Challenge

Paula, over at Coffee Time At Home, has announced a challenge entitled "Need This?". I have decided this is a good kick in the pants for me to tackle some cluttered areas in my home on a regular basis. Here is the link http://coffeetimeathome.blogspot.com/

I decided to start with two drawers in my kitchen that hold various gadgets. One drawer is mostly for baking gadgets. Here is a before picture.

And here is the after picture. I threw away a few things and put several things in a box. Now there is just what I need, measuring cups and spoons, rubber spatulas, candy thermometer, biscuit cutter, pastry blender and a few funnels.

The second drawer is by the stove. It holds all the odds and ends that every kitchen has. Here is the before picture.

And here is the after. I am amazed at what I found. I threw a bunch of stuff away. Some of it I didn't even know what it was for. LOL I probably haven't organized that drawer since we moved in 12 years ago.

It now holds my garlic press, pizza cutter, soup ladle, spaghetti utensil, potato masher, and can opener.

I can't believe how good it felt just to do that small organizing. I am hoping to get brave enough to tackle some of the bigger clutters in my house over the coming weeks and months. Breaking it up into small chunks makes the entire task less daunting. Thanks, Paula, for a great idea.

Christmas in July

Hi Everyone,



I was reading through different blogs and I came across http://bluebirdquilts-lyn.blogspot.com/2008/07/giveaway-christmas-in-july-giveaway.html

Thought this might be fun. Check it out. Hmmm, I don't know how to get the link to be smaller. Blogging is relatively new to me. Maybe someone could help me. Thanks.



It also got me thinking about the various projects that I have been working on for the Christmas Craft Fair that the ladies in my new church put on every November. This will be the first time I am involved and am very excited about it.

These are three scraves that I knitted over the last few weeks. They are done with that fun fur and a soft worsted weight yarn for warmth. Left to right the are purple, red/black, and blue.

These are crocheted pony tail holders. I plan on making a bunch more in other colors. They are made with crochet cotton thread. I pick up crochet cotton whenever I find it at yard sales. Sometimes I make Barbie doll clothes or doilies. I haven't done those recently.

These are butterflies made out of crochet cotton thread. I plan on putting a magnet on the back. They look really cute all over the refridgerator. Who wouldn't want a bevy of beautiful butterflies. By the time the fair comes around, I will have butterflies of many colors.

I also have many baby bibs that I have made out of flannel and about a dozen purses. I plan on finishing at least one of the many quilt tops I have made. Not sure what else I will make, but I am enjoying these little projects.

Any money the ladies make at the craft fair will go to helping with the church's winter fuel bill. With today's prices, that makes lots of sense to me!

Is anyone else working on Christmas projects yet? Let me know.

Darlene

Lighthouse cross-stitch

I decided to start a new cross-stitch project to work on while in my air conditioned bedroom. I have had this one for awhile, but hadn't started it yet. I plan on keeping track of the hours I put into it, just out of curiosity.

I will begin the stitching today. We are in for some hot and humid weather, so it is a perfect time to start. I love lighthouses. Can't you just hear the waves crashing into the rocks? I plan on posting monthly updates on how it is coming along.

I have a number of cross-stitch and embroidery UFOs, probably close to the number of quilting UFOs. I am going to try and stick to this one to the finish. Hopefully, that will motivate me to work on the others. Stitching is a great project to do while watching television. It is time I got back into doing that.

Have a great 4th of July!!

Darlene

Shopping, What Fun!

Yesterday was an afternoon of lunch and shopping with my daughter. Always, on the last day of school, we go out to lunch together and then do some fun shopping.

She choose Applebee's for lunch. Yum! Perfect! I was in the mood for fish and chips and Lydia loves their fried shrimp.

Then is was off to JoAnn Fabrics. Yeah!! I love looking through their remnant bins. Look at what I found!

These are all flannels. The three on the left will go into my stash of baby flannels. I like making "lovey" sized blankets for newborns. 4" squares ten rows by ten rows, approx. 36" square quilt. Just the right size for a newborn and then perfect to be dragged around by a toddler.

The four flannels on the right will go into my stash of flannels for full sized donation quilts. I haven't made one yet, but have been collecting flannels for a long time. The first quilt I will make for myself and then I will have on-going donation quilts in the works. Plan on 6" or 8" squares for these. Not sure yet the exact size.

This is a picture of some novelty prints I found. The football fabric is an entire yard. With some co-ordinating fabrics, I will be able to make an entire quilt for a child. I make kid's quilts for the Family Crisis Center. I try to keep the size to approx. 40" by 50" give or take a few either way.

