Happy Birthday to me!

 Today is the day of my birth but we celebrated with family Sunday!

This is my wonderful BD cake. Boston Cream Pie , made for me by my sweet DH! Delish!

 He also made bread to go with our soup buffet meal!

 

 We have Beef Veggie, Ham and Bean and Chicken Corn Chowder! YUM! Was a cold cloudy day so hot soup really hit the spot!

 Here is my sweet family crew! Two nephews, sweet niece D, Sis-in -law, DH and son! Me is middle in green!
 DIL took the pic so I could be in it!;-)
We had a fun time eating and visiting together!

  Pretty flowers and some wonderful cards!

Some of my wonderful presents! Talented niece D made the  lovely cross stitch bird! Have to frame it and put in living room!

 She also made sure I had a wee bit of Winter for my birthday as well!!!

 These flowers I picked from Aunt Dot's by the old chicken house. Mums she thought were gone did make a small comeback. It was like she was here with us!

 Went simply with pretty Fall paper plates and napkins! Fast clean up!

 Did not take a pic with everyone around table! We really need to be more diligent about taken PEOPLE pics! HaHa!! Will make sure I take the camra when we go visit then forget to take pics! My mind is going!!!;-)

Was a happy day spent with family and that is the true gift!
We did miss other sweet members of our family who could not be here with me!
Have had a lot of sweet phone calls though!

I miss my sweet Mama and Mother-in- law on these special days to celebrate. I sent up my love to them today on angel wings to heaven! Hope they know how much I love them and still miss them.


Well today is yet another cold one! Gee! Want my warmer days back to enjoy Fall! Not ready for Winter!
Do have sunshine though! So that is good!
I got to get in gear soon on the few Christmas gifts I plan to make! Goodness did this year blow by or what!!!!

Erin of My Patchwork Life has an effort going on to collect blocks to make quilts for Sandy victims.
Please pop over to check it out! We all want to help and it is hard sometimes to find ways in which we can give besides giving money to Red Cross. We have done that as well. Just hard to see folks suffering and wish you could do more so pop on over and help if you can!

All wicks trimmed....

 ..and lamps were ready to go! We had done as much storm prep as we could.
Thank goodness we did not lose power with Sandy!
Storm is still affecting our weather long after land fall in NJ. We  still have rain today and some wind.
Temps down to 43F! We have had lots of rain and wind. A lot of flooded areas.  More damage along the shore of Virginia Beach also Hampton areas.
Just grateful as could have been so much worse for us too.
My heart goes out to all those north of us dealing with so much lose.
We have family and friends west of us dealing with snow and blizzard conditions!
This storm will be remembered for many years to come!

 I made a bit of a mess today! Yes an orange mess!

 Making these cuties for DH to take to work tomorrow! Candy cookies hats! Saw on Pinterest.
Simple enough. Cookies, candy and icing. All packed up ready to go with some fun napkins!

I did cut up some shirts but that is all that happened in the sewing room!!!

Good mail day...

Yesterday was a good mail day round here for sure!

 First I wanted to share where I hung the finished Inspired Pumkin Quilt. It is over sofa. Next quilt up will be a Christmas one. After the holidays an antique quilt will go back up in that spot.

 Now on to the mail! First came my wonderful giveaway win from Prairie Grove Peddler!

 I pulled this lovely bundle of fat qts out!

 Fall yumminess! Yes that is my new word! Head on over to Cheryl blog she has another giveaway going on!

Next package was my batting bolt! Now to find where it will reside in my small creating space!!!!

Don't ya just love wonderful mail days !

Under the old bed springs...

...was found this quilt! It is not a super pretty one or even elegantly made. It is just a WELL USED QUILT! When the old beds were being taken down at Aunt Dot's this was on one bed under the horsehair mattress on old springs . These beds had been in same place since Aunt Dot, 93yrs old, was a wee gal! She never moved them from where her Mother had them.

This is the only one that I got to keep, others were taken by time I got there.

 All done by hand though. Made to be used. The hexie flowers made up of old fabrics that seem to cover several years. Some look like late 1800's others on into 1900's up through 1920's.

