~Hualapai Mtn Quilter~

~Last Weeks Birthday Boy~

2011-08-26T11:17:00.003-07:00

Hard to believe this once little guy is now 13! Time is going by so fast, we had a grand time taking him out for Sushi, a trip around the mall, then topped it off with a 3-d movie! Have lots of pictures from the evening but alas time is passing and there is lots yet to be done with this day, and I should be working and not on the computer.....................

We found these little critters in our coop! Yes, I know they are baby chickens but all we have ever collected in the 9 years of having chickens is eggs and poop and if the truth was to be told it would be more of the latter! ~smile~

William has taken to their care and we have since found 3 more!

They are as stinking cute as he is! The new life has been nice!

My Mom~January 23,1934-July 11,2011

2011-08-08T14:37:00.002-07:00

A bad day at the pond~

2011-06-15T19:06:00.006-07:00

The boys have these cool remote control boats, and BC has this water park for activities such as these!

Here we have a tipped vessel, (red/cream), but here comes Will to the rescue!!!

After a few attempts he finally gets in a good position to push him to shore!

It was quite entertaining watching them~

Finally, the rescue is made! A few minor adjustments and he is back in action!

I love watching these guys, in BC, its boats, skateboards, bikes and scooters, at home, its quads, hiking, target shooting, bow hunting, and now handheld crossbows.....................blessed? Indeed!!

Been a busy couple days, dental appointments, quilting, and guild business meeting, and more quilting, not up to leaving but I look forward to delivering quilts, it's like watching kids opening up presents!

A Challenge accomplished!

2011-06-08T11:21:00.005-07:00

Hehehe, just a funny shot I came across while looking at some pictures, this boy was out riding with his buddy, the mud was pretty slick and he just tipped right over! No harm was done to the bike~and obviously none to the rider either!

This quilt was quite the challenge, it was one of last months accomplishments and as I look back at the pictures it all comes rushing back!

I loved the design, it is one from Deb Geissler, love love love her stuff!

This was no little one either, you can see on the left how close it is to the end of the frame, I have a 14 ft table~

One of the challenges was how the quilt was growing from around the middle of the quilt towards the bottom, tried to get a shot of it but it was around 110 at the top and by the time I hit the bottom we were at 116 wide!

We knew the backing and batting were going to be close but man oh man............

Here is its full shot, it came out pretty even with all its quirks~

Here is a little closer look at the design, kokopelli's flittering around doing their thing! I gave it to her on a Wednesday and she had the binding on it and on her bed by the weekend!

Seems we go through spurts of quilts that bring us a little challenge, we did 5 bargello hearts that still cause me to wake up in a sweat in the middle of the night, they came out beautiful and that is what I try to focus on! Those babies are up next to share!

Catching up~

2011-06-06T22:19:00.004-07:00

Wow, I am still amazed that we are already in June, I had a fun May and was sorry to see it end so quick!!

This customer is one of my favorites, she tells me exactly what she wants and that is just what she gets!

The pictures don't quite do the quilting justice............

She also had shams but didn't get pics of those.

Then this little guy, sigh, when you get a naggling feeling in the back of your mind it is always best to trust that niggle and double check those little things, especially when it involves your tension!! I got to the 4th row and seen the stitching from the 1st and my heart dropped clean to my toes, what took 15.5 minutes to stitch out ended up taking over 5 hours of unstitching. Big lesson learned!

Here we have T and K, they are two amazing quilters in our Guild, T, is showing her latest using silk ties that she has collected over the years, it is an amazing quilt to say the least!!

Since we have had rain, snow and sleet so late into the year, it is has brought out all the beautiful wild flowers, Court and Donnie brought the bouquet home for me and hopefully I will have a nice supply throughout the summer!

I am very excited to have gotten our classes scheduled for MQX West this morning, did that at 9am sharp, booked our room last week so we are set to go! From there we went and delivered a couple quilts then it was off to the dentist, poor Donnie spent over 3 hours in that chair, he takes after me in that we have a high pain tolerance so by the time we realize there is a problem it definitely has become one! One more visit and he is good to go, the Dentist gave him a prescription and I thought it was for an antibiotic but it turned out to be a pain killer, Vicadin to be exact! I about flipped on the pharmacist, actually I did, but it will be properly channeled to the bleeping dentist on the next visit, in the meantime he is doing just fine with the ibuprofen thank you very much!!

The machine is happily stitching along and I am trying to get some order put back into this studio............

Another one bites the dust~

2011-06-01T11:18:00.004-07:00

Month that is! It is hard to believe June is already upon us, what has been sweet is the weather! it is a balmy 74 out and just perfect!

While Little Man D was hunting for some new shoes we headed to the camping section to check out what all was new, I am ever so tempted to get this chair for my King! It was a perfect fit!

Mothers Day was no different than any other day for me except the beautiful live plant was given along with this fabulous meal!

Which reminds me that I need to water it................

And last but not least, Spring Market in Salt Lake. Here are Merry, Kathy and Rose, they just finished up registering. I actually was the driver and we hit rain, sleet and snow the whole ride in! We were in my truck so just in case I had brought along huge black bags to protect our luggage from the elements...............oh was it a site!! Anyway, I dropped them at the door with twenty minutes to spare for early registering and as blessing would have it a car pulled away at just the right moment so I could hustle in!

We have just finished with a day of Schoolhouse and now are ready to hit Sample Spree! I planned on doing a little shopping for myself this time but I didn't push enough to get what I wanted and after 10 minutes things were sold out! I did get a couple new books and an awesome tote made out of Jo Morton fabrics along with the patterns on how to make one for yourself!

Then Friday Night, we headed to Moda's Party, it was a tasty meal but the fun part was when Michael showed up!!

It was fun to watch the dancers gather folks from the crowd............especially after they had take advantage of the open bar!!

Saturday was spent wandering the aisles and seeing all the neat new gadgets and pattern designs, I am still in awe at everything I seen, I did gather all kinds of info for future reference!

We topped the night of with a meal at the Original Red Iquana..........

Yummm, is all I can say about this! I love traditional Mexican food and their classic enchiladas did not disappoint a bit! I ate the whole plate, may have even licked a little.............

We headed out fairly early Sunday Morning, I spent a little while getting everything loaded up, I should have taken a picture of the madness, since I have the Mega Model there is a poop load of space behind the seat, so everything the 3 bought went there, I brought along my big suitcase so was able to pack all my goodies up into it and it went into the back of the truck with the other luggage, we also had a nifty cooler that sat between Rose and Kathy so cool drinks and snacks were just an arm reach away!

The ride home was horrid, it was the windiest I have ever driven in, my arms were cramping for 2 days from holding on so tight! Was it worth it? Oh yeah!! And on a funny note, since my truck was to big to go into the hotels parking garage it got front door parking for the full 4 days!

I have lost count all the quilts that have been worked on but I did manage to keep up with pictures so will now take some time to get them uploaded and shown!

Where did April go?

2011-04-27T16:19:00.004-07:00

What an amazing month it has been! We held our annual retreat here in the Hualapai's at a Bed and Breakfast that opened up a couple years ago. Amazing place! Have the photo's downloaded and ready to be put in some kind of order for posting! Way too much fun was had!!!

We like sunset shots and this one was just glorious!

On the quilting front it has been non-stop! I am so grateful for the Gal's who trust their precious tops to me!

Since getting the IQ installed on my machine I really haven't taken the time to just play with some of the other features that it has, I have to rely on you-tube videos and sometimes they can be a little more confusing for my data bank (aka brain) to process! So I just plug along and hope for the best and keep the ripper('s) at hand!

I took a couple hours to make just a little something to play on, had the pattern forever along with the charm squares already matched, cut and ready for stitching, AND sitting under the plexi table at the machine, I wonder about myself sometimes.............

So just started pushing buttons and learned as I went!

I am pretty pleased with it! But the best part is, DH has agreed to plan a vacation to Oregon when MQX West is going to be having their first ever Longarmer's convention there this fall!!!

Then I will be able to ask a LIVE person for help! I am super excited! The Class Catalogue comes out in May and I will be signing up for everything I possibly can! Little Piggy Bank needs some chunking up!

We are also gearing up for Spring Market in Salt Lake in a few weeks, will be a wild time for sure! 4 of us from the Shop are going, and we will be able to completely experience it for all its glory as the Boss wasn't allowed to make any appointments!! We will get to scope out every aisle and booth for what they have to offer, boo-ya!!

I will also get to visit my Dad's Burial Site, he has been on my heart a lot lately and I think it might just be time to get those feelings in order...................

It is passed time that I should be heading out, I would love to stay home and watch Smallville Season 2 with the boys, Scottie bought Season 1 and we were hooked right away, then he came home with 2 last night, which reminds me I now need to rearrange the Netflix que, they have been on long wait status for quite some time now and if he keeps buying the Seasons I can put some more Jane Austen style shows on!! Hehehe~ Boys just love my choices! Not! Hehehe~

Favor~

2011-03-31T21:00:00.005-07:00

That was how this conversation started~ The Owner was going out of town in 2 weeks and wanted to know if I could possibly have them done for her in one week giving her time to get the binding on before heading out of town!

Sigh~

Wanted to see how those funky feathers stitched out anyway~

And the backing was this heavy fleece, was a little nervous at first how it was going to take to the stitching, ended up being very nice!

This one was a mystery quilt~

It reminded me of snow and the sky, so I thought the Windy Day Design would be a perfect fit!

Was a good choice!

Now what is funny is I never met the gal, she called before I was heading to Boulder City for 3 days and she met my Son and Daughter at the quilt shop downtown, I got them done first thing Monday, literally, started at 7am and worked until completed, called her around 8pm and said they were ready, she would get back to me after checking her budget..................my stomach cringed and I just put them up and loaded the one that was up next wondering all the while what was up with this!?!

So I didn't hear from her again until Thursday, we were already in Boulder and I let one Son know what was up, he may be making a run again to take them if she found her budget worked.

In the end she was going to be able to pick them up on that Friday and wanted me to just leave them at the shop for her to pick up, nah, nada, nope, asked other Son to step in as he had some other errands already in town so he met with her at the shop and all ended well! He even took a video of her pulling them out of the bag to look at them, she was beyond thrilled and she gave him cash for payment!! Phew~ felt like I dodged a bullet there!!

It has been a long time since tinking around with the blog layout, had fun playing with the different fonts, something simple and not easy to mess up! I have forgotten how to update and change certain things so hopefully I will be able to take baby steps and change it up a bit, I found a neat background that I would like to try, then have to trial and error my way into changing the banner photo. Hmmm, wonder if I practiced on a fake one so as not to mess this one up................love those "lightbulb" (courtesy of Gru from Despicable Me) moments! ~smile~

Again~

2011-03-21T09:57:00.005-07:00

We went to sleep seeing little flurries last night, then woke to this!!

And it is still coming down at noon time, poor little birds aren't sure what to think!

These of Mookie ~The Abominable Snow Chin~ were taken from the storm 2 weeks ago,

She wasn't quite thrilled with it this time around, may have been on the deep side for her liking!

Happily back where she belongs, she has angry eyes to me, I gave here a couple extra treats and all was good again!

I am so happy to have served at the last retreat this last weekend. They were all the local girls who came to enjoy 2 1/2 days of sewing bliss, and they spoiled me rotten, anytime someone came to the shop for something they had a little plate of goodies for me to nibble on! There was this ginormous sugar cookie that was out of this world! I only thought of taking a picture after I ate it!!

Not sure how much quilting I will get done today, I tried to start early but we had power surges kick in so just shut it all down, hopefully I can at least get one done, and another pinned in before they start again, that is about the only downside to living on a mountain............

