Something New

For those of you who know me, you know that I am a hermit and only leave home about once a week.  Last Thursday I actually was stir crazy and needed to get out (the last I had left home was the Thursday before), so I called my friend, Deb, and asked her if she wanted to meet somewhere.  Luckily she was available to come out and play.  We met at Inspirations, the quilt shop in Hills, IA.  I know I've blogged about her shop before - it really is a great shop - lots of inspiring samples, Civil war repros, patterns, books and a little bakery and tea room in the back of the building.  Here are my purchases of the day.  I know it's a little early, but... think pumpkins! 

 These will make very nice pumpkins.  To give you a little sneak peek of what fall might bring....

Cute, huh???

I couldn't live without this:

I had to have it because I LOVE Edyta Sitar - she is the funniest, sweetest person and her quilts are all amazing.  And I had to have it because I have been cutting 1 1/2" and 2" strips of leftover fabrics for awhile now and this book is all about using strips.  Yep...had to have it.
After we fondled fabric and oohed and aahed over everything, we went to the tea room for lunch.  It was awesome!  We both had a salad - spinach, chicken, apples and walnuts.  It was soooo good.  We shared a yummy piece of coconut cream pie and I bought a few cookies to bring home to DH.

After lunch, we ventured on to The Woolen Needle in Williamsburg, IA.  I know I have blogged about them as well.  I had been wanting to try my hand at wool applique, and I knew that inspiration would be easily found at this shop.  I was not disappointed.  I wanted to buy a kit - didn't want to have to pick out the wool (they have lots of really beautiful wool) for my very first project.  The hardest thing was to decide which kit to buy.  I narrowed it down to three (and NO...I did NOT buy all three!) and finally chose this one:

 Yummy fabrics, huh?  Here is the pattern...

It is even better in person.  The fabrics aren't as bright as they look here - and those are prairie points around the center.  I love it!  And I already have one block all appliqued.  I quickly discovered that appliqueing (is that a word?  doesn't look right) with wool is one heck of a lot easier than needle-turn applique.  I have my second block pieced and all of the appliques are cut out and ready.  One issue I did have - the shop recommended using Heat n Bond to fuse the wool pieces.  I did not have any luck with it at all. I couldn't get most of the pieces to fuse down and finally just used my handy-dandy little applique pins to hold things in place.  Let me know what works for you - I am open for suggestions.

After quilt shopping we stopped at the outlet mall in Williamsburg.  We didn't have too much luck there - I hate shopping, unless it is for quilty things!

As you can see, we had a fun day and it was nice to get out of the house.  And, you will be happy to know that I left the house again on Sunday (it's a record...twice in one week!) to go to a graduation party for the son of my "best friend from forever" (that is how I always refer to her - it is close to BFF) - we have been friends since kindergarten.  It was such a blast - I got to see all of her family - some I haven't seen for a long time, and a bunch of old friends from school.  We decided it was kind of like a class reunion, but only with all the people you liked! (oops...that's not very nice!).  I guess leaving home isn't so bad after all.

Another road trip is on the agenda for tomorrow - I will let you know how that goes...

Have a great day!

New Jewelry Design

I just posted a brand new design on my website!  Here it is...

I didn't know what to call it - any ideas for a name?  Let me know what you think of it!

Have a great day!

Just some more blocks

I don't have much to post about (I did go on a little road trip last week - more about that in a later post!) so I thought I would share some more Civil War Love Letter blocks with you.

It's graduation day for many and unfortunately the weather is not very nice.  Hopefully the rain will move out by graduation time!

Have a great day!!

Blurry Photo Day

I can't take a decent picture to save my life, so this post will be dubbed "Blurry Photo Day" in honor of my lack of photography skills. 

This is what happens every time we bring anything new into the house:

Callie instantly has her nose in it and then promptly starts chewing on it.  I really think she was a dog in a previous life.  DH brought these flowers home the other day - the one on the left is really different and very cool.  If I were a better photographer, you could see just how cool it is!

And this is what happens when Ozzie decides to take a nap on my cutting table:

Nothing like plopping your big butt down right in the middle of everything!  Doesn't he look content?  This would be why everything I own is covered with fur - thank the good Lord for lint rollers.  If only I had bought stock in them before I became a cat owner.

This is how it goes when you show Callie where you hide her absolute favorite bag of pink sparkle balls.  It is so funny - I showed her that they were in that drawer, and ever since, she is totally obsessed with trying to get in there.  Doesn't matter that she already has 10 of them out to play with - she wants a new one!  

 And here is what happens after she has an attitude problem because she can't get in the drawer to get a paw on those oh-so-fun sparkle balls, and knocks all of my stuff on the floor.  Makes me laugh that she decided to just lay down in the middle of the mess she created.

Ok...on to something else.  As promised, I did get all of my Civil War Chronicles, Month 5, blocks pieced and added to the growing quilt.  Here are some of the 16 blocks:

And here is the quilt so far.  I can't believe how huge it is after only 5 months!

I also wanted to share some of the pin cushions that I have been making to sell at an upcoming show:

I think this one is my favorite (blurry pic and all!)

I might have to make a few more of these.

That's all for now - it is time to vacuum up cat hair!

Have a great day!!

Yep...more CWLL!

I wanted to share a few more CWLL blocks with you...

 I LOVE this block, but do NOT love my fabric choices - there is not enough contrast to really see the stars - I think this one will get a do-over.

