What I am Thankful for and a Christmas Joke

Some of you may have visited the Superior Threads website. When Bob does the newsletter he includes a joke. I thought I'd share with you his latest joke since this is the season to be thankful for what we have and what we can afford to give to others.

Bob's Superior Joke

One Christmas, a mother decided she wasn't going to pester her children to send thank-you notes for the gifts they received. Consequently, the children's grandmother never received any thanks for the Christmas checks she sent to the grandchildren. The very next Christmas, all the grandchildren stopped by, in person, to thank their grandmother for her check. When asked by a friend what caused this change in behavior, the grandmother replied, "Simple. This year I didn't sign the checks." I am thankful to have a warm home, food on the table, a husband who loves me and friends to spend time with. These are just a few things I am thankful for in my life. What are you thankful for this year?

Accuquilt Projects

 







 
 

With my customer's permission I thought I'd show you a couple of things she made using her Accuquilt Go and Go dies. The turkey placemat she used the Dresden Plate Die and the Christmas Accessories Die to make them. The Table Runner is her original pattern which you can find on her website . Look in store and then under patterns.
If you own an Accuquilt have you made anything with it? Let us see your projects.

Andover Fabrics Giveaway

I don't know about you, but as a child I read all the Little House books and when the t.v. series came on I watched it and enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed the books. Andover Fabrics has come up with a collection of fabrics based on this series. If you sew or quilt and like these fabrics you can enter the giveaway here: Andover Giveaway

If you enter I wish you good luck and if you are the lucky winner let me know.

Bonnie Hunter's New Mystery Quilt

Over on the top right of the blog you will find a button for the mystery which starts the Friday after Thanksgiving. You can also find it on Bonnie's Blog here: Quiltville . Look at her tabs on the top and down to the bottom right you will see Allietare Mystery all of your information on fabrics and clues for the mystery will appear there.

It is a lot of fun and you end up with a quilt. Hope to see you there.

Congratulations

Congratulations to all the winners at The Craftys. I feel quite honored to have been a finalist in the quilting category. Looking forward to next year.

Watch The Craftys Award Ceremony

If you would like to watch The Craftys Award ceremony tomorrow you can click the link below and view it on youtube. It is supposed to start at 4:00 pm pacific time so adjust for your time zone.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkHLNYzkOSE

I'm a Finalist

I saw on Facebook this morning that I am a top 10 finalist for the Quilting Category on The Craftys. They will be picking the winners in each category on the 6th of November. I am so excited that I made it that far considering that I entered on the last day because I didn't know about them until I saw a post on Facebook. I'm already thinking about what I can do for next year. If you haven't checked them out you should give them a look if you are interested. The link is The Craftys .

The Craftsys

I wasn't aware this was going on. Did you know about it? So I went to see what it was and I entered this quilt in the quilting category. You can find it here. There are lots of categories to look at and you have until midnight on Oct 25 to upload an entry.

 

You can vote for your favorites in many categories so if you like my quilt I would appreciate your vote. How is that for shameless soliciting?

Not much happening quilting wise here at the moment. I have been working on the illusion block quilt. You can see a tutorial on it over at Missouri Star Quilt Company if you would like to make one.

Hope you have something to share I would love to see what you have been up to lately.

Summer is Almost Over

Hard to believe that summer is almost over. Joann's is celebrating and giving gift cards away. Check out their promotion at the link below. They are launching something called Buttercream.
https://www.quikly.com/1047-joannstores/t/6DMCsiR-lnk

I finished and donated this quilt for Crop Walk to raffle off.

 

http://hunger.cwsglobal.org/site/TR/2015CROPHungerWalks/TR-CHW2015?pg=entry&fr_id=20814

 

Above is the link you can use to check out Crop Walk if you are interested.

 

For the last 4 years I have been an Accuquilt Dealer so I have been making demo quilts to show off the dies some of which I have posted here from time to time. Recently, I have been making the pattern that comes with the Cat & Bat Die.

 

 

I added the Owl and made the bats purple at the request of a couple of friends. Now to get it quilted. It makes up much larger than I thought it would from the picture on the pattern.  What do you think so far?







