Halloween Tote Swap - I Hit the Jackpot!

I signed up for Aunt Pitty Pat's Halloween Tote Swap, and I got the MOST WONDERMOUS partner, Lanette! OMG did she spoil me! I was babbling for days...actually, I Friended her on Facebook, and then proceeded to FB-stalk her, LOL! I sent her Message after Message going on and on about how fabulous the package she sent me was :-)  So let's dive right in...here's the tote itself! Look at that cute fabric, and of course, the polka-dot lining is PERFECT!

I immediately started using this for a purse, and I've received MANY compliments!

But the tote itself was FILLED TO THE BRIM with GOODIES! I've never seen so many goodies in my life, all in one package! I rushed to take pictures before I ripped into them, and every one I opened, I squealed in delight!

First of all, besides the awesome tote, she made this beautiful table runner. I love the autumn colors and it will look soooo nice for Thanksgiving dinner - I can't wait! I love the big buttons that accent it so perfectly.

Love these colors!

She sent not just the two FQs that were required...she sent THREE, plus a surprise, creatively wrapped in a FOURTH!

Lanette is a rubber-stamper, too, so her gifties had some awesomely cute tags!

A beautiful Charm Pack! I love love love it! What to make with it? Hmmm....whatever I use it for, it will be gorgeous :-)

So beautiful!

And just look at all the sewing goodies! Oh my! Thread, pins, needles, floss, pumpkin buttons, and the most adorable little six-inch squares, all folded and rolled and tied with tiny ribbons - I really didn't want to unroll them...but I did, heehee...

Have you ever seen so many sewing goodies?

Oh, and lookee see - MORE buttons...and ribbons! I LOVE buttons!

I was literally drooling over that bag-0-buttons :-)

Candy! Yum! I dove right into the popcorn ball...me loves me some popcorn balls!

And I also love anything Russell Stover

She also sent the cutest card she had made, but I was having trouble getting it to photograph right...you'll have to take my word for it - it was fabulous! Thank you soooo much, Lanette! I'm still in awe of such a wonderful, generous, beautiful swap package. You have so much heart and talent! I can only hope we may be partners in a future swap :-)

I've Been Missing...

Ugh. It's been sooo long since I've blogged! I'm blaming my vacations...a week's "staycation," followed almost immediately by three weeks in Kansas to visit my friend Aunt Pitty Pat. Well, I've got to have SOMEthing to blame my lack of posts on, right?

So let me jump right back in by throwing out a few pics...

First off, I've neglected to post a swap I received...this was Sue's Christmas In July swap over at Country Pleasures. My partner was Sonia, and look what she sent me! I love the darling shelf-sitter, and potholder...but my favorite item was the "tree" FQ set! I just can't bring myself to take it apart! Might have to make some of these myself, for future swaps. Thank you soooo much, Sonia!

And here's what I sent Sonia...thanks, Sue, for hosting this fun swap!

Next up...my wonderful son, Ben, and beautiful daughter-in-law, Autumn, are PREGNANT! Yippee! I found this out just two days before leaving for Kansas back in September! So of course, I had to make a little something-something while I was gone...just for baby :-) Since it's very early and we don't know the sex, I went with some orange and green fabrics, with some black and white thrown in. I found some pretty fabrics in Kansas at Charlotte's Sew Natural in Newton - one of my favorite shops to visit while I'm in Kansas.

I finished the quilt sandwich before heading back home, and actually sewed the binding on while flying and waiting in airports. I got many lovely compliments from fellow travelers!

And I used up scraps for the back of the quilt...

Autumn has started to "fluff" up a little bit, and her pants have become uncomfortable...so they asked if I could experiment on a pair of her old jeans to convert them to maternity pants. I found it to be very much easier than I thought...so I'm thinking I'll be doing some more conversions for her as time goes by.

And...here are the blocks I made for Aunt Pitty Pat's Halloween Quilt Block Swap. I got these completed while I was visiting her. I had intended to make something a bit simpler...but she's quite the whip-cracker (in a nice way), and she insisted I make this block after I showed it to her in the current issue of Quilts and More magazine...it did turn out nice, I have to say ;-)

 And here's me and Aunt Pitty Pat and Pitty Pat in the airport when I was getting ready to leave for home...she was very sad to see me go...partly because I was chief-cook-and-bottle-washer while I was there, taking care of her after she had some surgery on her neck/spine. Aww...I was glad to help her out :-)

I'll post some more pics of my visit to Oz and some of the things I/we made while I was there soon!

Bowls with Borders Blog Hop

UPDATE: Awwww, I am so overwhelmed with all your Comments about my one pitiful bowl! Thank you sooo much! I "puddled" up at several of them :-) Beyond your Comments, this day has not gone well. I'm in Kansas and my friend came through surgery well and will come home tomorrow, but when I got back from the hospital, I spent 30 minutes on the porch trying to get the door open - I finally got ahold of her daughter who gave me the "trick" for unlocking the door. Then I discovered my charging cable for my phone got fried on her old-house-electricity. and so the only way to charge my phone is to sit in her truck with the engine running (my car will charge without the engine running). And to rub salt in the wound, I can't get her kitchen range lit to cook some dinner. Don't know whether she's out of fuel, or what? I called her daughter again (she's my "new best friend") and she said it should just light right up, but it doesn't. I think I should just go to bed and hope tomorrow is a better day, BUT the good news is my friend is doing well, so I guess that's what really matters. Thanks again for all your wonderful, uplifting Comments - I appreciate them sooooooooo much!!!!!

I signed up for the Bowls with Borders Blog Hop that I heard about over on Sew WE Quilt (a fabulous blog if you've never been there!). This was a paper-piecing blog hop and the pattern was generously provided by Regina. 

Now we were charged with creating a minimum of one bowl, but the pattern included several more "layers" of bowls for those who were:

Creative, wonderful, fabulous,

 inventive, talented, imaginative,

 original, inspired, artistic,

 ingenious, innovative, magnificent,

 superb, amazing, fantastic, astonishing,

 and brilliant. 

NONE of which I was, this time around!

So...prepared to be UNDERwhelmed with my one little bowl. In my defense, I was on a mini-vacay-staycay, during which time I had MAJOR problems with my brand-new cell phone that ate up much of my vacay...then I came home for a hot minute, finally got a replacement phone, which ALSO has problems, and had to jet off to Wichita, Kansas to help care for a friend having surgery. That's my story, and I'm sticking to it. (I'll be in Kansas for 3 weeks, and I have to tell you, there are some FABULOUS quilt shops here - yay!) 

 So without further adieu (and actually, it doesn't even deserve ANY adieu to begin with!), here is my one, poor, pitiful little bowl.  

 LOL!

Ta...Friggin...Da

 Well, at least it DOES have a border around it, hence the "Bowls with Borders" distinction...

Thank you to all the people who made this blog hop happen :-) And now you can go look at all the OTHER, BETTER bowls that are being posted for August 14 - see below:

August 14th

Jen Duncan

Sharon D.

Quilts and Quilt Things

Pieceful Life

North Hills Quilter
Vroomans Quilts

Somewhat Fanciful
Jane's Quilting