The kindness of others.....

Have you ever had "one of those days"

when you just can't wait to get home

so you can cry all by yourself?

Well, I sure had one today.

I was on my way home from the grocery store,

and I was within eyesight of the freeway on ramp

and my car died in traffic.

I mean dead, muerte, nil, nada.....

It suddenly smelled like something was burning

and the gas pedal didn't work 

I just slowly came to a stop in traffic!

First of all

I did what any woman with my skill 

and knowledge of cars would do.....

I panicked!

Cars around me started to honk at me

 as if I could do something about it.

My hazards are flashing for a reason folks!!!

Anyways,

One nice man stopped

 and helped me push it out of the way.

I was still shaking when  I called AAA.

They told me the tow truck would be about 30 minutes.

The nicest tow truck driver showed up 10 minutes later.

Super nice and funny too.

Win win :)

He said it looked like the engine was blown.

Great....awesome....fabulous.

Praise God we've already done our taxes

and I guess I know where the refund is going.

But it could always be worse.
It could have happened yesterday coming home from Irvine

on the freeway going 75 miles an hour.

But it didn't.....

God was watching over me,

I feel thankful.

Shaken, tearful, but thankful :)

Once I was home I had a good cry

and I opened the door to collect my mail

and look what I found!!!

This lovely package from one of my online friends Connie!

Thank you Thank you Thank YOU!!!

If there was EVER a day for chocolate...

this was the day!

Look how cute she embroidered

my name on the mug rug!

I love it so much.

Yes.....I ate all the chocolate already :) 

Don't judge...

it was a stressful day.

And since I am talking about the kindness of others,

I'll share a picture of another package I received last week

from my buddy Amy.

The flannel will become some cute jammie shorts

and how cute is that angel?

There was also a bar of chocolate 

from her recent trip to Switzerland

but you can already imagine what happened to that :)

And a jar of Jalapeno jelly she made

that my hubby made quick work of.

So even though this is not the way

 I would have planned this day to turn out,

I am thankful for caring friends,

my loving family,

and most of all

my God who loves me and kept me safe :)

Who's on first?

Today I get to sew just for the fun of it.

I love days like this :)

I decided to piece the table runner made from

the "friendship star" blocks that I told you about.

I used a pattern I've used once before here.

It looks so different in these fabrics.

I just love the way it's coming together

and I love the fact that the blocks were

made by my dear friends that I met online.

How awesome is that?

I know we'll be friends for life

and this runner will always remind me of our time together:)

I'm not quite sure yet how I want to quilt it.

Maybe some big stitch hand quilting?

We'll see :)

My wonderful mail carrier brought me some goodies 

these past 2 days.

I received by Old Fashioned Calicoes jelly roll

and 2 charm packs of Give Thanks.

I'm in love with both fabric lines!

And the fall charms are perfect for my home

because of all the reds in there!

Do you see that hounds-tooth?

Don't you just love it?

And did I mention polka dots?

Nuf' said :)

I have to decide on which Schnibbles pattern to use for the charm packs.

It's between these 2.

For the Calicoes jelly roll I have the pattern already picked out.

Now the only question is.........

Who's "on" first??????

Good Times, Great Friends!

I can't believe a year has gone by since Regena and Denise

came down to So Cal to spend the weekend and go to the 

International Quilt Festival in Long Beach with Amy and I.

We had a few more ladies join the fun this year,

Sam, Marcia and my Mom :)

Here are a few of my favorite quilts.

(There were many more, but most didn't allow photos)

This one was my absolute fav!

The tulips look like they are coming right out of the quilt.

My Mom was a big fan too!

The photos don't do it justice.

Amazing!

This next photo is one of the one of the fun booths that caught my eye.

It's a company called Reets Rags To Stitches.

They have cute apron patterns and bag patterns and 

fun primitive stuff :)

Check it out at www.reetsragstostitches.com

This next photo is American Jane........*sigh*

It's my happy place.

I wanted everything in there!!!

You can check out their website here:

AmericanJane.com

Gena gave the "Sweet 16" machine a run for it's money.

