Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Reveal!

The Christmas gifts have all been opened so I can show off the three quilts I made as gifts for my family members. You have seen 'The Guys' for my 2 1/2 year old granddaughter. She loves it and is sleeping under it now.

This is, of course, the robot for my 5 year old grandson. He is also cuddled under his quilt tonight.

And finally, here is the quilt I made for my new son-in-law. He was the only one in the family without his own quilt. He liked it but is more excited about the remote control helicopter!

We have had a wonderful Christmas this year! While I enjoy having my whole family together under one roof it has been wonderful to spend some time with each of our children and their significant others individually. We have a couple more days here and then it is back to the real world.

Saturday, December 25, 2010

Two Christmas Gifts Received

This is the little quilt I made for my sister for Christmas. I saw the pattern in a magazine several years ago and found it online at the magazine's site and drew it up on graph paper so I could make it 'someday' since the magazine was no longer available. Well, someday arrived a couple of weeks ago when I decided to make it for my sister. If anyone knows what magazine it came from I would be happy to acknowledge that here. I told my sister that this is definitely a '10-foot quilt', meaning that it looks good as long as you are at least 10 feet away! The points don't match well but it is mostly because it is made quite small - only about 14" X 18". I think if I enlarged it, it would turn out better so I may try it again some time soon. it was very confusing getting it all laid out correctly.

This is the one I made for my niece, Brita - the one who came and worked so hard for me this summer.
This is from the book Dare to be Square. In fact it is the cover quilt, though I did change it a little so that the breast would be made up of short 'feathers' and the rest is longer ones. This was a fun quilt to make!

Friday, December 24, 2010

Merry Christmas to all!
and to all a
Good Night!

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

More eating than sewing!

Our son and his girlfriend arrived on Saturday and we have been having fun spending some time with them. She is from South Korea and has spent the past year going to school at WSU. She will be going home next week so we are trying to enjoy the time we have left before she goes. They have made dinner for us a couple of times. Here is a picture of one dinner.

This is called kimbap and is not something you would find in a restaurant but is more like a sandwich. It was very tasty and I am hoping to learn how to make them as I think it would be a great dinner for hot weather.

This evening is Advent soup supper at church and the kids are at ZooLights so they won't be making dinner today and I think tomorrow I will make japchae for dinner which is a Korean meal that my mother learned to make back in the 70s and when I made it for Peia (the girlfriend) for her birthday last month she said it was like at home.

I am still working on the 'guy' quilt for the little princess. Just have the buttons to get sewn on. I am going very slowly since I am not a huge fan of sewing buttons on! It will get finished though!

Last week I made a couple of sets of these little numbers for my two 'drinking buddies' for Christmas.
They are coasters for stemware. They also work as glass markers as long as they are all different. I made them out of scraps and just cut squares until I had 6 that sort of went together and then put them together. I plan to make more for a bazaar table at the next quilt show.


Last night at craft night we didn't get any crafting done once again. Instead I brought over my birthday cake - a from scratch German Chocolate Cake - my favorite! That along with 11 batches of Chex Party Mix was yesterday's cooking project. Today I made peanut butter fudge and orange creamsicle fudge. Both are quite tasty! I am hoping to give most of it away so I don't end up eating it all. So far I haven't gained back any of the 25 pounds I have lost in 2010 and I hope I can keep it that way and then in 2011 I would love to lose another 15-25 pounds. Then I will finally have lost the baby fat - 21 or so years later!!!!!

Friday, December 17, 2010

Happy Birthday to me!

Yep, it is my birthday today but I think it will also be a busy day for me today. Got word last night that our son and his girlfriend will be arriving tomorrow and staying for a bit over Christmas break so this means the sewing room needs to be 'broken down' and turned into a guest room again. It also means that all the lint and threads from all the sewing I have done for the last three weeks needs to be pulled out of the corners and from under the furniture! And the dust!!!!! House cleaning has not been a priority the last few weeks! Okay, let's be honest, house cleaning is seldom a priority at my house! It's a good thing it is just the two of us and a 5 pound poodle so the mess doesn't build up too quickly!

