Happy Anniversary

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY

TO ME! AND MY HUSBAND

This month my husband and I will celebrate our 27th wedding anniversary. I can't believe it's been that many years. I don't feel old enough to be married for that long. I am sure I was a child bride when I got married. Ha Ha. Anyway, I was able to choose my anniversary gift. Below are pictures of my new Janome!!!!

Am I lucky or what?

I am so excited to start sewing with it. It has a great applique stitch and some different decorative stitches that I haven't had before. Fun, Fun. Isn't my husband great? I made a great choice 27 1/2 years ago. Thanks honey!

Notice the great felted wool pincushions! We made these at our recent quilt retreat. If you would like to make one for yourself, go to Quilt Taffy blog for the website of the creative lady who is selling the kits for these. They are so easy to make. Thanks to Betsy for showing us how to make them.

Quilting Retreat

Once a year I have the opportunity to get away with my darling quilting friends for a 4 day quilt retreat. We rent a huge condo in the mountains and sew, gab, sew, eat and sew.

What a fantastic time. Some years we get alot of projects done and some years we don't. But no one cares, WE HAVE FUN!

This is the view we had every night.

We found this cute little door sign in one of our quilt magazines. The fine print says: unless you are delivering fabric or chocolate. Cute, Cute.

Winter table runner that I designed. I will be giving out instructions in a couple of days.

Fall table runner out of same pattern.

We made oven mitts that really work. We also made aprons with attached wash rag to wipe your hands. Isn't that a clever idea? Thanks to Lela for that wonderful idea.

We also felted wool to make our own pincushions. It was such an interesting process. They all turned out beautiful. I just need to embellish mine now. Thank you Betsy.

We also make cake plates. How creative. Dinner plates and glassware from a second hand store were used. Just a little glue and presto, a lovely cake plate.

Shelto, Stitch, Corrie, Lela, Judy, Johnboy, Karebear, and Betsy on top. Our photographer Des was going crazy taking pictures.

Sister's!

Production Queen

My fabulous longarm quilter

Two new friends

Broken toe girl

70's guru

Blogger extraordinare

Thanks to my sweet friends for an absolutely GREAT time. Looking forward to next year.

Back to the Real World

After spending the last month being very busy with a wedding, daughter's birthday, baptism, son's birthday and a 7 day cruise, it's back to reality time. Each event went well and we had a wonderful time. But, I am ready to be home and spend some time with my family. Today I am posting pictures from the birthday, baptism and wedding. What a wonderful family time! I have the best family!

Baptism day. Aren't I lucky to have such a cute family!

Happy Birthday to You 'Matilda Rose Ruth'. Notice she has more candles than the 8 years old that she is turning. She just loved all the colors so we put them all on.

Sweet oldest brother who let 'Matilda' practice an extreme makeover with her new makeup pack that she received for her birthday.

Just married!

Our growing family. Soon we will have to use an extra wide lens.


Mom, Dad and happy couple.

Bridal party. This was a theme wedding. Flapper girls and men in Zoot suits. Very cute!

Me and my cute little son the groom.

Fall is Coming Soon!

Fall is coming to Idaho! After waking up to cool weather today, I decided that it was time to bring out the lovely knitted wool socks to keep me warm. I was the lucky recipient of a pair of handmade knitted wool socks from one of the games that we had at a recent retreat. What a treasure. I have really creative, giving friends. Thanks Betsy!

We as a family are going to have quite a busy week coming up. At the 1st of the week, we have a birthday and then the end of the week, a wedding. I still have to make a flower girl dress for next week also. Our third son is getting married to his girlfriend of 5 years in the garden of his grandparents, my in-laws. We are praying for good weather!

UPDATE: Food Storage in 52 weeks

Week 8: lg bag of pasta and jar of jam or jelly

Week 9: 6 cans evaporated milk

Week 10: 6 cans of condensed soup

Week 11: 1 lg box laundry detergent

Week 12: 6 cans evaporated milk

Week 13: 2 lg toothpaste and 1 pkg toilet paper

Week 14: 1 lg baking soda and 1 lg pkg yeast

Week 15: 1 lg jar of honey

Remember to multiply each amout by the number of people in your household.

One more quilt finished.

I just finished my next quilt for my daughter's bedroom. She chose the flower material and the purple back. It was a little difficult to figure out what to do with all of the flowers and make it look half way reasonable. My quilter did a fantastic job in putting it all together!
I also belong to a stitching group consisting of ladies from work. Here is my latest stitching project. You embroider the pattern, tea dye it and then you chalk inside figures. The chalk we use is located by all of the scrapbooking supplies. You can add texture and highlights, shadows and anything else that you want to add. It certainly has been fun creating different pictures.

Starting third grade this week. Can't imagine that she is actually old enough to be going to third grade. She is so excited to be going back to school. She was getting extremely bored at home and loves being with everyone again. Tried to get pictures of the boys on their 1st day back to school, they hate their pictures taken and so that was a no go.

China Girls Reunion 2008

My daughter and I just returned from our annual China Girls Reunion. Everyone from our travel group to adopt girls from China get together every year to keep in touch and see how everyone has grown. This year it was held in West Yellowstone. It was really good to get the girls together to play and get reaquainted. It's amazing how they just pick up from where they left off last year and play and socialize. This year, they decided that they all needed email addresses to keep in touch with each other. We all agreed that they could do that under strict conditions. They all agreed and they have now progressed in the cyber world. Attached are some of the pictures that we took of our trip. Enjoy!

latest with a wave

I just completed my latest quilt and I decided to be bold and go out on a limb with this one. I tried the new ruler from June Tailor called the Fancy Frame for Decorative Quilt Borders. I read about this ruler on my favorite Quilt Taffy blog site and decided I would try it. Now note, there is a wavy edge and a scallop edge on this ruler. Remember - baby steps, baby steps. I tried the wavy edge. It was so easy I couldn't believe it! It really put a wonderful edge on the quilt. It is a gentle curve and doesn't stretch hardly at all. It really makes you feel like you have mastered something. I highly recommend this ruler!

I received these quilt blocks in an exchange that our quilt group does every year. Yes, I was pretty scared of the focus fabric that was chosen when I was away visiting my ailing mother back east. It is the border fabric of beach balls. Okay, I have to admit that it turned out pretty cute. Thanks everyone! I also have a wonderful quilter friend who quilted this. She is amazing. If you need a quilter, I can probably hook you up!

I gave this quilt away to a dear friend of mine who was in great need of a hug. She is such a great example to everyone and is helping everyone but herself. Hope it makes her feel loved and appreciated!