Book Look Bloggers Review: "Henry Hodges Needs a Friend"

This children's book "Henry Hodges Needs a Friend" by Andy Andrews is really sweet.  Henry is a one of a kind boy who is lonely.  His parents tell him he will soon have a one of a kind friend.  They tell him it will be pet and the next few pages have Henry wondering if he will soon have a goldfish with antlers or a cow for his backpack that gives chocolate milk.  His family goes to the shelter and they find a lonely pup filled with sad thoughts.  They take him home and call him Hap (short for Happy) and he is soon the fourth member of the family.  

The illustrations in this book by Colleen Madden are really well done.  Lots of color and detail add to the story which is told in rhyme.  It is a really cute book with a nice message about fitting in and being a friend.

*Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookLook Bloggers <http://booklookbloggers.com> book review bloggers program. They did not require me to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 <http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_03/16cfr255_03.html> : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”*

Sewing, Sweet Sewing!

 I finally got back to Orange Crush (Number 3) and got the borders on it!  I made the backing and already delivered it to Ros for quilting!

 I love the visual punch of this one!

 I also caught up on my Betty's Choice blocks!  Amy has been working on her alternate block and I am really looking forward to seeing these quilts come together for us both!

 I worked six hours today on Memorial Day.  Came home and devoted the rest of the day to sewing my Quilt of Valor Ooh Rah! from last year.  I cannot believe we are almost half way through this year and I hadn't completed this one til today!  It has been a wild year so far.

 I plan to get a better picture of it outside before I mail it, the backing and the binding off to Alycia in Colorado for Quilts of Valor.  Then I need to pick another pattern and get going on another one!

 

 So nice to tick a few of these long in the works tops off my list!  Still plenty more to go!

Green, Green Green!

 Kathy surprised me with orange roses.   So gorgeous!

 Finally linking up again with Angela for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  These are my sampler blocks so far for 2015.

Blogger's Quilt Festival!

My longarmer Ros entered my daughter's quilt into the Blogger's Quilt Festival--small quilt category.  Hannah made it to commemorate her cat Greybear who passed away shortly after the quilt was done.  Ros did the beautiful longarming on it.  You can see Ros' Blog and find the link to vote on it.

VOTE FOR HANNAH AND ROS HERE!

Spending the Day with Quilty Friends!

 I met up with Ann, BJ and Andrea for sushi today (after Pilates) and had a dragon roll.  It was so gorgeous I took a picture!  It was delicious too--first time I tried black rice and I liked it fine.  This picture is of BJ and I--you may remember her from a few years back on my blog...she has lost over 120 pounds with Weight Watchers and really helped inspire me to just go for it!  She is a different person and is so much happier all around.  I love this lady and don't see her often enough!

 Andrea and BJ have become really close friends and we have always have a good time when we get together.  She is funny (so is Ann but she wasn't up for pictures!).

 On a whim after paling around with Andrea and BJ I texted Barb and asked her to come sew for a bit at my place.  She was up for it and we both made our block party BOM.  Here is mine.

And here is Barb's   We all got the focus fabric and put whatever we wanted with it.  Will be a colorful and fun quilt for whoever wins this month!

Barb helped me figure out the Math for the borders (though I still didn't get them quite to size)!  I did get the inner border and pieced border on and decided on the red for the outer border.  Hope to get that done tomorrow and the backing pieced...then I can cross it off my list!

 Barb stayed for dinner (beef roast, colorful carrots and potatoes in the crock pot) and we laughed and gabbed.  It was really a nice day with friends I don't see often and a little quilting.

Mother's Day Weekend!

 Yesterday after Pilates we ran over to a fabric estate sale that my former student (now friend) Kim told me about.  I really didn't need to go nuts, so I kept my eye out for some reds for my Lil' Crumbler quilt I am cutting out.  I also could not resist the cute nuetrals and a few of the other fat quarters.  They were only a buck apiece!  I was OVER THE MOON when I found four inch squares of various fabrics in several plastic bags (four sets) for eye spy quilts.  What a find.  Of course the ones I had cut out were either smaller or bigger than that, but I was getting low and decided to just do some that size and cut up extras that I had to fit, etc.

