Thursday, September 29, 2011

my F.R.I.E.N.D.S. package arrived!

I wanted to stop on the way home from the Post Office. The anticipation was killing me. But I made it home, package intact.
Brewed myself a nice cup of chai and sat down at the kitchen table and RIPPED that post bag open! Inside were 7 packages wrapped in bright blue paper and adourned with pretty letter stickers.
I was spoiled rotten and my lovely FRIEND Sue really was a very good detective and I think I hit the swap jackpot when I was given Sue as my partner. This is what I got! Minus one Freddo frog that I ate immediately before he hopped away!


F - a beautifully embroidered felt heart with my horses, trees, flowers and bunnies.....just lovely! and a freddo frog of course!
R - a tube of Rolos, yum!! 2 very pretty red and cream fatquarters and red ribbon!
I - (inches) a 4 inch square ruler and a tiny 4 inch square cutting mat!
E - embroidery floss, 4 skeins of my favourite greens and pinks!
N - a lovely handmade pink and green needle case and needles! oh and nougat!
D - Dreena a delightful dancing doll!
S - and last but not least, Socksie, the cutest little felt cat who helps me to not lose the tiniest and sharpest pair of scissors you ever did see!

Sue thank you so much, I am absolutely thrilled to bits!!! xxx
and of course thank you to Khris for sponsoring this swap.

I think I will have another Rolo!!!

Ooroo for now :)

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

a baby is on the way and so are two exchange packages!!

My youngest son Zac (Isaac) and his girlfriend Attika are expecting a baby in April. He lives and works in Beagle Bay which is an aboriginal mission on the coast of the Dampier Penninsula, north of Broome in Western Australia. Attika lives and works in Broome she has a 5 yearold little girl named Ella, a ready made grandchild? I guess you can say that their's is a long distance relationship! Something has to change now!

This is a photo of Zac when he was in the USA visiting for Christmas in 2008. we were having a meal in an amish restaurant in Intercourse PA. Yes a quilt trip!!

and this is Miss Attika and her lovely little girl Ella, my bonus grand daughter!

It has been a long time between grand babies for me. My other grandchild, Beau, is now 16! So you can imagine my excitement! This little baby will be isolated from me and our side of the family. We are all scattered now. East coast of Australia, Africa, USA and New Zealand! This is going to be hard! Congratulations Zac and Attika. I am very excited to meet the newest member of our clan!

I am off to the post office this morning to do two mailings for my exchanges. What a fun time I had getting these bits and pieces together. Ohhh the anticipation is killing me!!

second round of santa sack swap2 goodies for Donna in Florida..

and these are Sue in Western Australia's 'friends' exchange gifts..

It is a rainy day here today, a soft drizzle which highlights the beautiful colour of the leaves. I have to leave this splendour and spend the next 4 or 5 days in the basement if I am to get back on schedule with my projects and customer jobs!

Ooroo for now!

Sunday, September 25, 2011

this, that and the other..

Why am I back to my old routine of getting up at 4am! For the most of Summer I had been able to sleep until 5.30 but for the past 10 or so days I am back to being wide awake at 4 or before! And it is so darn dark now till like 6.30! The good thing is, I have time to do a blog!

I went to the city yesterday and besides a quick ride to Joann Fabrics and Target, I spent the afternoon sitting in my John's office doing some hand sewing. I sometimes do this on Saturdays, just so I can run errands or just explore the city. We are pretty limited as far as shopping goes out where we live. I do love to go to the book shops and grab a special coffee too! He loves me to ride in with him. It is an hour commute one way and as he leaves each day at 7 and gets home at 8 so I don't get to see a whole lot of him. So it is nice to spend some extra time with him on Saturdays occasionally. I did snap a couple of photos as we drove down our road yesterday morning. Fall does come early up here on the mountain and as you can see, even at 11am it is still a little foggy.




I have a lot of projects going at the moment. Dolls in the making, one for my daughters b'day and one for an order. 2 exchanges that I am in, almost done with those! I have a friendship quilt that I am putting together for a sick friend, the blocks for this were done by people all over the country and some from Canada and Australia as well! I have 2 customer quilts to do and I have to put a flimsy together for guild for October. Besides all the sewing stuff, I want to paint the living room before Christmas, and yes I will have to do that myself! It still has patched walls from when we bought this house in August 2009 - yikes!!

