It's a .................................

Yesterday my daughter, Nicky, and her husband Patrick called to say that they were having an ultrasound to find out if they were having a boy or a girl. Of course, I said, Tell me, tell me tell me! They said "NO". (Picture my frustrated face!) They wanted to come down in person to tell us face to face! (Now picture my husband and I waiting not so patiently for them to arrive) They live in Logan, about 1 hour and 45 mintues away so we had to wait until about 8 p.m. to find out.

When they got here they had a large box and told us when we opened it we would know. As the box was opened.....out floated pink balloons with "It's a GIRL" printed on one of them. We are so excited. Now I can really concentrate on what to make and what to shop for in PINK.

Since they had to be to work early this morning they only stayed about an hour and turned around and drove back home. But we got to see pictures and the ultrasound. Those are pretty amazing. Certainly nothing like that when I was having babies. We are all very excited and looking forward to June.

Gotta get down to the sewing room and start planning more stuff! Lynda

Mrs Moen's Mystery off and running!

Are you participating in Mrs. Moen's Mystery? I've cut and marked my fabrics and ready for the next step. I'm using lots of scraps. Oh the suspense!!!

Quilt Bee day.......finally!

Stash buster quilt: Today I got to go to our Quilt Bee that meets at the Stitching Corner fabric shop. This quilt was hanging over a quilt rack and we decided to take a picture of it for future reference. I really like the use of all the scraps and the 4 patches in the outside border too. The back was made from probably 8 different fabrics also.

This is Claudia working diligently on red work from a project that she has had for a couple of years and decided she needed to get busy on. She has some red fabrics from another unfinished project that she will put with this red work to make a quilt.

Suzanne appliquing leaves and flowers on a beautiful quilt. She also brought a wonderful Fall colored quilt that she wanted our opinion on the borders. In the end we decided on a narrow light gold border, followed by a pieced strip and then a rich red fabric outer border (you can see the red fabric on the table behind her). Suzanne does beautiful applique work that I quite envy.

And Ina putting the binding on a Young Women's Values quilt. She makes them for each of her granddaughters. This one used a coloring technique that was outlined with embroidery stitches. There are also cute little 3-dimensional flowers. Ina says no dull fabrics for her....she prefers bright cheerful fabrics.

Here is the 3rd Christmas quilt for the year that I was working on. I was so sure I would get so much done that I brought 2 sets of blocks ready to machine applique and I even brought the fabrics for Mrs. Moen's mystery quilt so I could get them cut out. With all the talking I only managed to complete the blocks for 1 quilt. I'm not complaining tho because it is just so much fun to see these women that I have missed so much. Thank you to them for changing their meeting day to work with my day off from work. Only 4 of us came today but hopefully more can make it next time.

As I was sewing away I noticed that my machine is sounding a little clunky and had a slight whistle or something. It is really time for a tune up for sure. How can I live without it for a few days tho????

Happy quilting to you all. Lynda

Christmas Quilt 2 ready for the quilter

I fell in love with this border fabric by Moda called Crazy 8 that I talked about in my last blog. Found lots of fabrics that matched, not all of them Crazy 8, and here is the finished quilt top. It went together quite easily and quickly. It always amazes me that I can put all the blocks up on my design wall, mix and match and move and change until I'm sure it is perfect. And then.....when I sew them together and lay it out on the floor I find all kinds of like fabrics next to each other! How does that happen? My friend, Janine, and I laugh all the time about how careful we are in positioning each block and still they come out the way they want. I do like this quilt tho and can't wait to start on the next one.

Oh, my quilt bee that I haven't been able to go to for the last year or so (because they meet on a day that I work) has changed days and now I can go again. I am so excited. I have missed getting to talk and laugh with this fun and talented group of women. I've already got my sewing project ready to take so I can sew, sew, sew while enjoying their company.

Have fun quilting. Lynda

Busy, busy, busy

Here is what I have been working on the last few days. I thought I had purchased enough fabric for the next Christmas quilt or maybe even 2. But.....I have cut out enough for 3. I cheated a little on the pattern (which I saw somewhere in some quilting magazine but can't find now). Instead of cutting the fabric and sewing it back together I decided to just machine applique the squares or rectangles in place giving the same "look" as if I had done all that cutting and sewing. These are the blocks done for the first quilt and the rest of them are sitting at the back ready to be put together. It is going fairly quickly and I am so excited that I will probably have 4 of my 8 Christmas quilts done by the end of January. Woohoo!

