Fall is here !

I'm thinkin' Fall is my favorite time of year. . . and just to get things moving, I'm going to participate in Debi's FALL INTO FALL giveaway ! Watch for the scarecrow button. . . .


In the next few days I will figure out what I am giving away, and will post it on Oct. 1st. Come on back here and enter my contest and then click on the scarecrow button to find all the other bloggers that are participating, and then enter theirs too ! In the meantime, I'm heading to the Indian Summer Quilt show, and for sure will be looking for some good ideas for a fun, fall giveaway gift !

I really am here. . . .

Yes, I really am here, it's just been a busy summer ! That, in turn must mean I have plenty to blog about. . . so I will give it a try. I'll start with some of the special customer quilts that I quilted this summer. Enjoy Georgia's quilt, look at all the beautiful work she did, and just look at all the piecing in this quilt, isn't it fabulous !


Here is just a corner of the quilt. . . look at all the different teapots ! Notice all the teacups and ribbon in the border below:



Close up of the teacup border below: each teacup rec'd a flower motif, and in the border above the teacup, I quilted the steam that all those teacups generated ! In the blue with white dot border is row of quilted teacups. . .in the green, a row of flowers and leaves.

I couldn't resist quilting some special stitches on the seams of this crazy pieced teapot. Of all the pretty teapots, this one was my favorite !

Each teapot is cuter than the last !

I hope you enjoyed this little quilt tour. . .stay tuned for more !

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 !

Ugly Betty Continued. . . . .

Hi. . . well the saga continues. . . . The Ugly Betty Pillow shams are done

and the bazaar and quilt raffle are over. Isn't life interesting ????? Altho neither LaRae or I drew for the bazaar raffle, Ugly Betty the Quilt, was won by our friend Betty ( yes, really ) the quilt shop vendor. We were all at the same quilt retreat the weekend before the raffle and LaRae sold Betty a ticket. Life is funny sometimes ! So, we are so glad that our friend won this quilt. She deserves it, she has helped us out so much with our Quilts of Valor projects ! Will post about our quilt retreat soon. . . . . . .

UGLY BETTY

Hi Everyone. . .

What can I say, I've been BUSY ! Trying to play catch up here, not sure if it is working ! But, since my friend, LaRae, already did most of the writing, I will just post this.

This is the story of Ugly Betty. LaRae called me ( she lives an hour and a half away from me ) and wanted me to quilt this quilt that she was piecing for her local church raffle. She said she disliked the colors strongly ( not really the way she put it but you get the drift. . .) and she was tired of the colors, tired of the stars, and could I just put a quick overall stitching on it and send it back ? "Well, of course!" I said, and the next I knew, Ugly Betty was on my doorstep. Well, now LaRae and I could almost be twins, because we normally ( well, perhaps normally really isn't in our vocabulary ) like the same things, right down to pulpy orange juice. If I show her a pattern, she's already got it. If she shows me fabric, I like it too. Well of only a couple things that are different about us and our likes and dislikes, is that she is a pink person, and altho I might admire pink on others, it does not feel good on me. So I was shocked when Ugly Betty came to visit and I opened up the box and brought her out, and I just loved her ! I loved the colors, loved the fabrics, and I thought UB needed a good old custom quilting "spa treatment" so. . . she got one. Below is what LaRae had to say about UB and some pictures. Hope you enjoy her too !

quote: "Had to share a story with my friends and relatives about Ugly Betty...........................

Once upon a time there was a quilter who wanted to help out a local church with their bazaar. She wanted to make a quilt for the Englevale church so she said, "What do you want and what colors do you want?" Well, one of the church ladies said she had a perfect pattern. So the quilter went to the store and bought the pattern and had the shop ladies pick out all the fabric for it. The quilter sewed and sewed and sewed...all 1833 pieces! But the quilter was very sad...the colors were not her. She was more of a bright pink, purple, green person and now she was sewing on down to earth colors of gold, rust, browns and blues and it made her blue to even sew on it. She forged on and got it done but was very upset with it and all along was calling it "Ugly Betty" It lacked luster and beauty. She decided to let her fairy Godmother, Beth Cole, the quilting lady, have a go at it. Well, Beth worked her magic and turned it into a beauty! Here is the result of waving her magic wand and applying beautiful quilting stitches! You should see it in person! There are pillow shams to match also.

The Good Shepherd Church Bazaar is April 26th and I believe the time is 7pm to start but I can find out for sure. Hope you can make it and buy a ticket or two. There will be lots of things to bid on and lots of home baked goodies.

LaRae"

That was such a nice letter that she wrote and sent out. . . No WONDER she was sad about the quilt, EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND THIRTY THREE PIECES ? ARE YOU KIDDING ME???? well, let me tell you, LaRae did an absoutely BEAUTIFUL job of piecing this quilt, and I would be thrilled to be the owner ! I have some tickets to the raffle so I hope I win, and I really think we need to rename her. . . . .

Don't forget that you can click on the pictures ( or maybe just some of them ) to have a closer look !