My Husband's Grandchildren Finished Quilts

This past Spring I was asked by Bill's DIL and daughter to finish his grandchildren quilts that were started by Bill's deceased wife back in 2002. I felt very honored to be asked and was very happy to do this for the grandchildren, family and Bill. Bill's deceased wife was a quilter and did very lovely embroidery work. She embroidery very sweet pictures of boys fishing on the boys quilt tops and fabric painted lovely mermaids on the girls quilts. So to finish them was not difficult. I picked out the backing fabrics for the quilt and finished them 3 weeks before Christmas. Bill and I together decided on the wording for the Quilt Labels. Bill actually pencil the wording on the labels for me and I embroidery them. The quilts were given to the grandchildren for Christmas and they had NO idea they were coming. On Christmas Day when the grandchildren open the quilts there was tears of joy and sadness. I received hugs from the grandchildren which made me feel loved for doing this for them. I told the grandchildren they needed to put the quilts on their beds and use them everyday and know they are truly loved by both of us.

Pictures of these lovely quilts made by both of us are on the slide show below and above are extra pictures for those who can not excess slide shows.

Check out my Slide Show!

I Am Very Thankful For My Husband, Bill

I asked God for my perfect match, thinking that no such thing could happen, and God provided. I am thankful and blessed to have my husband. We have only been married 3 years but I give thanks everyday that we found each other and we are now together. With a smile and a hug My Dear Husband always tells me we are looking forward to at least 40 years of being together of course by then he will be 104... vbg This is one of the many, many, many reasons why I love him soooo much.

Peppermint Princess 4th Spirit of Friendship Doll

Peppermint Princess is the 4th Spirit of Friendship Doll I created this year for a Friend Leslie who lives in Colorado. We decided to do a one on one swap for Christmas. I met Leslie on the Crazy Quilting International Online Group this past year. This list members are comprised of a stash of wonderful ladies that are very supportive and creative in many ways. I was introduced to the concept of Spirit of Friendship Dolls on this CQI list. I fell in love with the concept and the challenge of creating a Spirit of Friendship Doll that would be very unique. I guess you could say creating them brought out a bit more of my creativity I did not know I had in me. vbg Peppermint Princess was inspired by a Christmas Card I bought for my Friend Lyn who lives in Melbourne Australia who has a special fetish for Snowman/Snow Ladies. vbg Actually, Peppermint Princess is completely beaded with the exceptional of a few button hole stitches around the center of her body. I made her face from polymer clay. I hope to create many more Spirit of Friendship Dolls in the future.

Spring Garden Spirit of Friendship Doll from My SIS

Yesterday I received my Christmas Package from my Sis Lyn who lives in Melbourne, Victoria Australia. I received all kinds of lovely beads, charms, lace, wood and felt needle holder, needles and lovely toile fabric. Lyn where did you get those lovely lavenders sea shells, I love them. Could of they come from QLD???

This year we also decided to exchange Spirit of Friendship Dolls. I have created several but the above pictures is of Lyn's very first one. I will call her Spring Garden because all of the embellishment reflects a Very Happy Spring Day to me..

Lyn wrote me a note about Spring Garden. Lyn tells me, She is in your favorite colors. I love all shades of Purple!!! She has a Special Heart full of Love from Me to You. She has a basket full of Spring Flowers that you love. She wears a Lace Kite on her back soaring high and reaching out. She is my very First Spirit of Friendship Doll and her face is the first one of two I made. The beads surrounding her face are my favorites. She is wearing a Spring Bonnet of Beautiful Lace. Lyn your first Spirit of Friendship Doll is incredible beautiful and I will treasure her forever. Thank you so much for creating her for me.

Pay It Forward Gift From Susan

I am participating in a wonderful program called "Pay It Forward" . In this program you commit to creating a "Handmade" gift for Three People who sign up for it on your blog. This week I received this very lovely beaded Christmas Tree Pin from Susan a new friend from Arizona. Unfortunately, this picture does not due justice to the very tiny artistic beading work created on this pin. Thank you very much Susan for creating this gift for me. Please send some of that sunshine and warmth in Arizona to Michigan it is so very cold here.

