December has been a really busy month!

My husband and I celebrated his birthday in December by going on a cruise right after finals.  I still have one research paper to finish and I really need to get working on the reading, but I've really just been enjoying our time off.

The cruise stopped in Catalina Island and Ensenada, Mexico.  On our way back we were able to take advantage of being bumped for a later flight on United airlines in order to allow to Boise State University football players to take their recruiting trip.  It was almost like another vacation!  They put us up in the Westin Hotel and gave us $30 worth of meal vouchers.  We arrived home on Saturday afternoon rather than Friday night; the two free airline tickets made it totally worth the wait!

Once we were back home I loaded my customer quilt and was able to complete it in time for her to pick up for binding and presentation for a Christmas gift.  I must say I'm very pleased with the outcome!

This week’s challenge has been to try to complete a couple of baby quilts using some of the with the example blocks I  started in conjunction with  my quilt class.   I'm rather stumped as I can't figure out why these don't look quite right, it's really just so bland!  It's also not finished yet as it's only 30" x 30" so I have lots of options; any suggestions?

I have the week off and have been taking advantage of the time by starting a new log cabin quilt project while watching the Roady’s Humanitarian Bowl with the University of Idaho vs. Bowling Green…and the Vandals won 43-42!!

I'm also cutting out a new project in preparation for a sewing retreat day in January,  as the log cabin project requires lots of pressing and isn't really a good retreat project.  I  have another one of my customer’s quilts to do and need to  finish quilting the American heroes quilt I started in August.   After that, I know the pattern and thread I'll use on the second American Heroes quilt and I'm still stumped on how to quilt the third one.   Oh, wait, I only have four days left before have to go back to work!

I guess you can see now why I haven't been posting much!  I've even been able to keep up with the Stashbusters Yahoo group postings this week and thanks to a posting there even found another enticing project: http://blocksnswaps.blogspot.com/2009/10/milky-way-quilt-block.html

That makes the third project that I’d like to do this next year, in addition to everything else that I have in my UFO list; I’d better get busy!

Merry Christmas!

While I have been trying to put together a blog of the recent past adventures, Christmas has snuck up on me!

May you all be able to spend quality time with your sewing machines!

And, simply….Merry Christmas!! 

Not quite caught up…

I haven’t posted in awhile because I’m just finishing up the semester, and I’ve been working on getting my final done.  There’s still a 7 page  research paper due that the teacher has been gracious enough to give me an extension on.  For today, I’ll be sending in the final and taking a break!  Interesting to me that even though I never thought I’d post a blog, I’ve missed it;  there simply has been no time.  I’ve been sick the last couple weeks, too, which doesn’t help a bit.

I haven't exactly completed the quilt class that we started for my school project in that the blocks aren't all done and we haven't covered all of the material, but we certainly have had fun and learned a lot!  We'll be continuing the class after the holidays and I'm really looking forward to seeing what my students come up with.  I did however get the school project turned in and have had some good comments from a teacher.

 Oh, and I had a great business idea come my way….making Boise State University Bronco quilts! I’m not sure if you remember that I made my mom a University of Montana Grizzly quilt? Well, I had started a Bronco quilt before that, just hadn’t finished it because I wanted to create a pantograph design of my own, as I couldn’t find anything out there that I liked. That hadn’t come to fruition and I found a football design so I used that instead and started showing people. They LOVE IT! Now, I don’t think I’m being modest, it’s nice and all, but really, there are much nicer quilts out there….

Anyway, I’ve started the process to get a crafter’s license from the school so I can officially start selling them. I already have an order for 2 quilts, which are roughly 75” x 54” and I’m charging $200 each. They have a fleece back with the Bronco logos all over.  Another customer wants a king sized quilt, but I haven’t worked out a price with him yet. I bought a bunch of blue and orange fabric on Thursday on my way home from work, they had a 50% off sale and I’m going to buy the fleece from my wholesale vendor.

We got a birthday coming up next week to celebrate, and then I’m quilting a customer quilt on Sunday.  I'm really looking forward to seeing how this one turns out; I'll let you know!