Design Wall Monday

This is the last Design Wall of 2012, and the year has flown by.  It seems like only a few days ago I was making a list of all my UFO's and getting excited about how much I would accomplish this year.  Well, those plans went out the window in about June!!  But I am happy to report I have been very busy this Christmas vacation.  Here is just a little bit of what I have accomplished.  

I am still working on "My Tweets" by Erin Russek.  Before the break I had 7 blocks put together with 4 of them completely sewn and ready.  I had the goal of finishing the other 5 blocks before I had to go back to work.  The only problem is I forgot how long it takes to finish a block, and I am making all 5 at once!  

Here is the run down

*  all the leaves are made (100 of them)

*  all the bird colors are picked out

*  6 birds are ready to be glued to the background fabric

*  3 birds need to be ironed and then glued to the background fabric

Once the birds are completed I will work on one block at a time so I can get the color combinations right.  Then I will move onto the center medallion.  Even though it was not as much as I wanted to accomplish this week it still feels good to get my hands on some fabric.  

Head over to Patchwork Times to see what else is going on! 

Meet Me in Paris, a Look Back

Unfortunately I have never been to Paris, the city.  I'm talking about one of the quilts that is very dear to my heart.  Let's start with the background story.

I started quilting when I was 20, the college I was attending offered a quiltmaking class.  During the course of the semester we had to make a sampler quilt.  It was amazing!  As soon as I finished my second block I was hooked (the first block was a disaster)!  By the end of the semester I finished the top, received an A (when I look at that quilt the professor was pretty lenient with her grading) and had already started another quilt.  After my husband saw how much I enjoyed quilting he gave me a sewing machine for Christmas.  I could say the rest is history but there are many steps in my quilting adventure.  For the next few years I sewed and started different quilts, a few baby quilts for my kids and others, but nothing really made me grow as a quilter.  My father had his quilt business and we would travel with them whenever we could.  My quilting perspective changed when one weekend we went to Henderson, NV.  

You've got to understand quilt shows are fun and exciting, but you have to be there all weekend and sometimes business is slow.  We use that time by visiting other booths and visiting the shop owners.  That weekend I met John'aLee from The Scrappy Appleyard.  She had the most amazing quilt, Meet me in Paris, you can read about it here (she has much better pics than I do).  The quilt just spoke to me and I loved everything about it, the dresden plates, the center on point and the scalloped edge!  She had her original there and also a few kits made up in different color ways.  John'aLee was so nice and easy to talk to, and I could tell how much she loved quilting.  She said she had just started making kits in different colors and was anxious to see how they turned out.  I probably went back to that booth 10 times.  I'm sure she kept thinking, just buy it already I know you are going to.  I was drawn to the green/pink and cream kit, but it was waaay out of my budget since I had just finished school, had student loans and was not in a full time job yet.  I can't remember if I was still pregnant with my second child or if she was a month old, but to say the least money was tight at that moment.  I kept trying to push the thought of this kit out of my mind.  

My mother was with us and she could tell how much I wanted to make that quilt.  She took my dad aside and asked if I could work it off through the store.  Of course he said yes and he went with me, credit card in hand, to grab the kit.  I have to admit I think his eyes bulged a little when she told us how much it was, he wasn't used to seeing the prices for kits and plus it was over 100 inches square so there was a lot of fabric to it.  I walked away, actually floated away, with stars in my eyes and a little apprehensive.  I had never tackled a project that big before, and it was on point!  AHHH!  That was scary to me also, but I was determined to get it finished.  

I was working a little at the school at the time and I knew I wouldn't have any time to start while school was in session so the kit sat for about 2 months.  In that time I would read through the instructions and reread them, look through the fabrics and pet them and then start the whole process over again.  

Finally school was out and I could start.  I had Big L, who was 3 and Little K, who was 3 months old and lots of time on my hands!  I loved every minute of it and before 2 weeks were up I had the top completed!  Big L played at my feet with the little scraps that fell down and Little K slept in her swing or talked to me from the bouncer.  John'aLee was amazing at putting kits together, everything was labeled to where it was supposed to go so there was no guess work when it came time to sew.  It really felt like nothing.  

