Where I am Not . . . Where I have Been!

NOTE - If you are looking for the Sweet Celebrations Book Tour you will find it here :)
If you are looking for the Beginners Guide to Free Motion Quilting Book Tour you will find it here :)


So I am not at the Sewing Summit.  Le Sigh.  Remember . . . I posted back here about how I was going to be attending my Cousin's wedding in Canada on this particular weekend.  Well . . . I am not at my cousin's wedding either.  Double Le Sigh!!  Turns out, that right after I sold my ticket to the Sewing Summit, our family vehicle started to have some issues.  And then some more issues, and now to where we don't dare drive it more than around town.  So of course, there was no way we were driving it to Canada and back, and with the prospect of having to get a new vehicle, renting one for a trip wasn't really in the budget.

So I needed to do something to make up for this super sad turn of events.  And so I quilted!!

I spent from 9 - 5 yesterday and from 9-12 today at Let's Quilt.  It's is a fabulous little shop that you can rent time on Long Arm's.

I got my Queen and King Braided Irish Chain's all done!!!  My back and knee is a little sore now, but I am so ecstatic about the results !!

Oh, and I should mention, the sheets, which did turn out to be microfiber and not cotton, worked fabulous for the backing.  And now the backs are all silky smooth!!

I promise to show more than just the backs soon, but I wanted to save the full reveal for when I got the bindings on :)  For now, I think I am off to take a nap.  I am exhausted :)

TNT - Have you tried Scrap Bags??

NOTE - If you are looking for the Sweet Celebrations Book Tour you will find it here :)
If you are looking for the Beginners Guide to Free Motion Quilting Book Tour you will find it here :)

So the other day I decided that I needed another twin quilt to match this one that is on my daughter bunk bed.  After debating back and forth for a while I came to the conclusion that I wanted to make the second quilt in the same prints (Sunkissed by Sweetwater)  as that first quilt.  But trying to find a popular line from almost 2 years ago.  Not easy!!!  I finally came across some scrap bags of Sunkissed and decided that since I was originally looking for a jelly roll they should work, fingers crossed, and ordered them.

This is my first time trying out a scrap bag and I have to say I was a little nervous if it would work out or not.  I was nervous there wasn't going to be a good mix of prints or they were going to be all different sizes.   But they arrived in the mail today and I am so excited!!  They are just what I needed!!!  Yippee Skippee!!!

And, they will have the added bonus of seriously padding my selvages drawer!!  I still have yet to use these in a project, but I sure love the way they look in others!  That will be something I need to try new in the future :)

So onto the pile of WIP these 2 scrap packs go!!  I am hoping to start this one in the near future, realistically around November-ish :)   And if the concept in my head works out you can count on a tutorial :)

EDIT - To answer the question - I found these on Ebay.  Just type in Moda Scrap Bag.  There are lots of stores that sell them and it is a great way to find older lines.  Like Bliss, Central Park, and Breakfast at Tiffany's :)

So . . . that's what I did new this week.  (Yup, I am counting shopping as TNT, tee hee hee),  What have you tried new.  Doesn't have to be anything huge, just link on up!!

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Fit for an Irish King and Queen!!!

NOTE - If you are looking for the Sweet Celebrations Book Tour you will find it here :)
If you are looking for the Beginners Guide to Free Motion Quilting Book Tour you will find it here :)



The Queen Version!!

The fabrics are Hello Luscious from Basicgrey and Moda Bella Solid Off White

 The King Version!!

Fabrics are Reunion from Sweetwater and Moda Bella Solid Slate

I just love this Braided Irish Chain pattern!!  These 2 quilts are samples for the class I will be teaching come January.  I have rented time on a long arm tomorrow to get them all finished up.  (Hence, why I am finishing the tops today :)    The tutorial for this pattern is similar to these 2 quilts just a different size variation. The pattern is now available for instant download in my Pattern Shop.

She caught the bug!

NOTE - If you are looking for the Sweet Celebrations Book Tour you will find it here :)
If you are looking for the Beginners Guide to Free Motion Quilting Book Tour you will find it here :)


This weekend my twin sister, Jennifer,  and my mom and dad visited.  It is so much fun to have family come and stay!!  Whenever my mom comes we always spend a few hours in my sewing room.  Good Times!!!  We  go through the new quilts I have made since she was here last, I tell her of  my new planned quilts and we ohh and ahh over the fabrics I will be cutting up soon.  And we even get in a bit of sewing :)  Jennifer joined my mother and I on this little sewing room escapade and after a while she asked, "Do you think I could make something like this??".  Absolutely!!!!!

