Apparently I took a blogging break....

Wow, I can't believe my last blog post was June 17th! It is just amazing how fast time flies! We've had a fun-filled summer though, doing lots of fun activities including camping and river rafting!

I haven't been sewing much though...I guess I've been in a bit of a slump. I'm sure my quilting mojo will be back soon! I have been doing a little embroidery, which is very enjoyable.

For those of you familiar with the military lifestyle, summer is generally "move" season. Lots of folks in my neighborhood are leaving or have already left. Saying goodbye to so many good friends really starts getting a person down! You'd think after 24 years that I would get used to it, but I'm not. It's still hard. I wouldn't trade it for anything though, I've made so many good friends over the years!

Here's a few pictures of what I've been up to!

I made this pillow for Robin's birthday. She loves all things halloweenie, so I thought it would be perfect for her.

These are blocks 11 and 12 of the Quilter's Blessing Block of the Month. I've decided I'm done! There were 4 bonus blocks, but I precut all the muslin when I started stitching these and I do not have enough matching muslin for the bonus blocks. I'm happy with these 12 though, and have the first 6 already set into the top. I just need to do the final six!

This is block 5 from the Christmas Wish BOM...I'm loving these! I'm almost done with #6 too.

This is a picture of my garden! :) We can't plant things in the ground here on base, for a couple of different reasons. So I planted two things in containers. I love fresh tomatoes!

Here are the first few tomatoes growing quite nicely!


This is the my first attempt at growing peppers...there is just one growing so far, but a couple more flowers so I'm hopeful for more!

And last, but not least...I won Christie's giveaway! She made this cute tote bag...I just love it!

There's a few more pictures from camping and river rafting, but I'll save those for another day...this post is getting long enough!

Check out this blog: http://relish.typepad.com/relish/ She is a friend of a friend and is trying to spread the word and get a few more visitors to stop by. :) She has some cute pictures and projects to look at.

Happy Quilting!

So fun....

These little bags are so much fun to make and soooo easy! They are from the pattern "Abby's Treasure Box." My friend, Peggy, made oodles of these at Christmas-time and they were so fun and colorful. I've been wanting to make one and I needed two birthday gifts this month and decided this was the perfect thing! I used the "Recipe for Friendship" charm pack.

I also finished the #4 block in the Christmas Wish BOM...

Happy Quilting!

Randomness....

Happy Monday!! :) Okay, now don't smack me...I know Mondays aren't the happiest of days. You know what they say, fake it 'till you make it! :) I have been sewing a bit...but once again, I'm making some surprises, so I can't show them here just yet. :) Instead I have some random pics from the last couple of weeks...

College boy, Zach, has been home just over a week, and I sure am enjoying having him home. :) I know the days of having him here all to myself are numbered...the older he gets, the less and less time he'll be here and soon he'll have his own life and career in the Air Force and who knows how much I'll get to see him then. We moved to Idaho just a couple weeks before he left for college, so he doesn't really have any friends here to hang out with....so we've been spending our evenings playing Rockband and board games. He's always been our "game" boy. The picture above was taken last week at a place called Balanced Rock in Idaho.

This is a picture of Zach that I pulled off of Facebook. It was taken by a fellow ROTC cadet...but I liked it! :) It kind of gives me a glimpse of his future and the man he is becoming. ....sigh....

This is a picture of my new baby! Baby Lock Espire, that is. Yes, I have a new machine! My "dream" machine has given me one headache after another for the two years that I owned it...it was hard to admit that I wasn't happy with the dream machine and that I needed to make the decision to try another dream! :) So far, I'm very pleased with this one. I love the thread cutting feature and that it tells me when the bobbin is low! Woohoo...you know how many times I've sewn chains of fabric only to find I've run out of bobbin! (I know we've all done that....) Here is a picture of the first project I sewed on my new machine. I made Bitty Baby clothes for my neice's birthday! All she wanted was boy clothes for her bitty baby twin...

We have had TONS of rain here in southern Idaho. It seems very unusual for there to be so much rain and in fact, we've been under flood warnings the last few days. We're in the middle of the desert, for goodness sake! I just heard on the radio that we've received twice the amount of regular rainfall for this year. This picture was taken driving home from the Balanced Rock trip (see above). The clouds looked much more menacing in real life! :) We seriously thought a tornado was going to form at any minute! We've lived in all parts of the country and have experienced plenty of severe weather storms...this one ranked right up there at the top of the worst. It was exciting though. I took a video and tried to upload it, because I just knew I was going to catch a tornado forming and then I could get famous sending it to the news channels. :) Just a few minutes later, there was so much hail on the ground, it looked like snow. My camera had ran out of battery power though from all the videos I took! :P

Happy Quilting!

Another UFO off the list

Way back at the New Year, I signed up for a UFO challenge with a Yahoo group I am part of. I made a list of 15 items and this is the fourth finish from that list. The contest ends on June 30th...I don't think I'll be winning any awards, but I'm happy with the four finishes! I modified this turkey wallhanging to better fit a quilt hanger in my kitchen. I needed it a bit longer than the original pattern. He's pretty cute, if I do say so...I love those "Straddling..." patterns. I've made the snowman one too. If you look, you can see Quilt Inspector, Smokey, sleeping on the job. That's okay...it's Saturday, everyone needs a day off. :)

Here's a close up of Sleeping Smokey...he really likes this spot because of the lamp on my cutting table. It's nice and warm right there.

