Put on your Easter bonnet.....

Another month blowing by. It has been awfully windy here in Kansas, but really these days are flying! Here is my current block progress in the Splendid Sampler. So enjoyable following along with the Facebook group, everyone has made such different fabric choices, I love to see them all.  It is hard to imagine 100 blocks by years end on my wall though! 

My kitty quilt is bound and washed and being enjoyed!

I am writing a new pattern but have little sewing time this week as Easter is almost here and I am getting ready for company. 

Our Daughter and Son in law are driving up from Oklahoma for the weekend, and that mean Grandsons to spoil!  YAY!!!!

Making a few goodies, this is the 1st time I tried this little treat recipe found on Pinterest.

Candy filled pretzels turned in to chickens. A little patience is required with these but they turned out cute and are yummy, sweet and salty is a good combo!

I also made Daisy an Easter bonnet. She does not love it as much as I do but she's a good sport!

Happy Easter to you!

Sew Special!

You may recall before the holidays I was working on a special project. Kindred Stitches Magazine asked if I would design a project for their Easter issue, and of course, well yes, I was honored to do so! You will find my adorable Easter Bunny table runner in this issue. This digital magazine is beautifully photographed and chalk full of cute Spring projects for you to make and more. You can download the magazine app for your iPhone or iPad from the Apple store here: Http://itunes.apple.com/au/app/kindred-stitches-interactive/id665019498?mt=8

You can also purchase a pdf version to print on your computer here:

stitchingcow.com/collections/kindred-stitches-magazine-issues-for-computer/products-kindred-stitches-magazine-easter

It is a grey chilly day here in Kansas but I surely can't complain, we have had an easy winter so far with mostly above normal temperatures. I have been longing for one good snowfall though... bite my tongue...Hubby does not enjoy shoveling. 
We are excited for the weekend and looking forward to our Son and cute Fiancés engagement party. 
Our Oklahoma daughter and son in law will be our weekend guests, such a happy time! 

I've found time to work on  my quilt, all I have left to do is add the borders and then send it off to be quilted! 

Have a happy week, I hope you find time to do what you love most!

Easter Greetings

Happy Easter to you! We had a lovely Easter brunch at home today. Our son and his cute girlfriend Emily joined us. It looks like Daisy decided to join us also and be our table centerpiece lol! 

I hope your Easter table was filled with those you love and plenty of chocolate too!
Barbie Jo and Daisy

Down The Bunny Trail

Hippity Hoppity.. the Easter bunny is on his way! And pretty soon my Oklahoma daughter and her family will be here for the weekend. Which means Grandsons.... and lots of fun! 
I am making my grocery lists and we are planning some fun things for the boys to do. No time to be messing around on here, so I will leave you with a simple little slide show of Easter goodness from my home to yours. 

This free photo slideshow personalized 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!

Bunny Central

Good morning, I should have plenty of time to blog today, our second big snow storm hit last night and I'll just say we are not going anywhere too soon! Hopefully we will be plowed out tomorrow, but for now it is pretty to look at and we have power, who could ask for more.

It is hard to believe just a week ago Hubby and I were in Dallas and it was 72 perfect degrees! We drove down to visit our daughter and cute little twin Grandsons who turned 7 this week. On our girlie afternoon out my daughter and I visited 2 quilt shops near by, Quilt Country in Lewisville and The Old Craft Store in Carrollton. Each store was unique and fun, I bought goodies at each. The flannel pictured below will be stitched in to 2 baby blankets for the expected arrival of my Nieces twins. I am trying the "self binding" baby blanket instructions, I'll let you know how that turns out. I also purchased a Frixion marking pen for my embroidery tracing, it is supposed to disappear with a hot iron. Normally I use the water soluble tracing pens so I am curious to see if I might like this better, have you tried one?

The drive down and back is long and rather boring, I stitched all the way. My bunny penny rug is nearly finished and will be a pattern soon!

Bunny kits and patterns have been hopping out the door since I got home, it feels like bunny central here. Easter is early this year, time to put my few Valentine decorations away and bring out the Spring decor.

And after gazing at this scene out my front window, I know I'm ready for a little Spring, how about you?

