Hope's 21st Birthday

This is a card I made for our friend Hope's 21st birthday.

 Yesterday we participated in a photo scavenger hunt with her & her family & friends. Driving all over town following clues written by my friend/her mom Mindy, & sister Christie.

We had Hope & her brother-in-law Kyle in our car. Below they are posing with the produce guy at Carr's, holding Tofu. Hope is vegetarian.

She also like to use the buses, so here we are at the bus stop by the Dimond Mall.

This is playing Lava tag at a playground.

We also stopped at the Bear Tooth Grill for a photo with some of her friends.

There were a lot of other stops & photos along the way, & afterwards we celebrated at her parents house, with friends & dinner. It was also our friend Nikki's birthday, so her are the 2 birthday girls together, & the card I made for Nikki. I modeled it after one of my quilts that she always comments on when she comes to our house.

Hope's big sister Lindsey made this beautiful, tasty flourless chocolate cake with marzipan decorations. 

The meal was vegetarian potluck.

It was a fun day.

Welcoming back the Sun

I've been in a bit of a funk this winter. These past couple of years actually, but I think I'm getting better. The quilt top in this first shot is the LAST customer quilt that I intend to do. At least for a couple of years. It was on the frame for a long time, & I finally finished it a couple of weeks ago, & delivered back to Shirley Fraser. 

Here a a few close views after quilting. It was so big & heavy I didn't attempt to hang it up for fuller shots.

After that I got busy on the baby quilts I needed to get made. The 2 tops were whipped up in one weekend, then I got quilting. This first on is for Jocelyn, who is due to be born around May 19th. She will be our first Great-grandchild.

Here are a couple of shots of the back side. It's Minkie...ooooh soooo SOFT!

I made 3D flowers by just doing free motion shapes on 2 layers of fabric, with the right sides together. Next I cut them out, slit the back, stuffed them with a little wool batting, & hand appliqued them with the slit against the top. I made the centers out of ruff cut strips gathered & stitched to the flowers.

The second quilt is made for my son Brandon, & wife Laura's 3rd baby girl due Aug. 28.  Name hasn't been revealed yet. I decided to try & be more modern with this one, & just had fun!

I quilted flowers in the pink plaid areas, & hand appliqued little dots in the center of each flower, with the same fabric I used for binding.

The light has come back. It has been sunny & beautiful out the past few days, but here is a view from out back door a week ago after a fresh snowfall. The path to the cars had been filled in over night with about 24 inches of snow. It took Warren 6 hours of snow-blowing to dig us all out. He played in the snow while I pieced baby quilts. It was a glorious weekend!

This weekend I made some cards. This for my friend Pam who has retired from nursing. I used a photo transfer on to fabric of  my quilt which is appropriately named "Retirement" from our "Burning Desire Challenge". I added real sand & shells for embellishment around the edges.

The next is a sympathy card for my friend Judy who just lost her mom. It's a miniature quit top made from bits of antique fabrics sewn on to card stock.

This sunny one is made for my baby boy who turned  37 on the 21st.

I am so glad the calendar says it's spring, & the sky is sunny & blue!