Cookies and Tea at Mom's

We've begun our yearly trip south and the first stop is at mom and dad's house. It's rough spending the night here... all we do is chat and eat and shop. YUP, it's rough :) I'm working at the computer and was brought tea and cookies... got to keep up my strength, ya know. Yes, I plan to eat all of those!

We went to a quilt shop in Berkley this afternoon. I've never stopped at this one but Lisa (our DD2) recommended it to me. She said they carry lots of Kaffe and I LOVE that. I bought a little... not too much because we have lots more stops to make.

After shopping for fabric we out to a middle eastern resturant for hummus, beef barley soup, baklava (Mmmmm!) and smoothies. Yummy. We had a chance to visit with Lisa and bf, Josh for a bit. I also stopped at a Salvation Army store and found a real FIND. I'm collecting Fiesta and happenned to find 4 lime green mugs in NEW condition. (5.99 for 4). Can't beat those prices. Also bought a bunch of books to read... those were only 5/$1. Can you tell this is one of my favorite places to shop? Aside from being a GREEN thing to do, it's great for my wallet :)

So tomorrow Al and I start heading south, out of Michigan. But we won't be leaving the snow if you can believe the weathermen. Looks like we'll be driving in it for the next few days... all the way into New Mexico. We will be getting up at the crack of dawn (as usual) to head out. Al planned this so that we don't have to worry about Detroit and Chicago morning work traffic. Well, my tea is getting cold and there's some cookies here calling my name......

BIG, BIG NEWS... favorite quilt shop in Quilt Sampler Magazine!!

Well, 2011 is going to be a great year... I can just tell :)

Now that's it's January, those of us that work at the Charlevoix quilt shop, Hearts to Holly, can announce that we will be in the spring issue of QUILT SAMPLER as one of the top 10 shops!!!!!!!!!!!!! We are all so excited. It's been a super busy fall and winter getting ready for this. Sue, the owner, has a party going on all day today at the quilt shop. She has some wonderful discounts, cake and punch and of course fantastic fabrics!

I bought some Dr. Seuss FQs this morning, plus a layer cake of "Charlevoix" fabric from Minick and Simpson:

The Charlevoix fabric line (Moda) will be the fabric used in her quilt that will be in the magazine... of course :) She is taking pre-orders for the kit and listen to this... It comes with a signed copy of the magazine, the pattern (designed by Sue's daughter), all the Charlevoix fabric AND a custom label with a picture of the quilt shop on it (Sue's daughter is an artist and did a beautiful drawing of the shop). Anyone that wants in on a kit (there's a limited number) can call Sue at Hearts to Holly (231-547-2729) and reserve it. It uses mostly creams, blues and deep reds. Perfect for summer.

She's also taking orders for Charlevoix fabric by the yard. If anyone needs jelly rolls, charm square packs or layer cakes, she has those now but they're going FAST!

SO, CONGRATS, MIKE AND SUE!!!!

You deserve this honor. All of us that frequent your shop feel more like family than customers. The town would not be the same without all that you and your family do.

And... Last but certainly not least, my background for this blog is my Christmas gift from a wonderful online friend. I took it with me to the shop this morning to show it off. Isn't it pretty? It looks so nice on the wall in the aqua bedroom. Thank you again, Rebecca. Al and I both love it :)

Christmas

Can you believe Christmas is here and gone?! That sure came fast and was over just as fast. Seems like I barely had time to visit with the girls and they were off again. :(
Al and I are out to breakfast and I brought one of my Xmas gifts along with me. Jennifer's boyfriend (we're hoping he's family someday) bought me this book... she must have told him about my love of quilts from Japan. I love these neutrals. I'm so impressed with the talent evident in these quilts.
Santa was EXTRA good to me this year. My sewing room has lots of new additions... my quilt book, fabric (Kaffe!), a wonderful candle shaped like a spool of thread (how does Lisa always find these thing?!), fabric gift certificates, scented drawer liner to make my fabrics yummier and xmas lights shaped like threads. Then there was a BEAUTIFUL wall hanging from my BEST internet buddy. I'm hoping Al will hang it today so I can take a picture of it. The machine quilting is amazing... she is SO talented. Thank you, Rebecca! I also received some wonderful dishes to add to my collection of FIESTA... Jennifer picked out two pretty colors, yellow and green. Someday I hope to have almost all of the colors so that I can mix and match to do a colorful table setting. Our next home is going to be fairly modern (a big change for us) and I think these will add a nice touch of color. Another FANTASTIC present was my chocolates...mmmm... Godiva!! Lisa's boyfriend bought me a box of my favs, open oysters. I have to admit they're all gone. I KNOW, I'm so bad... but I just couldn't stand them sitting there staring at me... calling my name. After fabric, chocolate is my biggest weakness. Well, I could go on and on with the list of goodies but let me just say thank you to all my Santas... love you all! Wish the day lasted longer.....

