Heavy wind damage in the neighborhood.

We had heavy winds and rain here this morning.  It was trash pickup day so the wind decided to topple all the trash cans.  We have trash everwhere plus many downed trees.

This one is next door and just missed our house by a few feet. 

Visitors

Look at the visitors we have been having the past 10 days or so.

These are Baltimore orioles.  First we just had one, several days later we started seeing 2 of them.  I put out jar lids with blackberry jelly in them.  Yesterday a third one appeared.  We had a feeder out for them but they prefer the jelly.  Not sure how long they will stay.

I decided to join the “Stitch Me Up Embroidery” blog since I do enjoy hand embroidery.  I always have a project ready to grab to take with me for doctor appointments or road trips. 

I ordered a sample package of the Finca thread from Jane at Janes Fabrics and Quilts and I must say it is a very nice thread.  I chose a design for my project were I could use a lot of different colors from my sample package.

I personally know Cyndi from  Bee Tree Designs so I wanted to use one of her designs  as my pattern for the door stop I made.  Hopefully Spring is just around the corner so I can open the door and put my new doorstop to use.

Please visit all the other lovely stitching projects.

Judy @That Other Blog

lauraluvsloons and Quilting too

Sew Sharyn

Sewingly Along

Anita's quilts en handwerken

Quilt Doodle Doodles

Val's Simple Passions

Luv2Sew

Busy As Can Be

Paws for Stitching

 Quilting & Other Craft Therapy

pieceful life

Live Love Labs

Felt pa Asly

Scrapbook-ChickADoodle

I hope you will be inspired by so many and as I am,

grateful for the leadership of Jane’s Fabrics and Quilts

and for Madame Samm for her brilliant ideas and

willingness to steer so many of us to be creative.

Thank you Ladies!!

Also, thanks to all that have visited and left comments.

Your comments are encouraging to all of us.

Friendship Pillow

I recent finish. I enjoy doing hand embroidery and found this quick pattern and kit on a recent road trip with several dear friends.   

SNOW HAPPENS

This is a Bird Brain design that I hand embroidered .  I always have a project ready to grab when I need to sit and wait for appointments for myself or my mom. I have a problem sitting and not having something to do.  I finished the piecing and quilting in time for Christmas and the winter season.  

Hawaiian Cruise

Just returned from my first cruise and first time to Hawaii.  It was a great relaxing trip.I have so many pictures I cannot decide which ones to print.  The volcano national park was awesome, the rain forest was beautiful in its own way.  The Wainea Canyon was beautiful, pictures do not do it justice.  It was nice to visit Pearl Harbor. There was so much to see and take in during our visit to four of the islands.  We hand a great time.

                                     Wianea Canyon Lookout.

Haleakala  at 9746 feet elevation.. We are above the clouds.  

Rainbow falls.

Our Ship, the Golden Princess.

Oh, Christmas Tree Quilt

I have finished a fun and easy to piece quilt.  Pattern is from Moda Bake Shop. http://www.modabakeshop.com/2011/07/oh-christmas-tree-quilt.html#more
If you have not visited this site before they offer a lot of free patterns.
Colors are much brighter than the picture shows.

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Pot Holders I Recieved

At our guild meeting this week we had our annual pot holder exchange along with our summer picnic.  Oh, my we had lots of great food and some great looking desserts.  I am dieting so I abstained from these.
Look at the beautiful pot holders  I came home with.  All are way to cute to use.

A lot of time went into making these with the yo-yo's attached on the pocket.  Love them. Janet M.

This strawberry has tiny black buttons on it.  The owl will be a nice holiday addition.. Thanks Janet V.

These two from Patti S. have a warning on the back side.  "Don't Mess With Apron Strongs"  Thanks Patti

Pot holder exchange 2012

Our August Quilt Guild meeting will be having a potholder exchange along with our summer picnic.  These are the ones I plan to take as my exchange.  It will be interesting to see all the different designs our members will come up with.

I have been making hexagons lately and decided to put some on a potholder.

Using some of my scraps.

This is a pocket style potholder.

Red Work Pincushion

I have completed another pincushion.  I like to do embroidery work while traveling or waiting in doctor's offices.  Thanks to Kaaren from the Painted Quilt for sharing her lovely patterns.  This one is from last months First Friday Freebie.   Visit Kaaren's blog for more lovely patterns.http://thepaintedquilt.blogspot.com/

Not sure, but I think I will donate this to our Quilt Guild for  a sale item in our booth at our Quilt show in June of 2013.

Pincushion Exchange

Last week we had a pincushion exchange at our guild meeting.
These are the two that a made. The bird is red work embroidery  filled with crushed walnut shells and the other is a combination of the walnut shells and some stuffing.

These are the two I came home with.  Are they not cute as can be?

The cushion on the chair lifts off so you can store a thimble and needles in it.  This one was not hand made. However,  I still love it. Thanks Janet.

This bench was rescued from a garage sale, Theresa painted, added flowers and covered the bench with a cushion.

Barbed Wire Quilt

I have finished my Barbed Wire quilt, the pattern is from a Fons and Porter's Quilt magazine.

It started out as a challenge in one of my quilting clubs.  Several of us exchanged fabric strips so we would have a good variety of prints to use in this scrappy quilt.  We were to donate the finished quilt to a charity.  After all the work put into these quilts it was decided we could keep our quilts if we wanted and donate a different quilt.
I have decided to keep my Barbed Wire after making all those half square triangles.

This is my quilt. I have found another quilt that I have made that will be donated to a charity.

Snow Happens

No we did not have snow in Missouri in May
However I did finish my "Snow Happens" and is now waiting to be quilted.

I enjoy hand embroidery and like to have projects ready to take along when I know I will be sitting and waiting for a while. 

My new hobby

No, I have not given up on sewing and quilting.  However, I have taken up knitting and enjoying  the easy projects at this time.  May try something more advanced soon.
One of my friends gave me this pattern on Sunday.  Look what I finished.  Don't look to close, I am sure there are a few mistakes in it.

Yes, our Dogwood trees are in full bloom, all six of them.

Found this Tiger Paw pattern and had to try it.  I think I should have used a smaller needle. I guess I will have to make another one just to see the difference.

Crayon Challenge

Our local Guild recently had a crayon challenge.  You received a bag with two crayons that you were to use in your project along with only one additional color.

My two crayons were golden yellow and turquoise.  I think my project turned our rather cute but certainly not as detailed as most of the other entries.

Some little child will enjoy this at some point.

A recent completion

I have a finished quilt. Finishing projects is on my list of things to do this year. I have a good start.


This was a mystery quilt I started 6 months ago through our local quilt shop, Specialty Quilts. The quilt consists of half square triangles and 4 patches. It was a fun and easy quilt to make. I chose Kansas Troubles charm packs for my quilt. It will be interesting to see the other quilts as we all chose different lines of fabric.

Gift exchange at Thimbleberry Club

The Thimbleberry Club at our local quilt shop had our Christmas party and gift exchange this weekend.
I  received this lovely "Twister" Christmas tree with all the emblishments on it.  I love it.

I received this in exchange for the Snowman in my previous post.

Hooked on Knitting

After watching several of my friends knit I thought I would give it a try.  At one of our girls day out Gerry surprised me with a starter kit and DL was kind of enough to sit with me and give me some tips. 
I am no way at the level of knitting as these girls but I am enjoying making dish cloths. Will share a few pics of the ones I have made.

And one more for the season.

Another one of the grils shared  her Neck Warmer Parrellagram pattern with me.  It  is a good one for a beginner.  This can be worn several different ways.

I have not given up on sewing.  Just a few of the things I have made.  Cannot show everything because some are Christmas  gifts and I don't want to reveal them  just yet.

Four placematts.

A small snowman wall hanging using from my stash to finish.  I did hand embodery this one. 

Two more placemats. This time machine embrodery.

This is all for now.

Pot holder exchange

Our guild had a potholder exchange this month along with our annual picnic.  What a wonderful turn out we had. There were no two alike.
Here are three  of the four I made, I made one last minute and forgot to get a pic of it. The red one and the butterfly ones are mitts.

These are the four lovely potholders I cam home with.  The red and white one is hand quilted.  Each one too pretty to use.

Tomatoes instead of flowers.

We decided to put tomato plants in my backyard flower bed this year.  We have gotten some really nice tasty tomatoes.  Last nights storm blew all the plants over, we restaked them so hopefully they will be OK.  Sure would love to have some more of these yummy fruits.  We have been having some great BLT's the past few weeks.