Last night was the bazaar. I really did have quite a few doll quilts, wall hangings, table toppers and baby quilts along with a few larger quilts that I was able to pull out to sell. My niece added some little zipper pouches that she made up that can be used for cosmetics, toiletries, etc. to the table. I did take the time to make some pillowcases this week. I cut out 22 and sewed up all but one (I discovered there was a small piece cut out of the end of one of the pieces so it couldn't be used). They are sew easy to make and it was fun decorating the cuffs with some ric-rac and lace.

My strawberry quilt top was sitting on the sewing table so I also decided to make up a back and get it finished for the bazaar. Unfortunately, my work was for naught as I didn't sell anything though lots of people thought the pillowcases were nice. Katie sold 5 of her pouches so it wasn't a total waste. I did get a good bit of the binding sewn on the 'guy' quilt while I listened to Katie's students caroling so all was not lost.

I finished another secret project this past week but again, that picture must wait until after Christmas.

I am thinking today will involve creating a back for Linnea's quilt (due Jan. 4) and getting it basted. At least then it is ready for quilting after Christmas. Tomorrow after going to the food bank to help make up the Christmas baskets for families in need in our area I will get the house cleaned up a bit in preparation for company. I am guessing we will be putting up the tree tomorrow or Sunday so there will be some furniture rearranging to be done also.

Friday, December 10, 2010

Time to post or time to sew?

That is my dilemma! When I have time to post here I am not spending time in my sewing room so don't have anything to post and when I have things to post I don't take the time to do the posting!

I have been very busy in the sewing room and elsewhere so I haven't been posting but I will get you caught up now.

I've got the robot quilted and bound. WooHoo! One down, many to go! My grandson is very into robots right now so he should be very excited when he opens this one.

I finished the embroidery on my granddaughter's quilt and got it quilted yesterday. I tried doing diagonal lines but I am not so good at that it turns out! I don't think little GD will notice the crooked lines! I have the binding on it so that is one to get busy on with the hand-sewing.

I also got the 'secret' top quilted and started hand-sewing the binding last night. That one is pretty cool!

I have started working on some other 'secret' projects that I hope to finish for Christmas but we will see!

It looks like I will be having a table at a bazaar next week with my niece at the school where she is the music teacher. I have a number of mini and small quilts that I can offer along with some larger ones if someone is interested and my niece will have some things also. If I have time I hope to make some pillowcases out of some of the novelty prints that I want to use up.

Saturday, December 4, 2010

Third Top Done!

I woke up earlier than I wanted to this morning and once I had checked email, etc. I headed into the sewing room and started sewing on the third quilt top. I didn't stop for anything and by 4:30 this evening I had the top done. Isn't he just the cutest robot? I am so loving this book! I plan to make more robots and other quilts from the book but I plan to make them on a smaller scale. This one is about 60" X 70". I think the robot would be great with a black and white background and maybe orange and red zig zags for his tummy. Anyway, I need to figure out backing for the three quilts so I can get them quilted this next week and move on to other projects.

While I was working on this I had the finished parts laid out on the floor along with a few of the blocks laid out so I could plan the zig zags and my niece came over to have her uncle help her replace a headlight and my little poodle, Lucy, was so excited to see her and just kept dancing around on all the little pieces! I don't think she left one where it was supposed to be! Very funny!

Friday, December 3, 2010

Am I An Over-achiever?

I am starting to worry about me! I have just been very motivated the last few weeks and am taking advantage of that cuz, Lord knows, it probably won't last!!!

Let's see, I got this quilt binding finished. Really happy with how it turned out. I think I will toss it in the washer with a couple of others to get them crinkled up.

I also finished the second of the quilts for my customer.
She came and picked them up today and seemed happy with what I did. She said she has lots of quilts so there may be more coming my way.

