Another blogoversary and goodies

Cara, over at the Quilt Nook is celebrating her one year blogoversary and wants to give away this sweet eye candy. Stop on over and congratulate her.

A Neat Giveaway

There is a great giveaway over at Millie's Quilting for this gorgeous quilt and bunch of fabric carrots that are way too cute! What a cute idea for the Easter bunny. Head on over and sign up.

Happy Birthday

It really is a funny feeling sometimes as your children age and actually catch up to you!! My youngest, Amy, just turned 30. It seems that not that long ago she was born and then hanging onto my leg and not letting me go when she entered the first grade. I had just gone back to work for a dentist and she promised she would sit like a good girl and look at books all day if I would let her stay in the dentist's waiting room. Shortly after that she settled in and actually loved first grade. That teacher wound up by being her favorite of all her school years. She learned cross-stitch and did a simple heart for her at the end of the year. We celebrated her birthday yesterday and had a good time. Here she is with me during a really fun evening.

Wooly Bunny and Update

Here is Mr. (or Mrs.) Bunny waiting for that Spring holiday that he is associated with. This is one of the 6 woolies that I have made depicting either a holiday or season of the year. I really enjoyed making these and they are such a cute addition to a little corner of the foyer. He'll probably stay up until the end of April and then my woolie basket of flowers will take over on May Day, May 1st.

I have an update on my sweet daughter, Laura. She is going home this afternoon from the hospital. After 3 Cat Scans, multiple bloodwork and a procedure in surgery, the urologist has determined that she does NOT have any kidney stones. There is a calcification in her left ureter which made the ureter collapse and cause her all of this pain. He put a stint into the ureter and that will remain there for 3-4 weeks. Hopefully that will take care of the problem, but it might not. In that case she may need surgery. She is not in horrible pain any longer....such a blessing. I want to thank everyone that offered prayers and kind words since I posted last. I sincerely appreciate each and everyone of you!

Feeling a little sad...

Thought I would blog about the way I am feeling right now. I actually should be in bed, but just got home from our local hospital about an hour ago. My oldest daughter that had surgery earlier this month was admitted to Medina Hospital tonight. She had been in their ER on Saturday for horrible back pain and this turned out to be a kidney stone. They sent her home with lots of pain meds and a strainer....catch the stone. Well, this never happened and her pain has gotten worse. Back to the ER tonight and now they think there are 2 stones. She was admitted and will see a urologist sometime tomorrow.
I guess my point here is that no matter how old your child is, you still feel the same pain when they are hurting and you can't do anything about it! I felt so helpless for her until they put some pain meds into her IV tonight. She says that the pain is like or worse then labor pains. I hope we will get some answers tomorrow...thank goodness she is safe tonight!

50th giveaway

Head on over to Linda at Lavender Ridge to sign up for her great 50th Blog giveaway. What a great penny rug this is. Good luck, but I would love to have this!

A finish and a start...

This will be my new "start" as of tomorrow. I am in Connie's Siggy Swap over at Cootie Bug 2. I am in the second grouping and had a little less time to get my blocks made, but I also have put it off a little and now have to buckle down for the April 15th deadline. I want this to be fun and not frustrating. I don't have a lot of experience, but love the process of piecing the blocks and this should be exciting to exchange with others!


This is my latest finish. Three blocks down. I like the look of these little blocks so much and really look forward to the finished quilt.

Please no more snow....

Here is a picture of one of our outdoor cats...they are identical brothers, and I do mean identical! One is Elmo and the other is Petey...I truthfully do not know who is who, so can't tell you who this is. We inherited them from my daughter who was unable to have them inside her home anymore. They had to become acclimated to the outdoors here...they have done very well!

I love Spring, it is my favorite season of the year. We have had sun and mild temperatures lately and I love it. I shouldn't have, but I purchased a basket of pansies today. They are so pretty and I loved the basket with the mixed colors. Will try to plant them in some pots and then protect them when we get a big snowstorm, which I am sure we will get here in Ohio!!

Some Spring Colors

I finished March for Ellie's BOM as shown on my sidebar. This is the first one that I have actually completed for hanging. I figured I can play catch up for Jan. and Feb. at another time. Right now I have a touch of Spring hanging.....I love that!

Traveling Ironing Board

Check out this really neat tutorial:
http://twiddletails.blogspot.com/2009/03/getting-ready.html

This would be great for an ironing surface at home also for close to your sewing machine if you don't have a big sewing area to work with. I have a small room for my sewing and have my ironing board set up on the lower level. This would be so much nicer. Am going to try and find an odd wooden TV table at Goodwill or somewhere so I don't have to use my good wooden ones. Very cool.

Happy St. Pattys

Here is some green for my St. Patrick's Day post. A little in my GD Mia's finished quilt...yeah!
She finished it at her last class on Friday. I was so proud of her. She perseveres and finishes whatever she starts. I sure hope that continues in her life. She will be so much happier. I am so excited that she enjoys the needle and thread, whether it be in a machine or in her hand. Great job, sweetie!


This next picture is her finishing up the binding...almost done.

Concentrating on measuring and folding her binding....she really enjoyed her teacher. Laurie was a very gentle and laid-back person. A lot of patience!

Quilters/Stitchers are great!

