North Star

Today, Barbara Brackman released her second block on the Civil War Quilts blog. The block is called North Star. It's been so interesting to read the stories behind the blocks. And Barbara also has a link for Google Books.

Here is my North Star

As I was digging around in bags, and closets looking for the right Civil War fabrics, I thought it might be a very good idea to collect my CW fabrics and organize them together on a shelf.

There may still be a few strays hiding around, but at least I can put my hands on CW and Repro fabrics when I need them.

I hope you have a wonderful weekend. Happy Quilting!

A Little bit of History

Barbara Brackman has written a lot about quilts and the Civil War. In honor of the 150th anniversary Barbara has started a separate blog called Civil War Quilts, taking stories and patterns from her books and block-of the-month patterns. You can go to Barbara's blog (Material Culture) and read about how this all came about. Then you will want to jump over to Civil War Quilts and learn more about this war and make a block every week. At the end of the year we will have 52 blocks to make a quilt. Here is the first one

Catch Me If You Can

Let's sharpen our American history lessons skills this year :-)

Thanks Barbara!

One Word

Kelly over at Charming Chatter has challenged us to come up with a word for the year. I've been thinking and pondering what my word for the year might be. I know what my word was last year. It was contentment. With all the changes that have been going on for the last couple of years, it was my goal to be content in the little things, which hopefully led to contentment in the bigger things.

But to graduate beyond contentment is a tall order. I am in such a new place in my life. After schooling my children for over 20 years, they are all grown. Not exactly empty nest, but they are young adults with goals and dreams of their own.

So where does that take me? What word would propel me into the next phase of life. If there is anything that I have learned as I've gotten older, it is that the plans I've made, or thought about don't always come to pass. Or there are detours that take me down a different path. So perhaps my word for this year should be..........

JOURNEY

We are all walking different pathways, and as we come to the next bend we have choices to make. My quilting journey has been a start and stop, start and stop venture through the years. I was always the last one working on a quilt, and I mostly have ufo's because of time constraints. However, I've always tried to work on projects that I loved. I love Darlene's word "heart" because if you don't love what you are doing, it because a drudgery, a job.

Visiting over at Ali Edwards blog, her post about One Little Word 2011 directed me to my word.

One Little Word
Can make
A
Big
Impact
on
Your
Life

at the end she wrote Join the Journey.

So my word for this year is Journey. It is a journey where we all fill the days with thoughts and plans, but in the end my Journey takes me on the path to build my character and faith.

What is your word for 2011?

Just one more thought

It seems like the holidays came on us like a steam engine train. Fall came and went, and before I knew it Christmas was here. And now that we are 5 days into the New Year, it is time to start thinking about new projects and finishing up ufo's.

But before I put it all behind, I wanted to share some very pretty tables that we enjoyed this holiday season.

Not to mention the food and family that we had the pleasure of enjoying.


I hope your holidays were as blessed as ours was.

Happy Quilting!

Getting started

It looks like everybody is off to a great start in the New Year. I am so inspired to see beautiful new projects being posted.

Oh and what have I been doing, you ask??

Well it has something to do with lots of containers, and organizing, and storage, and getting the house back to normalcy.

But I did have to make a shopping stop here and there. You know those gift cards just start burning a hole in my wallet. Simple addition is when JoAnn's has a super sale + an additional 20% off my total purchase = great value!

JoAnn's put this great Ott light on sale after Christmas. I was holding on to a 20% off mailer coupon for just the right purchase :-)

And while we are at it, let's warm up the library with Pat Sloan's Fast Forward Quilts.

Someone posted this pattern on their blog, and I fell in love with it.

I thought Welcome to the Neighborhood would be a nice quilt for our new home!

So what have YOU been up to as we start up the New Year!

I hope it is has lots of Happy Quilting ;-D

Happy New Year

I am so very thankful for all of my readers who stop by and visit. You are the best!
Looking forward to getting to know even more of you in 2011.

Wishing you a most wonderful and Happy New Year!

Top 10 in 2010

We are coming to the end of 2010. For me it has been a year of adventure and detours. For years we talked about building a home on lakefront property that we own. And for years, there has always been a reason not to. So we started looking at already built houses. We looked for almost a year before we found the one that became "our" home.

Now let me say that we did not really expect to find this house. My hubby decided to have a new roof put on our old house, and we replaced the AC unit last December. New appliances replacing the aging ones and a floor remodel in our laundry room when the washer decided to spring a healthy leak.

When we walked into the new house for the first time, we all fell in love. BUT being the family accountant, I knew we couldn't buy it. I did not set me heart on it. However, it just kept coming back. The owners had put this house on the market a year ago with no offers. Took it off the market and then decided to try again. Here is where we entered in. When we made our first offer it was WAY lower then their list price. They countered, but it was still too high. So we countered again. Their realtor basically said, if you can't meet our price, don't bother to come back. Death of a vision.

Not having set my heart on this house made it easier to let it go. But it was still lingering in the back of my mind. We compared it with any other house we looked at. After a month went by, my hubby called our realtor and asked him what could we do about the house? Wise realtor that he was he said, make another offer! So we did. And they took it!!!!

So amid packing and moving, there was not much creating going on. After being in the new house for a month, I had another little detour. A fall resulting in a compression fracture of my spine.

So now what seems like months and months, I am finally getting back into the full swing of life.

And yet there were some things accomplished!

Madeline

Sunday Best


Roundabout

Table runner

Strings

Cubed Lattice


Anita's Arrowhead

SMS giveaway

Not to mention the fun Mug Rugs!

And more to come in 2011.

Have a happy quilting day!