Waiting for our little AnnaLynne to arrive

Kate's in labor! Labor began sometime around 6:30 pm yesterday (July 5), here it is the 6th at 6:11am and she still have not progressed really far in the labor...it is her first so this is expected. The boys are all excited too, son Joe said it hit him last night finally around 12:45am wow! she's gonna have a baby and I'm gonna be an uncle!! LOL When Kate told me she was having stronger pains and was basically describing what she was feeling I knew it was time. I too got very teary eyed! I'm gonna be one of Kate's coaches ...so I will get to be there to see this beautiful grandbaby be born!! I'm so happy she is going to be born before her grandpa is heading to Austria for a week!!
I sewed all day yesterday trying to get things done, trying to play catch up. I came up with a new layout for a block/quilt...i can't wait to show it! I have to go recolor in EQ7 before I can show it. I played with it on my design wall yesterday...I could not help myself!!
Happy Sewing world! I have things to do before my precious grandchild is born!

Learned something new this morning

Often I will save pictures of quilts from other's blogs. They inspire me with their interpretations, I love seeing other's color combinations too!! Well here is what I learned this morning. How to use my printer to print pictures!! Pictures that I have been saving from the internet of these quilts. I wanted to put them in a notebook that would be kept down in my sewing room. My sewing room is down in the basement and the computer is up on the main level of the house. So all these pictures are up here in the office and quilting is downstairs....I won't print off all of them, that is a lot of ink!! But, this I find is a good way for me to keep up with these creations from others!
Now, My husband repaired my truck yesterday!! Finally!! I was so happy that he repaired my squealing breaks!! Turns out it was the calibur pin on the driver's side had froze up!! He bought a new one and new brake shoes! Now she brakes soooo smooth!! I love it!
Today: today is big finish up what you were supposed to finish over the weekend!! So much went on this weekend that I was unable to focus on my quilting. I have so much on my plate to work on, but someone has to take care of the family, house....you know cleaning, cooking...cooking....cooking...I have a nice size family and I love to cook for my gang! And yes, my kids all help!
Well it is off to sewing for me!

I captured this picture from Maryquilts.com. I love love love this quilt!! She did a wonderful job with her colors and does this quilt look fantastic beside those geraniums?!! 

 A UFO of mine...I hope I can finish this one before winter!! 

Happy sewing everyone,

Attended a different guild last night

Last night I attended a different guild, Evening Star Quilt Guild of Davison. Their topic was organizing your scraps and they had a guest speaker, I think she was one of their guild members, giving a trunk show. Her work was fantastic!! I can't find the info I had from the meeting to list her name. Take my word for it! Her quilts were beautiful and she gave me lots of inspiration.
For the guests that attend the guild, they give a gift bag to them. In my bag I received all of this!!

I think this is a fantastic idea!! I love it! 

So, this morning, while enjoying my cup of coffee, I began thumbing through the book. Only look at the pictures of course!! LOL And there I found this:

I love this quilt!!

Which has inspired to make that quilt out of these.....

my yo-yo's!!

I've made over 400 yo-yo's. I quickly did the math and I only need 800 yo-yo's...I'm half way there!! Woo Hoo!! I will sew them all together and them tack them to a background fabric. Yes, this will be heavy....I was going to make a yo-yo quilt for my king size bed, but I think this has changed my mind!! This quilt, when done, will hang on the wall. I'm wondering if I will have to make a "whole cloth" quilt first...need to quilt it to give it stability? so that it will hang nicely? Any thoughts? Some help? I probably should add that I don't think I will be making the leaves as shown in the book picture. I like the diamond star....I don't know...I could make all green yo-yo's for leaves???? ok, so I don't know how I want the final quilt to look...but it will be awesome when it is done!! Send me some suggestions please!!

Happy Sewing!

What do you think? 

I'm shy...no seriously...I am...

That was how I began my trunk show the other night at the guild meeting!! You know what? Those quilters did not believe me!! lol I brought with me 7 bags of quilts, I had 3 helpers to hold up my quilts, they did a wonderful job! And Chuck tried to cover up with one of them when I was not looking!! hahaha
When I began packing up my things here at home, I really had no clue what I was doing!! LOL The night before, Kate and I went to Marshal's and bought 5 of their recycle plastic decortive bags for .99cents. I thought that 5 of the bags would be enough to hold my quilts for the trunk show.....I needed a few more :o)
So, I arrived at the meeting with my back seat loaded with quilts. For those of you who don't know, I drive a huge red truck (F250) with a quilter's license plate on the front that I designed...cool!! I have the license plates for sale $19.95

The other plate I designed only has one bar of quilt blocks so that if you have a   bracket the blocks and word quilter are not covered up :o)

I just found 2 pictures from my Friendship Rings class, I thought I'd post them too. I think I need to take more pictures of my classes, I tend to forget!!

