Happy Anniversary

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY

TO ME! AND MY HUSBAND

This month my husband and I will celebrate our 27th wedding anniversary. I can't believe it's been that many years. I don't feel old enough to be married for that long. I am sure I was a child bride when I got married. Ha Ha. Anyway, I was able to choose my anniversary gift. Below are pictures of my new Janome!!!!

Am I lucky or what?

I am so excited to start sewing with it. It has a great applique stitch and some different decorative stitches that I haven't had before. Fun, Fun. Isn't my husband great? I made a great choice 27 1/2 years ago. Thanks honey!

Notice the great felted wool pincushions! We made these at our recent quilt retreat. If you would like to make one for yourself, go to Quilt Taffy blog for the website of the creative lady who is selling the kits for these. They are so easy to make. Thanks to Betsy for showing us how to make them.

Peanut dolls

Recently I won a pattern from Quilt Taffy and I was so excited because I was thinking "Oh, these would make great dolls someday for my someday grandchildren." I decided to practice and make one up for my daughter. It worked up so fast and was so fun to make that I think that I have decided that I am going to make these for my alphabet challenge from Quilt Taffy. This doll made up at least 12 inches tall. You can vary the face and hair, and the clothes. They have ears that you can put on for lambs and monkeys etc. The pattern was made up by Bit of Whimsy Dolls. The patterns are available on etsy.com or they do have a blog by the same name. Check them out. Cute Cute.

I also have another thing that I would like to share with everyone. In our Ward, we have been working on getting prepared with our food storage. They have been writing in the bulletin once a week an item that we can purchase to add to our food storage. In 52 weeks, if we follow along, we should have a pretty good basic food storage. Each item is to be multiplied by the number of people that you have in your family. It has been really easy to follow and it makes getting prepared feel not quite as aminous as some of the other 10 page lists of things I need to purchase. Here is the 1st 8 weeks that we have been given. I will include the upcoming weeks when we get them. Remember to multiply each item by the number of people you have in your family!

Week 1: 10 lbs of all purpose flour

Week 2: 2 pkg. salt and 1 pkg yeast

Week 3: 1 Lg jar of honey

Week 4: 1 Lg bottle of polyunsaturated oil

Week 5: 1 box powdered milk

Week 6: 10 lbs of sugar

Week 7: 1 Lg jar of peanut butter

Week 8: l Lg bag of pasta and jar of jam or jelly.

This should be enough to get us all started. Sewing dolls for needy children and working on food storage, how exciting!

Froggy Fanfare

Thought I would post a little video of some of the cute fabrics I used to cut my little alphabet frogs from. I think that it will turn out fabulous! Would love to see everyone else's alphabet animals also.

Starting of the alphabet challenge

I actually got put on call today for work and decided that I would start on my alphabet challenge. My daughter and I went downstairs and and chose a variety of fabrics and away we went. We even made a list of names that we wanted to name these cute little critters. It really didn't take any time at all to cut out 26 frogs. Some are wild, some are mild and some are just beautiful. Some are purple for my friend (and you know who you are) and I even tried to get one that looked halfway 70's looking for my 'far-out' friend. There's even one that reminds me of my fantastic knitting friend. World traveler friend, I tried to get one that looked European or Mediterranean but I am not very knowledgeable about that so you can choose one that looks right. Thanks Quilt Taffy for encouraging us to give to other's.

New Summer Challenges

I have decided to participate in a new summer challenge that was started by one of my dear friends. What a wonderful idea to make items for other children. We are so blessed in our lives and I would love to use some of those blessings to help other people in my own little way. I think that everyone needs to participate to bring some chear to helpless little children. So to Quilt Taffy blog to learn the rules so that you can participate also. Have fun!

New Pattern on Etsy Store

I finally finished the pattern for the Wonky Triangle quilt - thanks to Des - and have put it on my Etsy store. Check it out on Karebear Kwilts. This is a pattern for a lap quilt. It is extremely easy to make and you can use any scraps from your stash. We made it into a block exchange at our last quilt retreat. It was fast and fun! Hope you all enjoy my new pattern.

