ACTION PACKED WEEKEND

Well, it's been a great weekend but I'm tired:) Jen, Matty and the girls came for the weekend. Everyone was invited but some had other things planned. We had a lot of fun. They arrived around 10:30 Friday night. The girls unwound a little and then it was off to bed for them and we followed shortly thereafter. I spent my waiting time sewing. I'll tell about that later. Saturday morning, the girls were up by 7 or a little after(not quite the 9:30-10 I'm used to). Vail helped me make biscuits and scrambled eggs. She did a great job using the mixer as you can see.

After breakfast we went to feed the ducks and turtles at Bearpen Park.  Of course I forgot my camera.  But I did get these photos

These were taken before breakfast.  Katy looks really sleeepy!  Vail wanted to take some pictures so here are a couple.  You can see what's happening from her perspective.

Sad to say that is the extent of the pictures.  But on with the story of our day.  After we fed the ducks, we went to Fireman's Park and the girls played on the swings and the slides.  They had lots of fun.  Then we came home and played in the backyard, ate lunch, took naps, watched AR get whooped by AL, played some more, fixed food for the potluck we had after church today, ate with G'ma at the Mexican restaurant, came home, went back outside, came in and took baths, went to bed.  None of us stayed up too late.  We had about 114 at church this morning which is 20-25 more than normal.  So, I guess quite a few families brought friends for friend's day:)  After lunch we came home and the kids packed up and left. All of a sudden it was very quiet.   I straightened up and then did some more sewing.

And that brings me to the sewing part of my blog  entry -- I visited the local consignment shop one day last week and talked with the owner.  She is going to let me put some "stuff" in her shop to sell and won't be charging me anything at least to start with.  I have some laundry bags, burp cloths, flannel receiving blankets  and one fancier blanket that has a satin binding and some embroidery on it. I also have three little knit nightgowns and matching blankets to go with them -- made out of a really soft knit.  I forget what it's called Something island I think but it is soooo soft.   I decided to try to use up the diapers that I have to add to the burp cloths so I'm doing a Christmas one and two Halloween ones and will see how they sell.  Octoberfest is in a couple of weeks so I'm aiming to have everything priced and in her shop by then for sure.  I'm kind of excited -- guess I'll find out  if my stuff will sell.  If it sells here, I don't think I'll have a problem selling when I move up around Nashville because there will be a bigger market.  But we shall see.  Here are some pictures of what I worked on this weekend.  They aren't finished yet.  I've got some yellow and orange striped material (thin stripes) that I'll be adding across the bottom and top to the Boo cloth.

I've got some cute white background with little pink, red, and lavender hearts that will go on the Kisses cloth.

This Minimonster will undergo the biggest change.  Hopefully it will turn out as I visualize and I'll take a picture and post it.

This knit blanket came in a set of 3 or four that I got on sale at Old Navy about a year or more ago.  I made an applique initial with brown minkee and hot pink thread and just pinned it on.  I plan to include an initial with that so I'm not permanently attaching it.  I have one more blanket that is khaki color and I'll do the same with it.

I found this --it came with my sewing machine.  I really liked it.  Jennifer voted to leave off the words -- Hip Hippo Hurrah!  So I did. It is going to have a material border added at the top and bottoom too.  I might add Merry Christmas Baby!  to this on one of the borders.  We'll see.  Anyway, I totally messed up two diapers --actually my sewing machine did.  I don't know what the problem was.  If it was the needle or because I used diapers that are really thick in the middle section.  I was ready to tear my hair out yesterday --I sewed and cooked while the girls were sleeping.  I cleaned the machine really well and it did fine today but I didn't use any of those diapers.  I'm going to try to call the bernina shop tomorrow and see if they can advise me.   I'll take some group pics of everything when I get everything priced and put together.

That's it for now.  Hope everyone has a good week.

HP ROCKS

Sometimes I get so aggravated at Microsoft for even inventing VISTA. Though there are lots of things I like about it, it is so frustrating to find out that every peripheral and every piece of software that works with XP does not work with VISTA. I've had to upgrade just about every program I had with XP including my embroidery software. I also found out my all in one would no longer scan documents as documents -- only pictures. Well, I finally found a replacement at a reasonable price and after getting it home and setting it up I scanned a page and clicked add pages. Got an error message. Same error I was getting with my old reliable scanjet I used to use. I finally gave up trying to get it to work right and so after calling Dell and not getting any help, I called HP. I spent over an hour on the phone with this guy -- mainly because he had me downloading a newer version of the software that runs the scanner. It took forever to download because it was 150+ MBs. We had an interesting conversation as we uninstalled the old printer software while waiting for the new to download. Then he had me install the new version and -- works like a charm. No more error message. WooHoo!! I finished scanning the 150 page notebook I was doing for my boss. It scans fast and lets me save as a PDF file. Exactly what I wanted. No having to change something. Anyway, that's why HP rocks. Microsoft - not so much.

