BUNNY HILL GIVE AWAY!!!

The comments are now closed for this give away. I will be drawing tomorrow and will post the winner tomorrow probably when DH gets home since I want him to draw the winning person!


Most of you saw my post about my purchases from Bunny Hill and how much I LOVE them right? If not, you better go back and look at it. Well Anne Sutton (the designer from Bunny Hill) contacted me by email today. If that was not exciting enough in itself she read my blog (her assistant brought it to her attention, thank you Anne). She liked what I had to say and generously offered to donate a $50 gift certificate for me to use in a give away for one of you lucky winners to use on her website shop! Isn't that amazing? See I told you she is wonderful!! The best part? One of you will win a gift certificate and I get one too! WOO HOO!

Here is what I want you to do. Tell me which Bunny Hill patterns or fabric(s) you love and what you would buy with the gift certificate. Leave it in the comment section of this post. I need to have a way to contact you so please make sure you leave your email address. This will give you one chance to win.

If you want a second chance, blog about this giveaway on your blog linking back to this post. Let me know that you did that too.

Want a third chance to win? Follow my blog. If you already do, just remind me in your comment.

That's it, pretty cool huh? So you should be leaving something like this:

-My favorite Bunny Hill designs are the ones with the rabbits, especially Rabbits Prefer Embroidery.
-I posted about the give away on my blog
-I have loved you forever, Mamaspark and followed your blog from the first! (or just now = )

I will have my DH do the drawing on August 13th my 26th wedding anniversary! Good Luck!!

Got it?? GOOD! Now go forth and spread the word!! And if you think about it go to Anne's blog too and let her how much you all appreciate her generosity!

Deer Tails and Bunny Tales

Funny title huh? On my way home from work on the campus of the University of Michigan we saw 2 fawns. It is kind of difficult for you to see them and you can really just see one but they are there. My DD1 was with me and has a better photo but she forgot to send it to me. She took pics with her camera first and by the time she got to mine they were more into the forest.

DD1 sent me this photo and you can see both of the fawns. (Both butts as someone pointed out, and you know who you are...) Aren't they so adorable??

I think you will appreciate that as I was coming into work today I was thinking about what I would blog about. I asked DD if she had sent me the pics of the fawns, but no she had not. So I was left with my less than desirable photo. Too bad for me (for you too as they were adorable!) I was NOT happy that I had no good photos to blog today. It was a really busy day in the lab though so I am just getting around to posting now. BUT... In the mean time, I have some exciting news! There will be a really, really good give away in my next post. I am waiting for something before I post but should be posting later tonight so please stop back in. *Trust me* you will NOT be sorry that you did.

Intrigued? Stay tuned...

I Love Bunny Hill

I just love Bunny Hill don't you? Anne Sutton has some of the cutest designs anywhere. I bought this pattern awhile ago and I love it. I don't know when I will actually get to it but I really love it.


I like her Chelsea Manor fabric line too and wanted to use some of the "bunny" fabric. I bought this red oval one from Bunny Hill and they were so nice. Now I need to find the white one with the bunnies on it. I will eventually track it down.

I have several of the bunny Hill Patterns, Baltimore Bunnies, Rabbits Prefer Chocolate and Pumpkin Hill to name a few. So if you had $50 to spend at Bunny Hill what would you buy??

More Fabric for the Stash

Yes, I discovered a new to me place to shop for fabric online. It's fabric.com and they are great! They have some great discounted fabrics. In addition, my friend, Pauline, turned me on to finding coupons for websites by typing the website you are going to or the shop name and "coupons". If you do that for fabric.com you will come up with LOTS of additional coupons! Like an additional 30% off clearance, or 25% off the whole order or $2.95 shipping. Apparently this tactic works for other sites as well. LTW did it for Hancock fabrics and got an additional 20% off her purchase there. Go forth and try it! Then let me know if you find something good. So I placed an order with fabric.com for this owl feather fabric. Perfect, right? Now with the other feather fabric I have I can begin the owls!

I also found these creepy bunnies by Jay McCarroll. I LOVE them. I ordered the creepy deer too but in another order as it was on clearance so you will have to wait for pictures! Keep your pants on, they will be coming soon.

Who else loves Shari Berry Christmas? I got this panel and the stripe also (25%off). I ordered 2 companion prints that are on back order. I can be patient.

