It Was A Much Needed Mini Quilt Retreat With Friends

I was so excited when my friend, Brenda, called to let me know there was going to be a

fun gathering of special friends for a mini quilt retreat. It was very much needed!

Sewing, laughing, and eating...a great combination!

The house we met at was incredible with tons of room. Thanks, Nancy!

Plus, her husband smoked some bacon and made us BLT's...yum!

This is a sneak peek of my Wish Upon A Star blog hop quilt with Lily.

She's the family dog who loves to be a part of the quilting group.

Lily is so sweet!

While we were quilting we had a beautiful view of the Las Vegas Valley.

Nancy's garden of flowers was gorgeous!

It was the best two days I've had in a long time.

This is my new temporary pup. She's 10 years old and will be staying with

us for a while. My son may have to fight to get her back.

Dreidel is a great snuggler and is so loveable!

Happy Mother's Day!

A Knit Quilt For Monkey Baby

I've been a little slow getting Monkey Baby a quilt...like over a year too slow!

I wanted to practice a little FMQ using my ponce pad and stencil, and use some knit fabric I had

 sitting around, so I figured this would be a fun quilt to give Monkey Baby to just play on. 

It's entirely made of knit fabric (t-shirt type fabric) and is 28" x 40".

The dog was in EQ7, but I changed him up a bit.

This stencil and ponce helped me practice FMQ, but don't look too close 

or you'll see some lines that aren't where they are suppose to be. 

I got this adorable package in the mail from Amanda Herring of Quilted Fish.

She is so darn cute! The box had a note about Jello being Utah's official state snack.

Jello is okay, but that decorated cookie was yummy!

Her Desert Bloom fabric just came out and is beautiful!

No spiders or bees, but I spied this cool bug chomping on a flower.

These are blooming in my backyard thanks to my sister...love them!

I hope you're off to a great summer!

It's Been A Lot Of Years

What has been a lot of years?

Being married 44 years to this guy...April 7th, 1972.

He planned the day.

It was his idea to go for a hike to celebrate our anniversary.

I thought to myself, "You're kidding, right. A hike?"

I thought going shopping for fabric was a better idea, but I let him lead the way.

The beginning of the hike...lots of lava rocks to step around and not trip over.

The path to White Rocks in Snow Canyon in Utah

There were only a couple plants with flowers, but they were pretty.

Really white, tall, and steep rocks at the end of the trail!

To make it perfectly clear...see those dots on the top of the mountain?

That is NOT us at the top of that mountain. Definitely not me!

3 daughters + 1 son + 5 Monkey Boys + 3 son-in-laws =

44 years and an interesting life with this guy.

It was a great day with the love of my life!

It's My Penny Rose Wool Blog Tour Today!

I've been having a sweet time sewing with Penny Rose's wool...it's amazing!

The wool I used looked so beautiful with the Isabella fabrics and matched perfectly. 

I loved the colors and the quality of the wool, too.

I used these Penny Rose fabrics and wool to make

  A Little Round Bag with a flower and needle holder.

A Little Round Bag

Size: About 6 1/2" wide and 6 1/2" deep

Add a flower for a little fancier look.

 Making this flower with the wool was so easy!

Cut three 2" circles and five 3" circles.

Cut the circles in half. Use only nine of the 3" half circles and five of the 2" half circles.

Run a basting stitch through the flat side of the halves with one length of thread.

I use embroidery thread to baste the halves--it's stronger than 

regular thread so when you pull the threads to gather it holds up better.

Pull the thread to gather the halves.

Tack the first and last half together with a small stitch.

Repeat with the same process with the 2" halves.

Place a few small stitches to hold the 3" flower in place on the bag.

Stitch the 2" flower on top of the 3" flower and add a button to finish the flower.

You can download the PDF patterns for the bag and needle holder at my Craftsy store HERE.

The needle holder...

The wool is perfect inside to hold the needles and pins.

 This is a great bag for taking to a retreat or to give as a gift.

It stands up by itself, which makes it a whole lot of fun to take anywhere.

Look at all these creative ladies who are blog touring, too:

March 14

Madame Samm - Sew We Stitch

March 15

Cori - Creativity Amongst Chaos

March 16

Deonn - Quiltscapes

March 17

Darci - Pasthyme Blog

March 18

Crystal - The Clever Quilt Studio

March 21

Carol - Just Let Me Quilt

March 22

Amy - Diary of a Quilter

March 23

Penny Rose Blog

March 24

Riley Blake Designs Blog

March 25

Liz – Simple Simon and Company

March 28

Remona – The Stitching Scientist

March 29

Sachiko – Tea Rose Home

Summer Is Going And EQ7 Row-A-Long Is Coming

Seriously! Where did the Summer go?
I had such big sewing plans for this Summer, but I didn't quite get it all done.

It wasn't that I didn't do anything, I just overloaded my brain with ideas I wanted to make.

Maybe it was the pretty flowers in my yard that distracted me...

Or the stormy skies that just begged me to watch the rain fall from their clouds...

It could have been my son's pups that have faces only a mother/father could love...

Pretty faces and puppy breath also make me want to stop whatever I'm doing to watch...

Attack of the bull dogs!

I did take time to do some sewing for the EQ7 Seasons Row-A-Long that starts September 1st.

There will be seasonal rows for you to choose from to make your own quilts, runners, or whatever.
You don't have to have EQ7 to participate!
The patterns were created in EQ7, but instructions will be available on each designer's blog.

To follow along on Facebook, there's a page just for us that you can join:
EQ7 Seasons Row-A-Long public group

Wowzers! You can see all the sponsors and giveaways (there are lots of them) HERE.

I hope your Summer has been all you'd hoped it would be!