Sunny Days

Just finished my sample for next months intermediate quilting class at Scrapbooks. It's called Sunny Days and we'll be learning 1/2 square triangles, quarter squares and then a pieced border too. I added a little flange to the outside of mine between the binding and quilt so we'll even talk about adding that little design feature! Classes start in March on thursdays, and the quilt's hanging now at Scrapbooks just in time for us to think SPRING!

It's Raining Dogs and Cats!

Barb and I finished up with the last class of It's Raining Dogs and Cats at Scrapbooks Etc. Everyone started their quilts last friday with the shopping day learning how to stack a buggy barn style quilt, how colors and values all work, they were all so anxious to start the stack and slash and shuffle method that is so fun. Everyone got one of their dog or cat blocks done and then moved on to learn the flower also, a few got a few more parts all ready to go also. So we have this charming pink white and black cat by Ce!
And Tash is making hers for a friend and she wanted all neutrals, it's going to be the most elegant set of cats!
Here is Nancy with hers, this first one she said is "ghost" one of the cats she's had in her life!
Natalie was doing all brights, it's going to be a fun quilt!
Check out this purple kitty!
this one looks like a dalmation cat or maybe a cow cat???
And here is a yellow one. Everyone had a great time and really had fun looking at each others as they'd finish. Barb and I will do 2 more next quarter, so we are leaning towards "witches" for halloween quilts and maybe the sailboat one! So we'll see!
And out of the class of 9 taking the class we only had 2 dogs.....I was so surprised, I figured the dog one would be the one we'd have more doing. Here is Marti with hers, it's for her Grandson.
And Susan with hers, that background on this one is coffee beans, her 2 pups have coffee names so she used a fun selection of fabrics with coffee on them! So Buggy barn for this quarter is over, we'll be looking forward to the next one for summer time!

Intermediate Quilt Class

We finished up our intermediate quilt class of Polka Dots and Pinwheels today. Theresa couldn't make it but the other 3 did a fantastic job of having their blocks all done and ready to go. We layed them out and they had them together in no time. Here is Silvana's. Her very first quilt she's ever done. She learned alot and is jumping in with both feet! The little prints are cute dogs and cats.She's putting a cute brown with white polka dot border on it.Becky's came out darling, she's ready to put her black background with white polka dot border on it with black minkie on the back, won't it be cuddly!
Ruth has hers done and you can see her border that she's adding to it.
They did such a great job. I'm putting the binding on the sample for the next intermediate quilt class at Scrapbooks now so it'll be in the store on monday.

Sew and Go project

Barb and I finished up this cute basket yesterday, our sew and go for Tuesday March 1st. I can see this basket all cute with washcloths/soap sort of things in a bathroom, in baby colors filled with diapers, manly colors it could be for the TV remotes, what a fun easter basket. Time to cut kits at work tomorrow, it'll be fun choosing lots of color ways. I have a feeling this will be one of the popular ones requested for the night time class! Come make one...March 1st 11-3 at Scrapbooks.

Tooth Fairy Pillow

I finished another class sample. This one is a tooth fairy pillow. We'll be stitching and then learning how to finish the pillow part. I made mine in more "boyish" colors since I'm lucky enough to get alot of little Grandboys! This class is on April 11 at Scrapbooks Etc.

A fun rainy Sunday!

It's a rainy sort of day in Arizona today, perfect day to stay in and sew! Our plans of spending a few hours in the yard cleaning up more of the winter dead frosted plants was nixed...oh darn! So instead Bode and Chris came and met us for breakfast and came over to play for awhile. Bode showed us his new super-cute rolling technique! He had a nap and Chris helped me with all his wonderful Computer guru techniques(thankyou Master Engineer for digging me out!) and has me up and rolling on my new laptop! They had to zoom home then to meet Mommy for lunch, but we had a fun morning with Chris and Bode, now it's off to the sewing room, several things in progress in there as always! Maybe there will be new pictures this week of what's coming up! We are scheduling classes for next quarter May-August at Scrapbooks so the brain is spinning!!!! So I'll leave you with this cute little Granson of mine! :-)

Thornberries in Feb.

