Simply Sewing 101

Oh my goodness I just saw that this is my 301 blog entry. I was going to have a little contest when I hit 300 which would have been my last entry. So keep reading to find out the surprise at the end of this entry.
To all of my Simply Sewing girls, class this month won't be until the last week of April. Please mark April 28th on your calendars. Something to be aware of is the time, I have changed it to 6:00 instead of 7:00. For this months project we are making these fun jewelry pouches. Wouldn't these make a great Mother's Day gift. You could tuck a piece of jewelry down inside one of the pockets. And what Mom doesn't like jewelry? This jewelry pouch is a circular bag with 8 interior pockets, perfect for carrying earrings and rings. The center of the pouch is padded and holds bracelets and watchs. The drawstrings hold the bag closed. The supply lists will be ready for pick up after April 12th. Can't wait to see you all.
Now for the fun give away honoring my 300 post. Leave me a comment on what your favorite piece of jewelry is(besides your wedding ring) and the story behind it, then let me know that you have put me in your followers list. I see some of you have already added me and I would love to be able to see where you all come from and to read all about your happenings on your blogs. The lucky winner will win one of these great bags and also a little something to go in it! I will draw a name next Wednesday, April 7th and I will post it before I go away for the weekend to the Super Spring Retreat in Ephraim.

March Bag Class

Wow, was this bag a popular one. I had 10 ladies in my March 18th class. A little scrunched, but boy that doesn't stop us from having a good time.

It was fun having these two ladies with us. These are long time friends of mine. I think they might be hooked on bags. Jana Lee Williams and Maureen Erickson sewing their very first bags.

It was hard getting everyone together for a group picture, no one wanted to stop long enough for that or some of them had already gone home. Here are a few of the finished bags. I might add they all finished their bags that evening.

I'm teaching this bag again tomorrow night, April 1st. I think I have 3 openings left if you want to come join in on the fun. It's April Fool's Day. Hum, what kind of prank can I pull on my Bag Lady friends?

It's Spring, Kind Of!

My third quilt of the year. So far I'm staying caught up on my quilt of the month goal. Here is the finished Liliana, isn't she beautiful. This is a pattern from Crazy Old Ladies and I made it from the popular Verna line from Kate Spain. Don't you love the jumbo ric-rac? It's my favorite thing on the quilt. It's just shouting spring to me, whenever it get's here!
Hey if you like this quilt and want to learn the technique of putting it together, I will be teaching it in St. George the last weekend of June. Get your girlfriends together and schedule a little get away. It might be a little warm but Dave's Bernina has great air conditioning, I hope!

Girl's Day Fun!

It's been awhile since we have gotten together for a Girl's Day. While Angie was here on her spring break from school we gathered at Kira's to make these fun Easter eggs. We had lots of fun painting, laughing, decopauging, and eating a delicious sandwich from the Italian Place. Kira, Angie, Myself and Kaitlyn
McKinley was even in on all the action.

Karas and Grandma

Angie and Thayne goofing off with my camera. As you can see they all turned out really cute. We had an "EGG"-cellant day.

Block #3

I'm still on track with the Jelly Roll Sew Along. Block #3 was a very simple one. Hope some of you have joined. It's alot of fun looking at the different blocks in the Flickr group. And the prizes she is giving away are terriffic.

This is what I call fun!

In honor of NQD (National Quilt Day) Abbey Lane Quilts is having a fun give away. You should check it out for yourself. They are being awfully generous with the gifts they are giving away. I might add, there are l ot's of chances to be picked in this one. I had the opportuntity to meet these great ladies at work last Saturday afternoon. Come to find out they have a quilt featured in the same QUILT Magazine(that's the name of it, Quilt)that I found my last Bag Ladies bag from. They were commenting how great the bag was, they asked for the pattern and I told them where they could find it. Then we all came to the conclusion that their quilt just happened to be in there too. Funny how things bring quilters together. I had them autograph my copy. Thanks for the friendship ladies. Then later in the week I had a comment from them on one of my posts. And did you see the Kate Spain commented on my Verna post. She is so sweet to take the time to look at all those post. Have I mentioned lately that I love to sew, and meeting great designers like these makes it all worthwhile.

