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:)

book giveaway - i hope i win!!

Elizabeth  "Liz" Owen is one of my fave bloggers. She doesn't know me from Adam but I have come to know her through her posts on Mabel's House. Liz attended Harding during the time that some of my kids did. She is a wonderful writer. She has written her first book and I'm looking forward to reading it. Liz  is giving away 10 signed copies and I hope I get to be one of the lucky winners.  You can be to.  Go check out her blog for the details and you'll get to meet Mabel and also Jane the newest member of this great family. 

Here's an excerpt from her book.

***

Once one has breathed in the deep pungent aroma of sewage, you never again forget the nose-hair singeing, eye clawing, throat gagging experience. It comes over you slowly. You begin to feel like a character in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest as your muscles involuntarily jerk and you run screaming and blowing raspberries. Anything to get away from the mind-numbing stench.

But let me explain.

It was 6:30 a.m. I was standing in my retro pink tiled bathroom trying to open my bleary eyes and ready myself for work. As I stood there, peering into the mirror and wondering what demented nighttime fairy had planted four new wrinkles on my face, I paused and sniffed.

“Matt… what’s that smell?”

Matt staggered from the bedroom in his underwear, eyes half shut. “I don’t smell anything.”

I pointed my nose into the air like a hunting dog. “Seriously? You can’t smell that? Did you go to the bathroom in here earlier? I told you to use the room spray when you do things like that.”

Matt puffed out his bare chest and gathered his pride as best a man can with sleep in his eyes and a small hole in the side of his underwear. “I just woke up!”

I frowned, catching a glimpse of my makeup-less hot-rollers-in-hair state and tried not to think about the fact that I looked fifty instead of twenty-nine. “Well, help me figure this out. Because something smells ripe.”

We sniffed the sink drain and ruled it out as a suspect.

“Is it coming from the toilet?” Matt asked, examining it from top to bottom.

“No, that’s not it,” I snapped. I’m not known for my milk of human kindness in a disaster. Don’t get me wrong. I’m a survivor. I plan on eating my radish like Scarlet and clawing my way out of the nuclear dust while dragging my loved ones with me. But I won’t be doing it with positive phrases and a smile.

“Hon, I just don’t know. We’ll call a plumber after work, maybe it’s coming from under the house.” Matt staggered a little, trying to get past me and out of our tiny bathroom.

“Well, that’s just great,” I moved aside and pulled the shower curtain back so I could perch on the side of the tub and give Matt room to move out the door.

That’s when the full brunt of nastiness filled the air around us, a swirling mix of excrement and acrid stench that would have brought the sewer dwelling Ninja Turtles to their knees. Where the normally slightly-clean-with-a-hint-of-soap-scum bottom of the tub should have been, there sloshed gallons and gallons of brown sewage.

I clutched the front of my sweatshirt and held my breath. Matt began to dry heave.

“Get out and shut the door!” I screamed as we bumbled into the hallway.

“I’ll deal with this,” Matt grabbed my shoulders, trying to talk and hold his breath at the same time.

I could feel my eyes glaze over, the horrors of typhoid and hepatitis in our bathtub filling my mind. But more importantly, I could envision our evaporated savings account. In my mind’s eye I could see the long, gray hallway at the bank. A worker shrouded in a black suit pulled a set of keys from his pocket and unlatched a small locker labeled “Owen Bank Account.” Inside were two small stacks of quarters and a few crumpled dollar bills. It was bleak, not only because the banker with an unimaginative wardrobe gazed at me with an expression that could only be interpreted as “You’re a Big Fat Loser,” but also there was a very definite possibility we wouldn’t be able to pay for a plumber.

I wasn’t necessarily a spend thrift. In fact, I was downright frugal when it came to decorating with thrift store furniture and rewired vintage lamps. But the fact was, we were poor. We were starting out at starter jobs with starter salaries. We were starter adults with a starter bank account.

“Okay,” I nodded numbly, thankful that Matt was taking the lead on such a disastrous biohazard. “But make sure the plumber is super cheap. We don’t have much money!”

I left for work like a wino stumbling through a fog, not really remembering my commute, not really doing any work as I sipped my coffee and stared blankly at the computer screen. A disaster of such gargantuan proportions had previously been unthinkable in my life, and now I found myself attempting to push the image of a vast sea of bathtub poop from my mind. But I was sure of one thing: Anne Shirley never had to get ready for work while breathing raw sewage.

 

great lighting giveaway

I was visiting my sister-in-law's blog today and she was posting about a giveaway from this place.

  Barn Lights Electrical . I went over for a visit and found that they have some really cool  industrial and barn style lights in pendants, chandeliers, flush mount etc:  It's a great giveaway and since I've been wanting to update some of my lighting I decided to join in.  You can too.  Here are the particulars.

 The Prizes: We’re giving away one $1,000 Grand Prize and one $500 2nd Place Prize to two lucky winners who enter their homes. The two winners will each receive a Barn Light Electric Gift Certificate to purchase new lighting for their homes or to finish off that lingering renovation project.

1. Look around online at Barn Light Electric and pick lights you'd love to win.

2.Share your picks on your blog and link to the lights if you can.

3.Copy and paste these rules at the bottom of your blog post.

4. Once your post is up, you must email your blog link to: contest@barnlightelectric.com to be qualified to win. The contest ends October 12th, 2011.

These are some of the lights that I liked.  There are lots and lots to check out.

See it Here

Find it here

Find it here

where august went the final chapter (and it ran into september)

The saga of my summer journey has come to somewhat of an abrupt end. I did have a few pictures of my stay at my sister's (all of the dogs playing) on my way home but I've lost them somewhere on my computer. So suffice it to say the I made it home on the 21st of August. I spent that week getting back into a routine of sorts and had an enjoyable birthday with my kiddos. Then on the 29th I got a phone call that a good friend back in MS had died. So I packed up and went to Cleveland on Tues. and stayed on through the weekend to visit with my mother-in-law and other friends and family. Got back here on the 4th of Sept. and have been here since. I've managed to get back into a sort of sewing groove and have finished up three quilts and I'm working on a fall wall hanging. My sewing machine started acting up this afternoon so I'm probably going to take it to the shop tomorrow and have it checked. I love my machine but either I'm doing something wrong a lot and don't know what it is or it seems to be getting very tempermental. Hopefully I will find out something tomorrow. I'll post pictures of my finishes in the next few days and the changes in my kitchen and maybe a few other things too.