Oh Deer, isn't this part of the panel adorable?


I needed some blue, tone-on-tone type fabric in the WIDE size so I decided to look around...you guessed it, fabric.com and found 108" wide, royal t-o-t for $6.98 per yard (25% off) so that was a steal! I am not a spokesperson for them just thought you all might enjoy a bargain as much as I do.

Happy shopping, let me know what you end up with!! (Free shipping if you buy over $35!!)

Sylvania Quilt Show Purchases and *Stuff*

I thought I had better show you the fabric I bought at the quilt show seeing as it is going on over a week ago now! First up I fell in love with this cow fabric and then found the others to go with it.

I just fell in *love* with these vintage kitty prints. Eventually, I hope to have grandchildren and think this would make an adorable quilt!

I have a friend that is having a baby and thought this quilt pattern would make a really cute baby quilt and it looked like it was easy. I'm always on the lookout for new patterns and this lady had some really different things! You should checkout her website.

I was tracing all those owls onto fusible and here were my 2 helpers hard at work!

I was so close to being finished with this that I decided to bite the bullet and get er done. I had done all the coloring with colored pencil and then this weekend I put on the textile medium. Then I had to make binding and put the binding on, which I did even though even that little bit hurt my hand. Isn't it cute? It is quite small but very unusual. I was trying different coloring techniques out so it was a nice way to play.

Both DH and DD1 were very ill this weekend. In fact I have no idea how DH flew with clogged up ears, glad it wasn't me!

What did you do this weekend??

Owl Sketches

Just in case you were wondering how I am spending my Sunday this is it. Designing owl patterns for the Spooktacular Swap. I have come up with 4 different designs (3 really since 2 and 3 are the same but slightly different. Now I need your help. I can't decide which one I like the best. I may just do several of each but I want to know what you think.

I did the first one in pieces. I saw an similar owl on a scrapbooking page but I drew this freehand (please be kind, I am NOT an artist). I figured I needed to put him all together so you can see him in the next photo. He would go on the green you see in the background. This is Owl #1



I also saw a pic online of an owl like this one but again I enlarged and drew him freehand. I think he would go on either navy, black or purple since he has a moon. He is my first attempt at the owl and is slightly longer bodied than number 3. This is owl #2.


As I said this is the second attempt at this owl and his body is slightly shorter Owl #3.

Finally my creepy owl and totally original. I would use the same purple and orange for his eyes like in my nine patch. Not sure of the background. I cut all the green but am thinking either orange or purple. What do you think? Owl #4.

These are my owls. I need to make a choice soon as I need to get working on them. Please help me decide!

And you thought I was finished with Florida!

I thought I was finished with Florida too but I forgot to show you what I bought at the quilt shops there! Silly you!

I bought a little bit of all of these. I was thinking dragons for the purple and the cream and for the orange and purple owl eyes. I just really, really loved the aqua.


I found these patterns in Venice at a little shop there. They are by Black Cat Creations and are called Plaid cats in my garden. They are embroidered and colored with crayons. I would like to get the whole set of 12 but the shop only had these 2 and the BCC website sells their as a set. If you know of anyone or if you have the ones I don't have here and would be willing to sell or trade email me and let me know if we can work something out.

I also bought this pattern in Venice. I thought the houses were too cute.

I bought these two flamingo panels in Sarasota. Aren't those flamingos adorable? I love the Christmas one. DD2 has already laid claim to any future quilt I make with these. How many quilts does she need anyway??

I thought I would be oh so clever and piece the background for my owl blocks for the Spooktacular Swap. Well I miss calculated and now have all these wonderful squares that are not the right size at all. I think I will just keep them and make some 16 patches with them for something in the future. It did, however lead me to believe that this would be too much for what I want to do with my owls. So I cut out a creepy swirly green for the background instead. Hopefully that will end up working out better. Sheesh, lots of work for no results. I did manage to get some cleaning and laundry done today though and that's a good thing. We were running out of towels!

For those of you who might like to know...DH said he had bought me a birthday present so I had to close my eyes and hold out my hands and BANG! He placed a box into my hands. No, not a small box but one containing the third season of Psych (a TV show). DD1 and I cracked up. She collects those not me! **SIGH** I guess it's the thought that counts!

