November Ends

Where is the time going?  My world seems to speed up continuously and that seems impossible but each day is a blur.   The sunsets around here continue to be spectacular!  It's amazing to witness it like this at this time of year.

Some of The GRANDS:  PGS#3, PGS#2, PGD#1
2015 Thansgiving at Meme and Popi's

The Thanksgiving Holiday was wonderful.  Family that could make it did and most of all the grandchildren were around the table.  That makes my heart sing!
While preparing the feast, I received a call from lil' Miss PGD#1.  She wanted to come down could I pick her up?  Sure, I responded so I picked her up and she helped out quite a bit.  Her brother was also invited to come since I had  seen an appetizer dish I thought they'd like to create for our feast but due to some of his behavior errs was told by his Mom that now he'd have to wait until Mom and Dad came down. His loud thoughts were "that's fine by me"  I'll be glad when he gets through this stage and he'll be 7 soon.  

So this is what she did with just a little help from her brother.  Cute isn't it!

She also made the gravy for the feast and the lil' guy helped to set the table.  We had a very enjoyable day and spent some nice quality time together.  Eating, visiting, football toss, football watching, clean up and then some board games.  All in all so much to be grateful for.

Photo of the Grands taken at PGS#1 Birthday celebration at the end of October
PGS#3, PGS#1, PGD#1
He enjoyed meeting his youngest cousin for the first time and re-visiting with his older cousin.

The day after Thanksgiving, we spent it with the eldest grandson, PGS#1 and brought all of the dinner's leftovers to share a Thanksgiving Holiday with him.   Since he just arrived at this place, he's still in the observation mode so can't he can't leave the premises at his present step.  All the counselors are impressed with him and are repeatedly telling us that the individual on all the medical reports is not the same person they are seeing.  We can only hope he continues to do his best.  

Dear daughter celebrated her !! Birthday just before Thanksgiving, so we got together for that too.  The grands blew up about 150 balloons for the celebration.  The elder one, PGD#1 has learned how to make balloon animals so they used their Dad's compressor to blow them up when Mom was gone for the day.  That's one way to keep the young ones busy so Dad can continue to work on their new deck -  Brilliant!

PGS#3- age 6 still

During the party the youngest one, PGS#3 age 6 decided to static cling some balloons to the walls.  With just two of them sticking on his head, decided it was a strong enough hold to actually glue him to the wall too so he fly paper pressed himself against the wall saying, I'm stuck!  Oh where and how does he come up with the things he does, makes us all happy and scratching our heads wondering.  LOL      

Please disregard the blurriness of the photo, that's my fault with trying to capture these real life moments quickly.

My list of what I wanted completed is falling way short too of everything on it with the exception of my counted cross stitch- Bent Creek's, The Red Thread.  Sorry that I've erroneously been giving credit to Lizzie Kate for this design.  My bad!    Check out all the months- they are now complete:

I've surpassed my goal for this and it's just the end of November.  Yippee!!!  

All that remains now is the ribbon surround on the sides and top with the phrase to stitch along the bottom. That is slated for 2016 but who knows how far I can continue with it this this year.

 Some other bit's I'm grateful for are the Washington Hawthorne tree in the side yard.  It's always so gorgeous at this time of year with all the berries left on the branches for many weeks.  Then it seems like a flock of birds fly in overnight and devour them all in a day.  Since it's wintertime, I'm never sure when that happens, but I am hoping to find out when this year.

BTW- This shot does not do it justice.

Another thank that I enjoy is the natural thermometers outside the bedroom window.  Each morning when I lift the shades, I can note the cold.  Depending on the curl of the leaves and droop of the rhododendron's leaf clumps, you can instantly see how cold it is.  Notice the tightness and droop?  It's in the twenties this am.  Not that it gives it in numbers, only cold, Really Cold and SEVERLY COLD.  LOL  You can barely notice but the rotted timbers are slowly be replaced with landscape blocks.  So much more to do on that yet.

before

Another thank I have is the side deck is completed!  Yippee!!  That only took 14 months!  My BIL came over to help DH finish it and brought his tools with him.  It's beautiful and gorgeous.  The only problem is with that Trek decking being weathered for a whole year it's dirty and needs some scrubbing but right now it is way too cold to attempt that.  It will have to wait until the Spring.

DH and Siamak (my dear BIL)  taken the Saturday before Thanksgiving
and it was bitter cold while they were working!

THANKS Honey and SIA!!!!

DH installed the post solar lights this week.

They just softly cascade down each post,

(I'll try to capture a photo of them when they are lit.  

Edited this on 12/7/15 the day before the littlest grandchild turns 7.)

You can see the tiny lights just under the post caps despite the camera flash, we're all so satisfied.  8 )

Wishing you all the best at this time of year,
Jane

Saw an idea of another embroidery piece that would be sweet to stitch at some point.......

February's New FO will March on....

I started a February New FO while traveling and plan on having the embroidery finished his week.  When I met with friends this past Thursday  I looked high and low for the wool fabrics I 'll be using on the appliqued heart portions.  I guess I hid them too well.  Hopefully, I'll run into them this week so this project can get done this month. 

