The Weekend

Saturday morning I left the guys at home and ran errands. They did the housework, laundry, and yard work. No—this is not heaven, but it kind of feels like it. They were treating me and I wasn’t going to complain. It’s cloudy now, but it’s supposed to fair off and be a beautiful day.


I made pillows for the porch last week. We had dreams of new porch furniture, but after pricing it, I made the adult decision to paint what we had. I had spent 12 bucks on Walmart fabric—cheap and durable-- to make pillows in the colors I pictured the porch being in this summer Reds and Khaki. I purchased paint –‘oops paint’ or custom paint that someone decided not to purchase. When getting ‘oops’ paint you have to recognize your color choices are extremely limited…the paint choices were a blue-gray and sand.

I already purchased the fabric. I didn’t want to waste. I refused to admit a mistake had been made. So back to Walmart I went and $3.00 later I found the blue fabric I was going to use to pull all things together---porch, paint, and fabric.

Here are the finished products. Eight pillows were made for the hammock, swing, and chairs. I had wished over a Pottery Barn ad and knew I wasn’t going to let go of any kind of money for pillows.

Somehow I think the blue fabric just fits.

I finished quilting a quilt and have binding to hand stitch this afternoon. I've got naptime waiting on me.

Have a good weekend.

The First Week of Summer

All kinds of stuff going on this week. First off, I was driving by a garage sale and saw a table that would be perfect for my daughter’s scrapbooking table in her apartment. I rolled down the window (not even getting out of the car)to asked for the selling price and the lady told me 5 bucks. “Sold!” I started digging in my purse – and while I had a fat quarter, a quilt pattern and a spool of thread, I only had 3 bucks to my name. She walked over to the car and said the garage sale was over and the table had a piece missing on the edge and she’d give it to me free of charge. What a deal!! It’s solid oak with a leaf in the middle. Don sanded it and fixed the edge. It’s already whitewashed a little and I love the spindled legs… It just goes to show you timing is everything…..

More timing… I went by our local version of a Goodwill Store. I’ve fallen in love with quilting with wool and scanned the wool blazers and got lucky. I found these. I took them all apart and washed and dried them. I now have them folded up for projects….

There was a drawing over at Shakerwood Quilts and I was the second place winner and received the most beautiful hand-dyed wool. Looks like I ready for a project.

Here are the two patterns I’m kicking around with my winnings. The photos don’t do them justice. I can just picture the stockings—9 inches long, tied to Christmas packages.

Graitudes:
Strawberries – fresh picked ones from Pellegrinis
Tomato plants from a friend
Quilting Time

Addison's Bag

I've got everything ready for the baby... the baby just has to get here.  The Birdie Scraps made a cute bag. The quilt is going to be rolled and tied with ric rac and bound over to its new home.

If the pictures have seemed a little dark lately--- it's because they are.  I love outside pictures.  Everyday for a week it's been cloudy and rainy. We've really needed the rain, but a compromise of rainy nights is definitely in order.

Chelsey and her sweetie parted ways last week.  Both are great kids-- sometimes things just don't work out.  Like I told Chelsey, "He's just not the one..." Doesn't softened the tears though.  I guess I need to be this constructive parent and point out the faults on both sides, but there is nothing to be gained from doing that. She just needs to find her smile again. Doing the right thing isn't always easy.  Her brother will be up this weekend.  He's taking a class at the hospital in the town she lives in.  They will be the dynamic duo for a month. It be good for both of them.

Gratitudes:

1. Home by Michael Buble

2. Emails from friends

3. I survived the yearly Mammogram--you gotta do it.

Birdie Baby Quilt

It became "affectionately known" as the Ugly Baby Quilt at our house. I have a wonderful friend who has a daughter expecting a baby girl any day.  I've known for 8 months. This will definitely be an "uptown" baby, so I saved my quilting  allowance for the perfect fabric.  I studied patterns and chose a schibble pattern from Rosie's Quilt Co. and  then added an extra border.  At one point in the game, my daughter even questioned on whether to give the quilt or not. But geesh-- I had followed the pattern. I had used charm packs from the Birdie line from Moda.  There was a sizeable amount of funds in the project. Somehow every thing just didn't mesh together. But there was tons of heart in the piece so I quilted it and after I sewed the last stitch of binding I decided I liked it.

I'm adding a fat quarter and scraps to make a bag to go with it.  Funny how the smaller the baby the more "junk" they need.  This will be just a small bag for a quick trip or extra diapers.

These are sale fabrics to stash away for Chelsey "just because gifts". I love fabric with words on it. I figured these could keep her inspired with her writing. These aren't even my first picks. But playing the "sale" game it's a chance you take.

Napkins I found recently to go with my yellow dishes.

A friend gave me this wonderful salad bowl for my Green Kitchen.  I'm completely in love with it.

We've been in the middle of a drought, but this week we've had daily showers.  I know we desparately need it. I just wish it would do it at night. I've been catching up on reading and sewing. I finished  "The Nest".  I just have to frame it. This has been a great summer.

Gratitudes:

Friends stopping by for visits.

Embroidery Threads

Sprinklers for the garden

Wool Quilting

A few weeks ago I took a beginners wool quilting class with Lisa Bongean at Primitive Gatherings Quilt shop. It was three hours of fun. There were four of us in the class—one lady travelling from Nebraska, a gift from her husband. Here is the penny rug that we made in the class.

I went with a friend that has only been quilting for about three years. I learned a Quilter’s Knot. She looked at me, “you didn’t know that?” No, I didn’t, everything I’d learned about quilting I had read and taught myself.

Lisa taught us about different kinds of wool, techniques on transferring your patterns to fabric pieces and showed us different kinds of perle cotton threads. The backing of the penny rug was a brush cotton.


 I’d take the class weekly if I could. I really enjoyed myself.

In addition to the lesson material, Lisa shared her plans for quilt market, her plans for the shop in the coming year, and how she picks what to put in her shop.

I came home--- finished my class project--- and prepped by first solo wool project. While the photo doesn’t do it justice, it just seemed fitting to put it on a tree branch. It’s called ‘Nest’, from Lisa’s Summer Gatherings Book. Perfect to carry along or sit outside and work on.