Catching Up......

We had a fabulous time in California.

The weather was perfect on the Central Coast.

Walking on the beach, getting my toes wet in the Pacific.

Heaven.

Spend time with our California boys.

Visited our favorite winery.....

Good friend, Peggy Sue (and baby Mia), joined us for a few days. 

Then we  headed to Las Vegas!

Where the family gathered to celebrate

  Dad's 80th Birthday.

We love ya Dad!

I must admit to buying a couple of CA lottery tickets, crossing my fingers,

wishing and hoping, thinking if I won, I'd just stay.

Dreaming.

Back to reality....

I managed to complete the October Birdie block.

Won't be long and the quilt will be finished.

Love the spiders!

Tried a new recipe

from Taste of Home.

Bite Size Apple Pie

OMG, so easy and delicious!

I did change it up a bit.

I used brown sugar in place of white.

And peeled my Granny Smith apples.

Served warm.....mmm.... with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

I'm leaving you with a beautiful California sunset.

MORE LATER!

Be Back Soon!

Did you think I forgot about you?

  

I spend 4 days last week in Milwaukee with the grandbabies. 

Came home for a day, packed my bags, and then off to our Fall Quilt Retreat.

And did I mention I'm leaving next Friday

for a 10 day visit with my family on the West coast?

Oh yeah, life's moving fast.

I was in charge of the "goody bags" and

door prizes.

A little something to get thru the weekend.

This is what I worked on most of the retreat.

I made 6 Fall tablerunners.

 I'm frantic, stitching the bindings,

 need to finish up before I leave. 

Do you use hair clips instead of pins like I do? 

Check out this cute customer Halloween quilt.

It's All About The Boots!

Can't wait to see it "blinged"!

Love the extra large orange rick rack.

And for all you redwork lovers

did you see Debbie from Busy As Can Be

posted 3 new patterns???
Each pattern cute as the next.

Plus she includes a recipe with each one.

I love tracing the pattern with the red Frixon pen.

It makes it so easy to see.

Aren't they growing up FAST?

Hope this finds you happy in your corner of the world.

 

 

Busy-Busy-Busy

Wow, last week was a busy one.

I have so much to share.

Let's start with Kathie's

 cute Americana quilt.

Hard to see the quilted details.

Love the legs! 

Good job Kathie!

 I finished my September "Birdie" Block.

It's not to late to start.

The embroidery is fast and fun.

Come on..... you can catch up!

 The link to the free pattern is on my side bar.

I'm stitching mine in fun colors as you can see.

Doesn't this look

scrumptious?

I baked this for our Guild meeting last week

and everyone loved it.

No leftovers.

The photo and recipe are from Paula Deen's website.

I mean really,

 2 sticks of butter and 4 eggs....only Paula.

Click to enlarge and print.

It will be a real battle between this and last year's

Pumpkin Crunch recipe this Thanksgiving.
Hubby loved them both.

Working on a Halloween table topper.

Hope to have it finished to show you next week.

 

 

Hubby and I went to see the movie "The Debt".

It's 4 thumbs up from us. 

What a thriller!

 

 

Well, that's my life up to the minute.

I hope this finds you healthy & happy.

Stay safe.

Fall is in the air...

I woke this morning and thought...

I better get my cozy flannel quilts out!

With this chill in the air it feels like Fall has arrived.

I've been busy but haven't finished anything to take pictures of.

I have the cutest Folk Art Country quilt on my machine

that I'm going to work on today.

Wait til you see the whole quilt!

I'm working on my September Birdie stitchery block.

And...

Collecting fabrics for the 15 minute table runner.

Here is the link to the FREE pattern.

The first one may take you 30 minutes but the rest are

15 minutes, I promise. They're really fun to make.

Our Quilt Guild is donating/sewing 40 runners for 

Holiday Cheer Baskets this year.

 Sandy sent me this photo and comment this weekend.

She said "my mom and dad would not eat zucchini bread.....to blah they said...

so last year I made your recipe and my dad LOVES it.........".

Here's the recipe again in case you missed it.
Click on image to enlarge for printing.

I wanted to bake soooo bad this weekend but

with just the 2 of us....well, neither one of us needs it.

 I am going to bake a Pumpkin Gooey Cake on

Thursday for our guild meeting.

I'll save you a piece.

On Friday I'm going to Madison for Quilt Expo.

It's a huge show with lots of eye candy.

And vendors...

My grandson helped me bake brownies

to take to our family gathering.

