This poor blog! A much needed update!

What Have I been up to the past 2 months? I can't wait to show you.  I went to a quilting retreat in March and put together 3 quilt tops in a day and a half.  I attend this particular retreat every year, and I usually take easy, fun projects that don't involve a lot of thought.  You know how it is when you start talking...It's easy to mess up!  This is "Argyle with Style" by Bate and Taylor.  I bought this pattern at quilt market a few years ago.  My SIL and I were standing around looking at all the quilts.  I read the label..."Angry with Style...hmmm, cute".  After a long pause my SIL said, "It's called, ARGYLE with Style, not ANGRY with style".  We both started laughing.  I had to explain to the designer that I was very tired from staying up and talking half the night,  and that apparently it had affected my ability to read!  Then I bought the pattern so there would be no hard feelings.  :)

Next up is a tumbler quilt that  my SIL, Melanie, gave me for my birthday a few years ago.  She cut this out using a tumbler die from an Accu-cut machine.  Boy do I wish I had one of those handy machines sometimes!   I think the fabric line is called Rebel Roses by Henry Glass.  This will have a bias striped binding that will be added after quilting.  I intend to keep the hourglass shape on the sides.  I like the way it looks.

Finally from my retreat, I put together this fun quilt.  This is a quilt from the Book "I can't believe I'm quilting, beyond the basics", by Pat Sloan.  The fabric line is called City Girl.  I think it's probably long gone by now, but I loved this fabric so much that I made a dress and a bag out of it.  I have 3 more quilts that I worked on, and are very close to being done.  I will share those when the tops are finished.  I am going to keep a quilter very busy because I have 10 quilts ready to take to the quilters at the moment!  My poor pocketbook!

As Easter approached, I decided to make some doll clothes for the "girls".  It's hard sewing for 4 dolls!  This is one of the dresses I made.   The other 2 looked like this.  A very easy dress, and really cute!  I didn't have time to dress up the dolls to take a picture, but I will next time they are wearing them. 

A few months ago I bought a bag of buttons on Ebay and made this cute basket.  My generous friend Jolene, gave me a bunch of buttons, but when I realized how many it would take, I decided I better buy my own so as not to use up all her stash!  :)  I thought this would be a daunting project, but I sewed all the buttons on in about 4 hours.  It was really relaxing, and a fun project to do.  It's still waiting for me to make it into a pillow for my couch.  I don't think anyone will be tempted to sleep on it, do you?  The pattern is by Joined at the Hip.

I celebrated my 40th birthday last week.  My Mom surprised me with the wonderful quilt!  I just can't believe she made it for me.  As you may remember I just bought the pattern when we  were in California in February.  It was on the top of my "want to do" list.  Well, she beat me to it, and it's a good thing, because at the rate I'm accomplishing things, it would have been years before I got to it.  My mom is such a fabulous quilter.  And, not only did she make me this quilt which would have been enough indeed...

She also made this for me!  I must be the luckiest daughter in the world.  Two fabulous quilts, and new red Born sandals too.  Love my mom!  She is so good to me.  I guess it helps being the only girl out of 5 brothers!  I do get spoiled sometimes!  :)

My wonderful SIL, Melanie also didn't disappoint for my b-day!  She always give me wonderful things.  I do love her so.  This is the new fabric line from Lila Tueller, who is now designing for Riley Blake.  I can't wait to do something wonderful with this stack of goodness!

This is my progress on Dear Jane.  I haven't done a lot as you can see.  I was doing a SAL, with my mom and Melanie, but I am lagging behind in a serious way.  Melanie is finished with her blocks (130 I think), and my mom has over 90 blocks done.  I have a stack of patterns and fabric that loom in the closet!  I'm hoping that summer will make it a little easier to get things done!  I don't love that black and white block that sticks out like a sore thumb, but my mom assured me that there are many more black and white blocks for me to still sew, so I won't get out the tea dye just yet.

For our family vacation, and my birthday, we went to California again.  This time we went to  Disneyland. We did 3 day passes for Disneyland, which was a little too much for all of us, (just look at my poor son sitting in the chair.  I think his face says it all).  However,  DD had some wonderful experiences with the characters.  Here she is with her favorite girl Jessie.  They sat and colored together for over 20 minutes.  I don't know how we got so lucky, but It's something DD will never forget!   