Quick Jobs~

2011-03-15T13:35:00.003-07:00

There are some cute frog prints in this little guy, so thought some bubbles would give it what it needed!

Love the bright colors!

There's them bubbles!

And always a sucker, can never say no, a customer who was visiting her daughter needed something done before she headed home the following week.

Since she just wanted simple stars, I figured I could fit it in!

She was thrilled and I was happy to make someone smile and make them feel special!

Home Again~

2011-03-14T10:18:00.005-07:00

I am happy to have this guy back home! He was a shop sample for five months, it sold 12 kits and a lot of fabric off the bolts to make those little basket blocks!

which are 5 in, and those half square triangles measure out at 1 in! The littlest I have made to date!

And these ended up coming home with a certain Young Man who has admired Ostrich for a long long time! The color shows them being kind of blue but they are more on the grey side and look 'smokin on the ole' (young) boy!

Did I mention he got them HALF off!! He went and bought himself a couple new pair of jeans to enhance the look!

Back in the day when I had time I would make home~made tortillas for all the little peoples daily enjoyment, they were all wanting some and there wasn't/isn't a spare moment for such luxuries so it was time to break out the well patina'd rolling pins and griddle!

The catch though is it wasn't going to be me doing all the work and they thought I would be more involved, as in taking over and doing it myself because it would be quicker and so much easier!

Sadly for them, I didn't fall for it!!!

I told them to each grab a bowl and all the needed ingredients and THEY went to work! I hollored out the directions while loading a quilt, and so to keep it friendly the 2 boys each had their own batch to make, nothing like a little friendly competition! And I did show up to show them how they wanted their dough to feel, then a quick demonstration on kneading, and once the dough was rested how to roll 'em out. I did one for each and the rest was on their own!

They did pretty good! Manchild 1 had some interesting shapes, but once the butter melted on it didn't matter what they looked like! The taste was scrumptious!

Then here is Manchild 2 with his batch, I did start them off 20 minutes apart so there would be no room for wrestling, especially once the rolling pins came out!

Perfection! Right from the get go! His dough was just perfect!

And he kept cranking out perfect ones, one after another! Then he wanted to see just how big he could make one, and we shared it! Little bit of butter with a little bit of sugar sprinkled on and we had the best treat!

Manchild 3 wasn't up to the task this round but later in the week he got a hankering for some, and out came all the ingredients, but this time his experienced big brothers gave him a helping hand! Cheese tortillas and fajitas were on the menu!

On the work side, we are now through the 3rd weekend of Retreats, phew! This was a busy group, 16 came in from California, all friends, and man were the machines flying, I lost count of all the projects they completed, and in their down time they were shopping for future projects! All in all it was a great time but Saturday was a 12 hour day for me keeping the shop running smoothly and helping take care of these gals, needless to say I am still on the wiped out side, but this is the last weekend and I am actually looking forward to seeing that the end is in sight!

Amazing~

2011-03-07T14:05:00.004-07:00

This was what we drove home through Saturday night then woke up to Sunday morning that blissfully kept us in for the day!

I love looking out our big windows to this scene~

Gorgeous! Simply Gorgeous!

And the little men made up their own version of ice cream snow! And since milk products don't settle to well on my innards they tried it with my Almond Milk and it was de-vine!

I was actually sorry to see the snow melt away this time because it meant no more special treats. So I consoled myself and tinked around the studio, I have a jar I keep all the ends from the leftover binding strips, they were joined to make a nice scrappy binding for a nice scrappy quilt!

Shamefully I haven't had a chance to get the hand stitching part done, that makes 2 now that are so close to being completed!

The Shop just finished up weekend 2 of the 4 retreats weekends, I'm working the extra hours that the shop is open for the ladies special night of shopping, man oh man, I am in awe of the fabric that has been flying out the door!! They must have been saving for just these weekends!

And while I am home my machine is purring along, the second one for the day is started and I hope to get 4 more table runners done to complete this weeks 'home' work, dh is on a new schedule at his place of employment so that means we can carpool together, and I do want to be able to do that as much as possible with the cost of diesel being what it is, and of course, both our vehicles just love that flavor! grumble~grumble

So that means I need to boogie my butt to keep the quilting up!

Sigh~

2011-02-23T14:53:00.002-07:00

Good News is these two are officially in the completed category! Yay! Happy Day Happy Day! Ahhhhh~ I have to get the photos into the computer yet but here is just a shot of what the flange I was dealing with, turns out it really wasn't all that, but it was the first time to do one and those first timers can really put a hurtin' on ya!

Then this one! Boy's!

That about sums it up~ the three have been enjoying the skate/bike park in Boulder City and had been accident free 122 days! The new count date has been reset~

He landed on his hand, and after icing wrapping and more icing, and google searches on hand injuries we decided to don the Dr.'s hat.

We pressed, pulled and prayed and in the end he is back up and running! There were even directions on doing stretches once the swelling went down, but believe you me~ I was watching it like a hawk!

These colorful beauties showed up about 3 days later, I still cringe at the thought. Two weeks have past and it is all looking good. Until last night~ when he decided to do a little workout on the punching bag, Boy's~ sigh~

On the quilting front, I just completed 4 table runners, 3 full size quilts, 2 shams, and 1 wall hanging since Monday morning, I am pooped and calling it a week, now it is time to pack up and head to Boulder to put in my 3 days there, and the Annual Retreat the shop sponsors is starting up this weekend, the first of 4 so it should be pretty steady there, kind of funny by the time I leave here I am ready to rest up at the shop and play a little there, after the 3 days there I am ready to get home and rest up and get some quilting done! Sad sad sad~

~All about Sharon~

2011-02-21T11:34:00.003-07:00

This big baby is Sharon's Wedding gift to her son and daughter in law, very very striking!

Her daughter in law drew the wedding invitation design and Sharon blew it up to put on the back of the quilt along with the registry of all who attended!

It was a little tricky with the stitching out part here, it required dh laying underneath to be sure everything went as smooth as possible! Thankfully it did!

I am now working on the second of 2 quilts from h-e double toothpicks, flange edges on these two monsters and they are driving me batty!

Only because I would love to be able to learn something new on one of my own projects before being forced to on a customers quilt!! I just want them to be over with NOW! ~smile~

Still some more~

2011-01-31T15:27:00.004-07:00

This was just a neat picture to capture Kaa while he was drinking some water, we have a black and white ringed King snake that lives around here somewhere and he comes to get water from the chickens coupe during the warm months, he is also neat to watch fill up!

One of my favorite things to do when quilting one of my own quilts is use up all those bobbins that have just enough thread on them that you hate to throw out! Ultimately that whole bin has been emptied and has begin collecting once again! And it's funny that not one person has noticed all the different colors on the back of my quilts!

I also found some time to get my thread cabinet organized, it is actually a dvd cabinet that I picked up on clearance from Bass Pro for a song and it is perfect for storing and keeping the thread dust free!

Now this is funny, I have been watching this spool dwindling down for awhile now, I go through about 1 a year, I use the Presencia Thread, just love it! Now that I have 3 machines running I have one spool for each but this particular machine is what I use for attaching the bindings so it goes through the thread a little faster than the rest.

I was attaching a binding at this photo and wondering if I was going to make it! Thankfully I did and now a new spool is on there and ready for use. The spool holder is another favorite find, it works perfect although I didn't put it through the scissors, that was someone elses clever idea!

I am totally standing in amazement at how the Quilting Business has been flourishing for me! I love the challenge each brings at finding that perfect design and thread to bring it all together! A new customer was embarrassed at three table-runners she brought me to do, she felt they were too plain and would understand if I felt they were a waste of my "professional time"!! Blach!! I was speechless for a moment and couldn't express enough what a privilege and honour it is for ME to be trusted with any work by her hand! There is no such thing as 'just a simple quilt' in my mind! That fabric cost money and then precious time to create so be proud!! I just uploaded the pics to share next time! I think they came out fabulous and can't wait to put them in her hands and hear everyone ooh and ahh!!

Picking~

2011-01-27T10:48:00.002-07:00

I have done more picking on quilts the last two weeks, this one had 20 minutes of quilting into it when I decided I didn't like the design or the thread color. Thankfully it was my quilt, but it still took over 4 hours to pick out!! The second one was a customer quilt, can't remember what was the cause of that one, I have already blocked it out of my head and only took a picture of after it was packed into its bag to be delivered!

I have been working on the pineapple blocks, did you guess it already? Hehehe, anyway the above one is done in all my civil war scraps and I love love love it! I have more pulled to do a larger size, maybe even in a king for my own room~ and below is a bigger block but in just the two colors, had a time picking out a border for it but eventually went with the gold for the inner border and the same blue in the quilt for the outer. It looks much prettier in person than the photo, I am going to attempt teaching the technique and these will be two of the samples. I much prefer the scrappy look myself, and did a quick large block in that version as well. Amazing how different they can look!

And back to some Christmas Quilts that were actually done after, seems this year a lot of people planned to do their family get togethers in January so that made it kind of nice not having to rush to get all those quilts done!

This gal's son in law is a carpenter, and she picked a design for the quilting that was tool related.

I love all the designs at my finger tips, and this one even came with my system.

We have been enjoying some very nice sunny and warm days, we even pulled out some of the ferns that we keep in the garage for winter to enjoy the warm sunshine!

Things at Fiddlesticks are still plugging along, I have to say I am glad to be back on only two days a week again, work has piled up at home, not only with quilts but with everyday chores, and not being home long enough to put stuff away after it has been used was horrid, just look in the background pictures and you will see all the little piles everywhere, so while the machine is going I am doing nothing else but picking up, sorting and putting things back where they belong. It is amazing how fast things get out of sorts, and I still have not gotten back to the pc laptop to get things transferred, and now the printer is acting up but thankfully I have a new one in storage that came with my MacPro so will just pull 'er off the shelf and get a new area worked up!

Just don't think it will be today..........................

~Non Stop~

2011-01-17T19:14:00.002-07:00

What a BANG this New Year has been already! We spent our New Years Eve/Day and the next 4 making a total of 6 days at the Quilt Shop, the re-model/expansion is in full swing! The first class in the new Classroom is set for the 28Th and there is still a ton to get done. In between I get home for a few days and turn into a quilting fool so as not to get too behind, I am on 3 days a week at the shop and that leaves precious time for nothing else!

Here is one of Jo's quilts, I was tickled when she picked these Swirles for the design, another one of my favorites!

Just plain purrty!

This was a Cake in a cup Kit I got for Christmas, didn't think I would be to into it so re-gifted it to Blake, he made them up for us and have to say they were pretty darn good!

So much so he came up with his own version and they have become a fast favorite in this kitchen!

It is the same schedule for the next few weeks, it can be exhausting but I am quite content when I lay my head down at what all is being accomplished!!

Wishing Everyone a Blessed~

2010-12-30T20:09:00.004-07:00

I can't believe how fast this year has gone by, there were many changes in our Family, some good, some bad, but all in all I wouldn't change a thing!

Beautiful~

2010-12-30T18:33:00.002-07:00

I love the way the Mountain looks with the snow freshly fallen! I did a big zoom in but this is my view from the living room, it's times like these that I miss this being my piecing room!

Scottie thinks only an insane person could possibly enjoy this weather! Thankfully his work car is needing some additional work during its regularly scheduled maintenance so he is driving a 4x4, it couldn't have come at a better time!!

This has been my project the past week, since I can't sew a straight line to save my life I used the hera marker and it was sooooo time consuming! My Sweet Man helped me out big time, I put all the blocks together and he stitched them markless in record time!

Then after Guild yesterday my BFF helped me snip all the buggery edges, I griped and complained the whole time, and she ever so patiently kept snipping with a smile! Thank You D!!

And the only thing I can say about these packages is the boy gets an 'E' for effort!

