Quilts, Snow and the Tooth Fairy?!

It's been a busy week! Since I was unable to 'run' around as much as I wanted to due to my knee injury and the weather I was FINALLY able to finish a quilt that I started a few years ago when my husband was gone on a training exercise with the army. This quilt was hand quilted by me and it felt so good to finish it. I put on a flannel backing and it is warm and cozy!

We also had two snow days which the kids loved (NO SCHOOL?!!!!) and made me a little bummed that I couldn't go out and play with them. None the less they kept each other entertained and had a lot of fun.
The tooth fairy also paid a visit as Lydia finally lost her first tooth. She has another that just might make it out before Christmas!

I also received my signature blocks this week and I cant wait to put them all together! In honor of the Civil War repo fabrics I already know I want to hand quilt this one!

Thanks to Melissa from http://cornbreadandbeansquilting.wordpress.com/ for taking on this project! Three cheers for her! I hope Santa brings her everything she asks for!

Snowman Button Pins

This is a really easy and fun craft to do! I'm not one to do tutorials because I usually forget a step or two. So, please read the whole post first and then start. The materials/supplies you will need are the following:

1. 1 Square of felt (I used the textured to give the snowman's hat a different look)

2. White 2 holed buttons. I like to use a smaller size for the head and a larger size for the body.

3. glue gun

4. ribbon or strips of fabric

5. pin backings

6. card stock

7. scissors

Out of the felt you will want to cut a shape like below. This will make it easier to fold and glue the hat onto the snowman.

Add the hot glue, not too much as it will ooze out and make a big mess! Make sure you do add a little more where the head will go. You'll also want to make sure you put the button on correctly so his eyes are in the right spot!

Fold the top down and create the hat!

Cut some ribbon or material and glue it just under the 'head'. In the past I have used some homespun material or other plaid type material and its looked really cute. This year I used some left over ribbon.

Glue down the next button. Make sure you've got the button turned correctly as the holes will create his own buttons! NOTE: you will see some of the glue come through the holes... that's OK and sometimes can add a little charm!

Add a nice dot of glue between the two buttons and twist the ribbon/fabric over to make the scarf. Hold it there for a few seconds to make sure it really sticks! Trim as needed.

Trim the black felt away from the bottom button and then glue the pin to the back of the snowman. Make sure it is glued to both the buttons as it will provide support for the snowman.

I used some left over card stock and placed the pin on it and then added some stamps.

If you make one of these please send me a picture so I can see how yours turned out! Oh, and by the way... at Spring time... if you buy orange buttons in three different sizes and have some neat looking green felt you can make carrot pins!
Enjoy!

Another Birthday!!!

My girl is 6! Four days after her brother turned 8 miss Lydia turned 6. Talk about overload on cake and classroom cupcakes in just a few days! Since it's the holiday season we try very hard to make each birthday an actual birthday and not an extension of the Thanksgiving or Christmas celebration. So far we've been able to do that.

As some of you may have heard, I had an accident this past weekend. Me and the kids were at a Christmas parade (all the floats were lit and it really was a lot of fun) when we spotted some folks we knew in the parade and tried to 'quickly' get across the street. Well, one of the kids cut in front of me and down I went. I got up and got across the street but then I started to limp and noticed some blood on my knee. Absolutely no scrapes (or even gravel) on my hands and no holes in my jeans so I figured I had a nice scrape on my knee. I convinced the kids to walk back to the car and sit in there while we waited for the end of the parade and fireworks and then we'd head home. By the time we got home my jeans were pretty bloody and the scrape wound up being a 2 inch gash. Off to the ER I went where we were met by some friends who took the kids for the night. One friend brought me dinner and another hung out with me while I was stitched up. Now I am not one to sit and do nothing like the doctors wants me to do, so off came the immobilizer brace and up and down those stairs I went to make sure I didn't become stiff. I also iced my knee pretty good and frequently and so far I am doing fine. The rest of my body is now feeling a little sore but for the most part I can drive and get around. Today we had at least 5 inches of snow and more to come so I am very thankful for friends who have done my grocery shopping, brought me food and shoveled my driveway!

So... what to do when you are kinda stuck at home?! Why, it's quilting time and craft time! This afternoon I'll post one of the crafts I did as a gift for the teachers at school. Really easy and lots of fun to make with the kids!

Happy Birthday!

Our oldest turned the big 8 on Saturday! We had a nice celebration which continued when he went back to school on Monday in his classroom! Now I have to get ready for Lydia's 6th birthday on Wed! Needless to say, our last kid was born in the summer! LOL, too expensive to have fall/winter babies!Here is a sneak peak on another project that I am working on! The embroidery patterns were part of a Free Block of the month from Gail Pan Designs. I love them! I did change one however, Instead of using the word Magic I changed it to Christ, it just seemed to be a better fit for me.By the way, here are our Christmas stockings that I made a few years ago. I love them but I don't like the way they hang... I'm thinking about getting an iron curtain rod with some ring clips to hang them... then I can hang a quilt there when Christmas is over. What do you think?

Playing Catch-up

So much has been going on and I feel like time is flying by so quickly! That's great when we are going through a deployment but horrible if youre trying to keep up with house work and a blog! :-)

I finally finished my fall quilt before Thanksgiving! I took it to the local quilt shop and they did an overall leaf pattern which came out really nice! Finally... a quilt for myself! I already have another quilt near completion (hand quilting this time) that I started about 4 years ago! Anyhow, this is the picture of the quilt that I saw in a magazine... This is my version of that quilt!

