Maybe in time for NEXT Christmas !

Well, it's December 27th, here's hoping you all had a blessed Christmas. Ours was a quiet one, with family all snowed in and not able to travel. They did get here on Saturday though, and had to leave again tonite. So, this blizzard we had is now being called the Christmas Blizzard of 2009. Lots of snow, although I haven't heard the total yet. Now that I found ( actually stole from my "flip" video camera ) some batteries, maybe I will snap some pics of our winter wonderland tomorrow.



Now for some "old business" . . .

Here is the picture of the table topper from the last post. It is laying on a reddish quilt, but what do you think? Red binding or Green ? Better let me know quick so I can finish it before NEXT Christmas !



"New Business" is. . . my DD was home for Christmas, and she is a stylist, and I finally did the plunge and had her cut my hair. It was once again almost to my waist, and is now the shortest that I have had it in the last 48 years. I don't remember how long my hair had been back then, but I do remember my Mom had it cut in a "pixie" style and I remember crying for days. Little did she know how much that would traumatize me and for how long. . . well, it is NOT as short as a Pixie, but pretty short for me. And how am I doing about it now ?. . . well, no tears, and so far no regrets. . .. . . . .

Storm Watch ( or Oyster Stew for Two on Christmas Eve )

Big storm's a'comin' or so they say. . . so I'm thinking our Minneapolis family won't make it home for Christmas. That means that the grandson won't be staying the week between Christmas and New Year's either ! Big Disappointment, but I am not going to dwell on that, I am going to be thankful that we have weathermen and forecasts so we know when bad weather is coming and can plan accordingly. Our current forcast is for snow starting here at noon, snowing through Christmas morning, with 12" or more of snow, then the wind comes up and blows through Saturday ( translation: BLIZZARD ) .

So, today's plan is to make a grocery list and get to the grocery store for the big blizzard rush. . maybe a couple movies too. Then we should get some more wood in for the fireplace before it gets covered up with snow. . . Then we can hibernate for a couple days.

Now, just so this post will have a picture, I will post a 24" table topper that I made ( to keep ! ). Not sure what color binding to do, I think it will be a scrappy binding, but green or red ? What do you think ? I am guessing I will have time this Christmas to get it done !

oops. . . sorry, batteries are dead in the camera. . . guess I will have to put that on my shopping list, then come back here and edit ! See you later. . .

PAY IT FORWARD

Good Morning all. . .



Well, I finished the last of my customer quilts due to be quilted by Christmas a couple days ago, so now I need to start on my projects, one of them being to catch up on posts !



You may remember the floods we had here in North Dakota this spring. Well we
( the North Dakota State Quilt Council ) were contacted by a group of quilters from Mountain Home, Idaho, that wanted to send quilting supplies to quilters that had been affected by the flood. Below is a picture of the quilters receiving the boxes of donated quilting supplies. In the picture are Doris, Rita, Pat, me, and Paulette. Doris ( Pat's MIL ) was totally flooded out and lost her home. She was displaced for 7 months and just moved into her new home on Dec 14th. Rita had water in her basement and her home is not even close to the river, Pat's home had 6" of water on the main floor, and the dikes surrounding their home held back 3' of water. They now have a permanent concrete dike between their home and the river. Their son and DIL also lost their home in the flood and are rebuilding. Paulette's home was not flooded, but they were displaced for 3 weeks because all the roads and bridges to their home were out.













It was so fun to see this group of quilters get down on the floor and open these boxes like it was Christmas ! They have shared the items with the rest of their quilting group, and plan on paying it forward by making a quilt and donating it to the Red Cross.

I found out a few weeks later, that when Pat was going through some quilting magazines that were included in the boxes that in a Quilters Newsletter Magazine from 2002, there was an article about a quilt that Pat's Mother had made for the Ft. Seward Wagon Train in 1993. A quilt is made every year for the Wagon Train and is auctioned off to raise funds. She didn't know who had won the auction for the quilt her Mom had made, but somehow, the quilt was published, and Pat never knew this until picking up that magazine. What a nice surprise for her ! and kind of a "woo woo" moment - insert some Twilight Zone music here - just think about it. . . a kind deed, a random magazine sent to a group in crisis, and it happens to contain an article about a quilt made 16 years previously by Mom, and if Pat hadn't rec'd or looked at the magazine, she would have never known that her Mom's quilt had been published ! I think another "WOO-WOO" is in order for that !

