Our Insta-Vacation

hi!! i am back!

We had a great vacation to Maine and Boston...filled with all kinds of fun.

We drove a lot, there were quilt shops to see, and sewing to be done in the car....we met up with old friends and made new ones...

We hunted sea glass on the local beach...ate at very colorful local food joints...visited with relatives...checked out those lobsters before they became dinner.

And so much more.
(Sorry that the picture is small. If you want to see it a little better i think all you have to do is click on it) 




Leslie

Ruby Stacks

Ruby!!

When i saw this new(ish) line i knew i wanted to make something with it...something that would live at our house.

Add Simplify with Camille Roskelley and i had the perfect combination. Her line of fabric and her book!

I am so happy to have a friend to quilt with so we are working on this quilt together...each in our own line of fabric. Makes it so much more fun!! Although she is much more motivated than me so she is a few steps ahead of me on this one.

I can not wait to see the finish on this!

Leslie

Gingerbread House of the Century

My awesome friend JOnelle makes an amazing gingerbread house every year. This years, set to music, was awesome...no amazing...no fantastic. So amazing that i wanted to share it with any of you that were willing to watch it out there. You really must!!! She(and husband) is so talented!!!

Gingerbread House 2011 from Jonelle Yates on Vimeo.

Tree Pants....Destination Germany

I learned from Sew Mama Sew blog that this is tree pants, not a tree skirt. I guess because it is square not round.

Who knew?! :o)

This was finally done and a long time in the making for my very dear and wonderful friend Jonelle in Germany. She, many moons ago, asked me to make her a Christmas tree skirt in blue, white and some silver. Then she trusted me to make something for her. Time passed, a baby was born and 2 Christmas's later it is under her tree instead of in my WIP pile.

I made it reversible, not so much by design, but because i wanted to make sure to use all of the fabric i had bought for the project. Chris(hubby) suggested the straight line quilting, hoping that it would look a little like a snowflake(roughly). All in all i am calling it a success....mostly because i know she loves it and it has a wonderful home.

love you Jonelle

Leslie

I Love Packages!!!

I have been meaning to share a few new treasures with you for a little while, but seems like life got busy. You know how that goes.

Not that long ago i saw on Erin's blog, Why Not Sew, that she was looking for Flea Market Fancy fabric and she was willing to swap something she had for some of the precious FMF. I just so happened to have quite a bit in my stash. A swap sounded like fun so why not. I went for it.

This gorgeous pile of Denyse Schmidt for Joanns came back to me. I had been meaning to go and get some for myself for the longest time but never made it....so when she offered this up i was on top of it! Erin was more than generous...thank you blog friend.

In the same week that the fabric came i also received a little package from Tara, of Tiny Hummingbird. She, so sweetly, made me some note cards as a thank you for crocheting her little man a gnome hat. It was so unexpected and they are all so beautiful....thank you so much Tara.

I can hardly fathom writing on these and then giving them away, they are so pretty!! I just might need to find a way to frame them and enjoy them for a long time.

Leslie

Look and See

What came in the mail for us. I have the coolest blog friends!!! These two packages came to my door over the last weeks. I was shocked, excited and thrilled to receive them. Thank you's don't seem like enough.

This first one is from Kristin of Woollypetals blog. I have no idea when she had the time to make or send me anything when she is about to have a new little baby herself any day now. Isn't that the cutest hat you have ever seen?...and that beautiful fabric back there is a hooter hider, I love it!!! She also sent this adorable snowman as a memory/reminder of the time of your our new little person would be born. Isn't he cool? He is a little jar full of "snow". Thank you so much for thinking of us and taking time to make these things. I love them!

These cute things were sent to me from another blog friend....around our house we call her the other Leslie, since that is me too! She makes all sorts of fun things to gift and sell in her local area and blogs at Chasing Bluebirds Blog. She sweetly set aside this soft block for our baby. I love the ribbons all around it for the baby to play with! She did not want my big kids to be forgotten so she sent along these adorable owls that have a little pocket there on their bellies....for teeth. They are tooth owls! Cute right? Leslie, you already know i love it all. Thank you again.

Blog friends are awesome! I only hope that i someday get the chance to meet these girls in person.

Sneek Peek for Jonelle

Back a little while, before i knew i was pregnant....my wonderful friend Jonelle put a lot of faith in me and asked me to make her a Christmas tree skirt. I ordered up the fabric right away, but in typical Leslie fashion did not get started right away....it was for Christmas, i had lots of time right? Wrong!!! This week its time has come, it is my designated project. I need to get it done before this baby comes. She is so nice she did not want to bring it up or put any pressure on me about it. But here is your peek Jonelle...since we kind of went into this whole project blind. All she told me is the colors she wanted and left the rest to me. That is why i am telling you, she put a lot of trust into this!

A Meet Up Story

Before i start sharing some tidbits from our family vacation with you i wanted to show you a little something i made for a new friend.

