Blue Ribbon, "FAVORITE" and $50!

All in all, a pretty good night. They did just vote for the favorite. I got $50, second place got a book, and third got announced and then they realized they didn't have a prize for her-- so she got a hug.

I do love belonging to my quilt guild. They've taught me so many things. There are a lot of very talented women in our group who encourage the rest of us and share lots of experience and knowledge.... and it's just a lot of fun and laughs when we all get together.

Shiny and Bright

I think I'm done. I love it! And tonight is the unveiling. This was for our quilt guild challenge 2009. We were to make a quilt one half meter by two meters. Tonight is our annual Christmas party and deadline for this year's challenge quilts. It's a contest, sort of. They try to come up with enough categories so everyone wins something just for making a quilt.

It's kind of crazy the way things come out and what makes you do them. I couldn't figure out what I'd do with a quilt that was only half a meter wide. This is going to be a Christmas decoration and I'm going to hang it on my door....

To BLing or not to bLING?

That's pretty much what I'm doing.............Trying to decide where to put the little jewels. And I had to ask my husband to take pictures, so this is how it went. Picture for me... wait 'til a commercial. Picture for me. Wait for a commercial. Then I get my camera back, and look who else was a "jewel"?

"EH, WHA'D YOU SAY?

Most of my friends are in the same boat as me, about the same age, same hearing capabilities...

This is us trying to figure out where to be-dazzle my quilt.

"So, did you come up with this quilt all by yourself?"
"Just me and my graph paper."
"Who are your craft friends?"
"My 'craft friends'?"
"Yes, you said your craft friends helped you make your quilt."
"Craft friends?"

Craft friends?? Craft Friends. Graph Paper. I guess they sound the same if your hearing isn't what it used to be. You hear the first word... sort of and assume what the next word ought to be.

Anyway, these are my quilt friends and they have be-dazzles. My be-dazzles are on back order. I'm borrowing theirs if mine aren't here by Thursday. So, hang in there. Soon. Soon I will have my first quilt with "Bling."

Meanwhile, I finished my Christmas quilt.

It's like having the toilet---

without the toilet paper!

I'm so BUMBED!

Waited all this time for my bedazzler and then it comes without the BE-DAZZLES!

Our Quakie Lane in all its glory!

Fall was beautiful, but it's about gone. Snow is in the forecast for tonight. Darn. Then I'll just have to stay home and find something to do.... maybe sew?!

Never say never....
or prepare to be
BEDAZZLED!!!

So I've seen all these quilts with rhinestones on them, and I thought, "Not on MY quilts. Never. No way!!" Guess what's in the mail? My own Bedazzler! Be prepared to be surprised, you're going to say, "Oh yea, that quilt needed the bling."

Do You Quilt EVERY day?

Some one actually asked me that. I have 6 kids, 13 grandkids, one acre of flowers and grass and trees, church jobs, a house to clean, a husband and a dog that need walking, meals to cook, laundry, ... and yes, that's what I do. I have to find some time every day to sew something. Well, not EVERY day.

But this was my first quilt I came up with on my own. I love it still, so I decided to do the pattern for it.

Every day... like I don't have a life. LOL

Seeing Dots....

This was a nickle exchange with my quilt guild. A nickle being a 5 inch square of fabric. Everyone bought a yard of bright fabric and cut it into squares and then we traded. This is what I came up with to "spend my nickles."

To quilt it, I went around every single one of those little colored dots.... a pebble design... I was seeing dots every time I closed my eyes for a while.

This quilt was made by my Grandmother Ivie before she died in 1950 from old clothes!

My sister asked me if I had any idea how many quilts I'd made since I got started in 1972, which is when I got married. I took pictures of a lot of the quilts I'd made and put them together in a book with as much info about them as I could remember. This was the first picture and that was the first line.... So, not sure how good my documentation is.... well, I am sure and I'm just a little worried.

I've made over 50 pieced quilts of all different sizes, all hand quilted. I would put one on the quilt frames and then it would take all winter to quilt. My mom, bless her heart helped a lot. Sewing and sitting still are just not her thing. She'd rather build something.

I think that's why I've gone crazy making so many quilts since I decided it was ok to quilt with a long arm machine.... you can get a WHOLE bunch done and you don't have to wait for winter.

And I don't have to use old clothes! Apparently, that's deadly.

I WON!!! I entered my "Love at Home" quilt in the Utah Quilt Guild Show for 2009 and won for "Excellence in Machine Quilting." I was so surprised and shocked and excited I got tears in my eyes and had to hurry out of there so I wouldn't cause a huge big scene. I was afraid someone would say something to me and then I'd just really fall apart. I tried to send a text to everyone I knew but that doesn't usually go very good even when I can see and don't have my glasses all fogged up with emotion. I didn't even think to take a picture of it with my phone and send that. Then later I was wishing I had taken a picture because it just didn't seem real. I worried all night that I'd told everyone and I hadn't really won. It was real. Pretty exciting.

Love At Home

So my sister called and said, "Did you think about this being mom's 75th birthday coming up? I think we ought to have a big celebration." Then after the party was under way, she called me and said, "Got any good ideas for something SPECIAL we could give mom?"

I'd been working on this quilt for quite a while. First I made some houses like this for a friend in my quilt guild and decided I wanted a quilt with some houses. So I made a bunch of houses and then decided to put the hearts in.... then I needed some handwork while we were driving .... Any way, hearts and houses made be keep thinking of Love at Home. It's a song my mom always sang to us kids when we would fight. But the whole time I've worked on this quilt it has said to me...MOM, MOM, Mom. I knew her birthday was coming up. I just got so attached to the quilt I wasn't sure I could part with it. .... She loved it. We had everyone at her party sign the label on the back and write a special memory about mom. I still love this quilt.

Pumpkin Fun Quilt

These pumpkins are just a simple snowball block. You have a 6 1/2 inch square and sew a square of background fabric across each corner. I put the stems and stars on after the whole quilt was quilted... so easy. I glued them on with a washable glue stick and then scrap stitched around them in black thread with my long arm quilter. I love the flower border print. I found it at Clover Patch in St. George.

I quilted all the pumpkins in a different style and a different scrap stitch aound each stem. I love each one.