A BIG THANK YOU to the generous hearts in Mountain Home Idaho, and by paying it forward, these ND quilters will be keeping the goodness going forth.

Imagine what this world would be like if everyone "Payed it Forward" . . . .


If you would like to know more info about the NDSQC or the Fort Seward Wagon Train, or see the "woo-woo" quilt, be sure and click on the links. The quilt can be seen on the Wagon Train website.

Hi. .

I thought I would take a little time out from the LIST ( my quilting list. . . only 5 more customer quilts/runners to do before Christmas, and barring any catastrophe, I do believe I will be done by the middle of this week with them all ! ) to post. I saw this tree skirt pattern in a magazine- and it was so nice to find one that I actually felt like making ! - and thought it was so cute. I made this for my DIL for her birthday. Sure hope she likes it. She has her whole house decorated PRIM, and boy, let me tell you, it could sure be on a tour of homes ! So, that is why I used the muted prim colors in this tree skirt. Now, I never can stand to make the same thing twice, if I do it is under great duress. .. . . but I really like this pattern and I think I might need one of these one day too. I had better mark that magazine and put it in a safe place. I am not up to making it this year, but I think it will go on my WISP list.

I quilted it using Nested Hearts, and am really happy with the way it turned out.

In other news, it has been bitterly cold up here in North Dakota ( like below ZERO), and just a couple weeks ago it was up in the 50's . I did not get my outside lights up yet - I hope to be able to motivate to get something up outside this weekend. Of course that all depends on how much quilting I can get done this weekend too !

Mr. Stitches has been good about keeping the wood stocked for the fire in the fireplace, and cooking the occasional suppper ( ok, he has been making most of the suppers around here , however I do have them organized so he knows what to make. . .) so I can quilt in the evenings, and go to practices and gigs with the band. We have been doing a few Christmas gigs lately, and let me tell you. . .. all those Christmas songs you THINK you know ? well just try putting chords to them and playing them right and singing ALL the words right. . . and figuring out which Christmas songs you can bluegrass up. . . . well. . . it just isn't so easy ! But it has been fun, and exhausting ! Soon enough we will be back to the usual bluegrass songs that we play all the rest of the year.

Ok. . . I have another couple table runners to quilt out tonite. . .

will try and post more later. I have some really cute quilty items to show you all !

I hope you are all taking time out to enjoy the season !

'Tis the Season

I've been trying to hold out for December 1 to post this quilt, but I guess we are close enough now. Thanks, Georgeann for letting me quilt this ! She did a beautiful job of piecing, and appliqueing. If you click on the picture for a close up, you can see the white and off white log cabin blocks and if you look real close in the white blocks you can see the quilted holly and berries. She used many different white and off white fabrics for this quilt, and it really is so gorgeous. I'm thinking that someday, I would like to make one like this for our house !

This quilt sure put me in the Christmas mood.

Here's hoping all your Thanksgivings were happy, and that you all are getting in the Holiday Spirit !

Now I need to get a crackin' there's more Christmas quilts to be quilted !

Be Grateful

Hi All,

I just finished quilting this quilt and thought it was a good time of year to add it to my blog as a reminder to be grateful for all that we have been given. My customer, Kathy did a beautiful job of piecing and applique-ing, and I can't wait to see it when she gets all the embellishments added to it. A special thanks, Kathy, for leaving the embellishment off until after I had it quilted !

A little "Be Patient" reminder for all of us. . . . . . . it is a virtue, you know ! If you look carefully, or enlarge, maybe you can see my new favorite quilting pattern. . . nested hearts. I will add a picture of the back of the quilt below that shows them better. . .

Here's a shot of the 4 borders.

Here is the back of the quilt showing the nested hearts. . . I just love this stitch. I see there is a little of the border showing at the bottom too. .. By the way, the backing is flannel. . .oh so warm and cozy !

On the homefront here. . . I have been busy "Being Grandma" with our 5 yr old grandson visiting for a little over a week. What a good little boy, and we have been thoroughly enjoying every precious moment with him. At the same time, we've been cleaning up the garden, getting ready for winter, having bluegrass band practices and jams, and now deer hunting has started ! No snow here yet, we are enjoying daytime temps in the 50's but I am sure that will soon change.

So, now, don't forget to "Be Patient" " Be Kind" " Be Trustworthy" " Be Grateful" and just " Be Good" ! And. . . enjoy this season of Thankfulness. . .

