Good Friends

Once again, I have to say I have the best friends....

Ya know how happy you are when you come home from work and find one of those big priority boxes on the front porch? Yeah, it's nice isn't it? Well, my friend Angela from Indiana sent me a "Get Well" pincushion. Lookit the size of that bad boy!!!!

I can't wait to start poking pins into it :)

Then today I got home and found a Facebook message from one of my friends from retreat....

I just have the best friends! :)

Vintage Trick or Treat

A group of my friends are doing this Crabapple Hill Co. pattern as a kind of an unofficial block of the month starting October 1st. We each bought the pattern and then went out and got different background fabrics and our floss.

It started out that Carolyn, Robin, Michelle and I were doing it, then Liz jumped on board, then we got Liz's sister Isabel to join in and just today one of the "polka dot girls" Vickie jumped on board too.

The Crabapple patterns are far from "easy"...but I think we are all up to the challenge!

I will be late starting mine since I am disabled at the moment but once this darn cast comes off I'm ready to start again because I have my project all traced and hooped ready to go........

Stay tuned, I'll be updating as we go along.

Do I Have Good Friends or What?

Are these beautiful or what? Robin and Michelle sent me the nicest flowers since i'm laid up for a few weeks. I love getting flowers, but I'd prefer to do without the broken arm!

Thank you to all my blogging friends for all your nice notes today....i really appreciate them.

Peggy

Quilting Break

No, its not what I want to do but I have no choice. You see, I fell and broke my left wrist last night so I am officially on the disabled list for 4-5 weeks.....

I will keep you updated on my progress grrrrrrr.......

Village Square

It didn't take any arm twisting on Robin and Michelle's end to get me to jump in with them on doing the Village Square Block of the Month with them, only difference is they are actually getting the kits from Homestead Hearth whereas I only ordered the pattern. I'm going to use pieces from my scrap basket and my Thimbleberries stash to make it up. I was kind of unsure as to whether I'd like the fabric that would come but I KNEW I liked what I had here so that was an easy solution.

I thought the BOM was starting September 1st and even though I didn't know which block they'd start with, I just looked thru the pattern and when I saw it called for 3 6.5 inch Variable Star blocks I decided that they would be what I started with. Here's a picture of the pattern

and my 3 blocks.

9-11

I can't start this post without mentioning September 11th....It's one of those days that will live in my mind forever. I remember exactly where I was and what I was doing and I will never forget the people that were lost to that horriffic tragedy. I can honestly say I didn't lose a family member or anyone close, but my husband lost a childhood friend and one of the guys that works with him lost his wife and unborn baby so it did hit close to home.

Snow Days

Have you seen the Crabapple Hill pattern called Snow Days? A friend works at a quilt shop in Kansas and emailed a couple of us to see if we'd be interested in doing it as a block of the month. Me being a glutton for punishment jumped right in and signed up. Month 2 showed up in my mailbox this weekend while I was in Rhode Island dropping my youngest off at college so I figured while the sun is out today I might as well trace it. I realized as I pulled the pattern out that I'd never shown you a picture of month 1 so here it is.

Robin, Michelle, Carolyn and myself are doing it in the colorway that Crabapple Hill suggests using a variegated blue/brown floss, which is gorgeous by the way!!! Nan, who is running the show, is doing hers in purple variegated with purple batiks. Hers is gorgeous as well. You will notice that there is a lot more to this project than most because you first trace onto a cream on cream piece of fabric and then make the alternating blocks, but then you have to trace some more onto those blocks and do more embroidery. It took me approximately 3 weeks doing a little each night in front of the TV but enjoyed every minute of it. I'm going to trace now so I can have it ready.

School reopens here in our town on Tuesday. I'm so sad to be going back to the 7am-3pm grind because I really enjoyed later hours and Fridays off. I'll have to spend a little time tomorrow getting my clothes ready....no more shorts and tee shirts, back to the real world and business attire.

And speaking of school reopening, I mentioned earlier that I took my youngest back to school in Rhode Island yesterday....Senior year for her and happy that it is. She's a wonderful student and is going back this year giving Big Poppy a break on tuition and housing having won scholarships last year but lemme tell you, even knowing it's the last time she had to pack up the car she was no happier than she was the first day going to Penn State 4 years ago..... I am sure May 2011 when she graduates she will be smiling :) and so will Mom and Big Poppy!!!

Hope everyone has a happy Labor Day.