New nephew/ and wife

My brother Joey Gavilan Jarvis was born Feb 1954 and was killed in 1973.
He had a son he named Joey Ryan in 1969 or 70. I got a message from Joey Ryan's wife, Amy, on facebook yesterday. Whoo Hoo!!! I am a very happy person to finally know about him. He favors his daddy so much. I can't wait to get to know them better. Family is a very important part of who I am.
Here is a picture of the handsome couple.

I may be wrong, but that small picture on the way may be my brother Joey. He was a handsome little dickens too.

I hope everyone has a great week.

Summer Star Sampler done

I love this little quilt. It's a pattern from the apqs site. The focal fabric was a set of kitchen curtains I got from the thrift shop. I fell in love with the fabric but didn't need any more curtains so I took them apart and put the fabric away till I found something I could use it on. This pattern was perfect for it.

Need ideas for a Hole in the Barn Door

I belong to a couple longarm quilt groups and I very rarely have to ask for help but when I do it's because I truly can't come up with any good ideas.
I asked for help on this one, the customer wants high end custom and my mind is a total blank. If anyone that reads my blog has any ideas, I would appreciate them.

It would be nice if once in a while I
got an idea from someone. Which is
rather rare.

Fabric giveaway

http://thelastpiece.typepad.com/the_last_piece/2010/09/a-little-things-giveaway.html

Sarah Fielke at thelastpiece is having a giveaway of her new fabric line, Little Things, and I am telling you it is absolutely gorgeous. Make sure you check her out.

New bed

6 years ago we paid $2000 for a piece of crap Comfort Systems bed. Yesterday we went and bought a pillow top mattress. I think we both had the best nights sleep in 6 years. No achy back, knees, or shoulders. Never could get it to the right firmness. Thursday night, every 2 hours it had to be pumped back up. At one point it was down to 5! Might as well have slept on the floor.

I did get the twin quilt done for Kalina, even a matching pillow case. Still have a long way to go on Chastity's queen size quilt. I decided to make the Boxy Stars quilt from Bonnie Hunter's quiltville site. And it's all in blues.

My daughter, Nancy, has decided to get married again. We do want to spend some time with this young man to get to know him better. He needs to meet all us to find out what he's getting himself into. He may turn tail and run.

I hope everyone has a great weekend.

Blog follower

I started following repurposed blogs and check them every day to see what kinds of neat things people are doing with old stuff. I've been doing it for years myself but I love seeing what other people are creating.
I also follow confessions of a curb shopaholic and snowman hill and a lot of others.

Bad blogger!!

Yeah I know, I'm a really bad blogger! No excuses.

The 14th of August, I picked up my daughter in Arizona and we drove out to Ft. Benning, Georgia for the birth of my first great granddaughter, Lydia Grace Allen, born Aug 13th at 2:40 am. We got there on Sunday afternoon right after my granddaughter, Heather, came home from the hospital.
On Friday, I got to pin Mari's captains bars on her at a ceremony at the hospital. I can't tell you how proud I am of her and everything she has accomplished in her life.
We stayed for a week then went up to Chattanooga to a thread warehouse I love. I found them on ebay and have bought tons of threads and other stuff from them.
Then a quick stop in Nashville at a friends house. I say quick because we were really anxious to get back on the road to home. We made it back to my daughter's on Tuesday and I spent the
night there then headed home Wednesday morning.
We have concluded that we will NEVER drive it again. We will fly next time.

This morning I finally finished the quilting on my Drunkard's Path quilt. I really love how it turned out. Now for the dreaded binding. Have I ever mentioned that I really hate doing bindings? Well I do.

BOM quilt

http://quiltcetera.wordpress.com/

Bradie Sparrow from APQS is having a BOM( Or actually 2 blocks a week) on her blog.
I saw the print (curtains) in the thrift shop and just had to get them. I took them apart and put them in my stash till I could figure out what to do with them. When I saw Bradie's quilt, I knew why I had been saving them.
Here is a pic of what I have so far. I am loving it. Can't wait to see it finished.

Starting to think about what I'm taking on my trip. I go to my daughter, Nancy's, house in Arizona on Sunday so we can leave first thing (and she WILL get up when I tell her to) Monday morning. Heading to Ft. Benning Georgia for the birth of my first greatgrand, Lydia Grace Allen. We may drive straight through but it all depends on how we feel at any given moment. After that, we will head to Chattanooga so I can load up on thread from Southern Threads, then to Nashville to visit my friend, Faye. Then to Clarksville to see my niece that I haven't seen in over 20 years, then head on home with a little sight seeing along the way.

I hope everyone has a great week.