We surfed through my archive and she decided on a quilt design.  It took her a little bit to narrow it down but in the end she decided to go with the Double Dresden idea only she will be adding the circles in the centers.   She plans to make a twin size bedspread for her cute little girl.  Once the design was chosen it was back to the sewing room for some fabric fun.  She played and played in my stash until she came up with this beautiful pile!!!

And then it was a crash course in cutting as she only had 2 hours until she had to head back to Salt Lake!!  She opted to have varying sizes of Dresden's so we cut some 8", 7", 6" and 5" blades.  I can't wait to see them put together!!!

And speaking of cutting, I am about to start cutting my own new project!!  Can I just say, I love Marmalade!!!  It has been on my shelf for about a month now, awaiting it's turn to be played with.  I am so excited to get going on it!!

Beginner's Guide to Free Motion Quilting - Book Review and Giveaway!!

I was so excited when Natalia asked me to be a part of the blog tour for her new book, Beginner's Guide to Free Motion Quilting!!  Natalia is an amazingly talented designer and quilter.  I love her quilts for their wonderful use of applique and stunning quilting!!  I mean, just look at the cover quilt, Fabulous!!!



Natalia's theme for this book tour is "It's A Family Affair".  And I couldn't agree with her more! 

My quilting journey started when I asked my mother to teach me to quilt right before I moved across the country with my husband for school.  I knew I was about to be in for some lonely days and nights and thought it would be fun to have a hobby.  (Who knew it would grow to this :)  My mother taught me all the in's and out's of quilting and I loved that time we had quilting together.

Now I find that I have the wonderful opportunity to teach my daughter to quilt.  Jessica is 7 and she is working on her first quilt.  It is a joy to now share this skill with her!!  (And if I am being honest, occasionally it is an exercise in patience:)  The rest of the gang at home are such a huge support of my quilting journey!  They inspire me daily and love me even when I am a little bit crazy!  I couldn't ask for more!  



My Stick Family from WiddlyTinks.com

Natalia's book is fabulous!!  I have gone through it cover to cover and have bookmarked so many pages!!  I love that the book begins with Machine Quilting Basics.  How helpful to have a complete rundown on batting, thread selection, basting, ect. all in one place! 

The book is then broken down into 5 sections on quilting :  Allover Quilting, Background Fillers, Borders and Sashings, Custom Quilted Blocks, and finally Quilting on Applique!!  This makes it so much easier to find the type of design you are looking for, especially when you want to do some custom quilting!!  I just finished up a quilt top this week and was so excited to flip through the pages of Natalia's book for lots of quilting inspiration and guidance!
I choose the Swirls from the Background Fillers section for the bulk of the quilt and am so happy to have finally figured out how to add the little swirl tips that allow you to travel easier!!   

I went with the Single Circles and Ovals from the Borders and Sashing sections for my borders.  My ovals aren't quite oval but they got  better as I went along :) 

I have so many of the flower design's marked to try out!!  They are so adorable but this was a boy quilt and flowers just didn't go so I will have to give those designs a whirl next time :)   I will be sure to show you when I do :) 
Oh, and Natalia added a bonus section at the end of her book that includes 6 stunning quilt patterns, including the cover quilt!!  That is so on my list of things to make!!!

Beginner's Guide to Free Motion Quilting is just that!!  A fabulous guide to walk you through, give you confidence, and then expand your free motion quilting horizons!  

GIVEAWAY!!!!

Thank you so much to Natalia for including me in this blog tour!!!  And, thank you for giving me the opportunity to giveaway a copy of your book!!!  

So would you like to win a copy of Natalia's book, Beginners Guide to Free Motion Quilting?  Just leave me a comment telling me where you are in the world of Free Motion Quilting . . . Have you tried it? Do you like it? Do you have some horror story of unpicking?  Do you just love it and can't wait to try new designs??  . . . You get the idea, anything along those lines :)  

Once comment per person please and a winner will be announced on October 20th :) 

For more chances to win this excellent book be sure to enter at all the stop's along the hop!!!

A Super Surprising Sale on Schmidt!!!

