My New Years Thought for You

HOW TO STAY YOUNG
1. Throw out nonessential numbers. This includes age, weight and height. Let the doctors worry about them. That is why you pay 'them'
2. Keep only cheerful friends. The grouches pull you down..
3. Keep learning. Learn more about the computer, crafts, gardening, whatever. Never let the brain idle. 'An idle mind is the devil's workshop.
4. Enjoy the simple things.
5.. Laugh often, long and loud. Laugh until you gasp for breath.
6. The tears happen. Endure, grieve, and move on. The only person, who is with us our entire life apart from God, is ourselves. Be ALIVE while you are alive.
7. Surround yourself with what you love , whether it's family, pets, keepsakes, music, plants, hobbies, whatever. Your home is your refuge.
8. Cherish your health: If it is good, preserve it. If it is unstable, improve it.. If it is beyond what you can improve, get help.
9. Don't take guilt trips. Take a trip to the mall, even to the next county; to a foreign country but NOT to where the guilt is.
10. Tell the people you love that you love them, at every opportunity.
AND ALWAYS REMEMBER :

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.

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

This was sent in an email to me from my sister in law, and was so timely that I couldn't wait to share it with you all, for the new year. I hope that it provokes as much thought for you, as it did for me. May you all have a Wonderful New Year!

Merry Christmas

While I am a little late in posting this, I do hope that Santa flew over your place last night, and delivered all of you, many wonderful Christmas memories. It has sure been a great year blogging and reading all your blogs. You have inspired me beyond my wildest dreams. May you all, have a wonderful holiday season. This is my last Christmas project posting for this year, an Anita Goodesign tile scene done on my embroidery machine. Hope you  enjoy!

While the Stocking were hung!

Or at least my version of that Christmas story. This week has seen a finish to my 22 mug wraps for the holidays. Part are gifts and part are going on my Christmas Eve table, so everyone gets to take home a little taste of holiday candies. Oh yeah, the ones that go straight to the hips!  It's the holidays, so it doesn't count right?  :-)  :-)

Wishing you all a wonderful holiday season! And may all our hips survive them!

Still Stitchin

Almost the 11th hour and I am still working on my holiday gifts. I have to get my act together sooner next year. The more I think about things, the more I realize that I really do need to make it a priority to start in January and get at least 1 Christmas project a month done. This week has found me at my embroidery machine. Here are a few towels that I have finished up using Embroidery Library designs. These micro fiber towels are just the greatest to not only stitch on, but to use too!  I have a set of Oriental bath towels that I was working on when my new Ellisimo machine started making horrible noise, so it's in the shop, and I am hoping that I get it back in time to finish up the hand towels.

Back down to the sweat shop, or should I say Santa's workshop!  :-)

My Christmas Quilt

Here it is my Christmas Quilt 2009. One of my favorite Art to Heart quilt patterns, "I Believe". It's a color combination that I have never used and I love it. For those who might be interested they are having a little contest on Quilting Gallery. I would love for you to take a look at the choices and vote for your favorite.

http://quiltinggallery.com/quilters-fun/holiday-traditions/?utm_source=MadMimi&utm_medium=email&utm_content=%255BQuilting+Gallery%255D+Reflections%252C+Quilter%2527s+Cookbook+and+Voting+for+the+Quilt+Contest&utm_campaign=%255BQuilting+Gallery%255D+Reflections%252C+Quilter%2527s+Cookbook+and+Voting+for+the+Quilt+Contest&utm_term=Holiday+Traditions+Quilt+Contest

There are 2 catagories and you can scroll thru the choices. Mine is in the large quilt catagory. I promise no graveling. Vote for your favorite, what ever it may be!  :-)  They are "all" just wonderful.

Now on another note, we had a shock of a kind here today. My new little kitty Murphy was found to not be a boy today. That's what happens when you let your husband get a pet. He believes whatever his friend tells him. (of course I never really checked it out either)  :-)  :-)  So now I have a little girl kitty with a rather strange name for a girl. But then I do remember a Murphy Brown from a day's gone by TV show. Gheez do we all look stupid in this house or what?????  It sure gave us all a big ole laugh this afternoon!

Have a good weekend, and I hope your all just about ready for the holidays in 2 weeks. Yikes, I gotta get a move on it.

