Tony passed away

Hmm.  a somber and icky start to this post but a truth nonetheless.  Tony died last night and the last 24 hours have been pretty hectic.  A lot of things are still up in the air and will be since Tony did not have a will.  $2300 to cremate him.  No mess no fuss no extras.  Jeesh!  Does that sound expensive to anyone else?  Of course we have to pay it.  What gets me is also the local newspapers charge to put in an obituary.  Oh well.....enough of this depressing subject.

Now we have to go through everything.  Wish us luck.

Merry Christmas!

Back home after having breakfast with mom and then a quick trip to the other local nursing home to give Tony aka Santa his stocking.  He laughed when he saw these little round circles in it.  They were really towels but you had to put water on them to reconstitute them.  He was like a kid with them..."Look....see how big they get".  LOL.

Mom was good.  She liked her stocking also.  I had put her wall hanging in it but now she says I need to do another one.  It was suppose to replace Mrs. Snow on the wall above her bed but she changed her mind.  She doesn't want Mrs. Snow taken down so she had me put it up above her pictures on the other wall.  BUT now that area is lopsided and I *have* to do another flower mini wall hanging to "even it up".  I think it's a conspiracy.  LOL.

She is also a die hard Chicago Cubs fan.  I found this little sock monkey which had the Chicago Cubs logo on it and had to put that in the stocking also.  It is now proudly taped up on her window so she can see it.

She has a new hat to wear to dinner today though.  It's got "bling" and she says she won't take it off today.  LOL.

I hope that I look as good as she does at the age of 92.  She was also happy to hear that she might get her "brace" off in three weeks. 

I hope everybody has a great day.  I am off to do some craft stuff.  Still have a block to do as a test quilter.  Hopefully it won't give me as many problems as the first one.  Too many projects too little time.

HUGS to all

December 24, 2011 - Christmas Eve

Tony is now out of the hospital and back in the Nursing Home/Rehab facility.  That is good news.  Hopefully his mood will get better also.  LOL.

So I have now been nursing the swollen face/allergic reaction for 2 days now and I think I am finally feeling a little better.  I'm still swollen but not as bad.  The benedryl and zrytec combo must now be taking affect.  I am making progress on some stuff.  I have my quilt as you go project will be finished tomorrow.  I am hand sewing the binding (wrap around).  My machine doesn't like this size and it was a struggle to sew some of it.  Still though it is a new technique I learned and I don't think it looks too bad.

Well time for bed.  I have to make biscuits and gravy for mom for breakfast and take it to her.  I'm sure she will want me to stay longer and visit.  Perhaps we will do some cards for her.  I'll try to remember to get a picture of her mini wall hanging that I am giving her.  Hopefully I will get a couple of pictures.  In her Xmas stocking is a red santa hat that has a tiara on it.  Thought that she might get a kick out of that.

I'll finish watching Scrooge and then drift off to sleep to the sounds of harps. 

Until tomorrow everyone.

HUGS

December 23? Where did this month go?

I can't believe it is 30degrees outside (F) and it is December 23.  I also can't believe that I woke up two days ago with a swollen face.  Evidently I have my allergy attack again.  The last time it was this bad was in June 2010.  That time it took about 4 months to get rid of the swelling.  It would come and go periodically during that 2 months.  I'm hoping that it won't take that long this time. 


I finished mom's Xmas gift.  It's in her Christmas stocking but I will take a picture of it when she opens it up.  I think it turned out pretty good.  I had a problem figuring out what to put in Tony's sock this year.  I'm not sure if he'll be at nursing home or in the hospital.  He took a slight turn for the worse (or his kidneys did) and he had his first dialysis treatment.  They weren't going to send him back to rehab until they found out how he reacts to it  He will get his stocking though...I just have to wait to see if I'll be taking it to the hospital or nursing home.

With my allergies acting up I find myself trying to get more sleep.  I suppose that is to be expected with taking on a daily basis 1 zyrtec and 2 benedryl every four hours.  It DOES cut into my quilting time though.

Well time for another dose of benedryl.  I'll write more over the weekend.

Sunday December 18, 2011

Saw the family today.  Kerm and I had breakfast with Mother today.  She was good and ate all her biscuits and gravy and even finished before Kerm and I did.  Of course w try to slow down and make it a little game out of it.  She really was chatty.  After seeing mom I went to see Tony.  HE was really grouchy.  I arrived when the nurses and doctor was there to take blood, check his blood sugar level etc.  Found out a little more about his progress.  He will get better just a long way down the road.  I'm not sure if he'll ever be able to go back on his own but I hope so.  Even if he goes back home he might need a day nurse or something.  On Tuesday the Notary Public at the hospital will return from days off and we hope to get me assigned (legally) as Tony's Power of Attorney - Financial.  Kerm is already his medical Power of Attorney. 

Making progress on Mom's Christmas present.  Her little wall hanging is almost done.  Last night I did all the embroidery on it.  I just finished quilting it and now am int he process of putting on the binding.  She doesn't like borders on the little ones so this will work out ok for her.  I think it will be a nice little wall hanging.  I'll take finished picture of it probably some time tonight and post tomorrow.  Tomorrow I can put on the hanging sleeve.  The label will just be written on the back with pigma pen.  It's our compromise.  She likes labels on the front and I hate that.  So I will just right on it and that will suffice.

My Peppermint Candy coffee is ready and waiting so I'll post later.

Until next time...

Happy Holidays.

It's started!

Hi everybody.  I finally started mom's Xmas present.  I decided to fall back on my old standby.....outline stitching.  Most of you might know it by Redwork but because I'm not doing it in Red I am going to call this outline stitching. She wanted to have some spring flowers for her wall.  It will be a mini wall hanging since she only has space for something around 12-15".  Here is what it is looking like so far.

I am using variegated thread for the flowers and leaves so it will give it a little change.  She loves pink so it will be the pink variegated for all the flowers.  Will have to see what I have in my stash for the borders.  Have 8 days to get it done in so think I'm making nice progress.

Back to stitching.

December 16, 2011

Wow, it is the 16th of December already and I don't have mom's Xmas present done.  Actually I don't even have it started on.  I need to make it simple so I can speedily do it.  That won't be too bad.  I think I might have found my pattern.  If all things go well I will mark it out tomorrow and perhaps get started on sewing it.

I won't see Tony tomorrow but will on Sunday after seeing mom.  I will have to spend extra time with mom since she was crying today.  They are going to increase her pain meds when she is in her brace and that might help.  It's hard on her but I will see her Sunday and I am sure she will like that.

I also saw Tony tonight.  They have moved him out of ICU!  YAY!  He actually looks worse now.  Hmmm.  that part wasn't in the plan.  He probably was just tired.  I have written out most of his Christmas cards and put the money he wanted in them.  I have delivered the families to them and now need to give one or two to friends that are in the area.  Might get that done this weekend and if not will do so by Tuesday.

