Quilt blocks

Good morning to you all! The sun is shining, the wind is blowing...it's a nice spring day! Annabelle is in a running club two mornings a week, before school, so I take her on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 8:00. That's an hour before school starts, so Mason and I hang out until then. It doesn't make sense to rush home for him to get the bus at 8:20. Today we went to my favorite supermarket, Wegman's. I got a cute little braided rug for in front of my sink...six bucks!

Quality Inspector at work

I'm so glad that I have all my food shopping done and it's not even 9:30 yet.  Yesterday I worked on the May block for my coffee quilt....here it is...

I decided to go with all the same flower fabric in different colorways for the cups. Fig Tree of course! The background is a beautiful browny-bark color from Lakehouse, with a pretty vine pattern on it. I really like how this one turned out!

I've also been making a block here and there for my 30s quilt.

After taking a look at this grouping, I realized I need more red, and that one is the only red I have. I really like how the red grounds the other colors. So I ordered this bundle from Keepsake Quilting. I loved that they have FQ bundles in specific colorways. Should be here in a few days!

Off to do a little cleaning before a mall excursion...I have two certain little nieces with birthdays coming up, so it's time to do some little girl shopping! Enjoy your day too!

♥ Jen

Catching up

It's been nearly a week since my last real post--I've missed you all! We left last Wednesday for a mini-vacation...we stayed with Dave's mom in Nyack, NY. Nyack is a suburb of NYC, right on the Hudson River. This is the view from her balcony...

That's Westchester across the river. Isn't that a lovely view? I don't know if you can see it, but the Tappan Zee  bridge is over to the right. On Thursday, we went to the Liberty Science Center in NJ. It's directly across from the Statue of Liberty, as you can see...

Never saw the back of her before! Great views of the city from the sky deck.

This was a cool exhibit...an actual beam from the World Trade Center.

The kids goofing around at the wind exhibit...

On Friday, we went to Citi Field to see the Mets vs. Braves. This is the second year the new stadium is open...it was so cool! Lots to see, do, and eat! Plus it was Free Ski Cap night...we needed them, it was cold later on!

From our seats

When we first go there, field level...where we wish our seats were! LOL

These pictures are going in reverse order, but oh well...here we are meeting up with my Dad outside the stadium...

We had so much fun...and the Mets won, which was nice!

On Saturday we went to a baby-naming, and got to see lots of Dave's family. It was a wonderful day.  We came home that evening to see that the front of the house is done! I was going to take pictures today but it's rainy and dark, so I'll wait for a nice sunny day. They do have to re-do the columns on either side of the sitting wall...they're a bit too tall...but it won't take long. Otherwise it looks great, now we have some landscaping to do.

Sunday I went to a Country Folk Art Show at the state fairgrounds. They're here a few times a year, and I thought this weekend's show was particularly good. I got this cute sign for my laundry room...

These goldfinches to add to my bird collection...

This farm scene plaque for my entryway....

and a sweet wool stitchery...

Most of the things I got were 50% off since I went the last day of the show. Nice!

One more Hobby Lobby fabric find...they had Kona snow this time (they didn't the last time I was there), which I'm using for my 30s quilt so I got a few more yards. I've made a bunch more blocks, but I forgot to take pictures so I'll have to show them next time. I also picked up a 1/2 yard of the green 30s fabric you see below. Cheap!

Well, if you made it this far, thank you for sticking with me! I saved the best picture for last...just LOOK at these cute espadrilles I got at Target yesterday! I love them and they are sooooo comfy. And on sale! LOVE that!

Have a great day friends!

♥ Jen

I'm back!

Hi all! I didn't forget about my blog, we just went away for four days...but now I'm back, baby! I will write a new entry tomorrow...complete with quilting, Mets, and new fabric! Not necessarily in that order...

♥ Jen

Fabric bargain

Take a look at these 30s fabrics I got at Hobby Lobby last week...these were on clearance, $3/yard! Oh happy day!

Ok, now that I've hooked you in with fabric, I'm going to bore you with pictures of our porch/walkway renovation. Gotcha!  Here are some pictures I took after they left on Monday...

Over the weekend, Dave and I dug up all the daffodil bulbs and some of the tulips to get them out of the way...first I cut the flowers and filled 4 vases!

Mmmm, the house smells so good, especially from the hyacinths. Here are the tulips, a few days later...

We re-planted the bulbs in the back, plus three shrubs. I forgot to take pictures of the work the construction guys did yesterday, but they installed the step, did some of the walkway and put the facing on the porch. Lookin' good!

Sorry for such a quick post, the kids are home this week so it's hard to get time to write. Hope you are all having a great week!

♥ Jen

A sewing day

You'll be happy to know the swingset is all done. LOL Don finished it up on Tuesday, right after dinner so the kids tried it out right away. Their friend from across the street flew over as well.

I like that I can go on the swings too...I always felt I would break the old ones, this one is so sturdy. Of course after a few minutes I get nauseous so I limit my time. LOL

Yesterday I spent the entire afternoon sewing and organizing my fabric. I picked out two pretty pieces for my laundry room/embroidery hoop project.

They're 10 inch embroidery hoops that were a couple bucks each. I like the "springy-ness" of these particular fabrics. You can see the walls are plain old white...I want to paint them but (1) I can't decide what color and (2) it will be a major pain to paint that small room, with high ceilings and the washer/dryer to work around. Oh well, I'll wait to get inspired I guess!

Have you made Monica's Poochie bags? She has a free pattern that uses just 3 fat quarters. It's easy, fun and you get a super-cute bag when you're done. Instant gratification! OK, not "instant" but "a short time." Yesterday I made this one...

Those are Debbie Mumm gardening fabrics, with Lecien straps. I've bought a bunch of that yellow bee fabric, it is so sweet and goes in tons of projects really well. I made this Poochie bag awhile ago...

There are pockets on both sides and it's lined and nicely-finished on the inside. Fun fun!

I've made lots of these little makeup bags. This is the one I made yesterday...

Reverse side...

And inside...

I just happened to have the same retro-fashion-lady fabric that is on the pattern picture so I used that. This may be my favorite pattern ever. It's easy and you can really be creative with the front so it doesn't get boring. Here's a rerun photo of bags I made for teacher gifts last Christmas...

See that middle bag on the pattern, at the bottom? Yup, same fabric! ♥

Have a happy weekend friends...Dave and I are going to spend a lot of it digging up bushes and bulbs from the front and relocating them since work is starting on our walkway next week. Good thing it's supposed to be cold and rainy all weekend!

♥ Jen