Just a little diversion from the seasonal stitching

Although the holidays are rapidly approaching, the call for a new rug was in order yesterday. Remembering one of those PIGS (projects in grocery sacks) under my stairs, I started digging them thru things to find it. It was oh so close to being finished. A movie marathon last night managed to give me just enough time to complete it!  Yeah one less PIG laying around.  If you have never made one of these rugs, there is really not much better to be had out there. A simple single crochet with the cheapest fabric you can find that is torn into about 2" strips. When I say cheap, I mean it. These fabrics came from JoAnn's fabrics and were $1 a yard. The prints are pretty hideous, (realizing that beauty is in the eye of the beholder). Hopefully I don't offend anyone!  :-)  Normally I walk right by them, but once I realized how wonderful these rugs were, I watch for those special sales. I really can't tell you just how much fabrics they take, but it is a lot.  When you start your fabric strips you don't need to measure, eye-balling it, works just great. I do like to snip off the selvege's and toss them. The trick is in putting all your strips together. Here is a few pictures of the process to hopefully help you along.

First snip a slit about 1" up from the end of your fabrics.

Then line up the 2 pieces.

Take the opposite end of one of the pieces and fold it up a bit.

Here is the trick. You want the fabric your feeding thru to start on the bottom, if it's the end that is on top of the "sandwich". I try to keep this order just to make things easy. You will find that if you feed from the top, it won't lock together.

So here's what it will look like once they 2 ends are pulled together.

A little tug on the ends and it locks nicely into place.

I like to have a good size ball of fabric connected before I start my crocheting, but it is very simple to add as you go. Oh yeah, another little tip I have learned over time is that if you tear the length of the fabric, rather than the width, you will have way less pieces to connect, and that saves a ton on time!  :-)

 A "P" size  crochet hook or #15 is what I use, so it tends to grow quite quickly.

The size and shape is up to you. I tend to work in ovals, just because I am comfortable with that and it works for the size rug I needed.

After the holidays grab yourself some fabric and give this a try. They wash like a dream and wear like nothing I have seen. Debbie Mumm used to have a great tutorial on her web site, but I see she has taken it down. I am sure if you use "Google" you can still find a tutorial or two online if you need better directions.

ENJOY!

I'm back!

So I did manage to get out of the storage room. 2 carloads of my son's stuff to his house, a trip to the Goodwill, a few loads of trash and things are looking up. :-)  Even had enough time to whip up this little holiday gift. Art to Heart makes it so fast and easy. A few scraps and you have a great inexpensive little gift on hand for the holidays.

What I really need to be thinking about is the painting and fixing up a bedroom that is going to become my husbands office. I did take wall paper down today. Whew, is that a blast from the past or what?  :-)  Do I really want to squander my precious stitching time to paint?????????

                 Especially this time of year... 

Carolina Christmas

My black Friday shopping found me buying yet more fabrics, but at least this time I had a purpose for them!  :-)  These were my choices for Bonnie Hunter's Carolina Christmas mystery quilt. I have even managed to squeeze in time to keep up with the directions when she posts them. I see this moring step 3 is up. We have to cut 592  2 1/2" squares! Yikes, that will keep me busy.

Maybe I need to put off cleaning up the storage room for another day!  It's my yearly holiday project. Not sure just why the holidays seem to be the time that I decide to do all this, maybe the thought of getting thru the mess to get to the Christmas decorations is it. What ever it is, Goodwill is always the recipient of a car load of things when it's over and I am happier that there is again some order for a month or so!  Now the question of the day... Why doesn't it stay organized? That's the million dollar question with no answer around here it seems!  Wish me luck, I am going in!!!!!!!!!!!!

Happy Belated Turkey Day

I sure hope that everyone got their fill of Turkey and the fixin's, because I know I did. Time goes by so fast that it was great to spend some quality time with friends and family.

While I haven't managed to get to posting lately, but I have finished a couple of Christmas quilts. Both of which I am very excited about. The first one shown here, is McKenna Ryan's new "Once Upon a Star" quilt. With my love for the arctic and anything that McKenna Ryan comes up with, this was at the very top of my "have to have" list when it was released this spring.

I will keep you in suspense with my other one for a few days! :-)

Did anyone get up and do some Black Friday shopping?? I looked thru the ads and decided that I really didn't need anything, but my annual pilgrimage to JoAnn's fabrics just had to happen. I needed nothing, but managed to come out of there with 5 sacks of stuff that I didn't need. How do these things happen??????? I did stock up on quilt batting and thread, and I bought fabrics for Bonnie Hunter's new Carolina Christmas quilt on Quiltville.com, but I still have no idea how this happens. It's a sickness I tell you. It really is! :-) :-)

Have a great weekend. Hope you get to some of those holiday projects yourself. The clock is ticking and time is running out. I can't believe Christmas is less than 1 month away now. Yikes!