 All hand sewn onto old muslin sacks. The 'batting' is real cotton. It is all bunched up thick in areas.

 A close up of some of the hexies.

 Back is made up of 4 muslin sack sections. Can see the thin areas with sun coming through.

 When folded up it is a goodly size hunk of quilt!

 Here you see the ties, where fabric was joined and rust from the springs.

Pretty blues. More browns too and some dark reds. There are only four flower hexies rest are mixed  up design. Thinking maybe made by different people.

We have decided for now it will rest on DH's Great Granny Peden's low rocking chair. A true treasure to us even if not museum quality!

Went to Raleigh...

 Raleigh,NC that is on Saturday. Was a quick trip down to see Aunt Dot and Uncle Ollie. Weather was horrid. Rain and nasty all day. Trip back was just as bad.
DH's cousin took us to a shop I wanted to go to called Lone Star Mercantile.

1501 N. Main

(At the light across from Applebees)

Fuquay Varina, NC 27526
(919) 557-0202
Hours: Tues-Sat 10a-6p, Sun 1p-5p, closed Monday

 The pic of the cute house they are in did not turn out! A lot of my pics did not turnout!
Anyway it is a wonderful country primitive shop. Loads of  wools, Jo Morton, Barbara Brackman, Judy Rothermel , just loads of Civil War fabrics. Patterns, books and loads of neat things for the home. They have just moved here so getting settled in. We did not have much time so could not take as long as I wished to look at everything! We plan to do another trip down early Dec so hope to be able to visit again.

 Everyone was so nice, friendly and helpful. Just like kindred spirits!

 This is just a bit of  the patterns and books.

 Upstairs are classrooms and they have quilts displayed for those.

  Inside the wool room. Loved this one!

 This is my basket fella. More wool there in the background.

 I already have this pattern . Niece is planning to help me get the stitching done.

 I have this one on my list too! Just need to do it!

 My purchases for the day. Few more things but they are gifts so can not share here.

There is a quilt in the new issue of Primitive Quilts these will be used for.
All in all enjoyed the short visit and look forward to going again.
Check out Lisa's blog and the online shop blog as well.

Kaye England Lecture

Alice and I went to a Kaye England lecture and trunk show Monday at a Newport News, VA quilt shop. We had a blast! Kaye is such a fun and down to earth lady! If she is ever near you for a class or lecture you really must go! You will not regret it at all!

 Was hard to get many good pics as she is never still! Full of fun and information we took notes! Those are not her quilts behind here. They are from a class that the shop offers in the huge class room there.

 This is one of Kaye England's quilts in the trunk show. Alice loves this so bought the pattern to do up in her colors! Alice also won a door prize of some fat qts of Kaye's newest fabric line!!!!

This is one of my favs and so bought the pattern, called Betsy Ross! It is from Kaye's Voices of the Past Collection. I also bought one from her Signature Scraps Collection called  Burgoyne Surrounded.

Alice and I also popped into a local Re Store and Tuesday Morning. Yes we found  stuff we had to have! Some came home with us and some did not!;-)

Still busy here getting house back into some kind of order. We have been given more treasures from DH's Grandmother and his Aunt. So needed to try to make it all fit some how!

Went fabric shopping with my sweet niece D for her living room and dining room windows. Sew...will be sewing those up next week, I hope. Then I must get on the needle with some smallish Christmas gifts!

The new knee is still not as it should be.. but slowly it will get there so I am told! Just not a real patient person!

Been some wonderful coolish days here! Very Fallish! Love those!
Today we are a tad on the warm side. Calling for a chance of storms/rain every day through Monday.
That is okay as long as we are not rained out everyday or flooded!

So reckon best get back to it . Lots to do for  a busy weekend here!!!

Punkin Inspired

Had to get DH to hold up quilt for me.
Was a tad to big to pin to my design wall.
I still have a wee bit more quilting to do on it and the binding.
Did the blanket stitch applique after I layered so makes for neat qulting too.
That is a Pat Sloan technique. By the way excited to be doing a work shop with Pat in Oct!

