Special Delivery

Brrrr… its a cold one today. Minus 2 degree start but the sun is shining and I know some of you have it much worse this week so I am not going to complain. Its a good thing I ate my Wheaties this morning as UPS delivered a nice big box of wool felt. And just pretend you don't see those fake poinsettias on my entry table…. they are not really there :)

I finished writing my new pattern this weekend and it is now available on my web site. My pretty model is all stitched up in yummy wools, just in time for Valentines Day or any special occasion. My heart is always very happy to see a finished pattern. Because usually there is another nipping right at its heels. 

This week I will be busy writing the pattern for a new Easter design. Cuteness abounds in this one and you are just going to LOVE LOVE LOVE it! Also working on a pdf file for a small design. PDF patterns are new to me and I am anxious to see how it turns out.

And now its time to lug all that wool felt upstairs. Enjoy the remainder of your week and stay warm!

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!

BFF's

I guess I left you hanging there right before my friend Patty came to visit. And now she's been gone a whole week but boy we sure did have a great time! The days flew by so fast I didn't take many pictures, but I'll tell you we kept plenty busy. 

We mostly fixed dinners here at home, probably because it seemed we ruined our appetites every afternoon visiting the ice cream store, my favorite Andres Chocolates for tea and pastries or Dean and Delucca for cookies on our daily jaunts. Hubby did however take us to dinner on the Plaza in Kansas City. We had to ditch the pj's and spiff up a little, you can see Patty is ready to party in her sparkly wine glasses top! Anyways, we went to a restaurant I love, and especially this time of year....Cafe Trio. 

My little picture does not do much justice to the spectacular job they do decorating for Halloween! 

The ceilings are covered in cobwebs with giant sparkly spiders tucked inside. Dozens of skeletons wrapped in mummy style wraps hang in-between, the atmosphere surely invites a pre-dinner cocktail, perhaps a Bloody Mary!

A good portion of our time was spent relaxing, chatting and sewing, listening to old music. We yanked out all my wools and Patty stitched up this cute pattern block by Liberty Rose. She is going to finish it as a pillow, won't that look cute in a little antique chair or bench for Thanksgiving! 

I sat and worked on completing 2 projects, both pillows are made from wool felt, the patterns are new to my web site this week. They are fast and fun to make, a great gift or a cheerful addition to your holiday decor. Scottie loves to run in the fresh fallen snow. He wears his new green sweater and sports a festive bow for the holidays.

With a carrot nose and button eyes this snowman sure is jolly. I love snowmen,

don't they just make you smile :)

Tonight is Beggars Night, or so it used to be called when I grew up in Transylvania Pennsylvania, when some kids would beg for treats the night before Halloween. 

Sunday we were invited to friends for dinner, after dinner was over we were each given a pumpkin to carve. It was a lot of fun, I guess we never grow up, here is what our crew looked like.

My favorite part of Halloween is a nice glowing pumpkin... and lots of leftover candy!

Boo!

Happy Fall Ya'll!

Happy Fall! So hard to believe it's October once more, our weather changed in a flash, flip flops to sweaters, AC to turning the heat on. I'm not quite happy to give up my flip flops just yet, but there are a lot of other things I love about this time of year. The changing trees, pumpkins and Mums and apple cider. And Halloween doughnuts!! Would you just look at these, could they get any cuter! Our Grandsons helped Hubby pick these out Sunday morning at Krispy Kreme. 

We had a fabulous Sunday, a very short visit from the Oklahoma Grandsons and daughter. By short I mean they were only in town for about 6 hours but we'll take any time we can get whenever we can get it! During our whirlwind visit we went to the apple cider festival in Louisburg, they have a cider mill where you can see the cider being made and of course you can purchase it nice and fresh. Kettle corn, pumpkin patch, corn maze, fiddlers too, a nice little adventure on a pretty fall day. 

Our son Jon and his girlfriend joined us as well. On our way back we had an early dinner, BBQ at Jack Stacks, and then it was time to drive them to the airport.... the small plane airport. They flew up for the day and back with friends on a charter jet, yep, these kids know how to roll LOL! 

Saturday I got my beloved sewing machine back, it had been in the shop for a tune up. You sure never know how much you miss something until it's gone. I have my Hello Kitty machine as a back up, but it does not have the bells and whistles my Elna has on it. So while it was gone I switched over to some hand sewing with wool. Love my wool too, nothing more relaxing than sitting and stitching by the fire or in front of the TV. And now I have a new design to show you! Who doesn't love a snowman, they never fail to make me smile. A sleigh full of presents, this little guy is fast and fun to make up for the holidays. He's so cute you'll want to leave him out all winter long! 

I have another wool design in the works, but this week I am mostly thinking about doing a little housework. You will notice I said thinking.... but truly I need to take action. My friend Patty is coming to visit on Saturday, all the way from Buffalo NY! I have known Patty for 30 plus years, ever since we lived there so long ago. She is going to spend a week with me and I am very EXCITED! Girlfriend time, some much needed girl time! 

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!

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!

Ding dong... Ma'am, this sure is one heavy box!!

Cleo and I saw the UPS man pull up while "we" were working on the computer. All I can say is those guys are young and fit for one good reason, to carry my box of Nonwovens wool felt up my steep drive way. Phew, I always feel bad. Spring colors are back in stock. Can't wait to see all the new colors they will introduce at Spring Quilt Market next month!

