New purse for ME

I finally got around to making a new purse for myself! I used some dark denim that I picked up at the thrift store over a year ago. When Walmart still had fabric, I found a small remnant of this nice purple. I didn't have anything that actually matched for the lining, so I used some fun Winnie the Pooh fabric that I had in my stash. The pockets are nice and deep to hold all my goodies. It even has room for a water bottle!

Widman kids quilts

I finished the quilts for the kids. My camera ate the picture of Susanna's quilt though :( The blur on the bottom of the pics is actually on my camera lens. Don't know what it is, but it's been cleaned off now. The kids went nuts for their quilts. They wrapped up in them and snuggled up and ran around the house right away. Sasha tried to take all three! I love seeing kids get all excited over a new quilt. There is just something magical about wrapping yourself up in a warm snuggly quilt :)

Quilt tops

These are the quilt tops I made for Andy's children. I was torn between putting a picture of Andy on the back inside a heart, but decided against it. We talked as a family and thought it might be better to leave it blank not knowing how Susanna would feel about it. Then when I give it to them, I will let Susanna know that I can add a picture and whatever she would like on the back later.

On a hot summer day

Why cool off the "normal" way, when you can get hosed down by the local fire department?

The fire department stopped by so Susanna's kids could have a little distraction from all the people that have been at their house. Little Samuel (4) wouldn't go near the hose, but he had a great time hitting the sirens and lights. His sisters (20 months, 5 months) are too small to play in the water too. My son Robbie (9) had no problem running through the house though :)

Robbie is doing much better now that he has gone over to see everyone a couple times now. Susanna lets him come over to play with Samuel in between the large groups of people that have been stopping by to pay their respects. He went through his collections to see what kind of gift he could give everyone. He gave Susanna a pin that is a bow with a bunch of clear jewels all over it. It is his favorite pin that he picked up from a thrift store. He also gave the kids a little bear, and two action figures to play with. He is such a sweet and caring little guy.


Andy's friends also stopped by tonight to plant a tree in his honor in the back yard. It will be a nice place for the kids to remember their Daddy.....

Fund raising for the Widmans

It is so heartwarming to see so many people come together to help out this young family. Several communities are having fundraisers. The three local police departments are doing their boot and bucket collections at local intersections.

It has been amazing to see the amount of police officers, friends, and family that have stopped by to comfort Susanna and the kids. They have one officer that stays in front of the house to keep the media out. I know it is driving the media crazy, because they have been knocking at my door to try to get a statement. We have decided to refrain from speaking to the media in respect to the family and their wishes. The different police departments seem to have a schedule. There are large amounts of people stopping by a specific intervals. Susanna has two police cars as escorts no matter where she needs to go. Her husband's police force has really stepped up and helped in an amazing way.

A sad day...

A wonderful neighbor, father, husband and human being was killed at 2 am this morning.

The basic details are here:

http://nbc-2.com/articles/readarticle.asp?articleid=20481&z=3

Andy and his family have been our new neighbors for a few months now. We have slowly been becoming friends. It has been slow because Andy worked the night shift and slept during the day. We don't like to disturb him or interrupt his family time. He has been doing alot of yard work so their new house can become their home. He was such a kind and sweet man. He was very caring and his family meant the world to him. You could see how much he and his wife Susanna were in love with each other. He knew my husband had been in and out of the hospital many times this year. He always asked how he was feeling and if he needed any help with anything. Our 9 year old son Robbie became quick friends with all three of Andy and Susanna's kids. (4,2,baby). Robbie was at their house most days of the week. Their oldest Samuel, would also come over to our house to play with Robbie. Robbie also became fast friends with Andy. He helped Andy plant trees, and do other things around the house and yard. This is Robbie's first death this close to him. It has been devastating to him. It happened so fast, it is hard for him to deal with. He was just with Andy on Thursday and now he is gone. Both Andy's police force and our towns police force have been at their house since it happened. The family has closed ranks and are not allowing anyone but close family in right now. They are keeping the media out too which is good. They mean wel but they can be annoying. That is ok, we will be there for them when everyone tries to get back to normal.

Robbie has been sitting on our front porch most of the day. He has been watching all the different police cars and undercover cars, and family friends come and go. He is holding his own little vigil out front. It seems to help him cope a little. He was very excited that an actual police officer came over to use our bathroom. Even though he knew Andy was a police officer, he never actually saw him in his uniform. He told me tonight that he has been crying on and off all day. (I had to work 3pm-11:30pm so Daddy was with him).

Tomorrow we are going to make quilts for Susanna and her three kids. When we find out when the services will be, Robbie wants to go to pay his respects. He doesn't want to go near the coffin, but he wants to be part of the ceremony.



This is their wonderful family when they first moved in next door.


My prayers go out to Susanna and their kids, their friends and family....

Pillow case fun

My oldest (20) loves bright green and orange. He bought lime green sheets for his bed, but could not find anything in neon orange. So Momma had to make him a new pillowcase. I needed practice with my buttonhole machine stitching so I added his name. I kept it relatively small since he isn't a little kid anymore.






My boss at work stopped by last week to drop off a BJ's gift card for us that she didn't need. To repay her kindness, I made these two pillowcases for 2 of her grandkids. Sam is 4 and Maria is 2.


I bought Justin's fabric specifically for him, but the other fabric was from my stash. The pillowcase pattern came from parksbird .

Fourth of July

Fourth of July
Originally uploaded by rsislandcrafts

Have a happy and safe Fourth

cupcake scarf pattern

I created this cupcake scarf pattern sometime last year for a customer. I debated for a long time whether or not I wanted to get into pattern writing and selling. I finally jumped in and wrote up the pattern. I also had to learn how to make PDFs. Not as hard as I thought it would be...

Here it is :

Cupcake Scarf Pattern



Happy crafting!!