Garden Exchange from Debbi

I received a beautiful Garden Exchange from Debbi yesterday. I am so happy :) She stitched a french design, over one, into a little ornament. I just love it. Thanks!!!


Nothing planned for the weekend... yet. I hope to do some hiking! We'll see. Have a good one.

Finishing! and the Beach! and a Quilt!

I was able to sit down today and do some finishing :D It's about time...

Blueberries by LHN, made into a pillow

Stars and Stripes by LHN made into a wall hanging

Be Mine by Lizzie Kate made into a pinkeep

And my F&S from Danica finished into a pillow

Fun!

I also finished a quilt top, this is will be for my Aunt Phyllis. I am close to being done with another quilt top as well.

On Saturday we went to the coast and had a great day. We went to Short Sands, a cove. It stayed foggy for most of the day, but it wasn't too cold, or windy. We wandered over to see the waterfall on the far end of the beach and I took a bunch of pictures, it was so pretty :)

On the way home we saw a huge thunder storm rolling towards us, it made everything look so green! We got 1" of rain in an hours time, it was quite a storm!

I hope you all had a nice weekend :)

Dani's NRR done :)

I finished up Dani's neighborhood round robin last night. Well, my part anyway. I love her NRR, isn't it so cool? She put a lot of thought into it, and the layout of it is very nice. It will be fantastic when it's complete. It was a pleasure stitching on this NRR Dani :)

I stitched Dragon Dreams, Summer Castle. I hope to stitch more castles someday, I had fun with this one.

I've been feeling the itch to finish some things. I found several finishes hiding in a drawer, neglected. So, maybe I can get a move on and finish them into pinkeeps, flatfolds and whatnot for gifties? I want to have them ready by Christmas time for friends and family. Here is what I pulled together :) KarenV has been inspiring me lately to get things finished! I dug through my WIP box and found several smaller WIP that were about 1/2 way done, maybe I can get them going again!

Fair and Square

Well, my favorite time of the year is coming quickly, that would be summer! The weather is getting hot, and the flowers are blooming everywhere, and I can see blue in the sky! It’s a miracle.

Another favorite thing that happens in the summer is the 4th of July. It’s my favorite holiday, I love celebrating our country :D I signed up for the 4th of July exchange on the Fair and Square board, and I got Danica’s name for a partner. Dani is super fast and has already sent me my package. I love everything she sent. The flag is so great, I have to get creative to finish it into something now :) Thank you Dani!
Here are my kids, a picture I took this morning, they are ready for a day in the sunshine! They look a little tired from the day before too LOL! Sunshine overdose! :D
Enjoy your weekend, I hope the sun shines on you too :D

What's been going on?

Lots of pictures and rambling… don’t say I didn’t warn you. :D

Thank you for taking the time to stop by and leave such nice comments on the Star Lights quilt, you are great! It makes me want to keep on sewing and trying things :) Motivation is always needed. Where I am now on this quilt, is where I am on several quilts. The top is done, and…. Now what?? I need to piece the backing, sandwich, and tie the following:

Star Lights, Blue/Yellow Log Cabin, Block of the Month, and Holly Jolly Christmas.

I have the yarn, batting and backing for all of these! How bad am I??? I think I’ll try and do the Log Cabin first, since it’s been waiting the longest, and it’s my favorite of them all :) Since I have a quilt frame now, I should have no excuses left. Wish me luck. Finishing a quilt is my least favorite thing to do for some reason.

Since I don’t dwell on finishing quilts, I like to start new ones :D I started a mini-quilt, tabletopper size. It’s 33x33. It is from a pattern called Short Story by Schnibbles. When I went to the Holly Hill quilt shop a few weekends ago, they had this for a display, so I pretty much copied their display I loved it so much. It was adorable. I got all of my things out that afternoon and started cutting it out. As I was reading the instructions, it said “not for beginners” and it made me stop. I still consider myself a beginner in quilting, because there is just so much to know about it! However, I read through the instructions and I could understand everything they were saying, so does this mean I am not a beginner?? Really?? I hope so! All of this hard work has got to pay off at some point. I did decide in my goals for the year to try harder patterns, so here goes :D This pattern calls for 59 of these little 4” squares, and you use the 5” charm packs to make them, how cute huh? I’ve made maybe 9… and it took me quite awhile. So I’ve got my work cut out for me.

