Dear Jane J10 Chieko's Calla Lily

the above is scanned

above is a photo....which looks best, scanned or photo? 

I just finished my 10th block.  This one is right out of the book.  So far I have 110 pieces in these 10 blocks. I am going to keep track of them.  In the original quilt there were 5,602 pieces.  I am keeping track on an excel spreadsheet....I wonder how Jane kept track!  She had embroidered her total count on her quilt!   I get my inspiration from a wonderful blog called "That quilt".  I decided to do the same one she had online on Friday!  Thanks to Anina for all her hard work on the Dear Janes.  It make it easier for all of us! 

Dear Jane ~ 6 blocks

Here are my version of Dear Jane's...numbers 3 - 9 out of 169.  Some of these are the actual design and some of these are made up.  I am going to mix it up with a little of everything.  I am going to also name them differently so don't be confused if you don't recognize the designs or the names!  It will just make it more fun for me. 

Dear Jane ~ A 6  Uncle Kelly (my favorite Uncle)

Something Fishy   (my design)

Sunshine     (my design)

Uncle Rorschach      (my design)

Framed     (my design)

Dear Jane ~ I 3    Family Album

Here is the link to other Dear Janes I have made so far!

YoYo's and Beads

This quilt is for my mom.  It is very small, only 16" by 16".  Last January when my husband was in LaJolla CA for a business trip, he took suddenly ill and was admitted to Scripps Memorial.  I got the call and went running out there to be with him.  While going back and forth from the hotel to the hospital I found this lovely quilt shop in LaJolla and looked for something I could do by hand because I was needed something to do with my time during his week long hospital stay.  So I bought this Moda Charm Square pack and made some YoYo's.  These YoYo's have been sitting around with nothing special planned and then my mom took them and put them on this fabric and gave it back to me.  I did the quilting and the embellishing with the beads and now just have to put the border on.  The border is the scraps from cutting out the YoYos from the Charm packs.  The scraps are ironed onto double sided wonder that sits on top of some white fabric and then crazy quilted in place.  The only additional fabric that was used is the peice under the yoyo's. 

 

The beading and quilting are hand done.

Lunch with blogging friends!

Lunch yesterday with Pat and Kathy went great!  We met in Bethany Beach Delaware at a restaurant called "Cottage Inn" and had a wonderful lunch.  We talked, laughed and enjoyed ourselves! 

From left to right:  Me, my mom Suzanne, Pat (A Little of this a Little of Pat) and Kathy (Creative Urges).  Pat gave me this adorable present.  She knows the author of this gift book and she used her quilt block in the book as you can see.  This is Pat's page, see the little kitty in the window?  Very cute! 

After lunch we headed inland for a visit to a wonderful quilt shop called .....Serendipity in Dagsboro, Delaware.  Pat wanted to show this quilt show to me since I was complaining that there was not a shop near our summer beach house.  She just had to show me and boy am I glad she did!  The ladies at this shop are just wonderful.  They are knowledgeable, helpful and kind.  A very laid back shopping experience.  I was very happy and had to go shopping!  Here is a picture of the ladies and the shop:

Dear Jane A8 Florence Nightengale (the red one above)

Dear Jane A7 Dad's Dots (the yellow one, renamed)

At Serindipity I bought 5 yards of Moda's off white high quality cotton to start my Dear Jane blocks.  I started last night and made two of them by hand.  I am loving this but these are the easy ones!  They get really difficult!  It will be a challenge thats for sure.  Well, we had a great day and I can't wait to do it again sometime soon. 

UFO from 1982

I was helping my mom clean up her sewing room and look what I found...several squares she made in 1987!   There are some stains but in general they are gorgeous.  She gave them to me to "do something with them".  I will just have to finish this sampler quilt for her.  She told me each one she made was to teach her a different technique.  So stay tuned...it will have to wait until later because today I leave for the Ocean City Maryland to our beach condo where I am meeting up with Pat from "A little of this and a little of Pat".  Tomorrow we meet for lunch and a quilt shop adventure.  My mom is going with me and Pat is bring a friend.  We should have some fun girls time together.  I will take my camera with me so I can share our visit with you. 