We had our Feb. Thornberry quilt meeting at Lorene's house this month. We did something new this time and started a pin cushion round robin. This is the base for mine. It is in a sack and got handed off to one of the other people ( 4 are doing it) and now they'll add some kind of stitching or embellising to it, next month they'll bring it back, then it'll go on to the next person to add something to it. Finally in May I'll get the little top back and can make it into a pincushion. Some people chose a theme but I said anything goes with mine. So here it is, we'll see what it looks like in a few months!Lorene had such a fun Valentine party theme going. We did a baked potato bar and had a few salads and sides, desserts to go with it. Somehow we always throw together a great lunch!
Here is Louise's quilt she finished, it was her challenge UFO project to get done!
Lorene had this pretty one done, a kalidascope out of the rose fabric border. We had a great time and before we knew it, it was 4:00 and we all went scurrying out the door, you can tell when everyone is having such fun the time just zooms. It was great to talk and laugh and catch up with these friends while we sewed at the dining room table!

Polka dots and Pinwheels Class

I had another intermediate quilting class at Scrapbooks start last week and forgot to take any pictures! Here are the girls that are all making the Polka Dots and Pinwheels quilt this month. Here is Rita with hers. It's for her daughter and she's so excited. She brought in a couple quilts she had made in her beginning class 15 years ago and so she's catching up on the last 15 years and ready to go again with some projects.This is Sylvana, this is her very first quilt! Good for her to jump into angles first thing! She's doing great!
Becky's is for her daughter, all black and reds, it's going to be striking! Becky took a class from me in Jan. so it's great to have her back!
Theresa is one my my work buddies and she's going to have such a pretty soft quilt. I'm so glad she wanted to jump into the class as she's learning alot now about quilts with more than squares. So they've been taught these blocks and have LOADS of homework to get 10 of them done by next week, our last class, so I hope we have 4 lovely tops ready to be quilted by the end of next thursday!

Caribbean Cruise....the end

So our cruise came to an end, we made some wonderful memories.We loved it all and will miss the beautiful Caribbean, the time with our kids was just the best!
Upon arriving back thru the Gulf of Mexico,( it was amazing seeing all the oil rigs, boats and so much going on out in the water) into the Mississippi river, we came back to New Orleans....cold and wet and rain! brrrr! Jeremy's truck was waiting and we drove back to Jackson Mississippi to where our flight home was. We detoured a bit and went to see Vicksburg. What a wonderful National Park they have there. I think we could have spent a day seeing it all. They have quite the museum and driving tour to take. They even have the Cairo which was a civil war battleship that was sunk in the Mississippi river on display. Be sure and stop if you are ever in Vicksburg Mississippi!

Caribbean Cruise

Our last stop on our cruise took us to Cozumel. We didn't spend much time there but a bit of shopping, instead we hopped on a boat that took us over to the mainland. We boarded a bus then that took us out to the Mayan Ruins of Tulum. Ken and I had seen them on our last visit there but they were so impressive it was wonderful to see them again.It was fun to share that with Jeremy and Jamie, we even sat down to have some of the local tacos. They were good, not quite as good as the ones on the beach in Costa Maya! They had all levels of spice in their salsa, so Jeremy and I got brave and tried the hottest, yep, even your lips burned!
They've done a great job with the preservation of this ancient village, it's wonderful to be able to walk around and see the buildings.

Sew and Go Feb. #2

We had our second Sew and Go in Feb.at Scrapbooks Etc. Everyone made the cute notebook covers, and loved them, lots of extra kits went out the door too. Barb was back for just the teaching part and everyone was thrilled to have her back to give them a hard time!!!! Those 2 quilts on the wall are the buggy barn class we are starting to teach on friday....It's Raining Cats and Dogs! We had 33 today for class and everyone was busy with their project. They all got a notebook to put in their cover, the neat little vinyl pocket inside holds a calculator and pencil so we raffled off 6 calculators too. It's always fun to win a prize! Some were very excited to hear that we are opening up a Sew and Go Again class that will be a night time version of our daytime Sew and Go. We'll repeat a popular project from the day time one, so all those at work during the day, or have little kiddo's at home will have the opportunity once a month to come and enjoy being creative with us.
Almost everyone left with it done, a few had the handwork yet to do, it was alot of fun for alot of people! And the best part...........the vacuum guy showed up! Yep, he's done that a couple times now with Barb out of commission. He just shows up at the end of class to push the heavy chairs around and vacuum for me while I clean up, isn't that great! He's also the lawn mower guy, the major wage earner of the house and the guy in control of our TV remote! Thanks Ken!

