Thanks for all your great comments. The curtains are pretty easy to make if you do them with a lining and treat them like a big pillow case. My daughter is not a quilter but loves what I can do. She has purchased fabric for a couple quilt requests and for both sets of curtains. She has a great eye for color so will often go with me when I need help picking out just the right stuff.  My boys are down Grants Pass way for a few days so I'm doing great. Cassie just left for home. She fixed some really yummy Chicken wraps, watched Legally Blonde and Premonition.  Need to put the white cloths in the dryer and then off to bed. We are  taking chase to the beach in the morning for romp in the surf.. It's nice when the guys are gone...nothing to worry about but me, the dog and  the fish..pretty easy living this weekend. I don't even have to worry about dinner Monday because they are going to drive over to Crater Lake so they won't be home until late.. Sweet.. I don't get these types of weekends very often..sort of an early birthday present..  I have a  Mckenna Ryan coffe block done except for the binding then it will be  finished. I made it for Cassie's kitchen.. if you scroll down some you can see what it almost looks like. As soon as I get  the binding on I'll take a finished picture. Then I have another small  wall hanging with three comical fat fish.  This one is almost finished  too. I have the fish attached to the quilt and need to tack down the  grass and bubbles then the binding and it will be ready to go above the  fish tank. I had been working on them between my sisters quilt and the  curtains... then i'm not sure which one of the 150 plus kits or  patterns to make.. I think I'll have to live through a couple  more centuries to finish them all..provided I don't buy anything else... Thanks again for all your great comments. We are so critical of the work we do so it is nice to know what others think of your projects.

A little better look at the bedroom print. She really likes the Moda designs..

Cassie took pictures finally of her bedroom curtains too.  Also fabric she picked out and paid for. These aren't lined but then the chocolate has almost a wool feeling and is not the usual cotton fabic I usually work with. she wanted somethiing that would hold out the light so she could sleep in on the weekends and also help keep the cold out.. she is happy with these too.

this is a little closer look at the colors of her curtains. You really would think these would make great livingroom curtains but with the colors it goes great.  She has sort of a tan couch and big chair...you can see a corner in the full picture..plus a few pillows. Then with the other things in the room it all just seems to fit... Since she picked out and paid for the fabric and is happy with them, is all that matters.

here is a picture of curtains I made for Cassie's living room. She wanted something she could hang up that wouldn't make her living room to dark and would let air in.  She lives in a small two building complex and she doesn't like to leave her shades up because as the neighbors walk by they can see in ...she really a private person.  We made a trip to the Fabric Depot in Portland and she picked out the fabric herself. She also wanted me to make them lined so they weren't to thin.  You can't see the back but I used muslin and sort of put them together as big pillow cases. They are attached to the rods with rings that have clips so I didn't need to make them with sleeves. I just laid them together face to face and put a seam a little bigger than 1/4 inch...turned them right side out then stitched along the edge again...figured it would keep the sides from rolling...then put a 1/4 inch turned hem. I had not thought about doing that type of curtain before and this is probably the 4th or 5th set of curtains I've made for her through out the years. They turned out really nice. 

Well things have been rather hectic since I posted last. I finished my sister's quilt and managed to get it to her by her birthday...a big surprise..she lives in Las Vegas. I received an email from her with in a few days and she was thrilled. It's not something she will use as much in Vegas as here in Oregon but at least she has it in case they get a sudden freeze.  It's the first quilted item I've made for her since we lived in Florida and I sent her a pointsetta table runner for Christmas...and that's a long time ago. I was really glad she liked it.

Well I haven't posted for a while so wanted to show off a few things I've been busy with. Well my oldest sister turns 60 in June so thought I'd make her quilt. I appliqued the butterflies a few years ago to have something to do during my lunch hour knowing this was what I wanted to do with them. the sashing is a very vivid purple and the border has 3 colors of lilacs.  She lives in Las Vegas so I'll have to use a very light weight batting.  It's large enough to fit across the top of her bed.

this is a fusible applique patter by Ryan Mckenna that my daughter like better than the other coffe ones...so when I found the patter in a kit, bought it for a future project. Between the retirement quilt and her bedroom curtains I slipped it in... it just needs to be sandwiched and machine quilted.  I really had a lot of fun doing it.. It's the second one I've done by her..the first was the reindeer playing in the snow.

