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! :)

Next top for crisis centers...

I do not like borders. But I slogged through these last night - the top had been done for a few days and it was bugging me that this was not "finished".

































I'm thinking Yvette can have a field day on this one. She has taken a class and is eligible to rent a long arm at a shop near her.... I told her I could cover the rent (though she is arguing with me about that already!) - and she can practice on the three double bed sized quilts!!

This has much open, simple space in which to play. Even a panto would be perfect.... It will be fun to see how this one finishes up!

Now that that one is off my plate.... I'm going digging in the bin for the next one for the Crisis Center and should be able to start this weekend. :)

Saturday, Saturday, Saturday Night's Alright....

It was a good day. Typing got done. Then we went out to dinner, Michael, Karen and I, to celebrate Michael's finishing up of the taxe returns....federal, state, personal, kids, friends, and the 4,592 page corporate return - you name it, they're done. We went to the Cheesecake Factory and as usual had a fantastic meal. We have yet to be disappointed there!

I came home and did some sewing. Last night, I got the ten inch block for this month's Saturday Sampler done..
















This one was fun!

Then tonight, I tackled the three accompanying five inch blocks.

















Little pieces! (Glasses included in the pic to show how small the fabric bits were!)
















By the second one, I was zipping along and chaining significant sections.

















And here's my three! I'm loving these. They are hard enough to be challenging, but not so hard that I miss out on that sense of satisfaction when I'm done!

Tomorrow afternoon, Karene is coming over to sew. I'm not sure what she's stitching, but I hope to get a significant portion of a Crisis Center quilt top completed! Would be cool if I could complete it! A lofty goal, but if I don't aim high, it will be next winter and they won't all be done!!

:)

Being Green!

I'm not getting as much sewing done as I'd like.... but then, I'm not sure there would ever be a time when I got as much done as I liked!

I did have a chance to make a birthday present for my Mom this past weekend. She doesn't read my blog, so I can show it.... ;)

She was "green" before being green was cool. She has recycled as long as I can remember, and she is frugal, with a Capital F!! She and Dad take great delight in being good stewards of their finances, and she often saves WAY more than she spends at the grocery store with coupons, sales, etc. That allows them to purchase some things on the "wish list" for the Womens' Crisis Centers in their town, and they sometimes stop on their way home from the store to drop off some goodies they have scored with coupons, etc.

Anyway, I thought she might enjoy some cloth grocery sacks. I believe her store gives her a certain number of pennies off her order for each bag they don't have to provide for her, so here are two she can use, and if it's ever necessary, wash and reuse!

I got my embroidery machine going, making a cute design for each of the two bags I was making...

















At the same time that I was constructing the basic bags on another machine! Efficiency!

I hit stash for this project, and of course, chose a green print for the outside....

















and a somewhat coordinating print with green in it, for the inside.

























































Voila! I tucked two grocery pads in, each with an owl design (Mom collects owls and, at last count, Dad said there were 450+ owls in the house!) Happy Birthday Mom!!

Next project!
















I'll be making another quilt top for the Crisis Centers this weekend. I cut this full-size one from stash, and realized afterwards that I had enough to also cut an additional twin size.


And I still have some of this fabric left. So I'm headed back to M&L's for additional gold (I know I saw more there!) and more white-on-off-white print.... There is a room at the center called the "family room" which has a double, two twins and a crib bed..... perhaps I will end up with coordinating quilts for the "big" beds in that room!



I hope to have a meeting of the "Red Hot Sew'n Sews" (our quilting friends group) and make string blocks for a few quilts for the Centers also! Just gotta set a date and shovel out the downstairs so everyone can sew here!



Sew Many Ideas, Sew Little Time!

Crisis Center Quilt Top #1

Here’s the first finished quilt top for the Crisis Centers my dad and mom work with. I will layer it with batting and backing tomorrow, pin it, and then start quilting it all together. It's an easy pattern (Take Five Gets the Point) but I had fits with it when I was arranging the blocks.... completely pilot error, I'm sure. I’m not entirely happy with it, but it has the colorful and scrappy look I was going for, and I think I’ll like it MUCH better when it’s quilted and has the binding on it. I'm giving thought to trying some quilting patterns with my embroidery machine around the sides.... but I may get over that in an effort to get going on quilt top #2.
















I have enough scraps left over (and this was donated fabric from sweet Ms. Ellen to start with!) to make several Sunbonnet Sue blocks and I hope to do this with scraps from each quilt I make, thereby gaining a whole ‘nuther quilt at the end of this project, with bits and scraps from each quilt along the way.

The Little People took the opportunity to test the quilt top for softness and check it out as a wrestling surface.






























Tuffboy goes for the throat!
















And Kimi retaliates with an assault on his leg! That’s my girl!

I made Chicken Piccata from Pioneer Woman's website for dinner and DH said it was was great. In fact he suggested I write to her and mention that so far, every dinner and dessert I've made from her recipes has been a "keeper". (Last night there may have been some funnel cakes made using a recipe from her Tasty Kitchen site, that made us think it was August and time for the Orange County Fair!)

Good night!