As summer comes to a close and the kids begin their fall studies, I wanted to post a few pictures of our end-of-summer family fun, to prove that it’s not all just about sewing and fabric around here!

About a week ago we went camping with some friends from church. Here are “the guys” relaxing on Saturday before a busy Sunday the next day!

Here are “the wives”, enjoying not having to chase after our children in “the wilderness”.

We ate roasted hot dogs & s’mores for dinner with donuts and pop-tarts for breakfast. Not the healthiest food, but the cleanup was quick and easy!

The kids had a blast exploring, getting dirty and (carefully) tending the fire pit. Between the 3 families, we have a total of 12 children!

A few days after our camping trip, our family traveled to Cedar City Utah, to see the Shakespeare festival held there every year. Our oldest son had gone up earlier with his Shakespeare group and was able to experience 3 plays: Richard III, Romeo & Juliet and A Mid-Summer Night’s Dream. We joined the group on the second night for Romeo & Juliet.

The plays were held in an outdoor theater without microphones. It was a fantastic experience and even our younger kids were able to sit through the entire play and enjoy it!

For my birthday last week, Jason bought me a pair of my favorite running shoes!

I ran a marathon back in June and went through 2 pairs of shoes during my training. Now I’m onto a lighter workout schedule (and a heavier eating schedule) so my shoes should last longer this time around.

I’m on my feet a lot whether I’m running, cutting fabric for a customer, or working on a quilt so I like to take good care of them.

One of the ways I like to dress up my feet is by wearing Laurel Burch Socks. They are very playful and fun and are a lot more interesting to wear than boring white socks! Plus they are super comfy!

If I were a rich woman… I’d biddy-biddy-bum.. sew ALL-DAY-LONG!! Do you get the reference?? My family and I went and saw a live production of Fiddler on the Roof last week and it was simply amazing. If you haven’t seen it, be sure to rent the movie!

Each summer we see an outdoor production under the stars. We bring blankets and a picnic dinner and enjoy a night of live theatre. As the kids have gotten older, they’ve come to appreciate a little bit of culture, at least what we can find around here, anyway!

Where is my oldest son, you say? Why he’s taking the pictures of course! This year was especially fun for me to watch the crowds and take note of all the beautiful quilts people brought to sit on. If only I could have worked up the nerve to take a few more pictures…

Blogging about making a quilt with my daughter made me remember the joy I felt when I first got into quilting, so I thought it would be fun (and sort of embarrassing) to post pictures of my first quilts!

I started quilting in 1995, two years after Jason and I got married. I don’t know what hit me but it was the most fun thing I had ever done and couldn’t imagine life without fabric!

The first quilt I made was for Jason. It was made from flannel squares and tied with yarn. I still remember the thrill of completing each 9 patch block. I had no idea about seam allowances or stitch length but I dove in and did it anyway!

The next quilt I made for me. I cut out tons of log cabin strips that were supposed to be 1 1/2 inches wide. As you can tell from the photo, I wasn’t exactly consistent in my cutting.

As every quilt should have a label, I finished these up properly. Even though these quilts have received lots of wear & tear over the years, I’m glad I documented them so I can remember when it all began!

I’m so excited – my grapes are turning into plump juicy fruit!

Before I left on vacation, I covered my grape vines with netting to to keep the birds away. When I returned I was a little worried when I saw how brown all the leaves were. I’m not sure if they weren’t getting enough water, if the net is restricting their growth, or if it’s just too darn hot!

But as I got a little closer I was thrilled to see plump juicy little grapes ready to harvest!

I quickly picked a bunch and shared them with the kids. They are sweet and delicious! Look how much bigger they’ve gotten in just a few weeks! I’ll leave a few on the vines and harvest some every day to see if they get even bigger.

I call this a resounding success! Now I have high hopes for my 2 little apples growing on my tree.

The pomegranates are good and hardy but the birds always pick at them because I never know when to harvest. This year, I think I’ll try the bird netting on those, too. All this fresh fruit makes for wonderful healthy snacking while sewing!!

We went to the beach with Jason’s in-laws last week and had a wonderful vacation. It was just the sort of break we needed to spend some quality time with our kids and extended family.

In addition to some relaxing beach-side sewing (can you see the volleyball players in the background?), we got to do some fun activities.

Because we love to eat lots of yummy food, we had to keep fit by going on bike rides along the boardwalk and lacing up our shoes for a morning run with our oldest son.

My  favorite thing to do in the warm breezy afternoons was to lounge in a chair and read on the beach while the kids played and built sandcastles. The boys enjoyed ball and frisbee on the sand. You can see the rental house there in the background – the only one story on the beach (it’s a friend of the family’s so it’s good to have connections).

After a hard day of surf & sand, we’d play games in the evenings with the whole family.

And we got to see the sights. We went to the movies (Harry Potter part 2) and visited a local church museum where I found this lovely sculpture depicting a woman making a Double Wedding Ring quilt. It’s entitled Fulfillment.

The plaque reads, “Her children arise up, and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praiseth her.” Proverbs 31:28.

After a fun week like this, I feel very fulfilled!

This week my family and I spent a week at Hermosa Beach in beautiful sunny California. I brought along a little project to work on while I was there…

Bright clear colors speak to me and I’ve been dying make a quilt using Lily Ashbury’s Summer House. I grabbed a couple of pre-cut Moda charm packs and decided to do some stitchin’ on vacation! First I cut all the squares in half.

Then I stitched together pairs of “bricks” on my Singer Featherweight. It’s such a great travel machine because it’s so light-weight and portable. Next, I used one of my favorite notions, a wooden pressing roller to flatten the seams. This doo-hickey is fantastic for on-the go projects – no irons to worry about!

Here are a few of the finished blocks. The only thing I didn’t take into account was that the blocks would need to be trimmed on one side so that the edges match. I forgot that the seam allowances would shrink the blocks only along one side. Well, that will be next week’s cutting project when I get home.

I’ll post some fun photos of our family beach adventures in the next blog entry.