My April Star : Natima

I have made some wonderful friends from Down Under. I have found that Australian people are as friendly, funny, and warm as the Irish. I am privileged to have become friends with my April Star, named Natima. She is super talented, and she is as beautiful on the inside as she is on the outside. You can visit her blog at http://notjustnat.blogspot.com/, but I know you will enjoy getting to know her through her wonderful interview. Thanks Nat for being my friend, and here is Her April Interview:

Interview for April

· A Bit About Me- Let’s start from the beginning. I was born in a country town in Thailand and exactly 30 years this year that I left my country of birth where I’ve met my husband Tom. We were married for 6 years by the time we left. I didn’t know at the time that it would be a trip of my life. We have since lived in 7 countries and 2 of those countries we lived in twice. I didn’t have a trained profession as such, but being a creative person I have adopts and learned to take on any professional jobs wherever we lived. I did graduate from a high fashion/dressmaking school in Bangkok and partly completed a secretarial school again in Bangkok. Tom and I had our own language school in Bangkok for 4 years and I was managing it. When we arrived in Oxford, UK I found job sewing for a high fashion sewing business and I was paid top wage at the time because I could fitted zippers on to dresses. When we lived in Libya I was working as a purchasing assistant because I know how to touch typing 45 words per minute. Job was easier to get in Libya because there weren’t many locals who know how to type. The next 10 years I was at home raising my two lovely children. I have a daughter and a son and I just become a grandma on January 9th. 2009. Of course having children didn’t make us stay in one place. We moved 7 more times to where we are now in the beautiful Melbourne, Australia. How do I get into quilting? I have always sewed since the young age. My grandmother gave me my first Singer treadle sewing machine when I was a teenager. I made clothes for my dolls, for myself and my husband. I took an evening course in tailoring while I studied dressmaking. When my son was a baby I started small projects of cross stitch. From the small cross stitch I added patches around it and appliqué onto t-shirts. Friends who saw them would say. Why don’t you sell them at craft market? I did just that, I would cross stitch when my baby was as sleep or after he went to bed. I made many different designs using Liberty prints to make patchwork out of them. My t-shirts sold like hot cakes. Luckily the market was on only once a month. I remembered worked myself to the ground try to meet the demand. In the end we moved again, thanks goodness. Needless to say, I never did pick up that profession ever again. When we moved to Australia the first time I received a parcel supposed to be for my neighbour. The parcel contained fabrics so I took it over to next door and when Karen opened the front door I could see a beautiful quilt hanging in the hall way. She told me she was a quilter and after that I became her faithful student and neighbour. I was a fast learner so I quickly learned all the quilting techniques. The results of wanting to learn everything I now have countless UFOs.
When we moved to Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates I was asked to teach hand appliqué and crazy quilt. I am proud to say that I took crazy quilt to the UAE because before I got there no quilters had used non cotton fabrics for quilting. I introduced them to used non cotton fabrics in crazy quilts and the UAE became heaven to all quilters after that. Teaching was the best thing for my life development. I now realized that I love teaching, I love share my skills to others. I don’t teach for money I just want to pass on my skills to share as long as people appreciate what I have given them. What kind of quilting to I like? Up until now I have made all kind of quilts. I have tried them all, some finished and some in the UFOs piles, but I am now more and more drawn to handmade quilts, hand embroidery and hand stitching. These days I am not only a quilter, I am a basket weaver and handmade book as well. I don’t have time to do everything, but I love them all.

· What Inspires Me: Recycled materials, such as old clothes? Things I found in opportunity shops that I could re-purpose like old woollen jumpers to make into felted bags. Woollen skirts to make into felted fabric. Old books can be use for collage or altered books. Nylon rope found on the beaches can be stitch into baskets. All the above inspires me these days.


· What I Love to Do the Most Creatively: I am most creative when I travel. I would take plain fabrics and lot of hand dyed threads. I can then create designs and stitch whatever I feel like as the time. I would copy designs from drawings inside ancient temples, churches, mosques and palaces. These days I would take my handmade book to keep journal when I travels as well.

· My Favourite Fabric and Designs At the moment my favourite designs and fabric would be Blackbird-designs by Barb Adams and Alma Allen. I like their techniques of fabric over dyed before they use in quilts. I also like their quirky designs of quilts and cross stitch. Here is their web site http://www.dashdist.com/blackbird.html


· UFO I Intend to Finish First: I am about to put together a top I have been working on for 4 years and all blocks were from used clothing. There are lot of blocks to sew together. It will be worth it at the end. I intend to finish this quilt first.

