Gingerbread treats and back to school

A finish this week, my new pattern "Gingerbread Treats" is ready! This runner is fast and fun to make using fusible applique. These no bake cookies will look so cute in your Christmas kitchen.

I used the Christmas Candy line of fabric from Riley Blake, I think it was made just for this runner :)
It's back to school in KC, when I'm out running my errands I see all the school buses rolling by and can't help but think of my little Grandsons.

Twin pumpkins Aiden and Brandon started Kindergarden in Dallas yesterday, wow, what a big day that is!


And last week in OKC William started Kindergarden also and big brother Alex entered 2nd grade.

They all look so happy don't they!

Enjoy your week!

Waaaaaa, she's gone!

Oh dear, she's gone :( I woke up this morning and it felt very strange to not have my sister here.

She flew home yesterday. We had a full and busy week which flew by at lightening speed!

Here we are, Me on the left in purple, Sissy wearing pink. We are at the Kansas City Nelson-Atkins Museum Of Art. From here we went to the Kemper Museum Of Contemporary Art, a huge storm was upon us and we literally blew in through the front doors!

Art viewing was followed by dinner at the Cheesecake Factory on The Plaza... YUMMM!!

Monday and Tuesday we explored the wide variety of shopping available in the area. A stop at Dean & Deluca for afternoon treats and a table outside on a glorious day is heaven! I must say we had our share of dining out this past week. The most interesting was a place my son took us to: "Grinders" located in the heart of KC is a diner which was featured on Food Networks Diners and Dives show. Sis and I felt so hip and cool being there LOL, the food was fun!

Wednesday was Darlenes birthday and we went to the movies and saw "The Help". Cute movie and enjoyed it a lot, pleasantly surprised after reading the book, the casting was excellent.

Thursday was a push day to work on our crazy wool pin cushions. I had ordered these cute kitty scissors for our sewing pleasure, kitty shaped scissors make sewing so much better :)

We worked like demons for a finish and here they are! I went with a Fall theme and Darlene put her kitty "Moses" in a basket of yarn. Darlene loves to knit and her kitty Moses loves to help.


Friday was a bit of everything day, our final day :( We had such a wonderful week and all I can say is if you have a Sister close by you are truly blessed, I will miss her laughter and companionship terribly!

Now moving on to some sewing treats. Last week a shop owner in WA called to order patterns. During our conversation she mentioned a quilt one of her customers had made from my "Annie Loves Christmas" red work pattern. Instead of red work she had adapted the pattern to applique. I was dying to see it and Dorine sent these lovely pictures. The quilt was made by Vera Ohlemacher of WA for Wumpkins Quilt Shop. Thank you for sharing Vera's quilt Dorine!

How absolutely adorable, her work just makes my heart smile :)

All the little details, it looks like she used yarn for her hair, so very very CUTE!!

Reading through my friends posts I see Darlene has finished all the red work blocks for my Annie BOM series. Go check out her quilt progress, so darling Darlene! I am also embarrassed to say I believe she is going to finish before me as I have yet to finish setting my blocks!

This week I received my quilted runner back from Brenda. I am always so excited to see the beautiful quilting she has done, it is the icing on the cake. Today I am sewing the binding on my runner, I'll be writing the pattern this week. YAY, it's a cutie, coming your way soon!

Enjoy your week, happy sewing!

Two More Days!!

Two more days.... until my Sister arrives, I am excited beyond belief!

Now that may seem silly, but I have not seen my Sis in a few years. She lives in New York, I live in Kansas. Our other 3 siblings each live in various states as do our Fathers and children as well. How did we ever get so scattered. It could be a full time job making the rounds to see everyone every year and we do not get to see one another as often as I would like.

Did I say I am EXCITED!!

Darlene is my younger sister, we are 23 months apart. Isn't this picture cute? My Mom sure did know how to bundle us up LOL! Being so close in age we shared a lot growing up, including the same bedroom. During my teen years I sometimes grew tired of having a little sis always under foot, she was EVERYWHERE LOL! For awhile I longed for my own room, I envied my older Sis hers... green eyed envy, the worst kind. Thinking back on it all now I realize how lucky we were, not only did we share the same space, but so much laughter, tears, many stories and our deepest thoughts as well. Other fringe benefits were we liked the same music and wore pretty much the same size which meant a double wardrobe :) She could iron my hair and I could iron hers.

So I am hopping up and down waiting... little Sis arrives on Saturday! I have spent this past week making ready, cleaning and shopping, stocking up on goodies. I will be blog absent next week while we shop, do lunch, sew, talk up a storm and laugh lots!!!!

I did finish my last sewing project, a new table runner pattern coming soon and boy is it ever cute! I mailed it off to Brenda to quilt and will be excited as always to see her finish!

Off to dust LOL!

Quilt til you wilt

How else would you endure these 99 degree temperatures but to turn the AC up and sew. Yep, it's still pretty hot here, Cleo and I are hanging out inside sewing our little hearts out. This week I am working on a new table runner using these wonderful Christmas prints by Riley Blake. I am also trying flavored waters, trying to keep hydrated in this heat LOL! Very refreshing I have to admit, and as you can see I have yellow polish drying on my toes. Not to sure about this shade on me, think I could use a tan to set it off....dreaming of vacation. The sound of waves, drinks with little umbrellas, gathering sea shells, dinner out every night.... ah. I need to get farther away than the bath tub!

This afternoon I was in Target looking for a new summer read... and although I picked up something for me, look what else I came across... "Splat The Cat" :) I LOVE Splat The Cat books and my Grandsons love Splat because he looks like Cleo. He is also giggly and fun and the illustrations are the cutest ever, they will all enjoy these.

