Quilting is done!

The quilting is complete!!!! yay!!!! Now on to the binding.

Today has been AWESOME. We have had such lovely weather. The pool is now open for business. yes, they have wetsuits on, it's still cold in there LOL!

I hope you all have a great weekend!

Plans, always making Plans

So, I’ve been thinking about all of these projects that I’d like to get done in the upcoming summer months. There are so many! How about you, do you have any plans on what you want to make this summer? Anything new to you, that you’ve never done before? It’s pretty fun to think of all of the things you want to try.

Jessie, my 7 year old, has commissioned me to make her some table runners for her dresser and armoire. She even went so far as to go through my stash and pick some things out. She is a girl after my own heart :) Well, she saw the Pop Garden quilt I am making right now, and she really likes that fabric. So, I am thinking I’ll get some more of it and make 2 quilts (I’ve already got 1 started) for her bunk bed, so they match… some table runners and some curtains too. Then maybe we can paint her room and spiff it up for her.

Okay, these pictures were taken several years ago, but the room is essentially the same, no curtains, mis-matched blankets on the bed, etc. It just needs to be "put together" I think. Consider is a before photo :D
I want to make a skirt, or a few anyway! The book I picked up Sew What! Skirts is going to be a lot of fun, so many options. Have you made a skirt before?

And of course there are some old UFO in my closet that need some love. I hope to get at least one of those quilts completed this summer. There are several Christmas tablerunners I’ve begun too, and I want to get them done so I can give them as gifts at Christmas time.

Do you think of your handmade Christmas gifts now as well?

Mark and I have been mulling over updating our kitchen and dining room floors, and our downstairs bathroom. We’ve already updated our living room, and we’d like to finish the downstairs now. The problem is, there are too many options, hardwoods, or tile? What color of paint? And the list goes on… it is fun to think about, just hard to nail it down you know. It doesn’t help that I have subscribed to Coastal Living magazine.

I like every single room pictured in them, and it makes it really hard to decide LOL!

Back from visiting Lily, and some other things...

Well, I am back! I went to Colorado last week to see my sister Nikki and her new baby Lily. It was so much fun. Nikki is a wonderful mommy. And little Lily is pretty cute, I almost took her home with me :)

Here is me, my brother Casey, and my sister Nikki... we haven't all been together for a long time, so we had to take the pictures you know.

On my way to Colorado, I had a layover in Salt Lake. I got to see my Aunt Phyllis!! She is looking so good. I miss her.

In other news, I've begun quilting my red and white quilt.

I really like this backing fabric I found, it's by Amy Butler, cute huh?

I've been working slowly but surely on Shores of Hawk Run, I have a boat!

And look at these cool books I found, making skirts, and clothes and whatnot. I can't wait to try some of them out...

My cute, adorable children. My gosh, I love them :) How come they are growing up so fast??

*Pop* Garden begins

I could not resist the pull of making some blocks from this fabric tonight, so here are a few, and Oh MY Gosh, I LOVE them!!! I just had to share the cuteness.

And another thing, I am about halfway through this book called Mistborn: The Final Empire (book 1) by Brandon Sanderson. It is fabulous, it's a fantasy story. I love the way he writes, I can barely put it down right now.

Have a good night everybody!

Baby Lily :)

My sister Nikki had her baby this Sunday!!! Everything went well and everybody is doing great. I am so excited for her :) She named her Lilyanne Nicole, and will call her Lily, isn't she the cutest thing you've ever seen??

Nikki said the delivery was good and she weighs just over 6 lbs. I get to go and see her on Friday and I cannot wait!
So, I've been jumping around being all excited for the past two days. We went to Bend, Oregon this weekend so my hubby could ride his dirt bike. We had a good time, even though it rained off and on. Here is Jessie wanting to go for a ride...

And Sunny the dog, she was a happy dog getting to run around in the desert for the day.

I have been sewing, even though we left for the weekend. I was able to put together the quilt top for Melissa (my SIL). I love how it turned out. I am quilting it a little bit too, so it's almost done, but not quite.

