Summer Disney Memories and Herbs

 Here are a couple of recent scrapbook pages from our summer 2011 trip to Walt Disney World trip.  I really did enjoy meeting Mickey and Minnie but the lighting was awe-full!  I had trouble getting decent pictures but it was nice to be inside with the air conditioning and we waited until late in the day to do the pictures.  Howard and I ware wearing our Anniversary buttons and got so many Happy Anniversary greetings from "cast members" and others throughout the day.
Second page is the Dumbo ride.  I wanted to use something different in colors and try making it simple.  I used a sketch from Page Maps vol 2 with several tweaks    Funny thing is that the ribbon is from a Christmas release by American Crafts.  Perfect colors if I do say so myself.

I love to use fresh herbs and have tried several ways to grow it before.  I saw this idea of planting in old collendars first on Pintrest and then several other places online.  I know that you have to be careful not to bake the roots in the metal containers but the herbs need plenty of sun.  I will watch them closely for wilting and water a couple times of day if I need to.  I think the sprinklers will water them each night but I still will make sure they are not getting too much heat.It would be great to have this idea work and have lovely fresh herbs this summer.

Life Goes On

 So it's been nine days since our little K was born.  She has been a very good baby from all accounts, sleeps nicely and let's Mommy and Daddy sleep some too.  She lost weight from her birth of 5 lbs a bit under 3 oz down to 4 lbs 13 oz but last check she was back to 5 lbs.  She became a bit jaundiced but it is slowly going away and she won't have to have any more foot sticks to get blood!
She still feels like a little doll or stuffie when I hold her but we have been blessed with her getting a little bit bigger and stronger each day!

 Mommy P mentioned that she would like a few more receiving blankets and I offered to make her a few double layered ones...flannel on one side and cotton on the other.  I got fabric to make three, two smaller ones and then one larger one for later.  It was fun to find girly colors and prints for a change but at least there is more and more cute prints for boys these days. 

 I finally finished the baby quilt last week right after she was born and it is quite large.  I love the pretty colors and soft prints and K's Mommy liked it too!  I might be able to display it in the July Steel Days quilt show depending on how much washing it gets  LOL..that's OK I make quilts for use most of the time and I am glad she will be sleeping under it instead of having it hanging on a wall or folded away in a drawer.

 It is a lovely spring here in Utah and about two weeks ahead of "normal".  I grabbed my camera when Belle and I walked this morning and thought I would share a couple of pictures I took.  I love the pretty cornflowers that are in bloom every where right now.  I know they will be done in a week or so so this will be a way to remember.  Belle looks funny in the picture as she turns around to cheese at the camera!  LOL
It's perfect walking weather now but since it is spring I figure it's "just wait, and it will be different"

One of the Reasons Why...

Yep, I have been AWOL from blogging this past few weeks and this is one of the small reasons why.
My new grand daughter was born a bit early...3 weeks... but we are very happy to meet her.
Here she is about 4 hours old with her daddy oldest son D.
She is tiny but able to come home after 3 days.  She is in preemie clothes for now but we are sure she will be growing out of them very soon!

More Harry Potter Books

It's been a while since I have sewed any books for my Harry Potter Project of Doom quilt and these along with a few others had been waiting with fabrics chosen for the books.  I knew these would be easy enough to get done pretty quickly and they were..  I liked the dragonfly print on the book with the diamond and the funky batik in orange, yellow and green.  I love being able to hunt up some of the craziest prints and add them to the bookshelves in progress.
Hopefully it won't be so long between blocks.

Goodbye Old Friend

Way back in 1971 my parents bought me a new bedroom set...it was white French Provencal and of course I had a new mattress to go with it.  The bedroom set is sort of still around...part in NY with DD and family and part here in Utah still with me.  That mattress has traveled with me from Florida, to NC then to college at UNCA, stayed back at home for a few years until Mr Creative and I brought it out to Utah for my DD's room.

Well, the time has come for that 41 year old mattress and box spring to go back to the earth!  LOL

The twin bed has been replaced with a new futon...it surely won't sleep the same and won't have the same memories but it will be more useful when we have guests which we are in about a week!

