Texas Bound!

Finally!
I am off to Texas to spend some time with DD B and her DH and of course my little baby grandson A...I am so excited to see them all after almost two months and lucky me I get to make a little "side trip" to Houston for the International Quilt Festival too!
Great timing I would say LOL
I am not sure how often I will be able to update the blog but hopefully often.
I will be back on Nov 15 ...bye for now!

Just a few more Sat pics

Saturday at Hee Haw's

WE have been having a fun Halloween party with the family ever since D and P became engaged two years ago, so this is our 3rd year. Since I am going to be away this Halloween and the past weeks have been extra busy I thought going to one of the corn mazes in the area and I chose Hee Haw's Maze and Farm. Of course there was the corn maze but for the kids that was just "OK" however the farm fun was EXCELLENT fun. Kyle and Chalise have really created a great family fun attraction with things that little ones like our I could enjoy up to things that teens would also find fun. It was a busy Sat but we managed to not have to wait in too many lines thank goodness. Baby I loved the animal petting area and couldn't decide what was the best as he visited with little pigs, goats, chickens, and calves and then bunnies in another area. He played in a "corn box" (a sandbox with corn kernels rather than sand) and rode on the Animal train made from old metal barrels with wheels behind a tractor.
The oldest N enjoyed the pedal carts the best I think and C loved the pony ride she had patiently waited in line for. B couldn't decided what he like best LOL
It is wonderful to patronize a local family business and keep a farm up and going in these days of subdivisions where there once were orchards and farms.
Afterwords we came home and the kids decorated some prebaked sugar cookies. I have a pretty good stash of sprinkles and just used some white frosting in a can that I colored orange and black and left a bit white. The grand finale was making s'mores in our backyard fireplace thingy along with apple juice with cinnamon stick straws! LOL The kids loved the marshmallow roasting and it was easy enough without a lot of clean up since we did it out in the backyard with the good weather we had.

Civil War Love Letter Blocks Oct.

These are the six blocks I completed..almost...last night.
I really like the coral and purple one on the top right and Abe turned out OK but I think he is a bit funny looking where the transfer didn't quite work. The flag one was a disaster with my original choice of outside fabrics so when I got home I "fixed" it and it is much better!
Now I can go to Texas with these blocks finished!

At the Overnighter-Retreat

Thought I would share a few pics from our retreat. Many others were going around taking pictures and I will link them to my blog later but these a just a couple I took.
Top left is the project that many of the quilters were doing. I chose not to do one because I just have so many others I want to get finished. Each person chose their own fabrics and we had everything from patriotic, fall, Christmas and monochromatic. It is an interesting pattern and the ladies in the group really enjoyed the project. We had 20 people there with about15 who at least started their project. I think 5 or so finished the tops and the rest got a great start on them. I am looking forward to seeing how they all turn out.
That's me sewing away on my CWLL blocks...you can see the fall version behind me.
For me I worked on my Civil War Love Letter blocks...see the post above. And I also got another witch hot pad done and almost finished the pumpkin one...just need a bit of quilting and to close the "turning hole".
My friend KS wanted to finish her top so she and I were the last out at 5 am and that is her project on the table done in the lovely rose and green. While she finished I pulled out my baggie with some Harry Potter blocks printed and fabrics chosen and decided to begin to piece Professor Trawlawny's Crystal Ball and had a great idea...I put some glittered sheer tricot fabric over the cloudy stuff to give it a glowing effect...well...I remembered the hard way that tricot doesn't take the same iron temp as cotton LOL So it kind of has a melty place on the bottom right. So far I can live with it but if it drives me nuts then I will cut that part away and just have the clouds! LOL

Sneak Peek of Prizes

Thought I would share a little peek at the 500 Hit-a-versary gifts I am going to send out.

I will send two packages...one of my quilting friends and one for my Scrapping/paper crafts friends and then if one of my family wins I will make a special little gifty (maybe one of those little witches) LOL
Off to my Quilting Overnight/Retreat later today and I have three projects to try and get finished plus some little things as well.
Do you think I will make it all night?

Another hint and my New Bag

Here you go another hint of what I have been working on the past couple of days...more guesses? LOL
I will reveal the whole thing next week. Gosh I have to re-think sewing when I do stuff like this!
Below is my new bag/purse that my friend CN taught to our night quilt group.
Just like any thing you do for the first time it took me what I thought was forever LOL...but I really like how it turned out and might make one for my sister. I pulled a fat quarter pack from Pin Cushion Boutique who used to come to our yearly state quilt Festival but haven't been for a few years. I am hoping they will be in Houston as a vendor...
I loved the stack of FQ's when I bought them but over the years they had lost their charm to be a quilt project but I like how they look as a bag.
If I do one for my sister I will do it in happier colors and fabrics as she is an UP person and I know the big flowers and bright fun colors are more her style! LOL
Anyway enjoy.

Just a Sneak Peek

At a current project!
Can you guess what it is?

And keep on commenting on my Wow post...I want lots of names in my drawing LOL

Good guess Jo and you are half right! LOL

Wow!

