I’ve been getting lots of inspiration lately from blogs, you people like to keep my mind twirling with ideas… like this one for example. Sister’s Choice Quilts. I found her blog from another blog, and found this post, look at those mermaids! I had found some of this fabric a few days before, actually Jessie found it for me, and I obliged and bought some, thinking I’d make her a little bag. Well, I saw her post with that particular quilt and loved it… but I also think a version of the Bento Box would be excellent too. (click here to see what a Bento Box block looks like) I ordered more of this mermaid fabric, and will go buy a few yards of white and then try to decide which quilt I’d like to make :)

Heather Ross Fabric

And then Vonna’s recent posts have been fun with all of the ornaments she’s been receiving. I have pulled several ornament charts out and am trying to decide exactly what one to do, versus what 10 to do.


I really want to make this scrap bag, you put it next to your sewing machine as you are sewing along and throw the garbage in there. Right now, my “garbage” gets put next to my machine, then it usually sticks to everything, or falls on the floor. We always have threads hanging from our clothes, so this would be kind of nice don’t you think?

September Review, October Goals

I was a lousy blogger this month. Most of what I’m making is super secret you know, so therefore I can’t share much of anything. I did however get a few things accomplished this month. I worked on Old McMary’s for one! I went to my local shop Acorns and Threads one night a few weeks ago and worked on it for a few hours, and have been working on it at work when I can. I have the barn done, and am working on the big trees now.
And I pulled out Snapperland, I had to dust it too, as it has been months since I’ve worked on it :D I got the horse and barn stitched up, cute huh?
Also I started some Christmas tablerunners, and have a multitude of other things to work on too. I need to get going on Von’s NRR, finish an exchange I have with Leena, and start a Thanksgiving exchange. Now… we’ll see if I can stay sane with all of this work to do. I did get my Birthday exchange mailed off, as well as the SBEBB Fall House exchange mailed too, so I can share pictures of those when they are received. I want to get one of my Carpenter Star quilts completed in October, wish me luck!

After this month, I should have the NRR completed, and that will be finished for me. It’s been a long road on this NRR, it was more work than I had anticipated, I do love the outcome, it’s been fun seeing them all come together.

And just because it's cute, this is a baby elephant that was born at the Portland Zoo about 5 weeks ago, it's adorable, and I've gone to see him twice now :)

We've had a multitude of pumpkins growing in our garden, but they are kind of small. Curren has decided he wants to be a pumpkin patch for Halloween! It's hilarious! :D

September Review

Bind Pumpkin Quilt *NO*

Bind Grandma’s Log Cabin Quilt *YES, and Grandma Loves it!*

Work on Old McMary’s *YES*

Stitch one block on Snapperville *YES*

Work on Winter Stack *NO*

Work on Von’s NRR *YES, barely started it though*

Add borders to Curren’s quilt *YES*

Mail Birthday Exchange *YES*

Stitch an ornament *NO*

Also mailed SBEBB Autumn House Exchange, worked on Fall exchange to Leena, started 2 Christmas table runners.

October Goals

Bind Pumpkin Quilt
Finish one Carpenter Star Quilt

Work on Old McMary’s

Stitch one block on Snapperville

Work on Winter Stack

Work on Von’s NRR Stitch an ornament
Work on Thanksgiving Exchange

Grandma's quilt finished :)

I have another finish, yay! I had completed the top of this quilt I think about 6 month ago? I sent it out to be quilted, and got it back 2 weeks ago, so I finished up the binding on this, and it is ready to mail to Grandma, it's in the washing machine right now. It is huge, I like to make sure the quilt really fits on the bed :) The colors were chosen by my Grandma, I just got to make it.

I am so excited to have this finished up!!

I also sewed this table runner last night, and put the binding on it today. It is made from a Moda charm pack, it turned out very cute. And it will be what we are making for the upcoming quilt classes at church for September and October. The pattern is from Anka's Treasures, Little Charmers 2.

Curren was putting on a parade for us, I thought this picture was kind of fun!

Hope you are enjoying your weekend.

Shepherd’s Bush exchange from Joan

I received my exchange from Joan, for the SBEBB Shepherd’s Bush exchange. She stitched a fob, and it is so sweet. I love everything Joan sent. She also made a project bag and chicken cushion! I love it all. Thanks Joan :)

The kids started school last week, and it went well, I am so glad! Here they are, all ready to go.

