I am a total copycat . . .

After seeing this beautiful quilt, I was so inspired that I bought the exact same fabric, printed off the exact same pattern, and even got the leftover scraps from Alisa :) This is going to be a lap-size quilt for a very special someone . . .linking up to WIP Wednesday on Freshly Pieced.

too blessed to be stressed . . .

This is a phrase that's entered my mind many times this week, "too blessed to be stressed . . ." It also got me thinking of a couple small positive changes I can make in my life.

Here's some things that made me feel blessed today . . .

Filling up my new magnet board from Livy Lou Designs ~ amazing quality and beautiful little magnets! Such a great way to display business cards and thank-yous in my craft space. I know I have more to add, I just have to start digging around for them . . .

My new notebook, waiting to be filled with all my project ideas so I can stop trying to find back my scraps of paper all over the place . . .Elayna's first knitting project, she LOVES sitting down to knit . . .

Our beautiful sunshine, can it can get any better than this?!

And my project on my cutting table right now, scripture tote bags for a custom order. I'm going to stitch on the Bible verses today, and then I can assemble them.

And this afternoon, my sister and I did a 'kid-swap' so I have cousins playing nicely, while Elayna gets the expertise of her Aunty in scrapbook-making.

Another quilt out of my UFO pile!

This is another quilt top that I pieced a LONG time ago and quilted at the retreat this past weekend. It was supposed to be for my oldest daughter, but we rearranged the bedrooms this year and she now has a double bed. But I just wasn't motivated to keep making these diamond blocks, and it already kind of matches Chantel's quilt, so I finished it off for Alyssa. How is it that my third daughter has four quilts from me now, and my oldest only has two? I better change that before she notices . . . her name quilted in the middle . . .
and both quilts together now. So happy to have them done!

Linking up to Confessions of a Fabric Addict.

a productive weekend of quilting . . .

This past weekend was our annual quilt retreat! I helped with the organizing this year, so my morning was a bit of a slow start with checking everyone in, but once I got some time in with my sewing machine I managed to get two twin size quilt tops quilted! I am so glad that these quilts are off my to-do list as the tops were pieced so long ago, it's embarrassing.

This is the first quilt I finished, and after machine-stitching the binding down yesterday, it is now on Chantel's bed. The backing is mostly a pink non-pill fleece with a little bit of purple pieced in. She had requested a soft backing, and I skipped the batting layer ~ it quilted up so easily! I just did a large free-motion meander for the quilting. The pattern is Lucky Stars from Atkinson Designs. And I'm not sure if you can read it, but I quilted her name into the corner of the quilt (my kids LOVE having their names on their things).

If you want to read about our quilt retreat, it's in a guest blogger post at Quilting Gallery today!