Bottling Season!!

We've been up to our elbows in amazing fruit lately, and so far we've bottled 77 quarts.  That means we can eat 1 bottle every 4.5 days for the whole year.  ...We'll have to ration to make it last...  :)

Jonathan and Seth were my right hand men.  I couldn't believe how much they stayed with me and helped, and loved it!  They're incredible.  And now Jonathan can do the whole process, from blanching to processing.  It's super fun for me, because I remember doing this with my mom when I was little, and now I get to do it with my kids.  :)

Two pieces of art

I got brave and entered some of my art into the City Art Fair this summer.  After seeing some of the other amazing entries, I was sure I didn't have a chance... 

But this one took 2nd place!!  I was so surprised when we were walking around the show, and my 7 year old started calling out to me to come see the ribbon on my painting!  It's 12 inches by 24 inches, oil on canvas.

 Of course the tree was the funnest part.  :)

Here's the other one I entered.  It's of James Madison, one of my heros.  The drawing is about 5 inches by 7 inches, and is done in grade 4B graphite.  Higher B graded pencils give you darker and richer values, and make it extra fun.  :)

Anyway, it was super fun to get an award, and made me want to spend more time on art!

Candy Jar Baby Quilt

I've been eyeing this pattern for a while now. I just found an opportunity to make it happen. This Eleanor Burns quilting book is a little older, but I thought I could make a really cute baby quilt if I updated the fabric. I love how it turned out.

 I didn't buy any fabric. This is all stuff I had in my stash. 

Kind of dying over this backing. The ultimate girly fabric. I splurged and paid a little more for it, but I think it was worth it. 

I'm becoming obsessed with rounded corners. It's so much prettier than my mitered ones. I think it looks a little more feminine too. I actually have begun cheating and machine sewing my binding lately. With my new walking foot, I think it looks great. And it's so much faster!

 Back to the stippling quilting. An old favorite. 

All ready for its new home. My friend paid me to make this for a new grandbaby. I think they'll love it. I do.

Well, we made the move and created me a wonderful sewing room.. When we built the house 13 years ago I quickly decided my sewing room was to small.  Well many things have happened from moving to a bedroom upstairs back downstairs and then back upstairs but now....I have found the permanent spot in the studio.  I have slowed down doing photography and sew more than I shoot.  I have taken the larger part of the studio area and made my permanent sewing room.  It really has been fun and it is not quite finished but Dad and I built this wonderful table and Brian helped with the granite. (that is the main reason it will never move again. 800 lbs of rock is hard to move)  I thought I would share the partial complete pictures.

This was one full Saturday.  Dad and I made this wonderful work table but it was a pain to move back downstairs but we did it.  Jalee and I put up the peg board and the thread racks and we moved the bookcases with Lark and BettyJo and everyone helped then the work on the table began.

 

 

Dad and I put together the base.

 

 

 

Then Andrea came and help stain it and now we are ready for the top.

 

 

Well that is how it looks now.  I still am moving the corner cabinet in from my existing sewing room they will go where the buffet table's are in the corner.  Then I will change out the curtains and add a few finishing touches and I will post a final picture of my new creative space.  I love it.

Twinner Quilts

These babies have been in the line up for a while now. A friend of mine paid me to make her twin  12 year old granddaughters quilts. The girls picked the color scheme, but I did everything else. I thought it would be fun to use the same color scheme and squares, but two do different patterns. I think they turned out super cute. They are lap size. About 48x58".

 Inspiration from my sister in law, here.

I could have quilted them tighter, but they stay softer this way. The squares were 4" finished, I think. That's a lot of triangles--572 to be exact. 

I found an amazing tutorial online of how to make these Half Square Triangles. Usually people cut out one square, and draw a line diagonally from corner to corner, then sew on either side of the line. This method is different, and much faster. Check out the video here, it's worth your time.

I'm not a huge purple fan, as in there isn't one speck in my stash, so this color scheme was outside my comfort zone. The backing is the same on both. Some people don't like the scrappy strip, but I do.