I got this top put together. It is the first of the three I decided to do over Thanksgiving. I was so excited to have it this far and got started on embroidering faces in the squares when I figured out that I put it together wrong!
So I ripped that top row off and will sew it back on to the bottom of the lower section. All in all, not a tragedy but a little disappointing! I do have about half of the noses and mouths embroidered (the eyes will be white buttons) and hope to finish those up this evening.

I started on the second of the three yesterday and finished the top up this evening. I am very happy with that one too and can't wait for Christmas! I can't post pictures of that one though until after it is received by its new owner. I hope to start on the third top tomorrow and maybe have it finished over the weekend!?!? Then I can get the quilting done on those and move on to quilting the quilt for my friend that is due on January 4. I am also thinking about a few other Christmas projects but first I must finish these other three.

Okay! It is official! I am going crazy!

Thursday, December 2, 2010

Numbers Are Up

I was pretty busy in the sewing room in November and December should be pretty close if I can keep up the pace!

November Tally

Finishes
Leftover Triangle Quilt
3 Doll/Mini Quilts
Bento Box Quilt
Brown Leftover Triangle Quilt
Pink/Green Quilt
Good-bye Scrap Quilt

Tops Only
Strawberry Doll Quilt
Odyssea Triangle Maze Quilt


Other
4 QBE Blocks
2 QBRR 2010 Blocks
Diaper Bag

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

One more finish

I spent the morning getting the first of the two quilts done for my first customer. I really love the colors and fabrics though I would probably never by them to make a quilt.I just did a simple meander on this one. It turned out well and I was done in time to make it to a meeting and then run some errands, including a stop at the post office to get my new book!

After getting home and taking care of a few things around here and getting some dinner on the table for my hubby I started sewing some blocks for the first of the three quilts from my new book. I got 12 of the 29 blocks done and should have the top together tomorrow. It will then need some embroidery before quilting so I can do that in the evenings after I have worked on sewing the other two quilts during the day. Tomorrow morning though, I am planning to get that second quilt finished for my customer so I know I have that off my plate.

2 Blocks and 1 Finish

I received these two blocks this last week from QBE over on Flickr. This is a fun group with month-to-month commitments to make up to 4 blocks for others and then receiving up to 4 blocks from 4 other quilters. If anyone is interested in joining us, just head on over and you can play too. I just finished posting the participants for December but sign-ups for January will start right around Christmas.

Well, due to circumstances beyond my control (customer phone calls for our Appliance Repair business) I only got one of those quilts quilted on Monday. I started on the second but had tension issues (the machine, not me!) so I decided to start fresh on Tuesday! The quilting machine worked like a charm yesterday so I had two quilts waiting for the hand-sewing on the binding. Last night at craft night I got this quilt finished off except for a label

so I will be able to get it to my son's girlfriend in time for her to take it to her mom when she goes home to Korea in January. I got about halfway around the second quilt so hopefully I can post a picture tomorrow or even later today!

Yesterday my first quilting customer came by with her two quilts and I got them both sandwiched so I might be able to get one of them quilted today. Not sure on that since I have several things I have to do away from home today too.

My new book arrived at the post office yesterday but I didn't pick up the mail until after it was closed so I will have to run down today. It is just as well since my customer needs her quilts back in a timely manner and I would be tempted to work on the three quilts instead of quilting!

Sunday, November 28, 2010

Dare to be Square

What a crazy week we had! First the snow and power outage. Then the company came. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with our daughter, Chelsea, and SIL and two grandkids and our niece. Lots of food and fun.

Chelsea and SIL were in Portland for a few days before coming up here and spent a day at Powell's. One of the books she got was this new quilting book.

She brought it in for me to see and I fell in love with several of the quilts in this book. So while the kids were otherwise entertained I got pieces cut out for three of them for Christmas gifts. One for each of the grandkids and one for someone else whose name I cannot mention here. Chelsea wanted to take her book home with her so I promptly got one on order from Amazon and it should arrive tomorrow so I can get started with the sewing.

Yesterday after the kids left, Hubby, my niece and I went and did some shopping. I even got some Christmas gifts taken care of or at least have a plan now.

