Merry Christmas!!!

I hope and pray you all have a wonderful Christmas!

And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.  For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.
And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.
And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,
Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

Adventures, continued.....

Well, I laid out my loot this afternoon to see what I had purchased, and fell in love with it all over again.  Wanna see?  I have no idea what I purchased where....

First, the fabrics.






These were panels.




Yummy, right?  Now the patterns and books....







That last one is a pattern pack, full of appliqued buildings, including churches and lighthouses.  A 64-page book with plus full-sized pattern sheets, and it was half off!  Almost everything was on sale.  I also got some batting for my Sand Pails quilt, I finally got the quilt top done and I can't WAIT to show you - Carrie sent me the vintage rick-rack for the handles, and they are finally stitched down!  Now if I can just find some time, do you think I have enough to do?  LOL!!!!!  Thanks for going on my adventure with me!

Oops, almost forgot - my sweet friend Pam sent me some vintage fabric.....



and I just started designing a new mini-quilt for the blue one!  Yippee!!!

Adventures

Hello everyone, long time no see!!!  I've been working hard and finally had a little adventure.  Thought I would share it with you, as it was quilt-related!  My friend Cathy and I have been talking for 5 years about visiting Michigan quilt shops, and we finally made a start last weekend.  I took 3 days off work, and she got off early on Friday, we made reservations at hotels, gassed up the car and off we went!

Our first stop was Mabelena's in Ortonville - what a GREAT shop.  The owner was incredibly friendly and helpful, and the shop was well-stocked and sweetly decorated.






So very nice to let us take pics, too!  We did some damage to our wallets here.  We loved it.

The next stop was Linda's Country Quilt Shop in Davison, another GREAT shop.  Linda herself was there and was super nice, she showed us fabulous quilts made by local quilters!  The store had three large spaces for classes, very well stocked, and lots and lots of goodies.  This first pic is with Linda.





Here's Cathy on the porch, checking out her purchases....



After all that shopping, [and only a few hours of sleep as I had worked the night before] we headed off to Birch Run.  Checked into our motel, and went to dinner at Tony's Restaurant.  I was very pleased that the deal of the day was The Big Kahuna....



Hamburger with slices of ham, pineapple, and a sweet barbecue sauce - to die for!  Not on the menu, but every now and then Tony offers it up as a special, and it was my lucky day!  I could only eat half.  Tony makes a bacon cheeseburger that has a POUND of bacon on it.....not for the faint of heart.

Saturday, we headed off to Frankenmuth to the Front Porch Quilt Shop.



No pics of inside, as it was PACKED.  I didn't even bother to ask, lol.  It was so crowded in there I couldn't have gotten my camera out of my bag.  We did shop though, and managed to get out our wallets!  A very lovely quilt shop.  After that, we headed to Fenton, and The Quilter's Garden.  Yet another packed quilt shop, filled with goodies, and more wallet damage!  No pics of that one either, but trust me, it was lovely.

We were ready to drop, so headed to our hotel in Fenton, the Fairfield Inn.  Wow what a pretty room.



And very comfy beds.  Sunday, we headed back down to Lake Orion, and The Village Quilt Shoppe at Canterbury Village.



Really a lovely shop, with friendly folks, but it was the only one where we found nothing to buy!  Maybe we were beyond done at that point, lol.  From there, we headed to Joann Fabrics to pick up the last of what we needed [batting for me] and off to home.  It was a very fun weekend!

I'm off tomorrow [Sunday] so I'll take pics of my purchases to share with you.  I got some great stuff, and most of it was on sale, gotta love that!  I've been working 40+ hours per week, and boy did I need this weekend.  I never get two days off in a row, and it was quite a treat having three!  I'm ready for more mini-vacations!

See you tomorrow......or today.....I never get my days straight anymore, the curse of shift work!

The Taste Of Autumn

Well I may not be working on any autumn-themed sewing projects, but we did get to the cider mill today.  What a gorgeous day.



Gosh, John sure needs a haircut.  Several piping hot donuts were consumed and a good time was had by all.





There is no donut in the world as delicious as a hot apple cinnamon donut, fresh from the oven.  They went so fast, I didn't get a picture.

Mum and I finally got to go visit our friend Shirley tonight, I don't think we've been over there since I started working!  So my online friends [all of you] aren't the only ones being neglected.  She did something so cute to her bathroom, I had to take a picture to show you -



How cute are those little birds and cages!  She says it makes her smile now every time she walks in there, and it does me too.  She got the wall decals from Joann Fabric, they were very easy to apply, and they come right off, but only when you want them to.  I might have to look and see what else they have there.  Although I do prefer to decorate with little wall quilts....

