Give-Away and raffle (I love this quilt) and a discovery

HURRY - Amanda's www.scrandasmusings.blogspot.com give-away will be closing at 7:00pm GMT this evening. And check out Jacquie's www.tallgrassprairiestudio.blogspot.com raffle on a fantastic quilt.
I also discovered that my Doll Quilt Swap buddy has a blog. My partner, Lin www.bangkokmomquilts.blogspot.com is from Bangkok - very far from me of course. This is one reason why we blog - to meet people from around the world who share this common love of quilting. So check out Lin's blog she has some fantastic quilts there. When I clicked on Lin's blog - her song playing on real player is one of my favorites that I had just acquired for my ipod. What a coincidence - it's a small world afterall.

8921.45 miles (or 14357.30 km)

That's how far my Doll Quilt Swap came! All the way from Lin in Thailand! Lin sent me the cutest little quilt. Look at the stitching on the sashing - so cute. I love the fabrics that she used and speaking of fabric Lin also sent me some pieces of very sweet fabric. I plan on using this soon. Thank you Lin for making this such a fun swap.

Before and After

I spend a lot of in my laundry room - so much time that when my son was younger and he had to describe his family for a school assignment - he wrote that his Mom's hobby was doing laundry - and he was serious. He has since learned to do his own wash. Any way yesterday I was thinking how much I hated my ironing board - and then I remembered - I sew! So after checking some tutorials, ripping the old cover apart to make a pattern and some sewing - I am much happier now. I used the old padding but added a layer of insul-bright too. I could stay in my laundry room all day now - (no not really).

To make up for yesterday's icky post...

Today's post will be brought to you by the color yellow.


I made this little quilt to brighten up things. It was one of my first quilts.





Some new fabric I bought - I have no idea what to do with the lemon fabric - it was very on sale and I liked it.


A favorite springtime activity for me.


Flocks of finches have returned for the spring.


The bees are out too.


My favorite yellow thing!


My daughter's collection really makes me smile (and a little worried - there are more - sometimes we go overboard in my house).

Snake related post ahead ...

Okay - don't say I didn't warn you. Let me first say that as much as I am repulsed and terrified by snakes, one of the things I look forward to each spring is when I see these snakes on my walk. Let me also say that I'm afraid to go and work in my garden because I know there is probably a garter snake or black snake or even a cooperhead waiting for me. But from the safety of the footbridge on the path - I find them fascinating. These are all brown watersnakes just different colorings - the brighter ones are juveniles and the lighter more grey looking ones - that can grow to 6 feet in length are adults - the females are larger. They aren't poisonous but their bite is painful - wouldn't any snake bite be?
You should see them swim - amazing and very fast.
Well now that I've grossed everyone out - I probably will never have another visitor to my blog.





Thought this snake skin floating in the water was pretty cool.

If you've been following along with Amy's quilt festival
www.parkcitygirl.blogspot.com
you will see lots of gorgous favorite quilts. Here's mine - the second one I made about 17 years ago when my oldest daughter was little. I appliqued her hand prints on one peice of fabric - hearts too. I used scraps from clothes I had made her for the hand prints. It is worn and used. But I think it's my favorite.

Here and There

Aaargh - frustrated cry. I can't seem to finish anything these days. A few minor household break downs, broken sewer pipe - followed by a broken water main, kids home for spring break, company, dh had a minor cycling accident, volunteer work ... this is why everything is taking so long these days. Actually I'm happy because everything that went wrong was fixable. I am almost finished my dqs here's a sneak peek -

I've been doing leaders/enders - and started sewing them into blocks 12 done - 12 to go

Lots of Wisteria blooming here

Sometimes I don't know when to stop

I wanted to fill a basket I had with some bunnies - I think I went a little overboard. I Started these last year and didn't finish them for Easter - but now they are off my UFO list!

Some spring things

Here's a few spring things (including the bunny tales bom) I've finished.