It was hard to get a great pic in my living room, but this is my Meet Me in Paris quilt.  I still love this quilt, it brings back so many great memories of my life at that time.  Most of all, after I made this quilt my quilting life took a turn for the better.  I was no longer afraid to try patterns that looked complicated.  I figured if I could finish this in two weeks with two little kids around I could accomplish pretty much anything.  

A few weeks after I finished the top I saw John'aLee at another quilt show and I showed her the top.  She was so excited about the way it turned out, and she kept showing everyone at the show.  John'aLee has since moved across the country and I don't see her anymore.  

Thanks John'aLee for inspiring and supporting a young quilter just when I was ready to take my quilting to another level!  I will always consider you a wonderful quilting friend.  

November Quiltathon

Well the November Quiltathon with Patchwork Times came a lot faster than I thought it would, it seems like November just barely started!

I am still working on my mystery quilt but I didn't get a lot of time to sew today.  I think I may be coming down with something.  It shouldn't come as a surprise with 26 little bodies around me everyday, with many coughing and not covering their mouth.  Somedays I feel as if I need a sneeze guard!

Well, back to the sewing progress!  I made 20 nine patch blocks tonight.

I love making nine patches!  It was the second block I learned to make and I love how you can press the seam allowances so they lock together.  It is such a great feeling to see a block come together and be pretty square!  There is a lot of satisfaction when something turns out well and right!  

I hope there are more people joining the Quiltathon.  Go quilters!!

Blocks Finished

I have 12 of the 25 blocks finished for the mystery gift quilt I am working on! Of course I started with the easy block first, now onto he hard one!
I have so many people that I would love to make a quilt for, and many, many deserve one, but this one is very dear to my heart. I need to get it finished because I want to see the reaction on her face! Ooops! Now you know it is a girl! Sorry all my guy friends out there, this one is not for you.

Check back soon for more progress!

Design Wall Monday

Yea Design Wall Monday! Here is what is new. Nothing is sewn, but at least it is cut out. Cutting is my least favorite so I feel like this is a BIG accomplishment!

This is for yet another new project! I just can't stop, it is definitely a sickness! This project is going to be a gift so I don't want to give anything away just in case they read my blog. Hopefully I can find some time to start sewing, even if it is only 30 minutes a day. If you want to see more creations head over to Patchwork Times to see what else is going on!

In the Works

There is a confession I have to make.  I have not touched my sewing machine for weeks, and withdrawls are setting in!  School has pretty much taken over my life, specifically technology.  I happen to love technology and I can somewhat get along, but the past few weeks have put me and the staff at our school to the test.

A few months ago our school was awarded an amazing grant.  There was money put aside, through the state of Utah, for a pilot program to see what would would happen if a school was immersed with technology.  There was one high school, one middle school and one elementary school chosen in the state.  My school was picked as the elementary school.  We feel very fortunate because there is no way we would ever have this opportunity on our own.

Anyway, onto the basics.  Here is the run down. Each teacher received a new MacBook Pro, a 55" screen with Apple TV and an iPad to use in the classroom.  I have to say I LOVE my laptop!  It is so nice to be able to take my computer home with me and have all my school stuff on one computer.  No more emailing notes to myself to work on at home, it just comes with me.  We also received days and days of training on how to make effective use of it in the classroom.  Our school was also rewired with more wifi stations and enough capability to run many devices at the same time.

The best news of all is the students in the school will also receive an iPad to use during school!  Yea, I have 27 students so I can have 27 iPads running at the same time!  It is an overwhelming thought to me right now, but the kids are over the moon about it!

There were a lot of questions about how this is going to work.  The company we are going through is iSchool in Park City, UT.  They have done a fantastic job implementing this change.  I can tell they really want us to succeed.  They have shown us how it is possible to adapt to every child's needs.  I have a broad range of students, ones who need help learning their letters to some that are reading on a first/second grade level.  With iPads I can adapt to each child and give them the help they need.  It is an amazing thought, and I can't wait to see the results!

Along with this there have been some learning curves, hopefully they are mostly behind us and we can move on.  This is going to be a great adventure!

