Easter Mini...

Happy Easter 

to all my blog readers...may your day be filled with love, family and happiness as we celebrate the resurrection of Christ...if you don't celebrate the same as me, I still hope you have a day filled with family, love and happiness as you go through your weekend...

I am in a 12" Mini Club hosted by Cheryll from here...we will be making three mini quilts over this next year...the first one was an Easter mini...this is the little mini that Hollie (no blog) made for me...I just love the little sheep she made for this quilt...thank you Hollie for such a wonderful and very thoughtful little mini...and this is the one I made for my partner Joan here...

 I used lace for the binding, using the technique that I use on my crazy quilts...

I love how this turned out...I made my own stitchery pattern for this little quilt...I also stippled really small in areas to make the embroidery pop out from the egg...

This was a very fun mini to make and I am happy to say that Joan was very happy with it...thank you to our awesome swap mom for hosting another great swap...
Wendy

She's Here!!!!

At long last our newest member to our clan is here...are you ready...announcing the birthday of my great gran who was born on yesterday...my how time flies, it seems like only yesterday that I was holding her mom in my arms in the delivery room...now she has one of her own...me a great gran at 53! I am so very happy!
I love that she seems to be peeking in on mom...

 So verry sweet....

 Tiny sweet bundle of love....

We are so blessed that she is here and that mom and sweet girl is both safe and well...we had a few scares, but all is well in the end...God is so good...a wonderful gift of new life...I am in love already...Happy Birthday Kayli!
Love Gran,
aka Wendy

MMSC Week 2

I have a total of five stars completed this week for show and tell, although the solid red one was already completed a while back...I am going to trying for one star a day this coming week...I am linking up here with Jessica for the MMSC...now back to basting and then stitching...
Wendy

April Challenge...

Amy has put the new challenge up for April and it is fmq these whimsical flowers...again this is a design that I have not used as of yet and I think it will be a great one to learn...thank you Amy for hosting this challenge again this month...doing them on paper was easy, lets hope the stitching goes as well...I am linking up here...
Wendy

Hop, Hop, Hopping....

(blogger is having one of those days...will not let me put this pic upright...)

I am working on this little wall hanging and my sweet gran who is only three was oohing and ahhing over the pretty dotty eggs as she called them...then I added the grass and she said " Monkey, why are you putting grass on the eggs?" I told her they were hiding...then I laid the bunny over the top to make it look as if it were jumping over the eggs...she is standing there looking and finally she says, "Monkey, why is the rabbit jumping over the eggs?"...I proceeded to tell her that the bunny had hidden the eggs in the grass and was hopping away to hide more eggs...she looked at me and then the mini and said, " rabbits don't hide eggs....only chickens have eggs Monkey"...I told her he was the Easter bunny and she said, "nope, bunnies don't have eggs only chickens do"...then she turned in huff and did not want to talk about the bunny and the eggs anymore...it was all I could do not to laugh as she was so serious...and no, she knew absolutely nothing about the Easter bunny until my conversation with her...even after her mom telling her about the bunny with the eggs, she does not want to hear it...she is so literal at this age...so funny...

Along the bunny trail...these little goodies are winging their way to a very special person...hope they arrive soon...

And this one should be arriving any day now...will reveal all soon so stay tuned...
Wendy

Crochet Wednesday....

I have wanted to do this post for a few weeks now and today is the day...I started a new afghan a few weeks ago using a new to me yarn that many in the UK use...

I follow a lovely blog by Lucy of Attic24 and she always has the prettiest crochet projects going...this is where I learned about this yarn...for Valentines day my sweet hubster had me order enough of the yarn for a blanket...when it arrived I was so surprised by this yarn...it is an acrylic yarn and is so very soft and the colors are just so saturated and beautiful...this does not feel like regular acrylic yarn, it is way soft (did I say that already)...and it works up like a dream...

I am so happy with this yarn that I will be using more in the future...now I ordered from Deramores found here...let me just say that they have the best and I do mean the best customer service ever...I won't go into details, but they have won me over as a customer for life...I have only good things to say about them...and they certainly put the customer first...are very friendly and helpful...and they delivery time to the states is quick...one more look at this lovely yarn....sigh....such a basket of loveliness!

if you have a love for yarn and love color you should try this yarn...you can go here to check it out...go on you know you want to...enjoy the beautiful yarns this company carries...so much yumminess in one place!

