The New Year has arrived.

And it has to be better than last year! I mean honestly what was up with last year, everything that could go wrong did, and everything that should have went right, stumbled and fell. Yes this year will be better, I promise this to myself.

Here it is, January 5^th and I and just now posing about the New Year, why you ask, because it has taken me that long to write, rewrite, and publish this post. Should I or shouldn’t I, do people really want to know? Well tough, you’re going to hear it anyway, so sorry in advance!

This year, like all years past I have a few personal resolutions. I promise myself to be more true to me. Just because my friends and family think one way does not mean I have to agree with them, sometimes I will others I won’t.

I want to be more artistic, both in my machine quilting and in my personal quilt making. I have always wanted to make an item worthy of trying to enter in to a national show, and this year I am going to do just that. You see last year I discovered that life is just too short, I may not be here to do all that stuff that I want to do before I up and go to wherever it is I’m going to be going when I die. So if I want to do this I need to get started. I always look at the quilts at the shows and think to myself “I can do that” but I never do. Am I afraid to it maybe? I hate failing, one would think as many times that I have I would be use to it, but I’m not. Even if my project is not accepted into a national show, I will have at least given it a try.

Blogging, I have got to get better at this! I swear I have all these things I want to do but never get them done. This year I have made myself a schedule of things to add or talk about on the blog, and I am sticking to it! I started the blog to show my machine quilting, but seriously I’m going to start talking about other things. Quilting is my life but I need a break from time to time!

I’m going to be up and out of bed BEFORE 10:00. If you know me personally you will know how hard this is going to be for me. When I started working for myself I let that “I work at home, I make my own schedule” go to my head. I haven’t been up before 10:00 on a daily basis in well, years. I have a new alarm clock; it’s nice and loud and doesn’t have a snooze button! In the past four day I have been up and out of bed before ten, two times. Hey it’s a start!

I have debated again and again about talking about this subject on the blog, but I need to say it, and now is a good of a time as any. My Business is my life, but after the past year I have to seriously consider a few things. I’m not happy. Haven’t been for some time, last year it really showed. I have had to force myself to go into my studio and work on customer quilts. It’s not that I don’t enjoy it, but I feel like I’m stuck doing the same thing over and over, because that is what the customers want. You have no idea how much I hate to hear “just quilt it like you did the last quilt you did for me” or “quilt it just like Judy’s or Sally’s or like Letha’s” I just want to try something new from time to time. I tell myself it’s just all the personal family stuff that has been going on during the past year that has me in this slump. I keep telling myself I’ll feel better about this soon, everything will turn out great. But even I know, and have to admit, that I could have a major decision on my hands. I have given myself one year; if at this time next year, I’m still unhappy, I’m going to seriously consider closing the door on customer quilting. Ok, I’ve said it, and honestly, I’m already feeling a little tiny bit better.

Ok, that is for today. Next up are some photos of all the Christmas Gift Quilts that I quilted last month. I held off posting photos until the gift giving was over, just in case! I’ll blog again soon… I hope!

First customer quilts from December!

Well i was able to get a few quilts done last week despite a couple of unexpected emergency trips to town. First off i got a call from my good friend, and fellow machine quilter, she was having some “issues” with her machine and needed some help getting it working again. Now i don’t know about you but when a good friend calls, obviously in tears, I tend to want to do my best to help her out. So with my ugly black tool boxes of every tool and extra i thought i might need in hand, i made a rush trip to her place. Well, i did make on stop first, to pick up one of her favorite drink from Starbucks to help calm her down. It took a bit of time but we got the problem fixed as well as did a little other maintenance why i had my tools handy. and another day i had to take my uncle to town to pick up a few things, manly parts to fix the furnace. Leave it to us to have a perfectly running furnace, but the instant it turns cold the darn thing breaks down. So in the middle of the night, why everyone else was sleeping soundly i was down working on the furnace trying to get it to kick on because it was getting darn cold in the house. Good thing i don’t have a problem trying to fix stuff myself huh? Anyway it didn’t take long to find the problem, after all the little blinking light on the front said it had a water backup in the drain area (talk about good luck that the thing has the little blinking lights that tell you what could be wrong!) You see the furnace drips water as it runs. No I’m not a expert so i don’t know why it does it just know that it has done it from day one, apparently its supposed to drip. Anyway the spot were the water drips is about 8 feet from were the water falls into a drain that carries the water outside the house, so there is a plastic pipe that carries the dripping water to that drain. Apparently after 20 something years of service the plastic pipe got a clog, the dripping water backed up inside the furnace and caused it to keep itself from turning on. So i removed the plastic pipe from the furnace and the water went poring out of the furnace all over the floor. for a quick fix i used a piece of old water hose to replace the plastic pipe so the furnace would run that night, and then i did a quick mop up of the nasty looking water that was all over the floor. The next morning we made a trip to get new PVC pipe to fix it properly, luckily there was no major damage to the furnace itself and all is working well.

