Happy Easter!

Hope your day is full of Easter Joys!!!

Here comes Peter Cottontail!

It's no secret that I love rabbits, in fact, I even named my only child, Peter :)  Been decorating, cleaning and cooking this week before my little peeps all come home for Easter brunch.

I found this mid-century dish recently at a flea market and love it for my little Peter rabbit and some of my eggs.  :)   This year, we have an aqua theme going on here.

  Even the dogs will be wearing  aqua bandanas :)

For the first time I'm using a table cover I got an estate sale last year:

I just love these embroidered rabbits.  Apparently the lady made them sometime in the 1960s (according to her daughter).

 This cottage picture is so cool and I got it for a dollar at a paper sale.  My friend is a framer and she did a great job on it and now I'm featuring it for lunch.

For whatever reason, it reminds me of my Nana Betty.  I wish I could get a better photo of it:

Well my kitchen floor is dry so I better keep moving and get more finished.  Have a great day!

Just a little crazy...

Been AWOL from the blog, friends and work lately.   No real excuse just have the winter blahs (frequent small snow storms here) and have garden fever :)  Today my mini-quilters are having lunch so I'm excited to be getting out and catching up with everyone's news.

I've been playing with crazy quilting.  I always used the foundation method and left the fabric in but after watching some you tube videos and some old Simply Quilts episodes, I'm experimenting.  This is my first completion by using a paper foundation which I removed before piecing the blocks together (versus waiting until it's all pieced and then ripping out the paper).  I wanted to know how bad the bias could be.  

What I learned?  The bias challenges could be pretty bad :D  

Also, I wondered if I could piece the top then embellish it.  Honestly, I don't have a lot of experience with embellishing (most of my crazy quilting was used for placemats) so this was all new to me.  

What I learned?  I'd like to try embellishing the block (especially with embroidery) before I piece the blocks.  So I think I will try that next.  I thought I would make a couple of these little pieces (only about 17 x 13.5 inches).  They are easy to do and I have a ton of scraps I can use.

But a good score for me was reusing old linens that had stains on them and incorporating them into my pieces.  I've ALWAYS wanted to do this and I have tons of embroidered linens.  The pieces that I couldn't bear to throw out can now be incorporated into something like this:

 I just want to experiment a bit more.  The joy of getting older is that you can let go of the idea of perfection and play more.   P.S.:  This cherry fabric was from a sundress that Helena wore :)  Have a great day!

A finish...

My sister in law was rushed to the hospital yesterday.  We are all so grateful that she is stable, she had open heart surgery 6 years ago but her heart is good.  She'll be in the hospital a few days until the doctors have figured out what is going on with her blood levels.  

Anyway, Janet loves the President.  Just last week my friend Beth gave me a piece of Barack Obama fabric because I wanted to do some kind of project for Janet anyway.  Since it isn't my day to visit (we are doing shifts), I made her an Obama bag to take to the hospital tomorrow:

I'm just glad to get a finish done and now I am filling it up with niceties (moisturizer, chapstick, etc) for her hospital stay.  Have a good evening everyone!

Where oh where is Springtime?

Three days til Spring and it's been snowing for 2.5 hours already. I know it could be worse (freezing on contact and accumulating more) but I am yearning YEARNING for Spring and working in the garden.  Guess I'll have to just sew today and look at photos of better times:

Hope your day is warm and happy!

The Party's Over...

I've had a wonderful few days full of friends and family but it's time to go back to work now!  The weekend kicked off with seeing Cesar Millan live at a local theatre, it was wonderful!!!

Seeing Sandra and Dennis was really the highlight.  I am so grateful they made time to visit us!  Sandra brought these wonderful little zippies for the grandkids:

I know the kids are going to love LOVE them :)  Thanks Sandra!  Sandra and Dennis took off early Sunday morning and later that afternoon, I visited family.  Yesterday, I visited Linda up at her farm.  

Her pregnant horse is doing well and her chickens were running around cackling.  This particular rooster was loud and kept startling me:)

We even went for a hike at Leeser Lake which was a lake that lost it's water a while back when  a dam broke but is now refilling with water since the dam repair:

I'm moving slow today but it's time to get back to work!  I sure did visiting with everyone, thanks for taking the time with me!  :)  Have a great day!

Fun filled weekend!

Now THERE'S a post title I rarely use! :)  This weekend is the best in a long time!  Last night, we kicked it off by seeing Cesar Millan at the State Theatre in Easton PA.  My friend Lori took me as her guest (THANKS AGAIN LORI!)!!!  Cesar is the best!  He was wonderful and did a good 2 plus hour show :)

Today, Sandra (that's right our Sandra) is going to be in town for a one night only fun evening.  We are going to go to Joann's for some shopping, Farmer's Market if it is still open, and then her and her husband Dennis are coming for dinner.  I'm making beef bourguignon and will pop some chocolate chip cookies in the oven too :)  

What a great weekend!  Plus the weather is lovely!  I already spent some time this morning cleaning up the garden and will do more tomorrow when it is nearly 60 degrees!  Whooo hooo! :)

Hope you have a great weekend! :)

Pam's Garden

Today I went to Pam's to help her set up her own blog.  In the upcoming year, she and her husband are retiring to North Carolina and we want a good way to communicate each day.  She is very creative:  a painter, quilter, gardener, embroiderer and crafter and I'm sure her blog will be wonderful.  Already, she posted on her own!  Way to go girl!  If you want to visit her, just hit this: Pam's Garden.  I know she would appreciate having some of us visit her :)

While hanging out, she helped me with my Noah's Ark quilt.  I finally finished the embroidery last night and wasn't sure what to do with this.  We figured a wall hanging would be okay and Pam helped me pick the fabrics (thanks Pam!):

Anyway, that is all I have here today.  I'm hoping to get more done tomorrow and Wednesday, especially if it snows (yes I'm actually hoping for snow).

Have a great day!

Ufo updates

Despite my efforts, I only have one UFO completed for the month of February.  I'm still assembling this top--I do hope to have it done by the end of the week (at least the top).

 I did find a UFO that wasn't on my list but that I could finish quickly this month.  It is a miniature version of this top which I hope to get at least basted this month:

Often I make a miniaturized version of bigger tops with leftover scraps so here is the mini scrap quilt that I did complete.  I embellished the baskets with little doo-dads I found in my stash. Sorry the photo is so bad but I think my camera battery needs to be replaced:

Have a great weekend and stay warm (it's pretty cold here in Northeast Pennsylvania)!