Harvest time

I LOVE this time of year. Crisp cool mornings, blue skies, perfect temperatures during the day. A tinge of color as the leaves are just now beginning to change. Here is the harvest from our backyard fruit trees. Apples and Pears. Now compared to some harvest pictures I have seen on blogs this year our harvest is nothing. If you compare it to the first harvest that we had from these trees though it is HUGE! The first year that we picked apples they just covered the bottom of the basket.

I may make some applesauce, just to eat fresh. Homemade applesauce and potato latkes. Mmmmmm.
Here are a couple of pictures of our new house. You can see we need some landscaping. I think it will look LOVELY covered with snow. :D This is the front of the house and in the distance is the shop.

This is the backside of the house. Closest slider is the master bedroom. It doesn't show up great in this picture but there is a creek to the left and near the creek is some tile/stonework for a little sitting area and a fire pit.

I forgot to tell you that I finally got up the nerve (and remembered the date) to attend the local quilt guild meeting the other night. I told the family what was there for dinner prep and headed out. I even checked online to double check the address and then checked a map to be sure of where I was going. I arrived at the church on time and there were only a few cars out front. Hmmmmm. I parked and went in and the only group I saw meeting was Alcoholics Anonymous. None of them had quilts. So back to the car. The LQS was closed by now. The other craft store in town was also closed. Who could I call to find out where the meeting actually was? I called my hubby and had him look up the info on the computer. I had all the info correct. The only people I could think of at that point were the two ladies that quilted the Lakeside Charm quilt for me. They said they would meet me at the meeting and sit with me. Well I was sure if they were in the meeting though their phones wouldn't be on. I called the one - ring, ring, ring. Phooey. I called the other number - ring, ring, "HELLO". BINGO!!! So I explained the situation and she says. "Well I wondered where you were last night". LAST NIGHT??? Last night?? She said the meetings are on Tuesdays. That is NOT what the website says. Darn and phooey! Now I need to wait until October and hope that I remember.

For any fans of BL, the new season starts Tuesday, Sept 16th!! WOO HOOOO! I LOVE The Biggest Loser.

Prayers - for these last few days that my daughter is home. We take her to college next week. Just that we would be loving and really cherish the time that we have with her. For her new adventure. That she would thrive and grow and learn. Also for her roommate, for her safe travel to school and for her school year ahead. Praise - The internet is a wonderful thing when two gals can get to know each other ahead of time.

Pictures - you asked for 'em

Okay, buckle your seat belts and settle in for the ride. All the pictures that I haven't been able to post are here now, in one place.
Lakeside Charm is home from the quilters. The stitch pattern is called popcorn. I just LOVE IT! Oh yeah...see that flappy stuff there along the edges...binding. Uh yeah. I am supposed to hand sew that around the back, right?? They got the quilt done early for me so I would have plenty of time to hand sew that. Uhhhhh, have I started? No. Hanging my head in shame. It is on my to do list to start it tomorrow. I WILL start on it tomorrow. I have NO IDEA how far I will get and how long the entire thing will take. I can't put it off any longer though. So when it is time to wash and dry this should I take it to a laundromat? I am not sure it will fit too well in my washing machine.

The next is the first checkbook cover that I made using some scraps of Marcus Metro Blue. You can find the directions here. Amandajean is posting quite a few tutorials for Christmas gift inspiration. You'll wanna check them out.

Then look at this lovely fabric. Mmmmmmmmm Moda Cotton Blossoms. It just hit me the other day, although I have drooled over this fabric since first eyeing it in a Quilt Market photo that it is a combination of the two companies! DUH! So I'm slow. Camille's company is Thimble BLOSSOMS and her mother Bonnie's company is COTTON Way. Put those two creative minds together and we get Cotton Blossoms. Below is a mix of the 'daughter' layer cake and yardage for the border and binding of the A PIECE OF CAKE quilt. It is even prettier in real life. This is not normally a color combination that I would be drawn to but this time I was.

I couldn't wait to get those blocks sewn together! Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know, I have so many other things I SHOULD be doing (like that binding???). They went together so easily though I could not resist. So now they will wait, in a stack until some other things are done. I have to trim all the blocks to a uniform size but here is a rough layout of how my quilt top will look (without the binding).

When I was in the LQS recently I noticed about 4 or 5 little tote bags all around the store, all the same design. I commented on them to the sales clerk and she said that she had made them using the pattern from the latest issue of Quilts and More. I liked being able to see the tote in person and decided that I could make a few of these. I found this fabric at WM. A nice line of about 6 coordinating prints and inexpensive enough to not feel too guilty about getting a bit to make the tote. ;) Especially for a first run through. I got it all cut out and the straps ironed but then realized that I had NO dark brown thread. The new machine is a little pickier about thread types than my old machine was so....this was put on hold.