Well, the 2006 has come and gone and 2007 is looking really good so far. Hope everyone had a super holiday and enjoyed all the family that gathered around.  We had a very nice quiet Christmas and New Year with just the 4 of us, 5 if you count Chase. Everyone seem to be happy with their gifts which made it nice for us all...

We had our Admin meeting Wednesday and gave Joyce her quilt. It turned out really nice and she loved it. I made up a label and then took it to work. Printed it out on a heavy card stock and had everyone sign it. Then printed it out on photo fabric. turned out really great and it added that extra something to send her on her way. I also gave her the original to take with her. I'm really going to miss her. She is one of those ladies that finds a place in your heart and no matter where she goes will still have a piece... belog is the label I put on the quilt. The Gone Fishin is because of the quilt...all the cats trying to get the fish out of the tanks and bowls.  Well off to do laundry.. again...hope everyone had a great holiday.  emma

GONE FISHIN’

YOU SAY YOU’RE PURRRFECTLY TIRED,

OF THE COLD RAINY WEATHER.

YOU HAVE KITTENS WITH FUR,

NOT DUCKS WITH FEATHERS.

YOU SAY YOU’RE RETIRING AND

MOVING AWAY,

TO THE WARM SOUTHERN CLIMATE,

IS WHERE YOU WILL STAY.

A PURRRFECTLY GOOD TIME,

WITH YOUR SMILES AND GOOD HUMOR.

TO SAY YOU’LL BE MISSED

IS A PURRRTY BIG RUMOR.

SO PACK YOUR BELONGINGS

AND DRIVE WITH GREAT SAFETY.

WHILE THE CAT IS AWAY,

THE DUCKS WILL PLAY.

FROM THE GANG IN DUCKVILLE

WE WISH YOU ALL THE BEST

MADE BY SHANNON COUTANT

EUGENE, OREGON           JANUARY 3, 2007

Ladies...thanks for the comments...it's always nice to hear what others think, whether good or bad..  Just to let you know this was a very easy no-brainer quilt. took more time to cut out the strips that anything else. What's easy about it is that ou don't match up any thing but the main block seam and since the seams are pressed in the opposite direction, very easy to match up.  Between this pattern and the snowball 9 patch...my two favorite lap quilt patterns, I think I like this one the best. The Tax day quilt I posted earlier was a snowball. I did the design on my EQ5. You can make the blocks as big or small as you'd like and print it out several different ways.  I don't use the program as much as I should but it sure comes in handy.

Thanks again ladies for you wonderful comments.. Will post a completed picture as soon as I have it done... have to drag the table into the house to pin it...love to machine quilt but pinning is so hard on on my fingers and back. 

One of the ladies at my office is retireing and moving back to Texas Jan 5th. So I decided to make her a little memento... of course nothing I do is little so this should keep her warm on a cold Texas night... She is a real cat lover and is taking 3 back with her so I pulled all these fabrics from my stash..  Instead of putting batting inside, I bought a piece of fleece for the back. It's a soft gray with a over all flower print. I'll use solid black binding and will look good on the paw prints and the back..    My daughter and I had gone out shopping about 10:30 and by the time we got home it was about getting close to dinner so talked the boys into meeting us at the Outback. On the way back to my daughters to pick up my car we stopped at Starbucks.. Well that was good and bad..it kept me up until I finished the top a little after 3am on Friday night.  by the time I shut down the rest of the house and made it to bed it was just past 3:30...believe it I was up by 7:30. the day went well and I wasn't to pooped come late evening.

Hope everyone had a super Thanksgiving with their familys... emma

Well I wasn't feeling to well part of last week but still managed to almost finish my latest Christmas project. It one of the patterns from McKenna Ryans' When Friends Gather... I really liked this one so when the kids and I drove up to Newport I bought the pattern and the fabric packet to go with it...didn't think the fabric would go but it turned our pretty good. I'll get the border on after Thanksgiving and finish it up after the Christmas projects are done.. It will still look good on my wall.  I do have a lot of fun doing this type of applique and the needle turn stuff too...Gotta admit though, this is a lot quicker...