The soccer and baseball prints are smaller remnants. Not enough to design an entire quilt top around, so they will go into my "I Spy" stash.

This picture shows the bottom fabric from the previous picture in better detail. Cowboy and Indian Frogs!!!! How cute is that? This is a yard piece. How much fun this will be designing a quilt with this fabric.

This July, I am going down to Mass. to visit a dear friend. She is going to teach me how to sew clothing. I am a self-taught quilter and have no other sewing knowledge. I have always wanted to make clothes.

As my daughter gets older, the hemlines in the stores get shorter and shorter. Trying to teach modesty can be a challenge in today's society. She loves to wear skirts and dresses. I found a Simplicity 2 hour jumper pattern that she likes. I found two different light-weight denims. Lydia choose the one with the butterflies. I found the one with the embroidered flowers. She doesn't know about that one. Shhh, don't tell. It is a surprise!

After JoAnn's, it was off to CraftMania. Specifically, we were on the lookout for some color-by-number posters. Lydia doesn't care for paint-by-number, but the ones with color pencils are right up her alley. We didn't find any, but.........

Look at what I found! Our local CraftMania has flat folds for $3.99 a yard. They were on sale for 40% off! I bought all they had of this, just under 4 yards and paid less that $9.00 Yeah! It is very colorful with crayons all over it. I could easily spent a LOT more. There were some very pretty brights. I love bright fabrics, but I controlled myself. (grin)

Next, it was off to the bookstore. Lydia has been reading several series by Erin Hunter, entitled "The Warriors". They are about a number of tribes of talking cats. Yes, I said, talking cats. She loves these books. Often saving her own money and buying them in hardbound because she didn't want to wait for paperback.

Well, the author has begun a new series entitled "The Seekers". This series seems to be about talking polar bears. We were able to find the first book. Lydia is quite happy.

I, also, found a few books for summer reading. The first is by Fern Micheals entitled "Fast Track". This is another in a series of books she has written about a group of women who become vigilantes to right the wrongs done to them. Very interesting. I enjoy following characters through different stories and yet each book stands on its own.

I found another book by a favorite author, Beatrice Small. I have been reading her books for over 20 years. She writes romance novels, quite lusty ones, I might add. (blush, blush). Most of her books are historical romances, but this new series is about a fantasy world full of fairies, giants, etc. The book I picked up yesterday is "the Sorceress of Belmair" book four of the World of Hetar series.

So, when the weather become unbearably hot, off to my air conditioned bedroom I will go with some new books. These books are only a sampling of the different kinds of reading I do. What do you like to read?

Darlene

My Daughter, Lydia

Today was my girl's 5th grade graduation. Here she is with her teacher, Mr. Hodgkins. He has been her teacher for two years. The entire class and teacher looped up from 4th grade to 5th together. It has been a great two years.

It is hard to believe that my "little peanut" is going into middle school next year. Where has the time gone?

It seems like yesterday she was toddling around getting into everything. Now, she giggles with her friends about "cute" boys and wants to wear make-up. She even had a boy call her last week and ask her to go see the movie "Kung-Fu Panda" with him and his mom.

Come September, she will have to get up an hour earlier for the bus. Not good, let's just say, my girl is NOT a morning person. I plan on buying her an alarm clock this summer and starting in the middle of August letting her get herself up to the alarm. We will see how that goes.

To all the other parents out there who have been where I am now going, think of me, pray for me. I would love to hear how you all survived puberty with a daughter. LOL

Darlene

World's worse blogger?

Well, I am back. I must be the world's worse blogger. It has been since Jan. that I have posted. I am going to try hard to begin posting at least once a week.

This is a top I finished this past week. This will a donation quilt going to a homeless shelter this winter. I really like how the string stars look with the sashings and borders. I have almost enough string HST made to make another. The next one will be sashed and bordered with a teal fabric that I already have set aside.

Here are two small quilts made from the same fabrics. The novelty fabric I got on sale somewhere. I only had a yard of it. I had the blue and pink fabrics in my stash. I started work on the larger quilt and then had a few blocks left over, so decided to make a baby quilt. I managed to use all but a 4" strip of the novelty fabric and all but a 2.5" strip of the pink. Those went right into my boxes of pre-cut scraps. I still have about a half to three quarters of a yard of the blue. the bigger quilt will be bound in the blue and the smaller quilt with the pink.

the larger quilt will be a donation quilt, probably to the Family Crisis Center. The smaller quilt I think I will keep on hand for the next baby that comes along.

