Family Fun Day

Yesterday Mom and Aunt Nancy came over and spent the day.  We all had our projects that we were working on.  Mom is not a quilter - she has a stained glass studio - but road tripping has made her a quilting wanna be.  In the day (before she found stained glass!) she was an excellent seamstress, but never a  quilter.  When we were in the shop in Macomb, IL this week, some braided bookmarks and bags caught her eye and she gave in to the pressure and bought the rulers:

They are called Double Diamond rulers.  They did a demo at the shop, and it's really easy to do. Mom got on a roll yesterday and made about a dozen bookmarks:

Aren't they cool?  She used some fabric I had left over from their quilt that I made a few years ago, and also some Red Hat Society fabrics that I used to make her a bag.

I think they are pretty neat, and after she made the first one, she really whipped them out in a hurry.  At the quilt shop, they had made a bag that had a row of these double diamonds across the front of the it.  The pattern also shows using it in a border.  So...that was Mom's project of the day.

Aunt Nancy's project was the Itty Bitty Pinwheel by Primitive Gatherings that I talked about the other day. Since this was my pattern, she wanted to make it before she went home.  She picked fabrics out of my scrap bowl and this is the almost-finished project:

She didn't quite get it finished, but far enough that she could easily pick it up and take it home to sew the rows together.  Isn't it awesome?  I love it.  I still want to make one of my own.  Too bad she didn't accidentally leave it here - I told her that I would finish it for her, but she knows me well enough to know that she would never get it back!

They hubby even had a project (not quilt-related!)

See the fancy "down spout"?  Isn't it cool?  Even Boomer thinks so, he had to check it out.  When Jessica got married at Honey Creek Resort last year, they had these for their downspouts and the Hub was checking them out.  He put this one outside of my sewing room so I can see it - isn't he nice?  I get to see the fancy stuff!

My project for the day was making more jewelry!  No pictures of that this time.  Oh, and we can't forget Callie's project of the day...

She was napping.  Looks like she woke up on the wrong side of the bed in this picture - she's got those ears laid back like she is annoyed!  Don't you just love the trim in my house?!?!?!  NOT!  Gotta love contractors - it was supposed to be done before Christmas.  Guess we didn't specify WHICH Christmas!

 Better get busy - Happy Quilting Day to everyone!

Road Trip

Aunt Nancy is still here, and we are still taking road trips!  Yesterday Mom, Aunt Nancy and I went back to Illinois - but in a different direction.  We started out going to Beardstown to visit Keith Rice, who makes wonderful pottery.  I wish I would have taken my camera so I could show you more pictures, but this is one thing that I bought:

I have a whole set of dishes that are this pattern, plus all kinds of odds and ends pieces.  I love them all!  Unfortunately we had broken a couple of bowls and one plate, so Mom thought it would be fun to go see Keith and get some new pieces.  I thought this one was really neat, it has a lot more blue on it than most of my dishes, and the iris pattern goes all the way around the whole piece.  I'm not sure what I will do with it except look at it and think about how pretty it is!

I forgot to show you a picture of the fabric that I bought on our little road trip last week.  These are from Connie's Quilt Shop in Marion and from Inspirations in Hills.

Aren't they all yummy?  Not a bad one in the batch!


Another thing I forgot to tell you is what my wonderful mail lady brought me while I was gone last weekend!  I love my mail lady (Marty) and what makes it even better is that she is a quilter!  I should give her permission to open my packages so she can fondle fabric on her route.

These are the Perfect Scissors by Karen Kay Buckley.  They have a tiny serrated edge and they are really nice...just PERFECT!  (It doesn't take much to humor me!).  I've seen these scissors on a lot of different blogs, and wondered if they would work well for me.  When I am making my jewelry, I have to cut through a lot of layers and my thumb gets really sore.  In blogland I ran across a great blog called I Have a Notion.  This is Kelly Jackson's blog - she also has a website called I Have A Notion.  If you ever want to know about a notion, her blog and website are the place to go!  I asked her about the Perfect Scissors and what might work for me to cut through all those layers.  In no time at all she had made herself a little sample to cut through and had tried all kinds of different scissors and cutters for me!  She quickly reported back to me on her findings and had a few other suggestions as well.   Be sure to visit her blog and website - lots of great info and products!

Ok, I got way off track there - let me get back to yesterday.  After visiting Keith, we went to a nice quilt shop in Macomb, IL called Piece to Peace Treasures.  She carries a nice variety of fabric and patterns.   I keep seeing the Spicy Spiral Table Runner all over the internet - she had a couple of those made up - very cool!  She also now carries my jewelry, so we know she has good taste - lol.  I had to hold myself back there, but I did purchase a few things...