Lynda...it would difinetly be worth the drive...it is in what looks like an old K-mart and has every fabric brand you can think of and the notions are out of this world...this time I bought a couple things from the Fons & Porter line...they have a how section of stuff and not to spendy... It's off 122nd and Stark so you have to come down 205....when you get off the freeway Mall 205 is right there so you can shop if you want and there are plenty of places to have lunch too...  Cassie and I have been a couple times when we've gone shopping in Portland and Ben and I even stopped in on our way back from a conference...he's always looking for fabric to go with is t-shirt quilt he wants me to make...so I get to look too... The other nice thing is the fabric is alway 30% off and once in a while there are mini sales too...and when the fabric is now over 9 buck a yard for most any discount is great... emma

Does anyone know if once you have posted a picture if you can go back into your uploaded files and delete them to clean things up...  I'm really new to the blog and don't want to delete any of my entries... thanks for any help you all might . 

Just in case you are confused about the title of my last entry... I belong to an on-line quilt group in Yahoo and one of our challenges was to do a project...of our own choosiing and to finish it within a certain time.  Well, I had it all cut out and most of the rows put together when I had to box it up for our July move to a new house. A couple have finished theirs and others are still works in progress.

my next project, which I forgot to mention is curtains for my daughters new bedroom.  She has a street light outside and the venitans don't close all the way. So we picked out fabric at the Fabric Depot in Portland when we were up a few weeks ago. She has been bugging ever since for it to be my next project. They are very quick to do so will try and work on them this weekend so I can go on to the retirement quilt...  will try and post pictures of the curtains when they are done.

Well it might have taken me a couple more months than most but after moving this summer and my quilt room being the last room put together, I finally finished my TDDTDQ or Triple Dog Dare Tax Day top. Anyone that knows me and has seen finished projects will have to agree, this is not the typical colors I normally work with. but sometimes a fabric just jumps out at you and you can't resist...this was one of those... love it. it will now sit unfinished until after christmas...have a retirement lap quilt to do by Jan 5th and several pillow cases to do for the kids for Christmas...

Well it was after midnight when I went to bed last night...and my quilt room is now complete.  Before Ethan went to bed had him help me pull out my table and put the back section up...plugged in my second light and washed it off... Even got my sewing machine out and have it ready to go... I've been up since about 6:30..between Ben and Chase got tired of fighting to keep my fanny covered so decided to get up and put my warm fuzzy on.. have a pot roast in the slow cooker and a load of laundry in the dryer...no plans for the rest of the day so guess what i'm going to be doing for the first time in almost 4 months...yep coloring my hair...na just kidding...i'm going to take out a UFO I started in early spring...had to put it away to move in July so I'm all excited to pull it out...bright colors that are normally not me...  will have to get help with picture entries so I can post later... have a great sunday...

Just wanted to let everyone see my quilt room is finally up and running...it's been since June since I last sewed anything...I am so excited...

My Saturday started at 6am when the alarm went off. I had to get up, take a shower and have my son to the airport by 8 so he could spend a few hours with a flight instructor who is his mentor for a school project. Then off to Starbucks to meet up with a on-line quilt friend... Most of the ladies in my on-line quilt group are spread all over the states but seems like most are east of the rockies with only a few of us on the West Coast...so we don't get to meet face to face very often...  Just happened that a wedding brought Fergie down from northern Washington for the weekend and I was so glad it did.

Our meeting time was 9am and I arrived at 8:20...so I got my white chocolate frapachino, crandberry orange scone and sat reading my book, glancing as each car pull into the parking lot checking out the license plates searching for one from Washington... Funny because when her car pulled in my view was blocked by another so didn't see the plates but as soon as she got out of the car I knew it was her....guess the small fabric piece she held in her hands was a dead give away but still.....  In she walks with a grin and says "are you the one I'm meeting"...I could have been ornery and said "lady don't have any idea what you're talking about" but I just grinned and the next hour and a half sped by to quickly...

My gosh we talked about our husbands & kids...mother's and sisters..our dogs...quilt rooms, the projects we are working on and the ones yet to be started...we cramed so much into such a short time, I was really sorry to have to leave but Ethan was waiting for me at the airport and a wedding was waiting for her this afternoon... so we said our good-byes, hugged and away we went. 

As I drove off I could have kicked myself...in my purse was my digital camera I brought to take a picture...best laid plans!!!!