almost there!

We made it to north Carolina. We are about 4 hrs away in Greensboro. So far everything has been going good. We even picked up some couches! We will be ringing in the new year here and then continue to jacksonville tomorrow. The kids are having a good time as well as there is a pool here! I have been playing around with the mystery quilt too! So much fun!
I found a way to make a cross. Still don't know what BOnnie has in mind though! For other peoples progress and guesswork go to http://quiltville.blogspot.com/2013/12/mystery-monday-link-up-part-5.html?m=1

good morning from Colorado!

Yes we made it to colorado. It was a long trip though. The truck broke  down in Norco, so we had to spend a night in a motel :( . 2000$ later and we were on the road. By the time we got to Utah the trailer was Having Issues! We managed to sell it and move on.  It started snowing in the pass, but we still made pretty good time. As for the mystery I have only made about 20 four patches because I have been enjouing winter!

The pinwheels might save me!

It is time for the third clue in the mystery quilt! Pinwheels!
I was happy about the clue because my two other clues didn't go very well together, this was confirmed by my husband as he looked at them with a meh face. When I asked him he said they looked good on their own but not together! uh I had no plans on remaking them so I was just hoping for something that might tie them together,.. pinwheels is excellent for that!
I have seen a lot of fun layouts and I am getting very excited about it! Check them out here
http://quiltville.blogspot.com/2013/12/celtic-solstice-mystery-monday-link-up_4572.html

Here is my progress!

Due to limited amount of time I have only made 4 pinwheels! And next week I am bringing the quilting on the road!
That is right! This will be a trans american quilt, started in California and finished in North Carolina!
The movers are coming to inspect today. They will officially be moving us on wednesday and we head for Colorado on friday!
After christmas we will be driving to North Carolina!
Wish us luck :)
Jenny

Chevron time!

Chevron time! This friday Bonnie Hunter revealed her second clue in the mystery quilt celtic solstice!
I am LOVING the chevrons. So many possibilities! the plot thickens ;)
I realized that I had made an error when these instructions came out, I had originally picked the pink to go instead of the yellow... well... It turned out I put it where the orange is supposed to go..
This means that the orange will have to substitute the yellow.. oh my! If I can just remember to switch them throughout the quilt I think I should be ok!
( One big indicator of my mistake should have been the large amount of orange in the link up on the last clue lol) ... well well.. I will keep on quilting!

Here is the link to see how other quilters are tackling the mystery :) http://quiltville.blogspot.com/2013/12/celtic-solstice-mystery-monday-link-up.html

 Just loving the combo and the chevrons..

Christmas party!

Lately things have been hectic around the house! I guess it is dawning on me that we are moving in two weeks.
Today was a nice relaxed day, exactly what I needed after a long stressful week.
It was my quilt class holiday potluck! Each year I look forward to our potlucks, these ladies makes some good food! I have been truly blessed while here in California, I have some of the best friends.
Because I am leaving the ladies made me a quilt :) And let me tell you : it is beautiful! Look at those colors! It is so balanced and bold, something I struggle with in my own quilting.It is a truly amazing gift that I can cherish and remember each of the ladies by! Their own inddividual style and personality is in their block and it is just stunning! And yes, the block on the upper left is actually a dresden variation! ( my quilt teacher JoAnn made it!)

 I had made pincushions for the ladies, they got to pick their fav :)

Also my swoon came back from my quilter Sandy! Looking great I really like the feathers, and until I make another big quilt this one is going on our bed! yay,, I just love pink!

Celtic Solstice!

The mystery has begun! This year I am partaking in a mystery quilt! Every week there will be clues posted and hundreeds of people are sewing along! yay.. This is the linkup for this weeks progress! http://quiltville.blogspot.com/2013/12/celtic-solstice-mystery-monday-link-up-1.html

Here is my progress.. The instructions call for blue and yellow.. Looked in the stash,, no yellow. However,, I have A TON of pink.. so pink it is, I actually decided to change all colors but one, we will see how that turns out. It is always a gamble to change colors, but these are my colors and if it doesn't work out, well then I have reduced my stash lol..

 The best thing about a scrap quilt is that the fabrics remind me of the quilts they came from and the people that recieved them :)

These are going to be my colors..red orange pink and brown. The background is one color.. The reason? I bought 2 yards of butter cream fabric a while back ago.. This turned out to be a mistake! Buttercream does not go with anything!! It is just too yellow. But so far so good in this quilt!.. Also I think my quilt will be more of a tequila sunrise than a celtic solstice lol..

 

I also made another french general quilt. I am waiting to get the border fabric until after the big move!
3 more weeks! yikeess time flies. The good thing is that the military will move us, so they will pack our stuff,, still it feels weird to sit in a house with no moving boxes at all knowing that in 3 weeks we will be moving across the country!

Almost done!