August Review

Work on bird stitchery *no*

Work on BBD: Sunflower House *yes, finished it*

Work on Old McMary’s *yes*

Work on Snapperville *no*

Stitch an ornament *no*

Start SBEBB Fall House Exchange *yes, finished it*

Finish one Carpenter’s Star Quilt *no*

Finish Andrea’s baby blanket *yes*
Also finished Cindy’s NRR, started Curren’s quilt, started Winter Stack, finished Birthday Exchange gift.

September Goals

Bind Pumpkin Quilt
Bind Grandma’s Log Cabin Quilt
Work on Old McMary’s
Stitch one block on Snapperville
Work on Winter Stack
Work on Von’s NRR
Add borders to Curren’s quilt
Mail Birthday Exchange
Stitch an ornament

Blue and White day :)

We were going to go to the beach for the 3 day weekend, but decided to stick around the house. On Saturday, I started Curren’s quilt, I bought the fabric for it when I went to Anacortes in July, and have been wanting to get to it ever since. I am glad I am working on it now, it is all Batik fabrics which are my favorite.

The pattern is from a book called Sew Simple Quilts by Pamela Mostek. I’ve made another quilt from this book and plan to do a few others, they are fun!

I still have about 4 borders to add to this, but here is the beginning of it.
Here is a close up, I love the batiks! One of them has cute sea turtles, and another has starfish.
Also, I am working on Waxing Moon: Winter Stack. This will be for my sister for Christmas. She already saw it when I went to Colorado, so this won’t be a surprise anymore. It’s a cute one, but the dark fabric is a pain in the rear end to stitch on, I am trying to get used to it.
I framed Sunflower house. Here it is on my mantel, I am not sure where it will end up yet.
Does anybody want a dog?

She decided it’d be fun to dig up my flower pot, tip it over and eat the flowers out of it. She looks super guilty huh? LOL! We are going to be getting a dog run this week, for sure.

I took these pictures of my kids at the Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs, they are my favorites! I think I’ll have them printed to hang on the wall, the red rocks just make such pretty backdrops.And Mark took this picture in West Virginia, the box turtles are everywhere there, and this one liked the car, so it took it for a spin. I thought it was so cute!
I hope you all have had a good weekend! :D School starts tomorrow for my kids, I've got them all ready for it, so lets see how we do... I hope we can survive another year :)

Shepherd's Bush Exchange

I joined the Shepherd's Bush exchange on the SBEBB, I mailed my package to my partner Suzanne last Friday, and I hear it got there safely, yay! I am glad :) She says she likes it too, which makes me doubly glad LOL!

I stitched Scatter Sunshine, and finished it into a pillow. It was so springy and bright, I loved how it turned out. I am glad you like it Suzanne :)

I'm still working on my sister's Christmas gift, which is over half way done now. I'll post pics of it soon. Also, I got two quilts back from the quilter, they look so good... and I'll be binding them in the next week or so, then I'll finally have two big quilts finished yay!!!

Jessie decorated my backpack when we went hiking, she's pretty good! :)

Jennifer gave me this very cool award.

The rules of the award are:
1. The winner can put the logo on her blog.
2. Link the person you received your award from.
3. Nominate at least 7 other blogs.
4. Put links of those blogs on yours.
5. Leave a message on the blogs of those you’ve nominated.

Jennifer is so sweet, thanks for nominating me :D I have not been very good and posting regularly this month, I promise to get better for all of you soon. I have several blogs I’d like to share, there are a few more than 7! Many are well known in this community, but they really have been big inspiration to me, not only the crafting part, but the friendship part, so thank you for taking time out of your lives to share with me.

Marie of Creative Thread: Marie was the second person I did an exchange with through blogland, and we’ve done several since then. She is the best finisher in the world (in my opinion) and is very sweet.

Staci of Snippets and Stash: Staci is always busy making new, pretty things, and I love her old linens and pillowcases she is showing us, they are so pretty. It makes me want to overhaul my bedroom!

Karen of Simply Stitching: Karen is being awesome and stitching her WIP basket down to zero, and using her stash. I want to do this, and I am having no self control. I hope I can be like Karen someday, LOL! She also stitches things that I love, and so I find lots of inspiration here.

