Happy 4th of July!

I know I've been absent but we have been on vacation.  I'll be back this week but just wanted to wish you a Happy Indeoendence Day!

Happy Easter!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Happy St. Patrick's Day ... Obviously with a name like Colleen, I'm a little irish!  Enjoy your day ... And look out for the wee folk!

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to all the dad's, uncles, father figures and special men out there that are so important in our lives.  Sometimes I think in this world where we can have it all and do whatever we want, we forget the importance of dads.  My own father wasn't around a lot when I was young as he was in the military and traveled a lot.  Dad's were different when I was growing up.  Their job was to provide for their families, not be so hands on as they are now.  Then when I was a teen my parents divorced. I didn't know him very well until I was an adult, where we built our relationship and really got to know each other.  I love my dad ... I am so grateful to have had the chance to really get to know him.  He had always been a strong support for me, even when I didn't think he was.  Thank you Dad for being my father ... I love your crazy sense of humor, your embarrassing outbursts in public, your commitment to your family and quite simply, just being my dad.  I love you.

Happy Easter

Bunnies are everywhere at Easter ... I happen to love them ... I used to have two house bunnies that gave me such immense pleasure.  They were our pets and they behaved just like dogs ... Flopsy and Theodore.  Theodore especially was like a dog.  We had Flopsy first and then came Theodore, and it was amazing how much Flopsy mellowed and changed when Theo came ... it was so cute seeing them always head to head or next to each other.  I had to promise my husband I would never have bunnies again; both of them had different diseases and because I am the animal person I am, we treated them and it was outrageously expensive because they are considered exotic pets.  But I still love bunnies and I specially love seeing them at Easter.

A couple of weeks ago while at work, I decided to go on a hunt for bunnies ...

I found them in almost every room of the store ...

And I even found them in some different places ...

These are the bunnies I just made for Easter ... 

Here is one I made for myself ...

Beacause of course I love bunnies!  May the Easter bunny bring you joy and hopefully chocolate!!

Happy Easter!!

Happy Easter

Halloween Eve musings

Halloween is probably my favorite holiday of the year.  I love Christmas ... for what it represents and for the joy that everyone feels, but halloween is special because of the colors, the fun, and it doesn't carry any of the pressure that Christmas does.  Especially now that I don't have costumes to create for my kids.  I must admit that that was loads of fun, but I was always behind the eight ball when it came to the costumes.

I quickly threw up some decorations today ... since we were gone most of October, and since I've been trying to get my act in gear since we got back a week ago, I finally got some stuff up today ... some of my favorites.  This is as good as it's going to get ... no halloween quilts, but we'll save those for next year!  Oh heck, I might pull them all out tomorrow and throw them on my bench in the hallway!

This is a needle punch that a friend made me ... isn't it cute?  And a pin cushion that a friend made last year ... adorable!

No halloween is complete without a scary skeleton ... he will be flipped over onto the front of the door tomorrow evening.

 

The creepy picture frame that talks!!!



Maybe my all time favorite decoration ... you can't have halloween without a ghost.

Love my mantel ... can you tell I spend most of my time in the living room?  Now I just have to find some super cute stuff for Thanksgiving ... always harder to do.  Any suggestions?  Where do people find those beautiful wreaths that I see hanging on everyone's door for fall?

I decided to get on the ball today and get a quilt quilted.  My VISA bill came in from my vacation, and I need to get busy to help pay for all the fun I had ... ha, ha!  Really, I haven't done a quilt since I got back, and since I want to be done with my quilting by Thanksgiving, it's time to get back on track!

This is a baby quilt that a friend did and I just love the fabric.

Can you believe my friend doesn't like it very much ... well this is before it's quilted. 

Now look at it ... beautiful texture and wait until it is washed!

I love the colors in it and decided to use a turquoise thread ... did a tight swirl pattern.

I always love this part of the process ... pulling the quilt off the frame and unpinning it.  I used Glide thread in top and bobbin.

Look at the back ...

Isn't this a cute fabric?  Oh, so much cute fabric, so little time!  Doesn't the turquoise thread look good on the back?

While I was on my trip, I stopped at my dealer in Utah and I was asking her about thread and tension.  We had a conversation about Glide and while she was talking, it occurred to me that occasionally I do have a bit of an issue with the bobbin thread slipping and catching.  Instead of using the little dealy thing that goes in the bobbin case (can't remember the name of it), I bought these bobbin washers that Teryl recommended.

Turn your head upside down to read ... sorry, I don't know how that happened!  They're really nice and thick and just sit in the bottom of your bobbin case.  They changed the tension and I will say seemed to work really well.  They're a little pricey, but hey, any amount is worth not having to rip out your stitching!

Now one more thing ... my friend that I did the above quilt for does something different when she's binding ....

I trimmed her quilt for her and left 1/2" extra all around; when she binds her quilt, she sews the binding on as normal, then trims it 1/4" beyond the edge of the binding.  She likes the extra bulk that folding the binding over the extra 1/4" gives her.  I don't know why she doesn't just trim it 1/4" extra, but I'm sure there's a reason.  I'll have to ask her when I see her again.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!!