What a Wonderful Weekend!

I began this post on Sunday morning and had to save it...I had to leave for church...I'm finally posting it....
This has been a great weekend and well last week was not so bad either.

 

For the past several months I have felt like I could no longer design, just could not focus. I did not feel normal either. So I went to the doctor. Long story short: my body is producing 1000+antibodies than it needs...kind of sorta attacking my thyroid....I have Hoshimotos. I think I discussed this in a recent post.
 

Well, this past Thursday, my endocrinologist performed a needle biopsy and he drained 1 nodule. Actually, he drained the nodule and then did the needle biopsy. As my husband said, "he poked you 9x total" I bruised a little, but it was nothing to worry about. Not a big deal at all, just a little pressure.
 My results will be back Monday or Tuesday. Praying for good news!!
 

Now, designing. I feel like I have the design bug back. I designed several quilts this week and submitted them for publication. I will know in about 2 weeks if any are accepted. I do feel good about a couple of them!

On Friday I had a wonderful phone call!!! The big project I worked on April...well, I get to do another one!!!! In August!! I'm so excited!! Can't reveal, but I will just as soon as I can!
 

Friday night we had the Potluck sit and sew at the Village Quilt Shoppe, in Lake Orion. We had a wonderful time and the ladies want to continue this through the summer, I will have to convince Carroll that this is a good thing!
 

Saturday morning: around 10am I decided to call Kurtis Kitchen and Bath. This is where we are getting our new kitchen cabinets from. Our salesperson, Adrian, had told me that they were getting rid of an old display cabinet that looks like a giant entertainment center. I loved it!! They sold it to us for cheap!! We went up there and loaded it up!!! While we were there, I noticed some kitchen cabinets, older ones, just over in the corner. But they had been there for a while. I asked the other salesperson, "why the cabinets had been there for so long did a customer decide they did not want them?" She said, "Oh those are from an old display, make me an offer" No way! I talked with Joe and he said if I want them they are mine!! New cabinets for my sewing room!!!

Saturday afternoon:

This is my son Chris!! He graduated from Oakland Community College with his 2 yr degree in Science.

Now, I wanted to attend International Quilt Market (Spring Quilt Market) in Portland, Oregon, but could not this year....actually, I've never been able to attend. Anyway, a friend of mine was there. She sent a message to me through facebook asking if the black and white drunkard's path quilt was mine? YES!!!! Oh my gosh!! I had no idea the quilt was going to be there, how cool?!!!

 

I was on cloud 9 all day!!

 

Also, I have several projects out in several magazines that are on news stands now: Quilty, Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks vol 7, and Quiltmaker's newest summer issue. Oh I can't forget Quilter's World magazine!!

 

Well everyone, I have to get off the computer, I have my quilt that I am working on for Quiltmaker's "Quilts from 100 Blocks" fall issue and then I will be working on one for Fons and Porter's Love of Quilting. F&P issue that I will have a project in will not be on newsstands until the winter of this year.

 

Happy Sewing everyone!!

 

 

 

 



Funny thing...

 

 

Funny thing happened last night...I attended the Macomb County Quilt Guild meeting last night. They had a guest speaker, Donna Slater of the Feathered Nest.

After the speaker was finished it was time for Show and Tell, you know the part that all of us quilters love!! We get to show off what we have done :)

So, we are standing in line waiting our turn and well it is finally my turn. I get up and do my little tell about the quilt, then reveal the quilt.

So I begin pulling the quilt out of the bag and as we open the quilt up I realized I had brought THE WRONG QUILT!! You read that correct!! The wrong quilt!! I jumped up and down!! and laughed!!

What a goof ball I am!!

 

This is the quilt that I was suppose to have shown.....

And this is the one I brought!!! Their backings are the similar and that is how I mixed them up!!

 

What a goof ball!!

Happy Sewing everyone!!



Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day!

 

Here in Michigan it is gonna be a chilly day, but it doesn't matter to me today. I bought steak, salad, and fresh green beans for our Mother's Day meal. also this is my son Joe's birthday. He turns 22 today. So he and I get the royal treatment today :)

 

I hope everyone has a wonderful day.

