Beth's Crafts

2012-01-21T07:49:00.000-08:00

Just a quick post to show the quilt I made yesterday. I am supposed to be on a quilt budget, to that I say budget schmudget! Can you believe I whipped this puppy together in one day? I am an amazing quilter, and modest too! LOL Ok ok, it's made from cheater fabric. Actually, it was a bitch to make, it was hard fussy cutting those motifs to get the points to line up. It was a little misaligned on the fabric which made it a bitch to cut. I was coming along nicely until I went to put the side borders on and then no matter how hard I tried I couldn't get them to line up and a couple even had to sacrifice their points. I will pretend it is an antique quilt and that was lovingly done that way on purpose. It will just be a utility quilt to put on my den sofa when it's done anyway, not for display. At least all 4 corners don't match up the same way, then I can say it was done on purpose to make it look vintage! I loved this fabric, they had it on display in the shop and I had no idea it was cheater until it was pointed out to me. It looks red in the picture, but it's a really pretty muted orange that looks like it's been washed a million times. I had to have it.

That's all I did yesterday for my day off work. We were going to go to Road to California, but honestly, I have been BAD when it comes to a quilt budget, and I have been known to drop $600 or more there in the past, so it was probably cheaper that I just went to a LQS and picked this up. I can't wait to get it quilted.

It's a cold rainy day here in SoCal. We need the rain. I don't think it's going to amount to much, but it makes for good sewing weather.

2012-01-17T23:38:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was a holiday for me for work, so I decided to go to one of my local quilt shops and see if they had anything interesting, as if I need more stuff. Well, they had a couple of blocks of the month that I couldn't resist signing up for. One was a shop designed one and the other was Raining Cats and Dogs by Bunny Hill. I have seen pictures of this quilt and wasn't very interested in it, but they had it on the wall in person and I fell in love with the colors. I figured, what the heck, what are two more blocks of the month in the grand scheme of things. They are already on Month 2 so I have some catching up to do. I am almost done with Month 1, I just have to finish the machine applique stitching and the embroidery embellishments. Here's a picture so far.

My resolution for the new year among other things is to get current on some of these blocks of the month I have had sitting around for ages in my sewing room. Lets see how that goes.

Well, I got nothing else tonight. LOL

2012-01-16T07:27:00.000-08:00

I can't believe we are already half-way through January. I haven't been blogging much lately, I really don't have that much to talk about that is of much interest. I am hoping that 2012 is WAY better than the way 2011 ended! I hope to get lots and lots of quilts made. I am already working on that. I got 11 quilts of all sizes back from my quilter over the weekend, she did a fantasic job on my Quilt Diva. I was organizing my quilting stash and kept finding quilts that I had finished years ago and never had quilted, in fact I still have several for the next time pile. I now have some serious binding to do!

Saturday my friend Nancy and I took a class at our LQS to learn the Buggy Barn piecing technique. Let me tell you, it kicked my butt, but after making 3 blocks on my quilt, I started getting the hang of it. I think you just have to let go and not try to make it perfect like traditional piecing because it will make you crazy, maybe that's why they call it their crazy technique. There are no matching points or straight edges in the Buggy Barn crazy technique.

I have decided that 2012 is going to be the year of less stashing and more sewing. I am in love with the new Bernina I bought and am now addicted to doing machine applique. I can do some serious machine applique too because I have tons of applique patterns in my stash, the hardest part is picking which one I want to do next, four huge scrap bins perfect for applique, don't laugh but four BOLTS of Trans Web fusible since I like it so much (I love Joann 40-50% off coupons) and a machine that has the best buttonhole stitch. I'm set! In fact, I already started a new quilt yesterday. It's the Autumn House pattern from Bunny Hill. I have already finished two blocks, it's fun seeing what fabrics I can come up with out of my stash. I am sure it would look way more impressive if I did it with the freezer paper and starch method of applique instead of machine applique, but I am short on patience for that and it would probably never get finished. Case in point, I have the Rabbits Prefer Chocolate one that I started using that method about 5 years ago and it's still in the UFO bin. Here's a picture. That pink piece of fabric you see there on the right is the Quilt Diva quilt waiting for a binding. Look at those feathers, gorgeous!

I also said that 2012 was also going to be the year of no more blocks of the month! I have spent so much money on blocks of the month and never finished them or never even started them or dismantled them (one reason I have such fantastic scrap bins) that it makes me sick. But I couldn't resist, I signed up for two. But I decided two is my limit, and these are short ones, never again will I do a 24 month BOM! Yes, I just finished up a 24 month one, Farmers Wife, that I made maybe 3 blocks which are in the orphan block bin, and the rest of the scraps went in my scrap bins. The three that I still have now will all be gone by June I think. Don't ask me if I have even started those. Anyway, one of the new ones I signed up for is Welcome Home. It's going to be an easy one to keep up with, I just got my first block and I'm already done with it. Here's a picture, it's so cute!

I am a huge fan of Williraye figurines, I have been collecting them for years. I came across this girl the other day when I was browsing and had to have her. She is adorable sitting on my sewing table. She is called Quilty Pleasures. I love the dog and the little cat peeking out from under her skirt.

Oh I forgot, here's another finish I have. It's called Chubby Chicks. I still have to embroider 25 sets of chicken legs on all those chicks. LOL No rush to get this one done, so it's in the next time quilting pile.

Well I think that's about all I have right now. I have the day off for MLK day, so I am just going to sew, sew, sew, maybe do some laundry in between all the sewing. Thanks for stopping by.

2011-12-31T12:00:00.000-08:00

Wishing everyone a safe and happy 2012!

2011-12-27T16:22:00.000-08:00

I decided I needed a little pick me up, and I have been pondering for a while, so today since I had the day off work I decided to go look at sewing machines. I saw Bernina was running a special on their financing, no finance charge for 18 months. So I figured what the heck. I went over to the store and bought one. It was the last one they had and it was marked down $1500. I have been told I paid a good price. I cannot BELIEVE I spent that much on a sewing machine. I got the Aurora 440 Quilter's Edition. It has a little learning curve, but I'm getting the hang of it. I LOVE the buttonhole stitch on this machine. Here's a picture of Quilt Diva's feet, the stitches are so nice. Of course I always get buyer's remorse after I buy something like this, but after using it for a little while, I am not feeling it as much, I love this machine! Well back to sewing. I have a long ways to go.

2011-12-26T15:29:00.000-08:00

Thanks to everyone for all the well wishes after my scary ordeal on Friday. I hope it NEVER happens to me again. I am little by little getting past it, I still keep having flashbacks of the gun part, but I will be ok eventually and soon that will fade. I haven't been brave enough yet to go out and about by myself, but tomorrow I will have to, I need to go to the DMV to get a new license thanks to the jerk who held me up. Ugh. No fun going to the DMV around here.

I don't have to go back to work until Wednesday, so I have been sewing like a madwoman. I just finished fusing my Quilt Diva. Now I just need to do the machine applique stitching on it. Here's a picture.Well that's about all I got today. Tootles.

2011-12-25T00:00:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

2011-12-24T23:34:00.000-08:00

I had a very horrible experience yesterday that I hope I never have to go through again. I had to go to work on the early train, so 4:30 a.m. I headed out but decided to stop and get some donuts for my co-workers since I had time. I went to the donut shop by my house, got my donuts, and was putting my donuts and wallet in the back seat of my truck when a man approached me with a gun, held it to my head and told me to give him my wallet. He caught me off guard and I said what? That's when I turned and saw the gun at my head. I remained calm and told him there it is on the floor, take it. He grabbed it and took off in his mini van with missing license plates, he was yelling something at me as he drove away, but I couldn't tell what he was saying. I crouched down behind my truck until I was sure he was gone in case he decided to start shooting, then I ran back into the donut shop screaming like my hair was on fire. It was amazing how the people in the donut shop could care less that I was screaming and crying, they were all just looking at me and continued putting coffee in their damned coffee and eating their donuts. I finally screamed at the lady behind the counter to call 911! I really wanted to strangle everyone in that shop for their seeming lack of concern. What's wrong with people these days??? Well in the end the guy got no credit cards because I don't carry any, a debit card that I cancelled the minute I got home and less than $30 and change. I am just thankful the low life didn't decide to shoot me just because. I had an angel watching over me I guess.

So today I decided I needed to get some quilt therapy in. I got out a County Threads pattern that I have been wanting to make called Leap and made that. The original pattern had the cat leaping over a bunch of pumpkins, but I had another pattern that had a watermelon slice so I decided to swap that out for the pumpkins. I also added a little bird to the cat's tail. I love how this quilt came out. I still need to get it quilted, and I have just the wall where I'm going to put it. Here's a picture.

Well that's all I have to say right now. I'm exhausted and I have a headache. I need to get some sleep. I hope I don't have any bad dreams, I keep having flashbacks this evening. Ugh. Moral of the story, people need to be careful out there, desperate times call for desperate measures, and there are some desperate people out there right now.

2011-12-21T19:27:00.000-08:00

What is it with cats and new quilts? This quilt has been finished and on the kitchen table less than 24 hours and my kitty Talula is already using it for a cushion.

You might be able to see the cute quilting on it if you click on it, it's cute little red cherries and cherry blossoms. I love this quilt. It goes with absolutely nothing in my house, my house is more prim colors, but that's ok. I still love it.

Well that's all I got. LOL

2011-12-19T09:26:00.000-08:00

I can't believe the holidays are almost upon us, and the year is almost over! We don't have a huge gift-swapping celebration at our house, this year will just be me and my husband I believe, we just buy our own gifts which works for me because of course many, many, many quilty items have been bought by me, for ME! Funny how I always get the perfect gifts for myself!

Saturday Nancy and I went to our friend Yvette's house for lunch and gifty swapping. I totally forgot to take a picture of the goodies Nancy gave me, so I am swiping the picture Yvette put on her blog. Nancy made each of us these fabulous HUGE bags made from a Dear Jane cheater panel and they are marvelous. I am going to be stylin' at any classes I might take! Isn't it wonderful? It had some goodies tucked inside but of course I forgot to take pictures of those too. There was a Starbucks card and a cute little kitty watch fob that I just love!

Yvette made me this cute quilt, I love minis and I love the color of this one. It's going to stay on my breakfast table in the kitchen. I did remember to take a picture of this one. I wish the danged cat would stay off it though, I had to kick her off to take the picture.

I am decorating more and more with quilts around the house. My husband isn't into it so much, but too bad, he will just have to get used to it. I plan on making lots of quilts, big and small, in 2012!

A Sewing Weekend

2011-12-11T10:30:00.001-08:00

I am pretty much done with what little I do for Christmas so I have just been sewing this weekend. I was working on Ode to the 30's that I showed in a previous post, but I'm fickle and ended up putting it in it's project bin for now so I could work on a quilt that I really, really, really need hanging in my sewing room. I started working on Quilt Diva. What a fun quilt. It's like playing paper dolls. I am really enjoying using stuff out of my stash and FOUR scrap bins. The wilder the better on this one. My friend Nancy has this quilt finished and hanging in her sewing room, she gave me a bunch of her scraps too. Here are a couple of pictures of what I have so far.
Here is her head so far. I love her glasses. Well heck I love everything about her.

