Happy Birthday America!

Ive been so busy cleaning out this summer that I have hardly done any bloggin on my summer off.  I will have to catch up soon.

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This year as we have every year since 1986, 

I will spend the 4th of July with these people having a huge party.

that georgeous green umbrella is my vintage $5 find about 10 years ago.

It is always a great picnic with family, neighbors, and friends.  Yummy food too!

And I leave you with the words I quilted on this quilt I made for my Dad a long time go.

"Freedom 

to be free

Life liberty 

and the 

pursuit of 

happiness

All people 

are created equal

The great melting pot

we hold these truths

 to be self evident

and the greatest of these 

is love"

keep dreaming...Colleen

My plan for the above quilt.  Notice the date designed 4/9/95.
 I remember sitting in the park on a nice spring day doing this.

Finishes and babies!

If you haven't entered my giveaway go here.

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First the babies!

 I want to welcome my new cousins!  My cousin Betsy and her husband Andrew welcomed their son Jeffery Andrew on Thursday Evening.

  He weighed 8lbs. 7oz. 

Then today Betsy's brother Brent and his wife Aubrey welcomed their daughter Taylor Grace weighing in at 8lbs. 8oz. (no picture yet)

 Congratulations Aunt Emily and Uncle Max, now Grandma and Grandpa!

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Now the finishes.

I am involved in the Scrappy Halloween Mug Rug swap on flickr.  My secret partner likes to decorate for Halloween.  So I pulled out all of my Halloween fabrics.

I didn't realize how many I had.  Many were from my 90's stash.

Her is the front.  I raw edge appliqued everything down. 

(the colors are not right)

I put a cool haunted house print on the back...

with my label on the back

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I finished the last of the little purses I made to sell at Flaunt!

Keep dreaming...Colleen



Don't you just love the fair?  Hello Kitty pumpkin!





Foto Finish-Family

Cat Patches asked for shots on family and I immediately thought of this photo.

From left to right are my sister Kelly, My Grandpa Jack , my mom Sylvia, and my dad Glenn.  This was taken about 3 years ago in our favorite place on earth-Gull Lake, Canada.  We have been gong there since I was 3 years old.  What I love about this photo are the expressions of the faces framed by the beauty of the sky and water.  It always makes me smile.
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Check out other family photos at Cat Patches blog.

Keep dreaming...Colleen



Another classic Canada fish shot-a pike-and the beautiful lake behind.





I had myself a merry little Christmas…

 

It was an absolutely terrific WHITE Christmas!  It started snowing about 10:30 and didn’t stop until this morning.

Everything was covered in about 5-6 inches of snow-trees, wires, roads, bushes.  The snowflake lights on top of my dad’s roof were really cool buried in the snow!

My dad is that guy, you know the Christmas Vacation guy who has all of the lights.

 

So now I can share all of the projects that were gifts!  Yeah!  I will start with the one I finished and gifted this afternoon to my neighbor.  She is a sweet person who had two wonderfully yappy Chihuahua dogs Hershey and Jack.  Unfortunately Jack passed away this past month. 

I had found the perfect fabric-Orange dogs from Heather Ross’ Lightening bugs and other mysteries line- the two dogs look exactly like hers.  I added a halo and wings to Jack.  I turned the scrap into a pillow for her.

I put these two cute paw and dog word prints on the back.

My sister the big K must have been super good this year because somehow she got TWO quilts for Christmas! 

The first is the September Fat quarterly quilt along quilt.  I had it long arm quilted by Sherri Collette in an all over pattern called popcorn.  I choose it because mom and dad and I used to spell it –p-o-p-c-o-r-n-out so the big K would not know we were having it when she went to bed.

The second was an HK (Hello Kitty) Christmas quilt just because I found the cute fabric. See the black HK cotton on the front and the pink HK flannel on the back!

I will blog more about Christmas and the neat gifts I sewed tomorrow!

Keep Dreaming!…Colleen

Ooo, ooo, I can share something!



Dad, mom, and sis.

We went to my sister's house for dinner tonight. 

Isn't her tree beutiful? 

 

See the snow ball on the top left?  I think its made with a styrofoam ball covered in batting and rolled in sparkly snow.  I think I could make that. 

She has a lot of Hello Kitty blown glass ornaments.

Super Sis always hosts a dinner around Christmas and I cook Christmas Eve. 

Grandpa Jack drove all the way from PA today to spend Christmas with us.  He looks good for 89! 

It is tradition to bring a wrapped hostess gift.  I did a whole basket.  I wrapped up a cute Mrs Claus apron I didn't make but got on sale last year after Christmas.  A bottle of wine went into a stocking I quickly sewed-mostly because it was already cut out.  A small yankee candle-which she loves and a mug filled with hot chocolate, m&ms and marshmellows, all wrapped in a cute little mug rug.  I used thermal batting to make it extra heat proof and made it two sided. 

 Isn't it cute!

Let me share some pics ofher other wonderful decorations.

this is Zoey.

  Well to bed and up in the morning for last minute vacumming, picking up, baking, sewing, and preparing dinner-then church!

Keep dreaming…Colleen