3 Dog Design and "the tools"

Remember when I entered the Design Star Challenge from McCall's?  One of the great things about being a part of it was getting to know so many other quilters from across the country!

3 Dog Design was one of the designers I met through that experience.  He recently gave a review of our quilting tools.  You can check it out here.  We believe, as he does, they are great tools that every quilter could use and appreciate.

Remember the holidays are coming up.  If you have a quilter on your list you can't go wrong with a great piece of art that is also functional!

Monsters at (Almost) Midnight

Here is my latest project. I started and finished within an hour! If only all my projects were that quick.

Tough Mudder & a Commitment

Hey, I know this post isn't about quilting so if you don't stick around to read the rest I will understand.  If you have read my blog before you have heard about my super supportive husband.  He is the best!  He rarely gets upset at the time (and money!) I spend on my hobbies.  Last weekend I was able to return the favor and support him in something he loves.  He participated in an event called the Tough Mudder!  This is a race, not the extreme competitive kind of race, just one that is fun and builds camaraderie.  Here is the run down, it is 12 miles with 21 different kinds of obstacles.  They mostly consist of mud, water, ice and a little electricity.  

Here we are at the beginning of the race.

They wrote his race number on his forehead.  He was also really proud of his farmer's tan!

The start of his 12 mile journey.

The spectators were not able to see every obstacle, there were about 8 - 10 we were able to see.  His parents were there as well and we split up so we could watch and get pictures and videos of different obstacles.  

Here is the video compilation.  It isn't the best recording but you get a feel for what happened.  Each obstacle has an interesting name, a few were "Arctic Enema" (jumping into icy water), Funky Monkey (monkey bars), "Electric Eel" (crawling under live wires in puddles of water) and a few others I won't put on here.  

My favorite parts are at :58, when he gets shocked and doesn't remember how his face got in the water and 2:09 when he is helping the girl up the mud hill and he gets hit in the face with her bum and he looks over at me and smiles.  

If you can't find him just look for the black shirt, shaved head and the farmer's tan!

He finished the face in just under 3 hours, he was able to run between each obstacle and he looked like he was having fun the whole time.  

He was still smiling at the finish line!

It was so much fun to watch him!  I was also very proud of all the hard work he put into training and getting ready to take on such a challenge.  If they had one tomorrow he would do it again.  

Here comes the commitment part of the post.  When he does it again I will do it with him!  I have a looong way to go to be prepared for this but I know I can do it.  It is a scary thing to think about but I just want to say I accomplished something like this.  Alright, now that my commitment is out there I will have to stick to it.  Soon you will see me wearing the orange headband!

Halloween Cookies

We made Halloween cookies a few days ago.  Sugar cookies are one of my favorite kinds of cookies.  My mom always used this recipe when I was growing up, and of course it is the best!  I love that my girls are getting big enough to make cookie dough all by themselves.  I still help but they work together and get the job done.   

Their favorite part was the homemade frosting!  

It was a great Sunday afternoon, filled with cookies, laughing and memories!  They are growing up too fast, but I am grateful for every day I have with them.  

Quilt-a-thon Finale!

EDIT:  I linked up to Patchwork Times, Design Wall Monday!  Yes, I used the same pictures because this quilt is still sitting in the exact same position it was last night.  Darn job!  haha.  Head over to Judy's blog to see what others have been working on.  

Well the Quilt-a-thon is over!  I am so glad I participated.  It was a wild weekend, but so much was accomplished at my house.  Here is the run down

*  12 Days of Christmas top completed

*  Countdown to Christmas completed, ready to use!

*  Christmas Tree top completed (pic below)

*Christmas Tree quilting half done! (pic below)

All you machine quilters don't look (or judge) my quilting.  I know it is not perfect but I consider it a learning process, and I am in the beginning stages.  With Christmas coming around the corner I feel a little bit more prepared.  

Everything that was accomplished this weekend could not have been possible if my husband didn't help out so much.  He made dinner, washed laundry, cleaned the kitchen (including dishes), and gave me the answer "that looks great!" whenever I needed some encouragement.  He is a keeper!  All the work he did is really the norm around our house, he supports me 100%.  