I entered this one into the county fair (the other one wasn't quite done yet). It's always fun to have your work judged. The best part is when you drop it off and the older ladies squeal in delight because they're so tickled to see a young girl like me quilting.

My score sheets were all over the place, from a 65 to an 85. They said my corners didn't come to 90 degrees and that my binding was "too full". I never knew that was an issue. Good to learn for next time, even if I was 3 points off of a blue ribbon :) Even if it was a red ribbon, I'm adding it to last year's. 

Now, on to start another quilt!

My Latest Endeavors

Hello! Its Sara Jane here. I thought it would be fun to share with you all my latest crafting projects.

A while ago, a friend had a birthday, and I was obsessed with bags. So, I made her one.

It turned out to be a harder project than I thought, but it worked out. She loved it!

HERE'S the tutorial if you want to look at it. 

I stayed at John and Christine's house for a week, and we went a little stir crazy during nap time. So, this painting was born. Christine taught me a few tips and tricks on painting with acrylics. 

It still needs a frame, but I'll but when when I get around to it. 

My last project was a rainbow pillow. 

The inspiration came from this:

But, I just took the idea and ran with it. Lots of mistakes were made, and it turned out twice as small as I was expecting... but it became a pillow somehow! 

Aaandd that's all for now! It was a pleasure sharing with you all :)

-Sara

I'm engaged!

Steve Staley and Myself

The ring :)

OK, so I feel bad that most of you haven't even met this guy or even knew I was dating someone so I better do a formal introduction of my mystery guy, so here it goes!

So, I'll be completely honest here cause you are my family right?? We met online...I had just moved to Vegas and he was down working in Alamo. Aunt Machelle had convinced me to try out a dating website so I thought, what the heck, why not! For the first little while I didn't do anything with it, just browsed other profiles and that was about it. Well one day I ran into his profile. He was working in Alamo, (he thought it was funny that I even knew where that was...but honestly that is one thing that intrigued me the most!) was a journeyman lineman (uh... he'd fit right in with the family!) and was a country boy/farmer from Southern Idaho. So I sent a little "wink" that basically meant I was interested in maybe chatting. He emailed back the next day and we took it from there. 

The whole Internet dating thing was kind of weird for me, and I still feel really weird telling people that is how we met, but it worked out for us and that is all that matters. He was the only one I ever met, or even ever emailed. I got really lucky. We waited a month before we met, and just talked on the phone for that time. We dated for a couple months before he had to move back to Idaho, and we've been doing the long distance thing since than. He met my immediate family pretty early, and went to the beach house with the Dodenbier side and spent a whole week with us. He handled it like a champ I thought!

So a little background on him. He's from Burley, ID but currently lives in Oakley, ID which is about 20 minutes away from Burley. He is the only child of his Mom, but his Dad had two kids before with his first wife. His half brothers are several years older than him though and he hasn't seen them for years. His dad died back in 2006 so now it is just him and his mom. He's a convert to the church and got baptized when he was 18. After graduation from high school he went straight to lineman school and has been building line ever since. When he isn't building line (mostly the summer/fall months) he works on a farm that his best friend owns growing spuds, sugar beets, and grain. He also loves to go stormin'. So when there are lots of people out of power after a big storm there is a good chance he gets to go be a hero and restore power to those people. In fact he is in West Virginia doing that very thing right now. He also loves to snowmobile and hunt!

We got engaged on June 23rd at his property in Star Valley Wyoming, where we hope to build a house one day. We are getting married November 17th in St. George temple, and than will also have a reception down in Bunkerville that night and up in Burley on December 1st. But you will all get announcements later about that! I am so excited about this next chapter in my life. He is such a good guy and treats me like a princess. I am such a lucky girl to have found a good one, finally! I know I had a lot of you wondering if I ever would find a good one :) Now I just have some catching up to do to the rest of you. Hopefully you all get to meet him soon. I am super happy, and Love him lots and lots!

I hope everyone doesn't feel so in the dark now! I would love to see everyone at the reception, but I know life gets crazy! I have such an amazing, supportive, funny, talented family that I am so glad I am apart off! Love you all! -BettyJo