Kevin has kept me busy!

He bought himself a Kindle last weekend. He has been trying to get me to get one, but I love books. Not sure I would really enjoy another electronic gadget.  So he got one and had me try it out. I think he finally understands that I really don't want one, at least not now. (grin) He has been using it and really loves it. I have never seen him so interested in reading. LOL I love it when he finds something he really enjoys. Anyway, he got a Kindle then asked me to make him a case for it. They want $40 for a case. I used some canvas like fabric for the outside and flannel for the inside lining. I wanted it to be tough, yet soft on the inside so as not to scratch the screen. I used an 1/8 inch thick foam in place of batting. Oh goodness, this was rough sewing. I thought it was the foam causing all the problems, but Kevin pointed out that it more than likely was the canvas like fabric (It might have been called duck cloth. I just can't remember). I think it turned out pretty good and Kevin loves it. This is the front.

I put a pocket on the back to hold the cord.

Here is a not so good picture of the inside.

I was glad to get this done. As soon as this one was finished he asked me to make a case for his GPS. I'll share pictures of it next time. It is getting late and I want to turn in pretty soon. I have an appointment to get the oil changed in my car in the morning.

I also wanted to ask everyone to please pray for the people of Japan. They are going through a horrible time right now. Also I having been thinking about a commenter on my blog named Julie Fukuda. If anyone has heard from Julie since this earthquake and tsunami please comment here. Julie lives in Japan.

About a year ago, I used to read a blog from a quilter in Japan named Tanya. She posted lots of interesting things about Japan. She was married, had a son and daughter (I think they were in the States), had several cats and a dog. I lost her blog address when I switched to my laptop about a year ago. If anyone knows the lady I am talking about and her blog address, I would sure appreciate if you commented on it or emailed it to me. I sure enjoyed reading her blog.

That is all for tonight. Thank you for visiting. Please come again. Everyone have a wonderful weekend.

March is here!

I love March. It means spring is about here, and also is  my birth month. I had a birthday on March 2nd. I read where another lady said she was going to go backward from year 40 on. Hmmm....that would make me about 27. LOL I guess it doesn't work when you have at least 2 kids that are older than that. LOL Anyway, I had planned to do a blog post on that day, but I had so many phone calls, that I never could get to it. I have been busy ever since. I have several blog posts lined up for the next week or so talking about what I have been doing. Nothing spectacular, but busy none the less. As I said, I talked on the phone most of my birthday. I heard from mom, MIL, my brothers and our 5 kids. It kept me busy answering the phone. (grin)   I made a little trip to town that morning and bought myself this little 5 inch cake and some ice cream. I am still a child at heart. LOL I have to have a cake and ice cream for my birthday!  No point in making a whole cake for just the two of us, though,  so this little one was just the right size to share.

My sweet hubby brought me a Pepsi and a Hershey bar. He gets home about 1 a.m., so I put them up till the next day. He had to work, but we celebrated before he left. He also gave me some money to spend on something when I find something I want. (grin)

I have such awesome friends. I will talk about my gifts in the order I received them. First I received these beautiful fat quarters from Joann. She said they were to help brighten my days till spring gets here. At the time I received them, we still had snow on the ground. Thank you, Joann. I love them. I've been looking through my books to come up with a pattern to make them up in.

Then I received these awesome homemade bars of soap from Bren. I have been using the oatmeal spice soap and my face feels so soft and silky. I love it. Click on the Spiced Cakes button to the right to go check out all of Bren's homemade soap and some other things too. I also got this pretty dish cloth too. I am pretty sure this was made by Charlotte, Bren's daughter. She does a beautiful job of crocheting. Thank you so much, Bren. I'll think of you every time I wash my face. (grin) Please thank Charlotte for me too.

Next to arrive was this marvelous package from my friend, Teresa. She doesn't have a blog, but reads mine and many others. I have wanted the Farmer's Wife Sampler Quilt book ever since I saw the author on Sewing with Nancy. I love history. This book has letters from farmwives during the 1920's. It also has the the patterns for 111 six inch blocks. This will take some time, but I plan to make each of these blocks. I am sure they will make more than one quilt, because I don't really want to work with a huge quilt.

The book even has a CD with all the templates in it.

