Hello Sun!

I finished quilting my Hello Sun block of the month quilt. It makes the whole room more cheerful! Thanks for your advice, ladies......

Here's a closeup of the quilting....

I'm going to link up to Crazy Mom Quilts......piece.

Happy Birthday, Lois!!!!

Lois - wishing you a wonderful day! Enjoy - spring came early just for you!

Love, the mamas

Memory Lane Monday....

This was over a year and a half ago already.....wow!!

What a fun evening this was! Hope everyone is well and had a nice weekend.

The other night at bee, we were talking about the portrait quilts done by Carol at mamacjt. Here's a post with her latest....these are amazing!

Here's an excerpt of life with a 15 year-old who has a different perspective on life. Actual conversation:

Kelly: (getting in the car) 'Mom, I have a permission slip for a field trip with the chess club to play at Conestoga on Monday'

Me: 'Wow....that sounds good'. 

Kelly: 'We got a scouting report on them and they're pretty good' (this is where Burkie almost fell out of his chair laughing when this conversation was replayed at the dinner table)

Me: (after a few minutes of silence, deciding whether I should mention the following...) 'But you don't play chess'.

Kelly: 'I know - the teacher said it's no problem. I've tried it a few times...I'll figure it out'.

I wish I had more of this naive confidence that everything will be ok in the end.

I'll leave you with this from pinterest.......peace.

A very nice bee last night, ladies....thanks for coming out on such a cold night. We had a nice chat and caught up on everyone's news.

Lois brought some show&tell...

This is the back of her basket quilt - it was a kit from Connecting Threads - and the backing was included! 

Aren't the colors terrific - and it's hand quilted! Great job Lois!

And look at the reds in this - and it's her first attempt at free-motion quilting. She did a wonderful job...

We were talking about the scrappy trip quilts popping up on different blogs. Here's the tutorial if you are interested....great way to use up scraps! I got some advice on quilting my sunshine top - thanks! Hope you all have a wonderful weekend....keep warm. Peace.....

Monday musings.....

Welcome to Monday musings......each Monday ( I hope) I'll post different things.....just notes, tips or interesting things I found on the web.

First, I'll explain the button to the right.....I've joined this bloghop. I'll make a quilted self-portrait and on my appointed day, folks will hop on over here to see it. So, I'll be hijacking the blog during those days as I have to post about the other days as well, I think. Don't quite have the details on all that yet.

Other stuff.....lets see. I bound a quilt yesterday using the machine binding tutorial found here on Cluck, Cluck, Sew....it is awesome!!!! I may never hand-sew a binding to the quilt back again.....especially for a little kid or baby quilt. Here are a couple of pix...

This is from the back...

And this is from the front....

Her pictures are so much better- check out the link. It was truly very easy.

Ladies - this Thursday, I'd like to host....

bee......no it won't bee this corny every week.....

I'll leave you with this from Pinterest

If you are off for MLK day, enjoy the day and if you aren't, enjoy it anyway......peace.

A little bee-lated....

Here are the show & tell pix from Thursday's bee....

This is a quilt Cathy made for her mother...the colors are just beautiful!!

Kerry started a group at Saint Joe's that raises money to help pay for education for girls in Africa....they sell tie-dyed cupcakes...how cute is this to hang at their sales??

Dolores made this beautiful quilt - and donated it to Sean Patrick's Day! Thank you so much!!

** Thanks to Kerry for sending me the pictures after I forgot my camera!**

Piece.....

Remembering....

a lovely, kind woman who raised 8 children, had 20 grandchildren and volunteered much of her time - always giving to others. She loved and appreciated quilts and quilting......

Mary Byrnes......peace.

Friday....

Thank goodness! This will be quick - I'll write about bee later. I forgot my camera - rats! Anyhow - did anyone get the Connecting Threads email or book? They just came out with a gorgeous set of reds.....got me thinking about a red & white challenge. Anyone interested? Their stuff is reasonable - or you could just go ahead and use the reds you have already if you like....any thoughts? Gotta get back to work.....click here for inspiration! Peace.....

Yay! The Thomas II house is booked for March 22nd!! Check the ticker.....

Launching into 2013...

Ladies.....hope everyone had a nice New Year's...any resolutions or goals? Gracie, Maude, Bernadette and Mare's Janome went to Hayes' spa on Saturday - just before the snow. Hope they are enjoying themselves - and will be back soon raring to go! Some excitement while we were there - but I'll let the creator of the excitement fill you in.....what else is new? I was looking at the calendar - Easter is March 31st this year. That would make the weekend of March 22,23,24 our possible getaway weekend - as we've gone the weekend before Easter quite a few times. How does that sound? I checked and the mansion is not booked that weekend - and it looks to be around the same price we paid last time. Let me know your thoughts - I'm happy to book it next Friday (payday!).  I'm trying to think of a different way to use the blog this year....looking for some suggestions. I like blogs that have a recurring day each week - examples: tool time tuesday, wordless wednesday - things like that. Each week I could feature a new blog, or a favorite quiltmama recipe, or a technique - any thoughts? Talk soon....piece......

Cathy has offered to host bee next Thursday, 1/10....bee there or bee a rhombus.....