Today I got two quilts sandwiched and pin basted so I can get them both quilted tomorrow. I also have the bindings ready to go so I will should have at least one done by tomorrow night. With those two and the 3 I cut out from my new book I think I have 6 of my own quilts to finish before Christmas and then I should have two to quilt for someone else. I need to get busy!!!!!!!

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

A little snow, a little wind, a little sewing

Mother nature has sent a little monkey wrench into our plans for this week. We were getting a bit of snow on Sunday afternoon and when we got home from the airport it was starting to stick. In the morning we had maybe an inch of snow but it was snowing and continued to snow all day with the temps never going above freezing. Our power went out briefly and then for good at about 6 last night. We lit oil lamps and candles and enjoyed the gas fireplace before heading to bed with extra warm jammies. This morning the power was still out so hubby got the generator going and got more gas and propane to keep things warm. We were also without phone and internet for at least part of the day. Not sure how the week will progress and when power will come back but we should be okay and we may just postpone Thanksgiving a day or so! I went out and took a few pictures yesterday and found my Gerbera Daisy valiantly blooming in spite of the cold! Today all the plants on the deck are frozen.

I did get some sewing done yesterday and today (love the generator!) I managed to get this top finished for my son's girlfriend's mother in Korea.
I need to have it done by Christmas time so Peia can take it to her mom. This is such an easy pattern and very quick.

I also got the top of the quilt for my friend Linnea done. It is turning out pretty good but I can't show pictures until the reveal on January 4 so be patient. Needless to say, the lady didn't bring over her quilts for me to quilt yesterday. We have rescheduled for next week sometime. I will have quite a bit of quilting to get done before Christmas but I am looking forward to it.

Just want to end with these pictures from our yard. Remember, it snowed all day yesterday and then the wind started up. It managed to knock most of the rest of the leaves off the chestnut tree. One nice thing is that it blew them outside of the yard because the wind was from the north. The funny thing is that all the leaves ended up standing up out in the snow, like little soldiers! Very funny!

Monday, November 22, 2010

The weekend

I didn't do much sewing over the weekend but it was a busy time! While I cleaned house on Saturday, my sister was hosting the reveal for one of the round robins I have been involved in this past year. She emailed pictures to those of us who couldn't be there. Here are my blocks:We each sent a 'center' piece to be used in our blocks and then requested the colors/style for the blocks. Some included extra fabrics to be used and some said the 'center' piece could be used anywhere in the block. I asked for batik houses made using whatever method the person wanted with the yellow fabric I sent as at least one window. My sister, who was in charge, has put my blocks in the mail so I should have them in a few days and will post close-up pictures of the individual blocks to show the detail. You can see pictures of the rest of the block sets here. Most of us will be starting another round robin shortly. Two are heading off to college next year so are opting out for the next round.

Our son and his girlfriend arrived safely and following a special birthday dinner of jap chae to help Peia feel a little less homesick for her family in Korea, we presented her with her quilt.She really liked it and appreciated our efforts. A little later we shared her Pikachu birthday cake and played some Wii.

Yesterday afternoon we dropped those two off at the airport during a snow shower so they could head to Hawaii and enjoy some warmth! We will miss them on Thanksgiving but look forward to hearing about their trip when we pick them up again on Friday. Our oldest daughter and family arrive on Wednesday so for the next two days I plan to get some sewing done before the big push to get a Thanksgiving meal cooked!

Saturday, November 20, 2010

I finished this quilt top the other day.It is from a pattern called Triangle Maze by Debbie of Esch House Quilts. I saw the pattern and thought it would be great for the HSTs I got from my friend.

I came up with a plan for the fabrics in my last post. I saw a quilt hanging at Fabric Depot on one of my recent shopping trips and drew up the pattern with plans to use it for some fabrics I had that needed a pattern. (I still haven't gotten to those fabrics yet!) I thought of that design the other night and pulled it out and I think it is going to be pretty great! I have all the pieces cut ready to sew.