October 4th is a popular wedding date this year. We know of 4 weddings on that day and we were invited to two of them. In two different states. It breaks my heart to not go to the one in Washington. We have known the young man since he was maybe 9 or 10. We need to be here in Idaho though as we were asked to take the photos at that wedding. So for the fiance' of our longtime friend I made this apron. Her bridal shower was today. My daughter and I attended the bridal shower of the gal being married here in Idaho and I did make an apron for her as well (made it yesterday in fact) but I don't have the picture of that one yet.

Last but certainly NOT least - a layer cake of Cotton Blossoms in the 'mother' colorway. I love the other quilt top so much that I was sure I would love it even better in this colorway. It is more to my tastes with the reds and chocolates. I can't wait to get this one made up too (yeah, yeah, AFTER the binding). I am thinking now of gifting the one I have started already and then keeping this one for myself. :D


So there you have it. An update on my projects WITH photos. Sorry but I can't show you a picture of my sewing room. My mess is not anywhere near as neat as Nanette's mess. ;)

Prayers being said for all those affected by Hurricane Ike and the lingering effects that seem to be up into the mid west now.

Another week??

How is it that I have not blogged since last Thursday? Don't you hate when bloggers don't update more often? I do. I check blogs often. Sometimes TOO often. Hoping for some news. A funny story. A giveaway. Fabric images. Photos of quilts. Tutorials. I like to read how busy everyone is creating. I like to see pictures.

Well I have been busy. A little creating, a little shopping,a little buying, a little house hunting, a little organizing. NO PICTURES! Can you believe that? I know. I'm bad. I'm sorry. I will take care of that. Soon.

We found a house that we all really liked. We made an offer. The seller started to make a counter offer (which we expected) and was called away by another realtor telling him that another offer was on the way. He never finished the counter offer but our realtor saw what it was. Finally the time came for our offer to be accepted or countered or rejected. It was rejected. The listing price was changed. 30k HIGHER! Hubby asked to speak to the guy face to face. Hubby hates the back and forth. He hates the waiting and the game playing. The seller agreed to meet with hubby and our realtor. He had a counter offer ready. Yeah, I know. I am confused too. His counter (of sorts) was lower than his original asking price and well within what we were prepared to pay. Hubby was with him for NINE minutes before he called me to say "We got it!". All very confusing and stressful. We are so glad that is over. Now to get all the ducks in a row - appraisals and lending and inspections and packing. UGH. To move about 7 miles. We are not going to list this property until we are moved out. I like that part.

The part I don't like - we are downsizing. We have LOTS of 'stuff'. Too much stuff. Do we have a garage sale? Give it away? Donate it? Toss it? Pack it and move it? WHERE am I going to put everything? The kitchen is much smaller. Let's just say this guy was not thinking when he built the kitchen. He was single then. Yeah, 'nuf said. Right now I have sooooo much cupboard space and pantry space. I said it would be fine. I said I would make do with a smaller kitchen because of all the places we looked at - this is the only one that we all liked. A lot. Even if I get rid of lots of the 'fluff' I still won't have room for all of the essentials.

A little story. We moved into this house in 2000. I hated the stove/oven. HATED IT! I complained about it all the time. It was a big commercial gas monstrosity. I had never cooked on gas. I liked my prior smooth top electric. Hubby loved the monstrosity because it had a griddle. That is the only part that he used. When I would turn on a burner it would go WOOOOSH and the flames would come way up. Hubby insisted that didn't happen to anyone but me. Yeah, whatever. Finally, in 2007, hubby bought me a new stove. He was willing to tear apart the basement walls and bring in electric but to his shock I said no. I would go with a gas stove. A new, easy to clean, electric ignition, convection oven, warming drawer, gas stove. I love it. LOVE IT! Now I am moving. Guess what the new house has. Go ahead, guess. It has an electric Jenn Air TWO burner and grill stove top, electric oven. NO drawer for storage OR warming. But TWO burners AND I don't grill outside, why for crying out sideways would I want a grill INdoors??? I looked at hubby and pouted. He said we could easily bring in gas (propane) and I could get a stove just like the one I have now. :D Poor guy.