Fat Quarter Giveaway !

Pumpkin Patch Primitives is having a GIVEAWAY ! Head over there and checkout the PPP blog and enter, tell them I sent you ! Aren't these fabrics yummy ? They are Pumpkin and Spice from Red Rooster. Thanks, Brenda, for the contest !

Pleasant Pheasant Pfabric - Pheasant Country

Well, now, isn't this a perfect quilt for this area ! Pheasant Country. . . . We have pheasants all over up here, and MANY pheasant hunters !

and how about this pleasant pheasant phabric ? sorry, I have wanted to do that for so long, I just couldn't help myself !

This quilt piecing pattern was a free pattern found on the Quilting Treasures website and my customer Kathy did a fabulous job of piecing it up in these gorgeous fabrics. Now, I personally have over 3,000 quilting patterns and thousands more available to me. . . and do you think I could find one . . . . . . . . . just one that would do this quilt justice ? na. . . . . but. . . I can have one designed ! Look below at the Pheasant Country quilt back for the quilting pattern we came up with ! It took 3 of us, Kathy, me, and most of all Laurie Thomas, the designer. I used a color of thread that blended in with the top, so the quilting wouldn't overpower the beautiful fabrics in the top. A special thanks to Kathy, who used a quiet tone on tone fabric for the quilt backing so the quilting can shine.

I just find myself drawn more and more to the quiet, tone on tones now, just to let the quilting tell it's own story.

It's Andrea's birthday over at Junkfest and they are having a birthday giveaway ! Head over there and wish her a HAPPY BIRTHDAY and be sure and read about their fabulous JUNKFEST they just had and see what they still have for sale ! You should just see what these gals can do with junk ( ahem, I mean cool stuff ! )

Don't you just love T-Shirt quilts ?

Here's a picture of our nephew and his then girlfriend ( now wife ) on their graduation day with the t-shirt quilt that I made him. Actually, in full disclosure, this was before I purchased my longarm, so I pieced this quilt, and then had it quilted. This probably was the catalyst for me to get my own machine, though ! Now, my niece-in-law has asked me to make her a t-shirt quilt too ( no hurry she said. . . . ha ha . . . she doesn't know HOW LONG my project list is ! and my project list even includes a t-shirt quilt for me. . . anyway, she made it on the list. ) OOPS I probably just spilled the beans, because my niece also wants a t-shirt quilt, but she has a sewing machine and is just starting to learn to quilt. I told her that I would be very happy to show her how to piece one of these and then would quilt it for her, but that she would have to make the top ! Her quilt is for her son who is graduating this school year.

Don't forget you can click on the picture to see an enlargement, and look near my N-I-L's wrist, we put a picture of our nephew on photofabric of him singing in a concert in the quilt too !

Anyway, the quilt in the picture turned out so nice, and the backing is flannel, and we all know how cozy that feels to wrap up in !

Back from a BUSY SUMMER !

Oh I have been a bad girl and have not been posting. What can I say. . . it has been a really busy summer ! Then it gets to be awhile and you feel like you need something REALLY good to post about. Well, I am ready to break the ice with my Haunted Table Runner. It is a wholecloth, stitched with orange thread that glows in blacklight, and bound in a cute candy corn binding. This was so much fun to put together, I think I need to do another one for a gift !

Will Quilt for Musical Instruments

Or so it seems !

I recently received a mystery package in the mail . . . . quite an oddly shaped package, lots of brown wrapping paper, lots and lots of tape. . .lots of work to UNwrap it. . . . . . . .

It came from my friend Jenny in Arizona. Pretty creative use of boxes there Jenny, how many boxes and rolls of tape did it take to wrap this up ?

Underneath all the paper and boxes were a bolt of fabric and a canvas case . . . . . ? ? ? ? ? ? ?

And inside the case was a beautiful log cabin quilt top and wrapped inside the quilt top, was a beautiful Mountain Dulcimer !

What a fun package to receive in the mail and open !

I am excited to quilt up your quilt for you Jenny, and hope you will be as happy with the results as I am with the dulcimer ! and. . . Jenny said to use the BOLT of fabric for the back, and donate the REMAINDER to Quilts of Valor ! Thank You Jenny ! That fabric should make several backs for Quilts of Valor quilts ! What a generous donation !

By the way, did you all know that MAY is BLUEGRASS MONTH ?

