Friday, October 29, 2010

Happy Surprise...Thank you Thelma

Thelma over at Cupcakes 'n Daisies did a wonderful post about Belle Meade by Bonnie Blue quilts...she and Nicole decided to work on this one together and invited anyone to work along with them. Well, I was so excited...I had started this quilt last year and then put it away......what a happy, happy surprise when I unearthed it...all 42 of the blocks were DONE......YIPPEE! and tucked right there with the blocks was the piece of fabric for the setting triangles...what in the world was I thinking? Why did I get all those blocks done? Why did I stop when I was on the home stretch? I have absolutely no idea...I don't remember what happened. But thanks to Thelma, I searched for it and I finished the top......my first finish on my new machine! Howie wandered into the picture and got his feelings hurt when I told him I was going to delete the picture because Mr. Quilt Holder had the left corner a little crinkled...so here you go Howie...don't tell Zack you are on the blog today!

Thank you Thelma and Nicole...Blogland is the BEST!!!!!!!!

Thursday, October 28, 2010

A New Addition to Our House

Don't think I could be any more excited...last Friday I test drove a Janome Memory Craft 6600...I knew I was going to like it a lot because I'd sewn on Lynda Hall's machine when we were working on the cancer project. Then I heard from lots of you that have one how much you love it. So yesterday, we went and picked it up...I've been a Bernina girl for probably 30 years...I have a 20+ year old Bernina 1230 that I have put thousands and thousands of miles on over the years...it's been a GREAT machine. When I had it in for it's yearly spa treatment back in May, my service guy called me to tell me he had some bad news...there was some major gear that was almost worn out...to make it worse, he can't get parts for it anymore...well, maybe he could locate it on EBay, but it just wouldn't make any sense to put that kind of money in to this old machine. I brought it home and sewed away on it for several more months...last month it started making really bad noises...just like he said. So I had a ceremony and put it safely in its case...out came the 30 year old Bernina...it sews like a dream but I really want it to be my backup machine not my full-time machine...so here it is......my new machine...Mr. Quilt Holder snuck in with the camera and took a picture of me putting the first mile on her......looking forward to putting thousands of miles on her.

Sunday, October 24, 2010

Maine, Beautiful Maine

We loved Maine! It was absolutely beautiful! The coast, the water, Acadia National Park, the trees...The first night we stayed in this converted lighthouse not far from Bath. This lighthouse was built but never commissioned by the Coast Guard...to many rocks...so it sat for years and then someone decided to build a resort around it and they converted it into 12 rooms (I think that's right) and then the 4th floor is up just below where the lights would have been...they have wonderful wicker chairs up there, the perfect place to read or stitch a little...you can see for miles and miles from up there. I loved it. Our room was on the 1st floor, and this was our view out our window at 6:30 in the morning. It was the perfect way to start the day.

From there we headed down to Bar Harbor...but stopped in Camden for lunch...this tree was in someone's side yard ...stop the car, let me take a picture of that gorgeous tree......it was breathtaking...there were about 4 shades of red/orange in this tree. While we were in Bar Harbor we went to Acadia National Park...what a beautiful park...if I lived near there, that's where I'd go walk every day...the views were beyond belief. This is the top of Cadillac Mountain...this is the place that dawn breaks first on the Eastern Seaboard...pretty, pretty, pretty!

I was really hoping to see a moose...no luck...well we walked into LL Bean in Freeport and right there......a moose...Oh I was so excited! I don't know if he'd ever been a real moose or not, but he was pretty darn big...and looked like a moose...so I'm calling him my Maine moose. Andy's still laughing at me.

Saturday morning on the way back to the airport, i still needed more leaf pictures...I just couldn't get enough...so 70mph, from the back seat...leaves and more leaves. I just loved the way there were pine trees mixed in with all the other trees, so there were some beautiful greens mixed in with all the shades of red, gold, orange. We live in a BEAUTIFUL country!

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

An Amazing Package

We're back from Maine...what a beautiful, beautiful state. The leaves were gorgeous, the weather was mostly beautiful and the food was out of this world. I'll be back with a few pictures...

When we got back I had the most wonderful package waiting for me...my prize package from The Year of Schnibbles Parade...I still can't believe I won Carrie's prize...I am still absolutely doing the dance. This box was filled with the best goodies...Layer Cakes of Punctuation (and you know I love that), and brand new layer cakes of Wild Rose by Blackbird Designs and Le Encole by French General...charm packs from one of my favorite design teams, Brannock and Patek...these are older lines and I don't even remember there being charm packs for these groups...Gatherings, Four Seasons, and Rites of Spring...I couldn't be more thrilled with those...and look at the wonderful wooden box that Carrie put those charm packs in. I've had that box in lots of different places in my sewing room, I think I've finally settled on where it's going to live, well for a little while anyway...LOL! There's an autographed copy of Schnibbles Two, a rotary cutter,all of Carrie's individual Schnibble patterns tied with a cute ribbon, a Schnibble project bag, my favorite Prescencia thread that Carrie has me hooked on, and a 6 1/2" square and a 6" X 12" OLFA frosted rulers...now I'm going to tell you that I'm not a gadget girl and I don't buy new rulers just because they're the NEW thing so I've never had these...I've used them this week a bit and I LOVE them...they don't slip but my favorite thing is that there is no glare on the ruler. The lines are nice and thin and it's very easy to read...I'm hooked! This was the most amazing prize! Carrie is not only an amazing designer, she's an amazingly generous person...Thank you Carrie! Thank you again to Sherri and Sinta for a fun, fun year!

Sunday, October 10, 2010

Le Petite

Well, I really didn't think I'd be back so soon, but I finished the first project for Le Petite today...Paganini by Carrie Nelson of Miss Rosie's Quilt Company......this one was so much fun to do. There are 4 versions in this pattern and I picked number 4 except Carrie has a wonderful scallop on her's...I'm a big scaredy cat and I was afraid to do it...so here's my simplified version...it's going to Hampton and Camden for their kitchen table...I used Punctuation fabric by MODA and American Jane...they'll have fun with all the letters and colors.

Saturday, October 09, 2010

I Haven't Been Abducted By Aliens...

I haven't fallen off the Earth...but I have been gone way too long. I do have some excuses though...Josh, Katie, Hampton and Camden came last Friday and were here through Tuesday. Well, I had to do some serious cleaning before they arrived...so I spent the whole week before they came cleaning floors, windows, bathrooms (really clean), fronts of all the kitchen cabinets that were at Camden level and all the baseboards. My friend Jeanne called one morning and asked what I was doing...when I told her I was cleaning baseboards she asked if I had the queen coming...Andy had already been making fun of me...he thought I was being a bit obsessive...after Jeanne and I laughed a lot, I did admit that I was probably a bit over the top, but with the kids on the floor and Camden being the busy girl she is I thought I really needed to be as clean as we could be. They both have some allergy issues from time to time, and with the dogs I figured they had enough to adjust to.

They arrived last Friday and went back to Birmingham on Tuesday. I went and got Mom and brought her here too...we had the whole family here and it was so much fun. Mom had a blast! We crammed lots into a short time...the kids swam in the pool...Hampton loved Grandy's raft and thought it was a wonderful boat... He figured out how to paddle all over the pool using his little kick board. He also thought this would be the perfect spot for a nap...Camden loved the waterfall...she never wanted Josh to move away from it.
We colored in coloring books a lot...we went to the playground in our neighborhood...and they went to DowntownDisney and Hampton got his face painted...he was the cutest Pluto ever. He really didn't want to go to bed, he was afraid all of his paint would come off on the pillow...a little came off but he still looked really cute when we went to Disney World the next day. I didn't take many pictures at Disney...we were way too busy having fun...here's one of them waiting in line to meet Buzz Lightyear... Disney is such a wonderful place to visit with little people.
As they were getting ready to go on Tuesday I could hear Camden giggling in the living room...she was having so much fun... trying to walk in Mamie's shoes.
We had a wonderful, wonderful visit...I feel like we laughed and smiled continually from Friday to Tuesday. I couldn't believe how quiet the house was when they left...Wednesday morning I kept waiting to hear Hampton call me from upstairs..."Mamie I'm awake"...can't wait to see them again. We'll head up there right after Christmas. Hampton wanted to know if he was going to have 2 Christmas' again this year...you betcha!

Before the kids arrived I did get Camden's Short Story finished...this one was as fun to do as the little one for her doll carriage. I'm still in love with this Bliss fabric.

Well I know I just came back, but I have to tell you, I'm leaving again for a bit...Andy and I are taking a trip to Maine...we're leaving early, early Tuesday morning and we'll be back on Saturday evening. Our favorite pet sitters are coming to stay here with the boys...they're great and they just love the boys...so, I'll see you next Sunday...have a great week!