If you want to see what other quilters were up to this weekend check out Patchwork Times!  The next Quilt-a-thon in in November, hope you can join in!

Saturday Progress

I missed the linky to Patchwork Times for Saturday Progress, but I am still playing along!  On Saturday I finished the 12 Days of Christmas Quilt. Well, this is as finished as it is going to get, quilting will just have to wait.  

I also finished a little Christmas Countdown.  You can't see all the pieces but there are 13 little quilt sandwiches in all.  

The progress I made takes care of #7 & #8 on my UFO list!  So far I have only finished 4 of my UFO's!  

This weekend has been great! and I still have time to get something finished today!

Friday Progress

I had high hopes of getting the 12 Days of Christmas quilt finished today.  In reality, I didn't even sit down at my machine.  We had a great day at school, but after getting dinner and the dishes taken care of I was beat!  I decided to chill out tonight, watch a movie and get a good start in the morning! 

Thursday Progress

This quilt has been hanging on my railing for about 4 months.  I had the squares pieced together.  The only progress I made today was finish the blanket stitch on the words at the top and get the borders sewn on.  But I am happy with what I have accomplished.  I hope to get a lot more done in the next three days!  

Much Needed Conversation

I hear stories all day long that are on a 5 year old level.  Stories about someone's dog or their loose tooth.  I tie a lot of shoes and try not to have a "grossed out" face when someone sneezes and boogers hang out of their nose.  Yea, that really happens, and usually when that happens they just stare at me  with the look of "well what do I do now?"  Sometimes I just need to have more adult conversation, yesterday just happened to be the day!

In my school there is a teacher that loves to quilt, in fact, she is the one who encouraged me to try applique.  We got together yesterday and talked quilt stuff for about an hour.  I felt like I was in heaven!  We looked up different quilt designers, fabric, patterns and books.  It was so refreshing to find new designers and see the wonderful quilts that are out there.  It was just what I needed!  Last night I made time to sit at my sewing machine, it was only for 15 minutes but it was wonderful.  The rejuvenation I felt last night was amazing, and it all came from an hour of conversation about quilting!  Maybe I should have an enlightening conversation about cleaning, but then again, it probably wouldn't help.

This weekend I am joining a the Quilt-a-thon with Patchwork Times.  Does anyone want to join along?  It starts today and the goal is to sew, and sew and sew as much as we can Thursday - Sunday.  Of course, I have to work but I am planning on posting every night with the progress I have made that day.    I have high hopes of getting a few pesky projects finished!

Quick Pic

Here is a quilt I just finished, binding and everything! Just in time to hang in my entryway for Halloween! 
My husband asked "didn't you start that for last year?" 
Yes, yes I did, but at least I finished something.  In my world that gives me permission to start 3 more projects!
Have a great weekend!

Seam Presser Demo

I finally have a button on the side that leads to our etsy shop.  If you haven't checked it out please do!  We have great products that every quilter would enjoy.

One of our products is a seam presser, or wooden iron that doesn't stretch seams and pressers like an iron!

If you have any questions please let me know!  

Favorite Quilts

We are back from the quilt shows!  I was so excited to get to St. George this weekend and it certainly didn't disappoint me!  I went down before the rest of my family and ran the show with my aunt.  It was so nice to talk with her, and pick her brain for great quilting ideas.  After spending time with her I decided I have many, many more things to learn!  The rest of my family came down Friday night, and came to the show on Saturday.  My kids have been going to shows since they were just little babies.  They have always found ways to entertain themselves during the long hours.  One of their favorites is to play "fort" under the tables.  As you can see Little A had to be reminded to stay under the tablecloth (well, after mom took the picture).

Here are my favorite quilts from the Dixie Quilt Show.  There were so many beautiful quilts it was hard to pick three.

#1

Day of the Dead, by Cathie Purdy

I don't know why this appealed to me.  It was a little morbid at first with all the skulls, but it was so different than everything else it really stood out.  It had lots of glitter on the outline of the skulls, not sure if the fabric came like that or if it was after it was made.  I couldn't help but be drawn to it.  