Christmas Spirit Of Friendship Doll From Leslie

I received this very lovely Crazy Patchwork Christmas Spirit Doll from Leslie a friend from Colorado this week. The beading is really really wonderful and her face is very sweet. The beading around the doll is soooo very very pretty. Wish I knew how to create this technique in beading. I believe Leslie made all the great polymer clay embellishments on her. Another lovely Spirit of Friendship Doll to add to my collections and treasure. The lovely Rose Fabric Leslie sent along too. I love roses and plan to use it in my Rose Theme Crazy Quilt I plan to start next year. Thanks for beautiful Christmas gift Leslie. I love her.

Christmas Quilt From Inge in Holland

I received this special weee Lovely Christmas Quilt from my friend in Holland. The Christmas flowers are great with hand embroidery and beads and a glittery border. The back is as lovely as the front. The Christmas Trees are made of I think hand made paper and painted with gold garland and beads for decorations. The background fabric is lovely with all the stars sparkling in the sky. I must learn how to do that printing words on Fabric. Thanks you my Friend, for this lovely weee Christmas Quilt.

My First Quilt 1994

I had admired quilts for many years before I said, I can do this. LOL My youngest son was going to graduate from HS in 1995 so I decided, I am going to create a quilt that would remind Shane of our time we spent together in Alaska. I took a picture I had taken of Shane catching his first King Salmon in the Kenai Fjords National Park to many quilt shops asking if they could teach me how to make a quilt that would reflect this picture. All accept one told me that I should start with a small block first. A new shop had just open so I went in and looked around trying to get up the nerve to ask one more time. I took out the picture and ask the new shop owner if she could teach me how to make a quilt that would look like this picture. She smile at me and said, when would you like to start??? I smile and said, how about right now!!!! vbg We went into the class room and we started drawing. This quilt took me two years of constant work learning as I went along. It was a year after my son graduated before it was complete. I used Madeira Metallic Embroidery Floss to stitch on the King Salmon because I wanted them to sparkle and be the focus of the quilt. I also thought I needed some whales swimming in the ocean so I included them too. I also added some star fish which I created by using silk ribbon french knots in two different colors and then I filled in the area with beads. I took the actually picture of Shane catching the salmon and photo transferred it onto the quilt front. I also included several pictures of Shane fishing in different places in Canada and Alaska and photo transferred them on the back of the quilt. I did all the machine quilting with metallic because I wanted the whole quilt to shine. Boy, that was so difficult to do . I can not tell you how many times that thread broke. LOL Shane loved the quilt and we still talked about our wonderful memories in Alaska.

My Three Lovely Grandchildren

Chloe 18 months old and Ethan 2 1/2 years old starting to play ring around the rosy. vbg Chloe holding her Germany Baby Muffin she got from us for our early Christmas. The other pic is of Morgan my oldest Grand Daughter exploring the log cabin blocks. Morgan wants to be an graphic designer.

My Special Grandchildren

Ethan's cousin Chloe trying to put the bow on his head. Ethan was not going for it. LOL Oh, how wonderful it is to watch your grandchildren play together.

Kreb's Glas Creations, Lauscha, Germany

While living in Germany I loved visiting many lovely German Villages and the village of Lauscha is the birth place of glass Christmas Ornaments. This tradition is 400 years old and the Kreb's Glass Christmas Showroom is the first two pictures above. Behind the showroom is the factory where all these lovely ornaments are created. While visiting the showroom there was so many lovely colors of ornaments to choose from it was a bit overwhelming. I finally decided on the blue and silver ones with some others that I could not resist buying. I think the one I love the best is the Christmas Wedding Ornament which represents our Wedding in November of 2004. I also had to have a Christmas Ornament that would reflect all my special friends in Australia so I bought a Koala Ornament which I was very surprised to see they made. While in Germany my friend Jamie and I would go to as many Antique Markets as we could find. The French Antique Sled was one of the many treasure I found on these antique trips.