Sneak peak at my Summertime swap mini quilt

Blue - like a summer sky - and bright colors! The hand applique is done on my Good Ole Summertime mini quilt. Next step is the hand quilting.

It's always fun to work on a project that you know has a home already. And I hope to have this one in the mail by the end of next week to the mystery recipient.

ABC's of me

Taking a break from sewing and working on some wedding things for my daughter - and had to catch up on my favorite blogs. I saw this on Tonya's blog today and couldn't resist participating too. So here are my ABC's:


A - Age - the speed limit . . . 55

B - Bed size - queen, which is just right to share with a BIG cat and my hubbie

C - Chore you hate - yard work, and luckily my husband is willing to do it all

D - Dog's name - no current dog, but we used to have a border collie named Betty

E - Essential "start your day" item - coffee and an oatmeal bar

F - Favorite color - red

G - Gold or silver? Silver or white gold are my favorites, but I do love Black Hills gold and it is yellow, pink, and greenish.

H - Height - about 5' 3"

I - Instruments you play - I'm not musical in the least, unfortunately

J - Job title - education specialist (just a fancy way of saying I do staff development with teachers)

K - Kids - 2 grown daughters

L - Living arrangements - my husband Dave and a 19 pound cat named Sammy

M - Mom's name - Jane

N - Nicknames - never had one

O - Overnight hospital stays (except when giving birth) - getting my tonsils out, my appendix out, my gall bladder out, . . . and I know there are more.

P - Pet peeve - people who are narrow minded

Q - Quote from a movie - there are too many to list here, because I LOVE movies.

R - Right or left handed? Right

S - Siblings? none

T - Time you wake up - through the week 6:30 am, on the weekends 7:30 or 8:00

U - Underwear? of course - except in the shower!

V - Vegetable you dislike - stewed tomatoes

W - Workout style - are we supposed to workout? Does going down/up the stairs to and from the sewing room count?

X - X-rays you've had - broken toe and a couple of chest x-rays

Y - Yesterday's best moments - going to the movies with my husband

Z - Zoo favorites - I love going to the zoo, but my favorite exhibits have to be the big cats

Reflections of home

I'm taking a "forced" break from sewing for 3 days. I say it's forced because I'm in Denver for some training and just didn't have any hand sewing to bring along that wouldn't have taken up my whole suitcase. I may go through withdrawal . . . I'll miss my evening routine of curling up with some handwork and my cat.

So while sitting in my hotel room this evening curled up with my laptop, I thought I would share another photo of my furry little helper from home. My 19 pound cat Sammy loves to be involved in my quilting process. If I'm in my sewing room, he lays on my ironing board so he can look over my shoulder while I sew. His other favorite locations are on my cutting board or right behind my sewing machine. If I lay blocks out on the floor to decide a layout - he gets right in the middle. He'll actually burrow right under the blocks and rolls around in them. Sometimes he'll even steal a block and run off.

If I'm handquilting using my lap hoops, he'll lay on top of whatever section he can find room. So the picture below is Sammy, burrowed under some blocks of a quilt. There is an obvious path of destruction behind him, with blocks rolled up and out of place. (Judging by the furniture and stacks of books in the background this was the last quilt I made before we moved to our new house about 3 years ago.)

I'm a WINNER!

Imagine my surprise when I was contacted by Ailsa at http://nettc.blogspot.com/ to say I had won her giveaway! She lives in Cheshire - in the United Kingdom. I found her blog as I was checking out the participants in the recent Spring Blooms Mini Quilt Swap.

My package arrived in the mail yesterday and I couldn't wait to open it. She sent 2 lovely fat quarters of Laurel Burch fabric and this fabulous counted cross stitch pin cushion. I needed a new pincusion and I love counted cross stitch. And I'm a big fan of the late Laurel Burch's designs.

So - - - I'm definitely a winner!! Thank you Ailsa!

Not enough time

It has been a crazy week and quilting wasn't very high on my priority list this week. I still have the binding to put on my daughter's bunny table runner, and I have LOTS of xblocks left to make for that quilt. I did get together on Monday night with friends Sylvia and Marilyn to make some bags. I had made 2 of the grommet bags already, and so they used my pattern and each made a bag for themselves. I just guided them through the process while they cut, pressed, and sewed. I saw Sylvia's bag today and she added a small ruffle and some buttons - so cute!

Since I don't have any new projects to show you, I thought I would post of picture of a WIP that I just finished up at the beginning of the summer.

The Pincushion Quilt Shop here in Mitchell has been doing a block of the month program for years, called Saturday Sampler. We did these basket and flower blocks during 2008-09. We could choose from 2 color ways: a batik or 1930's fabrics. I chose the batik and changed the background from a light fabric to black. The appliqued flower blocks were optional.

This was one of those projects that definitely grew on me after it was finished. When I looked at the blocks as we finished them, I just couldn't see how they would look good together. But once I laid them all out - suddenly the quilt took on a whole different look. And I definitely like it.

I quilted it on Sylvia's Qbot machine with a large stipple and bound it with the same lavendar/blue batik I used on the back.

A UFO becomes a WIP

I made a promise to myself that I would complete some UFO's that I have sitting in my sewing room. I haven't done as well as I had hoped this summer on that task.

However - this little bunny table topper has now changed it's status from a UFO to a WIP. Last Easter I made the aqua/brown/pink one for myself. My daughter saw it and said she would love one too. So, I started working on it for her with the idea that it would be a nice little birthday (JULY) present. Well - I had the bunny face all cut out and had the yellow/lavendar/pink fabrics all cut and ready to sew. But then decided my pink was too light, so I set it aside and worked on other things. Yesterday I went to The Pin Cushion and bought some darker pink Fairy Frost fabric and spent the afternoon actually putting the topper together. I even got the fuzzy white face all appliqued and embroidered. There are little black buttons for eyes.

Now it needs to be hand quilted with love and bound in more pink Fairy Frost - and then I can give her this very late birthday gift. I may need to offer the pick of which one she wants.

Today is the last day of my vacation time and I haven't made very good use of it. We didn't go anywhere and I've worked a couple of hours most every day, which is mostly my fault unfortunately. Dave has also worked a few hours each day, but he has also played A LOT of golf during these 2 weeks. I haven't even played much golf. I did go to Sioux Falls on Tuesday with some friends for a fun girls day - shopping, lunch, shopping, supper. It was a terrific day for us all!

So for my last day off, today I'm going to sew and then we have a 4:16 tee time at Lakeview Golf Course with another couple to be followed by a cold beverage of some kind.

Happy Birthday Jerilyn!

Just want to wish my oldest daughter a very happy birthday! We love her lots and are very proud of the lovely young woman she grew up to be. She is hard-working, independent, adventurous, and beautiful.

We got together last week and played golf in the morning, went to lunch, and then got pedicures. We don't get to spend quality mother-daughter time together often enough. That is true with both of my girls - we all get too busy. So I'm glad we MADE the time last week.

Happy Birthday Jerilyn!