I am so surprised that I have now had over 500 "hits" to my blog!
I never expected people to be that interested in my little scribbles and pictures LOL So to celebrate I am going to offer a little gift package to a couple of my invisible friends! LOL (that is what one of my online friend's hubby calls those of us who have met online but not in person hee hee hee)
So....
I will do a drawing on Sunday from those who say "hi" in the comment section of this post and tell me if they are one of my quilting friends, scrapbooking friends or just checking out my family goings on!
It has been so much fun doing a blog and lets me show off what my latest project is happening and what my family has been up to lately!
I will do a sneak peek at the little gifty soon...

So nice to see all your comments...Love my invisible friends! (keep on commenting)

New SB page and cards

Had a bit of trouble getting this layout together...for some reason it just didn't want to pull together.
Not sure I like it in the end but it will do. This was a meet baby A get together for dd B. I do like the pull strips for the journaling at the top of the second page and the cute Curious George stamps but on the first page I touched it before it was dry and will probably end up doing it again LOL
Supplies:
PP DCWV Summer stack and Nana's Kids stack, cardstock, CG stamp from Target $1 Spot (just love it), sticker letters from various sheets in my stash. (gonna use those things up one day!)

I also pulled out some Halloween stuff and made some Halloween cards. They were fun and a good way to use up more this and that from my stash. I need to make a few more so be on the lookout!
Supplies: cards DCWV stack, pp Debbie Mumm Fall Stack and Storytellers, ribbon from stash, cardstock from stash, tag ST kit, picture stickers DCWV fall sticker stacks

Oct Flower project top finished

Yippee the October project's top is done!

I wasn't sure about the color combination but I think it is striking with the orange purple and green. Not at all my usual color selection but to me it evokes fall.

I mentioned I was having a whole bunch of trouble getting the triangles around the thistle flower together...well of course it took me until the last block to figure out that I was putting the triangle in the wrong way! LOL the template has a grain line that is supposed to keep the edge of the block square. I really thought I had the darn thing in the correct position but until the last block when I paid special attention to how I placed the triangles, you guessed it it worked just fine!
I think that might have been why Jody added that thin border LOL
I do need to do some machine applique stitching and of course quilt and bind it but it's done for now.

Play time with little I

My neighbor has the greatest "kid" backyard and all the neighborhood young-uns love to come play. My little grson I noticed the yard after we had walked to the park and back and wanted to play but it was not the right day that day. The next week when he came over I called and the oldest daughter said sure come play so we did! My neighbor K noticed us in the backyard and joined me while I played to his heart's content and we chatted.
Little I loves the trampoline, slide and all the fun outside toys they have out there. Two weeks later we were back and I told the husband S that he should start charging a $5 fee to play at their "park" LOL I remembered my camera last Wed and took pictures and forgot to post them.
Little I loves kitties and he found the babies all curled up together under the back steps kkkkkkkiiittttsss is what he calls them.
He also loved the little "peddle" type cars they have. I am looking for one at yard sales and DI store but no luck yet.
He also explored Papa's garden and picked a few tomatoes and I let him pick a I sized apple to eat from the tree. With his little teeth it was hard to bite too much off but he gnawed on it for quite a while.

I just had to share...

My quilt friend ND was in charge of teaching an applique technique this month and she chose these darling kitty blocks for us to practice. She decided that this month would be fusible applique with hand stitching and gave us the tip of cutting the fusible's middle out and leaving a much smaller "rim" of glue to make it easier to stitch down. The second kitty has some really cute stitching doing a sort of wonky cross stitch!
I am hoping to do one this year LOL!

Thistles and Lucky

I guess I need to update what I have been up to the past few days since it is now Wed.
First for quilt stuff...
I am posting two of the four thistle blocks I need for the fall wallhanging from Jodi Warner's book A Year of Flowers. Probably the hardest in the book! LOL Unfortunately I have had trouble getting the top triangles to fit right into the block. The first one was bad but...the second was much worse and I tried very hard to get it right! Something is not working and I hope with block 3 I can figure it out. I know it will be a great quilt once it is done but whew!

Next project I finished is a layout from my parents' and sister's visit from early this past summer. I had some great shots of baby A with them and I knew they were exactly what I wanted to do about family.
Supplies used
pp, Big Lots baby kit, Kit from Story Tellers , cardstock, ribbon Offray, ink Stampin Up, letter stickers Storytellers, and quote not sure.

Sunday, Sunday...

Got up this morning late unfortunately...and guess what? Snow!
Yuck, way too early for me but then again maybe it got the first one out of the way and Halloween day is safe LOL
However bye the time I got home from church it had melted away but watching the news found out that some areas in northern Utah got as much as 11 inches! Good thing it didn't stay very long.

Good day to take a nap and just relax right?
I decided it was a good day to make the invites to our family Halloween "party" to give to the grkids. They each get one and it was a good time to play with my new Storybook Cricut cart. I played around with sizes and this is the final result.
Kind of cute but wish I had some "real" orange to use but it was a good thing to stick to my stash.
Oh and I pulled out the old bottle of glitter glue for the sparkly stars...who needs Stickles LOL

Last night or was it early this morning?

