Brand new Grandbaby......Already?

New Grandbaby?

ALREADY?

Well yes....

Our new grandbaby arrived last night.

It was a girl.

and here is her picture:

Meet Penny

The greyhound that Brian and Jen

rescued from the track.

Grandpa is so proud.

Penny joins our first grandaughter Audrey.

So far they seem to be getting along just fine.

Cute Valentines Project

At 3:something this morning the dogs in the neighborhood started barking and woke me up.  I don't know about you but when I wake up in the middle of the night I hear ALL kinds of noises and then my mind just starts imagining the worst. 

Well.  It is all quiet now, the dogs have all gone back to sleep and there is no noise in my house except the tap, tap, tap of my computer keys.  

Since I was wide awake I decided to do a little blog surfing and I found a really neat Valentines' day project over at Moda Bakeshop.  Check it out

by clicking on the title of this post.   

Rusty Barn Craft and Sewing Festival

Today I spent a lovely day at the Rusty Barn Craft and Sewing Festival.
It sticks in my craw a little to pay $10 parking and $10 to get in just for

the priviledge to BUY stuff, but it is pretty exciting to see all the vendors

and fabric, and patterns and supplies and old friends. And TONS of other people go,so I guess I should go too!

AND it IS alot more expensive to get out than it is to get in!!! lol

I attended several seminars, two on fabric stabalizers and one on Shiva

paintsticks, which were very informative. I got to see my friends Bruce and Diane Magidson of Sew Batik and see all of the new fabric that they have.

All in all it was a great day.....and the best part is that I get to go again tomorrow!!!

Here is the picture I promised of the finished heart quilt:

And here are a couple of the indivudual hearts:

Many were just loving sentiments,

And many were Bible verses, but

all carried good wishes, uplifing thoughts

and lots of prayer.

I finished up this little quilt yesterday.

This one came from Rosies Calico cupboard

in San Diego.

I support their Camp Reach for the Sky charity

by quilting the tops that will

eventually go to children who have cancer.

I really enjoy being able to participate in this project.

When Life gives you Lemons......

Well............ya'll know that I make Limoncello!

My friend Steve brought me a bag full of lemons

So I got out my potato peeler and peeled all of the

zest off of the outside of the lemons trying really

really hard not to get any of the white pith.

The pith can make the end product bitter.

After I get all of the peeling off of the lemons

then I put them in a very clean glass jar

and give them a vodka bath!

Sometimes I use 1/2 vodka and 1/2 Everclear.

This makes the end result just abit stronger.

This vodka bath will last for 1-2 months.

At that point I make up a simple syrup

with about 6 cups of water and 4 cups of sugar

and mix it with the very lemony vodka in a larger glass jar.

This will sit for another 2-4 weeks.

Sometimes it is hard to wait, but the longer you let

it set the better it is!

To make the limoncello all I really need it the lemon peel,

but I surely can't waste all those lemons, so I juice all of

the lemons and make LEMONADE!

ta ta for now.

It's Tuesday night.....

And I'm still blogging about Monday!

What's up with that?

First off I want to thank the ladies who left comments

regarding the quilt on my design wall.

I think that instead of a piano key border a simple

black border between the red and yellow will be just right!

Thanks for the suggestion.

Now to find the time to sew it together!

If only I didn't have to sleep!

This is the quilt that was on my frames yesterday.

I've actually finished it today, but have not taken a photo

of it yet. It has a really interesting and poignant story.

The lady who brought the quilt to me said that the nurses

at her hospital made the quilt for one of the doctors who

was diagnosed with cancer and is undergoing treatments.

Each block has a heart with senitments written on it and each

heart is appliqued to fabric that was cut from thier scrub shirts.

With each quilt that I quilt I try to infuse alot of love and care

into each stitch. This quilt was doubly so. This one really touched

my heart.

I have finished the final 3 blocks

of Anita Goodesign's Loveables appliques.

Now I will design a quilt top using them,

which will be really fun!

Tonight I went to my friend Jo's house to play Bunko.

Blessed.........I am truly blessed to have such nice friends.

Here is Joanne, the lucky winner of the $36 LCR game.

I think that she also won with most bunkos.
She had so much money on her she needed a security guard

to see her to her car! Lucky lady. I'm so pleased for her!

Here we all are......

Bunko Babes

January 2010

Design Wall Monday

Greetings and good morning!

This quilt is a repeat of last week's design wall

only I have now added some sashing and borders.

I am making this quilt for a lady who really likes red and yellow

so I was really happy when I found these fabrics at my LQS.

Now to find the time to sew it together!

I am considering an additional border between the yellow and red.

Perhaps a black and white piano key.

What do you think?

Make sure to check out Judy's blog at the above link.

She has some great patterns posted there and her quilts

and blog posts are always inspiring. She has already finished

SEVEN quilts and used 102 yards of fabric (from her stash)

this year!

Family Jazzercise today

Our daughter-in-law is auditioning to become a jazzercise instructor this week and today she practiced with some very challenging students.

I think she will do really well on her audition.

It was really fun and we all got a good work-out.

Check out my facebook page for a short video clip of our workout!

I made this cute little puppy applique yesterday:

Tomorrow is Design Wall Monday

so I'll see ya then!

I prayed for rain.....

......But God wanted me to climb a mountain,

not build an arc!

Yesterday was the 15.5 mile National Trail Trek

held at South Mountain Park and my dear husband

signed me up for it!

It rained buckets and buckets during the week and even tho

really enjoy hiking I was really hoping that this event would be

rained out. I can remember hearing the "old folks" talk about a storm coming in...."I can feel it in my bones". Well now I seem to have become the "old folk" since every joint in my body aches when a storm comes in. Friday my body was one big ache and I just didn't want to do this hike

Besides my aches and pains I figured that with all of rain we had had that the trails would be muddy and slippery.

Well, I went.
The above picture is the group of friends that we

met at the hike. This picture was taken just before we hit the trail head.

So here I am hiking the mountain trail.

As you can see the trails were not muddy or slippery!

I was very thankful for that.

And as my friend Deb pointed out earlier this week (when I was whining)

the rain had made the air smell so fresh and clean.

There were a few puddles here and there....

And some rocky climbing....

But the panoramic views of the city down below

and the rocks and the cactus were breathtaking.

I've come to really love our desert scenery.

I'm looking pretty happy in this photo since

I've just made it to the top of a pretty steep climb!

Those tents down there at the bottom represent

LUNCH and the end of the trail for me.

I ended up only doing 7.8 miles of the 15.5 mile trail.

I probably could have gone a couple of miles further, but past this

point I would have had to continue on the full 15.5 miles,

and I just didn't think that my back could take it.

I really had nothing to gain, except possible injury, by pushing

myself to go to the end. I wanted to end on a high note, not

a broken one!

I truly enjoyed this hike. It was so nice spending the time

with my husband, seeing other friends and drinking in the

beauty of our mountains and city below.