Christmas Presents....

I hadn't really thought to make anything this year for presents. I thought that since we had just moved I wouldn't have time for that. Well, I had to make something! I have all of this lovely fabric and loads and loads of time. (Huh?)


I picked out all of this fabric last summer to make a bag for my husband's mom and had a lot of it so I also decided that the colors also apply to my mom's taste. I love this pattern. It is the Charm Tote pattern. I have made so many of them and they make great gifts. Make a bunch for all of the women in your lives.

I Found the Perfect Spot!

I wasn't sure if I wanted to use this as a table runner or a wall hanging until I finished the binding this morning. I immediately saw the perfect spot, a spot that was begging me to put a nice wall hanging in its place.


The sun was shining on it too, which gave a nice warm glow. When fall is over, I have the perfect snow man wall hanging to put there in its place.



I wouldn't say that I did it perfectly. The border pieces were a little bit stretched, but all in all, I would say that is was a success!

I love Fall....

I have finally completed all of the bear paw blocks and am ready to do the final assembly.


If you are looking for an easy fall tablerunner or wall hanging, this is not it. I absolutely love the finished product, but, it was not fast or easy. I will post pictures later when I get it quilted!
I hope that you are all having a great weekend and that your fall weather is as beautiful as ours. The sun is shining and the grass is gently waving in the wind. It is still green! All of the trees are bare and soon they will be draped with a lovely winter coat of snow. Ahhh, I love it here in South Dakota.

My First Paper Foundation Project....

We lived in Ketchikan, Alaska for almost four years. I learned so much about quilting there. There are many talented quilters there and a wonderful guild that does so much for the community. While we were there, I took a class to make this wall hanging. It is called Falling Leaves. I love the fall colors and I take it out every year. This class taught me everything I will ever need to know about paper piecing.


After I took this class, a group of ladies got together once a month to make paper foundation blocks. I had a lot of fun going from house to house and seeing all the lovely things that were made with fabric, needle and thread.

This is what I have done so far on the my current paper foundation project. Three bear claws and they took a long time.


There are five pieces in each block. This is the larger one.



For the border the 1 1/4 inch strips are sewn together and then cut 3 1/8 inches. I can't wait to get to that part!

Hand Dyed Yarn....

Before I left Florida last month, my knitting sisters in Vero Beach gave me so many lovely gifts. They gave me this lovely yarn so that I could make some socks. I have never made any socks and I am actually afraid to try and learn. I will ruin them and feel awful that I messed up my gift. This is so unlike me because I usually am the first one to try something new.


Thank you knit sisters! You were always so nice to me and I miss you all very much.

Bear Claw Runner....

I started this runner last fall, but, I didn't get enough done on it to consider it of possible use soon enough for me. It is fall again, and I am back to work. The bear claws are paper pieced, making it a little daunting for me.

I have done a lot of paper piecing, but every time I take a break from it, I find that I am afraid to get back on the horse. I hope that I can make the plunge soon....

These are the different strips of fabric that I have chosen to make the bear claws and the stripped border. Thanks for sticking with me and I am hoping that now that we are back on line, I can get back to blogging more faithfully. I didn't realize I would miss it soooo much...

Heather Bailey!

Before I left Florida, the day we loaded up all of our stuff, my order from Heather Bailey. I had placed the order back in July as a pre-order. I was so excited to open it up!
I bought two patterns, the pear pincushion and a purse pattern.

I liked the fabric they used so much that I just bought the same thing. They also threw in a free flower pattern. Oh, I also had ordered the strawberry pincushion kit.

We are in between states now, but when we settle in we will be living in South Dakota, not Iowa after all. I can't wait to get all set up again!

I Received my DQS4 Quilt!

Look at this wonderful surprise that I found in the mail today! This is such a lovely doll quilt and it is hand quilted! Megan Johnson, thank you so much for making this wonderful doll quilt all for me. Megan also made me a sewing needle kit.


I will love carrying this needle notion kit with me to all of my quilting get togethers. I also posted the pictures on Flickr.

Nothing to report....

This is all the action that is happening in the quilt room today. For the next couple of weeks for that matter. We are renting a house right now in Florida and in the process of buying a house in Iowa. I know, I have heard all of the jokes and puns all ready. And yes, we like corn.

Why move to Iowa? Why leave Florida? Well, the economy is part of it I suppose. But, mostly we feel more connected to the Midwest. It feels like home there. I grew up in Minnesota and have family there and my husband has family in Iowa. So, we are packing and sorting and I am afraid that the sewing machine has been packed and now I sadly sit here and wish I could unpack it for just a little while. I know I can, but I felt that I needed to be more focused on the move and homeschooling. I have piles of fabric that I have gone through. Some I really don't want but know that "someday" I may find a use for. Moving is such sweet sorrow.....

Progress Last Night...

I finally became motivated enough to put on the next round on this flower basket quilt. Putting the squares together went really fast. My 7 year old boy kept coming in and exclaiming how fast I can sew. I found this funny that all of a sudden it clicked with him just what I was doing all the time back in my craft room.

I tried all kinds of stitching on the flowers, leaves and stems. On the leaves and handle I did a satin stitch. On two of the flowers I did a zig-zag stitch. On four flowers I did a blanket stitch and on the stems I did a straight stitch that was in the applique section on my sewing machine. It was fun to play around and have fun. I am not in the least bit upset that it isn't perfect. I know that once it is all put together the quilting will make it.

Here I have all sides on and the second inner border. The final step is the outer border with corner stones.

Finished DQS4!

Yeah! I finished this doll quilt in record time! I had so much fun making it that I couldn't stop. I really hope that my doll quilt swap mate likes it as much as my family and I do.

