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.

I LOVE MY QUILT TOP!

I got all my squares sewn together. Now I have to add a one inch and a four inch border (I think) and the top will be totally complete. The pictures show the two fabrics for the borders. The yellow for the narrow and the red w/flowers for the wider. The back of the quilt will also be the red w/flowers. Can you tell I really liked the red w/flowers. Maybe it will be too much but I don't care cause I like it and I think it is a happy color combination.

Toby was asleep on the couch--I went to get my camera and this is what I found when I got back. He always wants to sit/lay on anything that doesn't already smell doggy -- his radar works overtime. Go figure

Here's the quilt without the dog ornament.

I'M HOME AND LOOK WHAT I'VE DONE ...

In honor of the start of my last (whoohoo) school year I've changed my background for a few days, weeks, or months.

Nashville was fun fun fun. Michael is an A#1 Dad and Avery is a sweet sweet granddaughter. Well, most of the time :) We played at the park, went shopping -- she loves popcorn at Target and so do I cause she sits in the buggy to eat and I can look around -hee hee :) We visited Vail and Katy and watched Fox and Hounds almost everday I was there. I learned all about Tod and Copper. One night Robbie came and ate with us. He is so much fun to visit with. Jen and the girls ate with us that night too. Matty was playing soccer so he missed out. I got home late yesterday (Friday) afternoon and got all my stuff back in the house. I vegged most of the rest of last night.

Today I've been busy -- I went to Kroger and refilled my frig, made a dress (from start to finish thank you very much) and also, one of each of the five different squares I'm making my next quilt out of. I can't wait to finish the quilt top. I love the way the squares look. Supposedly you can make the quilt in five hours. Of course, I had to undo several lines of stitching because I put squares together wrong so that took more time and if the 5 hours includes the quilting also - forget it -- I'm definitely not that fast. Following are pictures to go with all my ramblings.

Uncle Brian helping Avery traverse the whatever that thing is called.
Swinging on our favorite swing

Pretending to be shy about having our picture made

One night we went walking on the Greenway - a walking/biking trail that goes all over Nashvegas. The part we walked on was off of Two Rivers Parkway and in the picture we are going under the interstate and toward the bridge that goes across the Cumberland River. I didn't know the Cumberland River went through Nashville.

Here is a view looking down the river toward the General Jackson - a riverboat you can ride on that leaves from just off of the Opry Mills parking lot

and here we are on the bridge. Poor Avery was really tired. She has pretty much given up her afternoon nap so she's usually getting tired by supper time. She perked up though when we went to the Aquarium to eat supper. If you've never been -- it's great -- a huge aquarium in the middle and the tables all around it. The fish are so much fun to watch and the food is really good too.

Waiting for Aunt Traci to pick up Avery to go pick up her Mom from her trip.

Hanging out with Uncle Brian.

Giving Toby some bye bye love.

One more hug for Grams. Oh yeah :)



One of our shopping treks was to the Dancing Needles shop where they sell some of the prettiest fabric along the Cumberland River and Avery picked out this really cute strawberry print pique so I could make her a "pillowcase" dress. I used some white piping and red ribbon with white stitch lines on it to decorate the hemline. It went together very quickly as it should have since it is the sixth one I've made :) and I think she made a really good choice!

The last two pictures are of the block samples I made for the new quilt top I'm working on (and Toby's toy that he put in the picture). You make 4 each of five different blocks. Then you line them up in rows 1-2-3-4-5. That's what the first picture shows. All the blocks are laid out the same way. Then to make it look more "scrappy" you turn the second block a quarter turn, the third 2 quarter turns and the fourth 3 quarter turns (thats what the second picture shows). Or you can do what ever you want if you have a good eye for design. I'm just going by the directions -- unless I don't like it after I've laid it out. Then, all bets are off. My plan is to finish the other squares tomorrow -- they are all cut out and the different pieces grouped together so it's just a matter of putting them together. I've done all of the first block and one of each of the others so if my math is right, I only have twelve left to put together. It won't take very long. I got enough of the red flowered fabric for the quilt back and then the plain yellow and the stripe will be borders around the blocks. When the top is finished, I'm going to concentrate on the family tree for g'ma. When that top is finished, I have fabric for a blue and yellow quilt and once that top is finished, I'm going to concentrate on sandwiching, quilting and binding the four quilts. Makes me tired just thinking about it.

Update: - I can't believe what a dork I am. Several weeks ago, all of a sudden my pictures were showing up as html in the compose window. Tonight as I was working on my blog, all of a sudden, they were no longer html but regular pictures. Then I realized that I had thought I was in the compose window but was actually in the edit html window and had apparently inadvertantly clicked on the compose window so the pictures looked normal. Apparently I did just the opposite a month or more ago and it has taken me this long to figure it out. I called myself looking to be sure I was in the compose window. And they call me a technology wizard at school. Guess it's a good thing nobody there can read my blog :)

IN NASHVEGAS AND A LINK TO A MUST READ BLOG ENTRY

Michael, Brian and I left Cleveland around 2:30 yesterday and arrived in Nashville last around 7:30. We got invited to go to a downtown "nightspot" to watch the brother of a friend playing with a band. I didn't think to take my camera but we had a fun - noisy time. I was glad when we left -- clubbing or bar hopping or whatever it's called will never make it to the top of my "Fun Things" to do list. It was just way too loud. Anyway, we had a good night's rest, went to Otter Creek for church and then met up with Gramma Peggy to get Avery -- my reason for being here for the week. We ate with Gramma Peggy at Chili's and then came home. After a quick trip to the grocery with Michael and Avery, we came home, woke up Uncle Brian and all headed out to the annual Martha O'Brien Ice Cream Crankin. It was a charity event to raise money for "women in need". There were a bazillion flavors of homemade icecream to taste. I had some peach -- my favorite -- one that had cranberries in it -- not bad -- one that tasted like reece's peanut butter cups -- good -- and a couple of others that obviously didn't make much of an imppression. Michael and Brian tried a mystery flavor that had lots of sweet with a POW of "hot peppers" added to it. Anyway, Purity icecream here in Nasville always picks a winner and then they produce and sell that icecream at local stores the next year. It was fun.

Now that we are caught up, the real reason for the post. I was perusing Cheri's blog links (thanks for having links to such good blogs :)) and I read this entry. If you have young children, I guarantee you will have an occassion such as this to come up one day. What a great ending to what can be such a downer for your kid to experience. And it doesn't have to be the Dad that does what this dad did. Mom's can do it just as easily. Read this -- it will make your day and be a great addition to your arsenal of what to do if's.



http://rocksinmydryer.typepad.com/shannon/2008/08/his-mountain.html