First Day of Third Grade...

This week The Princess started Third Grade! I cannot believe how fast times flies...feels like a moment ago I was walking her to Kindergarten and now we are already 4 years in! I made her favorite 'special breakfast' of homemade Monkey Bread! I did all the prep work the night before and then popped it in the oven in the morning first thing. She was so excited!

Of course I had to take all the obligatory 'first day of school' pictures. She did not want me taking the camera to school so I snapped all the pictures out in front of our house. And my how things have changed...here she is in front of our house on her first day of Kindergarten:

And here she is this week on her first day of Third Grade!!!:

She came up with her own unique hairstyle for me to fix for the first day. It was a little braid to keep her hair out of her eyes and then pulled back into a pony with the rest:
My little sweetheart is growing so fast! She did want me to walk her in the first day and I was more than happy to do so. I love living so close that we can walk around the corner to school!

I have some things in the work for fall and winter quilting/needlepoint projects and hope to post some of those this week! We have just been so busy with first week of school and back to dance classes, etc., etc.!

Autumn Quilted Table Runner...

I picked up a charm pack of Autumn fabric the last time I visited our local quilt shop. It is Gobble Gobble by Sandy Gervais for Moda. It was so cute sitting there on the shelf that I could not resist!

I have been wanting to use the tutorial Camille posted at the Moda Bake Shop for quite some time now and this afternoon I thought, why not use the Gobble Gobble charm pack! I will have to go shopping for some fabric for the backing now but that should not be too hard ;-)

I pieced this together in a little over 1 hour this afternoon while my little boy talked to me and played around me in the dining room/sewing room. Now that I know how quick it goes together I think I will have to make a runner with fabric that matches my decor for every day to keep out on the table in the breakfast nook or on the island in the kitchen. I am going to practice my stippling quilting on this since it is not too big a piece.

What a fun project for a quiet Sunday afternoon. Go visit the tutorial and make your own!

Sunday Stash #1...

I was giddy with excitement last week when I FINALLY found some of the fabric Lush by Erin Michael for Moda, more specifically the paint by number deer fabric!!!! I am still awaiting the arrival of the deer in blues and greens - it should be at my doorstep no later than Tuesday. However, the other fabrics I ordered in the line arrived on Friday. I LOVE them! I am planning a special quilt with these.

Tamara over at 1/4 of an Inch hosts a 'Sunday Stash' each week. It gives peeps like me who love fabric to see what others have in their stash and to explore different color combos and projects that are planned with the fabrics. She also has a Flickr group with the pictures as well.

I thought I would play along this week since I am so excited about the newest addition to my stash!

Neapolitan Bouquet Quilt Complete!

*Photo courtesy of Corbis Stock Photos

Remember the Neapolitan Bouquet Quilt I was working on for my daughter? I blogged about it here and here. The pattern is from All Washed Up called Five and Dime. Well IT IS FINISHED! While the Princess was at her Grandmother's last week, I finally finished sewing the binding on her quilt! I am very pleased with it...and especially since it is my second quilt completed!

The back of the quilt is shown first as it illustrates why the name of the quilt:

Here is the top of the quilt:
I had it quilted in various flower patterns with dark pink thread:

Here is another shot of the backing...I just LOVE the texture the quilting gives to it:
And here is my sweetheart after I gave her the quilt all rolled up and tied with a ribbon! Now she and the Prince both have a special quilt from mommy to snuggle with while reading or watching T.V.: