New toys

Callie and CC found themselves a new toy the other night...

Can you see it?  It's a tree frog on the window of my sewing room!  Poor kitties really wanted to get at that little frog!

As always, the pictures are really bad, but hopefully you get the idea.  I wonder how long they would have sat in the window and tried to get at him?  After taunting the felines for awhile, he finally hopped away.

I also have some new toys!  Mom and I went on another little road trip last week.  First stop was The Quiltmaker's Shoppe in Manchester, IA.  I actually remembered to take my camera...but forgot to use it!!!!  One of these days I will remember to take it AND to use it.  Baby steps, you know.  This is a really nice little quilt shop - I have been here a couple of times before, but it's been a few years.  They have a nice variety of fabric - Civil War repros, 30's prints, batiks, lots of Kansas Troubles, a nice baby section and more.  They carry a lot of notions and patterns as well.  Here are my treasures from that stop.  Can you tell which ones were not my choices? 

I will give you a hint - there are 3 of them.  Also...If you live in the Manchester area, they now carry my jewelry - so you will want to check that out too!

We ran across the street to a nice little tea room for lunch.  We both had a salad that had chicken and lots of fruit on it - really good! 

The next stop was Quilter's Quarters in Lamont, IA.  This is a large shop in a wonderful brick building, out in the country.  Imagine my surprise when we got there and the building was EMPTY!!!!!!  I could not believe it.  Again, I hadn't been there for a few years, but I hadn't heard anything about her closing her shop.  This place used to have TONS of fabric!  So sad.  Not sad enough to go home, though!  We were close to Independence, IA - so we ventured on.  You will never guess what we found there....QUILTER'S QUARTERS!  She moved!  The shop has the same name and the same feel to it.  I knew when we walked in the doors that it had to be the same owner.  Still a really nice shop, all re-done with super-high ceilings (again...no pictures!) and lots of space.  She has loads of fabric - some oldies, but goodies with great prices. She also now carries my jewelry - so if you are in the area, pop in and check it out - there is lots to look at - here are the ones that made their way home with me.

Again...can you pick out the one that Mom made me (twisted my arm) buy?  I think it will be pretty obvious if you enlarge the picture.  If you haven't already noticed...Mom and I have totally opposite taste!  Her choices will make nice jewelry, though - if I can keep her from stealing it all!

You know that I love presents, right?  Well...I won another blog giveaway last week.  How exciting!  The blog is The Silver Thimble.  Be sure to check out her website too - she has the coolest pattern for a tree skirt.  I had seen it on someone's blog a while back, but had no idea what the pattern was.  Somehow I stumbled across it on her site - I was so excited - I am now the proud owner of that pattern!  The book that I won from her blog is:

I love pieced borders so this is the perfect book for me - thanks Pat!

Last Saturday I received month 6 of my Civil War Chronicles.  I actually cut them out and finished them over the long weekend...

Just four blocks this month (16 last month!).  They are busy, but the whole quilt is busy - and I think it will be cool when it's finished. 

And lastly some quick pics of recent jewelry.  You will notice that some of these are a little outside my box!  Aunt Nancy gave me a nice selection of hand dyed fabrics awhile back and you will see that I used some of them in this batch. Sorry it's sideways - you know I am challenged. 

These look more like me....

Again - I apologize for terrible pictures (you should really just expect that from me) - these have a lot of glare on them.  I am not putting any of these pieces on the website, saving them all for the show in Galena in July.

That's all for now - hope you have a great day!