Debby of Stitchwizard: Debby is always stitching everything I want to do someday, and she is quick too! I’ve been enjoying her progress on Shores of Hawk Run Hollow, it’s all her fault that I am going to start this one soon. Plus she’s working on my NRR right now, and doing a fabulous job.

Anne Ida of Quiltoholic: Anne Ida makes the most beautiful quilts, and you see, she makes quilts with the colors I love, and so everything I see of hers I automatically want to make, but she makes these big complicated quilts that I may, someday… try to do.

Carolyn of Just one more Stitch: Carolyn has a great blog, she writes long entries, which I love :D Content is always nice, and has great photographs there too.

Vonna of The Twisted Stitcher: Vonna is so fun! She is a great friend, and I bug her quite often for various reasons. I am so glad I’ve been able to get to know her, (as I know many of you have). She is very good at finishing things, and always has a new way of doing it. Her kids are super cute too :D

Katrina of The Needle's Promise: Katrina was so fun to go out shopping with, she can be my shopping buddy anytime! Her stitching is beautiful, and she’s a sweetheart.

If you haven’t visited these blogs, I recommend them when you’ve got time to add more to your reader :D I’d nominate more, but I have too many more to list :D

I’ve been stitching like CRAZY, but can’t show one single thing :( I have 4 things I am stitching for exchanges right now, and have 2 of them done now, and two more started. I hope I can get them done in time. I gave my friend Andrea her baby quilt, and she asked if she could hang it on the wall because it matched the baby’s room so well LOL! So, sorry no crafty photos at the moment, and I’ll try to work on something that I can actually share with you all :D

I am loving the Olympics! I hope you get a chance to watch them. Jessie says she wants to be an Olympic diver because she’s good at The Cannonball! :D
The Garden of the Gods, Colorado Springs, CO (from our vacation, on a hike we did)

Have a great weekend everyone!

Sunflower House Finish! and lots of other stuff.

We are back from vacation, we took a trip to West Virginia and Colorado, and are now back home, talk about cross country :) On our trip I finished Blackbird Design: Sunflower House. I love it!!



and a close up...

I changed out several colors to use what I had in my stash... I didn't realize I had so much threads LOL! So I had to use them up. The yellow of the house was threads that Leena sent me from a birthday exchange last year, it looked so pretty :) Thanks Leena!


Also, I finished Cindy's NRR before I left, just didn't get photos of it up, so here it is. It's a freebie chart by Barbara Ana. It turned out nice and I think matches well with her neighborhood. Only one house left! I'll be mailing this to Von in a few weeks.
And I have a progress picture of Old McMary's. I haven't put up a picture since the end of April. I finally got that big barn and roof all filled in, it is huge I tell you. I am glad that part is done, the rest should go fairly quickly, if I can find the time to work on it :D
I have started a Christmas gift for my sister, and will have to start the SBEBB Fall House Exchange too, I can't wait to get that one started. While I was in Colorado, I was lucky to be able to meet up with Katrina, who is absolutely AWESOME. She picked me up and we drove to FanciMats in Littleton, CO, and then went to lunch at the Cheesecake Factory, and then to a quilt shop in Colorado Springs. We had a great time together! Thanks again for everything Katrina. She was so sweet and made me this beautiful fob, complete with matching scissors. What more could a girl want??
I am glad to be home after 12 days away, that was sure a long trip. Now I have to get my act together and start getting school supplies and whatnot. It just never ends *sigh*

July Review / August Goals

So much going on, summer is so awesome! I love being able to be outside at 9:00 pm, the weather is still perfect, and it’s quiet. We went to the fair on Saturday and had fun checking out all of the animals, and I wandered the textiles for awhile. There were some very beautiful things. I am tempted to enter next year, there weren’t as many entries as I thought there would be.

I wanted to mention, May Britt is having a blogaversary giveaway. She is a wonderful quilter, and blogs almost daily. I am a loyal reader :) Congratulations on 2 years!

I finished Cindy’s NRR on Sunday night. I have not been able to get photos of it yet. I will soon, it turned out very cute. There is only Von’s left for me to stitch now… I can’t believe we are almost done! I am so excited :D Von’s neighborhood is pretty elaborate, I’m already searching for the perfect cottage.

