A Cut Up and Quilt Celebration!

You might remember that last Sept. two friends of mine, Kim and Becky,  opened Cut Up and Quilt in Council Bluffs, IA.  It's been an exciting year for them and all of us that love fabric and quilting. They are celebrating their first anniversary today with a huge sale, demos and drawings. I will be on hand to help them celebrate...doing a demo on the Zig-Zag Ruler. So if you live in our area, come and see us and join in on the fun!

You can find out the sales and other info about the shop on their website!

Ta da!

 The quilt top is finished...now to get it quilted. I took some closer shots of it so that the gorgeous fabrics would show up better.

 The first days of school have been going well, and I am mostly ready to open! I will see a lot of the kids in the next few days as they come in by class for a brief orientation and have a chance to check out a book. Next week I will open for normal hours and checkouts and see the younger kids for storytime. It's funny that after just a few days back, it seems like I was never gone. Happy Friday Eve!

Now for a border!

I finished sewing the Zig Zag quilt together over the weekend, so I stopped at Cut UP and Quilt on my way home from work so that I could get the border fabric. There are so many pretty ones in this collection, but I thought the quilt needed a calming effect for the border, so I got the green floral. 

My first real day at work went well, it doesn't take too long to get back in the swing of things. We are having very August like weather now...it was about 95 today with high humidity. I guess it's going to last for the next week or so. Glad I'm not painting!

Fabrics closeup

 I realized that even though I have posted some pix of the Zig Zag quilt, I didn't post any that showed up the fabric well. It's so pretty...a new grouping called High Street by Lily Ashbury. It's a large group of gorgeous prints...it was hard to pick which ones to use.

The first row is sewn together!

Today will be my first day to get anything actually done at school. Hope I can remember what it is I'm supposed to do!

A great visit and a whole lotta help!

 I had a great time in Earling yesterday visiting with cousins I haven't seen in awhile. I have many first cousins (about 67, I think) because my dad had 11 brothers and sisters. So growing up any family gathering was a huge event. Most of them lived within about 20 miles of us, so we saw them quite a bit. There were two families that lived very close and had kids that were the same ages as my family, so we were especially close. I heard that one of them was going to be back from her home in CO this week so dropped in on their family gathering yesterday for a bit. We had a great time catching up and I got to chat with most of her family. We spent so much time with them growing up since their ages and our coincided so well.  I also visited my parents for lunch and stayed for the afternoon.

I showed you the fabric I bought the other day but not the animal fabrics I had that I was trying to match to, so here they are all together. I also have a zebra print that I will probably throw in too, just to spice things up a bit.

When I'm sewing, Smokey likes to sit on the table by the machine. Sometimes I have to move her a bit so I don't sew her tail into the mix! But Conrad doesn't usually jump up there. I guess he thought he was missing out the other day when I was working on the Zigzag quilt....he got very comfortable. On the plus side, he kept Smokey's tail out of the way! Do your cats do this?

A little more zag

I survived the first day back to work yesterday...it  was filled mostly with meetings, so I didn't get any real work done except laminating. I do most of the laminating as the machine is in my area, so even though some of them had been laminating, there was some to do when I got there.

The pattern inside the Zigzag ruler is made using 2 fabrics, so it has a positive/negative effect. I wanted to use more color, so I chose two fabrics that stand out against each other well for the background part and six prints for the zigzags.  I like it so far.

I am heading to my hometown today to see some cousins I haven't seen in a long time and will also visit my parents. Have a great Saturday!

A little zig and zag

 I've been playing with the ZigZag ruler this week in preparation for a demo. It's really easy and fun to use.

You sew your strips together....

You cut some on the zig....

    

and some on the zag....

Then you start sewing them together. There are several patterns that go with the ruler, but right now I am following the pattern that comes with it.

I spent my last day of summer break on a shopping trip with a friend. We hit up some good sales at a fabric shop and I found these lovelies to go with a few other prints I have for a baby quilt I will be starting soon. We also stopped at Kohls and wandered through the sale racks...my friend found lots more than I did, but it was a fun day and there's always the next time....

My first day back at work....sigh....we start off the day with a district-wide "celebration", then back to school to work and a building meeting in the afternoon. I guess I can handle a one day work week. School starts for the kids on Monday.

Last class for this group...lots of progress!

 Last night was the last class for this 6 month session of the Sampler Pick class. These ladies chose which sampler they wanted to make out of the seventeen I have designed and have been working on them for the past 6 months. Lora is making hers for her niece, who loves lots of color!

Dorothy's blocks are all finished except last night's pattern, so she is ready to put this queen size quilt together. Dorothy has made fourteen of the samplers!

Kelli learned how to measure and put on a border on last night. This splash of green is for her brother. 

