Retro Nine Patch

I finished all the embroidery on the Retro Nine Patch blocks earlier in the week. The basket blocks were just posted to finish it, but I am thinking I may get on my EQ7 and come up with my own finishing blocks. I'll see what I can come up with. I took some pictures of the finished stitcheries, but some of them came out kind of blurry. Sorry. What can I say? Photography is not my thing. LOL

The next two blocks...

And the center block...

Now I need to figure out how I want to finish this one.  I started on Chicken Hearted yesterday. I have the base put together, the half square triangles made,  and all the applique pieces prepped. I hope to work on it in a bit.

I think I will work out first. Tomorrow is weigh-in day. Uggg! Not looking forward to that. I ate quite a bit of high calorie food last weekend. I guess I'll see if it decided to stay with me or not. LOL While picking up some of the 'not so good for me' food last weekend, I also found a little bit of fabric. I got these at Walmart. Our Walmart just went through a remodel. Oh my! How I hated going in there for a while, but I will have to say, it does look great now. I am starting to figure out where things are, so I don't hate going in there any more. (grin) Anyway, the two fabrics on the left were bought for skirts for me. Once I lose another 20 lbs, I plan to make them as a treat. (grin)

The brown is intended for a backing of a small quilt and the purple is just because I liked it. LOL
Then I saw these fat quarters and just had to have a few. I am thinking these would work good in an applique flower quilt.

I spread the fat quarters out so you could see the colors a little better.

Well, I guess that is it for me for today. It is still to wet to work in the garden, plus the heat and humidity has arrived. So I think I will go work out before it gets any hotter. Then I can play this afternoon. (grin) Thank you for visiting. Please come again. Have a great day.


Winona

Happy Birthday, Izabella!

Good morning everyone,


Today is our little Izabella's 2nd birthday. I wish I could spend it with her, but I plan to call her in a bit.

She had a lot longer hair, but when I was watching them, her brother got hold of the scissors and gave her a haircut. I think she is cute with it cut up around her ear. I am sure it has grown out a lot since this picture was taken.

She had just gotten up in this picture. She was wanting to go outside to play. Little lady bug, if mama is reading this to you....HAPPY BIRTHDAY from Grandma and Grandpa. We love you! Have a wonderful 2nd birthday and be nice to your big brother. OK?

I was in Wal Mart this weekend. My first stop in there is always the fabric department. We don't have any quilt shops near by, so I depend on Wal Mart, JoAnn's, and Hobby Lobby. While there (getting some fabric cut, of course), the manager came up and told the fabric cutter that she is no longer allowed to order any more fabric. As of the first of the year, they will no longer sell fabric. Hmm, what is wrong with Wal Mart? I know you might not make a big profit selling fabric, but look at t he big picture. Ladies who buy fabric, also buy other products. Very seldom do I get out of the store with just fabric in my cart. So if they will no longer carry fabric, I might as well go to Target or K-Mart. Just a little rant I have about Wal Mart. So what fabric they have is it. I did buy some, of course.

We have some major rain coming in. We are already under a flash flood watch and it hasn't even started raining here yet. I did hear on the radio that it is raining in Topeka and Lawrence, so it is on the way. Once we can get the next 24-30 hours of rain out of the way, they are calling for a nice weekend, with maybe 80*. We won't know what to do to have a weekend without rain. Our yard is looking like a wilderness area. So I guess mowing will be on the agenda. (grin)

I got bindings made for 4 projects yesterday, so I need to get off here and get them sewed on. These are all baby quilt or table runner sizes, but still need to be done. Thank you for visiting. Please come again and have a nice day.

Good rainy day!

Good afternoon,

We had such a rainy and stormy weekend. It has been raining since Saturday. Yesterday, we had some severe weather. In fact, we had a tornado sighted pretty close to us, but fortunately it did not come down. I do not like storms, so I was a basketcase. I was just glad it was Sunday and Kevin was home. It is still lightly raining. They are saying we have had 3-5 inches of rain, depending on where you are. So, the garden should be coming up. (grin) I noticed this morning that the Nodaway River is about out of its banks. I hope it doesn't flood. We are way too high for it to affect us, but I hate to see it hurt so many others.

I thought I would explain a little about our chicks. I was asked what sex-link meant. I thought I knew, but I looked it up to be sure. LOL The sex-link chicks are from mixed breeding where the females hatch out one color and the males another. Therefore, they are very easy to sex. They only are like this for one generation, though. The next generation could be any colors. The black sex-links are from a Barred Rock mother and a Rhode Island Red or New Hampshire Red rooster. Both hatch out black but all of the males have a white dot on top of their heads. The red sex-links also have a RIR or NHR father and can have several different breeds for mothers. (Not each chick, but the breeders use different breed hens to get these. Clear as mud. LOL) Males hatch out white and females hatch out buff to red color. There, now you have everything that I know about the sex-link chicks. I have had some before and they were very good layers.

I bought some fabric to make myself a purse over a year ago. One day last week, I decided to just do it. So here is my Gracie bag.

This is a Lazy Girl Design. These patterns are really easy to sew. I love them. Look at the inside. I have so much room. Makes it nice when I want to carry my camera or something extra.

