Vaca...

A few snapshots from our vacation to Big Cedar. 

This waterfall is amazing. I took TONS of pics of it, so it was hard to just pick one.

Yes, they have their tree up already, and I loved it. They even had all their lights up and on. It was amazing.

 

The Bent Hook Marina on the Resort at sunset. 

 

One of the cabins tucked away in the trees. 

 

 

And my favorite place, The Worman House, a restuarant on the Resort. Big Cedar has such rich history behind it that I'd be hard pressed to do it all justice here on the blog. However I can say that, it all started in 1921 with this house built as a country retreat for Frisco Railroad executive Harry Worman. It's gorgeous, the food is out of this world and the staff is amazingly gracious.

This time next week...

 I will be HERE!!! It's Big Cedar Lodge and Resort in southern Missouri. And it's AMAZING!

My husband and I went to Big Cedar for our honeymoon and stayed in a private cabin. It was the most relaxing week ever. I have begged to go back every year since, but considering we got married during the Christmas Holiday season the rates are pretty substantial that time of year. Alas, I convinced him to go back this fall. Oh yes, I did good!



 Photo's courtesy of Big Cedar's Facebook Fan Page.

Finish and WIP

HEY! I finished up the binding on my Jelly Roll Quilt last weekend. Put it through the wash and dryer and now it's absolutely perfect! I do believe it belongs in a cute little girls room though. I might just have to stash it away for a gift sometime. We'll see!



Here is a close up of the quilting. I had it done by Dixie Decker here in Wichita. It's an all over feather design, I think she did great and it makes the quilt really pop.



On another note, I made a "To Do" list while sitting in a 4 hour meeting yesterday. (Don't judge, I had to stay awake somehow.) I have 12 current "work in process" right at the moment. Scary once you list them all out isn't it! None of them are huge undertakings so I set my goal for all to be finished before Jan 1st. I'll definetly keep you all posted on that progress! I'm thinking my machine and I will either be best buds or dreaded enemies before it's all said and done. lol.

P.S. I signed up to be part of the next quilt along hosted by Moose on the Porch. This time we are using a layer cake instead of a Jelly Roll. Should be a great time!

In Non-Quilting News...

Just a quick note to pass along some great news! My dad raised the Grand Champion Market Hog at the Kansas Junior Livestock Show this past weekend. Shown by the Fritts' Family of Emporia. It was such a great honor for my dad to have raised the Champion and I couldn't be more proud! He's worked so hard to produce champions and this was his first at this particular show. Way to go Dad!

p.s. The kid in the picture is John Fritts and the gentleman standing with him is Steve Nichols of Indiana (The Judge of the show).

Christmas WIP's

Yep, that's right I'm whipping up some Christmas projects and super excited that they are almost finished! Until then here are some lil snapshot previews of them. I have some rework to do on both of them to get them how I want, but since they are just table runners it shouldn't take too long to get them all finished up. Both are being made from a 12 Days of Christmas Charm Pack and of course my go to solid - Bone by Kona.





On another note, my French General Christmas Quilt I'm making is coming along perfectly. I did have to pack her all up and hide her though for the weekend, since the lucky reciever is going to be staying for the next few days. I'll wait to post another pic of her until she's done!

Hunters Cabin

Just a quick pop in to show off a quilt top I stitched up really fast two Sunday's ago. I was helping my sister find fabric at a local quilt shop for her beginner's quilt class she's in right now. She was deep into her fabric selection, so I wandered off and found this awesome 1 yard panel from Woodlands by Erin McAllister. All it took to make this little jewel was the panel, two outer borders, and of course a back! It's going to fit perfectly into our almost finished basement, especially since we are going for a hunter's cabin/lodge type feel. It still needs quilted, but you get the idea! ~K.B.

Sneak Peeks...

Whoa - LOTS of things going on in my quilting world, so I thought I'd share a few pictures of my most recent projects. Sadly, I didn't even take pictures of ALL of the projects. And to make matters worse I started another last night!  Don't laugh I know you've all been there too!

Above is some lovely Verna by Kate Spain that I am going to use for a backing of a quilt that has yet to be started, lol. I HAD to snap it's picture though because it's so beautiful!

Some GORGEOUS Fresh Cut by Heather Bailey! I have an idea in mind for this quilt, here's to hoping it turns out wonderful!

Last but definetly not least is some Lumiere de Noel by French General. I am using KarrieLyne's pattern Crossing Paths from the Moda Bake Shop. It's going to be stunning, I just know it!

 That's all for now, until next time... Adios, K.B.

Jelly Rollin' in style...

Okay sorry about the Title, I know, I know, it's silly. Oh well, I'm just excited is all! I just wanted to write something up real quick to show off my finished Jelly Roll Quilt Along Top(picture below). This quilt along was hosted by Konda Luckau over at Moose on the Porch Quilts. It's been a ton of fun and I have been thoroughly enjoying seeing everyone's finished tops in the flickr group! Right now, I am currently waiting on the backing fabric to arrive in the mailbox and as soon as it does you can bet I'll be quilting this cute lil puppy up real fast!

Jelly Roll Quilt Along Top using Plume by Tula Pink

Welcome Spring....sort of

I finished up the Welcome Spring Quilt from Cherry House Quilts for Moda Bake Shop. It's simply delightful. I still have it in my possession even though it's a gift for my favorite neighbor. I told her she can't have it until I've added the label, which I am totally slacking on doing. I really do love it and I have enough of the Verna by Kate Spain Jelly Roll left over to do another one!



