Kinsley

My daughter is a secretive one, that's for sure!  She called me the other day and asked if I had any mod podge.  Of course I do....that stuff seems to multiply in the bottle!  I can't seem to find enough projects to use it all up.  While she was picking up the bottle, being the curious mom that I am, I asked what she was doing with it....she said I would have to wait and see.  

So now we all know the name of the newest addition coming in April!  Janessa cut all the wood by herself then painted each block black.  She then mod podged each letter onto the blocks.  She found the letters on flickr.  Some guy likes to take pictures of the alphabet so you can find any kind of letter you need.  

Little Kinsley has a pretty special mommy!

Kinsley's baby quilt is coming right along.  One more border to go with some appliqued wording on it and then it is finished.  Janessa has done a great job!  Reminds me that I need to start thinking of what kind of baby quilt I want to make for this baby. 

Winter Welcome

I use to subscribe to several different quilting magazines.  As the time came and went to renew each one, I usually opted to not renew.  There are a couple of magazines though that I really love and hold on to.  One of those is McCall's Quilting magazine.  In the Holiday issue (Nov/Dec) 2009, I spotted this quilt pattern designed by Susan Guzman.  I have been wanting another Christmas quilt and loved how different this one was.  I used only fabric I had on hand.  It's called Winter Welcome.

Cute Hootin' Owls!

What a surprise we had while eating at Olive Garden last month!  My daughter pulled 3 of these cute owl blocks out of her purse while we were waiting for our food.  So CUTE and of course I was oohing and aahing over them but in my mind I was wondering how and why she kept this new quilt a secret especially since she knows I have a owl quilt pattern she could have if she wanted it.

THEN........

She pulled out an ultrasound picture of a lil' baby and at the top of the ultasound was Janessa's name!  Yea!!!  A new baby for grammie to love!  It is also Baby #1 for the happy couple!  I am so excited for them!  

I asked Janessa several weeks before she told us if she was pregnant but the lil' stinker opened her eyes so huge like "how could you even ask that mom???!!!" that I let it drop......I can't believe she kept it a secret so long!  Of course it makes the 9 months go by alot faster for me this way.  :)  Here she is at 17 weeks.

This was taken December 2.  She is due April 9th so that would make her 5 months along.

AND.....it's a GIRL!!!!  Now I can start shopping!

Thankfulness

On Thursday we will be celebrating Thanksgiving.  I would like to take this time to share a few of my blessings.

My family.  I am so blessed to have such a wonderful family!  I was blessed with 5 great children and as they have married, I have been able to gain daughter's and son in laws.  I couldn't ask for better spouses for my children.  I love each and everyone of these family members!

Oh the grandbabies!  Nothing is better than being able to be around these little people and love on them!  I enjoy so much being a grammie to these 4...soon to be 5 beautiful babies!  They bring so much joy, laughter and happiness to our lives!

I am usually not one to shout my religion but I do need to say how grateful I am for it!  It is a big part of my life.  It helps shape me and hopefully helps me be a better person.  I am thankful for the privilege to be able to worship as I want.  I belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  I am also most grateful for my Savior, Jesus Christ and all that He has done for me.  

I am also thankful for living in this beautiful country.  

I am blessed with a warm home when it's cold and a cool home when it's warm.  There is no place like HOME.

I am grateful for our lil' cabin...our home away from home...where we can hang out as a family, play on the beach or ski the slopes.  It is a place where hopefully many memories will be made for our family. 

I am grateful for being at this point in my life where I can travel with my husband, even if it means the ride isn't always the smoothest!  We love to travel so I will take it however it comes!

I am so thankful for new hobbies!  Gardening is becoming a passion and I am thankful I am learning how to grow some of our own food.  I was blessed with a bountiful harvest this year, even when I didn't know exactly what I was doing.

I was blessed to have wonderful parents, who have since passed on but are still with me in my heart.  After my mother passed away, my dad gave me some money as an inheritance from one of my mom's saving's accounts.  In honor of my mother, who taught me how to sew so many years ago, I bought this sewing machine along with a sewing cabinet.  This sewing machine made it so much easier to sew and helped develop a passion for fabric and quilting!

Last....but certainly not least....I am most thankful for my dear husband.  We have been together almost 34 years now and I couldn't ask for a better friend.  He has made me truly love.

At this time of the year I hope you also take time to reflect on those things that you are most grateful for. Please have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Thank YOU!!! and BOM

First off....I have to say "Thank you" to those of you that read my blog and then voted for my Welcome Fall quilt!  I won!!!  Thank you thank you thank you!!!!  It is just not something that I would usually do (enter a contest), so thank you for supporting me!

Now on to the request I just received....my daughter and I, along with half of the quilters in this valley, are busy working on the LQS's BOM this year.

We are almost there!  I can hardly wait to be able to put all my blocks together!  Here are several of our past month's blocks.

Here's a pic of the almost finished quilt from the designer, Geralyn Powers.  She is amazing!!!  The empty spaces are where the last few blocks will go. 

I'm excited to get mine finished....hopefully that will be in just a few short weeks!

