Ok, sit back, bring a cup of joe (or wine) and ....

for your viewing pleasure a post with a feast for your eyes.

I have soo much to "show & tell" and this post really takes place 3 days ago, but we'll start with today's happiness and go back into time.......(insert twilight music here).

First, this is the most amazing mail day ever!  EVER!

I received 3 special packages in the mail today....3....I have no clue where to start.....let's go with mini quiltlet first.

Poor Karol-Ann has been stressing for the past few weeks, waiting for my special Booty Swap package to arrived and it finally came today!!  Let me say, I'm totally speechless (Karol-Ann is known for doing this to me)....she thoughtfulness and creativity and talent for her art is amazing!  She made me my Booty Swap 2 quiltlet and a mini zipper bag along with a pin cushion.  Not to mention my addiction for Smarties might be curved for a few days with all the chocolate that was in the bag (granted now I have to find a bigger, smarter hiding place for them).  Karol-Ann used Ricky Tim's Convergence method to make my quiltlet and WOW....just wow....



This is the "special" wrapping bag it came in:



Oh, and here's all the chocolate:



But wait, here's the other little things Karol-Ann made:




Isn't she wonderful!  Thank you again Karol-Ann, I will treasure each piece!!

Well, I also won a blog give away from SHNOODLE (aka Lindsay) last week and it arrived in my mailbox today.  I have named my new pet "Ski", because of the Mark Lipinski fabric Lindsay used in making Ski.  Isn't he adorable?  I did change the eyes, when Ski arrived he was not happy with traveling so far and got red eyes.  He's all happy now with shiny white eyes :)



Again, thank you Lindsay.   I so love Ski!

And finally, I received my first block in a block swap hosted by Betsy.  This block came from the gal who created the pattern we are using.  I have not made my blocks yet, I feel like I'm slacking now :)  Thank you to Ms. Christina for sending me this cute holiday block:



Did I mention it was a wonderful mail day???  Not to be out done with mail, but I played with friends too today.  Cheryl came over for a little bit and Debbie as well.  I'm soo feeling the love :)

Now I still have a sloo of pictures to share.  Where to start? LOL

Friday I decided to take up applique.  Yep, you know the needle turning kind.  Well, I picked out a pattern some fabric, but haven't had a moment to play with it.  I plan to visit Jane tonight and take it with me to play at her house.

Saturday was a trip to West Virginia to visit my long armer.  She is amazing.  I have picked up 4 quilts from her in the past 2 weeks.  Needless to say, I've been busy the past 2 days doing binding.  I'm so glad I had all the binding pre-made.  My friend Stacie from Florida was visiting us (she attended a wedding on Friday) and one of the quilts was for her.  So, I hated to do it, but I machine bound her quilt, so I didn't have to mail it out for the holidays.  She immediately fell in love with it.  I hadn't shown pictures of it yet because she reads my blog, so now I can reveal "For the Love of England" quilt.  It is queen size:





And there are two more embroidered blocks in the top and bottom corners:



I had this top done mid-August and it was such a pleasure to finish it up and give it to Stacie in person, verses mailing it.  I do have a label I plan to put on it, but I'll bring it down with me the next time I'm in Florida in the spring.

The next quilt I bound quickly is for my Brother & Sister in law.  My hubby is taking a weekend trip to visit his family in Tennessee next weekend and I again don't have time to hand bind this project, so I machined bound it.  I'm very pleased with the end results of this project though and I hope they enjoy it.



Now to finish up with a label by Friday, I think I can do that!

The other two quilts, the Golden Zen and the Pink & Green Monster, both have the binding attached.  The Pink and Green Monster will be hand done for my daughter for Christmas and I decided because the Golden Zen is WAY too HUGE to do hand work on, I'll go ahead and machine bind it as well.  But again, Penny my long armer did an incredible job with all four of my quilts!!!





Are you bored yet?  I think that is all the quilty fun stuff I have to show at this time.  I do have my ALQS quiltlet to show off, but I have to wait til it arrives at its new home.  I'm sure I'll have more to share by Wednesday though.

Whew......here's some random autumn pictures I took on the drive to WV with Cheryl Saturday.