It was a very Happy Birthday!

I was going to say last Monday was my birthday, but oops it was Monday before last...where has the time gone? Anyone? Please? I want to send a big thank you out for all the birthday wishes and cards :) And a very special thank you to my sweet friend Sharon for these awesome gifties that arrived well in advance of my big day.Here's Sarah modeling the shirt she sent me that has now become my favorite walking shirt :)Cute pumpkin candleYummy smell good potpourriMerry Halloween sign that goes sooo cute with my cat and pumpkin "sticks"LOVE these fat quartersthis is an adorable bag, it was hard to get a good picture though.Thank you so much Sharon, I love them all! And I miss you sooo much!!

Nancy and I are birthday twins and she is the good twin because she sent me this cute little card holder in time for our birthday and I still haven't sent hers, that makes me the evil twin...I don't like the sound of that. How about "bad" twin? Inside was a starbucks card--thank you so much Nancy!
My kiddos got me some great pressies too! I was very impressed with the beautiful wrapping, thanks to Hannah, Daniel's girlfriend :) So impressed I never took pictures unwrapped :(This present was from Hannah, see the straws? I have a thing about straws lol!! I had to share this Halloween picture of Sarah and her best friend dressed up as Tweedlee Dee and Tweedle Dum.I will be back soon with that tutorial for the Authentic quilt that I have been promising a few of you...I haven't forgotten.

November Charming Girl Club goals

First off I want to say thank you to Kelly who hosts Charming Girl Club. I won the October drawing for a $25 gift certificate to her store Cotton Charm Quilts
and I can't wait to go spend it!!!

Secondly I want to say sorry for not answering comments lately, my email wigged out and would crash if I typed too fast or tried to type more than one or two lines. So even the comments I did manage to answer were very short, sooo frustrating!!! I finally got a new email and it seems to be working, I'm crossing my fingers that it's not my computer.

O.k. on to my November CG goals.
1. Quilt and bind Oct. Schnibbles
2. Make November Schnibbles top3. Put borders on this Christmas top4. Make the remaining stars for this quilt (I think I need 11 more)5. Get binding on my Holly Jolly quilt6. Finish my Authentic quilt top
6. Get the blocks cut for a new quilt top with this Christmas fabric7. Do something with this jelly roll from last year (I took it apart and then stuffed it in a bin so it needs some ironing lol)8. Make a quilt from my Figgy Pudding fat quarter bundle that I have misplaced temporarily. I have also misplaced the pattern. They are together somewhere in a "very safe place".

O.k. I think that's it for now. I'm going to go check out what everyone else is up to!
Have a great weekend!!

Happy Halloween!

So what do you do when you've carved all your pumpkins... and then it gets hot and they sorta melt... and so you go to the store the day before Halloween to get more and they are all stinkin' gone???

You buy a watermelon and carve that instead.
So today is both Charming Girls and Schnibbles check-in, and wonder of wonders, miracle of miracles, I have not only remembered to check-in, I actually have stuff finished!!!!
So Charming Girls first.
1. Bind Mountain Rails...check.
2. Sew Posh blocks together...check.
3. Cut and sew the blocks for Picnic in Paris...check.4. Do something with Fabulous Fall jelly roll...check.Here is my Schnibbles quilt made with a combination of Peace on Earth, Winter and Roman Holiday. I didn't match my snowballs to the 4 patch corners 'cause I didn't read ahead (oops) and had already cut everything before I noticed that part, luckily I like things really scrappy. I opted to not do the borders. I am determined to use stash for this challenge and I just didn't have anything that made me happy. I do have the perfect binding and I think I'll make it wider than usual to give it more of a "bordery" look.
O.k. time to go get ready for the trick-or-treaters!!
Happy Halloween everybody!

New Challenges

So I've gone and signed up for a few new challenges, yeah, I know. First off is the 100-mile fitness challenge which involves walking 100 miles between now and December 31st. I was going to start right away and then our despicable heat came back...but soon very soon. Then I signed up for a Year of Schnibbles...again late to the party, but that's been the story of my life this year. I have finished most of my Charming Girl's goals this month but I don't want to bore you by showing them now and at the end of the month so I thought I'd show this fun quilt that I talked about here. I finally got the nerve to cut into it with Nancy helping me over the phone, I don't think I would have had the nerve otherwise. To actually do all that sewing and then cut it up?? So wrong! But it turned out so much cuter cut up that I wouldn't hesitate to do it again. Any thoughts on what I might do with the "skeleton"? Pretty cool huh?