Pretty "Sweet" indeed!

Last year at the Quilt Festival the 4 of us all purchased the 

same charm pack with the intention of making a 

"Friendship" tablerunner,

with one star block made by each of us.

So on Saturday we got together and worked on our blocks.

After we finished making 4 blocks each

we chose one from each set to make up our 4 blocks.

I can't wait to make my runner with

one block from each of my friends.

It's something I will cherish :)

We had a great weekend and it went by 

way to quickly again.

Now we have 12 months to get ready for the next one!

It's been a busy weekend!

So by now, you know who these little beauties are. That's Sofie on the right and Evie on the left. They couldn't be any more beautiful and this picture just captures my heart!

Have you ever had a weekend that is so filled with joy and happy times that you are overwhelmed and exhausted but in the best possible way? I had the best time with Amy, Regena and Denise this weekend!!!

 (and I"ll never look at helicopters the same again...just sayin) 

And as if that wasn't enough, our son and his wife moved into their very 1st home!

 It's only 5 minutes away from Amy's house! How cool it that?

There's just something so wonderful about buying your first home!

After all the stress and all the hoops you have to jump through,

to finally be able to move in is just so amazing!

It worked out great for me to be able to sew

with "the Crafty Chicas"

and then hop in the car and zoom over to the new house

and see the kids and then zoom back to Amy's beautiful home for more sewing :)

Amy has such a lovely home.

 Every inch of her home is so lovely and welcoming...

just like Amy :)

We laughed alot, shared stories, ate snacks,

 and even got some sewing done!

I was able to finish his big bag for my dearest friend Marcia.

She is such a "giver".

Always thinking about how she can help others.

I wanted to remind her to take things easy

 and to know that I love her and value her friendship :)

I also made this little bag to hold my perle cotton bubbles

and it matches the big bag I made last week. This

little bag holds about 8 bubbles and my scissors and thimble.

I actually "re-made" the bag because the first time around

it felt flimsy to me. I took the entire thing apart and added

fusible fleece to the lining to give it a bit more substance.

After our "Saturday Sewing Fest" Amy and Regena

 made dinner for us.

Fried chicken and homemade biscuits with

tomato cucumber salad and mashed potatoes and gravy!

We finished it off with Upside Down Pineapple Cake!

Jose joined us for dinner and we ate

outside in Amy's beautiful backyard.

I can't tell you how wonderful it was to spend time

 together with these fabulous women and it was fun for

Jose to get to meet them too.

He said on the way home that he can totally see

why we get along so well :)

Day 2 of Crafty Chicas Weekend!

NOTE: Please click on these photos to enlarge them so you can

truely appreciate the amazing details of these quilts!

After the most fabulous homemade breakfast at Amy's house, we headed off to

the Long Beach Convention Center for the International Quilt Festival.

One of my favorite booths at the show was Lazy Daisy Cottage! I love these fun bright prints and we met the fabric designer and her hubby. I wanted all of these fabrics, but I had to control myself, there was still so much more to see, so I walked away with one charm pack :)

How gorgeous is this? The center of the sunflower is all beaded by hand! Awesome!

This quilt was fun and colorful, but not really a favorite of mine,

but the 3 ladies in the photo are definately favorites :)

How cute is this quilt?

I am so in love with this fabric!

It's called Breath of Avignon and yes, I already own this fabric :)

Here's Amy and Denise at the American Jane booth.

I would have taken the entire booth home if  I could have.

Those are definately my colors!

I had to take a picture of this quilt for Regena :)

Isn't it cute?

Here's another picture of the Lazy Daisy Cottage booth.

The quilts and the fabrics are just soooo yummy!

This quilt pattern can be found HERE

I love love love this little quilt!

I mean seriously.....?

We stopped by Birdbrain Designs booth. (Remember the fabulous Perle Cotton bubbles?)

I picked up some more Perle Cotton and Amy and Regena

also picked up a few fun items they couldn't go home without!

