Welcome, Bobby!

I've always heard that English bobbies ride bicycles, but lacking one the right size, I gave him an Alpaca to try. He seems to like it.

The very talented Rachel Slater has en etsy shop called Knitwish. She donated this charming knitted English policeman, affectionately known as Bobby, to the Australian bush fire relief fund. I was honored to donate to the Australian Red Cross, and in addition was thrilled to be able to buy Bobby,the proceeds of which went to aid the fire victims. Bobby is enjoying his new home, and went for a little trip to Hawaii, visiting Lisa's Happy Hula Huts.

He found the computer chair comfortable.

Thank you so much, Rachel! I promise to give Bobby a good home.

Fancy pants

David liked the looks of that dragon fabric so much he asked if I had enough to make him a pair of pants. I didn't, but fortunately the store did. He asks for things so rarely that I like to accommodate him when he does. I think these are pajama pants, but I'm not sure. Kind of wild looking, aren't they? After making the Postcards from Hawaii quilt I went to www.HawaiianFabricShop.com to see what I could find. Don't you just love this ocean scene? I'm going to have trouble cutting that one up.

I ordered some patterns from Lisa (www.lisaboyer.com) , and wanted to quick get a picture before I took the bows off. They looked so pretty, but I couldn't wait to open the patterns and read the instructions.

And look! She added some more Hawaiian fabric so I could make another postcard quilt - nice!

Thank you, Lisa.

The one on the lower right is the most stunning color - it takes my breath away it's so pretty.

Don't panic.

Jodie (www.vintagericrac.blogspot.com) gave me permission to borrow this expression from her eye chart. Don't you love it? I'm thinking of making another one in eye chart format, but this one is for my youngest nephew's birthday next month. He'll be fourteen, and when his mother says, "Benjamin, what happened to your room?" he can point to his dragon wall hanging. Please observe that I stepped way out of my comfort zone with these fabrics, and made something I thought a fourteen year old would like. Special thanks to Lady Hopwood for her good advice. I did make both bags and liked them both so much that I gave both of them to my mother-in-law for her birthday.

She liked them, too!

I hope you have a good week.

Postcards from Hawaii Lisa style

Did you see Lisa Boyer's "Postcards from Hawaii" quilt on her blog (www.lisaboyer.com)? I liked it so much that I stayed up far too late and neglected way too many household chores in order to make one like it. Mine is smaller, with 3x5 inch postcards. It's the third baby quilt I needed, and I had been waiting for inspiration to strike. Thank you, Lisa, for the inspiration! Now I have three baby quilts that all need to be quilted and bound. I've done the fun part, but I need the quilting practice, so I'd better get started. Last night when I was in the height of my sewing frenzy, my sewing machine went ..clunk..thunk.. and then started knotting the bottom threads. I am soo thankful to have my backup machine.

Four of these lovely Hawaiian prints came from Lisa. She is the reason I started blogging almost exactly a year ago. She was having a giveaway and in order to be in the drawing I had to leave a comment. In order to leave a comment I had to have a blog. I was so happy to win her drawing, and the prize was her Happy Hula Hut pattern with four half yard cuts of beautiful Hawaiian fabric. What a great prize! I'm sure you can tell which of my postcards are the genuine article. The rest are imposters, but they look pretty.

I hope you have a great weekend.

Lake Farm Park 2009 Quilt Show

Last night Larry said, "The quilt show started yesterday; we should go tomorrow, don't you think?" What a delightful idea - we had a marvelous time. They had 250 quilts, and the only problem was that they were displayed so close together that I couldn't get far enough away to get good photographs. That didn't stop me of course. I took about 100 photos of my favorites. Each one of these charming gals was appliqued by hand.

Looking through a window at a Christmas tree.

This clipper ship was my favorite, but I was trying to figure out why the artist put flowers underneath instead of fish.

This one looked so amazing - I'm sorry the photo doesn't do it justice.

Lovely workmanship.

Interesting Celtic design.

Perfect points. This was Larry's favorite.

Another one that is completely hand appliqued. Can you imagine??

I enjoyed reading the artists' stories about why they made the quilts. This one was sad. The quilter said she hated everything about making this quilt, but her friends wouldn't let her give it up.

This one was made by someone who is legally blind. I just love the stained glass window effect.

This was entirely hand pieced and hand quilted - way beyond my comprehension.

This Hawaiin quilt is so pretty. I wish I could have gotten a photo of the whole thing, but there wasn't any room to move around to get a better shot.

You don't have to tell me how lucky I am to have a husband who not only remembered the quilt show, but suggested we go!

I need advice!

My mother in law is having a birthday, and I want to make something for her. She likes blue, so I quilted this lovely fabric for her, in the hopes of making a bag. After I finished it I decided it looks just right. . . for a diaper bag, which is NOT what I had in mind for her. I bought the pre-quilted fabric below when the quilt shop was having a Super Bowl sale last year. It would make a nice bag, but it's not blue.

Advice welcome!

This is what we eat on days when I don't cook. I really do prepare food, just not on the stove.

I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Let's do what we can to help.

I've been fortunate to make good friends in Australia through blogging. My heart aches for those suffering from the fires and floods. We can help by sending a donation to the Australian Red Cross. www.redcross.org.au

Blessings,
Diana