Halloween came and went and we actually had decent weather, for Kansas that is!
I find a lot of inspiration and ideas from some of the fantastic quilt/craft bloggers... At Cornbreadandbeansquilting, Melissa had a great tutorial on a table runner. I didnt have any wintery fabrics on hand but I did have some left over charm packs from this fall (which I like in my home year round) so I gave it a try... I LOVE IT! Thanks Melissa!Another blogger, Vanessa from V and Co. did a great tutorial on Moda Bake Shop on fabric tomatoes... I made them into my own version of pumpkins (although Vanessa's are really cute) and gave them out to friends and lots of teachers as a Thank you gift.I found a poem for the season that I liked and printed them onto some regular paper that I had stained with some "Distress It" (basically tea stain in a bottle... Thanks again to Melissa for that info!) and then also spritzed it with some Bluberry muffin oil and then dried it with my hair dryer (I was too impatient to use my oven). Once dried I ran it through my printer and the rest you can probably figure out! They were a hit and smelled awesome!I love celebrating Veterans Day at a parade in the midwest! There is nothing better than a hometown type of Red, White and Blue parade that honors its vets! We had beautiful weather, a few military jets fly over head and lots of patriotism (without all the political mayhem I might add!). After the parade I took the kids on post to the Ft. Leavenworth National Cemetary and we walked around and talked about who was buried there. I feel it's important to not only understand why their daddy is a soldier but to know that he is part of a military lineage in our family and our country's history and to remind them how proud I am that they serve too! Veterans day is more than a fun parade!Another thing I love about the midwest... the fall season!
Fall also took us to the Red Barn in Weston MO. Lots of fun to be had there! We went as a family and then Tyler was able to go with his preschool.
Cal also had his 2nd grade musical and he was one of the 'big bad squirrels'! The musical was 'Nuts' and they did a great job!

We had a terrific Thanksgiving at the home of some great friends and were even lucky enough to hear from Chris in Afghanistan! We were extra thankful that he was safe (some scarry things went on the past few days) and hopefully we'll get to talk to him again soon! Now we're off to get ready for Calvin's 8th birthday tomorrow and Lydia's 6th birthday on Wednesday! We might even get the tree out and decorated! Enjoy your weekend!

Awesome Giveaway!!!!

You have to visit Vickie at Spun Sugar Quilts for her giveaway! She has over 400 posts on her blog and to celebrate she is have several different items as giveaways! You wont be dissapointed!

Quilt Hollow Giveaway

I love to visit Quilt Hollow's Blog! She always has something interesting posted and I love her quilts! She is even doing longarm quilting... something I wish I could do! Anyhoo... she is having a great giveaway at her site... please visit! You wont be disappointed! Pour yourself a nice mug of something to drink and go visit!!

Awesome Giveaway!!!!

You HAVE to visit Brenda at the Pumpkin Patch Primitive Quilts Shoppe!! She is having a fab giveaway and you don't want to miss out! While you're there be sure to spend some time on her blog AND visit her store! When you stop by be sure to tell you I sent you!

It's hard to believe that October is already half over and I am way behind on my postings! Here are a few 'collages' that highlight two activities during the month of Sept. In the next day or so I will hopefully get more pictures loaded!

September 11 was the annual Freedom Walk for the kids at school. Going to school on a military base adds a different flavor to the event as each child also 'serves' as their military parent(s) do. Calvin, Lydia and Tyler all wore their "My Dad is a Red Warrior" t-shirts as he is deployed and most everyone wore red, white or blue. At our particular installation there are also many foreign military personnel and they joined in the walk.

Here is Lydia

Here is Calvin

Not too far from our home is a great park! Here are just a few pictures of the kids. We were getting to the end of the summer weather and so we had to take advantage of 'park' play time!

Miss Lydia

Tyler

Calvin

Next time I will post some of our pictures from the trip we took to the Red Barn in Weston MO and maybe some pictures of the quilt projects I have been working on!

Another Giveaway!!!

Judi At Green Fairy Quilts has some new patterns and has a fantastic giveaway!!! Please visit her and tell her I said hello!

Catch-Up

Is it just me or is September becoming a quick month?! Tyler started preschool and now I find myself with several hours to myself 5 days a week and believe it or not, I have been very busy! I have started to visit a friends home once a month for scrap booking (a new thing for me), I have been working on two quilts with some ladies from Church, a new Bible study on Wed nights and of course football has started for the boys. Football for the boys is not your typical team sport situation. Here they have a start smart program for the little guys where it's a one on one with the parent and they learn running, catching, throwing, punting and kicking skills/drills. It's an hour for each kid and so since Chris is gone that means I get to play two hours a week with the boys. Thank goodness there is another mom in the same situation! Hopefully I can get Lydia to take some pictures so we can post them!

Meanwhile here is a picture of one of the quilts from our church group. We make them for the widows/widowers. This particular quilt is going to a lady who lost her husband. She likes pink, fairies and cows... so we went with the pink and then I found some cow print that I thought would bring some humor for the backing. It came out really nice!

I have a lot more to post but will do that another time. It's raining really good outside so I want to get some things cleaned up and sewn!