New quilt

I traded my guest queen size bed for my daughter's 2 twins. I had NO twin sized quilts. Well, guess I better make some!!
This is the first one. I started the redwork butterflies a couple years ago while I was visiting my oldest daughter and had to have something to keep my hands and my mind occupied. I had intended to make myself a queen sized quilt but since this came along, I decided to make at least one twin. If I can find the rest of the butterflies, I may make another one for matching quilts.
I screwed up and cut the muslin for the butterflies at 11 1/2" instead of the 12 1/2" that I should have. So I had to draft out the secondary block which was easy. The corners were a problem tho. How to finish them???? This is the process I took for the finale draft.
If I had made one large triangle in muslin, it would have been empty. I knew I wanted to keep with the 4 patch idea that I used in the secondary blocks and filler triangles. Adding a strip
muslin to the edges still wasn't right so I added the other red square and I like it much better.

Now to put the corners on, a narrow red border then a wider muslin border and quilt it.


I hope everyone has a great week.

Rain!!

Boy did we get rain today!!

This pic is of my at entrance to the front of the house.









This pic is at the front door looking to the right of my yard.


This pic is looking out my back door at the left side of my back yard.







And this one is the right side of my back yard. This was all from about 15 minutes of rain. We usually average only 7" per year. I think we got at least half that in one hour. The temp went from 101.6 to 79 in half an hour.
At least I didn't have to water the plants today.

I hope everyone has a great weekend.

It's been a busy week

This is what I've gotten done this week. There is a new consignment shop in town called Shabby Confections and they approached me about making stuff for the shop. So this is what I'm taking in this week for sale.


Other than that, not much going on around the home front.
Haven't had any customer quilts to do so I've been designing quilts and hopefully I can get a book out by the first of the year.
My friend, Faye, sent me the EQ5 program and I've been designing like crazy. I design a lot faster than I can get the quilts made. I think I may have to ask for help on that. Anyone want to volunteer to make a quilt?

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend.

I love giveaways!!

http://www.piecefulkwilter.blogspot.com/

My friend Shannon has a giveaway........don't know what......over on her blog, check it out.

Prayers needed for my son. He is 31 and last night at work he got sick so the guy he works with took him next door to the fire department and they rushed him by ambulance to the nearest hospital (personally I would have walked the extra mile to the other one). He has arterial fib.
His heart rate was over 260 but all other vital signs were normal. He was put in a semi private room today and we are still waiting to see what they do to control it. I know the first thing they are going to tell him is to drop at least 100 pounds. He is 6'2" and pushing hard on 300 pounds.
I know he will be ok once they figure out what meds to put him on but it's the waiting that is making me a crazy person. And I can't concentrate on anything and I'm eating like a horse.

I hope everyone has a great week.

Another day

Today is my daughter in laws 29th birthday. Happy Birthday Lisa, we love you.
So I went to town and picked up a really cute cake with blue and yellow roses, her favorite colors, and took them to where she works.

All the kids, well, the closest ones, are coming for Mother's Day on Sunday. I think I will BBQ this time. Usually we have spaghetti which I know everyone loves.

I've been making up some stuff for a shop that recently opened in Victorville called Sweet Confections. They came by and got some of my quilts, aprons, totes, table runners. Tried to stop by this morning to deliver some more stuff I made and can you believe it, I couldn't find them.
I'm wondering if this was a scam to get "stuff". I certainly hope not. I know people on the sheriff's department!

Well, the prison was sold to another prison system. The shut down day is June 4th. John still doesn't know if he will keep his job or not. The assistant warden made a comment that he didn't have to worry about severance pay. I hope not. But it may mean moving to Tennessee before we had planned to. Darn the luck!

My friend, Faye, gave me her EQ5 program (quilt designing computer program) so I've been busy playing with it. So far I've designed 9 or 10 new quilts. I just wish I was better at figuring out the computer and it's uses. A friend and I are planning a book to come out hopefully before Christmas. I'll keep you posted.

Back to work on customer quilts for me!
I hope everyone has a great weekend. And Happy Mother's Day to all my friends.

Death Valley

We just got back yesterday from 5 days in Pahrump, Nv and day trips to Death Valley.
This was the perfect time of year to go. Weather in Pahrump was cold and windy with a little rain thrown in to make our visit less than enjoyable but in Death Valley it was a very nice 80 degrees.
Lots of pictures. This one is of the Pup Fish. Death Valley is the only place on Earth where they live. The water they live in is extremely salty but it was the height of their breeding season.
These fish are only about 1" to 1 1/2" long and are very territorial, defending their egg laying territory and only live a couple years.

Now to get back to my quilt on the frame then a customer quilt cause I have more coming in in the next couple days.

I hope everyone has a great weekend.

