My daughters quilt, block #1

I got my daughters quilt under way. Block #1 is a tulip applique. It's 12 1/2 inches. I did not use any pattern for this block, just got ideas from all the quilts I have seen on line. I used a leaf stencil for the flower petals. I think if I make another I will make the dark petals in all 1 piece instead of 2.

I cut out all the pieces, but forgot to take pics. I think you all know what scissors look like.

Pinned every piece to the background fabric with safety pins. That makes it safer to grab and take with me.

I appliqued the green stems, then started on the light pink flower petal.

That's as for as I got so for.
I didn't think to iron it before I took the pics. (Maybe I will think to do that next time.)

Thanks for dropping by.
Smiles to you.
Linda

Ready - Set......

Got my Secret Garden stretched onto the stretcher bars. Ready to get stitching.

Smiles to you.
Linda

Where did June go?

Oh wow - it's almost the middle of July!!
And where did June go?

I think the only stitching I got done in June was some mending.

The doll show was in the first week of June, and I did get to go and look at all the doll house stuff there.
Forgot my camera at home. :(

And now here it is - July!

Now where did I put that needle......

Not there.....

Not there either......

Nope - not there......

OUCH

Found it.....

Smiles to you.
Linda

Secret Garden - Uh Oh - Now you get to see my "expert" tracing equipment.

I dream of a light pad that I see on some of the other blogs. What a cool thing to have. But, since I have nothing like that, I went searching my house to find something that would work. Taping it to a window might have worked when I was young but not now.

This is what I came up with. My faithful cutting board from the kitchen. It was wide enough and let just enough light through to be helpful.

Then I had to find something that would hold the fabric still while I traced. Cloths pins sort of worked but was sticking out in my way when I held the project. So I went with my office clippys. The cutting board was just thin enough for these to grab hold.

And so I taped the page from the Secret Garden book to the cutting board. Just the 4 corners worked fine. (Yes, I had to take the page out of the book, and I hate to do that.)

Then I stretched the fabric over top and clipped it all around. I used a regular pencil and a light hand and set in my comfy chair. I was extra careful tracing this and I think it took me about 3 hours.

Ta Da - all traced and ready to put on the stretcher bars. Here it is still on my pretend light pad.

 
I got some stretcher bars for this project. I have never used anything but hoops before but I want to see the whole project as I go along and not have to keep moving a hoop.

Make sure to drop by Mary Corbet's Needle N Thread  http://www.needlenthread.com/  
Mary is the one that started this beautiful project and is nice enough to help us all follow along with her. (Thanks Mary)  She has also set up a group on Flickr.


Thank you for dropping by.
Smiles to you;
Linda

Purple stripe Needle Book with embroidery

Finished up a needle book I had  started a while back. The heart is made with DMC embroidery floss. Laced chain stitch. The purple and green along the right side is plaited feather stitch.

Inside is 4 felt pages to hold lots of needles and pins.

Sorry - The light is not very good today because it's rainy here, so I got lots of shadows in the photo.

Thanks for dropping by.
Smiles to you.
Linda

Gathering my project stuff.

I'm gathering the final supplies for a couple projects that I'm starting.

One is from The Secret Garden coloring book. I'm following along with Mary Corbet's  Needles N Thread.     http://www.needlenthread.com/  

I been eagerly looking forward to getting started on this for weeks and I finally am able to start.  There are several pictures in the book that I want to do. I'm starting with the one she is showing on her blog with the humming birds.  If you have never been to Mary's blog, pop over and look at the wonderful embroidery she does.  I'm getting a late start, but she has it set up with a project index so you can start it any time.

I got my copy of the book at Barn and Noble book store. It is not expensive.  The picture are wonderful for embroidery. Vines and flowers and birds and hidden in each picture is little animals like insects or butterflies or snails.

It's starting to thunder here so I'm shutting this off now.
Thanks for dropping by.
Smiles to you.
Linda

Blue needle book with little pink flowers.

I'm getting the stuff together for a couple of BIG projects, that I will start telling you about soon. Meanwhile - I had a small scrap of this fabric, and now it's a needle book.

Thanks for dropping by.
Smiles to you.
Linda

A little squirrel nest, and gratitude

A long time ago I lived in the country in Missouri. It was an old log house and there were several old sheds scattered around the property that were in different stages of falling down. It was probably 30 or so years ago, and there was a burn barrel in the back of the house for burning trash. There was stuff that fell out of the barrel, or perhaps some ones aim had not hit the mark with every thing. Little thread scraps from my crafts, an occasional chicken bone, and I would rake it up with the leaves and sticks from the yard, and in the barrel it went.

I like to explore so I couldn't resist one summer day to explore those old sheds.  In the first shed, as I opened the door, a small screech owl let out a loud protest at being woke up and flew past my shoulder. I nearly wet my pants. But after a couple moments of catching my breath I went on in and poked about. The next had signs that some rats had moved in. I did not do a lot of poking about in that one. My husband set traps when he got home.  He also cleaned out the big hornets nest that sent me running back to the house. I opened the door, saw the nest and the wasps, shut the door and ran. None chased me, but I didn't stay long enough for them to think about it.

The last shed had a couple old dressers, warped and some of the fronts of the drawers were dangling down. A couple of the drawers were nothing more than 2 x 4 boards that had been nailed together and shoved in the drawer places. Maybe used to store tools a long time ago.

But there, dangling at the edge of one drawer, a brightly color thread caught my eye.

I had seen a little ground squirrel around the yard, and near the burn barrel on a regular basis.  In this old dresser was it's house. I was amazed. And remain amazed to this day at it's nest.  I gently opened each drawer one at a time and peeked.  In the 4 drawers of that old rotting dresser, it had built a 4 story mansion. Each of the 4 drawers were full of little sticks, dried grass, and dried leaves. And there were 4 to 5 small circular rooms in each drawer among the sticks with little tunnel like hallways between the rooms. And each room was decorated around the edges with little scraps of my stitching threads. Those little left over bits of embroidery floss that I had thrown away.  Some chicken bones tucked here and there, and an occasional pork chop bone. A couple nice size piles of the flip top tabs from soda cans.  And a pantry room with pop corn, water mellon seeds and what looked like some wild seeds it had gathered,  some dog food it had managed to swipe when the dog wasn't looking, and a 2 inch ball of  cooked pinto beans.  I had tossed out some beans a couple days before and it had smooshed some together into a ball and carried it to it's home.

It used all the same stuff I did decorating it's home. I felt a sort of kinship with it. I have needle work hung on my walls in wooden frames, and it had it's threads woven and tucked around the sticks. Still, it's threads and sticks. The bones in my fridge have more meat on them. Still, it's bones. And I also store popcorn and beans and seeds.

I always see my house a little differently after that. And  remember to thank God for my little threads and sticks and bones.

I left a slice of apple on top of the dresser for disturbing it's home. Made sure everything was just as I found it, and shut the shed back up and didn't let anyone disturb it.

Thanks for dropping by.
Smiles to you.
Linda

Floral needle book.

I wasn't sure what color I should go with for the pages inside. Ended up with pink.

Thanks for dropping by.
Smiles to you.
Linda

Blue needle book.

Another pretty needle book.

Thanks for dropping by.

Smiles to you.

Linda

Easter

Enjoy Easter Everyone.

Smiles to you
Linda

Quilt Block

 
Block I'm working on.

Thanks for dropping by.
Smiles to you.
Linda

Still More Snow, and my planner is going again.

Yet again I have no front steps because of snow.
Looks so pretty and clean. The only footprints in it so for is a bird. When I saw it hopping around checking for food, I tossed out some crumbs for it.

I haven't been able to get my camera to work, so that has slowed down my blog posts to almost a stand still. It takes pictures, but won't share them with my computer.

I dug out my old Day runner planner and printed off a new calender for it and got it all set up. I used one pretty much my whole life, but about 5 years ago I sort of let it slip by the wayside. I wasn't working any more (medical) so didn't think I needed it.  I dug it back out the new year. I have a use for it, and glad I didn't toss it out.

I felt I was busy, and not getting anything done. So I thought the planner would help me stay focused. And, truth be known, I dearly love checking things off when I get them done.

While looking for a calender I could print out online, I found some really helpful You Tube videos about planners. I was amazed!! I thought I might get a couple tips. Instead, I couldn't quit watching them.

All these years I thought I was just strange cause I love office supplies, ink pens, fountain pens, planners..... WOW! I am not alone. WE are everywhere! Who knew!?!!

It seems the "in thing" to do now is decorate the planners (mostly Filofax) with all the scrapbooking stuff. I have to say it makes the planners look really cool.

But the main reason I dug mine back out was because I had made some new years resolutions. Same old, same old. Health, weight, stay in touch better, get the house organized...... All the same stuff year after year that some how never gets done.

Resolutions. Hmmmm. Well, that word got tossed out and the word GOALS took it's place. Sounds more do-able already.

Well, this year I dug out my planner to keep track of how much of my time was actually getting focused on the goals I set. At the bottom of each day was 4 letters. G- for goals, E- for exersize,  W- for water I drank, C- for chores (organizing my home)

I was busy. But the time being focused on these things? I hate to say it but in January a lot of the time it looked     G-0  E-0  W-5 cups.

Now that I see it, I can tell you all, the numbers will be different at the end of Feb.

Among other things, I added a walk-o-meter to my shopping list. "Pedometer?"  Although with the weather this winter, snowshoes might have to be put on the list as well. :)

Thanks for dropping by,
Smiles to you.
Linda

More....

More snow. More wind. More ice. More goosebumps.

MORE HOT COCOA !

Catch ya later.
Smiles to you.
Linda

Cold Cold Cold

Cold, cold, cold.
I know my goosebumps do not stand alone. Half the country is in a big chill and covered in snow.

I made oatmeal cookies. And I figure there is no real reason to get out of my flannel night gown since I was not going anywhere in this snow, and was not going to get any company cause no one can get around in this. So that is how the day went. Oatmeal cookies, hot tea, and flannel pj's. Was a nice day.

Today I plan to read up on everyone's blogs and see what I been missing the past week.

Try and stay warm.
Smiles to you.
Linda