Busy, Busy, Busy

The first few days of February have just been plain busy...nothing quilty to report, but there are sure some wonderful things going on elsewhere!!

 Robyn at Daisy Quilts is having the most wonderful February Hearts sew-along...and a great tutorial to go with!!  It keeps calling me and I suppose by the weekend I will have given in.  Only problem TIME....where or where can I buy more hours in the day?!  She is a lover of scrappy quilts (my favorite), and so much  scrappyness to see on her blog!

Last night I was doing a bit of blog hopping and hopped over to Cluck Cluck Sew....a peek at her quilt closet and buffet...yummy eye candy and again wonderful scrappy quilts....hmmmm more hours in the day pleassse!

Allie is hosting Christmas Through The Year......the challenge, every month to make a Christmas present.    Yesterday she posted some wonderful tutorials (click here), including one that gives you links to the top 100 tutorials of 2010.  I love this idea of actually getting things done ahead of time..what a concept...and there's no pressure. You only join in when you want!  There's even a giveaway each month!  Mr. Linky is part of her club, and you can pop over and see what participants made for January.  

Now back to that time thing!!  Happy end of the week everyone!

Tickled Pink Tuesday

Today is Tickled Pink Tuesday!!!  What, you ask??  Last
Tuesday I couldn't come up with a post title and I used Tickled Pink Tuesday.  Allie commented that she liked it and wouldn't it be fun to write about what Tickles us on Tuesdays, and even offered to make us a button.  So today Tickled Pink Tuesday is born, thanks to Allie and I love the cute button!   Now here comes the "Tickled Pink" part!

I belong to a friendship group that does a yearly quilt exchange.  The beginning of the year (last January 2010) we drew names, well actually envelopes  It's all top secret till the big reveal dinner. In the envelope is our name, a couple yards of fabric of our choice and any notes about quilts we like.  We have all year to make our quilts, including having it quilted.  Then we have a quilt exchange dinner.  A local restaurant has this wonderful back room that we have all to ourselves. Let the quilt show begin!!! Such amazing quilts, and I am Tickled Pink about the center quilt....that's mine made by the sweetest friend anyone could ever ask for, Metta!!  There's a few quilts I didn't get pictures of, but at our March meeting we are bringing them all back and I'll get those pictures then.  Click on the photo to enlarge.

So what are you Tickled Pink about??  If you like grab the button and join in!  Thanks Allie for this great positive idea!  Happy Tuesday everyone.

Word Up Sewing Party

Here's my update and I am happy to report a finish, for our Word Up Sewing Party!!!  Such a fun afternoon of sewing with the Word Up Girls!!  Tomorrow is a Quilt Till You Wilt day at my LQS and my new pincushion will be attending, a reminder of my word and all you ladies.  Thanks Kelly and Kris for hosting such a fun sewing party.

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Today is our Word Up Sewing Party.  Kelly and Kris thought it would be fun if we all worked on a project that reminds us of the word we picked for the year....mine is "Gratitude".  She will have Mr Linky going so we can check in and see what everyone is working on. What a great way to spend Saturday afternoon!

I decided to make a heart pincushion from an old quilt block I've been hoarding...with the word "Gratitude"embroidered and buttonholed on.  I embroider at a snails pace!!!  Have my snacks ready, and I will be

watching a marathon showing of Top Chef!!!!!

So.....ready set EMBROIDER!!!

Tickled Pink Tuesday!

The title makes no sense...I just couldn't come up with anything and the last few days have been filled with fun...well I'm just Tickled Pink!

Saturday was party day for our little dot...a whole one year old!  Gotta start the day with some milk...partying is hard!!  There was a wonderful birthday cake and thank goodness big brother was there to help blow out the CANDLE!!!  Lots of laughing and playing in the park and PRESENTS!!!!!  Too bad nana doesn't know how to work the new camera.....most of the photos were set on video...OPPS!

Then to top it off our girl came home for a few days...lots of talking, laughing, and shopping and playing with the Dots!!  We can never get enough Dot time!

Rooting through my sewing closet I came across this quilt I had stuck away with no binding...problem solved..binding done!!!  Then my friend Carol gifted me with this cute summertime raw edge quilt....LOVE IT.....I am so lucky!!!

Wednesday's are my quilty friends day...breakfast in the morning and then Wednesday night sit and sew. You can bet there will be some chatting going on. 

Wishing you all a very, very happy mid week from Big Dot and me!!!

Friday Night Sew-In Update

 I love these Friday Night Sew-Ins and this one for me was pretty darn productive!  Got the snowman/snowflake topper quilted, buttons on, and binding done...so excited about this!!!   Then those happy reindeer guys got pieced together and borders on!...actually did this Friday morning!  I'm leaving the quilting on this one to a professional.  Thanks Heidi and Bobbi for coordinating this fun monthly sew-in. The snowman/snowflake topper is my January finish for Allie's Christmas Club.  Such a great idea....finish a present a month.  Thanks Allie for coming up with such a great club to keep us on track.   Check it out here!!!

Snowmen and Reindeers Oh My!!

Friday night is Friday Night Sew-In so I'm setting out some goals for myself.  Finish the cute snowman/snowflake topper (yes quilting it myself with no whimpering), maybe quilting the snowman runner (yes that is a maybe, depending on how the quilting of the topper goes), and finishing the piecing on the cute reindeer/package runner.  Both the Snowman and Reindeer Tablerunners are Cleo And Me patterns and you can get them at Daisy Cottage.

Saturday our Baby Dot turns 1, so party time!!  Where has the year gone.  Happy mid week friends!

Word Up!

Kelly, our fearless leader of the Charming Girls Quilt Club has set a challenge to us........."We're choosing a word the identifies what we'd like to see more of in our lives in 2011 - what we want to cultivate in our lives!  It's a word to reflect on throughout the year - and to help us "live our best life" as Oprah would say!"   I thought this would be easy to pick a word, but I've had to sit with this for a few days and then it came to me.  GRATITUDE...a feeling of thankfulness and appreciation.  That's it!! Eureka!!!  I have so much to be thankful for.  My wonderful sweet family, my extended family and my many "in" person friends and bloggy friends, all of which are always there to support and encourage me.   I am very, very lucky.  Kelly, in her words, said she stole this idea from Diane, one of our Charming girls, but I'm going to say borrow!  Thanks to Kelly and Diane....I am so grateful to you both for coming up with such a wonderful idea!!!

It’s January??

Wow, time flies!  Christmas and New Years were so much fun in Polkadotland.  We have lots to be thankful and grateful for.  So much time spent with family and friends….parties. lunches, dinners and seeing it all through the eyes of our little Dots…..a joyful season for sure.

My friend Carol gave me this wonderful quilt for my birthday…I started one quite a while back and gave up on it…I feel so lucky to have it from her.  I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it!!!
I finished a mini pineapple topper, and got the binding on the topper I made at quilt camp .
Some goodies came from Daisy Cottage…..
speaking of  Daisy Cottage, have you seen all the wonderful Red Valentine goodness over there?  Kits, kits and more kits!!   

Sadly it was time to take all the decorations down and get focused on the year ahead and get back to some quilting!
This was started before Christmas, but now has become a UFO for this year……Happy New Year bloggy friends!!!  UPDATE!
I had several emails about the sweet snowman quilt...it's called Snowy Day, by Ashby's Attic and she has a blog which I linked to!

On The Road To Inspiration.......opps behind again!

I'm behind on my camp post so here goes!!! Whenever I go to quilt camp I always get inspired...very inspired.  All those quilty people together in one place, so many wonderful projects being made, so much quilt talk going on and then to have Eleanor Burns right there with us the whole time....well just plain inspiring!!!  I just have to admit she is like a rock star to me...a living, breathing, quilting rock star.  She's to blame for my first quilt class.  The sign posted in that craft store 26 years ago read "Log Cabin Quilt In A Day"!!!! Well heck, I have a day :-) !!!  That's the very moment where my quilting obsession was born.  So many quilts and wonderful friendships have been made since that day and I give her all the credit.  Her passion for quilting is infectious, and how she keeps the schedule she has is a mystery to me!!  All the people she has started down the quilting path......well just plain amazing.

Camp this year was mainly a social (jabbering) time...but here's some pretty quilts that were there to inspire. Gotta love a log cabin....and this quilt on the right called to me all camp!!  I have a huge collection of 30's that just need to be made into this quilt.   An oh so sweet posy quilt...love the rick rack for the

stems.  I can just see this beauty on a little girls bed. 

 My dear friend Annie made this cuter than cute birthday quilt for her granddaughter Clare's first birthday...it's in a Quilt In Day book called Ice Cream Cone Quilt.  Some grandma love went in to that!  So great visiting and sewing with Annie.      

Here's a group of us visiting Eleanors studio.....Lani, me, Karen, Jennifer and Pat...all such great friends...I'm a lucky girlie!   This should be an add for how are you enjoying retirement?!  My friend Beth (standing) retired in June and sadly moved away to New Mexico...well not sad for her but for me because we can't play anymore.  She is so happy and loves her new place. We all were very grateful that her husband drove her to quilt camp.  That's Judy and Marilyn enjoying our visit at Eleanor's lovely home.

Since camp things have been very busy. Thanksgiving....

my sweet family.  Then there's been some decorating happening...  getting lights on the tree, decorating the castle......

oh wait....that was a visit to Disneyland with the Dots, their mom and dad and our girl.  We were busy looking for Nemo.....and here's our girls!

Yes decorating is happening in our castle, but may be not as many lights!  Happy December everyone!

Break Is Over!!!

Break is over....and it's time to get back to blogging.  We had a great summer with some good camping trips thrown in.  One with the whole family, even our daughter's guy came, who Big Dot calls "Buddy"!!!  It was great having Buddy along.

The dots are amazing....growing like weeds and so much fun.  We are very lucky to get to spend so much time with them and they keep us extremely entertained.  Big Dot carries on a great conversation and Little Dot is a rolling/crawling machine. 

Quilting, yep I've been busy!!  Attended a wonderful quilt camp in August with my friend Evelyn and finished a topper and an Xmas quilt.....almost anyway.... binding to come!

Then my local quilt shop had it's monthly Quilt Till You Wilt day and I worked on this runner and my latest obsession candle, mats..these will be Xmas presents for a couple quilty friends.  A great fast, easy project.....quilting and binding to be done!

Finally the snowman heads are done, and just in time for Halloween I made this super fast Halloween Jack...yes the binding was on in time!  

and......some Xmas stockings for some kiddos...............

Next week I am heading out with a group of quilty friends for the Quilt In A Day Fall camp which means spending time with my sweet friend Annie....woohooo!   Have my projects cut and boxed...what???? I'm ready ahead of time....SHOCKING!!!  Can you tell I'm excited to go??

It feels good to be back, but better to be seeing what all of you have going on!!  Happy weekend everybody!!!

A Bloggy Break

I've decided I'm going to take a bloggy break for a while. Life is just too busy...filled with lots of fun things to do and see and lots of family time.....and spending as much time as possible with our little dots :-)!!

I still will be visiting all of you, and counting on lots of inspiration along the way!! Happy June everyone!

A Graduation…..a BIG birthday wish and BINDINGS!!!

A week ago tomorrow our nephew graduated from high school…a handsome graduate I have to say, and there’s his big sister ( a college graduate a couple weeks ago) helping him out. We had a wonderful family celebration before the ceremony and lots of us there to cheer for him. We are all so very proud and just know there is a wonderful future ahead for him.

Look who’s birthday it is today……our very own Miss Red Geranium. I stole this picture from her blog and it makes me laugh like crazy…in a good way of course. Not only is she having a birthday was an “O” in it, her new online store is minutes away from opening. It is so darn cute and Sharon is very excited for everyone to have a look see……

Isn’t this button too cute for words. Her webmaster…talk about being professional…is still working out the bugs. She will have a newsletter and all kinds of fabric, patterns, books, kits, notions and on and on. The site is AMAZING!!! Sharon is busy getting products loaded on, so I’m thinking shopping should be happening at any moment. So go have a look see , Daisy Cottage Quilting, and give our girl a big birthday wish.

I have been locked up in my sewing room working on

BINDGINS!!!!!!!! Business is booming ! All seven of these quilts belong to my friend Jan, three of which will be hanging in The Sisters Quilt Show in Oregon next month. Last night at our friendship group Jan shared them with us………….we all were jealous--- very, very jealous. She is such a prolific quilter …amazing the amount of quilting she gets done. The green one on the right is a graduation quilt filled with wonderful picture memories . She is fearless when it comes to quilting, and makes patterns that I just look at!! Wish I could size the pictures a little bigger, but I couldn’t quite figure that part out! I think if you click on them they will enlarge. In addition to doing these bindings, there have been Mothers Day quilts and wedding quilts, so no quilting happening here! Call me crazy (many have!), but I love doing bindings!!!!!

For The Charming Club this month I am going to catch up on the Jelly Roll Along blocks (2 behind) and follow along with the quilt along, a minature version of the Between Friends pattern that Darlene shared with us. Thanks Kelly and Darlene for the great quilt along idea.

Happy June 9th everyone!