What do you think?  A gold mine right?  Now you know where I get my talent from.  Thanks MOM!!!!

BOHICA!!

BOHICA...Bend Over, Here It Comes Again....So here in Maryland USA, we are getting ready to get hit again with a major snow storm.  Last Friday and Satuday we had a storm of major proportion, we were slammed with 38 inches which did not get cleared off our streets until last night.  As you can see in this picture, the front end loader got stuck on our street.  It took 10 men with shovels to get it unstuck.  Here is the picture from late yesterday afternoon after the truck was dug out:

Now we are slotted to get another 20 inches!!!  It has already started.  It will be 70 inches for the total snowfall so far this year!  An all time record for Maryland!  Maybe the winter olympics should have been in Maryland this year because there isn't much snow in Vancouver! 

While at work over the weekend, during the storm, we got a baby brought to us at the JOHNS HOPKINS NICU that was born at home and delivered by the National Guard!  How cool is that?  I guess it would be difficult to get to the hospital in a 38 inch snow storm especially in a hurry!  I was able to make it to work over the last two nights but now I am off work for 12 days.  I feel guilty taking some vacation after having to take leave for my illness and then my mom's but I am in snow may cancel things. 

MEETING A FELLOW BLOGGER NEXT WEEK ~

Next week, on Monday morning, I am headed to our beach house in Ocean City Maryland for some girls time.  My two best friends are joining me for Monday and Tueday and then on Wednesday, I am excited to meet for the first time Pat from "A Little of This and a Little of Pat".  We have a lunch date and then she is taking me to quilting shop that I have never been to in Dagsboro Delaware.  We have been blogging friends since I started this blog in October.  I sure hope Pat and I will be able to meet with this impending snow mess.  I am just so excited to meet a fellow quilting blogger.  Anyone else in the vicinity next Wednesday is welcome to join us or come to the beach!  Take care and STAY WARM! 

No snow plow in sight til Tuesday

Never made it to work last night but tonight I am getting picked up for work.  The neighborhood community has access to a website that lists when your address plans to get plowed out...ours not until Tuesday afternoon.  So I am packed to get picked up now and plan on staying at work until my final shift Tuesday morning is over.  Bye for now!

Waiting for the NATIONAL GUARD

I am supposed to work tonight at Johns Hopkins.  I am an RN in the NICU with all the babies.  I called to tell work I couldn't make it out of my neighborhood and I was told the National Gaurd has been activated and the Hospital was coordinating ways for everyone to get to work.  I am ready and waiting in case they call and can get me now even though my shift is not until 7pm tonight.  I am waiting for the call to walk about a mile to the nearest cross street.  I don't think they take you home once they get you there.  I am packing enough clothes and food for a couple of days.  I have to work Sat, Sun and Mon night anyway so I may as well just stay there or in a nearby hotel until the roads are safer to pass. 

Look how deep the snow is now!  They says it's over 24 inches and it is still coming down with a prediction of 36 inches!  The last storm Maryland saw that was this big was in 2003. 

There has NOT been a snow plow come down our court since last night.  The entire community is private and about 50 homes are are totally snowed in!

I think Dale our Golden Retriever has about 10 pounds of snow balls on his belly!  When he comes in from the outside I have to take him to the bath tub and rinse his belly with warm water.  If I don't do that, I have snow balls dropping all over the house as they melt.  He was eating the snow balls off of himself in this picture.

Our cars look like SUVs. 

Last week we had a snow storm that required Kevin to drive me to work and pick me up.  I was not comfortable making the drive.  At that time, Kevin had put his boots in the trunk of my car and this morning when we getting dressed to go out in the snow to start shoveling, we realized his boots were still in the trunk of my car!  This is how difficult it was to get to them out of the trunk!  Funny.

Found a Giveaway!

Please check out Noelle's giveaway over at her blog called and sew and sew on!  Her little houses are adorable!  She sells these on etsy and she has many to choose from.