This is...my favorite fabric shop

Sorry for the small image, but it is the only one they have on their website. Cabbage Rose Quilting in Fort Worth is a place I have only been to few times, but it is a wonderfully cute place with an awesome assortment of fabrics and really friendly people working there. Here in Houston I like It's a Stitch, Quilt 'n Sew and Quakertown. Unfortunately, none of them are anywhere near me :-(

Thanks to handmaiden for this week’s topic, and three buttons for this is

this is...my favorite children's book

This was my favorite book as a child, and I am fortunate enough to still have it. I remember my mother reading it to me and me reading it to Kate. I could probably recite it from memory if I had to.




I'm sure that this book is part of the reason that Paris is my favorite city in the world and was why I chose to study French.


I look forward to reading it to a granddaughter some day...

Thanks to Potty Mouth Mama for this week’s topic, and three buttons for this is

I just can't help myself...

What happened to my no new projects mantra? My first real day off in ages and I had to start something. The good news is that I finished the same day! When I was in Minneapolis earlier this month, Kate and I went to Crafty Planet, a great little shop in northeast. We found this really cute fabric. Unbeknownst to me, my son-in-law Kyle apparently loves octopi. I myself am partial to mermaids. So I bought a piece of each of these and made them into pillowcases. I used the Amy Butler stripe that was the backing on their wedding quilt as the contrast. Okay, now back to machine quilting this, or binding this!

Bluebirds of happiness

I posted this last month on Thrift Thursday, but wanted to share it here as well. Isn't it just the sweetest thing you have ever seen? Something about it just makes me happy when I look at it.

Cool stuff (at least I think so...)

I'm not sure anyone else will get excited about this stuff, but I am (and after all it is my blog)! I had a jackpot end of the week. The quilter finished my quilt sooner than expected. I still need to put on a binding, but I hope to do that later this week. The labels I ordered from namemaker.com arrived. I saw them on someone's blog...I thought it was Pam Kitty Morning, but couldn't find the post. Whoever it was, please let me know and I will give you credit. I had been wanting something to sew on to my creations, and these really fit the bill. They are custom woven in Europe and are only 56¢ a piece! Aren't they just the cutest thing?

But what I'm really excited about...my iPhone came in! We ordered it at the AT&T store last Sunday and were told it would take 10 business days, but it came in on Friday. Getting it activated was rather complicated. We had an AT&T cell phone account through MD Anderson, but Mike's Blackberry was recently phone activated through Sprint. So he has a new Sprint cell number and we switched the AT&T number to my iPhone. Anyway...it is VERY cool! I am still learning all the things I can do with it...

This is...how I like to spend my weekend

Sunday morning that is...drinking coffee, listening to NPR's Weekend Edition Sunday, reading the newspapers and starting the Times' crossword puzzle. Thanks to the bird bath for this week’s topic, and three buttons for this is.

Too busy to blog...

I have been working waaaay more than usual...I got home from MSP a week ago Wednesday night, worked Thursday and Friday (12 hours each day), spent Saturday unpacking, doing laundry, etc. and finally had a "day off" with Mike on Sunday. Then worked Monday and Tuesday (again 12 hours both days), was off on Wednesday when I had a dental appointment and spent 6 hours stuffing envelopes for the MDAnderson F2O, then worked two more 12 hour shifts yesterday and today. To sum it up...6 out of the last 9 days for a total of 72 hours. I will be happy when the paycheck comes, but I have more important things to do! I have three exciting things to show you...which I will do either tomorrow or Sunday...I promise!

This is...a work in progress

I was invited by Angela to join the This is... group. I'm not sure exactly how it works, but basically one of the group posts a theme on Wednesday, and on Sunday everyone posts a photo of that theme. I think most of the members are from Australia and the UK, so it should be interesting to get a more worldly perspective of things. And how appropriate is this week's theme? I could have chosen any of several works-in-progress, but this is the one I have been concentrating on as of late (also the one I have been working on for the longest time!) It is a quilt made of Mary Engelbreit fabric with applique and prairie points, two techniques I hadn't attempted before. If you are familiar with ME fabric, you will get some idea as to how long I have been working on this, although, in my defense, I had the kit for at least a year before I started it! I have actually started machine quilting it, which you can see in the middle two blocks if you click on the picture for a closer look.

Four down, forty-six to go

The other night, as a belated birthday treat, Kate had a friend (who is in training to become a massage therapist) come over to the house and give us massages. Then we went for a late dinner to La Belle Vie. We had the bar tasting menu with the accompanying wine flight...
delightful. She reminded me that this restaurant is on the same list as DaMarco's. Wonder how far throught the list I can make it before they come out with a new one...

Oldie but goodie

This is the quilt I made my daughter for her college graduation in 2004. I realized that I had never actually taken a picture of it, so on my visit I took advantage of the chance to do that. It is made from t-shirts that belonged to her from grade school (the Ruby Slippers from our visit to the Smithsonian when she was nine) through college (New Student Weekend and the Caffe del Sole from her junior year in Italy.) The sashing and backing are U of M fabric I found online at J & O Fabrics. (I have lots of scraps of it if you know anyone who needs some :-)

Sunday morning with the grandkids, I mean kitties

Kate and Kyle had to work this morning, so Sam and Rosie and I spent some quality time on the screen porch, them watching the birds, me reading the Star Tribune. It was great to be outside in the fresh air. I will get to do this in Houston some time in October.

I had their attention for a moment...


...but the birds won out!