Spring Swap

I have just about finished my Spring Swap quilt. Here is just a peek of it. I won't show the whole thing until it has arrived safely at it's new home. I hope to get the binding on today. I should be able to pack it up and ship it by Friday. That is my goal anyway. Brights are kind of out of my comfort zone but, I had fun making it. I used my own design and fabrics from the Strawberry Lemonade collection.

I haven't been able to spend as much time in my sewing room as I would like. My illness has really kicked my butt! :) It has left my soooooo tired. Other than the tiredness, I am feeling much better though.
I am not sure what my next project will be yet. Maybe a purse, or another scrub top for my RN daughter, or catch up on my BOM, hmmmmmmmmm, decisions, decisions best synthetic urine. A new dress for church might be nice too.

Hugs & Stitches, Julia

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to everyone!!!!!!! I have been blessed with the best "Pappy" any girl could ask for. He is my hero!!! 12 years ago Mom and Dad sold their home with plans of going full time in their RV. But they discovered after a couple of years that it was not for them. My DH's parents had both passed away by then and we inherited their small home, which is right next door to our home. It was empty at the time and needed lots of TLC. Mom and Dad moved into it and have given it the TLC that it needed. They have been right next to me ever since. I am so grateful to have them right next door to me.

My Dad is a great handyman. A week or so ago, I was just walking out of the bathroom and suddenly I heard water running onto the floor. I turned and there was water shooting out from under the cabinet, I had no idea what to do. I am not a good emergency type person, I tend to panic. DH works 12 hour days, so I ran to Dad's for help, screaming, "Pappy I have hot water spewing all over my floor!!!!" He came to my rescue and shut the water off. The little hose under the sink that connects the water, had burst. When hubby got home that night, he said, "Why didn't you just shut the valve off right under the sink?" Well DUH, that takes a calm person to think of that.

Yesterday hubby and youngest son went to an air-show. They had a great time. Our children have been blessed with a Dad as fantastic as mine!!!!!

While they were gone, I spent the day doing laundry. Which is actually one of my favorite household chores. I love to hang it out on the clothesline to dry. The smell of laundry dried outside is one of the best fragrances in the world.

When they got home, I gave DH and Dad their Father's Day present. Since we live right next to each other, we share tools and such, so I got them a power washer. I had ulterior motives though, now DH can clean the outside of the house. LOL
We had a great time trying it out on various things. DS decided to turn the box it came in, into an airplane and was making the flying noises that little boys seem to be born with.

Tote

After making the cute little totes for my granddaughters, I decided to make me a big one for hauling various stuff in. I had a Chez Moi charm pack and one yard of fabric from the line, so from the stash it came and a fun tote was born. I didn't have a pattern, I just started stitching and this is what I came up with. It has a large pocket on the inside for carrying little things, like rotary cutters, pins, scissors, rulers, etc. It would make a pretty good shopping tote too!

Here it is all loaded and ready to go to a class at my guild yesterday. We worked with 2 1/2" strips or Jelly Rolls. There were some really fun ideas, but of course, my camera was languishing here on my desk, instead of in the cute tote. :~) I didn't get a whole lot done, mostly just talking, laughing and playing with my 2 1/2" scraps. I made up a couple of blocks from some of the ideas, finally settling on what I wanted to do. I will show you what I am making when I get a little further along on it.

I am hoping to get the final border on "Blackberry Twilight" (aka, purple stars), today. Maybe even get the back made and loaded onto SuzyQ!

Have a great day, filled with things and people that you love!

Hugs&Stitches, Jul♥a

Menopause, BLECH!!

Menopause or something, is kicking my rear-end the past couple of days. I can't seem to focus on anything and tears are so close to the surface all of the time. I hate it! I am not a happy girl right now! All I want to do is eat, especially sweets! ARGH!!!! Oh, the wonderful stages of womanhood. *sigh*

Thanks to all of you for your suggestions about my fabric bleed. I ordered some Synthropol and I found an extra large capacity washers at one of the local laundry mats. If I can quit crying and eating long enough to get there, I will give it a try. Wish me luck! I will let you all know how it turns out.

