Missing in Action

Yikes!  Have I really been gone this long from my last post?!?
Not much going on in the my lil' quilting world.  I did finish this UFO in June.  Should have ironed out the crease in the middle before taking a picture of it but I was too lazy.


Used almost all of the leftover scraps for the back of the quilt.   

In non-quilting life, I was able to watch these two guys several times before the season was over.  Daddy was the coach of the lil' guy's T-Ball team.  I haven't watched a game since my own kids were in T-Ball so it was very entertaining.  Lil' guy enjoyed it and will play next year again but told grammie that he is better in soccer.  How can you not love 5 year olds?!
 


Fun news on Father's Day.  Oldest son asked if we were near a computer and to go check my email....this is what came up!   We can hardly wait for January to come!  Newest one is due on Lil' guy's birthday.  We are excited to see how close their birth days will be!
 

The Honey and I sailed away on this huge thing for our Anniversary.  34 years.  Who can believe that????!   We can't be old enough to have been married that long!
 


Cruised the Inside Passage in Alaska.  Had a wonderful time.  Even had time to stop for a few minutes to shop in Quilt Alaska in Skagway.   Bought a Glacier quilt kit to remind us of the beautiful scenery we saw up there.
 


This is a month full of birthdays so not sure when I will be back.....have been making some burp cloths for the lil princess.  She is now 3 months old and of course still as cute as can be!  We are suppose to head to the cabin again next week so maybe I will take some quilty things with me to sew and hopefully be back soon to show you all!
Hope you are having a great summer too!  Summer always goes by too fast here in Wyoming!

Happy Memorial Day weekend!

Not sure where the time goes but I just haven't spent too much time at the sewing machine.

Actually we have been visiting this lil' 2 year old this month.  She lives out of state and I sure do miss her!  We had a great week visiting her and her parents!


I've also loved having our youngest son home from BYU for a few weeks this month.  He left yesterday for an internship in San Antonio.  Hopefully that beast behind him will get him there, back AND around for 10 weeks!  Joel hasn't bought a car for himself yet...wants to keep saving money so he is stuck with our "leftovers" for his trip.  I'm pretty proud of this kid...he was just accepted into the Master's program at school (yes....he is older than you think).

This lil' one still has my heart.  6 weeks old now and still has all her hair!  She looks so big and chunky here but is still just a lil' thing!
 

I did make this wall hanging this month.  I realized I didn't have any quilt for Flag Day or 4th of July so I looked through my patterns and found this one to make.  It is an Out On A Limb pattern called America Something to Crow About.  Love my rooster guy!
 

It's been a busy summer!

I've had to take a break from sewing because I have been......

Trying to get my garden to grow...after a very wet and snowy May and June. I know I will get potatoes and onions...not sure about anything else...the weather has been more than crazy.

 

It's wedding season! My youngest son's friends all seem to be getting married this summer...6 invites...so far!

 

Been hanging out with my college son. It has been nice having him home for a few weeks in between semesters. He was just accepted into the Marriott Business School at BYU so he can now rest a little bit easier knowing he is now in their undergraduate program. It is very competitive!

 

Not able to get here near enough this summer like we usually do!

 

Celebrating LOTS of summer birthdays!

 

This will be taken to the quilters next week. I "might" get another one finished before fall begins.

 

Enjoyed this part of the country last week.

 

I actually did this...in a tent...on the ground...yes. I took 3 naps the next day from being so tired!

 

But it was worth it since we could do this!

 

Still waiting for grandbaby #4 to come into our lives! Hoping in 2 short weeks!

 

95% it's a girl that will be joining 2 big brothers! Grammie is shopping.......

 

Flew to Minneapolis and took the scenic trip home...

 

...had to pick up this truck for our company...

 

...dropped the truck off here for employees to drive it on to Elko while we relived our teenage years watching Grand Funk Railroad in concert....hubby loved it! hahaha!

 

"Helped" this one run her first half-marathon. Way to go middle child!!!

 

If I'm not with my family this summer, I can be found with our youth group at their activities. It's been a very busy summer for these Young Women already!

 

Last but not least, I've been spending time with this lil' man and his brother!

 

This summer is flying by way to quickly!

Oh! Who am I kidding????

My name is Jana. I am a fabric addict.

Did you think that while on my travels last week that I wouldn't stop at a quilt shop every chance I got?!

I was excited when I searched online and found a shop right in the Amana Colonies. It had even been featured in the 2009 Spring edition of the magazine Quilt Sampler. This is Heritage Designs in Amana, Iowa. A nice, large shop filled with lots of batiks and Japanese fabrics.

