Great Trip but Good to be Home

Few things warm the heart more than the word road trip!!!! What is one to do but pack up the sewing machine hop in the car of a good friend(Neen) and hit the road. We spent an extended weekend at our dear friend Howdy's house. Quilters came from all directions to eat and shop and sew and shop. It was great. I entered her house with fabric and came home with a completed top and it is already loaded on the machine to be quilted. I will post a pic as soon as it is off the machine. Did I mentioned we shopped?

I did say few things warm the heart more than a road trip. However nothing warms the heart more than returning home to your family. I walked in to a clean yes I did say clean house. A freshly painted bathroom and best of all what you see below.

Hmmm maybe I should leave more often. I do need the hall painted.LOL

Mice and Monsters

Help I have created some monsters. My girls have been calling me at work every day to know if we are going to sew when I get home. As soon as we start sewing the complaints start. They really don't like their machines. I have tried their machines and I have to say that I agree with them. There is only one speed on these things and it is full speed ahead which is very hard to control.

Nothing like a little dinner at the mall. I decided while we were there we might as well check out Sears and see what they had for machines. These are just like the machine that I first started out with. The presser foot is so smooth and the speed very easy to control. My old one still works 13 years later even though I have long ago upgraded. I think they seem very happy with their new machines. Don't you?

And here it is all set up and ready to roll. Isn't it pretty. The girls are in my sewing room giving their machines a good work out as I type. They have decided they want to enter their quilts in a show.

As I am jogging yesterday I look up and see a mouse watching. This mouse does not run away. This mouse is not scared of me. This mouse comes from a large family. How do I know this. Because this is about the 15th mouse we have killed in this house. Well okay my cat got this one. This was the last straw though. I got off the treadmill and called Orkin. They could come today. GREAT!!!! Oh wait you can't even move in my sewing room let alone catch mice. And so the cleaning began. I cleaned for over 8 hours. Look I forgot there was even a cutting mat on this table let alone three of them.

Look at all these nice empty surfaces. They all use to be piled high with fabric. I didn't think to take a before pic.

This is just half of the trash. A truck full had already been sent to the dump before I snapped the pics. If I haven't touched it in a month then it was thrown out! While I don't like having Mr. Mouse he sure did get my butt in gear to clean.

What's on My Wall?

It is time for Judy's "What's on your Wall" Monday again. Not much has happened on my design wall this week. The braided quilt has come down now that the top is completed. The new quilt on the wall will get quilted this week then I will quilt the braided quilt.

Here is a close up. This was done at a Quilt til you Wilt all night sew. It was a blast but it was also quite a few years ago. It is time to get it done!

First EVER Quilt Show

What a great weekend so far. The sun actually came out. It rained 22 days in June and July was trying to go for the same record.

I called my dear friend(My sister in a past life) to come and spend the night at the camp and go to a quilt show with me and the girls the next day. What a great night. We had dinner on the beach and then chilled with some movies.

And then today was my girls FIRST EVER Quilt Show!!!!! They were so excited. I had them pick out their favorite quilt and I took their picks in front of them.

Her is my little vet in front of her favorite quilt. Plus I has to buy the pattern cause she wants to make one now!

Then my little artist decided this is the quilt she wanted her pick taken in front of.but she also wants to make a Bargello Quilt.
They took to the shopping with no problem. Didn't even care if Mom was near until it was time to pay the bill. They new how much they were allowed to get and wanted to make sure they picked out the perfect fabric.

I think they may have liked the shopping more than the quilts.

We all managed to find something we loved. My SIPL bought us all a piece of fabric i honor of the girls first quilt show and here is what she got us and herself. Left to right. Me, artist, vet and SIPL.

Of course we ended up with a lot more than that. Here is what my little vet ended up with. They were told to stick to some tone on tones because they keep stealing mine. And her new quilt pattern.

And my artist. Of course she had to get some red! And was told to stick to some tone on tones as well.

Then I couldn't pass up this fabric. This would go great in a little girls quilt.