This is another child's quilts. The novelty fabric is a remnant that I picked up with all things police. I found the red, off-white and blue in my stash. This quilt will be bound in the red. Very little scraps of these 4 fabrics are left. This will also be a donation quilt. I thought it would be a great quilt for a boy. I think most of my quilts tend to look girlish, so this one was fun.

To update on the Carolina Crossroads quilt mystery from Quiltville, I decided not to set mine on point. Also, instead of two quilts I am making one. It will be at least a queen if not a king sized. The top is about halfway put together. I know exactly who I want to give this quilt to, so I am very pleased with how it is turning out.

That is what I have been up to lately. What is going on with you all?

Keep Sewing!!

Darlene

Brrrrr, it's cold!

When I went to bed last night, it was -13 degrees F. When I got up this morning, it was all of -8 degrees. We finally have reached -4.

Thankfully, temps will be rising over the next couple of days. We might even see close to 50 degrees by Sunday. Here's hoping!

I already have had a chance to sew for about an hour this morning. I'm still working on the mystery quilt from Quiltville. I am working on steps 4 and 5 at the same time. Should have them done this weekend. I will be already for the next step next week. Yeah!!! Bonnie says we will start putting it together. No more little units. I am looking forward to seeing the end result.

I have never done a mystery before. I tend to like to know what I am doing ahead of time. But, I must say, I am enjoying this process. Maybe it is the small steps, rather than a whole piece, that makes it go so quickly and almost effortlessly.

I know one particular reason I was drawn to this was because it is scrappy. Most of what I do is scrappy. I don't feel overly confident about my fabric choices when I only need three or four different fabrics.

I go about quilting pretty much the same way I make soup. I throw a little bit of everything into the pot. As long as I have a good base broth, the soup, though never the same twice, always ends up tasty and satisfying.

My style of quilting is the same. I toss in whatever I grab. As long as I have a neutral for a calming effect, the end results is usually very pleasing. I use a lot of white-on-white and off-white for my neutrals. Even those are usually scrappy because I am always combing through the remnant bins.

As well as working on the mystery quilt, I have been making progress on my string stars. I have two stars completely done. The blocks measure about 20". I have most of the small 5.5" blocks that make up the stars, done. As usual for me, I am working on two star quilts at the same time. I have not decided just how many stars will go into each quilt. Not sure what I want to do for sashings or borders. Haven't decided how big I want to make each quilt. These quilts will be going to a homeless shelter next winter. Generally, I make my homeless quilts at least 60" by 84", give or take a bit.

I am also working on a quilt called "Arlington Squares". It is from the "Nickel Quilts" book. I have had the darks cut for a long time, just needed to get my neutrals cut. While cutting for the mystery, I have been cutting for this quilt and several others. I have quite a bit of the small units done at this point. Started work on the last stack of units this morning. Should start putting the blocks together sometime this weekend.

The other day, I started a BOM from Claudia's Quilt Shoppe. This is an on-line shop offering this BOM free. The BOM started in Oct., so I was only 4 months behind. As of this morning, I have two months done. I will be checking what I need for the next block and getting the fabric together today. This will also be a homeless quilt. The quilt pattern, itself, is not my style. I tend to be rather traditional, but it will use a lot of scraps and be very interesting. It also stretches me out of my norm.

Well, while I have been sitting here typing this, it has warmed up to a whopping -1 degree F. If we are lucky, we might actually get above 0 degree today.

Have a wonderful day.

Mystery step 3 completed

Well, I finally finished the third step of Quiltville's mystery.

I have step 4 about half way done and step 5 is all cut and waiting for its turn at the sewing machine.

Yesterday, I started a free BOM from an on-line site, Claudia's Quilt Shoppe. should be all caught up to the current month by next week.

I think I am going to create a list of on-going pojects for Jan/Feb. As tops get completed, I will move them to the UFO - needs quilting list. I want to try and keep myself motivated and moving forward with my many ufos and current projects.

It is a beautiful, bright sunny day here, today. However, it is still -2 degrees. Brrrrrr!!!!!! When my daughter went out to wait for the bus, she immediately went into coughing spasms. Bad time of year for her asthma. As for me, I stay indoors. I look out my windows at the beautiful winter wonderland and stay nice and cozy in my house. In a few days the temps will come up and then out and about I will be.

Darlene