More quilts

This is a custom quilt I did recently. The back is the light fabric and the front is below.

Some ladies in my quilt group with the quilt we made for a new member of our ward who is in a wheelchair.

This is the back that I quilted.

New Quilt

This is a custom quilt I recently quilted. I love curls!

My Masterpiece!

This "little" project took most of August but I loved every minute of it. It really got my creative juices flowing and even my girls gave me ideas. I made this for my sweet niece, Jami, who recently had her 3rd baby. I love her kids and would steal them if I could. I know that Xander, Maggie, and Stella will love playing with this book as much as I loved making it for them.

The cover is vinyl with 1/4" grommets in each page. The rings are a bit huge but the book turned out a little thicker than I planned so they were necessary. I wanted Jami to be able to take it apart if she doesn't want to carry around the whole book or spread it out easier among the kids.

This is an abacus activity with beads strung on stretchy nylon cord. I fused the background to the page behind it so it would lie flat.

Finger puppets from Ikea are stored in a fur zipper bag.

Clear vinyl cookie jar filled with two-sided candy and cookies. Lid has a velcro top.

The jean pocket holds a little photo album. I know babies love to see pictures of their family.

I had a page like this when I was little. You slide your hand inside the soft mitten.

This is another idea from a quiet book I had when I was little. It was my favorite page. You scoot the buttons around in the maze and they will never get lost.

This is a weaving page. I think it might be hard for some (it was hard for me) but I think babies will like to suck on the ribbons.

I love these fabric paper dolls! I fused the clothes to felt with heavy Heat n Bond and just cut them out. They stick great to the dolls and they will not fray.

Peek a Boo pages are always fun. Jami has a dog that looks like this one. You can feed her a bone.

I love I Spy and this page was so easy to go wild with. The lid has a latch that the hook fits into and necklaces always keep babies busy at church.

The ring on the hand is another idea from my childhood. The hand is velvet. My mirror closes with a loop and large pearl. The pink fabric is a kind of suede.

This page took the most effort in trial and error. Did I say that I love I Spy? There is a steel nail on plate behind the patchwork. The pieces have strong magnets inside them that let them stick to the board. They are stored in a velcro pocket on the neighboring page. I love this one!

Sweet Surprise

I got to talk to my sweet missionary son yesterday. I was surprised because I thought his plane was delayed due to the hurricane and flooding in NY. He bore his testimony to me in Creole and it flowed with a love of the language. He is so excited to get to be around the Haitian people. I'm so proud of him. There really is no greater happiness than to know that your children walk in the ways of God.

Ready for a Routine!

Well, it's time for school to start and summer just melted away in the heat. We helped Kayla and Mitch move to Texas from Utah, got Zach off to the MTC and made a family trip to Utah. We had a wonderful time enjoy the beautiful weather and when we got home we found our yard and city dried up and brown from the heat and no rain. We've had over 100 degree temperatures for so long that I think many of us are remembering the last ice storm with fond memories. I've been busy with family projects and so I am very behind in my quilting. I'm looking forward to sending the kids off tomorrow and cleaning my house, going back to yoga class and getting some quilting done. I'm ready for a routine!

Our new basketball player

Emma finished her first organized basketball season. She loved it and talked her parents into getting a basketball goal for the driveway. (Dad's not too enthused.) She is in heaven and it will be good exercise for everyone else, too.

I'm happy when I'm quilting

This is the back of an I Spy quilt that I made for a friend. I added swirls to my crescent pattern and it made kind of a sunburst. I like how it turned out.

Our quilt group put this "Hole in the Wall" quilt together at our last meeting. We each brought four quilt squares already pieced and it went together really fast. I am quilting it and then we are donating it to a charity.

I went to a class taught by my friend a few weeks ago to make this bargello wall hanging. I don't have it quilted yet but when it's finished I'm going to hang it in my quilting room.