He was jazzed at picking out wrapping paper, although bummed he couldn't find any from the movie Despicable Me, so he thought the next best thing was Disney's Princess'!!

Dad got this too~everyone got this~but of course no one cared what the outside looked like! Everyone was beyond thrilled with his gift giving choices! Just needs to work on his paper picking! They sure keep my side in stitches!

We fixing to head into Boulder and get going on the rearranging of the shop, not sure how it is going to go but am anxious to get started on it! The 3 Little Men are going to help so that will be fun, they even got 3 of our Beach Cruisers serviced so they can ride back and forth from the shop! Wish I would have gotten pictures of them riding them in the snow today, way too funny!

Let it snow~

2010-12-29T19:52:00.003-07:00

I am in absolute amazement at our how our weather has been these past couple weeks! We are now in blizzard mode, I went out yesterday after seeing the forecast and got the porch, walkways and driveway blown off of all the leaves that have accumulated. I have a weird quirk of liking it all clean when it snows.

Scottie brought Mookie out for a visit and plopped her down on the cutting table, she was quite content to just sit and visit. Although she did leave some 'raisins' behind her! Scottie picked up after like any fine 'Chinchilla' Parent would do, just assures me is going to make a fine Dad one day!

Here is the 2nd of Jan's disappearing nine patch.....

This quilting design is a paisley that resembles one in the quilt and this one is a gift for her Mom-in-Law who is currently visiting.

I am thrilled to say I finally figured out how to get to my emails from our Internets main site. Still need to get everything transferred and figured out but there just doesn't seem to be enough hours in the day to get everything done that I want let alone everything that NEEDS too!

The living room is back together again and the kitchen table is cleared off so there is at least some place to rest the eye, cause everywhere else is just total chaos~

Wishing Everyone a Very

2010-12-24T19:03:00.000-07:00

And A Blessed New Year!!

Online Again~

2010-12-24T16:24:00.005-07:00

Wow! It has been a long time since having rain like we had this past week. Six straight days of the glorious liquid, there were snowflakes but thankfully they didn't stick around and cause even more havoc.

That's about the only downside about living in the mountains, the storms tend to mess with our phone lines, which messes with our Internet, which messes with our cell phones.

Then my HP has decided to go wonky, so have had to crash course learn how to set up my cell phone to take emails. I decided to go with Apples Mac Computers this past year but again I failed to get everything swapped over to them so when an email would come through to the pc I would forward it to the mac from my cell, then when I would try to respond I would send the emails back to myself! Sigh~ So, we are powered back up, I am investigating how to make everything work on the mac's and it will be a glorious day when it all happens!!

Now for some fun, my Sister in Law lives in Vegas and she Longarms also, she has a Gammill with a Statler system, she is an amazingly talented woman, she has always been into the embroidery machines but when she seen the Gammill and Statler stitching it was like an embroidery machine on steroids so took the plunge, purchased one and loves it. She is slowly getting into more piecing of the quilts but she just has fun with others for now.

She was contacted by an Upholstery Company that was doing some remodeling on two of the rooms at the Mirage to see if she could quilt on leather. Since she has on her embroidery machines she thought sure why not!! Wow! Is all I can say, they called on Friday and she had to digitize the design they wanted and have them delivered by Wednesday of the next week! This is the shot that one of the guys sent her after getting it hung. B-e-a-utiful!

These are some more Christmas Quilts that got accomplished in time for going under the tree~

There are a lot of paisleys in the fabric so that was the inspiration to use one for the quilting.

Alice is one of my favorite customers! She pieces with absolute precision and she is just a lovely lovely Lady! She has been taking care of her Mom who lived right behind her for many years. At one of the Bee's Alice asked if I could take a rush job, we all know the answer to that! So she was going to bring it to me next bee~ She wasn't there that one nor the next, her Mom who was 102 had passed. This past week she brought it to me and she was disappointed that it wouldn't be done in time for Christmas as it was going to be for her niece, well I for sure didn't want her to be unhappy and certainly not her niece so as soon as I got in the door I loaded it up and let IQ work its magic and took it right back to her so she could get the binding on and get it wrapped up!

She shed some happy tears and it just did my heart good to be able to bring happiness to her!

Now I am able to get refocused and get to some obligations I have been putting off~I did make it to town today to mail some packages off and get some last minute goodies from JC Penney's for the Boy's, now to finish up some binding and all will be good!

Woe is me~

2010-12-19T18:10:00.002-07:00

This is the back of the pineapple quilt! I love it! Used a gold thread so it would pop a little!

Now that my day job is through, it's time to head into the night..........

There are 5 quilts here that I got bindings on, 3 are on the agenda to complete this fine night! That night of course being last Tuesday! The second from the top is Blake's, I plan on having it done for Christmas for him! And on the bottom is my Big House, I'll have it done for me in time for Christmas!

This is an oddball sized quilt, it is for an rv bed, 73x48 is the requested measurement. Sigh, it shrunk way more than it was suppose to, I over built it but still came out 69x51, gentleman thought it would still be fine because he measured and over figured his figure! HA! So I gave it to him to take home and see how it fit then would decided what was to be done, it would either work or I would be making another one this weekend!

It didn't fit, he was actually way off himself so between the two of us we failed big time!! Thankfully I was in Vegas and would fit in visiting 2 of the other 3 shops that I thought I would be able to find a couple more flannels to what I had to recreate it, 83x51 this time~Phew, so that is what is being worked on now, along with a rag quilt due after Christmas.

My fear now is there being enough of the backing, I will use what was left from the last quilt, literally, it is 8 inches and I think it will make it for this one along with what I have left, you can never buy enough fabric backing, I always buy 6 yards and hope it will finally pay off! The photo above is it being refigured. Wow, wow and wow!

Good news is, I managed to get all my Shopping done and wrapped while in Vegas so everything came home and straight under the tree! I foiled the little helpers who were ever so helpful in unloading the truck! Muahahaha, or evil laugh since I can't spell it at the moment!!

And, my pc laptop is giving me fits so I am having to respond to any emails from either my phone or forwarding the message to my mac to answer, and of course when you forward, and then respond, you send the message to yourself, sigh, thankfully I caught that after 3 messages, I am on a roll..............

Pineapple~Triangle

2010-12-19T17:28:00.002-07:00

Finally nearing it's completion! I toyed with about 10 different borders and thought this just might be the one! So went ahead and chose the best brown inner and slapped it on, and was thrilled upon finding it didn't need anything else!

Here it is on the machine, I used Oh My Feathers Panto as it was the closest thing that looked like pineapple frawns/leaves to me.

This was this past Tuesday, I finished quilting it around 7 and got started on the binding, actually still had to stitch down the triangles as well................

So I parked myself and got netflix going and stitched until 3am, and another hour to wash and semi dry ,why? Because I wanted to show and tell them at the Guild Christmas Party Wednesday morning, and they were going to be taken to be delivered Thursday! After thinking upon it, this is one of 3 that bindings were needing to be stitched on, there is one more that was being delivered after Guild Christmas party and before heading to Vegas for a couple days!

Anyway, we have some other fun drama that is thrown in here, see that grey boxy looking thing to the left of the triangles? That's my dryer................'nother story~

Back to the triangles, here it is completed! It came out fabulous!

Windy Day is the Panto and it just finished it up perfectly!

Mrs. B was absolutely thrilled with them both and it just tickled me beyond all measure to watch her face as she opened them up! They are being gifted to her lawyer and accountant, and both quilts she picked colors and patterns to fit each gal! Was a fun fun project for sure!

The third commissioned quilt is next up, after completing the 3 I decided it was time for a little break while going to deliver the quilts, hadn't done any Christmas shopping yet as I had these three to finish up along with 2 other quilting jobs and I was all caught up feeling pretty smug, really tired, but pretty smug.....................remember the little saying, pride before the fall? I visited their again..........

Something Quick Please~

2010-12-19T16:37:00.005-07:00

A sweet friend who tends to procrastinate a little left me these at the shop with the above plea,

and since they are for her 2 granddaughters in Maine I couldn't say no~

I did cheat and use the same thread and design on each!

The backs are fleece and they quilted up beautifully, and they collected every stray piece of fuzz laying on my studio floor!! Extra warmth right?!

The same day Miz D was waiting for me before the shop was even open~ she thought it might help me getting 'just the bindings' done for her!

She hates binding with a passion, I happen to enjoy it very much and find it rather soothing to do at the day's end. So I got them all made and put on Monday and worked on them each night so they could be picked up for washing and gifting on Friday~

I love this panel, wish I would have got at least one of them before it all flew out the door!

During the day I was busy busy getting the Pineapple quilt pieced, funny it hasn't found it's way into every photo like the triangles! Was a good sign~ And the two have been delivered to be given for gifts this week!

A Recap of my Thursday~

2010-12-04T21:02:00.010-07:00

Woke up bright and early to get a head start on the day! Look what is finally off the floor! I quit counting how many photos had bits and pieces of this quilt peaking out from somewhere in the picture!!

So once the machine was going I got the binding sewn onto this shop sample, talk about a major poop factor running short on the binding and the shop being 80 miles from my door! Once I remembered where I had put the left over fabric I was thrilled to find a salvageable piece to finish it up!

The machine is still going and in between advances I got it hand stitched down and ready for drop off Friday when I go to the shop.

Woo-Hoo! We at noon now, and making some nice headway, haven't had breakfast yet but I'm not really hungry so just keep plugging along~

Now I get this off and trimmed and my heart sinks, I didn't calculate the 'border' being cut down and it throws the balance of the quilt totally off, even by the picture you can see it. So I started debating cutting it down, it looked 'right' when I would fold an end up and I was leaning towards the dark side but the kids pointed out how the graduations didn't look good doing it that way so we started looking at the light side and that settled it! Everyone agreed what needed to be done and promptly left the room while I dug out the cutter~they had never seen me do something so drastic!

Here's a closer shot of what I removed, it is perfect now and I just accidentally deleted the shot of it, when I finish hand stitching the binding down I'll show it in it's full glory!!

It was only about 2pm now and the kids had lunch already and I missed it, but we'll be getting supper going at 5 since Scottie is off at 6, so whats a couple more hours! I still have lots of time to get more stuff done! Then I had a thought, what if I played for a little bit on one of my own projects?!? After all that was already accomplished I could call it a day, and it would be my own time right? Well before I let myself totally go, I got the binding sewn on and started thinking about what I would pull out, there 2 tops needing quilting, one an easy allover will finish it fine but the other one I wanted to use as a practice piece for learning some of the different functions of the IQ....................

After a 20 minute search I whipped this baby out! Dug through the stash for a suitable backing, got it pieced ironed and loaded! Oh yeah, school is now started! I have had no classes and only a couple hours of training the day the IQ was installed, so everything I wanted to do was going to be by what I have found on the Internet at a wiki-iq site. Even then and still now as I write this I still don't get it all but am a step closer and think I will bite the bullet and sign up for some classes at the HMQS Show in Utah this May. Especially after getting just a little taste of what this computer will do!!!

I didn't get very good shots but here is a little idea of what is going on! The hardest thing for me I think is going through the library of designs and picking what to put where, I know in my mind what I want but finding it is a different story! Need to take an afternoon and go through and organize them better! This is the progress I had made, way cool!

By five thirty I had also completed stitching in the ditch all the logs on the cabin and put 2 pineapple medallions on either side of the cabin in the cream section, I originally wanted a field of flowers or even a wheat design but I couldn't find what I was looking for so just moved onto another idea while looking through the catalogues, pineapple medallions is what I finally decided on and they look cool although they weren't as easy to do because the sides on the cabin aren't the same size, the left is smaller than the right, tough lesson because I didn't catch it until I copied the design to the other side and they were way off. So they are truly unique!