**  Note - If you are looking for the Sweet Celebrations blog tour post you can find it here :)

I went to JoAnn's this morning to buy some needles (notions are all 50% off) and you could imagine how thrilled I was to find that there were several bolts of Denyse Schmidt's Daisy Mae and several bolts of  Sugar Creek and Winding Road in the clearance section.  As part of the Columbus Day sale, all of the clearance fabrics were an additional 50% off.  So these fabulous Denyse Schmidt prints were $3.00 a yard!!!   Yippee Skippee!!!   So if you have a minute today and a near by JoAnn's you might want to pop in and see if you can get your own Surprise Schmidt Sale :)

TNT Thursday with Trapunto

*** Note - If you are looking for the Sweet Celebrations Blog Hop Post you will find it here :)

So were you like me and the first time you heard someone talking about trapunto wondered what in the world it was??  (Are you still wondering what it is??)  I had heard it tossed around and finally managed to deduce that trapunto is a technique in quilting used to make parts of a quilt "puffier".  (No that isn't Webster's definition)  And so, now that I knew what it was I filed it away for another day :)

Then, about a week ago another day came.  I drew up a little design that would look oh so adorable if certain parts of it were "puffier".  And so I was off to figure out how the technique was actually done.  I found lots of different "how to's" and took bits and pieces from them for my own method.  And just FYI, the quilt I using trapunto on is for my next MBS tutorial so it will go over my little method of trapunto.

It wasn't to hard.  Basically I just added extra batting to the back of my quilt where I wanted it puffy and then secure stitched my applique on the front.  Fun huh!!!

And just to keep it real . . . I somehow managed to stitch the front corner of my quilt top to the back of my applique.  So apparently this doesn't just happen when I am quilting, I can manage to do it when appliqueing as well :)  At least I got to use my new purple seam ripper all the way from Scotland :)

So that's it for me this week.  How about you???  What have you been trying new??  Link on up!

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A Very Sweet Celebration!! And it gets Sweeter with a Giveaway!!

We'll today's the day!!!  It's my day for the Sweet Celebrations blog hop!!!  A big hello and welcome goes out to all those stopping by for the first time.  I'm so excited to get to meet new friends.   And of course, for all of my friends who stop by daily, Yippee Skippee!!!   Do you remember when I posted about this clear back in May??  (Talk about a cliff hanger :)  

I can't tell you how excited I am to be a part of this amazing group of "Chefs".  This book has been such a journey!!  It has been a long time in the making but I am sure you will find, it was well worth the wait!!  Each of the projects in the book are for an annual celebration and each of us "chefs" were assigned one of those Celebrations for the blog hop!!

My Assigned Celebration is Birthdays.  I was all kinds of excited for this since two of my projects in the book are to celebrate Birthdays :)  Yup, see that table topper the cake is set upon in the bottom right hand corner and the cute banner in the background, my projects. Yippee Skippee!!!    (I also have a project for Fathers Day but you will have to get the book to see that one, only a few little sneak peeks today :)

So for the Blog Hop, Moda decided to do a little "Getting To Know You".  Oda May prepared us a list of questions.  The questions were totally random, which I loved as I tend to be random all the time.  So without further ado, a little more about the Happy Quilter.  Enjoy!!

Do your pets/kids/spouse help or hinder your creative process?

First off, we don't have any pets.  I am afraid of cats and dogs so that really narrows the field.  (silly I know, but true none the less.)

My husband supports me in this creative (and sometimes crazy) process fully with only the occasional grumbling when his shirts end up at the bottom of the ironing pile under a mountain of blocks.

My boys don't tend to hang out in my sewing room all that often but my girls love it!!  My 7 year old loves to play in my scraps and often inspires color combos I use in my quilts.  My 3 year old loves to help by handing me pins.  When she gets bored of waiting for me to need a pin, she simply pins my chair.  She has yet to stab me, but the day she does will be the day she no longer get's to pin my chair.  Lastly, my baby girl.  She just loves to roll around the room.  (And ya, she doesn't care what is in the way ;)

If you could patchwork bomb a spot in your town, where would you choose and why?

This is the Centurium on the campus of Southern Utah University here in Cedar City, Utah.  I attended SUU (a while back) and quickly found that one of the freshmen traditions is to snap your photo with these statues.  Sadly, I couldn't find any of my photo's of my roommates and I being super silly. (coincidence??)

But I can't help thinking how much more fun the freshmen would have taking their silly snapshots if Albert Einstein and his posse of thinkers were wearing patchwork pants!  Just makes me smile to think about it :)

If you could have a quilt shop spree, which items would you snag off the shelf??



Pre-cuts, Pre-cuts, Pre-cuts!!!   I love my Pre-cuts.   I love the amazing selection of prints, the perfectly coordinating colors, and the huge amount of time I save cutting!!  Easy Peazy, Lemon Squeezy!!

What is your favorite Birthday memory? 

I started looking through old photos trying to remember a favorite birthday memory.  I quickly realized, I don't have a lot of recent birthday memories of me, but I do have a ton of Birthday memories of my children.  I especially love the first birthday!!!  These little ones change so much in 1 year and on each of their first birthdays I take a minute to reflect on how they have grown, and what a special place they have in my heart.