Color Play-Wanna play?

While I finished up quilting some of my Christmas quilts, I thought I would share my favorite fall wall hanging with you. This is from the Mt Redoubt Designs book, 'tis the Season. By now, I am sure that everyone is aware that fusible applique is really my passion. Fast easy and the details that you get just can't be beat. Letitia Hutchings from Mt Redoubt is another one of my favorite designers. Her creative eye just blows me away. I bought his kit a few years back and when I was checking out the gal at the register mentioned that the fabrics in the store display were not the same as the ones in the kit. It was the store display that really grabed my eye. I was so disappointed that the fabric wasn't the same, that I put it on a shelf and didn't touch it for a couple of years. :-( It surfaced last fall, and I decided that even though I really didn't care for the fabrics in the kit, I would make it up since I bought the darn thing.

Well, who would have ever thought, but I was blown away with the finished project. I don't even remember what the original fabrics were that I fell in love with, but this one was beautiful. The first thing to jump out at me when I opened the package was the pink color. Just who would put pink in with nice warm fall oranges and blues????? It amazes me still that when I look at the finished product, I don't even notice the pink any more.

So now I get to thinking, how far can I go with colors and still find it satisfying to the eye? HUMMMMMMM This looks like it could be a challenge for me to take up next year! Anyone want to join in?

Looks like I need to take a photography class too. Every quilt photo makes things look like the are crooked, and they aren't! Really! :-)

Lamenting

As the snow falls, I sit and lament on how little fabric dyeing I managed to get to this summer. Brought on, no doubt, by with this lovely little pair of underwear that just found it's way in and out of my laundry. A friend and I did these for those "special" men in our lives a couple of summers ago. We laughed so hard that day, dreaming up yet more new and exciting ways to irritate them! Her husband thought they were a hoot and proceeded to wear his. My guys... well that was a different story. My youngest got a laugh out of them and eventually wore them (as a last resort)if he ran out of clean laundry. My older one and my husband were horrified by them. I was rather shocked to find these, in the laundry this week. My husbands found their way to the trash long ago, and my youngest lives 3000 miles away! Hummmmm Someone must be holding out their laundry on me!! But after next weekend, it won't be my concern. He will be moving into his own house and his the laundry responsibilities will fall on someone other than me!! Oh Darn! :-) Guess that gives me more time to do the stitching that I love so much.

I took a wonderful class the past 3 weeks, for a Christmas tree wall hanging. We ended it yesterday with practicing free motion quilting. We played on scrap fabrics and I was amazed at what fun we had. I put some of the techniques to work on a Christmas quilt that I finished up last night. Hope to stitch the binding down and have it posted real soon!

Hope your holiday projects are coming along. The clock is ticking!

So much to do, So little time

As those holidays approach, I am finding that I have way too many things I wanted to get done. I am going to have to give in and hope will be done for next year it seems, but I did get this little table topper finished this week. If you check out
http://melsownplace.blogspot.com/ you can find the pattern, that she so generously posted for us all. It's quick, easy and a great way to use some of your nickel squares up. I did a little adjusting of mine. Mostly because I didn't read the instructions. Oh well, the nice part of quilting is that you have the liberty of changing things to your liking. I am going to consider this to my liking and not that I didn't read thru things! :-O

One suggestion I have is that you really look at your border fabrics. Many times you are able to take parts of it, and incorporate them as appliques. That is exactly what the Angels are. You could adapt this method to just about any type of piecing. A flower from a floral print scattered across a quilt block might just be the thing to spice up things. How about a bear appliqued to a Bear Paw block! The ideas are endless.

I am heading back to the "sweat shop" (LOL) to work on a few more holiday projects. See you soon!

Took a little side step this week and started working on some towel sets. I have embroidered towels for many years now, but it wasn't until staying with a friend a couple years back, I was introduced to her grandmothers great bath mats. She just took a towel folded it in half, put quilt batting in between,(and this is the perfect place, to piece all those left over ends of quilt batting together) then just few little lines of stitching on it to keep things in place. Voila! If you have never stood on one of these, you don't know what your missing. Top that off with easy washing and they wear like no others, I will never purchase another bath mat again. It was such a simple idea, and simply wonderful. I have made plenty of them, and have even done personalized ones for the fishing lodge in Alaska that my youngest works at. I've had their clients wanting them too. They are really great!

