Goodbye, Pre.

We have had a bit of a tragedy here at our home. Our cat, Pre, died yesterday. It was sudden and unexpected and we will really miss him. Apparently he went downstairs to take a nap under my son's bed and just died peacefully in his sleep. We have had him only 3 1/2 years. Actually, he is Vanessa's cat. She got him as a gift from a couple of friends when our last cat, Scooch, died. Vanessa is a runner and she named him after Steve Prefontaine a runner that was famous in the 70's. His nickname was Pre. Tragically, he died young as well.

Pre was a fun and goofy cat. Kind of spoiled but really loved. Here is a picture of him showing his quilting side.


Goodbye, Pre. We will miss you.

Steffani Knows All the Chords!

My daughter Vanessa has a good friend, Steffani. She was her friend through high school and they were roommates their first semester at Snow College. She is a real sweetheart and is like a member of the family. She just recently got married and of course it was an opportunity for me to make things!

The colors she has chosen for her house are mainly black, white and red. For her shower I made an apron and some potholders out of some really cute fabric Vanessa picked out. The apron is from a book called More Retro Aprons by Cindy Taylor Oates. The potholders are from a pattern called Handy Heart Potholders by Eva Holen of Classic Crafts. Here is Vanessa modeling the apron.

I don't know if you can see it but the apron has three rows of black ruffles along the bottom and one along the top. The ties criss cross in the back. I was surprised at how fast it went together.

The potholders are made out of the same fabric as the apron. This picture is the front of one and the back of the other. The back has two flaps that you put your hand into. They were surprisingly fast to make as well. Vanessa and Emily bought a bunch of things for her kitchen such as cupcake pans, a cookbook, spices, flour, sugar, etc. and we put them all in a big gift basket.

For her wedding Vanessa and I made a Turning Twenty quilt with black and white print fabrics for the blocks and a red, black and white print for the borders and back. It turned out really cute. This picture does not even begin to show how cute it was. We took it at the last minute before we ran to the reception and the lighting was not very good.

Three Sisters

I finally finished the Three Sisters wallhanging. I think I finished it back in January but I didn't want to post a picture until I had the things for the shelf finished.

If you remember this was one of the projects my sisters Gayle and Kaye and I started on our retreat in Canada. This was Kaye's project and it was really fun. I finished the top at the retreat and started the quilting when I got home. I used clear thread and started with free motion stitching around each of the appliques. I was almost done and then something happened with the tension on my machine and so I did the last little bit with a regular foot and just lifting the pressure foot when I needed to turn. Needless to say that was very tedious, especially because I was on the trees with all of their many branches. But I persevered and I am very happy with it.

The picture on the left is the three of us as children and the picture on the right is the one we took in front of the real Three Sisters mountains in Canmore, Canada last summer. For more information about a fabulous quilt shop there check out my sisters blog post. The pillow I just designed and embroidered because I wanted something that actually said we were sisters. There are three little leaf buttons on it. Here is a little closer look.

Cancer Quilt

Well, it has been a while since my last post. I started a new type of job at work and I come home so tired that I can't seem to get anything done. The weekends are always so busy with catching up on housework and such that keeping up with the blog has been difficult. I decided that today was the day to catch up with my posts. I have been doing a few quilty or sewing type thing in the last several months and so now I will share.

I was looking for some pictures for a post and I came across these pictures of a quilt I did almost a year and a half ago. Every year my husband's work has a fund raiser for the Cancer Society and in May of 2007 I decided to donate a quilt to raffle off. I can't remember how much money it brought in, it's been too long, but it turned out really nice. I found some outdoorsy fabric with panels on it that I used for the center of the blocks. Here is the quilt and then a close up of a block.

Yippee! Yo Yos!

