New Bedroom

I realize I was remiss in posting the "after" pictures of our newly remodeled master bedroom.  We are absolutely LOVING having a king sized bed! I still can't believe I live in this beautiful bedroom!
We are sharing a nicely organized closet:

 I've re-hung the pictures of my beautiful children and their families:

 Here is our ginormous bed! And I finally made the bolster pillow to go on it after months of procrastinating! (It was hard - there were curves!)

 And here is my favorite thing - the transom window!:

 Here is the closet - all covered in mirrors, which reflects the light from the 4 windows beautifully all over the room! Since we made 2 small bedrooms into one large one, we are benefitting from all of the light from the 4 windows.

We still have the ugly, comfortable chair in the corner (not pictured) and it may stay there forever !

Christmas Dolly Quilts

I have 5 granddaughters and for Christmas this year, I made them each a "Dolly Quilt" out of scraps.

For the modified "drunkard's path", I used the amazing "Quilt Smart", a fusible interfacing, you cut most of it out, so it's not too stiff, and it's easy peasy, lemon squeezy!  The one with square patterns was made with leftover blocks I had in my scraps. I even had all of the border fabric in my stash.  One of them has little puppies and things on it, for my oldest, Austin, who is not much into dolls, but loves animals.
     I also made this pretty quilt for my beautiful sister, Heidi, out of a jelly roll and some white fabric. For her birthday.

     Christmas will be kind of quiet around here after last Christmas when everyone was here, the Texas kids aren't coming and my California boy isn't coming either. Jeff is going to Canada to meet the girlfriend's parents...
     I'm sure we will still have a rousing nerf gun fight and lots of fun and love to go around, but the others will be missed for sure!  Right after Christmas, heading back to California to go to my niece's wedding, then another granddaughter coming (here to Utah!) in January.
     Hope your holidays are merry!

Cold Weather is Here and so are changes

Well it's been awhile, but I'm still living and quilting and enjoying my life (yay!).  One of the quilting groups I am in does lots of exchanges, we are starting a Row Quilt round robin in January, so I got my "row" done, because the holidays tend to be a little busy around here. I'm super excited about it and I love how working on others' quilts helps me grow as a quilter, because I am NOT a gifted designer, that's for sure:

 Here is our Halloween block exchange we just did, hopefully it will be a quilt soon:

 The weather has turned mighty cold mighty quick around here, we went to the BYU game the other night and it was about 15 degrees with the wind chill - brrrrrr! (We left before the end, wimpy, I know)

 We are also going to lease out our fun condo down south in Hurricane for the next few years and vacation somewhere else for awhile. Kind of sad, but kind of exciting too.

And the most sad change of all is that this sweet little family is moving to FLORIDA in January! I know it's a good thing, my son got into Nurse Anesthetist school, and they will be wonderful wherever they go, but we will MISS seeing them all the time, they live just down the street and we see them nearly every day.

Hope you are having a happy life and staying warm wherever you are!

Summer Breeze

     So I checked my blog and I haven't posted in like forever and I saw that 12 people checked my blog today and there was nothing for them! (And there hasn't been for a month or more!) So sorry! July was crazy busy and hot, which I hate, so that's probably why I didn't have anything fun/positive to say all month. BUT - now it's August, the month where the evenings start cooling down around here, especially as the month goes on. And it's almost my birthday!!! (September 5 - favorite day of the year!)
     Mr. Handsome also started working at home in earnest this summer, which is fabulous, except when I want to blog and he is talking on the phone, which is most of his business in the office. Yes, we now share an office.
     Here is the quilty-ness I've been doing between the busy-ness: This is a gift for a new baby in the extended family:

      Here is a "just because" quilt. I certainly did not need another project and was super busy, but I was able to squeeze this class in on an amazingly free afternoon last month. I need to make 13 blocks, so don't hold your breath for this to be finished any time soon! But I love it! Even though these are primary colors, the colors coming up are nice, saturated oranges, purples, greens, etc. Yummy!

      I also finally got started on my wedding ring quilt, it will also be in brights on a white background. I'm making it with "Quilt Smart", which means no curved piecing, but it still took awhile gather fabric & then to cut it out, and it's going to be gorgeous!  I am planning on hand quilting it, so I am going to call it "Something Old & Something New" (I know, so clever!)
     My quilting machine is on the fritz (AGAIN!), but this time it's either going to be fixed or I'm getting a new one! I have quite a stack of quilts to be quilted now - frustrating. (The guy at the shop who takes care of my machines had a heart attack (the nerve), but happily is on the mend, so soon...