Horrible picture of me but I did it with a timer and sat the camera on a table

There's Been Some Creating Goin' All

Do you remember that old song...
Grandma don't allow no.......
Well lately I feel like that's been my theme song as far as crafting in my paper stash!  LOL
Two new projects from Monday and Tuesday of this week

 I bought this cute scalloped magnet board unfinished at Scrapbook USA in March and it's been waiting.  I sprayed painted it on Saturday finally, and then realized I had deleted the photo I took of the decorated board.  So I just pulled out some flowers (as you can see I had plenty of supplies to work with) buttons and and a few jewels.  Grson I helped me pick buttons and flowers to place on the board and then helped me add the glue dots and stick them down.  This will live in my scrapbook room thus the purple and green theme.  I hope to use it to place inspiration ideas like the one on the right from a magazine with some cute phrases I could use on cards.
Below it the layout I created using a sketch from Sketch Inspiration...I very rarely do a single photo page but this one worked perfectly for the challenge.  I used papers from DCWV, added some red, black and gold ribbon and cut the title from MS Elegant Cakes cart.  A bit of Stickles and inking and it turned out very nicely.

Happy Birthday Little I

Time marches on, or maybe I should say zips along so fast, and Grandson I turned 5 on April 16. He is very much into Lego Star Wars right now so Nana and Papa gave him a new set...only to find out that he already has this set! LOL It's OK he says as he had lost R2 D2 and now he has a new one.
I have been lucky to spend time weekly with I and know a bit about his likes and dislikes
Likes: Lego Star Wars, riding his bike, baking with Nana, the color blue, eating Chef Boyardee Mini Ravioli, ABC-123's with meatballs, marshmallows, Capri Sun Raging Waters, his light up shoes, eating snow, doing puzzles, playing Go Fish, mini corn dogs, ice cream cones, deviled eggs and going to Pre-School

Not so much: Brushing his teeth, cleaning up his toys, washing up for lunch time, tortilla chips, and having to share video games with his brothers
Happy Happy Birthday

2012 Baby Quilt Challenge Top

The top is done...I struggled with this one...reminds me why I am not a fan of piecing with flannel! LOL
I am planning on piecing the back soon so that I can get it quilted by myself on my Viking. I think I can get to it later today, crossing my fingers LOL

A Blessed Easter to You All

This sweet lamb and duck wish to you and your family a Happy Joyous Easter

A New (paper)Order

(My paper on it's rack and on the left bottom my stacks, near the top left my "kits" arranged by theme and accessible!)


I have joined in a challenge sponsored by a company that sells a product called the Scraprack
The goal of the challenge is to use a different way to organize your supplies.
Instead of what she calls "containerizing" them everything is organized by color or theme. So for example all the things relating to travel are stored together no matter if they are paper, ribbon, brads etc not paper in one spot, ribbon in another etc. Each week she does a webinar and then the challenge. Week one was dealing with paper.
Yeah, I have a lot of that for sure. Luckily I have a rack that I purchased several years ago when a LSS went out of business. I had already had much of my paper divided by color but I had some other paper in different places and needed to color and subject organize that too.
You can see it in the first picture
Still working on more paper I found stashed in a different spot. You can see one of the piles below.


Along with whole sheets of paper I do have a lot of scraps that I find hard to throw away. They were piling up in a small plastic bin and so I went through that paper and divided it by color as well. You can see it stacked in color piles above. I am using some old project pouches that I got as a member of Storytellers Club that I collected as I used up kits. I still have those to deal with but for now they are stored away in their zipper binders. I have a few of the colors in either page protectors or pouches that aren't as nice as my old Storyteller ones are but as I use of those old kits I will then use the pouches in the future.
Today I sorted and discarded paper scraps and then sorted and filed away that pile above.
I find that I have to Make A Mess to get it stored away so that I can find what I want and need without a major hunt and seek! LOL
This week is supposed to be about embellishments but I think I need to finish dealing with the paper before moving on and the nice thing about this webinar is that it is available on demand so that I can catch up later.

Progress for a Change

Baby quilt top is finished and it will be off to the quilter asap. I love that little center and I hope she can do something with butterflies and flowers in the quilting.I left plenty of float on the setting triangles and learned a few things on this one with doing the pieced border.
Next quilt project up for my group's challenge. We needed to use the center fabric in a baby quilt that will be donated to our local hospital for use in the Neonatal unit or if it is big enough the children's section for long term illnesses or hospital stays. I am NOT thrilled by my choices of fabric and I don't care for piecing with flannel but I will do the best I can to make something that will help cuddle and cheer up a little one who needs it.
I have a plan and I hope it works the way it does in my mind! LOL

Baby Quilt Update more progress

It's coming along as you see. I have pieced all of the nine patches and have the setting triangles cut and now am in progress of adding them to the sides.
Now you might be able to see more clearly the problem with the corners. I think I will stick to my original idea of adding background rectangles to finish the corners. I also need to trim down the strips once I decide how wide I want them.
I can't wait to get this one to my long arm quilter and see what she does...something pretty with maybe butterflies and flowers.

