I have been busy

Well, I told you I was going to do some sewing today. I would have liked to accomplish more, but I got tied up doing housework! I had issues with my vacuum cleaner and it took more time to fix than I thought it would.

Anyway, here is what I accomplished.



This is a mug rug I made for a swap I am involved in. It took me longer than I thought, it was one of those projects that went wrong at every turn. I am happy with the way it turned out though. The photo doesn't do it justice.



The above photo is the apron I made for my swap partner. The pattern was a freebie from Joann Fabric. I had to make a few changes to it, but once I got going with it, it was ok. I used a gathering foot for the first time. It certainly did make the gathering easier. It took a bit of playing around with tensions and stitch length. I was able to gather and attach it to the apron at the same time. Boy, was it a time saver once I figured it out! Has anyone out there used a gathering foot before? Did you enjoy using it?




This is my pretty little puppy, Daisy. She is as worn out as I am!

Have a wonderful weekend! I will be stacking the 1 ton truck load of firewood that was delivered today! Oh yeah, did I mention we are not supposed to get above 36 degrees for a full week!

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Better Late Than Never

It was my 35th ... 43rd... well, lets just say I had a birthday on the 18th of November. Big left work early and we went shopping and out to eat. It was a great day. The next day I had lunch with my buds Lisa and Heidi. We ate at a Mexican food restaurant. Our waitress put sombreros on us and brought us fried ice cream! It was great! Heidi snapped a photo of Lisa and myself with the hats and a glob of whipped cream on our nose. Sorry it is not the greatest photo! We had a really good time.



This is a photo of a really great Thanksgiving turkey. It was delicious - we still have a few leftovers, yum.



Tomorrow I will be staying home and sewing. I have a lot of crafty catching up to do. I will be posting photos of my progress.

Hope everyone is doing well!

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Hi all

Hi everyone. I have been missing in action again. It seems life keeps getting in the way.

This will be a short post because I am exhausted! As you know (or maybe you don't) I went to work last week. I enjoy the work, but I am not sure if I like working! It is really a case of "the grass is greener on the other side." When I wasn't working, I thought I needed to work, keep busy and earn money. Now I am working and I keep thinking I wish I were home! I am adjusting, but I am sure I won't really be fully adjusted till the end of this week.

So, I am off to bed, but I thought I would share a photo of our kitty, Monet.

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Magic Happened!

Hi all! I can't find my camera, so I can't show you any photos of what I have been working on. Magic did happen with my Moebius! It looks really pretty. I will be hunting for the camera so I can show you some photos.

I also made an apron and I am very happy with it. I had to make the pattern myself! I am very impressed with myself!

The Baby was here over the weekend. It was so nice to have her home. She was in her room working on a paper most of the time, but knowing she was home made me happy. The three of us were able to watch a movie on Saturday night, that was fun. I will pick The Baby up at 9:00 a.m. on Wednesday of next week for Thanksgiving break. I am excited to have her home for 5 days!

Well, that is all until I find my camera. I am off to work on Christmas presents!

Oh yeah, I am thinking of getting in to re-fashioning some clothing, mostly things for The Baby. I found this great site and it is really inspiring me. Check it out - Grosgrain. Her sweater re-makes are wonderful. I wish I had the brain power to look at something like an ugly sweater and think of a way to change it. I can copy though!

I also want to make a scarf like this.


Isn't it cute? I found it at Presser Foot. Go check it out - it looks easy and might make a nice Christmas gift.

Hope you all are having a great day!


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What I am working on

Hello all! I finished training yesterday and now am ready to go out in the world and earn my keep. I have not worked outside the home in many years. I am both excited and scared.



Isn't this cowl beautiful? It is called a Moebius or infinity cowl. I am in the process of making one for myself and if I like it, I may make more. The instructions say you twist the first stitch. I have never twisted a stitch before, so I went on a search of how to do and and found a video to guide me. You turn the first stitch 180 degrees and then start to knit as you regularly would. Magic is supposed to happen!



This jumbled cluster f**k of yarn is my Moebius! I am not seeing the magic yet! Big said, "Yeah, it looks magic, I think you could stick your hand in there and pull out a rabbit!" I showed her the only sign language I have ever learned. That shut her up for a while. I am hoping the magic will happen when I get it off the needles, if not I will be unraveling it and looking for another pattern.

I am off to get The Baby. I may or may not post this weekend, but I will be thinking of all of you and hoping you are having a great weekend!

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Not much to say

Hi everyone! I have been in training all day today and will be in training tomorrow also. I have decided to get a part time job. I will be a home health aid and hope to work less than 20 hours a week. Most of the clients are elderly and can't get about too well. To be honest, there are days when I don't really want to go back to work, I just want to stay home and sew and craft. Then there are days I really crave interaction with another human and the opportunity to get out of the house. The money will come in handy also! So I will get back to everyone in a day or so.

