It's truly spring now.........baseball has started.  We love baseball in our family.  Both of my sons played from the time they were four years old, every spring and summer and sometimes fall seasons.  We practically lived at the ball fields when they were young.  And as they grew up they played in high school, American Legion games, college and professionally and we had more ball games to attend.  But now, maybe the best of all, our oldest granddaughter is playing T-ball.  So what fun we will have all over again, but from a girl's perspective of the game!

Posing before the game.  I can't ever remember my boys looking this sweet before a game!!

A little pre-game stragegy before the game from the coaches (Mom & Dad!)

She looks fierce with the batting helmet on!! Or NOT!!!

Batter up!!  Look at that stance.....you can tell she's going to be a slugger just like her Daddy!  Reagan was very proud to tell me that she had the highest number on the team on her uniform.

And while big sister played T-ball, Raleigh picked leaves....................

And made new doggie friends!  This was way more fun than playing T-ball!

Hope everyone enjoys the sunshine days and takes time out for a little baseball!

What a beautiful spring day we had.  In the lower 70's, birds chirping, trees bloomed and fun classes to take.  I had two groups meet back to back today, one to do a Christmas Tree runner and the other to do beginning embroidery.  It was just a great group of ladies that got right to work on their runners.

Laura and Pam looked very serious...........

These runners are looking great

Debby made some new friends today......

when she sat with another Debby and Linda who came all the way from Henderson.

Several of the ladies brought food which we all shared for lunch inbetween classes.  We had quite a spread with some really yummy dishes.

Elizabeth and Debby busy at work on their runners while waiting to start the embroidery class.  That's real dedidcation!

A beginning embroidery sampler in the process......

and another.......

and another.  Can't wait to see some of their finished work!!

I was determined to teach Linda the french knot.  She was really struggling with the stitch, but guess what?

She persevered and won the battle!!!!  Great job Linda!!

I am so thankful for all the ladies who take my classes.  I truly appreciate each and every one of you.  You are what inspires me to keep designing and creating.  So thank you from the bottom of my heart.  Hope to see you soon.  I'm working on the May and June class schedule.  Should be ready within the next few days........until then, enjoy the sunny days.

Quilting anyone?

Anyone out there interested in doing a beginning quilt class?  You would learn piecing all the way through the binding phase of quilting.  We have a teacher willing to travel to Laura's house but would need six students.  Let me know if you're interested and I will give you more details. 

I had a nice group of ladies meet yesterday afternoon to make a mouse pincushion. 

They were all working so studiously!

Look out sweet this little guy turned out.

That strawberry looks good enough to eat.

Who says mice aren't cute!!

The girls were here today.  They went out first thing in the morning to play in the new sandbox their Poppy made them.  Nothing like building sandcastles first thing in the morning.

Awww, a little water will help this castle take shape.

Oh, little Raleigh can reach the spout now.  I believe we might be in trouble.  I'm not sure how much water went in the bottle, but we had to take her clothes off and dry them when all was said and done.  But hey, that doesn't matter when you're busy building sandcastles!

I'm busy working on the models for the May/June classes.  It's going to be strawberry and tomato season!!  I hope to have pictures posted on the web site calendar section in the next few days.

Happy almost Friday to everyone.

Happy Easter to everyone!! 

My girls came on their normal Thursday and spent part of the day with me.  I asked their Daddy to bring them in their pajamas and white sandals.  I had new dresses for each of them to wear for the day.  They were going to be leaving for the river Thursday afternoon and we wouldn't be seeing them on Easter so I decided to play dress-up and have an early Easter celebration with them.  So, of course, Easter wouldn't be complete without the Easter Bunny dropping off a couple of baskets filled with goodies.........

Of course, GIRL goodies.  The girls tease their Poppy (my husband) that they only want GIRL toys, not boy toys.  Tucked somewhere in one of the baskets is the new Barbie Mermaid movie and a Barbie Mermaid coloring book for each and of course, Barbie Mermaid dolls.  Lots of other fun goodies tucked in the baskets.  They had a great time pulling everything out.  We then had to watch the new movie.

Jennifer made the sweet little bunny buckets for each of the girls, filled with candy carrots.  I tucked those in the baskets and the girls loved them.  And the "carrots" were eaten up in a hurry.  Thanks for thinking of my girls Jennifer.

Reagan and Raleigh posing in their new dresses.  It is so hard to get a good picture of these two anymore.  They act like models everytime I try to take a picture and do lots of poses and silly faces, trying to be model-like.  I want them to be natural, but guess when you're a little girl in a new dress, that's hard.

The tulip tree looks beautiful........

as does the Bradford Pear........

as does the Redbud tree.  This is my most favorite tree in the spring, so soft and delicate and beautiful, with heart shaped leaves onces the flowers are gone. 

