My Monthly Doll Quilt Swap

 A few months back I began to participate in the Monthly Doll Quilt Swap.  You can connect with them using the Button on the Sidebar of my blog.  I've had so much fun.  Of course it's really nice to receive a quilt you didn't make (and I've received some really neat quilts!) but it has been fun to create a quilt for someone else....someone you haven't known and to spend a bit of time getting to know them.

Last month I got to know Karen and I decided to fore go the suggested theme of "animals" and go with SPRING.  I had an idea for a daffodil quilt and was quite pleased at how it went together.  Here is a pic Karen just sent to me of the little quilt with her own vase of daffies and a pic of her grands.  Looks pretty good, I think in its home.

This month Patty and I were teamed up and since we both like Civil War Reproduction fabrics we went with that as a theme.  This blue bordered quilt was made by Patty and sent to me.  Isn't it wonderful?  I love the fabrics and the little baskets of poseys.  I shall treasure it.

Patty hasn't yet received my quilt yet (it's in the mail.....!) and I'll post a full photo when she receives it.  But here is a tiny sneek peak.

I'm taking a break for the month of May (super busy for me), but I'll be back in June.  I enjoy the making, sending and receiving of these gems.

Sewing Day in Ferndale

Today I went to the little Victorian Village of Ferndale for "Pieceful Days."  This is a wonderful quilting/sewing retreat held monthly by my dear friends, Weezie and Angela.  They are a great Mother/Daughter team and remind me of Liz & me.  I was picked up by my friend Geri....she had a blended Chai drink for me waiting in the car.  What a great girl friend.  The drive to Ferndale takes about 20 minutes. Once you cross Fernbridge over the Eel River the landscape turns to dairy lands....cows and lush green grazing lands.  Down the road is Main Street full of colorful Victorian storefronts.

 

Mostly I worked on a quilt I'm making for Shiloh.  I'm using a Row by Row pattern I found here.  It's from Bee In My Bonnet Blog.  Just click on the sidebar button on her page that says, "Bee In My Bonnet Row A Thon."  There are many more rows that I may or may not use.  I adapted the house row with the addition of Shiloh's name in wonky letters and the little trees.  The bottom row of "Asterisk" blocks is my addition too.  I also made a row of mugs/cups today.

 

 

See the great portable design wall my blocks are on?  I know, it looks just like a piece of gray flannel.  But it's really quite slick the way it just pops together to hold my blocks on.  I've wanted one for a long time and now we sell them in the store...great, huh?

 

Judy and I walked to the quaint Ferndale Grocery for a deli sandwich at noon....mine was so big and wonderful I could only eat half....which meant I had dinner too! About 7:30 it was back to the grocery for ice cream bars!  Some of the gals walked to some of the restaurants for lunch and dinner....me, I was there to sew!

 

This next photo is just a sneak peek at the little doll quilt I made for my my partner in the monthly Doll Quilt Swap.  When I know she has received it, I'll show you the whole thing.

So that's it....a day in the life.  Sewing from 9 am until 10 pm.  A dream of a day.!!!

Retreat Time!

For a quilter nothing could be better than spending a long weekend with other quilters.  In just a few minutes I'll be leaving for a Thursday-Monday Retreat with the staff of Redwood Sewing Center.  What a great bunch of women!  We have rented a house in Oregon on the coast and will sew, eat, laugh, walk on the beach and quilt some more.  We will giggle. We may play cards and watch movies and sew some more. We may even wear our PJ's all day!  I've brought several projects and my camera so I'll be sure to take some pictures.  I'm off!.

I'm Baaaacckkk!

Happy Easter!  The daffodils are blooming here at the Scott Household, Spring has sprung and I'm feeling better.

 

Sorry I've been away so long, but I've been sick.  Had a virus called "The Humboldt Crud."  Terrible and it's going on three weeks now, but I'm feeling much, much better.  Mr. Scottie Dog took good care of me as I slept, slept and slept some more.  I ate very little (that's a good thing!), drank a lot of water and hot tea and wished I was motivated to sew.  I missed out on 2 weeks of work,  Bummer.  But I'm back and hope to get on track again.

French Roses

I taught a class this past week at Redwood Sewing Center.  It was one of my favorite classes to teach, French Roses, a pattern by Heather French.  This is doable for anyone, raw beginners included, and fun for everyone.  I even made a new sample from Moda: Sweetwater's new line called Noteworthy.

It's fun....just mark your flower shapes, cut out with scissors (it's OK if you can't cut exactly on the lines), stack them up and sew 1/4" from the edges.  After it's washed the edges all fray and you get these great soft edges.  So cozy.  We even put flannel on the back.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Mr. Scottie Dog and I don't make a big deal out of Valentine's Day.  We tell each other often how much we love each other, we try to do nice things for one another regularly.  We've had our share of nice dinners both at restaurants and at home.  This year we were invited to a lovely event at Eureka First Baptist Church.  They had a Valentine Dinner last Saturday night: Puttin on the Glitz.  Mr. Scottie Dog helped with the marque sign lights.  This is a small church that put on a very impressive dinner....one wall was transported to NY, NY. Hollywood couldn't do it better...you could see inside the movie theatre and see the film (Top Hat with Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers).

 The tables were decorated, lots of red and hearts...each table had a top hat, gloves and a cane too.

 

I was happy to see that this wasn't just a "couples" event.  Lots of singles and lots of age range.  Young gals in prom dresses, even a few little ones in Valentine finery.

 Dinner was cooked entirely by the men of the church...a nice thing for the ladies.  Dessert was ice cream and hand decorated cookies to look like a Tux.

 And there was live music!  The Eureka Brass played for nearly 3 hours.  At first we enjoyed music while we ate and then they took a break (to eat their dinner) while the rest of us enjoyed the drawing of the Door Prizes.  Mr. Scottie Dog had given me $20 worth of tickets and I put them into the drawings for the items I might like to win....and we won!  We went home with a great "guy" basket with gift cards and candy and all manner of goodies.

 We danced the night away...what fun!  I really can't remember such a fun night for a long time.

 Here's Ray and Becki Sanders...they were responsible for most of the decorations and lots more.  They were also Sydney's preschool teachers.  We've been so blessed to know them.

 They even had a "photo op" for couples.  We cleaned up pretty good, I think!

So that was Saturday night.  Fast forward to Valentine's Day.....In the morning Mr. Scottie Dog gave me some lovely flowers and a card that brought tears to my eyes.  I gave him a card and a chocolate cake I made.  I went to work....he'd woken up with the beginnings of a bad cold.  By the time I got home to fix a nice dinner he was feeling pretty bad.  He decided all he wanted was cold cereal and he went to bed at 8:35 pm.  This was our 42nd Valentine's Day.  It's true, "Love is all you need...................."