Good Morning!

As I say all most every day - Time goes by so fast!

It is Tuesday and Monday just flew bye. Does time go by this fast for everyone? Today I am going through my quilts for a trunk show tomorrow. It is so fun to see my old quilts, they seem like old friends to me. Each one has a history, a time of my life when I made them. I can remember what was going on in my life and my family's lives.

I have been blessed to have spent so many years working hard with my hands, my imagination, and wonderful people who love quilting. At least 15 years going to Quilt Market, each year a different city. 

I have had adventures in Pittsburgh, Atlantic City, Minneapolis, Houston, Portland and Kansas City.

As time goes by I miss the people and excitement of "Market". But I have met new friends in the last 2 years and hope to meet many more.

Have a good day where ever you are. The weather is beautiful here in Salt Lake. Fall in the air and I am ready for new ideas and adventures!

Laurie

Lake Powell

Hi again!

The whole month of September has slipped away and I have not had the time to sit down and write. The colors are changing around us and the days are getting shorter, fall is here even if the calendar doesn't day it is here.

I have busy working on new blocks. I have had so much fun designing my new yellow baskets. I had forgotten how much fun it can be to put the colors and shapes together and then add a little stitching, buttons, or what ever I find in my stash.

This month I have been cleaning our some of my quilting projects. I found 6 finished quilt tops! They have been farmed out to be quilted and I'll show you some of the results. A few of them were from the Mystery Quilt Retreat I have been going to, and some have been class ideas I had planned to use. The fun part of it was to see so many quilts leaving my house to be finished.

Lake Powell and it's many beautiful sites,

Rainbow Bridge

Have you ever been to Rainbow Bridge in southern Utah?

My husband and I have were lucky enough to go down to Lake Powell this past weekend with a group of friends. The only way to see this beautiful spot of the world is by boat.

Lake Powell in it's self is like being in another world. The rock walls, cliffs, canyons and open water ways are majestic. We stayed in a small bay with a hugh rock formation called the Cookie Jar. 

Rock really sandstone falls away form the formations to make the beautiful enclosed bay we stayed in. My husband and I went for a walk on the rocks the first morning. As you can see from the pictures below we docked on the rock, so we did not have a sandy beach to walk on. So up the hill we went. It was beautiful! We thought we could go around the water to the other side of the bay, but half way through it became very steep. Just as my husband said we should turn around I realized just how steep it was and started sliding down the rock. 

After he caught me and was sliding himself we finally stopped. I have not been that afraid in quite a while. Slowly we moved side ways to the part of the hill that we could walk on with out sliding down the wall.

We learned our lesson, and were careful the rest of the trip to swim and boat with respect for nature.

 Our friends boat was our home away from home

 Views around our boat

I'll show you the next block as I finish the last one and maybe I'll know how it will be all put together some time soon.

See you again,

Laurie

Hello again!

It has been a little while since I posted. I have been out of town a couple of times and now that we are at home it feels like I never left.

We did have a fun time in San Francisco. My husband had to go down for work, so we went down a few days early. We flew in on a Saturday and we know that the wharf is all ways busy on Saturday, but it was crazy! We tried to park, but found that all we did was drive around in circles. So our next idea was to go to the Italian restaurant that we like neat Coit Tower. It was crazy there also. I guess thousands of people have to go some place.

We found out that there was an outside concert going on and that someone had sold counterfeit tickets to hundreds of people. They could not get in to the concert and had to make other plans for the evening.

The next day we drove down to Monterey. I love Monterey and the weather was perfect. We stopped at one of the fruit stands and bought some strawberries, grapefruit and eat fried artichokes hearts. You could see the strawberries in the fields as you drive by and there was a hint of strawberries in the air, they were wonderful.

I found my new profession!
I knew that I loved Monterey, California!

While I had downtime on our trips I worked on my new block. Here it is, the 2nd block of my new quilt.
I 'm not sure if all of my baskets will be yellow, but as soon as I have time to sit down I will work on the next block.

