Who's The Winner?

Thanks everyone for leaving comments on Emily's little contest she's been having the last 30 days. I hope you have had as much fun as I have following along. I had the president himself here at the White house do the honors of drawing the winner, how appropriate since this book is "Geared for Guys". We put all 25 names into a bowl and the name he drew out was . . .
Allison! Congratulations Allison on winning such a fabulous book. I hope you have lots of guys to do sewing for. E-mail me at oohsaahsw@aolcom and let me know if you want the PDF version or the actual book, along with your e-mail address or your mailing address. You will love this book. Thanks for playing along.

And for our field trip today we went to visit Bonnie and Brenda of Pie Plate Patterns in Fountain Green. Their design and pattern company is located there. We picked up Sharon in Mt. Pleasant and she enjoyed the day with us too. What a great place they have, everything is right at their finger tips. The office, quilting machine, cutting table, fabric and sewing machines all in one space. They spend a lot of their time here.

And speaking of "Geared for Guys", Brenda had just received a quilt in the mail from her daughter in Colorado to quilted. It's the Gamer quilt out of Em's book. It made Emily jump for joy, she was slightly excited to see it.
Emily's daughter, Paris went with us today to. She had fun creating on the design wall. Soon she will taking over her mom's job!
Paris is now our official photographer. She took pictures of Terry and I and the whole gang.

Pictured left to right: Sharon, Bonnie, Brenda, Myself, Emily and Terry.

After visiting B & B treated us to lunch at the local grocery store/hamburger place. This is one of those quaint little towns where everyone knows everyone and everything about each other!

They spoiled us all with their latest Pie to Go quilt book. 5 patterns are featured in this book with very minimal piecing. The Chevron quilt is one of the classes that was offered last month at their retreat. And Brenda, bless her heart put together this kit of her Cool Spools just for me. I really liked this quilt when I saw it at the retreat but I couldn't take the class as she was teaching it the same time I was teaching. She didn't have enough kits with her so she had one all ready for me today. What a nice surprise.
This is the table topper version of her Cool Spools quilt. I have enough fabric to make it into a wall hanging. It's a paper pieced quilt and I haven't done much of this technique so it will be something new and fun to learn. Thank you, thank you for a fun day everyone.

And Allison I will be watching for an e-mail from you very soon!

Last Chance!

Good morning peeps! Just a reminder today is the last day of the 30 day 30 book blog tour for Em's new book Geared for Guys. There's still time to enter on my post til this afternoon. And you can catch the last three days worth at these blogs: Sunday, Fat Quarterly Monday, Bumble Beans, and Tuesday, Lily's Quilts.
Today is Wednesday so I am off spending the day with my bestest sewing buddies. Terry has lined up a field trip for us. And lunch will be involved with that I'm sure. I'll post when I get home and I have picked a winner. Check out Emily's blog sometime today, she's giving other prizes away as well.

Look at this surprize goody bag they brought me from market last week when we met for lunch.

Wow, I am really feeling the love from them. There were charm packs, magazines, a jelly roll of Urban Cowgirls from Moda. Um, how did they know that was on my want list I wonder. We must talk fabric when we are together! There was also a cute wool and crocheted pin cushion and a little bag filled with notions from Moda. Thanks friends, I love it all. Sorry that I didn't go with you, but you know Houston in circled on the calendar for October. I will start counting down!

Love Vintage!

Especially this Modern Vintage fabric line that came in last week at the shop. Bonnie and Camille have really put out another cute line. The red, aqua, grays and greens all work nice together. The fat quarters are cut, the pre-cuts are in and out on the floor ready for your sewing needs or want.
I have already made two projects using this line and a third is on it's way. The first is the project tote pictured below. For those finishing the Wasatch Front Shop Hop the pattern and vinyl will be their finishing prize. After it is over we will have the pattern for sell in the shop. We are having an employee challenge, we are all making our own bag for display and cutting the fat quarters for them. With what everyone's picked out for their fabrics, there's sure going to be some fun designs. Watch for them on display during the shop hop. And if you can't make it, I will surely post pictures later for all to see. Even Lucy is making one!
The second, a quilt called Piece of Cake 3 from Camille of Thimble Blossom. She happens to be the designer of the fabric. And the third project, a Sweet Pea bag from Kati Cupcake. I will be sharing that with you in just a few. First I need to focus on my classes for Quilt Walk.

