Wishing Everyone a Blessed~

I can't believe how fast this year has gone by, there were many changes in our Family, some good, some bad, but all in all I wouldn't change a thing!

Beautiful~

I love the way the Mountain looks with the snow freshly fallen! I did a big zoom in but this is my view from the living room, it's times like these that I miss this being my piecing room!

Scottie thinks only an insane person could possibly enjoy this weather! Thankfully his work car is needing some additional work during its regularly scheduled maintenance so he is driving a 4x4, it couldn't have come at a better time!!

This has been my project the past week, since I can't sew a straight line to save my life I used the hera marker and it was sooooo time consuming! My Sweet Man helped me out big time, I put all the blocks together and he stitched them markless in record time!

Then after Guild yesterday my BFF helped me snip all the buggery edges, I griped and complained the whole time, and she ever so patiently kept snipping with a smile! Thank You D!!

And the only thing I can say about these packages is the boy gets an 'E' for effort!

He was jazzed at picking out wrapping paper, although bummed he couldn't find any from the movie Despicable Me, so he thought the next best thing was Disney's Princess'!!

Dad got this too~everyone got this~but of course no one cared what the outside looked like! Everyone was beyond thrilled with his gift giving choices! Just needs to work on his paper picking! They sure keep my side in stitches!

We fixing to head into Boulder and get going on the rearranging of the shop, not sure how it is going to go but am anxious to get started on it! The 3 Little Men are going to help so that will be fun, they even got 3 of our Beach Cruisers serviced so they can ride back and forth from the shop! Wish I would have gotten pictures of them riding them in the snow today, way too funny!

Let it snow~

I am in absolute amazement at our how our weather has been these past couple weeks! We are now in blizzard mode, I went out yesterday after seeing the forecast and got the porch, walkways and driveway blown off of all the leaves that have accumulated. I have a weird quirk of liking it all clean when it snows.

Scottie brought Mookie out for a visit and plopped her down on the cutting table, she was quite content to just sit and visit. Although she did leave some 'raisins' behind her! Scottie picked up after like any fine 'Chinchilla' Parent would do, just assures me is going to make a fine Dad one day!

Here is the 2nd of Jan's disappearing nine patch.....

This quilting design is a paisley that resembles one in the quilt and this one is a gift for her Mom-in-Law who is currently visiting.

I am thrilled to say I finally figured out how to get to my emails from our Internets main site. Still need to get everything transferred and figured out but there just doesn't seem to be enough hours in the day to get everything done that I want let alone everything that NEEDS too!

The living room is back together again and the kitchen table is cleared off so there is at least some place to rest the eye, cause everywhere else is just total chaos~

Wishing Everyone a Very

And A Blessed New Year!!

Online Again~

Wow! It has been a long time since having rain like we had this past week. Six straight days of the glorious liquid, there were snowflakes but thankfully they didn't stick around and cause even more havoc.

That's about the only downside about living in the mountains, the storms tend to mess with our phone lines, which messes with our Internet, which messes with our cell phones.

Then my HP has decided to go wonky, so have had to crash course learn how to set up my cell phone to take emails. I decided to go with Apples Mac Computers this past year but again I failed to get everything swapped over to them so when an email would come through to the pc I would forward it to the mac from my cell, then when I would try to respond I would send the emails back to myself! Sigh~ So, we are powered back up, I am investigating how to make everything work on the mac's and it will be a glorious day when it all happens!!

Now for some fun, my Sister in Law lives in Vegas and she Longarms also, she has a Gammill with a Statler system, she is an amazingly talented woman, she has always been into the embroidery machines but when she seen the Gammill and Statler stitching it was like an embroidery machine on steroids so took the plunge, purchased one and loves it. She is slowly getting into more piecing of the quilts but she just has fun with others for now.

She was contacted by an Upholstery Company that was doing some remodeling on two of the rooms at the Mirage to see if she could quilt on leather. Since she has on her embroidery machines she thought sure why not!! Wow! Is all I can say, they called on Friday and she had to digitize the design they wanted and have them delivered by Wednesday of the next week! This is the shot that one of the guys sent her after getting it hung. B-e-a-utiful!

