Don't You Just Love Autumn!!

This morning Terry and I got up early had breakfast and left to go walking at

Dodge Park.  The sun was shining, it was warm and the

colors were fantastic.  Enjoy the pictures!

We really enjoy our walks.  I hope you enjoyed the pictures.

Don't forget to sign up for my next giveaway.  I forgot to mention that the

drawing will be on Thursday, October 13th.

That's the day before my Birthday.  Terry and I will be going out of town

on Friday.  He is taking me to a Quilt Show in Kalamazoo!!

Wishing you a quilty day!

Hugs, Cathy

Winner and the Second Giveaway

It's a beautiful morning here in Michigan.  Terry and I went for a walk at Metro Beach Metro Park and we were amazed at all the boats that were docked there.  The sun is shining and the weather is warm.  Hope you are all enjoying some of this beautiful weather.

Now for the news you have all been waiting for......

The winner of  "Inspired by Tradition", by Kay Mackenzie is......

                                           Shez!!!!!

Congratulations Shez.  I've sent you an email asking you to send me your address.

Now for the next Giveaway....

"Scrap Yard Quilts" by Thimbleberries plus a 3 pack of Button File Bags.  I love the quilt on the cover and I use the File Bags to keep projects together.  The bags are 8 1/2" x 11".  Good luck to all.

Remember  you have 2 chances to win.

1. Let me know you are a follower.
2. Blog about this giveaway and let me know you have blogged.

Be sure to give me your email so I can notify you that you have won.

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend.

Hugs, Cathy

Busy, Busy, Busy

I just love Maxine.  Truth be told she reminds me of my Mother-in-Law and I mean this in a good way.

It is hard to believe it's just been a week since my hubby retired.  We have been sooooo busy.  Taking care of getting all our finances together.  We've been walking a lot.  The weather has been so beautiful.  The perfect Autumn days.  It could stay like this forever.

Yesterday we took Hubby's parents to Frankenmuth for the day.  Mom wanted to go to Bronners to pick up some Christmas lights.  We had lunch, shopped and took a leisurely ride home through the country.  That ride took us past one of my favorite Quilt shops in Davison, Linda's Country Quilts.  I did a little damage to my credit card....

I have been wanting to get this magazine for a while.  Now I want to get a subscription.  I don't think there is a thing in either magazines that I don't like.  I want to make them all.  I also ordered a kit, pattern and hanger to make an adorable pumpkins in a wagon skinny wall quilt.  I'll show you when I get it.

I just made this sweet little quilt top today.  I got the pattern from Cheri at Quilts by Cheri.  She has a quilt of the month program.  I wrote down the directions last night and whipped it up this morning.  I did mine a little different than her.

Don't forget that tomorrow I will drawing the name of the winner.  Remember you need to be a follower and you need to give me your email address.  I have one entry who entered anonymously and I have no way of getting a hold of her.  If you received an email from me you are in the drawing.  Sunday I will post a picture of the giveaway for next week.

I want to thank everyone for their well wishes to me and my husband, Terry.  We are really excited about this new adventure of Retirement.

Hugs, Cathy

My Big News, Celebrating Autumn and A Giveaway

Ah...Autumn.  It's my favorite time of year.  It's my birthday month and (Here's my big News) it's the month my husband Terry retired.  Yep, as of October 1st he is retired.  It's early but we've hoped for this day for sooooo long.     He worked at the same company for 44 1/2 years.  We are so looking forward to spending time together. 

Yesterday we went to Hudson Mills Metro Park.  It is over by Ann Arbor.  The weather couldn't have been better.  Sun shining, slight breeze and good company.  The park is along side of the Huron River.  Not a lot of color change yet but we still enjoyed ourselves.  We saw 3 deer but none of them were very friendly.  Every time I got my camera ready they would run off.

We just got back from Metro Beach Metro Park after taking our morning walk.  We are planning on doing this at least 4 times a week.  It was a rather chilly 59 degrees and over cast.  We even felt a few rain drops, but we enjoyed our walk.  We like walking along the boat docks.  I had to laugh at all the seagulls lined up on one boat well. 

I have gotten a little sewing done.

Here are 2 of the Barbara Brackman blocks I finished.  Now I hope I have the time to do the latest before a new one is posted on Saturday.

I joined my good friend Freda at The Adventures of the Empress of the Universe for her Jacobs Ladder Quilt Along.    I'm doing mine in homespuns and neutrals.  It looks like it is going to be fun.

Now for the giveaway.....To celebrate my husbands retirement and my birthday month I am going to have a giveaway every week.

This weeks giveaway is a copy of .....

Inspired by Tradition by Kay Mackenzie.  I love this book.  If you love to hand applique or do fusible applique it is great.  And it comes with a DVD to print templates in 5 sizes.  I love my copy and know you will too.

Now how to enter.

1.  Leave a comment to say you are a follower.
2.  Leave a comment that you just became a follower.
3.  Blog about the giveaway and then leave a comment telling me you blogged about it.

You can receive 2 chances to win a copy.  Leave comments by Friday and I will draw the name of the winner on Saturday morning.  Good luck.

Wishing you a quilty day!

Hugs, Cathy

It's Been a While....