I also love our first birthday tradition of the birthday cake!!  I mean who doesn't love pictures of icing covered kids with huge grins on their face as they stuff in every last crumb :)

 Jocelyn just turned 1 a few weeks ago and she, like her siblings, loved it to the last bite!

Do you prefer to celebrate with cupcakes, cake pops, or just plain old cake?

None of the above!!!  So this might be weird,  but I really don't like frosting.  Doesn't matter what kind, I just don't like it.  So here I am at my last birthday (surprised we took a photo) and in front of me you will see a nasty frosted cake.  This is a prop cake.  Its sole purpose is for the kids to be happy.  We sang, I blew out the candles, the kids had huge globs of icing with ice cream -  tradition complete!  And then I pulled my customary individual birthday cheesecake from the fridge ;)    Nothing say's Happy Birthday to Me like a Cheesecake!!!

And as part of this blog hop, each of the chefs are sharing their favorite recipe from their assigned Celebration.  So of course, I am sharing my favorite Snickers Cheesecake recipe!  It's so yummy and so incredibly easy to make!!

You can go here to print this recipe in either a 3 x 5 recipe card or a 4 x 6 card card or just click on the Printer Friendly Version below :)  Collect all of the recipes along the hop to keep with your book!!!



So that's a little about me.  Random for sure, but there you have it, little ol' me :)  So now, let's get to the part about little ol' you!!!!   The Giveaway!!!

GIVEAWAY!!!!

I am so excited to giveaway a copy of Sweet Celebrations plus a Moda Layer Cake to go along with it!!!  Simply leave me a comment below of a favorite birthday present to be entered to win. You have until October 14th to comment and the winner will be announced on October 19th :)

And for a complete list of all the hop stops just click on the banner!!!  Enjoy the Sweet Celebration!!!

Happy Squishy Mail!!

I love squishy mail!!  I got my mini  all the way from Scotland sent from Lochside Quilter this weekend!  It is perfect!!!  I love, love, love it!!!   I am so thankful to my wonderful partner, Lochside Quilter, who created this beautiful mini just for me :)

I got a plethora of extra goodies along with my squishy packaged.    Lochside Quilter really spoiled me.  I love that all of the goodies continue with the purple theme!!  That purple seam ripper is my new favorite!!!  (And guaranteed, it will get lots of good use. )

And here it is on my cute little wall of mini's!!   Doesn't it just fit in perfect!!!  Lochside Quilter stalked me well!!  I can't tell you how happy these make me.  My three mini's now represent 3 countries, Scotland, Australia, and Canada.  How cool is that!!

Oh, and a quick reminder.  The Sweet Celebrations Blog Hop kicks off today.  Check it out, and then come back tomorrow when it will be hoping on over here!!

September Bee Blocks - Just Under the Wire

Well I cut it pretty close this month :)  Yesterday afternoon I finally pulled out my bee fabrics and put together my two September blocks :)

Susan asked us to make a spiderweb block using all sorts of adorable Halloween fabric she sent us.  This is going to be a cute Halloween quilt when it is all put together!!

And Colby  asked us to make a  spiderweb block (yup, 2 different bees but the same block, fun!!) using a rainbow of colors from our scrap bins.  I love playing in my scraps and especially when working in rainbows.

I had made a spiderweb block once before and forgot just how much fun they are to put together :)  I thought it was quite fitting moving into October to put together 2 spiderweb blocks in the same day.  And now they are on their way to their new owners and I can start work on my October Bee Blocks :)

Winner and Quilt-A-Long ???

Before I announce a winner, let me say Thank You!!!  I am so overjoyed by all of the sweet comments left on my Starburst Tutorial.  I am blown away by how many times it was pinned!!  And I am floored by how many hits it got it just 3 days.  You all sure know how to make a girl feel loved!!  It was even suggested to do Starburst as a quilt-a-long :)  (Would anyone be interested in that??)

And I also want to send a huge Thank You  to Pat Bravo!!!  It was so incredibly wonderful to work with her and her team on this  project!!  I look forward to doing it again!!

And thanks to Pat, one of you luck readers is about to win your own stack of Indie Fat Quarters and Pat's amazing new skirt pattern La Boheme!!!  This fabric is simply luscious and I know you will love working with it as much as I did!!

So . . . Let's announcer the Winner!!

From the 805 entries (WOW!!) Mr. Random. Org choose lucky # 5

Who happens to be . . . mtnquiltr!!!  Congrats!!!  I have sent you an email :)

Thanks again to everyone who entered!!  And remember to let me know if you want to do a Starburst Quilt-A-Long :)  Have a Happy Quilting Weekend!!!