Well, I finally did it. . .

I checked off one more thing on my very own "bucket list". . . I designed a pattern ! I will post some pictures below. It was really fun to design, and since I use AutoCad in my real life job, it made writing the pattern fun, and easy to sketch with.

So, here is the pattern. . .

And here is another picture of the quilt. . it is made with a panel, 2 charm square packs and yardage. If you look closely, there are a couple pictures of outhouses in the quilt. . . I have a fondness for outhouses. . . so in the next picture, you can see my quilt label, which is an outhouse, and, yes the door has a little handle and opens ! and inside is my label. I also digitized the outhouse border quilting. That was also a line item on my "bucket list"- to digitize a quilting pattern. Thanks to my Statler Sibling Janice B. for some technical help on getting that to work, and it sewed out beautifully.

So. . . easy quilt, easy pattern, but it sure feels good to have accomplished a couple of my bucket list items !

Now. . . I need to kick it into gear this afternoon and pack. . . the band and I are heading out to Medora, ND for a gig. . . .. Bluegrass and Ribs. . .. Spiritwood Creek Bluegrass Band is heading WEST ! sounds like it might create something to blog about next time !

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. . .

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 !

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 !

We All Have Our Hobbies. . .

You pretty much know most of my hobbies, quilting, bluegrass music, reading, gardening, etc, etc. . .and the DH has his also! One of which is classic cars. Driving his '55 Ford, fixing it, planning the redo of his '51 panel van, getting parts for the '51, going to car shows, looking at others' cars, getting parts for the '51, helping with his car club, did I mention getting parts for his '51 ? Oh yes, and building a shop to work on his '51.

This weekend is their annual Winter Wheels Car Show. The car club members put in so much work for this show and it is always a success. It is always the same weekend in January, which is taking quite a chance with this North Dakota weather, but we have found that if it is nice, we get alot of people not only from town, but also from out of town and if the weather is bad, we may not get the extra people from out of town, but we sure do get more local people. I guess people want to just be able to get out ! You know there is a bit of a thrill to be able to get out and about in a blizzard. It isn't a very safe thing to do out in the country, but in town we sure do ( until we get stuck in a snowfilled street) !

Here is a few of us girls' contribution to the Winter Wheels Raffle. I found these classic and antique car fabrics on ebay, we first fussy cut them and we tried to focus on a different car in each block and sewed them up in a simple quilt pattern. Then I quilted it using an all-over antique car pattern. If you click on the picture you can almost see the car pattern in the stitching. The fabric is a bit too busy to see it well in the picture though.

I think it would look pretty good in my DH's classic car, or even on my couch. . . I think I might have to buy a few tickets !

WHIRL INTO WINTER Bloggers GIVEAWAY !

Winter is surely here, and so is this fun giveaway ! Click on the SNOWFLAKE icon to visit more blogs participating in the Whirl into Winter Quilt Blog Giveaway .

If you would like to enter to have a chance to win this Gooseberry Patch Every Day Calendar, and the LAST quilty item that I made in 2008, please leave a comment, and your name, and for fun, and to help me do some planning. . . please let me know . . . " If you were going to design yourself a new sewing room or quilting studio, what is the one thing that it would have to have ? " Hopefully you noticed that the Snowman in the Woods table runner is really a too-fer. . . . one side has cute snowmen and all their woodland friends, and on the otherside has quilted snowflakes ! I know you have seen the snowflakes before in an earlier post. . but these snowmen wanted me to quilt them here too ! and YES it is ANOTHER Easy Striped Table Runner ! ( Who has time to piece ? ) If you do not have a blog, please leave me an email address too, in case you are the winner . Don't forget, you can click on the picture to see a close up ( just to be sure if you want to enter or not ! )

Good Luck, and I look forward to your suggestions !

a n d HAPPY NEW YEAR 2009 !

Merry Christmas !

Just a little holiday post to wish you all a Merry Christmas.

This is a little wall hanging that I made a few years ago, B.A. ( before longarm ) so is not quilted. I would like to make more, and have a few ideas rolling around in my head, but I need to get all the pictures and other embellishments together. For any future ones, I think I will try to embellish more, but I do like how this turned out. This is just a little montage of some family pictures. I am the youngest, so I don't show up on ALL of them ! I am only on the 2 pictures in the lower right. I especially like the one of my brother holding his BB gun that he got for Christmas. . . it really reminds me of the movie "The Christmas Story" I wasn't around at that Christmas, but I just love this picture ! Anyway, I thought this would make a nice little Christmas "card" for you.

I hope you all have completed your Christmas projects and that you can share some peaceful blessings of the season with your families and friends !

Merry Christmas, Beth

Birthday Quilt

Hope you all had a wonderful and safe Holiday with the ones you love, we did, except for missing our son who is still in NY on base, but home from Iraq and we are thankful for that ! We expect him to be home for good, sometime next week.

I thought you might like to see a couple pictures of the quilt I made for his wife, for her November birthday. She loves primitives too, and when I saw this fabric I knew she would love it. I don't have much time to piece, especially at this time of year, so there is a one yard panel in the middle with 3 borders. Click on a picture to see the cute snowmen that I stitched in the border and in the middle of the quilt. My friend and I liked this so much that I have one to make for myself in the red colorway and hers is just like my DIL's. So I can plan on stitching this out at least 2 more times ! I backed DIL's quilt with a warm, cozy flannel. She was happy with her gift, and it goes perfectly in her primitive decorated home. It also matches the Easy Striped Table Runner that I made her last month.

I'm busy now thinking of Christmas decorating, we got some of the outside lights up before our little snow, and now I am taking count of the inside trees that need tree skirts and I will soon post on a little tree skirt project! Till then. . . .enjoy the holidays. . . .