MISTREATMENT COMPLETION

I finished my foyer makeover and I really like the results. It looks fresher and lighter and -- there's no grapes falling on my head :) In case you didn't see them this is what it looked like before.

You can see the paint is dreary looking and the dark woodwork is just plain dark -- and the only stained woodwork in the house. Even the paneling has been painted -- before I bought the place.

These pictures I took during the process. First removing the border. I used warm soapy water and it worked quite well.


In fact, it worked so well that some of that old bordeaux came right off with it. I figured someone didn't prep the paneling too well so after cleaning the wall and before priming, I used some liquid sander on those bare paneling spots and the other wood trim and doors as well.

Here are the other during pictures of the taping and priming process.

















And here is the final product. I think it looks much lighter and fresher. Now I just need to get the other trim in the dining room done between now and Thanksgiving and finish some quilts and teach school and visit my kids and .....

THEFT ALERT

This is a must read for all women over 40 - won't hurt you young folks to read it either. I checked snopes and this is true!

http://darlenesdays-darlene.blogspot.com/2008/09/theft-warning.html

(Thank you Darlene for this article)

Have a great Saturday.

HOW I SPENT MY SUMMER VACATION SUNDAY EVENING

Here's what I chose to do instead of watching reruns on tv tonight. To borrow and perhaps misuse a term I've seen on several blogs I enjoy perusing, I've started a "mistreatment" of my itsy bitsy teeny weeny yellow polkadot foyer.


I took a before picture, two as I worked and one when I was finished. Apparently at one time this small area was that dark red color with the border at the top. I guess they eventually got tired of using a flashlight to find the lightswitch all the time and painted the wall that off white color. There is only one window in this whole room and it's under a porch facing north. That tells you how much light the room doesn't get. The rest of the room was the off white color with the same color woodwork -- until you reach the kitchen and then the walls were a pinky beige and the cabinet and trim white. I've already painted the walls in the kitchen a kahki color and the dining room one shade lighter. This area will be the one shade lighter and then this trim and the doors along with the trim and doors in the dining room will all be painted white. I was hoping to let someone else do the job but yesterday I got an estimate -- 300 dollars and that didn't include taking down the border or the paint. Seemed like a lot to me so I've decided to revert back to plan A and do it myself. Anyway. I guess these pictures mean I've officially started the final stage of this project. You can see that some of the red latex paint peeled off. I'm planning on cleaning the walls to get the glue residue totally removed and then use some liquid sander on the stained trim, doors and the paneling that shows. Then I'll prime those parts and then paint the walls. After that I'll tackle the trim, the one window and other doors in the dining room. If anyone has any suggestions for easy ways to do trim, I'm all ears.

School tomorrow so I'm off to bed and it's not ten thirty yet.

75% OFF AND OTHER STUFF

I went to to the Benina shop in Greenville today and they were having a sale -- when this gr0up of women decide to clean out, they mean business. A big ole pile of books with prices of 7 to 20 dollars -- a dollar a piece. Two shelves of fabric -- 75% off.

So for less than 30 dollars I got 8 yards of fabric and 4 books. And it's nice fabric - normally the 13 to 15 dollar price range and 54-60 inches wide. It's so seldom that I run into a sale like that around here -- I couldn't pass it up. I did pass up the other sale stuff though -- some of it had been around a long, long time. The two blues are my favs but with grands that love fish, the other fabric will definitely get used :) Well, I said I would sew today so I'm off to the trenches.

CUTEST TASSLE EVER

I love my tassle I got from Susie Harris. I got one for my sister, Beth, too -- hers was kind of a fall tassel but I forgot to take a picture of it before I mailed it. Susie has an Etsy shop with lots of tassles for sale and a great blog too. Right now she's away from home because of Gustav. She lives in Louisiana. Hopefully they're home is safe and they will be home soon. Check out her shop -- her tassles are awesome ))

Don't tell anyone but I'm playing hooky from school tomorrow. I'm going to do some sewing important work here at the house and maybe run to Greenville. I've got to get some repair work done to replace some rotten wood on the facing of my patio door so I'm going to try to find someone to take a look at that too.

I made the mistake of looking at the 43 minute film --that's right 43 min.--on the new Bernina series 8 machine. The 830 is awesome - does everything but clean up the kitchen. Now I really want one. If you are a quilter/embroiderer/sewer it will make you drool -- honest. But -- the price -- well let's just say I'll be saving for awhile -- or winning the lottery before that happens.

