Anniversary

Today is a good day. First, it's my anniversary! Not my blogiversary or whatever, but my actual wedding anniversary (4 years... that's always the next question). Second, it's the first day of spring (Yeah! And not a moment too soon if you ask me). And last but not least, it's my 1/2 birthday! I know it's silly, but I love pointing that out. It's sort of like an Alice in Wonderland un-birthday. Not my real birthday, but still worth celebrating.

My wedding was also on the first day of spring (it's not always March 20, btw), and I loved wedding flowers. This is possibly my favorite wedding picture, even though there aren't any people in it.


The all red bouquet in the middle was mine, and the mulit-colored ones were the bridesmaids'. If gerbera daises don't say "spring" then I don't what does.

Here's another one of my favorites...my hubby looks like a jack rabbit! When the photographer said "jump", he took that to mean, "Jump as high as you can. Your football coach is hiding in the bushes to meaure your vertical." Men. He hates this picture, so feel free to tease him about it if you ever see him.

Here we are, the happy couple. It always amazes me how young we look. I guess we were, even though it didn't feel like it then. We are high school sweethearts (although I don't really care for that term), so we dated over 6 years before we took the plunge. So for those keeping track, that's over 10 years that we've been together.


If I had to do it all over again, I wouldn't change a thing.

This and that

Sorry about the hold up on the pics. I said I would post some during the commercials of American Idol last week, but I chose to eat instead. Sorry. I love blogging, but if I have to choose between blogging and food, food wins hands down.

I was telling you last week that the mail had been good to me, and it has. For instance here's a pic of me and my new bag, purchased from Artsy-Crafty Babe.

Please ignore the dirty mirror and the lotion bottles. I didn't realize the mirror was that dirty. Guess what, it's still like that. Oh well. Anyway, I immediately transferred purses when this little beauty came in the mail, and I love it. Love. A lot. So cute, and just the right size. And did you notice the button pin on the handle? Love these. They are so much cuter in real life than they are in pics. I'm going to have to try some. Check her blog for more info.

And just because I didn't have anything better to do (yeah, right), I started a new quilt. I was straightening up in the shop the other day, and I ran across this pattern from Calico Printworks. I think the pattern has been here literally since the first day I opened the shop, but all of a sudden I was inspired by it. What do you think?

The paisley in the side-setting triangles is a bit overwhelming, but I think once the whole quilt it done it will be good. The quilt is big, queen-sized I think, so there are a lot more blocks than this picture shows. It's coming along rather quickly, and I'm excited to finish it. I have a million other things I should be doing (and other quilts to finish for that matter), but sometimes you just have to sew, ya know? I seriously think I have quilting ADD or something, because I can't stick with one project for too long.

Well, I think that's enough for now...we'll see what tomorrow brings.

My favorite people...

There isn't a lot of sewing going on at my house lately...I spent last weekend out of town with family. Otherwise, I've been working quite a bit. However, the mail has been very good to me lately, so I'll catch you up on that the next time I have a chance to snap some pictures. I ran the batteries dead on my camera this weekend taking pictures of my adorable niece and nephew (above), but the batteries are on the charger was we speak. American Idol is tonight, and I'm watching it come hell or high water, but maybe I'll take some pictures during the commercials.

So...I'll be back soon.

Bring on Spring!

It's finally finished! I don't remember when I started piecing this one, and I don't want to know. It's finished, and after a brief tour at the shop, it's going home to be showcased in the guestroom (the only bedroom that visitors at our house get to see).

This quilt is rather large (75" x 93", I think), so it took me several nights to get the binding done. Most quilting books will tell you to use a whip-stitch or blind-stitch to hand sew a binding on a quilt, but I tried out a new stitch on this quilt that I think works much better for really hiding your stitches. It's called the ladder stitch, and I discovered it through Sharon Schamber's video on youtube. I've tried gluing down my binding like she does, but I didn't have my glue bottle rigged up properly, so I wasn't very successful. I think if I took the time to actually do it like she says, it think it would have worked. However, since I don't do that many show quilts, I'm okay with just using binding clips or pins to hold my binding in place while I stitch it down. I'm just not that picky.

I've got more binding to do this evening while I watch Idol. I've been doing lots of machine quilting lately (for customers, not myself) so not much to show on that front. I broke down and made the dreaded trip to Walmart on Monday night. Along with all the shampoo and t.p. and other mundane stuff, some Easter candy found its way into my basket. It was a happy accident that my afternoon snack matched a piece of fabric that was laying around.

I know you can order M&M's in any color you want all year long, but I can never resist buying them on holidays. Easter is definitely my favorite candy-buying holiday.