Mother's Day, Charms, a UFO and a New Quilt

I know I haven't posted for over a month - time just keeps on flying by!  Since a few people have checked in on me and asked for a new blog post, I thought I had better comply!  I guess I will start with Mother's Day - my brother and SIL had a cookout for everyone.  Mom and Aunt Nancy had been on a two week trip to a "cousin's reunion" and just made it home on Mother's Day.  It was nice to have Aunt Nancy here too. It's so hard to buy for either one of them (or Dad, his day is coming soon!) so I just bought them each a bouquet of flowers.  We had a nice lunch and just hung out and chatted - catching up with each other and hearing about their trip.  After Mom, Dad and Aunt Nancy went home (about a mile away from my brother's house), Mom called and wanted my niece, Johnna, and I to come over and see all of the treasures they bought on their trip. Of course, Johnna is happy to have a reason to jump in the car and drive - it blows me away that she is driving now - she turned 16 last week...how can that be?  Mom had brought us all some gifts from her trip, and while she was sorting through things, Johnna and I were having a little selfie fun...

Not a great picture, but you can still tell how pretty she is - such a cutie and lots of fun to be with.  She has a great sense of humor and never complains.  She's always game to do anything, will try anything, and seems perfectly happy to hang out with us old folks.  Oh wait...I'm only 29...so no wonder she doesn't mind being with me!  Lol!

I've been working away on a new quilt design and it is finally at the longarm quilter's where I know she will work her magic.  It's called Gathering Scraps.  I made myself write the pattern before I started piecing the quilt - so it's almost ready to be published.  It just needs a few little changes and I will be able to finish it up.  If you remember my awesome road trip (FART - search my blog for those posts!) with my friend Kim, we shop hopped our way to Menasha, WI and back and stayed at The Gathering with Lisa Bongean.  Lisa is such a kind and generous person and while we were there, she  gave me all of this fabric.  I have used tons of it in my jewelry and even in some other quilts and bags.  But, I decided that I wanted to make a quilt using only her fabric and name it after her amazing retreat center.  The background fabric is one of her muslins - I have bought yards and yards of it - it's the perfect color.  I also added in one of the blue fabrics from her Snowman Gatherings fabric line.

Speaking of Primitive Gatherings...have you signed up for their Summer Block of the Week?  It is amazing, as always!  I talked myself out of it about a thousand times.  My first reason being that I have not finished the one that I did from 2 years ago!  Thinking about that gave me enough motivation to get those blocks back out (I am the Queen of finished blocks that don't get turned into quilts) and trimmed them all down to size and plunked them on my design wall.  A friend was coming to visit soon for a little retail therapy and sewing - so that will be the perfect time to finish this quilt! (More on that on the next post!)  Here are the finished blocks - remember them?

I still refrained from signing up for this year's SBOW - even though some very bad influences kept taunting me about caving in to the pressure and signing up (they know who they are!).  I stayed strong!  

As always, we have been busy with Charming 2 - these are the newest charms - I can't believe there is only one left.  I'm working on the details for Charming 3 - so if you are interested and are not already on my e-mail list, please send me a note with your name and e-mail address so you will get the info.  Sign ups will be in July (next month...ALREADY????)

 I don't know if you can see, but each basket has a little flower growing in the center of it.The charms are 3/4" in size.
My Charming customers also have the option to buy a little pineapple block and here are a few of those...

 And here are a bunch of the charms, all ready for Marty the Mail Lady to come and get them.  It doesn't look like that much, but that is a big basket!  Speaking of which - don't you love my basket?  I got it from one of the vendors at the Stover, MO show.  I did not get her card - and I can't remember her name (you would think that a 29 year old could remember these things!), so if any of you know her, please send me her info and I will post it  She makes beautiful baskets, and I pretended to steal this one all weekend.  Every time I walked by, it somehow jumped on my arm!  She sold tons of these - I bet she had to go home and get busy making more - they were a big hit.

Those charms keep us busy, but I found time to make a few more things.  Here are some finishes from this weekend...

And a patriotic log cabin that didn't quite get finished!  

And we can't have a post without some kitty news!  My DH plants catnip outside in the summer - some on CC's grave and some in the garden.  You should see how crazy they get when he brings it in for them.  This is Ozzie, in a catnip coma...

And Callie - after her little nip fest.  She usually gets all wild and crazy, then has to sleep it off!  This is the quilt that I've been hand quilting f o r e v e r.  She knocks it off of the foot stool and then curls up in it!

That's it for now!  I have lots more to tell you about, so I will try to post again in the next week (instead of waiting over a month!).

Have a great day!