My son and his girlfriend are arriving today and leaving tomorrow for Hawaii so the sewing room will be a guest room and more company arrives on Wednesday. I can bring my sewing machine and ironing board out in the great room next week and work on the pink quilt and also on my friend Linnea's quilt. On Monday I also have a quilter coming over who would like to have a couple of quilts quilted for her. I might as well make that machine help pay for itself!

Yesterday I pulled out my 'triangle drawer'. I pressed and trimmed all the triangles that were already sewn and sewed up some that were matched up already. I was able to make quite a few broken dishes blocks for the next triangle quilt. After the holidays I will get to work on matching up some more of those triangles and clean out the drawer completely! As I was sewing, pressing and trimming I was thinking about how I will put this triangle quilt together. I am hoping to do something a little different but we will see how that goes.

Today I have a house to vacuum and tidy, a sewing room to turn into a guest room and a Pikachu birthday cake to make and decorate!

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

I think our internet is finally doing okay. I like to think I can live without it but OMG it drives me nuts when I can't get online and do what I need to do! It was most frustrating when I needed it for the business!

I did get the Bento Box quilt binding done so now it just needs a label.

Unfortunately it didn't help me get more done in the sewing room! This morning I finally got to finish off this bag. I am loving this one.
I used the contrasting green zippers and they are so cute! It is hard to send it off to its new owner but then again, I really don't need another bag!

Once the bag was done it was so hard to not work on the triangles quilt but I hadn't received all the coordinating fabrics! I was distracted by lunch with a friend. She just has a 1/2 hour lunch at the local elementary school so I stopped at Panda Express and brought lunch there. She and I have known each other since our oldest were in preschool and we reconnected when they were in junior high marching band together. Her two boys are the same age as my two girls and we alway said it would be awesome if they would get married so we could be co-mothers-in-law. That was not meant to be so we will just have to be satisfied with the occasional lunch!

When Hubby came home he picked up the mail down at the road and brought the last piece of fabric so after dinner I made the last 4 HSTs and got these blocks together. I thought I had it ready to put together until I looked at it on the computer and could see that the red was all at one end so I will relay it out and get the top together tomorrow.
My next project will involve these fabrics.
I want to make a wall hanging/table topper or maybe a lap quilt using these fabrics. I just need a plan!! Any ideas? This will be a thank you gift to my son's girlfriend's mother. The girlfriend is from South Korea and her mom made a beautiful pottery wind chime and sent it to me so I want to make a quilt for her.

Sunday, November 14, 2010

Keepin' on

I was pretty busy this weekend. I got the quilt quilted and the binding is just waiting for the hand-sewing. I also finished the blocks for the quilt for our Tuesday evening quilt swap done. I might get the top done this week but as that one doesn't have to be finished until January 4 I need to put it away while I finish up a couple of other things.

I also sewed together the triangles that I got from my friend at the retreat. I have them pressed and ready to be squared up. I will get them together in groups of threes but I can't go too much further until my fabric arrives in the mail to finish the blocks off.
Today I had a frustrating day with no internet all morning and lots of call to make but unable to get through to our health insurance company to ask a couple of questions. AAAAAAGGGGGHHHHH!

I did get the triangles all trimmed up and ready to go. I also got the first package of fabric to go with them but need the other two since I need to make just four more HSTs so I will end up with 48 blocks.

In between calls I also got this tote bag cut out and this evening I got the outside put together. My hope is that I will get the lining put together tomorrow and get the whole thing finished too as long as I get the right length of zipper for the top. I just love the Kiwi zipper on the front pocket!

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Top Done!

I had hoped to finish the blocks yesterday but that pumpkin project took more time and energy than expected. I think I got 16 cups of pumpkin to put in the freezer for future use and I used 2 cups to make some delicious pumpkin bread. I think I will be using most of that frozen pumpkin for bread because it is awesome! There was just a little leftover pumpkin that didn't fit in a container or in the bread so I figured I would eat it - you know, it is squash after all. I took a little taste and it was so sweet I didn't add anything and finished that little bit off. I was tempted to take one of those 2 cup containers out of the freezer!