These are some more Christmas Quilts that got accomplished in time for going under the tree~

There are a lot of paisleys in the fabric so that was the inspiration to use one for the quilting.

Alice is one of my favorite customers! She pieces with absolute precision and she is just a lovely lovely Lady! She has been taking care of her Mom who lived right behind her for many years. At one of the Bee's Alice asked if I could take a rush job, we all know the answer to that! So she was going to bring it to me next bee~ She wasn't there that one nor the next, her Mom who was 102 had passed. This past week she brought it to me and she was disappointed that it wouldn't be done in time for Christmas as it was going to be for her niece, well I for sure didn't want her to be unhappy and certainly not her niece so as soon as I got in the door I loaded it up and let IQ work its magic and took it right back to her so she could get the binding on and get it wrapped up!

She shed some happy tears and it just did my heart good to be able to bring happiness to her!

Now I am able to get refocused and get to some obligations I have been putting off~I did make it to town today to mail some packages off and get some last minute goodies from JC Penney's for the Boy's, now to finish up some binding and all will be good!

Woe is me~

This is the back of the pineapple quilt! I love it! Used a gold thread so it would pop a little!

Now that my day job is through, it's time to head into the night..........

There are 5 quilts here that I got bindings on, 3 are on the agenda to complete this fine night! That night of course being last Tuesday! The second from the top is Blake's, I plan on having it done for Christmas for him! And on the bottom is my Big House, I'll have it done for me in time for Christmas!

This is an oddball sized quilt, it is for an rv bed, 73x48 is the requested measurement. Sigh, it shrunk way more than it was suppose to, I over built it but still came out 69x51, gentleman thought it would still be fine because he measured and over figured his figure! HA! So I gave it to him to take home and see how it fit then would decided what was to be done, it would either work or I would be making another one this weekend!

It didn't fit, he was actually way off himself so between the two of us we failed big time!! Thankfully I was in Vegas and would fit in visiting 2 of the other 3 shops that I thought I would be able to find a couple more flannels to what I had to recreate it, 83x51 this time~Phew, so that is what is being worked on now, along with a rag quilt due after Christmas.

My fear now is there being enough of the backing, I will use what was left from the last quilt, literally, it is 8 inches and I think it will make it for this one along with what I have left, you can never buy enough fabric backing, I always buy 6 yards and hope it will finally pay off! The photo above is it being refigured. Wow, wow and wow!

Good news is, I managed to get all my Shopping done and wrapped while in Vegas so everything came home and straight under the tree! I foiled the little helpers who were ever so helpful in unloading the truck! Muahahaha, or evil laugh since I can't spell it at the moment!!

And, my pc laptop is giving me fits so I am having to respond to any emails from either my phone or forwarding the message to my mac to answer, and of course when you forward, and then respond, you send the message to yourself, sigh, thankfully I caught that after 3 messages, I am on a roll..............

Pineapple~Triangle

Finally nearing it's completion! I toyed with about 10 different borders and thought this just might be the one! So went ahead and chose the best brown inner and slapped it on, and was thrilled upon finding it didn't need anything else!

Here it is on the machine, I used Oh My Feathers Panto as it was the closest thing that looked like pineapple frawns/leaves to me.

This was this past Tuesday, I finished quilting it around 7 and got started on the binding, actually still had to stitch down the triangles as well................

So I parked myself and got netflix going and stitched until 3am, and another hour to wash and semi dry ,why? Because I wanted to show and tell them at the Guild Christmas Party Wednesday morning, and they were going to be taken to be delivered Thursday! After thinking upon it, this is one of 3 that bindings were needing to be stitched on, there is one more that was being delivered after Guild Christmas party and before heading to Vegas for a couple days!

Anyway, we have some other fun drama that is thrown in here, see that grey boxy looking thing to the left of the triangles? That's my dryer................'nother story~

Back to the triangles, here it is completed! It came out fabulous!

Windy Day is the Panto and it just finished it up perfectly!

Mrs. B was absolutely thrilled with them both and it just tickled me beyond all measure to watch her face as she opened them up! They are being gifted to her lawyer and accountant, and both quilts she picked colors and patterns to fit each gal! Was a fun fun project for sure!

