It's Fair week!

One of my favorite parts of living in this small town/county is Fair week. It's not like the fairs where you live. It's a week long community event with 4 FREE meals, two rodeo's, a demolition derby, a parade, free concerts, free swimming, races, vendors, and a home arts show.

Today we had to go to mandatory school registration, and then we made our way to the IFA for a free lunch, and then to the community building to look at the quilts. Well, I looked at the quilts, while the boys looked at the lego sets built by 4-H kids.

Here's Dillon in the middle of the exhibits. I probably shouldn't have taken him into a public place after his free cheetos, hot dog, brownie, and root beer. He was required to keep his hands in his pockets so he wouldn't touch anything. The problem with not having a baby/diaper bag is that I no longer have wet wipes everywhere I go!
I quilted this quilt for one of the young women in my ward. She made it with her Grandma's help and did a GREAT job! This is her first quilt, and it's not an easy pattern.

Here's a close-up of the "yarn balls" that I quilted in the pink border:

I quilted this one for Vanessa. I love the thirties fabrics, and I will always love nine-patches.

I have at least 5 or 6 quilts of my own waiting to be quilted, but I didn't get them done in time for the fair, so I borrowed this one from my parents. I made it six years ago, right after I got my quilting machine.

Oh, and my mom (and Vanessa) will be thrilled to know that I finally finished the binding on that wall-hanging that's been displayed on my wall for the past 6 months, just so I could put it in the fair also. I forgot to take a picture of it, so I'll post it next week.

Thank You!

Thank you to everyone who helped me last week in getting my quilting blog up and running.

Thanks to Charlotte for making the header and background.

Thanks to both my Mom and Char for being patient when I had to take some of their visit time to work on my posts.

Thanks to everyone who sent pictures of quilts for the slideshow. I wish I had taken pictures of all the quilts I've done! I think I've quilted close to 500 quilts, and I only have pictures of about 60 of them.

Thanks to Vanessa for posting a link on Moda Bake Shop.

Thanks to everyone who left such nice comments.

And a special thanks to Todd, who listened to me cry the night before it got linked on Moda, and who read through my posts for me, in the middle of the night, to make sure I didn't say anything too stupid.

Yeah, I cried. It's been a hard thing for me. I love to quilt, but I want to be a Mom first, and I was SO scared of being bombarded with business. So far I've only had one e-mail asking questions, and I'm fine with that. My machine is paid for, so I really just want enough quilts to keep it running a few times a month, and to keep myself involved in the quilting world. I think the quilts will come...in time. Actually, I have three right now and a couple lined up, so I've still NEVER been without a quilt since I started quilting in 2003, but I've also never had so few in line.

It has been fun to check my stats to see where all the visitors are coming from. In less than 48 hours, I've gotten close to 400 hits. They've come from 40 different states, as well as Canada, Portugal, Switzerland, Spain, United Kingdom, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, Finland, Netherlands, Hungary, Italy, Belgium, Germany, and Japan. Wow!

At the end of May, my Quilting blog will be featured on Little Birdie Secrets, and there will be a quilting giveaway, so watch for that!

I need your help!

Dear family and friends,

Next week, my business blog is going to be mentioned on Moda Bake Shop. (The blog owned by my all time favorite fabric company).

If you've ever checked my Quilting Bee blog, you'll know that it's not quite ready for the traffic it's about to receive. I have my work cut out for me in the next three days.

This is where you come in:

I would like to post a slideshow of quilts that I've quilted. Unfortunately, in going through my picture files, I do not have pictures of even a fraction of all the quilts I've done. If I have ever quilted a quilt for you, could you please e-mail me a picture (or two) of the quilt, and maybe a close up of some of the quilting? (sometimes it helps to turn the flash off, or take the picture at an angle).

Send any pictures you have to thequiltingbee2003@yahoo.com

Thank you for any help you can give!!!

Love,
Felicia

* I just made a list off the top of my head of quilts that I've done for people who read my blog and I came up with 48! And of those 48, I actually pieced (or helped piece) 22 of them. That makes it sound like I actually do something other than improve my solitaire score and talk on the phone...who woulda thunk??