Today was also my last day at work until January 3, 2012.  I do have to stop in the office and and pick up a couple of things that I left.  I might be seeing Connie on Tuesday for lunch and if so I think it could wait until then. Tomorrow I think I will just sleep in before getting ready to go to Tony's apartment and check his mail.  If it isn't one thing it's another.  I will get some quilting done over this break...Just not sure what.  Guess you and I will see won't we.  :)

HUGS to all; Happy holiday to all.

Sunday Sewing - December 11, 2011

Today hasn't been too bad of a day.  I managed to finish up mom's birthday present - Mrs. Snow - and gave it to her.  She liked it and it's hanging in the place of honor - above her bed.  :)  I had remembered to get her a card from Tony also so she liked that.  We told her that he was in the hospital because of pneumonia.  She accepted that.

I did manage to take a picture of her.  My brother Kerm just grunted when I said he had to have one also.  I figure that at 92 we need to take as many pictures of special occasions like birthdays whenever we can.  

This is Mom and me.

This is Mom and Kerm.

If you look closely you'll see Mrs. Snow hanging up above her bed (or see part off her anyway).  You can't tell it so much but she still has her turtle brace on.  They have put it underneath her clothes so it is harder for her to try and take off.  LOL.  Hopefully she'll have it off in another month or so.

After I got home I looked for something to work on and ran across some of her crocheted dish clothes and pot holders.  I had forgotten she had done those.

Ignore the number 4 in the middle of it.  I found enough that I'm giving them way on my facebook quilting group.  At one time I had over 100 of these in my small apartment.  I have one set "set aside" but don't need all the others.  I have stuff from her so I can be generous with her other stuff.

I did get to see Tony in the ICU today.  He is doing better.  We had a conversation today.  They took out enough tubes that he can talk.  He'll still be in ICU for a bit. His kidneys are getting better but still not good.  That's ok.  I'll take all the improvements that I can.

When it Rains it Pours

Just in the middle of getting into the spirit of things for the holidays my brother Tony got sick.  I mean really sick.  I've spent the last couple of weekends with him in hospitals or nursing rehab trying to make sure that he is getting fit for bypass surgery.

Wednesday he went to the doctors for his pre surgical consultation and wouldn't you know it?  it's been postponed again.  It was suppose to have been on Thursday and they postponed it until Monday.  Ok.  That wasn't too bad. He came back from the visit and was tired.  Not unusual since he hadn't had anything to eat since breakfast and it was around 5 p.m.  Not good for a diabetic.  I think he must have had something because his blood sugar levels were ok (actually they were better than normal) but either way he was kind of out of it.  Later that night the nursing home rehab center (referred to as nursing home from now on) sent him to our local hospital because of change of mental state and blood in urine.  His mental state was he was getting incoherent.

Now this is where the timeline gets a little fuzzy.  Somewhere around 8 p.m. Kerm (other brother) called me to say tony was in hospital.  I went there.  We left around 10 when they were admitting him into a room since they had sedated him so he would breath easier (his body wouldn't be fighting against the oxygen they were giving him).  The I got a phone call at midnight that said Tony had had a heart attack and they had him in ICU.  Back to the hospital where I stayed with Kerm until almost 4 a..m. During all the testing he was found to have had a heart attack, his kidneys aren't functioning 100% efficiency (not total news since his meds had that as a side affect and he gets it tested regularly), and that he might have pneumonia.  They were going to have to keep him sedated and run more tests.  Today (umm.  guess same day but this afternoon) they found out that he has a bag (a BAG?!) of fluid on the outside of his lungs which have been putting pressure on the lungs.  They aren't sure if this is why the tests red that he had pneumonia or not...more tests.

He's survived the 24 hours which are the most critical but still in ICU.  24 hours down, 48 to make it through.  It will be a long haul yet.  After this he'll have to start back at zero for rehab and once again work up strength to have bypass surgery.  IF he makes it that far that is.

Oh well that is why I haven't posted much or done much in quilting. I AM working on Ms. snow for my mothers 92nd birthday  (on the 10th) in her favorite colors.  They could have had more contrast but this IS mother.  Her favorite flower material is the vest.  Iit has been good because it gives me something to do while waiting for news.  The vest is a little more even.  This picture was taken before it was fused on.  It is about a 12.5" block.  That is the size that works out best for moms wall hangings above her bed.  I will put a narrow border on it.  I might put on a white border and back since mom likes white and it will tie in with Mrs. Snow.

I will also start to do some counted cross stitching again....and ummm..... my retail therapy of $50 worth of material for a project.  hehehe

Where to start

I am so tired today.  It was a long weekend and I broke my brothers new TV that he didn't even know he had yet.  How's THAT for talent.  It's a good thing he is getting it from a rent to own because they will be picking it up today to send out to fix.

I finished the weekend with too little sleep because I overate and spent my energy sorting out my fabric stash and trying to get stuff organized.  Gave up on the organization part but things ARE put away so when I *do* try to organize again in December I can get a little head start.

Had a headache all day which wasn't fun but managed to get through it.  Took a nap when I got home and that helped a little bit.  I did perk up when I got some pillowcases in the mail for a swap.  They are in purples, pinks and teal.  I would have posted a picture here but when I put in my flash drive I found out that I have lost everything on the drive.  It is non functional now.  It wasn't full but it had a good amount of my quilting stuff on it.  I think I can recover everything but it is getting to be a pain to have to recreate it.

Now time to write on the other blog for a bit.

Being Raised with Turkeys!

No I'm not talking about siblings.....By the time I was born, mom and dad had settled down and lived on the farm that was owned by Dad's employer.  It was a turkey farm.  Live was simpler back then and our great big trip was usually to town once a week.  Town was 30 minutes away and not large by any standards but mom would pile us kids in with the laundry and we would do grocery shopping and laundry once a week.  That, however, is another memory. This one is about Turkeys.

Mom told me later that dad's employer (Howard Kaufman from the Ho-Ka turkey farm) always said if they needed the food go ahead and take one of the turkeys.  They had enough and he didn't want his employees and their families to starve.  That was generous offer but mom never wanted to do that...until one day when she didn't have a choice.

There were some turkeys that were housed in the barns on the farm and it was our responsibility to notify the office if they ever got out and we couldn't herd them back.  They did get out occasionally but it usually was pretty easy to get them back in their pens.  One day however we had to make "THE CALL".  Not only did the turkeys get out (just overwhelming numbers all pushing on the wire fence at the same time) but they (gasp) were headed towards moms flower and vegetable garden. 

