THE QUILT IS FINISHED, NICE NEIGHBORS AND COMPANY IS COMING!

It's great to have retired neighbors who enjoy working outside. My neighbor "Buddy" asked me last night after church if I needed my yard raked since all the kids were coming. He came over this morning and raked the back yard and the patio. Doesn't my yard look nice!







Now I can get the boys to put the bags on the street and the leaves will all be gone. WooHoo!!

I have finished the quilt except to sew on a few buttons where some of the leaves are grouped. It feels so good to have it finished. I really am proud of how it turned out. Here are some pictures.

The beginnings of my "meandering" which I didn't like and knew would get harder trying to manuever between the leaves.



The diagonal lines that I think turned out oh so much better than the meandering that I just couldn't get in snyc with. The result was well worth the six or so hours I spent taking out stitches.



And here is a picture that shows the back and the binding that is pieces of all the leaf colors.




Well, my first batch of kids and grands are due any minute so I'll stop for now. I can't wait to see everyone :)

Here's wishing you and yours a wonderful Thanksgiving.

PUT A FORK IN ME -- I'M DONE!!

I'm on the second side of four -- hand sewing the binding on this quilt. Then I have a few buttons to sew on and I'll be fini. It's almost one am and I'm doing my best to finish the binding so I can stick this thing in the washer before I go to bed. But unless I'm really close to the end -- like an inch or two, two o'clock is my limit. So I'm getting back to work --NOW

THANKSGIVING COOKING

I've got some shopping and cooking to do in the next couple of days -- as well as finishing the family tree quilt. We're going to give it to Grandmother on Thanksgiving day before David's family leaves. Anyway, here's my part of the menu

Mashed Potatoes -- Pioneer woman's recipe
Grape salad - Beth's recipe
Green Beans - just seasoned - no casserole
Brocoli Casserole - Beth's Recipe
2 chocolate chess pies - Aunt Polly Neal's recipe -- it's to die for!!
I'm not listing the rest of the menu because I don't have the space or the time:)

There will be 20 or maybe 22 eating at Donna's. There would have been 8 more but David's family is leaving before the meal -- they will be eating in Arkansas with his in-laws.

So, I'm going to get my shopping list all ready tonight so I can get everything (except what I forget :)) tomorrow while I'm out in the morning. I have an appointment and plan to get all my errands done then. I'm also going to make out a schedule so I can pretty much have everything done ahead of time.

The rest of my time on Mon, Tue, and Wed will be spent sewing and doing some practice embroidery.



Hope everyone's week gets off to a great start.

QUILT PROGRESS??

I am learning a lot about quilting from making this family tree quilt. #1 is that I don't know as much as I think I do and this project is definitely turning my hair gray. Thank goodness for highlights:) My faulty meandering is going pretty well in the sky but the tree has turned out to be a different matter. I've gotten a suggestion or two to try so I made a practice piece by adhering some scraps with stitch witchery and making a quilt sandwich to try the ideas out on -- I sure don't want to have to take more stitches out of the real thing if I can help it. That brings me to #2 on my list --- NEVER throw away scraps until the quilt is completely finished. I had a lot of tree fabric left over after cutting the tree out -- at least plenty for practicing and it already had stitch witchery adhered to it, but I threw it away. Hence the wasting of more fabric and stitch witchery to practice with. So, after I grab a bite and straighten the kitchen, I'm going to see if I can figure out a way to quilt the tree itself -- if not, I'll have to work around it. In the meantime, don't look to closely at the photo I've posted.

QUILTING IS FUN - QUILTING IS FUN - EXCEPT WHEN IT ISN'T!

Well, I got the tree quilt sandwiched and began the quilting process. First of all when I was practicing, the bobbin kept pulling the top thread through to the bottom. I kept adjusting the tension but it wasn't making much if any difference. Finally I called the Bernina shop where I got my machine. They couldn't give me any suggestions. So, I called someone here that does a lot of quilting and uses a BSR (Bernina Stitch Regulator) and she suggested I adjust the little screw on the bobbin holder. I knew that was something you can do to adjust the tension but just didn't think about it. It's one of those things that 's available but they always tell you to be very very careful about doing it. Anyway, it worked and the tension was fine after that. So, I started meandering around the quilt and every time I went over a leaf, it would skip stitches. Don't know if it's because they are stiff because of the embroidery and stabilizer or if I needed a better needle. I'm using an almost brand new titanium needle and I don't think I could do any better than that. Anyway, after about 40 minutes of hating most of what I stitched, I stopped and spent the next four hours taking out all the stitches. So, after getting some input from a couple of people today, I'm going to use a brand new needle and try again -- I'm going to just catch the edge of a leaf rather than go across it. I'll see how that goes. If it still skips I'll just skip the leaves and go back and tack them by hand.

