Just checking in to say I haven't forgotten about you, dear Blog. I've been a busy lady and will hopefully have pictures to show for it in the next few days!

Oh My, and Auction Finds

  Good Day at the Auction!!

First of all, I cannot believe it's been 6 months since I was here! There went my resolve to blog more often! I think I may be coming back to blogging and doing less on FB...Maybe......lol...

Anyway, Mark and I spent all day Labor day at an auction. I saw 3 quilts I loved and got one of them about halfway thru the auction. Then, the last 2 were 2 of the last things they sold, so we waited and I got lucky and got one of them. I was extremely pleased with them. I REALLY wanted the third.....it was an Irish Chain that had a lot of purple in it and it was gorgeous. All 3 were hand quilted and the flowers and border on the first one are all hand appliqued. I want to take them outside and hang them on the line so I can get decent shots of the whole quilts, but for now, this is what I got when I laid them on my bed. 

First One!!

Corner

Flower

Border

2nd one

And here is the crochet hook roll I made for Deb. I owed her a gift from the "Pay it Forward" game she and I entered in January! This is gift #1, 4 more to go! Have ideas for the next couple, so maybe I'll get those done this weekend!

Here is my newest Kindle Fire cover. After tweaking the pattern, I decided to make a new one for myself and thought I'd play around with design. I am a bit worried that this one is to light in color for me, as my hands get really dirty at work, and if I read during break, I will definitely have to wash up before I put my hands on it! This one does fit much tighter than the first one, which makes it better. Maybe I need a few different ones to suit my mood! lol

Miss Emilee. These 2 dresses are what I've worked on the last couple of days. I couldn't show them because I was taking them to give the girls today at Emilee's birthday party. I thought the blue and yellow would be very pretty on her, and I think I was right!

Miss Anna's pretty blond hair called for a different color, so I chose the purple for her. The white has delicate little purple flower print. I think the purple will look great on her. I missed Anna's birthday, and that's why she got a dress on Emilee's big day.

As most of you know, my husband bought me a Kindle Fire Sunday. Right away, I decided I had to make a cover for it.(I did look to see what WM had, and did NOT like the one they had for $20, besides, home made is better, anyway, right?) So, I went online and searched for a pattern. I found one, so off to the sewing room I went, Sunday evening. I made one, but tried adding Timtex to make it a little stiffer than just batting. Somehow, I got it twisted, so pitched that one. In the process of making it, though, I discovered I did NOT like their way of holding the device in, so I decided to create my own pattern. Below you'll see the pictures of my first attempt. It turned out pretty well, I think, but there are a few things I'll do differently on my next one. Yes, I'll be making another(or 2 or 3). I have a specific cover design in mind for another one for myself, and I've promised two very special ladies(my mom and my aunt), who received KF's for Valentine's day, that if I got my pattern worked out, I'd make them one, too!

Opened

Front

Back

I know most of you who follow me here, also follow me on Facebook. I posted these pictures there on Wednesday, but didn't get around to posting here. If you saw my post last week with the "booby cap", you'll know that the Grandma of the baby I mentioned DARED me to make him one, and the daddy said, "You wouldn't....oh yes you would", so of course I DID! Thanks again, Deborah for the pattern!! Mommy, Grandma and I had a good laugh trying it on him Wednesday morning.



After I delivered that, my friend and I did some errands and just had a good "girls day". On my way home, I saw this:

I was so happy I had the camera in the car with me! I just had to stop and take a picture.

No pictures yet, but it's been a busy day for me. I've put my foodsaver thru a workout! I've vacuum sealed 6 bags of cooked burger, 3 seasoned for chili or taco's, and 3 for Italian dishes such as spaghetti or lasagne. I also baked and sealed 20 mini meatloaves(made in cupcake pans). I have another huge bowl of meat ready to make meatballs and freeze them tomorrow. I also baked 6 lbs of seasoned chicken breasts, but when I tried to seal them, they just had to much moisture in them and the vacuum's suction pulled the juice up and it interfered with the sealing. I stuck them in Zip Loc bags in the freezer and will vac-pack them tomorrow morning. I'm thinking that by freezing them, the juices will be frozen in and allow the vacuum to suck out the air, but not the juices! Will let you know how that works.

Just realized I never posted pictures here of the sewing desk I made out of an old shelf some one was throwing to the trash. The top and drawer faces are new, but the rest of it is from the salvaged piece. The drawers(other than the facings) are made from some other scrap wood that was headed for the dump.

