Update

Hello Everyone! Summer is just flying by for me with these 2 puppies. They are doing very well with their house training, but like all pups they like to chew on things. They haven't destroyed anything yet but I do have to keep an eye on them. Their favorite thing to chew are my slippers. Yuck!

I also been able to get some yard work done and a lot of sewing done. Here are my first two attempts at making quilted wall hangings out of artificial silk flowers. I have a ton of scrap material and a huge plastic container of silk flowers laying around the house so I decided to downsize them by "recycling" them in a new wallhanging. They were kind of fun to make and go together really fast.

I also made a couple tote bags this week for Christmas gifts. This photo show them before attaching straps which I will do today. I made them out of scraps of old Christmas fabrics and pieces of batting I had left over. I'm challenging myself to make things now that I don't have to go buy anything for. It's been kind of fun being creative with things like this and I certainly have enough stuff to work with.

Lastly, I've been spending a lot of time with my two new puppies. They are growing like weeds and now they actually look like dachshunds with the long nose, long ears, and long body. They couldn't be two opposite personalities. Ginger is the go getter tiger and Cookie is so laid back all the time we call her our little wet rag. Here's a couple photos of them for you to enjoy.

Two New Quilts Done

This is a Baltimore Bliss wallhanging I recently hand appliqued and quilted myself.

This is a log cabin star that I made for my bedroom. I've only got the top done so far on this one, but I'm anxious to finish it.

More Quilts for Sale

Here are a couple more quilts I've decided to sale if you are interested. The first one is called a Tumbling Block pattern and is a wall hanging approximately 3' square, was put together by hand sewing and then machine quilted. Its cost is $40.

Off the top of my head I don't remember what this second one is called but it is some kind of Amish quilt pattern. It's about 2' square and its cost is $30.

If you are interested in purchasing one of these, please send the amount due, your name and mailing address, and the name of the quilt you want, and we will get it shipped out to you within a week of receiving your order. Tax and shipping costs are included in the cost listed.

New Quilting Design

Today I'm going to show and tell about my first attempt to design my own quilt block. About 3 weeks ago, I was sitting in the sewing room but not really feeling like sewing and I picked up some graph paper and started designing new quilt blocks. The next day I received an email about a "design your own quilt block" contest a certain website was having and I decided to enter my design, The Flippin' Bowtie block. First I put together a lap quilt with the block and then I put together a small wall hanging with the block. I got it all done and ready to enter the last day of the contest and got it all submitted. Wish me luck... there's some pretty nice quilting prizes. If anyone would like to purchase the pattern and instructions, I am making it available for $5. Just send the $5 with your mailing address and Item No. #201 (Flippin' Bowtie Pattern) to Arlayne West, 701 1st Street, Grimes, IA 50111.

New Baby

Greetings Everyone! We got our second new baby last week and is she ever a cutie and sweet as can be. Her name is Cookie Dough and she weighs a whopping 3 pounds. She is a long hair cream, red, & tan piebald mini dachshund. Although she hasn't quite figured out yet what all the going outside is all about, I do get lucky once in awhile and she happens to go outside, so I praise her ridiculously and make a really big tado about it hoping she gets the idea soon... very soon. I can't tell you how many times I've tripped over these two new ones. I've decided they do better if I take them out one at a time rather than together. When together all they want to do is play with each other. So by the time I let each dog (that's 3 now) outside and they take their own sweet time doing their thing, then it's time for me to come in and do my thing and then it's time to start the whole routine all over again. So much for getting much done around the house. That all seems to be on hold for right now, but I'm enjoying them so much I really don't care. Here's a photo of Cookie:

For Sale

Here's the first set of quilts that I am listing for sale this month. More will be listed later this week. A photo of each quilt is next to its size and price.

If you would like to purchase one, simply enclose the price amount with your contact information and quilt name and mail to Arlayne West, 701 1st Street, Grimes, IA 50111. I will contact you about how you want to receive the package. Shipping and handling is already included in the price of the quilt. First come first served.



