Yap, sure was a fun week.

Now that that’s over, on to the quilts….

This Irish Chain was made by Mary H. She loves the Irish Chain pattern, and make a lot of them for charity raffles and such. It was quilted as Mary requested with a double ribbon ion the chain area and a Daisy Flower in the open white area.

This Nine Patch Star was made by Becky H. For a christmas gift. Becky always pretty much lets me quilt whatever i think will look good, so i had some fun with this one. Most of it was simple CC but the Feathers fancy it up just a bit!

This quilt, i am calling Scrappy Stars, was also made by Becky H. Once again she said do whatever with the quilting. I had to think this one over a bit but we both loved the end results.

That’s all for sharing from last week! i have five more quilts that are due by the midle of next week, so i must get back to work!

Quilts from November

Sorry about the lack or Machine quilting photos & updates lately, I’ve been in a bit of a funk and just have been having to force myself get work done. So i thought i would post a few favorites from November…

First a couple of quilts made by Pat H.

I loved her Dresden plate (a fave pattern of mine!) The back or of the quilt turned out looking great to!

The Santa quilt was made using pre-printed panels, the quilting was pretty simple, but added that final Christmas touch with the Holly leaves in the border.

Another Dresden plate, this time made by Shirley A.

This last one I’m going to share for now, Is from Leta W. I’m not sure of the name but i wanted to share it anyway. This was one the the quilting designs just jumped into my head the minute i saw the quilt, it doesn’t happen ofter but this quilt really talked to me. The quilt top itself was started by a family member, then was finished by Leta’s Husband. I think he did a amazing job at finishing it up, great points, and a perfectly straight border defiantly speaks of his piecing and cutting skills!

Well that’s all for now, check back soon for a few quilts from last week!

Loaded Potato Soup!

By Popular Demand….

Loaded Potato Soup
(aka, Heart Attack In A Bowl!)

2, 32oz. containers of Chicken Stock (give or take does not need to be precise!)
Water
2 1/2 lbs. potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1 T. chicken soup base
1 T. each: white pepper, salt, black pepper
2, 11-oz. cans concentrated cheddar cheese soup
1 lb. butter or margarine
1 1/2 c. flour
2 c. half-and-half
Green Onions, chopped small
Bacon Bits
Shredded Cheese

- In a LARGE stock pot, mix together the Chicken Stock and Just enough Water to make around a gallon worth of liquid, then bring it to a hard boil.
- Add potatoes to water along with chicken stock base, salt and pepper.
- Cook 12 minutes, or until potatoes are about half-done.
- Add cheddar cheese soup and simmer 10 minutes.
- Melt butter or margarine in a heavy sauce pan. Add flour and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, for 3 to 4 minutes. Do not brown.
- Whisk flour mixture into the potato mixture and bring to a boil.
- Reduce heat and simmer an additional 3 to 4 minutes. Stir in half-and-half and heat to serving temperature.   Do not boil!
- Serve in bowls, topped with chives, bacon bits and shredded cheese.

Just to let you know, the above is a near copy the original recipe that was given to me,  here are a few tips from my kitchen!

- No, you do not have to use real butter, but the taste will be way better if you do!
- No you don’t have to use Half N Half, but after all that butter why not! Ok, Ok, try using Heavy Cream instead, talk about yummy!
- You can get away with using only half the amount of butter and flour mix and it will still come out nice and thick
- When i add the soup i also add a handful or two of Shredded Cheese, don’t ask me I just do!
- You can do without the Soup Base, just use a good Chicken Stock. Homemade is best, but in a pinch i really like Kitchen Basics brand!
- Make the soup a day before, Trust Me! It always taste better if it sets over night. A couple of hours before serving I place the soup in a Crock Pot and let it heat.
If you need to heat it on the stove top, be very careful and use LOW heat. It CAN & WILL, burn very easily!
You may need to add a little more Half N Half, when reheating, to thin it a bit, it tends to get really think once it gets cold!

Quiting Along, or at least trying to!

