Redwork play and other stuff

Time to work up some Santa gifts. Can't say who these are for yet. The Santa will be a wallhanging and the snowflakes are part of a stocking.




The "tea wallets" are a quick and easy gift. Barb pointed me in the direction of Christy's Creations where you can find this pattern. Run your mouse over Christy and Barb's names to reach their sites.



The collection of things you see here went out in the mail yesterday. Hope my Secret Santa likes all I included in her package. It was a lot of fun gathering it all together.

I spent the night with Dad last night since Joe is still out of town. He will be in tonight. I also took Dad in for his IV this morning at the hospital. Great time to play with the redwork projects. Oh, we had plumbing problems at Dad's. Kitchen sink backed up. The plumber came Friday night but could only change out pipes that needed changing and was not able to clear up the blockage, breaking his snake, twice, in the process. So, he'll be back tomorrow.

Bags and purses

This must be the year of the purse/bag. Here's one I made last night for a client. She requested rooster fabric. I found little rooster buttons, too.




The little bags were made thinking I'll use them as gift bags. They're fast and easy so I hope to make more.

Helen's fireplace

Ta da! Here it is. The mantle cover fit EXACTLY on her mantle! I ran over this afternoon to take it to her and she loved it. I was afraid it was going to be a bit short of the 130" Helen first measured. The cover itself was only about 125". Maybe I didn't measure right, maybe she didn't, but, at any rate, it fit PERFECTLY. I still can't believe it. From end to end, just right! She will take the clock down and put up a wreath and there's no telling what else she'll put up. She's invited us, (Jim, too) back to the house once it's decked out in all it's Christmas glory. I am looking forward to it.

Now it's time to work on other Christmas items and swap goodies. I'd rather take a nap. It has been so cold today! I may just snuggle under my pink ribbon fleece blanket and snooze for 30 minutes or so. That usually recharges my batteries.

Here it is almost a week since my last post. Time just gets away from me. I have finished the mantle cover and hope to deliver it tomorrow. I'll take a picture of it in it's intended home to show how it looks. Now I'm working on a Christmas gift. Here is a sneak preview of it...I've only got the pieces cut and three blocks sewn together. Still need five blocks, the sashing and borders.

I spent Monday night with Dad since Joe is gone to school for the week. His night caregiver will stay with him until Joe comes home. Dad can probably stay by himself, but I am much more relaxed knowing he has someone with him. He's been doing well except for having to get daily IV infusion for antibiotics. Only one more week of that.

I'm done sewing for the night. Maybe I can finish this project by the weekend so I can start a bag for a client.

Fireplace mantle cover

Finally, I've got it started. I get so lazy when it comes to setting up my embroidery machine but I knew I wanted to do something like this for the mantle cover I need to work up for a client. I still want to work out some little glitches I had while setting up the fabric to be embroidered, but all in all, I'm happy with the way it's looking. I think I have to embroider at least 5 more bells. It's a long fireplace mantle...

Whew! I'm tired again tonight. It's way past my bedtime but I get carried away when doing something I enjoy. I also need to pull out my books and look for a pattern I want to do for my secret pal at work. We drew names today and the party will be Dec. 8 so I'd better get crackin'. Goodnight

Ornament swap

These are the beautiful ornaments I received today from Hanne in Norway. Thank you so much! It will soon be time to get out the Christmas tree and these will be one of the first to go on it. These swaps are so much fun. Waiting for them to arrive is the hardest part but so much fun when they get here.

Remember these?

Actually, these are not the coasters I made a few years ago. Rather, they are potholders made in the same fashion. I have a lot of the thermal batting that I bought at a show a long time ago so maybe I'll make some of these for Christmas. They work up very fast. I made these two in about 20 minutes, including cutting! What takes time is choosing the fabrics. I have enough scrap fabric though, that I can make some in every color.

What flower are you?

I am a Sunflower What Flower Are You? "When your friends think smile, they think of you. There is not a day that goes by that you can't find something good about the world and your fellow human." Gosh, I hope that's true! Sunflowers aren't my flower of choice, but this is not bad.