I thought the red with the little stars will make nice centers for jewelry.  They had an awesome sample made up using the blue as a border.  Aunt Nancy and I both had to have a little of that - it should make good jewelry centers as well.  And, I just like stripes!  This one is nice and patriotic.  She also had a great selection of 1930's repros.  I couldn't live without these...

She had batiks - this purple one caught my eye.  I don't make a lot of quilts with batiks, but they do make really pretty jewelry.  This picture does not do it justice, but you can kind of get the idea.

And last, but not least - I just liked these:

The Kansas Troubles sunflowers were from Macomb, the red (a REALLY nice red) and green ($1 fat quarter!) was from a shop in Nauvoo, IL.

Now I have to go backwards again - wouldn't it be nice if my mind went in chronological order?  A couple of months ago I bought the Primitive Gatherings Itty Bitty Primitive Pinwheels pattern.

I have really, really been wanting to make it, but just didn't have time.  While Aunt Nancy and I were at Inspirations, she bought the Primitive Pinwheels pattern - same concept, only not as itty bitty.  She left the pattern at my house while she is staying with Mom and Dad.  I decided that was my opportunity to make that one!  It is so cute...

It was really fun and easy to make.  I screwed up - I had planned to do a black border, like the pattern, but I wasn't thinking when I sewed all of the squares together and I put a black square on the outer edge, thus the blue border.  I still want to make the itty bitty one, but at least I had the opportunity to make this one, and got it out of my system a little bit.  Oh, and did I mention that Primitive Gatherings also carries my jewelry?  There I go, humoring myself again.

Ok, I have to quit yammering on and get some jewelry made, or there will not be anyone carrying it!

Have a great day!!

Fun Times!

Whew....it has been a busy few days!  On Friday, I drove to Waterloo to pick up Aunt Nancy.  We hit a couple of quilt shops on the way home.  First we stopped at Connie's Quilt Shop, in Marion, IA.  If you haven't been there, it is sure worth the trip.  Plan on spending some time (and money!) in there.  She has lots and lots of stuff in a small area. Every time I'm there I usually have to walk through about 4 times, and I still don't think that I see everything.  She has a lot of Civil War fabrics, loads of juvenile prints, baby stuff, books, stencils, patterns, puzzles, every notion you can think of - just some of everything!  Oh, and now she also carries my jewelry!  She bought about a dozen pieces while I was there - so make sure you check that out too!  Also, make sure that you visit the bathroom while you're there.  That's right...I said The Bathroom!  Her sale fabric is in the tub!  It's also in the little area leading to the bathroom. Very fun!

After that, we visited Nancy at Inspirations, in Hills, IA.  She also has lots of Civil War fabrics and also lots of other nice fabrics, including some batiks, 30's repros, etc.  She carries a lot of patterns and some really nice gift items (including my jewelry, of course!) and some other really cool jewelry. There is also a great little deli/bakery in the back of the shop - they have good soup and sandwiches, and the best cookies ever!  Definitely worth a visit.

On Saturday we left bright and early for a trip to Chicago.

Johnna (my niece) and Jessica (my daughter)

Mom bought us all tickets to Stars on Ice for our birthdays.
We did a little shopping on the way over, then went to the show Saturday night.  It was awesome!  If you ever get the chance to go to one of the shows, be sure to do it. 

I have to end here - need to get to town to weigh-in - YUCK!!!!

More later!

All Caught Up!

I'm so excited - productivity has paid off - I am all caught up on my Civil War Chronicles block of the month!  YIPPEE!!!!  I finished month 2....

That's a lot of half square triangles - each of these 4 blocks are 16" (HUGE!!)  Then I laid out all of the blocks for months 1, 2 & 3.  And guess what?  All four of my blocks for month 3 were put together WRONG!!!  GRRRRRR!!!!  Luckily, it was an easy fix, but it involved un-sewing, which I do not like!  So, back on track, got all that fixed...

And now I have the 3 months all sewn together!  I am so happy to be caught up on this - don't like being behind.  Now if I could just get those borders on that Lori Smith quilt on my design wall....

On a final note - below is a picture of my most current batch of jewelry.  These are not yet on the website - let me know what you think!  You can see all of my jewelry on my website: Me and My Stitches.

Hope you all have a great night - do you watch American Idol?  I love it - can't wait to see how they all do on the show tonight.

Lots and lots of pieces!

For the last few days I have been browsing the book "Quilting News of Yesteryear - 1000 Pieces and Counting" by Sue Reich.

