It's A Good Day!

Yep, it's a good day. The sun is shinning, baby Polka Dot is visiting and lots of playing was happening all day (he's napping right now), and today is my friend Nan's birthday..... so a giant

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NAN!!!!! ♥♥

Hope your day is filled with lots of fun and all the things that does your heart good!!!

Not much quilty going on. I finished up a batch of pillowcases for a friend who has a pillowcase project and put the binding on this yummy quilt and shipped it off to Oregon. Great colors, and there's that 9 patch...gotta love a 9 patch! My friend Jan has such a way with color.

Years back I belonged to a group on Prodigy called the Buttonheads. We all collected buttons and exchanged quilt blocks that had buttons on them. Terry and I have stayed in touch over the years and this is what came in the mail on Friday. Now that's a button. It is going to be perfect in my sewing room......and she knows I am addicted to ME fabric. That pattern is so cute and has some wonderful Rick Rack on it.

Yesterday in honor of Ms. Geranium we barbecued some pizza. Such a great, easy recipe of hers and for our first pizza of the season they came out great!!! The cashews and purple onion were the perfect touch to all the normal toppings!

Wishing you all a great week of crafting and enjoying life!! I almost forget the good news...... THE COMPUTER IS COMING, THE COMPUTER IS COMING..........YIPEEEEE!!!

My Goodbye Breakfast With Ms. Geranium And Hunka

Still in denial, but I guess when I pulled up and saw this moving truck it finally hit me....she is really, really moving (gee, I don't think that truck is big enough)!!!!! We have moved quite a few times, but I think Sharon has the record for the number of boxes. These pictures are just the tip of the ice burg!!! There is some bits of poor Daisy in the upper left corner just laying there all sad :-(!!!! I love all the woodwork that hunka did on the shelf unit in their family room. So many, many wonderful touches of his handy work throughout the house. Some lucky family to be getting some of Hunka's original work not to mention the wonderful valances throughout that Sharon made.

Ms. Geranium never ceases to amaze me though. In the midst of all the packing, having deadlines changed, and changed again, canceling the movers, having the movers come back and on, and on she still had time to find herself a good deal. The neighbors down the street were having a garage sale and look what she found!!!! This wonderful old chest..as close as I could get with the wall of boxes all around....it's a beauty!!

I took breakfast (and stole this picture from Sharon's blog!!!) from our favorite breakfast eating place...and Sinful French Toast is our favorite and now Hunka's too. Sinful hardly describes this tasty treat ....EXTREMELY YMMMMMMMMMO does!!! It was fun to sit and reminisce about old times. Those two are quite the pair. They are a great team and through all this they have managed to keep their sense of humor. I know that this is going to be a wonderful great adventure for them, and the bonus being close to the boys and family! While we were eating and talking old times, we heard the sound of a REALLY BIG truck..hunka assured us it was the cement truck down the street. Sharon went and peeked around the bushes ...some cement truck!!! It was the biggest moving truck I have ever seen, arriving a day early! Good thing.....I just knew that dinky truck would not do the trick.

Saying goodbye is never easy, but I know there are sure going to be some wonderful stories about their trip...so I plan to stay tuned for all the episodes of "Ms. Geranium and Hunka On The Move."

Bye to you Sharon♥♥♥♥♥....you know I'm gonna miss you :-( !!!!!

Lots Of This And That

Lots to report here, hopefully not toooo boring!

Last Saturday I met up with my friend Lani. We go way back to my first (or I should say our first) quilting class, 25 years ago. She has been such a wonderful constant friend. We have gone thru lots of life experiences together, and had some wonderful talks over the years. I am so grateful to quilting for bringing us together!! Anywho, back to where I was going...we try to meet at least once a year half way between where we live....we each drive about an hour. We always visit the same quilt shop, eat at the same Mexican food restaurant and visit the same country store that we love...sadly it is closing!! Quite a fun day and we even had a trunk show, seriously we did in the back of her car. Lani had just gotten quilts back from the quilter so we had a look see in the parking lot. I forgot my camera, but my handy dandy cell phone did the trick. Wonderful quilts Lani!!! She brought me the cutest ever cupcake stand, and just in the nick of time I might add, because I had a quilty get together that it was just perfect for!!!!!! My picture taking is really, really bad, but trust me, it is just so darn stinkin cute!

Last week I got a quilt from a customer for binding and when I opened the bag up I just fell in love with this quilt and thought I would share it with you guys. No charms, no jelly rolls!! Just good old piecing! I LOVE THIS QUILT, and the colors are just perfect. I especially like the basket block with the yo yo's for the handle. I have admired it each and every day it's been here, but sadly it will be returning home in a day or so!!!