I am very excited about The Baby coming home on Friday. I will take her back on Sunday, but I am happy for any time I get with her. She has not been feeling well for about a month and has been so busy that I think she has run out of steam. She is in need of some serious Mama love.

Talk to you all soon - hope you are doing well!

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Friendship

I have been very busy lately and kept telling myself I would post later and later never came!

For the past week or so, when I have gone to get the mail, I have had the pleasure of finding a little extra somethin, somethin in the mail box.

The first was a gift from Marg at Sunshine, Paradise. She felt sorry for me when she heard that we were having a cold snap. Marg had made Mrs. P a hot water bottle cover and I said how much I liked it. She took that as a hint and made a wonderful blue one for me. Guess what? The name of the yarn is Cynthia! Marg said she thought it was meant to be! She also sent some Tim Tams (which I love) and a new treat - Cadburys Koala Bears. Yumm....chocolate and Carmel. Thanks again Marg, the hot water bottle cover has come in very handy!



A few days later, my new friend Carin mailed a wonderful Dutch windmill pincushion and licorice to me. I had seen a post she had written where she stated she had never tried candy corn. I couldn't believe she had never tried it. I got her address, hurried to the store to get some candy corn and mailed it to her. She and her family loved them and as a thank you gift I received the pincushion and the licorice. I love them both. The licorice remind me of my German Grandmother. She used to mail little black licorice cats to me at Christmas time.




When I went to the mailbox today, I received a package from my friend Shirley at Shirley's Twisted Threads. She had a little giveaway and I was the winner! Just look at the beautiful things she sent. I "met" Shirley at Stitching Fingers. She had posted some of the most beautiful handwork I had ever seen. I was introduced to Blackwork because of her. She is going through some hard times right now and my heart goes out to her.




I hope that you will visit these wonderful women and perhaps you will become their friends also. Their work is beautiful and so is their friendship.

Hope you are all well.

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Help Please

I told you I would post a photo about a quilt I am making for an old family friend. I need help deciding how to quilt it. I am thinking I may just do some good old fashioned stitch in the ditch. What do you think?

The fabric in this quilt is from projects I have made and from projects the recipient had passed on to me. Krys P. has been a family friend for about 45 - 50 years. She was the wife of my fathers commanding officer when I was a little girl. She did a lot of sewing for her 2 girls when they were young. I have a feeling many of the fabrics were from things her girls proudly wore. Krys now has Macular Degeneration and will soon have to go to an assisted living facility. I had hoped the quilt would give her comfort when she has to leave her home. My mother lives in the same city as Krys and will take her the quilt this Christmas.

I look forward to hearing what you think.

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Walking the Dog

Big has decided "WE" need to get healthier. She is a big fan of the gym, I am not. I am happy to sit on my big butt and sew, quilt, knit, crochet, etc. I do walk the dog everyday, but according to Big, walking around the block is not enough exercise for me.

While Big was on vacation last week, we began to take the dog to the park for a walk. It is a nice park. It has a flat surface, which around here is prime. They supply you with poop bags, which is also prime. If I walk the whole loop, I get in a nice 2 mile walk.

I strive to make Big happy, so I decided to take myself and the dog for a walk at the park this morning. I even rolled out of bed early so that I could get on the path early. I looked out the window, saw the sun was shining and decided a sweatshirt would keep me warm. I think I must have been having a hot flash at this time and those make my mind fuzzy and I don't always think straight. When I got in the car I had to run the defroster, I must have still be in my hot flash mode. I got to the park, got the dog poop bags and started my walk. Dude, it was freaking cold! I thought about turning back, but wanted to make Big happy, so I kept going.

I noticed many other walkers. They were smart, they had hats and gloves and jackets! They must have been seasoned walkers. I figured if I kept walking I would warm up. I kept picking up my speed, it wasn't helping. I began to hope the dog would poop so I could pick it up in my little bag and hold it in my hands. I know, gross, but I was on the verge of frost bite at this time!

There were some old guys walking the track. They were walking in the opposite direction as me and as they passed they would smile, say good morning and look at my chest. I looked down to see if I had spilled something on my shirt and forgot about it, only to realize I didn't put a bra on this morning. My breasties were swinging like a Metronome! The faster I walked, the more they swung! It was if they were keeping a silent beat for my feet to follow.

It was at this point I realized I had to pee. The bathroom was still a good bit away and I began to consider peeing my pants. I thought it would help me get warm and possibly run all the way down my legs to my feet and thaw my frozen toes. I then realized it would only make me colder once the warmness went away and I might have a hard time explaining the icicles hanging off my butt. I tried to walk faster, but I kept stumbling because of the numbness in my toes. (I had always heard how important toes were for balance.)