Here she is on her background. I haven't fused her down yet, I have to finish all the parts before I do that. I am still kind of a novice at machine applique, but I'm getting better, practice makes perfect. I'm told I need to get either a Bernina or a Janome if I want a nice buttonhole stitch. I might just have to look into that one of these days. For now, my cheapy Brother serves the purpose.

Well back to playing!

2011-12-01T23:58:00.000-08:00

Last weekend when I organized all my UFOs into a bin as part of my pact to myself to start working on old stuff and finishing things, I came across my Ode to the 30's quilt that I had started as a BOM way back in 2008-2009. I got a few blocks done and burned out and stopped working on it. I had decided I didn't want to do all the applique on it so I was making up replacement blocks. Well, I got that out tonight and put all the blocks up on my wall. I haven't worked with 30s fabrics in a long time and I was in the mood. I decided now I want to do the applique blocks, so I took out all the replacement blocks. After doing that, I sure don't have as much done as I did before!

I think I must have used the fabric packs for some of the tossed replacement blocks so I will have to use my 30's stash to make the applique blocks. I started on one tonight. I was going to do needleturn applique but I got lazy and I think I'll just do machine applique. Here's the block I made tonight, I still need to sew it down. I am going to try to work on this one diligently until I finish it. I NEED a finish. I haven't had a finish of a decent sized quilt in a long time.

2011-12-01T09:05:00.000-08:00

Happy December 1st!

I don't have snow where I live, we here in SoCal are having a MAJOR wind storm, we're talking hurricane force winds in some places I've heard, but I just thought this was a cute little picture to celebrate the first day of December. If I had to live someplace where it snowed, that would be it.

2011-11-27T23:42:00.001-08:00

I recently made a pact with myself to pull out and put in a bin all of the UFOs that I had scattered all over the house that I think there is a remote chance that I might finish someday so that I know what I have to work on and can go pick any one of them from the bin if I get bored. I did manage to do this today. I also made a pact with myself not to start anything new until I finished some of these UFOs, but that lasted about 5 minutes. I was digging through one of my cram-packed drawers of patterns and came across a cute little Country Threads pattern that of course I forgot I had, and decided to make one of them, the snowman for winter to be exact. It is a small quilt, I whipped it up in about 2 hours, I need practice on my machine applique for a big one I'm working on and while this one had a couple little issues, it was good practice. I am finally starting to get the hang of the buttonhole stitch on my machine and actually enjoyed stitching this one down. I have a problem with turning and points, but I did pretty good on this one. Here's a picture.I am also happy that this was all made from scraps out of my stash. I just tossed those buttons on there from my collection, they aren't necessarily going to be the ones that are put in there. I have 4 huge jars of buttons so I have many to choose from. I think he came out pretty cute if I do say so myself!

Well sadly back to work tomorrow. Why do 4 days weekends go by in the blink of an eye but 4 workdays take about 5 years??? LOL

2011-11-23T09:34:00.000-08:00

Wishing everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving 2011.

2011-11-20T07:07:00.001-08:00

Well I do have a little bit of quilting related stuff to show for a change.

I have been plugging away on the Farm Fresh quilt from Buggy Barn. I have sworn off BOMs so I bought this one as a kit a little while back. I have prepped 4 blocks now that just need to have the machine applique done. I am not the greatest machine appliquer so I am putting it off as long as I can. I finished appliqueing the first block because it was fairly easy.

I wanted to share a picture of this block because I was quite impressed with myself. LOL The original pattern has "B59" on the milk can. I even called Buggy Barn to ask what that meant, in case anyone else was wondering it was apparently just the number that was on the milk can that was used as the "model" for the quilt, probably it signifies the dairy the milk came from. My husband is of Dutch descent and he has relatives in the dairy industry. Where we live there are a lot of dairies, we always joke we live in the country even though we are about 50 miles from Los Angeles, and many of them are owned by families of Dutch descent. My late father-in-law was in the industry and we have a couple of old milk cans that were his. Of course I had to run home and see what ours said, I even found one of them on Ebay for $100. LOL They will never be sold though.

Anyway, I digress. I decided I had to put something different on my quilt's milk can to make it different, so I decided to put the family name on it. Here's a picture. Circa 2005 is when my husband and I married. Not the greatest picture my phone has ever taken. I used black wool for the wording because it will be easier to applique that by hand.This quilt is just about doing me in! It has HUGE pieces. I even bought an oversized applique pressing sheet just for this quilt. Did I mention I'm not the greatest appliquer!? LOL And to think I went and ordered the kit for their latest one called Garden Party! I should be an expert after I finish these two.

Well that's it for now. Man am I looking forward to the long 4-day Thanksgiving weekend coming up!

P.S. Ugh! I don't know if it's some setting in my laptop computer or Blogger or that I have Vista or what, but I can write on my Blogger to my heart's content, but it won't let me publish. Thank goodness for smart phones, I have to log into Blogger there and post. If anyone knows what setting I have screwed up please let me know!

2011-11-14T05:38:00.000-08:00

This seems to be the way my blogging is going these days, all in pictures and a couple of sentences. I have nothing earth shattering or exciting to share right now. No quilt finishes, no cross stitch finishes, no trips to Quilt Market, nada. Whenever I think of something interesting to write about, I'll be back. Ha!

I got nothin' else...

2011-10-19T12:52:00.000-07:00

2011-09-27T20:56:00.000-07:00

I went to the ortho doctor today and got my finger checked, it's healing nicely. I am to keep it buddy taped and exercise it a little and go back to have it checked at the end of next month. Thankfully I didn't knock the setting loose like I feared and I don't have to have surgery or a cast, so I'm a happy camper. Yay! I have too much sewing to do to have a broken finger! Much less a cast!

I don't know why, but when autumn arrives, it always puts me in the mood to work on cross stitch. So I pulled out this golden oldie tonight and am working on it. Holding a needle hurts my finger a little, so I find I have to stretch it out every few stitches. This is called A Quaker Christmas by ByGone Stitches. I don't even remember when I started working on it. This is the one that I was working on and got disgusted and threw it in the UFO bin when I found the fabric had a hole in it after I had stitched about half way through it. I patched the hole up the best I could and kept going. I suspect I am the only one who will know where the problem was.

Update: I just noticed while I was working on this tonight that I wrote on the pattern the start date of December 3, 2009. Then I must have come across the hole in my fabric and tossed it in the UFO bin out of disgust, but picked it up again and restarted it on October 17, 2010. Then for some reason I don't remember, I tossed it in the UFO bin again and picked it up again last night, September 27, 2011. Good grief, just finish it already!

I decided to splurge and buy this one tonight, along with the floss, it's called A Quaker Christmas II, I have been coveting it for a while. I think it's beautiful.

That's about it for tonight. I don't have all that much to talk about.

2011-09-26T15:56:00.001-07:00

Go check out my friend Nancy's blog. We went to visit her friend Lavon the other day, and she was showing us her Farm Fresh quilt from Buggy Barn and right then and there I knew I had to get the kit for this quilt. It's gorgeous! Our friend Yvette was with us and also decided right then and there that she had to have the kit too. Well, she might have decided a few minutes after right then and there, but she did get it. Go look at her blog, she started it this weekend too. We're doing a virtual Farm Fresh "along" and it's going to be such a pretty quilt!

I am just happy that I did not have to get a cast on my broken finger. That would hinder my quilting majorly! I have to go to the doctor for a follow-up visit tomorrow, we'll see if it is healing properly. I have accidently bumped it a couple of times, so I hope I didn't undo the setting. Fingers crossed, no pun intended. Well it's quitting time, time to get out of Dodge now.

2011-09-23T13:29:00.000-07:00

Thank goodness it's Friday AND thank goodness it's Autumn! All in one day! It still feels like summer here in Southern California, but at least it's autumn on the calendar. Autumn is my favorite season by far. And, more importantly, I have made it through the week without injuring myself again!

Happy Friday!

2011-09-17T08:22:00.000-07:00

Yesterday on my way to the evening train I tripped on the stairs on the platform and took a header, landing all of my weight on my right hand (of course my dominant hand Murphy's Law). I managed to not break one single fingernail but broke my little finger. I am not a doctor but I knew my pinky probably should not be at that angle. Did the hour train ride home and headed over to urgent care.

And got this. Isn't it fashionable? I snapped the bone like a chicken bone judging from the x-rays. I need to have surgery to repair it. Ugh. What next??? I don't want to be on a first name basis at the urgent care!!!! Doesn't this splint look a little overkill???

I won't be doing any crafting for a while. I am a legal secretary by profession. I use my hands for my work. A lot. I just typed this using my left hand and a pen in my right. Not conducive to being a legal secretary. Ugh. Well I'm exhausted now from typing this. LOL

A very productive Labor Day holiday

2011-09-06T09:01:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I had the day off from work for the Labor Day holiday. And I labored! First up I put together this little mini from the two colored quilt mini book from Temecula Quilt Co. I needed something easy to do after the hell the mini cheddar quilt put me through (see yesterday's post). I just need to quilt it. It went in the mini pile which you will see below.
Here is the mini quilt pile I have going. There are quilts in there that need to be quilted and some that need to be bound and others that just need the binding hand sewn. That one on top with the red and blue borders was an oldie that I had in my pile that I had attempted to quilt myself many years ago. I ripped out the quilting, traded out the borders and it's ready to go again. I love minis!

Next up, I decided to FINALLY bind this quilt that my friend Sharon quilted for me about 3 years ago! I don't know what it is with me and binding, but I had it hanging on the stair rail and I was tired of looking at it unfinished so now it's finished. I had to get into my boxes in my bedroom closet and find the fabric for the binding, I'm amazed that I found it! I forgot to take a post-washing picture. This is one of my favorite quilts.

I even made a few spools from feedsacks that were my grandma's. I used that VERY sparingly. Here is one of the feedsack spools.

Here is the quilt all done and being inspected by Quality Control. I swear this cat, the MINUTE I set something down that she can lay on or get into, she's on it. She's very good at her job.

So that's a little sampling of what I did yesterday. Sadly, I am back at work today.

2011-09-04T17:20:00.001-07:00

Yesterday I had another enjoyable Sewing Saturday with my friend Nancy. I had a little mini quilt kit that I got from Temecula Quilt Co. that I decided to put together. Oh my goodness, what a lot of work for such a tiny little quilt! It had 13 little blocks and it took me all danged day long to make them all, and it was set on point, and I suck at setting triangles. I got two columns of it put together and said I'd had enough and came home. I just finished it about an hour ago, I had to take some stuff apart and re-do it and I quilted it myself. It's in the wash right now. I kind of like my mini quilts to remain unwashed but I decided to wash this one after all. Here are a couple of pictures.

Here's a picture of the quilt after I quilted it. If you click on it you can see the detail better. Don't pay any attention to the couple of points chopped off here and there.

Here's a picture of the back before I quilted it. I just decided to add a little something to the back. I have some Blackbird Designs fabric that is like pages from a dictionary, and I liked the part where "crow" was defined. Nancy did the same mini and she put a little piece of the selvage on the back of hers. I was going to do that, but I saw this fabric in my stash and went with this.