Hope everyone has a great weekend.

PALIN FOR PRESIDENT!!

All I can say is AWESOME! SPECTACULAR! I LOVE ALASKAN PITBULLS
HOCKEY MOMS!

FRUITFUL SATURDAY

Today has been a productive day at my house. I ironed the family tree to the background, made a baby shower gift, did at least a third of the zigzag stitching to secure the tree to the background, and began embroidering the leaves that will be on the family tree. Last night I had put all the names and dates in the computer so that was taken care of.
My neighbors --three college guys who rent next door to me-- had a party last night. It is the first time since they moved in that they have kept me awake. It was probably close to three o'clock before I went to sleep. They really weren't obnoxiously loud but they were out on their driveway and carport and that was within 30 feet of my bedroom window. I was still awake by 8:00 this morning. I got up and piddled around for awhile and finally made myself get busy on the tree. I had been putting it off for three weeks because I thought it would be a very tedious job. Boy, was I wrong..It was so much easier than I thought it would be. I set one of my portable "Sams" tables up beside my diningroom table and put a couple of folded up quilts on it so I could iron on it. I pressed the background using a little spray starch. and after marking the center of the background I laid the tree out and carefully flattened and straightened all the branches I didn't have the trunk level the first time so all the branches were heavy toward the right side of the background and one was actually even with the edge. So I straightedened the trunk to the left a little and smoothed the branches out again.

It was right on the money that time. Then I set the iron on silk which is a cooler setting and started at the bottom and worked my way up the tree.

The directions on the stitch witchery said to just set the iron on the fabric for about five seconds and then pick it up and move it to the next spot. Guess what-- following the directions works well with that stuff.

I took a break from the tree and made a baby gift for a teacher at school who's having her first child in November, a boy, and they are naming him Colton Alan. There nursery has a sports theme. I wanted to do something "baby" and I have a set of designs of baby shoes - some boy and some girl. I love the little hightop sneakers and thought they would be sporty without using balls and bats and stuff. I pulled a fabric from my stash -- it's a polyester that reminds you of lambs wool. It turned out really cute I thought.

I'm going to take a small piece of flannel or somthing soft and cover the back of the embroidery and then do some sort of decorative stitch around the edge. Probably a blanket stitch or something similar.
After I had finished the embroidery on the blanket I ran (in the car) downtown and got some brown thread to use to do my zigzag stitching on the tree. When I got back back I took a scrap of what I had cut out from the tree and ironed it on a leftover piece of fabric. I used that to figure out the size and spacing of my stitches. Then I just started zigzagging around the trunk and branches. I've probably completed a third or more. In between the zigzagging, I straightened the kitchen and began working on the leaves. I was able to work on branches and leaves at the same time because I embroidered with my 730 and used my 240 to do my zigzagging. I bought that a couple of years ago so I could still sew while embroidering. Here are a couple of pics I took while making one of the leaves.

It only took me til the fourth leaf to realize I was making it hard on myself using cut away stabilizer. The red leaf is from tear away and instead of taking five minutes to carefully cut away the stabilizer without cutting stitches, I just gently pulled and within five seconds there was my leaf with no trimming. You can see I still have one that I need to trim. That's the one I decided to wait until it was all finished and trim the fabric and the stablizer at the same time. Sometimes I'm slow about stuff like that.

I'm also posting the finished --except for the cutting of the seams (which is the hard part). I think I'll take it to school as use it as a lunch break filler. I don't know who put that fluffed up sleeping dog on the couch but he sure is cute.

I need to go to bed before it's time to get up. Hope everyone who is off has a relaxing day Monday.

DELTA KRUD IS CRUDDY!

I've felt worse as the week has progressed and had a really hard time getting up Thursday and Friday and getting off to school. However last night was the worst. I kept coughing and that kept waking me up. Needless to say, I've had better night's sleep. I've been very lazy today. Went out about 10 and got some heavy duty OTC medicine for my sinuses and cough and to get a few things at Kroger. Then a litlle while ago I went back out and got cough syrup -- just fot at night. I've done as much as I can on my "Yellow Brick Road" quilt --with the blues and yellows -- until I get my backing and the sash/binding fabrics. I want to cut a few strips from them just so they will be represented in the blocks. I'm learning -- but for me it will take a long time -- that I don't have to "match" fabrics that are going to be beside eachother. For one thing, that is an impossible task for me because I am so indecisive -- and that has been my "rule" and it's one I need to ditch. When you have lots of different fabrics within one quilt, you can't "match" -- you just want them to go together. And you can always change things around a little as you go. If you don't like two wild prints next to each other move one. Sometimes I spend way to much time trying to decide which two fabrics will look best together. I'm learning that for the most part, they all look good together as long as you leave ther word "match" out of the equation.