 My stack of red fabric is growing!  We also stopped at Schnepf farms to hand pick peaches since we were way out that way.  It was a gorgeous day to walk out into the orchard and the peaches are organic.  We didn't hang out for the peach fest or whatever was going on because we had tons of cleaning and prepping for Mother's Day with the family at our place.

 Kathy was so happy this weekend to finish up clue five and get started on clue six of Grand Illusion.  Hers are the same colors as Bonnie's and it looks fantastic!

 Here is the eye spy with all of her fabrics and a bunch of mine too.  I am still working on the hexie one...did a few more rows, but I couldn't lay it out to decide the order to sew the rows because the dogs were all comfy in here..so I moved on to this for the night last night.

 Here I am with my mom and (step) dad.  Mom got her hair cut short because she liked how mine looked.  How fun is that?

 Kathy got me a new Lemon tree to replace the one that froze.  The leaves are turning yellow..the guy said it could be from the shock of transplanting it, or it could mean it needs iron.  So we are watching it a few more days then adding iron.  Gonna read up on lemon trees--I want this one to live!  Our other trees are getting huge.

 This year, mom and dad brought me this cool plant.  I have never seen one spray painted like this...really makes it cool.  Hope the plant doesn't mind it.  I may plant it out with the gnomes.  My windowsill is full of plants now!

 Mackenzie and Liz sent Kathy and I this Rose of Jericho.  Apparently it will open up when there is moisture present and close up when there isn't.  Interesting, learned something new and it is so Mac!

This is the third year I have bought a plant for the mom's in our family and this year I just went with a pretty purple flower.  

I didn't have the best eating day (egg brunch, ice cream cake for Dad's bday and Indian for dinner...oy!) but I did work out for 30 minutes on the elliptical.  Lost 1.4 this past week so I am at 90.8 down!

Is it the Weekend Yet?

 A gal at work asked me to make six beanbags (one for each station at work).  We will number them on the back and when one of us needs a team we ding our bell and throw our beanbag out.  It is hard to know where the bell came from sometimes so this should help us find the interpreter needing a team.  Or we can practice our juggling with them.  I thought it would be fun to bust into a southwest fabric charm pack I have had for several years.

I also put together four more Eye Spy rows (none are sewn together yet).  When I have enough rows I will move them all around til I am happy with the way it looks.  I think Eye Spys might be my favorite quilt to make.  So much fun to have so many different fabrics and they make a great gift!

Traditions Quilts Arrive in Wisconsin

My grandma Char's sister--my great Aunt JeanAnn loves her Traditions quilt.  So does my Aunt Sally but I haven't seen a picture of her with it yet.  So here she is with her Packer colored flamingos!

Usury Wind Cave Take Two!

 On April fourth I went with the Chubby Chicks (four of them) on a hike I did with DJ four years ago.  I remember when I did it that I thought we would never make it to the top.  We almost gave up several times and it was way more than I physically could do at the time.  I was nervous to do it again but I decided to go anyway.   Kathy was working and didn't want to do this one anyway.  This time I didn't ask myself once how much farther.  All of the sudden we were at the top!  It was a great workout and though I needed to stop a few times to catch my breath, I had a great time.

 This hike is 75 floors up!  That is the most I have ever done (now twice) and I look forward to doing it again when it cools down!

One Finish, One Start and a Few See Progress!

 I woke up this morning and knew I needed to get at least this Eye Spy done...so I started cutting and piecing the batting and backing and eventually got it done!  This one is for my cousin Jamie's second child just born a few days ago--Benjamin.  I love sending an Eye Spy quilt and book to the little ones!  

