Summer Reading!

I have a tutorial for this bag over on Sew Mama Sew today! Here is the link. In answer to some of the comments I am getting, the apple print and blue floral are both from the Farmdale line from Alexander Henry. I found some of the apples fabric here at Hip Fabric.
My daughter has already been using this bag and it is working just as I hoped it would. She usually misplaces her tally sheet by the first week of summer reading and it is in the pocket of her bag still! She has also been keeping the receipts she gets that list all the books she has checked out all folded up in her library card pocket with her card so that is helpful too. Let me know if you make one, I would love to see it!

Pillows and pups

My sweet friend Jill just had a birthday and loves the Matroyska dolls and I scooped up a scrap of this at the last swap we had at sewing group. I have been saving it just for this project so it was fun to finally use it. I need to make some new pillows for our couch but can't decide what fabrics I want to use.

This is home improvement Bedell style. My husband is moderately handy around the house and if he doesn't know how to do something he will figure it out. We moved into this house 7 years ago and we were long overdue to do some deck maintenance. It is a very large deck that runs the length of the house in the backyard. It is flush with the yard except one section that is raise a foot or so off the ground. He cleaned it off (that took a whole day to get it un slimy!) and has been replacing the rotten boards. The other day he pulled up a few boards, turned his back to cut the new boards to length, came back and nailed them in place. A few minutes later he comes inside and asks if the dog is inside. I say, nope, I thought he was out there with you. You know where this is heading...thank God the dog sneezed because that is how David realized the dog was trapped under the deck. He had crawled in there and David nailed those boards in and poor Dusty was underneath with no way out! David had to pry up one of the boards and that photo is Dusty peering out waiting to be rescued! We were laughing so hard! I was so thankful that we found him. He wasn't barking and when we were out there calling for him he sat there silent. He was a muddy filthy mess! On a good note the deck is looking much better. Now if it would just be sunny for more than half a day so we could stain it

Quilt Market Spring 2011

Ahhhh. Another Market come and gone. I have to say that it was a stressful time of year so it felt like it took a lot of effort to get myself there but boy did I have some fun! One of the highlights was seeing My girl Violet (in the middle) show off her new collection with Michael Miller, Peacock Lane. We Yams are so proud of our girl! I wish all of the Yams could have come to Market!

This is Bari's booth. It was so pretty- her husband made her some beautiful shelves to go in there and it complemented her fabric so well. The collection looks great online but is a real stunner in person.

My sweet Monica! That little coat is made from a pattern designed by our pal and fellow Yam Shelly. Her patterns are so sweet and like a breath of fresh air!

Here is a peek at Shelly's booth at Market. I am not kidding- look at how cute those are! Sweet and tailored and such great little details.

Monica being demure with her gorgeous Happy Mochi Yum Yum! Put out by Lecien. Can't wait to make Maya something cute out of this!!

The best thing about Market is getting to see all of the friends I've made in this biz. I don't have photos of everyone but I also finally got to meet Heather, Rashida, Paula and Jennifer face to face and it was so nice! Oh and Aneela who was such a doll! Her Little Apples is so cute! Just so nice to connect with folks face to face after getting to know each other on line.

One more photo of me and Vi. I met Violet awhile back and got to go through her whole shopping around her collection phase into it getting picked up and printed and I can't tell you how great it was to see it all come to fruition for her. We get to hang out here in Portland and she is one heck of a nice girl.

Who doesn't love Kona solids? I loved this little display.

Valori's booth was gorgeous. So many great colors and layers. Just really beautiful.

I aodre this photo of Lizzy! How cute does she look?! Her booth was great.

So that is the very condensed version of what went on those few days. Salt Lake was gorgeous. So clean and pretty with the mountains. The flight back was really bouncy but luckily I had Kristin there to hold my hand. As I type I keep thinking of other fun things that went on but if I don't stop now I will be here al lnight and I have a messy house to clean and a baseball party to go to!