As I said, I usually embroider towels sets, but this year I needed Disney's Cars theme. I found the perfect ribbon for them, so there you have it, even faster yet! This is actually for my oldest son, who is moving out!! Yep you heard me, at 27, he finally bought himself a new home. First time out on his own! He is a race car driver, so the cars theme for his new bathroom was a perfect fit. He actually approved the whole idea too! What we are both on the same page about something?
:-) I found the soap dispenser and tooth brush holder in "Cars" theme at Target, and they are too darn cute. He might not have much in the rest of the place, but his bathroom is going be just great!!

As a mom, sending your kids out on there own, you want nothing but the best for them. Not sure my shopping has actually added to that, but I can't stop myself from buying things like dish soap, laundry detergent, bathroom cleaner, toilet brushes and plungers. I am sure he will be just "thrilled" with his new goodie basket!! OR NOT! LOL!!

So as I prepare for his leaving, my husband is going thru his own little faze of this process. They are quite close, and he must be really dreading this next faze of life. The man who throws a fit every time any of us have brought a new pet home, found himself a new friend this week.


Meet Murphy, our new wild child. It's been so long since we have had a kitten, that I forgot just how darn cute they are. This guy is a fireball. He hasn't stopped running and exploring since he got here. It didn't take him more than about 3 minutes to decided that he was king of this castle and has spent every moment since proving that to us all! It's like raising a child all over again! Whew. I am sure there will be many adventures of Murphy in "quilting trouble" to come! That writing is on the wall.

I'm well on my way with Christmas projects this week and should have some ready to post real soon. Hope your all making progress on yours too!

Happy Halloween

It must be here. We have a foot of snow on the ground. Denver is usually so nice, but it seems that Halloween has traditionally brought snow. I remember those days of trudging thru it all with the boys to get their treats. It was always fun though, as we went with a couple other families and made a night of it all. It even got better when one of the gals bought a mini van and had a TV in it!! Man was that heaven. We would just drive from street to street in the heated car and wait for the kids. Can you say dis-connected!!!! The kids were older and much appreciated the fact that we were not hanging around them anyway. :-)

We took a little family vacation last week. Stepped off the plane in our shorts and flip flops to snow. Yikes, what a shock to the system. We took a cruise around the Hawaiian Islands and it was so hot in Honolulu last Saturday night that I couldn't bring myself to put my jeans on before we left. I sure did wish I had when we landed in Denver the next morning.

This is the last little Halloween project I have to share for this year. Another one of Angies Bits and Pieces projects. Since I have managed to "play" away the month of October, I need to get busy with my Christmas projects. Oh yeah, another year that I was going to have them done by July and it didn't happen. Any one else have a track record like mine???? Maybe next year we need to all get together in some kind of forum and inspire each other to actually stick to our game plan!! Let me think on this and see what we can make happen. Please post a comment if you would be interested in something like this, and any ideas you would have on making it work.

For now Happy Halloween.

It's almost that time of year again!

And my new favorite pattern is???? This was in a magazine on the newsstand recently and I ended up using it not only for a swap table runner, but also one for me. What a big difference in the color schemes. It's not too late, consider making one of these little charms for yourself, and be sure to post photos so I can see too!

Happy Haunting!

Fall Tablerunner swap

Another great table runner was found in my mailbox from Becky in South Dakota. Our Quilted Table group is so much fun. Besides the great monthly runners we can make for ourselves, we swap 4 times a year with other members. This swap was a little different, in that we sent our favorite fabrics to our swap partners and they created something with them. Becky had no idea that the Bear Paw is my absolute all time favorite. How great is that! Along with the runner she sent along a bag of Chocolate candy that looks like corn and a bag of Chocolate River Rock candy. Am I in heaven or what!!! If your not a member of our Quilted Table Yahoo group, check us out. (The link in on the side bar) We have such a good time. The monthly runners are all freebie online patterns and we just stitch them up and post photos. It's really fun to see everyone's different takes on the patterns. Then of course there are, our great swaps. Just too much fun to miss out on.

:-)

Up up and away

I've been down to Albuquerque New Mexico for the International Hot Air Balloon Fiesta. It's a yearly event for me. Coupling the color spectacular in the sky with some quality time with my dear friend Laura, what could be better. 43 years is the number we came up with for the time we have known each other. Scary isn't it??? At least for Laura who has had to tolerate me for that long! LOL. What are friends for though right!

