Green and Yellow Scrap Quilt

Did I ever show this to you?  It sat on my design wall in New Mexico for ages it seemed like.  I finally finished it up here in Washington.

I found the pattern in Sunday Morning Quilts and thought it would be a great scrap buster for my greens.  Funny, I don't remember purchasing so much green fabric, but out of all the colors I have in my scrap bins, green is always overflowing.

After I got everything basted together, I found this.

Ugh!  I couldn't believe it!  Luckily I had some Wonder-Web fusible web tape. 

I put the weakened seam back together with the tape and made sure I quilted that area real good. 



With so much scrap busting on the front, I decided to go simple on the back.  I did not piece the back of the quilt like a normally do, but instead used a dark green flannel that my mother-in-law had sitting in a closet. 

The yellow block was built around a scrap of fabric left over from Logan's quilt.

 So, after all these green scraps, how does my scrap bin look?  It's about half full now.  Time to find another scrap busting project.

Moving On.

I've been gone for a while.  So much has happened over the past months, I'm not sure where to begin!  I have laid a quick summary out for you below.

First, I'm sad to say that we no longer live in New Mexico.  We packed up our little ranch house, livestock, and kiddos and drove halfway across the country to Washington State.  It was a bit of a sudden decision, but here we are.  If you have been following me for a while, you know that all of our family live here in Washington, and it was just time to be closer to them.

My little ones have never seen the ocean, or any kind of large body of water before.  Now that we are in Washington, we thought it necessary.  So, one day we bundled up and took a ferry boat trip to Vashon Island.  It was wet and cold, but absolutely wonderful!

Our heifer we brought along with us from New Mexico, had a little heifer of her own.  She is a couple of hours old in this photo and has already grown so much since then! 

I ran the Seattle Rock and Roll Marathon - photo taken at the start line.

I reopened Fresh Picked Patchwork here in Washington and survived my first craft show!  I will be at the Puyallup Farmers Market this Fall - so if you're from the area stop by!



 

 I will have more on sewing and other matters, but for now thank you.  I appreciate all of you readers and have truly missed this aspect of the sewing community. 

 

Hexagon Bag

This is a project I have had on my mind for a while.  I originally saw it in American Patchwork and Quilting magazine August 2011.

From the first moment I saw the eggplant purple, lime greens, navy and aqua blues, grays - don't forget my favorite color -tangerine! from V and CO. fabric lines, I knew I had to make something from them.  The hexagon body of the bag is Simply Style, the handles/top strip of the bag are Graphite Gray Floral and  the lining is leafy sprigs in gray from the Simply Color line.

I think my first attempt at set-in seam hexagons went pretty well, don't you?

A Little Selling

Things have been crazy around here.  School is in full swing so between chauffeuring kiddos to school and back, homework assignments (my little Logan is now in kindergarten,) and my everyday jobs of ranch work, mom, wife, cook, etc. keeps me plenty busy on their own.

Between all of that, I have decided to get the wheels in motion on starting my own sewing business.  It's something I've been wanting to do for a while.  I have a name and logo:

 

And have set up a little space at the preschool.  This is actually my second set,  as the first set pretty much sold out after the 3rd day of school (Yippee!)

There are lunch boxes, fabric folders, zippered snack bags, sandwich wraps, and crayon rolls.

I am starting out slowly, obviously selling a few things here and there while working on inventory for an Etsy shop and a craft fair.

 

I'll be sure to have updates as things go along.  It's all so exciting!!

 

Triangle Quilt Complete

I can hardly believe it myself!  After almost a year of putting this little quilt off, I finally sat down and completed it!

The quilt came out okay.  Not quite how I had first imagined it to be.  But I think the little girl it is going to will still love it!

On the back, I put some of the extra blocks and utilized one of the natural triangles as my quilt label.

 Feels great to finally be able to check this off my WIP list!  Now to pack it up and mail it off!

Last Minute Party GIft

Well hello!  Do you remember how I was invited to a baby shower 3 days before the event?  I whipped this quilt up for it.

Anyhow, we were invited to the now one year old little girl's birthday party on Thursday evening with the party being held that Saturday.  That gave me roughly one day to come up with a gift!  Aack!!

So what did I come up with?  My thoughts - on overdrive - began running through things that a one year old could enjoy but that I could finish in time.  Bibs, a handmade puppet, until finally it hit me!  I cut  48 5x5 inch squares in yellows and pinks.  The letters of her name in a chocolate wool felt.  And wallah!!  Fabric blocks!

They were quite the hit with my little ones, as well as at the party.

Enjoying Some of Summer

Being ranchers, we usually don't go out for late night outings.  So, it was a real treat that we actually went to watch fireworks on July 4th.  It was the first time Logan and Aslyn had ever seen fireworks in person.

We recently took a much needed weekend off. A little trip to Grants, New Mexico where we "camped out" and toured areas of the Land of Enchantment.

Since it was the kiddos first time sleeping in a tent, we decided to go the old KOA route.  I had never stayed in a KOA campground before; growing up camping was hiking back into the woods, and setting up tent. 

 

 

The Natural History Museum to view the "Cowboys Real and Imagined" exhibit, the Mining Museum, Fire and Ice caves, and Sky City were just a few stops we made.

 

Bandera Volcano

 



Ice Cave

Brrr - It's cold down here in the ice cave

 

After a day of hiking volcanoes, we spent part of the evening cooling off in the pool.

 

 

Now to get back to my sewing machine!