Mom grabbed up a broom to try and shoo back the turkeys but it didn't work this time.  She dropped the broom and yelled at us girls to call the main office and take the dog to try and round up the turkeys.  Her plan might have worked except for a couple of things.

1)  Us girls were still young.  I was only in second or third grade at the time and my sister was four years older than myself but not a large person. 

2)  Our dog at that time was a standard size poodle (dom't ask).  The size of the poodle was good to herd the turkeys back except the dog didn't know how to herd.  It *did* know however how to run around the house and bark.  it did that quite well. 

Patti (my sister) told me to call the Office (which I could do) and she'd get the dog.  Patti went to clip the dog (can't even remember his name) to the leash but she didn't get it clipped right and it was more of the dog was dragging Patti all around while it was having fun chasing turkeys.  Patti lost her grip on the leash and she went own freeing up the poodle to have fun with his new playmates.  The turkeys didn't want to play with the poodle though so they ran (what fun for the poodle).  Mom, I'm sure, was about to pull her hair out.  She finally told Patti and I to just get the dog and tie him back up.  Pat went one direction and I went another and the dog picked my direction to come towards.  Gulp!  Let's just say (since I am writing this) that I went down and the dog went over me. 

Eventually the dog DID get caught (not sure who did it) and we turned just in time to see our normally calm mother get extremely mad at the turkey who had DARED trample through her garden!  Somewhere she had picked up a board (dad liked to work with wood) and must have forgotten (so she said) that it was in her hand.  As she waved her hands trying to get the turkey out of the garden she heard a THUNK! 

She looked down and finally saw that she had the board in her hand but more importantly saw that she had hit the turkey with the board.  The THUNK was the turkey going down for the count.  The forever count!  She had broken his neck I guess.  Mom was afraid that Dad would get fired (she wasn't thinking that Kaufman said it would be ok) so she had to hide the evidence...and quickly.  She could see the farm hands coming down the main road and almost at our long drive way.  She pulled and pulled on the turkey, stretching its neck out as she tugged.  Finally the rest of the body followed.  Patti and I never knew that the neck could stretch that far and we practiced for weeks trying to get our necks to stretch more.

Mom finally yelled at us to get the door as she slowly pulled the dead turkey into the house and down the basement steps.  Thump!  Thump!  Thump!  all the way down the steps.  She quickly got out the washtub and put the turkey in it and ran upstairs to put the hot water over.  Guess what we were having for dinner that night!  The rest of the day was spent with Patti and I running hot water from the kitchen down to mom in the basement who had to pluck the feathers out and gut the turkey before she could cook it.  That part wasn't fun so I didn't keep it my memories.

I do remember mom saying she never told dad (although I think he suspected) what had happened until one Christmas when at the work holiday party mom finally fessed up.  Mr. Kaufman had given all the ladies pewter turkey earrings and when mom saw them she started to cry and confess her terrible deed.  Mom said that Mr. Kaufman laughed so hard he almost fell out of his chair and finally reminded her that he said we could have a turkey every once in awhile if we needed it.  I guess mom didn't think she needed it so it was murder.  Perhaps later she could claim self defense.  She was guarding her flowers and vegetables.  LOL.

So when you eat your turkeys today (if you do) remember all the people who had to prepare that turkey before you got it.  From the farm workers to the cook. 

Thank you one and all.  Next month might be the memory of the Xmas party from the farms.  Mr. Kaufman always gave good presents....even if we had to dress up.

Happy Thanksgiving to those who are celebrating it today

Just a quick little post to say thank you to all my family (extended family too of course).  Are you doing anything special today?

I will be going to eat at my brothers and his family today.  I don't know what I will be having because they never tell me.  At least i don't have to bring anything nor do I have to do dishes.  Not a bad arrangement.  Before that I will go visit my other brother (Santa) at the rehab place.  He had a good report with the doctor yesterday but the doctor still won't schedule the bypass surgery. "Not yet" is what he said.  We'll see how long "not yet" is.  Hopefully it will be soon or in more mundane terms....before Medicare stops paying for Santa's stay with Rehab.

So family obligations out of the way (won't see mom until Sunday for Biscuits and Gravy Sunday) that means I get Friday AND Saturday to craft.  Hmmm.  Maybe just Saturday.  It might take me all day Friday to organize my room again so that I can find fabric.  I thought I had some flower fabric that would have been PERFECT (I think) to go with a small quilt or wall hanging.  Of course that means I couldn't find it and after rummaging through the fabric now find I made more of a mess and need to straighten it up before I can REALLY find anything.

Perhaps I'll work again on the quilt as you go project.  I had better do that pretty soon so that I don't have to call Connie up and say "Ummm Connie?  How did we do this again?"  :)  This time I'm not going to sew those seams (sashings) down by machine.  Will do it by hand.  That way I can determine if I'll unstitch the first two rows and resew them by hand.

I also might work on some Dresdens to put in some Xmas stockings.  The nice thing about giving gifts to quilters is that you don't have to put some things together.  They are also happy with blocks.  LOL.  Before they can be put into Xmas stockings though I need to make the stockings.  Looks like another list I need to start.  I'm not the only one who does lists though.  You might be interested in what Sew We Quilt website is doing for December.  Go here to find out what is scheduled....

http://www.sewwequilt.com/2011/11/planning-aheadfor-next-4-months.html

Time to cut some material.  Have a peaceful day and if not....HIDE and do crafts!

What did I just sign up for!

Kat -- I blame you....  LOL....

Some of you might notice that I have figured out how to put buttons on my blog and now sport two of them.  One of them I'll blame Kat for since I went to her blog and she talked about the 2012 Free Motion Quilt Challenge.  I'm not sure how it happened but I signed up for it also.  LOL.  Seriously though I think it will be good for me.  Another challenge to stretch myself as a quilter and Free Motion Quilting (FMQ) is used a lot today in quilting.  Check it out.

The other button is for The Quilt Pattern Magaine.  This is an online magazine which you have to pay for but the price isn't bad at all.  Of course *I* like it since I just finished being a test quilter for some of their stuff.  What a thrill that was.  I am so excited about what I did and yet I can't talk about it because it's not published yet.  LOL.  I can't wait until I get permission to show people what I did because, in my own modest opinion, I did pretty darned good on it.  It's not often I say that!  Check them out.

Well back to ornaments and planning on what I need to do over the holidays etc.  If I don't have a list and carry it around with me I don't get ANYTHING done.

Happy Holidays everybody!

Xmas projects

I think I've finally decided on what to do for the people at work for Xmas presents.  I will put some 3-2-1 cake mix (along with a tablespoon) and an ornament for them.  I just learned how to do the folded star ornaments and although this one isn't the greatest it is my first so I have to show it.  LOL.  I still need to get ribbon to go around the middle and to hang it with.

