Hooky fun and sweet friends

Two things I love!

Here is a bit of my hooky love. I made this lil' Bethany Bear on the fly. Writing up the pattern as I went.Thinking I will make more of her. She is made from wool and is very lightly stuffed. Her dress is closed at the bottom. Her hanger is ricketyrack. Right now she is hanging on our everyday tree, but will go on the Christmas tree one of these days. There is no mouth, that is just the stitch holes. Doesn't look so obvious in person. Bethany is 7-inches tall.

Look at this sweet box of goodies my retreat girlies gave me. Amgela's Advent Box. Sorry the tag photo is not very clear. It is all adorable. There is a sewn bag with a tag for each day. I had to wait about 2 weeks before I could bust into this baby!!! Oh the agony. Thankfully I had other distractions, Thanksgiving here and chemo, to keep me occupied. I will share along the way some of the sweet things I received. Miss Laura's daddy built the box. It is an awesome gift in itself! These ladies are simply amazing and I am blessed to call them my friends. Their thoughtfulness and encouragement is just boundless. Thank you my lovelies! You know who you are!!! I love you.

Today is my sweet sister Penny's birthday. I hope you can hop over and give her a birthday greeting.

I am blessed! ~Angela

I am blessed

I am a blessed girl. Family, friends, home and health (Even bad health is good health when you think of the alternative! Our daddy says any day you wake up above the green is a good day.) There is just so much to be thankful for. God is good to me in ways I cannot imagine, in ways I do not even see. I know I keep my guardian angels quite busy on a slow day!

The image below is a coloring page you can click on and print for the munchkins at your house on Thanksgiving Day. Something to keep them busy with while you are finishing getting the table ready.

It has been very blowsy and blustery here. Not many leaves left for the neighbors to sweep and rake. I do believe they have all landed at our back stoop. Toby is loving it. He loves fallen and blowing leaves. A good frolic is good for a puppy he thinks.

Our retreat last week was so good. My friends are amazing women with talents for friendship and for sewing/crafting. Much laughter and monkey business. :o) Thankful we will be meeting again in May. This will be our 10 year anniversary retreat. Plans are in the works to make it extra special. 

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours. 

I am blessed! ~Angela

Staying busy!

We have been so busy. Farmer's Market is over for the season. BUT we did 2 shows the following 2 Saturday's. Both were wonderful shows. And now we are heading to our annual autumn retreat with our online quilting friends, Backporch Friends, tomorrow. Just one more sleep. Love my girlies!! Our May retreat will be our 10th year!!! We are planning some special things for that one don't ya know!!! Would love to have all of the past attendees who could, come back. I have also started a booth in an antique mall with my sister Debbie. It is a really nice mall, lots of primitives and a good overall variety of wares. Still in the getting it stocked phase.

Here is a photo our Market Master Laura, posted on Facebook. I look frumpy and dumpy, but it shows a corner of the booth and Penny's yarn. She has more than this, but has it at the cooperative right now.

And of course our hats. We nearly sold out. Seriously! It was crazy. I am going to be hooking it like mad to get some inventory to the places I have promised them. Penny too. We have already been planning what new things to make for the market next year. Gotta have something new each year to excite everyone.

Hope everyone is doing well. I am sending out special prayers and hugs to our dear friend Sandra who recently lost her precious husband Dave. 

I am blessed. ~Angela

 "For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."
 Jeremiah 29:11 (NIV)

Birdies and a new family member

 This sweet lil pincushion I stitched with #8 red variegated pearl cotton, on mottled blue woolfelt.

Meet Charlotte Rose. Our newest family member :o) I always feel like when I make a batch of any kind of starter, I have taken on a dependent! All the feedings and changingstirring. She is a lovely batch of sourdough starter. I have had a craving for breads. I do love me some carbs you know. I had a batch going for several months, 2 years ago. BUT let it "pass away". I was on bunches of antibiotics at the time and got the worst of worst yeast infections in LOTS of places besides THAT place. Not a good combo. Took me two forevers to get all straightened up. Kinda did me in for a bit on sourdough. Well, I have taken my last infusion hopefully for a very long time 2 weeks ago, so we should be good to go.

After I come home from our annual quilting retreat, I plan on making a batch of Amish Friendship Bread starter also. Like I said, we do love our carbs! Speaking of retreats....woooohooooo it is coming soon, May 11th-15th. Cannot wait to see my friends! Such a great group of ladies from all over the US. We have a splendid time. Lots of sewing, laughing and catching up.

