I finished the extra blocks I wanted to get done to make my 16 blocks (from a swap) into a nice sized lap quilt. I love all of the blocks. The colors are so rich and the fabrics are wonderful. This was a good swap. I have a lot of things to do with the upcoming holidays so unfortunatley, I'll put this one away for now. :o(

And my buddy Carolyn sent me this cute little pumpkin she made. She used an antique spoon for the little stem and it's made out of wool felt. It's lightly stuffed and so cute. I put it right in the center of the coffee table. I needed a little something for that spot and this was perfect! Thanks Cracker!

Blog Contest...

Sweet Liberty has a cute blog and is having giving away some goodies to the lucky winner. I hope it's me!!! :o)

California Fires

I live about 10 miles from the fires that are taking place in Yorba Linda and Anaheim Hills (CA).

These pictures are from my front porch looking across the street. The last photograph is the same direction as in photograph #1 but 3 hours later.

Still seeing lots of blue skies. The Santa Ana winds are good for one thing. Cleaning the air. Not a good time for fires.

Directly across the street from me.

This photos (below) is behind my house at the same time I took the other pictures. It's about the time the fires in Yorba Linda and Anaheim Hills were starting. This blue sky didn't last long.

This is at about 3:00 p.m. today.
This is at about 5:00 p.m. The air is thick, smelly and the ashes are everywhere. I watched the news and saw some beautiful homes burn down like match sticks. It is so sad. I can't imagine people leaving their homes, sitting in a hotel and watching the news to maybe see their home burning. It's got to be awful. God bless the firemen fighting these fires and the families who have left their homes and don't know what they'll go home to.

Coffee and Cream

I hosted a swap on Backporch Friends this month. It was a small group of ladies that participated but the swap was a success. These are the pretty Bear Paw Variation blocks that I swapped out. Aren't they yummy?

Have you been to a quilt shop lately? Well, for some reason, I haven't been shopping in a while. I guess if you read some of my prior posts, you know things have been a little crazy. Well, I headed over to my local fav shop, Cozy Cottage and picked up some goodies. I want to make a few more bear paw blocks to get a 4 x 5 setting so I picked up these two fabrics. And I saw this great pattern for a chubby charmer! They had a sample in the store and it's such a nice big bag, I guess I'll have to make me one......someday!

The beige fabric is a Thimbleberries but I don't remember who makes the brown fabric. But it has little cherries on it. Who could resist that!??

I guess I better go through my charms and see if I can come up with enough to make that bag. I don't think the charms will be the problem. I don't know if I have enough fusible fleece. Well, I better get. The girls are coming over for sewing night. I gotta clean off a space for somebody else to play. (I kind of hog my space that way!) :o)

Catching up - crazy busy weekend

First things first. Thank you to anyone and everyone who ever served in the military of the United States of America. Thank you for my freedom! Thank you for your bravery. I wanted to make sure to say something in appreciation before I got to yackin'.

Now onto my very busy weekend.......

My mom was at my house for a few days before she went to make her rounds with my other two sisters. This gives my kid sister a break. My mom will be back for Thanksgiving....which will be here WAY before I'm ready! lol

This is Sara on the left and my mom on the right. Sara is my friend, Nora's mom. I met Nora in the 2nd grade so we've known each other for-e-ver which means our mom's have known each other for some forty some odd years too! When Nora heard my mom was coming over, she thought it would be great for them to see each other and visit since it's been years since they've seen each other. You never know when you'll get another opportunity to get mom's together again so it was a photo op. :o) Sara is 74 and my mom just turned 80! We should all be so lucky to look this good, huh?

After my sister left with my mom and Nora and her mom left, little Ashley, my surrogate granddaughter, came over. I barely had time to wipe the crumbs from lunch off the table! Ashley and I made home made playdo from the cookbook I've had since my 20-something year old daughters were in preschool! It's got some good "food" recipes in it too but I like having a place to look for recipes for fun stuff like playdo and goop. Ashley loved it and it helped me have some sit down time. Man, she wears me out!
Okay, so all of that was on Saturday! I KNOW!!! LOL That's how I felt too!!! Ashley stayed the night and her parents picked her up on Sunday. Thennnnn, my oldest daughter, Kelley came over to play! We got Kelley a gocco printing machine for her birthday in May but she hadn't made time to play with it. (I tried to find a link but they were all sites that had them for sale. If you're curious, you can google it.) Well, with a little prodding from me, she brought it over, unpacked it and drew a little picture to print. Here's the machine and her little elf drawing.
Go check out Kelley's blog to see what they look like printed. They're so cute! Once you draw your design or copy something from clipart, you can ink up the mat and print about 80 copies. So it's something she can use to make cards and maybe sell some of her designs.

Then I came back to work on Monday to rest!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :o)

New Dishes and more....

Does this mean I have to cook now??? lol I got new jumbo glasses for the man who likes "manly" sized diet Cokes. And look at these littel ramekins. They were on clearance at the Crate & Barrel outlet.

And I got generic white dishes. I just haven't been able to find anything I really LOVE. Well, let me clarify that. I have found dishes I love but I'd have to sell my house to own them so I went the budget way. I found these "cafeware", also at C&B outlet.


You see, the mister likes to go to the Indian casinos and gamble and the misses likes to keep her money for more important things like fabric, or um, dishes! lol So, I got these and a cute cup cake stand, cooling racks and a few other goodies. And he got to gamble. Actually, he did very well and paid for all my purchases. All I can say is it's a good thing there's no casino close by! I'm sure his habit would be much more dangerous if that was the case. Kind of like me living within five miles of six different quilt shops. Oh yeah, I do!!!!!

And just so you don't think all I do is shop, I did sew a little "thing" together the other night. My artsy daughter Kelley, asked me about printing on fabric. We talked about several options and she grabbed a bit of artwork from her computer and we printed it on a Printed Treasures label page. And just so the little artwork didn't go to waste, I put some borders on it and stitched in the ditch around it. Cute little...um, I dunno, coaster? Hey, it's an original bit of art. :o) I told her she should draw a little Christmas elf or something and we could do small ornaments for Christmas. Good thinkin' huh? :o)