Crafty news - I made an apron last night! A young man we know is getting married soon and I am so sad that we can't attend the wedding. His fiance' is having a bridal shower this weekend so I made a half apron and sent it off this morning so it would be there for her shower. Hubby did take a picture of it this morning before I packaged it up. I just need him to take it off of the camera and put it on the computer. You just wait. One of these days the post is going to be PICTURE HEAVY!! Really!

Praise - WE GOT THE HOUSE!!! :D Prayers - We need to move into it. Prayers for our attitudes during all that lies ahead in this transistion. Prayers for all of those in the path of Ike.

Well I HAVE been productive

But I just wasn't bloggin' about it. Seems like this week has flown by. WOOOSH and it is Thursday night. If you keep track of my projects, listed over there -----> on the right, you might notice that I moved a SOMEDAY up to the QUILTS TO DO list! I ordered the layer cake, yardage and pattern to make this:



I have loved this quilt since seeing it in a QUILT MARKET photo in the Thimble Blossoms booth. I've been waiting and waiting for the fabric to hit the stores. Well my package arrived on Saturday but I didn't get a chance to open it until sometime Monday. I have got to say this is the quickest a quilt has gone from obtaining the fabric to having the quilt blocks sewn. I wanted it to be exactly like the photo but I did end up making some changes. The first one was by accident (but I'm not telling) and the second one was to give a different variety to the fabrics used. I mixed it up just a bit. I didn't even start to cut the layer cake blocks until after 4pm on Tuesday and I am sure I had to stop to make dinner, but it is all a blur now. I got right back to the quilt and sewed away. I decided I was not going to bed until the blocks were all together and that was before midnight. My plan was to iron all of the blocks last night and then trim them to the uniform size. Is that what happened??? Noooooooooo.

I had been watching this blog for her Christmas gifts tutorials to appear and yup, there was the first installment and it was a doozey! Something cute and easy and fun! The checkbook cover! The selvedge one is ADORABLE! That Amandajean is so creative :D You have got to check it out. She added a new tutorial today for little storage basket/bins. I wrote down the directions and headed upstairs. Sheesh I spend so much time trying to decide which fabric scraps go with which other fabric scraps. Go ahead, roll yer eyes. I will wait. I really wanted to use Cotton Blossoms but I haven't cut my borders or binding yet so I didn't want to chance not having enough of that. Dig, dig, dig. Turns out then I had TOO many choices. Finally I went with some Metro Blue and went to work. It went together so nicely and quickly. Everyone had gone to bed so I had no one to show it off to. I proceeded to cut out fabric for 3 more! If you make any of these, let me know!

Then I ironed all of my Piece of Cake blocks. They look so pretty! I also cut out the fabric for the tote featured on the cover of the fall issue of Quilts and More. A gal that works at the LQS had made a few and was telling me how easily they went together. The reason I haven't sewn it already is this, we have been house hunting! Hubby decided we needed to get serious about downsizing sooner rather than later.

Sorry no pictures of my projects yet. Hubby was out hunting and he took the camera with him. I will try to take pictures tomorrow and get them posted. If the blocks are not sewn together by then I will take a picture as I lay them out and decide on their placement. I am thinking very seriously of getting a layer cake in the other colorway from this line. The brown with reds - mmmmmmmmmmmm. I am thinking I might give the one I am working on now as a wedding gift. I am thinking that I would keep the other one for myself. :D

Prayers for wisdom in the hunt for a new house. It is so emotional and exciting. Prayers for our pastor and his wife as they travel to Wyoming to visit family. We miss them so much when they are gone (and she is my gym buddy). Be well!

and a little bit of Pink & Black

Finally - the Minkee 1 project that I posted about here arrived at its destination. It seemed to take FORever to get there. Now my friend usually rips her packages open right there on the front porch while I possess more restraint. Yesterday she was taunting me. She ate some lunch while chatting with me on messenger. Then she decided to have some ice cream. She didn't know that I could out wait her. Oh sure I was anxious for her to open the package but I KNEW that she could not outlast me. I KNEW that it would get the best of her - eventually. And it did. After we chatted some more she said "Don't you want me to open the package?" Hehehehe :D I said, "whenever you get around to it is good for me". I figured that would get to her. When she finally got through all the packing tape, this is what she found;

It is a throw for her scraproom couch. That is the color scheme of her scraproom. Pink walls, black furniture. If she would ever get the curtains done they would be Sis Boom Bell Bottoms Damask and Stripe in black and white.

That is the first time I have used Minkee and mmmmmmmmmmm it is so luxurious! I plan to use some for the backing of a quilt in the near future. Maybe the one I make using Moda's Cotton Blossom.