· What’s on the Design Wall Now: A hand piecing fan blocks, scrap quilt using men shirts and my son’s wedding quilt.

· Who Would I Love to Meet: I would like to meet my granddaughter and my kids? They live quite far away from us; meeting up with them would be a treasure.


· If I Had One Wish: I would like a home near the sea that I can hear water lapping when I wake up each morning and my friends all around me.


· Plans for the Future: To have more time to spend stitching, basket weaving, creating handmade books and creating mixed media projects of some sort and teaching others to sew.

I am attaching some photos of my t-shirt creation and my earlier designs on t-shirt.

Finally, here are my trips to India and Egypt in October, 2008.

Geisha Block

I am glad that so many loved the pics of Dunfanaghy. I may inspire some people to visit here. LOL Well, it is Monday...The time is flying! I am going to make some muffins for an old man who is our neighbor, as he is not feeling well and some fish pie for Joe's dinner. I made another Geisha Block while I watched Little Women again. I know I have seen it a million times,and funny enough, I can say the lines with the actors, but I love it, and the morning just flew by. I used to hate Mondays, as it was the beginning of a work week, but actually Sunday was the worst for me, as I had lesson plans to write and papers to grade. I have to admit that I am being spoiled in retirement, and I am so glad that I retired early.We are off for our walk on the beach!

Have a lovely Monday!

Afternoon Walk By the Ocean

We had the whole beach to ourselves, except for one other person which is par for the course. For some reason, people don't walk that much around here. We have developed the reputation of walking everywhere;whereas, people will jump in their cars if they even have a block's walk to our village. So when people meet us, they always say something like, " We saw you walking on Horn Head Bridge. You two walk everywhere together." It is funny, but we will stay much healthier having done all that walking and hiking and not having a car.

Getting back to the beach, we really had a lovely walk. I promised you some pics, so here they are. Our home is near Killahoey Beach, and we have the luxury of living in a place where people come to vacation. Luckily, we are way up in the NW of Donegal County in what they call the Northwest Passage, so we don't get a lot of visitors. The beach is lovely, as you can see. If we walk to the left all the way around, the beach will connect to our village. You can see Horn Head to the left, and we walked around it one day in a moment of insanity and we wouldn't do it again, as it was a 12 mile walk. Needless to say, at the end, we were bollocksed as they say here.To the right, Killahoey Beach connects with another beach called Portnablagh , and then a bit further, there is Marble Hill Beach. It is a wild ocean at times, but it is lovely.

Sunday Sheephaven Sheep and Hexagon Flower

Joe and I went on a lovely walk to New Lake , so that I could take some pics of the new lambs and really anything that hit my eye. I am including some of the pics. If you see the hills and sand dunes in the distance behind New Lake, those are the dunes that Joe and I climbed...an eight mile walk...to Tramore Beach. I thought the lambs so cute, and it is a lovely sunny day, but cold outside.

I also finished another hexagon flower, and I will now read Breaking Dawn while Joe takes a nap. Later, we will walk on the beach, and I will take some more pics.

Have a happy Sunday!

PS: The 8 mile walk to Tramore Beach was done a few months ago. Both of us have the bronchitis still, so today that would not have happened. LOL I guess the way I wrote it, it sounded like we did that today. As soon as we are better, we will take that walk again over the dunes and have lunch at Tramore Beach. When you are standing on the top of the highest dune and can finally see Tramore Beach, it is breathtaking!

Inspired by Polly in the Rain

I found a wonderful wall hanging that I will be making called "Polly in the Rain". It was in the April issue of Patchwork and Quilting Magazine on pages 68-69. Well, I fell in love with it. This pattern calls for mostly batiks which are sewn together in strips to measure a piece of fabric measuring 25x14 and a half inches. The bird can be done in hand or machine applique. I will be doing it in hand applique and using Bottomline threads for the hand sewing. Isn't it lovely? It is so colorful and really does look like a rain forest. I will have to machine quilt the feathers on the wings, the bark on the branch, leaves in the border and use diagonal stitch on the background to represent the rain. That should be fun! I will be ordering my batiks from Batik Corner at www.batikcorneratfabriccorner.com They have the most beautiful batiks ever! I will try to match the batiks used in the picture, as I love the effect that they created!

