Is it going to settle down?

At this point I am not so sure. But more about that after I update you on the last couple of weeks.

Here are the quilts that I made with the kids. This is Layden's creation. He is 5 1/2 and just started Kindergarten. He was very methodical in his placement of the pieces. He chose the layout - I think he saw it more as 2 rows of 3 instead of 3 rows of 2! He chose his green background fabric and was instrumental in the choice of the rainbows for the back and sashing.

Here is little Clara's quilt. She is 3 and just like laying them all over the place! Clara chose pink because, you know, pink is her 'fravrite' color!

I drove them back home last Monday and let me tell you, driving for 6 hours or so with those two kids is no mean feat! The only time they weren't talking was, wait! they never stopped talking! I was able to kiss them goodbye the next morning as they headed to the first day of Kindergarten and preschool and then rode with their dad to pick them up and hear about their morning. While they were at school I enjoyed a relaxed conversation with my son-in-law. He works 12-hour shifts on the weekends when I am usually visiting so it was nice to have a chat without kid distractions.


I headed out just before lunch and my son fed me lunch at his apartment at college. He is starting his senior year at Washington State University.


I left there when he needed to head to class and drove up to my other daughter's house on Lake Coeur d'Alene. She had to work until 7 so I got to have a nice one-on-one with my other son-in-law. I spent the next two days at their house enjoying my daughter's 'weekend'. We had a little sew-in up in her attic. Thank goodness the weather was a bit cooler so it was comfortable up there! We each got a Professional Tote made and had a great time! This is my bag...

 ...and this is Rebecca finishing hers. 

I headed home on Friday and got busy with laundry, picking blackberries and getting everything put away. My sister arrived for a visit from Idaho just before dinner as did her daughter who lives about 30 miles away. We had a fun weekend! Saturday we did a garage sale marathon hitting 27 sales! We got some treasures - my favorite was a piece of vintage barkcloth - about 11 1/2 yards for $80! I have been thinking about making new curtains for the bedroom using barkcloth but hadn't yet found any larger pieces online.


Several months ago, our pastor asked me to make her a green stole to wear with her alb. I got it finished very quickly but then never remembered to bring my camera to get a picture of her wearing it. I finally remembered this past Sunday so here it is. I caught her as she was greeting folks after worship.

She looks happy here but today she was looking a bit tired. A hot water pipe broke under the kitchen sink at church on Tuesday evening sometime and wasn't discovered until about 5:30 in the morning when the daycare staff came in. The kitchen and bathrooms upstairs were flooded along with the bathrooms, storage area and one classroom downstairs. Luckily, the insurance company is being very helpful and we have professionals cleaning things up but it is still a headache! Tomorrow I am going to go in and help figure out which of the wet items is worth keeping or should be trashed! Luckily, we have finally gotten summer here so it is warm and dry to help with the drying and the weather is supposed to be lovely for outdoor worship on Sunday.


Yesterday I did some yard work and got laundry washed and on the line during the day and in the evening I made it to my quilt guild meeting. We had a great speaker and I got my registration forms for putting quilts in the show in October. Also, the guild president announced that she won the auction for my quilt that was hanging at the bluegrass festival!


This morning I did some more laundry (the sheets and towels are all done now) and also made two batches of peach jam and this afternoon was LWR quilting day at the church. 


I haven't gotten any sewing done since I have been home but I am hoping to get into the sewing room soon as I have quite a few project deadlines looming!

Biting off more than I can chew?

I hope not! I am feeling a little stressed but I think it is just that there are so many projects hanging over my head. I am prepared but there are a lot of unknowns involved.


On Monday our son returned from his trip to South Korea to visit his girlfriend. It sounds like he had a good time but since he is here and his computer is at his apartment on the other side of the state we will have to wait for pictures until he can do some downloading and editing. 


His girlfriend's mom sent these beautiful fabrics for me. I am not sure what exactly I will make with them but I am toying with making a wallhanging for me and a matching one for her to thank her for taking such good care of the boy. She also sent this cute little bag that she made (look at those cute little prairie points).

My son brought me this beautiful sample of traditional Korean handwork made from silk. I am hoping my husband will make a frame for me so I can hang it on the wall.

Silly me, I volunteered to make a quilt for our church's 'VBS' program this year. We are doing it on 5 Wednesday evenings and as part of the adult class I am having people help me make a quilt. My niece, Katie, designed a quilt in 5 parts and I get to figure out how to make it work in fabric. This was last night's section which is very loosely based on the story of Moses in the basket in the river.

Today I got next week's section ready to go since I volunteered for another project. This one is making a quilt with our church's older day care kids. I got all the pieces cut out from donated fabric and the goal is that each child will make a 4-patch block which will be put together to make a LWR quilt top and they will help tie it. I also cut out pieces so they can each make a little 8.5" 'quilt' to take home if we have enough time. We will work with them for 2 hours each on Tuesday and Thursday next week.

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.

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!

Some progress

We had a great time at Relay for Life. Our team met and surpassed our fund-raising goal for this year. We also left the event excited about next year. I sold a few of my little quilts along with one that I brought to decorate our shelter. We chose a patriotic theme for our space and I brought along my little flag quilt. I made it after 9/11 as a sort of therapy for me. It did its job and as I haven't displayed it in my home for several years when someone asked it was for sale I said sure. I actually had three people interested in it so if I had had more I probably would have sold them too. Maybe I will have to make some more.

I came home on Saturday to my husband tearing off part of the garage roof. On Sunday I took advantage of the beautiful weather and got the mowing done and on Monday I cleaned up the mess that my husband made pulling off old roofing and rotten wood.

