four sided placemat

There seems to be alot of confusion on my four sided placemat. In the next couple of days I'll try to make to make another one and show some of the steps on how it's done. They look really cool when they are done and you don't have to have four different stacks of placemats. All I used to start out was 4 fat quarters out of my stash.

I took it to work today to show the ladies and they were fascinated. One told me with all the things I make I should be selling them and to that I said, when you rimake things to sell for me it takes all the fun out of it.

Tonight I'm going to one of our local quilt shops for a presentation on what Julie the owner bought at market. Then I can pick out fabric for the borders of my quilt and get that top finished. I'll leave the layering and quilting until after Jen moves so I can do it on her frame.

What I did on my long weekend

I can't believe the long holiday weekend is over with and I had to go back to work today. I decided that this weekend I would do the things that I wanted to do and things that would make me happy. After running a few errands on Saturday I got down to some serious quilting.

Quite a while ago I picked up a jelly roll that was called "Strawberry Lemonade". What a great roll of fun loving bright fabrics. I have been trying to figure out what to use it on and I can across a pattern that was called "Split Decision" where you use light and dark fabrics. I made the mistake of trying to use my beloved jelly roll. Oh it had brights and darks in it but they weren't the right contrast for the pattern. Once I made all of the blocks and laid them out it made your eyes go crazy. That poor quilt needed help or I was going to be sitting on a 40 blocks and no where to go with them. I decided the only way to salvage the quilt was to put white lattice between the blocks and between the rows. Thank goodness that work and now I'm a happy camper again. All I need to do now is pick up border and binding fabrics to finish it off. OK this is the second time I'm adding these pictures and now matter where I click they always end up at the top. The pattern went together really quick I'd say it took maybe a little over an hour to make all 40 blocks. Next time I make this I'll try definite lights and darks and limit the patterns. Atleast now I have a nice and bright "summer" quilt.

With that finished I moved on to a pattern that I had picked up at Franks Sewing Center. The pattern is for a 4 sided placemat. I waited about 2 or 3 months for this pattern to come in so I was anxious to try it. The whole idea is you make one placemat but it has 4 very different sides. It wasn't hard once Jen and I figured it out. I used a total of 4 fat quarters that I had just so I could try it out first. Now that it worked I can't wait to make a set of placemats and I think I'll use different holiday fabrics for the 4 sides.

Jen's having a moving sale

My daughter Jen is having a moving sale and everything must go. Stop on by her moving sale blog and check out what she's got. I understand she's adding things all the time. Great way to shop and you don't have to leave home.




http://cre8tivequiltersmovingsale.blogspot.com/.

A long dry spell

It's been one heck of a long dry spell since my last post. I'm still here just haven't been quilting much lately. I've been working pretty hard at work and so when I get home I'm pooped. I'm really looking forward to the long three day weekend. I have so many things planned around here I hope I get some of them done. I did make some blocks the other day for a scrappy quilt. Jen cut out a quilt and I took the scraps and sewed them together and am going to make a small split rail quilt top. Hey someones scrap is someone elses treasures.

My Mom came and stayed with me last weekend and that was a really great time. I've missed spending time with her and haven't seen her much since she's been staying at my sisters waiting for her apartment to be ready. Now we wait to see who moves in first, Jen or my Mom. My luck they will both move the same weekend.

Other than that nothing new just wanted to stop in and say HI. OK I'm off to press my squares and start to sew them together. Maybe by the weekend I'll have a top to show off.

Happy Mother's Day

I just wanted to stop in and wish all of the mothers out there in blog land who have become a family with all of us a very Happy Mother's Day. May your day be filled with love, happiness and hopefully sunshine.

The " Sisters Three"

The other day I showed pictures and talked about how my two sisters were taking my Mom to Arizona to visit the third sister. So far they are all having a wonderful time. So in the wee hours of Tuesday at exactly 2:30AM my phone started to ring. Now if any of you are like me and the phone rings after 10 you automatically think someone has died. So I look at the caller ID and it's my sister Kitty and all I could think of is what happened to my Mom. I really didn't want to answer the phone but finally I did. There was a long pause and I could hear someone sobbing and someone laughing. Now I was really worried and very wide awake. Finally my one sister gives me her full name and starts to laugh. They were up celebrating my sister Karen's 64th birthday. See in Arizona it was only a little after midnight. They thought I should have been there with them so they called me. That was very sweet of them but it scared the daylights out of me. Then Kitty proceeds to tell me that Karen is all depressed because she's just turned 64. For those of you who don't know I'm the youngest of 6 and I'll be 56 this year and my oldest sister Diane is going to be 71. So Kitty tells me how sad Karen is and how she even went out and either jumped in the pool with her clothes on or they pushed her in I'm not quite sure what. So I told her to let me talk to Karen. By this time I told her just to suck it up and move on. They had started out earlier in the day with 20 oz margaritas because it was Cinco De Mayo. They kept coming up with plans like I should hop on a plane and join them and then the best plan was all about how when Diane turns 84 then we should all go on a cruise together. Then when Karen turns 84 either Diane will be too old or she'll be gone so she won't be able to go along. Then when Kitty turns 84 Karen will either be too old or gone so just Kitty and I would go and then when I'm 84 I'll be cruising alone because Kitty will either be gone or too old. I guess you had to hear that conversation but let me tell you it was a hoot. Plus they kept saying they lost me and I' would yell no I'm right here so they'd hang up and call me back. This went on until almost 3AM. Now I get up for work at 5:30 but I was so wide awake I couldn't go back to sleep. I so wanted to call them when I left for work just to wake them but I didn't.



So I was telling Jen this and she was surprised at what they did calling it "drunk dialing" gee I didn't know they had a term for it and I guess it doesn't matter how old you are as long as you're young at heart anything goes. I'm so happy that they are having such a great time together. Hopefully next time they do this I can go along. They've been laughing since last Saturday morning when their plane landed. I just wanted to share with you all that it doesn't matter what your age is, it's what's in your heart and their hearts are filled with fun and laughter and love.



So, that's the kind of family I come from. We always used to ask my Dad when we were all grown up what it was like to have raised a bunch of "simple" kids and he'd just smile and shake his head.

My sisters and digital camera's

I thought I'd like to share some pictures of my sisters the night before they left for the trip to Arizona with my Mom. The upper left picture is my oldest sister Diane. It was cocktail hour and we put all the bottles in front of her for the picture.

The picture on the right is Jen helping Diane with her digital camera. She's had it for almost two years and finally took it out of the box. This was a big night for helping them with their cameras. The bottom picture is my sister Kitty and her daughter Keri showing Kitty how to use her digital camera. As you can tell my family isn't very into technology.

200 feet of clothes line and lots of strips

Well I finished the rug just a little while ago and now I can't decide what to do with it. It's really pretty and I hate the thought of walking on it so I put it on the table to see how it would look and I liked it there too. HMMMMMMMMM I think it gets to stay on the table. What do you think?

Congratulations Kristie

Another great quilter friend is celebrating her 300th blog.

Hop on over to Kristie's blog 'cause she is having a giveaway. Tell her that I sent you!!