The Christmas Spirit

During this Christmas season I have a prayer in my heart as to what I can give when our family has been given so much. I sat down to lds.org tonight and found some great Christmas videos, thoughts, and ideas on how I can give for Christmas. If you can find the time, watch all the videos. I love them all. This one is especially touching. The father in this video is Josie's seminary teacher and his family. sweet. I didn't realize it until I showed my girls the video and they told me.

Merry Christmas. I love you all.

The Christmas Spirit

Quilt Festival

I'm entering an online quilt festival and needed to choose a favorite quilt to post. This is my favorite because of what I learned while working on it. I recently finished this quilt for my youngest son. I started his quilt well over a year ago and put it down when life got crazy. A couple of months ago I pulled it out and my son saw it and since then has been puttin' on the pressure it finish it up for him. The funny thing is.............I really didn't think he cared so much about it. I had one of those "Ahhh Hhhhh!" moments when we had this conversation........

Mom:
"Hey, if you have a really good week at school and can choose a Friday reward. What will it be!"


4th grader who got summeritis back in January:
"Oh, I know! finish my quilt maybe......?"


Mom:
"That would be a good thing..........I'll work on that."



So I did. I guess i was a little surprised at how much he wanted his quilt. Friday rewards are usually things like renting a movie, or your own box of your favorite cereal. Who knew how anxious my 10 year old was for a quilt made by his mom.



Flashback: As a girl of seven I had a grandmother who made quilts. On one of her visits my shyness was pushed aside when I opened my mouth and asked "Grandma, why haven't you made me a quilt? " Where did that come from? I'm sure I embarrassed my mother when this question just popped out of nowhere. To my little frame of a mind it was a deserved question that came straight from the heart. Missy and Wendy had quilts. Doll quilts. You know the one. The silhouetted pioneer girls with bonnets in pretty pastel calico prints.


The next time Grandma came to visit she had a quilt in her arms. Just for me.



I still have her quilt. It is neatly folded and hangs on a ladder in my family room. My kids know not to touch it.




This memory had to come from a little nudge from my son. Now I have a quilt for all my kids in progress.

for all you quilters......Thanks for your visit!

the machine is in the shop

So I cleaned my work space and took a little inventory on my progress.

What is a girl to do when her machine is just not purring like a kitten? It's time for some TLC. Not only for the sewing machine, but for the work area itself. It is all too easy to ignore clutter and dust when there's inspiration in the works! Let's not interrupt progress for Pete's sake!

This is my scrap bucket. Every morsel is tossed in the bucket. I learned some scrap management from this quilter . I'm on step one. Filling the bucket.

These past few months I've been working on filling my bucket. I started with finishing up a couple of projects that have been sitting. Do you have any of those? I have lots.

Like for example.... this one. This is my brick and brack quilt. I saw this quilt on the wall in the walmart fabric dept. My friend Donna use to work there and made a small version of this brick quilt done in black with soft rainbow colors. She gave me the website for the free pattern and I went to work on it. I had extra fabric so I made a baby size and gave it to Heather's baby when she was so sick in the hospital.

I had the top pieced forever ago and then last fall I machine quilted it with black thread. Every other stitch is invisible thread. I have a special program on my machine for this quilting. It makes it look hand fabulously quilted.

To complete this quilt all I needed to do was to sit down and hand stitch the binding on the back. I really like this one so i guess i will keep it for myself. I think it will fit a twin bed.

This is my Mexican star wall hanging that I took to all my babysitting jobs in February. I hand quilted it while the babies were sleeping and tuned into daytime television. Like the "Bonny Hunt Show" at 2:00. That's a good naptime show.

It's a quilt club project. the curved corners look hard but they're really not. You just fold a square into a triangle and sew it over the top of your block, with the folded edge towards the center. After all your blocks are sewn together, turn up the folded edge in a curve and top stitch. It gives it a 3D look. I think I'll hang it in my bedroom. Or maybe on the red wall in the family room. I can't decide.

My mother hand embroidered these fine pillows for Jeffrey's bed. This is her own art, by the way. Isn't my mom fabulous? These are just two of the many pillows she made for all her grandchildren. I gave her the scraps from the quilt top that I put together a couple of years ago to use as the border for the pillows.

I fell in love with a quilt in the Pottery Barn Teen catalog and came up with my own version. It had big blocks in different sizes in three colors quilted in a jumbo double cross-hatch.

this baby was on my machine for about a week and then another week of binding at night in front of the TV. Do you like the white binding? I do, but wish I made it a little wider.

The back is flannel with a pieced center. I have a sham that's already to quilt and sew together.

I have a ditto for Clark. Let's see if I can muster up more enthusiasm for number two. I have the top pieced. that's a start. Oh, and BTW, these photos was taken today, April 7th. Not Januray. Notice the white ground? That would be snow.

Jeffrey has been waiting for a long time for his quilt. Sweet Dreams!

If you remember this post I told you I would show you a little surprise that goes over the blocks. This is Amy Butler's free pattern that I got on her website. She calls it.....Charm..... and you can download a pattern here
I hope to have it quilted for Christmas. Maybe it will be a gift for someone special....

this is my mystery quilt that i did at my club. It's ready to quilt!

I really love the pattern and how it turned out. This will look nice in my family room. I love the orange in the center.

this will be for Josie. It's called 4square fun. I did this in a class at my local quilt store. After it is quilted I will do a surprise around the edge. I can't wait!

I just love the colors. This is a collection of Fabrics by Moda called "woodland bloom" by Lila Tueller. She's a fabulous Utah girl. It comes in pinks and greens too. I chose this color combo because Josie's color of wall in her room is this rockin deep turquoise. When you go down there, you feel like you are deep sea diving.

I made this out of "Hill Country Spring" charms. This is all I'm going to say about this project. Details later to come.

This is a stacked coins baby quilt made out of "Swanky" charms by Moda. I fell in love with this fast and easy pattern. It is so simple and dreamy for babies. I love the white in the background. You can find this pattern at the Moda Bake Shop. I love this website. I found several fun quilt blogs through this site. there are so many talented quilters out there. I just steal their ideas.



The pink will be the back of the baby quilt and the blue will bind it. Who will be the next baby girl to be born in my acquaintance? Mothers, speak up now or forever hold your tongue. I will be making a boy version as well.

This is "Fresh" by Moda and I love it because I think of summer when I look at it.

I am piecing this wonder for Rachel. It is made out of "Fresh" charm packs and white quilters solids from Joann's. I was inspired by a pattern I found in a better homes and gardens magazine called "Quilts and More" spring 2009 issue. I've had too much fun with this one. I will have to show you the results when my machine comes home from the shop.

Until next time.... happy sewing......or whatever you do in your spare seconds in the day or night. I'm sure you are fabulous in what you do.

Valentines Delivery

Just this morning I was telling my oldest son about Valentines Day when I was a girl. Growing up in the 70's in Orem Utah, Valentines Night was soooo fun. Almost more fun than Halloween night. Whatever happened to delivering valentines and treats to your neighbors and friends after dark?

We went to school and made the traditional valentine mail boxes made of construction paper and doilies, slopped together with thick paste. I still remember the taste. Ah, come on, we all tried it at least once! The paste was too tempting! We would swap valentines and eat sticky things like cupcakes with pink frosting. then we would walk home in the snow and dump our loot on the living room floor and start sorting. There would be a pile of valentines from the girls and another pile from the boys. Most of these were ripped up because i was embarrassed of the thought of stinky boys giving me valentines. Then we would count them and between friends compare numbers. Tiffany would always get more than me for some reason. She was always one grade ahead of me.

more cookies and valentines would be prepared for nighttime delivery. this is when the real fun began. We would leave our pretty Valentines on the doorsteps of beloved friends, ring the bell and RUN! Once we were home again we would peek out our window and try to spy on our valentines. Later in the evening mischief would begin. The older boys would always do the string trick. We would open the door, bend down to pick up the valentine and it would mysteriously fly away. Hidden laughter in the shaking trees would reveal their presence ending in snow flying in a sudden dash. The darkness would keep everyone anonymous. After one of these pranks I would leave it up to Kimmy and Brad to answer the door for the rest of the night. Valentines was always a late night. Even on a school night!

