Design Wall

Woot! My design wall is finally completely up. We had the top half up before my parents came to visit. It was nice to have when my mom was working on arranging a quilt. After my parents left, and I'd had time to clean my quilt room back up from the daily whirlwind shopping, and the nighttime quilting, my husband and I put the bottom half up. We made sure to cut out a hole for the light switch and another hole for the electrical outlets, so I didn't have to give up either (would have been hard to sew with no lights).

I love it. It is insulation foam and vinyl tablecloths. This means that almost everything I'm working on will stick to it, and if it doesn't I can pin it to the board. My husband is such a sweetie for helping me with it. After we finished, he informed me he would not put up another one even if we move. We'll just have to see about that, I'm sure he will come around once he sees how much this one will be used, but never fear, neither of us are planning on moving anytime soon, so this may not even matter.

A Castle

 I helped tend my neighbor kids this weekend (4/19) and they have loved playing with these blocks. They organize them for me, and they play with Nate with them. These blocks were Nate's main Christmas present in 2011. (yes he was still super little) He loves them. Especially the longer ones. He holds them up to his ear like a cell phone. For awhile we couldn't even leave the house without him having a block in his hand. We joked that it was his comfort block, since he hasn't really been big on insisting he have anything else when we leave the house.

But this week when the kids were here, Nate happened to still be napping, so they decided they wanted to make a castle. it is complete with a covered drive leading to the castle and little ponds (circles). I loved it and knew I needed to share.

A Wedding

While I'd love to say that the reason my parents were here to visit was because they just wanted to spend time with me. The real reason for the visit was for my older brother's wedding.

It was a lovely little ceremony and dinner. Afterwards during all the pictures the kids were running around outside. Nate had a blast running with the bigger kids in this little side strip of grass. He would chase the big kids back and forth and back and forth.

I really think he is going to love being able to go outside and enjoy the nice weather this year.

Sew Day

 While my parents were here, I decided to host a sew day to introduce some of my quilty friends to my mom (on my dad's birthday). It turned out great. They were generous enough to be my guinea pigs for a new taco soup recipe, which I loved and have now entered into my food rotations, and we got a lot done.

This is sadly the only picture I got that I am allowed to post, since all the ladies said I could not post them. This was Sue's workstation. She was working on a wonderful blue quilt. And in the background you can just make out my best friend and the quilt she's been working on for 6 years. She handpieced all but the sashing and borders, and is in the process of handquilting it. All she has left to do, is to quilt something in her borders (and bind it of course). I can't wait to see it when it's all done, though it may be a bit since this is the friend whose baby girl is due at the end of the month.

My mom worked on a wool applique tablerunner, April worked on a special quilt, and Konda came to visit, too. And little old (young) me worked on cutting more squares for more car quilts for Christmas. We'll see if I can manage to do them.

Back to Quilting

Car Quilt-Straight, is now done. Ok. So it isn't completely done, but the top is completely pieced. I have also managed to pin it and baste around the edges to prepare to quilt it. I have plans for quilting it, I just need to have a quilting foot first. So, for now it is on hold until that magically appears in my quilting room. The left picture is when all the big squares had been placed and it was ready for the final sew together, and the bottom is when I had them all sewn together.

Guinea Pig Cage Liners

While we had guinea pigs it was a constant fight to try to keep the mess and the smell to a minimum. This is not a fight we really won, but we did get it down quite a bit.

We started with pine bedding, which the guinea pigs would kick up out of their cage, every time we walked into the room and they ran for cover.

Then we decided we needed a sturdier bedding that could be washed, and that the guinea pigs little paws could grip. This was accomplished using fleece and terry cloth to make a flat layer bedding sheet for them (fleece and 2 layers of terry cloth). I tried putting some velcro in the corners to hold it to the cage floor, but this didn't work.

This would have worked great if the guinea pigs didn't keep trying to burrow under the edges of the mat. We then added fabric to go up the sides of the cage to keep them from burrowing. And by we, of course, I mean me. To keep them from pulling down the sides we actually used binder clips. This worked really well. Nate thought it was great fun to take the binder clips off. Good thing we watched when he was around the guinea pigs.

Until Next Time.

Guinea Pigs

For a few months, we had guinea pigs. Our first one was a birthday present for me last September. We have since gotten two more and gotten rid of all three. We got rid of them because we could not get their smell under control. It really didn't help that we had to have two cages since two of the boys could not get along.