I tried my hand at making a purse. I really like the fabrics used, like the pattern o.k. except that it isn't quite big enough for me to use, and I used too stiff of a liner in it. I made this one and a black and white one. They were just for practice so I didn't put a closer (wish I had now). I like the magnet ones. I gave the black and white one to the young granddaughter of my friend, Janine, and she seemed to love it. However, if I make it again I will make it about half again bigger. I can barely fit my wallet in it at this size. They were very easy to make and I did learn a lot about what not to do next time.

Happy quilting to you all. Lynda

Saturday Block of the Month

Several years ago a new concept was begun here in Utah Valley. A quilt store in Heber called Whimsey Cottage started a once a month Saturday quilt. It cost $5.00 to buy the first block pattern and fabric. If you brought the block back the following month all completed you would get the next pattern and fabric for free. If you didn't finish the block, or you couldn't attend that month, you would have to pay for the next one. It lasted for 12 months.


Most of us made all 12 blocks for just $5.00! Of course, it was a good way for the store to make money also since car loads of women would swarm the shop on that Saturday and you know what happens when a bunch of women go into a fabric store.....yes....they buy, buy, buy! Anyway, the last month we could also buy the fabric and pattern for $30.00 that would be for rest of the quilt top. I think there were 2 fabric color choices. I chose the brights because at that time I was doing most things in pastels or country fabrics.

This quilt was so much fun to make and I loved all the different blocks and, of course, the challenge to complete the block each month using fabrics I wouldn't usually use. Since that time most of the fabric stores around here have a Saturday block club and there are many opportunities to be a part of this fun way to make a quilt top.

Each of the 12 blocks are regular quilt patterns and the flowers, frog and butterfly are paper pieced. Putting it together was a real challenge for me trying to get everything cut the right size and put in the proper place following what seemed like a very difficult jigsaw puzzle, but I am so happy with the fun bright quilt I now have.

Just so you know, I have not been sitting idly this past couple of weeks. I have finished 3 quilt tops that are ready for the quilter and have started cutting out my next Christmas quilt! Oh I love this momentum.

Happy quilting to you all. Lynda

If Its a BOY

These are the receiving blankets that I have made for a future cuddly little boy baby. The giraffe fabric is one of my favorites. On a couple of them you can see that I tried using a very fuzzy yarn. It was much harder to work with because it wasn't one compact thread. The hook seemed to grab parts of the woven threads sometimes and I had to go back and make sure I had pulled all the threads through the tiny hole each time. I'm afraid they may tickle the baby so will have to be folded back away from his face.

I found this inner border fabric and thought I had to have a quilt with it. I added some yellow chenille squares also. Laura Erickson quilted this one too.

Now I think I have shown you most of the receiving blankets and quilts that I have made for Nicky's baby. Guess I'll wait to make more until I find out what it is!

Happy is the quilter! Lynda

I Love You

I got the February 2010 Quilters World magazine and fell in love with a quilt in it. I ran out to the fabric store and purchased the fabrics for it yesterday after work. Today I thought I would start it. I love black and white fabrics and red always looks great with them. So I enlarged the lettering, started cutting out, ironing down and found I just couldn't stop! Here are the fabrics below. I really love the one with people and dogs and cats on it. I was afraid it might be too busy to show the letters but it looks great.
And here is the finished top! I have been sewing most of the day but I just couldn't stop until I had it done. The pattern called for a pieced border but from the picture and the reds that were used it hardly even showed that it was pieced.....so.....I took the liberty to change it and just put a solid red border and I like it just as well as if I'd spent several hours piecing blocks.

Isn't it just the cutest!! I can't wait to get it quilted now. It is almost 60 inches square so I just don't want to try to quilt it myself. I love this quilt.

Pink and white and purple all over

OK Here she is. I worked most of the day trying to machine quilt this thing. I thought a nice echo quilting would be fun. I didn't quite plan ahead for the area where the echos would bump into each other. But all in all I'm happy with it. It sure wouldn't take any prizes tho. My hoped for flowing curved lines around the flowers, and loops in the borders, turned out to be a bit more jerky non-circles and uneven echos..... but it is finished! I think I really like the bright purple flowers with the green centers. Livened up the blandness.

Trying to machine quilt a baby sized quilt has made me realize that either I should start with very small wallhangings or leave the quilting to professionals. I have heard that practice makes perfect but I'm not sure I will live long enough to practice sufficiently.