Hugs&Stitches, Jul♥a

Quilt Retreat

I had a wonderful time at my quilt retreat. The house was wonderful! Filled with lots of quilts and all of the comforts of home. It was very secluded and so quiet. Just what I needed to recharge my batteries. Such a cute and cozy home.

This is the view from the front porch. The view was just this gorgeous in every direction. The house sits on top of a little hill, you can see for miles in every direction, when the clouds aren't sitting on top of you anyway. :~) It is the perfect place for a retreat. We are already planning for next year. We laughed, sewed, ate lots of delicious food and laughed some more. It was the best!

Hugs&Stitches, Jul♥a

St. Patrick's Day Wall Quilt

Thanks so very much to all of you for your encouragement and kind words regarding the menopause thing. I am feeling much better this week. I think part of my problem is, that I am stressing way to much over things that I can't do anything about!

Ethan's illness came back with a vengeance. I had to take him to the Dr. yesterday, turns out he had an inner ear infection. He has stayed home from school the past two days. He is doing better this afternoon. He should be able to go back to school tomorrow. Poor little thing was sure miserable yesterday. I don't take him to the Dr. very often, but I am sure grateful for antibiotics. He needed them this time.

I spent the morning cleaning house. Yuck! Don't like to do it, but sure do love the results. :~)

I made this little wall quilt last week.

Finished quilting it last night. I think that I might be a convert to hand stitching the binding. I love how it looks! Just a little tricky with my aging eyes. You know another one of those problems of time marching on, the arms just don't seem to be long enough anymore. :~)

I decided it was time to let all of my snowmen have a rest and be put away. It is looking more like early spring here now. Rain instead of snow. It might be the official beginning of mud season! :~)

I found the pattern here. Thanks for sharing this, Kim!! I changed it up a bit. The little nine patches finish at 1 1/2 inches. Aren't they just the cutest, little things! I used this panto.

It was fun, but certainly the most challenging panto that I have used to date. A little tricky to keep track of where you are.

Now that my house is sparkly clean, I think that I will spend some time in the sewing room to finish off my day. I want to make a new ironing board cover. Cindy shared a great idea for making them. I have a couple of aprons that I want to make and a couple more scrub tops for Kristy too.

Hugs&Stitches, Jul♥a

Fall Quilt

I hope that you all had a safe and Happy Halloween. I am glad that it is over. Not really a favorite holiday of mine. Seems kind of weird to teach our children to not talk to strangers and then go out, in the dark, door to door, begging for candy. lol The kids enjoy it though.

I finished this quilt Saturday.

I really wanted to get it done to enjoy for the rest of fall, so I pushed myself last week and finished it in one week. I love this line of fabric, it is "Fall Back in Time" by Sandy Gervais. Her stuff is so fun! I adapted a pattern from Bonnie. I don't think that I ever make a quilt exactly like the pattern, I always have to change it just a little to add my own flair. :~) I used "Just Leaves" panto from Willow Leaf Studio. This was a fun panto to use. It quilted up quite fast.

I don't have a label on this quilt yet, because I don't have a name for it. I really struggle with naming my quilts. Do any of you have any suggestions for me? :~)

Walking report for last week -- 10.3 miles.

Hugs&Stitches, Julia

I Try to be Good!!

I decided that I needed a new wall hanging in my dining room, the one I have in their has been hanging for about 3 months. Spent the day looking at patterns and adapting them in EQ6. Finally had something I liked, went to the stash, found what I wanted. Wouldn't you know it, I didn't have enough. This is what I chose, most of it is from the Thimbleberries Fancy Free line. Then I had to spend lots of time on the Internet searching for more of it. I finally found what I needed and of course, some more fabric that I didn't really need, but it was such a good price. I'll bet you have used that line before too!! *G* Well needless to say, I probably bought more for the stash than what I will be using. I really did try to be good and use what was in my stash first. Oh well, such is the life of a fabricaholic. I don't plan on reforming to much, any time soon. *VBS*

I did make me 4 summer dresses this past week though. All from my stash of dressmaker fabrics, that have been properly aging for the past decade and half. *VBS* I made 2 dressier ones for church and 2 everyday ones. I love dresses when it is hot!!! Nice loose, lightweight ones.