We are going on vacation in August, so I am posting my goals a little early, can’t wait to relax :)

July Review

Finish Cindy’s NRR and mail to Von *finished it, but will mail first of September*
Start SBEBB Shepherd’s Bush Exchange *finished!*
Work on Baby blanket for Andrea *top is done, need to complete*
Work on bird stitchery *yes*
Work on BBD: Sunflower House *yes*
Work on Old McMary’s *yes*Work on Snapperville *no*
Finish one Carpenter Star quilt *no*
Stitch an ornament *no*

Also finished: Shepherd’s Bush: America Fob, Cowgirl tablerunner, Holly Jolly Christmas quilt

August Goals

Work on bird stitchery
Work on BBD: Sunflower House
Work on Old McMary’s
Work on Snapperville
Stitch an ornament
Start SBEBB Fall House Exchange
Finish one Carpenter’s Star Quilt
Finish Andrea’s baby blanket

Kreativ Blogger

I haven’t worked on much of anything this week… that’s weird. If I’ve thought about working on things, does that count? :D

I have heard from several of my fellow bloggers that they have thought of me for the Kreativ Blogger award. Von, Heather and Sonda were too sweet to do this… You are all SO SO awesome! Thank you :) It is nice to know others enjoy reading about what’s going on in my little world sometimes. Blogging has been rewarding in finding inspiration and friendship for me. So, I am thankful for you thinking of me.

Here are the rules of the award

1. The winner may put the logo on her blog.

2. Put a link to the person you got the award from.

3. Nominate 5 blogs.

4. Put links to the blogs.

5. Leave a message for your nominees.

So I have been thinking who to nominate... it's too hard to choose 5. I have over 100 blogs on my reader and they all inspire me in one way or another. Thank you to those who take the time to blog about what they do, so that I can stay motivated to keep on trying new things :)

I hope you all have a great weekend! We are heading to the county fair, and I am super excited!

Holly Jolly Quilt Finished!

Wow, another quilt, yay!!!! I started this one quite awhile back, and finally have it finished. I did find the fabric for the binding that I was searching for. I kind of made this quilt up, I used two charm packs, and bought about 6 fat quarters, and a few yards of the border, and white fabric. It's about 70" x 70" square, with red flannel on the back. It is really heavy and thick, so it'll keep us warm through the winter :D I love it!! It's so bright and happy.

I also finished the quilt top for my friend Andrea, she's having a baby in 3 weeks! I had better hurry and finish it :D

We went camping at Fort Stevens this weekend, it's on the Oregon coast just north of Seaside. It was a very fun weekend, and we enjoyed the beach. Even a racoon and deer walked right through our campground :) I hope you all have a nice week! I have some new secret projects to start, I am all excited to do them...

Sunflower House WIP & Rose Garden :D

This past week was pretty busy for me, Mark was gone to be with his family. His mom is doing much better now, she’s still in the hospital, but improving every day. Thank you for your well wishes!!

I signed up on the SBEBB for the specific designer exchange. They gave us our exchange partner’s name a week ago, I was able to actually stitch and finish it in a couple of days. I could not put it down :) So now I have to wait for a month to mail it. I am excited about it :D The designer is Shepherd’s Bush, and they are one of my favorites.

I’ve also been working on Blackbird Designs: Sunflower House. It is turning out so pretty. I read on Wendy’s blog she is stitching on it now too. Here’s my progress, it’s the one I’ve been focusing on the most recently.
I’ve also picked up Old McMary’s again at work. Still filling in the barn and the roof, it’s so big, but it will be a neat one to finish for sure. I mentioned I bought the fabric to start Shores of Hawk Run Hollow… I haven’t started it yet, I am a chicken! It’s so BIG, and after finishing The Four Seasons, another big one scares me LOL! I will be working on it soon I hope, I need to pull the threads for it first. Anybody else scared to start such a huge project? :D For fear you won’t finish??? Or it’ll take you 7 years to finish it??? :D

I started a quilt for my mother in law, I am not sure how quick I can get it done, but it’s started :) Pictures to come soon…

I’ll leave you with photos I took at the International Rose Test Gardens here in Portland last Thursday. We are the Rose City after all, I must share!

Here is the view from the gardens overlooking Portland and Mt. Hood.

Charts & Tins for Sale or Trade

So, I’ve gone through my charts, and have a list here of several that I have already stitched and want to either sell or trade. If anybody is interested, contact me and we can talk! My email is: oregonsurfers@gmail.com or leave a comment.