I've been tagged...6th folder 6th picture

This is one of my all-time favorite customer quilts. It was a round-robin quilt exchange where the owner made one block and then passed it around to members of the "exchange group" who then added another block according to her theme.

I was in her group, and I made the "liberty" block, and the red star block below it with the pinwheel that kind of looks like arrows.

MY quilt for this exchange was a summer theme, and has yet to be completed...sigh.

Oh, how I miss my quilt group in Logan!!!

I tag anyone who wants to play. Go to your sixth folder and post your sixth picture.

I (almost) finished a project!

I've been working on this little quilt (it's 21" square) for a little over a month now, and except for the binding, it's done!

It's called Five Cent Fairy Garden (because you trace a nickel for all the berries) and it's hand appliqued and made completely out of homespun woven fabrics--from my stash. I didn't buy any new fabric for this one, although Vanessa donated a few of her woven scraps to "the cause".

It really is square, it just looks funny in the picture because it's on the back of my fluffy couch.

Sadly, like all of the quilts I do for myself, I whipped through the quilting as fast as I could so I could get it done between customer quilts. It's not my best work...but, I don't sit around staring at my quilting all day, so it's just not gonna matter.

My visiting teaching partner/quilter extraordinaire says that the "mosquito meander" that I stiched in the borders around the applique is my "signature stitch".

I prefer to think of the swirls in the center pieced section as my "signature stitch" but oh well. Mosquito's seem to be more fitting for my life right now :o)

Katie's Quilt

Here's a picture of one of the TWO quilts I quilted yesterday:

Isn't it cute? I LOVE the colors. My friend Vanessa and I got together over Mother's Day weekend to make pinwheel quilts. (Todd had to work the whole weekend, and V's husband is in Afghanistan). We let our kids run wild around the house while we sewed, talked, and laughed.

Mine is ALMOST finished.

I just have to put the borders on and then quilt it.

Alyssa's princess pillow

Hi all,

Sorry for my lack of posts. We just got a new computer and haven't installed all our programs yet. I can't upload any pictures from my camera...hopefully soon.

I copied this pic from Vanessa's blog. It's the pillow she made for Alyssa, along with the quilt we made. If you click on the picture to enlarge it, you can see the quilting where I wrote her name.

In other news, we are busy trying to finish our bathroom downstairs, and paint, and chop more wood, and install rails on our steps, and blah, blah, blah. The list never ends. Todd's older brother Larry and family are coming to visit this weekend, so we are very excited about that. I'm way behind in quilting as usual, and our boys are growing taller every day. I think that about covers our life for now.

Your prayers are needed

Our little friend, Alyssa (21 mos), was just diagnosed with Neuroblastoma, a rare cancer of the nervous system that mainly affects children.

Her mom is one of "the girls" who I walk with in the mornings. Her dad works with Todd at the ranch, her brother is one of Caleb's good friends from school, her aunt is my visiting teacher, and her grandma belongs to my quilt guild. We are heartbroken for this good family who has had their world turned upside down this week.

My friend Vanessa, and I made a quilt for her yesterday and today and it turned out cute and oh so snuggly, so I thought I'd share the pictures. Vanessa is also making a small hanging stitchery pillow that says, "Little Princess" to hang in her hospital room.

Please remember this family in your prayers. The extent of the cancer is still unknown, but the doctors seem hopeful for children under 2, so we are going on faith that things will turn out well.

Grandma's Kitchen Quilt

This is a picture of the quilt that my friend Becky and I are going to make. The picture doesn't do it justice--you have to see the detail in person. Someone sent it to Becky to be quilted, and we went in together and bought the pattern that very week. It was designed by a lady in Draper, and she has designed two more quilts like it: one with antique cleaning supplies, and one with antique sewing supplies.

It is almost ALL applique, which I'm excited about because in the evenings when I'm too tired to go downstairs and sit at my sewing machine, I can sit by the fireplace and do handwork.

Becky used to own an antique shop, so she's more familiar with this vintage stuff than I am, but I'm pretty sure that all the dishes, and utensils in this quilt are copied from real dishes from the time. Becky owns some of them. Do you recognize any of this stuff? The cookie cutter, the Jell-O mold, the tulip bowl, the green or red handled spatulas?

