been a little under the weather lately

Bet you all wondered where I was these past two weeks..  We both ended up catching a cold two weeks ago and it just took it toll on us. So not much got done around the old homestead.. Haven't even been on the computer that much so my blog suffered.  But I am feeling so much better and I have been working on a few things that I thought you might like to see.

while I was sick I did do a little stitching, I didn't feel up to doing anything else, so two bird squares for the new monochrome bird quilt for WOCS

I also worked on the Lavender and Lace Enchanted Alphabet and the house Alphabet but no photos to show yet. I was just sitting and stitching.

Yesterday I felt well enough to add the borders to the bird squares that WOCS members have been sending in, I think they are so pretty.

 This is the St Patrick's Day Wall Hanging I made last month.  I had seen a photo of a  kit but couldn't find the kit anywhere, so I made my own pattern, I used my Accuquilt hearts die for the shamrocks and freehand cut the stems, appliqued on a light yellow scrap of fabric, added the borders and now I have a new Wall Hanging.

And before I go a photo of the latest addition to our family.. This is the runt of the litter, she weighed 2 ozs at birth and even though she is steadily gaining she still only weighs 8 ozs.. needless to say her litter mates are more then twice her size, but she holds her own in the puppy battles and she is first in line at chow time.  We have decided that she needs to stay with us and since Jenny renamed the puppy we were calling Tinkerbell that she got from us last month this little girl is now named Tinkerbell. She will be 5 weeks old in two days, she is the smallest dog I have owned or even seen..

Happy Valentine's Day

I finished this wall hanging last week, Just in time for Valentine's Day

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY

More Quilts are ready to go

I have been working on these quilts for awhile now, Holidays just kept getting in my way, but today I finished three quilts, they will soon be on their way to the nursing home.

The Birds and Crosses Quilt was requested for a lady at the nursing home, WOCS members stitched the squares and I assembled the top and quilted it.

The Fishing Quilt was stitched by WOCS members and Dona assembled the top, I quilted and finished it.

The Butterfly Quilt was my vision, I saw a pattern for a butterfly and thought how lovely to stitch that pattern in all different colors, Well, we didn't get permission for that pattern but another designer stepped up and designed a butterfly for our quilt, members stitched the butterfly in their choice of colors and picked out the fabric for the frame of their butterfly, I assembled and quilted.  This quilt went over so well, we found a bird pattern and will be stitching birds in colors like the butterflies.

dolly finish

Just a quick post with the latest finish... Another of my Dolly Mamas, this is one that my husband bought for me, so of the three he bought (quilting, cross stitching and crafting Mamas) I have two done and the cross stitching one to do. He said he will have the three framed for my sewing/crafting room.

isn't she just to cute.  LOL

I go from my 18 ct name welcome house, enchanted alphabet sampler, Celtic lady to my Dolly Mamas because they are stitched on 14 ct which gives my eyes a break from those other projects.  I also will take on some CCS pieces for my charity group like the hearts we just finished making as they are quick patterns on 14 ct.

I am just about finished with 4 charity quilts, they are quilted and now I need to bind them and they will be ready for delivery to the seniors.  When they are done I will finally be caught up, that is until the next set of CCS squares come in from my group. 

I also have the quilts I designed for my grand kids to work on, Mo asked about his the last time he was here so I guess I will have to get busy on those real soon. I have all the items I need for them I just need to get to work.

I did come up with a interesting fact the other day, as I entered a charity quilt into my quilt journal I realized that quilt was number 50.  This is so hard to imagine that I made 50 quilts for my charity group, and that number is not counting the ones that I made for family or the quilted wall hangings I made. I know my Mom would be so proud and probably amazed that I made that many. I also have the last quilt she worked on ready to go on the machine, I have put finishing this one for to long and now is the time to finish what would be our second quilt we made together, when done it will go to my son.

the tiny pups

I am still amazed at the size of Misty's 4 little puppies, they are so very tiny and look so delicate.  I know they are not as I watch them behave the way other pups have behaved with climbing over each other and scooting around the bed, and the runt makes sure she gets her fair share at feeding time. Mom is so gentle with her babies and I love the way she will try to hide them from view. She is torn between wanting to be with us and her babies and now and then we will get a 5 second visit from her.  Just to give you a idea on the size of the pups, I have taken photos of them with a pen and quarter.

 Cream colored boy 3.8 ozs

Dark Sable Girl 3.9 ozs

Sable Girl 3.2 ozs

And the little kid of the litter, she weighs 2.4 ozs

new pups

These 4 little tiny creatures are  the reason I didn't make it to bed last night.  The Mom started acting up yesterday and by last night she was in the early stages of labor.  Hubs stayed up with me until 3 am and then he went to bed as we still didn't have any pups... she was working on delivering them but not yet. She is the smallest dog we have and I was so afraid of her delivering, but she did fine.. first one at 4 am, next at 5 am, then 7 am and last one at 9:30 am.. and still I didn't sleep.  I finally got a nap in the afternoon after getting mom and the babies settled.  These are such tiny little kids, they weighed in between 2.4 and 3.7 .ozs 

progress

I have been working on trying to clear out some UFOs from last year... I assemble quilt tops, quilt and finish the quilts. November and December were quite busy for me with the charity work as I finished 12 quilts for a nursing home and 4 for ill children.. There were three left behind, a Monster quilt that another member sewed and sent to me for quilting, the butterfly quilt that we had 36 squares for and a special request for a bird and cross quilt for a lady with MS.  Once the hustle and bustle of the holidays was over it was now time to get back to work and finish these quilts, of course I did take time to make a quilt for Hubs birthday but here is a progress report on the others.

Butterfly quilt is waiting for quilting

Cross and bird quilt is waiting for quilting

I also have a Orange County Chopper quilt ready to be quilted for a young man who has cancer, I haven't gotten to take photos of that one yet.

this is the MONSTER Quilt, which was stitched by Nikki and the top was assembled by Dona who sent it to me to quilt.. I just know some lucky child will be thrilled with this colorful quilt.

The same member who sent me the monster quilt just sent another quilt for quilting it was stitched by WOCS members and the top was assembled by Dona...

I would have gotten more done this week in the quilting department, but I am keeping a watchful eye on my littlest Pom as she is getting ready to become a mom any day now.