MMSC...

I finally have something to show for the MMSC this week which is hosted by Jessica from here...which stands for Monday Morning Star Count...this is actually for any kind of epp that you may be doing...I finally was in the mood to work on the fill in diamonds for my star quilt...a small stack, but it is some progress...I am happy to once again be able to do some hand stitching...after hurting my tendons back in the summer I will definitely be taking short breaks during my stitching time...you can go here to check out what everyone else is working on...until next time, keep those needles busy...

Wendy

FNWF The Results...

I am linking up here for the FNWF sew along for this past Friday night...I was determined to have a finish...So, I worked on finishing the quilting on the play quilt I have been working on for Jazmine...all I need to do now is the binding which will be done hopefully later on this evening...I am pleased with how it finished up...my McTavishing and travel stitching has improved so much...now to work on the binding which will be pink by request from Jazmine...her favorite bear is the pink ones...

The back of the quilt....I really love how this turned out and am so happy that I decided to use the challenge over on Amy's blog to do so...I learned to travel stitch really well on this one...before this quilt I was terrible at it, now I can safely say that I have conquered travel stitching as well as this stitch...thank you Amy for encouraging us to learn something new...I am looking forward to the next challenge...A shot of the back of the quilt...the fabric is white with a lemon yellow running through it...I love how this turned out...

Keep those needles stitching and try something new!
Wendy

Spring Is....

 Finally here in the south....I am so happy that the cooler weather is on its way out...we had a nice rain shower early today which helped so much with the pollen...my eyes and nose is thankful for the rain today...

 This redbud tree is my favorite...so pretty and bursting with color in each tiny flower on the tree...

 The first tulip of the season...

 Lovely little signs of new life amongst the dead of the leaves from the winter months...

 Such lacy and dainty flowers from these lovely ladies...

 The leaves will be removed soon and these little beauties normally bloom all summer for my mom...hopefully they will do the same for me this year...

 These are double buttercups and are so very pretty...

I am thrilled to see all the new life springing up around here...we have had so much sadness this past year that with the coming of spring I am looking forward to some beauty...we had an unexpected death in the family a little over a week ago and it was quite frankly hard to take...a precious family member only a year and a half older than myself...not sick, just fell dead in her home...I have a niece who is only 24 who is having a double mastectomy on the 29th of this month...and my lovely mom has pneumonia which is not good at her age or the health that she is in...please keep us in your prayers...especially mom and also for my niece who has a long journey ahead of her...she has two small children ages 3 and 6...needless to say I welcome spring and the rebirth and new growth that it represents for all...
Wendy

Week 5....

Of McTavishing...this is the final week of the quilt along challenge posted by Amy...I can say that my stitch of this design has improved greatly...I am however still stitching the quilt...I developed a really bad kink in my back from all the pulling of the quilt, but it is better now...so I am in high hopes of being finished with the last two rows before the week is out...I am linking up with Amy again here...she will be continuing the linky party and the quilt along with different stitches in the coming weeks...hop on over and see what everyone else is working on...

until next time,
Wendy

Crochet Wednesday

Added some more rows to my blanket that is in progress...I am really liking this pattern by Lucy over on Attic24...you should go visit her blog if you like crochet...full of inspiration over there...I will be doing a post on the yarn I am using really soon so stay tuned for that...until next time keep those hooks busy.

Wendy

McTavishing Week 4

This week I have been working on this quilt using the McTavishing design...it has been a tiring week, but I have been able to stitch some on this quilt....I am making headway...I try and quilt at least 15 to 30 minutes a day or more if I have the time...I have used tons of thread and had many bobbin changes....I have 2 1/2 sections left to complete and then this quilt will be finished...it is for Jazmine to lug around outside when she is playing or on a picnic...she loves bears so I am using the care bare fabric that I had on hand...I have loads of this stuff and it feels good to use some of it up...

I am linking up over here with Amy who is running this challenge for the month of March...my stitching of this particular motif has greatly improved since the start of the challenge...I have also learned to back track pretty good...still need to improve in that area though...linking up here:

until next time keep those needles stitching,
Wendy

FNSI....The Results....

 This is what I worked on during the FNSI this past Friday night....I created my own stitching pattern and then started the stitching...only a sneak peek as this is for a swap....when it arrives to its new home I will do a post about it...all in all a great time....