New hard drive

I am so thankful for sons that can help when I need them! My computer had started acting a little strange, so Rob came over to check it out. He decided I needed a new hard drive. So, knowing how addicted I am to this thing, he took it home, did what needed doing, and by 6 o'clock last night I had my 'puter back. What a guy! Thanks so much, Rob! Of course, now I am finding little things that have changed and that I must re-do, but it's a small price to pay for a working computer.
I am still playing around with ideas for Christmas gifts. Here's a little Log Cabin pincushion. I worked up a whole mess of the blocks last night ala Eleanor Burns technique, "Quilt In a Day" and hopefully will get Jim to help me stuff them. Everyone needs a pincushion, don'tcha think?

It's another Lubbock Monday so I will miss our monthly quilt meeting again. I hope someone lets me know the particulars of the Christmas party. I always try to attend that.

Time to pay some bills and get ready for the day. Good Monday to all!

A few more little things

I am trying to find quick and easy gifts to make for Christmas. Here are a couple of items I've auditioned. The first is a Chapstick cozy. I suppose it could hold a smaller lipstick, too. Definitely not hard to make. If I make any more, I'll probably omit the snap and use velcro or nothing at all. The flap seems to stay where it belongs even without help.
The fabric basket took a little longer to make. The instructions call for piecing the top part so I thought if I used just a piece of fabric, it would go much quicker. It does. But, I'm wondering, as did my sister, what would people do with it? I have plenty of uses around my sewing machine but not everyone sews.
Since it's Sunday morning, I must get dressed and get to Dad's to fix breakfast. I was gone last weekend, so I like to think he missed me :-). Have a great Sunday!

First quilt for Baby Girl Goff!

I am finished with Baby Goff's first quilt! Still need the label, but I want to work on it to make it special. So, now I need to wash the whole thing in the stuff Judy brought me to clean all the old stains off the kiddie blocks. If you read my blog regularly, you'll remember that these blocks are from a quilt that my mom made back in the '60s. She painted the blocks with a liquid embroidery paint. It surprises me that the colors have been preserved as well as they are.
The lining, or the back of the quilt, is made from the original back on mom's quilt. I couldn't pass up using it since it has little lambs all over it.

I used an allover circle design for the quilting. I decided to use a pink binding when we found out it's going to be a girl.

Yesterday afternoon I finished the embroidery on the fleece blankets for a client. I knew that once I set up my machine it would only take one evening to get them all done.

Another Thursday tomorrow. It'll be busy so I'd better get to bed.

A week later...

Okay, a week and 2 days since my last post. I have no pictures to show this time but I have been busy. Working and playing, that is. Jim and I just got back from a weekend in the mountains at Ruidoso and Mescalero. We had a nice, lazy time, staying up late, sleeping late, playing the slots a bit and visiting with a few relatives. Thanks, Tia, for coming to see me! I ran into Robert, a cousin, at the first stop we made when we rolled into town.

Now we're back home and I need to start thinking about getting Christmas sewing underway. First, we have to get through the election tomorrow. Dad and I already voted, absentee, since it's easier than trying to get him to the courthouse or the polls. I hope everyone registered and then exercises their civic duty tomorrow if you haven't already. God willing, the best man will win!

Finally quilted!

I think I've posted a picture of this top before, but now it's quilted and bound. I decided to just do an overall stippling. I really would've liked to have done some fancy quilting, especially in the borders and windowpanes, but I knew it wouldn't be ready for Christmas if I did that. The lady that ordered this has been waiting almost a year for it. I put it off for so long and when I finally got around to working on it, guess how long it took me to finish? Yup, one evening. I just haven't had the energy to get it all together.

Now that's done, I can't decide what to work on next. Oh yeah, I have some fleece blankets I need to embroider for a client. I can't put those off too long. Time to shower and get ready for work.

Busy, but all is well

This is what I've been doing at night for the last week. I finished an entire set of the Nativity ornaments. They were fun to do but I don't know that I can make another set. Who knows, though. Tonight I also quilted a Windowpane Nativity scene that one of my customers wants for Christmas. I need to bind it and I'll post a picture.

It's been an exciting week what with Rob and April closing on their new home! It's beautiful and we hope to have pictures soon. They will be moving gradually until the end of the month.

Jim and I got our flu shots this afternoon. Sure hope our arms don't get too sore.

Time to hit the sack.

More surprises!