I think the email fiasco is all sorted now, I'm using gmail for my blog but still have to confirm that any blogs I comment on will be replied to there.   I also changed my reader - I was using feedly, but decided to give The Old Reader a try, and I LOVE it.  So I'm moving you all over there.  Feedly doesn't make it easy to move my blogs over, it's a slow process, but worth it to me.

Busy week coming up, but I'm determined to try to get around to all your blogs.  I can't even tell you all how much I miss you.  If any of you are in mid-Michigan, please let me know, and if there's a quilt shop near you - November 1-3 my friend Cathy and I are taking a little road trip, and we might be coming to your area!  I'd love to hear about your favorite shops.

Time to run, no rest for the wicked you know - see you soon!

Shirley's dog Greta, who gave us a proper greeting as we came to visit....

More Email Woes

Unbelievably - or maybe it IS believable, I don't know at this point - gmx email has stopped me from sending more emails for the time being.  They said I sent too many and must be spam.  Sooooo...deep breath....I went back to gmail.  And guess what?  They changed too, lol!  To a new horrible design.  However, I found a fix for that, and now it's back to the old design.  Still not sure what email I'll be using but right now, it's going to be gmail.  I'm adding you all in as we speak.

And now I think we all need to laugh a little.  *G*

And to illustrate just how I'm feeling this evening....

New Email

Hi everyone, just a quick check-in as I need to get to bed - looking forward to some rainy days to catch up on blog reading later this week.  I have a new email address, that is now linked to my blog - please, please, if you can, comment on this post so I can add you to my address book.  Yahoo is not letting my new email access it, and this is the quickest way I can think of to get all of you installed in my new email.

And yahoo - ugh - they CHANGED AGAIN.  This was the last straw for me, lol, I can hardly read the new font, and it's all very confusing.  I switched over the GMX email, it's free, and so far I really like it.  I'll be keeping the old yahoo for awhile yet, though.

See you soon, I hope.....

The Silence Is Deafening

Kinda quiet around Allie-land, eh?  On the blog at least.  I'll have you know I worked every. single. day. last week.  Loving it - still love my job, and I am very grateful for more hours!  Cuz we all know what that means, more money to BUY FABRIC.

My friend Cathy and I went to the Sewing Expo Saturday.  Even smaller than last year...we were pretty disappointed.  Apparently there was a Quilter's Showcase in Birch Run [about an hour north] as well, and we're thinking of going to that next year.  I did get my thimbles that I like to use, and that's about it.

And I wanted to show you what else I got last week - I ordered a saddle cross from my friend Kysa.  I met Kysa on a homeschooling message board, and got to meet her in real life - she's a lovely Christian woman and very dear to my heart.  Kysa LOVES horses, lives on a farm and makes tooled leather crosses for saddles - now I don't have a saddle, but I do have a work tote that I carry constantly.  I wanted one for my work tote, and look what she made for me...




Isn't that GORGEOUS?  Don't I just have the most talented friends?????  Kysa has a shop, Too'Shay Tack, the crosses are just $10 if you'd like one too!

Let's see, what else - mum is really missing me [her chauffeur], and I miss her too....I'll have Tuesday off this week so we'll get to play. Not sure what we'll have time for after the grocery shopping, picking up prescriptions and library, but we'll try to fit in something fun.

 Jenny is getting ready to release the Christmas Issue of her magazine, it is Chock Full of scrumptious projects, go see!  Have you all started making things for Christmas?  I've decided NOT to make anything this year.  Everyone is getting Avon, lol.  I've already started tucking things away.  I'll make something for myself, though, since I know I'll love it and appreciate all my hard work.  I'm thinking I would love to find that needlebook in Jenny's Christmas Issue in my own stocking....yes, I still fill my stocking.

I'll be working a lot more hours again this week, so you might not see me for awhile.  About all I have time for lately is reading blogs, not commenting or doing my own blog, and even that not every day.  Today was the first time I stitched in over a week and it was oh so nice.  I don't have much to blog about, so I'll just go read yours, ok?

I'll leave you with a pic of John's pumpkin - it's supposed to be Batman with his cape.  *wink*



Love,
Allie

A Shameless Plug

Many many moons ago, back when I was a skinny beanpole and could turn sideways and disappear, back when my nickname was "Allison Wonderland", "Four Eyes", and others too embarrassing to mention, I met a friend.  A charming, happy, always smiling friend, who was there through every crisis, always had something good and important to say, and didn't care if I soaked the shoulder of her shirt with my tears.  High school came, she was there for the death of my father, and then we lost touch....caught up in moving on and growing up, we somehow lost each other.

Fast forward 36 years.  Somehow I found her on classmates, we emailed, she came up from Florida and I did a post about her mum's quilts [MASSIVE talent].  It turns out, her mum wasn't the only one with talent.  Patty, my sweet Patty whom I love like a sister, has opened an etsy shop called Seams From Dreams and it's filled with absolutely gorgeous wedding things.