Eagle Quilt
(Size 34 1/2" x 27 ") - $35

Japanese Puzzle Wallhanging

(Size "19 1/2" x 19 1/2") - $30

Flippin' Bowtie Wallhanging
(Size 26 1/2" x 27") - $30

This quilt block patter was my own

creation & was entered into a contest.

I didn't win but it was fun to make.

Small Maple Leaf Wallhanging
(Size 13" x 12 1/2") - $30
























Class Sampler Quilt
(Size 29 1/2" x 29 1/2") - $40
























Reach for the Stars
Star Galaxy Quilt with Embroidered Corners
(Size 73" x 73") - $400

Ginger's Assistance in the Sewing Room

Well, this weekend has really been productive. I've finished two quilts and got a third one ready to be quilted. Ginger has been lending me a hand with measuring the fabric and pulling to get the cross grain straight. She's not done too bad for her first lesson. :-)

Japanese Puzzle Class

Well, today I finally finished a class I took through a Yahoo sewing group called the Japanese puzzle. I learned how to do it, but I ended up hating it, so I stopped early on and threw away all the left over pieces. I decided to take what I had completed and turn it into a small wall hanging or table topper instead of a full size quilt. I found this quilt very confusing and just not that pretty, but staying within the idea of uneven pattern design, I put uneven black corners on it and then attached it to a multicolored tan-brown square background and quilted and bound it, so it would be done and I could move on to a more "fun" quilt top. So here is my sloppy Japanese Puzzle quilt topper.

Moving on to something much more fun, I spent much of the afternoon lovin' and playing with Ginger Belle. She is so cute and does the funniest things. She has a lot of white under her chin and down her chest and tummy that is pretty unusual for a red dachshund. Here's a new photo of her resting in my lap that Charlie took today. She has gained a whole pound so now she weighs 4 1/2 pounds. She played out of her cage a lot today and had no accidents, so she's really doing well. Won't be too long before I get to pick up the other baby and start training all over again. I can hardly wait.

New Baltimore Bliss Square

Well, I finally finished the April block for my Baltimore Bliss quilt. It was the most difficult one yet. Half way through it, I tore it all out and started over again with a little different method and now I'm really glad I did. It looks so much better. I started May's block last night and hope to complete it by this weekend. Then I'll be caught up until June 1. I still have a stack of UFO's (Unfinished Objects) to work on too.

I'm afraid I'm not getting in as much sewing time now with the new puppy to train. She's so cute I just have to play with her too. In a couple more weeks we can pick up the other puppy. Then I'm not sure if I'll get much sewing done at all for awhile. That's okay though; I want them well trained for the many long and happy years that we will have together. Dachshunds are such great little doggie friends. I know Ginger will like it too when she has another puppy to play with. Shasta doesn't like to play with her at all; I guess she's just getting too old (14 y/o now). Ginger has so much energy to burn, and you can be sure I can't keep up with her either. She does love to play fetch and that seems to be an easy way to exercise her in the house anyways. Outside she just chases Shasta all over the yard. It's so funny to see such a little thing chasing away the big dog. I'll try and get a photo of it and post it later on.

Spinning Star

Today I finished quilting and on putting the borders on my Spinning Star wall hanging that I started at the April Retreat. This quilt was quite a hit at the quilting retreat. It seems like the further away you get, the more it really plays with your head and eyes. It's quite a unique sensation. I bought some beautiful hand-dyed fabrics while on the retreat that I used for the borders. Warning: I don't recommend staring at this quilt for very long.

Bluebird Quilt Finished

Well, today was a very busy day. My oldest daughter and her 2 kids got in around midnight last night for a funeral here in town, and I stayed up waiting for them, so we all slept in till around 9:30 this morning. They she and the kids and me and Ginger headed out to the farmer's market in town, to a quilt store, to Gray's Lake for a walk, and to Waterworks park Arboretum to see all the beautiful blooming trees. It finally looks like spring is here! Yeahhhhhhh! About time. Here's a couple photos of the Arboretum.