Have a good night my quilting buddies!!!

Cystic Firbrosis Quilt

Stop in at Perry's blog and check out the quilt that she is raffling away. It is a beautiful quilt made by Cindy. She is raising money for CF. Hurry over there and donate, the drawing will be on May 9 so you still have plenty of time. Let's all join together and help out a dear friend and fellow quilter.

Hugs&Stitches, Julia

Drum Roll, Please---------

Here is my exciting news that I was telling you about! My sweet hubby bought me an HQ 16! Of course, he did tell me that this counted for all of my gifts from him, now until I die! roflol :~)


I have the stitch regulator and I love it!!! I didn't want to start on a "real" quilt. So I went to my stash and picked out a piece of homespun, that I didn't really like (you know, one of those what was I thinking pieces of fabric. I am not really a bright colors person), and put a piece of flannel on the back. I will make it for the Humanitarian Center. My dealer did set it up with some fabric, to show me how to load it and play around a little. After a couple of days of practicing, I put this on. I am getting a little smoother with the laser light, following a panto. But, still have lots of room for improvement. It is not as easy as I thought it would be.It is sooooooo much fun though!!!!!! I haven't tried a whole lot of free-motion stuff yet. Wrote my name, did a little meandering, some stars and hearts, just simple stuff.

I bought the new studio frame and it is fantastic. The poles are strong and quite heavy. Very well made. I have it set up to it's full length of 12 feet. Good thing that there weren't any doors on that closet or I wouldn't have been able to get through the door.

I have it in our oldest son's old bedroom. He has been married for four years now. I haven't done anything with the room since he left. The decorating leaves a little to be desired. But, I have plans for filling the walls with all things quilty! You can see some of my fabric stash. This is all leftover from my years of sewing clothing. I don't do that much anymore, so I should go through it and donate a lot of it to charity. Some of it I could use on the back of quilts. All of my quilt fabric stash is upstairs in my sewing room.

I need to start piecing quilt tops like mad, I love using it!!! So much better than struggling with stuffing quilts into my domestic machine. So much easier on my neck and shoulders.

Thank you for getting this for me Lovebug!!!

Hugs&Stitches, Julia

I'm Still Here!!!

My goodness, I can't believe that it has been so long since I have made a post. Summer has been just a little crazy. It has been soooo HOT and DRY!!! I HATE it!!!! My hubby and I are just opposites when it comes to which season of the year that we like, (well we are opposites in a lot of ways, but I digress) he loves summer and I love fall and winter. To me there is just nothing good about summer, heat, yuck, bugs, yuckier, double the work load (house and yard), yuck.

OOOOOOO some scary thunder just snapped, I had better turn this off and finish later. Yeah maybe we will actually get some rain. It has not rained here in about 6 weeks. The mighty Snake River is so low and all of the lakes are at about 30% capacity. Scary for the farmers with their million dollar potato crops in the ground.

I have been able to do some sewing, I made a quilt for my DIL's birhtday. I will post pics on my next post. My sewing room is one of the hottest rooms in the house, so I don't get much done when it is so hot. I am trying to get some new clothes made for myself. Hoping to finish a new dress today that I cut out last night.

Have a great day all of my friends!!!!

Might as Well Sew

This is what is happening right across the road from me. That big cloud of dirt you see in the air is blowing right toward my house. No sense in doing any dusting or cleaning until they finish. Seems like a good reason to stay in the sewing room and put off the house cleaning for a couple more days, don't ya think? :~) It is nice to live right next to a potato field, we know the farmer and he lets us go out and get all of the potatoes that we want. We have a nice big box full in our food storage room. Should be able to enjoy them for most of the winter months. YummmO!!!

We are supposed to get our first frost of the season tonight, lows expected to be around 30. I sure hope this beauty will survive.

A couple of weeks ago was our State Fair, my adorable little grandson had to give the milking a try. As soon as he realized I had the camera out, he struck a pose. Takes after his mother! :~) They sure didn't get it from me, I HATE the camera!


Hugs&Stitches, Jul♥a

30's Quilt Finished

I was able to finish the quilt for my daughter. Our weather has been a little crazy and as she lives about 30 miles from us, I haven't been able to give it to her yet. But, I think she will like it. It is nice to finish a UFO.