I think I will make a matching wallet for it when I get time, which probably won't be till some time in June. LOL As you can see, Callie approves. (grin) JoAnn's had their Daffodil sales days this past week. I made 2 shopping trips to it, but really only one was planned. I wanted to get some more Guterman hand quilting thread, so I went last Sunday. I came home with this. I prefer the lighter quilting threads. I have used navy blue and black and hated working with them. Red, pink, and yellow aren't too bad to work with, but you are limited on what you use these on. These colors are pretty neutral and can be used on about any quilt. Here is a better picture of the fabric. I don't remember now how many yards I bought, but probably about 15 yards. It was all on sale. (grin) I was perfectly satisfied with my shopping trip and had no plans for any more any time soon. Well, my husband is an enabler! He has been saving and looking for a new laptop for a long time. He found a good deal on what he wanted this Saturday, so I encouraged him to order it. Afterwards, he said he felt guilty for spending so much on himself. Now I tried to convince him that this was silly. He works hard for our money and this was money he has been saving for over a year. He insisted that I take some money and go to JoAnn's. I told him I really didn't need anything, but I am weak where fabric is concerned. (sigh) So I went back to JoAnn's last day of the Daffodil sale. Everything I bought was 50%, so I did really well.
I got 3 quilt batts, a 5 pack of rotary blades, a quilting template, a tote bag pattern and about 10 yards of fabric. Like I said, all of this was 50% off. I love it when I can get stuff 50% off. I love this tote pattern. Isn't it cute? I can make it 3 different sizes. I used my 50% coupon for this. Sorry about the flash, but I think you can still see the pattern. Here is a better picture of the fabric I brought home. I had everything laid out on the bed to take pictures of. Then I ran to get the mail. This is what I came back to find. LOL

I guess Callie thought I brought this all home for her. LOL So as you can see, I am married to an enabler. I told him that I am now stocked up on everything I need for quilting for a long time, so he must not give me money and tell me to go to JoAnn's. I am just too weak to fight the fabric temptation. I love him for his generosity, but I really want to start saving instead of spending. You know what I mean? LOL

Everyone have a great day. Thank you for visiting and please come again.

Very, very windy day!

Wow, the wind is blowing so hard that I am afraid the roof is going to blow off. LOLWe have high wind advisories out till 6 tonight. I am upstairs and can feel and see the computer monitor swaying in the wind. LOL We had a light shower this morning, but the sun is shining right now. It is in the 60's, but no way I am going out in this wind. So I am spending the day catching up on the computer and house work. We had a nice weekend. Saturday was just beautiful, but I spent most of it in town. I know I said I was going to avoid JoAnn's, but I had to drive right past it. Surely it won't hurt to just run in for a second and see what is on sale? Right? Here is what I walked out with.

Now I do have plans for this. I thought the browns would work great to make dh's beagle quilt. Don't those look like beagle colors? The reds are only 1/4 yard cuts to add a little red to my collection. I am sadly lacking in red. I also need the template plastic since I am trying to do more applique. See how I justify this? LOL Of course, I had printed a 40% off coupon for Hobby Lobby. Now I couldn't just waste all the ink it took to print that little coupon. Could I? (grin) So I stopped by Hobby Lobby and found this scrumptious fabric that I thought would make a lovely background fabric for the beagle quilt. It is actually lighter than the picture looks. Also got some more template plastic.

Now you know I can't go to town without stopping by Wal Mart. Well they had some fabric that I have had my eye on for a couple of weeks. K said I should go ahead and get it or it would be gone and I would regret it. Can't argue with my husband. (grin) They are all prettier than this picture. The fabric on the lower right is a light red. I have no plans for it, but fell in love with it.

So here are my fabric buys on Saturday. I really must go on a fabric diet. The sad thing is that JoAnn's is having a President's Day sale this coming weekend that I planned to go to. I may have to skip this one. Do you think I have some sort of a fabric disorder? LOLOk, my cutting mat has seen better days. It is several years old. I have been considering getting another one for a while. I started to get one in JoAnn's. Can't think of the name right off hand, but the green ones, with yellow printing on them. When I picked it up, the smell was horrible. Do they always smell that bad? I just couldn't see myself working on a mat that smelled that bad. Then I looked at a Dritz. There was a label on it that said it contained ingredients that have been proven to cause cancer and birth defects in California. Huh? Not getting that one! I ended up buying another June Tailor. Why not, I have had good luck with my other one. Here is my old one. You can see how worn it has become. And here is the new mat. Isn't it pretty? I keep the old one on top of the new one. Callie thinks the cutting mat is her personal napping area. I'll just move the old mat off when I want to cut fabric. This way, Callie and I are both happy. (grin) Yesterday I desided to get the Savannah Star quilt sandwiched and ready to quilt. So I took out my batting to rest while I prepared the backing. I came back to find this. Yep, Aeris making herself right at home on my new batting. (Sigh) Then I looked over to see this. Callie had taken over Aeris' place on the coat. Oh, what would I do without my girls? LOL Anyway, I decided to use the leftover flower fabric in the backing. It wasn't wide enough, so I split it right down the fold line. Then I got to work with the leftover strips from the front of the quilt. I just started adding strips till it was wide enough. Here is the back of the Savannah Star that is now awaiting quilting. (grin)I finished the quilting on the Maple Leaf quilt this morning. I just need to put the binding on and it will be done. I hope to do that tonight. I will post pictures of it tomorrow. I have also been doing some needle turn applique work. I am not good on points. I guess I just need to practice more.

Today was my weigh-in day. I lost another 4 pounds this week. YEA!!! It has not been easy, but at least I am to the point of not craving carbs all the time. Almost everything I like to eat is carb filled. My goal for this month was to lose 10 lbs. I am already up to 8, so I only have 2 more pounds to lose to meet my goal. I was so happy when I crawled on the scales this morning. (big grin)

Well, I guess that is all for today. The wind is still really blowing. I am holding off doing my chores till the last minute in hopes that it dies down. If you don't hear from me for a few days, I have blown away. LOL I'm sorry, I shouldn't joke about something like that. Time to get off here. Everyone have a good day. Thank you for visiting and please come again.