Then we went to lunch at Village Inn and left Ginger in her crate in the car. She just slept while we were gone and is doing well with not messing her crate and going to the bathroom on command. Then we visited a couple older friends who wanted to see her, made a run to the office to make a dropoff, and then home. We were all tuckered out and in total Ginger was out for 5 hours. Both of us simply had to take a nap after all that.

Blue Bird Quilt

Last night I finished my Blue Bird quilt that I showed the top in my post called "St. Louis trip - Spring 2009". I probably should call this my learning quilt since it was made using 3 different techniques I'd never tried before. First was the hand applique, second was the freehand machine quilting I did to hold the layers together, and then lastly was the thread painting I did to the bird to make it look like shiny feathers on the bird. I am very happy with it even though there are lots of tiny mistakes in it that a real quilter would see, because it represents trying 3 new techniques and taking a step in learning to do them well. Obviously I still have a lot to learn, but the learning can be so much fun.

Here are some photos and comments:

The first photo shows the bird's wings and how I machine quilted them.

The second photo shows the stippeling I did around the flowers. I had a hard time with my machine because apparently my needles were too large and the thread too fine to fill in the needle holes. But hey, you get 2' away from it and you can't tell at all. So all I have to do is hang it somewhre over a large piece of furniture that will block anyone from getting too close to it. Right? Sounds like a good solution to me.
The third photo shows the bird's body that I filled in with thread painting. Thread painting is simply using the sewing machine needle to go back and forth over the piece until it is thick enough to color it in. It really is fun to do and it makes my bird look like it has real shinny feathers.

All in all, I really enjoyed making this wall hanging and will definitely try each of these techniques again in the future. Today I bought a couple tools that will make it better on the next try I hope. First was a plastic sheet that attaches to the surface of the sewing machine to make it easier to move the fabric when you are freehand quilting or thread painting. It takes a lot of the drag out of pushing the quilt around under the foot. The second purchase was some smaller needles. I'll keep you posted on how that goes. Have a great weekend! Here's the final photo.

Update on Ginger Belle's Busy Day

Ginger and I had a fun day of shopping (at Pet Smart), visiting (Charlie and I's office staff), and the vet today. Ginger rode in her collapsible carrier and loved it. She wasn't too fond of one of the clerks at Pet Smart though. She growled and started barking at her when she got loud and came towards us too quickly. I couldn't tell if she was protecting me or feeling threatened herself. As soon as the lady backed away, she stopped. Other people the rest of the day held her and she snuggled up in their arms like they were long lost friends. The vet gave her a clean bill of health in all ways and didn't want to let go of her. When we got home, she took a nap and started playing with all her new toys we got at Pet Smart. I can't quite tell which is her favorite yet, but I think it's a toss up between her blue stuffed dachshund and her ball. She's not crying near as much tonight when I leave her alone in the crate because she has the toys to occupy her attention. Hopefully, that will help when it's time for me to go to bed tonight. I'm hoping I've worn her out enough today that she will sleep soundly all night.

Other firsts today for her was walking on a leash. She follows me very well... but there is one small problem... she wants to walk between my legs rather than to the side of me. I could easily step on her if I didn't hold my arm out straight on a very short leash so she can't quite get between the legs. We did a few training runs in the driveway and up and down the porch tonight. She seems to be learning things very quickly, so that makes me happy of course. I made her a little quilted monogramed coat to wear outside this morning. She loves it as you can tell in this photo.

My New Babies

Hi Everyone! Sorry it's been so long since I last wrote but life has been very busy for me the past few weeks. I've been out of town 3 times, once to visit family, once to attend a quilting retreat in Southern Missouri, and once to pick up my first (of 2) adopted miniature dachshunds. And on top of all of the traveling and the new puppy, I've had a bunch of health issues and undergone a number of tests and doctor appointments.

Here is a photo of my newest baby, Ginger Belle. She is a red and black long hair miniature dachshund with a really loving personality. She loves to sit on my lap while I am at the computer and she watches the screen till she falls asleep.