 When my ex sister in law Tiffany saw it she messaged me and said she would love an eye spy quilt for Colton at her house.  I didn't give him one because I knew they still had Ben's in pristine condition.  However, my brother kept all the quilts so Colton doesn't have one at his mom's house.  So I finally decided to start sewing the hexies I have been cutting and sewing for years!  This is as far as I got today but no doubt this one will be done and snuggle the little guy soon!

Here are some pictures of the other quilts that got batting, backing, etc.  I didn't quilt any of them but they are one step closer!

Apparently my camera lens was dirty since some of these are blurry but you get the idea.  Other than that, we cleaned house some more.  The family all comes over here for Mother's Day and since we didn't do our usual deep clean this spring (since Monica didn't get to visit and I had surgery) we are doing it now.  More to do next Saturday but happy the drapes and windows and the like are done!
This week I am working freelance early in the morning three days (followed by my other two jobs) and have a doctor's appointment, weight watchers and Pilates the other days.  I better get some sleep--it is going to be a LOOOOONG week!

Empty Nester and Catching Up on RSC!

 Thursday night we took Coleman out for steak (and ribs) for his farewell dinner.  Then at the crack of dawn on Friday morning he flew to Minneapolis where Chelsea picked him up and drove on in to Eau Claire.  He is having a great time and has already called us a few times :)

 Today after Pilates (and I lost 2.4 pounds this week!) Kathy and I stopped at SAS and bought some fabric cheap.  Didn't really need it, but felt like I needed a pick me up!  After some yard work and pantry cleaning Kathy and I got to sewing.  She is on clue five of Grand Illusion and I was working on April's RSC purple.  I thought Angela hadn't gotten around to posting the second block.  I haven't been reading my blogs with my new job (love it!) we don't have internet on the computers there and I haven't brought my own laptop.  So blog reading has gone by the wayside lately.  I looked for it a week or so ago and I must not have gone far enough back.  Tonight I found it!  Broken Sugar Bowl in purple.

 Our block party block for Nimble Thimbles is "Scrappy Hexies" from the recent issue of McCalls.  I had some difficulty in the beginning.  Realized I was making triangles!

 I did some trimming and they turned out about as good as I could expect.  I would love to make a bunch of these and do a quilt, but not sure I love the trimming constantly.  It interrupts the sewing!

 I then got to the April bitty blocks that didn't happen at Quilt Camp.  Kathy and I went for a walk 1.3 miles to the McDonald's down the street (first time to walk and first time I have ever been inside) and we got an ice cream cone.  It was dark and on the way home it started to rain, but it was a good way to get some steps in!  I am sure the cone negated the walk, but it is what it is.  After that I made the May bitty blocks in green since that is the RSC color for May.  Bear paws, these blocks are so much fun!

 I am still hoping I can make two tiny sampler type quilts with these blocks when they are done, but they are different sizes so we shall see.

 Then without Coleman's help we had to figure out the TV!  Our large downstairs TV has gone on the fritz (a little over a year or so old) and so we swapped the bedroom TV to the downstairs, the quilting studio TV to the bedroom and Coleman's TV to the quilting studio.  Size wise this made sense, but of course this TV didn't get rehooked up til tonight.  I can never even figure out how to switch it to netflix or dvd.  Tonight Kathy figured it all out and then I even learned!  (TV remote input 5 and turn on the dvd then over to movie or premium and viola!).  No changing of cords like we have to do in the bedroom.  I think I got this!  Oh and watched Robin Williams in "Angry Man in Brooklyn" which was pretty good.

 Last I sewed the Sawtooth Star block in green.  Despite my notes about which color is the bigger one for when I cut the squares to make Quilt in a Day flying geese, I still screwed it up.  Pretty sure my notes are wrong because I followed them.  May be taking this one apart or may just put it with the other screw ups for the back.  OY!

Linking up with SoScrappy for the fabulous Rainbow Scrap Challenge!