Snow

December for the last week and a half has been non-stop snow. I can't belive how much has fallen in such a short time!. We were not able to go to DSIL Diane's house on Christmas eve-we had to work that night and the snow would not permit even going for a short time! We have one car to use as the other one is buried under four feet of show and even if we dug it out, it would never make it down the alley.
Well, I have been making Happy blocks for the newest Heartstrings project and made a QOV top to quilt and send to Alycia with Heartstrings for her 400 quilt for the soldiers project. It is something very happy and creative to focus on. I also am going to package up some of my quilt tops and send to Cricket for her Annie's house project. She brings them to the house for homeless women and they tie them and then use them for thier house. Great causes all! So over all, I am frustrated with the snow, but happy to have quilting and giving to others to focus on.

oops

I meant to title this October-Almost over already, but I hit a wrong button, and it posted before I could write! The quilt show was as always wonderful, and by Sunday afternoon, I was ready to be done. I bought some very noce batiks, so I'm making a batik scrappy, and will have enough for another batik project later. I also bought some hand dyed marbled fabric-costly, but nice and I made a wall hanging with it-waiting to quilt it. I bought a pattern for an origami kimono quilt that I will make a wall hanging with-then of course, I had to go to the fabric store for more Asian fabrics to fill out the choices of fabrics for the wall hanging.
I have only finished two quilts this month! And I haven't listed anything on etsy for awhile. I did give my sister in law three quilts to give to some needy kids she knows. Another family got torn apart by meth abuse. The two girls are living with their gram, and next door to my sis, so we gave them each a quilt. I'll post the pix later. My turquoise Heart strings went to an 11 year old girl with leukemia. She is over in Seattle getting chemo treatments, so the quilt will keep her warm and comforted. I hope and pray she will come through it ok.
Our water bed sprung a leak a couple days ago, so now Shara and I are dealing with that. We have to order a new bed, and a pump to get all the water out of the old one. What a mess! I think our bedroom carpeting is ruined-the bed leaked all over the floor. And it smells very bad too! So, we will have to sleep wherever we can! My weekend will be spent cleaning up the basement. I will make time for my quilting, because I can't keep sane without it!

October-Almost over

Quilts For Quilt Show in October

I have been busy getting lots of quilts finished for the show in October, some new ones for etsy, and some to give to Hospice House and Sally House.

At this time, I want to show the ones I'm putting in the Show.

The Mariner's Compass is at last quilted. I taught myself to do fre mothin feather's before I tried it on the actual quilt. It has a feather border and feathers around the compass.

I am also showing a paper foundation pieced heart quilt, The pattern is from Feb 2008 Quiltmaker magazine. I got the magazine in Dec 2007-when I was in the middle of sewing Chritmas gifts. It motivated me to get them done so I could make this quit!

Backyard Birdhouses is another one that is paper foundation pieced. The pattern is from a book I checked out at the wsq library. It was alot of fun to make.

The Pines and Vines Sampler is from a pattern of the month club I belong to. I love the varitey of patterns and techniques it has.

New Pictures,2

Time for New Pictures again. First, the memory quilt of Brindle is done. We do miss him and there will never be another dog like him. We do enjoy shring the memories. I was not able to get puppy pictures on the quilt of him. The quality of the ones I had was not too good as they were pre-digital. (How did we survive without a digital camera?).

Here is the quilt and some detailed pictures. The one at the top of the quilt is my very favorite of him.

I want to include some pictures of the other two dogs in our lives-Boxer, who is an 8 year old Akita. He seems to miss Brindle, but is enjoying his new companion. Walter is the new dog we got after Brindle died. He is sure alot of fun, and we love him. He is an Aussie/Springer mix. We miss Brindle, and the two we have now are appreciated all the more because of our loss.

The first picture here os of Boxer-he is about 85 lbs.

