Owl Month

At least that’s what it seems like around here.  And what fun I have had.


This is what I worked on for the last two days.





I drew all the little pieces and cut them out












Three owls and lots of pieces.  I had them in separate baggies so they wouldn’t get mixed up.









Then out came the layout plan.









And I started putting them together.  With almost every piece I found my smile getting bigger and bigger.








And now I have three owl blocks done.  I know that I have at least one more that I haven’t done and possibly two so I am really behind on this BOM. 

The hardest part of this BOM is picking the fabrics.  In my mind the owls will be mostly brown but I want each owl/block to be different.




I also have gotten this embroidery/applique done.  This picture shows the tiger sewn on the shirt back and half of the background clipped away.  Since the picture was taken it is finished and packed away for the summer.






This is my picture of Summer.  I bought this gardenia plant at Walmart 5 years ago.  The first winter we had freezing weather and I was sure it was dead.  It has come back a little more each year but until now it has only had one or two blooms a year.  Now, all of a sudden, it is blooming like crazy and, wow, does it smell good. 








As of today we are cat/kitten free.  It has been quite a job moving four adult and 5 feral kittens out but they are finally gone.  The only problem we are seeing is that our dogs are bored when out on the deck.  They were used to chasing the cats and/or watching them through the spaces between the deck boards.  Now there is nothing and they just wander around and occasionally bark at a bird.  But on the other hand it is peaceful for us as the deck is a great reading space.  And, if someone has to be happy it needs to be the two of us.

Tomorrow I will finish the pool opening ready for a fun Memorial Day weekend.  We are a little behind because we had some really cool nights earlier this month.  It seemed to take a little more time for the water to warm up enough for me to get into it but now we are ready for rest and relaxation floating in the water.



Today was our great grandson’s last day of pre-K.  It is so hard to believe he is old enough to be going into Kindergarten in just 2 months.  He has been in a wonderful program that has him well prepared for his next few years in school.  We are all so proud of him.

And now we are ready for the rest of the week.  DH is teaching summer school and I have a to do list that should keep me busy.  Yea!

This Week So Far

Bright and late (after a bunch of housework) Monday I finished loading Christmas Quilt #1.  I chose the panto I am going to use, found the thread and wound 5 bobbins.  I even took some time to practice using the panto cam I have kind of installed (using tape to be sure everything is where I want it before using stronger a adhesive).  After that I did some stitching before moving on to other fun things.









I had already drawn the parts for Teapot #3 so I cut them out and then pulled fabric. 














Tuesday morning  I fused the teapot.  It looks a lot like one I have in my kitchen only mine isn’t bright orange. 













I then had the privilege of spending time at our LQS where I gave the owner some of the things I have learned about setting up and using a pantograph.  It is really fun to know something and be able to share it.










Our daughter had called to see if we were free for lunch but said it would be late.  So we visited a local antique mall where I found the comic book stand.  DH collects B Western comics (1935-55) and now has an official stand to display them.  Right now they are sitting in front of the fireplace but he has a little while to find a better place cuz nothing comes between me and my fireplace.


Lunch with Lisa was lots of fun, as usual.  We do a lot of laughing so it is a good thing that the lunch hour was over and we were almost the only people in the restaurant. 



Later in the evening we went to our Great grandson’s soccer game.  He is 4yo and cute as a button.  And it is a lot of fun watching all those very short people chase the ball.














So, today I spent a good deal of time with my deck visitors.  It was such fun to spent time reading with occasional stops to search out food.  But tomorrow I will be back in the studio: quilt one row on the Christmas 1 quilt, applique 1 chicken, cut Carol Doak BOM fabric, and, if there is time, embroider a label.  Ambitious? 

Design Wall & Birthday parties

Today's Design Wall is a hodge-podge of blocks. On the left are two string blocks. I decided to use up some of my saved strips and start a string quilt. This will be my first one and I decided to work on them while I was embroidering the shirts I posted about on Wednesday. Next to the strings is the third of the borders for my sampler quilt. It is ready for flowers and now I only have one last border to sew stems on. Do you think I will ever get this quilt done? I still have my Jelly Roll Sampler block on the wall and it is next to the Bunny Hill BOM block #2.

No other sewing/quilting was done this week. Thursday we attended a high school Dinner Theater (Romeo, You Idiot), and on Friday we attended a Community College play (Stand & Deliver). Saturday we went to the first of two birthday parties for our great grandson, Skylar.



While he waited for the party to begin he shot a little pool.

And then it was time to blow out the candle on his cake. Wasn't it nice of our granddaughter to get a sugar free cake?

Then it was time to open presents. Here he is amid all of the gifts he got from Uncle Jamie.