 

 

Ruler Demo and Village Quilt Shoppe

 

Hi everyone!! I will be demoing a ruler at the next Breakfast Club at the Village Quilt shoppe in Lake Orion, MI. If you are in town stop by and check it out.

Time: 10:00am

Date: June 6

 

I will be demoing other rulers, but this one is the one I tried today, I love it!

 

Here is the block I made:

 

Speaking of the Village Quilt Shoppe, I neglected to post their newsletter when it came out...sorry...Here is the link, it is on their website:
http://thevillagequiltshoppe.com/thevillagequiltshoppenewsletter23.htm

 

Back to my block. I've pieced these kaleidoscope blocks before and could not get my centers to come out nice...all the points were off centered!! Drove me nuts! So I would give up...I did try numerous methods but none worked as well as this one!!

Thank you Creative Grids for another great product!! And NO they did not give me the ruler, the shop owner did...so I took it home and pulled out some scrap fabrics and had some serious fun!

 

Here is my "oops" and it was operator error, not the ruler....hehehe, I wish I could blame someone or something else, but alas tis I was in err..

 

So, without further ado...

See the mistake? The seam. The seam running horizontal should go right across the 2 crossing seams, right at the intersection. And because my seam did not do that, the block's center did not line up. I picked out those few stitches and re-sewed and walla...the finished block!! Which is the one above my "oops" block.

 



My Sunday, guess what my boys did....

 

This is a sign of spring!!

 

 

 

This crabapple tree always blooms first, there are 2 other crabapple trees, one on either side of this one and they don't bloom for a couple more weeks. I love this tree, I think it is beautiful.

 

So, my subject line read

"guess what my boys did"

 

They bought their mom an early Mother's Day present!! I have wanted a new patio set for years, this one was on sale yesterday and well, we brought it home. I said I did not want the umbrella because I'm going to place this inside the side porch which is screened in.

 

My son Chris and I assembled the table and chairs as soon as we got the set home. I was thrilled!! Chris cooked on the grill that night. Chris called some friends and had them come over and join us. He made burgers and brats on the grill. Rachel (son Steve's girl friend) made us spinach and artichoke dip!!! oh man was it delicious!!

 

At 8pm my Sunday night tv programs began, I love watching Masterpiece Theater on PBS. This season I'm watching Call the Midwife and Mr. Selfridge.

 

On Saturday I made 2 king size pillowcases for my bed, here is a picture:

 



 

Here are my measurements, now if you don't want the pillow case to be so long, just shorten the length by a couple of inches and the cuff won't hang over so far.

 

First: I measured my pillows length and width, do this for your pillows incase they are not full as mine are.

Accent strip: 2 1/2" x 41 1/2"

Cuff: 8 1/2" x 41 1/2"

take your actual pillow measurements, mine were 40" x 41 1/2"

Step 1:

Supplies, do you like my little pin cushion? My friend Susan and her mom make these, they have a patent on their pin cushions. So dang cute!!

Press the cuff and accent strips in half on the length (wrong sides together, right side out)

Step 2 Begin layering your pieces: Right side up and first is the cuff (open the cuff don't leave it in half), accent strip which is left folded in half, raw edge to raw edge of cuff. Next is the body of the pillowcase, right side down on accent strip and cuff.

 



See, easy easy, now pin

 

Take the body of the pillowcase fabric (mine is the black) and roll up onto the layers till you can see the cuff

 

Roll it up far enough so you can wrap the cuff to cover, match the edges and pin, all is incased in the roll

 

Now you sew, see, easy peasy!

 Remove pins as you sew. I lock my stitches at beginning and end.

Once it is sewn, reach in and turn right sides out.

I give it a nice press, then I sew the accent strip down with a matching thread. If you don't do this, once the pillowcase is washed the accent strip will not lay flat.

This is the odd part, sewing a French seam. You place wrong sides together, yes you read that correctly, wrong sides together. I pin, then sew between a 1/8" and 1/4" seam. Just "eyeball" it but stay consistant!

Sew the 2 sides, now turn the pillowcase, wrong side out like you normally sew, push those seams out so that everything is flat. I use a butter knife to do this when I can find my little tool..which I could not find.... and sew a little larger than a 1/4" seam. This method incases the seam!!

