6 days, who's counting....

With Christmas less than a week away, can you believe it already, my cookies are baked.

The tree is up....

Cleos tree skirt is underneath now for the 15th year...

and Daisy has hung her favorite ornament.

Extra stockings were hung for our Oklahoma Grandsons who will arrive the day after!

Daisy has her Christmas spirit going on!

This year hubby and I saw Manheim Steamroller at the beautiful old Arvest Bank Theatre at the Midland in Kansas City. A perfect way to start the season and it was a wonderful concert.

May your Christmas be filled with happiness and many memories to treasure,

XX00 Barbie Jo and Daisy

Celebrate!!

Last weekend was a celebration to remember with the much anticipated wedding of our son and his beautiful fiancé! The weekend started off on Friday with the rehearsal dinner and much fun seeing so many friends and family join together for this happy time.

Saturday morning my daughters and I joined our bride and her wedding party to have hair and makeup done. Then before you know it everyone was whisked off to the church!

The ceremony was beautiful, a fairytale wedding, such a beautiful bride, and that dress, she was perfection! 

Our Grandsons from Oklahoma and Texas each had a part in the ceremony, this was a 1st wedding for all of them and they were so very excited!

The reception was beautiful, lots of fabulous food, lots of dancing going on! So fun watching everyone celebrate the happiest of times.

And now we have a new Mrs Paquin! Their faces tell it all :)

After the wedding I had a dinner at my home for our friends and family who were able to stay an extra day. Both of my sisters and their spouses stayed until Wednesday so we could catch up. We showed them around Kansas City visiting some of favorite sights and places to grab a bite to eat.

Much laughter happened, great memories made this week! 

Several months ago Kindred Stitches Magazine asked if I would like to be a guest designer for their Vintage Country Issue! Of course I was very pleased to contribute a design for this beautiful on line magazine.

I designed an adorable wool penny rug, just in time for you to make for Christmas! 

You can view a promotional video here showcasing the beautiful projects to make from this issue:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXKE6Rzy42U

You can download and purchase the magazine through the apple store here:

https://itunes.apple.com/au/app/kindred-stitches-interactive/id665019498?mt=8

Or download a pdf version of the magazine at this link:

http://stitchingcow.fetchapp.com/permalink/103b52

Now with all the wedding excitement over, I am struggling to get back to normal. 
Because the holidays are already nipping at my heels! 
Enjoy your week!

Wedding bells will soon be ringing!

It's almost time! EEEEK, I can't believe the day we have all been waiting for is happening this week! Though out the week family and friends will be traveling to Kansas City to help us celebrate 

our sons wedding to his beautiful fiancé. There will soon be a new Mrs Paquin! 

We are all busy and beyond excited! 

The excitement mounts!

Where does time go? It seems like yesterday when our son was just the most adorable little boy. 

Somehow the years flew by and he turned in to this handsome young man.

In a few weeks he will watch his beautiful bride walk down the aisle toward him and a new life journey begins. 

Hubby and I finalized the rehearsal dinner plans this week, and celebrated with a happy hour cocktail.

We are so excited!

My sewing machine will sit mostly idle this month. I finished a special project with a deadline last month. For now.... I am preparing my home for guests, cooking, baking, freezing dinners and goodies! And perhaps find a little time to enjoy the changing leaves and Indian summer weather. 

Happy Fall! 

Welcome September!

What a fun time I had at the Greater Kansas City Quilt Guild show this past weekend! I met so many lovely quilters and had the best booth mates on each side of me. The following three pictures are of my booth set up.

The best part of being a vendor at a quilt show are the people you meet. Lovely quilter and guild member Joeann Collins stopped by my booth and brought her adorable reindeer quilt she made from my pattern "Fa La La La La". She was so much fun to talk to and seeing her completed quilt was such a treat! 

We had a stormy week last week. Parts of Kansas City flooded, fortunately not where I live, but we had a 90 mph wind gust blow through our neighborhood leaving a lot of tree damage to clean up.

And now the sun is shining for what looks like a pretty Labor Day weekend! Can you believe it's September already? Annie sure can't, she's back to school! You can find this September BOM embroidery pattern and or little quilt kit on my Etsy site.

September is also a fun month because it is my birthday month and I plan on celebrating all month long :) 

Enjoy your Labor Day weekend, safe travels if you are on the road! 

Time is on my side....or is it?

