Good Morning Saturday!

 A nice bright winter / spring day.  Snow better start melting today, as we're all so tired of looking at this - -

From our driveway looking south.  Everyone's car dragged in the middle; the plows finally plowed the road on Wednesday afternoon.  Now there is dirt peeking through.  Notice - there aren't even any snowmobile tracks in this snow!  The snowmobilers are tired of winter too!!!!

This is what I've been working on this past week.  A lap quilt for a special girl that is graduating from high school this spring.  Pretty colors, huh?  Hope she'll like it.  Think I'll have someone machine quilt it.  It's too big to do on my little machine, and I don't want to have a messy job.  Sometimes I don't get even stitches.

Odda had an eye infection earlier this week, but now doing fine.  Maybe allergies?  She is now TWO years old.  Our big baby! 

Her coat is nice and shiney (except for the white area), and I can't wait to take her to the groomers for a bath.  We'll wait until all the snow is gone, and things are greening up.  We laugh at her because she walks around puddles, mud and the brown grassey areas.  She finds her way walking on the snow - well soon that should all be gone.  Hooch doesn't care where he walks.  We have towels at each doorway to wipe them dry.   

Amanda with Odda when we brought her home!   

Hope you all have a great weekend.

Won a giveaway and a good day - The Sun is Out!

I won a give away from Ginny Diesel at That Creative Place and received this in the mail this weekend!  Isn't it cute.  Canvas is painted and with a poly pumpkin.  How did she know that I like Halloween.  Even    

got some M & M's!  Thank you so much Ginny. 

I also finished my Halloween throw (or it can be a tablecloth) this past week.  I started it last year, but had not finished the binding or cutting and tieing all the threads.  At this time of the year, I miss having the girls around.  We used to decorate so much more - fall and Halloween yard stuff, etc.  So my new gift and quilt will be the extent of my Halloween decorating this year.  Until Oct 31, when I MAY put on my witch costume for the trick or treaters!

Took some pictures of Steve going out to the barn.  Odda always stands below the steps while he puts on his rubber boots over his boots.   Barks at him, telling him to hurry up!   Then she jumps all over - just like when someone comes to visit.  She is so happy to have company. 

Then you have to stop to pet and rub her back or she'll keep jumping.  Ya, I know I need to stop this habit.

Then she gets some lovin! 

Then she's ok to go! ! ! !

Today the sun is out.  Think if things dry up, I need to mow again or maybe go for another drive today!

I read my friends blog, and read that she is a bit cranky, so think we need to go for a ride by ourselves! 

Have a great Sunday! 

Day trip with Friends

My day trip today with two friends started out at a place where Connie "Far Side" and I have talked about going, and haven't gotten there yet.  I met my two friends at the "Living Legacy Gardens" at Staples MN.

The gardens are beautiful, but most of the flowers are done or on the down side of pretty.  Next year Connie and I will have to make that road trip and go just a little earlier in the year.  The grounds are still beautiful tho.

There were some hostas still flowering, but most of them were done.  I think I have at least one of each of the hosta plants that was there.There were names for most of the plants on stakes in front of the plants, but there was one without a sign that we didn't know what it was.  A close up picture and then picture of the whole plant.  It kind of looked like sedum, but not sure.  I have never seen this plant before.  It was taller than we were.

 

There were several areas for sitting and there were some volunteers there building a couple more arbors.

Wish my garden looked as nice.  Sure takes a lot of work to keep this garden so nice.

 

Then before we got through the whole garden my batteries died in my camera!!!!!!!!!!  And I'd left all my new extra batteries home.  Couldn't believe I did that.  So my good intentions of taking pictures of the 4 quilt shops we went to today died too!  I was kind of mad at myself!  But, I did get some new quilting kits, but haven't taken them out of the bag yet.  Will show you as I make things up.  I have a LOT of sewing to do!  We ate lunch out today at "Up North" in Brainerd, and celebrated Jackie's birthday with the 3 of us sharing a triple chocolate piece of cake.  It was quite big, so divided it 3 ways it was still a generous piece to eat.  We all got our chocolate fix! Now to get some other book work done before "hitting the hay"  (going to bed!).  More later, jo

Dalton's Quilt!

Last weekend I drove to "the cities" (near Minneapolis) and stayed with my sister in law Carla for the weekend.  Her husband and youngest son were in Kansas City to a race.  They race (I think) stock cars and are gone a lot of weekends, so this was the perfect time to get Grandma Arvilla's quilt done for a grandson graduating this spring.  Grandma passed away 2 years ago now, and had two quilts started for the last two grandkids to graduate.  Dalton graduates this spring, and it will be 4 years before his younger sister and the last grandchild graduates. 