I'm thinking of making one of these for people at work and also put 3-2-1 cake mix in a nice container and put the tablespoon with it for gift ideas.

New books and fabric

What a lovely day at the post office yesterday.  Got some things mailed with minimal waiting in line and then discovered that I had a package from Harmony.  Harmony is the person that I bought my brother embroidery machine from and she said she would send me some fabric scraps that I might want to use in a couple of Xmas projects I was talking to her about.  What I *didn't* know was she put in two books for me also.  One is a quilt as you go book  and another one has some cute wall hanging projects in it.

Hopefully I will be able to get some stitching done soon.

It's done!

Have a seat and let me tell you the story about the BLUE DEMON.  That is the name I gave my last project from Hell.  Appropriate name on multiple levels but that is another time and place.  This innocent looking project started two months ago.  Everything was going fine and on schedule so I was pretty happy.  I managed to get my embroidery machine to do buttonhole stitching around it nicely and my four blocks all intersected nicely and life was good..........UNTIL......

October rolled around and I picked up the wall hanging (didn't have a name yet) and smiled.  That smile turned upside down rather quickly once I tried to quilt my fabric sandwich.  Not a problem I was thinking.  I messed up this one section but this could be an opportunity to practice stippling.  I'll just cover it up with that.  Uh huh...I can see and hear you other quilters starting to chuckle.  You know where this is headed don't you.  Yep.  It didn't work out and in fact made it worse.  So I took my picture of it (it's in the blog somewhere) so I would remember not to make the same mistakes twice.  I didn't.

By this time I am past the deadline but so was my partner so we made arrangements to just keep on working on our projects and exchange at a later date. So I searched through my fabric and found that I had enough of MOST of the fabric that I used in the earlier project and was still happy.  The front of the piece would be a different white on white but that would be ok.  So now starts the NEW mistakes.  Fused the applique pieces to the wrong side of the fabric.  Luckily I caught this before I had finished so I turned it into a two squares fused on right side of fabric, two squares fused on back side of fabric.  Needed  to be careful with layout so that they wouldn't be put together.  Not too bad.  Pretty proud of myself for avoiding that little disaster.  

So I traced out and cut out and ironed on my pattern.  Looking good so far.  

I did say so far didn't I? I sewed the four squares together (and the seams matched) and then I started to do my buttonhole stitch around the design on my embroidery machine since I had just finished stitching up a design for the label.  That worked out pretty good.  I had gotten 1/4 of a block done when I remember I had to finish up another project that evening.  So stop working on the Blue Demon and get out the other one.  I was working on the new project and got it 3/4 of the way done when my embroidery machine froze up on me.  I mean totally froze up.  I couldn't (and still can't) get the needle to lift up from the plate.  I will have to take it into the shop when my income tax money comes in.  Until then it is back to the Singer which sounds like it will quit working anytime.  This is where I named the Blue Demon project.  My Singer doesn't do buttonhole and I wouldn't have enough time to do it all by hand.  So I switched stitches.  One of the four squares is 1/4 done in buttonhole and the other 3/4s is done in feather stitch (as well as the other four squares to the wall hanging).  Sigh.  Ok ok....i stepped back and looked at it.  It's not THAT noticeable I keep telling myself and I can get it sent out.

Fold, put in plastic, put in envelope and take to post office.  Take back from post office because I forgot the customs form and the address.  It's STILL the Blue Demon.....but after I put it in the mail tomorrow it will be somebody elses Blue Demon (and I'm NOT going to tell them what I named it because they might ship it back)!

PS:  Don't tell her that the label is from different fabric than the back and perhaps she won't notice.  This wall hanging isn't as wrinkly as it looks in the picture either.

Busy life!

Life has been really busy these last days.  Not sure where I will find the time to fit everything in but then that typical of the holidays which are upon us.

Took inventory of what I need to do. I am listing it here more as a reminder and a checklist for me to keep on target.  Without a list I will forget something.  Of course there is the chance that I will forget to put it ON the list in the first place.  LOL.

Bonni's end of year to do craft list (not in any particular order)

Finish up the Quilting in the New Year project from Hell.  Otherwise known as the Blue terror.

Work on the test quilting project - wish I could post pictures on that but can't.

8 Elf Stockings for my Elf Envelope Assistant Elves.  I figured they needed something for being such good Elf Assistants.  I might cheat a little on this.  I found some pre quilted white (off white) material that I might use for part of the stocking.

Make or figure out what to give Grad Assistant (female) for Office Xmas
Make or figure out what to give student helper (male) for Office Xmas
Make or figure out what to give Bossman for Office Xmas.

The Offix Xmas presents need to be done before the 1th of December.

Do the turtle wall hanging for Dan's "betrothed".

Finish up QAYG crib quilt....it is 2/3 done

Figure out Xmas presents for some quilty friends.

Work on Dan's Medieval Quilt (although this might be when we are closed down between Xmas and New Years)


Figure out what to give Tony (brother in rehab and looking at by pass surgery) for Xmas.

Figure out what to give Mom for birthday (December 10th) AND Xmas.

Figure out what to put in Mom's and Tony's Xmas stocking.

Whew!  That's all I can think of right now.  You'd think that I would be getting going on some of them wouldn't you.  Well last night was a good start.  I managed to work on some blocks last night and also worked on the Blue Terror.  I won't be able to do much quilting stuff this weekend because......

drum roll......

Gaming on Saturday AND......

A "cooking with tea" seminar on Sunday.  It will be held at Bab's and Coco's Tea Emporium which is always fun to go to.  Will have to try some of their new teas while I'm there.

Well back to the fusibles and tracing outlines.   Until next time.

Everybody have a great day/night.

Saturday Sewing!

Saturday has already come and gone but I want it to stay!!!!  I had my class in Quilt as You Go  and totally enjoyed it.  The  quilt shop where it was held at is small but the ladies are nice and the group in the class was talkative and great.  Thanks Connie for my Christmas present.  Perhaps we can take another class together and this time I will pay for YOUR Christmas present.  Although it has to be by paydays since I get too tempted to buy those batiks!

I'll write more later and perhaps do a tutorial on the method but for now here is a pix of the pattern.  It is too large for me to display right at home but next week I'll take the finished product to work and snap a picture where I can have somebody hold it up.

That is two rows sewn together.  I am doing a crib sized quilt so it will be about six rows when done.

Here is a close up.  I was given the backing (which is also the binding and sashings) so looked for fabric that would work with it.  I think it turned out ok for a first attempt.

Time to run to the nursing home for breakfast with mom.  We'll see if she can eat more today.  I should say IF she will eat more today.  She can but she doesn't like to since she has to be in the brace whenever she is out of bed.