NQD

Happy National Quilting Day to all my quilting buddies that follow this blog. I hope you are all sewing on one or more quilts today. You better go shopping too, because alot of your quilting shops are having fantastic sales today in honor of our special day.

Everyday is quilt day for me, how about you?

Happy Sewing, Shannon

I love Verna!

I'm really lovin' this new designer for Moda fabrics, Kate Spain is her name and she has the most adorable new stuff coming out. But right now my favorite line is Verna. I just finished a quilt out of it using a pattern from Crazy Old Ladies called Liliana. Who can see the pattern on Emily's blog. As soon as it's quilted and bound I'll post pictures. But I wanted to tell you about a fun give away Kate is sponsoring, she is giving away some of this line to a lucky winner, and it just might be ME or YOU. Here is her link to get you to her blog, katespaindesigns.blogspot.com. Tell I sent you.

Still Sewing!

In my previous post I wished all of you a happy sew Monday, it's turned out to be a happy day for me. Look at these cute little wallets I've been working on. They are just the right size for all of your quilt store punch cards that you have hanging around in your purse somewhere. And if you are any way like me you have several other cards just like this only not from the quilt shop. Mine are always so unorganized in my wallet and I'm always digging for the right card at each shop I visit. I found the solution, Valori Wells has come up with this fun wallet to keep them all together in one place. So clever and useful.

How come I'm making so many you ask. These will make great little give away prizes to some lucky sewers who have signed up for my Mystery Bag and quilt classes that I'm teaching at two fun retreats that are coming up. Check out the retreats here: http://www.davesbernina.com/ and http://www.pieplatepatterns.com/. The first retreat is March 25th-27th in St. George and the 2nd retreat in April 7th-1oth in Ephraim. Do you need a get away? This would be perfect for you, just think sunshine, fabric, sewing, friends, food, etc. all wrapped into one great weekend. Spots are filling fast, don't put if off any longer. Hope you can join us.

Block #2

Happy sewing Monday, I told you I wasn't going to get behind on the Jelly Roll Sampler sew along. It's only Monday, the first day of block #2 directions. Guess what? Yippee, I'm already done and it isn't even noon yet. How's that for staying caught up. The guest designer is April Mazzoleni, her block was very simple to make. Check out her blog to see what other fun things she does. www.april-makingendsmeet.blogspot.com Now let's move onto block #3. I will be patiently waiting for it. What should I do with all my time til then? I know, I'll find another project to work on, heaven knows I've got a million of those going on right now!

Back to School!

On Friday I had the opportunity to go back to school, sort of! Mrs. Bird from the Springville Jr. High asked if I would come show some of her sewing classes the fabric flower that I have been making. The girls made me feel very welcome. Being there took me back to my Jr. High sewing days. This is where my love for sewing started, I was the same age of these girls. I have learned so much more since then but every bit of basic sewing I use everyday I owe to a wonderful teacher, Mrs. Manwarring. These girls had alot of fun learning something new and making something that they can use to finish the look of the projects they are completing. Here are some ways to use the fabric flower. How 'bout flip flops, the girl's loved this idea and now that spring is on it's way they were jumping up and down for some flip flop weather. By the way, Shopko has all of their flip flops buy one get one free right now, this would be a good time to stock up.

I've used this flower on baby headbands, bags, made them into pins, hair clips, hats. The fabric flower seems to be all the rage right now, you see them everywhere. And there is such a variety of patterns out there. Go wild with flowers, use your imagination.

Now let's get started, should we?

Just about finished, that's it I think you've go it.

Me and my fellow classmates with their finished flowers, I bet the other students in the school were wondering where all these lovely blossoms came from.

Meet Eddie!

Spaghetti Eddie that is!Do you think Thayne likes spaghetti or what? I've never seen a kid eat spaghetti as good as he did.
Look at this smile, his face was permantely orange after we got him washed off.

And Karas, we couldn't even get her to taste hers. All she wanted was for me to "take a her picture"! She loves the camera, I'm glad I got this one of her smiling so big. Isn't she cute?

