Birdie Stitches - Blocks 7-10

It has been quite a week around here. After hearing about Wayne's passing, I tried to spend as much time with MIL as I could. I sat with her quite a bit on Monday. On Tuesday I had to get our clothes ready for the funeral. Needed to make a trip to town for hose. I seldom wear them, so didn't have any decent ones on hand. Wednesday was the funeral. It was sad, but also very touching. He was a very loved man. Three of his grandkids wrote letters about their time spent with him. His oldest grandchild is a mortician. She works at a funeral home out in Kansas, but the funeral home here, let her help push her grandpa's casket out of the church and drive the hearse to the cemetery. I was quite touched. It was good to see so many of Kevin's aunts, uncles, and cousins. I want to thank all of you for your kind words to us. It means a lot to know that so many of you out there in blogland care for us.  I spent Thursday cleaning the house. It was really needed. (grin) Today was town day. We are now stocked with groceries for the next two weeks. I even came in under budget. That is always a good feeling.

My evenings have been spent quilting and doing redwork. I finished hand quilting the Daisy Star this week. I will probably wait till I get the binding on before taking a picture to share. I also got caught up with Birdie Stitches. I haven't shared any of these blocks since the June block, so here goes. This is the July block.

Here is the August block.

 September's block was a lot of fun. I tried to get a variety of leaf colors.

Of course, I enjoyed the October block. I love pumpkins. I even enjoyed stitching those little spiders. LOL

There are only 2 blocks left to this cute BOM. I am so glad that I have kept up with it. Now while I wait for the next block to be posted, I am working on a Christmas Stitchery. I forgot to write down the blog I am getting these from. She posts a new stitchery block each Friday. I think she only has one or two more to post. These are supposed to be made into a banner, but I plan to make mine a little Christmas quilt. I'll share these next time. For now, I am tired, and just want to sit in front of the tv and work on some handwork. Thank you for visiting. Please come again. Have a wonderful weekend.

We lost a good man today!

Kevin's Uncle Wayne passed away quietly in his sleep this morning. He was a good man who will be missed by all. Wayne was my MIL's younger brother, one of four. He is the first sibling of seven in that family to pass on. Fern (MIL) and Wayne were very close. He used to take her out on the Missouri River in his boat to fish. She remembers those days when they were both so happy. Nothing either one of them loved more than fishing on the river. Wayne also loved to garden. In fact, he was working in his garden yesterday. We spent time with Fern today, then I went on to spend some time with Wayne's widow, Joan. Cathryn took a picture of him, Fern and their brother Dean at Fern's birthday party at the beginning of this month.
He is the one on the left, MIL in the middle and brother Dean on the right. My Kevin has his back to the camera. 

We sure will miss Uncle Wayne. Please say a prayer for his family. This was very unexpected, so they need prayer and support. Thanks.

Thirty-Six Patch and A Trip around the World

We had another good Sunday. We visited MIL in the nursing home for a couple of hours. She is happier. They moved her into the room with her best friend of about 60 or so years. This friend, Pat, had a stroke a few years ago. It left her right side paralized and her speech garbled. I really do believe Pat understands us, just can't communicate with us. Sometimes we hear complete words, but most of the time it is garbled. The weird thing is that Fern seems to understand Pat. I think this will be a good thing for both of them. Oh, I forgot to mention in my last post which quilt MIL chose. I decided to take both of them and let her choose. Good thing, because she chose the Savannah Star. Kevin and I were both wrong in which one we thought she would like. She loved the bright colors of the Savannah Star. (grin)

After our visit we went to St. Joe to Walmart. I do believe I embarrassed my husband. LOL I have still been wearing my shorts. We saw absolutely no one else in short pants, except me. He was asking why on earth I was still wearing shorts when it was in the 50's. Well, I have lost weight and my long pants are too big. So I got a new pair of jeans and a pair of sweats today. LOL I don't want a lot of clothes, because I hope to continue to lose weight. After buying the clothes, we went to Ryan's. Hmmm....hope the pants still fit. LOL  Of course, even buying petite pants, they will have to be hemmed. It is a bummer to have short legs. Everything I buy has to be hemmed. Oh well, sure was nice to buy a smaller size. (grin)

