The problem with blogging is..............

1. I can't touch the fabric.
2. I can't run my fingers over the quilting.
3. I can't let my drool drip onto the quilt.
4. I can't turn the project over and over wondering "How did they do that?"

Have a great day!

Last day in TN

Yorkies

I thought the boys needed matching Yorkies.

I found a great site for embroidery applique' designs. Go visit Planet Applique'.

Note: If you buy tee's from Old Navy, go up a size, they run small.

2 more days

More Goodies & stuff

I'm scheduling blog entries for the upcoming week as I will be finishing up getting ready for the packers to be here on Wed. The moving company is almost as picky as the airlines. They want the pictures off the walls and stacked. They won't take firearms, liquids, food, etc. So the guns will be put in a storage compartment under the backseat, the liquids will be put in a plastic tub with a lid in the back of the pickup and the food stuff will be give to a neighbor. I also got a plastic tub to put my quilts in. The movers aren't taking my quilts! lol

Thursday when the moving truck pulls out we will load the pickup and get on the road. Our plan is to drive about half way and get a hotel. Half way to my mother's house is only about 4 hrs but we feel like that will be enough for Lacy, Nikolas and Greg. Plus I do not want to be on the road on New Year's eve as it is just to dangerous. Friday morning we will go on into my mother's and spend the night at her house.

Now on to the good stuff, Betsy must have thought I was a really good girl as she sent me lots of goodies.

The fabric on the left is actually a kit with a pattern called Emily's Winding Ways. The fabric at the bottom is corduroy and it is just beautiful. I think it would make a beautiful bag.

Nice threads that I will put to good use, a little bundle of fat qtrs and check out that pattern. I can't wait to make all of those items for my sewing room. In fact, I had planned to take the pattern and some fabric with me so I could start sewing on these items until the moving truck arrived but my mother has tea towels and bath towels waiting on me to embroider for friend.

This panel is just beautiful! Click on it so you can see it better. I have made plans for it and I can't wait to get started on it.

This panel would make a wonderful gift for a friend who loves birds but I think it would be awesome for me also.

3 more days

Note: The moving company called today to go over everything that had to be packed and loaded. They are hoping to get everything packed and loaded on Wed., so if they do we will pull out in back of them.

Dolls

Betsy's sister makes dolls and Betsy got her to make me one and Lacy a doll plastic bag holder. They are too cute!

This is my doll. Hubby has done some teasing about me getting a doll for Christmas but it is all good fun.

This is Lacy's bag holder. Greg has smothered her in kisses. lol The doll's faces are hand embroidered. I think you can see the details of the face if you click on the picture.

Lacy and I are just tickled to have one of these dolls Thanks so much, Betsy and Sister.

4 more days

"An Embroidered Christmas"

"An Embroidered Christmas"
by Sarah Kochanowski

'Twas just before Christmas
and all through the town
No embroidery machine was quiet
Not one was shut down

The threads were all hung
on their racks with care
in hopes that beautiful designs
would soon come to bear

When from the computer
There rose such a clatter
I sprang from my Machine
to see what was the matter

My e-mail had sounded
and alerted me to
Free designs from Embroider This!
They were ready to view!

I dashed to EmbroiderThis.com's
Free Design page what did I see?
over 200 Free Designs
Just waiting for me!

On Napkins, On Bibs, On Handkerchiefs they go
On Tote Bags, On Bloomers, On Guest Towels
We sew
On Linens On Kitchen Towels, On Pillows they go
Now Stitch Away, Stitch Away, Stitch Away, and Sew!

Then I heard them Exclaim
As they opened their gifts
We love them, We love them, We love them so much!
But the best present of all was Your Personal Touch!

2010

I've been thinking about 2010 a lot lately and what I want to do. Now I'm not saying I'm not starting any new projects because I will but I want to finish up the tops I have started. I will start on this right after the move and I finish Aiden's baby quilt.

Ribbit, Farmers Market and Flower just need to be quilted.

Merry Christmas!

Yummy

I wanted to find some yummy treats that were quick. Little boys do not have any patience when they need something sweet to eat. Thank goodness for google. These two treats turn the boys into chocolate covered monsters. lol

White Candy Fantasy Clusters

I did not use the vanilla bark I just used chocolate as I'm not a big fan of vanilla.