I am getting started on making my first block for the Joseph’s Coat Quilt-Along, and i have only one thing to say…

AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

OK, so it’s not going as easily as i was hoping it would go. I had some major difficulties trying to use a glue stick to baste the edges of the melon shapes to the stabilizer. no matter what kind of glue stick i tried i always ended up with way more glue on me than on the fabric. This created a very sticky situation as the fabric started sticking to me instead of the stabilizer. I could not get nice sharp pointy corners that are needed to make a perfect block. (or at least as close to perfect block as i can get!) I tried and failed to get the glue stick to work, so i went to a product that i had not used before but had heard great things about. This morning when i was at the local quilt shop i picked up a bottle of Roxanne Glue-Baste-It. Another customer in the shop had used it before and give me a couple of tips, be sure not to use to much, less is best. And to keep a damp cloth handy to clean off the tip of the bottle and to remove any extra glue from my finger nails. Well after a couple of practice runs i was able to get a pretty good looking, ready to applique, melon piece!

I know they aren’t perfect but trust me when i say they are WAY, WAY better than the glue stick attempts! And no, i am not going to show you any photos of that first atempt. You will just have to trust me that it was really bad!

I also varied from the directions a bit when it came to getting my sharp point. The pattern calls to do both sides of one tip at once, but for me i got better result to do it like this:

#1 Glue & fold back the very end tips and let them dry before moving on

#2 Trim away any extra from the sides of the tips. it was easier for me to get a more accurate measure from the stabilizer at this point. If i tried to do it sooner i would always leave to much fabric behind making it impossible to get a nice sharp tip.

#3 glue one side of the fabric only! Then starting at the top tip, fold the fabric over the stabilizer all the way down one side

#4 repeat #3 on the other side of the melon shape. By doing one side at a time i got much better results than doing both sides of the tips then working in to the middle. Don’t know why but that what worked best for me.

Well, here you can see my “first usable” block, Its not perfect but i think its close enough to give a first try at hand applique.

Be sure to check back for more updates on this project!

Some customer quilting… finaly!

I have been really bad at posting customer quilting lately, but to be honest i have a really good reasons! First off, you can only look at so many t-shirt quilts and Irish Chains before you go nuts, and i have quilted a lot of them lately! Anyway here are some of this past weeks machine quilting work!

First up is a quilt i actually quilted a couple months ago. i wanted to wait until Dolores picked it up before i posted any photos of it. The quilting isn’t fancy, pretty basic actually, but it turned out pretty good. i am not sure of the name for this scrappy quilt, so if any of you know please tell me!

Next up are a couple of quilts made by Mary S. Now Mary hasn’t seen these in person yet, she will be picking them up Monday so i am not sure how she lies them yet. i always worry until the customer see there quilt first hand. The first one is made with LARGE Drunkards Path blocks, all in Batiks even the back! i used variegated thread top and bottom and Mary sent a low loft polyester batting so it has a little puff but not much. I am really happy with the border on this quilt, it was a new border design for me and i think it was perfect for this quilt. It just didn’t scream feathering, but i wanted something different. I quilted a spine then did a fern type feather on one side of the spine then a swirl on the other side. The blocks themselves are quilted with a curved design or swirls with a simple up & down straight line background quilting. Yap, I Really love how this one turned out!

Mary’s second quilt, I have been calling it Bricks & Squares is a new quilt pattern for me. I’m not sure of the name, or even if it might possibly be a original design? Anyway I used a dark brick red thread for all the quilting, swirls for the borders and some fills in the pieces block that kind of went along with the fabric designs. This one turned out pretty good to but i still love her batik quit!

The last quilt i will be sharing was made by Connie S. It was made for i gift for her son who is coming home for a visit this upcoming Thanksgiving Holiday. It is a Snowball Star pattern and i used Hobb’s 80/20 batting with Mother Goose color thread. This is, i believe, Connie’s 2nd quilt. She is doing pretty darn good on her piecing and her pressing is just perfect! And lets talk a bit about here wonderful flat borders! Its always great to have a quilt that I don’t have to worry about Easing in a waving borders! Great work Connie!

Ok, that is for sharing this week, hope you have enjoyed the little show! There is at least one close up photo of each of the above quilts in my November 2009 Customer Quilting Webshots Album! Or you can just click ont he quilt you want to see close up to go directly to that photo, the close up shot(s) will be the next ones in line!

It’s time to Quilt-Along!

As I stated in a previous post, I have decided to join my first ever QuiltAlong. I’ve seen QuiltAlong’s listed on blogs before, and thought it would be fun to join in. However there was never one that just screamed JOIN NOW! Well when checking out the newest post on one of my favorite blogs Don’t Look Now I finally found the QuiltAlong of my dreams! First of all the quilt just screamed, MAKE ME! Secondly the pattern looked like it would be a challenge, were I was going to be able to learn something new. And to be honest it has come along at a great time for me. I need something to take up what little free time I have, something to keep my mind off other things that have been happening here at home.