But again, I am not beating myself up over it because I am having fun and learning as I go! I am really getting excited now because I can smell supper cooking and I am starving! Court made chocolate chip cookies minus the chocolate chips and I had one with a cup of tea to hold me over around 4!

It's now 5:30 and my cell phone starts a ringing! Hmmm, don't recognize the ring as everyone who is important to me has a special ringer, it's Joe, our Pastor's son, he is calling for his wife Julia, they are on the way to the hospital, her contractions are 5 minutes apart and its for real!

A little history, they married 5 years ago and we got to be pretty close, her Mom lives in Michigan and when she got pregnant with their first she asked if I would be there with her! What a total and complete honor it was to be asked that! She had a beautiful little girl Rosie, who is 3 1/2, all those breathing techniques I learned with my brood I passed on to her and they asked me to be there with all 8 of their children's births, that's how many they plan on having!! Haha! Fast forward a year and a half later and little miss Violet enters the world!

And now I am happy to introduce Elliot James! He came into the world at 12:47 am, weighing in at 6lbs 15oz and 20 inches long! And absolutely beautiful!!

It was 2 am by the time I got home, had some dinner, a cup of tea and promptly passed out!

Only to get up at 7am to head to the shop, I contemplated calling off but we had our Christmas dinner/meeting planned after the shop closed for the day. Yikes!! Enjoyed dinner and the planning for the New Years Classes and BOM projects and a little bit on the upcoming expansion and boogied out of there by 7:30, promptly jumped back to 8:30 at the Arizona State line and had one more stop to make! Thankfully my VBF (very best friend) had the teapot ready for a nice cup of tea to have with our short visit. It was a perfect ending to the crazy 2 days!

And did I mention the 7 quilts that came home with me?! 4 for quilting and 3 for bindings. Miss Darlene asked if it was possible to have the 3 bindings done by next Friday when I go back and I just couldn't say no, she was waiting for me at the door when I got to the shop and she is just too funny when it comes to the bindings, she absolutely loathes it, she tries everytime to just do it but always ends up dropping the projects off to me!

But first I have to finish my cabin....................

Blah Blah Blah~

2010-12-01T14:22:00.002-07:00

This quilt is HUGE! It is folded in thirds to make it easier to get a shot at. It can be hard to pick a design when there is so much open space and the customer only wants an overall for the quilting.

And the stark color difference can also be a little challenging, makes me want to take a trip to St. George and visit Superior Threads and hand pick some colors! I have the thread cards but after getting to see the thread in person at Market it made such a difference when it comes to choosing. Since not being prepared to buy and only having 15 minutes before closing I did manage to pull 6 spools of So Fine and 4 spools from their new silk line!

She was totally thrilled with the design she picked, and although I would have chosen something totally different, it is beautiful! It's a gift for her daughter and she is going to love it!

Can you guess what his mouth is full of? Dumplings! Susan asked if we were having company to have made so many! Nope, just us! It can get kind of scary when you actually stop and think about what all has to be made to fill 8 bellies, 5 boys who are no longer boys but young men and this one is 6'3 and the rest not far behind! Let's see in one sitting for just the boy's and Dad, 21 dumplings were consumed! That doesn't include the piddly 4 between us girls and even then we didn't finish our plate!

But in truth, for me, it's all about the day or two after when they get sliced thin and fried in butter, then topped with sauerkraut.................yummmm!! And I was the first to "Call" the last 2! They will be plain, though, all the other fixings are long gone!

These are just some fun pincushions that Sandy P. makes for the Shop, way too cute! Court snagged one that has money printed fabric that caused quite a stir and she just happened to be in the right spot when Sandy came in with all her new pickings. Want to know what gets me? I remember seeing it, I remember writing it down on my ticket to buy it, and clearly remember signing the receipt to continue earning those reward points! Watched it go into the bag with a couple other minor purchases, but have not seen it since!! And to top it off, she has it tucked away somewhere where I can' t find it, just not right!

Silly People~

2010-11-30T15:20:00.003-07:00

The things they can get their Dad to go along with! Not sure where the other goofy pics went of the rest of da' hood!

Can't see any of the quilting here but just the idea of how BIG it all is, the blocks are made using the half log cabin and the variations are endless like its Parent. If I'm not mistaken it is a memory quilt using a gal's husbands shirts.

One of my favorite designs, simple and classy, The Paisley~

On another front, a way cute baby quilt! The main fabrics all had outdoor themes going on so I thought all over Kites with Clouds would be cute! And what is that peeking on the floor to the bottom left? Triangles? They seem to be in every picture I take!

Thought our problems were over with the well scene, not so! Like any simple home improvement job once you start it just keeps snowballing into something else! We do have water, thanks to our Waterboy Willy, he goes and manually turns the well on so we can take care of business then shuts it back down, the problem is with the lighting in the well house but it does effect being able to keep the whole thing running. Don is back to work until Saturday and just so happens to have a couple of electricians at his fingertips to ask questions to, he has already called twice to have Waterboy Willy check this or that.

Been a busy day in the studio and am pleased at everything accomplished thus far!

A Family Affair~

2010-11-29T14:58:00.002-07:00

This is the most ever dumplings that we have made at one time! Of course I did go overboard in the pork chop/sauerkraut department, chops were on sale so it was hard to resist making 2 big pots!

But the dumplings are Dads job! Didn't get the shots of the dough in this grouping but my oh my was the board covered!

The trick is in the timing of the cooking, once they start to float give them 3 more minutes! At least that is what I was told!

But for me~this is what it is always about. The day after when they get fried up in REAL Butter.

Just doesn't get any better than this! On another note, see that black doo-hicky? It originally was tongs, until they went to battle against who knows what, I had two pair but now they are all in pieces as the above, they work perfect for flipping things, just the right size! But my favorite use? A Back Scratcher! I have one in the studio just for that purpose! Those little things~smile~

Dat's My Baby!~

2010-11-29T09:25:00.006-07:00

I am a very proud Mama! He happened to be at the right place at the right time for this photo opp! He had been out in the field and of course Kingman being desert his boots was the first thing he thought of when he seen what was going on! He had been in the office working on paperwork, he had hoped they wouldn't show, not so, I think he looks pretty groovy!(another favorite saying) and I don't think anyone will notice them unless they are pointed out! My Bad! hehehehe!

Slowly I am learning how to use the different button functions on the apple, very cool indeed and I can proudly say I am starting to be truly Y2K compliant~Where do they come up with these sayings?! And how do they manage to worm their way into everyday conversations? ~smile~

Edit~ Well, I guess we can honestly say that last statement was false! Not only did the article I so cleverly copy and pasted not copy and paste, I managed to change the font in part and delete that whole section from the original post. Sigh, anyone care to join me in the pride before the fall? Guess who uses that?

Water~Sweet~Water

2010-11-27T13:28:00.002-07:00

Oh Happy Day! Dishes are done, everyone drew sticks as to who got to shower first after myself and Dad of course! Awwwww, feels great! Thank you Babe!

And here is the culprit, it wasn't placed in the best spot on the side of the house, and being city folk we didn't really check it out all that close once we moved in, when you have water and things are running you tend to just go with the flow! Not anymore, DH will pay closer attention to some of these outside goodies, we were spoiled when he worked a schedule of being home 3 days one week and 4 the next rotating shifts, then they went to 4 tens and now that his time has run out being in that position he is going to 5 8's and that means when a problem comes along we will be without him for long periods of time! Thankfully the boys are now growing into young men so they have learned a lot about home repairs for times such as what is coming!

I've managed to get some quilting time in, still have shots to get of the last one done, Blake has waited patiently for it and I broke protocol to get 'er done for 'em! Minus the binding, but that won't take to much, already have it picked and cut out, just need to sew it on and I get the pleasure of staying toasty cuddly while hand stitching it down!!

Holiday Traditions~

2010-11-27T09:32:00.003-07:00

Usually at one major holiday we go with out something! Usually its the Kitchen Sink clogging up but lately its our water source! At two in the afternoon on Thanksgiving our water went out, thankfully it wasn't due to there not being any in the well, but that didn't help any when you went to the faucet and there was nothing coming out.................

Now my sweet DH works in another state, 3 hours from home, usually he is on the 10am to 8pm shift but had special hours Thursday and pulled a 6am to 4pm shift. And being able to get a hold of him is usually not easy, but on the first call he actually answered the phone! I was excited and started the conversation off very lightly then got that icky feeling in my stomach at having to tell him. He is my Hero! He knew what the problem was and thought it would be a quick fix of a switch that he knew was going to be needing replacing at a discovery around a month ago and we already had the part on hand! Woo-Hoo!

Moments like that are such a tease~It was the switch but it was actually faulty because the electrical box was damaged from where it was placed by the previous owners and that needed swapping out. Of course everything is closed at 10:30pm and a quick search showed Home Depot would be open at 5am for Black Friday specials! So he was there at opening and they didn't have "that" part, sigh, and True Value was not due to open until 7:30 and that is where the previous home owners had purchased everything because that was the only place at the time, Home Depot has only been in our area a couple years. Poop~

Now DH could have called in but the State considers the day after Thanksgiving a Holiday as well and when you work that means double time and a half, and being he was on the schedule and it was no question about what he was going to be doing with his day he headed off at 7 but not before loading us up with water which he picked up while in town!!

So Scottie went to town and got the elusive parts and he is out there in 20 degree weather fixing us up! It amazes me at the things he does for his family without question, he hated leaving us like that but we camp alot so it wasn't like we didn't know how to make it a day without water coming out the tap, warmed some up on the stove to get dishes done and poured some into the toilet tank to flush, all the conveniences were way better than camping that is for sure!!

Plus it just again showed how Blessed we really are, what an unconditional Love that MY Husband has for Me and our Children, our year was a tough one and it isn't quite over with yet but its times like these that really puts what we think are problems into perspective. Yes, the stuff still has to be dealt with but when you join forces with the one you Love in the little things just imagine how effective they truly are in those bigger things!! It's just taking the time to see them!!

We are going to make his favorite meal today! Pork Chops slow cooked in sauerkraut and potato dumplings!! Yumm Yumm eat 'em up!! Hehehe, that is a favorite saying of the kids from when they were little and they heard it on one of the old Little Rascals show, we use it still today! Fond memories.....................

Everyday Blessings To All~

2010-11-25T00:01:00.001-07:00

Birthday Boy~

2010-11-24T20:05:00.003-07:00

Amazing! Fourteen Years have passed since birthing this Little (Big) Man (Boy)~ When he was a Baby he use to snuggle just like this~the shot was taken from my Berry by William, he thought he was going to have some blackmailing power with it! Ha! Not!

Picking out something he does not need another of! A knife, he has one for every need~

He enjoyed a Mexican Meal and scarfed down a Fried Ice Cream Dessert then rolled to the Movie theatre. Good Times~

Triangles~

2010-11-24T15:19:00.003-07:00

I was asked to make 2 quilts for Christmas Gifts~ this is the first one, Mrs. B liked the triangles and thought how cool would it be if it was all in graduated blues! The recipient is a Hanglider so her vision was of the mountains at the bottom and the sky and clouds at the top. And thanks to Accucut Quilt Studio's Banner die cut that made the cutting go so nice and easy!

Wasn't sure where to start so just laid them out and used the camera to see the shades~this was way to bottom heavy!

So worked in some more mediums and still not quite right~

Getting better but those few are showing to grey even though they are blues~I am sure they will have their place, I just haven't found it yet!

Hmmmm, now we getting somewhere, instead of doing perfect graduations of color like we started off with, blending them all upward made the vision come alive!

Me thinks this is about what we came up with, it is pieced and ready to be quilted, thought I had a pic on the camera but will get some after it is quilted and bound. The second one will be done using the new pineapple technique I learned at Market! Am excited about that one!

