Spring Shop Hoppin'

Yesterday, I participated in my first Shop Hop of the year! It was a small Shop Hop, as most of the stores are very rurally located, and travel between the shops was long. But the weather was great, and I managed to hit all 6 shops, and submit my card for entry to win some great prizes.

At left are a few of the goodies I bought on my Hop! I'm planning on making a tote bag with the "Fresh" charm pack and coordinating fabrics, and a quilt with the Mary Engelbreit "Recipe for Friendship" layer cake and coordinating fabric. The pattern, called "Bloom", is so sweet, and I will make this one up using my 30's reproduction fabric stash.

Each of the participating shops on the Hop were giving away packets of quilt seeds...twenty 2-1/2" squares of coordinating fabrics! In addition, each shop gave away a free pattern representing their take on the "Springtime Garden" theme using the quilt seeds. I came home with several really cute embroidery and wallhanging patterns. I'm ready to get started on a few, but they will have to wait until I finish up a few more UFO's!!

Birthday Surprises!

My birthday was Saturday, and I had a fun day! First, my son called earlier in the week and left a message on my voice mail wishing me an early "Happy Birthday", then my husband took the day off from work, and we spent the day delivering shoe boxes for Operation: Christmas Child, searching through antique shops, and enjoying an evening meal at a new restaurant. My sister sent me a fun quilty box full of the goodies in the picture...2 bundles of wool felt, thread, cupcake fabric, pattern book, and a fun tote bag(oops...the tote bag must have been camera shy!)! When we returned home, there was the sweetest message waiting for me on our answering machine...an adorable rendition of "Happy Birthday to you" sung by my 3 year old granddaughter! You can bet that message won't be erased! And to top it off, yesterday, Mom took me to lunch at another fun restaurant in an historic hotel and gave me money for fabric shopping! I am truly blessed!

Noodles

The mailman graciously left me a squishy full of noodles today! What a treat! Now I just have to decide what to do with them. The "noodles" (2.5" x WOF strips of cotton fabric) are from an online swap at Backporch Friends.

The sun is shining today, so a walk is in order. Will be walking with my handy dandy pedometer, and thinking over what to do with the noodles!