Boots and More

This is what I have mostly been working on this past week. I showed it, again, to DH and he began singing Happy Birthday all over again.  I figure I can draw his birthday out for 2-4 weeks as I prepare a backing, load it on the frame, quilt it, and then bind it.  Maybe he will get a birthday month after all.

The boot appliques are from a 2012 BOM by Moose on the Porch.  I had so much fun making these boots but then just couldn't figure out a setting I liked.

Recently I found the embroideries at Artistic Thread Works and I knew how I wanted to use them.  The embroidery went find but then figuring out how to set them (math to figure out the sashing) took some time.  However I am more than thrilled with how this quilt has turned out.  DH is happy but says he doesn't plan t use it until it can hang in our local quilt show that comes in November. 

I did spend a little time doing some machine applique and got completely caught up on my What a Hoot BOM blocks.  However I do also realize that as of Monday I will be back to choosing owl fabric again.  I would kind of like to have this one done by November, too, so I may work ahead and get it done now that the fish are complete.

I have really been enjoying knitting these simple dishcloths.  I also have come to realize that although I love knitting it has taken me away from quilting quite a lot.  With quilting I can be very creative, go my own way, make changes whenever the mood strikes me.  Knitting is not like that, at least for me.  It is much more pattern controlled.  So I an going to cut back on knitting, using it as a form of relaxation, usually as a break during sewing/quilting sessions, rather than putting in a lot of knitting time.  Of course this may change from time to time but I think this will work best for me.  I do still plan to knit a sweater but I will be going very slowly cuz the sewing machine and quilt frame have been calling me.

I do have to share this, a birthday gift for me from our oldest son and his wife.  They were to have come for a visit shortly after my November birthday but I got sick and we postponed it until last weekend, DH's birthday.  Anyway, I got a gift too, this striking owl ring. 

I do realize that it is a little difficult to see that it is a ring so let me pull back so you can see it better.

Can you still see it?  You can see that it is a little big but it is also very noticeable.  Of course that is kind of a strange looking hand, isn't it?

Thank you Scott and Sue.  The ring fits in perfectly in this setting on my fireplace mantle.

And they gave DH a gift card to Dunkin Donuts, which we have already used once.  This birthday thing is great, even in your 70s.

And now I am going to work on getting this new computer filled up with the programs I use.  Of course I have to find the disks and manuals, which are not always where I think I put them.  I have one that seems to have moved out cuz I haven't been able to put my hands on it but I will keep looking.  And I will have a good week, how about you?

Gari

WEEKEND FUN

No pictures today.  About three hours after my last post my computer gave up the ghost and died .... while I was using it.  So for DH's birthday I got a new computer.  I am not complaining, really, except that I am not a Win 8 fan.  I lost Live Writer, which I have used faithfully for years to write my blog , and I now have to learn how to function with this new, to me, system and then find the disks for the programs I use a lot.  Additionally I will be trying to see how much I can get off the old disk.

Contrary  to what I just said I figured out a round about way to get a picture into this new computer and am really glad to share our oldest son and his wife's picture.  They came for a weekend visit, from Atlanta, to celebrate DH's birthday.  We antiqued, ate and laughed throughout the weekend and had a lot of fun together.  Thanks, Scott and Sue for a great visit.

 

Almost immediately after they pulled out of the driveway, our daughter arrived with her husband and son to take us out for dinner, again to celebrate DH's birthday and also her husband's birthday which is today.  Sad to say, we were so busy eating and laughing that I forgot to take any pictures so that will have to wait for another celebration.

 

Given the above, there was NO SEWING this weekend.  I have, however, already turned on the heat in the studio (just to take the 50F chill off) and am off to do some damage in there.  DH is home for Spring Break so he is the dog sitter for the week and maybe I can at least get the top of his birthday quilt together in this time.,

 

Have a great week everybody.   GARI 

Birthday Month is Over…..:-(

First I need to say “thank you” to everyone who wished me a Happy Birthday.  Every one of those comments made me smile.
My official birthday was Wednesday and my first gift was that my husband took the day off from work to spend it with me.  He took me out to breakfast and then we headed to Mobile, AL.
Lunch was at Red Lobster where I had this:

This is a seafood bowl containing crab legs, garlic shrimp, scallops, corn and potatoes.  Oh, my, this was good.  And because there was so much of it, I have half at home and I get to eat tomorrow.





From there we headed to Bellingrath Gardens, just southeast of Mobile.   Bellingrath is the former mansion and grounds of a one time Coca-Cola executive. 




Look at these Christmas Cactus’.  There were several of them, each over 2’ wide and in many different colors.



Here I am in the poinsettia garden.  This was just as we were starting what turned out to be a 3 1/2 mile walk through the gardens.












There were mums everywhere and the Christmas lights started coming on as we walked.



The lights were beautiful nestled among the plants,









And became more beautiful as it grew darker.

Christmas lights at the Chinese gardens in Bellingrath.

