My Friend Sandra

My friend Sandra died last night. She had cancer. She suffered greatly for the last few weeks and I am thankful that she is in a better place now. Sandra was not my "best" friend but she was a special friend to me. I have known her family for about 30 years. We went to the same church, played cards and ate together on occasion, went to ball games when our boys were playing ball together, and many other fun things. When Bob became sick with pancreatic cancer, she would check on him often, sometimes stopping by for a minute or just asking about him at church. What made Sandra so special to me was the fact that after Bob died, she made a point of coming by on the anniversary of his death for probably 6 years straight and letting me know that she even though she thought of him at other times, she particulary thought of him on that day and how much she missed seeing him at church and his song leading and would share a funny memory or two and then would be on her way. She missed a year or so after that and then came another time or two. I will always remember those visits and I'm thankful that I was able to tell her how much they meant to me. Sandra was not only a good friend to me she was a wonderful Christian example to her family and to others. She taught Sunday School - usually 3rd and 4th grade-- and I know influenced the lives of a lot of kids in a really good way. She will be missed by all of us.

BloggyLove -- It's great!

My niece Jessica sent me this award-a little "Bloggy Love" -- she says I'm crafty and inspire her -- Thanks Jess! Now I have to pass it on.
I don't actually know many of the folks whose blogs I read -- except my kids and nieces. When I'm in the mood to blog surf I usually google quilting or sewing -- I know that is hard to believe but it's true. I also will look at blogs that other people link to and then ones they link to and on and on. AND of course there are the blogs that my girls occasionally recommend. Having said that, here is my list and the first two are NOT craft related :)

MY DDIL Stacey - She often bares her soul through her blog and has such a way with words. She lets us know through her writing how important God is to her and how she wants to instill that in her children and I love that quality about her.

Amber - a friend of the fam - has a knack for writing and I enjoy her stories about family.

Ree - The Pioneer Woman - Now Ree doesn't know me from Adam but I've read her blog enough to almost feel like part of the family. If you enjoy funny and often touching stories about life on a ranch, lots of yummy recipes and some how to's on photography then I guarantee you will love this blog.

Last but not least is CJ - "The Wandering Quilter" - She makes the prettiest quilts and other embroidered "stuff" and is very much into canning, making her own flour and real what I call "back to the basics" living. I love reading her blog too.

MUCH BETTER -- DON'T YOU THINK?

New ribbon made a huge difference in the dresses -- to me anyway.
They don't look like Halloween now:) Can't wait to see how the girls like 'em.

I keep forgetting to take pictures of my newly painted dining room. I'll try to post some in the next couple of days.

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

Another Project -- DONE

I completed my two pillowcase dresses today and they turned out great. I'm not happy with the ribbon though -- it's a little too bright or something -- I'm going to look at WallyWorld tomorrow and see if a different color would look better.

Here are the two pillowcases I made before I actually made the dressesThey do look like pillowcases. I really like the way the hems turned out. I just folded the material in half, pressed it and used my serger to attach it. That way the edges were finished so they won't fray as easily.
Here are the finished dresses. I put one of each color ribbon on each dress but the ribbon is just too dark. I'm going to look for pink, yellow, blue or a lighter lime green.


Everyone I'm related to that lives in Cleveland is gone this weekend. It feels kind of wierd. The temperature got up to 97 today and tomorrow it's supposed to be 100 and 101 on Monday and Tuesday. UGH!! I hate the heat. Toby doesn't like it either. I know because he doesn't run off when I take him out with me to check the mail and he comes the first time I call him. Now when fall gets here it will be a whole nother story :)
I'm meeting Brian in Monroe on Monday so he can come back here until we go to Nashville the end of the week. I'm going up there to help Michael with Avery for a week. That means I'll miss the first week of school! (Being a Grams does have its perks!!:) But back to Brian -- Stacey's parents are bringing him to Monroe. Her dad and John Dobbs have been emailing back and forth since John Robert died. Terry and Patti have been where John and Margaret are now (their son Ryan died a few months after Suzannah was born) - they've been wanting to get together in person and this has given them an excuse to come to Monroe where John and Margaret live. Anyway, I think we are going to plan to meet up around lunch time. It will be nice to see John and Margaret.

I REVAMPED MY SEWING ROOM (and I like it!)

This afternoon I decided to clean up my sewing room and make it more pleasant to use. My before pictures don't really tell all but here goes.
The room if you are standing in its doorway is 5.5 feet across and then 8 feet from left to right. I had a small sewing table --(not one for a sewing machine but more like an end table that was meant to hold sewing supplies like thread, etc.) to the right just inside the door It is part of the bedroom furniture in my bedroom at Granny's house. I moved it out of that room but it is still easily accessible if I need something from it and I don't have stuff in it that I use a lot. I had 4 bins of fabric scraps in the back right corner. I moved four of those out and will store them in a closet. I hardly ever access them and I need the room for work space. That left the whole right end free except for the closet bar that runs across that end. I had put one of those sweater/shirt holders on it you can get at Walmart so I could have a place for "in-progress projects" I moved it all the way to the far corner. Here is the before
and after
picture of that end of the room. Notice the printer up on the shelf in the "old" pic. Not very conducive to computer work. You can also see the bins in the corner. Now there was room to put the desk I already had in there on the end wall and put my serger on it so I can easily use it any time.