"Just Around the Corner"

Last week our LQS had a trunk show with quilts from "Just Around the Corner" by Kari Carr. You can find the book at Amazon here.

This is the quilt on the cover. Beautiful!

A close up of the quilt with the scalloped edging and easy mitered border.

Pretty tabletop quilt ready for Christmas.

This was a small sampler quilt in a picture frame.

Batik table runner.

Notice the different fabric scallops on the pillow? Not hard! Really!

I fell in love with this purse!

The technique did not seem hard. For the mitered edge, you take your ruler and draw a triangle at the end of your fabric (2 pieces of fabric, rst). Sew on that line then cut excess away.

Turn your fabric out and there you have your mitered edge. The book explains the scallops...I didn't get any pictures of how to do it, but it was not hard.

The lil' contest is still on over at the Quilting Gallery---till tomorrow.  Did you vote yesterday for my quilt? If you did, THANK YOU!!!! If you didn't, there is still time! I would love to have your vote for my "Welcome Fall" quilt! You can go here to see the quilts and then vote for your favorite....hopefully you like mine just a little bit more than the rest! :) Thanks!!!!

Bow Ties

A few months ago I joined a group on Facebook so I would be challenged to make a bow-tie quilt. Many years ago I picked up a bow-tie flimsy at a garage sale and told myself way back then that I needed to make one for myself. I decided to use my bright scraps and make it a perfect size to snuggle up in during the winter months. Here is the finished project. I think I would make another one again but use calmer fabrics and not have it be so scrappy but in the meantime this one will do and I accomplished what I set out to do. Sorry for the not so great picture....the wind we are having makes it tough to want to go outside to snap any pictures!

Also, if you have a chance, could you take time this weekend to go vote for my Welcome Fall (scarecrow) quilt? I hate to beg but I know that the other entries do the same thing and who wouldn't love to win a prize?! Go to: http://quiltinggallery.com/ then click on the topic "Vote now: Thanksgiving quilts". Mine is towards the bottom called Welcome Fall. Thank you!

 

Fall Quilting

So windy in my part of the world! It brings the temp down to not just chilly but chillier! Weather.com says we are at 33 degrees but feels like 22. I'm not too sure I believe that. We are cold inside and out! We have been having strong winds for the past week. Hopefully this isn't a sign of what we can expect all winter. In the meantime, I got my Fall Quilt back from the quilter! Thought I would share the finished project. Just have time to hang it for a week or so and then on to Christmas but I am thrilled I now have a true Fall Quilt.

New doings at the quilt shop

Had a great time at last month's Saturday Sampler! We were shown a cute, fun, free pillow pattern made from fat quarters. I "think" it is a Riley Blake pattern. One fq is used on the back side of the pillow or you could use minkee like the black pillow in the picture. The other 2 fq's are on the front....sewn together as you would a regular pillow back where you slip the pillow form inside. Decorate the front as much as you want. These were very cute!

 

Love the Owl Pot Holders! You can find the pattern here

 

I hope to get several of these made before Christmas. Seems like owls are very popular lately! I saw some owl dinner dishes at TJ Maxx recently. So darling! Will have to get a picture of the newest quilt my daughter is making (and what she said when she showed me her blocks)....yes it has to do with owls!

 

Fall doings....and a quilt!

I've been absent from the blogging world for a few months. Last post was in August. I was taking advantage of the last few days of warm weather. As of today, we have about 4" of snow on the ground with more to come this weekend. I'm just not ready for it yet!

I have been quilting but the 2 quilts I have finished in the last few weeks are already at the quilter so I will show those when they come back.

In the meantime here are a few pics of what I have been up to..........

Here is Baby Annaly (named after her 2 grammies---one of them ME!---Jana and Lana). It was her blessing day so she is with her proud parents. She is such a good baby and I can't believe she is already 3 months old!

Oh the green tomatoes!!! We had a cold front (with snow) come through and so I picked all the unripened tomatoes. I like to make salsa with the red ones but wasn't sure what to do with these guys. I searched the internet and found a blog that said you could ripen them by placing them in a covered container with a banana. Here they are one day after putting them in the container.

Sure enough it worked! Here is a pic taken only 3 days later showing the tomatoes turning red.

I also searched for recipes using green tomatoes. I came up with ketchup, fried tomatoes, salsa, bbq sauce, etc. The one recipe that really caught my eye though was the sweet one! It was a green tomato spice cake. It was SO VERY YUMMY! I made it several times (I was overwhelmed with green tomatoes!) and everyone that ate it was surprised to hear there were tomatoes in it.

Just finished this quilt and will take it to the quilter later today. This was a pattern that I have been itching to make for 4 years now. When we moved to this town, one of the first things we did was attend a benefit auction for a member of the community. A similar quilt was auctioned off there and I fell in love with it. The quilt had been a BOM from our LQS but the pattern had not been replicated for those of us who were new to the valley. I have been bugging--begging--bugging the designer to make it in pattern form for me to buy. She finally did. I just love the scarecrow! Will add the eyes, etc when I get the quilt back from the quilter.

Geralyn is a wonderful, generous designer. Many of her designs have been our BOM's at the LQS. You can find her patterns here.

That's it for now! Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!