New Blog

Am I a glutten for punishment or what?  I have started the second blog now.  The address for it is:

http://bonni-gettinghealthy.blogspot.com/2011/11/start-november-1-2011.html

You can tell from the link that I am naming it "Getting Healthy - A New Journey.  I hope to put a lot of information on there as well as journal my adventure.  Come join me.  I will be looking for recipes and comments.  :)

What a wonderfuly Morning....until....

Wow, where do I start in the "catching up" process?  I don't think I really can so let me just 'start'.

Going to the movie theatre to see the Gala re-opening of the Bolshoi was WONDERFUL!  It was well worth the $20.  I didn't think it was going to be that expensive but it was worth it.  What we thought was going to only take 1.45 hours turned out to be around 3 hours.  They had a documentary before it that was in Russian but subtitled in English.  It was really fascinating.  It showed what had to be done to restore it and all the changes that had been done to it over the years.  It also shows how they had to "wrap" the building up before restoration could be done because it was in such bad condition it would have fallen apart if they hadn't.  After all of that they showed the workers doing their stuff and there was so much gold leaf used in restoring the Bolshoi.  It was also a nice touch at the end when they showed the workers and gave them credit.

The first act of the Gala re-opening was a construction scene which was another nice tribute to all the hard work that had been put into it.  It was absolutely gorgeous and I can no way describe it adequately.  Then they showed short scenes from their seasons play list.  Well worth it but I am repeating myself aren't I.  LOL.

After I got out of the theatre, I had a text message saying that Tony had gone back into the hospital.  Most of you know that already.  He is out again and back at the Nursing Home/Rehab Center.  He goes to the doctor again on Friday to see how his infection on his leg (where they would take the graft from) is doing.  So things are still up in the air but what gets me through the day is my friends, work and quilting.

Yes work.  I love my work and my boss.  It's not every boss who is on the road for over 250 days of the year and just says "take whatever time off you need".  Family is...well family...but love every one of them...even when they drive me crazy...perhaps even more then.

Quilting is what relaxes me....most of the time.  The process of getting things prepared and set up to do the piecing (yuck) or applique (YAY) is probably the most aggravating part for me.  Now I have to look for patterns to get ready for Christmas.  I can't believe it is November and I have to have three presents ready by Mid December.  I should have planned ahead to make a full size quilt instead of a crib size in my Quilting as You Go Class this Saturday.  Can't believe that is already here also.  It will be interesting.  My first quilting class.  I'm sure that Connie is already ready to throw the phone at me for asking so many questions.  This is my Christmas present from her...hmmm.  now what am I going to give HER?  Sigh.  (grins).

I have been buying some of the charm packs (that is precut 5x5 squares for you non quilters) from Missouri Star Quilt Co. daily deal when they offer them.  Even with shipping and handling that is 40 precut 5x5 squares under $10.  I don't buy it otherwise.  I can use that for some quick scrappy quilts if nothing else. 


Well this isn't getting the other blog set up.  I'm going to start another blog about my eating healthier journey. That way all my information will be in one place.   I'll post a link when I get it start in case any of you want to add to it with comments, recipies, and/or advise.  Until then....

Keep crafting and have a wonderful day/night.

Going to the Bolshoi

There is a time and place for everything and tomorrow, after some brief errands for my brother, will be my time.  Sooooo, I'm going to stop first thing in the morning and take some me time.  Kinda of me time.  It will be me and my sister in law.  I invited her to go see the first of the Ballet in Cinema series.  In case you don't know what that is, it is the ability to see ballets (opening nights and encore presentations) not in person but via your local theatre.  Tomorrow at 9 a.m. central is The ABolshoi Re-opening Gala.  Not a ballet per se but the broadcast of the live re opening of the great Bolshoi Theatre. 

Hopefully I will get to see some of the ballets this year.  The line up includes:

The Sleeping Beatury - Bolshoi - November 20
Mozart's Don Giovanni - December 7
The Nutcracker - Royal Ballet - December 18
LeCorsaire - Bolshoi - March 11
Giacomo Puccini - La Boheme - March 13
Romeo and Juliet - Royal Ballet - March 22
Verdi's Rigoletto - April 17
The Bright Stream - Bolshoi - April 29
LaFille Mal Gardee  - Royal Ballet - May 16
Raymonda - Bolshoi - June 24

Doesn't it sound like a great line up?

Fears are for Naught - because I changed it!!!!!

Before I get on with the tale of the woes of quilting, let me share a link.  There is a wonderful poem on this link about quilters and a crazy quilt.  :)

http://www.coveringquilthistory.com/bed-turning.php

Now on to the story.  My flying geese on the corners of the Fears for Naught post should have kept flying instead of settling on the quilt top.  I kept looking at it and didn't like it.  They weren't cooperating at all and I was getting more and more displeased with the top.  Last night I took off the border and adjusted the pattern.  I totally took out the geese and instead put in the corner units with a flower in the middle.  The flower is appliqued on and from the flowered border fabric.  I'm much happier now. 

 

For quilting I think I will do a cross hatch in the middle, follow the big seams for something similar to stitch in the ditch (but not that close) and then go around the salmon colored flowers in the borders.  That should be enough to hold it together and then some.  The entire wall hanging is around 22".  Not sure yet what color I'll do the binding in but that doesn't need to be decided today.

Back to work now.  Everybody have a great day.

Fears are for Naught!

I finished appliqueing the center on for my Quilting in the New Year swap for Jennifer and at first thought that the oranges in the center would be too much.  Then I pulled out the borders and corner units and put them together and sewed it all up and found that my fears were for naught.  They go together.  The orange in the center turns the pink flowers in the border (LOVE that flowered border fabric) into more of a salmon color which works out well.  Of course I was doing this at 1130 p.m. and right before bed and should have stopped about 30 minutes earlier.  Tonight or tomorrow I will start to take off the borders and redo them.  It will look about the same but at least one of my borders has caused my center to become wavy.  I also put on the flying geese wrong.  The lighter gold/yellow should be facing each other but I can live with it if they don't. 

Sunday Memories

Ahhhhh.  Sunday.  When I was growing up Sunday was a special day.  Nobody had to work (except chores of course) and there always was a special dinner waiting for us after church.  Pot roast with all those delightful roasted veggies with it was reserved for a Sunday meal.  Sunday was a day of football watching (something I could do with my brother Tony and my dad).  These were extra special to me because I lost my dad when I was in sixth grade so my memories of him only cover so many years.  I would sit between Tony and Dad (just because) and when the game was on I would pester them with questions like "Which is our team.  Did we do good?  Where's there ball?"  Finally I learned to track the movement by a reverse learning method.  Dad would say "See that pile of players?  Underneath it all is the ball."  I then started to look for that pile of players and eventually learned to follow the path of the football.  I still had to ask "which team is ours" but I don't think they minded that too much.