Have a blessed Sunday everyone and I will leave you with some photos of September customer quilts. I have been busy!








Wednesday, September 21, 2011

horses in the mist

This morning wasn't as crisp as it has been for the past week and the warm air created fog. At 6.15 we went out to give the horses their breakfast and replenish their water, it wasn't quite light. What a lovely sight. Horses in the mist. Soon enough it will be horses in the snow. I so enjoy starting my day this way and spending time with John and the animals (our family) before he heads off to the city for his long work day. In the evenings I do the horses, dogs and cat myself as he is seldom home before 8pm.


Yesterday I had so much fun with my new etsy team, Promotional Frenzy Team. I enjoyed helping to promote team members treasuries and I learned so much along the way. Our team had sooooo many treasuries on page 1 of the treasury page, awesome effort! In between doing that, I finished quilting a large customer quilt. I really loved doing this one, it was smooth sailing all the way. I need to hang it outside to get a photo and the fog has made it too wet to do that yet. Maybe later today. I also put out a few fall decorations, a wreath and some sunflowers in a vase. Do I need to make a new fall table runner? Maybe!

I still have to finish off gifts for the two swaps I am in and get those in the mail. Hope to find the time to get to those this week and next. Is it Wednesday already?

Breakfast time here. Ooroo for now.

Sunday, September 18, 2011

Is it fall already?

Oh my how fast this year has gone! Seems like the snow melted in April, I blinked and here it is September. We had a strange summer here in the north east which included an earthquake and a devastating hurricane. These past couple of months I have been very busy with customer quilts. Now that's a good thing and I am not complaining - helps to pay the bills! Between quilting, the garden and the animals, my days have been full, and sometimes my evenings too. I have had little time for blogging and my etsy shop.
The good news is, the cooler months will give me more time for both!
I have joined a really cool etsy team called Promotional Frenzy Team and you can see the other members on the list to the right>>. Check out their stores for some really lovely items.

I wanted to share with you all a quilt story. When I first came to the USA 8 years ago. I lived in the city of Richmond Va, with my husband John. I had no friends there at all and I could not work until I became a permanent resident so I sewed all day. I made many quilts as you can imagine. Still I was lonely. So I joined a chat group on Yahoo, a bunch of ladies who quilted, sewed, crocheted, knitted etc. And a fine bunch too! In 2005 we all decided it would be nice to do a block exchange. Some of the ladies did not quilt so we made it an easy 9 patch block exchange. There were around 20 or so of us. Sadly 2 of the ladies are in heaven now and a couple of others are not doing so well. One of the ladies did her blocks with her good friend who is now an angel. The blocks were still sitting in a bag untouched. She gave me the job of putting them together and quilting and binding the quilt for her as she is not well herself. The friend who passed had cut the sashings and borders and written the layout instructions. Her chat name was Luci and I felt her with me the whole time I worked on the quilt. I hope you are happy with the results Luci. :) The quilt is now back with it's owner and I think she is happy.
Here is a pic of the quilt and the label. I also have a pic of the quilt that I made from the same exchange. I only completed mine last year!



my own quilt..





Happy Sunday everyone!

Thursday, September 1, 2011

hurricane Irene left her wrath on our county!

Thank the lord that we bought a house on a mountain and that our house perches way up high on our property. Losing phone, internet and power was nothing compared to what others lost. And some poor folks in other parts lost their lives. This event has touched me greatly to the point that on Tuesday I wanted to just run away and not face any more images or messages. Thankfully yesterday I was ok again and made a trip to the local shelter with some food and other donations. It was heart warming to see everyone helping out in any way that they could, be it donating food, clothing or their time. We have people staying there who have lost everything and we also have 60 National Guard camped at the school. Bless their hearts.
I hope everyone out there in blogland is high and dry.

I have been madly busy with customer quilts and that part of my life was disrupted with power outages here and there but I managed to get some hand sewing finished up and LOTS or reorganizing of my studio that we have moved to the basement! Thank goodness that the basement stayed dry throughout Irene! phew!

Here are some photos of our raging creek during Irene. At one point it was 70 feet wide. These photos were taken when the rain had stopped and the water had already receded and I had ventured out with my camera. Another photo showing how high up our house is on our property.
The horses stayed in their shelter for 2 days! They are NOT silly!



creek before Irene!


house up high and dry..



I hope to catch up with everyone's blogs in the next day or two!

Ooroo for now. :)