Green is my Neutral

A Quick Drive-By

2012-01-07T10:43:00.002-05:00

Just a quick post to let you all know that yes, I am still alive. The last few months my time has been eaten up by Christmas preparations and job searching. I'm thrilled to announce that I have now landed a temp job and the trainer is so impressed with me that she's finagling a way to get me hired in full-time! Woohoo!!! However, now my time is being sucked up by the job. Oh well, sooner or later I'll get back in the groove of things and have the ability to function on less than 8 hours of sleep....until then, the blogging will have to suffer, I'm afraid.

Thank you to those of you that have been worried about me, you are so sweet to think of me. I'm still here, just busy running around in the background for a while :)

Tomatoes, tomatoes...

2011-10-20T20:32:00.002-04:00

It's been getting a tad cold here overnight lately....like, below freezing. So I decided I should pull all the tomatoes off the plants before they freeze there. I filled 3 mixing bowls of green tomatoes!! Now, of course, I have no idea what I'll do with these, but they'll sit here just fine in the sink overnight until I figure it out :)

A Horse Show

2011-10-17T11:59:00.004-04:00

This past weekend DH and I were asked to take pictures at a horse show being put on by a friend of ours. Well, DH took the pictures, I gave treats to the horses and did PR to the attendees :)

Here is Lee Anne, the owner of the farm. She is riding Gwendolyn and is already in her costume for the Pas de Deux performance. She borrowed her son's Marines coat for the event.

This is our friend, Audra, riding Caesar. She and Lee Anne did their performance together. Both horses were getting spooked by the windy conditions of the day and they didn't do very well, but it was very fun to watch.

Here are the winners of the day. Marsha and Cindy took first place - they did a great job! Audra's dad made the halters for the winners.

This is Mascha and Alexandria. They dressed up as zombies and painted skeletons on their horses. They took 2nd place for the show. Mascha is an exchange student from Germany. You could tell these two practiced a lot!

Here is Evie and Karlyn, a mother and daughter duo. They took 3rd place for the day. They were thrilled and did a wonderful job :)

Let's see....something sewing related...well, I've started getting the last 19 blocks together for Candied Hexagons. Just basting paper pieces right now. I should have a good start on getting the blocks together in a week or so. We'll see how that goes.

We are finally having a memorial service for my sister, Laura next week. We were waiting for the police to release her body to us, but they don't plan to do that until the trial for her killers is finished, so we're going ahead with a memorial service now.

A Knitting Blister!

2011-10-14T13:19:00.003-04:00

You can't see it, or I would have taken a picture for you. But it's true - I have given myself a blister from knitting!

It first appeared on Tuesday, a sharp, small pain on my index finger. It felt just like a wart feels. But I haven't had a wart since Junior High!! My first thought? Ugh, I hate getting older. I even talked to my Mom about it when we went to the farmer's market that day. She agreed that getting older sucks! LOL

So, Wednesday evening, I sit down to do some knitting, as I hadn't touched it since Monday night. I had done quite a bit between Sunday and Monday night football games this past weekend. I start knitting and I hit the wart - again and again. The exact same spot that I use to hold the needle while sliding more stitches up is where I'm getting a wart? Great.

Then I thought about it a minute. That just seems too coincidental. A wart, which I haven't had in over 25 years, in the exact spot I use repeatedly while knitting? Yeah....it's not a wart, I've given myself a knitting blister! LOL

Guess it's time to take a break from the afghan and get back to work on the quilt :)

Halloween Rug?

2011-10-07T13:13:00.005-04:00

Another project I started this summer. You all know those fabric bowls everyone is making using cotton clothesline? Well, I made a few of those this year, and decided the technique would make a wonderful rug for the kitchen.

I started pulling all the fabrics I didn't really like from my stash (you know, the ones that people gave you that you just can't figure out what to do with?) and cut them into 1/2" strips. I started with the purple pile, then got through the orange and green piles, too. At that point, I decided I'd better start actually sewing the thing before I cut any more fabrics.

This is how far I've gotten to date. As you can see, it has somehow morphed into a Halloween rug. Huh. Not exactly what I was planning - but what can I expect when I only pull oranges, greens and purples?? Yeah...I should have seen it coming.

As you can see from the closeup, I cut up an especially horrendous Charlie Brown green Halloween fabric, thinking the technique would disguise the design....I'm not sure it did.

Oh well, I'll still use it. It's going to be a rug for goodness sake - it's not like it will stay pristine very long. It's meant to be used and used up. And I'd better get back to work on it, it's not nearly large enough yet.

Felix's new favorite chair. Anytime I'm in my sewing room, he's keeping my sewing machine chair warm for me :) Looks like he's working hard at it, too :)

Candied Hexagons..

2011-10-01T23:26:00.003-04:00

I finished all the pieces tonight to square up Candied Hexagons. I didn't snap a new pic though. However, I did measure it on the design wall and it's an odd size. It's 53" wide by 52" long. Very odd. I was hoping to make a large lap robe, something about 63" by 78". Ok, so a 5" border would fix the width issue....but I've got 26" to make up in length! I measured the height of 2 rows and found they are 15", so I think I'm going to make 2 more rows of blocks, then add a 5" border all around. That should get me to the size I need....so, 22 more blocks to go! LOL

Ugly Fabrics..

2011-09-30T15:40:00.004-04:00

When I first started quilting 15 years ago, I remember being told that I needed to use 'ugly' fabrics in my quilts so my 'favorite' fabrics would shine. The concept, apparently, was to keep the competition down. I also remember being told that you can't use all 'favorite' fabrics in a quilt. Hmm...not that I necessarily agreed with this concept, it just never occurred to me to question it.

I didn't actually go out and buy 'ugly' fabrics for my quilts. In fact, every fabric purchase I have ever made were all 'favorite' fabrics. And I noticed that the trend in fabric usage has changed in recent years. I read blogs all the time that show absolutely gorgeous quilts where the maker claims every piece of fabric is a 'favorite' to her. I'm thinking specifically of the Australian quilters right now. They just have a flair for bright, happy, gorgeous quilts. And there isn't an 'ugly' fabric to be found. Of course, this isn't limited to Australian quilters, we have lots of quilters around the world that are making quilts that are filled with 'favorite' fabrics.

So, what's this got to do with anything? Well, I've finally finished all the blocks in my Candied Hexagons quilt..

I'm currently working on those last 6 side pieces to square it up. At least, I think I'm done making blocks...it turned out a lot more square than I had anticipated. Anyway...I'm rearranging blocks every time I stand up and I'm realizing I have an 'ugly' fabric in the quilt. I'm not exactly sure how it got there. Notice the 2 whole hexagons on the bottom row? The pink roses on the brown background? I think I was hoping the roses would stand out more. And being that the fabric colors fit the quilt colors, I figured they'd just blend right in. They're not. Those 2 blocks are the first thing I see whenever I look at this quilt.

Oh wait, there are 3 of those blocks! I just realized there's one on the top, too. And another bit of this 'ugly' fabric is in one of the pieced blocks. I think I can handle the pieced block, but those 3 large hunks of 'ugly' fabric are driving me to distraction.

What's the consensus? Should I take them out to follow today's trends of "No Ugly Fabrics Allowed" or follow the trend I was taught in the beginning of "Use Those Ugly Fabrics to Allow the Gorgeous Ones to Shine!"

I don't know...

Here's a close-up of Felix sleeping - seems like that's all any of the pets are doing these days since it's started to turn cooler. I actually turned on the furnace yesterday just to get the chill out of the house. It's been alternately raining or sun shining here today, so a perfect day to get a lot done in the Sewing Room :)

A Little Catching Up..

2011-09-28T12:47:00.004-04:00

This is what DH and I were doing on September 11 - celebrating DH's brother's 30th birthday. His girlfriend organized it to be a surprise lunch for him - she lives in another state and came to visit unannounced, surprise #1, then got the rest of the family at the restaurant and brought him in for surprise #2. She did a pretty good job of organizing it, too :) We all had a great time and DH got to spend some time with his family. They live 3 hours away, so we don't get to see them as often as he'd like.

Here is Candied Hexagons on the design wall. I think this picture was taken at the end of August. I have a LOT more done on this quilt. I counted the empty spots on the wall this morning and there are only 12 more spots to fill. Of course, after I get all the blocks made, then begins the rearranging process, followed by the actual assembly of the quilt. But who cares! I'm almost done! LOL

This basket has been holding my Candied Hexagon blocks for me - one glassine envelope per block. That basket is now empty! Woohoo!!

One last shot of Nika. We rescued her from the pound 14 years ago and she was a joy in our lives. We loved how the neighbor kids would talk about her on Halloween night, as she loved to sit on the stairwell banister in front of the door and watch all the activity. Being a black cat, she was quite the hit! We'll miss you Nika. Have fun in kitty heaven.

Well, this was supposed to be at the top of my post, but it showed up here and I'm afraid to move it for fear it might lose it's ability to play...

Anyways, this is my nephew Kendrick (the one I made the Big Boy quilt for last year) and niece Haley (she was visiting us from NC). DH and I took them both to the zoo right after we learned about Laura's death - we needed something to get our minds off it. Anyway, you can see that Haley was having a ball hovering around Kendrick. I was trying to get him to not be afraid to hold the tame birds we were feeding - but whenever a bird touched him, he jumped and they wouldn't stay...looking back, it looks like he was having fun, though :)

RIP Nika

2011-09-14T20:48:00.002-04:00

At the risk of making my blog a funeral one, I want to say that we lost one of our kitties today. She was a rescue from the pound 14 years ago. She died in my arms in the back yard, how she would want to go, I think.

Nika

1996 - 2011

Life is running slow...

2011-08-05T14:31:00.006-04:00

Things have been fairly quiet around here the last couple of weeks. I think it's God's way of letting us heal after losing Laura so tragically. She's all over the news in Michigan, North Carolina, Texas and Iowa... But like I said, things are staying pretty quiet in our neck of the woods.

I've been working mainly on my Candied Hexagons quilt and the Circles applique quilt lately. It's been waaaay too hot to work on Mom's tablerunner. That particular project has been pushed back to a Christmas gift (I missed her birthday deadline). We've been dealing with temps in the 90's and above for a few weeks and even the air conditioning isn't able to tackle that. The humidity is just horrid, too. I keep telling people I've become an expert sweater this year (sorry if that's too much information).

We had DH's birthday party this past weekend. It was nice, we had burgers on the grill and corn on the cob. Our neighbor brought over 2 cakes! A chocolate and a peach upside down...they were both wonderful :) I got a sunburn, but I blame it on the meds I'm taking for the rosacea...I was only in the sun for 15 minutes, honest!!! LOL

I've been spending some time this past week going through the drawers and places in my sewing room that I don't normally go through...you know those places that collect things you don't want to get rid of, but promptly forget about once you put them away? Anyway, I've collected a small pile of things that I have no use for, or haven't used since I've bought them and am planning to have a give-away soon. I've got to get pics taken of them first. Can you tell the picture-taking is my least favorite part of blogging?? If only my photographer DH was more interested in taking pics I ask him to take....oh well.

I guess that's it for now...I hope you are all surviving the Heat Wave of 2011, too!

RIP Dear Sister

2011-07-26T16:16:00.001-04:00

Laura Jean Ackerson

April 30, 1984 - July 13, 2011

You will be missed little sister

We all love you very much

We will watch over your little boys for you

Full Disclosure...

2011-07-19T15:09:00.003-04:00

At the risk of shocking some of you, I've decided to post how many projects I have floating around the house in an attempt to motivate myself into finishing some of them (i.e. shaming myself into finishing them).

You see, I had been having the urge to work on something cross-stitch for a couple of weeks now, and thought about starting a new design. I have plenty of fabric (a post for another time) and plenty of floss (you've seen the pictures here), so I could start something with very little outlay of money. I even went so far as to go through the filing cabinet where I store all my cross-stitch patterns and pulled out the three that seemed like the best option. You see, I couldn't decide which one was the best option, so I pulled out three to peruse for the next few days to decide which was the best.

As I sat there perusing, I realized I have this large box where all my WIPs live (Works In Progress). It's a copy paper box - it holds 10 reams of paper...it's not a small box. And no, I don't have a picture to show you of that - someday. Anyway, I remembered this box that I had relegated to the back corner under my working table and decided to pull it out. Let's see what projects I have already started that I might have forgotten about, maybe one of these would be the best option right now....

Yeah. I have a total of 27 bags of projects in this box!! One bag per project. And 24 of them have stitching on the fabric!!!!! This is ridiculous. 24 started cross-stitch projects?? And I'm thinking of starting another?? Yeah....nix that idea. So I pulled out every project I had that was close to being finished. That was, um.....4. Yeah....24 cross-stitch projects started and only 4 can be considered close to being finished. This is ridiculous. Oh wait, I've said that already.

I did find a 5th project that I no longer wanted to stitch, and was very near the beginning stages of stitching, so I'm currently frogging all those stitches. It's going pretty quickly and then I can say I only have 23 started cross-stitch projects!! Yay!!!

Then I remembered I don't only cross-stitch, I quilt and knit, too. Argh. Ok, so how many knitting projects do I have started? That's easy, 3. Three knitting projects? I'm not even an avid knitter, why do I need to have 3 going? But at least it's better than the cross-stitch projects.

Ok, on to the quilting projects. Hang on, I haven't actually counted these yet (I'm kind of scared to...). Let me do that while you wait...

Counting...

Counting...

Fainting...

Ok, I've woken up again....I currently have 22 quilting pojects started. That means it is somewhere between the stages of having either cut fabrics or begun stitching something, and it doesn't have a binding on it. Four of these projects are piecing, 8 are applique, 2 are English Paper Piecing and 8 are in the hand-quilting stage. Whoa....

So, I've decided that I need to get each category (cross-stitch, knitting and quilting) of WIPs into the single digits, under 10. I have no idea if I'll be able to accomplish this or how long it will take, but I'm hoping that by posting about it here, I'll be more accountable about it.

I thought I'd add this picture of Felix. This is how he looked after he got done helping me clip coupons this weekend. I think he's on coupon overload :)

A Framing Happy Dance

2011-07-10T15:33:00.003-04:00

I've managed to frame a piece I stitched over 5 years ago. It is Emie Bishop's Warm Christmas Wishes. I found the frame at Salvation Army for $3. It didn't have any glass, and I wouldn't have been able to fit it in the frame if it had. That's ok, this piece has beads on it, anyway, so glass would have just smooshed them.

I found some red vellum at Hobby Lobby when I picked up the foamcore and pasted that underneath the hardanger sections of the design. I wish I had found a better shade of red, as I think this is too bright....oh well, it coordinates with the highlights on the cranberries.

We had our oldest nephew over for the night a couple of weeks ago. He found the piano and just loved to sit at it and play and play and play...boy were we glad for the quiet when it was time for him to go home! LOL

Here is Kendrick and DH playing together. As you can tell, it was a very hot day, so he went around in is diaper for a while...Kendrick, not DH!

Oh yeah, you can see a bit of Pips in the picture, too....He's sneaking a peek at what might have been forgotten on the table....sneaky dog....

And to prove how hot it's been lately, here's Felix melting off the buffet. DH claims he stayed like that for an hour after he got up for work....very unusual, as Felix is normally following us around like Pips (he thinks he's a dog, you know).

My Favorite - No Longer

2011-07-06T16:45:00.003-04:00

There is a very popular Italian restaurant that I love to eat at. I love their salad, their breadsticks and this dish - Chicken Con Broccoli. Doesn't it look wonderful??

On Monday, my darling DH took me to this restaurant on our way home from visiting his parents for the day. I ordered my long-time favorite dish, only to be told they no longer carry it!!! I've been ordering this dish for over 10 years!!! How can they stop making it??? I was flabbergasted.

The server suggested a dish they called Chicken Scampi as a possible substitute - which turned out to be very close...but it's just not the same, you know? I asked her to substitute the red peppers in the new dish for broccoli....the sauce tasted very similar...and the chicken was good. Maybe if I ask them to substitute the linguini for the bowl-shaped pasta I want and to serve it in a bowl with extra sauce, it will seem like the same to me??? Who knows....at this point, I don't plan to go back to that restaurant anytime soon....DH is devastated. No more Pasta E Fagioli soup for him...

Amazing Music

2011-07-02T00:50:00.000-04:00

Have you seen this??

I think it is just beautiful - enjoy!

Pineapple Quilt Progess

2011-06-28T17:00:00.000-04:00

Just in case you thought I'd fallen off the earth, nope, I'm still here. I've been spending some time at my sewing machine this week (very unusual of me, I know). You see, I've gotten very bored with the hand-quilting of Mom's tablerunner (which is supposed to be finished by July 14)...so I've been bouncing between projects right now, trying to do a little bit of something and then going back to the hand-quilting. It's not exactly working...

Here are my working stacks of fabric next to my sewing machine...I know, the creams are washed out by the light, I'm a horrible photographer...

I tried to take a shot of me sewing on one of the blocks - how do you ladies get these kinds of pictures in focus??? You can tell from this photo that these blocks aren't large - only 5 1/2" finished.

Here is the beginning of a block...boring to start..

But look what 9 finished blocks looks like!! I haven't sewn these together yet, they're just pinned to the design wall right now. I'm liking them more and more :) I've finally gotten it down to about 1 hour to sew a block, from the 1 1/2 hours it was taking me....I think this is going to be a quilt where you either love the process or you don't make the quilt...

One last shot of Felix. He likes to sit between our legs if we have our footrests up. He doesn't bother my sewing - too much. If I happen to dangle a thread within his line of sight, he'll attack it, oh yeah. Doesn't he look like he's just waiting for that to happen? LOL

Have You Used the Bathroom Yet??

2011-06-14T19:30:00.001-04:00

Ok, so that might be a bit more personal than you'd like. But it's the question on my mind today. Why, you might ask?? Well, our water has been turned off for the majority of the day. You see, we are having road construction on our street this summer to replace the water/sewer lines and today is the day we get hooked up to the new water line. Yippee!!! Unfortunately, that means they have to turn the water off to our house while they do it. And apparantely, they've decided to do 3 houses at the same time, so it will be most of the day without water.

Have you used the bathroom yet? LOL

I just hope it doesn't end up like the last house they hooked up last week...I shot this video after they had broken the water main - not fun... Oh, and the phone ringing at the end? That's my mom calling, she always picks the perfect time to do that.. I shot this video out our front picture window on Thursday..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6sHAIkjrEnQ&feature=youtube_gdata

Memorial Day Weekend

2011-05-29T18:55:00.003-04:00

DH and I spent the day at my sister's house having a yard sale. We did better than we had expected to do, so both DH and I were pleased. And I made enough money to have some mad money for the community sales happening in my hometown next weekend! Yay!

The bowls I showed you in my last post didn't sell, though. Apparenly I had them priced too high for a yard sale or nobody was interested in them. That's ok, I'll just keep them handy for gifts.

I finally got some pictures on the wall today. If you'll recall, we had painted the living room this week, and I wanted to wait a while to put the pictures back up. For some reason, the walls grew in size when we took down the wall of curtains!!! LOL We replaced the curtains with roller shades (very temporary until we can afford to get the roman shades we want), but now I have more walls to put the same amount of pictures on. They sure aren't going far! I need to look for wall pockets to add to the ensemble and have Mom help me compose some nice settings. She learned this wonderful trait to put together wall settings when she sold Home Interior years ago. At least someone in the family has some taste! LOL

Some pictures today..

2011-05-25T20:47:00.002-04:00

I finally got around to taking some pictures of my activities these last couple of weeks.

Yesterday was taken up by painting our living room, as I mentioned in yesterday's post. Here is an action shot of DH putting on the second coat of paint. As you can see, he's quite focused on his work - and he does a great job, too :)

Today I found this lovely in the mailbox. Notice where it came from? Hint - Australia! But wait - I'm not expecting anything from Australia....Hmm...well, I did just send a package to this person back in March, but I wasn't expecting anything in return...

So this pile of loveliness was completely unexpected!!! 9 skeins of Silk 'N Colors flossies!!!!!! And do you see the cute card she included? How sweet :)

The main project taking up my time these last few weeks has been Mom's tablerunner. Here is a full shot of it as it dangles off the side of the table. I've gotten the entire center blue section quilted, as well as the top left portion of cream. I am working my way back to the center on the top section. The blue triangles at each end will ultimately be chopping off.

Here is a close-up of the feathers I quilted into the center section. You can't see them very well, but they are a 3-pronged feathery frond kind of thing. Each pattern filled half of the space, so I flipped it for the other side.

Here you can see the design I am quilting into the cream sections of the tablerunner. I'm quilting in the ditch around this design. I love how the wool batting is making the designs puff up nicely, even before it's been washed.

Here is a shot of my Candied Hexagon quilt - in process. You can see the piles of fabrics in the upper right of the picture. The bowl of glassine envelopes are the quilt blocks waiting to be pieced. Each quilt block gets it's own glassine envelope. I learned that trick in a hand piecing class I took with Linda Franz. Once you get all the pieces to a block cut out, they all stay together in their own envelope and don't get mixed up. Very tidy.

The bottom of the picture shows my styrofoam working space. Another idea Linda Franz offered was to have a flat working space that can support your work, and can be pinned into. I found a spare piece of styrofoam in DH's shop and cut out a 7" square - perfect!! And still room for a kitty to sit in my lap while I'm working :)

Below is the design wall holding all the completed Candied Hexagon blocks. I was wrong, I only have 2 rows finished so far, not 3.

Below are 3 bowls I've made this week. The dark purple one is the largest one I've made so far. The blue one is my attempt at a square bowl. It's also a little shorter than I had wanted. The light purple one has become my go-to size/shape of bowl.

Here is a shot so you can see the heights a little better. Sorry the camera decided to focus on the jar of threads rather than the bowls I spent so much time on.....stupid camera....

Ok, that's enough from me for today. I won't have much to post about for a while, but at least you are now all up to date.

Am I still here???

2011-05-25T00:33:00.006-04:00

My life has gone on hyperdrive since my birthday last month. I've now become the official back-up babysitter for my sister's 2 boys. Which is taking up a fairly good amount of time. And Kendrick has hit the stage where he is testing to see how far he can get away with things..and he doesn't seem to like his little brother, so there is a LOT of hitting going on. Good thing Grayson is so laid back about it. Anyway, life is very full with this new responsibility - and I've only watched them 5 days out of the last 3 weeks - wow, it seems like it's been a lot more than that! LOL

I've also discovered the fabric/clothesline bowls craze that was going around a year ago or so. Man these things are addictive!! I made a couple for my mom and sis for Mother's Day and am now trying to build up a small stash of them to offer for sale at the yard sale we're planning to have this weekend. I currently have 3 made - hopefully at least 2 more will join the party.

I also spent today painting the living room with DH. Talk about hard work!! I was in charge of trimming the ceiling and baseboards so DH could follow with the roller....which meant I was up and down the ladder alllllll day. And did I mention we have 10 foot ceilings in our house? That's a long way up!!! The first time I went up the ladder this morning I thought I was going to have a panic attack (I have issues with heights) and DH would have to to the ceiling bits. But I finally conquered my fears and didn't look back. We now have a lovely green living room and we even got 2 coats on in one day!! All the neighbors were impressed (yes, we had to show it off to someone!).

Let's see....oh yes, I'm also working on a surprise gift for Mom for her birthday in July. I had some blue and cream log cabin blocks floating around my sewing room for years. I had originally bought the fabric to make a log cabin quilt for my little brother and his first wife. He's now on to his second wife and I never managed to finish the quilt. In fact, I only had 6 blocks made. So I got this bright idea to round out the number of blocks to 8, and sew them in 2 rows of 4 blocks to make a tablerunner. I'm going to cut the corners off to make the ends pointy and am in the process of hand quilting it now. I'm about 2/3 of the way finished with that and am still on schedule to get it to her by her birthday. And I repurposed the blue and cream fabrics to make my pineapple quilt.

I've also been working on my pink and brown Candied Hexagons quilt blocks. I've got 3 rows of blocks completed and on my design wall. I'm waiting until I get all the blocks pieced before I decide on an actual layout. In the meantime, I'm placing them in position the same way the quilt I'm following for the pattern has the blocks placed. I'll rearrange to make the colors flow right once they're all made.

I was able to get my grandmother's sewing machine fixed recently, too. Apparently the ceramic plate in the foot pedal had cracked, which made the entire machine not usable. The local quilt shop's father (a retired electrician) replaced the foot pedal for me for only the cost of the pedal. How awesome was that!

I've had another interview since my birthday rejection. And they didn't want me this time, either. My mom and sis think I need to dye my hair. I went gray really early - first one found in high school, major additions in college. I'm really starting to think they might be right...sigh...

Now that I have access to my blogger account again (I was locked out for a week or so) I hope I'll keep up with somewhat regular posts....but we'll see.

It's My Birthday..

2011-04-02T21:34:00.006-04:00

And I'm another year older. I'd like to think I'm a little bit wiser, too, but really, who knows? I don't dare ask DH - I don't know what he'd say in response. I'm not sure I want to know! LOL

It was a very nice birthday - as birthdays go. It started with a phone call from the out-laws...a very pleasant call it was, too. Then DH took me out to dinner at my favorite restaurant with my Sister, BiL and 2 nephews. We followed that up with a visit to my Mom's house for cake and ice cream...and visiting. At about 8:00 we decided to head home and I found lots of wonderful birthday wishes on facebook and in the mailbox.

Although I did find a rejection letter in the mailbox for my latest job interview....oh well.

I can definitely say this was one birthday I enjoyed. Thank you DH and family for making it such a nice one.

Lots and Lots of Green..

2011-03-03T14:03:00.003-05:00

I've been caught in the cross-stitch fever this past couple of months. To be specific, the Teresa Wentzler cross-stitch fever. You know I stitched her Unicorn piece throughout the last fall, followed by a quick stich of hers - You Were Hatched.. Now I'm working on her Woodland Faerie piece. You can see the entire design here.

I'm really enjoying it. Lots of green to combat all the white snow outside my window. Here is a pic of where I was on Friday last week (2/26/11).

The top section of this picture constitutes 1/6 of the overall design. Let me tell you, that flowery border section is not fun! It's the most fiddly bits of stitching I've ever done. But it is so worth it in the end.

Of all the different greens you see in this shot, you wouldn't expect me to be coming up short on any one of them. However, I'm currently 1 strand of floss away from needing a new skein of 522. I can't believe I went through an entire skein of that already! Yeesh! Good thing green is my neutral ;)

I'm hoping I'll be able to get all the 'boring' green bits done before the snows disappear for the year. Then I'll have all the interesting animals and flowers on the bottom of the design to work on throughout the spring...we'll see how successful I am. Especially considering spring and summer seem to be my season to work on quilts....I know, I'm crazy. Winter is supposed to be quilting season! Who knows...

Another Happy Dance

2011-02-03T15:13:00.003-05:00

I finished another Teresa Wentzler design last week. This is called You Were Hatched... and was a limited release in 2000. Unfortunately, I missed it back then, but thanks to a wonderful online friend that loaned the chart to me, I was able to stitch one for myself :)

I started this on 1/16/11 and finished it on 1/27/11. I plan to finish it as an ornament for our tree next Christmas. I stitched it on a scrap of hand dyed linen I found in my fabric drawer. I am NOT a fan of linen after this project. It wasn't so much the different size fabric threads that bothered me, but the lack of oomph in the fabric. I had to really watch my tension while stitching on it to make sure I didn't distort the fabric.

We are finally dug out of the blizzard of 2011. DH, The Insane Gardener and I spent about 8 hours total digging out our driveway, our elderly neighbors driveway and a few neighbors sidewalks. In fact, DH is back out there again cleaning up what the road crews just threw back onto the sidewalks....the neighbors all call DH the crazy snowman. In fact, a couple of them are blaming the blizzard on him, as he just loves playing with his snowblower so much...too funny :)

An Honest to Goodness Happy Dance!

2011-01-16T11:56:00.003-05:00

I haven't had a happy dance in so long, I'm not sure I remember how it goes!

I finished Teresa Wentzler's Unicorn this week and I just love it! It's a very muted piece in terms of color, especially since it's on a black fabric. I expected it to "pop" more than it does. It just goes to show you that Teresa knows what she's doing ;)

DH helped me with the photography this time, I hope it's better than my attempts have been.

It's Been A While - Again...

2011-01-08T13:11:00.004-05:00

I know it's been a while since my last post. The only excuse I have this time is the Holidays...they just fill up the calendar so quickly!

But I have been working on something in between all the Christmas events. I've gotten Teresa Wentzler's Unicorn to the point where I can start working on the unicorn itself! I left the unicorn for last as an incentive for me to get it finished. I got the entire lower right-hand side of the piece done in the last 2 weeks.

The picture is a bit blurry, but I'm not the photographer in the house, that's my excuse and I'm sticking with it.

The next shot is of my cousin Jennifer opening gifts with my nephew Grayson. He is 6 months old in this picture and it appears he isn't very impressed with his gift! LOL Maybe next year will be a better year for him.. (He did go home with some toys, don't worry)...

This next shot is one of my other nephew Kendrick at Thanksgiving this year. He is 2 1/2 years old and this is the first time he had seen Rudolph and he was enthralled :) Oh, and those socks? Kendrick's absolute favorite thing that day. He insisted that he wear them all day - and they had to be OUTSIDE his pants, so he could see them, of course!

This last shot I took last night. I had to include it as it is just so cute. The men in my life, sacked out and snoring together. DH doesn't know I took this picture, and Felix was so tired, he didn't even turn his head at the flash. I think it is just waaaay too cute.

2010-12-16T11:42:00.005-05:00

I realize I haven't been posting very much lately. Things in the personal world have been a little crazy for me lately, and I seem to be going for days without working on any of my projects. Thankfully, the personal world has settled down a bit and I've been able to focus on the Christmas season.

DH and I have become friendly with a couple of new neighbors that moved into our neighborhood this past fall. One is a stay at home mom with 2 little ones and a husband that works away from home all week. The other is a young couple that are seriously into horses.

We've had the young couple over for dinner a couple of times, as well as gone out to their parent's farm to watch them train their horses. I'm really considering taking riding lessons. I've loved horses since I was a teenager (what teenage girl doesn't love horses?) but have never had the opportunity to be near them. There is even the possibility of my being able to work on the farm to pay for the lessons. How awesome - considering I don't have a job yet! I've been putting it off a little bit, as I'm learning that I'm very nervous around the huge beasts. I'm used to Pips and our 4 kitties....if they step on you or kick you, it's not a big deal! The plan is for me to continue to go out there with our new friends and get comfortable with the horses, then start working sometime in the spring or summer. And then the riding lessons start :) Yay!!

Ok, I should make this stitching related in some way...I've told you that I've been trying to teach myself how to knit while I'm on this work 'vacation'....I think I'm doing pretty well :) I found a pattern for a circular afghan in a book in the library - One skein Wonders, I think - and thought it would make a lovely tree skirt. Only problem was, I had never used dpn's. I didn't even own any. So, I haunted Etsy for a couple of days, coerced DH into letting me buy a set and waited for them to show up in the mail. When they finally did, I took off. And ripped it out. And started again. And ripped it out. And started again. This is how far I've gotten on the third attempt.

I'm a little further along in the pattern than this picture shows now - and things are going along much smoother than they did in the beginning. This has actually become my go-to project when I'm watching something on TV that DH likes and I don't....I don't think it'll be finished before this year's season is over, but I'm pretty sure I'll have it done before winter is over. My only concern now is if the circular needles are long enough. I'm starting to cram stitches around it and I'm only at the half-way point...eek!

Another thing I made recently is a new pincushion. I like these little cushions for use when I'm stitching in front of the TV. They work great when I'm working on my english paper piecing projects. I gave away my last one to a young girl that wanted to learn how to sew at our quilt bee last month, so I spent a couple of evenings getting a new one made up for me. This one is about twice as big as my last one, but I like that size - you can't lose it down the side of the chair when it's bigger!

The front...

The back...

The last thing I wanted to show you is this little working wall I put together a couple of months ago. I've got a large design wall that takes up an entire wall in my sewing room, but I wanted a small one near my sewing machine, somehow I thought that would be more convenient.

DH had some odd insulation bits in the garage, so I absconded with one about the size I wanted and took it upstairs. I wrapped it in a piece of fabric I had and pinned the edges down. Then I took a few pieces of heavy duty double-sided tape and stuck it to the wall. It's working out pretty well!

And here you can see it in my sewing corner. It's pretty convenient.

Again, I'm sorry I've been so absent lately. I'm hoping things will settle down with the new year and get more normal. We'll see...

Halloween Quilt closeups

2010-11-17T14:26:00.006-05:00

I was reminded that I haven't posted here recently, so I thought I'd show you some closeups of the Halloween quilt I've been working on. It's still in the quilting stage, but it's getting there..

Here is a closeup of the mitered border - not too shabby...

Below are shots of the embroidered blocks in the quilt...

I've been spending a lot of time knitting on the afghan, lately, too. No pics of that yet... The snow is supposed to arrive tomorrow, so the time to snuggle up and get to work on a project is definitely arrived!

A Quick Update

2010-10-28T11:37:00.004-04:00

We've been dealing with a lot of wind the last few days. The good news is we no longer have any leaves in our yard and our trees are leafless, so no more falling in the yard. The bad news is we had a couple of shingles fly off the kitchen roof yesterday. Thank God I have handy cousins that don't mind coming over to help us. DH and I are deathly afraid of heights. I swear if we ever buy another house, it will have to be a one story.

I've been working on the quilting of my Halloween quilt for the last couple of weeks. I don't think it will be finished with the binding on it by Sunday night, but I can at least hang it in the hallway for the day and finish it after the holiday. I'll show you how it looks when I get it done.

Everyone is coming over for trick or treating on Sunday. We're having a spaghetti dinner to give everyone the strength to make it through the evening. After dinner, DSis and DBiL are taking Nephew #1 out for his first real trick or treating excursion. Mom and Nephew #2 are staying with DH and I to hand out candy to the 300 kids we usually see each year. We go through a lot of candy!!! And there usually aren't any leftovers :( Not that I need to eat them - LOL

One last thing I want to share. I found this video on Deb's blog and fell in love! This kid is amazing!!! Enjoy :)

The Halloween Quilt

2010-10-15T12:39:00.002-04:00

I got the borders on the Halloween Quilt yesterday! It's my first attempt at mitered borders, as well as a striped border. Other than that one corner, I think I did pretty well. I'm happy with it, at least :)

I went digging through my batting cubbyhole for a piece that would be big enough to get this basted together, figuring I would need to piece a couple of pieces together to get one large enough. Not only did I find a piece of poly batt that will be big enough, but I found a complete queen-sized wool batt in there! I swear I used the last complete batt on DNephew's quilt this summer....do you think they reproduce when we're not looking?

I got lucky at Goodwill this week and found another Mexican vase that I liked. It's got the same design on the front and the back, and is very bumpy in texture around the sides. I think it goes nicely with the other vase and the lamp I got at Shipshewana this summer.

Last weekend, DH and I took my mother for a color tour to Cadillac. There wasn't as much color on the trees as we had hoped, but we had a good time. We had lunch in town, stopped at an Amish cheese shop, checked out Goodwill and Salvation Army and headed home. On the way home we spotted these in the distance, so we decided to travel a couple of dirt roads to get closer. DH snapped this picture to get an idea of the size of them - the wind turbine is in the field behind the house...I swear these things are like 500 feet tall. There were about 12 of them in a row through the fields. They made almost no noise, and were so peaceful....I don't understand why everyone around here is fighting having these things put in....It's like having a huge giant silently standing guard over you.....of course if you're paranoid about guarding giants, I guess I can understand...

Project Updates..

2010-10-07T16:23:00.004-04:00

First off - I'm sorry the photos today are so blurry. I'm not sure what's going on, other than I was the one taking the photo - DH does such a better job of this than I do.

I have been spending most of my time lately on the Halloween Quilt. I've managed to get all the center blocks embroidered and cut down to size. I just need to assemble them together now. Then it's deciding what to do with the border...I've got 3 or 4 options and am just letting things ruminate for now. I'm still hoping to have this on the wall for Halloween - but it may just be a top...we'll see.

This next picture is of a pineapple block I made this week. You may recognize the fabrics as those being used in the Log Cabin quilt I posted about earlier. Well, as I was working on those log cabin blocks, it became painfully apparent that I could not get 2 blocks to come out the same size. They varied from 12" to 12 1/2"...and I'm too much of a perfectionist for that to be acceptable. So, I had to come up with a different plan.

