Friday, February 28, 2014

Hexie Flowers Completed!!

Finished two sets of Hexie Flowers for my partners in the Inchy Hexagon Flower Swap that I am a part of ~

Simone in Australia wanted yellow petals and black centers - what goes better with yellow than black pindots??


Sue in England wanted Oriental fabric petals with coordinating centers.  I fussy cut these flowers from a beautiful piece I have of Oriental jars and vases.

Its just been one of those sit-in-your-chair-and-do-handwork kind of days!!  We are supposed to get lots of rain tomorrow so I think tomorrow will be another handwork day!!

Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Reflecting . . .

This evening I was reflecting on how little I have been blogging lately because I seem to have so little time to sew and have fun things to share.  Then I got to reminiscing and went back to my very first blog post!!  And guess what!!

I just missed my own 4 year Blogiversary!!  Oh, no, it was February 6, 2010!!  Yiks!!

Happy Blogiversary to me . . . 
Happy Blogiversary to me . . . 
Happy Blogiversaryyyyyyyyyyyyyyy dear Lavender Quilts!!
Happy Blogiversary to meeeeeeeee!!

And many more!!

When I was young, one year I decided to give everyone in my family a gift on MY birthday, so, I would like to give one of my wonderful friends and followers a gift - at little late but its the thought that counts, right!!


Just leave me a comment telling me how long you have either been blogging OR following blogs if you don't have your own with the month and year you started.  I will pick a winner March 1st after I get home from work!!

Also, if there is anyone out there that knows BLUEBIRD-LYN or if you are BLUEBIRD-LYN please let me know.  She was the very first comment I ever got and she said,


Hello Kris, welcome to blog land....I am positive you will enjoy the warmth, support,
 inspiration from all of the wonderful bloggers....Warm Regards Lyn

Lyn was right!!  I have loved blogging even though right now it is mainly my Saturday Smiles!!  Thank you all for making the past 4 years so much fun!!

Monday, February 24, 2014

I Love Pincushions . . .

and they are all the rave right now!!  I remember when I made my first pincushion and then another and another. .  .

Well, my darling Aussie friend Liz, over at The Village Quilters, knows how much I love pincushions and so several months ago (I know, I know) sent me a darling pincushion that I had to add the guts to (ya know how expensive international postage is these days).  So tonight, while finishing up another project, I filled it!!  Whoo! Hoo!!




Is it darling or what??  Now, I did have to add my own buttons because, of course, I could not find the darling buttons she sent me but it turned out sooooooooo cute!!  Liz, thank you, I love it and it will hold a grand place in my pincushion collection and is going on my Pinterest page!!

Now the project I was finishing up just before I finished Liz' pincushion was part of a pincushion swap I was involved in.  Here is the wonderful pincushion Betty, my swap partenr, sent me a few days ago ~


It is so fun and it is huge!!!  Again, because of postage costs, she stuffed it with batting but I took it apart and changed out the batting for crushed walnut shells.  I know Betty intended to originally stuff it with crushed walnut shells too because when I opened her up little baby walnut shell litterings were inside.  But again, the cost of postage would have broken the bank!!  Thank you, Betty, I love it!! 


Here is the pincushion I made for Betty.  Can you read the words Be Sweet in the embroidery?  Then I used a couple of buttons for flowers and the cute little lady bug button and then finished it off using Audra's Iris Garden fabrics!!  I am happy with how it turned out.  Betty is down in Florida this week on her yearly Cousin visit, so this is going in the mail tomorrow morning and hopefully it will be waiting for her when she gets home.


Here are the two pincushions together so you can see how big my new pincushion is!!  So fun!!

Saturday, February 22, 2014

Saturday, February 15, 2014

Saturday's Smile was posted last Tuesday, So . . .

I decided I wanted to show you what I have been up to, besides working a real job 3 days a week, for the past few weeks!!

First, I have had the amazing opportunity to teach some young college students from South Korea and the Dominican Repulblic how to quilt.  These young folks came to Utah State University for an English emersion class every morning and then in the afternoon, my neighbor, Becky, taught them about entrepreneurship, service to others, and charity work.  She asked me to talk with them one afternoon at the beginning of their class about the things I do.  They all fell in love with my basement and quilting!!


When I asked them, all 5 said they wanted to make a quilt.  This is Callie and she got her top done before she went home.  We got it quilted and she did the binding while flying home.  I am waiting for each of the kids to send me a picture of them with their finished quilts.  Now, most of these kids had never even used a sewing machine, so we really started them from scratch.

Ray, the young man from the Dominican Republic did a fantastc job, as did all the girls, and he worked on his binding during the plane trip home as well!!  Also, Ray created the following video for their final night together and we put it on YouTube  ~



These kids were more than amazing!!  I sooooooooooo enjoyed working with them!!  Ok, kids, you need to send me pictures so I can include you in this post!!

Then the other thing I have been working on is this darling baby quilt for my friend to give to her God Nephew.  The baby's room theme was whales and blue and white, so I found a great whale batik and while working on the quilt found that just blue and white was not enough.  So, here is my quilt story~  the whales (you can see them better if you click on the picture) are swimming around blowing the blue bubbles.  The white, with the blue meandering, is the foam that that whales produce as they are swimming around and diving deep for their krill in that green gunk at the bottom of the ocean.  The outside blue border is the ocean.  Think the kid will fall for that story when he is old enough??  :-))




This was a fun quilt to make but as I was walking over to Barb's house this afternoon, I looked down at the label and saw that the weight was wrong on the label!!  Yiks!!  I used a template from the last quilt I made for Barb and got the name and date changed but forgot the change the weight!!  Oh, well, guess what I will be doing for slow stitchin' Sunday tomorrow?

Thanks for stopping by!!

Saturday, February 8, 2014

Saturday's Smile!!

Maddie The Coonhound: Maddie the Coonhound &emdash;

This is how I have been feeling this past week - a little behind in things!!  I got a real job out in the real world and it is taking away from my already limited quilting and blogging time!! :-0

Enjoy your Saturday!!

Tuesday, February 4, 2014

Children's Justice Center Quilt . . .

done, minutes before the auction, sold to a neat lady and we got a good price for the Center!!

This picture is horrible because I forgot (actually did not have time to take some of my own pictures because I was literally finishing up the label when my ride came to get me for the dinner auction).  Hopefully I can find someone who took some better pictures!!


If you remember, here are the true colors ~


Just happy its done and has a new home!!

Sunday, February 2, 2014

I Saw This on Pinterest . . .

and thought I would share the wealth!!

Saturday, February 1, 2014