Pumpkins A Plenty

An assignment given in our 2nd grad class was to create a character pumpkin. Each child was to pick their favorite book character, design, and decorate the pumpkin. Here are the results. It was really fun to see what they came up with. Can you see some familiar book characters? Further down you will see the answer to my question.

Here's an expanded view of all of the pumpkin characters. You can click on each of the pictures to take a better look at the kid's pumpkins.

Here you'll see book characters like Peter Pan, Harry Potter, Alice the Fairy, Verdi the snake, Skippy Jon Jones the cat, and Pearl the mouse from Pearl's Promise, just to name a few.

Here you'll see book characters like Camilla in A Bad Case of Stripes, Frankie Stein, Harry Potter, Care Bears, Junie B. Jones, Alice the Fairy, Pokemon and some more pumpkins that I can't quite figure out myself. I'm going to have to ask the kids.

Here's a picture of one of the other quilts I made in 2002 that the kid's are enjoying in the classroom. It's been fun to share my quilts with them and they love sitting on them during reading time.

Notice the one un-lit pumpkin.
He's not happy being forgetten!

Here's the quilt label I made for it.

I don't know how it goes in your family but whenever we'd go anywhere, whether it was out to eat or to a movie or another activity there would always be at least ONE person who wasn't happy with the choice being made. It's funny how that works! That was my inspiration for the quilt label. The original quilt had 6 lit and 6 unlit pumpkins. I personalized it my making every pumpkin happy but ONE!

Happy HALLOWEEN to Everyone!

Holiday SQUARED Quilt

I'm finally getting around to doing this post. I hope you all like it. This is a fun and happy Halloween quilt that I made a few years ago for my kitchen table but, right now I'm sharing it with the kids in the classroom I work in. I'm a teacher's aide in 2nd grade. It's a lot of fun and the kids like me as much as I like them. Everyday I take care of a special needs child (in a mainstream class) and when he doesn't need me, I help with the needs of the class. It's very rewarding!!!

You can use this pattern to make a quilt for every holiday like Christmas, Valentine's Day, Easter, 4th of July & Halloween, etc. This is a scan of the original pattern I made for one of my classes. You're welcome to use it for personal use. Please don't print the pattern to sell. Thanks and Enjoy!


You will need the following to make this quilt!

• 1/4 yard cuts of 36 different holiday fabrics
• 1/2 yard of contrasting fabric for small stop border
• 3 1/2 yards for quilt backing
• 2 yards 90" wide quilt batting

Cutting Instructions:

• Cut a 2 1/2" strip and a 4 1/2" strip from each of the 36 fabrics.

Now take the 36 strips measuring @ 2 1/2" and sub-cut the following:

• Cut two strips @ 2 1/2" x 4 1/2"
• Cut two strips @ 2 1/2" x 8 1/2"

The remaining fabric you will cut into 2 1/2" x 2 1/2" squares. You will you need 224 squares for the outside checkerboard border. (You will have to cut approximately 20+ squares from the leftover 4 1/2" strips to get the 224 squares you will need).

Now take the 36 strips measuring @ 4 1/2" and sub-cut the following:

• Cut eight 4 1/2" x 4 1/2" square from each strip.
• You will get 288 squares but will only use 36 squares, one of each print.

Note: You will now have 252 extra 4 1/2" squares to make a bonus quilt or use them to make a trick or treat bag. For example: Make a quilt with 8 rows of 6 squares in each. You would use 64 squares and the quilt would measure 48" x 64" before any borders. You could also make a nice table runner too.

Here's a close-up of the outside checkerboard border and the machine quilting.

Kisses for Cade is Done!

Today I finished putting on the binding and the quilt label on "Kisses for Cade." Don't look too closely because I had to machine bind the quilt and also sew on the label by machine. I didn't have ANY time left before Tracy arrived and I was still sewing on the label when she rang the doorbell this afternoon. What a crazy day for me!! I'm leaving out of town tomorrow and as of this very minute I have one more quilt to bind for the wedding I'm attending on Saturday. If I can at least sew on the binding I can hand sew it while I'm flying.

Just a bit of insight. I have learned two very important words in my older age and that's "OH WELL" Sometimes you just have to let go of the little details even though it killed me to send it off like that. I'm a real believer in hand sewing the binding and the label but, OH WELL!!! Tracy didn't care, she loved it and just sobbed and sobbed and looked at it in awe!! Her expression was wonderful to see! I told her I was making her something special but I wouldn't tell her what it was I just warned her that she was going to cry. I just didn't expect her to sob!!! It was very sweet and very touching. I'd give away all of my quilts if everyone reacted with such love and gratitude, it made me CRY! Even my daughter Kenna was crying she was so happy that her teacher was happy!

