Missing since Montana

Here is one of the quilt tops that I finished at a retreat in Kallispell. I have not been able to find it or another one called Grandma's Dancing Shoes since I returned to Oregon from Montana. I am just sick about it and have gone so far as to order another kit in the same fabrics to replace it. I feel for those of you who have had quilts missing or stolen. I put my heart into these quilts and am not sure that I will ever see them again. Thanks for listening. JoyB

MAXX and Borders Done....

OK you have to look at the bottom of my page for the video that My Dd, Sara, turned me on to. It is so Maxx when I wake up every morning..Here is a picture of Maxx ( short for Maximum Kitty Allowed By Law LOL)Doesn't he look innocent?? He knows I am posting him.. The other pic is of the quilt top I did at the retreat with the borders actually SEWN on. Thank you Gracie for the push. Couldn't have done it without you Hugs. JoyB

Jacob's first Halloween quilt

Many of you know that I love Lobster. So for Jacob's first Halloween, I got him a Lobster costume and warned him not to get near any strangers with melted butter LOL. I took a picture of him in it and transfered it onto fabric and then put a row of appliqued lobsters around the outside. I am going to finish it with a black border and I plan to quilt it in Feb with a stack of other quilt tops that are ready to go on my machine. I met a gal at the retreat that is as crazy about lobster as I am and promised to post this so she could see it. Enjoy~~ Joyb

Just raised the lights !!!

Those of you who I chatted with at Christmas time, know that I bought my daughter, Sara, an Aerogarden for Christmas. Well when I called to order it, I found out that I could get a second one for myself at a very reasonable price.. SO I DID>> LOL

Anyway, it has been fun babying it and watching my cherry tomatoes grow. We even went thru a scare on week 3 and I thought that I was going to lose them all BUT we made it just fine and, with the help of some great advice from my Aerogarden group, I just had to raise the light canopy on my little friends as the have grown too tall for the original setting. So here is a pic of my "crop" at week 5 very healthy and happy. LOL TTYS, JoyB

Check out this beauty...

I just finished doing this applique block that is part of a BOM called Summer Of Joy. I didn't do the quilt, I just picked up this one block kit cause I loved the pattern so much, it has been sitting here for about 3 years and I looked at it today and decided that it was gonna become a block LOL. I am very pleased with the way it turned out. Hugs to you. JOyB

Monday and Tired...

Ok sew what did I do today? Well I slept alot which I needed after the retreat last weekend but then after I forced myself to get up and moving there was no stopping me LOL. I went to the site for the Quilt A Long and week 11 was posted so I did that and then I decided that instead of banging my head on the floor trying to decide what to use to make my stars quilt bigger, I would just make the original black borders 6 inches instead of the 3 1/4 the pattern called for and BINGO.. It works. YEAH!! So here are my pics for my week 11 block, the quilt so far and the stars quilt with the wide black border ( not yet sewn on). I also got my yarn from Lion Brand today so I will be working on my afghan tomorrow after I finish sewing my star borders on. Pics to follow. Hugs, JoyB

Where to start??

Well I am back from my retreat and man was it a blast. I always love a good retreat but this is the first one I have done since my return to Oregon and boy did I need it. I got one quilt top done and another done to blocks. I saw some really amazing quilts AND got an award at the Awards banquet last night. I got the Sensory Overload award LOL I had told the shop owners that I had a serious complaint. She looks at me really seriously and asked me what the problem was .. I proceeded to tell her that I had gotten up from my sewing table to buy something in the shop and had been so bombarded with so many beautiful quilts that I had forgotten what it was I was going to buy and had to go back to the table and start over. LOL For this award they gave me a Memory Chain pattern LOL. I laughed until I cried. Sylvia has been a good friend for many years and I so appreciate all she does for us both at the retreats and in her amazing shop (Greenbaum's Quilted Forest). So here are pics of my finished quilt top and the amazing sunset we witnessed from our hotel on friday night. Hope you like the pics. I am setting up a fliker account so that I can add a slideshow of the other pics from the retreat to the side bar. Hugs to all of you. JoyB

Off to Retreat

Well you won't be getting any posts from me this weekend. I am off to beautiful Newport Oregon for a quilt retreat hosted by Greenbaum's Quilted Forest. This is my very favorite retreat and only held once a year at the Shilo Inn. The place is gorgeous and the food is wonderful, not to mention how exciting it is to get to go quilt with 30 other ladies who share my addiciton to quilting. It is like a 12 step program where no one wants to quit LOL.

