300 Posts!

Should there be a drum roll or something?  Three hundred blog posts!  Who knew I had so much to share?  Surely not me.  So thank you for being part of this journey.

I have emailed the new class schedules.  There are only three projects this time.  I thought everyone might like to take it easy for the summer and catch up on other projects.  But I am going to be here and would to have you all visit and create something new!

This mat was orignally featured in a magazine as a tote bag.  After much thought I decided to turn the bag into a mat which I knew I would get much more use from.  I added a couple "new" veggies to the mix.  This was a fun and easy project to work on.  And it's just perfect for the fresh veggie season that we're enjoying now. 

These sweet little sewing companions are from a Wooden Spool Designs pattern.  The bee skep is a needle keep and the bumblebee a pincushion/needle keep.  Both projects are fun and work up pretty quickly.  I think it would be fun to have a big glass jar full of the bees to sit with the Farmer's Market mat.  Always working the decorating angle! 

Finally, a summer recipe book.  This one is chock full of red, white and blue and yummy recipes.  There are seventeen recipes in total with lots of fun decorating to make each page special. 

Tis the red, white & blue season, my favorite decorating time of the year!  It just makes me happy.  Here's to wishing each of you an early Happy 4th of July and safe travels if you're out on the roads. 

And hopefully while you're enjoying the summer holiday, you'll find some stitching time!

Busy Weekend

Happy weekend to everyone.  It's been a busy one around here.  We started out on Thursday with a small quilt class.  Well, as the ladies were coming into class, one of them said there was a deer in the backyard.  I ran and grabbed my camera and sure enough, there was one deer, just standing on the edge of the woods by the trees looking around.  She stayed there for quite awhile and then.........

she started walking across the backyard.  She walked right past the garden, didn't even look at it......kept walking......I ran to the front of the house so I could go on the side porch and see where she was headed...... 

and caught up with her at my neighbor's patio eating her tomato plant.  Uh-oh!!  She nibbled for a minute until she heard me walking closer and she took off around their house.  I decided not to chase her all over the neighborhood.  At least she skipped our garden! 

Betsy proudly shows her first crazy quilt block.  She wore her "dare to be different" t-shirt because she was using colors that were so different for her in her quilt blocks.  Beautiful! 

Helen was having some problems so teacher Lynn sat to help her out.  I think there were six of us in the class and we all enjoyed learning the new block.  Thank you Lynn for sharing your time with us.  I emailed Lynn today and told her I had 57 blocks completed.  Of course I'm the silly one who decided to make a king size quilt with my blocks!! 

Debbie Powell came for Quarter Seamers Club today and brought along show and tell.  I love when she shares her projects.  She finished her flower garden quilt and even had it quilted.  It turned out beautiful!!!  Inspiration girls!!! 

She also brought along this beautiful Spider Web quilt that she's going to be teaching later this summer.  Can't wait to make this one! 

And I can't remember what she called this one, but it is folded fabric which forms the star.  

And these two pieces will also be summer classes that Debbie is teaching.  Enough time to get them done for fall decorating! 

Joshua spent the night Friday night while his sisters went to the Mudcats game where Raleigh was supposed to go on the field with her baseball team and run the bases.  Unfortunately, after waiting an hour and a half, they canceled the game because of thunderstorms.  Joshua, however, was right in the middle of his own baseball game with Mina! 

And while he was waiting on me to feed him dinner, he grabbed the TV remote.  Looks like he knows how to use it!  At one point, I turned on the TV and he looked up shocked because he thought he had done that.  He just laughed over that.  So sweet.

Also, this weekend at the Raleigh Convention Center there was a Sewing Expo.  I believe this is the first time such an event was held in Raleigh.  These two pictures are an overview of the show with lots of eye candy.  There was plenty to look at including lots of beautiful quilts. 

The photo doesn't do this quilt justice.  It was just beautiful in person.  What you can't see from the photo are the eagles that were quilted around the quilt.  This certainly could go right in my house!! 

