I won!!! and some retail therapy..

Lookie at this beautiful oak notion rack I won from Carole's giveaway. Isn't it great! Her husband makes it out of oak, cherry or walnut and he is a seriously wicked woodworker. He has a great eye for details. Thanks so much Carole and Steve, I love it! Of course I had to dig out one of my favorite thimbles to proudly let it be displayed on the pedestal made for just that item. Ingenious and so convenient, it's perfect!



Now I just need to clean off the table next to my sewing chair so it can be seen without all that clutter! I took a sanpshot of it on the keyboard drawer so you wouldn't see my mess and then of course I had to tell you about it anyway. lol Oh well, I'm an open book.
The scissors that came packaged with it are great too since with all the scissors I have in my scissor collection, I didn't own a pair of this style. Can't say that any more, Lucky Me!



Next up are some recent stash acquisitions.







Between local quilt shops, ebay and then Hancocks having a discounted sale that I couldn't resist, I really out did myself! Thank goodness I am not on the No buy program for stashbusters this year. I do heart the "Pom Pom de Paris" by French General so I scarfed up quite a bit of that in different packaging, layer cake, Fat quarter bundles,etc..... Some of the other fabrics in the stacks are also French General's other lines but I feel they will go well with the pom pom's coloring. Not exactly sure how I will work this into a quilt, but of course I have some ideas. lol! I think I did some serious retail therapy with all that has happened recently. the plan is that now I will get real and continue to use up what I have on hand, Promise!

A recent finish is a bracelet I made without any pattern. I really am so proud of myself for this one. I saw a similiar bracelet in Florida several years ago and when I inquired about purchasing the pattern, I was told there wasn't one and that it was a class they were offering in a couople of weeks time. Of course that didn't do me any good since I was flying back home in a week. SO, I looked at it and then shopped at the store and purchased the 3 row spacers, the clasp, and 6 beads of the 4mm different colored Swarovski crystals. I recently ran into them while finishing up the St. Petersburg bracelet and thought this needed to be done. AM I glad!



It's great to have a quick project! I started this on Sunday and finished it last night. A bit of a record for me in getting any beading done in that amount of time. Of course it was relatively easy since it was only stringing.
Notes to self, I used a 6lb fireline, some small silver crimp beads (without any crimping done) to finish the silver look on the ends and then stacked the crystals in a pleasing manner. At the ends, I strung back in towards the center of the bracelet tieing suare knots and half hitches intermittently along the way. At the end, I used a small dab of super glue on the fireline and snipped off the surplus, hopefully it will last fine. If you do another, double check and make sure you use an even number of colors and also play with the silver crimp balls beads to finish. perhaps the next could be done differently.

Two weeks ago for the hub's birthday celebration the youngest grandchildren were driving their jeep in the driveway.



This past week, this is what we woke up to:



It didn't stay long but there was enough that the snow plows were going by again. Pleeeeze hurry spring! Hopefully the Easter Bunny won't freeze!

Stay well and enjoy your blessings.
Happy Easter!
Jane