I am working on the Thimbleberry quilt...I am doing the machine quilting, and then I will start this one as soon as I get the fabric. In the meantime, I am still doing the geisha blocks...will have to start that project again tomorrow.

I have been resting at home and looking at my new Patchwork and Quilting Magazine, reading Breaking Dawn, and just trying to get rid of this bronchitis.I also watched the most romantic movie called Somewhere in Time, starring Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour, where the character Richard goes back in time and falls in love with an actress. I found out that the movie came from a book called Bid Time Return( aka Somewhere in Time) by Richard Matheson, so I will have to read it. There is a sequel to that book called Memories of Elise. Joe just finished his nap, so we are heading out for coffee somewhere.

Happy Sewing and Have a Wonderful Weekend!

Three Siggies and a Dottee Doll

I received three siggies today to add to a growing collection.The first one, which has the acorns in the centre came from Bonnie, in North Carolina. She said that the acorns symbolize Oakboro, NC, as there is a big acorn painted on the water tank in town. Second, I got a siggy from Gidron in Germany. I love her centre black rose. She loves gardening and her favourite flowers are the roses. I wish that you could feel the rose, it is velvety soft. Finally, Marja from the Netherlands, sent me the siggy with the bow. She explained that her middle name Strik means bow, so that is why she used a bow for her centre. Each one of them wrote me a chatty letter, and reading them are such fun. That is why I am keeping all of the letters...they are lovely momentos.

I also got the cutest dottee doll from KR, who lives in New York State and is a member of the Postcard Pizazz Group that I belong to. I love purple and just adored the embellishments that she used. Her hair was especially a riot, and her face and eyes are to die for .

Thank you all so much for such wonderful surprises in our mailbox. Joe brought in the mail, and said the usual, "They are all for you." What a lovely day indeed!

PS: Thanks to everyone who wished me well with my illness. My bronchitis is getting better, so the antibiotics are kicking in. Joe is on them also, as he got what I had, so we are taking care of each other and relaxing at home. I sewed some siggies for the ones that I received.

I also sewed two surprises for someone whom I can't mention, and then I continued to read Breaking Dawn.

Totally Immersed in The Twilight Series

As I already mentioned, I was given the thumbs up on The Twilight Series of books by my friend, Dzintra. I started the books before I was sick, but reading the series has been a godsend since I got the virus and bronchitis. I am totally immersed in the series. First of all, let me tell you a bit about the Twilight Series. There are four books in the series:

1. Twilight


2. New Moon


3. Eclipse


4. Breaking Dawn


The books were written by Stephanie Meyer, and they are wonderful fantasy novels which revolve around the romance between Bella and Edward( who is a vampire). As Shakespeare so aptly stated many a time: " Love burns high when thrwarted by obstacles." I won't tell you anything else, but they are wonderful star crossed lovers, and you will be as throughly absorbed in the story as I am. There are lines like: "Softly he brushed my cheek, then held my face between his marble hands.Be very still, he whispered, as if I wasn't already frozen. Slowly never moving his eyes from mine, he rested his cold cheek against the hollow at the base of my throat." The author writes beautifully, and the couple so reminded me of Heathcliffe and Cathy in Wuthering Heights. If you read it, you will see what I mean. The story keeps you captivated, and even though each one is close to 600 pages, I have finished three of them in a week's time. I will be starting the last one Breaking Dawn on Thursday when I buy it at Easons Bookstore. I can't wait to read it, as I am hearing that is the best of the whole series.

I can't say that I am surprised that I am reading books about vampires. I was into the television show Beauty and the Beast for many years and that became a cult in the United States. That starred Ron Perlmand and Linda Hamilton. It was the love story of Vincent and and Catherine . Vincent was the sensitive, cultured half lion, half man who loved Catherine, a crusading District Attorney Assistant whose life he had saved. I used to watch it every Friday night without fail. So it did not surprise me at all, that I fell in love with this series to the chagrin of my husband Joe. I am afraid that I have been ignoring him a bit as I have immersed myself in the books. I am addicted, so I am not to be blamed.LOL Anyways, I am a sucker for a good love story/adventure, as my life with my soulmate Joe has been a wonderful adventure too.