Teresa also included 1/2 yard of red fabric for me to use with some of my redwork, some patterns, and those little tins have Guttermann threads in them. Thank you Teresa. You know what I love. Looking forward to getting started on the Farmer's Wife blocks.

Here is a closeup of the Farmer's Wife.

Then I received this absolutely gorgeous tote bag and matching wallet from Cyndi. Oh goodess, her sewing is so good. She picked this fabric out especially for me. Just my kind of colors. I know these were made with love in them. Cyndi has been down with a bad knee, but she managed to make this for me anyway. How sweet is that! I already have all my things moved over into them. I can hardly wait to go somewhere so I can show them off.

I have pockets inside and lots of extra room for all my stuff. (Notice I refrained from calling my stuff junk. LOL)

Look at this wallet.

The inside has a place for bills, a place where I am keeping all the grandbabies' pictures, card slots, and a zippered section. I love it.

Isn't this just a wonderful gift? Thank you, so much, Cyndi. You did a wonderful job of picking fabric and your sewing skills are outstanding. Also thanks for the gift certificate to Fat Quarter Shop. I had fun picking out some goodies. Here is one more picture of my bag. I am not a terrific photographer, but you can see how pretty it is. It also has deep outside pockets on both sides. So I can carry lots of stuff! LOL

Now I tell you, aren't these some wonderful gifts?  Life is good when you have God, your family, and awesome friends.  You all are very dear to me. Thank you again from the bottom of my heart!

I have been busy this week working on a few things for Kevin. I will share about them in another post because I already have 12 pictures in this one. Don't know if there is a limit, but I am sure I am about there if there is. (grin) We have had some dreary days this week. We have had rain, snow, sleet, rain, snow, and now a drizzle with lots of wind. Also had some thunder and lightning thrown in there. LOL Just normal spring weather for Missouri. As soon as the mud dries this time, we can plant some of our hardy plants. I already purchased the seed potatoes and onion sets.  We didn't plant any onions or potatoes last year and I really missed them. So I have a little over 10 lbs of Pontiac potatoes and about 3 lbs of Yukon Gold potatoes. These are my favorite 2 kinds. We usually just plant yellow onions because the others just don't keep well for us.

Well, I guess I should get this posted. I have been rather long winded. LOL Thank you for visiting. Please come again. Have a great day!

Not Much Going on Here

I just haven't had much to blog about this month. I think if spring ever gets here, that will change. (grin) I plan to have a nice sized garden this year. With the prices of groceries, we need to. We had another snow storm on Thursday. Quite a bummer. All of our snow had melted and the ground was even dry. We were enjoying being outside, but winter decided it wasn't through just yet. We got about 7 inches of snow with strong north winds. It was a very wet snow, so I didn't think it would drift, but I was wrong. Kevin could not even get home Thursday night. He tried, but had to turn around once he hit our blacktop. He was able to make it home last night, but was so tired. He ate supper and went to bed. I don't think he moved a muscle all night. LOL In fact, he is taking a nap right now. He is still tired. Driving on these slick and drifted roads is stressful.

I decided a few weeks ago to make Friday nights homemade pizza night.  I have come up with my own recipe for whole wheat pizza dough.  I make up 2 pizzas and usually have enough for dinner on Saturday. Kevin likes hot peppers on his and I don't. So Kevin's is always to the right. LOL This is his pizza.

This is mine.

We do enjoy our pizza. While I was typing this, our mailman knocked on the door. He had a package for me. My birthday is next Wed. I ordered myself an early birthday present. I ordered this laptop quilting frame from Barnett's Laptop Hoops. I have not used it yet of course, but hope to tonight. I will post about how I like it later. I will say that Harry Barnett is a nice man to do business with. I emailed him to ask about this hoop and he got right back to me, answered all my questions, and said if I was interested he would get it in the mail the next day. So how could I refuse. (grin) This is a 12 inch frame. I have always used 14 inch frames, but my arms are really short and I have to struggle to reach the far side. So I measured from the inside of my elbow to the second joint in my middle finger. Exactly 12 inches. So that is what I ordered. I snapped a couple of pictures of it as soon as I got it out of the box.

