QuiltsByRobin

2009 almost gone!

2009-12-07T11:38:00.000-08:00

The past couple months have been really busy!!
Im sorry I have not been up to date on my blog, but here I am!

Also, I am frequently on facebook, just look me up. My profile picture has the pink rose tatoo so you will know thats me for sure!

Lets recap this year 2009.

1.Hubby lost his job right before Christmas 2008.

2.He was unemployed for 6 months. I loved having him at home! but paying bills was really hard with no money coming in. *sigh*

3.My daughter announced in March she was pregnant with our first grandchild

4.My hours got cut back at the school where I worked as night custodial on call.

5.Hubby started a new job in Lewiston in June.

6.We were forced to sell our house of 8 years for a huge loss in July

7.I found my baby sister on facebook! I had a huge family reunion , seeing my baby sister and my mother , I have not seen them in 20 years! in July

8.We closed the sale of our house on Aug 1, which gave us FIVE WHOLE DAYS to pack up and load into a Uhaul and move to Lewiston.

9.I started living in Lewiston in August. Got hired for a new job, lasted all of 3 days and got fired Hahah! Try being a courier in a town you are not familiar with.

10.My Son started his senior year, at the highschool in our former town. We pay his rent and he stays up there as long as his grades are good!

11.My son started a new job at the local greek restraunt! Yippee!

12.My husbands Mom celebrated her 70th birthday in October, we hosted a big party at our house that she had no clue! Alot of her friends from years ago came and she enjoyed herself alot!

13.November 15th our grand daughter made her entry into the world. And her new adoptive parents were there to see her born.

14.November 21st was my TWENTY YEAR Anniversary with Pat! Wow! Time sure flies fast when your having fun.

And here it is December already. In a couple weeks 2010 will begin and I sure hope its a hella lots better than this year has been!
Below are some pics of the baby :)

Pat and Robin holding first grand daughter Anala born
11-15-09
7 pounds 4 ounces

Anala at two weeks old laying on the quilt I made for her going away present

Anala close up of her darling face, shes so beautiful!

Here is a full shot of the quilt I made for Anala. It is flannel on the front and flannel on the back. I machine quilted all the white area with stipples, and monogrammed her full name and birthday at the top of the quilt in purple thread.
Orange and Blue is my daughter's favorite color so I incorporated that to represent the birth mother.
Pink is My favorite color
Green is my husband Pats favorite color
And the backing/binding is purple
As you can see I made it big enough she will be using that quilt for many years!

Anala wearing frog pajamas, and the adoptive parents had a book with the same title! How cute is that! She is two weeks old in this picture.

Lots of Loves!

Robin

Where did Summer GOOOO???

2009-08-25T08:55:00.000-07:00

My 17 year old son with his dad standing next to our old fireplace right before we moved. This was taken to put side by side with the photo of my son and hubby when we FIRST bought the house. Daddy towered and my son was muuuuuuuuuch shorter! (gotta find that pic!)

Boy I tell ya. This year has been a wild and bumpy ride. I sure could have used a vacation and go for a loooooooooong motorcycle ride to clear my mind!

I sure hope that its done for a while, Im ready for some "down time" to relax!!!

We are officially MOVED! Sold our house in Post Falls Idaho in July, with the closing date of August 1. We were waiting for several weeks to hear from the bank on the approval of offer and when they did finally give us the go-ahead, we only had ONE WEEK to pack everything and get it out of the house. So it was crazy! Rented a 26 foot truck, stuffed it floor to ceiling, front to back and closed the door while shoving a matteress into the truck. BUT.....we wound up leaving all our yard tools at one friends house in his garage, and alot of my personal sewing stuff at my next door neighbors house. We have been making little trips back up to that area and bringing home stuff , and that will be done soon!

I am posting a few pics, didnt feel the need to show you every single room but here are my favorites!

Here is the front of my new house, notice the HUGE Yard that I HAVE TO MOW!!! (all totalled it is about an acre or close to it, there is more lawn in the back too!)

This will be my quilting studio. That pink and white quilt is 100 inches square and there is alot of space around it, so that tells you how big the room is :) The lovely side porch where we have some chairs and a little table so we can watch the birds and squirrels in the morning while drinking coffee. Or at night while we drink a beer :)

the MUCH Anticipated LIBRARY!!! Im So excited to get all my books into those shelves!

Wat else has been going on?

I found my long lost sister on Facebook! I have not seen my mother or my two sisters in 20 years, so it was really exciting to see her email me back! She bought my hubby and I airplane tickets to come to her 40th Birthday party, which turned into a giant family reunion! I got to stay at her house for a whole week and get to know everyone and I had alot of fun!

my sister Merci and I , with my hubby being a goof in the backgroundmy mother and I, we sure do look alot alike nowdays!My sister and I are sewing teddy bears!

I am teaching my neice how to crazy quilt a little purse, and also teaching my sister how to make a log cabin quilt!

Close up of Em doing her stitching

This is my Dad, I havent seen him in twelve years! And my younger sister (his side) and see the cute puppy!

Here is my baby sister on my dads side, with her son and her mom.

This is a good pic of my mother, me and my sister

My daughter is starting to look pregnant hahah. She is a tiny little thing and at almost 7 months pregnant she is just now starting to get a "bump" The baby is due November 11, and she still has not decided if she will keep it or adopt it out. She has found a family she really likes and they want an open adoption so it will be nice to watch our grandchild grow up. We still hope she might keep the baby, and we would help her when she needs it. But we are not getting involved in the decision making part, that is her project!

Did you know there is 4 months exactly until Christmas Day? OH BOY! Time to start writing up schedule of events, planning meals, looking for home decor to dress the house up. Oh and not to mention christmas gifts to be made/bought and christmas cards to address!

Have a great day!!

Robin, located in LEWISTON now!

PLEASE HELP!

2009-04-27T19:27:00.000-07:00

THIS is a post to help a very dear friend of mine Jo and her husband Don. I wanted to share this message with as many people as I can to get the message out and Help Don with his surgery costs.

Please read Jo's message below

************

Donation quilt - Open Heart Surgery fundraiser
In September Don has to undergo open heart surgery to repair or replace the Mitral Valve - and we have finally come up with a way to raise money for what we will owe after insurance pays their part. To read more about Don's surgery - click here. I have been making quilts for years, it is one thing that I can do to contribute to our situation - and we've decided to use one of the quilts for the fund raiser, and it is the Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt that was finished just last year. It is hand pieced and machine quilted, by Julie from Idaho.

It is double bed size - the fabrics are 100% cotton, all tone on tones . . .
Julie did a fabulous job - using her home sewing machine . . .
It is Don's all time favorite quilt - he says it just makes him happy to look at it . . .For a donation of $5.00 you get your name in the drawing five times - a donation of $10.00 gives you 12 chances and $20.00 will give you 25 chances, etc.

To keep this from being an actual raffle - anyone can have their name entered without a donation (though we really do appreciate the donations, but completely understand if you can't donate, not everyone can in these economic times and we don't want you to feel bad about that). Send us your good wishes and prayers - they mean so much to us.I have talked to many internet and local friends - and they are all excited about this and we already have many donations and offers to take donations for us also.

The drawing will be Sept. 6 - Don's birthday - the surgery is scheduled for Sept. 4, at this point. Any money raised over the amount that is needed for our co-pay on the surgery (approx. $25,000 if everything goes smoothly) will be donated to another person or family with a medical need. We welcome ideas of who to donate to once we reach our goal.

To donate, - we are currently working on an online payment process - email for details.We also accept checks, just email for the address to send them to. Some of our friends are taking tickets already and gathering donations, which we truly appreciate. It is amazing the support and love we feel during this stressful and scary time.If you would like to post about this donation quilt on your blog, we surely would appreciate that - and you would get your name in the drawing 5 more times and for each person you send over this way who donates - another 5 times in the drawing.Thank you all for reading this post - and for your support and prayers.

I got a SECOND PLACE Ribbon!

2009-04-20T11:30:00.000-07:00

Hey Everyone!

I entered my crazy quilted color wheel into the Moscow Idaho quilt show and it won second place! I got alot of comments from friends that I knew while I lived there 15 years ago. They were very positive and uplifting words, and I am honored that I got such nice Kudos! These are older ladies, who have been quilting for alot longer than I have, so it was a huge thing for me!

Here are pics, you can click on the pictures to enlarge to see details.

RECIPE!!!

2009-02-27T16:14:00.000-08:00

Ok ladies (and Gents?)
Here is the Pinapple upside down cake recipe!
It is from a very very old cookbook mind you, but it is the very best I have ever had!

You do need an iron skillet :) Or a pan that can be heated on the stove top and then baked in the oven.

1/3 cup of real butter
1 cup of brown sugar
1 cup chopped pecans (or other nuts or none if thats how you want)
8 slices of drained pinapple rings

Melt butter in the iron skillet, then add the brown sugar. Mix it until the brown sugar and butter have melted together. Remove from the heat and sprinkle the nuts into the syrup. Arrange the pinapple slices over the nuts. Set it on the back burner, and preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

Next get the big bowl and mixer out.
1 cup of sifted cake flour (I use self rise, it works fine) but make sure you do sift it!
1 teaspoon baking powder
4 eggs, seperated
1 tablespoon melted butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup white sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt

Sift the flower with the baking powder. Beat the egg yolks until light, add the cooled melted butter, vanilla and mix together

Sift the sugar, beat the egg whites with the salt until stiff. Gradually add the sugar a spoon at a time to the beaten egg whites. Beating well after each addition. Fold in the egg yolk mixture, then fold in the flour about 1/4 c at a time and mix very well.

Pour batter over the pinapple rings in the iron skillet and put in the oven to bake for 30 minutes. Check it to see if its lightly browned on top.

Insert a knife on the outside edge of the pan (careful pans hot!) to loosen the cake away from the pan.

Next put a large plate or platter over the top of the pan, and turn the hot skillet onto the plate. Taking care to center the pan onto the plate because the brown sugar mixture will drizzle down the sides.

Leave the hot pan on the cake plate for about 10 minutes to get all the yummy gooey sticky sweet stuff out of the pan and onto the cake.
Then remove the pan and lick it while you are waiting for the cake to cool off enough to eat!

We usually cant wait, so we are eating it within 30 minutes of removing the pan, and its WONDERFUL when it is still warm!

See Pics below!
ALSO....as I am typing this, I have one in the oven baking!!!!

Its Febuary Already!

2009-02-03T22:19:00.000-08:00

LAST Week, I had a nasty bad craving for the old fashioned home made Pineapple upside down cake. Here is pictures of the process. Using a iron skillet, mix up the sugars, heat til melted with butter, then lay pinapple in, pour batter over and bake.

Afterwards, turn pan onto plate and let all the warm sugars drip all over the cake. About an hour later take a nife to it and EAT! EAT More! ENJOY!

Cant you just SMELL that wonderfullness???? Its killing me to Post about it. I just might have to go make another one! hehehe

a week ago, I had a group UFO day, where a bunch of us picked a UFO (un finished object) and worked on that quilt for the day. We posted emails every 2 hours for progress reports. We had a gal in Africa, a gal in Germany and Many of us in the USA participating. It was great fun!

My UFO was this jewelbox. I made it as a class sample 10 years ago. Never got any sign ups for the class and the store let me keep the sample. I LOVE that top! But it never was finished because I wanted to actually make it bigger to fit my queen bed.

I spent all day on UFO Day making half a million 4 patches. Had to press all the scraps first because they have been stored in a case for most of that 10 year span. Plus I had to wash 1 yard of the cobalt blue, I had purchased at a later time to make the larger border but then forgot to wash it! Silly me huh.

Originally I was going to put white strips in between the pianos and the 4 patches. But after review, and taking the photo to the UFO group, we all agreed that the darker colors would work much better, and Good thing because Hubby said so too!

Heres a flannel scrap blankie I made for my oldest Chihuahua. Hes a smooth coat, meaning he has very little fur and is VERY Cold in the winter months. Hes 8 years old and its starting to affect his agility. I will often find him burrowed deep inside somebody's coat or my own couch throw, wadded up into a ball with him deep inside the middle of it.

