Miss Lisa

Today marked the end of an era in our family. My youngest, Joaquin, had his very last speech therapy lesson with his teacher, Miss Lisa. She's not really a 'Miss', but that's what everyone calls her:) We have been with her for over 2 years now, and it was a very bittersweet last lesson. We are happy that Joaquin has progressed enough to be released from speech, but we will definitely miss our Miss Lisa. So of course the occasion needed a quilt.
If you look closely you can see some words I quilted in the background.
They are words that Joaquin had to practice over and over again for homework...C-C-Cloud, L-L-Lion, and the one that was hardest to shake, and he has only just fixed, "Miss Wisa"!!!

Miss Lisa loved her quilt, and I am really digging the resemblance!
OK so I got the eye color wrong, but the rest is from memory. When I showed it to Joaquin this morning and asked him who he thought it was, and he said, "Miss Lisa!!!", that's when I knew I had done something right!

Miss Lisa, thank you for all you did for Joaquin - we will miss you!

Pumpkin time for Brenda

My friend, Brenda of Pumpkin Patch Primitives fame had her birthday this week and so of course I had to make something for her. With applique of course! Brenda and I have very different tastes in fabric and quilts, so making something for her is quite a challenge for me! Whereas I like everything bright and modern, she lives things to be more subdued and Prim. But I think I managed to do it, even with some modern Denise Schmidt Hope Valley fabric in the mix. I'll force modern fabric on Brenda any way I can! I even lined the inside with the orange Hope Valley. Brenda's favorite color is orange, and she loves all things Fall/October/Halloween, and her favorite textile ever is wool, so I knew she'd love the orange wool. And she does, because she has the same piece - we both bought it together at a quilt show!

So she came over, and since my kids are the worst secret keepers ever, she had to open her present BEFORE we had cake.


Then came cake and ice-cream time. Brenda had been complaining all week about the lack of cake for her birthday, so we had to take care of that! Spice cake with cream cheese/lemon/coconut frosting.



The cake was purely there as a vessel for the frosting ;) And can you see how old she is?!
You can click here for last year's celebrations. I think we have now created a tradition. I better start planning next year's party!

Wallets/Purses

Even after 11 years in the US, I still get confused sometimes at what to call things. For the most part I can translate words, but some things still get me. Like wallets and purses. To me, a wallet is something a man uses to keep his money in, and a purse is what a woman would use for the same thing. But it seems that in the US a purse is a bag, and a wallet is used for both genders? Will someone please enlighten me? I know the difference between biscuits and cookies, flip flops and jandals, swimsuits and togs, but wallets and purses? I STILL don't understand!

Which brings me to what I wanted to show you, and now I don't know what to call them, so I will call them money holder thingymajigs. How's that?!!

My friend Shannon is going to sell craft items at Market Square in Portsmouth NH this weekend and asked if I would make some wallets/purses/money holder thingymajigs for her to sell. She decorates them with crystals and makes them look amazing! So I spent some time the last couple of days and made a whole bunch. It was hard to hand them over to her - I wanted to keep them all! But I don't have enough money to fill them all so I guess I'll let her sell them :)

Tree progress

Don't faint. Yes this is my 2nd post in as many days. Something must be wrong with me! Well I suppose I do have a bug - the quilting bug!

I have been happily needleturning leaves and grass in my spare moments last night and today, and now have the top of the mini tree quilt done. I even took photos of the progress, and had my quilt holder on hold ready to work!


First layer of leaves
Second layer of leavesThird layer of leaves and the leaves are finally done!
Grass glue-basted down
Isn't he a cutie?!!
All done and ready to quilt and bind. I hope you enjoyed a look into the process and order of the applique!

A bit of everything

I thought it was about time I did another post since it's been about 2 weeks. And amazingly enough, I've actually been quilting!

First up is a mini-quilt with a tree applique... I'm only half-way done - it still has two more layers of leaves to go, and some grass around the tree trunk, but I'm loving it so far. I'm also loving this little guy who was my quilt holder!Next up are blocks I've made for two online Bees I'm in, Fresh Comfort and Beatnik Bee. I have my months coming up in October and December and just can't decided what 'theme' to go with! These two are for the Beatnik Bee group...

And these were for the Fresh Comfort group...
I have also pieced together some wonky strips of fabric into something resembling grass and sky. I'd like to applique something onto them, possibly a tree, but the background might be too busy. For now they are just hanging in my quilt room while I try to get inspired. They started off like this...And turned into this...