I am blessed. ~Angela

My Wool Crazy Block

My spring retreat group is doing a round robin of wool crazy quilt blocks. Completely of wool makes for a great block. (It is just laying on the fabric for the photo op.) This can be made into pincushions or mats. Here is the book that started the whole wool crazy mania. It is a really good book with alot of details.

We are working in groups of 4 and the final reveal will be at the May retreat. Cannot wait to see it when the other 3 ladies are have worked their magic! My starter applique is the spool of button posies. So I guess you would say I have a primitive theme. Hopefully we will do this 3 times this year, I want a winter and spring one also! You can go see Penny, Conni, Michelle, Laura, Peggy, Vickie and Robin to see their blocks as they get them posted. I am in the group with Michelle, Conni and Laura.
I am one of those crazy people who goes outside and bangs on pots and pans at midnight on New Year's Eve as the ball drops. Rethinking it this year. It is storming with rain and thunder!!! Guess I will save the banging to do in the ears of all those I call to wish a Happy New Year! Well I always do that anyways. It honestly is a wonder anyone answers their phone. I think they must forget from year to year! hahaha Don't be looking at your caller id in a minute.. I am calling YOU next! :))
Happy New Year~Angela

My giftie

From sweet Michelle at retreat. I love it! (And borrowed the pic from her blog.) All Civil War repro fabrics. Very yummy! WE love it!

Just what I needed

These ladies were so awesome. Made the retreat just a good, relaxing time. No drama. Just a lot of sewing, crafting, eating and visiting. See that lil' munchkin in the front row? She was the life of our party! The smartest 5 year old I have ever seen. I know many of the ladies really needed this time of refreshing. Plain and simple, I needed a change of scenery. I will share a few more pics soon. Trying to play catch up on my rest a bit more. 

Hope everyone is warm and well.

~Angela

Better times are a'comin'

And they start tomorrow! Cause I am seeing all these friends this week! And having a bit of a virtual retreat with Michelle in Canada too. Fun times.

The long awaited November Quilt Retreat is here! Finally. Old friends and new ones too. Cannot wait to have a fun time. I need it! (And I know everyone else does too!) The past several weeks haven't been great healthwise. I hate lupus. But not gonna dwell on it tonight. Praying my body will play pretty and I can just enjoy my coming week. I plan on building my nest and parking it there. :o) Even taking my sewing machine. Which has not seen the light of day since MAY! Yes you read it here. So we will see what happens. Of course I am taking a huge stash of yarn.
The photo is the name tags I painted for everyone. Giving you a peek cause hopefully the girls are all getting rested for the drive to Indiana tomorrow and not cruisin' the net. The name tags are pretty simple, but they are what they are. Finished!!!! hahaha Which is HUGE! But then they are huge too, 4 1/2-inch long packing tags. I hadn't painted in even longer than I had sewn! Sheesh. Thank God I can crochet I am just telling ya. 

Have a sweet week everyone!

I love my friends and sisters!

Front Row- Vickie, Lori, Patti, Peggy, Me, Connie and Nancy

Back Row- Christie, Conni, Deb, Robin, Laura, Penny (my real sissy) and Michelle

This is the group shot from our annual online quilt group's retreat. Us in front were sitting on a soaked wooden bench! :o) We were missing some who couldn't come. (Prayers for my sister Debbie's family. She has lost both of her in-laws in 8 days. Very hard.)  These ladies are so great! And so fun. And so talented. And so bad! :o))) Much laughing and eye rolling occurs at our retreats. But all in good fun. No drama. Just relaxing and a respite from some of our real life. There was quilting, crocheting, beading, knitting and crafting all accomplished. No cars were totaled by storms either. How boring!!!!!!!!! hahahaha

I will be hosting a first time retreat in November. Looking forward to seeing old friends and making new ones! By then, I will be needing another get-a-way for sure!

More photos to come.

Last of Retreat...

This is the cutest purse from Michelle C. It has a zipper on the outside at the top AND one on the inside, plus pockets. I love it!

Last night I completed this mini top. I started the baskets at Retreat. It measures 12 x 15-inches. Blue shirting is the background. The border fabric is not quite as dark as it shows up, navy with tiny stars. These are 3-inch paper piece blocks. I am thinking Christmas pressies right now, so perhaps???

