Guild quilt

I just took this guild quilt off my frame this morning - a practice quilt. I was trying Sally Terry feathers on the border. And doubling feathers inside without having to draw. I really enjoy feathers, but keep needing practice to make them perfect. You can see some closeup pictures on back posts.

Bella Jean Boutique

We are starting to make plans to move Bella Jean Boutique off the porch and into our new rooms in our shop. The girls bought these planters and flowers for a start. The rooms are framed. We just need to insulate, drywall, and paint. And also buy things to make it nice. But this is a start.These are 100 degree days for us, which don't come often. It's not like vacation, when you can jump into the pool. The girls still sew outside. See the sprinkler for running through to keep cool. At least we do have airconditioning when most of our friends don't. This only happens one week out of every year.

Sweater for Kaylee

These are pictures of the sweater I was knitting on our vacation. I just got the buttons and was able to finish it this morning. One problem I had - I went to try the sweater on the little girl, and I noticed one sleeve was a couple of inches shorter than the other. So I had to do a bit of readjusting as I had knitted the sleeve into the neckband. But I ripped it out down to where the raglan started and knitted more. I was able to make the top of it blend into the neckband quite nicely. Problem solving is a good thing to learn.

A close-up of the lacey detail.

Summer Tablecloth

Finished this tablecloth. I got the idea from my local quilt shop Bayside Quilting 2. I thought it was a nice summery idea. This has a display of a few things off of our porch.A close-up of the applique. I machine appliqued and put some stitches on the leaves. I probably could have used a stabilizer behind the leaves for the vein stitching. It seemed to bunch up.

Feathers and Scotty

I was working on my longarm this morning. I am enjoying doing these double feathers with the twirls. Much practice makes closer to perfection anyways.I made this scottie dog from a simplicity pattern. I think he's pretty cute.

He's checking out the chickens here. An adult can have as much fun with him as a child.

Home again

It is good to be home again. Vacations are times of refreshment - to step back from busy everyday life and get renewed. It was a very enjoyable vacation. Here is the bag that I won from Suzanne . As you can see I'm using it for my knitting. Thank you Suzanne


My quilt guild met this morning and we made New York Beauty blocks - paper piecing. I've done a bit of that several years ago. So I got a new lesson. It was pretty fun. I did the methods where you don't have to rip the paper out. Worked quite well. So maybe I'll have to come up with a new project for it.

Day 9

Today is our last full day. It has been a wonderful vacation. Here I am doing my regular morning activity when we weren't off somewhere. I would applique until it was too hot. Then I would put it away.We spent a lot of time at the pool. It is so refreshing when you get too hot.

And our newest game was shuffleboard. That's pretty fun to do.

We'll see you back at home.

Day 8

We have 2 more days. We are just hanging out at our resort

or the local golf courses.

I have been knitting quite a bit. I learned to knit as a teenager. Being left handed I learned from a book and learned improperly. A couple of months ago I learned the knitting stitch properly. When doing this sweater it looked so bad I decided I'd better learn proper purling. You can see the difference it makes in this picture. THe one in back is improper and the front one looks much better.

Day 7

Zion National Park

This week we have been experiencing a portion of God's creation that most of us haven't seen before. It is wonderful and awesome. I believe these canyons probably came about from the flood. Not billions of years ago. Only 6000 years ago.

Day 6 and I won

I won 2 ways today! My children treated me to a lovely massage at Red Mountain Resort and Spa. This is the view as I relaxed after the treatment, which was very relaxing, soothing-just wonderful.And I won this very cute bag that I will always be able to use for projects I take with me or such like. I won it from Suzanne. Now onto the ping-pong tournament. I used to beat my husband and my children. But not so any more. They've gotten pretty good.

By the way, I was asked what I bought when I went shopping. I bought fabric for a wall hanging I am planning to make with oak leaves. I still need to get more, so I'll show them when I have them collected.

Day 5

Chris and I stayed home all by ourselves. The children went horseback riding. They said it was worth all the money they spent on it. In other words, they really enjoyed it.

Day 3 and 4

Day 3 yesterday, my daughters and I had our own St. George Quilt shop hop. This town has several quilt shops which was quite lucious. The first was Let's Quilt which is a longarm shop with a brand I had never heard of. It is new on the market. The interesting idea it had is that it was able to couch. You can run a yarn or thick thread through it's own threader and the machine couches it. I bought some thread that I don't normally use to try on my machine. The other shops were also great, each one having its own personality and everyone really friendly. This town sells minkies. All kinds. They aren't so available in Olympia.


This morning we left our nice beds and drove to the north rim of the grand canyon to watch the sun rise. It was beautiful but I don't like these nights that are full of driving. I do like my sleep.