Sunday was also the day when mom would pull out some mending to do.  Darn those socks for dad or repair a hole in our jeans or teach us to embroider.  I'm sorry that I didn't keep it up like she wanted us to but kids being kids always wanted to do something different. Mom would get plain white towels (flour sack I believe) and draw lines on them.  My sister and I were told to stitch (running stitch) across those towels and when we were done mom would fold them up and put them in our turkey boxes which she called our hope chest.  Dad worked for a turkey farm and we lived on the premises so our boxes (which came in all sizes) always were for turkeys.  Think I should have learned a lesson or taken a hint about that?  LOL.

Eventually Mom would buy a pink checked apron and we would have to practice making X's on every other square. 

Of course we had to do something on the apron ties too.  This is the only example I have left and I know that *I* didn't do the stitching.  I am assuming grandma did because she wouldn't be seen without her apron.

After grandma had passed away and mom inherited some of her embroidery blocks Mom gave them to me.  There wasn't enough to do a full quilt but I managed to do plain squares and made this for mom on one of her birthdays (I think it was 83).  Grandma had done the squares when she was in her 80s so I wanted it give it to mom around the same time.  Mom picked out the backing material and the sashings were done AFTER the whole quilt was sewn.  They were an after thought so they ended up being appliqued on.  :)  Here is a pic of it but I didn't have room to totally lay it out.  It's large enough to fit a full size bed.

Sundays was also visiting day.  The day when Aunt Rachel might come over.  Aunt Rachel was dad's sister and we didn't see her much and she wasn't one of those "huggy" type of Aunts.  She didn't talk much but she did know how to crochet.  She made everybody an afghan when they graduated.  It was the only time they got an afghan from her.  I graduated in 1974 and still have mine.  When it started to show signs of wearing out (I did use it every day after all) I put it aside in my chest.

She was really great at crocheting.  She could look at a pattern and duplicate it.  I wish that I had gotten some of her table clothes.  They were truly works of art.  She was a perfectionist though and I never could learn how to crochet from her.  I'm lucky that I can do any crochet stitches!

So....in remembrance of my crafty family, I am going to sign off and do some hand applique.  It is much more relaxing then machine applique.  :)

Back to the start

Sometimes you just can't win.  Yesterday was a day like that for me.  Took the day off of work to "rest my eyes" and relax a bit with all the stress between mother and my brother.  Don't want to get a relapse of the Shingles again!  So here I was at home laying down and the phone rang.  That is not a good sign.  Most people didn't know I was at home so that meant something was up.  I should have said SOMEONE was up....up to no good that is.  My mother.  She bent over in her wheel chair at the nursing home to pick up something somebody had dropped (she's a neat freak and can't stand things on the floor if they are not IMMEDIATELY picked up) and slid (again) out of her wheel chair.  Back to the hospital.  This time she fractured her L6(?) and needs to be fitted for a brace.  She can't be elevated more than 30 degrees and is on bed rest.  Not sure how long she will be there or how long those restrictions will be on her.  Later that day my news just got better.  Sigh.  Big brother wasn't approved for surgery (bypass).  He is still retaining too much fluids so the doctor changed his prescriptions and hopefully he will get that triple bypass done soon.

Obviously my just resting wasn't working so I got up and looked at the blue wall hanging.  It looked good and I thought it wouldn't take much to quilt it.  Do an echo quilting on it and it should be good to go and send off (deadline at the end of the month).  Figured I'd do a black background and off I went after putting in black thread in the bobbin and white on top.  Hmmm.  that echo quilting didn't look quite how I imagined it so changed my mind and decided to be brave and do Free Motion Quilting.  A couple of squiggly lines inbetween could hurt....could it?  Oh yeah...it hurt!  Did half of the wall hanging and flipped it over.  Hmmmm.  White threads?  Where the heck did the white threads come from?  Shoot!  My tension must have slipped.  Too bad my personal tension couldn't have slipped away. 

I posted this on my yahoo group and you wouldn't have believed all the nice ladies that had heart attacks thinking I was going to throw this out.  I'm going to start over but will use this as a practice piece for FMQ so it is not wasted.  Some said to take markers and color out the white but I don't want to do that.  I don't like the large stitches I had made with it either so it will go into the "learned my lesson" pile.

Perhaps this will explain what happened.

Cute little plaque isn't it?  Don't think it is worth the $14 they are asking but it really DID seem to sum up my day yesterday.  LOL.

Today though I found a nice blog and it had on there a PDF for circular patterns.  If interested go to:

http://www.scientificseamstress.com/circularpatterns.pdf

Check out her blog and scroll down towards the bottom of her page.  She has a periodic chart for sewing.  :) 

http://scientificseamstress.blogspot.com/



Another thing that I did today was to try out the 3-2-1 cake recipe.  It is simple and quick since you only make a small serving at a time.

Ingredients:
1 cake mix (your choice of flavor)
1 angel food cake mix (must have this)

Mix the two cake mixes together and store in a sealed container (I used a one gallon ziploc container)

When wanting a sweet treat,

Mix
3 tablespoons cake mix
2 tablespoons water

and microwave on high for one minute.

TaDa!  Top with fruit or whatever (or nothing).  Quick and simple. 

The borders are on

Making progress on the wall hanging.  I managed to put on the border to Vicky K's wall hanging (quilting in the new year swap).  I am thinking of using one of the blues for the binding.  Not sure if I want black, white or one of the blues for the back yet.  Unfortunately one of the blocks got too close to the border (or would that be the other way around...the border got to close to the block?) but overall I like it and I will not redo it.  As I've said before...my projects aren't perfect (grins).

Today has been a good day.  My brother put new nuts and bolts in the hoop for me for my embroidery machine and so I had to test it out.  I decided to use it for the design for a label for Vicky's wall hanging.

My next machine I will hope to be able to do the entire label on it.  I'll probably set up a stock label then to use.  In the meantime I'm branching out to try different things and see what my machine can do.

A friend of mine has a sister whose name starts with H.  I was testing a border design and thought to do it with the H.  I can now just send this to my friend who is a quilter and see if she wants to make a mug rug or something out of it for her sister. 

Making progress

Thanks for the well wishes for mom and Tony everybody.  Mom is going back to the nursing home today.  They changed her medication and it helped.  Tony is a long haul though so we just put up with the loveable lug and if he does what people tell him to he should pull through.  Hmmm.  perhaps I should have put that "if" in larger letters and all caps.

I had a nice note from my swap partner in the doll quilt swap.  Her daughter Emma loved the doll quilt and wanted to claim it as her own.  I have some of those flying geese left over so perhaps Emma needs one for her too.  This is Emma holding it up.  Isn't she cute?

