Hello, my VERY patient friends!

I've been lazy and not blogging.  If it makes you feel any better I've ALWAYS been awful at keeping a journal.  Even as a young girl my diary had a lot of blank pages.  But I keep trying!

Let me catch you up...

January - not much to talk about.  Minnesota.  Winter.  Cold.

My husband and I celebrated our six-year anniversary.  No... wait... SEVEN year anniversary.  I think.  Now it's going to drive me nuts until I go check.  BRB.   Yep, seven years. The day after that was my birthday so we usually celebrate both at the same time.  Dinner at Red Lobster.  YUM!

I did some sewing, finished my fleece jacket and will post a picture as soon as my model comes over.  I was quite happy with how it turned out, but would make the sleeves an inch or so longer next time.  Then I took a quilting class and made a quilt square:

I took the picture with my Xoom so it's not the greatest.  The dark purple is beautious! You'll just have to take my word for it.

After that class I took another quilting class, to make a lap quilt and matching pillow.  This one I finished in February so let's move on...


February -   More sewing!  Starla and I went on a crafting retreat.  My wonderful brother-in-law, Tom, and his fabulous fiancee, Mary, let us use their farm for 4 days and it was PERFECT!  My friend Kathleen came with us, but had to leave early because she wasn't feeling well.  It had nothing to do with the roast I made the night before, I SWEAR!  =D  Here is me with Kathleen:

 And me with Starla:

Posting these took courage... you have NO idea!

Anyway, I finished the quilt and pillow I mentioned earlier while at the retreat, and here they are!

 This picture lets you see the purple fabric a bit better.  I love the Kokopelli design!

Here are a couple of shots showing my work area, and the caftan I've been working on and JUST FINISHED TODAY!!:

 and my sewing machine (the one I got in November wasn't working right so I returned it and got this one.)

Starla was working at the table you see in the background at the right edge of the picture.

We left some gifts from the heart for our hosts:

Starla and I got them a candle display, Kathleen made quilted coasters, and I made them a card.  We added some Hershey's kisses too, just because.

The retreat was a BLAST and we hope to be able to do it again.

On Valentines Day my sweet husband brought me some flowers, so I had to get a picture of them:

Pretty, no?  I took these pictures a week after he brought them home, I wanted the roses to have opened. They are STILL looking good, almost a month later.

Also, my Silhouette group on Yahoo is having a swap.  Only seven of us signed up, and after making my swap item I'm SO GLAD there weren't more!  LOL!  I underestimated how long it would take to cut and assemble the cards I made.  There were a TON of teeny pieces!  This is my project:

Isn't he just the cutest thing?

Okay, that's all I have for this installment of CRAFTING WITH VICKI.  Tune in next time for pictures of the finished fleece jacket and caftan!