The weather was good for the most part this time. Sunday's final mass ascention didn't happen because of the wind, but the rest of the time I was there, was just beautiful. Thursday there was some winds that came up and caused a little chaos for a friend of my son's who had a balloon. He had a little incident that landed him on the Today's show and the front page of the newspaper, but all was well, and his balloon was back in the sky the next day.

Special shape balloons are my favorite, so I am posting a few for you to see. It's all truly spectacular though.

I have actually kept to my word this week. Here it is Oct 3 and I have finished up this month, of my block of the month quilt. Yeah haw!!! This is such a beautiful quilt, that I am glad I put the work in, on it. It would be a shame to have this end up as a PIGS project! (Project in Grocery Sack) Next month is a set of Flying Geese, then December is another round of pieced blocks (and those are already pieced) and it will be done. I can hardly wait to see the completed top.

Hope you all find time to realize your dreams in the week to come!

October already--Really

The calendar says Oct 1. Already? Does that mean that we really only have a few more weeks until the holidays are in full swing?? I need to get busy and get on my Christmas projects. Where did this year go?

After the mind boggling, piecing I have been doing the past few weeks, I really needed a fun, fast and very easy project to do. I found the perfect answer this week, in this little gem. It again brought me back to those days of past, when I would dress up and sing that silly little song myself. Apparently I wasn't the only one who drove everyone nuts with it. When I saw this pattern on Angies Bits and Pieces I knew that it was a must. I used some of my precious hand dyes, that I have a horrible time cutting into also. I have no idea just why I think I can't use them. It isn't like I can't dye more, but just seeing them all nicely displayed in my quiltng room, brings such joy to me. Eye Candy, that is so much better for you that the candy we sung that goofy song about. Trick or Treat, smell my feet, give me something good to eat! My little project this week, doesn't even require an added trip to the dentist. What could be better. I know I keep bragging about Angies site, but I just can't get enough of her great designs. I hope I live long enough to sew them all out! Thanks Angie for a great blast to the past!

Practice makes perfect

All those little tiny half square triangles, have finally been finished and I am happy to say that the blocks are done. This project would have been much better suited to the block of the month that it was intended to be. Letting things go for 9 months was my own fault, but I am delighted with the end results. Strangely enough that ole saying "practice makes perfect" kept rattling thru my head as I was working on it. I used to hate it when my mother would say that to me. Brought back all kinds of memories of practicing the piano. I learned to hate that, more than life and eventually they gave up and sold the piano. Well ma, I practiced something and I think I am about as perfect as I can get with these little 1 1/2" things.

I have never been a fan of pinning anything. My best friends mother was a seamstress. She would kringe when I was at her house sewing. No pins in sight. She was always so meticulous with her work that I drove her crazy. But I must admit, this was no place to not pin and be as meticulous as my friends mom used to be. It was sure a stretch for me, but the end results made it all worth it. Strangely enough the more I pinned the easier these little guys became. Who knew that a little pin would be so useful??????? By the end of this little exercise in patience, these blocks seemed to stitch themselves together and the pins went where they were supposed to the first time around. Now I am certainly not looking forward to taking on a project of this scope any time soon again. For now I am happy with what I have completed.

In peaking at what Oct 1 holds for this block of the month, I am happy to report that I now get to set these little guys on point and add the the center that is done! Yeah, should be much less pinning!!!

I have been busy finishing up projects. This is another one of those that I took a class on this summer. I was able to use up some 2 1/2" strips of batiks I have swapped for a few years also. This little treasure "State of Grace" was really fun and fast to put together. It is from Cosy Quilt Designs "Strip Clubbing" book. Ya family, when I told you I was going to the Strip Club you all wondered, didn't ya!

:-) :-)

It's a great little quilt that would be so much fun to get together with a bunch of friends and swap out 2 1/2" strips to make.

My latest project is to catch up with my block of the month Quilt Show quilt. I have faithfully downloaded each month, but never done more than the center block. It's only the end of September right? Well, I am happy to say that have been slaving away on it, and am just about caught up. In another few hours I will be able to proudly say that I am done up thru September. Oh no, October is just days away. This quilt is a "project" to say the least, but I am going to be thrilled with it, when it's done. It is a beautiful quilt with loads of 1" blocks all half square triangles of course. I can say this is the most intense quilt I have ever taken on, but the directions are great, and other than lots of time into it, there is really nothing hard about completing it. Stay tuned for my posting's on this treasure!