This is project I want GONE!!! I tried to sell it on Ebay for 25 dollars. there are 20 blocks and they all measure 9 1/2 inches each. It even comes with a couple left over fat quarters of coordinating prints. DO you like it? You want it? EMAIL Me! I just want to recoup the cost of fabrics invested, and you get a nearly finished quilt out of the deal!

Ok........

Thats all for now Folks!

January 2009

2009-01-07T13:12:00.000-08:00

Blogger is not allowing me to upload pictures right now so I am just letting you all know Im still alive and kicking!

Snow has been deep and frequent around here, keeping us busy trying to shovel sidewalks, driveway and rooftop. At one time we had almost 4 feet accumulated in the front yard.

Our main source of transportation, the Ford Escort broke the tie rod on the front drivers side. This is the car that we JUST put snow tires onto 2 weeks ago! *sigh* Murphy's law kicking into high gear? Hm?

I havent gotten much sewing done, I was tearing up the bathroom floor! Well, I got in deeper than I thought, the floor is rotted underneath the ceramic tile! So I stripped it down to raw wood. And was goign to go buy some new wood, but that darn car broke down so now I cant get the new wood like planned! Hm.....

Is God trying to tell me something????

Ok, now Im going to go SEW! I made up several tote bags using upholstery fabrics. I would show you pictures but blogger doesnt like me right now. I will try again later!

Have a wonderful day!
Robin

Christmas?? Already???? WHAT!!!

2008-12-18T17:06:00.000-08:00

Wow I cant believe its been a month since I Posted! I started November out on great intentions to get lots of things finished for christmas but it all went out the window when I got really sick right before Thanksgiving. I wound up spending most of the week prior to thanksgiving in bed, and hubby did most of the cooking for the actual holiday while I rested on the recliner with my 4 cuddly chihuahuas. Here are 3 of the silly little brats cuddled up with a flannel throw I made for hubby last christmas. THEY adopted it as their own little blankie, and on days that are chilly they burrow down in between the folds to keep warm. #4 Cherokee was sitting with his boy in another chair.

Heres the table setting for our 19th anniversary dinner date on Nov 21. The dishes are Sebring from the early 1800's passed through my grandmother on my fathers side. I did a little research on Sebring, there was a factory back east who did these dish sets, plus many other styles but they closed the factory late in the 1800s. Thats all the information I can find about it, PLUS I have only seen this particular design ONCE in my life besides the ones I own. It was a plate and teacup in a pawnshop, and he wanted like 150 bucks just for the one! And that was the only one he had, no others!

The crystal glassware was Princess house, given to us at our wedding by hubbys sister, since she was a Princess House sales person.

The silverware are antique silver set from Hubbys side of the family, complete with its own velvet lined hardwood box. Such precious treasures! I have no heirlooms from my own biological family except the dishes, grama gave to me when we got married.

Here is our family! This was an impromptu photo snapped on Thanksgiving day, so I could have a family picture for our Christmas cards that I mail out every year. My son Justin in the back is 16 years old, and my daughter Melodie had her 20th birthday on Dec 16th!

This is our "wonky" blue spruce in the front yard. We just had a serious snow storm that gave us nonstop snowfall for over 48 hours! This is the second day of the snowstorm, and the roads are still unplowed! You can see my garbage can, it is almost buried!

Here is Rusty my fluffy Chihuahua having fun in the snow! He wanted to go out and play SO bad, we just had to laugh and let him go. We didnt even have a potty spot shoveled out yet, he just went bouncing around and you could see his tail but nothing else!

This is the next day after the storm, we got out and shoveled a small path for the dogs to get out and do their business. As you can see, we got LOTS of snow! Theres still about 4-6 inches the dogs had to walk in, and the wall next to the dog is the untouched snow in the rest of the yard!

This afternoon, the shoveled area was filling up with snow again. You cant even see the stairs that my dog is climbing down.......

Wheres the gas bbq at? All I see is SNOW! Good thing we are out of propane, Hubby likes to grill year round and snow doesnt stop him!

This is one car shoveled out so we could go get essentials from the store. Even so, the roads were really nasty bad, and lots of cars were stuck or in ditches. We dont have chains, so we had to take advantage of good conditions because we are suppose to get more snow, plus colder temperatures!

My son is 6 ft 4 inches tall, and he is standing in the middle of our front yard at 7 am. This is pretty deep stuff!

This is a little wooden toolbox I made for my sons christmas gift. It is scrap pieces of wood strips glued together to create "boards" then all of it was stained and nailed together. Its about 12 inches long, by 8 inches wide inside the box and 6 inches deep. Perfect for a teenager who put his skateboarding keys and screwdrivers into!

Pretty cool for being discarded wood scraps from school! Since hubby is unemployed and I only work on call , very little to be had for Christmas unless we make our gifts. We will have a warm house, and food , that is whats most important right now!

Here are two jewelry boxes I made as gifts. The one with butterflies on it was very simple and it was my first attempt, it took me 3 days with the assembly of pieces, glueing pieces to create the box, then glueing fabric around and assembling the whole project. The crazy quilted one took alot longer to make since I had to make the crazy quilted part for the top, then sew it to the rest of the fabric piece and then assemble the parts to create the jewelry box. Total of 1 week on that one!

I hope Everyone has a happy and wonderful Christmas, Hannukah and Happy New Year!

What a week of destashing!

2008-11-13T16:47:00.000-08:00

ahhhhhh the memories.....
Take a trip down memory lane with me.........
20 years ago on december 16 1988 I gave birth to my first baby girl. I was expecting to have a boy so I had nothing for a baby girl to wear! She was a healthy lovely little baby, quiet and happy all the time (what happened!)
anyways, I was a single Mom with a newborn baby in arms and counted on help from the social services and charity to get me through the rough times. At that time I was living in a really old house that only had wood heat, and it was way out in the sticks of Bothell Washington.
Well, I went to Crisis Pregnancy center in Bothell/Seattle and asked them for assistance with the newborn baby. I had literally nothing for her to wear except some used sleepers I had bought at St Vincent De Paul right before she was born. Of course they were BLUE hehehe.

They gave me a call a few days before she was born, and told me to come in, have a friend bring me in a car because they had a bundle of goodies for me. Ok, that got my attention! I walked in and there were THREE large stuffed full boxes!! There were some warm cute clothes for a little newborn girl, plus a couple outfits for her to grow into. A gorgious crocheted layette set with bonnet, sweater and booties, a hand made quilt with pink bows and rocking horses, on the back was flannel pin stripes of pink and white (I still have the layette and quilt!) baby wipes, powder, bath and lotion, a baby tub and disposable diapers to last a couple weeks! I was in SHOCK let me tell ya, I started to cry!

They also gave me a donated crib and bedding for the crib, what a wonderful thing!

Ok so what does that have to do with the pictures today? Well.....
This coming December my daughter Melodie celebrates her 20th birthday!!!
And I decided that this Christmas for my charity donation I would make up a bunch of flannel baby quilts and give them to my local chapter of Crisis Pregnancy Center in her honor!
They are all FLANNEL. And made with all my scraps that I have been hoarding for a couple years.

They measure about 45 x 55-60 so its a good starting point for a newborn baby who is in need.

This particular pattern is one that I have made up and have used alot for making quick quilt tops. I have made a twin bed size one for my mother in law 2 years ago, and 3 years ago I made one for my korean daughter who lived with us as an exchange student and is still an active part of our family unit.

For my DESTASH Challenge, I would say using up 90 percent of my flannel scraps was a HUGE Dent! I still have one shoe box with bright scraps I have not used. Since there are 6 quilt tops, I would say thats about 8 yards of scraps I used up! the BOX that they were all collect into was the size a computer monitor comes in from the store! NOW that box has been disposed of and the last of the scraps are in the little plastic shoe box! Progress!

******update: Quilts donated on Nov 14 to the local quilt shop. Very happy to see and wanted show and tell. Lots of ohhs and awwws to my embarrassment hahah.

AND NOW.....to kick off the Special season of Christ's Birthday! Im turning my playlist on to play CHRISTMAS Music!

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Another update! This past weekend Nov 15-16 was Judy's Quiltathon(http://www.patchworktimes.com/)

and I spent it sewing up these blocks for American Hero. (http://www.americanhero.com/)

Two tops made for 2 wounded soldiers to cherish! That was fun!

This is the dinner I made for myself for the Quiltathon! Nummy! Koreans call it Gim Bap. Japanese call it Sushi. I would rather call it Gim Bap because when Japanese say sushi, they mean that it has raw fish in it, where the korean gim bap does not have raw fish.

There is rice, precooked and chilled. then dried seaweed. And veggies of choice. Mine were water chestnuts, cucumber, carrots, and avacado. And I used kanimi imitation crab.
Here it is ready to dip in soy sauce and wasabi! I had dull knives all over the house so I just dipped it whole like this and bit off the end. DELICIOUS!!! Nobody else eats it, its all for ME!

Halloween is OVER Thank Goodness!

2008-11-10T15:42:00.001-08:00

WHEW!!!! Im not fond of halloween with all the candy everywhere and the kids who are all jacked up on the sugar overload. Wont even go into what my job is like at night when I have to clean the schools after their halloween parties hahaha. Exhausting!
Heres some cute pics for ya.........
Justin my son, just got his new hat! I had a custom order made up by Carole S, of a chulla hat in purple, green and orange with black seperation. He LOOOOOVES His new hat! You should have seen this kid when I gave it to him. Jumping up and down and screaming "AWWWWESOME.....SWEEEEET........FREKEN COOL!!!!!" hehehe. Hes only 6 ft 4 inches and towers above me so I had to aim the camera up high to get his face! (of course he humored me and bent over just a bit)

I am the owner of our local Freecycle (www.freecycle.org) chapter and right after halloween I posted a message that I would like to adopt everyones discarded pumkins so I could make breads and muffins for winter. Well, four people responded and I made arrangements to pick up. EACH person had multiples of uncarved pumkins so by the time I did all 4 pick ups, my backseat was full! heheh. The one on the floor is so big and heavy I cant pick it up so I will have my son get it to the kitchen table for me when the time comes.

All these baggies of frozen pumkin puree!!! *sigh* Theres 7 in the front plus another 8 behind those! And one loaf of pumkin bread sitting on the top, the other one was quickly gobbled up by the starvin martins as soon as it was out of the oven. it took me all day from noon til about 8 to cut the whole pumkin, take skin off, chop and then boil it down. If I had thought about it I would have shown you my stove, I had three very full dutch ovens all boiling at the same time! And while I was doing the peeling and chopping I was watching HGTV, with cutting board on my lap, bucket for peels at my feet and big tupperware bowl at my side for the chopped pieces. Very industrious! OH...By the way. All this work was just ONE very large pumkin, the twin to the one sitting on the floor! All the others in the pic above HAVE NOT been cooked yet (as of today nov 10)

Stashbusting 2009

2008-11-03T07:52:00.001-08:00

Ok lets see. With our finances in bad shape (like everyone else Im sure!) I decided I want to use more of my own stash instead of buying more. I do have PLENTY here I can use! Oh gosh I have a collection of orientals, fairy frost, red/whites, batiks galore plus Im an avid scrap saver!
SO here we go! Im gonna sign up and dedicate to use more of my own! So I guess I should start COUNTING how much yardage I actually have. Hahaha and my math sucks bigtime!

Who's gonna join me on this adventure? Heres the link to the original post by Judy Laquidera http://www.patchworktimes.com/category/stashbusting/

Have a great fall leaves colorful Monday!
Robin

I got MUSIC!!!!

2008-10-30T15:09:00.000-07:00

Oh my gosh Im SOOOOO Happy!!!!!
I finally have my very own playlist!
These are some of my very favorite songs. I listen to a large variety of genre in music but I lean mostly toward the easy contemporary type.

ALSO, I have already set up my christmas musicbox too! So sometime in November I will change my regular out for Christmas classics! :)

Have a wonderful day today!
Robin

October 23 already?