Once I moved the desk, I took one of my foldup 2'x4' tables I got at Sams and put it straight across from the door, butted up against the counter which is along the left wall. I put my printer on it and some other storage containers but there is plenty of room for me to put my comptuer there and hook up my printer to print something out, pay bills or whatever. I can also use that space to cut out "small" projects - I'll have to move to a larger space for big projects. Here is a before and after of the wall straight across from the door. You can see that's where the desk was and the bins and stuff in the corner. The after picture show the table with my printer - and a small fan - because it was stuffy in there. There is also a 3 drawer cart that used to be under the counter to the left and the carrier for my sewing machine if I take it with me anywhere. You can also see my handy dandy magnet bar up under the shelf so I can stick ideas, notes etc. on it. It works good with scotch tape too when you don't have any magnets -- I've put those on my grocery list -- think Kroger has cute ones?

To the left inside the door is a counter that goes all the way across the wall. The only complaint I've had about it is that sometimes when I sew the whole counter would get to vibrating and moving up and down. I was afraid it would loosen it over time so I went to the lumber yard and got a baluster and Brian cut it down for me and put it under the counter and now it is solid as a rock. Thanks Bubba! :) Mainly all I did on the counter was shift the sewing machine to the left a little and then put away things and straighten up. You can see two baskets on the shelf - those are for the projects I'm working on at the moment. One will hold the pattern and all the parts so I can actually work on two things at the same time -- but only in theory.
Here are the before and after pics of that end of the room. You can see there wasn't much on the counter (at the time) but I do tend to pile stuff up from time to time -- I think I'll be more inclined to put things right away now that it's less crowded -- does that even make sense -- more room means more space to let stuff accumulate - but it's more organized too so hopefully ....


The first after picture shows the left end of the counter and the other shows the right end. The stackable drawers on the right end hold my sewing (not embroidery) threads sorted by color. The basket on the left end holds my little gadgets. Its a a silverware holder. I put all my writing things like pens and fabric markers in one section, small scissors and seam rippers and other cutting stuff in another section and anything not in either of those categories in the third. Then I put my big scissors in the large section. I just realized that the basket I'm talking about is not on the counter - its on the table --you can barely see the edge of it, but it is in the before picture.

So, that's a tour of my newly revamped room and I can't wait til tomorrow when I'll be using it to make Suzannah and Molly B some Pillowcase dresses (except I won't be using pillow cases). I'll end with a picture of the fabric I'll be using.I'm toying with the idea of using the stripes for the hem area of the polkadot dress and vice versa since I'll be having to trim a piece of each anyway. If all goes well I'll post pics tomorrow. Good Night!

BLUE SKIES AND GREEN GRASS!

Well, I found time to sew today. The bad part is it was 9:30 when I started!! Anyway, I made two practice leaves and I like the way they turned out. I also put the grass and sky together. It looks good. There is a messy looking spot in the middle that is not appliqued but that is where the tree trunk will be and there are some bits of wash away stabilizer still attached to the grass/sky applique but that will be gone when I wash it. I'm excited. The leaves will be simple to do and I've decided not to try to do them straight on to the background because it would be a super catastrophe if one messed up. I'm going to make them just like the practice ones and then place them on and just sew a line up close to the satin stitching inside the leaf. think that will work well. I'm including pictures of the practice leaves, background sans tree and the three fabrics I'm making the actual leaves from along with the threads I'm planning on using for the applique. Let me know what you think. And, give me any opinions you might have as to using same color leaves within families or just be random all around. Thanks in advance.



<p.s. the familys will be Neals and Kirkbrides
p.p.s. All the names and dates will be in black
Update - EARLY Friday morning 1:50 AM I was reading a couple of blogs before going to bed and found this blog site with all these backgrounds. I probably tried about 20 of them and settled on this "new look". I think I probably better go to bed!!

NO MORE MRS. NICE GUY

Okay, no more Mrs. Nice Guy. I wasn't sure if those initials were in the right order but it was 10:30 and I didn't want to wake anybody up AND I wanted to go on and finish what I was working on so I guessed. Of course, I was wrong. I could have waited but I was in the mood to finish. So... next time I'm in the mood to finish and I don't remember the initials -- I'm calling!! No matter what time it is!! Or not. I guess having a relationship with family members should take precedence over my impatience. Maybe I should just write it down rather than think I'll remember the order for the next 10 hours or two days until I get around to completing the project. But... that would make sense wouldn't it. Anyway, my initial faux pas turned out to be a good thing because I went and got another color thread and ended up with a better product in the end. Here are photots.



