Praying the Names of Jesus

If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all -- how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Romans 8:31

I have been working on my Praying the Names of Jesus/ Fruit of the Spirit quilt. I need to come up with a shorter name. The blocks of the first are little and slow. Today I have two to show you: Prince of Peace (top) and King of Kings (bottom). Paper piecing! Tedious.

Anyway, here is the first strip of three that will make up the quilt. I don't normally show them in progress but each block of this one is a victory.

Are you thinking the bottom of the quilt looks too dark and purple doesn't go with it (Mom)? Don't worry. It will all work out.

That's all for now. Make sure to check back tomorrow for a big announcement!

Love, Melissa

5K and Wray

My friend Kylee and I about a mile into the race.

This pretty much sums up the whole experience.

Well, I survived the race. My predicted time was 34 minutes and I ran it in 33:08. That was good enough for 3rd place (by being closest to predicted time), so I won $20! I'm really sore today.

My sweet Mom came over yesterday and went with me to Wray, Colorado to a quilt show. That's about two hours from my house, so it was three hours for her. Wasn't that nice? I have a sad story though. I forgot my camera, so I took pictures with my cell phone. I haven't done that before. Now I've spent the last hour trying to get them off to no avail. Any suggestions?

The show was so nice. They hang quilts out in front of all the downtown stores. The viewers each vote on their favorites in lots of categories. Wray's downtown is really thriving. Lots of restaurants, shops, two quilt shops, etc. Not too many offices. This is a big contrast to Colby. Still, I think something like this would be nice for downtown Colby. Wray had the neatest quilt shop called Gramma's. It was full of gifts and fabric. Think of your favorite gift shop. There were tablecloths and bags and baby items and vintagey toys and flowers. You get the picture. Then, next to the baby things were fabrics with baby themes. The whole downtown had sales too. Thanks, Mom. I had fun. Oh, Anna went with us too. She wanted these beads that were wound on a card and sort of pricey. Finally, her Grandma told her if she stopped whining and crying she would get some for her. After a few minutes of silence, she did just that. Then came the biggest fit. Anna thought the wound up card was actually one purse. She wanted the whole thing. $100 of beads doesn't mean anything to a four year old. And there probably were that many beads on the card. Don't worry. We didn't buy the whole thing.

Happy harvest! Ours hasn't quite started, but my Dad's has. Nathan spent a couple of days helping him. It's Nathan's favorite time of year.

Love, Melissa

Somewhere Over the Rainbow

Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go. Joshua 1:9
We have had Bible school every morning this week. Can you believe that children ages preschool through 5th grade can remember that verse? Anna, age 4, knew it two days ago! It took me until today to be able to say the whole thing. So, we are tired but happy. It was a good week.

Just look what was waiting for us last night! I never get tired of seeing rainbows.

Here was my assignment for the Names of Jesus quilt. It is called Balm of Gilead. Instead, I did something artsy. I took a piece of Tina Givens' Treetop Fancy Huckleberry and cut out a piece showing the butterfly really well. Then I fussycut -- a fancy way of saying cut out the piece you want -- a flower stem from Amy Butler's Daisy Chain and a flower from Riley Blakes stuff and appliqued all together. I like the result. Do you?

Here is my latest result in the Fruit of the Spirit quilt. I changed it up too. I like how changing it made a cross pop out from the middle and a pinwheel. This block is called Harmony.

That's all I have for now. My friend Kylie and I are running a 5K tomorrow morning. Wish us luck! (It's both of our first.)

Love, Melissa

Three New Bags

I felt a little rusty yesterday as I got back to the old sewing machine. It's been a few days. I made a couple of new purses. One is a roundish bag. Kind of reminds me of a beach bag. Anyway, the idea was inspired by Tanya Whelan's free pattern in the new Martha Stewart magazine issue. Mind you, I don't subscribe to the magazine. But I do watch Tanya's site. So, I looked at her bag and made mine very similar. Todd said it's his favorite purse ever. So it has some man appeal! It's made of Tina Given's Annabella fabric.

The second one is just a little thing. I actually made it awhile back but never took pictures. And since it's going to be sent to two sisters, I thought I'd show them together. This one is from Amy Butler's lotus blossoms line. I think it's called Tree Peony, but I've used all the fabric and can't quite remember.

At five yesterday evening, I realized that the birthday party Anna was going to required a gift! I hate to run to WalMart, so I whipped up this little bag / folder. Isn't it cute? I used some of the leftover paper doll fabric and appliqued a big paper doll onto it. Then I put a pocket on the inside to hold the doll clothes she wears. I then turned it into my standard crayon bag with individual crayon pockets. It has a folder-type pocket that holds the back cover of the coloring book. The inside has some Tina Givens fabric and some Robyn Pandolph.

The whole thing snaps together and has handles so it can be carried like a bag.

It was finished just in time to get Anna there by seven and I heard the birthday girl loves it! I'm thinking about some of Linda Stubb's fabric for another one! How cute!

That's it for now; I need to do some serious catching up on a couple of quilts.

Love, Melissa

and the Winner is . . .

Christy! Congratulations, you have won a cute skirt. E-mail me with a waist measurement and your desired length. Oh, also the two colors you would like.

Over the last week, here is what I did:
made a pair of baby booties for Brody,
finished a quilt and sent it off to be quilted, and went on a three day vacation! We went to Salina to the Rolling Hills Zoo. Very Cool place. A giraffe ate out of Nathan's hand. (I wasn't quick enough with the camera.)

