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!

Shop Hoppin' and more stash buying

Boy, it's been a long time since I've posted anything. Here's an update of what I've been up to.

Little House Needleworks All Dolled Up series

Liberty and Justice

DMC colors

I finished a little patriotic sampler.  This was a fun stitch, and I did it in a few nights.  I haven't been stitching too much lately.  The sewing machine has been getting more attention, because of this...

My DD got a new sewing machine.  This is cute Hello Kitty machine, that actually sews great.  It has 9 stitches and a button hole.  The perfect machine for DD to learn to sew on.  It is a real Janome machine, not a toy, so I do have to watch her, but so far she has been really careful, and we haven't sewn our fingers yet...knock on wood!

She made a few pot holders.  My son wanted to learn too, so he made the one in the middle.  I think they did a good job, and it was good practice. She also made a couple dresses for her AG dolls.  They were both the same, and she needed a little help with the trim, but for the most part, she sewed the whole dress.  There was a slight mishap with the scissors when cutting out the skirt, somehow we ended up with a huge hole.  I told her that now we know what not to do with the scissors!

I've been working on Garden Fence by Fig Tree.  I really love this quilt.  I am having problems finding the right color of fabric to go in between the blocks.  I have a lot of orange going on here, and I'm not sure that I want that much orange.  Opinions anyone?

I finished my trench coat and bag.  (Sorry for the terrible picture.  No body was home to help me with this.) 
The weather has been so awful here, I actually got to wear this last weekend for our towns annual Heritage Festival.  It only got up to 55 degrees, and it rained all day.  I've had lots of compliments on it, and I'm glad it turned out.  Both patterns are from Serendipity Studios.  The jacket was really easy, and I got my decorator fabric for a dollar a yard...Kaching!

At the Heritage Festival I helped some friends with the trunk show.  They have a different designer come and do a trunk show every year.  Big names like Blackbird, Quaker Town Quilts, and this year...Barbara from Quilt Soup.  Her trunk show was fantastic!  I love her patterns, they are fun and happy.  Quilts that make you smile.  I bought this pattern, which is not like her work now at all.  This is one of her first patterns she designed.  The center on the star block gets cut out, and you can make a bonus quilt with the extra piece.  I love this idea!  After the show, I got to go to lunch with Barbara.  She is so fun to talk to.  I love getting to meet creative people!  Wish I would have had my camera!

Some of my stash haul from Shop Hop  Can you tell what fabric DD picked out, and what I picked out?

This week, I've been to our annual Shop Hop, in Utah.  It really is a fun event.  I suppose to meet up with Jolene on Wednesday.  Tuesday night the weather report was showing 70 mile an hour winds and DH was not very excited about my going.  He could see visions of trucks tipping over on the freeway (which did happen, but no one was hurt).  It turns out that Jolene could not get Thursday off, so she went without me!  I was plenty mad at the hubby let me tell you!  I decided to go on Thursday, and I took my little daughter.  It was fun to have a day with her, but not the same as if I had been with Jolene.   I didn't take my camera so go over to Jolene's blog to see some photos of the different stores.

 My best deal were these Joined at the Hip kits.  $5.00 for each kit, including the pattern!  I wish they would have had Fall and Winter too. 

Saturday, Jolene came to my town and we went to the last store, Village Dry Goods.  I found a few more things I needed.  I have had this quilt book for a while, and I wanted some Civil War prints to make some of these small quilts out of.  They have a great selection.  The berry fabric was on sale for $4.99 a yard, and I just thought it was great for something.  Don't know what yet...

Jolene was so cute, and bought me some patterns while she was shopping around.  Gosh, I don't know what to say!  She blows me away.  I can't wait to do some of these darling projects.  I made her a small pincushion to remember her shop hop event, and took her to lunch at the Idle Isle.  A restaurant that has been around for 90 years!  Not even a comparison to her generous gift, I know, but can you ever out do Jolene?

I started on this easy project last week.  One of my shop hop projects from years past.  I love this blackbird sampler fabric in the background.  I have lots of this fabric, in many different colors!  I am going to have projects that all look the same!  This is Joined at the Hip, Liberty Welcome.  It is one of the Hanging on a star series quilts.  You can make a quilt for every season to hang on your door.  I'm not sure if I'll get to anymore soon, but I'll try.

I started on one of my Barrick Samplers.  I have vision of a whole row of these black samplers hanging with black ribbon in my sewing room.  I'll have to take pictures when I get them done.