Here is a picture of the quilt washed and crinkly and in use. LOL
I am really into making these mini quilts. I have already picked out what one I am going to do next. I have tomorrow off for the holiday, so I will be doing some more sewing for sure!

Another Finish

2011-09-01T17:11:00.001-07:00

I just put the last stitches in the binding on this little cutie. It's from Primitive Gatherings, I bought the kit when I went to Road to California in January, it's been marinating for a while. It was so easy to make I can't even believe it. I made this in just a couple of hours. I think eventually I want to make one with 30's fabrics.

Isn't that the cutest Annie? I love her sitting on my itty bitty little quilt.

2011-09-01T05:50:00.000-07:00

Happy September 1! I can't believe it's September already. I love the months that end in "BER" so much and I can't wait for Autumn. I can't believe how fast we got here, it's going to be Christmas before we know it, I better start planning my Christmas crafts!

I stayed home from work yesterday because of my foot and didn't do too much, just tried to stay off it as much as I could. I feel so guilty about calling in sick, but I am sitting here typing this thinking I might call in today too, it still hurts like heck to walk with this cut, and my stitches are pulling too, especially when I walk on it. Ugh. I still can't believe I did this. After reading everyone's comments yesterday and talking to my sister-in-law I see the most popular way of storing the used blades is in one of the containers they come in but just mark it USED. It seems everyone in the blogosphere knows that tip but me! Duh!

I did manage to get a little sewing in, if I don't push the pedal where my stitches are, it's not so bad. I subscribed to get the monthly minis from Temecula Quilt Co. and this is the second one I have received. I still haven't done last month's, it's tiny, I mean ultra mini, I saw my friend Nancy working on it the last time we had Sewing Saturday, and it is labor intensive. My piecing skills need work, and that one just scares me. I wasn't too happy how this one came out. I think it was a pretty basic pattern and I sewed my blocks accurately, and I cut everything the size the pattern said, but the sashings were too short, I ended up having to make some adjustments. I wish I had put the blocks up on the design board before I sewed them all together, all my darker blocks seem to be on the top and the lighter ones on the bottom. Oh well, it's still cute. The colors are washed out, because my phone will one time take a very good picture, but the next, not so much.

Tootles.

2011-08-31T05:55:00.000-07:00

THIS.....

PLUS THIS.....

Equals a trip to the ER and eight stitches on the bottom of my foot. Ugh. When I get home at night from work, the shoes come off immediately. My pedicures would probably last longer if I didn't go barefoot all the time. Well, last night my bare foot tangled with a rotary cutter blade that fell out of the trash bag and I stepped on it. Freak accident. Tuesday night is trash night, I had tossed a bare blade in my sewing room trash, and last night I went around with a big trash bag gathering up the household trash to put out like I always do and that sucker must have been sharp enough to go through the bottom of the bag and fall on the floor and my foot was in the wrong place at the wrong time and I had to go to the ER last night for stitches when hubby got home from work. The physician's assistant (whose bedside manner left a lot ot be desired) wanted to just put a pressure bandage on it, but I insisted he stitch it up after the RN who was in charge of putting the bandage on was pretty much inferring the PA was stupid in his assessment and that it needed stitches, that if it was his foot he would close it. I won't be gross and put a picture of it. Well, today I can barely hobble around, I can't believe that PA only wanted to put a bandage on it, Icould have done that! It's on my sewing machine pedal foot too, gasp!

So I learned my lesson, I need to dispose of these things in a smarter fashion. I want to know though why the dumb blade was barely cutting my fabric but it sliced through a thick trash bag and my foot like butter!

2011-08-29T09:57:00.001-07:00

Saturday I went with Nancy and our new local quilter/blogger friend Yvette to the annual quilt show at Country Loft. I am really embarrassed to say that with all the gorgeous stuff I saw there, this is the only picture I took.
I have this pattern book and I actually have done 3 blocks from it, so I guess I mostly took it for inspiration purposes. When we left it was almost the last quilt hanging there, I hope someone bought it, it's too cute to be left behind. Normally the proceeds from this annual quilt show go to the Susan G. Komen charity, but this year it's different. The proceeds for Saturday's sale are going into a trust fund for JoAnn Mulally's (she designs all the JAM patterns that we know and love) daughter Megan who sadly needs more treatment for the cancer that she has been battling. I believe you can go and donate directly to her fund, I think the info is available on the Country Loft blog. This just in: Nancy is having a giveaway on her blog, all the info you need is on there, and she says it better than me, and it's so easy. All you have to do is make a donation to JAM's daughter's fund in any denomination and then you can go comment on Nancy's blog that you did so and you are put into the drawing for one of two fabulous prizes. How easy is that, and it's for the daughter of a dear friend to all quilters? You could win a fabulous prize but really, knowing that you did one small little thing that will help another person is even more rewarding, don't you think? Remember, only those who actually make a monetary donation can be entered into the drawing.

After that we went up to Temecula Quilt Co. where I only managed to buy 2 yards of fabric and a pattern. I think I might have had a fever, oh wait, I think that was just because it was about 500 degrees and humid in Temecula on Saturday. Then we went over to Quilter's Coop where I amazingly only bought 2 yards of fabric, by this time I think the heat had fried my brain because it's not like me to only buy two yards of fabric there. Ok, I think I need to go to the doctor, I'm getting concerned now.

We had a yummy Mexican food lunch and went back to Nancy's house for some Saturday Sewing. Yvette couldn't stay, she had some other obligations, so Nancy and I sewed for her, I can't believe how much I got done, and Nancy taught me a couple of binding tricks. She's such a good teacher that Nancy! I thoroughly enjoy my Sewing Saturdays with Nancy.

Well, I'm at work, and I'm getting really paranoid the more I work on this blog entry, so I'm going to cut it off here. Tootles.

2011-08-26T19:42:00.000-07:00

2011-08-25T20:17:00.000-07:00

TGI Thursday! LOL One more day and then the weekend. I have some fun stuff planned for this weekend, but it's a secret. More will be revealed!

I started another pair of socks, this pair is for me, I hope they are going to be big enough, I'm still working on finding the perfect pattern for my big old feet. I love the colors in this yarn, they will be good with jeans, what else would you wear these wild colors with?

I should be up in my sewing room sewing my fingers to the bone, but the past few days I've been lazy. Knitting piled up on the couch watching TV is so much easier!

2011-08-19T05:53:00.001-07:00

I cannot WAIT for this day to be over. It has been a very long week at work. Tomorrow I'm spending the day with Nancy for Sewing Saturday. We have lots of things planned. It should be a fun day.

I thought I'd share this picture. My kitty Talula is a nut for empty boxes. No matter how small they are, she will try to squeeze her big butt into it. I got some yarn yesterday and she wasn't interested in the yarn, she was only interested in the box. The minute I emptied it out and put it on the floor, she was in it, she turned every which way in that box until she got the perfect fit. This one is a cramped fit, but I have seen her try to get into boxes that are way smaller. Crazy cat. But I love her, I guess I'll keep her. Update: Not only did I finally get sprung from work, but tonight I finished my first pair of socks in a good long while, I'm kinda out of practice. My friend Sharon called dibs on these, they didn't come out that great, WAY huge, I told her they are better to be worn as slippers so she can keep her tootsies warm when the snow comes back to Missouri!

Off to watch some TV and relax.

2011-08-16T05:47:00.000-07:00

I got home yesterday and went to get the mail, we have those community mailboxes at the end of the street. When I unlocked our box and saw the magical key from the mail carrier I knew I had a box in the BIG mailbox waiting for me. I opened it up and there were TWO boxes. Unfortunately they weren't both for me, my husband got one too, but the BIG box was for me and was from Sharon. I couldn't get home fast enough and rip that sucker open! Here's what was inside. All kinds of fun goodies! When I was at Nancy's last time, she was showing me the quilt that they made while she was visiting Daisy Cottage Quilting. I immediately texted Sharon and told her I needed the exact same fabics, and being the good friend she is, she delivered! That little bundle with the purple is the kit for this quilt. Now I can make my very own! Thank you Sharon! And I love all the other goodies in that pile. What good friends I have!

This was also in the box. Is this not the cutest??? My phone takes the crappiest pictures, sorry about the quality. The wall in the family room is a really deep pretty sunflower gold and it looks so pretty against it, but the phone camera washed it out. But trust me, it's adorable. I am going to put some of those star hangers with it that were in the picture above. I just haven't gotten around to it yet because I'm not sure if that's the final landing spot where I want it. Sharon, Nancy and I have this thing now, when we make one mini quilt we make three so we can share. You might recognize this one from here. And I have these three out at the quilter that are for sharing.

Well that's it for now. I have to get ready for work now, I just had to blog about my goodies because I was so happy to get them. It's always fun picking up the mail when there isn't bills in it!

2011-07-30T11:46:00.000-07:00

Besides quilting and cross stitching and embroidery, I am also a knitter. I don't knit as much as I used to, but when I did knit more, I made a ton of socks. I love making socks. You can take them in a small bag with you and work on them anyplace. I started a pair on my train ride to work yesterday. I'm all into it now. I even went and got out my sock bag again, it holds all my essentials, which aren't much for socks, just the directions for a few vanilla style socks, the formulas for various heels, and directions how to finish the toes. And I have a little Keroppi pencil box that my kid got when she was probably in grammar school still that I keep all my tools in because for socks they are small. I used to have tons and tons and TONS of sock yarn, all kinds of outlandish colors and self-patterning stuff, but I downsized and gave a pile of it away, now I just have a reasonable amount of sock yarn stash, all in just normal solid colors. It's funny, all the socks I made and I don't have one single pair for myself. I used to have a really nice pair of red ones that I wore until they fell apart, but most of my socks I gave away. Time to start making myself some!
My husband went with his buddy out to the desert for the day. I had all kinds of big plans to do a bunch of quilting today, but that hasn't happened yet. I'm all caught up in socks today.

It's been a ROUGH work week...but

2011-07-29T20:25:00.000-07:00

2011-07-24T19:42:00.000-07:00

I was rummaging around in my stash today and came across some fabric that is dark blue with a star field on it, it is narrow and the edges are finished. I bought several yards of it for something but now I have no idea what. So, I decided to fussy cut some of these stars and made this. Do you like the fancy scotch tape holding it up? This one came out kind of wonky because it's the prototype. I am making two more for my friends Sharon and Nancy which will be more accurately pieced. I ran out of that black fabric I used in the sashing but I found some solid black in my stash that will work just fine. We have this thing it seems that whenever we make one thing we make two more of the same thing for each other. It's fun! I'm pretty proud of myself that I made this all out of fabric in my stash. I wish my stars were all lined up the same way but no matter how I tried to fussy cut them I just couldn't get them going all the same way. Oh well, it is what is is. I have been very lazy this weekend. I had all kinds of big plans while my husband was out of town at the MotoGP races up in Monterey. But all I did was go to Fat Quarters yesterday and got a pedicture and manicure, and today I did a little laundry and sewed. I feel so lazy! Not like me. I'm usually always doing something.

