HMQS-Sandy, Utah

I was one of the lucky winners of Barbara Jones' generous give away of 2 free tickets to attend the Home Machine Quilt Show in Utah this weekend. If you have the opportunity to attend, do it! If I lived closer, I would go back!  The quilts are just amazing! So overwhelming to see each beauty.
Hate to show this pic since I just got my hair cut super short (and what a silly smile) so it would be the right length for when I pick up my missionary son in 3 1/2 weeks in Nashville.  (Who's counting????) But with me is Barbara Jones of Quilt Soup fame.  I LOVE her patterns!

And in no particular order but how I walked down the aisles, here are some of the beauties we saw.  I don't think these are quilts that you can just whip up in a week.  :)

Will show some more tomorrow. 

Some time away from home.....

Have been spending some much needed time away from home at our cabin.  A couple of days were spent sewing.  I finished up more of the Buggy Barn Convoy blocks.  Need to still applique the wheels on the trucks plus add the front ends to the tractors.

Middle child worked on her Buggy Barn Crazy Sails.  Got it all done too!  I really love the colors of fabric she used!

Next border for the Patchwork Posse Round Robin.  Still need to sew it to the rest of the top.

Daughter's coupon purse.

Inside look so you can see her handmade organizers.

Wouldn't you know it....we got lots of this again!  About 6-8" fell while we were there.

The start of the snowfall.

There was a day that the sun came out and middle child had to get some sun!  Brrrr!

Was pretty funny to look up one day while sewing and find middle child doing this to her frozen strawberries.

Am now home and ready to finish some more projects!

Round Robin Quilt Along

I am finally catching up on the Round Robin quilt. While my daughter sewed her various projects on Tuesday, I sewed on this. Am now working on the next 2 sides. I am loving the colors from the fabrics. Not what I usually use, which is funny since I am the one who bought it.  I think it has sat in the cupboard because of all the orange but now I love the orange color!  The fabric is Serendipity by Piece O' Cake Designs for P&B Textiles. Date is 2006. Hey! It's getting used up from my stash! Yea!
Can you see my snow on my porch?  It snowed all day on Wednesday!

Tuesday was sewing day

Middle child came over and sewed on Tuesday.  She had to play catch-up with the Jelly Roll Sampler quilt.  I finished my 3rd block.  It's always funny to place the blocks on the design wall to see how they match up.  Not sure if Middle Child will redo her first block or not.  Can't we all relate?!  :)  (I'm unpicking something right now)  I look at it this way....every block or quilt we make is a learning process.  I'm just proud of her for beginning to have a love for sewing!

Middle child is also a first grade teacher.  Two of her fellow teachers are retiring at the end of this year.  Tradition is that the other teachers make a levi quilt for them.  These are the blocks Middle child will add to the quilt.

Middle child has sure been busy!  Or not...just depends on how you look at it.  I bought her this quilt kit a few years ago with the hopes that she would take up quilting with me.  Ummmm....she finally finished it.  The flowers are wool.  Now she needs to get it off the design wall and quilt it.  She thinks I will do it for her.  Don't think so!

Hopefully I can show you her cute coupon wallet she made soon!  Tuesday was a very busy sewing day!

Almost April and it's doing this outside!

It was snowing all night and still going strong all day yesterday late into the night. Even had the Interstate closed for awhile and then chain law in effect.  Spring always comes late in these parts of the country.  While everyone else is starting to garden, we still have this on our lawn:

I had to laugh the other day when I read Rae Ann's blog post about having no self control when it comes to buying fabric.  I'm afraid I am the same way.  No matter how much I tell myself that I will not buy new fabric...something always comes along that I fall in love with and "have to have".  Here is one of my latest purchases:  it is from Katie Cupcake called Marabella.

I am using the fabric to make another hat and the sunsuit in the pattern below.  Do you remember these patterns?  I use to make alot of little dresses for my girls with these patterns.  So glad I kept them!

More purchases.  I fell in love with this from Blank Textiles also called Maribella  Love the richness of the colors.  I saw this made up into a purse.  Not sure what I will do with it but it was one of those "got to have it" purchases.  I'm sure no one can relate.  

Cutting Mats

Last week I was reading an email that came my way about the differences in cutting mats.  I had heard about the self-healing vs. the hard surface mat but never paid much attention to them since I just assumed I "needed" the self-healing mat that everyone seems to use.

Well I was in Wal-Mart soon after reading that email and decided to see if they had a hard surface mat.  Yes, they did.  June Tailor makes it.  I decided to buy one (the biggest one they had--23"x23") and see what I thought after reading that your cutting blades will not dull as quickly.  (If you are thinking that my blade is dull right now, you would be correct)  Wow.  It does feel different when you cut.  Much more smooth when you cut and I am not pushing down so hard to cut.  I think I am going to like this new mat.  Will have to look for a bigger one though to fit my table.

Finished Block 2 of my Jelly Roll Sampler Quilt.  Am loving this mystery quilt!

What a week!

Last night that white stuff started falling again. It is always so beautiful to me to see snow fall since I grew up in So. Cal.   It has never gotten old to me to watch out a window to see the snow fall.  This is what it looked like this a.m. outside one of my windows.  Just when I was thinking yesterday how all the snow was about gone from the street and driveway.

On Monday, when we had a nice day, I went for a walk with my new ipod.  Have to say, I am LOVING that thing!  I can listen to music, podcasts and I even found old time radio classics that are free to download.  I love to listen to those old  mysteries.  I listen to one the other day that was recorded over 70 years ago!  

Anyway.  Back to my lovely walk.  

It was lovely until I woke up the next day with a sore throat.  

Then the following day came a full-blown flu.  Oh my.  I haven't been sick in forever so this really put me down for the count.  I laid on the floor as close as I could in front of the fireplace to get myself warm for most of the morning and slept.  Finally I decided I would be more comfortable in bed so I dragged myself there after trying to talk myself into getting up off of the floor for about an hour.  Slept until the Honey came home.  

Felt a bit better yesterday but today I feel pretty much back to my old self so this is what I have been doing this a.m.  Blah.  The house has been neglected this week and needed some loving care.

This is where I really want to be though.....

......finishing the bottom block and then working on another.  These blocks are from the jelly roll sampler and the round robin that I talked about in my earlier post.  

How about one more thing to make.......

On my sidebar you might have noticed I added a couple of quilt-alongs.  I thought that other quilters might want to join and if you are like me and only read blogs through google reader, you probably haven't noticed the additions.  The first one is a jelly roll sew along.  Go here and join in on the fun!  During the next few months, we will be making a jelly roll sampler quilt!  Who doesn't have a few jelly rolls in their possession and are looking for ways to make them into a fun quilt?!  The first block was presented just today so none of us are behind.  A new block will be available every two weeks.

The other fun sew-along is a Round Robin with a twist.  There won't be any sewing and then passing on your portion of the quilt.  We will all make our own Round Robin quilt.  This sew-along has already started (and I am behind) but you can join any time.  I think it will be a fun quilt to use up some of that fabric that I have just laying around and I can't quit buying.  Go here to see the center block.

It's not like I don't have other patterns and books full of ideas of what to make next but these two sew-alongs looked fun and I couldn't resist.  Let me know if you join too!

Semi-annual Ace sale!

Drove over to K-town this a.m. for the "big" sale. See that fabric? It was $1.60 yard. Yup. Michael Miller, Red Rooster, Alexander Henry, Northcott. All good, quilty quality fabric. I will use it for backs on quilts. The books and patterns were either $.80 (yes--under a dollar) or $1.60.
It's always a fun sale to attend----so glad our "local" Ace carries fabric!