Oh yeah, Lucy's chocolate quilt is done too. Not showing you yet though.

Remembering...

Our loved ones forever and especially on Memorial Day. Stuart and I went to the cemetery on Thursday night to decorate graves before we headed to St. George for the weekend. The flag display was beautiful as ever. A long standing tradition here in the Spanish Fork Cemetery is honoring the veterans the have passed on. We call it the Field of Flags. And isn't this a pretty view of the US and the military flags? The wind had them standing at full view.
My dad served in WWII as a young man. He was in the Navy and was one of the cooks on board. No matter how many times I see his marker, I still get teary eyed. This year his marker just happened to be on the front row. We didn't have far to go looking for it.
Thank you dad and to all the other past and present Veterans for serving our country. We know you are putting many sacrifices on the line for our freedoms. We will never forget.

Geared For Guys!

Is it May 26th already? Back in April my good friend, Emily asked if I would participate in her Geared for Guys 30 day 30 books blog tour. I just about forgot that today was my day and how can you say no to an offer like that. So here goes. When I was in school(back in the day)I really wasn't the best at finishing books and then giving the book reports on it. But give me a quilt book and I can read it from cover to cover and that's just what I have done with Em's book. I love it and I really like that it is geared just for the guys(or gals) we all have in our lives.

Emily and I have become very good friends over the last 4 years through her visits to the Corn Wagon, her local quilt shop in Springville. I have had the privilege to travel to quilt markets, cheered her on when she tells me about new ideas for patterns and I have been supporting her from the side lines from start to finish of this awesome book. And we even do lunch almost every Wednesday to talk about quilting, of course. Here she is showing it for the first time at a trunk show I was able to attend with her. You can tell she's excited about it can't you? She should be. Well I am excited for her too, it takes a lot of time and effort to do something this grand. My hat is off to her today for doing a great job on it.

A couple of my favorites in the book are Switchback which is pictured below. What a design!
And the Odd ball quilt is a geometric, modern day quilt. Any of the quilts in Em's book could be done with just about anything and still look terrific. I can't wait to play with all of them. And I will probably be making some out of girly prints too, who said this was strictly a guys book of quilts!

Her book is out now. You can pick it up at quilt shops everywhere. I know she has many orders that she received at market last week. By the way you can get it in book form or PDF , you can get them through her Etsy shop. Emily has her third line of fabric coming out later this summer called "Shore Thing" with Michael Miller. Watch for this follow up to "Going Coastal" that was so popular last summer.

Now for some more good news, Emily's given me a book for a give-a-way. Leave me a comment on what you are doing fun this Memorial Day weekend and does it involve any sewing. Oh, remember Father's Day is just around the corner. It's not too late to get started on that guy quilt. Win this book or pick one up at your favorite shop and get SEWing!

Roadtrip!

The gangs all together and ready for a road trip to the Wasatch Front Shop Hop! Lucy wants to know if you are coming along too. She is all hyped up for the big ordeal hitting quilt shops from Springville to Logan. If you want to see her and her quilting friends(I didn't know Lucy sewed, did you?) stop in the Corn Wagon from June 13 - 16. As usual I'm sure she will be up to something spectacular!

"Oh, Ricky look at all of the wonderful shops we have to stop at." Is there plenty of room in the trunk or shall I pack an extra suitcase or two?