Happy Quilting!

Caught up.....

It feels good to be caught up on at least one thing! I was two months behind on my Thimbleberries Club blocks...but now they are done! I'm still not sure how crazy I am about this year's club quilt, but I do like making the different blocks each month. Keeps things interesting. :)

Of course, Smokey had to jump up and check out the blocks out while they were on my mini design wall. He's such a diligent employee. He even posed for a picture.

I also wanted to show you this new set of storage drawers. I was starting to feel like baskets of this and baskets of that were overflowing and starting to take over my room. I love baskets and using them in practical ways, but they were getting so full, it just looked sloppy and cluttery. These drawers solved that problem! The top drawer is my "bags of blocks" stash...blocks waiting to be set into quilt. The middle drawer holds my stash of quilt kits, and the bottom drawer is my scrap stash...waiting to be cut into usuable pieces. ...someday.... Anyway, I'm really pleased with my new "filing" system. Oh, stacked on top are my quilt tops that need to be quilted.

Last, I wanted to show you a picture of a hummingbird that came into our yard. I was so surprised...we don't live in an area that you would think hummingbirds would be attracted too. Not many trees in close proximity. We didn't even have a feeder out the first time I saw him...I think he was checking out a hanging flower basket. So the next morning, I put out this feeder and sat down on the patio and within just a few minutes, he was back! Unfortunately, I haven't seen him again and I can tell nobody has eaten any food. I've changed the food a couple of times, thinking the it might have gone bad. But no luck, he's moved on. I'll keep putting out the feeder, hoping another one will come by.

Happy Quilting!

Lost and Found

I have one more retreat story to share with you. Like most quilters/crafters would do, I took a project with me to work on while on the plane and during layovers (I had lots of long layovers!). I took a little bag filled with embroidery projects and I accomplished a lot of stitching! I finished two of the Christmas Wish BOMs and one block from the Quilter's Blessing BOM. I was so proud of myself!

I arrived home late on Sunday night, so it wasn't until sometime on Monday that I started to unpack my carry on bag. Suddenly, I realized the little bag with my embroidery projects was not in my carry on bag! WHAT!!! I started frantically searching everywhere, but I knew it was not there! I knew I must have left it on the airplane somehow. So I called Southwest Airlines, checked the Boise Airport website for Lost and Found info and finally was hooked up with Southwest's baggage claim office at the airport. I told her I'd left something on the airplane and she took all my information, then asked me to describe the bag. As soon as I gave her the description, she said, "Oh, I have that right here!" Whew!!! She said they could only hold it for 5 days, so I needed to make plans to travel to Boise right away!! I think most of you can relate to how happy I felt to have that little bag back in my hands. :)

Here are pics of my finished stitcheries that were once lost, but are now found!

Christmas Wish BOM -- Blocks 2 and 3

Quilter's Blessing BOM -- Block 11

Happy Quilting!

A little of this and a little of that....

First off, I want to thank MichelleB and Terry for explaining to me why my pictures are sometimes not clickable! The reason is because I move them around in the "compose" mode...I guess that changes something and they lose their clickableness (is that a word?). Anyway, if you need to move a picture after it is uploaded, you have to switch to html mode and cut and paste the pictures code. I haven't tried it yet, but I'm going to soon...I can't ever seem to load the pictures in the right order! LOL


Next, I wanted to tell you about this giveaway at the Silver Thimble Talk blog...I know this decreases my chance to win, but that's okay. I want to make sure all my friends have a chance to win too!! :)


We camped this weekend in the Sawtooth Mountains in Idaho. It was gorgeous! Except for a little rain for most of one night and part of the next day, the weather was perfect! We hiked the mountains, played a little in the water (a tad too chilly this early in the year).

Instead of boring you with pictures of camping, I'll just post a link to my webshots album! :)

Red Fish Lake, Sawtooth Mountains, Idaho

And finally! Here are a couple of pictures of the projects I completed while at retreat. I didn't accomplish as much as I'd hoped, but I'm happy with these two FINISHED table runners that I came home with. I made progress on a couple others...but these are finished!!! (and I'm moving them in html mode, so let's hope it works and you can click them to see a larger picture!)

This runner is made from a kit that Robin gave me at retreat. It's a free pattern called Oh Cherry Oh Tablerunner from the Moda Bake Shop website. Isn't it just the sweetest thing?

Next is runner from Thimbleberries and Peggy put together a kit for me! Don't I have the bestest friends? They know how to hook a girl up! This is one hugemongous tablerunner! Luckily I have a large table, so it will fit just fine.

Here's a picture of Whiskers performing her rarely seen in public Quilt Inspector duties. I thought it was a good picture to show you how big this baby is.

And a close up of the snowmen...aren't they cute! I decided to use orange buttons for their little noses. :)

I think that's all for now! Happy Quilting!