I wasn't sure how to quilt the stars, so at first I thought I would stitch in the ditch. That didn't look so good so I tried a swirl pattern and it worked great. The rest of the quilting is a meandering kind of flower, heart, leaf pattern. Small projects like these are great for practicing my machine quilting on. In an earlier post I had asked what your favorite function on your machine is and the free-motion stitch seemed to be the most popular. I like that function a lot also and that would have to be my second favorite.

I mailed it out today and it should arrive next week! I love getting something done, can you tell?

I Consider Quilting to be an Obsession....

And so, I thought I would share another one of my obsessions. I thought I would take a picture of all the Jadeite that I have acquired and I don't think it is so bad. Except that I have more packed in boxes. More coming in the mail. More antique stores to explore.


I found these great bowls and the carafe at an antique store when we were in Tennessee. Aren't they pretty? Now it is time to get back to quilting.....

Doll Quilt Swap 4

It finally occurred to me that September 1st is coming awfully soon and I better get started.
So I decided on these colors, my swap mates colors.

Picked a pattern and got started right away.

I managed to place the pieced in order and today I will work very hard to get them together. I hope that she likes it!

Flower Basket Progress....

My husband took one look at this flower basket and said, "That flower basket is a feast for the eyes." I couldn't have said it better myself. Thanks honey!

What is your favorite function on your sewing machine?

This little button is my absolute favorite function on my sewing machine. It is a cutting tool, I push the button and it cuts the thread for me! Before I was given this machine almost 7 years ago, I had your basic Husqvarna sewing machine and it was great. But when I pull it out once in awhile to use or for my daughter to use, I admit to sudden sewing dyslexia. I am all thumbs without this handy tool. So, what is your favorite button or whatever part of your machine that you can't imagine being without?

Beginning the Flower Basket Part 1....

The four patches are so bright, I hope that my husband can handle having all that pink hanging around the house!

Sewing the four patches to the triangle squares. Oh, I can't wait to see what this basket looks like!

Flower Basket Wallhanging....

Last night I started working on this flower basket pattern that I bought a couple months ago. I have this fun fabric by Michael Miller that should work really well. I hope to actually sew the pieces together today that I cut last night. Cutting is such tedious work, but I think it is sew neat to see what happens when you put them together. Hope you all have a great day of quilting!

All Morning Quilting...

I am heading out the door as soon as I can figure out what to work on. There a group of great ladies that I have met here that started a new quilting group. Since it is new, I don't have to feel like the newbie. I hope to have something to show for the time that I am there, but you know how us women can be when we get together. A lot of show and tell and talking and not much sewing. But the time spent together is worth it. I hope that you all get to make something neat today. I love reading all of your blogs and I get so inspired.

Happy Quilting!

Confessions...

I have a confession to make. I have not been quilting, or knitting, or scrapbooking. I haven't been diligently wittling away my fabric or yarn stash. I have been wasting my time on Ebay. I feel so terrible having been sucked into this vortex. I have finally climbed out due to much prayer and the Lord giving me strength to say no to EBay.

How did this terrible addiction begin? Well, it all began when I read a post on Judy Laquidara's blog http://www.patchworktimes.com. She was trying to decide which camera to buy and made a mention of www.thepioneerwoman.com having a certain type of camera. Well, I had no idea who the pioneer woman was, but I followed the link to her sight anyway. I was immediately enthralled with her presentation of cooking, photography and home life. It is a phenomenal website to be sure. However, this is where I was introduced to Anchor Hocking Jadeite Restaurant Ware. It is beautiful stuff and so I went to EBay to see if I could get some of it. I had no idea there would be thousands of these things to look at and of course I had to see all of it. So you see, my quilting friends in the blogosphere, this is where I have been the last couple of weeks. I am so sorry that I have not been a better poster, but I will strive to do better from now on.

On going project and a product review....

It is so nice to be missed. One never knows if anyone even reads what is written. So thanks for letting me know!
I have been working on this quilt for a long time. I began it in Alaska at a quilt retreat about two and half years ago. I made a couple quilt blocks for the president of the quilt guild there and I liked it so much that I decided to make a whole quilt using them. I normally like to do sampler type quilts, I have a short attention span. I made it though and when it was time to get it together, the ladies at the retreat suggested putting stars in the sashing. I am so glad that I listened to their advise, despite my inward groaning. It turned out great. Why haven't I finished it yet? Well, my sewing machine at the time decided not to allow me to change the stitch. I really didn't want to do stitch in the ditch, I was really enjoying my free-motion stitch. So, I have slowly been finishing the quilting. I think I have done enough. I am not worried about this becoming an heirloom. So, that is what is happening in the Quilt Room.



Sometimes it is fun to give a review of a handy quilt tool. I consider this project bag by Omnigrid to be an essential tool. I take with me when I go to my quilting group. It is so handy to have all of my needles, threads and quilt top right there, easy to carry. I also would recommend this to scrapbookers or knitters. Five stars for this one.

A Little Hand Applique..

I decided the border needed an appliqued vine and some flowers. So, I started it and I think it is just the thing. I am following a pattern in a book called Quick and Easy Scrap Quilts. The pattern has an appliqued border, which I thought I would do without. I am willing to admit my errors!
Edit to post:
I learned how to hand applique from a great quilter in Ketchikan named Judy Madden. She makes beautiful quilts, but especially hand applique. Her technique is really easy, you draw the vine on the wrong side, bast the fabric on the right side following the lines on the wrong side. Then you trim to the basting stitch about a quarter inch and needle turn the seam under as you applique. I really like this technique. I don't have to pre-cut anything.