Wednesday, December 30, 2015

Happy New Year!!


May 2016 be our best year yet!!

Tuesday, December 22, 2015

The First Day of Winter . . .

and it is gorgeous here in the Cache Valley in northern Utah!!



And we put up our tree today so it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!!


And Pollie is wondering if Santa is coming to our house!!  Because we don't have a chimney!!


Saturday, December 19, 2015

Saturday, December 5, 2015

Friday, December 4, 2015

This is What Happens . . .

when you try to hurry to get your swap project for guild done 20 minutes before you have to leave for guild!!


This was the last row to be sewn onto the center block for our guild's Round Robin.  These are paper pieced and I was not thinking when I cut this last side.  Look closely and you can see that I forgot to cut the 1/4 inch seam!!  Yikes!!

So, I went to guild without this little baby completed.  And the really bad thing is that I am the one running this swap!!

Ok, so, today, that 5 second cutting error created three additonal hours to complete the edge and get it sewn on so the gal who is to create the next row could get it before it was the day before guild this month.


Look how cute it turned out!!  Whoo! Hooooo!!  Gots to remind myself to think before I cut!!

Saturday, November 28, 2015

Thursday, November 26, 2015

A Little Sewing While Watching Football Tonight . . .

Today was so much fun!!  Went to a friend's home for early dinner and got to chat and eat and then come home to take a nice long nap!!

After the nap, a little miscellaneous sewing and then decided that I would make a Kaffe Fassett pillowcase during the football game!!



Plus we are puppy-dog sitting this cute little guy all week!!  His name is Ace but I call him the little white interloper dog!!  I just texted his Mom and told her we might forget to give him back to her next Tuesday!!


Happy Thanksgiving . . .

to all my friends here in America!!


May you and yours be blessed this day and all through the Christmas and holiday season!!  And lots of love to all my friends throughout the world!!  Have a joyous day!!

Sunday, November 22, 2015

Slow Sunday Stitchin' . . .

I got all these little gifts stuffed and sewn up so they can go off in the mail tomorrow!!

Little pincushions for my Kaffe Fassett roommate, Laurie's friends!!  She wanted something special to give them from the Retreat!!


I missed hooking up with Kathy over at Kathy's Quilts Slow Sunday Stiching post but come on over to take a look at what everyone else was working on!!

Saturday, November 21, 2015

Friday, November 20, 2015

It is Done in Time . . .

I got this gorgeous quilt all completed and in plenty of time!!  Whhhhhhhat?  I finished a project with more than a minute to spare??  I hope that happens more and more as time goes by!!




Saturday, November 14, 2015

Thursday, November 12, 2015

Working on a Class Proposal . .

I was invited to submit a proposal to teach a class as a quilt fest next spring, so here is what I proposed ~


And here is the back - I wasn't sure the front was colorful enough so I changed up the back!!

Sunday, November 8, 2015

Slow Sunday Stitchin'

For October's Flowers in the Inchy Hexegon Flower Swap, I was very late, so I decided that my November Flowers would get to Lynette P. down under within the correct month.  Lynette wanted black and white prints with bright aqua centers.  Yikes, I hope these centers are "aqua"!!


 I am hooking up with Kathy over at Kathy's Quilts Slow Sunday Stiching post.  Come take a look at what everyone else is working on!!

Saturday, November 7, 2015

Saturday's Smile!!


What I have Been Working On . . .

the past two weeks.  My friend is not able to do any intense quilting these days, so I offered to make this gorgeous quilt top for her hubby!!


It was originally supposed to be a Christmas present for him because the whole family was going to get together for Christmas.  Two weeks ago, my friend said the family changed their mind and decided to do the family thing at Thanksgiving instead!!  Yikes!!

I had only started cutting out the some of pieces prior to two weeks ago and look . . . it's done!!  And this picture just does NOT do it justice!!

It is a Buggy Barn pattern so the stars were supposed to be pieced in Buggy Barn fashion, but with the time restraint we decided machine appliquing the stars would be better time-wise.  Well, I like it soooo much better!!  The applique just gives the whole thing a pop!!


Isn't it fun when a project is so much fun to make and then turns out so wonderfully!!  I'm not sure if it was Pam or Janet at Buggy Barn that designed this quilt but it is brilliant!!   Thank you to all the wonderful, creative designers that allow us craftsmen to make such amazing quilts!!

