One of My New Loves

I have always admired the little doll quilts that I have seen in pictures, museums etc. So, one afternoon I thought I would look up a group on Yahoo that might be about doll or little quilts. To my surprise I was able to find one, so I joined. What fun to see all of the beautiful little quilts that the members were creating. I jumped right in and started replying to posts, then I signed up for a quilt exchange. That was so much fun! I encourage all of you quilters out there to do an exchange, be it a large, medium or little quilt. My partner was a lady that was known for her beautiful workmanship. That put a bit of pressure on me, but I forged ahead. It was so much fun to pick out a pattern, make it and then send it off in the mail. I was like a child waiting for Christmas to come when my little quilt was on it's way to me. Oh the joy, when it did and I got to open it. I was thrilled to see a beautiful little 30's quilt that was made to perfection.

This is the quilt I made for my partner: I couldn't get the color's to come out right, but this shows you what it looked like.

Here is the quilt that I received from my partner:

If you are interested in doll or little quilts I encourage you to look into joining an online group. It is so much fun to get to know other's that have the same passions that you do, not to mention all of the idea's, encouragement and fun activities that come with it. The group that I joined is a Yahoo Group named smallquilttalk. The host of this group is Kathleen Tracy, she has several books published on little quilts. You can also find this group on facebook.

Have a blessed day everyone.

God Bless America

Today is the 4th of July!!
May God Bless this great nation.

Happy Birthday America!!!!!!

Today Was Quilt Guild Day

Today was my monthly quilt guild day. We had over 100 attending today. The weather was wonderful and the speaker we had was very good. She had a nice, small trunk show along with slides and a great sense of humor. After our program we always have goodies to eat, then after that we have show and tell. There were some really pretty quilts today. I am sorry I didn't get any pictures to share :-(
After guild I usually go over to a good friends house for lunch and today we worked on planning a fabric swap with one other friend to make a Drunkards Path out of 30's prints. I am excited because I have always loved this pattern and I have needed an excuse to cut into my stash of 30's fabric. Can't wait to get started.

Here are some examples of the Drunkards Path Quilt Block Settings:

 

 

 

 

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There are so many ways to set this together! Each of us gets to choose the setting we want to use. It will be interesting to see if each one of us chooses a different one. I'm excited to start pulling fabric and get to cutting.

How many of you like the Drunkards Path two patch pattern, and how difficult do you think piecing curves is? I would love to hear your thoughts.

 

Blessings to All

 



 

 

 

 

 



Thinkiing Valentines

Good day. Well the Christmas decorations are all down for another year. I do miss having the tree up, I love to look at it in the evening with the lights blazing, causing some of the ornaments to shimmer and sparkle.

So now my thoughts have turned to Valentines Day. This lovely holiday is a life saver in the middle of winter when everything is so dreary. I love all of the reds and pinks that come with it.

 I love to work with wool, so decided to create a little wool candle mat/coffee cup rug. It is so simple to make, really had fun with it. Here are the pictures from start to finish:

Here is my idea drawn out on paper.

Patterns made.

All pieces cut out and ready for placement.

Fused and ready for stitching.

Embroidery floss chosen so now the stitching begins.

All done!!

I had so much fun designing and making this! It will look pretty on one of my side tables for Valentines Day decorating.

Pattern available in my Etsy shop, fabraholic4.etsy.com

Blessings to all

A New Year!!

Well here we are in the new year of 2016. I don't know about you, but 2015 went by very fast. This past year was a rather stressful and sad one for me. I had a hip replacement in June, which went very well, but nun the less a bit stressful leading up to the surgery. I have been very blessed with good health up to the time my hip started bothering me. By the time I had my surgery, it had become very painful, making it rather difficult to take care of my horses and well just about everything!  But, with Gods help I was able to carry on until time for the surgery. Then in Oct I lost my only brother very expectantly and suddenly to cancer. The holiday's were a bit sad for me, I miss him very much!! It was only the two of us so we were pretty close. I am really having to call on my faith to get thru losing him.

