Home Safe!

I'm very grateful to tell all of you that we made it home safe and sound. It was a very long and exhausting trip home. Our short 8 hour drive from South Lake Tahoe (where my husband's brother lives) turned into a 12+ hour drive home that involved a flat tire 18 miles outside of Wells, Nevada. There is absolutely nothing out there and it gave us a deep sense of gratitude for our Faith. We knew that we would be okay and even Kenna was calm being that she's the one that PANICS!!! It was kind of scary there on the side of the rode with all those trucks and cars speeding by at 75-85 miles an hour. I'm just grateful the flat wasn't on the other side of the car facing into the road. It took about 30 minutes for my husband to change the tire with the help of our son, Mark. I'm sooo grateful for the MEN in my family!


We were also very grateful to have cell phone service where we were located and so I called my daughter Natalie, to have her google WELLS, Nevada and see if there were any repair shop services available. She gave me about 5 options and I started calling the businesses hoping and I mean hoping that they would be open on a Sunday and that they could help us. Luckily, the flate occurred at 4pm. Of course, I didn't get one person on the phone and we thought if anything we could spend the night in WELLS and wait for Monday to get it fixed.


As we drove slowly toward Wells. It took nearly 30 minutes to drive the 18 miles making sure to go slowly. We certainly didn't want our spare to get a flat. That would've been terrible. Anyway, my husband took the first Wells exit and we felt like we should go left. I saw an Auto Body Store and told my husband we should stop to get directions to the Les Schwab Tire Store my daughter had looked up for us on the internet. My husband hesitated but stopped for me. He told me I had to go in though. I went in and told them that we had had a flat tire and asked if Les Schwab's might be open today and he told us that they were closed but, that Kevin over at International Tire Service is open 24 hours a day and that he could help us. He gave us his business card. I called Kevin up and he gave us directions to his store. He took care of us in less than an hour. I'm so glad he had the right size tire, too! Thanks Kevin saving the DAY!


We arrived home with very grumpy and tired children at about 10:30pm. They all hung in there but it was tough there at the end of a very long day. In fact Ariel is still sleeping and it's NOON. I think I'll let her sleep. If you know what I mean...

Just a side note. I will be posting more fun pictures over the next several days along with the WINNER of the Moda Bake Shop Giveaway. Stay tuned!!

Last Minute Trip

We are taking a last minute trip to California. Literally, last minute! We decided Sunday night and we're leaving early this morning. Crazy huh? Well, it's our only window of opportunity between work and school for our older kids so we thought we'd take advantage of the time.

My mother-in-laws health is not very good right now and my husband thought we should take the time to visit his parents since they are both getting older.

We are going to have some fun too. On Wednesday we're going to visit some of our friends in Brentwood and Fremont. Then on Thursday we'll take BART into SFO for shopping and sight seeing and then later that night we're going to see WICKED which is the first time for all but one of us. Then on Friday we'll head down to Monterrey and Carmel to do the Aquarium and the 17 Mile drive and probably a little more shopping (looking) in Carmel. We'll head back up to Sacramento on Saturday and drive home the next day. It's a lot to cram in but we can do it! I'll make sure to take lots of pictures, too!

So, that means I'm going to delay the ending of the giveaway until the middle of next week sometime because I'll need to get through my email and tally the remaining entries that come in while I'm gone. Then I'll announce the winners. I hope you all have a wonderful Independence Day with your families.

Happy 4th of July to Everyone.

New MBS Project & Another Giveaway

I recently learned about Texture Magic from my friend Nedra who works for Superior Threads so, I thought I would use it in my newest Moda Bake Shop project. Check out my project here and leave me some comment love. I hope you like it.

I also had this great idea to help in spreading the news about a NEW and WONDERFUL product called Texture Magic by Superior Threads. So, I'm going to enlist your help and as an added bonus I'm going to give away a few things you'll see below. Read on . . .

Texture Magic was introduced at the Spring Market and is making it's way into your local quilt shops. If you haven't seen their products yet, you can have your local quilt shop contact Superior Threads by phone at 435.652.1867 or 800.499.1777 or link to their website here. All of their products are wonderful and I especially love their Titanium Needles. I've also heard that their Masterpiece Thread by Alex Anderson a National Quilter of Simply Quilts is wonderful and I'm really excited to use it. Go check out their products.

Here are the Prizes I'm Offering:

First, I'm giving away the actual sample I just made for the Moda Bake Shop.
My Patriotic Star Pillow is pictured below.
(the 14" pillow insert will not be included)

I'm also giving away Two packages of Texture Magic generously donated by Superior Threads for two winners to use in any Quilting, Sewing, and Home Decorating projects. It's easy to use and creates beautiful textures to your projects. You will absolutely love this product.

