The birthday gifts begin!

I thought I had won the lotto yesterday when I got home from work! The first thing I saw was a package in the mail box from Very Mary. But wait...there's more. I came in the house and opened the package and what did I find? There were 8 of these beautiful vintage quilt blocks and a nice note from Mary Ann. These are beautiful MA, THANKS!! I send her vintage papery goodies I find at my dads and she sends me vintage fabricy (new word) things. It's a great trade!


The next box was very exciting for me. My friend, Annemiek, in the Netherlands, told me she had sent me some things in the mail. She couldn't wait so she told me! Laugh!! So I knew something was on the way to me but did not know what it would be. When I opened the box this is the first thing I saw. A wonderful card and it appeared to be a hand quilted Dutch themed quilt.

Once I opened the quilt up inside were 2 pin cushions (she knows I only have a few and one is in really bad shape). They are both adorable but the cupcake one is so cute. Also some kind of cookie (I think, as I haven't opened it yet) My tummy still has not fully recovered from the weekend and I didn't want to open it and not be able to enjoy it so I am saving it for when I feel better.

THIS was the actual quilt. Her name is Loesje and she is beautiful!! (Just like Annemiek!) If you read her blog at all you would know that she doesn't participate in swaps and only makes quilts for family and dear friends. I feel so honored and blessed by our friendship. I know she may not agree but I feel certain that God has brought us together as friends over the long miles. Even though we have never met we have made a fantastic connection. (Or maybe she is just trying to show me up since her hand quilting is so spectacular!!, LOL)

Annemiek was kind enough to put an amazing label(s) on the back of the wall hanging too telling me all about Loesje and the fabric used to create her. I put it on here so you can have the same kind of education that I did! I think she should have called her "Annemiek" because when I read about her she resembles my friend!

Close up of the cupcake. So adorable!

Close up of Annemiek's hand quilting. Notice the attention to detail? She quilted Tulips into the border!

I was extremely touched and honored that Annemiek made such a gift for me for my birthday! For any of you that don't know, I will be turning 50 on July 11th this year. It is nice to know that the birthday celebration is beginning already! LOL.

I just made plane reservations to fly to Sarasota FL to visit my dear friend Mary. She has a condo on the beach and invited me to come and spend my 50th birthday with her. I will be spending a week with her. Just me and Mary, no spouses or kids. It should be a good time! She calls me her nerd friend, which I think is very funny. Once when someone asked her why we hang out since we are so very different she told them, "I think she hangs out with me because she needs some down time!" ROFLOL. I hang out with her because she is a wonderful, fun loving and beautiful person! Another funny Mary story, she was asking when she would be on the list to get a quilt. I told her when she has a baby. (She is a few years younger than me). We laughed and a few weeks later she called me up and said,"I need to tell you something", "What is it?" I say. "I'm pregnant" she says. "Really?" I say. "No NOT really", she says, "I just want a quilt!" LOL So do you all remember the aqua and brown DP 9 patch quilt? Well that is for her and I plan on taking it to FL with me next week. Won't she be surprised??

Anyway, a gigantic THANK YOU to Annemiek for sending such amazing birthday gifts!

Giveaway

Just a quick post that there is a fabulous give away at Hugs from Helen. Go there now and leave her a comment for a chance to win.

Party Time!!

The house was ready. This is what you saw as you walked up to my front door.

The gardens were blooming (I took the clothes hanger down)

The photo boards were made and the cake was waiting.

All we needed were the guests! We had a tent in the back yard next to our gazebo and we had a beautiful day.

The one in the orange is my DS. First shown here with my dad. He is an amazing guy. He is almost 83 years old and drove 2 hours with my handicapped sister just to be here for the party. He doesn't like to miss home cooked food you know? The next one is my DS with my DH's folks. He's going to be 75 in September. It was a wonderful day with lots of family and friends.

Here is my DD2 with our newest Niece, Evelyn ( baby basket quilt girl). Even DD's lillies put on quite a show for the event.

I didn't take too many photos as I was so busy with food and visiting. We could not have asked for a nicer day or a better turn out! The last guest left around 11:00pm. We kept our old babysitter's 3 girls overnight and that was fun too. It was great to have littles around once again, but exhausting! Yesterday we just sat around. Of course we had a little clean up but not too much as the mom of the 3 and DD did most of it that night. Thanks Lisa and Kelsey! I love you guys!!

The neighbors had their party in the same tent on Sunday so that was nice too. We just opened the door and went to the party!

Funny story about Laxy (our dog). We sent her to the neighbor's house for the day as most of you already know, she loves to bolt if she gets outside without a lead. So the neighbor went out of her yard and the dog got out. Where did she go? Our front porch! We got her back into their yard and a little while later she jumped their 5ft fence to come home! too much going on in "her" yard! Well, she was exhausted yesterday too!!