Grandma had the top and bottom all sewn on this quilt, so all we needed to do was to get the batting and tie the quilt, and sew the binding.  My house doesn't have any rooms big enough to put up a quilt rack or to have room to work with it on the floor; but Carla does.  I just couldn't borrow a quilt rack and haul it with, so we did the best we could on the floor.  Got there about 7:30 pm Friday evening.  We sat and visited until it was getting late, and decided we'd better get some sleep and start on the quilt Saturday morning.

Saturday morning when we got up, instead of starting to sew right away, we went to several garage sales. Just can't pass up going to garage sales in a bigger city environment!   love it!!!!  Got some good deals too.  Got back to the house about 10 am and got busy.

Step one was to iron the bottom, lay it on the floor, then the batting and then the top of the quilt.  Grandma used double knit for the top, and there was a lot of stretch, so we started from the middle, and safety pinned the quilt through all the layers to stabilize it.  Then we started tying it, but didn't do it on every corner because the squares were about 3 or 4 inches square.  We tied it on every big square corner, and then if that square was a bigger one, we tied it in the middle.  After trimming the batting, we rolled the backing up and under for the binding, and making mitered corners.  That worked out well.  Then we added more ties on the outside edge of the quilt near the binding stitching.  I didn't dare sew the binding on my machine because the double knit on some of the colors had so much give that I thought my machine would bunch things up.  So we hand sewed the binding.  Not hard to do; it just took time.  I always do it so you can't see any stitches.  What's so unique about Grandma's quilts is the fact that she didn't go out a buy new material.  She did with what she had.  The backing on this quilt is two twin top sheets together, but she still didn't have enough material, so she sewed a darker brown around the edge, and that material didn't make it all the way either, so she substituted with adding a darker brown flannel at the corners!  Dalton will definately know it was from Grandma!

     

I think I'll start working on the other quilt this winter.  That one is in different shades of purples and white double knit.  I wonder where she got all this double knit material.  Grandma only has a few of the squares cut out on the purples, so that quilt will basically get all done by me and the sisters in laws.  So I'll get to decide how to piece it all together.  I hope that Grandma enjoyed watching Carla and I finish the one we just did.  I'm sure Dalton will just love it; knowing that Grandma had started it for him.

Busy Friday!

This morning my girlfriend and I went sewing machine shopping! I have several old sewing machines, and the one I use the most, is a Riccar 9900. It has been fixed several times, and the last time (about 3 years ago), the repair man told me that the next time he would not be able to get parts for it, as he had a terrible time then getting the replacement steel parts. So this past weekend, when I saw an ad in the paper for overstock of school sewing machines, where schools have cut back and not purchased like they have in past years; so my interest perked up a little. Of course, I knew that the ad had a leader for the student machines, and there would be more upgraded models available. So we got there and were 2nd in line! I watched and listened, and did upgrade to the most expensive one there. These were Necchi machines, and I ended up purchasing a Necchi Model 4825. It features an automatic needle threader - happy me! I have a terrible time threading a machine because of my bi-focale glasses - so I'm excited about that. It also has a built in overlock cutter - great - now won't have to always use my 4 thread serger that is always giving me fits, and is not working right now. You can also monogram and embroider with this machine. That will be fun to practice.

After I got home the first thing I did was set it up and started sewing. It works great, and I'm pleased that I didn't have to spend an arm and a leg to get a machine that should last a long time. It is warrantied for 25 years. I did have to pay extra for the optional accessory packages, which includes extra feet for working on leather and doing upholstry.



I made a couple of hot pads from scraps for part of wedding shower gift tomorrow. Maybe I should stay up late, and make her an apron too!

Of course I was busy sewing, so I had not started anything for supper. Good excuse to go to a neighborhood little bar that serves great burgers. So thats what we did for supper! Leah and Steven (oldest daughter & hubby) were there also, and they stopped over on their way home. Visited for awhile, and now it's after midnight, and I may just start that apron!

Quilted tablecloth project!

Hoping to get this done before Halloween!!!! Took these pictures tonight as I'm working on the last border. This will be the first time I'm making mitered corners, so I hope as I sew them together it will turn out. Almost like it without that 5th border, but then it wouldn't be big enough. I did change the pattern a little as I cut off over 10 inches off the first center square, because my square table is smaller than normal, and I didn't want a big overhang. Now it will be just the 4th and 5th rows that will overhang. I hope that when I start the quilting, that it will go okey. I'm nervous about quilting the big center. Don't want any material to bunch up; but if I pin it good, I should be okey.

While I was sewing today, I started a veggie, beef stew! I just use what I have, so it usually is a little different every time I make it. The stew makes the house smell good if you like it; but if you don't (like my husband), the smell isn't inviting! It has beef stew meat - browned, beef stock and water as needed, cabbage, rutabega, (spell check isn't working), sweet potato, onion, carrots, and celery. Steve doesn't like the smell of the cooking cabbage. The carrots and sweet potato lend a sweet taste to the stew, and I do shake a little Watkins Soup Seasoning in also. I use my big Griswold roasting pot that I inherited from my mom and dad. Couldn't do without it!

