A NEW BEGINNING - a baby orchid

Look at the pic closely. . . do you see it? A tiny orchid is just beginning. It will be quite a while before it opens at the top of a long willowy stem and shows off its beauty. We will all just have to wait. I'll try to post a pic every 4 weeks so you can enjoy the process right along with me. Orchids are so facinating!

Orchid bud just beginning

One of my darling kidlets recently went to Germany and Austria for a couple weeks of vacay. They had a grand time and brought some goodies back to share with me... CHOCOLATE!  And it was all in a darling wooden box.

 

So... let me tell you... this chocolate was [notice the past tense here...lol] sensational! Totally yummy! Too bad there were only 9 pieces in the box. Or maybe that's a good thing... good for my hips anyway.

 

All gone! :( ... but the box is great! If i don't store bobbins in it, perhaps it will be a good place to keep my zipper fobs.

Until next time. . . I'm sewing mug rugs and sorting UFOs... what are YOU up to??

Quilty Hugs,

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2013

May we all experience good health, happiness, and prosperity for the New Year 2013! And. . . lots of fabric and the time to cut and sew it up!

As 2012 comes to a close, I leave you with my very Best Wishes for a safe and Happy Holiday. . . until next time. . .

Quilty Hugs,

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

With love and best wishes

from my home to yours!

 

Quilty Hugs,

HOW 2 WRAP SECRET SANTA GIFT. . .

Secret Santa gifts are so fun! This year for our Annual Family Party we were given a range of how much we could spend: $15-$20.  Below is how I wrapped my little gifty which is all bling and very little substance!. . . . hee hee hee:

Secret Santa Gift

But first things first...
1.) Find rock from neighbor's yard -- ask first! lol --  clean, wrap in tissue paper, put in bottom of bag:

"cost" of rock NOT factored into the $15 to $20 limit...lol

2.) Slip Lotto Tickets inside set of 4 special Holiday Coasters:

Coasters / Mug Rugs from scraps + Lotto tickets

3.) Wrap Coasters in tissue... add bow. Place in bag and 'poof' the bag out with more tissue paper [see above]:

Coasters n Lotto tickets all wrapped up

Ta Dah! All done. I'm such a kid this time of year...lol... can't help it! Until next time, what devious methods have YOU devised to wrap your gifts???

MERRY CHRISTMAS

&

HAPPY NEW YEAR

From my home to yours -- whatever you celebrate and share this time of year may your Season be full of blessings, family, friends, good food, and fun.

Linking to: SoScrappy RSC2012.  Click over and see what the others are up to.

Love n Quilty Hugs,

PS: If I turn up MIA from posting for a few days it might be a result of too much party or too much "festive drinks" at the party! lol

GIFTS FROM AFAR. . . + A new "notion"

Isn't this sweet? A darling MugRug all the way from The Nederland. Thank you, Marianna. It is the perfect size to fit beside my laptop. I just love it! Thank you so much.

DJ MugRug by Marianna

And. . . Marianna's Mother made me this gorgeous card! WOW! Thank you. I love it... it is beautiful!

Hand made card by Marianna's Mother

A new "notion":  Have you heard about the great new tool for frog stitching? I first heard about it via Quiltville and Bonnie Hunter. It's actually a personal grooming aide - let me say I would never let this thing near my face!, but makes a fabulous un-sewer. It will undo tiny stitches in PPing in a wink. But be careful as it is very very sharp!

Eyebrow Razor: makes a super un-sewer for tiny PPing stitches!

Until next time, I hope projects are getting done and everyone is having fun during this Joyful Season.

Merry Christmas, Happy Hannukah. . . what ever you celebrate, please share your Joy with others!

Quilty Hugs,

REMEMBER. . . Please do not forget

 

Please remember the ultimate sacrifices made by so many in the name of freedom.

 

THANK YOU to all VETERANS

and

all MILITARY who are activly serving!

 

Quilty Hugs,

OH DEAR! IT'S ALL GONE!!!

Swedish No-Crust Applie Pie - recipe info below

It's hard to belive this is the very last piece of the yummy Swedish Crustless Apple Pie. So quick and easy to make from fresh green apples and so tasty! I used the recipe link from Jo's Country Junction. Thank you, Jo! Next time - and there will be a next time! - I think I'll add some cranberries just for fun.

Oh, btw, I made a few changes to Jo's recipe: cut the butter from 10 tablespoons down to 8; used less sugar [my sugar was a mix of sugar + Splenda], walnuts instead of pecans.

I hope everyone in the USA had a lovely Thanksgiving Day yesterday. My day was filled with gratitude for Family, Friends, Health, and oh yes... some great food.  A special Thank You and blessings to all of YOU - my blogging friends and community - as we are all in this life together.

Until next time. . . I'm going to prep some DJ blocks and assemble more Snow-Person parts tonight - what are YOU up to?