These pictures don’t do these displays justice and remember we walked  and walked through miles of lights.  It was beautiful and wonderful.








But don’t think I haven’t been sewing.

I have made 100 of these little 4 patches: only 92 more to go.  And, unfortunately, a second step in this Easy Street mystery comes out tomorrow.  Oh, my, I’m behind already.


Better get to bed so I will be ready to get back to the quilting salt mines tomorrow.
Good night!

Spring Cleaning vs. Design Wall

And with any luck, Spring cleaning will win this week.

I am planning on buying a new mattress and decided that before it arrives I want need to clean out the bedroom and rearrange the furniture.  So this coming week I am going to apply the “30 minute” rule to my sewing/quilting and keep myself in the house doing what needs to be done.

 

This past week I got a little done in the studio. 

I did start working on a small mystery project on the Carol Doak yahoo list.  We are to make 10 3” paper pieced blocks and then step 2 will be revealed.  I figure that this is a great 30 min. project and I should be able to have them all done by the end of the week.

 

I also completed my machine embroidery project, a shirt for DH’s birthday.  It can be seen here. 

 

I did start quilting on my Quilt Diva but my machine decided to not want to run the stitch regulator so it is sitting as idle as the dragon.

So, I am counting on seeing a lot of quilting gems over at Patchwork Times to keep my quilting mojo going.  How about you?

On Saturday we celebrated DH’s birthday as well as our SIL’s birthday with dinner at the Golden Corral, the home of the chocolate fountain.   This is our “great” grandson, Skylar, experimenting his concoction, a chocolate covered marshmallow.

His Big Day!

Today was his big day, the big 71.  He got to sleep in until 11am and then he chose a Chinese buffet for his birthday lunch. 








I gave him a personalized shirt (picture taken prior to pressing).  Eric collects B Western memorabilia, a whole house full of it, so I put this really cool cowboy boot above the pocket on the front.  I got the design from ATW.






And here is the back.  The “western” letters are currently free at Nita’s Place: they were digitized by Becky McNeil.  Once this shirt was pressed it looked even better and got rave reviews from the birthday boy.








Eric had rehearsal for The Sound of Music this afternoon so I got busy in the studio. 

Here are the petals for a new applique BOM from Esther Aliu. 
I really want to do applique and I have been doing raw edge-fused applique, but have decided I want more of a needle turn look (arthritis won’t let me do handwork).  So I have a wash out stabilizer ironed onto these fabrics.



And here is the beginning of my first sunflower.  The funny thing is that between pressing down the edges and putting the petals together, two petals have disappeared.  It’s not like I can’t make two more, but where can they be?  I think they may have jumped off the ironing board, much like jumping off a bridge, in an attempt to get out of being in my flower.  And just for anyone’s information, there are 28 petals in this flower….and there are two of them!  What have I let myself in for?



And, what have we here?  The first rose of summer!  It has been 86F every day this week so the plants already think it is summer….and me, too.

Hub’s Birthday Month

This is my husband, Eric.  We have been married 51 years and later this month (March 22) he will be turning 71.  He has been teaching for 48 years.  He retired in 2006 but because he is so popular with students, peers and even administrators, he has continued to teach on a “part-time” basis.  He teaches at two different community colleges and for a couple of years at three (each of the presidents has been a peer instructor at one time or another). 
The pictures now showing on the blog header are all of Eric at various stages in his life.  In 2004 I made a family calendar and this is the photo page for March.  I wanted his children to know and remember him in all his childhood/adulthood stages (which have not been too different from each other).  The women in the top left picture are his mother and grandmother.  His mother died when he was 11 and his grandmother not too long after.  The next picture over is of Eric and his sister: they are one year apart with Eric being the elder.  Next, to the right, is Eric as a pre-teen and then you see the boy I married.
The bottom pictures are of Eric when he visited his father in FL in 1961 and again in 1989 years later when we went looking for the house.  Even though it had been so many years later, Eric was able to give enough direction that we found the house and he was so pleased to see it looking much the same.
The picture furthest to the right is Eric dressed in a sweatshirt with knitted band I made him and pants given him by our DS#3 and DIL.  He put them on for this picture and they have been in my studio ever since (15+ years).  I keep thinking I am going to make vests out of them but so far nothing has happened.























A you can see, life with Eric has never been dull.  Not all peaches and cream but never dull.

Happy Birthday, Sweetheart!

Busy, Busy

First I want to thank everyone who wished me a Happy Birthday last Monday.  Between my blog, Facebook, and family I really felt the love.  And I won’t count out Margie’s Sew Much Fun (read LQS). 

Margie gives her customers a significant discount during their birthday month (once).  I am old enough to have reached her ceiling discount so I took full advantage of it.

 

I visited the extensive batik section and this is what I got.  I tried to focus on lights and brights because I already have several darks.  But you can see that one dark snuck in there.  It is a wood grain and I just couldn’t pass it by.  Also on the table is a wool roving pincushion.  I have one and love it so now another machine will have one, too.