And tonight I cut out my pieces for the quilt I am making for church. I got the pattern from crazymomquilts. It's all fabric from Pop Garden by Heather Bailey. It's so bright and cheery, it'll be a fun quilt.

So many projects to work on, so little time!

I had a wonderful birthday yesterday. Mark took me out to lunch, and then that evening when I came home, he and the kids had picked up the house, and then took me out to dinner. Aren’t they wonderful? They even got me a cheesecake. I think I’ll have to keep them all, they are so good to me. Some of my friends came by with beautiful flowers and I just feel so blessed to have all of these good people around me. Life is great!
I’ve been a busy bee working on several projects. I have sewing ADD at the moment and can’t devote my time to any one thing for very long. So, I’ve started several to keep me happy :) Since I had added my blog to the Online Bloggers Quilt Festival over on Park City Girl’s blog last week, I’ve been slowly going through the hundreds of blogs posted there, and I’ve been so inspired by them. You must go look if you have not yet, there are SO many of them to look at! I’ve been leaning more towards working on quilts for the past several months than I have cross stitching. I am not sure why really.

My sister is due to have her baby on April 30th, which is in a few days, and her baby girl is showing no signs of wanting to come out in the world yet :) I am so excited for my sister Nikki, she is going to be such a good mommy. When she came to visit me last November we bought all kinds of fabric to make blankets with. This was the final one to finish up for her. I decided to practice some machine quilting on it, so I put a thin batting between the two flannel layers, it is so soft and warm!
I got the middle section sewn together for the little Schnibbles pattern I am working on, isn’t it pretty? I am going to give it to a good friend of mine when it’s done. Not much to do on it now, so I plan on working on this during the week.
And I’ve started cutting out the quilt for my sister in law, who is due to have a baby boy in June. I am making this one much the same as what I made for my sister last month. I have some blue minkie fabric I’ll put in this as well.
My friend Colleen and I got together on Saturday to plan what quilt we’ll be making for the church quilt group. I found a great quilt over on the crazymomquilts blog called Flea Market Fancy. I loved it, and so did Colleen. She is making a quilt similar without the sashing, and I’m doing it with the white sashing. I have lots of Heather Bailey fabric I plan to use for it, I am happy to finally be using it. We want to have the quilts out on display this summer and start teaching it in the fall. I can’t wait to cut into this quilt!!!

That is all for now, more to share this weekend :)

7 Random Things About Me

7 Random Things about ME…

Are you sure you want to know?

1. When I was about 5 years old, I got ran over by a UPS truck and was put in a bodycast. I don’t remember a lot of it, but some of it, like riding to the hospital in my neighbors yellow car, and being put in a chair by my dad, strapped in with bungee cords so I could eat dinner… I sure hope my kids don’t have to go through this.

2. I married Mark when I was 19 years old, and thought that was pretty young, until my Grandma told me she got married when she was 16, and her mom was more than happy about it! Imagine that! She wins.

3. I love art, I was studying fine arts in college and married Mark after only 2 semesters of college. So, now my art is making quilts and such.

4. I have lived in a lot of states: Oregon (now), Arizona, Utah, Idaho, Nevada, and my dad says I lived in Texas when I was a baby, but I don’t remember that one. This means I love to travel and meet new people, moving around a lot has really helped me be able to adapt easily in many situations.

5. I have a temper, I know, I seem so sweet *bats eyes*. It is my “thing” in life that I am constantly working on. I try so hard to behave, but sometimes, I slip up. We all have something we need to work on right?

6. I don’t turn off. From the time I wake up to the time I go to bed, I have to be doing something. I don’t like to waste time. And sometimes I really wish I could shut off and relax for once.

7. Um, let me see… I’ll be turning 29 next week, which means that I will be almost 30. (sorry, can’t think of anymore LOL!)

Who wants to be tagged? Well, I’ll tag those who visit often, so they’d better post! Lurline, Vonna, Marie P., Brigitte, & Natasha & Loraine.