 Lora also brought her Snake Dance Mystery for show and tell. She and her daughter had swapped a row so she added a yellow row for some contrast. It's so much fun to see my design in so many different colors!

 Today is my last day before I go back to work at school, so I am going to do some shopping with a friend...first stop is a local quilt shop. I'm still looking for inspiration for two baby quilts I want to make, so wish me luck!

Last Tuesday Sewing day....

 Back in June, I had gathered several ufos and put them in bags to take to Tuesday Sewing so that I could finish them. Diana ran out of fabric on her project, so I asked her if she wanted to finish one of them. She took this one, (scroll down to the end of post to see it then) added some borders and finished it yesterday. I think the blocks were originally from a swap. Now I need to quilt it and find a home for it.

 Betty worked on finishing this applique project...she is going to hang it over a window. There are lots of pretties on this quilt...some beading and other embellishments.

Diana finished her flag quilt (she was working on it during the retreat). Now she just has to snip the seams...

I got the last border sewn on the new Sampler, but no pix yet. I also found a backing fabric for it, so I want to get that sewn together too. Then I cut and sewed some strip-sets for a demo I will be doing at Cut Up and Quilt next weekend (Aug. 31)for their one year anniversary. It's hard to believe they've been open a year already! I will take some pictures later of my progress on this cute demo quilt.

I hate to see summer break end, but I guess I should just be happy to have it! It's back to school for me on Friday.

Mounting a letter sign = a finish!

 You might remember that I was working on a free pieced Conrad sign a few weeks ago...I wanted to mount it on a canvas frame, but had to make my own to get the size I needed. They sell the frame bars in different sizes at Hobby Lobby, but our local one has been out of the size I needed for one of the sides. So I ran over to an Omaha store today to pick one up so I could finish it. When you make it yourself, it doesn't have the canvas on it. I could use fabric, but I decided to start with a tight batting and just put the sign over that.

I laid it out and started measuring from the edge to the border seam, so I would get it on there straight. I put some pins in through the batting to hold it in place.

 Using lots of pins, I went around the whole thing measuring and pinning.

 Conrad decided it looked like an interesting job, so he jumped up on the counter to help me. Unfortunately, he started trying to get the pins out. I could hardly see them, so not sure how he could. So I put a scrap of batting loosely around this neck like a collar and he started was distracted for awhile trying to get it off and left the pins alone.

 He loves a good game! Smokey came along and watched him for awhile, and then wandered back to the other room.

 As I folded it over to staple it, I folded the edges under so it would look nice on the back. I'm debating whether or not I should put fabric across the back to cover it or not. When I have covered canvases in the past I just left the back open, so I might just leave it for now. I can always cover it later.

A nice wall hanging without any quilting.... I want to be able to show people different things they can make with the letters when I teach the class and this name sign would look nice on anyone's wall.  I love finishing projects!

A camping weekend....

 I painted the second coat on the front porch peak and eaves Friday morning. That second coat makes it all look so good! Then I started packing up the car to head to Denison to Yellowsmoke Park for the family camp-out. This is our second year going to Yellowsmoke. We like it a lot because there are 2 cabins for us non-campers (my family and my folks) and a place by each cabin for a camper, so my 2 sisters and their families can park next to us. There are only 2 cabins right now, so it was very peaceful and nice on the hill. 

This is our cabin, and the camper next to it.

 My daughter's dogs enjoyed a weekend of camping.

 My folk's cabin. The cabins are far enough apart so that if it was another group of people, you would have your own space. Love that there are camper spaces next to them, or we would be in two different spots. Only the people renting the cabins can let someone camp next to it...the general public can't.

My daughter brought the Duck Dynasty game so those of us that are fans spent some time playing it. What a hoot!

I really didn't take too many pictures...I just forgot, so I don't have pictures of half the people that were there. It was a great weekend, but tiring. Now I'm trying to get up the energy to go out and paint that last coat. Then I will be finished painting for now. I go back to school Friday and won't have as much time to paint then.There is one set of eaves I could still reach, so if I get ambitious, I will paint that too. Most of the rest of the house trim is too high to paint on the ladders I'm using.  I'm not too crazy about going much higher on a ladder either...so will have to find scaffolding for the rest.

A finish and a tomato, finally!

I bound this little free pieced letter quilt yesterday so it is officially finished.

I also went to CuaQ Therapy at Cut Up and Quilt. It's a fun chance to see what's new at the quilt shop, and there is always show and tell so I saw some finishes from my classes! That was fun.

Patty's Cathedral Window Pillow.

Denise's Circle and Spin.

Deb's Cathedral Windows ring bearer pillows.

Ta DA...finally a ripe tomato that isn't teeny.

Heading out for the family camping trip later...the weather is unseasonably cool today, so I guess I will be packing a sweatshirt and pants.