I finally made it to the car. I got in, cranked the engine, turned the heater on full blast, put my hands between my legs and began to make a sort of moaning noise of happiness. Remember those old guys who were looking at my chest earlier? You should have seen them looking at me now!


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I survied!

I survived Big being on vacation! Yeah, cheers to me! I love it when she is home, but it totally throws my schedule off. When home alone, I wake up and have a couple cups of coffee and blog. Well, when Big is home, she wants to sit with me so we can "chat" and that means no blogging. Mind you, I enjoy "chatting" with her, but don't necessarily like being off my schedule. I think it does something to my moods. By the end of the week, Big kept saying, "Don't you need to blog? Shouldn't you be on the computer?" I guess my moodiness was noticeable.

On Thursday, Big and I did some shopping and went to see the movie "Red." It was full of action and was pretty funny at the same time. I love Bruce Willis. (Perhaps you can remember I gave him two massages! It is my claim to fame!!) If you are a person who enjoys going to the movies, this would be a good one! We prefer Netflix and the comfort of our home, but sometimes it is fun to go out on a "date."

On Friday, I met up with my friend Lisa and we did some sewing/quilting. I am working on a scrap quilt for an old family friend. I have the squares finished and will post them tomorrow. Put on your thinking caps, because I have some questions about the quilting of it.

You know the saying, "I just had a blond moment"? (hmmm..not sure about the punctuation there) I realized that I have a lot of blond moments lately. The problem is that I have more grey hair than blond hair. I think I will begin to say, "I just had a grey moment." I think I have enough grey to qualify. What do you think?



Hope you are all doing well and had a nice weekend. I am making a promise to myself to get back to regular blogging. Tomorrow, I will share photos of the quilt blocks and of some very special gifts from some very special friends.


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Thank you

Thank you everyone for the nice comments about my cousin and father. I appreciate the love and kindness you all have sent.
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I have been away for a few days

I have been not been blogging for a few days again. There are a few reasons for this.

One of reasons is that Big had Friday of last week off and will be home all this week. She had a big review at work and it was a lot of work to prepare for it. Her review went very well and I am happy for her. She thinks she will be sleeping late and relaxing, she hasn't seen the Honey Do list yet!

My cousin Helga passed late Saturday afternoon. She had been having some bad days so her boyfriend (partner/companion) called her son and told him to come home. She passed peacefully and was holding the hands of the two people that meant more to her than anything. I think it was a good way to let go. I feel so bad for her son and her partner. It will be hard for them to move on.

My father passed on October 30th, 7 years ago. This time of the year is always hard for me. My father and I were not close and, at times, didn't have much to do with each other. I was able to make peace with him when The Baby was born. He was able to show her the love he was never able to show me or many other people. He and I connected a few years before he passed and I am glad for that.

I will be back in full swing tomorrow - hope you are all doing well.

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Photos!!

At long last, blogger will let me post some photos.

Here is a shot of the "chicken wall" Big and I built 2 weekends ago. Neither Big or I suffered any emotional or physical injures! Now the chickens have to stay behind the wall at night. It will make Chicken Poop Sundays much easier.



These are the squares that I made for a Halloween swap I am involved in. I was supposed to mail them a couple days ago. Apparently my father's favorite statement, "Punctuality is a trait of leadership," doesn't work when making quilt squares.



I have been working on this table runner for a few weeks. It is almost finished. I just have to sew in the ends and tack the pieces together. I hope to finish it in the next couple days.



I love seeing the pet photos you all post, so I thought I would post one myself. This is my sweet little puppy, Daisy. She goes with me everywhere. She gets cold easily, so I am always covering her with something. This time it happened to be a sweatshirt I had on. She is laying on a sofa I have in my sewing room, it is an antique and needs to be reupholstered.



I will post more tomorrow, it is getting late and my eyes are crossing!

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What I Have Been Up To

Hi all! I had some really great photos that chronicled the past week or so of my life. For some reason, Blogger doesn't want me to post them. So, I will try again tomorrow.

I will say that it has been a good week for me. I won some beautiful earrings, a great book from Michelle (a couple weeks ago) and some fabric from a Fall into Fall blog hop I was following. Big had Columbus Day off last Monday, so we finally got around to building a wall to keep the chickens in the back of our garage. Big and I managed to not kill each other!

I have been working on some Halloween blocks and a Halloween table runner. Tomorrow I will have some wood delivered so we can have some nice and warm fires in the cold weather.

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Quick post, no photos

This was one of those days that wasn't bad and it wasn't good either.