Well I'm going to get back to my movie. I am watching the King's Speech, what a good movie!

Secret Agent Kitty and some Cross Stitch

2011-07-21T10:54:00.000-07:00

My kitty Talula likes to sit on the second floor landing and spy on me through the railing. She thinks I can't see her from below. I swear, this kitty should have been a dog, I think no one told her she's a cat, she follows me everywhere I go and sleeps ON me at night. I sure do love this kitty of mine. Here's a picture. On the craft front, I haven't done much quilting in a few days, I have turned my attention to cross stitching, especially since the outing Nancy and I had last weekend to Mari Pat's in Long Beach. I have had this little pattern for months now and have been wanting to make it but I was waiting for the just the perfect gold linen to come along and it did last week, my eyes zeroed in on the fabric shelf the minute I walked in the door and there is was. Then I discovered I needed to order special floss for it and I just got those in the mail last night. So I started it with no hesitation last night. I don't have a picture because I really have barely started it.

I guess I should get back to work now.

2011-07-20T05:46:00.000-07:00

Happy Hump Day!

Just because I'm being repetitive...

2011-07-12T10:27:00.001-07:00

But mostly because it doesn't take much to crack me up!

A little sewing occurred today

2011-07-10T18:14:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago, I went to Temecula Quilt Co. with my friend Nancy and picked up a few things. One of them was a cute little pattern book of little two color doll quilts. I whipped this little one up today. I had about a half yard of this lovely chrome yellow Civil War fabric in my stash. I love all Civil War fabrics, and the names, chrome yellow, poison green, cheddar, turkey red, all of them! It took me just a few hours today to make this one today. I LOVE it. Here is the front. If you click on the pictures you can see a close up.

Here is a picture of the back. I didn't have enough of the fabric to back it, just barely enough to use for the binding, so I just used some white Kona cotton and put in one little orphan block. I did a simple cross hatch on it, and looking at this picture, I can see I could have done a better job.
Here's the quilt in use with some of my Annie's sitting on it in my sewing room. I had so much fun making this quilt. I need to get some more bigger cuts of fabric so I can make the other quilts in the booklet.
I just traced up a cute little kitty stitchery BOM that I am getting from my friend Sharon's shop. I am trying to give all of my crafts equal time. I did some cross stitch yesterday, today was quilting, now some embroidery. Just staying in the house trying to stay cool. Well my husband keeps pestering me so I'm going to end here. He has been gone all day scuba diving, I guess he wants attention now. LOL

2011-07-07T22:11:00.000-07:00

I just put the last stitches in this little embroidery tonight, if you click on it you can enlarge it. I haven't decided yet how I want to finish it. I am leaning towards framing it in a nice prim frame. It's a JAM pattern that you can get on the Country Loft website. It's a really fast stitch, I just started it last weekend when I was sewing with my friend Nancy. I used Valdani size 12 perle cottons. I love how it came out.

That's all I have tonight. Hubby wants me to join him out on the patio so I can get more chewed up by mosquitoes than I did last night.

2011-07-04T06:27:00.000-07:00

Happy 4th of July!

On the quilting front, I got a little teeny quilt made today. It's a Bareroots Little Stitchies pattern. This one is the July one, there is one for every month of the year. I am hoping I can be as ambititious when it comes time to make the one for August. These little quilts are what I had bought this little shelf for. I think it came out pretty darned cute.

Sure not looking forward to going to work tomorrow.

2011-07-03T12:03:00.000-07:00

I thought I'd share a picture of a cute little shelf/hanger I got at Country Loft before we even moved into our new house, it has been hiding in my sewing room closet for almost 2 years and I just hung it up in my kitchen this morning, better late than never. I had plans to put little quilts on it a rotate them out, so what better time to start than with the little quilt I got from my friend Sharon. I got the little newspaper boy figurine to go with the little flag girl I got from my friend Nancy. I love this little shelf. Now I need to make lots and lots and lots of mini quilts for it, I guess this means I'll also have to buy more Tchotchkes to put on it, sounds fun to me! Hubby spray painted a couple more clothespins black for me, I'm just waiting for them to dry. Guess I need to add cute hangers to the list of future shopping too!

I have just one more day off of work until I have to go back. This has been a very relaxing 2 weeks of vacation. Tomorrow is hubby's birthday but I'll take him to dinner tonight. I made reservations at Lucille's, he picked it out. They do have really yummy pulled pork.

Well off to run some errands now. I want to get back so I can work on some mini quilts. I have plans to make some doll quilts to put in baskets around the house to decorate with. My friends Nancy and Sharon are on a doll quilt kick now too. Sharon is going to be offering some small quilt kits of the month, go check it out at the Daisy Cottage Quilting website. I signed up for the first one myself.

2011-07-01T16:14:00.000-07:00

I thought I'd share a picture of some cute things I got from my friends. Today in the mail I got a package from my friend Sharon, it contained this adorable little mini quilt, the frame and the little charm. Aren't they too cute??? The other day when I got together with my friend Nancy to shop and sew, she gave me the adorable little figurine. She has the same one herself and this one, which I have ordered and am waiting to be delivered. They go so cute together.

It's a hot one here today, hubby and I went out to run some errands and it was 101 according to the temp on my truck. It's AC time now, it would seem summer has arrived here in Southern California, ugh. I dread the electric bills, but I don't do 101 either!

Hope everyone has a very safe and sane July 4th!

2011-06-24T14:05:00.000-07:00

There are so many people in this world who make me sad.

Little of this and that...

2011-06-18T13:04:00.001-07:00

I thought I'd share just a little bit of this and that today, just to keep the ol' blog going. I am on a two-week vacation, yippee! I'm still decompressing, I got up at 6:00 this morning instead of 5:00, that's sleeping in for me.

I thought I'd take some pictures of my sewing room to share to start. It is actually tidy for a change and I think I almost have it arranged to my liking FINALLY! I can actually see the floor!

Here is the first thing I see upon opening the door to go in, I leave it shut to keep the nosey cats out, so I figured it needed a sign. I love this little sign, it really says it all!

Let me pause a minute here to say, there is a kid in one of the houses in our immediate vicinity, sounds like a teenage girl, who has been singing for the past half hour, I'm sure she thinks she's marvelous, and her parents probably think she's very marvelous, but really, not so much. It's painful to listen to. That's the problem with living in a tract neighborhood. Ok, back to my quilting room.

Here is the cutting table area. I'm not sure, but judging by how much stuff is on the shelves in my room, a wee bit more cutting needs to be taking place here. You will also see I have a couple of Annies up there. They are so cute! My friend Nicole makes them, do stop by her website and take a look, maybe you need one or two too! I keep my Christmas stocking out all year round because I cross stitched that thing and it was a lot of work, so I just can't let it be stuffed away in a box.Here is one half of my sewing table from Ikea. I have a lot of Ikea stuff, I love Ikea. I am thinking that not only does there need to be more cutting going on at the cutting table, but there needs to be more sewing machine use too. Notice there are a couple more Annies. You really do need one, or two.Ok, let me pause here a minute to say, now there is a guy singing, I guess the girl needed to take a Union break or something. He's not much better. The annoying neighbor's dogs Joey and Beyonce don't think so either. Oh man, I think my ears are bleeding now.

Back to my sewing room. Here is a picture of the second half of my sewing table. I have watched many many many movies from Netflix on my pretty pink laptop. That basket there you see and the pile of cute bags next to it (just noticed you can't see those) are all the BOM blocks that I am BEHIND on. No comments please, and thank you. All those little quilts on the wall are quilts that I have gotten from very good blogger friends over the years. Some quilty bloggers can be sooooo nice! I wish I could say all, not everyone plays nice, but I would say 99% do. The other stuff on my wall is what I have managed to finish of Cheri Payne's Folkart Gathering. I really need to catch up!Well this is a really horrible picture. It's the back of my door, more cute quilts I have gotten from nice quilter bloggers out there. Nancy Poo brought me back that cute bag from quilt market when she went with Sharon. I am going to go with them next year, I cannot WAIT!

Here's a cute little quilt I got a while back from my bloggy friend Karen who is one of the nicest bloggers out there. Isn't it adorable? How did I deserve such a cute little quilt from such a marvelous quilter??? Karen loves Cheri Payne patterns like I do.
This Ikea chair has gone back and forth from our bedroom to my sewing room at least a half dozen times. I think it's going to stay now. I like sitting there at night with a glass of wine and watching movies and embroidering...I LOVE EMBROIDERING! I'm currently stitching on the Vignette quilt and a Lynette Anderson little cutie that I picked up when Nancy and I went to Road to California.
Here's a map I got at some quilt shop that has all the quilt shops in California or Southern California, don't remember which, which I would like to visit someday. Not really LOL

This little bulletin board is just a catch-all for various little treasures I've accumulated over the years, and some unfinished cross stitches that I need to do something with.

I didn't think I had enough BOMs so I signed up for this year's Fat Quarter Shop Mystery Quilt. The fabrics are gorgeous and it's going to be such an adorable quilt!
We went to Bass Pro the other night. I was surprised. I didn't know they sold quilting stuff. I also saw some antique looking spools under another display. I was going to ask the price but I figured they'd laugh me out of the store.

One last picture. I'm amazed Blogger let me put this many pictures. Here's a picture of my dollhouse. The shell is all done. Now we do the sanding and painting and interior finishing. I've already ordered the next one we are planning to build.
Ok, that's all I have for now. I think our computer is getting ready to go to the big hard drive in the sky, we've had it for about 7 years now and it's really not liking this long picture-heavy blog I am writing.

Union break is over the girl is singing again...

Bunch of nothing blogging

2011-06-11T07:32:00.000-07:00

Happy Saturday everyone! I have one more week until vacation, this coming up week is going to be absolutely miserable! But I'll take my weekend for now.

My husband's family is of Dutch decent, they have tons and tons and tons of family in Iowa. His being of Dutch decent accounts for me going from a French decent maiden name that I constantly had to be spelling for people to a married name that I really have to be spelling for people. It probably explains why he wanted to move here to where we live, right in the middle of a bunch of Dutch dairies. We say we live in the country, although we are only about an hour from Los Angeles. It also probably explains why he wanted to put this in our front yard. You see a lot of them around here, they sell them down at the hardware store. LOL

In a previous post I mentioned we were building a miniature dollhouse together. So when I saw THIS at my favorite online miniature store, I had to buy it. Isn't it the cutest little thing you'd ever want to see? I have no idea what I need it for, just that it's cute. It's sitting on my kitchen windowsill with all my knick knacks (aka crap as my husband calls them).

Speaking of dollhouse, the shell is all put together. Today we are going to do some priming and painting. But for now, I'm going to enjoy having the house to myself and get upstairs and do some sewing.

I feel just like this this today...

