DONE and DONE

Here are pics of the finished Easter Dresses and some of the other pretties I've spent time with the last few days.

LIFE SUPPORT, SELLING HOUSES AND TOTAL RELAXATION

Sometimes when I'm working with gathering threads, whatever I'm working on looks like someone who's hooked up to life support with wires threads sticking out everywhere. I'll be clipping threads on these for awhile. But, the machine work is all finished unless I add one more button hole to the pink dress. Just a bunch of handwork to do. Woo Hoo! At least I can work on that at school when there's nothing happening in the lab.




























-Finish embroidery
-Press and sew sleeve facings
-Press and sew hems
-Sew on buttons


Tomorrow a realtor is supposed to call me -- she was at a continuing ed class today. I'm hoping to get her to come by and discuss what I'd like to do about the house. We will see.

I was this relaxed for awhile today --




















I had a massage and I was asleep before it was over. It was great!

I got this look after about the fourth picture. Guess he didn't appreciate my preserving his relaxed pose for posterity.

SNEAK PEEK AT NEW BABY NEAL QUILT

I think I mentioned that I wanted to make an all pink and white quilt for the new baby neal girl who will be arriving in June. Well, the best laid plans .....
I fell in love with these very pretty shades of pink, green, blue, whatever this color is -- I LOVE it. Believe it or not it really isn't blue -- it's kind of a turquoise on turquoise and turquoise with white and a white on white. One will be 8 inch blocks and a 3 inch border, one will be 1 inch sashing between the blocks and one will be the backing. All three will be used in the binding. Of course all of the above can be changed at the whim of the sewer(pronounced sower -- not "sue-er" I think it's late for me to be blogging)-- and,the sewer -- that would be me :)



















Here is a sample of what you might see on some of the blocks -- not in red but a thread matching the pink, green, blue, whatever that color is. (Don't know why the pics are so yellow) Remember this is just a sampling --- I'll be doing 24 of these and have more than that to choose from. My favorite that will definitely be included --- think Charlton Heston and water -- lots of water.







I won't start on this till after Easter probably so you'll have to wait til then for some updates.

ONE TIRED GRAMS IS SLEEPING AT HOME TONIGHT!

Got home from Nashville around 5 pm as I had stopped in Jackson, TN and walked through Ross' Dress for Less, Kohls, and Hobby Lobby -- but that's another story.

The two Easter Dresses are almost too short so I'm having to add to the length of both. I cut the extra fabric for that tonight. I'm soing a white inset and then more of the pink/blue below that. I think it will turn out ok. I'm going to try and get all the machine sewing finished on the dresses tomorrow.l Then I'll be able to do some quilting and embroidery the rest of the week.

Here are a couple of pictures from the trip -- I'm too tired to put them in chronological order.

MY BABY IS 28; A WII STORY AND SOME EMBROIDERY PROGRESS

Happy Birthday Brian!! Can't believe you are 28. Makes me feel soooooo young!! Hope you had the awesome day you deserve.


If you have kids and/or a WII this you've got to read this. It's a very funny story and not a long one at that.

http://memoriesoncloverlane.blogspot.com/

I've completed all the circles and some of the flowers on the two Easter dresses I'm making. I think the flowers will be a nice touch. You'll have to excuse the wrinkles. The dresses have been stuffed in my school bag so I can work on them during spare minutes between classes.





































I need to get my suitcase packed for my big weekend trip to Nashvegas. I'm ready for a dose of kids and grands. Plus there's a big bday party at the Rainforest on Friday night. Woo Hoo!!

FINALLY

Finally the log cabin quilt is totally finished and in the washer. I've been doing some hand sewing this week. Working on finishing the binding on this quilt and the label. 

I also made the label (by machine to be attached by hand) for the red (mostly) quilt I'll be quilting and hopefully bind next week while on spring break. Maybe I'll even get the yellow brick road quilt sandwiched and started quilting -- I plan to pick up some batting while in Nashvegas this weekend. I have a list of things to get. Now I can't even run to Wally World for elastic or pins or batting because all that stuff has been removed. One more reason to be glad I'm moving closer to fabric stores. 

I've been thinking about a lot of the finals I've been going through related to retirement. My last Thanksgiving break -- check. Last first day of school -- check. Last Christmas Break -- check. Last first, second and third nine weeks - check (as of this Friday). Coming up -- last spring break, last state testing week, last classroom inventory, last sixth grade exhibition, and last last day of school.  I've enjoyed and am looking forward to each of them.  I love the job - still look forward to it every day but I'm soooo ready for some new challenges.  Scared too but I guess that comes with the territory.

IKEA IDEA

Here is a site that shows lots of uses for IKEA products other than the intended. Some look pretty good. Might spark ideas for using NON IKEA things too.

http://ikeahacker.blogspot.com/

I HAD A GIVEAWAY AND I WON!!!

Not really. I did finally get around to making myself a thread catcher. I made it a little differently. Instead of making a "sandbag" to weight it down, I just made a wide piece that's probably about 12 inches long so I can either lay it under the machine and the machine will hold it in place or when using my portable table, I can actually tie it to the lift underneath to hold it in place. Anyway it will work fine for me and I didn't have to go out looking for sand or a substitute of sorts.
































Other than that, today was a pretty slow day. I went to the grocery store and visited with in-laws and was kind of lazy.

SNOW PICTURES AND A FUN SUMMER DRESS

I said the snow would not last but it did. The ground was covered (sort of) when I got up on Sunday morning but, alas, it was gone by the time we got out of church. They are late but these pictures will document the great snowfall of March 1, 2009.
































I have finished Avery's dress except for hem and handwork. I decided to wait on the hem til I go to Michael's and I'll be able to have her put it on and get the length just right.

I thought it turned out really cute.




























Tomorrow and Thursday, I plan to spend my sewing time finishing the handsewing of the binding on the log cabin quilt and making a label for that quilt and quite possibly the Take 5 red quilt that I've posted pics of before and plan to try to quilt this weekend. Wish me luck.

ANOTHER FINISHED QUILT TOP AND ....... SNOW!!!!

I had let Toby out and when I went to let him back in --- it was snowing. I think it has already stopped but it sure is cold outside. I think any snow accumulation in our area is to the east. We are not in the predicted "snow zone" anyway. The white dots are not dust on the lens, they are real snowflakes:)


































My modified yellow brick road turned out better than I expected. I must say though that I didn't really have a picture in my mind of how it was supposed to look. But I do like what I see. I'm going to back it with one of the blue's in the blocks --you can see it with the arrow below.










































Of course Toby -- who was dozing behind the chair immediately got up and came and sat on the quilt top when I started taking pictures.

















Have a nice week everybody.

YELLOW BRICK ROAD PART 2 , OSCAR FASHION REVIEW AND A LINK TO A LETTER TO MINNIE (must read)

Here are pictures of the first two rows aka 12 squares of the quilt top. I must say, I'm not agonizing over placement of the squares. I laid them all out on the top of my bed and then stacked them in rows. I am laying each new row next to the one before it and then turning squares if I think they need it. Other than that I'm not worrying too much about the blues and yellows.

















































Oh, and Toby gave it his seal of approval (He was actually laying on it but when I pointed the camera at him he got up walked around and then came back and sat down).













Here's the coolest letter to Minnie Mouse written by "Antique Mommy" on her blog. You need to read it. And don't forget to read Saucy's review of the Oscar fashions -- it was better than watching the red carpet!!

The Yellow Brick Road -- Not for Dorothy!

A month or two At least two maybe three years ago I bought a stack of blue and yellow fat quarters that included a pattern with them. It was all tied up with a pretty yellow bow. Several months ago, I finally got around to starting the quilt. I read the directions very carefully - honest. I began making the cuts for the blocks. Then I started putting the blocks together. Anyway, to make a long story short, I took a wrong turn somewhere -- I thought -- and ended up with a bunch of rectangles that I couldn't figure out what to do with. I reread the directions two or three more times and still missed what I needed to do. I ended up cutting the rectangles one more time and THEN I saw what they were supposed to be -- bigger than what I was left with. Sooooooo I'm not making the Yellow Brick Road pattern. I'm making the MODIFIED Yellow Brick Road. On top of all that, I figured out how I would (re)make the blocks, put the material and all back in the basket -- until this afternoon. Got it out and had no idea what solution I had come up with before because I neglected to write it down. So, I looked at what I had already done and came up some new squares and I'm willing to bet if you look in the photos you won't know which squares follow the pattern and which don't!! Tomorrow I'll lay them out and hopefully stitch up another quilt top. The last picture shows all that was left when I got finished.