More from Retreat

Getting this one ready to quilt and bind. Very pink!

At Retreat everyone brings or donates locally, a cradle quilt for the local Problem Pregnancy Center. There is a huge need for these. Last week I spoke to someone in their office and made my appointment to drop off our collection. The lady on the phone was so excited. Said they were in great need of all sizes. But they also needed special ones for preemies. Smaller than normal size, very soft and no batting (because the weight would be too much for the tiny babies). I hurried and whipped up 2 with Minkee centers over the weekend. And she also told me of another need. This one broke my heart. The local hospital needs bereavement blankies for babies born too early. This is the last picture above. They need something tiny to wrap the wee babies in. I used what Minkee I had, which was all pink and made 10 1/2-inch squares. Sewed them together and bagged them out. Did a simple straight stitch around to hold the front and back together. Will be picking up white and blue Minkee when I can. I made 6 of the pink ones. This is the softest fabric and I couldn't help thinking of the babies skin being even softer. The parents will have something to keep.

Goodies I collected at Retreat! Peanut from Robin, the sewing angel from Connie and my mini quilt I won in the draw from Liz.

Fabric basket from Liz (I loaded it up quickly.) and woolfelt pincushion from Peggy. I still have more to post. Not everything was in my playhouse for the photo op. LOL

Bloggers glitches over with.

So glad that has passed. No pics of retreat goodies yet. Have been resting and had a treatment on Thursday. Family was over yesterday for an indoor picnic. Gotta love rain on a picnic planned day! NOT. Loved the family being here though. Shayla corralling plum wore me out though! She was Miss Sassy and needed alot of attention. She loves baby Jaidyn, but is a bit insecure at the same time. So more resting today, like ALLLL day. Which is funny, cause I have felt so restless. But I have been wanting to catch up with my blog reading and was sad I kept getting the error message the past couple of days.

Be sure to head on over to Conni's blog for "the rest of the story". And see her sweet new ride!

Retreats rock!

My Retreat buddies...(starting from the front l to r) Michelle, Robin, Liz, Lori, Nancy, Patti, Conni, Connie, Sherrie, Penny, Me, Peggy, Vickie, Laura and Michelle. My sister Debbie didn't make it into the pic, she left a bit early. Friends from Canada, NJ, CA, NC, WI, MO, IN, NY, TX, MN and ID. Two sets of sisters. What a great time we had. I forgot my camera gosh darn it. But hop through their blogs for tons of pics.

We played from midday Wednesday til breakfast on Sunday. Started missing them as soon as we all parted. One of the best retreats I have hosted honestly. It just worked. An amazing, loving group of ladies.

On the very first night a good ole Indiana storm blew through. The bottom line is that Conni's car got hit by a fallen tree and totalled out. This happened right outside the sewing room and about 20 minutes after the girls had just came in from a food run. The tree could have just as easily smashed through the building and landed on the girls. At the very least, busted out the windows behind where several were sitting. God had His protective hand on us that is for positive!!!

I am excited about sewing again. The retreat really motivated me. This has been a rough winter for me and I have just not been up to much sewing/crafting. Just did a ton of crocheting from my chair. At retreat I completed 2 twin size disappearing 9patch quilt tops, a wallhanging/table topper and a couple of small items. This was huge for me. So yayaya for me!

I will post pics of my retreat projects and goodies as soon as I get photos taken. I will be needing this week to recoup. But it is a good worn out. :o))

Girls....love you all! Thank you for an amazing time.

I am just sayin'...

A person should be able to have company, even out of COUNTRY company without practically ripping their house apart to clean. I should have dropped the "practically", cause this house has been torn apart. It was horrible!!! Ssure it would be expected to spruce things up. But not digging through what I have been! EEWWWIE! Where does all this dust/dirt come from? I know my dh changes the furnace filter. I told him tonight that Michelle needs to come more than once a year (What is UP with THAT anyways??? You used to come lots more. Saving this discussion for in person bytheby...). At least then maybe the house would be cleaned twice a year! Poor Toby, I think he has dust allergies also. He has been sneezing all week. I cannot believe we have lived this way! No wonder I am sick huh??? I am just sayin'...

Oh and my friends are coming to Indiana next week for our annual Backporch Friends Retreat! Cannot wait to see them all. It starts on Wednesday. Will try to take a bunch of picks. Many of the girls have blogs I can link to. Stay tuned!