Aloha!

Hubby and I returned last night from our little island get away. We've been relaxing on the Big Island of Hawaii soaking up the warm sun. This hammock was outside on the grounds of our hotel, next to the ocean and was the prefect spot to watch the sunset.

This is our third trip to the islands but our first trip to the big island. Are timing was prefect as we missed the first big snow fall at home. My daughter was taking care of the house and Jenny (the cat) while we were away and I got a few frantic text messages with "help" where is the shovel and salt???. Fortunately the usual weather here is to have a warm spell after a snow fall and it now looks like it never snowed at all.

Paradise wasn't entirely prefect. Our plane arrived early in the morning, too early to check in to our hotel. We decided a tour of a coffee farm would be a good first day activity. That's when it started....the rain. And not just your whimpy rain drops, this was like stepping under a water fall. The rain cut the tour short and we decided the next best thing would be sit the rain out while enjoying Kona coffee and a chocolate brownie. We sat for a very very long long time, the rain doesn't seem to be letting up, the waitress came around and said the roads are starting to get washed out. Hmmm.....we better go to our hotel. About a 2 minute drive down the road, we saw a few cars stopped on the road in front of us and then we saw it, just like the movies, mud and rocks raging across the road, unbelievable what do we do now? A couple of cars turned around but where would they go?? Soon they discovered more mud and rocks across the road in the other direction as well. And then a pipe next to the road broke and water was shooting up in the sky about 30 feet right behind us. So to make a long story short, we stayed in the car watching raging mud, down pouring rain and water shooting up from the ground for about 2 hours before it let up and the road could finally be cleared. I can't tell you how worried I was that our first night on the island was going to be sleeping in a car. The next day there was almost no signs of all the rocks and mud....incredible experience. The rest of the trip was dry, sunny and stress free....whew.

I have so many things to show you, the packages waiting for me when I got home and the antique shop find I brought home from the island. This was going to be a short post that turned long quickly. I feel like I've missed so much and have so much catching up to do in blogland. I'll be around shortly to read what everyone has been up to this last week.

Basket of Pincushions

Just a few pincushions I decided I needed to make for gifts. These are made using 2-5" circles. Stuffed with polyester filling and embroidery floss used to divide the sections. I thought they needed something a little extra so I made yo-yo's to go under the buttons. If you are interested in making some of your own, visit Whipup for instructions.

Update on Chocolate Swap; I'm still waiting for my chocolates to arrive in the mail...boohoo My partner Annie received the goodies I sent to her. I hope mine from her will arrive soon...yum...yum.

Here's another pincushion using different fabrics.

Little Quilts

So many little quilts popping up everywhere, I couldn't resist making one. This little quilt is from the book "American Doll Quilts" and finished size is 13" x 17". A Simple Girl and Knot Garden have both done several adorable little quilts. They are so sweet and quicker to make than a full size quilt project. I'm definitely hooked on these. The only down side is that these little quilts don't even make a dent in the scrap pile....lol.

There is a small group of us that meet once a month at the same house. We usually go out for lunch but there are times when the host offers to make us lunch. When she makes us lunch it's a wonderful treat because it's always something home made, with the freshest of ingredients. Last month we enjoyed a fabulous Butternut Squash soup and a delightful salmon dip. Our gracious host has offered to make a traditional French Christmas dinner for our next meeting. She'll spend a lot of time shopping at specialty stores to find just the best ingredients for the menu. There will be several appetizers and all the trimmings for our feast. Shopping and preparing all this food is a tremendous amount of work.

So that brings me to the point of this story. I thought wouldn't it be nice for each person in the group to surprise our host with quilt blocks. I found a pattern, picked the background fabric and cut enough background for 12 blocks. These blocks are 8" finished. Each person will make 2 blocks using darks from each of our stash for a total of 12 blocks. The blocks will be presented at our Dec meeting. Our host will be so surprised and really love our way of saying "Thank you" for all her efforts.

Speaking of friends. I received a little goodie package in the mail last week. Carole was very sweet by sending me some chocolates and a cute little tin as well. Thank you Carole....you are a sweetie.