2011-06-07T05:42:00.000-07:00

I have some serious pre-vacation-itis going on. That's because starting June 20, hubby and I will be on vacation for two glorious weeks, I will return to work on July 5, so my brain has already checked out. We're not going anyplace, just a long staycation. But that's ok, beats work anyday! So my friend Nancy and I are taking a class at a local quilt shop. It's an old out of print Cheri Payne pattern called Country ABC's. I am having a blast working on this quilt with Nancy. We go once a month to the class and then we usually go back to her house and work on it some more. This quilt lends itself to embellishments, it's fun to see what all the other ladies are putting on theirs. Here's a picture of the teacher's version. Isn't that just the cutest? Here are pictures of my blocks. I'm doing mine in more of a primitive colorway. I still have a little bit of stitching left to do on a couple of my blocks.
This one is my favorite block, so much so that she is now my blog header picture. I love for some reason how the sun was shining on her when I took the picture.
This one is my second favorite block. The original pattern did not call for putting a bra and undies, that's what they call artistic license. LOL
I like these two girls as well.

This block is pretty darned cute too, hell they are all cute! LOL One of the ladies at our class added three cute little yellow baby chicks to her version of this block.

Well I like this one too. Gosh, I guess I like all the blocks huh? I don't know if you click on this picture to enlarge it if you can see the teeny tiny little braid I made for this little girl. Maybe this explains why I am building a miniature dollhouse, I just like cute tiny things.

Now I want to be home sewing instead of being stuck at work! Dang!

P.S. My friend Sharon is having a fun giveaway. Our friend Nicole makes the most precious little Raggedy Ann (and Andy) dolls, I have a few of them myself! Sharon and Nancy have truck loads of them, I only have about about 10 I think. Anyway, I digress. Sharon is going to be giving away one of these little dolls on June 10, so head over to her blog and enter right now!

Dollhouse update

2011-06-01T21:35:00.000-07:00

We have now finished the shell of my dollhouse. Now we start the cosmetic stuff, painting and wallpapering, putting on trim and gingerbread, wiring it for lights and decorating and furnishing. This stuff will take a while. It has a cute little tower with a turret that I don't plan on putting wiring in so I printed off some freebie wallpaper and glued it on the walls before gluing them together, I couldn't resist taking a picture with some furniture in it. I couldn't get a decent picture with my cell phone but if you look really close, you can see a pair of little eyeglasses on the table, and the little angel figurine that is about an inch tall. This dollhouse is a 1:12 scale which means that every inch in dollhouse size equals a foot in real life size. So that little angel would be a foot tall in real life. I am so happy I am finally getting a dollhouse! I am already planning which kit to buy next!

I plan on this house being Victorian or turn of the century themed. The little chair is beat up, I got it in Oregon years ago for a dollar. It's one of my favorite pieces.

I was going to do some quilting tonight, but I got lazy all of a sudden. Think I'll go watch some TV.

Under Construction

2011-05-30T21:32:00.000-07:00

I hope everyone had a nice and relaxing holiday weekend, I can't believe how fast 3 days off goes by but a week at work seems to last 500 years!

My husband and I managed to get a lot done on my miniature dollhouse this weekend. We had a few spats over the construction and the interpretation of the instructions, but so far so good. The directions that came with this house leave a lot to be desired. But it's coming along. It's not something you finish in a couple of days, it's almost like building a real house. But it is fun. I am already planning my next one! Here's a picture of my house so far. Its starting to look like a house at least. I have of course decided the attic is going to be a sewing room, of course.
Well, time to unwind and go to bed soon, work tomorrow. Ugh.

Friday Thought

2011-05-27T06:06:00.001-07:00

Happy Friday! And Happy Pre-3-Day Weekend! I have been looking forward to this day all week!

Under Construction

2011-05-25T21:23:00.000-07:00

As if I don't have enough hobbies what with my cross stitch and quilting, I have always, always, ALWAYS wanted a miniature dollhouse. I had a rather large one that I started several years ago pre-husband, but never finished, and when we got married I gave it away, and all the stuff I had bought to furnish it has just been packed away in a box all these years, and I have a LOT of stuff. I have a couple of kits in the closet that I have had for years that never got started so I just figured it wasn't in the cards to have a miniature dollhouse. Well, I've been bugging my husband for I don't know how long to help me build one and for some reason, the other day, he caved and gave in. Yay! We broke ground and started construction the other day, we figure it's going to take us a while. In the meantime, I was browsing my favorite online miniature store and ordered the cutest little battery operated Tiffany lamp. It came in the mail today. Here's a picture. Isn't it just the cutest? Now the sad part, when we were putting the floors in, when we got to the third floor, I noticed that the board was thinner than the other two and then realized after all that gluing and nailing that we had put it together wrong. Noooooo!!!!! It can't be taken apart or it will break and now there is going to be a big gap where the roof should meet the walls. Crap! Now, I could live with that, it's only about a quarter inch, but hubby is anal, so guess what, we're scrapping construction on this house and are going to work on the other one I have in the closet. Here is a picture of the other house that we are going to build and let me say, we are GOING to be more careful!

This one is called the Apple Blossom, it's HUGE. Construction on this one will take us even longer than the other one. But it will be worth it when it's done. I can't wait to get started!

For Sharon and Nancy

2011-05-24T15:46:00.000-07:00

Who informed me I need to start blogging again.

I just think this is one of the most romantic songs...the video is hokey, but the song is sweet. I heard it in Eat, Pray, Love, which has to be one of my favorite movies of all time. Hey, I have nothing much else to blog about, so might as well start with romantic tunes. It's funny, I was just at Starbucks and it was playing on their radio, and I asked the young girl who it was singing because it was escaping me...now what 20-something year old is even going to know who Neil Young is. She just gave me a blank stare. I feel old. LOL

Indefinite Hiatus

2011-05-03T14:22:00.000-07:00

2011-03-19T08:46:00.000-07:00

I'm working on a super secret project for this friend and this friend and this friend. A couple of them (you know who you are!) have tried to trick me into saying what the super secret project is, but I'm not gonna fall for that! Here's a picture of a part of this project, I'm making the same one for each, it's a little Cheri Payne pattern, that's all I'm gonna say. I added that little charm idea myself. I am not using artistic license here with my picture, I have NO idea why Blogger has decided to rotate my picture. So annoying. But you get the idea and I'm too lazy to try to figure it out.

I read it's National Quilting Day or something. I hope to get a lot of it in, but I have to go out in a bit for a haircut and a few errands. I need to get busy on these super secret projects, time is running out.

Have a great weekend!

2011-03-11T20:43:00.000-08:00

Ok, it's a really odd feeling to go to check the weekend weather and see this...I live inland about 50 miles where it says Chino so I don't have to worry, but just so weird!

I was going to try to get some sewing in tonight, but I just finished a nice glass of wine and I'm thinking I'm too relaxed right now to even THINK of touching a rotary cutter or a sewing machine. I think that might be tempting the Gods.

Goodnight.

2011-03-07T05:31:00.000-08:00

I had such a fun weekend! I wish I didn't have to ruin it and go to that pesky place we call work! I got together on Saturday with my friend Nancy for a wool applique class being put on at a LQS to do a Cheri Payne pattern called Country ABCs. I had bought the pattern many months ago at Quilter's Coop, it was the one and only copy they had, I have been told by Cheri that it's from the "olden days." I feel very special having my own copy, the teacher almost hyperventillated when I told her I had a copy (very tongue in cheek). LOL Anyway, after the class we were having so much fun on it we went back to Nancy's and worked on it for several more hours and I worked on it a little bit yesterday. Here's a picture of my version. I still have to sew a few things down. I swapped out a few of the wools the teacher gave us, too many pastels going on. This is block two, we joined late so we still have to go back and catch up on block one. This is going to be such a cute quilt.

If you click on the picture you can see it bigger. I can't wait to get home tonight and finish it up so I can start on the first block.

I have to share. I don't know about other quilters out there, but I am a sucker for gadgets, I have so many gizmos and gadgets in my quilting notion arsenal it isn't even funny. Well, one of the ladies at our class had a pen she was using called a Pilot Frixion that is great for marking for embroidery and then when you hit it with an iron the ink disappears. Of course we went to Staples immediately after class and got our very own. If you put it in extreme cold, 14 and below according to the package, the ink reappears, we tried it out and put a test piece in the freezer and you could see the writing but it was very pale. I don't plan on putting my quilts in the freezer, so this works for me.

A little sewing

2011-02-26T20:47:00.000-08:00

A couple of weeks ago I got together with my friend Nancy for a day of quilt shopping. Among other things, we signed up for a couple of blocks of the month, including this one, and brought home the first two months' worth of kits...can we say labor intensive??? Last weekend we got together at her house and worked on this one. We both finished the big center block, hers was perfect, mine came out not so great, me and half square triangles do not play nice together. It was bugging me how bad mine came out, so I ended up ordering some replacement fabric from the Civil War Chronicles line and am going to re-do mine. This is a picture of the pattern, it's going to be a HUGE quilt!
This quilt has about five million and one half square triangles in it. Nancy convinced me that I needed to learn to chain piece if I was going to do all those HSTs. She was using a Precision Trimmer 6 on hers, me, not so much, and you could see why hers came out perfect and mine didn't. I thought I had one at home, and sure enough, I got home and looked and I did, it hadn't even been out of the package. So here you see what I did today, a bunch of those five million and one HSTs all chain stitched waiting to be squared up. I am IN LOVE with this tool. Look how perfect my HSTs are coming out with it.

And here is one of the four blocks like this that I have to make. I'm so happy, it came out exactly the dimensions the pattern said it should, and I didn't have one single chopped off point anywhere like I did in the middle block. I will finish up the other 3 of these and then I'm going to go back and re-do that center block. THEN I have a few other BOMs (this one, and this one to name a couple) that I signed up for that I have to tend to...There are others but I won't go into that...I don't know what it is with me and blocks of the month. That's all I have for now. I think I have some more sewing to do!

Oh, by the way, hubby and I were trying to watch the movie Inception tonight, and after about 45 minutes we just looked at each other scratching our heads and shrugged and turned it off. We decided we'll try to watch it again tomorrow. If anyone has seen it, can you please tell me if we should try watching it again. I hear it's really good. I felt really lost watching it.

2011-02-19T16:07:00.000-08:00

I recently entered a drawing over on Sharon's blog to win a fantastic prize and I won! I never win ANYTHING, so you know I was very excited. I got my package in the mail today, boy is it some cute stuff! I totally forgot to take a picture before I ran and put it in my sewing room, so I borrowed Sharon's picture to show all the goodies I got. There are a few less candies in the jar now. Oh, and it took about 30 seconds for hubby and I to eat the Godiva chocolates she included! Thank you Sharon! I love it all!

I also want to show you a picture of a cute little quilt I got from my friend Nan, Nan doesn't have a blog right now. Isn't this the cutest little quilt? It looks so cute in my kitchen. I looked high and lo and found the perfect little lamp to put on it. Thank you Nan, I love it!

Quilters sure are amazingly nice people and I am blessed to have several of them that I can call my friends!

Wordless Wednesday

2011-02-16T21:14:00.000-08:00

Well one word...SERIOUSLY???

February 14, 2011

2011-02-14T05:21:00.000-08:00

YHappy Valentine's Day!Y
@-->>-

Help!

2011-02-13T05:05:00.000-08:00

I had started on the mystery block of the month called Simply Sophisticated about 2 years ago and lost interest in it, it just wasn't doing it for me. Here's a picture of the fabrics used, it's Harvest Home by Blackbird Designs.