Still here !

Hello !



Yes I am still here. . .been busy quilting graduation and wedding quilts ( 'tis the season, you know ! ) Went to my first ( and hopefully not last ) quilt retreat . . . great fun, new friends. . . finished BIRTHDAY WEEK (always fun, but exhausting ). . . Happy Birthday to Everyone, I have 6 relatives and 5 friends who's birthdays are all in a span of less than 2 weeks, and to top it off we have been in a flood area for almost 2 months here. The rivers in town are all diked up, we are on water rationing to decrease the water flowing through our sewer systems which are overloaded, we are an odd numbered house, so we can only only wash clothes on odd numbered days, and am even thankful for that, the town next to us lost their sewer system, and most evacuated, and ended up not being able to use their sewer system at all, and having porta potties set up outside all over town. I hear we are dangerously close to that. . . so we are careful how much water we are using. Very Careful. We have National Guardsmen in town patroling the dikes, and helicoptors flying over head all monitoring the dikes and dams. Needless to say, it has been very "interesting" around here. THANK YOU, NATIONAL GUARD !

It's Virtual QUILT FESTIVAL Time !

TURN UP THE MUSIC !


Here is my entry into the QUILT FESTIVAL. The name of the quilt is Bluegrass Stars. It was designed and pieced by Barb in Bismarck, and quilted by me. This quilt will be raffled off to raise funds for the B.A.N.D. (Bluegrass Association of North Dakota) . The funds will be used to help promote Bluegrass music in the state with jams, festivals, concerts and classes.























Next is a close -up of the quilt and the last picture is of the quilt back. Bluegrass instruments featured on the quilt are guitar, banjo, fiddle, mandolin, dobro and bass. My apologies to any bluegrass instruments not represented on the quilt. . . we love you too ! For more information on North Dakota Bluegrass check out the North Dakota Bluegrass Forum . For information on tickets for the Bluegrass Stars quilt, contact me.

To see more quilts in the QUILT FESTIVAL, click on the link to the left. . . enjoy !

Lots of catchin' up to do !

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter ! We took a short trip to Minnesota, played with the rellies and had a great time. It even felt a bit like spring there. . . When we left, there was a pile of snow as high as my shoulder next to the driveway. . by the time I got back it was only knee high. Today it's only ankle high, so we are making progress. Unfortunately, as the snow melts, the rivers rise and there has been alot of sandbagging going on here in town and in surrounding towns and farms. Here in town we are waiting to see how high the river will crest. . .

Time for some quilting pictures. . . here is a quilt I made because I liked the quilting stitch. . .I named the quilt "Candy Kisses". Before I bought my longarm machine, I was usually inspired either by the fabric or the pattern, now I get inspired by the quilting stitch which then leads me to the fabric and pattern. A little backwards, but. . . . it works for me. "Candy Kisses" is for my daughter and was mostly pieced last spring, and I finally finished the border, quilted and bound it in February of this year. It turned out to be a pretty appropriate time to finish it what with all the valentines candy in the fabric. Not, however, probably the best time to post this. . Valentines would have been better, but, well, there isn't an Easter quilt to post about right now so I need to take what I can get.

Anyway, about the title of the post. . .First I was working like crazy to get enough done so I could take a few days off without guilt. . . now, I am working like crazy to catch up after being gone. I did end up feeling some guilt, but it was so nice to get away too. Even had my own little shop hop ! I got to go to 4 Minnesota quilt shops thanks to my SIL for 2 stops and DH for 2 stops on the way home! It is always SO interesting checking out different shops. Thankfully, Mr. Willow Lake Stitches doesn't mind stopping, and even comes in sometimes and checks out the fabric - wait - maybe he is checking on me !

Check out these new patterns !

Here's a pretty blog for you to check out. She is starting a pattern line and is having a giveaway. So. . . take a quick trip to Sweden and visit Helena !

The JUNK GIRLS COME TO TOWN !

Yep, the posse paid me a little visit this afternoon. . . they were on their way through town to a top secret location to pick up a stash of JUNK to bring back home to their workshops. They are working hard to get ready for this year's JUNK-FEST in September. We just got 19" of snow a couple of days ago, and these fearless gals ( yes, I said nineteen inches of snow, and it's WET, HEAVY snow ! ) are pulling a huge trailer halfway across the state on these icy, snow filled roads to bring treasures home for Junk-Fest . They stopped to drop off some quilt tops to keep me busy for awhile. Since they were here, I put them to work, and had them draw the winner for my St. Patty's Day GREEN giveaway!