The next picture os of Walter-he is around 45 lbs

Busy start for May

Another month come and gone! This month, we went through some changes-a loss and a new member of the family. Our 10yr old dog Brindle was ill, so we took him to the vet. He was found to have a tumor with mets to the liver. After several days of agonizing whether to let him have surgery or not, we decided to let him go. We put him to sleep on may 7th.
We also got another dog that same week. This one is an Aussie mix like the older one. He's alot of fun and definately a puppy! I'll post some pictures some time soon.
Of course, quilting always gets involved one way or another, so I started a memory quilt of Brindle. I'll post a pix when it is done.
My finished quilts have been slowed down now for awhile, but I hope to have the angel cat one done and on the etsy site for sale soon. Also finishe the paper pieced dragon one.
Well peace out until later!
Mary

New Pictures!

Ok! I have some new pictures to share.

First, a look at a work in progress. It is from the book "Cute as a Button Quilts".

Since I'm on a cat quilt phase, I'm making Purr-fect Angels

Second, a crumb quilt I plan to donate to Sallie House-the home for children who are displaced from their homes as a result of abuse. I try to donate one or two quilts for this at each of my guild's meetings.

Third, I have my turquoise strings quilt done at last. Now I have to figure out who to give it to. I'll look locally first, but I can always give to Heartstrings Project for them to decide where it should go.

Last, I have my Dog and Cat Scrappy quilt done, and I'm posting it and another quilt on etsy today.

Wow...I've been busy since my machine was fixed!

Mary

April Already!!!

I had not visited my own blog for awhile, and I realized I had not posted since early March!
I have my dog/cat quilt done and quilted. I will post a pix on etsy, and here as well today or wens. I'm at work with a little down time right now.
At work, we moved our surgical unit to a different floor, so it has been very hectic lately. We have had some very sick, confused, and psychotic patients lately since the move. I don't know if it is worse than usual, or it just seems that way because we are not used to the new unit.
I do know one thing, quilting is my haven. I had to take a critical patient to ICU last week. He was intubated as soon as he got there, so if I had waited on labs to get done or another test the dr wanted, I would hve had to code him on the way down. (I'm not sure how these italics got here!) Any way, as I said, quilting is my haven-over my days off, I had that to think about instead of what I could have done different for the patient.
I'mworking on a new cat applique project, veery cute and fun. I'll have to post a work in progress picture soon. I also just finished a paper pieced birdhouse quilt that is on the frame and I hope to quilt it tomorrow or even after work today...if I have the energy! Looking forward to two more days off to work on projects!

New Quilt Pictures

Well, now that Bailey is up and running again, I am able to finish some quilts. I finished quilting the one that was on the frame, plus two others. I posted a picture of one of them on my etsy web site. After the other two are bound, I will post pictures as well.

I have pix today of a quilt I gave to Liz, the young mom who is fostering those three kids mentioned in december. It was her b-day, and I thought she deserved a quilt of her own! She loves the colors, they are her favorite. That quilt was ment for her!

The other pix is of the Dogs and Cats quilt I made the blocks for. I have them on my design wall waiting to be sewn together. I got busy finishing other projects, but soon I will sew them together and once quilted, it will be on etsy.

Bailey saga continues

After taking Bailey down to a repair place I know, she is working just fine now. Thank the Lord. Apparently, one of her gears had shifted out of place. As soon as I got her home, I put her back on the frame and threaded her up-stitches a few inches and somehting went bang...again!
I was standing there nearly in tears when Shara came into the room. Then I discovered it was just a broken needle. After I fixed that, she ran fine. I finished one quilt and started on another. It took me awhile to relax with my stitching, kind of gun shy now. I've also determined that I have to slow down, not drive Bailey so hard. My dear partner hung a sign above the quilting frma to remind me to slow down-it's very cute.

Bailey still down

Over the weekend, the wonderful people, Art and Sue whom I bought my machine from came to my house and got her working again. but after they left, I started quilting again, and Bailey froze up again! It is so frustrating, not to mention I'm unable to post a new quilt on etsy, because I can't finish it until my machine works again. I am going to take it to a repair place I know and see if they can help me.
I am very thankful for Art and Sue's help and support.

Bailey went Bang!

Monday morning, I was quilting along, thinking what a great day quilting I was having. The machine was humming, the thread had only broken once, and I was getting close to finishing the quilt I was working on. The pattern even looked good! All was going well, until all the sudden, Bailey the Home Quilter Machine went BANG, then Buzzz...the needle wouldn't move any more. The wheel to move the needle up and down would hardly budge. I took it apart to clean and oil it, thinking this would help. It didn't.
Yesterday, I called the people I bought it from. Sue said the timing might be off. She also suggested I call the main office, but the guy wasn't there, so I'll try again today.
Well, I do miss my machine, so I'll figure out something...soon.

Completed quilt top, New strings quilt in progress

I finished the Mariner's Compass quilt top, so I'm posting 2 pictures of it. I will be quilting it soon, and want to do a good job, so as to have a nice quilt for the show in October.

I also made blocks for a Heart Strings top using turquoise blue as the center string. I can't wait to sew the blocks together. I used mostly very light strips for the light side of the block, hoping to set off the blue centers.

Snow Day!

Here in Spokane, and the whole inland northwest, we are buried under a bunch of snow-15in or so. Shara and I just spent an hour digging out of a snow bank where the car was stuck. Shara hurt her arm and I hurt my back, so we both are taking tonight off. The hospital will just have to run without us! Look on my Etsy site for a new quilt Think Spring! I really am beginning to hope spring comes soon!

Work in Progress2

Well, I said last time that I wanted to do a Mariner's Compass, and posted a picture of the central medallion, After I sewed it together, the middle part was at least 2 inches too big and I did not like the colors together. So back to the drawing board. The pictures I'm posting now are the work in progress that has made alot more progress! I've added a little bit at a time for the last week and 1/2. now the center is nearly complete. I still have a top and bottom pieced border to do and then final outer border. The book I am working out of is M'liss Rae Hawley's book on Mariner's Compass quilts. It's one of my current favorites.

Work in Progress

I decided I want to do another Mariner's Compass quilt, so I' will post some work in progress photos. I use paper piecing technique for these; for me it's the best way to get good sharp points. This is the compass with the sections done, but not pieced together.

Quilts given at Christmas-part 2

My beautiful niece Brianna and her boyfriend were also recipients of my quilts last year. Stoss was down in California for Christmas, so he recieved his late. We got together and I got pictures of them both. Stoss is a rap music performer, so I call the picture of him with his quilt "Stoss the Wrapper".

I figured it out!

I finally figured out how to post a link to favorite sites. helps to read the directions on the help area. LOL.
Heartstrings is a favorite of mine, because I like the thought of giving something of inherent value to someone in need. It is my way of giving, but also an excuse to make more quilts! As if I need an excuse! lol.

Visit my shop

I'd like to invite readers to view more of my quilts and related items on Etsy.com-mkhquilts. I'm going to add new things soon!

Quilts given at Christmas

Three of the quilts I made and gave at Christmas were for some children that my niece-in-law is fostering. These kids were going to be taken from their parents because of drug abuse issues. Instead, my niece took them in and is fostering them. She has three kids of her own, so she is very busy! Her story touched me, and I decided to make quilts for the three kids, plus one for her youngest daughter. The kids love their quilts, and I am waiting for pictures of the kids with the quilts. The thing I love most about quilting is the joy I see on the reciever's face !

First Time Blogger

This is a first for me-writing about my life and interests.
I got interested in blogging because I connected with several of the ladies on Heartstrings blogs, and thought it would be cool to put some of my stuff out there. I will get some pictures and stuff later of my works in progress-as soon as I figure out how to put them on! Shara-my dear spouse-may need to help me there.