Inspired to Create...

Saturday was my birthday - I won't say what number birthday - but my birthday none-the-less... I share my birthday with one of my best friends and "cousin-in-law" Lori. Lori was celebrating a "milestone" birthday this year (the big 40), so her family threw her a party. So we went to the party to help her celebrate.

Lori is an amazing artist and illustrator. Although it was her party, she painted me this canvas for my birthday.I just love my new picture!!!

She even put red polka dot ribbon along the edge of the canvas to finish it off...

She is such a talented artist!!!

Doesn't it look great in my sewing area - it matches perfect with the sewing table I made earlier this year.I am now inspired to start sewing some new creations...

Checkers anyone?

I took a break from my sheet zig zag quilt to whip up a birthday present for my nephew who is turning 6 this weekend.

I still have to hand sew the binding to the back - that is the red polka dot fabric on the edge. But I was so excited about it I just had to show you.

I made him this game quilt. One side has a big checker board...

And the reverse has a backgammon board!

I made game pieces out of large washers from the home improvement store. A quick coat of spray paint, and custom game pieces! I was orginally making the pieces out of felt pieces hand sewn together. They were cute, but very time consuming, and I was afraid they would blow away if you used it outside. This way the washers help hold the quilt down.

My kids are begging me not to give it away, but keep it up at our lake cottage. Believe me, I am tempted. But I will make another one for us. There are some things I would change on the next one, but if it turns out good, I may list it on my Etsy store to as a sample of a custom game quilts that can be ordered... or maybe I'll write a pattern for it. I've never tried that. Any thoughts?

The quilt is about 40" x 50". Great for a lap quilt, or to throw on the floor or on a picnic or at the beach, to play a few games.

I love how the outline quilting and the diagonal X's through the squares on the front stand out on back. The white fabric in this quilt is an old ultra soft cotton sheet!

A most blessed Easter and Birthday!

In addition to being Easter, today is our son P's 8th birthday!

His "Big" gift was this "grown up" radio control car that his dad picked out.


Dave and P have been playing with it most of the day (during chargings we have been able to spend some time with them).


If you can see who is holding the remote, you can see who I think the "gift" is actually for!!!


In addition to racing cars, we also spent some quality time together as a family - big Easter breakfast, Church, a glorious Easter Dinner of home made pizza (P's birthday dinner request - I think we now have a new Easter tradition on our hands) and watching a movie together... Cheaper by the Dozen 2. It is a good family movie that always makes me look forward to the lake season that I hope is just around the corner.

We also "tackled" a long overdue project. My cousin Lori has a section of her living room wall - oops now her studio - lucky girl - lined with self portraits (view her post here) of their immediate family and various extended family members and friends. She had asked us about 3 years ago to do ours and send them to her. She even gave us the canvases, and they have sat in my linen closet since then (don't even ask why they have been in the linen closet for 3 years). But with no big plans this Easter Sunday, I decided that since we were all together (and I had just spied the canvases when I was getting clean sheets the other day),that today was the day...

So here in all their glory are our self portraits... Well, just a sneak peak, since I am sending them to her in the mail this week and want there to be some surprise...

I don't think we will win any art awards or any of us be considered the next great "master", but we had fun laughing at ourselves and spending time together... "making memories" as Dave always says. I think Dave is the only one who has an actual nose. That part really stumped us!

Hope you and yours had as great a day as we had!

CHAMPIONS!!

M's team won their cheerleading competition last night. They did an awesome job!!

Needless to say, I think she had a great birthday yesterday!

the video of their routine is posted on YouTube.

Happy Birthday!

This beautiful girl turns 14 today.

She is as sweet, kind and considerate (most times anyway) as she is beautiful. We celebrated her birthday on Tuesday, because we would not have time today as she is competing in her city wide cheerleading contest this evening. GO EAGLES!!!

Isn't she cute...

Her present was this phone...
She has been asking for her own cell phone for over a year, but has also been very understanding when each holiday has passed with no cell phone in the pile of presents. Needless to say she was extatic when she heard the box with the phone "ringing" (the ringtone was her brother, sister and myself singing happy birthday) while she was opening it!

Happy Birthday M!

Here's to another year of fun, happiness, good health and many many good memories!!

Complete!

I finished the quilt for my niece last weekend. I am very happy with the way it turned out...

I did both striped and free motion quilting on it.

I did a pieced binding that I have been dying to try after seeing it on another quilt.


And I think the back is almost as cute as the front. I hope she will enjoy it!

Sneak Peak...

Just a peak at something I am working on...


It is going to be for my nieces birthday!!

Off to get batting - I think I'll just get a whole roll and not have to keep running to get batting for every project!!!

An Early Birthday Present to Myself!

I saw these shoes on the Converse website about a month back while trying to find some shoes for my 13 year old daughter, and fell in love with them!!





I really wanted them, but they were $68 and I could not justify that! So I did some web searching and found them at shoes.com, and they were on sale, and I found a promo code and got another discount and free shipping (and no tax - don't tell) and got them delivered to my door in less than a week for $43!

They are really individual pieces of fabric sewn together (not one piece of stamped fabric) and they are even quilted! Being a RED lover and a quilter, I just had to have them!

Happy Early Birthday to ME!