I finally got my 36 patch all put together and I love it. It has been way too windy to have Kevin hold it up for me on the deck, so I took some pictures of it spread out on the bed. Even Kevin loves it. I still haven't decided for sure how I will quilt it. It will either be 1/4" inside the seams, hand quilted or diagonal stitching on the machine. I would like to get it sandwiched together this week. Sure want it on the bed before winter is over. Here are some pictures of it on the bed. You can't see the whole thing, but you get an idea. I tried to alternate light and dark blocks and not have the same colors touching. That is the only things I paid attention to. Most of these blocks are from scraps with a few from fat quarters.

It measures 72 inches by 84 inches. I may still add a black border around it. Not sure about that. It is just that I almost always add a border. It doesn't feel complete to me without it.

Here is one taken cattycornered.

I also have started on a new quilt. I have never made a Trip around the World quilt, so when Bren said she was going to make one from Rose Marie's tutorial, I decided to join in. I am moving slow, but no plans for this one, so no hurry. Here are the five fabrics I picked for the center.

I have to sew these strips together to make 9 strip sets. I have 3 done. I figured I'd do 3 sets at a time.

I hope I have enough contrast in my fabrics to make the design show up good. I haven't chosen border fabrics yet. Since I have about a 1/3 yard of each of these left over I may just make some bricks to go around. I also have a blue fabric that I plan to use for an inner border. I usually don't pick border fabrics till the center is done.

I have been trying to catch up on my BOM's. I almost have Sept.'s Birdie Stitches done, then on to Oct.'s. I have lots of stitcheries that I am behind on, but no hurry. I'll get them done in time. 

I guess that is all for now. After our little stop at Ryan's, we both took a 2 hour nap when we got home. LOL So I imagine it will be a late bedtime tonight. Thank you for visiting and please come again. I do read and appreciate all the comments. I try to answer any questions. I hope you all have a wonderful week ahead.

A Grandma Sort of Day!

Last Sunday was my MIL's 82nd birthday. We gathered together at the nursing home to surprise her. She was thrilled to see our kids and grandkids. We only had one kid and one grandkid that couldn't make it, so we had the lounge full. The home had MIL all dolled up. She had such a wonderful time. Of course, I forgot to take my camera, so I swiped some of the girls' pictures. This is Fern (MIL) with our 3 girls, Carolyn, Cathryn, and Hazel.

Here she is with four of our grandkids: Ashton, Ava, Noah, and Izabella.

Jon was late getting there. We all forgot to call him. He was not very happy with the female half of our family. LOL Oh well, better late than never. He made it in time for cake.

Here is a picture of all our family that were there. (This was taken before Jon arrived.)

By the way, in the above picture it is Carolyn, Kevin, me, Cathryn, Ava, Hazel, Izabella, Noah, and Ashton. I think Bob and Jeremy were taking pictures, so they weren't included. (grin)
We had such a nice day. We knew that Fern would tire easily, so we only stayed about an hour. Then Kevin stayed and kept his mom company while we went to see my mom.

You don't even want to know how long I have spent tonight trying to figure out how to swipe these pictures from the girls' FB pages and get them posted here on my blog. LOL It has been a long evening. Now just so I have a quilty picture posted too....Carolyn entered Bob's Patriotic Shoofly quilt that I made him for Christmas last year in their county fair. I won a blue ribbon for it. I was really surprised, as I have never won any ribbons, but then again, I have never entered any of my projects. (grin) Here I am holding the quilt with the blue ribbon.

As you can see, I hate having my picture taken. I always look so dorky. That is why you seldom see pictures of me here on the blog. LOL The kids were all trying to get me to laugh. That is why I look like I just swallowed a prune. LOL 

I even took  picture of the blue ribbon. May be the only one I ever have. LOL

Here is a picture of Bob holding it up last Christmas.

