Virgil on the way out - Tulips on the way in.....

I knew the winter snowstorm had a name - it was Virgil.  Hmmm....  

Well, Virgil is fading fast and we're already seeing green in his wake.

Both the spring bulbs

and the beeskeps are on the south side of the house.  These pictures are from last year but except for the patches of snow there are signs of spring everywhere.

This is Tulips and Leaves (and Stars and Bees) and it's going on my couch for Easter.

I thought I'd take a few pictures of Lori's awesome quilting

since the quilting never shows up on the patterns and people quite often ask me for quilting ideas.

I am sooooo ready for tulips and soft spring days.  This has been quite a winter.

Tulip and Leaves is on sale all week for 15%off.

One Note - an important one if you've emailed us in the last week.  Our computer and our internet have been down since about last Thursday - maybe Wednesday night.  We couldn't get emails, nor could we ship anything.  We finally got things fixed last night and are up and running again.  And this morning when Tori went to check the emails, there were about 10 of them - for 7 days.  Think we lost a few.  If you've sent us an email recently and we haven't replied, please send it again.  You gotta love computers and the internet.

Hope you have a great Easter with lots of family, friends and good food.

And stitching, of course.

It's Spring??????

Last Wednesday was the first day of Spring.....

Well, here in North Missouri we had a Spring Snowstorm.  I can't remember it's name but it has one.

And although I am absolutely ready for Spring

 

the snowstorm was breathtakingly beautiful in the 

garden ...........

(Bonnie and Camile left their mailbox at Market and we believe in reuse as well as recycle.  It now holds garden tools and hose ends.  Thanks ladies - love the color, especially here)

and in the

 brooder house for the baby chickens soon to come.

Hunny came out and played and played.

Spike stayed inside where it was warm and slept.  :)

You can't see it but that black bird in the tree has a red wing.  Red winged blackbirds are spring birds around here.    

 There were 4 of them.  Pep said he could just hear one of them saying "I wanted to wait but nooooo.....we had to leave early!"

And doesn't the color of the cardinal just match our Amaryllis in the window.

(I wanted to get a picture of them today against the snow but the snow outside was too bright for my camera and you couldn't see the color of the flowers.)

Pep and I get each other 3 Amaryllis for Valentines Day each year.

So while it's Winter outside - beautiful though it may be,

It's Spring inside.

I've changed all my quilts.  This is Ring Around the Posie - one of my favorite Spring and Summer bed quilts.  You can get the pattern for it in Country Quilts for my Soul or we have the kit on special this week.

Now I'm going to stay inside and stitch on a quilt called Snow Day for spring Market.

Stay warm and keep quilting ladies.

Happy Almost St. Patrick's Day

First we need to announce the winner of the Notions Blog drawing.  The random number generator chose Bonny who said that her favorite notion was:

My favorite notion is a Pilot Frixion erasable pen! These are great to use, just draw on and iron off - works like a charm when embroidering, or marking a quilting pattern on your quilt top. Just hit a warm iron to it and the marks come right off!

Wow!  I've never even heard of one.  I'll have to check with Moda and see if they carry them.  Bonny I sent you an email but just in case I'll tell you here to email Tori at janpatekquilts@yahoo.com and give her your shipping information.

Thanks to all of you who commented.  It was very interesting to hear about all the different notions that are our favorites.  Wish you all could have won.

And tomorrow is St. Patrick's Day.  If you're on our email list you've gotten notice of our St. Patrick's Day sale.

This is a picture of my brother Jim, my sister Nancy and I a few years ago - Lairds one and all.  Can you tell we're related?  Scotch-Irish, you know.

And in honor of my brother Jim as well as St. Patrick, we're having a St. Patrick's Day sale on the 17th.  17% off of everything in the store - one day only.  

We sent out an email but the promo code is for some reason in teeny, tiny letters at the top.  Kelly will try to get another email out today or tomorrow.  

Anyway, be sure to use the Promo code PADDY.  

Happy shopping and Happy quilting.

Spring is only a few short days away.

Moda's Notions Blog Hop

Moda's having a "Notions" blog hop and it's really fun to read what everyone's favorite tools are.

Today was my day.

Hop on over and see what we all picked by clicking here.  Tell me what you're favorite notions are and I'll have a drawing Friday for a free Farmer's Market Layer Cake.  I just finished designing the Featured Fabric quilt out of Farmer's Market and am in love with it all over again.  

Spring begins in 2 weeks?????

Here are the girls at the feeders a couple of nights ago at dusk.  I put corn and alfalfa pellets out for them each night about 1/2 hour before dusk since they are mainly night feeders.  All 3 of them were there but the other one was too far off to one side to get in the picture.  It's tricksy to get it out late enough that the birds don't eat it all but late enough that I don't spook them by being there.

And next week my timing will be all off because Daylight Savings starts Sunday.  

Daylight Savings!

Today was sunny and quite a bit warmer.  The East is getting hit with another huge snowstorm but it's quite nice here today.  These girls are enjoying a nice bask in the sun.

This is "Spring at the Gate" and it's on special this week.

I hope that it's time for "Snow Guys" to come down in the back hall and for "Spring at the Gate" to go up.

I'm crossing my fingers, my toes and well, not my eyes, hoping that Spring is indeed around the corner.  I think we'll all ready for it.

In case anyone hasn't heard about it, shipping costs increased significantly last week.  We had to up the price of our BOM kits a dollar each month and the international shipping has really gotten pricey.  We're shipping international First Class, delivery confirmation (so it will be tracked) instead of Priority so that helps a little.  

 But lets think good thoughts  and, while the snow melts, stitch on this cheery little wallhanging and dream of spring.

All Good Things........

I can't believe we're at the end of the 2nd week already.  It's really been fun seeing the blocks of all the different designers and what they've done with them.  I need to remember to hop back to Joanna's.  She was making the whole quilt out of her fabric line.  Cool.

And I'd better say again that I couldn't get the link to work on my computer.  

Every time I tried to go to the link this is what came up.  And I already have Adobe Acrobat.  When I would open it, nothing would happen.

If anyone can tell me how to fix it, I would really appreciate it.

Meantime, if you want a pdf of my block, email Tori at janpatekquilts@yahoo.com and she'll send you one or Moda has it on their blog here.  That's faster.

Here is the last Little House Coaster which was my project. 

The winner of the drawing for the 4 Coasters kit is Helen who commented

Looks like we might not get snow this year in Seattle, although it's not too late. I hate to see snow on crocus.

Love the coasters!

Thanks Helen.  If you email your shipping information to Tori at janpatekquilts@yahoo.com she'll get your kit out to you next week - God willing and the creek don't rise.  I heard we might get another 10" next week.  This is the 1st day the mailman and UPS have been able to get here since Monday.

If you have an order coming, it's finally on its way.

This is my last new pattern in the Audra's Iris Garden line - Home on the Range.  I have  6 and 7 year grandsons and I made two of these for them.  You can get a pattern by clicking on the name or here.

I couldn't be here yesterday but I hope you were on the hop anyway and visited

Sweetwater

Stephanie Ryan

and

Vanessa Christenson

If you didn't get a chance yesterday go see what they're up to today and then go to

Moda's Cutting Table to put it all together.

Thanks for joining us each day on the Moda Friendship Quilt Along.