I have to go now because I have my high school reunion tonight. Boy, do I not want to go. I'm only going because my friend talked me in to going with her. We are leaving our husbands at home so that we do not have to worry about them being bored.

Wish me luck,
Laurie

Good Morning!

We had a beautiful morning watching hot air balloons rise above our heads. All we had to do was drive out to a small park by my daughter's house with the sun shining bright watch as the balloons were laying out on the grass and them slowly fill with hot air, rise into the sky.

My youngest granddaughter still is not sold on the idea that it is fun to see, but by next year she will be as excited as we are to see the beautiful balloons go up.

About quilting, I showed you my first basket block and now I am working on the next. I am excited to show you as soon as it is finished. I am off to San Francisco this weekend for a short trip with my husband, but I will show you how it looks when we return.

See you later,

Laurie

Family Reunions

We are having our Bird Family Reunion at home this year. Yesterday was our 1st day, we went to a small family fun park that has miniature golf, laser tag, arcade games, and more. Then we had our dinner at a park in Saratoga Springs, Utah. This park has some amazing swings, slides and activities for all ages. The main thing this park has is a 30 Triangle that any one can climb, even me!

I even had a little cheerleader climbing up a long with me. My nephew's 5 year old son was helping me by climbing above and then below me, telling me how easy it was. He was so cute, and a great motivator for me. I climbed to the top where my daughters were waiting for me. It was like being a little kid again.

Before I went to play at the park, I finished one of the blocks of my new quilt. I am going back to my roots, so to speak, I love baskets and flowers so I have both in my new quilt. Thrown in a couple of hearts and some embellishments and you have your a quilt that is truly you own design.

I will show you the rest of the blocks as I go. Have a good day and I hope to be back soon.
Laurie

Hello Again! 

Wow. What a month we have had at our house. Our 4th of July was pretty quilt, all of my children went away with either their friends or family. It was a nice quiet day with my husband. That does not happen on a holiday. The next day was busy with our boat. The whole family went to Jordanelle Reservoir for the day. I have to admitted that I love being on the boat with my family. We have no phones, TV, I-pad, etc. We have to have a good time with each other.

 I have not had a lot of time to finish my applique, but I have finished 4 quilts I have had waiting in my cupboard. Three of them were from Quilt Retreats that I have attended, I now have three more quilts to finish. I was feeling so good until I went down to my disaster room and found 2 more that need to be finished all so. I have so many quilts up stairs from my patterns that I really don’t know who to give these to. I’m sure I can figure it out.

 If you live in Utah you have another holiday on the 24th of July – Pioneer Day. It is the day we celebrate the Pioneers coming to our valley. We have a parade, races, and families have another day to BBQ before the fireworks again at 10:00. This year we took our family to St George, Utah to have a little get a way. It was great to be together again, all of us together. The only problem was that St. George was 110 degrees, HOT! 

My husband and our sons, and son in law went golfing in the mornings and we went swimming most afternoons. I of course visited the quilt shops in town. It was a wonderful time for us. Our summer is about over now, it has gone by so fast. But we will remember our short, Hot time together.

 See you soon! 

Spring Again!

What a difference a day makes. It is spring today.

 I am going to lunch with some of my high school friends, one has moved away and is visiting for a few days. I have missed her through the years. There is something special about friends that know your history. Some one who knew about my parents divorce when I tried to pretend everything was all right at our house.

 We walked by the boys houses that we liked, because we did not have cars of our own then. When we did have a car we sang the popular songs and spied on the boys again, but we could get a way faster. 

I'm getting off track, but some times it is fun to think about how silly we could be when we were young.

I wonder, have you ever pieced together blocks for a quilt, using the same template, seam allowance, etc. only to find that 1 or 2 of your blocks are too small?

I have been quilting for many years and I was so excited to show you my quilt I have been working on for a few months. I have been sewing the blocks together and 2 blocks have been 10 inches instead of 11 1/2 inches.