The Last prize will be two packages of Titanium Needles for one winner.


Now for the RULES:

This worked well for me last time so I'm going to do it again with a few modifications. For those that don't have a clue what I'm talking about I will explain. Look at the list of requirements below and decide how many requirements you want to do, then add up the points after you've done them, and then email me the information below to enter this Giveaway.

If you follow the format below I will also give you ONE extra point. It will definitely make it easier for me to track all of your entries. Thank YOU!!!

Copy & Paste this information in your email to enter this giveaway.
Then send your email to me at kimberlywalus (at) gmail (dot) com

My Name is:
My Email is:
My Blog Address is:
I completed the following requirements:
______________________________.
I have ____________points.

Point Requirements:

• 1 point for leaving a comment on this post.
• 1 point for creating a post on your blog and linking to my giveaway.
• 1 point for creating a link to Texture Magic at Superior Threads website in your post.
• 1 point for creating a link on your sidebar to Superior Threads website.
• 1 point for going to Superior's Website and checking out their products.
• 5 points for leaving a comment on my Patriotic Star Pillow Post at Moda Bake Shop.
• 5 points for being or becoming a follower on my blog.

Here at the TWO buttons
you can use on your blogs if you want to:

Please REMEMBER:
You MUST send me an email with the information above to be entered into my Giveaway. I know it's a lot of bother but I hope you'll play along. Thank you for your cooperation and good luck to everyone that enters.

The Giveaway will end at Midnight on the 4th of July.

I will post the winners sometime on July 5th. I'm sorry that whoever wins the pillow won't receive it until after the 4th of July but you'll have it for next year and if you decorate in a patriotic theme then this will fit right into your home decor.

Shop Hop Giveaway Winners

Thank you to the 65 bloggers that participated my Quilt Shop Hop Giveaway. I enjoyed seeing which quilts were your favorites and the reasons for your choice. It was fun reading each of your comments and to see what the popular vote would be. I have to say that I picked two of the three winners as far as popular vote.

Here are your top three favorites. . .

The Winner with the MOST votes (22) is
Thimbles & Threads "Trip Around the Town"

Second Place with 19 votes is
Cornwagon's "Miniature village Quilt"

Third Place with 16 votes is
Whimsy Cottage for their "Whimsical Village"

I compiled the votes and here is the list. My favorites are highlighted in Red and the other winner is highlighted in black. The number before the Quilt Shop is the number of votes they received from each of you.

8-Broadbents
19-Corn Wagon
2-Stitching Corner
13-American Quilting
22-Thimbles & Threads
14-Quilt Etc.
2-Pine Needles
2-Elaine's Quilt Block
16-Whimsy Cottage
1-Piper's
1-Quilter's Haven
12-Village Dry Goods


Here are the two Prizes!
I hope the Winner's like the prizes!

Winner of the First Prize that picked one of my favorites is:

Jeanette from Beehives and Polka Dots

and

Winner of the Second Prize even though you didn't pick my favorite is:
Kimmie Davis from Being Both Crafty and Kimmy

Congratulations ladies on winning my giveaway and I will be emailing you shortly letting you know that you won. Please reply to my email letting me know your snail mail address.

Thanks Everyone for Joining in the FUN!

Time for Quilts. . .

Well, it's Time for Quilts. . .

I took 96 pictures during the Wasatch Front Quilt Shop Hop so I wanted to take some time to share a lot of my favorites with you. Here goes. . .

The first two are from Broadbent's

I love this machine appliqued quilt.
It's hard to believe but it's all done by machine.

This hand appliqued quilt was done my Janice Mickelson and won an award at the Springville Quilt show last year.

I love patriotic quilts and this lovely table quilt was designed by Leslie Ison. Her pattern company is called "Remember When". She's a local designer. You can find her patterns at many of the Utah Quilt Shops.

The wonderful patriotic quilt above was designed by Amy McClellan of American Quilting. It was our most recent Block of the Month Quilt. Our new BOM Quilt begins in July. It's a garden theme this year. You can get all of Amy's BOM quilt patterns on her website although the most recent one is probably not available quite yet. Amy's pattern company is called "Under the Garden Moon" and you can view all of her patterns here on her website.

This is a great advent calendar for Christmas and I loved the idea. Christmas packages . . . how clever.

I've always loved embroidery on quilts and I love this pattern.

This is a darling BOM paper doll pattern that is darling yet with a moderate amount of applique.

I thought this Halloween quilt was wonderful. Who wouldn't want to see all the Characters of Halloween in one place. I loved it! Nedra did too because we took a picture of the same quilt!