Sometimes a challenge can be a great thing! Although the borders aren't done, the rest is!!. Yaya... Without the challenge,, it probably still would have been just a couple of fourpatches and some stars..
But here it is! I am especially happy about it because when I started out quilting I decided that every tenth quilt would go to charity.. And this is it! So it is nice that it is almost done.. I decided to set the stars on point since I have never done it before!

I am so excited that it is almost done!
It has been a busy thanksgiving week! We spent our thanksgiving at church where they had a great meal set up for the military :)
Yesterday we got new smartphones! Yes I have now entered the 21st century lol..

This morning the boys helped my husband make pancakes.. wow they are growing too fast!
Jenny

Progress?

Well I had hoped to have more done on my challenge quilt. The truth is I had a physiology test this week and inlaws visiting ( the sewing room doubles as a guestroom). I did however finish 6 more stars

 and the bow ties are coming along ( this is what I make of my leftover scraps)
I am hoping that my cathedral stars will be done in time for the new mystery quilt!

 I also couldn't help but buy some fat quarters from the downton Abbey fabrics! aren't they gorgeous??

 I think they would make a great swoon! ( yeah I know I just finished a swoon! maybe a smaller one?) As always my ideas are greater than the amount of time that I have. But hey, a girl can dream.
Well time to get back to my lab report.. Who would have thought there were so many ways a person could have type B blood... ( yes I have now made 4 schedules for type B heterozygous blood and just realized I need two more... gaaah lol) I do enjoy physiology though..

The worst Halloween ever! and quilt progress

I have been working along on my Cathedral stars quilt and I have about a third done I think. It is coming along well. My friday morning quilt group voted unanimously on the first option. The original pattern ( found under free patterns on Bonnie Hunters blog) calls for the second setting. Well I still haven't made up my mind! But the good thing about laying them out two times is that I found a goof! ( can you spot it?)

 

The error is small it is one of the half square triangles that is turned the wrong way!

Would have been frustrating though!.

 

In other news: James wrote his name! and Trick or Treating was cancelled!

The reason? James bit his brother! I had warned him not to hit his brother, but I suppose biting is a whole different deal! I felt really bad that he wouldn't be able to go trick or treating and even worse when it took us a long time to get home after a lot of marine corps related errands ( my husband had to pick up some stuff for a uniform inspection. Either way James said that it would be the worst Halloween ever, but after we got home we handed out some candy and went over to our neighbors who were screening a cartoon on their garage door, and james got to trick or treat at our neighbors house. It didn't turn out as bad as expected.

 

Taking the Bonnie challange!

Over at Jo's country junction there was a challange issued! Finish up a Bonnie Hunter quilt by thursday! Wow I thought this will never happen.. But, I decided to give it a try. I really want to start the new mystery quilt on friday and lets face it: I have too many UFO's! ( unfinished quilts!) So here goes. A while back I started cathedral stars, it is a free pattern on Bonnie's page. Well this week I re-ordered the ruler that it uses ( actually to use in the new mystery quilt) Well now I have no excuse not to make those star points... So I am going to give it a try!

Yepp that is it! a bunch of four patches and some stars made... Wish me luck! :)

I am still here!

But I suppose life just got away from me for a minute! I am taking physiology and my teacher is brand new and 27 years old.. He says things like : In this class I will know some things and you guys will know some things that I don't know,,, ummm.. yes he is the teacher getting paid.. This would be entertaining if it wasn't for the fact that I am still going to get graded. Well still doing good in the class but it is a LOT of work to try to learn.
Also the boys are getting older yikeees! Aaand there are so many things that I want to do!
Trying to squeeze in some time with friends also,, Two months til the big move! I have been so fortunate to have so many good friends here!
Quilters, the people in my growth group and friends that I have met through the military! And ofcourse my oldest swedish friend! I am truly blessed!

My swoon quilt is done! :)

 Eli's Halloween quilt.. working on the binding, he was so happy to have his own quilt..

summer wrap up!

I am sitting down! (Just for a minute though) Today is the first day of normal lol. School has started again and I am heading to quilting class in a few. But oh my did I have an eventful summer :). After chemistry was over my mom came to visit. We did legoland with the kids, went to the beach and after that I went on vacation!! Yes that is right, me and my mom went to Portland, Oregon for some well deserved rest. Although it was hard to leave my babies I enjoyed every minute of sleeping in! We walked and walked and walked (it is a swedish thing) . We shopped til our hearts were content and we ate meals at restaurants without kids climbing around in our laps yelling in our ears and running off. ( I do love my little rascals though ;)..)
We also saw the Multnomah falls which were just beautiful. And admired the early 1900's houses.
But now I am back and in two weeks Eli is turning 2... Yikeees!
Well James just informed me that his toy shark needs breakfast lol..

 The easiest way not to loose kids at legoland? bright orange shirts!

 James rode the airplanes :)

Eli in duplotown!

Bad news that turned out to be good news!