Design Wall Dilemma

Time is going quickly for my new Grd who will be arriving in May and the baby quilts need to be in progress! LOL
This is the first one that is actually in progress. The prints are much softer in person but it's OK for demonstration purposes. My problem is going to be the corners...my idea is to finish the side and top and bottom with their triangles and then add a rectangle of white fabric that I am using in the triangles...anyone have a better solution?
So much fun working with two of my favorite colors green and pink!

Help Find Lost Quilts

Well known quilt intructor Karen Combs was robbed in Texas and several quilts were stolen from her rental car.
Go to this link and read about it. If you live in this area in Texas keep yours eyes open!

Nowegiann Winner

An online friend Wenche did a fun quilt that she entered in the Norwegian Quilt Show (yes I think she is from Norway) and her sweet A Day At the Beach took 3rd place...even though I think it should be first! LOL
It is named 3.premie Wenche Martinsen : Strandliv (94x120cm)
Check it out!

Happy St Patricks Day 2012

I will be spending most of the day with my quilt friends and others creating quilt tops for use in donation projects. Our theme this year is Bow Ties and Four Patches. We hope to be able to create several quilt tops that will then be ready for various members to machine quilt and then donate them to places such as Project Linus, Women and Children's Shelter of Utah County and other places as needed.
I thought I would share a few Irish quilting links with you to enjoy.
Irish Quilt Festival 2012 Did you know they had a quilt festival? It looks like it would be a lovely place to visit!
Irish Patchwork Society's photo gallery.
The Quilter's Guild of Ireland

Civil War Rose Dream top Finish

I love how it turned out. I did a mixture of hand and machine stitching for this project and they worked together so nicely.
I probably should have used more medium looking fabrics for the small squares because where they come together you can't see that they are different fabrics. I will be sure to correct that with the class fabrics I choose
Inklingo made this project so do-able and I am pretty sure I can teach it with confidence to my group. Not sure if I am going to make a border for it as many Civil War era quilts didn't have borders.

New Friends Block of the Month March

Good thing about being the teacher for the BOM is that I keep up with the blocks!  LOL
This year I am working ahead to get the quilt done for a Christmas gift so I need to get it to the quilter the beginning of November...that's a good thing.  But sometimes it makes a better instruction time if I can show the block cut and ready to piece so that everyone can see where everything goes before hand.  So...I am making a demo block each month and the block on the left is the demo for March.  I pulled out some cute shamrock print and added a couple of greens and a nice bright yellow and white for a background.
I will probably turn it into a place mat for donation.

Civil War Rose Dream UPDATE

I meant to take pictures before I started this project but forgot however I thought I would share any way.
I volunteered to teach a lesson on curved piecing to New Friends Quilt Circle so I decided to do a practice quilt so that I have something to show them ahead of time.
Above you see my "hand piecing tin" where I have stored the pieces for this project and also the next feathered star. The part I needed to practice was machine piecing the curves as I actually prefer to hand piece stuff like that and with Inklingo that prints all my lines and matching marks it is so easy. This group doesn't accept hand piecing very well so machine it will be.
You can see a stack of blocks that I have used the machine to do the petal and backgrounds but after debating I will be adding the small squares by hand. There are two tiny seams to stitch and it would take me longer to get it all set up at the machine so hand it is.

Here are 12 blocks on my design wall just waiting for the others to join them.
I am not much for blue and brown but I had plenty of them in my stash of Civil War prints so I decided to use that color scheme. I am loving how they look so far and can't wait to get them all together.
Hanging my head in shame as I had planned to have this top finished and sewing together by Saturday night but...I played hooky to attend the US Dancesport Championship which is at nearby BYU. First of all I was good and packed my piecing thinking to finish up a couple more blocks by hand but....forgot my dang magnifying glasses and because the light was so poor I gave up after half a seam. Second of all I just couldn't get myself to start today.
However I did cut the pieces for the next Harry Potter block which is a doozy! LOL

Finger Pin Cushion

I made a new pincushion today...My sweet grson decided to practice his scissoring skills buy cutting the elastic through the one I had previously. LOL
They are very simple to make with a soda bottle cap, some narrow elastic, a circle of fabric, needle and thread and some stuffing or leftover quilt batting and hot glue.
I chose a fabric in remembrance of my sweet Muffy...and put it together this morning. I have another one in progress but thought I would share this one.
Maybe I should do a tutorial so that everyone could make their own? LOL
Oh, my! I have developed "old lady" hands in the past few years...can you get silicon in your hands? ROFLOL