I am making another baby quilt like the one I did over the weekend, but using these fabrics instead:
The one on the far right is the main fabric, it’ll be used for the big strips too. Can’t wait to start it.
And I’ve started Sunflower House by Blackbird Designs. Here is where I am now. The colors are really washed out… the fabric is a light blue color. Darn camera, I wanted to show that :( Maybe my next go round will be better. I love this pattern.

Let me see, I took a picture of my stitching chair for fun too. I sit in the small couch, and basically take up the whole thing year round. My stuff always migrates to the other seat, so really it’s like a chair :) I only clean it off when we have dinner guests or something like that :P
For Mother’s Day I made homemade pizza, oh my gosh, it was good *drools* Found the dough recipe on the internet, I’ll have to find that so you can all go and make pizza too, Jessie had fun helping me make it, she kept eating the toppings.

And here’s a picture of the sunset a few nights ago, it was a beautiful evening!

Quilting day!

Well, how was everybody's Saturday? We had plans to go on a hike out at the coast, but after staying up too late, sleeping in too late and not getting anything done this morning we ended up staying home. Which, isn't a bad thing because Mark had been out of town the previous two weekends, and it was nice to be home together. Either way, I sat at my kitchen table most of the day sewing! Yay!

Lots has happened this week. First off, we bought a new computer desk and shelf. Our old one looked ready to fall down at any time (cheap-o special) and it was time to get a new one. Here is our new desk! I spent most of the evenings this past week organizing it. I have drawers and places to put things! Amazing difference that makes.

Mark was busy building this all week:

A skateboard ramp :) The kids (Mark, the husband) love it, and Curren is already going to be a pro I can tell ;)

And here is what I did today, I finished the top of the Star Light's Quilt, woohoo! It's a big one. I've been working on it for a few months now, and it wasn't a hard one to do, just a lot of pieces. I bought some dark blue flannel for the back, and will tie it. I think it'll be a really warm quilt.

Also, I made a baby quilt for my friend Jennifer whose baby boy is due anytime now. I have it sandwiched now, ready to tie. I am happy with how it turned out. She loves dogs, and I think this quilt will be loved :) The back for this quilt will be the striped fabric you see on the top. I am making this same quilt again for my friend Andrea, only in pinks/greens. So, look for that one next.

Also today I shampooed my carpets, they were dirty, after house training a dog, yuck! I am happy to report no more stains :) Tomorrow for Mother's Day I plan on stitching all day long, because I can LOL! I wish all of you mother's, wives, grandmothers, daughters a wonderful mother's day tomorrow, God bless you all.

April Review / May Goals

April Review:
Work on Star Lights Quilt *yes*
Work on two Carpenter Star Quilts *yes*
Add border to Bent Creek Snappers *no*
Make a baby quilt for friend Lori *yes*
Old McMarys SAL *yes*
Snapperville SAL *yes*
Work on The Four Seasons, and try to finish it! *YES!!! Finished!!!*

Also finished CHS: Flax Fields, and a baby quilt for Corring, started LHN: Plums and BBD: Sunflower House.

May Goals:
Work on Old McMary’s
Work on Snapperville
Work on BBD: Sunflower House
Work on Star Lights Quilt
Make baby blanket for friend Jennifer
Work on Carpenter Star Quilts
Stitch an ornament
Finish Dani’s NRR and mail

I’ve been working on the Sunflower House the past two nights, and it’s going to be so pretty. I love that it’s blue and yellow, a great combination I think! :D Tonight my friend is coming over to look through my quilt patterns. She is just learning how to make quilts, and I’m afraid she’s got bit by “the bug” LOL! She wants to make one for a friend and needs some ideas. Tomorrow we are going out to Holly Hill Quilt shop (one of my all time favorites) to see what they have. I am excited to go there again. It should be a nice weekend. PLUS the weather is supposed to be in the 70’s. I am so happy about that.

