Surprise Thank You !

"You have put more joy in my heart than they

have when their grain and wine abound."

Psalm 4:7

All of your comments have been such a joy to read. I really appreciate all of them.  While I was on my journey posting about my trip it was comforting knowing you were all traveling along with me. While I was at the retreat I was fortunate to receive so many goodies, from threads, patterns and fun accessories. I would like to share some of my travel treasures with a couple of my loyal followers as a way of saying "Thank You".  I numbered all of my journey comments and used the random generator to help me pick out a couple of numbers.

My first place winner is : Catherine from Bramblewood Stitches.

My second place winner is : Cucki from Cucki Stitching Cove.

Both of these ladies are such loyal followers and it is my pleasure to send them a little thank you. Please email me your address and I will get a surprise package out to you.

"Kindness is the sunshine

in which virtue grows."

Robert Green Ingersoll

Always keep love in your stitches,

Teresa

PS: Please keep my SIL Cindy in your prayers. Hospice has now moved in and I am not sure how much time we now have left.







Finish, Field Trip and a Fun Package !

"Good humor is one of the best articles

of dress one can wear in society."

William Makepeace Thackgray





I think I am finally getting my normal quiet life back. My son left on Monday after a almost 4 week visit. It was really nice having him home. He did take up residence in my guest / stitching room. Since I returned from the retreat I have not been able to unpack my treasures and really sort them out. With him in the room and me going back and forth to SIL's they had to take the back burner. Now I am having fun going through it all and seeing just how much stash I managed to fit in my suitcase.

I have been able to finish the project from the first class. Belinda from Blue Ribbon Designs taught the class the cutest little shaker chair. You might remember in one of my retreat posts just how small this chair is.

Here is what Belinda's chair looked like:

After changing a few of the colors and going with my favorite pink theme, here is my finished chair:

I am super excited to tell you about a field trip I took this week. We have a new store that is only 24.7 miles from my house.

That's right we now have Hobby Lobby in California. I went to my mom's and loaded up her and her scooter and off we went. It was my mom's first time in a Hobby Lobby. We had the best time. She rode up and down every aisle. I think we were in there 2 hours. It is the first time I have been in one and didn't have to think, will this fit in the suitcase or is there any more room in the car for me to take this home.

One of my purchases was this ornament tree. I thought it would be a great size to hang some fobs or humbugs from. Even cuter at 50% off.

Right now it is sitting next to a fun little sewing machine lamp I got in New Hampshire. To bring it home in my carry on I got it without the shade. I just purchased the shade and it is part of my retreat unpacking. The quilt that is hanging in the background we found while cleaning out my grandmother's house. It was one of the first ones she made. There is lots of holes where the stuffing is coming out but I think it is my favorite. She really did make some beautiful quilts.

Today I got a fun package in the mail. I won a give away from Karen - Sew Much 2 Luv. I won the cutest apron. My daughter loves aprons and I can't wait to give it to her. Karen surprised me by adding a LHN pattern in the package. It is :"All Dolled Up". Can you believe I don't have this one.

Karen even has this cute little labels that say "Sew Much 2 luv". I thought her picture of the apron was much better than mine so I borrowed it off her blog.

Thank you so much Karen, it is just beautiful.

I am going to have a surprise announcement in a couple of days so keep posted.

Always keep love in your stitches,
Teresa

I'm still here!

"Kindness, I've discovered,

is everything in life."

Isaac Bashevis Singer

I am still here I haven't gone missing. Right after I got back from the retreat I had to go do a family favor. My husband's sister has cancer and was told if she wanted to go anywhere or do it now is the time. She has always wanted to see Italy.  She also has a 10 year old daughter. So why they went on a trip I stayed at their house and got my niece to bed each night and off to school in the morning. They live about 18 miles away but if I stayed here to take her to school would be right in the direction of traffic in the morning and that 18 miles would take us forever. While there also discovered sort of a hoarding problem so I spent most of my days cleaning my niece's room so she could find the floor. I was also busy at night helping with 5th grade fractions. It has been way too many years since I have helped with homework.  My SIL's trip was cut a bit short due to her illness and has since been hospitalized.  Please keep her in your prayers.

In the middle of all this my son is also home on leave and I have been trying to spend some time with him. Hopefully I can get back to regular blogging soon. I really miss it.

Meantime I have been lucky to receive this wonderful give away from Shannon at "A bit of this and that".

I am sorry to say I did not have time to stitch up these fun Halloween patterns this year, but look forward to stitching them next year. Thank you so much Shannon.

I participated again in "The Stitched With Love" exchange.  I sent my package to Ann in England, she does not have a blog.

I received a wonderful fun package from Pirjo, Finland. Her blog is pirjoka.blogspot.com.

Look at all the fun goodies. I just love the fall leave fabric. It so reminds me of my retreat trip to New Hampshire. There is a beautiful piece of hand dyed linen with matching beads and thread along with some pins. I just love LHN patterns and the one she sent is not one that I already have.

The little pillow that she stitched is the cutest ever. I love the little man trying to pick up the big pumpkin.  Thank you so much Pirjo for the wonderful package.

Meantime I am starting to work on my piece for the next exchange. I hope to post my retreat project  this week. I did manage to finish one of them. Sorry it has been so long since I posted.

Always keep love in your stitches,
Teresa