Kenna's Teacher Tracy. She just had hand surgery on Monday.

Here's the quilt. As seen in the previous post, In case you're wondering I used the block layout where the red squares kiss each other.

Here's a close-up of the label I made for the quilt.

Another picture of the quilt!

Shop Hop Day Two

Day Two: Thursday, June 27th

Today we headed South and went as far as Payson. We were all pretty tired from our 11 hour marathon the day before but we still managed to go to 10 shops. We only hit two shops on the "SHOP HOP" and the rest were on the "SCENIC BYWAY." I'm sad to say we didn't make it past Salt Lake but, I look forward to hearing about anyone else's trip. All in all we went to 21 quilt shops, four restaurants for lunch and dinner, and four gas stations for drinks, snacks and refills on ice and water.

Here are some more pictures of Day Two.

We started out at the Quilting Cottage in American Fork, Utah
This is one of the two closest quilt shops in our immediate area.

This is a picture of one of the areas in Quilting Cottage.

This is a picture of Me, Rae Ann, Susann, and Diana standing in the main fabric area

of American Quilting located in Orem, Utah. It's one of my personal favorite quilt shops and Amy (the owner) has been teaching a wonderful block of the month mystery quilt for 4 years now and we are starting the 5th year with an Americana themed Block of the Month. She designs the quilt and gives a portion of the quilt each month for a year. It's a lot of fun and has been very popular over the years. She told me the other day she's up to 300 people and has a waiting list. I'm not suprised. She's very talented and has some wonderful designs. I've also had the opportunity of teaching a few quilting classes for Amy over the years.

After American Quilting we went to Fabric Mill and JoAnn's both located in Orem, Utah but, I didn't take pictures of these two places, sorry! Then we headed over to Stitching Corner.

This is the inside of Stitching Corner in Orem, Utah

Quilt Theme: Goldie Locks and the Three Bears

This is a little shop in Provo, Utah. I know I'd never been there and had never heard of it but, we stopped anyway to have a look see and it was cute and worth the effort. They didn't have a lot of fabric like Quilts Etc. but they had a few things that the ladies bought and lots of cute decorations for your home or sewing room.

Here's a picture of their fabric room.

This is a picture of one of the rooms at the Corn Wagon located in Springville, Utah
This is one of my favorite shops but it's a bit out of the way for me, especially with the current cost of gas, so I don't get there as often as I would like to.

Corn Wagon Quilt Theme: Red Riding Hood

Corn Wagon had two different Red Riding Hood Quilts that were so beautiful. Marsha (the owner) was dressed up as the Grandmother.

This shop is located in downtown Spanish Fork, Utah. This was the first time I'd been to Cherry Tree Quilts. It was a cute shop but again, too far, to make it worth going too.

This is the inside of Cherry Tree Quilts.

Creekside Needlearts located in downtown Payson, Utah. This is a charming but small shop. The owner has recently retired and sold her inventory so the shop will be closing soon. SAD! This is the second trip out there for me.

This is the inside of the shop at Creekside. We did go across the street to Mortenson's Frame Shop where they also have a fair amount of fabric. The owner's wife quilts, teaches classes and does machine quilting out of their shop.

I hope you enjoyed the pictorial version of the Wasatch Front Quilt Shop Hop this year. I'm putting together the goodies for our mystery drawing and will take a picture of it for next week. I will also be taking pictures of my purchases for all to see. I didn't think about that until "Infinity Quilter" said, "So where are the pictures of all the things you bought?" I guess I should do that because that's part of the fun, isn't it?! I'll do that sometime today and get the pictures loaded up maybe later tonight or tomorrow. Thanks for all the fun comments and it's been fun visiting your blog sites. You are all an inspiration!!! Quilt On with Joy!!!

The Right Way

I designed and made this special quilt for my youngest child when she turned 8 years old. I wanted her to know that there's a "Right Way" to live and be happy and that way is by following the example of Jesus Christ.


I made the quilt bright and happy to represent how when we make right choices in life we're happy and when we go against our conscience we're not happy. I know this to be a true principle and when we follow the Savior's example we can't go wrong. He will lead us in "The Right Way".

I've included a copy of the quilt label that I put on the back of her quilt. I hope you don't mind the personal nature of the label but I was moved upon to express and document my thoughts, my feelings, and my beliefs to my youngest daughter, McKenna.

Baby Bricks

This is a really fun and easy baby quilt and makes up pretty quick in comparison to other more complicated quilts. I made this baby quilt for a friend of mine who just had a little boy just 10 days ago. The label I made using fabric ink and a cute baby stamp I've had for years. I also used fabric ink to color in the stars and the baby.