Quilt Shop Hop

Some of you may know that I like to quilt. (One day I will do a post of quilts that I've made.) Quilters are a fun group! One thing that brings quilters together is a shop hop.

This weekend (May 1-3) was the Pieceful Quilter's Alley Shop Hop. Six quilt shops in Southern Missouri participate in a shop hop twice each year. My mom did the hop with me in November, but this time it was just Jeremiah and I.

A shop hop is an event in which you visit each shop during the specified days. At the first store you visit, you receive a "passport" that each shop stamps or signs. Once you have visited all the stores, the final shop keeps your passport, and you are entered to win prizes! Each shop also has sales and specials on most items. This time around, the shops offered 20% off most regular priced items. One hopper will win the grand prize of a $100 gift certificate to each of the six stores! There are smaller prizes like $50 gift certificates, patterns, fabric precuts, too. In November, I won a gift bag with patterns and a Moda charm pack, and my mom won a quilt pattern book. Let's hope I win the grand prize this time!

This time, each shop gave out a pattern for a 12" quilt block. After completing the shop hop, you had the patterns for six different blocks. Each shop had made their own quilt using all six blocks. It was so interesting to see how different each quilt turned out!

I started the hop at The Stitchin' Post in Willow Springs, MO. I visit this store often, as it is my preferred local shop. They have reasonably priced quilting fabric and fat quarters. The owners, Joan and Grover Pierce, are lovely people. They also run an etsy store. Jeremiah enjoyed entertaining Joan (or should that be the other way around?) while I shopped. In addition to the free block pattern, they also gave each customer a free fat quarter!

Joan made multiples of the six quilt blocks to make a stunning purple, blue, and green quilt featuring a floral fabric panel in the center.

Jeremiah fell asleep right after getting back in the car, so we made the long trek to Van Buren, MO to Carol's Country Quilt Shop. I always find wonderful things here! It's a good thing this shop is so far away. The quilt shop is in a residential home. The basement is where the best bargains are! They also sell "scrap bags" for $1.75. These scrap bags are stuffed brown paper lunch sacks. I have purchased these each time I visit the shop, and each time I am surprised at the quality of what's inside. I usually get a couple fat quarter size (or larger!) pieces and strips of various quilting fabrics, including batiks. It is a great way to experiment with colors and fabrics I wouldn't normally buy.

The featured quilt at this shop was a lap size quilt that added nine-patch blocks with the six blocks.

After making a pit stop for lunch, we headed to the small town of Birch Tree, MO to The Hideaway Quilt Shop. The shop often displays quilts that are quick and easy to put together and hosts sewing classes with a "make-and-take" theme. I enjoy visiting this shop very much. She even has a collection of mini (child's) sewing machines! (Again, one day I will make a post about the sewing machines I have.)

The quilt at this shop used all six blocks and some large sections of fabric that would be perfect for featuring large scale prints. This quilt shows you can make a large, bed-size quilt without much more sewing than a smaller quilt.

Next, Jeremiah and I visisted the Gammill Sewing Center in West Plains, MO. This is primarily a sewing machine dealer and repair shop. They often have vintage Bernina machines for a great price (in case you're hunting for one). They have a special right now on machine tune-ups for $25. They gave each shop hop participant a small pair of scissors perfect for thread clipping.

This shop made the six quilt blocks into a wall hanging.

The Sewing Connection is located about eight miles outside of West Plains, MO. The shop is a Husqvarna and Gammil dealer, and they do machine quilting as well. They gave each hopper a coupon good for 'buy one item at regular price get a second item for half off.' They host quilting and embroidery classes where you get to use their machines!

The shop hop quilt here featured beautiful machine quilting, done by the shop owner, Vivian Collins. One block is repeated in each of the corners, but the other five blocks only appear once. The blocks are set on point with light colored blocks in-between to allow the quilting to be the focus.

The last shop I visited was Dogwood Quilting in Ava, MO. This shop has a good selection of fat quarters and precut tumblers in their back room. They have a website, but I haven't seen any activity on it for a long while.

The featured quilt here was lap size, and also turned the quilt blocks on point.

I turned in my completed passport to the shop in Ava.

Sunday evening, I received a call saying I won a $50 gift certificate to the shop in Van Buren! I'm already planning what I will spend it on...and looking forward to the next shop hop!

Easter Festivities

Last year, Easter was the last day of March, so this was Jeremiah's first Easter. The festivities spanned two different weekends and two different states. There was an Easter Egg Hunt at Josh's work the week before Easter, and then we traveled to Kansas to visit family on Easter weekend.

