ALYOFs

I was fortunate enough to spend most of the day Wednesday . . . after a morning appointment and trip to the thrift store, which I hadn't been to for several months . . . and all of Thursday at home. I needed this time to work on my projects. Well, finish my projects because I have been working on them.

First up is the goal for ALYOFs.

My goal has been met.
I've always liked panels. I think they are a fun, quick, easy way to work a project.
But what I like most about them is making them my own.
For this one I did some hand embroidery by stitching the pre-printed blanket stitches.

Adding a rickrack border around the center.

Stitching and embellishing the hearts and stars with some vintage buttons.

Then finishing the angels off with a gold ribbon "halo".

The addition of the litttle "ornament" angels is the perfect finish for this little wall hanging.

And another UFO is off the shelf!!!

Thanks for stopping by,

Wishing you a day filled with creativity.

Settling in . . .

I'm settling in for a day of stitching, sewing and cleaning. 

The wind and rains from Hurricane Patricia have made their way northeast. It's the perfect excuse to stay in-doors and do what I love best.

First up was an appointment. Then a trip to the thrift store.

This is the neighborhood across from the thrift store. Not sure why I never noticed it before. I had a few minutes to look around while I waited for the store to open. It's beautifully colorful.

My new purchases are already in the wash, that's how excited I am. I found three sweaters for me, a pair of white keds sneekers, four vintage hankies, a plaid tea towel and a battenburg little linen. All for the grand total of $19.00!!!! I hadn't been in a while and the vintage linens are starting to get hard to find, but I felt like I did really good this morning. I'll get pictures as soon as things are done.

 

New project - cabinets for basement studio.

The other day, Honey Do came home from work and let me know that a neighbor one block over had put out cabinets on their tree lawn. The home is for sale, so there must be some remodeling going on. "One man's trash is another's treasure". I spoke to Honey Do several years ago about how nice it would be to have cabinets in my sewing space. He agreed. So when these were spotted he suggested I go and check them out. They are older and not in the best condition, but still servicable. They are going in my basement, not the main part of my home. A good cleaning and maybe a coat of paint and they will be perfect for my needs. Honey Do is going to put counter tops on them for me once I get them cleaned up and placed. So far, one is in place.

I have some cleaning, purging and rearranging to do to before I can place the others. That has begun with the movement of the gas meter  at the end of last week (it went from inside our home to outside - mandated by the "government").

I got squishy mail!!!

What a pleasant surprise when I got home Monday from leaders' meeting to find all this in one package in my mailbox :) KT was extremely generous and what fun I had sitting with a cup of Constant Comment tea and purusing these magazines. There are so many projects and quite the tutorials on crazy quilting - something I haven't tried yet and is on my bucket list.

ALYOFs - progress report

Getting down to the wire on this one, but I just couldn't leave it alone. The more I played, the more I wanted to do to this UFO. It's coming along nicely.

Hope all is going well out in blogland.

Thanks for stopping by,

Wishing you a day filled with creativity.

* weekend visitor *

Play Day (s)

This past week has just flown past me.

Thursday

Thursday's road trip started here !!! Totally shocked by the gas prices. Mine was still over $2.00/gallon because my little car required plus grade, but what a pleasant surprise to see these prices :)

The day dawned beautifully . . .

 

The photos aren't very clear, but the colors were amazing !!!

BF and I met for breakfast and shopping.

It's time for me to start thinking about Christmas. We shopped and gathered the supplies I needed to do this wall hanging for my sister-in-law. She collects nutcrackers. I'm starting to thinking about making more than one. BF was beginning to drool :)

I managed to make some time for pattern organizing. I have a tendency to print and stack. It was time to put them in notebooks.

Squishy mail - lots of new 9-patches from Dorothy in Texas :)

Friday, Rocky and I went to the office with Honey Do. He had a project he said he would like my help with. Rocky spent the morning running all over the shop and finally about noon crashed.

Saturday . . .

Time for some overdue gardening. Honey Do tilled while I straightened and pulled all the debris. 

We emptied and spread the compost.This year's garden didn't yield much, I have different plans for next year and they begin with coming up with a way to keep the deer out of the garden. I will purchase my supplies over the winter and when spring breaks, start construction.

I did harvert rosemary, which will not winter. I'll have to plant new next spring. And thyme. I'm going to strip and dry both so I have them for the winter. The thyme will return next spring. Needless to say, the house smells wonderful.

While we worked in the yard and garden cleaning up and putting away in anticipation of winter, all the dogs ran and played with each other and the neighbor's dog. Rocky crashed yet again but I can tell you from watching him that he thoroughly enjoyed the day outside playing.

Thanks for stopping by,

Wishing you a day filled with creativity.

Goal accomplished

Believe it or not, I am still struggling to get over this head cold !!!

I have talked to several people and have been told that these viruses are holding on for a minimum of 14 days !!!!

Personally, I was done with it 10 days ago, yet it's still hanging on. 

