Quiet Saturday Morning

What a blessing to start the day with the sun shinning through the window and no place to rush off to.

My favorite chair, a cup of hot coffee and a new magazine to browse, I am enjoying this.

I will look through my magazine and think about spring.

We will be off later to watch one of our grandsons play basketball, this is looking to be a special day.  

We should all remember to be thankful for our many blessings.

Just one of my many blessings - Caleb after his game

Beat the Winter Blues Blog Hop and my Give-Away

I chose a winner for this give-away, thanks so much for all of your comments.  I hope to visit as many of you as I can in the next few weeks if you have a blog.  I read each comment and enjoyed reading about your favorite creative activities. 

There were 242 comments.

Random Number Generator chose number 101

Sue said:

I love sewing but running a close second is reading. I have my Kindle and I couldn't do without it.

 

Congratulations Sue, I am sending you an email message so that I can send out your package.

I am joining in on the Beat the Winter Blues Blog Hop and Give-Away Party at Quilting Gallery

I have won many fun things through giveaways in blogland and I thought I would like to join in and have a giveaway here.

So leave a comment and tell me what is your favorite creative activity, sewing, crochet, cooking, playing with your kids or grandkids, the list is endless.  That is all you have to do and you will be entered to win.

A pincushion made by me using a pattern I found at Moda Bake Shop and mentioned in this post here.

Charm Squares and two 1 yard pieces of "Botany" by Lauren & Jessi Jung for moda.  Visit their blog here.

This giveaway will only last one week.  I will choose and announce the winner here on March 15th.

Visit Quilting Gallery to see the list of other giveaways.

Have fun hopping.

Winter Birthdays

With a large family there are birthdays to celebrate every month.   Sammy, Kevin and Brad had January Birthdays and Matthew's is in February.   Some of our family lives in other states so we can all be together for every celebration.

 Kevin and Amy  are looking at a picture made by nephew Noah for Kevin's Birthday.

 

The grand kids all like to get in the pictures when it's time to blow out candles.

Noah and Kevin, Noah is pointing out details in his gift for his uncle.

Little Emalynn reading, I mean eating a board book.

She is so happy because she was showing me that she could clap her hands, it is so exciting to learn new things.  Maybe we should all learn from little ones and find joy in the simple things.

Little Matthew turned two

Patiently waiting to blow out his candles.

He did get a little too close to the flame.  I think he will be a little hesitant to get so close next time.
 

We don't have the chance to spend every birthday with all of our children and grandchildren as some live far away from us but it is always a blessing to spend time together whenever we can.

Saturday Stitching

On Friday I spent the day with my friend Robin at the Sewing & Stitchery Expo in Puyallup, Washington.  It was great fun and we learned so much from the different classes we took.  We had a wonderful time visiting all of the booths, so much inspiration.  Here is Robin making her first purchase, she looks pretty happy about it.  This was one of our first stops of the day. 

After so much inspiration I spent the first part of Saturday sewing in my comfy sweats and a t-shirt with not a touch of makeup.  I love days like that.

Pillow top for the Pretty in Patchwork Sew Along at Thread Bias.  This is January's project so you can see that I am a little behind in the sew along.

March block  for the Sugar Block Club at Stitchery Dickory Dock.

 

January block

 

February block

 

 

When I started joining Sinta at Pink Pincushion for BOM Rehab I had intended to finish up projects started last year and before.  Now here I am catching up on this years BOM projects.  I may have joined in on a few too many new projects this year.  Oh well, there is really no pressure unless I put it on myself so I will just continue on at my pace and have fun.

 

Pin Keep Swap

I mailed my Pin Keep to my swap partner and she let me know that she has received it.   I guess I should say my hubby mailed it for me.  I had a great time with this 2nd Annual Pin Keep Swap sponsored by Wendy at Ravenwood Whimzies.

First I will share the pink keep made by my partner Ronda.  She enjoys working with wool and I love what she made for me.

She sent a box of pins that match the pin keep.

Below is a picture of the back of my new pin keep

The Pin Keep I chose to make for my swap partner Ronda was designed by Kaaren Johnston at The Painted Quilt.  It was one of her fabulous first-Friday Freebie patterns listed on her sidebar.  

I love embroidery so this was a perfect project for me.  I used a variegated DMC for the embroidery work on the front.

I used some pieces of French General fabric left  from a mini-quilt for the back. 

While I was working on my first project I came across the design below and thought it would be fun to give this little pin keep a try. 

This design I found on Moda Bake Shop and it was called Flirtatious Hearts Table Topper & Pincushion.  I used scraps from the same French General jelly roll to piece this together.

Thanks again to Wendy for this fun swap and thank you to Ronda for making my very special pin keep.

A Very Special Wednesday

A couple of weeks ago I had a Wednesday off  to spend with a friend. 

We traveled to Queen Anne Hill in Seattle and visited a fabulous shop called Nancy's Sewing Basket.  We spent every moment of our trip to Seattle chatting and catching up.  Upon entering the shop there might have been a moment of silence before the oohs and aahs started.   We spent some time looking at so many wonderful fabrics and an endless variety of patterns and books.  We worked our way to the back of the store and found the Ribbon Room, it was amazing.  They have so many different types of ribbon and trims and seam binding.  You can find beautiful lace, so many buttons, silk millinery flowers, and many other wonderful things to look at, you must look around this little room at least twice.  I really think I should go back again soon because I am sure I missed half of what was in there.

I purchased a little measuring tape ribbon and seam binding and a couple of pieces of fabric for embroidery projects.  It was a wonderful time spent with someone who loves sewing and creating as much as I do.  We went to lunch at a place that is well known to locals, Dick's Drive In.  We were able to continue our chatting through lunch and all the way home. 

  It was a very special Wednesday, thanks Robin.

Aurifil Designer Block Of The Month - Embroidery Done

I have shared my blocks for this little quilt top each month as I completed them.  I did not get the December block below completed until January but now all of the embroidery is complete.

 

This was a fun block to stitch.

Here they are laid out in order.  I see that I might want to do a little switching of border fabrics, we'll see.  It is now on my list of projects to finish.  This is another reason why I am trying to limit my starting of new projects this year.  I underline limit because I already have a few new projects planned.

Joining BOM Rehab at Pink Pincushion