Day 2 Snow Canyon

Snow Canyon is about a 10 minute drive from where we are staying. It's very beautiful.

Day 1

We had a 20 hour ride to St. George Utah. We spent a lot of time on this highway in Nevada. But the trip went quite well. And we really like the resort we are at. We got out of the car in the heat which felt like Hawaii and saw beautiful flowering plants. Even the last few minutes of our drive made us thing we were driving through Wailea. We just don't have the beach, but we have beautiful cliffs and plateaus. Lovely new scenery we haven't seen.

A Day in Limbo

We are leaving tonight (after the children come home from the Mariner game) for a long drive.
I'm packed except for the cooler, and then I was wondering what to do. I started a scottie dog that I bought a pattern for. And when I didn't have any pipe cleaners for the ears, I put that project aside and was looking through old magazines I had. I found this Swiss magazine from almost 35 years ago, when I lived there. I love knitted doilies. They are hard to find. So I decided to see if I could still follow German instructions.

Could you do this? I seem to still be able to translate them. Now I find myself thinking in German while I knit.

My project bag ready for the trip. Do you think I have enough to do? It took a big bag. But we have room to take it.

Lilies and feathers

I'm working some more on this lily wallhanging. I have appliqued the stems in place. I'll save the leaves and flowers for my vacation. I then pieced the corner units today. There will be a dark narrow border around that, and then a wide border with a one color applique and more borders after that. Sometimes I wonder about my color choices, but we'll see how it turns out.I'm playing and practicing with feathers on this quilt. I've never done the outlining around them before, but I like that kind of look. I'm putting a few little twirls in also. I like drawing a curvy spine and then seeing how it works. I get some of my feathers too close to it's neighbor across the way.

A couple of days sewing

I completed these tablerunners recently. They were brought over from Provence with my mother-in-law. She goes every year and I'm always requesting fabric. But I've had a hard time figuring out how to use it. I just decided tablerunners are perfect-especially with the stripes running through it.A close up of the quilting.

They will sell off of our boutique on our porch.

A Little Boy Blue" square for my guild.A table cloth I'm making just for fun-summertime fun. I'm going to add some daisies to one of the corners.

Pink Sweater and other Projects

We had a lovely week of summer. The second one this year. Hopefully there are more on the way. I do know that our vacation next week will be hot.
I completed this sweater last night. We figure it's about a size 2. Turned out pretty nice. It took me less than 2 weeks to make. A blog is a very good way to keep track of things.These are the projects Iwant to work on today. The one in front is just a fun summmertime tablecloth I will put together and do some machine applique on a corner. The middle is another Provence tablerunner to bind. The last is strips I will cut and sew to make a string square for my guild's picnic. (Little BoyBlue). I got this idea from Mary's Heartstrings.

There is a contest at Karen's blog. Check it out. She has some nice prizes.

Pink Hawaii

Today is another lovely hot day. This week has been summer. I hope it stays that way. The girls sew outside and I sewed the binding on this quilt today on my porch. I love being outside.
This quilt is a few months old, so I'm happy to finish it. It'll be nice for some baby.

A closer look at it and my quilting.
I made an excel chart of all my projects and the point I'm at with each one. I hope it helps me to know what I am doing. I need to make a chart of all my ideas also. I tried to post the chart but I don't know how to put an excel file on. Maybe someone else does. It could be helpful and I could use more help to make it better.

I try to do something every day!

I try to post everyday even if I haven't done much. Today is one of those days. I got fillings replaced at the dentist, then I went with my daughter to Joann Fabrics. I got several things to fill in for projects that I'm lining up, some I have shown on here. Those should all keep me busy for a while.
So today I put the last tassels on a sashiko pin cushion that I did with my guild about 3 months ago. I put off finishing it because I wanted to get cotton stuffing but only one place carries it and I don't go there often. So I finally filled it with polyester stuffing and just now completed it. It's interesting how some of the simplest things can take a very long time to finish up. But it always feels good to get something else finished. Now I don't need a new pincushion so I guess I'll just have it around til I think of something to do with it.

Two New projects

I saw this pattern at Patternbee.com . It looked so cute I just had to try it. It did take me a while because I had some problems with the V seams. I need to get those down. I do think he did turn out pretty cute though. Next time I'll try a softer pink. I'm getting the urge to try other animals also. I've seen some others online that I like also.I got an old (2002) magazine a couple of weeks ago that I liked the wall hanging on the cover. Now I'm starting it. I don't have many pins left (I've lost my straight pins and my safety pins are all in my Haw. Pineapple.) so I just scotched tape these down. I am supposed to have painters tape by my longarm, but maybe one of my sons borrowed it? Anyways, it's not there.
The flowers on this will be white lilies. It's also something I can work on on vacation.