I'm sorry the last several pictures are blurry. I inadvertently changed the setting on my Canon Elph and I didn't catch it. I was really disappointed when I got home and uploaded the pictures but at least you can get a look at these wonderful quilts and blocks.

Here's a quilt by one of my favorite people, Nanette!! She designed this charming dress quilt.

Here's another of my favorite people, Lori!! I've always wanted to make this quilt and I finally bought the pattern to make it. I'm afraid that it'll take me a few years to do though. I'm feeling pretty slow these days. This quilt just speaks to me! I especially adore the quilt blocks around the outside of the quilt. Isn't it extremely creative and unique? I love it!! Lori is one talented lady!

Apron BOM. Another Lori Holt original.

I thought this was a great way to use up all those 30's reproduction fabrics.

These dress blocks are absolutely stunning. The workmanship is impeccable. I'm sorry the pictures aren't good but trust me they're wonderful. The kits are available at Piper's in Salt Lake City and include the dress already smocked. You just add the details. This link will take you to Piper's blog where you can have a better look at one of the dresses. Click on the last three pictures and you can get a little closer look. I have to mention that they had a dress framed and I was head over to get a look at it but got distracted by all of the fun things in their store and that's where I met Kathy from Kathy's Kraft Korner.




I hope you enjoyed seeing some of the wonderful quilts that we saw at the 13 quilt shops we visited and if you ever have the chance to participate, do it, you won't regret it. The Shop Hop is always around the 3rd week in June.

Just another incentive, there is another Shop Hop going at the same time called "Take A Scenic Byway" and showcases 16 of the other Quilt Shops in the area that are not currently part of the Shop Hop. You can see we have lots of choices when it comes to buying quilting fabric. You can visit this website to check out a list of the quilt shops that are involved in this event too. Last year we tried to hit shops from both and let me tell you that you need to save your money because it's tooo easy to buy something at each shop. I don't even want to ADMIT to how much I have spent in a given year. This year I was pretty frugal but still went over my $100 limit. It was tooo easy to do!

Teaching Kenna to Sew

Kenna has lots of friends and loves to play, play, and play some more so it's been hard to get McKenna to slow down enough and stay at home long enough so I can teach her how to sew. Well, the night before last was the perfect opportunity. Her Dad was out golfing with his brother, her two older siblings were both gone and it was just her and I on a Friday night.

This isn't Kenna's first time at the sewing machine but it is the first time that I've taken the time to make a project with her (Thanks to Lori and Kassidy for inspiring us to re-start "Sew Night" at our house and to begin creating some wonderful memories together).

I started by introducing her to my mother's sewing machine and she asked me if it could be hers and I thought why not. I told her that she could have her grandmother's sewing machine if she wanted it. She was very excited about that which makes me happy. What a great gift to give a child. The gift of learning a talent that will bless her life forever. I know because sewing and quilting has and continues to bless my life. I then showed her how to thread the machine and to fill a bobbin and then how all of the buttons worked on the machine. Then we cut out her pillow case and started to sew. My serger isn't working right now so I showed her how to make french seams and finish it off.


I've had this grouping of flannel for several years now thinking I'd make Kenna a flannel blanket but never found the time so this fabric was perfect to let her use.

McKenna is concentrating on keeping her seams straight.

It's sooo much fun watching them experience things.

Look at that happy face!
I LOVE it!

What a great sense of accomplishment and she's already after me to cut out the blocks for her quilt. No rest for me but I am going to try to get some sewing in on Saturday even if it kills me. The housework can wait (again) and the dishes are done so that's one thing I can say I did (I wrote this post on Friday to be posted after midnight on Sunday).

Have a great weekend and I hope you accomplish some of the things you wanted to do.

Blogger Friends

Blogging has given all us a new kind of friend and a fun way to stay connected with our friends. I've received so much satisfaction and joy our of blogging and getting to know each of you through visiting your blogs and conversing with you through emails. Thank you for your friendship.



We don't often get to meet our blogging friends but when we do I'm sure you feel the kinship that I felt this week as I met Nedra from Cactus-Needles and Nanette from Freda's Hive. I am lucky to have Nanette live close by and to see her each month but this is the first time I've met Nedra in person and I really enjoyed the time we had and wished we had had more time. Thank you Nedra for wanting to meet me. I felt an instant connection and look forward to seeing you again. Soon I hope!

This is one of Nanette's more recent quilts.

Here's a picture of the ever popular button covers before they're covered. I think this could be another obsession for me too. I'm feeling the need to buy some of these buttons!!!

Here is a picture of some of Nanette's bags. I love them and they look so happy hanging there in her sewing room.

I love this close up of Nanette and Nedra. I want you to know that they are even more wonderful in person than their blogs are, so go visit them and check out their blogs.