What's Making Me Happy Today...

The year's at the spring
And day's at the morn;

Morning's at seven;

The hillside's dew-pearled;

The lark's on the wing;

The snail's on the thorn;

God's in His heaven

-All's right with the world!

~Robert Browning

These things are making my Monday a happy one:

Rain falling softly outside...

A pretty pot of plants on the patio table:

"The world's favorite season is the spring.

All things seem possible in May."

~Edwin Way Teale

The soft colors of the petunias in the hanging baskets...we always pot a few of these around my daughter's birthday in March:

"Spring - an experience in immortality."

~Henry D. Thoreau

The hostas with the rain drops shining like jewels upon their leaves in our flower bed:

"When April steps aside for May,

Like diamonds all the rain-drops glisten;

Fresh violets open every day:

To some new bird each hour we listen."

~Lucy Larcom

The roses abloom standing tall and proud as the rain ever gently kisses them:

"Be like a flower and turn your face to the sun."

~ Kahlil Gibran

My newly potted 'fairy plant' (fuschia) by my wicker settee under the patio...sitting there watching the rain today with a cup of coffee is so pleasant:

"Sweet May hath come to love us,

Flowers, trees, their blossoms don;

And through the blue heavens above us

The very clouds move on."

~ Heinrich Heine, Book of Songs

Pink and white petunias in an original terra cotta pot from Italy...a pot my grandmother used in her garden and now I use in mine:

"Sweet April showers

Do spring May flowers."

~ Thomas Tusser, A Hundred Good Points of Husbandry, 1557

Oh, and inside, my new ironing board cover is making me happy:

And of course the smile from this guy...he is making me happiest today:

Neapolitan Bouquet Quilt

*Photo courtesy of Corbis Stock Photos

The ice cream above is what came to mind while piecing the top of the quilt for my daughter! The quilt top is in strawberry pinks, creamy vanillas, and chocolates with floral, stripes, and dots...so as my previous post stated, the name I thought of was 'Neapolitan Bouquet' for the quilt. With that in mind, I rethought how I wanted to piece the back of the quilt. What do you think?

Here is the quilt top all completed:

And here is the back of the quilt, all completed:
Viola! My daughter's 'Neapolitan Bouquet' quilt is ready to go to the long-arm quilters this week! I think we will quilt it with a flower quilting technique. Then I will bind it using the same floral focus fabric from the vertical strips on the quilt top. I can't wait to give this to my daughter for snuggling up under while watching a movie together. I made it wider than my last quilt so that two can snuggle easily under this one!

Oh, and my ever so lovely handmade bag/tote came today!!! I am so excited. It was made with beautiful Amy Butler fabrics from the ever talented Janie from Clutterbags on Etsy. I ordered the bag a few weeks ago and she did an excellent job! She even made me a custom diaper/wipes case to go with it that has a zipper closure and a removable wrist strap, making this little gem very versatile and perfect for growing with us and for carrying other things once we are out of diapers around here (which will hopefully be within the next few months!) Go visit her site and see her wonderful work!!! The pictures below do not do it justice and the bag is so much more beautiful in person!!!! I could not be happier with it!

Here is the bag/tote alone:Here is the bag along with the diaper/wipe case:

Also to note, our whole school district is closed this week due to the H1, N1 virus or Swine Flu. I am fortunate enough that this thrills me to have an unexpected week with both my kiddos home to just play and enjoy each others company, but I realize for many parents this is a hardship if they both have jobs outside of the home. I pray that the sick are healed and that the parents facing hardship due to school closures are comforted and that relief for all of this comes soon. Please keep our community and especially the sick in your prayers.

Just Bliss...

*Photo courtesy of Flickr law_kevin

Contentment, bliss, harmony, ease, delight, happiness...joy.

What a surprise this afternoon. I have had a terrible pressure headache most of the day and it is grey and raining here but I am feeling complete contentment right now. I picked up my daughter after school and a neighbor friend came home with us. My son and the girls had a snack and then sat at the kitchen table with the girls each painting a masterpiece and my son happily playing with Play-Doh. I put some kid tunes on the iPod and fixed a pot of coffee (with yummy sugar free vanilla caramel creamer) and was able to forget about my headache and tidy up the kitchen while listening to the delightful conversation of the children.

We are so blessed to live in the community that we do and especially in the neighborhood that we do. We have the best neighbors that have become dear friends and it feels like family around here, truly it does.

I just wanted to savor and remember this feeling this afternoon...so happy...so joyful...so grateful.

"The more we express our gratitude to God for our blessings,the more he will bring to our mind other blessings. The more we are aware of to be grateful for, the happier we become."

- Ezra Taft Benson

"The fruit of the spirit is love, joy and peace."

- Galatians 5:22

"I came that you may have and enjoy life and have it in abundance, until it overflows."

- John 10:10

Latest WIP Quilt...