Back to the Cruise

Back to the cruise!!!! I still have a few more photo's I wanted on here so after a bit of delay here they are!

After our day in Belize we went to Honduras. The beautiful island of Roatan. Lush and green, just what you'd think a Caribbean Island should be. Here is Jamie with her side shot of little Noah!
Here is the little port village they've developed for the ships to come to, very colorful and even a rainbow! We went by taxi to a beach on the other end of the island. They have a reef surrounding this island that is 2nd largest to the Great Barrier Reef. The waters were calm and the beach had the white sand, just beautiful.
Jeremy and Jamie had brought their snorkeling gear so we all took turns with it and went out to do some snorkeling. It was so much fun. Of course the local people wanted you to rent their boat to take you out there, but we walked just a few hundred yards down beyond a small pier and could swim out to it. It was wonderful, I could have spent hours out there looking around, lots of fish, schools of fish, funny plants and coral on the rocks. It was a fun time. And if you need a real laugh you can see Jeremy and I all geared up for snorkeling on their blog if you hunt! yikes! We all loved Honduras!

Bode Time!

We got to bring Bode home with us after Aiden's Birthday party at the park. Mommy and Daddy had a chance for a date. So we came home and did some swingin with a spatula! It was just such a wonderful day outside. Ken and I sat there enjoying him and planning our attack of winter trimming of the yard to prepare it for spring! (I think it starts today)Bode was happy as can be, lots of play time, enjoyed his dinner, more play, jammie time and then a bottle and to bed. He's so much fun to interact with now. Today he was mimicking you clicking your tongue. What a darling baby boy! It's so much fun to be the Grammy and say that!

Sew and Go

Here is the big leak of the week! Our sew and go project for this tuesday feb 15. It's a notebook cover, who can't use several of these. I think I'm going to make myself 3, one for work projects, one for Thornberry meetings so I can stay organized and not wonder which book I put something in. The inside has a pocket for a calculator and pencil, everyone's even getting the notebook! I'm thinking these would make great gifts too! I might need one just in the kitchen for the lists and coupons and things I'm always doing! Come make one with us!

A New Great Nephew!

First of all, sorry for the yuck quality on the photo's....I need to check my camera and see what is messed up with it!

So Here is our newest great Nephew! (We have 2 more waiting in the wings this next month....our family will grow by 3 boys within this next month!)But this little guy was the first to arrive. Here is Landon John Michael Ruggiero! We are all waiting to see his birth story announcement soon on their blog ( it's all about the O's) so if you are wanting to hear the most extraordinary birth story be sure and check out their blog linked to mine. We are all just so thrilled that little Landon is here safe and sound! Ken and I got to go meet little bitty Landon this week, he's now a week old, we took dinner over and were so thrilled to meet the new addition to the family. Isn't he cute! He's my sister's First Grandson.
Here is Landon's big sister who just celebrated her 2nd birthday a few days after he was born...Cailyn! She was very chatty and enjoyed playing with the puzzle that makes sounds that we brought her. She was watching out the front window when we arrived...so cute!
So here's the new family of 4, Corissa, Cailyn, Mike and little Landon! Thanks for letting us visit, he's darling and we were thrilled to get to see him!

Rocket Launch

We got to celebrate Aiden's 7th birthday at the park today with a fun picnic and rocket launching! Here he is with his friend Ryan. Chris my oldest son was a rocket buff since this age and still enjoys building them and getting to launch them now with his nephews. He's anxious for Bode to get to join in! Aiden had 3 friends come and they all got a rocket to snap together and then launch.

Here is my Mom with Ethan and Bode. Everyone was enjoying the beautiful day out.
Here is Garrett, he and I got to build his snap rocket together.Here is the master of all rockets.... Chris!
Bode and Ethan in their orange shirts! Bode reaches for everything you have now. Ethan was very patient!
Here are Ken and my Dad watching the launching !So fun for all the boys to do it and then they all run to retrieve the parts as the parachute lands! We only had one land in a tree (Chris climbed a roof for that retrieval) two ended up across the street in a field and one in a neighbors yard, so that was pretty good for an hour of launches!
What a fun party at that park and on a beautiful day! Aiden I hope you love being 7 !