This was a custom quilt done in gold metallic thread. The thread is a bit tricky. It breaks unless it is very loose on the top tension. I have 4 more quilts like this that want an all over in the metallic. I should have metallic thread mastered by then or else I'll swear never to use it again. The feathers creep around the red star. My favorite stitch is the curly one that I call French Curls.

The Deep Freeze Continues...

We woke up this morning to 5" of snow that covers the 2" inches of pure ice we've had for 4 days. Needless to say we are having our 4th day of cancelled school and other events. Steve braved the elements in search of a snow shovel but they were all gone. He did find one last year for the church. We watched in amusement as he returned and could not get the truck up the driveway. Well we are supposed to reach the 40's sometime this weekend and thaw out. It will be a welcome relief!

The Deep Freeze

In Texas we are used to hot weather and cold weather is short lived. Well, this week the kids have missed three days of school and counting because of an ice storm that hit three nights ago. We have two inches of ice and a layer of snow on top. We have ventured out by sliding down our driveway and getting a running start to get back up. Tyler's Eagle project was supposed to be in two days but he has rescheduled it to next week. It is supposed to be a little warmer. We have had rolling blackouts in our city and my new furnace cannot keep up because there is not enough natural gas pressure due to the high demand. Yesterday it was colder here than in Wisconsin. With the Super Bowl here on Sunday it was said that the Green Bay Packers brought their cold weather here. Well, it could be worse. We could live in Chicago.

Custom Quilt

This is the latest quilt I've done. It took forever. The customer wanted each one inch square outlined (stitch in the ditch). I love how it turned out.

Christmas Eve

Well, this is our version of the Christmas Story. Dixie has a bath mat tied to her so she can be a sheep. She didn't seem to mind much. Tyler played two parts. We'll need to improve on our costumes next year.

It's Sew Cool!

Sophie saved Capri Sun pouches in addition to Emma gathering them up from friends at lunch. She sewed it together on New Year's Eve. I was tired of her watching so much television. We know that all her friends will want one when they see it!

A Quilting We Will Go

Fun quilts that I have recently done for customers.

Emma's first quilt

Emma made her first quilt for her friend, Holly. Emma sewed all the squares into rows and after sewing 4 of the rows together she asked me to help her. She quilted it on my quilting machine and I did the binding. She had a lot of fun making it.

Quilting Mania

Emma sewed an I Spy quilt for her dear friend's birthday. She wants to quilt it also so she practiced on a plain one first. Here is her first quilted project! She did great. That girl has personality!

Sophie's Big Weekend

Sophie celebrated her 12th birthday last Friday. For her date with mom and dad she choose Red Lobster where she tasted lobster and crab legs for the first time. She loved them as well as the coconut shrimp. Saturday morning she got up early to participate in her All District Orchestra auditions. Then we went and bought some sushi for lunch. Tyler and Emma were not big fans of it but Sophie thought it was heaven. I made her a cupcake birthday cake and she helped frost it. Sunday she was visited by the Young Women Presidency and welcomed into Young Womens. She is pretty excited to go on Wednesday. There are 14 beehives! At school on
Monday she found out that she made All District Orchestra. Not only that, but of the 35 spots in the orchestra she made 8th chair! Also of note, Sophie is in 6th grade and this is the 7th grade orchestra! Way to go Sophie!

It's official!

Kayla received a beautiful diamond ring this weekend and will be marrying Mitch Davies this July. We are so excited for her and Mitch. It seems that they make each other very happy and that is what marriage should be.

Rise and Shout the Cougars are Out!

In case you haven't heard...ZACH GOT INTO BYU!! He starts in July for summer block. I'm glad we thought of that strategy to help get him in. It worked! He's really excited and Steve is excited that it is the cheapest college tution for him! Hooray!

Record Snow Day!

Well, Emma got her wish... lots of snow! School was cancelled on Feb. 12th due to record breaking snowfall, a whopping 12.5". This broke the record since records were kept over 100 years ago. I'm glad we had some old snow clothes and boots that fit the girls. They each made a snowman. Aren't they cute? I am glad it's melted so I can mop my floors and be done with Dixie carrying in snowballs on her hairy feet!