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 !

Oh my, it's Feb. 5th already, where did January go? I'm feeling better, esp. these last few days, finding it easier to get around, but still not enjoying any low seating ( like sofas ) so that makes it kinda hard to curl up with a good book or movie. I only used the walker for a couple days, never have used the cane in the house, but I do use it outside. Not ready for long walks yet, but am happy to walk out to the mailbox pain free for a change.

However, I have been quilting ! I don't have a big picture of Julia's quilt, but a couple small ones I will share. . . and maybe I can coax her to take a picture of the whole quilt and email it to me and I will post it later. She did a beautiful job of choosing the colors in this batik quilt, and her piecing was fabulous. I would say perfect, but she will not like that ( and guess what, Julia. . .I just got to "imply" that the piecing was perfect without getting into trouble ! ha ha ) You know how us longarmers like to look at a well pieced top, and how we REALLY love working with a top that lays flat ! ( just ask any longarmer ! )

Another Get Well gift !

Here's a couple of my friends that visited me in the hospital last week with their "get Well " gift.

I have to admit, it is pretty handy, it has all these pockets that I load up with my cell phone, the house phone, the remote, a bottle of water, pain pills. . . . . . . . . . .( really, though, things are going pretty well ! ) Pretty clever friends, if you can click on the picture to enlarge, you can see what they had to do to alter this. You can also see what I get to put up with. . .