 

Here's what's done so far:

 

Excuse the hoop ring, Only have 5 letters more to embroider until the applique and piecing will begin  to frame it in.....

 

 

While coming back home this sundog was so bright and visible. 

 

 

 

Oh no, does the interpretation mean another storm heading our way in 5 or 6 days? 

For perspective, the photo stretched out with the distance to the sun.

 

 

 

Off to stitch alittle bit more. 

 

Another Lil Miss Shabby- Check!

Finished this lil' Miss Shabby March's Block and it's on my list of four for February.    Only three left to do.....Yippee Skippee.

 

Auditioning the Big EZ

 

I was able to finish the August block of Lil'  Miss Shabby Chic and now I'm starting the November block Stitchery of the same LMS.

As you see it's not yet pressed but will be when I start assembling these stitchings into quilt blocks. 

Maybe I'll start that when I start stitching onmy last block,  the 12th one.

 

 

I was able to finish quilting the Big EZ two days before I thought I could get it done! 

Can I get a Hoot Whoot!!!

 

 

This is what I used for the backing and it shows the quilt design nicely.

The quilt feels wonderful so far with the quilting done.

Weighty,

but not that heavy, just right!

                                 

I wish I had just a bit more of this fabric because then a biased binding of this would work beautifully,

but I don't.

So I'm audtioning which combination of fabrics to use for  the piping/binding.

 

I found this stripe fabric in my stash and the colors work nicely with that large floral focal fabric. So an option is Striped piping with a white Binding? I really like the look of this so far, but white on the edge???!!!?


Stripe Piping w/ White binding, Option 1

Aqua pipng w/ white binding, Option 2-


















Striped piping with Aqua Binding, Option 3?











Perhaps the stripe piping with the aqua binding which would be much easier for housekeeping purposes since this is for PGD#1's bed, and I've never used a white binding before or have seen too many others that have either.  The down side to this is that her bedroom is a softer pink and that aqua may not look the best.   Also since orange is her favorite color and the orange in this quilt comes out more of a dirty yellow in the pics it's a nice blend to introduce it in her bedroom. 



From a distance this is how the quilt top looks with the auditioning white binding showing how both the aqua and the striped fabbies look as the piping.   It's a nice clean look and the one I am perferring just now.  In my eyes, the quilt seems to be asking for white edging. 

 Please help me out, which one?
Any ideas to help me out of my dilema? 
Have you ever seen or used a quilt bound with white? 

I'll be ruminating over this, so any wisdom or ideas you 'd be willing to share, I'd appreciate.

I have 'til Sunday before I'll be cutting and starting to sew the pieces together. 

All of my pictures can be enlarged for a better view if you wish,  just click the pic to see more of the details.




Ahh....., it's so nice not cooking the Thanksgiving Dinner today.  DH and I will be  going to a restaurant to have our Holiday dinner.  DS and his family are celebrating with my DIL's family and DD and family were going to spend it with SIL's  home, ( that was actually  cancelled  last moment just before our getaway, and now they are on there own).   Glad I had time to post this though truth be told, I am missing the aroma that once spilled out of my kitchen on the years gone past and the warmth of family surrounding us.     

Enjoy your blessings, Jane
 

I goofed.

A little while ago I was writing about using transfer ease for my Snow Much Fun embroidery part of a little quilt. But I really don't know where my head was. I have seen it several places on the web and with this transfer medium you can copy your embroidery design through a printer/copier and the design will show up on this medium. All you have to do is iron onto your fabric, use an interfacing and you're good to stitch.
I thought at that time, ah haa! I think I have some of that in. So I went to my den where I store any printing and transfer papers and found my ink jet transfer paper, that all you have to do is iron onto fabric. I should have kept reading. This stuff is permanent. The snowman's stitching is done from the This and That pattern, "Snow Much Fun" and feeling very pleased with myself, I went and dunked into a sink full of water. Now imagine my surprise when that transfer element didn't dissolve off my fabric!



So here I sit, instead of stitching, I'm using my magic eyes, a lint brush and a pair of tweezers trying to pull it all off. GGRrrrrrr! DH sat and watched me for a bit and calmly stated, won't it be easier to stitch it all over again. Of course I said yes, but the fabric I used was all I had and it was perfect for this design, so now I rip! How could I have goofed so bad?



I did receive a couple of patterns that I really like. Perhaps I'll stitch out Snip for Queen while I am waiting for fabric for my first Blackbird Design, Easter Parade. I truly love this pattern and was lucky enough to find the pattern.



Enjoy your day,
Jane

Ideas with scrap therapy....