As Dr Suess said... how did it get so late so soon! Never enough hours in a day lately. Summer has rushed by and come to a close with most children back to school here in the Midwest. We had our Oklahoma grandsons here for a week of fun. Between Hubby and I we kept them pretty busy. A visit to the Kansas City Zoo where the penguins habitat was their favorite attraction. We saw "The Secret Life Of Pets", they went to a Kansas City Royals game, and we won! The boys went on a street car ride in Kansas City, spent some time at Union Station checking out the real trains and train display, then met their Uncle and their soon to be Aunt for lunch. Wednesday was my turn to have Bunco at my house. The boys helped with setting up, then subbed to fill in for missing players lol. 

We went to the KU Natural History Museum and enjoyed a delicious ice cream come at a fun local university shop before heading home. 

The wedding draws closer and closer, only 9 weeks away! Emily's family is making all the wedding food, a huge task! We had the pleasure witnessing and helping with the process of making cappelletti.

Many hands make light work and there were about 14 of us on the assembly line this day, even down to the little ones crimping the edges! We sampled some of our work for dinner after and boy were they delicious!

We finished about 750 of 2500 needed!

Next up, preparing to vendor at the Quilt Guild Of Greater Kansas City show "From Stash To Treasure" next weekend. If you are in the area:

Friday August 26 and Saturday August 27 from 10 to 6.

Abdullah Shrine Temple, 5300 Metcalf Ave, Overland Park, KS

Always excited and looking forward to meeting quilters at the show, hope I see you!

Sum Sum Summertime!

Wow, it has been a busy summer! We spent the 4th of July week with my sis in law and brother in law in Pittsburgh PA. They are such a fun couple to be with and we always have a great visit with them. It is our tradition to go out and have a big breakfast to start off our 4th of July morning.

We always go to a little spot in the country on a par 3 course called Chubs Place. 

How yummy does this look? That Pittsburgh Italian bread... OMG I can't get enough of it when I'm there!

We also spent time with our niece and her darling little family.

 It was a good week flooded with many fond memories of growing up in Pittsburgh. 

But all good things must come to an end and before you know it we were on the road heading home to our Daisy. Our cooler was packed with some of our favorite Pittsburgh foods. We stopped for lunch at a rest area along the road and had chipped ham sandwiches, Wise potato chips and cupcakes to celebrate our 45th anniversary!

Lots of wedding events happening as the big day draws closer and closer for our cute couple.

Here is our sons beautiful bride to be at the lovely Bridal shower her sister gave her. They are going to need a bigger kitchen lol. 

Once home it was time to pack my totes full of quilts models and goodies to take to Hutchinson Kansas. I spy a protester on my tote here! 

It was such a pleasure to present trunk shows to both the Heart of Kansas guild and Evening Star guilds in Hutchinson. Two wonderful guilds that share their love of sewing and also support their community with various projects. 

Before leaving Hutchinson Hubby and I took a unusual tour we had read about. The Hutchinson Salt Mine has a museum "Stataca" which allows you to go 650 feet below ground on an excellent guided tour. I was a little nervous at 1st, but my fears were quickly laid to rest and this was a unique and really cool experience for all age groups. 

Hubby collecting a salt rock sample.

Upon returning home again to a happy Daisy, I released my latest pattern"Harvest Moon"

This runner is just so pretty for Fall, made from wool it measures 12" x 34". You can find it now on my website at www.cleoandme.com and my Etsy store: Cleo and Me Patterns.

And now it's time to get running. Next week we'll have our Oklahoma Grandsons for a visit!

It looks like August will be another busy and full month.

Happy summer!

A time to reap, a time to sew

May day...may day... where has this month gone! Our month started with a quick road trip over Mothers Day weekend to Dallas to visit with our daughter and the twins. Can you believe they are 10 already! 

Our daughter was born on Mothers Day, how special is that! Even though her birthday fell on Monday this year we were able to have a double celebration. We ate out lots, and when in Texas you sure want some BBQ, and I'll tell you, get yourself right on over to Hard Eight BBQ because their brisket melts in your mouth! See how happy everyone is! They are in a good food coma lol.

Mothers day was girls day! While Grandpa took the boys to see a movie, my daughter took me to a cute little painting studio. Our class was relaxing, our art student instructor was cute and fun, we had a great time together. Afterwards to returned to Grapevine for Gelatos and fudge before heading back to teach her how to knit before the boys came home. Yes, knit 1 pearl 1, I am so excited she wanted to learn how!

Our weekend was over way to fast, Texas thunderstorms and severe weather chased into Oklahoma, where the wind blew us back to Kansas, and Daisy! 