I purchased "1000 White Woman"- The Journals Of May Dodd on a friends recommendation, I was also looking for the Hunger Games but they did not have it. I have been so disappointed with all my book choices these past few months, craving a good read. I enjoy mostly a readers club type book, usually fiction. A book where you flow down stream with the story, sad to see it end, instead of fighting the currant to finish. So what are you reading, any suggestions for me?

Well it's back to my needle and thread for a while, and then perhaps a little reading time.

Stay cool, enjoy your week.

Christmas in July

Ahhhh Christmas in July, sounds kind of good right now while so many of us are melting in these 100 degree temps doesn't it! And ready or not, summer time is perfect to start a little sewing for the holidays. This week I mailed a Christmas trunk show to Laura at The Cotton Patch Quilt Shop in Bradenton Florida. Some of my absolutely cutest pattern models ever were included, oh my gosh they will make you smile :) Saturday the shop is holding their Christmas in July preview, so if you are in the area stop on by! Pick out some yummy Christmas fabric and check out all the festive goodness in store for you!

Last weekend a new kid showed up in town.... the long awaited Trader Joe's. I made the mistake of checking it out on grand opening weekend.... along with a gazillion others.


My big find... Tuna just for cats! No I didn't buy all these cans lol, but Cleo sure does love this stuff!

I don't have an exciting weekend planned, I can tell you all of my activities will be indoors with the AC roaring. A stack of Christmas fabric is calling my name and I hope to get started on a new project. Stay cool, happy sewing and happy summer!

A road trip with my Son

Well lets see... where did we leave off last post, oh, coming up on a really boring 4th of July weekend. And that did not disappoint, as predicted it was pretty darn boring. But Hubby made it through his oral surgery and that was a good thing because he still had to finish painting the dining room he had not completed. I puttered around the kitchen making water melon boats and red, white and blue angel cake for dessert. We watched the Nathans annual hot dog eating contest and the spectacular NYC fireworks on TV. Ho hum :)

Soooo... this past weekend I was invited to go to OKC with my son, I'm kind of like driving Miss Daisy down I-35. He felt I needed a getaway and some girl time with his sister Erin. So thoughtful and sweet of him don't you think? Jon has been running back and forth in-between Oklahoma and Kansas for months now. It seems this is the year of the wedding for his age group and he is now a professional groomsman on the weekends LOL! After dropping me off at my daughters, he gave his nephews a quick hug and squeeze and headed off to his next pre wedding event. The boys just love their big Uncle Jon!

Alex is 7 and William 5, they are a riot!

Saturday Erin and I had a girls only afternoon. But I'm going to tell you, it was HOT!!! Every temperature sign we passed was climbing higher and higher, 110 degrees was the high. OMG, I forgot how hot Oklahoma can be in the summer!

Our first stop was Oklahoma Quiltworks where we browsed and bought some fabric. Most of the Christmas fabric is out now and it was a tough choice to choose from just one line.

Next we hit up several antique shops and malls and Sonic for a blueberry slushy, can't beat Sonic drinks on a hot day! We stopped in a tiny bakery which was next to one of the antique shops, what an unexpected treat! Adorable cookies to take home to the boys, and I have to say they had the best tasting bakery cookies I have had in years! "Full Cup" Bakery in Bethany- loved them!

Today I released 2 new patterns, always such a nice feeling to go from start to finish!

First is "Pumpkins All Aglow" A wool table topper, fast and fun to make. Love the Fall colors, those plum berries add just the right touch of color and make my heart pitter patter :) Button teeth add some extra fun!

Next is "A Fall Sampler" 4 tea towel designs to stitch up for Fall. Stitch them by the lake or on your next road trip, you'll have them done before the leaves change color!


Now it's time to get back to my chores, you know how things pile up when you're gone a few days. And I'm anxious to start my next sewing project! I can tell you though, I won't be sitting out side stitching this week, looks like 98's most of the week.

Have fun and stay cool!

Help... I'm melting

Help, I'm melting! Nice and hot out here in the Midwest and it looks like we are rain free for the rest of this approaching holiday weekend. So why do I torture myself sitting outside sewing you may wonder, instead of staying inside where it is nice and cool with the AC running! Well I suppose this is my way of enjoying the great outdoors LOL! If I can't be stitching by the lake this summer I have created my own backyard resort minus the lake. Honestly though, natural sunlight is like having an Ott lite and makes stitching easy on my eyes.

This weeks summer drink is orange juice/sparkling water and orange polish for my toes! It co-ordinates with the shades of fall wools I am working on, show and tell pic this weekend. I also finished my Fall tea towel designs I was stitching, the pattern is now being printed, photo in a few days also. Finishing just feels sooo good as I am exploding with lots of new projects to

get started on.

I dumped my button jar yesterday in search of a few buttons for my wool project. Mine are stored in an old cat cookie jar, what do you store yours in? Well anyways, emptying the jar brought back memories of Cleo when she was a playful kitten. She would come racing down from upstairs when ever I dumped my jar of buttons out, bat them all over, she loved my buttons, they were the best thing ever! My buttons no longer spark any interest for her :( And with that being said I know my fur child is feeling her age and I am just content to have her sitting by my feet while I sew.

Big weekend coming up and I know many of you will be traveling or heading out of town. Ours will be quiet. Hubby is having oral surgery on Friday so we will be pretty laid back here. I will stay busy with new sewing projects and thinking about my road trip the following weekend!

Safe travels, happy 4th!