I was so happy to be finished with the blocks, now I need to make 2 more.

I think I will not sew for a day or two.

I started a few blocks while I was in Hawaii. My friend wanted to learn how to applique, so I cut some out for both of us to work on. I now have 4 small baskets. I think I will design a new quilt. I will let you know how it goes.

This needle turn applique is fast and easy. If you like to do handwork, you would enjoy this method. I'll show you how to do it next time.

Right now I'm off to lunch - Good by for now,

Laurie

 Hi again,

Today is June 17th and it is cold. It has been raining all day. It is the kind of day that I want to curl up and read a book under some of my quilts.

I have been binding my neighbor's mother's quilts. They were made in the 70's and it is interesting to see how different the fabric looks and feels. The fabric count is not very high so the fabric is not as soft as we use now.

Instead of my quilts, today I will under my neighbor's quilt trying to finish the binding. Tomorrow I will be under mine if it is still winter in June.

Good by for now,  

Laurie

Life's Experiences

I have not posted for quite a while. I have had a lot of life experiences this past month. Some wonderful, some that I have been expecting, but not looking forward too.

I was lucky enough to spend 2 weeks in Maui, Hawaii. My husband was there for work, and I was able to spend time with a cherished old friend and strengthen ties with other newer friends. Of course the beauty of Hawaii helped to make our trip unforgettable.

This was the view from our room. The weather was warm and a few days were very windy, especially one day that my husband was golfing.

I saw whales while we drove around the island, a pod of dolphins one day as I was walking down the shore. They were swimming in a line with their fins above the water, then they would take turns jumping out of the water.

Another day my husband and I were walking along the ocean and watched turtles swimming around the rocks on the shore.
Hawaii is so different from Utah that is makes the trip seem magical.

We came home to the usual rush and the time it takes me to get over the “Red Eye” flight home. I did not go to see my father right away. He had been doing so much better lately. He seemed happy to be in his apartment at the assisted living facility. Before I was able to visit him we heard that he had fallen and this time he had broken his hip.

He has been through so much this last year and a half, he had fallen and broken his neck, spent weeks in the hospital at a time, and acted as if he had had a stroke, but he all ways bounced back some way. 

He did not bounce back this time, he died on Friday, May 16th.

My dad - Jonathon Douglas Davis Blackhurst

Dissapearing Pinwheel

Happy Easter!

Well next Sunday it will be Easter. We are having a quiet Easter at our house, my daughter and her family will be spending Easter with her husbands family. That means that the children will not be at our house. Easter Egg hunts are not the same with out our 2 darling grand daughters. We will look forward to next year.

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 I just finished a quilt for spring using a method that was fast and fun. I think the women that came up with this pattern were brilliant! 

All you do is cut 10 inch squares of the two fabrics needed for each block, sew around the edges, then cut across the block 2 times to make a large pinwheel. Sew them together and cut 2 1/8 inches from the center seam 4 times around the center pinwheel. Rearrange the block pieces and you have this fun block.You can watch on You Tube with the Missouri Quilt Company, here is where you can find their Disappearing Pinwheel demo.

http://youtu.be/9rgQd6asPQs

I am excited to have my quilt, quilted so that I can use it at home. I am going to teach you their method at Mormon Handicraft in Murray, Utah, if you want to see it in person.

I am finishing my Broken Wheel quilt this week also, I have posted this quilt before, but here is a reminder of what I am doing with this quilt. I wanted to use this block for a long time and I love the fabrics I used, so I know this will be one of my favorites.

My husband and I are leaving for Hawaii on Monday and I am taking with me a new quilt idea. I have been piecing my quilts a lot lately, but I am going to applique this quilt. Some of you that know me well, know that I usually have applique in all of my quilts. If not applique at least some embellishments. This quilt will have baskets of different sizes and flowers, WOW, I have used those ideas before!

