A lovely Mother's Day

I've had a very nice Mother's Day and I hope you have, too. First, these tulips and irises arrived Thursday night. How nice to get an early start on the holiday!


This morning began with worship. Every woman present in worship this morning got a carnation. Pastor Mike explained that even women who have never given birth can be "spiritual mothers" to others they come in contact with. I agree. After worship, Grace and I took my carnation to a special place. Mom never got to meet her namesake, which makes me sad.

Then, I was treated to a wonderful lunch at a nice restaurant and the two nice people below gave me the beautiful bangle above. I've been wanting a bracelet with the fruit of the
Spirit (from Galatians 5) for years. Grace remembered and told Dave, "I've got the perfect gift for Mom this year, don't give it a second thought." Isn't that great! I love it and plan to wear it as often as possible to remind myself that the Holy Spirit inspires all those wonderful attributes in us - love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. I confess I do not exhibit all of those at all times! I wish I did. Sometimes I don't exhibit any of them.

Here comes the ring-bearer

My oldest sister's oldest granddaughter is getting married this year - the first wedding among my sister's grandkids. My sister and brother-in-law celebrate their 50th anniversary this year. (That makes me sound old. Let me hasten to add that my sister was 18 when I was born).

Anyway, a few weeks ago she called me with a project idea. She wanted me to make a ring-bearer pillow for Randi's wedding - and she wanted me to make it out of her 50-year-old wedding dress!

I had some grandiose ideas of box pleats and set in piping at the beginning of the project but lucky for me she had a much simpler design in mind. She did want me to embroider the bride's and groom's names on the back. On my "draft copy" I tried that, but the chiffon top layer was too thin to embroider on and when I tried embroidering on the ribbon it made huge holes. So I used a gold fabric pen, which looks fine. When the next granddaughter gets married (there are 4 so far) I can add their names and dates if they want to use the pillow.

I hope she likes it.

Great quilting minds think alike

Two quilters whose blogs I follow posted about the same pattern on the same day:This Schnibble is from Quiet Quilter.

And this belongs to Carol of Carol's Crafty Creations. Do you ladies know each other?

The sew-in was berry fun

Last night, after feasting on some delicious vegetarian fajitas prepared by my clergyman spouse, I headed upstairs to the sewing room for some strawberries! I found the pattern a few weeks ago at Moda Bake Shop and knew I had to make some. I changed the recipe a little bit. I really don't care for sewing tiny, fussy little shapes, (and besides, I couldn't find my pinking sheers), so I used wool for the leaves. I'm going to put the berries on this little plate for a Valentine's Day decoration and then get them back out in a few months and put them in a green ceramic basket I have for just a summer display in the kitchen. I'm thinking of making a bunch for my sister for Valentine's Day. I have some red fabric with little swirly white hearts that I think will make some really nice berries.

I can't wait to travel around and see what everyone else did at the sew-in. Thanks to Heidi and Bobbi for gathering everyone together.

Friday Night Sew In

Ok - I've decided to participate in the Friday Night Sew In sponsored by Handmade by Heidi. I usually don't sew much at night - early morning is my best time. But after a visit to my fave LQS during lunch yesterday, I have the cutest project from the Moda Bake Shop all ready to go. My clergyman spouse is off today, so he can be in charge of dinner and we have a 100 percent chance of rain today (we've already had two inches overnight!) so it's going to be the perfect sew-listen-to-Frank-Sinatra-and-Doris-Day-and-sip-hot-tea evening.

Pics tomorrow.

Finished!

I really need a better place to take pictures of quilts. A better camera wouldn't hurt, either.

On my design wall (bed)

Here's what I'm working on today. Christmas is not over at my house, apparently, because these redwork Santas just won't go back to the North Pole! I finished stitching the last one about a week ago. I bought a stack of Sturbridge Village fat quarters at the same time I bought the fabric for the Santas, which was about a year ago. The Santas were a bom program, but I changed up the setting because I wanted a bigger quilt. I can't decide if I'm going to put another border on it or not. What do you think?

It's back to work on Monday. It's been a great two weeks to be off. One of the reasons I like working in education is the time off at the holidays. It's better than vacation because everyone else at work is off, too, so nothing is piling up on my desk while I'm gone.

Have to run to the post office to mail a book I sold on Amazon. I ordered Flat Belly Diet in paperback back in October. I got it last week, read through it once and realized it was waaaayy to restrictive for me to stick to long term, so I listed it for sale and it sold in one day. I hope the person who bought it will like it.