And being a super sucker and not able to say NO, I now have 2 more commissioned quilts to complete by Christmas~ What was I thinking? Apparently not clearly at the moment, thankfully I have my Secret Helper 3 days out of the week to help bail me out!

For Shannon~

2010-11-22T18:38:00.002-07:00

Here ya go!! Sorry I got distracted and didn't get done sooner!!

A Challenge Met~

2010-11-20T14:41:00.002-07:00

In a previous post I mentioned how we no sooner got back from Houston we had Shop Hop the following week, I foolishly agreed to making a sample for this quilt to help this line of fabric move a little . Le Poulet is the name and the manufacture escapes me at the moment.......

Thought it would be super simple until I checked out the directions! Those little baskets called for 1 7/8 squares to be cut on the diagonal making the block super teeny!

And it called for 16 of the little buggers!!! It literally took a full day to just cut everything out for these and when I started piecing them I started crying, not literally, but very very close!

The seams did not want to play nice at all, then I broke out Mary Ellen, she would not have any of the rebellion and they pressed out like a dream and the piecing went together just beautifully! And I learned a new way to make flying geese! Using one big square and two small in opposite corners with a diagonal line drawn through to stitch on either side, worked wonderfully and cant wait to try it out on another project!

I finished it up the night before the Hop began and I was pleased as punch when yards of the fabric began flying out of there! And it is a Windham Fabric line! Just remembered~

additional shots~

2010-11-20T14:23:00.002-07:00

A couple of additional pics of what the micro handles actually attach to on the longarm!

Micro Handles~

2010-11-20T13:43:00.002-07:00

Per a request, here are some shots as to how the micro handles attach to the longarm.

These are the holes on the head for attachment~

The handle in place~not screwed in~ the handle swings up and locks into place when not in use. Can take a shot of that look if needed~

And the handles themselves, hopefully the shots will go bigger when clicked on!

Houston~Schoolhouse

2010-11-14T17:35:00.003-07:00

I forget when picking photos to do so in reverse and I am too pooped to rearrange them so will just go with the flow on this one! And of course I don't have my information as to who the speakers were and my memory is on failure mode I won't even try to guess! But the classes were amazing!! I chose as many lectures as I could during schoolhouse and also for the picked classes during the other days, one was a class on making a pineapple block in a really cool way but that is for another post~

I really like the Taupes! And her lecture was in Japanese and her partner translated for us, it was very interesting to learn they don't worry about producing special lines for their fabric,

example~ these little pictures represent winter, spring and summer, just choosing the different colors available and placing them accordingly makes the feel you are after without having to choose from a specific colorway! Beautiful Samples!

Here they are showing where they get their inspiration from, food, table settings, teas are just a few of the things that they pull from, and when I think about it myself, how we are drawn to eat at Japanese restaurants it is those colors that I enjoy being around!

And on another spectrum these gals were sharing ideas how to use some of those big beautiful prints being pieced into the quilts for borders but not necessarily just as a wide border onto itself. Very nice!

And the rave of the show! The new Go Baby! It is amazing how they keep coming up with new ideas for making cutting easier at a very affordable price, I personally am thrilled with having the Studio, but am jealous at the better variety of dies they have available for the Go and now the Baby. We signed Fiddlesticks up to be a distributor of the new machine so it should be fun getting to play with it none the less!

We just finished up with our yearly Shop Hop yesterday! What a whirlwind of activity it was! And in the middle of our busiest day power went out on our main register and debit/credit card machine! Yikes! What a test of patience that was for all working, I was operating the cash/check only register and doing my darndest to keep all the feathers that were starting to ruffle smoothed! Thankfully Courtney was quick to check out other outlets and found it was only that one that went out and ran an extension cord and got it up and running in record time! She was every ones Hero!

Plane Trip!~

2010-11-08T10:44:00.004-07:00

I never got an opportunity to post about my upcoming (now past) trip!

YES! Houston! I was honored to attend Quilt Market with Merry representing Fiddlesticks'

I hadn't been on a plane in a lotta years, and since we didn't get to do the boarding pass early enough I ended up with a middle seat so when the window girl fell asleep I got a few shots off, mostly to be able to show the kids~

Just Beautiful!

And after the turbulent weather that kept the plane be-bopping around it was nice to get on solid ground! Sent a shot of this to the kids to show I made it!

This was on display at the convention center, getting ahead of myself with this photo but it was just really neat!

Fun Quilt~

2010-10-26T20:52:00.003-07:00

My friend gave me one of her very first quilts to play with, what is crazy is I had the hardest time picking out just the right pattern to use. I finally decided on Butterfly Feathers, then came the thread, and again the agony of the right shade of creme..............

I am very happy with the results, and can't wait to give it to her this next week!

She's not expecting it so will be fun to watch her reaction to getting it!

It is pomegranate season, and DH and the boy's brought home 90lbs worth! They had a scale and weighed them~

They will get to eat to their hearts content then we will juice the rest to make some jelly and syrup when I get back home.................

Yes, my Man Child #5 is about as close to bald as he could get, he was actually full skin a couple weeks ago and it was a little much for me but he talked me into letting him cut it almost to the skin. Sigh.......... Kids, gotta love 'em! He will definitely need a beanie to keep his noggin' warm as it has been cold cold cold!

DVD's~

2010-10-19T16:35:00.003-07:00

(Mindi Casperson Lonarmed & Fabulous! ~SOLD)~ Lisa Calle Feathers of a New Generation (not your G'ma's feathers)~ Ricki Tims Quilting Caveman Style (fun to watch, my boys even enjoyed watching!) $30 for all!

This is also a test post, I cannot figure out why the pics won't get larger when I use a new camera, I think I may have hit a wrong button at some point and have just found the default button but now realize it wasn't this photo I took, so I still won't know until another posting. Hmmm.......

My old faithful camera finally got knocked around one too many times and the shutter won't stay open so I tried replacing it model for model and no such luck, found one close but just different enough to drive me crazy, then Scottio blessed me with one for my birthday and it works great but I am trying to figure this one out because it has the setting so you don't get wobbly photos which is exactly what I am needing! ~smile~

Racing with the storm~

2010-10-19T15:45:00.004-07:00

We have been having the most amazing storms! Scottio was working when he seen these yesterday. It is black out right now and I am racing to get not only a quilt done but computer work as well because once it hits we usually loose power!

The hint of the second rainbow is what he was trying to capture but the sun peaked out at just the right moment~

A clearer shot~If only there was really a pot'o gold! He could have just snatched it right up!!

And my absolute favorite time of year is when Pumpkins arrive! Usually I nab up the white ones but haven't seen them out just yet! So until the end of the month I will be smooshing and smashing to put it up for soups, pies and cookies! Yummm!

Hoover Dam Shot~Hartley Products

2010-10-18T20:31:00.005-07:00

This is just one shot from the Hoover Dam Bypass, they opened up the bridge to the public this past Saturday and Scottio was on special detail (crowd control). This is just one of the shots he got from up there, it is suppose to open to vehicles later this week but we haven't got a definite day yet, either way my eyes will be forced to be open if I am driving~that's for sure!

Here we have micro drive handles $100, a vertical cone holder $25 ~SOLD~ and a spool holder $20~SOLD~ also a handy bobbin holder as you can see in the pic! They are all Hartley Products as well.

Hartley Base Expander for an APQS with thread cutting abilities, and 2 guides $65.

Some Visions of the Past~

2010-10-17T20:18:00.002-07:00

My Dad passed on October 1st of 2009, I hate to say that I really haven't quite taken the time to actually deal with all that went on during that time period. Having had many other things going on at the same time just kept taking priority to my being able to just stop and work through my feelings, thoughts and just how it really has affected my life.

Then 3 months to the day, January 1st, 2010 I recieved a phone call that my Step-Brother had died, he was my Dad's wife Ann's son, say that three times! Daddy lived in Sandy Utah which is a solid 8 hours from my home in Arizona, and although we weren't close the 20 years my Dad was part of this family we did form a bond the two weeks we were in Utah during my Dad's passing.

So 3 of my boys took the drive with me to Honor Herbie, as fate would have it he was going to rest right next to my Dad and it his marker the boys are standing over. sigh...............

I love this quilt! A simple log cabin, I used Judy Allen's Royal Plumes Panto and it just made the quilt come alive!!

It now hangs in my studio over a book cabinet and when I gander across at it, it just gives that warm fuzzy feeling inside!

What's crazy is I am finding all kinds of photos that were taken that I have just put out of mind! So in time I will get them resurfaced and put in their proper place!

Another Thank You to all who have helped me clear things out! It is such a nice feeling to not only purge some of this stuff but to be able to keep it alive by passing it on!

The rulers are dragging me down though ~smile~ so I am dropping the package deal to $250 for the lot of them! I have kept my favorite but again~enough is enough!!

And the rest of the pantos listed a little bit down are now the remaining 8 for $50! And there is still more dvd's and books! sigh...........

Pounce Pads~

2010-10-16T22:02:00.001-07:00

$15 for both

Books~

2010-10-16T21:35:00.003-07:00

5 all over and stitch in the ditch alternatives and just cool booklets! $25 ~SOLD~

Some Nice Getting Started Literature $50

$15

$20 for both

Or to simplify~ all UNSOLD $60 plus shipping!

Not Co-operating

2010-10-15T18:38:00.000-07:00

Well, I had time to sit a spell and blogger doesn't seem to want to upload my photo's. So I am not getting much accomplished now.....

DH is on vacation this coming week so it should be fun spending the week together in the studio, it is desperate need of reorganizing and along with getting two big packages wrapped and shipped it will be way nice having his help!!

Tomorrow is a big day for Scottio, he is working extra detail on the Hoover Dam Function, the bridge won't be open officially to cars until November sometime but tomorrow they are doing a bike race and a walk along, he will take lots of photos so I will get to share some of what he sees and maybe even some stories of what he deals with!

Now we are off to the skate park again so man child #6 can burn some extra energy! It always makes for a nice nights rest!!

Taking a Breather~

2010-10-13T20:06:00.002-07:00

Not a very good pic but I finally completed a quilt just for me!! I started it last April during a retreat up here in the fabulous Hualapai's! I did enter it in the local quilt exhibit and although it didn't get any ribbons it got great reviews from the judges which just tickled my fancy just the same!!

I am happy to announce that packages are finding their way to their new owners and that also thrills me, I have been on the worrying side a little, and my checking and double checking is driving everyone nuts!! That is ok thought because it is working!

We came to Boulder a few days early this week, DH had a change in his schedule so we came to spend the extra time with him, I still have other books to get up but and hopefully moved on out quickly, even took a few minutes to delete some of the postings of things that are no longer available, there are a few pantos left and I am contemplating a one package deal to get them gone as well, any offers are most welcome!

AND if anyone is interested in the way I had them stored and would be interested in the tubes I now have a you-know-what load available! I got the idea from one of the lists and it was the best way to keep them organized and accounted for! The photo is a few posts down if you care to take a gander!

I am enjoying visiting Starbuck's and their wi-fi so will be checking back in and see if I can't get some other things listed, now we are off to the skate park so man-child can get a little energy out!

A Special Deal~

2010-10-11T20:15:00.004-07:00

I have the perfect box that fits every ruler I listed today! And I would love to just send the whole thing in one package deal, so I have come up with 2 options, $345 for it all and I will pay shipping!! Or $300 and you pay shipping! If anyone has another idea to throw in the pot then I am open for one!

I got to play this past week with some new fabric that came in the shop, we of course kitted it up and I got to make the sample. The blocks are from a cheater panel but they did such an amazing job it is really hard to tell! It is fun to watch people run their fingers over them to see if they are really stitched!