CHIPS AHOY! Warm S'Mores

I left the coconut out as Lacy and Nikolas don't care for it. Both were very yummy.

Have a great week!


10 more days

Packages

Nikolas opened all the packages from Betsy. It was as much fun watching him open them as it was to receive them. Betsy even sent the boys a gifts.

Cars coloring pages with markers.

I believe Nikolas has the gift opening down to a fine art, so bring it on Santa.

Overwhelmed

This move has me so overwhelmed. It isn't so much the packing because we do have packers coming in on the 4th and then the movers will be here on the 5th. I think it is a combination of the move, Christmas and the fact that Hubbykins is already in TX. Did I dare add the stress of worrying about Lacy and Nikolas? Some days I feel like all I have done is walk in a circle. Not good. I know everything will come together and be just fine but I still worry.

I guess Betsy was sensing I was having trouble "getting it together" because she sent me this wonderful journal. I did remember to take a pictures before I started filling the pages with the yucky stuff involved with moving. :D

I'll try to get back tomorrow with some of the other goodies that Betsy sent for Christmas. Thanks again, Betsy.

Have a wonderful day!

P.S. Thanks to the internet I have the addresses of several quilt shops in my area.

15 minutes

I was surprised at how much I had accomplished doing 15 minutes here and there.

I've started a little winter wall hanging for Lacy. I found the pattern in this book.

It actually isn't a pattern in this book it is a block in this book. See it right there in the middle of the book. I'm going to make 3 blocks since Lacy has almost 3 boys. :D I'm going to embroider the boys' name in the border under the little boys.

When applique'ing more than 1 block for a quilt I like to do it assembly style. I will applique' everything on each block that uses that color thread. So you may get to see these blocks more than once. I looked hard for some Christmas red fabric in my stash that was not girly. Nope, it wasn't there but I think the red I chose works just fine for little boys. I did a thread change sometime after I did one block because I didn't like the original color I chose.

This is what I've got done! Not bad for 15 minutes at a time.I hope over the next few days I finish the applique' on these little boys.

Nothing

This is a picture of nothing.







That is what I have accomplished this week. I try sewing every day and after 15 or so I give up because I feel so bad and still have no energy. I'm to see the dr again on Fri. Come on Friday!

Goodies

Pat of A Little of This and a Little of Pat recently celebrated her blog-aversary. Sounds like she spent some time tallying instead of getting to sew. Anywho, I was recognized for commenting 15 times during her celebration. Pat sent me a envelope filled with fun fabrics. Thanks again, Pat. If you are not following Pat, you should drop by her blog, she is a very busy lady. I'm toying with some ideas for the fabrics.

I saw a pattern using the story book panels to make a quilt. I hope I can find the link again as I now have 2 of these.

And how cute is this magnet?

Happy quilting!

Update

Sickness has taken over my life. I've been sick for 21 days and Greg is approaching 40 days. Tuesday afternoon of last week I got so sick I retired to the bed with the laptop. I was sleeping 2 hrs waking up drinking using bathroom reading on the internet for a bit and back to sleep. This continued until Friday. I probably needed to go back to the dr but I didn't want to go the hospital which is where I was afraid he would send me.

I did have a good day Thanksgiving day. lol Instead of cleaning I decorated Christmas shirts for the boys.

Nikolas's shirt was in the washing machine.

We had Thanksgiving Friday after. My husband, his son and his 2 grandsons arrived Friday morning at 4:30. Since the guys had drove all night they needed a nap so we ate about 2:30. Lacy did a wonderful job with pumpkin pies, apple pies and peach cobbler. My husband's grandsons wanted pumpkin pie before their meal. lol No, their dad did not agree to that.

We had a wonderful time while they were here. Eating, watching movies, playing Monoply and talking. The visit was much too short as the men had to be back to work on Tuesday morning.

On Dec. 2nd Nikolas was diagnoised with a mild form of autisim. On Dec. 28th Nikolas has an appt for a 2nd opinion with an autisim specialist which will also give us a lot more details. The treatment of autisim has advanced so much in the last years that I have no doubt Nikolas can over come this.