2nd Accuquilt Workshop

Saturday we did our 2nd Accuquilt workshop. As with the first one in June we had a good time and started some project plus two people brought projects they had used their Accuquilt cutters and dies to make.

 

We are lucky to be able to use a room at the Fairgrounds for our workshops. We will probably do another one sometime after the first of the year if there is enough interest.

 

 

Thank you all for attending I enjoyed our visiting and creating together.

Have you got your Farm Girl Vintage On?

In case you missed it Lori Holt from Bee In My Bonnet has a sew-along going on over at her blog. When I saw her book I immeadiately ordered my own and finally I have started to make some blocks. The small quilt group I belong to liked the book so we are all doing it. The first month we are making a block for each other and one for ourselves. This is my block for the group.

 

I have 4 of them put together and the other three almost done. So I will be ready to trade on Thursday when we meet. You can see the barn blocks and the tractor block I did here  and here which I did when she did her barn blocks quilt-along in 2013. This isn't my usual style of quilting, but there is something about her patterns that call to me and before I know it I find myself making blocks. Are you hooked? Let's see your blocks if you are.

 

A few weeks ago Apqs had a post that asked for you to send them a picture of your quilts. I sent them the following and on the 1st of July they posted it on their facebook page APQS . I've posted a picture of the same quilt here before, but it was very nice to see it on their site since I used my APQS Ultimate 1 to quilt it. They are a great company to deal with.

My Weekend Endevors

Good morning to you all. This weekend I put together a kit I had purchased from Connecting Threads for a Spool Wall Hanging using their Line Dried Fabrics. It needs binding and took about 2 and half hours to put together to this point. It is hung on the design wall crooked, but you get the idea. There was even material in the kit for the backing.

I rec'd an email over the weekend from a lady in Australia so I checked out her website. She does some lovely quilts and has won many awards. Her love is Trapunto and Applique. While I appreciate the work I'm a piecer when it comes to quilting. If I do applique it is the Steam a Seam kind. If you have time check her out it is a very interesting place to look around. Rose Lewis Quilting

That's the latest from here so back to the quilting room I go.

Butterflies

Spent some time last night playing around with the new Butterfly Die from Accuquilt. They are ready for the decorative stitching. Fast and easy to do. I used Steam-a-Seam lite on them.

 

It's probably been 10 years since I've done machine embroidery or fancy stitches. So I'll have to practice before I do these. The more I use the Accuquilt Go the more I look for things to make using the dies I have. I wonder if there is a support group for this addiction?

 

Well, have to get back to entering my inventory so I can start using the The Square to take credit cards. Have a good week.

 

Is It Hot Where You Are?

We are having four days of very hot weather here and breaking records. It is really nice to have air conditioning when this happens.

In spite of the heat I have been getting some things accomplished. Yesterday DH and a friend put up my pegboard so I could get my Accuquilt products displayed.

 

After some looking they finally found the studs. We were looking for 24" on center and they were 16" on center. Once we knew where to look it went smoothly. I finally ended up with the following:

 

Now to get a shelf to go under it so I can put the Go Baby and the Accuquilt Go cutters.

 

Some other things I have been working on and finishing are a couple of quilts using some of the dies for the cutter. The design wall is up and in use. The quilt on it is a donation quilt I am working on for Cropwalk this fall. The tumbler quilt was made using the 3.5" die and lots of scraps. It's a partial inventory of my fabrics. (A full inventory the quilt would cover many beds).





This quilt was made using the 4.5" Equilateral Triangle die and is fast and easy to do. I used a soft fleece backing and now batting in this one.

The Blue & White Tumbler Quilt was made using the 4.5" Tumbler Die from the Nested Studion Die set. It is even faster to do than the triangles. This one was a gift for a friends new grandson.

This quilt I've had the top done for about 18 years. Couldn't decide if I wanted to leave it as is or make it larger. I finally decided to quilt it as it was. It measures 61" x 61" and was done in a class taught by Marilyn Doheny in Edmonds, WA. To get it to curve I cut the print strips 3" and the white strips 1.5" and put it together just as you would a regular log cabin. All the prints in it are flower fabrics.

