Welcome to my house

While working on all these little houses, I decided to have my own house be the large center block.  It was soooo fun to try to replicate my house! 

Now I just love “living” among all these nifty neighbors.  After all, who wouldn’t want to live next door to a funny giraffe or a pincushion or a pretty rainbow.

But mine is not just a house…it’s a home…through and through.  Lots of memories here.  This is where my children grew up.  See that rose bush by the front door?  Mr. Sunshine and I spent a lot of time finding just the right one and planted it when it was tiny.  Now it is taller than me.  This spring we chopped 15 feet off the top of that cherry tree by the side of the house.  It was huge!  And from this view you can’t see the maple tree behind it, but I can feel it there…it’s the one my kids spent summers climbing.

Now the hunt is on for just the right “couple” to fussy cut for the front window.  The ones to represent Mr. Sunshine and myself.  It will be an interesting challenge to see what I can come up with.  What better excuse to pour through all the fabric shops I can find.

This quilt is becoming a labor of love.

Counting

8 baby bibs

I needed 2 bibs for Easter but these were so fun and quick that I ended up with 6 more than that!  Thanks to Jaime at Sew She Sews for the great tutorial.

5 Blessing Blocks

I finished the Temecula Quilt Co. quilt-along.

1 pouch for my key chain.

156 house blocks.

This is my March report.  Only 210 left to go.  I think I might just make it.

Last, but not least, look who else is counting.

To 13!

A sweet two year old...aka my granddaughter.

Play Time

 

Sewing on my house blocks reminded me of my daughters’ dollhouse furniture, stored away for many years now.  So I got them out and decided it’s time for their little girls to play with them.  

There was some minor fix ups to be done…reupholstering a worn out chair, making new miniature blankets, a little soap and water and a new hairdo for the doll, etc.

 

I don’t have a dollhouse, so I’m turning this little cabinet into a doll condo for a while.  I think it will work pretty good for little girls with lots of imagination.

 

Besides, it makes a nice place to store some wonderful memories of my daughter’s when they were tots.

Its been fun “playing house” for an afternoon.

Now back to playing with my other houses…the fabric ones.

swapped my needle for a hook

This week I traded my needle for a hook and made a little summer purse.  The pattern for the bag is from Alice at Future Girl.  I used cotton yarn and then added a flower for fun. 

Crochet is so relaxing.

Then I swapped back to a needle to sew a lining inside.  We are having strange Spring weather here…so this fabric helps with feeling Spring.

And speaking of swaps…

My squares for Karen’s Red and White Swap are ready for the mailman. 

 

I notice both of my daughter’s baby pictures were playing peek-a-boo with me while taking photos of the bag.  So fun and such a day brightener!

Hope your day is bright and happy too!

Look what I found!

I climbed into our little attic room to get out the Christmas decorations and came across a forgotten box filled with these felt ornaments.  I had to bring them down and have been playing with them.  So many good memories!  I stitched these up 31 years ago for our tree.  It was our second Christmas together.   

They came from a book by Sandra Lounsbury Foose.  I loved her designs back then and over the years have collected five of her books.  They are all out of print now so I feel lucky to have them.

I’ve also finished two more blocks for my little applique quilt.  Each one will finish at 5 inches square.

A Quilting Memory

This morning while searching through keepsake boxes, I found a good memory. 

I was about seven years old and my sister, Tricia, five when I noticed an order form in a package of quilt batting for a booklet.  For all of fifty cents – postage paid, it came close to our little budgets.  My mom had been sick and in the hospital and I wanted to do something for her, so my sister and I decided to send away for the booklet.  I know my dad helped to mail it for us and probably even paid for it. 

I was so excited when it came and we gave it to her.  I can still feel the awesome feelings I had.  I also remember being fascinated with the book and looking through it. 

Several years ago, (some 40 plus years later) my mom gave this back to me.  She had kept it.  Today, when I came across it among my other treasures, it was pleasant to just sit and remember for a bit. 

Dishtowel Quilt

I cut into those precious dishtowels and now have them pieced into a quilt.  I used 30’s repro fabrics plus a few others that go well with the whole theme.  I love these colors together with the dishtowels and I’ve had lots of fun playing with them.

The pinwheels are the colors of our wedding, blue and yellow (although ours were much softer).  We chose those because Mr. Sunshine’s favorite color is blue and mine is yellow.  A good match (in more ways than one).☺

Now for borders.  I have a few ideas…

What do you think?

 

 

 

These awesome dishtowels were given to me 32 years ago at my wedding shower.  They were made especially for me by my friend Karen, who I haven’t seen for many years. I adored these when I first saw them.  I still do.  They have sat in the linen closet all this time because I don’t want to dry dishes with them.  So I just pull them out once in a while to look at and then back they go. 

For some reason, they popped into my head first thing out of bed this morning and I wondered if they could be made into a quilt!  A light bulb moment!  The towels aren’t quilt material, but for me it would be just a special quilt, maybe one that could lay at the foot of our bed.

Do you think this is a wise idea?

Any advice?

Sisters

Today I finished another Jo’s Little Women Club quilt called “Sisters”. 

 

It’s 12 inches square.  The women in the center were a challenge as each sister is about an inch in size and very detailed.  I just about went blind trying to stitch that tiny!

This quilt has extra special meaning for me because I grew up as one of four sisters. 

This is me (far left) and my younger sisters 35 or so years ago.  I hope my sisters are okay with me posting this.  We don’t get pictures together anymore as we live so far away from each other and especially since my youngest sister has passed away (far right).  So pictures like this with us together mean a lot to me.  But my two sisters and I do keep in close touch with each other through email. 

I love my sisters!

Easter Dresses

Nanette and Eileen are having a challenge to show our childhood Easter dress pictures. It didn’t take me too long to find one of mine. And here it is. It’s old and hard to see but brings sweet memories nonetheless. This is me and my sisters and my mom all dressed up and standing in the side yard of our home. I am the oldest and tallest girl in the middle with very light blonde hair. I have loved yellow since I was very small and this dress was all yellow and was my favorite for a long time. Mom made it for me and it was a happy time.

One of my first sewing projects was taking leftover scraps of fabric from that dress and stitching a costume for a puppet I was making in school. His name was Buttons and was in the class puppet show. I wore my yellow dress to school that day so we would match.

Hope you all have a wonderful, beautiful Easter.