This is for Jennifer :)

I thought I had lost a picture I took of a quilt I made for my great-neice. Cleaning out some drawers (something that has been VERY neglected) I came across a flash drive that had some old pictures on it... pictures I thought were lost and gone forever. I plugged it into the library computer today and found the picture below. I'm thrilled to have found this one because Jennifer loves this quilt and I hope to make another for her "someday" little girl. I didn't use a pattern so the only way this one was going to be remade was to get a picture from my neice or to find this picture. :) :) :)

Here it is, Jenn:

Hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas

Well, thanks to a suggestion by Jeannette, my hand is improving. I'm using the supplements she suggested and guess what?!!... I think it's getting better! I'm going to keep using these since they're an all over good idea. Thank you, Jeannette!

Yes, Rebecca, it is great to have a houseful at this time of year. I'm really glad that the two girls will be home together this year. Last year one came for Christmas and one came for Thanksgiving.. It's just not the same. Years ago we would get together at my moms... ALL of us.. my 4 brothers, my sister, our kids, grandparents.. that was really nice. But now so many of us live elsewhere.

Gerda, I admit, my hand is probably an age related problem... Al is always reminding me that I'm no spring chicken...LOL. I know I have a tendency to overdo when it comes to sewing. I could sew for hours and hours... and sometimes do. But cutting gets to my hand. Hope you're keeping warm up there in Canada. It's been so darn cold here, it must REALLY be cold up there. I know that can play havic with the old bones.

Now to say hi to my family... It's hard to get a chance to talk to all of you but I thought this would be a good time. Hello to all my relatives in CA... Rick, John, Uncle Russ and Reva, Laura, Keith, Alexandra, Natalie. Hello to Karl, Sue and family in WA, Larry and Ciera in N Carolina, Karl, MaryAnn, Keith, Angela, and Connor in southern MI and everyone in MN. I also want to say a special hi to Eric and Tori and their sweet little children... you have a couple of GREAT kids there. Hope one of these days we can all get together again. And an EXTRA big hello and HUG to mom and dad. I hope ALL OF YOU have a great Christmas!

Santa's workshop has closed!

I finished up the last Christmas gift and everything has been shipped! Putting the sewing machine away till after the holiday.... AHHHH... now to put up my feet.. OH WAIT, I forgot... now I've got to get cooking and baking.

Lisa will be here for Christmas along with her boyfriend (I think), and Jenn is coming with her boyfriend so were going to have a nice get together. But we need food! Lisa and Josh are vegans so I usually make two different types of cookies and snacks. It's a bit of a challenge to cook for vegans but I've found some interesting foods that I enjoy ... foods I probably wouldn't have tried if it wasn't for Lisa. Growning up, if someone mentioned eating TOFU I would have crinkled my nose up but now I've found some types I really like. I just have to remember to follow the recipes. I forgot to put the sugar in the pumkin tofu pie that I made for Thanksgiving... that was NOT good!

I mailed off all the Christmas cookies that I baked. I traded cookies for crab with one brother that lives on the coast of CA. He's a fisherman and he gets the BEST crabs. I've been dreaming of these for a while and yesterday a box of them showed up on my front porch. Al and I munched on cookies and crab last night. I don't want to think about how much butter we consumed yesterday... between going out to breakfast at The Original Pancake House (they use REAL butter and cream), having all that crab dipped in butter and then eating loads of butter cookies... well.. I guess this Mrs Claus is going to fit the image this year! We packed the last of the cookies up last night and Al is mailing those today so now it's time to bake for us.