I have no idea where I'll put this quilt when it's finished, but I fell in love with it, so I'm making it anyway.


I'm taking votes for which "handwritten recipe" I put in this quilt. Grandma Salisbury's Cinnamon Rolls? Bread Pudding? I actually have one of Grandma Taggart's recipe books and it's FULL of handwritten recipes that she stuck here and there between the pages. Maybe I'll copy one of those...

Tornado in Loa???

Most of you probably didn't hear about it--but we had a tornado in Loa. I didn't see it, but it happened while I was at a quilt retreat this weekend, and my boys (all FOUR of them) were home alone without a wife and mother to take care of them. I'm pretty sure it ripped right through my house 'cause it's a DISASTER!

In happier news, I had a great time at the quilt retreat. My visiting teacher, who used to own a quilt shop in Las Vegas, puts it on right here in Loa every September. There were 25 ladies, mostly from Las Vegas, California, and Utah who came to "play". They stay in a local lodge (barn) that is owned by Mike Leavitt's family. I got to stay at home which saved me a bundle of money, but still participate in all the fun.

On Thursday night, we played bingo with "cards" that we made out of our stash of fabrics. They would call out things like purple leaf, orange batik, yellow metallic, green holiday print, etc. and if we had those fabrics on our "card" we marked them with M&M's. I won a new needle case :o)

On Friday we had breakfast at the lodge, and then we sewed ALL day, stopping only for lunch and dinner. Friday night we had "show and tell" where we showed the quilts we've finished this past year. Then we sewed until midnight.

On Saturday we did the same, except in the evening we had a trunk show by one of the ladies who works at the quilt shop in Richfield. She has made some AMAZING things, including a miniature double wedding ring quilt that was smaller than a sheet of paper.

I won a pillowcase kit for my creative name tag, and one of the ladies showed me how to make it (I have been trying to make heads or tails out of the pattern for months and it didn't make any sense at all). It is the COOLEST pattern ever. You lay your fabrics out and stack them on top of each other, ROLL THEM UP LIKE A BURRITO, make a seam, pull out the inside part that's rolled up, and make two more seams and you have a finished pillowcase with no raw edges. It truly takes less than 15 minutes. I can't wait to go to Jo-Ann's with a 40% off coupon and buy cheap fabrics to make fun pillowcases for my kids for their birthday's, holidays, tooth fairy days, etc.

Here's what I accomplished while the tornado was hitting my house:

This quilt is for my dining room--I'm always searching for orange
to match my lovely countertops.

This is the pillowcase that I made in 15 minutes after winning the kit.

I made this quilt for Grandma Great for her birthday (shh, don't tell). She only sees what's on my blog if someone shows her. I've been searching for the perfect fabric to make something for her, for a couple of years now. When I saw this fabric, I had to have it. I knew I wanted blue, but since I love green so much I always have a hard time shopping for blue. Now I just have to get it quilted before the end of October. I started cutting the fabric for this quilt on Friday morning, worked on it all day, and added the borders on Saturday morning.

Here's my hideous name tag. It could be anything from duct tape, to a mini quilt with your name embroidered on it, as long as it was creative. Dillon helped me with this little beauty. He used the glue stick.
Todd always says that when I die, they're going to put a list on my headstone of everything I didn't get done, so that was my inspiration for this "GRAVE" name tag full of fabric related death quotes.

The Quilt Walk Story

The Quilt Walk story revolves around the initial attempt to settle Panguitch, Utah in 1864. The first winter was brutal, food was scarce and the settlers were starving to death. A group of seven men, with a wagon pulled by two oxen, set out to get food from Parowan, 40 miles away.
In their weakened state, the men struggled with every footstep, sinking up to their hips in the deep snow. Eventually they abandoned the wagon and oxen and continued on foot. As they held a prayer circle kneeling on a quilt, they discovered they did not sink in the snow. The men completed their journey by laying quilts over the deep snow and walking across them, retrieving their quilts and repeating the process over and over again. The story came to be known as the Quilt Walk and is treasured in the annals of Panguitch history.