So I signed up and went about collecting my supplies. First up was a search for fabric, I had in my mind just what I wanted to use. A great Black for the background (a color I LOVE to use!) and some great brights for the rest of the quilt. Only one problem…. I could not find any good quality Black fabric in stock at any of my favorite haunts, but I did find a really great deal on some extra wide Kona Cotton White that I could not pass up. It was the complete opposite color of what I wanted to use but the quality was great and the price (108″wide and only $4.49 a yard!) was too good to say no to. The white did make me stop and rethink my choice of all brights for the rest of the quilt. Oh don’t get me wrong, there will be loads of bright fabric used, after all its all coming out of my scrap box and brights are my most favorite color choice! But instead of sticking to just one fabric line I have decided to use some of the fabrics in my Scrap Box. Yes, I know, an unheard of feat for a quilter, breaking into that much loved box of scraps that we just can’t toss. After all…. We might be able to use that little 1″ scrap of hot pink with green smiley faces someday soon!

Now when it comes to quilting and fabrics I am a stickler for pre-washing. I know I am crazy but it was what I was taught by my grandmother before I ever started quilting. I remember her bringing home her finds from the local shops and loading it all in the washer, then the dryer, and then it went for a very perfect pressing. So it’s still something that I can’t help myself to do. And after the one time I didn’t wash a fabric and the color ran I refuse to take the chance. One tip for you, washing 108″ wide fabric and then pressing it is not easy job! Now if I would have had a ironing board that was as wide as my fabric it probably would have been pretty easy, but for some reason you can’t seem to be able to buy one that size right off the self. Well needless to say the ironing took some time but I ended up with a really nice piece of fabric that took two people at least a dozen time to try and get folded nice and straight!

When I was out looking for fabric I decided it was a perfect time to purchase another new pair of scissors for the new project. After all, you can never have to many pairs of scissors! Oh what’s that? They are on sale! Well let me just pick up another new pair for emergencies! I was also lucky to hit the shop on a sale day for the needed appliqué pins and they had silk thread on sale so I picked up a number of basic colors to use for the appliqué. I love silk thread for appliqué, don’t ask me why, I just do! Now it took longer to find the stabilizer, I ended up ordering it online but it was at my front door in only three days. I have never used this stuff before, but looks like it will be easy enough to use. Might even have to try it on my embroidery machine that has been in storage for the past three plus years! I picked up the last supplies at my local quilt shop; after all I was feeling bad about not purchasing anything for the project at my most favorite shop!


This past Friday I decided it would be nice to have a binder to hold the directions that I print out from the web site, so I made a quick cover with a couple of Kellie’s photos. Now that I think about it I really should have asked if this was ok, using her photos that is. Kellie if you are reading this and don’t want me to use your photos for the cover of my notebook please let me know and I will make something new, and I apologize in advance for not asking first. I am going to use this binder to hold the print out from the website so I can always have a quick reference in case I get lost. I think I will also use it as a journal for the project. I have told myself for some time I should be better at documenting my quilts so now is a great time to get started on doing just that! I have some dividers to keep the different steps separated and I am going to add some paper in the back for quick notes.

When the first step of the pattern was posted on November 1^st I was a bit worried. Especially when I saw the word GEOMETRY in the first paragraph! But it wasn’t all that bad thank goodness. But when I tried to use my old compass to draft the pattern I quickly learned that it wasn’t going to work. The darn thing would not stay I the correct measurement so my circles were coming out more egg shaped than anything. Luckily my brother had a handy drafting compass, and that was just what I needed to get the pattern drafted out and the template drawn. Ok, so I cut out like four templates before I finally got one that was just right, but I swear I will recycle all my scraps of plastic!

At this point I am as far as I can go, at least until the next step is posted on Tuesday. So I am going to get my scrap box, ok, ok, boxES out and start pulling bits that will be large enough to use for this project. Be sure to check back from time to time for a update, after all our goal is to make one and half blocks a week…. Like that’s gonna’ happen! I do have my own personal goal of one block a week with any more than that a bonus! Another goal of mine is once i get this figured out to try and make a Miniature version to go along with the larger quilt. My friends will tell you i love any quilt in mini form and I think this one will be amazing in a tiny scaled down size!