My stitching angel goodies arrived today. They are from Sandra in France. She sent a needle case with a pocket on the inside front. The front of the case is cross-stitched. I KNOW how much work went into that! Thanks, Sandra! The quilt magazine she sent is all in French. I can't read it, but the pictures are great! She also sent a fat eighth of fabric and a spool of beautiful red thread. There was also an unusual scent coming from the package. That is from incense sticks she included. I'm "smoldering" one right now. Smells very nice.
Judy and I had dinner at Red Lobster tonight. Sometimes I just crave fish. I ran to Dad's afterwards to take him his dinner, stopped to pick something up for Jim and when I got home, I got a call that one of the other Scentsy dealers had a bar that I'd been looking for. I ran to pick that up and then came home and called my step-daughter to help her enter another order. Yes, Brenda is a Scentsy dealer now and doing extremely well!

Obviously, there will be no sewing tonight. I need to transfer patterns onto fusible in order to make four more ornaments. Tomorrow will be another busy day at work, so, it's off to bed for me.

Hangin' around..

After deciding that three dollars is a bit much to spend on a hanger for these ornaments, I found these at Hobby Lobby. These hangers are $1.99 for twelve! Couldn't pass up the deal since I'm going to make a whole set.

I just can't seem to pull myself out of this "don't wanna quilt" mood. It's not that I don't want to quilt, I just don't have the energy, or the "want to" to pull out my bigger projects. And, while working on these smaller projects, my sewing room becomes a disaster area. Which, makes me want to work on my bigger projects even less! lol Vicious circle..

It's bedtime again. Seems like I get really sleepy around 5:30 or 6 and then by 10 p.m. I'm ready to sew! But, I'm tired so I'll go to bed since tomorrow is Friday and a busy day at work. It gets crazy at work these days since Scentsy is becoming so popular. People are coming to me to place orders so if I'm working on a hair client, I have to stop and take the order. I'm not complaining! Most of my clients are very understanding.

Finding treasure

When I got to work, I found this fabric sitting on my counter. Deborah has hit again! Thanks! I think I'll work on more Betty Boop wallhangings. They seem to be very popular.
This Quilt Diva bookcover came from Linda during our journal cover swap. Isn't it cute? I haven't found a book to fit it yet.

I hope to get back to sewing soon. I am still trying to recuperate from the weekend. In the meantime, I've entered another giveaway at Barb's blog. (click on her name) Check it out! It's her first blogiversary. Congratulations, Barb!

Lubbock Peddler Show

I am tired. What a busy weekend! Jim took me to Lubbock on Friday morning, left me there with Kym (pictured with me) and Natalie, our immediate Director. Friday afternoon was busier than I had thought it would be and Saturday was absolutely crazy. Sunday morning started a little slow and picked up before the show closed. I came back with less than half of all the product I took. Woo Hoo!! Now I can order more! LOL Judy joined us Friday night after work and was instrumental in helping us keep our finances in order. Thanks, Jude!


We really need to work on our booth display. The "flow" just didn't work. Customers lined up in front of the display and/or the scents that were set out and our stock was in boxes under the table. So, when we had to pull out something that someone wanted, we had to move folks out of the way. The tables should've been set out and we needed to have been standing behind them. But, we had a good turnout and it was a good experience.

I headed back to Lubbock today, Monday, to take Dad for his wound care app't. They say his legs look better and will not need any more antibiotics after this round is done. Poor guy. He's such a good sport. I don't know how he keeps his sense of humor through all of this.

I have finished the ornament and other goodies that will go to my ornament swap pal. I just need to find the hanger that I want to use. I sure hope Hobby Lobby has something to choose from.

I am beat! I think I mentioned that at the start of this post. Time to go to bed.

More little things

Working on smaller projects seems to keep my "sewing itch" satisfied for now. I have so many big quilts to work on that I feel overwhelmed when I think about them. So, I made another sewing pod with leftover half-square triangles.
I am in an ornament swap online and I decided to make this. It's part of a whole Nativity set, but I don't know if I'll get around to making the rest. I may make the Mary and Joseph ornament. Just depends on how the time goes. I made this one tonight so it's not very hard. I want to find the perfect hanger for it now. Maybe I can find something in Lubbock this weekend during the Peddler Show. I'll be set up, with two other girls, in a booth selling our Scentsy.

I've an early day tomorrow and a busy one. Since I'll be gone Friday and Saturday I'm seeing a lot of clients tomorrow. It'll be nice to go to Lubbock for fun.

Okay, three posts...

Only to show the bow I thought needed to go on this. I've had this black bow on the wall, just waiting to be used. I think it looks alright on this, right? It's stayin'. lol