Black Hills Trip

The Mighty Presidents

Our plate of food at the Chuckwagon Dinner and the cutie cowgirl in the wagon

Bedrock City

I can't believe the legs didn't give out on this poor birdie

The only photo of Needle's Eye. It was so busy that we couldn't stop to walk around at all.

Crazy Cosmos Place. My husband is not a believer

Our view every morning....

I have a ton more photos, if there are any good ones I will post them otherwise I will spare you. We had a great time, it just went way to quick. Click on any photo to see it larger.

Floss

I was hoping to get tons of embroidering done on our trip to the Black Hills. I got a small amount done. More importantly I got organized. Sort of. I found this case and the little holder thingies and worked on it the whole way to Sioux Falls. My mom helped with the really tangled ones. Then my daughter re-sorted the colors a million times and "helped" find colors when I needed them. This isn't all of them but most of them....

I will post some of the photos from our trip next.

Giveaway!

Remember how i said Alyson wrote her first tutorial? she is having a giveaway on her blog!! it is the same Moda cake layer that she used to make the super awesome quilt. run on over and enter to win :D send your friends too! see the quilt & enter here

Hotdogs over the Campfire

Another awesome pattern from Sublime Stitching! I am making up a bunch of these fun camping/fishing towels next(maybe for Christmas presents, shh).

My family is heading to the Black Hills for a few days and I will hopefully have lots of fun photos to post after we get back!

Cafe Mocha Towel

I tried another of the transfers from my Aunt Martha Coffee Set. I made this one for one of my cousins who loves Mocha's.

I feel like I should have made it look like there was something in the glass. I did the darker brown on the outside and the lighter brown on the inside, but it is still hard to tell... Anyone know a design that is fun and looks good for this type of thing?

Parade Photos by a 5 year old

While I was in the house eating my grandmas delicious home cookin' my 5 year old daughter was outside waiting with her aunt & cousins for the parade to start. We always have the best corner to sit and watch. Here are some of the photos she took while waiting....

If you recognize yourself, consider yourself famous!

Fresh Ground

I have finished a few more kitchen towels that I need to post. This is one I made for my mother, I used a pattern from the Aunt Martha coffee set that I had. She requested this one because she has an old ceramic grinder that was her mothers. There are still a few flaws so just enjoy the overall look of the towel :D

I washed it to remove the circle left over from the hoop and then the pattern seemed to "pucker". Does anyone else have this problem? Should I prewash the towels first?? Thanks!

Fun Quilt

My sister-in-law posted her first quilt tutorial on her Alysons Petals site so if you're a quilter you should check it out & give her some love!

Bag Crazy

Right now I have a bag obsession for some reason! Last year at the MN State Fair we picked up a few of those lightweight re-usable bags with some crazy college logo, the same kind you can buy at the grocery store for around a buck. I keep buying more because I have so many plastic bags and I keep thinking I will bring them and use them. Most of the time I forget to bring them and just get more plastic bags that I save and intend to recycle at some point. Right now they are spilling out of my cupboard door because I have way too many.

I don't always bring those re-usable bags I intend to use because, frankly I don't always want to bring some cheesy bag to some "cool" place. haha. I want to bring a fun bag with me.

I found this AWESOME pattern over at Film in the Fridge, she has some great tutorials! You can find this one here: to-market-to-market-a-market-bag-tutorial . Please don't make these and sell them for profit, these are for your own personal use.

I have an industrial sewing machine that doesn't always work so great on lightweight fabric so don't look too close at the sewing skills. The fabric is a remnant of Michael Miller fabric on the outside and Amy Butler on the inside. The brown on the strap is something I just picked up the other day for another project I want to try(the Pillowcase dress).

I am pretty happy with how it turned out and I WILL be bringing this cool bag with me whenever I can :)

Blog Giveaway

Hey, check out this awesome blog to win some fun stuff. vanessa christenson This lady is soooo funny and very talented. She is highlighting another awesome mom crafter and her Etsy site so be sure to check them both out!

Henry Doorley Zoo

When we were in Omaha we went to the Henry Doorley Zoo. I had never been there before and we went with my husband's sister and her kiddos.

Here are some of the cool things that we saw.

Ladybugs on Grass

We drove down to Omaha to see my husband's family this past weekend. I tried to make good use of the 6 hour drive by getting some embroidery done.

I found this free pattern on pimpstitch and changed it a little bit. I started the embroidery before we left and finished it on the way. I also worked on a couple of other projects that I will post later. I let my daughter pick the colors for the ladybugs. My French Knots are not very good I think I'll have to keep practicing those, so don't look too close. I still consider myself a beginner and I am giving most of these away or just keeping them for myself.

New Project

My next project will be re-upholstering this chair for Naphtali over at Second Street Designs. I met her at a craft sale last fall and she makes awesome stuff, you should check her out if you haven't already!

You can see a hint of the white/red fabric off to the right side of the chair. She has picked Oil Cloth to re-do it in because it is going into her kitchen. She will paint all of the wood white after the upholstery part is done.

I will post the photos after my part is complete.

Baby Quilt Completed

My crafty sister-in-law Alyson completed the baby quilt we were giving to my cousin who just had her baby. I wanted to embroider her something and then I asked Alyson to finish it for me :) haha, because she ended up doing all of the hard work. She is so good at this quilt stuff!! I think she said baby quilts weren't so bad because they go quicker then typical quilts. We really wanted it to be simple and sweet, sorta modern and one she can actually use.

I finally saw my cuz' today so now I can post the photos in case she decided to check the blog. She seemed really pleased to have our handy work :)

My daughter had to get in one of the photos in her Fourth of July hat.

Happy 4th of July!

Here is my latest towel I embroidered. I got the free pattern from Jenny Hart over at Sublime Stitching. You can search for free patterns.

I hope you all have a great 4th weekend!

Sesame Street Card

Another lady at our table was making this card this weekend and helped me with all of the colors and punches that I needed. I thought it would be great for a 1st or 2nd birthday.

I think it was pretty much all Stampin Up paper and punches. You can find others like this posted on splitcoast stampers

Happiness Always

Here is another card I made this past weekend at the craft retreat. I have always liked this stamp set and borrowed from someone who had it with them this weekend.