Give Up Yet?

Wow, if you gave up on me, I understand.  Kind of embarrassing.  I'll try to do a couple of recaps of my summer and, fingers crossed, start again.

  We planned a family reunion two years ago when my son got married.   My sister lives outside of Denver, Colorado and we had rented a cabin on Moose Lake about 15 years ago.  My how our family has grown.  This year we went back to that cabin and rented the one next to it also.  23 of us were able to go.  What an adventure.

Here is my lovely sister, the hostess with the most est, my brother and me with Grand Lake in the background.

This is the wonderful view we had from our cabin/houses.  Paddle boats and a canoe were constantly in use by the kids.

We waited all week to see a moose and on the last day we were rewarded with this mom and her babe.  They swam all the way over and got out right below our deck.  How exciting.

We had a rainy and very chilly 2 hour horse back ride.  My horse was a stinker and gave me fits suddenly lunging back to try and bite the one following her.  She thought he was too close.  That was a thrill.  One of the other horses had a gas problem, which the kids found hilarious.

Here are most of us.  We celebrated a 10th birthday, shopped at Grand Lake, colored in adult coloring books, paddle boating, horseback riding, late night card playing, fishing, rock building, rubber banded two watermelons to blow them up and lots of cooking.  Organizing food purchases ahead of time and then the cooking meals is a big undertaking when you're not used to it but we did a great job.  No one went hungry and my sister had lots of left overs for her family after we left.  

An early side trip to the Garden of the Gods was enjoyed before we headed up to the mountains.

I could show so many more pictures.  I love Colorado.  But, I think you get the flavor.  Our family is scattered from California to Massachusetts so it's a big deal to get everyone together.  Many great memories were made. In another two years, God willing, we meet again on the east coast.


Marsha

Giftees

I'm going to a Stitch Retreat hosted by Timeless Heirlooms in IL this week.  So exciting.  Paulette Stewart of Plum Street Samplers will be there teaching a class and Jeanette Douglas.too.  Can't beat that with a stick my friends.

Diane invited me a while ago and Toni was already signed up.  They are taking care of all driving, where we eat, quilt store side trips, and accommodations so the least I could do was make a little something for them.

Voila!  Whatcha got bags.  One for each of us.  First glimpsed on another blog and I was smitten.  How cute.  With all that fabulous fabric for the Farm Girl Vintage quilt, surely I could get this pieced together.  And I did!

Front with vinyl viewing window to see what cha got.

 Backs.

I am in love with the Daysail fabric line.  Crisp, bright and cheery.  The lining isn't Daysail but matches very well.  Front,

Back,

Zipper pull.

More Daysail. Front,

Back,

Zipper pull.

Yeah, I cheated.  Got a charm pack of Lori Holt's Modern Minis and some of her fabric that looks like graph paper for the lining.

And a bunch of this.  Nothing says country like canning jars and canning jars with flowers especially.  In my favorite color, no less.  Misjudged which way was right side up so the jars ended up sideways, sigh.

A cute thimble zipper pull.

I know which one I want but will let them fight it out first and pick their fav.  Hope to have some fun pictures.

Happy Stitching!

Marsha

Christmas in July

But first:

Just when I think I'm all ready to blog more regularly, I can't seem to find the time to carry out that thought.  I've been very busy sewing, sewing and sewing.  I can't show everything today so we'll see how that blogging post in the future works out for me.

When I left off, I had lots of cutting to do and I'm happy to say Night Sky is all cut and ready to sew.  I have all of my color families in separate clear bags and at least one of each color family sewn together.  It's pretty fun and considering what I've been working on lately, will be a breeze.  Just time.

Here is one of the pink stars.  There are three just like this and then 3 with the small pink color triangles in the place of the large diamonds and the large diamond colors in the place of the small triangles.  I will show you what I mean when I get a couple of versions sewn.  This is only the beginning my friends.

These are my Farm Girl Vintage blocks that are completed.  They are the 6.5" size.  I am only 2 weeks behind or 4 blocks and I know it won't take me long to catch up.  This is so much fun.  I think I should have been scared off by the small size of some of these pieces but for some reason, I'm not.  I have loved seeing the different versions on FB.  At first, the bowls were my favorite, then the canning jars and, of course, the chick.  Then someone did a haunted out that is fabulous and inspired me to put dogs in the lower windows of my house.  (Think; 'How much is that doggy in the window, ruff, ruff, the one with the waggily tail')   Now the pears are a favorite.  I might do them again in greens.  Oh, and the spools.  As you can tell, I'm in love with these quilt blocks.

Oh yeah, the Christmas in July title.  Saturday was a Queen City Sampler Guild stitch-in day.  It was well attended and we were encouraged to bring in a favorite Christmas piece and ornament.  It was slim pickin's.  I don't think people were too gung ho to dig in Christmas boxes for ornaments and Christmas samplers.  But I'll show you what I saw.

