St Pat's Dinner and Just a Cute Picture

In our non authentic American way we celebrated St. Patrick's day with what my family has grown to love corned beef and cabbage and potatoes. This year I made a low carb Soda Bread which was surprisingly good but not exactly the same LOL
I have plenty of green bowls and plates to serve on and since this was just family I even used something plastic LOL

I asked Mr Creative to take my picture and he did OK but sometimes I think he clicks at the strangest times LOL

Just had to share this one of my grson I licking the ranch dressing off his hands. He loves the stuff and will just eat the whole container!
I will have to share this a bit later. He is almost 3 and we have fun on the days he stays at Nana's house.

New Friends Celebrates National Quilting Day

by teaching and sharing together!

OK, so we didn't have a huge turn out of guests but we did offer to the community the opportunity to learn how to piece 6 simple blocks to create their own sampler either to donate or to keep. 6 of the members prepared to teach and we were able to help a few people begin their quilts. You can see above CN's sample block and step by step how to put it together.
The rest of us used the time to either work on our own projects or do some extra community service.

l to r top Eileen starts her Victory Quilt by cutting the Mr. Roosevelt's Necktie (fondly known to us and the dog bone or dog toy) block, CM works on the 6 inch version of the quilt
l to r bottom CN pin bastes a lovely scrap quilt in her typical fallish colors, and JB adds sleeves to her back

l to r top MH bastes last year's Celebration of Quilts sampler and JB is ready to baste her Housework Quilt
l to r bottom CH our president joins us for lunch after a morning Cub Scouting and a couple of samples of the day's projects
I didn't get pictures of everyone, myself included but we had fun and I got 3 blocks finished for my CWLL

Finishing Early...

March's 6 Civil War Love Letter blocks are done and it's not even the last week of March or at least it wasn't when I finished yesterday! LOL
We should have now finished or in the process of finishing over 100 of the blocks...actually next month and May covers the last 9 of the 123 including the two applique blocks. Amazing! This month's batch looks kind of on the blue side of my fabrics. Next month I am going to use some of the fabrics that have not been "right" before because I want to show the whole range of my 18oo's fabric collection. I will admit I have 6 blocks from Jan. to do but I am hoping I will be all caught up by May's get together at my home.

Now, for a real change of pace. I had been working on some Harry Potter inspired blocks but ran upon a Twilight Series challenge just starting up last month and after printing out and staring at this block I decided to go for it! It was a very very challenging block and I didn't make the best choices for one of the fabrics but on the whole I can live with it for now. I want to embroider the apple stem and you can see a tiny spot of white on the right side of the block where I miscalculated on the background but I think I can fix it with some strategic piecing LOL I think this block is much better from a distance but I wanted to show all the tiny pieces.
Next is Charlie's police patch from his uniform... but who knows...I have a couple of Harry blocks just for fun too.

Spring is Trying to Spring

In the front flower garden I spied some jonquils really making a great effort...and behind them you can see the bleeding heart peaking out of the ground. So that is a good thing!

Lately I have had some requests to help with donations of cards...one for a little boy who's family is in need of medical help and are doing fund raisers and the other is Cards for Soldiers. I have begun creating cards just for them. I get to play with my stuff and help others.

the blue flowered cards are from a free SVG file...I will add a link later...by Wanda who is so generous in sharing her files.
The pink ones are just leftovers from some pages from my cruise album (still in progress I must say) LOL

And From the Scrapbook Room

I needed a baby gift and someone online had shown a version of baby clothing closet dividers and I just thought they were so cute. I took the original idea and then created my own version. I loved the pp prints and was glad to be able to use them for something fun finally.
Supplies: PP DCWV Spring stack, cardstock various manuf., Numbers cut with my Cricut and Alphalicious, shapes cut from Doodlecharms and the hangers from Tags Bags Boxes and More. I used the Design Studio to get the sizing the way I wanted.

Oh my gosh my little grson A almost a year and a half ago when his Momma did a photo shoot in my basement. I had a whole other layout in mind (supplies that is) and got ready to glue down when I realized that the red in the photos didn't work with the papers and accents I picked so...into the stash I dug for these supplies. The red checked pp is a really old one and it has been one of the prints that I bought a bunch of and have used it over and over through the years.
I actually remembered to use my Cuddlebug this time, usually I don't think about it until the layout is complete LOL I just loved how it turned out when I sanded the Coordinations paper. Kind of like weathered suede our leather isn't it?
Supplies: pp from stash, cardstock mostly Coordinations, Cricut carts. A Child's Year,Graphicly Speaking and Lyrical Letters, sticker Storytellers Club

Supposed to be a quick St Pats day card but as usual it took longer than I thought it should have! LOL
I wanted to use the Studio G stamp I had bought from Archivers and of course my Cricut for a challenge and the color green, which isn't hard for me as I love all greens. When I used the Cuddlebug again on the clovers I sanded them and love the interesting effect it gave.
Supplies: Card base DCWV, pp DCWV Spring stack, cardstock from stash, Studio G Lucky stamp, CTMH Playful font stamps, ink CTMH and SU.

