Paper Expressions Rubber Stamping & Video Tutorials

POST # 1000! wow! Quilt top together!

I can't believe this is post # 1,000!!

Wow! seems like I just started posting!  Well today I am sharing with you my quilt top! TA DA!!

All 4 blocks are made and I just sewed them together and laid it on the bed to see how it fits and what I need to do for the borders.

 

 

I cannot tell you HOW excited I am to be working on this project! I LOVE to sew, I love to quilt and I can't wait for this project to be completely finished and on our bed! I am playing with the border fabrics to see what I like where.... When this is totally done and before sending to the lady with the gammill for machine quilting, I will share another photo- probably next week, but for now I have a stamp room to get back to and classes to prep and kits to get in the mail and no more time for being sick!  I am getting better but my throat is sore from the coughing and my sinuses still hurt,eyes hurt... yatta yatta- but overall........ I will live! (lots of drama here.......) lol

 

OH! Tomorrow the teenagers and I will be at the SARAH PALIN RALLY at the Bass Pro Parking lot! I am so excited!  I am a supporter of McCain/Palin and I feel that the media is self serving and do not report "everything" correctly, they taint it they way they want it to get ratings and readers and it makes me sick!  It's time for some down home know how ( listen to what the people want) politicians in office that "HAVE EXPERIENCE already"! I don't believe anyone should use the presidency as a "learning experience" for further personal gain regardless of how good their "intentions" may be! I want experienced leaders.

Hope your day is productive and fun!

 

Monday Project

Good morning everyone!  This makes day 5 I have been sick. It's the dreaded fall sinus junk. I do feel better today than yesterday. My sweet pal Connie advised I buy oregano oil pills from the health food store, I think they are helping along with the sinutab, dyphadryl and aleeve! lol

The good news is that I will LIVE! hooray! was kinda doubtful yesterday morning! lol   

So yesterday afternoon when I was feeling "so so" - I decided to pull out my fabric I purchased and a while back and start cutting on the quilt I want to make for our bed to go with the new wall color and decor.  Well I just this morning (its 9:30 am- took an hour) I sewed all the triangles and squares together and made 1 of 4 blocks for the quilt.

 

I will have to add a few extra borders to this quilt (thinking of something pretty like more tiny stars in a strip not just strips we will see) To make it fit the queen size bed- (if the sneezing would stop I would be happy today lol)

The "main" fabric that will be the curtains is on the far left bottom triangle  the red with the roses in it. its also the top right to the left of the top right corner square. I had bought many yards of that fabric when we lived in Boise and made curtains for the family room from it. I was digging one day eary this summer and found it hooray! It matches the wall color perfectly and so I took it to the quilt sampler shop and we matched fabrics to it for this quilt.  I LOVE to quilt and I used to do it non stop and I hope to get back into it this winter because most of my quilts are so worn they are tattering at the seams etc and I need to make new and update the colors.  You can never go wrong with any pattern tho all you do is update the fabrics! lol   I was 6 when my sister Pat taught me to sew (I still HATE barbie clothes to this day! lol)  When I was in the 7th grade I began sewing my own clothes for school- you know back when fabric was 3.00 a yard (the expensive stuff) and patterns were 1.00 each or so (and had BETTER instructions than the ones they sell now)  When I married my kids dad in 1981, my mil taught me to log cabin quilt and I have been hooked since! I opened a small quilt shop at the house in 1984 or so and did quite well until we moved to a remote location and had to stop all the fun. But, I never stopped sewing until about 1994 when my life and marriage went to pot.  Now that I have a wonderful husband who encourages me and appreciates my talents, I feel like creating with fabric again! But I don't intend to stop stamping~I have to do both! lol

I hope your day is wonderful, I am going back to make another block then rest for a while on the couch- my chest is feeling heavy again argh! May just call Dr Larue and go see her today.

I just hope I am all better for tomorrow (or close enough) because I paid to take a paper sack book class at a local scrapbook store for inspiration and ideas and something for "me" instead of always being the teacher.  We have awesome weather again today and I feel truly blessed.

 

Machine Applique

 

I am excited to tell you that I took a machine applique class yesterday at the Quilt Sampler from my Friend Karen.  I haven't done any machine applique in about 12 years or maybe even longer.  I had a great time and the refresher class and learning all the new tricks and items was so worth it for me!  I am going to get back into my quilting this winter or else and this was a great way to start.

