Some cook, I sew and write: creativity brings joy

I really want to master this whole free motion quilting thing so I dug out a quilt a friend started and gave to me to finish.  Her meander stitch was impeccable.  Mine, not so much, but I learned a lot.  I also tried a feather for the first time. For starters, I remembered Angela saying to make sure your presser foot isn't down too far.  My convertible FMQ foot is adjustable, and apparently it was down too low.  I felt like I had to yank the fabric through.  Too bad I didn't remember that tip until AFTER I finished the quilt.  The stitching wasn't as smooth. I also learned that choosing an almost invisible thread can be disadvantageous.  I used a light grey which melted into the paisley print.  I couldn't see where I had already stitched so I finally gave up and meandered all over.  Lots of texture though! P.S. I bought Angela Walter's book Free Motion Quilting with Angela Walters , at her shop in Liberty, Missouri, and used i...

Lately I've been watching Angela Walter's free motion quilting challenges.  My first attempts at free motion quilting were pretty pitiful.  Sometimes it still looks like I've never done it before, but sometimes I actually get in the groove and the curves and shapes work, the stitches aren't too tight or too loose, and then I lose it again.   Here's the link to Angela's quilting challenge:  https://quilting-is-my-therapy.myshopify.com/collections/free-motion-challenge-quilting-along It may not be phenomenal quilting, but as Angela says, you get a quilt when you finish!  I'm actually pretty proud of it because it is SOOO much better than when I began!  I short cut the process by using a pre-printed panel, but here's the quilt pattern or the quilt kit.

It seems appropriate to share my Around the World quilt top after showing off pictures of my trip! I really like this.  While at Missouri Star, I purchased some fabric for the back so now I just have to figure out how to quilt it and get 'er done!  As usual, I had to purchase extra fabric to get the colors to work right.  I'm a minimalist scrappy quilter.  I like some sense of color order to my so-called scrappy quilts so a layer cake worked mostly but I had to scrounge for more of certain fabrics.  Missouri Star still had this several years old fabric line from Stonehenge!  Moral:  Don't wait two years to make a quilt with the fabric you've already bought!  Tell that to my stash.

After I dropped my daughter off at school, I headed back to spend a little more time with my parents and sister and then came back to visit my daughter one more time before heading home.  On my way: Manti Temple a few miles south of Ephraim In the mountains at Salt Wash The Vietnam Vet Memorial Also at the Vietnam Vet memorial AT MISSOURI STAR after one l-o-n-g day of driving and 1 shorter: Decorations made of fabric strips.  New use for jelly rolls! Hamilton abounded in murals Some of MSQC's eleven shops and I visited ALL of them and very thankful I was for summer hours.  I didn't get there until after noon and stayed until they shooed me out at 7! Back to the Kansas City temple near my hotel.  This is a temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  My kids were able to participate in the cultural celebration right before the dedication services two days before we moved.

It was nice to spend some time in Utah with my family.  My daughter spent a few days visiting before I took her to see my husband's family (translation: I shopped for last items and she spent time with her cousins).  Then it was off to Snow. My sister and I My parents and I The original core of my family, just the four of us Repeat My sister and parents.  I'm not too good with these selfie-style photos! My mother and I My father and I The three of us My parents My mom relaxing and reading the newspaper on the porch, her favorite activity. My dad On the porch I realized we had taken off with NO family pictures.  We had rushed to get pictures taken the day before we left home so Jim sent photos to the local Walmart near my parents' home for developing.  Walmart's machine wasn't working right so he resent them to Walgreens.  Much better! We finally made it to dinner and raspberry shakes a...

The long-awaited day came to take my daughter to college.  Snow College is a small (5,100 students), two-year college in central Utah in a town called Ephraim.  Ephraim has 6,135 residents and includes 3.6 square miles.  A super Walmart is on the outskirts of town and Snow College is approximately in the center of town, about 7 blocks south.  Another grocery store, Market Fresh, is close to the other end of town approximately 7 blocks further south from Snow College.  Ephraim boasts Anderson Drug and Floral, a Hawaiian restaurant, and a library and a few hotels.  There are other businesses and eateries as well but those were destinations we visited while I was there. The Ephraim Cooperative Mercantile Association from the pioneer era.  Today it's a craft shop. The Hawaiian restaurant, Kalama's Hawaiian Style, where I ate an excellent meal. We also found the driver license bureau that operates in Ephraim, the Sanpete County seat, two days...

This summer, my son James and I went to see Rabbit Hash.  It was my first time there.  We saw the former mayor, Lucy Lou, a border collie who served as mayor from 2008 to 2016, when she went out for a walk.  She was 12.  She stepped down in 2016 to help her hometown raise funds to rebuild the Rabbit Hash Genral Store.  (The election raises money.)  According to the Boone Recorder, she raised $8,087 of the total $21,921 raised during her election. The newspaper stated, "The question Mayor Lucy Lou was most asked during the campaign was:  'How does a DOG become mayor?' "Her answer, . . . was, 'As with politics in every corner of the earth, the candidate with the most money wins.  In Rabbit Hash, we're just honest about it.  Anyone of any age can vote, you can vote as many times as you like, and we encourage drinking at the polls.' "Lucy Lou's executive staff have been heard to say on more than one occasion, 'We bought that election fair ...