And the winner. . . . is. . .. . AMY from Learning to be an Oak Tree and here is what she said

"Hi Beth - I want to enter! One going green thing I've done is change my dishwashing detergent and laundry detergent to the eco-friendly and phosphate free. I also use eco-friendly cleaning supplies. I find they work just as well! :) Amy "

Go visit her blog and check out what she is up to. Soon, she will have a quilted grocery bag kit to sew up !


Thank you, Junk Fest Girls for the visit, and for drawing the winner. I hope you have a GREAT time today on your junk quest !

Now, for some more fabulous recycling tips, head over to the JUNKFEST blog and take a look at what they do !




These gals really know how to recycle too !

Welcome to my SNOW GLOBE !

Hi. . . you may think that I took this picture last month, but. . .it, and all the snow is just fresh from a few minutes ago today, the last day of MARCH, 2009. It has been snowing steadily here now for 2 days, and I feel like I am in the middle of a snowglobe. What you can't see in the picture are the big fat snowflakes coming down. However, SPRING is here. . . it really is. . . so God can stop shaking my snow globe anytime now.

Send good thoughts and prayers for all our friends battling the floods all over this state. .. . . now we are starting to sandbag here in town too, and are expecting a couple more weeks of possible flooding. My Mom says " never complain if it gets too wet in North Dakota ". . . . which I am sure she learned from the "dirty 30's" dust bowl years. Well, if you are listening to the news, you can hear that we aren't complaining. We are putting up a good fight though.

St. Patrick's Day Contest !

Happy St. Patrick's Day !

In honor of today, I would like to have a little fun, so I am going to host a " GO GREEN" giveaway. I will send a "GREEN GROCERY BAG KIT" to the winner. The kit makes into a generous size bag, it will be quilted as shown, with lots of vegetables, and stars and will include the lining and the directions for you to sew it all together. Contents are not included as the food will probably be eaten by the time this contest is over ! All you have to do to enter is to leave a comment on this post with a good recycling or "going green" tip. If you mention this giveaway and include a link on your blog and if you comment back here, letting me know you have done this, you will be entered a second time. Contest will end at midnight, March 31, 2009 and the winner will be notified shortly thereafter. If you don't have a blog, be sure and leave me your email address, so I can get in touch with you if you win.

Good Luck, and I'm looking forward to all the GREEN tips !

NQR

NQR

Not Quilt Related. Standard slang on the quilting boards. . . . . . for when you need to talk about some of the other things going on in life. Remember the previous post ? ( which was also NQR ! ) I was telling you how the first weekend in March has usually been a storm and we are usually driving in it ? Well we missed it this year. Had a great time and I hopefully will post about it later, if my buddy took pictures and sends them to me. Anyway, I digress. . . the driving weather and roads were BEAUTIFUL all weekend, we got home Sunday nite, and by Monday morning it started to snow, snow, snow, and blow, blow, blow! Now we had lost about half our winter's snow up until last weekend, but now with the new snow, I think we have more than before. Here is a picture of the snow in my front yard, along with my yardstick I use for quilting ( well, I guess this is now a quilt related post ! ) I think we must have gotten around 10" of new snow, but of course you are seeing it all piled up here. . problem is, that everyone is running out of places to pile the snow. As for me. . . part of me is ready for spring, however the part that doesn't have all my inside winter projects done is still content with winter - and there is only 8 days of winter left !

On the Road AGAIN !

Well I've been busy this week not only with my real world job, but with customer quilts, so I can take off this weekend for our annual WINTER BLUEGRASS weekend in Minnesota ! Time to pack up the ol' instruments and head on over for 3 days of bands, jammin' and sleepless nites ( cause we are up jammin' for most of the nite ! ) We can usually count on a storm, as past history has proven for bad weather and icy roads. . . so we will pack our winter survival gear and take it easy, but we are going ! Here is a picture of a couple of us jammin' away. . . I hope to return with some more pictures from this weekend, and will clean some quilt pictures out of the camera too. Unfortunately, I probably won't be able to convince the rest of the gang to stop at any quilt stores along the way. . . and there are some really NICE ones too ! . . so that will probably cause me to go into withdrawals. . . I will have to take some quilt magazines along for the ride I guess ! See ya Monday !