I've been keeping myself busy with the necessary commitments, so consequently I haven't been working on any sewing or stitching.

That changed today.

Rocky and I spent part of the day working with Honey Do.

Came home and finished up some chores and dinner, but after dinner the fun began and went on until I finished two more blocks for the Patriotic Row.

As I look at this photo I see some GLARING mistakes but I'm not going to repair them. 

I'm calling these done !!!!

On to the next goal for this month :)

Thanks for stopping by,

Wishing you a day filled with creativity.

Moving on . . .

Saturday moved on, but very slowly. My attempt at spending the "day" sewing on my Patriotic Row didn't even start until 2 p.m. Much later than I had planned. But it ended up being very productive. 

Including all the interruptions, and there were many, I managed to get the first block sewn by bedtime.

It's not perfect, don't look too closely, but I'm pretty pleased with it. I still have a lot to learn about piecing and measurements. One of the things I'm not finding in most patterns is measurements during various stages of piecing, so I don't really know if I'm where I should be. But given that the block ended up going together, I guess I was :)

Still not feeling 100%, but I did manage to get some sewing done on Sunday, too.

This is block two and a school house. I have some embellishing to do, but the block is done.

I even managed to get the two blocks put together.

There are still two more blocks to do, but they will get done later in the week.

And to add to the productivity . . .

19 9-patch blocks that I used as leaders and enders :)

Two new coats for Rocky. He's finally outgrown the first one I made.

This is a great way to use up my scraps of flannel and fleece.

We had a snowy, sleaty mix to start the day. It wasn't measurable, but it was snow :)

Thanks for stopping by,

Wishing you a day filled with creativity.

FNSI

I hope everyone was able to join us and have a productive evening.

Thank you Wendy, for again, hosting a lovely evening of creativity.

I managed to finish my Spring Row for this month.

 

The watering cans were coloring pages I found on the internet. I love the way they turned out.

 

Isn't this the cutest frog you've ever seen? 

That was one of the main reasons why I chose these particular designs.

And the finished row. I am thrilled with the end results.

The light blue background fabric for the watering cans is consistent with the other rows. 

The colors I chose for them are all in the center blocks of my feature fabric.

The combination of the other four in the churn dash was a favorite combination from the Quilter's Garden I did over the spring and summer of this year.

I'm off to see what other's got done. Then I'm going to work on my Partiotic Row before the rest of the month gets away fom me.

Thanks for stopping by,

Wishing you a day filled with creativity.

Relapse

It has been a very rough week healthwise.

I thought I was on the mend early in the week, only to have had a relapse.

My head is stuffed up, I'm coughing, and have no energy to do anything.

I don't like not feeling well.

Something that should not have taken very long is taking me all week.

However . . . 

The first section of this spring row is completed.

The first watering can - done.

I'm working on the second one.

Thursday was BF's birthday, so despite the fact that I didn't feel well we met and spent a couple of hours chatting over tea and magazines and quilt books. It was a very nice, quiet morning.

I'm off to take some night time cold medicine and praying I'll be able to sleep tonight.

Thanks for stopping by,

Wishing you a day filled with creativity.

On the mend . . .

The cold front came through on Friday and with it, I managed to get a head cold.

(found on the internet)

I was fine when I left the house and the weather was descent, however, while I was in the church the front came through with cold and more rain. I made a couple of stops and went home. By Friday evening, I was sneezing. It was a miserable weekend.

Thursday evening, I began working on my spring row blocks.

I'm calling it a modified churn dash. And I've decided to get creative with the row. The pattern calls for watering cans and daisies to be appliqued on these blocks. But I like my blocks so much that I don't want to cover them in any way. 

The row has seven blocks total. I'm making four of the churn dash and three of watering cans . . .

 

(designs for patterns found on the internet)

The "tulip" can will be the center block and the "frogs" will be blocks two and six :)

I have hand appliquing to do before I sew the rows together.

I also chose my own watering cans, not that the ones included weren't cute too. I just have my own thoughts and decided this was a good month to be rebellious :)

I have a small finish for October as well. 

These little jars I recycled are bottled lattes. The labels are shrink wrapped and come off beautifully without any glue residues. I found the idea on Pinterest.

All I did was cute burlap to the desired size, used double sided tape to hold in place until I could tie on the ribbons. I trimmed the ends and whala . . .  an adorable little vase. I'm going to give one to BF on Thursday with some fresh flowers for her birthday.

I have a new display jar :)

Unfortunately, the widow across the street passed away recently and the children are cleaning house. As soon as I saw the jar, I knew what I wanted it for - my wooden thread spool collection. I've been collecting these for several years (a lot of years) and finally have the correct vessel to display them. There were more, but I only chose this one. I have a feeling I'm going to be really sorry I didn't get the others. I'm absolutely thrilled with it.

It's time to start working on my applique.

Thanks for stopping by,

Wishing you a day filled with creativity.