Round Top 2011

Isn't the quilting in this quilt amazing? I just had to get permission to take pictures. One of these days I'm going to make something similar. I doubt if I can get my stitches as perfect but I can make a quilt with lots of quilting. (It just might take my whole lifetime to finish.) It was $800. I wish I would have been able to buy it but it wasn't in my budget.
I'm still drooling.

I did go to Marburger and Round Top with Candice again this year. I was looking for industrial furniture for my husband's home office. I think I bought some pieces that will work well. A Restoration Hardware feel without the price. We have lots to do to prepare the room before the furniture arrives. Woody, the shipper, promised to have it here, along with my bookcase from 6 months ago, before Mother's day. I have my fingers crossed.

In the meantime, my life has been out of control. As soon as I got back, I tried to catch up at my job, get my house ready for company, unpack, do laundry, make beds, etc. My parents hit town soon after my arrival, and Marissa was already here with her family from Canada. They have been staying at Mike's parents house until last night. Now it is our turn. Yeah! They have been in and out all week though. We had a birthday party for Campbell with 10 little ones and parents. It was wild. It's so much work but so much fun to have everyone together. (Except for Candice's family in Texas. We are missing you guys.)

Steph and family have purchased a house about a mile from us. We are keeping our fingers crossed that they will be able to work out all the details and close soon. Larry starts work here the end of May. It will be nice to not have to drive an hour to see them. It's exciting really.

I'm not keeping up with life but am having lots of fun. How about all of you? How do you do it all?

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.

Aspen Grove Retreat

I downloaded these pictures from our retreat but forgot to post them. The cherry quilt is being quilted on a regular machine. Helen is a great quilter and was demonstrating for us how she quilts her own quilts. She is a master quilter all the way around. The next quilt is a top she is just finishing. Yes, it's all hand appliqued including the borders.
A cute Christmas quilt with this year's Christmas fabrics.
This was a quilt top made out of quilt squares she won last year.

This last one made with Mary Engelbreit fabric. I've got the pieces cut out but have yet to sew one block.
This is just a small sampling of some of the quilts that were shared at this year's retreat. I can't tell you how much I look forward to spending 4 days a year quilting in a beautiful setting. It's heavenly!

A Giveaway For You

Here are the projects I made last week at Aspen Grove. I thought I would let you pick one of these cupcake pin cushions as give away prize. Just leave a comment to enter and a way to contact you if you don't have a blog. Easy isn't it? The giveaway is open to all and the contest will be open until Tuesday night at midnight.

Between Naps on the Porch is having a giveaway too. Check it out.
These cupcakes are made from felted wool sweaters. (Sorry the pictures aren't better.)
I also made this pear pincushion and the apple core quilt top underneath the pear. I almost completed the whole top. It will probably be on the back burner until after Christmas.
I learned how to machine quilt. This is a sample of some of the patterns I was practicing. I can't wait to try this out on my next quilt top. It was really fun to do.
I worked on burb clothes (left) and made a baby car seat cover (right with the rick rack.) (You know the kind that you hook to the car seat handle and cover the baby up with. I see lots of them around but we might be raising a whole generation that will be claustrophobic as a result.)
I finished these Christmas stockings for Marissa's little Campbell and made an extra one for the next baby. They already have three so I just needed to add a few more.
Here are a few close ups. They are machine appliqued and hand embroidered with glass seed bead embellishments.
It was so great to be around such incredibly talented women who were so willing to share their knowledge. I loved being able to sew for four whole days.
And, last but not least, I love this sewing machine. When Grandpa Creed passed away, I asked the grandkids if I could buy this if none of them wanted it. They actually gave this to me as a thank you gift. It feels so good to sew on. It is so sturdy and runs well.
It even came in the cabinet and it weighs a TON. It was very hard to get it upstairs into my studio/sewing room. It is handy to have because I often have someone sewing with me...girlfriend, daughter, or one of my young women. It is nice to not have to change thread when I'm sewing with multiple colored threads. I just move back and forth from my Bernina to this singer.
I did recover the top of this little bench right after moving it in. I also discovered that my friend (who designed the Christmas stocking patterns I made) has the exact singer machine and sewing cabinet. When she told me how much she paid for it, I felt very lucky to have been given mine. She had her cabinet refinished. Mine will probably stay as is or else I will paint it.

A New Quilt for Campbell

I had to take these fast before Marissa left. Here is the blanket I made for our newest grandson, Campbell. I added rick rack, scallops, and what do you call that zig zag edge?
I made these scallops by tracing one of Marissa's plates. I sewed a green strip if scallops by tracing the half circles down the strip. I then sewed the strip and cut the half circles out clipping the edges for easement. I turned them right side out and then lined them up on the row to sew in.
Here is a close up of the rick rack and picot edge. I have a really easy way to make those. If any one is interested, let me know and I'll make up a tutorial for you.



