Happy Heart Day!

What are you doing for Valentines Day? The plan here is after sorting through some things at my dad's apartment, Heather and I will grab some lunch and hit some sales at local Stitch & Yarn shops. So in the spirit of the day, I thought it was time to put away some of the snowmen I have sitting around the house, and get out my Soft Hearts Valentine quilt for this weekend :) The pattern for this quilt is in the current issue of Quilt Almanac on new stands now.

The cute little fabric Valentine Postcards...

...and the throw pillows are available as free patterns on the Quilt Magazine website now. Happy Valentines Day!

Enjoy the day!
~ Dawn

A Quick Snowy Hello

Stopping in to say a quick hello between working on deadline projects and meetings with my Dad's social workers and doctors. We're trying to catch up on all of the canceled appointments and tasks that were postponed due our week of snow.

Here is my finished block number two of Bunny Hill Designs Snowbound. It was an appropriate block to work on this week while we were actually snowbound :)

While housebound, I also spent time cutting out some quilt projects ~ sometimes I get in a cutting mood, and now I have four quilts completely cut out and ready to sew, sew, sew! I even cut out some Jo Morton charm packs with my left overs.

So for the Jo Morton fans out there, I have made available a couple of charm packs of 25 assorted 5 inch squares of Jo Morton fabrics here in my Etsy store. Let me know what you make with yours!

Enjoy the day!
~ Dawn

Making the Best of Things

We got yet even more snow yesterday ~ about another foot on top of what we had gotten over the weekend. Heather brought her cat Maddie and came to our house to get snowed in with us. So Maddie and Butters are getting to play together again, but even they are weary of the snow.

This is our backyard, and that's a four foot fence.

So armed with Heather's football cake from the Superbowl Party that was snowed out Sunday, we made the best of it and spent the day stitching and snacking. She worked on punchneedle, and I did some hand applique.

This is block number four of our Women of Influence Block of the Month that we're doing at the shop...done :)

Enjoy the day!
~ Dawn

Great American Afghan

I am finding that the easiest way to keep my hands and mind busy while sitting in hospital and nursing home rooms has been knitting. These are the first two blocks completed for my Great American Afghan. (Again I'm keeping with my one-block-at-a-time theme that I seem to have going here in 2010).

The first one has a cat worked in to it, and although I made some mistakes (they're there, so don't look too closely) I think it still looks like a cat, so it's a keeper.

The second block has some heart shapes layed out in a pattern, and was a little easier than the cat using just a combination of knit and purl stitches. Knitting is easier to do in less than perfect lighting, and is a little more portable than my hand applique because there are less tools to take along... just the two knitting needles, yarn and a pattern sheet ~ Simplicity. :)

Enjoy the day!
~ Dawn

The Weather Outside is Frightful

Since this is what it looks like out my back door today...

...and we're snow bound here on Spring Water Path,

Butters and I decided not to bore you with more internet snow pictures, and just go back inside

...and take some update pictures of my kitchen :) We still have a small punch list of things to complete, but Bob got to the back splash so it really looks finished now.

We moved the furniture back a few weeks ago and I've been steady moving things that I had packed up back in. (The pie safe was made by my sweet husband a few years back as a present to me ~ he's a man of many talents!)

I love the built ins that he put in place where we had a pantry with sliding doors before. The big blank wall behind the table is where I will hang a quilt (as soon as I get around to quilting the top that I want to put here). What you don't see in these pictures is all of the drywall work that was involved to make the walls all work around our cabinets and appliances. It was truly a custom job!

We even got the computer all moved back in to the desk area that we put in, so I'm really up and running now :)

So I guess I'll go back outside and pick up a shovel and help out a little with the task at hand.

Speaking of Snowbound ~ Don't forget to pop over to Bunny Hill Designs and download the February Free Pattern for Snowbound available now!

Enjoy the day!
~ Dawn

Finally Got To My Sewing Machine

...And I made this little project for the Jo Morton Little Women Club 9 session that's coming up. It's called "Sisters" and is made with a section of the Little Women fabric reversed appliqued in the center. I highlighted the four ladies with a micron pen instead of stitchery. It's subtle, but looks pretty good in person.


The rest is put together with 1 1/2" square scraps from Jo fabrics. I added the little outer border that matches the center, just because I liked that look.

Because we are still waiting on fabrics from Andover and I have a lot going on with my Dad right now, our Jo Morton Little Women Club Session 9 will start up in March. Evening group will be March 18th at 6 p.m. and the Day group will be March 19th at 11 a.m. Maybe I will be able to get another sample done for the club by then :)

Enjoy the day!
~ Dawn

Hopefully I'm Back

Hospital rooms, case workers, Medicare, rehab facility, another trip to the ER, back to the rehab facility, physical therapy, hospital food, some of the nicest nurses God has put on this earth, medical care plans...that was my week in a nutshell (hopefully yours was more fun). Dad is now settled into the rehab center and his hip is healing well.

So now I'm getting some computer time and trying to catch up on my email. Thank you for all of the sweet messages and emails that I received ~ during some of the really crumby moments my little Blackberry would bling and make me smile with a word of encouragement from one of my blogging friends. That meant so much!

Hopefully we'll be getting back into the swing of things here this week. I did get some good hospital-room-knitting-time/therapy in and finished my socks, and am working on my Great American Afghan blocks. (My Dad, who is not fully conscious of what is going on around him at all times, looked at me at one point and said, "Don't you ever get tired of doing that?") I guess I needed a lot of knitting therapy. I hope to get back in front of a sewing machine some time this week too, and maybe prepare some hand applique to work on as well...I think I'm starting to suffer from withdrawal symptoms :)

Enjoy the Day!
~ Dawn