2008-10-23T11:48:00.000-07:00

Here the fall colors are showing up , reds, golds, yellows, vibrant oranges. Its so beautiful around here and yet its a warning to me that snow is right around the corner, my least favorite season. I dont mind the white stuff as long as I am inside but when I drive it better be gone!

I had two entries into the Spokane quilt show, and here are pics of those projects! I am hoping you will be able to click on the images to make them larger so you can see the wonderful detail.

I loved this little banner I saw at the quilt show. Its SO true! And fits my personality perfectly :)

Here I am standing next to my Crazy quilted Color wheel! I had so much fun and was challenged by this project. I created all the fabric wedges in april, and then for the entire summer I spent my free time embellishing. I usually had one wedge finished in 2 weeks or less. I did hand dye all the laces so they were unique to their wedge. It was ALOT of fun! but like I said CHALLENGING! I am a girl who absolutely hated anything that required handwork, and I am quite proud of my stitching!
the whole quilt finished, with binding. This is in natural sunlight so you can see the vibrance. It is about 40 inches square. I used navy satin on the back and I did the hand tied black flosses, with the tassle part on the back of the quilt so it wouldnt detract from the front. Karen in OH gave me that suggestion~

Heres the blues. I have to admit they were my favorite ones to work on :)

Heres the reds. I have to give my MUCH appreciated Thanks to Gail O for helping me do some stitches on the pink/red and the orange/red wedges. I was running out of time later in the summer,and I asked her if she would do these two wedges , in trade for a themed packet. So I sent her a fat gallon bag of FALL Themed threads, beads, fabrics etc. She did a Fantastic job!

Heres the bright sunny yellow and oranges. These were the first ones I made earlier this spring. So the embellishments are a bit rough on this one, compared to the rest of the wheel, when I had more experience I get better at the skillz.

Heres the green segments. I have to give Kudos to Carole S for doing the two green wedges for me :) Again I was running out of time in august to get this finished and she offered to help me out, and I sent her a fat gallon baggie of YELLOWS, all flosses, beads, buttons, ribbons and fabrics. She did an awesome job!

Here I am standing next to the walker bag that I had made for the quilt show. I asked the coordinator to please put a for sale tag but it didnt happen. But I thought it was VERY creative that they managed to find a walker to put the bag onto as a prop! And I was tickled to see they did that up on a table so everyone could see up close and personal my work. I had ALOT of wonderful compliments. After the show, I took the bag home and shortened the straps so that it is closer to the handle bars, it was a few inches too low for a granny to be able to put her things in the bag.

Close up of the walker. I am hoping you can click on the image to bring it closer so you can see more detail.

Here is the bag just after I finished making it, still on the table.

BUSY BUSY!!! Wow Where did summer GOOOO???

2008-09-11T11:56:00.001-07:00

IN MEMORIAM of the people who lost their lives on September 11, 2001. It has been 7 years ago already. But yet I remember clearly like yesterday what I was doing and where I was at. I did not lose anyone personally but I had many friends on the East Coast, who had relatives lost. Early this morning at 6:30 I put my large flag out on the front porch in remembrance. And a special flag it is as well because it was given to us when Dad passed away 1 year earlier almost to the day.

END OF JULY:
Ok heres a couple pictures of the past month. My hubby and I took a backroads trip to see our friends Lynn and Lorin down in Lewiston. On the highway it is 2 1/2 hours but taking the backroads turned it into 4 1/2 hours, with Fantastic scenery and very enjoyable cool weather.

This is Clearwater river, just outside of Lewiston heading east
The Kendrick Julietta grade as we were heading up the hillside. You can see the cut into the hill where the road travels, and it is very steep!
This is in the midst of our travel through the backroads. Just outside a little town called Santa, Idaho
The lake at St Maries Idaho
Some wildflowers on the roadside. Not sure but possibly syringa

BEGINNING OF JULY:

This is where I worked all summer. NO Air conditioning! And it got hot in that window. We did have a nice breeze blow through most days because its right off the highway. Between 10 am and 1 pm it was slamming busy crazy with hundreds of cars wanting in as fast as they could get!
Try to guess how many times I got to say with cheerful voice and smile on face. Hello, Parking is four dollars unless you have a silverwood season pass.
My buddy Lynn on left and Me on right.
Im in tye dye tank, Lynn and Lorin on their bike, and my hubby Pat in the back wearing black helmet
Miss Canayla is the older one by 4 years, but smaller. SERIOUS attitude! Shes nicknamed BOO. And Rusty is the baby at just 1 year this month, and weighs twice as much. Hes nicknamed BEAR. Gee I wonder why?

START OF AUGUST:

the three NICU gowns I made for Kathy's first grand daughter born at a wee 3 pounds

thats my hand on the gown to show you just how small a 3 pounder's gown would be!

START OF SEPTEMBER:

I started this project in april , inspired by Janets and Lauri's color study. I have always wanted a quilt made using the color wheel and this is what I decided to do! Crazy Quilt!
my first 3 wedges all embellished
this is almost finished, I took this pic start of august and since then I have completed all the embellishments of the 12 wedges and Im sewing it onto the black velvet backing now.
This is the quilt that Lynn made when she came up for her first visit in two years! We celebrated by shopping for batik fabrics at Bearpaw in Coeur d'alene and then sewed for the entire week she visited!

Laconner Quilt Museum WOW!!!! Another great part of our Shop Hop Trip

2008-07-12T17:17:00.000-07:00

Hello Again. I had to work a couple days and now I have time again to make another page of our wonderful trip to washington coast!

If you want to see previous posts about our trip , you can scroll down the sidebar on the right and it will be in the month of June or something like that, I cant remember off the top of my head right this minute. Or at the bottom it has a link that says previous or older posts and you can click that.

I realized on the first post that I had some of the shops out of sequential order but thats because I was tired, rushed and blogger was having fits with me so I just gave up and left the post the way it was. Sorry about that.

Anyways, on to the wonderful LaC0nner Quilt Museum!

Boat art on the boardwalk in LaConner. I really liked to see the little pieces of art and sculpture while we were waiting for the Museum to open.
A little bird house that we took a picture of on the main street.

It was low tide on the water, and also the condos are really cool looking with the cedar shingles!
The bridge in the background, and a sculpture of an Eagle with rocks and grass, this was out on the boardwalk.
I love old wood boats so of course I had to take a pic of this one
We are inside the Museum now! This is the raffle quilt in the main entrace
I thought this was a great quilted respresntation of the Gaches Mansion! Almost looks like a Rebecca Barker piece

This house is HUGE! I am standing across the road to get the entire building into the camera frame. I cannot imagine the work that the hired staff had to do to keep this wonderful place clean! Merav and I sit on the front porch and one of the museum helpers took a picture of us. That was very kind of her!
There are photos on the walls of the house back in the day of its prime. There was a large fire that burned up the 3rd floor and it was restored when the place was bought to become a museum
Fire in action, I can imagine that this was a very hot fire!
Timeline of the mansion , who owned it, when it burned, and when it was restored, and when it became the museum. Not sure if you can click it to make it come up larger but you can try.

This quilt was laying on the huge table in the formal dining room. It had a notebook and questions. What was the name of this quilt, and when would it have been made?
The quaint little umbrella stand at the entrance. Isnt that just the neatest thing, and see the boots underneath?
This is a very pretty painting of the mansion with quilts all outside hanging on the fence.

The quilt is an antique hanging in the front side room just as you enter. I would think this might have been the mens den or mabe a sitting room for guests who waited for the butler to call the owner of the home.

This little sideboard was full of silver service trays of many sizes and uses! I was very impressed to see so much all in one place :) GORGIOUS antique crazy quilt made in the late 1800's if I remember right. I hope you can click on it to see closer details.
On the left is the servants stairs, and on the right was the owners and guests stairs. And the servants were never allowed to use the owners stairs. I had read about this in books of the old times but had never seen one in person before!
Piano in another one of the rooms, probably the living room where the fireplace was located
a little spinning wheel set up, and there was another very large one set up in another one of the rooms.
This would have been the way to cook meals back in the day. Build a fire in the stove, put the kettle of water on the back to warm up and bake the biscuits and fry the eggs all the while keeping the fire going to keep the food hot!And the kitchen was actually small compared to the rest of the rooms in the house
Lovely little treadle machine in one of the rooms.

Very ornate chandelier in the formal dining room, and this thing was HUGE!
Here is the main fireplace in the sitting room. I have wondered if those photos would be the owners of the Gaches Mansion back in the day?
Baby highchair, I cant see my kids sitting still in that one! They would have climbed out and took the blocks with them hahah.
another sideboard in the kitchen with antique dishes in it.
This case holding antique quilts was on the 3rd floor, with the exhibits, actually it was located in the little tower room (round room on corner)
**********************

OK following are the quilts displayed on the second floor. It is the Traveling exhibit for "SPICE OF LIFE" which will be auctioned off at the APNQ quilt show in Seattle during August. It traveled around the USA for 2 years before coming back home again.

Bathroom, look at the porclain shoe collection over the pitcher and bowl
Heres that large spinning wheel I mentioned earlier

This one is a beautiful one, nature capturedd in fabric

I WANNA BUY THIS ONE!!!! Can somebody bid on it and send it to me as a RAK?
This is the same scene but done by a different person with brighter fabrics. Merav really liked this one.

This one is really pretty too, some of it shimmered but you cant see it in the picture

This was a cool one too, the gradiation of colors

And then there is whimsy in the exhibit too! You might be able to click it and make it larger to see the printed notes, it was so funny!

This one was SO perfect, for SPICE of life. I was so inspired that I bought several pieces of coffee prints and would like to make something similar.

Once you have seen all the entries you could vote on your favorite ones. Well THIS is the one I voted for. It was embellished with sparklies, beads, angelina, and just looked LOVELY up close and personal. I wouldnt mind buying this one too!

My threee favorite things. Quilts. Flowers, and Sewing machine, even if it was an antique treadle.

Left was a garlic farm and right is jars of spices. Very nice!
Lovely flowers!
Im not sure if this was actually in Spice of Life, if I remember right it was on the stair wall but it was still a very unique piece!
Well, of course we have spices of India and very well made too

***************************

ON the Third floor is a special exhibit by a woman named Anita Mayer. Her arts are very unique and very enjoyable to look at! I got some close ups of her detailed pieces , they are very inspiring for those who like to crazy quilt like I do!A blurb about the woman who does these peices One of her journals that was at the exhibits, she had a journal for every one of her pieces but this is just an example of her journal

This particular jacket seems to appeal to me the most out of all of the jackets. Probably because they are colors that I use alot in my own projects. See the close up detail and you see that Anita used alot of tiny pieces like confetti and then overlaid with tulle and hand quilted through all layers.

and of course of the jackets with doilies hand died and beaded with embellishments this might have to be my favorite of the style. But I also really like the black one with bright doilies on it. See close up for detail of beading

Since we arent allowed to touch, but from looking up close I believe this may be felted wool or something similar to wool. it was thick and slightly fuzzy textured.

matching hat that is also decorated with braided rope, sequins and beading all over

Those are hand dyed doilies sewn on to dangle and swing as the person walks in the coat, musch like the clapper fringe styled dresses of long ago.

This one made me think of a ancient middle eastern royalty outfit with cap. Very richly decorated with beads and quilting
This particular jacket is a reversible piece with dark colors on the outside and very bright colors on the inside. Very creative!
Im not sure why the pictures of this one didnt turn out as well, but this one is my other favorite with black as the background and brightly colored doilies hand died and beaded all over.
This jacket really impressed me with alot of antique laces and hand made pieces as well. See close up for detail. Also had a matching hat that went with the outfit. I think of this as a Wedding outfit but Im not sure if thats what Anita had in mind when she made it.

it was made with silk dupioini or some other type of heavy silk fabric. The color isnt really true here but in real life it was like a coffee creamer color of cream, rich and delicious!

Some of Anita's scarves that she had made and displayedAn ornamental piece that Anita made to go with one of her outfits but Im not sure which one

2008 WASHINGTON SHOP HOP!!!

2008-07-12T12:38:00.001-07:00

Ok Here is the story of our very first Western Washington Shop hop in 2008! Merav flew from Israel to spend 3 weeks here , her first trip ever to the USA and we decided that doing the shop hop would be a fun and memorable way to visit the country and see the scenery of different places.