That's when I remembered these paper piecing patterns I had floating around my sewing room for a pineapple quilt I had wanted to make. It kept getting put on the back burner, but I still had these patterns done up. And then it hit me. The strips I had cut for the log cabin quilt would work perfectly in the pineapple blocks! So, I did a quick block this week to see how things worked out. Other than the very outer corner pieces, I think this is very good! And I get the accuracy I prefer using this method, as well. So, I do believe the Log Cabin Quilt will stop at 8 blocks (I'll figure out what to do with those some other day - maybe the back of the Pineapple Quilt?) and the Pineapple Quilt was begun :) I'm happy with the decision.

This last pic is Teresa Wentzler's Unicorn. I'm at the half-way point on it and decided it was time to snap a picture - blurry though it is. I'm leaving the unicorn for last, as an incentive to finish the design. I have a tendency to put things down and move on to other projects, you know. I'm now working on the upper right-hand side of the pattern, where the house is. I'm hoping that the greens in the lower right-hand section won't feel as tedious if they are closer to the end of the project. We'll see how that logic works out.

Quilt Show 2010

2010-10-03T18:38:00.006-04:00

The West Michigan Quilt Guild did their bi-annual show this weekend and DH and I were lucky enough to make it this year. It's a large guild of 400 members, and they usually put on a very good show.

This year there were about as many vendors as there were quilts - at least it felt that way. There were roughly 3 rows of quilts, and the vendors surrounded the quilt room, and there were a lot of them! I managed to find a few FQs that needed to come home with me. And I spent a lot of time in the booth the guild was using as their yard sale - FQ for $0.50!! I had a hard time keeping it reasonable, there were a lot of older gems in those bins. DH was incredibly patient with me - so much so that one of the other women in the booth with us commented on how well he was behaving! LOL

DH was also my photographer for the day. Basically, I got to wander the show and point to the quilt I wanted a picture of. He then fought the crowds to get the perfect shot. He was a real trooper yesterday :)

My favorite quilt of the show was this gorgeous red and green Dear Jane quilt. It was made by a woman named Jan, so she called it Dear Jan. I love how she changed the border triangles into applique, rather than doing the piecework.

There were a few Japanese quilts in this show, and you know those are always amazing to look at. This was my favorite of that group. It just looks so complicated! I don't recognize the block pattern she used, either.

This is a lovely Baltimore Album quilt. The colors were very bright - which caught my eye. It got a ribbon, too. Next to it is a star quilt that I really liked the center of - close-up in next pic.

This is the center of the star quilt in the above picture. I really like it. It looks familiar to me - maybe I've seen it in an Australian magazine somewhere??

I loved the border on this quilt. When I got closer to the quilt, I realized that each hexagon was quilted in a spiral pattern - neat! I asked DH to get close-ups of the quilting for me to reference later.

We had a very good time at the quilt show. We followed it with dinner out and then home. We spent a nice evening snuggling on the couch with a bowl of popcorn watching The Blind Side. It is a very good movie - much better than I expected it to be.

Friday I got a flat tire on the car, and after taking it to the shop, realized I needed to replace not only the flat, but a second tire to keep things even - all my tires are very very bald. $200 later and it suddenly became apparent that I don't think we'll be able to make it down to my brother's for his wedding over New Year's :( I'm very bummed about this...But unless I'm able to find a job soon, I just don't see how we're going to be able to afford the trip.

A few projects to show you...

2010-09-30T18:55:00.006-04:00

First of all, in the spirit of Kim and her Thrifty Thursday posts, I had to share with you a couple of finds I've had recently in our local Goodwilly.

The first find was this Ott Lite, complete with a magnifier attachment. The price tag on it was $3.99 - and it worked! I didn't even have to buy a light bulb for it!! Whoa....

My next find was this quilt rack. DH sanded it down and re-stained it for me, and it is now hanging in our entryway hall. It was only $2.99!

To say I was thrilled with these 2 finds is an understatement. I love finding things I know I will use for very little money...and things I can love, too - well, that's just icing on the cake :)

Now to share with you some things I've been working on lately. Below is a shot of my design wall today. I've got three quilts on it currently. Can you name them? LOL

The first one I'll show you is the Halloween quilt that has taken my fancy. I started this quilt on 9-25-10, and this is how far I've gotten so far. All of the blocks on the top row are embroidered...and I'm working on the second row. I'm averaging 2-3 blocks per day, so it shouldn't take me too long.

I think this is my favorite block of the quilt. I love the embroidery pattern and I really like the fabric. I wish I knew the manufacturer, but I only bought fat quarters and none of them have the info on the selvage.

The next quilt I'm showing you is the Deflt Tile quilt. It's hard to see in this photo, but these are the blocks I've traced the pattern onto and basted to the green fabric behind the muslin. Looks like I'm at 11 blocks so far (I didn't know until I counted the blocks in the picture - LOL).

The last quilt I've been fiddling with lately is a log cabin quilt I started for my brother's first wedding - about 6 years ago. I have a total of 7 blocks done. I think I need 25 for the size quilt I want - queen-sized. Well, now my brother has divorced his first wife and is now planning a January 1 wedding with his fiance. Maybe I'll get it done for that? I don't know. If I do, I won't be telling them when I started it!!

This shot is the far left side of my design wall. I like to keep things that inspire me or make me smile within sight and my stitching chair is right next to this section of the wall. I've got a lot of things on here....The paper fan I got from my grandmother when she died - she bought it in Hawaii the only time her and grandpa went there. The first 2 cross stitch items I ever stitched and gave to my grandma - again got back when she died. A handkerchief from grandma. A scarf my mom crocheted for DH and he decided he didn't want it anymore, so I tacked it on the design wall. Two blocks I hand pieced from the Quilted Diamonds book - they aren't the same size, so I'm ruminating about what to do with them. My calendar, a couple of applique pieces waiting to be incorporated into a quilt label, a shot DH took of my stitching, a broach from my grandma, a twilled sunflower I like (but didn't make), and a note from my kitty that DH helped him write and put in my lunchbox one day last winter.

The photo at the very bottom is one of my favorites. It's from 1994 and it's of my mom and me working on our projects. She's nearly finished with an afghan she's crocheting and I'm working on some cross-stitch project....I have no idea which one. I don't know why Mom's not smiling, maybe she didn't want her photo taken? Anyway, it reminds me of happy times spent with my family.

My Baby has to go to the Doctor

2010-09-27T09:46:00.003-04:00

My sewing machine baby, that is! This is the machine that I inherited from my grandmother. It was given to her when she got married in the '40's and it is a workhorse. I learned how to sew on it and it only does a straight stitch. It's one of those machines that the manual says never needs to be oiled. Hmm....not sure about that. Of course, in the 15 years I've owned it, I've never oiled it, so maybe there is something to that - I don't know.

Anyway, I bought a new Singer a couple of years ago and was instantly enamored of it, so the Kenmore went into retirement in the cupboard. It wasn't a computerized machine, but the Singer could do all kinds of different stitches and had a walking foot!

Because I am a sporadic machine user, it took me a couple of years to discover the thing that made me decide to switch back. The Singer's feed dogs were a LOT farther apart than what I was used to on the Kenmore. I didn't think it was such a big deal until I noticed I wasn't getting the accuracy I was used to with the Kenmore...Hmm....so, the two machines switched, the Kenmore came out of retirement and the Singer went to live in the cupboard.

Unfortunately, I learned that this particular cupboard isn't insulated, and the Kenmore had a squeak when it first started working. However, this disappeared within 10 seconds, so I wasn't too concerned. Then, yesterday, while I was in the throes of my Halloween quilt, the foot pedal started to stick! I'd take my foot off it and it would keep sewing! Ack!

I asked DH if he would put some WD40 in the pedal for me - which he did...and then it wouldn't sew at all :( So now I have to take it in to be serviced and I don't know any of the servicemen's reputations around here. I know of at least two different service shops near me, but don't know anything about them. I'm leary of giving them my baby, since this particular machine means a lot to me....Guess I'm off to make a few phone calls!

What I've Been Up To...

2010-09-26T22:41:00.003-04:00

I've been working on a new project this weekend that has taken me by storm. It's a Halloween wallhanging and I can't stop working on it.

I got all the fabrics cut yesterday. Today I spent the morning getting the embroidery designs traced onto the fabrics and the stitching was started tonight. I found the pattern in the lastest issue of the magazine that spotlights 10 quilt shops a couple times each year (of course the name of the magazine is escaping me right now). Anyway, I fell in love with the pattern and started pulling all the Halloween fabric I owned out of my stash. I have a lot of it!! I didn't have to buy a single piece of fabric for this quilt, including the back!! I'll get a picture of it soon.

Meanwhile, I'll leave you with this - Felix Butt. I finally got a quilt hanging off the quilt hanger DH made me this summer, and Felix has convinced himself that if he sits like this, nobody can see him. No amount of me telling him that we can all see him seems to make him think otherwise. Oh well :)

The quilt was made by my mother's mother's father's mother, Viola Hesterly. Did you get that? Basically, my grandma's paternal grandmother made it for her when she got married in 1940. It's a basic log cabin, it's tied and has a knife edge treatment on it. It fits a double bed and is very warm. I think she liked pink!

A Thank You Card

2010-09-24T13:54:00.003-04:00

I did a good deed this week. Well, my neighbor and I did a good deed this week. Ok, DH helped out, too...

We all helped rescue a lost dog that wandered onto our street during a 2-day power outage. See, here's the story.

On Tuesday night, we had a powerful thunderstorm system go through our area and a lot of people lost power, us included. So, we found the battery-operated alarm clock and hunkered down for the night. I got DH off to work, and attempted to solve all of the world's problems that crept up during the day. Boy, were there a lot of them! Because of that, DH decided he needed to leave work 2 hours earlier than usual. So, at 3:30 on Wednesday, we see this black lab stroll across the street to our house. I never let a lone dog go without trying to get a look at his tags, so I went over to him and introduced myself. He was more than happy to settle down for a chat. We got him on a leash and atttached to the front porch with a bowl of water and he was a pretty happy fella.

However, the only tag he had on his collar was the city rabies tag. When we tried to call them to have them cross-reference their number to give us the owner's name, we learned that the city phone system was down...So, we hunkered down for the evening, and hoped his owners would drive by and recognize him. I even took him for a walk telling him to show me "home". He didn't do very well at that...

DH was refusing to let the dog in the house (which I guess I don't blame him for), so we were planning to get him settled down on the front porch, when The Insane Gardener decided it was supposed to rain again Wednesday night. Okaaaayy...well, she offered to let him in her house for the evening, so that's what we did. He was an awesome guy with her cats - even though they didn't like him very well. He didn't chase them or bark at them or anything. And, we were still without power.

So, Thursday, The Insane Gardener brought him back before she left for work for me to take care of for the day. We tried the city one more time, since our power had come back on in the middle of the night, but had disappeared again by the time we woke up. Lo and behold! The city had power! They very nicely told us who the dog was - Toby - and who his owners were. Ten minutes later there was a tear-filled reunion :D

I learned that their little boy must have let him out accidentally when he took one of their other dogs for a walk. And their little girl was just convinced that Toby had been hit by a car. I'm so glad we were able to keep him safe for them. I mentioned they might want to get a tag with their info on it in case this happens again - they agreed readily to that idea.

Well, I move on with my day, and after school lets out, the little boy comes over with a Thank You card for The Insane Gardener and us! It was just too sweet.

And in case you can't read what the note says, here you go...

"thank you so much for takeing care of toby. and for feeding him, and peting him. thank you for takeing him in. aydan"

How sweet!

Some Work in Progress.

2010-09-05T19:33:00.004-04:00

I figured it was time to show you a couple of projects I've been spending my time on this week. The first one is my tiny hexagon quilt. Again, the quilt isn't tiny, the hexagons are. The quilt will be queen-sized when I'm finished with it. The photo below shows the entire bottom border and the full width of the quilt.

As you can see, it will be a nice large quilt. Here is a close-up shot of the fabrics I'm using in the border.

I added this picture so you could see the scale of the piece. The scissors are Ginghers with the large finger holes. Everytime I show this project to someone new they call me crazy. You don't think I'm crazy, do you?

Here's what it looks like next to my chair in the living room right now. The basket holds everything nice and tidy. I'm using a pencil case to hold all the loose hexagons. The freezer paper forms go into the Altoids tin when I pull them out. That just leaves my pincushion, thimble and thread. It's a very portable project.

I'm working the quilt in rows right now. I've got the design I'm following all drawn out on graph paper, and it's basically just follow the chart to get the pattern to work out. It's very mindless, relaxing work, which is just the thing sometimes.

The other project I've been spending most of my time on this week has been Teresa Wentzler's Unicorn. I've gotten more than 1/4 of the design finished and I started it on 8/23/10. This is amazingly fast for me. If you look closely, you can see the shadow of the unicorn standing between the trees.

And just so you don't think I'm getting lonely while I stitch away at my unicorn, here's a picture of the new futon we got this week. I threw an old quilt over it so we could allow the animals to sleep on it. The plan is this futon will be where the nephews sleep when they get old enough to spend the night at our house. But since Kendrick has really bad allergies to our animals, we have to protect the mattress from the dander or he might have an allergy attack when he sleeps on it. Anyway, the quilt fit the bill perfectly. Mom found this at a yard sale a couple of years ago and decided she didn't like it anymore - I snatched it up very quickly when I heard that!

That's Felix on the left, Boots in the center, and that ball of black on the right? That's Nika. They work very hard at keeping me company all day while DH is working :)

Big Boy Quilt was a Success!

2010-09-05T11:00:00.002-04:00

I delivered Kendrick's Big Boy Quilt to him yesterday just before naptime. He loved it! After he had given me my welcoming hugs and kisses and sweet smiles, sat on my lap and told me his stories for the day, I told him he had a present from me. I sat him down on the couch next to his mommy and held up the quilt. His eyes lit up and he grinned from ear to ear. He pointed at it and said "my blankie". Enough to make an aunt's heart melt, I tell you :)

I showed him the label, which I had traced a dragon onto the bottom of, and after I told him what it was, he turned to his mommy and said "dis is MY dragon!" LOL

He carried it around with him for the rest of the time we were there. I do believe this quilt gift was a big success :)

I Promised Pictures

2010-09-03T12:08:00.003-04:00

And here they are!

This is Kendrick's Big Boy Quilt. I finished this about a month ago and just can't get motivated to get the label on it. I think it turned out pretty well.
Here is a close-up of the quilting. As you can see, I used a variegated blue thread and did a simple cross-hatch design over the whole quilt. I did outline the half dresdens at the top, though. I have decided that machine quilting is not for me. The nieces and nephews will get it for their little kid quilts, but as soon as they're old enough to respect them, I'll be switching to hand-quilted ones for them, too. Just too much angst involved in the machine quilting for me.

And what is this stack of muslin you might ask? Well, it's 388 6-inch blocks, to be exact! I've gotten all the muslin blocks for my version of the Delft Tile Quilt all cut and ready to have the patterns traced on them. Wow, that's quite a stack!

Here's another little thing I did this summer. I saw it on another blog and thought it was a great idea, so spent an evening painting my wooden needle tubes. I only had three. I think they're really cute :)

And last, but not least, DH and I spent a lot of time this summer growing a little garden. We don't have a lot of real estate on our property, so we needed to keep the garden small - it's about 4 ft X 8 ft. We have rabbits so DH made this little fence for it. It was pretty effective, too! We grew sweet corn, string beans, carrots and beets. I wanted to pickle the beets, but there weren't enough :( The carrots we gave to our neighbor. The corn came out mushy - we don't know if it was overripe when we picked it, if it didn't get enough water throughout the summer, or if it got too much water. We'll try again next year. The beans were a big success, though. Oh! And I planted 4 tomato plants in containers. Those have been doing great, too.

It's Been a While..

2010-08-30T10:50:00.006-04:00

Hey everyone. I know, it's been almost 2 months since I've been here, I'm sorry about that. I didn't intend to be gone so long, it's been a busy summer.

You all know I got a new nephew in June that was born 8 weeks early. I've been helping my sister anytime she needs help, which was a lot in the beginning. She's getting used to things now, so my help isn't needed nearly as much. But I'm still at her house about once a week, which is a lot less than the 3-4 times a week that I was over there when they first came home. Greyson is doing great :) He's a healthy little boy that is now over 8 pounds. He still doesn't have that chubby look that new babies have, but he's definitely a cutey. He got our grandpa's big ears - I hope he grows into them soon. He got off his lung/heart monitor a couple of weeks ago. He only had one true alarm after they brought him home, so after being on it for 4 weeks (I think), the doctors decided it was time for him to be off it. This makes things much easier for my sister.

We also got fleas this summer. We've had animals since the first month we moved in together over 15 years ago, and this is the first time we've ever had fleas. I blame the fact that I'm still jobless and we let Pips' flea regime lag a bit this summer. It was a stupid thing to let slide, as now we have to spend the money to get rid of the things. Flea treatments and flea shampoo isn't cheap. So, this week, I'll be buying all the goodies and all the cats get a flee shampoo - I'm sure they'll just love it - NOT!

I have been getting some things done in the quilting/stitching front. Unfortunately, I don't know where DH put the camera cord, so I can't share pictures right now. I will post some as soon as he tells me where he put it.

I managed to get Kendrick's Big Boy Quilt finished this summer. I machine quilted it (first time for me). I can't say as I enjoy machine quilting - I had to force myself to sit down at the machine each day and do at least one line of stitching before I'd let myself do anything else. It eventually got finished - but I realize now that I am a hand quilter, through and through. I decided this quilt needed machine quilting, though, as it's going to a 2 year old - and it'll be through the washer/dryer more times than I care to imagine. At least it'll last a bit longer this way. I just need to get the label sewn on the back and get it delivered before any more time passes...

I also started work on a new project. I've designed a new layout for the Delft Tile Quilt that calls for 388 applique blocks - so I spent some time this summer getting all the muslin blocks cut out. I'm slowly cutting out the green fabrics that I will be appliqueing the muslin to. As well as getting the designs traced onto the muslin. I haven't actually started the applique yet, but it's getting there.

I also pulled out my tiny hexagon quilt. The quilt isn't tiny, the hexagons are. It's still at the stage where it's a good travel project, so I've been taking it with my when I go out and about this summer. Everywhere I go, I get people telling me I'm crazy for making it. But I love it and I'm sure I'll be working on it for a long time yet.

