watch those sewing machine needles, ladies!

John 16:33 These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.


and pins!
ha! yep... if you step on one, it might break off in your foot so deep and near a bone that you have to have same day foot surgery to get it out!  true story... one that happened to me, just a couple weeks ago!

very painful and quite nauseating even when I still think of it! ewwwwwww

Here is Zach, who helped me the whole day!  the needle happened about 6am ish and surgery didn't happen until 530 pm, Zach is a great son,  helped and stayed with me the whole day, we played words with friends back and forth in the surgery center for over 2 hours waiting for the surgery :)

yes it was my right foot, the one I push the sewing machine pedal with but I did learn to control it quite well with the left foot ;)

slowing down sewing for others a bit and the break has been nice, just working on the home and some quilts for me  :)

my friend Di has enabled me once again doing English paper piecing (yikes!)  started a few! love this line "Little Miss Sunshine"

She also shared a quilt she did and of course,  needing to start another quilt before I have the other 9 finished, I feel compelled to copy hers so now I am compiling fabric for it ;)

This week coming up I have goals of sewing...

- a couple blocks of my Marmalade flower girl quilt

 - do a bit more on the Vintage Picnic Irish chain

 - do a couple farm girl blocks

I will close with a picture of  Ellie Mae. ya know.. I have owned so many dogs in my lifetime and she is the most talkative and most weird dog ever :)

what I am working on now

 just a post to get my blog going again ;)  (common words said around here on this blog! haha!)  thank you to my friend Diana over at Stamping With Di always encourages me to blog.. so I am officially doing it (again!). (ps... Diana does Stampin Up, and if you need any products, SHE is your go to gal! she will take care of you whether you are buying products or if you choose to become a demonstrator, seriously go check her out!) AND if my friend Dana  over at Stormy Days  will flip out if she finds out I actually did a blog post!
Thought I would show you what i am working on, I have saved this Flower Girl quilt kit from Bonnie and Camille for years and was fortunate to find it before the prices were crazy on it! FINALLY started it, I have 9 blocks done and just 11 more to go, saying I love it, would be an understatement!

Camille of Bonnie and Camille posted a flag quilt and everyone went crazy over it and she decided to write up a quick pattern for it, I jumped on the band wagon and sewed up my top, pretty darn fast I must say!  I am going to piece all the colors from the front to make the backing, my sweet friend Di, who is my biggest encourager and enabler when it comes to quilting :) she gave me the idea  :) love ya, Di!

I have always loved the cathedral window block, it has ALWAYS intimidated me terribly until Missouri Quilt Co came up with a tutorial to simplify it, its totally doable and uses a lot of fabric BUT the outcome is amazing! this one will just be a throw size, but I am anxious to work on it! If you would like to see the tutorial, go Missouri Quilt Co Cathedral Window Tutorial

I have so many WIPs, its not even funny. I also am starting another quilt with my friend Diane, and then my friend Di, made an amazing black/white/creme/red quilt and I need to copy it, pronto! it will help me step into the more modern side of quilting :)  Plus she is dragging me into learning how to do English Paper Piecing (EPP) YES I have several friends (and a sis) named Diane or Diana or Dianne :)

so I will share those new quilts next time and also show some orders that I have done recently and talk about my little sewing business soon.

hugs!

Vintage Patchwork

 I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. Psalm 139:14

Good Monday morning!!! its going to be a crazy week this week but I am looking forward to all the adventures it brings! God is so good! This week  the sweet gals over at Quilt Story have their Fabric Tuesday so I want to play along with them, go check out the amazing gals and what they share!  I also came across a new blog this week, Cooking up quilts, and she has a Main crush Mondays gathering and it looks like fun! you can talk about and share what you have a crush on for that week, my crush this week is this vintage patchwork quilt top I made, loving the strawberries, florals, aquas, reds and polka dots I added in... just grabbed some of my favorite fabrics and started cutting 5" squares :) simple but a classic and I love it. Hoping I baste the backing this week!

