Week in Review

Worked on a baby quilt for my shop using Bonnie and Camille's new line "April Showers" mixed with some feed sack prints. Loving it so far! 

Put together my quilt top using my blocks from Donna's quilt a long. I love how bright and cheery it is!

New fabric came in the mail. Look at those sweet kitty faces! This is "Catnap" by Lizzy House that I ordered at The Intrepid Thread. LOVE!

 
And I just *had* to order some sweet kitties from Aneela Hoey's new line "Hello Petal". Eeeep! It's a kitty overload over here.

How was your week? Wishing you a happy weekend! 

Joy Is Portable Bring It With You....

I saw the title of this blog post on Facebook the other day. Dr. Wayne Dyer posted it. It resonates with me, and it's something I'd like to do more often....bring the joy. It's contagious.

We survived the Blizzard of 2014!  On Tuesday everything was closed. The university I work for was even closed. I took the above picture outside my front door in the afternoon. The snow was a fine snow but was blowing all over in 35 MPH winds. Yikes.

While it blizzard-ed outside,  I worked on this little baby quilt. I loooooove it! Soon to be listed in my Etsy shop.

What's not to love about that sweet fairy?  I used a couple charm packs of Briar Rose by Heather Ross, and cut some 5 inch squares from Alexander Henry's Farmdale that I'm hoarding keeping.
I think the colors of the two fabric lines coordinate so well!

I'm calling this quilt In the Orchard. It measures approximately 33 by 43 inches.   Quilt is sold. Thank you!

I also got all caught up on Donna's quilt-a-along. Twelve blocks in all were made. This weekend I'll work on the sashing and borders!

 Last Saturday I ventured out to a local quilt shop that I had been wanting to visit for some time. I picked up the above little group of fabrics because, well, you know, I'm a fabric hoarder  keeper.

Tex was being sweet and posed for a portrait last weekend. I do love him so. I think I'll keep him too....along with my fabric. ;)

Bring the joy....

2014

Happy New Year! How did you ring in the new year? Me, I was asleep by 9:30.  Just how I like it.  Woke up feeling refreshed and got to work on some sewing!

This is the only handmade gift that I started and finished before Christmas.  This is a mini quilt made for a wall hanging or a small table topper. I made it for my mom and I was so glad I was able to get it finished!

I took various sizes of fabric scraps (this is a great scrap buster!) and using a fabric glue stick, glued them down to a piece of muslin. Once glued in place, I assembled a quilt sandwich and did some straight line quilting vertically and horizontally.   Easy peasy! 

This type of mini quilt is quite addicting to make! I am working on some now for my shop.

Here we have the first finish for 2014! I got a bee in my bonnet about making a churn dash quilt shortly before Christmas. 

 It was quilted towards the end of 2013 and today I machine stitched the binding down. I quite like how it turned out!

This is a baby sized quilt and this one is staying with me.

Can you believe it is 2014?? Anything you are looking forward to making this year?

Happy Christmas

We had an ice storm Saturday night. When we woke on Sunday, we found all the bushes and trees coated in ice.  The holly bush looked like it was sparkling. We were fortunate in that we didn't lose power because many of our neighbors to the north are still waiting to have their power restored.  

 As usual, the cats are champion nappers. Dare I say I'm jealous? 

One of the things I've been working on is a small/baby sized Churn Dash quilt.  I used the pattern in Camille Roskelley's book Simply Retro. Hoping to get it quilted today!

Things are feeling quite Christmasy around here. I'm watching it snow outside as I type this and a white Christmas makes me quite happy indeed.  

I wish you and yours a very Merry Christmas.  XO

December check in

I don't know where the time is going. I'm trying not to be so hard on myself about getting everything done before Christmas. I haven't sent any cards out, I've baked zero cookies, and I've made zero gifts. As a busy year winds down, a year that included two moves, two job changes, and a host of ups and downs, I'm trying to be more patient with myself, and take the time to just be. Moving into 2014, I want to practice more of this.  Because to just be, feels good.

The kitties have been doing a lot of this.  Napping with   on each other.

 It is very, very wintery in my neck of the woods. It has been snowing all weekend. I got my exercise in today as I shoveled the white stuff for 40 minutes. It feels very holiday-ish.

I am caught up with Donna's quilt-a-long. I am having so much fun stitching up these blocks!

Of course, one  of my favorite things about Christmas is decorating the tree. Real, of course. Always a real tree.

Happy Holidays!

Happy Thanksgiving

  I am very thankful for you, dear readers. Wishing you and your families a very Happy Thanksgiving.

(*source: from my personal collection)

Shop Update

I've updated my shop with some lovelies.  Just in time for the holidays.

I do hope you've had a great start to you week.