I finished all the blocks, had the setting triangles all cut out ready to go, and then got sidetracked with many other things I'm sure. Buying a house and moving being one of them. Well, 2011 seems to be the year of working on finishing some unfinished things for me, so I went in my closet and found the packet containing all the blocks and triangles and started sewing them together this weekend and oh no! There must be some missing that I can't find because I ran out of setting triangles! I have looked everywhere for them and I can't find them.

So my question is does anyone have any larger scraps of this fabric laying around in their stash that I could buy? I really want to finish this quilt and it's ridiculous how little fabric I need to do it, probably about 6 fat quarters would do it. I just can't figure out what I would have done with the rest of those triangles.

Anyway, if anyone can help me, it would be much appreciated!

2011-02-02T04:39:00.000-08:00

Again with the wind! The rest of the country is getting ice and snow, here in Southern California we're getting the Santa Ana winds...AGAIN! I got woken up at 3:00 and then at 4:00 by the wind hitting the bedroom wall so I just gave up and got up. It's trash day today so I was worried about our can, so there I was at 4:00 in the morning chasing our trash can down the street. I'm pretty sure the one I took it was ours, because ours was gone from in front of our house. If it's someone else's...oh well, ooops! Is it ever blowing out there, one gust almost knocked me over and I'm not a small girl! We used to get these winds when I was a kid but maybe once or twice a year, now we seem to get them every other week! Something has changed...

Nothing much going on in the way of crafting. I have 5 million projects in the works but nothing is getting done. I am going quilt shop hopping on Saturday so then I'm sure I'll have 5 million and 20 projects that aren't getting done!

Well wish I wasn't wide awake now, I have another hour before I have to get up for work, darn it!

2011-01-20T00:01:00.000-08:00

It's a windy night here in Southern California, I'm upstairs in my sewing room and a huge gust just hit the side of the house and it sounded like a freight train. I love wind like this, as long as it doesn't damage our house, that is.

I see I haven't written anything here in a while so I thought I'd show a picture of the quilt I have been working on the past few days. I started section one quite a while ago but just got around to sewing stuff on and decided I better get started on round two, this round has lots of applique. I'm using the freezer paper and starch method and then either hand sewing it or doing it on the machine. I still have to stitch down the stuff I just added on the left. I think it's coming out pretty cute, if I do say so myself.

Folkart Gatherings
By Cheri Payne

Well it's midnight and I just hit the wall, time for bed. I sometimes have a hard time getting motivated and getting up here to sew, but then when I finally do I get carried away and don't want to stop. I can't win.

2011-01-01T06:01:00.001-08:00

Wishes for a happy and prosperous 2011!

2010-12-24T05:49:00.000-08:00

Happy Holidays and a prosperous New Year!

2010-12-11T14:40:00.000-08:00

I recently saw this cute little freebie candle mat pattern at Sew Unique Creations and knew I had to make it. I see it is making its rounds on a few quilters' blogs. I have never made a candle mat before, it was a quick little thing to make, I started it this morning and just finished it. I have to say that I am not a fan of making the little tongues, so any candle mats in my future will not involve any of those! I was lucky to have just the right amount of blue wool in my stash, and I used black flannel for the back. The snowflakes were made using some silver Kreinik cord that I had in my stash.
Here is a picture. Not bad for my first attempt.

I have a couple of co-workers coming over tonight for margaritas and tasty treats so I have to get to the store. I have totally lost track of the time sitting here working all day on this little cutie!

Happy Thanksgiving Day!

2010-11-25T06:31:00.000-08:00

It's a windy and chilly day (currently 48 at my house, that's downright ARCTIC by Southern California standards), perfect for staying indoors and cooking. Nothing fancy, it's just going to be my husband and me and my daughter, but it's the only time of year I make a turkey. Yum! I just checked our maple tree in the front yard, right on schedule, the leaves turn and we get these strong Santa Ana winds, and poof, there go all the leaves down the street, no raking involved! Well, hope anyone reading my blog has a very pleasant Thanksgiving Day, save room for the pie!

@-->Beth<--@

2010-10-02T06:20:00.000-07:00

I have been spending a lot of time the past few days in my sewing room, but not on quilting, I have gotten the cross stitch bug again. Autumn seems to be the time when I feel like cross stitching for some reason, can't figure that one out. Here are a few of the small cross stitch finishes that I have made over the past few days. I am trying to make a bunch of the smaller ones to put in bowls or vases and to hang on my mini feather tree to display them. Here's a couple of pictures.

These are by Prairie Schooler, I just can't get enough of their patterns, I have dozens of them to choose from.

Tomorrow we're going to the Blue Angels air show down in San Diego, not looking forward to that, after last year when it took us 4 hours to get out of Edwards air force base for their air show because of how poorly the Air Force handled the traffic, I told hubby I would never go to another one of these shows, turns out the Navy is just as bad with traffic, every year we have gone to the Blue Angels it has taken us an average of 3 hours to get out of their parking lot...I might have to come up with some sudden illness...

A partial finish at least...

2010-09-11T18:55:00.000-07:00

I have been working on the first block of Cheri Payne's Folkart Gatherings (click for link to Cheri's website) for a while and I am so happy because today I got it all prepped and now I just have to stitch down the wool applique and I'm done, I can't wait to move on to Block Two! There are several gals in blogland who are working on this quilt. It is definitely a fun one! Here's a picture. If you click on it you can see it better. I sprayed it with some Distress It to knock the new off.

When I saw the shop sample of this one at Country Loft the other day, it said a four part series...I hope it's more! I am going to be sad if it's only four parts.

Well, since I've been up here in my sewing room almost the entire day, I'm sure my husband is feeling very neglected. I guess I'll be nice and go make dinner now.

Tootles!

2010-08-19T21:17:00.000-07:00

I have nothing to report on the quilting front, so I thought I'd share a couple of pictures I found on my computer tonight that I forgot all about. I swear, our animals... They think they're people.

This is Poof, we named her that because she's very fluffy, her eyes look funny because she is blind in the one that isn't glowing, from a battlefield injury, she used to be an outdoor cat, she thought she could get a little bit of lobster from my husband, no such luck.

Poof likes to watch TV, especially the Animal Planet, I am not kidding, you should see her when there is some sort of action stuff on TV!

Well that's the extent of my blogging for tonight. I'm debating if I want to go do some cross stitching. My husband gets up at 2:15 a.m. to go to work and his alarm woke me up this morning, and then I couldn't go back to sleep, so I got about 3 hours sleep last night, so the couch looks pretty inviting right now.

2010-08-14T12:04:00.000-07:00

Today I decided to pull out the ol' cross stitch bin and organize it in the hopes of finding a project I feel like working on...that there is a lot of patterns! And after all that, I still didn't find anything that screamed to me to make it. Tell me why I keep buying patterns?

2010-08-12T23:19:00.000-07:00

I've been back from our last vacation to the California Delta for a couple of weeks now. I have nothing finished to show. All those danged embroidery blocks I took up there with me and I never touched them, not once. The weather wasn't the greatest while we were up there either, it was in the low 70s and windy as heck the entire time we were there, not very good weather for taking the boat out fishing. One day we went out and it was so windy and choppy that you would have thought we were on the ocean rather than the Sacramento River! I have to say I was scared. But we finally got some nicer weather and it wasn't as windy and choppy and we went out fishing one day and had fun, went back to the RV park to get some more bait and when we went out again later in the evening, the boat had died! So our vacation was over a day early. Murphy's Law. We saw these little guys (or gals) hanging out on this buoy, so weird seeing seals in a river. My husband and I sure do love it up there, I told him I would love to live there someday, we shall see.

I decided I needed to make a new rotation list to get myself to work on an assortment of projects to keep me interested, so I now have an assortment of 7 projects that include cross stitch, wool crazy quilting and some embroidery. Oh, and I broke my No More BOM Rule and signed up for the A Little Porch Time BOM at Homestead Hearth. I know me and BOMs, but I'm going to try really hard to keep current on this one.

Going on Vacation...AGAIN!

2010-07-23T11:40:00.000-07:00

My gosh it's been a long time since I've posted anything here! Quite some time ago, though, I actually told myself I was getting sort of tired of blogging so I am only going to post if I finish something or if something exciting comes up. Well, since I haven't done much in the way of finishing anything, I guess I can say the vacation I have coming up is exciting! We went to the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone last month for a week and hung around the house for a week after that, and that was nice, but I felt so tired after all the driving we put in to go on that vacation, I racked up over 3000 on my truck in a week, I had the oil changed before we left and had to have it done again when we got back! Tomorrow we are leaving on our next vacation, just a week this time, we are hauling the boat up to the California Delta and we're also going to rent a motorhome in Sacramento and drive it over to an RV park that we've stayed at before and loved and just chill for a week! This will be a nice vacation! Just a lot of R&R! I am going to bring a couple of blocks of the Hocuspocusville quilt that I'm working on, and my Kindle, so I will have something to do in our downtime, the rest of the time we'll just be boating around and fishing and relaxing.

Tootles!

2010-07-11T22:21:00.001-07:00

I have been wanting to make this Wool Crazy quilt for a very long time. Yesterday I decided to jump in and give it a go. So not only did I make a 14 inch round one, but I also got to working on the applique on the large Wool Crazy one I had put together a couple of weeks ago but never got the nerve to start working on it. So now I have two Wool Crazies started. Here are a couple of pictures. My decorative stitches suck, of course I didn't read the directions thoroughly, the part that says to mark a line so you get them even....oh well, it just makes it more prim! Here is my 24X24 full sized one. Oh, I also missed the part where it said to work from the middle and work out...LOL I still need to sew down those little yellow flowers on the left and put my decorative stitches on the top part.

Here is my small 14 inch one. I didn't put backing or batting on this one. I wish I hadn't put the batting on the large one, it makes a huge mess when you do your sewing and I really don't see the use for it. I have a ton of Mill Hill crystal embellishments that I never used on a cross stitch project from a long time ago, so I am going to put a few of those here and there on these so I can get some use out of them. You probably can't tell from this picture but there is one on the little flower on the heart.

Well, I am going to see if I can at least finish up this one block that needs to be finished. It's been a very long day, I'm kind of too pooped to be sewing. This weekend sure flew by. But at least I have another week of vacation to look forward to in a couple of weeks.

Tootles.

Happy July 4th!

2010-07-04T06:00:00.000-07:00

Hubby and I have been on vacation for almost 2 weeks now, it is drawing to an end, we both go back to work on July 6, sigh. But, we have another one week vacation starting the week of July 25! Yay! We spent a week this vacation in the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone and the rest of the time just hanging out at home relaxing. Very pretty country, saw lots and lots and lots of wild life, very enjoyable. We like to see how many states we can cover on our road trips, this time it was 6. I told him someday we need to start hitting up the eastern states! The week we are taking at the end of this month is to the California Delta. We're going to haul the boat up there and rent a motor home when we get up there and spend a week doing nothing! More relaxing than driving 3000+ miles in a week like we just did!