To my delight, they are making movies out of the books. They have already came out with the movie Twilight and you can see a trailer at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDVlQPpVUA8. They also are making a movie for the second book New Moon.

Well, I hope that I have sparked your interest, as Dzintra did with me. You have to be a romantic at heart, and then once you have read a few pages, you will be hooked too.

Thimbleberry Quilt Top Finally Done

I finally put the last strip on and the Thimbleberry quilt and the top is finished. Joe had a heck of a time trying to take a pic of it on our bed. Now, comes the fun part...doing the machine quilting...the part that we all love to do.LOL

I will be going to the quilt shop for the backing and batting and binding, and then I will be quilting away. I was thrilled to have it done. I will try to lay it on the living room floor once it is all quilted, and Joe will take a more direct view, but you will at least get a good idea how it looks on our bed.

I went to the doctor's this AM early, but they told me to come back at 10:40, so I am off to see the doctor in a few minutes. I am feeling better, but getting the top done put me in the best of moods. Then I can come home and get back to my book Eclipse.

I hope that everyone enjoys Monday...I always love the beginning of a new week!

PS: I just got back from the doctor's..It seems a have a viral infection and bronchitis. I am wheezing too alot, so that is a concern, so it back to rest, drinking alot and using vicks inhaler. I didn't tell him that I sewed a bit this morning...Well, I only did my last strip, so now, I have been restricted to rest at home. UGH! Thank God, I have Eclipse to read.

Mother's Day in Ireland

Yes, it is Mother's Day in Ireland. I still have to get used to Mother's Day being in March, when it was in May in the United States. I am still sick with a bad virus...a rotten cold, an annoying cough, and a temperature of 100 today. Of course, the temperature may be staying that way, as Joe always has that effect on me.LOL I woke up to a poem from my two doggies Rufus and Charlie. I had to share it with you, as it made me laugh, and feeling the way I do, I needed a good laugh. Anyway, here is the poem that I got:


A Poem What We Writ For the Best Mommy in the World

You feed us when we’re hungry,
You keep water in our dish.
You let us sleep on anything,
Or in any place we wish.

You sometimes let us lick your hands or even lick your face,
Despite the fact we’ve licked ourselves in every private place.

You taught us how to come when called,
You taught us how to sit,
You always let us go outside
So we can take a _ _ _ _.

You’ll always have our loyalty

Up to the bitter end,
‘cause after all, it’s plain to see…
You are us dogs best friend.

Love,
Rufus and Charlie



You can see why I was in hysterics when I got it. I just finished the book New Moon by Stephenie Meyer. I was thrilled that Bella was back with Edward...I hope that you are reading this Dzintra, as I have a big smile on my face now. Joe has to go to Letterkenny tomorrow to pick up my medicine and he is buying me the last two books of the Twilight series Eclipse and Breaking Dawn. I was so happy, as I would have gone into withdrawal if I couldn't continue to read the series. My friend Dzintra got me into it, and I am hooked, line and sinker.
I am writing this while Joe is napping, but when he wakes up, I will be a good girl sitting snuggled all cozy and warm in my lounge chair with a blanket on my lap.

Oh, I did finish my Thimbleberry top except for one last border. It is killing me that I can't finish it till I am better, as I am dying to post a pic of the top, but I will try to be a good girl....fat chance! LOL

Have a happy Sunday!

PS: The boys suggested to Joe to go to the local store and voila Eclipse was there, so I am happily beginning that book. Joe brought me flowers from the boys, so I am having a very good day indeed!

Joe's Birthday, Sleeping Beauty, and Ireland Wins the Grand Slam

Today was Joe's 60th birthday, and I got him a new cell phone and wrote a poem for him. However, I got a really bad cold and hacking cough, and I was in bed all day like Sleeping Beauty. Joe watched Ireland Win the Grand Slam in Rugby after beating Wales with a final score of 15-17. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/rugby_union/7954758.stm It was the first time since 1948 that Ireland was crowned the Grand Slam Winners in Rugby. Joe came to the bedroom, and I woke up for a short while to hear the good news. Don 't ask me how I am feeling....achy and weak is a good start, as I have a temperature of 102, but hopefully this weekend, I will sleep my way through a really bad virus.