Didn't get around to working on the family tree quilt but unless something unexpected happens, I've got the next three days to get a lot done. Be looking for pictures.

Here is a link to Billy and Staceys blog -- if you want to read about Suzannah and the family's dealing with diabetes and -- donate to a worthy cause click on it. http://texasneals.blogspot.com/2008/07/2-year-anniversary.html

COOL IS COOL!!

After being hotter than heck yesterday, I called the air guy -- Guy Cox-- to be exact and they came today and diagnosed my airconditioner problem. It needed some freon (sp?) and after putting two pounds of the gas in the unit, my house is cool once again. Toby's tongue is no longer hanging out and mine isn't either.

Today was massage day for me and boy was I ready. I'm feeling all relaxed and mellowed out now :)

We had a nice, noisy, lightening filled pour down rain for thirty minutes or more thunder storm tonight. It was awesome. I know my yard and all its thirsty vegetation appreciated it.

Jennifer's friend Meg is having a baby soon. She made her a blanket and had asked me to do a couple of burp cloths. After making one yesterday that turned out horrible, I did two this evening that turned out pretty well. I've included pictures.




The reflected light on the word Jack is the water soluble stabilizer that hasn't been washed out yet. I did a closeup of the one I monogramed but it still doesn't show up too well and then a picture of the the two together. I'm hoping to do some work on g'mas family tree quilt this weekend. I want to make a branch on some scrap fabric and see how iit will work embroidering the leaves on. I hope it works well. I just think that will make the process so much easier in the long run. However, before I start that, I need to go over the church directory one more time and send it to the printer and get this weeks bulletin done for church. Hopefully that won't take very long.

Think I'll head off to hit the hay in "cool" comfort. So that's all for tonight.

NEAL FAMILY WEEKEND O8 IS IN THE BOOKS AND (separate and apart) A NEW QUILTING GUILD IS BORN

A very fun weekend has come and gone. It was very hot -- inside and out-- and still is so in case anyone is interested, I'm having my cooling system checked tomorrow. I've been in three houses today -- none of them new construction and they were all reasonably cool. My thermostat is set on 79 and the temp is regstering 86. But, that's all another story.

All fams with kids got bedrooms and Brian chose to sleep here so he got the couch and I went across my neighbors yard and slept at the Ballards. It's nice to have friends two doors down:) Thanks Buddy and Carolyn. Our guests arrived between eleven and eleven thirty on Friday night. we all went to bed around 12:15. I woke up about 6:30 am and went back to sleep -- was sleeping the sleep of the dead when all of a sudden these sweet little voices were saying wake up grams wake up! And I did! Then there was jumping on the bed and on me until I got up because everyone wanted to go to the pancake place for breakfast. After breakfast it was swimming at the Stiles. At 12:30 we got home and had lunch and then it was naptime for the little ones. Suzannah, Molly Beth and Aunt Stacey went to visit Kristen and Aunt Donna. The rest of us kind of laid around and were lazy.

We cooked grilled chicken and burgers to go with potato salad and baked beans for supper. Then Michael, Stace, and I kept the Jack, Molly B and Katy while the others went to the Student Center to eat homemade icecream and and visit at the church's game night. We bathed the little ones and had them all ready for bed when the parents got home and then the older ones got baths and all went to bed. We played Scattergories for a little while and then visited and we all went to bed a little after 11.

Sunday meant church and lunch at Grandmother's. She was fixing a "small" meal -- just ham, chicken, squash casserole, field peas, cheesy carrots, pink fluffy salad(?), macaroni and cheese, sliced tomatoes, rolls and tea. Makes you wonder what a normal meal would consist of doesn't it :) It was, of course, delicious. We had an early birthday party for Vail with carmel cake that had 3 1" diameter candles on top and some ice cream. It was great. After that it was time to play outside for a little while while we put the food away and dishes in the dishwasher. Then a few fam pictures and it was time to head north and south. Toby slept from three yesterday until this morning without waking up!! Just kidding but he did sleep a lot:)

Here are a few pictures from the weekend.
















I almost forgot about the quilt guild. A friend called me at lunch time and said a group who was interested in forming a quilt guild was meeting tonight so I went with her. There were about 10 of us there. Some of them brought quilts to share. It was fun. We are going to meet on the fourth Tuesday of each month. Next meeting we are bringing our favorite "tools" and "gadgets" that we use when making our creations and any projects we might want to share. I think it will be fun. Well, that's all for now folks except to tell my kids(that includes you too Stacey and Matty) how much I enjoyed having you and how proud I am of each and every one of you as you raise your familys. You are doing such good jobs and teaching Brian all the good tricks for when he has a family too. I love all of you and your kiddos very much.