In the large open cage, we had Odin and Fritz. Odin was the white, black and brown one. His name came because he had the black spot over one eye, which made me think of Odin (also known as Wotan) from Norse mythology, who traded his eye for wisdom. Fritz was mostly black with a tuft of brown on his crown. Having already gotten Odin, I kept thinking of Frigg, his wife. However, I do believe in giving males, male names, so then I said that it looked like he had a spritz of brown on his head, which led to Fritz. Little did we know at the time, how jumpy he would be for the duration of his stay with him. By the end, we joked that Fritz was always on the fritz.

Our third boy was Jack. He was a really pretty dark brown and white, that had a satin sheen to his fur. He was definitely the most friendly of the bunch. He liked to come and see us whenever we walked in the room, while the others ran and hid.

Now that they are gone, I miss them. But I also have to admit I feel much better. Their fur got everywhere, which made my allergies act up. It was most definitely not fun. Having them also led to another project which I will blog about later.

Until Next Time.

Virtual Quilt Along

One of the projects that I have decided to do is the Virtual Quilting Bee that is being run by Amy Smart of Diary of a Quilter. This is a fabric bundle I found at the International Quilt Festival in Cincinnati last year (2012).

So far I've only managed to designate my fabric. Thus far, three of the blocks have been posted on her website. Hopefully, soon I will be able to get to those.

Until later my friends.

My Apologies

Somehow time has gotten away from me again. It appears to have been a week since I last posted, saying that I was too tired to post.

The last 2 weeks have been a tad crazy here at my house. My mom, dad, and youngest brother all came to visit for one of my other brother's weddings. And while they were here, my dad and my youngest brother both decided to have birthdays. My mom and I managed to sandwich in a wedding shower for my new sister-in-law between the THOUSANDS of quilt shop visits. We had a sew day with some of my friends (to celebrate my dad's birthday). Unfortunately, I could not invite all my new quilting friends because of a lack of space. My best friend, whose baby girl we are expecting at the end of April, decided she needed to get herself put on bedrest. We had LDS general conference, and my parents and I worked in a temple trip.

I have a quilt friend who has been hosting sewing days every day this week, except for today. And now I'm up against a deadline for something else. Hopefully, things will settle down in the next little bit, so I can get some things done and posted. Though we will have to see because I already know that I have a baby shower to attend on Saturday.

Until next time.

Busy Day.

Sorry, folks. I have plenty I could write about tonight, but I'm just too tired.

See you on Saturday, hopefully.

Our Angel, Annie

Today marks the 4th anniversary of my late sister-in-law's diagnosis with Leukemia. We miss her dearly.

This picture of her and her oldest son is from my wedding in July of 2009, 3 months after her diagnosis. This is also the last time I got to see her, as she passed in Sept of 2009.

She was always happy and full of life. She was the first sister I had.

When the day of my wedding came around, we weren't sure if she would be able to attend, since she had an doctor's appointment that morning. But her health was still high enough that her appointment was short, and she was there in time for the wedding. It was one of the many precious memories I get to have of her, for which I will be grateful for the rest of my life.

We miss you, Annie.

Nate's Design Wall Pincushion

Welcome, Foolish Mortals.

Since my son loves my pins and watched me put pins into the foam boards that are currently being put up as my design wall, he thought he should be allowed to stick pins into my boards as well. I decided I needed a pincushion on my board that he can play with, and hopefully, preserve the integrity of the board longer.

Thus, we have Nate's Design Wall pincushion now in the works. I went to the internet to find what people recommend for pincushion fillings. Gravity, however, meant I had to be creative.

I decided I wanted it rectangular and that I would use crushed walnut shells. My husband had quite a bit still in the bag from the local pet shop that he'd bought for cleaning his reloading brass.

I utilized what I remembered from a tutorial on how to make a weighted blanket, to make my inner pouches. This created the columns to put the walnut shells into, which will be turned on their sides and actually be rows within the pincushion.

For the inner pouch, I used 3 layers of cheap fabric. I alternated which of the outer layers I sewed to the middle layer, so that I could stagger the columns for the shells, since I was hoping that would allow the shells to be added more evenly instead of having hills of shells with valleys where the stitched rows were. I think it worked out great. I did decide that I wanted it a little thicker (since the pins are longer than the pouch was thick), so I have made 2 inner pouches that will nestle together.

I have started on the outer casing for this pincushion, and plan on adding some fiberfill around to soften it in case my son falls into it. More pictures will follow when I finish it.

Happy Crafting.