Christmas in July...or August

Hi everyone. I'm so sorry I haven't posted in a while. I've tried to keep up with your blogs, so sorry if I've missed a lot of posts. I feel like life is on fast forward. Somebody push the stop button!

Here are some things I've been doing this summer. I finally got this quilt ready for the quilters. It took longer than it should have. I love this quilt, but the greens and yellows are the wrong color for my living room. My walls are sage green, and tan. I wish I would have gone for a different colors. It isn't going to go where I had planned to put it, but it will look cute on my quilt ladder that I change out quilts for the seasons. Also looks great in my sewing room which is apple green, but there is no room for a quilt this big. (Bummer!)

My kids have started school. This is my 4th year homeschooling. This year we are attending the Utah Virtual Academy. It is a charter-Internet based school. The curriculum is wonderful, and the schedule is already planned for me, which is great.

I went to my 20th high school reunion last month, and reconnected with a classmate that sews doll clothes. That got me thinking about my little daughter and Christmas. I decided this might be the year to introduce her to the American Girl dolls. Her cousin gave her the "Addy" doll several years ago, but she hasn't really played with it that much, either because she was just too young, or didn't have any clothes for it. I'm planning a trip to L.A so she can pick out her very own doll. I think I'm more excited about it than she is!
I found this great website that has free downloads for all of the original AG doll clothes, and so... a sewing I have been doing! Mind you these clothes are suppose to be for Christmas, but I'm so excited about them, I've given her a few things now. I've got to make some and tuck them away for the real event! I'm really having a blast making these! I can't seem to stop. I downloaded all of the patterns (beware... it's over 350 sheets of paper and a cartridge of ink)!

First I made these cute clothes. Fun, free easy patterns from You Can Make this. com.

Then I moved on to pajamas. These are "Molly's pajamas from the American Girl patterns. I changed the colors, and added ruffles on the bottom.Since both the Pj's went okay, I decided to really challenge my sewing skills and make the "Felicity dress." I have to tell you that sewing this was like stitching a historical sampler. I love the detail!

This is the ruffle around the collar. I think I used every pin I had. It took about 3 1/4 yards of ribbon and 4 hours to pin together.

Next I did the "Addy Tartan Dress". I still have to sew on some bows and buttons, but it turned out pretty cute. My DD just wants her to wear the pink dress. This one didn't excite her near as much.

I finished my Amish quilt, twice. I gave the other identical quilt to my friend Kim to commemorate our trip to PA. Now it's off to the quilters too.

My dear friend Deb sent me these patterns a few months ago, from her stash. I can't wait to do some of the little Amish designs to go with my quilt. I really appreciate her friendship. I feel so blessed to meet such great friends through blogging. Thanks Deb!

Last week, I won Doris' giveaway. She was giving away some UFO's and I thought this Shepherd's Bush sampler would be perfect for my daughter to start stitching on. She is just learning, and loving it! Thank you Doris!

I got my Petite Rouge letters back from the framers. This was Blackbirds contest from a few months ago. This is personalized with my Grandma's name. I love looking at it.

To add to my scary thoughts that summer is almost over...we had a "friend" come to our BBQ last week.Can you believe the size of that sucker?! I could have just died. It was making a web on the door knob. We get tarantula's usually in October, but it is rare to see one this early. Someone said that we will have a hard winter. Something not to look forward to! I can feel Fall in the air, even though we have high temperatures still. I love fall, but I always feel sad when summer starts to fade. Time marches on faster than we want too I'm afraid.

Until next time dear friends. Enjoy your weekend!

Where is the summer going?

DD as Hannah Montana at her "rock star" party!

I had big plans this summer, to get soooo much stitching and quilting done. Well, like many of you that isn't happening. I'm a bit frustrated by that, but I can't complain too much, as I've been getting my house "deep cleaned" and there have been many fun memories made with BBQ's and parties.

My daughter turned 8 this month, my husband and I celebrated our 16th wedding anniversary. We have had 6 other family members with birthday's in the past two weeks, and Pioneer celebrating in Utah to boot! It's been crazzzzy. I'm ready for it to slow down!

I have managed to finish my June SAL assignment for Shores, but haven't started July's. I did snap a quick picture just so I can prove to you that I did it! The big news is that Terri and I are hosting a SAL and we have an official site set up now. Please check it out at www.sailaway.sal.blogspot.com. We are so excited to be sailing away on August 5th Terri's 50th birthday! If you are one of the official members, I need your e-mail addresses so that I can add you as an author.