Primitive Gatherings came all the way from Wisconsin to participate in the show and she sure was a big hit.  Her booth was always full of ladies who had their arms loaded with patterns, fabric, wool and kits.  She had the most spectacular wool pieces.  I purchased quite a few patterns from her that I may try and teach in the future.  That would mean I would have to create the models first!!

There is a stitchery club meeting at my house this afternoon and that will wrap up the weekend for me.  I'm more than halfway to my goal of 100 of the crazy quilt blocks so maybe I will work on those after stitchery club.

I emailed the new class schedule this week.  If you want information regarding the classes, please let me know.

Hope you all have a wonderful week and find some time to do a little stitching!

What's more fun than getting together on a 95 degree summer day and working on a fall project?!  That's just what we did on Tuesday and it was quite fun.  The ladies started working on an ACORNS wool applique mat that they will have completed in plenty of time for fall decorating.  As I took the pictures, it was interesting to see what colors everyone chose for their applique pieces.  Each mat was quite different from another.

My friend Betsy invited me to a rug hooking show in Asheboro on Wednesday.  There was a camp going on there all week and on Wednesday they shared some of their wonderful and beautiful creations.  It was quite awe inspiring and made me want to go home and start hooking a rug! 

Now, don't you feel like you want to start hooking a rug?!!  Some of the rugs were huge and so involved it was mind boggling.   Thanks for a fun day Betsy!!

Have a great day.  We're doing a happy quilt class here today.  Should be loads of fun. 

Find some time to stitch, or quilt or rug hook............

Hope everyone had a good weekend and celebrated Father's Day with all those deserving Dads out there.  My husband and I had a Saturday off together which is very unusual considering both our schedules normally keep us working on Saturday.  So we took advantage of the day and headed off to Concord, NC to do a little antique shopping.  Once we left Concord we headed back to Asheboro and did some more shopping in their beautiful downtown area.  Well, lo and behold, there was a giant mosquito on the side of one of the buildings!!  Imagine!! 

This guy was huge!!! 

And outside one of the shops was a giant banana with a monkey.  Made my husband pose with the giant banana.  I started making him do goofy poses a few years back on his birthday.  And since it's almost his birthday, we got an early start. 

So then I decided he had to pose with the giant mosquito.  These pictures will be nice to add to his other photos from past years! 

And here's another cool thing in Asheboro.  On the side of another building there was this painted train that looked so lifelike.  The light was even lit on the train and those tracks were real tracks.  I just love going to small towns and seeing all the wonderful and unique things that make them so great!  Darn, I didn't make Mark go pose with the train.  That would have been a funny picutre.  I could have Mark laying down on the tracks and the train getting ready to run over him.  Don't worry, we'll go back there again in the future and guess who will be tied to the tracks??!!

And while we were driving from place to place, I worked on my hexagons in the car.  These are obviously for my red purse (or whatever else it might turn into!).  I forgot to put a pincushion in my little bin so in one of the shops I bought this little doll to use as a pincushion.  She was heavily hand painted and everytime I stuck a pin in her it left a hole.  I started feeling guilty for poking holes in her but I needed a pincushion!  So I turned her over and poked her in the back.  That way they didn't show so much when I looked at her!  Silly me!! 

Happy Father's Day to Paul.  Everyone looks on as he reads the book Joshua and I created for him.   

Joshua, Joshua and more Joshua!!  Awww......he's so cute! 

Speaking of Joshua, peek-a-boo!!  Look, he can curl his tongue.  I can't do that but my husband can.  Guess he inherited that somewhere in the family genes!  Weird!! 

Hubby got some new sunglasses.  What a picture.....sunglasses with tag and other glasses on top of head.  This one might go in the goofy pose book too!! 

I'm working on the new class schedule for July and August and will hopefully get that out today also.  Trying to be productive and make use of each minute of time since it seems to be going by so quickly!!!!! 

Happy stitching..................