Her first night here she was very quiet and slept in a cardboard box at the side of my bed. I just put my arm down into the box, she'd lick it a few times, and curl up and go to sleep. But last night wasn't quite so easy. She just wasn't happy until I let her up in bed with me. I finally did because instead of licking my fingers when I dropped my hand over the side of the bed, she decided to make her point stronger, by nipping my fingers, and those baby teeth are sharp. I figured if I wanted to have any fingers left to quilt with, I better cater to her. After a couple of hours I put her in her crate in my sewing room and she FINALLY went to sleep. She then woke up when Charlie got up, so I went and got her and brought her back to bed with me and slept until 7:30. Yesterday I bought some puppy pads and she is using those to potty on so far. The weather has been too wet and cold to take her outside right now. I'm hoping to have some time today or tomorrow to make her a quilted coat to wear when she goes outside. She and I are visiting my office today and the vet for a check up.

When we went to get her, they had another long haired mini dachshund available for a good price so we put $100 down for them to hold her for us too. She is only 4 weeks old right now, so we don't actually get to pick her up until the end of May. Here is her photo.

She is a piebald cream and chocolate long haired little girl and we haven't named her yet. I'm hoping to get Ginger well on her way to being house broken and sleeping through the nights by the time we go get this little jewel.

I will try to get back on here soon and tell you all about the quilting retreat I went to in Conway, Missouri. It was a lot of fun and my two sisters (also quilt lovers) went with me, making it extra special. I got so many projects done and took a class and taught a demo on how to put together my little sewing caddy pins. I also won several nice prizes, a sewing tote bad, 25 quilted blocks ready to make into a pillow, blanket, pot holder, or something else, a landscape quilt book, and a quilt. There was one lady there who just gave away a ton of quilting things that she no longer needed or wanted, so we all really enjoyed that too. The food was absolutely wonderful, and the ladies were all so fun and helpful if you had a question about how to do something. It was one of the most fun things I've ever done before. Next time I write I will show you some of my projects.

Quilting Retreat/Panda Quilt

Well, I actually started the process of packing for the quilting retreat next week. I had to organize my things so my sewing stuff is all together in certain bags and my clothing, bedding, and personal grooming products are all in different bags, because the two things are located in 2 different buildings. I also have to have my name on everything. Needless to say, with packing so many things, it is taking me awhile to get everything labeled too.

Today I counted my kits that I'm taking to work on, and I have 12 ready to start sewing. I'm sure I will not get all of them done, but I assue you I will make a valiant effort. The hardest part is going to be deciding what to do first... such a nice problem to have. Tonight I'm going to work on the blue bird appliqued top and do the sandwiching of layers and get that all pinned together and ready to quilt, so that will be one more.

This little panda quilt is one I did a few years ago for a friend who collected pandas for her hobby. It is all paper pieced and was pretty easy and very cute I think. It was a kit I purchased somewhere (I don't remember where I got it). Enjoy!

Reach for the Stars Quilt

This quilt was my first large paperpieced quilt and I had so much fun working on this with all the jewel tone colors. It was made with the "Star Galaxy" pattern which I found in a quilting magazine in 2003. I'm sure I still have it somewhere, but I don't remember which one it was right now. I finished the quilt in 2004.

Then I added the sashing and small squares of dancing people fabric. To really set it off, I drew 2 of these people shapes out on paper and scanned them into my computer. Then I converted the graphic to a machine embroidery pattern and saved that to my embroidery machine's disk. Then I embroidered them on lightly spotted black squares in different jewel tone colors for the 4 corners of the quilt.

Lastly, I added pink piping around the edge of quilt before binding. Then I machine quilted it on my sewing machine. Even though it was one of the first big quilts I ever made, it is still one of my favorites which I won't give away.

Preparing for Quilt Retreat

Well, the crunch is now on to get ready for my upcoming Kaye Woods Quilting Retreat in Southern Missouri. My two sisters from the St. Louis area are going with me so this should be a lot of fun. They have both been before, but this will be my first time. They've printed out a packing list for me and given me all kinds of directions on how to prepare my sewing projects for the week. This is not a convention with a bunch of classes and vendors. It's a private retreat in a quiet, out of the way location for a Yahoo group that I belong to and we can do all the sewing we want on our own projects. It sounds wonderful to me. So I've been pre-cutting my pieces to several quilts and pinning them together so all I have to do is stitch when I get there. I've got high hopes for finishing several quilt tops there, so be prepared to see some more photos when I return.

