"Applique the Tracey Way...."

I just love the way that so many of you do applique. Jan does beautiful needleturn and those stitches are always so tiny and beautiful. Applique is something I have been threatening to learn for a long time now. Well....we are in the process of trying to get all of our Ode to 1930's Block of the Month blocks done and ready to assemble next week. We had partially done most of them as samples for the help sessions each month. Now, the smart thing would have been to finish them after each month, but somehow "life" always happened. So, we're playing catch up. (Stay with me now, I really will get to the point soon!) Each month there was at least one applique block, so I thought that this would be a good time to learn how to applique. Tracey has a great method she uses that was shown at several of the help sessions. In fact I told her yesterday that I was going to "Learn to Applique the Tracey Way"! Sounds pretty catchy, don't you think? So, I jumped in with both feet. This is a picture of the block that I am working on. Right now I'm ready to start stitching, but Jan is out of town, and many of you know that Tracey has been VERY busy lately. I looked at a few books, have my silk thread and tonight I will try it out! I'll let you know how it goes.

Been a busy week at Fab-Etc - working on the BOM blocks and having fun with new fabrics. We got a great new lime green/black group; new black and white (I just cannot help myself when it comes to b/w); new baby flannels; and yes, Ho, Ho, Ho, it's Christmas fabrics arriving!

Hope you have a perfectly lovely rest of your weekend. I have a long list of "to do's" and the sun is supposed to shine too! What could be better?

And all of you out there know who you are....for the last few days...thank you from the bottom of the Stewart family's hearts....we are truly humbled by your overwhelming love, concern and generosity. Thank you all.

Smile and set the table vintage style....

The Monday after the Spring Cleaning Sale - yikes! Lots of things to straighten up before Diane's Quilting Basics class meets tomorrow morning. Things were going pretty well....I was moving a bit slower than usual, but moving none the less. When out of the corner of my eye I saw the UPS truck pull up. Okay, we made a little bit of room after the sale, so that was a good thing. Then, I saw him get the hand truck out - uh oh! You guessed it - 5 big boxes of fabric! There were batiks from Hoffman and Moda; some new baby flannels; a darling kitty cloth book and coordinates; a panel of the solar system (wow!); a gorgeous soft blue and white group; a pinwale corduroy with ladybugs in browns; a wonderful lime green and black group; and then this very vintage, very fun 60" tablecloth print that you see here. Doesn't it just make you smile? My table is round now, so I'm trying to figure out how to make it work!

I wanted to let you know that I needed to smile. This is what I put in my last e-mail update to the Fab-Etc family.

On a very personal note, many of you are aware that my 7 year old grandson, Lukas, has been waging a battle for nearly 6 years with cancer. Lukas has a website www.lukasvoss.com where we track his fight. It hasn't been updated since the first of the year, but things are not going so well right now. I have been reluctant to talk a lot about this, but I've so appreciated the privilege of sharing with you in both the good and bad times in many of your lives over the last nearly 12 years, that I guess it's only fair that I let you share in mine. This is a difficult time for our family, and we would appreciate your thoughts and prayers. And for all of that, I am, as always.... sew thankful.

So, that's why I haven't been posting as regularly as I had been. I know many of you know about Luke, but I just thought I should share it here on the blog as well. Our daughter, Lydia, just started a blog last week to try and update family and friends with shorter notes. You can access it from Luke's website. Thanks so much to all of you for your kind words and thoughts of late - they mean a great deal to our family during a hard time.

I hope you all have a wonderful week....batten down the hatches....I hear it's going to be windy here in Whatcom county tonight. I have to go get the Tea Party tablecloths out of the dryer. Laundry has become my blog trademark - right!?!