Here is my son holding the quilt for me, it was pretty breezy this day....

laughing at this picture! totally cracks me up! Zach is such a good sport  ;)

Been taking on some orders lately too, I have met some of the nicest people with my orders and its been thru word of mouth is why my little business is growing, I mainly sell thru my facebook page Blessings and Blossoms but would love to start having everything go thru my Blessings and Blossoms  etsy shop and build up my sales there.

here are some of my more recent orders, been doing a ton of my cardholders :)

 have a great week! hugs!

WIP Wednesdays and Lando

"For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do" Eph 2:10 NIV

My friend and sister in Christ, Claudia shared that verse with me yesterday and I thought it would be a great verse to share today :) If we have our faith in Jesus, we should want to do good works, not that works will save us, because our faith in Jesus Christ saves us but we should show love to others  :) 

anyways... back to blogging! again.. I have missed it so trying to get back on a routine and I thought what a better way was to jump back in and do some linky parties that I used to play in!  Today, Lee over at Freshly Pieced has a WIP (works in progress) Wednesdays I have followed her blog for a few years now and I miss doing her WIP Wednesdays, so today I am sharing my WIP, Its a quilt I recently started, using the Moda Bake Shop tutorial Fancy: A jelly Roll lap quilt, that was made by Keera over at Live Love Sew, I am totally copying her fabric and everything :) I just love her patterns and tutorials :)  so here is what I have done so far... still lots to do but its a start right? 

Can't wait to finish this quilt... I really like the Happy Go Lucky line and have been hoarding the jelly roll for quite some time :) Go check out the other beautiful projects the gals are working on!

also yesterday, I went to Flagstaff to go ride the (possible) new horse,  Lando!  it went well and I am really excited to keep going there to see if he and I will work well together :) that ride gave me a spark back that I haven't had too much since Speedy died.  :) I get so emotional that I actually have the chance to adopt Lando, what is so special is that Lando is Speedys son! amazing how God works :) isn't Lando beautiful? 

He has such soft eyes :)

Jim surprised me with an Ipad Air when I got home too!!!!!! so I best pick out some fabric to make a new Ipad case!

the happenings....

 Every word of God is flawless; he is a shield to those who take refuge in Him  Proverbs 30:5

hello blog... hello world! well... really,  hello to those couple of sweet people that read my blog! ;)  

yes its been over 6 months since I posted but we aren't going to talk about that ha!  but dang I miss my blog! I do love instagram but still like the more personal feel of a blog. I keep up more on facebook just because I can see everyone there and keep family and friends updated but again, miss my blog always.

sooo lots of going ons.... lets see....
family, doing some garden, loss of dogs :( dang its been a hard year last year of losing animals :(  and took in another puppy, yes we are up to 4 dogs! love animals!!!  also might be getting a new horse soon!!! I will post another post about Lando the horse, its an amazing story though how God is blessing me!  After Speedy died, I just didn't function well... I know so many people will think its just a horse but he was seriously my best friend in animal form :) he helped me function daily and was so good for me, kept me going in ways that were needed weekly. It took a huge toll on me when I lost him. I am getting better though, I still cry over him, I still get mad at times but just focusing on the good memories that God gave me with him has been helpful. 

also stopped taking sewing orders a few months ago, needed to breathe and get my house back in shape, revamp my craft room because you could seriously not even walk in there, yikes it was so bad. its not a ton better now but tons of improvements and getting there...just more slowly than I hoped ;) did a bit of sewing for me, felt a bit selfish but gosh it felt so good...really want to get those quilts finished for me and my family and some home decor items for our home. Started a couple new quilts too and have been buying fabric!  which is always so much fun! but kind of goes back to why my craft studio is such a mess... keep buying and not enough sewing going on! OOOH! something else I almost forgot... I am doing my first real craft boutique in Dec!!! yikes! super excited and nervous but very much looking forward to it also  :) 

I have so many pictures to share but since I can't share them all today I will add this one of my beautiful sunflowers that I planted in my garden :) some of them reached 12ft!!! aren't they beautiful? it was my first time also harvesting the seeds and roasting them!  
hugs!