A little closer to a finish

Slowly but surely, stitching my Annies together, the 1st 3 rows are done! She is looking darn cute! Darlene at Quilting Daze posted a picture of her Annies she has been working on. All in Red Work, how sweet is that, I love watching her progress :)

My thoughts have turned to Spring this past week. When not working on my quilt I have been pulling fabrics from my overflowing stash to work on a Spring runner design. I have 3 groups of fabric I love, but they all seem to lack the one or two pieces that pull my thoughts together and I am torn. Back and forth, back and forth, you should see my cutting table.... well no, you shouldn't, it's not pretty LOL!

Mother Nature sure has been playing games with us here in Kansas. Last week we enjoyed a few days in the 70's. People were running around in their shorts and flip flops, windows flew open to air out Winter. Trees beginning to blossom and plenty of yard work going on, lovely to embrace the sun. And today.... well it's snowing and the furnace is back to roaring. Maybe next week it will be Spring for sure!

And speaking of Spring, look what the UPS man left on my porch yesterday. Yummy chocolate Easter basket novelties from Sarris Candy in PA. I have them shipped every year because we don't have anything like this in my neck of the woods.

Happy sewing and enjoy your weekend!

A big finish!

My last Annie block is finished... April Annie. Isn't she sweet, all decked out for Easter, don't you just love the flower on her bonnet :) She has been on an egg hunt this morning with her new stuffed bunny friend. I don't know whether to laugh or cry now that all my Annies are done.

I have spent a lot of time with her this past year, she never fails to brighten my day and she doesn't even speak LOL!

On the other hand, I am super excited to sew all my blocks into a darling quilt. I have them all spread out on my cutting table, contemplating a setting for them.

I don't know about your neck of the woods, but we all enjoying a bit of spring fever here! Yesterday was in the 60's.... WHOOOHOOO! I had the back door open to enjoy a little fresh air for the 1st time in a long, long, time. Hubbies thoughts are turning to golf on the weekends now and I am thinking about doing a little spring cleaning and decorating. Notice I did say "thinking" LOL!

Speaking of decorating, would you just look at these adorable Polish pottery bunny jars, I would love a bunch of these.

Heading up to my sewing room, after I have this donut with the green sprinkles. Enjoy your weekend!

Some Bunny Cuteness for you!

What a weird week, fog, rain, sleet, snow, good grief it seems we've seen it all! I think we are all a little bit more than ready for Spring now. I spent most of this week writing instructions for my new pattern "Bow Tie Bunnies" and here they are in all their bunny cuteness :)

Fast and easy to make, don't you love the button accent on their bow ties? So many wonderful buttons and embellishments out there today, a girl could go crazy.

I also finished my new Annie design this week. Oh this little one makes me smile, my heart is bursting with the cuteness of April Annie LOL! Her bonnet... oh my, just wait :) Maybe I better settle down here before I bust a vessel, I am just having so much fun sewing. I'll be showing her off soon.

So what to do next. I have had this fabric sitting on my cutting board for about 2 months now. I totally love, love, love it! Maybe I'll play with this for awhile.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Alone again.......

Wow, Easter came and it went, along with all of my company. Alone again... wasn't that a song?
Well our Easter was just so fun, 4 generations of Paquins in the house, it was a very special time.
The weather was on the cool side, however the sun came out on Saturday. My pumpkins were able to run off some steam and take part in the neighborhood egg hunt.

Alex got to show me his tree climbing skills, he was very proud, as you can see he is just beaming from ear to ear :)

I had tons of help in the kitchen, pint sized help that is! Alex helped me make our Easter Peep
angel cake and I learned something new. This kid LOVES Peeps! He ate 6 of them while we decorated the cake. I said Alex.... I didn't know you liked Peeps! He chirped, I mean said, oh Nana, they are my favorite! Before making the cake we dyed eggs, you may be able to see that by the dye spots all over his shirt. But believe you me his shirt looked great compared to Williams. William goes to dunk his 1st egg in a cup and knocks it over, all down the front of his once white now in the garbage can purple tye dyed shirt LOL! Remind me to make these boys some head to toe aprons.

We had brunch instead of dinner on Easter. The kids had to drive back to Oklahoma and Jon back to KU. Boy it was yummy, we also had tasty breakfast casserole, fresh fruits and don't forget the chocolate! Doesn't this picture just look like a Hallmark card!

The rest of the week was spent with Jerrys Dad who keeps very busy for an 88 year old, he loves to fix things. And we save a long list of fixing things to do every year for his visit lol.
Before he headed back to Florida we took him to his 1st ever concert at the Sprint Arena. George and Reba were great and I think he enjoyed it!