Sylvania Quilt Show

LTW, Cori and I went to a quilt show in Sylvania Ohio the day after I returned from Florida. I thought I would show you some of the quilts I really liked. This one was so neat in person. They were raffling it off too. The little quilts next to the ree or the house were so adorable. Some were just cut outs but some were teeny tiny miniature quilts! Amazing! They also had made some with just a couple of houses and they were "table top" decorations. They had put a sleeve (for lack of a better word) on the back and slid it over a lucite picture frame so it could sit on a table top. They were selling those for $30 to raise money for a charity. Very clever!

I loved how the person used the colors in this one.

This was an all black tone-on-tone with dragons quilted into it with verigated thread. Then it looked like someone had used paint, or chalr or something to fill in parts of the dragons. This one was very cool!

Have you ever seen the cards by Rebecca Barker? Quiltscapes, I think? This was done from one of those cards. It was really cute in person.

I snapped this one for all you Harley people. It was all Harley t-shirts. The quilting in the border was all mototcycles. Neat!


If you want to see more, mostly upclose quilting pics go to my flickr account.

So the drama continues in my life. I had a pain in my stomach just under my sternum after lunch yesterday. I just assumed that I ate something that didn't agree and kept on going. Then I met my friend Joanne for dinner last night at Applebee's. We had a lot of fun but as I was finishing up eating, the pain came back. In the same place but MUCH more intense! So bad I had to excuse myself and go home and lie down. It passed in about 30 minutes or so. It was scary. DD1 wanted me to go to the ER but I felt fine once it passed. So they made me drink some water and the pain started so I stopped. It wasn't very bad that time though. I called the doctor and she told me to take some antacid. I did that and went to bed. Now, there has been no pain all day so will see how tonight goes. I hope it was just a fluke but time will tell.

I have pictures of the things I bought in Sylvania and will show them later.

Birthday Gifts (from my friends)

OK, so I know I was wining a little, ok a lot, in my last post about no one in my family getting me anything for my birthday. My friends, on the other hand, are awesome. I posted a while ago about my friend Annemiek from the Netherlands. she made me a beautiful hand quilted wall hanging and made 2 pin cushions too. Fabulous! Here are the rest of the gifties. Oh, LTW bought half of my design wall but I don't have a picture of that so when I put it up I will take a photo for you all to see. It is the large portable one, stunning! So not only is she an amazing quilter she is also one of my best friends! Thanks for all you do for me Liz!

My friend Mary Ann (Very Mary) sent me this lovely gift of fabric in the mail. What a sweetheart!!


Next up is my friend Yuki. She gave me a cute bag from Herrods in London. (I don't have a picture of it though) and also this pattern and fabric to make a beautiful bag. You are the best Yuki!

Cori (Crazy Quilt Girl quilt shop) knows how much I LOVE Halloween so gave me this beautiful stitchery pattern from Crabapple Hill, a Cpooktacular charm pack and the cutest little card (you *need* to enlarge it to appreciate it. I'm so glad we have reconnected, I enjoy her friendship so much. Thanks, Cori. You should all go to her shop and buy some stuff she has GREAT prices on all the Moda cut goods not to mention some other really cute things! Go NOW!!

Charlotte found out I was home and came over with these goodies. I have another charm pack of this too and a honey bun so now I have a good start for something. Thanks for being so thoughtful, Char.

Last night at CHV quilting, Pauline told me she had a little something for me for my birthday too. How does everyone know I like Halloween?? She made this Schlep bag out of adorable Halloween fabrics for me. Go ahead and peek inside and just look at that adorable button. I'm so happy that Pauline and I have become friends. She also hand stitched all the binding down on my Fresh squeezed quilt and that is one big quilt. Pauline you are truly a spectacular Canadian (eh?) treasure!! I told her that next week I am bringing my lap top and will help her get a gmail address. I am trying to convince her she needs a blog. You would be amazed at how much she does and how beautiful her work is. Let's all encourage her to get one really soon. Maybe she could call it something like "Nana Bear's World" Or Nana Bear from Canada eh? LOL

I feel very blessed to have each of you for my friends. I feel blessed to have you as my friend even if you didn't send me a gift too. It's nice to have friends!!

