Weekends are too short!

I had a fair amount of work to do this weekend, plus a dog sit, and I tried to help Michael with the weeding. I need to rethink that "volunteering for weed duty".... I managed to twist my knee and strain my back making an unplanned descent (fall!) on the slope.... Grrrr.

I did manage to make some Grip It and Rip It bread. It was pronounced a success by Michael. I'm having fits getting links in my post tonight, so just copy this link into your browser if you want the recipe for the best cheese bread E-Var!

http://blog.kingarthurflour.com/2008/03/28/hot-cheese-bread-grip-it-and-rip-it/

I was feeling a little better by day's end today and climbing the stairs much better, so I spent some time in the sewing room. A certain young lady I know has a birthday next month (not Karen!) and she loves cupcakes....

So I decided to make some cupcake pot holders....

I've been saving these buttons, and holding on to this idea for months, and I finally got around to it. I found an image on-line that I liked and enlarged it until it was what I was looking for and made a pattern from that.

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Tomorrow I have a bunch of work. What is it with these doctors who insist on dictating on the weekends.... oh wait. Work is a good thing. Dictation means typing means money means fabric.

Yay!

But after the work is done, I plan on putting borders on an Irish Chain quilt for the crisis center. Then I plan to start quilting some of the tops I've made, before making any more. I'm saving a double bed quilt for Yvette to practice on....and maybe a twin! But the baby quilts, and the other twin tops made so far, I need to quilt and bind. I don't want to save that for the very end and be looking at all of them at once!

:)

A good day!

I had a really wonderful birthday. I got cards from sweet friends. I got gorgeous flowers from my thoughtful sister!
















I got a sweet card and a certificate for the J-store from Karen (I do love me some J-store bargains!) and I plan to get stabilizer and maybe some Misty Fuze for some projects I'm contemplating! I also got this beautiful necklace and earrings from Karen.... Wow!

















I love them! Karen has excellent taste!! :)

I got all kinds of presents from Michael! I guess it must have been because I'm Double Nickles this year (55) that I got matching gift certificates from M&Ls fabric store! Whooo hooo!

















I also got this adorable piggy bank. Is he not the cutest thing? (He has a pink sister living in Karen's room!)

















(Sorry, I'm sitting sideways here, admiring his paisley designs!) See the fat quarters right in front of me? I haven't stopped patting them yet!

When we finished celebrating, I went upstairs and decided to experiment with a new stabilizer that is for lighter weight fabrics, and I decorated two basic tee-shirts.





































They turned out pretty well, so I plan to get more of the stabilizer and keep on decorating all the tee-shirts I found when I cleaned out my sewing room!

Then I finished up the last two five inch blocks for the Saturday Sampler this month. Here is the ten inch block and the three five inch blocks. I could have picked better contrasting materials on one of them, but I'm pleased overall.
















I'm all wound down! The End!

Weather and Progress!

Look at these pictures of the weather that blew through here tonight! These were taken from my girls' bedroom windows, between the raindrops on the windowpanes!



















































It was over so fast but it was a really awesome few minutes!


And here's what I was working on in the sewing room tonight.

















Above is this month's ten-inch block for Saturday Sampler, at the Orange Quilt Bee.
















And here is the pile of teentsy pieces I was working with for the three five-inch blocks.


















I got a little better once I started extra trimming up and making sure things were "okay" at various stages along the way. A bit of pressing seams OPEN may have occurred to reduce bulk!


Here's the first of the three little blocks.

















I have the centers of the other two done, but I am Le Tired, and tomorrow is another day!
















Or rather today is! It's now Wednesday and hey, I'm 55!!!! Whoo hooo! :)

Sure took me long enough...

I finished the Do What You Love wallhanging! I echo quilted it a little and stitched in the ditch a bit too.

I found some material for the binding that had been used at LEAST twenty years ago to make Michael a tie! He still has the tie and one other one I made... I still have the fabric from both. So I pulled it from the stash and bound the wall hanging with it.

All done. This project took me forEVER. You'd think I was making TWO, it took so long.

Oh. Wait.

(click to embiggen)

Yeah, I did! One was supposed to be my sister's Christmas present.... Oopsie! For hers, I added little tabs and for her/our birthday, I got her a hanger for it.

She's knee deep in a big remodeling project in her home and she will be hanging this in the new part of their house! Yay!! Mine is in my sewing room. I'm contemplating where to hang it for good, but for now, it's up in the sewing room where I can see it!

And since it will be her/our birthday by the time I finish this post, let me say a huge heartfelt HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO US!! Jacque was/is my best birthday present ever, and she arrived on my third birthday!

I'm going to not tempt Blogger to give me fits. I will end this post and start another one above this one, with a peek at sewing from tonight.

:)

Yorba Linda Tea Party 2010

Michael wanted company as he attended the Tea Party in Yorba Linda this afternoon, so I tagged along to take pictures! It was a very well-organized event, with lots of signs, lots of families, lots of enthusiasm!

I've made a slideshow that is huge and don't want to eat up my blog space, so I am posting a link here that will take anyone interested to the 65 or so pix I took, in my Photo Bucket account.


Here are some of the cutest things I saw while there:





































Now, I don't necessarily agree with or condone every single one of the slogans or pictures shown. A phrase I've heard at meetings recently comes to mind: Take what you like and leave the rest! That being said, here is the link for the slideshow:



LINK

:)

Time to Quilt a Wallhanging....

Here's my finished "Do What You Love With All Your Heart" top! Don't look too closely at the embroidery - it was done through cloth, interfacing and Wonder-Under - my fingertips are sore!





















I've brought my Janome 1600 down to the dining room table and I plan to stitch in the ditch around each "shelf" block, and then MAYBE echo quilt the big items, like around the sewing machine, the kitty, etc. I'm not sure if it needs much else? Maybe a bit of loopies in the outer border?

Anyway, after that, I can bind it and get it on the wall! Yay!

Also, here's a book I highly recommend. I've had it forever, but I pulled it out to look for patterns for the Crisis Center quilts and hit pay dirt. Right now I'm doing one that is Oh-Sew-Easy (my description, not the name) but gives a really pretty finish....

Karen held the curling top down for me to take the picture..... note the springy yellow nailpolish!

































See how simple? A simple band of black gets put on two sides of the four patch and then they get put together kind of at 90 degree angles to each other.... Fast and pretty! Can't wait to show this one when it's finished! Should not be long!

The color is not accurate on this square, as the pink is really darker/dustier and the floral matches it!

Here's a picture of the fabrics I've pulled from stash for this quilt...


















(you can click to embiggen)


















I'm loving the black on black print for this one! Wish I could find more of this fabric!! (I found it at M&L's!)

Wishing everyone a great week! :)