Quilty Hugs,

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

This is a great time of year and I have a lot to be grateful and thankful for.  I am hoping that things are good where you are also.

Because my 'turkey' picture has gone MIA, please enjoy this little ditty:

 

Missy - who is not happy to pose for pictures during naptime!

With the warmth that friendship brings, and from my home to yours, I wish you a very

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Quilty Hugs,

LONG MAY SHE WAVE - Happy 4th!

Few things give me goose bumps as quickly as seeing our Flag fluttering in the breeze. Wonderful.

Happy 4th of July.

I have my fireworks shirt all laid out ready to don for tonight's festivities. Hope all of you are having a wonderful day and can spend it with Family, Friends, and Neighbors...

Until next time. . .

Quilty Hugs,

LONG MAY SHE WAVE. . . Saying thanks on Day of Rememberance

Post title says it: Long may She wave! Thank you for all who have served, are serving, and will serve to protect us and keep us free.

Quilty projects and pics to follow tomorrow [I hope]. Until then. . .

Quilty Hugs,

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!

Happy Mother's Day to everyone. My #1DD Kay and her sweet hubs Randy sent me some gorgeous flowers for Mother's Day. I thought I would share them:

Until next time. . . I'm off to the sewing room to sew some more strings together. Pics will follow.

Quilty Hugs,

FLOWERS SAY SPRINGTIME. . .

Happy Easter
Happy Passover
Happy Springtime

from my home to yours!

A very nice and dear friend surprised me with these flowers yesterday. Just thought I would share them with you.

Quilty Hugs,

Happy St Pat's Day - flowers n Mug Rugs

Isn't this the cutest bouquet? A sweet friend brought it to me last night -- even sang to me as part of the presentation! What fun. We had a small dinner party here last night and these flowers made the perfect center piece.

Speaking of flowers, a couple of years ago some darling friends got together and sent me a beautiful orchid plant. This year it is blooming again for the third time! It is so beautiful.

Sewing up a storm I managed to make 18 Mug Rugs for DD's office. The pics don't show the amount of green in them, but the gals liked 'em and they are quick and fun to make:

I learned a nifty thing this morning: Make a folder on my desktop to hold modified pictures for my blog; save-as the pics I want to use and REDUCE the pixel size - now perhaps I won't be eating up my assigned mb in Piccasa. At the same time, a "watermark" can be assigned so all pics will automatically have my blog name on them. Won't have to do it individually anymore! WaHoo! I just stumbled across this info by clicking around. It is true what they say: "Necessity IS the mother of invention". I had topped out at my storage limit and was tying to figure out what I could do -- well, other than deleting posts and previous pictures!

Thank you for stopping by. I hope wherever you are you have time to create something you love.

Quilty hugs,

Quicky Green Mug Rug

It is almost March and I promised a Green Mug Rug with a St. Patrick's Day theme for a gal in DD's office who loves all things Irish, so here it is almost finished. Why is it only 'almost' done? Because Missy decided that it is "lap time" and not sewing time! lol

The original inspiration for this Mug Rug came from here, but I took quite a few liberties and changed a lot of it. We sewists are always free to do that, eh?!  The pictures below show how I made it.

Snowball the corner of a 2" green square with a 1" white  square.
Press a narrow strip of green for the clover's stem and

topstitch into place diagonally on 2" white square.

Assemble the two blocks together with some black fabric; add a small black border and batt-up for simple machine quilting.

Only a wee bit of binding left to hand sew on the back and then it will be complete... isn't the leprachan fabric cute? [not sure I spelled that correctly..lol]. I'll finish the binding when Missy goes back to sleep. lol

That's all for today - Thank you so much for dropping by. I hope where ever you are that you have time to create something that makes you or someone you love happy.

Quilty hugs,

HOOKING MY BRAINS OUT . . . or how to make a dozen coasters in one day!

Ok... the oodles of coasters are DONE! Yippee. The hearts were fun and quick to make. Truth be told, I do love to crochet! I started off by watching a YouTube vid by the Crochet Geek that my sweet friend Elly sent to me. Thanks again, Elly!  Then I veered off and did my own thing. 

The same process with the kitty coaster. One of the gals in my DD's office is just crazy about Hello Kitty, so instead of making her a heart, I tried to make a Hello Kitty likeness -- it's close enough, I guess. lol.

So now it's back to sewing. I still haven't started my little Scrap Houses yet! ;(  I want to get started on them right away. Then there is the Batik quilt in the design process. . . .

I am grateful everyday that I am retired and of reasonably good health so I can sew, create, play with fabric, and visit with all of you on the Net!  And, it's good that I can bend over again, because Missy really loves to play "chase the ball". Here's how it goes: I throw/roll the ball, she watches it intently, I go fetch it and bring it back to her! She is a cute and fun kitty, but we all know who is the boss in this house! lol

Have a wonderful day -- thank you so much for stopping by for a visit.

Hugs,