I(and my sister) have been blog commenting and getting to know a lovely lady lady, T.J., through her blog. At some point my sister and i realized that she was on the way to our vacation destination in Maine. SO we decided to set up what we have been jokingly referring to as our first match.com meet up. She was even better in person. The meet up did not disappoint. It is good to know that the women you make connections with through blogs are real people and that the connection carries through into really meeting one another. And her little guy was even sweeter in person.

I did not want to go empty handed, so the day before, when i should have been packing and getting ready for vacation i was making this runner/wall hanger for her. I took a chance that she would like the colors, and just went total improv on it. i was inspired by a wall hanging quilt that i saw on Silly Boo Dilly blog, but wanted to put a spin on it and make it more my own. Hence the vintage sheet additions and the wonky blocks. I was calling it my vintage modern table runner...modern would be the ikea fabrics.

I loved it and more importantly so did she. I am hoping to make another version of it for myself because i love it just that much.

Recent Purchases

This is my new pack of loveliness. I got it from my recent go-to quilt shop...the Fat quarter shop. They are not the only place that i look for something, but they always have a huge selection of what is available and what is coming soon. I was shopping around for a friend who wanted me to make something for her, i am flattered! When i was about to order the fabric for her i just wanted to browse around see if there something for me too!! I found this lovely fat quarter bundle of Paula Prass Woodland Delight fabric. And no, i am guilty of not knowing what i am going to do with this. I just loved it!!! I could not resist the color combination.

And JONELLE, this is for you!!! I know i did not ask you what you thought before i bought it, but i thought it fit your description of what you wanted the best...blues and white and silver.

I hope you like it. I wish i was able to make the tree skirt for you in time for this christmas but you and i both know it was never going to happen. So what do you think? It is from a line called Venetian Holiday.

Picnic Nature Study

We had a chance to go to the river yesterday with our friends. We brought along a picnic and had a fun time exploring things.
The kids were very intent on a little sticky, egg case or seed pod...something. It looked pretty gross to me but the kids thought it was very cool. Mitchell sketched it and Avery wrote down as many facts as she could about it. While O got up close and personal with the magnifying lens to see if she could figure it out.

The river was beautiful....i love the clouds, all gray and dark!!!

i think J was loving the cracker. She had it all over her face as proof.

Is this face cute or what? E was telling me all about the boat that we were watching on the river. And he meant every word of it.

Total Enjoyment

We have been totally blessed and thankful to have my wonderful BFF(for lack of a better term :o) !!) and her children visiting with us through Thanksgiving. We have been having such a great time just being together and soaking up every moment(thanks for that reminder other Dee).

Today she began work on her very first quilt. i am so so proud. She loved my wee play quilt so much that she wanted to make one just like it. So we could have twin quilts. See it there behind her. She was using it as a guide for her own. This was her first row completed!!! Hooray! I have begun rubbing off on my friends.

The kids are having so much fun together. E even sat with us during afternoon school lessons. He did magic rock painting. See the concentration all over that face...that cute cute kissable face.
Avery is honing her tiny mommy skills with baby J... giving her bottles, holding her, playing and even feeding her lunch, you will see in a further down picture.

See how fast that girl can jump!!! She was thrilled with whatever we were doing to get her to smile for the camera.

How cute are these two....just sitting together on the kitchen floor soaking up the afternoon sun. We are loving every moment. I forgot how fun it is to have a baby around to play with. It is nice to see how my big kids interact with smaller children. They are doing so well, i am so proud.

More 4th Festivities

We are part of a small community that puts on a big show for the 4th....people gather from all around, blankets are set out days in advance(we barely got a spot when we put blankets out at 9 on the morning of the concert)...the concert ends with the 1812 Overture and then fireworks.

The masses of people were unbelievable...but they were a pretty well behaved bunch. We saw many people from our church and neighborhood. The traffic to get from our house up the hill was stopped...more cars than i imagined.

Avery and Mitchell had a good time wrestling cousin Olivia...who only wanted to be free and able to crawl around to explore all the new fun things around her.

Some of our very good friends were there with us. The girls had some toys to play with during the concert....i don't know what they were talking about but i just love the look on Avery's face.

And my sweet boy and his "ear muffs". He is not overly fond of loud noises, so fireworks have never gone over very well with him. The last few years involved stuffed animals and blankets over the head. Chris got these out for him and he was good...although he did end up under a blanket in my lap anyway. So Happy Fourth of July!

4th of July

Happy 4th a little late....this year we went to a old friends house where i spent many days and nights while growing up...including lots of other 4th of July parties. Kind of like a blast from the past, watching our children play together in the same pool where we played together when we were little. Surreal.

The pool was a hit. My kids had not been swimming in awhile, and they loved it. Avery got brave and went down the slide, over and over and over. I was very impressed with her bravery. Mitchell on the other hand got up there without knowing what he was really in for and went down against his better judgement. You can tell by the look on his face that he was not thrilled. needless to say he only did it one time. i think Avery went down more times in one afternoon than i did, ever.

i love the action shots!