 Here are some more pics for you to enjoy. I have two pictures from the Brad Paisley concert. I have only 2 pics, 1 Brad Paisley and 1 of The Band Perry.

Next, some pics of my flower bed that I have been working on. I don't have a finished picture, but that is ok.This is my front porch garden.

One morning when I was outside working on the front porch garden, I had not been paying attention to the weather. I was busy working. I had potted several hanging baskets (no picture yet) and as I turned around to  pick up something this is what I saw in the sky...

Needless to say, I cleaned up my mess and went inside...just in time for the storm!! It poured!!
Happy Sewing everyone!!

What a great weekend!

This past Saturday I worked out in the flowerbeds for about 5 1/2hours. I weeded, transplanted and planted!! I also got sunburn! my shoulders and back were bright red. I did not think I was going to be outside that long so I didn't bother putting on sunblock...shame on me!
Saturday morning my husband and I went out to eat breakfast. On the way there I saw that Brad Paisley was playing at DTE. I told my husband that I would love to go see Brad Paisley!! He said, he would not, he had better things to do....so I put that thought out of my head. Come Saturday afternoon I received a phone call from a friend at church. They had an extra ticket to see Brad Paisley and wanted to know if I was interested!!! Heck yes! What an amazing concert!! Scotty McCreery and The Band Perry opened for him, WOW were they both fantastic!! Guess what though, we had center row seats in the pavillion!! 5 rows away from the stage!! How sweet it was! I was very tired on Sunday, but the concert was worth it!
Sunday, not much other than church was done....oh wait...I did go grocery shopping....2x!! LOL I was so stinking tired I had forgotten lots of things...so back to the store I went after a nap.
I did sew a tiny bit yesterday, not much. I started watching a BBC Masterpiece movie while sewing "He Knew He was Right" I think that is the title of it. So far not really impressed with it. I ordered it from Netflix, I think I might return it and put something different in my "que".
Today...stormy....humid...I need to get a few things done before I sew. i will save my sewing for this afternoon. Hope everyone has a wonderful day!
Happy Sewing!

My handsome men!

I thought I'd share a photo of my men!! Are they not all so handsome!! This picture was captured from facebook.  This photo was taken on Steve's graduation day! Supposedly someone asked my men if they knew where I was at so a picture could be taken of the family...well then someone thought it would be funny if all of them got on their phone and pretended to call me....actually my husband was on his phone talking to me...I was just inside the building setting up the refreshments! LOL What a great group of handsome men!!
From left to right: Joe, John, Steve, Chris, Joe (husband....of course)...Kate our oldest was unable to make the graduation, but she would have gotten right in there and posed!!

I need to get better at posting!!

This has been a fun couple of weeks...maybe I should say BUSY and stressful, but FUN sounds better, don't you think?
Steve's Eagle Court of Honor was wonderful, so proud of my son!! He is also a graduate! WooHoo! Now to figure out what he wants to do with his life....big decision.
My sister, Renee, was back up here with her family for Steve's graduation and open house. We had another wonderful visit!! I miss her! I enjoyed sitting on the front porch at night chatting with her. She shared some of her stories with my boys about the type of child she was....she had my boys laughing!
My husband will traveling to Austria soon, just for work. He enjoys traveling. I do to an extent, but for the most part I am a home body. I love the comforts of home. I do love to travel, but it is sooo good to come back home to everything that is familiar, you know?
I've gotten another quilt accepted!!
My quilt resume is growing. I'm now published in 3 magazines and 4 books. I teach at the local quilt shop and I also piece and quilt for others. Wish I made more money at this! lol but this is not a money maker dream, this is doing what I love! And I so LOVE this!!
Last week I had trouble with my Gammill. The rotary tension hook broke, not good! The parts came in, meanwhile, I learned to sew around this mishap. I finished the quilt, kingsize, shipped it to Quiltmaker magazine...the stress is over....now on to the next projects...oh wait...it is not just 1, but I have several in the works...so the stress is back on, but I love it love it love it! What is so great about designing these quilts and getting them accepted is that is makes me complete the quilt!! No more UFO's being added to the pile.
Here are some pics....enjoy!!

Son Joe, graduation OCC

The invasion of the FAT BIRDS!! Run, Run!! Run while you can!!

Steve and Rachele

Scrappy Delectable Mountain ...it looks so gray but it really is not!!

another Delectable Mountain...

Happy Sewing everyone!!