We went to a Salina water park. My kids are enamored with those.

We visited the Wild Bill Hickock memorial in Oakley on the way. The statue was made by two artists from Leoti.

We went to Halstead to an antique hardware store.


AND, I visited three quilt shops! Salina's Quilting Bee. They were wonderful! I found some Lila Tueller and Amy Butler and also some Riley Blake.

In Hutchinson, we visited Cottonwood Quilts.

Really neat store! I found some more Amy Butler, Heather Bailey, Erin McMorris, Keri Byerly and Chez Moi.

It was there that I met Linda Stubbs, a fabric designer, pattern maker, and overall wonderful lady. You can visit her blog, Prairie Flower Farm, and see all her really neat stuff. She gave me lots of her fabric line that she designed with her daughter Tressa. Linda, again, thank you! I'm so excited to get busy with these. It was really nice to meet you, your daughters, Tressa and Taylor and grand-daughter Savannah.

Finally, we visited Yoder's Demelia's. What a neat store! I would be in big trouble if it was in Colby. All my loves were there: Joel Dewberry, Heather, Amy, Jennifer Paganelli etc. In fact, they even had Valori Wells, Tanya Whelan, and Joel on clearance! Then I found some really neat Anna Griffin stuff. It's very vintage.

Well, that was my vacation. Bet you wish you were there!

Love, Melissa

a Birth Day, a Birthday and a GIVEAWAY!

For you have been my hope, O Sovereign Lord, my confidence since my youth. From birth I have relied on you; you brought me forth from my mother's womb. I will ever praise you. Psalm 71:5-6

Here is my new little NEPHEW, Brody Storm, born at 1:05 pm today. He weighs 8 pounds 8 ounces and is 21 adorable inches long. Mom and baby are both doing great. I heard Dad is not the happiest with the hospital chair/bed. Todd says those do need to be improved. Congrats to the proud parents!




It's also Anna's birthday. The big 4. She woke up this morning and was so upset because "she still looks 3." I wish I had that problem on my birthdays. She loves her quilt and has SO many new princess presents, I don't think she knows quite what to play with.

The kids made princess crowns and a visor for Nathan this afternoon with sparkly stickers. Nathan said he has never had so much fun at home. Thanks, I think.

Here is Anna in her birthday outfit. I've never done iron-on crystals before, but they were actually easy. Isn't the skirt fun? The purple fabric is Girlfriends from Jennifer Paganelli and the cream and pink one is Tina Givens' Treetop Fancy Huckleberry. I have quite a collection from her, as you loyal followers have seen.

That brings me to my first ever giveaway! Send me a comment on this page or send me an e-mail telling me your favorite sewing project ever. If you don't sew, tell me your favorite hobby. If you don't have hobbies, just tell me hi! I want to hear from you! The contest is open until midnight CST, Sunday, June 21, 2009. The winner will be randomly drawn.

And now for the prize: one skirt just like Anna's in the colors of your choice. I can make any size. If you don't have a daughter, sign up for your granddaughter, niece, neighbor, friend, etc. I could even make an adult one. I'm not sure it's my fashion taste, but if it suits you, that's fine with me. Oh, and I don't need sizes until I announce the winner.

I'm so excited about this! And I can't wait to hear from you.

Love, Melissa

Princess Party

Jesus replied, "Love the Lord your God will all your heart and with all your soul and will all your mind." Matthew 22:37

There's a neat contest at Lila Tueller's website right now. You send in what you would do for the colorway of her fall line. You can check it out; I have a link at the right.

Anna's first kid birthday party was yesterday. Oh, I am still exhausted. Since a picture is worth a thousand words, I'll just let you look. Her real birthday is tomorrow. And today is my dad's. Happy birthday Dad! Plus, tomorrow, for sure, we will have a new baby. It looks like the baby will share Anna's birthday. That's okay for cousins. I shared with one of my cousins and it always worked out fine. Love, Melissa

Paper Dolls

"For I know the plan I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11




Anna's fourth birthday is Monday. We're having a big birthday party tomorrow. Her first kid party! It's all princess. Anyway, I have been busily working on her birthday presents, and I just finished the first one. Since she can't use the computer, here it is:

It's a paper doll quilt. Who came up with this idea? It's so clever. All the dolls have clothes that fit them. I used to love paper dolls, so I hope she loves this too.

The back has a pocket that holds all the clothes. It also has a panel I bought for her once. It was one of those quilt trips when I said I would bring her back something, and then I didn't know what to do with it. It's perfect on this. Oh, and made by Mary Englebright (you can tell that without my saying probably.)

Here they are all dressed! How fun. I even played with them for awhile.

Here is Nathan and Anna before T-ball last week. If you're thinking, oh how nice that they played together, think again. Vintage Anna, she cried from the time we got there until we left. I even had to run around the bases with her! Sigh.

Hope everyone's doing well. We're still waiting for and praying for that baby!

Love, Melissa

Another Wedding Pic

I'm working on some big things, so I don't have anything to show today. This is my favorite wedding picture so far. Kendra's friend Traci took it. Isn't it beautiful?

Blessings, Melissa

to Have and to Hold

Hi guys! There's a neat website that's having a giveaway right now that you might want to check out: www.dawnhaydesigns.blogspot.com

Anyway . . . here are some great photos from the weekend featuring nothing I made but lots of my cute kids. I know, it wasn't about them, but I can't resist. If you want to see more, go to my flickr site.
Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight. (my favorite, sorry if it has been on here before)

Have a great day!
Love, Melissa