A nice Sunday afternoon here but once again it is way too cool to be at the lake. I think I am going to SEW!!!

Prayers - for all of the people in the path of Gustav, and those left in its wake. I have been watching the progress of the storm with a heavy heart. To see there is another one developing right behind this one...ugh. Praying!!

Dabbling in Pink & Brown

Do you find yourself drawn to the same colors over and over again? Is it what the manufacturers are putting out there or is it just a mood/season/happy feeling thing?? I would not even say that pink and brown is a favorite combination of mine. Oh I like it alright. But as a "GO TO" color combination it doesn't top the list. You know, if there was such a list. But this is what I had on my cutting table this afternoon.

This is for an apron for a friend. She picked the fabric out way back in...huh. I don't even remember when it was. Earlier this year. She asked that I make her an apron for her birthday. Her birthday was last week. Well, I won't see her in person again until last September. She does love for her birthday to be an ongoing event. I could always mail it to her. I wonder if she even remembers the fabric. She may be over the pink/brown combo. I was really surprised when she picked this out. I figured her for a blue/white/yellow combo or maybe a periwinkle/green combo. Go figure.


Then there is this popular Amy Butler fabric. The same I used in the purse that I made for my daughter. A different friend saw the picture I posted of the purse and she wondered if I would make one for her. I had enough of the dot and was able to get what I needed of the floral pretty quick. The purse did go together so nicely. Quickly too. How could I say no?? It is all cut out.


I did finish entering grades today. Almost. Well I got as far as I could get. My son has to give me three papers for grading and then finish the last chapter and take a test. Those scores will take mere minutes to grade and enter and then I push a button for the reports. The ball is in his court now. I feel a huge weight lifted off of my shoulders and feel that I can sew guilt free now. As a matter of fact I am going to spend the better part of Thursday doing just that. I am anxious to try my hand at free motion quilting but I am going to work on these two projects first. It will be my reward.

Praise! My son attended his first day of college classes today. English and Speech. He even said he liked them! It is only day 3 of the new school year but he has a great attitude and is staying the course. Prayers that he would just continue to set his priorities and stick by them, see the big picture ahead of him.

Time to rein him in and for me to pay the piper

Today was the first day of school for my son. It is so tough to ask him to be inside all day, sitting still and reading books. I am thankful that we homeschool and that he has more freedom than if he was in a classroom but still...the boy likes his outdoors! He started the 11th grade today and on Wednesday he starts college classes at the satellite campus in town. He did start one online college class today. He says it is going to be a long year.

This is what he would rather be doing. Well this is ONE of the things he would rather be doing. This was taken on one of his backpacking trips this month. I don't backpack with the guys but I sure love seeing the photos. Of course if I had been there he would NOT be jumping across this huge canyon to get to the other rock. WHAT is my hubby thinking allowing that sort of thing?


Here is the scenery from the top of their 'day hike'. A day hike is what they do AFTER they hike a long way to get to their camp. They hang out, eat dinner, sit around a campfire, sleep under the stars and then the next day take a 'day hike'. To the top of the tallest point. Their camp was by that lake.


I am feeling bad for my son because he has a full load of school and hunting season starts on Friday. Hubby is making plans for a weekend hunt and my son knows that he really can't swing it. At least he realizes that and I didn't have to point it out.

So, I am on a self inflicted sewing/scrapbooking restriction. No sewing or scrapbooking for me until ALL of the 2007/2008 grades are recorded and entered and reports are printed out. I was lazy and let it go. Ugh. Just knowing that my new sewing machine is up in my sewing room, all alone AND that I have fabric there too. LOTS of fabric. Just knowing that. I got a good portion of the grades entered today. I have some that I have to 'find'. My son was lazy too. He didn't enter all of his grades on the handy dandy grading sheet that I make up for him. Now we have to spend time and find the assignments in question and fill in the sheet. Ugh. I won't do that again this year. Kids are so different. My daughter never had any problem getting her work done, setting priorities, filling in the grading sheet. She doesn't have any desire to jump across huge canyons from rock to rock. I love 'em both. I love that they are different. But man, I sure wish they were the same in some areas.

Okay, back to work for me. I am REALLY hoping to be back at my sewing machine by Wednesday.


Praying tonight that my son would have a great school year. That he will just take it one day at a time. Set his priorities and stay on task. Pray that I would stay on top of my duties and be an encouragement to him (rather than a nag). Praise - I am so very thankful that God has given us the opportunity to homeschool all these years. It has been a wonderful adventure to spend this time with my children.