The third commissioned quilt is next up, after completing the 3 I decided it was time for a little break while going to deliver the quilts, hadn't done any Christmas shopping yet as I had these three to finish up along with 2 other quilting jobs and I was all caught up feeling pretty smug, really tired, but pretty smug.....................remember the little saying, pride before the fall? I visited their again..........

Something Quick Please~

A sweet friend who tends to procrastinate a little left me these at the shop with the above plea,

and since they are for her 2 granddaughters in Maine I couldn't say no~

I did cheat and use the same thread and design on each!

The backs are fleece and they quilted up beautifully, and they collected every stray piece of fuzz laying on my studio floor!! Extra warmth right?!

The same day Miz D was waiting for me before the shop was even open~ she thought it might help me getting 'just the bindings' done for her!

She hates binding with a passion, I happen to enjoy it very much and find it rather soothing to do at the day's end. So I got them all made and put on Monday and worked on them each night so they could be picked up for washing and gifting on Friday~

I love this panel, wish I would have got at least one of them before it all flew out the door!

During the day I was busy busy getting the Pineapple quilt pieced, funny it hasn't found it's way into every photo like the triangles! Was a good sign~ And the two have been delivered to be given for gifts this week!

A Recap of my Thursday~

Woke up bright and early to get a head start on the day! Look what is finally off the floor! I quit counting how many photos had bits and pieces of this quilt peaking out from somewhere in the picture!!

So once the machine was going I got the binding sewn onto this shop sample, talk about a major poop factor running short on the binding and the shop being 80 miles from my door! Once I remembered where I had put the left over fabric I was thrilled to find a salvageable piece to finish it up!

The machine is still going and in between advances I got it hand stitched down and ready for drop off Friday when I go to the shop.

Woo-Hoo! We at noon now, and making some nice headway, haven't had breakfast yet but I'm not really hungry so just keep plugging along~

Now I get this off and trimmed and my heart sinks, I didn't calculate the 'border' being cut down and it throws the balance of the quilt totally off, even by the picture you can see it. So I started debating cutting it down, it looked 'right' when I would fold an end up and I was leaning towards the dark side but the kids pointed out how the graduations didn't look good doing it that way so we started looking at the light side and that settled it! Everyone agreed what needed to be done and promptly left the room while I dug out the cutter~they had never seen me do something so drastic!

Here's a closer shot of what I removed, it is perfect now and I just accidentally deleted the shot of it, when I finish hand stitching the binding down I'll show it in it's full glory!!

It was only about 2pm now and the kids had lunch already and I missed it, but we'll be getting supper going at 5 since Scottie is off at 6, so whats a couple more hours! I still have lots of time to get more stuff done! Then I had a thought, what if I played for a little bit on one of my own projects?!? After all that was already accomplished I could call it a day, and it would be my own time right? Well before I let myself totally go, I got the binding sewn on and started thinking about what I would pull out, there 2 tops needing quilting, one an easy allover will finish it fine but the other one I wanted to use as a practice piece for learning some of the different functions of the IQ....................

After a 20 minute search I whipped this baby out! Dug through the stash for a suitable backing, got it pieced ironed and loaded! Oh yeah, school is now started! I have had no classes and only a couple hours of training the day the IQ was installed, so everything I wanted to do was going to be by what I have found on the Internet at a wiki-iq site. Even then and still now as I write this I still don't get it all but am a step closer and think I will bite the bullet and sign up for some classes at the HMQS Show in Utah this May. Especially after getting just a little taste of what this computer will do!!!

I didn't get very good shots but here is a little idea of what is going on! The hardest thing for me I think is going through the library of designs and picking what to put where, I know in my mind what I want but finding it is a different story! Need to take an afternoon and go through and organize them better! This is the progress I had made, way cool!

By five thirty I had also completed stitching in the ditch all the logs on the cabin and put 2 pineapple medallions on either side of the cabin in the cream section, I originally wanted a field of flowers or even a wheat design but I couldn't find what I was looking for so just moved onto another idea while looking through the catalogues, pineapple medallions is what I finally decided on and they look cool although they weren't as easy to do because the sides on the cabin aren't the same size, the left is smaller than the right, tough lesson because I didn't catch it until I copied the design to the other side and they were way off. So they are truly unique!