Some progress has been made on my Scrappy Stars quilt. The blocks went together better than I thought they would. I have 4 rows sewn, only 3 more to go, plus the outside pieced border. I have all the border piecing done, so it will be just a matter of hoping that they fit the quilt. This was started about 4 years ago, and I don't know why I decided to piece the border before the quilt was done.....brain fade I would think!!! I was working on it in class and the owner of the shop asked if I had ever used this thread. She said she recommends the thread to reduce extra bulk in the seams. I bought some and used it to piece the rows together on the Scrappy Stars, and I can't believe how much flatter the seams lay. She also recommended using Schmetz Machine Quilting Needles 90/14.

And then there is this, my Mother's Day present from Mr. Polka Dot. This bench could not be any more perfect for me, and it just screamed "put a quilt on me"!!! A little more Feng Shuiing and it will be just right. We are heating up here already UGHHHH! It's mid May and I am not ready for the heat. This was the temperature on Sunday morning at 9 a.m.!!!!! This summer is going to be a doooozy I'm afraid.. Nice that it is warm though, cause here is baby Polka Dot and his mommy practicing his swimming strokes!! I am bad at taking pictures, but I was clear across the way, so I have a good excuse this time. He just loves the water!!!

Wishing all of you a happy week and now it's time to have a look see at what you all have been up to!! Happy sewing everyone!

Camp Part Two!!!

I think I caught the computer off guard. It seems if I just wait long enough it gives up and let's me on for a bit of time!!!!! We are computer shopping, OK, computer thinking, but there is a new computer coming sooner than later....promise I will stop WHINNNNNING about it!

Back to camp report! Here's Eleanor Burns with her Quilt In A Day girls. These ladies are so much fun and kept camp so much fun! They are there for all our questions, and any help that we needed. The bounus from my camp experience is meeting Annie (last in line) last November and I am so thankful for the wonderful friendship that we have formed. She is one of the nicest people in the whole world. To the right is sweet Cindy who kept the camp quilt shop running smoothly......wow that's a great quilt, and that girl always is smiling and cute as a button :-)!!

Love the center photo (again, thanks Annie) with Eleanor and some campers at a tea she hosted at her home. They are pictured in her sewing studio which as you can imagine is the most amazing place!!!!

Some more beauties below!!!!!!!!!! The ladies in the center are having a look at some wonderful antique blocks that someone shared with us. That's Annie and myself at the top...I brought my pinwheel template and she whipped out her sweet quilt. My friend Nurse Carol sewing like crazy in the bottom corner! There were so many wonderful quilts, and many more that I didn't get pictures of.
The food at camp is DELICIOUS....no photos, so you will have to take my word for it but OMW!!!! Here's are friend Marilyn enjoying some yummy cranberry sauce; here's our friend Marilyn enjoying some yummy whip cream; and here's our friend Marilyn looking over the raffle prize she won!!! Campers bring in items for the auction and then all money raised is donated to a women's resource center. Over $1,400.00 raised! A shout out to our friend Sharon H..........camp was not in Montana!!! We all missed you and hope to have you there next time!!!!

Here's what I worked on......my ME quilt top done and I am loving it!! A quilt for baby polka dot that is way out of my color box, but goes with fabrics in his room, the far picture shows blocks from a quilt I started about 4 years ago!!! I got the rest of the 16 patches done and all the rows for the stars are pieced!!! If you read my blog it is apparent by now I am a very, very good starter! The finishing I need a bit of help with!

The computer gremlins have been very kind this morning and I know my time is limited. Email is another story. I usually can zip one or two out in the morning and before this post I wrote

to Ms. Geranium who is in the process of getting all packed up which I am still in denial about:-( !

Not being able to visit you all has been very frustrating, but hopefully that will be resolved very soon!!! Happy mid week bloggy people!!

Oh Sweet Camp!!!!!!!!!!!!!

MY COMPUTER IS BEHAVING VERY, VERY BADLY AGAIN!!!!! .....but let's see what I can post!

What a great time we had at camp. I hardly know where to begin. I have a ton of pictures and my friends Annie and Beth have also given me some photos to share, so hopefully I can give you a good glimpse in to our 4 days of WONDERFUL at Camp Cedar Glen!!!

Here's my little PT filled to the brim with quilt related stuff. Carol and I brought way more projects than we could possibly get done, but we were very optimistic....notice the four sewing machines. Wouldn't want to be caught with a machine down!!! We meet up with a group of friends for breakfast and then stopped at three quilts shops before reaching camp!!

