Turkeys......

I have been in Kansas for the past few weeks, spending time with my kids and grandkids who live there. I enjoy my time there very much and leaving is incredibly difficult as I know that I will be missing them terribly by the time I reach my seat on the plane. The grandkids seem to be growing up without me and I miss being able to watch it all first hand. Now that I am home, it is time to get back to sewing and I will share with you all the cute patterns and fabric that I purchased while in Kansas. But until then... I just had to share these pictures of a mother turkey and her little ones that showed up in my front yard this morning. I have lived here for thirty years and have never seen a wild turkey in my yard..... ever. We have hawks, vultures, owls,...in fact birds of every variety it seems.. but never turkeys. Snakes, lizards, squirrels, and rabbits abound all over our property, along with coyotes, but again this little family is a first for us. So I just had to share. I'm thinking they are coming for the blackberries that my son-in-law planted up on the side of the yard.... at least that's where the mom and her little ones hung out for some time. So much for fresh berries on my oatmeal.... sigh.. and I was looking so forward to that.

Two More.......

I am leaving for two weeks to visit my daughters and my grandchildren who live in Kansas City. I do not get to see them very often so I am really looking forward to my trip. Before I leave however, I wanted to share with you, two more finished blocks. It will be nice to finally have them all finished and ready to quilt. Until I get back.... blessings, Debbie

A Slight Diversion......

I'm taking a little time out today to share a recent picture taken of some of my family members and me up in Anaheim, CA. The five of us, along with others who work with my husband, were working at a booth at a seminar that was being held at the Disneyland Hotel. I realize that this is a far cry from my usual sewing posts, but I wanted you to see some of my husband along with some of my kiddos. In the picture below, beginning on the far left, is Don, (an engineer) Rebekah, (one of our four daughters) John, (one of our three sons) me, my husband Jim, Tom, (another engineer) our daughter Nicole, and Lance, (one of our incredible employees). This is the third year that we have participated at this particular show/seminar in regards to construction defect litigation. I love being with the kids... and my husband, and thought you might like to see some of my family together.

Pumpkins!

Will someone please remind me to never work on four different quilts at the same time ever again.... especially when they are so radically different from one another. Each of these quilts uses different techniques, each has different design work, and each uses fabrics that don't even come close to matching the other. On top of that, take into consideration the different sizes of each individual quilt block that is used in each quilt. I'm not even sure at this point, as to what the finished size of each quilt top is going to be as I have changed the final design on every one of them. What was I thinking?! Here are two more Pumpkin blocks from the block of the month that I am doing through Shabby Fabrics. These people are truly wonderful and you can't help but love their site. They not only offer numerous lines of beautiful quilt fabrics, but they also offer several Block of the Month patterns, clothing patterns, purse patterns, handwork patterns, etc., etc. They offer some invaluable classes on Youtube that I'm sure you will also love! You will never be disappointed by visiting them online! Again, I used Sulky Blendable thread and Aurifil thread. I enjoy working with both threads very much and I think you will too. On each of the blocks I also used Steam a Seam II. I am sharing a youtube video with you so that you can visually see how great this product is. I felt that this visual would be far better than me trying to explain it.

Here are two more of the blocks from my sister-in-law's quilt. On this quilt, I used the Steam A Seam II again, but the thread that I used for the satin stitch around each flip flop was an embroidery thread... Isacord, by OESD. This is a polyester thread... not a rayon.. which is very important. Rayon can run if it is washed with a detergent that has any type of detergent booster.

What are you working on? Until next time....

Blessings To Those Who Keep Us Safe!

I love days like these when our nation sets aside a specific day to thank those who risk so much for all of us. Thank You!!!! If it weren't for your continued sacrifice we would not be able to enjoy the comfort of peace, freedom and safety that freely enjoy across this land. We are truly blessed. I wish that I could hug each one of you. May God bless you as you continue on your journey of defending this nation.

Before I go... I wanted to share with you two more finished blocks.

Aren't you glad that the Great I Am still lives.... Until next time.

Market Bag

I am finally home and between work and everything else that goes on around here I was happy when I finally had the time to sit down and make this market bag that I am sharing with you today. Some beautiful laminated fabric had arrived at the shop right before I left and I made the move to purchase some of it. Along with the laminated fabric, it also came in a matching cotton fabric as well. I loved how bright and festive the fabric was.... and apparently a lot of other people thought so too. By the time I came home, quite a bit of the fabric had sold. I was so glad that I had taken the time to make my purchase before I left! The shop carries several patterns for making totes, purses, and/or bags, but in the end I settled on this Amy Butler pattern. I have made a couple of Amy's patterns in the past so I was sure that it would work out very nicely using this fabric. The picture on the front of the pattern shows the larger bag... I chose to make the smaller one.

Here is the completed purse. As you can see, I glitzed it up quite a bit... not that it needed it!

Here's a look at the inside of the bag. As you can see, I put the matching laminated fabric on the inside. I toyed with the idea of placing it on the outside.. which is very popular these days... but felt that if I actually took it into the market, I just might need to wipe the inside of it out.

Another thing... I decided to add a couple of snaps to each side of the bag. I didn't like how open the bag was so I added the snaps at the last minute.

Here is a view of the side where I added the snaps.

Make sure that you don't overlook making the false bottom! Amy suggests that you use some type of a heavy duty template plastic, which is a great idea. Since I didn't have any, I merely cut up an old cutting mat.... this works fantastic! Here's my completed false bottom.

Until next time...

My Hand Embroidered Blocks... So Far

Since I am leaving for a little while this next week, I wanted to leave you with a few pictures of my hand embroidered blocks thus far. A couple of posts back, I shared with you some of the quilt blocks that I have been working on of late. If you will remember, each block is quite different from one another and the techniques used on them is also very different. Embroidering by hand at night and/or hand sewing binding on a quilt is rather relaxing for me. I thought that I would share four of the blocks that I have hand embroidered so far. I merely placed the green fabric behind each block so that you could see the block a little better. If the block is difficult to see, you can always click on the picture for a closer look. How about sharing what you've been working on.......

This one has lots and lots of tiny French Knots... can you tell?