Home Again~

I am happy to have this guy back home! He was a shop sample for five months, it sold 12 kits and a lot of fabric off the bolts to make those little basket blocks!

which are 5 in, and those half square triangles measure out at 1 in! The littlest I have made to date!

And these ended up coming home with a certain Young Man who has admired Ostrich for a long long time! The color shows them being kind of blue but they are more on the grey side and look 'smokin on the ole' (young) boy!

Did I mention he got them HALF off!! He went and bought himself a couple new pair of jeans to enhance the look!

Back in the day when I had time I would make home~made tortillas for all the little peoples daily enjoyment, they were all wanting some and there wasn't/isn't a spare moment for such luxuries so it was time to break out the well patina'd rolling pins and griddle!

The catch though is it wasn't going to be me doing all the work and they thought I would be more involved, as in taking over and doing it myself because it would be quicker and so much easier!

Sadly for them, I didn't fall for it!!!

I told them to each grab a bowl and all the needed ingredients and THEY went to work! I hollored out the directions while loading a quilt, and so to keep it friendly the 2 boys each had their own batch to make, nothing like a little friendly competition! And I did show up to show them how they wanted their dough to feel, then a quick demonstration on kneading, and once the dough was rested how to roll 'em out. I did one for each and the rest was on their own!

They did pretty good! Manchild 1 had some interesting shapes, but once the butter melted on it didn't matter what they looked like! The taste was scrumptious!

Then here is Manchild 2 with his batch, I did start them off 20 minutes apart so there would be no room for wrestling, especially once the rolling pins came out!

Perfection! Right from the get go! His dough was just perfect!

And he kept cranking out perfect ones, one after another! Then he wanted to see just how big he could make one, and we shared it! Little bit of butter with a little bit of sugar sprinkled on and we had the best treat!

Manchild 3 wasn't up to the task this round but later in the week he got a hankering for some, and out came all the ingredients, but this time his experienced big brothers gave him a helping hand! Cheese tortillas and fajitas were on the menu!

On the work side, we are now through the 3rd weekend of Retreats, phew! This was a busy group, 16 came in from California, all friends, and man were the machines flying, I lost count of all the projects they completed, and in their down time they were shopping for future projects! All in all it was a great time but Saturday was a 12 hour day for me keeping the shop running smoothly and helping take care of these gals, needless to say I am still on the wiped out side, but this is the last weekend and I am actually looking forward to seeing that the end is in sight!

Amazing~

This was what we drove home through Saturday night then woke up to Sunday morning that blissfully kept us in for the day!

I love looking out our big windows to this scene~

Gorgeous! Simply Gorgeous!

And the little men made up their own version of ice cream snow! And since milk products don't settle to well on my innards they tried it with my Almond Milk and it was de-vine!

I was actually sorry to see the snow melt away this time because it meant no more special treats. So I consoled myself and tinked around the studio, I have a jar I keep all the ends from the leftover binding strips, they were joined to make a nice scrappy binding for a nice scrappy quilt!

Shamefully I haven't had a chance to get the hand stitching part done, that makes 2 now that are so close to being completed!

The Shop just finished up weekend 2 of the 4 retreats weekends, I'm working the extra hours that the shop is open for the ladies special night of shopping, man oh man, I am in awe of the fabric that has been flying out the door!! They must have been saving for just these weekends!

And while I am home my machine is purring along, the second one for the day is started and I hope to get 4 more table runners done to complete this weeks 'home' work, dh is on a new schedule at his place of employment so that means we can carpool together, and I do want to be able to do that as much as possible with the cost of diesel being what it is, and of course, both our vehicles just love that flavor! grumble~grumble

So that means I need to boogie my butt to keep the quilting up!

Sigh~

Good News is these two are officially in the completed category! Yay! Happy Day Happy Day! Ahhhhh~ I have to get the photos into the computer yet but here is just a shot of what the flange I was dealing with, turns out it really wasn't all that, but it was the first time to do one and those first timers can really put a hurtin' on ya!

Then this one! Boy's!

That about sums it up~ the three have been enjoying the skate/bike park in Boulder City and had been accident free 122 days! The new count date has been reset~

He landed on his hand, and after icing wrapping and more icing, and google searches on hand injuries we decided to don the Dr.'s hat.

We pressed, pulled and prayed and in the end he is back up and running! There were even directions on doing stretches once the swelling went down, but believe you me~ I was watching it like a hawk!

These colorful beauties showed up about 3 days later, I still cringe at the thought. Two weeks have past and it is all looking good. Until last night~ when he decided to do a little workout on the punching bag, Boy's~ sigh~

On the quilting front, I just completed 4 table runners, 3 full size quilts, 2 shams, and 1 wall hanging since Monday morning, I am pooped and calling it a week, now it is time to pack up and head to Boulder to put in my 3 days there, and the Annual Retreat the shop sponsors is starting up this weekend, the first of 4 so it should be pretty steady there, kind of funny by the time I leave here I am ready to rest up at the shop and play a little there, after the 3 days there I am ready to get home and rest up and get some quilting done! Sad sad sad~

~All about Sharon~

This big baby is Sharon's Wedding gift to her son and daughter in law, very very striking!

