wips

I've been working on several things simultaneously.  A family tree quilt that I will show in another post has been taking up most of my time.  I've also been trying to finish up my Civil War quilt.  I've got all the sashings and corner blocks finished and ready to attach to the blocks.

 Jennifer and I worked together on thie quilt for a family member's soon to be born baby girl.  Her nursery is based on the movie UP.  She was really happy with the quilt and we had lots of fun working on it.

I also embroidered these for the old and new sisters

I took a class on using the new "Twister" tool and made this pretty table runner.  Still a work in progress
I started by sewing together four charm squares, then added a border.

Once that was done I started cutting squares out of the square I had made using the Twister tool.

You line up the lines on the tool with the seam lines in your squrare and then use your rotary cutter to cut out the smaller square.

As you cut each smaller square you create a new square similar to this one,  Then you end up with this

I've got the squares sewn together and the borders on but the pictures are on my camera and I'm too tired to upload them right now.  Anyway, all I have to do is cut the backing and it will be ready to quilt.  I may take a break from my family tree and do that over the weekend.

birthday cookout

We celebrated #1 son's birthday today with a cookout after church.  A good time was had by all.

The birthday boy gets help from his favorite redhead to blow out candles.

 

 The Titans made a touchdown!

 The grillmaster and his apprentice

 

Micah playing on the swings with his favorite person:)

It was a beautiful day for a family get together.

kisses quilt

I'm working down a to do list and today after I did all the other things that I needed to I pulled out the last two blocks for the Kisses for My Beloved quilt.  I finished those and took a picture of one of them

After finishing those, I dug out the borders and backing.  There is still a good bit of work to do

Just the sashing involves three strips sewn together and then a little  9 patch block at in between AND there are three borders after that.  I'll be working some more on it tomorrow.  So far, I'm really liking the results.

done

I was going to embroider a bunch of leaves for a quilt I'm making but my Deco decided to act up so I finished as in TOTALLY FINISHED this instead.

There is a nip in the air -- it's beginning to feel like Fall!

best bargain ever

I must begin by saying I am not much of a shopper and very seldom do I walk away feeling like I got a real bargain.  I've been wanting to get some sort of a "Weekender" bag for short trips that would hold a few changes of clothes, pjs, etc and my toiletries.  I liked some things I saw on the Vera Bradley website but they were well over a hundred dollars and I didn't want to pay that much.  Today at the mall, Jen and I went into a shop that carries Vera Bradley stuff.  We were looking at the Grand Traveler so I could at least know how big it is and maybe watch for it to be on sale.  Then we noticed a whole section of 75% off bags.  I ended up spending $52 for $192 worth of Vera.  I decided that was a really good bargain.  Though neither is a true "weekender", the two bags together give me plenty of room, will be easy to handle and the smaller one is actually a baby bag so is fully lined with plastic which makes it great for a toiletry bag.  What do you think

he passed!!

Congratulations to Michael for passing the last part of his CPA exam.  He was relieved and I was very excited.  We took him out to eat to celebrate.  Here are some of the few pictures I took.  They don't include everyone because some of them were very out of focus.

Michael and his girlfriend Erika

 Katy, Jennifer and Micah.

The goofy boys and their mom

We had a fun time at the Outback.

I will leave you with Vail showing off her newest "gap" where she pulled a tooth. (even though all you can see is the grin)

i can't help it . . .

I just really love my little sweater and hat that I finally finished.  What do you think?

now open ...

our new geriatric wing

Meet Purdue -- my new foster and Gibbs' new friend.  He is part newfie and part flat coated retriever and is around 8 years old.  He is very sweet and well mannered and still has plenty of get up and go.

He came to the rescue with heartworms and has been through the treatment and pronounced well.  He also has severe food allergies so he has to eat a special food and takes a pill every other day for itching.  Apparently he was without a lot of his hair when he first came but it is growing back now.

You can see a good bit of gray around his muzzle and mixed in elsewhere too but he has the kindest eyes.

He and Gibbs have become great friends.  They play and nap all day.  It's great!!  I had only had him a couple of days and we thought he got out of the yard because we couldn't find him -- couldn't find where he got out either.  We called and whistled and clapped but he didn't magically appear so we went out looking and no one had seen him.  Came home and went back outside - called and whistled some more and then leaned way over and looked under the house where the fireplace sticks out and there he was asleep.  He is apparently a very sound sleeper. 

some wip's

Here are a few things I've been working on lately

This just needs buttons and threads hidden and cut off.  This was so fun to work on.

 The family tree quilt for my niece's family -- background pieced, tree traced cut out and ironed on -- ready for some zig-zag stitching and a bunch of family leaves.

All the appliques adhered to this Halloween wall hanging - just needs sandwiching and quilting ---hopefully before Halloween.

Hope everyone has a great week:)

salsa for a little burrito

Saw this free pattern on the sweetest baby and just had to try it.  So, I dug out the old needles, blew off the dust and got busy knitting.  It knits up all in one piece so no seams to sew up. It will button diagonally -- kind of like a kimono.  I love it and the yarn is a cotton bamboo -- very very soft.

  
What do you think?

for whatever reason

Sometimes fabric does something you don't like.  I washed this quilt top in cold water ( yes, maybe I should have waited til it was totally finished but I didn't ), hung it on the clothesline and for whatever reason, the horizontal sashings all drew in at least 1/2 inch.  They stretched like elastic and I guess I could have tried stretching them and pinning more when I sandwiched the quilt , but instead , I'm doing this.

 

Next time I will be more careful.

no red allowed

I washed my raggedy friends quilt top on the delicate cycle in cold water and added these  -- they started out white

and ended up with this

no red in the wrong places !!