A Neat Giveaway, Breakfast at Tiffany, and New York City

I had to post this giveaway that I found , which is at Indulge YourShelf. Here is the link to Laurie's blog and the giveaway :

http://indulgeyourshelf.blogspot.com/2009/03/my-breakfast-at-tiffanys-giveaway.html?showComment=1237448520000#c2892803205217110096 The giveaway involves the movie Breakfast at Tiffany, and I had to enter that one, as it involves getting a copy of the latest version of the movie Breakfast at Tiffany. I loved that movie, and I must have seen it a million times. As I grew up in Philadephia and my parents owned a fabric shop, my dad would go to New York at least twice a month and took me with him. Wasnt' I the lucky girl? He would drop me off at 5th Avenue, and I would have the whole day to do what I wanted in New York City. I went to Radio City Music Hall, F&O Schwartz, saw shows on Broadway, went to the incredible restaurants and delis, visited Ellis Island, and name it, I did it. I even won a trip to New York once by naming the right song on the radio, and part of it was to visit F&O Schwartz Toys and choose the toys that I wanted. That is another story and a half.One of the things that I had to do at least once, like Audrey Hepburn in the movie Breakfast at Tiffany was to go to Tiffany, which needless to say sells very expensive jewelry and other items. I landed up buying a silver bookmark, as that is all that I could afford.Sound familiar? Boy, did it bring back memories when I read about that giveaway, and I had to enter. I will never forget the scene of the cat at the end of the movie. I always cried ! Anyways, hopefully I will win, but if not, I will have to get myself a copy of the movie, as I am dying to see it now.

Will I ever get back to New York City? Well, right now, we have two older dogs, as you all know named Rufus and Charlie that we rescued, so we will not be making any long trips for a while. I do want to see New York at least one more time, and then visit my hometown of Philadelphia and go back to the Dutch Country where Joe and I honeymooned.

Happy St. Paddy's Day

Today in Ireland, there are many St. Paddy's Day Celebrations, and of course the biggest one is in Dublin, where over 500,000 people are lining up along the parade route in Dublin to see the parade. Of course, we will be watching it on tv and seeing some of the highlights.

Our wee village of Dunfanaghy also had their own parade, and Joe and I stood there on the main street with our 99 cones and watched our parade. I am including some pics to give you the highlights of our event...nothing like Dublin, but very sweet nonetheless.We had music in the town square and just all around good craic.

Tonight the pubs are having music sessions and lots of parties, where the festivities for our town will continue.

Our Anniversary and Work Completed

Our anniversary is today...Yeah! Joe and I are so excited, as we are heading out soon to the Chinese Restaurant in Creeslough. I am including a pic of the restaurant, and one of the interior, so you can see a bit what it looks like. Our table is the one to the left as you go up the wee stairs.

I completed a geisha block this morning, and also a hexagon flower. I was also reading New Moon from the Twilight Series and just having a very relaxing day.

I wanted to thank everyone who wrote us to wish us a Happy Anniversary, and to tell you how much it meant to both of us.
I hope that everyone is having a wonderful Saturday...I am, because I am with Joe.

A Lovely Anniversary Surprise and Dogtooth Borders

Last night at the bee, I made the four dogtooth borders for my Thimbleberry quilt, which will be used to border the quilt center section. I have one of them in the pic. At the bee, I found out that the fabric arrived at Pauline's Shop which I needed for the side and corner triangles for assembling the quilt top, so I am heading to the shop tomorrow as soon as the shop opens at 11 AM. I need to see how big the quilt is once I finish assembling the quilt, and then I can decide if one border will be enough. The quilt is a queen sized quilt, and our bed is a double sized bed, so I will have to improvise a bit.I am going to be very excited when it it is all put together.

Today, was an incredible day! Joe and I went to Letterkenny on the 8AM bus, as I needed to do some shopping prior to our usual food shopping at the supermarket. I went to Spears to get some buttons, to Donegal Statinery Store to get some tracing paper for cutting out the vest patterns, and then finally to Eason's Books to get the second book of the Twilight Series. called New Moon. I am really enjoying the series so far, and have my friend Dzintra to thank for getting me onto Twilight Series, written by Stephenie Meyer. Even though the first book Twilight has almost 600 pages, it really didn't take me long to read it, as I really loved it. It irresistably combined romance and suspense with a supernatural twist...The twist being that it is about vampires. If you want to look it up, go to http://www.stepheniemeyer.com/, and you will meet the author and her books.

