Mail Call!!

Today is the day that my 5" charm squares arrived! This is so exciting! This is the first swap that I've had a return on so far from blogland! I had participated in a Jo Morton fabric swap back in September. Dawn over at Spring Water Designs was holding this swap.
She sent me a nice card with hearts on it, along with the 5" charms.
I had sent her 13 sets of 8 blocks each of different fabrics. That means I should have 104 different charm squares if there were no repeated fabrics! WOW!
Dawn asked me in her note to share what I intend to do with them. Well here is what I have in mind.
I've already got a few started. :0) I would like to use them for this "Apple Core" charm quilt by Cindy Blackberg. She uses a stamp to mark the design onto her fabric! I thought that was kinda neat and had never heard of using stamps before. So I thought I would give it a try. This is a hand piecing project. A Good project to work on in the carpool line while waiting for my daughter to get out of school!! :0) If I have any charms left I will use them in one of Jo Mortons tiny basket quilts. I just love baskets!! Actually, I might just pick out a few of my favorite charms right now for either the "Betsy's Baskets" or the "Beth's Baskets" pattern! :0)

Jo Morton quilt

Now what am I up to?! I joined a Jo Morton club. Which I've never done before. At a shop in Apex, NC. We've had two meetings so far. The project the club and I are working on currently is called "Kindred Spirits". It's the signature block quilt in Jo Morton's newest book called "Vintage Journey". The signature blocks are done and I brought them into the club meeting to be signed last Tuesday. I believe that there are supposed to be 12 people in this club. Only about 6 showed up. Hopefully the rest will show up for the next meeting, so they can then sign the blocks.
You would think by now that I would have figured out what pictures blogger puts up and in what order. Shesh. The above photo is of my scare crow wall hanging which I did a couple of years back. I actually hand quilted him. He is one of my all time favorites!
This is how far I've gotten with the signature quilt so far. I spent just about all day in my sewing room yesterday. The blocks are all finished. I just need to sew them all together now. I'm trying to decide whether to go with the blue border or the green one. What do you think? If you click on the photo it should enlarge so you can get a better viewing of it. I have a pile of laundry waiting, as well as some other chores to get to, but it will just have to continue to wait! I want to get a couple of those rows put together first. :0)

I'm Back!!!!!

Ahhhh! Paradise!! :0) (0: My Husband and I had a wonderful trip for our 25th anniversary!! I actually would not have minded staying longer!! Once we got home reality came back all too quickly along with responsibility.

We stayed on the island of Kauai. Gorgeous gorgeous gorgeous!! We have so many pictures, that it was not easy to choose which to post. I may just have to post a few more in the future. The first picture was taken from a hiking trail. It is of the Kalalau Valley.
Kauai is known for its chickens. They are everywhere!! In parking lots, on the golf course on the beach, along the roadways.... You name it they are there! They are well fed and very healthy looking birds for being wild. Very colorful! The story goes that after a hurricane hit the island sometime in the 1950's they got loose and were never corralled. There is a law that states the chickens must not be harmed in any way! LOL!! Hence they are everywhere!! We had a pair just outside our hotel window. At 3:45 am was our wake-up crow! Yes, Mr. Rooster would wake us every morning. Ah well, great way to start your day, before sunrise!
Of course we had to do the mandatory helicopter tour of the island! We had a beautiful day for it! My husband and I sat right up front!! There were 6 passengers plus the pilot. Oh, there are no words to describe how beautiful the island was from that angle. Actually any angle we looked at was just simply awesome!!!
This is the hotel and pool where we stayed. Just looking at it makes me want to go back, or better yet still be there! ( Although we did have a Tsunami warning on our first day which was a bit unnerving to say the very least!!!!)
This is the view from the hotel! Mountains and ocean! Where else in the world can you see that???!!!

My parents graciously took care of my home front while we were away. They stayed on an extra week after we arrived back. Thank-you Mom and Dad from the bottom of my heart!!! This was the first trip my husband and I have made together, alone, since before we had children! Almost 20 years ago!