I was able to make another scrub top for our other daughter this past week too.
I am now working on a set of shams to go with the quilt that I gave Mom and Dad for Christmas.

Actually, I am surprised that I have been able to get anything done this past week. It has been a very stressful week. Remember my little helper, our 9 month old grandson, he was very sick. He was diagnosed with RSV. My daughter had missed 2 days of work already, so she had to go to work on Friday and that just happened to be his worst day and guess who was watching him? Yep, me! I was so worried about him. He was so lethargic, and his breathing was so labored. He slept in my arms most of the day, I was to scared to put him down, for fear he would quit breathing.
Prayers have been answered and he is doing much better now. I get very anxious when one of my loved ones is sick, especially when it is one of my little ones.
Now I am getting sick. Yuck!!! I have spent the entire weekend in jammies and just lazing around. My throat is so sore, I feel like I am swallowing razor blades. I feel a little bit better today though.

I can show you what I made for my Pay it Forward gifts, as they have both received them now. Thanks for signing up Nikki and Sue!!! This was fun to participate in.
Thanks for stopping by and I would love to read a comment from you!!!!

Goodbye Summer, Hello Autumn!!!

Happy Autumn, Everyone!!!!

This is one of my favorite days of the year, Fall Equinox!!! I LOVE fall!! As the days begin to cool, the air gets crisp and fresh, the nights are cold enough to add another quilt to the bed. Ahhhhhhh!! A cozy feeling permeates my home! It is time to light some spicy scented candles, to add to the warm and cozy feeling. I want to start baking bread and cookies. And the best of all, it is time for soups!!!!! Not much better than a crock-pot full of a yummy soup, simmering all day to meld the flavors together. YUMMO!!!!

This is one of my favorite trees. It is in my front yard. It is the first to show it's beautiful fall colors.

I was able to work on my project from the Kim Diehl class. I have all of the applique done, just have the borders left to piece and sew on. Then on to the big stitch quilting. I haven't done big stitch before, so it should be interesting to try. I need to hit the LQS to pick up the perle cotton first though.
I have a couple of projects with deadlines that need to be completed before I can add the borders and start the quilting.

Thanks to all of those who left me Anniversary wishes. I especially enjoyed all of the comments as to how young I look. :~) You have all swelled my head a little. :~) A couple of you asked about my skin care regime, I don't really have one. I use just whatever facial cleanser I happen to pick up at the store. I have used Oil of Olay moisturizer with SPF 15 for years now. That is pretty much it. I guess that I have been blessed with good skin. Not so blessed with a good metabolism though. LOL

Hugs&Stitches, Julia

Busy Springtime!

Yard-work and quilting deadlines have kept me pretty busy this past month. Thought I would make a quick post to show you some of what I have been up to.

Flower gardens are looking delightful,

veggie plants are starting to pop their precious little heads out of the ground,

front porch is set up to enjoy some time relaxing,

(I do need to add re-finishing the deck to my list of summer jobs! *sigh*) Oh well, I am still going to plant my behind in one of those chairs and do some serious relaxing! :~) As soon as the weather warms up a bit more and the rain quits, that is. This has been an unseasonably wet and cool spring for us. Everything is sure pretty and green though!

I will share some pictures of the quilts that I finished for birthdays next time. Next on the quilting front is a wedding quilt for my nephew, he is getting married on July 10th.

Blogs posts will be sparse this summer, don't give up on me though. I will still pop in occasionally just to keep in touch with all of you. :~)

Hugs&Stitches, Jul♥a

This One is for Sharon Too!!

Here is my giveaway in honor and support of Sharon. A set of 6 Thimbleberries fat quarters. If you are interested, just leave a comment by midnight on Feb 7. I will draw the winner on Friday, Feb 8.
Our ever widening circle of quilting blogger friends is a joy to behold. We are meeting and becoming friends with people that we would probably never have met before. We should be able to share our quilting adventures, our daily joys and sorrows, without fear of judgment and cruelty. Sharing our little warm squishys is one of the funnest parts of our online friendships.
So this one is for you Sharon!!!!

