Halfway through Summer

There’s so much to talk about!

Summer is moving pretty fast-paced around here!

I’ve had visitors; my sister and her family, my mom over the 4th of July, and a special guest from Canada came to pick up her custom quilt in person! I’ve made several quilts for her and we’ve become friends in the last few years of messaging back and forth so it was a thrill to finally meet her in person!
It was bittersweet though, I had to let this go...

Matching pillowcases were a must :)

I love how this quilt turned out! 
The fabric is Petite Odile by French General for Moda.

The quilting was very simple; 
just right for this quilt. 

We used two layers of Hobbs 80/20 so this will be nice and toasty in the Canadian winter!

I have also spent quite a bit of time sprucing up the flower beds and clearing weeds… my yard has never looked better. 

It still needs a lot of work but I’m ashamed to show I didn’t take “before” pictures so you’ll just have to trust me… the “after” is way better!

Any ideas on what to fill this space with?
Other than the space where the dead bush was. 
(Note to self: Acquire new, live bush.)
I have irises on one side and day lilies on the other. 
I live in zone 8 so it has to handle heat and cold...

I'm also reaaallly excited that one of my offspring has been infected caught the quilting bug! She's piecing this darling Take 5 quilt from Pirate Matey's by Emily Taylor for Riley Blake Designs. Pretty soon I'll have her doing applique and binding!!!

Anyone else have a ridiculous cat that does this? I'm afraid he'll fall!

I’ve relaxed so much over the Summer that I finally feel re-energized and motivated to take on new classes! I’m picking classes for next semester tonight and I feel really energized… hopefully I get into all of the ones I want. 
If not I'll just sleep on the stairs with my cat ;P

Happy Independence Day!

Vacation and Cake!

Hope everyone is having a fantastic Summer so far!

We've been enjoying BBQ's and time with family and friends.

We even made a fun trip here:

  

We had an adventure filled time with roller coasters and log rides...many times on the log rides because it was HOT!!!

We kept hydrated with lots of water and yummy, ice-cold lemonade; the food was delicious, too.

Being a berry farm of course they have berries!

I love all kinds of berries but especially boysenberries...

so of course I had to have a piece of pie!

It was like an all day party and we had so much fun together.

My sister came and brought her kiddos, too!
The kids all separated into groups depending on the level of thrill-seeking desired... I'll admit I was in the tamer group!

Bumper cars were a hit!

My niece, nephew and my girl, Kathrine :)

My nephew on his favorite ride!

We've had a ton of excitement and kind of started our 
Independence Day festivities early. We've also been doing all kinds of 4^th of July crafts that I found on Pinterest.

We’re not done yet though, we're still planning on celebrating our nation’s birthday with cake…

No, not that kind of cake…Layer Cakes!

All Layer Cakes are just $33.15 for this week only!!!

Use Coupon Code JULY4 during checkout to receive this great deal!

No limit, buy as many as you like :)

As always, you’ll still receive 

Free shipping when you spend $50 or more!

(pre-tax, US orders only)

This offer is good July 1^st – July 7^th 2013 

so hurry and get ‘em while they last!

I don't put every special on the blog, we usually do that through our weekly newsletter. 
Make sure you have signed up for our newsletter so you never miss out on our really great deals. 

Also, don't forget to tell your friends so they can sign up, too! 

Sewing away...

Been a long week of sewing but a happy one!

I’m in my element doing what I love :)

The binding is going on the Star quilt, slowly but surely.

I love the look of hand binding… 

it's time consuming but so worth it!

Have you tried these little clips? They're "wonder"ful! 

I seriously don't know how I did binding before without them! They are making the job so much faster and easier. 

I’ve also made time for some quilting in the last few weeks but as usual, I forgot to take pictures before delivering them :/

I did remember a pic of this little beauty… 

I LOVE a Minky backing! Perfect for snuggling.

Of course I also made time to start my version of Metro Rings. 

Haven’t had too much time to work on this but I couldn't resist! I've managed to get in a few sessions of chain piecing. The curves did slow me down for the first few blocks but after that I was zipping away! I’m having sew much fun that I’m already planning my next Quick Curve project!

(I just noticed that I spelled “sew” instead of “so” but I think I’ll just leave it in :)

New look!

The new look for my blog is just one of the many steps to the new website... I LOVE how it is turning out!!!

An (almost) finish and a new start...

Getting ready to start a new quilting adventure!
I'm just about finished with this beauty...  only needs the binding! I'm doing the binding by hand so it'll take a bit of time but it will be well worth the effort!

 While the Star quilt was being quilted...

I was busy cutting little piles of curved pieces!

It's so cute already I just want to dive on in!!!

I'm making the new Metro Rings by Jenny Pedigo of  Sew Kind of Wonderful. If you don't have her ruler yet boy you are missing out!!! 
I can't believe how fast I cut this quilt out... or how fun it was!  Usually I'm not much for the cutting part, I'd rather skip ahead to the piecing.  This wonderful ruler is magic and it makes the work fun as you amaze yourself with cut after perfect curved cut!!!
After the binding is done on the Star quilt, I'll be piecing away... I'll let you know how it goes!
btw... schools out, grades are in and it looks like I got a 4.0 for the semester!!!

All about May

May has been a memorable month… so much has happened!

At the beginning of the month, my hubby and I drove to

Southern Utah to see my twin sister graduate with her

Bachelor’s Degree in Education (go Joyce!!!)

Me and my twin

It was wonderful to spend some time without the kids and just relax and have some fun :)

Little did I know that while I was letting my guard down my boys were plotting against me…

Kids being kids, they decided to roll around in germs and get sick. Like really sick.

(I’m sure they planned it to make me feel bad for leaving them at home… that’s what my “mom guilt” is telling me anyway.)

Well some tender, loving care and one of them was all better.

The other one was not.

Several trips to the doctor resulted in lots of advice, but no cure.

We had a miserable teenage boy on our hands.

He went from eating his own body-weight three times per day to not eating anything. Which resulted in a 12# weight loss.

(Which resulted in the desire to get the stomach flu by all of the ladies in the house ;P )

After missing school for three weeks, we decided to pull him out for the last week-and-a-half of the school year. 

He has pretty good grades so he won’t have to repeat anything next year.

Of course, a few days later he was starting to feel better.

Which led us all to believe that he was just sick of school.

Well everyone is on the mend now.

(The girls got it, too, but were regrettably too healthy for it to take much of a hold; they were feeling better in just a few days and no weight loss was recorded.)

My school work and laundry have kept me busy but I was finally able to finish piecing this quilt this past weekend. 

Finally all pieced! 

We made up for everything else that we missed this month by having a three-day marathon quilting event that finished off with a trip to the county fair.

We had the privilege of helping out at the fair in the Quilts of Valor booth on Memorial Day… it was wonderful to be able to share the message of such a worthy cause.

Oh, the new website is coming along great! It won’t be too much longer now…