my new babies

We have a couple of new additions to our family. We got them from the shelter yesterday. Aren't they cute? We don't like the names the shelter gave them so they don't have names yet. Anyone have any ideas? The little gray, buff and white one is a girl. She's outgoing and playful. She doesn't sit still too much and scampers all around. The gray one is a boy and has a little silver right around his mouth and on his paws. He's playful and very lovey. He likes to sit on laps and I have been having trouble typing because he keeps crawling up into my lap with my laptop. We have been trying to think of a bear name for him because he rears up on his hind legs and bats at his sister. They are both so sweet. Any name ideas would be appreciated.

P.S. I promise not to be one of those people who shows pictures of their kitties all the time, but this was just too cute to pass up. We lit the cookstove tonight and when I went looking for them look what I found on the shelf under my shaker work table.

beta blogger is not my friend

I was having trouble getting into my blog on Monday night so I thought it must be time to convert to Beta Blogger. What was I thinking???? BIG mistake. I didn't have anywhere near as much trouble as Judy did when she converted hers, but I had everything going so well and now it isn't.
When I converted it created a number of anonymous comments from comments that used to have links to their senders. Very annoying. Luckily, I have the comments emailed to me so I still know who posted them. The biggest problem I am having though is that every comment that I have gotten since the conversion is sent to my email with no-reply so I can't reply. Has anyone else had this problem and fixed it? I'm going to go through the newsgroup this weekend and see if I can find a fix.
I think this should have been Alpha. Beta should be much more stable before it's put out for the masses. Hopefully, they will get their act together and fix some of these issues.

my new quilt

I haven't been doing much quilting lately. Things around here have been rather stressful and I simply haven't felt like it.
I did get back a quilt I had sent off to my long arm quilter a while ago. She tends to take a while, but she does a beautiful job. Sorry about the picture. The sun was shining very brightly which was nice for the day, but not so nice for pictures. You also get a view of our rebuilt wall after we had to tear it down for mold issues when we moved in.
I still need to bind it, but I am so happy to have it back. It's based on Island Star by M'liss Rae Hawley from More Fat Quarter Quilts. I started just making the stars and was going to make a lap size, but then decided that I loved the way the stars came out so much I wanted it bigger to fit on my bed. I played around with sashing and came up with this pattern. I had to call the friend I was shopping with when I bought that background and get another 1/4 yard to finish. After I finished the center I had to improvise a border without any more of the background. I am happy with the way it turned out. I think I would have liked it better if I had used more background in the border, but at least I used some stash.:oD

collection

I'm a little late on this post, but Nancy asked for pictures of what we collect. Ever since I was little I have loved Teddy Bears. Every Christmas, birthday or other special occasion everyone knows what they can get me that I will love. I have brought one or more from most of my trips. When I was selling Longaberger I found a great place in Dresden that I went to when I was at the Bee where the woman made them herself. She did a wonderful job and some of my favorites were made by her. You will find bears tucked into every book case, sitting in baskets, cradles and chairs and along all the mantles in my house.
The small chair was a chair my dad got when he was a boy in Sunday School. It's perfect for a mohair bear that I found at a garage sale. That is one of the bears from Dresden, OH sitting on his lap. On top of my jelly cupboard is the bear I brought from Monaco when DD was in a ballet program there. The one in the chair my DH gave me a couple of Christmases ago.
In this book case is another bear from Dresden with the red basket. The mohair one on the shelf above is actually made by Pleasant Company for one of their American Girl dolls. When DD was into those I came across this when I was looking for Christmas presents for her one year and I "helped" DH with some of his shopping and this was in my stocking.
This is just a very small sampling of the bears that live in my house. You may notice that none of my bears are wearing clothes. I like mine to look more like bears and you always see bears in the wild holding a Longaberger basket don't you? ;cD

have i ever

I have been enjoying reading everyone else's answers to Shelina's have you ever. Here is mine.

Have You Ever?