I haven't gotten much sewing done the last few days, but we have been working on my new sewing machine desk/table. We are recycling an old shelving unit I saved from heading to the dump. I thought we'd use it in our flea market booth, but Mark didn't like it. Now I'm glad he didn't! It's working out great for my desk. I forgot to take a picture of it til he was already making that first cut. We cut the top off, and that is the main part of the base. I bought a nice piece of wood for the top. I'll post more pictures when it's done. It's hard for me to remember to take pictures when I'm wrapped up in a project like this. The beautiful weather we are experiencing should allow me to paint it tomorrow, and hopefully get it put together. I have all the components done, just need to put them together and add a coat of paint to the base, and a coat of Polyurethane to the top. Going to paint the base white, and just seal the top, letting the prettiness of the pine show thru!

Here are the blocks I made for my Mom and Dad for Christmas. I had forgotten to take pictures of them before I wrapped them up, and I FINALLY remembered to ask her to take them for me yesterday. One day, I'll get pictures of the set I made Sara and Jeff, too. I meant to take them last week when we were at their house, but alas....I forgot again! lol

Angel's Blanket

I never promised to blog every day, but I am trying to keep track of all my projects on here. This one was a very quick one, but as you can see, Angel likes it! Well, you CAN'T see her head, as that's the part she likes under cover! Sometimes, she gets her whole body under cover, but more often than not, this is what we see when she's all covered up. Outside the cage, you see the fragments of her rawhide bones. She loves those things. We have to take them away from her eventually, because she will chew on them til they are so small she chokes on them.

Now that all the gifts have been distributed, I can post pictures of the projects I've been working on the last week or 2. Shannon had brought me a couple of "taggies" she had started for baby Eli, but when their sewing machine quit, she asked me if I'd finish them for her. I had hers done before I came up with the idea to embroider a name on one of the tags, but I made this one for Hadley, who belongs to one of Sara's friends who has become my friend, too.






Of course, any good grandma/mom knows you cannot take something to a new baby and not give a gift to the older children if they are still small, so I made these 2 aprons for Anna and Emma so they wouldn't feel left out when I took Baby Eli the things I had done for him.







Just before Christmas, David mentioned to me it would be nice to have a pair of flannel pj pants to wear around the house. They are much warmer than the shorts he was wearing. Joann's had flannel on sale last week, so I picked up a piece of this and made these for him. I think he likes them! That store didn't have a very big selection of flannel(or anything else, since they are moving and the store was pretty bare!).




Shannon had also picked up this quilt kit, but decided it was a bit more than she felt comfortable trying to do herself(not to mention the fact they no longer had a sewing machine!). It turned out really cute. It is flannel, cotton and minkie(I think that's what they call the green fuzzy border with the dots). The backing is flannel and the directions didn't call for any batting, therefore, it went together super fast for me.





And here are the 2 taggies Shannon started and I finished. She bought the patchwork fabric at Joann's, and added the ribbon tags and had the backing already pinned on. All I really had to do was the sewing. They are adorable. I just wish I'd have thought to do his name on one like I did Hadleys....Oh well, his diaper stacker has his name!




Some one mentioned to me that the diaper stacker didn't look very "baby"....but believe me, she picked perfect fabrics to match the bedding she has for him! It has fawns in that dark brown, and grass in a couple of shades of green. I was going to try to do a fawn, but decided his name would be easier!

A very close friend of the family had a baby on January 4th. When she had her first baby over 6 years ago, I had made her a diaper stacker and curtains. Well, she brought me the diaper stacker and some fabric and asked me to make another one for the new baby.

Well, 2011 went by without a single blog post! I had just about decided to give it up, but since my 2012 New Years Resolution is to spend LESS time online and MORE time in the sewing room, I've been urged to journal my accomplishments here! Not sure my internet connection is good enough to post pictures today(I'm not at home), but will try. So far this year, I've completed 8 projects, and that's AFTER I cleaned and organized my work area. Still have a bit to do in that department, but I was itching to sew, so I have been BUSY! First, here's my workspace.


I bought myself a 19" tv for the room. I'm loving having it. I do not have satellite in there for a couple of reasons. 1) I don't want the cost of another receiver because I feel that even with the hundreds of channels we get, sometimes, there's still NOTHING worth watching, but even more, 2) I don't want the box in there taking up space! I have local channels from the antennae and stream Netflix thru my Roku box. That's plenty of channels and things to watch.

Here is a view taken with my wide angle/fisheye lens.

WOW!! I can't believe I've ignored my blog for almost 3 months. Gee, I've been really really bad. But also, really really busy. Today, I finally finished Grace's birthday gifts. I had most of them done, but finished the last 2 today. Well, maybe. If I can find some fringe between now and Saturday, I'm going to add fringe to the bottom of the pink top. I just think it needs it. I tried to buy some today, but the store I went to didn't have any. Hoping I can find some at TMD tomorrow, or else I may make a quick trip to Marshfield tomorrow evening when I get off work. Their WM still has a fabric dept. The pictures are of the 5 dress up outfits I'm giving Grace for her birthday. The pink and cream colored tops and the skirt and pants are interchangeable.