     The other new project I've started this summer is learning to play the piano: Mr. Handsome and I are planning on serving a mission for our church in a few years, so I thought I might learn to play to help out at church meetings where no one plays. BUT, don't let this "Easy" book fool you, it's SUPER hard! My piano teacher says I will be playing it "soon", but I don't know, there is a heck of a lot to remember in this piano playing business! I took for a few years as a child, but that was a long time ago, and I've basically forgotten everything.

It is encouraging that I've learned to quilt, because I used to just think you were either good at something or not, but through quilting, I've learned it's all about practice, practice, practice. So that's what I do everyday - practice the piano. (It's quite motivating to practice when you're paying for the lessons, not your momma!) Happy Quilting!

This Girl is On Fire...

So the chilly weather is gone, too soon. We've been going to the pool, but getting NO quilting done. My sweet daughter, Brooke has been into my stash and has made 6 or 7 quilt tops! She is giving me one to donate to our youth fundraiser next month. She keeps inviting me down to my fab quilt studio to quilt with her, but I just can't think in the messiness. The kids have their overflowing suitcases down there, and with all the other stuff down there, it's just a little messy for my taste. We are just a little cramped in this house with 8 people, but it's worth it!  Here is a picture of little Izzy at the pool:

She would not let her mom take her out of her little swim outfit all day, she just held on to her clothes and squealed! Hope your summer is going just the way you want it (mine is!)

Merrily, We Roll Along...

  Things are just moving along here, it went from really hot to quite chilly (yay!!) We are having a fun time with lots of grand kids here all the time.  There is some exciting news - our number 9 grandchild is on its way!  Here are the latest blocks from my quilt group block exchange, the theme was scrappy:

 Here is the "good deal" of a weight bench that ended up in my fabulous new bedroom while I was out of town: I have decided I will take a picture each time it is used for clothing and after so many, it goes! (Muhaha)

Speaking of our fabulous new master bedroom, it is FINISHED! It is gorgeous and each time I head in there during the day, I just want to sit down and stay! We still need a couple of chairs in there and a small table, but there is a comfortable chair in there, it's just a little worn looking and doesn't really match.  The office is pretty much done also, I am painting a little part of the built in desk and my wonderful daughter is here and she is going to refinish a couple of small things, then I will post pictures. Well, I'm off for a morning walk in this wonderful, chilly weather - hope you're having a great time, and if you're not, remember, it will pass! (That's what I keep telling myself!)

I think it's Summer already!

     We've returned from a trip to Missouri to pick up the grand babies and they are just as adorable as ever! It was a very long drive, but worth it. It was so nice to see my wonderful daughter and her family. We just brought the 3 "big" kids back, left the baby there with mom and dad. They will be joining us for Father's Day and staying until after the 4th of July.
     Our remodeling is almost finished!!! After having the house torn apart somewhat for the past 3 months, I realize how people can live in squalor and stop even noticing it! When Mr. Handsome let the painters in this morning, they all had to squeeze by two doors that need painting and have been hanging out in the entryway for a month, Mr. Handsome didn't even notice them and forgot to ask the painters to paint them! I am no better, I was here all morning with them and forgot to tell them about the big splotchy patches in the hallway, which I passed by multiple times! Luckily they are coming again to finish and can catch that patchy hallway!
     I will not have much time to quilt over the next month while the amazing grandchildren are here;  Here's what I've got done for now:  this Asteria quilt is nearly done, I just need to add the borders and it will be complete. I am not in a huge hurry though, since it doesn't really match my new fabulous bedroom (which incidentally still does NOT have closet doors on!) So I'm not sure what to do with this king-sized beauty! I'm sure I will figure it out.

     Here are my latest blocks for my "Rotary Club Quilters" group, we were supposed to do "scrappy" blocks, so here is my interpretation of that edict: (I was going to make the backgrounds scrappy too, but it was bleck!) I am glad I got them done before the party started around here for sure!

 And, I have added a star to the top of my Christmas Tree and voila! No need for a point after all!

Am enjoying my family and such, but I do believe it is a little warm already for May 86: degrees, which is nothing if you're from that sort of place (HOT), but for my hot-flashy self, I am just thinking it's going to be a long, hot summer. Luckily, I have an excuse to go to the pool, since I now have 3 kids! And, I can always look forward to the rest of the summer spent in the basement studio that is freezing with the A/C on.  Happy Quilting and such!

Life is Good

I have turned into the worst blogger EVER, I used to post twice a week, now it's more like twice a MONTH! I don't know if I'm running out of things to talk about, or if I have a sneaking suspicion that I've possibly already blogged about certain things, and can't quite remember in my advanced dotage, oh well.