I am sad to say that the evening is over and my SIPL had to go home. I was very sad to see her pulling away. I was very tempted to run after her :-(

And for anyone following Judy's "Whats on your wall Monday" My braid quilt top is finished and ready to go on the machine. I will need to take a better picture in the day light.

A Sewing Family

To break up the summer a little I signed the kids up for a few sewing classes. Darling Husband thought the last thing they would want to do during the summer was sew. Well as this turns out to be the rainiest summer in history and we've only hit the 80's once and that was in May, this ended up being a great idea. First up was pillow cases! I don't have pics :-( of theirs. Will get some pics when they come home tomorrow. I love the way they did them. Here is a pic of the one I made.

Look at how nice the inside looks. No raw edges and no hand sewing to cover up the raw edges.

Today was aprons. Don't they look cute. Our little artist used potato fabric and the whirlwind went with animals. Our vet used blueberry plants. They are all so cute. And it gave the sitter a few hours of time that she didn't have to think about what to do to occupy them.

Monday(What's on your Wall?)

Another Monday has arrived! In the Spirit of Judy's What's on Your Wall Monday here is my post. I started working on the last row of my braided quilt and would have had that completed if it wasn't for a slight distraction that ate up most of my sewing time this weekend. I am also considering tearing off a little of the middle row and making it a little longer rather than cutting the quilt down to size.I am hoping to have this top down minus the borders by next Monday. Not much sewing time for me this week so we shall see.

The quilt that was on the frame is now quilted and the binding is almost completed. Just 1 and 1/2 more sides of hand tacking left to go. This picture does not do the colors justice. This is really a very vibrant quilt. Almost to vibrant but my little vet loves it and it is her quilt so that is all that matters.

Here is the back. I used a panto from Willow Leaf . I really like using this panto on children's quilts. It has such a happy feel to it.

I am trying to get more organized in my sewing room and love to keep my projects in these totes but I only had a couple. Joannes had a sale going so I stocked up and it did not take me long to fill them with projects. In fact I had to make a second trip for more. I now have two empty ones and am trying to decide which projects are important enough to go in the totes.

Back to my distractions from the other day. Here are all the blocks done from my girl's friend. Next time she comes over we will have here put them together and then pick out a border. She seemed to have a lot of fun picking out her fabric and did not shy away from mixing colors and prints.LOL

When things don't go as planned

I got the best call at work on Tues. The boss(well I'm the boss) but the owner of the company calls and tells me to put a note on the machine that we are closed on Friday(today) Woohoo!!! My thoughts are I get to sew all night Thursday as I don't have to get up Friday. I know all that I want to do. First get the binding on the quilt I just quilted so I get hand sew at the camp this weekend! And then oh so much more. Now how do I do this and not feel bad about being in the basement all night. Easy I got it I will let my kids have sleepovers so they won't need me. What a great plan!!!!! I rush home and clean(yes I can clean sometimes) so that my husband won't mind be spending the night sewing and all the kids arrive. My son the little whirlwind goes off and plays with his friend PERFECT. But then the girls well the girls are a different story. I am downstairs about three seconds before they decide they want to sew as well.

I pull out their machines. I find my old machine for their friend and then we are off to Joanne Fabrics as we do not have enough thread for us all. And I let their friend get some fabric to make a stash and slash. I will do a lot for my kids but they are not allowed to touch my quilt shop fabric. My girls are all set but their friend has never sewed before. so the lessons begin.

They are all having a great time making their quilts. The girls are excited that they have advanced to more difficult quilts and they can now use the iron. I was able to get the binding on my quilt but that was all between running back and forth help all the girls out. They are getting ready now to go back and spend the rest of today sewing as well until we leave for camp. Here are the results. This is the posie my little artist has started. She has a bunch of blocks done but here are a few.

Here is the posie my little vet has started. As you can see they do NOT have the same taste in fabric! Or anything else for that matter. They may be identical twins but it ends at the DNA.LOL

And here is the Stack and Slash their friend has started. She has half the blocks done and will now start on the other fabrics. There is a leopard and a zebra print making its way into this quilt.

Well my night did not go as planned but I think it turned out much better! I did have to put my foot down at 2:00 A.M. and say bed time! Now I am off to sew before they notice I am down there.