I had these pictures sitting on the scrap table and knew I wanted to do a one page layout to even up the scrapbook LOL
I loved the interaction between B and baby A. I didn't think this page needed any fancy decoration or a lot of words either so it went very quickly and Oh NO, I am using flowers on a boy page LOL
Supplies
papers, Big Lots, ribbon AMM set, flower and big brad QVC flower kit, word stickers Pebbles in my Pocket.

Now this is what kept me up all night LOL
One of my blog friends Nedra showed this darling pot holder she made and I thought well my friend C can help me figure out how to make it! C used her Electric Quilt and drafted the witch face and then I just added the borders and back and voila a hot pad!
I used leftover bits and pieces from my stash and I just love that fossil fern green face! LOL Paint for the eyes and easy as can be.
Thanks for the inspiration Nedra!

OK I guess I better get some other stuff done around her like more cleaning...Yuck!

Along with all the quilting...

I did a scrapbook layout too! I had this idea for a few days as I looked at these pictures of all the adults on ourside of the family with our little baby "A" not long after he was born or just a few weeks old. That old 60's song Neverending Love just kept going through my mind and so useing a sketch for inspiration I played around until it came together.
I used part of a kit from Storytellers, cardstock and ink from CTMH and cut the title and hearts with my cricut using Making the Grade and Graphically Speaking. When I was done I realized I had just used the pic of big A and little A on a different page so I might switch it out.

Can You Believe it?

It is amazing!
I have now completed a quilt top and pieced a back and have the blocks all put together ...all done in this last week!
I tend to go great guns for a bit on whatever is hitting my fancy at the time but for some reason I have been really, really motivated to dig into my QIQ projects and get them done! I think it is all the inspiration I have been getting from all the blogs that I try to visit regularly. Of course my house needs a few days of a good cleaning but that can come LOL
The first picture is of the Stars BOM from New Friends quilt group from 5 years ago it seems! Each member of the board chose a star block to present to the group and instructions on how to make it. There are only 10 blocks that came from my group so I had to come up with a few more to complete my very own layout design. You can see the theme of this quilt from the busy print...Chickens/Roosters and the funny thing is that once I started putting it together I thought...this is turning into a red and green quilt! My friend C said "well, I always thought of it as that and had some confusion when you referred to it as your Chicken quilt" LOL
Even though there is a busy print, a tan print and a blue tartan plaid in the quilt it still really reads red and green and for me that is a good thing!

Next comes my Spooky Spiders quilt made from the book Super Simple Squares. Yes, there are two different yellows in the sashing so don't think your eyes are playing tricks on you! LOL
My group did a Halloween square exchange to get the variety and it has been waiting for several years to become a quilt. C and I went back and forth of how to border it and we decided that the yellow needed to "finish" the sashing around the quilt and a tiny folded border of black would set off the stripey border perfectly. The dark yellow and stripe fabrics were bought this year in Ogden at Gardner's Quilt shop...loved the stripe and knew it would be great in my quilt.

As for the back well....the plan was originally to use the grey owls and pumpkins fabric as the border but we liked just the stripes so it became part of the back along with a funky dinosaur bones print I won this past summer but it still wasn't big enough by about 2 inches.
That is where the two striped fabrics came in handy LOL so you see the back
My plan is to quilt it myself and it needs to be basted (spray) and then I can do some funky quilting to fit the funky style...maybe next week?

A New Harry Potter Block

I had lots of plans to get one of these done a week but way too many other things are calling out for my attention right now!
So here you go my new block the Griffindor Lion. Yes I know it isn't square but I did leave room for some squaring up later.
I don't usually stitch around the blocks but I decided that the background fabric needed some because it isn't all cotton and tended to not lie flat so the stitching made it stay flat for trimming later.
I think next will be Hegwig.

It's a New week!

Ok a day or so late but a new week seems to begin with my New Friends meeting LOL
I have a couple of new pictures to share but I will post them tomorrow...
We had a wonderful guest Helen Butler, current president of the Utah Valley Quilt Guild with a trunk show centering on her BOM Basket Quilt plus some bonus quilts and even some design time with the group! I just am so amazed at her lovely quilts but most of all her machine quilting skills on her home sewing machine. It is quite impressive and I would love to be a little birdie in the window watching as she quilts...LOL
I wish more people would be willing to share with other groups their wonderful quilts and their experiences with quiltmaking. We all have such wonderful knowledge to share with our friends and yet to be met friends!
(Note to self, say yes when asked to share!)
I finally got to show my Cruise Quilt to the group...all finished and the beautiful quilting my quilter did for me.
I forgot my camera so no pics but maybe I can get a couple from others who took some pictures during the meeting.

New BOM with Carol Doak

I have always loved Carol Doak's books and CD's for the computer and last month I joined her Yahoo group and she just completed posting a BOM for 07-08 and I just thought that it would not be a good thing to try and jump in with all I have to do and try and catch up so I was really happy to see her post the first BOM for this year. It is to be a "picture" block each month and hopefully will be as simple as this month's was. It is a cute scene of a fall tree by a road. We are encouraged to work from our stash. My first effort is from my stash...hand dye's, batiks and fossil ferns saved for a special project LOL.
Looking forward to seeing what she comes up with next!