I had to fold up the box, because Buddy was having a heyday with the foam peanuts. LOL

I am anxious to try out my new toy. (grin) Like I said I will do a post about it after I have used it a bit. If you are interested in anything like this, just google Barnett Laptop Hoops. I will try to get the site to post later too. Harry has lots of different type hoops to choose from. He makes them himself.  I guess that is it for me. Thank you for visiting. Please come again and have a wonderful day.

Happy Valentine's Day!

I had decided that I would not post today, but after reading everyone's Valentine's Day posts, it got me in the mood. (grin) Kevin and I are not big on this day, but I did sneak a Snickers bar wrapped with a love note in his lunch this morning. LOL He has to work late tonight, so I will spend the evening with Buddy, Callie, and Aeris in front of the tv with some quilting in my lap. (grin) Not a bad evening, but it would be better with my honey here.

Last night I finished block #2 of Birdie Stitches. I am really enjoying this BOM.

I added the buttons of all the BOM's that I am working on right now. They are Raggedy and Friends, Birdie Stitches, Retro Nine Patch, Things We Love, and Henrietta Whiskers. I am also working on Home Sweet Home BOM, but Paula doesn't have her button ready yet. I really have to quit finding these BOM's . LOL I am really enjoying them, though. Now to just keep all caught up with them. (grin)

We had a nice weekend. Our temps were in the 50's and lots of snow melted. Of course, now we are ankle deep in mud, but the wind will dry it. I got our bedding all washed, even the comforter and quilt. I left the quilt off the bed since it is getting warmer. We ate Subway subs. Kevin put some gravel down to make us paths where we need to go every day. Makes it much easier to get around. I cut Kevin's hair and made a loaf of whole wheat bread. Kevin made beef jerky. He says it is good. He used our dehydrator. It is an Open Country dehydrator that we bought at Cabela's last year. Sure works good.

Our house smelled so good yesterday. Made my mouth water.

I think he had five trays. Here he had already scooted them over to the side to dump them out to cool. Then he used our sealer to package them.

He plans to take them in his lunch. He can eat a few during breaks.

He has a jerky making gadget, but I forgot to get a picture of it.

I guess that is it for me today. I am off to do some quilting. Thanks for visiting. Please come again.

Happy Valentine's Day!!!!!

Time for Tea!

It is absolutely beautiful here today. We are going to have a high in the 50's with a stiff southern wind. I am not even complaining about the wind because we need it to get rid of this snow. (grin) I have been just sitting outside soaking up the sunshine. Buddy has been out most of the morning. Callie and Aeris even stepped out on the steps to check things out. LOL  I could live with this kind of weather for the rest of Feb., but I know I am dreaming. It will get cold again. Probably even snow some more before spring is here. But it is getting closer!

I made this little mini quilt last week. I did the embroidery one day and made the little quilt the next. I just love it. The embroidery is another Sandi design, I think, but I changed it up some. The bricks around the center came from some pink charms that Nola sent me. The outer border and backing are from scraps sent to me by Cyndi.  This is another little design that I prepped over a year ago. When I took it out of the bin, it just screamed 'PINK' to me. LOL So I did it in pink.

Cyndi.

Here is a closeup of the center.

Since we were talking about using fleece on the backs last week, I'll include a picture of the back.

I told you all that I start with a knot at the end of my floss, but didn't explain how I end. Paula asked me about that. I don't know if my way is correct or not, but this is what I do. I turn the piece over with the wrong side facing up. Then I whip stitch about 3 times around an existing line of stitches.. This is where the fleece helps to hold everything steady and kind of hides the ending. The floss ends up buried in the fleece. I also whip stitch around the back threads when I need to skip over to another area, if it isn't more than an inch of so. More than an inch, I end and begin again in the new area. I hope this explanation helps. It is hard to put in words what I am physically doing. Paula, if you need any more help, I will try to take some pictures to explain things better. OK? (grin)

This will be the backing. Isn't this fabric just perfect for a pink tea time? I love roses and pink.

I am working on block 2 of Birdie Stitches. I am about half done with it. I also found another BOM to do. This one is called Home Sweet Home by Paula Stoddard. I think this is the year of the BOM for me. LOL  I counted and I have 6 BOM printed off. Five of them include stitcheries. I have really developed a love for embroidery. I will try to find all the addresses to these BOM's and post them next time. By the way, just in case someone doesn't know what BOM stands for, it is block of the month.