On a brighter note, I've used up all my diapers now except one making burp cloths. Here is the last batch I did. -- No embroidery this time - except the pink one I'd already done but hadn't sewn it together til yesterday.









For those who didn't know -- I was picked for jury duty last week. I was in court for three days. It was a murder case -- choices of not guilty by self defense, guilty of murder or guilty of manslaughter. We found the defendant guilty of manslaughter. The judge was awesome -- I'll tell that story another time.

Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend and has a great week.

NAPKINS ARE FINISHED!

Here are the napkins I made for Patsy. Actually I didn't make the napkins -- just embroidered them. I'm learning more and more as I do more embroidery. Hope everyone is enjoying their weekend.




I know Toby is :)








Update -- 7:30 pm
Here's the burpcloth to go with the blankedt I made for the shower tomorrow.




Midnight -- Here is more of what I did tonight. Ignore the threads that I haven't snipped yet Off to bed.

HOW TO EMBROIDER A CHRISTMAS NAPKIN

First, get a set of really cute designs like these mod santas (of which you only see one right now).
Next, carefully measure the length and width of the area on the napkin where you'll place the design. Cut a piece of muslin to those measurements and do a practice sew out.


See how the practice sew out sits on the folded napkin. Looks pretty good :)

Now measure on the real napkin very carefully and mark where the center of the design will be. Hoop your stabilizer, use spray adhesive on the napkin and place it on the stabilizer so that the center of the stabilizer matches up with the center of the design. Sew out the design. Tear away the "Tear Away" stabilizer and Voila -- if your machine behaves you can't tell the back from the front (except for a few leftover flakes of stabilizer that will wash out). Here is the back



And these two are the front.







Now, its one down and seven more to go.
Have a great rest of the week everybody.

WHAT A DIFFERENCE A BORDER MAKES!!

I attached the borders to the family tree today. They make such a difference in the look of the quilt. I really like it. Tomorrow I'm going to try to get all the leaves attached -- two or three stitches (by machine) on stem and tip. Then I'll try to sandwich it before the weekend and I'll start quilting. I may finish this by Thanksgiving after all.



Since Michael doesn't have a blog, I'm posting these pictures of him and Avery -- two teriffic red heads (there's another in the family but she's in TX) . Some are from the pumpkin farm and one is from Halloween.

BABIES, LEAVES AND OTHER STUFF

Apparently telling the kids I'm retiring in May incited a baby boom in my family. First Jennifer and Matthew and now Billy and Stacey. I'll barely have packed up my files and moved out of my room at school and I'll be running from MS to TX and TN to hold those new rascals. But, lest I sound like I'm complaining -- I'm NOT -- I'm very excited for them and I get to sew more baby stuff too!! And the best part is, I won't have to worry about getting back home to go to work!! At least not right away. I'm sure I'll get some sort of part time job at some point but I'm not thinking about that right now. I'd rather think about more new babies :))

All the leaves are on the family tree. They've been glued but some have pins too until the glue is good and dry. The next step will be to tack them down at the stem end and the tip with two or three stitches. Then when I do the quilting it will take care of the rest. I'm pleased with the results so far. I'm doing a double border -- a grayish blue green batik and the red batik. Then I'm using the grayish blue green for the backing and will make stips from the leaf scraps for the binding.


Next Sunday we are having a baby shower for a soon to be new mom at church. The quickest thing for me to make is a minkee blanket but I didn't have an boy stuff to make one so I ran to the fabric store downtown and found this beautimous minkee and animal fabric. Where is the blue in the animal fabric you may be asking. Well, find the parrot and you will see that he has a smidgen of blue that goes quite well with the minkee. I think it will make a great blanket. I'll get the squares cut tomorrow and start sewing it together and finish it Mon. or Tues. It is a super easy blanket and always makes up beautifully.



I got off to a slow start today because of a bad sinus headache. It was after lunch before I felt like doing much. But I did eventually get revved up and that was when I made the rest of the blank leaves and finished gluing them all on the quilt top. And somewhere in there I got that new material. Guess I'll head for bed now and enjoy my extra hour of sleep.