One of the quilts I am currently working on is called the Baltimore Bliss and it is a quilt of all applique. I've not done much applique before but I'm really enjoying working on this. Here are pictures of the first 2 blocks that I've completed. The only thing I'm still struggling with is the tiny narrow points. I hope there's someone at the retreat that can show me a better way of doing those. But for now I'm happy with these. I figure by the time I've done 12 different blocks, I should be getting pretty good at applique. It's a block of the month pattern so that will force me to pace myself. I am trying different methods of applique for each block. So far I am liking the English paper piecing method the best. That is the method I used for these two blocks and I like the way these came out. You just basically copy the designs only copy paper, cut them out and then use a small dobb of water soluable glue (stick) to fasten it face down on the back of the desired fabric. Cut around that with a 1/4" seam allowance around edges. Fold over the seam allowance to the back and using a contrasting thread, do a running stitch around the piece to hold the folded over seam allowance snugly against the paper. (Start and end on the right side of the fabric). Starch and steam iron the pieces flat. Then when you are ready to applique that piece, take out the stitches and the paper, and repress the folds and applique it only your background. The is very easy and goes a lot faster than you might think. It also makes a great "carry with you" project or hand project while watching TV.

I'm also going to be doing a short demo on my travel sewing pin (see photo below) at this retreat, so I got all that ready to go tonight. I also put together 40 surprise gifts to give to each attendee. I'm starting to think that my car is really going to be packed with all the stuff I'm planning on taking.

Stained Glass Quilt

Today I want to show you my first stained glass quilt. It was much easier than I ever thought it would be because the entire black part of it is one piece just laid over the top of the printed piece of fabric and sewn down with machine applique stitch. There is a lot of detailed cutting to do but it went a lot faster than I thought it would. I have done some pieced stained glass quilts using bias tape to make the black lines and it can be tricky, so I really liked this method.

My Eagle Quilt

Here's one of my first quilts that I attempted to quilt myself. It is simply a panel of fabric that I did stitching on freehand. I found out really quick that this is a lot harder to do than it looks. If you look very close at it you will see some long stitches and a bunch of tiny tiny stitches. Oh, how I wish I had $5,000 for that Bernina 440 Aurora sewing machine with the stitch regulator on it. (I can dream can't I?) Even though my stitches were pretty irregular, I did enjoy trying my hand at this. I haven't done much of anything else since trying this, but I'm getting ready to try again, hopefully armed with a bit more knowledge about what I'm doing this time. Of course, there's no guarantee that the outcome will be any better. But I keep trying anyway... It's just so much fun!

African Quilt

Today I'm going to share with you the quilt I made this past year for my oldest daughter, Tina. In September of 2007, she and I traveled to South Africa to work in vision care clinics in the poor schools there. We had a wonderful time and fell in love with the children there. When we returned, she asked me to make her an "Africa" quilt because she wanted to do her bedroom in Africa style. That winter I fell and broke my ankle in the same place where I had previously broken it and already had a plate and several screws in it. Because of the location and the hardware that was already in my ankle, the healing process took a lot longer than what would be normal. I ended up being wheelchair bound for 3 months. Tina rushed to help me when I first got home and she helped my husband make our home wheelchair accessible - especially my sewing room. I knew I was going to spend a lot of time there.

Then she took me to a fabric store where we found all these beautiful African prints and we bought a bunch of fabric. When she left town and I was finally left alone, I spent much of everyday sitting in my wheelchair working on this quilt. It took a long time to finish and have quilted but it came out beautiful, especially on her bed. She specifically gave me the measurements of her bed because she wanted it to hang down all the way around the bed. This ended up being the biggest and heaviest quilt I have ever made.