But again, I am not beating myself up over it because I am having fun and learning as I go! I am really getting excited now because I can smell supper cooking and I am starving! Court made chocolate chip cookies minus the chocolate chips and I had one with a cup of tea to hold me over around 4!

It's now 5:30 and my cell phone starts a ringing! Hmmm, don't recognize the ring as everyone who is important to me has a special ringer, it's Joe, our Pastor's son, he is calling for his wife Julia, they are on the way to the hospital, her contractions are 5 minutes apart and its for real!

A little history, they married 5 years ago and we got to be pretty close, her Mom lives in Michigan and when she got pregnant with their first she asked if I would be there with her! What a total and complete honor it was to be asked that! She had a beautiful little girl Rosie, who is 3 1/2, all those breathing techniques I learned with my brood I passed on to her and they asked me to be there with all 8 of their children's births, that's how many they plan on having!! Haha! Fast forward a year and a half later and little miss Violet enters the world!

And now I am happy to introduce Elliot James! He came into the world at 12:47 am, weighing in at 6lbs 15oz and 20 inches long! And absolutely beautiful!!

It was 2 am by the time I got home, had some dinner, a cup of tea and promptly passed out!

Only to get up at 7am to head to the shop, I contemplated calling off but we had our Christmas dinner/meeting planned after the shop closed for the day. Yikes!! Enjoyed dinner and the planning for the New Years Classes and BOM projects and a little bit on the upcoming expansion and boogied out of there by 7:30, promptly jumped back to 8:30 at the Arizona State line and had one more stop to make! Thankfully my VBF (very best friend) had the teapot ready for a nice cup of tea to have with our short visit. It was a perfect ending to the crazy 2 days!

And did I mention the 7 quilts that came home with me?! 4 for quilting and 3 for bindings. Miss Darlene asked if it was possible to have the 3 bindings done by next Friday when I go back and I just couldn't say no, she was waiting for me at the door when I got to the shop and she is just too funny when it comes to the bindings, she absolutely loathes it, she tries everytime to just do it but always ends up dropping the projects off to me!

But first I have to finish my cabin....................

Blah Blah Blah~

This quilt is HUGE! It is folded in thirds to make it easier to get a shot at. It can be hard to pick a design when there is so much open space and the customer only wants an overall for the quilting.

And the stark color difference can also be a little challenging, makes me want to take a trip to St. George and visit Superior Threads and hand pick some colors! I have the thread cards but after getting to see the thread in person at Market it made such a difference when it comes to choosing. Since not being prepared to buy and only having 15 minutes before closing I did manage to pull 6 spools of So Fine and 4 spools from their new silk line!

She was totally thrilled with the design she picked, and although I would have chosen something totally different, it is beautiful! It's a gift for her daughter and she is going to love it!

Can you guess what his mouth is full of? Dumplings! Susan asked if we were having company to have made so many! Nope, just us! It can get kind of scary when you actually stop and think about what all has to be made to fill 8 bellies, 5 boys who are no longer boys but young men and this one is 6'3 and the rest not far behind! Let's see in one sitting for just the boy's and Dad, 21 dumplings were consumed! That doesn't include the piddly 4 between us girls and even then we didn't finish our plate!

But in truth, for me, it's all about the day or two after when they get sliced thin and fried in butter, then topped with sauerkraut.................yummmm!! And I was the first to "Call" the last 2! They will be plain, though, all the other fixings are long gone!

These are just some fun pincushions that Sandy P. makes for the Shop, way too cute! Court snagged one that has money printed fabric that caused quite a stir and she just happened to be in the right spot when Sandy came in with all her new pickings. Want to know what gets me? I remember seeing it, I remember writing it down on my ticket to buy it, and clearly remember signing the receipt to continue earning those reward points! Watched it go into the bag with a couple other minor purchases, but have not seen it since!! And to top it off, she has it tucked away somewhere where I can' t find it, just not right!