I just found out yesterday that I have a cataract growing on my right eye. I knew something wasn't right as the vision was blurry and I was terrified that it might be Macular Degeneration. Thank goodness it was not that! It is not bad (oh yeah, you try working with blurry vision and threading a needle doctor) according to the doctor. He didn't think I needed the surgery just yet. did you know that they take out your lens and give you another one? So he is hoping to be able to correct it with my contacts and glasses, but I am skeptical. I will keep you all posted. I was pretty upset last night as I feel 50 is a little young to be deteriorating already! I am adjusting though. He changed my prescription and I am wearing new contacts. I don't think they helped my up close vision at all but the distance is clearer (I am farsighted so see quite well in the distance even w/o assistance so big deal. I need to be able to see clearly up close. Please keep me in your prayers! I don't know whether to pray it doesn't get worse or it does!

Next up will be all about the Sylvania Quilt Show.

The rest of the trip

I figure you are all pretty sick of hearing about paradise but this is the last post about it so keep reading you might enjoy the scenery! There are also more photos on my Flickr account if you want to see them all. When we first went to the beach (Siesta Key Beach) we were greeted by this adorable sand sculpture someone had done. Notice the attention to detail? She is wearing the latest sea shell bracelet!
This is what I saw every time we were at the beach, the beautiful white sand and the amazing azure ocean. Paradise!

I just loved the pelicans too. I tried to get a close up but every time I had the camera they were not very close. I tried to get close and it took off, but look at how close it came to that guy standing in the ocean! I guess he didn't have his camera either!!

As we walked to the beach we had to go through the sea grass path to get there. I think you can see the colorful beach umbrella's pretty well in this photo. One night we went back for the sunset. It was so beautiful!

On my second to last night there Mary and I went out with 2 of her friends. You will see Sami on the left, Patti in the middle and Mary on the right. We had a lot of fun that night, everyone in the place knows Sami and they treated us very well.

Oh, I almost forgot the other side of the condo complex leads to Sarasota Bay. There are a lot of things going on in the bay. I don't think you are allowed to swim on that side though. It is where there are lots of boats and it is part of the Inter coastal Seaway if I remember correctly. This is one view to the left and then the center of where I was standing. If you look closely you can see the blue herons in the bushes of the second photo. We went here one night also and heard this psshtt blowing noise. What was that? Dolphins breathing! We managed to see 5 of them and one manatee too. We could hear the dolphins before we could see them. Pretty neat.

So that was my trip. It was fun and relaxing but I was also glad to get home to my normal life too. Six days away was a long time.

I flew home on Thursday and the airline lost my luggage. Of course they did! I went to a quilt show on Friday in Sylvania Ohio with my friends Cori (Crazyquiltgirl quilt shop) and LTW. I will post about that later though. When I got home my luggage was waiting for me, YEAH!

I'm feeling a little unmotivated at the moment. What do you do to get out of a slump? I think mine has to do with my birthday and the lack of recognition of it from my family. I know, I know, I got to go on a wonderful trip. I KNOW...but not one person in my immediate family (husband or children) gave me a card or any kind of a gift. It was a HUGE let down for me. I don't know why I am feeling like this but I am. I guess I felt like 50 should be a big celebration or something. When my DH turned 50 I made plans to go on the dinner train(he loves trains) and we had a great time. I went on a trip by myself. I know that was my choice but they still could have done *something*. I even left the address on the fridge and nada! My friends did more than my family and that really hurt me after all that I do for everyone in my family. I am sorry for whining, I just needed to get it out and maybe I will be over it in the near future. I'm trying not to be so selfish about it but it's hard. Any suggestions??

Happy 50th Birthday to me!

The morning of my 50th was hot and sunny. I especially loved the sunny part = )
We went to the pool (of course). Isn't it beautiful?


Mary and I were trying to decide where to go for dinner and we chose Barnacle Bills. I thought I would share the meal with you. The meal began with Caesar salad and a glass of wine. YUM!

Now that being said, do any of you watch Deadliest Catch? I watch it faithfully every week. So once we got to the restaraunt here is what the menu had to say. The crab came from Dutch Harbor (the Deadliest Catch place) HOW COOL!! You can see the crab legs and they were HUGE. In addition to that they were the BEST crab legs I have ever eaten!!!

Mary thought I should have a photo of myself on my 50th birthday so here you go this was me on my birthday!!

Just had a minute so thought I would catch you up this far. More later...