Over The Rainbow

My sweet Cleo went to kitty heaven this morning, my heart is still heavy accepting her loss. A recent checkup found she had stomach cancer and she was barely eating. Although we could hardly bare the thought of letting her go, we had to keep her best interests in mind. With great love, Jerry and I by her side, she went peacefully.
Many thanks to my family, friends and FaceBook friends, for their compassion and kind comments while I faced this difficult decision. 
Cleo was my constant sewing buddy these past 13 years, she loved to hang out with me while I worked. She had many friends in the quilting community who sent her notes and pictures of kitty friends, we read and enjoyed them all!
In her honor I put together a slide show of some of my Cleo inspired patterns, as you can see she left some very big paw prints on my heart! 

Free digital slideshow customized with Smilebox

Is it Spring Yet?

Is it Spring yet?? Well I don't know about you but I sure am ready! We have had a bit of everything this month, from our largest snowfall in years to thunderstorms. Temperature swings from teens to 60's in all in a matter of days, those poor little daffodils are too frightened to stick their heads up just yet. 

I have been doing a little Spring decorating, changing out the winter candles, floral arrangements and nick knacks to pastel colors and bunnies. Speaking of bunnies, you know I love my bunnies... I released a new penny rug design this month titled "Easter Egg Hunt". Love these wool felt colors, and the bunnies are just way too cute :)

My currant design I'm working on skips back to a winter theme. I know I know... I said I was waiting for Spring and here I am back to snow and such in my head. 

I did however find the perfect hanger for it. 

So while I'm not sewing I am planning my St Patricks Day feast! Silly me, I'm not even Irish, but on St Pats Day everyone is are they not? Even Cleo! 

The truth is I never even had a corned beef dinner until after Hubby and I were married. And to please  

my 1/2 Irish Hubby this German girl learned how to make his corned beef with all the fixings many years ago. Not all my attempts were too spectacular, sometimes the green beer was probably the best part lol! But I am proud to now say I have this meal down pat and make the BEST EVER CORNED BEEF! Yes I do  Bobby Flay! Our son and his girl friend will be joining us, I look forward to their company and cooking for them!

This St Patricks Day may joy and peace surround you,

contentment latch your door;

and happiness be with you now, 

and bless you ever more!

Ushering in the New Year

Another Christmas come and gone in the blink of an eye. Were you good? Of course you were, what did Santa bring you? Amongst the bubble baths, chocolates and book gift cards, all things that I love, I opened a gift from my sister on Christmas morning that made me smile :) She crocheted this adorable kitty scarf for me, I was so surprised! I had "pinned" this scarf on Pinterest, I just can't believe she found time to make it, gifts from the heart are so special. Santa also brought me an Intuous Pen Tablet for my computer, a very thoughtful gift for any designer, artist,  illustrator, it is used with Mac Photoshop and Design programs. I am very excited about this and will be burning some midnight oil while trying to learn new techniques.

Christmas here was quiet and laid back. Dinner with our son and his girlfriend. After the dinner mess is quickly put away I start whipping up appetizers for the after party. Several of our sons friends always join us for games, Jerry and I always look forward to it and enjoy these young people so much. This year we played Apples To Apples. The cream cheese penguins are a hit as always! 

New Years Eve was quiet here as well. It snowed all weekend and we just settled in. New Years Day I made our Pennsylvania good luck dinner of Pork Roast, Sauerkraut and mashed potatoes.. yum! 

Temperatures have dropped to the teens and Cleo hops from fleece to fleece keeping warm. My pretty girl! Every evening she hops up on the couch in between Jerry and I and watches TV with us. I think we are going to need a set of 3 recliners, one for each of us!

This Year is going to be one of many changes for Hubby and I. Jerry retired the end of December after a lifetime of work. I think it is going to take some time for him to adjust, right now it seems like he is still on vacation, a very long vacation lol! Wish us luck as we start this new journey together!

Hello September!

Happy Labor Day weekend! It is incredible to me that September has rolled around once more, Fall will be here before you know it and I believe most of us are ready for the change. August was a pretty busy month for me. When I last left you I was gathering my quilt models in preparation to do a Trunk Show for the Edmond Quilt Guild in Oklahoma. Phew, 2 suitcases full! My friend Brenda drove up from Oklahoma City on a Monday, spent the night and off we headed Tuesday morning for Edmond. We stopped in Stillwater Oklahoma for lunch, home of OSU. Our son attended OSU before finishing here at KU, so I was familiar with and craving some wonderful pizza from "The Hideaway"... and a wonderful pizza it was... such a treat!! As we continued on in to Edmond we stopped and shopped at 3 quilt shops. Running short on time we headed to the church where the Edmond Guild meets and prepared for their meeting. Such a wonderful guild this is, so welcoming and fun, it was an honor to share my work with them!

