From my sewing room

I have been busy with my quilts and creations lately. I love to do handwork and keep my hands busy during road trips, watching TV or even on airplanes. I love, love to do English paper piecing. I started doing this about 10 years ago. I began with a 1 inch form and then caught on to the small 1/2 inch forms. These pictured are the smaller flowers because they work up so quickly. They are easy to fussy cut and the best part......is they use up my stash of extra fabric. All the centers are the same yellow fabric. These flowers need another row of white muslin to connect them for the quilt top. My hands will be busy for awhile! A friend of mine who has been watching me do these for awhile was so impressed she gave her bag of fabric scraps so I could add them to my stash. What a great friend! I LOVE fabric scraps!!!!

Tomorrow is another day

I saw the movie, Gone with the Wind when I was 16 years old at the drive in theater with one of my best friends. From that day on whenever I have a bad day or the "blues" I think of this quote. Before I know it I have talked myself into a better mood. It really does help you know! Just remember these few tricks....use your pouty face and pinch the rosy back in your cheeks, hold your head up high- chin up - there you go! Wa La! All better...........just like Scarlett!

"Tomorrow I'll think of someway.....after all, tomorrow is another day."

Still here.........

I have been working on some special projects! M and M my quilting friends and I took a wee retreat last weekend and we promised ourselves we would not begin or buy new projects. Well... we did not succeed. I now have 10 more projects and they are all so wonderful I can't decide what to do first! I designed a new little baby girl quilt, so pink! So cute. Pictures coming soon. I love summer, I love the fabrics of summer, the pinks, greens, yellow and lavendar and white. I have to go sew now... just talking about it makes my fingers itchy to touch fabric and hear the hum of my machine.....

The Graduates

Kevin and Carrie graduated together last week from Dixie!

They are official college graduates! Kevin received his Associates Degree. Carrie graduated with high honors in her Associate of Applied Science Degree in Dental Hygiene.

More school for Kevin before he can apply for Dental School.
Carrie will soon be working in a dentist office!

Carries toothie hat! All the students in her class had the tooth on top!

WE ARE DONE! Let's go eat!

Our Happy Graduates! Congratulations kids, we are so proud of you both!

The Beginning of the Memory Quilt

Last summer while I was recuperating from hand surgery, I did some major sleeping and dreaming. Planning quilts is one way of visualization that helps me relax. As I lay in bed under my cozy quilt thinking how my quilt was comforting me, I drifted off to la la land. In my dream, mixed with some pain killers.......I had an inspiration to make a memory quilt for my friends Rob and Jessica. You see, Rob has been fighting a battle with lung cancer for a few years and now......sadly, the cancer is winning. So I made my decision that when my hand was healed enough to sew again, this Memory Quilt was my next project. After deciding what pattern I would use and how I was going to add in the photo blocks I had to ask questions. "What are your favorite colors?" Orange she said, "our whole family loves orange". Ok, that is a happy color - now what goes with orange? I was sitting in my quilt block class and saw bolts of fabric behind my instructor. Orange immediately caught my eye- I knew it was a sign. That's it! That is the fabric for the memory quilt. Crazy for Dots and Stripes fabric by RJR. I chose the "Turning Twenty" pattern that I purchased several years ago. It all came together really fast. I bought all the orange in the fabric line at one quilt shop and my co-worker Ann bought the blue fabric in the same line, Crazy for Dots and Stripes at another quilt shop. Ann had been asking me to teach her how to quilt so she was happy to join in on purchasing the fabric. From there we bought a few other complimentary polka dot fabrics to blend in with the white backing for the photo blocks.



How many rows of blocks for this lap quilt? I went with 16 blocks- 4 in each row.

After the photo blocks were completed, printed and transferred to the white fabric - the blocks were moved around to a perfect place- dots, stripes, lights and dark fabrics. I didn't want it to be random. I spent hours moving the fabric around the floor and then I would sit back and stare. This has to be perfect....well near perfect anyway!

A Memory Quilt for a Fabulous Five

We gave the quilt to Jess today. She loved it!

The back of the Quilt

The Front

Finished at last! I used the pattern "Turning Twenty' and altered it a bit to a lap quilt. About 6 months in the making but love in every piece of fabric purchased, every cut of fabric and every stitch of the needles and threads. For my friend and co-worker Jessica and her family. You see, these are very special people that I have known for 10 years and they need a bit of comfort and tenderness right now in their lives the kind that only a quilt can offer. So here's to you my "5 Fabulous Friends". A quilt to wrap up all the love together that you have created and that you share.

This is for the Birds......

When we visited Em's family earlier this month we were introduced to the 2 recent additions to their menagerie. Hunter has two birds, Astro and Rocket. I was told that the blue bird, Astro (?) usually doesn't like strangers and has a hard time bonding with people. Could have fooled me!

I put them both on my right shoulder and they soon migrated around to the hoodie on my back. They had their own private perch and they stayed there. I walked around the room and the birds enjoyed their new place. (yes that is a bird dropping on my shoulder, thankfully the birds are small and the hoodie is wash and wear!)

Then Rocket flew off and Astro found a nice hiding place in my hair. She was very content to hide out on my shoulder a bit longer. It seem to be comforting to her. She was so still for the longest time.