If you are interested in joining this quilt along you can find info on the project here: Don’t Look Now, Joseph’s Coat Quilt Along

As a request from Kellie at the Don’t Look Now blog, I will be using Flickr.com to post photos to my blog for this project. I haven’t used Flickr.com before but if I like it I might be switching over to using it full time for the blog.

EDIT: I forgot to say something about my great new thimble! I have never used a thimble, oh I have tried to use them before but could never find one that fit correctly. My local quilt shop had the new Clover, Protect and Grip Thimbles in and I thought I would give one a try. Now I haven’t used this to do any actual applique work yet but the fit of the thimble alone has me thinking I’m going to have great luck with this one! When you measure your finger using the packaging the thimble come in, you want it to be just a tiny bit snug. The thimble is made of some kind of flexible rubber with a metal tip, and having the thimble fit a tiny bit snug allows for the rubber to stretch and hold onto your finger much better than a traditional metal thimble. And the metal tip will keep the needle from punching into the plastic then into your finger, like a lot of the other flexible plastic thimbles on the market today. So if you are looking for a new thimble, be sure to give this one a try!

The Ladybug invasion of 2009

Well the time has once again come to haunt all of us in Southern Illinois (and i am gonna guess in other places to) the ladybug arrived in full force Monday and have taken over. The photos below were taken today, but trust me they were much worse yesterday when the sun was shining. When  i came home from a trip taking my cat Burt to the vet our kitchen door was so covered that i could hardly see the thing!

Time to join a Quilt Along!

To try and keep my mind off of everything that has been going on in my life lately i have decided to join a Quilt Along! What is a quilt along you ask? Well i see it this way.. a Blog list information about a quilting project and they ask if anyone would like to work on the same project with them, and blog about there time working on the project. The original blog in this case Don’t Look Now has asked that everyone that wants to join in sign up by posting a comment on there blog. they will also post the tutorial for the quilt project! This quilt along project is a Applique quilt, so it will be nice and portable so it can travel along if you need to go traveling over the holidays.

If you would like to see the Quilt Along i am talking about, and to get a much better ideal of what a Quilt Along is go check out this blog post over at : Don’t Look Now!

Is it 2010 yet?!

September, the month that used to be my favorite has now gone down as the worst month of 2009. Well the first half of October ranks right up there to!

I started September out with my cousin losing his battle with cancer, it was a very difficult time for myself and the rest of the family. Dennis was a big part of our lives and will always be missed. During that time i because way way way behind on my quilting duties but I did not have time to take a breath as not long after that detail I went right back to preparing for the Crossroad Harvest Of Quilts Show. I am Chairman of the show and there are  a lot of details that come out of nowhere during the last week or so before the show takes place. i am lucky enough to have very understanding customers and friends that understood what was going on and that there quilts would be ready soon, just not when originally promised. Well the show went off without to much of a problem, there are always a few issues that pop up but nothing major. Well time to take a few minutes to myself right? WRONG!

The Saturday after the quilt show my sister got married. i was in charge of making her flowers, and you can guess that i still hadn’t gotten started on them.  There were other things that had to be done, food made, dresses altered, shoes broken in, and nails painted. OK, wedding was good, only a couple of snaps, the lighter for the memory candle refusing to stay lit why my niece walked up the isle to light the darn thing being the funnies of the day. The reception was OK, photos were taken, garters were tossed, and food was enjoyed by all with the leftovers properly packed up and sent home with the last of the reception guests.  Time for some time to myself… YES!

Lynn & Raoul, after the kiss

Me, Our niece Sydnee, and my Sister Lynn

Well you would think this would be good but, after all i did get to spend some time to myself…. with my head hanging over a toilet barfing my guts up with a case of the flue. I missed the guilds quilts retreat, and i was still very, very, very,very far behind on my customer quilting duties.  OK, at this point even i would be upset with my quilter if my quilt was that late, but once again my customer ore the best… well most of them. i did have one that caused a snuff, but i am not going to get into that right now.

Did i forget to tell you that during the time i was sick i fell down the stairs and broke  two of my toes?

And to top it all off we, locally, are dealing with what i will be calling the Ladybug invasion of 2009. I came home from taking my cat to the vet today to see my house cover in nothing other than a few million Ladybugs. Darn things can get inside of everything, and man do the darn things stink, not to bring up the fact that they bite and i am allergic to the darn things!

Is 2009 over yet?

On another note, my little butterfly is all healed up and looking much better than the first photo i showed you, ill get a new photo to share with you when i have the time to shave my legs!

EDIT: for anyone who wants to see more photos of Lynn’s wedding you can find them here: Lynn & Raoul’s Wedding