Shores of Hawk Run

I was able to finish another block this month, yay!!!! I am stitching Shores of Hawk Run Hollow by Carriage House Samplings. I am using a 32 count linen, and DMC threads. I love this project.

I will be stitching on the big block in the middle next, it has a big sailing ship and a dolphin. It will take me awhile :) I lost my "mojo" for the past few weeks, it was allergies, they made me feel so tired at night, I could hardly keep my eyes open and concentrate. This week I feel much better, so I was able to work on this finally.

Tonight is our school's science fair. Curren has entered a project, and he did such a good job. I am excited to go and see all of the other entries tonight.

My Fave Quilt!

Bloggers Quilt Festival on the Park City Girl blog!

I have been wanting to do this since I saw it posted last week, and finally have gotten around to it. I have thought about which quilt is my most favorite, and it has to be one of the first quilts I made. Mark started college in 2003 to get his BSA, and at about that time I was becoming really interested in making quilts. I didn’t have a lot of time on my hands because my kids were just tiny. I was out at Fabric Depot and picked up a book on Americana Quilts. I was Just learning to sew mind you, and I chose to do a big, beautiful quilt out of this book. We call it Mark’s college quilt because I started it when he started college and two and a half years later I finished it, about when he finished college! It was a harder one to do, and I would work on it for awhile, and put it away for months, afraid of it. I made several other quilts during this time, which made me brave enough to finish the college quilt finally!
We use this quilt almost every day, it’s downstairs on the couch. I put a dark blue flannel backing on it, and used thick heavy batting, so it is very warm and heavy. Mark is possessive of it, and says it has sleeping drugs in it, because every time he uses it he falls asleep in about 5 minutes. So do little puppies…
So, you can see why I love this quilt? :D

Saturday's are so nice

I love a Saturday where you make no plans at all whatsoever. After the whirlwind trip to California last week, it was very nice to just put my feet up and chill out. I finally got the notion to get to the stores and restock my pantry, we've been eating out too much last week, I was too tired to think about making food. While I was buying toilet paper at Target, I happened to wander through their bedding aisles. I've been eyeballing a pretty bedding set on Pottery Barn, an all white quilted coverlet. I just couldn't buy it though, it was over $230.00 and so I was pretty excited when I found this coverlet at Target for less than half the price of the Pottery Barn one. I brought it home and tried it on, and I think I'm in love :) I have been wanting a white coverlet so I can fold any of my quilts on the bottom of it... so yay!

I've been working slowly on Shores of Hawk Run, this block is close to being done! I can finish it by the end of the month, I know it :)

Also, I started a new mini-quilt. It's another Schnibbles pattern I've had kitted up for awhile.

Jessie was working on her coloring project along with me. I love that she can just hang out with me at the table, we talk and carry on, it's so fun!

I wanted to plant my garden, I've been waiting and waiting for it to get warm enough here to do it. I started seeds in the little pods about 3 weeks ago, and now they are overgrowing the pods! I think I'll plant them today after church.

What are you going to do on this lovely Sunday?? I hope you enjoy it!

Reasons I've been busy

Two Words:

DISNEY LAND!

We took the kids to Disneyland for their birthdays last week, it was awesome! More posts coming soon with projects I've got in mind, I have been bitten by the quilting bug even more :D

A finish, finally :)

I finished quilting the top of my mother in law's quilt on Wednesday. Yesterday I sat down to sew the binding on, and now... it is finished!!! I love how it turned out, it's so bright and fun. I have been working on this for close to a year, and I am glad it is done. :)

Here is my photography helper!

Another project I've been working on is a quilt using Amy Butler fabrics. Here is that starting to come together.Yesterday my friend and I went out to Fabric Depot and I found a nice backing fabric for this quilt, isn't it so cute?

I also found a fabric line called Neptune, fell in love and bought some charm packs. Oh boy!
I hope you all are having an awesome weekend too!