The 2 sisters who own it were so sweet and helpful :)

Amy was having too much fun at the Bernina booth.

(Don't you just love Regena's smile?)

Here we are with our treasures in tow and our sore feet.

Happy and ready to head back to Amy's for pizza and some time to

drool over our purchases :)

This is what I came home with. Quilt batting, fat quarters,

 charm packs, yardage and some perle cottom.

Let the crafting begin!!!!

We're off to a great start!

How crazy cute is my new Minion?

 Regena stitched this onto a dish towel for me.

 Is he not seriously fabulous????? Love love love him!!!

And this is the aftermath of our outing to M & L yesterday.

Some of these fabrics are for a specific purpose

 and some are "just because". 

We had a lovely dinner last night.

These ladies are such a crack up

and it was fun for my hubby to get to meet them :)

Today we are off to the International Quilt Festival!

I can hardly wait!

Guess who's coming to dinner?

Today is quite a big day! My blogger buddies from Antioch California, Regena and Denise are driving down to Southern California to meet up with Amy and I to attend the International Quilt Festival in Long Beach tomorrow. Amy lives about 30 minutes from me an we've already spent some time together "thrifting". She is so much fun! The 4 of us met through apron swaps and have become truly good friends! This is the first time that we will all meet face to face! We have shared so much together this past year and we've laughed together (A LOT) and cried together (OK...Regena doesn't really cry)  and today we are going to shop together! Yep, that's right.....a trip to M & L yardage is on the agenda for this afternoon and then dinner at my house. I'm making Picadillo, a Cuban dish (you can find the recipe here) and cheesecake for dessert :) Yum!

On Saturday night Regena is going to make fried chicken.....

oh my!!!

 I can already tell you that the best part of this weekend is going to be the laughter and the memories we are about to make!

Great friends, fabulous fabrics and good food....

what's not to love?

Out of the blue.....

I went to Irvine this morning to drive my daughter to her baby appt (no baby yet) and then stopped by the grocery store on the way home. Just after I finished my lunch, I heard the mailman ring my doorbell.

When I opened the door I saw this red package on my porch! My sweet friend Jill had offered a

"handcrafted by Jill" giveaway on her blog a while back and I was a winner! I had completely forgotten about it and what a lovely surprise it was to receive a package from her out of the blue like that!

 She is so talented! She designed and made this adorable Fairy pincushion and can you believe that chicken painted on a sand dollar? It's a magnet! Yes....she painted it!

She also included that super fun red wooden shoe because she knows that I was born in Holland!

And 3 wonderful doll patterns!

There are people you will meet in life who are so wonderfully thoughtful and generous that when they give you a gift, it is always something that you truly love and not necessarily what they themselves love.

Clearly Jill is like that :)

 

Girlfriends :)

the "toe point" seal of approval :)

the undercover "Ho"

Oh...if you could smell this!

Yeah baby...that IS Mr. T :)

can you see those little race car buttons????

Well I'm not gonna lie, I've not been feeling well lately. This crazy weather has really taken it's toll on me with my Fibro. I was particularly "whiny" last week and I hate that! My dear friends put together two separate packages to surprise me and they both arrived today! The apron swap we were all involved in is ending right about now and the theme was Spring Fling. You were to make an apron and then include 3 tuck-ins that represent the recipient's initials. Well they put together an
amazing extra swap package for me! Regena made me this fabulous apron with 2 embroidered "Ho"s (which goes back to our Christmas swap :) Denise made these "oh-so-wonderul-smelling" Lilly of the Field Sachets (L for my middle initial) and the darling matching Kleenex case. Amy sent me Mr. T and an embroidery pattern T and flower quilt templates for my last name initial. She also sent an embroidery pattern K and a fantastic quilt book by Kaffe Fassett for my first initial. She included wonderful rick rack and trim and fabric to make cute girly things for my grand daughters and darling little race car buttons! After opening these 2 packages of love and friendship I cried like a big mush bucket (as Regena calls me). I seriously can't believe that they put so much time and care into this for me. I love love love it and I am so blessed by their friendship!