Im going to do this in several stages. Lots of pics so it might take a bit to load up for you who have dialup. The following pics are Day 1 of our trip! And of course theres TONS more pics that I did not include, because we had over 900 pics total of our whole trip!
DAY ONE getting ready!

This is the RV we rented for 7 days, I am wearing pink and merav is wearing black. We are tired already because we had to drive an hour back to my house with the RV and it was a bit stressful learning to drive that big thing! but VERY Comfortable!

Here is the driving part of it. the seats were velour and very soft and comfy. AWESOME stereo set up with cd player and great volume. We played ENYA for most of the trip!

our mini kitchen, complete with microwave and fridgerator, cook top that we never did use.

Here is the table we ate at, used the laptop every night and just sat to read books to relax. Both of us are avid readers so we got alot of reading done at night when we weren't shopping all day

DAY TWO, ON OUR WAY!!

on our way! This is just past medical lake/spokane in the rolling hills of corn

vantage bridge as we are coming down the canyon
This is nearing Brewster

Day one of our trip. We crossed Idaho into washington and went northwest to grand coulee dam. This is Merav and that is the dam behind her. She was impressed with how large and powerful it was even though we were a few miles above it.heading up the canyon towards the mountainssome pretty scenery as we get closer to the mountains

Gorgious waterfalltop of the mountain pass. Middle of june and theres still several feet of snow on the ground. It was chilly outside when we stopped for a break
the Peaks. We are at about 4000 feet before heading back down the wet side

the lake I love to see, but can never remember the name of it

We are crossing over Marble Mount and this is that lovely unique green lake that I love. I havent been to this area in 20 years but it still looked as lovely as I remembered it. and Merav totally enjoyed driving through all the lush greenery and seeing the lake and little towns.

another shot of that lovely green water
Here we are entering into Sedro-wooley, a lovely fish sculpture and flowers!All of main street in Sedro-woollley is lined with wood carvings. They have a loggers chainsaw carving competition every year

Im sleepy, gonna snuggle up to old cowpoke here
Me in green, Merav in black standing next to the bear sculpture
Merav on left, me in the middle, Diane on right , we stayed in her driveway for our first night on the road.

DAY THREE START THE SHOP HOP! Heres the first shop , in Lynden washington!

Our first quilt shop! and we went to 25 of them in 3 days! it was exhausting, but alot of fun and we met up with many friends along the way.
I just HAD to have a pic of this little baby!
driving through Lynden to the next quilt shop Here we are in Anacortes, and it was late in the day but we did manage to get both stamps right before closing. then we took a leisurely walk around town and enjoyed the scene and sunset on the bluff. Kinda blurry but this is the Madrona tree on the anacortes bluff overlooking town.
this is Anacortes at sunset, on the top of the bluff looking back down. It was gorgious and a nice warm breeze blowing.sunset on the bluff, thats me sitting on the rock in case you didnt know :)Should I make a quilt with this picture? Its stunning! We spent the night in Anacortes at the safeway parking lot. Shoulda just stayed up at the bluff overlooking town it would have been Alot quieter when we tried to sleep!the one quilt shop in anacortes, and forgot to take a pic of the other quilt shop just 2 blocks away!
DAY FOUR HITTING THE SHOPS EARLY! driving from anacortes south to another quilt shop

Merav drives the entire trip. Which I was VERY greatful for! But I was the navigator with the tom tom in hand, programming all the stops. We only got lost 3 times in all our trip!

another lovely scenic view as we were driving towards Everett washington

This little shop was wayyyyyyyyyyy out in the boonies, but a GREAT Shop! I wouldnt mind going back there again!

the little watermill that the shop had trickling , next to the front door. Adorable!

Crossing a bridge over a river, not sure which one but up there north of Everett somewhere

I love treadles and of course had to snap pics of them every time I saw one!

Four corners quilt shop. A very nice one!

another shop. All of these were visited on our first day of shop hop!
Lovely little machine, I would love to have brought this one home with me!

Mount Rainier, and it was a sunny warm day when I took this. We are still about 100 miles away from it so that explains a bit of the fuzziness in the pic.
a GORGIOUS quilt I just had to have this picture! I woulid love to make one like this!Flowers growing in the field, I do believe this is actually a flower farm, north of EverettIm on the left in white tank, Molly in back center, Dawn in pink and Merav in the front. Finally the day is over and we are camping out at Dawns place for the night. I think we hit 8 shops on that first day! Whew!

On my next blog session I will show you the Laconner Quilt Museum at the Gaches Mansion in Laconner Washington. We spent THREE HOURS in that place and took lots of pics so be ready to ooooh and ahhh over wonderful quilty arts!

The Month of June in Pictures

2008-07-02T11:07:00.000-07:00

OK!!! Here it is July 2 and I am FINALLY posting pics of our trip!

Merav, my friend from Israel came to visit me in person after 1o years of being internet buddies. So of course I had to give her the life time experience on her first trip to USA.

my dear friend Lis, Me in the middle and Merav on the other side of me. We went for a little trip south of my house to visit my dear friend Lis, and also my very good friend Lynn but didnt get a pic of her with Merav. Not sure how we managed to forget that!

First on the list was to go to Leavenworth Washington for a Quilters retreat for four whole days!

Top of main street in Leavenworth

Look at the artwork, merav says its onestroke painting

CHEESEMONGERS!!!! My favoritest place besides the retreat! I come here and buy my Ekte Gjietost cheese which is only available in very few places and this is one! Its a norwegian imported goat cheese thats cooked down to a brown color and is wonderful on crackers!

really nice idea, ride a horse and carriage through town and get a tour guide! We didnt do this but it was neat to watch others do it.

Main street downtown Leavenworth

a collection of miniature cuckoo clocks (magnets I think?)

Below are some photographs that are hung inside the Retreat hallways , they are really neat to stop and read about the history of the town and the building we were staying at.
Some historical pics of the town 100 years ago
Digging out the train that came with supplies, that was a big snow storm!
Frame with several historical documentations and pics of that time

The shingle for our retreat and quilt shop all in one spot!
Next are some photos of the rooms inside this wonderful building. It is a combined Bed and Breakfast/Retreat as well as a quilt shop all in one building!

sitting corner in our bedroom , Everything is antique, the clothes on the walls, the quilts on the walls and beds and even the furniture pieces
the other corner with tv and my laptop
above the headboard, lovely antique quilts all over the place~!
miniature quilt framed
another antique miniature quilt framed

hand crafted bear and cute pillow next to it

the upstairs sitting room, look at all the antique clothes, and quilts!
sitting room downstairs just off the kitchen
my favorite quilts in the upstairs main room
one side of the kitchen with dishes for breakfast , cuckoo clocks and other antique ornamentals wonderful collection of antique tea cups and saucers
the other side of the kitchen with the tables for us to eat breakfast , above are kitchen items and aprons of the day long ago when women wore these things on a regular basis

antique crazy quilt hung in the sewing room

Merav standing in front of the wooden toystore.

AND NOW....The quilters retreat SHOW AND TELL section!
First off, here are several pictures of the library blocks we made for our hostess Joy. She coordinates the retreat every year at Leavenworth and she is a librarian with a passion for books and quilting and often combines the two in her projects. A block with names of booksthis is my contribution, its a silkie photo in a frame with crazy quilt stitchesseveral other blocks with books and other knick knacks you would find on a librarians bookshelfmore pictures. They are all so cute! Merav is cutting out her jacket pieces

Sewing the pieces to create a jacket.Merav's very first attempt to make a quilted jacket and it turned out very well!

The Jacket was made with several shades of blues, greens and purple batiks
Rhonda with her little applique blockSheila's starry quiltJoys Projects, She is a librarian so she does alot of quilting by hand that are book related

Joy also does alot of baltimore album type quilts in smaller sizesThese couple quilts belong to Jean, the first one is blocks swapped at WASIQ groupHungry Hungry Catapillar!Jeans Grandmothers Flower garden, all done by hand and took several years!Donna with her machine applique with batik Salmon wallhanging. She did several of these projects while at retreat but I think I only got one or two in the cameraHeres the orca one that I really wanted to show you, I found it after I was done postingDonna with her totem wallhangingI think this ones Donna Kays too
This one Must be Melody's or Cindys. They both Love purple and yellow combinations so it coulld be either one.
Sue did this cinderella quilt and then hand quilted, and put hot fix jewels around it to make it glittery.Heres another of Donna Kays fish applique!Melissas Dear jane project and shes very happy its almost finished. Yes she does plan to put the triangle border around itMelodys autumn sampler. Very pretty!Melody or Cindy made this little cutieAlso Melodies, the hand embroidery work she has worked on for several yearsA little project that Melody made for her fridgeratorJulies quilts got lots of reactions and you will see why!That looks like a Judy Neimeyer pattern! All done in batiks!Julie with another impressive paper pieced quilt

OK!!!!! Thats all for now folks. BUT be on the lookout in a couple days I will post pics of the 2008 WASHINGTON STATE SHOP HOP pics!

My latest doings, keeping busy for sure!

2008-06-04T11:25:00.001-07:00

This is a picture of the Lewiston Orchards, which is the outside perimeters of the city of Lewiston Idaho. Higher elevation, its like the slopes coming out of the deep bowl of desert heat(YUCK) but it sure is pretty in the spring when the crops are all coming in at different times.
my friend Lorin holding his chihuahua and my chihuahua. they are brothers from the same litter but they sure dont look anything alike! Mine is the one with big stand up fluffy ears and he is about 4 pounds heavier than his tiny brother.
This is the most recent quilt Lynn made while I was there visiting. She is making it for her nephew who just graduated with honors from boot camp. This quilt for Nick is really a special project that lynn is doing. She bought some awesome fabric on ebay that is rolling prairies and farmlands in patriotic prints, with barns and tractors. VERY representative of North Idaho country where Nick was born and raised so this will be a comforting reminder of HOME when he is deployed to iraq next month. CLICK ON PICS TO SEE CLOSER DETAIL
Heres Lynn taking a short break from sewing, to cuddle Sparky, her puppy who was feeling neglected while we sewed.

The love quilt that I helped to put together and then machine quilted for a member of one of my yahoo groups.
close up of the quilting I did on this quilt.
Here I am starting to make some raised garden boxes. to plant tomatos into shortly
Nobody was helping me to do this, I just up and decided that I wanted this done NOW and i was tired of waiting for somebody to help. Well then the boys came out and dumped all the dirt into the boxes for me after I was done building.
Now its finished, and theres 16 tomato plants in there. I wanted a variety of tomatoes and at my sons annual greenhouse sale at school they plant in pods of 4 for I got 4 different pods of tomatoes and each variety had 4 plants! I will not run out of tomatos this year! By the way, I bought sweet 100's, romas, early girl and beefy boy. Gonna try my hand at sundried tomatoes too if the weather is hot long enough this fall

No Pics today, try again tomorrow

2008-05-29T11:18:00.000-07:00

BUT I have to put in a little note anyways.
Im home again, a bit early. I was suppose to go on vacation for almost two weeks for quilting and relaxing. But Mom (hubbys mother) was put in the hospital and then an emergency happened so he had to fly down on his birthday weekend. And I came home early to run the house before it fell down from neglect hehehe.
I did take some pics, but the camera is still packed so I need to get it, offload and put up the pics. Give me a few hours to get that under control!
My summer cq block is ready to be mailed! I wish I had taken a before/after so you could see what had been done before I ruined it. but I didnt take a pic, silly me.

Have a great day!
Robin

Crazy Busy!

2008-05-13T12:02:00.001-07:00

Fall themed block, what I think Fall represents here in the lovely Idaho State
Winter themed block, notice the deer in the center? Each season has a center motif :)
Spring themed block, not finished yet but it sure is pretty already!

