Plymouth Days

What a nice relaxing Sunday. I'm visiting one of my daughter's and her family in Plymouth, Minnesota for a few days and today was just a kick back kind of day. We watched General Conference via the internet this morning and after it ended I took my two grandchildren for a walk over to see the Mellinium Gardens just down the street from them. We came back, had a little lunch and then watched the final session of Conference and after it had ended my daughter and I started dinner. My daughter got a new basic bread recipe and so we tried it out. We made pizza, bread sticks, and a braid with cream cheese and strawberry jam all twisted together and then we covered it with frosting...Well, all I can tell you is that there's only about half of the twist left and that's it. Everything else is gone. Everything was yuuuuuummy! Good thing we cut the recipe in half...got to watch those carbs...yeah.....right!



I've been trying to get some stitching done while here, but being a little sleep deprived makes my eyes want to snap shut every time I sit down to start working on my stitching, blogging, etc...like right now, for instance.....it's all I can do to keep my eyes open. That's what going to bed at 0330 and getting up at 0730 will do to you.


Her are a few of the pictures that I took at the parade we went to yesterday at the Plymouth Days Celebration and a few from the Mellinum Gardens from today's outing. Have a good one and I'll post pics of my cottages when I get back:

Unicycles--looks like fun to me;)

The Shriner's precision mini cars

Pony Rides and Face Painting

after the parade

The city of Plymouth puts this parade and carnival on every year the first Saturday in October. I took the kids last year, but didn't know about the carnival part of the celebration. It' all free, unless you buy food. We had made our lunch and took it with us, so basically we had a free day of fun and entertainment. Now how often can you do that any more? Oh yeah, mom and dad were at a wedding so they missed out on all of the fun.

Here are a couple of pictures I took at the Mellinum Gardens today...

Have a GREAT week;)

YIPEEEEEEEEEEE!!! My Bag has Arrived!!!

I participated in Linda's "Bag/Bucket" Swap and 9 days ago got the email that I had been waiting for...The one telling me that my bag was on the way. I was soooo excited, but I have to tell you that those 9 days seemed like an eternity. I guess I was acting like a little kid waiting for Santa to arrive. Well, yesterday it arrived... I work two jobs and had just stopped at home between jobs to pick up a few things before heading off to job #2 for the day. I kept looking at the box and tired to figure out if I should open it right then, or wait until I got home after work...Well, there was no way I was going to go to work and leave that box unopened...that would have been shear torture. So, I cut the tape and popped it open and there I found this......

This little gem made it all the way to me from Australia!

The anticipation was killing me.........so the wrapper came off and look what I beheld................................................

.

...look how cute...

...I love the hand stitching...

...and the green rick rack...

...the fabrics all go together so well...

...and that's not all........

...a view of the inside with a pocket on each side...

...all of the goodies...
FQ's, a pin cushion, a needle book, and embroidery floss...

Am I a lucky girl or what???

Bec from ohsewbusy.blogspot.com is the wonderful lady that made all of these lovely items for me. THANK YOU...THANK YOU...THANK YOU, Bec. I love them all! You went way over and above on this one!

Speaking of bags and swaps...the swap partner that I sent my bag to is Helena from http://www.syverkstan-helena.blogspot.com/. She has posted some pictures of the bag I made her. Check out her blog. She's got some new patterns available that are very cool.

My daughter and her family are on their way here right this very second. They left Minnesota this afternoon and were in Iowa when I talked to her around 1600. Right now I would suppose they're somewhere in Nebraska. I expect them to arrive sometime tomorrow afternoon. They will be here for only a day, or less, and then it's off to California to visit family there. They will return here next Thursday and be here for a week and then I will be heading back to Minnesota with them.

Have a wonderful Sunday;)

Very brave of me, I think, being that I'm allergic to bee stings...

ENJOY;)

Sunday Baskets and a Mini Quilt

Aren't Sunday's the best...nice and quiet, relaxing, time to get a little sewing done before church and then pleanty of time to work on ufo's after church. Here's what I did today......

I used the pattern from Pink Penguin to make these little beauties. Easy to follow directions and quick to make. I have a feeling that there are a lot more of these in my future.

As mentioned in an earlier post, I participated in the Booty Miniature Quilt Swap. I previewed the fabrics that I used and my partner should have gotten her package yesterday, or by tomorrow at the latest, so I guess it's OK to show you what I made for her...

I got the idea for this mini from a Fon's and Porter quilt that I saw in a recent issue of their magazine.

I had dinner outside this evening. I noticed that there's a little orange and red starting to show up on the mountains. I guess Fall is truly on the way. Y-I-P-E-E!!! I love the Fall, although they do promise 5-10 degrees warmer than usual for the next few days.

I hope that you all have a GREAT week;)

ENJOY!!!

Two Days Off and a Couple of Swaps

It's amazing how fast time flies. I've been very busy at work, but...I have a whole two days in a row off, which is rare, because I usually work 6 days a week and that leaves me very little time to do the things that I truly love.

Today I had plans to get a lot of quilt squares finished. Well, as life would have it , a lot turned into a few, of which I have no yet taken pictures. I'm involved in a few swaps and have gotten 3 of them sent off in the last week.

Swap #1: Vintage Sheet Swap---just waiting to get mine in the mail--should be in the next week or so.