Only one more thing to do before closing....  Happy Birthday Cyndi! I hope you are having a good one.

Thanks for visiting. Please come again.

A Little Embroidery Change

We ended up getting about an inch of snow from the storm that was supposed to miss us, but at least it is up to 16* today. (grin)  Still calling for a nice weekend. I am looking forward to that.

Last night, I dug through my tote bin that has prepped embroidery blocks ready to do. I found this snowman and snowlady block and decided it would be nice to do this week since Valentine's Day is so close. I wanted to do it a little differently, though. So I did it in black instead of red. I also used Perle cotton #8. What do you think?

I think I got this pattern from Sandi. I printed it off and prepped it over a year ago, so can't really be sure. That hat on the lady took quite a while. LOL

Yesterday, Pat asked how I use fleece in my embroidery.  I don't use the fusible, just plain fleece. I cut  a piece of fleece the same size as my embroidery piece. Then I pin it to the back of the project and embroider through it. It keeps the thread from showing through to the front. Here is  another project with the fleece fastened to the back of it.

Here is the fleece on the back.

This is the back of the snowman and snowlady.

You can see where I carried the floss over in places. The fleece helps to hide that, plus it makes it easier to end when you need to rethread. I use a knot at the end of my floss when I start a new thread. It may not be the correct way to do it, but that is the way I do it. Sometimes I use scrap batting on the back of my embroidery instead of fleece. I kind of use whatever I have. I always use something on the back of embroidery, though. It is just easier for me. Here are my basic embroidery tools.

My little dog, Buddy found my Thread Heaven and kind of did a number on the lid. LOL I had just opened a new one, so was glad I heard him chewing on something and went to investigate. (grin) I always use Thread Heaven to run my floss through, and also my thread when I am hand quilting, I love this stuff.  I have five different reds that I like for doing redwork. I need to decide which one I like best and just stick with it. LOL I use DMC #304, #398, #321, #815, and #115. I will show you tomorrow what a downer it is to use so many different kinds. LOL Let's just say a booboo can occur when you pick up a project that you have not worked on in a while and can't remember which color you were using. LOL

I hope I explained all this to where you can understand it. I have only been doing redwork for the past couple of years. I did counted cross stitch for many years, but never any other kind of embroidery. This seems to be my year of embroidery. I am loving it. It is so relaxing for me. Thank you for visiting. Please come again. Have a great evening.

It's Frigid Here!

It is 3* right now after a high of 5*. The wind just cuts through you. I am so ready for spring to get here. We only got between 6 and 7 inches of snow last Tuesday. We couldn't tell how much because the wind was blowing it around so much. Our road was really drifted shut from Tuesday morning till Thursday evening. I am glad Kevin took some vacation days. We sat here watching movies and piddling on our laptops. Kevin bought us a kerosene heater in case we lost power. Fortunately we did not lose power. They are getting snow south of us right now. The weather people say it is going to miss us. Hope they are right.

I have been doing a little bit of hand quilting on my spring table topper. I have all the center blocks done and am working on the second flower. I decided to just echo quilt it.

I also have the 1st block of the Little Birdie BOM done. I want to get started on the second block, but my feet get cold when it is this frigid when I sew. So I am waiting till the weekend when it is supposed to be in the upper 40's or even the 50's.  (grin)  I had lots of fun sewing this. I used 3 strands of DMC floss for it and like the way it turned out.

I am caught up with the redwork parts of the Raggedy BOM. Just need to get the blocks together. Again, waiting on the floor to get a little warmer. I printed off the next block of Henrietta Whiskers. I still need to do the first block. I wanted to do it with needle turn applique, but may just do the fusible and machine applique. At least then, it would probably get done. LOL  I have also been reading quite a bit. I have read 4 books by Barbara Delinsky in the past 10 days. I just love her books.  I am putting my library card to good use. LOL Can you believe that I went to JoAnn's last weekend and couldn't find anything to buy?  I really don't need any more fabric. They were out of the batting I like. So I ended up buying some lightweight fleece to use behind my embroidery. I bought 2 yards and used a 50% off coupon. It ended up costing just over $5. I didn't figure that was too bad.

Well, I want to get back to quilting, or embroidering, or reading. (grin) You know, the standard winter hobbies for cold days.  Thank you for visiting. Please come again. Everyone have a great day.