Here are my crazy quilt blocks for season themed swap. I have not taken pics of the finished blocks after they were returned to me. Because I havent gotten the spring one back yet! And right now I am working on putting stitches and beads onto the summer themed block so I dont have a pic of it yet. Im waiting on a crochet pansy to put onto the summer block and hasnt arrived just yet :)

Also this past weekend I built two raised garden boxes (4 ft x 8 ft x 12 in) and filled one up with dirt and planted 16 tomato plants! I was feeling the pain in my neck and shoulders for a couple days after that experience! It didnt help matters that I worked 8 days straight and had 1 day off, went to wally world and packed 16 bags of potting soil into my trunk cuz nobody was around to assist with loading. Ooooh! Honey will you rub my shoulders please?? PLEASE???? Pretty Pleaaaaaaaase???

Now Im working another 8 days straight, and immediately tuesday morning very early I am leaving for a week of sewing at my best friends house! Yippee!!! I havent decided yet what I am taking to work on and I have been too busy to think about it! hahah.

Now Im running off to work in an hour so I need to get ready.

Robin

Quilts that Im working on

2008-04-05T20:34:00.001-07:00

Hey Everyone! I hope you are having a good "SPRING"

Well here it is April 5th and we got more snow today. Oh well! I just KNOW that Spring is right around the corner! So Get here already!

Here are some pics of what I have been doing in April. My little 4 pound chihuahua Canayla insisted that she REALLY wanted to be with me while I sewed! Which was unusual for her, normally she likes to snuggle into the flannel scraps box and supervise me from that spot.

Here is the finished quilt, Lynn bought the fabric and started making the trip around the world. Then last year right before my birthday, her dad passed away so she couldnt finish it without crying. So she gave it to me on my birthday last year, and for my birthday this year, I had it quilted and finished and showed it to her when I went to visit her last week. And of course Canyala was inspecting it to make sure it met her approval. I know she likes it when she licks it. I called her name so she stopped licking long enough to look at me while I snapped the camera LOL.

Some Easter cards I made and mailed to close friends. Only heard back from one person that they got it. I hope everyone else got theirs too.
My two daughters on my birthday! Ju Young drove over from Seattle on march 24 to surprise me for my birthday! Isnt that such a great picture of my two daughters! Ju Young is 20 and going to college. Melodie is 19 and thinking about life still.

All the various star blocks that were made for my birthday, from the birthday block swap on the Loose Threads group. I love them all! Now I will put them with the applique ones I got last year, and start to finish making my Robert Callahan styled quilt! Which is in its third year of being a WIP.

Here are the black and batik blocks that Lynn and I made while I was at her house for a couple days to celebrate my birthday. She made all the same blocks but using some different colors. It was alot of fun.

I traded Quite a few fat quarters to have a friend do some hand embroidery for MYSELF. I have always wanted one and I dont do that kinda handwork. So I asked her really nice if she would be willing, to trade her handwork for my purchases of fabric in her choice. We spent a year each month committed to our swap. Each month I sent 10 fat quarters and she stitched a flower of the month block. Now I JUST got them all back on my birthday, and they are GORGIOUS!!!!

THis is a love quilt that I am putting together and quilting. It is challenging for me to set it on point, and I JUST BARELY had enough of the yellow print for the setting pieces. I had wanted to put a border around of the same fabric to make it bigger but I didnt buy enough of it. Fortunately I do have a nice green that works very well with all of it.

American Hero Quilts 3-5-08

2008-03-10T13:27:00.000-07:00

Here are the most recent american hero tops that I have made. They are all ready to be mailed to Sue to get machine quilted and given to our wounded soldiers at Madigan. Its a fun project! But I am ready for a change in colors now.

Girly trip around the world with a blue/yellow rose print on the outside edges and center.

Super Bowl Sunday 2008

2008-02-03T21:51:00.001-08:00

Here we are just leaving my town heading out towards that mountain in the distance. That is Rathdrum Mountain, about 20 minutes away and our friends live just on the other side of that.we have 2 feet here in town

Just leaving the outskirts of our town, the last of the houses before we see prairy
Going through a thicket of woods, the snow is getting deeper noticably!

The drifts over the highway gets really bad, this is just a small drift

about 15 minutes from my house, halfway to our friends house, look at those snow berms on the side! Taller than my car!parking lot at the grocery store, pretty bad when the snow berm is halfway up the flag pole!
Hubby Pat and I standing in the parking lot next to church. This is a bumper crop of snow this year, the past couple years have been pretty dry.Destination reached. This is the front yard and drive way of our friends house. See how much more snow they have than we do??? Only 20 minutes away from our house. And by the way thats not snowblower berms, that is actually his yard, if you walked into the yard you would be buried up to your chest!
Another friend, and this is her standing in the pathway that they had to shovel to get in and out to the car! SHE and her hubby just moved here from California 2 years ago and this is their first real experience with a real honest to goodness Idaho Winter! Like I said, we have had dry winters the past couple years so this was definitely long overdue for our neck of the woods.
This is inside the house, see all the snow packed up against the living room window. Hahaha.

Now. Can you IMAGINE What this is like for my 3 poor chihuahuas!!!! ROFL!

HUGS

Robin

Jan 28, snowday

2008-01-28T11:30:00.000-08:00

My favorite pic. A doggie breaking a trail through the snow. Hes actually HOPPING through the stuff.

Heres 2 of my chihuahua dogs cuddled up in the flannel scraps box, wich is next to my computer. Normally they are not allowed in the studio but my son was playing electric guitar with friend and it was making the dogs nervous and they wanted to be with ME! They cried at the stair gate until I decided to feel sorry for them.

Its been snowing nonstop for 2 days. All the schools are closed today. Schools even 100 miles away are closed! Its serious stuff out there! So I am happily wearing my purple snowflake flannel jammies and sewing up a storm.

I am finished working on my half of the spring crazy quilt block. Im SO tempted to put more on there but then I wouldnt have any space for my partner to do her thing! I just Love how this one is coming out! One more block for summer and then I can make the "seasons" wallhanging I have planned.

Red and Cream Double X

2008-01-21T14:04:00.000-08:00

I started this quilt in 2003 in a swap of red/cream double x blocks on WASIQ. Then decided it would make a great gift for my brother in law whos favorite color is red. Commissioned the redwork by a very good friend. Took me FOUR YEARS To get this quilt to the finished stage and I just gave it to him this Christmas. HE LOVES IT!

Here is a close up of some of the redwork blocks, my brother in law is really into Comics by Marvel and DC. And star trek, Star wars, Spider man, Superman, Batman. And some animals and scenes of the pacific northwest , since he lives in seattle. The redworks were made by JoAnni from WASIQ, and I paid her in lots of fat quarters of vintage and aunt grace prints.

I backed it with a red marbely flannel on the back and used the scraps from the double x blocks to create a border around the outside edge. Hard to tell but the border is all scrappy strips. And I did a large meandering quilting on it. HE LOVES IT!

I think you can click on the pics to make them larger to see more detail.

Have a great Day!

Robin

Latest update on LIFE

2008-01-07T08:42:00.000-08:00

Here is Rathdrum Mountain covered by a blanket of snow. I was driving down the highway on my way home, this is only about 15 minutes from my house. I just LOVE this view but it is very quickly being overcome by houseing developements. This is the last piece of prairy, and the rest is all gone. It makes me sad, because 10 years ago there was NO houses at all on the prairy and it was a stunning view year round.
Heres my lovely 15 year old , with 2 lap dogs in his lap. One a chihuahua (peeking from arm) and the alaskan malamute who thinks shes a lap dog! SHE has since been placed with a good home because she was my daughter dog and my daughter was not taking care of her so I found her a new home and she is doing very well living with other malamutes her size!
the two on the far left are the puppies that I still have for sale. I bought them a packet of microwave puppy popcorn for a christmas treat. Right now I have five chihuahuas (my 3 and 2 puppies for sale) So you see 5 plates. They were all enjoying it but the little stinkers move too fast to snap a picture of all at one time.
MY little girl, is the white one under the BABY. Usually she is not fond of the puppies around her but she has taken a liking to this little fella who we call Les Claypool. Thats not his real name by the way.
The two babies are napping and Aunty Boo is supervising, and not very happy about it either let me tell ya.

Happy New Year!

2007-12-30T14:46:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year everyone! Lets hope that 2008 will be GREAT!
How about this cute littel blow up yard ornament! Its Frosty riding a Harley! I just HAD to take this picture, it is set up in a yard a couple blocks from my house. Not the greatest pic since its on my camera on phone.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas or Hannukah. Now things are slowing down again so I should be able to post more often again!

HUGS
Robin

CHRISTMAS GIFTS FOR SALE! Share this link with everyone

2007-12-01T21:00:00.000-08:00

Crafters scrap bag, for sewers, quilters, beaders, scrapbookers!
Fly tyers scrap bag! He can put his hooks into the weighted pin cushion!

Quilters Scrap Bags! Sewn with 2 colors, batting, filled and ready to use! The square is filled and it is a weighted pincushion and the bag part hangs off the desk, wonderful to place next to your sewing machine! $10.00 plus 4.60 priority shipping

I can take PAYPAL payments

Combine multiple items and pay 1 shipping price! Please email me for a shipping estimate.

Email me at QltnRobin@hotmail.com

9 different Quilters scrap bags available, More to come! Reversible doggie coat made with flannel on both sides. Velcro closure on neck and belly. Size Small fits chihuahua, yorkies, many small breed dogs up to 8 pounds. $10.00 plus 4.60 priority shipping, or you can opt for cheaper shipping but I will need your zip code to get estimate.

Measurements are : back length 9.5 inches

around Neck 10-12 inches

around belly 12-14 inches

Velcro closure can be adjustable 1 1/2 inches on both neck and belly

Other colors available, Photos coming!

Kleenex covers! MANY to choose from! Most prints do have duplicates so if you like one alot you can buy more than one of the same print. $3.50 plus 1.00 shipping.
ALSO AVAILABLE, Mens kleenex covers made with Mossy Oak Camoflage print! Photos Coming!

ONLY ONE AVAILABLE! Beaded, embellished Crazy quilted Kleenex cover. $10.00 plus 2.00 shipping.

Camoflauge for the man!

Earthy Prints

Floral prints

Pink prints

Blues

Blue and Purple prints

Brights

Christmas already?

2007-11-27T22:31:00.000-08:00

Heres the Winter Wonderland in my front yard. This all fell in the night and I took this pic early this morning about 9 am on Nov 27. We got about 5 inches and it is our first snow of the season.

front yard looking towards the road. Later in the afternoon.
The puppies found a spot of warm sun and they were playing with each other there
They have Grampa Cherokee's rubber ball and are fighting over who gets to bite it.
The annual decorating of the fireplace Mantel. Each year has been a little different. This year I went with very simple, just the creche , candles and angels. I do have a fake garland with white lights that I have used in years past but it was such a huge pain to put it up there and make it STAY without falling off!
And our lovely tree decorated with many little home made things the kids have made over the years. Those stockings are 12 years old, I made them all when my teenagers were just little toddlers. We each picked our fabric we wanted. Justin my son has the navy with golden moon and stars. Hubby is green with golden cherubs. Daughter Melodie has white with red poinsettias and I have the black with pink roses and poinsettias. The red one in the center is for whoever is guest at our house for the year.

Ok thats it for today! I am SWAMPED with customer jobs for christmas gifts. I will update again in a couple days or weeks, whichever.

HUGS and Merry Christmas!

Robin

November 18 already!?

2007-11-18T20:31:00.000-08:00

Heres the sections of the project I started working on a couple weeks ago. I had to make 2 large peices like this for every part of the bear's body! so LOTS!

Heres the start of the CQ bear! Everything pinned, cut out and ready to sew. Reviewing my instructions. Looks easy enough! Note the ears were the first to be done heheh.
Bear's head, with ears pinned on. Checking my centering and pleats in ears :)

The arms needed more stitching, they looked "bald" so before I attached the limbs to the body part I did more stitches , cuddled by the man of the house (Cherokee) listening to the fire cracking in the hearth. Perfect Sunday for me!
the other warm, more stitches.
close up of the head, with ears attached. Everything is done on the head!
Heres the head, and the tummy with legs already attached. Next are the arms and lastly the head.
Here is my CQ bear All finished! I am not going to stuff it, since it is being shipped overseas. The recipient will be able to stuff it and stitch the back closed and enjoy my gift!