I went to Lowe’s today and got a bunch of flowers, I found the “clearance” rack and got most for only 25 cents. You can’t beat that! I hope to find some big wooden barrels to plant them in, you know the wine barrels cut in half? Those make good planters :) Wish me luck. I need to till the garden too, and start planting tomatoes and whatnot in there. I sure hope Sunny will leave it alone. You never know with dogs :) The gardening shall begin! Woohoo!!!

Birthday weekend

Did you all have a nice weekend? We had sunny weather again, and I was so happy about that. Spring is here and it has been good to see the flowers blooming, and the trees turning green again. Saturday I took the kids for a walk behind the library, it’s full of ponds and walkways, and ducks :) There were a few baby ducks swimming around, so cute! Jessie wanted to take one home, but I am a mean mom and wouldn’t let her.

My birthday on Sunday was very nice and relaxing. I got an ice cream cake yum! I also got to take a long nap. After I woke up, I wondered why I don’t take naps more often? Here is a picture for you all, I am now 28 years old :)

I like how I didn’t even clear off my sewing machine from the table LOL!

I have decided I am going to start a new project (because I need another one). I had quite a bit of the threads in my stash, but ordered the rest from EHandcrafts. Mary Kathryn has wonderful service, so go check her site out! Here is what I kitted up to stitch.
Blackbird Designs: Sunflower House, perfect start for spring I think! :D I have been wanting to stitch this forever, and decided I should now.

I got a pretty good start on Dani’s NRR, I am doing a big castle. Fun Fun! I’ve never stitched a castle before.
In other good news I finished all of the rows for my Star Lights quilt, I even ironed them all. So now, I get to sew the long rows together and the top will be done. Woohoo! I’ll take pictures of it when I get further along. I also finished stitching my Fair and Square block for the 4th of July exchange.

Helping Hamsters Recycle

So, the new QSnap quilt frame works well, and I was able to get the two baby quilts finished this week! One is for my friend Lori, and the other for Corring. They turned out cute, and I put thicker batting in them so they are nice and cuddly. I was good even and used quite a bit from my stash to make them, go me! I am getting better about doing that. I like making baby quilts pretty big, so that they can be used for a longer time period.
I have 3 more baby quilts to make, so I had better get my act together :) I have two boy quilts, and one girl quilt to do. I have the fabric for them all too, so no excuses.

I’ve been working on Old McMary’s again, not only is there a lot of red, but green too! The big roof needs filled in now :D I think it’s a pretty design, I like it so far. I stitched on it quite a bit the other night while watching The Lord of the Rings, Return of the King. That is an excellent movie :) And long, so I got to stitch a lot LOL!

I’ve started stitching Dani’s NRR last night, there is a drawbridge so far :D

Curren cracks me up, this is a paper he wrote for Earth Day for school.

It says: Earth Day, April 22nd is Earth Day. To save the earth I will help hampsters resikl (recycle).
I thought it was soooo cute. I had to share, I hope it makes you smile too! I hope you all have a lovely weekend, and get to do some sewing or stitching! Thanks for taking the time to visit, I appreciate it :)

Marie's Gift

Marie made me the most gorgeous pinkeep for a birthday gift. She's so talented. I just can't imagine making things that look so perfect! She stitched a Mary Gary design :D

She also made this cute pin...

And this neat needle/thread holder, how cool is this?

I wish I lived closer Marie, that would be so fun to get together. I love the exchanges, I've met the most amazing people! You made my birthday a special day indeed! :)

In other news, I received the Q-Snap Quilt Frame, it's AWESOME! I wish I would have bought one sooner, it's so easy to use, move around, store. Very handy for someone with a small space :) I started tying a baby quilt on it last night and it really works well for me. Yay for good products!