My husband just came in and asked me if I had shared his big news of the week.  Of course, I told him no but now I guess I should share since it was huge for him.  He gave birth to twins this week......two kidney stones at one time!!  He had been suffering with kidney stone pain for quite some time, finally went to the doctor where they did x-rays and said it was unusual, but he had two stones back to back.  So after more pain and suffering (he was really pitiful), he finally passed the stones.  He was so proud of them and caught them in a strainer which the doctor asked him to do.  Mark has quite an extensive collection of stones from the past which he is saving to make me a bracelet someday!!  Aren't I just one lucky gal??!!  

I had the entire day at home yesterday (Friday) with no interruptions.  The girls were gone, Mark was at work, no classes, just me and my workroom.  So I got busy working on a couple of new designs which will hopefully end up as a block of the month for next year.  I'm super happy with one of the pieces, which I'm busy stitching on now, but still looking at the other piece which is laying on a table.  Everytime I walk by the table I try and decide if I like the layout or not, the colors, the flowers.  It's tough sometimes, when you design pieces, by yourself, no other opinions.  So I will proabably carry this one with me to get some feedback.  Anyway, had a great time in my room doing what I love to do best, doodling (because I can't draw), designing, playing with the wool.  What a great way to start the weekend.

A little tease for Laura!!!

HAPPY EASTER!

I have quite a few old sewing boxes.  Most are still ok on the insides but I grabbed one to use Saturday morning and the insides practically fell apart in my hands.  It was similar to the one in the picture above except smaller.  Well, next thing I knew, I had the insides totally ripped out and an empty shell of a box sitting there looking pretty pathetic.  So I decided to try and recover the inside of the little box.  What did I have to lose at this point!  Believe it or not ladies, I used a lot of glue on this project!!  Anyone who takes classes with me will attest to the fact that I don't like to use glue or fusibles, but in this project it was impossible not to use glue.  So I started measuring, cutting and trimming and came up with a brand new little sewing box.  I love it!!

The fabric has sweet little cherries all over it so I stitched a pincushion that says "Stray Pins" on a piece of vintage linen that already had two little cherries.  Now I have a fun box to keep my everyday sewing supplies in.  The box makes me smile everytime I open it!

And speaking of  smiling, Evette called and said she had been working on her own little creations Saturday and couldn't wait to share them.  She came over Saturday evening with two of the sweetest little pincushions......one for her and one for me.  I, unfortunately, didn't get a picture of hers but maybe that's best since it might be a future class and I wouldn't want to spoil the surprise.  But I do have a picture of the one she made for me and I absolutely love it.  She worked really hard getting the "tomato" on top of the box.  It's adhered with a button on top of the tomato which then connects through a button on the underside of the box.  It's so nice to be surprised with sewing gifts!!  Thanks E!!!

I spent the morning taking pictures of a couple of new patterns before I ship the models off to Oregon.  Debbie and I will be teaching in July together and these were a couple of the things that are going to be taught while I'm there.  It's hard getting a good picture for the front of the pattern and so important to have a good shot to show the pattern.  That has always been the most challenging part of putting together a pattern for me.

This is Holly girl.  As a result of this pattern, I'm now designing eight more blocks to go with her which will hopefully be a wool block of the month next year.  Nothing like a little pressure!

This pattern is a re-make of an older pattern called Candy Canes and Gingerbread.  The older one only had two gingerbread men and three candy canes and a few other differences.  I decided, during one of my classes, to update the mat.  However, I had put it aside, unfinished, to move onto other projects.  Didn't know Debbie was going to want me to teach it so had to drag it back out and get it done.  I love the new candy canes.

Reagan is tracked out of school for the next three weeks.  Her Mommy called to see if I could watch her today so she could go to her office and get something done.  Reagan is a very busy, creative little girl.  Even though she brought two latch hook rug projects to work on, she ended up wanting to paint.  So she's very busy right now working on a picture of her family that she wants to take home with her this evening.  Can't wait to see the finished product. 

Happy Monday to everyone......................

Raleigh, my three year old granddaughter, showed up at my house in her pajamas this morning with bed head hair and left an hour later as a ballerina!  I take her to school on Friday mornings and today was storybook day at school.  She was to dress up as a favorite storybook character.  She decided to be a ballerina from the Barbie Nutcracker book.  She looked adorable and got right into character, twirling and bowing and all that ballerina jazz!!  I had a hard time getting a picture of her because she kept moving. 

TA-DA!  The final bow.......................  She was so in the moment and so adorable.  Of course, being her Mina I have to say that but she really was.  Sometimes we don't know what surprises the day might bring.  This was a bright spot for my morning!