Art From the Heart

Last evening the kid's school hosted "Art From the Heart" where all the students got to show off a selection of various art projects from the year. Sarah's selection included a clay mask and a seascape. Rachael's selections were a mask made from a mold of her face and a Picasso-style chalk. In addition, Rachael got to perform on her clarinet for 5 minutes and she included a selection of several songs. She was very nervous but she did really well. It was very noisy and there were little kids running back and forth in front of her, but Rachy held it together.

St. Patrick's Day Fun

Well yesterday was St. Patty's day and I had some fun with the girls. On the evening before, they were in the backyard and they set up a "trap" for the Lepruchan using a pot and some clover. Well in the evening I used my cricut and made one with a pot of gold and clover. Then I also made two additional clover leaves and left them by their beds. In the morning, they ran out and found the Lepruchan which Mark had placed near the trap. It was very cute. Sarah was astonished, Rachael obviously knew....

Our New Baby!!!!

I haven't been able to post anything in awhile because frankly nothing has been new. I'm working continuously on the Marie Antionette quilt and getting closer to being finished every day. However, Mark and I decided that we needed to stimulate the economy so with the impending upping of our sales tax we decided now would be a good idea to purchase a new car. We purchased the Ford Flex. I was torn between it and the Chevy Traverese but with GM in such trouble these days, I wanted to be sure I would be able to have my car serviced should GM go out of business. This car has everything I asked for including seating for 7, fold down rear seats, sun roof and moon roofs along the entire interior, leather seating, Sirus satellite radio. It really is a beautiful car. Originally I wanted a navy blue, but they didn't have the configuration on the lot and I figured they would make me a good deal if I took one off their hands. We traded in the Expedition and here it is:

One thing at a time

For the last couple of weeks I've been busy making Pillows. It all started when two representative of The San Jose Quilt Museum came to visit my daughter, Sarah's classroom. At the end of their visit, each of the kids got to make a quilt square. Their teacher then decided to use them in some way for their annual fundraiser. When Rachael had the same class, I made the blocks into a quilt and then the quilt was auctioned off at the fundraiser. However, there was an issue with how much the quilt should be valued at. So this year, we decided to just ask for money to go directly to the fundraiser. The parents paid me and the school and each child was then given a pillow with their square incorporated into it. So 20 pillows later, here we go...

Now I finally got to start working on Marie Antionette, one of our wonderful quilts for the store. It's a beauty. I've got it all cut out and am working diligently on the blocks.

So that's the latest for now!!!

Another Bag

In the recent McCalls Quilting magazine, there was a pattern for another tote bag using charm squares. Since my stash runnith over with charm squares I thought I would make this. Lo and behold the ones I wanted to use were from Sunshine by Moda and I didn't have enough. Fortunately, my friend April lent me some and I was able to finish this bag. I didn't realize how big it was going to turn out, but it is still pretty cute. I need to find some cardboard to stabilize the bottom, but other than that, I have a huge bag!

Another week another quilt

Over the weeknd I finished another quilt that I had started at the Quilt Retreat in Monterey. It's called Sand Dollars and the photo is not a good representation of it's beautiful, yet subtle colors. I'm going to take it easy this week as I have to work every day except today so I'll be working on some small projects that I can stop and start easily enough, including a great bag I saw in the latest McCalls Quilting magazine. I'm a tote bag fan!

The Mystery is no longer a mystery

Well, the kids have been home for the last two days so I haven't been able to get too much done. I have finished my year-end scrapbooking though so it's now back to quilting. At our quilting retreat, I had the opportunity to make a mystery quilt which is basically you are given cutting instructions and then step by step instruction without seeing what the final quilt will look like until the end. I decided to make mine using Japanese fabric and here is the final quilt. It's definitely not something that is "me," but I like it nonetheless. I now have to find some time to quilt it.