Friendship

There is definitely a learning curve when you get a new computer. So now it's taken me longer to do things. The camera is now connected....yippee one hurdle over. The next hurdle is figuring out how to use the new Photoshop S/W. It seems I just learnt how to use the old version, the newer version is changed and so different. I guess, I'll get over these hurdles sooner or later...LOL.Friendship truly does come from the heart. And it's very special when you find a friend that you really connect with. Someone that you can share with and feel very comforted. Quilter's are such a special group who really enjoy sharing handmade gives with their friends. I feel very thankful and lucky when I receive a gift made by a friend. Okay...okay... enough with the mushy stuff...LOL

This teddy bear angel I stitched on muslin and did a small amount of tea dying. The red and yellow fabric is actually flannel. Soft and cuddly friendship pillow. I know....I know no more mushy stuff....
Look what I got from a very special blogger friend. No two fabrics are the same. I love the 30's fabrics, they make such a sweet quilt to look at and always makes me smile. The quilting is excellent. I wish I could quilt like that! Thanks Darlene, I will cherish my little quilt from you.

My DH has given me a new computer this week. He carefully copied over all my files and got everything set up for me. What a sweetie he is to me. When I tried to connect the camera this morning....nothing. I've tried to play around and figure it out on my own but it seems I'll have to wait until he gets home to have it fixed. I'm sure it's not something he did, I'm just not doing something right. So no quilting progress pictures to show.

I sent off my Chocolate Swap to my partner in Australia yesterday. I hope Anne will like the chocolate and goodies I sent along.

Have you seen the pincushions Abyquilt has made? She made 8 of these so far. I've made only one so far and I hope to have time to make a bunch more. Here where you'll find the instructions for the pincushion.

Have you checked your Quilter's Horoscope. Darlene posted this and it's really is a hoot.

Aquarius - January 21 to February 18
Aquarius is very gifted and produce exceptionally original quilts. I don't know about this "monkey see monkey do" that's me. But, I do make changes to a project if I don't like what the pattern designer has done.

They are known to invent new techniques that enhance the art form. I don't think so.

They are friendly but their independent nature leads them to prefer to spend time quilting by themselves. Although you can find them in a quilting class, they are the most likely of all signs to choose to learn from books or a video. I've learned everything about quilting from doing. Making mistakes and learning from each one. I take classes only to be around fellow quilters.

However if you ever have a patchwork or quilting dilemma they are the kind of person that you can turn to for help and advice. They are nice and will be thoughtful when making a quilt for friends or family. They will create the quilt with careful consideration of what the individual would like. I like to teach what I know about quilting and it's really exciting to me when a student goes away with learning something new. I will always try and answer a question. Every project I make I think about the person that will receive it and try and personalize the gift.

Ta Da

Just a quick post to show my Star Bright quilt top all completed. I'm so impressed that I finished this top in under 2 weeks. The top is big enough for a queen size bed but I feel it needs just a little more overhang so I'm going to add a border. Then off it goes to the machine quilters it will go. BTW the inner border strips took me an entire day to get done. 1" finished strips....ahhh...it was so worth it in the end!

Have a good weekend to all.

Star Bright Progress

I've pieced all 26 star blocks. I only need 25 for the quilt, I guess a matching pillow will be nice. I still need to square up all the blocks and add the sashing. I sewed the light and dark 1 1/2" strips of sashing fabrics together and now the task of putting it all together. This was a very quick block to make....well for me to have a big quilt almost finished in 2 weeks, is a really big accomplishment. I hope the sashing will be just as quick to finish...ya right!

I've been having so much fun exchanging 9 patches with Darlene, her post today included the 9 patches I sent last month. We send 20 each month until we have enough. I think Dec we'll be done. Another quilt in progress...no self control...LOL. I plan to set the 9 patches on point with an alternating red fabric in between. Here is a sneak peek....stay tuned for more on this quilt.

My list for this week is to finish more 9 patches and My Chocolate Swap to mail off as well.