I also started Teresa Wentzler's Unicorn this past week. I had all the supplies kitted already, as well as having the fabric gridded. All I needed were working copies of the pattern and I was good to go. It's been going pretty quickly so far, but then again, I've been able to work on it about 8 hours a day for a week now. I guess anything would move fairly quickly with that much time put into it.

Ok, I think I'll wrap things up for this post. I promise pictures next time.

Rest in Peace Tiger

2010-07-01T18:31:00.001-04:00

Rest in Peace Baby. We will always love you.

August 1995 - July 2010

Happy Day!!

2010-06-11T19:21:00.002-04:00

I have a new nephew today!! Here is Grayson and he was 6 weeks early. Momma had preeclampsia and for everyone's safety, it was decided to take the baby early. He came in at 4 lbs. 1 oz and is 16 1/2 inches long. He's doing just fine. Momma is suffering from not being able to hold him yet, as she is still not allowed to sit up. Just a couple more days...

Also - Felix came home tonight! After galivanting for the last 8 days and 4 thunderstorms, he finally decided to come home. He promptly got a bath, as he no longer had any white parts - they were all different shades of gray! Let me just say he did not enjoy this homecoming at all! But, it appears as though there are no ear mites, no fleas and no new wounds from cat fights...all very good!

The Quilting is Finished!!

2010-06-07T17:00:00.002-04:00

I just finished all the quilting on DNephew's quilt!! It's definitely time to celebrate - I hated that machine quilting!

Now to get the binding strips sewn together and then onto the quilt so I can get it done done! I'll post a picture when I hit that stage...Time to start thinking about the label :)

Update on the kitties - Tiger is doing pretty poorly now. She isn't eating much anymore - we expect to lose her any day now :(

Felix took off out the front door on Thursday afternoon and we haven't seen him since. I'm going to the animal shelter tomorrow, hoping somehow he ended up there. It's not been a good weekend around here on the animal front :(

My Outing to Goodwill

2010-06-01T14:49:00.004-04:00

Apparently the day after a long weekend is the perfect day to wander through your local Goodwill. My theory is that everyone had yard sales over the long weekend and took the leftovers to Goodwill to get rid of them.

Anyway, I found a couple of things today that has me pretty happy. The first one had this on the bottom...

The front of it looked like this..

And the back like this..

I fell in love instantly. And for only $2.99! I did some research when I got home - as I had no idea if J. Mex meant anything and discovered this is a Tonala Mexican vase. There's quite a lot of this stuff out there, but it's all beautiful. I love the greens and browns and blues... I found a matching plate on Ebay for $29.99.....I think I'm going to have to let that one pass, though...I do believe I've begun another collection though..

I also found this great piece to hang in my living room or sewing room - I haven't decided which yet. The circles are game pieces that are hanging on a leather cord. Very fun! It's a dark green and cream - even though it looks black in the picture.

And last but not least, I realized I haven't introduced you to Nika yet. She's our lucky black cat. She's about 13 years old, we rescued her from the local animal shelter about 10 years ago. She has red highlights when you see her in the sun. As you can see in this picture, she's trying to keep the red-eye on my blog to a minimum - LOL!

That's all that's going on around here right now. DH is back to work after being off for a week. Boy, the house sure seems quiet with him gone! And, he's stopping at Mom's after work to fix her air conditioner, so it'll be a long day of quiet here. Maybe I'll get a lot done on Flower Power...

Happy Memorial Day

2010-05-30T17:27:00.004-04:00

We've had a busy weekend already at our house. We just wrapped up a 2-day yard sale at DSister's house yesterday. We had a pretty good turnout, and made some $$ - enough to replenish the sock drawer, as well as get new flip flops and sunglasses for the summer. And even though we sold a lot of stuff, we still have a carload of things to take to Goodwill. I think I'll do that on Tuesday.

DH has been on vacation all week and has managed to keep himself busy with various projects. He is always working on some project - he's got to keep busy. He helped our elderly neighbor put beadboard on the inside of her potting shed this week. He now has a new best friend :) Right now he is making a kitty stand for The Insane Gardener to put in their Humane Society booth at the county fair this summer. They're planning to have a drawing for it.

This is the project I pulled out of the WIP bin this morning. A friend of mine recently pulled hers out and when I saw it, the bug bit me to get back to work on mine.
This is Flower Power by Crossed Wing. I love their designs and this one is my favorite. It's a huge design with lots of butterflies and hummingbirds mixed in. And there are even caterpillars and ladybugs and gnats, too! It's a wonderful piece.

I think I've been working on it for about 6 years, off and on....I started one on 12/31/99, but after getting the daylilies and daisies done, I realized I really didn't like the fabric I was using. It was a yellow 32 ct and I was going blind with the over one bits. So, I started over on something I did like. This is a soft grey fabric in 28 ct and I'm muuuuch happier with it now.

I finally found a picture of Tiger. This is our 15 year old cat that was recently diagnosed with cancer. Even though she's never had kittens, she's known as the mama cat of the house....she babies all the other kitties we have. I know everyone will miss her when it's her time.

And here is one more shot of our clown, Felix. This is his favorite way to sleep - especially since it's gotten so hot here lately. He did manage to open his eyes for the photo shoot, though :)

Antiqueing..

2010-05-17T13:11:00.004-04:00

Is that how you spell it? Hmmm, hope so..LOL

I spent some time this weekend roaming around the antique mall in my hometown. I started on Friday with my Mom. The dime store has converted half of its space into antique booths, so we explored those while out and about. I found 2 wood spindles that are working great as Nostepinnes. I didn't know what a nostepinne was until I saw one on a knitting show on PBS last week. When I saw these 2 things in a bowl in one of the booths - for $1 each - I snatched them up. They work just like a nostepinne should work. However, now that I've researched them online a bit, I realize they are wooden spindles - probably for an industrial loom, as they have metal pieces on the ends....oh well, I'm repurposing them well and they look great in amongst my things in my sewing room :)

Mom and I also checked out the new yarn shop, as well as the new quilt shop in town. Both shops are great and I expect we'll both be spending some time in each one. I even sold a few pincushions to the quilt shop for them to sell on consignment for me. Win win :)

Well, apparently the antique bug wasn't satisfied, so on Sunday I went back to town and roamed the large antique mall for a few hours. It took me 2 1/2 hours to poke my nose into every booth they have - this place is huge. It has 2 upstairs and 2 basements....whew! Anyway, I found a neat windchime of glazed pottery for $1.25 and a glass flower frog for $2.50. Then, as I was at the 2nd to last booth in the place, I noticed all these planks of wood stacked up against the wall. The tags on them identified them as cherry, hard maple and walnut! They were huge pieces of wood, and none of them over $11.00 a piece! So, a quick call to DH and I was lugging one of the pieces down the stairs for him. Then, I learned that everything in the mall is 10% off if it doesn't say "firm" on the tag! Whoa! All told, I got to shoot the antique bug in me for a while for $9.23! Not bad :)

Oh, I finished the crochet bag this weekend. Mom likes my variation much better than her version of the pattern. She followed the pattern faithfully and got a very floppy bag out of it. I followed the pattern and got a circle - it wouldn't turn 3-D for me at all. I finally ripped the whole thing out and revised the bottom - now I have a very nice bag to hold my odds and ends of yarn bits. I'm liking it :)

We're having a yard sale at my sister's house next weekend - so the house is in an uproar as DH and I are pulling things to get rid of. The criteria for this sale: if it hasn't been touched in more than 3 years, it's going. There are a lot of things I love, but I'm not using, and since we need the money, it's time to get rid of them.

Some Good News Today

2010-05-10T22:18:00.002-04:00

Finally, some good news in our house. I received a letter today saying that my unemployment benefits are guaranteed - the contest the company was asking for was denied. Thank God. That's one less worry on my shoulders.

It's Been a Rough Weekend...

2010-05-02T20:01:00.002-04:00

I'm already counting the days until winter. The lovely snow, the concept of no bugs makes me absolutely giddy.

I spent some time yesterday digging out dandelions in our back yard. You see, we finally got some rain Friday night and the dandelions were popping out a little strong. Also, our older neighbor has been making comments about the yards down the street being overrun with dandelions, so I took my hint and dutifully began digging them out yesterday morning. It was a gorgeous day, the sun was shining, it was warm, there was a bit of a breeze...enough of one that I didn't bother worrying about mosquitoes....my mistake.

Apparently, they were out on sneak attacks yesterday. I currently have 6 mosquito bites on my legs, 5 of them around my ankles. I also have 3 spots where I bled and now have a rash - I can only think I bumped up against something that isn't agreeing with me. We have no poison ivy in the yard, so I really don't think it's that....but I have an appointment with the doctor tomorrow for other matters, so I'll be sure to ask him about them...

I so absolutely despise mosquitoes. We live in a bowl with large hills surrounding our town and a river running through it. It's basically a swamp that breeds mosquitoes from April until October. Since the wind only swirls around down here, none of them ever leave. We love to have fires in the backyard in the evenings, but I have to bathe in mosquito spray in order to enjoy them, which means I'm sticky and uncomfortable all evening, so I'm not really enjoying much....oh well, DH still likes doing them.....it's just so weird, though. Those mosquitoes never bother DH, just me. Oh, and the Insane Gardener next door....I thought it was the perfume I was wearing, but I'm not working now, so no perfume.....when does the snow come back??

A Sad Time..

2010-04-29T15:08:00.002-04:00

For the life of me, I can't find a picture of Tiger. She's our 15 year old cat that we rescued from the local pound when she was 6 weeks old. About 2 weeks ago, we noticed a lump on her shoulder that we couldn't explain. It was about the size of a quarter. Yesterday I realized it had grown to equal the size of her head - in 2 weeks. We just got back from the vet with the diagnosis that it is cancer and she has anywhere from 2 weeks to 6 months to live.

I realize she is getting older, but it's so hard to have to say goodbye.

Life Around here Lately..

2010-04-21T12:59:00.004-04:00

Life has been pretty eventful around here lately. I turned another year older at the beginning of the month, and DNephew did, too. We had a sweet little birthday party together - he got to take home the bulk of the haul. But, he turned 2, so it makes sense :)

I didn't manage to get his quilt done for the party. In fact, it's still not done yet, but I am working on it every day. And yesterday I learned that my sewing machine is designed to save my life in the case of a catastrophe! Yay! I replaced a blunt needle when I sat down at the machine yesterday, and apparently I didn't tighten the screw that holds the needle in place well enough. About 2 lines of sewing later, the machine blew up at me - well, that's what it seemed like anyway - because the needle fell out of it's assigned place and the machine made a lot of nasty sounds before I could get my foot of the peddle. So, after I settled myself and the dog down a bit, I started looking things over. Apparently, when something like this happens, the button to disengage the needle arm (you know, you hit this when you're winding bobbins) flicks automatically! Yay Singer! I was so impressed with this little detail and how they saved my life - or at least an eye ;)

So, I replaced that needle to find that the new needle was a dull one to begin with. Ugh. That was enough excitement at the machine for me. Time to go back to my hand work :)

And what have I been working on lately, you might ask? Well, 2 things, actually. One is a new knitted afghan that I've fallen in love with. You can see a pic of it here (it's episode 219 and is the green afghan). It's a challenging pattern for me, being a new knitter and all, but I love it. I can do all the stitches, which is a major hurdle for me, and I'm loving watching the pattern develop. I also love the feel of the knitted fabric. I grew up with crocheted afghans all over the house (Mom is a master crocheter) and this is a very different feel. DH has proclaimed he likes it, too :)

The other project is a hexagon quilt I started about 6 years ago. I had just finished a queen-sized hexagon quilt that was scrappy, (I'm still quilting that one, by the way) and wanted to downsize the size of the hexagons drastically. The first quilt has hexagons that are about 4 inches on a side. This new quilt has hexagons that are 1 inch on a side. I spent months designing the layout of the quilt and have the bottom border done at this point. This is one of those projects that I work on like crazy for a month or so, then don't touch it for a year - which explains why I have only a bottom border done in 6 years. Well, anyway, I've been working on it again and loving it. It's especially good to work on while listening to a book on tape. I'll get pics for you next time I post about it.

The last thing I'm going to talk about today is the new arrival to our yard yesterday. Two of our five cats are indoor/outdoor cats. One is allowed to be this way, the other is an escape artist. So, yesterday they are both outside (it was gorgeous and sunny) and when DH got home from work, we notice Felix is stalking something across the road (he's not allowed across the road), so we start yelling and hollering at him to stop whatever he's doing and get back in the yard. He complies, and we then notice that there is a baby bunny across the street from our house - so cute and so tiny! He wasn't even tall enough to have his ears top the curb. Ok, so all is well, we go inside and proceed with our evening of dinner and TV and knitting ;)

Fast forward to 11:00 and we start to hear this screaming outside. Well, Mookie, the other kitty, is still outside. Guess what she found? The baby bunny was in our backyard and Mookie was playing with it. Luckily, I got out there fast enough to break them up, but that bunny was petrified. Mookie went back inside and the bunny hopped over to the neighbor's yard...but now I have to contend with kitties that want to go outside and can't so we can save a baby bunnies life. Ahhh, life in the city. The things you never expect to see. It reminds me of the possum we saw waddling down the street a couple of weeks ago...

Warning! Rant Mode On.

2010-04-17T09:56:00.002-04:00

Ok, I have 2 confessions to make before I go into my rant, I do not watch Top Model and I am not a fan of Tyra Banks. However, last night while I was flipping through the menu to find something to watch, it was on in the background. I couldn't help it, I got drawn in.

Ok, so we're at the end of the show where the judging is happening. Each girl goes before the judges with her best photo shot and they either praise it or insult it. There isn't a lot of constructive criticism happening at this point. Also, all of the girls are dressed somewhat similarly in short skirt things and high heels. So, we get to one girl that comes out to the end of the runway to get her judgment. The blatantly gay black judge makes a snide comment about the shoes she's wearing. To which Tyra starts chiming in with nasty names at the girl - "skank" was one of them and I can't recall the other two.

To this, the girl, quite politely, asked them if they were kidding. At which point, the judging moved from her current outfit to her photo shot - which they insulted quite well, too.

Fast forward to the very end of the show where the judges rank the girls on how well their photo shot is. This girl was ranked second to last and was given a lecture by Tyra about how the girl was "defensive" and "combative" and none of the judges would want her on their photo shoot or to work with her. She needed to work on this.

How dare Tyra Banks lecture this girl for standing up for herself in a polite manner when she had just called her a skank?!? I cannot believe the gall of this woman. No, woman is the wrong word for Tyra Banks. I'll leave it to you to decide what she should be called....it's not appropriate for polite company, though.

Long Time...

2010-04-15T11:39:00.002-04:00

Ok, I admit, I've been missing in action for a while....lots of stuff happening behind the scenes that just isn't fun, so we'll ignore all that for now.

I've been working on DNephew's quilt for some time now. I spent a day at Mom's new apartment getting it basted - Thanks for the help Mom! - and have been attempting to quilt it by machine. For all of you ladies out there that do this frequently, what's the trick? I am having the hardest time getting this done! I've managed to get the main lines quilted - horizontal and vertical - and am now attempting to do all the diagonals. There was a slight hiccup when I realized my chalk pencils just weren't cutting it and I had to make a pitstop at the local quilt shop to see what they had for chalk markers, but other than that, I've been working on it a little bit each day. And that's about all I can do! I sit at the machine shaking because I'm terrified I'm going to really mess this quilt up. I am not a machine lover - give me handwork anyday - so I know that's part of it. And this is my first time attempting machine quilting - I understand it's not easy at first. But the anxiety I'm feeling is unreal! I have to force myself to sit down each day and do at least one line. When I finish with that, I jump up and run to my comfy chair and my handwork project and attempt to control my hyperventilating.....it's crazy.

So, needless to say, DNephew won't be receiving his Big-Boy quilt at his birthday party this Saturday. I thought 3 weeks was enough to get it quilted and bound, but it just isn't happening. Sorry buddy! He'll get it soon, though, I promise!

Nephew's Big Boy Quilt

2010-03-22T23:59:00.001-04:00

It occured to me that I neglected to mention where I got the pattern for Nephew's Big Boy Quilt. I found it in a copy of Australian Patchwork & Quilting about 5 years ago. I can't tell you the exact issue, as I ripped the pattern out and there is no indicator of issue number on the pages. Sorry..

It's called Postage Stamp Variation in the mag and was designed to be a 9 block quilt with half dresdens on all 4 borders. Yes, I am changing the pattern slightly. It needs to fit a big boy's bed, afterall.

A friend in the quilt bee I attended at the time challenged me to make this quilt with her. Well, she is the speediest sewer I've ever encountered - hand or machine sewing - so naturally, she finished long before I did. After she finished, I kind of lost the urge to work on it myself, and it was relegated to the UFO bin.

Anyway, DSis got to see the quilt yesterday and fell in love with it. She chose a dark purple print to go in the circles of the dresdens, so I'm working on appliqueing those down today. Hopefully I'll have the borders on this week and can get it to Mom's to get it basted soon. I'm planning to machine-quilt it with a variegated blue or green thread (I'm not sure which one I have on hand). DSis also requested a wool batting - she liked the thickness of it.

Out of here for now..

Some Tracing..

2010-03-22T14:54:00.001-04:00

I've been spending some time this past week working an tracing patterns for a quilt that caught my eye recently. This is Sue Nickels' Folk Garden Applique Sampler. I love the playfulness of the patterns, so I'm expanding her half patterns into full-size layouts.

Lightboxes are especially helpful for this process. I first trace the pattern from the book onto a sheet of tracing paper. Then, using the lightbox, I trace it again - and expand it if necessary - onto a sheet of newsprint paper. I buy this in large sheets (18" X 24") and cut them down to the size I need - in this case, 10". I've been using newsprint paper since I first started quilting over 12 years ago.

The large patterns are stored vertically in a cardboard "book" I made a while ago. I just took a large box, cut out 2 of the sides, cut holes along one edge on each piece and tied them together like a book. It holds things flat very nicely :)

Candied Hexagons

2010-03-21T11:56:00.000-04:00

This week I've finally decided to start working on my versions of the Candied Hexagon quilt that Janet made famous. She was also gracious enough to post close-up photos of her quilt here - just what this perfectionist person needed!