I haven't done a bit of quilting in the past several days, I feel so guilty. We passed a couple of shops on our travels but I didn't stop at any. I started an embroidery project this weekend just because I had an urge to do some mindless embroidery. The next couple of days I am determined I am going to get some quilting in. Today is hubby's birthday, so I'll treat him to dinner or something today I guess.

Oh and I mentioned in my last post that I was going to be attending a Joann Mullaly Wool Crazy class at Country Loft this last week. Well, as it turned out, my truck's transmission started acting up on the drive back from vacation so the minute we got back the other day, it went to the shop. Thank goodness it is still under warranty, that would have been a very expensive repair! They had it for 3 days. I could have used hubby's car to go down there, but honestly, after having just driven all those miles for our vacation, I didn't have it in me to drive the 200+ mile round trip drive down there from my house!

That's about it. Tootles!

2010-06-10T05:34:00.000-07:00

I'm so excited, 10% because after next week I'm on vacation for 2 weeks and I timed it perfectly that I don't go back until after the 4th of July weekend, woohoo, the other 90% I'm excited is because I'm going to Country Loft on June 30 for one of the Wool Crazy classes with Jo Ann. I called down there to see if I could get into one of the classes since there are 3 that day, and was lucky enough that Jo Ann herself answered the phone, what a nice lady she is, and she gave me so many good pointers on this Wool Crazy quilt that I NEED to start but I haven't because I'm scared! She said that the classes are normally an ongoing thing but since I was driving from a distance (it takes me a little over an hour to get down to Country Loft, good thing or I'd be BROKE), that she would let me into one of the classes. I can't wait, and I'll get to finally see her quilt in person!

I need to get the background started of that Wool Crazy quilt before I go down there, but I have to admit I have been in a bit of a quilting slump the past few weeks, I have been hooked into knitting again, I'm currently working on two sweaters and I've started to build up my yarn stash again, I need to nip THAT in the bud right now. I de-stashed a bunch of yarn to a bloggy buddy because it was out of control and I don't need to be getting another huge stash in my house!

Well that is all I have to talk about right now. I just noticed that I hadn't posted in a very long time. Lately my blogging is only happening when I finish something and since I haven't done THAT in a very long time, well.....

Lady Liberty on Sweet Land of Liberty

2010-05-16T06:47:00.000-07:00

Ann in Columbia, MO commented on my post about my Sweet Land of Liberty quilt asking which Jan Patek book I used for the Lady Liberty modification I used. I'm sorry Ann, I can't answer you directly because you're set to no-reply so I hope you come back here and see the answer. I got it from her book entitled Lady Liberty, and the link is here if you're interested in getting your own copy.

I have had the best, long, lazy weekend this weekend! I took a vacation day on Friday and hubby and I went fishing, then yesterday he went scuba diving so I had the entire day to myself and I just mostly read, today he is going to an airshow with his work buddy at the local municipal airport, I am sooooo glad I am off the hook for that one, I've been to enough airshows thank you very much, so I plan to spend the entire day quilting! I want to see if I can get brave and start working on my Wool Crazy quilt. I have had the wool and pattern to make the version they are doing at Primitive Gatherings for quite some time, but I have been chicken. I think I just need to dive in and do it!

Hope everyone is having a super weekend! I need more coffee now!

2010-04-25T21:26:00.001-07:00

Saturday I drove down to Quilter's Coop to get some homespuns, oh my do they have a nice assortment, I bought a total of 24 cuts and fat quarters, and I also picked up a new to me Cheri Saffiote-Payne pattern that I've never seen before, it's called Country ABC's, it's in 3 parts, I don't see it on her website, so I'm wondering if maybe they found it in their stock room and put it out to sell. It was the only one they had. Well you know I nabbed it, I love all things Cheri!! I might have to go back next weekend and get some more homespuns, I am in love with this stuff right now.

So after I got back and all day today I've been working on the next block of the Sweet Land of Liberty quilt. I am almost finished with it, just need to put the wool stars on the pineapple and I can move onto the next block. For some reason, my pineapple top came out wrong, so I'm just going to strategically place one of the stars to cover the mistake. It is prim though, so I might just go with it. I also didn't make the little blocks at the bottom of my star block the right size, so I just added on a strip of fabric and voila! After all, it's prim! If you're familiar with this pattern, you will notice that I swapped out the Lady Liberty from another pattern, it's from a Jan Patek book, I got the idea from Libby. I didn't like the Lady Liberty much on the original, it looked more like a weird looking Santa Claus to me. Here's a picture of what I have so far. If you click on it you can see it in better detail.

Well that's all folks, it's been a nice relaxing weekend for me, but I have to go finish up the weekend laundry and get to bed soon. Back to work tomorrow. Sigh.

No quilting going on tonight...

2010-04-14T21:40:00.001-07:00

I'm just doing some organizing of quilts I am going to put into a rotation, right now 4 of them. Besides, how could I kick THAT off my ironing board?

2010-04-11T20:43:00.001-07:00

There wasn't too much sewing going on in my sewing room this weekend, but the fabric was flying! I decided it was time to get in there and organize it once and for all, it was never quite the way I liked it since we moved, so I got in there and tossed out anything that I wasn't using, I found a lot of notions that I said to myself, what the heck is this for, so they went bye bye. Then I re-organized my fabric shelf somewhat by color, got a couple of bins and separated my scraps by size, small and bigger, all kinds of spring cleaning. I spent today doing a wee bit more organizing and then I finished up the two blocks on the Sweet Land of Liberty quilt that I see I started in 2008, good grief, now I can move onto the next block. It's a fairly time consuming project, but fun, and I want this quilt badly! I figured I'd show a few pictures of my newly renovated and cleaned Quilt Cockpit, they are pretty much self explanatory. The looooong block on the wall is what I have finished of Sweet Land of Liberty.

Ok I've probably bored many people with this post, so here's where I'll end. I wish I had another day in my weekend!

2010-03-28T19:04:00.001-07:00

Well today I woke up with a cold, dang it. So I haven't done much of anything today, lots of laying around. Thankfully I have a scheduled day off from work tomorrow to recuperate a little. Dang it, I thought I was going to avoid getting sick this season, I haven't had ANYTHING all this time and have been around a lot of sick people since I use public transportation to work. Oh well.

My husband installed the ceiling fan he got me for my birthday in my sewing room today, it sure is nice in here now, it gets hot in here for some reason, I guess because the afternoon sun hits in here.

Here is the extent of the sewing I did today. I had bought this book quite some time ago with the plan to make it, but never got around to it. Now me and Colleen are talking about doing it together again, that had been the original plan. She has already done a few of the blocks, I just did this one today. It came out cute, a bit labor intensive, but cute nonetheless. It's a hard book to find, it's by the Country Threads people, I lucked out when I got mine, now I see you have to pay a lot for them on Amazon.

Garden Club Quilt, Block 9

Ok, well, that's all that I feel like writing about right now. I think I need to go lay down a bit. My head is all stuffy and I can't think straight. Oh shoot, I have to call my brother and wish him a happy birthday still. If my mom could have held out on me for 5 minutes, he and I would have had the same birthday only 4 years apart. His son and my daughter have the same birthday too, Halloween. We planned it that way. LOL Just kidding.

Tootles.

2010-03-27T19:30:00.000-07:00

Happy Spring!

Today is my 51st birthday.....Ugh. But I don't feel 51, I feel 30 still, I guess it's all a state of mind. Anyway, I got up at 4:45 and went to the gym! Then hubby and I started what we had to do today, cleaned our filthy house, ran some errands, and went to Home Depot. He got me a ceiling fan for my sewing room and this cute little red pot and some herbs and a mini rose to put in the kitchen window. I liked how it looked and had plenty of room left, so I went back to Home Depot for the little yellow pot and more herbs and another rose and now I have two of them sitting there. I don't know how long they'll last, they might end up crumping after a couple of weeks, but they were cheap, I'll just go buy more. The yellow one is sort of hanging on the edge there, but as long as the cats leave it alone and we don't get any huge earthquakes, it should be ok. Anyway, if we got a huge earthquake, who cares about the pot, right?

I see my windows need washing when looking at this picture. Those are little kitty nose prints you see there over the red pot, which is part of the reason I put those pots there, I want them to stay off the sink and go to a different window to look out, it's not like we have a shortage of windows in this house!

Happy weekend! I'm taking Monday off so I get a 3-day weekend myself. Yay!

2010-03-23T21:25:00.000-07:00

I just wasn't too much in the mood for sewing tonight, I just felt like browsing the internet and reading blogs. I have always wanted to make one of Bonnie's Maverick Star quilts, so I printed out the directions and went up to my sewing room to try it. I dragged my huge scrap bin over to the sewing cockpit and made a block, they are fun, but I sure had to think before sewing on each scrap, I don't think I should be having to think that hard for a liberated, maverick block. Maybe I'm just better at the complicated stuff. But I am going to plug along and make a few more of these, I have a lot of scraps to use up! Here's a picture of my first block. I think I need to put some different background fabric on these, this one is sort of boring.

Well, we had Mexican food for dinner tonight and I had way too many jalapenos and salsa so now I have heartburn big time. I'm going to go take some Pepcid now and watch some TV with hubby. He has one of our favorite home improvement shows on, that Holmes On Homes one I think it's called.

2010-03-21T20:33:00.000-07:00

This.......

...

...

Equals.....this!

I have a finished flimsy! Yay! Happy Dance tonight! I bought his Rouenneries kit at Sew Many Quilts when I went to Bend, Oregon to visit my family in November. I started it a few weeks ago, and it's been on my design wall since. Today I just sucked it up and finished it. It's not done exactly like the pattern, I did it the Beth Way, because frankly I was just tired of working on it and wanted to finish it. I had seen a shop sample at BJ's Quilts also in Bend and they had added a scrappy border on theirs so I did it the same way, I wanted it big enough to fit our king size bed. I will pay a quilter to have this behemoth quilted, there's no way I am doing it. It's going to cost me a small fortune to have it done, but it will look pretty on our bed.

I can't believe how fast this weekend went by. Sigh...

Early birthday surprise!

2010-03-17T19:57:00.000-07:00

My BFF Colleen surprised me with the most fantastic "squishy" for my birthday in the mail today! Would you look at this cute table topper quilt she made for me? And look at those pretty aqua pieces of fabric! I had told her someday I want to make an aqua and red quilt, but I need to collect aquas and reds first! They are harder to find when you are trying to collect them! And she and I and Sandy had a 9-patch swap going for the last several months, that is my final shipment from her there in the picture too. That was a fun swap, thank you Colleen and Sandy!
My daughter moved out of the house she was sharing and into her own apartment. I can't say I was very keen on the colors they had painted the place, but she loved them. Yikes! Check this one out, it would be perfect for a USC fan! My camera made the colors about 100% more subdued than they are in person! I think bright rooms like that are not very calming, especially in your bedroom, but she likes it. Her and that dumb dog, she drags her everyplace.

Well I'm off to my sewing room now. I still have to uphold my end of the deal and make a few more 9-patches for my swapees, shame on me.

Can't Decide if I Should be Scared or Go Buy a Lottery Ticket!