 

 

And for fun I bought these earrings.  Now I just need to get something purple to go with them.

 

 

On the sewing front, I have been busy.

Today I had three machines going.  Here you can see one embroidering a label for Autumn  Breeze, also pictured.

 

 

 

While that was going on I was at my straight stitch machine putting the binding on.  Then I used another machine to prep the label so it could be sewn into the binding.  I just have a little hand stitching to do on the label, tonight’s project, and it will be done.  Then tomorrow I hope to get back to my table runner so I can get it on the table to start December.

Design Wall/Birthday

Design Wall:  Nothing.  Everything is off the DW and all the things I am currently working on is Christmas so no DW updates today.

 

However, I have been busy.  On a break from sewing on  Friday I found our cat, Ms. Murphy, up a tree.  I was a little concerned seeing her up on those little limbs but she didn’t seem worried at all.

 

However, this picture was taken right after she fell (broken branch) and caught herself by her claws and then swung back up where she rested before continuing down.  I would have taken a picture of her hanging but I was too busy holding my breath.

 

Then she proceeded to walk on down, just as though nothing had happened.  You gotta love cats.

 

 

 

Saturday I visited a LQS where they are having an apron contest.  I didn’t photo all of the aprons, only the ones I voted for.  these are children’s aprons but my mother loves chickens and I immediately thought of her when I saw this one: the two of them are one entry.  While I was there I also bought fabric.  This store gives you 1/2 your age as a percent off of whatever you purchase.  This year, since I am turning 69, I am getting a pretty good discount, don’t you think?  I forgot to take a picture of my new fabric so will be showing it later.

 

Sunday I planned on sewing again but somehow got a cleaning bug.  I have been wanting to move a few things around in the studio so I began what will be a month long process.   Anyway,  This is one shot of the seating area of the studio.  The ratty footstool is from our ‘65 VW camper.  It went through four kids and several camping trips before the camper was traded: the footstool stayed.  I keep thinking I am going to recover it but it has not made it to the top of the “to do” list.

 

And the view from the other side.  I had this room set up to also function as a guest room with this hide-a-bed.  However, we do not have company often (3 times in 5.5 years) so I decided I don’t need to keep a space in front of the couch.  The problem is that the couch was covered with fabric, pillows, quilts, etc. so everything had to be gone through, folded and a place had to be found for it.  But my seating space is now ready for me to take breaks in comfort.

 

Now, today is my 69th birthday.  I have always had a policy of not working on my birthday so today is no exception: my Monday WW meeting has been postponed for this week.  But, for the first time, DH cancelled his classes and is spending the day with me.  We will be going to NWFL, to Red Lobster to eat crab legs by the water.  Then we will spend some time at the beach, do a little shopping and wind up back at home where our puppies and cats will be waiting to show a little love all around. 

Now, since there was no creativeness in this post, you better go to Patchwork Times to find some.

Design Wall & Thank You

This is on my design wall today.  It is step one of my Journal quilt for May.  I don’t know if you can see that it is woven with two different blue fabrics.

And this is step two.

This will be step three sometime this week, that is once I work on all these little pieces a bit.  I think I am getting into this art quilt thing.  Next week I will show the quilt and what I am using for inspiration.

Here is what I got from Australia last Friday.  It came from Peg Cohen, she is one of the OPAM administrators.  I have used OPAM to help me complete several UFOs and in February I won the drawing.  Here is a quilt pattern that I probably will use for a comfort quilt and four DMC embroidery flosses.  With all the hand embroidery I am doing on BOMs, I can really use these.  Thanks Peg.

This weekend was our great grandson’s 3rd birthday.

Here he is attempting to blow out the candles.  After three blows, his mother had to help him and then we could have cake.

 

Now, last but not least, here are my hydrangeas, just starting to bloom.  Soon this bush will be covered in blue: how wonderful.

Now, it is time to go to Judy’s blog to see what else is going on in quilting land.

Merry Design Wall

Today begins a whole year before my next birthday and the beginning of the Christmas season: how fun.

Doesn’t it seem right that my design wall today has 11 snowmen? All of these are appliqued down and ready for the hand embroidery which I will try to get done when we are visiting in MD at Christmas. Anyway there is only one more snowman in this years Bunny Hill Designs BOM. And here is my problem, I need 13 snowman blocks for this layout. What to do, what to do?

Anyway, I finished these last two snowmen blocks this week so I am ready for #12 and will have to decide what to do about #13 later.

I have my 12 Days of Christmas ready to quilt and it will be on the HQ before today is over.

Yesterday was my birthday. After a week of reviewing the DVDs, DH took me to see Harry Potter (big fan), out to eat.

I only thought to take a picture (taken with my new iPhone) after I had almost finished.

And after we got home I opened my gift from DS#3 and his wife. Thanks my children.

It was a great day and now it is off to another great year.