And now my house is quiet. Everyone is back to their normal routines. I'm happy to be back to the drawing board again.... fun projects coming up... I promise!
Have a happy week!

Hopping in to wish you an early Happy Easter!

Stopping by to wish you all Happy Easter early! Tomorrow all heck is going to break loose and I won't have a chance before Sunday. We have a house full of family arriving tomorrow and I am sooooo eggcited! Jerrys Dad is flying in from Florida and will be spending the next 10 days with us. Our daughter Erin and her little family are driving up from Oklahoma tomorrow. Two little Grandsons on the way YAY!!!!! Jon will be home from KU for the weekend as well!
My Texas pumpkins can't make it, too far for a weekend trip :( So their bunny box is on the way to them. These Hallmark Donald Duck bunnies are a riot, they walk and talk, the boys are sure to love them and they are sure to drive their Momma crazy by the end of the day.
My week has been full, cleaning, preparing dinner menus and making lists, lists and more lists! My mind is in such a dither. Monday I was running around like a chicken with my head cut off. Hubby and I were heading out to do some errands and I could not find my phone ANYWHERE. So I made him come back in and call my phone, no answer. I ran upstairs, I ran down. I was really worried I mailed it in an order box to England or Canada and mentally was picturing my phone ringing in the post office bin. OMG, now what! Then I hear Hubby muttering, well this is a really good one. Barb he calls, um, your washing machine is ringing LOL!
On that note, I am off to do groceries! Happy Easter to all, I'll have lots of pics for show and tell next week :)

Chocolate, chocolate, chocolate :)

Did you know that besides sewing I have a passion for chocolate? I sure do! Each year I special order my Easter goodies from Sarris chocolate shop in my native state of Pennsylvania. So many darling novelties to choose from; yummy, yummy melt in your mouth chocolate, oh my. And today the bunny.... I mean UPS man left this box of goodness on my porch. Sorry to carry on so, but I thought I died and went to heaven! Now I have to find a good hiding spot, I didn't order any for me, what in the world was I thinking! Well, obviously I was not :(


Ok, I admit to being a bad blogger lately. I just don't know where the time has gone since we returned from our little trip. One day runs in to another and before you know it another week has passed by, you know how that goes. Jerry and I have been busy with a little bedroom redo- painting. And I started going through all my drawers and shelves etc during the process... holy cow, that was a big nightmare! We are making good progress though and I need to get all the work out of Hubby while I can before golf season gets into full swing :)
In my spare time I was working on writing up the instructions for my new pattern. "Bunny Tails" has three cute little pillows to stitch and and ornament for your Easter tree. They are quick to stitch and lots of fun, I love bunnies don't you?


And here's a sneakie peakie at my next design, all done and ready for me to write the pattern this week.
And speaking of kitties, well not that we were, but many of you have asked about my little fur baby Cleo. She is doing very well, adjusting to running to the vets every week for tests. For some reason kitties just don't like to go for a ride in the car. She cries and cries all the way there. Allowing me to give her 2 shots every day and being such a good girl about it. She is even on a prescription cat food, her Dr calls it the Catkins Diet, ha, ha, get it! Our vet thinks it's pretty funny, however Cleo does not feel quite the same about it LOL!
Oh gosh, hubby is pulling in the drive way and I guess that means I'll be hearing "whats for dinner" next! What is for dinner anyways LOL!
Have a lovely weekend all!
XXXOOOO

Chocolate Bunnies!

Oh yum!! Look what arrived via UPS a few days ago, chocolate bunnies from my favorite candy store Sarris Chocolates, located just outside Pittsburgh Pa.
Each Easter I treat us to the wonderful chocolate novelties I grew up with from Pittsburgh or Buffalo. It may sound kind of silly to you but basically all we have here is Russel Stovers and there is just NO comparison! I grew especially spoiled when we lived in Buffalo. So many neighborhood family chocolate shops. 100s of molded novelties for Easter, it was always hard to choose for the children. And the taste, melt in your mouth chocolate, I am just dying to bite off a bunny ear LOL!

My poor Jerry is sick with that nasty nasty stuff that is making the rounds again. I am trying to be sympathetic but at a distance! I leave for Dallas right after Easter to visit with my daughter and my twin munchkins, I just can't get sick!
Back to working on the drawings for my next little quilt, what fun! Have a great week!