2015

 well I think every year I have done a blog post that I was going to start up my blog again...hehe! yes lame I know when I haven't kept it up, but hey, might as well not break the tradition, right? lets try to get it going again!
2014 was a year filled with crazy busyness, hubby had lots and lots of vacation to use or lose and although its nice for him to be home, my time is just not my time and I have been needing my routine.  I have been selling a lot of my sewn items, which has been a lot of fun and I have met the nicest people and have been blessed with the little extra income and such so I was pretty wrapped up in that. Oct was very hard , I lost my best friend, Speedy :( one of the hardest times in my life for sure.  He knew all my secrets and taught me so much about everything. Not a day goes by that I don't cry for him. I miss him terribly :( I thank God that I have so many wonderful memories with him though and am so blessed he was in my life.

I have so many so many sewing projects I have made and would love to get them on this blog and also share with you but instead of putting 297 pictures on this post, I will just share as I go along :)

Overall 2014 was good and I am totally blessed but I am eager to do 2015 a bit different, Lord willing :) my goal is to get back to my quilting, yes I said that last year and didn't make one quilt :( took on one too many orders BUT I am learning to pace myself and will do it this year! hold me accountable okay? Also joined project leasa so sew from our stash! what a concept huh?!! hehe! anyways I have a huge stash so this should be easy :) join in if you want!

I have to share my latest apron I made, I picked out fabrics for one for me and happened to show them to a friend and she has been amazing so I made her one to match, well hers is completed, mine is almost done :)
I love all cherry/strawberry and heck even apple fabrics and have been hoarding this aqua cherry fabric forever! the Pam Kitty fabric gingham and text are two of my all time favorites for sure!

I also preordered this quilt kit quilt along from Fat Quarter Shop

I am nervous as heck to do it but its totally me and I had to have it! what is also amazing is the donations that will be made to St. Judes Childrens Research :)

okay...well I am leaving it at this... hugs and find the blessings in everything!

oh and I forgot to mention my new word for this year, its BECOME :) lots of meaning behind this word. 

hugs!

Pets on Quilts Show 2014

okay so I am so excited to be finally participating in this years  Pets on Quilts Show 2014 taking place over at Lily Pad Quilting. 
Let me introduce you to Speedy

Isn't he beautiful?  and look at that sweet face! Speedy is my dream come true and my dream guy :) 
here is Speedy and I on one of our morning walks

A lot was going on last year and  I was too late making it happen to participate but I wanted to really remember to do it this year with Speedy, thanks to my sweet friend Dana helping me out!  This year was especially important for me to be a part of it, see, 4 months ago, I had a tumble off Speedy (which is not normal for him to freak out but something wasn't right with him)  and from that point on, the road went downhill for him, he started getting sick, with a bunch of tests later  Speedy was diagnosed with Lymphoma (cancer)   :(   Right now he is doing good, he is holding his weight, he still acts naughty at times, which is a good sign for him! ha!  but its been so hot here in AZ to be able to work him and see what he is capable of, we got for walks and such though and he has been more loveable more than normal ;) which I like!

anyways, we brought Speedy out to the front yard and  he was quite the gentleman and putting up with us taking pictures and laying quilts on him. So hard to choose a favorite, geez I took so many! but thinking I narrowed it down to this picture :)

here are some others...(don't worry, I wont share them ALL!)

patiently waiting for us to be done! 

Here he is looking at me like "are we done yet?"

and no worries...Speedy was paid for his time and patience with lots of love and horse cookies :)

thanks for playing along and go check out the other quilters pictures with their amazing animals over at Lily Pad Quilting!

love of love from Leslie and Speedy 

"other animal on quilt category"