1. Taken a quilting class
2. Paper pieced (Like this for precise miniatures)
3. Hand quilted
4. Hand pieced
5. Created your own pattern (Love my EQ)
6. Published a pattern in a magazine or book
7. Gone on a quilting retreat
8. Gone to a quilting conventon
9. Met someone who wrote a quilting book
10 combined your quilting with some other craft
11. Done any three dimensional quilting - like fabric origami (Ruching)
12. Made something using Thimbleberries fabric (Not completely, but I do use them. Marden’s has them. :D)
13. Made something using batiks
14. Dyed your own fabric (We did marbling too. Great fun)
15. Made a landscape hanging
16 Made a New York Beauty quilt
17 Made a baby quilt (I keep a bunch on hand just in case...)
18 Made a wall hanging
19 Made a journal quilt
20 Submitted your journal quilt for viewing
21 Made a fabric postcard (I haven’t tried these, but probably will in the near future)
22 Made a artistic trading card (ATC)
23 Exchanged artistic trading cards
24. Mailed your own postcard
25. Made a lap quilt
26 Made a twin size quilt
27 Made a full size quilt
28 Made a queen size quilt
29 Made a king size quilt
30 Donated a quilt to charity
31 Sent a quilt out to a quilter
32 Thrown away a UFO (I never throw anything away)
33 Given away a UFO
34 Cut up a UFO and made something else with it
35 Ripped fabric instead of cutting it
36 Made a quilt exactly like the pattern, with no changes whatsoever (I don’t think I’m capable) 37 Done any Sashiko
38 Quilted your own quilt
39 Did free motion quilting
40 Put any embroidery or beads on your quilt (I love my embroidery machine)
41 Given away your quilt to a stranger
42 Swapped fabric
43 swapped blocks
44 participated in a round robin
45 participated in an ostritch round robin (This sounds like fun though)
46 kept a journal about your quilting
47 written a letter to someone who made an antique quilt
49 kept a blog about your quilting
50 participated in a gift exchange
51 sent a quilting random act of kindness
52 joined a newsgroup about quilting
53 made a quilt using a pattern from quilterscache (Marcia belonged to our quilt guild in the town I just moved from)
54 joined an online block of the month
55 made a block of the month quilt (Changed the fabrics though so it wouldn't be like everyone else's)
56 subscribed to a fabric of the month club
57 bought fabric at an online store
58 bought fabric from ebay
59 own more than one sewing machine
60 have a room dedicated solely to sewing :0D
61 hide a fabric purchase (DH is wonderful. I don’t have to hide)
62 finished making a holiday gift before July (I used to do this all the time. Not so much anymore. I’m lucky to finish by Christmas now)
63 spent more than $200 in one quilt shopping trip (Yeah, I’m not too proud of this one)
64 made a quilt using a book from the library
65 worked with someone else to make a quilt
66. joined a quilt guild
67 become president of a quilt guild (I’m the person who can’t say “no”)
68 taught a quilting class (This is how I make new friends whenever we move)
69 helped someone else get the quilting bug (I always say I am a quilting pusher. I want to convert the world)
70 taught a child to sew (Again with the converting the world. Get ‘em young)
71 made a Dear Jane block
72 Made a miniature quilt (I love miniatures)
73 watch QNN - quilters news network
73 subscribe to a quilting magazine from your own country
74 subscribe to a quilting magazine from another country
75 buy fabric from another country (Every trip I search for at least one piece of quilting fabric)
76 swapped completed quilts with someone else
77 asked for quilting help online (A friend and I “cyber quilt”. We send each other pictures and give advice online. The Internet is a wonderful thing!)
78 gone to a quilt shop to ask for quilting help
79 bought fabric at a local quilt shop
80 traveled more than 100 miles to go to a quilt shop (Maine to Lancaster Co.Penn like 3 years in a row. I must be sick)
81 used nontraditional fabric for a quilt - something other than cotton or flannel 82 made a quilt using instructions given to you on a blog
83 make comments on someone's quilting blog
84 meet a quilter in person after only having talked online (I would love to do this)
85 had a quilting retreat in your home ( With no water no less :o) )
86 own quilting software (EQ)
87 made a quilt you designed on your quilting software (All the time. I love my software)
88 done any quilt research - history, interviewing quilters, etc.
89 had any quilt related subject published anywhere
90 donated a quilt to a museum
91 bought a quilt from a thrift store (And a yard sale)
92 made a quilt using fabric from a thrift store
93 made a quilt using photos
94 made a pastel quilt
95 made a quilt using brights
96 made a quilt using ethnic fabric from another country - African, Asian, etc.
97 made a quilt using leftover blocks from other quilts (Waste not want not)
98 had your quilt in a magazine, newspaper, newsletter, TV, etc.
99. submitted your quilt to a quilt show (I am just not talented enough)
100. won any ribbons with your quilts
101 had more finished quilts than UFOs
102 made a quilt using reproduction fabrics (My favorites)
103 took a break from quilting that was longer than a year (It was hard to quilt when the kids were little. I was always afraid they would swallow a pin)
104 made money with your quilting
105 had a job in the fabric / quilting industry (My first job out of high school :o) )