Last but definitely not least Squeak has decided to squeeze himself into a small box to take his afternoon nap. DH says he's packed and ready to ship. We would miss him greatly if he were gone. Well, that's what I've been up to the last several weeks. What have you been doing in your corner of the world???

Knitting Almost Finished

I just took this off the needles. It needs threads woven in and blocked. It's a pattern from Kelly Herdrich called In Threes. It's a very easy knit and I wanted to try it out to see how long it would take to knit. Took about 3 evenings watching tv. I used Cascade 220 Superwash color 841 called Moss. It's a much prettier color than the picture shows.
 I'm going to make one for my almost 2 yr old Great Granddaughter and the 3yr old Great Granddaughter. This will be posted over at Patchwork Times check out her site to see the other knitted projects.

Sew-Along Coming May 1

If you like the vintage look in all things quilty you should check out Lori Holt's blog Bee In My Bonnet . She has a new book out and will be starting a sew along on the 1st of May making the blocks in the book. I've made some of her barn blocks and the tractor block from previous tutorials she has done on her blog. They are lots of fun. You can see them here Barn block and Tractor Block.

There is a new button on the top right side of the block click on it and it will take you away.

I'm still working on the quilt room progress has been made will post more pictures soon. Going to have to make time to have a filling replaced in one of my top front teeth. Not one of my favorite things to do.

Well, I'm off to see if I can fix a knitting mistake I discovered in my project.

Chaos in the Quilt Room

No, I didn't fall off the face of the earth. I started to rearrange the quilt room, managed to get the quilting machine turned around and make a total mess of the rest of the room. Then I had to quit while I figured out my schedule C for taxes. Now I am back trying to make order out of chaos. Slow process really slow.

 

It would be really helpful if I had someplace to put things so I could go through them, but it is what it is. Even though it doesn't look like it I am making progress.  I'll put up more photos when it is done. The picture showing the cabinets - on the back of 2 of those cabinets I am going to put foam core covered with flannel and have a design wall. I'm really looking forward to that.

When I need to get off my feet for a few minutes I have managed to sew a couple of small things. I pieced a table runner now have to get it quilted.  I also made a pillow case for DH. He has no rotator cuff in his right shoulder so he uses a small pillow to put under his arm when he sits down or rides in the car. Dh is about 9 credits from getting his Bachelor's Degree.

So that's what I've been up to. I'll be catching up on my ufo's soon I hope. Well, off to read before bed.



March Already

By a slim margin I managed to complete a demo quilt for my February finish.

I had a stack of 6" squares of mixed colors mostly red so I decided to use my nested tumbler dies from Accuquilt on my studio cutter. I made stacks of ten and proceeded to cut 100  4.5" tumblers in 15 minutes. Since the dies trim off dog ears it was really easy to sew these into rows. I have about 5 hours total in the construction, quilting and binding of this quilt. I think I'll probably be making some more tumbler quilts it's a great way to use up scraps. The nested dies will make 1" to 8" tumbles. I'm sorry the picture quality isn't as nice as it should be some days it's hard to get a picture with 3 cats all wanting to be first on the new quilt.

Some Other Local Events Coming UP

The Fibercraft Retreat in Baker City , OR. Here is the link that will take you to all the information Fibercraft Retreat it is the 20 -22 of February and you need to be registered by Feb 16.

The second event is the Snake River Fiber Arts Fest which takes place in Idaho Falls in May. The link for that one is Spring in the Rockies .

If you know of any others let me know and I will put them up.

Blackfoot QuiltFest

Once again it is time for the 3rd Annual Blackfoot QuiltFest. It is a nice show and they have some good classes for a reasonable price. If you are close enough to attend it would be a lovely day out. Here is the link  Blackfoot Quiltfest . It gives you dates, times, where, cost and anything else you would like to know.