A new member of the family

Announcing another new member of our family. This is Abby. She belongs to my son and daughter in law. Isn't she adorable. She is a white boxer pup with striking blue eyes and an adorable black nose. This is like my first granddaughter. I was able to babysit her over the weekend and she was absolutely a joy. My new puppy Bella and Abby are really good friends. It is really cute because Abby is almost twice the size of Bella already and they just tumble and run around. It will be interesting what is going to happen when Abby is full grown and Bella is still the same 4 pounds. Isn't it nice to see that these two can be good friends despite the differences. We can surely learn something from these two. Have a great week and try to love everyone.

New Member of the Family

We just got a new member of our family. Some people say that I am crazy, but yes we now have three dogs. We have named her Chloe. I wanted to name her Bella after one of the characters in my favorite book, but the majority ruled and her name is Chloe. She flew in from Texas yesterday. She is 9 weeks old and absolutely tiny. She can jump like you wouldn't believe too. She only woke up once last night. Hope that continues. Have a wonderful day everyone!

My Giveaway This Week

I have decided to join in with the fun and giveaways. My giveaway will be a homemade apron like the one that is listed below. The only requirments that I request for you is to comment on one extreamely happy event that you can remember someone: either yourself, your mother, your sister, your grandmother etc wearinng an apron. Please leave any email address with your comment so that I may get shipping information to the winner.

Speedy and Stylish Apron

After a recent shopping trip with my friends, I was so inspired by this new fabric line, I wanted to make something that I would use all the time and could enjoy the colors. This is what I came up with. Using 4 fat quarters, a small amount of matching stripe for pockets and waistband and cute rick rack, presto: a cute apron.

This apron took me approximately 1 1/2 hours to create. It was fast and easy and fits my tall legs. How fun! I could make alot of these. I think this will be my gift for Christmas that I make for my sisters. Every year, we each make a handmade gift for each other. It is a real personal gift and we all like being creative. Last year, I chrocheted bath puffs and made homemade bath salts and placed it in an old glass bottle that I found at a craft store.

The fun thing about this apron is that it is a 'one size fits all' pattern. It is also reversable. That way, you can change your look every other day. My daughter really wants one and I think that I can downsize the pattern by using only 2 fat quarters instead of 4. She also really wants to learn how to cook. I don't know if it is because she really wants to wear an apron or what, but if it helps her learn how to cook, I am all for that.

The weather is taunting us with the hopes of Spring. I guess if it doesn't come, you can always make your little piece of the world like springtime. Enjoy!

Great day of fabric shopping

Today I have a fabulous day shopping with my quilting friends. There is a wonderful little quilt shop a few hours away from us that we like to get together and take a little trip to visit. It is almost like sensory overload. All the different colors, patterns and textures are thrilling to see. There are so many ideas there that you come home wishing you could spend the rest of your life just quilting. I purchased more material for a couple of handbags and some for an apron that I am designing. This will soon be on my etsy store. I also purchased some novelty prints for an I Spy book. The pattern is available on www.quilttaffy@blogspot.com. Cute, Cute! I want to make a few of these to put in my 'future grandma' box. I am hoping that they are not too moth ridden or musty smelling before they can be used. Ha Ha. I also purchased a pattern for a skirt from the Amy Butler line of patterns. These will be for my daughter. She loves skirts and loves to twirl around in them. I am wishing that there were more hours in the day for me to sew. I am totally rejuvinated. I would encourage anyone to take a few friends - even if they are not quilters - and spend a day just looking and 'petting' fabric. It has truly been a great time for all of us. We all definately have different taste in colors and style, but that is what makes it so fun. We have done this outing quite a few times now and we just love every minute of it. We stop for lunch and laugh and giggle. What more could you want. I am going to go and do some sewing. Have fantastic day!

Pattern now available

Announcing the opening of my new Etsy store called Karebear Kwiltz. The pattern for the bag that is in the last post is available. New patterns for a quick and easy apron and the wonkey triangle quilt will be coming soon. Stay tuned for more!

New On Etsy

Just set up my new Etsy store with my first pattern for sale. It took alot of work, but it was a fun process. I really love the Etsy store. Homemade items galore! Check it out, especially Karebear Kwiltz. Happy quilting!