All the ingredients fill the whole pot, but after slow cooking a couple of hours, it settles down. These pictures are after we've eaten supper, and the bowl, is a second-or is it a third helping! It is a good meal for those of us on diets - in fact, this is similar to a weight watcher veggie stew!!!!!

To feed Steve, I'll just pick out the beef and boil up some white potatoes for him tonight. He likes cottage cheese, and if he wants some other vegetable warmed up, I can do that. So it looks like I'll have a couple of lunches with this beef-veggie stew!

Back to sewing!

Just got done making this table runner "Square Meal" by Atkinson Designs. I really like it, but I'm giving it to one of my sister's-in-law that just moved into a new home. I hope the colors match well with hers. She has a wonderful long dinning table that it will fit on better than my small square kitchen table.


Had a little trouble at first following the pattern, but when I did exactly as the pattern said, it went smoother! I don't like cutting all my pieces out first. I'd rather cut, iron, sew, iron, and cut again. Why that is? Don't know. Probably because it started that way, so is a habit. I had trouble at first with the cut lenth not fitting right after sewing the first 9 square! So had to recut for that; and then got my 1/4" correct and away I went!!!


I used Windham's Clara Barton Collection material. It's so unique. Clara Barton (1821-1912) was known as the "Angel of the Battlefield" for her efforts in nursing care during the Civil War. She was instrumental in bringing the Red Cross to America and served as its president for 22 years.



Already have a Halloween table top started for myself, and on that I am changing the pattern! Duh! It was was to big for my table, so, down sizing it a little, you'll see pictures when done. Also have another project started for Christmas presents. Will get pictures of them soon too.

Done and Almost Done!

Getting ready for our trip south to visit daughter Jessica, Floyd and new baby Renee! I just finished the diaper bag that goes with the baby quilted blanket I finished earlier and took with me there in July. Pictures of baby blanket are on an earlier blog written on July 12th. Now the bag is done, and Jessica can use it to tote whatever works for them. There are 3 inside pockets, and 2 bottle holders on the inside and a nice big space for diapers, clothing, etc. There is one pocket on the outside. The pattern didn't call for a zippered top, which I wish I would have put in, plus I should have put more thought into the handles, and done them differently than the pattern called for. I really like handles that are sewn either around the bag or down the sides further for better support. But I'll think further ahead and make changes on the next one I do. This is the first quilted bag I've done.


Also have another easy project started and want to have it done before Friday when we go. It is for fall decorating. Can be a table top - wall hanging - or could be little coverup blanket for Renee!!! Our little pumpkin! I CAN'T wait to hold her!

I have the face machine sewn and now need to start machine quilting. Have shiny thread in the orange color to machine meander, and then black for the black areas. By machine quilting, it should go fast. Do you think I can get it done tomorrow between doing morning chores and evening chores???? Oh, and then the binding. I always hand sew the one side, but that can be done in the car. Not like I won't have enough car time! (It takes about 26 hours to get there.)

We plan on leaving on Friday after morning chores, etc. (probably after lunch); drive to Stephani's (Pipestone, MN) which is a 5 hour drive. Pick her up, and continue. With 3 drivers we are planning to drive straight through. I don't mind driving at night; in fact kind of enjoy it. Steve and Steph can sleep when I drive, and then I can listen to whatever I want to on the radio!!!!! I'm the only one that likes "talk radio".

I'll post a picture of completed quilted pumpkin when I'm done. Wish me luck!

Renee's quilt

I've finally finished this baby quilt that I'd cut out and hauled the pieces back and forth from MN to Louisiana twice when I'd gone down to be with Jessica during her bed rest days.  When I was at Jessica's I just couldn't get into the mood of sewing so I needed to get on the ball and get it finished once we realized that our grand daughter was going to come early.  I just finished it Friday.  It is now rolled in tissue and ready to fly back south with me.  Leah and I are having a baby shower for Jessica on Sat. the 18th.  It should be a fun time - except baby Renee still won't be home.  It will be good for Jessica to have her girl friends over for a visit.

Renee is still in the hospital, and I'm sure will be for several weeks yet.  This would have been the start of her 34th week in the womb.   Jessica is healing and is moving around more, able to do dishes and pick up the house a little.  She said that feels so good to do normal things again - but still no heavy lifting or vacumming.

   

I have a matching baby bag cut out and started, but it won't be done by Tuesday evening, so will have to mail it when I'm done.

Pattern is from "Anka's Treasures-ANK 270"