I don't remember where I got this book, but it made it's way to the top of a stack of unread books.  It is kind of funny...it's blurbs from old newspapers regarding quilts with many pieces.  Some of the articles seem to look quite favorably on quilts with thousands, even tens of thousands of pieces, while others seem to regard quilting as a total time-waster.  I have noticed several articles from The Burlington (Iowa) Hawk-Eye, which made it even more interesting.  Anyway, reading through it got me thinking of a quilt that I designed awhile back called "Size Does Matter".

The cover picture really doesn't do this quilt justice (if I do say so myself!) - it is tiny 9 patches...

and looks much better in person!  If you live in the area, it is currently on display in Mt. Pleasant at Quilter's Paradise.  Ok, back to pieces...reading the book made me think of this quilt and how many pieces it has in it.  It is only 52" square, but it has a total of 6,301 pieces!  There are 625 nine patches that finish at 1 1/2".  Now I wish that I would have made it bigger, but I was at a point that I just wanted to finish it, and this is the size it ended up being!

I also wanted to show you a couple of pictures of the trouble maker from yesterday...

It's not a good picture because she was being a wild maniac and wouldn't hold still.  Here is another one of her ready to attack...

She is way too funny.  Right now she is actually napping in the chair.  Wonder how long that will last?

Have a fun day!

Monday already?

Where does the time go?  I can't believe the weekend is over already.  I guess it doesn't matter anymore since I don't have to leave home for a yucky job!  I love being at home!!  I was somewhat productive this weekend, though - I made four more blocks for the Just One Star program:

Obviously I am not going with any one color/fabric theme!  I have just been grabbing fabrics from my stash that are red or blue or somewhat patriotic.  I have a total of eight so far - I told you that you can't make just one!  Has anyone else made any?  Let me know and send me a picture so I can share it on here.

I also got involved in an American Idol "raffle" with Kim Diehl and some Facebook friends.  We have to choose who we think is going to win American Idol this season - I think everyone is picking two - one guy and one girl - then you make a quilt block that is star-related and submit one block for each pick.  When the winner of American Idol is chosen, if you picked that person - your name will be in the drawing to win all of the blocks that were submitted.  I think it's a fun idea. Some over-achiever in the group already has her blocks made, so the competition was on and I actually made my blocks yesterday too:

The blocks have to finish at 8" and can be any colors - no white.  Let me know what you think of them.  I wanted to incorporate something small, since that is "my thing".  The star centers are both 2" - small but not as small as most of my jewelry.

Callie was a busy girl yesterday.  She loves to knock all of my stuff off of the table in my sewing room...

And it's oh-so-fun to pull the pins out of the pin cushion...

I swear I spend half the day picking up things that she has messed up!  Then of course, she can't leave the other cats alone.  CC is minding her own business - like always, just laying on the chair, getting a little sun:

But look what is happening up above her on the table...

Looks like trouble, don't you think?  And I'm sure you won't be surprised to see what happens next...

This picture cracks me up!  HELLO!!!  See the head peeking over the edge of the table?  It wasn't long, and Callie was chasing CC off to the other end of the house.  CC always acts grouchy about Callie, but I think she really does like to play with her SOMETIMES. 

And while I was sitting on the floor taking pictures of the silly cats, I thought that I should also show you my slippers - not sure why you would want to see my slippers, buy hey...you never know!

My feet are always like blocks of ice - even with my slippers on!  But, I love these slippers - I bought them for myself right before Christmas - it's kind of like getting presents...

Oh...speaking of presents...Aunt Nancy is coming to visit - for a whole week!  I am excited - we are going to have so much fun.  I am going to meet them in Waterloo on Friday.  Hopefully we will hit a few quilt shops on the way back.  Saturday we all (girl trip!) go to Chicago for Stars on Ice which should be really fun.  Then we have all next week to do whatever we want!  Mom and Dad's 50th anniversary is the following Saturday - so we will have a party for that before Aunt Nancy and Larry go back.  FUN TIMES!!!

Hope you all have a great week!

Can anyone make just one??

Yesterday I posted information about Moda's new Just One Star quilts for soldiers.  I am excited about this project and couldn't wait to make a star myself.  But...I have about 27 projects started, so I made myself finish my Civil War Chronicles blocks first!  Once I got them done, I drug a pile of "patriotic" fabrics out of my stash and got started!  I made one block, then I decided to make another, and then 2 more...

They are easy to make - and what's even better is you don't have to trim them.  Moda wants to take care of that, to be sure that all of the blocks are the same size.  If you make some, don't forget to sign them with your brown pigma pen.  I think I will make some more! 

I also wanted to show you my CW Chronicles blocks that I finished yesterday.  These are Month 3 - still have to do Month 2!