Swap #2: Bag/Bucket Swap--about 4 weeks before our bags were supposed to be in the mail I

completely changed gears and made a bag that was NOTHING like the one that I had started. The reason...I just wasn't feeling the love from the fabrics that I was trying to put together. I was able to finish up the second bag and get it in the mail on time...even a little early...but that's OK because it had a very, very long trip ahead. In fact, I mailed my package a week ago yesterday and, as yet, have not heard that it has made it safely to it's new home. I find that my projects are like my children, I worry about them until I know that they are safe...know of what I speak??? Anyway, in my haste to get the package in the mail I didn't take any pictures of the finished piece, but this is what I used to make it........The orange color is pretty close, but the melony looking color is really a little roseyer in real life...

Here's a picture of the bag in progress...My mom taught me to knit eions ago and I have been doing quite a bit of it the past few years.

And a close up of the bag...

So you'll have to use your imagination on this one...at least until it reaches it's new home and maybe there will be some pictures of it.

Swap #3: I joined the Miniature Booty Swap, or so I thought I had. I didn't find an email from Toni, so assumed that I was too late. Well, about 3 weeks ago I did hear from her and come to find out, I was included and her email from months before had gone to my spam folder...YIKES!!! What to do, what to do??? Can I tell you my head was spinning! I emailed Toni and explained what happened, asked her to resend my partner's info, which she did the next day, and then came the questions. What kind of things does she like...what about colors, etc...so off to her blog I went in search of clues......This is what I came up with...

The Fabrics

The bias strips are the leftover binding.

All the goodies just before going into the mail.

The Card

You'll have to wait for pictures of the finished quilt, because it won't be to it's new home until the end of the week, and unlike the bag...I did remember to get pictures of this one.

There's a new store in town and so I thought I'd check it out today...Can I just tell you that all is right with the world. Having lived the major part of my life in Southern California, I became acustomed to shopping at Trader Joe's. Love, LOVE, LOVE that store!!! Much to my dismay there are no Trader Joe's within what seems to be a gazillion miles of here...but today I found the next best thing...It's called Sunflower Farmer's Market...All I can say is Y-I-P-E-E-E!!! This is my new favorite store and I can see me spending a lot of money there. Heck...they even bag your groceries in reuseable bags and they don't charge for them. That might only be a promotion for the first week, but I came home with a couple of them.

My #5 grand child started Kindergarten a few weeks ago and so we don't get to see each other as much as we're used to. I thought that she might like to do a craft project together and so I asked her if she would like to. Of course, she was delighted. Several months ago she was at Joanne's with me and she wanted to pick out some FQ's, so I let her pick 3. They were all pink, which is her favorite color right now. They were all about the same shade of pink, so I threw in another pink, just a little darker. The FQ's ended up in my stash, but today when we were looking for some fabric for our project she went right to "her" pink FQ's.

This is what we came up with...

We had one strip left over that we added to the back...

Do you think she likes her little pillow??? I did all of the cutting and I had her do the layout (with a little help). I had her sit on my lap at the machine and help me guide the fabric. She got a little tired of it about half way through and decided that she wanted to color, so after dinner we finished. Her favorite part was the "stuffin'". She thought that was great fun. Her sharing day is Tuesday and guess what she wants to share next Tuesday...

Now for those of you that are creative gardners...check these pictures out...

That's the second story roof of a house in a resedential area.

A view from the front

And another view from the front

Now that's some creative gardening...probably blows his roof warranty, but creative, nevertheless;)

Now, I figure this entry is pleanty long enough. I have more to share, but will do that later. I'll just leave you with a couple more of the many flowers that I have taken pictures of in the past few months;)

ENJOY!!!

Back in Business (i hope)

Ever had a problem with your computer and not been able to figure it out??? Well, it's taken me a few weeks to fix the problem, but I think I've done it. At least I hope I have.

I'm participating in Linda's Bag/Bucket Swap over at http://www.all-stitched-up.blogspot.com/ and am almost done with my Bag/Bucket. Here's a little preview*****

These are some of the fabrics that I'm using

And here's a little stitching

I've made a few changes, but you'll have to wait to see what they are.

It's a secret, ya know;)

Here are a few more quilts that were in Long Beach

and a few pictures of the flowers that were in bloom

ISN'T MOTHER NATURE AWSOME

Enjoy!!!

Earthquake, FQ's, Quilts

As promised I'll share a few more pictures of the quilts that I saw at the International Quilt Festival, but first...some other things...........

Yes, I was in California when the latest earthquake hit. Two of my granddaughters and I happened to be out when it hit. After spending most of my life in So Cal this quake didn't really bother me (I've been in much bigger), but my granddaughters had never been in an earthquake. They took it all in stride...no big deal...

It's official...I'm a FQF (Fat Quarter Freek)! These are the latest additions to my collection that I bought at the International Quilt Festival..............

Some Japanese Silks

Some Asian Prints

A Couple More

and the rest of my new flavors
YUM YUM!

The flamingo print in the bottom left corner was used to back the pillows that my two oldest granddaughters designed and embroidered. I have lots of ideas for the other ones, but nothing concrete, yet.

These are the last two star blocks that I've been working on with Amanda and the gang over at http://www.crazymomquilts.blogspot.com/

And this is another one that goes to my BOM that I'm doing with the Fabric Mill.....................





And here are a few more of the quilts that were at the IQF held in Long Beach, California........

ENJOY.............

QUILT ON;)