Don't know if I've mentioned that I'm having problems with my right hand. With all the sewing, and cutting and rolling out dough and working, my hand has taken a beating. It's swollen between the knuckles and is burning. Hopefully after Christmas it'll calm down. I can hardly write so I'm having Al write out some Christmas cards... my handwriting is with my left hand and it looks worse than chicken scratch. Last night I took a couple of Aleves to help reduce the swelling and I think it worked... somewhat. I'm typing... slowly... hopefully I won't have to cut much fabric at work today.

Blizzard weather here in the north

This is a picture I took at noon yesterday... COLD!!! The winds were gusting over 50 mph. Today the wind chill has temps WAY below zero. Al and I spent some time outside cleaning the driveway, the porch and walkways. We got out to go to town but there isn't much happening. I think most people are staying inside.
So with this cold, windy weather I just stayed in and kept warm... sewing in my room. Finished up a few Christmas presents... now just a couple more to complete and I'll be done. I did a little baking... got the gingerbread men done. I need to have LOTS of cookies baked in the next few days because I send them off to my brothers in CA. Usually I wait till last minute so that I don't have all those goodies around tempting Al and I. If I make the sugar cookies too early, they all get eaten and I have to bake them all over again. :)

Getting a scrappy quilt made up...

This month it was my turn to receive scrappy blocks from many of the ladies at block central. I just love going out to the mail box and finding nice little fabric surprises in it. Three more are on the way and those along with the ones I'll be stitching up will be enough to finish up this quilt.
This quilt is going to be a gift for my neice. Her dad, my brother, just won custody of her and they're both very excited to be heading to North Carolina.... BUT she does need a few things and I think everyone needs their own quilt. I'm planning on using a flannel backing for this and it's going to be TIED, not quilted. I want it to be done fast!
Thanks to all my BC friends for the blocks :)

Thanksgiving with the family

Happy Thanksgiving!! We are downstate at mom and dad's for the day. My sister and her family came along with my brother, my daughter and her boyfriend... other daughter went to Nashville (Al is taking the pic)
Hope everyone had a wonderful day!

Stitching weather

It's been SO COLD the last few days. It's been a busy fall but when I haven't had to work I head down to the sewing room, turn the heat on high and stitch away. Just can't believe how fast we went from fall to winter!
One of the projects I'm working on is this Christmas purse for my mom's bowling friend. She loved mom's summer purse and wanted something for her mom's birthday which is coming up fast. She said she wanted a "Christmas" bag and these cute santas with the animal print trim on their hats is the fabric she chose. I'm going to make 2 or 3 ties to go though the "belt" loops... one out of a coordinating animal print, one green and maybe one more in a creamy Christmas print. I still have quite a bit to do on this... the bottom of the bag is stitched but the band and ties are just laying there... got to add those on today.

Jennifer spent Sunday at our house and so we did some baking, cooking and sewing. She made a couple of really cute blocks using Figgy Pudding Christmas fabric. She's joining a block draw... Everyone is making a block or two and then someone's name will be drawn from all the block received. The lucky winner will get all the blocks made and will choose the next fabric line to be used in December's draw. This is a block she designed using the fabrics. Isn't it adorable?

New spicy tablerunner and the start of a new quilt

This is a new sample I just finished up last night for the local quilt shop. I think it's called Spicy Spiral tablerunner... I don't remember the designer's name. The pattern makes a 42" runner but I adapted it to use a shorter wedge so it's 36"... perfect for my coffee table. It's going to be hanging in the quilt shop for quite a while so I might just have to make another one. I used mostly batiks in greens and brown. If anyone wants the pattern, contact Sue at www.heartstoholly.com.
I started a new quilt... just the center is done. This is another sample piece for the quilt shop. It's a baby quilt with a medallion center... lots of black and white with dusty aqua and gray. I know I wasn't going to start any more new quilts....BUT... this one will be pretty quick and easy. It'll be displayed at the shop for a year or so and then I'll probably give it to my mom for her church auction or donate it to the hospital up here.. I don't know anyone with a new baby boy..darn.