Last but not least, I made a new ironing board cover.  Don't you just love the samplers on it?  It fits my room perfectly!

Take care dear blog friends!  Thanks for all your wonderful comments.  I love them!  Until next time...Happy Sewing.

To Quilt Market and back!

Hi to all!  I've had the wonderful opportunity to go to Spring Quilt Market, with my traveling SIL and friends.  This is our 4th market together, and I think, my favorite.  People are starting to know who we are, and we know them, so it's like a big reunion with some of the most talented people on the planet.  I can't wait to share some photos. 

First off, things didn't start off smoothly.  We ended up sitting on the runway in Denver for over 2 1/2 hours during an incredible electrical storm.  There was also a tornado warning in effect!  Thank goodness the people next to me were fun to talk to!   I kept thinking... "Well, if we get stuck in Denver, there is a new American Girl store here!"
We did make it to Minneapolis, at 3:30 in the morning.  Imagine my surprise the next day when we went to the "Mall of America" and they had an American Girl store!  I was in heaven!  I spent many hours and dollars here!

My husband says this is a dangerous place to let me loose in!  He's right.  I could look at everything 3 or 4 times.  I don't get tired of it.  I must be a kid at heart, because I love these dolls!
Our hotel was right across the street from the Mall, and they had a giveaway for Lanie the cute doll above.  I entered every time I walked past the desk. 
I bought my daughter some little gifts for her birthday.  The typewriter, the guitar and the doctor set.  Imagine my thrill to see this at market....

More AG dolls!  This is Playdate, the new line from Patty Young, and ModKid

 I like Patty, because she is just my size!  I really wanted to buy every pattern she has, but my closet is already overflowing with projects to do.  I will probably break down and order some of her doll clothes patterns eventually.  They are too cute for words.  I especially loved the little "wardrobe" suitcase.  (hanging next to the bed on the left) What a great thing to take to Grandma's.  

Most of our day was filled with "fabric buying"  We had back to back appointments with Michael Miller, Moda, Studio e, yaddie, yada, yada...so in between trips to the bathroom, I would wander around and get pictures of things I wanted to see.
I stopped off at one of my favorites...Fig Tree, and low and behold one of my favorite fabric designers was there...Kate Spain!  (The nicest person you will ever meet!)
I reminded Joanna of the time she came to my little town to do a trunk show.  My mom and I got to sit at her table for dinner.  We ate a very famous local restaurant named Maddox.  Well, because it was a very large event, we had 3 options for dinner.  FRIED chicken, Turkey FRIED steak, and Chicken FRIED Steak, (which is beef, not chicken.)  You should have seen Joanna's face when the choices were read...She grimly said, "I'll have the salad?"  wondering if there was any proper way out of this FRIED unhealthy food night.  A very funny moment to watch.  She remembered it perfectly.  It was fun to reminisce about. 

 As you can see we were laughing way to hard to have a proper picture taken.  Really it was because I am so short, and these 2 ladies tower over me.  They were practically on their knees, and I was as high on my tiptoes as I could get.  Too funny!  BTW, Siobhan.  I told Joanna all about you!  She now knows she has a very devoted fan in Ireland that "stalks" her website.!

 More of Fig Tree's beautiful booth.  Joanna talking to Kate Spain.

 This was Michael Miller's booth.  (A fabric company)   It was really elegant, but interesting, as everything was white...I can assure you that none of their fabric collections are white.  It made for a nice backdrop to show off all of the different designers collections.




To the right is the booth for Bonnie and Camille.   They are a mother and daughter team that both have their own patten companies, and together,design fabric for Moda.  This was a great new fabric collection called "bliss".  Turquoise and red is all the rage this year.

Here I am meeting the famous "Elliot"!  A highlight of the trip I'll have you know!  You have to go to Amanda Herrings website to read the adventures of Elliot.  Amanda is the wonderful pattern designer of "The Quilted Fish".  

Amanda is a doll!  So much fun to be around.  She is from Utah too, so I'm hoping for a lunch date!  What do you say Amanda?  Check out her new darling fabric line in the window panes above!  So cute.

Oh, I just loved this booth of Ann Sutton.  Bunny Hill, has become one of my favorite designers.  Her patterns are very detailed perfect works of art.  I have to say, that it was very busy in this booth when I went by, and I didn't get the chance to talk to Anne, other than to say everything was wonderful.  To tell you the truth, I was really nervous around her!  I am such a big fan, I was just too chicken to tell her!