Where it has rained just about every day since! The grass is green, everything is lush and I spend day after day in my sewing room. My cutting table overfloweth. I am now into 30 blocks of The Splendid Sampler quilt.

I am so busy with my own sewing, sometimes I feel I just won't be able to keep up with this. 

But I guess there's always time to fit another block in, they are just so much fun! I enjoy the the worldwide group camaraderie on Instagram and Facebook, sewing has no language barriers.

I am making up little Annie individual kits for my Etsy shop, starting a new wool project and preparing some embroidery for summer road trips. 

And so tomorrow begins another month. Our Oklahoma family is having an engagement party for our Son and his beautiful bride to be. Excited for the get together and so the count down continues.... 5 more months! 
Happy June!

Friends

Jon Leonards quote" It takes a long time to grow an old friend" is so very true. Our dear friends came and went. Our visit went by way too fast, we had such a great time!

We managed to do a little bit of everything. We visited The Ems Hotel & Spa in Excelsior Springs Missouri. When healing mineral waters were discovered here during the late 1800's, thousands of people poured in to this town for cures. We had never been before but it was on our list. About an hour out side of Kansas City, this hotel is known for it's history, beautiful grounds and luxurious spas.

We enjoyed a wonderful lunch here and then toured this beautiful hotel. I hope hubby will bring me back some day (hint hint) perhaps for a special occasion. That spa looked amazing! 

Some shopping was done at a favorite spot of mine, Cockrell Mercantile Company in Missouri.

I love the Fiesta Cottage and added a few pieces to my collection. What you see here in this picture is  not even 1/10th of all the Fiestaware in stock, it's Fiestaware heaven! 

We worked our way through some of the cuisine Kansas City has to offer, saw a movie "Brooklyn" which I highly recommend. And then we drove to Saint Louis for our final day together. Where we ate our way through this city also lol! We had a wonderful lunch on The Hill at Amighettis and bought Italian bread to take home. Followed by a visit to The Missouri Baking Company for Italian cookies and pastries to also bring home to our cute engaged couple.

We toured the Saint Louis Cathedral Basilica which is so amazing pictures will not do it justice.

Followed by dinner at Charlie Gitto's on The Hill, where we were treated so wonderfully and I had lasagna like a pillow on a cloud. The next morning we each went our separate ways, us home to Kansas City and our dear friends to Buffalo NY. Almost 40 years of friendship, it's a wonderful thing!

Home to my normal routine again. I just released a new design for you.

This little quilt features wool applique on cotton. It is a perfect project to take along on your summer vacation, fast and fun, when done you'll have a gift for Christmas or yourself because you love it so much!

Step away from the sewing machine!

The sun is out and shining here in Kansas, it's a perfect day if you were at The Masters which hubby surely wishes he was. So while he reminisces about his time there several years ago, and relives every hole one by one, I am sewing! 

 Or trying to sew. Notice the rather large pile of fabric scraps and ruined paper templates on my cutting board, the unhappy face on my pin cushion. I have always wanted to learn paper piecing, and this weeks beautiful Splendid Sampler block #15 by Janice Ryan was just that, paper pieced! 

And so I printed out all the templates and then read through the directions, yet my brain just did not want to make sense of this technique. I watched 2 videos on paper piecing which really did not sink in either. By now I am practically banging my head up and down on my cutting mat and crying... this is when a little voice says.. step away from the sewing machine, just step away now. 

 Maybe all the fumes from the painting hubby has been doing these past few weeks have gone to my head.
He's doing a great job though isn't he! Daisy is supervising, she's soooo funny!

So back to my story, I took a little break, nibbled on some chocolate bunny, and watched another video on paper piecing. This one was by Alyssa Thomas, one of the sampler block designers. She has been sewing along with everyone and made a video of sewing the actual block. Once I saw how the 1st section was done, it all clicked! Yes it did! Yay!! Full steam ahead I finished the block, it's not perfect but I'm okay with it for a 1st try. This is exactly what I have been enjoying about sewing along with the sampler, the variety of techniques used, there is always something new to learn! 

We are getting ready for company. My girlfriend from Buffalo New York is coming to visit next weekend, with her hubby. We met in Buffalo about 40 years ago at Home Bureau, a large group of woman who got together every week to sew and craft. They even had a nursery who my little one, it was great! Although I have been gone from Buffalo 30 years now, we still visit back and forth as much as possible. Such friends are so very special and we are really excited for their visit!