So I spent yesterday tracing pattern pieces and cutting out freezer paper templates. I've got enough for 6 blocks so far, I think. Lots and lots more work to do, but I enjoy every aspect of english paper piecing, so it's all good.

I'm thinking of doing 2 quilts at the same time - one in brown/pink/cream and another in red/black/white. I'm also thinking of making them more rectangular, rather than square like the pattern calls for. We'll see how things progress, though.

Next step - start pulling fabrics from the stash!!

Another Snow Day

2010-03-20T11:14:00.006-04:00

After being teased by Mother Nature for the last 2 weeks with spring, it's snowing again today. The ground was covered when I got up this morning - although the roads are still warm enough to melt the stuff. I figure it's a perfect day to hole up in my sewing room. Unfortunately, chores do need to be done. We're having my family over for dinner tomorrow and I have about a week's worth of dishes to do (yes, I hate doing dishes and put it off as long as I can), as well as vaccuuming. Ugh. Oh well, get the nasty stuff done first and then I can play the rest of the day guilt-free.

I don't think I've mentioned it here yet, but I pulled a UFO from the bin a couple of weeks ago and managed to get the center finished last week. It's hanging on my design wall, waiting for it's borders. The dresden pieces are just hanging out up there waiting for a decision.

One day while I was staring at it while knitting (more on that later), I realized this would be a perfect quilt for Nephew's Big Boy Quilt. It's definitely "boy" colors, it's close to the right size and - this is the biggy - it's nearly finished! So, I called DSis and asked her about it and she likes the idea, so tomorrow when they come over, she'll sign off on it and I'll get it done - hopefully next week :) I'm thinking of using the beige fabric for a top and bottom border to lengthen it, using the dresdens on the top border, then binding the quilt in the same beige fabric. I just can't decide what to use for the dresden centers. That's what DSis has to help me with.

And I finally decided to use the yarn I talked about here for the cabled wrap pattern I found here. I'm really liking how it's turning out. The picture isn't the greatest, but as I've said before, I'm not the photographer of the family.

And just in case you were missing your dose of DH sweetness - here he is last week making us some homemade peanut butter cookies. MMMmmmm! They sure didn't last long! :)

I Need a Middle Ground..

2010-03-09T08:55:00.002-05:00

Why is it that when you work, you (usually) have the money to pay the bills, but no time to do the things that make you happy? And when you don't work, you have no money, but too much time on your hands?

I swear, if I could find a middle ground to this question, I would be one happy woman. These last 3 weeks have been soooooo long. I have been getting a lot of things done in my sewing room, but I'm so bored. This is the first time this has happened to me - I mean, I've been unemployed a few times in the last few years and have always enjoyed the time at home. Sort of a stressed vacation, of sorts. This time all I can think of is the family budget and how short we are on everything. I'm even going to the food banks this time.

I guess I just wish I could learn how to put all that behind me when I walk in my sewing room so I can actually enjoy myself when I'm in there. And then maybe the days wouldn't feel like they're 36 hours long.

DH is the BEST!

2010-03-06T09:08:00.002-05:00

I woke up this morning to breakfast in bed. What's the occasion? DH loves me :D It's not my birthday or our anniversary or any national sweetie day - he just thought it would be nice.

So, because I forgot to take a picture, I'll describe it to you. He came into the bedroom carrying a tray that had a plate full of scrambled eggs, bacon and toast. There was a glass of orange juice and he even added a sprig of flowers from the plant he bought me for Valentine's Day on there :)

He is such a sweetie-pie. I really love you honey :) Thank you.

The Wrap is Finished..

2010-03-05T11:30:00.000-05:00

One good thing about being out of work is all those WIPs start getting some work done on them. I managed to finish the green crocheted wrap for my DSis this past weekend. And here you get to see me modeling it...

I gave it to her this week and she seemed to like it. I think she was more surprised that I got it done this year. I think she was expecting 3 or 4 years on it. LOL

If you're interested in trying your hand at one of these, you can find the pattern here. I made a couple of modifications to the pattern - basically making it wider. Instead of the 14 stitches on each side of the center work, I did 20 stitches on each side. I think it turned out pretty well.

I started a knitted version of this wrap that I found here. I was able to get about 2 inches of it done yesterday. But it's a pattern that I have to work with nothing else going on - I get lost if I try to do it watching TV... It's got both left and right cables... I ripped out the purple cable scarf I was doing and recycled the yarn for this wrap. I don't know what I'll do with a purple wrap - maybe it'll be a gift...

And I had to share the latest picture of Felix with all of you. I think he's just too cute not to share. I got a kick out of seeing him perched on the arm of the rocking chair and had to snap a picture. Enjoy!

I had an interview yesterday with a company in my hometown. I think it went well - DSis is interviewing at the same place today. Hopefully one of us gets it...

2010-02-23T15:27:00.005-05:00

Ok, another post without a picture. I think I just need to accept the fact that I'm not a photographer at heart. It's never been my first inclination to grab a camera. Oh well, I still love to tell stories about my life and experiences, so I'll just continue to do that. If a picture shows up, well, that's just icing on the cake :)

I managed to get 6 1/2 yards of fabric washed and ironed yesterday - yay! That was what 1/3 of the FQs on my table equaled. It took me 2 movies to get them all ironed....dang. I've got all the blues and purples pulled from the stacks now, waiting their turn. It's about 10 yards, though - so I may do those in 2 batches.

I've also been working on DSis's wrap this past week. It's probably 2/3 done right now. It's good to work on while I'm watching TV with DH. Especially when it's something he wants to watch, as that usually means I don't care for it and can concentrate on my crocheting ;) I'm hoping to get this done while sitting at home waiting for the phone to ring, so I'll have one more WIP finished.

I got a phone call today from one of the 5 temp agencies I'm signed up with wanting to know if I'd be interested in an assistant position to a Purchasing Manager. Once we discussed the details, she set up an interview for me today at 2:00. Then, at 12:45 the phone rang again - apparently the manager didn't want someone with clerical/assistant experience that they would then train the purchasing piece for - no, they wanted someone with purchasing experience that they would then train the clerical piece to. Great. So, no interview today. Oh well...hopefully this particular temp agency will get things straight before they call back next time. If there is a next time....

We got about 8 inches of snow yesterday. DH called in due to the roads being pretty much impassible. He spent nearly the entire day shovelling out our driveway and sidewalks, as well as both neighbors on either side of us. The snow was so wet and heavy that the snowblower wasn't working well. Needless to say, he was sore and tired by the end of the day. But the driveway and sidewalks look great!

Ok, back to crocheting and catching up on The Tudors...

My No Job Goals

2010-02-15T07:26:00.006-05:00

Today is the first day of me being without a job. Again.

I have set certain goals for myself - both daily and long-term. The most important of them might be continuing to get up with DH in the mornings. I am so not a morning person. And whenever I'm without work, I tend to fall into a 12 hours up, 12 hours down sleep schedule. I know, it's excessive....but I defend myself by saying that as an infant I used to sleep 23 hours a day. It's true! It's just the way I'm made...

So, today was a success! I was up 1/2 hour before DH left for work - I've fed the cats, put the dog out, eaten my breakfast and done my morning computer fun time. All a very good start to my normal routine mornings.

Today's goals include getting signed up for unemployment...calling the various temp agencies I'm connected with...finishing the laundry...vaccuuming, both upstairs and down...and making sure the old supervisor approves my last timesheet. We'll see how successful today's goals are...

Some of my long-term goals were discussed in my last post. I really want to start on DNephew's quilt soon, though - since DSis is pregnant again, the race to get DN in his big boy bed is starting. We're hoping that him having a quilt of his own - that can only be used in his big boy bed - will help give him incentive to want to use it. We'll see.

I am 1 1/2 lengths of thread away from having a complete skein of floss in The Dragon. Let's see - I think that took a week to accomplish - not too shabby. Once I get that done, I'm going to count the number of stitches I got out of that skein and recalculate my usage chart. You see, the usage chart that came with the pattern is if you are stitching over one on 25 count fabric. I'm stitching over two on 32 count fabric. I doubled everything and added a couple for safety's sake, but I'd like to know if I'm short on anything right now, rather than when I get to the end of the project. Nothing stalls a finish for me better than running out of materials at the end of one.

I'm planning to spend Wednesday at my Mom's basting Summer Days. Her new apartment complex has a Great Room with tables that are perfect for basting quilts. She said that Wednesdays are days the room is usually empty, so we're going to try to get that done....I guess I'd better get the backing sewn...and make sure I have a batting available in the stash....hmm...

A New Chapter to the Same Old Story...

2010-02-09T06:19:00.000-05:00

I will be jobless again by Valentine's Day. It has been three years now since I've done more than temp at a place. Three years...

It's really hard to keep telling myself that it's not my fault - it's not personal. But this is my thrid temp job I've had in the three years - I've been at the last one for over a year - and once again they've decided to let me go. Once again I'll be on unemployment. And once again, we'll be trying to keep a roof over our heads and heat in the house on a much smaller income. I'm not even sure we'll succeed this time - it's been tight for months.

My family and DH keep telling me it's the economy or the particular boss I'm dealing with. I just don't know anymore. Is it even possible to get three bosses that don't think they need you enough to hire you? The only common factor is me.

Maybe I should start looking ahead rather than looking back. DH and I do have an escape plan if things go too badly - that's more than some people we know. I am grateful for certain things, as well. I was given two weeks of notice - supposedly to give my temp agency time to find another position for me. This allows us to make February's house payment before unemployment kicks in. I will now have lots of time to get all of that fabric washed. I will have more time to visit my mom in her new apartment. I'll also have more time to work on that impossible dream - to start a quilt shop. I might even get that quilt started for my dear nephew. He's about to move into his big boy's bed and that's when I like to give them their first quilt from Aunt Erin.

Yeah, there will be lots of time now. Not much money, but lots of time...

Just a Little Unwashed Fabric - NOT!

2010-02-06T06:04:00.001-05:00

Remember when I mentioned hunting through my bins of unwashed fabric for a background for Simple Thymes? Remember when I mentioned I had three bins of unwashed fabric? Yeah, well...

Somehow I had forgotten about two more bins - I have a total of five bins of unwashed fabric - and one is large enough to equal two! Ok, so what's the big deal, you might ask.

I cannot use unwashed fabric. The fumes that come off it when I'm ironing unwashed fabric gives me a headache. So, I have this huge stash of fabric that essentially I can't use - yet. Oh yeah, I have a fairly large stack of fabrics I do play with - washed, ironed and folded on the shelves. Five shelves of fabric, even.

But, 5-6 bins of lovelies I can't play with, only because I haven't gotten around to prewashing it? Unacceptable.

So, while sorting through the bins looking for suitable backgrounds for Simple Thymes - I came up with a plan.

I pulled all the FQs and 1/4 or 1/2 yard pieces and stacked them on my work table...

Hmmm...that didn't make much of a dent. Well, anyway, I figure these will wash up pretty quickly and are simple to iron and get on the shelves. We'll see how long it takes me to do these.

For the larger cuts of fabric, I decided to take a cue from Piece 'O Cake's blog on prewashing fabrics. Becky runs them through her washer (which I already do) and her dryer (which I don't do). She then folds them up and puts them on her shelves. She irons them as she uses them. Since most of my quilts are hand-made, I'm already doing that, too. So, I think I"m going to try her method of skipping the ironing stage in the pre-washing process. But, we'll see how badly wrinkled the first load is before I sell myself on the idea.

Oh well, even if it isn't perfect, it's a plan for now. And after discovering so many gorgeous pieces of fabric I had forgotten about, I think it's about time.

P.S. My friend at work told me the fabrics I didn't remember were the result of other fabrics reproducing. Isn't that just a hilarious idea? She sure had me chuckling. :)

Hmm...I need more shelves...

To Grid or Not To Grid - That Is The Question...

2010-02-03T19:17:00.000-05:00

Oh brother, I'm paraphrasing Shakespeare - run for the hills!

Once I moved past my mourning period for Joyful Summer, I was able to focus on the Dragon for DH (you see - I made a deal with myself - no Dragon until I finished something. I picked my smallest WIP).

The first question I needed to address on a project this large, was whether I wanted to grid the fabric first or not. There are pros and cons to both gridding and not gridding. I suppose the largest con in my opinion is the huge amount of time it takes to do the gridding - only to take it all back out again. And yes, there are those that claim the time saved by using the gridding during the stitching process more than makes up for the time spent actually doing the gridding. I'm not sure I agree with them.

One can make the argument that gridding cuts down on counting errors. Anyone who has done cross-stitch for any amount of time will know that stitching errors are not a result of counting mistakes, but rather occur on their own time - for their own reasons. Running a line of thread through the fabric every 10 stitches won't stop the wanton glee a stitching error gets when it decides to rear it's ugly head.

Then there's the argument that gridding makes sure your design is centered on your fabric. This is true, and helpful if you want to start on the edge of the design. However, this argument doesn't hold water if you usually start in the center of the design. Being a center-starter myself, I don't tend to worry bout such things.

You can argue that gridding ensures you fairly quickly whether your fabric is large enough or not. However, being pretty adept at mathematics, I tend to trust my figures when working out fabric sizes.

So, after all this, how does it apply to the Dragon? Well, since this piece is a solid-stitch, I decided I wanted to start in a corner. I'm hoping to get all the background stitched first - leaving all the interesting bits for last - to spur me on.

So, I made the decision to grid the pages into my fabric. It won't take nearly as long, it will tell me pretty quickly if I have enough fabric or not and I'll know exactly where to start on the fabric for the corner.

And, after working on it all day Sunday, I got 5 lines in - of a 30 page pattern....yeah, this is going to take a while....what was my largest con to gridding again???

No Happy Dance for Me...

2010-01-30T19:03:00.000-05:00

I finished this cross-stitch piece last weekend. It's called Joyful Summer and was designed by Country Cottage Needleworks and is stitched on 28 ct. Barest Blue Jobelin using the threads called for in the design. The picture makes it seem much darker than it is in real life - I never claimed to be the photographer in the family...
I left a couple of motifs off, as it felt finished when I got to this point. And who am I to argue with a stitched piece?

I planned to post my happy dance online - because that's what nearly everyone online calls a finish - a happy dance. However, I realized I didn't have the motivation to take the picture, photoshop it, and then post about it. In fact, as the day progressed, the more depressed I became. I found I had no motivation to do anything - quilting or cross-stitch. I ended up spending the evening eating popcorn and watching sappy love story movies.

By the next day, I found I could start work on the Dragon piece for DH (more on this later). After all, that was the whole reason I finished Joyful Summer - so I could start the Dragon guilt-free.

Apparently, instead of the happy dance I was expecting for finishing a very cute piece - I needed to go through a period of mourning for finishing a very cute piece. Let's say it all together this time - she's crazy.

Oh well, it's on my design wall waiting for me to have an inspired idea about framing. And meanwhile - on to the Dragon!

Scrounging Around Goodwill

2010-01-27T05:53:00.001-05:00

I love reading Kim's blog Threadheads Unite! She has such a sense of humor and I love reading about her Thrifty Thursdays. She always has such interesting finds!

Well, not that I plan to make this a weekly thing, but I got bitten by the Goodwill bug this past week, as well. I found a few very good things, too! My first finds I didn't get pictures of, but I found a really neat retro phone for my Mom's new apartment. She needs one that isn't cordless so it will still work if the power goes out, and this one fits the bill. It's a desk-top model, looks like those old chunky rotary phones with the receiver on top. It's black and I think it's great! If she doesn't like it, I do believe I'll just keep it for myself! hehe.

I also found a really neat wooden quilt hanger that will work great for mini quilts. It's got a 3-D bow made out of wood - very cool. Once I get it on the wall, I'll take a picture for you all.

I actually talked DH into checking out a couple of Goodwill's in the big city with me and I found these 2 treasures.

They are both counted cross-stitch - on linen - and for only $0.49 each!!! They aren't exactly my style, but I felt so sorry for them, I snatched them up without a second thought. I hate to think something I labored over would end up on a shelf in Goodwill with a sticker of $0.49 on it. I plan to open these up and see how well they are framed (no tape, please!) and fix if necessary. I want to find more appropriate frames for them, too.

A few other things made it home with me, but nothing very note-worthy. However, DH and I had a very enjoyable evening scrounging around the shelves to find treasures. Definitely something to try if you have nothing better to do with an evening :)

Quilting Update

2010-01-24T05:30:00.001-05:00

Have you ever noticed that the closer you get to finishing something, the less you work on it? Maybe it's just me. I don't know. I do know that when I get close to finishing something, it sits and sits in my sewing room and stares balefully at me from across the way, wondering why I'm ignoring it. And you know what? I don't really know the answer to that. I think it has something to do with the fact that I enjoy the process of the work, more than the finished product. And if I finish something I love, then that means I can't enjoy the process on that particular project anymore. I know, crazy-talk.

Well, anyway, my green star quilt has been sitting with this much quilting to be done on it for over a month now. Yes, I know Christmas was fit in that month, but still, this is what, 10 minutes of work? Yeah, it should be done now - I could probably finish this bit faster than I can write this blog entry. But am I finishing it? Nope. And the really crazy part - the quilt still needs the borders quilted! So it won't even technically be finished when I finish this bit! Yeah, I know you can all say it - crazy. Oh well, I'm enjoying the ride :)

I have been spending quite a bit of time surfing the web for new free BOM patterns that are being posted now. I've found 3 that I'm gah-gah over. Beyond the Cherry Trees by Sentimental Stitches, Christmas Row by Row by Fat Cat Patterns (she does awesome BOM's!) and Simple Thymes by Angie's Bits 'n Pieces. I even started to pull fabrics for the Simple Thymes piece - but I need to go shopping for background fabrics - I don't have anything suitable on my shelves. Hmm, I should probably hunt through my unwashed fabrics first - I've got about 3 big tubs of that....

I have been spending a fair amount of time on a quilt I started about 2 years ago on my trip to Phoenix. This is the first wreath block, without the circles attached.

It's from the pattern Winter Dance by Piece 'O Cake Designs. I love their patterns, and own most of them. I was feeling like I needed to start a green and red quilt after Christmas settled down and realized I had one already started! So, I dug it out of the WIP pile and worked on it some more. Not much done yet - I'm only on the second wreath block now, but I never claimed to be a fast sewer ;)

Yes, the Circle Quilt is seeing some work time. This is a shot I took of Felix overseeing my work on tracing the sewing line on the circles. See, I decided that instead of using the Perfect Circle technique that Karen Kay Buckley made famous, I'd just needle-turn them like all the other applique I do. Of course, I haven't gotten any of these circles sewn on yet, but they're ready when I get to that point!

