew-in April 2015

This past weekend was another productive sewing weekend for me. My lovely step-daughter- Amy, her wonderful husband Paul and our adorable grandson Bennett came to stay with us for the weekend.

Amy brought her sewing machine, several projects to work on and oodles of lovely fabric for me to drool over. On break times, I got to snuggle baby Bennett.
We did take one road trip to a quilt shop south of us. Amy needed some fabric to finish up the top she was working on and I entertained B while mama shopped. Amy's mom and aunt met us at the shop (they are quilters too) and a good time was had by all. I showed extraordinary restraint and didn't purchase anything - I mean ANYTHING! (crazy - right?)

Here is a picture of Amy's finished Weekender quilt top. I love the red colored border. It really frames the quilt nicely.

I was able to finish up quilting another weekender quilt top on the long arm machine. We pieced this top at our weekend retreat back in February and this one is for Amy's Grandma Virginia.

With the quilting done all that is left is the binding and hopefully we can give it to her on Mother's day since Grandparents day isn't until September.


The boys napped while we sewed.

Dad grilled.

It was a great weekend!

On Sunday, we pinned Amy's quilt and got it ready for her to machine quilt it on her new sewing machine. She was pretty excited about trying to free motion quilt on her new machine.

The blue and white quilt is quilted and now needs binding too so I guess I will be brushing up on my binding skills soon.

I started another quilt a couple of weeks ago for my niece who is getting married in May. I worked on the blocks this weekend and they are all pieced now. I have been working on the sashings a little every night after supper and will post a picture when the top is completed.

I love the longer sunshiney days. I can leave the door to my studio open and listen to the birds chirping and can even hear the trains tooting their horns at times. It is quite peaceful in my little corner of the world.
Have a great week.
Thanks for stopping by.

What's your motivation?

Hi there,
How do I start? Where have I been? What brought me back?

All good questions - I am starting here - again.

I think my last blog post was well over a year ago and maybe even two. What happened? I lost my mojo, my muse, my wherewithal. I wasn't sure if I was ever coming back. My computer crashed and the one I have been using for 2 years now is small and veery, veery slow.
I hadn't been sewing, oh once in a while I would stroll through my studio, touch some fabric, even stitched up a couple of small things, then turned out the light and walked out.

In my 2 year sabbatical, because that is what I will call it, I was blessed with 2 new grandbabies, I learned how to make soap (real soap, with the lye and everything), learned how to make bread (with yeast) and read tons of books. Started up a food coop here in our community, babysat grands and nearly every weekend took off to parts well known to visit family and friends.

Now I am back and I am thinking it is for good.

What happened? Well my step-daughter Amy McCubbin got bit by the quilting/sewing bug. Amy decided this year that she wanted to make a quilt for her son (which is how I got started, wanting to make a quilt for my grandson). She enlisted my help and I was so very happy to help her and decided to post about starting over - so here I am again. She has asked me numerous times if I am going to start blogging again and today I decided was going to be the day.

There is something about Amy, I can't really put my finger on it, that she is able to get people up and moving. She doesn't nag, or complain, she just throws her ideas out there, asks what you think, maybe uses some of your ideas and then gets right to it.
She is funny and sweet and well quite frankly, I love that girl. I have been sewing up a storm this year and in the back of my mind I am thinking, wonder what Amy and I can work up next - another retreat, a new project for our facebook group or a shopping trip to get re-inspired. Whatever it is I love her enthusiasm and determination to get us all motivated. She doesn't want to leave anyone out of her fun either, that includes skyping her step-sister in Idaho, texting her other step-sister here in Iowa or helping her cousin to pick out a sewing machine and get sewing.

So Amy - thanks for the Motivation. I got my MOJO back!!!

I hope you out there in blogland are inspired to start up again or even to start something new. Find someone that loves what you love and get going. It is good to have someone to bounce ideas off of and someone who doesn't need you to get going but loves to have you along for the ride. I feel blessed to have Amy. She has so many ideas, and she is doing it. Thanks Amy, love you girl.


Thanks for checking in. Talk to you soon.
God Bless.

100th post giveaway winner

Thanks Kelley for following and commenting on my blog. You WIN!!! YAY!! I will get those charm packs to you when I see you next.
Have a great week everyone.

Happy New Year 2013

Hi everyone,

Happy New Year!!
I have given my Niece and my Step Daughter their quilts and enjoyed very much the look on their faces as they opened them up.
This is my DSD with her new quilt.

I get a lot of pleasure making quilts and even more when I give them away.

Now we are into a new year, what are your quilting plans for this year?

Here are a few projects I would like to accomplish this year:

1. Make a graduation quilt for my nephew- he graduates in May
2. Finish my sisters quilt - she will turn 50 in August, so I would like to get it done for her Big Day. :)
3. Make a Christmas tree skirt - this has been on my list for a while
4. Finish up any or all of my current WIP's

For me, being a little (or a lot) organized helps me to stay focused so
today, my plan is to work on getting organized for the new year. That means cleaning up my sewing room, organizing my fabric, prioritizing my projects and on and on.

That should do me for now. How about you? I would love to hear what you are working on or what you want to work on.

This is my 100th blog post and the start of the new year so I am having a give-away. I think this is a great way to kick off the new year and get our creative juices flowing, don't you?

I received my order from Connecting Threads last week and have 4 charm packs to give away.

The 2 different collections by CT are Mirage and Rose Manor.
All you have to do to win these 4 gorgeous charm packs?? Leave me a comment about one thing you would really like to make this year and the winner will be picked on Sunday, Jan. 6th.
 Something new for the new year.


I love brand new anything, and this is a brand new year with so much potential ahead of us.

I hope we, you and I, have a very creative and happy new year.

Thanks for stopping by.

God Bless your new year.(and mine too. :))

Piecing the binding

Hi there,
I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas.
I am working on the binding for the charity quilt I am making and wanted to show you what I am doing.
This is fabric that is left over from piecing the quilt and they are 5 x 10 inches in size. In this picture below I have them laying right sides together and just the corners overlapping. I drew a line from the middle of the bottom fabric and the upper left hand corner of the top fabric down to the middle of the top fabric and the lower right hand corner of the bottom fabric.



In this next photo I drew another line a half inch towards the corner and then stitched on both of these lines.

 

I then cut a quarter inch from the first line which gave a quarter inch seam to the binding and a quarter inch seam to the triangle.

 

I pressed the seam open.

 

Then I pressed the top of the seam to get it good and flat.



 

After I pieced a piece about 24 inches in lenth I cut it in half lenthwise which made it 2 1/2 inches in width and pieced the ends together using the same technique as shown above. 

 

Now I have these left over triangles to make something out of. So many possibilites. 

 

And that is how I am making my binding while using up my left over fabric.

Have a great day and Thanks for stopping by.

Merry Christmas

Hi everyone,
I wanted to wish you a Merry Christmas if you are reading blogs today. I am working so yes, I am reading blogs.
Here is a little update.
I finished quilting my charity quilt and I am piecing the binding with left over fabric. It looks amazing. I used a polyester bat and I can't believe how light the quilt is.
Anyways, that is all for now, go and enjoy your family.
God Bless and
Thanks for stopping by.