 They aren't really laid out like I show them above, but I thought they looked ok that way.

This is an individual block - there are 4 total for the month.

And now for a Callie story.  She was really good all day yesterday - napped in the chair most of the day - napped on the ironing board for quite awhile.  Even this morning, she was being her cute, little, playful self...

Just being cute, playing in the chair.  Then all of a sudden, she turned into DEVIL CAT!!!!  Stealing pins from the pin cushion, knocking all of my little jewelry patterns on the floor, batting a pile of scraps off the table to the floor, etc.  Now she is busy running from one end of the house to the other!  I don't know what in the heck gets in to her!

And yes, I know you can see that my Lori Smith quilt is still on my design wall with no borders - which is why I had to take the pictures of the above blocks on the floor!  One thing at a time...

Have you made any yet?

I posted earlier about Moda's new "Just One Star" program and quickly received a note from fellow blogger, Amy.  She too, is excited about this program.  It wasn't long until she e-mailed me this picture...

 
 Isn't it nice?  And she has green grass!  Something we haven't seen for awhile.  I will show you more stars tomorrow!

Just One Star

I have been wanting to work on a charity project for awhile now, but haven't found anything locally.  We have talked about many different things, and everyone has lots of ideas, but no formal plans have ever happened.  Yesterday, while drinking coffee and reading blogs (my morning ritual) I found the perfect charity opportunity!  Go to Moda's blog Just One Star.  Their goal is to make 100 quilts using the pattern shown above that was designed by Minick and Simpson.  But all you have to do is choose your own fabrics - a red or blue for the star and a cream background - make the block, following the pattern that Moda supplies on their blog, and mail it in!  They have made it really simple - which makes it even more enticing. There are some great people involved in this program and I can't wait to get started!  Check out the details and let me know what you think!

Have a great day!

I'm not sure...did I mention that I LOVE presents?

I forgot to show you these presents from when I got together for lunch with my friends from forever (that is how I always describe Nancy - my friend from...forever!).  Nancy and I have known each other since kindergarten (that's been just a little while!).  The things above are from her - she works in a flower shop that sells cool gifty stuff.  The ball is actually lip gloss that smells really good.  Actually all of this stuff smells good.  The hand lotion is the best!  It's kind of funny that she gave me the sentimental little plaque about friends  -   a few years ago she gave me a candle that says "Best Friend.  You'll always be my friend...you know too much".  Boy there is some serious truth to that!  We have a long, interesting yet funny, history!  So many great memories.  I didn't take a picture of our lunch - but Sue treated us - and it was all good!

It's funny, I was just telling a blogging friend that we haven't had any ice storms this year (to which I am/was thankful!).  That same night, guess what happened?  My fault for talking about it! 

 Luckily there wasn't enough ice to cause any serious problems - no power outages, school cancellations, etc. - but it is pretty!  It is especially pretty because I can sit in my sewing room and look at it - don't have to go out in it!  That makes all the difference on my outlook of winter!

I am still working on a secret project - I will be able to share it in a few weeks.  I also worked on my Civil War Chronicles BOM yesterday.  I am working on Month 3, but I haven't done Month 2 yet - not sure how 3 got ahead of 2!  It is all cut out an partially sewn together - so I will share that when they are done - there are 4 blocks.

I have done a few other things - but nothing too exciting...

These will be pin cushions.  I have decided to make a bunch of different pin cushions to sell when I vend at shows this year - it will give people something to look at besides my jewelry and will help fill the booth - it takes a LOT of jewelry to fill a 10 x 10 booth!!   But, I do have a couple of quilts that I designed and sell the patterns for those - speaking of which what do you think of this little coaster?

These tiny nine patches are actually left overs from my Size Does Matter pattern.  I have a container of these and haven't decided for sure what to do with them.  I thought about making coaster sets to sell at shows, but I made the one above and decided they are a pain!  Putting the little coaster together is not the problem, it's dealing with the binding.  I made one without binding, but haven't stitched it closed yet - you know - it would take a whole 5 minutes to do it!  And of course, as I was trying to take the above picture, I had to deal with this...

Oh, I know...she looks innocent enough - but looks can be deceiving!  And, this is CC - not Callie!  I think that CC is a little bi-polar this morning.  She is all lovely, laying on my lap, purring...then the next thing I know...she bites me!  I think she is just playing, but she was kind of grumpy about the whole thing - she put her nose in the air and ran away!  Pretty soon she came back - carrying a toy, because she too, likes to play fetch.  Looks like it might be an interesting day with her today!

Hope you have a non-biting kind of day!!