By the way, Felix thinks I'm doing a bang-up job - hehe.

New Cross Stitch Piece

2010-01-20T06:00:00.002-05:00

Something else I received for Christmas this year were gift certificates to a cross-stitch store I love to shop at. They are in the same town as my DH's family, so I try to coordinate visits with them so I can fit in a shopping trip, too. So, I had some money to spend and I knew exactly what I wanted to get with it.

You see, DH spotted this lovely piece a while ago, and asked if I would stitch it for him. Since he doesn't ask for this very often, I try to accomodate him when I can. Plus, it helped that I liked the piece, too :) However, I needed a piece of fabric large enough to stitch it - 28" X 39" to be exact! It also calls for something like 25 skeins of black (who would have thunk that, with all the green in the picture) - and I prefer Anchor black over DMC. So, with those 2 items, I figured I was pretty close to my gift certificate amount.

I put in my order and spoke with a very lovely woman named Linda. She was very patient with me and we got everything worked out. I then told her that if there was anything left on the gift certificates after shipping costs were included, to just throw something in the bag and surprise me. Well, apparently that threw her for a loop, because when I called to thank her for this:

A very lovely stitch picker (which I don't have any of yet!), I was told that she labored over what to put in as my surprise. I think she did a fantastic job of choosing! I absolutely love this store and will recommend it to everyone I know that stitches. It's House of Stitches in LaPorte, IN.

So, I spent some time going through my floss drawer pulling the threads for my new project. Could you believe that of all the floss you see below, I was still missing 37 different colors? Yeah, I know, crazy.

Now, my next decision will be to grid the fabric or not. This is a large piece and I don't want to spend a lot of time frogging mistakes, but I'm not a big fan of gridding, either. Hmm...decisions, decisions...

Christmas Catchup

2010-01-17T16:32:00.003-05:00

I know, I know, it's been forever since my last post. I can't even blame it on the new computer, as it's been running fantastically for a while now. I guess I'll have to blame my over-all sense of laziness over the holiday. I feel like I've been doing only what must be done and letting the rest go - which includes housework. I can't tell you how many times DH has pulled through and done those dishes for me. He's definitely a keeper.

Speaking of keeping DH, check out what he did for me for part of my Christmas present this year:

For those of you that might not know what this is at first glance, it's a quilt hanger that he made for me with his own 2 hands! I have a similar, smaller one that I bought from a quilt bee friend a couple of years ago hanging in our bedroom, and he decided to make a larger version for the huge empty wall in our dining room. I think it's great!

Here you can see it with a few of my Jim Shore pieces on the shelf on top, and my third quilt top I made about 10 years ago and it's still waiting to be quilted hanging off the hanger.

I think it's looks great! Thanks honey :)

He also got me a bell jar to add to my collection - I've filled it with buttons and a few of the pincushions I've made over the years.

There were a few other gifts - a couple of DVDs and a huge frying pan I've been wanting for a while. It was a good Christmas in that regard :)

We had everyone over for dinner on New Year's Day - as that was the only time my brother could get here from North Carolina. That was a noisy day! I am really not used to having 13 people in the house - 4 of which are children. But, no mishaps and it was a really special day.

Unfortunately, Boots, the kitty I introduced you to last, got sick just before Christmas. She stopped eating on Friday night and stopped drinking water on Sunday. Monday morning I asked my DSis to bring her to the vet's office for me (an adventure in itself). The vet did some bloodwork and started pumping fluids into her. They kept her overnight and started her on antibiotics. We picked her up the next day with a diagnosis of very early stages of kidney disease. It seems odd that she would stop eating with that diagnosis, but whatever. We've had her on soft food since then (boy, feeding time is becoming a dance with the other animals), and she seems to be doing much better. However, we are still paying that vet bill....next week we'll finally have it paid off - whew!

Oh yeah! I forgot to mention the craft show DH and I went to this Christmas! Our town puts together a craft show the first Saturday of December and we've never been to it. We've heard about it over the 8 years we've lived here, but never ventured out to it. Boy, what a mistake! They take over the local middle school (2 blocks from our house) and set up tables in the gym and all the hallways. We got there at 9:30 when they opened and spent 2 hours in there and I don't think we hit every table! And we weren't browsing slowly, either - DH can get impatient in crowded places, so I was doing my best to skim the tables quickly. We did get lucky, though.

I found 2 Jim Shore pieces for my collection - each under $10.00! We found a couple of stuffed animals for DNephew (which he loved!), gifts for DH's family and the best thing - a hand-turned pen made of deer antler! My brother absolutely loved it! It was right up his alley :)

Overall, a very successful holiday season was survived here. Always a relief in my book :)

Christmas Candy

2009-12-12T22:48:00.004-05:00

I told you I'd write a post about our candy making session today - and so I shall. Of course, being the amateur blogger that I am, I forgot to take my camera along. But DBiL to the rescue! He was willing to loan me his and then emailed me the photos while I was still there so I could get this posted tonight! Awesome guy.

The blizzard has finally been wrangled under control by the local snow plows, so I was able to make it to Sis's house without incident. However, when I got there, the nephew was down for his afternoon nap (don't we all wish we still got to do that?), so we got to work pretty quickly. Mom, Sis and I had 6 pounds of chocolate to melt down and either mix things into it or coat things with. We started with my personal favorite, peanut butter balls (as seen below):

Mom immediately started work on her favorite, peanut clusters:

And I totally forgot to get a picture of Sis's work on the dipped pretzels...nummilicious!

Below you can see a shot of Mom getting ready to break apart the coconut she had coated all over the tin foil to make coconut bark. Can we say good?

(By the way, I told Mom I'd tell her if there were any eligible men out there - so if you're lurking out there, speak up! LOL)

Of course we had to have an official taste tester. And who better than the darling nephew when he woke up from his nap?? He kept asking for "nummies" all evening - I think they were a hit!

Below is the Mother Load of our work. We spent a little over 2 hours working on this and we figure we've got roughly 15 pounds of chocolate candy to enjoy over the various Christmas celebrations we'll be attending this year. Not too shabby!

We all had a great time today with much laughter and story-telling. And I got to see nephew's new favorite face. I secretly call it his Evil Face. Just don't tell him I said that!

I came home with those 3 little tubs you see in the picture above. I figure that will satisfy DH and my sweet teeth for at least a week or two ;) Oh shoot! I forgot to get some for the in-laws....well, I guess I'll have to make another trip down the road before Christmas to get that plate all set.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Snow Day!!

2009-12-10T08:40:00.005-05:00

We have been under a blizzard warning since 1:00 yesterday afternoon. It's supposed to last until 4:00 this afternoon. We've got snow, wind, ice and more wind. Brrr, it's cold outside!!

DH and I piled in the car this morning to attempt our normal 45 minute commute to work, but after spending 20 minutes to get about 10 miles down the road, we decided to call it quits. Especially when the Interstate was covered with snow...we travel west to work, and it's always worse the closer you get to Lake Michigan. Lake effect snow and all that...

I'm back home now, in my pj's and fuzzy pink slippers and loving every minute of it! DH is out playing with his new snowblower, and looking to be loving that, too! Hehe, men are so weird sometimes. I'll stay inside, thank you very much!

I have one gift I'm planning to make this year for Christmas, although, if I don't get it done, it's not that big of a deal. My little niece certainly won't miss it for want of the amount of gifts she's getting from us. Yes, DH and I wen't a little crazy this year on the neices and nephews....well, crazy for us anyway. No, I think today I'll be spending more time with this little lovely..

I've been working on the quilting for this one for about 7 years now. It is the second quilt I ever pieced and it was supposed to go to DH when it was done. However, it's just too small for him. He likes long quilts or afghans over him when he's watching tv. So, I've asked DH to build me a quilt rack for our blank dining room wall, and I hope to have this quilt hanging up for Christmas. I doubt it will happen, though - I haven't even started the border yet! Oh well, it's a goal, and goals are a good thing right now.

Saturday I'm planning to go over to Sis's house and make our Christmas candy with her and Mom. DH has decided to opt out this year (so much for building a Christmas tradition). I'll try to remember to take the camera so I can post some pictures. It's always been a blast in years past, I hope we have a fun time again this year.

Ok, time to go wrap up in my quilt and stay warm!! Have a great day everyone!

How long has it been?

2009-12-06T18:37:00.005-05:00

Wow - over a month! I didn't mean to stay away so long, but, well, you know how it goes.

I finally got my computer upstairs set up with wireless internet, so now I can surf and post anytime I want (no more waiting for DH to get off the computer downstairs). We're still working out the kinks up here, but we do have the basics.

I've been in a bit of a slump this week, not working on much of anything. Maybe I'm still recuperating from Thanksgiving. I know I'm about a week behind in getting my Christmas decorations up. I finally got the tree up Friday and decorated today. We usually have this all finished the day after Thanksgiving.

Well, this year, we hosted Thanksgiving here - we've hosted for the last 5 or 6 years I guess. Mom, sis, brother-in-law and nephew came over. It was small, but very nice. We had the usual turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes and gravy, sweet bread, homemade white bread, rolls, cranberry relish, Sis's green bean casserole, 7-layer salad, pink stuff (cottage cheese salad) and yams. All topped off with pumpkin pie and cherry cheesecake for dessert. It was wonderful. And the best part of the day? Sis wouldn't leave until all the dishes were washed! I think that was what I was most thankful for on Thanksgiving. Of course, having Mom in good health is a great blessing as well.

DH and I ventured out on Black Friday to attempt to get some deals at 2 area stores. We managed to snag the things we were hunting for, but whew! What an adventure! We were up by 3:30, and at the first store by 4:30. We picked up the one thing we wanted there - a wireless router - and were out the door by 5:15. Not too bad. We then crossed the street to stand in line at Menards with the other crazies, I mean shoppers. After watching many people cut in line, 3 right in front of us (and oh yeah, I went and spoke with them sharply. They will just have to live with the karma they are earning), we finally were able to enter the store. Talk about rude people! I had one little lady shoving me from behind when all I could see in front of me was a mass of people. I finally turned around and told her to stop shoving me, there was nowhere to go. She attempted to explain that she just HAD to get through, so I informed her there was "NOWHERE FOR YOU TO GO!" She finally backed off. Sheesh! But we were eventually victorious there, too, and were out of the store by 6:15. I do believe these were new records :)

We then went home and I went back to bed. DH proceeded to return the wireless router as it didn't work, thus losing the sale price (I made sure to inform him before I went back to bed that if it didn't work, he should hold onto it until they got more in stock and we would exchange it). Oh well...what can you do?

We got our first real snowstorm of the season this week. It came down so fast Thursday night that we woke up to 3 inches on the ground when we had grass the night before. When DH went out to clean off the car, about 10 minutes later he came back in announcing we weren't going to work that day. Yay! He said he couldn't clean off one side fast enough before the other side was covered again...no way was he going to try to navigate the roads when it was like that! So we had another long weekend this week and did I get anything done? Not really. I mean, I got the tree up, and some cleaning done, but nothing spectacular...nothing worthy of three days of free time. Oh well...

Oh! We did make it to the big craft show in our town yesterday. We were able to get gifts for about half of our family in one swoop! And, we found 2 Jim Shore figurines to add to my collection for a total of $10! It totally made my day :)

Well, that about gets you caught up for the last month or so...Sorry about no pictures this time, I'll work on that and see how the new computer likes them. Meanwhile, welcome to my 2nd follower! I can't see who you are just yet, but I see there are now 2 of you!

Erin walks away mumbling to herself about getting DH to get this computer up to par soon.

What I've Been Working On...

2009-11-02T18:42:00.003-05:00

I promised you an update on what I've been working on lately. Here it is!

While on breaks at work, I've been working on my cable scarf. I found the pattern for it here. It's a good beginner cable pattern, and I'm enjoying working on it very much. I'm using WoolEase yarn and it's so wonderfully soft. I'm not a very fast knitter, so I don't expect to have it finished this year - but as long as I'm still enjoying it, it'll still see some working time.

The other thing that's been on the work table lately is the Circle Quilt. I had found sticky dots that were the size I needed for the circles, and was in the process of basting the seam allowances around the dots. But it was going very slowly! And, I couldn't iron the circles with the sticky dots in there - they became permanent! So, one day, as I was working on appliqueing some more of the leaves, it occurred to me that I enjoy needle-turn applique. And why is a circle considered harder to applique than any other shape? Sure, getting a perfect circle can be tough, but if you have a perfect line to follow - it can't be impossible. Also, I was having some trouble getting the circle's seam allowances to stay tucked under (as you can see in the picture below). So....I changed my approach.

I've begun tracing around the sticky dots on the front of the fabrics and things are moving along much quicker! I got about 150 of these done last night while watching a movie with DH.

I also wanted to share with you a recent purchase I made. I found both of these glass jars at Hobby Lobby. I think they work perfectly for my spools of thread and my fabric scraps. And I just love the look of clear glass bell jars.

This last picture is included only because I felt it was time to introduce you to another of our family members. This is Boots. She lives with us both by accident and force of will. You see, her mother was a member of our family about 10 years ago. We rescued her and took her home. We lived in a 3rd floor apartment in a large city. We used to leave the sliding door to the balcony open for the cats to get in and out when they wanted to. One morning we woke up to a cat missing. Apparently she had jumped from one balcony to another and disappeared. Imagine my surprise when I spotted her hanging around the apartment building in the middle of winter the following year! After 2 or 3 days and nights of trying to catch her, we finally succeeded and brought her back home again - only to find out she was pregnant. Later that spring we welcomed Boots and 2 brothers into our family. We found a home for one of her brothers, and finally decided to take the rest of the family to my uncle's farm so they could live as barn cats (we were currently at 7 cats in a 2 bedroom apartment!) When we got to the farm, the mother and brother took off, happy as larks to be outside running around. Boots, however, hunkered down and started wailing. Well, soft-heart that I am, we ended up taking her back home with us. She's been with us ever since. And you can see, she loves getting involved in everything we do. In fact, right now she's circling my chair as I type, trying to find a way up on the computer table. :)

Halloween

2009-11-01T10:01:00.003-05:00

I have been so bad at updating my blog lately. I blame it on the one computer we have in the house with internet capabilities and the limited time we both have to use it (it's called sharing). I'm sorry, so I hope you'll enjoy hearing about our Halloween last night.

DH decided a couple of weeks ago that he was going to be a pirate for Halloween. His work always does a Chili Cookoff for Halloween and his department was participating, and they had all decided on a pirate theme. Which meant that I was volunteered to make some of the props and costume....yippee (can you here the sarcasm?)

So, I made some sails for the pirate ship DH built - that was pretty easy. Then he handed me this fabric:

Any ideas what he wanted me to make with this stuff? It felt like plastic wrap....eww!! Here's a hint:

Yup! A sash for his pirate outfit! As you can see, he's pretty pleased with the result :)

They didn't win any of the prizes at the Chili Cookoff, but I think they still had fun, and that's really the point, right?

So yesterday we decided to get everything set up for Halloween. I carved a pumpkin for the lap of our scarecrow:

And DH set up his scary ghoul that popped up by remote (some of the littler kids didn't like him at all - especially our nephew!) and his fog machine. Mom, DSis, DBiL and nephew came over for dinner before the trick or treaters showed up (they live in the country and get no kids coming over), then we spent 2 hours handing out candy to roughly 250 trick or treaters. Wow - that's a lot of candy!

Next post I'll show a pic of the scarf I've been working on, as well as an update on my circle quilt.

I hope you all remembered to turn your clocks back!

This Time Last Year

2009-10-17T19:38:00.003-04:00

Since I've been lazy lately about taking pictures of the things I'm working on, I decided to show you something I finished last year about this time.

Our neighbor, a.k.a. The Insane Gardener, has a deep love for all things Halloween. She likes the scary, ghoulish stuff, none of the cutesy things...So of course I had to find something to stitch for her. I came across this lady designed by Mirabilia and thought it fit The Insane Gardener perfectly. I used the recommended fabric, but took some liberties with the pattern itself. For instance, I took the owl on her shoulder out of it completely, as well as changed a couple of the swirls at the bottom of the picture.

I wanted to frame this piece, but didn't have much funds...I also knew that The Insane Gardener preferred the look of large frames...so that added to the dilemma. I got very lucky and stumbled across this frame at Hobby Lobby (complete with mats and wood inlay) for half off! I was able to lace it myself and I think it turned out quite nice (if I do say so myself!).

When I gave it to her, she was speechless - which is just perfect :)

The Knitting Class..

2009-10-03T12:35:00.003-04:00

I know you are all waiting with baited breath to hear how my first knitting class went at the local library. Well, I'm here to assure you, it was everything I had hoped for and more!

There were 8 of us in the knitting class (the crochet class was full - at least 15 people!). We had 3 teachers with us, one of them VERY experienced ;) All of them great.

The evening started out a bit chaotic (as every class does, probably), but we eventually found a technique that worked and soon we were off. All of the students came to class with different skills or needs and the teachers were great about accomodating all our wants/needs with grace. We had students who were rank beginners to those that had knit extensively many years ago and wanted a refresher. We even had a man in the class!

The first thing I learned was how to cast on stiches by knitting. I had been taught how to do the loop method of casting on and doing it with knitting makes a much nicer beginning row! So, once I picked up the technique, I helped the women on either side of me learn it, too. Then, I knitted a couple of rows for a base (because that's the only thing I came to the class knowing how to do), then asked one of the teachers to show me how to purl. Well, it was definitely awkward at first! I felt like I was trying to knit left-handed. But, after doing 2 or 3 rows of purl, it started to get a bit more familiar. Then I tried a couple rows of knit 1, purl 1. That was certainly adding more wrinkles to the old brain! LOL But, I actually had a couple rows of stockinette stitch! Whoa!

So, then I asked one of the teachers to explain to me how to reload the work on your needle if you need to take it off for one reason or another (i.e. dropped stitches - but none of us do that!). She happily took my work and pulled the needle out - didn't even bat an eyelash! So, she started to show me how to load it back on, and as it was a knit 1, purl 1 row, she was loading stitches one way for this stitch, then a different way for the next stitch...back and forth, and I was lost as to how she could possibly know how to do this. So, she handed me back my work and told me to work the next row. And, quietly informed me that she had purposely done a couple wrong and for me to find them. Um....right.