Thanks for stopping by. Lynda

I'm going to be a Grandma again

A few months ago I purchased 4 Charm packs of this Butterfly Fling fabric to make this quilt for a future granddaughter. I fell in love with all the fabrics in the pack. There are 36 flowers all made from different fabrics. A couple of the fabrics in the pack were used for the center of the flowers and the background. It is just such a happy quilt. It started out as a baby quilt but just kept growing and growing. Now it will fit a regular bed. I must really like this pattern because this is the 3rd quilt I have made from it. It is just so easy. You sew connecting corners onto 3 sides of a 5 inch square, put 4 of them together, and it makes this cute little flower block. Of course, I did have a couple of mistakes where I sewed the corners onto the wrong side and ended up with a funky looking flower. Those didn't make it into the quilt. The quilting on this quilt was done by Laura Erickson in Orem. She did an amazing job with lots of quilted flowers.

It is official.....my daughter, Nicky, has said I can now tell people they are going to have a baby. Of course, we don't know what it is yet but I'm prepared with pink and blue. I was really hoping for twins...a boy and a girl...but Nicky is happy to report that it is just one baby. I am so excited to hold a warm, soft, cuddly baby again but I will have to wait until June.

Yesterday I decided my 3 hour wonder girl quilt was too bland so I machine appliqued 3 large purple flowers to it. Today I will try my hand at machine quilting again and hopefully in a couple of days be able to post it here all finished and ready for a cuddly baby.

Keep on quilting! Lynda

Woohoo!!

O.K. Here is the 3 hour wonder boy quilt done. I quilted it. I know....I can't believe it either! I put a wavy line down the seams as suggested by a quilting blog friend and then tried to meander the border. Not bad...not great either....but finished. After I looked at it I thought I should have been more adventurous and quilted something in the white squares. Maybe next time. Can't tell if you can see that the back got a little ruffled in a couple of areas but I sure wasn't going to pick all those stitches out. I used flannel on the back so it would be nice and cuddly. Now to attempt the pink wonder girl quilt.

In my last post I showed a kit that I had purchased on Thursday. Here it is all put together. I love love love the fabrics. They are Moda Glace (I think). Sure is nice to use a line of fabrics so I know that they all go together. Also sure is nice that someone else cut out all those pieces and labeled them for me so all I had to do was sit down and sew. I really love the border fabric. This is the first of 2010 Christmas projects. Hope I keep up this momentum!

Boy I sure love quilting, documenting my addiction in this blog, and reading blogs from all of you and your experiences with quilting. Thanks for stopping by. Lynda

Sale shopping

My friend, Janine, and I went out to lunch on Thursday, December 31, to celebrate her birthday a couple of days late. She asked if I minded if we stopped at a fabric store on the way home.....was she kidding! Do any of us need an excuse to stop at a fabaric store? I wasn't looking for any fabric for myself but when I saw this Crazy 8 fabric from Moda on sale for 60% off at American Quilting I couldn't pass it up. The kit was 40% off so I had to get it too. Yesterday I thought I might start the kit since everything was cut out already and marked. So I started sewing the squares together and with only 1 break to eat I finished sewing all the 187 squares together and adding the first border. Today I will sew on the outside border and it will be ready to quilt. One Christmas gift almost done for 2010!!! Hope I can keep up this momentum so by October I'll be done sewing for Christmas. Of course, that is my plan every year ......but never accomplished. Love to quilt! Lynda

Christmas is over for this year

Christmas may be over for this year but I thought I would take a couple of pictures of some of the Christmas decorations that I have made. The above Nativity is one I made a few years ago. I also made one for my friend, Janine. They were fun to make and I really enjoy hanging this in my entry way each year. The star above Baby Jesus is a cookie cutter. You can't see them very well but Mary and Joseph are each attached to small sheep.

I love Santa. Over the years I have collected a few and made a few. The above Santa just hangs around wherever he feels like it. His hands and feet are weighted so he can just be hooked over doorknobs, chairs or someone's shoulder. When my grandchildren are here you can never tell where you might find him hanging. I made one for myself, one for each of my children, and one for several friends one year. It was quite a project but so much fun to see several of them hanging around my sewing room waiting to go to good homes.

This group of Santas is made from one piece of red felt strip sewn onto a flesh colored fabric. The sewing forms the shapes of each Santa. I used different yarns for the beards. The black boots are painted on and each of the furs for the hat and suit trims are just glued down.

These 2 Santas came from 2 different sisters-in-law. They are both very talented and make lots of fun things. The Santa face was made from a plastic jug with lots and lots of holes punched into it and yarn attached. He hangs on my front door every year greeting guests. The other Santa is dressed for relaxation after the rush of Christmas is over.

They have been put away for now but I'm already looking for another Santa to add to my group for next year.

Happy New Year to everyone. Keep on quilting. Lynda