Spooktacular Swap 2009

HUZZAH! It looks like this will be a go. So far I have the following people for the swap:

Pam
Sharon : Spiders
Vickie: Halloween Candy
Caroll: Witch's Shoes and sox
Anne: Ghosts
Faith: Cats
Deborah: BOO
Diane: Bats
Melissa: Jack-O-Lanterns

That means we only need a few more. Please go over to Jane's blog and click on the Spooktacular button for the directions. In addition, I need your email address, your blog address (if you have one) and your choice of the make your own block. We can't duplicate those so first come first choice. Vickie has already given me her choice, so get back to me soon. Send your friends to Jane's blog and tell them to sign up(by emailing ME, mamaspark@gmail.com) right now! Please send your email with all this information TO ME NOT to Jane!!! This is very important so she is not dealing with all 12 of us just one of us!!!

Yesterday

Nicole and I walked to the Ann Arbor farmer's market yesterday and I bought this beautiful bouquet of flowers for only $4!!


Here is a view from the top. It is about 8 inches in diameter. They are just beautiful and they smell great too. I also got 2 beautiful heads of leaf lettuce one green and one red for $1.50 each! I think we need to go every Wednesday!

Last night was quilting at CHV. I brought several things to work on and this was one of them. I needed to hand turn the binding on my "Cats in the Cabin" wall hanging. I got about 3/4ths done and had to stop as my left arm was killing me! So Pauline kindly finished the rest for me. Thanks, Pauline!! I found the cat pattern online but designed the rest fo the quilt around that. I like how it turned out.

I participated in the Designer Mystery BOM at the Fat Quarter Shop this past year. Here is my finished top. It was a great experience and if you are interested they are doing another one this time with stars. Hope over and visit them. The star one is done with Glace by three Sisters (Moda). It looks really nice and is only $9.99 per month including shipping. I did buy the finishing kit which included all the material for the sashing and borders.


Now, I really want to do a Spooktacular swap. If you are interested please contact me at mamaspark@gmail.com I have 5 people and I need 7 more to make this work. You can see the link to the details in the post from yesterday. You would not have to have your blocks to me until september 1st either. C'mon, what are you waiting for??

Spooktacular Swap Anyone??

So as if I don't have enough to do I found a really cool swap using Halloween fabrics, set as a 9 patch and one block of your choice too (I think) over here at Jane's blog. The problem is that there are no more openings, BOO HOO!! The good news is that she is willing to open up another swap if I can find 11 other people to join in! Any of you interested?? Send me mamaspark@gmail.com (or Jane) pnkcndy@sbcglobal.net) an email and let us know and maybe we can all join in the fun! Seriously, what are you waiting for? Join me in the Halloween fun!!

EDIT: Ok, so everyone wants to know what is required for the swap before they commit. Go here and it will tell you all about it. Then come back here and SIGN UP!!! This could be so much FUN!!!

Check out this swappers blocks here, and here . Aren't they just too cute?

Party Prep Begins

My weekend was very busy! We had quilt-till-you-wilt day on Sat and I managed to finish the binding on my little wedding memories quilt. This one will be going to Brazil in September to Karen's mom and dad. I used up all the left over fabrics from her quilt in this one. I also learned that I love the disappearing 9 patch quilt!


A peony from my garden. So beautiful. Mine bloom much later than everyone else's because I have so much shade from the woods we back up to.

Sunday was filled with work in the yard. I even got the men to help! Here is DH and DS along with Laxy putting up the new gazebo. They didn't put the top on but I will show that later once it is done. To the right of the patio area is DD2's garden. It is always so beautiful! I weeded and mulched it yesterday so it is looking even more beautiful. She has huge Aisiatic Lillies that are ready to begin opening and then it will be gorgeous. I will try to remember to take photos of them too.

Do you remember me going shopping at my friend Cori's last week? I bought this pattern and these charm packs to make Christmas gifts with. (but after the party!) I need to clean up the sewing room(aka living room) for the party. This means all sewing stops. = ( I finished the Designer Mystery BOM top on Sunday too. Now I need to make the back and the sewing room can be packed up until July. No photos of that top right now but I will take some soon. You can see Mosen "helping" me to clean the sewing room too. My cats are such wonderful helpers!

After my garden work I feel really old and kind of like someone beat me up! It's an Ibuprophen Monday!

Fabric Samples

Many of you (Annemiek) were not happy not seeing *ALL* of the fabric sample cards that I purchased. So for those of you that really, really want to see here ya go. First up are three by Prints Charming. I just really love their fabrics. Now remember most of these are smaller than a FQ. In fact some are very small (like 2 X 6 inches or so)




Next up are these cute aliens. I thought of this for use in an I spy type of quilt. Not much fabric but enough to get a few aliens from.

