Kitchen dishes quilt and a swim for the dogs

I made a promise to myself to get a lot of projects that I either got kits for or fabric for, done this year. This is called Kitchen Dishes which was made with Jennifer Chiaverini fabric (a favorite author of mine). The manager of the quilt shop designed this quilt for her fabric line. I made it over the vacation and finished putting it together this weekend. Mitered corners!! I have not done this in a while, but a quick look at some directions online and it was a snap to do.

Working with these colors during the snowy days and nights we have had was really a great thing for my eyes and mind! :)

The plain colors are a tone-on-tone print which is pretty to use in this quilt.

Kenny and the dogs worked at the farm (shooting preserve) today at a big hunt. They retrieved about 62 birds between them and were a little dirty when they got home, so Kenny and I took them to the river to clean off. They are shaking the cold water off now.

They are just like polar bears sometimes. Even though they worked all day, they were nagging us to throw the bumpers (training tool-they are orange) for them.

We got about 8 inches of snow the other day, but it is melting away now. It's a slushy mess at this point and gets pretty slippery when you walk on it. The weather channel is warning of another potential snow event this week, but it might blow away before it gets to us. Wouldn't that be unusual?

Portrait of a lady (or two)

My father-in-law was asking us for some pictures of the "girls" a while ago and I thought it was so cute that he wanted to have a picture of our dogs to look at! I mean, really, aren't they the cutest dogs you ever saw? Who wouldn't want their own pictures of them? Imagine our surprise when we got a huge flat box with this lovely portrait of Millie and Penny in it!!
Here is the painting from the Penny side. I hung it on the wall right across from our bedroom so it is the first thing Kenny sees when he gets up and the last thing he sees before he goes to sleep for the night. (No, I am not jealous!!)

The Millie side. Look how serious she is!!

When we open our bedroom door...there they are!! The artist is a man from Wake Forest, North Carolina. We are so happy with the portrait!!

Happy Birthday Mom!! Today is Ken's mom's birthday, and we hope you are having the best night!! We have more snow on the way for Friday, so you all enjoy your sunshine and tropical weather (yes, 60 is tropical compared to what we have here).

A few things I've worked on this week, and a cute chick

Last week we got about 8 inches of snow. We are expecting a few more inches tonight, but it won't effect me since I am off for the week!! Schools were closed for the storm here in the picture, which meant another day of sewing and movie viewing (Ken and I watched The Hurt Locker and Julie/Julia--he did not like Julie/Julia though. I thought it was ok.)Remember my babies? Look at how big they are. These chickens are so cute and friendly that they actually like to be picked up and carried around. As soon as they are let out of the pen, they run right over to the house and call me!

Today's project was this quilt for Evy. It was so easy and quick to put together. I thought she would like the colors and fabrics and I was right.

The picture below is a hand-embroidered piece I started in a class. At night when I am watching tv, I enjoy working with my hands on a quiet project like this one. The flowers and leaves are all wool. I love wool! I have to decide if I want this to be a wallhanging with pieced blocks around it (red and white) or if I want to make it a pillow. I am doing a series of these for each season, so maybe I will make up my mind after I have the next one done.

Valentines Apron and wallhanging

I got an order for six aprons a while back and thought I would get working on them this week. I gave her two this week and will do two more next week when I am on winter vacation. Since Valentines Day is coming soon, I thought I would make her this one and I made one for me as well. Mine has a plain red waistband instead of the stripe. Once in a while I get the Quick Quilts magazine and this was a quilt featured a few years back. It was a snap to make and I have been using it for a few years during February. That same year, there was a cute one for Easter too, which I made and use for the spring. I am an instant gratification person with my sewing projects sometimes and these quilts are a perfect way to get that feeling of accomplishment. The Valentines quilt is not quilted or anything, but I hang it up anyway.