this is one of my most favorite pages I have done in a quite a while. I have always loved this paper and kit from Storytellers Club but it was supposed to be a "girls" kit and since I haven't had girly things to scrap in quite a while it has been waiting.
When DD did the pictures in 2008 she and her family ended up in the perfect colors for me to finally use this kit! I thought it would be a great background with all the movement and colors so I searched my stash for other papers that would be "right" I did use a few of the embellishments from the kit but really tried to let the photos speak for themselves.
Supplies: bkg paper and embellishments Storytellers Club, pp oldies but goodies from the stash, Title cut with my Cricut with Graphicly Speaking and Cuddlebugged. Ink from Colorbok

What's Up at New Friends Quilt Circle

This past Tuesday a few of the members showed off their recent work. I love that when you finish a project you know that your quilt friends will appreciate it! LOL

Above r t0 l: CM shows a version of the National Quilt Day Celebration project with the 6 blocks to be taught to the community for free.
E shows her 09 retreat project Purple Ginger Jars,
Bottom: N shows us her Noah's Ark quilt and a close up of her meticulous joining of fabric with NO breaks...I can't tell

l to r: CM shows a version of the Contrary Wife block she will be teaching next Sat. A sneak peek at the 2010 fund raiser quilt that the night group created in one of our workshops

Who Doesn't Love Give-aways?

Well not me for sure....love 'em!
Check out this link for some great ink and a fun crafting site to-boot! LOL
http://www.favecrafts.com/sweeps/Colorbox-Fluid-Chalk-Set-Giveaway

Card for a Friend

A friend just lost a family member and I wanted to make her a card that let her know we were thinking of her and her family. I saw this card in a sbing magazine for Mother's Day but thought it might cheer her up. I stitched the stems on my machine, and everything else was from my stash.
Card base DCWV, flowers QVC, buttons Fancy Pants, ribbon American Craft, ink and sentiment CTMH

Why I Love Quiltmaking and my Cricut

I know I should have been working on several other projects in the Quilt Que but when my Quilted Tabletop Yahoogroup sent me it's monthly challenge of this quick and easy runner I just couldn't resist. LOL First I thought I would just print the pattern to save for later, then as I was sorting some scraps in a bag I thought I would just pick out the right sized green fabrics. Since I was cutting some other fabrics I might as well cut these 4 1/2 " squares at the same time, right? I tossed them in a bag to wait for later. Then it was only 9:30pm I could just start the middle part of the top and before I knew it the middle was done and I had picked the gold and green borders. Got up Sat morning and thought I would just cut the strips for the borders...won't take hardly any time. Then...TaDa it was a finished top. But... It needed something more to say St Pat's day so...thus the little slide show LOL I love it and maybe I will get around to quilting it this year but if not then at least I had a few fun hours doing something just because.

A Look at the Design Wall

My gosh! I finally have finished the pieced borders for my Spinning Daisies quilt! My friend CM helped me come up with the design idea and I have been messing about with it for a few months. LOL
Now I will need to figure out how large of a narrow inner border I need in order to get the pieced border to fit and I need to trim and straighten that border first. Then there is the corner issue. I am almost completely out of all the fabrics with the exception of the black and a few of the prints. Not sure what I will end up doing but I can't wait! LOL

Baby Shower Card

Just got invited to a baby shower next week and since I had a challenge come in to create a card from one of my Cricut carts I thought good timing~
this is from the A Child's Year cart I just love those solid designs and thought this would make a cute card.
Supplies: cardstock DCWV, ribbon American Crafts, pp and tag Walmart baby scrap pad, eyelets and ink from stash

Did I Hear Something about Spring?

Here you see to my delight, the chives in the herb garden. So for breakfast yesterday I cut a small bunch and had them in my morning omelet. So Yummy. They were so fresh tasting and it's proof that spring can't be too far away, right?

Yeah....that's what I though

This morning when I got up and walked through the living room to the kitchen I glanced out the window and....
AARG!
Yeah, sometimes I think spring just loves to tease us and drive us crazy.
As of 10am it is still snowing fat fluffy flakes. Sigh, good thing I didn't have anything important to do today.

Spring Tea Party 1940s Style

The New Friends Quilt Circle's theme for March is 1940's Tea Party so for our first of the month get together we enjoyed a fun time sharing spring-y quilts and dressing up in our own "tea party" style.
The first picture is a small group that donned hats, gloves and 1940's styles. I am in the middle back with my snazzy polka dot patriotic top and yellow gloves. Wish you could see my hair in a "snood" but it is the wrong angle. LOL lower left is our friend L who had her grandmother's authentic jacket, broach, hat and best of all a purse with the accessories that her grandmother had used. The purse had a note inside with her grandmother's list of the correct hat, dress and purse to wear together. LOL

A few of the members brought show and tell quilts with a spring theme. Top l-r Spring Celebrations and a Daisy table quilt by KS, Bottom L-r Brown Susans top in progress by M and RB's sweetly hand quilted baby quilt for a Great GrDaughter due soon.

MH has finished her 2009 Debbie Mumm BOM in lovely spring colors, DB shows a very early quilt she made in soft blues and pinks which she says shows it's 1980's style. Bottom l-r PN shares a lovely Tulip wall quilt made as a gift by another member when she had her house fire in stained glass style and DB's DD shows a lovely top she has just completed that just shouts spring!

Yours truly didn't show anything this time but I am hoping that one of my goal projects will be ready for April's meeting!