Love these vintage colors.  I got the charm pack from Anne's quilter that was helping in the booth. 

On the stitching front, I finished my freebie from Plum Street.  I want to mount it on this basket, but I've never done that before.  If you know how, or have seen a good tutorial, I would love the link!

I also did some deep stash diving and found this pattern by Homespun Elegance.  I don't have very many "travel friendly" projects right now.  I've got to buy more stash..Darn!

Hope you enjoyed the pictures.  I really appreciate all of your sweet comments.  I'm all inspired to work on some quilt projects this week!  Have a great week...It's the last week of school, I could not be more thrilled!  More market fun later!

Meeting blog friends, Rainbows and Stitching!

A quick post to show you who I got to finally meet this past Friday night...

Jolene and me with stitch group.  My SIL was suppose to take this picture of our faces, not me scrunching down like this!

This is my dear blog friend Jolene and I.  We have been trying to get together for several months, and finally our paths crossed, and I was able to get my stitch group together on a night she could come up.  It was so fun to meet Jolene, FINALLY.  She is a doll.  We hope to do this a lot more often!

As you know from Jolene's blog, that she is very generous with her thoughtful gifts.  She surprised everyone with a  little gift of unique scissors and a beautiful scissor fob.  She made our night! 

 A beautiful and thoughtful gift from Jolene

 She had this cute cork on the end of the scissors, to protect them from punching through the tissue paper.  Teresa (Lower Left) reminded us of the movie "Dirty Rotten Scandrals".  The part with Ruprect having a cork on the end of his fork, so he wouldn't poke his eye out...well, we couldn't help demonstrating how useful the cork will be for us!  No one will be poking their eyes out with this ingenious little addition. 

Later in the evening it started raining, and we had this beautiful double rainbow.  It was great to sit out and watch it, but it did get too cold to stitch, and we ended up going in the house.  :(

 I got my Bent Creek wedding row back from the framers.  I opted to leave the heart buttons off, as they made it look more valentiney, and  I want to leave this up all year.  Sort of a "silent sermon" to my family members of my love for them.

Finally, I have been cleaning out some things in my sewing room, and came upon these.  I decided to show you the sewing accessories I designed for a retreat that I did in Park City several years ago with Cynthia Zittel from the Drawn Thread.  These classes were taught three different years, and eventually I wanted to complete a shaker box to put these in.   Unfortunately, the store that held the retreats went out of business and that ended all the fun. 

 A photo of the back sides.  I never published these designs, but have thought about doing it in the future, when time comes my way again...LOL!

That's all for now.  Thanks for stopping by.  I hope you have a great week with lots of stitching!

A little chocolate, and a Philly Cheesesteak!

Hi to all.  I'm hopelessly behind on life, blog reading, posting...you get the idea.  However, I cannot complain, as I have been traveling to Pennsylvania this weekend, and I can't wait to show you some things.  Here we go!

Enjoying a fresh pretzel at Immergut (It is Good in German).  Yes it was!

My husband had an overnight trip in Philly, so I took the kids a few days early for a little "field trip".  We drove through the Amish country the first day and then up to Hershey.

Thanks to Siobhan, I was able to look at beautiful scenery like this...instead of the freeway.  She used to live here, and gave me great directions on what to do, and where to go.  My husband bought me a GPS before going, and "Lola" (as my daughter named her), did not like the fact that I was taking a different route, but I ignored all of her instructions and stuck to route 896.

 I bought this cute doll in Intercourse at a the Old Candle Barn.  Then it was on to Eldreth pottery.  I looked at everything, and honestly had the hardest time deciding what to buy, so I left without a thing.  We went to Hershey that night, and after a fitful night of dreaming about not getting a piece of Eldreth pottery, I made the stop on the way back to Philly and bought two plates.  The little black one was my first choice.  I loved the colors, and thought it looked great with my new doll.  The other plate was sitting over with 3 other plates.  They all had names and dates on them, and normally they would have been $50.00.  I don't know if they were ordered and never picked up, or what, but this plate was marked $2.00.  It made me think about orphan samplers with other peoples names on them.  I  decided my doll could be named "Anna Marie", and I bought it.  I told the saleslady she probably thought it was weird that I would buy a plate that had someone else's name on it, but she said people do it all the time.  (I guess I'm not the only crazy person.)

