Fun at the Boutique Workshop

I finally took some pictures of one of the monthly workshops we have for the boutique.  This was our August workshop so we were not as full as usual but we still had tons of fun.  These ladies are so awesome, dedicating time to make things for us to sell at the 2014 Peace Love, Sew Quilt Show Boutique.  We have so much fun and I've grown to really love these ladies!  Here are some pictures of them working like busy bees.

Artimis my new Granddog...:)

Life is moving right along for my Son.  His new house, his new girl and now his new dog Artimis.  The cutest little Miniature Pinscher ever!  He adopted him on Monday and now he's officially part of the family.  Who doesn't love a great pet.  Jason is so over the top in love and so happy to finally have a pet that is REALLY his.  My donation (among other) was this dog couch.  No I didn't have a pattern but felt it couldn't be that hard so I just went for it...  2 less 2x4's later we had the frame.  Then I tore open some old pillows that we were no longer using and stuffed it the best I could.  Then picked out some fabric to match Jason's house (2 yards) should have purchased 3 yards but I made due and didn't hardly have a scrap left!  Artimis loves his bed.  He knew it was his as soon as he seen it.  Isn't that hilarious!  He jumped in it, jumped up and down on it and then just laid down.  He's a happy boy!

Been busy, two tops complete and working on another quilt tomorrow!

It's so exciting, I've had time the last two days to finish some quilts I've started....I decided to finish the two tweets!  They are so adorable.  One is a kit from Connecting threads I bought...oh...about 3 years or so ago.  You know how time gets away from you sometimes.  The other one is one I made up myself.  I found these cute tweetie birds on a site that sell machine embroidery patterns and designed this quilt around those cute little peepers!  I used foundation border factory to make the flying geese border.  I sure wish I had more of the fabric I used for this one.  I'd love to have the back match one of the fabrics I used, but that fabric will be no where to be found because I purchased it probably 10 years ago.  It was a huge charm pack, I think there were 90 charms and I think it was Moda, some sort of mock homespun.  Oh well I'm sure I'll find a suitable fabric for the back.  With the Connecting Threads top I did purchase backing fabric...wow I get smarter as I get older! :)
Anyway I did share these before when they were barely started but I'll share them again.  Not sure if I'll quilt them or have them done on a long arm.  Can't wait to have them completed and ready to tuck into my grand baby to be's hope chest!

The Free Motion Quilting Project

I found this blog a couple years ago.  I was looking for instruction on how to free motion quilt.  I had tried so many times to do my own quilting that was not "quilting in the ditch" because that is so boring!  My machine no mater what I did would not do a good job.  The front of the quilt always looked okay but the back always looked like a bunch of chicken scratch!  I could not get the tension right no mater what I did.  Then I found this blog and it told me to leave the feed dogs up and to change the stitch length to zero!  Everyone I talked to tried to talk me out of this and said I just need to figure out my tension on my machine.  Well I tried it anyway and what do you think happened?????  I was free motion quilting and the back side looked as good as the front!  I was so over the top excited, I told people about it and some still insisted what I was doing was not correct.  You know what...I don't care.  I am free motion quilting like a champ!
So I wanted to share this blog with you all so that if you are having the same issue I did you will now be able to free motion quilt like a champ too.
Here is where to get started http://freemotionquilting.blogspot.com/p/start-here.html
Here is a video on how to set up your machine etc....

Here is the page where you will find 365 free motion quilting designs to practice with:

http://freemotionquilting.blogspot.com/p/365-designs.html Here is a video on one of the 365 free motion quilting design tutorials...these are all free these are all awesome!:

How to hide quilting threads inside your quilt:

Enjoy!

So many flies it's brutal!

Sitting out on the porch and watching the birds and squirrels and ducks, well that's just how we hang!  The unfortunate thing is the flies like to dive bomb us while we are trying to just relax and watch the world go by while sipping coffee or sweet tea.  The flies are so bad that when I open the door to go into or out of the house they zoom past me and into the house so they can bother me more.  They have even laid eggs in my coffee machine...OH THAT WAS SO GROSS!  thank God I clean the insides daily.  Anyway so a while back someone told me to hang a ziplock baggy full of water from a hook out on the porch.  I thought, how stupid does that sound and how could that possible even do a darn thing?  I mean really, I'm going to look like a total idiot with bags of water hanging from hooks on my porch.  People will think I'm trying to ward off aliens or something crazy like that....
Well about a month ago the flies were so brutal I though what the heck I'll give it a try, if it doesn't work I'll just take the bag down and no one would be the wiser of my foolish plans.  Guess what....this stupid trick works, I mean really really works.  I haven't seen a single fly since I hung that bag.  We've had many discussions on how this thing could possible work but have not come up with the answer.  I'd sure like to know the scientific answer to this!
So if you have flies on your porch and can't enjoy the day because of them...hang a ziplock baggy full of water up and your problem will be solved.

Here are some neat pictures of woodpeckers:

and some flowers: