what's happening? not much here

Today the grands helped decorate some sugar cookies

Yes, Avery came in her pj's and enjoyed them the entire day!! :)

Micah after he ate his cookie -- he looks pretty serious don't you think?

Then Micah helped me make some chex mix

Lately I haven't done much sewing but I did make  ten of these for gifts

and almost finished this for a gift - I'll wrap it and then keep it til it's done

As I heard a newsperson say on tv today --"Just 369 days til next Christmas."  I'd better get crackin;'  :)

sneak peek --- just for cheri

My sister-in-law asked me to make her a quilt. I said "sure, as long as you don't need it any time soon.  She  was visiting back the end of October so we shopped for   fabric.  Cheri wanted plums and grays and a cream color for the background.  She let me choose a pattern and since I've been eyeing it for quite some time,  I'm doing one from Moda Bake Shop called  Sunkissed Squares.    Last night I decided to do one of the big squares made up of seven parts.  I started with this . . .

and began the "building" process . . .

Does the phrase "measure twice, cut once"  come to mind when you look at that picture?

 This looks much better
 

You can see that it's made up of the middle square and then six other parts added to it.  They are just pinned around the center for now.  It will be awhile til I get to the rest of it but I was curious to see how it would go together. AND  Cheri gets a sneak peek :)   Now I'm motivated to get finished with the things above it on my TO DO list so I can get back to it. 

being a foster parent is not easy

or is it??  The kids are grown and have left the nest.  You are home alone and feel the need of a companion -- someone to be there when you come home, someone to keep your feet warm and love you unconditionally.  So one day you leave the house for awhile and you come home with this

They don't come much cuter than that.  So things go along great for nine months or so and then you think how great it would be for your four legged guy to have a playmate so you volunteer with the local shelter and one day you come home with this.

An explosive bundle of fur who loves to jump on you and uses the coffee table for a bed and plays with the dog until he looks at you as if saying -- can you take him back?  I'm ready for a nap.  He 's been here for almost a month, has settled in quite nicely and he had better hurry up and get adopted before he totally captures my heart.     He is a sweet dog even if he does jump in the fish pond (or maybe Gibbs pushed him in) and bark at anything that goes by our house, and is still full of puppyness.  Gibbs and I will both miss him when he leaves.

Being a foster parent is not easy but it sure is a lot of fun:

happy thanksgiving

Wishing you and yours a very Happy Thanksgiving.

i've been invaded

Jennifer wanted to make Micah a twin sized quilt.  He loves StarWars.  I think everyone at her house loves Star wars.  She saw a quilt on the Internet that someone else had made and decided to give it a try so she got a set of Vintage starwar sheets on Ebay and some fabrics she thought went well with the sheets.  She has been in my sewing room once or twice a week since early October and worked very hard.  She is ready to start quilting.  This is her first quilt and a very ambitious undertaking.   I think it looks great.

The back is a navy blue sheet with a stripe of leftover fabrics.

 The gray on the front is also from a sheet and the squares are made using the characters she cut from the flat starwars sheet (the fitted sheet will be used on Micah's bed eventually) and the assorted fabrics she got.  She cut different width strips from the different fabrics and then just put them together scrappy style.

 I answered questions and supplied some moral support.  She did the hard part.

I think Micah will love it.

halloween projects

It's almost Thanksgiving and I haven't documented my Halloween projects, so, here goes.

Three pumpkins -- one to get me all caught up with the grands and two for other kiddos that we are fond of.

Hopefully they were filled with lots of treats on Halloween:)  They are always fun to make.

Jen got T-shirts for her three and asked for Halloween appliques.  We came up with these.

Stockings for Vail

 Frankenstein for Micah

And a cupcake for Kates

accuquilt giveaway

There is a great review of pros and cons of the accuquilt at Fresh Cut Quilts Pattern Co. and to top it off they are giving one away along with a couple of dies.  Go on over and check it out.  The giveaway ends tomorrow evening.

playing catch-up

I'm sharing this video of my oldest granddaughter.  She is an inspiration to me and all of the family.  You'll see why.





Suzannah takes it all in stride.  She is amazing:)

I've been doing a little sewing and cleaning out of closets and working on he beginning of painting my kitchen cabinets.

I've added to my finished list this quilt

and this quilt that will be a Christmas gift.  The picture is bad but the white you see is a wide border that goes all the way around and the gold is the back.

and this quilt I did for a wedding gift.  The back is pieced and I added some embroidery to it.

and also this quilt top that I did for a charity project.  I sent it and the binding back to the group and they did the quilting.

I'm working on getting this totally completed but am having trouble with my quilting and breaking thread.

And I made these T-shirts and will be making several more in the next couple of weeks.

This old media cabinet I found on Craig's list is my practice piece using the Cabinet Transformations kit I got.  Here's a couple of before and after pictures.  I had already removed the back and the shelves.  I put some beadboard wallpaper on the back and painted it the color of the kitchen wall.  I did not use the glaze on the inside of the cabinet.  I might end up wishing I had.

I'll be glad to get the microwave back on it and all the mess picked up --- tomorrow:)