I wonder if she may have had some nesting urges? She didn't peck or scratch, just hid her face from everyone else.

Soon, Astro turned around to see where she really was!

Michael said he had never seen her attach to anyone else - we had a bonding moment. I guess she is my new friend and reminded me our parakeet "Perky" when I was a little girl. My mother taught the bird to say, "pretty bird" and Perky flew all over the house landing here and there and on shoulders and heads. (nice childhood memory) Thank you for sharing the birds Hunter, it was really fun. Love you so much!

Grandmothers Rule!

900 + miles in a van with 3 kids is exhausting for younger, less experienced mothers. What's a wise and experienced mother to do to protect her own daughter's beauty rest? My sleeping beauty.


Bring it on........... Grandma is in charge!
"This is fun! I like black licorice too Opa!"
A toddler confined to a car seat can be very challenging.


Hummm, many decisions... "What do I want next? Cheetos are so good and messy too! I can even lick my cheesy fingers so I don't mess up Mommy's hair with my cheesy hands. Ah and I got my sippy cup.... to mix my milk with coke. "
" I think I am content."



"All for me!
Yeah...... my Omee rocks!!"

A New Quilt - Long Project

When Scott and Korin became engaged I knew I had to make a quilt. But what quilt would be perfect for these two? Her wedding colors were blue and brown and I began collecting fat quarters in every fabric store and quilt shop I visited. Then one of my quilt magazines came out with this pattern last year. It was perfect and I knew right away, this is the one for these two. It tooks months to complete but worth every stitch! So one more finished project! Can you tell? they love it!

Threads - Part 2

I started this Christmas quilt years ago.....maybe 5 years? I had this great idea to give each of my kids a quilt for Christmas. It never worked out, too much work and when I had the time to get it done, then the holidays were over and I was done with Holiday fabric. I always had a hard time figuring out how I would quilt the top. Well, I finished this one over last December holidays and this is one old project I can mark off my long list!
Hooray for me!

Caught Up In Threads- Part 1

Last year, 2009, my two quilting friends M & M and I, took a block of the month class together at a favorite local quilt shop. The fabric line is called "Return to Romance" and for me it was love at first sight! I knew right away that this was the quilt for my bed. My Mr. S may complain about the girlie flowers but he sleeps with his eyes closed so it really doesn't matter what covers are on the bed to keep him warm at night!!!

Let me explain- the block of the month class we attended every month to receive instructions, pattern and fabric to make a different quilt block. This is the 3rd or 4th BOM class we have done together and the most inspiring we have completed. Our instructor was the greatest!!!

Sewing the blocks became another reason for the three of us to get together on an additional day of the month and sew our blocks in time for the next month's class. (You have to show the finished block before you receive the next block). This was such a fun journey for us through the year and we learned a few new quilting tricks along the way.

One of us has since finished her quilt top. Mine is under construction, see photos below. I have purchased all the fabric to put my "Return to Romance" quilt top together and finish the top and backing and binding. I have done my drawing/sketching on graph paper and I have played with the fabric and I now know how I want the final quilt top to look when finished. I was moving ahead with great momentum around Christmas and New Years and then realized that there were other projects that needed immediate attention.

BAM! I was then sidetracked.......!

My New Year's resolution, other than my famous one to loose that extra 10 pounds I gained by eating too much chocolate during sewing sessions, is to finish 5 projects before starting any new projects. So that is why I took time off from blogging.

What do you think? Time off from blogging................. was it worth it??? Oh yeah...

Stay tuned...... those projects that side tracked me...........they will be the next post!

Caught up in threads- Part 1

After studying several designs for the quilt layout it was time to try on background fabric- the blocks have coping strips on them in this picture. Can you see the red star outline from the coping strips? This is still a work in progress.

All 12 Finished blocks- before I used red coping strips around each block to make the 12" blocks exactly equal size-(those are pink sticky notes on the blocks for their numbered sequence.)

I decided the quilt needed a medallion in the center- to create the focus of the quilt and build the blocks around. I found this pattern in an older quilt magazine and I had been wanting to make it for a wall hanging. I gathered up the scraps from the 12 blocks and along with a few extra fat quarters I began to sew- The corners are fussy cut from another piece of fabric.

Baby is home now

Going Home from the hospital Monday!

Pretty in Pink

Introducing......

Miss Taylor Ann
Scott and Korin welcomed their new baby daughter Saturday morning, March 13th. She is healthy, pink and oh so wonderful. We are very blessed!

My mother crocheted this white and blue blanket and the booties for the baby . Baby's great-grandmother.

What Have I Been Doing?

It has been awhile since I last blogged. ALL WINTER LONG! I just haven't had the desire to get on the computer and blog. With the cold, snowy and gloomy days it has been most pleasant to spend time doing what I love because......

What I have had is the desire to quilt and get some projects finished!!! I will post photos soon.

At present, Mr. S and I are anxiously awaiting the arrival of our new baby grand-daughter in early April. I have been busy quilting her parent's quilt and hope to get others done before she arrives.

Don't give up on me, I will post photos and then you will understand why I have been too busy to blog!