Sunday Thoughts

Well hello there blog world. It's been awhile. Things are full steam ahead with my job, Sophie back in school, school activities and play time with the brilliant boyfriend and I just have been putting the bloggy blog on the back burner of life.

So, a quick little catch up...

I made a quilt with Jenny Eliza fabric designed by Jennifer Paganelli for JoAnn's.

Finished quilt using Quilt As You Go tutorial from Maureen Cracknell

This is mostly what it is being used for

What I made with some of the scraps - kitchen towel
The kitchen towel was made using this tutorial from Schnitzel & Boo

Quilt for my friend Mary

I used the Designer Star pattern by Lee from May Chappell

Cotton + Steel, Kaffe, and Moda fabrics

I love the back!

This quilted table runner turned out so cute! I think I will put it in my etsy store that is completely empty right now. I need to take better pics for sure...

...and the back...

My biggest quilty love is paper piecing!! I will try to focus and make a tutorial for paper piecing. I know that there are a lot out there so I wasn't going to. I have had a lot of people asking me how though.

paper pieced feathers

Last bit - There was a partial eclipse last weekend and we wanted to see it from the beach. This was my picture with my phone camera - obviously my phone camera is not the greatest.

Phone camera - no partial eclipse noticed

HOWEVER! Ernie, with his ever present camera, caught this doozy!! So amazing. I will leave you with that :-)

Lots to update!

Oh goodness where do I even begin? Life is traveling at high speed and it is so hard to keep up most days! SO, I will do a quick life in pictures to help catch up...where should I start? Oh - how about Anniversary/Mother's Day weekend.

Ernie and I celebrated our anniversary with a Blues Brothers concert at Taste of Pinellas in St. Pete. It was beautiful out!! Sunny and not too hot. I knew Ernie would have his fancy camera and spend most of the time wandering around taking lots of great pictures so I brought my paper piecing and a quilt to sit on in the grass. Perfect day for it! Although I am pretty sure I was the only one sewing while watching KC and the Sunshine Band dance their booties off.

Sophie and Ernie brought me to Starbucks for Mother's Day so Sophie could buy me a Chai Latte. I love this kid.

We went to lunch at Salty Dog and watched people across the water playing and boating. We decided we should head over to check out the park as tide would be heading out in an hour. We are so lucky to live here. There is beauty everywhere we go...

Last weekend was Sophie's Spring Concert and then her Semi-formal was the following evening. A fun night of awards, food, and friends. Plus it was an excuse to get dressed up and pretend we are fancy people.

One last thing...I tackled this intimidating Lucky Stars BOM last week. I just love this series by don't call me betsy. It is just a skill building thing for me because they certainly are not perfect! I may try these again in another color way as a gift. They are so pretty and just seem to sparkle! 

Ok there is SOOOOoo much more that I have to say but it's time to get ready for the day...stay tuned for a recap of this weekend (I am going to meet the amazing Carolyn Friedlander!!) I can hardly wait.

Are any of you out there doing the schnitzel and boo mini swap? Have you started your quilts?

Happy Friday!

One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish...

Valentine's Day came and went. My sweet boyfriend took Sophie and me to a nice dinner at a Thai restaurant and then Sophie wanted to meet some friends to see a movie. Ernie and I decided to go see the Lego Movie - Everything is Awesome! It was very clever. Go see it if you haven't already. The Master Builders of Legos are pretty amazing. What a job they have! I just read an article yesterday and they described a day in their job life - how cool would it be to just create things out of legos all day?Sophie was supposed to be seeing that as well but they ended up seeing Monuments Men - she said it was really good.

On Sunday Ernie and I went to the Cortez Heritage Commercial Fishing Festival. We were there early so we were able to enjoy some nature before it got too crowded. It was a beautiful Florida morning! Just a little crisp and the sun shining on our faces. Just gorgeous!

White pelicans on vacation

Pelicans on parade

 

The Cortez school house was built in 1912 and in 1921 when a hurricane struck it was where the people of the fishing village sought refuge. They closed the school in 1961 and a weaver and artist by the name of Robert Sailors bought it. He added this "secret garden" and waterfall. It was actually much prettier in person! The building was always the center of the community and Robert would still hold the annual Cortez Native picnic on his lawn and still invited entertainment to perform for the community at his home. The county purchased the property after he died and renovated it and turned it into the Maritime Museum in 2006. It is still used as a community center of sorts and holds community gatherings and has a small library tucked inside. 

All in all it was a beautiful day. I am so blessed to live in Florida with it's sunshine a turquoise waters. It was really fun to see a little glimpse of a fishing villages history and get out and enjoy nature, good food, people watch, and check out a little bit of art too.

Screech Owl! He was playing with a cat toy mouse.

Beautiful Gulf Coast!