This retreat is a finishers retreat. it means that they have product demos throughout the day but what you work on is up to you. Just a great time to get something unfinished out of the way or something you have always wanted to work on done without the interruption of the kids, the dog, the phone...Need I go on?

We all bring snacks to share and of course there is always PLENTY of chocolate.. So off I go to relax and sew. I wish you all were coming with me.. I know you would enjoy it as much as I do. Details when I return. JoyB

Just wondering ???

If I eat the new New York Cheesecake kisses with the diet Dr. Pepper chocolate cherry, will they offset each other?? LOL Had to try. JoyB

Needlecases...

I was surfing blogs today and found one that I had seen before that I really enjoyed. On it is a tutorial for a needlecase and I thought "HEY, Maybe I can do that" So I got out my fabrics and my batting and got straight to work. I completed two of them, one for a friend and one for myself. They are all done and ready to be used except that I have to go get some sew-on snaps to keep them closed and then sew on the buttons you see in the pics. Here is the outside and the inside of these adorable beauties. Be sure and see the link to Khris' blog for the tutorial and other neat stuff. Hugs, JoyB

Dreaming of Vegas

Sometimes in the monotony of everyday life, you just need an escape. Mine is Las Vegas. I absolutely love the place. I don't gamble but the shows, the food, the people.. All fantastic!!!

Not to mention the weather and I could use some sunshine about now LOL. Anyway here is a pic of Jason and I on our last trip to Vegas, it was taken at Robert's Steak House and I would highly recommend it if you are looking for a great meal and outstanding service. It has an amazing view of the Las Vegas strip and the man who was playing piano that night made me want to stay long after our dessert was over. Hope to be going back soon ( June for sure) but in the mean time I am dreaming. Hugs, JOyB

Here I go LOL

So I got tired of waiting for my other yarn to get here and decided that a trip to Wally World was in order. They had this fantastic yarn called landscapes in some oh so yummy colors and I saw my two girls in them immediatly. SO. I am doing two scarves, on in pastels for Angel ( she is my pink lover) and one for Sara Joy ( she is more brights and vibrant colors). I have chosen a pattern that I got for 97 cents ( can't beat that). It does something that is called a Moss Rib pattern and is just knits and purls which I can handle. I got a pair of trusty size 13 knitting needles and I am off.. Here are my yarns. Wish me luck. JoyB

Valentine's Progress

Ok so here is the pic of my Valentine's Quilt all laid out and with borders. I would have liked to have added a little bit larger border but this is what I had left and I think it works. Leave me a comment to let me know what you think. JoyB

Where's the knitting?

So you may be asking where the knitting is.. I am just starting and really enjoying all the knitting blogs I have found so far. Many ladies (and men) who are sharing there tips and techniques for knitting.. I have gotten my first project pattern and am awaiting the delivery of the yarn from Lion Brand. I ordered another project and the yarn from JoAnn's.com and it got here a few days ago ( and cheaper too I might add) but I think I need to start a bit simpler since this is my first knitting project. If you have any blogs, websites. etc that you have found helpful, please be sure and send them to me in the comments section. Thanks so much, JoyB

Sew what am I working on?