And the simple stipple just finished it perfectly in my opinion!

Longarm University

2010-10-11T16:00:00.004-07:00

Circles and Waves, I have all four sizes, 1.5, 2, 3 and 4 just didn't load all four pics. Wearing blogger out today so thought would make one easy for it! ~smile~ $20 per set

The above page shows what the sizes are in each of the following sets!

Odd and Even Set of Circles $50 per set

Constantine No-Frills/Tracey Browning

2010-10-11T14:49:00.008-07:00

2 Serpentine Rulers 2"-3"/4"-1.5" $10 each

Continuous Curves 1.5,2,3,4,5" $20 ~SOLD~

Shells 2"-4" $10 ~SOLD~

4in1/diamonds

2010-10-11T14:29:00.005-07:00

4 in 1 Tool! $10 ~SOLD~

More Diamond, 5 3/16 X7 11/16 & 3 7/16 x 4 9/16 $10 for set ~SOLD~

Nested Diamonds/Melons

2010-10-11T14:14:00.001-07:00

Nested Melons $15

Nested Diamonds $15

Lion Tamer~Janet Lee's Fav~

2010-10-11T14:03:00.005-07:00

Four Paws In the Ditch Line Tamer $11 ~SOLD~

Janet Lee's Favorite $12 ~SOLD~

Scallops~Megan's Best

2010-10-11T13:50:00.003-07:00

Rob's Rulers Scallops $10 ~SOLD~

Set of Megan's Best In the Ditch Rulers 5" 8" 10" $25

Diamonds~

2010-10-11T13:23:00.002-07:00

Crosshatching Ruler

Fun Fun to use! $12

Formal Feathers~

2010-10-10T22:38:00.002-07:00

Sherry Rogers Harrison $15 ~SOLD~

Panto's Available

2010-10-10T22:32:00.011-07:00

Allover Hearts- Judy Allen

Floral Meander sm-Dave Hudson

Wandering Eyes-Sharon Schamber

Royal Plumes-Judy Allen

Hearts and Flowers-Quilted Rose

Hearts and Loops-Quilted Rose

Allover Feathers-Judy Allen

Feathered Baptist Fan-Cindy Roth

$50 takes rest

Away for a bit!

2010-10-07T16:23:00.002-07:00

I am heading out to play at Fiddlesticks for a couple days and will check back in!

Next Up~

2010-10-07T09:37:00.002-07:00

After taking care of some business I will start with the rulers! Oh, and the rest of the books! Keep checking back!

And a HUGE thank you to everyone who has found something here! It is always way exciting to add to our learning and especially at sweet prices! Enjoy!

Pattern Collection

2010-10-06T23:47:00.005-07:00

Sharon Schamber Pattern Collections $15

Phew~

2010-10-06T14:37:00.004-07:00

I am not quite sure how to deal with these 100 and maybe 6 or 7 pantos, child said the number is in this vicinity. ~smile~ Maybe by the tens?

Next is the rulers, I have the pics downloaded so I can keep putting things up while I am in Boulder City this weekend. Since Starbuck's now offers free wi-fi I will be able to sit before and after being at the Shop to tinker some more!

More to come~

2010-10-05T17:45:00.003-07:00

I am amazed at how much learning I have collected over the past five years! There is a lot yet to get posted but it is time to put some grub on the table before everyone starts growling at me!

Keep watching!

Getting Started

2010-10-05T15:57:00.004-07:00

Towa Bobbin Tension Gauge for an M bobbin, never used, thankfully tension issues have not been a problem for me and my machine! $50.00. ~SOLD~

Some Down Time~

2010-10-05T15:33:00.002-07:00

We haven't done a lot in recreation department lately so when it was time to get out and get firewood before the end of September when you can cut dead and down oak in Williams we were ready for it!

I was freezing at night and early morning but once the sun came up it turned out to be absolutely beautiful. The marshmallow was designed for just such a time, and although they were meant for smores', they roasted up just fine!

The Boy's have been anxious to get their boat out since adding the trolling motor earlier in the year, after 2 days out traipsing around the lake the battery was dead when it came to my turn to ride. That was ok though, just sitting watching the squirrels and watching them enjoying themselves was plenty good for me. They did catch a whopping 13 rainbow trout so we had a nice fish fry when we got back home. AND we will have a nice toasty winter with the haul of oak we found!

On another note, I have an abundance of longarm quilting paraphernalia that I have weeded out and am going to be posting for sale here pretty quick, I got the pictures taken and downloaded, now I just need to get it gone!!

Time~

2010-10-04T23:12:00.004-07:00

It has been so long, I have to relearn the whole process of blogging again!

No excuses though, this past year has taken it's a lot of patience, understanding, unconditional love, and more patience!

I have been still quilting, and even have kept pictures of almost everything........

The fonts don't seem to be playing nice with me. This quilt is from a gal in Boulder City that I have met through the shop.

It was probably my most challenging quilt this year, the variegated thread kept catching on the spool and had to be hand fed for the whole quilt, she was very set with it being that particular thread so with help I got through it!

We had my DH's Mom with us for a about three months, there is a long story that starts in January and came to a semi-close in September. Along with other family issues it has truly been my year of drama, and it doesn't seem to be over just yet!!

Mission Complete!

2009-11-30T22:05:00.005-07:00

In the midst of trying to get myself caught up a gal called begging and pleading to get this quilt done in time for a show that is going on Wednesday night.

The softy that I am said yes.

But I did make good on Angie's first! I still had to get the bindings on 3 of them and completed that today/night!

Just a sampling of the design!

Her Backing! How cool is that?!

And the top!

Hehehe, just a little fun shot of Mookie with something she isn't suppose to have!

My photos uploaded in the wrong order so here is a close up before the full shot.

Very pretty! Some little one will love being snuggled up in this!!

Now there were two of these, one I did what I thought looked like spinning wheels and made the quilt come alive!

What they both looked like~

And this little guy I used a panto called popcorn, quite fitting for a circus themed quilt!

They are all packaged up and ready to be dropped at the post office first thing tomorrow morning! Enjoy finishing them up Ang!!

Another Week~

2009-11-23T21:04:00.003-07:00

This little guy joined the family about two months ago, he is named Bodacious and is Levia's pet. Now Donnie says he better watch himself because he would be a perfect meal for Kaa! Yuck!

William caught this guy about three months ago, he was pretty cool looking and posed nicely for us!

We didn't keep him, just enjoyed his beauty then watched him flitter away!

Then this is my ongoing project! My half log cabin top, I think I have finally figured out what I want to use for the first border and it isn't either of these choices, I have fallen for those aged muslin's and I picked out the lightest one to use!

I have about two sides worth of the braid border completed, am just going to make one big long one then trim to fit!

Then these little whipper snappers are part of a swap I joined with Melissa over at Cornbreadandbeans Blog, love her blog! Anyway, they are due the end of this month, I got them all done up the first of the month and then when went to send them I was welcomed to a locked door at the post office! It was Veterans Day! Then the day after that was our Shop Hop that went through to Saturday so they found themselves being sent a little later than what I had originally planned! And I forgot to get a shot when at home so popped them out of the baggy and took a quick shot in the car! They will be way cool, they are inspired from Jo Morton's newest Book which eludes me at the moment, but already have the fabrics picked out to make it into a top. Now to figure out the when part!

Back to work, still working on completing Angies tops, figured would finish all the quilting then do a binding marathon on them!!

Sneak Peak~

2009-11-17T16:30:00.002-07:00

These little Schnibble's are a fellow bloggers, she sent me five quilts! Talk about a piecing maniac! ~smile~ They are absolutely gorgeous and hope she will enjoy them!

I received them via mail a couple weeks ago but in the midst of still trying to get caught up from being away from home the first couple weeks of October and Shop Hop in Vegas and surrounding shops I have been a quilting maniac!

I am close to getting caught up, one night a week seems to be dedicated to working until four am and then getting back up at six to start again. Try not to make it a habit so my sleep isn't totally whacked out.

I love this one! Cindy Lou Who is the patten name of this one and it just so happens to be one I picked up in Utah at a little shop in Springville!

A Quilt of Valor is loaded up now, then back to Angie's!

Our Guild just presented 19 Wounded Veterans this past weekend with ones we have been collecting and another presentation is coming up on the 15Th of December so am trying to help get more ready! I am thankful to be able to take part in doing these!

Out of the Wood Works~

2009-10-23T08:09:00.003-07:00

What a summer, that about sum's it up! Just kidding, it has been a life changing one, many things have happened that have reshaped our Family, some good, some not so good.

I ended with us going camping and wood cutting and although we did get one load home, and before I could get any shots of our fun process my Sweetness pinched his pinky finger at the tip and required 18 stitches, at the time it was not guaranteed to work because of the location of the wound. As of today it has healed beautifully and is fully functioning once again! I really missed the back and leg rubs those months during healing!!

Here they are taking out the stitches, total yuck!

This little guy was some color inspiration for a future quilt! There is still a long tale about the camping trip, we ended up having to go back because the kids were out fishing and all so we ended up just camping the rest of the week and taking day drives to different places in the area. One being Jerome, it was a long dirt rode that we weren't aware of but it was fun seeing the little mining town which also brought us to Cottonwood and of course I had my Country Register so pulled it out and got to visit a quilt shop there. Will have to find those pictures.........

Then Donnie became an Explorer with the County, Scottie is one of the Advisers and soon to be taking the job over but they held a competition in Las Vegas and this is just one of the shots from there. They did great! Brought home a few trophies and just had a good time!!

And this little guy became one of three blocks I made for my work apron! Yes, I now am employed at Fiddlesticks Quilt Shop! That has been such a blessing to escape for a few wee hours two days a week! It has also helped my Longarm Business Blossom! It has been a great new experience for me and cant wait to share more about it!!

2009-05-30T16:48:00.002-07:00

Well, with a flurry of getting caught up we are now heading out for a week to get our wood cutting accomplished! After the possibility of having to burn my bird feeder and mailbox stand we decided it would be wise to get a good head start this year!

The area we go to is in the forest of Williams, such a beautiful area and one of our favorite places to go, our plan is to take the boys fishing early in the morning and load the trailer during the time the fish aren't biting, bring the load home and return to the campsite. We let the quads do the bulk of the work and I will have fun getting pictures of our process!

Whats even nicer is the fact that I get to shower each time we bring a load in! A washcloth bath only goes so far! ~smile~

Mini Challenges

2009-05-29T08:10:00.009-07:00

First I really need to remember to replace the battery in that wall clock, it was actually 11:30pm and I was trying to get one more quilt loaded so it would be ready to go when I got up in the morning.

When I get stuck on trying to find the right design or thread color I call in the troops for a random poll, they all come in and give their opinion and why they chose what they did, it was Chad's turn and I liked all the points he made on color and design so I went with it!

Here we are at six am, the boys had to be up to head to Lake Havasu to help move our Pastor's Son and his family back to Kingman, they just bought a house and are super excited to have a permanent location! They were actually thrilled~ the boys that is~ because originally the pick up time was four am but the moving van company didn't open until eight. Bunny trail......................

Before starting on any quilt I always like to do a little doodling to make sure everything is groovy, well it wasn't, underneath was just horrid! Changed the needle, no change, re-threaded, no change, turned the tension dial both ways and still nothing. Finally had the thought to change out the bobbin and eureka! all is well once again. Just did the first pass and will get 'er done.

I need to make a note and post it on the Beast to always check the bobbin first before messing with the dials because this machine is just awesome in the way it's stitch is always right on for me no matter what thread I am using!