2014 My Quilt Finishes

January of 2014 I made a list of UFO quilts I would like to finish. My goal was one a month more if possible. Considering that I had two eye surgeries and was sick for almost three weeks (losing almost 4 months of quilting time) I think I did quite well. I managed to finish nine quilts. I also made and finished two Christmas quilts, but didn't count them as they were not UFO's.

 

 

So this year I have the same goal to finish a UFO quilt a month, more if I'm able to. I have my January finish done so off to a good start. Now to get the sewing room a little more organized and clean.

 

Did you get some UFO's done or did you add more to the collection? If you finished some share some pictures please.

 



Good Intentions

I had good intentions about trying to post more often this year. Then I had to get my taxes for the State done so I've been working on those. Before I started them I did manage to quilt and bind this jelly roll quilt.

 

After we made it through the really cold weather we had a couple of days that were nice and sunny and then freezing fog moved into the area and has been with us for the last four days. It's supposed to move on out tomorrow, but then we have rain/snow showers to look forward to the next couple of days. Soon as I get the taxes sent off I'll be free to sew.  Well, it's way past my bedtime so guess I'd better get some sleep. Stay warm everyone.

Recipe Review

Judy over at Patchwork Times is having a link up for people who would like to review a recipe using a pressure cooker or a link up for all other recipes. Since I was making the recipe below tonight I thought I'd post it here and then link up on her site.

While I was looking for a different soup to use this winter I came across this one. I tried it and DH loves it so he asks for it every couple of weeks. The first time I made it I didn't have some of the ingredients on hand so I substituted. The result was that when I did make the following  recipe Dh liked better with the changes I made the first time I made it.

The things I changed were: I used a small can of diced mild green chili's, 1 can of Campbell's Cheddar Cheese soup and a can of Evaporated milk ( when I have half and half I do use that). Tonight I added a can of corn to it and Dh has made one of his wonderful green salads so we are good to go. If you make it I would love to hear how you liked it. The pictures show before the cream is added and after the cream is added.

 

 

Baked Potato Soup

 
3 bacon strips, diced                                                 

1 small onion, chopped

1 clove garlic, minced

3 T all-purpose flour

1 tsp salt

1 tsp dried basil

1/2 tsp pepper

3 c. chicken broth

2 large baked potatoes, peeled and cubed

1 c. half-and-half cream

1/2 tsp hot pepper sauce

Shredded Cheddar cheese

Minced fresh parsley

 

In large saucepan, cook bacon until crisp. Drain, reserving 1 T drippings. Set bacon aside. Saute onion and garlic in the drippings until tender. Stir in salt, basil and pepper; mix well. Gradually add broth. Bring to a boil; boil and stir for 2 minutes.  Add the potatoes, cream and hot pepper sauce; heat through but do not boil. Garnish with bacon, cheese and parsley. Serves 4. Prep time 10 minutes, Cook time 20 minutes - ready in 30 minutes.

Mexican Lasagna

Over the weekend I made a new recipe (which I forgot to take a picture of) that I had never tried before. You can find it here: Mexican Lasagna . I really liked it and thought it tasted even better the next day. Dh says he likes enchiladas better. It calls for a Tablespoon of Chili powder and we decided that if we made it again we would use less. It's something I would make again, but it will be awhile. When I do make it again I will add chopped black olives to it. The directions said to make it in a shallow 2 qt baking dish which I did, but if I was making it for company I think I would make it in a 9" x 13" pan and double the recipe except for the chili powder. It also called for Golden Mushroom Soup, but I had to settle for Cream of Mushroom with garlic which was fine. I may make it with enchiladas and DH's fabulous salad and have company over.

 

This was our sunset tonight. It has been really cold here since Christmas Eve and total we've had about 6-8 inches of snow. We even had our water freeze, but it only took a day to get it going again so now we will put some heat tape on the pipes and hope not to have to deal with that again.  Because of the cold I haven't been able to work in the quilt room since Christmas Eve. Maybe tomorrow it is supposed to be 30 degrees tomorrow and by Monday we should be back in the 40's it will feel like a heat wave.

 

That's about as exciting as it gets here so far this year. Hope everyone had a safe and Happy New Year.