Vocal Point!!

We had a couple things happen in the last few months.

We went from having 4 children at home still (from the original 6), to only having 2 at home.

Josh is serving a 2-year mission, currently in Salt Lake City, currently serving a congregation of refugees from Africa and speaking Swahili!

Lilly couldn't wait to turn 18 so she could move out.

So that's what she did the night before her birthday.

Due to an unexpected source of cash, we were able to pay off ALL our credit card debt.

Don't knock it till you've had a big family, medically fragile kid, and had to live in two different places for over a year so he could have chemo...

Anyways, with these changes, we were able to mentally be ready for a small road trip adventure!!

Vocal Point is an a Capella group from Brigham Young University.

We love good music, and they do good music.

They had a concert in Spokane, WA, so ready for adventure, I bought tickets!!!!!

We didn't even know if Andy would have the day off to go with us or not, but I was ready for an adventure with or without him.

Thankfully, he was actually able to take the week off and use some of his vacation time.  :)

 We take Anthony to events and places all the time, so I figured he'd be ok at the concert.

And, he can sit through 3 various hours of church each week.

We brought his head phones and I had purposefully purchased tickets by the aisle for a quick exit with him if he had a hard time.

Well, they started the concert out with the STAR WARS theme, so he was happy pretty much the whole time. lol

Before Vocal Point performed, their opening act was by The Big Bing Theory, an a Capella group from Gonzaga University.  

They did great, but it was kinda funny that they performed a mashup of "Stacy's Mom" and "Jesse's Girl," both kind of risque songs when you're singing for a lot of Mormons.  HAHAHAHA!

But, it was good.

Pouting for some reason.

Anthony was proud to stand with this sculpture...

Vocal Point boys in their blue jackets.

Ok, I was most excited this trip about the hotel we stayed at.

We stayed at Oxford Suites in Spokane.

You can go to their website HERE.

They were friendly on the phone when I made the reservations, and so helpful with all my questions.

They had the best price of any hotel I could find online, that had an indoor pool (a must, to get Anthony's travel energy out).

They literally were within "walking distance" of about 10 minutes to the performing arts center we went to.

And, that's without walking fast or hurting my hip!!!
Plus, every employee we came in contact with was willing and anxious to drive us with their shuttle if we needed it at all.

They had great breakfast, and offered free soda or beer/wine in the evening (one drink per person).

We didn't use the drinks option, but of course the breakfast.

They also had a Soup available for guests in the early evening!!

I didn't know that before, but in the future, we will definitely take advantage of that.

One more thing I was impressed with was the cleanliness and nice quality of furniture, rooms, hallways, etc.  They were in the middle of construction of remodeling some rooms, and it did not mess with the aesthetics of the rest of the hotel.

If you're looking for a nice hotel with an indoor pool in Spokane, I really recommend Oxford Suites.

I really love being free to plan and go on small trips like this now, with NO MORE DEBT!!!!  It is doable, and totally a blast!

Scrappy Scrumptious!

I've had the top of this quilt ready for a few months now, and I love it!  

I think this is my favorite quilt I've made...

It is a big twin quilt, so I had to go visit our church building, lay out the backing, batting, and top on 2 big tables, so I could pin it together for the finishing quilting lines without killing my back or my hips!

This quilt was pretty simple to make, but took a long time.  

There were MANY leftover blocks from a few other baby and lap quilts I'd made in the last couple years.

I made a few more, so it wouldn't need much in the way of borders, and I love it!

The colors are far brighter than what my phone camera showed on these pictures.

I think this is the first quilt I've finished with the intent to use it in the house, but not for anyone in particular.

This is going to go on an extra bed upstairs, after Andy gets tired of it being small on top of our queen quilt.

In my mind, I pictured smaller intersections of lines...I didn't think ahead of time that I should have stitched on the actual seams, rather than diagonal to them.

But, it works.

My favorite quilting mantra is--

FINISHED IS BETTER THAN PERFECT.

Andy is tall and has long arms.  He's my official quilt holder when one is finished.

I'm trying not to go buy new fabric anytime soon, since my fabric stash is so full.

These fabrics were in the craft room.  Neither was quite big enough on their own, so I pieced them.

Baby Boy Blues

 Andy's manager and his wife had a baby boy just before Christmas.

I was talking about how we should make some goody plates for his co-workers and managers, especially since we haven't had a chance to the last few years.

Andy was most wanting to have a baby quilt made for his manager.

So, that's what happened.  ;)

I gathered and cut a whole bunch of blue and white  2.5" blocks, put them in a big baggie, and just sewed together whatever came out together!

The front was basically sewn in rows of 4-patch blocks, and then I thought, "Oh!  Star blocks would look fabulous if I replaced a 4-patch here and there!"

I did the math and made some star blocks....

...but, they were about an inch too big.  Sigh

I placed a few on a kind of bouquet and could have appliqued them on, but that just looked too busy and too country feminine or something.