I would like to make some more CWLL blocks today - but no time!  Yesterday I did cut out all of Month 5 of Civil War Chronicles and have the blocks almost finished. I will share a picture when they are completely done.  There are 16 blocks this time - they are pieced, setting triangles for the center of the quilt.  I do really like that you put this quilt together as you go -I might actually finish it by the end of the year!

I better get busy - I actually have to leave my house today to make a grocery store run - I would hate for the hubby to starve to death all because I am a recluse!

Have a great day!

Mother's Day

Every year it's difficult to make a plan for Mother's Day because my dad and brother are always farming and don't want to take much time out of their day for anything but planting corn.  So...I decided to take Mom out - just the two of us.  On Saturday, we met at the Mexican restaurant in Mt. Pleasant (I have no idea what the name of it is...to me it is...the Mexican restaurant where the Time Out used to be - kind of like people who give the directions of - turn where the old barn used to be) and had a nice lunch together.  I didn't think to take my camera, but she hates having her picture taken anyway.  I did take a picture of the gift I gave her.  As you know, Mom owns a stained glass studio and when I saw this, I really thought she had to have it.  This is one of the secret gifts that I bought at Adela's in Fairfield a few weeks ago.

The picture doesn't really do it justice, but you kind of get the idea. I thought it was really pretty and would look great hanging in her studio.  We had a really nice lunch.  Mom brought her knitting to show me - it is wonderful  - the recipient (it's a secret - geesh...so many secrets!) is really going to love it.  She also brought me a really pretty hanging begonia.  It is different from any begonia I have ever seen - she said it was much prettier when she bought it - she had it long enough to almost kill it!  I still thought it was really pretty and will have to take a picture to share with you.  

On Sunday Jessica and Matt came to visit for Mother's Day.  They brought me a pretty lily to plant outside and a beautiful bouquet of flowers for me to admire inside.  Matt went mushroom hunting (it was a bust) and fishing.  It was a beautiful day and Jessica and I spent most of our time sitting outside soaking up some sun.  It was so nice to see them - it was getting awfully quiet around here with DH gone - I needed someone besides the cats to talk to!

If you have looked on my website lately for scissor fobs, you know that there are none!  You can build your own, but there are none already made up.  That is because I sold them all last weekend!  I had a couple of wholesale orders - here are some of the pieces sold...

Needless to say, this week I am making lots of scissor fobs and triangles!  I hope to have some of them posted on the website early next week. 

I better get back to sewing - have a great day!

Cat tales and a new collection

I haven't shown many cat pictures lately - you probably think that Callie has become a perfect little angel, right?  Yeah...sure - Ozzie thinks not!  From this first picture, it's already obvious that this will not end well.  None of the cats like to sleep close to the others.  Well...Callie would like to, but she can't refrain from biting and wrestling - so no one wants to be near her when they are tired. 
It is rare for all three of them to be on the bed at the same time - especially CC - she doesn't much care for anyone except me - and sometimes I wonder about that!  Ok, so this looks innocent enough, right?  Of course, that innocence can not/will not last long.

 

Here she is, acting like she is going to be a good kitty and give Ozzie a nice little bath.  Do you think he's falling for it?

Moving in a little closer, putting a little paw on his neck...

Is this Callie showing Ozzie some love, or is this Callie thinking that she is going to give Ozzie the big take-down?

Notice that paw is a little further around Ozzie's neck.  Again...is it a loving gesture???  Maybe she has turned over a new leaf.  Notice CC in the background - always an innocent bystander.

Guess this tells the tale.  No love from Callie!


This picture makes me laugh - I think Ozzie whomped her in the head before he left.

So there you have it...nothing has changed here!

I have received a few fun things in the mail lately.  A blogging friend - whom I lovingly refer to as Satan, but in blogland she's known as Deb at Threadgatherer - told me that she had started a collection of child's sewing machines.  I have never paid too much attention to them - though I have admired them in different quilt shops.  I  thought the next time I am in antique shops I would be sure to keep an eye open for them, because they are really cute!  Then, since I don't get out much (for those of you who know me, you know that I only leave home about once a week!) I decided to take a look on ebay.  BAD IDEA!  Anything and everything that you ever wanted is on ebay.  Again...I think you probably know where this is all heading!  I called my Mom to ask her why I didn't have one of these little machines as a child - she was always an amazing seamstress and it would only seem right that I had a little machine of my own.  But, since I was deprived as a child (that makes me laugh) I didn't have one.  Mom says she didn't think she knew there was such a thing (lame excuse, don't you think?).  Anyway...I found a few that I liked on ebay - quite a few actually, but some were way more expensive than I would ever consider.  I did end up getting a couple for great prices. This is the first one and it is in really bad shape, but is still super cute...

And here is the second one - in much better condition and still cheap!

I don't want to collect too many, as I really don't have anywhere to put them, and the more you have the more you have to dust - and we all know how much I love to clean...

I also received a nice squishy package in the mail yesterday - it was Month 5 of the Civil War Chronicles.  I have been working feverishly on jewelry, but maybe over the weekend I will take a break from that and work on my CWC blocks.

Have a great day!

Busy days

The last few days have been super busy - we received several wholesale orders that have kept us hopping.  Now to breathe and get things caught back up.  So...that means that the only thing I have to show you is...you guessed it...more CWLL blocks. 

That's all for now - I must keep my nose to the grindstone!

Have a great day!