My husband has been on vacation the last two weeks and we've been busy.  We went to a Cider Mill, walking, Quilt Shows, Flea Markets and watched our 2 granddaughters for a week.
Oh yeah and my leg healed up and I was able to walk in the 2 mile "Step Out for Diabetes" at the Detroit Zoo.

First the Cider Mill....guess what?  I didn't get a picture of the mill, but took some pictures of the river and a butterfly.

The path is along an old railroad bed.  It went for about a mile.  It was very relaxing listening to the sound of the river rolling along.

Here is the butterfly, although it looked more like a moth.  The body was very thick and if you look closely you can see it's antennae.

This is what greeted us as we walked to the Quilt Show at Wolcott Mills Metro Park.  It was such a beautiful Autumn day.

I loved the hand quilting and the ribbon border on this quilt.

Don't you just love Halloween Quilts?

The Quilt Show took place in the historic Mill building.  It was small, but I really enjoyed it.  This was my first quilt show since I moved back down from Up North.

We found another small quilt show in Hadley, Michigan.

The machine quilting is so fantastic on this quilt.

This was a favorite of my Husband's.  Since he is such a Civil War buff he loves anything
with reproduction CW fabrics.

My sewing machine has been acting up lately.  I was checking out new machines on Amazon and saw a Brother Sewing Machine I was interested in.  I went to my local Brother dealer and found a machine that had some features I was looking for.  Needle down position, quilting stitch, a blanket stitch that is easy to adjust in many different sizes, and I can run it without using the foot pedal.

 Here she is.  It is a Project Runway, Novis 4o.  I love it.  Since I spent last week at my daughter's watching the girls I didn't have much time to play.  I'm making up for it this week.  I also go a wonderful surprise from a friend.  My husband's friend's daughter gave me a featherweight sewing machine.  It was her grandmother's and she doesn't use it.  She knows I sew so she gave it to me.  Now my featherweights number 4.  I think I need to sell one.  lol

 I did get a couple of projects finished.

You know when you make a square in a square block?  Well this little quilt

was made from trimmings.  It will probably be a AAQI quilt.

It is approx. 8"x11".

This is the quilt I made for the Quilts, books and Binding group I belong to.  We read

a book and then we were to make a quilt that represents something

from the book.  The book takes place in the fall in a town in New York that is

on the banks of the Hudson river.  This is the spot that Nell  was re-proposed to

and where she went to think.  I call it "Nell's side of the River". 

It will also be an AAQI quilt. 

This has been a lengthy post but I hope you enjoyed it.

Later this week I hope to share some news with you....

and I'm hoping to have a giveaway...

So stay tuned.

Wishing you a quilty day!

Hugs, Cathy

I've been lurking lately...

I haven't been doing to much lately, just lurking, reading a few blogs.

I have worked on some applique and hand quilting.  Nothing really ready to show you yet. 

I've had an infection in my leg and am on antibiotics and have had to keep off my feet.  Normally that wouldn't bother me but I can't sit at my sewing machine.

I'm all set to start a year long Bee at 15 minutes play.  And we have been asked to say what has inspired us to quilt.

My inspiration comes from new family members, nature, photos, books, Alzheimer's,  holidays, friendship and fabric.

Here are some of my original works from my inspirations.  I hope you enjoy.

What inspires you?

Hugs, Cathy

So Much Done....

First of all a question.  What do you think of my new header picture?  It reminds me of the end of summer.
I've been busy this last week.

This is September's EQ7 BOM.  It was a difficult block that I made easier by dividing up the block into squares and triangles. 

Here is the nine blocks all together.  It is going to be a nice wall hanging when its done.

I got behind on my Barbara Brackman CW Blocks.  Now I'm up to date. 

I really love the 15 minutes play BOM.  I ran out of cheddar and bought some new fabric.  It is slightly different but I think it will work.  This is the Anvil block.  Victoria posted a tutorial for the block on the 15 minutes play blog.  The link is on my side bar.

Here is Cowen's quilt.  I just finished sewing down the binding this morning and had to hang it up to get a picture.  I love how it turned out.  I machine quilted in the ditch on the pieced blocks and had quilted either a heart or star in the plain blocks.  I backed it with some flannel fabric.  Now we await the arrival of Cowen.

I've mentioned before that I belong to a group called "Quilters, Books and Bindings".  We are all reading the same book and then we are making a quilt from some aspect of the book.  The book is The Lover's Knot by Clare O'Donohue.  It takes place in a town on the shores of the Hudson River.  In the book there is a scene along the river where the main character in the book is re-proposed to .  This is what my quilt is based on.  I made it small so I can kill two birds with one quilt.  When I'm done it will be my September AAQI quilt.

And finally.....

I'm changing out my quilts again.  I love this Log Cabin quilt.  I was given a ton of strips from a quilting friend.  At the time my daughter, Kim, was just starting to sew so I offered them to her.  She declined by saying you can't make anything from them.  Well I just had to prove her wrong.  This is what I came up with.  You know my scraps are getting bigger so I think it is time to make another Log Cabin quilt. 

I hope you have had a nice time visiting with me today.  I've enjoyed sharing. 

Wishing you a quilty weekend.

Hugs, Cathy