New quilt

Just had to show the quilt I designed for my greatgrand due in August. I really like it. This one I call "Ladybug Picnic". I've had it in my head for a while now and when my grand told me she was doing her baby's room in ladybugs, it was the perfect time to get it from my head to fabric.
If anyone is interested in this pattern, send me an email and I will be happy to send you a copy. I wish I knew how to do a PDF, then I could put it on here as a free giveaway.

Have a great week.

My mom

Has been gone 41 years today. Everyone that still has a mom, call her today and tell her how much she means to you.

My oldest daughter called last night and asked if I was coming out to Georgia in August. My first great grandchild is due Aug 15th. I've been there for the birth of all my grands, I can't pass up my first great. Mari said it's in the "ruler book" page 148 that I'm supposed to be there. (we make up our rule books as we go)

This is one thing I got done this weekend. I've been making these quilters totes to hopefully sell. They are big enough to hold a queen size top, batting and backing to take to your longarmer, pack up all you need for retreats or take all your stuff to the gym or haul your kids off to whatever they are doing. They all have a large snap closure, ties on the sides and padded heavy duty cardboard in the bottoms for stability.










I hope everyone has a great week.

Blog giveaway

http://www.piecefulkwilter.blogspot.com/

My friend, Shannon Bailey (Baker) is having a 300th post giveaway. I hope I win!! She is an awesome sewer and quilter!! Be sure to check out her blog.

New rulers

I didn't realize it but this is my 100th post.......WHOO HOO!! I am such a blog slacker!!

Anyhow I designed some rulers several years ago and finally got around to having them cut by a professional.
The Fat Leaf ruler is the one I use for borders when I don't have any other clue what to do in them (you know.......when in doubt, stipple) These come in 3" x 6" and 4" x 7".
First I divide my border equally then use the ruler to connect the lines.
The Deep CC ruler is for deeper curves than the other rulers make. If I'm going to do CC, I want it to show and be as perfect as I can make it. (freehand is not so good)
What I especially love about these rulers is that I don't have to twist my hand around to do the top and right hand sides of the curve...........that hurts!! Good way to get Carpal Tunnel!
These will come with etched lines 1/4" apart for doing smaller curved crosshatching.
For anyone interesting in ordering a set, the smaller rulers are $12 plus shipping and the larger are $14 plus shipping. Just shoot me off an email at sharonspingler@yahoo.com

You can click on the picture for a larger image.

New contest

The quilting gallery is having a new contest. Quilts made for little boys. Check it out:



Next week it's for little girls. I may have to enter that one.

Musings?

My friend Shannon has linked me to her blog (bless her heart, I just love her) and if I knew how to do the same, and I knew 10 people I visit regularly, I would be happy to do the same.

Been quilting some of the quilts for (hopefully) a book my friend Dianne and I are writing. Only a couple more to go I think. Dianne already has the book written, waiting for me to finish my part so we can get the pictures taken. I'm sorry Di that I am behind but still planning to have everything done by the end of this month.

Also working on some "quilters totes" for an etsy shop that I plan on putting up. These are great bags for quilters, going to the gym, taking your kids to practices or whatever. Nice and big and roomy. I've already sold a couple to customers that come to the shop.
Now if I can just get my quilts back so that I can add them also. And finish up some UFO quilts that are still hanging around.

The weather has been fabulous here in the high desert this week. Still down in the 40's at night up low 70's during the day. I love having my doors and windows open to air the house out after a cold winter. Now to start thinking about spring cleaning. I'm going to hire my sis's grands to come help with that.

Need to start thinking of the pattern I had designed in my head. My granddaughter wants to do her baby's room in lady bugs.....and the pattern name I had in mind is perfect........"Ladybug Picnic". And yes I know it's a girl already.

I hope everyone has a great weekend.

Monday already!

As promised, here is a pic of the donation quilt I just finished. My mistakes stick out like sore thumbs don't they?? Oh well, this is one I guess will never get written up.








And this is something I was playing with after my machine was fixed. Feel free to use whatever you want.

Sunday ramblings

http://suzanneearley.net/2010/01/suzannes-great-big-giveaway-and-sale/

My friend, Suzanne Earley that owns Knots and Bolts in Traer Iowa, is having a sale and giveaway.
Check out her blog for more information.

Went to Road to Calif yesterday and had a blast. Met up with the great people from Nolting and talked them into coming up last night and working on my machine. Dan Terrel, Gordon and the rest are just the best. It is running like a champ again and I'm busy quilting up a queen size donation quilt. Will post pics when I'm done.
This is one I designed about 10 years ago and didn't realize until I send someone a picture, that I had drafted it out wrong. You will see when I post the pic. It looks fine but apparently I need to redraft before I decide to make another one.
While at Road, I ran into gadgetgirls and just had to buy a few rulers that I have been wanting for quite some time. I love new toys!!
I also picked up a few more stencils that I thought I could play around with.

I hope everyone has a great week.