One of the projects from our Sister's Quilt Retreat was a Yo Yo flag. This was my niece Tresa's project. She wasn't able to come but she made us all a really cute kit containing a Clover Yo Yo Maker (the small size), red, white and blue fabric squares and a cute hand drawn pattern for us to follow. We worked on them in the evenings while watching TV and Gayle and I worked on them while riding in the car. Poor Kaye had to drive us everywhere and so she didn't get as much yo yo time. I have never really thought I would do a yo yo project. They always seemed like a lot of work...... but......if you use the Clover Yo Yo Maker they are SO easy. What a great gadget! As of this writing Connecting Threads is having a really good sale on the them. I suggest you get some for yourself.

This is my finished Yo Yo Flag. I love it! It was so fun and easy to do. The yoyos are about 1 inch in size and so the flag is about 10 x 7 inches.

We had so much fun making them that mom and I bought all of the other sizes too!

Clover has also made a Flower and a Heart Yo Yo Maker. There are two different sizes of these but we only bought one. You have to draw the line somewhere!

It was so fun making this project! I think I will make it again but with the extra small yoyos. Wouldn't that be so cute? Thanks, Tresa.

Olympic Fun

Well, they are almost over. Hasn't it been great? I wasn't able to watch every night but I loved the nights I could watch. Of course I mean the 2008 Olympics. I know this has nothing to do with quilting but I couldn't let the Olympics pass without at least a nod from me. Well done Michael Phelps! Nice try, Canada! (that goes out to my niece, Denise)

So, before we say, "We'll see you in four years!" I wanted to share a video I found on another blog. This is Paul Hunt of Murray, Utah at the 1988 Olympics. Funny, funny, funny!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EO_BnsrWMnI


Oh yeah! We'll see you in four years!

Postcards from Canada

It has been a busy couple of weeks since we had the Sisters Quilt Retreat and I have finally found a few minutes to tell about it. We had a great time! Lots of time to talk and laugh and quilt and knit and shop hop and sight see and......well you get the picture. The time just flew by and each day brought something fun and new to do. Gayle and I drove up on Saturday, July 19th, her birthday. We thought the 12 hours would really drag but because we really don't get to see each other very often we talked the whole way and before we knew it we were pulling in Kaye's driveway in Lethbridge. We were so excited to be together! Kaye had our rooms ready and even had a mint on our pillows! We each had our own room (thanks Eric!) and I felt so pampered.

On monday the Retreat officially began and we each presented our projects. We decided when we would work on each of them and planned out the week. Kaye had some great ideas on places to see. I was so happy we were together and that I could have a whole week of sisters and quilting that I was up for anything and everything!

There is so much to tell that I have decided to tell about one project per blog and post a picture of the finished project.

My project was quilted postcards. I thought it would be fun to send some postcards home from Canada. This is something that has been popular for a few years and I never really thought I would ever do them but I felt like this was a good opportunity to try them. I bought a couple of books and even practiced a little. I was surprised at how easy they really are. According to the books you can really send them in the mail if they are only 1/8 inch thick. They suggest that you have them hand canceled at the Post Office. We forgot to do that on the two we mailed but they made it home just fine. The hard part was deciding what fabric to take so that we had a variety of things to choose from. I took a LOT of fabric and had to endure some good natured teasing about it but I think it was fun to have many choices. Here are some pics.

This is the practice postcard I made at home. You can't see them very well but there is a crystal on each of the bows.

This is the postcard Kaye made for our mom. Really cute buttons! We didn't mail this one because of the buttons. We just brought it home and gave it to her.

I made this one for my daughter Emily and mailed it from Canada. It arrived in the mail with Vanessa's about ten days after I mailed it. She performed in the Wizard of Oz at her high school this year.

I made this for my daughter Vanessa and mailed it from Canada also. She has a cat named Pre.

This is the back of Vanessa's postcard. You can see where it went through the machine and the postage was canceled. Cool!

Gayle made a couple of really cute postcards for her granddaughters and started some others for her grandsons. Kaye made a really pretty one for her daughter's friend that took care of their house and garden when they came to Utah.

I'm so glad we decided to do this and made it happen. I know it will become one of my fondest memories. Thanks for all of your hard work, Kaye, and for hosting the First Annual Sisters Quilt Retreat! I hope we can do it again next year.