I have more news but so I don't bore you I will spread it out. I hope everyone has a wonderful week. Stay warm!

Swine flu

Lacy and I thought we were taking precautions against swine flu, it wasn't enough. Greg has been sick for over 3 wks. Somedays we think he is better and other days we are scared he needs to be hospitalized.

There are 8 symptoms and I have 7 as does Greg. Lucky me!

Please take care of yourself, I wouldn't want any of you getting sick. No sewing was done this past week. :(

I won

I don't win much because I don't comment on giveaway post unless I am a regular follower. Plus if the item is something I don't think I will enjoy I certainly won't comment.

Rhonda has been giving away embroidery blocks for her regular followers only once a month, she has discontinued until after the holiday. Isn't that a great idea? I wish I had thought of that.  Rhonda has offered up some real  beauties and finally I won. Actually, in Nov Rhonda offered two. Pat won one and I won the other. It is beautiful. It is hanging on the wall currently so I can enjoy looking at it and hopefully I will decide what to do with it.

Click the image to enhance your drooling. ;)

Thank you so much, Rhonda.

No more

I am in the process of removing all pictures of Nikolas and Greg. Lacy found this article yesterday and it really unnerved both us. I hope you will take the time to read the article.

Enjoy your day!

Edit: I don't know why the link won't work. Here is the actual link.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/25/fashion/25facebook.html?_r=4&partner=rss&emc=rss

Bliss & Blessings

I finally started on this wall hanging last week. Of course, it isn't going very fast since I am doing a tiny satin stitch, but I still have a couple of weeks before I need to hang it. If you click on the pictures they will enlarge ad you can see what I have done better.

Have a terrific day!

Gobble gobble

This is Nikolas's shirt. I need to make Greg's but I'm not looking forward to it. Never having worked with felt I didn't know not to get the felt with the sticky on the back. I had more thread breaks and gummed needles than I care to remember. I suppose I could stitch Greg's by hand.

A few more cute crocs

Here are the cute crocs that I made last week.

 

Have a quilt-y day!

Vroom vroom

I know that is not the sound little boys make when they play with their cars but I couldn't spell that sound. ;) After playing with the embroidery machine the other day and learning how to do machine embroidery applique', I'm hooked. I've spent hours searching the internet for designs preferably FREE designs. I really need to win the lottery so I can buy all of the wonderful designs that are available. lol So far this is what I have made for the boys. I didn't put their name on the pillows because I wasn't sure which pillow they would claim for their's.

Nikolas claimed the red car so that left the blue car for Greg and he didn't care. Note to self: Nikolas is like his Gran-gran and likes bright colors.

Blocks from a friend

In January, Rhonda sent me these beautiful paper-pieced blocks. I tried putting all 4 blocks into a wall hanging that turned out to ugly to take a picture of. So I ripped that out. And I looked at the blocks and looked at the blocks. Then I forgot about the blocks. Finally I looked at the blocks again (found when cleaning up the sewing area) and then it hit me. DUH!! Not a tall skinny but a short fat. ;)

And the final results. I added the green border so they all tied together.

I used unbleached muslin for the backing. Years ago a quilting buddy told me that my quilting was suppose to show, my quilting isn't that great so I usually try to hide it. However, this time I was brave bold.

Thanks, Rhonda!

Have a quilt-y day!

Veteran's Day

Mystery Christmas crochet project

Because I didn't have any other projects to work on I decided I would do the mystery Christmas crochet project lead by Sarah London. I like the neon green that Sarah chose so I'm going to use it also. I'm feeling brave and may not make all my blocks the neon green. :D

Check it out if you need a new project.

Oink Oink

One morning I woke up at 4 am, I have no earthly idea why. So after a cup of coffee I decided it was the perfect time to learn to machine embroidery applique'. So this little piggy was born applique'd. Now my first piece is not perfect, I had trouble trimming right next to the satin stitch. I didn't have any spray adhesive and I don't know if that would make it any easier or not.

I really enjoyed doing the little piggy and I hope with practice I will improve.

Happy quilting!

More Cute Crocs

I'm not as far along on the cute croc blocks as I had hoped to be, but as long as I have the quilt finished before the baby gets here. Eight more to go!

Have a great weekend!

No change in Greg.