Anyways, back to why the day was incredible....Besides having the usual great day with Joe, we came home at around 2 PM to a wonderful surprise . Joe got the mail, and said," There's a letter addressed to both of us." I was a bit taken back, because that rarely happens. Most of the mail comes to me as far as siggies, swaps, etc, and the bills are all addressed to him. Well, I opened the large envelope and there was a lovely felted hanging and homemade card from my March Star Maggi. It was a surprise gift for our anniversary, which is on Saturday. Joe was really taken aback, I have to admit, and he was very touched by what Maggi had done for us. I, needless to say, was so happy! Maggi, thank you so much for being such a good friend, and for taking the time to make this lovely gift for both of us. It is our 12th anniversary, and this was a lovely way to begin our celebration. We will be going to a Chinese Restaurant in Creeslough , which is our favorite eating spot, as it has wonderful food, a great atmosphere, and the loveliest scenery surrounding the restaurant that you can imagine, but this by far was just magical.

Thank you so much Maggi, for making our anniversary so special!

Stitching Another Geisha Block Amidst the Blood and Gore of "Sweeney Todd"

How appropriate that one of the colours that I had to use on the geisha block was red, as there was a lot of blood in the movie Sweeney Todd. Yes, he was revenging his wife's death, and I have included a pic of her to show you why he turned evil. If you haven't seen the movie and love Johnny Depp, please see it. The ending was a shocker for sure. Well, I finished the block and tomorrow will have to watch another film. I am taking a walk with Joe to think of more pleasant things, after watching that very disturbing film.

Latest Geisha Block , "Sweeney Todd", and Going Down Memory Lane with Barbra Streisand

I finished my latest geisha block while I was watching the movie "Sweeney Todd." Johnny Depp is brilliant in the movie, even though it is a very disturbing film. I do love the fact that it is also a musical. One of my favorite songs was in that movie. It was the song that was originally sung by Barbra Streisand to her son at her farewell concert in New York....It was called "Not While I'm Around", and that song was magical. I played one of Streisand songs "Memories" when I heard that my dad had died. My brother called me just before 2 AM in the morning, and told me. I think that I played it over and over again most of the night and cried while I listened to it. The lyrics and music are still very haunting to me. Of course another song of hers that reminds me of my dad is from the Yentl Medley where she sings the lines, "Papa can your hear me?" Both songs are in my playlists. Anways, the movie brought back alot of memories as I machine stitched away on the geisha block.

It was a morning of stitching and going down memory lane. Hope you like the geisha block!

Another Hexagon Block and Suzy the Dotee Doll

I finished another hexagon flower last night while I was watching tv. I have 23 more large flowers to make for the double sized quilt. That is not too bad, as I am making them pretty quickly. I decided that I will hand applique each large flower onto a 14 inch block, which will be a blue leaf pattern. it will look like the flowers are lying on the grass. The blue matches the blue in our curtain, so it will coordinate well.


Today, in the AM I made a dotee doll.

Dot from http://dotslifeandart.blogspot.com/2008/01/dotee-doll-fervour.html originated the dotee doll. I liked when I read her blog that she said, "Artists who are making the dotee dolls know what it is all about-spreading friendship, love, and joy." If you check out her site, I know that you will be delighted with it and fall in love with the dolls too.

I got inspired to make one this AM, when a friend named KR from my Postcard Pizazz Group posted on her blog a whole bunch of dotee dolls that she made. I hadn't made one in a while, so I got inspired. Anways, I used the embroidery machine to make the face and the chest, and used some lovely oriental fabric for her body. Her hair is made of hand-dyed Westdale curl wool, which was in a fabulous blue and silver. I embellished with beads and buttons. I have to admit that I enjoyed making Suzy, and my morning flew. She is now sitting on a shelf in the kitchen and is looking very happy to be there. She has a really cute and funny face, and she just makes you smile, which is what dotee dolls should do...make you happy.

I am now cutting out hexagons for my next flower. I will be making it tonight while I watch
Dancing on Ice.

Oh, it is freezing here, and we have had lots of hail storms.
Needless to say, I am glad to be home!

PS: Since Pat just posted that she would love to make a dotee doll, here is a good tutorial on You Tube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_SlCwCYcsU. It will get you started Pat, and anone else who wants to make this cute doll.