Helping Hands

As life goes on, we can help another person up...we can do that through just listening and praying to our Creator for their needs known and unknown.I had a sweet call from my older sister tonight, we had so much fun and lots of work together those years on Cherry Street. A large family to work and care for...she quilts with arthritis now, it hurts?....yes, but she keeps going on...Love her.
  God holds us in the hallow of His hand.  Time does age us all...one day at a time; as a 100 year old,  handsome man once told me from his hospital bed...bright and cheerful....he was content with his Century of living and ready to meet his Lord.  That is sweet and I am SURE he had struggles along the way...many, as we all do.  Learning to live in His presence may be the whole purpose of belonging in His family....just lean down and help that person....you will find them if you look for them....of course, one of my answers to a need is to give them a quilt too....
God bless you in the way that you need this Christmas....43 years ago I had just given birth to our first baby....a girl....and her Daddy was in a far off land in a war that no one wanted but over 50,000 gave their young lives for.....we had our first anniversary with him on his bunk and me on his parents farm...making cassettes of baby noises to send to him and pictures galore...my family reached into my life then....loved me and loved my baby and loved my husband....Love Is The Greatest Gift....given to us in Bethlehem...with a tiny human heart that would grow into a man that would be pierced on the Cross and shed once and for all....for us all......He reached down and "helped" us all..........  Praise Be!!.....maybe Mary was a quilter?....I bet she was!!.....Blessings! and have a blessed blessed Christmas Eve and Day......Karen

Cabin Fever.......Quilt Displays

Love the Alternating White Clams!!

I had alot of fun being part of Doll Monthly  for most of 2013, but due to quilting at home and also our sons' soon, we hope, coming kidney transplant I dropped out for a few months...but during that time I have received more a blessing with the small quilts that were made for me than I am sure I sent to them!!...so, I decided to use the new yellow (happy color) stairway walls to display these small quilts along with our family pictures...it is going to be hard to decide what pictures too. I don't know about you but once they are in a frame it is so hard to change them out!!....so I do want to add this Clam Shell Quilt idea I found on pinterest...don't you love it?....the quilt and Pinterest? heehee.....I think I will make a small 4 Sunbonnet Sue in vintage fabrics also to add to the  other small quilts....put up the Quilt sign and I am good to go!!...Quilting that is....Always and Forever!!.....
I also think a ladder at some point and where will also be used.......yikes!!....don't run away from me Honey-do hubby!!!......Blessings!! Karen

Quilt Pins and Charms

Love Normans' Paintings!!

New Find.....I just have to share...as it is Christmas and you might be looking for just a small gift for someone special...or another Quilting Friend....or in memory of that Quilter?....anyways here is a link to a terrific site....Pin Peddler....and today it is free shipping on a 10$ order....there are quilting lapel pins and also charms....I made a set of earings with quilting charms on them by purchasing the "make your own earings" with 2 charms.....I sent a thimble to my daughter in honor of Grandma Abby, my mom, who quilted up a storm while she was a living earthly soul....now she is living in Heaven....and I also sent her a school house lapel pin seeing that she is now teaching school and it was also my first favorite Quilt Block!!....So, have fun at little expense today.....and you can not beat free shipping this time of year!!....It is just today....

Fabric Pine Cones?......Wonderful

Wonderful!!

I am so thankful right now for  Aunt Reens' Place, and her tutorial on making Fabric Pinecone Decorations....I think you could use the bright new vintages that are so popular too, or the Reproduction 1800....either would float my boat...how about you?
This is something to do today.....
Tomorrow?....
I hope to audition my hanging quilt by our fireplace soon!....my handy hub just started working a new shift at the hospital and has a cold...so, yes, patience is a virtue....
I remember my Mom standing over my shoulder, as I was learning to sew....saying, Karen you must learn patience.....then she would sit down and undo what I had done wrong with me watching...I did learn and I think she was learning patience too....haha.!!.....

I am on her lap here....Easter I bet!.....oldest Brother is taking the picture....notice our new TV behind us....he told me that the clown on  Happy Doody Hour was INSIDE the TV!.....Oh, how I believed him!!
Quilted Blessings...we are blessed so we can be THAT blessing!....Karen

Its' So good!!

Hibernation Is NOT just for Bears!

Naughty or Nice?

I think I am hibernating...winter has hit fast with its' wind and cold weather....when I run out to the garage the poor Goldens' think I am heading for my "walk"....I wish....sweet Sunny Boy just gets into a fast pace and looks back at me and says...."Come on, girlfriend, get your walk on!".....
Christmas is soon approaching....I have been enjoying Ann Voskamps' The Greatest Gift on the Advent... she is amazing....

Just cute!!

And, of course, I am a Santa Gram.....totally.....I do enjoy the little ones....and since they all love their dolls yet, we have some larger gifts this year for the 18 inch dolls they love to play with...last year was my sewing extravaganza for them......this year, not so much.....actually I am painting a blue wall up our stairs to loft and down to basement from blue to yellow.....
  I love the nail picture I found on Pintrest...what a great source of ideas from everything from Quilting to Gardening to "nails".....
I even have looked over some old photos of the family....my husbands' father died when he was 2 years old....his Dad had rheumatic fever as a kid but did not rest and stop his chores on the farm......later, after my hub was born his father found his heart and body were weakening...and he died suddenly just after he had sent for my hub to return home to be with him.....he must have known.....anyways.....they had a Christmas with a toddler and a 9yr old daughter that year before he passed 2 months later.....
Life is a journey.....God so loved the world that He gave Us His only Begotten Son that those that believe on Him would not perish but have everlasting life....I have loved that verse since I was a child
.....that baby in the manger we see this time of year.....his little heart to grow into an adults' heart....Gods' beating heart for us.......

A Christmas in Plymouth Michigan

Have a safe December!.....sit down and count your blessings as you enjoy your friends and family this season, is my wish....Quilted, of course!   Karen

Husbands' Parents in the late 30's

Thankfulness

Get your Feast On, Little Pilgrim!!

2 Corinthians 4:17-18 says all!

oh! the 1950's!

Heading down to quilt soon on a "Finley" quilt top I made...reminds me of my Mom!!....anyways!!....I just wanted to share pictures from a post from FB today and also a little family pic when I was around 4....I remember the Brownie camera my older brother was using to take it....there were 5 kids then.....on to the finish line with 8 :)......My Mom was a saint who later made Reproduction 1800's Porcelain Dolls and then after Dad died in '93 she quilted until she passed away in 2004.....Heritage!! Thanking God for my littlest Pilgrim of 8 granddaughters and 1 grandson.....Ok, so I am getting gabby now!!  Oh, our son that is on hemodialysis 3 times a week now had gout over the weekend in his foot but he is much better now, this is also due to his treatments and his protein balance n diet...
 Hugs on this Quilting Day, every day is a new day to Quilt!!  Blessings!! Karen

Aspen Frost Quilt Block with Quilty

I think this is pretty cool......very cool!! She will have this in her magazine soon also. !!  Chevrons in the corners?..... interesting!!..Two blog entries below you can find a tool to make perfect half-square triangles also. unless you use Square in a square technique with Jodi Barrows and make them her way....the tool is pretty cool though! so, go below and watch that video too, you won't be sorry....trust me!!......Heading down to longarm today, what are you up to girlfriend?!! Have fun....the only rule I have in Quilting......Quilty type blessings today!!  Karen