So, of I go, knit 1, purl 1....clickity clack, clickity clack....the teacher watching over my shoulder. And suddenly, I hit this stitch that just wasn't right. Can I explain what the problem was? No, not really, other than the right-hand needle didn't slide into it like it should have. The teacher quickly explained that she had loaded that stitch backwards and showed me how to take it off and turn it around ("be careful not to lose the stitch!" she cautioned). After doing that, I moved on...clickity clack, clickity clack....til I found the next backwards stitch. I fixed that one, too, to her great praise. And then I noticed this long string between the next 2 stitches. When I mentioned that it didn't look right, she beamed at me and told me she had purposely skipped that stitch to see if I would find the "dropped" stitch. Heh. She then showed me how to pick that stitch back up (not quite sure if I can do that again yet...might have to practice that later)...

Anyways, as much as that last paragraph makes it sound like I'm trying to praise myself, what I'm really trying to say is that I really appreciate the techniques these teachers were using to teach us. I really took to the method.

We didn't pick a pattern this week, it was more of a time to get a feel for where everyone's skills were at and to get the students comfortable holding 2 needles at once again. So, next week we're supposed to bring in a pattern that we might like to try and the teachers will give us the pointers we need to tackle it. I've got an afghan pattern that I really really want to try, but it's the most complicated cable pattern I've ever seen, so I know it's out of my skill range right now. So, I'm on the hunt for a cable scarf pattern that I can work with for this class to get the skills I need. I do plan to take this afghan pattern to class with me next week, though, to show the teachers where I'm aiming. And to see the looks on their faces :)

The Wrap, continued...

2009-09-27T20:06:00.005-04:00

I don't have a picture to share today, sorry. But I have learned that football Sundays are great for crocheting. I have managed to get the wrap to 27 inches. Only 53 more to go! So, if I keep on at the same rate, this should take me roughly 6 weeks to make. Plenty of time to get it done before Christmas - and a nice surprise for my sister :) I told her this one was for her, and she responded with something smart like "well, my bad circulation from age will need it by the time you get it finished." hmph.

I'm having trouble moving to another quilt right now, after getting Summer Days finished. I've got the Circle Quilt on the design wall, just waiting for me to baste those circles down on a couple of blocks....but it's still waiting. The fabric for dear nephew's quilt still isn't washed....I haven't even been able to decide on the contrast fabric yet. Well, it's only been a week, I guess I'll be drawn to something sooner or later. Meanwhile, the crocheting is filling the evenings well enough.

Oh yeah! I signed up for a knitting class the local library is offering! I've been able to make those knitted dishclothes since high school, but I've never been able to move onto the next stage. So, when I saw this free class being offered, I figured it was worth a shot. I've got a lot of goals that I hope to get from this class, we'll see. I want to be able to recognize different stitches, how to rip something and reload the needles without ripping the entire thing, learn how to read a pattern, learn what increase and decrease are exactly, how to purl. Yeah, I'm such a beginner.

Why My Hands Were Shaking

2009-09-22T19:10:00.003-04:00

What is this, you ask? Well, it's a stack of magazines. Cross stitch magazines to be exact. And I got them all for 10 cents a piece!

The company I am temping for asked for book donations to sell as a fundraiser, and someone brought in a big box of cross-stitch magazines! I found them at lunch-time and immediately found 4 or 5 that had to come home with me. That was before I found out what the price was. That stack grew to 17 very quickly! I was having a VERY hard time not comandeering the entire table until I had looked through all of them - but I controlled myself and played nice.

After I started looking through a couple of them on last break, and realized what else was in them, I went down after work and bought the rest of the booty!! I came home with 60 of these puppies! :)

Here are the 29 The Cross-Stitcher's I found:
....the 3 Stitcher's World...

...2 Christmas ones...

...9 Cross Stitch & Needlework's....

...and the real haul - 17 Just Cross Stitcher's - including one of the ornament issues I was missing!...

I'm just so thrilled with this, it's made my entire week!

And just in case you've missed your updates of DH - here is his response to my question, "What have you done for me lately?"

He wasn't impressed :D

Less for More

2009-09-20T22:45:00.002-04:00

Ok, this is a rant, I admit it. But have any of the rest of you noticed how we're now getting less but still paying the same prices? Manufacturers are packaging things in smaller bags/containers, but keeping their prices the same. I have a lot of examples, but the latest is our toilet paper.

We have been buying this particular brand of toilet paper since I was young enough to remember particular brands of toilet paper. When I was married and started my own home, I continued to buy it, because I like it. So, when we did our weekly grocery shopping Friday night, and toilet paper was on the list, I naturally picked up the package of Quilted Northern that I've bought for the last 14 years. Yes, I admit, it has changed some things over the years. No longer offering anything but double or 2 1/2 times size rolls was something to get used to, but we managed. Having 3 layers as a choice was looked at, but passed over for the tried and true. But when I pulled a new roll out this afternoon, I do believe it was enough to make me start looking for a new brand. The roll is a complete 1/2" narrower than the roll I had just tossed out!!! What the heck? Now we're getting less toilet paper and still paying the same old prices....well, not the same "old" prices, but it certainly wasn't any cheaper than the package we bought 2 weeks earlier! I'm really ticked off about this.

Who has other brands they can suggest??

Summer Days Top Finished!

2009-09-20T15:01:00.002-04:00

My eyes were blurry, but I put the last stitch in last night at 11:20 PM.

I had to ask the Insane Gardener to come out and help me hold it up while DH took a picture for me. I was hoping to get truer colors by taking the pic outside, but I don't think that happened. It seems more neon in this picture than the actual quilt is. Oh well. Now it's time to start thinking about the quilt designs I want to use :)

Now it's back to football!!

Circle Quilt Update

2009-09-20T10:41:00.003-04:00

First of all, I want to apologize for the quality of the following pictures. I don't know what happened, but everything is slightly out of focus.

I decided to pin some circles to a block to see how they would look. To see if I like the scrappy idea I started with. Here is the result:

I'm not 100% certain I like the scrappy look. I'm really leaning toward a controlled color scheme right now. So, I decided to put up another block with some borders I had finished earlier...

It's looking a little better......sorta...well, anyway, you can see how the whole quilt layout will be in the next picture...I'm just short a block - it should be 4 blocks by 4 blocks when done (my design wall isn't big enough to lay out the entire quilt)...

I think I'll leave it this way for now and start on the Candied Hexagon quilt I've been holding off on in my controlled colorway idea. Maybe doing that will get it out of my system and I will decide I really like the scrappy look of my Circle Quilt.

What do you all think?

The Wrap

2009-09-19T18:32:00.003-04:00

Remember that yarn I bought at the yard sale Labor Day weekend? The one I talked about here. Well, I finally managed to get it wound into a ball last weekend...and it's huge! This thing rivals my head! It took me most of a day to get it wound, and here it is:

I've surfed the net for shawl or scarf patterns that I might enjoy both working on and using when the item was finished. I wasn't finding much. That is, until I found this wrap. It's just gorgeous! It's both a simple pattern (which I need, as my crochet skills aren't very great), and a great finished item. I can so see myself using this at football games this fall (if I get it done that quickly, that is).

So, I decided, before breaking into the "good yarn," I'd stitch up a sample piece and see how the pattern fits together. Especially since it's been 10 years or more since I've crocheted anything. I found some Red Heart yarn in the closet and started in. I re-discovered my problems with the beginnings and endings of rows, so I stopped by my Mom's place for a quick tutorial. She assured me I was on the right track and immediately asked for a copy of the pattern so she could make one for herself! LOL

After this much red was done, I realized I really didn't like the feel of the yarn. It was labelled Holiday yarn, and it just had no softness to it at all. So, I remember this Wool Ease I had hiding in the closet and thought, "if I have enough, maybe I'll make one for my sister." After digging it out of the closet, I found I had more than enough and started in on it. This is how far I've gotten:

The good news is my sister loves the color and the softness of this yarn :) So, I'm going gang-busters on it at work. I lengthened the pattern (added 6 stitches to each end), so it's taking a bit longer than the red piece did, but I think she'll like the finished item much better this way.

I'm not sure I'm stitching loose enough for my piece to end up looking like the one on the pattern, but it's still looking nice, so it's full steam ahead for now.

Now, do I wait to finish sister's piece before starting mine? Decisions, decisions....

Old Souls

2009-09-19T10:41:00.002-04:00

As I was making my breakfast yesterday morning, the radio played a clip they had of Reba McIntyre talking about Taylor Swift and mentioning how Taylor was an old soul.

This triggered a memory of my own - someone in my past had once told me I was an old soul. And it's driving me crazy that I can't remember who! I've asked both DH and my mom if they recall anyone saying that to me and they're both coming up blank. So, until I can remember - let's move on.

What makes a person an old soul? Maturity? A certain sense of self? A particular way of putting things in context? Being able to see the big picture?

When that mystery person told me I was an old soul, I immediately had this mental image of a bent old lady masquerading inside my body. All of her experience and wisdom was hidden inside me, just waiting for the right opportunities to make themselves known. I think I still feel that way about it. There are times I will surprise myself with the things that come out of my mouth - with no forethought. It sometimes feels like there is another consciousness inside me. But I don't think that is what this mystery person was referring to.

I think most people are referring to maturity when they say someone is an old soul. Especially since it seems to be told to younger adults most often. I'm not sure it would be taken in any other way but confrontational if told to an older person. Ok, so you have a mature young adult. What differentiates this mature person from being "old for her age" (something I was told a LOT growing up) and being an old soul? It has to be more than maturity.

Maybe it's maturity combined with a high level of self-confidence. You know the type - those people that feel at ease in every situation they find themselves in - almost like they've experienced these things already. Those people that never go home and spend the evening wishing they had handled a situation differently. Let me assure you, I am NOT one of those people. So was that mystery person wrong for labelling me in this way? Maybe, maybe not.

Maybe it has something to do with being able to always see the big picture - how things fit in context to everything else. Someone that doesn't waste time worrying about all those little things they have no control over. Heck, just being able to identify those things could be a qualifier. Again, not me.

So, maybe this mystery person in my past was wrong. Maybe what they really meant to say was that I was old for my age. I don't know. If they are wrong though, I don't have to spend any more time trying to remember who said it to me!

Wow

2009-09-12T13:12:00.003-04:00

Have you seen this?

Amazing Sand Drawing

It's just amazing. At first I didn't know what the medium was, but after a couple of minutes, it becomes clear. And the talent she has!

The blurp says the artist is Kseniya Simonova. She's a Ukranian artist that just won Ukraine's version of "America's Got Talent." And even though I didn't recognize the music or the language, it still brough tears to my eyes - as well as the judges and audience.

Watch it and tell me what you think.

Flowers and a Summer Days update

2009-09-10T19:31:00.003-04:00

Just look at what DH got me last week :) He bought these for me Labor Day weekend and they are just tonight starting to look a little withered. I can't believe they lasted so long! And they look great in my sewing room! :)

I spent most of my long weekend trying to get the borders on Summer Days. I don't know how some of you people get so many things done every day, because you need to share your secret! I had a 4 day weekend and I still didn't manage to get all the borders sewn on! Of course, I had to spend some time pressing and snipping stray threads...

And more snipping....

And then I had to trim the borders down to size. Can you see what happened to the border in the picture below? This is why my rotary cutter and I don't get along. After measuring, re-measuring, checking, double-checking, and finally cutting - I still managed to snip off the tip of this flower! And it's supposed to be 1/2" in from the edge!!! Thankfully, the other 3 borders turned out fine. But I think I need to come up with a different method for doing my borders....this is just too much work to risk ruining it once it's all done.

I finally got everything sewn together last night. I pinned it to the design wall so I could snap a quick photo. I've still got to get the stems sewn to the corner flower units, and about 7 leaves sewn on where seam lines hit in the corners. But, when that's done, I'll have a complete quilt top! It's my first large applique quilt and I'm very happy with it (snipped flowers and all!)

My Amazing Find!

2009-09-04T20:39:00.003-04:00

Today, on my way to the Amish fabric shop, I must have passed 15 yard sales - it is Labor Day weekend, afterall. One I noticed, has a large pile of yarn on a tarp laying in the yard. Well, I decided on my way back from the fabric shop, I would stop there and see what I could find. Maybe I could get a large bag of yarns for my Mom to work on this winter. You see, she's quite the crocheter.

Well, when I got there, the yarn wasn't really much of a deal. So I didn't spend much time looking at it. But on the other end of the tarp, I noticed this huge hank of something. When I went over to investigate, the lady in charge of it all told me she'd take $10 for the hank. Ok...I still didn't know what I was looking at. So, I picked it up and immediately could tell this was something special. First of all, it was heavy! (It ended up being 1 1/2 pounds) I noticed there was a tag on it, and it said it was 60% wool/40% silk. Whoa....and it was 1635 yards!!! Whoa!!! On the other side of the tag was a price tag saying $220 a bag (how many of these could fit in a bag??)

As you can see, it's really a gorgeous hank of yarn. It's got a sheen to it that I think shows up in the picture pretty well. It's even decent colors. The color on the second picture is much truer.

So, I originally thought I'd put it on ebay and try to make a little money off it. But the more I look at it and stroke it, I realized I just can't part with it! It's soooooo soft. So, I'm trying to figure out what I can do with it.

My first thought is this is a lot of yarn. I don't know how to knit very much at all (I can knit a dishclothe that has knit and yarn over stitches - everything else is beyond me). I can crochet very well, but I'm not a big fan of the look of crochet. So, I was thinking, a scarf would be nice. To have something that soft next to my face is a nice thought. But, I'm thinking with this much yarn, I'd have enough for 3 scarves!!! Unless I could find a pattern that is a real yarn-eater, that is. I don't think there's enough for something like a sweater, and I couldn't knit one of those, anyway....

Oh! Maybe a shawl! Hmmm....I think I'm going to have to surf for scarf and shawl patterns. If anyone has a good pattern they know of online, let me know. Thanks!

I Finished!

2009-09-04T08:29:00.002-04:00

the bulk of the applique on Summer Days, that is :) I put the last stitch in on Wednesday night. Sorry, I don't have any pictures yet, but I have a 4-day weekend ahead of me, and the camera is going upstairs into my sewing room with me, so there should be lots of goodies to look at in the next few days.

Today I'm heading up the road to an Amish fabric shop I discovered a couple of years ago and promptly forgot about (bad Erin!). Then it's grocery shopping and getting DN's fabric washed and ironed. Tomorrow night we're off to a baseball game. Our first one of the year - but the Famous Chicken is going to be there and DH has unfortunately become a huge fan of the Chicken *rolling eyes*. So, we'll go enjoy greasy food, a Chicken and fireworks. Oh, and supposedly they have a 5/3 pound hamburger (discussed here) which I don't expect to encounter, but it would be interesting to see one.

I hope you all have a wonderful holiday weekend and hopefully you'll see some more pictures here soon!

Half-Square Triangles

2009-09-02T09:34:00.004-04:00

I am hoping to have the applique to Summer Days done by this weekend, which means I will get to start my nephew's quilt. I am planning to use a pinwheel pattern for it, and am debating which method is best.

I love the method of tracing templates and cutting them out with scissors, then sewing them on the machine - I have a line to follow, always a good thing! But, that method takes a lot of time, and I'm not sure if I want to put that much time into a toddler's quilt, you know?

So, I'm debating other options....there's Thangles, but I've never used them before and I don't want to buy some just for this project. I could do a square template, mark around that and mark the center line to sew on either side of....but again, that's a time-eating process...

I don't know. I mean, it is for my nephew, so putting some time into it isn't necessarily a bad thing - I do love him immensely. But I know it's going to get the love beat out of it, too, so I hesitate to put too much time into it. Of course, the quilt I made for my niece a couple of years ago (hand pieced, hand quilted) has now disappeared and I don't lament over that (too much). So, maybe I'll just go with the method I enjoy and put that love into this quilt, too. I mean, he certainly deserves it :D

Thanks for following along on this foray into my thinking process. I promise to not do this kind of thing too often ;)

Cicadas!!

2009-08-31T21:20:00.004-04:00

Sunday, dear Sis and her family (hubby and nephew) came over for a visit. We spent some time outside and enjoyed the sunshine and cooler temps. When they decided it was time to go, I noticed a large insect on Sis's shirt. It was a live cicada! I've only seen a live one one other time in my life. Thank goodness she isn't queasy about insects! We got him off her and let nephew investigate him a little bit - he wanted to pick it up!

After they left, I went back outside and was chatting with DH when I noticed another cicada! So, I got the first one in the same place and grabbed the camera. 2 in one shot!

I then noticed a shell on the ground beneath the chair I was using to pose the 2 live ones...so I had to get a shot of that as well. What a day :)

And yes, I do think they are terribly ugly, but they're so elusive, I just couldn't pass up the opportunity! I think they were hiding underneath the hosta that's next to this chair - I had just dusted it with something to get rid of the japanese beetles and these guys showed up.

Oh - and a Summer Days update: I have about 11 half leaves left on the last border - almost there!!

A Lost Day

2009-08-29T18:55:00.004-04:00

I had every intention of getting a ton of things done today in my sewing room. You see, DH is off photographing a wedding (he's trying to start a business with the photography thing), so I had the house to myself - all day! And I did make it into the sewing room this morning. I even managed to sew 3 or 4 half leaves on that last border of Summer Days. But then I got sleepy. Really sleepy. So I decided to lay down for a nap. 3 hours and 20 minutes later I woke up to the phone ringing....DH calling to say he was at the reception and the wedding went well.

Yay! But I got nothing done yet!!! It's now 7:00 PM and I haven't done anything today! So, I'm on my way back up there and we'll see how I do....wish me luck everyone!

A Lovely Gift

2009-08-16T09:39:00.003-04:00

My DH's Aunt is a wonderful person. Since she never married or had children, she dotes on her 2 nephews - and well, on me too!

About 8 years ago, she gave me this for Christmas. Isn't it beautiful?

She made it with plastic canvas. When you lift the top, you see inside she constructed little sections for me to put things...

And when you lift that, you see there is another layer of sections!