Sunday, November 1, 2015

Slow Sunday Stitchin . . .

I was finally able to complete my two October Flowers for Carrie W. in Aurora, Colorado in the Inchy Hexegon Flower Swap!!  Carrie wanted batiks or prints in the Editya Sitar fabrics, so I chose fabrics from her Snow Days collection and had a little fun with some fussy cutting!!  :-))


I am hooking up with Kathy over at Kathy's Quilts Slow Sunday Stiching post.  Come take a look at what everyone else is working on!!

Saturday, October 31, 2015

Wednesday, October 28, 2015

Winners of the Breast Cancer Awareness Giveaway!!

Thank you so much to all of you that left such thoughtful and heart-rendering comments!!  This disease is very close to my heart and this is just my small way of bringing the subject to the attention of thousands, both here and on my Facebook page (close to 6,000 people were reached with this little giveaway)!!


The two winners are:

TheEclecticAbuela who said "Self-exams are so easy--just do it!"

and

Peggy over at WisconsinQuilting who said "Hats off (so to speak) to those wonderful people I've encountered in the medical field who handle patients with breast cancer -- they understand."

Ladies, if you will email me at akyoung49@yahoo.com and give me your snail mail addresses, I'll get your gifts in the mail immediately!!

Again, thank you to all who took the time to ponder this important issue and leave a comment!!

Monday, October 26, 2015

Breast Cancer Awareness Day GIVEAWAY!!

In honor of all the work that is being done to eradicate breast cancer, I am giving away a yard of fabric to two individuals!!


The yard includes a FQ of the following:

Kaffe Fassett August Rose in the Magenta color way
Moda Bella Solid in Dark Pink
Moda Essentail Dots in Light Pink
Moda Bump to Baby Dots in Pink

I will pick two winners Wednesday night using our handy dandy True Random Number Generator!!

To enter, please leave a thoughtful comment relating to Breast Cancer.

For additional chances to win you can follow me (one entry) and you can "like" my Facebook page (here) for an additional chance to win!!

Hope you are all taking care of yourselves!!

Saturday, October 24, 2015

Saturday's Smile!!


My Snowball Quilt Top is Done . . .

I got the Snowball quilt that was on my design wall during last week's workshop with Kaffe Fassett and Brandon Mably done ~


Now, some of you are saying, hey wait, that's not a snowball quilt, it's just a bunch of squares sewn together.

That's true at this point in the quilt, but  the picture below is what I am using for the corner stones and when I cut them up to add to the corners in typical snowball fashion, they lost their fun quirky look.


So, I decided that I am going to machine applique the cornerstones on with a very small buttonhole stitch and then I won't lose the look I am going for!!  I am so excited about this fun little quilt.

Now, I just have to decide what fabric to use for the borders!!  Whoo!  Hoo!!

Wednesday, October 21, 2015

Bucket List Dream Come True!!

Not too many times in our lives to we get the chnace to have a major dream come true, but I sure had the opportunity this past week when I was fortunate enough to attend a Kaffe Fassett Retreat down in Draper (Utah).

Oh, my gosh, I don't think I have ever had so much fun being away from home for 5 days!!


The first night we watched a slide show presentation by Kaffe.  We learned how he came to the world of textiles after starting with designing sweater and needlepoint patterns.  Afterwards, Kaffe and Brandon signed books!!  Lots and lots of books!!



This is Brandon Mably, Kaffe's cohort and a very, very funny man!!

The following are pictures of the work room during the two workshops I attended:










The energy was electric for two full days and into the night.


This quilt was a modern version of the Sunny Snowball workshop on Friday.


This is Yrta from Taos, New Mexico.  She was a hoot and her quilts were so dramatic - just like her!!


This is my roommate, Laurie with her second Snowball quilt!!  She was darling, sweet and full, full, full of youthful energy!!  Laurie came all the way from New Orleans.

Our retreat was the first one at Quilter's Lodge, which did not get completed before we started the retreat.  The gutters were being poured during the last day of the retreat.  We all got to put our hand prints into the wet concrete to commerate the first retreat held at this gorgeous Lodge ~


I have more pictures but I took them on my camera and since I am nowhere near as smart as my smart phone, I need to figure out how to get them off the camera and onto my computer!!  So stay tuned for pictures of more of the quilt tops from both workshops!!