Quilty Christmas Present

Thanks so much to all of you who shared your condolences with me concerning the passing of my aunt. It meant so very much to me. ♥ ♥ ♥

I finished up the quilt for my brother and SIL.
I used some Thimbleberries scraps and this pattern from Bonnie. I love this pattern! It is really fun to make. I used a panto called "Plumage", from Willow Leaf Studio. I think that it is my favorite one so far. Of course, I say that with every new one that I use. hehe I think that my panto stash is going to rapidly become as large as my fabric stash. ;~)

They came up from Utah for the funeral, so I was able to give it to them while they were here. Nice to give it to them in person instead of shipping it. I think that I should have made them each one though. They were teasing each other about who was going to get to use it while they watched t.v. *s* Maybe after the first of the year, I will have to make another one. I don't want to be the cause of contention. lol

I am getting a very late start to my day. We had a storm go through last night and it knocked out the power. Now I am running behind.

Hugs&Stitches, Julia

Quiltathon!!

I am getting kind of a late start on the Quiltathon, hosted by Judy, today. But, here is what I have planned. A table runner from Thimbleberries book, Calendar Table Toppers and a Easter wall hanging that I drew up in EQ6 last year. I will be using these fabrics from the Laura's London Lawns II by
Moda.



Ethan is in his room playing with his Kinex. So all should be good for a little while.
I plan on sewing most of this day. I am not sure about tomorrow though. I might sew a little after church. I usually try to make Sunday a special day and stay out of my sewing room. But, I shall see what tomorrow brings.

Happy Quiltathon to you all and let the sewing begin!!!!!!!!!!

Rainy Saturday

It is raining like crazy today. Look how pretty and green our grass is getting! I love the rain! Of course, living in a high plains desert we don't get tons of rain, so I enjoy these kinds of days.

I am babysitting today. Kristy is at work, so we are watching our two darling, little grandsons. Kyson loves to play with the pans and kettles. Before the day is over these will be spread all over the house. LOLI am trying to distract him with some of Ethan's toys, we'll see how long that lasts. :~)

Ethan is entertaining Kaden for me. They are downstairs playing some video games. Maybe we will read some books or play a game here in a little while. I am trying get my laundry done too. We were drowning is a sea of dirty clothes. :~)

I would love to be working on this quilt for my brother's birthday instead of doing laundry,

but there should be some time later this afternoon, after the little ones go home. I am using a couple of jelly rolls and some charm packs from two or three different Kansas Troubles lines. I love how they can all go together. This is a fun pattern to make! I love using the pre-cuts, like jelly rolls, charms, layer cakes, etc! I wouldn't want to use them all of the time, but I sure do enjoy using them once in awhile.

Uh oh, I hear a chair scooting across the dining room floor. That can only mean one thing, Kyson is getting ready to climb somewhere he shouldn't be! eep!!!

Hope that you are all having a wonderful weekend!

Hugs&Stitches, Jul♥a

30's Sampler Quilt

This is the quilt that I mentioned in my last post. As you can see, my design wall is not big enough. This is what I have so far. I think that I am going to do some applique in the setting triangles too. I am doing the applique with my embroidery machine. The basket is from a Thimbleberries book. It will be about twin size when I get it done. It is our oldest daughter's birthday on Monday, so I think that I will give it to her. Of course, I am sure that I won't have it done by then. I am babysitting my grandchildren this afternoon and evening. With my own 7 yr old and 3 grandchildren, ages 5 yrs - 2 1/2 yrs - 9 months, it gets a little crazy around here. :)

Thanks to everyone that stops for a visit and leaves a comment. You know that I love to hear from you!!!!!

Hope that you are all having a great weekend!!! Happy Quilting!!!!

Deadline Projects Finished

This is one of the the projects I had with a deadline. I finished it the day that it was to be shipped on to the next person. Nothing like waiting until the last minute. I usually don't do that, not sure what happened. Probably school starting, SuzyQ, that I want to bond with, and I got sick for about 3 weeks. This is step 2 of the online Round Robin that I joined in on. It is fun to see what comes in the mail. I can only show you a little snippet of it because they want the final reveal of each one to be a surprise.