I remember the day when there was always a toddler at my feet at every turn every day for a good 18 years of my life and I dreamed of what it would be like when the day came I good turn freely this-a-way or that-a-way and not be hindered. When it finally became a reality it was a blessed time, then we got Mandi, I am trying to work and I keep jamming my toes up her nose but she won't budge. Gotta love her!

Here is my score for the week, a gal at Guild who takes care of the library has been going through preparing for the annual sale in September, any book that hasn't been checked out for two years goes into the pile. Went back to talk to her and noticed this one, hadn't before and was wanting to "check" it out but she goes give me 2 bucks for it and it's outta here! Didn't have to tell me twice! I did take a moment to do a quick looksy in the pile and there will be some nice books for just a buck or two, will definately be there early that morning!

And for the grande final, these are just some of the blocks I have been trying to get back to, it is the half log cabin block and we were suppose to have distinct dark and light colors but found my stash is lacking in that department so I had to go through and reevaluate my colors to make it work, haven't taken an updated photo of those yet, I did break down and buy a few lights to be able to hopefully do the fool the eye thing. Overall I love the colors anyway so will be happy with it however it comes out.

The fabrics I chose from were from a couple years worth of Jan Patek's fat quarter fabric club, wanted to use what I had for it. Actually I now recall that there were some lights in the packs I could have used but didn't like them, I am a tried and true medium and dark gal! They did end up being used...............

The Sticker Monster!

2009-05-28T08:29:00.002-07:00

Blake in all his glory!

176 Minutes & 52 Seconds

2009-05-28T07:36:00.007-07:00

We sometimes watch shows that Veoh have available and Saturday night we chose House, well midway during the show a black screen with the words you have been attacked appeared, needless to say that poor CPU unit was out in the desert being shot up with a shotgun. Any excuse to go shooting.................

I was confident that our Itunes was safely backed up through Frontier's Peace of Mind program that I signed up for last summer. So when I went to retrieve that and the pictures that were on that system I had problems and it being a holiday weekend it had to wait until Tuesday but I had no opportunity until Wednesday afternoon.

Sadly they could not find our file, we have paid for it but it wasn't properly set up so all is lost, the kids are bummed because 4 years of music is gone.

But during that 176 minutes I couldn't just sit still so pieced 3 backings, pinned in one of them onto the Beast, of course they were on the small side but still a major accomplishment for that time.

Then I seen this quilt sitting off to the side, two borders were already on it and a third was ready to go while the fourth just required 3 or so seams, so I did that next, but as I was putting on that fourth border something just wasn't feeling right!

I put it on up side down! So I removed it and did it right!

Even took the photos while holding the phone to my ear, and as the
software was downloading they transferred me over to customer service to see about getting a refund for the almost year of paying for the backup that I should have been getting, I was working my way towards that but the Manager the gal was working with had already submitted paperwork on my behalf so was very pleased with that!

Still not done so was getting a little snack, and meant to take a shot before the sticker peeling monster aka Blake got ahold of it because these little goodies are absolutely delicious!! Danna's Husband is Hawaiian and his brother sends them things from home that aren't found here, and especially not found here in Kingman!!

Now back to Blake, I found the jar label less, as I was setting it up to take a shot, Blake showed up at just that moment and the look on my face must have been a clue to him because out of his grubby little hand he unrolled the label and stuck it on as best as he could!

Priceless, I have no idea what the fascination is with sticky stuff, but we go to get something particular from the pantry only to find the label gone, and guessing as to which can could be what were looking for! When he was 3 or 4 when vhs was still popular he took off every sticker that identified what movie it was! Scottie went through and put on each one to relabel and there was a good 75+ movies in the collection, threatened those blue eyes and before the year was out they were off again!

I was very thankful when dvd's came along!! ~smile~I have a picture of the bugger but blogger won't let me upload it!

And just for some show and tell here is another QOV.

The End~

2009-05-26T09:24:00.002-07:00

While working on this quilt it required a whole lot of inspiration~

That's where these fit in! Found the simplest recipe for chocolate syrup that is just too good!

1/3rd cup heavy whipping cream

1bag semi sweet choco chips

1tablespoon coffee

1 tablespoon honey

Melt the chips in the cream then add coffee and honey. Absolutely divine!!

So here is the finished quilt, taken off the frame about twenty minutes ago, I had plenty of doubting going on but now that I can see it all I am just tickled with the results.

I am not sure of the full story but the cruxt is a great grandma was making it for her first great grand child and died before it could be completed, I don't know any of the time frame but will find out tomorrow at Guild when I take it to deliver!

Just little stuff~

2009-05-15T20:45:00.004-07:00

This guy just doesn't want to stay where he belongs! He has found every weak spot on his tank, we have tried to find a lid that would snap down but the size of the tank isn't a standard one apparently, it was gifted to us and we now know why! ~smile~ hmmm, I know that worn spot is from the chair rubbing but it also looks like this shot was taken before the spring cleaning event we held not long ago!

And these two shots are just of our local woodpecker, I get a kick out of watching him gather the seeds and fly next door to store it.

These are a couple more for Project Linus, I love this panto! I practiced it on this one before trying it on a twin size basket quilt, the pictures for that is on the other computer and I need to figure out how to make that transaction.

I am currently working on a quilt that is custom and it just is not my thing! I look forward to the challenge but boy it is a stresser until I unpin it! My friend Danna is just one amazing Longarm Quilter and I would love to have just a pinkies worth of her talent!!

In the mean time I will go dip some strawberries in chocolate to work away the tension!

Family Fun

2009-05-14T10:19:00.002-07:00

Our local Game and Fish had a shooting event that we took the boys too, here they are having the rules outlined and it I just got a kick out of seeing them lined up! They provided all the 22's and they had an unlimited bullets for each station.

This was a fun one! Dad Levia and I challenged the boys and we won!!

Even though these were for beginners they had fun and each won a hat! Don't know where the shots are of them shooting the shotguns at the clay pigeons, needless to go on about them being signed up for the club that starts up again in September! Watching William shooting was just to cute!

The following are just some fun shots of a Project Linus Quilt that I was asked to do, there are some more but need to find them!

I did find the thingy to be able to download the photos, usb cable I guess it would be called. Daughter downloaded onto the other computer and failed to put it back where it belongs. Thankfully she was still home to be able to ask!

Wow!

2009-05-14T09:39:00.002-07:00

Is about all I can say! This year is just going by way so fast, a lot has been happening regularly and hopefully with some time and patience I will get all caught up.

I definately need to find my doo-daddy to be able to download the zillion and one pictures I have taken!

And a special thank you to the gals who have sent private messages asking about me, it amazes me how a note can touch the soul and they did just that! Now for the hunt!

What do these have in common?

2008-12-20T14:33:00.002-07:00

If you said nothing then you are correct! Last night some who shall remain nameless, aka Courtney, left this cup of water in the living room on the side of the couch.

Which of course goes against the rules that no drinks are allowed in said room.

I used the phone and set it on the side arm and it got knocked over, of course I wasn't too concerned as trusted there to be nothing but carpet down there. So when I went to pick it up later I found it in the cup.

Sigh...............I really liked this phone, we had a strong bond going and I looked forward to using it for at least a few more years regardless of when it was time to upgrade, after checking they no longer have this model and there is nothing comparable. And I can't just go to town to check out phones, we are still serviced out of Las Vegas and that means a road trip is now in order if I want to be able to stay in free contact with my Husband when he is gone. Kids!

It grew!

2008-12-20T13:49:00.005-07:00

These are some of my finds from our trip.

This little dresser is what I seen on the first trip to Fat Quarters and thought about all week. I just see it filled with fat quarters or thread or patterns or......................

And the top lifts! Way cool and was a song! We did have to wrap it up tight is trash bags as it was raining pretty good and we still had a good 300 miles to go to get back home. Was very sweet of DH to get it for me, and not once did he ask where am I going to put it!

This was a panel that was just too cute to pass up.

And here are some beautiful flannels, I have two quilts planned with them and hope to get started real soon.

The fun in these is that in the bathroom of the quilt shop they had sale items, the towers were 50% off, there were many other temptations but since this was my out of the box purchase I stayed with it!

Then these finds were from the other shop, A Country Loft if my memory holds, could go and check from the previous post but am feeling a little lazy at the moment! The bottom black is homespun, don't see it in my parts so grabbed 5 yards worth.

And we were not untouched by the snow storm this past week, it is still quite heavy out and the thing we are dealing with now is the ice. The pic is from an orchard a couple miles from us, just was really pretty when we were driving by.

Pure Taunting!

2008-12-18T19:12:00.003-07:00

Nightly was an all you can eat Sushi Bar! To say Scottie loves loves loves Sushi would be an understatement!

So Donnie had to show him a little of what he enjoyed!

Feel the Love Bro!

What they did~

2008-12-18T19:05:00.002-07:00

William~

Blake~

Donnie~

William peeking to be sure I am still there watching his every move!

William and Donnie trying to catch some heat as the clouds were blocking out the sun! We couldn't have asked for better weather, the daily averages even out at sea was 85. Outstanding!!

Were Back!

2008-12-18T18:17:00.007-07:00

What an amazing time we had, there are quite a few pictures taken and each from a total different perspective!

This is one of my favorites! We stopped at this shop Fat Quarter's and it was just eye candy overload!

I did purchase a couple things but I will save those for another time, need to get the camera back in order and get shots of what I found. We also made it to Rosie's Calico Cupboard and I was amazed at how much the shop has expanded, it has been at least 10 years since being there but still! It was rather over whelming and since I didn't have anything in particular material wise I did find 2 rulers in sizes that I needed.

Down a few door's from Rosie's was yet another overwhelming shop! The Quilted Rose, my Sis-in-Law purchased a Gammil Longarm from them so had to pop in and see what else they had and I was just blown away by all the thread and pantos that they had! Again I was very frugal in my purchasing, I really wanted a leaf panto and found 2 different kinds with the aid from Dh and the Kids.

It felt great to not splurge shop as it would have been so easy to do in all these shops! These stops were made prior to the cruise and once we were back we decided to stop at another shop that Fat Quarters heartily recommended, it was The Country Loft and again it was eye candy overload! What was so unique about the two mentioned is they are solely primitive/civil war types of fabrics, so I had to chuckle when my Dad asked if they had any Orientals or Batiks!!

I failed to have the camera ready to get any pictures though, in fact I don't think the camera was in my possession at the time anyway. We did stop back by Fat Quarters as there was one little thing that captured my heart and Dh was very kind to get it for me as a late anniversary present! He is such a great sport and that just made the week all that more special for me!

Vacation Time~

2008-12-07T23:25:00.005-07:00

Well, now that I have done an overload of updates, that really has only scratched the surface but we are about all packed up and ready to head out the door at four in the morning!

We haven't taken a family vacation in quite awhile and although this ding-dong won't be able to go because of his work schedule it will be comforting to know the house will be guarded and the animals tended too!

I even think that he may have chosen to stay behind to watch after his little girl Mookie the Chinchilla. These two are too funny to watch together, Levia gifted him with her when he graduated from the academy six months ago and have they ever bonded!

This is Kaa, Donnie's Ball Python. He is Mookie's close neighbor, he is actually quite a bit bigger now than this photo, he is shedding right now so didn't want to disturb him while he does his thing so will just use an older shot of him! We have aged him to how long we have had him which is about 3 years now.

And he has found ways to escape every now and then and since Mookie moved in we all tend to check around her cage to make sure she isn't getting a nice neighborly squeeze from him.

About two weeks ago he got out and we couldn't find him anywhere, started getting a little nervous when two days went by, then around midnight I hear Scottie holler out to Donnie, not by his nickname either, it was the full blown including middle and Jr! Kaa, was cuddled in his dirty laundry and startled him, too funny! But he was able to sleep comfortably knowing that he was back in lock down.