Here's what I've been up to on the quilting front:

 I finished this cute quilt, from a "layer-cake", with a few other fabrics added in. It's for the "Grandchildren's Room", the other quilt I had on the bed was really too small.

 Here is my newest "mini quilt" to donate to the Utah Quilt Guild this year. It is a block I made for one of my quilt groups block exchange, I had a couple of extras, so I quilted it up and it made a cute little mini. Notice the clothespin holding it at the very top of the tree, I totally lost my point (no news there), but am looking for a nice large star button to put on the top to hide my faux pas.

Here is my haul from the HMQS show (Home Machine Quilting Show). I got some cute fat quarters, some of the "pounce" quilt marking stuff, some great pre-cut log cabin blocks and a few other sundry items. I took $150 cash, but had to break out the debit card on my second trip around the vendor mall. (Happy Mother's Day to me, right?)

Here is the latest block exchange in my little quilt group. We were supposed to bring our favorite blocks, mine is the log cabin. We should be done pretty soon, so I can start thinking of a project for these little babies (6.5")

On the remodeling front, still no closet doors installed (!!!), no transom window, but the linen closet in the hall is done:

While waiting for the paint touch up, etc. We decided to do a quick little remodel in the home office, since Mr. Handsome is working from home now (yay!). So we are still living in a bit of chaos, but it will soon someday be behind us, I know this because this is not my first remodel and probably won't be the last! Hope you're all having happy quilting times!

Life Goes On...

So I zipped down to California in my zippy little car (The Mini Q) to see this little beauty:

She actually lives in Missouri, but was visiting California with her Momma and sister. She is our youngest grandchild, Holland Danielle (#8 is great!).

 And if you can believe it, while I was gone, Mr. Handsome picked up this little beauty (not!)

He put it right in our new beautiful, fabulous, perfect new bedroom! Ack! "But it was such a good deal!" he explained. I mentioned that we belong to quite a nice gym and he visits it pretty  much every day! "But it was such a good deal", he repeats. Ah well, for now it stays. Still no transom window, or closet doors, but patience is a virtue, right?

I am headed to a fun quilt retreat next week and we are going to have a pin cushion exchange, I bought this cute pattern (Camille Roskelley) and made this adorable pin cushion:

Then I decided it was way to cute to exchange so I am going to keep it (It matches my studio, after all) and trade the one I got at a retreat last fall which is really cute, but it doesn't speak to me like this one. And for those of you who say, "You need a pattern for such a simple project?", the answer is "Yes,  I do".

And, here at the home front, it's play dough season! (Don't eat the play dough, sweetie)

Happy Quilting!

Remodeling and Such

So the remodeling is nearly finished and here is the progress: Here is the end of the hall as it looked before. We had these cabinets and drawers (that actually held a lot of stuff):

Here is the "master" before, we had these funky light boxes over the windows:

 Here is what the end of the hall looked like when they tore down the two closets in the bedrooms and the cabinet at the end of the hall(and framed in the new doorway)

 Here you can see where we have our little transom window, it will sort of match our front door, pictured below, but it will take like 2 months to have made.

Ah, paint. You can see our nifty ceiling and wainscoting:

 The peek into the master bath, which is also the regular/guest bath, since we just have two, one up and one down. I actually like this, because there are only ever two toilets to clean!

 New (soft) carpet!!! And you can see our wall sconces for reading. We did not put any can lights above the bed, since we decided you NEVER want a can light in your eyes when you are in bed. We also put the can lights in the other part of the room on dimmers. So when Mr. Handsome gets up earlier than me (an every day occasion) he can see to get ready without (hopefully) waking me up!

 The closet and sitting area: It's really nice to have 4 windows in our bedroom, that are on three sides of the house, plenty of light!

 Here is the doorway with the transom space, all painted up.

Of course, the first thing Mr. Handsome put up was the tv - it is mounted on a thing-y that will swing to either watch it from the bed or from the sitting area by the closet:

Here is my half of the closet, full up:

Here is our GIANT King-sized bed -woo hoo!

 We are still waiting for closet doors (big mirrors), the transom window, a couple of doors (since we switched out the rest of the doors in the house) and we are having another cabinet built into the hallway a little ways down from the bedroom so we will still have some storage up here. BUT we are living upstairs in the giant/fabulous, roomy bedroom after camping downstairs for 4 weeks -and it was ready to move into by our anniversary!

It's March Already?