 

See!!

 

I know I already posted this one

Do you see the quilt on the end of the bed? This is the back of the quilt, here is the front of the quilt, it is in Quilter's World magazine: Bouquets for Mom (spring 2013)

Have a wonderful day everyone!!

 

Weird dreams...

 

 

Don't you hate when you have odd or weird dreams?

 

Can't explain the who, what, where, when  and why of the dream?

 

Ugh! That was what happened last night, or should I say this morning around 4am..I finally gave up and got out of bed.

 

Today we are having our monthly potluck at church. Everyone is suppose to bring a dish to share and dinner is after 2nd service. We have some people that gripe about it...oh well, can't please everyone. My only gripe is this is the only day of the week I get my entire family together for dinner, so I miss it. I love making Sunday dinner for my family. I love seeing all of them sitting here at the table and listening to their conversation.

 

 

Now this is different!! I've submitted this quilt to a magazine publisher so please don't copy it and make it your own. Thank you!

 

Happy Sewing



Another Gorgeous Day

 

I feel like I'm going to be spoiled if this weather continues, I'm loving the warm temps and beautiful sunshine!! I really needed the sunshine, I was craving it...that vitamin D thing going on, lol

 

 

Yesterday was an ok day, but I also had something weighing on my mind all day. It is not something that I can discuss online and at the same time it is nothing that I need to worry too much about. Just a situation that happened with someone else, and they brought it on. I did spend most of the day thinking about it.

 

But!! One of the best things that happened was I was teaching yesterday. The beginner's quilt class. I taught 3 fun ladies! They were a blast! I posted  a picture of them on facebook yesterday. The class was a lot of fun, and they went home with homework.

 

 

 

When I arrived home, my son John, announced that the Senior dinner was canceled and he wanted to take his mom and dad out to dinner in place of the event. So, he took us to eat at Olive Garden. What a wonderful son!!

 

Came home from dinner, put on my comfy pants and flip flops, poured a glass of wine and sat on the front porch!!!

 

 

'Today I will be working on 2 quilts, both are paper piecing.  I will also get outside and do some yard work. I need to attack the gardens. And hopefully I will get to sit outside on the porch tonight just like I did last night, later everyone...

 

Playing again...

which one looks better?

 





 

I think I was having fun today, hehehe

 

Happy Sewing!



It is Friday and the weather is gorgeous!

 

Yes, it is Friday and the weather is still gorgeous today, day 3 of beautiful weather, I do believe spring might officially be here.

 

Today I will be teaching the Beginners Quilt Class, this will be part 1 class and I believe part 2 is in a few weeks.

 

Quick and Easy to make

 

 

Could you imagine this in Scrappy FABRICS??? I think it would be fantastic!

 

This is an Easy Quilt to make.

 

Happy Sewing!

 

What happened to spring...?

You know sometimes Michigan's weather is funny...it teases you that Spring will be here...then wham! it will divert back to winter, then spring will come again, then winter...well dang! Summer temps were here yesterday!! No wonder people are getting sick! LOL

I'm not complaining, I love the 80's with low humidity. Open the house and just enjoy the fresh air! The birds are singing, bunnies and chipmunks are all over the place...love it!

So what are you working on today? I'm going to be finishing a customer's quilt. It is a Disney quilt. She appliqued the Disney princesses, I think there is 20 blocks. Very cute little girl quilt.

About 2 weeks ago, I pieced this Hunter's Star. I used the Rapid Fire Ruler. I've never pieced this block before. I was thinking that I should try it also with paper piecing to see which method I prefer.
Anyone have any experience with either method? Which do you prefer?

Happy Sewing!

The day after...

What a wonderful day of compliments on my blog yesterday!!

 

Thank you everyone who left comments and also for those who joined my blog!

 

Don't forget to continue checking back to find out what the latest happenings are.

 

Today I am teaching at the Village Quilt Shoppe in Lake Orion, so I don't have much time to post, I have to go get everything ready.

 

Our weather here is fabulous!! Spring has arrived, but I'm wondering if we are going to jump right into summer...sometimes that happens here in Michigan.

 

Have a wonderful day everyone!