I'm including pics of my strips I've done for the Yellow Brick Road Quilt so far. Actually, I had cut some 6 1/2" stips and some 3 1/2" strips. You sew a 6 1/2 and a 3 1/2 together and then you cut those into 6 1/2 and 3 1/2 inch rectangles so that's where I am right now. I should get the other fabric Monday or Tues. It is only coming from Vicksburg.
You can see that the Toby radar was on as usual. He was laying down while I laid this stuff out and then I went to get the camera.

Here are the fabrics for one of the rag quilts I'm making for my girls. I may cut the squares out in a little bit if my energy rares up a little.


Have a great rest of the weekend.



Update 7PM - got my squares cut out, sewed the X and laid them out --
not very random but....

And you can see the toby radar still works -- the problem is his jump up doesn't so he can't get up on the bed -- sad isn't it:)

FOURTH QUILT TOP PLAN

About 3 years ago I bought a bundle of 30 fat quarters -- enough to make a queen size quilt -- in blues, yellows and combinations thereof. It will be put together in a manner similar to the red quilt I just did. Just a little bit different but it will be "scrappy" looking. Here's a picture of the fabrics I picked from the 30. Ionly need 18 for a throw and that will leave enough for two baby quilts!!








The other two pictures are the fabric for the border and binding (polka dots)

and the quilt backing (blue on blue design). I think it will be pretty.

IT'S OFFICIAL -- I'M A LUMBERJACK!

Well, I cut down my first tree today and planted it in a new spot. And let me just say I probably won't do it again unless I find more patience somewhere. First I had to go buy some stitch witchery -- it is stuff that you adhere to fabric with an iron and then peel the paper off the back and adhere what you cut out-- like a tree with a million branches --to another fabric. It comes as a tape or a roll that' s about 18" wide. I adhered the stitch witchery to the back of the tree fabric. Then I traced the tree pattern onto the paper backing. Then I cut the tree out. All of that took several hours. And the fabric for the tree ended up being about 4 inches too short so I ended up peicing the bottom of the trunk. I laid it out on the background and it looks pretty good. It is going to be a long process to adhere the tree to the background. I'll have to lay it out on the bed maybe and get all the little branches flat before I start pressing. Once it's adhered to the background, I can start adding my leaves.

Before I started on the tree I add the borders to my red quilt. first I did the two inch yellow border.

And then I added the 6 1/2 inch red border.
Now all that I have left to do is put it together and quilt it.

Not bad for a Saturday's work.

SHANIEKA (?) YOU FRAUD! I'M AFTER YOU

HAS ANYONE SEEN THIS PERSON?
The name is Shanieka -- wherebouts unknown

Here's the deal. I was checking my bank account online today. I found a charge that didn't look familiar. Seems my "friend" Shanieka has been doing things in my bank account that even I don't do. The charge was from a company that adds minutes to prepaid phones and phonecards. I have neither. I googled it on the internet and found several articles about people who had accused this company of fraudulant charges on prepaid phones/phone cards. I called the company. I had to give the guy my debit card number so he could look for the charge. He couldn't find anything so he said if I could give him my bank's routing and account number he would search that way. Well, I didn't feel comfortable doing that. He said he understood but under the circumstances I might want to consider closing the account. So, I called Michael and immediately started crying -- I just do that so easily these days and it really doesn't help my independent I can handle anything persona if you know what I mean. Anyway, after my falling apart moment, I explained what was going on. He asked me some questions and as I was looking over my printout, I noticed two Pay Pal charges -- the ones they do to verify your bank account. And then another from the prepaid company. That made 216 dollars and then the 25 cents from pay pal. Okay - now I'm angry (didn't need to worry about crying anymore). Michael felt like I should close the account to and also see about how to get the money back. Anyway, I ended up leaving school early and going to the bank and talking to Lowell. They did some looking and found another number to call. I called and this time I did give the lady my routing number, etc, and she found my friend Shanieka who had maad the two charges and had attempted 3 others that were denied. So, they have blocked my name so now prepaid phone I was going to shop for is out of the question. They are also investigating and I hope they find Shanieka or whoever the person is. For now I'm not closing the account but I'll be checking it every day and if any other charges show up I will. I just don't know how anyone got a hold of my account information. Think I'm definitely going to get a better shredder and start shredding everything that doesn't shred me first.