Post Vacation SUMMER Sale

I know, I've had just some pre-scheduled Wordless Wednesday posts for the last few weeks, but now I am back from my little vacation.  Will have some pictures of my hometown and some other features from my travels in the next few days, but first I want to announce a SUMMER CLEARANCE sale in my creations shop. (Also, a way of celebrating my eminent birthday!)

Most sellers are in Fall and Christmas mode right now with their creating.  If not creating, then they are all thinking about it.  I am!  So . . .Sew . . . I need to clear out items that have been hanging around a while.  I have listed a few in my shop and will be listing a few more in the next few days, so stop by!  You might find something you like at a great price!

Fun Zipper Pouch

Deco clutch bag

Farm Doll anyone?

Also--- 
it's so close to the Fourth of July, that I am offering all my patriotic stock for a 15% Off Discount!

See my Holiday/Seasonal section.  Use coupon code 4THHOLIDAYSALE.  This Sale only lasts thru July 15th. then all my patriotic items will disappear until next year.

Thanks for taking a look! 

Up or Down?

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Surprise in the Wood Chip Pile WW

I actually showed this in a previous post, 

but it is not all I found in the wood chip pile . . . 

I guess you find them everywhere!

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Yesteryear - Old Quilt Collection vol.3

Today's quilt selection is near and dear to my heart. It is a heritage quilt, of sorts, since it is made by my husband's mother.  It is a traditional Grandmothers Garden Flower Quilt. My mother-in-law called it her "12 year quilt" because it took her twelve years to finish it!  She gave it to me, several years before she passed away.  I am not sure what year she finished it, but it is probably about 25-35 years old and I take extreme care to preserve it for future family members.

The hexagon piecing is all done by hand---and then it was hand quilted.  Some of the fabrics our daughter recognizes, as they are leftovers from fabrics that grandma made dresses for her and her sisters. (That makes some of the fabrics 40 years old--from the 70's!) When referring to certain hexagonal pieces, there is always the comment: "Ohhhhh, I remember this one!"  Those comments add to the value of the quilt in my eyes.

Each flower is different, each center a pale yellow, with all the flower blocks on a white background.

The quilt is on our bed during the summer months, since it is extremely lightweight.  I am not sure what kind of batting that she used, but it is very thin.  I just love it's light weight--perfect for hot summer nights.

You can see the hand quilting stitches in this photo.  I like looking at them and imagining my mother-in-law sewing on it every night.  (I'm not even sure that she sewed at night, but she was a busy lady and that's the way I imagine she spent her evenings--she loved to sew!)

Thanks, Sarah Pruitt, for this awesome gift!  

Love you! 

Fun Fabrics!

Recently I purchased some monkey fabrics!  They were a special request from my client's customers.  I made children's aprons from the fabrics.

 
Also purchased some Independence Day fabrics and made aprons from those fabrics too!  Here I am getting ready to deliver a batch of completed aprons to my client!

I did have some fabric left over from this the fourth of July batch, so I'm listing a mother and child set in my  Etsy shop:

And I had enough to make a set of napkins too! Tutorial here to make your own.

What have you been up to lately????

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Sunday Scavenger Hunt Link

A blogger friend, Margaret of Splendid Little Stars, participates in Scavenger Hunt Sunday.  She and awesome photographer and always has wonderful photographs! This is a very fun meme hostessed by Ashley Sisk in which 5 prompts are given and one must then take a photo to illustrate each one.  Come see how others have interpreted these words HERE!

I have never participated, but I thought I would try it since I have a new camera!  I need the practice!  This past week has been a full with activity!  Some of my submissions reflect my activities. Here are my submissions for this week:

Dishes

Favorite Color 

SunFlare

Enjoying my patio

Expression

grandson's piano recital

Sticky 

my sticky notes

This has been a great challenge to practice my picture taking skills. Please visit the linky and see what everyone else has photographed this week!  

Recent Cut - Wordless Wednesday

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NC Sue

Yesteryear - Old Quilt Collection, vol. 2

The second old quilt in my collection was a castaway from a senior living resident.  He had several old quilts that his mother had made, and since he was downsizing, he wanted me to take several blankets including this particular quilt to the "Goodwill" or "just get rid of them".  I did.  I got rid of the quilt to my house! 

Although it has a few stains, and has deteriorating thread, I love the pattern and the hand work that it represents.  It has a white center with colorful fans and a wide blue band for a border and backing.  It is intricately quilted, which I love!!  I don't know if you can see the patterned quilting in this blue section, but if you click on the picture, it will open a window with a black background and maybe you can see it better.  The edging sports a quilted feather border with separate quilted section of braid creating a border around the white interior portion. 

Between and around each fan, there are quilt lines one inch apart creating small blocks, or diamonds.  You can see the cross hatched pattern better in this picture of the top.  The fans are stitched with a separate pattern.  

The fans with yellow centers, are quarter circle size and added in a different way than I have seen before--point to point. I call this quilt my "Kissing Fish" quilt. (Can you see them?)  Also top of the fan block is not circular, rather, it is pointed.   (I have some fans that a lady gave to me--not quilted--that I will show you in a later Yesteryear--Tuesday--post.  Watch for it! )

Kissing Fish

These last two pictures show the fabrics used.  They are obviously old, but not sure from what decade!  Anyone venture a guess?   

Next week, another old quilt!  It's a Grandmother's Garden pattern.  See you then, for another Yesteryear gem!

Monday Mood Post

A blog  friend of mine publishes a mood board every Monday in her blog.  Duni's blog--Duni's Studio--usually posts fashion stuff with a specific color combination. Here's one of her posts that I particularly liked.  It got me to thinking . . . . . . 

I have been feeling a little down lately, so I decided to try to improve my mood and understand why I am feeling like I do.  One thing is that sales have been down, not nearly what they had been in similar portions of previous years.  I know that the nature of sales are up and down, but this was and is becoming extended for most of the first six months of this year! 

So . . . first I prayed and then I counted my blessings--an awesome place to start! Then I went to the computer--you know, we all live by the info we can glean from our computer searches :)  I looked up some articles on expectations and depression.  I didn't find anything on that subject because they were all talking about unrealistic expectations and I don't feel my simple expectations are outrageous. But I did find this article that I know will help me. 

http://psychcentral.com/lib/2013/how-to-improve-your-mood-in-a-hurry/

I thought I would pass it along---sort of my Monday Mood Post!   Might be good for you too! (Then I drew a little picture):

Enjoy the link!  Even tho I know you don't want to hear it--I know that I didn't!  But seriously, many of us who spend our days creatively and at a computer, know that we don't spend enough time with our physical needs.  Ever thought that it might be contributing to your lack of creativity?

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Create-with-joy