For the past 6 weeks I have been in summer school. It is intense to say the least! Chemistry in 6 weeks is insane! I was finding myself having very little time to do anything but study, which meant that my quilting had to be put on the shelf :(..  Yesterday I saw the preliminary scores on the teachers web page and I thought that I would end up with a B!! All this effort for a B I thought.. I was bummed to say the least! But as we sat down for dinner I realized that if the worst day of 2013 was me getting a B in Chemistry then I was having a pretty good year.

Well today I checked my grade again ( yes I am obsessive with such things lol) and to my surprise, there was an A!! The preliminary scores had not shown the lowest test score being dropped! I was so excited and am now back to being a 4.0 student.

I am surely enjoying having some time off and today I even made 2 crumble pies! one strawberry rhubarb and one apple! yummy if I may say so myself.. I also went to Walmart and picked up Downstown Abbey! And I have had some time to sew and relax, we also went to a county fair but it had no animals! oh well.. things are looking good.
Eli decided to take a nap on the way to the fair

 rag quilt that I made for Eli

 Swoon block, I don't think that this one will make the cut though because it is hard to see the pink..

Finally some quilting!

This week has been all about chemistry. The summer semester is always intense, especially when a lab is required. But hey, I am 1/6th done!
Well yesterday I got some much needed relax time! My friend and fellow quilter Sandy recently purchased a longarm quilting machine, and she graciously invited the whole quilt group to her home so that we could try it out!
I was very pleased with the results, and it was fun too! We also had a potluck lunch on her deck and it was delicous.
Some other great news are: I am getting my own sewing space in the house! ( well in the guestroom behind the garage, but that doesnt matter a bit to me) The whole thing came about after I bought a roll of 25yds of batting ( the stuff that goes in between quilt layers) After playing around with it my husband asked me where we would put it. Now, there just isn't any space left, at all! Sooo my husband suggested that we do some quick fixes to the guest room and put a table and draw an extension cord out there!! yay! My very own sewing space. I can barely wait to make it my own happy pink sewing space!!

Lindsay working on her basket table topper! Those blocks are 4" yikes!

My Christmas wreath!

Sandy and JoAnn trying to decide on the best pattern for JoAnn's shamrocks, below is the finished quilting on my wreath! Holly berries!

 

Lindsay's baskets getting quilted! :)

on a good note!

We got our dog back.. The catch?  Well he got out of our backyard and got put in the pound.
Yepp our dog now has a mug shot!

This is the picture that was posted on their website, and apparently he now also has a new alias. Eddie! lol.
We went and got him today and it cost us a whooping 170$ , good thing he is so cute. He was pretty excited when he saw us after a night or two in the pound.
Others than our dog mishap I have been enjoying summer break! Quilting along on a Halloween quilt ( got the fabric on sale after the holidays) and catching up with friends.

Summer!

We spent about a week in Colorado after school got out. ( got an A in math by the way :) It was nice and relaxing, and the view can't be beat. I just love those Rocky mountains!
We got to shoot the pistol that I gave my husband for his birthday, and it is not as hard as one can imagine after some practice. The uphill climb up there was quite the feat though!
At that altitude even running after the kids is a workout, but I suppose it is a good one for me ;).
I also got to see my nephew for the first time. He is a very calm and cute baby.
As far as quilting goes, well I did some handstitching but I forgot my applique glue soo I had to tear it out and re-do it when I got home. I did however get to go to a quilt shop! I just love quilt shops they are so cute and quaint and people that work in them are always nice ( who wouldn't be, seeing as they are surrounded by fabric every day!)

The cousins playing on the porch!

A little slice of paradise, Estes Park CO.

My ongoing quilt project! trying to use up some scraps and some fabrics that didn't quite make it into a quilt!

It is the little things...

It is the little things in life, that makes it so wonderful!
My husband has been on post deployment leave for about a week now, and we have been busy doing fun family stuff!
Today we packed the truck up and drove out to palomar mountain. It is a nice hideaway about an hour away from where we live. The air is clean and the trees are tall.. and it is quiet!
A place where you can take a deep breath and enjoy life.

Spending some time with the little man!

I am spending some time with Eli tonight, the reason being big boy and daddy are at a truck race. Eli is still too little to go. He still tried to put his shoes on to go with them, but after waving goodbye he was quite alright with getting all the attention. And needless to say he is enjoying playing with whatever toys he wants. We made a pillowcase for big brother ( yes he helped! putting it on his head and being silly counts ;) then we danced, played cars and firetrucks and cleaned.

 Eli playing by the pillowcase we made! James was a good boy at the fabric store so he got to pick a fabric for it :)

There was a fabric sale today! :)I got the 4 fabrics on top.. I wanted to make a quilt out of the light pink and grey but I don't think they have enough contrast.. so I was inspired to buy the darker pink from my friend Lindsay who has been working with this color in class, and her project is looking so gorgeous!