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!