I call this one Punkin Inspired because it was inspired by a quilt I saw Here.
Hers was based on a Blackbird Design you can read about here.
Blackbird Design's quilt would be a wonderful large bed quilt to make for the season!
The booklet/pattern pops up on Ebay and Etsy once in a while.

My finished quilt is not quite same as both of the above ones but they did inspire me to make it so I wanted to give them a shout out!
I drew out all my own pumpkin designs on Heat n Bond Lite. Used the GO! to cut my stars and the small half square triangles for the border.

My quilt is wall size. I plan to hang it on my living room wall behind sofa.
So I hope to have it finished and hung up this week!!!
With our cooler temps here it makes me want to cook soups n chowders and put up all my Fall decor!!!

Is it Fall yet???

Must be, as our temps have cooled way down with beautiful 'Fallish' days this week!
Loving it!!! AC off and windows open!!

Been busy here. Working on a quilt to hang in living room. A peek above.
I was inspired by a quilt I saw online. So decided to make my own version!
So far so good. I only need to put binding on and  then will share a pic of it finished!

I am also quilting my Cotton Boll runner. Can read about  that here.
Need to get it finished as we have a new "old" buffet in dining room to put it on!
Will share that and another antique from DH's grandparents in a later post.
Right now it is all a mess!
I decide to move things around to best accommodate the large buffet.
So ya know that led to this then that...etc!
Will be painting above chair rail too!

Was a fun day Sunday with son, his wife and niece being our helpers!
I sure miss the days if I decided to move stuff around could just do it!
Oh well all is good as we got to spend time with those we adore!

So reckon I need to get back to my chores and then a can of black paint I have waiting on me by hearth!

Stitch'n and a Sweet Win

Okay I have been busy with the stitch'n needles as well. Sometimes that was all I felt like doing .
May frame some but not sure how I will finish others. Small quilts or maybe candle mats.

 Four of these will be popped into frames. The 2 punkin heads will be up for Fall. I age my own fabrics.

My niece finished her Midnight Watch ! I aged her some linen to use. Love it! May have to steal it!

Lastly a big Thank You to Jocelyn of Happy Cottage Quilter for picking my name for her Give Away! Love Fall and that oak leaf block looks neatorama! Now do you see that orange home spun?? Can we say PUMPKINS!

Still here..coming along!

I seem to have reached a plateau with the new knee function. Bend is not where I would like it to be but does not bother me doing what I need to do. Still do my daily PT.  Stiffness and a bit of swelling still  a problem. Pain is easing off but at end of day I welcome a bit of relief.
Now in saying all that I am pretty much doing whatever I want! Sewing at machine, standing cutting, and of course those dreaded household chores!

We have had oodles of rain since I bemoaned our long dry spell! Be careful what ya ask for kind of deal!
During the week and every weekend has been horrid down pours! So we decided if we wait for rain to stop will never get out!
DH was kind enough to take me to Norfolk to a large fabric store there.
It is called Fabric Hut. Had ordered online from them and through Amazon but never been, so off we went!

 The storm that morning had shut down their payment system! So only cash or 'good check'. That term tickles me! Our clerk was a sweet gal! Was so funny when I ask to take her pic for my blog! She calls across store..We have a blogger! ;-)



 DH and I walked all over. Had a huge section of quilting fabrics with some on sale. Large selection of GO! products. The apparel and home decor areas are quite large as well.

 Yes in all that quilting fabrics selection above, this is all I bought, but all are 1 yard cuts!

 We also went into a store next door called Dollar Deals. Lots of stuff!

Found the above voile textured sheers for $5.00 a panel! Need to hem them for the living room windows.


Have also been cutting and sewing! Made a comfort quilt for a little gal being treated for West Nile at CHKD. My first 'larger' project since surgery! Girly girl for sure. So cute.

 Quilting was tiring but slowly my stamina is building back up.

Covers up the whole sewing table! Add 2 more rows would have been a twin!

Have some other projects will share in another post! This one is already quite long!

Pulled out some Fall decor items! Want to get house all done up with Fall colors. Maybe can make us  feel cooler with our high temps and humidity! The weather folks do say we have some cooler days coming this weekend! Hope so! Less rain too!!