This is a short post. Hopefully all is well in your neck of the woods! Take care friends.

We have but such a little time here.

I'm sorry I haven't been the best blogger lately. I've managed to read a few posts over the past few weeks, but have had a chance to post one.
On Friday, it will be 3 weeks that my sister-in-law, Heidi, who lives in Florida had her 3rd baby. The baby was having some problems initially, so my brother went to "transition" with him, just to make sure things were alright. When he came back, all of the doctors were in a panic, and there was blood everywhere. Heidi was loosing so much blood, that they determined an emergency hysterectomy had to be done. Her blood pressure was so low, that they were not able to give her any anesthetic. While in surgery, her blood tests came back positive for a condition called DIC. This is a very serious medical condition in which the blood coagulates in the veins, instead of at the sight where it should. You essentially end up bleeding to death, because there is no way to stop the bleeding. DIC has a horrible nickname called Death-is-coming, in reference to those who contracted bubonic plague. They would go into DIC before dying, which would turn their skin "black" from the blood collecting under the skin. It was also referred to "the black death."
It was determined that she lost 79% of her blood, and had to be given over 20 units of blood. A normal person has about 5 units in them. Over 20 doctors worked on saving her, and she was then transported to a trauma hospital so she could be watched 24/7. There is a real risk for stokes, as the body has so many blood clots in it.
It was quite an ordeal! I am happy to say that we witnessed many miracles over the course of the next few days. Lots of prayers, fasting and blessing were given, in which Heavenly Father answered in our favor.
I was able to fly out and help her and my brother with the baby. We had a similar near death experience with my daughter when she was 4 years old. She had a seizure that lasted over 3 hours. She was life flighted to a childrens hospital and stayed in intensive care for 5 days. I somewhat know of the loneliness and pain that it is to wonder what will happen. I wanted more than anything to be able for him to have someone to talk to, and to help with the baby.

Heidi has made an incredible recovery. The baby, whom they named Jacob, is doing well, and is the most adorable baby in the world! Such an angel too. He couldn't have been easier to take care of.My sweet little nephew "Jacob". An angel on earth.

I'm sorry to bore you with this story, but it has had such a huge impact in my life. I hope it will help you all to cherish those you love.Before I left, Melanie had to throw together a baby gift. I made the blanket, and my Sister-in-Law, Melanie made the diaper bag. If anyone is interested in the directions for the blanket, let me know, and I will post them. I just kind of made this up using my scraps.

I was able to get some stitching on done on block 5, mostly on the airplane there and back. I was suppose to have this done by the end of June, but my priorities have taken a major shift!Before I left, I managed to start this great quilt by blackbird designs. This is from the book "Women of Grace and Charm". I cut this out almost 2 years ago. I've run into a snag on block one. It seems that there is another set of borders that aren't the right dimensions in the book. If anyone had done this quilt I would love to know if you had the same problem!I've also started getting the appliques done for this cute quilt by Quilt Soup. I'm still working on the flowers. I like to do the "spray starch" method on my appliques. I will stitch them on by machine. My daughter loves to "paint" the spray starch on the edges. She saves me a lot of time!I know the 4th of July is over, but I just barely got my decorations out yesterday! I figure we can look at them for the rest of the month! I love this twisted threads design. I finished it last year.
We have several stitchers interested in stitching Shepherd's Bush "Sail Away". We will be starting on Aug. 5th. If you are interested please leave a post. So far we have the following members:
1. Terri
2. Me
3. Kristin (no blog)
4. Teresa (no blog)
5. Kelly (no blog)
6. Cindy (no blog)
7. Mel
8. Lenna
9. Glenna
10. Katrina
11. Cari
12. Lizzy

We have 3 maybes! Come on and join us. We won't make it hard, promise.

1. Melissa
2. Margaret
3. Annie

If I've left you out, please let me know. I think this is a great number. If you've already stitched this, then you could stitch along with another Shepherd's Bush design. That would be fun.
If all that are confirmed want to send me their addresses. I have a little surprise coming for you! You can e-mail me at Hiddenheart@kellerits.com.

Have a wonderful week! I hope you are all having a wonderful July!

Sail Away SAL COME JOIN US!