#2

Iced Autumn, by Christine Echols

I loved how the leaves seemed to levitate above the quilt.  The leaves were fused to the pieced background and quilted with metallic thread to resemble the veins of the leaf.  It looked easy to replicate, but I know it would be hard to produce the overall effect!

#3

Labyrinth Walk, by Josephine Keasler

This quilt was the "so called" favorite of Little A.  I told her to pick the one she liked the best.  It didn't talk her very long.  I think she just wanted to have her picture taken.  I have to agree with her, it is a beautiful quilt.  I love the color scheme, or rather the lack of colors!

It was a fun show and revied my quilting desire!  I came home with a great paper piecing pattern, with the fabric to go with it.  And a few other pieces that were calling my name!  

Forgot something!

Here is the pic from the earlier post!  I'm blogging from my phone and I thought it was already attached!

Finally something quilty!

Quilty, is that even a word? 

I feel like I have to apologize for my long absence!  I am doing great, my family is fantastic, but life has been busy!!!  The longer I didn't blog the more I felt like I needed to catch up with everything that had been going on.  It started to feel overwhelming!  I have missed communicating with everyone, not sure how many people read this, but I am ready to start posting again.

Well, back to the quilty thing.  Westenskow & Sons is at two quilt shows this weekend!  One in Longmont Colorado and the other in St. George Utah.  This is our smaller booth at the St. George show.

It is great to be here, not thinking about school, just relaxing and watching people.  Not watching in a weird creepy way, just crowd watching!
I haven't even walked around to see what is here, but from the booth I can see some gorgeous quilts!  I will post my 3 favorites later.

4th of July Fun

We recently celebrated the 4th of July in our little town.  I have to say we really have a great time in Gunnison.  It always starts on July 3rd with a concert (3 year tradition now) and fireworks.  This year we had Restless Heart, the country band from the 80's.  Alright I think it was the 80's because I knew a lot of songs and I only listened to country in the 80's.  

Even though the city banned individual fireworks this year (fire danger too high) the city still put on their firework show. We don't have as big of a show as some of the big cities, but it is always a good time.  Thanks to the fire department for putting on a great display!

The next morning starts with a parade down Main Street.  Everyone lines up their chairs, floats move down the street and everyone (even a few adults) enjoy catching candy.  

My side of the family.

Andy's side of the family (I know they love being on here!)

My side of the family and Andy's side of the family always sit together.  So there are lots of cousins and family around.  

My girls and some of the nieces also danced in the parade.  They had to walk up the entire street dancing, then they walked back and watched the rest of the parade.  Little A even made it through the whole parade.  I don't know how much dancing she did but it was really cute to watch all of them.  

The parade lasts between and 60 and 90 minutes.  There is really nothing like a Gunnison parade.  The businesses, schools, and well everyone gets involved.  Where else can you have the fire department with kids squirting water at spectators followed by a dairy entry with their biggest bulls on parade?  I'm sure it sounds weird to some people but we have a great time!  I know many people return to Gunnison to celebrate the 4th.  It usually turns into a large class reunion.  

After the parade we had a BBQ potluck at my parents.  We ate too much but had a great time being together.  

We missed all of the family that couldn't be with us, hopefully we can get everyone together another year!

Craftiness for a boy

Well as some of you may know we have a lot of estrogen around here.  With four girls in the house (including me) and just my husband from the male variety, crafts for boys don't make an appearance.  

Finally I have something for a boy.  

My sister has a little boy who is about to have his sixth birthday and he loves karate!  He is just about to get his purple belt and it is a big area of his life.  My sister requested I make a karate bag for him.  She could totally do it but since I am on break I have a little bit more time.  This is what I whipped up.  

It's not that spectacular but he really loved it.  I was going to be really crafty and make the bag but I remembered I bought some bags on clearance and it turned out it was the perfect size.  I found some clipart (free) on the internet, fused it down and sewed around it.  Hopefully he will be able to use it for awhile. 

I think I need to work on my crafts for boys, but I feel this is a start!

Something Fun for the Kids!