Taking time to see what's around you

Do you all find that when you live somewhere and see the same things daily, that they just don't mean much to you? With my longing to live up North, I have forgotten to see some of the beauty that surrounds me at home. The other day I stepped out to feed the cats and I looked across the road to see the sun rising and the most beautiful sight in the fields across from us. You can definitely see that fall is in the air! I was so excited that I had to quick grab my camera. I played with taking a couple of shots of some other things before I had to get in the car and head to work. I have a few ideas rattling around in my head using some of these in art quilts, so we will have to see where this leads me in the weeks to come. There is no time like the present to pick up a camera and see the beauty that is in your backyard too. You might find yourself as surprised as I was!

Enjoy!

Here's a little project I just finished up and sent off to a friend. It was a very quick little thing, that turned into a load of fun. If you have lots of scraps, it's a great way to use some of them up. Another one of those something from nothings surprises. I do have to say though, while I was working on it, I was not impressed. It really needs to have all the stitching done before it's personality shows up. What a fun mindless thing it was to do. I need a project like this from time to time. Can you imagine it in Christmas colors with lots of golds/silvers, anything sparkly????? Bright batiks, etc. The sky is the limit with this little gem.

I didn't get much sewing done this weekend. Or any, I should say. I took the weekend to play outside my sewing room. It started with a quick trip to Glenwood Springs to the hot pools with a co-worker. Kelly and I had such a good time with our little girls get away. It was just a 1 day-er trip, but OH so much fun. Nothing better than soaking in those hot pools. She showed me a great little quilt shop up there. I bought a very interesting book on art quilting. I promise to "scare" all of you with some of my playing, real soon. :-) :-)

Then the event of the century was this weekend. A 2 day wedding. Ever hear of such a thing? It was truly spectacular. We took the camper and spent the weekend. This couple knows how to throw a party. They rented 7 big air castle things. One was a velcro wall, then there was a bungie cord thing, loads of slides and games. Go cart racing, movies, bonfires, and on and on and on. It was like being at the county fair, only 10 times better. We played all day Saturday, had a BBQ and pizza dinner, loads of birthday/anniversary cakes for all the Sept celebrations, a movie complete with popcorn, nachos and a candy table (4 to be exact) that had a better stock than any store I have ever seen. I don't think they missed any candy ever made. I was in heaven with my "Big Hunk" and Licorce whips!







The wedding was yesterday. It was a beautiful outdoors ceremony, followed by a sit down dinner for 400. You can't imagine just how beautiful the place was. Fish swimming in the cake table, beautiful lights in fall harvest colors. I didn't want to come home.

A special treat for us all was the personalized label, bottle of Almond Champagne. WOW!!!!!!!! It was the greatest thing I have ever had, and we all got a bottle to take home with us. It was soooooo good. The beautiful pot of mum's and pumpkin will be decorating my porch this fall and be a reminder of the very special weekend wedding. Thanks Jodie and Kelly, you two are the best!

Alaska Shop Hop Quilt

For those of you who know me, or read my blog often, you know that my heart and soul is in Alaska. I have never traveled anywhere that is more beautiful and full of wildlife than there. This summer on my travels up north, I came across the shop hop quilt. A commerative for the 50th year it has been a state. A mother/daughter team from Wasilla, (yep Sarah Paulin's town but no connection I am sure) designed this beauty. Mary Thompson and Heather Griffin. I can not tell you just how much fun this was to put together.

I have purchased shop hop quilts in the past only to be very disappointed when, I found the instructions to be very lacking and/or shortages of fabrics. There is a big bag of pieces and the extra fabric for borders and backing under my stairs, likely never to see daylight again!

This is a quilt that definatly is not in that category. The directions for this was so well written, that even a beginner would have little problem putting the blocks together. I love the combination of blocks with the fusible applique. Many play right off the blocks name. Bear paw, Lady of the Lake the tree block. How cleaver. And how about the log cabin block with the outhouse. :-)

Not only was this so much fun to make, it inspired me to work from the front of my longarm for a change and do some freehand work. I am not at all proficient at freehand work on the longarm, but this was just the quilt to get my juices flowing. My mind is seeing more and more design options daily. Now if my mind and my hands learn to work together, I just might be on to something. LOL!!!

Hope you find your inspiration this week where ever it might come from.

Still hoping to get some suggestions for all those nickel squares I posted last week. I am hoping everyone is too busy to post a suggestion, and not that we are all stumped!

Have a great week.