My Granddaughter Has Arrived!

  On October 27th, my new granddaughter was born!  We are so excited about having a little girl in the family to spoil.  Of course, I had to run out and purchase a very sweet little outfit and her first dolly before I went to the hospital.  Needless to say, I am sitting next to my daughter in law on her couch right now rather than being at home quilting!  My schedule for the week is up in the air, but I will be here for a couple of days for sure.  Then, I may just help my mom in her shop for a couple of days before I head home.  My daughter has bridal showers for the next two weekends, and her fiance is moving into their apartment this week, so the word for the next couple of months is....CHANGE!

Eleanor Burns' Lover's Knot is well under way!

I am making a Lover's Knot quilt for my daughter's wedding.  I chose the pattern because of the name, and because a Lover's Knot was the first big quilt I ever made with my mom when I was first married.  My daughter chose the fabrics because she wants to decorate her future bedroom in black, white, and red.  She is already so far ahead of me when it comes to decorating her future apartment/home.  I am pretty sure when I got married 25 years ago, we did not register for anything (was there even such a thing as registering?) and, therefore, we got all kinds of hodge podge stuff for gifts.  My daughter, on the other hand, has chosen color schemes for each room, registered for towels, kitchenwares, bedroom and living room stuff, all with color schemes in mind.  Crazy cool!!!  I am very interested in decorating and keeping a nice home, and it is gratifying to see that those ideas have rubbed off on her.  Anyway, she chose the fabrics for said quilt, and it is my pleasure to create a beautiful addition to her future home.  My deadline is December 16th, and I am confident that I am well underway to getting it done on time:)

"The Help," the Cricut, and other Tidbits

So, first of all, I went to The Help with a couple of friends the other night...LOVED IT!  It was one of the best movies I have seen in quite awhile: a terrific history lesson, as well as, life lessons about courage and truth when it isn't the "easy" way.  I highly recommend it!

Second, I now own a Cricut and 5 cartridges!  You heard me--5 in a week.  In my defense, one came with the machine, 2 were from Amazon or Ebay for 1/2 price, and 2 were from Menards because they were clearancing out for only $14.99 each.  Still, I feel somewhat guilty for the outlay of so much money in a week on a "toy" for myself, that I have determined that my fall bonus from work absolutely MUST go to the credit card bill to pay for said "toy."
Third, I have been gone 9 out of the last 14 days, and I am sick of being gone!  I spent the past couple of days quilting, and the pictures of my work are added here.  Daughter and I have a scrapping date tomorrow to play with the new Cricut.  I will try to photograph some pages and add them soon.

Scrapping weekend introduced me to my new love...the Cricut!

This past weekend I went to a scrapper's retreat at Maranatha.  It was a lot of fun, and I was so happy with the amount of work that I got done.  I shared a table with my daughter in law, her mother, and a friend of her mom's.  It was a comfortable work environment.  Occasional friendly chatter occurred, but mostly, we just worked on our pages.  Because of my quilting business and helping my mom, I haven't been able to focus on scrapping for the past couple of years.  It felt so great to just put everything else out of my mind and enjoy the process.  I have been an avid scrapper for about 17 years, and it was awesome to get back to it.  I was so inspired that I came home and ordered 150 more prints from Snapfish, and went on Ebay and bought a Cricut.  I had never used one before this weekend, and I must say, that after having used it at the retreat...I HAD to buy one!  My first thought was to ask for one for Christmas from my hubby, but, then I realized that is two long months away!  Having never been good at delayed gratification, I took matters into my own hands, and found an awesome deal.  Yay for Ebay!