Another Give-A-Way on Alderwood Quilts Blog

Also hop on over to this blog:  Alderwood Quilts http://alderwoodquilts.blogspot.com/.  She is giving away a fun book and fat quarters!  She also has Strips n' Curves templates that are on special.  She is only offering the sale on her blog and it's not very often these go on sale any where and are a must have for Louisa Smith's quilting books and her technique.  I have a set and they are wonderful.

Happy stitchin!
Laura

A new give=a-way!

Hop on over to this blog: Irish Muses  http://thedote.blogspot.com/  I found for a fun give-a-way from a quilter living in Donegal, Ireland.  I remember our trip to County Donegal from our trip to Ireland in 1998.  A wonderful place to visit!!

Happy stitches!
Laura

Cross Country Christmas Blog Hop

Today is the day!  Hop on over to Gudrun's blog to see her quilt-as-you go wall hanging - it is so dang cute!  What a fun and easy gift to make for someone.  Be sure to comment on her blog to enter into the grand drawing at the end of the 12 days and visit the other 11 designers (one each day).  Today is memories of Christmas and tomorrow is cookie recipe day - yum!
Happy Stitchin!
Laura

A Give-A-Way to Enter

Hop on over to this blog called Moments as she has hit the big 100th post for blogging and is having a really fun give-a-way!

Cross Country Christmas Blog Hop

Need some Christmas ideas? Join the Cross Country Christmas Blog Hop with 12 fun designers here

A Give-A-Way

Head on over to this wonderful website as Lila Tueller is planning a give-a-way after the market in Houston: http://lilatuellerdesigns.blogspot.com/

I love, love her designs!

Keep on stitchin.....

Laura

A 75th Birthday Celebration!

My mother is turning 75 this month and we had a family birthday celebration this past weekend. There were about 26 of us for dinner and dessert. We had flank steak, company potatoes, 2 salads, rolls and apple pie and cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory. No one went away hungry that's for sure! Happy Birthday Mom!

Laura ~

A Blog I like to visit!

If you are into free motion quilting this blog is a must see! Leah Day is quilting 365 days of free motion quilting designs. I love her blog and videos. She is really inspiring and makes it simple to follow along. After classes this week at Innovations I'm going to follow her lead and push myself to attempt the free motion quilting designs. I really think this will help improve my quilting and I'll gain new insights to free motion quilting. Please join me in following her blog at:

http://www.freemotionquilting.blogspot.com/

Happy Stitching!

Laura~

Quilt Studio Cabinets

My husband Tony and his son Bryan have been very busy building cabinets for my quilt studio and I'm so excited to post pictures. Some of the cabinets will have doors and some will be left open. I just couldn't wait to post pictures of the completed look so you get a sneak peak!

More Pictures of Jennifer's Quilt

Jennifer sent me some photos of her quilt that I quilted over Labor Day weekend that give a better picture of it. I really like how the quilt turned out.

I was so impressed that she took on the making of a king size quilt and has finished it for her first quilt!

A Fun Weekend!

Colin (son) and Jennifer (daughter-in-law) came for the weekend and we had such a good time quilting, eating and visiting! Jennifer also celebrated her birthday on September 1 so I made her a couple of really cute aprons (forgot to get pictures!) that Ben Franklin had directions on how to make them from linen kitchen towels and gave her some quilting $$.

Jennifer made a beautiful King Size quilt two years ago but had not had a chance to quilt it so this weekend was the perfect opportunity to try out Indie. So we loaded her up on Saturday and it was truly amazing and so much fun! I think I was up until about midnight on Saturday just quilting away and didn't realize the time. Then got up Sunday morning and Tony made biscuits and gravy for breakfast (for the guys only) - Jennifer had biscuits and honey and I had my regular cereal and blueberries instead! Then it was off again upstairs to the sweat shop (quilt studio) to finish up the quilt. An hour and half later it was finished! So much fun and I loved how Indie preformed and how the quilt turned out. Thanks Jennifer for trusting me with your quilt!

Then it was off to Gathering Fabrics in Woodinville and Ben Franklin in Redmond to see about spending those birthday dollars. We did have fun!!

A Give-A-Way

Head on over to Heather Mulder Peterson blog at http://ankastreasures.wordpress.com for her First Blogiversary. I love her blog and she is having a fabulous give-a-way! She has 3 prizes and I heart her quilt "Cotton Candy" in April Cornell fabrics!

Keep on stitchin........

Laura

Another Give-A-Way on Rachel's Blog

Head on over to Rachel's Blog: http://rachel-griffith.blogspot.com/ to enter to win a gift certificate of $50.

She is helping The Quilt Shoppe celebrate 2 years!

First Finished Quilt

Yea! I finished Mary's quilt and Tony will be taking it to her this weekend while I'm away learning new things about Indie! Of course I made all sorts of first time mistakes that I'm sure all new long arm quilters make but I learned a lot also. I know that Mary will love her quilt. I made it with fabric from a few ago (Designer Susie Robbins for P & B fabrics) it's bright and cheerful and should add lots of color to her room at the nursing home. For the binding I machine stitched it to the front of the quilt with a fun embroidery stitch so it would hold up through many washings. If you look at the backing you can see the pantograph section that Tony quilted on Indie as he wanted to be able to tell his mom he helped also. He was a huge help loading the quilt onto Indie! I did the free motion quilting ~ primarily an all over loop and flower motif.

Today I head to Bayside Quilting in Olympia WA to go to Boot Camp for the HQ 16 & Fusion with 6 other quilters. I'll have all sorts of good questions and I'm sure it will make a lot more sense since I have quilted my first quilt. Wish me luck!

Happy stitching ~ Laura

Want to win a $50 gift Certificate??

The Gift certificate is to Fat Quarter Shop!!

Click on over to http://rachel-griffith.blogspot.com/2009/07/how-about-giveaway.html as she is sponsoring the fabulous give-away!

Now, you can get up to 3 entries!! Just click the link above the picture and get to entering!

My Fusion is up and running!

It was so much fun on Friday. Ernie from Bayside Quilting came and started setting up the Fusion and within 3 hours "Indie" was up and running! I love my new machine and I'm excited to quilt Mary's quilt on it. Mary is Tony's mom and she is in a nursing home now. I've made a nice floral quilt for her bed and her wheel chair. Tony is visiting her in early August so he'll have the opportunity to deliver it himself. I'll post pictures of the quilt once it's finished.

I'm just so excited about learning this new part of quilting and looking forward to Quilt Camp at Bayside Quilting in August to learn all the in's and out's of the machine.

The next photo is of Tony also getting in the act. I think he was just as excited as I was!

My HandiQuilter Fusion is here!

I'm so excited!! My Fusion was delivered on Friday and will be setup next Friday! I've nicknamed it Indie. Indie and I will be having lots of adventures and I'll be blogging about them as they happen. I purchased it from Bayside Quilting in Olympia, WA and will be attending Quilt Camp in August. In September I'm attending the Innovations Machine Quilters Conference in Tacoma, WA. So many things to learn!