{scroll down for my project quilting challenge#3 quilt – it is in this post!! ♥}

Happy week!!! 

I have had such a great, productive week right after such a wonderful weekend spent in Austin…

just a couple of Austin highlights…

my darling son was elected Speaker of the Hyde House (the House of Representatives for the Freshman class) in the YMCA Youth and Government State Conference!!!

I was soooooo proud…

Love the state seal above his head!! :) 

and I took my sweet daughter and her love all around Austin on Friday morning…we ate at an Italian restaurant just down the street from the Capitol. FUN!

They are adorable! And very fun to travel with!!

Besides Youth and Government conference, our other goal this past weekend was to go see the Lion King!! This was Cora's birthday present…pure awesomeness!!!!

It was just as awesome as it was when we took her 10 years ago!!! and she loved it just as much if not more this time!!!

Project number one that I did this week:

So excited to introduce you to my sweet friend, Erin and one of her newest patterns, the Laura Tote!!

Here is my version of her pattern:

Isn't she sassy??? This girlie makes me totally want to buy RED lipstick!!! LOVE her!!

Go grab this pattern today!! It is soooo worth it; fun, adorable, and very practical!!!

And what you've been waiting for…

my project quilting season 4 quilt#3:

Tree of Love

This week we were inspired by a fabulous artist, Annie Young!! She is sooooo fabulous…her blog is inspirational, her art is inspirational, and her spirit is soooo completely inspirational!! 

This week, I kept going back to her piece called forest angel. This tree just poured out onto me…as did the verse at the end of the post: "We love because He first loved us." I John 4:19 It's amazing to think that our love is a response to all of the amazing love He pours out on us every minute of every day!! 

I am super excited about this quilt that I made. I wanted to use fabrics that had lots of patterns that were near and dear to my heart. I've been hoarding these fabrics, so instead of cutting them up in little pieces, I made big 18x18in blocks with some random pieces stuck in there.

I had been working on hexies just randomly when I could, so I grabbed those to work as "leaves". I also wanted to sew some curved seams to prove to myself I could do it!! LOL!! So I made a tree trunk with curved seams. For the top of the tree…a big flower, made out of strips of fabric sewn into a big hexie with a ruffled group of little bitty strips making the flower part…

For my quilting, I took a quick gander at a Leah Day video on how to do tree bark ! Love how that turned out…I also quilted around all of the hexies as branches and continued the branch quilting all throughout the quilt!!

I am loving Project Quilting this season, because I've decided to make bigger quilts but still put my personality on it!! and here is my third quilt for this season!! love!!

I had one more project finish this week, but it's a gift, so I'll show it once it's given! :) 

I'm going to leave you with a "thing" I'm doing on FB this week. 

I love my husband so very dearly…and this Valentine's Day, I wanted to show that love to him…

So this week, I'm listing 10 things (one a day) I love about Don Keller…Next week, I'll create a little digital book (or big page) with pics to help illustrate my love, and I'll share it here!! 🙂

What do you love about your loved ones?? Let them know!! 🙂

blessings and hope!!