Sparky has a new home! With my best friend Lynn~
two boys and a girl in the middle. they were playing actually and I caught them in the act heh
THEY ALL WANT BELLY RUBS!!!!! I only have 2 hands, and 5 puppies! hehehe what a predicament.

Less than 40 days til Christmas! Sheesh. Am I ready for this? HECK NO!

another weekend sewin!

2007-11-07T09:28:00.000-08:00

Hello Everyone~

This past weekend (nov 1-4) I drove my 3 hours to Lynns house and we had a great weekend sewing, playing with puppies and eating/drinking the forbidden chocolate and soda! We didnt get as much done as we usually do, because there was 5 lovely little puppies who wanted loves and cuddles and playtime outside the kennel. Lewiston is still warmer this late in the year, where up my location we are getting frost pretty thick in the mornings. So plenty of outside time during quilting breaks!

Heres some pics for you!
Hmmm now my settings are not allowing me to type in between pics. Im not going to deal with that right now.

The quilt is one I started in 2004, contracting to swap embroidery work for fat quarters with a friend. Took her about 6 months , she designed alot on her own using my requests. All the double x blocks were made in a red/cream swap from WASIQ in 2005. Then I needed to put a few extra of mine in, and trim everything to fit. And organize the settings of redwork. That was all of 2006 hahah
Its redwork of Marvel Cartoon Figures, popular things of Seattle, and Wild Life of the Northwest. It is a christmas gift for my brother in law Mike. And I FINALLY made it into a top and need to quilt it before the rush of christmas, because I will have to mail it to him.

The big dog is Lynns dog Coacoa. Shes 10 or 11 years old or close to that. She is half shar pei and half chow. And has arthritis really bad in her hips. So she spends alot of time laying down nowdays. BUT this weekend was sunny, warm and I brought puppies! So she was very interested in them, and hopped along in tiny steps to sorta play. And this dog does NOT like other dogs for ANY REASON! hahah. She adored one puppy in particular (brown with white stripe on head). Followed him around the yard , sniffed noses and when She lay down, he snuggled. Inserting her nose whenever another puppy was fighting with "her baby" SO Cute!

recent progress

2007-11-07T08:32:00.000-08:00

Heres Mom with her new birthday present I made for her. See that smile! She kept taking it off the walker and gazing at all the many details. Now she tells me her best friend wants to buy one from me! Oh my gosh what have I done?? hahahah!
the finished top for the boy in hawaii. He is sure to love this lap quilt when he gets it! So fun and bright! its really out of my comfort zone but I had fun putting it together.
Heres the americana one I made for his Mom. The blocks were made by members of a group and I pieced one block (star on top right) and then put it together into a top. Sure hope she likes it!

Moms walker bag

2007-10-25T13:10:00.001-07:00

Here is the only picture i could find of the original piece. Odd that the master picture (unedited) dissapearred and I cant find it anywhere! Anyways its about 12 x 18 and started in august.

Here is the completed version of the walker bag before I sew it into a bag. In a couple days I will show more pics of the finished bag, and on the walker with mom after she opens her gift. I think you can click on the picture to see close up details.

UPDATED pics, Its DONE!!! tomorrow is her birthday party with some close friends and relatives and I have it completely finished and ready to wrap up! She arrives by plane late tonight.

some of the work at close up, and a shot of the whole bag. I put some stuff inside so I could see how it hung on a horizontal rod. Works great! I sure hope she likes it!

Puppies are growing up

2007-10-24T13:09:00.000-07:00

My cat Missy found an empty shipping box and was attacking it and playing when I caught her in the act and she looks "innocent" hahah! awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Little boy is sleepy and wants a nap! I am a good grammie and took lots of pictures of the babies eating their first food, and going outside for the first time. Enjoy the pics!
naptime for Les and Boobette

Grampa Cherokee and auntie Canayla enjoying the warm sun on the floor
Family reunion of all the dogs. There are 5 pups and 3 grownups! Talk about chaos sometimes hahaha.
The babies are on their first outside trip. What fun and new things to explore! They are 1 month old.
Baby boy running to me hahah

Boobette is very curious!

nap time!
First time eating solid food. Boy they rushed that plate and got all messy!

Mom's hiding from the kids, she is in weaning mode now

Trees , Beautiful Trees!

2007-10-18T16:02:00.000-07:00

ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh................. The Dahlias in the above picture is a house down the road from me, she has already started to dig up the flowers but earlier this month the place was full of vibrant colorful dinner plate Dahlias of many colors! Those things are actually taller than me!

My favorite season of the year! Well besides Spring. :) I just love the abundance of color displayed around my area. I hopped into my car today with camera in hand and went a little snap happy for my friends who live in areas that dont get Fall Season.

This is on Seltice avenue, the McDonalds parking lot. Right across the road is where I am located sitting in line at my favorite Latte Stand getting my first Eggnog latte of the season!
This tree is my most favorite one and I always look forward to seeing it change its colors.
This red maple is across the road from my house.
This is 16th avenue. It is the whole length of my block. I am standing in my front yard taking this picture.

more pics of my block's trees.
This is in my back yard. The trees are actually in the neighbors yard but it sure is pretty to look at it changing in fall.
My own little japanese maple in my own little yard!
This is Idaho Avenue. That bright reddish orange one in the distance is my most favorite tree ever! Same one that is a close up, a few pictures above this one.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhh................*sigh* Such beauty!

My Meme, whatever that is.....

2007-10-18T12:37:00.000-07:00

Had to go browse a few websites to find out what a Meme was. Thanks Gerry! Now I have the information and read below :)

This 'tag' comes from Gerry-http://www.sewing-southpaw.blogspot.com/

Here are the rules which you must abide by if you are tagged.

1. Link to your tagger and post these rules.
2. Share 7 facts about yourself: some random, some weird.
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post and list their names (linking to them).

4. Let them know they’ve been tagged by leaving a comment at their blogs.

Ok heres My MeMe

1. First and foremost I am christian and I love serving Him.

2. Im a Homemaker, wife of 18 years, mother of 2 teenagers, Business owner of a long arm quilting machine. 3.I Love to ride my motorcycle!

4. Im a dog lover, particularly chihuahuas. 3 of them own me!

5.I love to take naps, especially with fabric

6. I am a quilter , seamstress, piecer and a beginning crazy quilter

7. LOOOOOVE to travel with my hubby!

Ok now I have to post SEVEN people to send them a MeMe! Im not sure I know seven hahah

Gabriele-http://quiltinbugs.blogspot.com/

Janet in Co-http://gocrazywithme.blogspot.com/

Carole-http://wippysplace.blogspot.com/

Judith-http://www.crazyjudythsstuff.blogspot.com/

Mysika-http://community.webshots.com/user/mysikaanne

Molly-http://community.webshots.com/user/mollylivebearer

Julie-http://spudquiltingadventure.blogspot.com/

FINALLY it works!

2007-10-18T12:25:00.000-07:00

Last weekend I took a four day vacation and drove 3 hours south to hang with my buddy Lynn at her house. I spent the weekend teaching her how to make log cabins. Here are pics of our progress we made in just that short amount of time!
This is my queen size log cabin quilt using all mistletoe Manor fabrics and cream tone on tones. I am making it a bit larger with the left over strips and making a checkerboard border. Hope to have a wide border of the berry floral in the end but I have to have money first to buy it! hahah
This one is called Yamadeamistake, Lynns first attempt at making a log cabin using Marti Michells log cabin ruler. It was late and she was in a hurry to get it started. She cut the first cream strip in the wrong length, and then I made it worse by making her sew it in the wrong position. So her half a ding, My half a ding (brains) makes a ding-a-ling! Our joke of the weekend. She was going to rip it all out to the center cuz by the time we figured out what went wrong we already had all the blocks sewn! I said NO WAY, and slapped them up on the design wall and played until we got a layout that worked. And her family loves it!
This is Lynns second attempt, same weekend! She was hot to trot! She wanted to make the star format like mine but the creams and blues didnt have enough contrast to really show off the star so I suggested the barn raising format and it works well for this color combo. Her mom totally loves this one!
This is a love quilt for a very sweet boy whos having a rough year with his daddy being gone to Iraq. He lives in hawaii and one of my membership groups Loose Threads donated 4 blocks and I put the applique fruit and borders together and I am hoping to get it quilted and mailed off by Nov 1. Wish me luck!

2007-10-06T16:24:00.000-07:00

I got 2 squishies with ebay purchased fabrics and spread it all out to look at it and fell asleep and my son took a picture of me all relaxed and covered in charms! Next to me is my little chihuahua Canayla (boo) cuddled up and laying on my Mistletoe Manor purchased fabric. If you want to see the fabrics that I bought click on the picture to get a closer view.
Here is my current crazy quilt project. Its goign to be a walker bag for my mother in law. Mom is flying from Boise to our house last weekend in October to celebrate her birthday with us. Mike my hubbys brother is coming over from Seattle, and we are also inviting some of moms close friends from this area to come have a party. She is very excited to come up and see the chihuahua puppies and doesnt know about the party we are planning. ANyways this is my birthday gift to her, and I will post progress pictures as I go along and of course when she puts it on the walker I will get a picture of that too! NOTE my silver flossed spider web! I still need to put the actual spider in though.
Have a great weekend! I just planted my rasberry plants, Hubby is patching the roof and we installed the last piece of gutters on the back door section! Yippee! ALMOST rready for winter to come! Still need to plant tulip bulbs though but the dahlias are not ready to be dug up and I want to do it all in one fell swoop.

One of my own tops FINISHED!!!

2007-09-30T21:21:00.000-07:00

Here are the 4 fabrics I picked out for the mystery pattern. It was very hard to find a green that worked, that was already in my stash but all of these pieces came from stash not the store! I had owned the giant rose print and burgundy tot for a year already!
This is all the clues figured out at Lynns house, we put 1/4 of mine up next to 1/4 of Lynns.
Here is all of Lynns pieces set up on the wall. Shes using a black print with party ribbons and balloons in bright colors for her outside border. Click on the 1/4 picture above this one to get a closer look at the border fabric
This the top without the borders on it. Thats as far as I got and it was time to go home again. It would be another month before I could add on the last 2 borders but I sure kept thinking about it alot!
walah! Its DONE! The quilt was so big (90 inches square)I couldnt get back far enough to take a full shot. I will get a better show later when I have time to clean up the studio and hang the top on my hanger. Hubby cant wait to get this one on our bed! Its still not large enough for a queen with drape so I will hopefully buy more of the burgundy TOT and make it larger. Question is, will the store still have that particular fabric since I bought it a year ago???

A week full of puppies!

2007-09-20T10:55:00.000-07:00

Here is my little white canayla laying in bed snuggling up to Indianna. the white one is 4 pounds, and the brown one is 10 pounds, normally 7 but very pregnant and due to pop anyday.
Indianna had FIVE baby boys in the middle of the night while we were sleeping. NOrmally we stay up and watch over her but last night we went to bed at 11 and she was not showing any signs and then hubby got up at 4 to shower and they were all born! Sheesh!
4 brown ones, 1 white with spots. Of the brown ones, 2 are solid brown and 2 have socks and blazes.
My daughters dog Mika, alaskan malamute had her puppies 3 days ago. She had 8 but 7 survived.
close up of one of Mika's babies. This is the cutest one of course. The rest are solid brown or solid tan. The father was a mutt next door and mika got under the fence.

monday

2007-09-17T12:24:00.001-07:00

the forest batik I bought in St Maries quilt shop yesterday. Isnt it gorgious! DOesnt it make you think of the lake and trees of St Maries?
Some sneaky little SNOW BIRD sent me this great book as a surprise! Thanks Susan!

I LOVE this little sign, it was posted by the till in the St Maries quilt shop. Just had to have it!

