There's no place like HOME.......

There's no place like home........And I just clicked my red sparkly slippers together today and I arrived at home...........

Well, it wasn't quite that easy, but my shiny blue Camry got me here in about 6 hours!

Jenny and I left Phoenix bright and early Monday morning and drove over to California. We had a wonderful chicken dinner at Knotts Berry Farm before we checked into our hotel.

We stayed at the Anaheim Plaza hotel.  Value priced, but a very nice, clean older hotel located just walking minutes away from the maingate of both Disneyland and California Adventures. 

Jenny and I had a great time at Disneyland on Tuesday.

Our very first stop was to visit Chip and Dale right on Mainstreet USA.

You may remember that while Jenny was an intern at Walt Disney World in Florida she was a VERY CLOSE and PERSONAL friend of Chip and Dale!

(ie....she WAS Chip and/or Dale!)

Pirates of the Caribean was our next stop followed by

the Haunted Mansion

and the Jungle Cruise.

I was literally attacked by this StormTrooper

while watching the Jedi training session!

It was pretty startling to have a Storm Trooper

get in your face while brandishing a weapon!

No trip to Disney is complete without visiting

It's a Small World!

We also checked out Nemo's submarines, Captain EO and

Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln, as well as the Disney train.

This was the view of the Tom Sawyer's Island

and the river that the Mark Twain Steamboat travels on.

Quite shocking!

The river was completely drained as repairs and updates

are being done.

No Space Mountain, Matterhorn, Big Thunderbird Railway

or Splash Mountain for me and my pregnant girl......

Not this time anyway!

Here we are at the end of a fun day!

California here We come!

Jenny and I are on our way to California tomorrow

for a Mother/Daughter trip to Disneyland.

The LAST for Jenny as just a daughter

since soon SHE will be the mother!

I wanted to create some shirts for us to wear at Disney

and since Jenny used to be Chip and Dale

when she was a Character Performer at Disney World

we just had to wear Chip n Dale!

I also made a shirt for MY mom,

but it is a secret until we get to her house on Wednesday!

Along with running errands and getting ready to leave

I also quilted this quilt top today.

Lee made this for her grandaughter Andrea.

Guess that's all for now.

Giveaway Entry

Nicole over at Our Cozy Nest blog is having a giveaway of Moda fabric!
Check out her site for an amazing tutorial for making some cute fabric flowers!

My Quilt arrived!

My Wintertime Mini Quilt Swap quilt arrived yesterday

and this is what I received:

This sweet little snowman arrived

from Dorothy in Illinois.

The snowman is hand embroidered and is surrounded by snowflake buttons. 

I LOVE the swirly blue border fabric.

Thanks Dorothy!

My brother Bob has been visiting from Utah

for the last several days. 

It has been awhile since I've seen him so it

has been really wonderful to catch up.

I've just realized that I didn't take a single picture

of him while he was here and he left

late last night to begin his long journey

back to Utah. 

Spring has arrived here in Phoenix

and so have my tulips.

Well one of my tulips anyway.

The air is heavy with the smell of orange blossoms

and if you are one of the lucky ones who is not allergic

to this smell it is heavenly indeed!

A week or so ago I planted some

Sweet Pea seeds in this

containter which has seed starting packets

and some of the seeds have sprouted.

I'm hoping that these plants really

take off and grow

well as I'm hoping to have flowers on them by the

first part of May.  Wish me luck!

On the quilting front:

I finished up my last quilt for

Rosie's Calico Cupboard

and Camp Reach for the Sky

I'll be dropping this and 2 others off at Rosies

next week while I am in California.

I know that they have over

100 more quilts that need

to be quilted so I just may be bringing

home 6 more quilts to do by June.

Anyone out there have any batting they'd like to donate?

I quilted a lovely quilt for Beth,

but forgot to take a picture of it.

It was a Yellow Brick Road quilt made

with beautiful bright fabrics.

I did take a picture of the label.

I wanted to include a picture of Lee holding this

cute little baby quilt that she made.

Lee came over one day to show me this top

and was questioning how to go about quilting it.

We added a very thick puffy batting

and she stitched in the ditch and

this quilt turned out wonderful!

I had not seen this method of doing a biscuit quilt,

but it looks super fast and easy!

Today will be a day of

laundry and gathering things

for my trip to California.

Primarily the trip is to go to

Disneyland with Jenny.

Remember?

I earned this trip by volunteering at

Give-A-Day-Get-A-Disney-Day!

(Go to this link for information on how

you can get the same deal!)

I got to volunteer at a DOG WALK

surrounded by a million muddy dogs!

However on this trip I will also be acquiring

some fabric, searching for some quilting patterns

that I need for customer quilts and also

buying some quilting thread from the longarm shop in San Diego.

Another St. Pat's Celebration

We spent a lovely evening with our kids tonight

celebrating St. Pat's day

since we were all unable to get together on the 17th.

It makes me happy to have them all here!

I made Shepards Pie, homemade bread and salad,

along with a green margarita.

We watched our favorite Irish movie

"The Quiet Man"

with John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara.

I love old movies and this one has it all....

a great love story, wonderful actors, beautiful country,

and tons of one liners that my husband enjoys.

I finished this quilt last week for Judy.

Darcy quilted this quilt last week that

Lee made for her great grandaughter.

This quilt was made from scraps of old clothing

and will hold alot of memories for the mom who receives it!

and here is my baby girl at 24 weeks!

Jenny and I are going on a Mother-Daughter trip next week.

We're going to DISNEYLAND!

Should be fun!

This past week I had another one of those pesky birthdays!

They just keep on coming! 

I guess they are good for something tho....

getting together with friends to celebrate

and then there is the ......new bike!

Here I am ready to go off on a bike ride.

The bike I have been riding is 25 years old and this

new one sure is an improvement!

I can go as fast as the wind!

This actually is my second Schwinn bicycle.

I got my first one when I was 8 years old.

It was purple and can you believe it?.....I STILL have it!

Speaking of birthdays....

We had the pleasure of attending the birthday

party of a sweet little girl today.

Here she is getting a few practice whacks in on the pinate.

She looks just like a little ballerina in this picture.

She had a very cute cupcake inspired birthday.

I embroidered these little shirts for her:

These are a couple of the nicknames that her family calls her.

On the quilting front......I quilted this cute baby quilt

for Judy this week. 

More Quilt retreat

Here are a  few things that I did at Quilt camp......

Awhile back I came across a pattern on the internet to make 3 baby quilts out of 3 yards of fabric and I couldn't wait to try it out.  These little quilts are QUICK to make and make a perfect background for embroidery or applique.  I added some embroidered circles to the middle quilt. 

You can find the link to this pattern HERE

The quilts are so fast and easy they are perfect for a quick baby shower gift OR wonderful for donation quilts

I made this St. Pat's tablerunner and LOOK!  It's not all wonky like the last one I made!  I also made up 2 of these little embroidered bags.  (only one shown!lol)

I made 2 of these little St. Pat's wallhangings, but only one was completely finished.  This is an Anita Goodesign Holiday Tea Towel design.

And the very first thing I finished at camp was this little snowman wallhanging.

I made the piano key border, quilted it, bound it and made a label. 

This little quilt was sent off first thing monday morning to Diane in Florida.

I should be receiving a quilt from ?  someone?  soon from the Quilting Bloggers Wintertime Mini Quilt swap.