Attention all Shepherd's Bush Fans!

If you have the kit "Sail Away" and would like to join Terriboog and I in a Stitch-A-Long, we will be starting on August 5th, which happens to be Terri's 50th Birthday. (Isn't that great!)

Terri has a fabulous blog Chocolates for Breakfast; Stitching for Lunch, and you must all run over there and read it. She is highly entertaining, and such a doll! We've never met in person, but I know we would be close friends!

If you want to join us and you don't have the kit...then by all means, sprint over to your favorite needlework store and get it, or order online. We are giving you a little over a month to get your hot little fingers on it.

Neither one of us has ever hosted a SAL, so we really have no clue what we are doing, however, we both feel it would be fun to work on something with a group, so if you are interested then leave a post on either one of our blogs and we will get it set up. If you have already stitched this piece, then we welcome your suggestions.


Once again, that is a start of AUGUST 5th! I might make a little "gift" for all that join our group, so that might be your little incentive!

If you know anyone that might be interested, please pass the word along. The more the merrier!Aren't the colors gorgeous? I'm in silk heaven!

I'm wasn't going to buy anything, honest!

Hi to all my wonderful blog friends. It has been one of those busy weeks with lots to show and tell, so here it goes!

Yesterday my sweet daughter, my mom, Sister-in-Law Melanie, and her mom Margret went on our annual Utah Shop Hop. We were only able to go one day, and made it to about half of the stores, but that was enough for our wallets! I wasn't going to buy anything! Honestly, I didn't think I would. As you already know, I've bought so much in the past few months, that I need nothing!

I'm sorry to say, my resolve didn't last ONE store! I found myself pulling out my credit card at the first chance I got to buy this little kit. I'm blaming it on my DD who begged me to get it! I already had the pattern, and I've been looking at the kit for a while. I finally caved to her pleading and bought it. It will be cute in her room, so I better put it on the top of my list, or it won't get done until she has a daughter! Quilt Soup "All Dressed Up"

Fig Tree's Patisserie line of fabric. Quilt is "Twin Stars" from the "Jelly Roll Quilts" book

I was pretty good at the next few stores, but then we went to Mormon Handicraft, which was having a 20% off sale. I decided to buy this fabric to made a quilt out of my new Jelly Roll Quilt book. I am thinking of doing "Twin Stars". I've never made a jelly roll quilt before, so with the discount I thought it would be a good time to try. I got the fabric for the back in their 75% off fabrics. It was 2.30 a yard! That made it easy to buy, and I'm hoping it will look great with another fig tree quilt that my mom made several years ago from one of our Shop Hop trip. She made this for my daughter, and it is still one of my favorite quilts in my house!

Fig Trees "Flower Star Wreaths." My Mom made this incredible quilt for my daughter a few years ago.

DD begged me to buy this fabric as well. It was only $2.00 a yard, and will make a cute dress or something. Would be great quilt backs as well.

This is the fabric that I bought at market for a spring trench coat! This will go with everything, and I'm actually looking forward to making this!
Summer Snapperland by Bent Creek

I've finished my summer Snapperland. I loved working on this piece. It really was my favorite one of all! I started the Fall Snapperland and I'm hoping to be able to get it done really soon, so that I can have them all mounted at the same time. My framer said he could make it so I could use one frame for all four designs. I'm going to try that for a while. It will be nice to not have to store the other framed pieces. I don't really have a spot for them all to be out at once, so I think this will be a great option for now. I put all of the snaps on this piece, and then took most of them out. I thought they detracted from the piece. Now that I look at this through my camera lense, I think the snaps would have been okay, but I'm leaving them out for now!

Hope you have a great day! I'm off for more quilting and stitching fun. Hope you have a great weekend!

One more thing....

After my lengthy post this morning, I forgot to show you a finish that I did this week! It's my daughter's new pillowcase, that I bought in Pittsburgh last month. Her dinky pillow doesn't really fit in this case. The instructions are for Queen size pillows. I guess I'll have to buy her a new one when I go to the store.