We went on a buggy ride with a former Amish teenager named Kaleb.  His family is Amish, but he has decided to pursue an education and become a vet.  It was really interesting listening to his perspective on things.  We learned much about Amish culture.  A real highlight of the trip.

My daughter was so excited to make her own candy bar, as we had seen on the Hershey website that it was new for 2010.  Well, Wally World was closed when we got there.  The machines have net yet been completed, and it won't be open until the end of June.  It was the biggest letdown!  We toured the factory, and she really loved the ride, so her spirits were better after that. The next day we went to the Hershey museum and went to the "Chocolate lab".  It was really interesting to learn about, and taste chocolate from all over the world.  We didn't know that we would be making our own candy bar in the lab, and DD was thrilled!  We added crushed red peppers to our chocolate to make it more like the Mayan's would have done.  It just makes the chocolate taste warm, but it's not spicy like you would think.  A wonderful place to visit.  I think another trip back to Hershey to stay in the Hershey hotel, is on our list of family vacations!

This little quilt was in the Hershey museum.  I can't wait to find some pink, and make one.  It was so sweet.  The back was interesting too.  It was a pieced quilt as well.  Very different color schemes, that seem to work great together.

This was a sampler in one of the cases.  Love the design of this one too.

Back in Philly, we walked around a bit the first night.  We went to "Logan square" which has some beautiful fountains.  This use to be the place that they had a gallows set up.  Hanging's happened here every weekend.  Hard to imagine, and a little creepy.  They moved the cemetery and made this park, I think in the 60's.

The next day, I didn't take my camera, because we wanted to go to the US Mint, and when I was there last year, camera's were not allowed.  I left it in the hotel room.  Well, wouldn't you know it, they are only open Monday through Friday, so we didn't even get to go, and I had no camera for pictures of Independence Hall, and the Liberty Bell!  UGGG!  DH took pictures on his iphone, but it's likely I won't see those again. Our kids favorite thing, Chinatown!  So funny.  DD bought a silk dress, and Chinese parasol there.  DS bought a pack of fake money!

 Lastly, we went to Las Vegas and spent the night.  We had to take a late flight home Monday night, and had the whole day to kill.  We found a Cafe Rio in Vegas (which is one of our local favorites), and right next door was our local favorite custard shop, Nelsen's Custard. 

 After that we went to see the lions at MGM Grand, and walked around all day.  Our feet hurt, and it was hot, and I think we were all feeling "vacationed out".  I don't enjoy the Las Vegas strip at all!  It was hard to have my kids there as there is so much crap that they can see, that I didn't want them to see!  It was not a good end to the trip, however it gave us much to talk about with them, and it helps them to realize what stuff is out there. 

Back home...

Before I left, I received a special surprise in the mail.  Jolene, sent me a wonderful set of silk to stitch Carriage House Samplings Noah's Ark Stocking.  I was so overcome with emotion.  I am so blessed with wonderful friends.  Thanks so much Jolene.  The colors are beautiful!  You are such a sweetie!

When I got home, I received another surprise from my great friend Terri!  She was sending me belated birthday wishes.  I just love this flower frog, and the darling sewing set she made!  The scissors are perfect too.  Terri, you made my day.  Thanks from the bottom of my heart!

My SIL, Melanie, gave me this great tile changing frame.  She made all of the vinyl stickers, and spent a ton of time making this cute gift.  It was so different, and I love it!

I won Sharlotte's blog contest last week, and she sent me this darling towel.  It goes perfect in my house.  It really looks great with Terri's gift!  Thanks Sharlotte!  Love it, and your stitching is wonderful!

On the stitching front:

I'm almost done with my little bunny.  I just have to finish the basket and words.  It's funny how fast this was going at first, and then I kind of stalled.  I hope to finish it up this week.  I don't like how the dye lots change on the dress.  I had an extra skein that I started with, and it was obviously a little brighter than the 2 new skeins I bought.  Oh well!  I still love this little bunny.

I started this little sampler on the airplane.  It is a freebie from Plum Street Samplers.  I thought it was appropriate as we went to the Betsy Ross house, and this reminds me of her house.  We had a lot of turbulence and it was hard to stitch anything.  This is all I got done on the 10+ hours of flying!  Can you believe that?  It was a  wonderful week!  Thanks for checking in with me, and leaving a comment!  You are wonderful, and you make my life sweet!