These are all chart only!
Waxing Moon: Harvest
JBW Designs: Country French Apple
Lizzie Kate: September Block (chart only)

They are linked to the pictures of my finishes of them :) I have stitched all of these, and don’t plan to again, it’s hard for me to stitch things more than once because there are too many out there to do! :D None of my charts are marked up, I make copies of them and mark the copies when I use them.

Also, I have quite a few small tins, they are the same size as Altoid tins. If anybody would like to buy some, they are .75 cents each, shipping would be added, and they don’t weigh much, so it’d be inexpensive. If you are interested, email me :) I'd be willing to trade for these too :)


Thanks!!

Some Finishes...

I hope you all had a nice 4th of July weekend for those of you here in the USA. My husband was in France all week long for work, so I headed up to Anacortes to visit friends. We had a blast! Charissa is a good friend of mine who taught me how to quilt, and gave me her old sewing machine... she's awesome (that is a picture of us below)! We wandered around Anacortes and went to the little quilt shops there and also to a cross stitch shop, where we fell in love with Shores of Hawk Run Hollow, so we both bought the fabric for it and the pattern, we are going to stitch it together! I told her we'll be okay as long as we finish it when our kids graduate from high school LOL! I am excited... and crazy :)

I stitched up the Shepherd's Bush Fob: America over the past few weeks. I finally completed it tonight, it is cute :) It's pretty big to be a Fob I think though, but it'll be a good ornament for my Christmas tree for sure. I even made the cording, a first for me... it wasn't as hard as I thought it'd be.

Also, I finished a tablerunner for a gift, I'm saving it for Christmas though :) It is made from a charm pack (5" squares), it's a Moda line of fabric, I though it was cute.

So, that is all for now, there were some really rough times in our family over the past week, and so I have been tired and stressed out. My mother in law had a heart attack, and it was really hard on her, she had to have open heart surgery. We were scared of losing her... I am glad to say things are getting better now. Just count your blessings, every single day.

Plums finish, and June review/July goals

You know, I wanted hot weather, I really did… and now I am trying to figure out exactly why I would want hot weather :D After living in Yuma, Arizona for years, you would think I would not be phased by a mere 95 degrees… I suppose I’ve acclimatized to the cooler weather now. I can’t deal with the hot stuff, I literally wilt, just like my pansies.

I’ve been working on LHN: Plums for a few months off and on at work, and finally finished it on Friday, isn’t it cute? I love the purple threads on this one. I might make this into another pillow, like I did with the Blueberries.

June Review
Work on Old McMary’s *NO*
Work on Snapperville *NO*
Work on BBD: Sunflower House *YES*
Make baby blanket for friend Andrea *started it*
Work on Carpenter Star Quilts *YES*
Stitch an ornament *NO*Stitch F&S blocks mail by 6/20 *YES*Find chart for next NRR *YES, and started it*

Also: completed Short Story Quilt, LHN: Plums, Lizzie Kate: September Block, started bird stitchery, tied Holly Jolly quilt.

July Goals
Finish Cindy’s NRR and mail to Von
Start SBEBB Shepherd’s Bush Exchange
Work on Baby blanket for Andrea
Work on bird stitchery
Work on BBD: Sunflower House
Work on Old McMary’s
Work on Snapperville
Finish one Carpenter Star quilt
Stitch an ornament

Short Story Quilt is Done baby!

It’s Friday, yay!!! I like Fridays. That means I am about to have two days off :) On Wednesday night I completed my Short Story quilt. It’s so cute, I am happy to have a finish.
Now, I need some help… I am almost done with my Holly Jolly quilt, just have to bind it. This is the fabric I want to use to bind it, I have about 3/8 of a yard, and need another ½ yard to be able to bind this quilt, I have called every single quilt shop in my area and nobody has this fabric! I think this would be perfect to bind the quilt. So, does anyone out there have this in their stash, that they’d be willing to sell to me? Please?? :) I would be so grateful. It’s Moda fabric from the Holly Jolly line.
I went to quilt group at church last night. We’ve all been having fun making Carpenter Star quilts. Everyone has been doing such a good job. I hope to take pictures next month of everyone’s version of the quilt. I started a baby quilt for a friend while I was there. Have a nice weekend!!!