Since we have arrived home, my daughter #1 came home for her Fall break from college last weekend. It was so great to see her! Even though it was a short visit.

And daughter #2 has been keeping me hopping since our return! She is in a club band jam called "Double Negative". This is new for both her and I. She plays the piano/keyboard. Her first ever live performance was this past Friday night! I am so proud of her! For only about 3 or 4 times has this group gotten all together with the teacher to practice. There are 6 students. They played two songs and did really well! You go girl!! Her 17th birthday was this past Friday also! Happy Birthday!!! Yesterday we went on a school field trip to the "Carolina Tiger Rescue" in Pittsboro, NC. OMG! If you love cats this is a really neat place to go. I can't get over how close up you can get. Whenever we have been to the zoo you can see them to, but usually at quite a distance away. They had Servals, Tigers, and goodness, I think about 6 or 7 other types of wild cats. The stories of how they arrived at the rescue center are almost non-believable and often heart wrenching. I hope to go back again sometime soon. It was well worth it! This is a rescue facility I will gladly donate to.

Until next time!

ALOHA!!!!!!!!! :o) (o:

Here it is!!

Here it is! The Judie Rothermel Web Sampler! I think I have kept the suspense long enough!!!! :0) I know many of you have been waiting to see this. The fabric line was called "Vicksburg". This is the quilt that Mary over at Quilt Hollow quilted for me! I think you may have to click on the pictures to see it better. I do my best, but I am not a very good photographer.
I had my hubbie and daughter hold up the quilt for this shot. I have the binding on, but still need to hand sew it down. That will be tonight's TV time project. That is, if my parents don't arrive tonight. They are arriving either tonight or tomorrow morning. While my husband and I are away in Hawaii my parents will housesit. It makes a nice get away for them also. :0)
This one I took after laying it on the floor. How do you take full length pictures of large quilts? What seems to be the best way to do that?

For those of you who are Jo Morton enthusiasts, there is a 5' charm swap going on!! I want to do this, but the timing may not be the best. Hmmm, I have some siggie blocks to do as well as visiting some blogs, packing, can I get these cut also? Anyway it is over at Dawn's blog called Spring Water Designs. Go check it out!!
Ah! A sneak peek of our Anniversary dinner! :0)

25th Wedding Anniversary and Jo Morton Club. All in one day!

25 years ago today I was a bride. My husband and I are celebrating 25 years of marriage! This morning my husband couldn't wait until I left the house. He kept saying "when are you leaving", "shouldn't you have left by now". Well when I came home, there was a message on the answer machine. It said go look out on the front porch. On the door knob was a card, and out on the front porch was the biggest flower arrangement I have every received! It is really heavy with long stem red roses. :0) 25 red roses!! For 25 years of marriage!

This is the card that came with it. I'm blushing!! I was told that I will be going out to dine this evening and that I should put a nice dress on!! This Sunday my husband and I will leave for Hawaii. It will be the first trip we have made with just the 2 of us since before we had children. I am very excited about going!!! Who wouldn't be? :0)
Another reason to be excited today!! My reason for leaving this morning was to go to a fairly local quilt shop called Plain and Simple Quilt Shop. Its a wonderful little store that I've recently discovered. I had signed up to join a Jo Morton club. Guess who is also in the club? Mary from Quilt Hollow!!!! What a neat lady she is. I was really happy to finally meet her! We've been commenting on each others blogs for almost a year now. She took a lot of great pictures from the show and tell time. If you go visit her blog you will see all the wonderful quilts that she took pictures of! (I need to start remembering to take more pictures.)

Mary brought my quilt with her. I had asked her to quilt a Judie Rothermel quilt, which I had blogged about in the past. I want to put the binding on it before I show it to ya'll! Mary did a superb job on it!!! Thank-you Mary!! :0) (0: I look forward to our next meeting!!

Now I must go get myself ready. I'm dinning out tonight! :0)