  I think Patty needs a blog now!  Her sister has one, here, she's an outstanding bear artist - the talent in this family is amazing.   Booh Bears is here.

So if you need some gorgeous wedding accessories, or just want some lovely eye candy, go and visit!

I love plugging my sweet friends.  Jenny plugged me today, bless her, isn't she the sweetest to do that?  And I can't even leave a comment on her blog to thank her [but we email quite often, lol] because of stupid google.  Hers is one of the blogs that won't recognize me, even though I have a google blog myself.  Ah internet, I love you but you maken me crazy.

My sweet friend Sue, who is a blogger here in MI, mentioned on her latest post that her apple trees are quite heavily laden with apples this year - and ours are too!  I don't know what happened, but we have branches dragging to the ground with apples.  Hubby has been making apple strudel and applesauce.  It's AMAZING to see.  The tree, not him cooking...he does that often.  It would be much more amazing to see ME cooking.



A tiny glimpse of the bountiful harvest.

Speaking of sweet friends, I would like to ask you all to pray for my best friend...she lost her mum this week, very unexpectedly.  My heart is breaking for her and I feel so helpless.  Thanks, my friends....

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

Allie

Patterns

Patterns are in the shop - I was very blurry by the time I finished last night, but they're there.  Blessed Abundance is free!  Link is on my sidebar, on top.

Summer Concert In The Park



Blessed Assurance



And now I'm off to my real job, lol - see you soon!!!

News

Trying to catch up here, I'm so behind in blog reading and emails.  I did finish my latest patterns, and will be writing up the patterns and posting them to my craftsy shop in the next day or so - I'll let you know.

Wanna see?







Summer Concert was quilted by hand, this is the back.



I understand that we're headed into autumn, but it was summer when I had the idea for this, lol.  I can't wait to get these written up, because....I went to a quilter's garage sale yesterday.  Oh the fabric, I was in heaven, but I was a good girl and didn't spend as much as I could have.  She had bundles of at least 3 yards each for $5.  This is what I got....



Can't wait to start designing with these!!

Life has been incredibly busy here lately, not much time for computer, although I've been following the news [ONLINE] for Colorado.  Please pray for Colorado.

 I've also been following the 2 Million Bikers to D.C. ride.  Haven't heard of it?  I'm not surprised.  There was no national coverage, and no coverage by the media here in Detroit.

1.2 million bikers showed up on 9-11 in D.C., to protest the "Million Muslim March" and to honor those who lost their lives 12 years ago in the terrorist attack on our country.  In ONE MONTH, these bikers organized and rode.  The line of bikers just coming out of  Los Angeles was 55 miles long.  They were denied a permit by D.C., but didn't need one - they wanted to help the city avoid long traffic delays.  They got one at the last minute.

What I find so incredible, other than the rampant patriotism of these folks, is that the D.C. traffic cams showed no traffic all day.  In a snapshot of the cameras, you can see SNOW on the roads.  The cams were looping old footage.  So on 9-11, if you looked at a traffic cam to see how your trip would go, you'd think you would have had clear sailing, when in fact traffic was snarled for hours.  Oh, and you might have wondered how it could have snowed in 90 degree heat.

Some of the bikers are still trying to get home, the Oregon riders should be home today, but the Alaskan riders have quite a ways to go.  They'd appreciate your prayers.  I'm hoping to get a bike myself - Harley is my new obsession - and join them for next year's ride.

Want to see a small glimpse of what it was like?  Here's a great video.  Some words at first, then you see from the perspective of one rider's helmet cam.



Normally, my blog is all about quilting, nothing political.  But 9-11 happened to ALL of us, and for these riders to gather together like this in honor of the victims is simply wonderful to me.  Please pray for those bikers still trying to get home, through the rain and flooding in Colorado.

I'll see you soon - I'm off to get ready for church - didn't make the morning service, I had to work very late last night.  Hugs and kisses!!!

Workin' It

I'm off today, but on call just in case, so I'm sticking close to home.  Which is good, I can sew!!!  I really am working hard on these new patterns.





As you know, hand sewing takes time - but it's one of the loveliest ways to spend time that I know.

I have great news.  My son Sam, who just had a birthday, gave me a wonderful gift.  He ordered the part I needed for my camera, and fixed it for me!  Maybe that will be the incentive I need to start blogging again.  It's just no fun when you can't take pictures, and now I can!  I was using my other son John's camera, but it really takes awful pictures, lol.

This next pic is for Midge - Mr. Ted with his summer cowboy hat on.



Midge made me this bear, and I love him to pieces [not literally].   He has a winter hat and scarf that are packed away in the winter clothes for now, but with this cooler weather we're having, they might be coming out soon!

Hope you are having a wonderful day, I'm going to go put in an old movie and stitch for hours!