Wendy

More Practice....

squares....one McTavishing and one with paisley style....I like how both of these turned out and they are now bound and ready to use as little mug rugs...these squares measure 8" square and make a pretty good size for a mug rug...you could also use them in the kitchen to set hot dishes on if you wanted to...now on to another project with McTavishing for the week...remember to keep those needles stitching...
Wendy

A Little Crochet....

 is good for the soul along with some awesome green tea...I have been working on more crochet this past week as it seems to be so soothing for me...and it won't be long before it is too hot to handle large projects of yarn...I am steadily working on my white rose blanket and hope to have it finished soon and will show the progress for that later...

however, today I wanted to show a new project I am working on....this is my raindrop blanket using Lucy's of Attic24's newest tutorial...she made a wonderful pillow with this stitch and I decided I wanted to do a lapghan with this new yarn I am trying (more on that in another post soon)...the colors are a bit off as it has been grey and rainy here when I took these pics...they are really vibrant colors...I am liking how quickly this stitch is to work and am looking forward to this colorful blanket to work up...until next time keep those hooks flying...
Wendy

A Pillow...

from my practice piece for this week...I filled in a large circle with McTavishing and then used pebbles to fill in the outer corners and the small strip between the corners....sorry for the not so good pic...rainy and grey here all weekend and this morning as well...I will try and get a better pic when the rain ceases...after doing the quilting I thought a small pillow would be the way to finish this one up...I think it turned out well...the back has butterflies since my dd loves anything with butterflies....

I am linking up with Amy over here if you would like to go on over and check out what everyone else was up to this past week...

this has been a great challenge and I have seen major improvement in my stitching of this pattern...until next time keep those needles stitching...
Wendy

A Finish....

From a practice block...this little mug rug was made using the block I used as practice for this weeks McTavishing...I am loving how this design makes the quilting look so good...I plan to use this in a quilt I hope to start quilting this week...just need the thread to start...it is a Christmas quilt that has been languishing for some time now...hopefully I will get a start on that this week...I am linking up with Amy here as she has issued this months quilting challenge to be learning to mctavish or improving your mctavishing...for me it is a new learning curve....I have seen this design and have even watched videos for some time on this stitch and just have not put it to use...now is the time...

Now I have a sweet little mug rug and I am so pleased with how it turned out...since this challenge runs the whole month with the idea of learning and improving, I think my next project will be a table runner....small, yet big enough for lots of practice on this stitch...come back on next Monday to see how I have used this lovely filler stitch...
Wendy

A Nice Change....

I just wanted to take a moment and thank my youngest daughter for updating the look of my blog...I think she did an awesome job of it! Thank you Bliss for all your hard work to make the changes for me I so appreciate and love you for it! If you get a chance stop by her blog and say hello as she is new to blogging and has started a crochet blog...a recent pic of mom and Bliss together...another thing I wanted to share was that my mom and dad celebrated 60 years of marriage on March 1, 2014!!!!!! How awesome is that! What a great example for not only us but for future generations as well...congrats again mom and dad!
Wendy

McTavishing Part 2...

Well it has been grey and rainy all day here today...I spent a little time finishing the piece I was working on yesterday...first I ran out of red thread and could not find any red in all of the thread that I have...

I did come across a brown that goes a bit with it so I used that instead...of course I had to change how I was going to finish this piece because of that...but I think it turned out ok in the end since it is just a practice piece...what do you think? I am calling this one finished since the red thread is out...

I am loving this filler stitch and cannot wait to use it on a quilt...will be making a few smaller items first just to improve my stitching...

Amy has issued a challenge for the month of March to learn or improve your McTavishing... you can go here to see what everyone else is doing with this lovely stitch or to join the challenge with us...it is always good to see what others are doing and know that you are not alone in your learning curve...challenges such as this gathers us in one place to encourage each other to continue on...
Wendy

Practicing....

This was the first time since I was sick that I sat at the sewing machine...I practiced drawing first and then hit the machine...the drawing is better than the actual machine work this time...it is going to take some time to get this right...also my machine had stitch problems as well......

I have added more to this sample since this photo was made yesterday....I will do another post when I finish the project...

I am linking up with Amy here for this challenge...hope you will join us as we learn and improve this stitch throughout the month of March...until next time, 
Wendy

You can go to the next post up and see how this turned out...:)