I guess I am going back to my roots.

I will show you how it looks when we come home. I hope you will like.

I better go work on cleaning my house and finding clothes for warmer weather.

Good bye for now,

Laurie

Happy St Patrick's Day

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I hope the luck of the Irish was with you today.

I am part Irish and I still forgot to wear green today. I was reminded by my 2 darling grand daughters. Pinches from a 2 1/2 and a 5 year old are fun when they realize that Grandma is not wearing green.

I am busy this week with a painting seminar. Once a year we paint beautiful items for our homes. This year it is a box designed from an antique box that sold for over $2,000.00. I will show you how it looks when we are finished. I showed you my project from last year, I changed the colors and the design to suit my house, but this year may be different.

Last week I was in Ivins, Utah near St. George, Utah. I went to a fitness resort and I really thought that I would not be able to walk or move after a 2 1/2 hour hike, and 2 more hours of working out. But I found that I back felt better and I could push myself father than I thought I could.

I needed a little Advil, bandages for my blisters and a change of shoes, and I was able to keep on moving.

I met some wonderful people from all over the country. All of the people there were friendly and supportive of each other.

It was a good week after all, even if I wanted to go home at the beginning of the week. Now I have to remember to eat right and exercise to feel better and to be able to keep up with the life I want to live.

Happy St. Paddy's Day!

Laurie

Valentine Quilts

Hello again!

February has flown by, half way over and then March. My birthday is in March and it has all ways seemed that I had a long time until my birthday after the New Year.

I don't think about my birthday very much, and I don't think about my age unless my someone ask me. Luckily not too many people ask me how old I am.

One year I thought I was a year older than I was, until my sister told me she was not as old as I thought she was. Does that make sense?

February of course is the month of hearts. My mother's birthday was on Valentines Day so we celebrated Valentines Day a little different than the usual romantic way.

Since it is the month of hearts I am posting my heart quilt.

I am only 1 month behind. I love hearts anytime of the year.  See you soon, 
with love, Laurie

Happy New Year & the Rose Parade

Happy New Year!!

Well I am a little late in wishing you a ‘Happy New Year”. So many things have been happening at my house.

I was the one to catch the flu this year, it has been a long time since I have felt completely well.  I hear that from many people. If you are one of them, I hope you feel better soon.

The flu made it so that my Christmas decorations were very late this year, We put up the tree in our family room the Saturday before Christmas. That was cutting it too close for me.

We had a wonderful holiday season even though it was short. Right after Christmas I went to see the Rose Parade. We stopped off in a little town in California before the parade that was a miniature version of Denmark. The town is called Solvang. I think anyone who loves to create would like to visit this area. All of the buildings in the middle of the town are based on Danish designs. They have 4 windmills and storks nesting on the top of the buildings.

(The Danish people believe that it is good luck to have a stork nest on you house).

There were bakeries on every street and a wonderful chocolate shop. If you were hungry and you went at the right time of day you could buy an Aebleskiver (round pancakes with raspberry jams and powder sugar) right out of the window of one of the restaurants. (If you went at the wrong time the line was down the block).

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Rose Parade 2014

The floral arrangements on the cars and trucks were amazing!

The next day we where off to see the floats as they were being finished for the parade.

I love flowers and I have been amazed through the years by the floats they make using only organic materials. Flowers, seeds, leaves, small green tomatoes, and many more materials that I could only guess at.

 New Years Day we left our hotel at 4:30 am to drive to the parade. I am not a parade person, but this was fun. The floats go by so fast that I could only take 2 pictures and the floats were gone.

The days were beautiful and warm and I will all ways remember our trip, but I think that once is enough.

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Now on to my new quilt – I have wanted to make a quilt using this block for a long time. One of the names for the block is Broken Wheel.

Here is what I have made so far.

I think I will add another row and sashing, a stop border and then the border.

I am excited to finish this because I have 2 more ideas I want to start.

Have a good day,

Laurie