 Not much has been happening in the quilting part of my life.  Just lots of other projects and general laziness!  But isn't that what summer is for?

This is one of those other projects.  There is this really cute ruffle fabric that I love!  If you haven't seen it the fabric comes with ruffles already sewn onto it.

One morning I woke up with the great idea to make raglan t-shirts with it.  Okay, but there was a problem.  I don't know how to sew clothes (at least not very well, and I usually end up cursing it about halfway through) and I couldn't find a pattern.  Low and behold the internet came to my rescue once again.  I found this great tutorial on how to make your own pattern and step by step instruction on how to sew it together.  You can find the tutorial at Craftiness is Not Optional.  Seriously, this was a great tutorial and I could show you the steps I took but why?  You should just go there and see for yourself.  

Here is the final product!

They are a little hard to see so check out the ones further down.  

I found the ruffle fabric at Hobby Lobby.  I think it was originally about $11 yard, but it was on sale at the moment for around $7.  I felt okay about that, especially when they turned out cute!

For the older two I bought 1 yard, and I have enough to make a pillow or something out of it.  For the youngest I either bought 1/2 or 3/4 yard.  I can't remember but I have some left over of the pink also.  

They were not that hard, I just had to line up the ruffles before I cut out the pattern.  Really easy!  

Sorry, I had to add another picture of all three girls they are just growing up too fast!  

If you have any questions leave me a comment or email and I will get back to you!  

Panguitch Rewind

The first part of June we went to Panguitch for the annual Quilt Walk Festival.  As usual it was lots of fun.  I entered four quilts into the show this year.  Hey, I am proud of myself for getting anything accomplished!  Wahoo for me!  Regular readers will recognize these.  

Viola's Jewelry Box, designed for McCall's Design Star contest, machine quilted by me also!  Little A's cheesy picture face is too funny!

Midnight Garden, also designed for McCall's, quilted by Yvonne Willden

Unnamed quilt (left), designed by me, machine quilted by me.  

Lava Lamps, designed by me for my dad and machine quilted by me.  

Little A and I went walking around to look at all the quilts.  When we found the quilts in the picture above she ran over to them and started petting them and just touching every part she could.  For those of you who are not of the quilting world that is a BIG no no.  They don't want anyone touching anything!  Usually she doesn't touch the quilts, but since they were mine I guess she thought it would be okay.  Well, I got some not so nice looks from the ladies that were standing around us!  I'm not sure they believed me when I said they were my quilts. 

My mom and I also did a "make and take" on Thursday night.  We knew about it for months, but we just couldn't come up with anything we liked, finally three days before we decided to make a traveling pouch for our hand tools.  

The inside of the pouch, along with our seam ripper, stiletto and ream presser.  

The outside of the pouch, on the right the rolled up shot, and on the left the expanded shot.  

These are just a few of the pouches that were made by the ladies that stopped by.  

It was the best project!  We used bamboo felt, which feels like a thinner wool, but it is not as expensive!    We sewed the pouch so the only thing the customers had to do was make the flowers and glue the ribbon on.  They were a big hit!  

Since this is going to be a long post anyway I will just keep going.  

While we were in Panguitch we made a little side trip to Bryce Canyon, and with it only being 30 miles away it was little.  It was a last minute decision so we went in flip flops, which wasn't the best choice but we survived.  Oh yea, and a bonus was when we got there it was get into the park free day or something like that, so we didn't even have to pay the $25 to get in, bonus for us!!

Here is one of the views.  

The little spindly (that is a word right?) things are called hoodoos.  

Here is another view.  It is hard to see from the pictures but it is an amazing sight!  They have trails you can walk down into the canyon, or you can drive to the different look out points in your car and walk a few hundred feet to see the canyon from the top.  

We met a little friend on the way!

It was a great day!  I'm glad we decided to take a little time to go walk around as a family and enjoy some amazing scenery.  If you want to find out more about Bryce Canyon go here.

WIP Wednesday

I am pretty sure I have a disease!  Unfortunately, modern medicine will not be able to cure me.  I have "new projectitis."  This is a condition where no matter how many UFO's I have I will always start another quilt before one is finished.  This disease has affected my life in the following ways.  