And in my mail box, new fabric. Yipppeee, what an exciting week!! (I think I can already picture my son raising his eyebrows at that statement). But hey, to each his own level of excitement.
Isn't this fabric lovely, I am thinking maybe purse?

As for my little fur ball Cleo. She had her monthly checkup and her vet says the insulin level we are at is working out well, but, my little girl is not so little anymore! She gained a pound in 4 weeks. Sheesh Cleo! Looks like the catkins diet is going to become a little stricter, poor Cleo :(

Well we are off to string some cute kids beads now. Whoohooo, more excitement :) I think my "model" is going to wear them on the next pattern cover, you'll laugh, well maybe not. Depends.

A Felting Fool

I don't know about your end of the country, but here in Kansas we had bone chilling cold weather, below zero weather most of last week. The snow from Christmas which I loved at that moment, because who doesn't love a white Christmas, is still piled up on the ground....only now it's a yucky color and a nuisance. Other than running out for necessities such as chocolate, Cleo and I have been content to stay home and felt lots of wool felt for new projects. We were felting fools, we felted over 27 colors!

The crock pot was put to good use making lots of comfort food. Chili in sourdough bread bowls topped with cheese and a big dollop of sour cream, YUM! I love winter food don't you?

I finished my pattern for "Down The Bunny Trail", isn't it adorable? Jerry will be adding it to the web site tomorrow.

Today was a much needed get out of the house day. Too much hanging out here talking to Cleo can not be a good thing. Hubby and I skedaddled on over to Independence Missouri with friends to see an exhibit at the Harry S Truman Presidential Library & Museum. Now I know driving to another state sounds desperate for a get-a-way, but you have to remember we are just about on the state line, so going to MO can be minutes away. OK, back to the museum, it really is a lovely building which my picture does not do justice to as it shows only a small portion of the building.
I did not however want to walk backwards a mile in the freezing cold and slush to capture a better picture for you. The special exhibits change from time to time, the exhibit we were interested in seeing today were the Pulitzer Prize Photos from the year 1942 to present.

One of the permanent rooms is a replicate of Truman's Oval Office in the White House.

All that looking at photographs works up an appetite, we were starving and ready for some Italian cooking at V's. Now don't let that sign scare you away lol! The food is wonderful and the atmosphere is fun.

When I got home I had a box waiting for me, actually I have been impatiently waiting to get my hands on these luscious shades of #8 Perle Cottons.


I am itching to get stitching this week!
Have a wonderful Sunday.... XO Barbie Jo and Cleo

Happy 2010!

Happy New Year to all! I know, it has been awhile since my last post, seems I had a blogging meltdown before Christmas, so we have a little catching up to do. I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and New Years. Ours was quiet but lovely and we had a white Christmas, lots of white, a foot of snow! And I have to show you a darling gift my mailman brought, a completely unexpected gift from my bloggy friend Sharon.

Some of you may know Sharon by reading her fun posts on Red Geranium Cottage and she was a very busy girl this year stitching up lots of cute gifts. She sent me one of her famous zippered pouches, the cutest little embroidered stocking and even a little ornament for Cleo! So sweet!

Along with a fresh snowfall come a batch of snowmen. No I did not make this little girl, she sits in a yard few houses away from me. I love watching all the little ones enjoy the snow. And I also am thankful I don't have to deal with the mounds of soggy mittens, clothes and boots anymore LOL.
Along with that snow the temps have been in the single digits, a nice time to stay inside as much as possible and stitch. Cleo and I felted this nice stack of wool felt last week.


Then we cut it up and began working on a new design. And just look at my helper, laying on top of my penny rug, pins and all, doesn't matter, just gotta lay claim to my work in progress. Um, could you move over Cleo so I can sew this tail bunny on?


Well I did manage to get it done, here's a little peek at "Hoppin' Down The Bunny Trail".
Writing instructions this week and hope to have it on my web site soon.

Have a great week everybunny, and stay warm!
X0 Cleo

Just buzzin' by.........

Hi there! Wow, can you believe it is the 1st day of August! Everywhere out there in bloggy land I am reading about Moms shopping for all those back to school needs already. I guess it will be here before you know it. Am I hearing a big sigh of relief out there? Lucky me, I don't have that chore to do any more. Jon is heading back to KU in 3 weeks though. As a matter of fact today he is moving stuff in to his apartment. All he wants from me is a stocked refrigerator LOL!

As for me I have been stitching away. So much so the dust bunnies are growing around my feet!
I love bunnies, just not the dust variety and they just don't seem to be going anywhere all by themselves. Don't you wish you could just wave your magic wand and poof...... house would be all sparkling! Well I guess the magic fairy is just isn't gonna appear so I am going to have to knuckle down and get after it this week. Gonna shut my sewing room door. And just do it!
I'll let you know next post how that goes LOL!

I finished pattern instructions for this pretty wool felt runner which is now on my web site. The colors are really beautiful and I included directions to make a smaller version as well.

And what blog post would be complete with out a mouthwatering picture of a scrump delicious
luncheon entree! Yum, I'm hungry all over again. Friday was girls day out with 2 of my Bunco girlie friends. We worked up an appetite browsing through some lovely shops in an area I've never been to; before getting to the really good stuff.... great food and fun conversation!
The sun is trying to stay out and it's not too hot today. Jerry and I are getting ready to go to Shawnee Park for a stroll and a bite to eat after, sounds good to me!
Hope your weekend is the best!