I thoroughly enjoyed meeting new quilters at the local quilt shop on Saturday. Pleased too that I was able to get some scraps cut. Now to carve out 15 minutes every day to keep tackling that scrap basket.
Joan Ford of Syracuse, NY created this idea and has been marketing 2 patterns each month to help eliminate the scraps you cut with this process. The idea is to cut
2", 3-1/2 " and 5" squares, and by sewng these sizes together as four patches, nine patches and/or half squares triangles that you can intertwinethese sizes and units to make a quilt pattern.
It was good to sit and cut from my scrap basket. While there, I met some quilters and lucky for me that one of them came with a bag of fleece scraps for dog bed fillers. I ooohed and awed over some of the scraps and she kindly offered them to me. I have some fibers in stock to make some little "bootie" slippers for the almost 1 year old grandson.
I should get to those right away too before he has a size 10 DD foot and then I'd have to run out and try to match more fabric to finish his slippers. I know, I know, I need help. LOL!

The idea is to cut 2", 3-1/2" and 5" scraps and by incorporating those sizes into sewn units which become larger patterns because they play so well together. Loose Threads Quilt Shop had many nice examples. Here are some of the samples they showed.



They are so nice and great quilters, so if you are ever in Plattsburgh, NY stop by their shop.

My Mom and I have been working on my scrap basket for awhile. Earlier this spring I had 3 huge containers of scraps. Now I have one huge basket left and many containers of cut pieces ready to be used. Many I have already implemented into quilts and many more ready to go. On some previous postings you have seen me using some of my scraps cuttings. But I do have so many sizes in my own system, that it was good to have a simplified system explained at the class. I have 1-1/2", 2",2-1/2", 3", 4" and 5" squares. Strips are cut in 1-1/2", 2" and 2-1/2" widths, and I think I may start a 5"strip width too. If pieces don't fit in those parameters then I do also save a 1"x5" string, weird strings pieces not parallel, mile a minute scraps and selvage strings. At this rate I'll have enough scarps to last 9 lives.
Here's alittle snap shop of an embroidery they had in a quilt they had in the long arm. It's too cute! If you know who this designer is, please let me know. I'd love to get this for another little stitchery for the holidays.

Afterward shopping for a gift for PGD#1 speech pathologist whose last visit is happening on Monday, I met DH out at a function. A friend was having a surprise 35 years in business celebration that we wanted to attend. There were many people there that I hadn't seen in quite awhile, so it was good to reconnect. Didn't stay out too late since being so emotional lately with the loss of a friend and a friend becoming a widow so young, that I was very tired. Home by 7pm and in bed by 9. A record for me, I guess I'm more tired than I had at first imagined. Stay Well and wish me luck finishing the surprise gift for the Speech therapist, Heather. She'll be missed. She has been a wonderful friend to our whole family.

Happy Stitching,
Jane

One more done!

Yippee! Another one down. Inspiration came Tuesday and I was able to strike while the iron was hot. Finished it tonight at a class that I followed, visited with friends, and all the while doing my hand work. Check it out.


You guessed it, all the fabrics for the piecing, framing and backing came from my scrap bins with the exception of the first little brown scrap border, that came from a friend's scrap bin. Thanks Trudy! Yippee, more used up. Many of the fabrics were used in 2 pillows, 2 pillow cases, a queen size quilt that won Best of Show at Paul Smith's Quilt Conference Service's Quilt Show and a pansy wreath wall hanging. Would you believe I still have more squares left!$#@&**!^&!!!! YIKES! Will they ever be gone?

Happy Stitching,
Jane

PS: I think I'm on a roll now.

Where did this week go?

As for quilty things finished, not alot to report. Did finish my giraffe and also the turtle embroideries for my Noahs' Ark freebie designed by Lynette Anderson. I hope to have them completed by the end of March. Hand stitching is such an enjoyable, meditative task. Easy to put down and then when you come back to it, easy to start right back in again where you left off. No rocket scientific means needed here.






A friend and I went to a local bead shop called the Lily Pond this past Monday. The owner is a friend and the queen of knowledge IMHO when it comes to anything beady. She taught us how to wrap wire for making dangles and attaching charms to any project we may want to make.

My newest grandson (PGS#3) has been suffering with colic. The Dr's said he had reflux. Try this formula after my daughter weened him. He suffered through weekly trials of different formulas and medications for 5 weeks. Last Tuesday, Grandma had enough, I substituted his formula for sugared water. Well, PGS#3 had a total personality change. He was cooing, smiling, looking around bright eyed..... You get the picture, from a baby Mr. Hyde to a miniaturized Dr. Jekyll. I think being born so big he should have doubled his birth weight. Well he hasn't. We still don't know what's going on medically, but he's now on Nutrimagen a formala for infants with allergies to cow protein. So he's doing better. The four previous medications have been stopped and now he's only on one new one with directions for him to take once a day. Much better. Since then, I've seen him developing normal baby skills. What a relief. He still needs to see a specialist, but at least he's not scrunched up in a ball of pain screaming.

Here's a picture of him with his older sister feeding him a bottle for her first time. She is such a beautiful soul. So very patient with him and even through the months that he has been in pain and crying, never once did I see her get short or cross because of his noise, even though she might be watching one of her favorite movies. She would occasionly go to him and try to soothe him, even asking him while trying to tickle him slightly, " Where's is that smile?" "Where's that smile?". What a sister he's got!
Enjoy your day. I know I'll enjoy mine.

Jane