     Well, I'm under a layer of drywall dust again. We decided it would be a great idea to combine our two teeny-tiny upstairs bedrooms into one large "Master-Suite".  It is a great idea, but such a pain. It's been two weeks and it's moving along:

     We are going to get a king-sized bed, instead of the queen sized we've had for many years, it will be nice to stretch out AND get to cuddle.  Here is the new closet, we are losing a couple of feet from the two 6 foot closets (1 in each small room) we had before to one ten foot closet, but with lots of organizers built in, we are hoping not to notice.  I had started looking at new houses with big master bedrooms, but then decided it would be easier and cheaper to just combine the two bedrooms.  Mr. Handsome and I are celebrating our 33rd anniversary this month and are hoping the room is finished by then - we'll see.
     I have been hiding out downstairs a bit, so I was able to finish and quilt two quilts:
This first one is for little Brian who is in a "big boy" bed, so he needed a twin-sized quilt. There are a few "Thomas the Train" blocks, since he loves choo-choos so much:

 This next batik quilt has minky on the back and is for no particular reason. I am possibly doing a trunk show this summer, so I am making and hoarding quilts in case I have to show all my stuff. I have given lots away, so I am a little worried I will have enough.

My quilting machine has calmed down a bit, so I'm hoping to get another quilt quilted in the next week or so. I am headed down south this week for the annual "Sister-in-Law Retreat" that we've had going on for 14 or 15 years, looking forward to that, even though it's hard to leave my "construction project" because there are always questions and decisions about stuff. Hope you're all having a lovely spring!

All I Wanna do is Quilt!

     I'm back from a fun trip to California and am getting caught up on all my "stuff".  Went through all the mail (Yay, a quilt magazine came while I was gone!), laundry (Mr. Handsome still acts confused when asked to work the washing machine), vacuuming of dog hair, really wiping the kitchen counters, etc.  

     I have also been yearning to do quilty stuff! We all know what it's like to be separated from our fabric and sewing machine for too long! As I have been plowing through the "must do's" to get to the quiltiness, lots of my wonderful family have been dropping by and needing help with the assorted toddlers and babies, whom I love dearly! Then there's Mr. Handsome who wants me by his side as much as possible, as he is having stressful stuff at work. The good thing is this "stressful stuff" is causing him to be super tired, so as soon as he drops off, I zip downstairs to wallow in the quilting!

I did manage to get a quilt quilted last night and my machine (which has been giving me FITS) was fairly cooperative and the thread only broke twice - yippee skippy! I also managed to get another quilt loaded on the machine, which I will be off to quilt this afternoon - woohoo! Then I have two more quilts to piece the backs of (blerk), then quilt, and I will be caught up on my quilting and on to creating more fun stuff! Here is Brian's quilt parts for his new twin-sized bed, since he is getting so big! It is ready to be quilted - I just don't have a picture to prove it!

     

     We are also starting a new remodel project around here, creating a master suite (these old houses just don't have them!), so I will be making a king-sized (yay!) simple quilt to go on the new bed, super excited, yet not too excited about having the mess for a few weeks, but it will be worth it! I will post pics as soon as we get started, which may be soon or in a month or so.

     Off to quilt, and I have been thinking maybe I should quilt first next time and do the "other stuff" after - hmmmm.

You Call Yourself a Blogger?

I have been meaning to get around to posting my quilty stuff for a few weeks! Still learning the ropes with this new computer, so here it is:
     I have joined a new quilt group (The Rotary Club!). We meet once a month for lunch at a member's home. We did the Christmas Tree block exchange, and now we have decided to do a 6" block exchange each month for a few months in "brights". The first month was free choice:

Mine is the lower right hand corner.  For February, we are doing paper-piecing - and yay, mine are already done!

I am working on learning my EQ7 software, as you've probably guessed I am not too computer savvy, so I am quite proud of myself that I designed and made a quilt with it this month:

It turned out a little wild, but I think my niece likes it, she is having a baby girl next month and we are all so happy for her!
     I am currently  working on a twin sized quilt for sweet little Brian and will post pictures when I get it finished.  In my regular quilt bee (Knotts, -we meet each week) our president challenged us to complete TEN projects this year, so I've made my list and we shall see. Luckily 3 are just quilting and finishing already assembled tops, although that could be a challenge too as my quilting machine is still giving me grief!
     I volunteered to teach a simple freezer paper appliqué class this summer, for the Guild, then I realized I probably should have an appliqué quilt to show!!! So making an appliqué quilt got onto my list too. I will be doing a bit of traveling later this month with trips planned well into Spring, so I'd better get hopping!
     Oh, and here is a wonderful Christmas gift I received from my clever DIL:

Something I am needing as our family keeps growing!! Happy Quilting all!