Carina modeling

Carina did some modeling for a friend of mine who is taking photography classes. He had to do a shoot where the theme was "Rome wasn't built in a day" I think the pictures turned out great, his wife jokingly asked if I had a column, and it just happens I did have one. I bought it at Joann fabrics years ago on a really good sale and it has just been sitting in our bedroom with the Xbox on it. Carina's dress is actually a blanket of hers that I safety pinned strategically to look like a dress. It was a lot of fun!

Latest quilt

I just finished another quilt. I bought a Accuquilt fabric cutter a few months ago and this is the first quilt I have made using it. I just used some scrap fabrics I had laying around, actually I have tons of scrap fabric so it feels good to use some of it.

I quilted it using a star and loop type of design. I am really pleased with how it turned out.

Hot tub cleaning

So we cleaned the hot tub as you can see. We had to have someone come out and service it because the heater wasn't working, but now it is clean and working great. We got in it for the first time last night and it was wonderful, we both slept like logs.

More on the hot tub move.

If you haven't read the previous post you need to start there. The hot tub is now making its way down the skinny walkway on the side of the house.

Whew! It's in the back yard, almost to the slab.

Perfect landing right on the slab, time for some beer.

Here it is all filled up. We have to let it heat up before running the first cleaning cycle and then we drain rinse and fill up again. That process will start tomorrow.

Finally Hot Tub moving day is here!

Here's the guys contemplating the move to the backyard.

This is Ryan showing off his six pack.

We're making progress, this isn't so bad.

This seems like a good time for a break since it has been moved several feet so far.

Cement slab finished

Well it's not perfect, but it's very strong and most of it will be covered by the hot tub anyway, I don't think it is too bad considering we have never done concrete before, at least not a job this big.

Here is a picture of the hot tub, not the actual hot tub, but the same model as the one we are getting from my brother, it's a Hot Spring Jetsetter. We are hoping to get enough guys to volunteer to help us move it next weekend. In the meantime I will get the wiring done so we will be ready to go.

Cement slab project

Barry is giving us his hot tub and we needed to find a place to put it, so we decided it is going where the old firepit planter thing was.

We bought 24-80 lb bags of cement and mixed them all one by one in the wheelbarrow, we ended up with 5 left over bags of cement.

As you can see we probably wasted one bag of cement just on Craig, I wasn't wearing quite as much as him at the end of the project.

Lattice wall project

Here is a before picture.

Here is the after. I have been wanting to enclose this space ever since we added the addition to the barn.

Here is a pic from the other side.

I framed out the lattice so it looks finished, and I put a post in the center because the lattice only comes in 4 ft wide pieces and the area is just over 6 ft wide. I am pleased with how it came out.

Another Kaleidoscope quilt

I finished piecing another Kaleidocope quilt and got it on the quilt frame the other day.

I got the quilting finished today and just need to bind it. I designed the quilting with a new program I got called Pro-Q designer. I was amazed how well the quilting turned out with this program and how easily it all lined up.

Here's a close-up, it is a simple quilt design of hearts and loops.

Earthquake?

No, but forget sleeping in on a Saturday morning. My neighborhood has been getting torn up for months now and today was our day for replacing the sewer lines. The whole house shook while they tore up the street and half of our driveway.

This big hole is right in our driveway next to the Cherry tree and those are roots sticking out. We just spent $400 last Sunday because those roots got into the sewer line and sewage was backing up into the house, of course now a week later those lines are being replaced.

We are forced to park in our front yard and at times we were blocked in, but I managed to drive the jeep out of the side yard through the ditch and escape for awhile.

Finished Kaleidoscope Quilt

I actually found out that this is called a four patch stack-n-whack. Anyway, I got it finished.

Here is a shot of it from the side, I was hoping the quilting would show up better in the pictures.

It's easier to see the quilting on the backside. I did an all over floral design. I am ready to start another one while I am in the quilting mood. I am making these for baby shower gifts, I have several friends and family having babies soon.

Kaleidoscope Quilt

Beautiful weather and what do I do, I quilt. I saw a quilt like this on the web somewhere and figured I could recreate it. First you have to find a fabric with a fairly large repeating pattern, generally they are the ugly fabrics, the kind I would never buy. You find the repeat in the fabric and cut it out, you need at least four identical repeats and then you stack them lining the designs up perfectly then you cut out squares, I decided to do 4" squares because I could get the most out of it that way. Then you put your matching blocks together turning each block a quarter turn so they look like a kaleidoscope. It' just a simple four patch block. It's amazing how completely different each block looks although they are all from the same fabric.

This is a swatch of the fabric that I used. I like the colors.

Here are a couple of the blocks close up.

It was really fun turning the squares around to see the different designs that it would make, I kept rotating them until I found the one I thought looked the best.

Now it's ready for quilting. I just need to load it onto the frame.

Retail Therapy! Doing my part to help the economy!

I went shopping with Carina the other night which is a bad, bad idea. I don't really like to shop, but she has a way of getting me to buy things I wouldn't have bought otherwise. She had recently bought the cutest Juicy bag and I loved it, hers is black and when I saw it in the espresso, I just had to have it! Then she steered me over to the Jeans and I bought a pair of Joe's Jeans, very cute but more expensive than I would have usually spent on jeans, I am usually good with Levi's or Lee. Then it is off to the bra section, she said, "Mom you really need a new bra, and when you get one we are going to burn your other ones." So two bra's one pair of jeans and a ridiculously expensive purse later..............I also found some Merrell's that I just had to have, they are my favorite shoes, luckily Nordstroms then announced they were closing, THANK GOD!

So what do I do on Saturday....I go to the Sew Expo of course, I didn't win the contest with my embroidered purse entry, but I didn't really think I would win anyway. So I go to the Expo with a mission, to buy a new sewing machine. People that know me are thinking, she needs a new sewing machine like she needs a hole in the head, but I do need a new machine, my old regular sewing machine has been dying a slow death and I have been waiting for this weekend for a long, long time. So I hit every vendor's booth who are selling machine's, Viking, Bernina, Janome etc.... and I end up at the Babylock dealer's booth, and I seek out the owner who has dealt with me before so I am suprised that he doesn't duck and hide. I get him to sell me the demo at a great discount and I convince him to throw in a quilt table, quilting foot and pay for the tax as well, whoo hoo! I will pick it up later in the week! Here is a picture of it below. I love to wheel and deal and get what I want!

2009 Sewing & Stitchery Expo Contest

The Sew Expo is coming up in a couple of weeks in Puyallup, WA and I decided to enter a contest they are having. The only rule was to use this embroidery design that they have as a free download and send them a picture of the finished product using the design. I decided to use it to make a new cover for my Smart Bag. The winners will send their item in to be displayed at the expo and everyone who enters gets a prize and they will have a slide show of all the entries at the expo. Mostly I just wanted the freebie prize and I can also use and show off my purse at the expo.