Block #1

I have finished block #1 of the Jelly Roll Sampler I am participating in. Moose on the Porch quilts is sponsoring this, and it's not to late to join. See the icon on my side bar, click it and it will take you right to it. Round 2 will be next monday and I'm already looking forward to doing the block, I'm not going to get behind on this one. I'm going to keep caught up for sure. Come play with us. Cotton Blossoms by Bonnie and Camille is what I've chosen to make mine out of.

Making House calls!

This Bag Lady now makes house calls! Last Monday evening I met with this group of fun ladies to teach them how to make the tote bag that I have been teaching the last couple of months. I can't believe how popular this bag has become. Two of them had taken my class at the shop and thought it would be fun to have a mother and daughter night. Thanks ladies for letting me come and share my talents with you and feeding me such a wonderful supper.

Candice, Ann, Judy(the host), Connie, Keri, and Janene.

They all finished their bags, and everyone of them turned out just darling. Wouldn't you agree? I guess you could call me a traveling bag lady now. Hey, if you think this is something you might like to do with girlfriends, work place friends or family, I would love to come to your house and help you host a sewing event like this. You pick the bag and I'll provide the help you need to make it, it's that easy. E-mail if you want more info on hosting somthing like this in or around my area. My e-mail address is on my sidebar. Let's get together and have some sewing fun.

We're Celebrating 31 Years Together!

I've blogged about this group of ladies before and I'm sure there will be many more to come. This year we are celebrating 31 wonderful years together. We have been getting together every month since we graduated from high school. It was my turn to host club (as we call it) in February. We have so much fun when we get together, it's a time to get caught up on everyone's busy lives. We now have married kids and grandkids to add to the mix of the conversations that go on through out the evening. The front staircase in my front entry way seems to be the most popular spot for our group photo, we take one there every time I have club. From top to bottom there is Jan, Sharon and both Melanie's. Then there is Camille and Gayleen, Myself, Elaine and Melba. The only two missing that evening were Liz and Kaye.

Just visiting after dinner. I served Stuart's Famous Crispy Chicken, Baked Potatoes, Vegatable's in a Cloud(I'm going to share this recipe with you) and a frozen Cherry Salad. For dessert I served a yummy Ice Cream Sandwich Layered Dessert, which I will also be sharing.

These two must be getting old! They needed a sody water to help their heartburn, or did I just feed them to much? Oh what funny girl's, it's the pits to get old!

I went with the theme of It's all about "YOU" Cupcake!, so I spoiled them with a cupcake of their choice to take home. Here are a few pictures of the table decorations.

Aren't these little cupcake cups the cutest? Santa brought them to Kira and Kaitlyn for Christmas, they are really meant to be used for ice cream toppings but I used them for the frozen salad. If you are looking for something like this, Santa got them at Tai Pan, there are four to a set.

Spring time all around, even if it didn't look like it outside that night. Are you noticing my glass cupcake stand? I told you I had a fetish for glassware lately! Don't you just love the blue on top of the candlestick?

The overall view of the table.

I'll get those recipes posted for you to enjoy. Another year down, and many more ahead to enjoy with such great friends. We are so close to each other that we keep telling each other that our kids are going to have to put us in the same rest home when we become of age. Now wouldn't that be fun, the only thing is we probably wouldn't remember who each other was or what we used to do at club!

March Bag Class

It's March already, can you believe it? I'm just getting around to annoucing the bag we will be doing in bag class this month. I've had to move class up one week this month, as I will be in St. George at the end of the month at a really fun retreat put on by Dave's Bernina. (That was a little plug to get you all to sign up) Anyway bag class will be on March 18th at 6:00. This bag is called the Daytripper Bag. It was designed by Izzy and Ivy Designs. Jana lives right here in the Salem area. This bag is great for those overnight trips, makes a great church bag or I think it would make a great diaper bag for the new mom to be. Here are a couple of different versions of this awesome bag.

Stop by or call Corn Wagon Quilts and lets get you signed up to make this little cutie. Or you can e-mail and I can send you the supply list. We have lots of fun at Bag Ladies Night, I'd love to see you there.