I just love it. I use it to store all of my perl cottons and Kreiniks (as you can see). When I think of the time she put into it, it just makes me smile to know she loves me :)

I forgot to add a picture of the circles of my Circle Quilt the other day. These are what I'm working on when I watch football with DH. The circles finish to 1 3/8" (if I recall correctly), and I was lucky enough to find stickers in that exact size. So, I'm running a basting stitch in the seam allowance and pulling the fabric tight against the stickers. I've experimented and found out I can't iron with the stickers still there, so I'm letting them sit for a while, and when I'm ready to start sewing them on the quilt, I hope the fabric will remember it's crease and I can just pull out the sticker and go. If not, a quick dab of the iron should do the trick.

Oh! We found our first pumpkin yesterday!! DH and I decided to plant 2 pumpkin plants this year. We had wanted to do a whole garden, but we just don't have the yard space for one....so these 2 plants were our consolation. We didn't clear an area for them, just plopped them in the ground behind the grill area about 6 weeks ago or so. They've been blooming each morning for a while, but yesterday, we found our first pumpkin - we were so excited! And today, I see there is another :) Can't wait for Halloween so we can use them to decorate :)

It's the Journey for Me

2009-08-15T11:37:00.005-04:00

If your favorite kind of blog entry is one about a finished project, my blog probably won't be on your favorite's list. You see, I just don't seem to get many things to the finished stage. Don't get me wrong, I love a happy dance as much as the next gal, but it's not what drives me. For me, it's the journey.

I usually start a new project with the pattern. I am not and will probably never be an "art quilter." Maybe it comes from my history as a cross-stitcher, but for me, my jumping off place for a new quilt is the pattern. I never feel comfortable when I try to start a quilt from the fabric-pulling stage - I always have a pattern in mind when I raid my stash. Now, that doesn't mean I won't make changes to the pattern - quilt or cross-stitch - but I don't like to start from nothing. I have to have a plan to work from.

I've even considered translating a photograph into a quilt. But I can't just look at the photo and start creating the quilt from bits of cloth and thread, oh no. I have to come up with a way to enlarge the photo onto paper so I can make templates. Of course, the easiest way to manage this is with a projector and a dark room. Unfortunately, I don't own or have access to one. So, I'm stalled, waiting for inspiration to strike and show me a different way to get my templates.

Don't get me wrong, I love the process I choose to make my quilts. That's what keeps drawing me back to the craft. The more handwork a project has, the more I love it. I'm actually considering giving my rotary cutters and cutting mats away and going back to templates. They're tried and true and I get much better results using temmplates than I ever did with a rotary cutter. Plus, it connects you to your project more, the more you handle it. You stitch more memories into it the longer you work on it. Heck, I've got projects that I've been working on for over 8 years, and I love them as much now as the first day I started working on them. I'm almost afraid to finish some of them - it will be like losing a good friend that I could sit down and enjoy the evening with.

On that note - I'd like to share a couple of things I did manage to get finished. These are my carry-along goody bags. The first one is my current favorite. I got the pattern as a free insert from Connecting Threads when I purchased a fabric pack. You can find it here, with a different fabric pack than the one I bought.

(I have no idea how the link to the above picture was goofed up...sorry - I also don't know how to fix it)

I changed the pattern slightly by stuffing one of the inner pockets with fiberfill and stitching the top closed, rather than constructing a round pincushion for the bottom of the inside. I still want to add beads to the drawstrings, but I haven't made the time yet. As you can see, it holds everything I need to work quite well, and when it is closed, it becomes small enough to toss into my bag for work so I have everything I need for breaks and lunches.

This next one is another favorite of mine. I made this one from a pattern that was given to me (I don't know where it came from). I modified it again by making the outer layer of fabric a solid piece, rather than construct the flying geese that the pattern calls for. It's a good way to use a favorite piece of fabric.

The ends are stuffed so they can be used as temporary pincushions. Long-term needle/pin storage is inside the flap, though, so nothing comes up missing during transport. It holds quite a bit, as well, and is very compact, too. You may notice on the close-up of the following picture that the end circles are a bit worse for wear. That would be because Pips, our dog, got a hold of this when he was a puppy and thought it tasted very good. Luckily, I was able to rescue it before he did too much damage, and just a bit of minor repair got it back to decent shape again.

Oh! And in case you thought I had forgotten about Summer Days, I finished the 3rd border last weekend! I tried to get "artsy" with the photo, so it's not the best, but I'm still learning how to do this whole photography thing. I'm working on the last border now and hope to get it done in the next week or two.

My Work Project

2009-08-12T18:03:00.005-04:00

I decided to share the project I've been working on during breaks and lunches at work. It's another applique project, with no real name yet, so for lack of something original, I'm calling it the Circle Quilt for now. That'll probably change as it moves along.

Here is a picture of what I've done so far:

I've got a couple blocks that look like this. Just stems and leaves. Lots of leaves waiting to be basted to blocks....and a few border blocks completely finished (of course I forgot to take a picture of those)...

And this is what the goal is:

I found this pattern in the Fons & Porter magazine, July/Aug 2006. I just love the overall pattern the circles make, and the quilting on it is divine! I want to do something similar, but will be hand quilting it, not machine quilting it.

On another note - I want to assure everyone that our hunter is back in business! He left us a trophy on the back steps last night (after he scurried out the door - something he's not allowed to do!). If you're squeamish, skip the following pic. Evidence of Hunter Extraordinare:

Fairy Godmothers

2009-08-09T10:57:00.004-04:00

About 10 years ago, I was just beginning my journey into quilting. I was working on a machine my grandmother had given me (more on that in a later post) on a table I found on the side of the road. It worked wonderfully, but had no storage.

So, one day at work - I was temping at a banking center - the older woman sitting next to me began complaining about how cluttered her house was. She started listing some things - and when she mentioned owning 6 sewing cabinets - I really started paying attention! She said she had inherited some of the cabinets, and bought others. Her latest one was currently living in her kitchen because there was no more room anywhere else!

I told her how I was getting into quilting and how I would love to have a sewing cabinet - would she be interested in selling one of them? She said she'd bring one in to work for me. I wasn't sure what I was in for, but I was hopeful.

A couple of days later, she told me she had my sewing cabinet in her minivan. I thought it would be one of those smallish ones on legs with fold-out tops. This is what she had for me:

It was beautiful! There are some dings on the top and edges, but it is very solid. And - she wouldn't take anything for it! She wanted to give it to me. I was speechless.

I made arrangements for DH to meet me at work to help unload it. It was heavy! But, we finally got it home and up the two flights of stairs to the apartment we lived in then. When I got it settled in the corner of our bedroom and started really exploring it, I realized it had a sewing machine in it!

This is the condition it was in when I got it, I haven't gotten around to getting it cleaned yet (and it's been 10 years - wow). One of the drawers contained all of this:

Manual...

Bobbins and oil can....

Buttonhole attachment.....

Lots and lots of cams and feet.....

And I think this is my favorite thing - a stocking darner. I have never seen one of these things before, but the instruction booklet shows you step by step how to use it. From putting the stocking on the darner to how to stitch the repair on the machine. Very unique!

I really should have the machine tuned and cleaned. It would be nice to have a cabinet machine that can be put away when I'm done working.

So, in closing, yes, there still are fairy godmothers out there - doing good where they can. I like to think this woman has inspired me to be the same way. If you ask DH - maybe I do it a little too often! Oh well, passing along good things and being charitable can't happen often enough, in my opinion.

And tell me if any of you have had a fairy godmother in your life. I'd love to hear your stories.

Happy Birthday Honey!!

2009-08-08T16:52:00.003-04:00

DH turns 35 today. We had 18 people to the house to help us celebrate. We cooked them steak, corn on the cob and lots of different salads. As well as the required cake and ice cream! I think a good time was had by all, especially DH :)

Here he is getting ready to grill those steaks....mmmmmm.....

What Hunter?

2009-08-06T19:04:00.003-04:00

Remember this guy from my last post?

Remember I claimed him to be a Great Hunter of all things buggy in our home? Yeah. Well. He's not doing so well lately. You see, we discovered a bat in our house yesterday. A bat that I had suspicions of being in our house for the previous 2 days, but could find no evidence of.

I kept getting woken up in the middle of the night for the previous 2 nights when a cat would jump on our bed and do that bouncy thing they do when they're tracking something flying around above their heads. But whenever I would look for evidence of a bat, I would find nothing. You may wonder why that was my first inclination. Well, every year since we've moved into this house (8 years ago), we've had a bat at some point in the summer - sometimes more than one. So, it's become a routine for us....unfortunately.

Ok, back to the Great Hunter. So I'm waking up for 2 nights, looking for bats and finding none. Yesterday afternoon DH comes to me and informs me that he has found a bat hanging in the corner of our kitchen. Goody. So, we go into battle mode and get our big fish net (my weapon of choice) and baseball bat (DH's weapon of choice). After attempting to calm DH down (he has a terrible fear of bats), we finally were able to dispose of said bat.

Where was the Great Hunter (a.k.a. Felix)? He was hiding in the back porch afraid of the fish net!!! And I had just finished talking him up, too!!! I just don't know....

Green Leaves Everywhere...

2009-08-02T15:24:00.006-04:00

I've been busy working on the leaves of the third border this week. They're going quickly, but not as fast as I'd like them to go. I tend to stitch with one color of thread and do all the half leaves I can with that color, all the way down the border. Then I switch to another shade of green and do all the half leaves I can in that color.

For as many different green fabrics as I have in this quilt, I'm finding that 97% of the applique is being accomplished by 4 different green threads...I hope that doesn't mean I don't have enough contrast....I guess we'll see. The pics look pretty good so far, if I do say so myself...

I thought it was time to introduce you to one of the members of my household. This is Felix. He was rescued from my Grandma's farm the summer after she died, so he's about 2 years old now. He had scabs on the pads of all his feet and his nose, and he was missing his front teeth. When we took him to the vet, she said she thought someone had tossed him out of the car on the way by (the road going by the farm is a 55mph road). We adopted him into our home and he has been a holy terror ever since. His only real skill is as a hunter. Notice the little black wasp he has mortally wounded? Yeah, apparently stingers don't bother him. And he's great when our yearly bat decides to wake us up in the middle of the night. Last year's was soooo much easier to get rid of because of Felix's help.

Oh yeah - the black thing he's laying on? It's the doormat he flipped over in his quest to get the wasp. He's such a help around the house....LOL At least he's cute.

What Not to do with Bleach - or - Fishing or Sewing?

2009-08-01T11:30:00.007-04:00

I thought I'd share my collection of sewing boxes I have inherited over the years. Ok, so it's only 2 that I've inherited, but they're special to me, so I want to share them with you.

This is one I received when I was about 13. It belonged to my mother's mother's mother, my Great-Grandma Hesterly. The top is a satin fabric that used to have little blue and yellow flowers with green leaves. It was also very filthy when I came to own it. I tried cleaning it without getting the inner lining wet, but nothing was working. My mom suggested bleach - and me being 13 - I didn't realize I should have at least diluted it. I guess I should be thankful the fabric has stayed intact after all that.

I don't remember if anything came inside it, but I use it to store my vintage threads now.

I received the next one almost 2 years ago. It belonged to my mother's mother, my Grandma Nielsen. When she died from pancreatic cancer near Thanksgiving of 2007, this is one of the things I asked to have.

I have very fond memories of this box always sitting on the floor next to Grandma's recliner in the living room. She didn't do any quilting, but she was always mending something - Grandpa's shirts, patching my jeans, even darning socks! She was famous for replacing the elastic waists in her slacks, so they wouldn't "fit so tight." This also explains why there was so much elastic in the box when I inherited it.

Inside the box, besides the elastic, were all these wonderful little things I don't really use much, like little bits of chalk, a disk magnifier, containers of buttons, packets and packets of needles (all different sizes).

My favorite thing that was in there are her dressmakers scissors. She used that one pair of scissors for everything from cutting out patterns for clothes to snipping threads when sewing on a button. They aren't very sharp - and as soon as I find a sharpener I trust, I'll remedy that.

Grandma's sewing box also had this wonderful tomato pincushion that was bristling with pins and needles. I have a lot of great memories of that, as well, but my Aunt Jean asked for that part of the box - and since she got first dibs, it lives with her now.

I'm having trouble moving this box into my working tools - for now, I've cleaned out all the things I knew wouldn't last (i.e. all that elastic) and it is now living in the closet - waiting for the day I can bring it out in the open again.

Summer Days Update

2009-07-29T19:48:00.006-04:00

I've been working on my Summer Days WIP (Work In Progress) quite a bit this past week. I've finished 2 borders and am working on the third. I took a picture of it on my design wall, none of the borders or corner pieces are sewn on, just pinned to the wall:

Hahahahah!! I just noticed there is a wayward leaf pinned to the center block!! I'll have to get that back in it's correct spot!

Here is a close-up of one of the borders that I have finished:

I've been getting things done pretty quickly due to the fact that I finally got the next book on CD from my local library in the series I've been listening to. I'm on the 8th book, Naked Empire, by Terry Goodkind, in the Sword of Truth series. I like the fantasy genre sometimes, and these books are long enough to keep me occupied for a week or so of evening sewing sessions.

I'm trying very hard to finish these last 2 borders before starting a new quilt, because I'm afraid if I take this one off the design wall, it will languish in the WIP bin for a long time before it sees the light of day again. But when it's done, I'm going to start working on the big boy quilt for my nephew. My goal is to present it to him when he moves from his crib into his big boy bed. I'd better get moving!

Bullfrogs!!!

2009-07-26T10:41:00.004-04:00

When I was newly married, my DH and I lived in an apartment that backed onto a pond. This pond was very active with wildlife, with everything from fish to swans. There were lots of mallard ducks there, and occassionally we'd have some Canadian geese decide to stop by, but that always got Gus (the male swan) so upset, he'd spend all day chasing them from one end of the pond to the other until the geese finally decided to leave, with much honking accompanying them! I remember one evening looking out the patio doors to see 2 deer drinking from the pond - it was such a serene sight. Another night, I saw a fox trotting over the frozen pond on his way to the field on the other side (to hunt mice maybe?).

Through all this, there was the constant sound of crickets and bullfrogs in the background. It was a constant sound in the summers and one I came to enjoy very much. Since we moved from our apartment into our house in the middle of a small town 8 years ago, I've missed the sound of those frogs singing me to sleep. Apparently, my sweet DH knew how much I missed them, because one day a couple of weeks ago, I got a call while at work from him, telling me that there was a bullfrog in our back yard!

When I got home, we sat outside for a bit, waiting for the bullfrog to announce himself. It wasn't very long before he did! He was against the cement wall that backs our property, under a lot of weeds, near our woodpile. Well, immediately, Mookie, our outdoor kitty decided to investigate - which caused Pips, our Australian Shepherd dog to wonder what the fuss was about, too. So, DH and I had to play rescue the wildlife and try to find this bullfrog before he got eaten!

After a bit of weeding, DH spied the guy. He was huge!!! When I picked him up, he filled my hand! And he was perfectly content to sit there - even when I let Pips get a sniff of him...maybe he was in shock, I don't know. Well, anyway, DH put a bit of water in a bucket, and I decided to take him down the street to the creek that runs under our road. He sat very contentedly in that bucket until he heard the sound of the water, then he tried to jump out! His second attempt took him 6 feet into the air and landed him about 3 feet from the water's edge. When I stepped up to him, he took one hop, landed directly into the middle of the creek and sat there like he'd been there all day! It was hilarious! I only wish I had remembered to bring my camera.

The Garden Project...

2009-07-22T19:51:00.013-04:00

Or, otherwise known as the Project That Killed Me. Well, not really, but my legs really hurt when I was done!!

It all began in June. DH and I were enjoying a fire in our backyard one evening, and it happened. I had an idea. It was a good idea at first. Before I realized the amount of work it would entail. But, I forged ahead with voicing it anyway. "What if we transform the plot of grass between our house and our neighbor's house into a perennial garden?" Well, DH was all for it. So, we approached The Insane Gardener (a.k.a. our neighbor) and she really liked the idea, too. In fact, she already had plans of expanding her perennial garden in that section out further, so this just fit right into her plans.

We all decided that it would be best if we each had half of the available space to do with what we wanted, separated by a footpath that we would leave grass. DH jumped on that part of the project and immediately ran a guideline and staked out what he thought was an acceptable path. After showing off his work to The Insane Gardener and me - we explained what he had done wrong. There weren't enough curves in his path - it needed to meander more! So, DH set to work again and came up with this (June 9):

Both The Insane Gardener and I liked this layout much better. Notice the cistern cover in the middle of the picture? Yeah, we had to navigate around that. We made the footpath about 4 feet wide so DH would still be able to get the lawn mower out of the garage and into the front lawn.

We began getting the sod out a little bit at a time, after work in the evenings and on the weekends. It wasn't an easy job, but it was getting done. After roughly a month, it looked like this (July 7):

Apparently when we got our side done, it was enough motivation for The Insane Gardener to get to work on her side and within 4 days, we had it to this point (July 11):

I started to buy plants at the local stores for our side and was planting them as we bought them, but it was apparent that I would need many more than I had by the time the big day hit. It had worked out that all of us (DH, The Insane Gardener and myself) had a long weekend off from work, so we decided to tackle The Project and get as much of it done as we could. We started off the day at 10:00 a.m. with a trip to my uncle's farm to go through his rock pile for the third and last time. That resulted in one smashed toe (mine) and some scratched arms (The Insane Gardener's). We got everything home and unloaded and got to work. This is how it looked at 11:30 a.m. (July 18):

After working long and hard (with many breaks mixed in) all day, we finally had this to show for our hard labor:

We lined the path with rocks from my uncle's rock pile. DH put together an arbor which he spent the day applying polyurethane to. He also made the structure level (very important). I got all the plants I had purchased in the ground and a layer of mulch over everything. I can't wait for the morning glories to start climbing the arbor!

The Insane Gardener spent much of the day moving items around in the garden that she already had established. She called it giving her plants "room to breathe." She didn't get everything moved around the way she wants it, so the mulch is waiting a bit.

Oh yeah! DH also made us these awesome trellisses for the gardens! You can't see them in the above pictures, but they're planted behind things that say they need staking up - I love my handy hubby.

And now that our portion of the Project That Killed Me - I mean the Garden Project - is over, I am very very thankful. There will be no more gardening from this chicky for the rest of the year. Although, I think I heard DH mention something about putting in another perennial garden along the back wall next year?? Uh oh....well, that's next year. For now, I'm enjoying watching my little plants blossom as they enjoy their new home.