And then came the big moment his grandma and grandpa had waited for. They have been looking forward to getting him this truck for several months. It is electric, goes forward and back and I am told it will go 3.5 mph. Because of the storm we got to see it work up close and personal inside the house.

On Sunday it was time for birthday party #2. This one came about because his Daddy was working on Saturday and his Mommy wanted Daddy to enjoy the fun, too.

And once again Skylar got a lot of help blowing out his candle.

We had both pizza and cake and Sky enjoyed it, both inside and out.

And the afternoon was capped off by fun and frolic in the lake. You know, it is really fun to watch both the children and the adults having fun. And I didn't have to do anything except come, have fun, and take pictures.

This is the second of the two shirts I have embroidered for our great grandson's second birthday on Saturday. I love this little bear and Sky loves fishing. And what we found out tonight is that the birthday party is a fishing theme. Isn't that great?

These two shirts comprise my first "finish" for OPAM for this month.

I have been working on 3 BOMs and one new quilt as well as two tops but I fear this will be another month on no finished quilts. One day I will have several, if they all get done at once.

And this is one more thing I have finished. I read this book in two sittings. I found this to be one of her best books. She incorperated a lot of Hawaiian history and by the time I finished the book I really wanted to make a quilt in the Hawaiian style. Excellent!

What fool decided… Part 2

If you remember from last time, I couldn’t find the drawing I made of the quilt using the drunkard’s path blocks. Well, I still haven’t found it so I spent Friday night, while watching TV, redrawing it. And guess what. I find that if I do it as I drew it I will be making 178 of those little 3” blocks. 178!!!!! So I am rethinking the design, just a little. Since I only have 46 made I figure I have a while to “rethink.”

Ed: Thought about doing appliqué in place of some of the DP blocks but decided I like my first idea and will just push through. I am kind of getting a rhythm going.

So on the design wall is the beginning of how this quilt center will be laid out. It is going to be pretty busy but I am liking it more and more. Nothing is sewn together because I will be moving both the sampler blocks and the DP blocks around to get the color matches as right as I can. But I can’t do that until all of the DP blocks are done.

Also on the wall are the Bunny Hill blocks that I have completely finished, 6 more to go.

Last time I showed them the appliqué was done but I hadn’t started the hand embroidery. This past week or two I have been taking a little time out to work on that and it has gone pretty well. I can’t remember how to do all the stitches I used to do but I’ve got the stem stitch down pat.

And look what I found.

I thought when I made my last move I had thrown all my embroidery stuff away: I had moved into the realm of machine embroidery. However, I did check in a storage area of the studio and there in a lone plastic bag was all this thread and a cross stitch project I started 15 years ago. Actually, the stitching is done but the young man I was making it for is graduating from high school this year so I don’t think he would appreciate it as much as he might have years ago.

And a little family stuff: This is our granddaughter’s boyfriend’s new car.

It is a customized Honda Civic. Check out those gull wing doors.

and here is Skylar, a man and his car. ;-)

And what did our granddaughter get? Well, meet Heineken. He is a 9 week old Great Pyrenees. Do you think they really know how big he is going to get or how much grooming they will have to do? I know that when we were that young we would never have done such a thing……NOT. I guess that’s what being young is for. Time enough for being practical.

Celebrate Good Times

I don’t know about everyone else, but since I started this blog last October, I have tried to keep a camera with me at all times. So, when our great grandson was having his first birthday, who do you think forgot her camera? Well, that’s right. But our grandson was there with his so I asked him if he would email me his pictures and, of course he said yes. The birthday was 4/24/09 and I got the pictures 5/29/09 and only when he was told I wouldn’t get him some food from Olive Garden unless he had sent the pictures (that came from his mother, not me).

Anyway, here are three pictures from Skylar’s first birthday in April:


With Grandpa......

With mom and presents........

and outside with Big Boy toys. Notice that he “dressed down” after eating cake with lots of icing.

One month later came our granddaughter’s graduation: Skylar’s mother. Her parents and grandparents were very proud of her accomplishment. Notice that she graduated an honor student.

Here are her parents, Skylar and his father, all cheering with excitement at the big moment.

As a final celebration, DD, DSIL, DH and I spent the day, yesterday, driving to FL to eat at Red Lobster and shop. We have been planning this trip for two months to celebrate: 1) both guy’s birthdays in March, both gal’s achieving lifetime at Weight Watcher’s in April and now DGD’s graduation in May. We had a great time, ate well, and shopped in our favorite places: LQS’s for me, Bass Pro for DSIL, Books A Million for DH and Barnes and Nobel for DD. Then we came home, tired but happy: no pictures.

Today it is back to the old routine. With some luck I hope to have my black and white loaded on the frame this afternoon: have to piece the backing first but have a plan and most of it cut out so it shouldn’t take too long.