Where We Belong

 

Where We Belong by Kim Vogal Sawyer is the most heartwarming story I have read in a long time. 

Hester Haak is a childless widow who desires to be a mother. She opens her home to three orphan children that have come west on the Orphan train.  Eviee insists that she and her little sister are not an orphans. But with the New York Orphans home closing, and the matrons unsuccessful attempt to contact their father, they are sent to Kansas on the train.

Callum Holbrook is unable to care for his girls after the death of his wife. He places them in the Home temporarily. But as so much time passes, he is devastated that the girls have been sent away.

Kim Vogel Sawyer has written a very sweet and moving story. It engaged me from the first word. The element of faith in the characters was very endearing. Clean Christian fiction. Very well written. I would give this story a 5+.

 I received an ecopy of the book via Net Galley. All comments and opinions are solely my own.

Winter Olympics

 The Winter Olympics is in full gear. So why not join them.

The inspiration for this quilt was from the book Accidental Landscapes by Karen Eckmeier.

It is fun to take a picture and recreate it in fabric. My kids loved to snowboard, so when I found these  stormy and mountain fabrics I fussy cut the snowboarder and placed him on the mountain. 

Create with your imagination.  

Words to Live By

 

Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?

Easy peasy

I love this pattern.

It's my go-to pattern when I need a quick gift. 

I've had this book for years, so I'm not sure it is still in publication.  Easy to follow directions, and the points always line up!

Sew and Tell NTT  Finished or not Friday   Brag About Your Beauties   Scrap Happy

Love/hate relationship

It's a love/hate relationship. I love cutting fabric, putting it together, quilting it. But when it comes to the final phase - sewing down the binding - my love turns to fatigued dislike.

I finished quilting this quilt (don't you love the backing?) and all that was left was sewing down the binding. I sometimes try to use the backing fabric, pulling it over the sides and machine stitching. But this backing was different than the quilt fabric, I just couldn't do it.

Sitting in front of the TV, I stitched night after night. It felt like forever. I'm just not a fan of hand stitching of any kind. But finally it was done.

I loved the fabric in this quilt so much that I scavenged the left over fabric and made a table runner.

My daughter happily absconded the table runner :-)

Happy Valentines Day

 

Scrap Quilts

 I have amassed quite a collection of quilting books. And sometimes I wonder if I will ever make even one project from the books. I found this book at a thrift shop a couple of years ago.

I thought this book looked very familiar. So as I am leafing through the pages I recognized several of the quilts. And now I know why.

I loved making Button Box. It was such a fun quilt.

And the Bow Tie quilt

was another fun one to make

Cracker on the other hand
was never finished.

While making the blocks for this quilt, I had so many blocks left over that I made another quilt and gave it away. So the borders never were finished. Now I don't even know where the borders ended up :-( Have you ever had that happen?

Catching up

 I have been without a computer for about a week.. My son was loading up a new one when the old one broke. I mean physically the top half broke :-( But thankfully he has it fully loaded now and I recently picked up.

So what have I been doing? Well, I made more pillowcases for Ryan's Case for Smiles. 

And I finished piecing the Valentines quilt.

I have enough Charms left over to make a table runner.

Now I just have to learn about the new computer. Which has a few new things. Like downloading pictures. Sigh.... :-(

Sew and Tell NTT  Finished or not Friday   Brag About Your Beauties   Scrap Happy

More Than Friends

 

More Than Friends by Denise Hunter is a heartwarming friends to lovers story.

When Jenna Greene ends things with her boyfriend, she is fired from her job for refusing his marriage proposal, she is stuck without hope of finding a new job. She returns home to find her mother has brought home a man from a cruise. Jenna is immediately suspicious. Jenna's long time friend, Tyson Parker, tries to help Jenna play detective to find out where this man is coming from.  

The story is a departure from others as it is central in Chincoteague, Virginia, where the wild ponies live. Jenna takes on a part time job as a tour guide. Tyson is a volunteer firefighter, which opens Jenna's wounds as she lost her father in a fire.

This is a heartwarming story and a reminder that some love stories are worth the time and patience for feelings to come full circle. Clean, well written characters and interesting. A worth while read.

I received a complimentary ebook copy from the publisher through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Inspiration

 I am not an artist, but with Valentine's Day so close, I thought I would share this quilt with you.

I made this quilt for my late Mother in law several years ago.  She had undergone open heart surgery, and when I found this pattern in a book by Gai Perry, I couldn't resist making it for her.

So go be inspired by something beautiful today.  And be sure to share that beauty with someone else.

Happy Quilting!