First up, Pam S. had a lovely display of ornaments she stitched and finished.  She is a fabulous stitcher and has finished many many wonderful pieces.  She's also a hoot to sit with and I love her sense of humor.

I apologize for not knowing who stitched most of these lovelies, but I see Paula stitched this one.  

Here's an ornament that took some hours to stitch.  A lovely Quaker.

Someone completed a project bag with colorful stitching.  I like the big ric rac accents.

Oh Lord.  I don't even want to think about how many more days until Christmas. He's making his list and checking it twice though.

I really like this piece.  I love the colors, soft and wintry without the usual green and red.  Who doesn't love Tiny Tim.

Here he is, Mr. Claus.

Stay tuned for more updates.  I have pictures to take outside but our weather is NOT cooperating.  Every day RAIN.  Buddy doesn't even want to take bathroom breaks, it's sooo wet.  I'll stop whining now.

Happy stitching!

Marsha

Moving On

I'm not even going to apologize.  We all know life is busy and blogging takes a chunk of time....

The month of May starts with our anniversary on the 1st.  39 years in 2015.  My DH's birthday is on the 2nd and we follow with family birthdays on the 10th, 12th and 13th.  Shove Mother's Day in there and you have lots to celebrate.

I took my longarm quilting class and finished a lap quilt.  Binding does take a while but it was nice to sit in the sun room and hand stitch it on cool days.  It was nice and snuggly.

Here it is all complete.  Charm packs sure are handy.

The back.

I picked a squiggle quilt design to mimic this outside border fabric.  The turquoise fabric is the same as the backing fabric.  It's fun watching the longarm do its work.

Lori Holt of Bee in My Bonnet has started a quilt along to go with her new book Farm Girl Vintage.  You can't believe how cute it is. She's going right through the book with two blocks a week.  I am behind but I know I can catch up.  They look a lot harder than they are to sew.  I have a few more done than the first block that is called apron strings.  When I get a chance, I will take some more pictures.  Great instructions and lots and lots of quilt, table runner etc. ideas shown.  It is an awesome book and I do love vintage type fabrics.  BTW, I am sewing 6 inch blocks but she includes instructions for 12 inch blocks also.  How handy is that!  

I purchased all my fabric for Jaybird Quilts - Night Sky.  Luckily my local quilt shop had a great anniversary sale so I purchased my backing and binding fabric at a good discount.  Here are all my colors for the top.  They are sitting on the background fabric.  It is going to be so cool.  Our room is a pale lavender color so I picked two purple colorways.

The first star is stitched and just last night I finished cutting all the strips so everything is cut and I'm ready to start the massive construction.  I'm really excited to sew this.

Happy Stitching!

Marsha

Park Bench etc.

The Fat Quarter Shop is a wonderful place to visit and shop.  It can be dangerous, if you're not careful.  But luckily, they do have a wish list.  You can put things in your wishlist to your heart's content and come back later to edit. Heavily.  Sometimes, something will strike your fancy for no particular reason.  This Aurfil Ripples Mini quilt was one of those items.  It was fresh and sparkly and very spring like.  It was a fun little stitch after putting together Park Bench.

It is also the first thing I have machine quilted.  A nice little practice piece.  I hope it passes muster for the person it is going to.  She is a newer quilter also and we have fun comparing notes and progress photos via phone texting on the weekends.  She has sewed a boatload more quilts than I have and has actually quilted them.  I've been leaving that to the longarmers.  I decided it was time to give it a whirl.

Here's the back.  The fabric was the Daysail line.

And here is my Park Bench flimsy.  I don't know when I'll get it to the longarm quilter, but it's ready.  I don't think I want to practice on this.  It needs an expert touch.  Saving my pennies.

I already have my next quilt picked out to start in May.  Night Sky by Jaybird Quilts.  When I saw the pattern last year, I said that it was going to be the quilt I sewed in 2015.  At least each block will be the same except for color.  But,,,,,,,it's going to be king sized. I picked out all the batiks with help from the shop ladies at The Loveland Quilt Studio.  But that's another blog post.  I'm excited but a little apprehensive.

I haven't been in a stitchy mood lately.  I wanted to sew something for a baby shower I was invited to on Saturday.  I saw a pattern on Noodlehead that looked just right.  A divided basket, not too large and not too small with a pocket on the front. Lots of room for presents and a convenient tote for baby items that can be tossed in the wash if need be.

Luckily, I have lots of left over interfacings.  I've had a package of Annie's soft and stable that I've been hoarding for just the right pattern.  This was it!  Made those sides stand up, no problem.

I still feel funny putting my labels on things but I decided, why not.  Why else did I buy them?  They have a cute little bee on them.

Here it is all packed up and ready to give.  The young lady received about 30 onesies and outfits.  At least this was unique!

Happy Stitching!

Marsha