I started on a quilt for the Princess. It is a 'stack and whack' quilt so it should not take me too long to complete the top and backing. I chose an All Washed Up Pattern called 5&Dime. And look, I learned today that they have a blog! It uses a menagerie of fat quarters that you just stack and um...whack! You cut them up into a few varying sized squares and rectangles then you use a focus fabric for sashing in the middle and voila! I am adding a few borders to this one though to make it a bit bigger for my daughter to snuggle under and I am doing something a bit different than what the pattern calls for on the backing. So it is mostly this pattern with my own design and inspiration thrown in!

These are the fabrics I chose: Back Porch Bouquet for Maywood Studios. (The pink and chocolate damask on the right is from Joann's but I decided I did not like it with the other fabrics so I nixed it.)
Here is my layout for the quilt top without the borders:

The strip laid out on the left is part of what I have planned for the back:
I already have the top just about pieced. I had to order a bit more fabric for the borders I want to add and hope to have that fabric by the end of the week so I am crossing my fingers that I will have the top and the back complete over the weekend and have it ready to quilt early next week!

While sewing and ironing the pieces together last night I decided what I had to name this quilt: Neapolitan Bouquet! The colors remind me of the Neapolitan ice cream we would have as a kid. You know, the kind that came in the box with chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry lined up in rectangles...and in our house where the chocolate was always gone first ;-)

I'll update as I move along with this latest project!

Happy Easter and Resurrection Rolls...

I hope everyone had a very happy Easter weekend. We had a great one! Egg hunts at church, dyeing eggs and the Easter bunny here at the house, Easter lunch at Nana's and more egg hunts with the cousins!

These are some of my favorite pics of the kiddos:

We also started a new Easter tradition of baking Resurrection Rolls on Easter morning. They turned out perfect and quite tasty as well!

Resurreciton Rolls Recipe:

2 packages of Pillsbury Crescent rolls
3/4 stick of melted butter
8 large marshmallows
2 Tbl ground cinnamon
2 Tbl granulated sugar

(mix the cinnamon and sugar together in a small bowl)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Separate crescent rolls into individual triangles. The crescent roll represents the cloth that Jesus was wrapped in.

Using 1 marshmallow, representing Jesus and His purity, dip into melted butter. This represents the oils of embalming.

Dip the buttered marshmallow in the cinnamon and sugar.This represents the spices used to annoint the body of Jesus.

Wrap the coated marshmallow tightly in the crescent roll(not like a typical crescent roll up, but bring the sides up and seal the marshmallow inside). Then wrap with a second roll in the opposite direction making sure to seal all the seams. This represents the wrapping of Jesus' body after death.

Dip the roll with marshmallow inside into melted butter and then roll in cinnamon and sugar mixture.

Place in a 350 degree oven for 10 to 12 minutes.The oven represents the tomb (pretend like it was 3 days and nights!)

When the rolls have cooled slightly, the children can open their rolls (cloths) and discover that Jesus is no longer there, HE IS RISEN! The marshmallow melts and the crescent roll is puffed up,but like the tomb - IT IS EMPTY!

Mod Quilt-Along Binding Almost Complete...

Well I have almost completed my first quilt! I have about half way to go on hand sewing the binding around to the back of the quilt. I probably would have been finished by now but I had oral surgery this week and it put me down for a few days. I am feeling better now and once I have caught up on necessary work around the house and for my business I will finish up this binding!

Top of the quilt with partial binding:

Back of the quilt with partial binding:

I have to say that I was most pleased that my corners turned out nice and mitered! Elizabeth had a great tutorial on the binding and I praise her greatly for helping me in having my first quilt turn out so nicely!

I can't wait to finish the quilt and wash it up so it gets a crinkly, comfy look and Drew and I can curl up with it and watch cartoons!

Mod Quilt-Along Quilt is Quilted...

Here is a picture of the top of the quilt all quilted! I still have to bind it and so you see the white batting showing around all edges. I am binding it with a navy blue fabric that has little gold stars on it.And here is the back quilted, again, you can see the white batting on the side as it is without binding:

I went ahead and had the quilt quilted by a professional as I just love it too much to use it for trying out my hand and machine quilting for the first time. I took the quilt in for a quote on Tuesday and to my surprise the woman at the shop said she would get right on it that day! She said a 'first time quilt' deserved to be done right away! So, I picked it up all quilted on Wednesday!!! I am so happy with it. I imagined as I was working on this quilt that if I was an experienced quilter that I would quilt it using a dog bone pattern for some whimsy and visual interest. I walked in the quilters shop ready to get the quote and tell her to just use a stippling quilting pattern since that is what the Quilt-Along is using but she said to me, "Oh, I have something that I think would go perfect with this quilt." Can you imagine my surprise when she showed me quilting of DOGGIE BONES along with profiles of dogs that look like labs!!! Wow, was that meant to be or what!?!

Can you see the profile of the doggie below. He is on the left side of the picture and his nose is up in the air some facing to the left. His ear is in the center of the bottom left brown square:

Here is a better shot perhaps. The doggie is in the brown and this time he is facing towards the right. His nose is in the air and he is looking up at a dog bone:

So now I just have to follow along in the Quilt-Along to bind the quilt. Then it will be finished and ready to give to my son!

There are lots of great finished quilt pictures rolling in at the Mod Sampler Quilt-Along group on Flickr site so go take a look!