Happy Valentines Day!

consider yourself dingdongditched!

Another Passion

I rummaged through my box and found a collection of fabric that I bought over a year ago. I think I will use it for a mystery quilt that I will be making at quilt club next month. But that's next month. remember, i have an itch and have to scratch! so i rummaged some more and discovered Christmas fabric that i purchased back in October. I thumbed through my patterns and searched online and within minutes came up with a project. Before I knew it i was slicing and at the same time ignoring dinner.

The next morning i began sewing blocks and rows and in a couple of hours my top was complete. Well, almost. It's kinda boring if you ask me. There's something that goes on top. It's really cool and I'm excited about it. When it's done I will share.

PS. I know, Christmas is over. I really wanted to do something Valentine-ish but didn't have the right colors on hand. Maybe I'll start something pink and red right before Easter!

What's you're passion? Wipe away those winter blues and get busy!

Passion

My passionate husband made this birthday cake just for me. A very chocolaty cake. Chocolate is one of my passions. David isn't passionate about chocolate however. but he made it for me because he loves me. He is passionate about me, that is for sure, and many other things. One is a creative challenge. Anything that will stimulate his brain. Weird.

Everyone is passionate about something. Like my sis-in-law Venita. Her passion is thrift. My friend Linda's passion is Disneyland. My friend Michele's passion is her husband Todd and art. Just last weekend I discovered that my 7 year old niece Abby is passionate about avocados. Who knew? My daughter Josie is passionate about reading. So is my friend Jenn. Another friend, Pamela, is passionate about her Dogs and lavender. Lately my sis-in-law Aimee is passionate about getting an uninterrupted nights sleep. Heaven. My sister Kimmy and I have similar passions. But I don't think she is as passionate about chocolate as I am.

Just yesterday i had an itch for another passion of mine. I will tell you soon but I'll give you a hint. It involves a box of fabric and a free Amy Butler pattern that i found online!

A Treasure

A BIRTHDAY

just can't be a birthday without cake!

Honestly.

And with Grandma Judy living just around the bend, you can't have a birthday without a personalized cookie bouquet!

And a Celebration Banner...

of course!

And Wait..........
mini cupcakes for fine fingers!




Rachel's been waiting patiently all year for this.

A rag dolly named Ann

that Grandma Judy stitched

with love.

All the grand girls received this

birthday treasure this year.

13 Years ago

I received a Treasure.

I was on a girls night out.....a fine Italian Restaurant in downtown Milwaukee Wisconsin, lakeside. A Saturday night. Thanksgiving weekend.

Sydney said, "You're not eating Jill"

"I'm having contractions, but I'm fine." I answered calmly. I wasn't fine.

A couple more minutes into appetizers Irene said, "you're still not eating or drinking."

Before I knew it Sydney had the waitress boxing up our meal in a flash. We borrowed the house phone to call the daddy.

All eyes were on our party as we stood up to exit in a hurry.

The man sitting next to our table smiled and asked "Now, which one of you ladies is in labor?"

Irene was only a couple of weeks behind me, calmly gestating, while my gestating was stirring havoc.

Sydney quickly ushered us out of the restaurant and into her red mini van.

We beat daddy to the hospital. All the nurses in the ER were just as confused as the diners at the restaurant.

"Which mother will be admitted tonight honey?" the nurse asked us sweetly.

I crawled into bed just as david came into my room.

"Ready to have a baby tonight?" he asked as he walked to the bed and kissed my forehead.

"This baby is ready" I answered as I looked up into his eyes wanting to cry.

Standing just outside my door Syd and Irene waved goodbye.

A couple of hours later Rachel,

a beautiful round pink baby girl

was born.

We were so

HAPPY.

What a girl can do.....

for a teenaged boy.

uplift
teach
motivate
inspire
bring happiness
friendship
create laughter