*  large fabric stash

*  multiple projects going at once

*  guilt at have non-finished projects

*  lost pieces (you know, the ones that didn't get put in the right place, 

and are lost until you have already made new ones)  

*  projects taking too long (I have some in the "years" category)

This week I have given in, once again, to this disease and started another new project.  My triangle quilt is still hanging on the banister, hopefully I will finish the top before school starts.  Anyway, back to my new project - recently my mom and I went shop hopping in the Provo area.  We saw so many beautiful quilts and great ideas but a pattern from Cornwagon in Springville just called out "buy me! buy me!"  It was loud enough I had to answer.  

This pattern has 15 pieced blocks, and alternating nine patch block things (I say things because they are nine patches, in a larger nine patch block).  These blocks are 4 3/4 inches right now, which as quilters already know will make them 4 1/4 when they are in the quilt.  

Here are the 4 I have finished so far.

Aren't they cute?  I have a dream of make a Dear Jane quilt someday (after most of my UFO's are finished).  I thought this would be a good way to test the waters and see if I have enough patience to tackle a quilt as intense as Jane.  If you don't know what I'm talking about just google "Dear Jane quilt" you will find tons about it.  

As far as testing the blocks I am loving it!  These are all paper pieced and I love how precise I can get, but these are the easy blocks.  I picked 4 of the blocks with the biggest pieces and they only get smaller from here.  Actually there are some that have squares that are about 1/4 inch!  Yikes!  I'm planning on doing one of those blocks today.  Wish me luck!  

Head over to Freshly Pieced to see what else is going on.  

Design Wall Monday

Well here we are, another Design Wall Monday!  I sure didn't accomplish as much as I would have liked to during the past week.  Here is the progress on my triangle quilt.   

I know I promised some "fabulous applique" in the plain strip and I even made vines, and flowers.  When I laid it all out it just didn't look right.  As much as I wanted it to it wasn't jiving with the rest of the quilt.  The pieces hung on my railing for a few days, waiting patiently for me to decide what to do with them.  

I can say I am happy with this result.  It still needs something for a border, maybe that will be next week's Design Wall.  If anyone knows how to drag something out it is me!!

Head over to Patchwork Times to see what else is going on!

Rewind to Mother's Day

I wanted to rewind and show you the fun activity my family did for Mother's Day.  My sister Robyn loves art, and is a huge reason why I love art too!  Since she lives in the "big city" she knows all of these cool things to do.  For Mother's Day we went to Painting with a Twist.  They are a national company that teaches people how to paint.  This works by you picking a day to paint, (they have different paintings on different days) then show up and they lead you step by step through the entire process.  The paint and canvas is provided, you go home with a finished piece and they keep the mess!

(It kind of sounds like a commercial but I promise it is not.)

Here we are (me, mom, sister in law and sister) at the beginning, blank canvas and smiles!  We decided to go with a variation of Van Gogh's Starry Night, the Salt Lake City version!  

I have to admit I was really nervous because I can't draw, I don't even doodle well.  But after three hours we had a finished product!  

It was amazing how they all turned out a little different.  It was pretty easy, we just took it one step at a time.  Even though there are things about mine that I don't love, I am really happy with the end result!  Plus I have a "real" painting by me in my house.  

We had a great time, lots of laughs and candy eaten during the time we were there, and we were still smiling by the end.  It is something I would do again!

Design Wall Monday

Well it is kind of late to get this posted but I am so excited to share something.  Remember I told you I was in love with grey fabric lately?  This is my attempt at something a bit more manly!  Here is what I have so far, lots of triangles.  

I plan on adding a little turquoise between the columns and please imagine some fabulous applique in the wide section.  It takes a lot of imagination right now!  Oh wait, did I say I was going for a manly quilt before?  Well maybe it will be half manly!

I took the first pic and not 5 minutes later it looked like this.

The neighborhood kids came through my house.  My husband teased them and told the kids I was going to be really mad.  In reality I wouldn't have it any other way.  We have kids going through our house all the time and I love it!  This problem will be solved when I get a sewing room, until then I will have many designs to look at!