So, I have several stars for a future project.  

Simple but stunning

 Flannel back

Christmas Quilting

My friend commissioned 4 quilts by me this year.  She asked me the day after Christmas last year.

We finally decided on a pattern in November, and it was a mad scramble to get them done before Christmas!

This was her favorite pattern for the project.

It could be made with the same fabrics, but in different order.

This way, the quilts would coordinate, but be unique.

The first task was trying to find the pattern!  It was so hard!

I found a store that sells kits for it, but they were out of the book that the pattern was in.

Finally, after a LOT of searching online, I found the booklet on Amazon.

It was about $18 total for the booklet.  There were several reviews where the people didn't think the booklet was worth that much.

But, I found the pattern I needed, the directions were easy to follow, there were several more patterns in the book, and I like it!

Book is "Holly Jolly - This & That," by Sherri K. Falls.

Pattern book fabric design

I was so excited about this awesome Santa fabric, on left!!!

It would be perfect for some of the quilt backs, so I bought almost 10 yards of it.

Luckily, I pre-wash every time there's new fabric.  

At the same time I bought this, I also bought a fabulous, off-brand dark red.  It bled, and the Santas all looked like they belonged in Florida. :(

I re-washed the fabric many, many times with color catchers, and they did lighten up.

But, with someone paying for this project, I didn't want a fabric that had flaws.

It finally felt a little like the Christmas season when I started on the first sample quilt.

I made 6 quilts total, with 2 being extras.

This way, I could figure out how to be accurate with the measurements, and the rows would hopefully line up correctly.

 Starting to chain piece with my 1955 Singer.

Before the project was through, my trusty Singer had motor issues, my back up machine kept breaking needles in the seams, and I had to go buy a new, inexpensive machine at Costco.

(which, by the way, sews like a DREAM!!!)

 I used so many baggies!

I pre-cut for all the quilts at once.

Each baggie was organized by color.

Each baggie with white background fabrics were organized by block type.

Gallon baggies held the contents of one whole quilt each.

 First top laid out!

 First quilt top ready to head to the long-arm quilter!

 This was the first quilt to be quilted by the long-arm.

I had her do the "jingle bells" design in red.

After this one, we changed the rest to be done with white thread, and in a more swirled design.

The white swirled design looks like swirling snow to me.

This quilt got to go to my mother-in-law and her sister!

 I had LOTS of Christmas fabric, but no pieces really big enough to match seams and sew together for a back.

So, I cut strips of a bunch, sewed them together, and added a solid Christmas print on the other side.

Each quilt had a different order and size of the strips, and a different solid print on the side.

The Official 4 Commissioned Quilts

The 6th quilt was not put together (sandwiched, which means having the batting and backing stitched to the top), since I didn't need to have it done right away.

We are going to keep the 6th one, and I will either machine quilt it simply sometime soon, or have it embellished by the long-armer.

While making these, I swore up and down that I wouldn't do another quilt for hire again.

But, it's so satisfying to create something that someone else really loves, and will treasure for a long time!

Also, it's very satisfying to finish something successfully, that has so many details.

So, I think I would do quilts for hire in the future, but I would have some requirements that would have to be met first. 

Main requirements would be agreeing on pattern and fabric 6 months in advance, and nothing that needs to be finished in November or December.  

Thanks Jenny!  This was a fun project!!

Keep Them Babies Warm!

A local foster mom was gifted a doll cradle for her son. 

He really wants a doll baby for Christmas.

So, I whipped up a simple doll quilt today.

The pictures aren't super great, and the lighting tomorrow won't likely be any better.

Plus, the little quilt is a little more symmetrical than the picture looks.

I used a leftover block from a memorial quilt I made this year, plus several of the half square triangles that I gleaned from that project.

All pieces of this quilt, except the white on back, were from my scrap bins.

Including the binding!  It was just the right size!

I've been working on a Christmas project for several weeks and this week was the week to have it ready for the quilter.

The day I planned to bring them to her was the day EVERYTHING went wrong.

Not the least of which was my beautiful 1955 Singer sewing machine making a loud noise, then not working too well afterward.

My friend had given me a sewing machine with a walking foot (for quilting) a few weeks ago, so I tried to use that.

But, the seams were too thick and it kept breaking needles in the fabric.

So, I went to Costco and bought an inexpensive machine.

It's made by Brother, and I've only heard wonderful things about machines made by Brother.

Well, it sews like a dream, and the binding on this little quilt is the best binding I have EVER done, on my first try!!!

And, the quilting (not piecing) isn't that exciting, but it was easier to do than any other I've done in the past!

The only real visible oops is at the bottom, where the beginning and end seams met. But, it's sewn securely on, so I don't think the baby doll will be upset.

This was a perfect small project to work on while waiting for my Christmas project quilts to get done by the long-armer.  :)