Monday, January 24, 2011

St. George Quilt Retreat

This is Megan's quilt. She pieced the entire top, marked the quilting lines, and based the quilt for hand quilting. It's going to be fabulous. She does amazing quilting. She loved to buy old quilt tops or blocks and reinvent or quilt them as they are. A very talented woman.
The week before last I was off to St. George to quilt with 6 other women. Sharon is so nice to share her vacation home with all of us. We sew, quilt, shop for fabric, go for walks, visit, and eat. It was a very fun 5 days.

I needed a little sun therapy even if it wasn't very warm. I enjoyed sewing in front of the window and feeling the warmth of the sun through the window. Yum!

The above picture is Rosemary sewing. This pictures show Carol Ford, Mary Jo Roberts, Megan Lagoff, and Francine Barrett. See that red light in the middle of the picture. Sharon bought us each one from IKEA. They are the best light...small, flexible, and bright. We all loved them. If you sew, you would probably love one too. They are great.
Carol Ford
This is the quilt I was working on. I had to send a picture to my husband so he could see what I was working on. It's almost finished. I'm working on a pieced border. My goal is to finish the top by the end of February. There...I said it...now hold me to it will ya?
Sharon is on the right and that is one of her amazing quilts hanging on the wall.
I know some people wouldn't consider this fun but we all love it. It is amazing how much we learn from each other too. The group changes from year to year and it's nice to get to know new people. (I took these pictures with my cell phone but should have taken picture on everyone's projects. What was I thinking? I do have a new Evo phone and am loving all the things I can do with it...like take pictures and emailing them to my computer without having to sync anything. I'm actually getting into my phone technology which is not like me at all. I'm spreading my wings in 2011.)

There are lots of fabric stores around so we take daily field trips to check them out. This year I wasn't going to buy any but was too tempted when I went to a store that had rows of fabric 75% off. I bought enough Halloween fabric to make 7 pillow cases for my grandbabies. They are all made and ready for Halloween.

Last week it was back to work at Alpine Home Care and Hospice, I taught a healthy living class at church on Tuesday night, and had a dinner party Friday night for about 40 people. I tried to catch up on cleaning, add some Valentine decorations to the house. I'm also on my 5th physical therapy visit for a pulled hamstring. Hmm, no wonder I never get to my sewing room. (My sewing machine is still sitting where I placed it when I got home from St. George.)

There probably won't be any sewing going on this week either. I've got to work on a Valentine craft to teach in Relief Socity at church and make something to exchange for the Valentine's parties coming up.

I did get my invitations out today. Electronic invitations that I figured out how to do all by myself. It's part of my be brave and figure it out goal for 2011. I think it even worked. :)

I hope you get a chance to do something you love this week.

Sunday, January 23, 2011

The Big News

Christmas Eve Grant and Cole opened a present from their parents. In it was a card saying that they are getting a new brother or sister next July. We are so excited...ok it may not look like it in this picture. We were in shock what can I say? We did have a great Christmas with the whole family together.

Saturday, January 22, 2011

Fun With The Fords

My family is complaining because I haven't been blogging so here goes... I had big plans to clean/dig out my sewing room today. My sewing room became the dumping ground during Christmas vacation. Pretty much every room is back in order except that room. I was easily distracted and decided to go on an adventure with my husband instead.

Brett wants to turn our old dining room into his office so wanted to go to IKEA to see if we could find a new desk or desk top to use. So, off we went to check it out. He found some inexpensive cupboards to use in his workshop but we weren't tempted by anything for his office. We did find some linen'ish' upholstered chairs we will probably end up getting to replace our old kitchen chairs.

Then, off we went to a salvage place for inspiration. We also were looking for old wood to possibly make a new table top for our old table. We didn't find what we were looking for but I did show my husband some old windows I had previously checked out. I'm going to add them to my new family room over the tv. It's one of those things that seems great in my mind so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it will be great in reality. (I have no idea what to put behind the glass. It might just be windows with the wall showing behind.)

We then went to the Ford's house to play with the grandbabies. After putting together a marble contraption and playing with it, playing catch with a bouncy ball, reading a book, and playing with a battery operated tractor and track, we were all off to Pei Wei's for dinner, then stopped off to see what Restoration Hardward had. (I love everything in there and so does my husband. Too bad it's so expensive. I would be happy to furnish the whole office with Restoration furniture but it would take about 3 years to save up for it. You aren't in a hurry for your new office are you honey? I think it would be worth the wait.)

And then, we were off to Hatch Family Chocolate (supposedly they have a reality tv show about them). If you haven't been there, you are really missing out. The hot chocolate is made from melted chocolate mixed with cream. I don't even want to know how many calories are in that one little cup. It is amazingly good though.

See how much fun we were having?