I have also made progress on my Quilting in the New Year Swap.  I have two partners.  Actually one of the partners is the same person who I was assigned to in the Doll Quilt (Jennifer).  I gave her the option of having the blue wall hanging (blue is her favorite color) or the deeper pink/golds/green wall hanging.  She hasn't seen the colors of any of them yet.  She was tempted to do the blue but decided to go with the other so she can say she is "branching out".  LOL.

Here is my four blocks of the blue put together.  This is the pattern that I did in EQ7.  Didn't turn out too bad.  Tonight I am hoping to add the borders to it.  They will be around 2" and black.  Not sure what fabric I'll use for the backing but I think I already have enough on hand in my stash so it won't be a problem.  I will probably bind it with one of the blues so that it pops out a bit more.

One of those blues/teals has dragon flies on it and another one (the largest size) is a paisley.  I think it came out pretty good.

Another weekend

Another weekend comes and is almost over before I get some time to work on quilting.  This was my gaming weekend but that got quickly replaced with dealing with my brothers circumstances and then mom went to the ER on Friday and was admitted.  She should be OK and dismissed within the next day or two.  She has an UTI and is dehydrated.  That has caused her to lose balance and become more disoriented. They changed her medications since they think one of them was causing her to become more disoriented and will see how it goes.  My brother sees the heart doctor on Wednesday and then things can be scheduled (hopefully).  Of course in between all of this brothers old landlord (he is currently paying double rent) called and left a message on his phone asking when he would be out.  I have talked to the landlord in the meantime to settle Tony's affairs with him but now Tony is involved and is confused and worried and upset at us...wondering if we got everything done like he wanted.  Of course that is probably no but we did get t done and I have been in contact with the old landlord.  I think Tony had an old message but of course he deleted it before he paid attention to when it came in.

Needless to say that has cut into my quilting time and time to finish my current obligations.  I will get them done.  In fact I opened up EQ7 and think I might have a wall hanging figured out for one of those obligations.

I am thinking of doing this design.  I still have to make sure that I have the blue fabric for it but think it might not be too hard to work up.  Each block would be 10" and the black border would be 2".

Whatcha think?

What a Day!

I got an Elf Envelope in the mail!  Wasn't that great?  I will post a picture tomorrow because I have been busy!!!!

Of course it hasn't been doing too much fun stuff.  I have been dealing with big brother Tony.  The good news is that he is out of the hospital and now in a rehab center in town.  That makes it easier when having to talk to him.  The bad news is that it is he is feeling JUST well enough to start a list of stuff for Bonni to do. The list is not that long but it is long enough to take a day or two to get done.  On top of that his old landlord called and thanked me for sending his rent check but wanted to tell me that he was shutting off the utilities because he had heard that Tony had a new place to live.  The house (Tony's apartment was upper half of house) is to be demolished (yep torn down) starting middle of next week.  Normally this might not be bad but Tony still has some stuff in there.  Of course that means Bonni has to make arrangements to get the last of it out.  I'm whining.  I know.  But it's my blog so I get to whine sometimes.  :)  Enough of that.  Where was I?  Oh yes.... the good part of the day....

I mentioned about the Elf Envelope.  It had the cutest fabric in it.  Snowmen and round candy mints.  I also received my two quilting books that I ordered from a discount book place.  It's a Stitch  is the title of it.  I ordered two of them since they were under $7 each.  I will give one of them away in an Elf Envelop no doubt.  That wasn't the only envelop in the mail for me.  There was also my faerie fabric panel there.  I'll try and take a picture of it tomorrow.  Not sure what I'll do with it yet but it was too cute to resist.

I ordered through the Quilting Board a Celtic applique book that somebody had for sale.  $8 with shipping and handling included.  Can't wait to get it. 

I also finished the quilt for Quilt for Kids.  I was right.  It was a pain to do.  My machine doesn't like doing quilts that size.  Most of the problem (besides operator error) is the small throat (?) area to push the fabric through.  I did manage to do it though and to date it is the largest quilt I've done on that machine.  It also tells me that for now Shelley Gardner gets to do my quilting.  LOL.  Of course my opinion of it might be slanted since my bobbin ran out about 3/4ths of the way into the quilting.  I wound my bobbin up and that took the rest of the black thread I had so I had to stop and run to JoAnne's to get thread.  I didn't have any money on me (payday is Friday) so I pulled out my card and decided I wasn't going to use it just on $4 for thread.  Logic would dictate that I had to buy more right?  My purchases cost me $30.  Two spools of thread and five one yard cuts of fabric for the preemie quilts and I went back home and finished up the Quilt.  Of course this time I would up two bobbins of black thread (good thing because I needed it) and even did machine quilting on the binding.  The directions said to only have 1/4 to 1/2 inch of binding and, of course, with me not having done machine binding before....managed to miss part of the fabric.  Of course this wasn't discovered until I had finished....or thought I had.  To cover it up I changed stitches and did a zig zag around the border (sometimes having to back stitch here and there).  THAT IS ONE BINDING THAT WILL NEVER COME OFF!  Now I have to wash it which means taking it to the laundry mat and spending 1.5 hours doing one thing in the washer.  Perhaps I can dig up some hand applique work to do while I'm waiting.  Then a quick iron job (although not sure exactly why since it will get wrinkly in the mail) and mail it off.

I still want to do charity quilts but am now going to switch over to doing quilts for preemies.  A couple of ladies in my quilting group on facebook do them.  They only have to be 20" which is going to be easier to do. 

Time to head to bed.  Have another full week and weekend ahead of me. 

Everybody have a great day/night.

Updates

I managed to talk to Tony today.  Of course after we talked his phone in the hospital room went dead so now it is whenever he can remember how to get online from the hospital.  LOL.

He is doing better.  He might be coming back to DeKalb, hopefully in rehab, but I won't know for sure.  Another brighter part for me was in the mail.  I received my blocks form Rhonda's September (yes I know...my partner was a little late) block swap.  I think they are cute.

I think it was funny that she sent me a flying geese when it is the bucket list item this month.  LOL.

A New Week

And what a start I had to it.  I got up this morning and went in to take my shower and wash my hair.  Everything normal right?  Well and I shouldn't probably admit this but........I fell out of the shower.



Yes Yes... I know.  I'm talented what can I say.  I'm all right (contrary to the above tale) and my headache (no lumps from hitting my head on the porcelain stool...oops...wasn't going to mention that) went away after 3 hours and 3 ibprofen.  My shower curtain now needs to be replaced but that is relatively easy to do.  I had my foot up on my stool I have in the shower and the stool started to tilt.  When it tilted so did Bonni.  LOL.  What a way to start a Monday!!!