It is still freaking cold and rainy. It should be in the 70's but it is in the 40's and 50's.

Big and I were supposed to go to a quilt Shop Hop this Friday and Saturday. Big planned on taking Friday off and we were going to visit 16 quilt shops in 3 states. We were to start in West Virginia and then go on to Ohio. We were going to spend the night in Ohio. On to Kentucky on Saturday and then make our way home. Can you believe some inmates decided this week was the right time to have a gang war! Can you believe the big dude from the Regional Office decided this was the right time to visit the prison! Didn't they look at the calendar and see how important this weekend is to me? Oh well, we will get to go to a few of the shops on Saturday so I guess it is not a total loss.

I was all psyched up to work on my table topper today. I got everything ready, practiced a little and decided I was ready. My thread broke twice and I was getting very frustrated. I don't know if it is the thread or the tension. Of course I can't find my book! I will be back at it tomorrow and try to figure out what the issue is. Wish me luck, any tips would be helpful (Lane - are you out there with your tips and hints?).

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Hello There

Hello all, hope you had a great weekend and a good Monday. My weekend was really nice. Big had to get a hair cut on Saturday and after that we did some shopping. Sunday was a quiet day.

I am working on a table topper for fall. I spent part of Sunday cutting the leaves. This table topper will be my first attempt at machine applique. I used some Batik for the leaves. I think they came out nice. I have never used satin stitch and am a little nervous. I plan on doing some practice work first.



I participated in a Halloween Tote swap recently. I showed the tote I sent to my partner a few posts ago. Here is what I received! I just love all of it! The inside of the bag is lined with a shiny cat and moon print. I think the tote could be reversible.



It has been a week since my last photo of the trees in my front yard. The colors are really beginning to change. The photo is dark. We have been having a lot of rain the past couple of days. It has been freaking cold also. Highs in the upper 50's!



Well, I am off to teach myself satin stitch! It is probably a good thing I am the only one home - could be a lot of bad words flying around!
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Kitchen Bling

I have spent part of my day updating my kitchen with new cabinet and drawer hardware. I don't think it will make a big impact, but hopefully it will make a bit of difference. I am not sure why there has never been hardware on the cabinets and drawers anyway. They are not easy to open.

I got all my tools ready (there isn't a photo of my drill). Big thinks it is funny that I use my quilting rulers for things like this. I tell you what, they are better than any other ruler. They are marked so well and since they are clear, I can see everything I am doing. I have even used an old one when I was hanging wall paper!



As with all jobs, this one was more difficult and time consuming than I thought it would be. First, I had to make sure I got the cabinets marked correctly. I placed a piece of paint tape on the cabinet, use my trusty quilting ruler to find the exact places to drill and mark them. It took a good bit of pressure to get through the wood.



This is what the drawer pull and cabinet hardware look like once installed. Sorry the photo is blurry. It is dark outside and the camera took a long time to get the photo.



This morning I was woken up by a crashing noise. I realized it came from the hall bathroom. Big was already up getting ready for work, so I called out and asked what happened. She said, "Oh, not to worry, a picture fell. I will hang it up." When I went in the bathroom this morning, here is what I saw.



Hope you are all having a great day. I plan on sitting for the rest of the day. My knees hurt from crawling on the floor to work on the bottom cabinets. My carpal tunnel and my tennis elbow hurt from pushing on the drill. Getting old is a freaking pain in the joints!

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Precious babies

Oh My God!!! Aren't these just the cutest babies you ever did see? Look at the mouth on the baby with the flower on her head! I just want to squeeze these two. Hmmm....I miss baby love!

See you all tomorrow!


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Fall is here

This view greets me when I walk out the front door of my house. We live on just over an acre of land. Our house sits in the middle of the land and even though we have neighbors, we are surrounded by woods. The trees are just beginning to change colors. I know it is hard to see the yellow in the trees, but it is there. I plan on taking a photo a week, possibly more if the colors change dramatically. We are supposed to have temperatures in the low 60's during the day and in the 30's at night!

Hope you are enjoying the beginning of fall!

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My Tuesday

Today has been a slow day. I am either trying to catch a cold or my allergies are acting up.

I did manage to make this pillow for Halloween. The center is burlap. All that is left to do is close the bottom of it. I enjoy doing things like that by hand. I will probably work on it tomorrow. I am also crocheting a table topper for - what else - Halloween. I will post photos of that when I am finished.



Oh yeah, I caught these two all snuggled up on a patio chair. I was amazed to see them together, they do not usually get along well. Must have been the rain!



Hope you all had a great day. Tomorrow, I will post a photo of the trees in our front yard. The leaves are beginning to change color and I thought you might enjoy seeing them.

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