Happy Birthday Chris!

Tomorrow Chris will celebrate his 36th birthday. WOW!! It is amazing to run the mental play back of 36 years of events in your oldest childs life, and then to look to the future.
Busy days and years ahead is what I see, having triplet boys. So much fun. Chris called us yesterday and we had a short webcam moment. The boys were sitting up playing with their toys. Hayden, pictured with Chris above, is the oldest and he needs a little interaction to keep him happy. Ethan, cute as a bug in his green leg casts, sitting up and cool as a cucumber. Jaxon, he is a little shy. But man o man when he is in his comfort zone, lets out his voice and plays with his toys. Our connection kept freezing so we will try another session this weekend.
It was so fun to see how they are growing.
My oldest grandson, Ty, is visiting for spring break so he got to see the boys too.

So Happy Birthday Chris, have a wonderful day! We wish we were there!

We are having a couple nice bluebird days here in Central Oregon. Ty and Uncle Sean are off to Hoodoo ski resort for some skiing. Should be an awesome day with the clear weather.

I have been reading Psalms 91 and 92 daily. It has been so uplifting with the pressure of this slow economy. Like everyone we have been challenged to cut back and prioritize finances even beyond what we expected. I know everything we are experiencing now will make us wiser in the future.

Today I am going to try out a new gadget I purchased. It is a Clover Fabric Folding Pen. I will put liquid starch in it, not its original intended use, to do my freezer paper applique prep. This idea came from Joanna Figueroa, in my Fresh Figs newsletter. I will let you know what I think. I purchased mine at Joanne's Fabric with a 50% coupon. It was $12.95 so yeah that was nice.

We are looking forward to a fun weekend with Ty visiting. Joe and Ty go next door to the B&B and challenge the innkeeper to Frisbee Golf. They have a great course and the competition is tense.

Happy Birthday Chris, Have a wonderful day Saturday!.

Hugs,

Carrie

Keeping Busy waiting for Spring

Last weekend I spent time at the Sportsman Show. Our dog club has a booth where we promote our club and pointing breeds. It is always fun, my girlfriend Sandy, and I have volunteered together covering Thursday and Friday afternoons.

This year I took our youngest GWP, Casey, with me. Mark, a wonderful companion of Sandy's, was there also. Casey is 10 months old and socializing young dogs with strange dogs is very important.

Casey is a little character, kind of a little teenager that thinks the world is all about him!

Slide Girl came to the show with DH in the evening. We spend a lot of time with our dogs, they have become a big part of our lives. We have met many people through our activities with our dogs, the field trial season starts in April. I will share some highlights of events we attend. I don't know what the economy will hold for these events this year but we are hopeful for everyone involved.

I received a call from my son in Omaha this week. The Proulx family is coming out in July for a visit. I think they are going to drive with the boys. A flight with three boys and all the gear just isn't appealing to them. Any way you travel with triplet babies is going to be an adventure. I just know I am so looking forward to there visit. There birthday is late July but I think a birthday celebration will be one big event while they visit.

They took family pictures this winter, they look great! What a challenge to get everyone just so, and as long as mom and dad are good, I think everything is perfect!

Some fun quilting stuff came in the mail this week. A new pattern from Fig Tree Quilts, Joanna says the zipper is easy. It has been a very long time since I put a zipper in, I don't even want to count the years. Little Purseletes, don't you think they will make cute little gifts. I want to make them for the girls.

Fresh Vintage, this publication is full of ideas and Fig Trees newest fabric line, Patisseries. There is a tip on a new notion that I was tickled to try myself. It is the Clover Fabric Folding Pen. It is a refillable pen that Joanna filled up with liquid starch for all the applique projects.

You can draw the starch onto the seam allowance instead of painting it on. Thanks Joanna for this new gadget tip!! Along with the pattern featured on the cover is a laptop bag. Joanna's fabrics really appeal to my softer palette side. Mostly my fabrics and home decorating are primitive, Fig Tree's Vintage look satisfies too.

I participated in a fat quarter swap, I received two beautiful bright spring FQ pieces from Carla, I just love them. Thanks Carla, I will use them in a project and post it.

I made a lot of these hour glass blocks up for my JLW class. Class is next week so I am ready to go.

Block 5 from Wool Garden came in this week, I have the block prepped and ready to stitch up. This pictures is pathetic, no color and so wrinkled. It is much prettier than this picture looks.
We are having some fairer weather this week, my son is coming over to help with a pathway in my garden. Moles were very destructive to it and my plants last fall so we are under construction. Its the only construction project in Central Oregon that I know of actually. LOL...well lets not talk economy! LOl.......

Have a great weekend and a terrific Friday the 13th!!!

Next week is St. Patricks day, I need to go find me some Shamrocks!!!

God Bless each of you!

Carrie

A Few Little Things

My Meg's Baskets, JLW quilt is ready to quilt. I am going to hand quilt this top. It is a perfect size for me, perfect in that it won't take longer than my attention span, I think!
Discipline, staying on one track, finishing what I begin. These are the sticky notes that should be on my computer to keep me from starting something new. Not as a grudge note, but because I LOVE to finish. I am just not disciplined enough to avoid being sidetracked. One confession is enough for today.