After visiting with all the grandmas, we all met back here at our house to BBQ and just visited. Thank you to the kids for providing all the goodies. All I provided was some chili leftover from the day before. LOL The kids had such fun playing with Buddy. Ava, especially, loved him. They threw his ball and he would fetch it back to them. She thought that was so great. I had the kids line up for a picture before they left. As you can see, they had already eaten. Look at the clothes and around the mouths. LOL

Well, I guess that is enough pictures for this post. I just wanted to share with you all about our amazing time last Sunday. Thank you for visiting. Please come again. Have a blessed Sunday.

I made a mini ironing board.

A few weeks ago, I decided to make a mini ironing board. My sewing area is small and sometimes, I just don't need the big ironing board, especially if I am piecing blocks at the machine. I saw one like this on a blog once, but have no idea whose blog. I kind of did this one by what seemed logical to me. LOL  I figured some of you might like to see how I made it. It wasn't hard.
First I bought a little wooden tv tray at Walmart for $8.88.

Then I gathered my supplies. I used from my stash. I found this pretty floral fabric, some heavy weight muslin, some warm and natural batting, and some insulbrite. (Not sure that is spelled right. It is the stuff used in potholders.) I also needed scissors, a staple gun and a hammer.

I pressed everything, then laid it out on the bed: fabric (right side facing down), muslin (to act as a lining and give the fabric a little more strength), warm and natural batting (that I pieced together from leftovers), and the insulbrite (the heat reflecting stuff facing away from the table).

Then I placed the table upside down on top of this. I trimmed a little extra off the edges. Then folded the raw edge and folded again. I kept everything snug, and stapled it to the bottom of the table.

I hammered the staples in as I went around the table, so they would stay snug. I did the two long sides first, then the two short ends, and did the best I could on the corners. 

I have used it lots of times already and love it. It is way too short to use while standing, but perfect for spinning around while sewing to press a block. So for less than $10 and some stuff from my stash, I have a very handy little mini ironing board. When I'm not using it, it folds up just like any other tv tray.

I am excited. The grandkids are coming tomorrow. We are going to surprise my MIL for her birthday, then on to see my mom, then back home to have a BBQ. I can hardly wait. Kevin and I have been sprucing the place up today. Hopefully I will have some pictures to share next time.

I have been thinking about some long term quilting goals. I have several bedsize quilts that I would like to make in the next few years for gifts. Yes, you read that right. I said years. LOL I am a hand quilter after all. (grin) Anyway, in order to get these gifts done in time without having to rush, I decided that I should make a goal list. Nothing on this list will get started till after Christmas, but at least I have a list to go by. Whether I follow it or not, who knows. I am not going overboard this year for Christmas, like last year. If you remember, I made 3 twin size quilts for the SIL's. Not doing that this year, but I do have a small project planned for each of the kids. I won't share them just yet, in case one of them actually checks in on my blog. LOL

So for the rest of this year, I want to finish the Daisy Star, quilt both Raggedy Ann and Henrietta Whiskers, and work on Christmas gifts. Now that may seem like a big goal, but the quilts are just for fun and don't have to be done by the first of the year. I almost forgot. I also want to quilt the 36 Patch (which I still do not have the blocks together) for our bed. It should be quick, though.

Now, here are my goals to have done for the next 8 or so years: (No laughing now!)

1. May 2012- Quilt the Star Quilt Along Quilt for Cathryn and Jeremy's 10 wedding anniversary. Quilt is already pieced.(queen size)

2. May 2013- Make mom a Carpenter Star quilt in blues for her 75th birthday. Fabric already bought. (full size)

3. Aug. 2013 - Make the Quilter's Garden quilt for Carolyn and Bob's 10th anniversary. Blocks already done. (queen size)

May 2014 - make a homespun plus black rail fence for my nephew Jared's graduation. Already have the fabrics. (twin size)

May 2015 - make a quilt for niece, Hannah's graduation. No idea yet. (twin size)

May 2018 -make a quilt for niece, Madison's graduation. No idea yet. (twin size)

May 2019 -make a quilt for nephew, Hunter's graduation. No idea yet. (twin size) 

Instead of calling this my goal list, maybe I should call it my dream list, cause things change, and I might not get any of these done, but it is in my mind now, so I shall see. Plus you know projects are always added when you find a cute pattern, or cute BOM. LOL Can you tell I had way too much time on my  hands today? LOL Well, this is getting long, so I will end here. Thank you for visiting. Please come again. Have a fabulous Sunday. I know I will!!!!