I did get another step or two finished on the quilt blocks but didn't finish them up so this morning I headed into the sewing room and got to work. I had the blocks done by lunch and this afternoon I got them together and added the border and here it is!
Tomorrow I will head to the fabric stores to find a good backing fabric. I don't think I have anything that will work and I don't want to use all the Kona solids up that I used in the quilt for the back. I think I will head up to Port Gamble to check out Quilted Strait. They moved up there this past year and I haven't had a chance to visit the new store.

I few days ago I found this quilt on flickr and I found the pattern and thought this would be a great quilt to make using some of my infamous triangles. This morning as I thought about it more I remembered a batch of triangles I got from a friend at the quilt retreat and thought it would be a great pattern to use for those. The triangles were all from one fabric line so I emailed my friend to get the name of the line. It is Odyssea from Moda so I went online and found some more fabrics from the line and since it is an older line I was able to get it on sale. Once those come I will be hard pressed to work on something else instead of that. But I do have other projects that need to get finished first so I hope I can be good!

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

I Almost Forgot!

Here are the two blocks I made for Pam in QBRR2010. I got them done on Monday and got all the blocks in the mail that afternoon. Nice to get a few things off my list quickly!

Busy Day!

Yesterday morning I just had to get at least one of the blocks for my next quilt done before I headed out for the day. I decided to do two to try out two different methods of putting them together. (Not the best pictures - it was from my phone) It was hard to turn off the sewing machine and head into the shower!

After my shower I got some things together to join the local quilt guild at a charity quilt sew-in. It was a great opportunity to use up some more of my smallest scraps. We are making spider web blocks seen here on Bonnie Hunter's site. Here are the 22 blocks I got finished while I was there.
I took home enough foundation pieces to finish enough blocks for a full quilt. Luckily, there is no deadline to get this one finished. I am hoping I can work a little on it each week to get them done sooner.

After dinner and a little rest time I had enough energy to head into the sewing room and do the first stage on the rest of my blocks. I got those pressed and then laid out my next step.

Once I have my coffee I will head into the sewing room and get to work. My other project for today is cooking up pumpkin. We used pumpkins for decorations at the wedding and I just can't let it go to waste so I will cook them up and get most in the freezer for pumpkin pies and pumpkin bars and pumpkin bread. I am thinking I might even get some pumpkin bread made today.

Monday, November 8, 2010

Building blocks

This past week I got my blocks done for the Flickr Quilt Block Exchange. It is fun to work on someone else's projects so you get some variety.
After I got those four done I got these two fun tree blocks done for Margaret in QBRR2010. I have two more to make for QBRR2010 this morning and then I will moving on to a new quilt that I hope to have done this week.

On Saturday I got the striped pieced quilt quilted and last night I worked on the binding. I should have that done this afternoon or evening so maybe there will be pictures tomorrow of it and several other quilts that I have the bindings done on.

I just need to keep plugging away on all the projects I am working on that have deadlines in the next 2 months. And then do some thinking about Christmas also.

Saturday, November 6, 2010

October Finishes

In spite of going to a quilt retreat in October I didn't get much finished during the month. Of course the big thing was finishing the hand quilting on the wedding quilt. So here is the meager list:

October 2010 Tally

Wedding Quilt
Sharelle's quilt top
120 strip pieced blocks (with my niece's help)

Monday, November 1, 2010

Ripping and Stripping?