This is a really fun, fast project that will give you instant gratification. Here are the instructions:

Main body - 3/4 yard fabric
Tiny Accent Border- 3" length of fabric
Border - 1/4 Yard

1. Fold 3" strip in half lengthwise and press "wrong" sides together.
2. For border: Fold in half lengthwise and press "wrong" sides together.
3. Main body is used just as is.
4. Layer and pin the different raw edges in order:
a. The long 44" edge of main body, right side up.
b. Raw edges of the mini accent
c. Raw edges of the border.
5. Sew through all five layers using 1/4" seam.
6. Zigzag seam edge, or use a serger for all of your seams.
7. Iron the seam toward the pillowcase.
8. Fold pillowcase right sides together, pin well, matching the seams of the tiny border. Sew with 1/4" seam.
9. Zigzag if not using a serger.
10. Turn right sides out and press.

Give it a try! It's fun to have new pillowcases! Hopefully that's it for today!

Plugging Along...

Hike we made to a waterfall near our home.

Hi to all my bloggy friends! I know I've been a bad, bad, bad blogger lately. I have been trying to finish some projects so I can actually have something to show. I'm showing you progress today, because nothing is really getting done as fast as I would like!

School is out, so what is the deal? How did my time evaporate? Between scouts, church, WEEDS, dentists, hiking, and cleaning, my sewing projects are not getting done, according to my unrealistic expectations! I have visions of stitching entire projects in a day, and quilts that somehow sew themselves in the night! I do wish I could hurry my projects along sometimes. I know I am not unique, in having project start-i-tis! I think I managed to do much better with my monthly goals, and will be reverting back to that after this month!

In the meantime, Here are some of the things I've been doing:

We finished our stitching project for our friend Cindy who is suffering from breast cancer.

I finished the Needle book, and snippet box, and Rachel finished the biscornu and the scissor case. Melanie (my sister-in-law who does not have a blog) finished the darling bag.

We were able to take this gift to her last week. She is such a sweetheart. She has been given many challenges the past few months. Not only has she had cancer, but she has lost her father, whom she took care of. To make matters worse, she was opening a window a few weeks ago, and tore her rotator cuff, so she needs surgery on that as well! Pray for Cindy! There is only so much stress a person should have to take!

Cindy has a great eye for decorating. I asked her is I could take a picture of her darling wall, because I love how she has decorated it. I hope she doesn't mind me sharing it with you. I love how all of these stitching projects look so great together. The addition of the the shelf and iron pieces makes the wall dimensional and classy, don't you think?

"Abundantly Blessed" by Cotton Way.

This was a really fast fun project that I decided to do on the weekend. I think it honestly took about 2 hours to complete. It has the look of a cathedral window quilt, but is actually a charm pack (5" squares) sewn together and then about 60 of these oval shaped pieces layed out and sewn down. (The hardest part of this quilt is cutting out those shapes!) It is a "quilt as you go" method, and is raw edge, so there is no binding, and no finished seams. I loved doing it. I need a wedding gift tomorrow, and I'm thinking of making another today. What did I say earlier about unrealistic expectations?

I joined "crafters choice" book club, and was excited to add these books to my library. I got all 4 books for about $10 with shipping, and I only have to buy one book this year, with no automatics send. Great deal, and the books are all fantastic!

Progress on "Shores"

I've been stitching away on shores. I am working on block 5 now. The plan is to have it done by the end of the month! (Sorry no picture, as the camera battery decided it was done for the day!)

I decided to leave out all of the single stitches on block 4. They were suppose to look like stars, but I don't really like working with single stitches, especially with silk thread. I will wait till the end to decide if I need them or not!

I've gone to the beach! (How I wish!) "Summer Snapperland" by Bent Creek

I just got the bug the other day to finish this project. It is stitching up fast! I have to finish this today. It has been pure therapy to work on. I love the colors and soft "feeling" of this design. It reminds me of San Diego. I want to use it for summer decorating, so I need to get it to the framers quick!

And last, but not least, this is my "Sunshine and Shadow" Amish quilt that I'm working on. The squares finish at 1", and this has been more of a challenge than I anticipated. For one thing the squares are small, but I couldn't really find a great pattern to use. My Mom lent me a book that had a good strip-pieced method, but I have still unpicked more than my share on this quilt. I'm making two of these. One is for my friend Kim. (see prior post about spring quilt market for the story). I left the calculator in the photo. I could not have done this quilt without it! My "plan" is to have this finished next week so she can take it home and have it quilted. We shall see!

Take care to all! I hope you have more stitching and sewing time than you want! HAHAHA, does that ever happen? If it does, then let me know your secret!