I did get back in the sewing room yesterday and got the labels on the baby quilt I made a week or so ago and on the t-shirt quilt. I also made some more blocks for this quilt and got it put together and quilted. I finished the binding last night so I have another quilt I can sell.



I also cut out another tote bag and had it ready to sew today. And I did just that! This one is for my friend and she wanted something with pink, purple and bright blue. I hope she likes it tomorrow when she comes over to get it.



My next project to finish in the sewing room are the pillows to go with the window seat cushions I made for another friend. I got one pillow finished today and hope to get at least one more done tomorrow. Then I will need to make a trip to JoAnn's to get at least one more pillow form so I can make some more. I also have been asked to repair a 7-yr old's favorite quilt. It is well-loved and I hope I can give her a few more years with it.

Also on my list of to-dos is my granddaughter's 'Big Girl' quilt. It needs to be ready for her birthday just after the 4th of July.

Buzy Month!

Here it is:

May Tally

LWR - 1 backs and 7 top
Doll/Wall Quilts - 1 top and back (chicken disappearing 9-patch)
Quilt Block Exchange Blocks - 4
Quilt Block Round Robin Blocks - 3
Tops - 3 (Triangles, Transportation and T-shirt)
Quilted - 7 (2 children's quilts, 1 denim, Disappearing 9-Patch, Crazy Quilt, 2 baby quilts)
Totes - 3

Another thing my niece and I did this weekend was start planning for this year's Western Washington Quilt Shop Hop. If you live in this area and you have never done the shop hop, you might want to try it at least on a small scale. This year we are planning on 34 shops in 2 days and we will be going from Lynden to Vancouver and all the way over to Ocean Shores. Should be fun!

Twin Totes

I haven't posted much recently because my shoulders have made sewing more torture than pleasure! Weeding the strawberries took a toll and then on Saturday I helped count and sort the items our food bank received from the post office food drive and didn't make things any better! Today I finally finished these two totes.One is spoken for and the other is available if anyone is interested. I am hoping to have at least one tote available for display at our Relay for Life event in June. If anyone orders one at relay or before August 1 I will donate half of the price to the American Cancer Society.

I have the fabric for one more now for my friend but that is going to wait until I get my QBE blocks done for May and I also received one of the QBRR 2010 packages so I need to do that one. I also heard from my niece that she has a couple of the WIMM QBRR 2010 packets ready for me to pick up also. Then there is the graduation t-shirt quilt that needs to get made and my granddaughter's big girl quilt that I want to have done by her 2nd birthday in July. I had better get busy!

Another Bag

I hadn't done much in my sewing room this week because I had to take advantage of the beautiful weather and get some yard work done. Yesterday and the day before I worked at weeding the strawberries as they are blooming and the berries are starting to form. I got both rows weeded but about halfway down the first side of the second row there was a rustle in the berries and suddenly a little bird was dragging its wing down the path. It was the first time I have seen this in person but the bird (an Oregon Junco) was trying to draw me away from its nest.It isn't easy to see in the picture but the nest is a little to the left of the middle with one little egg in it. Mom and Dad Junco scolded me until I finally finished the weeding. I haven't been back down there since yesterday but I hope they are settled back into their nest.

The past two days I got 3 tote bags cut out and interfaced and ready to sew so today I got busy (after a fashion) and got the first one put together.
This one is for my sister-in-law in Colorado. We picked out the fabric when I was down there last month. I guess Monday I will need to make a trip down to the post office and get it in the mail.

The other two bags are out of the same fabric (and actually are the same as this one). One of them is spoken for but the other will be available for sale. A friend was here today and saw my bag so I will be making one for her also - she likes purple and pink.

Now it is time for a shower and a neck rub - my shoulders have been killing me today from all the weeding so I told hubby when he got home that he was going to have to take care of them for me! I should have had him do it last night and I might have gotten more sewing done today!

On the road again...

My husband and I got home yesterday after a week in Colorado with his sister who just lost her husband. We had a good visit and hopefully helped her as she adjusts to her new life alone. One of our outings was to several of the many great flea market/antique shops in her town. This quilt was one of my finds. I don't know the age of it but the blocks were hand pieced and then put together and bordered by machine. It is completely hand quilted. Yellow always makes me happy! We got a few other items that you can see here, here and here.

I delivered the two bags I finished last week to my husband's step-sister while we were in Colorado and she loves them. My SIL liked the bags so I am making her one also. We picked up the fabrics while we were there so I will need to get on that soon.

But first I need to get busy and finish some quilts, if possible, as I am heading up a quilt show next Saturday at our church which will be raising funds for Relay for Life.

Two More Bags

Here are two more bags using the Professional Tote pattern.There were made to order for my husband's step-sister. The one on the left is for her crocheting projects so it doesn't have the center dividing zip pocket. The other is for her laptop. She purchased the fabric and sent it to me and I received it just last week. I pushed to finish them this week as we will be heading down to her area on Friday so I can deliver them in person. I hope she likes them. I think they look great! Her fabric choices are great!

Today's project

So here are some pictures of the tote I made today. It is from the same pattern I used for the bag I made on the quilt retreat (I just haven't gotten around to taking pictures of that one)! This side has a zipper pocket and you can see the pockets on the ends that will hold water bottles quite nicely.This side has a wide pocket along the side with a magnetic clasp.Here is a shot of the inside. The divider in the middle is a zipper pocket. On one side is a pleated pocket and on the other side is a patch pocket with a key fob.The whole thing zips shut and it will hold a laptop which is why I made the first one for myself. This one is hopefully going to be for one of two people who are interested in buying a bag. Both wanted a blue one so if they both want one I will buy more of the fabric and make another.