I am looking forward to this new year. I have several quilts in mind that I want to make. The first one that I am going to start on is a BOM from Keepsake Quilts that I am going to make for my youngest granddaughters new room. It is very different from anything I have ever made before. It is piecing and applique, it should be fun and a challenge.  My love for working with wool has grown, so I am going to definitely be working with wool this year. I am looking into starting a mini wool  project of the month club at my studio. If anybody out there has ever done anything like this, I would love to hear your input on how to do this. Thanks!

I am also going to be more diligent about trying to get some more UFO's done!!! Who knows, this might be the year that I actually get close to getting caught up. My goal is to be more disciplined about wanting to do all the new things that come along.

Wishing all out there a very Happy New Year, full of love, friendships, good health and lots of time to sew.

Blessings to All

A Short Look Back to the First Thanksgiving

Here we are, getting ready to celebrate our annual holiday, Thanksgiving, again. This has always been one of my favorite holidays and I am so sad that it is almost overlooked today. As a child we did all kinds of art projects and had plays about the first Thanksgiving at school, while at home we would plan our wonderful turkey day meal and start baking all kinds of goodies day's before so we would be ready for the fantastic feast to come. There were a few times that we opened our home to someone that would not have had a Thanksgiving otherwise. It was a time of gratitude and thankfulness. Today, it seems like it almost gets lost in all of the early Christmas hype! To me this is very sad. My prayer is that this wonderful holiday will not be lost completely. My hats off to National Geographic for the new TV Miniseries, Documentary retelling the pilgrim story, "Saints & Strangers". Please check your local listings for this show.

 

 

Here is a brief history of the First Thanksgiving:

 

The history of the first Thanksgiving as a holiday goes back to 1620. Late that year, the Mayflower, a small ship for ocean crossings, left England with over 100 passengers on board. Some of them sought religious freedom in the new world and others simply were drawn by stories of the prosperity one could achieve in America. The journey to the new world lasted over two months. When they arrived, they found themselves well off course, near the tip of Cape Cod. They had been navigating for the Hudson River. They setup the colony at Plymouth on the other side of the bay over a month later. The settlers were ill prepared for the harsh New England winter and by the time spring came, they were down to about half of their original compliment.

 

 

That spring they met a Native American who spoke English. He introduced them to Squanto; the famous English speaking Indian who helped the settlers stay alive. He showed the otherwise hopeless settlers how to fish and hunt as well as how to grow corn and tell edible plants from poisonous ones. Squanto introduced the settlers to a friendly local tribe called the Wampanoag. With the help of the Native Americans the settlers prospered and later that year, in November of 1621 the settlers were ready to celebrate the successful harvest of their first crop of corn. The settlers invited many of their Indian allies to the party. The celebration of that 1st harvest lasted 3 days, with many of the dishes from both the settlers as well as the Native American cuisine.

 

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A Sad Time

Sorry, it has been a long time since I have posted. In October I got a call from my brother that he had not been feeling very well. He had gone to the Dr and was told that he had a bacterial sinus infection and given an antibiotic. He took all of the script but was not getting better! Long story, short, he ended up being referred to an ENT Dr. He was having a lot of trouble breathing so she suggested a tracheotomy. This came as a shock to him so he refused, only to end up 2 days later having to have an emergency tracheotomy. My husband and I left right away for AR. Unknown to us at the time, this was the beginning of the end. My brother ended up staying in the hospital for almost 4 weeks and found out that he had stage 4 cancer of the throat! His vocal chords were paralyzed so he had to have a stomach feeding tube to keep his food from going into his lungs. It was all so fast and horrific! My husband and I had gone back home to take care of some things for him and a few things at home. During this time they decided to send him to a hospice house. They transferred him on  a Sunday and he passed away early Monday morning. I was shocked and devastated that I was not there with him. I feel that he thought that I had a banded him and this breaks my heart!!! My brother was always there for me and I wasn't there for him the last minutes of his life. This I don't think that I will ever get over. It has been really hard to process all of this, but I am really leaning on my faith. I know that God will see me thru this.

 

 

I Love You

Rest in Peace Dear Brother