Last big ride of the season

2007-09-17T08:10:00.001-07:00

We took a nice leisurely ride on sunday out to St Maries Idaho. GORGIOUS Town, Im in love! Population of about 2800, close to this wonderful lake and lots of nature abound. This is a picture of Mrs Sew n Sew's quilt shop located on main street. We circled around town to check out the community and housing. Then stopped at the shop so I could look inside the window. I knew she would be closed sundays. As we were getting ready to take a stroll down the sidewalk Nona pops her head out and asks if I want to come in! OH YA! So we visited a bit and I bought some batik fabric that looked like the forest surrounding the area. She had an adorable kit I really wanted to buy of Cute dog quotes and an adorable puppy print fabric but she was out of that one. I didnt have enough cash of course because I *KNEW* she would be closed! haha
Here is lake Benewah behind me, the haze is from the wind kicking up the dust up on the prairy. Harvest is done and the fields were plowed and nows the time of year we get strong winds and dust storms. But this is down in the canyon by St Maries and it was still mostly clear except in the distance.
My Honey Pat relaxing while I take pictures of the lake and trees. Aint he a cutie!
heading back out of the canyon, this is the far end of the lake looking back towards St Maries. So pretty and quiet and peaceful!
one last picture of the lake before we headed back up the hill to the prairy. I sure would love to see this place again when the sun is out and the lake is glistening. There was alot of campers on the shore too! AND amazingly we were not the only motorcyclists out enjoying the ride, Lots of bikes were in town!

Mika had puppies! sept 15

2007-09-17T07:59:00.000-07:00

Here is a picture of my daughter Melodie with her dog Mika earlier this summer. This is an alaskan malamute purebread, and shes such a happy dog all the time! Well she went into heat and Melodie was at work and Mika got under the fence and had a date with the neighbors mutt Frank. Oh goodie. NOT

Here are the 7 puppies, 2 look like Mika, 2 look like frank (blond) and three are brown/black patches and with parent names Mika and Frank, we call them the 3 freaka's. heheh

Oh I just noticed, the pic shows only 6, but actual truth is one of the mika babies is hiding under the 3 freaka babies. Dogpile!

Here are the two mika babies up close. One is a male, one female. Arent they just cuuuuuuuuuute! hehe

some quilting

2007-09-12T11:51:00.000-07:00

This is my most recent quilting job that I did. It had a sampler style with big white squares in between that were just yelling at me for some creativity! So this is what I came up with. Diagonal rows of hearts and crosses and by golly it looks good to me! I really like doing feathers alot, it seems to be a soothing thing for me to do.

Have a great day!

Robin

CQ fall themed

2007-09-10T11:23:00.000-07:00

Here is my crazy quilting block for a Fall themed swap on CQforNewbies group. Click on the picture to get a close up on details!

I dont celebrate halloween so none of that is on there. But all my other favorite things, ripened grapes, squash (yellow flowers) pumpkins for pie, the colors that remind me of our local trees turning colors. It was fun to stitch this block even though I only had like a week of real time to work on it since I was working 2 jobs in august and that was the month we were suppose to work on it. Well its mailed off to the swap hostess and then I get another persons block to work on and somebody will be working on Mine! then at the end of swap I will get my block back, cant wait to see what happens to it!

The burgundy fabric is velvety brocade type, the brown solid is baby cord, the orange was a silk, the tan a shimmery brocade, the blue is dupioni silk with a purplish shimmer to it, the green is a dark hunter satin and the yellow is also a silk like the orange. The print fabrics are cotton prints that I fussy cut to get a certain piece I wanted. The wheat. The acorns, the oak leaf, the maple leaf, and the pumkin. Oh and the premade embroidery on brown is a lovely velvet cloth! I put buttons on that were leaves, the black button in the orange has a silver leaf emblem on it. When I get it back I plan to put some beads on it but didnt want it to weigh heavy for postage.

Have a great day!

Robin

car show labor day weekend

2007-09-06T09:20:00.000-07:00

Classic car show from last weekend. Just a few of our favorite cars! The galaxy is the one we had own 2 of before and hubby someday wants to get another. And then theres the rare MG that hubby just adores but knows we wont be able to afford ever.

another UFO done this weekend

2007-08-06T10:47:00.000-07:00

This is the lay out of blocks that my son Justin did. I showed him online pictures of other quilts with different lay out options but he wanted something different and I said go ahead and create one that looks good to you and this is his idea!
Saturday evening I start sewing them all together, this is about 4 hours into it.
Here is it all finished by sunday afternoon! Now I want to have Justin come down and pick out a border to put around it. But right now he has company so I wont disturb him.

Feels nice to get a UFO done, this one is actually not a very old one (couple months) I really need to get focused and start finishing the older UFO's (some are over 10 years old and not finished!)

Have a great day!
Robin

2007-07-31T11:21:00.000-07:00

Heres my long arm thread and tools cabinet, spice rack and new curio in the back corner behind my frame.
I just my laces from Susan! I just LOVE the venice laces sooo much! I cant wait to have a plan and be able to dye them colors,wont that be alot of fun!
An anemic start of dahlias, pansies, petunias and lillies. I got a late start and they are just now starting to bloom. And I have this odd creeping type weed that keeps trying to overtake the flower bed.
the side of my yard next to neighbors driveway has now offically been planted with EIGHT rhubarb plants! I still need to "neaten" up the back where the plastic is to keep weeds under control but I was losing my morning shade and cant work in the sun.

a new toy!

2007-07-29T14:51:00.001-07:00

Heres my bedroom ALL FINISHED. old white stained carpet that was yucky and gross when we first bought is now officially GONE. and then we painted the tan stucco looking walls with a nice shade of mint green. the big light spot on the wall is the Mirror reflecting from the light and flash of my camera by the way....Then made a box frame under our bed out of old waterbed boards. No we can store the hunting equipment under the bed, free from pets and dust balls.
the waterbed boards making a box frame under the bed
Long lost old friend, we used to all hang out 20 years ago but then we moved to Idaho and he stayed in seattle. Look! Hes old , fat and bald too just like hubby! Hahaha. Lynn you recognize this geezer?

While cleaning up the garage and driveway of our dear neighbors I found this lovely little curio cabinet type thing. The doors open and it reveals 5 little shelves inside. PERFECT to store my smaller spools of thread! I just Love this little treasure and it will always remind me of my lovely neighbors Grant and April.

what have I been doing lately?

2007-07-29T14:29:00.000-07:00

helping a friend get packed and ready to move to Texas. I will miss them alot! I made a huge pan of strawberry rhubarb crisp and we went over to visit and have dessert a couple nights ago. His wife has never made it or ate it but she sure did love it! SO....I packed a couple rhubarb rhizomes into a flower pot and soaked it really good and sent it with them to Texas and instructions of how to care for the plant and also the recipe they loved so much!

Heres the recipe :)
Rhubarb Butter Crunch , 9 x 13 baking pan
preheat oven to 375 degrees

Chop up 1 inch pieces of rhubarb stalks,
enough for 3 cups.
3 cups of fresh strawberries or frozen ones, no need to cut if they are smaller than 1 inch.
3 TBS flour
1 cup white sugar

Layer rhubarb and strawberries in bottom of the baking pan, mix up flour and sugar and sprinkle it evenly over the fruit.

1 c brown sugar
1 c oatmeal
1 1/2 c flour
1 c butter (I use I cant believe its not butter and it works fine)

Mix the dry ingredients together so that it is loose clumps and the butter has been blended into the dry stuff.
Spread evenly over the fruit mixture in the baking pan.

Put into the oven and bake for 45 minutes or until the top is lightly browned and crispy.
Sometimes we serve it warm with ice cream, some times whip cream. Most times we just gobble it up fresh from the oven and dont worry about the creams!

Busy Busy Busy!

2007-07-29T14:09:00.000-07:00

hot pink!!! I love it!!
Bop A Dips concert stage set up
Bop A Dips concert
Men in dresses!
my friend Lynn's dog Cocoa with her bear, she wants to play but has arthritis and cant hardly move nowdays

This is me and my darlin Hubby Pat on a lovely sunday ride a couple weeks ago. I rode for 2 hours and had a smile on my face the whole time! Such a lovely day!
Post Falls Days and River City Rod Run, the commencement of the parade with the infamouse Clydesdale horses! They are HUUUUGE!!!
The backside of the Budwiser wagon pulled by the Clydesdales, see the dalmation dog running around on the top of the wagon? He was Cute!
A 1950s Idaho State Patrol , mint condition privately owned by an idaho resident
Rubber burn outs. I stayed to see 2 or 3 cars smoke out but the stench was making me realllly dizzy and migraine was coming on so I had to leave that area.

2007-07-08T21:34:00.000-07:00

Here is an American Hero quilt I made for a woman soldier. It is giant red roses and blue and cream for the strips. This pattern is called BQ by Maple Leaf. It is such a quick and fun pattern to use! I had this done in one day of constant sewing.
Close up of the roses. And you can click onto the picture itself and it will become a larger image than this!
This is the quilt that Lynn was working on. She didnt get much done because thats when all her family came to the house to wish her happy birthday , bought pizza and brought in cake and ice cream. But she had fun!
Here is the purchase I made at Joanns while there visiting with Lynn. That butterfly is metal and almost like a cloisonne type finish. about 2 inches wide!
Heres my silly girl Canayla. She snagged my "emtpy" corn on the cobb off my dinner place which I accidentally left on the end table. Thats HALF of a cob, see how big she is next to it. and by the way she cleaned that bugger good! And wanted MORE! But Meanie me say no more.

June 30 my first BIG trip!

2007-07-06T17:35:00.000-07:00

all geared up and ready to roll!

The trip was a wet and messy affair on our way down to Lewiston friday June 30th. My first real road trip. What did I get? RAIN! WIND! HAIL! THUNDER all 120 miles! And a Semi truck flipped upside down in the ditch from the wind. Scary sight. But I survived the nasty weather and passed all my tests from God! hehehe. Although I arrived to my destination thouroughly DRENCHED! I ran into the house and stripped all my clothes and even had to wring out my socks!
This picture of the storm is over skyline mountain 30 miles north of Moscow Idaho

This is between my house and the casino which is 2o miles out of town, the weather was still nice at that time
This is just after the storm we drove through and we thought we were done with the rains and winds. NOT
Top of the Lewiston Grade, looking down into Lewiston , which is where my friend Lynn Lives. No rain, finally starting to warm up again.

This is on our way back home, beautiful and sunny weather the entire ride.

This is Grangeville grade heading out of Lewiston up to the prairy again. Lovely drive!

Heading back home again with lovely warm weather, I think I had a smile on my face the whole way! This is right before the casino going to Coeur d'alene

My Buddy my Pal my biker partner, Pat! Thats my hubby! He rides a Honda spirit 750 that is dark purple with light purple flames on it. Cute! The bike. Well he is too! hehehe

EGYPT Is DONE!

2007-06-28T16:58:00.000-07:00

You can actually click this picture to make it larger and see my details. AND I even went into the photoshop and cleared up the fuzzyness so its clear! I had alot of fun with this and on monday it will be mailed off to its new home at Janet in CO!

my latest crazy quilting experience :)

2007-06-28T11:26:00.000-07:00

Heres my own version of the Egyptian blocks, the group CQ4N has an actual swap and since I am new Im not in the swap but decided to make one anyways! I have added a few more things to this since this picture was taken.
Heres my very first CQ block, this one I am keeping for myself and probably will make it into a little purse that I can take just the wallet and keys and checkbook.
Its STILL not done yet, I have more beads I want to put on it! ANother base block ready to be embellished but Im working on the above two and get them finished first and then reward myself by playing on this one. This one was a piece that Crazy Judyth sent to me , she found it at Sallys! Well I added more pieces to it, and made it 12 1/2 inches. Will be a pillow for my couch eventually :) It has coduroy, satins, silks, velvets, brocade and I think a piece of dupioni but Im not sure, it could be taffeta.

I rode my bike 40 miles!

2007-06-28T11:15:00.000-07:00

Im ready to go for a ride, this is our driveway
Thumbs up, lets roll!
Scenic back roads going up to the highway, what a gorgious view down below is my town. You can click picture to make it larger.

This weekend we are having a big road trip (for me that is!) We have been practising on back roads manuvering curves and getting my speed up to posted signs. Then last night we went out to the highway and rode almost up to the casino (40 miles round trip)

Tomorrow we head out and will ride about 80 miles total to our destination in Lewiston. ANd then more riding tomorrow from lewiston up to grangeville another 40 miles. then back to Lewiston. Then monday come home 80 miles. So all in all thats a big chunk of riding for me! Im excited!