A view from our corner of the room. I wonder what happens when there is a room filled with about 25 to 30 women all with sewing machines, irons and lights........POWER OUTAGE!!! That's the camp director talking to Annie about our little problem :-)!!!! Seems we pretty much had plugged everything in to one or two power cords, with other cords plugged in to that.......I am sure you get the picture!! His reaction was priceless, but he was more than helpful, and had a great sense of humor about the whole thing!

Here is my buddy Annie on the left with LuAnn...our wonderful Quilt In A Day helpers. They cheered us on with every stitch, even offering to do some reverse sewing if necessary, and boy did I have some reverse sewing!!! Here's a view of the upper sewing area. In all I think there was around 60 very happy campers!!!

We were treated to a MAGIC performance by Eleanor Burns and her lovely assistant Sue. All the magic is in her new book, Day and Night.

The quilts pictured are actually made from strips!!! There is a wonderful ruler included in the book that helps to make the magic happen!! With the leftover pieces you can even make some smaller projects. Such an amazing technique. I can't wait to give this a try. Eleanor's performance was very entertaining!

Then Annie showed us the pattern that she has developed for Quilt In A Day, How Charming. Of course I just had to pick up some fabric to make a quilt for myself. Great job Annie!!!

This will be my first installment of quilt camp!!!! UGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGH!! My computer just doesn't want to cooperative with picture downloading......extremely slow!! So some tinkering will need to happen before I can post more photos. Stay tuned!!! A very Happy Mothers Day to one and all!! Later alligators :-)!!!

Major Computer Problems.....But Finally Back In Business!!

What a week the computer and myself have had - UGH, let me restate MAJOR UGH!!!!!! First

it started off I couldn't get to my blog or visit anyone elses blog....then no emails.....and finally the thing just wouldn't do anything but come up with an error message that I was timed out. HOW RUDE.....the computer actually had the nerve to give me a time out!!!! HUMP....STOMPING MY FEET....POUTING..... OK, so maybe I needed a time out! My girl came home Friday and took pity on me and had a look see. It was the two of us for a couple days, a girlie couple days, and we had invited Mr. Wiggles to spend the night Friday so his mommy and daddy could have a date night. We had so much fun. He is quite the entertainer now! After he went to bed, she tackled the computer and after a few hours of doing who knows what she decided it needed to be defragmented......whatever that means. Now all my fragments must be back in place because I am zipping around like crazy!!!!!! A BIG OLD WOOHOO TO MY GIRL!! Today was lunch with all the kiddos....life is good and we are very lucky parents!

I am up to my eyeballs in bindings....no complaining, just stating the facts, so that has occupied

my week also. This is an antique quilt I worked on today. The customer took the quilt apart and the blue sashing and binding was actually the backing fabric. Love that blue fabric!

Early Monday morning my friend Carol and myself leave for a four day Quilt Camp at Camp Cedar Glen with the Quilt In A Day ladies - YIPPPPPPEEE. Here's a peek at the pile I have going so far! I am sure by tomorrow I will have changed what I am taking. We are meeting a group of friends for breakfast on Monday and then a quick quilt shop stop (gotta visit a shop before camp), and then off we go. I will have pictures and stories to tell at the end of the week. I am so excited to be seeing my buddy Annie also!!!

Here's some good quilt reading!!! I don't know if you have ever subscribed to the Goat Gazette by Country Threads, but wow is it ever full of quilty goodness! Everything from quilty stuff to animal interest stories, happenings at their shop with tempting quilt related items, recipes and just general wonderfulness. And of course the annual Quilt Sampler.....gotta love the Quilt Sampler!!!

I have really missed all you bloggy people and seeing what everyone is up to! Karen has posted her tutorial for the car caddy!! She did a great job on it. I'm thinking these will make great presents for quilty friends. Ms. Geranium is having so much fun playing in the dumpsters while they prepare for their BIG MOVE!!! I know there are stories going on over there that I need to catch up on!

Here's a bit of the flora and fauna Mr. Polka Dot has been tending to. I find him outside working in the yard every day. I was worried about him and retirement. His job was fast paced and I wasn't quite sure if he was ready for that to be over. WRONG!!!!!!!!!!! He is happier than ever and busier than ever. In fact the two of us just don't understand how we ever fit working in! Everyone kept telling us that, and boy is it ever true. I highly recommend the whole retirement thing!!!

Well I've gabbed enough for this post and I need to get my sleep so I can get ready for packing for camp tomorrow! Happy rest of the weekend bloggy people!