CATCHIN’' UP

 Addendum:  I definitely had a "Grams" moment.   I must apologize to Charley Kate for misspelling her name on her stocking.  Hopefully between now and when she learns how to spell it I'll get it fixed -- or maybe she will tell me not to worry about it and love me anyway  :)


Lots going on around the neighborhood.  Had company off and on last week since it was fall break at all the area schools.  The girls came over a couple of times and one day we played outside. 

Toby went to the vet for the 3rd time with his cough and had to have a chest x-ray.  He seems to be doing much better but they ended up putting him on a diuretic and a heart pill (both very very low dose) because of fluid on his lung and a possibly sightly enlarged heart.  Those along with his antibiotic means he is taking 5 pills a day.  But, his cough is so much better and they hope to take him off the meds once he is totally recovered.
Have spent some time at the sewing machine and some embroidering too.
I have 4 blocks finished (except for some of the hand embroidery) for the Raggedy Friends BOM that I’m working on.  Jen likes to embroider so she has embroidered one square and is working on her second  -- block #4.  I did the first one and have the 3rd waiting.  Here are the first three.  I really like how these blocks are turning out.
This is Block 3

Block 2

and Block 1

 
I’ve got two bishop dresses pleated and have started the smocking on the blue one.

I won’t tell you how many times I had to take out part of the first row I did (it’s not the top row but the bottom row– which will actually part of the middle of the smocking when all is said and done.  I don’t  know if it is just me or what but no matter how slow I go I always skip a pleat or a stitch or something.   BUT, once that first row is perfect, it is so easy to know as you go that each of the other rows is working out correctly.  My stitches are still not totally uniform  but they are getting better as I go.  My goal is to work on  the smocking every evening when/if I watch tv.  I hope to have both smocked by Thanksgiving.  That way they will be done by Easter:))
I also embroidered names on some Christmas stockings for my neice and also one for my newest grand even though she won’t be using it til next Christmas.

I actually did five for Julie but only took pictures of the first two.  Charlie Kates is an extra one jen had gotten a couple of years ago so I inherited it and didn’t have to make one from scratch. 
I also made a couple of towels to give as a gift to the son of a good friend who is getting married around Thanksgiving.
 
Tomorrow is clean-up day around here and then I can start messing up the sewing room some more.

I'M A GENIUS!!

I had some fun company for awhile this afternoon. She asked to have her picture made between my two lonely Halloween decorations so I obliged.

We had been working with "favric" in my "favric" room:) and embroidering names on some crayon rollups that I'm making for Christmas gifts. It was getting to be supper time and Vail was getting hungry. I knew my cupboard was all but bare so after looking around a little I said, "I know what we can have. Let's have waffles and bacon. We'll just have breakfast for supper." Her response, "Grams, You are a GENIUS!" Yup, that's me --- a genius at not going to the grocery store:)) It really was a fun, fun afternoon.


Not sharing pics of the xmas gifts but here's a cute burp cloth I made for a friend who's having a baby in the spring.

I like the black and pink together.

LONG TERM PROJECTS -- SORT OF

Smocked Easter Dresses were requested for Vail and Katy.  Material was purchased awhile back and I got them cut out and the sleeves sewn in so that they are ready to be pleated.  The material is so very pretty.  I forgot to take pictures and I'm too lazy to go do it now so they will have to wait til another day.   As soon as I get them pleated, I'll get busy with the smocking.  Yes, Easter is several months away but I always seem to run behind when I smock so I'm starting early. 

Also, you may have noticed the Raggedy and Friends button on my blog.  Kaaren at the Painted quilt is sharing her Raggedy Ann and Andy Quilt over the next several months, one block a month. (I've already downloaded the first three) I've never done a quilt like this but love Raggedy Ann and decided to give it a try.  Her quilt is all different colors( It reminds me of a quilt you'd find in your grandma's attic) but I'm doing mine in Red and White..   I found a neat product to make it easy to transfer the embroidery design so that I can easily follow the lines when I embroider.  Tonight I cut out the fabric and pieced the first block.  It's all ready to stitch now.  I'm loving how it looks and pretty proud of the pinwheel blocks I made -- they are my first.
Here you can see most of the block -- it measures 18 1/2 x 18 1/2.  The two white pieces will be hand embroidered.

I've stuck on the "transfer eze" in this picture.  It is very similar to washaway stabilizer so when I'm finished, I can rinse it away.

Now, I'm off to do a few stitches before I go to bed.

S’MORE STITCHIN

I wanted to get these wall hangings finished before Halloween came and went so I got busy today and did just that.  The thread I was using to quilt kept breaking.  I rethreaded, I changed needles, I rethreaded, I changed the needle size, I rethreaded  - - - are you sensing a pattern here yet?? Anyway, I finally gave up trying to solve the problem and just kept rethreading. (I was using a multi color thread and I’m kind of wondering if it was just weak in spots??)  Sometimes I sewed for a minute and the thread broke and sometimes I sewed for five or ten, but I finally got them finished.

The lighter yellow looks like a lit jack-o-lantern in the pictures.  I used a blanket stitch for the appliques in the first picture and just a straight stitch close to the edge in the second one.  I also attached the binding on the back side and then used a blanket stitch on my sewing machine to finish it on the front side. 

When I looked at the picture of the ME quilt top, I kept thinking something was not right  -- I suddenly realized that it wasn’t totally finished because it needed borders.  So, I did that today also and now I can say the quilt top is finished and ready to sandwich and add to my “pile”.

The black border is a black with tiny white dots.  The yellow is one of the prints that came with the fabric line.  I had tried to find the red but couldn’t so decided on the yellow.  I like how it turned out.

FINALLY – SOME STITCHIN’

Today, I took a class on applique at the Bernina store and came home with this nifty kitchen towel.

and then made another to use as a gift.

I had to take Toby back to the Dr. about his cough and found out there has been some strange upper respiratory dog thing that has been going around and several dogs have come back a second and even third time.  They gave him a new stronger antibiotic and since his lungs and heart sound good, we are hoping this will take care of it.

Then, I finally got to spend an afternoon in my sewing room.  I  finished my Mary Englebriet fabric quilt top

and  added borders to the 12 Days of Christmas panel that I had picked up a while back.

  Tomorrow I don’t have anything special on my schedule so I’m going to try to spend my day practicing my free motion quilting by finishing up some small projects I really need to get finished with.

GOOD NEWS AND BAD NEWS

The good news is today is Billy's birthday.  Happy 33rd William.   And, I took sewing class at the Bernina Shop and got some really good tips and ideas for lots of burp cloths.

The bad news is that because I'd been to two of Avery's ball games and decided to skip today's in favor of the sewing class, I missed seing her play her best game yet-- she earned the game ball today!!  Woo-hoo Avery.  You go girl.  I'll be there to cheer you on Monday night.