Now that I have gotten my Quilt A Long blocks done I feel like I have nothing to do (which couldn't be further from the truth). I am doing a larger version of a mystery by Dorothy Young on Pocket full of Mysteries... I decided to do this in two colors, both fabrics I purchased at Craft Warehouse ( LOVE THAT PLACE!!) I decided to do it in Valentine's fabrics to give myself incentive to actually get it done and on my bed by mid Feb.. ( prayers are always welcome :-) So.. Here are the fabrics I am using .. Now off to the machine to get some piecing done. Hugs.. JoyB

What am I on?? LOL

Ok I got the 2nd No Mail Round Robin done for my group and Boy am I glad this is mine and not someone elses LOL. I realized after I sewed the border on that I had sewn the traingles facing the center instead of the outside. Good Grief !! I am NOT changing it. I have decided that this is my second design decision of the day and that I may need to go back to bed LOL. Enjoy... JoyB

Sad Day..

I just wanted to share that I left a group that was to be a Christian bible study because of all the petty fighting about people posting personal messages. We as Christians have a duty and a priviledge to share the love of God with everyone. Not to judge or condemn. My motto is pass compliments, not judgement.. You know the saying " What Would Jesus Do". I try very hard to live that everyday. He was an amazing role model of what we can be if we chose to love each other and have a servants heart. Thanks for reading. JoyB

OK ya got to see this>>

I had to stop production of my send NMRR to make a wine coaster. Someone on one of my lists sent me a link to a video to do these and I made one up in like 3 minutes !! I am making these for everybody I know for Christmas next year, ( can never be to early). First set goes to my brother , Shaun..

Hope this works. remember I am new to blogging LOL JoyB

http://www.brightcove.tv/title.%20jsp?title=

One down and one to go

Ok so one of the groups I am a member of is doing a No Mail Round Robin and I liked it so much that I had to do two of them. ( I am also doing two larger No Mail Round Robins on another group but you will hear more about those later). Anyway, Here is the pic of my first one completed to the 2nd border ( we have one more to go).. These rounds started with a pieced 6 1/2 inch block... Enjoy, JOyB

Quilt A Long Wk 10 and caught up !!!

So I put my foot to the pedal and finished block 8, only to find that block 10 was posted, so I had to do that one too. LOL I am now caught up with the big leaguers who have been doing this for 10 weeks now. I am not normally this ambitious but i LOVE this quilt and the instructions are great. Here are the blocks I have done so far. Only two more and I can put it all together. I am planning to use the pink floral to do a large border and the soft green to do sashing between the blocks and a small inner border to pull the color out of the blocks. Thanks for looking. JoyB

Pat Sloan's book club..

I have started doing an online book club with a quilt designer that I just love. Her stuff is amazing and since she was doing a BOM to go with the theme of the books, who can resist? Here is the Signature block and the Jan BOM block done in one of her fabric lines. Not my usual colors but these reminded me of chocolates and I had to make them. Eagerly awaiting the Feb block. .. JoyB

Future Bloggers of America?

Ok I caught my grandson, Jacob, trying to post on my blog. He is such a sweetie. I have him every weekend while mama works and gets a break from school. Is there such a thing as FBA?? LOL JoyB

My mom

I just looked at the date on this blog and realized that today my parents would have been married 55 years. My mom passed in Feb of last year and the holidays were hard. Seems like I had a ton of tragedy in my life this Christmas. Not complaining I just think I should get a pass on grief for the next 10 or 20 years..
Not going to happen. My dad is in his 80's and has prostate cancer. Anyway I am sharing a picture of my mom when my son, Michael, was little. I wish I had had more time with her.
Thanks for listening. JoyB

I can't believe that I am doing this LOL

It is true I have joined the ranks as an official blogger. I do blog on myspace but I have found that many quilters like to have quick access to your stuff, so here I am. I am currently working on so many quilts that even I have a hard time keeping track of them and of course I find new projects every day that I think I can't live without doing LOL

One of the projects that I just started is a Quilt A Long project that started a while ago and I am just getting caught up. Here you will find a pic of my blocks 1-5 and tomorrow I hope to do 6,7,8 and 9.

Thanks for visiting my blog and happy quilting. JoyB