I spent much of my free time this past week working on ripping apart the blocks that I put together at the quilt retreat that were not the right size. After ripping I pulled out all the little threads, pressing them and then trimming them. They are all ready to start putting them back together. That project was put on hold over the weekend though because my niece Katie came over to enlist my help and opinion and my dining room floor to layout the 29 blocks she got for her birthday last August. This is the layout we came up withShe did the math and handed me pieces to sew together and we got it into rows and then I let her sew the rows together while I cut foundation squares and diagonal strips for a strip pieced quilt for our pastor who is leaving later this month. After her top was together she just didn't think she had it in her to add borders so she started making the strip pieced blocks. We took a break to watch some TV with my hubby and then yesterday she and I had two sewing machines going and got all 120 blocks made! This morning I got up and got those blocks together into a top!
As we were sewing the blocks it just didn't seem like the bin of scraps was getting any emptier! When the blocks were done and all the scraps that fell to the floor were crammed back in we could see a difference though not a huge one. We figured we should have weighed the bin before and after and maybe that would have told the story. Here is what I have left in this bin of scraps - I am pretty sure I have more elsewhere but I am trying to use up this one before I go hunting for more. If I was a more organized person I would schedule my time in the sewing room so that I made a few string blocks each day or week to slowly empty that bin but my reality is that I am more of a binge type sewer!

Monday, October 25, 2010

The knot is tied!

We had a great weekend at Shoshone Base Camp in Idaho for our 2nd daughter's wedding. She and her husband met last fall at Camp Lutherhaven in Coeur d'Alene and she worked at Shoshone this past summer so it was the perfect spot for their wedding!

It was such fun meeting all of Drew's family for the first time and spending the weekend with them and most of my extended family. One of the best parts was that there was no internet or cell service so we just had to visit and get to know each other!

I finished the quilt Thursday night and my sister embroidered the label on the way to camp and got it added to the quilt the day of the wedding shortly before we hung it on the wall. The pattern is Monet's Wedding Ring from the book Scraps by Judy Martin.

On Friday after arriving at the camp I made the 17 pies for the wedding dinner. The bride put together 14 lasagnes for the wedding dinner and then we turned over the kitchen to her new mother-in-law so she could get the baked potatoes, ham and salad bar ready for that night's dinner. It was wonderful and we used the leftover potatoes for hashbrowns the next morning and potato salad for lunch and dinner.

Once lunch on Saturday was done we cleaned up the chow hall and got things set up for the wedding dinner and got ourselves dressed and ready for the wedding. It was a very fun and wonderful wedding officiated by my sister's husband. Pictures and dinner went off without a hitch followed by lots of visiting.

A huge thank-you needs to go to my sister for helping to make things happen and all the others who helped with dishes, cleaning and cooking to make the weekend go as smoothly as it did!

If you want to see some of the photos from the photographer you can see them here.

Friday, October 22, 2010

It is finished!

The quilting is finished! the label is getting started and should be finished and on the quilt today. One whole day before the wedding. Must be some kind of record! Pictures will be posted on Monday!

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

The Big Weekend!

It's here! I head out this morning to get things started. Today I will be food shopping with the bride for the dinner and dessert and probably for her head piece and then heading to my sister's house. Tomorrow I will spend the day finishing the quilt. Yes, I think I should be able to finish it!! Friday I head to the camp to start baking pies and preparing the lasagna. And then the fun begins!


Saturday, October 16, 2010

one top done

Here is the top I made for my cousin in North Dakota. She said she wanted green but that brown and tan were okay too.This pattern comes from Judy Martin's book Scraps and is called Grandmother's Scrapbook. It was a fun one to make and turned out so well. I went to my LQS and got a back for this quilt this week so as soon as that wedding quilt is done I can think about getting this quilted.

I am working away at the wedding quilt but it is only a week until the wedding! I did finish another phase of the quilting today so it feels a bit closer to completion at least. After next Saturday I will be able to post a picture of the quilt, done or not!

I also started working on cleaning up the sewing room so it can be used as a guest room next week for my brother and his wife who are coming from West Virginia for the wedding. I sorted through all the leftovers that other quilters at the retreat last weekend dropped off at my workspace. Some will be added to my triangle collection or my scrap bin but some will be used as projects on their own. I will be spending Monday and Tuesday getting that room and the rest of the house a little tidied up in between hand quilting sessions and on Wednesday I head out to get thing ready for the big day.