Work was work.  But I did manage to get some stuff done this weekend besides doing stuff for Tony.  Oh before I forget.  They found that he had bleeding uclers and were able stop the bleeding and found a couple of pollups (sp?) and took them out also.  That was good.  Tomorrow I should find out when he can leave the hospital and start to get stronger before he goes back in for by pass surgery.

In between all of this, I did manage to finish the top of the quilt for Quilts for Kids.

Connie will help me tomorrow to lay it out in the conference room and sandwich it.  Then hopefully I can get the binding on and label and wash it.

I did manage to get the doll quilt done and will mail it off tomorrow.  I also was able to knock out the bucket list project since it was flying geese.  I did the flying geese on the doll quilt so it was a two for one knock out on that.  The method I did for flying geese was the one seam flying geese (also known as dimensional flying geese).

I also pulled out some of my blocks from that pre printed fabric and did some mini's (7.5 x 7.5") and will find some left over fabric to do some more.

I also decided to put together some of my earlier experiments with the embroidery machine.  This feather I put into a coaster size which is 4" x 6".

It's hard to see but those colors are actually dark green.

Well it's time to sign off for tomorrow is another day.  It will be busy since Lyndon (bossman) will be in the office for TWO WHOLE DAYS!   LOL.   Then he's gone again for a couple of weeks.  So he will feel the need to catch up and leave me a whole lot work to do for the next two weeks.

Have a great evening and an even better day tomorrow.

Nite Nite.

Back to posting

It's been awhile since I've taken time to post.  Tis the season to be busy with projects and family.  Especially family for me.  My big brother (Tony) is in the hospital and it was totally unexpected.  Since he is a bachelor the rest of the family (my other brother Kerm and myself) to get some stuff done.  It's been a long struggle considering it's only been a week.  Thank you to my nieces and nephews and friends who have been there to help and lend support.  Prognosis is good but it won't be an overnight thing.

Soooo, after taking care of his business I go home and see what I can do to relax.  Today it was working on the Quilts for Kids quilt.    You are suppose to return it in 3-4 weeks.  I can't believe that my time is up on Monday.  Not sure if I'll make that but i won't be too far off.  Today I finished doing the top.  Tomorrow I hope to sandwich it and then another day to quilt it and another day to wash it.  How many days was that now?  Hmm.  Ok.  I might be a week late.  If they don't like it then they don't have to send me another quilt to do for them.  I still liked working on it.

Time to grab something to eat.  I was concentrating on getting that top down forgot about lunch.

Chat with you later everybody.

Spilled paint on the flying geese

This months bucket list drawing was flying geese so I thought I'd try the one seam method.  That method is also called 3 dimensional flying geese and 5 minute flying geese.  Here is a good PDF of how to do it.  It really IS that simple.

http://www.countrycreations.net/images/threedimensionalflyinggeese.pdf

It also has an optional size chart for different sizes so it is something to keep on hand.

Now...for my spilled paint title.  I had flame fabric that I've never used so decided now was the time to use it.  I'm playing around with different patterns instead of just the usual straight rows of flying geese.  This is one of them.

I also wanted something funky looking since it IS getting closer to Halloween.  :) 

September 30, 2011 - brrrrrrr

Current conditions as of 2:54 PM CDT

Mostly Cloudy

Feels Like:

59 °F

Barometer:

30.04 in and steady

Humidity:

45 %

Visibility:

10 mi

Dewpoint:

37 °F

Wind:

NW 16 mph

UV Index:

2

UV Description:

Low

Sunrise:

6:48 AM

Sunset:

6:36 PM

59°

High: 57° Low: 36°

Today	Tomorrow	Sun	Mon	Tue
Partly Cloudy	Mostly Sunny	Sunny	Sunny	Mostly Sunny
High: 57° Low: 36°	High: 56°      Low: 34°	High: 64°       Low: 42°	High: 68°        Low: 45°	High: 70°          Low: 48°

New Sites

First of all I'd like to thank Dianne for becoming a follower of this blog.  Thanks!  Hope you like it and leave comments on how to improve it or change it or just to say hi.

The second thing that I have discovered ...new embroidery design sites.  Being of the frugal (read never have enough money) variety type person that I am, I did a search for some free download design sites for my Brother embroidery machine.  I was happy to come across some but today I will talk about just two.  They both offer free downloads which fit in my hoop (I can only use 4x4)  and I need PES designs.  Best thing is.....

They change their free download every 10 minutes.  You can check back often and get a lot of designs. 

The links are:

http://embroideryfriend.com/

http://embroideryshow.com/

So far I am thinking I like embroideryshow.com a little better but then it has some flower designs which I am liking. 

More to come and perhaps a picture or two next week.  Have a great Friday everybody.

My weekend

I had a great but tiring weekend.  Isn't that normal?  So what did I do?  i traveled about 250 miles, spent money, got good deals, saw great scenery, and came back home with fabric and a used embroidery machine.

As some of you may know (what?  some of you DON'T know?) I am buying a a brother embroidery machine from a friend.  This weekend I went for a play date at her house to pick it up and get a quick tutorial.  It was great fun and I'm glad that we got to meet again.  She has a great dog who loves to be petted (but only if you want to) and as you can see when you stop petting her you get the sad eye treatment.

Here is a picture of my new machine but also some great deals on some fabric.  It is normally around $11 a pack and but I got it on sale for $3.  I also came home from Harmony's place with some home made apple butter.  Twas a delicious weekend!

While I was at Harmony's she showed me how to run the machine.  I did a simple "B" with a heart frame and didn't do too badly I think.

I made this into a mug rug which I'll take a picture of later and post it.

After I got home it was time to try out the machine on my own.  I had...ummmmm...mixed results.  This little critter might look like a shrimp or something creepy, but it actually is the bunched up thread and fabric (yes, I had a hole in my fabric).

It was a learning lesson though.  I learned how to take off the face plate (a small feat in itself) to get to this creepy bunch of thread but I did get things put back together right and managed to come out with a nice green feather (will post a picture later) and then got REALLY brave.  I figured out how to transfer some of the patterns that I had downloaded from Artistic Threadworks ($7 a month for access to their database to download what you want OR you can pay individually...no brainer..$7 it is) to the sewing machine via the PED.  I decided to pick out a pink ribbon angel for my first attempt which got me familiar with changing threads also.

Overall I think I did pretty good.

Saturday  I went for a ride into the country and just relaxed before finding all that fabric.

Didn't have my camera with me so this was taking through the window of the car.  LOL.  I ended up spending some time up in the forest of dark trees. 

But reality struck.  After spending money on fabric, gas and food, I had to head home and do laundry.  THAT wasn't exciting but still overall I had a great weekend.  How about you?