Making Charm Square Four Patch Coasters with my special helper!

My granddaughter and I made these fun Charm Square Four Patch Coasters on Friday.  I found the instructions in several locations.  All you have to do is search for Charm Square Coasters and you will find a bunch of tutorials.  I combined several tutorials to make ours. 

Front of Coasters

Back of Coasters. She really wanted to use this fabric!

We had so much fun.  I let her pick out the colors and she did a great job.  We made them for her Mom (my daughter).  She couldn't wait to give them to her.  She helped turn them inside out (see below in progress) and poke out the corners (we used a wooden chopstick).   They go together real fast so its a great project with a little one. Loads of fun and a great gift idea!!!

My granddaughter with her coasters.

Great start to the year. Hope yours is going well, too.
Have a wonderful week,
Karen

Merry Christmas!

A picture with my grandson.

I just realized I haven't posted in six weeks. A lot, happens in six weeks. Thanksgiving, my birthday and today we are celebrating the most important one - Christmas!  I love celebrating Christ's birth.   I use to work for a church and it was such a wonderful time of year to work in the church.  Listening to the children rehearse for the children's pageant, the innocence and wonder in their eyes.   Listening to the hymns and carols coming from the distant choir room as the choir rehearses.  I don't attend it often because I just can't stay awake that long but I use to love the midnight candlelight service - so spiritual and uplifting (now we usually go to an earlier service)!  

I hope that wherever you are and whatever you are doing you have a beautiful Christmas day with family and friends!

Peace to you all,
Karen

Veterans Day 2011

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Thank you to all of our Veterans

on this Veterans Day and everyday. 

We appreciate all you have done and 

are doing for our country!

A package in the Mail! YIPPEE!

While we were on vacation look what came in the mail! I received this wonderful Lily Ashbury Summer House Fabric I won during the Moda Country Fair Blog Hop.

Thank you Stephanie, I love the fabric.  Take a look over at Stephanie's wonderful Lily Ashbury Blog to see all of the wonderful Lily Ashbury  fabrics and blog posts. To comment for the giveaway you had to post a pie recipe or a link to one.  I guess I really should have posted a link it would have been so much easier but silly me posted an actual family recipe!  They have now posted the recipes and links and wonderful pie recipe, Sandy from their team created to win at the fair!.  If you need a pie recipe its the place to go - I mean REALLY - check it out.  Go now. Unless, of course, you don't like pie!

Have a pieceful evening,
Karen

How do we spell relief V-A-C-A-T-I-O-N!

That's right we took a vacation.  We headed north to Great Smoky Mountains National Park. We took the RV and stayed in Townsend, Tennessee.  A quiet little hamlet by the mountains. The weather varied from hot and sunny in the 80's during the daytime at the beginning of the week to cool and wet mid week (50's) and rather cold in the morning's (34 one morning).  It was great!  The leaves were beautiful, the area is fun to drive around and it was quiet and peaceful in the campground for our stay.  We got lucky on the campsite.  We had reserved one site in the campground that was okay but not scenic, another one on the river came available when the people who had reserved it didn't show, we quickly moved to that site and enjoyed the whole week on the river.

The view from our campsite.

The river front sites had been reserved for a year so this was a lucky turn for us!  We spent several days driving through the National Park taking pictures of the leaves, rivers and mountains.

Fall leaves.

Could have stayed here all day!

We also went to the Craftsman's Fair in Gatlinburg - hundreds of wonderful booths of crafts and artisans.  When we came out from the fair we realized there was snow on the peaks of the mountains over Gatlinburg (this was the only time we went into Gatlinburg).  We are not big fans of Gatlinburg or Pigeon Forge just because they are so commercial but we did go in to Pigeon Forge to eat and grab a Starbucks Frappuccino (you gotta splurge some time)!  When we left Gatlinburg we headed back into the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and took this picture of the snow capped peaks and the valleys below with the bright leaves in front.

You had to be there - it really was beautiful

All in all we had a wonderful time relaxing and enjoying our time together.  Now we are back and it's time to get things done around here.  Hope everyone is having a great start to their week.

Peace,
Karen

Good News

Our GD has been home from the hospital for 10 days now and is doing great.  They have been on school vacation so it gave her time to get lots of rest and to play, play, play!  Thank you for the thoughts and prayers.  As you can imagine with small children around it has been busy.  I have only been able to sew a little but I did get a little more done on GD's skirt before she walked in and I had to hide it.  It's a surprise for her.

I also bought a pattern for a table topper and some wonderful Halloween fabric to make it with.  If I don't get to it soon I will make a Christmas topper instead.

My in-laws are here and we are having a wonderful visit.  They are enjoying seeing our daughter and their great grandchildren (and us).  It's good to see them.

May you have a beautiful day!
Karen

We love this little one!

They say a picture is worth a thousand words.

We love this little girl. She is our granddaughter and she's in the hospital with pneumonia. Hopefully, she will be home in the next day or two. Mom (our daughter) is there with her, and her brother (not yet 5) is home with us. He  misses them both.  I let her brother call her at the hospital a little while ago. They had a cute conversation about her lungs. He kept telling his sister how much he missed her.  Any prayers are greatly appreciated. 

Peace,

Karen

Working on a Skirt

I've been working on a skirt for my GD. You would think this would be a quick and easy project but since I spend most of my time watching my grand kids I haven't had much time for sewing lately.

I have designed the skirt (I'm sure its not much different than any other little girls tiered style skirt), cut it out, and started the stitching.  See pictures below.

Stitching for gathered edge.

Gathered edged pinned to one of the tiers.

Waistband - I sew it with the elastic in place.

My GD loves butterflies so I chose two different colors of the same cute butterfly print and some bright yellow fabric to go with it.  I hope to have it done in the next couple of days.  (If I can just find the time.)

I've also been teaching my grand kids a love of gardening this summer.  We now have three blueberry plants, and we had two tomato plants we grew in pots on the back porch.  

One of our new blueberry plants - they even produced this year!

Our tomatoes before they ripened.

Just before picking!

 

My GS and GD had so much fun checking the tomatoes everyday since the first tiny tomato showed until we picked the last tomato this past week.  Such fun.  We also planted marigolds - natural pest deterrents, didn't see a single horn worm near my tomatoes this year and was able to stay completely organic.  

Planting marigolds!

They had lots of fun planting and playing in the dirt!

 Although the grand kids are back at school, summer heat isn't over yet!  It's still hot and humid - today it's 94 out and shows no signs of cooling off any time soon.  If you are in the path of Irene our prayers are with you.

May your evening be full of sewing,
Karen