This is the front, sorry the lighting is bad, it was dark out and I desperately wanted a picture.



And here's the back! Isn't she pretty?! The little box in the corner is for the label, I think it's darling.

HOT STUFF

It's clearly way too hot here in KS for me, ugh. I've been staying indoors for the past two weeks, only venturing outside to water plants late in the evening. ICK! Staying indoors is good for my quilting projects though. I see I haven't stayed up on this whole blogging thing and I have done so much in the past month I'm not sure it'd be wise to talk about all of it but I will anyways! lol. I've finished up all but the last block in the Moose on the Porch Jelly Roll Quilt Along. I finished my JayBird Quilts Hexagon quilt, well it still needs quilted but the top is done! I've also finished the Cherri House Quilts Welcome Spring quilt from Moda Bake Shop. It's a gift for my neighbor and she keeps bugging me about it so it has been receiving top priority lately. All that's left is the binding so she should have it here shortly. Here are some pictures of stuff I've been doing. In the future I'd also like to "start at the beginning" and tell the tale of my 1st quilt and how it got me to where I am today but that's for surely another post!

Quilt Show Goodies

Can you seriously believe this is all I bought at the Quilt show? I CAN'T!!! Well this and some needles that didn't make the picture.
Quilt Show Goodies, originally uploaded by kimmyb7.

I hit up the Common Threads Quilt Show Friday evening here in Wichita. I must say I vastly underestimated the time I would need to allow myself to even remotely make it through all those quilts. My sister and I headed in, made it down row 1 in just under 30 minutes, turned the corner only to see that there were SEVERAL ROWS!!! Holy Cow, how are we to make it through ALL of them quilts! So we opted for some water and a little food, hit up the vendor sections, then casually walked through the quilts only stopping if something really caught our eye. 2 hours later we were walking out, and I don't think we even made a dent in giving those quilts the time they deserved. oh well, people to see, places to go.

That being said brings me to our next adventure for this past weekend. CABIN GETAWAY! wahoo. I had been waiting for this ever since my scrapbook friend Jen offered her cabin a few months back. Leah (my sis) and I headed up Saturday morning only to make it 20 minutes into the drive and had to stop at a Wal-Mart for what seemed like way too many items I forgot to pack. so it goes. It only took a little over an hour to get to the cabin if you don't count walmart. Once we got there we ate lunch and immediately unpacked all our crafty goodness. I got the whole kitchen to myself as I was the only one quilting and needed the space. The rest of the girls were in the living room scrapbooking. This went on until about evening then we hit up the beach for a few hours then dinner, quilting/scrapping, building a fire, searching for what we thought were two friends murdered. Then more quilting/scrapping. Then the hay around 2am. murder i say? oh you'd like me to induldge into that topic huh. WELL!! Dani and my lil sis punk that she is decided around 9pm to take off for a walk, an hour later Jen, Court, and myself are driving around SEARCHING for them. Don't worry, they were fine, they just decided to go further than expected. Jerks. It was an awesome weekend full of good food, good quilting, and great friends! I'll leave you with some random lake photo's.

The girls (minus me, i'm the photog) enjoying our fire.

Court, Dani, and Jen floating around.

I worked on this hexagon quilt some, still not done. :( It's from JayBirdQuilts.com Hexagon Quilt Along and I love it!!

I also did this block, it's block 9 in Moose On The Porch's Quilt Along. (more on that later)

And Last but not least, I started all the cutting for this quilt from the Moda Bake Shop, I love it already and I don't even have all the cutting done! It's from Cherri House of Cherry House Quilts and can be found here. http://www.modabakeshop.com/2010/04/welcome-spring.html

My First Quilt ...well sort of.

So I figured I'd start with my very first quilt top. EVER. let's just say there was never any pictures taken and it has since been taken apart to never be seen again. Luckily it was some amazing FreshCut by Heather Bailey that will be put to good use hopefully this weekend on my "craft retreat" at the lake with girlfriends. Needless to say, the first quilt was sewn at 1/2" seams, not a single corner matched up, and you'll love this one, I didn't know I was suppose to cut of the selvages! HA! I'm laughing at myself right now just thinking about the poor thing. After that disaster I realized I could not do this by using my favorite "learn as you go" method. Therefore, I signed up for Basic Quilting classes at a local fabric store. WOW! Did I learn a LOT. We made a small lap quilt in the 8 hours of class. I was and still am so proud of that little lap quilt, all my corners match, my seams are perfect, and the selvages are in my scrap bin not on the quilt. :) Pictures below - (sorry I had to use my flash, it was already dark outside when I took these)

Isn't she a beauty!

It's the Rail Fence Quilt from the 3rd Edition of Start Quilting with Alex Anderson, using French General Fabric. I just love it and am sooo proud of myself. Welp, until next time, seeya laters!

WHOA NELLY!

I thought I'd never join the blogging world, but I guess it's true, pigs do fly! Mostly I'm just here to show off my quilting, since that's basically the only blogs I follow. I suppose time will tell on how well I do at keeping this thing up and running. I definetly need help in figuring out how to make the blog beautiful that's for sure.