Charming Girl's and some pin topper love

So I totally spaced and didn't post the pitiful little 2 things I finished for Sept. CG's. How sad is it that I haven't even stitched closed my Fall Pillow...I mean really. I finished my Annie Treat and got the binding on the tiny quilt.Kitty shoes...what's not to love??? So I'm carrying over the same goals from last month and adding a few more.
1. Get these Posh blocks sewn together.2. Do something with my Fabulous Fall Jelly Roll.
3. Cut and sew the blocks for this quilt that I have been wanting to make for forever. Last month I finally finished gathering the fabric for it.
I think that about does it. I'm sure I'll think of all the things I really want to make this month on oh say around the day after the deadline for posting, 'cause that's just how I roll.
So are these the cutest things ever or what? Last month...or thereabouts I was over at Cara's blog and told her how cute I thought they were and so she went and sent me some. How sweet was that? You gotta click these to enlarge to truly get the full gobsmacking effect of their tiny cute awesomeness!!! I mean just look at that cute little face..... Oh yeah a little red polka dot mushroom love...Yummy! I being the lamo lazy girl that I am have only just now gotten around to blogging it. She has opened an Etsy shop called On Pins and Whimsy to sell them and I just checked it out and snatched up some adorable pumpkin toppers....so they're gone now...sorry. However there's still some cute ones left and very reasonable prices and shipping. So go visit her-- oh and I think she takes custom orders. Thanks so much Cara!!!!
O.k. that's it for now, I'm off to sew for the first time in like forever..yippee!!!!
Have a great weekend!!!

Charming Girls' Quilt Club

So Kelly over at the Charming Girls' blog gave me a late pass for this month--thanks Kelly :) If you don't know what I'm talking about my title is linked to her post about it, check it out. These are the projects I'd like to finish up this month:I need to get the binding sewn down on my Mountain Rails (in the background) , my little wonky quilt-quilted and bound, finish my pillow and I'm taking a doll class (Annie Treat) a week from Saturday and I want to finish her!! I also want to get the binding sewn down on these three little quilts.If you guessed that I'm up to my old masking tape tricks with that little one on top you guessed right lol!!
September is kicking my butt so far...I am drowning in homeschool stuff right now so who knows if I'll get anything quilty done--but I'm hoping between the motivation of a deadline and the fact that September is a good t.v. month, what with all the new Fall shows and premiers, I'll at least get some hand sewing done! Hope everyone has a great week, or what's left of it :)

Some Stuff

I've been on a cookbook buying binge this Summer. I keep saying "that's it-- NO MORE!" and then one of you lovely people out there in blogland tells me that really I do need "just this one more" . At least you never steer me wrong...I love them all so far. This so amazingly true quote is from The Splendid Table, not just a great cookbook but full of fun pages like this one

. My favorite cookbooks (here is a sampling of titles) include stories and anecdotes, little tidbits that just add to the joy of making the recipe somehow. If you have never read Laurie Colwin's Home Cooking you are missing a rare treat...go order it now :) I went to see Julie and Julia this week and immediately ordered Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Unfortunately a lot of people did the same thing so there's a wait for the book. While I wait I've been reading, and very much enjoying, her original blog The Julie/Julia Project. Now if the weather would just cool off enough for me to turn on my oven.

O.k. moving on to Fabric...I love Cath Kidston and it makes me sad that we don't have her stores here in the U.S. and in order to actually own any of her stuff I have to fork out way more than I'm willing on shipping. The other day when I was prowling around Amazon looking for this

I somehow ended up finding this

and so of course I ordered it...free shipping and all. It came the same day as my order of American Retro from Sew Mama Sew... and I am once again in fabric love...See how it matches my Cath Kidston notebook?

That just makes me happier than....well happier than it ought, I suppose :) I made a few more pincushions, don't they look like a little family?

Right? Don't they? I just can't bring myself to break them up, so I guess I need to make more... Some darker ones for Fall...

I am loving the joy of miniature...so quick and fun and cute. I made this little 8x9 inch cutie start to finish in about one hour...now that's what I'm talkin' about! O.k. I'm off to finish up curriculum planning...it's that time of year AGAIN...how did that happen so quick????

Oh and hey is there something weird going on with blogger? My little bar up there has all different buttons and my pictures are ending up in weird places....I'm not likin' it one bit :(