NEITHER SNOW NOR SLEET . . . . .

I was gong to take my sewing machine to the shop on Friday but since I’m not the mailman and,  when I called the Bernina store they had already sent the extra employee home and the owner’s wife was leaving because of the roads,  I decided not to go ---- even though there wasn’t a flake of snow on the ground here in Spring Hill --- about 20 minutes from the shop.  So I headed up to Jennifer’s instead.  Her house is about midway.  The closer I got the more it was starting to snow.  I didn’t stay long – maybe 30 minutes max. --for that reason.  By the time I headed back home I needed to use my windshield wipers.  When I got here, the roads were covered and my yard was blanketed in white.   Then we got a little sleet later in the day and more snow too.  So, we’ve been sort of iced in for a couple of days although not in a really major way when compared to other parts of Nashville and surrounding areas.  Tomorrow it is supposed to warm up a good bit so I think  most of it will melt away. 

Jed visited this weekend.  He and Toby seemed to enjoy the snow.  These are soon after the snow started.

These from later

While inside I worked on four of these (three pink and one blue)– I lack the eyes and for the girls, some bows.

 

And I made three of these for Valentine’s day. 

I also made these for the closet using two tab panels I already have and the same fabric I used for the window valance.

Hopefully tomorrow I’ll make it to the Bernina shop and get my embroidery problems taken care of.  I’m also considering upgrading.  More about that later.

ARRRRRRRGH!

Sometimes I hate my sewing machine!  Today I was trying to embroider a name on a simple burp cloth.  I've done it a million times.  The last embroidery I did was with Charlie Kate's quilt.  Since then I've just done straight sewing.  Anyway, The first two letters in the name sewed out perfectly.  It started a lower case "n" and then the clinking began.  Which in my case means birdnests or the top thread just bunching up underneath the fabric in the hoop.  I picked out the messed up stuff, rethreaded the top thread, took out the bobbin and looked for threads caught in that area -- nothing.  I rolled back the stitiching to  before it messed up and started restitiching.  Within 30 seconds clinking.  I did this two more times.  Then I put in a new bobbin, changed the needle, rethreaded everything and tried again --- clinking.  So, I've put it away for the night.  I don't know anything else to check and I don't know why it sews perfectly and just all of a sudden messes up.  It just seems to me it should start off messing up if something is wrong because of what they tell you to do to fix it -- like rethreading.  If it's threaded wrong it should show up right away.  Anyway, I'm frustrated and stopping for today.  I'll call the Bernina store tomorrow and see what they suggest.

G'night all,

HOW DID YOU SPEND YOUR HOLIDAY?

This post is late in the writing but, none the less here it is.  Last Monday was a federal holiday so school was out.  I'd forgotten about it  until Michael asked if I could keep Avery since she didn't have school.  I said I'd love to and asked Avery why she didn't have to go to school that day -- "It's "Marther" Luther King's birthday," she said.  So, here are some pictures of what went on at my house on "Marther" Luther King's birthday.   It turned out to be the first sunny, non-freezing day in about a week and a half which was definitely a plus. The ice was gone on the pond and the fish were actually swimming around.

Toby was enjoying the sunshine -kind of reminds me of Ferdinand except there are no flowers to smell.

 

Avery and Vail -don't you love the gloves -- Vail had worn them all day Sunday and then had them on again -- she's pretty much worn them all this week.  I think she sat in front of the washer and dryer for awhile waiting as Jennifer had to was them one day.

Avery read to the girls.  She did a good job too.  You can see Vail rubbing Katy's ear in the next picture.  She does that when she is tired. 

After lunch Jennifer and Micah went home for a nap and the girls watched Beauty and the Beast.  Then it was outside again until we went back to Jennifer's so Avery could meet up with her Dad.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

IF YOU LISTEN YOU CAN HEAR ….

the quilting angels are singing a resounding chorus of Hallelujah!  I have officially finished the red and yellow quilt.  It is in the washer as we speak and will go in the mail Monday.  WooHoo:)

I’ve even sewn the label on but that was after I took the pictures.

Now on to other things.

WEEKEND COMPANY

My brother Jay, his wife Cheri, daughter Jessica (she’s visiting them for 2 weeks to help Cheri paint their new house) and Jess’ daughter Mabry came for an overnight visit this past weekend.  What fun we had.  Jessica made “super” capes for all the cousins and they flew through the house for a while with their capes on.  We enjoyed visiting and eating and visiting for the short time they were here and my handy-guy brother brought his tool belt and installed my under cabinet cd player for me while he was here.  Thanks Jay!!

Here is a picture(I didn’t take many but Jessica the camera buff  took lots) of me with my new BFF Mabry Grace and her pal Sheebus .  Mabry likes to take her Gampa’s hat and put it on backwards – you know like one of the guys.

I STRUCK GOLD TODAY!

Today I stopped at Lowes to pick up a sanding block and as I was wandering around I found a display of the neatest item.

 

Several several years ago I got a chest from my grandmother that according to family legend history , came over from England on the boat with her grandmother and contained all her worldly possessions at the time.

At some point this appeared.  Except the ring went all the way around.  In my excitement today, I started working on erasing it without taking a picture of the entire before.

After about 15 or 20 minutes this is what it looks like now. As you could see from the package, it looks like a treated dust cloth.  You just rub and rub with the grain of the wood and the ring eventually disappears and the cloth turns black.  I’m sure that’s due to the century years of dust build up.

Isn’t that great!   Now I don’t have to leave an open book or a crocheted doily on the corner of the chest unless I just want to.

IT’S A BIRD!

A couple of weeks months ago my niece sent me some fabric birds. I was very excited about putting them up but couldn’t decide exactly where would be the best spot So I put them in a safe place. Then, when I did decided to put one in my sewing room the birds had hidden themselves from me I had misplaced the birds. I found them the other day and finally this afternoon one of my birds has a perch. Can you find her?

I plan to put the other one in the den so it looks like he is sitting on the big star on the wall. Since I’ll need a ladder to do it, I’m going to wait til I have a spotter. I’d hate to be found laying on the floor moaning “help I’ve fallen and I can’t get up.” I am a klutz after all. And by the way, they are so easy to stick up on the wall. I may make some more of these cute little birds and put some in the bonus room or somewhere else.

THE NAME OF THE GAME IS PROGRESS

Progress has been made. From this

to this

and this

to this

and these pics hung also – the little ones by the door to the master bath and the dog sleeping on the bed print in my office alcove.

Plus, a lot of stuff has found its home. I've narrowed my four bins of fabric yardage and a lot of scraps down to two. Some of it is stored in a different place but I've probably got a bin plus a little more to get rid of at my garage sale. I think tomorrow I’ll be able to finish most of the rest of the putting away in my sewing room and finish organizing my desk. I've also gotten some more of this quilt quilted. (I did the first part of this post in Windows Live and then added this last in Blogger --- hence the difference in picture sizes.)

And someone bought and already picked up my old desk. Yup, progress has been made.