This friendship block was my other deadline project. I did paper piecing again. I am getting to where I really like doing paper piecing more and more. I am not very fast at it. ;~) But, it is so accurate and precise. You can work with some odd shaped pieces very easily. I still want to make an entire quilt using the stars from Carol Doaks book, "Simply Sensational Nine Patch Stars". I really like her books. This is from that book.

I am working on a baby quilt for charity. I want to do a little more practice with SuzyQ before I do a "real" quilt on her. These charity quilts are good practice. I am doing well enough that I don't feel bad about the quality of them for donations. Each one that I do, I learn a little more. I have my first class for SuzyQ on Oct.2.

I have started walking again since school started. I think that it might help to keep me motivated and to stay committed, if I post my progress. I have a goal of 5 days a week, and around 2-4 miles a day, for right now. I will try to increase this as time goes on. I have been pretty close to this goal for the last 4 weeks. This week I have walked 4 days, totaling 9 miles.

Hugs&Stitches, Julia

Squishy Mail brings Summer Garden

I had to go to the dentist the other day. I hate going to the dentist, it is about like that yearly gyno visit. Not on my list of pleasant things to do. ;~)

Anyway, when I got home, on the table was this lovely little squishy package with a Royal Mail sticker on it. I knew at once that it had to be my Four Season Summer Swap quilt. Suddenly the unpleasantness of the dentist was forgotten and I squealed with glee. Inside was this beauty! I love it!!!! I am the luckiest girl on the planet! I have another beautiful creation from Andrea. She was also my Winter swap partner and made this cutie for me. Her work and creativity are outstanding. Her little, tiny, hand quilting stitches are amazing. It is now hanging in my hallway and I can see every time I go into my bedroom or into my sewing room.
She included these other little goodies too! I am so excited about the pincushion. It has taken up residence next to my sewing machine! Thanks so much Andrea!!!!

Confession!!

When I first started quilting, about 3 years ago, I always swore that I wouldn't have more than one project going at a time. Nope, not me! I would make something from start to finish before beginning some thing else.

Well, I am here to confess to you that I am a failure! LOL

Let me explain a little about what happened to that oath. When I made that statement, I hadn't found the yummylicious goodness of BOM's, I hadn't collected many patterns yet, my stash was quite small, my mind hadn't been accustomed to thinking like a quilter. Well, all those things have changed now. :~) I have 5 BOM's going and waiting for another to begin in Febuary or March. My bookshelves are bulging with patterns and books, my stash fills the closet and several containers under my table. My mind is overflowing with ideas and projects that I want to do.

Part of it is not my fault, it is yours! ;~) The wealth of inspiration out there in the cyber world is astounding!

I am all caught up on the Designer Mystery BOM.

Kimberly has another one starting here soon. Jump on over and check it out. These are fun!!!

I took a couple of classes at my guild last week. We made this tote. It is the perfect size for carrying my scriptures in for church.

We also made this cute little table runner. This is perfect for charm squares. I can't remember the designer or the name of the pattern, right now. I will find out and let you know. I still need to blanket stitch around the applique. I am going to big stitch hand quilt this one.


Yesterday, I met with some friends from my guild and we spent the day sewing. Amid the comraderie and laughter, lots was accomplished. We met at a church house, so we had lots of room to lay out quilts on the floor. The organizer made lunch for us. Delicious homemade bread bowls with Broccoli n' Cheddar soup! And, you guessed it. I started yet another project! :~)

These fabrics are so warm and pretty. I am making this Schnibbles pattern, sort of. I am going to make it bigger and do a different border treatment. I was able to get 80, 2"x3 1/2" flying geese done. It was nice to do these tiny little flying geese while talking and enjoying the company of other quilters. I am not sure how big it will be yet. I have 6 charm pack and some yardage for the background and border. When I run out of fabric, that is how big it will be! :~)

If you ever have a chance to meet with friends and have a sewing day, do it! It is so much fun! A nice break from daily life! I feel like I can get a lot done, because I don't have the interruptions of the phone, mundane house chores and I stay off of the %$#@@%&*( computer! Which gets me into trouble, because of that inspiration thing that I mentioned earlier! LOL

Hugs&Stitches, Julia