Wednesday morning Brenda and I drove back to Kansas City. On the way we stopped at 3 quilt shops in Wichita, Brenda made this in to a fun girls trip I'll tell you! We each added lots of fabrics and goodies to our stashes along the way. Back in KC we went to Oklahoma Joe's for some BBQ dinner. Brenda spent the night and drove back to Oklahoma City the next morning. A whirlwind trip that's for sure, thanks Brenda for showing me such a good time! 

The past few weeks have been busy with business as usual. Lots of pattern folding, as you can see here Cleo is tremendously helpful LOL! Many trips to the post office, everyone seems to be in the sewing mood now that summer is just about over. 

Labor Day weekend has been pretty quiet here on the home front... just Jerry, Cleo and I. 

Hubby has been enjoying the golf course and I intend to finish this stitchery I started on our road trips up and down I-35. Next I need to think about finishing, a pillow perhaps? 

Yipee Skippy..it's Fall!

The trees are now showing their beautiful shades of Fall here in Kansas and leaves are falling like snow, pretty soon it will be time to get out the rakes and bags. We are enjoying Indian summer with temperatures in the low 80's, I could love this weather all year long!

It has been a while since my last post, I have been busy with my business and everyday life in general. My birthday came and went. Gee, not so exciting anymore LOL! But I had calls from all my dear friends and children and that is what makes my day really special. I did receive a surprise package in the mail this week, from my friend Kelly Ann. Kelly Ann owns Kelly Ann's Quilting in beautiful Warrenton Virginia. Just look at this cute stuff, she knows me too well!

Darling cat fabric, glow in the dark thread, cat peeps and Hello Kitty Pez, so sweet, so thoughtful, she made my day :)

And speaking of Kelly Ann, I shipped a trunk show off to her this week, my Christmas table runner models. She is a busy gal with a shop hop coming up as well as so many numerous events it makes your head spin. So if you are in range of Kelly Ann's Quilting, stop on by, you will be glad you did!

Besides folding patterns, Cleo threw us for a little loop last weekend. She had a insulin seizure while Hubby and I were out to grab a bite to eat, our Friday night routine. Our son Jon came home from work and found her and rushed her off to the 24 hour vet hospital where we met him a few minutes later. To make a long story short, they kept her in kitty ICU for the night on an IV of medicine and were able to stabilize her. Doctor told Jerry the next morning she was good to go and she was very very cranky LOL! Phew. Cleo... don't do that again!

Saturday our son Jon moved out. I had been dreading this empty nest moment and expected to have a little crying jag over it, but to tell you the truth with the Cleo crisis and all I hardly noticed. So he is all moved out, starting his young professional life and loving it! Jerry and I ran over to check out the new digs that afternoon and deliver some odds and ends.

This weekend I am doing a little Fall/Halloween decorating. I have Bunco here this week, and my daughter and her little family are driving up from OKC for the weekend. Erin is going to run the Wadell & Reed Kansas City Marathon on Saturday. She is doing the 1/2 marathon, wow, is all I can say!

Having Erin here means Grandsons too... yipeeeeeee! I have my latest Hallmark talking monster out, he is really funny, sings and does the Monster Mash. Cleo just loves it when we line up all our various talking monsters on the floor :)

My neglected sewing room is calling my name. I have a lovely stack of solids waiting for me. They will be background blocks for my next quilt, can't wait to get after it!

Happy Fall!

Unfinished projects

Look what Jerry pulled out of my car trunk this weekend. A rug I started hooking 4 years ago!!! Not long after we moved to Kansas I was invited to join a rug hooking group that met locally. It was fun, a nice group of ladies and I had wanted to learn rug hooking. My 1st projects were much smaller, two pillows, and after completing those I felt I was ready to tackle a nice size rug. And as you can see, here lies my rug :( Sometimes we have such good intentions. We take on more than we can do. In the end I decided I really needed to focus all of my time on my own design projects. It is awfully cute though isn't it. Maybe I'll take it along on our next road trip.

The battle of the blankets...... Here is Cleo's sweet fleece blanket I made special for her last Christmas. I found this cute fleece print with a kitty who looked just like her. I was excited for her to have her own blanket. I was positive she would be crazy about it because she loved MINE so much.

Well here she is, as usual, on MY blanket LOL! She refuses to go near her blanket. So let this be a lesson to you, don't bother making your cat a blanket, she will always covet yours and you probably just made yourself a new blankie!

Another week as flown by. My quilt top is almost complete, one more border to add, a few embroidery touches and then its off to be quilted! Yea!
Have a super week!