Now I can throw away the pamphlet that I've been hanging onto for this story :o)

Best of Show

I quilted this quilt that won "Best of Show" in our county fair. It's really not my style, but it was fun to use the variegated thread. The lady who made it is planning to give it to her sister who doesn't like ANY color. She gave me a $35 tip for this one :o)


My quilts all got blue ribbon's except for the bug jar, which got a red. I was disappointed that my bug jar quilt (that I made from start to finish in 3 days) was displayed hanging up so you could see the whole thing, and my basket quilt (which took me 2 1/2 years) was folded up, and sitting on a table with the worst basket showing. I was tempted to ask if I could switch the two quilts, but it doesn't really matter. My name is on the Best of Show quilt, and really all I wanted was the advertising.

A tisket, a tasket...

I finally finished my quilt for the fair! This was an hand-appliqued block exchange that I did with my quilt guild in Logan 2 1/2 years ago. Every person made 12 of the same appliqued basket, and then we all traded to get one from everyone.

It was quite an experience. When Dillon was born, I was madly sewing three-dimensional flowers in the hospital because they were due that week. Then, when Mom came to stay to "help with the baby" we made flowers....and more flowers. Mine is the tan basket with the yellow daffodil (I added that for the fair--nobody else's had that flower), and the pink and blue rusched flowers.

I quilted it last week. It took 10 bobbins of thread (that's a heck of a lot for a quilt that's 67" square), and if I were to do it again I'd quilt it differently. Oh well, at least it's finished!

This is the first time (and last) that I've ever done (or will do) a scalloped edge. I think it took me 1 1/2 hours just to sew the binding onto the quilt, and then I stayed up 'til 1:30 AM to finish the hand-binding.

The "Felicia fair"

I've been working like crazy to finish my basket quilt to enter it into the county fair so I'd at least have one thing with my name on it to advertise my business.
While I was at the post office this morning, my visiting teaching partner (who happens to be on the fair board) caught me and asked me to bring whatever I could find because there weren't enough entries to fill up the room. So, I went home and scrounged up a bunch of stuff.
Luckily, the rules state that anything can be entered, regardless of when it was made, as long as it has never been in the Wayne County fair before.

Spring Needlepunch

Bug Jar quilt that I made four years ago, but
I finally sewed the beads and buttons on (for eyes) today!
The quilting in the border is supposed to be
fly swatters--it's not my best work.
There's supposed to be a spider web behind the spider,
but I was new to quilting and thought it would be easier to stitch
the web AFTER the quilt was quilted. I was wrong.

"For These I Give Thanks"
I think I started this one while I was pregnant with Caleb (5 1/2 years ago)
and finished it to display for a Relief Society function about four years ago.

Thirties table topper
I made this one with scraps from a client's quilt
after she had me sew her binding.
(I don't usually keep their scraps--
they always want to keep them :o)

Dillon's field quilt
This one is not for judging, but for show.
I thought the people of Wayne county would get a kick out of it.
I have more fabric to make one to sell, but by the time I
add up the cost of the fabric and my time to quilt and bind it,
nobody in their right mind would pay what it's worth.

I also entered a stitchery pillow that I gave to my neighbor
for her birthday, but I don't have a picture of it.

Stinkin' Cute Quilt

A friend of a friend sent this quilt to be quilted,
and I thought it was so cute that I had to share.
Each frog is a actually a pocket, and the bugs are 3-D too.
The colors don't look as bright as they really are, and it's hard to
see, but the thread is variegated yellow, orange, and lime green
(which looks really cool against the turquoise).

Charity quilt for Cancer research

In the midst of probably my busiest month ever since starting my
quilting business in 2003, I quilted my first charity quilt.

My visiting teaching partner, who is a former Las Vegas Quilt Shop owner, holds a quilting retreat (right here in Loa) every September. She had all the ladies bring their pink scraps to put together blocks to make this quilt to donate to "Relay for Life".
It will hang in Christensen's (the department store in Richfield) until June
when they will raffle it off to raise money for cancer research.

Since it was pink, I went with the whole "breast cancer theme"
and quilted it with pink ribbons running through it.

It might be easier to see the quilting from the back.