The design on the top of the bed is a basic attic window pattern where we fussy cut the pictures of animals in the windows. The border around that is a paper pieced pattern I designed, and the sides are 1 1/2 inch strips sewn together. The footboard corners are quilted in the shape of Africa with all the countries quilted in as well.

St. Louis trip - Spring 2009

I went to St. Louis recently to tend to some family things and had a wonderful time there with my family members. My two sisters both love to quilt, as does my brother-in-law, and my mother loves to embroider blocks for one of us to put together into quilts. During the week and two weekends that I was there, we visited one quilt show and 7 quilt shops. One day my sisters and mom and I went to lunch together and just sewed together the rest of the afternoon around the dining room table. We had great fun. This little applique wall hanging is primarily what I worked on while there although I did get another quilt started too. I had a wonderfully relaxing visit while there and came back with new patterns, tools, kits, and fabric. What fun!

2008 Branson, Missouri Trip

I took a trip to Branson, Missouri with a group of seniors from my church last year. We were on a big bus for the long drive, so it was pretty comfortable. I took some piecing to do by hand on the bus, but found myself dropping things continuously. First my thread dropped and rolled several seats away and I couldn't retreave it until everyone got off the bus at the next stop. Then I dropped my scissors and eventually I dropped my only two needles which I never found. So that stopped that project for that trip.

When I finally got home, I decided to do something about that and I created this little pin on ribbon to hold all my supplys securely for me. It works great.

The ribbon has a safety pin sewn to the back to pin on my blouse. A quilting stitch holder is sewn on to hold a spool of thread, and a travel thread cutter (or small pair of scissors) is attached by a long enough cord to reach your work. It has a small pocket on front to sit in. There is a small pincushion also to hold a few pins and needles. Most important... It works great! If you like to sew and travel, make one for yourself. You'll love it.

Upholstery Quilt

Here's a cute little wall hanging I did a few months ago. A friend of mine was put into a nursing home a few years ago and her and her son told me they wanted to give me all of her craft supplies. I had no idea how much stuff she had accumulated until her son said, it will be several truckloads at least.

Three days, 8 truckloads, and a rented storage unit later, I had all her craft supplies. The crafts included, fabrics, plates, ceramics, books on all kinds of crafts, candlemaking supplies, painting supplies, silk flowers, grapevine wreaths, beads... you name it and I now had it. At first I thought I'd died and gone to heaven. Slowly reality began to set in however, and I realized I would never do all these things. So I loaded up the car (several times) and took loads of things to nursing homes, daycares, my church and to Goodwill for their use in daycare activities. Eventually, I was able to bring home all the items I thought I might actually use, and I shut the storage unit and quit paying monthly payments for them to store everything for me.

One of the things in the stash was a plastic container of sample squares of upholstery fabrics, a large container of all kinds of ribbons, and a large container of all kinds of lace and doileys. So from that stash I made this little wall hanging to put over my organ in the frontroom. It came out kind of cute and these colors are perfect for that room. The fabrics were pretty stiff to try to work with however. It was difficult to find enough blocks of the right colors that would work together, but eventually I came up with this. Someday, I might just take all the leftover squares and make a crazy quilt.

My Quiltin' Ladies Quilt

My daughter and I went to a church rummage sale a few years ago and as she was digging through children's clothing, I was just kind of wandering around looking a the junk that was all over the place and I saw a brown lunch bag lying on a shelf with 25 cents labeled on it.

Curiousity got the better of me and I opened the bag to see what was in it. It was full of tiny scraps of fabrics which weren't even worth 25 cents, so I started to put it back on the shelf. You know these had to be tiny scraps for me to put it back, because I am a quilter that saves most of my scraps for scrap quilts.

However, just as I was starting to close the bag, I felt something different at the bottom of the bag. I pulled it out and it was folded up vintage squares of "old time" ladies quilting together. I immediately decided the bag was definitely worth 25 cents, so I bought it.

The squares were all in black and white, so I decided to do a black and white quilt with them. After spending over a year collecting the different fabrics I wanted to use and trying to decide on the design I would use, I began putting it together. I loved the way it turned out, and it now holds a prominent place on my sewing room wall.