A Package from Kati

I knew this package was coming and I couldn't wait to get it either. Amy with Kati Cupcake has once again put out some really fun sewing patterns and I am one of the lucky ones that get to test them before they go out to her printer. Amy has had some severe medical problems this winter so I am so very glad she is feeling much, much better and that she is able to being doing the things she loves, like sewing and designing. Best of luck Amy.The new bag pattern she has coming out is one of her cutest yet I think. It's called Sweet Pea. My sample is out of some older fabric from Timeless Treasures that I bought way back when, when I was working at Creekside Needle Arts in Payson. So it's been in the closet hiding all this time. It pays to check out the closet mess once in awhile! I love the results and I can't wait to use it this summer, we'll see if it passes the test this weekend when I take it to St George to use.
The handles have strap wraps, isn't that a cute feature? It actually looks more complicated than it really is. And those big grommets make any bag fabulous, don't you agree? The big flap pocket on the front is also a great feature. It closes with a loop and a button.
A big back pocket with piping along the top. This feature is also on the inside pockets.
The pattern gives you the option for a zipper closure or a snap closure. For this one I chose the zipper closure, and the instructions are really well done for this. The next one I make I will try the snap version.
A view of the inside of the bag. She has you separate the pockets into four. I left one as is so I would have a separate pocket for my tablet.
So what did you think and like about the bag? The second pattern is a quilt called Lillian and Oliver. She does it in two color ways for a boy or a girl. The pattern also includes a darling burp cloth and bib. We had just gotten this cute fabric from Riley Blake called Peak Hour so that's what I did it from. These are kitted and ready to go at the Corn Wagon, just waiting for the patterns. You won't want to wait long for this one, it's going to move fast.
Ramona quilted loops and stars on it. The backing is the Snuggles in bright aqua blue. It's perfect for cuddling those cute babies or grand babies.

Thanks Amy for giving me the opportunity to help you out. I can't wait to see and make all of your other new things coming soon. My thoughts and prayers are with you as you continue to get better. And if you can't wait another week or two to see her new stuff, check everything out on her blog.

Life Is Like A Box Of Chocolates...

you never know what your going to get!

Let's put it this way. I have been working on a really fun quilt the last few days but I can't share it with you for another month! Here are a few snippets from it though.
And another hint, it has something to do with this fun poster and the Wasatch Shop Hop that is coming our way June 13-16th. The theme this year is vintage t.v. shows and the Corn Wagon happens to be "I Love Lucy". The happenings around this place are going to be loaded with lots of laughter as we get ready for such a fun weekend. You won't want to miss this one, it just might beat the Corn Wagon Family Reunion we had two years ago! And you thought that one was fun.

"SNAP" to It!

Remember the cute colored snaps I used in some of my bags a while back that I had gotten at my local JoAnn's? I ran onto them one day when I was there but I hadn't seen them since then and that has probably been a year or more. Well Thursday when I stopped in for a zipper I see they had them again. So if you live close by me and are still wanting some you better "SNAP" to it because I don't think they will be there for long.
They even had new colors like the brown and bronze, so I added those to my purse hardware stash. They just add a little pop of color to your bags I think.

You better hurry, supplies are limited because of me!!!

You Rock Miss M!

McKinley has been taking dancing lessons all year and she had her Spring Recital last Friday evening. This little one can dance. She has been paying attention in class, I can tell. I remember not too long ago we were doing this same thing with her Mother, Kaitlyn. Seems just like yesterday to me.

She has the cutest teacher and you can tell how good she is with the students.

The proud Mama and the star of the show.

McKinley with Grandma and Aunt Ya Ya(Kira), that's what she has always called her ever since she could talk. Cute huh? Of course we had to bring flowers for the dancer. In Grandmas eyes she was the best!

And Grandpa's too! You "Rocked" it McKinley, so very proud of you.

The Girl's Day Out!

The girl's and I celebrated Mothers Day by having a girl's day out. It was a blast getting these 3 wonderful daughters together. We haven't done it for a while. Everyone is busy and we live small distances away from each other. I think they were glad to have a day off without kids. We met Angie at the new City Creek Center in Salt Lake. We shopped around there a bit, it's a very nice place with nice prices to match! And big too!We chose the Cheesecake Factory for our lunch spot. The weather was beautiful so we dined outside.
The creek comes right through the center of the square. This really is a beautiful place for an outing.

After shopping the center and not finding anything we absolutely had to have, we headed for Steinmart, a store a lot like my favorite TJ Maxx's. We all found something in there to buy.
Happy Mother's Day to these sweet girls, we had a really fun day laughing and helping each other spend!