Who Won?

Aimee Wallace....my sister-in-law yeah!
Michele Askeroth.....from somethingspecial.....my good friend from Logandale NV
and
Taylor ......my daughter's friend

Congratulations!

Now I need to get busy and pay it forward!!

Pay-It-Forward!

A few months ago my friend Linda did a pay-it-forward on her blog. I was one of three winners! Lucky Me is all I can say! In November, we were together for a fun weekend at my lovely sister's place. Shortly after I arrived, I walked up to my room and there on the bed was a Disney shopping bag. I turned around and left, thinking I was in Linda's room. Only Linda would have bags from Disneyland! After double checking on room assignments, I discovered that the bag was meant for me with a treasure inside. My pay-it-forward prize! I just about fell over when I unfolded this amazing quilt.

I know!

Do I really have to describe how excited I was? I was surprised in that I wasn't expecting my "pay-it-forward" to be neatly waiting for me in my room. But I wasn't surprised that Linda would go leaps and bounds over handmade gifts. She is always giving...with her heart and with sharing all of her creative spark to all. From beautiful homemade soaps to handcrafted recipe boxes. Her gift was from the heart, telling me she was thinking of me all these months while working on my quilt. Linda's quilt now has a new home, always on my reading chair. The perfect place for sunny mornings and chilly nights. Jeffrey and I cuddle up under the quilt and read together. We can't read anywhere else! I will always have cherished memories reading Beverley Cleary and Mark Twain classics.

Thanks Linda!

YOU

inspire

me!

Now, do you want to play?

I know you do.

The Rules

1. Be one of the first THREE bloggers to leave a comment on this post, which then entitles you to a handmade item from me - something crafty or yummy, who knows?

2. Winners must post this challenge on their blog, meaning that they will Pay It Forward, creating a handmade gift -anything!- for the first THREE bloggers who leave a comment on their post about this giveaway.

3. The gift that you send to your friends can be from any price range and you have 365 days to make/ship your item. This means you should be willing to maintain your blog at least until you receive your gift and have shipped your gifts. And, remember: It’s the Spirit and the Thought That Count!

4. When you receive your gift, please feel free to blog about it, sharing appropriate pictures and comments! If you are not one of the Top Three Commenters on this post, you can still play along. Go ahead and start your own Pay It Forward chain, and encourage your blogging friends to do the same!

SO, REMEMBER...Pay it forward!
and share the love!

Giveaway!!

3 winners
Come back tonight at 9pm mtn time for my giveaway. It's actually a pay-it-forward which makes it even better. to win? be one of the first three humans to comment on my post. so be fast.

good reads

Persuasion by Jane Austen

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I want to be ann when I grow up.


View all my reviews >>

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.