Last Wednesday was the meeting of our quilt guild, Obsessive Quilters. I was unable to attend because of my daughter's surgery, so my friend brought my goodies home to me. We have a group that exchanges fat quarters. Two names are chosen for each month and you bring a fat quarter for those gals. This month was my turn. I requested novelty prints, I really enjoy those. (along with all other fabric too!!) I was very pleased with my loot! So exciting to see so many different prints. The bag that was decorated for me was a cutie also.

We also have secret sisters. We bring a small gift every other month until our Christmas party when we will reveal who we are to each other. I just had to show this cute bag that my kitty fat quarters came in. I have never seen a gift bag like this. The handles are chain and the pink is gorgeous with tissue paper to match....pink and brown. We also filled out a questionaire for this and I put pink as a favorite color. There was almond Hershey kisses in there too...one of my favorites as well. I think I was a very lucky gal last Wednesday. Life is good!

More Spring

Here is a really cute Redwork tea towel I did for Spring. I love to do redwork....have many patterns that will probably not get done in my lifetime. I have a redwork quilt made by my great-great-aunt around 1910, according to my Mom. It is spotted and literally falling apart. We used this as an outdoor quilt to sit on when I was little. It really was abused. My mother was not a seamstress and hated to sew. As I got older I realized what we had done to it. I asked my mother if I could have it and she said yes. I didn't want anymore harm to come to it. I will take a picture of it and post at a later date. Maybe someone has an idea what to do with it at this point.


This basket is so very precious to me. A wonderful neighbor and good friend had a maple tree that had to be cut down. He let the wood age and sent it wherever to have them cut and dry it. (don't really know the order all of this is done). For Christmas he made his wife and daughters one of these baskets and he made one for me also....I was his "other daughter", he always said. I love this basket....it is so different! He made me many other wood items over the years and I cherish them very much.

Another done....

I finished the 2nd in the series Verandah Views by Willowberry Designs. I really like these stitcheries. They have detail but not too much for this novice stitcher. I just imagine the real place that these designs are based on. Now I am on to March for all of the BOM's that I am doing. March is a long month, so I plan to be all caught up by the 31st.

Giveaway.

A great giveaway over at The Painted Quilt. Kaaren is new to blogging like myself and she is having one for her 50th blog. Head on over and signup and if you mention me as to where you found out about the giveaway, I'll get another entry! (as will you if you blog about it)

A Long Day

After nearly a 12 hour day at the hospital for our older daughters's surgery, I am exhausted. You all know those kinds of days. You are less tired if you Spring housecleaned. Those emotional days really wear you out. She is fine after some female surgery....other then a low blood pressure and alot of pain. She will spend the night in the hospital (thank goodness) and hopefully go home later tomorrow. I will be in and out of her house all week helping with kids, food and general cleanup. She lives about 25 minutes from us....I wished she lived closer.
But to my delight, when I went into my email I had won Jen's giveaway for her 100th blog! Yowee....a sweet end to a long day. Thanks again, Jen! Here are the goodies I will be receiving.

Spring/Easter

Our weather the last few days has really been teasing us for Spring. We have had a hard winter and these days of 50's and 60's have been welcome. Even today with the cloudiness and wind, it was almost 70 degrees. This makes me forget that it is only March 7th and alot can happen around here in March and even April. One of our biggest snowstorms was the first week in April in the 1980's when our kidlets were on Spring Break!
But I am itching to start decorating for Spring/Easter, so I am going to start regardless of the date. Some of the things I cherish the most are decorations that I have made over the years....just learning to do a specific craft, etc. The bunnies are torn pieces of pretty paper napkins and I think glue over paper mache. It wasn't Mod Podge, I know that.

The ceramic basket was made by my FIL in 1980. He loved to do ceramics and I have many, many pieces done by him. Most were given at Christmas and the other holidays. Sometimes he would just give something for the heck of it. I will be posting the various items as the different holidays come along. The bunny doll is just sitting in the basket for a minute to show off my great crafting skills from way back in the 1980's also! Usually candy sits very nicely in there, but doesn't last long.

First one Done

After much looking in fabric shops for just the right fabric for my Willowberry, Verandah Views blocks, I have finally finished the #1 stitchery. I had an idea of a muted, small polka dot and found what I wanted at a local quilt shop. This picture doesn't really do the color justice. It is a soft muted yellow with white dots. I have gotten the impression from other blogs that taking pictures outside really make a difference in quality and color of our projects. Hopefully sun and warmth will come to NE Ohio soon.

Another finished

I've had this second stitchery from Gail Pan Designs free BOM done for awhile, but hadn't found just the right green fabric for the borders. I finally did and here it is. I really love the red fabric on some and the green on others. I think this is going to be really smart looking when completed and put together. I might actually have something different for Christmas 2009.....weeee!

Lamb or Lion

March 1st already, can you believe it? I don't know if March came in for us as a lion or a lamb. When I went to church this morning the sun was shining brightly, but was a little windy. Temp was only in the 20's. By afternoon, it was really blowing, cloudy and snow squalls. Nothing really accumulated, but it was snowing.....I think we had a little lion and lamb today. It will be interesting to see what March 31st brings.....you never know in Ohio.
My granddaughter, Mia, came over and we spent a fun afternoon with our quilts. She is tying the one that she has been working on in a class at our local quilt shop, Fabric Obsession. She has one more class that she will finish and do the binding. I am so tickled that she enjoys this as much as I do. My 2 daughters don't have any real desire to learn much needlework or quilting. They both have done cross-stitch, but that is about it.
I decided to tie the quilt I made for Mia's brother, Oliver.....we worked together! The blue one is for Oliver and the floral is Mia's.