HUGS
Robin

My CQ block, first stitches!

2007-06-07T14:32:00.001-07:00

My new toolbox I got last night. Its a little fishing takle box with 4 self contained trays that slide out plus the big open spot on top for the tools :) One tray is ribbons etc, One buttons, One beads, One embroidery floss. The beads next to the block I just bought today, a pink rose, 2 leaves, a silver butterfly, a crystal cross and some rose tiger eye beads and a tube of metallic multicolor seed beads. Ought to keep me busy for a while!
Heres the whole shot of my block
theres the ruby and antique pearls I stitched on the center of the lace flower
my silk ribbon embroidery flowers and leaves with seed beads in the center of the flowers.

Im not sure why the pics are blurry, mabe cuz I got in a hurry!

Ok one question for you! I did buy a flat hoop and when I was stitching it was easier for me to do the work but as more things are added on, then the hoop will crimp the work. So should I be learning without a hoop or should I get a larger hoop and baste muslin so that the block is centered and not being crimped?

I tried doing it both ways and I didnt do so well when I took the hoop off, because with the hoop it was flat and easier for me to see and manipulate.

This took me 2 hours! But I liked what I did so far! I have decided I will make this into a little purse for when I travel to quilt shows. I have decided also to title it "a few of my favorite things" hehehe.

Notice , pinks, blues, greens, flowers, butterflies, lace, fine fabrics. Thats pretty much says it all!

Robin

my First real CQ block!

2007-06-06T14:49:00.000-07:00

This is my very first real crazy quilt block!!! I have made crazy quilt blocks in cottons but have never embellished with trims or goo gaws. This time I really will do it! I bought 2 of Judith Montano's books off ebay and they are on their way to their new home as I write this! Im excited!
I used to buy all kinds of silkies and brocades and fancy fabrics when I used to make my own clothes but 10 years ago I gave it up because my body got too big and I hate custom fitting myself! Another reason to go buy the pretties again! Yippee!
I definitely need to improve on my stash of goo gaws and trimmins. These were given to me by Carole so at least I have this to start with! And I bought some DMC floss a couple weeks ago so I guess I can use it since I wasted money on it hahaha! Now I know there is better stuff to use that I wont have to "pull apart"

Im thinking a trip to the store is in need as well so i can purchase some kind of storage system to store all these lovelies into. I want something that I can open but each compartment wont all be exposed. I have a tendency to drop things and wind up with everything on the floor! So like a medibox or a tacklebox will be great!

Have a great day!
Robin

Sunday June 3

2007-06-04T07:57:00.000-07:00

This is Canayla, my 4 pound chihuahua who adopted me. We bought her for our daughter but the little stinker wanted to be MINE. She is 5 years old this year!
Shes sleepy. This is a chair next to my computer because the dogs are not allowed in the sewing studio.
Another scrappy log cabin quilt, I did the 9 blockss sunday afternoon. Not big enough but I will figure something out. Its laying on top of the other quilt project that I was working on.
Heres another quilt FINISHED for American hero quilt project. Yippee!

June??? Already????

2007-05-31T08:37:00.000-07:00

WOW! I have been crazy busy this month, trying to get things done around the house before it gets too hot. Seeds planted, water line installed, kitchen remodel, quilting business, And of course the daily routines of laundry, food, sleep, more food, laundry again, sweep and mop and SEWING!

I finished up 2 more quilts for american hero quilts. Here is a photo of one that is done and packaged up. Its the trip around the world I was working on for a while, got bored and then finished it. The other one is almost done but I am posting a "progress" picture for you!

I rode my bike for 30 minutes this week! On real roads with other traffic! But it was back roads around my neighborhood. I did good, Hubby gave me some tips to become better.

Have a wonderful day! Its suppose to be 80 degrees here!

Robin

A Quilt is finished!

2007-05-14T22:52:00.000-07:00

Here is the quilt our group "trading fabrics" made for a friend. This is a HUGS quilt that a group that I am a member off made for another member. We all contributed blocks, one of the gals sewed it into a top and mailed it to me and I machine quilted it and Moira hand sewed the binding onto the back.

HAPPY MOTHERS DAY!

2007-05-14T22:33:00.000-07:00

Heres the 1969 original olive green tile and formica counter and porclain chipped sink

Justin helping Dad to lift and carry the old one out the back door
24 hours later Whalah! Miracle!

I have had a wonderful mothers day this year. Spent it sweaty, stinky and covered in sawdust and spackeling putty. I got a kitchen counter remodel! New sink, new faucet, new disposal unit, didnt have one at all before and of course the lovely tan marble look counter!

Next is to paint the walls. blue..... or......green.........Oh boy. WHICH. I Love BOTH. Hubby was being funny and said paint the walls with stripes! hahahahaha. He better watch out! I am after all - an Artist!

Here is a before and after. Enjoy!

Robin, where it has been 75-80 all week!

Prom Night and Birthday Party!

2007-05-07T08:02:00.000-07:00

WOW What a wild and crazy day May 5 2007 was!

My daughter Melodie's Senior Prom , this is a picture of her and cousin jeremy who drove 3 hours to our house and I paid for his expenses and tux. They did have fun together! They drove in her jeep to the school and she got to see some friends she hasnt seen in a while. So all went well for the Senior Prom experience. Her boyfriend of 3 years wasnt even home, he was paintballing with his buddies. So Melodie was mad at him but despite that drama she choose to have a great day!

And there is a pic of my son Justin with his 3 friends celebrating his 15th(!!!!) birthday. We had a bonfire in the back yard and they had their electric guitars and amps plugged into extension cords and jamming happily away all afternoon into the early evening. Then they roasted marshmellows and had SMORES. and a case of Mountain dew between all of them hahaha. The tallest young man with navy shirt on is MY Kid. He stands 6 foot 4 inches tall. If you click on the picture it will zoom and you can see his face better. He looks alot like Jack Black. or KELSO! Im always teasing him about that and he thinks its so funny.

Have a great day!

May 3 2007

2007-05-03T21:41:00.000-07:00

Heres my latest American Hero (www.americanheroquilts.com) donations. I have finished the heart and the crazy one with a wide tone on tone border. Im going to mail those to Sue as they are and she can add more blocks or borders to make it the required size.

The sampler blocks I have made of all the little pieces of scraps that my friend Lis donated to the project. Very easy to make one block a day when there are already sewn half square triangles and flying geese orphans. I will mail these to Moira and she will make a lovely top to donate to American Hero.

I just need to sew the Trip Around the World and put a border around it. That is also for American Hero. I am running out of the colors needed so I think I will take a break from the charity and work on something of my own for a while. Mabe something PINK! hehehe

Have a great Day! :)

Robin

WEEEE HAWWWW!!!!

2007-04-29T22:10:00.000-07:00

I RODE THE BIKE!!!!!!!!

Oh Wowwwwwie!!!!! Check out my "action shots" taken by Pat my hubby as I took my maiden voyage hahaha.

Now I can officially say that I have done it. I have waited all my life to be able to do this one little thing. And now the best news. Its MY Bike now! I am reading the handbook and will take the permit test this week.

This is my back yard and I spent a couple hours this afternoon going around in circles learning to use the handles. just about everything is on the handlebars! I got my feet totally onto the pegs by the second time I was around the yard and feeling pretty good!

Then 3 hours later I was tiring out and was trying to pull the brake lever and instead twiested the gas handle and just about ran the bike through the chain link fence hahaha. Didnt help that by then the sun was lower and in my eyes! Hubby was inside watching through the window. He didnt say a single word, and was very proud of me! I did dump the bike and had to get off and lift that heavy bugger back up to standing. Whew!

It was time to call it a day after that! I went inside and enjoyed a lovely dinner of smoked bbq portabello mushroom burger with swiss cheese and a green salad. Then we watched Night at the Museum. FUNNY!!!

Love ya!

Robin

April 19

2007-04-19T22:40:00.000-07:00

Heres the string heart quilt for American Hero's. Took me a total of 2 days worth of sewing to get this far. I took this project with me to go see Lynn at her place and taught her how to make a couple of the blocks. Now she is hooked and looking for scraps of brights to make her own.

Anyways, this is what the center looks like. I have since added a light print strip around the outside of the whole thing and I am going to add either the red or the blue that I have up beside it.

Susan said how about a border like an attic window, 1 top and 1 side blue, 1 bottom 1 side red. I just might do that, It sounds really neat! So I hope to post the finished top tomorrow or day after.

Heres the center of Molly's pink and brown log cabin. Its the only photo I have right now since I am still finishing up the quilt. Just another row to do and then its off the frame and trim threads! Yippee! I am having so much fun being creative! And Molly Loves it! She got a sneak peak when I showed her this picture.

Hope everyone is doing well!

Prayers to all those who are grieving and suffering at Virginia Tech.

Robin

Happy Easter!

2007-04-09T13:16:00.000-07:00

Happy Easter! Well day after hehehe.

I have been busy whipping out small patriotic projects to make into quilt tops for American Heros. www.americanheroquilts.com for more information.

Here is a pic of the crazy quilt blocks that I used the "chunks" of scraps. So far there are 9 blocks completed and they are 8 inch squares. I cut up enough muslin to make at least a twin bed size so I figure mabe 25 blocks total to make it big enough.

Next post I will show you the blocks I made with strips and strings. I am setting the red/blue

strips and string blocks to create a heart image and around the red/blue blocks I am setting strings of light color to outline the heart. Very cool! I am enjoying the creation part of these projects but putting the actual top together is always the hardest for me. So then it winds up sitting on the work wall for a couple days and I WONT take it off the wall until it is completed!

New Rule I imposed on myself last summer and it does work (most of the time) As usual I am making too many new things and not finishing many of the old things.

OH....and I am going to start doing Crazy Quilting too! NOW I am officially C*R*A*Z*Y!

Muwahhahahahahah

Ta Ta for now!

Robin

Happy Monday!

2007-02-26T08:59:00.000-08:00

This is the quilt I just finished machine quilting over the weekend. I TRIED to convince the owner that i wanted to keep it as I fell in love with it! Oh well. She said no, I have to mail it back because its a class sample for a class she is teaching. Hehehe.

I do have more images of close up and back of quilt on my website http://www.gemstatequilting.com in the interactive gallery, 2007 folder.

Be sure to go to the guestbook and put in a comment! Im trying to grow my customer base!

Also. I am designing up a Frequent Quilter Card :) Which means you send your tops to me so many times, after that I will give you a FREE Quilting service. You still have to pay for shipping and batting but the actual quilting would be no charge.

Im going to EXPO in Puyallup in 2 days! Im so excited! It is always too short and goes too fast for all the excitement leading up to it.

Have a great Monday!

Robin

2007-02-16T11:45:00.000-08:00

Well well well.....

HERE is pics of my hubby's valentine present. Its all flannel with cotton batting in the middle. It was SUPPOSE to be a christmas gift and was almost finished and then I wound up really sick. So I decided to finish it and give for valentines instead. He LOVES it!

I am updating the sidebar on the blog. Its fun but challenging. Takes alot of brain power for this gal! hehehe

There will be more added as time allows, I have a HUGE list of favorites in my bookmarks. Not to worry, I am not copying every single little one, just the ones I use most frequently :)

Happy Valentines Day!

2007-02-14T11:01:00.000-08:00

Happy Valentines Day!!!

Well here it is Feburary 14 2007. Amazing how the time is just flying right past me. I have been busy quilting up a storm after being sick for almost the entire month of January.

And then on Feb 28 I leave to go to seattle for almost a week. its EXPO time! I look forward to this pilgrimage every year. Its an opportunity for me to take classes and learn from knowlegable teachers, and to see the latest greatest tools in the quilting trade. And of course FABRIC!!!

The best part is , ITS A WRITE OFF! I run a machine quilting business so everything Im doing at the EXPO is considered improvement for the business. And I love it!

If you are curious about my machine quilting, check it out at http://www.GemStateQuilting.com