Well, not sure what happened, but I can't get rid of the red in the goal list. I think even blogger is laughing at me. LOL

A Gift for MIL

I can't believe I am here two days in a row. Fall is good for me. LOL

I am about fed up with updating things on my computer. Every time I do it, I regret it. First I updated my yahoo email. Well, I hate the new version. It has been over a month and I still hate it. I even emailed yahoo and told them how much I hated it, but of course, got no response from them. (eye roll here) Yesterday I updated Firefox. They just kept sending me little popups telling me I needed to update. Well, now my toolbar (I think that is what it is called) across the top is gone. It is from Yahoo. Evidently Yahoo's toolbar is not compatible with Firefox's newest version. What do I do now. I am lost without my toolbar, yet have no idea how to get it back. Just when I start getting comfortable with the computer they mess it all up for me. Once it is working, please just leave it alone. I think I need to just stop updating. Oh, another thing. I just sort of figured out Facebook. Well, guess what. They are changing everything around. (big sigh) Well, enough ranting and raving.

Kevin's mom recently entered the nursing home. She is crippled and very feeble. She finally accepted the fact that she could not take care of herself any more. When visiting her on Sunday, I noticed the nursing home had provided her with a lap quilt. Goodness, it has seen better days. She can no longer walk, so is in either her lift chair or her electric wheel chair all day. She needs something to cover her knees. Her 82nd birthday is this Sunday. I actually have a gift for her that I think she will love. I pulled two lap quilt size quilts from my finished tote bin. Kevin prefers this one, so I will probably give it to her. It is about 40" by 49". I think she will love it. The coins (colorful strips) are from leftovers from a strip pieced quilt. The sashing is from fabric I had in my stash for many years. The little sashing stones are leftover from a jumper I had made myself. I just love the border fabric.

Here it is hanging behind our door.

A quick peak at the back.

I also pulled this quilt out, but Kevin didn't like it as well. If I remember correctly, this one is called Savannah Stars. It was made from fabric I bought at Walmart when the South Belt store clearanced fabric. The pattern was found in an old quilting magazine. It is about 45" square.

Hanging on the back of our door...

I pieced the back from leftover fabric from the front.

I will probably go with the first, since Kevin prefers it. I need to make a label. Everything in the nursing home has to be labeled. I just thought I'd share pictures of these with you, although I am sure I have shared them on here before. I need to get with it, so I will get this posted. Thank you for visiting. Please come again. Everyone have a wonderful day!

Borders Added

It is hot here today. We had 91* a little while ago. I know it will cool down quickly, though, as soon as the sun goes down.  Poor Buddy is ready for me to shave him again, but I know it will be cooling down soon, so he will just have to live with it. (grin)

I finally got the borders put on my Raggedy and Friends quilt. I just went with a 3" red border. I tried to get a decent picture of it, but it wasn't easy. LOL

I had Kevin hold it up on the deck, but the wind was blowing, so it flapped around. lol

Then I decided to hang it on back of our metal door with magnetic clips.

This is the best I can do.

Then I got the borders put on Henrietta Whiskers. I still have to machine applique around the birds and stars in the border, and I also have just a bit of embroidery left to do on it. Then it is a flimsy too. ( By the way, I forget sometimes, that not everyone who reads this is a quilter. Sorry. A flimsy is just the finished top before it is sandwiched and quilted.)

Kevin tried to hold this one up too. Same results.

Now these two can join the pile to be quilted. I am almost done quilting the blocks on the Daisy Star quilt. Then I can start on the borders. I usually work on quilting while watching Biggest Loser, but I think it will be too warm tonight. So I will probably do some embroidery. I am 2 blocks behind on Birdie Stitches. Time to get those babies done. Here is a hoop of the Daisy Star.

Well, I guess that is it for me today. I want to get some things done so I can enjoy BL tonight. I also love the new show called Unforgettable. Thank you for visiting. Please come again. Have a wonderful evening.