Wednesday evening was my JLW group meeting and a few gals used the colorful basket fabric as their background fabric in the sawtooth border. SO CUTE!! This is going to be a fun class, lots of sharing from each other about techniques. I love that about quilters, even if you don't use the technique right now, it may be useful at some point.
I received a couple comments about the HST technique, getting 8 out of the larger square. So I googled and found a website that I want to share.
http://www.patchwork-and-quilting.com/grid-pieced-half-square-triangles.html
Ta-Da.... it has so many techniques that I have saved it in my favorite places.

This months JLW8 project is starting a 4 month quilt, Holiday Inn. A medallion quilt that I think is so sparkly with color. Gail added some new backgrounds and colors, we will use leftover reds from Meg's Baskets too. The border is hour-glass blocks.

Timing is everything you know, I received an email newsletter from Marsha McCloskey, she shared a blog that has a tutorial on her precision ruler that you use for this exact block (hourglass). So here is that blog post: http://sisterschoice.typepad.com/sisters_choice_quilts/2009/02/you-simply-must-trim.html I marked her blog as a favorite too. She has a very cute dog Sophie, wonderful Batik quilts.................now you see why I need that post-it note on my computer to stay on track. There are so many wonderful sites to explore and get very useful info.
Block #2, A Tisket, A Tasket BOM with Anne Sutton. Anne has a tutorial on embroidery on her blog that I found helpful. I will start using a hoop and foundation to keep my background from puckering. :)) Oops! Those cute little birds need eyes and beaks...
Block #4 from Wool Garden with Farmhouse Woolens, I really like the colors in this block, the red is bright and rich. The colors of the geranium really bring out the colors in the basket wool.

Next month I will put them all together for a picture, I look forward to having this quilt on my wall.

We have been having a pretty mild winter this last month, as much as I like it I know we need more snow for snow pack. Which gives us much needed water in the rivers. Fires are a big hazard in Central Oregon so hopefully we will have a bit more winter-like weather. Its Friday so I am going to wish all of you a wonderful weekend.

Winter Blessings, Carrie

New News is Old News!!

" New news is old news to new people!"

Perfect!! Listening to a morning inspirational speaker I got (stole) my title to this post. LOl... really perfect but quilting was not the topic, oh well, it is what I have been thinking about as I waited for these pictures to upload. I have been thinking, this is old news Carrie. The old technique to do half square triangle was really not enjoyable to me so I just started avoiding fun little projects like this one. This is project #1 for JLW 8 group that I joined. I sewed on it this weekend while DH was in Portland.

I could have gone to Portland too, I was tempted. Anne there are FOUR Panera's in Portland. And all those quilt shops I could have gone to see, be tempted to buy more fabric, find new wool pieces to add to my stash! Or I could stay home and sew. I do love staying home and sewing.

Did I ever mention I have a roommate in my sewing room. Yes I do, call me crazy or cranky!!!

But we put my DH's antique roll top desk in my sewing room. Oh.....a story for later. But I stayed home and sewed ALONE in my sewing room....on Meg's Baskets!

These next pictures are of a easy way to make half square triangles that I found enjoyable. I really like that you don't cut large pieces of fabric in bias strips, leaving strange pieces to work with. Two 2 inch squares, right sides together, rst, draw a line from corner to corner.
Sew your "scant" 1/4 inch seam allowance on each side of the drawn line.

Then you cut them in half on the drawn line.

Press them open, and trim to make them 1 1/2 inch squares.

Do this with the many sets you have prepared according to instructions, sew them together and this is what you have. Cute little 4 inch baskets set on point. Next......Trying out this Clover chalk marker, I will mark lines from corner to corner both directions. Making an X. I really did like the way this marker moved over the fabric, my pencil lead was fatter and caught on the threads. This marker is finer and moves smoother across the fabric.
This time you sew on both sides of both lines, same scant 1/4 inch.
It lays pretty flat, not much distortion.

Cut apart by starting through the middle, then corner to corner on the diagonal. These are 4 inch pieces, I used my ruler with 1/8 markings and made sure the fabric was square before starting my cutting. I was very pleased with this method.

I sewed up 9 squares giving my 72 half square triangles ready to do the sawtooth border around my baskets. I pressed them open and will trim the to 1/1/2 inch. Very fast and not any strange shaped pieces of fabric leftover.

Monday the lqs was having a President's Day Sale so I didn't need to go to Portland to be tempted. I bought this book to give me some tips on my BOM Birds of a Feather. It was printed in 2002, but hey its new to me so it fits right into this post. And some fabric glue thatI will use to hold pieces in place. I liked the fine tip on this bottle. Thank goodness for 20% off sale, they don't give this glue away , but I think it will last for as long as I have need for it.

I have been stitching on A Tisket, A Tasket BOM, and Wool Garden BOM from Farmhouse Woolens. These are two very enjoyable projects, I love the artists expressions in them. My DH even commented on this months Wool Garden block, he loved the color selections of the wools. He is my go to guy when I am choosing borders and color selections. And since he is my new roomy, he is handier then ever. But guess what DH the rug stays!!!! Give them an inch and they start redecorating your sewing room. LOL.....

Winter Blessing to you all!

Carrie