And this represents a favorite birthday meal! The chops cook on low all day in the sauerkraut then we make a ton of potato dumplings to enjoy along with.

This is the pot loaded up and I wish I had a scale to measure it on, the pot itself weighs at least ten pounds, then there was ten pounds of kraut, and those two huge packages of chops, I kept a close eye on the oven rack just knowing it was going to cave!

The celebration was for Blake, who 12 on November 16th, he is such a sweet boy! He is the one in this posting with his nose in the pumpkin pie, not really, he was just joshing around!

We will have the meal again mid January as we have a slew of birthdays coming up and we will do a one big celebration when we can schedule everyone together. It will cover five birthdays, Scottie is the end of December, the Donnie, Levia and Chad are in January with DH coming up February 3rd.

Which leads to our trip, it is going to cover Christmas and all the birthdays, except for Scottie, he wants a satellite radio system for his unit that we are going to get him. We are heading to Cabo San Lucas and Ensenada via the Love Boat! It is something we have planned since the beginning of the year and everyone is beyond excited, the boys are looking forward to the all you can eat and we will enjoy watching them put it away!

The cameras are charged and I have two projects to work on. I am also very excited to be visiting the Fat Quarter Quilt Shop that is in the area and maybe even possibly Rosie's, oh yeah!!

Until next weekend!

Snowmen~

2008-12-07T20:15:00.004-07:00

This was probably the most challenging thing I have ever done! The top was gifted to Merry at Fiddlestick's and she asked me to do it up! So the rest of the post is going to be a mini show!

Other Doings~

2008-12-07T19:32:00.002-07:00

I did this one for a friend and boy oh boy did it give me trials!

The lesson I learned from it though was to stop and breath first, then start with the simplest solutions and work your way up, not the hardest backwards. I was getting eyelashes on the backside so I took apart and cleaned, wound different bobbins, now I will have to use up those extra four of a nice turquoise color on something!

Then I went onto changing out the bobbin case, keep an extra on hand! Nope, still fussing, then I went to bed and went ahead on to the bee and worked on the binding of the blues and got paperwork done for the new position I will be holding in the Guild! Yikes on that one!!

In the end, the great ott lite bulb went off and I changed the needle, and all was right again. A very happy moment indeed!

These are just a couple shots of the booth we had at the Cancer Fair, it was a fun experience and although a variety sold the best was the baby quilts that folks bought for their dogs! One even had her dog that was in her purse sniff the quilt to see if he liked it, if he did then she would by it because he is very finicky! He liked it! And I was happy as well.

The Bomb went off here!

2008-12-07T19:00:00.002-07:00

I had started folding things back up when I decided to share the explosion that had taken place, really since August there has been NO organization what so ever, just one project to the next.

The farmers table is my main cutting station and at the time which was last week I cleared enough space to trim the blue boxes, but then started the folding so now there is no room to trim Lillian's.

This is the secondary cutting/ironing table. Not an inch to spare and I tell you the kids are loving it because daily there is at least one reward session going on because I can't find anything!!

It has gone beyond horrid...............

And did anyone catch on that there isn't a single quilt on the walls? We had the second craft fair in November and sold 8 quilts, it was a blue moment but in the end it came at a time when the funds were needed the most so I will enjoy getting them replaced.

I was also asked if I would be interested in putting quilts up at the Lodge here in the and also at a little coffee house downtown! Very honoring indeed!

Lillians~

2008-12-07T18:29:00.003-07:00

This is Nate! He is just the sweetest thing and it is too fun to watch everyone interact with him. The boys are the worst though, he isn't allowed a grunt and they are wanting to know why that is being allowed to go on?! They do seem to disappear though when it comes time to taking care of the loaded nappy!

These photo's are long over due, Lillian needed this quilted in time for a class she was taking, the final was to be on binding techniques. Thankfully I had two weeks in which to get it done

but decided at the last minute to do a different design that was a little more intricate, I failed to guesstimate correctly on the amount left on the spool of thread and ended up running out about one row of completion!! Not very smart but thankfully the thread co took care of me and it was done and ready for her!

Then the below I did yesterday for her, DH will drop it off when we get back from our trip out of town this next week which will give her time to bind it and wrap it up as it is a Christmas gift!

It hasn't been trimmed yet, will do that here in a little bit,

I'll show why next post!

On the move again!

2008-12-07T18:15:00.003-07:00

Wow! It is amazing that it is December already! We have had our hands full, we started babysitting a this little guy who's tootsers' are on display below and I tell ya, even though he is only 2.5 months old and sleeps most of the day away I am afraid to say that he does most of it on my chest!

I mean, how can you not just wrap yourself in the scent of a newborn?

I did finally have to get him on a solid routine, and that meant I could get back to the backed up work that had accumulated for way too long!

This is a sweet victory! Boxy Blues is complete and now residing on it's owners bed! I do believe it will be loved for many years!

Before being quilted and washed it measured out to 120x108 and once washed it shrunk to 113X101, it is huge!!

I did fail to get pictures of the other quilt that was to be for the Mom's bed, it was a charm cotton top tumbler with denim for the backing, she is into the Americana style of colors so that is what it was done in with a nice coffee/tea bath to give it a softer mellower look!

Then came the nasty flu/cold/sinus bug, that little sucker didn't want to leave! Albeit there were plenty to bounce around to!

Quiltathon!

2008-10-18T20:34:00.007-07:00

Figured since it was Quiltathon Weekend I would go full force and get this monster top done! Imagine my surprise when I started laying it out and found I was short a row and a half! Now I can be math challenged sometimes but this really got me!

Because I surely didn't want to cut more strips to get the other slew that would be needed out of this pile that I had left over. I had thought I cut way over and was hoping to have some left over to throw into a little scrappy throw.

Then under this pile I found................................

These!! Now I didn't dwell long on how they got there, I was just thrilled to find them and get them matched up, but it turned out I was still a little shy so ended up getting another 36 blocks from that pile to make up what I needed.

Now in the other post I talked about how I wasn't thrilled with it being all blue, I like blue, especially when they are made with these fabrics!! Now I could whip those kinds of patterns out all day long! ~smile~

So here we are now at 9pm, I started them out by two'sies then to four'sies, then don't know why I changed mid stream to rows but it is working out great, all the rows are ready for the final seam then I will go ahead and probably do a thin strip of dark blue to set it with an additional wider border to finish to size.

Right now it sits at 108X96 and since I will use cotton batting and wash it before giving to its new owner I know there will be some shrinkage to compensate for the extra, plus the gal said the closer to the floor the better because the daughter doesn't use a bed skirt. Know how I know? I called to ask if I could make it a little more towards laying at the top of the bed skirt, trying to save her some funds along with some time for myself! But alas, I was doomed to major huge!

Now I know this design has gotten to be pretty popular lately but before the popularity of it Mary had put together a little something of her own and she shared it, since then I have wanted to make one but in a more scrappy version. I need to take a picture of the quilt that inspired my customer, it was in all 2.5 inches strips of nothing but plaids but it was like the fourth quilt I ever made and it was one of Mary Ellen Hopkins designs and although very easy it used a lot of strips for one block! And there was no way I was going to recreate THAT in a 112X100!!

So I did a quick sketch of Mary's Boxed Squares and she loved it! In every shade of blue I could use! Now I was very pleased with being able to pull 80% of the fabric from my shelves, I went on an online clearance of blues hunt and bought one tower of 30 different fat quarters for $26!! I made that work with the rest of what I had then went to a sale at Fiddlestick's and she had some blues on for $3 a yard so grabbed a couple there but the mother load of a deal was a bolt of 24 yards of the ugliest blue that was absolutely perfect for the backing and probably the border as well as the binding if I cut right! It actually wasn't that ugly at all once she started unrolling it to take measurement, then it caught peoples eye, but it was all mine!!! Envision the evil laugh here!

Now I need to finish ironing the beast's rows to prepare for final assembly, am thinking I will finish it tomorrow though as my eyeballs are starting to go a little wonky!

Friday~

2008-10-18T14:36:00.002-07:00

There was a gun exhibition going on in Wikiup at a gun range in the area, which is about 45 miles from us. There were to be guns going back to the civil war era up to current day weapons and I thought it would be fun for the boys to see. So we loaded up into the truck and headed out.

Now what I didn't know about was the 10 miles of primitive kept roads that lead to the range........the two photos are just a little bit of what we drove through to get there.

The total disappointment came when we pulled up and gal said get out of the vehicle and fill out some paperwork, umm, ok, we start filling out then she informs us it is $25 per person to be a spectator! There were 6 of us present so you can imagine what we did!

Went home and baked some white pumpkin pies! Now I don't really think Blakes' nose got pushed into them but there were some pickers when they came out of the oven, sticking the knife in to see if it was done wasn't good enough, needed to spoon a little out to make sure!

It should actually be called nutmeg pie with a hint of pumpkin, ever have one of those moments that you cant remember for the life of you what the rule was for fresh ground spices?

That is about all I use when I cook or bake, fresh ground pepper, cinnamon, cumin, nutmeg etc so when the stupid moment hit of "is it more fresh to dry or more dry to fresh?" I chose the more fresh must be it and twisted away!

Now when Donnie did the checking he casually said out loud ~ wow, it sure tastes like nutmeg!~ That was when the bulb went off! They still tasted really really good though!!

Trying to be inspired!

2008-10-16T17:34:00.003-07:00

I am in the process of making an all blue quilt in the following design, I chose it from one of Mary's over at Making Scrap Quilts from Stash's site MaryQuilts.com. The gal who I am making it for liked this size of blocks, the bummer is that she wants it 112x100!

Not the best of pictures but the idea is there of what I have been up to besides some quilting on the side. It will be a Christmas gift for her daughter, and wanted nothing but blues, sigh.......

On a fun note I am excited for the pumpkins arrival! We have made soup and pumpkin butter so far but now have to get more for pies, then freeze a good bunch for more soup days!

For Lillian~

2008-10-11T16:15:00.003-07:00

These quilts were made by a complete beginning quilter! I tell you what, they are absolutley perfect and it was a lot of fun to quilt them! I got to pick colors and designs and hope she will be pleased with the outcome!

Earlene Fowler coming to Kingman?!

2008-10-10T21:13:00.012-07:00

At the show there was a bulletin that Author Earlene Fowler is going to be coming to Kingman in May of 2009! I thought that was pretty exciting news!

The other thing I wanted to make note of was the neat little quilt covers that some of the ladies put together for the legs of the quilt stands, they thought it would help to prevent anyone from tripping. Probably pick and click a photo to see a closer looksee!

Took a trip to Target and found some cute Kittie Bling! Decided to go with Sashi~(pronounced saw-she) for kitties name, she is adjusting splendidly although there are folks in the house who call her a mangy and scraggly runt.

I see a beautiful swan under there! ~smile~

Quilt Show~Final

2008-10-10T21:04:00.004-07:00

Little Miss ticket seller! I swear she could sell ocean front property in Arizona!!

a close up of one of the blocks in the antique quilt above.

Quilt Show~3

2008-10-10T20:59:00.001-07:00

There are some talented ladies in this group!

Quilt Show~2

2008-10-10T20:52:00.002-07:00

More random shots, mostly of things that caught my eye! Maybe next year I will be brave enough to enter something!

Quilt Show~1

2008-10-10T19:15:00.003-07:00

This week our local Guild had their Show, the pictures aren't the greatest but at least there is a little idea of what some of the Ladies have been up to this year!

This grouping is the challenge quilts, they were pretty neat inventions/creations!

This here is this years opportunity quilt, the quilting is phenomenal and will try to remember to get some close ups tomorrow before helping break down.

The rest are just some random shots!

This one here is my favorite!

There is probably going to be a few posts of all the different shots that I was able to get before people started showing up.