Fences keep the dogs in!

You know, I'll be 50 next year but I feel 70!  I wish I was more fit but I'm not.  I told my son that he needs to think of everything labor intensive he needs done so we can get it done before I'm no longer able to tackle jobs like these!  You seen he acquired his first pet now that he has his first home right?  Well part of dog ownership is to keep your dog from roaming the streets!  Jason's new home needed tons of repairs and one of them was his back fence.  It was leaning at a 45 degree angle toward the treeline behind his house.  Besides that the pickets were probably as old as the house and needed to be replaced 5 years ago!  Well, me sending pictures of cute dogs, then Jason choosing one at the end of August was probably poor judgment on my part knowing the fence needed replacing!  Oh sometime I think I just love punishing myself, and I do it often.  Anyway last weekend we tackled the job, it was 100 in the shade..(had we had any shade) but we did it and we did it well.  The fence looks like a professional put it up.  We are so pleased!  Here is the fence complete and Catlin is hosing it down so we can seal it...definitely sealing it, don't want to have to repeat this project anytime soon.

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!