I thought you might enjoy the pictures.

And ......please
keep Sweet John'aLee and her family (Scrappy Appleyard)
 in your thoughts and prayers.
Her soon-to-be son in law was killed last week
in Afghanistan.

Warm Wishes

Remember the "Warm Wishes" link from last week?

Well, one of my quilting buddies, pieced one for her son's wedding gift.

Didn't it turn out beautiful?

I'm sure the Bride & Groom will love it! 

Look at the perfect "love" fabric she found.

The chocolate brown color adds such richness.

And the striped inner border, a perfect accent.

At our August "Saturday Sew Day"

I demonstrated how to make bias binding

using my favorite "tube" method.

By Shelly Rodgers.

Doesn't the diagonal stripe bias binding add zing to the quilt!

Notice the perfect backing fabric?

Check out the bowl she made using

fabric covered clothesline.

Don't ya just love when a project comes together.

Perfectly.

Last weekend we had a "family gathering" at my son's home in Tomah.

It was so nice to see family and catch up on their lives.

Hard to believe I'm one of the "old aunts" now.

Where have the years gone?

I was able to corral my grandbabies for a picture.

They had such a good time, jumping on the trampoline, playing whiffle ball,

and, of course, a water balloon fight.

 After all, isn't this what life's all about?

***************

I'll leave you with a little campfire entertainment.
The beautiful voice belongs to my niece Ariel.

Don't forget to check out my new Buy-Sell Shabby Chic group on FaceBook.

Not Much Going On

At my house.

Except that the "Brewers" are kicking butt!!

Hubby is a St Louis Cards fan.....what can I say?

I made this quilt for him..... Christmas 2004.

It is a free pattern called "Warm Wishes"

from Quiltmaker magazine.

It's easy to piece! A rail fence really.

Take a closer look.

Unfortunately, the fabric is no longer available.

(Except on Ebay for $75.00 a yard, I kid you not).

I purchased the logo blocks from a seller on Ebay.

Speaking of Brewer fans,

 I just have to share this picture of my grandson.

Again.

He's gonna hate me when this shows up

 in his high school year book!

I did quilt a Sampler for my sis-in-law in MN.

Her first quilt.

She did a great job. Love the colors! 

I am going to deliver it this weekend at a family get together.

And of course, my favorite, the back.

The quilting add so much texture.

Don't you think? 

Love those curly border feathers.

I never tire of quilting them.
(Yes Leeanne, my feathers are freehand.
I use school chalk to mark registration lines).  

 I'm busy selling over on Facebook.

Check it out.

Karen's Mercantile......a little bit of everything.

Fried Chicken and Pie

Spiral phone chords, fried chicken and pie!

Did you see it?

The movie “The Help”?

Equal parts laughter and tears.  

 It's a beautiful story of women. And friendship.

 

The movie will not leave any fans of the book disappointed.

It follows REALLY close to the story and is perfectly cast.

Sissy Spacek takes the cake (pie) as the senile mother.

Watching the Guiding Light on a black and white television

 and eating her ambrosia salad.

She was an absolute hoot!

There are no male characters that stand out

except for the editor of the local paper

who wants his door kept closed at all times.

He's convinced that

"one day they'll figure out smoking cigarettes is bad for you."

Here are the three "Best Actress in a drama" nominees for 2011 in my book.

Can you tell I LOVED the movie?

********************

The Elkhorn Flea market was fantastic!

Hubby and I arrived at the gate about 6:45 a.m.

A perfect cool morning, no rain in sight.

I found some great linens.

This adorable kitty crib sheet and pillowcase.

And these gorgeous embroidered pillowcases.

With hand crocheted trims.

The workmanship is exquisite.

And I rescued another quilt top!

Just in a pile of "stuff' on a vendors' table.

Waiting patiently for me to find it.

A Dresden Plate.

75" x 95".

Someone put a lot of work into the hand piecing

and then just to be discarded......

Breaks my heart.

The basting is still in some of the plates!

Notice the rows are not straight?

None of them matching.

Charming......isn't it?

I think of all the time and energy I spend worrying about

color placement and accuracy. 

Look at all the scraps.

Makes you wonder....

Was this quilt going to be a gift...

or was it needed to keep her family warm?

Why wasn't she able to finish it?
Who packed it away?
Each top I buy is a piece of lost history.
Lost is the name of the maker and what her intentions were.
Can you imagine how happy she will be
to see her quilt finished?