We enjoyed the fabulous weather and the beach.   This is at Balboa pier in Newport California.   I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw 9 dolphins in the water not far from the shore!  I've never seen dolphins in the wild, and it was a thrill!  Apparently they live there and are always around at feeding time.  It was so neat! 

We also fed some Sea Lions that were hanging around.

I added to my stash.  Love me some Fig Tree Fabrics!

We ate my birthday dinner at a wonderful Italian restaurant called Ciao on Balboa Island.  The island is lined with cute little houses with flowers and flags.  It got me excited  to work on this...

My long lost Shores project.  I've been stalled on it for a year of more.  I am working on the sails right now.  For some reason when I got to this block I lost my zeal for it, but hopefully I can get the excitement going again.  I have many other wonderful projects just waiting to show you. I even have things I haven't shared, but when you wait too long between posts, it's too hard to share it all!  I have something really special I'm doing that is hush hush right now, and it will be taking up most of my time this month.  I can show it to you after July!  Hope all is well with you my friends.  Until next time...Happy sewing! 

Surprise!

Don't you just love surprises?  I was the recipient of not one, but two brown boxes all tied up with string, yesterday!  YIPEE!

I won the giveaway from Dixie Samplar Designs last week, and Terri's wonderful package arrived yesterday.  I was filled with anticipation when opening the box.  Do you want to see what's inside?

A whole lot of wonderful stitching goodness!   Scissors, patterns, a glass flower frog, thread, fabric, treats, a candle, and fabric!  What more could a girl want?  Thanks so much Terri for the fun.  I'm so in awe of your generosity!

I especially liked this pattern.  I think I will put that in the "to do real soon" pile! (Do you have one of those?  Mine is really big!

My other wonderful surprise came from Deb.  This wasn't really a huge surprise, as I knew that she was sending this package.  It's quilt software, for Dear Jane.  The surprise was how fast the postman got it here!   Deb and I are going to start this project together.  She bought this software for herself several years ago, but it is for Windows, and she now owns a Mac, so it would not work her.  I'm really hoping it works on my computer, so I can print templates out for us to paper piece many of the blocks.  Want to join us on this insane quest?  I can't promise we will be very organized or stay on task, but you are welcome to join in the fun if you want.  Let me know.

I finished this little Betsy Ross House sampler, (a freebie from plum street samplers.  I don't remember the name of it right now)  I'm not showing close up, as I'm not thrilled with my finishing on this.  I've never done finishing like this before, and it shows!  It looks okay from a distance, so that's how you get to view it!  LOL.
I think this saying applies in this situation, "Better done than perfect!"

I finished my Joined at the Hip quilt.  It's hanging on the front door.  I'm amazed at how long projects like this, actually take!  I thought a day or two...good grief it took me a day just to quilt the darn thing.  I'm not thrilled with my quilting either.  I used clear thread, so it wouldn't show up very well.  I'm critical of my skills, as they are very beginning.  I'm not one that would choose to do an entire quilt, as I like the finished product so much more if an experienced quilter does the job.  It's good to practice I guess.  I'm all for learning new skills.

I just finished piecing this quilt top yesterday.  This is for my DD's 9th birthday in a few weeks.  Grandma is going to help me with the quilting, because of my beginning quilting skills as mentioned above!  I hope she likes this.  It is by Quilt Soup, and is called All Dolled Up.  I bought the pattern and kit last year at shop hop.  I love these fabrics!  So bright and cheery!  I have lots of sewing to do for the birthday party.  I'll post more about that later.

I've been sneaking in a few stitches here and there on my "The Farmers Wife" sampler from Barrick Samplers.  I have had to do a little tweaking on the colors, as the DMC converted colors are really off.  I like the way this is turning out, and I find myself wanting to work on it all the time, which I'm trying to avoid.  Consequently, Deb sent me some rotary instructions for a quilt called the Farmers wife, that I would like to start real soon. Isn't that weird?  Two projects with the same name...I must be in a Farm kind of mood.

Well, take care and have a wonderful 4th of July.  Thanks so much for your advice on my quilt from the last post.  I'm still holding on that quilt for a while!  Also, thanks for your comments and kind words.  I should respond to all your comments, and forgive me for not doing so.  I will try and be better!  Your comments are the reason I keep blogging, so thanks from the bottom of my heart!