 

Since the shop was filled with Lecien fabrics, I had to buy a few fat quarters. Also had to buy fat quarters of Metro Market. Love the retro feel and bright colors of the fabric.

Next stop was also in the Amana Colonies. Fern Hill. Oh my! What a shop! The bottom floor is filled with architectural antiques and flowers. Upstairs is where you find the fabric. Fern Hill is also home to artist, Stephanie Brandenburg. You can see her studio where she paints upstairs. While I was there, she was busy standing on a ladder trying to make sure some antique columns didn't come crashing down. They had a photo shoot the day before in the gardens outside and used some of the antiques in the pictures. From what I understood, their gardens have been featured in many magazines. Of course I had to buy some of her fabric after meeting her.

 

Stephanie's fabric is the grouping in the center of the picture.


By the time we finished exploring the Colonies, we were too late to go to Winterset and see the Fons and Porter shop again. We were there a few years ago and fell in love with the darling town square. Next time. So we headed onwards to Nebraska.

After a night's rest in Lincoln, headed west again. Let me tell you, I-80 is one long highway! I made sure we took a break in Cozad, NE because of a cute quilt shop I found last year on the same trip. Prairie Point Junction is a shop that was also featured in the 2005 Quilt Sampler.

 

On this stop, I found a couple of kits to buy and some sale fabric.

While at a truck stop filling up the truck with diesel, I found a map of Nebraska quilt shops. I was sneaky enough to "need" another break to get out of the truck when we reached Ogallala. Silver Thimble was crammed packed full of machines, threads and fabric. When I first walked in I was a bit disappointed since I didn't see alot of fabric but as I walked back to the end of the store, I found it hiding behind a book wall. It isn't a cutsy store, but if you are a quilter and live in the area, it would certainly serve you well.

I didn't get a picture of the store but here are my goodies. The owner was sweet enough to even let me be a frequent buyer for the day and let me pick out a fat quarter. See the sewing machine fabric in the middle? It was my gift for being such a good customer! As you can see, I bought a couple of patterns and fabric to go with them. I also found some backing for a quilt I am making for #1 grandson. And have you seen the fabric towards the back yet? I LOVE IT! So retro and funny! It's called Housework Whenever. The other piece of fabric has recipes on it. I might have to try them to see if they are any good. It is from Timeless Treasures.


So. Can you tell I have a problem? I love fabric! Always have. Even when I was a little girl I loved going to the fabric stores with my mom while she bought fabric. I just hope that some of this fabric from this trip actually ends up in projects and quilts! If not, it is still fun to touch and look at.

Oklahoma vs. BYU

Over the Labor Day weekend, we traveled down to Texas so we could watch BYU play Oklahoma in the new Texas Stadium! My honey and oldest son bleed blue for their beloved Cougars. We don't usually travel with the team to games but my son wanted to see the new stadium and since we use to live in Texas, we decided to go. The stadium cost over $1 Billion dollars to build. The replay screen cost over $4 million and is 7 stories tall! It is a massive stadium but even while you are there, it is hard to grasp how many people it holds or how huge it really is. The capacity is 100,000 people! Crazy!!!!

Oklahoma fans outnumbered the BYU fans by 5 to 1. BYU wasn't suppose to have a chance to win. Our team was suppose to be blown out of the water by 3rd ranking OK. What a fun shock we had when our team came back from behind and scored a touchdown to win the game! 14-13! Over 75,000 people were at the game and it amazed me to see how quickly the Sooners left the building.

Most of the Sooner fans were gracious with their loss that we talked too but we tried getting into the shuttle van after the game to go back to our hotel and was totally ignored by one woman wearing red (Sooner's colors). There was no way she was going to scoot over so we could get in the same shuttle as her. We just had to roll our eyes. Some people take football way too seriously.

 

I know. That doesn't look like a 7 story tall tv, does it?! It really is!

 

The clarity of the screen was amazing. It felt just like you were there. Oh wait. I was!

 

Final score! Yea Cougars!

 

A collage of pics I took while on the tour of the stadium.

We were only in Dallas for the weekend so didn't get to do much else than the game but we did head over to Ft. Worth to see the Stockyards. Not really my kind of place to be. There was a music festival going on and with it being Labor Day, it was a crowded place with lots of drinking and partying on the sidewalks. We were hoping to catch the show of the longhorns running down the street but we missed them by 15 minutes. We also aren't use to the humidity and heat anymore so we didn't stick around too long. At least I can now say we have been there.

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