Flag Quilt

I have wanted to make some type of flag quilt for a long time, but it never seems to make it on my list.  This year I sewed while we camped over the 4th of July.  I had thrown in some fabric for a flag, and actually got one completed!

I drew the words onto the fabric and embroidered them.  The pattern is just something I made up.  Finally, I have a small flag quilt!

Bags

I've made several bags this summer.

This one was for Trilby.

It has pockets all around the inside.

This bag is a little larger.  Too large for me to use as a purse, but it worked perfectly on my recent trip.  It held all of my purse necessities in addition to my book, camera, cords, etc.

It has four pockets on the inside.

I love making these bags, but I just haven't found the "perfect" one!

Baptism

Clara was baptized yesterday.  She wore my baptismal dress which had also been worn by my three daughters.  It has held up well for its age!  She also used the afghan that her mother used when she was baptized.

We had the opportunity to have all of the grandchildren in one place for a while.

What a trick to get everyone looking forward at the same time!!

BOM

In the Piecemaker's  group that I try to get to each month, we are now doing a BOM (block of the month).  So each month I get the fabric and pattern to make a block.  At the end of twelve months I will put them all together and have a quilt.  I started by choosing two fabrics although I'll choose more later to put it together.  I have felt the need for something in purple so I went with some civil war reproduction fabric, but I can't for the life of me remember who makes it.  I'll have to check next time I'm in the store.  Here are the two fabrics I chose:

And here is the completed block.

To make these blocks we are using THANGLES.  If you aren't familiar with them you should check it out.  After one block I am sold!

Road Trip

WARNING:  LONG POST!!

We took a little road trip this week.  We started out by heading to Northwest Iowa--Fort Dodge.  We had to take an antique music library up to be worked on, we hung around all day waiting for it, but it didn't get done. (long story)  So, we headed for Des Moines for the night.  Our first stop, of course, was:

Oh, the things you do for your hubby!  But then he returned the favor as our next stop was Homemaker's Furniture where we purchased a new 8 x 11 area rug for the living room.  Both of these stores are usually on our list when we are in Des Moines.  We crashed at a motel for the night.

Thursday morning we headed west to Walnut, Iowa, billed as Iowa's Antique City.  We browsed around town checking out all of the many antique stores and one little disappointing quilt store.  If you love antiques this is a great town to visit.  We added a 5 gallon Red Wing crock to our crock collection.  As we headed east we decided to trek down to Winterset to visit John Wayne's birthplace 

 and see a couple of covered bridges.  

These are on the National Register of Historic Places.  They are most famous for being in the movie Bridges of Madison County. While we were in Winterset we stopped at the Fons and Porter Quilt Shop.  Fons and Porter have had a show on Public Television for years.  It's the first quilt show I ever watched!  I was a little disappointed in this store.  I guess I expected a huge store with tons of fabric--that's not what I found.  I did manage to purchase a few fat quarters and a pattern while I was there.  Madison County Courthouse is in the middle of the square downtown.  It is a beautiful building. (I love big old courthouses)

We hadn't eaten since breakfast so next on our agenda was a little lot of food!  We headed for Joe's Crabshack by Jordan Creek Mall in West Des Moines.

We started with this scrumptious crab dip.  YUM!

Between the two of us we had crab stuffed shrimp (my favorite), a crabcake, coconut shrimp, haddock, deep fried shrimp, fries, onion rings, rice, and broccoli.  This was all in just two dinners!

It was FANTASTIC!  I highly recommend it if you like seafood!!  We rolled out the door and back to the motel.

The next day we started out at:

The Brass Armadillo is also a frequent stop.  We found that they had done some rearranging and cleaning up since we had been there last.  It is full of antiques and some collectibles.  Check it out if you are in Des Moines!  After that we stopped at another antique shop which I can't remember the name of.  I was tired of antiques by then so I sat in the car and messed with photos on my computer!  

Finally some 

Creekside Quilting was well worth the stop!  It is full of great patterns, Moda bolts and precuts, Robert Kaufman fabrics, notions, and Baby Lock machines.  Since I didn't have unlimited spending at my disposal, I had a hard decision.  I did manage to purchase a few things.  Then we went to Ankeny to Quilter's Cupboard.  This store also had a lot of fabric to choose from.  Since there was a quilt show in town it was rather crowded, so we didn't spend much time there.  (And, no, I didn't get to go to the quilt show.)  In between quilting stores and antique stores we did a little shopping at Kohl's, Younkers, and Catos.  

We headed to Pomeroy to spend the night so I could attend two wedding showers for our nephew Kevin and his fiance Kristen.  Bud visited other relatives during the showers!

We arrived home late Saturday night and got up early this morning to head over to spend a little time with Travis, Kerry, and Chance.

He was lovin' those Cheetos!! (And see those two teeth)

It's nice to be back home to sleep in our own bed.  I have a busy day tomorrow to get ready to leave again EARLY Tuesday morning.   Thanks to all of the relatives that put up with us for a few days, and to Trilby and boys for taking care of the dogs and cattle while we were gone.

Table Runners

We had a quiet 4th of July this year.  We camped at the res from Friday until today.  Friday evening we enjoyed some good conversation with friends around the campfire. Saturday we went for a short hike, then spent part of our day at the hospital as Clara was reentered with high levels of jaundice.  She spent a day under the lights then went home, and is doing well.  Sunday we went on a longer, steeper hike then spent the rest of the day with Bud fishing and me sewing.  Rain kept us from enjoying a fire, and we packed up and headed home around noon today.

I have managed to do a little sewing lately.  I made two table runners.  They are similar, but different.

I quilted this one by outlining the stars inside and straight lines across the runner.  

Same basic pattern, but some stars are made out of different fabrics.

Again I outlined the inside of the stars, but I stitched stars in the background fabric instead of straight lines.  The binding on both runners is a scrappy binding.  It adds a little color to it.  It was a little time consuming stitching the binding on as they are large runners.

I followed the tutorial found here for the first one.  Then I decided NOT to use the spray starch applique and used wonder under light instead.

They are both gifts.  I hope they are used and enjoyed!

Strawberry Pie--WW

1 pkg. strawberry sugar free Jello

1 pkg. vanilla sugar free pudding(cooked kind)

2 cups water

1 qt. strawberries

Add jello and pudding to the water.  Stir to dissolve, and continue stirring until you bring it to a full boil.  Slice strawberries and add to the hot mixture.  Pour into 9" pie crust. I've used regular crust and graham cracker crust.  Refrigerate.  Top with Cool Whip Free before serving.  Serves 4.  If you use graham cracker crust it's about 3 points per slice.

                                                                      

 Clearly I didn't take this photo!  (Thanks Taste of Home)  We had this last night and it was so yummy I forgot to take photos!

I've linked this post to Colleen's Kitchen Recipe Swap.