My project is a snowman stocking-  grant it I have the snowman a bit low on the stocking, considering I was the first person finished (yes finished all but the buttons) lined my stocking and everything- I think I did pretty well.  When we first moved here and I found the store they had a pumpkin quilt block of the month club and its all applique- well I bought all 12 of the blocks- er the supplies and they are waiting in my room to be sewn.  Now I am going to start workign on them even if I only sew one a month I can have my "fall pumpkin" quilt for next year!

 

Here is my stocking-  yes the red and the mitten cuff are flannel and left overs from the snowman quilt I made last year (you can find the posts under the quilts subject catagory)  I will do several things different next time, like  put the snowman further up on the sock-make the pillow and use a lighter color for his twig arms so they show up better- but this will make a cute addition to my bedroom decor to coordinate with my quilt!

 

Not to shabby after all! Wow was I tense tho- I know what a good job I used to do so my shoulders were really stiff and I started to sweat! lol We all had a good laugh and I got up walked around the store bought a pattern for a quilt to use up scraps and ate a cookie (shhhh) and was ok after that lolol-  Thanks Karen for your patience and encouragement! See you tonight here at the meeting! (my turn to make her sweat roflol)

now- this came in an email this morning and the country farm girl in me HAD to share it!

  how cools is this to see from the air in a field?  wow!!  FARMERS ROCK!

I am up early as my family is now up and going at 5 am through the school year. It is 6:20 am now and I have to get ready for the day and finish my stamp  room we are having a downline and orphan demo meeting here tongiht! And the cool thing? My new big shot and order are to arrive today too! YIPEEE!

Hope your day is absolutely wonderful and very productive ( I am already ready for a nap! lol)

hugs!

 

IT'S Finally DONE! yippeeee

I began this project early this year and I am happy to announce that it is finally finished!!! (well the sleeve for hanging isn't done but I put it up anyhow!)

I bought this flannel panel at Craft Warehouse in Boise Idaho in early November of 2005 before we moved here.

Each square, character, etc... are stitched around on my Bernina machine by freehand.  I used left over binding flannel from my snowman quilt to bind this and it's adorable! I hope you stop by soon to visit and check it out! The backing is just a piece of dk beige cotton.  It looks fabulous in my kitchen with all my other gingerbread men and ladies!

Quilting Day

Yesterday I started a project for our High School Play-

Seven Brides for Seven Brothers!

They brought me all the scraps from the costumes to make into a quit that will be raffled off as a fundraiser for the organization.

Here is what it looks like as of today.  The director is buying backing fabric tomorrow and I hope to find someone to quickly machine quilt it next week so I can bind it and have it all done by play time in November. Otherwise I will have to go rent a machine (like I did with my snowman quilt) and do it myself.

The squares are all cut at 6.5" and sewn they are 6".

There are 15 across and 17 down. Making it a queen size quilt top.

I will be sure to share a photo of it when it is completely finished, but I wanted you to see what I have been doing with the help of a wonderful friend- Jean Johnson. I could not have had it done so quickly without her help!

and now a view from the other side

I hope your day is productive also!

Tonight is High school FOOTBALL- time to put on my LRHS garb and dress warm!!!  Me thinks a thermos of cocoa will be needed!

Quilt Store find!

On our trip (Saturday) after dropping Kasey at the airport for his vacation with his sister in California, Kay and I went on what he likes to call a "jaunt". We headed north and east in MO from Kansas City and decided we would visit the "Historic Sites of Northwest Missouri".

We stopped in Liberty and took the tour of the Liberty Jail, then went down to the town square for the farmers market, but before we got to the market we found a lovely shop with civil war costumes, sewing patterns, pioneer items and reinactment items! It was wonderful! Check out these photos of my hubby trying on vintage hats and a vest! I think I like the straw hat photo best, he looks like a gentleman plantation owner! hee hee-

We found patterns for clothing we can make for costume parties etc...

Quilt shop?  Country Expressions Quilt Shoppe

Guess who found fabric HE had to have?

Halloween fabrics to boot!

Check out this gorgeous Quilt on the front porch. Good thing I already have the pattern and the cowboy fabrics I chose off my shelves are laying in a box ready for winter's project! yippee!  To be honest, I am looking forward to fall, I am finding as I grow older that I Iove fall the most. I start decorating on Sept 1 with leaves and fall things, add in some Halloween and take it down then add in the Thanksgiving and then it all comes down for the day after turkey day to start the Christmas season. I love the crisp fall air and the colors. I used to love spring but I find there is less yard work in the fall than the spring so that is another factor to my favorite season becoming fall!

