Family Fun Time

July 25, 2011March 19, 20131 Comment

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!

Summer House at the Beach

July 22, 2011March 19, 2013Leave a comment

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.

Charm Pack Quilts – Sew Easy Even a Child Can Do It!

July 14, 2011March 19, 20137 Comments

Jenna completed her Charm Pack quilt top!

By Wednesday she was comfortable putting the squares together and sewing the rows all by herself. She had to watch out for those sticky pins and I helped guide her to keep accurate quarter-inch seam allowances.

Each time she finished a row, it reminded me of my own excitement when I finished my first quilt.

The key to success I believe was choosing a pre-cut charm pack so we didn’t even have to worry about sharp rotary cutters or scissors. Jenna chose City Weekend by Oliver + S for her first masterpiece. Isn’t it beautiful?

Watch for part 2 of our mother/daughter sew-in where we’ll baste, quilt and bind!

Mother & Daughter Summer Sew-In!

July 11, 2011March 19, 20131 Comment

My boys are attending tennis camp this week so I thought I’d have a little quilt camp with my daughter while they are gone. Jenna has been wanting to make a quilt so I let her pick her out any charm pack she wanted to make a quilt. I thought that would be pretty simple since the squares are already cut. She chose City Weekend by Oliver + S because it had lots of pink along with fun pastel colors.

We actually got quite a bit done in just an hour of sewing this morning.

First we practiced with a few scraps so that she could get comfortable guiding the fabric. I worked the pedal while she sat on my lap. She was “sew” proud of her first finished strip! She wanted to lay out all the squares and sew them in just the right order. It’s nice to have someone who shares my passion for sewing!

Saggy Baggy Elephant Story Quilt

July 8, 2011July 5, 20111 Comment

I finally finished a simple quilt that my friend Jessica and I have been working on. We got together one day this spring and put together the top in just under a day. Then it took me several more weeks to finish the quilting. Finally, Jessica is adding the finishing touches by hand-stitching the binding and we are going to present it to our friend later this week.

We started with a panel of the story-book and cut out all the pictures, then arranged them in a pleasing order. We added a sort of log-cabin frame to the blocks in matching primary colors. Then I machine-quilted around the motifs and between the blocks. It was easy to make and a friend of ours did the embroidery for the label on her Bernina. Cute, huh?

Lily Ashbury Summer House

July 6, 2011July 5, 20111 Comment

I’m so excited for the new collection I just ordered from Moda, Lily Ashbury’s Summerhouse. Below is a picture of the precuts along with a sampling of the entire color scheme. I ordered the entire line, so the yardage should be arriving shortly.

I just love the spring-filled color-scheme and I’ve already set aside one of the charm packs to sew a baby girl’s quilt. I don’t know who I’ll make it for yet but I have plenty of friends who are expecting, so one of them will be the lucky recipient!

More Friendship Blocks

July 5, 2011July 5, 20111 Comment

Here’s a short little update to my earlier post about the friendship/signature quilt blocks. The gals in the guild actually arranged them like this to form a ribbon design:

And if you can read it, here’s a picture of the directions to make blocks like this:

Signature Quilt Blocks

June 22, 20115 Comments

Today I went to my monthly quilting circle where we made signature blocks that will get turned into a quilt as a thank you for our past leader.

It was super easy to make this block! Here are some basic diretions: first start with one 2 1/2″ wide strip by the width of the fabric. One strip will make 2 blocks. Cut 2 rectangles that are 6 1/2″ long for the top & bottom of each block. Then cut 2 – 2 1/2″ squares for the middle.

From the background fabric cut one white 6 1/2″ long rectangle for the middle and two 2 1/2″ squares for the corners. Join each part of the strip using the flip and stitch method. Layer the square on top of the strip, sew across the diagonal and flip back to reveal the design. Then sew all 3 rows together to make the block. There’s no need to cut off the excess fabric. Then sign the block in the middle.

Here are a few of the completed blocks. We chose a polka dot fabric theme for our group. Each person made 2 blocks and signed one of them. What a fun quilt this will be!

Amy Butler’s Sunday Sling Bag

June 15, 2011Leave a comment

I began making Amy Butler’s Reversible Sunday Sling Bag in a sewing class with my friend Jessica about 2 months ago (you can tell it’s an older picture since this is pre-haircut!!). Anyway we both used different techniques to cut our pieces. Jessica used scissors while I wanted to rotary cut as much as I could.

Jessica chose to make the large bag which is big enough to hold lots of kids’ books!

Isn’t it cute? I love the fabric she chose for the lining inside. We both used regular quilt-weight cotton which holds up really well. I am working on the smaller sized bag but mine is still in pieces while she recently finished hers. At least one of us is getting things done!

Marathon Girls

June 13, 2011November 23, 20132 Comments

I ran the Utah Valley Marathon on Saturday with 3 friends of mine. Pictured left to right are Becky, Suzanne, Christa (me!) and Marci. Our finishing times ranged from 3 1/2 hours (speedy Marci) to just over 5 hours (slow me).

I ran about an hour slower than my first marathon in 2009 because of a recurring problem with plantar fasciitis. (Not fun!)

However, we all had a great time doing it and we all met our running goals.

It took weeks and weeks of training to build up our distance, with harder workouts thrown in mid-week to build our endurance. At about mile 20 I thought, why the heck am I doing this?? But then at the finish (26.2 miles later) I had the answer: because I can!

Here are some pictures during the race:Jason and the kids met me at mile 20 to give me a high 5. I needed the support by then!

Here’s me at the home stretch. That finish line never looked so good! I am so glad I did this race. I am sore, but not injured and now I can look forward to much shorter workouts (and more time for sewing!!)