I put minky on the back. It is tricky to work with since it is stretchy and the front is not. I stretched it out and pinned it to the carpet (right side down) then added the hobbes batting (smoothing it out on top of the minky). I then added the top right side up and safety pinned the layers together to hold in place while I machine quilted. I used a walking foot. A real must in my book. I also sewed down each row in the same direction (left side of the quilt to right side of the quilt.) This helps to keep the quilt from shifting in different directions.

If you are close to Provo, Utah, the Utah Valley Quilt Guild is having their big quilt fair on Wednesday, July 15th. They have vendor booths, free quilt classes, a quilt auction, garage sale, bake sale, and quilt show, and lunch. It's at the Eldred Center on 5th North in Provo. It is tons of fun and inspiration. It is from 9:30-4. Come if you can.

Basting Steph's Quilt

Just thought you would like to see Stephanie's first quilt. We pin basted this quilt so now she is ready to start machine quilting. She wants to quilt each cross. This will make it much more difficult and time consuming but she is willing.
She helped me baste Campbell's quilt but I forgot to take a picture of it. Hopefully, I will be able to machine quilt it tomorrow. It has a stretchy back so it will be difficult. Everyone loves minky fabric but it can be a bugger to work with.

More Quilts

I just finished this quilt this week. I bought one of those "made in Taiwan" quilts and changed the binding and added the yoyo's and rick rack. There are about 272 yo yo's on it. I used one of those new yo yo makers. If you haven't tried one, it's the way to go. I think they are made by Clover. You can get them at almost any fabric store.
A close up of the corner.
I made two of these Nancy Halvorson Shepherd and sheep quilts. One for my sister-in-law, Leslie and one for Marissa. Marissa decided she would rather have a different quilt so now my sister Cheryl will get this one next year. It looks small in this picture but it is really close to lap quilt size.
Here is one I made years ago. Good thing tastes change.
Here is a quilt I designed. It is english paper pieced with stip piecing on the edge. This is what I am doing all around the king size log cabin quilt.
This one is Candice's. She fell in love with these fabrics. I love black, white, and red. In fact, my studio is black, white, and red. I just love being in there. But, in this quilt, the yellow really pulls it all together. BTW my quilts really are square. I just didn't lay them out very carefully and the camera distorts them as well. (That black dot in the corner of the little rick rack is a button...my signature.

I made a Christmas quilt I really likes that Steph really wanted. It's now at her house and I didn't take a picture before giving it to her for Christmas.

So, this is the year of the finish up projects before starting new ones. I've done pretty well so far. I'm trying to clean things out and get rid of things I don't love enough to finish. I think I have a short attention span though. It is so hard to finish projects some times.

Quilting in St. George

Where have I been you asked? I've been busy trying to accomplish something to post about on my blog. (All work and no play makes for boring blogs unless you are a decorator/designer. Then everyone wants to see what you are doing.)

A group of women went to St. George to my friend, Sharon Wright's, second home. This is the second year I was invited. It was so great to make new friends, eat out, shop in all the local quilt stores, and bask in the sunshine. My how I loved exercising outside in the sun and sitting in the jacuzzi under the stars at midnight. Ahhh, I'm ready to go again.

The cupcake was made by Lisa. She made us all cupcake pincushions out of felted sweaters. I love pincushions. I put it next to the one Steph made for me last year.

This is Carol Ford with one of the many projects she finished.
Joann was new to quilting but I think she's caught the bug.
Leslie and Lisa stayed at their mom's house but came over and played with us all day.
This is the log cabin quilt I worked on. It is almost finished. I started it last year in St. George. I laid it out on Sharon's bed to figure out how much longer I had to make the borders. I'm strip piecing 1 1/2" strips with a log cabin block in each corner. I think there are at least 1500 pieces in this King size quilt. The pictures above the bed are two of my husbands she bought and had framed. She has several others in this house too. (What a nice supporter of the arts.) :)
A little closer view of the quilt top.
We moved all the furniture out of the living room and this is where we have all the fun.
Here is Sharon. She is a master quilter. This is the back of the quilt she is working on. The binding has piping and is very detailed going around hexigons on the outside edge. Sorry, I didn't take a picture of the whole quilt for you to see. What was I thinking?
My friend, Mary Jo Roberts is in the background in the purple shirt. We drove down together on Tuesday and came back on Friday. We had soooo much fun. It was such a nice break.