used with permission from Quilts and More magazine. 2014 Meredith Corporation. All rights reserved

 If you haven’t already checked it out, check it out now, the new Quilts N More has hit stands and my Ombre stripe bags are in there with instructions. It’s a super easy tote bag perfect for your summer needs. In 5 summery colors even! 🙂 I’m always excited when I get to contribute to this magazine. And what a wonderful issue to be able to contribute to: SUMMER!

Because let me tell you something. I need summer weather to get here. Its been rather gloomy/rainy/thunderstormy here with a few tornado warnings.

I don’t think I’ll ever get used to that. But I’ve learned that 72 hour kits are super important and using any phrase with the word “sump pump” is normal. Had no idea what a sump pump was till we started looking at houses here…and now I know they are crucial, and even back up sump pumps are strongly suggested.

Also after almost three years here…and being this close to Minnesota and Wisconsin, I can still say I hear the accent…but it doesn’t sound completely foreign to me…and I know when people ask for a “BEG” they are saying “BAG” with the accent. I don’t double take anymore and that sort of worries me…or it just means I’m assimilating to the northernish midwest…and that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

The weather here though…is something else. No, seriously…it can be something completely different from what you just had 5 minutes ago. Yep. Wacky weather.

This picture taken in my sewing space while uber gloomy and stormy…is of my enlarged version of my lucky star quilt.

Just like my lucky star Christmas pillow I made…this is just one block made large to finish at 48″ square. Another perfect baby quilt. 🙂 This is the workshop I’ll be teaching at the Modern Quilt Guild in Kansas City this July. I’m very excited to go and teach this as it’s super fast and fun. I’m thinking of making one in each of the 5 ombre stripe colors…but first I have to finish a couple of large deadlines that have been piling up on me and I seem to keep making small headway on them…

Conditions around here haven’t changed…the cat overlord seems to be getting smarter than the average cat and is dismissing my decoy fabric I put down, or sometimes it’s a race and she is obviously winning because she gets to my project before I can get the decoy fabric down…and then she KNOWS its decoy fabric and the whole mission of not having her butt on my project by putting out decoy fabric is ruined. Just have to be smarter than the cat V… just have to be smarter than the cat…

I at least am grateful to be working on a very fun yellow project, that is helping with the gloom skies and the fact that I will never win against that cat.

She has been added to the hashtag of #catsthatsew on Instagram. 

I also have buck the dog…but he’s less in my space…he still hangs out in the daughter’s room while she’s gone till she comes home. As much as my husband would like to say that that dog is the family dog or his dog…that animal sure spends a lot of time waiting till the little half pint girl gets home, or loves all the attention the little half pint girl gives him while playing dolls on him or watching movies with him and putting bows on his ears…I’m pretty sure she’s always going to be a dog person. 

Okay enough rambling…off to finish something…anything! 🙂 

We’ll talk soon.

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