Meeting the Easter Bunny didn't go so well...

 

...but he did great hunting for eggs! He picked them up and put them in his basket all on his own.

 

He was able to do a second Easter Egg Hunt on Easter weekend. He was grouped in the "Kindergarten and under" age category. The candy was scattered on the ground and much harder for him to see on his own. (Plus the older kids were approaching lightning fast!)

 

It was very windy (hence his expression), but he enjoyed putting each piece in the bucket. (I would also like to give a shout out to the two older kids that dropped some of their candy into his bucket. Thank you, again!)

Jeremiah captioned this picture, "Grandma is so much fun!"

I love Easter. I especially love the reason for the holiday. I also love the traditions of making "Resurrection Rolls" for breakfast, getting new outfits for church, having Easter egg hunts, and finding baskets of goodies on Easter morning. I'm already looking forward to next year!

"The earliest Jewish polemic presupposes the historicity of the empty tomb. In other words, there was nobody who was claiming that the tomb still contained Jesus' body. The question always was, 'What happened to the body?' The Jews proposed the ridiculous story that the guards had fallen asleep. Obviously, they were grasping at straws. But the point is this: they started with the assumption that the tomb was vacant! Why? Because they knew it was!" -William Lane Craig, Ph.D., D.Th. as quoted in The Case for Christ by Lee Strobel

"On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus." -Luke 24:1-3

The Big O-N-E!

Time flies when you're having fun! Today, Jeremiah turns ONE!

 

Some stats:

We estimate that he weighs around 19-19.5 pounds. (It's hard to weigh a moving object!)
He has six teeth (four on the top and two on the bottom).
His hair is blonde, and his eyes are still blue.
He can walk along a wall or object, but won't walk on his own without holding on to both of your hands.
He can crawl, but will only do so to get to the bookshelf of off-limit books or the dog. He prefers to walk.
He can pull himself up from a sitting position to standing.
His favorite foods are toast, pears, apples, oranges, mushrooms, scrambled eggs, pasta, and any meat (especially if it's smoked). He has had minor allergic reactions to yogurt and some other random foods. He does not like bananas or anything that requires a spoon.
He uses both his left and right hands; he doesn't really favor one or the other yet.
He is ticklish on his neck and belly.
He likes to play peek-a-boo.
He LOVES to read books independently. Whether they have pictures or not.

He is always full of smiles and is inquisitive about all that is around him. I pray God continues to equip us for the years that are ahead!

Christmas Card Bloopers

We really wanted to send a photo card this year for Christmas. A much harder task with an 8-month-old than you might think.

We considered this one.

(Yes, we were the Holy Family for our church's Christmas play. Cranky Jesus took a pacifier for the first time! It was a Christmas miracle!)

We considered a photo of just the kids.

Or one where Jeremiah was reading a Christmas story to you.

But Pinterest has countless beautiful family pictures that are just longing to be recreated. We wanted one of those photos. Surely we could do it...

 

 

Conclusion: Those families are mannequins. Because in real life, this is what happens.

 

In the end, we did get some great photos. Let's just say we're glad we weren't paying an hourly rate to a photographer.

 

 

 

Merry Christmas!
 

More travel!?!

It seems like we are traveling a lot these days. Back in mid-November (I know, I'm a little behind) Josh had to travel to Indiana for work, and we got to go along! We decided to stop in St. Louis on the way home. We played tourist and visited the St. Louis Arch. We even rode the little tram cars to the top!

When buying tickets for the tram, they ask if you are claustrophobic.

They do not ask if you have a fear of heights or adversion to touching strangers thigh to thigh. Be warned.

If you can muster the courage to get friendly with strangers, you are rewarded with a great view of St. Louis and the Mississippi River!

Here is Jeremiah at the top!

While Josh was trying to take a picture, Jeremiah touched the screen and found the panorama button. Well, that made for much better photos! (We are fairly new to this 'Smart Phone' thing...so no, we didn't know this button existed. Don't judge.)

 

In the gift shop, I found these! Now this is my kind of souvenir!

Once back on the ground (and with our new-found camera abilities), I was able to get this beauty!

 
If you remember this post, then you may remember that we visited a restaurant in Washinton, D.C. named the Pi Pizzeria. Well, they happen to have several in St. Louis, too! In DC, Josh got a t-shirt. In St. Louis, I got a set of these!  
 

 
Now if you come to visit us, you'll get your milk in a pi glass! 

Since I'm behind on blogging, I might not see you again before the 25th. So just in case, Merry Christmas!