I really loved this Christmas print. Especially the ones with the crazy striped flowers. They had whole bolts of this but I didn't really feel I needed a whole bolt! So I settled for the fabric samples.

Next up is some fabric for DD2's "Save the planet" quilt.



These will go in the "Save the planet" quilt too. Remember the fabric with the tree names on it? I thought this with plant names would fit in quite nicely also.


A family tree...


Parakeets for a future I spy (plus one looks like the bird we used to have, U.B. short for usless bird) Did I ever tell you the story of UB? I don't think I have. One day when the DD's were quite young they came home and asked me, "If we can catch a bird can we keep it"? I should never have answered "sure" because they did! Now Parakeets are not native in the US so it had to be someone's bird that had escaped. They sure did manage to catch it and he lived with us for quite awhile!

More spacemen and rockets and planets. Possibly enough for a small baby quilt if I put other fabrics with it. Very cute!

OK, so there you have it. That's what I bought at the warehouse. for those of you that asked, the only way to shop with them is if you have a tax ID number, like if you own a business. This is why I went with LTW and why I could tell my other friend Cori to get set up to shop there too. If you have a business (or tax ID number) and want more information just please email me.

My "shopping" trip

So you all know that LTW and I went to a fabric warehouse place and we got some really cool stuff. They were having an open house and had some special things that we were able to take advantage of (ok, I know, their stuff is great all the time but this time was better!!) They had sample cards like the one below for sale. I think I bought 16 of these. I am only showing this one. Some were Prints Charming some were Christmas and some were for DD2's "Save the Planet" quilt I plan on making *someday*.


In addition I bought the following 3 bolts. That's right, Annemiek I said BOLTS plural!! One is of the 6 color Lone Star Quiltsmart interfacing (Rumor has it thses may be difficult to find soon and there are 3 of my friends that love them so thought it would be a good idea to have some for them too) and the other 2 were for fun. I can so see making a Stacked Posie or One Block Wonder type quilt out of them. LTW is taking half of the middle one to do the same, so you see half is already gone!

I bought these 2 FQ packs for gifts. The top one is for my friend Ellen (who NEVER reads this, tee hee) and not sure about the other one yet.


I love Bunnies, Ergo I love Bunny Hill Designs! I finally sprang for the Baltimore Bunnies patterns. I also got the newest one Rabbits Prefer Embroidery. Now I need to look for the Chelsea Manor fabric for that one! Heaven knows when that will get started but those bunnies just hopped right in the basket! They're like that you know.

I also got this realy cool book. See the birds on the cover? They are so neat and done with strips.


I did buy some thread and a design wall (LTW paid for half for my upcoming birthday!) I think that was most of the fun. I did go to my friend Cori's house and picked up a few things but will save that for another post. (You should go and visit her too!!!) Can't wait to put the design wall up and work with it. I am almost finished putting the Designer Mystery BOM together and then I have to clean up and put away all sewing and quilting until after the grad party = ( So this weekend is my last chance to sew)

My Weekend

I had a real whirlwind of a weekend and all the excitement began on Thursday night. I was minding my own business when my cell phone began ringing out of control. Apparently our lacrosse coach (who was fired on Thursday morning) sent out an email to the entire team and he had some very nasty personal attacks on myself and my son. He also personally attacked 2 other mom's on the team. I, however, earned the top spot! The worst part is that he sent this not only to all the parents but also to all the players. Just one more instance showing his level of immaturity and pettiness. Lest you think this was the highlight of the weekend it was NOT. My weekend got better and better.

Friday I took off work and went to a wholesale warehouse for quilt supplies with LTW. There she is standing with our cart. We were just a little naughty, not as bad as last time though. We did some preordering and then bought a few more things . I have not had time to take the requisite photos yet but I will try to do so soon. Annemiek, I know you and Lotte will love that I bought 2 bolts of fabric! I plan on selling what I don't need though. My friend Cori (Crazy Quilt Girl) was supposed to go along but her DS got ill and she had to stay home. Next time Cori! We really need no excuse to return!!


On Saturday morning (1am to be exact) DD2 came home from the Galapagos Islands with lots of stories and photos. Her BF came over on Sat am and we spend a long time looking at all the pictures, in fact we only got half way through them. Her wet things were a little smelly so lots of laundry ensued. It was so nice to have her back home. I really, really missed her while she was away!

Sunday evening DS GRADUATED from High School. Here he is afterwards with his sisters.
Shelby, Thadd and Kelsey. Awe aren't they cute??

MY DH posing with the graduate.

DS with his BFF Chris. We are so thankful they both stuck it out and have graduated!!

Oh and just when you think the fun must be ending because it is not the weekend, you would be WRONG! DH got up at the butt crack of dawn to drive DD1 to the airport as she is going to visit a friend in CA for 3 weeks. That trip is a whole post in itself and I don't have any more time to chat. More later...