So from the quilt shop we headed to Jamesport- what  a cute town! and I love the shops! We arrived here late so the Amish bulk food store, quilt and furniture shop were closed by the time we ate lunch at 3pm and went through this cute shop where country candles, primitives etc are made and sold!  My house smells wonderful today and I purchased a Bluegrass Christmas Cd, and the oils for regenerating the smellies! 

I will post more about our trip another day. All in all we had a FANTASTIC day roaming the countryside together! I can't wait for another just the 2 of us jaunt!

FOR SALE

My dear friend Dale Ann (my creative ramblings) has a lovely quilted wallhanging for sale at this link.   Be sure to check it out and share the link with anyone whom you think would be interested!

Machine Quilting Day!!!

I have reserved the use of the Gammill Statler Stitcher at Merrily We Quilt Along today and I have 5 baby quilts and my snowman quilt that I want to quilt today. With a 2 wonderful grandbabies on the way in a couple weeks, I think its time to get them finished don't you?  Monday I will spend the day binding them.

(Statler Stitcher MWQA store photo- this is where I will be having fun today!)

In my past life, I owned an A1 quilter it just never had a deep/large enough throat to do the size quilts everyone wanted.(mail ordered/bought from here at Springfield Mo and shipped clear to me in Washington state lol- who would have known I would live so close in my life to where it came from?) I machine quilted for people, Oh, about 13 years.  2 years ago I sold it out of the garage in Boise because even tho it was a large house, there was NO room where I could set it up to use it Or even set up my sewing room, I had to put my sewing machine at the dining room window- needless to say I didnt sew much then.

I dream of one day owning my own Statler Stitcher and building on a room just for it and all my quilting!  I also love to hand quilt and have found that in the move, my quilting frame has disappeared- OH NO! What am I going to do now?

Build another one!  I want to get a quilt in a frame so that each time I "feel" like quilting I can just sit down to it and quilt!  They definately get done faster that way!

You all have a wonderful day and I will be back later today to share how it went and maybe some photos! (glad I reminded myself to put my camera in my purse! hee hee) 

Quilting today

I have been sick most of the day, but not sick enough to just stay in bed. So I have been working on my quilt that I shared a photo of the 3x3 squares I was cutting a few days ago.  Here is the progress I have made today, remember this is a queen nearly king size quilt so I have a lot of 3x3 pieces to work with.

I went from this: 

To this today!!

When sewing a true scrap quilt the pioneers would put all cut scraps in a basket and whatever they pulled out is what they would sew together.  I listen to women (and watch during a class)  they just can't stop from trying to "match" their fabrics up.  Who cares? Its just a scrap quilt anyhow as is this one.  The only thing I try never to do: is have the same fabric sewn next to itself.

I will now take these and press them and then sew them back together into a 4 patch. A 4 patch is where you have 4 squares sewn together.(my squares are 3x3 so the block will be 6x6 and when its sewn/finished in the quilt, they will be 5 1/2" x 51/2")  When I have enough of those squares, I will cut my muslin 5 1/2" x 51/2" to make the other block that goes with these and share it so you begin to see what it will look like. If you look at my fabric shelves,   I have had several of these fabrics since 1984 when I opened a quilt shop by the name of The Needle's Eye at my home in Toppenish, Washington.  I am SO ready to use up all that fabric and the newer ones gathered through the years and make them into quilts so that I can justify in my own mind buying the new fabrics now in my favorite quilting stores!  I think next time I will use bigger sizes of blocks for a quilt because it takes less time! lol  The bottom row closest to the camera is all my "cowboy" fabrics and my prize posessions.  Those are for special projects for ME! yes ME ME ME!

See you all tomorrow!

Today's projects

I have yet to make it to the stamp room so I decided to share with you what I have been doing instead!

Wheat bread rising  should be ready for supper

I also have a pork roast in the crock pot ready to eat now! lol

cutting 3x3 squares for a quilt

2 loaves of banana bread upside down cooling

I have also put up my Easter decorations and realize they are 25 years old and its time to start replacing them (most are hand made by me).  I have read email, done laundry watched the 3 musketeers (yippe!) and tried to plan what stamping projects I want to do. I plan a lot and seem to get few accomplished. (insert frowny face here)  Oh and I spent time deep cleaning my bosch mixer because I have 2 teens that use it and never clean it the way "I" would prefer and I feel much better now!   I have dirtied enough dishes that both my sinks are full and when the kids get home they can deal with it! lol  (its in their chore list)    and would you believe that I feel like I have done nothing all day?  When I was younger (oh my heck did I just say that? roflol)  I could do 5 times this much in a day and now, I cant seem to get dressed lately! lol

Have a wonderful day and thanks for stopping by!  Wish you were here to help me eat the breads!  YUM!