2010-03-16T21:51:00.000-07:00

Today here in Southern California we were jolted awake at 4:04 by a 4.4 magnitude earthquake, weird huh? Well, that's not all that was weird today. Hubby and I both woke up to just the house creaking a little, we live about 30 miles or so east from the epicenter which was near Whittier Narrows. I said, let's see if anything else happens, I guess it didn't because I fell back asleep. Later I woke up to a weird dream. In my dream I was walking in a very vibrant green, lush park with hubby, we were looking for my truck, we had lost my truck, this park was so incredibly green, with grass and trees everywhere, and we came up over a little hill and I saw a lake and a few people. In my dream I turned to hubby and asked him why the hell we were walking at Legg Lake? Then we walked a little further and I found my truck on the edge of a stream and there was a house on the other side of this stream. I remember seeing a very tiny fish in the stream and asked hubby what the fish was, he said a catfish. We got in my truck and drove through the stream to cross it and then I woke up. Ok, a dream analyst can step in any time here. LOL But the weirdest part of it all, I got up and fired up the USGS website to see if we had really felt an earthquake and when I saw it was centered in Whittier Narrows I just about fell off my chair...because Legg Lake is in Whittier Narrows! Weird huh? I'm not making it up, I couldn't make that up if I tried! So, I am trying to decide if I should be scared or if I should go buy a lottery ticket tomorrow!

Spring has arrived in Southern California...

2010-03-04T19:43:00.000-08:00

Oh I wish there was such a thing as Smell-O-Vision! My pink jasmine bush on the front porch, my favorite-est of ALL flowers, has started blooming already! Please excuse the fancy vase, that's all I could find right now. Aaaaaahhhhhh, it's heavenly.
Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go sniff my wonderful flowers a bit more. I can smell this tiny little sprig all the way over here in the kitchen!

My lovely father-in-law has been gone one year today....we still miss you John!

Spring Fever

2010-02-18T06:02:00.000-08:00

California Poppies

It has been so beautiful the past few days here in SoCal, I just don't want to go to work when I step outside and the sun is shining and the sky is blue. I just want to turn right around and go back in the house and sew all day long! I wish!!!! This is not my yard, this is just a random picture of a poppyfield someplace in California. I wish I could go there though rather than the 31st floor of the building I work in in LA!

I have done a little bit of sewing the past few days, but nothing to really show pictures of yet. I started working on the Rouenneries kit I bought when I was in Oregon last November. It really is an easy quilt, I could finish that thing in a couple of days if I really set my mind to it. I will show pictures when I get more done on that.

Well that's the extent of what I have to say, just wanted to say that I HAVE SPRING FEVER! My pink jasmine vines are already getting buds, can you believe it? I can't wait until they bloom, they are my favorite flower of all time. Tootles.

2010-01-31T16:18:00.000-08:00

Wow, I just saw that it's been a very long time since I posted on this here blog of mine. However, I have been busy crafting away on quilting and cross stitching, just not much to show. I am almost done with Block 1 of the Houses of Hawk Run Hollow, I was hoping to finish it by this weekend, but at the rate I'm going, probably it will take a couple more days. Cross stitch moves slow for me.

I have been doing a bit of quilting though. I got in and did some more reorganization of my sewing room to make it more inviting to sew in (or manufacturing and construction as my husband calls it) and it seems to have worked. I started a little table topper quilt that I bought in a kit a few weeks ago, it's not quite done, so no picture of that yet. Today, while organizing my orphan blocks, I got a bit sidetracked, I found just enough little 3 inch 9-patches to make a cute little doll size quilt, I got all the fabric needed from my stash too. It feels good to finish something, even if it is small. Here's a picture. I think if you click on it, you can see the colors better. The background is a really pretty deep brown I found in my Civil War bin.

Well I guess I'll get back up there and strike while the iron is hot as they say. I'm not wild about how bright the colors are in that other quilt I'm working on, so it might need a tea bath when it's done. I was right in the midst of watching Kate and Leopold on Netflix on my laptop so I have to finish that. For some reason I can't get DVD's to work in it, so I'm stuck with whatever Netflix offers instantly until I take to the Geed Squad.

Tootles!

2010-01-17T12:46:00.001-08:00

I'm on day 2 of my 3-day weekend. Yesterday was spent doing yard work and errands, today we cleaned house, and we're finished, so now my time is all mine! I found this tutorial to make tuck pillows to put finished cross stitch projects in for display. So, knowing myself and challenges, I got up in my sewing room and made a prototype. Man was this an easy little project, it probably only took me about a half hour to make. Now all I need is a cute little Halloween type cross stitch to put in it. Here's a picture. It felt good to get in my room and sew a bit. I have a quilt kit out that I want to start working on, so maybe this will get me motivated.

You'd never guess it from the beautiful weather we're having right now, but it's supposed to start raining here tonight and continue raining until NEXT Monday. I'll believe it when I see it. We sure do need the rain though.

Well I'm going to head back up to my sewing room now. I have been telling myself I need to go through my huge scrap bin and at least organize it so I can close the lid.

Tootles.

2010-01-15T09:41:00.000-08:00

I keep seeing the on the news all the sadness and pain that is going on right now in Haiti, it just breaks my heart, for example, I saw a young boy who was getting stitches on his leg without anesthesia, and his cries of pain just made me want to cry. I can't even imagine the suffering. Well, I don't want to imagine, because I am sitting here on a huge earthquake fault myself, it's called Southern California. Anyway, I sit here and think how pretty danged lucky we are that this sort of tragedy hasn't happened to us here, but if it did, I know I sure would appreciate it if fellow human beings would come to our aid. I hear horrible comments from the Pat Robertsons and Rush Limbaughs of the world and I just don't know how anyone can say the sort of things those kind of people say. Anyway, I digress. I made a donation to the Red Cross last night and even though it wasn't a huge amount of money, my $20 added to another person's $20, and another's $5, think of all the good that could do? It made me feel pretty darned good. So if you can afford to donate a few bucks, I know for sure it would be appreciated by many people. And heck, it's good for your Karma!

On a happier note, lately, I seem to have lost my quilting mojo. It will come back, my attention span with my crafts ebbs and flows it seems. Right now I'm all hot into cross stitch. I have a very ambitious set of projects I'm working on right now. They are from the designer Carriage House Samplings, I love her designs, they are called the Hawk Run Hollow series. Here are pictures of what they will look like when I eventually finish. I am rotating them so hopefully I'll get all 4 of them done by the end of the year. That's my ambitious goal at least. I hear she's coming out with an Autumn at Hawk Run Hollow in a couple of months, so that could throw a wrench into the gears...

Christmas at Hawk Run Hollow

Shores of Hawk Run Hollow

Village of Hawk Run Hollow

Houses of Hawk Run Hollow

Oh, I decided to update this post to add this one, it's called Paradise Lost, I might have to throw that one into the rotation too. I just love this one. Sheesh, everything has to be labor intensive for me or I get bored.

Paradise Lost

Well, TGIF and the start of a long 3 day weekend for me! Yay!!

Happy 2010!

2010-01-01T07:26:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year, here's to the start of a new decade!

2009-12-25T06:00:00.000-08:00

Happy Holidays!

Happy Winter Solstice!

2009-12-21T05:52:00.000-08:00

Today is the first day of winter. Nope, this isn't where I live, I live in Southern California and we don't have seasons here, we just seem to have warm, warm, warmer and hot here anymore these days, the climate is changing so much. I told my husband whenever we retire, I want to move to a place that has seasons.

I don't have anything else to report for my weekend. Did a whole lot of nothing really. I keep picking out quilt kits out of my massive stockpile of them, and then I change my mind and put it back and pick another one. I have one out now that I think I really want to start. The colors are so pretty. It looks like a pretty simple pattern, I need a finish under my belt to get me motivated.

Well, that's it, tootles!

2009-12-14T11:58:00.001-08:00

I was working merrily along on the "A" block I started the other day for the Prairie Schooler ABC Bee and wham, I found that I had made a counting mistake (NOTE TO SELF: DON'T stitch when husband is talking). I decided to keep going and start working on the block from the bottom up and meet up at the boat where I made my mistake and improvise, well, it just kept getting worse, I think that block was doomed and it was starting to tick me off. Started thinking I needed to start this project from the bottom and work up, so, with that said, here's my re-start on a fresh piece of fabric from the bottom up with the "S" block. It's coming along fairly quickly now. I ordered some 25 count fabric, but I don't think I have it in me to re-start AGAIN, so I'm just going to keep going.
We had rain most of the weekend here in SoCal which made for some very nice stitching weather. I sure didn't want to go to work today!

2009-12-06T18:17:00.000-08:00

I had a fun day yesterday, I went and spent the entire day stitching with a SoCal cross stitching group that I met on Yahoo Groups, and did nothing but yap and stitch for like 8 hours straight, it was heaven! Here is what I got accomplished on the Prairie Schooler sampler I am doing, it's stitched 1 over 1 so it is going to take me quite some time to finish this baby.
On the quilting front, I have done none. But I did manage (after much frustration tonight) to update my iPod and get this app uploaded. I love the hundreds of fun apps there are to choose from for these things, they are like an expensive toy! I wish I had an iPhone, it would make it a lot easier to get some of these apps, but maybe someday Verizon will get to sell them, I refuse to switch to AT&T, I have them for our home phone and I'm less than thrilled with them.
Well, that's all I have to talk about tonight. Hubby went to a party at some scuba diving buddy's house, I was going to go but when he said I didn't have to go, man, you didn't have to ask me twice! We're supposed to get rain later on tonight, so I really don't want to be out in it if it really does arrive.

2009-12-01T12:48:00.002-08:00

Tis the season! I don't think I'll ever get tired of this video!

Happy Thanksgiving!

2009-11-26T06:00:00.000-08:00

I am thankful for so much this year...a new gorgeous house and our jobs, both our physical and financial health, both children out of the house (for now LOL), all the BFFs I've made out there in blogland, and so much more. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

***

A Little Something

2009-11-24T06:00:00.001-08:00

Just a little something to show I've been cross stitching and using a wee bit of all that huge pile of cross stitch stuff I just bought.

It's the Bear and Bees pattern from Prairie Schooler. I got my inspiration to do it here. It is teeny! I had to upgrade to those 2.50 readers there because it's being stitched 1 over 1 on 32 count linen. But I hope to finish it up into a needle case like the inspiration piece to give to my mom at Christmas. She is 90 but still doing cross stitch, can you believe it?

Well, that's all the time I have right now, I need to get ready for work, just wanted to pop in and share what I am working on. I hope to get a lot more stitching and quilting done this long weekend coming up.

Sigh...

2009-11-20T20:27:00.001-08:00

Remember I said I'm on a cross stitching thing now and quilting has taken the back burner? Well, I decided to order some of my favorite patterns, I adore Prairie Schooler patterns and I guess I decided I didn't have enough already, so here's a picture of more that I ordered and got today. I still have 15 more in a pending order! Goodnight! I also guess I decided I needed some fabric to stitch all that stuff on, so look at that pile of linen I got. All of this was from 123 Stitch, so at least I did get a little discount. I swear, I can't just do anything half way, I have to go all out 150% when I do stuff!

Ok, I obviously need to go do some cross stitch don't you think?