Her daughter in law drew the wedding invitation design and Sharon blew it up to put on the back of the quilt along with the registry of all who attended!

It was a little tricky with the stitching out part here, it required dh laying underneath to be sure everything went as smooth as possible! Thankfully it did!

I am now working on the second of 2 quilts from h-e double toothpicks, flange edges on these two monsters and they are driving me batty!

Only because I would love to be able to learn something new on one of my own projects before being forced to on a customers quilt!! I just want them to be over with NOW! ~smile~

Still some more~

This was just a neat picture to capture Kaa while he was drinking some water, we have a black and white ringed King snake that lives around here somewhere and he comes to get water from the chickens coupe during the warm months, he is also neat to watch fill up!

One of my favorite things to do when quilting one of my own quilts is use up all those bobbins that have just enough thread on them that you hate to throw out! Ultimately that whole bin has been emptied and has begin collecting once again! And it's funny that not one person has noticed all the different colors on the back of my quilts!

I also found some time to get my thread cabinet organized, it is actually a dvd cabinet that I picked up on clearance from Bass Pro for a song and it is perfect for storing and keeping the thread dust free!

Now this is funny, I have been watching this spool dwindling down for awhile now, I go through about 1 a year, I use the Presencia Thread, just love it! Now that I have 3 machines running I have one spool for each but this particular machine is what I use for attaching the bindings so it goes through the thread a little faster than the rest.

I was attaching a binding at this photo and wondering if I was going to make it! Thankfully I did and now a new spool is on there and ready for use. The spool holder is another favorite find, it works perfect although I didn't put it through the scissors, that was someone elses clever idea!

I am totally standing in amazement at how the Quilting Business has been flourishing for me! I love the challenge each brings at finding that perfect design and thread to bring it all together! A new customer was embarrassed at three table-runners she brought me to do, she felt they were too plain and would understand if I felt they were a waste of my "professional time"!! Blach!! I was speechless for a moment and couldn't express enough what a privilege and honour it is for ME to be trusted with any work by her hand! There is no such thing as 'just a simple quilt' in my mind! That fabric cost money and then precious time to create so be proud!! I just uploaded the pics to share next time! I think they came out fabulous and can't wait to put them in her hands and hear everyone ooh and ahh!!

Picking~

I have done more picking on quilts the last two weeks, this one had 20 minutes of quilting into it when I decided I didn't like the design or the thread color. Thankfully it was my quilt, but it still took over 4 hours to pick out!! The second one was a customer quilt, can't remember what was the cause of that one, I have already blocked it out of my head and only took a picture of after it was packed into its bag to be delivered!

I have been working on the pineapple blocks, did you guess it already? Hehehe, anyway the above one is done in all my civil war scraps and I love love love it! I have more pulled to do a larger size, maybe even in a king for my own room~ and below is a bigger block but in just the two colors, had a time picking out a border for it but eventually went with the gold for the inner border and the same blue in the quilt for the outer. It looks much prettier in person than the photo, I am going to attempt teaching the technique and these will be two of the samples. I much prefer the scrappy look myself, and did a quick large block in that version as well. Amazing how different they can look!

And back to some Christmas Quilts that were actually done after, seems this year a lot of people planned to do their family get togethers in January so that made it kind of nice not having to rush to get all those quilts done!

This gal's son in law is a carpenter, and she picked a design for the quilting that was tool related.

I love all the designs at my finger tips, and this one even came with my system.

We have been enjoying some very nice sunny and warm days, we even pulled out some of the ferns that we keep in the garage for winter to enjoy the warm sunshine!

Things at Fiddlesticks are still plugging along, I have to say I am glad to be back on only two days a week again, work has piled up at home, not only with quilts but with everyday chores, and not being home long enough to put stuff away after it has been used was horrid, just look in the background pictures and you will see all the little piles everywhere, so while the machine is going I am doing nothing else but picking up, sorting and putting things back where they belong. It is amazing how fast things get out of sorts, and I still have not gotten back to the pc laptop to get things transferred, and now the printer is acting up but thankfully I have a new one in storage that came with my MacPro so will just pull 'er off the shelf and get a new area worked up!

Just don't think it will be today..........................

~Non Stop~

What a BANG this New Year has been already! We spent our New Years Eve/Day and the next 4 making a total of 6 days at the Quilt Shop, the re-model/expansion is in full swing! The first class in the new Classroom is set for the 28Th and there is still a ton to get done. In between I get home for a few days and turn into a quilting fool so as not to get too behind, I am on 3 days a week at the shop and that leaves precious time for nothing else!

Here is one of Jo's quilts, I was tickled when she picked these Swirles for the design, another one of my favorites!

Just plain purrty!

This was a Cake in a cup Kit I got for Christmas, didn't think I would be to into it so re-gifted it to Blake, he made them up for us and have to say they were pretty darn good!

So much so he came up with his own version and they have become a fast favorite in this kitchen!

It is the same schedule for the next few weeks, it can be exhausting but I am quite content when I lay my head down at what all is being accomplished!!

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!